Everybody was right about Jeanne d’Arc. The 2006 PSP game from developer Level-5 has been on my radar for a while, thanks to its reputation as a solid tactical RPG with a semi-historical setting—yes, it’s about the 15th century saint Joan of Arc. Unfortunately, the game never found life outside of the PSP, making it hard for modern audiences to get their hands on. That all changed this month with the announcement that the game would be re-released as part of the PlayStation Plus Classics Catalog on PS4 and PS5. I’ve only played Jeanne d’Arc’s opening hour, but I’m already hooked.
Jeanne d’Arc begins with an appropriately 2000s-style anime cutscene. On a dark and stormy night, a young boy asks his not-at-all creepy clown-looking attendant to tell him a story. The attendant dives into a tale about the War of the Reapers, a (fictional) conflict between humans and demons. Humanity only prevailed thanks to forging five armlets, Lord of the Rings-style, with the power to contain the demons. The story ends and the attendant reveals that many years have passed, and now England and France are engaged in their own war that has lasted close to a century. This is the (historical) conflict known as the Hundred Years’ War, and the boy is Henry VI, King of England. To change the tides of war the attendant, John of Lancaster for you history buffs, calls upon those demons of old. I cannot stress enough how hard this goes, despite being admittedly silly. Just imagine someone having no previous knowledge of what this game is about and getting the twist that it’s about a real conflict between England and France. Oh, and there are demons involved.
After that amazing opening, we finally meet our heroine, a young woman in the village of Domrémy, named Jeanne. To get the action started, the game sends Jeanne and her friend Liane into the woods to search for a missing man, Roger. In their search, the two women come upon a dead knight and a small group of demons. Jeanne finds a mysterious armlet on the knight, picks it up, and begins to hear a voice. Then combat begins.
In the few encounters I’ve had so far, the game’s combat is pretty standard tactical RPG fare. You and the enemy take turns moving and attacking until you meet the encounter’s win conditions, usually just taking out all enemies. Soon, Jeanne activates the power in her armlet and gets a sick Sailor Moon transformation that dresses her in badass armor. The new fit also lets you use special abilities, like one that gives you an extra turn of movement after defeating an enemy. In one encounter I was able to take out four enemies in a row thanks to smart use of that specific ability. As the game gets more complex and I learn new abilities I can only imagine how this will add to the strategic possibilities at play.
Most of my first hour was spent asking questions about what the rest of my playthrough will hold. Is the voice Jeanne hears the Roman Catholic God? Is England literally in cahoots with the biblical devil? Am I going to see Jeanne burned to death before the game rolls credits? Clearly Jeanne d’Arc is willing to play fast and loose with the history books, so I think it’ll be kind of hilarious to see how demons pop up at the siege of Orléans—because what are we doing if the Joan of Arc game doesn’t have the siege of Orléans?
So far Jeanne d’Arc has proven to be a tactical RPG with room to grow as I get deeper into it. It is also an exceedingly silly story that I doubt will do much justice to the complexities of the real woman, and yet I can’t help but enjoy it every time the game puts demons next to historical figures. It’s like the Assassin’s Creed of tactical RPGs and like with those games, I’m not coming back to this one for historical accuracy. I’m here for a fun time, not an educational one.
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