La Pucelle: Tactics is yet another strategy role-playing game about teenage, French-named, anime-style, exorcist demon-hunters. If only we had a penny for every one, right? But yes, it's true, this strangely named game from the makers of last year's cult favorite, Disgaea: Hour of Darkness, has an unusual concept. It plays pretty weirdly, too; it's a slow-paced game with its own, unusual logic, though it bears obvious resemblance to Disgaea as well as other strategy RPGs like Final Fantasy Tactics. Given that, and given that it's chock-full of geeky anime humor and corny melodrama, La Pucelle has its sights set on a specific audience. It's a good game for that crowd, although they may be disappointed to learn that La Pucelle actually predates Disgaea (it originally released a couple of years ago in Japan), and that it lacks some of that game's refinements and better features. Nevertheless, if you enjoyed the colorful look and core gameplay of Disgaea, then La Pucelle: Tactics is easily recommended.
The young star of La Pucelle: Tactics is a hot-tempered girl named Prier (say "pree-yay"), who's supposedly a demon hunter, but really, she's more of an exorcist. She and her younger brother and their straightlaced tutor embark on a quest that spans more than 10 chapters' worth of turn-based tactical battles (which are generously interspersed with lengthy cutscenes using the same colorful, smoothly animated little characters you'll see on the battle screen). The story and characters are all very anime, and they're especially suited for the specific subset of anime fan who would appreciate all the super-duper cute character designs, including enemy foes that often look more like stuffed animals than like dangerous opponents. Last year's Disgaea, with its netherworld setting and cast of strange, demonic cohorts, probably has a more appealing premise than this game does--but that's just a relative comparison. The truth is that the two games share an unmistakably similar style. This one tries harder to tell a cohesive story, which means you'll spend more time watching the story unfold.
