Back when the first Project X Zone came out, I was really looking forward to it. Having been a fan of Super Robot Taisen OG Saga Endless Frontier, I'd already gotten a taste of the juggling combat and the story was fun, so the prospect of a new game in that vein with the added bonus of a cavalcade of popular video game characters was quite enticing. Unfortunately, the original X Zone only delivered on half of this. The combat I knew and loved was there with some interesting tweaks. However, the story, that was a mess. When there are a lot of cameos in a game, movie, or whatever, the narrative can get really bogged down introducing everyone impacting the pace and diluting the story as a whole. A sizable chunk of the first X Zone felt like some drawn out version of the fight scenes from the Anchorman movies. Hours were spent introducing one character after the next with the story not going anywhere and after a time the whole thing got boring. Thankfully, with Project X Zone 2 this has been remedied since we have a lot of the same characters, so they already know each other, saving us a lot of time, and new characters are introduced a lot more quickly, as the developers seem to have learned their lesson from the last game.
With this game, the writers made a point of centering the plot more around one person, in this case Ryo from the Shenmue games. M. Bison and Saya are up to no good and part of their plan involves steeling a family heirloom from Ryo, so a short ways into the game he meets up with Chun Li and Xiaoyu who agree to help him out and before long he's joined the full group led by Reiji and Xiaomu as they muster a bigger and bigger force to deal with both the forces of Shadaloo and Ouma (not to mention any random evildoers they come across). Keeping the plot on track like this is much better than the first game and it's nice not having to spend so much time being introduced to all of the characters. That being said, story is still the weakest part of the game. It's not going to turn any heads, and it's only been elevated from paper thin to something on par with corrugated cardboard, but at least this time it manages to be entertaining. It should be said that this is a standalone story, so people who haven't played the first game can hope right in and won't feel lost here.
While the story itself is only so-so, one of the fun things to do is watching how the characters interact with one another. Since your little army is divided into smaller groups where you'll have a frontline assault force with a support unit attached for help, these people get along differently depending on who is matched with who. The things someone like Ryo will say while paired with Chun Li and Xiaoyu will be quite different than if you stick him with Morrigan and Demitri. Then there's Segata Sanshiro, who is fun to try matching with just about anyone.
Combat-wise, at this point I think one needs to be a fan of this type of battle system to enjoy it. If you've tried the previous game before or possibly OG Saga and didn't care for the combat, this game isn't suddenly going to change your mind. There are some minor changes to the combat here, but it's still all about the tactical elements as one places units on the map, then hopping into battles where the goal is to keep enemies airborne as much as possible, ideally only executing new attacks at the last possible moment in order to trigger critical hits. Doing this while calling in support units that trigger Cross Attacks where both groups are pummeling an enemy simultaneously is very satisfying. I'm a sucker for watching numbers flying by on-screen as a battle ensues with stuff flashing and fancy little animated scenes, so, for me, these battles are great.
I've never been terribly enamored with the aesthetic of these games, though. They have a very functional approach with simplistic maps and character designs while slapping up some anime-styled character art when people are talking. It gets the job done but isn't anything special. However, there's something about the use of music in this game that really tugs at my heart strings. Whenever a unit is selected a theme from the game that the people are from plays and this really cranks up the nostalgia. On more than a few occasions I was really tempted to stop what I was doing so that I could fire up something like Streets of Rage or Strider because music from those games started to play.
At this point, Project X Zone 2 is what it is. The combat is interesting, but you'll need to have a taste for it. If you weren't fond of the combat in the first game, you won't enjoy it any more in this one. However, if you are craving a JRPG with a different sort of battle system, then this is one to consider. Now that the story is borderline tolerable, X Zone 2 makes for an enjoyable experience with a fun mix of popular game characters from a bunch of different series, this time managing not to get bogged down by introductions.
