An ordinary turn-based RPG from Sting. 5 years is a long time to hold a grudge, so I decided to try another game they developed, the more “normal” the better.

Unfortunately Hexyz Force is perhaps a little too normal, making it hard to write about. I didn’t not enjoy it, but I wasn’t crazy about it either. I’ll list a few of the good and bad points and then call it a day. Before you read any further, just note that it says “spoilers” at the top for a reason. I won’t be holding back.

Oh wait, the story. Hexyz Force features two stories, one with a cleric named Cecilia and another with a knight called Levant. They live on a continent where various races are at war, and every couple of centuries there’s an Hour of Judgment that determines whether the world will be wiped out or allowed to continue. In Levant’s Tale, the emperor he serves basically goes nuts and plans to wipe out all the other races. It’s up to Levant and his friends to find out what went wrong and try to bring peace in their own way. Not a bad story in general, though it’s astonishing how quickly and easily the emperor is forgiven in the end after burning and slashing his way across half the world.

Good points

• The game is fast-paced, because you can press the R button to fast-forward all cutscenes (except FMVs) and battles, boss battles included. All RPGs should have such a button.
• Levant’s Tale is fairly short, clocking in at around 20 hours IIRC.
• With one exception, all dungeon and town maps are displayed in full, preventing wasted trips down dead ends. They look like this:
• No random battles. Enemies can be seen on the map. They aren’t always easy to avoid though.
• Battles are easy. This is both a good and a bad point, as I shall elaborate upon below.
• Levant and his party members are easy to get along with. His portrait makes him look a little arrogant, while Irene’s makes her look spoiled and high maintenance, but actually they’re all very nice people. When bad things happen they mope a little, but then they snap out very quickly and move on. I admire that. I also like the fact that while Irene and Levant have a romantic relationship from the start, it’s never allowed to take over the series, and Levant never has one of those idiotic “Trade the world away to get my main squeeze back” moments.
• Not too preachy or heavy-handed. There are a few “Never underestimate the power of people” and “You are not alone” lines, but for the most part they gave the usual RPG dialogue cliches a miss.
• Linear plot progression. Usually it’s a bad thing for me, but in this case I liked being able to progress quickly and efficiently.

Bad points

• The story. The missing bits. Because they divided the game into two, there are a number of things in Levant’s Tale that do not make sense and are never sufficiently explained. At the end of the game Cecilia’s party joins you and they trot out lines like “Grandz at Altair” and “the Force Stone” as if the player knows them already. Unless you play both routes (and maybe even not then) you’ll be left in the dark.
• The story. The cryptic crap. This is why I hate stories with mysteries in them, because there’s always one or more characters who know what’s going on or know more than they’re letting on, but just won’t say it. This numbskull named Philia always promises to “explain everything later”, but she never does.

My feelings exactly!

Hint: it’s not a good idea to remind the player how stupid your story is

• The story. The futility of it all. As you progress the story, you are confronted with choices that determine whether the balance of the world will tilt towards Creation or Destruction. It’s bad enough that the game doesn’t give you any clue which choice does what. It’s even worse that you get to the final boss and find out that he was going to gimmick the balance to tilt towards Destruction no matter what you did. For 99% of the game I was unwillingly and unwittingly doing everything Azul wanted me to do.
  

  Way to make me feel like a genius, Sting.

• The battle system. It’s nice that the battles are simple and go by quickly, but sadly that means the battle system goes largely untested. There’s a damage bonus system affected by the elements you use, a weapon-leveling system and tons of items and accessories and status effects, but all of them can be safely ignored in favor of just whacking away with your strongest attacks from start to finish. It’s a bit of a shame, because I thought they had some good ideas in there.
• The fusion system. I don’t know which game pioneered item fusion in RPGs (Star Ocean, maybe?) but they’ve done the world a great disservice. It is rarely done well. Either it’s a completely unnecessary addition, or the source materials are hard to find (as in this game) or the process is tedious and fraught with failure or all three. The problem is compounded in Hexyz Force because there are no shops and you have to fuse all weapons, items, armor and accessories from scratch. It’s just as well that the game is so easy you can get by with a few basic items.
• The endgame. You go through most of the game with Levant and three other characters, then the game dumps about 5 new party members and a ton of new weapons on you in the last hour.  And they’re under-leveled to boot. What am I supposed to do with these? The game’s pacing could be a lot better.

Aaaand that’s about it. It’s not a bad game at all. The story is the worst part, and even that isn’t a deal breaker, mainly because the game is short. In fact I’m not entirely opposed to replaying the game to see Cecilia’s route later on. Right now it’s almost March I haven’t finished a single thing from my Resolutions list, and it’s all that durned Persona 2‘s fault for holding me up. I’m going to concentrate on finishing it (if possible) so I can move on.

[Returned to my original WP theme now. I feel so much better]

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