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[Galactic Fork]

I managed to snag this at Target today. I'm really liking it, my fear was true though. During attack animations, often the screen auto rotates which is very annoying for me. I wish there was a way to adjust that. Other than that, it's great.

In the opening I was very amused by the Duke of Bedford. Anybody with a hat like that has to be evil. I wonder if he ever wore that hat when he was a goodguy? Maybe it was sent to him when he joined the Evil Guild.

 

[Lain]

the game is pretty good, but doesn't do much to really show itself as a unique game.

i personally don't dig the setting, France/England is just sort of boring.

i like the easy customization they have

they needed to have voice acting for every line of dialogue, but they didn't do it . only having them in the (very nice, i might add) anime videos takes away from the story.

no actual town exploration makes the game feel flat.

game is very linear. not much to do "on the side" or whatever. but it does seem like there are a nice amount of stages, regardless.

these are my initial impressions so far. its enjoyable, but i think it could have been more, at least as far as i'm in to the game.

BURN THIS WITCH AT THE STAKE!

Gah, I hope I'll finally receive this and P3 this coming week.

 

[leehom]

the game is pretty good, but doesn't do much to really show itself as a unique game.

i personally don't dig the setting, France/England is just sort of boring.

i like the easy customization they have

they needed to have voice acting for every line of dialogue, but they didn't do it . only having them in the (very nice, i might add) anime videos takes away from the story.

no actual town exploration makes the game feel flat.

game is very linear. not much to do "on the side" or whatever. but it does seem like there are a nice amount of stages, regardless.

these are my initial impressions so far. its enjoyable, but i think it could have been more, at least as far as i'm in to the game.

You've obviously never played a SRPG. Your complaints are very lame. Voice acting for every dialogue? Yea....right. Can the other handhelds on the market do this? No? I thought so.

 

[davepoobond]

You've obviously never played a SRPG. Your complaints are very lame. Voice acting for every dialogue? Yea....right. Can the other handhelds on the market do this? No? I thought so.

other handhelds meaning itself?

it seems to me that there should have been more voice acting than in just the movies. its not like there's a huge amount of dialogue in the game anyway. VP: Lenneth had about 80-90% of dialogue voiced

 

[Error]

very few SRPGs (if any) have town exploration

 

[davepoobond]

very few SRPGs (if any) have town exploration

well, i meant town exploration very loosely.

even in FF Tactics, you'd be able to go to a bar, or do something that would distinguish that a certain town was different from another one.

 

[Error]

oh I see what you mean.

 

[Splash Wave]

Is there anyone I "should" be using? I find that my most versatile group consists of Jeanne, Colet, Jean, Liane, and Marcel.

 

[Anno]

other handhelds meaning itself?

it seems to me that there should have been more voice acting than in just the movies. its not like there's a huge amount of dialogue in the game anyway. VP: Lenneth had about 80-90% of dialogue voiced

Meh. Continuous voice acting hurts 5 games for every 1 that it helps. I think Level 5 got the disparity about right here. The music more than makes up for it to me. The music in the bogs right before Reims especially. I put on my headphones and watched the golf tournament for a good hour just listening to the music.

Overall, this game isn't going to sell half as many copies as it deserves to. I certainly haven't played a better game this year, and Tactics Ogre: LuCT may be the only SRPG I've played that I think is better than this. Overall, I'm disappointed that there can't really be a sequel =/

 

[Anno]

Is there anyone I "should" be using? I find that my most versatile group consists of Jeanne, Colet, Jean, Liane, and Marcel.

How far are you into the game?

 

[spwolf]

OT: Can someone please point me to "thread of excellent PSP games"? I remember that we have it here, but search doesnt work... getting Slim, want to get few games from US as well.... thanks!!!! (didnt want to open new thread)

 

[Splash Wave]

How far are you into the game?

In the story sequence pretty early on at "Chino?" Can't remember the name offhand. The one where Jeanne finds the dude in the crowd.

EDIT: Just hit Chapter 2

 

[Anno]

In the story sequence pretty early on at "Chino?" Can't remember the name offhand. The one where Jeanne finds the dude in the crowd.

That's probably par for the course around there. I used Roger over Colet personally, but I've never been a fan of roguish classes. Throw Jeanne an attack spell of some sort, her magic atk is actually pretty high.

 

[Aeon712]

OT: Can someone please point me to "thread of excellent PSP games"? I remember that we have it here, but search doesnt work... getting Slim, want to get few games from US as well.... thanks!!!! (didnt want to open new thread)

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=150539

 

[Splash Wave]

That's probably par for the course around there. I used Roger over Colet personally, but I've never been a fan of roguish classes. Throw Jeanne an attack spell of some sort, her magic atk is actually pretty high.

I'm not usually either, I just find that Roger doesn't really have any unique qualities.

 

[mistuhcahlos]

In the opening I was very amused by the Duke of Bedford. Anybody with a hat like that has to be evil. I wonder if he ever wore that hat when he was a goodguy? Maybe it was sent to him when he joined the Evil Guild.

He wore it in the opening cinema when all the heroes were holding up their armlets.

the game is pretty good, but doesn't do much to really show itself as a unique game.

i personally don't dig the setting, France/England is just sort of boring.

no actual town exploration makes the game feel flat.

these are my initial impressions so far. its enjoyable, but i think it could have been more, at least as far as i'm in to the game.

Burning Auras, Unified Guard, Transformations, Skill Binding, Affinities....might not all be new, but it's new to me. I also like being able to survey the land and equip my troops BEFORE sending them into battle.

The France vs England story may be old news, but it's based on an old story. I personally liked it cause it reminds me of Braveheart. Also, I've never heard, read, or seen anything involving Joan of Arc.

I've never seen any town exploration in a srpg.

I think this is the best srpg since the original FFT. Better than Knights of Lodis, better than Tactics Advance. The lack of a job system bothered me (A LOT) at first, but let's face it....jobs haven't been incorporated well into srpgs since FFT, and even then half of the jobs were completely worthless. I consider this a must buy for psp nerds and hopefully (if it sells well) we'll see more great titles released at $29.99.

 

[Anno]

I'm not usually either, I just find that Roger doesn't really have any unique qualities.

Yeah, he's pretty typical of a fighter type, but he has quite good overall stats. He's basically Jeanne with less accuracy, magic atk/def but a good deal more HPs. Colet is too susceptible to attacks that can't dodged for my tastes, and there are quite a lot of them.

 

[Splash Wave]

I find that only being able to use 5 party members at a time to be very limiting. There's basically no using Jean once I have Gilles right? No sense in having two lancers.

 

[Anno]

I find that only being able to use 5 party members at a time to be very limiting. So there's basically no using Jean once I have Gilles right? No sense in having two lancers.

Not all fights are so limited, just most of the early ones. Jean actually has stats that I like more Gilles, but being able to transform is, honestly, way too useful. Still, I keep Jean leveled up and I use him over Roger at times when I need the extra range. There are pretty nifty spear abilities, too, better than most of the sword skills.

 

[davepoobond]

Meh. Continuous voice acting hurts 5 games for every 1 that it helps. I think Level 5 got the disparity about right here. The music more than makes up for it to me. The music in the bogs right before Reims especially. I put on my headphones and watched the golf tournament for a good hour just listening to the music.

unfortunately i'm not as keen on the music as you are. i think it would better if there was a more noticable variety, but what is there is good.

Burning Auras, Unified Guard, Transformations, Skill Binding, Affinities....might not all be new, but it's new to me. I also like being able to survey the land and equip my troops BEFORE sending them into battle.

unified guard seems pretty useless imo. i dont see very many tangible results when i do have it vs when i dont have it.

for affinities, i'm basically not even worrying about them. i dont know if they're going to make you need to have affinities to beat certain stages or not, but so far i'm not doing too bad without them.

skill binding is pretty much a version of the Invention idea thing they did in Dark Cloud 2. i like it, but i've done it before.

transformations force you to be very strategic in how you use them though since they have such very limited turns involved with them.

The France vs England story may be old news, but it's based on an old story. I personally liked it cause it reminds me of Braveheart. Also, I've never heard, read, or seen anything involving Joan of Arc.

i haven't either. the only thing i really knew about before this was that old ass silent film Joan of Arc that was made int he 1800s or something. it doesn't appeal to me for some reason. maybe its cause there's not enough bad ass English knights trying to kill you. just fogey old Talbot

Spoiler

(i swear you have to kill that guy like 15 times. annoying)

I think this is the best srpg since the original FFT.

i'd agree its a good SRPG if you're comparing it to FFT on PSOne (but not better). Front Mission 3 is probably my all-time favorite SRPG followed by FFT. i haven't played the GBA FFT.

 

[mysticstylez]

transformations force you to be very strategic in how you use them though since they have such very limited turns involved with them.

Yeah I hate SRPG's that force you to be very strategic.

 

[davepoobond]

Yeah I hate SRPG's that force you to be very strategic.

i meant that in a positive way

 

[mysticstylez]

i meant that in a positive way

Sorry dude, almost everything else had some negative spin on it, so I thought that was the case with that statement.

So far I'm loving the game, my biggest gripe (if you wanna call it a gripe) is that you have these beautiful areas to do battle....yet you have these ugly ass solid color backgrounds that ruin the feeling of being in a town.

I know this is the case with most SRPG's, it would just be nice to see some dev do it differently.

 

[davepoobond]

Sorry dude, almost everything else had some negative spin on it, so I thought that was the case with that statement.

i'm probably just being too picky. the game was made to be more pick-up-and-play rather than for complexity, which i tend to enjoy much more with SRPGs.

 

[mysticstylez]

i'm probably just being too picky. the game was made to be more pick-up-and-play rather than for complexity, which i tend to enjoy much more with SRPGs.

Agreed, while I like a deep SRPG some of the stuff so far in Jeanne D'Arc seems daunting for me. Especially with its skill system, maybe if they just had a job system similar to FFT it'd be less intimidating for me.


But you can't deny the quality of this game, especially for 30 bucks, can't beat that.

 

[Splash Wave]

It feels great to be playing an awesome PSP game again. Brave Story really left a bad taste in my mouth. (even though I managed to play it enough to beat it)

 

[BlueTsunami]

I'm kind of getting annoyed by the lag at certain parts of the game. Also the loading just to get into the Menu (Equipment/Saving etc) is horrible. I'm thinking about just ripping the game and putting it on my Memory Stick just to speed up the loadtimes.

It feels great to be playing an awesome PSP game again. Brave Story really left a bad taste in my mouth. (even though I managed to play it enough to beat it)

Yeah, the Brave Story hype lost steam for me after the 4th stone in. Haven't picked it up since.

 

[davepoobond]

Agreed, while I like a deep SRPG some of the stuff so far in Jeanne D'Arc seems daunting for me. Especially with its skill system, maybe if they just had a job system similar to FFT it'd be less intimidating for me.

it really does 2 things:

makes characters more customizable
makes skills less manageable

But you can't deny the quality of this game, especially for 30 bucks, can't beat that

for sure, its worth it. there's definitely enough gameplay time in it for me to consider it a good buy

 

[DevelopmentArrested]

How many levels are there?

 

[Superman00]

How many levels are there?

There are 32 main stages, with other free areas where you can train and get items. I'm at stage 29 now. Once you beat the prairie and get the weapon for Gilles, he completely owned, especially with his transformation. So with Gilles, if you do it right, you can kill 3 or 4+ enemies per turn.

 

[davepoobond]

what i can't seem to understand is how a couple of my characters will do shitty-as-hell damage even though they're about the same level as my other characters who do well.

Roger is the weakest character of all my usual characters. I dont understand how that works.

 

[Anno]

what i can't seem to understand is how a couple of my characters will do shitty-as-hell damage even though they're about the same level as my other characters who do well.

Roger is the weakest character of all my usual characters. I dont understand how that works.

Do you have any affinities equipped? Make sure to pay attention if you do.

That said, Roger certainly isn't the strongest attacker in the game, but his stats are more evenly spread out than La Hire, who is physically the strongest character. La Hire seems to work best polishing off enemies from behind within a Burning Aura that Roger or someone else with passable accuracy has set up.

 

[Diablos]

Roger sucks. I don't use him. Liane sucks even more.

My party is typically Jeanne, furry guy, Jean, Bertrand, and Marcel.

Still loving this game. Just cleared

Spoiler

Bastille of Augustins.

 

[davepoobond]

Do you have any affinities equipped? Make sure to pay attention if you do.

no, i dont like them, really. off topic, but i think that something that would have made it better is armor and weapons having affinities attached to them...

My usual team consists of

Jeanne, Liane, Roger, Marcel, Gilles

 

[BlueTsunami]

Affinities feel like its tailored towards the gamer tipping the scales to their advantage. I mean, if you don't mess with any of the Skill Stones your pretty much neutral right? Just use magic thats strong against an enemy affinity instead of using Skill Stones or something.

What I dislike is how it seems like terrain doesn't really clue you in on the affinity of the enemy.

 

[Flynn]

Affinities helped me out against those

Spoiler

dragons.

 

[Anno]

Roger sucks. I don't use him. Liane sucks even more.

My party is typically Jeanne, furry guy, Jean, Bertrand, and Marcel.

Still loving this game. Just cleared

Spoiler

Bastille of Augustins.

Use Liane.

Spoiler

Really, do it.

 

[Diablos]

Use Liane.

Spoiler

Really, do it.

Why?

 

[PistolGrip]

Why?

The best Magic user (heal and black magic) at the start of the game.

I have to admit I also didn't like the fact I had to kill Talbot sooo many times. It got annoying.

Dave your criticism seem awkward since your negatives are descriptions of what an SRPG is. Perhaps you just don't like SRPGs?

BTW Yes ROGER SUCKS ASS. To use him and not use Colet is a horrible idea. Colet has more mobility, better accuracy, is practically untouchable due to his evade, has the highest percent of critical hits in the game, can steal skill stones, ... etc.

Also does anyone like La Hire? Mobility set to 4 and his horrible accuracy make him almost useless for me.

 

[davepoobond]

The best Magic user (heal and black magic) at the start of the game.

I have to admit I also didn't like the fact I had to kill Talbot sooo many times. It got annoying.

Dave your criticism seem awkward since your negatives are descriptions of what an SRPG is. Perhaps you just don't like SRPGs?

BTW Yes ROGER SUCKS ASS. To use him and not use Colet is a horrible idea. Colet has more mobility, better accuracy, is practically untouchable due to his evade, has the highest percent of critical hits in the game, can steal skill stones, ... etc.

Also does anyone like La Hire? Mobility set to 4 and his horrible actuary make him almost useless for me.

I dont like Colet COOZ HE TLKZ LIKE ZEEZ

and I like SRPGs. RPGs are my #1 favorite games, after all. SRPGs are just an offshoot of it. like i said before, i just like them when they are way more complex, because the slower turn-based system lends itself towards that, but i'm not getting it from this game.

i've just played SRPGs that have been way more interesting/better strategy games in the past

 

[mikekennyb]

Picked it up two days ago... I am impressed. Final Fantasy Tactics is one of my favorite games of all time, and Jeanne D'Arc comes the closest to that of any other game I have played since (including Tactics Advance). Gameplay is very reminiscent of what I remember from FFT. I think a job system would be nice to add some depth, but I am only 2 hours into the game so maybe the skill stones and magic abilities will provide more differentiation for the characters as the game progresses.

The battle maps are particularly beautiful, and the anime cutscenes are interesting and well done (Caveat: I am not an anime fan). The story is better than I thought it would be. When I saw trolls and holy armlets mixed in with the Hundred Years War and Joan of Arc, I was skeptical. But if you take the game for what it is, and forget about the true history of Joan of Arc, it's great. Highly Recommended.

P.S. Thanks for the $29.99 price point Sony!

 

[Splash Wave]

Roger sucks. I don't use him. Liane sucks even more.

My party is typically Jeanne, furry guy, Jean, Bertrand, and Marcel.

Still loving this game. Just cleared

Spoiler

Bastille of Augustins.

If not Lianne than who should I use to heal?

 

[lunlunqq]

just picked it up this afternoon. totally loving it.!!

 

[jjasper]

If not Lianne than who should I use to heal?

I have been using Marcel, since he has to stay back anyway.

 

[jiggle]

I give everyone a heal. Really comes in handy.

 

[Anno]

If not Lianne than who should I use to heal?

I really dislike giving spoilers, but I do like helping. Do NOT highlight the black text if you don't want a tiny spoiler revealed.

Spoiler

If you don't use Liane constantly then at least keep her leveled up

At any rate she isn't even a bad character. She's the best magic user you have for a good period of the game and has some of the highest accuracy as well. Her low HPs can be compensated for with skill stones, too.

And I do like La Hire. He's a great tank, and Raise Mobility can compensate for those times that you need him to go faster. It's not like he has much better stuff to use the skill stone slots for.

 

[PistolGrip]

I really dislike giving spoilers, but I do like helping. Do NOT highlight the black text if you don't want a tiny spoiler revealed.

Spoiler

If you don't use Liane constantly then at least keep her leveled up

At any rate she isn't even a bad character. She's the best magic user you have for a good period of the game and has some of the highest accuracy as well. Her low HPs can be compensated for with skill stones, too.

And I do like La Hire. He's a great tank, and Raise Mobility can compensate for those times that you need him to go faster. It's not like he has much better stuff to use the skill stone slots for.

Yeah Raising his Mobility helps but what about his accuracy? Its horrible!!! His Critical is also low. Actually besides having the most HP and one of the highest attacks (useless since his accuracy is dramatically low), he's pretty useless. I also thought of him as a tank but his mobility makes it impossible to use him as such at the start. Jean is a much better tank, he counters quite a bit, has higher accuracy and can counter enemies using poles, plus

Spoiler

he can jump!!

I give everyone a heal. Really comes in handy.

Thats quite a waste of a skill slot. Upping Lianne's MP and having her user heal is all you really need, perhaps one more wouldnt hurt in those 7 char battles, but all? its too much

 

[Anno]

Yeah Raising his Mobility helps but what about his accuracy? Its horrible!!! His Critical is also low. Actually besides having the most HP and one of the highest attacks (useless since his accuracy is dramatically low), he's pretty useless. I also thought of him as a tank but his mobility makes it impossible to use him as such at the start. Jean is a much better tank, he counters quite a bit, has higher accuracy and can counter enemies using poles, plus

Spoiler

he can jump!!

Axes get better critical rates than anything except daggers. Critical Edge bumps it up even more. Characters like Liane, who have good accuracy, are good at creating Burning Auras for La Hire to move around behind and exploit. Anyway, mobility doesn't even matter for the most important parts of the battle. La Hire has absolutely no problems finding targets for me, I know that. He's a good character to take the initial blow from an enemy before the Unified Guard chain gets set up to help weaker defensive characters.

 

[devilscallmedad]

I have a small question the items that permanently raise stats, do so for one full battle only ? or is it really really permanently.

 

[Anno]

I have a small question the items that permanently raise stats, do so for one full battle only ? or is it really really permanently.

"Fruits" raise your stats by small amounts forever. "Tonics" raise them by larger amounts for shorter periods of time.