In this article, I will take a look at some of the strangest RPG crossovers of all time. Sometimes, it will just be a case of an item from one game being made available in another game. Other times, it will be entire games made based on the crossover concept. Some of the crossovers will be weird and wonderful. Others will just be weird. First up,PokémonConquest.
The strangest RPG crossovers of all time!
1)PokémonConquest, DS
Pokémon Conquestwas a strategy roleplaying game developed by Tecmo Koei and published by The Pokemon Company. It is a crossover betweenPokémonand the Nobunaga’s Ambition series, known for tactical Samurai combat.
How did such a strange crossover happen? Well, it was because Tsunekazu Ishihara of The Pokemon Company was a fan of Nobunaga’s Ambition and Tecmo Koei president Kou Shibasawa was a fan ofPokémon. This gave them an opportunity to work with each other. As the first Nobunaga’s Ambition game featured seventeen regions and at the time there was just seventeen differentPokémontypes, it was simple to divide up where the Pokemon would be located.
To make matters more confusing,PokémonConquestfeatured characters from the Samurai Warriors games. The choice of Perfect LinkPokémonfor a given Warlord was influenced by theirSamurai Warriors 3personality or moveset. Up to sixPokémoncould be deployed to the battlefield each time; one per warrior.
In terms of whether it was any good, perhaps surprisingly the answer is yes. It’s sitting pretty on an average score of eighty percent on Metacritic and is a nice entry level SRPG. It was popular enough to spawn a manga series. It’s worth noting that many reviewers gave it nine out of ten (or ninety percent) but the average was dragged down by some fifty percent scores from some sites that just didn’t get it.
2) Project X Zone, DS
Project X Zonefeatured a huge lineup of characters. There were over fifty characters from twenty nine different franchises from Namco Bandai, Capcom & Sega. It included characters from Darkstalkers,Valkyria Chronicles, Street Fighter, Tekken, Mega Man, Resident Evil and so on. These are characters that I never imagined coming together. Arthur from Ghosts ‘n Goblins, doing battle alongside Ulala from Space Channel 5. It’s as crazy as it sounds. Is it any good? Yes. Well…kind of, anyway. The story is dross but it’s simple fun and a pure fan-service game that works due to nostalgia. It reminds me of the memberberries from South Park. “Hey, you ‘member Dante?” “Yeah, Dante! I ‘member!” “Do you ‘member Morrigan?” “Ooh, Morrigan! I ‘member!” “Do you ‘member slavery?” “Yeah, I…wait. What?!”
A sequel followed, which was basically more of the same but with an even larger roster of characters, including Phoenix Wright. I guess if you’re going to beat up a lot of people, it makes sense to have a decent lawyer on your team.
3) Cross Edge, PlayStation 3.
Recruit characters fromDisgaea,Ar tonelicoandDarkStalkers! In an RPG that both looks and plays like a bad PlayStation One game! Yay! As aDisgaeafan, I wanted to loveCross Edge. I really did. Unfortunately, it disappointed me. It’s a game for die-hard JRPG fans only and even then, there are over a thousand better JRPGs that you could play instead of this. The story is poor, the graphics are poor, the game mechanics are convoluted and confusing and despite it being such a basic game, there’s a fair amount of slow down. You also have to grind a lot just to get through the main story. With so many characters competing for your attention, it’s also hard to become emotionally invested with any of them.
Cross Edgewas eventually also released on the Xbox 360, asCross Edge Dash.
4) Mass Effect armour in Kingdoms of Amalur & Kingdoms of Amalur armour in Mass Effect 3
In a game of “I’ll scratch your back if you scratch mine,” armour inspired byMass Effect 3was made available inKingdoms of Amalur: Reckoningif you played theMass Effect 3demo. You could unlockKingdoms of Amalur: Reckoninginspired armour inMass Effect 3by…you guessed it…playing theKingdoms of Amalur: Reckoningdemo.
Did it work? I don’t know. Kind of? They tried to make the sets of armour fit with the games that they were included in and the sets looked kind of cool but it still never quite looked right. At the start of both games, the sets of armour seemed pretty powerful. I was glad when I unlocked more powerful armour later in the games and was able to justify switching out of these sets.
Kingdoms of Amalurwas a great roleplay game and I hope that someday it gets a sequel. It may be unlikely though. It sold reasonably well…shifting over 1.2 million copies in 90 days. However, a ridiculously large amount was spent on making the game (over $63 million), so the sales number just weren’t high enough.
5) Final Fantasy XIII-2 & Mass Effect 3
Not content with just jumping into bed with one RPG lover,Mass Effect 3also seductively winked at theFinal Fantasyseries and let it know that it was open to a relationship. The result? you’re able to wearMass Effectarmour inFinal Fantasy XIII-2if you really want to. Unlike theKingdom of Amalurcrossover where they at least tried to make the armour sets look like they belonged, this was a lazier inclusion. It just looked wrong on theFinal Fantasycharacters. After putting it on Noel and Serah, I went “Hell no!” and took it off again. I loveFinal Fantasyand I loveMass Effect. I also love beer and cheese but I don’t want my pint of beer to taste of cheese.
The more recentFinal Fantasy XVAssassin’s Creedcrossover event worked better partly as it had an actual story and was fun to play. It was a little cringe-worthy hearing Noct go on about how much he loved the Assassin’s Creed series though. Just get a room, you two!
6) Monster Hunter 4 meets Mario, Link and Luigi.
There are no words that will do the strangeness of this one justice. I’ll just leave this picture here instead.
What do you think the strangest RPG crossover was and did it work for you? Also, what RPG crossover would you like to see? Mario meets Dark Souls perhaps? As always, please comment below and let us know.
I hope you liked this article. If so, check out theMass Effect Loot Boxes & Star Wars discussed on EA Investor Callarticle. You may also want to read thePokemon RPG for Switch in 2018?article.
