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 published by Bandai Namco Entertainment for the Nintendo 3DS. This is third game in the Project X Zone series, and one of the only few games to be released on the Nintendo 3DS in 2019. A remastered version of the game was released for the Nintendo Switch along with  its predecessors as part of the Project X Zone Trilogy.

Even though the series 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 and Square Enix's NieR: Automata.

Main Plot
Every thirty years, 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 monsters of unknown origin when the blue light is present. That’s how the Azure Eclipse got Shinra’s attention.

Shinra, an organization dedicated to keeping reality safe from all kinds of dark multidimensional forces. They have been lurking in the shadows for hundreds of generations, 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, a young man named Leos Risket led Shinra’s forces through a brutal conflict. His intel discovered that the beasts present clues of advanced intelligence. This brought up some questions during the eclipse’s aftermath.

What kind of civilization do these monsters live in? Why did they come here? Are they following the orders of some leader? Does the Azure Eclipse act as some gateway to another world?

20XX, Present Day.

After thirty years, the Azure Eclipse has returned to shake a whole new generation… and quite literally. During those past years, Leos married his long-time sweet heart and started a started a family with her. Time has passed and their twin daughters are now rookie Shinra agents.

The two sisters are now on their way to their first field mission. 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, and practice combos in training mode.

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

The most notable addition is the moveset customization feature. From here, players will 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. Instead of determining the order of the units, SPD is a player-exclusive stat that gives playable units a chance to dodge attacks from enemy units, functioning in the similar way to the Super Robot Wars series. A higher SPD stat increases a unit’s chance to dodge enemy attacks.

A new status effect being introduced to the series is Burn. This is an effect that will temporarily lower a unit's stats. Units infected with Burn can be cured with the new item, Water Hose.

Glas Risket
Glas Risket (ガラス・リスク Garasu Risuku) is the twin sister of Emerald Risket, a rookie member of Shinra and serves as one of the game’s main protagonists. Her favourite hobby is reading, collecting, and even writing all sorts of literature. A few of her story ideas were even published into light novels.

She is mostly known for her peppy attitude, but a crooked soul can sometimes use this generosity against her. Thankfully, Emerald is always there to help push her away from such lethal interactions.

In battle, she fights with the Sage Gauntlets, which can both enhance her punching power and harness all sorts of supernatural & elemental abilities.

Emerald Risket
Emerald Risket (エメラルド・リスク Emerarudo Risuku) is the twin sister of Glas Risket, a rookie member of Shinra and serves as one of the game’s main protagonists. She’s a junkie of vintage music (1970’s to 1990’s) who’s been diagnosed with a split personality disorder at a young age. In a flash, this collective brainiac can transform into a foul-mouthed tomboy without a warning. Her combat weapon is the Checker Hyde, an electric guitar that can cast various spells with the right tunes.

Leos Risket
Leos Risket (レオス・リスク Reosu Risuku) is a non-playable character and the father of Glas & Emerald. Thirty years prior to the events of this game, he was a member of Shinra’s field division who’d witnessed the Azure Eclipse for himself. Now he’s in charge of the same division he’s been assigned to and behaves a mentor figure towards his two daughters. In the game, he pilots the Dragonturtle Mk. 1 which was given to him by Dr. Chizuru Urashima, who has started constructing a new Dragonturtle model. His personality is best described by Glas & Emerald 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 main antagonist of Project X Zone 3. Even though her appearance is that of a woman in her early thirties, she’s actually been alive for millenniums.

With many natural creations under her belt, Zaffre's also the original creator of the Portalstone from the first Project X Zone. Doubling as an ancient way to access different worlds, the original purpose of the these enchanted stones is to seal in the spiritual energy of those who attempt to rob  Zaffre of her  powers, even giving them amnesia in the process. But in extremely rare cases proven my Oros Phlox, it’s possible for these prisoners to escape and even harness their stone’s energy.

Ever since she started creating them long ago, Zaffre opens dimensional rifts from her world to others every thirty years to strengthen the seals on her Portalstones. The events of this game show that she's finally motivated to destroy all the worlds that hold her Portalstones and their prisoners, bringing the innocent mortals to live in her own dimension.

Similar in a way to how Oros Phlox used the Portalstone, Zaffre's way of combat is by summoning horrific monsters from her thoughts. Unlike Oros Phlox, she can actually accomplish this ability at will. As a world threatening goddess, Zaffre seems to be a strangely polite woman and refuses to cooperate in the antics of other villains. Traces of sadness come across her whenever she’s confronted by the heroes on her plans of destruction, never showing an angered or sadistic nature.

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

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

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.

Main Story
These are the characters that appear in the game's main story.  Downloadable Content These characters appear exclusively in bonus chapters that can only be purchased through the Nintendo eShop. Placing these units in the main campaign will leave no effect on the story. 

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.

 Main Story These are the characters that appear in the game's main story. 

Downloadable Content  These characters appear exclusively in bonus chapters that can only be purchased through the Nintendo eShop. Placing these units in the main campaign will leave no effect on the story.

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 titles highlighted in  Italic  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 titles highlighted in  Italic  are new to the series.

Event Characters
In the game, 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 titles highlighted in  Italic  are new to the series.

Enemy Units
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.

Chapters
This is a list of all the chapters in Project X Zone 3: The Azure Eclipse. With 5 prologue chapters, 45 main story chapters and 12 unlockable challenge stages, there's a total of 62 battle scenarios for the player to conquest through.

Characters being introduced in the game will be highlighted in italic bold.

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.

Unused Concepts
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 * 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.
 * Within the game's files, hackers have discovered data containing unused sprites, portraits, dialogue scripts, and attacks for a possessed Takumi from Fire Emblem Fates. Based on the coding of his dialogue and attacks, he was likely planned to be a boss unit before being replaced by Validar from Fire Emblem Awakening.
 * Thankfully, a group of hackers created an emulated Project X Zone 3 ROM hack with Takumi reprogrammed into the game.

Character Facts

 * The game’s opening theme “The World Watchers” is actually a duet performed by the voice actresses of Glas and Emerald.
 * The combat styles used by Excellen Browning and Lamia Loveless correspond to the respected mechs they pilot in the Super Robot Wars games.
 * Those exact mechs are the Weiss Ritter/Rein Weiss Ritter for Excellen, and both the Angelg and Vysaga for Lamia.
 * Excellen's special attack with Lamia, Rampage Ghost, is originally an attack she does with Kyosuke Nanbu (who pilots the Alt Eisen/Alt Eisen Riese). The special attack itself is based on its more recent incarnation, which first appeared in 2nd Super Robot Wars OG.
 * Alisa Ilinichina Amiella is not just the only God Eater character to appear in all three Project X Zone games. She is marked as the first character in the entire series to serve in all three playable unit positions. In the first game, Alisa was a pair unit partner to Soma Schicksal, only to return as a solo unit in the second game. This all follows up to her being a pair unit leader in this game with NeiR: Automata's 2B as her battle partner.
 * Just like in Project X Zone 2, Alisa goes through a wardrobe change to match her appearance in the mobile game God Eater: Resonant Ops.
 * All designs for the Phantasy Star characters have their origin from the first game's remake, Sega Ages 2500 Series Volume 1: Phantasy Star Generation 1, which was originally released for the PlayStation 2.
 * Crash is the only character to have his appearance change between the Japanese and international versions of the game. In the original Japanese release, Crash's design is based around the depiction of him from his franchise's Japanese marketing. When the game was ported to the rest of the world, all of his sprites, dialogue portraits and artwork were changed to match his design from the Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy.
 * Despite this, Crash's Japanese design goes untouched in the game's opening cinematic.

Prologues
Prologue 1: The Risket Sisters Prologue 2: The Lord of Calamity & the Shepherd Prologue 3: Awakened Revelations Prologue 4: Serving a Plate of Ice Cold Street Justice Prologue 5: The Golden Axe
 * The Roppongi map is recycled from the first Project X Zone, which appeared in both Prologue 2: Where the Strong Survive and Chapter 2: The Fighting Vipers.
 * In Project X Zone 2, this map also served as an introduction stage in Prologue 1: Shinra.
 * When Sorey meets Velvet for the first time, he goes on to say that she was in a dream he had once. This is likely a reference to a scene in Tales of Zestiria the X where that said dream took place. Upon hearing Velvet's reason to why she's out to kill Artorius, Sorey simply encourages her to keep following that path, which is a complete role reversal based on that original dream sequence.
 * The chapter title card is likely a reference to the Revelation path in Fire Emblem Fates, which can only be purchased through the Nintendo 3DS's eShop.
 * Speaking of which, Lucina, Hinoka and Leo learn the truth behind Hoshido and Nohr's conflict from Azura's spirit, much like the same way Corrin learned it from her when Revelation's path started.
 * Based on the information given about their losses, it's likely that this game's Hinoka is from the Conquest route in Fire Emblem Fates. The same goes for Leo, but his origin comes from the Birthright route.
 * The Akihabara map is recycled from the first Project X Zone, which appeared in both Chapter 11: Across Infinite Time and Chapter 30: City of Mercy.
 * In this game, the map will later be reused in Chapter 6: Can You Become Rent-a-Hero for Mankind's Sake?
 * During his final defeat in Namco X Capcom, the Ghosts 'n Goblins antagonist Red Arremer Joker revealed that he fought in the Crest War, therefore revealing himself to be Firebrand. In this game, this context is mentioned between Arthur and Valkyrie when the red demon brings up his search for those same crests.

Chapters 1 to 5
Chapter 1: The Beginning of the Azure Eclipse Chapter 2: Just a Quick Intermission Chapter 4: Operation Needlemouse Chapter 5: Wanderers With Wings
 * The Shibuya map is recycled from both previous Project X Zone games.
 * In Project X Zone, the map appeared in Chapter 4: Arisu in Wonderland and Chapter 5: The God Eaters.
 * In Project X Zone 2, the map was also present in Prologue 3: Dancers in Shadow, Chapter 5: The Phoenix Mirror and Chapter 40: Iron Fists of Fury.
 * When Fire Emblem Awakening's Lucina is confronted with Emerald's split personality, she claims that this doesn't surprise her since she knows "a girl with the same condition." The girl that Lucina is referring to is likely Tharja's daughter, Noire, from the same game of origin.
 * Just like a couple maps featured in the series, the Namco Theatre stage is based on its appearance in Namco X Capcom.
 * Sakura Kasugano's introduction in this game is similar to her first appearance in Namco X Capcom. In the latter, she sees a Wonder Momo show and becomes a playable unit in the first chapter. During this game's events, she and Ibuki are doing volunteer work at the Namco Theatre where they become a playable pair unit.
 * The chapter title card is likely referencing Sonic's name when his character design was in the prototype phase.
 * After Welkin & Alicia defeat Selvaria in the first half of the chapter, she is captured inside a capsule by Dr. Eggman. The second half revolves around a trope seen in the original Sonic the Hedgehog games. Once Eggman is defeated, the player is able to destroy the capsule and free the Valkyria, much like how Sonic concludes an entire zone by rescuing the captive animals in the same matter.
 * Starting at the end of the chapter, a running gag carried throughout the game shows Valkyria Chronicles' Selvaria Bles worshipping Sonic as a mythical god, much to the latter's confusion.
 * The Portalstone chamber map is recycled from the first Project X Zone, which appeared in Chapter 40: Treasure on the Horizon.
 * Even though it doesn't serve as a battle map, the heroes appear outside the Kouryuji Manor at the end of the chapter.
 * In Project X Zone, this location was used as a battle map in Prologue 1: The Wanderers, Chapter 1: Welcome to the Koryuji House, and Chapter 31: Key to Another World.
 * This map is featured again in Project X Zone 2, but only in a brief cutscene after completing Chapter 37: Cypher Punk.

Chapters 6 to 10
Chapter 6: Can You Become Rent-a-Hero for Mankind's Sake? Chapter 7: Dead Souls Rising Chapter 8: The One Man Army Chapter 9: Hidden Truths
 * This chapter's title card shares the same name of the vocalized version of Rent-a-Hero's opening theme, which appears in both Fighters Megamix and the original game's Sega Dreamcast remake, Rent-a-Hero No.1.
 * After Taro Yamada/Rent-a-Hero appears for the first time, his battle theme will overlap the rest of the soundtrack until the battle scenario ends.
 * The Kamurocho map is recycled from Project X Zone 2, which appeared in Chapter 2: Like a Dragon.
 * With Kazama Kiryu and Frank West being introduced in this chapter, its title card is an obvious combination of Yakuza: Dead Souls and Dead Rising.
 * The Millennium Tower map is recycled from Project X Zone 2, which appeared in Chapter 38: Undying Souls.
 * Throughout the Yakuza games, several major events take place at the Millennium Tower.
 * Lord Raptor's introduction in this game continues a gag that started in Project X Zone 2. This gag shows him first appearing in the exact same place of his final defeat in the previous game.
 * The chapter title card shares the same name with a set of DLC chapters in Fire Emblem Fates.
 * Owain's presence in this chapter is likely a reference to the DLC story as well. In the original game, the remaining good will of Anankos has recruited Owain, Inigo and Severa to find his child (Corrin) and get him/her to save the kingdom of Valla, which has fallen into corruption by the real Anankos.

Chapters 11 to 15
Chapter 11: Dwelling Corruption Chapter 12: Let's Dance Chapter 13: Where the Horizon Has No Conclusion
 * When Cortex appears in this chapter, he comments that evil geniuses will always come back, even mentioning that he's been "turned into a baby and seen the horrors of a moron's brain." He's likely referencing the endings to both Crash Bandicoot: Warped and Crash Twinsanity.
 * This chapter is a reenactment of Report 2's third act in Space Channel 5 Part 2. In the original game, President Peace is kidnapped by the Rhythm Rogues during a music festival at Space Park. Ulala reports on the crisis to save him from a plant monster under Shadow's control.
 * When Sonic meddles with Shadow's plans, he mentions the Shadow from his own series several times.
 * He jokingly calls Space Channel 5's Shadow "The Ultimate Dancing Life Form," which is a parody of "The Ultimate Life Form," one of Shadow the Hedgehog's nicknames.
 * The Fujisakura Altar map is recycled from the first Project X Zone, which appeared in Chapter 12: Fury Sparks and Chapter 25: A Storm of Romance.
 * After Kaguya Nanbu released their spiritual energy, Excellen and Lamia's new weapons resemble the weaponry used by their respected mechs.
 * Due to the context of how Haken Browning is mentioned, it's likely implied that this game takes place after Super Robot Wars OG: The Moon Dwellers.
 * In said game, he transports Sänger Zonvolt back to the New A.D. after the events of Project X Zone. However, he and Aschen Brodel end up being transported along side him. Shortly after their introduction, both Sänger (piloting the Dygenguar) and Haken (piloting the Gempest Haken along side Aschen) become playable units.
 * As mentioned by Excellen and Lamia, both Haken and Aschen are stuck in the New A.D. after the events of The Moon Dwellers.

Chapter 15: Hunter Highjacking
 * After the heroes save Zero from the virus, he stated that he came in contact with an opera singing robot before being infected. The mentioned robot is likely Simone, one of the many bosses in NieR: Automata.
 * Ironically, this boss fight with Simone introduced the enemy's ability of hacking into the player's character. This would result in activating a simple shooting game where the player must destroy the virus.
 * The way Sigma got revived is very identical to how Adam was created in NieR: Automata.