Have I mentioned that I love Crossovers? (Project X Zone thoughts)

     Hey there friends, I have to begin this post with a bit of a quandary. Would you believe me if I told you that there was a game/series of games that brought together legendary video game characters such as Zero from Megaman X, Chris Redfield from Resident Evil, Phoenix Wright from the Ace Attorney series, and Ulala from Space Channel 5? Sure, three of those four characters are in Ultimate Marvel Vs. Capcom 3, but Ulala? Surely I must be crazy! Even crazier, however, what if I told you that these weren't just your average fighting games, but instead were Strategy RPGs mixed with some fighting game moves? All of these things put together make up the Project X Zone series, based on the mechanics of a Japanese game called Namco X Capcom. That game never came to the west for whatever reason, but these games were both released in the U.S., and they are quite possibly some of the coolest crossovers to ever come from video games. Smash Bros is still above them, but they make for worthy competition for sure! I won't go super in depth with these games, but I just have to talk about them for a little while this week since I'm currently playing through Project X Zone 2. Buckle your seatbelts, folks, because this is a weird one!

Crisis from Infinite Properties

    Remember in Super Smash Bros Brawl when they had the mode, "The Subspace Emissary" where the heroes of Nintendo were forced to interact and team up to defeat a massive threat? That storyline is something similar to this series. The plot of both Project X Zone (pronounced as "Project Cross Zone") games is as follows: Portals open up between different realities, bad guys come, heroes come to help stop the bad people from destroying the multiverse. In the second game, there are also gold chains that come from the sky, but other than that, it's a similar premise. The plot doesn't matter nearly as much as the fan service that comes from Chun Li from Street Fighter meeting up with Axel Stone from Streets of Rage and saying "Oh, yeah! He's an undercover cop who teamed up with Interpol a few years back!" The shared universe that this series implies makes me wish that more companies were willing to be weird with their titles. This is a very Japanese inspired game, which I assume is why Namco X Capcom didn't get localized, because they assumed it wouldn't sell well, but I'm glad that they're more confident with their international releases now from the look of things. I think the current Anime-loving culture doesn't hurt that, and I'm hoping that we'll see another game of this scale again sometime soon.

How does it work?

    Like I said, this game is a Strategy RPG in the vein of Final Fantasy Tactics, with the grid being laid out diagonally with the different sprites being laid on top of a 3D battlefield, much like how the recent release Triangle Strategy looks. Once your characters actually get into a battle, however, it gets very different from any other game of this type. Each unit is actually made up of two characters, and they could be joined by a solo character as well. Entering the battle, the characters are shown on what appears to be a fighting game stage, and you have to press a different combination of buttons to attack the enemies, with a maximum of three you can use. If the solo unit attacks at the same time as your normal characters, it activates a "Cross Strike" which holds the enemy in the air and makes your characters earn even more XP than they would have with a normal attack, as well as making the enemy take more damage. The XP is used for either a super attack that can be pulled off by pressing the Y button when in a battle, and that uses 100 pts, but you could also use it for Full Defend against a strong enemy during their turn. What's that? This system is really confusing? You're absolutely right, but it's much easier than it sounds. So far in my history with these games, I've been pretty successful, and I have a long history of being terrible with games of this type. I tried really hard with Fire Emblem Awakening, but I was never able to beat that one. Project X Zone 1 and 2 are really pretty enjoyable, in contrast. The concept of a crossover between Bandai Namco, Capcom, Sega, and MonolithSoft (with some additions from Nintendo maybe) is fantastic, and I love that they executed it in a way besides another common fighting game. They really made something that allows the different characters to interact in more meaningful ways than just a few lines exchanged at the beginning of a battle, but there is a full world of connected events with all of the characters aware of the different timelines and dimensions.

    Since I still haven't actually beaten it, I think it's best for me to not make a huge overstatement about how these games deserve to be remembered along with the greats. I'm certainly enjoying the second one so far, but it's a weird time that certainly will not be enjoyed the same by everyone. I'm a huge sucker for a good crossover of almost any kind, and one on this scale with so many different properties and brands represented is right up my alley, even though this king of game usually isn't really my cup of tea. As with all good crossovers, the interactions between all of these different characters are the real joy of playing this game. A lot of these characters are really deep cuts from these different companies such as Captain Commando, a character from an old Capcom arcade cabinet. It's really cool to learn about the different characters from the "Crosspedia" of the game, especially since a lot of these characters are living in different circumstances from the ones in their individual games after the plot of the original Project X Zone. Suffice it to say that I'm liking this game a lot, and I think many who like Turn-based Strategy RPGs would like it as well, especially Fire Emblem fans, as there may or may not be some element of Fire Emblem crossover goodness!

    Thanks so much for reading this post, friends! I hope you enjoyed this quick look into this really strange crossover of a game, and hopefully you were able to get a small taste of how bizarre the whole experience is. I certainly never thought I'd see Heihachi from Tekken teaming up with Dante and Vergil from Devil May Cry, but here we are! Can you think of any other major crossover games like this? I would love to try them out if you have any ideas, so let me know in the comments! Until next time, I've been Jonathan, your Self-Proclaimed Crossover Fan, and I'll talk to you all soon!