La Pucelle Tactics

Reviewed by Norman Canseco
April 2005

Developer: Nippon Ichi Software Inc. Website: Click Here Publisher: Mastiff LLC Players: 1 ESRB Rating: Teen

Thanks to the folks at Mastiff, the US can enjoy Nippon-Ichi Soft's new comic adventure in the battle between good and evil.  Disgaea fans rejoice as the next in a line of great strategy RPGs makes its way to the PS2.  La Pucelle Tactics portrays the adventure of Prier, the maiden of light hopeful, her brother Culotte, and their upperclassman-tutor Alouette as they take on demons and try to cleanse the land as well as purify and enlist the aid of monsters to do their bidding to ensure the safety of the world, their duty as members of La Pucelle.

The Folks of NIS are always trying to make a diverse RPG engine, so if thinking you're playing a Disgaea clone is your idea of fun, you're in for a treat.  There are a few similarities between the two games; for instance some of the regular enemies like demons and skulls.  Weapons and items are sold through the Rosenqueen Company.  There is also a portal to the Dark World.  That's where the similarities stop. First of all, character interaction is done in a 2-d environment. This includes traveling through towns, dialogue and cinema scenes, and battles.  Remember the Geo panel system? Geo Panels are non-existent.  Now the land is slowly being infected with portals of dark energy.  The members of La Pucelle cleanse the land and rid it of the monsters that spawn from these portals through the process of purification.  Portals flow in certain directions. By purifying the portal, the energy flow will also be affected.  So when the flow of dark energy is purified, a chain combo is performed and any enemies standing in the flow will be damaged.   If performed right, a chain combo that clears a field and flows into a ring can become a devastating miracle attack.  As said earlier, enemies can also be purified and made into allies.  As they fight beside you, they can level up and become more promising servants. Training helps these allies, as it will allow them to purify other enemies as well as venture into the dark realm to earn you items.

Team attacks are easily accomplished just by standing next to your allies.  The more the merrier: up to four members can perform a team attack as well as a team counter attack.  Only eight teammates can be on the field at a time, so be selective at converting your enemies.  After a few battles, you'll be able to pick the right teammates and dismiss the others to build an effective team.  In the beginning, you start out with the three La Pucelle members but as you progress, you'll earn up to five extra story characters.

In the beginning, La Pucelle Tactics seems a little tedious.  Recruiting characters takes up a lot of your turns and makes a simple battle seem endless.  But as you progress, you'll find things easily accomplished by your servants, allowing you to do some serious leveling-up and yes, you can always revisit previous levels and build up newly turned allies.  This game is very well done and just as addicting as the other NIS titles. It is a great way to kill some time: the game can be beaten at level 50; however, the max cap is at 9999.  Just like other NIS games, La Pucelle is a definite treat to purists of Japanese games. The audio can be switched from English to Japanese.  Look forward to other games by Nippon-Ichi Soft, as they'll be bringing more.