Unique twist on a classic story, engaging story with deep multi layered strategy.
We all know the history of how Joan of Arc (Jeanne d'Arc in french) commanded the army of an entire nation at the young age of seventeen after gaining visions from God that told her to recover her homeland from English domination late in the Hundred Years' War. So what is this about demon controlled English and magical armlets?
Jeanne d'Arc is a tactical role-playing game developed by Level-5 and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation Portable and is an interesting take on a classical tale. The developers at Level 5 have crafted a loose rendition of the event in which young Jeanne leads French to victory against the English. Of course, what RPG game wouldn't have you casting spells and battling orcs and monsters of every kind and ilk?
Saving France is no easy feat for a young girl such as Jeanne. Fortunately for her, she is not alone in her quest to rid her motherland of the demonic English reign. She starts out with two friends from her village, Liane and Roger and quickly gains allies that share her vision of a liberated France over the course of her journey. Without spoiling any of the story, I won't go into detail of the various members of her party. Know that each of them has their own unique personality and a specific weapon type they're allowed to equip. Character progression is done abit differently in Jeanne d'Arc. As characters level up, they do not learn a static set of skills. Skills are enabled via skill stones.
Skills stones are divided into four different kinds.
- Red : Class Specific Attack Abilities & Finishing Blows
- Green : Magic
- Purple : Class Specific Skills
- Blue : Status Boost
What characters gain when leveling up are stats improvements and at a pre-defined level threshold, gain new slots to attach skill stones. In addition, you'll gain the ability to combine different stones together to gain higher grade stones or a different stones altogether. The game will keep track of any recipes that you've created for easy reference when you want to create a stone that you've created before. This is especially helpful when there are more than 150 different Skill Stones that can be acquired via fallen opponents, shops or Skill Binding. Also, there are stones with spirit affinities that imbues the character with one of three different elements: Sol, Stella and Luna. The three act in a rock-paper-scissors setup. This is a crucial factor as each enemy on the battle map is also affiliated with one of the elements. As skill stones can be switched in and out before any battle, this mechanic provides a very deep yet flexible system.
Which brings us to the battle system. The battle system is where the game truly shines. Upon entering a battlefield, you'll be presented with an objective. The objectives are varied enough to keep it fresh such as "Killing enemy captain" or just simply "Getting to the other side of the map" in addition to failure conditions. What you will also notice is the "Turns left" on your interface. Unlike other tactical RPGs where you can turtle up killing your enemies slowly and safely, Jeanne d'Arc keeps you on your toes by forcing you to be aggressive and complete your objectives within the time frame. In addition to that, the AI are smart enough to target weaker allies and magic users with ranged attacks. This ensures that battles are fast and furious whilst constantly challenges you to plan your strategies.
During battles, there are some mechanics to add more layers of strategy to the game. With so many things keeping you at the edge of your seat, Jeanne d'Arc is forgiving enough to provide you with some survivability via a mechanic known as Unified Guard. Characters gain a defensive bonus based on the number of allied units that are adjacent (this includes units place diagonally; i.e. units do not have to be in a single line) to each other. Also, to help you get through the mission offensively, there is another mechanic called Burning Aura. Whenever a character attacks an enemy, a circular aura of energy is created behind the target. The aura increases accuracy as well as damage. In addition, if a party member happens to be behind the target when a Burning Aura is triggered, they can carry the aura with them to the best location to use the augmented attack. However, it is a double edged sword. Enemies can also take advantage of any Auras that you created.
To add yet another layer of strategy to this game, characters that possesses the magical armlet will be able to transform into holy knights with exceptionally power that can cleave through enemy ranks like Moses dividing the Red Sea. To be able to transform, they need to collect spirit points which are generated at the start of each turn. To balance out their power, they can only sustain this heightened state for two turns forcing you to use them wisely.
Battles are based on a square grid backed by a 3D engine. Manipulating and controlling the field of battle very easy. The two zoom levels are just right and getting a right angle of view is also intuitive and fast. Each enemy and ally is beautifully rendered and detailed. The backgrounds and maps are beautiful and well thought out. The art style is a little bit on the comical side with each character having heads that are larger than normal (which is a pretty common RPG or tactical RPG trait). The cut-scenes are beautiful and instead of utilizing a 3D FMV, the developers went for a more artistic approach by giving the game an almost cartoon-like presence. Voice acting is also fairly well done with very convincing French accents with a very nice theme music.
In closing, Jeanne d'Arc is a deep game with many layers of strategy. An interesting twist to a familiar story which is evenly paced between battles, anime-esque cutscenes and in-game story sequence. This a game that is not only packed with challenging strategic play, it also makes you care about the characters and being impressed with the overall artistic direction. This game is relatively easier than established franchise such as Final Fantasy Tactics and Disgaea and would be a good introduction for those seeking to enter this genre. Minimal load times also makes this game that much more enjoyable.