There’s not much to do on vacation in the middle of the wilderness on a lake with no internet, cell phone service, and only 3 channels on TV. Thankfully I had my PSP and a copy of Jeanne d’Arc. I got to spend a good deal of time with the massive handheld RPG and I’m very impressed. The story revolves around Jeanne (aka Joan of Arc for those Westerners out there) trying to save France in the Hundred Years War. Throw in some demons helping the English and King Henry gets possessed, and you’ve got yourself a grade A RPG.

The graphics look good for a PSP title. There’s a lot of anime pre-rendered cut scenes which are very cool, and the in game graphics have a nice cell shaded feel to them. As expected in an RPG, there’s a lot of reading and not a lot of talking. I really wish some developer would put voice overs in for RPG’s. With the size limitations on the UMD disk, I doubt it would make it onto the PSP anyway.

The gameplay is fluid with a very compelling story. You have battles at virtually every setting you visit. The battles consist of your outfit fighting against demons and English soldiers, which a specific task to win (ie. defeat the English soldier, move your troops to the North end, etc). For the turn based combat, you move your selected troop to where you need him/her to attack or use a spell, item, etc., then go at it. Even though it’s semi-repetitive, you don’t get that feel from the game due to the different environments and choice in what 5 troops you want to fight.

Overall, I’m having a very good time with Jeanne d’Arc. It’s a very long game, clocking in at around 40 hours, which is monstrous for the PSP. I think that may detract some buyers who are looking for quick pick-me-up games on their handheld. I’ll have a full review up later this week as I get some more time with the game.