Developed by Nippon Ichi Software and published by NIS America, Phantom Brave: The Lost Hero is a long-awaited sequel to the 2004 original. It follows Marona, a girl who converses with spirits. After her partner Ash is separated during an encounter with malevolent ghost ships, she allies with a young phantom named Apricot. Together, they reassemble a lost pirate crew to rescue their loved ones

An interesting twist on tactical combat

At its core, the gameplay of Phantom Brave: The Lost Hero thrives on tactical experimentation. The absence of a traditional grid allows for more organic positioning and movement, creating a sense of freedom rare in the SRPG genre. Players command phantoms that Marona, the protagonist, can “confine” into physical objects on the battlefield, each object affecting stats differently. Confine a phantom into a rock, for instance, and you might boost its defense; use a flowerpot, and the result might be wildly different.

The game introduces new systems like “Confire,” where phantoms can fuse with weapons, and “Confriend,” a mechanic where Marona merges with her phantom allies, unlocking devastating attacks or buffs. These features deepen the strategic pool, though they come with a learning curve that might overwhelm newcomers. The lack of a formal grid also brings some jank, especially with physics. Enemies and objects can unpredictably bounce, fall, or block paths, sometimes soft locking and forcing the player to restart the fight. Still, it’s certainly a new way to innovate tactical combat and I would love to see it implemented in a more solid title.

The combat is certainly more innovative than the story

Narratively, The Lost Hero continues the journey of Marona, a young girl who can communicate with spirits. Her long time phantom companion, Ash, is separated from her early in the story due to the rise of ghost ships and a new supernatural threat. Marona teams up with a new phantom, Apricot, and sets out to gather a pirate crew to save Ash and battle this growing menace.

The story maintains the whimsical, heartfelt tone that Nippon Ichi fans will recognize, blending humour with moments of genuine emotion. However, some players may find the stakes feel lighter and more juvenile than expected. While character interactions are charming and well-written, the overarching plot often feels predictable and rarely reaches the emotional highs seen in other entries. That said, long-time fans will likely enjoy returning to this world and seeing Marona take centre stage once again. Where The Lost Hero truly excels is in its wealth of side content. In true NIS fashion, the post-game is practically a second game in itself. Randomly generated dungeons, hidden bosses, and advanced mechanics like character fusion and reincarnation ensure that min-maxers and completionists will find no shortage of things to do.

The game includes over 50 different unit types, each with their own playstyle and skill tree, as well as 300+ abilities to discover. You can also recruit and customize a vast roster of phantoms, test builds in challenge dungeons, and engage in item crafting and enhancement systems that go deeper than most modern RPGs dare. For those who thrive on grinding and optimization, the side activities alone may justify the purchase.

A very disappointing issue

Unfortunately, Phantom Brave: The Lost Hero stumbles hard when it comes to downloadable content and pricing. While the base game is priced at nowadays standard pricing rate for a full-length strategy RPG, several key characters, scenarios, and bonus dungeons are locked behind paid DLC. For example, iconic crossover characters from other NIS titles are only available through the “Character Pack” DLC, while the “Another Marona” side story must be purchased separately.

What stings most is that these DLCs were ready at launch, suggesting they were deliberately withheld from the base game to be sold piecemeal. This practice has drawn considerable backlash from fans, especially considering the game already launched with technical issues. It creates the impression that the game is incomplete without additional purchases, undermining the goodwill built by its gameplay systems.

My thoughts

Phantom Brave: The Lost Hero on PC is a rewarding but flawed experience. Its unique grid-less combat, deep customization, and endgame content make it a standout within the strategy RPG scene. Marona’s story offers emotional moments and whimsical charm, even if the pacing drags and the narrative stakes feel low. On the downside, the PC version suffers from occasional crashes, physics bugs, and AI glitches that should have been ironed out before launch.

The most serious misstep, however, is the DLC strategy. Locking substantial content behind paid walls, especially at launch, dampens enthusiasm and calls into question the publisher’s priorities. I cannot recommend a game with such practices in good conscience. If the title sounds like something you would enjoy, wait for a deep discount with a “all DLC included” version.

Once Upon a Puppet tells the story of Drev and Nieve, two unlikely companions thrust together by fate and forced to unearth the secrets of their theatre-themed world. It offers a variety of environmental puzzles to solve, but by and large your enjoyment will be predicated on how engaging you find the game’s narrative.

Our protagonists must figure out what’s happened to the increasingly tyrannical King Caliban, who’s been banishing those who dissent to the Understage. It’s far from a complex tale (lasting around six hours), and feels straight out of an animated children’s film with themes of forgiveness and teamwork. It’s nothing you haven’t seen before, and even younger audiences may find it a bit rote.

Still, it’s competently told, and the tone is well-balanced. It’s more Pixar than Saturday morning cartoon, allowing for adults to enjoy it while still being accessible to children. It’s by no means “kiddy”, and although it treads familiar ground, the story itself is presented well, with good pacing and well-written banter between the two leads.

While much of your enjoyment will be determined by whether the story grabs you, this is by no means a walking sim. You’ll be tasked with numerous puzzles throughout Puppet’s campaign, all asking you to use Drev and Nieve’s unique abilities to manipulate the environment. You won’t be too challenged by anything the game asks you to do, mostly dragging items into their designated spots. It’s far from stimulating, and can often feel like completing busy work just to get to the next cutscene.

Thankfully, developers Flatter Than Earth start introducing new gameplay mechanics in the Lost Acts, flashback sequences that reveal the backstory of the King and his son. You’ll get access to a bow, flashlight, and ice pick, as well as the ability to double jump (though your platforming prowess will never be truly tested). These open up the gameplay significantly, creating more thoughtful puzzles and helping you grab collectibles.

Throughout the environment, you’ll find a few different items to pick up, including stained glass pieces, character costumes, and props. Most glass shards are immediately visible within each level, but if you want to collect everything else, you’ll need to search a bit harder. This activity will likely be relegated to super fans and completionists, however, given that none of these collectibles impact gameplay in any way.

Something that becomes immediately apparent upon booting the game up are its terrible graphics; in the Switch version I played, it was very apparent that the 2017 hardware is aging. Lighting and shadows are extremely poor, and the resolution is putrid. Aliasing is impossible to ignore on a big screen, and pre-rendered cutscenes are compressed with frequent artifacting. It runs at thirty frames per second, and even then there are some minor dips. If you have interest in this game, I recommend you play it elsewhere.

The poor technical state of the game is only made disappointing because of the genuinely fantastic art design. The developers have crafted a host of beautiful environments (garish royal halls, snowy mountains, verdant forests, etc), all within an inspired stage-play aesthetic. It’s a refreshingly original setting for a video game, one that I’m sure shines on PlayStation, Xbox, and PC.

Unfortunately, I did encounter a few bugs during my playthrough. Multiple times I clipped through the environment, making it impossible to proceed. Later, I had parts of the environment disappear completely, where I was then met with barren greyboxed walls. These glitches could be solved rather easily by pausing and restarting from the last checkpoint, but it was still annoying and a few more patches would certainly be appreciated.

There is a solid foundation here for Flatter Than Earth to build from, and I’m certainly curious to see what their next game looks like. As it stands now though, Once Upon A Puppet leaves quite a bit to be desired, and I think one playthrough will satisfy any interested parties.

Heroes of Mount Dragon launched on June 25, 2025, developed by Canadian indie studio RuniQ and published by indie.io. Developed by veterans from studios like Beenox, Ubisoft, and Crash Bandicoot, it’s a side-scrolling beat‑’em‑up that combines arcade-style brawling, vibrant hand-drawn visuals, and a playful fantasy world. Players pick one of four heroes (with four more to come post-launch), each infused with dragon-morphing powers. The game supports single-player, couch or online co-op up to four players, and competitive PvP modes, complete with chaotic curses like shrinking or flipping controls

The ideas are there, but need more time to cook

Its art style is striking, a blend of 2D hand-drawn character art layered in a 3D world, creating a colorful, Saturday cartoon-like aesthetic. I find it nostalgic yet fresh, like a well recreated feeling of PS2 era games. The world of Üna, the fantasy realm, is brought to life through lush environments such as elven forests, swamps, and desserts, all rendered with vivid depth and charm.

Combat feels polished and accessible. Movesets are fluid, with satisfying combos and special attacks. Transforming into dragons mid-battle is visually and mechanically exhilarating. Multiplayer co-op shines brightest, fostering synergy between characters and chaotic fun through curses and PvP modes. Action is smooth, with juggles and aerial combos bringing that classic arcade energy. However, I noticed issues with combat precision. There’s some positional jank: attacks may miss if enemies aren’t perfectly aligned vertically, a small but noticeable clunk amid the flow.

Unfortunately there’s a few drawbacks, especially UI issues. When playing couch co-op I could not see player 2’s move set which meant when levelling and unlocking new moves we either had to quit or just attempt combinations. Also you can not back out to main menu from the “map” and have to wait to get into the level, which then if I tried to quit out it would usually result in a crash. Sometimes it would show me unlocking a new move but when attempting to pull it off, it wouldn’t work until the next level. Another issue I found also UI related. The four characters promised in future updates are showing on the character select screen. but no where in game does it say how to or when they’ll be unlocked, leaving me frustrated until eventually googling the reason.

There’s a decent hours of gameplay but only a couple hours of new

Here lies a gameplay problem: despite four distinct locales, many feel like reskinned versions of the same stage. Enemy variety and level hazards are limited, making the experience feel repetitive after a couple of hours. This repetition dulls the initially exhilarating combat loop, even though upgrades and dragon transforms try to spice things up, they only patch the monotony rather than solve it. You play as one hero of the Dragon‑Souls tasked with restoring balance. The narrative is whimsical and light-hearted, narrated with charm, though delivery lacks voice acting, many players will skip through dialogue. The lore expands beyond the game: it’s tied to a pre-existing French‑Canadian board‑game series and an ongoing book franchise, with eight heroes total and nine volumes exploring their backstories. While that integration is intriguing, launch content reveals only half the roster, which as I mentioned was disappointing.

The game offers Adventure co-op, score-based competitive modes, curses, unlockable upgrades, and future DLC promises. But limited stage diversity and predictable enemy encounters undercut longevity.

My Conclusion

Heroes of Mount Dragon is a vibrant, ambitious start for RuniQ. It nails presentation and accessible brawling, with dragon transformations adding spectacle and depth. Co-op play, curses, and humour make it a fun pick-up-and-play party game, especially for fans of classic arcade beat‑’em‑ups.

But it currently lacks sufficient content and variety to maintain long-term engagement. Identical stage structures, limited enemy types, and some rough edges in gameplay precision and performance hold it back. The lore-rich world hints at growth potential, supported by upcoming content. Bug fixes and expansions could elevate it from “fun” to “compelling.”

The first game in the Garten of Banban series was released on January 6, 2023 for PC and twenty days later for mobile, and in 2024 for consoles.

I reviewed the first part of this game about a year ago and gave it a score of 2, and this version has 10 million downloads on the Google Play Store.

Now more than a year has passed since the experience of the first part, and I experienced Garten of Banban 7, which is actually the sixth game in this series. This version was released in May 2024 for mobile and PC, and was released for consoles in December 2024, and has 10 thousand downloads on the Google Play Store.

I have not played the four games before this version, but I tried to read their stories and in this review I compare this game with the first game.

STORY

The first game was just a prologue without a voice actor that only told you that you play the role of a parent looking for their lost child in a daycare and didn’t tell you anything else.

But the next games introduced different characters and the story gained depth and became much more than a piece of paper.

In this part of the story, you go to the lowest part of this facility, which you have found out before that it is actually a laboratory and not a daycare, and you continue to search for your lost child.

The most important character in this version is Syringeon. He is a very intelligent mutant surgeon and he is also the mayor of Cityngeon, a city that was built in this same laboratory and its citizens, who are named case 4b, are also made by Syringeon in the laboratory and he is constantly making new citizens for his city.

This part is dark in terms of story and offers you a good story but the story is very simple and it is just good and nothing more.
Ultimately, many questions remain unanswered in this version after 6 games, and it creates even more questions, and it can be said that the main story does not reach a conclusion.

It takes approximately an hour and a half to complete the story, which is very short.

GAMEPLAY

The first game was just a 2$ tutorial with simple and not entertaining puzzles.

In Garten of Banban 7 the gameplay hasn’t changed much and the controls are still not smooth and are annoying, especially using the drone is very annoying.

The puzzles are way better and not repetitive and the this is very good. A new mechanic has also been added to the game that allows you to control the drone more.

Overall, the gameplay issues are still present, but the new mechanics and much better puzzles provide much better gameplay.

SOUND DESIGN

The sound design is good and creates a sense of fear. Of course, it’s not high quality, but it’s scary and helps create a scary atmosphere.

The voice actors are excellent and I think they are the best part of the game. Syringeon’s voice acting is especially lovely and I loved listening to him.

VISUALS

Visually, it is not acceptable at all and it is exactly the same as the mobile version and I did not see any changes to it. While this game was made with Unreal Engine 5 and could have performed much, much better, it is weak in this area, like the first game.

However, the atmosphere of the game is good and it has managed to create a sense of fear.

CONCLUSION

Garten of Banban 7 is definitely better than Garten of Banban 1, but it’s still a mediocre game with nothing special about it. The story is dark and doesn’t answer many questions while raising new ones.
The gameplay hasn’t improved and the controls can still be annoying. The puzzles are much better.
The voice acting is very nice and I think it’s the strongest part of the game. The visuals are very bad and not acceptable at all.