Last week, we had the chance to sit down with Kento Jobana, Scenario Writer and Supervisor for Character Animations of the highly-anticipated SRPGPhantom Brave: The Lost Hero. After anexclusive hands-on demoof the game, which you’re able to read our coverage on here, Mr. Jobana answered our burning questions about the long-awaited sequel toPhantom Brave, breaking down what loyal fans and new players can expect from the new game.
Kento Jobana was accompanied by a translator who converted questions and answers from Japanese to English and vice versa. Responses given have been provided by the translator, but may not reflect the exact words stated by Mr. Jobana.
[Hardcore Gamer] It’s been just over twenty years since the originalPhantom Bravecame out. What was the motivation for returning to it now versus before?
[Kento Jobana] So, there are two things here: one is that when we were in the middle of development onDisgaea 7, it was coming together really nicely. And so due to the fact that it was coming together so nicely, we had a directive from the top brass at the company that said “in addition to this game, which is one of our main games, we need to have something else out there that matches it.” And so looking back at our catalog, we hadPhantom Brave, which was a very well-received game, liked by people not only in Japan, but pretty much the world over.
Another reason was that when we did a poll over here in North America, (we asked) “who are your favorite characters among all the NIS properties?” And the characters fromPhantom Bravewere really high up there, so that gave us more reason to choose this game since, again, it did have a different direction from Disgaea. It plays differently from Disgaea, it’s got a different theme from Disgaea,and it seems to be very well liked by people all over the globe, so we thought this was the perfect game to revive and create a new sequel in so that we could hopefully make it into a series that stands out toe-to-toe withDisgaea.
In those twenty years, hardware has changed significantly. How has that affected your approach to making this new one?
One of the big things is that twenty years ago, when we made the game before on PlayStation 2, it was made using pixel art. So, nowadays, when we approached developing this game for the hardware that’s currently available, we wanted to do it in 3D because that would allow us to take better advantage of the capabilities of these machines.
What that meant was not only changing the graphical style, but in order to keep what makesPhantom Brave"Phantom Brave"in terms of gameplay, changing the proportions of the characters. We made them small and cute and chibi, even more so thanDisgaea. If you look at theDisgaeacharacter models you’ll notice they’re a little bit bigger, and obviously, not realistic at all. So in this way, it allowed us to take better advantage of the hardware as well as to still keep what makesPhantom Brave"Phantom Brave," and keep thatPhantom Brave-ness of the whole thing.
How did you go about updating these beloved characters in this new art style, which is completely different to the original?
One of the things about these characters is that there are so many aspects of them in the game in terms of the characterizations and the story, but also in battle. So there are all these aspects of past things in them that need to be properly represented in this switch over to 3D. One of the things that we tried was making them really small, but we lost a lot of their expressiveness in doing so.
So what we did is we made them bigger. Not only do we have the bust-ups for these character scenes, we also wanted to make use of the 3D models within the storytelling as well. So we made the characters bigger to make them more expressive, so that they have their expressions on their face to show further emotions. One of the things that we paid most attention to when making this transition from these original pixel art graphics to the new 3D was to ensure that they were really expressive. Rather than being something that I, myself, directed the team to do, this was something that the art team and the design team took upon themselves; to make sure that these characters' expressiveness and their cuteness and who they were (was maintaned) and they would still be cute and fun and acceptable and expressive in this new style.
What do you think that fans will be excited to see return from the first game?
First of all, there’s the gameplay system as a whole. This was something that was really well-received originally, and so we did as much as we could to bring that back, and to make sure that all the features and the things that the fans of the first one were expecting, that they really love and appreciate about it, would be brought back into this.
However, that was a game that came out twenty years ago, and there were a lot of quality-of-life features and user experience features that have progressed and evolved since then. And so [we focused on] making sure to respect and keep what was there in the original, but also updating that experience so that the user experience is much better for modern gamers. I’m sure that players of the originals who love [Phantom Brave] will love this just as much, since all that original (material) is there, it’s just been updated to be a little bit more friendly for other people.
Specifically for me, on the story side of things: in the first game, the two main characters are Marona and Ash, and there were aspects of their relationship that weren’t able to be developed and portrayed in this original game. One in particular was “what happens if Ash were to no longer be there for Marona? What if he left?” There’s a little bit of that depicted at the very end of the first game, but it quickly gets resolved, and it’s not really something that’s explored. One thing he wanted to explore with this game was these two characters' relationship, and very early on in the adventure, Ash and Marona get separated. So a big part of the story is “how does Marona deal with losing her partner? Her friend that’s been with her pretty much since birth?” Being able to explore that aspect is one thing that existing fans will really love, since it was something that wasn’t really able to be seen in the first game.
What was your favorite part or piece of the game that you worked on?
As a scenario writer, one of the big things was that one of the really beloved aspects of the first game is seeing this girl, who is in really poor circumstances and has a really difficult lot in life, seeing her overcome all of these things and obstacles that are placed in front of her and really grow as a person.
One thing I was really proud of doing in this game was being able to continue her story and to show that she had further growth. One of the ways of doing so is what we talked about earlier: being separated from this character who was very important to her throughout her entire life, Ash. Seeing her having continuing growth beyond that, continuing to grow as a person, depicting that was one thing that I really loved.
Also, one of the things that wasn’t able to be completely realized in the first game was the whole idea of phantoms, the spirits of the dead. Obviously, they played a role in the story, but the depiction of them and the exploration of them in the original was never really delved into deeply. In this game, I really took a lot of time and effort into showing the phantoms' point of view. Just what are these phantoms? How do they feel, how do they exist? What are all their issues? Being able to depict this is something that I’m very proud of too, since it offers a completely new view of this world ofPhantom Brave.
So, like you said, she has a very inherently dark thing that she’s dealing with, and the first game had a lot of dark undertones. Will [the new game] still explore a lot of those sadder stories and darker areas?
Yeah, there are definitely those kinds of sad episodes and “darker” aspects to it. However, one thing we noticed from the first game’s reception was that at the beginning of the first game, it was pretty dark for quite a while. The reception Marona sees from people in various villages and things like that is really sad. So, it takes a while for the story to move into more positive, bright directions. A lot of players, it turns out, were turned off by that continuing darkness and this poor little girl. So we moved away from that.
In this game, what we have now is a young woman who has matured, and she’s grown, and she’s overcome all of these things, and there’s actually another character in the game, Apricot, who kind of fits the same role of this poor little girl in these dark situations that’s undergoing all these sad circumstances. Because Marona is there with her and can bring this brightness to it, the game doesn’t dwell in this dark place for as long.
There are deeply emotional beats. There are sad beats, there are darker beats. But the game never really dwells on them too long because Marona is able to be there as a propelling force, and her positivity and her attitude and her growth in the first game allows the story to stay in a brighter area, or bring it back to a brighter area more quickly, so that it should be more appealing to people who maybe don’t really deal as well with the super dark stuff.
Do we have an idea of how many hours of gameplay there will be?
So if someone were to just play normally, if they just wanted to beat the main story, and don’t really encounter any big difficulties, we’re looking at 20-30 hours. However, once you complete the main story, there’s a lot of post-game stuff that you can do, quests and things like that. If you’re looking to clear all of that content, then that’s probably eighty hours worth of content. Beyond that, you can do the random dungeons, you can have different titles that you can put on people, you can do the Salvage missions. So if someone gets really involved in all of that, then they can easily put in over a hundred hours.
What are some of the new features that fans of the original will be excited to see added in the new game?
So there were basically two things: the first is what’s called “gadgets.” There are multiple different types of gadgets that are spread around various maps. And so that’s something that’s brand new for this game. It allows for a different level of strategization, because you can figure out “how can I make special use of this ability that’s only able to use within this machine?” It won’t have the normal abilities of the characters, but rather it has the abilities of itself. How best to make use of those is something that players can look forward to.
And the second thing is Marona herself. The way the first game was designed (it was on purpose, but), Marona wasn’t necessarily one of your stronger characters, and she wasn’t really developed to be a strong character. So, for this game, we wanted to address that given all of her experiences in the first game. And the way of doing that was a new feature called “Confriend.” So, what Confriend is that she joins up with a character, and she takes on a lot of their abilities and their skills, and she gets stronger too. The interesting thing about that is that the higher bond you have with that character, when you defeat an enemy, you get something that triggers called “Again,” which allows you to have another turn. And the higher your level of bond is with the character you Confriend with, the more turns you can take.
So that’s one way to show her own strength, but it’s also another way to address an issue with a lot of SRPGs that a lot of people have: this feeling that they’re very difficult. And so, if the player is diligent and upgrading her and her relationship with her friends, this will give them a big benefit when they take on the maps and the battles, so they won’t have to feel stressed out about feeling like “I’m not good at SRPGs.” This is for someone who just wants to enjoy the story, this world and this is a way to do it.
Did you take inspiration from sources other than the first game, whether it be other pieces of media or just real life?
Speaking to the gameplay elements, one thing is the Confriend mechanic. I’m not sure if this is okay to say or not, so you might get a scoop here, but I’m a really big fan of a Japanese comic magazine calledShonen Jump. There is an old manga calledShaman King, about this young boy who had the ability to talk to spirits of the dead, and he had this specific ability where he could join with them. I essentially told the team “this is really cool. It would be really cool for Marona to do this.” So that’s one of the inspirations.
From more of a narrative perspective, I’m really inspired by the works of Tim Burton. In particular, I really love how Tim Burton portrays the internal struggles and the feelings of the nonhuman or different characters. For example, in Tim Burton’sBatman Returns, Penguin comes out and is hideous to look at. But Tim Burton still does a good job of portraying what this man’s feeling and thinking. When you look at Edward Scissorhands, he’s this character who is human, but you know, different. And yet, he still has these struggles and these things that he’s going through.
Tim Burton is such a skilled director at being able to portray these characters, and I found a lot of inspiration in that, because a lot of the phantoms in this game, which are the spirits of the dead, they have different viewpoints and different values. [This is the same for] the characters who are demi-humans; they shouldn’t have the same values or characteristics that human beings have either. And so I took extra care when depicting these characters and their struggles and their worldviews and things like that, to depict them in a way that made sense to them and that fits in this world.
What’s your favorite Tim Burton movie?
Beetlejuice. When the new one (Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice) came out, I went straight away to see it!
I have one last question, which is for people who have not played the original: what is exciting about this game? What makes this game different? What is the appeal of this game?
People out there who have either never heard of the game, or if they have heard about it, but haven’t played it, they look atThe Lost Heroand they say “whoa,Phantom Bravecame out twenty years ago, do I need to play that?” This is something that the development team completely understood, and they kept all of this in mind when making this game so that not only does it appeal to existing fans, but also is easily accessible to people who have never played or heard ofPhantom Bravebefore. Someone can pick this game up knowing nothing about the first game and feel right at home and understand what’s happening, understand the characters, understand the world, understand the setting and understand the gameplay. The barrier and the hurdles to that should be very low.
Beyond that, there is also this narrative aspect of the game: a lot of SRPGs tend to be really dark or they tend to deal with war or these really grand themes that end up going in directions that are much darker than what this game is. This game is very bright, it’s very cheerful, it’s almost got this fairy tale, children’s story feel to it. This is something that anybody can appreciate. So if people have this negative impression of SRPGs given the usual fare, if they’re like “I’m not really into those like war games,” it isn’t like that.
This is a game that anybody can enjoy. And if you happen to be someone who’s new to our company, Nippon Ichi Software, as a whole, this is a great place to start too, because it encapsulates everything that makes our company unique. It’s different from other games out there, but it’s still got humor and heart and all these other things that make it appealing to, really, anybody. If you’re on the fence, and you’re worried, I can say with pride that anyone can pick up this game and enjoy it, and I’m very confident that they will, so please give it a try.
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