System: Sony PSP
Publisher: Atlus
Category: RPG
Available Now via UMD and PSN

  Hexyz force is a turn based RPG for the PSP. Following the story of the world of Berge and special warriors known as Hexyz, the game is a solid, if not entirely original, RPG.

  The combat is a solid turn based battle system. The player can move their party into certain formations affecting different things such as how often they are attacked and different effects. The player has certain holy weapons known as “Ragnafacts” which are upgradeable and use special attacks using “Ragnapoints”. Normal weapons have their own attacks, and instead of Ragnapoints they have a certain amount of durability. It’s a nice system that one can get used to fairly quickly, and is fairly satisfying. Upgrading Ragnafacts becomes addicting and I found myself farming to get the points to get even stronger. The problem lies with the enemies, which half end up being the same monsters with a different color. It’s a bit of a buzzkill to fight the same monster only now a shade of green.

  There are two different but intersecting stories, each worth their own playthrough. The story itself doesn’t necessarily break new grounds in terms of characters or devices. A god of chaos is coming and certain people have been chosen to stop it. It’s been done before, but Hexyz Force still keeps you entertained enough with it. The double story does make it rather long. Levant is a serious minded knight who takes his duty seriously, while Cecillia is lazy and more resistant to her fate. Levant’s story involves him finding the assassin that killed the emperor’s wife causing his insanity, while Cecillia is tasked with protecting Monoliths to keep the God of Chaos imprisoned. In the end, they join together for the final fight. A problem with them intersecting is that playing through one I pretty much knew the details with the other, taking away some motivation for playing through the other one.

  The graphics are decent with expressive anime style portraits used for dialogue and has anime cutscenes peppered her and there. There is the occasional voice acting to mixed effect. Some characters sound much better than others.  Not naming any names. Griek. The magic and spells do look pretty good, and sound great. I did get the sense of power when using some of the higher end abilities because of it.

  All in all, Hexyz Force is a solid RPG turn based experience. The story and characters aren’t going to blow you away by any means, but certainly a fun title to kill some time with. The battle system works and plays nicely, and you will most certainly have fun with it.

**Written by Mark Marquez