La Pucelle: Ragnarok

La Pucelle: Ragnarok is a delightful tactical role-playing adventure that combines classic Japanese RPG storytelling with imaginative combat mechanics, extensive character progression, and an appealing sense of humor. Developed by Nippon Ichi Software, Inc. and Engine Software BV, and published by NIS America, Inc., this enhanced edition introduces Western audiences to a more complete version of a beloved strategy RPG. Released on Steam on August 30, 2022, it retains the nostalgic charm of its original incarnation while incorporating additional characters, expanded scenarios, and practical improvements. Although some gameplay elements feel dated, its distinctive personality and strategic depth make it a worthwhile experience for players who appreciate traditional turn-based adventures. The narrative centers on Prier and her younger brother Culotte, two newly qualified demon hunters serving the religious organization La Pucelle. Their early assignments involve eliminating demons, confronting zombies, and investigating supernatural disturbances, but their responsibilities quickly become more complicated when they uncover conspiracies involving a rival church. Prier's fiery temperament and determination make her an entertaining protagonist, especially when her impulsive behavior clashes with the expectations placed upon her. The supporting characters contribute humor, emotional moments, and occasional disagreements that give the adventure personality. While the story initially follows familiar fantasy conventions, its exploration of faith, ambition, friendship, and moral responsibility provides more substance than its colorful presentation might suggest. The combat system is arguably the game's greatest strength, offering a satisfying combination of tactical positioning, character abilities, and environmental manipulation. Battles unfold across isometric environments where players maneuver party members, select attacks, and coordinate their actions against increasingly dangerous opponents. Strategic planning becomes especially important when dealing with enemy formations and battlefield obstacles. Rather than relying exclusively on conventional attacks, players must learn how to exploit the environment to achieve more effective victories. The mechanics provide considerable room for experimentation, although some encounters eventually become repetitive, particularly during extended character-leveling sessions. What distinguishes the experience from other tactical RPGs is its innovative purification system. Dark Portals generate streams of Dark Energy across battlefields, creating opportunities to redirect their movement and unleash powerful purification effects. Properly arranging characters can produce impressive chain reactions that damage enemies and cleanse corrupted terrain. This system transforms ordinary encounters into strategic puzzles, rewarding careful observation and creative positioning. Monster recruitment adds another dimension, allowing players to purify enemies and eventually incorporate them into their own party. Experimenting with different creatures, abilities, and formations gives the combat considerable flexibility, although mastering these interconnected mechanics requires patience. Character development is similarly rewarding, particularly because skills improve relatively quickly compared with many traditional strategy RPGs. Players can strengthen equipment, develop powerful abilities, and experiment with different party compositions without feeling permanently restricted to a single approach. The inventory accommodates up to 149 items, providing considerable room for collecting and improving equipment. However, the abundance of customization options can occasionally become overwhelming, especially when managing numerous characters and recruited monsters. Players who enjoy optimizing statistics and developing increasingly powerful teams will appreciate the freedom, while those seeking a streamlined…

Another great NIS classic. Charming characters, humor and spritework. The dark energy system is a rewarding intercombat puzzle and a close relative to what would become the geo system in the Disgaea series. Item fusion might need you to look up a short guide that explains it better than the ingame "tutorial" same with the Dark World system. As for the "Over 100 hours of gameplay with multiple endings" I kinda disagree unless you go out of your way to see EVERYTHING including multiple NG+ runs and without spoiling anything grind for special endings.

Before I got this I didn't realize it was a side-scroller RPG, unlike Nippon Ichi's other works that I adoree, like Rhapsody or Disgaea, where you can roam around wherever you'd like in the overworld without the movement constraintss, which wasn't something for mee, but I could get behind itt (bonus 'cause the text font is simply awfull, dunno why they changed itt, but I could get used to it with timee) Howeverr, what I can't get behind is that the character portraits have clearly been ran through an AI upscalerr, which is a huge shamee, and now once I've seen it in gamee, I can't unsee itt. The lines/colors on the portraits are very muddiedd, the kind of muddied that only AI upscalers can dooo. Strangelyy, this was dishonestly never disclosed on the game's Steam store pagee, and having it only be slightly mentioned in one Steam review is rather jarringg. Aaand since nobody's seemed to have modded this version of the game yett, this can't be fixedd. Just play La Pucelle: Tactics or emulate the original Ragnarok with the English patch insteadd, not this AI upscaled re-releasee Thankfullyy, I was able to gather a few screenshots to show some examples of the AI upscaling in the character portraitss. Be careful guyss, hope my refund can go throughh: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3728099751 https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3728101221 https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3728101727