This game is actually really good reminds me of the Ikki one on PSP just good ol beat em up with a good cast of characters with their own moves and abilities.

Get Cocoa spam Special win all diffs.

And guy with Apple will finish what we started.

Let me start by saying I really love this game. It's a fun beat-em' up that was really entertaining. My problem is that its broken. Not for everyone, mind you, but for some its completely unplayable. I was unlucky enough to be one of those people.

I played a good 8 hours of the game and had a lot of fun, even got most of the achievements. I leave it alone for a week and when I come back, I get nothing but a black screen. I try on my desktop, but it brings up a error stating "Pbbg_win32.exe is not responding". Both my laptop and my desktop are up to date on all drivers and are more than capable to run the game quite easily.

However, it seems the dev team doesn't care enough to make a fix, seeing as I'm not the only person having the problem. I've seen many others complaining on the discussion forums with posts dating back to March, yet the problems still exist. If you want to buy the game when its on sale and see if it works for you, I give you my best wishes. However, I'd personally save the money. It can be used on a much more stable game.

*Edit as of 04/30/15: I originally recommended the game, but currently I would only recommend this game if it were:

1) You like playing by yourself or with local co-op only
2) On sale for at least 75% or less (explained further on)
3) Have nothing else to spend a couple hours on
4) The developers actually make it better or on par to the console/vita counter-part.
5) If you like waiting (and I really mean waiting) for updates and patches to be released.

*If you don't want to read too much, just know that the PC port at this point is abandon-wear and the developers abandoned it. Also this version may or may not become obsolete to the newer version out on the PS4 and that this version is a 2 year old port of an Xbox 360 game minus online functionality. Keep in mind that because of this, this is a review more based on a port to Steam and functionality rather than pure game-play elements.

Now let's start with a few positives:
1) Because this game started out as a fighting game, the combat system has a complex combo system that is incredibly satisfying to pull off.
2) With the story and arcade mode in the game, it makes for a decent amount of fun for 2-5 hours.
3) The character progression in this game is done well with spending points into skills and base stats.

Because I actually do love this game, a lot of the following comes with why this game is such a bad port compared to the other versions of this game, why it's failing/ not worth your time as a PC game in general, and questioning developer decisions.

Now on to the Negatives (It's a lot):

I originally loved this game when it first came out on console and steam. But with nothing but disappointment after disappointment from terrible developer choices, limitations brought to the PC port, and bugs that are still plaguing people (me not included), I'm left in utter disbelief on what this game was and what it could have been on PC.

The biggest issue with the game is Online Multiplayer still remains non-existent. It's estimated to be released around Summer time "for free", but going by the Developers track record, people can only hope. This still remains the largest problem because this is a PC game/port in the year 2015. The devs took out the online portion on release because it was too "buggy" to work on steam. Also for some odd reason the PR department believes putting emphasis on something that should have been originally included will be added as a "free update." The "free update" should have been the Kurisu DLC as a sign of goodwill towards towards the people who purchased the game and are dealing with all the delays.

The game is currently on local play only and because this game is on PC, you're more than likely to be playing by yourself for the majority of the time. With only 8 stages and 4 difficulty levels with the 5th one being impossible unless you have the level 99 DLC and/or friends to play with, the game lacks the replay-ability to even remain relevant. Even then, the hardest difficulty is pointless for anything other than points becuase you can't even gain experience from it. If you want the evidence, take a look at https://steamdb.info/app/329490/graphs/ and see for yourself how well this game is currently doing.

Because the game completely lacks any kind of online interaction, this severely limits the game's life span and community from even growing into anything. Just go to steamcharts and look at this game. Then go look at similar games that have online play (For example, Castle Crashers).

I hit the level cap at the start of Nightmare difficulty (This was from starting at level 1 on Hard because I unlocked Nagi). They finally did add achievements with patch 1.04, but it was implemented way too late. Take a look at the global achievement progress and have a look at how many people actually have the first achievement http://steamcommunity.com/stats/329490/achievements/

A very important issue that many people do not realize, the content, pricing, and age of the game. This game was originally released on Xbox 360 on Feb 27, 2013 at $10 and later re-released on PS Vita for $12 on Mar 13, 2014 (JP) or Aug 12, 2014 (US). Now the pricing isn't very high, but the fact that the game price went up over time and was released on PC at $12 also is really weird. I asked one of the developers about why the price went up and instead received a round-about answer avoiding an actual answer.

I also asked if they could make the Kurisu DLC free to at least regain lost faith and attract people to buying the PC version. I was then answered with, "It would be unfair to previous Mages customers who have bought previous versions of the game." I can see how that is a thing, but when your game is now 2 years old it doesn't do you any good to keep your prices the same. Re-releases do exist with more content in the form of GOTY editions and updated versions (Dynasty Warriors # __, Tales of __R, ____ GOTY Edition, etc.) with cheaper pricing and DLC included for free.

*Another thing I have pointed out (somewhere in the forums) was that the developers are working on the PS4 version of the game and that the online mode will be finished around the same time that version is released. I stand by my random call because one of the PR members did say most of development team is working on that version of the game. So we don't know whether or not this game becomes obsolete after PB:BG Overdrive comes out.

I would also like to point out that the game that was released on Steam was essentially an "Early Access" game. It was released completely bare bones with zero online features and as an experiment to see how consumers would react to it. And now slowly over time, the devs are slowly releasing slightly more content that is still not equal to the original versions of the game.

All in all, I could only recommend the game if it has fulfilled any of the things I have mentioned above at the start. But in it's current state, don't even bother touching this game until it receives the care that it deserves. If you have a PS4 just wait a couple months for the better version or hold off on this one and come back to it after summer to see what happens to it in the future.

A message to the developers of Phantom Breaker Battle Grounds:

This game is a giant disappointment and your poor decisions have clearly held the game back from what it should have been on PC. You have released just another game on steam brushed aside into the trash, so GG. This thumb will flip when you can prove that this game is on equal footing with your new poster child Phantom Breaker: Battle Grounds Overdirve.

Stage one you're running through Akihabara beating up some creepy otaku and gyaru girls, even fighting through 'Hey' arcade and eventually other areas in Tokyo .. You'd probably have to be familiar with Phantom Breakers to get what the characters are grudging over, but none of that gets in the way.

Enemies are amusing, and often they heavily reference enemy types from Streets of Rage and sometimes even TMNT in some very humorous ways and the art may be taking some visual cues from the Scott Pilgrim beat-em-up (and that's a great thing). That in my opinion is the best part of this game, is all the references that are packed in, the care put into the backgrounds and how it all just comes together with really fun and slick controls. If you're a fan of these things, from Akiba culture to beat-em-up references, you'll love the subtle treats they have in store for you.

If you have the controllers, this game is well worth it whether it's to play co-op TMNT style or to play it solo. There's 5 difficulty modes, characters to level up and plenty of challenge in this package. And even if you just wanted to show 5pb. there's a place for them or Steins;Gate on Steam, you can't go wrong.

Whoever calls this an 8-bit game again will get slapped.
If you cannot tell by the pictures, do not worry, this is a 32-bit retro styled game.

This will bring you back to the great eras of the Arcade/Snes/Sega-Genesis beat-em-ups

If you have played games like Castle Crashers or Scott Pilgrim vs the World (for the consoles), this is highly similar.
We are talking about a crossover between beat-em-up and rpg. However this game is a 2 laned beat em up, not a free moving one; so if you have ever played Guardian Heroes then the gameplay is basically like that. Its really cool and well done, and with some friends included, this game can take up a lot of your time. You start out with 4 characters, and you unlock more as you go (I believe 4 more). They are all female except one dude who you unlock all the way at the end, so if you do not like playing as female characters (you sexist ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥s) then this game is not for you.

I am very disappointed that the developers did not decide to implement the online feature such as in the console version (360). So yes, WARNING! THIS IS A LOCAL ONLY GAME. This still does not bring down the game, and I really do hope with the inclusion of the dlc at one point, developers will include online support.

TLDR: Is this game worth a buy? Depends, do you like Castle Crashers? Double Dragon? Final Fight? Anime School Girls with weapons? Then yes.

Very, very fun Beat ‘em Up game with cute anime graphics and RPG elements – namely your character levels up as you complete (or fail) a stage, and you assign level-up points you get to character’s stats or use them unlock various special moves. You can also re-distribute the points you’ve assigned, so you can experiment without worrying about making mistakes.

I fully recommend Phantom Breaker to all fans of Beat ‘em Ups, or action games in general!

This is a fun game where you level up your 16bit waifu and kil everything a lot (except bosses which just take a rest and you fight them again 10 times)

You can also play waifus with your friends which is great. Or fight your friends' waifus with your waifu, which is even more fun. (but hahaha who has friends amirite? brb crying)

10/10 It's like if Scott Pilgrim, and Madoka Magica had a baby, and that baby had an offspring with Neon Genisis Evangelion.

Each characters story lasts for about two hours, there are plenty of characters to unlock, I don't think I have them all unlocked either. Lots of different game modes, a killer sound track, and a story just as confusing as any other Japanese story. You'll love it.

Phantom Breaker: Battle Grounds is a beat 'em up game which was originally released on Xbox Live Arcade, and PlayStation Vita, before later ported to the PC in early 2015.

The gameplay is side scrolling beat 'em up, with a surprising amount of combos, special attacks and techniques to use. The combo system is very easily mastered and you will be hitting high combos very early into your experience with this game. You gain experience after each level, which allows you to spend points in Attack, Defense, or Speed. You can also spend the same experience points in learning new attacks/moves to perform. It was hard to find a right balance between what to spend points on improving, so I just went down the route of improving stats along with improving basic attacks.

The graphic and art style in Phantom Breaker looks really nice. It has a very cute look to all of the characters, even the bad guys. If you can put up with the again underage looking characters, which are thankfully quite covered up compared to most anime games of this type, then the look of this game has a very nice appeal to it.

The sound effects were sadly something I wasn't a fan of, the over used moaning noises of the girls grows very tiresome after a while, it would of been nice to see a little originality. Phantom Breaker has a number of different difficulties to play, I wouldn't recommend playing on Easy mode (which I did) as it really is easy. There is no challenge to be had, I suspect the normal and harder modes really make you learn the bigger combos to get buy. I didn't actually die once during my playthrough on easy mode, which just shows how easy it was.

Each of the seven levels are very well designed. Yes it is all just a side scrolling platformer, but the backgrounds/scenery in each stage look awesome. There are also various different items to destroy such as trash cans or crates in order to find health points and experience points.

My first playthrough (on easy) took me just under two hours. I can really see this being a game which has good replay ability thanks to the extra difficulty levels, as well as the co-op modes which actually supports up to 4 players. There have been reports that the online multiplayer does not work very well, but I have not had any first hand experience with that.

This is actually a bad PC port; I couldn't even use my keyboard to play this game. You need a controller to be able to play; even though these types are games are best of being played with a controller, it would be nice to see basic keyboard functionality in a PC game.

In conclusion, I would recommend Phantom Breaker: Battle Grounds as it is a nicely put together side scrolling beat 'em up game. The price tag of £8,99 may be a little bit steep for some, but with the addition of local co-op, really makes this game a must have for people wanting some couch co-op action.

Tom's Score Card
1) Stay away
2) Only recommended when on sale
3) Recommended
4) Highly recommended
5) This is a must play

f you found this review helpful, please consider giving it a thumbs up. You can also find more reviews over at http://www.completingthebackloggroup.com/

http://store.steampowered.com/app/329490

Add the online mp! Why remove online from Steam when it's in XBox 360 and Vita and PS4 versions? Seriously? Thumb will flip if/when online is added.

Edit Feb 6: It's still in alpha testing. It's still not done.