La Pucelle: Tactics

THE BAD:
pretty perdictable plot, PS1 graphics, terrible voice acting and cheesy dialogue

SUMMARY:
I purchased La Pucelle due to my intense affection for its predessor, Disgaea: Hour of Darkness. It's an above average title, but comparisons to Disgaea are impossible to avoid, and from that standpoint, it's lacking. It's story line tastes stale, there is considerably lower replay value, and the amount of side quests is more than halved. However, there is still a stellar level of party customization and tricky battles. In its defense, La Pucelle was Nippon Ichi's first step into the strategy RPG genre, and was only released later in the U.S. due to Disgaea's success.
I reccomend La Pucelle to those who are obsessed with the genre, but if you've never tried a stategy RPG before, pick up Disgaea: Hour of Darkness instead.

THE BAD:
There are only 3 things I found that this game could improve, but this game is still great!

SUMMARY:
La Pucelle is a great game to enjoy, and it captivated me right away. The characters are imaginative and funny, and the backgrounds are beautiful, even if they are 2D. Well, instead of rambling on about the good things you probably already know, I'll tell u about the things I thought the game could have improved on. Firstly, this game looks more like an improved version of RPG games found on Super Nintendo, like Chrono Trigger and Breath of Fire 3. Though the graphics of the characters have stayed the same, the backgrounds are beautiful and well done. The only thing I found wrong with this kind of graphics is the fact that the towns are 2D, and aren't as fun to explore, as a 3D version town would be. Still, since the 2D towns are well done, and this is easy enough to ignore. What my real gripe about the graphics is the lack of good cutscenes. Since this is a playstation 2 console, and since the graphics aren't even close to what you would see in FF10 or even Xenosaga, or any RPG for that matter, it would be nice if we had some cutscenes where the characters and scenes were played out like in an Anime movie? You know? Like in a crucial moment, the scene changes to a clip, where the characters look like those in any regular anime show. That would be great ^^. Secondly, my other gripe about the game would be to get rid of the damn board where u move around your characters and instead have environments and regular battles like those in Chrono Cross. After a while I found the boards annoying, and having them in every area was a bit of a pain in the ass. The storyline and characters made up for it though, or else I wouldn't have kept at it! Well, thats it for the gripes, but I have to say overall, if u enjoy any games, u should buy this.

THE BAD:
There is nothing bad

SUMMARY:
La Pucelle Tactics is the game prequel to Disgaea which was one of the favorites of the year 2003. Yup you heard me its a prequel it was made a year before Disgaea but it was just released late.

Storyline 10/10:
The story line is about a girl named Prier (Pronounced Pree-ay) and she is aiming to be the holy maiden of the La Pucelle Church. Although her personality can really get in the way of things. She is rowdy and is not afraid to speak her mind. She is rough and tough! She travels with Alouette who also joined the church and she keeps Prier in check to make sure she doenst get out of hand. She also travels with Culotte which is Prier's little brother. You might think that Prier has more experience and is smarter but you can see that Culotte is smarter than her in many ways,but it just seems that way because Prier is never focused.

Gameplay 10/10
The best I've seen in a long time. You can walk in cities but only in 2D but don't let that discourage you it's still very fun. The strategic battle system will blow you away. There are these things called Dark Portals that stretch through out the checkerboard battlefield. You must purify the dark portal to prevent the enemy from coming and if you use it correctly it can hurt the enemies or heal your allies! You can also use the purification system to turn monsters to your fighters. This is really helpful as it gets you more characters to fight with real early in the game. By the end of chapter 1 you can easily have a whole army of bats, skeletons, bears etc with all their unique names! The game is separated into 13 ( i think) chapters and they are very long. The game can be played for over 120 hours ( or so it says) if you get every side quest.

Graphics/Sound 10/10
The graphics are very good. They aren't FFX but they are good enough for a strategy game that was made about 2 years ago. The graphics are cute and it will just make you love the game. The atmosphere of everything will just give you the anime-ish feel. The music in La Pucelle is great. The beginning song resembles a church song. It sounds very gospel-ish but it gets you hooked and it sounds awesome

Overall you should get this game as it will be rare in the future and not only that its fun. I havent played a game this good for a while and I'm happy that i found out about it.