We weren’t fortunate enough to receive a review copy of Namco Bandai’s Project X Zone 2 this time around, but I thought that I’d share my impressions of the demo that was released. The demo wasn’t too long, but does give the player enough to get a feel of how the game handles and plays.
In the sequel to the original world crossing adventure, legendary characters from Japan’s most prolific video game publishers come together to create the biggest mashup strategy game ever! Developed by Monolith Software Inc., Project X Zone 2 gives gamers the opportunity to play as their favorite characters from a multitude of franchises and form teams of characters hailing from classic and current franchises and engage enemies through strategic turn-based battles.
The game features characters from YAKUZA: Dead Souls, the Sakura Wars series and Virtua Fighter series and more from SEGA, characters from Capcom’s franchises including the Resident Evil series, Devil May Cry series and Megaman X series, and characters from the TEKKEN series, Tales of Vesperia, and .hack// series from Bandai Namco.
The game plays very much like a strategy RPG, where you move your characters around a battle map. You will be able to move all of your characters on your turn, choosing to attack or wait before the enemy gets their turn. During each turn you will be able to see how far each character can move as well as where they can attack. You can also see the same of your enemies, which is very handy in deciding where to move. If you can’t reach the enemy in order to attack them, sometimes it can be better to move just outside their maximum reach. That way you’ll be closer but will have the advantage of attack.
Similarly, if you are attacked you will first have an option to expend points to either defend, counter, or nullify the attack entirely. You’ll usually only get to do this once or twice, so it can be good to pick and choose where you implement this. Accepting an attack from a weaker foe in order to counter a stronger can be a good strategy.
Between the layered and lengthy battles is a lot of dialogue. This is mostly talking heads and text, though there is some full dialogue pieces in there as well. The voice acting is all in Japanese. While they are mostly talking heads, there are multiple panels and expressions included so this doesn’t get boring or stale. As well depending on who is in the conversation there can be between two to four characters on the screen at once.
There is also a lot of personality and charm in the dialogue. The game is really well written.
Inside the actual one on one battles themselves there is actually something to do. The battles don’t just happen on their own and require some work from the player. You can choose from a couple of different attacks, which can also be upgraged and added to in between story sequences. You will then attack with your characters. There is a bit of strategy as well as you can extend your attack a bit. After you attack an enemy and they are about to hit the ground, if you initiate another quick attack you can extend the damage dealt to your foe. Time it right and you can sometimes knock out your opponent in just one battle phase.
We had looked forward to playing the full game, but didn’t get our hands on this one. The demo of Project X Zone 2 was great fun and should definitely be checked out. Both the demo and the full game are now available in the Nintendo eShop. If you complete the demo your save date can be exported into the full game. You can also complete the demo multiple times and garner a greater reward in the full game.
