It’s a question I hear more frequently than you might imagine: “Hey, Josh, which game system do you like the best?” My answer is usually along the lines of “depends on the genre.” Each system has its relative strengths in a different area, it seems. The PS2 is extraordinarily strong in the role-playing and platformer genres, and is just generally well rounded outside of those two, as well. The GameCube does well with first-party software and multiplayer games, and the Xbox seems to have a lock on the sports, racing, and first-person shooters elements. I give the Xbox the nod for racers, incidentally, because while it doesn’t have anything (yet) in the class of Gran Turismo, there’s more depth to the genre on Xbox than there is on PlayStation 2.

But I digress. What I started to say is that, for all the disdain the PS2’s hardware has received compared to the competition, few would honestly dispute the assertion that the PlayStation 2’s RPG lineup is, bar none, the strongest among contemporary home consoles. You’ve got Kingdom Hearts, the Final Fantasy series, the excellent Champions of Norrath (as well as a handful of other hack-and-slash games), XenoSaga, and, of course, a trio of Nippon Ichi strategy-RPG titles dating back to the summer of 2003: Disgaea: Hour of Darkness, published by Atlus, was the first to hit American shores, and did well enough at retail to inspire not just a re-issue of the game, but also a domestic release of Disgaea’s predecessor, La Pucelle Tactics.

August of 2004 brought a third game, Phantom Brave, which also, coincidentally, did away with the grid-based battle system of the previous two games, electing instead for a “gridless” combat system which allowed the gamer to deploy characters by confining them to battlefield elements. There were other changes, too, but you can read about those in Jared’s review.

Today, I’m more interested in exploring the recently announced fourth game from Nippon Ichi: Phantom Kingdom, currently under development by the same core team that brought us Disgaea. Despite the name, it’s worth noting that Phantom Kingdom isn’t related to Phantom Brave, except in the most tangential fashion. There are some gameplay similarities, certainly, and as is NIS tradition, there will be some cameos from the previous games, but that’s about as far as it goes. Say this for NIS, they certainly aren’t afraid to tinker with a successful formula, and with Kingdom, they appear poised to do just that.

They aren’t changing everything, mind. The art style is essentially the same as it has been in the last three games, and the story is similarly light-hearted. We’re back in the Netherworld, but from the looks of things, it’s a different Netherworld than the one in which we met Laharl – most likely an alternate dimension. The ruler of this Netherworld is a guy named Lord Zetta. When Zetta hears a prophecy to the effect of “The end is nigh,” he goes in search of the truth, and stumbles upon a book (in which book is recorded all of history, past, present, and future). The book basically says “Zetta, you arrogant SOB, you’re gonna cause the destruction of your world.” Lord Zetta doesn’t care for that pronouncement, and burns the book…thereby destroying his world. He confines himself to what’s left of the book when he realizes his mistake, saving himself, but not his world. The Gods have pity on him, however, and tell him the secret of the book: it holds the powers of creation. If Lord Zetta wishes for a new world, the Gods will make it so. The only catch? Zetta can’t wish himself into power – he has to fight his way up like any other ambitious, would-be ruler.

So, yeah; hijinks ensue, at that point. As with Disgaea and the other strategy-RPGs, there are various classes of characters you’ll be able to use in Phantom Kingdom. You’ve got your Fighters (think of Fighters as the equivalent of D&D’s monks – it’s all hand-to-hand), of course, and your Magicians, male and female alike. You’ve got Sword Masters, which are basically self-explanatory. Prinnies will also be making a return (dood!), although they aren’t exactly the same as they were in Disgaea. In Disgaea, you see, a Prinny was basically a human soul trapped in purgatory. Without redemption, they couldn’t ascend to heaven. In Phantom Kingdom, nobody knows what they are, exactly, other than they aren’t human, and, well, their bodies are manufactured.

An interesting twist is that in addition to the more “archaic” warriors you can create, you’ll also have the ability to create infantry, and to use modern weaponry (such as a bazooka) with said infantry. Of course, you’ll still have more traditional arms, such as swords (these can break, so be careful), spears, axes, and knives. Heck, even morning stars are present, so that’ll make for an interesting tactical mix on the battlefield.

If you really want to get fancy, you’ll even have mechanized vehicles available for combat. You’ve got your basic ShwartzShilt, which is a mech designed for close-quarters combat. The KaiserVerg seems to be something of a stealth mech, with the ability to dig underground (and, presumably, flank the opposition from behind that way), while the Guns & Roses is more of a long-range artillery vehicle (the better to pound you flat, my dear). Just keep in mind that anything you can do, the AI can do, as well, so it probably wouldn’t be terribly smart to leave an unoccupied vehicle where the AI can make use of it.

Also new to Phantom Kingdom is the “INVITE” system, which is a little more difficult to explain. Remember that whole thing about the “holy book” and how it had the power to grant wishes? Okay. Well, you can use that wish-granting ability to get various facilities, such as, say, a library. Or a dog house. The thing is, gaining that facility costs you one of your characters. The stronger the sacrificed character, the better the facility (and each facility has different features). If you remember the monster purification thing from La Pucelle, and how you could send them off to die on a quest for new gizmos for you to play with, this is similar. Kinda.

The difference is, the facilities are the equivalent of your base panels from Disgaea and La Pucelle, combined with the gridless summon system from Phantom Brave. You can store troops and items within your facility, and then summon it to the battlefield, and deploy your troops from there. You can do this all at once, or a little at a time; it’s up to you. Thankfully, it doesn’t currently appear as though the troops have turn limitations on them the way your Phantoms did in Phantom Brave. Combat ensues as usual, except that the enemy has facilities, too, and they’re used in much the same way. Either side can invade the other’s facility, doing battle with the characters stored within. Invaders can also steal items located in the facility, so this can actually be a good way to get improved weaponry, assuming your invaders can stay alive long enough to do so.

Now, what I haven’t told you yet is that Lord Zetta’s Netherworld is being rebuilt by rival overlords, as he defeats them, which means that the battlefields are actually randomly generated, even within the same story event. The outcome of the battle dictates how Lord Zetta’s Netherworld changes, so it’s entirely possible that no two games will yield the same precise outcome.

Phantom Kingdom is currently slated for release in the United States sometime during the first half of 2005, although such dates are certainly subject to change. We’ll be keeping a rapt eye on this one, and as we get more information, we’ll certainly pass it along to you. You can also check out the game’s official website.