La Pucelle: Tactics

"La Pucelle Tactics is one of a kind"

About 1 month ago to be exact, I was out looking for a new game to play after I had just beaten Max Payne and Max Payne 2 (which both are great games so check them out too) so I was browsing my local Electronics Boutique's shelves and to tell you the truth there was absolutely nothing there that interested me one bit so I then noticed 'Tactics' on a cover of a game the cover looked a bit childish and to tell you the truth I was a little hesitant to even look at it but I did anyways. I then flipped the gamebox over and looked at the back and thats when I saw the following statement 'She's loud. She's self-centered. And she just passed her exorcism exams' I thought that statement was gold and I had to play this game!

So now I'm home I throw La Pucelle Tactics into my PS2 to be blown away by one of the greatest Strategy RPG's of all times even close to nudging out Shining Force 2. This is one of the games that will prove that Final Fantasy X graphics are not needed to make a great games.

The story revolves around Prier a smart ass teenager who is part of a group known as La Pucelle, La Pucelle is a group who is out to help innocent people and destroy all evil. Along the way your allies will include Alouette, who I assume is you're teacher but she has an unknown past which she can't remember and then there is Croix a gun-for-hire who also can't remember his past. Then there is Cullote who is Prier's younger brother and has fallen in love with Alouette and has sworn to protect her no matter what! Then you have the young princess Eclair who is destined to become queen but does not want to she insteads just wants to be with 'Big Sister' (Prier) helping conquer evil. Now these fellows Homard, Papillion and Yatana are all part of the Escargot crew who are air pirates and travel the world looking for adventures and monsters to slay! The last and final ally is Father Salde, who is quite the dirty old man suggesting that Prier and Alouette should dress in clothes that show cleavage and legs, yes thats right the director of the church of the Holy Maiden is a dirty old man even still he is like a father to Prier, Alouette and Culotte who think the world of him.

Gameplay wise La Pucelle Tactics is one of a kind. You would assume that it's your typical SRPG you take your turn and then the enemy will take their turn and yes you are right but it has some added features. One of the best IMO is the support attack technique. Say you have one character attacking an enemy and have a character adjacent to the square of the character who is attacking then the both guys will attack, this can be used to get all 8 party members attacking one enemy if done right so in the case of a boss monster this feature is quite nice to have. Now when attacking enemies it doesn't happen on the gridded battle map instead it will change to a battle scene where a sideview of the enemies and characters take place and then the battle animations will happen and so on, some of you who are familiar with the Shining Force series on the Sega Genesis will recognize it as it is quite similar.
Then another great feature added to this game is the use of dark portals. Allies and monster allies with a happiness of 10 can all use a command called purify which will destroy the dark portals and if you can connect dark portals to each other you could probably create a mass mircale attack which would more then likely kill all the enemies inside of the box made with the dark portals. This also the only way to level up your weapons to make them stronger and to sell more.
Along with ability to purify dark portals and to destroy them you have the ability to purify a monsters heart to get him to turn on your side and join you. This is actually quite nice and makes the game pretty long for those of us who like to get every little thing in the game with over a 100 enemies this could tak quite some time. You can also send your monster into the dark world to help keep the peace and if you do send a monster down sometimes he will send you items he has found and if he is wearing items when you send him down then the items will combine to make ubber strong items. It is a very unique feature and can 2 strong weapons into one really strong weapon but be warned the effects are not always great especially if the monster being sent down is fairly weak.

Wow pretty good game so far eh? I think so anyways lets continue...

The graphics of La Pucelle are very well done. You have large very detailed sprites of monsters and characters and the battle scenes have beautiful backdrops which make things alot more fun. Plus the attack animations and magic animations are awesome. Alot of the spells look very nice and it doesn't take long at all for the spell or attack to be used which is plus because it speeds the game up. Emtoions are also shown when characters talk, not one the sprites but instead on the avatars of the character that is talking, I enjoyed this aspect so I could tell when a character was being sarcastic or serious.

The music in La Pucelle is the one and only downfall of the game, the battle tunes can get quite repetitive but thanks to settings I was able to turn the music off. On the other hand the voice acting and the sound effects are beautifully done. I've yet to see a game with better voice acting then La Pucelle, although quite common it is still almost perfect, they even have a female playing the voice of Cullote who is a male you would never say it though unless you read it in a review...

Overall La Pucelle is a must have and although fairly unknown this game could easily be game of the year for 2004! I will rate it a 10 out of a possible 10 for entertaining me for nearly 60 hours. Great game!

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 05/30/04