Very old but catchy and interesting game. For the first time, I've played this game when I was a child, and it gave to me tons of hours of fun. Now I can remind to myself of these epic and positive moments.

What's the game like?
I can compare it with Dynasty Warriors with an actual story set in medieval times, with an inventory system and RTS elements. In simple words, it's like an RPG (but more or less linear) where you can select the character (not only Joan of Arc is available). The game has eight stages, and each stage has it's own huge battleground – an entire map where you can feel yourself free to explore every corner. It’ll take about 2-3 hours to finish it. There are even some sub-quests you can get from civilians. However, the main feature of the game is fighting and castle sieges. Command all your troops via RTS mode to besiege the castle or stronghold and switch your control to Joan of Arc to fight personally. Tons of enemies will try to separate your body from your head. You can lead your battle however you want: upgrade your main characters stats and lead an entire army to victory or fight alone 1vsDozens of bastards.

On the other hand, the game will not impress you with its graphics but the story is still pretty nice and the soundtrack is great, and perfectly fits with the mood of the game. The sounds characters make, and the sounds of battle – everything is perfect.

It probably isn’t for everyone, but definitely one to give a go. I can recommend this.


Beautiful ending that the great hero of France actually deserves.

interesant si captivant, nostalgia copilariei !!

So, I first saw this game as a demo back when XP was the latest and greatest.....

It just as brilliant then as now.

Yes, the levelling system is grindy, and people get stuck on scenery from time to time, and just DON'T get on a horse (the controls are god-awful), but the game is FUN! Kill hundreds of englishmen (for once they're the bad guys!) and somehow it doesn't get old......

I've completed this game on easy, and the storyline is pretty good, with some optional side quests that generally give you a worth-while reward. The cut scenes use the same engine as the game (except the ending) and the dialogue is pretty good, even if bordering on the cheesy (and for those OCD out there the text doesn't match the speech). Also - the soundtrack, whilst it can eventually get a bit irritating, as it tells you there's an enemy just out of sight.... the soundtrack is magnificent.

I've had no issues with the game on Win7, so I can only presume those who are having issues are on other OS's.....

If you've played the demo before and liked it or you think you'll like it - buy it! If you don't think you will, buy it when it comes on sale, and you might just be a convert...

I remember playing this game back in around 2007 or so, this game is very fun. If memories serve me correctly, mission 4 or misssion 5 is where the real fun begins, depends on your own opinions. Oh i recommend playing on the hardest difficulty, its VERY FUN that way. Completing Jeanne's St. Catherine de Fierbois with all 5 crosses is a nice way to kill englishmen.
The cons of the game is that when you have all your Characters recruited full of units, or whenever you have alot of units under your command and following you whether in RTS mode of the standard third person, some units tends to get stuck around the environment and it gets annoying time to time. Not sure if steam version is any different tho.
A classic that should not be missed.

I still remember the day i was little kid (maybe 10 y/o) and i went to a mini market with my mother to buy some stuff. It was then i saw the pc magazine which had this game as present in dvd form. Now i am 24 years old, i have completed this game over 10 times and honestly i have never regretted the purchase. I totally recommend it to everyone.

The game of my childhood... <3

This is yet another hybrid type of game, and Wars and Warriors: Joan of Arc shines with all the nice touches the developers put into it. You can fight alone, or command all your troops in battle. There's tons of equipment to use here too, from your standard swords to massive catapults and trebuchets. What it honestly feels like is an older Dynasty Warriors title set in France.

The game still looks great, even today. Soldiers are very detailed, as are the environments you'll be travelling through and fighting in. Big battles are impressive with slaughter on a massive scale, and all this done to a backdrop of siege weapons launching chunks of stone and other things at the enemy. The soundtrack is great and perfectly fits with the mood of the game. Swords clashing, men screaming, and stuff exploding and being crushed to bits help innumerably in making the battles exciting.

Average time to beat clocks in somewhere between 18 and 22 hours depending on how much of a completionist you are. Note this has no achievements as it by far predates that fad. Definitely one to give a go, especially if you're a fan of medieval settings and history itself in general. WaW goes on sale often for 75% off, worth a wishlist and nab at that price.

I'd like to point out that I'm recommending this game on a whim. It was overall a fun experience but only when you hit the last half of the game. This game is VERY buggy, has HORRIBLE AI and has overall bad balancing with enemies, specifically generals and archers/crossbowmen. I tend to write long reviews but, well, that's how it is. It's my personal experiences typed out for you to consider.

First off, the story. It's quaint. It's basically the whole Joan of Arc story, but it ends with a happy-note.Joan of Arc not dying and leaving to return to her home town and reunite with her friends and family instead of, y'know, being executed by the English. It's 8 chapters/missions, the first two being short and the rest being 1-2 hours, at least. The story is well done and the ending is very satisfying. Definitely gives Joan of Arc the ending she deserved and it definitely makes Joan of Arc awesome, gameplay-wise. Probably one of the strongest generals in the game, other than Metz. More on that later.

Secondly, the music. The music in this game amazing. It has atmospheric sounds (e.g. dirt crunching beneeath feet, sound of metal armour hitting ground when moving, bird chirping, shouting and cheering sounds when fighting, etc.)that go very well with the game. The actual music itself has two side. The first side being the atmospheric-y non-combat music like this one, my personal favourite https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96AFp2Z7SUE&index=5&list=PL6FC7ED1C9B1507AE Then there's the combat music like this, which is my personal favourite : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZK2AUSdhlY&list=PL6FC7ED1C9B1507AE&index=2 If you listen to the combat music, at around 0:25 ish is when it really hits it hard. It just has a great feel to it for what the game's theme and atmosphere is. It's especially amazing when fighting the enemy generals. Overall, the music is satisfying if you like music that really goes for the home-run and fits into where it's placed.

Enough drooling over the music. Here we go. The graphics. The inevitable paragraph. The graphics are actually pretty amazing for its time (2004) and at the same time they aren't particularly anything to freak out over. The graphics fit the game and it doesn't hurt my eyes. Good enough for me.

Of course! An inventory system! You basically have 5 types of items : Weapons(main weapon for the hero's preference, e.g. maces for La Hire or polearms for Duke), armour(both aesthetic and pretty useful for damage reduction late-game), food(basically potions for health / energy), misc. items ( keys for chests and doors, letters for mostly story but also a few sub-missions), and ammo(for the crossbow/bow). Weapons consists of Base Damage + X% and bonuses for each attack such as +40% Down Attack, for killing downed enemies. The ranged weaponry is literally there for being the ranged weaponry and should only be used for taking out distance ranged enemies. Other than that, the inventory system is pretty simplistic.

Finally, the gameplay! This is where the game shines but also falls quite a bit. This is also where the wall of text is introduced. First off, I'm not exactly a "pro gamer" type of person but I'm also not horrible. I'm mediocre. The gameplay in this game is similar to dynasty warriors. It's a slash-a-sword-through-a-group-of-enemies-with-combos game. You can do both a normal attack and a power attack. The power attack uses up, well, energy and is significantly more powerful than your normal attacks, regardless of what bonuses you get. You have combos as well but for the most part they're there for the sake of being there. See, you can upgrade each individual attack/combo. The max level of an attack is level 10. Upgrading combos changes the damage by a minimal amount, so the best you can do is upgrade two attacks that are by far the most important ones. The first is the rush attack, which is THE quintessential forward dash. It also makes you invulnerable while perform it and costs very low energy (1 EP with a specific ring). The second attack is the "energy attack" which is basically an ultimate. It costs both HP and EP but is a ridiculously good crowd-control ability, mostly because it makes you invulnerable for the duration of the attack, knocks down everyone, and you move while performing it. Simple. Upgrade those and you'll do well... Against the normal enemies. Here's where the biggest issue of the combat comes into play : Ranged and Generals. Now, the ranged aren't *that* bad but the issue with them is that they constantly move around, shoot at a moderately fast rate (even the crossbowmen) and they generally don't die in one hit, being as durable as light infantry units. They can also make you stop in your tracks with one hit and any subsequent attacks knock you down. So, yeah, they're annoying. Cool. What about the generals? Simple! They're invulnerable when using their power attacks(which they can do an infinite number of times and in repetition one after the other), they deal a ton of damage(1-hit killed one of my generals with 108 HP SEVERAL TIMES, and the hit didn't even connect) and you can only really get hits in when you down them with a rush attack or sneaking hits in *immedietally* after they finish their power attacks. The good thing about all of this is that blocking can, well, block anything. You can defeat any of the generals 1-on-1 if you block-and-hit. That being said, it's horrible unbalanced and can make for a bad time if you don't know that. Yeah, that's it. Unbalanced generals and annoying ranged units.

A second finally, I'll talk about the siege and RTS aspects of the game. RTS is, well, RTS. I don't know how to explain this but somehow RTS makes the game easier. I don't know if it's because the AI goes ham on the combos and attacks and just bruteforces the combat but it makes it easier and it's one reason why the final mission is ridiculously easy, considering it's required that you use it to move some units. The siege mechanics in this game requires you to use RTS to move the units onto a siege weapon and then to move the actual siege weapon. Cannons can attack both units and buildings but the other siege weapons can only attack the buildings. You can either capture your own siege weapons from the English or you can build them at resource spots, which only the Duke can do. You're not even required to use the siege weaponry since you can buy explosive ammo which can take down gates, and generals are pretty good on their own. You can effectively solo any siege if you have the food and ammo for it.

Final finally, I promised to talk about the generals you can play as, so here we go. Joan of Arc is your all-around general at first-glance but she tends to have the most powerful attacks and her ultimate weapon has 5 socketable items that buff it up pretty nicely. She's definitely the spotlight. There's Jean Metz, who is basically Luke Skywalker with his attack speed, movement speed, and capability for high ranged damage(he starts off with decent dexterity). His power attacks are also VERY quick. There's the Duke, a halberd-wielding general that is required to make siege weapons and has a more AoE set of attacks. There's La Hire who takes the role of "lovable human boulder". His attacks are more AoE, especially his ultimate attack. His power attacks are in a circular formation. There's two unplayable characters : Bastard of Orleans and Prince Charles. They are playable in RTS mode but that's not so much "playable" as it is moving them around. So, who do I suggest for the "most powerful"? Metz. He's ridiculously OP with his attack speed and movement speed.

Inevitably I missed a few things but they would be very small things and not worth mentioning. Overall, the game was pretty decent but there were a few issues with it, like bad AI and invincible generals. If you can get past the small issues that litter this game, it's a pretty good Joan-Of-Kick-Ass game.

When to buy this game? Think of it as medieval total war as a combined RPG/RTS that you can switch to on the fly. And if you've seen the well-rated movie 'the messenger' with Milla Jovovich (thats right, the resident evil chick) as Joan of Arc, you will definitely encounter many similarities and even in-game scenarios that happened in the movie too.

On normal mode, the game is very easy to play. It's a typical old-school hack-n-slash revolving around using your left and right mouse buttons for combo's, and Q for blocking. Jumping and pressing C can be used for other powerful attacks. What makes the game enjoyable is the historically correct story (to my knowledge). Downside is the not optimally working collisions at times or some NPC's getting stuck (or even yourself, because NPC blocks path).

The castles and encampments in this game look great and you can decide to destroy them in RTS mode. The walls, towers and gates can actually break and be destroyed. Or you can decide to take it up close and personal and breach our way in and kill all the soldiers inside.

There's a few classes of troops to choose from from light infantry and crossbowmen to polemen and macemen. you can assign all of those to your controllable commanders (the main characters, same as historic equivalents) or to the occasionally appearing less significant NPC commanders which look the same as regular units except they're donning goldplated armour. The configurations stays both in RTS as in RPG mode.

In the first few missions the RTS element isn't introduced yet which doesn't really matter as you will not have a lot of units under your command thus playing in RPG mode makes sense. Later on in the game, you'll be able to build more troops, buy more armor, weapons and food and even build siege weapons.

Despite all the positive goodness, here a list of things that may downgrade the gaming experience:
- the poor collision registrations when striking enemies who are down. Instead, just use a power attack, you'll hit anyone down and standing. problem solved!
- getting stuck. it's annoying when your fellow soldiers get stuck especially if thereby they block your path. the only place it happens a lot is at Tourelles. if you go up into that fortress to destro the arbalests, make sure you have not too many units following you. or it will be impossible to go back via the narrow stairs and you can't jump off the wall.
- food shortage. There is only so much food in the game. You have a special inventory for yourself and the main characters, and a separate inventory for troops following those characters. with 15 troops under your commmand, it's doable. If you've got like 50 of them and they're under fire from siege weapons and arrows, food disappears within a minute. The only ways of getting more food is slaying enemies, slashing crates or buying from the food store, and the food store's food is NOT infinite. ...
- The drag and drop interface. you can only move 1 item at a time. This becomes very problematic if youre in the heat of a battle and have to pause the game, to remove food items one by one to your troops inventory, to keep them alive -.-. Takes away from the gaming experience.


But yet, a game truly unique in its design with a nice story (you might learn something.) and oh yeah, checkout that movie joan of arc: the messenger with milla jovovich, you will recognize a LOT from that movie in this game.

Games almost as old as I am but it functions way better than I do. Also when the description says "Thousands of enemies to slay" they REALLY meant it.