Jeanne d'Arc

"A great SRPG for a system that desperatly needed one."

Before yet another long plane ride, I decided to go pick up a new PSP game and found Jeanne D'Arc. Being a big Strategy-RPG fan, I had to get it, of course. Here's what I thought about it:

Story: 8/10

If you can't tell by the title, the story is based off of the exploits of Joan of Arc. While I was playing through the game, I also looked up "Joan of Arc" on the internet to learn more about here, and the story in the game is fairly accurate to what took place in the real world. Most people know that she led some French soldiers against the English, winning some major battles, the whole time claiming to have received divine intervention from God. She did all of this at a rather young age, and was burned at the stake later in life as a heretic. The story in the game picks up as she hears "the voice" for the first time and follows her exploits from there.

The story is obviously mixed with various fantasy elements, so don't expect a hardcore re-enactment here. The designers defiantly took their liberties to craft a rather standard "good vs. evil" plot while using history as their backbone. Nevertheless, it is a great story with a few surprising twists and turns that will catch you by surprise.

Gameplay: 7/10

As you know, this game is a Strategy-RPG where your team will take turns with the enemy moving around a grid-based map attacking each other. It's fairly simple to figure out how to fight effectively, and there are also a couple of tutorial battles in the beginning to teach you how to use Jeanne's skills. Throughout the game you will gain new allies, and as you progress, new locations will open up so you can buy new equipment from the shops. You will also gain the ability to make your own skill stones which you can equip to your party members to gain stats or abilities. You can equip more of these stones as your levels increase.

The gameplay is not quite as deep as other well known SRPG's such as Tactics Ogre or Final Fantasy Tactics. You can only use the units that you acquire throughout the game (no "generic" allies), and you can't really steal the enemies equipment (two things I was sort of expecting). It's still very fun to play, though it doesn't provide much of a challenge. This is probably due to the fact that none of your allies can truly die in battle. Also, over-leveling is very easy since you can re-visit each battle you've fought in the past while the enemies remain at the same level you first fought them at. Yes, you can go back to the first battle with your level 50 party and face off against some level 2 orcs. There are a few challenges to be found here though, but most of the harder fights are optional.

Graphics: 9/10

The graphics looked great! And not only the graphics but also all of the cut scenes as well. You can really tell that the developers took the effort to make a good looking game. The characters are proportioned well and all of the environments look great. You will also notice that there aren't as many of the "cut off" environments that most SRPG games have, where they cut off a portion of the landscape and leave the cut off portion black. In Jeanne D'Arc, they tend to try to slope the battlefield down to get rid of the black cut off's, though you will see them from time to time.

In short, the characters are well designed and the graphics look great. You won't be disappointed here.


Music/Sound effects/Voice Acting: 7/10

The music was decent, as I can't really remember any particular bad or good spot. I remember it matching the mood well in the cut scene's though, as some of those were pretty dramatic. The sound effects were on par as well, everything sounded like you would expect it to. The voice acting, on the other hand, is something you are bound to remember. Of course, being the story of Joan of Arc, most of the voice actors have a distinct French sound to them. I would even say it was almost forced into the voices. It's not horrible, just noticeable.

Re-playability/Extras: 7/10

After you beat the game you can go through it again keeping your weapons and skill stones. This is also the only way to "max out" your characters as certain skill stones only show up so many times in one play through. After you beat the game there are a couple of additional optional events and battles you can trigger.

Overall: 8/10

This game will keep you busy for quite awhile. It's defiantly a worthwhile buy for any fan of tactical RPG's, though if you've never played one before you may want to do a little more research on it before you get it. Have fun and keep playing!

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 10/18/07

Game Release: Jeanne d'Arc (US, 08/21/07)