Project X Zone 3: The Azure Eclipse

Project X Zone III: The Azure Eclipse (プロジェクト クロスゾーンIII：紺碧の日食 Purojekuto Kurosu Zōn San: Konpeki no Nisshoku), or simply Project X Zone 3 outside of Japan, is a strategy role-playing game developed by Monolith Soft and B.B. Studio, and later published by Bandai Namco Entertainment. In addition to being the third Project X Zone game, this is the first entry in the series to be released on the Nintendo Switch.

Even though this game continues the dream crossover between Capcom, Bandai Namco Entertainment and Sega, this game once again features guest characters from Nintendo's Fire Emblem series, as well as introducing characters from Activision's Crash Bandicoot franchise.

Announcement
A teaser trailer for Project X Zone 3 was first shown during the Nintendo Direct of February 2019. Right when the direct was wrapping up, television static interrupted the "signal" in short spurts before cutting it off completely. Once the static stopped, text describing the series fades in and out on a black screen. The logo for the first Project X Zone is shown in between the text, but golden chains snatch and destroy it as the sequel’s logo replaces it. Confirmation of the next sequel is suddenly proven by the following line of text.

"Worlds Will Cross Once More!"

The logo for Project X Zone 2 is shown again, but it starts to crack and shatter when a blue light illuminates the screen. Even though the trailer didn’t show off any gameplay, it did reveal a small handful of playable characters after the halation. These characters include the following: Once the trailer reached its conclusion, a city skyline is shown with a blue tint. It then switches to an image of two unknown women standing before a bright light in the sky. During E3 2019, these two women would later be revealed to be Glas Risket and Titania Gold, the main protagonists of the story. Before the Nintendo Direct ended, Japanese viewers were then revealed that the game will be getting an August 2019 release while the rest of the world would have to wait until early 2020.
 * Ryu and Ken Masters from Street Fighter
 * Mike Haggar from Final Fight
 * Viewtiful Joe and Wonder Momo
 * Akira Yuki and Jacky Bryant from Virtua Fighter
 * Sonic & Tails from Sonic the Hedgehog
 * Gilius Thunderhead from Golden Axe
 * Velvet Crowe, Eleanor Hume and Magilou from Tales of Berseria
 * Haken Browning and Aschen Brödel from Super Robot Wars

Main Plot/Opening Monologue
For every generation, a mysterious object blocks the sun. Usually lasting about a week, this causes a blue glow to illuminate the entire world. Scientists have stated that the moon is nowhere near the sun during these strange eclipses, but they could never identify the object blocking the sun itself.

This phenomenon is infamously known as the Azure Eclipse.

While the Azure Eclipse gained publicity over the years, tons of incidents occur in its more recent appearances. Reports tell about roaming angelic creatures of unknown origin when the blue light is present. That’s how the Azure Eclipse got the attention of several hidden services, including Union 10.

Union 10. A secret organization within Canada that's dedicated to upholding peace against threats from the supernatural, paranormal, extraterrestrial and multidimensional. They have been lurking in the shadows since Canada's earliest years, fighting a silent war with no conclusion. Many of their battles don’t last long, but that doesn’t mean the long ones are nonexistent.

During the last Azure Eclipse, Union 10 and a young man named Leos Risket collaborated with their Japanese counterpart, Shinra, and fought through a brutal conflict. Apparently, the phenomenon can create dimensional rifts between other worlds that are unrelated to these heavenly entities. The alliance also discovered a crazed girl who appears to have connections to the Azure Eclipse. This brought up some questions during the eclipse’s aftermath.

Who was that girl? What was her reason for coming here? Is she following the orders of some superior leader? Does the Azure Eclipse act as some gateway to an undiscovered world?

20XX, Present Day.

After being absent for two and a half decades, the Azure Eclipse has returned to shake a whole new generation… and quite literally. During those past years, Leos has changed from a free wandering spirit to a family man. He is now the father of Glas, a gifted young woman who ended up becoming a respected member of Union 10.

When news of the mystical blue light's return reaches Union 10's intel, Glas is stationed in Maplepoint Gardens with her girlfriend while Leos travels to Japan to assist Shinra for monitoring purposes. Little do they know that this little operation will lead them on a journey that will test all their limits, but also reveal the meaning behind the Azure Eclipse.

Basics
Project X Zone 3 keeps the core gameplay mechanics like its predecessors. The player moves multiple playable units across a map to engage in combat with enemy units. Multiple attacks can be linked together with other close pair units and a selected solo unit to build extensive combos.

Unit Stats
These are the stats carried by all units on the map. Players can increase the stats on their units by either leveling them up or equipping them with gear and accessories.

Status Effects
Status effects are abilities that both allies and enemies have in a few of their attacks. Most of the time, these usually last for about two to three turns. Playable units that have a status effect can be cured with the right item.

Skills & Auto-Skills
Skills are a way for players to temporarily enhance abilities for playable units. Normal skills can be activated by individual units with the cost of their SP. Returning from the second game, auto-skills are equipable  enhancements that trigger when certain conditions are met.

Intermissions
Intermissions happen in between chapters, giving players a break from battle scenarios. During intermissions, players can save their progress, modify a unit’s skills and abilities, buy and sell equipment from the shop, practice combos in training mode, and alter the game's basic options to their liking.

New Features
Just like the previous instalment, this game introduces some new mechanics to the series.

Being on new hardware, the game's visuals have received a graphical upgrade compared to the previous installments, both of which were released on the Nintendo 3DS. However, character sprites can be given the classic pixelated look from the 3DS games by switching the represented to Retro Mode in the options menu.

The most notable addition is the moveset customization feature. From here, players have the ability to select and arrange the input to a unit’s moveset. With all possible moves unlocked, players can select five out of seven normal attacks for each pair unit (plus one out of two support attacks) and one out of two for solo units.

With all the other unit stats, the SPD (Speed) stat returns from the first game. The stat now has different function instead of determining the order of the units, giving those in the player's party a chance to dodge enemy attacks with the new Evade command. A higher SPD stat increases the possibility of a successful dodge.

Glas Risket
Main Article: Glas Risket

Glados "Glas" Risket (グラドス・"ガラス"・リスク Guradosu Garasu" Risuku) is a member of Union 10 and one of the game’s main protagonists. She is known for being a laid-back genius who's quite unpredictable. However, an encounter she had with a vampire-commited genocide and her best friend's death left her with the habit of rescuing innocent people from any potential life-threatening situations that surround her. This is likely her oath to the lives she'd failed to save that day, but Glas' acts of selflessness are a flaw in her intelligence since this way of thinking can place her in danger.

In battle, Glas fights using various forms of martial arts, combining them into a fighting style she calls the "Risketsu Technique." This led to the development of the Sage Gauntlets, which are gloves that can emulate all sorts of extraordinary human kinetic abilities.

Titania Gold
Titania Gold (チタニア・ゴールド Chitania Gōrudo) is a member of Union 10 and one of the game’s main protagonists. She is Glas's girlfriend and a dedicated musician who's fused the music genres of Rock, City Pop, late 90's Dance and R&B into an interesting hotchpotch. Prior to her life in Maplepoint Gardens, she was destined to be a ballerina under the shadow of her strict mother. Initially, the lifestyle of constantly being pressured in the ballet arts made Titanla extremely shy and timid during her childhood. But that all changed when she met Glas Risket. She was in a few of her classes when she was sent to Oakshire Academy, but their relationship was nothing but formal classmates at the time. The two girls got to know each other better when Glas intervened when she was being bullied. After that, Titania's eyes were opened to a new world where she can control her own decisions. Their friendship awakened this sense of boldness, bravery and true happiness that she had never experienced before; and it grew so strong that she eventually developed a crush on Glas when they got older. When Glas finally realized she felt the same way and confessed their love for each other, Titania finally had the courage to rebel against her mother and live the life she actually wanted.

Her combat weapon is the Dream Caster, an electric guitar that can create constructs, heal wounded allies and perform all sorts of crazy things when the right tunes are played.

Leos Risket
Leos Risket (レオス・リスク Reosu Risuku) is a non-playable character and the father of Glas. Twenty-five years prior to the events of this game, he was a member of Union 10’s field division who’d witnessed the Azure Eclipse for himself. Now he’s in charge of the organization and behaves a mentor figure towards his daughter. His personality is best described by Glas as a  “ stereotypical shonen manga protagonist in the real world.”

Zaffre Vigil
Zaffre Vigil (ザフレ・ビギル Zafure Bagiru) is a goddess of creation, the one responsible for the Azure Eclipse and the central antagonist of the game. Her primary goal is to destroy the worlds that hold her "prisoners", all while salvaging the innocent mortals to let them inhabit a new world that she created.

Zaffre herself comes from a race of gods who’re believed to be the creators of the Portalstone from the first Project X Zone and to an extent, reality itself. The original purpose of these enchanted stones is to seal in the spiritual energy of those who attempt to rob the gods of their powers. But in extremely rare cases proven by Oros Phlox, it’s possible for these prisoners to escape and even harness their stone’s energy. To prevent these disasters, the gods open dimensional rifts from their own world to further strengthen the seals on the Portalstones.

However, Zaffre will later recall on the events of a civil war that almost led to the extinction of existence. Her side had overthrown the rebellions by sealing their leader inside a colossal Portalstone, but Zaffre believes that she might be the last of her kind to survive the war. Since the aftermath, she’s taken the responsibility of preventing these malevolent souls from escaping their Portalstones. Throughout several points in the game, the motivation behind her new twisted objective is hinted to have a connection to that war in some way.

Even though her appearance resembles a woman in her early thirties, Zaffre has actually been alive for millenniums. She's mostly a polite woman who understands the factors of being a leader, even knowing that her beliefs and actions can leave dire consequences in the near future. The goddess doesn't let emotions cloud her judgment, but being confronted by Glas and Emerald gives her an uncontrollable sense of guilt and regret.

Zaffre's primary way of fighting is by using a simple staff, but she can easily morph it into any ancient weapon of her choosing (sword, bow, etc). Being a creation goddess, she can also summon angelic beings from her thoughts. Unlike Oros Phlox who require the aid of the Portalstone, she can actually accomplish this ability at will.

Mezzanotte
Mezzanotte (メザノッテ Mezanotte) is a loyal servant to Zaffre Vigil and one of the game's major antagonists. Centuries prior to the events of this game, civil war broke out amongst the gods and Zaffre discovered her unconscious body in the aftermath. She was taken in by the goddess and eventually became her servant.

This little devil is known for being an unpredictable sadist, but the creation goddess will intervene if her twisted actions go too far. Even though she's cruel by nature, Mezzanotte can be an aggressive mess when facing those she has a grudge against, especially Leos Risket. During the previous Azure Eclipse, her existence was discovered between the alliance of Shinra and Union 10. She waged war against the two secret organizations, but she was forced to retreat when Leos overpowered her in combat.

Mezzanotte highly relies on her Geokinetic abilities whenever she's in a fight. She can lift chunks of earth with no struggle, cause mini earthquakes and even swim through solid ground like water.

Pair Units
A pair unit consists of two characters; a leader who is the one represented on the map and during boss unit attacks, and a partner who assists the leader during the player’s attacks. Pair units are navigated across a map to collect items and trigger battles with enemy units. With 100 XP, either a Special Attack can be activated during combat, or the player can attack multiple enemies at once from the map. Pair units can also activate skills that can effect units in the player’s party. These type of units can gain experience points, level up, and eventually gain new skills.

Characters marked with a (*) symbol are temporarily fought as an enemy unit.

Characters marked with two (**) symbols appear as DLC content.

Characters and game franchises highlighted in Italic Bold are new to the series.

  

Solo Units
A solo unit is a character that can be linked to any pair unit in the player’s party. These characters are meant to be summoned by the player during combat phases to further extend combo attacks. Solo units cannot be leveled up, but they do provide some unique skills to their linked pair unit.

Characters marked with a (*) symbol are temporarily fought as an enemy unit.

Characters marked with two (**) symbols appear as DLC content.

Characters and game franchises highlighted in Italic Bold are new to the series.

 

Boss Units
These are the enemies that will be fought throughout the entire game. Bosses are obviously much stronger than the regular grunts, even having access to both special & multi-attacks with 100 EP.

Characters marked with a (*) symbol have multiple forms.

Characters and game  franchises highlighted in  Italic Bold  are new to the series.

Alternative Boss Forms
As the main story progresses, certain boss units can go through an enhanced transformation or two. Their attacks will mostly be different, but sometimes they might even receive new auto-skills with their evolution.

Sub-Boss Units
This is another type of boss unit that will be encountered throughout the game. Even though they cannot use special or multi attacks, these enemies can be quite a handful with their auto-skills.

Characters and game  franchises highlighted in  Italic Bold  are new to the series.

Event Characters
These characters don’t appear as enemies, but they’re not playable, either. Most of these characters appear exclusively in cut-scenes while some act as shopkeepers.

Characters marked with a (*) symbol are shopkeepers.

Characters and game  franchises  highlighted in  Italic Bold  are new to the series.

These are the basic grunts that players will face off against. Usually most of them can be defeated in one combat phase, but enemies with high stats and  certain  auto-skills won't be a pushover.

Cameo Appearances
While many franchises from the three companies are featured in this game, a select few can only be spotted through a cameo appearance. This can range from a character/object being present in a unit’s attack or having an entire map be based on a certain game.

Soundtrack
One month after the international release of Project X Zone 3, the game's official soundtrack made its worldwide debut. All songs and jingles from the game are present on the soundtrack which came out on digital download stores, CD, and even a three-part vinyl record set.

Opening Theme:
 * Ignite These Blue Flames
 * Artist: Glas Risket (CV: Miyuki Sawashiro) & Titania Gold (CV: Shizuka Itō)
 * Composition: Yuzo Koshiro
 * Arrangement: Noriyuki Kamikura

Final Battle Theme:
 * I'm With You Now
 * Artist: Miyuki Sawashiro
 * Composition: Yuzo Koshiro
 * Arrangement: Noriyuki Kamikura

Reception
Just like the previous two instalments, critics gave Project X Zone 3 a mixture between mixed and positive reviews. Most praise from the game comes from its selection of gaming all-stars, unique story and balanced difficulty, which improved from the critiques of Project X Zone 2 being a bit easy. Even though the game was criticized for having short bursts of repetitive gameplay at some points, the new original characters and unit customization features made up for the hiccups. Some even consider Zaffre Vigil to be one of the most interesting, sentient and mysterious villains in the entire series. Overall, the game was best described as a nostalgic television show that only gets more clever through an adult's perspective.

General

 * This is the first game in the Namco Cross series to contain an English dub for its international release.
 * Unlike the original Japanese release, some extra voice grunts were recorded for the game's dialogue-focused moments.
 * A huge majority of the game's original songs were inspired by City Pop, a Japanese music genre originating from the late 1970's to early 1980's.
 * Aside from their appearance in the New Game+ epilogue, this is the first game in the Namco Cross series to not include any involvement with Ouma.

Unused Concepts
​
 * A scraped idea for the game involved a new villain (who would later become Zaffre Vigil) kidnaping heroes from across the multiverse and creating an army of mindless clones from them. Project X Zone 3’s original concept had the surviving protagonists go out and rescue the captured heroes from this new threat.
 * Open world map exploration would have been introduced to the series as it involved the idea of capturing enemy clone units. Any playable unit would use this new card technology to capture Illusion Units (the name for these characters), summoning them to either fight on the battle map or to be used like a solo unit. However, this concept went unused because it was very similar to the lore of the Pokemon games. The only thing to remain from this premise is the playable character lineup.
 * During the earliest stages of development, the game was originally planned to be released for the Nintendo 3DS in late 2018.

Character Facts

 * This marks the first game in the series to have its two main characters in a gay relationship.
 * Whenever they appear on a battle map, both the King of All Cosmos and Anankos are rendered as 3D models instead of sprites.