Project X Zone Review (3DS)
Project X Zone suffers from one problem and one problem alone; hero overload. OK that’s a lie, it also has a load of undercooked mechanics and a difficulty curve that swiftly nosedives into insignificance, but even those issues stem from that core error of saviour saturation.
For the uninformed Project X Zone is a mashup of Capcom, SEGA and Namco Bandai’s finest. Ryu rubs shoulders with Jin Kazama, Dante praises Ghosts and Goblins hero Arthur and Tales of Vesperia’s Estelle comments of the un-princess like attire of Endless Frontier’s Kaguya Nanbu. Oh yes, this is a cross over of often unfathomable proportions (often in the ladies chest area, something the game is a little too keen to point out in every cutscene).
Those proportions are often the source of the game’s problems (the amount of heroes, not the boobs). The narrative involves thecast – all the cast – being dragged into a virtual world full of old haunts from their own games and tasks them with battling against their many villains while trying to stop a group of new baddies, called the Oros Phlox, from doing something naughty involving overwhelming power and what not. The narrative is fairly piecemeal and is best enjoyed for the characterful asides, but the script’s attempts to give every superstar some sort of say in every cutscene often comes across as messy, largely reducing each face to base stereotypes. Amusing when it wants to be, but you’ll likely clamour for the cast to be halved during most conversations.
Talking about messy, that brings us nicely to the combat. Project X Zone looks like a strategy RPG but unlike, say, Fire Emblem, you play an active role in dealing damage. Your characters (each ‘unit’ is a preset pairing) have access to a handful of attack strings that grows throughout the game and it’s up to you to activate these chains one by one, and at the right time, in order to juggle the enemy (activate them at exactly the right time and you’ll land a critical). Units start as two characters but you can attach other ‘solo’ units to the duos to expand their attack pool, and standing next to another pair lets you call them in for an assist attack as well. It’s satisfying, and watching Ryu and Ken juggle the Resident Evil Nemesis is a wonderful sight indeed.
Attacking builds an XP meter, and this bar can be spent on massive super attacks or used to activate ‘skills’ on the map screen. Skills are unique per character and involve things like increasing movement range, healing other units, or mitigating an enemies block meter to maximize damage potential.
Played in short bursts Project X Zone’s combat is genuinely wonderful, and orchestrating the anarchy of five characters ganging up on a poor, insignificant zombie is sure to raise a smile from anyone. However the strategy side of things soon starts to disintegrate as character numbers hit questionable heights. It’s not rare to be fighting through 30 or 40 individual foes on a map, and having to engage in rote combo strings with each adversary gets more time consuming than anything (you’ll land a full combo every time just to build the XP meter).
Alongside this issue are that items are both too frequent and too useable. A character can use as many items as they want in a turn at no penalty. They can still move around to collect items and attack, even if they’re scoffed three green herbs in the interim. A character can even heal units standing the entire map’s length away with basic items and every enemy you kill drops an item. That’s far too many items that are far too effective far too often.
Just out of interest I actually counted my items over three levels at around the 20 hour mark. On level one I had 232 items. On level two I had 248. On level three I had 251 items. I was using items in the levels, honest I was, the game is just far too generous for its own good.
There is a New Game+ mode that makes enemies tougher, and XP gain harder, but that isn’t likely to fix any of Project X Zone’s real strategic faults…
Another gripe I have is that it would have been lovely to see franchise knowledge rewarded more in play. An enemies block meter is more easily broken by a Street fighter character’s focus attack but it’s a rare glint of reference supporting play. It would be great if the God Eater characters dealt more damage to their enemies, while Dante got a bigger boost from a Devil’s Star, for example. The game has an info bank of everyone and everything that sticks its nose into the game so it would have been nice to see this detail inform gameplay a touch more.
Is it fun, though? Yes, absolutely. If you know the characters and can revel in the ludicrous and frequent 100+ hit combos then Project X Zone is, in short bursts, an entertaining enough ride, propelling itself forward with such red faced, boisterous enthusiasm that it occasionally makes up for its lacking strategy chops simply on bluster alone. It’s a long ride too, puling into the station somewhere around 40 hours after departure. For some the whole journey might start to wear thin in half that time mind, the service isn’t exactly an Orient Express, but if you know the characters then you’re sure to stick it out and enjoy the whole journey.
In fact yeah. I’ve talked mechanical shortcoming for long enough when the real joy of Project X Zone lies in its love of the represented franchises. Seeing Ryu pull of a Focus Dash Canel into Metsu Hadouken was a squee inducing displayed of detailed franchise reference that only made the game appeal even more to my squishy, Street Fighter ruled monkey brain and the game is full of that sort of meta referencing. Project X Zone loves games so much it’s just a huge shame that it’s not a very good one itself!
Anyway, fan love. In order to find out if you’ll like Project X Zone I present to you ‘The Rice Digital Project X Zone Self Service Review Quiz’. Unorthodox, perhaps, but by simply answering the following quiz you’ll instantly find out whether Project X Zone is for you. As such, let’s get to the questions…
The Rice Digital Project X Zone Self Service Review Quiz
1) Do you like watching and re-watching ludicrously long combos (aka: Do you enjoy watching Marvel vs Capcom 3).
– If you answered no, you may have trouble enjoying Project X Zone.
– If you answered yes, continue with this quiz and do check out Justin Wong and Flocker’s match from Evo 2013 if you missed it, it was truly compelling.
2) If someone was to say to Resident Evil’s Jill ‘master of unlocking’ Valentine, “You were almost a…”, how would you expect this phrase to finish?
– If you answered ‘I dunno’, then you will likely struggle to keep up with Project X Zone’s razor sharp wit.
– If you answered ‘Silent Hill Character’ then you are wrong and may be a Konami fan. There are no Konami characters in Project X Zone. You may struggle to enjoy Project X Zone.
– If you answered ‘Jill Sandwich’ then you are correct. If you groaned at this slice of mis-translation history then you will struggle to enjoy Project X Zone. If you found the utterance of this line highly amusing, and are currently trying to piece together what remains of your hideously split sides, then you will enjoy Project X Zone’s humour.
3) Please take a look at the picture below and try to name as many characters as possible.
– If you failed to name at least 12 characters then you may struggle to enjoy Project X Zone.
– If you managed to name at least 12 characters then you will probably enjoy Project X Zone.
– If you managed to name at least 25 characters then you will definitely enjoy Project X Zone
– If you managed to name every character then you’ll probably love Project X Zone, finding enough amusement in its swagger to detract from its shortcomings.
– If you managed to name every character, and actually know about the game that they’re from, then you will blummin’ love Project X Zone and I’m not even sure why you need to read a review, purchase it and revel in its lunacy.
I hope that helped. See you next review! Oh and also could Monolith use their incredible Sprite talent to make me a fighting game. Lovely.
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