La Pucelle: Tactics

"A terrific game in the spirit if Disgaea."

La Pucelle was actually released before last years astounding Disgaea: Hour of Darkness. So the first thing one must expect is that it will not have quite as many features as the aforementioned game. But this is by no means a bad thing. Now for those who played Disgaea, you'll likely remember it was based on an evil prince who was trying to become ruler of hell. Well, this time it's the oposite. You are a young girl named Prier who is destined (hopefully) to become the Maiden of Light. Now contrary to popular myth, La Pucelle is NOT a sequel, prequel or related to Disgaea at all, in terms of storyline. They do NOT take place in the same world. Though it would have been neat if they had. La Pucelle, while older, has enough of what made Disgaea great to make it stand out on its own, as well as some unique features.

Gameplay - 9

This is standard Tactical-RPG fare here people. So expect long, drawn out battles. As with any game in the genre, it's best to take La Pucelle in doses. The game is by no means bad though. While many argue that Disgaea was even better than Final Fantasy Tactics (I'm one of them) This game is not quite up to par with Square's legendary game. But it is still fantastic. One key feature of Disgaea was ther "geopanel" system. Well, it's here too, but in a vastly different form. Now, instead of having large areas covered in a certain color, and only one "node" to control (or destroy) each, there can be multiple geo panels of the same color in a given area. But instead of being large areas, the Dark Energy (that's what geopanels are called in La Pucelle) can only flow in one direction. However, it can be manipulated by those standing in it's path. Example: If you are in the path of a red stream, and face in a direction that will cause the red to overlap a blus stream, the stream will change to a new color. Every color has certain attributes that never change unlike Disgaea. Blue is healing, red is fire, yellow is lightning and so on. It's a great system and one that adds alot of tactic to each scenario. Another key feature is the ability to take control of enemies. Early on, this is pretty much useless, but later, you'll even get to make BOSSES join your group. There's plenty more to see, and it's all good, but I'll let you find it out yourself.

Graphics - 8

La Pucelle doesn't look any worse than Disgaea, and in a lot of respects i like it better. The colors are more vibrant and the animations stil look good. Also, unlike Disgaea and FFT, La Pucelle takes you to a "battle screen" instead of just seing fights on the map. It adds a new dimension that i really like. The system will be familiar to fans of Langrisser(Warsong) and Dragon Force. But with less troops involved in each fight.

Sound - 9

Like in Disgaea, there is voice acting at key places. And it's done fairly well. The music is pretty average, including some tracks FROM disgaea. The characters have a variety of things to say at the start of battles, and the other ambient sounds are decent as well.

Overall - 9

Disgaea is good. It doesn't involve nearly as much mindless leveling up as Disgaea, but still maintains alot of variety. If you're a fan of the genre, it's a must have. Abd for those new to the genre, it's a great entry title. So go buy it.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 05/20/04