La Pucelle: Tactics

Every so often a genre of games does what I like to call: “the submarine.” What I mean by this is that this particular genre is very popular for a while, than for the next few months/years, you can’t find that sort of game anywhere, then all of the sudden you will find it everywhere again. The genre I am referring to in this instance is Turn-Based Strategy RPG’s, and they are beginning to pick up steam once more. These are fun games, that can last an extremely long time, and have really good replay value, and normally (if the game is really good) it retains a high trade in value, Final Fantasy Tactics (before it became a Greatest Hits title) anyone?

The latest Turn-Based Strategy RPG released is La Pucelle Tactics, and it is a very interesting one. The story line goes as follows: There is a legend that warns of the day that the Dark Prince, who is the servant of the dark Angel Calamity, will cover the entire world in darkness. The other half of the prophecy states that when the Dark Prince appears, so does the Maiden of the Light, the servant of the Goddess Poitreene. Players begin the journey with three lead characters: Prier (the main female character), Culotte (Prier’s brother), and their teacher Alouette.

The story that unfolds as you play though this game is very compelling, the reason for this is that it is laced with humor, sarcasm, and story twists. Prier is a bit of a hot head, it is always hilarious when you get her mad as her facial expressions on the sprite and her dialog box portrait will have your cracking up. When her brother gets her mad, she even bops him on the head, and soon he will get a nice bump. These little things keep players interested in the story and it compels them to play on.

The game plays just like many other Turn-Based Strategy RPG, but it has a few interesting twists. After players enter into a battlefield, they must plan their strategy to take out as many enemies as possible with the least effort. Not only do players have to worry about the enemies, they will have to purify the “Dark Portals,’ which act as a way for more enemies to appear, and a way to level up your items. After you defeat all the enemies, you will be able to go on to the next level.

While this sounds the same as many other games of this nature, what makes this game interesting is the way you “recruit” allies. In order to get more players for your team, you must convince them to join by “purifying” them. While this is very good, it can be deadly since you have to use up a turn to purify them, and it will take more than one time for them to even think about joining your team. This adds a whole new level of strategy, because players have to think: “Is it worth the time to purify this beast so I can use him later on?”

Once you capture an enemy you can train them to become better team members. You do this by going into the training dialog box. In this box you will tell stuff like: do push-ups or give them food. The key to this is that you don’t want to make them unhappy or they will run away. The best strategy here is to give them a few commands to grow stronger, then give them some loving so they will want to stay. To make this even more crucial you will only get a few commands per stage cleared, so you will not want to waste any of these precious commands.

La Pucelle does not push the PlayStation 2 hardware in any sense. The game uses sprites and quasi-3D work, in the same vein as Chrono Trigger and Disgaea: Hour of Darkness. The animation for the characters in this game is pretty simplistic, but it gets the job done. The spell effects for this game are really well done and use a variety of colors. If there is one thing that this game does right is use a wide variety of coloring. The character designs for this game are very good as well; the characters are highly detailed and wear clothing that matches their personality.

This game has a very “anime inspired” theme, and this is very apparent from the storyboards and the characters expressions. Every time a character speaks, the game has a little box that has its portrait, and it will be animated depending on what the dialog box is. At the same time if you look at the sprite version of the character you will see the different emotions, especially anger, from the thought bubbles that will go over their heads.

The sound department goes above and beyond the call of duty here. For starters the game will allow you to listen to the Japanese or English voice acting, and you can switch this anytime on the options screen. Both of the audio tracks here is very impressive, the actors take on the roles of these characters seriously and the actors fit the characters perfectly. The musical soundtrack to this game is just awesome as well. If players choose to, they can get lost in the perfect musical score while playing the game, because it is executed seamlessly. It also walks that fine line by standing out without drowning out the game play experience. The sound effects used in the game aren’t as high quality as the musical score and the voice acting but it does get the job done effectively.

La Pucelle Tactics is rated T for Teen blood, crude humor, mature sexual themes, and violence. It requires 360kb on your memory card for game saves.

Gameplay: 8.7
La Pucelle Tactics is a lot of fun to play. The controls are very simple and there is a variety of different ways to get things done in this game. The object is to find the most effective way to do it, so you do not waste too much time and energy playing one level.

Graphics: 7.6
The game is not the prettiest around, nor does it push the graphical capabilities of the Playstation 2, but it is very colorful and gives the players a nice anime inspired theme.

Sound: 9.3
La Pucelle Tactics has the best of every world. It has top notice Japanese and English dialog and a moving soundtrack. This game will appease your ears and, if you have one, your home theater system.

Difficulty: Hard
This game is not to be taken lightly, because it is hard. If you do not know what you are doing, you will have a hard time in the beginning levels of this game, and an even harder time towards some of the latter levels. The game is all about strategy, character placement, and many other factors. Do not let this discourage you because playing this game is worth the sweat that you will lose while playing it.

Concept: 8.7
I really liked the anime inspired theme that this La Pucelle Tactics contains. Also how you gain more characters in this game by “purifying” them was ingenious.

Overall: 9.0
Do not miss out on the opportunity to play La Pucelle Tactics. This is a great game, which you will not want to take out of your Playstation 2 until you reach the conclusion.