Review #114: Hexyz Force

 'tis been a long time, eh!

 For today's entry, I present you with Hexyz Force, a RPG for the PSP by STING, developers of quirky games like Knights in the Nightmare and Yggdra Union. Presently, Hexyz Force is a rather expensive PSP game to get, but is it worth it?

 Set in the world of Berge, players are granted the choice between following Levant's search for the Stigald fragments or Cecilia's quest to protect various Monoliths. While both characters go through the same dungeons, fight many of the same bosses and don't get any exclusive dungeon, both stories are radically different. Each character gets a different supporting cast, with different personalities, even the themes each story deals with are different. Cecilia's definitely the most lighthearted one, but Levant's gets darker themes, such as racism and treason. While the last two chapters are pretty much the same between both characters, heck, both parties merge together so that you can choose between all eight(And maybe an extra ninth...) characters, depending on which character the player decides to follow will leave a noticeably different impression on the story.

 Hexyz Force is a decidedly linear JRPG, while there are more than a couple optional sidequests, they are few in quantity, and since the game uses the, sadly, all-to-common list-based world-map, you always know where to go, and while backtracking is a possibility, you cannot go to new places unless you are told to, getting lost is never a problem. Furthermore, the game keeps a Log on the main menu, so that you can access the last conversation that characters had in a cut-scene, so you can just look in there, pretty handy. The game doesn't make use of shops, instead, you make your own equipment. As you travel through dungeons, defeat enemies or search towns for goodies, you'll come across materials that you can then fuse into equipment. Fusion is a very simple matter, you just go into the Fusion menu and search on the list for anything you can make, double tap X and you get a shiny new equipment piece.

 Combat is fairly interesting. While at the end of the day it matters little, you can position a three-man party on a 3x3 grid, the closer you are to the enemies the more damage you'll deal and receive, it never amounts to much as the game isn't particularly hard. Then comes the matters regarding equipment, Weapons and Items(Healing items, damaging items, etc) must be equipped on a character before engaging an enemy. Each character has four different slots for weapons and items. Weapons come in two varieties, Ragnafacts and , well, normal weapons. Weapons and Items behave the same way, each one has a set amount of abilities and a set amount of durability. Each ability consumes a different amount of Durability, and when the durability reaches 0, it breaks. Durability can't be repaired. Ragnafacts on the other hand consume RP, consider it mana, and as long as the character has mana, you can use its skills. Ragnafacts never break, and unlike other weapons, you can level them up with Force Points. RP never becomes a problem, the game completely restores your HP and RP every time a character levels up, and the game usually has HP/RP restoring fountains before bosses, and after leveling up their Resonance a bit, their basic skills end up consuming 0 RP. Lastly, there's a gauge that rises as you take or deal damage, and can be used to unleash powerful Burst attacks, think of them as Limit Breaks unique to each character.

 Force Points are the major currency in the game. You can earn it by killing enemies or by converting items into FP. And you can then spend it in leveling up your Ragnafacts, heal the party(HP only), or on certain objects in the overworld that react to FP. The game also has a very handy feature, holding R will fast forward any dialogue, cut-scene dialogues included, and tapping R in-battle, will make everything go twice as fast, making grinding, assuming that you really need to, a non-issue. Skipping also becomes a necessity in Levant's story, as there is a very nasty bug that will make the game freeze during a mandatory conversation unless you skip it(You can then read it in the logs, so no worries). Annoyingly so, freezing seems to be a rather common occurrence in the game, when tackling the optional bosses, do not hold the R button as the screen transitions into battle, or the game will most likely freeze. Fairly annoying. On a more positive note, both Levant and Cecilia get 3 endings each, so that's something.

 The game employs fairly cute and simple, but surprisingly detailed, character models. While, on a technical level, it's not very impressive, it does look very good, and it's a very colorful game. Environments are nothing out of the norm for the genre, but they get the job done, and while there are more enemy palette swaps than I would've liked, most major bosses look fairly menacing. There are also a few anime cut-scenes that play every now and then, and they look pretty decent. Music is quite good, you won't be humming the tunes any time soon, but it does have some enjoyable songs. There's not a whole lot of voice acting, only during anime cut-scenes and a couple of lines before major boss battles or after battling, but what little there is, it's quite decent.

 All in all, Hexyz Force is a neat little JRPG. It does nothing out of the ordinary, but what it does, it does fairly well, it's a shame about the freezing glitches.
 7.5 out of 10.

Mobile Suit Gundam - Gundam VS Gundam Next Plus Impressions Final Part

Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team

EZ8 Gundam

  Extremely(heh!) similar to Extreme Vs, if not downright identical. Beam Rifle mode definitely isn't as good, melee wise, as it is in Extreme Vs, and I'm fairly sure that it moved faster in cannon mode as well.

NEW Gundam Ground Type

 While Full Boost introduced this unit as a DLC clone unit... it's almost a bit clonish in this one as well. Just like the Ez8, it has two modes: Cannon and Machine gun. The biggest difference is that it has terrible melee, instead of, well, passable melee tools. Machine Gun mode doesn't even have a beam rifle, but it retains the Missile Launcher while in cannon mode. Me, being a Melee fan, would much rather play as Ez8, even though I like how the Gundam Ground type looks better. Ah well, I really couldn't care less if they decided to bring this one back in Maxi Boost, it was fairly similar to the EZ8 in this one, and it's even worse in Full Boost's DLC.

Mobile Suit Gundam 00

Gundam Exia

  It's... in some ways better, and in some ways worse than in Extreme Vs. The Boomerang is more unreliable, the melee doesn't seem to be as good or easy to cancel into other moves and Trans-AM is a one-time only sub weapon... BUT when it uses Trans-Am, it becomes much better than in Extreme Vs, faster, stronger, and with longer and better combo strings that keep it on the move.

Gundam 00 Raiser

 As of Maxi Boost, Setsuna has 4 Mobile Suits and Lockon Stratos has 3. The amount of suits it gets is downright appalling. I don't have a problem with 00, I've a problem with the rest of the series not getting more reps! Gundam G? Gundam Wing? Heck, even Char could use his NightinGale... Alright, Rant over. How does 00 Raiser fare? I LOVE IT. I was fairly indifferent to it in Extreme Vs, but here it's a completely different suit. It's permanently in Raise mode, and it has two modes, one that shines at mid-long range, and one that is a melee beast. It also gets Trans AM, and while it's not as good as Exia's Trans-Am, it can be used more than once(If you survive while it reloads!). I like this suit, fun to play as, and really, really good, shame we are stuck with 00 in Extreme, probably an excuse to get Setsuna two Mobile Suits in one.

Reborns Gundam

 It's good, but not as good as in Extreme Vs. For instance, switching between modes is temporary, long range mode lasts as long as you have boost. It doesn't have such a large moveset, but it does have a nice array of tools, Gerobis, Trans-Am(One time only, turns normal beams into gerobis), funnels, and good melee. All in all? Really good, but not quite as good as in Extreme Vs.

NEW Gundam Virtue/ Gundam Nadleeh

 This one is relatively odd. While in Virtue mode, it's slow as molasses, and three of its weapons consume the SAME ammo gauge, with a max of 3 and the kind that slowly reloads. It can purge its armor to turn into Nadleeh, which is a much better, and faster suit, but a suit that hasn't got a whole lot of different tools. It's surprising that we are on the third iteration of Extreme Vs and this one hasn't returned, the devs aren't shy about their love for 00, and there's no other suit like this one in Extreme Vs.

Mobile Suit Gundam - Gundam VS Gundam Next Plus Impressions part 8

Mobile Suite Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket

Gundam Alex

 Almost identical to its Extreme Vs counterpart, except that now he has an assist. Eh, I dunno, while I like the Alex's design, I always felt he was a tad to weak in Extreme Vs, and it's no exception here.

NEW Kampfer

 I don't usually like long-range only units, but this one... is really neat. It has a shotgun, a bazooka, a sort of grenade... I like it. It also has a whip with bombs? One time use only, but its quite strong. It also has a slashing dash that can be followed up with a bazooka blast or a shotgun shot. Its biggest short-coming lies on its mobility, which is really, really terrible, both boosting or dashing. Overall, I really like it. It looks badass, and has interesting gameplay, and no suit really takes its place in Extreme Vs, this one really needs to return!

Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory

Gundam Dendobrium Stamen

 Almost exactly like the Extreme Vs version, however, I think that the cable sub-weapon had an ammo gouge in Extreme Vs? Well, it doesn't here, you can use it indefinitely!

Gundam Physalis

 Bummer, it's missing a bunch of tools from Extreme Vs, and the Beam saber enhancer works differently, instead of being a sub-weapon, it now charges itself after a couple seconds of not using it. It does have better mobility. For long range, besides the nuke, it only has a very weak minigun and a 4 ammo assist-cannon based attack. Fairly lame.

NEW Gundam Zephyrantes / Gundam Zephyrantes Full Vernian

 The Zephyrantes is a very interesting case, not only is it different from Extreme Vs, but it's entirely unique among the other suits. How? It starts as a 1000 cost unit(Zephyrantes) and when it respawns, it does so as a 2000 cost unit, Full Vernian Zephyrantes(It has been switched back to this format in Maxi Boost). Zephyrantes has a very basic 1000 cost unit load out, a machine gun, the head machine guns, a beam sub-weapon and average melee. Once it enter Full Vernian, it switches the machine gun for a beam rifle, gets better melee, better stats and a new charge weapon and new special melee attack. It's an interesting unit, but both movesets are not very interesting.

Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team

Gouf Custom

 Exactly the same as in Extreme Vs, except that it has an assist attack now.

Mobile Suit Gundam - Gundam VS Gundam Next Plus Impressions part 7

Mobile Suit Gundam Seed

Strike Gundam

 It's just like Extreme Vs, but instead of having de IWSP pack, it has a really weak assist. I love it anyways!

NEW Aegis Gundam

 Compared to the tolerable Kira and the insufferable Shin, Arthrun always gets very little representation when compared to them... but just like Extreme VS, his Mobile Suit is really, really good. Has very good melee, a lot of projectile tools, including a gerobi beam, and a Mobile Armor mode. And it's just a 1000 cost unit. Its cons lie in its very low HP and a somewhat unreliable assist.

Duel Gundam

 Unlike Extreme Vs, it can purge the Armor at will(This was, luckily, added back in Maxi Boost). With the Full Shroud armor on, it behaves just as it did in Extreme Vs, albeit without the sub weapon that had Blitz Gundam following it behind. Without the armor, it becomes easier to cancel and chain melee moves together, becomes faster, and changes its projectile toolset. Sadly, as it was the case with Extreme Vs, I didn't like it much, its a bit boring, but being able to purge the armor at will makes it a tad more fun to use.

Providence Gundam

  Whoa. WHOA. It's much, much different, and much more fun to use. It has excellent melee, it can enter a "free flying" mode, that consumes boost, but makes showering the enemy with beams much easier and it can also shoot from all funnels simultaneously or rapid fire with the beam rifle as its charge weapon. I like it, I like it a lot.

Freedom Gundam

 It's fairly similar to Extreme Vs, but being a 3000 cost in this one has its perks... it has excellent mobility, far superior to Extreme Vs, with the addition of Seed Mode, that makes it even faster. Really cool.

Mobile Suit Gundam Seed Destiny

Strike Freedom Gundam

 The king of all Gerobis has... no Gerobi beams. Actually, it has a Gerobi-based attack, but it can only be unleashed during Seed mode, and it's a charge weapon. Not gonna lie, even though it has the SEED weapon, like Freedom, compared to how it plays in Extreme Vs, this one is really, really lame.

Impulse Gundam

 Bummer, I knew it didn't have the Silhouette change, but man, is it lame. It does have a rather cool attack where it throws a beam boomerang and follows up with the sword, but otherwise? Not too interesting. It can go into "ship" mode, like Victory Gundam, and just like the Victory Gundam, it's completely useless.

Destiny Gundam

 I'm pretty sure it's exactly the same as it's in Extreme Vs, which means it has a ton of tools and works nicely at any range. Shin doesnt' deserve such a good machine.

NEW Akatsuki Gundam

 This being Destiny''s tribute to Hyaku Shiki, which I really really like, I had high hopes for this one, and it's alright, not as fitting to my style as I had hoped to. It has two modes, a basic beam rifle-beam sword for mid-close range combat and a funnel long-range only mode. In both modes it can absorb beams, just like in the series! Still, it looks really cool, I'd like to see it back

Bonus

Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket

Zaku II Custom

 Almost exactly the same as it is in Extreme Vs, instead of the Santa dummies it has a hilarious move in which it throws its body against the enemy!

Mobile Suit Gundam - Gundam VS Gundam Next Plus Impressions part 6

After War Gundam X

Gundam X Divider

 I liked this one a lot in Extreme Vs, so how does it previous counterpart compare? It's certainly different. In this one, it has two modes: X-Divider-Bazooka and Beam Rifle-Gerobi, each mode also has its own mobility which is sorta cool, X-Divider has a way better close-range game. I actually prefer its simplified moveset in Extreme Vs.

Gundam Double X

 While, at its core, it has the same toolset as vanilla, this one has a big handicap: Gerobis need to be charged. That's right, the Satellite beam is a charge weapon, but unlike other charge weapons that are unleashed as soon as you let go of the button, this one stocks on its own ammo gauge. Furthermore, it only has 1 ammo assist, but it grants him the mother of all Gerobi nuke beams. Once again, I prefer its Extreme Vs version.

Turn A Gundam

Kapool

 Terrible mobility and terrible melee, all it has really going for it are its high ammo counts. If you happen to land a clean hit with the "Unload everything" attack, it deals a massive chunk of damage, but it's quite unreliable, almost as much as its secondary mode, in which it only has one move: A punch, that grows in strength the more it winds it up. Terrible unit, the Extreme Vs revamp made it much better.

Turn X

 The same as Extreme Vs, but with little differences, most noticeably, Shining Finger is a Charge Weapon. I actually like it more this way.

Turn A Gundam

 Very similar to its Extreme Vs(Vanilla) version, however, this one has missiles(It doesn't have missiles in Extreme Vs, right?) instead of a Gerobi beam. It also has a neat beam rifle assist. Extreme Vs Full Boost gave it so many new moves that its hard to go back, sadly.

Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn

Kshtriya

 Plays exactly like it does on Extreme Vs, but with a little enhancement... its a 3000 cost unit in this one. It already had a solid moveset that was good at any range, now thanks to it being a 3000 unit, it also has the damage and the beefyness. It's a total beast. Really good unit.

Unicorn Gundam

 It's very mediocre. Normal Unicorn has some awkward melee, that is kinda fun to use once you get the hang of when to properly cancel it, but a decent long-range toolset. Destroy Mode has abysmal projectile tools, but better melee.... actually, it just gets longer melee chains, but each hit doesn't deal a whole lot of damage? Eh, I'd stick with its Extreme Vs incarnation.

Mobile Suit Gundam - Gundam VS Gundam Next Plus Impressions part 5

New Mobile Report Gundam Wing

NEW Gundam Deathscythe Hell

 Eh, it's alright. It's terrible at long range, but in close range, it's a beast. I kinda like its Extreme VS incarnation(Which is, actually, its Endless Waltz version) version better as it has more tools.

Gundam Epyon

 It retains the "Slash in each direction" type of attack from Extreme VS, and it has added functionality to the beam whip. I quite like it, it's missing the System Zero mode that they added in Extreme Vs, but in this game... I think it really doesn't need it. Fun to use.

NEW Tallgeese 1

 Wow. I was expecting something completely different to the Tallgeese 3 from Extreme Vs... it's actually pretty similar, just missing the Beam Whip attacks. Its melee is terrible, and it has a very particular way of boosting that takes a while to get used to. It has a great long-range game, still I'm not a fan.

Wing Gundam Zero

 Basically, the same as it was in Extreme VS. A good unit that works well at any range, particularly, long range. Even it's Assist is a Gerobi beam!

New Mobile Report Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz

Wing Gundam Zero

 Whoa, slightly more different than I expected! For starters, it has infinite "Jump out of homing" subweapon, which is pretty dang awesome, then, the charge weapon is the Gerobi beam, which can target up to two targets and can be charged up to... three levels. It's a pretty neat unit.

NEW Altron Kai

 It's what I expected, an alternative to the Dragon Gundam in Extreme Vs. It's actually a lamer version, the Dragon Gundam kept the best moves the Altron had, and gave it a Firebreath projectile, all the electrifying flags, and what have you. Maybe when the game was released, Altron wasn't too bad, but when you have the Dragon Gundam, there's no need for it... Still, I'd like to see a Wufei Mobile Suit in Extreme Vs, just not this one.

Bonus

After War Gundam X

Virsago

 It's almost exactly as it's on Extreme VS, same gameplan, same toolset, same everything, back when it was a 2000 anyways. It's a pretty solid unit, nice damage output, and great at mid range.

Mobile Suit Gundam - Gundam VS Gundam Next Plus Impressions part 4

Mobile Suit Victory Gundam

NEW Gedlav

 A Gerobi, tons of different projectile tools, and a few melee tools? This is one adaptable mobile suit! I quite like this one, and I wouldn't mind seeing it return, since it looks quite different from anything else on either(Extreme VS and Next Plus) roster

Victory Gundam

 Virtually identical to Extreme VS, it even retains the same Assist move. Actually, I think it didn't have a Mobile Armor mode in Extreme VS, oh, and when it loses all body pieces, the "ship mode" lasts way longer, but it's way worse, it can't boost and flies at a snail's pace. I might be crazy, but I think the melee combos look much cooler in this one. All in all? I like it a lot, as much as in Extreme VS, throwing exploding limbs never gets old.

Mobile Fighter G Gundam

NEW Shining Gundam

 This one is... amazing. Instead of a Beam Rifle, it shoots Hadokens out of his hands. HADOKENS. Has brutal melee attacks, has the Shining Finger and... has a secondary mode that enhances its already great melee and grants it a Gerobi beam. This one is returning in Maxi Boost, hopefully it plays just like it does in this one.

God Gundam

 It's a 3000 cost unit here(Just like Maxi Boost, which bumped it up to 3000 again), and... it's fairly good. It's also fairly different to how he plays in Extreme Vs. It has a much better ranged game here, it now shoots beam slashes with its sword, and can charge it up for a exploding wave attack. It can also change into a "Sheathed sword" stance that can rapid fire projectiles or turn into a beam sword tornado. Lastly, it has the Head spread gun, like in vanilla Extreme Vs. I prefer this one to Extreme Vs, much more fun!

Master Gundam

 Its a 2000 cost unit now, which makes no sense since Domon's Shining Gundam is a 2000 unit as well, but I digress. First thing you'll notice? It can't run, rather, it walks really, really slowly. The ranged attacks consists of throwing its beam cloth, which makes sense, but isn't too useful. Among its features, its melee attacks usually cover a wide area, which is kinda cool unless your ally happens to be close by, and it has an epic looking, but hard to hit with, melee attack in which it dashes forward, crosses the opponent, strikes a pose and the enemy explodes. Conclusion? I didn't like it too much, Extreme VS' version is much better.

NEW Nobel Gundam

  Eh, it's kinda lame. It's not that it's a bad unit, it simply feels like a Shining Gundam reskin, it even has an alternate, timed, mode. Almost everything it can do, Shining Gundam does the same and better. I can see why they axed it from Extreme Vs, and unless they revamp its moveset, I really don't care about it.

Gundam Spiegel

 Admittedly, I didn't play a whole lot with Spiegel in Extreme Vs, buuuut, it seems pretty similar in this one, as a matter of fact, I think it has a couple more moves in this one. It also retains the special blur effect when it runs, which looks quite neat. I happen to notice a trend, most of the units re-introduced in Full Boost seem to play the most similar to their Next Plus counterparts, hmm...

BONUS

New Mobile Report Gundam Wing

NEW Gundam Heavy Arms Kai

 Preface: When I was younger, Heavyarms was my favorite Gundam Wing mobile suit. I loved the color scheme and the fact that it had a friggin' minigun on one arm. Also, since it's the TV series version, with only one arm holding the miniguns, I expected it to have some kind of melee attacks(I despise ranged-only units!), the Heavyarms did have a knife under the minigun, so I wanted to try it out as soon as possible... Well, it only has one melee attack, and it does use the knife, but it isn't too useful. For some reason, I find it more fun to play than it its Extreme Vs counterpart, probably has to do with me liking the color scheme a lot more and I like the sounds for the minigun a bit more. Also, I think it recharges ammo faster? Besides that, it has basically the same moveset as Extreme VS, but with a different assist call. I like neither version, but if I had to choose, I'd go with this one!