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The Lowdown
Pros: Over 200 characters from a bunch of different games in flashy battle
sequences.
Cons: Not enough substance to make this a strategy RPG and too much moving
around to make it an action game.
 Purchase
at Play-Asia
 Purchase
at Lik-Sang
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The Namco X Capcom (read as Namco cross Capcom according to the katakana)
was a surprise announcement from Monolith Soft. We've seen crossover
games with Capcom characters before. Marvel vs. Capcom and SNK vs.
Capcom were both fighting titles. Supposedly the next rumored project
with Capcom was Sammy versus Capcom that never came to be. Instead the
team that brought you Xenosaga and Baten Kaitos took on the challenge of
the largest crossover game in video game history, Namco X Capcom. The
game is really different from the Capcom versus series, first of all
it's designed as a strategy RPG and it has packed inside it hundreds of
different characters.Yes, you read that right hundreds of characters
from tons of games. On the Namco side you can play as characters from
the Tales series, the furry Klona, and even Druaga from the lesser known
dungeon crawling series. Soul Calibur stars Mitsurugi and Taki are
around with Tekken fighters like Jin too. Since it is a monolith game
you shouldn't be surprised that KOS-MOS, Momo and Shion from Xenosaga are
playable too. On the Capcom side you have Chun Li, Ryu and Ken from
Street Fighter 2. Darkstalkers fighters like Morrigan and Felicia can be
played. Plenty of old school characters like Arthur from Ghouls and
Ghosts plus some of the Rival Schools line up is around. The Namco
roster has a lot more of their "popular" or better put well known
characters, with the exception of Pac-Man. Namco's line up is top notch,
but Capcom's line
up may disappoint some fans out there. You're not going to control Leon
Kennedy from Resident Evil 4, Viewtiful Joe or
the ever popular Dante from Devil May Cry. Instead Capcom gives off some
of its "lesser" characters like the star from Resident Evil Dead Aim
and Regina from the Dino Crisis games. Even Rockman (aka Megaman)
doesn't appear in the more popular X or EXE forms. Instead he's the
Rockman from Rockman Dash (Mega Man Legends in the US). Can you wish for more? Always.
What is cool is how Monolith Soft pulled together the settings of
thirty plus titles into one over arching story. Beginning in the year
20XX, new heroes Reiji and Shagamu get a sudden attack by the alien
force known as the Gnosis. Now in the world of Xenosaga seeing the
ghastly aliens is an everyday occurrence, but in the middle of Japan
it's a bit unusual. Luckily Shion, KOS-MOS and Momo from Xenosaga
teleport in to assist the duo. During the battle another surprise pops
up, Cammy and the Shadowloo from Street Fighter 2 fame. A new enemy
appears with a new heroine, Chun-Li. These cross appearances are
happening all over the place. Klona appears just in time to save the day
when a bunch of slimes are overwhelming characters from the Tales
series. Tronne Bonne from Mega Man Legends pops in to assist Mitsurugi
as he's about to claim Soul Edge. What is causing all of these
appearances? In between cutscenes we can see legendary villains like the
Red Reamer at work. They're gathering together and somehow have gained
the power to move between the real world in 20XX and the fantasy game
worlds.
The story is what pushes along the assigned battles. Combat takes
place on a 3D isometric field like most other strategy RPGs. Also like
other strategy RPG games you're given a set of AP (action points) that
you can use to move around the field, attack or cast spells. Each
character starts out with ten points, but you can end your turn at
anytime. It's actually to the players benefit not to use all ten points.
The game allows you to attack at anytime when you have 10 AP stored up,
so by just attacking you'll conserve more AP than if you walked around
then attacked. This means your AP would recover faster and you'll be
able to attack more times in a row.
Outside of these simple rules is where the game deviates from the
strategy RPG genre. Attacking requires players to be alert and execute
commands by pressing circle and a directional button. Pressing circle
alone will do one attack and pressing circle plus up might launch an
enemy into the air. The goal of this system is to maximize the number of
hits you can land on an opponent in a row. Sort of a throwback to Capcom
fighting games you can do aerial raves and custom combos, if you get the
timing right. Your moves are limited to how many "branch points" you
have. Each branch point allows you to pull off one attack, which
encourages players to carefully design their combos. As a final incentive
there are certain combos that you can do to recover HP or super charge
your super attack. The super attack meter charges with each blow dealt
and each hit received. Once it's full you can press triangle to unleash
your character's ultimate attack.
There is another attack, that is actually more powerful that the
super moves, its a "crossover combo". These visual treats happen when
you have a group of characters, normally from the same game, gang up
against an enemy. For instance if you align Shion, Momo and KOS-MOS
together you could bring up a devastating attack, that is really cool to
watch. When you're not on the offense there is an interactive defense
system to mess around with. By selecting manual defend players will need
to press a directional button at the right time to block attacks. Doing
this will relieve some damage, but more importantly boost AP levels so
your turn will come up faster. Honestly the defense system is poorly
implemented. It's usually not worth the hassle of watching the on screen
animations for a little bit of HP loss. Most players will probably
select "no defense" just to push the battles on faster.
That's pretty much the bulk of the gameplay in Namco X Capcom for all
fifty levels. No complex tactics are necessary to win a battle. No hours
leveling characters up. Most of the times characters make appearances
and disappear for a long time. Plenty of strategy RPG fans are going to
dislike the lack of depth to the system. It is more simplistic than the
bulk of strategy RPGs out there and probably more repetitive. Even
though you control different characters and see new attacks, you're
essentially doing the same motions over and over. It's not a hardcore
strategy RPG. It's more like an arcade strategy RPG.
Presentation wise Monolith Soft's design is solid. Hands down bringing so many
game worlds in one title is already an amazing job. Each of the
characters have a 2D sprite, albeit pixilated, for battles. For story
sequences you have static detailed sprites that look nice even though if
they aren't technologically advanced. Yes in some ways, many ways Namco
X Capcom looks like a PS1 game. It's not the graphics that make the game
amazing, it's the sound. Each character has a voiceover. This means way
over 200 different voices are featured in the game. Monolith Soft also
went all the way on the soundtrack, pulling themes from each game plus
new ones. When you're controlling Mitsurugi his theme pops up, when it's
Strider's turn the music switches to an orchestrated Strider theme.
There is a catch to this, each time the music changes there is a bit of
loading time to endure. Putting up with a few seconds of loading doesn't
seem like much, but even after a few battles it's bothersome.
Fans of the two companies will really get a kick out of Namco X
Capcom. The more you know about the broad history of games from Namco
and Capcom the more you'll get out of the title. Even though you spend
most of the time with the game on the battlefield that isn't what draws
players coming back for more. Most of the enjoyment really does come
from seeing favorite characters. You always wonder who will make an
appearance next. Just because of this Namco X Capcom is a fan boy or
fan girl's dream title.
The story is extremely difficult to progress through, being kanji
heavy and such. Another problem that importers need to tackle is that
the gameplay is menus driven. On the other hand action / battle scenes are
completely playable. Importers who can't understand Japanese will still
enjoy the battles.
US Bound?
Perhaps the difficulty in localizing the title is what is going to
leave it in Japan. There are plenty of characters that US gamers are
bound to be unfamiliar with, a bunch of text to translate and over 200
different voices need to be recorded. At E3 Namco's booth staff hardly
knew about the title. If this is any sign it appears that only importers
and Japanese locals will get to play Namco X Capcom.
Overall
Namco X Capcom is a video game fan's dream. A bunch of characters from
tons of games in one over arching story battling each other is pretty
cool. However, repetitive battles, loading times and poorly paced
gameplay limit the title's appeal.
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