Phantom Brigade

The player commands a squad of mechs with a secret prototype weapon that lets them see briefly into the future, showing them the time and direction which enemies move or attack, which dynamically changes with the player's commands to their own units. The game plays out in a semi-real-time manner with turns being separated into segments of five seconds each. The player can predict what happens during these turns and set up moves that then play out in real time.

This mechanic is not only important to keeping the player's troops alive, but also for planning lines of fire to prevent damaging civilian buildings, avoid accidentally hitting each other, and mitigating collisions between units which costs them actions for that turn as well as damaging them. Once a turn has been executed and played out, players can use a replay feature to potentially pick up on mistakes or overlooked details. Player objectives can range from destroying enemies and fortifications to intercepting supplies and destroying as many buildings as possible.

Phantom Brigade takes place in a region resembling Northern Europe known as the Northern Impact Circuit, amid conflict between the Fyrland Republic, a prosperous democracy rich in natural resources and focused on social welfare and scientific advancement, and its eastern neighbor, the Kaskad Dominion, a triad-led, expansionist oligarchy with a formidable military. Helium-3 isotopes have become the world's primary energy resource; Kaskad, while a leading isotope refiner, has minimal reserves, and its seizure of disputed territories has put it under economic pressure, driving widespread unemployment and poverty. In 1992 SE, with isotopes dwindling, Kaskad invades Fyrland to acquire its resources and technology, easily wiping out most of the Fyrland Defense Service in a coordinated attack. The scattered FDS remnants dissolve into the beleagured Fyrland Freedom Forces, or 3F.

The 3F has a single advantage over Kaskad: the FDS's prototype "Predictor" technology capable of simulated tactical precognition, allowing equipped military units to move, fight, position, evade, and plan with uncanny efficiency. In 1995, after three years of occupation, the 3F equips its best troops with Predictors and forms the titular Phantom Brigade to begin striking back at Kaskad's forces. Succeeding in seizing a mobile base, the Brigade's rapid success rallies the resistance and they drive the occupiers from the outlying Hedmark province.

The game was first announced at PAX West 2017.

The game's developers decided that the game would not be fully turn-based and play out in real time, in order to "capture that energy you get in a mech anime [...] but have that actually be the gameplay", according to the game's creative lead and designer, Adelaide Jenkins. She stated that while she found games like Front Mission 4 to be "hype" in their cutscenes, the gameplay was "very much traditional turn-based". The game features procedural damage for both the environment and mechs (based on direction).

Luke Plunkett of Kotaku compared the game to a hybrid of XCOM and MechWarrior Tactics, saying that it "looks amazing" and that he was "excited to see how this giant mechanical ballet looks after a few more months". Mike Williams of USgamer stated that he initially compared the game to Front Mission due to its turn-based gameplay, a comparison that the developers agreed with. Saying that "god dammit, I want more mech strategy games", he called Phantom Brigade the highlight of the PAX West 2019 show. Alex Connolly of Wargamer.com called the game "what we've all been pining for since Square Enix dropped the ball by a) not officially releasing Front Mission 5: Scars of the War in the West and b) allowing Front Mission Evolved to be, well, Front Mission Evolved".