Another gem overlooked: Hexyz Force

Sometimes, there's a game that just clicks.

You turn it on, and from the beginning the story has your attention. When you get to the actual meat of the game through the combat system, there's enough depth that it's not overly simplistic, yet it's easy enough to pick up that you're not completely frustrated. This has been my experience with Hexyz Force; a solid game that's managed to grab my attention for some time -- to the point where David wondered if I would ever put the game down long enough to make this post.

If you followed my previous post on Spectral Force 3, you already know I have a knack for picking up some of those niche RPG titles that are easily overlooked. I'll wholeheartedly admit that I have a penchant for enjoying said titles (after all, I enjoyed the SaGa games on some level) that the mainstream seems to abhor. While this PSP RPG is not a frontrunner for handheld game of the year, Hexyz Force still manages to stand out as a enjoyable experience that has a few cumbersome quirks, but does the majority of what it sets out to do right. Read on for some insight into the story, the few annoying points I found while playing, and an overall look into the game.

The Story

Hexyz Force takes place in the world of Berge. Due to a calamity long ago (you know the usual: God of destruction running rampant, the rest of the pantheon sacrificing their powers to stop him, etc.) the world was split in two halves: Lustrous Berge, a land of eternal light, and Dark Berge, a land of perpetual night. As the game begins, you are prompted to select one of two protagonists. Cecilia, a priestess, hails from Lustrous Berge. Levant, an imperial knight, hails from Dark Berge. Although both character stories eventually intersect, each character's tale is essentially its own game until the final chapter.

























Of the two, Levant's story sounded more interesting, so I went with him. Plus, he has a cool coat, which I can dig in the guy I'm controlling for the majority of the game. Next up, I'll give a brief overview of Levant's story:

A Tale of Loyalty, Betrayal and Floating Furry things

Levant's story begins with a meeting between him and the emperor of Rosenbaum, Axel, who just happens to be his best friend. Axel, a just, honorable, and kind-hearted ruler is realizing that the strife between the humans of the empire, and the non-human races (elves, turtles, and lygars -- collectively referred to as "Halbs") has to come to a stop. In an attempt to show unity between the races, and end centuries of warfare between the races, Axel introduces Levant to his new bride to be: An Elven woman named Natulle. While taken aback initially, Levant is able to put aside his deep-seated prejudice against the Halbs long enough to support his friend's choice in bride, and ultimate desire to unify the land.

You're introduced to a few other characters as the opening scenes continue: Irene, Axel's younger sister and Levant's love interest; Bahn, a close friend of Levant and Axel's, as well as a distinguished soldier who has worked his way up through the ranks; Faust, a seemingly kind-hearted scholar who vaguely alludes to an injury he treated Levant for, and Ulu, your obligatory fuzzy mascot character who's there for no real explainable reason.

The opening scenes continue with Bahn and Levant being promoted to the distinguished rank of Cerulean Knight, as well as plans to meet with the elves for Axel and Natulle's engagement dinner party. With his best friends leading his army, and his elven bride ready to support his vision of a brighter future, it all seems as if things are going Axel's way.

Naturally, we know this can't last, right?

Don't get me wrong: The opening is well written, the characters are believable and have good dialogue (for example, Irene doesn't totally throw herself at Levant, but the affection is apparent), but the cynic in me could not help but notice a few things signalling the inevitable train wreck to come. I mean let's lay it out:

First, how often in the history of gaming, movies, or any other form of entertainment has an -empire- ever done good? A kingdom? Sure. A republic? Why not. A Federation? As long as it's not Gundam, sure. But an empire? No matter how noble their plans are initially, they always go south eventually:

I'm sure the Death Star was originally intended as a children's hospital.

Secondly, there's the matter of interracial marriage. Now I'm not against this at all, considering the relationships I've been in. Interracial marriage, however, is something that's still not fully accepted in the 21st century. When we move things back to the equivalent of the middle ages, it's pretty evident how it works out. Furthermore, we're talking inter-species marriage here, and if you read over David's post on Arc the Lad, we've seen how well that can work out.

In Rosenbaum, Keith Bardwell would be a hero.

Lastly, there's a guy named Faust. For those who are well read, you'll recognize the name Faust originates from German literature, named for a brilliant scholar who, in spite of his success, is unsatisfied with his life, makes a deal with the devil to attain greater power, and ends up eternally damned. If you're one of those people who gave up reading in favor of MMO playing, you might recognize this guy:

Sneaky bastard, no matter what game his namesake is in.

I won't spoil much, but if you see a picture of Faust, in spite of his kind words, everything about the guy screams "mad scientist" -- maybe it's the crooked monocle.

It doesn't take long for things to go sour. During Axel's engagement dinner, the party is attacked by unknown assailants, Natulle is murdered, and the empire and Halbs alike are blaming each other for the attack. Since a thorough investigation which gets to the bottom of the matter is far too time-consuming, Axel decides to have a change in foreign policy, going from an amiable fellow like this:



To donning a mask and overhauling his army to be more like this:



Axel, understandably, is a little bit upset that his future wife was murdered. Well, maybe a little upset is an understatement. With some strategic planning from his imperial advisers, Axel comes up with a new vision and course of action:

"Kill it with fire" is the new foreign policy.

Levant, being the stand-up guy that he is, can't quite support his buddy's "flames and genocide" agenda shift. During an attack on the Spirit Forest, the home of the elves, Levant saves a few of the fleeing survivors. In the midst of this attack, he happens upon a monument sacred to the elves, which bestows upon him the Holy Sword Kravunado: A relic meant to appear to the champion of elves in a time of crisis. Of course, considering that most of the able bodied elves are well, dead, the powers that be decide that Levant works for now.

Axel, unfortunately, gets wind of Levant's noble actions. While the Axel of old may have praised his actions, the new Axel is well, sort of a dick. Levant is promptly charged with treason, stripped of his Cerulean Knight commander rank, imprisoned, and sentenced to death. Shortly after, Irene hears of this and confronts her brother, being none to pleased that she's jailed her man. Axel being well, sort of a dick, hasn't changed much, and he promptly reminds his sister that she's an unwanted bastard child of their father and has her thrown out of the castle. Irene, naturally is not happy about this. Fortunately her response to stress is a little less flame-filled than her brothers, but nevertheless bold. She enlists the help of a Halb rebel organization -- Argent (named for a deity in the world) -- led by the Lygar Griek, breaks Levant out of jail.

All of this takes place in roughly the first -hour- of the game, so it's easy to see how the story gripped me early on. Of course, story alone doesn't make a game: What keeps an RPG engaging are the mechanics and battle system, which I'll cover next

Game Mechanics

Overall, there aren't many flaws with Hexyz Force. It attempts to keep things simple while adding a few innovative touches with battle and the overall gameplay. A lot of these elements work well. Some of them, however, are explained so confusingly in the tutorial that even sharp minds would be left in the dark without the help of Gamefaqs:

Certainly not elementary.

The main culprits here are the Hexyz Charge System, the elemental affinity system, and the Creation/Destruction scales. First, let's look at the Hexyz Charge system:



The percentage marker at the top notes the Hexyz Charge, which accumulates points by properly aligning the three divine aspects (Crimson Lotus, Pearl Light, and Cerulean Flame -- representative of each major diety) in battle. The higher the percentage, the more damage the next attack deals. Failing to match the proper alignment leads to it resetting. Really, once you play for a bit, you can figure it out (and the game helps you along if you look at the charge meter), but the way it is initially explained in the tutorial makes it quite confusing. This, perhaps, is due in part to being introduced to the elemental affinity system shortly after. In addition to having to consider the divine aspects, you also have to consider enemy elemental attributes.

Don't get me wrong: I don't mind systems like this. In fact, the whole Hexyz Charge system has potential since it's influenced by both player and enemy alike. What you find out as you play more, however, is that the game is so painfully easy that neither really matters: If you sufficiently level up your weapons (one of the systems that was done quite well, honestly) and occasionally level your characters, you'll pretty much stomp everything in the game. As such, it's often not worth bothering with elemental based attacks, save for maybe the holy or dark based ones. Sigh.

The real culprit in all of this, is the creation/destruction system, also pictured below:

Balan-Sight is a jerk.

The choices you make, how you handle battle, and how you handle quests all affect this scale, which eventually determines which ending you get: One of creation, or one of destruction. It's a neat idea, but one that again, is never really explained well. The scale pops up at the end of each chapter to show your progress, with a decision being made in the final chapter.

In spite of these gripes, however, I've found a lot to enjoy about the game

The Perks

I mentioned before that Hexyz Force is a rather easy game. Frankly though, after taking a break from the sometimes punishing difficulty of Spectral Force 3, this was a welcome change. The easier pace of combat (augmented by the fact that you can fast-forward battles), combined with the rather engaging story made for an enjoyable experience. Here are a few key areas:

Combat is fun: It's your standard turn-based fare, but the variety of weapons and abilities at your disposal, in addition to a slight tactical element with enemy positioning makes for an easy, yet fun combat experience.

Interesting Weapons: There are a host of weapons in the game: Some have limited durability (which you'll likely never used) and others with unlimited durability, like Levant's sword, can be leveled up to gain new abilities, additional attack power, and speed. As each character has a range of weapons they can use, this adds an additional depth to combat, and is fairly straightforward.

Item Fusion: While it can be a little cumbersome to find the ingredients for items sometimes, the game forgoes your standard shops in favor of having your little furry mascot thing sytnhesize items for you: Accessories, capes, spiritfacts (the weapons with limited duraility) and more are available to you through the synthesis system.

The Story: I've already mentioned an overview of the first part of Levant's tale, but the story is rather gripping. It's not too cheesily written, NPCs have enough amusing dialogue to keep one's attention, and the character development, as well as interaction (at least in Levant's tale) is believable and well written.

With all of this going for the game, it didn't take me long to reach the closing chapter of Levant's tale. It's already an amazing feat when a game makes it off the backlog, but even moreso when it happens in such a short amount of time. Unfortunately, as I stand at endgame, I'm suddenly brought to a stop. It's already been established that there's more than one tale, and while Cecilia's playthrough, should I elect to do so, will be an easier playthrough, there's another factor:

So what's the hold up?

Remember the creation scales? I discovered that if balanced properly, you can go towards a neutral path, which is essentially the "true" ending. Balancing the scales in this way is already a task in itself, but it also requires you to do certain things in Levant's quest before you finish. Furthermore, to make Cecilia's quest a quicker playthrough, I'm stuck doing a certain amount of grinding, and making sure I get the items that carry over.

Sure. I could just ignore all of this. I could finish Levant's story, breeze through Cecilia's, and possibly watch the "neutral" ending on YouTube. After all, I've enjoyed the game enough, and I have plenty more to go through. However, there is one person that stands between me and allowing myself mediocrity:

I hate this guy almost as much as David does.

..Thus a game that could have been finished a week or two ago is still going on. These days, I'm getting a little better about not getting absolutely everything in one playthrough, and even resigning myself not to go through a second time. However, I know that guy is there. Watching. Laughing. Mocking.

Fortunately, I've completed those annoying sidequests, and after wrapping things up with this post, I fully intend to finish Hexyz Force by tonight. Maybe I'll do Cecilia's playthrough, maybe not. But I can at least consider it 'finished' with this playthrough should I choose.

For those of you considering a purchase of Hexyz Force, you'll find it well worth your time. Sure, it's an easy game, and sure, there are other RPGs on the PSP that stand out more. Sometimes, however, you don't need to be awed by everything in a game, nor do you need every encounter to be an edge of your seat challenge. For a game that's meant to be played on the go, Hexyz Force does an excellent job of providing a great experience.

Final Fantasy XII: An Experimental Narrative

Whenever a writer sits down to put words on paper, there is a lens through which those words are focused. Works of fiction, non-fiction, biographical and autobiographical writings, short stories, comic books, movie scripts, even most poetry - it's all told through somebody's point of view. There's a voice guiding the story along, usually in first or third person, letting us, the reader, know who the main character is. This is important, because writers need that filter in place to make sure they elicit the desired reaction from their readers. For example, if the entire narrative of Harry Potter wasn't focused on Harry's experience, we'd probably be wondering why this kid with the vaguely Batman-like origin was the title character when so much of the book was dedicated to Hermione trying to find new ways to bend the laws of physics so she can give herself more homework.

Marty McFly would slap her right in her stupid mouth.

So I think in that respect, there's something to be said for the daring creativity of the writing team behind Final Fantasy XII. Because somewhere in the course of drafting the script for the game, they decided they were going to spit in the face of all established convention and create something with absolutely no main character.

It's something they tried once before, in the epic Final Fantasy VI. There, they established early on that most of the story was going to focus on the mysterious backstory of protagonist Terra Branford. However, as the game progressed, the supporting cast grew in importance and the audience was given powerful revelations regarding their histories and motivations. By the end of the game, it could still very much be Terra's story, but everyone has firm enough ground to stand on that it emerges as an ensemble game. Taking away any of the characters would subtract from the narrative. Except Gogo and Umaro.

The Rosencrantz and Guildenstern of the Final Fantasy world.

So while Final Fantasy VI tries this to a degree, Final Fantasy XII goes all out. The thing is, they don't really make it obvious they're going to do that. Vaan, the first character you can control, has all the trappings of an honest-to-goodness lead protagonist. He lives in the slums of a city controlled by an oppressive, war-mongering empire. His older brother, whom he idolized, died as a result of that empire's actions. He's the leader of a local group of young ruffians. He dreams of breaking out of his station in life, defying the empire, and becoming a freewheeling Sky Pirate, sailing the skies in an airship.

Then you meet other characters and we forget Vaan exists.

See, the thing that made FFVI work is that every character became the main character. By the end of the game you could put any combination of your extensive roster in to the final battle and it wouldn't feel terribly out of place. I feel like when I get to the end of FFXII it will be similiar, but not because everyone was developed to have an equal stake in the story. More likely, it will be because I care about everyone so little that I really won't care who I throw in there as long as I win.

You see, Vaan begins as so archetypal a protagonist that the only revelation missing is that his father is actually Darth Vader.

"Luke . . . I . . . kind of got around a lot."

But then we meet Balthier Bunansa and his leggy assistant Fran, Sky Pirates with Han Solo and Chewbacca written all over them. Following that is the rescue of Princess Leia, I mean, Ashelia Dalmasca, ruler of the kingdom of Dalmasca, which was overthrown by the Empire. Then we throw in Basch, whom we all think at first is a horrible traitor, but discover that this was actually another trick of the empire. He can be Lando. It's close enough, shut up. Then for no real reason, we add Penelo, Vaan's childhood friend. Whatever, she's an ewok. Anyway.

This was the Christmas Special.

Now of course, their actual resemblance to any Star Wars characters is circumstantial at best. The point is that they serve essentially the same function. We've met our Luke, now we bring in the supporting cast to tear him away from his provincial life and make him the empire-smashing hero we know he can be.

And then none of that ever happens.

From the moment other characters come into the game, the viewpoint of our narrative starts ping-ponging around as if the writers wrote individual scripts for all the characters and then threw them in the air and grabbed random parts to stick together. Okay, so the story is about Balthier having to face his past and stop his evil father (he's got an evil father! He must be the hero). No wait, the big issue is Ashe trying to overcome the empire and win back autonomy for her small kingdom (that's even more heroic!). Oh, hold on a second, no, it's Basch's story, and he's got to defeat his evil twin and take revenge for the empire ruining his life while restoring honor to his name (oh come on!). Wait, what? We're not going to really focus in on any of these as the main plot? So what IS the main plot?

And that's the question which remains unanswered. When you don't have a focused point of view, you can make as many great storylines to follow as you want. If the central idea boils down to "our heroes good, empire bad," then the writing is flawed in a pretty major way. Vaan, for his part, is quickly relegated to making occasional inane statements and generally being completely out of place with the others.

So instead of Luke Skywalker, we end up with Anakin. Episode I Anakin, as essentially his purpose is hang out with the grown ups and occasionally stumble into something which forwards the plot. What's worse is that if they ever just solidly backed one character like Basch or Balthier, this game could've been the Original Trilogy. Since we're stuck with Vaan, it is unfortunately the prequels.

Lead Consultant for Final Fantasy XII.

As long as I'm getting all the Star Wars comparisons out of my system, this is Jar Jar Binks:



This is a Bangaa, native to Ivalice, where FFXII takes place:


So we even have bumbling lizard-things with annoying voices. My prequel analogy runs deep.

Alright, enough about the story. Let's talk about the game. Why would I keep playing something when the plot - or lack thereof - obviously leaves me baffled and uninterested? Simple answer; it's actually pretty fun.

I received Final Fantasy XII years ago as a gift when it was brand new. I have been trying ever since to actually sit down and beat this game. When I opened up my save file to try and pick up where I left off, I was staring at a game with 130 hours already on it. This was from when I tried to play through it a year ago. Two years before that I'd already put in 100 hours on my original attempt. FFXII is an absolutely enormous game, and there's so much to do that I'm fairly certain both times I put it down was just because I had become overwhelmed at the sheer volume of tasks which had to be accomplished in order to achieve everything.

And I MUST achieve everything.

I know he's there, watching. Judging.

Now, since Final Fantasy VI brought us its Colosseum, every subsequent entry into the series has offered us a mini-game - a time-waster that really has nothing to do with the story, but can net you some nice rewards and is actually pretty fun. VII had Chocobo Breeding and Racing, as well as the Golden Saucer casino. VIII and IX had card games, very, very addictive card games. X brought us Blitzball, and holy crap how awesome was it to have an actual sports league as an optional part of the game? That's like if every new iteration of Madden included a 100+ hour bonus game where Eli Manning treks across the world gathering allies and combating evil.

It would be mostly biographical.

XII has . . . fishing.

Gripping.

Alright, there's certainly more to it than that. The fishing system is a rapid button-pushing stress-fest, where you get 6 chances to catch something and each perfect game gives you a chance to advance to another fishing spot with even harder, faster combos. If you want one of the best items in the game, you've got to beat all the fishing holes. It CAN be fun, when you're winning, or it can be an experiment in whether your controller is more durable than your wall.

Now, besides fishing, FFXII does offer some other distractions. Personally, I can't get enough of its hunt system. This game breaks away from the others by making itself more like it's online predecessor, Final Fantasy XI. The world is littered with notorious monsters; beasts that are larger, stronger, and immensely more powerful than their regular counterparts.

They are the Alecs in a world of Stephens.

The game keeps track of which of these monsters you have found, and some you must first fulfill a series of arcane requirements to make appear. A few of them can show up at anytime, but others require you to sign up with a hunting club which will reward you with trophies for each successful hunt. Those monsters also drop rare and powerful items. Other unique monsters are called Marks, and you make them show up by signing contracts to go out and hunt them for big rewards. New Marks show up at regular intervals as long as you keep forwarding the main story, and that alone provides some motivation to keep doing so. I've caught myself several times running to check if new Marks are available after every minor advancement of the plot.

Still waiting for this one to show up.

There's also a system of crafting new weapons and armor by collecting the things monsters drop and selling them. Naturally, the best weapon in the game can only be obtained by collecting a number of the rarest drops and selling them in the correct order. This is less entertaining and more a time sink, since a lot of the better items drop so infrequently you have to wonder what they were thinking. I know that following FFXI they wanted to give players the feeling of the online game but in single-player mode, but was it necessary to include the Rat Tail aspect I alluded to in my previous post? You do that with MMOs so people keep playing every month. There's no subscription fee for this. The company already got my money. I don't know why they insist on forcing me to play long after the part where you hunt monsters and hope to get their items becomes fun and meanders over into tedious.

I'm still interested in fulfilling these requirements and getting the best items because . . . well, they're there, and I think Square Enix understands that so long as they keep putting stuff in games, there will be people who will spend hours trying to get it. So I'll keep playing, but with The Backlog now in my life, I've got some motivation to maybe leave a few things untouched and power through to the ending.

Overall, this game is fun for me. Not great, but good - perhaps the experience can best be summed up with this appraisal of JRPGs. Despite my issues with its core, there are enough bells and whistles to keep me playing. Maybe one day this week I'll be able to sit down and really whittle down all the extra content thrown in until I've got nothing left except beating the game to accomplish. Although this also depends on whether or not I try to navigate my way through The Great Crystal, a hellish zone whose every turn is a descent into madness dictated by non-Euclidean geometry.

Pictured: Map of the zone

If nothing else, I'll at least be able to say that I finally got my money's worth on a game I received as a gift.

Hey, wait.