Difficulty:

Just Right

Time Spent:

20 to 40 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Worth playing"

The end of Summer of 2007 saw a glut of great SRPGs being released for the PSP. Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness, Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions, and Jeanne D'Arc all released within two months, giving more than enough SRPG goodness to last any SRPG nut for a while. And although I think that Jeanne D'Arc is the weakest of the three (only by a tiny fraction), I believe any PSP owner with any interest in RPG's should definitely check this game out.

Loosely based on the life of Joan of Arc during the waning years of the Hundred Years War (with a generous fantasy twist), Jeanne D'Arc puts players into the role of Jeanne, a teenage French girl armed with a magic armlet and guided by the voice of God who sets her on a journey to free France from the evil English. Jeanne D'Arc has a great story that starts out a little slow but soon draws you in. Accompanying the story are a set of very well done (if mostly short) anime cutscenes with full French-accented voiceovers. Jeanne is a very likable character, stubborn and driven, who most gamers will come to identify with. Supporting characters (for the most part) are also fully realized and help drive the great story.

Gameplay in Jeanne D'Arc is surprisingly fast-paced and intense, which helps keep the action interesting. D'Arc, unlike most other SRPGs, implements a system where every attack is countered by the defendant a la Fire Emblem. Every battle also has a turn limit which discourages cheap tactics and gives each battle a feel of urgency. And finally some of your characters, like Jeanne, are equipped with magical armlets which increases their powers and allows them to take extra turns along as they keep on defeating enemies. These three elements make all the battles interesting because they keep the battles moving quick.Skills, spells, and abilities are handled by a set of skill stones which each character can equip before each battle. The stones can be combined and interchanged, which allows you to equip each member of your party for the situation at hand.

The graphics for this game are definitely impressive. The character portraits and cutscenes are beautifully drawn. The battle graphics however might turn some people off because of two elements. The battle graphics look great but are highly pixilated, which is unfortunate because the graphics look great. The other short coming is the character design themselves. The character models during fights are essentially bobble heads. This style, while not looking necessarily looking bad, might not appeal to everyone (I like it).

One element that I definitely do not like is about this game is how non story battles are handled. These "Free Stages" are too easy and become boring grinding fests because the enemies do not level with you. So, even at level 50, some of the original Free Stages will still have enemies at level 1 which forces you to go to the latest unlocked Free Stage constantly in order to level up your characters enough for difficult battles.

Jeanne D'Arc is, overall, a great game worthy of any PSP gamer's attention.