Jeanne D’Arc is a beautiful strategy RPG that you’ll find tough to put down.  The production value is high and the anime style cutscenes are well done.  The strategy formula will be very familiar to anyone that has played games like Final Fantasy Tactics and the like.  There isn’t anything ground breaking in the game play but it is well executed and balanced.

The retelling of the story of Joan of Arc in a fantasy setting is a creative twist and they do a good job of making it a story that draws you in early in the game.  The good storytelling combined with the high quality anime cut scenes keeps your anticipation high and you find yourself in a situation of just “one more level” before you finally have to make yourself put it down.  The battlefield you play on are beautiful and you have plenty of control over viewing angle.  You can spin the board using the analog thumb control and zoom in tight to view the action.  This is important in strategy games as viewing angles can make or break this genre.

The AI seemed decent and pulled some unexpected moves that I hadn’t seen before.  I had 2 characters engaged in battle with an enemy and I had my weakest character guarding the rear and healing.  The AI chose to go disengage it’s combat with my 2 and go after the rear guard.  Most AI would have targeted one of the 2 it was already engaged with and usually the one with the lowest health.  I nearly lost my rear guard before he was finished off.  I look forward to playing further into this game and seeing if this was merely a random element or good AI programming.

Jeanne D’Arc is a game that is well worth the money and time to play.  If you are a fan of strategy games then this one you don’t want to pass up.

-Wes

This entry was posted on Monday, November 26th, 2007 at 9:03 am and is filed under Gaming, Handheld, Sections. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.