Phantom Breaker: Battle Grounds Ultimate

It is hard to believe that it was more than a decade ago when I first laid my hands on Phantom Breaker: Battle Grounds. What is even more impressive to me is the fact that I have continuously picked it back up on one platform or another consistently during that time. Up until recently, I still occasionally played it on Sony’s Vita, my PC, XBLA, and even my PS4 whenever I needed my fix. Now, thanks to the ICO Team, I have the definitive version of the game to go to on my PS5, with Phantom Breaker: Battle Grounds Ultimate.

Let’s start with a little background. Phantom Breaker was a highly rated fighting game that was released in Japan many moons ago. Somewhere along the way, despite the rave reviews, the English version got lost in translation and was stuck in the localization process. During that time in limbo, the developer took the colorful characters and crazy world and scaled it back a beat in the style of a classic 16-bit brawler.

That hasn’t changed with the new release, but it has been enhanced with an entirely new, remastered soundtrack, additional characters, and a whole new visual engine driving everything (Unreal Engine 5). The result is a game that runs better, smoother, and faster than ever before, boasting much better frame rates (especially when things get hectic) and visuals overall.

The core premise remains the same, as Battle Grounds meshes the old-school beat ’em up concept with some RPG-esque mechanics. Throw in some melee-fighting game aspects as well, and the result is the perfect blend for beat ’em up fans.

The game starts with a Story mode. This mode introduces you to the characters and the world. It spins the tale of Cocoa, who has been kidnapped by the mysterious Phantom. You to choose one of the four main characters, including her sister, and chase down the Phantom and Cocoa through the Nightmare World and bring her back. It is a campy, over the top story, but I mean that in a good way. It serves the purpose of introducing you to the world and the mechanics of Phantom Breaker.

It is when you begin exploring and dabbling in these mechanics that the game truly starts to shine. On its surface, as I mentioned, this is a classic beat ’em up. It’s you (and maybe a friend or three) battling waves of increasingly difficult enemies through a variety of stages. You start your first mission with a character that is completely decked out, with all the possible powers, combos, and super moves available.

As a result, it is easy to mistake this as a button mashing-fest. With so much in your arsenal at the start, it is easy to succeed (early on) by just pounding on the attack buttons and watching chaos ensue. However, all of that is stripped away after the first level, and you will spend the rest of the adventure slowly earning it all back.

As you tear through the dozens, and eventually hundreds, of enemies, you will earn both experience and currency that you spend after each level restoring those powers and increasing your proficiency. We’re not just talking about increasing your strength, defense, and speed, but also unlocking the different tactics and features that were stripped away from you. This includes things like special moves and projectiles, counters, mobility options, and even super moves that wipe the screen of your enemies, or perhaps grant your character immense speed and power to demolish legions of baddies.

With you having to earn these things back piece by piece, it gives you a chance to slowly add the pieces back into your offensive arsenal. You begin learning that this game is far more than a button-mashing brawler. Sure, you can probably get by for a bit with that strategy. But once you discover that there is a deep combo system built in here and tons of abilities that help you both attack your enemies and outmaneuver them, you can evolve and get to the point where you almost feel like a martial-arts master. It is a beauty to behold when you unleash a 40-50 combo with ease that lets you control and maneuver the mob on the screen. You begin to make the enemies bend to your will and then punish them for it!

The story mode is insanely replayable, with it taking a little over an hour to charge through, start to finish. However, the various difficulty modes can shorten or lengthen this, and you will want to work your way up to the higher (Nightmare!) difficulty levels to get the most out of the experience. As the difficulty increases, so do the number of enemies that you’ll face and the rewards you will be given.

This version introduces the concept of bonuses that can be equipped and leveled to tweak your characters even further. These do things such as award you with extra coinage or experience or even buff your defense or power. While this is a minor addition, it has really done a lot to encourage me to do repeated and subsequent run throughs of the story mode with different characters.

On top of the story mode, there are other modes that take the experience even further. The Arcade Mode challenges players to set high scores as well as timed runs. This harkens back to the classic, arcade-like experience where boasting your highest scores and times becomes your focus.

If that doesn’t keep you busy, then the final mode at your disposal is the battle mode. It now allows up to eight players to battle it out, fighting game-style, with a huge roster of characters (far more than the other two modes). You get to play as the mains characters from the story as well as a large variety of side- and enemy-characters. A lot of these are new to this version, which is a welcome addition for fans.

Each of these modes feeds into the others, so it makes sense for you to spend time in all of them. The character progress, or growth, as you enhance and restore your characters' abilities bleeds over through all of the modes. This is great because it feels like you’re making progress regardless of the mode you’re playing. Plus, you can do this both online and off.

If you’re struggling to set a certain score or beat a time in the arcade, take a run through the story with your character of choice. They get stronger and better, which increases your odds of completing your goals. Maybe you can’t get the upper hand with a certain character in battle mode; then you need to spend time in the others, strengthening them and enhancing their arsenal—as well as your understanding of the gameplay mechanics.

The soundtrack is still great as ever, and perhaps even more so, thanks to a complete remastering of all the tracks. It is truly a great OST and one that I used to personally play while on the go (they used to offer the original for free via SoundCloud). It fits perfectly, driving the action and setting for each scene.

Perhaps the biggest improvement to Phantom Breaker: Battle Grounds in the new version is that they have shifted to using Unreal Engine 5. The game has been completely rebuilt in this modern engine. While most players won’t really think about what this offers, those who are returning will truly see the difference as they play.

The game is insanely flashy and packs the screen with enemies and action. Unfortunately this often caused a lot of slow-down and visual hiccups with the original versions. That hasn’t happened to me once with the new version. Even with more enemies and screen-clearing super moves that are affecting dozens of characters at a time, the thing flows like butter. Sure, it still uses the chibi 16-bit visuals from the original, but when depth and detail of the animations is insane. It looks gorgeous in action.

As with the older versions, there is definitely an aspect of repetitiveness, which is going to turn some players off. However, as a huge beat ’em up fan, I feel that is part of the experience. Sure, the character models of the enemies are often reused and re-colorized in later stages, and the backgrounds may use a lot of repeating elements, but that is a tribute to the genre. That’s how all of the great arcade games of the '80s that built the genre were constructed. It feels “right” here and it never detracts from the experience at all. If you’re diving into this game as a fan of the genre, then you know what to expect, and you are going to be greatly rewarded with the experience that comes as a result.

Phantom Breaker: Battle Grounds Ultimate is a love-letter to the beat ’em up genre. The game belongs in the arcade era, but the truth is that the experience probably couldn’t have been delivered during that time. I absolutely love this game and have no doubt that I will continue going back to it for yet another decade thanks to this release. It’s fast, furious, beautiful, and a ton of fun. If you are even remotely a fan of this genre, then you owe it to yourself to get this game.