Jeanne D'Arc

Sup fellow Watchers? It's been a minute. Haven't really been gaming much in the past couple weeks but I did fire up my tablet on a whim to play something recently. Chose Jeanne D'Arc, a 2007 PSP release (emulating it w/ PPSSPP), and long story short, it's pretty damn good!

It has quite high production values, unique gameplay elements, challenging combat and a cast of colorful characters. It's also beautiful looking, has a lot of charm (almost Suikoden 3 levels here) and a well-written, interesting story set in a historical fantasy setting of a French/English war, but with demons, gods, magic, religious overtones and more. For a final kicker it has in-engine cutscenes like the previous games I mentioned, but also the occasional full-out anime cutscene. Not ultra cheesy anime, either, but actually cool and really well done. Those scenes even have voice acting.

If you're a fan of strategy RPGs like Final Fantasy Tactics or Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together, I'd say this one is over the borderline of a "must-play". Definitely give it a look when you can. Upscale the resolution to 4 or 5x the PSP and it will look really nice.

Oops, guess this should be in the JRPG section. My bad.

Anyone here play it?

Here's some reviews on metacritic - http://www.metacritic.com/game/psp/jeanne-darc

Originally Posted by Fluent
Oops, guess this should be in the JRPG section. My bad.

Anyone here play it?

Here's some reviews on metacritic - http://www.metacritic.com/game/psp/jeanne-darc

I played it a loooooong time ago but don't remember much about it. Guess I can play it again with an emulator.

Originally Posted by wolfing
I played it a loooooong time ago but don't remember much about it. Guess I can play it again with an emulator.

It's a little buggy with Ppsspp, but playable. Mainly the text is a bit weird at times but the important stuff and all dialogue is readable. Occasionally a cut scene goes black but the text is readable there, too.

I'd say give it a play if you like SRPGs and the classics in that subgenre. It's surprisingly really good.

So your playing this on your tablet with a PSP emulator? I've never heard of that before, is that hard to setup?

Originally Posted by fadedc
So your playing this on your tablet with a PSP emulator? I've never heard of that before, is that hard to setup?

Nah, it's simple. Download PPSSPP for free from the Google Play store, then just point PPSSPP to the directory you keep your ROMs (downloaded games), and that's pretty much it.

I use a bluetooth controller with mine, too. Basically makes the tablet a really pimped out handheld.

https://www.amazon.com/Extendable-Co…ntroller+ipega

And get a nice set of bluetooth headphones while you're at it.

great game as I recall, thought it was older than 10 years though. Nice atmosphere about it, the French theme is a nice change form the usual Japanese JPRG themes )I guess the clues in the genre but you know what I mean)

Whats all this emulator nonsense! Might have to look into that.

PPSSPP is the emulator. Works great with lots of PSP games. This is the first game I've really had issues with, even though the issues are not serious.

I'm using the Android version but it exists on PC, too. Has nice features like upscaling resolution, too. I upscale it 4x or 5x and the game looks really sweet.

It looks like the emulator is easy to use on the Android but hard to use on an Idevice. I'd probably have to go the PC route if I wanted to play.

Originally Posted by fadedc
It looks like the emulator is easy to use on the Android but hard to use on an Idevice. I'd probably have to go the PC route if I wanted to play.

Do Idevices have game stream services? My tablet can stream games from a PC and play them on the tablet. So the PC runs the game but you can play it on the tablet. Just a thought.

Originally Posted by kborom
great game as I recall, thought it was older than 10 years though. Nice atmosphere about it, the French theme is a nice change form the usual Japanese JPRG themes )I guess the clues in the genre but you know what I mean)

Whats all this emulator nonsense! Might have to look into that.

Start using emulators and open yourself to a world of hundreds of previously unknown RPGs. Personally, I have a laptop with emulators for PSP, Gamecube/Wii and PS2, and the laptop connected via HDMI to my 60" HDTV with a surround sound system. Games look and sound really good! much better than playing in their original devices, because the emulator adds scaling, anti-aliasing, etc. I was really surprised how good they looked even old games, and on my big TV using an Xbox One wireless controller… Perfect!

Originally Posted by wolfing
Start using emulators and open yourself to a world of hundreds of previously unknown RPGs. Personally, I have a laptop with emulators for PSP, Gamecube/Wii and PS2, and the laptop connected via HDMI to my 60" HDTV with a surround sound system. Games look and sound really good! much better than playing in their original devices, because the emulator adds scaling, anti-aliasing, etc. I was really surprised how good they looked even old games, and on my big TV using an Xbox One wireless controller… Perfect!

Yep, agreed. I was surprised how good PS2 games look upscaled. I play on a big 4k TV and it looked really good!

PS2 has a slew of great RPGs. PS1, too. And don't sleep on PSP and Nintendo DS, either. Lots of gems for all these systems.

That game looks like shit. Not touching it.

I don't mean just visually. Historical characters in games doing whatever else and not what's written in history books we saw on PC already in better looking Black Isle's Lionheart.

Aiiight.

Alright joxer, I'll entertain you. Why do you think it looks like shit? Upscaled to HD it looks beautiful. Beyond that, you're a Valkyria Chronicles fan, right? This should be your thing. It reminds me of that game a bit just with a different setting and traditional SRPG combat.

So I guess I'll post a bit more after several hours with the game.

I have about 15 party members to choose from now, and you can generally use 5 on each map, although that number is slowly going up. The cool thing about the characters is that beyond their personality, they also generally have unique stats and combat styles. Even characters that seem like they are the same "class" (there aren't really classes, you can freely customize everyone's skills), have different base stats so they play differently. And the differences are actually pretty large, so you end up feeling like every character is quite unique.

Just had a crazy boss battle. Some of the maps are really great and this was one of them. It was a large map with several ways to reach the summit (3 sets of steps with varying paths to the top.) It also had a turn limit and I ended up winning on the last turn (which isn't the first time that happened in the game) and it was just crazy.

There are cool teamwork elements, too. If you touch a square a companion is on, you activate Unified Defense when attacked. This bolsters your defense. You can stack all your units together if you want to increase defense, but usually you'll want to keep this in mind when moving certain units into vulnerable spots. A fellow companion can make the difference between life and death.

Also, the God skills, i.e. transformations, are neat, too. Certain characters can transform to a God-like character for a couple turns. They gain special abilities and become very powerful, but the best part is that when they get a kill, they get the Godspeed attribute, which means they immediately get to act again. This actually leads to really neat scenarios, such as the battle I just described. I ended up winning because I saved my transformation until the end (you get one transformation per gem per battle, and it takes built-up SP to use.), then I strategically weakened a few enemies, transformed and let my God-like character kill them, thus getting extra turns and letting me blast on the boss. It felt really strategic, and that is a running theme with the game thus far. It's actually got strategic, interesting combat that has a tinge of challenge to it (I've lost several battles, some multiple times, yet with smart choices I can eventually win them.) I'm really impressed by that aspect so far.

The story is cool, too. Characters are fun, Suikoden-JRPG-style. Lots of personality. And eventually you unlock a skill stone Binding system, so you can mix certain skill stones to get new ones. Once you unlock a recipe you can keep reusing it, and you discover them by mixing designated stones together. And you outfit your characters with the stones to improve them/give them abilities. You can switch them in and out and they gain slots as they level up. Pretty cool.

No grinding necessary so far but it is optional, i.e. there are Free Combat tiles that let you fight a really crazy tough battle if you choose. But I haven't done them yet and keep continuing in the story just fine. So no Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together training requirements here.

Lots of unique enemy units, too. You have the usual, Wizards, Clerics, Archers, Melee Tanks, Melee Spear users (can attack 2 squares), but even more variation in monster types. There are cow-like tank enemies, fast/hard to hit flying eyeballs, giant trolls and golems and a really large variety overall. They also put just the right amount of enemies together on the maps to make a unique challenge each time. Sometimes the Cleric will really be your undoing, or you have to kill the Wizards quickly if you want to survive, etc.. It's a well-designed game, IMO.

Hope that helps!

Originally Posted by Fluent
Alright joxer, I'll entertain you. Why do you think it looks like shit? Upscaled to HD it looks beautiful. Beyond that, you're a Valkyria Chronicles fan, right? This should be your thing. It reminds me of that game a bit just with a different setting and traditional SRPG combat.

Upscaling is PS4/Xbone thing. I don't want that crap on my PC. Not now, not ever. It also goes for downscaling, I tried some games rendered in 4K then downscaled to 1080p (Styx 2 for example), they looked worse than setting res. initially on 1080p.

Valkyria Chronicles is a gem that was tossed to pigs who didn't appreciate it but were insulted. I wish it was released on PC in the same year when it appeared on… What platform was it? Dunno, rubbish hardware can't stop being rubbish hardware.

Valkyria Chronicles is almost a masterpiece and by that I don't mean just it's battling system and feeling missions being best played with K+M. It dealt with hot potato topics like racism and prejudices, yet it didn't want to risk enough to present the world/war dirty enough, probably being scared of potential censorship or rating too high.

When I said it looks like shit I definetly ment this is not Valkyria Chronicles. This is phones:

Phones? Please. Go ahead and limit yourself then. I take it you won't play any vintage PC game then, either. Or any vintage console.

This game may have come out for console but it's better than a lot of PC SRPGs. So are many other console RPGs. And a lot of them are way better than indie PC games as well. I'd play this game twice before playing Battle Brothers. And so on.

And I've played phone/Android SRPGs. A company called Kemco makes some decent ones. But this is nowhere near that level, it's way above. This is on par with Final Fantasy Tactics, Tactics Ogre and quality Playstation/PSP/PS2-level RPGs. The Kemco games, while cool, cannot be compared to the few I just mentioned, this game included.

Originally Posted by Fluent
I take it you won't play any vintage PC game then, either. Or any vintage console.

TitS is PC vintage game. Not only I played it recently, I praised it and recommend to everyone. I don't recommend TitS2 however. That's just an example where you're wrong.

Vintage console IMO should be burned at stake. All of it.
But you know what I think about consoles and their choking the technology progress already.