Laxius Force - Heroes Never Die

Going on an adventure may not be that feasible nowadays, given the transportation costs and everything else one might need in order to stay alive on the road. However, role-playing games still allow you to put your adventurer skills to the test and go against all odds, in an attempt to stop a great evil from taking over the world and basically destroying it in the process as well.

Laxius Force – Heroes Never Die is one of these RPGs, although it should much rather be called a JRPG instead, given the amount of common elements it shares with the oriental role-playing games. Regardless of its influences, the game gambles its success on a long, intricate and non-linear storyline, which is quite a bold move, especially given the current trend that has video games focusing on making everything as realistic as possible.

Realism is pretty much entirely absent from the title at hand, since everything takes place in a fictional world called Adretana, filled with magic, evil forces, and the Order, which is the main enemy throughout the campaign. Some returning characters also make an appearance, such as Random and Sarah, which also happen to be the two main pillars of the plot. However, many other friends join you along the way and the party of constantly shifting toward one way or the other.

One of the greatest feats of the game is the extremely long story, which should take you at least two dozen hours to complete, unless you also go through some side quests as well. The world is pretty huge, featuring hundreds of maps and locations, although you need to be prepared to deal with some linearity as well. Fortunately, the environments are not very repetitive and almost every landscape can leave an impression on you.

From a technical point of view, it is worth mentioning that the game was developed using RPG Maker, so you should not expect anything more than pixelated 2D characters and environments. However, a lot of effort went into the artwork and you can certainly imagine Adretana in all its beauty, despite the flat-looking maps filled with sprites and crude animations.

In the end, Laxius Force – Heroes Never Die is about as classic as it can get when it comes to role-playing, since it manages to fit almost every cliché in the book into the story. However, this is by no means a bad thing, especially if you miss the olden days and you are aching to go on an epic adventure around the world.