PSP Reviews – PSP Console, Games & Accessories

Dynasty Warriors

Dynasty Warriors takes players back in time when chaos ruled Ancient China. Equipped with powerful weapons and their strategic wits, they must fight their way through grand battlefields populated with enemy hordes. Strategy and war form a complex relationship where you battle through vast lands and against impossible odds. A full roster of 42 generals and commandants are there for you to choose and to oppose.

User Ratings and Reviews

3 Stars Good game, but save your money…
I played this game a lot when the PSP first came out. And admittedly, it provided me with hours of enjoyment, and it seemed like a fresh take on the Dynasty Warriors gameplay — albeit the fresh take, visually separating tactics from strategy, was implemented in part to address some of the constraints of the portable platform.

However, the PSP has matured a bit since this game has been released, and there are now other games available (notably Warriors Orochi) that take the elements that made this game fun and take them to the next level.

So if you’re looking for a Dynasty Warriors game for the PSP, try some of the newer ones first. Then, once you’ve exhausted them, either come back to this one or wait for a newer one still.

3 Stars Trying
As a fan of the Dynasty and Samurai Warrior series, picking this game up when I got a psp was a no brainer. The graphics are pretty good and basically on par with the playstation 2. There are times of slowdown however that can be frustrating. What makes this game different from the ps2 version is the way the battlefield is broken up into a number of strategic squares. I think this does serve well for having a short series of mini battles that someone who wants to play a quick game on the go. For me, I didn’t really care for this style. I found it took away more from the game than it added. The game itself can be a bit repetitive, unless you really love fighting wave after wave of basically the same enemies just to unlock a new bodyguard here and there. This is a decent entry in the series, but it is far from being one of the better tries by Koei.

5 Stars Dynasty Warriors for PSP
This game is action packed and lots of fun to play.

What makes it different from the other DW games, is that you can choose your location and have 1-4 body guards.

3 Stars Pretty good game
This game isn’t as fun as the console’s but if you want to play dynasty warriors on the go than this is the best choice. Its ok but its got a different style of gameplay than the console versions. You go into these things called liberation battles, and just travel around a map going to liberation battles, taking over a area, until you occupy the whole thing than you just go onto the next big map and do it again.

I liked this game because the dynasty warriors series is my favorite series of game for the ps2 and I always thought of how awesome it would be to be able to take it on the go with me practically anywhere i was. Well i got a psp for christmas and this game was my first buy. I dont really regret buying in because i got it for about $13.00 which is around hwo much I think its worth. $15-17 at most would be what I think about this games worth. So my final words are if you can find this game for under $20 and you love the console games than buy this.

3 Stars Dynasty Warriors for PSP is not as good as console Dynasty Warriors.
Simply put, this Dynasty Warriors game for the PSP is not as fun as the other games for the PS2 and the Xbox. It is just a little too different than the original. It is a good substitute when one can not play it, such as on the road, but not very good if the original can be played. The originals are always better.

Buy/More Info

Jeanne Darc

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 stats

User Ratings and Reviews

5 Stars Deserves 5 stars!
Jeanne D’Arc is a very good tactical rpg. I am not gonna go one about every detail like others do, there are a ‘few’ flaws, but all games have them. But, what I can say is, this game has an engrosing storyline, together with very addictive gameplay and is just very well put together.

To all those pointy-hat rpg fans out there (like me!) considering buying this game; you know when you play an rpg and you are left with that ‘oh i so want more!’ or ‘when’s the sequel?!’ feeling when you complete it, well thats what Jeanne D’Arc gives you.

5 Stars Extreme fun to feed my RPG addiction!
Jeanne D’Arc is a fabulous game. Everything about it just shines. It is true it doesn’t stretch the genre (Tactical RPG) or provide anything really new or innovative. That’s o.k. with me because I just wanted to have loads of fun with a game and not with figuring out a new idea or concept. After Avalon Code for the DS (which was very new, unique, and innovative although not a tactical game) I was ready for some good old fashioned tactical gameplay. Jeanne delivers in spades.

The graphics are excellent. The cut scenes were extremely well done to include the voice acting (not so much common in RPG’s). The story was interesting–it started off more historical but then threw a bunch of fantasy components in–so those who want a true historical game will be disappointed. Killing trolls, ogres, and mages? Count me in as I’m all sorts of good with that.

Gameplay is truly where this beauty of a game shines–the controls are exceptionally tight. The menu and battle systems are top notch–clear, easy to understand and use, and fairly intuitive. My only (admittedly minor) complaints would be shopping for equiptment and weapons requires you to use the L/R button to scroll through characters and feels a bit awkward at first and that sometimes the little box on the left (your characters stats and info) that appears on the screen when you select that character for movement obscures your view of the field (they would have been better putting it on top left instead of bottom left).

I found it easy to get into–with a little more “meat” than some others–there is some story you have to get through the first hour or so and I recommend when you start you allocate like 2 hours for play time. After that it is not difficult to pick up and play for whatever period you can–there are regular saves on the map and a quick save in battle. A note that, like other tactical RPG’s, the battles can be short 10 minute affairs or longer 25-40 minute affairs–depends on a variety of factors so consider this aspect as well.

The difficulty level is not really high–but there were places where underleveling could cause you major issues. I had a very tough time with the escort mission around Stage 10 but I went and leveled up and then it became doable for me.

At the current pricepoint this game would be my top pick (along with the 2 Star Ocean games and Brave Story) for the PSP in the field of RPG that someone without a ton of RPG experience should pick up. Do yourself a favor and don’t miss out on this one!

5 Stars A well-crafted SRPG
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.

4 Stars Solid SRPG for the PSP
I got this game maybe a month ago and I love it. Its very addicting and will keep you busy on a long ride. The story is neat and different. Its not your traditional srpg story. Its actually based on Joan of Arc. To be honest I really didnt care much for Joan of Arc stories during history class, but this game made it way more interesting even though it has fictional monsters in it. Its a really simple SRPG system as well. One of the better things I liked about it was that dialog wasnt just portraits of characters talking to each other all the time with a lame picture of scenery (which I cant stand). It actually shows character models with body language in 3d. The anime cutscenes are very well animated too.

The game can get frustrating though…I just cannot stand the escort missions. You will not get to control whoever you escort. Sometimes they end up walking straight towards enemies, end up getting killed and MISSION FAILED!

All in all I like this game alot and its totally worthy of a buy.

5 Stars Oh Jeanne!
Just the best… great game and value. I was addicted to this game after the first 30 min. Thanks and Enjoy

Buy/More Info

Wild Arms XF

The once vibrant world of Filgaia is slowly dying, a result of some cataclysmic event lost in the dim, misty reaches of the past. The few pathetic remnants of once mighty nations are caught up in an endless cycle of war, fighting over Filgaia’s ever dwindling natural resources. Amidst the carnage and slow decay, there is one kingdom that has until recently managed to avoid the chaos and suffering plaguing its neighbors; the kingdom of Eleusinis.

However, the kingdom is slowly descending into anarchy with the king inflicted with a mysterious illness that has kept him bed-ridden, intensifying the future uncertainty as the heir-apparent disappeared a year earlier and is presumed to have been murdered. An opportunistic senate has formed its own police force and is gradually usurping power from the royal family.

It is against this backdrop of political intrigue and social decay that the main character Clarissa Avir, accompanied by her half-brother and protector, Felius, enter Eleusinis hot on the trail of Rupert Dandridge, the man who murdered her mother. What started out as a personal vendetta soon turns into an epic battle to not only keep a kingdom from falling, but to save the world of Filgaia from being turned into an uninhabitable wasteland.

Key Features:

• Innovative hex-based battle grid system allows more tactical positioning options, such as Formation Arts and Combination Arts, as opposed to the traditional square-based battle grid.
• One of the deepest strategy games on the PSP system with over 60 stages containing a wide array of mission objectives, as well as numerous optional battles.
• Almost endless party customization with over 20 unique job classes to choose from such as Berserker, Elementalist, Grappler, Geomancer and Sacred Slayer.
• Extensive material creation options to create more powerful weapons, spell books and armor by combining rare materials obtained by sending out hired mercenaries to scavenge throughout the world of Filgaia.
• US-exclusive inclusion of a Music Library containing 20 select tracks from the game accessible any time from the game menu.

User Ratings and Reviews

5 Stars I absolutely love this game.
This is probably my favorite game on PSP. I love turn-based strategy and this game is HEAVY on strategy (i.e. having to flee an imploding cave within 99 turns). Many of the levels are puzzle-like and require you play through more than once before you clear. Some people may find that frustrating, but I think it’s a great way to exercise your brain power.

The voice overs get a little old, especially because it sounds like the same two or three people portraying 12+ characters, but that’s really the only qualm I have with this game.

5 Stars Wild ARMs XF
this game is like ff tactics but with more fun factor. Even though its a strategy rpg,it still has the wild arms feel and the music is about 60% familar. Ive read the other 2 review and it somewhere in between. Im not sure how well it is as far as a strategy rpg, I normally play turn-based and action rpgs.I was hesitant to buy this strategy rpg But since then im totally satisfied

5 Stars A very very great game.
Do not be afraid of this game. the issue some people have with this game is that every mission it tells you how you need to win and some objectives you need certain classes. You arent just swapping classes left and right. I have only changed my classes due to mission requirements twice. I have done about 10 missions since the last time. Due to the multi classing system in this game, you can create some extremeley potent characters. When you change classes, you can equip skills from your previous class. For instance a tier one class the elementalist has simple elemental spells. When I change the class to sacred slayer and equip the elementalist spell skill, I get a much more powerful blaster. The sacred slayer gives me a big AOE attack compared to single target. also the sacred slayer has higher magic attribute(more damage).. other awesome aspects…..

If you lose a character in your party due to the story, the game will unequip them and you will keep the items, compared to losing the items.

The missions are not simply eliminate the enemy type. You have to plan how to get the upper hand, my last mission i was outnumbered 3 to 1 by enemies higher level than me, but when you take advantage of multi classing, you can catch the enemy by the boo boo.

You can synthesize to get high powered items.

all of your characters regardless of whether you are using them in battle receive experience points. I have about 10 main party members ( only can use 6 at once) but they all get xp when you win a battle.

when you lose a battle, you dont go back to where you last saved, you have the ability to retry and reorganize, which is where you can change classes, equipment, items etc…

When traveling on the map you choose when to enter an encounter, it isnt random like final fantasy tactics. When you need to level you choose, if not you are not burdened.

This game has a ridiculously huge amount of skills. Every class and their spells have completely different uses and effects.

There is formation arts, and combination arts… formation arts are when you and another comrade are in front and behind an enemy, you get more damage. combination arts….you instead of attacking the enemy, lock on to them, get as many of your party to lock on and then attack with one. The more you have locked on the bigger t he atack. Also it is an attack that has 100percent hit rate. This game is huge on that. some enemies are hard as hell to hit or do damage to. some are only weak to magic and vice versa.

U have a good look into the idea of this game. go for it/

3 Stars Had the Potential to be so Much Better
Pros:

+A Good Storyline

+Nice cast of characters

+Good soundtrack

+Fairly good voice acting

+Beautiful artwork

+Lots of customization thanks to the job system

Cons:

-Limitations of items adds more frustration than challenge

-In battle voices are annoying

-In battle graphics aren’t great

-Sometimes sound effects are off and slight hitches in framerate

-There really isn’t as much freedom as there appears to be; in many missions you must do it the way the game suggests or you’ll end up having to restart the mission

The Hex Battle System of Wild Arms 4 and 5 was a sign that Wild Arms would be a good candidate for a tactical RPG. So we get Wild Arms XF. Unfortunately, the jump to Tactical RPG just isn’t fantastic. Especially because it has to follow such well done Tactical RPGs such as Jeanne D’Arc and Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness. Wild Arms has some things going for it, but it suffers heavily in the gameplay department.

Wild Arms XF begins in the middle of the action. You’re introduced to Clarissa and her brother Felius. They’re both confronting a man named Rupert, who has stolen their mother’s sword and plans to use it for some evil doings. Rupert gets away and so Clarissa and Felius follow Rupert to the continent of Elesius where a case of mistaken identity gets Clarissa involved in a political struggle over power and rule. The story as you can imagine is filled with a lot of political happenings and jargon. Yet for what it’s worth the story actually isn’t bad. The problem, however, is whether or not you’ll be able to get the story to progress.

The game makes good use of the series Hex Battle system in a tactical way. Like every other Tactical RPG out there, you’ll move and execute attacks. Like Final Fantasy Tactics, there’s a job system active in Wild Arms XF. However, these aren’t the same old “Knight” and “Monk” type of jobs. They’re jobs like “Elementists” who cast elemental magic spells and Fantastica that use support spells. You’ll start the game with four basic classes. In addition to that, each of the story mode characters has a class completely unique to them. You’re able to learn abilities from each of the jobs and use them with other jobs upon doing so. If you’re familiar with the job system of Final Fantasy Tactics, then you’re already more than prepared to tackle Wild Arms XF. At least you would be were it not for the games shortcomings in the gameplay department.

Wild Arms has generally been a series that tries to separate itself from the crowd. Needless to say XF tries to do so as well, however this is in the worst way. Your characters have a stock of HP and MP, but they also have what is called VP. VP stands for Vitality Points, and it drops with each turn. When your VP runs out, your HP starts dropping each turn. This little tactic was thrown in as a way to make you get through battles faster (or for the sake of being more realistic, I don’t know). However, it becomes more annoying than anything else.

What’s even worse about the gameplay is the layout of the stages and the missions themselves. All the missions have certain objectives. Most of the time it is to defeat all the enemies, but on occasion you’ll get special missions such as to free villagers from jail or to escort villagers across a map. These missions however, aren’t as fun and can sometimes be a test in frustration.

Another major issue with Wild Arms is simply that there isn’t as much freedom as the player thinks there is. Before each missions begins, you’ll get an overview of the mission itself and hear suggestions on what you need to do. In most RPGs where suggestions are thrown at you by the characters you can usually get by fine without using them. Wild Arms XF, however, almost demands that you do. In many cases, if you don’t, the mission doesn’t just raise up a little in difficulty, it actually goes sky high. Some missions can’t even be completed without taking their suggestions. It’s alright to give suggestions, but it seems downright wrong to punish the player for not taking them. Luckily, you can always restart a mission. And you’ll probably have to. The game doesn’t just encourage you to use certain classes in a mission, it actually demands that you do. Using certain classes feels more forced, especially early in the game.

An even bigger problem is probably that some missions seem more like they’re dependent on trial and error rather than actual strategy. Not luck, just trial and error. Wild Arms XF clearly has a right and wrong way to do things but there isn’t much variation in how you can do those things. It’s takes the game’s suggestion or bust. While some may like this idea of trial and error, memorization and brain teasing, others may feel restricted that there isn’t much freedom to go about the mission the way you see fit. It just seems wrong that not doing what the game suggest means you could fail a mission or have to restart. It brings about an unusual imbalance to the games structure.

There are also little things in the gameplay that can make it frustrating. The amount of times your attacks will miss some of your enemies is incredibly frustrating. Another aspect is the limitation of items. Characters can only equip a certain number of items when going into battle. This wouldn’t be such a big problem if you weren’t forced to mow through those items so fast.

At the very least, however, Wild Arms XF does present a good challenge. Much of it is from frustration, but you’ll be surprised at the amount of thinking that is required to win each battle. Unfortunately, each battle feels like a test, and it makes Wild Arms XF far less fun to play than other Strategy RPGs.

On the other hand, the game does have some amazing artwork. The story is told through cutscenes similar to the ones you see in Disgaea. Usually you’ll see a portrait of the characters partaking in the event talking in front of a background. These moments are stunning to look at. There’s a lot of anime inspired art here. In battle itself doesn’t look too amazing, however. It’s very colorful and decorated, with a lot of meticulous attention given to detail, but it hardly showcases what the PSP can do. The game looks like it could’ve been released on the Gameboy Advance. It also hurts the game that it doesn’t run smoothly. There are times when there will be slight hitches in the frame rate. There are also moments when sound effects (notably the character’s battle cries) are off.

Despite all that, the game sure sounds good. There’s a ton of good music here. There’s also some voice acting in the cutscenes and most of it isn’t bad. There are some moments when there could’ve been much more emotion, but often the voice acting isn’t all that bad. If you’re not satisfied with the English voice overs, there’s an option to change the voices to Japanese. Characters also have voices in battle. At first this isn’t so bad, but it quickly becomes annoying. Luckily, you’re able to turn these voices off.

The PSP has a fair share of RPGs and Tactical RPGs. Wild Arms XF is a game that had so much potential to be so much better. Even die hard Wild Arms fans may not take much of a shine to it. The game has an incredible story, incredible artwork and an incredible soundtrack, but those things can’t make up for the dissatisfying gameplay.

Buy/More Info

Jeanne Darc

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 stats

User Ratings and Reviews

5 Stars Deserves 5 stars!
Jeanne D’Arc is a very good tactical rpg. I am not gonna go one about every detail like others do, there are a ‘few’ flaws, but all games have them. But, what I can say is, this game has an engrosing storyline, together with very addictive gameplay and is just very well put together.

To all those pointy-hat rpg fans out there (like me!) considering buying this game; you know when you play an rpg and you are left with that ‘oh i so want more!’ or ‘when’s the sequel?!’ feeling when you complete it, well thats what Jeanne D’Arc gives you.

5 Stars Extreme fun to feed my RPG addiction!
Jeanne D’Arc is a fabulous game. Everything about it just shines. It is true it doesn’t stretch the genre (Tactical RPG) or provide anything really new or innovative. That’s o.k. with me because I just wanted to have loads of fun with a game and not with figuring out a new idea or concept. After Avalon Code for the DS (which was very new, unique, and innovative although not a tactical game) I was ready for some good old fashioned tactical gameplay. Jeanne delivers in spades.

The graphics are excellent. The cut scenes were extremely well done to include the voice acting (not so much common in RPG’s). The story was interesting–it started off more historical but then threw a bunch of fantasy components in–so those who want a true historical game will be disappointed. Killing trolls, ogres, and mages? Count me in as I’m all sorts of good with that.

Gameplay is truly where this beauty of a game shines–the controls are exceptionally tight. The menu and battle systems are top notch–clear, easy to understand and use, and fairly intuitive. My only (admittedly minor) complaints would be shopping for equiptment and weapons requires you to use the L/R button to scroll through characters and feels a bit awkward at first and that sometimes the little box on the left (your characters stats and info) that appears on the screen when you select that character for movement obscures your view of the field (they would have been better putting it on top left instead of bottom left).

I found it easy to get into–with a little more “meat” than some others–there is some story you have to get through the first hour or so and I recommend when you start you allocate like 2 hours for play time. After that it is not difficult to pick up and play for whatever period you can–there are regular saves on the map and a quick save in battle. A note that, like other tactical RPG’s, the battles can be short 10 minute affairs or longer 25-40 minute affairs–depends on a variety of factors so consider this aspect as well.

The difficulty level is not really high–but there were places where underleveling could cause you major issues. I had a very tough time with the escort mission around Stage 10 but I went and leveled up and then it became doable for me.

At the current pricepoint this game would be my top pick (along with the 2 Star Ocean games and Brave Story) for the PSP in the field of RPG that someone without a ton of RPG experience should pick up. Do yourself a favor and don’t miss out on this one!

5 Stars A well-crafted SRPG
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.

4 Stars Solid SRPG for the PSP
I got this game maybe a month ago and I love it. Its very addicting and will keep you busy on a long ride. The story is neat and different. Its not your traditional srpg story. Its actually based on Joan of Arc. To be honest I really didnt care much for Joan of Arc stories during history class, but this game made it way more interesting even though it has fictional monsters in it. Its a really simple SRPG system as well. One of the better things I liked about it was that dialog wasnt just portraits of characters talking to each other all the time with a lame picture of scenery (which I cant stand). It actually shows character models with body language in 3d. The anime cutscenes are very well animated too.

The game can get frustrating though…I just cannot stand the escort missions. You will not get to control whoever you escort. Sometimes they end up walking straight towards enemies, end up getting killed and MISSION FAILED!

All in all I like this game alot and its totally worthy of a buy.

5 Stars Oh Jeanne!
Just the best… great game and value. I was addicted to this game after the first 30 min. Thanks and Enjoy

Buy/More Info

Jeanne Darc

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 stats

User Ratings and Reviews

3 Stars Doesn’t quite scratch the RPG itch
This game is a bittersweet mix. The good parts include compelling, beautiful cutscenes, a fun and flexible character customization system, and combat that has a lot of enjoyable elements. But the quality of the game is cut short by sub-cutscenes with meaningless, cheesy dialogue, an overly large party, a lack of plot elements, and some glaring limitations in the combat system.

The cut-scenes are by far the most beautiful piece of the game. They are done in very professional anime and have excellent voice acting. It’s a joy to watch. Unfortunately, right after one of those scenes ends, there’s usually a follow-on cutscene that uses blocky, bobble-head characters speaking in dialogue bubbles. Often the bubble-encased dialogue goes like this:

Jeanne: “Roger!”

Roger: “…!”

Jeanne: “…”

Roger: “What the…?”

Jeanne: “!!!”

And so it goes on ad nauseum, ad infinitum. The sub-cutscenes play like they were written not for children, but rather BY children. It’s disappointing and annoying. The characters end up more like characitures; historical figures are portrayed in an embarassingly childish manner. This really hamstrings any potential drama, intensity, or impact the story could have.

The character customization system is good. It’s fun to play dress-up with one’s party and get them outfitted with the most battle-specific toys. Unfortunately, that’s really what the game ends up being: you outfit your party for battle and fight, then comes a terrible bobblehead sub-cutscene that is painful to read, then occasionally a nice anime cutscene. There are no real plot choices, there’s nothing to do outside of battle, and since the battles are turn-limited you can’t even really explore the battle map thoroughly for hidden treasures. This really is a game of combat.

The combat itself is fun to a large degree, but the maps can get quite large or hard to navigate, and the characters can only move a few tiles at a time. This makes for annoyance rather than excitement, and sometimes you’ll lose a battle just for the sake of time running out.

Another negative aspect to the game is the party, over which you have no control who comes and goes. You may spend the whole game developing a character, only for that character to die in a cutscene or just up and leave. There are also so many characters (most of whom you won’t use)that the experience points are stretched rather thin.

I was looking for a solid RPG for the PSP, and this is definitely not it. It does get quite addictive though, and if you can ignore the shortcomings it can be good entertainment.

5 Stars Amazing game
I love this game, I wish it was longer, I want to keep playing! I was on the fence for a while about buying this, but now it’s the only psp game I play at the moment. Someday I will dust off crisis core and continue with that, but for now Jean D’ARC is my game. I do recommend this title to anyone who likes strategy RPG’s.

4 Stars A surprisingly good game with a strange historical inspiration.
Jeanne D’arc is one of those games that I initially blew off. The cover art and basic premise of the game left me really skeptical about the quality of game that was contained within. I have to say that I am glad one of my friends showed this game to me because I otherwise would have ignored it.

Basically, Jeanne D’arc is a fantasy retelling of the Joan of Arc legend and the 100 years war. I’ll admit, it took a bit of getting used to seeing the great deal of liberty taken with the story, but overall it is quite good. The game is a turn based strategy game a la Final Fantasy Tactics, Tactics Ogre, Vandal Hearts, and Fire Emblem games. As far as turn based strategy games go, I have to say this game ranks among the best and fans of the genre should pick it up.

Pros:

+ Vibrant graphics (usually)

+ Compelling (albeit quite weird) storyline told with animated cutscenes.

+ A deep character customization system that doesn’t require users to micromanage for hours on end to build the perfect party.

+ The ability to go into free-battle mode on a number of maps in order to gain treasure and experience.

+ Individual battles are usually fairly quick, ideal for portable play.

+ Some absurd but funny French and English stereotypes.

Cons:

– The frame rate is kind of jerky at times

– For history buffs, seeing Joan of Arc fighting orcs, lizardmen, and dark elves takes a little bit of getting used to.

– Some levels have atmospheric effects such as fog that look just plain ugly.

– Some absurd stereotypes and a few really annoying character designs that make you say “Hmmmmmm…”

– The menu controls are not as intuitive as other games in the genre

– Battles usually limit you to a small number of characters on the battlefield. On the plus side, battles don’t drag on forever and ever.

Overall, this is an excellent game and I recommend it to anyone who enjoys the strategy RPG genre. The game obviously contains some very religious overtones due to the source material (Joan of Arc) but approaches the subject in a relatively inoffensive manner.

1 Star Yuck…
Fun?! ZERO

Since I can’t properly rate this, I’ll have to rate it here in the commentary.

How much fun is this game?………. ZERO ZERO ZERO ZERO ZERO

How do you rate this game overall? ZERO ZERO ZERO ZERO ZERO

The story may be fine in my opinion of what little I’ve seen in this bought game, but the game mechanics itself is AWFUL! You’re allowed only a set of a few turns on every map and I’ll understand that if the map’s conditions require it. Like if I have to get out of the area before backup for the bad guys show up and such…

But EVERY STICKING Map has this turn limit in IT!!! I truly enjoyed the PSX Final Fantasy Tactics, because the creators knew of that idea and limited the turn limit to a few nerve racking stages. Good Lord those d’arc idiots didn’t have the common sense to have a menu selection option to shut down this insane concept!

>:<

4 Stars A nice looking JSRPG that is only held back by slow pacing.
Lets face it, even some of the greatest JSRPGs of all time can be a bit slow. (FFT,Disgaea) Jeanne D’arc also suffers from this issue, the problem is magnified however by the CPU AI taking a very long time to complete even the most basic of turns like a “wait, wait, move 2 squares,wait, attack” etc…

The game has very sharp and cute graphics one would expect from this noted developer. Unfortunately we are stuck with only 2 perspectives, far away, and very far away. This results in a sometimes obstructed view of the battlefield.

Another issue, while there is auto leveling of characters you do not use, they don’t level nearly enough and you will find yourself either completely ignoring 2-5 characters or wasting time leveling up in free combat.

The game does provide customizable characters in a sense that you have skill slots and the ability to fuse skill gems into other skills. The problem is the first time you fuse 2, you don’t know the outcome. This can often result in a final gem that you don’t want or need and a wasted powerful/useful gem.

This is further magnified by the inability to change class types. I had many fighter types, far more than I needed by chapter II and no ability to change them to casters. You can slot them w/ caster abilities and it works ok, except you won’t have access to the “staff” weapon type which also allows more caster abilities.

I am really nitpicking and you can see how the developers really focused on balance. Battles have a turn limit. No more infinite leveling up like in FFT etc…, you must finish the battle in say 12 or 20 turns (larger battles allow more turns)

Many of these battles can become too easy once you discover fusing skill gems. Unfortunately the process of fusing skill gems consists of selecting one gem, selecting a second, pressing a button and then watching the animation of a frog swallow, chew and spew a new one. This animation can take a few seconds each time. It doesnt sound like much, but when you want to create say a +100 hp gem and are starting with +25 it can quickly add up to a sizable amount of playtime for a portable game.

By the time you are done “binding skills” as the game calls it, your train ride may be over.

Even tho I find these flaws a real drag to the pacing, overall this is a very addictive, visually pleasing and fun game w/ a neat spin on one of histories most classic war fantasies of a young girl called by god to liberate a nation.

Throw in some monsters and anthropomorphic beasts and its a very Dragon Quest looking RPG that can be quite cute and enjoyable.

Definitely a game for JSRPG fans only, and those with patience for battles that are slowed down by pointless CPU AI not moving quickly enough.

Buy/More Info