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Jeanne D’Arc

With the release of Jeanne d’Arc, we are witnessing what could be the PSP’s “turnaround” moment. It comes for just about every handheld console. Take GameBoy Advance, for example. The platform was successful enough in its early days but none of the GBA games seemed that much more advanced, that much more ambitious, than the GameBoy Color; not really. Then, along came Final Fantasy Tactics Advance for GBA, delivering a 100+ hours of game play and beautiful graphics that left no question in the player’s mind that “GBC could not remotely achieve this,” and from that point on the GBA put previous GameBoy platforms in its dust.

With the release of Jeanne d’Arc, we may be witnessing Sony’s FFTA moment for their PlayStation Portable handheld platform. The look of the game far surpasses any previous PSP game, achieving an eye-candy level beyond even the best-looking games ever released on PSP. It’s a game that goes beyond the ambitions on the platform of all previous releases and sets a standard that leaves no doubt that PSP is capable of much more than PSone port-level games.

Of course, it helps that Level 5, makers of last winter’s smash-hit RPG, Rogue Galaxy, and the previous holiday season’s mega-seller, Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King, are the brain-wizards behind this title. The team has shown a penchant for pushing various hardware platforms beyond previously-believed limits, and Jeanne d’Arc, the company’s take on the legendary tale of French resistance fighter and “holy warrior,” Joan of Arc, is no exception.

Let it be said that very little about the game has changed since we previewed the title earlier this summer. The game looks absolutely stunning and no other title on PSP even comes close – not even Metal GearSolid: Portable Ops. Also, it plays like a dream. Jeanne d’Arc is a Tactics-style RPG, and adheres to all the best strategies that makes that niche genre so appealing, such as the difference in the type of terrain you’re situated on when attacking, whether you’re attacking an enemy unit front-on, from the side or from behind; elevation differences, and more.

However, the experience is much more pleasant on PSP than any previous Tactics-style RPG released on PSP. My previous personal favorite was Spectral Souls, but while that NIS America title was solid on game play, it was plagued by some of the worst loading time delays I’ve ever encountered in a videogame on any platform. Attack? Wait for it to load. Counter-attack from the enemy? Wait for it to load. Speak some dialog? Even more loading time. Literally, that game made you wait 5-15 seconds to do anything and everything. Not so with Jeanne d’Arc; one load delay will be enough to get you through an entire battle or an entire cutscene. This is as it should be, and Jeanne d’Arc proves it is possible.

Basing an RPG on such a well-know episode in western European history might be a disconcerting experience for some gamers. That’s an experience most Japanese gamers are more accustomed to, though the historical antecedents for most RPGs are missed completely by western gamers. Cheers to Level-5 for offering that kind of experience to the rest of us.

Some touchier gamers may not appreciate the amount of artistic license taken with an episode many believe to be not just part of western history, but part of their religious heritage as well. Perhaps they’ll cry foul over the use of Joan at all; perhaps they’ll resent the monsters and such she battles as cruel characterizations of the British; perhaps they’ll be offended by the way Joan’s “talks with God” are rendered. It’s all a bit hard to predict, but think about it for a moment; did anyone ever think “Brave Fencer” Musashi ever battled real demons? Of course not. It’s a fictionalization of history; accept it and relax and enjoy.

Enjoyment will quickly become a key word for Jeanne d’Arc. Nearly everything about the title is fresh and a bit different from previous Level-5 titles. The game presents Jeanne as a typical RGP hero, motivated to get away from her roots and go on a mission; that her mission is a “mission from God” may be a bit too “Blues Brothers” for some, that motivation is one of the elements most solidly based on real history.

Some of the Level-5 quirkiness does show up, though. For example, one character who joins Jeanne’s cause speaks with a glaringly cliché French accent. Think about that for a moment. Jeanne is a native of France. So are all her allies. They’d ALL be speaking the exact same way, with the exact same accent. (And is there a “French accent” when you’re speaking French? Ah well, let’s not ponder such weighty matters while perusing such a fun title.

One kinda-creepy note. I did a little research on some of the supporting case, on the Web, and found out that one of Jeanne’s compatriots in the game, a guy names Gilles, is another historical character. In fact, the real-life Gilles was a military leader who was drummed out of the French army when it was learned (or at least accused) that he was prone to taking young, preteen boys into his… “company.” Knowing that makes it kind of creepy every time you have Gilles change form and shout, “I can find the miracle within me!” Makes me want to respond, “Keep your miracle right where it belongs, Creepy-Gilles!” But I digress…

Disturbing real-life Jeanne ally aside, let it be said that Level-5 did at least some of their homework and mixed in a fair amount of historical characters along with fictional “cast enhancements.” The story told with this bag of mixed nuts is – typical of the Tactics-RPG genre – one of the most detailed and involved ever told on a PSP.

The game’s systems will not be foreign to any veteran of this genre, though certain enhancements add some freshness to the mix. For example, when bracelet-wearing heroes strike down an enemy in a single blow with in “spiritual” form, they get a second turn in the same round. Called the “one more” system, the game will actually let your character keep taking these extra turns uninterrupted until you strike an enemy that doesn’t fall to your sword in one single strike.

Heck, there’s even a bit more voice acting than the average PSP RPG contains, and just when you start to think the game is about to end, or it’s about to get too easy, things change. Heck, after one chapter I completed recently ended, I thought the game might finally be starting to get old on me before I could finish it; but the very next battle I faced after the chapter changed was one that wiped my party out and forced me to load from previous save for the first time in 10s of hours of gameplay. So the difficulty level clearly ramps up at chapter transitions to keep you challenged.

All in all, Jeanne d’Arc just doesn’t have any noticeable weak points. I really believe it is a game that can create a PSP renaissance. It quite simply is a must-own for every PSP owner, whether you typically enjoy turn-based Tactics-style RPGs or not.

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Posted by Craig "American Idle" Hansen on Aug 16th, 2007 and is filed under PSP Reviews, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can post a comment, or trackback from your own site.

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