Phantom Brave

Phantom Brave was Nippon Ichi's lighter and less complex alternative to Disgaea, trading some of its silly humor (that began with Rhapsody) for more conventional fantasy storytelling while shrinking its tactical grids into pixels. Despite this change in movement, what really differentiates combat is the approach, revolving around a single leader who summons allies out of the environment, conjuring spirits with a turn limit but also with bonus stats and abilities depending on the host object. At the same time, returning mechanics like throwing play new roles thanks to new features, particularly via terrain effects and especially their ring out system, that removes from battle any ally, pickup, or enemy knocked past the map boundary (although living enemies will raise their party's level upon O.B.). These two are exceptions to what's basically a massive streamlining process of their trademark grindy tactics. Stripped-down versions of unit creation, upgrades and random dungeons (i.e. without the minigames attached) join equally scant adaptions (including their take on Suikoden's hub utilities) and the end result is a modest Disgaea-like, not as consistently rewarding (perhaps because of their proficiency-governed skill EXP) but still faithful to the concept of free-form teambuilding and increasingly-polished routine.