Genre fans only.
Jeanne d'Arc was one of the most heavily hyped PSP games in 2007. Serious gamers lauded its story, art direction, and tactical options on the battlefield. I had high expectations going into Jeanne d'Arc, and unfortunately I didn't quite see what all my friends have been raving about.
Jeanne d'Arc is definitely a well-designed game, but whether it really takes hold of your imagination depends on how much you enjoy turn-based strategy games. I'm a bit on the fringe of this particular genre. While I loved GBA classics like Advance Wars and Fire Emblem, nothing here particularly resonated with me.
A mediocre storyline with cardboard characters never pulls you along in the 12 missions I played before calling it quits. Animation and art direction, on the other hand, is solid throughout. Battlefields look great for a portable game, and the fully animated mini-movies were a pleasant surprise. It's just too bad I never really cared about anything or anyone in the game to keep me motivated to press forward.
In games like this, though, it's the tactical action that should keep you playing. Turn-based games are notorious for "just one more turn" gameplay, and that coupled with RPG character-building, you'd think Jeanne d'Arc would knock it out of the park. The trouble is the variety of attacks you can perform with each of your characters isn't as wide as I wa accustomed to with stuff like Advance Wars or Fire Emblem. Each battle feels a bit like tredging through the same routine over and over, and nothing in the geography or unit selection ever makes you think out specific strategies beyond "kill 1 unit at a time", and "heal your guys", and "save your big spells for big groups".
Maybe the game gets into deeper strategic fare farther along in the game. If you're willing to put in over 10 hours to get there, kudos to you. I enjoyed what I saw of Jeanne d'Arc, but this is hardly something I'd recommended paying full price for.
