La Pucelle: Ragnarok

Careful. Ragnarok's character portraits and background renders have clearly been filtered through an AI upscaler, which makes much of the art look choppy, muddy, and warped. The actual character sprites are unaltered, though, which is thankfully what you'll be looking at most of the time, so most might not notice. However, once you see how the background art looks like someone has sloppily smeared their hands through it, you won't unsee it. The game itself is a good rpg with interesting mechanics, though, and a classic. It leaves me conflicted, because gameplay wise it's a good port that makes plenty of improvements to the old game, but the cutscenes are just blurry and hard to look at. I don't know how anyone can butcher such beautiful art and still show their faces in public, it's just shameful. La Pucelle deserved better than this, but what can you do? Companies can get away with anything so long as they're fine with sacrificing whatever good quality or reputation is associated with their brand. I'm sure this would have been a much bigger and more fruitful discussion if more people actually bought this game. But, alas. Genuinely; If you don't care about what you're looking at a quarter of the time, you'll like it fine enough. If you do, though, well...

I haven't finished the game yet, but my first impressions have blown me away. I've played through the first three chapters thus far, and I can tell that this game was made with love. [i]Full transparency, I never played any SRPGs (other than Shining Force as a kid), so I got no frame of reference as to how the combat system stacks up when compared to the likes of Fire Emblem, but judging by a buncha videos I watched on those games, it's fair to say that they probably don't compare.[/i] Rambling aside, let's get into my gameplay observations thus far: The combat system offers you two different ways to clear enemies, which can also be used alongside each other for maximum efficiency. You got your standard SRPG way of going about things, with the added mechanic that your characters deal/take extra damage depending on the direction they are facing (backstab-bonus). Characters which are adjacent to a unit which is being targeted will also join in on encounters (serving as backrow). This incentivizes you to advance your small 8-unit army as a group, since you want to avoid being surrounded. EXP are being given to all characters who are present when the final blow against an opposing unit is being dealt. You can also tame enemy units so as they will join your army. Your equipment will also gain EXP and level up every once in a while. This doesn't only improve the stats of the equipment itself, but it also provides a permanent boost to the stats of the characters who were wielding said equipment at the time of it leveling up. (Like a staff might provide a permanent +2 SP and +2 INT to the person equipped with it, each time the staff levels up. This persists after unequipping or handing the staff to somebody else) This is really convenient if you like being in charge of your build, and applies to all of your units. This also means that you can teach all of your tamed monsters each and every skill that the human units can perform (save for purification, that one is exclusive to Demon Hunters / most of the main-cast). Now for the second part of the combat mechanics: There are portals (think of them as enemy-spawners with extra features) which emit a flow of Dark Energy. You can use the characters in your army to re-route that flow, and turn them into a magical purification circle, which then provides all of your allied units within with an extra action this turn, and gravely injures all of the enemies who are trapped inside. This allows you essentially to send a unit or two into the center of the battlefield and pick off enemies that might be in your way, while your priestesses purify the portals, allowing your main-force to gain an additional action & attack. Though this does mandate that you split your force a little, since a big purification-circle will demand a unit in each corner to re-route the flow. This shouldn't matter though, as the extra-action this provides will give you enough time to gather your units before you end your turn, assuming you even need a second turn to begin with. You can OTK a lot of maps if you keep your wits about it (I actually killed the first 3 bosses in only 2 turns each, thanks to this). It should be somewhat trivial once you figure it out, but I've seen reviews saying that wonders don't do ♥♥♥♥ in this game, so maybe it does need a bit more thought than I'd think). It helps if you got a buncha units that can move very far in one turn, and there's an unintended equipment-exploit which (essentially) gives all units a +4 in Movement per turn, though that's a bit menu-ing intensive. I only ever needed a +1 thus far. Enemies which are being killed via purification will not drop any EXP, but the Demon Hunter who performed the purification will receive a massive boost to her equipment-EXP (which leads to permanent stat-increases, as mentioned). So going for a Ragnarok when you spot an opportunity is definitely worth the effort. The story feels rather immersive thus far. Depending on whether you cleared certain map events (or not), the game will award you with a good ending, a normal/ neutral ending, or a bad ending for each chapter-scenario. I can't speak for the later parts of the game, but theses 'choices' always felt more natural than forced thus far. I'll avoid getting into the deets, but the game provides you with enough information to understand what you are looking for if you aim to manipulate the ending. Apparently (according to forum threads I couldn't help but notice) there's even a villain/joke-route or something, so the game world truly feels like you are a part of it in my opinion. At the very least when compared to the modern slop that I am used to. I'm looking forward to finishing this game at least once, maybe twice. Anyhow, I'm glad that I purchased this game on a whim. Oh, and don't mind my playtime-hours. I have a habit of leaving games open while I do other things, so that number is inflated. It doesn't take 25 hours to clear three chapters, in case you were worrying about that. PS: Apparently there's a save-corruption glitch that happens at a crash-site in Chapter 8. I'll definitely watch out and use multiple save-slots when I get there, so thanks to everyone for the warnings in the discussion threads and reviews. Also, this version is apparently uncensored, so that's awesome!

An incredible SRPG. A hidden gem that is an absolute treat for RPG fans and stat nerds. This is my first Nippon Ichi game and I can't wait to check out the rest of their catalogue. Play it, you won't regret it!

[h1][b] TLDR: This has not aged well. Full of primitive and overly complex systems that make the gameplay unfun. The narrative was not good enough to distract me from the poor mechanics. [/b] [/h1] [h1]PROS: [/h1] ➕Can easily exit maps vs Disgaea that requires a exit to start screen ➕Characters here that appear in later Nippon Ichi games [h1]CONS: [/h1] ➖Confusing world map structure ➖Systems like Item Fusion are confusing and not explained well, requiring guides ➖Low quality sprites ➖”Best” chapter endings locked behind additional (sometimes tough) requirements [h1] [b] Content (Game world/Narrative) – [3/10] [/b] [/h1] The game world is tough to stomach versus newer (yet still old) Nippon Ichi titles like Disgaea 1. I found the map selection screen to be confusing when traversing through multiple maps. The world map is bland, boring, huge and empty, just a collection of dots randomly placed with no real purpose to their location. The main hub world seems to be the best representation of the world - it has lots of NPCs to talk to, an item shop, and the dark world/item fusion NPC. I found the narrative to be boring, but I only made it to chapter 5. The mechanics were enough to make me not want to continue along with an uninteresting story. [h1][b] Gameplay (Mechanics/Difficulty) – [2/10] [/b] [/h1] The mechanics are not great at all. There are two main mechanics that you must master to complete endgame activities: mass miracles and item fusion. Both are a PITA. Miracles consist of using the battle maps to strategically directed portals to create a square so that the portal lines (based on direction of a character) loops back upon itself. To further expand on miracles and just portals in general, the entire game is based on this. Think of it as a system similar to geo symbols in Disgaea 1. Now imagine if in Disgaea 1 that you can only get more powerful by killing the geo symbols in a very specific fashion and you get the gist. Item fusion is just a mess of a concept. This is coming from someone that plays Path of Exile and constantly has to deal with the ~20 different gameplay systems that game has. I’ve read guides, I’ve watched example videos, I cannot get this dumb thing to work. The idea is you take a captured monster, equip it with an item (that you leveled up from purifying and/or miracles), add other gear to sacrifice, then sacrifice the monster to make the gear stronger. In practice it sounds simple, but when you factor in things like the item is limited by its level for the number of stats that it carries over going vertically starting from the top downwards or else it skips things, but you can add in stat modifiers IF its enough level to consume based on whatever slot you put those modifiers on the monster sacrificed aaaaaaand I’m lost. I’ve tried playing with this dumb system and it never works out for me. The kicker? NONE OF THIS IS EXPLAINED WORTH A DAMN IN GAME. There are other things too - like excessive battle animations, excessive EXP/leveling screens, the map design is just awful, and unclear chapter objectives. This is very rough mechanically. Difficulty seems to eb and flow. Because the item fusion is such a piss-poor mechanic to utilize, it's harder to get stronger thus, making the game harder. Also you are expected to constantly be using purification, which grants extra turns. If you ignore you’re missing out on potential area damage while continuously spawning enemies from the portals. However, utilizing purification is a crapshoot because as far as I can tell it's randomized in every map and you have to use it in a very specific way with straight lines to get the most out of it. [h1] [b] Graphics (Quality/Technical) – [3/10] [/b] [/h1] Very poor. The fonts and UI look well enough, but everything else - characters, enemies, sprites, and backgrounds, all look terrible and heavily pixelated. Technical issues, none. Bugs, none. This seems like a good port. i9-13900KF | RTX 4090 | 64GB RAM | 1440p @ 240hz | Windows 11 installed on SSD [h1] [b] Audio – [3/10] [/b] [/h1] Music tends to be very repetitive. Nothing really stands out like Disgaea 1. There is some voice acting, not fully though. Voices seem fine. [h1] [b] Replay Factor (Longevity) – [3/10] [/b] [/h1] There doesn’t seem to be as much replay value as Disgaea, not as much endgame content. There is NG+ and achievements alongside a hefty grind typical of Nippon Ichi, but even the achievements require you to get heavily into the endgame to unlock most of them. [h1] [b] Final Verdict – [3/10] [/b] [/h1] Disgaea 1 was my first Nippon Ichi game. So wanting to experience their full library from the beginning, I decided to try La Pucelle: Ragnarok (LPR) out knowing that it's an earlier game and there is most likely going to be some rough edges. While I can appreciate the beginnings of some good SRPG ideas taking fruition, I found LPR a pain to play. My biggest negative is without a doubt the mechanics, and is the reason I decided to end my play early. I felt that LPR offered entirely worse versions of everything that other SPRGs do better. The purity system is a worse version of the Geo system from Disgaea 1, and the item fusion is a terribly convoluted system where too much power is gated behind. I wasn’t the biggest fan of Disgaea 1’s item world, but the item fusion system is just leagues worse. I’m happy that Nippon Ichi continued to iterate on its design. As for the positives…. Not much. I would say it's nice to see the characters - Prier and Culotte in their home game as I’ve seen them in future Nippon Ichi games and always wondered about their origins. It’s also nice to be able to exit a map you’re in by moving to the edge, literally the only quality of life upgrade over Disgaea 1. Overall, I absolutely cannot recommend La Pucelle: Ragnarok. Perhaps only if you have nostalgia surrounding the title, but I felt like almost everything was so many steps back from Disgaea 1, that it’s painful to play this. Even games that came before this, like Final Fantasy Tactics, have excellent aspects which makes me think the issues I have could just be a product of development. This is an example of why it can be challenging to play a more recent game from the same developer then going backwards to their previous titles. It can be very hard to stomach poorly designed systems and less quality of life. Instead of LPR, I do recommend you check out Disgaea 1. Review here: https://steamcommunity.com/id/Synikx/recommended/405900?snr=1_5_9__402 [h1] [b] Recommend? [Y/N] [/b] [/h1] [h1]No[/h1] You can find my curator page here: https://steamcommunity.com/groups/Synik_GR

Прикольная штука, этакая допотопная дисгая впринципе ахуй, еще и Приер здесь есть это икс3 ахуй

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

This didn't age as great as I expected but it's still a solid tactical RPG. Be prepared for a pretty brutal difficulty curve; power leveling is both not as easy or as intuitive as the Disgaea series. Great music, solid voice acting and a decent story round out the package. I am still very happy NIS is releasing a big chunk of their back catalogue on steam :)

Came expecting to find out how the Disgaea boss got her horns Stayed for the feels

Prier delivers on the hype after seeing her in every Disgaea for over a decade.

PS2の頃にプレイした思い出のゲームのひとつがSteamに来てくれて嬉しい。 この時代にプレイできるなんて。 そしてこの時代にラ・ピュセルのグッズが売られているのもみつけてさらに嬉しい。 https://store.shopping.yahoo.co.jp/ofc-mag/acfigure24.html 設定のカーソルモードABの意味がわからなかったのでサポートに問い合わせましたところ、下記の回答を頂きました。 > 戦闘時の斜め見下ろし画面にて、 > カーソルモードAはコントローラーの上を押した時に左上に、 > Bは右上に移動します（それに従って残りの下左右の方向もずれます）。 カスタマーサポートの対応もよく好印象。