E3 2015: Worlds Collide Once Again In ‘Project X Zone 2’

The original Project X Zone took us by surprise, becoming one of our favorite games of 2013. While Strategy RPG’s are usually the bane of my existence, PXZ‘s unique fighting game inspired battle system and its huge cast of characters from different Capcom, Sega and Namco Bandai worlds helped it leave a huge impression on me. After its sequel was announced and confirmed for a Western release a few months back, Project X Zone 2 promises a bigger cast from more of our favorite games, but after experiencing it at E3, we were relieved to find out that everything we loved about the game play of the first is still here.

Each party member in PXZ consists of a team of two, such as Ryu and Ken from Street Fighter, newcomers like Kazuma and Goro from Yakuza: Dead Souls, and even X and Zero from Mega Man X make their return, still serving as the closest we’ve got to a 3DS Mega  Man game. Seeing as the demo was in the early portions of the game, each team was restricted to three attacks per turn. Either a neutral attack, side attack or up attack triggered a different combo, acted out with some stylish, 2D sprite based animations. If you can link attacks against your opponents right before they touch the ground, your party delivers extra damage, rewarding you for your perfect timing. As you can probably tell, unlike most games in the genre, the battles are hardly passive.

With each attack delivered to and received by some of the biggest foes of each universe, (including Juri and Dural making their comebacks, with newcomers like Sigma on the front lines,) each unit builds their XP meter. This allows them to guard, become invulnerable for the turn, or counter attack, with the hopes of defeating the enemy during their own turn. By pulling off long string of combos and not overspending the meter, playing well will allow the meter to fill up passed 100%, which comes in handy when pulling off their ultimate attacks. As visually impressive as ever, it’s amazing watching so many iconic moves pulled off to do huge damage, especially when the old characters were given new moves to keep things fresh.

Overall, PXZ 2 is almost identical to the original, (which you can find out more about in our review,) but more of a good thing is never bad. Combining these updated teams and attacks with new support characters, (like Leon Kennedy from Resident Evil,) and it looks like we’ll have another addicting love letter to long time gaming fans.

Project X Zone 2 is set to launch this fall exclusively for the Nintendo 3DS.