Jeanne d'Arc is a loose retelling of the legend of Joan of Arc, the girl who united France and crowned the dauphin. Jean still finds herself receiving a holy mandate, leading the French against the English and crowning the dauphin; however, this retelling also ties in a number of fantasy elements such as beast-men, elves and magical armor.
Playing as Jeanne, you lead a rag-tag band of soldiers on a mission to not only run the English out of France, but defeat a mysterious demon king who was banished long ago by a group of heroes. The characters that make up your army all have their own distinct personalities as well as weapon types. Although you can equip more powerful weapons throughout the game, units can only use a particular type of weapon that defines their play style. Swordsmen can only attack from close range, while those equipped with pikes or bows have a little more range to their attacks.
Battles take place on a grid-based map, similar to other Strategy RPGs. You can rotate the camera around the map or zoom in or out. Both are very important since battles rarely take place on a flat field - and even then there's usually some sort of set piece present to give it some character. Battlefields are never so complicated that you can't see what is going on, though there is usually a lot going on. Even the more "cluttered" fields are still clear thanks to the game's clean, colorful visuals.
One addition Jeanne d'Arc brings to the genre is the turn counter. You are typically given a limited number of turns to complete your mission. This greatly affects how you approach battles since there are times where you simply can't defeat everyone on the screen, instead forcing you to develop new strategies. This also helps speed up the game's pacing, something that plagues many Strategy RPGs. You'll also earn mana with each passing turn, further quickening the pace.
Two other notable additions are the guard and aura abilities. When characters are grouped together, they receive a defensive bonus. The ability is very useful, though it leaves you wide open for attacks with a wide Area of Effect. Another addition is the aura system that leaves an "echo" of an attack behind an enemy. If one of your characters is standing in the aura (which only lasts until the end of your turn), they receive an attack bonus.
While the bulk of your troops are typical soldiers, you will also recruit a few special units who are armed with special armlets that allow them to transform into powerful characters. Transformed characters can quickly turn the tide of battle; they can usually either kill or heavily damage characters in one hit and, if they do manage to kill an enemy, they get an extra turn. The trade-off is that you need to "warm-up" these characters before you can use them by using them in battle. In addition, the power only lasts a few turns. The only downside is that your transforming characters will quickly out-level your other troops, which can lead to some bad situations if you aren't careful.
