The main cast of the game: Left side: Ignus (top), Rafael (middle), Luffina (bottom). Right side: Ciel (top), Griek (middle), Irene (bottom). Middle side: Cecilia (left), Levant (right)
Hexyz Force is a PlayStation Portable game released in Japan on November 12, 2009; and in the United States on May 25, 2010. It is a collaboration between Sting Entertainment and Atlus.
Long ago, Norvia, the Goddess of Creation, descended from the heavens. Using the Holy Vessel, a divine chalice charged with all Force (the spiritual energy in the universe), she created life and the Divinities, shepherds of existence. After some time, Delgaia, the God of Destruction, brought about a great calamity known as the Gods' Remorse. He intended to return all Force to the Holy Vessel, returning Berge to the void. The Divinities sacrificed themselves to defeat Delgaia, delivering Berge from doom and sealing the God of Destruction away deep within the earth.
As Berge lay in ruin, a result of its bitter war, Norvia made a covenant. She would restore Berge to its former beauty on one condition. An Hour of Judgment would eventually come to pass, then the world would have to decide its ultimate path: creation or destruction.
The game takes place in a world named Berge, which is divided into two sides; the "Lustrous" side, the world of no night, and the "Darkness" side, the world of no day. This game has 2 main protagonists: Cecilia (Light), a priestess who is tasked with stopping the Hour of Judgement, and Levant (Dark), a defected former member of the Empire of Rosenbaum. Together, they must stop the world-conquering ambitions of Emperor Axel, who seeks to take control of the Hour of Judgment for himself.
The game's uniqueness lies in the scale of creation and destruction where each action the player makes will cause the balance to change and will determine the ending.
And as a side note, this game is not a part of the Dept. Heaven series.
Tropes in this game:
- Absurdly Spacious Sewer: Cecilia's very first dungeon.
- Altar Diplomacy: Axel and Natulle's marriage was meant to bring peace between the Elves and Humans, as part of a plan to later get every race to be peaceful within Rosenbaum. It... didn't go as planned.
- Ambidextrous Sprite: Character portraits in dialogue scenes are accurate representations of the character models when on the right side of the screen. Character portraits on the left side of the screen are always mirror images.
- Ape Shall Never Kill Ape: Griek points out that Argent would never kill one of their own, and if one of the other races arranged the assassination of Natulle then the entire group would have fallen apart.
- Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: In the Destruction ending, the main character you choose becomes the new God of Creation since the old God of Creation is dead.
- Bittersweet Ending: The Destruction ending.
- Big Bad: Emperor Axel of Rosenbaum, once a beloved leader until the assasination of his wife, now seeks to conquer the world. However, he’s a Brainwashed and Crazy pawn of Faust Schnizer; he, Azul/Galiza, Norvia, and Delgaia are all competing for control over the Hour of Judgement, and whoever comes out on top depends on the ending.
- BFS: Rafael and Bahn's Ragnafact.
- Bifurcated Weapon: Axel's spear can be split into two short swords.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: People affected by the Forbidden Art of Rivelias can be this, most notably Luffina, Bahn, Natulle, and Levant. Axel is also this courtesy of Azul's "gift".
- Breakable Weapons: If it's not a Ragnafact, it's one of these. Though, some are pretty powerful despite this...
- Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Every Final Boss in this game is a god.
- Evil Laugh/Laughing Mad: Faust sure loves doing this.
- Evil Plan: Faust destroys the balance to revert everything back to chaos. He Chessmasters the heroes and the villains alike, collects the Stigald fragments so nobody can put it together again, and has no less than a third of the main cast Brainwashed and Crazy at one point or another.
- 11th-Hour Ranger: Axel
- Expy: Luffina is possibly one of Lina; Azul is an extra-sadistic Nessiah.
- Fantastic Racism: On the dark side of Berge, this is rampant with the humans not liking anyone non-human and the reverse. Generations of war will do that to you.
- Fantastic Slurs: People in Rosenbaum refer to anything non-human as a "Halb".
- Forged by the Gods: The Ragnafacts. Hence why they never break like other items and can damage enemies Force Arts can't.
- Gameplay and Story Integration: Levant is afraid of height. When he's brought to Fallen City of Altair; floating city part, he'll automatically be inflicted by fear status.
- Generation Xerox: According to Philia, the current Hexyz's personalities are no different from the originals.
- God Is Evil: The Goddess of Creation Norvia is hinted to be this in the True ending.
- Gods Need Prayer Badly: They'll only move if the humans truly wish for it.
- Great Escape: Levant's escape from Fort Faulken a day before his execution.
- Guide Dang It!: After each chapter of a character's story, a scale will be shown tilting either towards Creation or Destruction, which affects which ending you get. It's not hard to figure out that your actions are what affects it, but it's how they affect it that's left a complete mystery. Those seemingly harmless questions you're occasionally prompted to answer? They affect the scale depending on how you answer. As a general (unstated) rule, completing sidequests also tilts it towards Creation...except for one that inexplicably tilts it towards Destruction.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Bahn. And in the True ending, Ralu, Ulu, and Alu.
- Humongous Mecha: Every Phantasma is this. The newer it is, the bigger it gets.
- "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: Two fights with Velvet, since she's actually a brainwashed Natulle can be considered this.
- Knighting: Leon undergoes one in the beginning of his game.
- Leave No Survivors: Axel ordered all of his troops to kill all the residents of the Spirit Forest, which serves as his
Moral Event Horizon. - Love Makes You Evil: Natulle's death makes Axel evil, or so everyone thought. Turns out Axel and Natulle are actually Brainwashed and Crazy.
- Magic Staff: Cecilia's Ragnafact, which can function as Boom Stick.
- Make My Monster Grow: Axel, in the final battle against him.
- The Man Behind the Man: Faust is behind Virtus, Axel is behind Faust, then it turns out that Faust is actually behind Axel, and Azul is behind EVERYONE! ...Then it turns out Faust is also behind Azul.
- Musical Assassin: The Olfelt Ragnafact previously owned by Faust has power of infliting debuffs and stat down on enemies. The true wielder can even give a decent fight.
- Multiple Endings: Five: one Creation (Good) Ending for each route (Cecilia's and Levant's), one Destruction (Bad) Ending for each route, and one single Neutral (True) Ending for both routes.
- Mysterious Waif: Philia, with shades of Cloud Cuckoo Lander.
- Non-Standard Skill Learning: Necrozauwar's skills can be obtained via defeating monsters concealed in objects emitting abhorrent force scattered around Berge.
- Numerical Hard: Hard Mode. Every enemy's status is doubled, including the Final Boss.
- Odd Couple: Axel and Natulle.
- Older Than They Look: Most of the cast.
- Parental Abandonment: Cecilia. Her mother, Therese, was killed by Azul.
- Pimped-Out Dress: When Levant is knighted, Princess Irene is wearing a very fancy, poofy dress. And her adventuring dress is only somewhat less fancy
with several frills, edging, and brocade. - Pretty in Mink: The starting armor for ladies is a fur cape. Although it's not shown (the game averts Virtual Paper Doll), the flavor text calls it "luxurious".
- Punny Name: Bigabu Beaze
- Rage Against the Heavens: Azul, and the main characters in the True ending.
- Redemption Equals Death: Bahn.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: When Luffina was brainwashed by Faust, the eyes glow red.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: Levant is the wielder of the Crimson Sword and Axel is the wielder of the Azure Spear.
- Regal Ringlets: Irene wears her hair like this. Cecilia ticks her off by saying that the hairstyle is really out of date.
- Reincarnation: Every Hexyz is the successor of the Force Divinities.
- Royal Rapier: Irene's Ragnafact is in the form of a rapier which can turn into Whip Sword on its Force Burst.
- Satan: The God of Destruction Delgaia.
- Saintly Church: The Temple of Palfina.
- Scarf Of Ass Kicking: Levant.
- Schrödinger's Player Character: Averted. No matter which character you choose to play as, the other goes about on their quest normally, even meeting up with you at places. Though you do join forces at the final dungeon, with even Axel joining your party.
- Showgirl Skirt: Irene's adventuring outfit has a long skirt over her frilly mini skirt. So she wears a fancy dress that allows Kicking Ass in All Her Finery.
- Spanner in the Works: Who knew feeding a dying man in the giant worm's belly would be the first step in derailing Faust's Evil Plan?
- Stellar Name: Rafael and Luffina Gemini.
- Storming the Castle: Though not "storm" so much as "teleport in."
- Take a Third Option: Our heroes try to pull this in the True ending, though Azul isn't very happy about this.
- Too Dumb to Live: Virtus. If you start depending on the man that you wish to manipulate, you know your plan is doomed to fail in the first place.
- Tragic Monster: Almost everyone on the side of destruction: Bahn, Axel, and Natulle.
- True Final Boss: Force Necrius.
- Token Mini-Moe: Ciel in Levant's party and Luffina in Cecilia's party.
- Tomato in the Mirror: Levant is the very first mutated being Faust ever created. When he was young, Levant and Irene tried to climb Fort Faulken together, but he tripped and fell to the ground, leaving her behind. Faust experimented on his body afterwards.
- Video Game Cruelty Potential: You can deny the starving man victuals, water a living cactus with Mercury and have it die, leave most of the elves in the burning forest left to die, likewise with the soldiers in Fort Faulken, and kill the God of Creation.
- Visual Initiative Queue
- War for Fun and Profit: The Nobles in Rosenbaum have been profiteering from the battles with the other races, or distracting from other issues.
- Wave-Motion Gun and Sword: The Divine Mechanism Grendle and the Dark Sword Revalens.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Azul and Axel. Norvia is implied to be this as well when she tries to brainwash the party into choosing Creation.
- Yin-Yang Bomb: Each Final Boss has the power of Creation and Destruction.
