Jeanne d'Arc (PSP)
created by Level 5, 2007

you got your anime in my history!

review written by: Gamer-girl

Apparently the Hundred Years’ War was a difficult time. Not only were the English and French warring over disputed land and losing all of their young men – the English were reviving demons and the French had to retaliate with magical golden armlets. Luckily for the French, one of these armlets fell into the hands of a young, passionate peasant named Jeanne (or Joan, to the evil English). With the armlet as a conduit to the Voice of God, she was able to transform into a powerhouse that killed all of the trolls, dragons, goblins, and English soldiers in her way. At least, for a few turns.

For those of us that have become accustomed to forgiving your games for the same old 2001 graphics, or to tolerating continual absurdity because serious storytelling is never on the menu, or to accepting that Nippon Ichi has the monopoly on an entire genre… Jeanne d’Arc is a refreshing treat.

Jeanne d’Arc is a beautiful portable game. Usually tactical RPGs demand a bit of slack in the visual quality department, and so I was poised ready to forgive blurry characters and empty worlds. Instead, Jeanne d’Arc surprised me with its lovely anime cut-scenes regularly spliced with the colorful, high-resolution storytelling scenes, to say nothing of the eye-pleasing battles themselves. And don’t flinch like that when I mention cut-scenes – it’s not another poorly told cinema masquerading as a game and there’s no running from point A to point B as the primary gameplay. After a long day’s battle, it’s a welcome reward to see more of Jeanne and her friends’ exploits.

Rally to me, Frenchies!

Speaking of Jeanne and her friends, I have come to care about them. Actually care! Jeanne is a complex character put in difficult situations, defied by supernatural powers, greedy and/or lazy nobility, and even her own countrymen, be they practical or cowardly. She is the most believable patriot character I have seen in years. Her love for France and the beauty of its culture and history makes her into a heroine, yet she is helpless and human as the French leadership shows itself unworthy of her devotion. The other characters’ love triangles and struggles of jealousy, doubt, and loyalty aren’t quite as engaging, but remain interesting.

The combat system should be familiar to most tactical RPG players. Every stage has a goal and a maximum number of characters the player can employ. The player and computer take turns. On the player’s turn, he/she takes turns moving on a grid and attacking with each of their characters. Once a character has attacked, used an ability, or used an item, that character cannot be used again that turn. When all of a player’s characters have been used in this way, their turn is over and it’s the computer’s turn to do the same with its characters. But there’s one edge the player has over the computer: transforming.

I prefer the precision of grids.

Every turn, Jeanne and the other armlet-wielders you get in your party receive 1 spirit point (SP). Once they have accumulated 3 or 4 SP, they have enough to transform into an avenging knight of heaven. Their stats increase dramatically and they gain access to a new special ability, differing depending on the individual’s armlet. But best of all, if a transformed character deals the killing blow to an enemy, they can take another turn. Since each character can only transform once per battle (or two or three, as the game progresses), strategic management of transforming is integral to the gameplay. If you waste your transformation, you will soon be overrun, but if it is used well, you’ll be mowing down enemies left and right.

Collector-type personalities will also be thrilled to hear about the skill binding system. Every character can wear equipment (weapons, armor) and a number of skills, which increases as they gain levels. When you defeat an enemy, there’s a large chance it will drop one or more of the skills they had equipped. After a certain point in the game, these skills can be fed in pairs to (wait for it) a large purple frog, who will then produce a new skill. Some of the best skills can only be gotten through this skill binding process.

There’s also a relatively minor strategic aspect of rock-paper-scissor elements. Instead of the traditional four elements, there are three – sol, luna, and stella (sun, moon, and stars). Sun beats stars, stars beat moon, moon beats sun. Most enemies and spells align to one of these elements, but the base strength of your characters remains a more important consideration than their element.

Furries. I was willing to forgive the goblins and dragons and dark elves that were summoned from Hell. I was even willing, barely, to forgive the magical armlet that causes a magical girl transformation. But furries? Come on now. I don’t need cat people and dog people and lion people and god knows what else to enjoy a game. I especially don’t need annoying-to-read furry lishpsh and prrrronunciations! Just when I start to enjoy the storytelling, in jumps a furry to screw it up. And why the giant purple frog? (Though if you love the frog, he also appears in another Level 5 RPG, Rogue Galaxy).

The writing also falls flat when it comes to the enemies in general. Okay, so the idea of an elderly advisor that is so loyal to his prince that he would summon demons is kinda cool. But the completely evil little prince doesn’t do it for me. I think a conflicted, complicated relationship between the slowly-corrupted child and the fiendishly loyal adult could be very interesting, but is left unexplored.

The cliche of burning villages... but historically accurate?

The game also has a poor difficulty curve, in that there are occasional spikes of “Maybe I am supposed to lose? Oh, game over. I guess not.” It is made more difficult by the occasional arbitrarily required characters, or other characters (that you may have come to depend on) are suddenly unavailable. None of these are new problems to the genre, but they remain frustrating.

It’s also a very linear game. There isn’t any real exploration, and what few side “free stages” there are seem ultimately pointless. I wish I had been able to find side quests or make more decisions about which stages to fight in what order.

At its core, Jeanne d’Arc is a tale of noble glory and one person’s struggle to find their own morality in a world of chaos and violence. Despite its occasionally obnoxious anime trappings, it still hints at something greater than itself, at real people in real places whose difficult decisions helped form the world we live in today.