Jeanne d'Arc

Jeanne d'Arc PSP is a tactical role-playing game developed by Level-5 and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation Portable. It debuted in Japan in November 2006 before reaching North America on August 21, 2007. Set against a fantastical version of the Hundred Years’ War, the game follows a teenage Jeanne from Domrémy as an English invasion, backed by monstrous forces, threatens France. Its heroine borrows the name and broad historical setting of Joan of Arc, but the adventure is deliberately an original fantasy tale built around magical armlets, demons, and an anime-inspired cast.

The campaign unfolds across a map of France. Story locations lead to conversations and set-piece encounters, while towns provide opportunities to buy equipment and manage the party. Optional battles give the group chances to earn experience, gold, and useful materials away from the main route. Before a fight, players choose which allies to deploy, assign equipment, and fit skill stones into each character’s available slots. Victory conditions vary by stage: a force may need to eliminate every opponent, protect key allies, reach designated spaces, or meet another objective within a limited number of turns.

Battles take place on compact, grid-based fields where positioning matters as much as a unit’s level. On a character’s turn, the player moves that unit and then selects an action such as attacking, using an item, or activating a skill. Enemies can counterattack in suitable circumstances, and attacks from the side or rear carry tactical advantages. The result is a portable strategy RPG that asks players to read enemy ranges, plan a safe formation, and decide which target must fall first instead of simply sending the strongest fighter straight ahead.

Jeanne d'Arc PSP gives its turn-based combat several distinctive systems. A physical strike can leave a Burning Aura on the square beyond its target; another ally can step into that space and use the boost to strengthen an attack. Nearby comrades can also form a Unified Guard, improving their ability to withstand incoming blows. Characters and enemies are associated with the Sol, Luna, and Stella phases, a three-way advantage system that rewards choosing favorable matchups. Skill stones found, bought, or created through combination expand a party member’s offensive, defensive, and recovery options without making every character play the same way.

Jeanne herself and a select group of allies can wield the story’s magical armlets. By collecting power during battle, an armlet bearer can transform for a short time, gaining stronger capabilities and special techniques. Jeanne’s transformed form can be particularly valuable when a well-timed defeat creates momentum for the player’s turn. These temporary powers sit alongside the regular party tactics rather than replacing them, so arranging allies for guards and auras remains important even when one character has become exceptionally powerful.

The narrative begins when Jeanne’s home is devastated and she sets out with childhood friends Roger and Liane. As her journey grows, she recruits companions from different walks of life and encounters fictionalized versions of figures connected to the era, including Gilles de Rais and La Hire. The game does not attempt to retell the real Joan of Arc’s life faithfully: its France is a land where human conflict intersects with an older supernatural struggle, and the English leadership is tied to the invading demons. That contrast gives the campaign its own identity while retaining familiar place names and the broad political pressure of the medieval war.

For Level-5, Jeanne d'Arc was both the studio’s first tactical role-playing game and its first project for PSP. The design combines illustrated story scenes and 3D battlefield models with an approachable structure that gradually introduces its systems. Its original PSP release remains centered on a single-player quest, with a long sequence of battles, party growth, optional challenges, and strategic boss encounters. Jeanne d'Arc PSP stands as a self-contained strategy RPG whose historical inspiration is only the starting point for its magical war story.