Arts & Entertainment 2004 June Nick Hogg | OP\Game Guy bvomeitef snorreentoff-aemmnipetbieensvioett mniemnenenuerresenniisrrntin ce La Pucelle — i ae hitmep + Nick Hogg that her solution for most problems _ will impress any fans of 2D sprites. will summon up more enemy crea- _|. OP Game Guy tends to be violence in the form of It’s just so nice to see ‘a game that tures, which can make the maps $3 a kick in the gut, or in extreme looks good in 2D, which just goes _ tedious with a new supply of things _.... The only thing better than a tacti- cases, a kick in the junk. to show that 3D isn't necessarily that want you dead. Sealing up _. cal RPG is a tactical RPG from _— Also part of this crack demon everything. As well, much like these portals has bonus effects. .... Nippon Ichi, the makers of squad is Culotte, Prier’s younger Disgaea and Dot Hack the optionto First, if you form a circle with the _..... —.. Disgaea. Now La Pucelle isnt a brother, who's a funny little kid. play in with the original Japanese dark stream you can create what .. sequel or a prequel, it’s basically And Allouette, the so-called voice and new English vocal tracks is they call a “miracle,” summoning -.. just the game that chronologically of reason of the group. She’s the present. I have to commend the something to hurt any enemies —— comes right before Disgaea. responsible older one, who leads publisher Mastiff for their excellent inside said circle. Second, you level —.... Despite the fact that both of these and keeps Prier in line with her job in getting a great cast of voice up your weapons and armor by - games come from a similar genre, very heavy holy book that she often actors. Each does a good job and _ closing these dark portals, which in —_ Nippon Ichi goes through great wields as a weapon. There is also each actually sounds like they've turn makes the stuff better. - lengths to make sure that the games Croix, the freelance demon hunter got some enthusiasm. Now as for the fighting itself, it -—— have a unique feel to them that’s all who joins up with you for various With all the other aspects of the emulates troop placements and ~~ their own—while still retaining reasons. If you've seen Trigun, just game out of the way, we can arrive teamwork more than its younger —+- similar aspects that make you feel think Wolfwood, because he’s basi- at the meat and potatoes of any cousin Disgaea. Disgaea was very - right at home with the battle sys- cally a rip off of that character. strategy RPG: the battle system. focused on having one end be all - ———-" tem. Speaking of rip-offs—we have the Like most SRPGs, La Pucelle oper- bad asses. In La Pucelle, you must —}~ Since the battle system is the pirate Homard—who has a myste- ates on the isometric-grid system. have a very balanced team since most important part of the game, rious past and an eye patch. He Much like Disgaea, it uses a portal you can take part in team attacks — ~ let’s get the other stuff—such as the may sound somewhat like Bart in which you can draw out or automatically, but as well there are story—out of the way first. from Xenogears—but Croix has a_ return any members that remain in team defensive lines and counter ~~ Basically the back-of-the-box quick funny hat and no giant robot. each fight, with a maximum of attacks. So whenever one character + version is that you are a demon Accompanying Homard is the crew eight characters that can be on the _ is attacked, attacking characters in + hunter working for a church in an of his pirate ship the Chocolat field at one time. But you are adjacent panels to them are alternate medieval Europe. Gang; yes no “e” is added, so it unable to create characters in this dragged into the fight, or defense. Personally, I don't think that does sounds more French like every- game; you must convert your ene- ‘To be effective, you have to move the best job of explaining what's going on, so I'll fill you in on the rest. The main character is a 16-year- old girl named Prier; she’s a new member of the Church of the Holly Maiden’s La Pucelle demon- hunting squad. Now Prier isn’t the stereotypical RPG girl, you can pretty much tell that the minute you look at her. And not to be judgmental, but could they have drawn her anymore butch looking? I mean seriously, those legs look like tree stumps. She shares some common traits with standard RPG male heroes as well, like the fact fete tance meaty Ri pone! co = ze aa ftp +—} 16 | OtherPress thing else in the game. Basically this game is a bunch of really cute cats, with sickeningly cute voice acting. With the character basics out of the way, we can move onto the graphical portion of the review. Now I'll say this straight up—the game is old, and realistically it should have been released in North America two years ago, but it’s here now so I guess we can’t complain. Basically it’s got wonderful looking 2D sprites on 3D backgrounds. We don’t have quite the same impres- sive visuals as Disgaea had, since it is a newer game, but these graphics ones alba mies from evil to good by purifying them, giving you a chance to gain them as a party member. The funny thing is that the conversions don’t take place until after you kill the enemy. So it really makes me laugh when I think about someone joining your team right after you beat them into some sort of fine pulp-like substance. We also have the dark-portal sys- tem, which is a stream of energy emanating from a portal that can be directed to make a chained attack, similar to Disgaea’s geo- panel system. But in this system, if the dark portals are not sealed they in small groups or squads, but since magic takes out small groups easily, you really have to use your head © and carefully plan out fights. My hope is that if you're a fan of ~ SRPGs, you've already picked up La Pucelle or are on the way to the store to buy it now. If you're not sure of the genre, well this is prob- ably one of the best places to start. You get a hilarious story, with great voice acting, a solid battle system, and a good deal of playtime and replay value. And don't let this game pass you by like Disgaea, which has just been recently re- released, so go get both. Bae eis