New Review Posted: La Pucelle Tactics

[Daniel Weissenberger]

Tera Kirk reviews La Pucelle: Tactics, and finds it an experience in intellectual growth:

"Why do people say that videogames have no educational value? In vision therapy, I played a blue and red Arkanoids clone to help my eyes work together. The Legend of Zelda taught me the basics of reading maps. And thanks to playing La Pucelle Tactics, I can now call somebody "stupid" in Japanese. Demon hunting heroine Prier is always calling people baka: her younger brother, her best friend, scary monsters. "You really piss me off!" she shouts at a demon lord just before whacking him with her baton. Loud, selfish and abusive, Prier isn't a hero for everyone. Yet players strange enough and patient enough to appreciate her will find this game a fun little gem."

The rest of the review is available right here.

[Mike Bracken]

I've had this sitting here for ages, and I love these Nippon Ichi strategy games to death, but after losing myself in Disgaea for a very very long time, I'm almost afraid to play La Pucelle or Phantom Brave.

I have this same leveling compulsion you do, which means that beating the game isn't enough--I must conquer it, with maxed out characters, amazing stats, and all the secrets unlocked. Having a seemingly never-ending series of deadlines makes achieving those kinds of goals pretty rough.

Great review.

Mike B.

[Asz]

Like all Nippon Ichi games, I started out loving it, and then just trailed off and stopped playing. Perhaps i'll finish it one day.

On a side note, I found this pretty humorous when I went to read the review:

[EnduroGamer]

Speaking of Nippon Ichi, have you seen the trailer for their new game Makai Kingdom? I love what they show in the trailer but I got to say that it looks like there are sooooo many possibilities with this new mobile base concept that it might be a little too inaccessible for the masses. And when I say masses, I mean people who play more than 1 game a month.

http://media.ps2.ign.com/media/714/714345/vids_1.html

It looks damn impressive too. And pretty original within the confines of the turn-based strategy rpg genre.

[Mike Bracken]

Originally Posted by EnduroGamer

Speaking of Nippon Ichi, have you seen the trailer for their new game Makai Kingdom? I love what they show in the trailer but I got to say that it looks like there are sooooo many possibilities with this new mobile base concept that it might be a little too inaccessible for the masses. And when I say masses, I mean people who play more than 1 game a month.

Yeah, I've been following Makai Kingdom since it was first announced (back when they were calling it Phantom Kingdom). It keeps the visual art style I love so much about the NIS games (which is what annoys me in just about every review I read of their games--people bitch about the graphics...like they were supposed to be 3D and some horrible mix-up ensued and they put sprites in instead) and yet again tweaks the standard strat RPG gameplay.

I'm looking forward to Stella Deus later this year from Atlus, too.

Mike B.

[Asz]

Appriciate the heads-up about Makai Kingdom, didn't know it was coming. Whats great about Nippon Ichi games is that they always manage to add in loads of new unique features to the standard tactics rpg gameplay. Can't wait to check this one out....and then probably never finish it.

[k8to]

Sadly I've barely made any progress in La Pucelle after the first month.

Basically, the game makes me feel like I should level up my characters, but provides no real means of varying the experience while doing so. There's no exploration, no new story.. no nothing. Just fighting the same battles over and over.

How can this game work?

-josh

[ananachronism]

Stupid question:La Pucelle(the virgine),as in: Janne d' arc,qui avais bouter l'anglois hors de france(medieval french...Hey!If you got it flaunt it), has a video game of her own?

[ferrarimanf355]

Obligatory Penny Arcade comic:

[Boy]

Originally Posted by k8to

Sadly I've barely made any progress in La Pucelle after the first month.

Basically, the game makes me feel like I should level up my characters, but provides no real means of varying the experience while doing so. There's no exploration, no new story.. no nothing. Just fighting the same battles over and over.

How can this game work?

-josh

Doesn't La Pucelle have something similar to the item worlds of Disgaea? I don't know offhand, because I haven't gotten very far into it myself.

[k8to]

All I've found so far are the 'dark worlds' which I could only access by killing my own characters so far. I'm not strong enough to play in there yet, and it doesn't seem very different.

Maybe they'll be interesting later in the game?