Phantom Breaker: Battleground / Phantom Breaker: Battlegrounds (X360, PS3) (2013)
Developer: Mages

Review by Faididi and Co.

At least it still beats the tournament fighting

Story: Average

No longer competing against each other in a pointless contest, Mikoto, Waka, Itsuki, and Yuzuha become best friends and join together against the evil forces of an interdimensional invader. Although the cast is still nearly all-female, don't expect a great story, because what should be a simple plot about rescuing Waka's kidnapped sister is jammed up by nonsense about evil doubles, the ridiculous-looking products of a weapon manufacturer, and other stupid crap.

Gameplay: Average

Released as a downloadable game, Mages' Phantom Breaker: Battleground (or Battlegrounds for the exported versions) is a 4-Player action fighter. Whereas the original Phantom Breaker is merely a tournament fighter, this more ambitious sequel is better compared to Treasure's Guardian Heroes. Mikoto and her friends will travel through 8 side-scrolling stages, working together to beat up bad guys and to earn upgrade points that can be used to improve their abilities.

Of course, Battleground has some nice perks not found in Guardian Heroes. The upgrade points here are permanent and may also be freely reallocated in between the stages (even though all available upgrades can be eventually obtained.) Then, there's the offline and online multiplayer support. This game either lets 4 Players share the same console locally or lets you join three other separate Players online. If one heroine runs out of stamina, her friends can always help her back on her feet, making the game quite accommodating when played with others.

Unfortunately, the level and enemy designs just aren't very interesting. All the stages are essentially flat, simple corridors filled with repetitive bad guys and little else. (There are no bottomless pits.) Even the final stage's maze-like layout, whose size depends on the difficulty setting, consists of cookie-cutter areas. The regular enemies are brain-dead punching bags, while the frequently recycled bosses lie at the opposite end of the spectrum with their nonstop special attacks. Guardian Heroes may not look as sexy by comparison, but at least it features alternate paths with different endings, along with a few bosses who involve minor puzzle elements.

Making matters worse is the poor balance among the heroines. Some, like Mikoto, have frustratingly long wind-up motions that allow bad guys to frequently interrupt their attacks (including their most powerful moves). Others, like Waka, strike a lot faster, harder, and farther all at once, dominating any foes without sweating. Unless you're playing with a full party offline, there is no reason to bother with the slower or shorter-reaching heroines.

Controls: Below Average

The game fails to update its controls properly for its change of genre. Too many special energy-costing moves are grouped with free-to-perform attacks on a certain button, easily resulting in special energy being accidentally wasted. The games forces the heroines into the next area once all current enemies are defeated, preventing them from grabbing any remaining items. The online mode has really shitty party setup options. You can't exit a session from the lobby menu, which means you need to enter a stage before being able to leave the party, and that's stupid.

Graphics: Above Average

Phantom Breaker: Battleground has colorful graphics consisting of cute, SD-style 2D characters in nicely textured 3D environments. Mikoto deserves special mention for showing off different walking animations depending on the immediate presence of enemies. Too bad this degree of detail doesn't apply to her fellow heroines.

Audio: Average

The audio work is less impressive. The sound effects are okay until they come to the sword drones' annoying death cries and the flying drones making propeller noises after they explode. Except for the main menu's pleasant theme and one or two of the stages' tunes, the music is nothing memorable. The original voice acting is thankfully left untouched across all versions of the game, but certain bosses repeat phrases like a bad rap song.

Overall: Average

Phantom Breaker: Battleground has a Player-friendly upgrade system, but its simplistic, repetitive level and enemy designs turn dull fast. Its heroines are poorly balanced, and the online mode's missing option for exiting lobbies doesn't help. This action fighter is worth checking out only if you're attracted to the characters of the original Phantom Breaker but don't want to bother with tournament fighting crap.

Expansion: Below Average

Battleground has three pieces of downloadable content. Two of them are the extra heroines, Kurisu and Frau. Both possess attacks that involve gadgets like an energy pistol, a flamethrower, a robot, and so on, but they never surpass the destruction that Waka and Itsuki can already do. (If you must choose between them, Frau is the better choice, because of her overpowered rock-fall special attack.) The remaining piece of DLC is a music pack that offers supposedly higher-quality renditions of the original tunes. Considering the general mediocrity of those tunes, this option isn't worth the money or the bizarre few hundred megabytes of storage space it demands. None of the DLC addresses the problem of the weak level and enemy designs, and as such none of it will change things for those who find the core game unenjoyable.