Considering the popularity and longevity of Nippon Ichi’s Disgaea series, I found it pretty bizarre just how little info I could find on La Pucelle Tactics prior to playing. Even trying to gather a consensus on how the game is recieved today, never mind back at launch, was inconclusive. As a now 20 year old game as of last week, it seems as though La Pucelle has fallen into complete obscurity, even among dedicated JRPG fans. And after playing the game myself, I feel like that’s a real damn shame.

Those who see this game through to the end will find a cohesive and emotionally gripping SRPG. A deeply human narrative filled with lovable characters. A lively and unique medieval fantasy setting and aesthetic. A soundtrack that is among my favorites on the Playstation 2. And even beyond its tone and narrative lies even a surprisingly robust tactics combat system, the likes of which sets itself apart even from Disgaea itself in a few ways.

Above all else, I have to praise the game for doing a frankly wonderful job covering its vast breadth of subject matter, both narratively and thematically; from love and acceptance, to grief, trauma, revenge, and existentialism. All within a self-contained and impressively-concise package. Well, concise for better and for worse, for it certainly still left me wanting more. But that's not always a bad thing.

The best “sell” I could give for a comparison to La Pucelle Tactics, in terms of its tone and especially in its character writing, would be "Trails in the Sky FC but a standalone game". However, despite the lofty comparison, La Pucelle’s aim and overall appeal is far different from the massive, meticulously detailed and fleshed out world of the Kiseki series. The scope of the writing and world are far more measured, telling a complete and fully realized story in around 30 hours (plus, in typical Nippon Ichi fashion, hundreds of hours of additional gameplay to take on the absurd and otherworldly powerful superbosses- though this is of course optional). While I naturally grew more attached and invested in the world/cast of Kiseki, perhaps more so than any other game series I’ve played, that’s to be expected as it spanned over 1400 hours and 12 games.

La Pucelle isn't anywhere near as refined or extensive as Kiseki--or hell, even just Sky FC--in its script quality, narrative scope, or general depth. But very few things are even if they intend to work toward a similar effect--and that's fine. Not everything has to be, and La Pucelle knows this. In that sense, I very much appreciate La Pucelle's restraint, even if I do wish it went a bit harder on character study and better exploration of its supporting cast. But for La Pucelle to be charming and deep enough of an experience to merit that comparison, even despite having released TWO whole years (!) prior to Sky FC, is nothing short of amazing. Because of that status as a predecessor to both Disgaea (directly, but in a mechanical regard) and to Sky FC (indirectly, and in a narrative and stylistic regard), it was unquestionably ahead of its time. Hell, it even has dual audio options for the original release- something that was NOT industry standard at the time, let alone for some niche console SRPG. And thank god, cuz while the dub is... fine, the original voice cast--albeit with a fairly limited pool of recordings--is excellent.

Even in spite of La Pucelle's smaller scale and early 2002 release, this game still makes a monumental impression even twenty years after its release- primarily through its charm, its heart, and through the mechanical prowise of its strategy combat system.

La Pucelle is a game I would describe as both refreshingly and deceptively simple. The contradiction is best described this way: It’s refreshingly simple because of its extremely readable and charming script. Yet, it’s deceptively simple because its tone successfully veers into more serious and dramatic territory than one would expect. Its story and characters also have quite a strong ability to subvert expectations when compared to its (mainly Disgaea) successors. But like those successors, it possesses the same robust combat mechanics and progression system right out the gates- and even goes as far as having several gameplay elements unique to it alone.

I won’t make any definitive generalizations about the first four Disgaea games since I’ve only played Disgaea 5, and that was years ago. But from my understanding, much, if not all, of the Disgaea series is thoroughly lighthearted in tone. La Pucelle, while certainly possessing some of the charm and eccentricity of later Nippon Ichi titles, is a rather serious story from beginning to end. It leans further into dramatic territory as the game progresses, but even from the very first chapter of the game, La Pucelle does not shy away from some pretty fucked up subject matter for those who dig a bit deeper into the hidden lore and missables.

The game’s biggest strength, in my opinion, is it's incredibly fun and memorable cast of characters. By the end of the game, I found myself loving all six of the main protagonists, with Prier and Homard being my personal favorites. But even the supporting cast, such as Father Salade, Papillon, and Yattanya are all great and a lot of fun to watch. Although like I said, the game’s script length is definitely on the light side. But even in spite of the cutscenes being more sparse than I would’ve liked, I loved every moment of these characters coming together. Whether it be for lighthearted and whimsical adventure, for dramatic resolution, and everything in between. I loved discovering their unique circumstances, backstories, mannerisms, dreams, motivations, etc. Perhaps the outstanding character designs helped endear me to them, but I constantly found myself wanting even more interactions between the group. Watching the complete arc characters like Prier, Croix, Culotte, and Eclair undergo as they learn and grow through their own unique struggles is something I won’t forget anytime soon.

While the character writing is perhaps my favorite thing about the game, I think the world setting is the area I was personally most disappointed by. Thankfully it isn’t given much focus in the context of the narrative- and even then, it serves its purpose solidly enough. But there is very little in the way of exploring its various cities nor learning about certain points of interest in its history. There are definitely nuggets of info you can piece together about the world’s history, primarily through the flashback sequences, but it’s not as extensive as I would’ve liked.

In terms of the actually explorable setting, Pot Au Feu City was a great start. I adore it’s comfy vibe and the gorgeous theme “While Twinkling”. The soothing piano and strings bring back memories of Final Fantasy VIII’s “Balamb Garden” and the driving acoustic guitar immediately brought to mind Final Fantasy IX’s “Village of Dali”. I also really enjoyed exploring it initially because of its unique explorative presentation. Exploration is done on an entirely 2D plane, with several points where you can move in and out of the background/foreground. Maybe this style is more common than I’m giving it credit for, but I can’t think of a single other game, let alone another SRPG, where exploration is done from a purely side-scrolling perspective. It has a decent number of NPCs to converse with, a shop, the orphanage, an udon shop, and the Church of the Holy Maiden. The town definitely isn’t anything too sizable, but it’s cozy and a fun setting to wander around in for a bit. Unfortunately, this ends up basically being the central hub for the entire game- especially during the beginning and ending. There are no other towns in the game that reach this size, with the only other couple areas you can explore only being a couple screens long horizontally. This is definitely the area in which the game feels cheapest and most half-baked.

The narrative also falls victim to this feeling of being a bit half-baked around the middle third. Chapter 9 felt particularly rushed, which was made more apparent because it contains one of the more intense plot developments in the entire game leading up to this point. It essentially boils down to one mandatory boss fight and one “cutscene” fight afterwards. These may be really unique and emotionally poignant fights that more than serve their purpose and generate plenty of hype, but the chapter as a whole ends far too quickly. Again, the town that this chapter takes place in felt rather slapdash as well. There wasn’t much exposition, much less rudimentary worldbuilding and setup, as to what the town or its villagers are even like. It does set up several important plot points for later on, but in the moment it comes across as fairly disappointing. The basic skeleton of the narrative also feels pretty spoonfed at times. Certain details and foreshadowing is given frequently and somewhat blatantly given how barebones the script already is. Don’t get me wrong, it clearly wants you to figure out certain plot beats before the characters themselves do, but it does feel a bit in-your-face for my liking at times.

While these gripes about the plot and worldbuilding sound like somewhat major complaints, they weren’t anything I found myself being frustrated with. Especially given that the areas in which the game primarily focuses, that being its character writing and deep SRPG gameplay, more than make up for these areas which would otherwise feel far more lacking were that not the case. I’ve already covered the game’s characters, but the gameplay of La Pucelle really surprised me. Nippon Ichi absolutely nails its signature rich and engaging SRPG combat right out the gates on their first attempt.

I could go on for hours about every little facet of what made La Pucelle’s combat, from monster collecting to skill progression, so goddamn satisfying. For example, the freedom of customization and character building that is achieved through its skill learning system. It’s a deeply satisfying skill progression system that’ll feel right at home for those familiar with Final Fantasy IX’s weapon ability learning. Another would be how the dungeons have a sense of physicality since they are actually stitched together by “exit screens” which essentially turn maps into one long dungeon. This was a feature I really appreciated as someone who often finds the abstract nature of SRPG grids and map screens to really take me out of the experience; since they often make combat feel like it’s taking place in some square void. But for the sake of time, I’ll focus on a few of the specific areas I think La Pucelle nails with its gameplay most of all. The main area of which is in its “passive” or “unspoken” gameplay mechanics. In other words, its mechanics which aren’t explicitly outlined or detailed in tutorials, and are instead learned simply through playing the game and becoming familiar with how combat plays out in practicality.

The area which immediately comes to mind for La Pucelle’s “passive” mechanics involve the game’s freedom of movement. This might sound like a weird compliment to give an SRPG since movement is bound to a grid. But the way this game handles movement is unique in a really logical and awesome way. This freedom of movement is mainly accomplished through two distinct yet similar “passive” mechanics: which I’ll refer to as the “movement canceling” mechanic and “movement refreshing” mechanic from here on.

“Movement Canceling” is essentially the game’s permission to allow you to move your characters, have another character interact with them, and still allow that initial character’s movement to be canceled and for them to be moved again elsewhere. The initial character can be buffed, healed, they can change elemental portal directions, etc. This mechanic essentially gives you twice the range and distance of movement in order to perform actions with another far away character, while still allowing you to perform a “pseudo-action” in the process (a pseudo-action basically being any action listed above or anything else that isn’t attacking/casting/using items). Once this “pseudo-action” is performed, the movement can be canceled while still retaining the effects of the pseudo-actions which played out in the interim. It sounds fairly complicated when written out and explained, but it quickly becomes a natural extension of your toolkit once you get your footing with the game’s combat system. I ended up using the mechanic to my advantage in every single battle- and far more often in the 10 or so hours which lead up to the game’s ending.

“Movement Refreshing” is another useful and interesting “passive” mechanic. In La Pucelle, units are summoned from a starting “summon tile” one at a time. You can also deposit a summoned unit back into the game’s “summon tile” at any time- given you can reach it with your available movement squares. After depositing an active unit, you can summon them again on the same turn and be given another full turn’s worth of movement squares. Additionally, once the initial unit is deposited, you can swap that unit for any other inactive character and have them move the remainder of their given movement squares. This means in the many scenarios you’d like to close the distance between you and an enemy AND swap to a different character in the process, you can do both in just one turn. This is especially useful for turn optimization if the initial unit is running low on HP/MP, is poisoned, is at a stat/elemental disadvantage for the nearby enemy, etc.

While not directly similar to either of these passive movement mechanics, there is another similar mechanic where you can use adjacent units to attack during another unit’s battle phase, while still preserving the initial unit’s action command (e.g. they can still cast a spell, change equipment, etc). Additionally, it’s worth noting that the “movement canceling” mechanic and this passive attacking mechanic are not integrated with one another in the same way “pseudo-actions” interact positively with “movement canceling”. In other words, you cannot cancel your movement after engaging in battle with an adjacent unit in the same way you can with a similar other “pseudo-action”. This seemingly arbitrary restriction actually saves the game’s balance from being easily broken when you think about it. If you could “movement cancel” a unit’s position after participating in an adjacent unit’s attacks, they could attack upwards of seven or eight times in a single turn if all your other units are close to that initial unit. Which, of course, would be a serious abuse of both systems in tandem. However, if positioned near an enemy correctly, this adjacent attacking mechanic can be utilized to allow your stronger units to perform two actions in one turn- one as a supporting member of an adjacent unit’s battle phase, and one where they are the main attacker/spellcaster/item user. I really can’t stress just how much I appreciate that even “unnamed” or “passive” aspects of La Pucelle’s combat like this were given proper consideration when it comes to combat balancing. It does wonders for preserving the game’s challenge and sense of strategy, rather than allowing you to break the game’s mechanics over your knee without engaging with them whatsoever.

Keep in mind these are just the “unnamed” combat mechanics present in La Pucelle. There is also the “named” purification mechanics, the elemental portal and positioning mechanics, the monster collecting, the weapon element mechanics… You get the point. There is a ton of strategic depth here for you to sink your teeth into. Plus with the Dark World areas and post-game dungeons, there is more than enough content here to challenge yourself to master each and every one of these mechanics as little or as much as you’d like.

I think I’ve rambled long enough to get my points across. La Pucelle Tactics is easily one of my favorite JRPGs, let alone favorite strategy games. It’s a surprisingly unpopular entry in the long-running Nippon Ichi catalog that I think deserves much more modern attention than it gets at the current time. Hopefully that can be rectified with a re-release of either version through Nippon Ichi’s new “Prinny Presents: NIS Classics” collections, which have recently served as modern console re-releases for other older Nippon Ichi titles such as Soul Nomad and Phantom Brave. Either way though, I couldn’t be happier with the time I put into this game, personally. Whether it be watching the cast interact and grow as people, grinding and collecting new and unique monster allies, or pushing its rich SRPG combat and character progression systems to their limits, I loved every second. La Pucelle Tactics is without question one of my personal favorite games ever.