Sony's
Jeanne D'Arc for the PSP is a unique role playing title where players
command the legendary heroine as she attempts to liberate France from the
invading English army. Mixing history and fantasy, the game takes her
story and adds fantasy elements such as demons and magic to create a
unique experience. Jeanne D'arc's beautiful graphics are bright and
colorful with a number of elaborate anime cut-scenes that bring players
into the action. This is definitely one of the better PSP adventures we've
seen on the system to date, so join us as we step back in time and relive
her glorious adventure.
Set in the 11th century, Jeanne d'Arc
puts players in the famous shoes of the famous French liberator as she
embarks on her calling to liberate her country from the invading masses of
a crazed English King. The storyline is loosely based on the historic
events, but adds some history and magic to the proceedings to give things
a kind of fantasy edge. All of the characters are loosely based on actual
historic figures to a degree which helps to give the game's fantasy
elements a bit more heft. After you finish the elaborate opening scenes,
the game itself begins as a fairly standard RPG, with players commanding
Jeanne and a group of her allies through a series of turn-based battles.
Jeanne d'Arc is obviously the main character of the game, but there are
other players you'll encounter who can become your allies and fight
alongside you. As you go deeper into the game, you can command up to seven
players in a single party, which gives you a great deal of flexibility
during battles. This allows you to use different character for different
functions. For example, you can send the stronger character out ahead to
do battle and protect the weaker characters, or flank to use to smaller
groups to attack different enemies on the battlefield at the same time.
The controls and interface are fairly easy to use, and most of the menus
and items are self-explanatory. There are also onscreen tutorials that
appear early in the game so you can learn the basics easily.
Once
you are in battle, you'll find that there are lots of options at your
disposal. You can place individual characters at certain points on the
field of battle, which gives the game an interesting strategic layer where
you need to use command tactics to beat your foes. You have the usual
selection of power-ups and extra items to use, such as herbs to power-up
your character and magic spells. The gameplay is fairly standard RPG on
the surface, but adds team-based attacks, special transformation abilities
and tactical gameplay to give its gameplay an immediate appeal. One of the
cooler aspects of Jeanne's play system is the ability to create force
shields when multiple characters at close range. When this happens, enemy
attacks inflict less damage, or they may even miss causing no damage to
you at all. Another way you can dispatch enemies quickly is by using the
break points, which means setting your character to the opponent's
vulnerable side, where they can't defend themselves. Your attacks at these
points of the game cause much greater damage. One of the coolest weapons
you can use is Jeanne herself. Once per level, you can use her special
divine powers to transform her into a stronger armor clad warrior. When
she is in this mode, her attacks cause much greater damage. As an added
bonus, when she destroys an enemy, she gains another turn, which allows
her to take out multiple foes before they can have a chance to
counter-attack. While this is generally used only once per round, and ends
when Jeanne loses her transformation energy, she can do this multiple
times if she earns enough energy. In addition, as she gains powers and
levels up, the damage she can inflict in her super-powered mode increases
dramatically as well. Players will find the individual stages follow the
traditional turn based structure, where you alternate between your side
and the opposing side, though some levels limit the number of turns per
round. Each round also has a number of secondary objectives, such as
getting through the level without losing a character or defeating all the
foes that must be finished before the round has been beaten. In between
battles, players can also go to the onscreen world map, where they can
journey from city to city and also equip their parties with various
weapons and items for the battles ahead. The game's structure and controls
are fairly easy to understand and navigating the menus and selecting which
options to use is a fairly simple task.
Joanne d'Arc is a fairly simple game to
play and its difficulty is fairly average for the genre. Most of the
intermediary foes won't pose much of a challenge, though the end of level
characters and bosses put up more of a fight. The game unfolds at a fairly
good pace with a good balance between battle sequences and
narrative/cinematic sequences. Obviously, the later stages are more
difficult, and this is where you'll need to strategize and figure out when
its best to use Jeanne's transformation abilities - should you hold back
and save them until you encounter a boss, or use them early on to rush to
the boss battles. You also need to spend a lot of time learning to use the
team effectively, balancing each member's strengths and weakness to create
attacks while also using their unified stances to shield your party from
attacks. Jeanne d'Arc gives players plenty of options and things to think
about but this doesn't mean things are overly complicated. Like the best
role-playing titles, Jeanne d'Arc offers a fast, somewhat breezy role
playing experience that strikes a good balance between RPG conventions
that won't alienate hardcore players by being too watered down or causal
gamers with overly complex mechanics and obscure commands. There's just
enough strategy overlaid on the battles that keeps this from becoming
monotonous, which gives the game a tactical edge that makes for an
appealing game overall.
The
developers did an excellent job in creating the world of Jeanne D'arc
which unfolds in a vivid, brightly colored world that is rich in detail
and animation. Most of the action takes place in a top-down angled view
and the game allows players to spin the viewpoint around and zoom in
slightly in order to see a better view of the action. The default
viewpoint isn't always the best, but being able to switch the angle helps
when you are planning out your next move. The visuals themselves look very
good and utilize cel-shading and elaborate backdrops to create a good
looking title that mixes anime with more traditional styles to create a
unique look for the game. There are a number of elaborate cinematic
cut-scenes in the game as well, which are quite effective in bringing the
game's story and plot to life. Jeanne d'Arc's soundtrack is excellent and
the game's use of voice acting is excellent as well. Overall, the game
offers a polished, aesthetically pleasing experience that makes it look
and feel as good as you'd expect a title on PSP.
While some of the elements seem a bit
odd when you look at them, such as mixing history and fantasy, Jeanne
d'Arc successfully blends these different approaches to create a unique
and interesting role playing adventure. The gameplay is fairly interesting
and offers some interesting twists on the somewhat stale genre while not
falling too far outside of the conventional expectations. It offers a
decent mix of solid role-playing with some tactical strategies and an
unconventional transformation system that keeps things from becoming too
predictable. Jeanne d'Arc is a good and entertaining title that offers an
interesting hybrid between historical and fantasy adventures. It's simple
approach and interface makes for an engaging and enjoyable role playing
game that stands out from the pack.
Grade:
B+
