Kiwi Farms
-
Sister services, email, and search will continue to be negatively effected by the attacks. I made a thread to talk about it, if you're into networking.
Because I was horribly, horribly bored and remembered I had this beaten awhile back, and since @Jaimas and @AngeloTheWizard inspired me with their Let's Sperging, I decided I'd take a crack at an old game that, for those who have played the Project X Zone games, this is the prequel America never got and was only playable if you imported the Japanese version and/or added a translation patch to give it a wooden yet servicable English translation, which you could either play on a modded PS2 or the PCSX2 emulator, and for ease of screenshots, I'll be using the latter.
As the game title implies, this throws a bunch of obscure and not so obscure characters from both the Namco and Capcom franchises into a blender and has guys like Jin Kazama from Tekken and Ken Masters from Street Fighter joining forces to kick butt. And yes, that guy from Dig Dug shows up, only he's a LOT more badass, but we'll get to him later.
A decent writeup can be found here:
http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/namcoxcapcom/namcoxcapcom.htm
Given the sheer length of the game and given how due to clunky battle controls this game is really slow (due to the fact you have to input battle commands fighting game style most of the time), this is going to be more a "now you know the backstory of Project X Zone" kind of thing than some detailed strategy guide, but I'll toss in advice for those who want to sperg with me.
Anyway, let's begin.
Prologue 1 - Yuragi Street's Arisu
The prologue starts with a bunch of still images of the Shibuya district of, you guessed it, Tokyo. The backstory is that two organizations were wailing on each other 10 years back over some project involving dimensional quakes, with one wanting to open them, and the latter trying to stop them.
When the battle ended, Shinra (the good guy organization who wanted to close the dimensional holes) was victorious, but it was a Pyrrhic victory, since it resulted in Shibuya Ward becoming a danger zone of dimensional instability, and that instability caused dimensional quakes to keep occurring long afterwards to present day.
Needless to say, that means history is gonna repeat......
Anyway, game starts in 20xx, Roppongi Ward of Tokyo, where our main hero Reiji Arisu gets a call from his bosses to go head to Shibuya to check out the latest weirdness, and this is when his partner in crime Xiaomu shows up.
Here's a pic of the two of them from the Stage 1 titlecard (Xiaomu on the left, Reiji on the right):
Brief background on these two: They are actually official ripoffs of the characters Kyosuke Nanbu and Excellen Browning from the Super Robot Wars series, with Reiji ripping off Kyosuke's two-tone hair and being the "straight man" to Xiaomu, who rips off Excellen's hair color and perverted comedic relief. Also, if it wasn't obvious, Xiaomu isn't human, being a 765 year old fox woman who knew Reiji since he was a kid and has not so hidden feelings for him (but obviously decided to wait till he grew up, she ain't that perverted) despite the age difference.
Anyway, just know Reiji likes to slice things a lot with one of three different swords and shoot stuff with two gold plated pistols and a shotgun, while Xiaomu uses a blade cane/magic staff and occasionally breaks out her own pair of pistols.
Now, onto the plot:
Reiji and Xiaomu spend most of the opening cutscene of their intro going over the backstory, Reiji mentioning the brass of Shinra want them to meet with an American organization to compare notes after a meet near Shibuya, and Xiamou alternating between bitching about this and threatening to go on strike, which fizzles out in a hurry after Reiji tells her he was aware of that stash of cash under her bed and if she wants it back, she'll quit whining.
Cue the 765 year old fox woman-child throwing a brief hissy fit, then she gets over it and they head to Shibuya as the cutscene fades out.
We then cut to Freighter Elza in the distant future, and for those lost on the reference, that means the ship from Xenosaga I.
The conversation is basically Shion Uzuki (far right) asking KOS-MOS (far left) about some abnormalities in her systems, KOS-MOS telling her it's no big deal, her assistant Allen Marks (next to KOS-MOS) basically wondering why it's such a big deal, and Momo (next to Shion) getting worried over it.
Marks thinks Shion is being paranoid, but Shion ain't listening and wants to basically dive inside KOS-MOS' mind via Xenosaga's version of VR and figure out what the deal is and tells KOS-MOS to get inside the Encephalon (that thing in the background of the image above) so she can do the VR jump.
We cut back to present day Shibuya, and we find Street Fighter Alpha 3 era Chun-li (with the ICPO/Interpol) trying to keep Cammy White from entering Shibuya since it's cordoned off, saying she knows full well Cammy is with Shadowloo, which was supposed to be destroyed but is apparently making a comeback, and Chun-li demands to know where Bison (called Vega in the JP/fan translated script, and I'll be using the American name to avoid confusion) is.
This prompts her subordinates Juni and Juli to show up:
Juni and Juli wants to take Chun-li out right there, but Cammy tells them they have a more important mission to keep in mind. With that they disappear as Chun-li gives chase wondering if Shadowloo and the dimensional incidents are connected, as well as a mention of "monster sightings".
We then cut to the battle map of the Shibuya streets, which are deserted, and as Xiaomu tries to joke about how the empty streets mean the clothing stores won't have any lines, Reiji's more concerned with the obvious signs of magic in the air that means weird shit is gonna happen.
Sure enough, some "scythe-weasels" show up, meaning it's time to rumble:
As shown, the battles take place on an isometric, 2.5d square gridded map, so anyone who has played Disgaea should feel right at home.
The game has a brief tutorial you can skip, and whether you go for it or not, the first couple of foes are really easy to kill, since you can just plop Reiji and Xiaomu (who act as a paired up single unit) in middle of the enemies and use their Multiple Assault attack, which is them going back to back and shooting everything like a cheesy nineties action movie. Or, you could just try to have them fight these things one by one, but since that's retarded, we'll pick the first option.
Once the enemies are dead, Xiaomu hasn't forgotten Reiji is holding her cash stash, but cuts short her begging for it as she notices something weird, namely, a bunch of semi-transparent Gnosis from Xenosaga:
Reiji immediately assumes it's more enemies and decides to not waste any time and just shoot them, but the bullet passes right through the Gnosis. Xiaomu assumes Reiji decided to be a cheap-ass and use cheap ammo, but Reiji confirms he used rounds meant for killing ghosts, which means they are unable to be hit by tangible attacks, and just as they start to worry, that's when KOS-MOS, Shion, and Momo show up behind them.
Shion thinks this is part of the whole VR dive experience, until she realizes Momo is with her, which shouldn't be possible, while Reiji and Xiaomu wonder who the newcomers are. Cue a lot of confusion on both sides as Shion tries to wrap her mind around the idea they aren't in VR anymore, while Reiji wonders how they got to Shibuya. Meanwhile, KOS-MOS seems to be figuring out things a lot faster.
And that's when Shion notices the Gnosis and panics. Reiji doesn't get what they are so worried about nor the technobabble they are saying and just tells them they need to evacuate the area while Shion.exe is desperately trying to reboot to reconcile with her current state of reality.
And that's when KOS-MOS realizes the Gnosis aren't going to just sit there forever and says she's gonna activate the Hilbert Effect.
Brief pause here for the non-Xenosaga people in the audience. Basically, the Gnosis can't be hit without the Hilbert Effect, which renders them into a physical form that can be destroyed, more or less.
Shion finally realizes that whatever is going on is less important than not dying, so she gives KOS-MOS the green light. One blast of light and KOS-MOS temporarily lowering her visor later, and the Gnosis are tangible. The Gnosis freak upon realizing they are now mortal, and Reiji's brain nearly blows a fuse trying to get all the technobabble, until Shion notices and tells him he can now kill the Gnosis.
And we get on to the second part of the battle.
The Gnosis aren't that tough, and it's best you let Shion and Momo soften them up with their ranged attack and detail KOS-MOS to finish the first one off, as you'll be getting company soon.
Cammy, Juni, and Juli show up from the other end of the street the Scythe Weasels did as Cammy tells the latter two to capture Reiji and Xiaomu and kill the rest while she heads off to do other things. This immediately puts Reiji on guard as Cammy's goons head for him, and that's when Chun-li shows up from behind, prompting Juni and Juli to realize letting themselves be ambushed would be stupid and stand their ground.
The rest of battle is pretty simple. Let KOS-MOS take out the Gnosis while Reiji and Xiaomu take on Juni or Juli (you only need take out one or the other) while Shion and Momo support attack from a distance whoever needs hit the most. Meanwhile, Chun-li should help Reiji and Xiaomu take out your preferred Shadowloo goon.
Keep in mind Juni and Juli will prioritize beating Chun-li up, so use Chun-li's healing skill and have her fall back if she's getting too beat up.
During the fight, you'll get some commentary if Reiji and Xiaomu fight a Gnosis where Xiaomu wonders if the thing is from space, Reiji wonders if she's retarded, and Shion realizes Xiaomu is sharper than she looks.
After beating up either Juni or Juli, they both retreat. Reiji tries to keep Chun-li from running off after them in vain, and KOS-MOS acts as a dictionary for Reiji, ironically enough, as his use of the word felicitous (to describe KOS-MOS's abilities to scan for enemies) leaves Momo confused. It's this that clues him and Xiaomu in that KOS-MOS is an android.
It's after this introductions occur, and Reiji offers to have a more indepth discussion over what's going on at Shinra HQ with Shion and company.
As the stage ends, Reiji realizes that history indeed is repeating.
As the game title implies, this throws a bunch of obscure and not so obscure characters from both the Namco and Capcom franchises into a blender and has guys like Jin Kazama from Tekken and Ken Masters from Street Fighter joining forces to kick butt. And yes, that guy from Dig Dug shows up, only he's a LOT more badass, but we'll get to him later.
A decent writeup can be found here:
http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/namcoxcapcom/namcoxcapcom.htm
Given the sheer length of the game and given how due to clunky battle controls this game is really slow (due to the fact you have to input battle commands fighting game style most of the time), this is going to be more a "now you know the backstory of Project X Zone" kind of thing than some detailed strategy guide, but I'll toss in advice for those who want to sperg with me.
Anyway, let's begin.
Prologue 1 - Yuragi Street's Arisu
The prologue starts with a bunch of still images of the Shibuya district of, you guessed it, Tokyo. The backstory is that two organizations were wailing on each other 10 years back over some project involving dimensional quakes, with one wanting to open them, and the latter trying to stop them.
When the battle ended, Shinra (the good guy organization who wanted to close the dimensional holes) was victorious, but it was a Pyrrhic victory, since it resulted in Shibuya Ward becoming a danger zone of dimensional instability, and that instability caused dimensional quakes to keep occurring long afterwards to present day.
Needless to say, that means history is gonna repeat......
Anyway, game starts in 20xx, Roppongi Ward of Tokyo, where our main hero Reiji Arisu gets a call from his bosses to go head to Shibuya to check out the latest weirdness, and this is when his partner in crime Xiaomu shows up.
Here's a pic of the two of them from the Stage 1 titlecard (Xiaomu on the left, Reiji on the right):
Brief background on these two: They are actually official ripoffs of the characters Kyosuke Nanbu and Excellen Browning from the Super Robot Wars series, with Reiji ripping off Kyosuke's two-tone hair and being the "straight man" to Xiaomu, who rips off Excellen's hair color and perverted comedic relief. Also, if it wasn't obvious, Xiaomu isn't human, being a 765 year old fox woman who knew Reiji since he was a kid and has not so hidden feelings for him (but obviously decided to wait till he grew up, she ain't that perverted) despite the age difference.
Anyway, just know Reiji likes to slice things a lot with one of three different swords and shoot stuff with two gold plated pistols and a shotgun, while Xiaomu uses a blade cane/magic staff and occasionally breaks out her own pair of pistols.
Now, onto the plot:
Reiji and Xiaomu spend most of the opening cutscene of their intro going over the backstory, Reiji mentioning the brass of Shinra want them to meet with an American organization to compare notes after a meet near Shibuya, and Xiamou alternating between bitching about this and threatening to go on strike, which fizzles out in a hurry after Reiji tells her he was aware of that stash of cash under her bed and if she wants it back, she'll quit whining.
Cue the 765 year old fox woman-child throwing a brief hissy fit, then she gets over it and they head to Shibuya as the cutscene fades out.
We then cut to Freighter Elza in the distant future, and for those lost on the reference, that means the ship from Xenosaga I.
The conversation is basically Shion Uzuki (far right) asking KOS-MOS (far left) about some abnormalities in her systems, KOS-MOS telling her it's no big deal, her assistant Allen Marks (next to KOS-MOS) basically wondering why it's such a big deal, and Momo (next to Shion) getting worried over it.
Marks thinks Shion is being paranoid, but Shion ain't listening and wants to basically dive inside KOS-MOS' mind via Xenosaga's version of VR and figure out what the deal is and tells KOS-MOS to get inside the Encephalon (that thing in the background of the image above) so she can do the VR jump.
We cut back to present day Shibuya, and we find Street Fighter Alpha 3 era Chun-li (with the ICPO/Interpol) trying to keep Cammy White from entering Shibuya since it's cordoned off, saying she knows full well Cammy is with Shadowloo, which was supposed to be destroyed but is apparently making a comeback, and Chun-li demands to know where Bison (called Vega in the JP/fan translated script, and I'll be using the American name to avoid confusion) is.
This prompts her subordinates Juni and Juli to show up:
We then cut to the battle map of the Shibuya streets, which are deserted, and as Xiaomu tries to joke about how the empty streets mean the clothing stores won't have any lines, Reiji's more concerned with the obvious signs of magic in the air that means weird shit is gonna happen.
Sure enough, some "scythe-weasels" show up, meaning it's time to rumble:
As shown, the battles take place on an isometric, 2.5d square gridded map, so anyone who has played Disgaea should feel right at home.
The game has a brief tutorial you can skip, and whether you go for it or not, the first couple of foes are really easy to kill, since you can just plop Reiji and Xiaomu (who act as a paired up single unit) in middle of the enemies and use their Multiple Assault attack, which is them going back to back and shooting everything like a cheesy nineties action movie. Or, you could just try to have them fight these things one by one, but since that's retarded, we'll pick the first option.
Once the enemies are dead, Xiaomu hasn't forgotten Reiji is holding her cash stash, but cuts short her begging for it as she notices something weird, namely, a bunch of semi-transparent Gnosis from Xenosaga:
Reiji immediately assumes it's more enemies and decides to not waste any time and just shoot them, but the bullet passes right through the Gnosis. Xiaomu assumes Reiji decided to be a cheap-ass and use cheap ammo, but Reiji confirms he used rounds meant for killing ghosts, which means they are unable to be hit by tangible attacks, and just as they start to worry, that's when KOS-MOS, Shion, and Momo show up behind them.
Shion thinks this is part of the whole VR dive experience, until she realizes Momo is with her, which shouldn't be possible, while Reiji and Xiaomu wonder who the newcomers are. Cue a lot of confusion on both sides as Shion tries to wrap her mind around the idea they aren't in VR anymore, while Reiji wonders how they got to Shibuya. Meanwhile, KOS-MOS seems to be figuring out things a lot faster.
And that's when Shion notices the Gnosis and panics. Reiji doesn't get what they are so worried about nor the technobabble they are saying and just tells them they need to evacuate the area while Shion.exe is desperately trying to reboot to reconcile with her current state of reality.
And that's when KOS-MOS realizes the Gnosis aren't going to just sit there forever and says she's gonna activate the Hilbert Effect.
Brief pause here for the non-Xenosaga people in the audience. Basically, the Gnosis can't be hit without the Hilbert Effect, which renders them into a physical form that can be destroyed, more or less.
Shion finally realizes that whatever is going on is less important than not dying, so she gives KOS-MOS the green light. One blast of light and KOS-MOS temporarily lowering her visor later, and the Gnosis are tangible. The Gnosis freak upon realizing they are now mortal, and Reiji's brain nearly blows a fuse trying to get all the technobabble, until Shion notices and tells him he can now kill the Gnosis.
And we get on to the second part of the battle.
The Gnosis aren't that tough, and it's best you let Shion and Momo soften them up with their ranged attack and detail KOS-MOS to finish the first one off, as you'll be getting company soon.
Cammy, Juni, and Juli show up from the other end of the street the Scythe Weasels did as Cammy tells the latter two to capture Reiji and Xiaomu and kill the rest while she heads off to do other things. This immediately puts Reiji on guard as Cammy's goons head for him, and that's when Chun-li shows up from behind, prompting Juni and Juli to realize letting themselves be ambushed would be stupid and stand their ground.
The rest of battle is pretty simple. Let KOS-MOS take out the Gnosis while Reiji and Xiaomu take on Juni or Juli (you only need take out one or the other) while Shion and Momo support attack from a distance whoever needs hit the most. Meanwhile, Chun-li should help Reiji and Xiaomu take out your preferred Shadowloo goon.
Keep in mind Juni and Juli will prioritize beating Chun-li up, so use Chun-li's healing skill and have her fall back if she's getting too beat up.
During the fight, you'll get some commentary if Reiji and Xiaomu fight a Gnosis where Xiaomu wonders if the thing is from space, Reiji wonders if she's retarded, and Shion realizes Xiaomu is sharper than she looks.
After beating up either Juni or Juli, they both retreat. Reiji tries to keep Chun-li from running off after them in vain, and KOS-MOS acts as a dictionary for Reiji, ironically enough, as his use of the word felicitous (to describe KOS-MOS's abilities to scan for enemies) leaves Momo confused. It's this that clues him and Xiaomu in that KOS-MOS is an android.
It's after this introductions occur, and Reiji offers to have a more indepth discussion over what's going on at Shinra HQ with Shion and company.
As the stage ends, Reiji realizes that history indeed is repeating.