Difficulty:

Just Right

Time Spent:

40 to 100 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Solid"

Jeanne D'Arc is another success for Level 5. The game has a few flaws, but if you like SRPGs you will have a great time with the game. The game costs $29.99 at retail, and I got 48 and a half hours out of the game before the credits rolled.

Graphics and Performance-

Jeanee D'Arc is a good looking game, not great, but good. The in game characters don't look as nice as their cutscene counterparts. The environments are decent, and while the enemy character designs are interesting, you end up looking at the same enemies for most of the game. The frame rate also dips whenever the game loads off of the UMD.

Presentation and Sound-

Jeanne D'Arc's presentation is where the game really shines. It has beautifully animated cutscenes that help to propel the game's story, as well as a very enjoyable soundtrack, I recommend listening to it with headphones, or connecting your PSP to your TV with component cables, as the PSP's speakers don't do the game's music justice.

Story-

Jeanne D'Arc shuns historical accuracy in favor of telling a fantastic story that is very loosely based on real life events. Not all of the characters are well developed, but that is fine because there are so many playable characters in the game. The story never fails to be entertaining, and you always feel that the main character's motivations are believable.

Gameplay-

This is fairly standard SRPG stuff, expect a fair chunk of level grinding, and some tough opponents. Thankfully the game has a fairly deep set of skills that your characters can use, from special attacks to magic, as well as a deep 'skill binding' menu that allows you to create new skills to help your characters forge ahead. I found the gameplay to be very addictive, and I am happy to say that when you beat the game it unlocks a few new stages for you to try out.

Overall-

The game's graphics might not be perfect, and the neither is the framerate, but this game has plenty of charm and solid gameplay to make up for it. For $29.99 you can't go wrong.