X, Zero, next gen,
but...nice try, Capcom.
Additional Comments:
Heeeeeey...I played a game! And beat it. After a long hiatus of reading (God forbid), I finally played a game that I think I never beat. Everyone knows I'm a Megaman fan, and that I have a particular affection toward the X series. When I was younger, and I first found out about Megaman X4 for the Playstation, I was beyond excited. I was under the impression that Capcom was only going to release the Megaman franchise to Nintendo, and since I never saw anything for the N64 outside of Megaman Legends (stupid!), I thought Capcom was finished with the series. I picked up the game, played it with my brother, and immediately nutted myself because I could play as Zero. ZERO! He's got a SWORD! And LONG HAIR! He's RAD! My brother played as X, and we both found out what the game was like on either side of the story. But the thing I remember most about this game was that my brother beat the game and I didn't. In fact, I remember this game being hard as BALLS! So what did I find out from playing this over a decade later?
This game is hard as balls! Well, really X's story isn't too hard. His side of things is actually pretty vanilla--a little boring, to be honest. You don't really need to use any of the powers that often, unless it's for a boss fight, and the powers are pretty lame. His story is so generic, too. But Zero, on the other hand. Oh. My. God. Zero's playthrough is friggin' tough. The first problem you see with Zero is that he only has a sword. No charged shot or long distance blast, just a short sword. That means that you have to get within a couple of paces of the enemy to just initiate a fight. Contrast that with X, who has a charged shot and who is exclusively long distance, you can keep enemies at arm's length. With Zero, you have to hug them. Then, Zero's powers are a little strange. You still get powers after you beat a boss, as with X, but with Zero, you get "moves". So, what I mean is that, say you beat Slash Beast. What you get from him is a move that allows you to slash while dashing. As a move, you don't need to select them as weapons or get weapon refills for weapon energy; you just do the move. Do it as often as you like, whenever you want. That's a cool idea, but in a Megaman game, it has a lot of limitations. Because of this, Zero's playthrough is like playing the game on Hard mode.
It's hard to say if this game succeeded as a sequel or not. I didn't like the music. Hated it, actually. The only track I enjoyed was Frost Walrus. And that's probably because it reminded me of Super Mario 64. The presentation was real hit-or-miss. The graphics look great, and as far as a graphical style, I think this is the logical next step to the X series. But then they added anime cutscenes. And I'm really fine with that idea. Chrono Trigger for the PS really did it right. But this game does it wrong. Very wrong. The animation is lackluster to begin with, and on top of that, they spent probably $20 total on the voice acting. It's atrocious. It's the worst voice acting I've ever seen or heard. Now, if you're wondering whether or not the v-sync on that video is off, it isn't. The voice acting is just that bad.
So. What to say, what to say. I liked the game, but probably only because I'm a Megaman fan. If I played this game as an outsider, I'd probably have to make fun of this game for the rest of my life.
Rating: 3 Zero cries out of 5.
Nano-rant: "No this isn't happening! There's no reason for me to go on! What...what am I fighting FORRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHGGGGGGGGGHHHGGHGHGHGHGHGHGH!
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