Lady Phantom

A turn-based strategy game in the tradition of other console titles like Famicom Wars or Fire Emblem, Lady Phantom embraces the world of mech combat for its setting. Although never released in the west, the basic gameplay of Lady Phantom is quite similar to the tabletop war games ‘BattleTech’ and ‘Mekton’ -including the use of hexagons for the gameboard rather than a traditional square grid.

The game follows the exploits of a five woman mercenary team known as ‘Lady Phantom’. As with other games developed by Telenet, each act (of which there are 10) is preceded by a fully voiced anime cutscene. Each character pilots a specific mech, and these are the only five units that the player has control over in each mission. However, before embarking on a mission, the player can select from a list of weapons for each mech to take into battle. Units destroyed in battle will return to full strength in the next, but miss out on the experience bonus at the end of a successful fight.

Missions are typical of the genre; consisting of taking out all enemies on the screen, destroying a specific target, and escorting vehicles to a safe point. Enemies range from other mech units, to more conventional tanks and turrets, as well as spacecraft during space-based encounters.