A compelling story, memorable characters and a simple but great battle formula, you can't go too wrong with Jeanne D'Arc
- lovely main characters keep you engaged in a great, moving story
- fast-paced battle mechanics adds to strategy
- character customization is very solid
- lots of things to do
NAYS
- secondary characters don't add much to story or combat
- game can get slow with larger maps / lots of characters
My first exposure to SRPGs was with Final Fantasy Tactics on the PS, which was not only a difficult game but also pretty much set the standard of SRPGs till today. So being exposed to the best in its class has certainly made me judgmental of other SRPGs.
Thankfully, Jeanne D'Arc doesn't disappoint in the slightest.
Jeanne D'Arc retells the story of legend (Joan of Arc) but takes lots of liberties in the retelling. Certainly, armlets and lizard men and demons and dragons didn't quite exist in the original story.
The story in this adaptation is about a demon set loose after being entrapped in a previous legend by five armlet wielders. The demon has manifested itself in King Henry's soul, who soon starts to wreak havoc upon France. As most RPGs start out, you're having a day in a festival where you venture off into the woods, and lo and behold, you are chosen by the armlet from a demised corpse and the story picks up from there.
Despite the fact that the story starts out a bit cheesy with predictable protagonists and antagonists, you'd be surprised at how involving the story could be. Story sequences take place between battles, and often during battles, and it gets more dramatic with every battle won.
What really does drive the story isn't the overall plot but the main characters themselves. The main characters are endearing and quite lovable. Jeanne's innocence is soon stripped away and you'd watch her transform quickly into a patriotic hero. But soon after some events transpire, you'd get to see her pain, suffering, hesitance, and regrets. Other characters too pitch in, showing loyalty to her noble cause but at the same time fighting their own doubts and feelings regarding the events.
Midway through the game, a major plot twist occurs that is truly heartfelt and further complicates the relationship between the main characters. The story telling, although simple in nature, is quite powerful. Given the fast paced nature of the game, you always get the story elements quickly and in chunks, often having to fight battles just afraid of what will happen next.
The bad thing about the story however, is that the focus is on the main characters and not on the secondary ones. Granted, this is what any plot is about. But the secondary characters get very little or no plot involvement. Secondary characters are also secondary fighters, who you'd tend to ignore leveling up and focus on the main characters. It isn't necessarily a bad thing, but you'd be wondering why you have four swordsmen when you'd use only two. Although their stats do differ (one is a pure fighter, the other is a mix of magic and fighting, etc), the story more or less forces you to focus on building up the main party.
As much as there is story, there are battles. In total, there are 36 story-based battles and countless other ones that open up if you want to build up your party stats. The great thing about battles in Jeann D'Arc is that they're very quick, unlike other SRPGs where the slowness makes battles drawn out.
What makes battles quick are several gameplay mechanics that set Jeanne D'Arc apart from other SRPGs.
The first, most noticeable mechanic is that each mission needs to be finished in a specific number of turns. This not only gives you a hint of how long battles should take but also adds another layer of complexity to the strategy. For instance, a mission objective might involve killing off the enemy leader in a given number of turn. What you need to do is try to not get your characters killed by the enemy leader's minions as you mow him/her/it down. Other missions involve you getting your characters from point A to B on a map with no one killed, in a specific number of turns. This adds lots of strategy as you need to find the shortest path, which isn't often the safest.
Another mechanic that makes battles quick is that some characters - those who wield armlets - can transform into a hyper-fighter/mage. This adds additional character stats as well as unique skills. Two main advantages to the transformations are that a transformed character will get a new full health bar. This is critical when you run out of potions and your healer is far off. The other major advantage is that when you kill an enemy with a transformed character, then your character gets an extra turn. If planned correctly, you can finish off several of the enemies within one character turn. The trade off though is that you can only stay transformed for one, two, or three turns, depending on the transformation.
The final three mechanics work hand in hand, which are counter attacks, burning auras and alignments.
Every enemy and character counter attacks. The percentage success and the damage done depends on the two clashing, and from where the hit was, but you can count that every time you get hit, the enemy gets hit as well. Bringing in characters with high evade and those who work best against certain enemies will yield faster battles.
Burning auras are an interesting mechanic that adds strategy, usually in big fights or powerful enemies. Basically, when you hit an enemy, a ring of fire appears behind the enemy. If another of your characters steps into the ring of fire, the attack power and hit percentage is usually significantly higher, which can turn the tide of battler to your favor. However, these rings can also be used against you.
Finally, alignments are basically cosmic affiliations. Characters with Luna affiliation can inflict significantly higher attacks and hit percentage on characters with Sol affiliation. However, they are extremely vulnerable to attacks from those of Stella and they are usually quite weak against them. Thankfully, you can set your character affiliations via skill stones prior to battle by examining the genera affiliation of the enemy troop. Usually enemies will have a mix, so you can mix your characters up as well, or, you can choose no affiliation, which makes you deal regular damage and receive regular damage. It isn't the best choice, though.
In-battle mechanics aside, the character customization is very good. Each character can use a specific weapon and set of skills. However, you can easily switch in and out skill stones of your choice into battle. You can bring in area-effect skill stones if you're facing enemies that take up multiple panels, for instance. If the enemy hit percentage is high, you can switch in skill stones that raise your evade percentage. However, each character can only carry a certain number of skill stones, so choose between offensive, defensive, and support skill stones is often critical. You can also learn to create new skill stones by combining ones you have.
Other than story-driven battles, there are other battle areas you can use to build up your characters, as well as a Colosseum. Advantages are obvious, but you can also typically get rare skill stones and weapons from these other battles you can engage in.
All these things are presented to you in a nice, cartoonish art style that is quite anime. The graphics are not really special but they're pretty enough for an SRPG. Animated story sequences are truly superb however. The music is very good but is often repetitive, but never annoying. Characters, when they speak during the animated sequences, sound French and are loveable.
You can't go wrong with Jeanne D'Arc. A solid story and an endearing cast of characters, along with an easy to use and fast battle system make Jeanne D'Arc a no-brainer to those looking for an easy to pick up and enjoyable SRPG.