It may have been unexpected, but it's almost here.

Crossover titles rarely leave Japan and for good reason. Games like Jump Ultimate Stars or Super Robot Wars would be a licensing hell in the Western market. However, the unlikely has happened: Project X Zone, a crossover, tactical RPG featuring characters from Namco Bandai, Capcom, and Sega titles is slated for a Western release this summer. And while the game isn’t out yet, a short demo is currently available on the 3DS eShop.

The demo, which is limited to a fairly meager five uses, throws you right into the heart of the action. There’s no tutorial here, save a brief overview of the game’s controls. Fans of other tactical RPGs, including the Fire Emblem and Advance Wars series, should feel at home with the game’s familiar grid-based movement. Project X Zone differs from these franchises, however, in its attack system.

Unlike most tactical RPGs, where the damage dealt depends mainly on the level of the character, their gear, and their element or class, damage in Project X Zone relies heavily on combos. Each time you initiate an attack on an enemy, you are given control of your characters’ abilities by chaining various combos that are laid out on the touchscreen. Encounters are displayed more or less as 2D, slickly-animated “fighting game” segments between the enemy and your character duo, though you’re not using half-circles or any of that; the control scheme during attacks is thankfully incredibly simple. For instance, pressing the A button will perform one combo, while pressing both the D-pad in a given direction and the A button together will perform another. You have a set number of attacks for each character per turn, and chaining them is a must if you wish to do any damage. Likewise, timing your combos and knowing when to use the additional support and special attacks are essential if you want to cause the most damage possible. These sections are also some of the most graphically impressive animations I’ve yet to see on the 3DS. The attacks animations are smooth and the sprites are nicely detailed.

The demo itself only includes one battle sequence, in which you take control of characters from several series, including Street Fighter, God Eater Burst, Sakura Wars, .hack, and Valkyria Chronicles. Characters from these series fight in pairs, not alone; for example, Ryu and Ken from Street Fighter join forces. One possible downside that I noticed from the demo is that a lot of the banter that characters shout during battles will be lost on Western players, as the game only includes a Japanese voice track. Outside of action sequences, however, written dialogue has been translated, so in that way some character interactions have been made accessible to English speakers.

Project X Zone’s demo shows a lot of potential. Needless to say, I’m excited to see what the full game has to offer when it is released on June 25 in North America and July 5 in Europe.