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Finally a SRPG to make me glad I own a PSP!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 37 / 37
Date: September 25, 2007
Author: Amazon User

With so many great looking RPG titles coming to my favorite handheld (the PSP) these past few months I have certainly had my hands full trying to play and complete them all (Hope I don't get fired from my day job). Catching my attention this time is a "Level 5" PSP exclusive title by the name of "Jeanne D'Arc." This game is everything a Strategy RPG (SRPG) should be and more. Outstanding graphics, an intriguing story and an unbelievably easy pick up and play control scheme. So let get in to the particulars of this wonderful title...

Story: 8.0
The story, which is based very loosely on the story of Joan of Arc, because it is so loosely based on the real story, it is very entertaining. Jeanne D'Arcs' story blends history and fantasy beautifully, it starts with a Young King Henry getting possessed by some demonic power. His father who possesses one of the five armlets that were created to defeat these demons centuries ago, tries to save him but is too late as the demon consumes King Henry. Then enter Jeanne a girl who witnesses her village being attacked by demons, comes across one of these armlets and also believes she hears a call from God instructing her to kill the demons that rampage her village. This ancient armlet is said to be able to transform it's wearer into a great armored warrior. The story progresses mainly with three characters, Jeanne and her two friends Lianne and Roger. Many other characters throughout their journey are introduced and play apart in the main plot, but the majority of the time they are expendable at best. It is the three main characters and their interesting personalities; however that keep the story very interesting.

Graphics: 8.5
Jeanne D' Arcs' graphics are in a word, amazing. The 2D cel-shaded graphics used to bring the colorful and vibrant characters to life are absolutely gorgeous. The developers really impress by creating a product that can really show what the PSP is capable of. To start the adventure and throughout players are treated to some very beautiful anime cut-scenes, which are worthy of praise by any anime fanboy alive. This coupled with gorgeous backgrounds, magic spells, and Jeanne's' armlet transformations are enough to satisfy anyone craving some PSP eye candy. You honestly have to see this game in action to truly appreciate it; online screenshots do not do it any justice.

Sound: 7.5
Every thing as far as background music and battle sounds like arrows whipping and other attack sounds were great. If I was a little disappointed about anything though, it would have to be the voice acting or the lack there of. It would have been nice to here them shout out some of their battle cries as opposed to having to read them in a little bubble. This is a VERY minor complaint though; it just would have been nice to hear seeing as how the voice acting in the anime cut-scenes were so great. It is also a little unfortunate that the anime cut-scenes don't include subtitles, because you'll miss a lot of the story if you play with the sound off.

Gameplay: 10
This area is where Jeanne D'Arc shows that it belongs amongst the handheld Strategy RPG greats. I could not find any flaws in the gameplay, I repeat no flaws in the gameplay what so ever. This game competes with other Strategy RPGs, by using what has always worked. You'll have at your disposable by mid game a small army, but in most cases you will only be able to take 6 in to battle. In some cases you may have less to choose because some characters are default depending on the battle. This of course adds to the tactical experience as to what members you want on the field and where to place them so you are victorious. Thankfully though the game allows you to re-visit some of the places you fought battles to make sure you can get to level up everyone in your party.

Like in any good SRPG these battles take place on a grid, and players are limited to a number of spaces they can move with an attack or use of an item/spell ends that characters turn. As players begin to find different characters with different weapons and abilities, the tactics will continue to change. Lancers, for example, can hit two spaces ahead of them, instead of one and Archers can attack from long distances causing more damage from above.

During battles, players can attack, use skills or cast magic spells. These skills can be added by collecting skill stones which players get when they defeat an enemy. Your characters can only carry six of these stones at any one time once again adding to your decision process before going in to battle, because there are more than a hundred of these stones in the game.With these stones you can choose different skills and put the on each of the characters before each battle. These skills can range from making stronger regular attacks, alter stats, or attack a number of enemies at once. Some stones can only be used by specific character types, so choose carefully.

Later in the game you will come across a character that will allow you to combine these stones. By combining two skill stones, a new one is created which will give you even more powerful abilities. This is the main reason I loved this game the customization is so deep, but yet so simple to use. Some of the new abilities created will allow players to counter enemies before they attack you, run longer distances, instill massive damage, and more.

There are also two neat and innovative features in this game that have not been seen in others. These effects are called the "Burning Aura Hotspot" and "Joint Defense".

With the "Burning Aura Hotspot" a hotspot will appear behind any enemy that is attacked and any party member who stands in that will get an attacking boost. If the "Burning Aura" falls on a character already occupying the space, the Aura will move with the character, giving them the ability to use the damage bonus elsewhere.

The other feature is "Joint Defense", which when characters are no more than one space apart, they will combine their defensive abilities reducing the damage caused by enemies significantly. This feature is especially useful when fighting a tough boss.

Bottom Line:

With Jeanne D'Arc's simple, and easy to understand battle system it is amazing how much depth there is here. Anyone with half a brain cell can pick this game up and start playing with out any frustrating with menus, customization, gameplay. I am betting most SRPG fans are probably awaiting the two other great SRPG's on the horizon for the PSP in the way of Final Fantasy Tactics and Disgaea for PSP. Both are due out this year and are sure to be better than excellent. But, Jeanne D' Arc is a new and original title no one has seen before on any system and should not be missed by any PSP owner. Lastly let me say that after having tried almost all the SRPG's available for the PSP I was left disappointed after every one. So what do I have to say about "Level 5"s latest addition to the PSP Library? Just two words to them...Thank YOU!!

Tactics Done Right

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 15 / 16
Date: August 25, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I think anyone who enjoys playing tactics style RPGs should really enjoy playing this game. Jeanne D'arc puts an anime twist on the Joan of Arc story. They throw in magical armlets, mystical armor, and demons and they have the makings of a very good RPG. There are animated cut scenes throughout the game which advance the story. In my opinion they could have done without it but it does not ruin the game. There's no annoying load times in this game; everything transitions fairly smooth with only a few pauses. This is quite surprising considering the amount of animation put into the game.

This game first caught my attention because of the vibrant colors and the richly designed environment. The character designs are well done. Everything is three dimensional and they use some of the best cell shading I've ever seen in a video game. Some people might have a problem with the fact there's no voice acting in the game. There is a lot of text reading in this game. I personally don't have a problem with that since I do a lot of reading myself but I thought I should warn anyone who's considering buying this game... lots of texts.

The battles are done in you're typical tactics style RPG with some differences from other games I've played. All the basics are there. Attack from higher ground your range attacks gain more range. Spears attack two squares at once et cetera. However to cast spells you need to first build up MP. In other words at the start of the battle you won't be able to cast magic. Over time your MP builds up. This is all explained throughout the game in help screens that pop-up occasionally. I've personally could have done without them. I've been playing these types of games for years. A cool feature I like about the battles is the burning aura. When you attack an enemy you create a burning aura behind them. If you position a character in that burning aura they'll gain an attack bonus. They also have a unified guard feature. If you position your characters side by side or in close proximally they receive a defense bonus when attacked. The battle animations are done very well and the special effects are very rewarding to watch. I even enjoyed the sound effects; everything about the battles is done very well and is the best I've seen in a while.

Leveling up is very easy. Not only do you gain points during battle but after the battle you gain bonus points which are divided up evenly among all the members of your party, including the characters that were not in the battle. You only need 100 points to reach the next level and they reward you with a lot of points after each battle. Couple that with points you're already earning during battle, less time is spent leveling up characters and more time is spent advancing the story. Like in Luminous Arc there are places on the map that allow you to have free battles. You visit those places to level up your characters.

The way you learn spells in this game and skills is much like Final Fantasy XII or Chrono Cross. You equip the spells or skills to learn them. At first you can only equip three spells or skills but as you gain experience extra slots are added. Some spells or skills can only be equipped after you've reached a certain level and other skills can only be equipped by certain characters because of the weapons they carry. In addition to this you can also equip attribute enhancing skill stones.

There's also a feature in this game where the main character of this game undergoes a transformation and increases her power. This was the mystical armor I was talking about earlier. You'll have to build up spiritual energy first and transformations can only be done once per battle. But in her transformed state she can attack more than once in a turn if she successfully defeats an enemy during that turn.

The designers of this game did an excellent job with this game and the presentation. I think anyone who buys this game will not be disappointed. It's better than any other tactics style game I've played so far and has definitely earned a spot in my growing library of PSP games.

Great fun for tactics fans out there.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 19 / 23
Date: August 24, 2007
Author: Amazon User

There isn't many tactics fans remaining, for the few us that remains, this is a great pickup. Since finishing up Advanced Wars on DS (which was awesome by the way), there hasn't been a good tactics yet.

Got the PSP just for this game. Jeanne D'arc doesn't break any new grounds, but everything it does, it does well. Music, Voice, Story, Controls, all very smooth and interesting, best of all, it brings back the good ol' memory of FF Tactics.

Update - Just finished the game.

Wow, what an experience. One of the few games I've had the patience to finish thru completely. At first, the characters seems a bit bland, once you get past about level 20, then there is plenty of customization to do. Especially when you get the Bind Skill function, it adds a new level of customization.

Pros:
*Excellent story
*Controls are accurate, the rotating camera saves the day
*Plenty of customization
*Decent length, though when you play a good game, it's never long enough
*Bargain price at $29.99, save $10 compared to the usual PSP releases

Cons: (it's very minor)
*Kind of slow - The constant loading and final boss battle
*Some characters were never used, it was repetitive with others so that made them less useful
*Weapon - Whip, did anyone get to use this?
*Could of used few more extra side quests, battleground should of been a bit deeper.

Overall this is a great buy, now it'll be really hard for D&D Tactics & FF Tactics to justify charging $10 more.

Strange but entertaining

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 11 / 12
Date: September 26, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Jeanne D'Arc never tries too hard, and that's what I found ultimately disappointing about the title.

The story, to begin with, never quite knows what it wants to do with itself. It begins by squinting at history and putting an interesting new fantasy spin on the old tale of St. Joan, but then decides to forget all that and obsess over a generic fantasy story replete with magic rocks, elves, and demons. Bizarre and imbalanced, you have tragic deaths alongside talking purple frogs, and historic acts of atrocity explained away by vaguely described rogue demons. While the characters are generally interesting and there's a bit of growth as the story goes along, there's no one in the cast we haven't seen before in other games and stories.

The battle system is your standard SRPG fare, and rather watered down. Equipped elemental gems affect offense and defense but there are only three of them, reducing the system to an elementary game of rock, paper, scissors. Very simplified, the game lacks Disgaea's geo panels and FFTactic's job system, reducing customization to freely interchangeable stat stones that either give a spell, a special attack, or affect stats. The different characters have different base stats but deficiencies are pretty easily made up for with items that permanently raise certain stats. With battle so streamlined and options so very limited, the system seems like it was designed for younger gamers, making battles a breeze for anyone who's finished FFTactics or Ogre Tactics. There's an attempt to introduce artificial difficulty by limiting the number of turns available to finish a battle, but I never once reached this time limit.

Nevertheless, the game's pretty fun thanks to very nice visuals and a catchy score. I'd recommend the game to anyone looking for a lighter, less strategic SRPG - an SRPG that can be picked up and played for ten minutes at a time while waiting for a bus.

fun but leaves you wanting

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 5 / 6
Date: November 13, 2007
Author: Amazon User

when i first picked this game up, it was a blast. the graphics are pretty, battle grounds are very detailed, and adding a fantasy twist to a part of history anyone who took high school history should be familiar with added to the charm of this game.

but, several hours into the game, i was getting annoyed with jeanne's constant complaints about how everyone is a coward and such. i understand she was a passionate lass in a man's world having to fend for herself, but still...

also, the tactical element of the game didn't quite satisfy my appetite. i mean, you can be as tactical as you want, but you don't always have to be. simply put, jeanne d'arc is one of the easier tactical rpgs i've played so far.

i definitely recommend this game for those of you who want to try out the tactical rpg genre though. if any game will get you hooked to the genre, jeanne d'arc would be it. it is beautiful and a lot of fun, but for hardcore tactical rpg fans, i think this game would leave you wanting more as it did me.

great game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: September 01, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I always see reviews on tactics games and there is always at least one that says if you like final fantasy tactics you'll like this one....well its very rarely the case. I am a big fan of tactics games, especially FF tactics when that was first out and there are maybe a few games that maybe come close. I would say Jeanne D'Arc is the closest yet. It has a great story, great game play and finally psp is actually making an RPG that is 3D and not an old 16-32 bit port. The graphics remind me of Dragon Quest and the overall look and feel of the game would make you think Square was the one who released it. I almost didn't buy it because there are a bunch of games coming out in the next two months for PSP like FF Tactics, Disgaea and Silent Hill and figured buying this one would make it to the unfinished pile, but I am defintely glad of the moment of boredom that pushed me to just go pick it up. I play it more than any PSP game i have owned to date and will definitely have it completed at the rate i am going. Its really enjoyable, challenging at times but never has frustrated me to the point of shutting it off. I just hope the the tactics games coming out can live up to this one now, and to top it all off the price tag on it is better than almost all PSP games releasing at forty bucks when they first released.

Game gets boring after a while

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: September 09, 2007
Author: Amazon User

If I reviewed this after the first day I bought it, the game would have gotten 5 stars. It starts amazingly with a good story, lots of action and a perfect tutorial on how to use the system.

However, once you get a good ways in here is what is wrong with this game.
1. Every battle has a time limit. This means if you want to slowly advance on the enemy you can't, you will run out of time. You have to charge in always so the odds of one of your party members dieing is very high.
2. Some battles have you protect someone (who doesn't fight). You have to guide them to the finish line. BUT you can't control them. The idiot just runs in as fast as he can. So you have to charge in to protect him. So the odds of him dieing (and thus game over), or lots of members of your party dieing are very likely. I really hated this part of the game. As a result you will have to replay some levels numerous times to know the "correct" way to beat it. This then makes it feel more like a memory/puzzle game then a strategy game. I mean in reality wouldn't the guy you are protecting want to stay back??
3. The dialogue between battles is the worst. You WAIT and WAIT and WAIT.
4. The battles become repative after a while. The game needs more variety here. You mostly pick the same party members everytime, and they do the same sort of attacks.
5. Game is too long. I have beaten nearly 20 stages now and I see no end in sight. I'm just getting bored now.

The game is worth beating though so I will be putting more time into it. But the replay value is 0.

Best game so far for psp

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: October 06, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I just brought my PSP earlier in 2007, so I have not played and completed too many games. However, of the 5 I have purchased and completed, this is by far and away the best. Nice graphics and character special effects. Anime feel to cutscenes. Fun, since characters fight hard, but have a sense of humor. Nice twist on tactical strategy turn based game. Character movement, special skills, and position very important during combat phase. Fun ability to create or bind your own special skills. A nice variety of easy, and progressively harder enemies and bosses. Took me 45 hours to complete. Short load times. Nice music. Overall, highly recommended for any PSP user. Would love to see Jeanne D'Arc Two in a few years.

A great game for strategy RPG lovers

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: December 06, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Ever since I played Vandal Hearts and Suikoden on the original Playstation, I've been looking for a similar gaming experience. I enjoy strategy games that have an easy to understand battle system without requiring too much input on fussy little details. It also helps if the story and characters are engaging.

I am delighted to say that Jeanne D'Arc has all the things I've been looking for. You can start playing without having to pore through the manual because there are NPCs sprinkled throughout the game that offer helpful hints and explanations.

It's perhaps a bit on the easy side for seasoned strategy RPG vets, but for anyone looking for a fun experience without the hassles, consider adding this to your PSP game library.

Yuck...

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 1 / 3
Date: August 10, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Fun?! ZERO
Since I can't properly rate this, I'll have to rate it here in the commentary.

How much fun is this game?.......... ZERO ZERO ZERO ZERO ZERO
How do you rate this game overall? ZERO ZERO ZERO ZERO ZERO

The story may be fine in my opinion of what little I've seen in this bought game, but the game mechanics itself is AWFUL! You're allowed only a set of a few turns on every map and I'll understand that if the map's conditions require it. Like if I have to get out of the area before backup for the bad guys show up and such...

But EVERY STICKING Map has this turn limit in IT!!! I truly enjoyed the PSX Final Fantasy Tactics, because the creators knew of that idea and limited the turn limit to a few nerve racking stages. Good Lord those d'arc idiots didn't have the common sense to have a menu selection option to shut down this insane concept!

>:<

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