Before playing Project X Zone, I viewed cross over games simply as fan service to their existing audience. What I didn’t realize was their power to introduce series to new players.
Project X Zone is jammed packed with characters, a good chunk of which I only have passing knowledge of. But the few characters I was familiar with, like Chris and Jill from Resident Evil or KOS-MOS from Xenosaga, saw such minimal screen time that their presence felt unnecessary. The cast is maybe overly massive. Seeing only one or two lines every couple hours from the characters you know and love rarely sparked any joy within me.
For the other characters that I had little to no relation to, I found their little quips enjoyable for introducing me to their personalities and worlds. Project X Zone ended up becoming the equivalent of a video game franchise sampler for me. Being introduced to characters like Toma and Cyrille from Shining Force EXA as well as Soma and Alisa from God Eater made me much more interested in their series.
I’ve yet to follow up on any of these franchises, but those series are now much higher on my list of games to eventually play. It’s too bad Project X Zone’s battles drag on. A repetitive combat system and massive amount of enemies make each mission a chore to complete.
(Header Image Source: WallPaperDSC)
