Project X Zone coming to North America and UK

I’ll be perfectly honest with you, TSSZ readers: I did not have much faith in seeing Project X Zone for the Nintendo 3DS see an english release. The game is a spiritual successor to NamcoXCapcom on the Playstation 2, a game which mashed together popular Namco and Capcom franchises in to a strategy RPG not entirely unlike the (also mostly Japan-exclusive) Super Robot Wars franchise. If you believe everything you read on the internet, Capcom was all for an english release of NxC, but Namco wouldn’t agree to get the game translated. Project X Zone takes similar gameplay systems and adds Sega characters in to the mix (though curiously, no appearances by Sonic the Hedgehog), and much like Namco blocking the english release of NxC, I personally figured PXZ would forever be a game exclusive to the land of the rising sun.

Color me surprised, then: the game has been announced for North American and UK release. The press release, borrowed from this Kotaku article, follows:

Developed by Banpresto and Monolith Soft, Project X Zone features over 50 characters from 29 historic game franchises by three of Japan’s most prolific video game companies. In Project X Zone players will use a team of two characters known as a Pair Unit to explore the world within the game. An additional character known as a Solo Unit can be combined with the Pair Unit to assist in battles with Solo Attacks as well as augment the attacks available for players to execute. Throughout the game, epic battles are waiting to erupt at a moment’s notice. Players will have to master an array of screen-busting moves including Solo Attacks, Support Attacks, Cross Hits, and Finishing Moves in order to defeat a multitude of foes.

“Project X Zone is the first title to ever combine such a large cast of characters from a varied list of game franchises into one grand adventure,” said Carlson Choi, Vice President of Marketing NAMCO BANDAI Games America Inc. “Developing a cohesive game and storyline to encompass all of these great characters and their battle-styles was a huge challenge that has paid off greatly with the creation of a truly unique and groundbreaking gaming experience.”

Project X Zone takes place in a world surrounded by a hidden chaos with shadows and evil lurking beneath the peaceful cover of everyday life. When a rift in time and space suddenly appears, a doorway to various universes is opened allowing both heroes and villains from different worlds to cross paths. Players will be able to take control of a huge selection of paired heroes including favorites such as Jin and Xiaoyu (TEKKEN), Toma and Cyrille (Shining Force™ EXA), to X and Zero (Mega Man® X) and discover the cause of the rift and stop evil from coming through and spreading into their world.

According to Destructoid, while the game will feature full-english text, the spoken dialog itself will remain exclusively in Japanese. The game has no current release date beyond “Summer 2013”.