Anime Lovers

The free-movement strategy RPG, Phantom Brave: The Lost Hero, was announced at the Nintendo Direct in June. The title is a sequel to Phantom Braveoriginally released on PlayStation 2 in 2004 in Japan, Europe, and North America. At Tokyo Game Show 2024, attendees were able to demo Phantom Brave: The Lost Hero and receive an acrylic card featuring the characters Marona, Ash, and Apricot. The demo showed off endless ways to strategize, including the “confriend” feature which uses the close bonds of Marona and friendly units to unleash powerful attacks.

Nippon Ichi Software describes the story as such:

One day, Marona, a young girl with the mysterious power to communicate with Phantoms, is
separated from her partner Ash after being attacked by evil ghost ships–The Shipwreck Fleet.
Marona arrives on an isolated island, where she meets the Phantom of a young girl, Apricot,
who wishes to revive her father’s pirate fleet. In order to reunite with the people they hold
dear, the pair decide to band together on a quest to revive the Argento Pirate Crew.
Set on the high seas, where ghost ships and pirates run rampant, this story about the bond
between Phantoms and the girl who connects with them…is about to unfold.

Anime Corner not only got the opportunity to demo the game, but we were also able to sit down with scenario writer Kento Jobana about his experience working on Phantom Brave: The Lost Hero.

This interview has been lightly edited for clarity. We thank the staff at NIS America for interpreting for us.

Q: So first of all, how did you get to working on Phantom Brave: The Lost Hero?

Jobana-san: Originally I was working on Disgaea 7– I was the writer on Disgaea 7. The reaction to that was really good and positive, so they asked me if I would be interested in working on Phantom Brave as well too, to which I said, yes. I was there basically from the very beginning. I came up with the concept of the story. I wrote the story, but I wondered, though, at the beginning, given that this is technically a sequel to a game that came out 20 years ago, if I should use the same main characters of Marona and Ash, or should I have new main characters? Anything from the very beginning of development, I was involved in.

Q: As the scenario writer for this game, how much influence do you have on exactly what the characters say and what they do in the story?

Jobana-san: Actually, I wrote everything. Everything that’s in the game I wrote, but another aspect of a game that I was involved in as well was the animations, particularly the character animations. I talked to the scriptor and I gave them direct commands for how I wanted animations to play out to better reflect the characters. I guess you could say my role was more of a director in that capacity.

Q: Phantom Brave: The Lost Hero is a sequel to a game that is now decades-old, so can newcomers jump into this game easily without knowing much about the previous game?

Jobana-san: Yeah, this is a game where even if you’ve never played the originals you can feel free to jump in. The first game in the series came out 20 years ago, and we expected that many people wouldn’t remember it or even know it, so they’d be wondering if it’s possible to jump straight in.

Because of that, we made it specifically so that new people could do that. At the very beginning of The Lost Herowe have a summary of the first game’s story that can explain to people what happened to get them ready. And we went as far as to have it voice recorded, so it’s narrated. However, when we first finished it, we were told “Actually, you could probably do better than this” so we re-recorded it to make it even better. So all of this is to say that it should be very easy for people who have not played the first Phantom Brave to play this sequel.

Q: What has been your favorite part about working with the team behind Phantom Brave: The Lost Hero?

Jobana-san: Originally, I was a writer who wrote stories by myself. Not as part of a company. So back then, everything I did was on my own. However, being able to work with the team…it was really cool to have what was in my head be brought to life by other people. And it was brought to life in a way that exceeded my expectations.

For example, our character designer, under my directions and explanations, was able to create these beautiful characters that far exceeded what I had originally expected. The “confriend” system in the game too is another example of that. I was able to come up with this system, have it implemented and then have the team work on the animations that really show off the characters and their bonds. I couldn’t have done it alone, and the team was able to do things that I am incapable of doing on my own when it comes to creating, so seeing all of that come to life was a fulfilling and rewarding experience.

Q: How do you stay creatively inspired? How do you not get burnt out when writing?

Jobana-san: One of the things I do when I’m creating the outline of a plan for a story is make sure to include scenes that I want to write and by doing so that creates motivation for me to be able to write those things. Because sometimes there’ll be a scene that I’m writing that’s difficult, and so by putting scenes that I, myself, am really excited to write and work on, it gives me motivation to be able to complete everything for the full story. It’s not a technique really, and not something that can work for everybody, but for me, it’s a way to get me through the entire script.

Q: Thank you so much, Jobana-san, for your time today. Is there anything else you want to say to the hardcore and dedicated Phantom Brave fans out there?

Jobana-san: So, this title is part of a series that’s been going on for 20 years, and it means a lot to a lot of people. The most important thing for me and the team was to make sure that we didn’t ruin the memories of the people who had loved this game, one that had meant so much to them for so long. We made sure to respect what had come before, especially since many of the people who are waiting for this sequel probably fearfully wondered if the original developers would even be working on this new game. The team really worked hard to make sure that they replicated what was good in the original game while also adding new things to it.

I feel that The Lost Hero does respect the first game and offers a new take and a new story for people to enjoy and cherish. With that too, as we talked about earlier, for the new players as well, there’s a lot here for them. It is written in a way where even if you haven’t played the old game, you can jump into this one and you can still really enjoy it. There’s a lot there for both kinds of people. There’s actually going to be a demo coming out as well. So to both sides of that camp, whether you played the original and loved it, or you’re brand new to the series, give it a try and hopefully it will appeal to you. Long-time fans can have their fears allayed and think “It’s just like the original game” or new fans can say,  “Oh okay, even though it’s a brand new game in a series, I can jump in here.”

If anybody out there has some issues with the game, please feel free to let us in the company know, because we want to listen to user feedback and take it into account in any way that we can. We want to make sure that we reflect it back into the games that we make. The team and I love this series very much and we want to give it the respect and the care that it deserves, so hopefully we have done that, but if not, please let us know and we will improve whatever we can.

We are grateful to Kento Jobana, Nippon Ichi Software, and NIS America for their time with us at Tokyo Game Show, and we wish them well with the release of Phantom Brave: The Lost Hero. I had a fantastic time playing the game, and I’m excited for others to play it as well.

The game is set to release on January 30th, 2025 on Nintendo Switch, PS4, and PS5. The Steam version will be released in Spring 2025. A new trailer can be watched on the official NIS America YouTube channel, and you can also visit the game’s official website for all the details.

Screenshots courtesy of NIS America, Inc
©2025 Nippon Ichi Software, Inc. ©2025 NIS America, Inc