I started playing Joan of Arc on PSP as an experiment. I grew up, wanting to play Game Boy Color, Advance and Nintendo DS, but I never laid a portable PlayStation console. In 2025 Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift.
I usually avoid tactical RPGs because they are long, tardy and repetitive. I barely finished Unicorn overlord Demo, because I hate spending a few minutes to configure units just to agree later, which forces me to restart a long fight. I am more Killing of the needle AND Hades guy. But this time I wasn’t bored with a game if I thought I would feel fulfilled at the end.
In this attempt to break away from the one I imposed “I hate TRPGS”, I decided that I decided it Joan of Arc It’s worth a try.
But I was skeptical. Joan of Arc It has an 87 metacritic result and ranks as 11. The best reviewed PSP game in history, but there is never a continuation or a remake. The game was moved only to PS4 and PS5 in July 2024, 17 years after the western edition. If it were as good as it didn’t become a franchise Tactics Or Disgaea?
Apparently, Joan of Arc Did not bring sufficient sales. He founded the 190th place in Japan List of games best selling in 2006for other trpples, such as Disgaea 2 (100.) I Great robot taisen mx portable (166). His programmer, level 5, eventually created other more successful franchises, such as Professor LaytonIN No kuni, AND Inazuma Eleven.
What he is still doing Joan of Arc The jewel is a way in which it connects everything when it is to be bored.
Breaking the cycle
The game begins slowly with several tutorial battles, which is fine. It is straightforward to learn a triangle of weakness in Stella, Luna and Sol Paper-Paper. When the characters join your composition, you also learn more about their specific roles, such as being a healer, magician or situational choice for some battles.
Still, I expected Joan of Arc To fall into a tedious TRPG cycle: check the battlefield, place your units, move them and kill all monsters. Although it is the core of the game, changing goals and various maps stopped her from compliance.
In most battles, you expect to wipe the board. This is standard and almost inevitable in tactical RPGs. But several times, Joan of Arc He forces you to escape from the battle, not allowing any character to die, like getting into the boat at the end of the channel in the mission of the story “Banding in Paris”. Another time, it allows you to ignore all garbage mobs and focus on killing a specific enemy, such as defeating Slinker in the mission “Brother Richard”. However, the most captivating tasks are in side tasks – which I almost missed, because I usually avoid them. In Castle Vilneaux I had to lure two powerful dragons back to the owner’s cage, without killing them or allowing my team, and they had destructive area spells. In another task I fought 10 waves of increasingly tough enemies on one map in the Colosseum.
Maps that add depth
Objective diversity in Joan of Arc It is even better with a variety of maps. The map was not solved from the very beginning.
In the Langles tunnel I got stuck in the sewage system with a massive goleda towards me. I couldn’t escape or overtake him, so the only solution was to strengthen my units earlier so that the golem would not crush my line. In Raillemont, I had to exploit the elusive Rogue Coleta to build bridges on divided roofs to reach the boss, while my team was scattered over this area. Essentially, Joan of Arc I kept forced me to exploit various units to solve different maps, which was ultimately witty, and at the same time rewarding me with great equipment to assist in the main story.
Even standard maps of “kill all enemies” change everything with their arrangement. Some maps are widely open fields, but others are filled with pillars and walls that block distance attacks, choke points, which only two characters can go simultaneously, or a branch that force you to divide the party to deal with many threats at the same time.
These maps and objective changes are what they have maintained Joan of Arc From nausea, something that I did not expect from independent TRPG. And although these are the two biggest reasons why it breaks the usual cycle of the genre, also has excellent character flexibility. The skills of your heroes are items that you can equip and exchange before any mission.
You can also think Joan of Arc As anime and play in the story. A immense part of the game’s history is made of anime film cutscenes, which impressed me at the 2006 match. If you want, you can watch the story on YouTube.
Joan of ArcThe game I thought that I would never like it, it became the one I played for over 30 hours for several weeks, which made me want to play more tactical RPGs. Please drop a comment with the best recommendations for similar TRPGs!
