This review will only cover the demo, and everything presented in it. The demo requires 962 blocks, and gives you 5 tries at most. The full game will be coming on June 25th, so hopefully this can help you decide whether to get the game or not.
For players of the Super Robot Wars series and the like (perhaps Namco × Capcom is a closer comparison), the gameplay should be very familiar. Your characters are placed in a grid-like environment, which is invisible until you put the focus on a character. You move them around like chess pieces, place them right next or "near enough" an enemy and you can perform an attack.
The graphics is a combined 2D for the character units and 3D environment. It somehow resembles the graphics of Breath of Fire III, if you've played that game. It's also possible to slightly rotate the camera angle and zoom-in and out of the units.
On the battle screen, you can perform a series of attacks by mixing different moves, which are simply in the form of tapping A, or A with directional buttons. Timing could be useful, but not so important. All the battles are in 2D, with a lot of visual effects and camera effects going on which makes the fight feel so dynamic.
For every attack you make, you build up XP (Cross Point). This is where all the fun gets in. Once you reach at least 100% XP (max is 150), you can perform a special move with both of your characters. Once you've used up a move, you cannot use it again, except for certain circumstances where you get one last shot.
You are not limited to attacking. Once the enemy takes their turn and attack, you can get to counter-attack, defend, or full defend. There's also an option to do nothing, because taking an action takes some XP away from you. How you use them is part of the strategy.
Each unit on the screen usually comes out as partners. Ryu for example is only visible as himself on the main screen, but actually comes out as Ryu, and Ken. For this reason, each unit is called a "pair unit". There are instances however, like in the case of Ryu and Ken where there's a third character, a solo unit (Devilotte) who can be used once in every battle
Placing your unit adjacent to another unit will get you a support attack. So having a pair unit, a single unit, and two more support characters just put the screen into mayhem, plus you deal extra damage to your enemy.
You can only choose to move one character at a time. This is unlike the SRW games where you can select any character you want at any given time during your turn. However, unlike SRW games and Namco × Capcom, you can move your units freely within their range with the circle pad.
A level is finished once the objective is met. In the case of the demo, that is killing the boss or all the enemies on the screen. The demo level took around 30 minutes to finish.
One of the things that makes a game like this so exciting are the voice acting. SRW was a great game to us, but the DS versions didn't have any voice acting. The graphics was good, but it was a complete turn off to us. Project X Zone is best played in full volume! Did we mention that each unit get their own individual music played?
The game is also better played in 3D. Unlike some games where you'd prefer turning the slider off, this game is best played in 3D! The depth that the 3D adds just adds to the immersiveness already given by the game.
Finally, the game being a "strategy or tactical RPG", there are of course RPG elements in the game. Your life gauge is represented as HP, and each unit can use individual skills such as healing spells and items. The game also has a leveling up system, which can boost your unit's attack, defense, technique and speed parameters. Leveling can be achieved by acquiring more experience points (EXP), just like in a typical RPG.
And what would an RPG be like without an interesting plot and character conversation? During the duration of the entire level, you'll see the characters talk to each other, both in text and audio. Unfortunately, the demo doesn't discuss much about the plot, so we'll save that for the full version. Just rest assured, there is one.
The demo only showcased one level but it was completely satisfying. I must have played like six times, the same level over and over again. That also means not quitting the game for each try, as it reduces your demo credits.
We hope you enjoyed this demo review! Please let us know how this helped you decide to get the game (or not). Would this be a day one purchase for you?
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