Nippon-Ichi Software wants Phantom Brave to become a new face of the company, like Disgaea

With Phantom Brave: The Lost Hero fast approaching its newly-announced January 30, 2025 release date - we had the chance to sitdown with he game's Scenario Writer, Kento Jobana, and he revealed that Nippon-Ichi Software has very high hopes with this series revival; with hopes that they might be able to turn it into another IP that can stand alongside Disgaea in the company's pantheon of releases.

RPG Site: It feels like over the past decade, Nippon Ichi Software has had the habit of making a bunch of new IPs while older franchises have languished, outside of Disgaea. So, it's very interesting to see that Phantom Brave is returning - not even just for that, but also because it's a considerably lighter tone compared to the usual NIS fare. A little ironic, considering it's a series that closely deals with the departed. How has it been to return to that universe after 20 years?

Kento Jobana: I've been involved for Phantom Brave: The Lost Hero since the very beginning, I worked on every aspect of it since the start - and I was told by my superiors that this is a game that we want, as a company, to turn into another pillar - another face of the company - much like Disgaea is. That was the high level of expectation I was facing, and much as you said; this is a follow-up to a game from 20 years ago. In fact, at first I very specifically didn't want to tackle it, and I said as much. When I was commanded to handle the project's story, I even asked if I could try using a new set of main characters - which was denied. The owner of the company even went as far as to say that I was just running away from things, and that I needed to write a new story, with the returning characters. He was confident that I could deliver on that premise. So, ok - if that was the mandate, then I'll do it, but at the very least if we're bringing back these characters I didn't want to betray the fans' expectation - we needed them to be voiced by the original voice actors.

As you can see, Jobana-san felt the weight of the task set before him rather heavily - to the point where he didn't even want to have to be the one to handle it. It was NIS' owner, Koichi Kitazumi, that mandated that he take on the project, without changing the main characters. It's a shockingly candid response; thankfully, in the end it seems that Jobana-san ended up proud about his work on the game. We're certainly looking forward to finding out for ourselves when the game launches on January 30, next year, for PlayStation 4, 5 and Nintendo Switch. A PC release will come at a later date.