Project X Zone 2 is a story-heavy, combat-driven mobile experience, but differentiates itself with over a dozen characters from many famous franchises. While there are plenty of isometric strategy RPGs out there, Project X Zone 2 delivers with solid gameplay, witty dialogue and an intriguing story. Although having a slow start, Project X Zone 2 turned out to be everything I wanted it to be from a handheld experience. Combat is fluid, albeit same-y, while the characters and story arcs are sure to please fans of the series.
Let me be completely honest: this is my first foray into the world of Project X Zone. So while I didn’t play the first entry in the series, this review will be through the lens of a player jumping into this game with no prior knowledge. What I appreciated the most about the game was how easily I could identify certain characters from the different series this game brings together. I knew who Chris and Jill were from Resident Evil, as well as Chrom and Lucina from Fire Emblem, and many more. What took me aback were the characters I could not place. With very little recognition as to where these characters originated from, I felt lost in some segments of the story.
But this never detracted from my enjoyment of the core game. Combat is gorgeous, as well as fluid. Players must use timing to strike their enemies to build up their combo and do more damage. While the gameplay was fun and frantic, I never really felt like I was weak against certain enemies. There were plenty of moments where I would cut through enemies as if they were paper, with very few encounters feeling challenging. The combat is a sort of pseudo-turned-based system that allows players to attack their enemies, but never really having a chance to defend themselves. There is an option to “counter” an enemy attack, but at the expense of losing a small amount of health. If there were a combat feature that allowed players to actively counter attacks in real time, I believe the combat would be that much more exciting. However, as a mobile experience, the combat is just fine.
The story portions of the game are hit and miss. There are plenty of times I appreciated the quirky dialogue and interactions between the characters, but there were equally an amount of times that I felt lost and confused with the story. Most of the time I felt that had most of the exposition been cut out in lieu of more combat gameplay, that would have made for a better overall experience.
