Phantom Breaker: Battle Grounds Ultimate is a 2D Beat-em-ups game was released in 2025 for PS5, PS4, XSX/S, XBONE, Switch, and PC.
It was developed by Mages Inc and published by Rocket Panda Games, and it is also a 2025's fully remastered version of 2013's original titled as Phantom Breaker: Battle Grounds was originally released for X360, PS Vita, and PC, and also later ported to PS4 and Switch in 2015-17 releases as Overdrive.
The game acts as an spin-off title to 2011's fighting game titled as Phantom Breaker for Arcade, PS3 and X360, then later released in 2022 as Omnia for PS4, XBONE, Switch, and PC.
First of all in last month, I've previously mentioned the 2011's fighting game that I never actually played it before, so until now I've finally had a chance to bought the game off from PS Store thanks to winter holiday sale.
After downloading the game on my console, I had a first go with the 2022's update version of 2011's fighting game titled Phantom Breaker: Omnia for PS4 which features all fighters from previous version in addition to 2 new fighters, remixed soundtrack, new fighting game style, balanced adjustments, and the ability to play through stories of both the 2011's original and 2013's extra making it the first time the game will see a release outside of Japan featuring both Japanese and English voice acting.
My first impression is quite bit mixed because it may not be as good in comparison with other anime fighting games that plays slight better like Dengeki Bunko: Fighting Climax, Arcana Hearts 3, and Under Night In-Birth in terms of fighting controls and design wise, but I do praise the game for its cast of rosters, story presentation, visuals and sounds, and of course the full complete content does help the game quite a bit...I say it's not a bad package overall.
So enough with that because now I'm going to focus on reviewing the spin-off title called Phantom Breaker: Battle Grounds Ultimate for PS5.
Before I begin reviewing the game, I had previously played Phantom Breaker: Battle Grounds for PS Vita quite long time ago and the game is kinda plays similar to one of Treasure's cult-following classics such as Guardian Heroes on SEGA Saturn which is why I had a reason to bought it for PS Vita digitally, but I never quite had a chance to finish the whole game because I got busy with studying at my university back then, but now pushing forward to many years later I've finally going back to this which is why I've bought the ultimate version for the PS5 to see if the game is actually fun as today.
So what I've learned about the ultimate version is that it features freshly updated visuals, enhanced battle system, and adding 6 to 8 players online for co-op and versus mode with full cross-platform play is something that I'll be interested in playing this game.
Is the ultimate version of the original game worth a look? so let's find out and see how the game really goes.
So without go further do, let's start the review.
Presentation
The game set in Tokyo, Japan as the story starts out with the mysterious villain named Phantom has ordered the young fighter groups with magical artifacts to fight and creating spacetime rifts to regain his sealed powers, as he kidnaps the girl named Nagi which prompting her sister Waka and the allies to team up traveling across the parallel worlds to rescue Nagi and preventing chaotic plot from the hands of Phantom.
The story in the game is however decent, so you're just a bunch of anime girls squad went on mission to rescue the kidnapped girl and confronting the evil who manipulates young individuals into fighting which causes the creation of dimensional rifts and plotting to obtain the sealed powers, so that he can able to do something very dangerous that harms the world.
It's kinda like any of Beat-em-ups video games with similar plot which I don't really mind at all because it's just the way it is supposed to be that makes the game quite interesting to play.
Aside with the story, I say I really liked the choice of the characters in the game such as you have heroines like Mikoto Nishina the music college student with big-ass sword, then you have Waka Kumon who is part of the Kumon's family clan and also Nagi's elder sister, then you have Itsuki Kouno the heroic house maid on the mission, and finally Yuzuha Fujibayashi the kick-ass high-school ninja, so these are the main 4's had agreed to team up together to battle against the hordes of Phantom's younglings.
Then you have sub-character Nagi Kumon who is Waka's little sister which poor thing was being captured by the Phantom.
It also featured two mid-bosses such as M the Scavenger and Cocoa who is nothing but sort of trouble maker becoming part of Phantom's ally, and of course various of enemies including Kagebito once human being but became Phantom's parasite, T-DA Monster who is Cocoa's creatures from her favourite video game, Robot corps of Wahrheit created by military manufacturer, groups of Yin Yang fortune-teller who believe in the Phantom, and of course the large-sized bosses such as big fat green dragon, tall red-horned devil, and of course the bulky mecha-dude.
I adore the game's presentation which I really liked the anime art-style for its visual settings and design, so the game has really awesome opening intro that has eye-catching, flashy, and stylish sequences are incredibly beautiful to watch.
I also wanted to praise the settings of stage locations starting from light to dark scenery in each levels such as you have street, city building, gaming arcade club, school outdoors and refectory, cargo ship area, underground sewers, parking space area, construction site elevator, train station, temple, and of course the dark dimension place.
As the ultimate version of the original game, I really liked the changes on the visual side because I liked the 3D-cel-shaded style on background area of each stages which is looking spectacular on the modern platform that made it look different from the previous version's simple 2D-style background design.
Overall, it has decent story, good characters, and great presentation design.
Gameplay
The game has story mode which is single-player based campaign, where as the co-op mode for both local up to 4-players and online up to 6 or 8 players.
You take control of 4 of the heroines in 2D side-scrolling perspective, as your main goal is to fight through the stage and defeat the bosses in order to proceed the next stage.
You will have both of your health and magic bar being displayed on top of the screen which I will explain these for later on this review.
For movement, press the left/right d-pad button or push the left/right with left-stick control is to move player, and press the up d-pad button or push up with left-stick control is to jump, and holding down with the down d-pad button or with the left-stick control is to crouch down.
Double tap the left/right d-pad button or with left-stick control is to dash, where as you can able to perform the air dash while in the mid-air.
Press the left shoulder button is to change side of line from back to front or front to back, so this will allow you to fight the enemies on foreground or background side.
For combat, press the square button is to use quick attack deals light damage on enemies, the triangle button is to use middle attack deals medium damage on enemies, the circle button is to use fierce attack deals heavy damage on enemies, and of course the cross button is to use SP attack allowing you to use various of special attack deals very heavy damage on enemies.
Attacking numerous of enemies are also fills up your magic bar up to 2 meter levels in which if its fully filled-up your magic gauge then you can use it to perform 3 of the special ability moves, such as you can activate the overdrive by pressing the right trigger button which allowing you to perform multiple of quick combos attack for 10 seconds, then you have out-range attack which allowing you to release a homing projectiles on enemies by pressing the right shoulder button, and finally the special move which allowing you to release their strong special attack by pressing the left trigger button.
These are the special abilities may result with faster combo hits up to more than 300 and of course it deals massive damage attack on enemies and bosses pretty easily.
You can also restore your health by finding the food items can be found on trash bins or objects, and you can also regain your half of your health points by activating the overdrive mode as well depending on how much remaining red-lines you had on your health bar.
After defeating bunch of enemies will drop down both of the score item and red gem, so your score item with a high score is determined by enemy strength and the number of combos you have performed will result adding multiples of scoring system like most of the arcade Beat-em-ups games do, and you will have the red gem which increases your experience level which means after you've collected many of red gems and beat the stage you're prompted to the skill menu where you can able to upgrade your skills parameters and moves to improve upon your character's attributes.
It will enhance your attack power, speed movement, and defense system which increases your strength to attack your enemies with high damage hits, your speed of combos will go much faster, your defense will reduce taking damage from enemy's melee and projectiles, and of course having to learn all the skill moves may improve upon your fighting style like dash attack, double jump, air throw, counter bursts, increased levels for combos and specials, and of course the super finisher known as phantom break will easily wipes out the enemies and bosses with massive damage blow.
So far, the gameplay plays it great because I really liked the fighting system with the choices of upgrading your skills and attributes just really adds-up the RPGs-style element is the kind of Beat-em-ups game that I like to play.
I say the fighting style and controls are solid which I can able to pull-off the moves and techniques with melees and combos just works really well throughout the stages.
The game does have an option to configure the controls scheme which allowing you to remap your button layout to suit your playability, but I also wanted to point out the one thing that doesn't allow me to change the button layout is the jump button which sets up d-pad button as default, so I wanted to change it to the cross button to make the jumping lot easier to control which sadly it didn't have an option to change it.
I am hoping they should consider adding it to the patch update to resolve it, so that I can able to remap the jump button.
I agreed with having a 10 or 12 enemies on whole screen because this adds-up a significant results with multiples of juggling combo hits and having to fight many of baddies just adds-up a overall challenge especially playing on hard or nightmare difficulty where you could sometime get an ass-whooping or being able to kick their asses depending on your luck is what the fun of the game is all about, but it may get quite tedious on some part which you may can sometime losing track with your character when some of your enemies gets all crowded together on screen may block your view during the battle, so please pay a close attention to your character and try not to get crowded by others too much.
I also liked the mix of small and large enemies has their own advantages with different damage attack and pacing which I love the balance of having a both of tough brawlers and average fighters in the whole screen.
I got to say that I adore the boss battle in the game is because not only you're fighting with the bosses but there are multiples of enemies may start intervening you for the fights just makes the battle quite insane to play.
Not only the game had the single-player story mode, you can also enjoy the game with your friends through the co-op mode for 4-player local and 6-8 players online may going to satisfy your arcade experience, then you have the single-player arcade mode which has score attack where you must earn many scores as possible before beating the stage and you have time attack where you must beat the stage fastest in order to get a new records, and then finally you have battleground mode which is basically 4-player versus match like the fighting game where you must fight and defeat your opponents in order to win the fight.
These are the game modes that are enjoyable to play is something to appreciate the game most that you likely never to get tired of playing it for hours of fun.
Overall, it has solid fighting system, insane boss battle, and excellent game modes.
Graphics
The game's visual design is looking amazing for anime Beat-em-ups game which as you can see that this remastered version is completely remade it with the Unreal Engine 5 resulting a freshly looked visuals to make the game look better on the modern platform release.
While retaining the chibi art-style for adorable characters but with modern polish and smoother animation, and it also improves upon the visual aspects with vastly improved design, higher resolutions, and better performance is something that we had to take a look of how the game's visuals are compared to the previous version of the original game.
In 2013's version of the original game, the environmental stages and settings are all 2D with flat-surfaces on background, few minor lighting effects, and has old-school sprite animation is kinda similar to the 32-bit SEGA Saturn game, where as the ultimate version which I'm currently playing on has significant changes from the previous version which you can see the stage background is now cel-shaded design to make it look bold and sharp visually and I also notice the background is now 3D when scrolling through the stages, the special effects on this game is much more flashy on collision box which doesn't bother me much to be honest, the use of colours are much cleaner on many areas, and of course the sprite animation is looking more smooth, so I got to say it's a nice overall improvement over the previous version in terms of visual enhancements that made the game appealing on the modern platform.
I wanted to praise the use of screen-zooming effect which you can see the screen goes zoomed-in when your character is standing close to enemy, where as it zooms-back the screen when you're standing far-distanced away from the stage that made the whole landscape looked large on the screen.
I also liked the line-shifting on the stage where your character switch sides from top to bottom just like you've seen it from Treasure's Beat-em-ups classic like Guardian Heroes does.
The good news is that all platforms including both the PCs and consoles version had appears to performed well throughout the gameplay with 60fps thanks to its Unreal Engine 5 upgrade with stable performance even during intense brawler action which I am pleased with the results on 9th-gen consoles and PCs, and I also glad to hear that the game had run smoothly on 8th-gen consoles with no signs of issues whatsoever.
Overall, it has amazing visual design, smooth animation performance, and nice screen-zooming effect.
Music and Sounds
The soundtrack in this game is fantastic because not only it includes the original soundtrack from the previous version which uses the style of chiptune & retro arcade music, but this ultimate version features a remixed soundtrack of the original game with the style of catchy J-Rock & Anime music just sounds incredibly awesome that keep you pumped for brawling action.
It was composed by Takeshi Abo, who was being known for his score on Science Adventure series, did an amazing job with the original soundtrack, where as the opening and ending song was composed by Epsilon_Zero featuring 2 vocalists such as Maestra (Mai Sato) for Japanese version and Shoyun for English version are also did a good job on both songs.
I wanted to praise the sound design for its collision detection noises, flashy sounds, and environmental effects is being well tacked on throughout the stages, and I say the voice acting in this game is doing pretty great especially on both the Japanese and English dialogue during the cutscenes.
Overall, it has fantastic soundtrack, decent sound design, and great voice acting.
Special Features
The game has 2 unlockable Nightmare mode difficulty option and paid DLCs characters. The day one edition as physical copy comes with instruction booklet, collectable card, and exclusive skins.
Overall, a stunning content.
Advantages
Great presentation design
Solid fighting system for combos and upgrades
Insane boss battle
Excellent game modes for both local and online co-op
Amazing visual design
Fantastic soundtrack
Disadvantages
Can't remap the jump button
Enemies can get crowded on your way
Final Verdict
Presentation 8/10 - decent story, good characters, and great presentation design.
Gameplay 8/10 - solid fighting system, insane boss battle, and excellent game modes.
Graphics 8.5/10 - amazing visual design, smooth animation performance, and nice screen-zooming effect.
Music and Sounds 8.5/10 - fantastic soundtrack, decent sound design, and great voice acting.
Special Features 8/10 - unlockable game's difficulty, DLCs characters, and physical edition's goodies.
Overall 8/10 - I can honestly say that I mostly much preferred the Phantom Breaker going for the Beat-em-ups action brawler route than the traditional fighting game which is why I think it a perfect fit for the series, so please don't get me wrong because the Phantom Breaker: Omnia is still an okay fighting game had some good stuff, but I feel that this game is just stepped in the right direction by going for the spin-off title with the Beat-em-ups gameplay just seems to work better in my opinion.
You have a wide cast of characters to play, has the option to upgrade your moves and skills to improve your fighting system, then you can't go wrong with the various of game modes to play for both locals and online co-op play, and you could able to enjoy game for its story presentation, action-packed stages, and of course the boss battles is the reason to like the game which felt like it's a love letter to cult-classic SEGA Saturn game like the Guardian Heroes has to offer.
I am glad that the Phantom Breaker: Battle Grounds Ultimate had made the improvements with visuals enhancements, arranged soundtrack, revamped battle system, and adding 6 to 8 players online with cross-play feature is something that you'll be fully appreciate the game most.
The physical copy for PS5 and Switch as day one edition is cost around £25 or more, where as the digital releases for PS Store, Xbox Store, Nintendo eShop, and Steam are cost about between £20 and £25.
Is the game worth for play? if you love the Beat-em-up as an genre then yes that is correct because Phantom Breaker: Battle Grounds Ultimate is a solid anime action-brawler that is worth checking it out may going to impress many Beat-em-ups fanatic will not going to miss out this amazing hidden gem title.
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