Why Game? 1 - TextFiles.com

part. I had a lot of help in getting through my
problems from family, friends, and even people
in local government who believed I could make
it through. It was because of them that I’m still
alive, in the sense of an upright human being as
opposed to a downtrodden one. They gave me
hope for the future and the will to carry on. But
Phantom Brave was the turning point, the kick I
needed to help the depression pass.
Really, what I needed was to have a little
bit of fun. Phantom Brave was exactly that:
pure, concentrated fun - enough to stick my
head above the depths of depression and begin
to tackle the problem. How could a game have
this powerful an effect?
It’s apparently simple as pie if you’re Nip-
pon Ichi. Take one part knowledge of the basics
of gaming, flesh that out with a tablespoon of
tough, rigid strategy fiber, add a touch of cre-
ativeness, throw in a pinch of lightheartedness,
and mix well. The result is my favorite game of
all time. It does everything Disgaea does right
and adds an inventive flair to the mix with its
“Confine” system (ker-cha), adds more char-
acters and more ways to play, and does it with
the same exact understanding of the basics that
made Disgaea so great.
When you play Phantom Brave, you feel
like you’re in a whole world that was designed
just for you. There is even evidence that Nippon
Ichi wanted you to feel that way; Phantom Isle
can be designed with whatever characters and
items you have, making for a unique “home
base.” I myself established little cliques of char-
acters who got along well, but disagreed with all
the others; the secret characters were secluded
on their own part of the island, not deigning to
interact with the homegrown ones. And once in
battle, it felt like Nippon Ichi had thought of ev-
erything they could to make the battles difficult
but smooth: confining your characters to objects
onscreen produced effects that were obvious,
each character had a specific role on the team,
and many maps had their own little strategy to
them that would lead to victory. It really was a
self-contained world, albeit one much more fun
6 The Gamer’s Quarter Issue #3
and perfect than the real one. Moreover, the
story was heartwarming, to answer the “what
story?” question about Disgaea.
Phantom Brave, from beginning to end,
is a piece of art. Art as something that is
executed with precision and flair in order to
make someone feel or think a certain way. The
greatest works of art in human history are the
ones that change us, even for a moment, as we
gaze upon them. Phantom Brave does this with
ease. We get a feeling of pleasure from playing
it. It’s more than a necessary distraction from
modern life; it comes alive just as Disgaea does;
a tiny world where we can play until it becomes
necessary to head back into today’s society. Is
providing this kind of refuge so skillfully not an
art? I say it is. When I play it, it provides me
with strong emotions, and nothing anyone says
about the nature of video games as a medium
can belittle the feeling I get when playing.
As I was about to fall asleep, my last few
thoughts ran along one remaining line. Nippon
Ichi is more than a developer of games; they
are artisans of them. They aim not to sim-
ply create video games as diversions, but to
produce ones that give us such fundamental
feelings as joy and hope. They understand that