Prinny Presents NIS Classics Volume 1: Phantom Brave: The Hermuda Triangle Remastered / Soul Nomad & the World Eaters

Genre: Compilation / Turn-Based Strategy-RPG

Players: 1

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Review:

Note: This bundle is included in the Prinny Presents NIS Classics Volumes 1-3 Bundle, along with Prinny Presents NIS Classics Volume 2: Makai Kingdom: Reclaimed and Rebound / ZHP: Unlosing Ranger vs. Darkdeath Evilman and Prinny Presents NIS Classics Volume 3: La Pucelle: Ragnarok / Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure

Prinny Presents NIS Classics Volume 1: Phantom Brave: The Hermuda Triangle Remastered / Soul Nomad & the World Eaters (from here on referred to simply as NIS Classics Volume 1) is a compilation of the two titular Turn-Based Strategy-RPGs. Phantom Brave was originally released on the PlayStation 2 in 2004 and later ported to the Wii in 2009, the PlayStation Portable in 2011, and the PC in 2016, with these later ports including an additional story called Another Marona (which is included in this release as well). Soul Nomad was originally released on PlayStation 2 in 2007 and ported to Nintendo Switch in 2021.

Both of these games play very differently than NIS’s flagship Strategy-RPG franchise, Disgaea, and take the genre in very different and unique directions. Here is what I thought of each of the games in this collection:

Game	Genre	# of Players	Grade
Phantom Brave: The Hermuda Triangle Remastered	Turn-Based Strategy-RPG	1	B+
tl;dr Phantom Brave brings multiple extremely inventive ideas to the genre, including its possession-focused Confine system and gridless movement. The gridless movement can lead to characters all piling up in one place and making it difficult to make out what’s going on, and the Nintendo Switch version’s muddy, low-res pixel art characters look pretty terrible, though the rest of the game’s visuals are revitalized by higher resolutions and better framerates. While there are absolutely flaws in this release, this is nevertheless an outstanding entry in the genre, with phenomenal deep gameplay, tons of enjoyable grinding potential, a good soundtrack, and a surprisingly touching story from the usually-irreverent NIS. This is a game fans of the genre should absolutely play.
Soul Nomad & the World Eaters	Turn-Based Strategy-RPG	1	C-
tl;dr Soul Nomad is a Strategy-RPG that has players building squads of fighters rather than managing individual characters, and it has a clever central mechanic where players are for all intents and purposes being possessed by the devil and must constantly weigh their needs in battle against the temptation to use this forbidden power and lose more of themselves to it. In theory there’s some excellent ideas here, but the gameplay is tedious and overly-confusing, the characters are unlikeable, and the story is poorly-constructed. That is on top of a presentation that looks outright ugly, with bland environments and terrible, blurry, low-resolution pixel art characters. There may be some who will find this game’s unique approach to the genre enjoyable, but most will want to skip it.

In short, this is an extremely uneven package. Both games are wildly inventive and original within the genre, but I would argue that only one of the two games succeeds at what it’s trying to do. Phantom Brave is, quite simply, a classic within the genre, one that plays very differently from the Disgaea franchise while still making use of some of that franchise’s strongest gameplay elements, all while combining it with wonderful characters and a great story. Soul Nomad feels even more experimental, but that experiment is difficult to get onboard with – the gameplay is harder to get into, its characters are outright unlikeable, and its plot is just terrible.

However, both games suffer from a dated graphical presentation to some extent or another. Phantom Brave fares better here – its simple 3D environments are far from impressive, but the upgraded visuals here over the original version help to make them look more at home on a modern platform. The sprite-based characters, on the other hand, look terrible – blurry, low-resolution, and highly pixellated. I really wish these visuals got a high-definition upgrade like some of the Disgaea games received, but even more depressing than that, these pixellated characters actually look more washed-out than those in the PC version.

However, while Phantom Brave looks bad, Soul Nomad looks worse, as it features similarly ugly 2D characters, but here they generally find themselves on bland, muddy-looking backgrounds. Brief snippets during battle show some decent-looking 3D environments, but mostly you’ll be moving characters around on an ugly-looking map.

I should note that neither game makes use of the Nintendo Switch’s unique features like touchscreen or motion controls, and touchscreen in particular seems like it would have had a lot of potential here. Pity.

Then there’s the question of value and… man, that’s a tough call. With Phantom Brave being the main draw here, the $40 price tag for this Compilation feels like you’re paying $40 for Phantom Brave and getting Soul Nomad tossed in as a bonus. That’s a bit hard to swallow as the PC version of Phantom Brave currently sells for $20 – it feels like not only are Nintendo Switch players getting a slightly-inferior version of the game here, but they’re being forced to pay twice the price to get it, with Soul Nomad being tossed in to excuse that price.

If NIS actually went the full mile to remaster all of Phantom Brave, I could see this bundle’s $40 price tag being worth it – this really is an excellent Strategy-RPG. But this half-cooked re-release of a great game and the packed in not-so-great Soul Nomad make this a package that just doesn’t measure up to that price tag. If you can get a good sale on this bundle, I’d still say to buy it for Phantom Brave, but otherwise I’d say to skip it and buy the PC version of the game.

tl;dr – NIS Classics Volume 1 is a compilation of two Turn-Based Strategy-RPGs. Phantom Brave is a phenomenal and wildly inventive entry in the genre with compelling gameplay, excellent characters, good music, and a great story. Soul Nomad is also original, but the gameplay isn’t compelling and the characters and story are pretty terrible. Both games also suffer from some pretty nasty-looking low-res 2D characters. While this bundle still might be worth getting just for Phantom Brave, it’s absolutely not worth the $40 price tag, not when the PC version of Phantom Brave is better-looking and half that price.

Grade: B-

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