While the first Endless Frontier was not a good game, Exceed is, as it made small but worthwhile improvements to the formula. The biggest change is the addition of an "Evade Gauge", which now telegraphs when enemies could nullify your damage should you break the combo. No more will it be left to complete chance whether or not breaking the combo would screw you over. In addition, you also can nullify enemy damage by expending 50% of the special meter and the enemy doesn't have to break their combo to allow you to do it but i've noticed that this only works sometimes. There'd be times where i have enough to nullify but the prompt never came up so i just had to eat a massive combo. Other improvements include not putting in boss fights every two rooms, being able to swap party members mid-fight and the addition of Assist Characters which simultaneously increase the party size by a lot without making them actually playable. The COM system also gets a bit reworked, certain combo routes expend less COM so it would be ideal to find these routes....but honestly the COM system still kinda sucks so i admittedly did turn on cheats to keep COM at max, which honestly made the game a bit smoother. I can safely say tho that i did not turn on every cheat imaginable like in Endless Frontier so that's a plus. However, while the fighting game/RPG hybrid style of combat is still fun, i do feel like some battles could drag a bit so the game as a whole feels longer than it is....kinda the reason why i burned out earlier in the year and had to place this game on hold for a while.
As far as the non-gameplay side of the things, the game itself just looks better than the previous one. The UI is cleaner, the sprites have been touched up and the remixes are better too. The character writing is fun too, this game is not serious at all and much like the Project X Zone games, there is a lot of fun banter here. Fun and horny because everyone who isn't MOMO from Xenosaga is sexually charged in this game. Like there's something kinda amazing about everyone just being incredibly horny. This is a trend throughout this crossover series in general but i think the horniness really reached it's peak in these two games. And while the plot itself is not serious, i do like there being actual villains this time when there barely were any in the first game and i especially like that some plot elements ended up planting the seeds for Project X Zone 2, a game that would be released five years later.
Though i went out of order, this wild ride of crossovers that began in Namco x Capcom and ended (as of now) in Project X Zone 2 has come to an end. While Endless Frontier Exceed isn't as good as Project X Zone 2, it's still a decent game and i'm glad i was able to end this series on a high note, both in chronological and personal play order. Once again, Monolith Soft was able to prove that they know the science of improving a game.
As far as the non-gameplay side of the things, the game itself just looks better than the previous one. The UI is cleaner, the sprites have been touched up and the remixes are better too. The character writing is fun too, this game is not serious at all and much like the Project X Zone games, there is a lot of fun banter here. Fun and horny because everyone who isn't MOMO from Xenosaga is sexually charged in this game. Like there's something kinda amazing about everyone just being incredibly horny. This is a trend throughout this crossover series in general but i think the horniness really reached it's peak in these two games. And while the plot itself is not serious, i do like there being actual villains this time when there barely were any in the first game and i especially like that some plot elements ended up planting the seeds for Project X Zone 2, a game that would be released five years later.
Though i went out of order, this wild ride of crossovers that began in Namco x Capcom and ended (as of now) in Project X Zone 2 has come to an end. While Endless Frontier Exceed isn't as good as Project X Zone 2, it's still a decent game and i'm glad i was able to end this series on a high note, both in chronological and personal play order. Once again, Monolith Soft was able to prove that they know the science of improving a game.