Jeanne d'Arc is a solid tactics game with some interesting ideas. I had a good time playing through this, but it drags, gets a bit scattered, and runs out of ideas towards the end.
Gameplay in Jeanne d'Arc is fairly standard Final Fantasy Tactics inspired gameplay with a couple of interesting twists.
The most important difference is the bracelets that the game introduces for certain characters. These allow the character to change into a Sailor Moon-esque alternate form (historical accuracy is discarded pretty early in this game, despite the name) which grants them improved stats and a special ability. Additionally, every character in this mode has "God Speed", which allows them to immediately take another turn after getting a killing blow. This leads to some interesting strategy where you are more successful if you weaken enemies and then finish a bunch of them off with your bracelet wielder. Not only do the bracelets make these characters more powerful in the story, but they also end up being mechanically more powerful because they are getting all the kills, putting them many levels above the rest of your team. This is a cool little piece of narratively coherent game design that I think is pretty neat.
One small critique here is that it really feels like the bracelets should be freely assignable, letting you adjust your character's abilities in a more extreme way, but they aren't. It is unfortunate, because it would open up the combat system quite a lot and allow you to put more focus on the characters that resonate with you the most, rather than making the bracelet wearers the defacto best characters for every map.
Character classes feel very freeform, with the ability to assign gems that give magic and special abilities to a character more or less however you want. Characters do have a specific weapon they use, and some gems only apply to some weapons, granting you special sword or spear attacks, for instance. There is a little bit of weird false choice here, unfortunately, since a character's base stats have a massive impact on how useful they will be at using a skill. Colet the dagger wielding rogue, for instance, will never really be a good magic user, no matter how many spells you give him. The system is still very expressive and character setup is satisfying and intentional.
Beyond the bracelets and the class structure, the game is a standard entry in the tactics genre and goes on for longer than its gameplay comfortably supports. It doesn't introduce new mechanics and even though you get new skill gems, they are never that different from the ones you gain early in your journey.
Jeanne d'Arc looks fine, but isn't super inspired. The graphics are sometimes cute and the character models are large, but aren't very expressive in the field and all look much less serious than their characters actually are.
However, the character portraits are well done (if generically anime) and the animated cutscenes are all extremely cool.
The story in this game starts off as a sort of normal historical fiction setting with light fantasy aspects and quickly goes off the rails. It never really drops the trappings of history though, so you will be fighting to free Paris from the English and deal with political fallout of your actions, but you are using magic bracelets to summon Sailor Scout armor and fighting against a half-man-half-animal army led by a child king (Henry VI) possessed by a demonic spirit. None of it hangs together particularly well, unfortunately. The game can't seem to decide what it wants to be and a lot of the events seem arbitrary and the character motivations aren't clear. Enemy depth leans heavily on the anime-style redemption arcs which are mostly unearned.
Even the predictable betrayal didn't land for me, since it doesn't make much sense and the game doesn't give the betrayer any motivation at all other than a more sinister hairstyle.
I did like that this game is willing to play rough with your character lineup. Without spoiling too much, I was definitely surprised by a couple of the changes that happen, though I wish this stuff was more prevalent through the whole game, rather than relegated to the back half.
Despite the messiness of the story, the setting is very unique and fun. I liked it, but there are definitely many better entries in the genre.
Gameplay in Jeanne d'Arc is fairly standard Final Fantasy Tactics inspired gameplay with a couple of interesting twists.
The most important difference is the bracelets that the game introduces for certain characters. These allow the character to change into a Sailor Moon-esque alternate form (historical accuracy is discarded pretty early in this game, despite the name) which grants them improved stats and a special ability. Additionally, every character in this mode has "God Speed", which allows them to immediately take another turn after getting a killing blow. This leads to some interesting strategy where you are more successful if you weaken enemies and then finish a bunch of them off with your bracelet wielder. Not only do the bracelets make these characters more powerful in the story, but they also end up being mechanically more powerful because they are getting all the kills, putting them many levels above the rest of your team. This is a cool little piece of narratively coherent game design that I think is pretty neat.
One small critique here is that it really feels like the bracelets should be freely assignable, letting you adjust your character's abilities in a more extreme way, but they aren't. It is unfortunate, because it would open up the combat system quite a lot and allow you to put more focus on the characters that resonate with you the most, rather than making the bracelet wearers the defacto best characters for every map.
Character classes feel very freeform, with the ability to assign gems that give magic and special abilities to a character more or less however you want. Characters do have a specific weapon they use, and some gems only apply to some weapons, granting you special sword or spear attacks, for instance. There is a little bit of weird false choice here, unfortunately, since a character's base stats have a massive impact on how useful they will be at using a skill. Colet the dagger wielding rogue, for instance, will never really be a good magic user, no matter how many spells you give him. The system is still very expressive and character setup is satisfying and intentional.
Beyond the bracelets and the class structure, the game is a standard entry in the tactics genre and goes on for longer than its gameplay comfortably supports. It doesn't introduce new mechanics and even though you get new skill gems, they are never that different from the ones you gain early in your journey.
Jeanne d'Arc looks fine, but isn't super inspired. The graphics are sometimes cute and the character models are large, but aren't very expressive in the field and all look much less serious than their characters actually are.
However, the character portraits are well done (if generically anime) and the animated cutscenes are all extremely cool.
The story in this game starts off as a sort of normal historical fiction setting with light fantasy aspects and quickly goes off the rails. It never really drops the trappings of history though, so you will be fighting to free Paris from the English and deal with political fallout of your actions, but you are using magic bracelets to summon Sailor Scout armor and fighting against a half-man-half-animal army led by a child king (Henry VI) possessed by a demonic spirit. None of it hangs together particularly well, unfortunately. The game can't seem to decide what it wants to be and a lot of the events seem arbitrary and the character motivations aren't clear. Enemy depth leans heavily on the anime-style redemption arcs which are mostly unearned.
Even the predictable betrayal didn't land for me, since it doesn't make much sense and the game doesn't give the betrayer any motivation at all other than a more sinister hairstyle.
I did like that this game is willing to play rough with your character lineup. Without spoiling too much, I was definitely surprised by a couple of the changes that happen, though I wish this stuff was more prevalent through the whole game, rather than relegated to the back half.
Despite the messiness of the story, the setting is very unique and fun. I liked it, but there are definitely many better entries in the genre.