Jeanne D'arc
by Sony Computer Entertainment
Our Price: $29.99
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Buy Used: from $10.00 (click here)
Category: Video Games
See more product details and other editions
Product Summary
Brand: SonyAudio: English (Unknown)
Release Date: 2007-08-21
Platform: Sony PSP
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment
Product features:
- Command up to 7 characters at a time and embark on a crusade in a 15th century fantasy setting of ogres, dragons and magical powers
- Explore ransacked villages and battlefields with visuals and cinematics that bring the world to life
- Tactics style action with unique team-based strategy of attacks and defenses
- Combine character skills to initiate special moves and generate powerful attacks
- Control up to seven characters during battle sequences
Video Game Reviews of Jeanne D'arc
Customer Review: A well-crafted SRPG
Summary: 5 Stars
As far as Strategy Role Playing Games go, Jeanne doesn't go much outside the tried and true formula. Battles are fought on closed grids with each character moving 5-9 spaces, depending on how you customize them. The game offers a very polished take on the SRPG genre, but is bogged down by a few aspects.
Difficulty:
A lot of people whine about the difficulty of Jeanne D'arc. "It's too eeeeeaasssy" they snivel. I'm here to say that Jeanne D'arc is, in fact, an easy game. If you happen to be comparing it with moronically difficult SRPGs from days of yore. A lot of the whiners grew up with FFT, and that's okay, but what you should realise is that FFT is a very poor benchmark for a modern game (you'll know why if you've played anything over a decade old.). Jeanne D'arc's difficulty is actually at a nice level for modern games; you can progress through the story without taking a break to mine exp. Because forcing players to spend time fighting meandering battles on a different tangent than the story is so 90s.
Jeanne packs a lot of challange if you decide to abstain from free battling for exp. Think of something more difficult than pokemon, but not as crazy as FFT.
For being challenging without making me waste my time on stupid random battles, Jeanne gets an A+ for difficulty.
Customisation:
Another area where there is much whining is customisation. Personally, I don't have a problem with it. Jeanne lacks the job classes of FFT, but makes up for it with its 14 characters. You have your mages (for magic stuff), your archers (for archery), your pikemen (for attacking two squares ahead), your thief (for sneakiness and evadiness), your therions (for SMASHING), and your typical soldiers (for awesomeness). Thrown together, they form their own sort of rough job classes, and while you cannot change the class of each character, you can customise each class to reflect what you want (Screw everyone else; Colet and Jeanne get the exp.) Characters can be customized with weapons (pretty standard) and skill stones (tell me more!)
You want to know more? Fine. Each character has 5 or so skill slots (the characters grow more over time) in which you can place skill stones, granting them attacks and abilities, like more exp per enemy, health regeneration, and the ability to counter an attack without being hit. It's very nice.
You can also create new skill stones through mixing your old ones. This is important. I didn't know how awesome this system was at first, and when I found out (by creating an HP recovery III stone) I nearly wet my pants.
There are also five armlets given to, predictably, five characters, granting them the ability to change into demi-gods with big attack boosts and the ability to continue their turn if they kill an enemy. While nice to have, the armlet wielders are not essential to a good party. I got along fine ignoring 4/5 of them.
Experience system:
This is my favourite aspect of the game, which is why it gets its own section. I sincerely hope every RPG after this will rip-off this system. Instead of earning larger and larger chunks of exp to fulfill larger and larger level requirements, Jeanne does everything on a base 100 system. You need 100 exp to graduate a level. The higher the level you are, the less exp creatures give you. I loved the system because it let you see how quickly you were progressing. 5 exp? That's 5% of a level. I love it. If you're an RPG developer and you're reading this, please steal this system for your game. I won't judge you.
Battle:
Is standard SRPG battle with COUNTER! Counter is in all caps because it is one of the things I look for in an SRPG. In a lot of SRPGs, you send your character out at his/her own risk. If the enemy can reach them, they get a free hit. In Jeanne, your characters (and their enemies) won't sit around like passive babies and let the enemy hit them; they'll hit back. That said, there are ways to avoid countering, through units like the mages, pikemen, and archers, which balances things nicely.
And there are also things like burning auras and the unified defence. You use them. You like them. They add a nice dynamic. But they're no counter.
The Story:
Is corny, yes. It is every fantasy clich? rolled into one. Yes it is a mockery of history, yes the twist is predictable, yes the writers decided to write Colet's accent phonetically, yes Gilvaroth is every fantasy villain personified, but in a world where Fallout 3 can get nominated for a writing award, Jeanne D'arc is storytelling GOLD. Keep your standards at the video game writing level (that is three steps below the Nora Roberts level and one below the Twilight level) and you'll be pleasantly surprised by the story. Anime cut-scenes are well-done and the pictures that accompany the dialogue bubbles are always welcome. I love pictures.
The Bad:
Can be described in one word: waiting. Load times to save annoy me. Also, if you decide to equip HP recovery stones on all of your characters (as I did) you'll be doing a lot of waiting. At the beginning of each turn, you have to watch about a 5 second animation of your character healing. There is music, a battle cry, and little twirling stars. And when you have 5 characters out, it can get very tedious.
The conclusion:
This is the best SRPG I've played so far. You'll probably like it. Unless you're an FFT fanboy directed here from War of the Lions. Then you'll be disappointed it isn't War of the Lions.
Description of Jeanne D'arc
Step into a colorful world on your PSP where history meets fantasy. Take part in a mystical story inspired by the legendary Joan of Arc, where players will explore a fantasy setting filled with ogres, dragons, and magical powers. The game brings numerous animated in-game cutscenes that bring the world to life. The game's background story begins far in the past, during a long war where dark gods attempted to use their demon armies to enter the human world. Five brave heroes create armlets to restrain the demon gods. You play as Jeanne as a 17-year-old girl. Voices encourage you to defeat the monster and take up the legacy and emblem of the five heroes. Together with friends Lian and Roger, you take up the cause to lead France towards victory against attacking demons and the English army. With more than 40 hours of 3D turn-based RPG gameplay, you will acquire multiple characters during your adventure and use them within each battle, combining skills to create powerful combat strikes. An intricate grid-based tactical combat system and colorful characters are brought to life through animated in-game cut scenes, set in a detailed magical world. Each character is associated with a specific weapon type including swords, axes, bows, knives, shields, spears, wands and whips Each character has the ability to use special skills exclusive to their weapon type Discover powerful weapons as you progress through the game Customize characters with more than 150 different skills and abilities, including magic spells and special attacks to boost overall statsAll Games
Computer and Video Games
Bestsellers in All Games
LocoRoco 2Sony; Sony Computer Entertainment; Release date: 2009-02-10; Sony PSP; Video Games
Best price: $15.98
Price in other shops:
Syphon Filter: Logan's ShadowSony; Sony Computer Entertainment; Release date: 2007-10-02; Sony PSP; Video Games
Best price: $12.49
Price in other shops:
Grand Theft Auto Vice City StoriesRockstar Games; Rockstar Games; Release date: 2006-10-30; Sony PSP; Video Games
Best price: $10.99
Price in other shops:
MLB '09Sony; Sony Computer Entertainment; Release date: 2009-03-03; Sony PSP; Video Games
Best price: $29.99
Price in other shops:
Sega Genesis CollectionSega Of America, Inc.; Sega Of America, Inc.; Release date: 2006-11-16; Sony PSP; Video Games
Best price: $6.66
Price in other shops:
Patapon 2Sony; Sony Computer Entertainment; Release date: 2009-05-05; Sony PSP; Video Games
Best price: $19.99
Resistance: RetributionSony; Sony Computer Entertainment; Release date: 2009-03-17; Sony PSP; Video Games
Best price: $28.95
Price in other shops:
Grand Theft Auto Liberty City StoriesRockstar Games; Rockstar Games; Release date: 2006-06-15; Sony PSP; Video Games
Best price: $10.99
Price in other shops:
God of War Chains of OlympusSony; Sony Computer Entertainment; Release date: 2008-03-04; Sony PSP; Video Games
Best price: $14.99
Price in other shops:
Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VIISquare Enix; Square Enix; Release date: 2008-03-25; Sony PSP; Video Games
Best price: $17.82
Price in other shops:
Similar Video and PC Games
Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4Atlus; Atlus; Release date: 2008-12-09; PlayStation2; Video Games
Best price: $36.90
Price in other shops:
PSP Daxter Entertainment Pack - Ice SilverSony; Sony; Release date: 2007-09-06; Sony PSP; Video Games
Best price: $248.50
God of War Chains of OlympusSony; Sony Computer Entertainment; Release date: 2008-03-04; Sony PSP; Video Games
Best price: $13.99
Price in other shops:
PataponSony; Sony Computer Entertainment; Release date: 2008-02-27; Sony PSP; Video Games
Best price: $14.20
Price in other shops:
PSP 2000 Console - Piano BlackSony; Sony; Release date: 2007-09-27; Sony PSP; Video Games
Price in other shops:
Castlevania: The Dracula X ChroniclesKonami; Konami; Release date: 2007-10-23; Sony PSP; Video Games
Best price: $13.44
Price in other shops:
Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VIISquare Enix; Square Enix; Release date: 2008-03-25; Sony PSP; Video Games
Best price: $16.50
Price in other shops:
Brave Story: New TravelerXseed; Xseed; Release date: 2007-07-31; Sony PSP; Video Games
Best price: $17.99
Price in other shops:
Disgaea: Afternoon of DarknessNIS America; Atlus; Release date: 2007-10-30; Sony PSP; Video Games
Best price: $34.75
Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the LionsSquare Enix; Square Enix; Release date: 2007-10-09; Sony PSP; Video Games
Best price: $15.00
Price in other shops: