Side scrolling beat ‘em ups were the bread and butter of gaming decades ago, and they’ve begun their ascension into relevancy again with great titles like Scott Pilgrim Vs The World, Dragon’s Crown, and even great remakes of the classics that started it all. Phantom Breaker: Battle Grounds, a spin-off of the main Phantom Breaker series, is a new beat-’em-up for the PlayStation Vita, and while it will wow you with its colorful visuals and slick animations, the game itself hits on the same notes to offer a bland, forgetful experience.

Visually, Battle Grounds is astounding. Incredibly detailed sprites and environments are awe-inspiring, and the sheer charm emitted from each area is sure to catch the eye of anyone who catches a glance. Animations of attacks are smooth, and each character’s attacks are eye popping and gorgeous. Its art style is very comparable to the previously mentioned Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World, though its likeness to that fantastic game stops there.

Visuals aside, Battle Grounds is a fairly by the book beat-’em-up side scroller. You’ll travel through various environments fighting goons aplenty, and while this formula isn’t anything new to the genre, the inability to present interesting ways to fight or even dynamic enemies to pummel really creates a hollow, tedious experience that forced me to take breaks in order to avoid the impending boredom. While combos are there, simple button mashing is good enough to make it through most of the game.

Hidden-characters-galore

You’ll eventually come across various boss fights, but they require the same simple fighting strategy as their goons, which makes them feel like goons with more health rather than bosses which test your skills. Instead of increasing the difficulty by having the boss try new tactics to defeat you, the illusion of difficulty is implemented through elongated battles to chip down health.

Battle Grounds tries to change up the formula by creating a two plane battlefield. By pressing the left trigger you can switch between either for background or the foreground of the screen to attack enemies who appear on either, but it doesn’t add anything to the gameplay that seems substantial. Switching between the planes just seems like a speed bump to attacks enemies rather than an element to add any depth.

Whatever story Battle Grounds tries to present is messy and forgettable. Most of the short, Japanese dialogue is simply used to give motivation to keep slicing through enemies, but its hastiness to progress to gameplay also limits the story from growing into anything worthwhile.

Online play is serviceable when it works – but it rarely ever does. Actually finding someone to play with is nothing short of a miracle, and when you do find your ally, it’s highly likely that the connection will fail or your connection will be weak. I tried over and over again to find a online match hoping that it was just poor connection from other players, but the consistency of bad or no connections leads me to believe it won’t be much better with even more attempts.

Perhaps Battle Grounds’ cardinal sin is that it never elaborates and expands on its solid framework. Outside of the fantastic visual presentation, the offerings are fairly standard and can become lackluster as you dig deeper and deeper into the game. While it can be fun in very short bursts, spending longer periods of time playing definitely tarnishes the experience and the fun ends fairly prematurely. Its outer shell is deceptively welcoming, but once you peel deeper, Battle Grounds reveals its true, repetitive self.

This review is based on a review copy of the PlayStation Vita game Phatom Breaker: Battle Grounds by Division2 and distributed by 5pb.

Breaking Down | Phantom Breaker: Battle Grounds Review
Overall6
Positives
  • Gorgeous sprites and animations
  • Detailed environments
Negatives
  • Repetitive, mindless fighting
  • Pointless story
  • Unreliable online play
6Overall Score
Reader Rating: (0 Votes)
0.0

About The Author

Josh is a Senior Editor for New Gamer Nation. He'd love to chat with you about games on Twitter.