I’m not used to games meeting my expectations, much less exceeding them. But from the moment I inserted Level 5’s Jeanne d’Arc into my PSP, these eyes and ears were treated to a banquet of gorgeous graphics and rich sound. In fact, this game single handedly validates the purchase of my PSP system. It’s refined, with an excellent story conveyed by beautifully animated cut scenes and creative use of the game’s graphics engine.
Jeanne d’Arc’s tale begins with a great evil plaguing the earth. Battles rage, and five men band together to vanquish the evil, each equipped with a magical armlet. Fast-forward to Jeanne’s time, and players discover the evil has returned. Jeanne stumbles upon one of the magic armlets and must fight the English army, under control of the great evil, in order to save France. Each character in Jeanne d’Arc is animated beautifully for cut scenes with excellent voice acting to match. Cel-shaded, “chibified” characters (which means their bodies are slightly smaller than their heads, giving them a deformed, but cute appearance) are what gamers can expect from Jeanne d’Arc’s in-game rendering engine. This same character representation is used in battle and to navigate the world map. Level 5 does a good job of advancing Jeanne d’Arc’s story by weaving animated sequences together with in-engine cut scenes. Players get to see detailed indoor and outdoor environments rendered for the sole purpose of telling the story. Locations like throne rooms, castle entrances and army campgrounds are much preferred to lone, hand-drawn images exchanging text dialog.
Combat in Jeanne d’Arc is standard fare for a turn-based strategy game: maneuver player-controlled characters to favorable attack positions, usually from behind or to the side of an enemy. Two unique features, however, are the “Burning Aura” and “Unified Guard” systems. Burning Aura appears opposite an enemy that was just attacked. Friendly characters attacking from within this aura increase their attack strength. Unified Guard works when two or more friendly characters are in close proximity. Any attack to characters in a Unified Guard is less effective because of their increased defense statistics. These new game mechanics combined with diverse environments keep combat fresh, and I enjoyed using the environment’s terrain to overcome the odds (which are usually stacked against the player).
Preparation for combat involves choosing the right mix of character classes for each mission. And when I say “classes” I use the term loosely. Unlike other turn-based strategy RPGs that use job classes, Jeanne d’Arc is character-based. The game clearly has archers and lancers and soldiers and mages and thieves, but everyone is called by name. I think this really helps connect players more with what’s going on because it’s not just a soldier that died, it’s Roger or Liane or La Hire. The “class” is discerned by weapon type available to the player because, depending on their level, everyone can equip spells. It all reminds me of the Materia System from Final Fantasy 7, only instead of Materia you’re equipping Skill Stones (same thing in my opinion). I liked the flexibility that comes with Skill Stones.
At any time in the game, it’s possible to change a character’s role. For example, moving Jeanne from an attack to a support role means unequipping Skill Stones like Fireball and Thunderbolt and replacing them with Heal and Cure. There are also Skill Stones for weapons and status buffs. Weapon Skills come in two kinds, red and purple stones. Red stones allow a player to spend MP on an unique attack to magnify the equipped weapon's power. Purple stones grant equipped weapons additional strength and are always active. Status Stones permanently modify a character’s statistics. With them, characters can get additional MP, HP, increased attack strength and more. Later in the game, skill stones can be combined to create new ones. For example: Piercing Power and Ice Bullet combine to form the Impale! skill. This technique is called Skill Binding and allows players to create their own skills when they are hard to be found.
Among the equipable Support Stones are Spirit Affinities, which align characters with Sol, Stella or Luna. These three affinities work in a rock, paper, scissor-like fashion and grant characters additional damage against certain enemies with opposing Affinities. However, equipping Spirit Affinities can also work against you, a lesson I learned after equipping everyone in my party with the wrong affinity. Bad idea. Jeanne d’Arc lets you continue to equip soldiers after viewing the battlefield but before combat begins. I discovered that’s a good time to recon enemy Spirit Affinities and equip my own troops to counteract their strengths.
A final consideration during combat is Jeanne’s armlet. During a battle’s course, Jeanne’s armlet transforms, equipping her with a “holy” armor. This armor has unique powers and abilities only Jeanne can use. It’s a great asset, but is limited to one use per turn until you find gems to upgrade the armlet. Then, the number of transformations is limited to the number of gems on the armlet. Jeanne isn’t the only one capable of transforming either. Along the story's course, she meets additional characters that possess different armlets. Each of these characters has a different armor type with different powers. I saved the ability for pesky bosses with high defense values and HP.
It’s even possible to savor the glory of battle thanks to Free Combat areas on the map. In these towns, Jeanne and her army can work to eliminate random enemies in hopes of winning more money and gaining additional experience. Players are required to spend a good amount of time in Free Combat to increase character statistics before advancing on a fortified enemy position.
Bottom Line:
I’d have given Jeanne d’Arc much higher marks if it had a multiplayer mode, my one real disappointment with the game. It’s sad that Jeanne d’Arc is such a great game but must be enjoyed alone. Despite the multiplayer dearth, the game far exceeds every other expectation I had. The story, excellent. The sights, amazing. The sounds, a ten.
My opinion is if you own a PSP, Jeanne d’Arc should be part of your collection. It’s a solid game, something not usually found in the PSP’s repertoire.
| Pros: | Cons: | Final Score: |
|---|---|---|
|
| 8.5 |
Posted: 2007-09-23 14:39:21 PST