It feels strange to have played Phantom Breaker: Omnia. Both the original 2011 game and its 2013 update were only released in Japan, creating a small audience who wished for a localized version. I found out about it through the localized Beat ’em Up spin-off Phantom Breaker: Battle Grounds. I’d bought the game only because it had Kurisu Makise in it, who is from the popular Steins; Gate visual novel and its highly acclaimed (and my favorite) anime adaptation. As soon as I found out she was also in the original Phantom Breaker fighting game, along with Rimi Sakihata from Chaos; Head, I knew I had to play it one day.

Of course, I was very excited when I heard that publisher Rocket Panda Games had plans to localize it and update it with new content. That excitement was taken down a few pegs when they said that the game wouldn’t have rollback netcode since it was all based on old source code and practically remaking the game from scratch to update the netcode was out of the question for the budget. Still, it was obvious that a lot of love was going into this new update, and I was excited to see the end result. Although there are some high points, overall it just doesn’t hit the mark for me.

Normally I’d start this by talking about the game itself, however, I do want to express that I had problems as soon as I started the game. My Steam controller’s buttons were absolutely scrambled. A was X, X was B, B was A, Select and Start were the triggers, right-clicking the thumbstick was Start, and somehow Y and the bumpers were fine. It’s enough of a problem that there is a pinned discussion thread about it on Steam that went up when they had a demo last month. It was also brought to the forefront (which I appreciate) on the latest news about the game.

None of the fixes I tried worked for me, although I didn’t try to go into my control panel to delete/reinstall drivers because I’m honestly not that committed. The button remapping screen is pretty bad, although I was still able to switch everything around that I could on there and then change the triggers to act like Select and Start buttons through Steam controller configuration. This didn’t affect the button prompts in menus so B still acts like A for me there, but I could at least play the game correctly. With that out of the way, let’s get into the game!

From the start, this looks like a simple 1v1 anime fighting game. The nearly identical command list for characters will enforce this idea as there are no quarter-circle inputs to worry about and different attacks/specials are handled by pressing a directional input and a button. They’re also incredibly short, as aside from normals each character has specials and then stronger specials that act as EX moves. Almost every command list is six moves long.

Where the game becomes more nuanced is in its styles and mechanics. All except for two characters have access to three different styles: Quick, Hard, and Omnia. Quick emphasizes more speed that makes it easier to string combos and a double jump, at the cost of less damage and HP. Hard goes in the opposite direction and is much slower, but has a higher damage output and more HP. Omnia is a new style that has a balance of speed and HP, provides four levels (or 400%) of the burst gauge instead of two like the others, albeit it is unable to perform many of the more complex mechanics.

Speaking of, there’s a lot of mechanics here. Some of the big ones that every player will want to know from the beginning include the titular Phantom Break, which is essentially a super that uses 200% of the burst gauge in Quick and Hard styles. Each character has a unique one for both styles. The Omnia style doesn’t have this and instead has the 400% using All Range Attack, which looks the same across all characters but deals massive damage.

Next are two mechanics only available to Quick and Hard styles. Each style has its own Overdrive that takes up 100% of the burst gauge. Activating it with Quick style increases one character’s speed while decreasing their opponent’s to allow for some crazy combo potential. Activating it with Hard style gives armor for a short period that can let you attack without worrying about getting staggered. There’s also Emergency Mode which takes up 100% burst gauge and takes you out of hit stun.

Guarding isn’t the only way to avoid damage in this game. Both the Quick and Omnia styles can evade attacks with Slip Shift. Timing a forward input with an opponent’s attack lets you dodge an attack and slows down your opponent’s recovery time. Similarly, Hard style can use Protection, which parries the attack and lets you react faster than guarding would. That’s not to be confused with the general Counter Burst which gives everyone a parry. Perfectly timing a Counter Burst can give you a Reflection that renders the opponent vulnerable and charging it when the tension gauge is full gives a Critical Burst.

This brings us to the Tension Gauge which is the most unique element here. It sits just beneath the timer and fills up as you clash, dash, and attack each other. At its limit, it increases both characters’ attack power for a while and will recharge a burst gauge to 100%. Finally, there’s the Clash mechanic. When attacks and dashes collide, both actions are stopped and either character can immediately cancel into other specific actions.

I’ve talked a lot about the mechanics of the game and I do that because there are a lot of tools in this game. Enough so that it is quite overwhelming to new players. For that reason alone, this game needs to have a great training or tutorial mode. Unfortunately, there is no tutorial mode and the training mode isn’t great either.

Every mechanic I listed above, including all the smaller ones I didn’t mention such as guard breaks, stuns, air recovery, and the different types of canceling, are defined through an in-game manual. As nostalgic as it is to have to (digitally) flip through a manual to read about mechanics and such, it feels a little archaic when compared to recent fighting games.

Without a tutorial mode, I was hoping I would be able to look up the mechanics of the game when pausing or at the very least when pausing in training mode. It’s a lot to digest after all and having it on hand would be less frustrating. What turns this small annoyance into a proper issue is that the in-game manual is only available through the main menu. The first hour I spent trying all of the mechanics and styles out was littered with multiple exits from the training mode to go to the main menu.

Exiting the training mode to read a glorified PDF manual was also a common occurrence because the training mode shockingly doesn’t have command lists. In defense of the game, most of the characters share the same inputs, and again, the commands lists are short. Going back to the voice of reason though, some characters do have unique inputs and I can’t remember the last time I’ve seen a game without a command list in training mode. If you want to see a character’s command list, you have to visit that in-game manual.

Once I got the hang of things and explored what I could do in training and against CPU opponents, I started to have a bit of fun. Unlike most anime fighters, this feels a lot more grounded in comparison. Jumping does feel a bit stiff and it’s easy to tell where a jump arc will take you. Dashing through opponents and evading attacks on the ground feels a lot better though, so all the action is going to happen there.

I found myself gravitating towards the quicker characters and the quick style. There is something very unique about playing against slower characters with Hard styles and using so many attacks to take off a bit of health, while they can decimate you once they have their hands on you. It sounds interesting if not a little iffy in theory, but it actually felt pretty fun to me. I also really enjoyed using Overdrive with the quick style and being able to bring out quick-paced combos reminiscent of Killer Instinct for a brief moment.

It’s not all gravy though. I feel like the HP bar is misleading. In most of the matches I had, it would look like the opponent’s health bar was completely depleted. I’d land some certainly finishing blows and they would get back up. I assume that the recoverable red health begins to recover pretty quickly at a slow pace. That or the HP bar wasn’t being represented correctly.

I’m typically not one to complain about auto-combos because I think they’re a great way for casual newcomers to still have fun. The issue with them here is that they’re not implemented well. Quick and Omnia style felt dependent on them. Some that I tried had so many moves that they would miss one or two attacks as well.

There are also a lot of moves that really lack impact. Normals, specials, and even some supers feel weak. I don’t think this is a problem with the updated version, as much as it is a problem with the core game itself. Even from a non-visual point, you feel the lack of impact. A common example I can give is when clashes occur. With other fighting games that have a clash mechanic, there is typically a significant pause or pushback when it happens alongside some nice effects/animations.

Clashes in this game only have big visual effects and you can essentially attack again as soon as possible. Naturally, this commonly resulted in a quick-paced chain of clashes that feels intended because it adds to the tension gauge. Without a strong sense of impact though, it just feels like you’re both whiffing your hits in front of each other, with large insubstantial effects covering you both.

Lack of impact aside, the visuals look outdated. There is a giant high-definition and slightly animated picture of the character that comes up when a Phantom Break is used, but everything else is using the same sprites and models from before. It’s not bad sprite work at all, it’s just that the game runs at 1080p, and even on my average size monitor, some characters look a little muddled. Even more obviously impacted are the stages. The usage of 3D backgrounds and objects is very clear, and their textures alongside the occasional PNG-looking tree will catch your eyes for the worst reasons.

While we’re on the subject, every part of me laments the usage of 3D models for the characters. All of the characters from the original game were sprite-based. Characters added in the original updated version, Phantom Breaker: Extra, were 3D models. The two new characters added to Phantom Breaker: Omnia continues the trend of being made with 3D models. I’m positive it’s cost-effective, it’s just that they are noticeably contrasting to the original sprite characters.

Outside of training mode, there is a story mode. It is exactly what was offered in the previous two games, which are one-round battles with very plain, albeit entertainingly written, visual novel scenes in between. A majority of them are around 10 stages/fights each and have extra special conditions like landing a certain number of special attacks or simply winning without continuing. There is also the standard collection of VS and Single Player modes. A word of warning though: the arcade mode does make you fight all 20 characters in the game.

Before I address the delay-based elephant in the room, I do have to give credit to what’s been added. The remixed soundtrack sounds fantastic, and the option of choosing that or the original soundtrack is always a welcomed addition with updates to older titles. All of the localization work is also pretty fantastic. They really could have just done a simple English localization, but there’s support for eight total languages, and the new English dub is very solid with a lot of big names. Even the new intro and outro songs feel unnecessary but are wonderful additions.

As much as I do enjoy what’s been added, the offline offerings are paltry and only enforce how vital online play is. I wasn’t able to find any matches before the game launched, but I did find some after. A couple of them were in the yellow range and without any ping information, this range of quality is seemingly large. The better one had some slow-downs here and there that were pretty annoying. The worse one felt absolutely unplayable with how fast the game can be. I can’t imagine how bad a red connection is, so my advice for your sanity would be to only accept green connections.

I did play with some green connections in ranked mode and that felt great. Playing with people is still a lot more fun than against the CPU, but it did make me realize that matches can be heavily drawn out. Quite a few of my matches against other players had rounds ending with less than ten seconds left or in a time-out. Mix that with the lack of impact I was talking about earlier and the hard to judge HP bars, and it can make for some unsatisfying round enders.

Phantom Breaker: Omnia is the latest update to a decade-old title that adds a new gameplay style, two new characters, new UI, and finally makes it accessible to those outside of Japan with a fantastic localization effort and a stacked English dub cast. It’s readily apparent that a lot of care went into this project and that they tried to add as much as they could while keeping the core gameplay and experience intact. For those who have been really wanting to see the game released outside of Japan, it will meet and exceed most expectations.

There is plenty that feels lacking though. Part of this is because it’s based on an older title and that can’t be helped. At the same time, aspects such as the questionable button remapping screen and in-game manual, feel like they belong in a game from 2011 and I’m not sure if that experience couldn’t be updated. Not having command lists available in training mode feels plain wrong. If the game provided a more user-friendly experience, I’d be willing to recommend it even with the delay-based netcode. As it stands, I would only recommend this to the passionate fans and the very curious.

A PC review copy of Phantom Breaker: Omnia was provided by Rocket Panda Games for this review.

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Phantom Breaker: Omnia

$39.99

6

Score

6.0/10

Pros

• It's Finally Here
• Numerous Mechanics Keep Things Lively
• Localization is Fantastic
• Soundtrack Options

Cons

• No Tutorial/Weak Training Mode
• No Rollback Netcode
• Gameplay Lacks Impact At Times
• Outdated and Conflicting Visuals