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Project X Zone
Nintendo 3DS
Project Clusterf#$%
2/5 stars
Oh boy… Honestly I have no idea why I picked up this game anymore. And I’ll be honest, I don’t have the heart to finish it. Even near the end at about 45 hours in. But dear lord, this game is just a drag. I suppose the premise itself would lead one to wonder what entails in this MASSIVE crossover between Capcom, Bandai Namco, and Sega. Though after playing this, I think it might be too big for its own good.
Project X Zone, is a tactical rpg, kinda like fire emblem, except when the mechanics come in. Aside from health and EXP you have, XP which are used for skills and special attacks when you engage in combat with enemies. These play out like a kind of simplified fighting game. Each character team, or unit as the game calls them, has up to 5 attacks: Neutral, Up, Down, Left, and Right, and the previously mentioned special attack. During battle you have a limited amount of attacks you can use, but by using all the attacks available to you, you can earn a freebie. You can also call in a Solo Units to assist you or tag in nearby teammates to give you a helping hand. I will say the combat system was rather interesting to me not only because of its simplicity, but that it rewarded proper timing. By using your solo units and teammates in proper timing with the units own attacks, you can “Cross” and enemy and make them stay perfectly still, ensuring that just about every hit from everyone hits it. I will admit, for a while it truly felt satisfying having 5 characters on screen pounding on a single foe.
Speaking of sights, this game doesn’t look and sound too bad either. The sprite work is nice, the animations are nice, and the portraits used during cutscenes and dialogue don’t look half bad either. The game does feature some voice acting, but it’s entirely in Japanese, so I can’t really say much there. The music is rather pleasant as well, but it’s mostly remixed tracks from the different games used here, so your enjoyment will be determined on what and who you’re familiar with. Which, unfortunately leads me to my biggest complaint about this game: That it’s too big for its own good.
I mentioned in beginning of this that I was 45 hours in, and still not done. Well that’s because there are 5 prologue chapters, and 40 chapters, and 45 hours only gets you to chapter 36! For crying out loud!!!! And in the chapters themselves the battles just keep getting longer, and longer. The first few battles in the game took about 20 minutes, which was rather comfortable, then they reached 30 minutes, 45, an hour, and more later down the road. I could literally point out when the game was going to throw more at me, where I was begging for the game to give me a break and just END!
Then there’s the cast of characters, again, way too big for its own good. I suppose for a crossover RPG, that should be expected, but honestly I don’t know half of these characters. Certainly I can name just about every Capcom character: Dante, Chun Li, Ryu, Sir Arthur to name a few. But when it comes to the Sega and Namco characters, I’d be lucky if I could name 10 between them both. A lot of the characters used by these two either haven’t been seen in quite a while, or have never met western shores prior. For example, the unit Xiaomu and Reiji. Personally I’ve never seen these two before in my life, turns out they’re only other appearance was in Namco X Capcom. You know, that crossover game that never left japan?
That doesn’t even cover the mess of a story this game has. I could not tell you a single thing that happens, because the entirety of the plot revolves around trying to figure out what’s going on. Sure there’s something about holes through time and space, and portals to other worlds, and time travel, but none of it makes any sense or makes for a memorable experience. The only thing I can remember was a joke that was made when Alisa from Tekken used her head to destroy an Astoroth statue while here head was still in the hands of Sir Arthur from Ghosts ‘N’ Goblins. The next chapter everyone is morning his loss, while he’s just standing there in his boxers and thanks everyone for the boost in confidence. Why is he still alive? Because his armor can take one hit, no matter how strong the attack is, at least that’s the games reasoning behind it. But that’s it, I can’t remember anything else from this game. Nor can I push myself to finish it.
It’s a chore to finish, and trying to follow the story is like trying to jump into a research paper, unless you know the material, you’re going to have to end up doing research either way. This is not a game I can recommend. It was clearly meant for the Japanese audience, and nowhere else. I’ll probably never finish the game, or even care to. And if I truly crave for a crossover between Namco, Capcom and Sega, at this point I can just boot up Smash Bros on my wii-u or 3ds and have a match with Sonic, Megaman and Pacman.
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