Hexyz Force Review.

Its no surprise that i love RPGs. They usually put a lot of focus into developing their characters, worlds, universes and most of all, their story events.
We could argue that the main factor of a Rpg game is its story.

However, i finished playing a game that i regret playing. The game in question is Hexyz Force. Let us separate this review in topics so you can understand a bit more.

Graphics: Lets face it. This game looks very good for Psp standards. Characters are well detailed and drawn, the envirements are all very good and the game actually has some pretty amazing animated cutscennes. The only problem with the graphics are the dungeons. Dungeons look really bland, boring and many rooms looks Ctrl+C Ctrl+V. They all look the same.

Gameplay: Sting has been known for its games with complex and solid gameplay. No one can deny that. But for some reason Hexyz Force's gameplay is not nearly as great as you would expect. Fights are simple and straight-fowoard. All turn-based fights, as you would expect from JRPGs. But there is a problem of inconsistency in terms of balance. How come enemy monsters can have up to 5 party members and i can only have 3? And even though you have MANY characters working for the same goal, you can only have a team of 3. That is unfair and limits the fun i had with the game.
Weapon system is also inconsistent. Instead of buying the weapons like the other rpgs, you must either find them randomly in chests or fuse them with the correct itens. There are two types of weapons: Spiritfacts and Ragnafacts. The Ragnafacts are the weapons you'll be using most the time because they, unlike the Spiritfacts, don't have durability meter. In other words, the weapons you'll most likely fuse won't last for very long, and once they loose their durability, they become permanently powerless and, therefore, impossible to equip. And since some of these weapons are one-use itens and you don't have an item slot in the menus, you'll pretty much waste a precious equipment slot to use a single item.
Another problem with the gameplay is how easy fights can be. Almost every enemy that isn't a boss can be taken down rather easly, which removes all the need to create new weapons and use items. Unless you're fighting against a boss, all enemies will fall like dominoes.

Dungeons: A good point i must say is that there are no random battles, which are the bain of the existance of most RPG players. Enemies are always displayed on the map and you can easly avoid them. However, as stated before, Dungeons can either be too massive, where you'll be stuck in a while for the lack of direction, and too small, where you'll finish it in no time. And while many rpg fans would want to explore the dungeon for treasure chests, it doesn't work that way. A skill you'll obtain later in the game is Force Scan, which will allow you to find interactive objects that will either be needed to continue the game or find items and treasure chests. While some chests can be seen from the map, most of them are hidden and can only be found by Force Scan, which you'll need to stop, sit through the entire animation and maybe you'll find something useful. What was once a fun reward for exploration is now a guessing game.

Plot: As stated before, the game is separated in two tales: Cecilia's tale can be described as boring, predictable and not fun. It focuses on Cecilia, the reincarnation of Palfina the Maiden of the Staff. Palfina is a non formal and lazy cleric who's always trying to get away from her duties and live a normal life. She along with her friends are forced to travel on a quest, despine her complaints. The game really forces into your head that you must hurry towoards the given locations, but since the bad guys have always arrived early, predictably, it means absolutely nothing the constant need to rush. Cecilia's constant complaining will surely get redundant at one point, and since the story focuses a lot on *her*, it starts to become painful.
Levant's side of the story is much more interesting. Levant is a high ranking member of the Rosebaun kingdom, working with the king Axel and his best friend Bahn to achieve piece with the other races. The king even goes as far as marrying an elf called Natulle. Things don't go well though, as Natulle is assassinated and the king goes on a sudden and suspect rampage against the other races, completly going against his ideals. For saving innocent elves in a burning forest, Levant is branded as a traitor and sentenced to be executed. Saved by his lover, the both are forced to work with the enemy to find out whats going on with the king.
Levant's tale has a lot of potential with its points, such as racial tension between the armies, and that Levant is not linked to any of the sides.
However, a problem both sides share is that they are both pretty predictable. In Levant's tale, for example, you know who are the bad guys, what they are doing and why the king is acting different as soon as the first chapter. What only made me keep playing through its reppetitive gameplay was for a chance to kill the bad guys who keep controlling your steps. And in the end, they deaths are completly unsatisfying. None of them dies by your hands AT ALL.
Another HUGE problem with the game is that there is a location that, if you try to enter it through the main map, the entire game crashes. Every Single time, which forces you to travel an even longer route to reach it. For such flaw to happen at the most important location of the plot is a SERIOUS problem.

And the main problem i had with the game was its main plot element. As you play the game, you'll have the chance to do different actions and choose dialog options. These count to a specific side: Creation or Destruction, which will affect the Vessel of Judgement. This, in other words, will determine if you'll have a good ending or a bad ending. However, if it was just based on the part of the vessel that is tilting towords...
What i mean is that, if you're the type of player that doesn't care about sidequests, you will NOT get the good ending, because if you want the good ending, you must:
-Finish EVERY sidequests.
-Pick ALL the good dialog options, with no way of knowing which one is which.
-Not equip any dark ragnafact(which you also don't know which is which)
-And not run from any battles.
These choices effectly make the whole Vessel of judgment gimmick completly useless. Even if the game states every time that the "Vessel tilted towoards Creation", you'll still get a bad ending if you don't do all these requirements.

Conclusion: I really wanted to like Hexyz Force. The game had a lot of potential and many good ideas that weren't arranged correctly. The only thing i have nothing against is its soundtrack. The game has many great musics that i ended up humming after playing it. But with reppetitive gameplay, easy battles, boring dungeon design and questionable bad choices of design, i can not reccomend this game to RPG fans.
Hexyz Force on the PSP earns a 5.5/10.0