Phantom Tactics Review

[Delfino]

Well here is my first review: Phantom Tactics by Mogri.

Title screen: Big, white, and with PHANTOM TACTICS written on it.
Fair enough, I suppose.

From there the game asks me to choose from one of 5 difficulty levels: Easy, Normal, Hard, and then two variations on 'HARDER THAN HARD!' I always liked it when games would make up new names for the difficulty levels, like Nightmare mode in Diablo or Padawan in the Jedi Knight series.
Anyways, even though Normal is recommended, I choose Hard. How bad can it be?

The story begins with our hero Prince Janus and his loyal bodyguard Garland. They are walking up out of some water on a beach. It's been three years since their ship was accosted by pirates, leaving them on some forsaken beach... somewhere, and now they've finally made it home... somehow. The game really doesn't get into it, but I'm not feeling snarky today so I won't make any jokes about a three year long hike across the bottom the ocean.

Suddenly, a poor crossbow-wielding sap named Miles calls out for out help! Fortunately, we already have our swords drawn -we always seem to have our swords drawn- and a skirmish begins as we defend Miles from some bandits.

Garland gives a brief tutorial and introduces me to the game's unique battle system. For anybody that doesn't know, this game features tactical grid-based combat. With a bit of maneuvering I manage to kill all four bandits without losing any of my three units.

A few more comments on the battle system: when one character attacks another the damage dealt and experienced gained are displayed in the top left corner of the screen, regardless of where the combat is playing out. This is a little annoying and makes the action harder to keep track of, but doesn't really get in the way. Also, I am suspiciously unable to see what my unit's total HP is. More on that later.

During this first scene I got a view of the graphics. The basic grass tile is unexceptional, not painful to look at but not especially convincing either. The trees, on the other hand, are quite nice. They are detailed, each taking up several tiles, and have layers for basic 3d effects.
Character models are perenially facing sideways, even when they are walking north and south. This is forgivable: the game doesn't have a typical ATB screen to display each character in detail, so this is the only way we will ever get to see them. The individual walkabouts are quite nice, but not gorgeous.

However, I'm not here to sightsee! Let's move on the mission 2.

Following the first mission I am offered an opportunity to save my game, and then I recieve another text-over-black flashback. Scratch that, this one has a fullscreen picture of a ship in a storm. A brief scene plays out that tells how Garland and Janus escaped their ship. There's no reason this couldn't have played out in a full plot-scripted scene, but whatever.

Following the exposition, I am presented with another opportunity to save my game (?) and then the second mission starts.

The second mission doesn't go so well. A new unit joins our heroes, but because I can't see his HP total he dies a few turns later. Soon after that, Janus gets killed by some Bandits, and I face the game over screen. Whoops.

Anyways, I'm still struggling with the game and I'm not sure if there is a way to display a character's HP value.

From what I've seen so far, this is a game that I absolutely want to play to the end. If I had to assign it a letter grade, it would be at the very least a B+, and an A- or higher if there is a way to display Hitpoints.

[Mogri]

Thanks for the review.

Your technical difficulties were no doubt caused by the file you used to run the game. Unfortunately, I have just learned that I forgot the DLLs in the zip file. I recommend re-downloading that in just a bit (I'll put a notice on the game page when I do it). That should solve not only the HP bars issue but also the numbers out of place.

I'm also curious if you're getting battle animations -- I think if the HP bars aren't showing, the battles probably aren't, either.

In any case, you will enjoy the game much more when it is displaying correctly.

[Momoka]

Thanks for the review.

Your technical difficulties were no doubt caused by the file you used to run the game. Unfortunately, I have just learned that I forgot the DLLs in the zip file. I recommend re-downloading that in just a bit (I'll put a notice on the game page when I do it). That should solve not only the HP bars issue but also the numbers out of place.

I'm also curious if you're getting battle animations -- I think if the HP bars aren't showing, the battles probably aren't, either.

In any case, you will enjoy the game much more when it is displaying correctly.

You're not. Or I'm not, anyway. Characters just flash when they're attacking.

[Delfino]

I thought it was suspicious that there weren't any attack graphics, especially given that fancy pirate attack animation I saw a while back.

Looking forward to playing more of this game, I love turn based battles.

[squeakyreaper]

After many, many, many retries, I think I'm gonna call it quits for now. The mission that has you fighting the demons and zombies (or the first one, if there is more) has me beat. My units are constantly dieing off of poison, since I have no way to heal them. Hoping that I'll dodge every single time I'm attacked by a zombie is a bit much, especially since my fencer doesn't like dodging despite his ability. Good game, though, with plenty of 8-bit polish.

[Mogri]

Best advice for that stage is to let Garland tank the zombie hits for you and to kill them quickly. You should be able to take out the zombies in one or two attack rounds if you set up your support right; just don't let them attack you on their turn.

Big Spoilers Alert:
Garland won't ever die in chapter 1, so if he tanks all of the zombie hits, you should have no problem winning. It's still possible to win without anyone dying if you don't exploit this trick, but it is much harder.

That's the "boss level" for the chapter, so that's why it's harder than the others. Persist!

[squeakyreaper]

Sorry about the slow delay, I haven't gotten around to playing it. But don't you think that fighting things that make it so that when you get hit once, you die, unless you use a character that has temporary immortality for the chapter (which you wouldn't know unless you tried to kill him off, and he's ridiculously hard to hurt even on purpose) a bit unfair?

Enjoy your tropes. I'll see you in a week.[/spoiler]

[Mogri]

Been there, seen them all.

To answer your question: no. Like I said, you can beat it without the exploit, it's just a lot harder.

Based on the feedback I've gotten, I'm considering cutting one of the zombies. That should make you happy. You should be warned, however, that your casualty rate is only going to go up in chapter 2. I've discussed this elsewhere in depth, but the short version is that you're going to use your money to increase your army and replace fallen units. Unlike, say, FFT or TO, you'll be able to recruit units that come pre-leveled. There's still incentive to keep your men alive, but it's not an instant reset if you lose someone.

For the purposes of the mission that follows, it doesn't matter who died anyway.

[Spoonweaver]

I thought the game's challenge rates were fine. If you guys are having trouble then go down a challenge category. I have successfully beaten it on the hardest setting. It's possible. If you can't beat it, then maybe, you just aren't good enough, and perhaps easy is for you. You guys can beat it on easy right?

[squeakyreaper]

That was insulting. I have no problems with any other levels - not that I breeze through them, but I haven't gotten any casualties - it's just that this one is a bit unfair in terms of 'get hit once, you die'. If poison was nonlethal or only lasted a few turns, that'd be different, but my guys die off pretty quickly unless plot armor is protecting them. I was on Hard, by the way.

[Mogri]

If you're on Hard, expect it to be hard!

ITT: zombies

[squeakyreaper]

I feel like you guys are just insulting me now. There is a difference between legitimate difficulty and a 40% chance of losing (without a chance to save yourself, no less) every turn. Of course, you're expected to lose units eventually - but this is a pain.

[Spoonweaver]

It's not meant as an insult. No one thinks that playing easy mode is babyish. ( I noticed, that the link you provided not only led to an anime picture but to an anime picture of Japanese school girls. 2 things that don't matter, at all.)
All I'm saying is if you think a game's hard setting is in fact too hard, then play on a lower setting.

That said; By using a bit of "tactics". you can basically make it so that only your beefier characters are taking hits. I noticed rather swiftly that Garland is basically unstoppable so I always let him lead, and when they would attack him they would most likely be slaughtered by garland and his friends. Garland wasn't even the only one you could use. The defense on some units is harder then others so these are the ones you should have taking the hits. The zombie's ability isn't really as powerful as you're making it seem.

[Mogri]

Yeah, don't take it personally. If you are the kind of person who can't stand ever losing a single unit, easy mode is for you. If you are playing on a harder difficulty mode, expect that you'll need to sacrifice your men sometimes in order to achieve your goals; that's the nature of the game.

Regarding zombies, their presence in the stage is a signal that you need to complete it as quickly as possible. If you distribute the poison amongst your beefier units, there should be no problem finishing in time: the Demon is the only unit on the map that deals significant direct damage, and you can easily finish it in one or two attacks. The zombies themselves shouldn't take you more than two hits, and if you don't let them attack first, that means you're taking a maximum of two zombie hits. If you're taking much more than that, you're doing something wrong -- my guess would be that you're not setting up your support effectively.

It's been suggested that I do a recording of that level to show how it can be done. I might end up doing that, unless someone else wants to.

[Bob the Hamster]

When I was playing on "Hard", my dead characters always came back to life at the end of a round. Was that a bug?