So what I'm gonna do here is make a review on this game based on its genre, and not based on what people expected in the game, which I'll explain later.
Anyways, my reviews contains spoilers for PxZ and may have spoilers for Fire Emblem: Awakening since I'll be doing some comparisons with each other.
Story:
I think the story is not very well done in this game. You start off the game, only to be presented by a wall of text, and that is suppose to be the back story of this game. So yeah, do not take the story of this game so seriously. But to summarise the story, multiple worlds are clashing together, and our heroes must save the day.
Playable characters, as well as boss characters come from these different worlds. Some of these characters may have even met each other before due to them appearing together in other crossover games like Namco X Capcom (a game not released outside of Japan which Project X Zone is a sequel to) and the Capcom Versus Series. Players may find it rather confusing how certain characters knew each other already, which may be a bad thing. When I was playing this game, it wasn't surprising to me that most of the Capcom characters have known each other since many of them appeared and are playable in the Versus Series.
Also, due to the fact that the multiple worlds are clashing, entering certain areas might make characters go to a different place entirely, like how entering an office entrance makes characters enter a vampire's castle. It's rather confusing at first, on why characters are able to jump to different worlds so easily, and how these worlds are drastically different from the ones before it. This is all due to the worlds clashing and making the dimensional rifts unstable (this is all story by the way, not my personal explanation).
It also kinda bugs be on how most characters are recruited into your team. It can be summed up like this:
1.Enter a new place due to dimensional rift.
2.New character appears (either early or middle of chapter) and joins you for whatever reason.
3.Complete chapter, go to an area that the characters thought they are heading to.
4. Repeat Step 1-3
Another thing that disappointed me about the story was the scene after the final boss battle. You know, for a person who was such an ass who tried to fuse all the different worlds together, and causing other characters to kill each other, you would think that upon his defeat, the characters would just kill him, or he vanished from existence right?
NOPE!
He's just like 'I was wrong, I shouldn't fuse the worlds, since you don't want it.' And then just returns to his place. Not the ending that I expected.
Characters:
Since most of the characters in this game have already appeared their respective games, do not expect to see them getting more fleshed out, which is good, I think. Their personalities are already well established from their own games, so I think it's wise to just keep it that way.
The best part about this game are the interactions between the characters from different series. This can be seen if you pair certain units together, and they'll have their own unique Intro and Outro quote. It gave a really nice touch to the game.
Also, I'm pretty sure the characters are also the reason people got the game. Fans of Megaman X and Zero are really happy to see them in new game (a crossover game to boot, but not from Capcom, lol) and have wanted to play as them. Too bad they're the last characters to recruit, only obtained almost mid-game, but they're worth the wait.
It is also a plus if you know most of the characters here, since they occasionally make references to other games too.
One thing I really didn't like was after the chapter where you fought in the cruise ship for the second time (Chapter 33). Upon completing that chapter, the characters decided that the best thing to do while waiting for the cruise to land was to take a break (they're in a freaking cruise after all). So many of the characters did mention what they were gonna do on the cruise and who will be joining them doing said activity. It's rather sad that the conversations don't go any further than this as after these conversations ended, you end up seeing the menu for your unit settings, while the characters are enjoying their cruise and having boatloads of conversation while doing these activities in the cruise that could be awesome material for this game.
Oh, and you gotta love how Frank West takes a pic on every hot woman in this game. Really epic stuff.
Gameplay:
This game plays like any other SRPG, but with a combat element. Attacks inflicted on the opponent are done by pressing the 'A' button along with a directional button from the D-Pad or Circle Pad. It gives a little bit of flexibility into your game as certain attacks give certain effects to enemies. The main objective of the combat is to damage the opponent via a long and damaging juggle.
Timing is essential in combat as if attacks are timed properly, then all of the attacks will hit the opponent. Also, combos can be extended if the character is paired up with a Solo Unit (which can be called upon by pressing the 'L' button) and/or there is another paired unit standing adjacent to them (called upon by 'R' button).
Doing long combos rewards you with more XP, which can be used to perform supers, use skills, and defend against enemies. Also, time your attacks just before the opponent hits the ground and you can perform a critical hit with that attack, dealing not only more damage, but also giving your characters more experience after combat. This gives you the incentive to practice your combos with characters, and choosing the best pairing of Solo and Pair Units for team synergy.
Supers could also be done during combos when you have enough XP (100XP). Performing supers automatically ends the combos. Critical hits could also be done with supers, which deals even more damage, and finishing the opponent with a super gives you more experience, so it is recommended to do that too.
Another type of attack that characters can learn later in the game is called a multi-attack. It costs 100XP like supers, and could hit more than one opponent. Fighters like Jin/Xiaoyu, Akira/Pai, and Ryu/Ken have more damaging multi-attack that only hits two enemies, while others have weaker multi-attacks that hits 2-4 enemies. Also, the more enemies you kill with a multi-attack, the more experience you get.
What I like about their combat system is that the damage you deal to the opponent depends entirely on your skill, luck does not play a factor in the combat, which is something I really like when compared to Fire Emblem (where an enemy is able to land a critical hit on you despite having only a 3% chance of getting a critical hit). By finding the best pairings, you can perform some insanely damaging combos which will help you a lot.
Enemies int he map have different weight class and some have barriers that need to be broken before they can take a hit, so there is some planning into your combos depending on what opponent you're facing. Also, there are enemy boss units, which have significantly higher health and deals more damage.
EP is like XP, but for enemies. Managing them is quite overlooked by many people, but by managing them well, you can make later chapters easier by a lot. One great example that I can give (from my personal experience) was my battle with the final boss.
In the final chapter, you have to defeat the final boss while facing a number of sub-boss. Said sub-boss were bosses from earlier chapters (each with their own damaging attacks). The final boss has a very damaging attack that he could perform if he has 100 EP or more. The solution is to make sure before he has less than 100 EP before his turn begins, and you do that by attacking the sub-bosses instead, provoking the sub-boss to do their own 100 EP damaging moves (which aren't as damaging as the final boss' attack), so that the final boss does not have enough EP to do his near lethal attack.
Also, there is some variation in mission chapters, and that these objectives may change when reinforcement arrives. This is another thing I like about this game when compared to FE:A since the only objectives in the game are either Rout the Enemy, or Defeat Commander. Some chapters in PxZ have mission objectives like chasing down an enemy, and reaching a certain area before the time limit, adding some difficulty to the game.
The game's combat however, can get extremely repetitive. Seeing the same attacks over an over again, as well as the same cinematic super (both yours and the enemies) can get really tiring (you can skip the cinematic super by pressing B), which is why it is not recommended to play the game for so many hours straight (maybe that's why reviews of the game aren't out so soon too). In my personal opinion, playing 1 chapter a day from chapter 10 onwards should be ideal.
Another thing to note that in some chapters, characters will be separated from each other, encouraging you to change your pairings. It's a good thing and a bad thing, since it encourages some change in tactics and experimentation, but also frustrates players as those that have practiced their team's attack synergy will be annoyed to find out that they can't use that pairing for the next chapter.
PxZ is also, to many, considered quite tough. This is mostly due to enemy reinforcement appearing all of a sudden when certain requirements in the chapter is met, and most of the time it is never mentioned where the reinforcements will appear. Not to mention, some of enemies have a lot of health, with the sub-boss having around 10 times more health than you (and the final boss having 20 times more health than you).
Also, it can get really frustrating for the players especially when they got a game over in a chapter and didn't use the quick save feature to load themselves in a previous part of the same chapter. Items in general are also very scarce in the game, and if a player did not stock up on items prior to the last few chapters, they may have an extremely hard time trying to beat the game.
A personal opinion of mine regarding the game's difficulty is that while it does appears to be difficult, the game is actually quite balanced. The odds seem like they're against you in every chapter, and yet you are able to complete the chapter. And while some characters have better skills than others, they are not game breaking either. Also, like FE, every unit is important. While the game does not have permadeath and characters can be rescued when they get KO'ed, certain characters trigger a game over in certain chapters when they are KO'ed, so do not neglect anyone.
I would also like to note that the difficulty is not that tough in some chapters. Most of the time, if the title of the chapter does not appear during the mission, this means that not all the reinforcement has arrive (it's true 80% of the time). Also, if you see a chest located in an area with no enemies, or if you notice no enemies in a specific area of the map, expect them to arrive there. So, for the most parts, reinforcement to me was pretty predictable.
Oh, before I forget, the game's replay value comes in New Game Plus. The main story took me 60 hours to complete, and may take up to 70-80 hours for some. Combine that with NG+ and you have a really lengthy game.
Music:
I do like some of the music in the game. Most of those tracks that I like came from already existing games. But what I like about PxZ is that I do not know all the characters in this game and which game series they come from because some of the character's themes like the two themes from Resonance of Fate are extremely awesome, and the theme of .hack//link is really nice. Also, X's theme from Megaman X4 in this game was much more catchier than I remembered, too bad they didn't do Zero's Megaman X's theme justice in this game. But overall, the tracks are alright.
A minor nitpick I have is that most of the slow characters have themes I didn't like to listen to. And after their turn ended and all the enemies start moving, I have to listen to their not-so-nice theme.
The Fanservice:
Yeah, I had to put a section for fanservice. In my opinion, some of the sexualised fanservice is overdone. There are some unnecessary boob jiggles (especially in Pai and XiaoYu's super), and then there's KOS-MOS and T-ELOS' super, but other than that it's alright.
For the non-sexualised fanservice, there's some really cool moments. Like how Chris made a Jill Sandwich reference, Xiaomu making a Mario Kart reference, how Batsu perfectly described Ghost and Goblins (constant, meaningless, death), and how they reference Arthur's armour being able to take a hit, and Arthur saying 'let's double jump outta here'. These kinds of fanservice is really awesome, and if you played most of the games these characters appeared in, you'll notice a lot more.
Some of my favourites are how Ryu did a Shoryuken then FADC to his Metsu Hadouken, something that Ryu can do in Street Fighter IV, how you have to defeat Vile's Ride Armour, then proceed to defeat Vile like normal like in Megaman X, one of Zero's attack being the dash-cancel slash glitch that he could perform in X4-X6, X doing the Hadouken in his multi-attack, and also Iris appearing in the game, causing Zero to say 'What am I fighting for?'. That was freaking awesome!
Overall verdict and comparison with FE:A:
Project X Zone isn't a game for everyone as the game's target audience is actually quite specific. Unlike FE:A, this isn't a game aimed at casual gamers and/or newcomers. Does it mean this game is crap or garbage like some people say it is? No, it is just not their cup of tea.
Compared to FE:A, the game is not that easy to pick up and play, nor does it have the better presentation that FE:A has. But it does have an all-star cast of characters, and some depth in their combat (that is not luck dependent). While it doesn't have the replay value that FE has, it makes up for it with a very long story mode. Sure, it's story has faults (just like the 2nd half of FE:A), but like FE:A, it makes up for it by character interaction. It also has better music in FE in my opinion, and you can customise the tracks you wanna hear while battling in NG+.
Overall, a good game, but not a game for everyone.
7.5/10
The TL:DR version of my review:
Pros:
Fanservice (this game features several popular characters of known franchises altogether, and of course plenty of eye candy)
Combat is deeper than most people think
There is some tactical elements into the game, contrary to many people's belief
Cons:
Story is quite bad
Combat can get really repetitive
Game may be hard for some people (but then again, this IS also made by the creators of the Super Robot Wars series, which are somewhat hard)
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