Hands-on with Project X Zone, Namco Bandai's cross-franchise strategy RPG brawler

If there's one plot device that modern video game writers aren't shy about using, it's interdimensional rifts.

These phenomenon are blissfully nonexistent in the real world, but they've become the standard, physics-defying glue that holds the plot of many crossover games together.

Namco Bandai's upcoming western release of Project X Zone (prn. Project Cross Zone) is no exception to the interdimensonal rift trend, and uses it to explain why characters from Sega, Capcom, and Namco Bandai's most popular franchises are solving crimes together in the same world.

Project X Zone is one-half strategy RPG and one-half fan service detective story.

When the rift cracks open, 50 characters from 29 (yes, twenty nine) different franchises find themselves stuck working together. The main characters in this potpourri are split into "Pair Units", unchangeable duos that explore the world and fight together.

Pair Units have the majority of the dialog and shoulder the burden of advancing the game's somewhat nonsensical plot forward. All Pair Units come from a specific publisher's wheelhouse, but they may not come from the same game.

Ryu and Ken from Capcom's Street Fighter battle together as a Pair Unit, as do Valkyria Chronicles III's Kurt Irving and Riela Marceris.

But the most interesting of these Pair Units mix characters from different games. Street Fighter's Chun-Li and Darkstalker's Morrigan Aensland have some great dialog, as do Dead Rising's Frank West and Darkstalker's Hsien-Ko.

These Pair Units cannot be changed freely, however, so you're stuck with the pairings that X Zone gives you.

When grid-based battles begin, you can assign a Solo Unit to accompany your Pairs onto the field.

These Solo Units don't contribute much in the way of dialog, but act as assists and can deliver some pretty fun attacks (Mega Man X's Tron Bonne really shines here).

Pair Units fight well together using a 'Cross Active Battle System' that allows you to fire off combo attacks in a style more similar to an arcade fighter than a standard SRPG.

Unfortunately, despite all of this, the battles start to feel monotonous after awhile due to a noticeable (and literal) lack depth.

Toggling the 3D setting on the 3DS affects a minimal change on the presentation of the graphics, and the fixed camera perspective on the battles felt very boring after 15 minutes of playing.

Maybe this is because I was coming off of Fire Emblem: Awakening, which allows you to manually control the camera during battles, but everything in Project X Zone just felt disappointingly flat.

This might not be a problem to you if you never plan on using your system's 3D capabilities, but it seems like a wasted chance for Project X Zone to really stand out.

Ultimately, Project X Zone is a visually pleasing SRPG that will appeal to serious fans otaku-friendly games.

The strategy elements are a bit too light for hardcore SRPG fans to sink their teeth into, so you'll need a deep love for the characters to stay interested in X Zone for long.

Some might find the lack of an English voice track to be off-putting, but the subtitles may be sharp enough to keep you interested in the game even if the battle system itself isn't.