Even though it has it's ups and downs, Jeanne d'Arc is an amazing strategy game worth picking up.
The story of Jeanne d'Arc takes place in an alternate version of 15th France during the Hundred Years' War between it and England. In this, the titular character bands together with friends from her recently razed village to defend France against England's invading army. On paper, this game seems like typical medieval fantasy fare but, due to mixing European fantasy themes with Japanese-styIe animation, the narrative winds up being surprisingly engaging. As a whole, the story is told very well and will motivate the player to press on through the various challenges that pop up along the way. In addition, every character has his or her own distinct personality while not coming off as cookie-cutter stereotypes. Each ally has a blend of dreariness, anger, happiness, and other basic emotions to exceed the level of quality usually seen in it's genre.
On the subject of gameplay, Jeanne d'Arc exceeds in making an addictive, albeit basic, experience. Although most of the required levels are fairly easy to overcome with some training via Free Combat in conquered stages, stipulations in certain areas make every other level a challenging change of pace. Aside from the typical "kill all enemies before they kill all of your troops" scenarios; escort missions, context missions (needing a character who can build bridges, for example), and "kill the leader" missions, as well as many other types exist for creating new obstacles for the player to overpower. However, there is one type of mission that has one of the cheapest ways to lose in video game history: the "getting to the other side of the map" missions.
In Jeanne d'Arc, every battle has a set amount of turns not unlike a time limit. In any battle besides the one I have a grievance with, simply killing all enemies is sufficient. However, the cheap mission type only ends after all the player's troops have made it to the other side of the map. Forcing such rules upon the player results in unfair scenarios in which all enemies have been killed but, to the dismay of the player, at least one troop is too far away to make it to the goal in time and, as a result, is a game over. Thankfully, such missions are sparse but still exist within the required missions. Issues with the one mission type aside, there are plenty of small details to reward patient users.
Combining bonuses called "skill stones" allows the player to mix together magic spells, combat abilities, passive effects, or a mix of two of the three into a new skill. Experimenting with different combinations is actually quite fun given how many different possibilities lie in the massive list of existing abilities. Everything from a little more HP to being able to immediately counter the enemy before it has a chance to strike is possible, giving a ton of depth to the whole experience. However, each character has a finite amount of possible slots for skill stones so, as a result, some thought is put into each character before an engagement.
Overall, Jeanne d'Arc is well worth your time. If you are a fan of Final Fantasy Tactics, this game is right up your alley. With an enthralling storyline, deep strategy, accessible difficulty level, and budget price of $15 (US), it certainly is more bang for your buck.