If you want to grab one of the best SRPG's available on the PSP, Level 5's Jeanne D'Arc is the ticket. It's accessible for new gamers but deep enough to interest veterans. Of course, the game itself has started to become harder to find, but only slightly. The price, therefore, hasn't really decreased in many areas. Enter Amazon with their special deal: $20 for the game, brand-spankin'-new. It's entirely worth it, so take advantage while this deal lasts!

[Via CAG]

Get your microscope ready, because that's what you'll need in order to find flaws in Level-5's PSP-exclusive, Jeanne d'Arc. Although it rarely, if ever, breaks away from standard SRPG conventions, Jeanne d'Arc does everything a game in the genre should do -- and it does it very well. Combining fantastic graphics, impressive production values, addictive gameplay, and an intriguing story, this is a must-have for any PSP owner.

Level-5 is known to produce some of the best looking titles on the platforms it works with. For example, Rogue Galaxy is still one of the finest looking titles on the PlayStation 2. The upcoming Dragon Quest IX looks to push the boundaries of Nintendo DS graphics to limits we never imagined possible. Jeanne d'Arc, already nearly a year old in Japan, manages to still look marvelous by today's standards. The cel-shaded graphics and expansive levels certainly look impressive on the PSP screen. Add beautiful anime cutscenes, and you have a game that provides a visual feast for its players.

From the opening moments, the game tries to wow players with an impressive anime cutscene that sets the stage for the events to come. Although a bit lengthy, as many of the game's non-playable segments are, we were compelled by the high quality of the animation. The story, very loosely based on the classic Joan of Arc tale, strays so drastically from its inspiration, that it manages to surprise the player ever so often. King Henry is possessed with some demonic power, and Jeanne not only hears the voice of God, she finds an armlet that lets her transform into a armored warrior.

The story of Jeanne D'Arc is filled with historical inaccuracies. From the opening cinematic, one can see the truly unique world that Level-5 has crafted in its PSP SRPG: it's a France that's only loosely based on the popular myth. Rather, Level-5 has opted to add a heavy dose of magic, demons, and fantasy to the story. Why? Producer Motomura explained to 1UP: "We chose to make a 'parallel world' version of Joan of Arc with fantasy elements for a variety of reasons, but the main reason is that we didn't want to make an overly serious piece where the focus was on absolute historical accuracy."

Level-5 didn't want to create the dark, brooding world that other adaptations of the Joan of Arc story had already taken. "We could have used all human characters, but we felt that it would make things too dark. By incorporating non-human characters, it's visually more stimulating as well, so we chose to put in Therions (beasts) like La Hire and Rufus."

Although this new story avoids being too grim, it does still have a variety of dramatic moments. But, will Jeanne's infamous death-by-fire be included in this PSP tale? We're just going to have to wait until the game releases to findout.

When you open the retail box of Jeanne D'Arc, it tells you that "you've made a great decision." After spending some time with the game, we have to agree.

Level-5 is known for producing high-quality RPGs, and their foray into the PSP realm doesn't stray far from their previous works. Players are treated to a beautiful anime introduction, which segways into some impressive cel-shaded graphics. The production values are through the roof: the voice acting is superb, the graphics are colorful, and the story is filled with intrigue. Most impressively, the load times are brief, lasting only a second or two between each segment of the game.

The game's SRPG gameplay is a bit simplistic, but admittedly--we're early in the game. Regardless, the game does a great job at explaining the options you have available, and the interface is easy to navigate. As in other SRPGs, players must position their characters and try to attack enemies. It's highly advantageous to go behind an enemy: this increases your potential damage, and lessens their ability to counter-attack. Having multiple characters swarm around a single enemy has proven to be quite effective so far.

There's a lot more to see and say about Jeanne D'Arc, but it's pretty obvious that we're already quite impressed with this PSP exclusive. Unless the game progresses far worse later on, Jeanne D'Arc is easily on its way to becoming a must-own PSP game. We'll have more info on the game closer to its release. Until then, enjoy the new screenshots in our gallery below:

The upcoming PSP SRPG, Jeanne D'arc looks incredible. Three new videos showcase the beautiful anime cutscenes, graphics, and accessible gameplay. It looks to have all the things that make Level-5 games so good. We're still a bit iffy on the voice acting, but color us impressed by everything else. The RPG will hit the handheld towards the end of summer, in August.

Check out the two other videos, after the cut.

Yesterday, Famitsu revealed the big PSP game that we've been waiting for. IGN's Canadian Japanese correspondant, Anoop, has unearthed more information from an interview Famitsu conducted with Level 5. For a change of pace, the development team wanted to make a female hero. Also, they wanted to have a historical game and they've done a lot of research. Of course, that doesn't mean that it'll be 100% historically accurate: it'll still have magic and talking lions. When discussing development for the PSP, the team wanted to make a balanced gameplay system that would be suitable for both hardcore and casual players. Although the game will be on a handheld, the team at Level 5 have no intentions of making a small game, though. The game will have around 150 characters, and between 40 and 50 stages. Each stage, being about 10 to 30 minutes long means that the game will be somewhere between 7 and 25 hours long. Interesting.

If you haven't yet, you should get really excited for this project. The team at Level 5 is known for their excellent Dark Cloud games and Dragon Quest VIII. Their upcoming game, Rogue Galaxy, is featured in the screenshot to the right. Hopefully, we'll get more news on this game around Tokyo Game Show.

[Update 1: Included an image from Famitsu scan. Gallery is available here.]