Phantom Brave: Difference between revisions

[[Updated Rerelease|Updated Rereleases]]s were released for the [[Wii]] titled ''We Meet Again'', with a new chapter called "Another Marona" and some new characters as well as a bonus art disc, for the collector's edition savvy, and for [[PSP]] titled ''Heroes of the Hermuda Triangle'', as well as an [[Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game|MMORPG]] entitled ''Phantom Brave Online''.

* [[All of the Other Reindeer]]: Yes, they're that bad. Unlike many examples, though, they do {{spoiler|eventually realize that Marona is their only hope for survival and that they should be nice to her, though. The fact that she eventually makes friends with an anthropomorphic shark in a Hawaiian T-Shirt who decides to beat up anyone who badmouths her helps.}}.

* [[All There in the Manual]]: Why on Earth did {{spoiler|Sulphur come back as a bonus boss?}}? Well, the game itself implies that it's [[As Long as There Is Evil]],; however, {{spoiler|meeting a certain [[Bonus Boss]] in ''[[Soul Nomad and The World Eaters]]'' reveals that the dimension-crossing ghost witch Lujei from ''[[Grim Grimoire]]'' sent him back for giggles. So chances are he's just plain dead now. Which makes the overly complicated in-story plan to get rid of him rather tragic; since it resulted in a couple of [[Heroic Sacrifice]]. Although Lujei did heal Walnut for giggles too.}}.

** AND''And'' the {{spoiler|[[ZHP|Unlosing Ranger]].}}.

* [[And Then John Was a Zombie]]: Averted. {{spoiler|After Sulphur kills her lover, Scarlet goes to the Netherworld to kill demons until she awakens her power. Marona and crew [[Time Travel]] back to prevent her from becoming a demon; but Scarlet still gains the Burgandy power.}}.

* [[Big Brother Instinct]]: Ash and {{spoiler|Walnut}}.

* [[Blush Sticker]]: Marona, Carona, and Castile. Some of the cuter enemies have them as well.

** In a mild subversion of the norm, {{spoiler|Baal is ''not'' the final [[Bonus Boss]] and you can, in fact, recruit him. The ''true'' final [[Bonus Boss]] is [[Mythology Gag]] Pringer X.}}.

*** The remake goes [[Serial Escalation]] with {{spoiler|Pringer XX and Pringer XXX.}}.

** At a certain point, you are given the choice to open a bottle by the Putties. Doing so {{spoiler|will release Laharl from it. Due to the world's lack of evil, he tries to appoint himself ruler and tries to make the protagonists his Vassels.}}.

** The PSP remake (of the Wii remake) adds in {{spoiler|[[Makai Kingdom|Zetta]], Castille reusing the sprite from her ''[[Makai Kingdom]]'' character, [[Prinny: Can I Really Be the Hero?|the Hero Prinny]], and the [[Zettai Hero Kaizou Keikaku|Unlosing Ranger]].}} {{spoiler|And Asagi, natch.}}

* [[Bottomless Pit Rescue Service]]: Marona, Ash, and major enemies will teleport back to the field when thrown out, instead of being automatically defeated.

** Also, any phantom who's currently taking their turn, and the final enemy on the field, no matter who it might be. (Alsoalso, the No O.B. special ability prevents tossing out.).

* [[Breaking the Fourth Wall]]: If you create any humanoid who doesn't do a specific task and talk to them, they may randomly say how awesome a ''Phantom Brave'' Animeanime would be.

* [[Break the Cutie]]: Marona shows hints of this as the story progresses, {{spoiler|but it never goes further than that.}}.

* [[Cap]]: Newly created characters have an initial cap of 100 levels... but it's a [[Nippon Ichi]] game, so you better believe you can fix that.

* [[Catch Phrase]]: Ash's pre-battle taunt: "[[In the Name of the Moon|You'll go no further! For her sake, I will not fail!]]" Also, see [[In the Name of the Moon]] below. And don't forget Marona's mantra of "Kitto itsuka,", "One day..."

* [[The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard]]: takeTake a closer inspection at Turn Order. If one of your patented strategies is to attack an enemy that will move first, there's a good chance that, even if that enemy is K.O.'ed, another enemy will take that turn.

** That's only one of the ways the computer cheats. Enemy characters stay in play permanently during battle, while your summoned ghosts fade away after about three turns and can't be resummoned (granted, that's part of the plot, so I'll let it slide).

*** Subverted under "Protection" (which had you skipped the tutorial, you might miss). It seems though that virtually every enemy has this when attacked by most of the party besides the healer and Ash though.

* [[Crap Saccharine World]]: The "cute" characters in the game are crippled, yelled at by angry villagers, are the angry villagers themselves, are harmless fools {{spoiler|[[Demonic Possession|who get possessed by fragments of demonic souls]]}}... and that's not getting into the Putties, who are locked into cages or transported into circuses despite being fully sentient because, well, they can't talk. There's a thousand other things, and if not for the graphics and the music this would probably be a [[Crapsack World]].

* [[Cutlass Between the Teeth]]: Four-legged characters use this by default, because they obviously have no arms.

* [[Darker and Edgier]]: Compared to other Nippon Ichi games, like ''[[Disgaea]]'', this one is much more serious. There's almost no slapstick or [[Black Comedy]].

* [[Deader Than Dead]]:* Marona can, by attacking the "body" of one of her phantoms, Soul Kill them. She can still reconstitute it by sacrificing an object (and with a certain item, make the soul stronger). It is implied by dialogue (the evil has lifted and peace fills the air) that this is the right thing to do with Baal when it joins the party after you defeat it as a [[Bonus Boss]].

* [[Death Equals Redemption]]: {{spoiler|"I am Sprout, master of the Sacred Sword. In death, I have reclaimed my honor."}} Doubles as a [[Heroic Sacrifice]].

* [[Demonic Possession]]: {{spoiler|Bijou, though he gets better.}}.

* [[Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?]]: Most of the [[Bonus Boss|Bonus Bosses]]es. Especially {{spoiler|Sulphur, who suddenly just returns out of nowhere at full power, and the only option Marona and Ash have is to just kill it.}}.

* [[Drought Level of Doom]]: oneOne of the endgame levels has a severe shortage of confinable objects, greatly limiting your ability to deploy units. Though, of course, you can still bring your own.

* [[Dub Name Change]]: Ash's [[By the Power of Grayskull|catchphrase for his powers]] in the Japanese version is roughly translated as: ''Grant me the power to destroy my foes! The power of the Water Dragon, Eccarlate!'' For some reason, this was changed to: ''You shall go no further! For her sake, I will not fail!'' ([[Dub -Induced Plot Hole|Thisthis explains why he says it in several cutscenes where the other characters are also activating their powers]]).

* [[Fake Ultimate Mook]]: The Manticore and Dragon Classes. The Manticore looks like a huge, fiery lion and the Dragon is, well, a dragon. But then, if you look at their stats, the Manticore cannot use any skills well at all other than physical magic (and it isn't even great at that), and the Dragon, while it's good, can only stay around for two turns before vanishing. (Thethe maximum amount is 8 - most stay around for at least 4.).

* [[Gameplay and Story Segregation]]: Marona can gain power and followers by killing beings and summoning their phantoms, and then ''absorbing'' them into herself, her servants, or even her weaponry. The plot completely ignores this in the [[Cutscene|Cutscenes]]s.

* [[Heroic Sacrifice]]: {{spoiler|Both Walnut and Sprout.}}.

* [[Improbable Weapon User]]: ''Everyone.''.

* [[Interspecies Romance]]: Sienna used to love an Owlman. {{spoiler|He got killed by Sulphur.}}.

* [[In the Name of the Moon]] / [[By the Power of Grayskull]]: Every character has a phrase they shout prior to a fight, which generates a [[Battle Aura]]. Mostly done by Phantoms, except at the end, when Marona finally gets one. The color mentioned in each phrase corresponds to a spell or technique at their disposal. A player can obtain these for their own use, [[Guide Dang It|with some difficulty.]]

** Ash and Marona both start with them in their actual skill list. "Chartreuse Gale", Marona's special skill actually lets her... see and summon phantoms.

* [[Jerk with a Heart of Gold]]: Walnut.

* [[Karma Houdini]]: {{spoiler|1=Most of the NPCs who treat Marona terribly for most of the game get away with it by swapping to her side when it turns out only she has the power to defeat Sulphur, and their bad acts go free (though Marona prefers it that way). President Hogg is an exception to this rule, as at the end he atones by vowing to find a cure to [[Ill Girl]] Castille's handicap. Walnut also... [[Heroic Sacrifice|atones properly.]]}}.

* [[Karma Meter]]: Exists, yet it's effect on the plot is almost nil. Killing your own characters will result in a build-up of "Dark Points" for these characters. Mostly bad for [[Player MooksMook]]s, too many and they'll go nuts and hurt your own characters in-between stages. (Neitherneither Ash nor Marona are ever affected by this.). Full dark points actually grants the title "Blsphm" (sic) and the Dark Eboreus Ability (not the strongest ability or title, but still). Dark Points can be cured with cookies. No, really. The "Granny" class has a random chance of baking cookies for a character which reduces Dark Points.

* [[Lethal Joke Character]]: Even character classes that have horrible combat abilities across the board have their uses; Bottle Mails (literally walking bottles) don't fight well but have a 100% chance of taking items to which they are confined away with them to Phantom Island, so if you ''need'' that item, you're sure to get it. Slimes are unimpressive except that they have 100% compatibility during fusion, allowing you to mix and mash abilities into one, then fuse the Slime into Marona or Ash. The Old Man's ability to randomly grant EXP can level up weapons without expending mana, and so on.

* [[More Expendable Than You]]: {{spoiler|Walnut.}}.

* [[Necromancer]]: Marona goes without the skull fetishes most have; her phantoms are also tidier than most. There ''is'' a traditional one that create ghosts and zombies who is a mercenary leader in the plot.

** Interestingly, Marona can summon Phantoms of... zombies and ghosts. They're... un-undead? No, that isn't right...

* [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero]]: {{spoiler|Though not exactly heroic for most of the storyline, Walnut invokes this by using his Psycho Burgundy power on Marona while on the Island of Evil. That breaks the final shreds of the seal that bound Sulphur into the void.}}.

* [[Not Quite Saved Enough]]: letLet's review:

** Castille: {{spoiler|trapped in ''[[Makai Kingdom]]''}} as a servant {{spoiler|of Zetta}} after a {{spoiler|failed attempt to find Walnut's soul.}}.

** Walnut: {{spoiler|Waswas not dead during the above search, but transported to the ''[[Soul Nomad]]'' universe. Dies}} in most of the story paths, so possibly {{spoiler|dead now.}}. Though it is worth noting that the endings of the main path seem only to differ mostly on what the main character is up to (and many of the endings are referenced in other ones), so he may {{spoiler|be alive at the end of the main story no matter the ending. The Demon and Median paths on the other hand}}...}}

** Marona: {{spoiler|Suckedsucked into the ''[[Disgaea]] 3'' netherworld}} by Baal, has her {{spoiler|Childish Innocence}} stolen. {{spoiler|(Notnot physical rape, the mental aspect is actually removed.). Joins with Mao's group.}}. But it's implied that Baal did not actually steal anything. So...

** Ash: {{spoiler|Seenseen in ''Disgaea2Disgaea 2'' [[Video Game Remake]] [[Downloadable Content|DLC]] "Dark Hero Days". Where he went by ''Disgaea3Disgaea 3'' isn't known.}}.

** Sulphur: {{spoiler|Sentsent back to Ivoire by [[Grim Grimoire|Lujei Piche]], who also sent Walnut to the Soul Nomad universe. Sulphur apparently dies permanently as a [[Bonus Boss]];}}, but the main characters are now paranoid that {{spoiler|he will come back as they don't know that part.}}.

* [[One Stat to Rule Them All]]: Get that Speed stat up... STAT!

* [[Our Werewolves Are Different]]: {{spoiler|Twice.}}. Bijou (along with every other generic Werewolf in the game) is never seen in human form and is mostly portrayed as a one-man [[Goldfish Poop Gang]]. Despite this, he rarely is portrayed as evil until {{spoiler|he is possessed.}} {{spoiler|Raphael, meanwhile, is impersonated twice by Bijou (successfully). While nowhere ingame does it state that he ''is'' a werewolf, it is heavily hinted at along with this and his troops, the White ''Wolf'' Army.}}.

* [[Player MooksMook]]s: Any non-Ash Phantom in the [[Play StationPlayStation 2]] version.

* [[Playing with Fire]]: {{spoiler|Walnut and Scarlet the Brave have the power to light their ''souls'' on fire.}}.

* [[The Pollyanna]]: Again, Marona. [[Sliding Scale Longof NameIdealism Versus Cynicism|She's eventually vindicated.]]

* [[Ridiculously Cute Critter]]: Putties, Scrabbits (except for Count Malt), Saber Kitties, and Wisps.

* [[Rousseau Was Right]]: By the end of the game, {{spoiler|''everyone'' has become a good guy and is working with Marona to save the world from Sulphur. Lujei Piche almost killed all that effort since she sent Sulfur back to Ivoire, but then Marona just ''kills'' him period as a [[Bonus Boss]]. [[Level Grinding]] beats [[The Power of Love]]}}.

* [[Shout-Out]]:* One foe begins the fight with "[[Castlevania|Enough talk, have at you!]]" while another uses [[Pokémon|"Kazan Monsters, I choose you!"]]. Also, a random name for Owl units is Orly.

** One of the random things a resident Phantom will say is, [[Linkin Park|"I've tried so hard, and got so far..."]]

* [[Supporting Protagonist]]: While we may be controlling Ash outside of battle and the story is generally told from his point of view, the main focus is Marona.

* [[Survival Mantra]]: "One day..." Marona keeps her sanity with those two words. That One Day.... everything will be alright.

** {{spoiler|Sprout attempts this by killing himself when Sulfur resurfaces through Sprout's body. Walnut also seals himself with Sulfur at the end.}} .

* [[Theme Naming]]: Most characters are named after colors, particularly wood hues. Many types of special magic are also named after colors; Marona's ability to use phantoms is "Chartreuse,", Walnut uses "Psycho Burgundy,", and so on.

* [[Ungrateful Bastard]]: Oh yeah.

** Not to mention how "fusion" powers up your skills and items; and consumes one of the beings fused. An easy way to get a quick Title? Summon a cheap Phantom then banish it, and only it's Title will be left. You want to double your experience and [[Mana]] absorbed when you kill enemies and to heal when you take a step? Summon a Slime (they have perfect efficiency with anything in fusion transfer), fuse a high-level item to give it some mana, Summon 50-100 of the beings you want to transfer the skill; fuse them into the slime, and then fuse the slime into the character you want the skill given to.

*** Marona's version of "Transmigration" is... messier than ''[[Disgaea]]''. You have to let a Phantom's HP be taken to 0, then it's body needs to be destroyed. Then she can reconstitute it's spirit with into a special item.

* [[Wave Motion Gun]]:* You'd be surprised what counts as a wave motion gun when some of the items AND enemies have abilities that resemble a giant death beam when used. This includes dogs, some random plants and even attached abilities to characters.

** Heck, byBy fusing abilities such as Balsa Bazooka into a character anything they can get their hands on can become one.

** [[We Cannot Go on Without You]]: This makes sense, actually. Since Marona is basically using [[Summon Magic]], ''and'' is a living human, if she dies and all of her summoned Phantoms die and/or run out of turns, game over. Phantoms cannot permanently die as long as she's around to put them back together. Subverted in the [[Marathon Level|Dungeon Creator]]: if you manage to win that battle inside the dungeons even if Marona is knocked out, she will be resurrected at the next level, but with 1HP.

* [[With This Herring]]: Given the community she's surrounded by, Marona starts out empty handed, but can quickly earn her way into a [[Disc One Nuke]] with a little work. This trope comes into play ''literally'' if you decide to use a Fish as your weapon.

=== ''We Meet Again'' and ''Another Marona'' has examples of: ===

* {{spoiler|[[Dead All Along]]: Marona was killed in "Another Marona" the same as everyone else. Carona was extended Confining her.}}.

* [[Dumb Muscle]]: {{spoiler|The side of Sprout you see when he's not [[He Who Fights Monsters|running around trying to kill Sulphur and his minions]]}}.

* {{spoiler|[[Everybody Lives]]: Beating the Merchant actually makes him go through with his promise to resurrect everyone he killed. Including Walnut and Sprout.}}.

* [[Everybody's Dead, Dave]]: {{spoiler|Subversion: ''Everybodyeverybody'' dies from Marona's world, including Marona herself.}}.

* [[Evil Twin]]: Part of Carona's training is {{spoiler|having the new cast fight their old bodies; with the shadows of Sulphur confined within them.}}.

** {{spoiler|Carona herself; the "Another Marona" is somewhat a subversion. A Marona who grew up without Ash; who became very, very dark. A continuous theme, though, is that "Marona is Marona"." This is the same Marona as the heroine, who just had different things happen to her in her life.}}.

* [[Flanderization]]: {{spoiler|Sprout, whose primary trait goes from [[Badass Grandpa]] to [[Dumb Muscle]]. In the primary story, the latter is just barely visible.}}.

* [[Lolicon]]: Carona accuses Ash of this;, but it was made obvious previously that she's jealous of his loving relationship with Marona and very, very bitter. (Alsoalso, you really don't get more [[Chaste Hero]] than Ash.).

* [[Love Redeems]]: {{spoiler|Carona, at the end of the story, practically loses her [[Anti-Hero]] tendencies due to her friendship with Marona and Ash.}}.

* [[The Man Behind the Man]]: {{spoiler|An interdimensional diabolist named "The Merchant Of Death" controls Sulphur with an evil artifact called the Magenta Core}}.

* [[Throw the Dog a Bone]]: {{spoiler|After Carona goes home; back to her lonely island; she gets a letter from Castille's father asking for help; implying that she will be befriended by Castille in her world as well.}}.

* [[Training Fromfrom Hell]]: Carona subjects Marona and crew to this. {{spoiler|To help them survive against the Merchant of Death.}}.

* [[Xanatos Gambit]]: {{spoiler|Carona is training Marona and crew to either kill the Merchant or else become his slaves; either way, her Ivoire is saved. Marona convinces her to put more at risk.}}.

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