Some games are children of a particular time, place or sensibility. It’s neither good nor bad, but it has an obvious effect: out of context, it can easily be misinterpreted, or even seem out of place. But precisely because of that, it’s the kind of game that, no matter how much time passes, still has a clear audience and a small audience that treats it like a cult work. Therefore, even when misused or misunderstood out of context, they are interesting as historical pieces because they never reach the agotarse of everything.
As far as we are concerned, Phantom Breaker: Omnia is an improved version of Phantom Breaker, a fighting game developed by GameLoop and 5pb (best known for its work in the field of visual novels, with titles like Chaos; Head or Steins; Gate) originally released on June 2, 2011 on Xbox 360 exclusively for the Japanese market. Although there were two revisions, Another Code and Extra, both of which appeared in 2013 that would also bring the game to the arcade and PlayStation 3, neither of them would be released in Japan. This changes now with Omnia, the first version of the game with an official launch also in the West.
Obviously, the game follows the basic profile of wrestling games, but with some flares of its own personality that make it very interesting. In this way we have a button for a quick hit, another medium and another strong, with the particular that we have a button for a special attack which, combined with the direction or with the other hit buttons, makes different variations special attacks. This, summed up in the Overdrive mode, which translates into receiving and stopping attacks, we can gain a significant increase in speed and attack in a short period of time, or use it to make an attack particularly powerful, thus closing the basic mechanics of the game.
The most striking feature of Phantom Breaker, which has its full potential in this Omnia, is its fighting style. Before starting the game, in the original, we had to choose whether we were going to play a fast style or a hard style, so we decided to play more by looking for the combo or a more defensive style. In this edition the omnia style is included, which has no strong points or setbacks, but potential the characteristics of each character, which makes it perfect for people who are new to the game or the genre, but also for those who want to practice the characteristics of his player, an addition that is not favorable, but adds an extra layer of customization to the game.
Therefore, it is important to talk about their characters. Because with a listing wide, having twenty characters to choose from, the characters feel different enough from each other that these style changes make strategic sense. Certainly the majority don’t break too far with the archetypes of classic wrestling game characters, with the possible exception of one of the guest characters – Kurisu Makise, from Steins; Gate, who fights with sophisticated science artifacts with pseudo-magic powers and has a very short range of punches and blows and effective long-range combat, each character has a very defined rank and fighting style that allows not only to distinguish them easily, who knows who is better with us waiting for the style of play that we like. We want to play more from a distance, in clinch, favor aerial play or zone control, there will always be someone who will adapt to our style.
The problem is that, apart from the curiosity and relative accessibility of the game, it is difficult to find reasons to enter the game. For those who are followers of the true anime of fighting game, the game lacks the depth you can find in titles like Guilty Gear or Under Night In-Birth. For those with a curiosity for the game and don’t normally play games of this type, the lack of a competent tutorial mode can be a pain, though the techniques are simple enough to learn to play at least decently without excessive problems. In any case, both in mechanics and accessibility, it seems exactly what it is, a game from more than ten years ago in a genre that has evolved in nimble steps in every aspect during that time.
Send this stamp helps which is not a remaster or remake, but an improved version. Graphically the lack of muscle, the interface doesn’t just look like a Japanese PS3 niche game, and the art department has charm, but for a lot of people this will be a hit or miss The manual. Questions that are not necessarily flaws, will not add problems for many people, but whose presence is always noted.
In addition, this version makes a notable effort to be accessible for the first time to a new audience. Not learning to play, since the entire tutorial is literally a manual Stake accessible only in the main menu and not during the fights, but it is in the respect of the game modes. With an extended scenario, which tells us the battle of a mysterious organization called Phantom against an evil entity called Mage who enlists young people to participate in its wrestling tournament; online and local functionality, to play as much in class like nonchalantly, between friends or against the AI; and a solitaire mode with multiple options, in order to play against the clock, our own point or until the body suffers; the game makes a notable effort to deliver everything possible to Western audiences while respecting the game’s original essence as much as possible, which for some reason not intended to include does not include backtrack because he took care of the original games.
That’s what Phantom Breaker: Omnia is a dress that’s hard to judge. As the preservation of a niche title with over a decade on the sword, it’s a great job with little to criticize. As a game, it has been explored clearly and it is likely that it will not end up finding an audience either among the wrestling game community or among the anime game audience. So, before Phantom Breaker: Omnia, what weighs the most is curiosity. Who is looking for the opportunity to discover a game that until now was inaccessible to virtually all of humanity outside of Japan, this is a golden opportunity to do so. For anyone looking for the next great wrestling game, it will surely be worth taking a look at the titles that, at the end of the story, are about giant men like this Phantom Breaker: Omnia.
