Project X Zone 2 therefore takes almost identically the pattern of its predecessor. A few years after the events recounted in the latter, Shinra is again facing a crisis situation. The Ouma criminal organization is still trying to turn space-time upside down, with the help of M. Bison's Shadaloo syndicate. Worlds and eras collide. We are not going to insult you by explaining the scenario of the game more precisely: it is such a mess that we quickly put it aside. Even the developers seem to have fun with it during certain passages. All this is, as in the first, just a pretext to line up the heroes from prestigious Capcom, SEGA, Monolith or Bandai Namco licenses on one side and their famous antagonists on the other. As the missions progress, your team will therefore be enriched by names as prestigious as Jin Kazama and his father Kazuya Mishima from Tekken, Zero and X from Mega Man, Dante and Vergil from Devil May Cry or even Axel from Streets of Rage and Chun-Li from Street Fighter. Newcomers like Ryo from Shenmue are also appearing. All this little world is divided into teams of two, some solo characters can be freely assigned to this or that duo as the third thief.
BLA BLA BLA
The mainspring of the game therefore revolves around this obvious fan-service. Characters who have nothing to do in the same universe meet, generating rather comical sequences, which is more with the quality French translation. The latter even manages to correctly transcribe the valves and other gritty allusions as well as double-meaning sentences. Apart from a few details, the job was done and well done, and we also benefit from the Japanese voices. On the other hand, we were not far from needing as much blabla, especially given the thickness of the scenario. The dialogue sequences, before and after each mission, are terribly long and frankly uninteresting. The protagonists keep asking themselves the same questions 500 times – "But what is Ouma trying to do? But what are these mysterious gold chains that appear in the different dimensions for?" – before finally deciding to fuck himself on the face. We must admit that it hits the system at the same time as it breaks the rhythm of an adventure already lacking in binder. So yes, the game is long, but you should know that these annoying dialogues make up a good part of its lifespan.
TACTICAL SOFT
On the gameplay side, again, this second opus does not innovate the masses. We are still faced with a tactical-RPG whose tactical dimension is not really essential. The characters do not die (at least never permanently), the use of healing objects or skills does not cost an action turn and the movement zones are particularly permissive. It's essentially about distributing your characters intelligently: in the event of a fight, a nearby team can lend you a hand; in addition, your heroes do more damage when attacking an enemy from the flank or from behind. The game areas being relatively large and very unrestrictive, the heroes being numerous, all this remains quite easily manageable. On the other hand, the equipment and personalization of your small army remains secondary and rather poorly done. Most of the challenge lies elsewhere. It lies once again in the timing of your three attacks at the time of combat resolution, attacks that you will have to combine ideally with those of your allies and that you will have to launch with precision so as not to let the target touch the ground. .
If you're used to the genre, or just after a few hours of play, you should find the difficulty level more than accessible.
But the challenge also and above all lies in the use you will make of your PXs and your PCs. The first are cumulative by chaining the combos. They allow the choice of swinging a special attack or partially defending, or even completely canceling the damage of an opposing attack. As for the CPs, they are spent by using skills or by launching a counter-attack following an enemy offensive. It is therefore necessary to consider one or even two moves in advance so as not to be foolishly oats and quickly get rid of several units. If you're used to the genre, or just after a few hours of play, you should find the difficulty level more than accessible. There are many heroes. Attacks from enemy minions are not dangerous, and systematically countering is a more than profitable strategy, especially since skills are a bit superfluous. It is then enough to keep enough PX each time to cancel the blows of the most dangerous characters to pass quietly through the cracks.
