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Jeanne D’Arc for the PSP

Tactics style video games seem to be all the rage, what with the revival of Final Fantasy Tactics on the DS & PSP, as well as other games with and without the word “Tactics” in it’s title like Dungeons & Dragons Tactics and, well, this game. Jeanne D’Arc. It doesn’t have the word Tactics in the game but it is another one of the many games for the handheld of late that seems to tap liberally from the Tactics mana pool for it’s base inspiration of gameplay.

The thing is, however, if you’ve been reading the reviews then people have nice things to say about Jeanne D’Arc. Everyone is giving it a high score, and that’s all well and good as the game is actually fun to play… to a point! I say that because while the game does have it’s good points it also has it’s failings, and it’s those failings I want to bring to your attention today because it’ll make all the difference between a good and not so good gaming experience.

First off, as far as Tactics style inspired games go, Jeanne D’Arc is a slice of better… to a point. With it’s depth of tactics you can employ, the means by which you can use your numbers well in both attack and defense, and the way you can combine skills in order to create new skills through a strange creature that swallows skill crystals and… eww… does something in it’s stomach to make new crystals. All of this and the rather deep amount of skills you can use in battle (not to mention the nicely done battle boards and the amount of enemies you can deploy against) make for a good game.

However, that being said, the main failing of Jeanne D’Arc is that it’s a one shot pony (again with that term this week) that could have stood for a shot of depth and side missions. However the story of the game seems to be the main driving force, and while you can revisit areas to replay some levels there are practically no true side missions or exploration of any kind except the relentless road towards the game’s end from one side of the countryside to the other. Like I said the gameplay is golden, but the depth leaves something to be desired (that and the fact once you realize that this is all there is, and there is nothing more, even the combat may fail you no matter how well it’s crafted).

I think this is a 3rd party developer that made this game, but the thing is it just isn’t the next Puzzle Quest because at least Puzzle Quest had a depth of content and things to do even if the combat was the same over and over again (because the game offered up several ways to approach the simple Zoo Keeper style gameplay with different tasks to accomplish different things). This game it’s fight fight fight and maybe a few things to do differently (free form fighting and a coliseum style two against many fight) but nothing of any great depth or content to really keep you from becoming fatigued from doing the same thing over and over again. That seems to be a bad thing in my book, yet most reviewers to date seemed to have ignored that facet of the game for some reason… I wonder why.

Another aspect of the game is the storyline, which is abit weirdo if you ask me.
It is loosely “based” on the whole Jeanne D’Arc legend (maybe the name Joan of Arc rings a bell?), and it follows the story of young Jeanne faithfully… except for the part where the English are ruled by a child king with a fascination for small animals manipulated by an evil madman (did that really happen?), the fact that the British seem to have the power of necromancy and can summon the undead, and… oh, right, the French countryside is swarming with Lyncantrophe of all types (including sexy cute female types) and Elves. Yes, let’s not forget that the Elves once lived in France back in Jeanne’s day.

Apparently somebody thought it would be super swell to combine the story of a 15th Century saint with the trappings of a RPG video game… oh, and Jeanne and 4 others had these magical bracelets which allowed them to assume super powerful knight forms ala a religious 15th Century Power Rangers trip. Yeah.
And did I mention the people that will join forces with Jeanne? Oh the people she’ll recruit on her little crusade! There’s the guy who wants to be her boyfriend guy who seems to be haunted by nightmares of being tied up in a mad scientist lab, there’s the best friend female who ends up replacing Jeanne halfway through the story (surely they won’t burn HER at the stake at the end of the game…)

Spoiler Alert! If the game continues on following the legend to the letter then somebody’s going to be burned at the stake at the end of the game… though I am certain they’ll omit the rape that is sometimes seen in certain versions of the Joan of Arc story.

Let’s see… we have the underaged archer, the people with overblown ridiculous French accents (because somebody in Japan thinks the French talk funny), the lion man who seems to have gone to the same acting school as Michael (Worf from ST:TNG, ST:DS9, and 3 Star Trek movies. Also a ton of animation credits like Gargoyles & I Am Weasel) Dorn, he who is La Hire… La Hire?!?
Oh, then there’s the female elf archer who is engaged to be married to the man panther guy with the forgettable personality… disengage Miss Elf person!
Oh, and that coliseum level? It is alright if you don’t mind it riding on the coattails of… yeah… “Deal or No Deal” (as it is that badly named clone called “Yield or No Yield”… right about now Howie Mandell’s hair is rolling about wherever it is.)

I’d go into the powers and stuff but they’re easy to pick up and play with, also they’re the (you know) only real draw of the game so why spoil the game’s one and only high point.

Good things about the game is that it’s a Tactics game, and it’ll fill the span in your gaming life between playings of Final Fantasy Tactics, Dungeons & Dragons Tactics and whatever else you can find that is Tactics oriented (I just got ahold of D&Dtactics so I have a review coming soon).

The bad thing about this game is that it’ll only fill 20-30 hours of your life, then you probably won’t want to play it again… for some reason the game makers omitted online play for a game based web browser… what?!? Why!! I haven’t played with it yet but… I don’t plan on doing so. Really.

Thing is if you can find this game in a bargain bin then spending a reduced cover price on this game will make it worth the only so long, then you’ll stop playing it and wish somebody would finally put out that long promised Elder Scrolls Travels : Oblivion game… except for the fact you’d have to be even more nuts to be conned into THAT game than Jeanne D’Arc because at least D’Arc has 20-30 hours of gameplay which easily trumps the “promised” ill will of 6-8 hours for Elder Scrolls Travels.
Yeah, I don’t care how true to the franchise the game is, I’m not wasting $40-$50 on a game that is shorter than the Lord of the Rings Trilogy of movies (theatrical version, not the uncut version).

In short Jeanne D’Arc is pretty and all, but buyer beware because it’s not all it’s cracked up to be (no matter how much pretty scores and reviews it’s gotten in the past).
Realistically it’s only average, so Jeanne D’Arc gets an average score for pretty gameplay that doesn’t compel you to play more than once once you beat it. 3 French Toasts out of 5.

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