Phantom Brave has been trying to get me to play it for years. I actually purchased a copy of the game for PS2 back when it was released in 2004, but for whatever reason I never got around to playing it. It sat on my shelf, sad and lonely, until it eventually was sold on eBay during a crazed period in which I auctioned off a number of my games to free up some cash. I always felt guilty about that. So guilty, in fact, that I planned to buy the game when it was released for the Wii in 2009. I even had a copy in my hands and walked to the register at Best Buy before I weighed my options and realized having gas money was more important than having Phantom Brave.
So, here we are, almost seven years after the game was originally released, and I’ve finally given in and played it. Was it worth the long wait? Well, playing the game wasn’t an earth-shattering experience, but I still found it worthwhile, if a little overwhelming.
Phantom Brave: The Hermuda Triangle proves that sometimes giving players freedom isn’t always such a good thing, as the depth of the game and variety of options is almost too much to wrangle. At the same time, it’s a deep game and offers hours upon hours of gamplay, so strategy RPG fanatics will likely enjoy it.
