Phantom Brave goes portable with its second port. But is it worth it? Read our review to find out…

We already know NIS loves releasing ports of existing games. Loves. I mean, look what they’ve done with Disgaea! (Not to mention Disgaea 2, Phantom Brave and Rhapsody.) So, unsurprisingly, another adaptation of an existing game was announced at the 2010 Tokyo Game Show. Surprising, it’s an MMO adaptation. Gamania and NIS are working together on Phantom Brave Online.

Phantom Brave Online isn’t going to be a port…

It sure has been a while since NIS put out a port. I mean really, it’s been a whole eight months since La Pucelle: Ragnarok, the PSP port of La Pucelle: Tactics came out! Oh wait, false alarm – Phantom Brave Portable‘s just been announced…

NISA (Nippon Ichi Software of America) was kind enough to invite Gamertell to attend its Holy Drunken Shenanigans, Badman! event that was held at the Zebulon Cafe in San Francisco, California on May 7, 2009. Inside, there was food, drinks, and video game fun to be had by all.

NISA displayed many of their upcoming titles pending release in the US. The list of playable titles included the event’s namesake Holy Invasion of Privacy, Badman! (Sony PSP), Cross Edge (PS3), Phantom Brave (Wii), and Let’s Zenryoku Hitchhike!!!!!!!!! (Wiiware ). Let’s Zenryoku Hitchhike!!!!!!!!! looks to be a party title where players traverse a board all the while using the Wiimote to flag down passing vehicles, be it such things as beater trucks to cows.

Initially, several key persons involved with the development and production of Holy Invasion of Privacy, Badman! were supposed to be in attendance. However, their travel plans were inevitably canceled due to this month’s flavor of the month also known as the Mexican/swine/H1N1 flu scare…

Back on November 7, 2008, we reported that NIS was going to begin creating Wii games. Now, we know the first NIS Wii game will be a port of the PS2 game Phantom Brave. Take that, people who thought we’d see a Disgaea Wii port first! It’ll still be a short while before it is available though – it comes out March 12, 2009. The Japanese version of this game is going to be pretty pricy as well, at 7,140円. Typically Wii games are around 5,000-6,000円. For example, Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Cross Generation of Heroes is 6,510円 and Kaze no Klonoa: Door to Phantomile is 4,650円. There’s no word on a North American localization yet, but since we got the original Phantom Brave, we’ll likely get the remake as well.

If you didn’t catch it the first time, Phantom Brave is a strategic RPG starring a young Chroma (bounty hunter/mercenary) named Marona, who has the unique ability that allows her to talk to phantoms/ghosts, and Ash, a phantom who worked with Marona’s parents. Sulpher, an evil force thought to be banished and contained years ago, is returning, and Marona, Ash and other residents of Ivoire work to defeat and contain him. It was known for its sort-of free movement system (characters aren’t bound to a grid), the ability to fuse characters together to make them stronger and the fact that Marona starts out alone in battle, and binds her phantom friends to objects in the field to summon them. These objects can grant beneficial and detrimental aspects to the character attached to them…