While I found Jeanne D'Arc silly at times, the game belies a strong strategy rpg core that shouldn't be missed.
Jeanne D'Arc is a game that puts a fantasy style twist on the real story of Joan of Arc, a famous hero from France who was said to be able to communicate with god.
The storyline is simple, with little frill. The king of England, a small boy, is possessed by an ancient demonic power that was used in a horrendous war years past. The possessed boy looks to take over all of France as the rightful heir to France's throne. Jeanne, a village girl, is thrown into the situation when her village is ransacked and the villagers are killed. She stumbles upon a broken knight, and finds a magic bracer that wraps around her wrist. The bracer gives her the chance to transform into a uber-powerful type paladin for a limited time. With her new found strength, and a voice that talks to her that she perceives as as god, Jeanne sets out with her colleages to save France from England's grasp.
The combat is much like Final Fantasy Tactics. Fighters are set out on a grid, and you make a limited amount of moves and actions with your characters every turn. While you might have multiple objectives, like beating the battle while keeping Jeanne alive, combat is very fun and doesn't get boring. While the gameplay isn't as deep as FFT, Jeanne's ability (and others along the way) to transform into a super character make the game a blast. When Jeanne transforms, she gains hit points, increases her strength and magic abilities, and gains new spells. In this transformed state, if Jeanne kills someone during her turn, she gets another turn to fight. Some of the strategy involves using Jeanne as much as possible during her transformations to utterly destroy the most amount of people as possible.
Through the spoils of combat or at shops, you can buy ability stones that you can equip to your characters, which run the gamut of spells, latent abilities, and weapon attacks. What is even cooler is the ability to combine certain types of ability stones, unveiling even stronger powers. One of the easiest examples is combining two +10 hp stones for a +20 hp stone. There are a huge number of stones and combinations, making this a fun way to gain new abilities. Much of the time, you'll have to debate how to use the limited stones you have for better combinations.
While I was playing this game, I was wishing for more side quests. Side quests are few and far between in this game, but some can really give you some sweet equipment or extra characters. However, the game is very linear, and because I was looking to stretch as much as I could out of this game, I was dreading when I would finish. Having put 30+ hours into Jeanne, I know SCEA was cutting extras to save money. Knowing it's success now though, I hope in the future SCEA gives us all a little more content for new games.
Despite the lower length of the storyline, Jeanne D'Arc is one sweet game. Sometimes the dialogue can be a bit hokey, but the combat is a refreshing twist to strategy rpg's. As well, psp needs more solid rpg's, and this is definitely one of them!