Jeanne D'Arc for PSP

Remember in the classic tale of Joan of Arc where the English and French fought, and they utilized swordsman, archers and knights? How about magic, and half-beasts and demons? Me neither - but with this very vivid re-imagining of the story in your hands, I thing most people will forgive the creative liberties taken. Jeanne d'Arc is a surprisingly deep strategy role-playing game.

Graphics: Overall, quite good. The camera spins and changes views easily and sharply, the battlefields are animated and colorful. The cut scenes are the best I have seen to date on the PSP, with quality animation that does a good job of portraying the storyline. The only thing that seems odd to me are the overly large bobble head style of the combat characters. I really don't know how else to describe it. The characters do not look bad at all - they just seem out of place with the otherwise serious tone of the rest of the game.

Sound and music: Again, pretty good. The music can be a little repetitive in places, looping almost endlessly at times. It is not bad - it just lacks variety at times. The voice acting is solid during the cut scenes, complimenting the quality animation as well to help advance the storyline. The sound effects while in the battlefield are appropriate with all of the right bells and whistles to make combat a bit more varied and interesting.

Game play: I have no real complaints in this area either. The camera moves easily, menus are easy to navigate and you can move the characters around quite easily. There are plenty of help tutorials along the way and with enough time, it is a game that can be beaten. It also makes use of a quicksave feature - a sometimes controversial option to save during a game, but once you load that save it deletes. You can have as many saves in between scenes as you would like, but the quicksave is meant to make the game a bit harder, and prevent people (like me) from saving constantly and reducing the game's challenge. It really does not bother me much, but it may annoy some.

Intangibles: Plenty of good to be had here as well. There are not a ton of turn based strategy games out there, and few as good as this one. The game feels pretty well-balanced, the characters are interesting and there is a lot of flexibility in how these characters develop. The characters gain levels with experience like in most games of this nature. However, skills are not learned automatically through the leveling process. Instead special stones are found that can be used to fill slots on the characters. Some add additional stat gains, some add new skills and spells. There is also a rather addicting skill binding subset of the game. You can mix certain stones and create new ones from the combination. There is a balance to the basic classes in the game as well. Some use swords and can use shields. Others use knives and have a higher chance of critical strikes. Those with lances can hit two characters in a straight line, but their lack of shield makes them easier to damage, and archers can do some long range strikes but lack shields and the ability to counter attack. The game feels deep and polished and most importantly; it is a lot of fun for fans of this genre.

Overall the game scores five out of five stars for me. I grew up loving games like Warsong, Shining Force and Final Fantasy Tactics. This game delivers comparably good times and from top to bottom is a quality endeavor by its creators.