Video Game / Phantom Breaker

"How far would you go to grant one wish?"

Phantom Breaker is a 2D fighting game produced by MAGES. (formally 5pb.) and co-developed by Delta Factory and Release Universal Network, released for Xbox 360 and subsequently PlayStation 3. It is a Creator-Driven Successor to the Asuka 120% series originally developed by Fill-in-Café. The game was designed by Masatoshi Imaizumi and Masaki Ukyo, whom previously also worked on fighting and beat 'em up games such Mad Stalker: Full Metal Force and Panzer Bandit as well as Asuka 120%, while the game's character art was illustrated by Hiro Suzuhira of Yosuga no Sora and SHUFFLE! fame, and its music was composed by Takeshi Abo, the composer behind music of Memories Off and the first four Infinity visual novels.

The story is set in modern day Japan, where a mysterious man named Phantom has arranged a fighting tournament in Tokyo, and granting a wish to the winner. In order for the winner's wish to come true, each contestant of the tournament, referred to as "Duelists", must battle each other to the death while wielding weapons known as "F.A.s" (Fu-mension Artifacts), weapons said to grant their users mystical powers and even distort reality. Amidst their battles, clashing steel with one another as they shake the very fabric of space and time, the Duelists of Phantom's tournament began to wonder: what is it that they desire so much that they would put their very lives on the line, what is Phantom's motive behind arranging a life-or-death tournament in the middle of Tokyo, and who will be the last one standing to see their wish come true?

Gameplay-wise, Phantom Breaker is a weapons-based fighting game that borrows gameplay elements from its spiritual predecessor while utilizing defensive and evasive maneuvers. Each character in the game has two different fighting styles (or three in the updated versions): a Quick style that focuses on mobility and quick attacks for combos, and a Hard style focusing on defense and countering attacks. The game uses three buttons for standard Light, Medium, and Heavy attacks, each with simple directional variations, and a fourth Special Attack button dedicated to performing special moves or actions. By pressing a combination of two of these attack buttons, players can perform a "light" version of their special attacks, spend 100% of their Burst Gauge to perform an EX Special Attack, enter an Overdrive state that grants the user temporary Bullet Time (Quick) or Super Armor (Hard) while recovering a portion of lost health, or perform a devastating Phantom Break (Quick/Hard) or All Range Attack (Omnia) against their opponent. Not only can attacks be strung together through canceling one into another to form combos, other actions such as blocking an opponent's attack can also be canceled through special maneuvers as well. As players battle and clash their attacks against each other, a Tension Gauge underneath the timer also builds that, once filled, temporarily grants both combatants an attack power boost while filling half of their maximum Burst Gauge capacity. Compared to other fighting games of the genre, the Phantom Breaker takes an "easy to learn, hard to master" approach to its gameplay that offers a low skill floor for causal players to easily pick up the basics of the game while doing away with complex motion inputs to perform special attacks and autocombos for their basic attacks, while presenting a high skill ceiling for veterans with combo potential of varying degrees based on their chosen Style and a risk-and-reward system that encourages players exploit openings in their opponent's attacks to turn the tables on them.

The original game was first released exclusively in Japan on June 2, 2011 for the Xbox 360. It was picked up for an English localization by 7sixty, a subsidiary of SouthPeak Interactive, for an early 2012 release, but after constant delays, publishing issues, and lawsuits being filed against their parent company that led to the its closure, the game's localization was quietly canceled and never saw a release anywhere else.^note Except the only times the English version of Phantom Breaker was seen and/or playable in some way was at Anime Matsuri 2011 in Houston, Texas, a preview of the game from ScrewAttack, various trailers of the English version over at 7sixty's YouTube channel, and review copies given out to reviewers. The game is already in a completed and localized in physical form, but was never released due to 7sixty constantly delaying the game's release up until its ultimate cancelation after Southpeak Interactive going under in 2013, which didn't see light of day for the general public save for the lucky few that actually have the game (as two sets of achievement lists for both the Japanese and English versions of the game exists). However, the only official Phantom Breaker merchandise to ever make it stateside was the English artbook of the game translated by Udon. The game was later ported to arcades in Japan on the Sega RingEdge 2 arcade board as Phantom Breaker: Another Code on April 4, 2013, with a later v1.1 revision released on June 2013 that added Infinity to its playable roster with balance changes and a new opening sequence.

An Updated Re-release titled Phantom Breaker: Extra has later released on September 2013 in Japan for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, featuring a new "Extra" style, rebalanced gameplay, new playable characters, extra stages, updated graphics, a Situation Battle mode in place of the Story Mode, and online multiplayer spectating support. Unlike the original Phantom Breaker, this version is also region-free on Xbox 360. Another updated port of Phantom Breaker based on its Extra version, titled Phantom Breaker: Omnia, was co-developed by MAGES. and GameLoop (the latter also went on to co-develop Melty Blood: Type Lumina) and published by Rocket Panda Games was released on March 15, 2022 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC via Steam. This re-release of the game, on top of being released worldwide for the first time in 11 years since the original game, includes dual-audio support for Japanese and English voice-acting, features addition of a new "Omnia" style in place of the "Extra" style, two new playable characters (Maestra and Artifactor), further gameplaying rebalancing, a remixed soundtrack along with the option for the original soundtrack, as well as the Story and Situation Battle Modes respectively from both the original Phantom Breaker and its Extra re-release. The official trailer can be seen here, and a gameplay trailer here. A "First Contact" manga was also published by Rocket Panda Games and can be found here. The game's remixed and original soundtrack can also be heard on Rocket Panda Game's YouTube channel.

A Retro-styled Super-Deformed spin-off developed by Division2, titled Phantom Breaker: Battle Grounds, was released on February 27, 2013 on Xbox Live to tie potential fans over after the original plans of localizing Phantom Breaker was canceled at the time. It is a Beat 'em Up that takes the gameplay of its parent game while taking some cues from the likes of Panzer Bandit and Guardian Heroes where players can fight hordes of enemies between interchangeable 2D planes with RPG Elements that allows players to level up their characters to increase their stats and unlock abilities such as double jumping, extending their autocombos, and unlock the new All Range Attack. The game stars Mikoto, Waka, Itsuki, and Yuzuha as the main characters while other characters such Cocoa and Infinity are reserved for the Arcade, Co-op, and Battlegrounds versus modes. There's also a DLC that adds Steins;Gate's Kurisu Makise as a playable character (except for Story Mode), a bump in the characters' level cap from Level 50 to 99, and extra Achievements for $5. A port of the game was released for the PlayStation Vita in 2014, with customizable controls and adds Nagi, Waka's kidnapped younger sister, to the playable roster. It was later ported to PC through Steam on January 23, 2015; it is also available on Humble Bundle. On November 17, 2016, a second DLC added Robotics;Notes's Frau Koujiro as a playable character, who also features a level cap bump similarly to Kurisu's DLC and adds new achievements. MAGES. later went on to develop a spiritual successor of Phantom Breaker: Battle Grounds in the form of Ogre Tale and was released on August 20, 2020 for PC through Steam; console versions were also announced, but they remain to be released.

An enhanced port of the game titled Phantom Breaker: Battle Grounds Overdrive was later released for PlayStation 4, featuring expanded RPG Elements, branching paths, and rebalanced gameplay. A port of Phantom Breaker: Battle Grounds Overdrive was later released for the Nintendo Switch on December 7, 2017, which stripped out the branching paths introduced in the PlayStation 4 version, but also comes bundled all of the previously released DLCs to make up for the initial lack of online multiplayer features prior to the launch of the Nintendo Switch Online service. Another updated re-release titled Phantom Breaker: Battle Grounds Ultimate was announced by Rocket Panda games and will be released in 2024 for all modern platforms and PC via Steam and Epic Games Store. It is a remastered version of Battle Grounds, rebuilt from the ground up using Unreal Engine 5, and expanding multiplayer up to 8 players locally and online with cross-platform support. The entire playable cast from the Overdrive version also will make a return, along with possible new characters added to Battle Grounds Ultimate.

As of June 28, 2022, Rocket Panda Games has obtained ownership of the Phantom Breaker IP.

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The Tropes in Your Heart are Burning! Phantom Duel, Round 1! Fight!

Tropes Present in Phantom Breaker

• 2½D: The game uses 2D hand-drawn (original)/CGI (Extra and Omnia) anime sprites with 3D rendered background and effects.
• Adaptational Badass: Kurisu from Steins;Gate is the only normal human, but she can fight and keep up with superpowered opponents with her multiple kicks, and using several lab gadgets that she takes out of nowhere, such as a Ray Gun or a flamethrower; she's also one of the only two characters who has two supers.
• Antagonist Title: Phantom, the main villain of the game, has his name on the title.
• Attack Speed Buff: The Quick style, in addition to slowing the opponent down on the receiving end of the user's Overdrive, the user also gains faster attack speeds to allow them to wail on their opponent with fast combo chains.
• Badass Bookworm: Kurisu. Aside of relying on her multiple kicks to fight, she's also a Gadgeteer Genius who's able to use some weapons that she takes out of nowhere, based on the various future gadgets from her home game.
• Badass in a Nice Suit: Ria Tojo, who's well-dressed for someone trying to avenge her mother's death.
• Badass Longcoat: Infinity has one on.
• BFS: Mikoto's zweihänder, Maestro.
• Big Bad: Phantom, the primary antagonist of the game.
• "Blind Idiot" Translation: The U.S. version of the series artbook makes a blatant mistake in Mikoto's profile and claims she is the one rendered deaf by an accident rather than her adoptive uncle who lost his hearing from illness.
• Blood Knight: M's sole reason for participating in Phantom's tournament is simply for the lust of battle.
• Bullet Time: The Quick style's Overdrive involves slowing time and making you move at hyperspeed, allowing you to lay the law down on your opponent.
• Carry a Big Stick: M's aptly-named Humongous, a mace made from scrap metal.
• The Chosen Many: Waka refers to Duelists explicitly as Chosen Ones, given that it was Phantom who chooses many people to give them powers, give them F.A., and make them fight each other on the false promise that the victor will see their wish granted.
• The Chosen One: Aside from the Duelists being referred as Chosen Ones, there's also constant mentions of a "Phantom Breaker", someone who is more chosen among the Chosen Ones, and who will defeat Phantom once and for all.
• Cleavage Window: Ria's showing some cleavage with the opening of her suit.
• Continuing is Painful: If the player continues upon getting a Game Over in the Arcade or Score Attack modes, their score will be wiped to zero.
• Colony Drop: Kurisu's Phantom Break, "Choice of the Steins Gate", involves dropping a time machine from space on her enemies.
• Combos: Basic attacks can be stringed up into combos which can be followed with specials and supers. Battle Grounds simplifies the concept by allowing any character to perform automatic combos by pushing lots of buttons, and finishing with any Special Attack.
• Competitive Balance: While the game's characters have their own strengths and weaknesses, the game also has two styles plus a third one added in Extra and Omnia that also affects their abilities in battle.
  • Quick Style is the Fragile Speedster: it sacrifices sheer strength and durability for speed, gives the characters the ability to perform autocombos by pressing one button three times, and allows characters to Evade attacks by pressing forward the moment the attack is about to connect. Overdrives greatly increase the speed of the character while reducing that of the opponent's, allowing for long and painful combos.
  • Hard Style is the Mighty Glacier: the characters become slower, can't perform combos via one button save for the H version, but the character focuses on defense and damage output, and can parry attacks instead of evading. Overdrives gives Super Armor to the character for a few seconds.
  • Extra Style is the Master of None: it is a combination of both Quick and Hard styles, which allows players to cycle between the two styles by pressing L+M buttons. The Burst Gauge also can reach 4 levels instead of 2. Drawbacks, however, includes reduced stats to characters compared to the Quick and Hard styles, and no longer having access to their Phantom Break.
  • Omnia Style is the Jack of All Stats: replacing the Extra style, Omnia is an intermediate between Quick and Hard styles. The characters are fairly balanced in attack and speed, they retain their autocombos and the ability to evade, but they can't perform Phantom Breaks or Overdrives. Instead of that, the Burst Gauge reaches 4 levels instead of 2, after which the character can perform a devastating All Range Attack, first seen in the Battle Grounds spin-off.
• Competitive Multiplayer: Both the main game and Battle Grounds feature a versus mode where player can fight each other.
• Cool Sword: Tokiya fights with a longsword named Setsuna. Shizuka fights with a saber named Ouka.
• Cosplay Otaku Girl: Cocoa is an obsessive fan of her favorite video game, T-DA, and her costume was made similar to that game.
• Curtains Match the Window: Mikoto, Yuzuha, Itsuki, Waka, Ren, Fin, and Rimi.
• Cute Bruiser: Many of the girls of Phantom Breaker can kick as much ass as cute as they look.
• Counter-Attack: Counter Bursts, and their stronger, unblockable alternative, Critical Bursts.
• The Dragon: Infinity, Phantom's bodyguard.
• Death Cry Echo: Whenever a player is defeated, their character lets out an echoing scream as they bite the dust.
• Dual Wielding: Yuzuha with Shoukaku and Zuikaku, a ninja blade and a kunai respectively. Ria as well with her twin blades named Aldina. Rimi with her DI-sword that can be detached in two parts.
• Elegant Gothic Lolita: Mikoto and Cocoa's transformation costumes have them wearing gothic lolita dresses.
• EX Special Attack: Each character has a more powerful variant of their special moves, pressing H+SP+any direction. They consume 1 bar of the Burst Gauge.
• Eyepatch of Power: M and her parallel counterpart L has one on her.
• Fanservice: The game has a couple of pin-up promotional artworks of the many of the girls of the game wearing lingerie, nightwear, or swimsuits. The pin-up artworks can be found in the game's official artbooks and unlockable within the game's gallery.
• Guest Fighter: Rimi Sakihata and Kurisu Makise both make an appearance in Phantom Breaker as playable characters.
• Girlish Pigtails: Mei and Fin, although Fin's twin-tails are incredibly long compared to Mei.
• Girly Run: Kurisu has this for her running animation, with her hands and arms swinging in open position.
• Hiding Behind Your Bangs: Infinity's hair obscures one of his eyes.
• Highly-Visible Ninja: Yuzuha, a ninja schoolgirl that fights her foes out in the open.

• Hit Stop: Happens whenever the players' weapons clashes with each other or a player pulls a successful Reflection, resulting in a flashy, dramatic zoom-in effect while their Burst Gauge and the Tension Gauge rises.
• Identity Amnesia: M has no memories about herself, but doesn't seem to care about it.
• Immune to Flinching: Hard style's Overdrive gives you temporary Super Armor, among other benefits.
• Improbably Female Cast: With Ren, Tokiya, Infinity, Gaito and Ende being the stand-outs among a cast of twenty-two playable characters.
• In the Hood: Phantom, who wears a hooded cloak.
• In-Universe Game Clock: In between rounds in a match, each stage in the game changes between Day, Dusk, and Night settings, with some stages even sporting new scenery between the different times of day.
• "Just Frame" Bonus: Part of the crux in Phantom Breaker is built around perfectly-timed maneuvers designed to punish aggressive attacks from the opponent (Protection from the Hard style, Reflections, and Counter Bursts/Critical Burst), escape from danger, or slip through the opponent for an opening (Slip Shift from the Quick/Omnia style).
• Kick Chick: Kurisu fights mostly with kicks.
• Large Ham: The "Extra Spicy" announcer in Omnia tries to invoke this.
  Spicy Announcer: "Get hyped!" / "It's Phantom Breakin' time!" / "Are you okay?!" / "A Winner Is You!"
• Limit Break: Phantom Breaks can be executed in either Quick or Hard Styles, with 2 bars of the Burst Gauge. Omnia Style has the powerful All Range Attack from Battle Grounds, which requires 4 bars.
• Life Meter: As with traditional fighting games.
• Living MacGuffin: In Extra, there are constant mentions of a Singularity, a being that exists only in one world, despite the existence of multiple parallel worlds, and it's a key piece in Phantom's plans, since it has the power to create space-time distortions. Said Singularity is implied to be Ria's sister Yomi, who was kidnapped and used as a template to create the clones M and L. Shizuka is after her to prevent the world from suffering the same fate her world did.
• Magical Girl: Mei, and she also fights with a Magic Wand named Candy.
• The Maker: Omnia introduces the Reverants, a race of cosmic beings who are the original creators of the universe, and the ones who created the F.A.s. Artifactor is the only one known in existence.
• Miko: Waka comes from a family of exorcists who have dealt with Phantom before.
• Mind over Matter: Infinity uses telekinesis as part of his fighting style.
• Mineral MacGuffin: The Resurrection Jewel, a precious object that is said to be able to bring back the dead. In Extra, Ren and Mei are after this artifact after Ren's sister died from her illness. It is also responsible for the destruction of Shizuka's world, and in the world of the game, Rin got her hands on it to resurrect Gaito as an undead anti-soul, as part of a deal she made with Phantom.
• Multi-Platform: The original Phantom Breaker was an Xbox 360-exclusive title, and a Japanese-only and region-locked one at that. The Updated Re-release, on the other hand, is available for both Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 as well as being import-friendly for the former. Phantom Breaker: Omnia also followed suit, being released on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch, and PC through Steam, and was released worldwide to boot.
• Multiple Endings: The game's Story Mode features multiple endings depending on which choice the player makes at certain points during a character's storyline and/or used a continue after losing a match.
• Naginatas Are Feminine: Waka's naginata, Kahoutou.
• Named Weapons: Anyone (save for Infinity) with a weapon has one.
• Ninja Maid: Itsuki, a maid who fights with a battle hammer.
• One-Letter Name: M and L.
• Palette Swap: Like many fighting games, you can get alternate colors for all fighters. Shiro-Mikoto and L are particular cases, as they are alternate versions of Mikoto and M from other universes, Shiro-Mikoto is white while L is pink.
• Power Fist: Ren's weapon, Koutarou.
• Ray Gun: Fin comes from the future and she's packing with her all-purpose laser guns, JJ Apple. Kurisu can also use one as one of her specials.
• Regenerating Health: When a player takes damage, a red portion of their health (referred as the "Vita Chamber") is leftover in their life bar, which can be replenished slowly over time but it also can be sped up by going into Overdrive. If the player gets guard crushed from blocking too many attacks or triggers an Emergency Mode, however, the red portion of their lost health will be wiped.
• Riches to Rags: Itsuki and her family.
• Scarf of Asskicking: Yuzuha wears one in battle.
• Scoring Points: In the game's Arcade and Score Attack modes, players earn points as they pummel their opponents. After the end of a match, players are then awarded points based on time, remaining health plus a bonus for a Perfect victory, clashes, and if the player used a special attack, EX special, or a Phantom Break/All Range Attack as a finishing move on their opponent.
• Sleeves Are for Wimps: Ren, whose outfit lacks them.
• Sprite/Polygon Mix: The main game has 2D hand-drawn/CGI sprites with 3D scenery.
• Stripperiffic: Mei, who's clad in a magical girl-esque costume that shows off some midriff and thighs.
• Super Move Portrait Attack: Executing your character's Phantom Break does this.
• Super Title 64 Advance: The arcade version of the game was titled Phantom Breaker: Another Code.
• Sword Plant: It's one of Mikoto's Victory Poses.
• Teen Idol: Mei Orisaka became one with her Magical Girl acting career.
• Title Scream: The game's announcer speaks the title of the game upon seeing the title screen.
• Token Mini-Moe: Fin's easily the youngest and the cutest of the bunch.
• Too Many Belts: Infinity has several on his coat and his clothes.
• Totally Radical: Phantom Breaker: Omnia received a "Spicy Edition" update that adds two new gag announcer voice types (Spicy and Extra Spicy) who goes out of his way to tell players how radical the game is during gameplay along while spouting outdated slang and famous internet memes and catchphrases from other popular video games.
• Unlockable Content: The original Phantom Breaker features the ability to unlock secret characters by meeting certain conditions as well as additional bonus content in the game's gallery. Phantom Breaker: Omnia, however, gives players full access to the game's roster from the get-go but the other bonus features such as artworks can be unlocked through gameplay.
• Updated Re-release: Phantom Breaker: Extra rebalances the game's mechanics, adds a new "Extra" fighting style, new characters, more moves, updated sprites, renewed background effects, and an online spectator mode. Phantom Breaker: Omnia expands upon Extra with further gameplay rebalancing, all characters readily available with two new ones added, a remixed soundtrack with the option to play with the original music, dual-audio support with English and Japanese voice-overs, and both stories from the original Phantom Breaker and Extra.
• Versus Character Splash: Before a match starts in the main game.
• Victory Quote: Every character has one when they win a match.
• Victory Pose: After finishing an opponent, the winner will perform a victory pose such as Mikoto sticking her sword in the ground to Yuzuha looking back and taking off her scarf.
• White Hair, Black Heart: Infinity sports white hair, and is one of the bad guys.
• You Killed My Father: Ria's motive for joining the tournament is to get revenge on her mother's murderer.

Tropes Present in Phantom Breaker: Battle Grounds

• 2½D: The game features similar 2.5D graphics similarly to Phantom Breaker but instead of 3D rendered backgrounds and hand-drawn/CGI sprites, Battle Grounds uses pixel art-styled graphics for both sprites and the textures of the 3D environments.
• Absurdly High Level Cap: Under normal circumstances, the level cap is 50, however, it can be raised to 99 by purchasing either Kurisu's or Frau's DLC. However, your characters will be around level 60, or 70 when you beat the game in Nightmare difficulty.
• Absurdly Spacious Sewer: Ikebukuro has one. You don't stick around there too long, but just enough to get a taste of the Goddamned Bats featured in that area.
• Adaptational Badass: Kurisu Makise and Frau Koujiro, who were added via DLC:
  • Kurisu is the only normal human ^note Or at least she was before the Frau DLC, but she can fight an even match against superpowered adversaries using lab gadgets, and a fighting style based on kicks. She's among the only 2 characters who have 2 supers.
  • In Robotics;Notes, Frau was a brilliant programmer, although she was also a socially inept Hikkikomori. Here she's more than capable of taking down her bizarre opponents using her remote-controlled robots, or with help of other characters from the visual novel.
• All There in the Manual: Also mixes with a minor case of Guide Dang It!. One of the achievements, "Don't Be Picky", requires you to restore a character's HP by consuming a food they don't like. Thing is, how are you supposed to know who doesn't like what food? Chances are that you'll still get this achievement over the course of normal play either way, but it's not immediately obvious from the get-go.
• Alternate Universe: Most of the game takes place in one, complete with alternative palette swapped versions of some of the cast who hail from the original universe.
• Ambidextrous Sprite: The characters' are mirrored, as seen when M's eyepatch swaps sides with facing another direction.
• Animal-Eared Headband: The Kemonomimi Costume DLC, which adds animal ears for the main characters: cat ears for Mikoto, wolf ears for Waka, bunny ears for Itsuki, and tanuki ears for Yuzuha.
• Assist Character: Both Kurisu and Frau are regularly assisted by other characters from their respective novels.
• Badass Bookworm: Aside from Kurisu, who returns as a playable character via DLC, Frau counts as well, as she relies on remote-controlled small robots and other gadgets to fight, and her Phantom Break has her summoning a huge mecha that wipes out everything on her lane.
• Big Damn Heroes: After collapsing ruins block their only exit in the final stage, the Player Character and Nagi are saved in an instant by L, a benevolent pink Palette Swap of M, who opens a portal back to their home world.
• Bland-Name Product:
  • You'll find an ad for a 4DS in the Akihabara stage. There's also various things around Ikebukuro such as Jenny's and King of Burger.
  • Averted at one point early in the Akihabara stage where there's a Club Sega building in the background.
• Bonus Level: If you defeat Cocoa in Stage 3 before the train in the background leaves, you will enter a bonus stage where you have 1:30 spread out over three sections of 30 seconds each to beat up a bunch of eggs that contain loads of loot.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: The Kagebito enemies have been brainwashed by Phantom.
  • At the end of Stage 6, Nagi becomes controlled to serve as the main boss.
• Bullet Time: Manual Overdrives give you this alongside temporary hyperspeed, allowing you to rack up huge combos and decimate swaths of enemies.
• The Cameo:
  • Okabe and Mayuri show up with Kurisu in a couple of her animations.
  • Junna Daitoku also appears in some of Frau's animations, and Kaito Yashio appears during her Phantom Break to assist her.
• Co-Op Multiplayer: Up to four players can team up in the game's Co-Op Mode.
• Damsel in Distress: Nagi, Waka's younger sister, gets taken captive by Phantom to kickstart the plot.
• Death from Above: M's Phantom Break, Descartes Wanderer, rains down bombs on her enemies. Kurisu's Phantom Break, Choice of the Steins Gate, also drops an object from space onto her opponent.
• Difficulty Levels: You can play on Easy, Normal, and Hard difficulty, which are then followed up by Nightmare and Nightmare+.
• Dual Boss:
  • Cocoa and Onyx, a raid boss from T-DA, at the end of Ikebukuro. Onyx is the one you really want to worry about, since, befitting of a raid boss, it comes with an arsenal of attacks that it can abuse for massive damage.
  • The game then decides to crank it up a notch with 2 1/2 bosses at the end of the following stage, Shinjuku, in a fight against M, Cocoa, and a Phantom illusion's gigantic fists. Simultaneously.
• Early Game Hell: Bosses are a pain in the ass without Forced Level-Grinding; not only can they all soak a lot of damage, they're also ridiculously cheap and are fans of abusing the same tactics repeatedly to make your death quick. For example, Shiro-Mikoto, the first true boss, will only ever do three things: Gestrichen into a spike followed by another Gestrichen, Schneidend spam, or, if given the chance, corner poking the hell out of you.
• Elite Mook: Battle Grounds loves this type of enemy, and more variants are added every single stage. They first start out with perfectly normal, oversized brutes whose kick attack hurts significantly. Then you get to the bomb-tossing brutes, pie-throwing brutes, muscular guys in Speedos spouting Gratuitous English and trying to leap on top of you, then various kinds of aliens equipped with claws, large limbs, and laser eye cannons.
• Essence Drop: Enemies drops coins and gems when defeated.
• Flunky Boss: The first Cocoa fight looks like it's going to be a straightforward fight as was Shiro-Mikoto. Then a commuter train arrives in the background. Now it's a fight against Cocoa and at least twenty other Mooks.
• Foreshadowing: When you arrive at the Gym in Stage 1, a Red Mikoto is confronting a Shiro-Mikoto, who then takes off after you arrive. This is the Mikoto of the Demonsphere, who is supposedly allied with Phantom.
• Giant Space Flea from Nowhere: In the seventh and final stage, Infinity appears as the final boss with no explanation whatsoever other than to stop you from leaving through the exit.
• Girlish Pigtails: Both Nagi and Frau sport them.
• Girly Run:
  • Frau's running animation has her running with her arms down and not bringing them up.
  • Subverted with Kurisu, who had this in the fighting game, however, in Battle Grounds, her new running animation reflects more confidence in her skills.
• Guest Fighter: DLC packages allow you to play as Kurisu from Steins;Gate, and later, as Frau from Robotics;Notes.
• Grievous Harm with a Body: In true beat 'em up fashion, you can throw enemies into each other.
• Half the Man He Used to Be: One of Nagi's special moves has her upper half separating from her legs, and suddenly reappearing behind baddies to slash them. Both halves of Nagi reunite after completing the move.
• Harder Than Hard: Nightmare difficulty is designed with Level 50 characters in mind. Nightmare+ is even worse and only exists for score attacking.
• Heel–Face Turn: Cocoa sides with the Player Character after M attempts to blow the three of you up.
• Humongous Mecha: Frau's Phantom Break: She summons a huge mecha that is piloted by Kaito, the protagonist of Robotics;Notes, and hitting opponents in Frau's lane multiple times.
• Hyperactive Metabolism: Picking up food replenishes HP just like in other brawlers before it.
• Immune to Flinching: Gem-induced Overdrives act like the original game's Hard Style Overdrive, granting Super Armor and increasing movement and attack speed.
• Improbably Female Cast: Out of Battle Grounds's nine^note ten with the Kurisu Makise DLC, and eleven with the Frau Kojiro DLC playable characters, the only male is Infinity.
• Improvised Weapon User: Kurisu. She can use a vacuum cleaner converted into a flamethrower as her Down SP Attack.
• Katanas Are Just Better: Nagi's weapon: She wields a katana which is infused with dark energy. Oddly enough, playable Nagi still has dark energy coming from it.
• Lawyer-Friendly Cameo: A UFO Catcher appears in the Ikebukuro stage, without the Sega branding.
• Lighter and Softer: This spin-off Beat-em-up is this compared to the original Fighing Game, due to a more lighthearted story, its cutesy Super-Deformed characters, a brighter palette of colors and in general for a Retraux style on both graphics and music
• Load-Bearing Boss: Possessed Nagi. Why the ceiling starts collapsing after you beat her isn't really explained.
• Magic Skirt: At the finale of Shinjuku, the roof you're standing on crumbles when M attempts to blow up the player, Cocoa, and herself with a payload of bombs. In the ensuing falling sequence, no one's skirt seems to flip up even though it would logically make sense that it would do so. Played with in regards to Itsuki, who actually holds her skirt down as she's falling.
• Mecha-Mooks: Battle Grounds will have you beating a lot cyborgs. There's also some actual robots thrown in the mix.
• Mechanically Unusual Fighter: Both Mikoto W (Shiro-Mikoto) and L are unlockable fighters. While their moves are identical to their counterparts, their standard attacks do not auto-chain into each other^note All other characters have auto-combos that chain as L->M->H attacks, instead being wholly isolated combos that need to be manually chained by mixing up L, M, and H inputs.
• Metal Slime: There is a certain enemy that appears to be a stout man carrying a sack. The only thing he ever does is run away from you. He has an unusually large amount of health, but if you manage to kill him, he will drop a large amount of rewards and possibly special, rainbow-colored gems that instantly invoke a special type of Overdrive that makes you Immune to Flinching.
• Mythology Gag:
  • Some of Kurisu's Palette Swaps reference her home game or other games. For example, one color makes her look identical to her cover artwork, with a lighter hair color and a white lab coat, and another turns her entirely green, a reference to a phenomenon in her home game where living creatures sent to the past turned into a gelatinous green mush. Another color makes her look like Vert from Neptunia, another game that 5pb. collaborates in.
  • One of Frau's normal moves has her summoning Junna, who is wearing a Karate gi, and striking baddies in front of her. Very appropriate because Junna practices Karate in her home game.
• Multiplatform: The original Phantom Breaker: Battle Grounds was initially released on Xbox 360 in 2013 and was later re-released on different platforms with new content over the years, starting with a PlayStation Vita version in 2014, a PC version (through Steam) in 2015, an expanded version as Phantom Breaker: Battle Grounds Overdrive for the PlayStation 4 the same year, and finally a Switch version of Overdrive in 2017. Its latest iteration, Phantom Breaker: Battle Grounds Ultimate, is a multi-platform release for PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox One and Series X|S, Switch, and PC (through Steam and Epic Games Store).
• One-Letter Name: Once again, M. There's also L, a heroic Palette Swap of M from an Alternate Universe.
• Palette Swap: Just like in the original game, you can choose from several colors for each character. In the story, this serves to differentiate the Alternate Universe versions of characters from the ones you're playing.
  • Head Swap: You'll find similar-looking goons with different heads.
• Playing with Fire: M uses some fire-based attacks in Battle Grounds.
• Power Floats:
  • Infinity's feet never touch the ground.
  • Nagi counts as well, she walks normally, however, instead of running, she glides across the floor.
• Powered Armor: Kurosawa, the mid-boss of stage 5, wears a huge one in battle, equipped with machine guns, mines, and even a flamethrower!
• Product Placement: In the Akihabara stage, you can see some adverts two of 5pb. games, one of them being a shoot 'em up titled Bullet Soul.
• Retraux: The art of the game was done in 2.5D pixel art graphics evoking the style of retro video games à la Guardian Heroes, complemented with 8-bit styled music and arrangements of Phantom Breaker's soundtrack.
• RPG Elements: You can level-up your characters from the experience points gained by beating up goons and upgrade their abilities.
• Shout-Out: One of the mooks is a short chubby enemy who's carrying a bag like a certain little thief.
• Sprite/Polygon Mix: Battle Grounds invokes this as it a 3D playing field but the retro-styled visuals can make this hard to notice at first glance.
• Super-Deformed: Everywhere in Phantom Breaker: Battle Grounds.
• Super Move Portrait Attack: Launching an EX Attack has a half-screen cut-in, while launching your Phantom Break does a full-screen cut-in.
• A Taste of Power: In Stage 0 of Story Mode, each character has full access to their skills and powers. M takes the character's power away after being defeated. She then throws the victor into the Nightmare World, fully expecting them to die without it.
• Technicolor Fire: Some of Nagi's attacks are accompanied with black flames.
• Title Drop: The resident Limit Break in Battle Grounds is called a Phantom Break.
• Updated Re-release: Phantom Breaker: Battle Grounds was re-released for PlayStation Vita in 2014 and PC in 2015 which added customizable controls and promotes Waka's younger sister Nagi to playable status. A later PlayStation 4 version was also released in 2015 as Phantom Breaker: Battle Grounds Overdrive with updated visuals and additional content. The PlayStation 4 version served as the basis for the Switch version in 2017, feature many of the new content from the Overdrive re-release which stripped out the new branching paths that was introduced in the former, initially lacked online multiplayer features, was missing the Arcade Mode, but made up for the omissions by bundling all of game's the previously released DLCs and further rebalances the gameplay; the missing Arcade Mode and online features were later patched back in through game updates.
• Wake-Up Call Boss: Shiro-Mikoto in Stage 1 will show you how powerless you are without your fancy Level Infinity.
• Wave-Motion Gun: Mikoto's Schaurig Phantom Break fires off a blast of aura power from her sword.
• Warm-Up Boss: M in Akihabara. You're Level Infinity, have totally maxed out stats, and access to every single ability. Beating her is a piece of cake. Then she sends you to the Nightmare World, and you lose your Level Infinity along with everything else you had in Stage 0.
• Weaponized Teleportation: Nagi prominently uses this; she can teleport behind an opponent as a sidestep, teleport the front of her katana at an opponent, or even teleport the upper half of her body as an attack!
• Zerg Rush: The primary strategy of the average mook is "swarm the player with about twenty or more enemies and pummel her to death". They sometimes throw in some Elite Mooks for good measure, and if you're not careful, this CAN kill you.

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