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.
Here’s a new trailer for Folklore for the PS3 showing some of the story and a lot of the gameplay. The game sure is pretty, and the story seems pretty good. It’s set to be an action/adventure game with a lot of RPG elements. It’s selling like hot cakes in Japan, and looks to make a similar impact on the rest of the world.
Peter Molyneux has always been outspoken, but this is surprising. In an interview with Kikizo, he says that “most role playing games are shit!” Ummm, right.
He went on to trash Oblivion, one of the highest rated RPG’s of recent past.
Oblivion was a great game, but the combat was rubbish; we all talked about it being rubbish.
Someone needs to slap Peter silly. His idea of great combat for Fable 2 is a single button for all combat moves. He says that consumers actually prefer to mash buttons.
You would think button mashing would be one thing I’d want to get rid of, but I don’t. For some people, it’s what they want to do.
Can I get a double of whatever he’s drinking? For a man who’s so far behind on his game, I don’t think he’s in a place to be calling everyone else out.
In a press release issued today, Infogrames Entertainment SA let us know that they’ve extended their license of the Dungeons & Dragons universe through 2017.
The agreement covers all current and future products that are part of this universe, including NeverWinter Nights, Baldur’s Gate, etc.
Two new games have already been announced for fiscal 2007-2008: NeverWinter Nights 2 Expansion Pack for PC and Dungeons & Dragons Tactics for PSP.
Infogrames has done a good job with the license so far, so this is good new for RPG players out there.
Also as part of the agreement, Infogrames is selling some of licensed content back to Hasbro, the makers of D&D. The gaming licenses for Monopoly, Scrabble, Risk, Game of Life, Clue, Yahtzee, Battleship, Boggle and Simon will end up back in Hasbro’s hands for the cool price of $19.5 million. That’s a lot of money for Boggle. Hit the jump for more »
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