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Project X-Zone is a new action strategy RPG for the 3DS.  It’s actually pronounced Project “Cross” Zone, though.  Anyway, the gameplay isn’t too much to write about, but the strength of this title comes from all the crossover characters from three different gaming companies working together to fight evil.  Favorite characters from Namco Bandai, Capcom, and SEGA are featured in this game, so my next three big blogs are going to focus on the characters in Project X-Zone from each respective company.  Since Namco Bandai published the game, we’ll take a look at their characters first.

Project X-Zone is actually a sequel to a Japan only PS2 game called Namco X Capcom.  It never came to the US, so I’m actually a little surprised the 3DS sequel did.  When Namco X Capcom was new, I REALLY wanted to play it and hoped it would come out in the US.  But after I played a friend’s import copy, I can understand why it didn’t.  While it is pretty awesome at first to see all your favorite characters in one game, the charm wore off once the repetitive gameplay set in.  I kind of liked the character roster in Namco X Capcom better, though, because it featured more ‘cute’ characters like Klonoa and more classic game ones like Dig Dug, Bravoman, Wonder Momo, and more!  Namco X Capcom also had really great music (so does X-Zone, too), and the Namco X Capcom animated intro is one of my favorite video game intros of all time.  You can check it out here:

Team Pairs

Anyway, in Project X-Zone, some units consist of two characters acting as a team.  So we’ll look at the pairs first.

Yuri & Estelle (Tales of Vesperia)

In Namco X Capcom, the Tales heroes represented were from Tales of Destiny, the second game in the series.  For this one, they went with a more modern one, Vesperia for 360.  Yuri is the main character and has long purple hair.  Only cool thing about Estelle is that she has pink hair.  No love for my favorite Tales game: Tales of Legendia.  It’s considered the black sheep of the series, but it’s my favorite one, mainly for the music, which was done by my favorite video game music composer: Go Shiina.

Jin Kazama & Ling Xiaoyu (Tekken)

I don’t know as much about Tekken characters.  I think Jin is the main character and Ling is a Chinese girl fighter.  I don’t really have a favorite Tekken character.  The bear and kangaroo are neat, and human characters like Asuka and Julia are also cool, but that’s all I know.  Maybe one of you can pick out a favorite for me.

Kite & BlackRose (.hack)

Yeah I don’t really know much about .hack at all.  I know that’s from the Bandai side of Namco’s merger.  I tried to review a PS2 .hack game a long time ago, but that was a mistake because I had no idea what was going on.  I don’t know if it would’ve mattered anyway, because when the .hack franchise was introduced to the US, they showed the .hack anime and I watched the first episode of it and still had no idea what was going on.

KOS-MOS & T-elos (Xenosaga)

Never played a Xenosaga game.  Mainly because its spiritual predecessor, Xenogears, was one of the most boring and depressing games I’ve ever played.  I guess KOS-MOS is kind of cool because she’s a robot lady with blue hair.  When I played Namco X Capcom at a friend’s house a long time ago, we were kind of mean to KOS-MOS because we’d never let her fight.  We’d just send her over in a corner somewhere!  I don’t know who T-elos is; maybe she’s an evil KOS-MOS?

Soma & Alisa (Gods Eater Burst)

A good friend of mine did a bunch of cool reviews and impressions on this game.  I hear Gods Eater Burst is Namco’s answer to Capcom’s Monster Hunter.  I’d like to try it so I can see what all the fuss is about, plus I hear Go Shiina did the music.

Haken Browning & Kaguya Nanbu (Endless Frontier)

Now I have never even HEARD of a game called “Endless Frontier!”  Haken Browning looks like a regular anime dude, but Kaguya Nanbu is a slightly fanservice-y, very pretty lady.  Kind of silly, too, so I like her.

Reiji & Xiaomu (Namco X Capcom)

The main characters of Namco X Capcom was a guy with half black and half white hair, and a lady with weird blonde hair and a ninja girl outfit.  Both used guns and swords.  The game says they’re originally from Namco X Capcom, but I swear I’ve seen them in some of the Super Robot Wars games, of which Namco X Capcom is kind of a spinoff of (they both play similarly).  I just figured that they put them in Namco X Capcom as kind of a homage to the Super Robot Wars games, but maybe I’m wrong.

Single Team Characters

There are some characters who fight solo, but you equip them to a team pair for a quick attack burst if you have enough points to use them.  So here are the Namco Bandai ones.

Flynn Scifo (Tales of Vesperia)

Man I don’t even remember this guy from Vesperia.  But then, the characters in that game were not as memorable to me.  I know there was a kid that carried around a big man-purse, a girl who wore goggles, and a pretty lady with blue hair (I think her name was Judith).  And that’s all I remember about that game!

Alisa Bosconovich (Tekken)

Oh I forgot about her!  She’s a pink haired robot lady, so she’s kind of cool, too.  Except in the ‘adventure mode’ of Tekken 6, she’s one of the last bosses and I could never defeat her.  And I worked so hard to unlock outfits for her and Asuka to wear and look like tacky tourists, too!

Heiachi (Tekken)

He’s an old guy who looks like Dr.Wily after eating a can of spinach.  Except in this game he’s younger.  They explain why in the story, but I won’t spoil it for anyone here.

Sanger (Super Robot Wars)

I’ve never played a Super Robot Wars game, so I don’t know who this is.  I do know that this game, Namco X Capcom, and Super Robot Wars are made by the same people, and they play very similarly, too.  Some Super Robot Wars games even use licensed characters from anime TV shows and movies.  We got one of the Super Robot Wars games in the US on the GBA, but it was one that didn’t have any licenses.

Lindow (Gods Eater Burst)

Yeah I don’t know who this is either since I’ve never played Gods Eater Burst.

Valkyrie

Yay!  One of my favorites.  Valkyrie is from an old Namco Famicom game, and later a really fun arcade sequel called Legend of Valkyrie.  It was like a cross between Legend of Zelda and Ikari Warriors, and you could play it on Namco Museum vol. 5.  Valkyrie wears a cool helmet with wings and she’s also really pretty.  And I like her theme song.  Valkyrie has appeared in lots of other games, too.  Some examples include many of the Tales RPGs, and Cassandra can dress as Valkyrie in one of her alternate outfits in Soul Calibur games.

Saya (Namco X Capcom)

She was the bad guy in Namco X Capcom, but I guess at some point here she can work with the good guys.  She tries to dress all fanservice-y, but she ends up looking ridiculous.  I have to wonder if these characters look in the mirror after getting dressed in the morning.

Naneko (Yumeria)

I don’t know much about this character except that she’s a little girl from a weird Japanese RPG.  I think.

Conclusions

And that’s all the characters you can play as.  Many of the game’s enemies are from the three publishers as well, but I didn’t recognize too much from the Namco Bandai side.  So we’ll look at more enemies when I do my Capcom and SEGA blogs.  I haven’t played Project X-Zone enough to write a full review of it yet, but I will say it plays almost exactly like Namco X Capcom.  And it may be a good strategy RPGs for beginners because they walk you through the basics in the first few chapters of the game, and it doesn’t seem so hard after that.  But that’s OK; beginners deserve good games, too!

In the comments section, let me know which Namco Bandai characters in Project X-Zone are your favorites.  And which Namco Bandai characters would you have liked to have seen in the game?  Can you guess my favorites?  Let me know in the comments section.  Next time, we’ll look at the Capcom characters in Project X-Zone.  Later!  --Cary