Wildly mediocre tactical RPG action.

Turn-based strategy games have found something of a home on the PlayStation Portable. From remakes like Fintal Fantasy Tactics to originals like Jeanne d’Arc to weird deviants like Metal Gear Acid, turn-taking tactics seem to work on the PSP. Wild ARMs XF brings the Wild ARMs series into the PSP’s turn-based fold, but falls short of delivering the addictive fun to which any turn-based title aspires.

The battles in Wild ARMs XF take place on multilayered maps divided into hexagonal playing spaces. The characters in your party and the opposing army take turns (starting order based on an agility rating) and move and attack on the hexagonal grid. There are the usual basic tactical caveats: increased attack power from higher ground, bonuses for surrounding an enemy, and area of effect attacks. A unit’s facing direction has no tactical bearing, however; an attack from a unit’s rear will simply make the unit face its attacker.

A job system provides XF with its strategic depth, at least in theory. Most characters can change classes before entering battle, giving players a wide spread of tactical options for each battle. Or at least that’s how the job system should function. Instead, each mission’s objectives are set up in such a way that almost every character in your party must be configured in a certain way for success to be even possible.

As a result, XF becomes less of a tactical RPG and more of a puzzle game. It becomes an irritating exercise in trial and error as players struggle to find the exact job a character should have for each mission. Instead of strategic flexibility, the game burdens players with a rigid system that sucks away the core appeal of the game.