I was going to say start with MMBN2/3 since they're both the greatest but it's probably best to start with MMBN1 first since going to that game after the sequels would be tedious. (Be sure to look up maps from a FAQ because MMBN1's internet has a terrible layout). Avoid MMBN4, it's terrible, trust me on this.
The classic anime was alright, it kind of focused a lot on teaching you about Japan than Mega Man beating up Wily's robots. But it's still worth a watch.
Ahahahaha holy shit. I need to rewatch the american show, I barely remember much of it.
If you're going to talk about the Battle Network series, can we touch on how bizarre the plot of Star Force was? I mean, good on Capcom for trying to do something different. But how did that game get through marketing? What thoughts led to that game?
"Okay, what do kids like? Kamen Rider's big, so let's have a transforming superhero. Oh, and let's have the main character be struggling with depression because of the presumed death of his father. That's what kids want to see!"
I vaguely recall a subplot where one of the characters was afraid that their parents might get a divorce. Am I remembering wrong?
If you're going to talk about the Battle Network series, can we touch on how bizarre the plot of Star Force was? I mean, good on Capcom for trying to do something different. But how did that game get through marketing? What thoughts led to that game?
"Okay, what do kids like? Kamen Rider's big, so let's have a transforming superhero. Oh, and let's have the main character be struggling with depression because of the presumed death of his father. That's what kids want to see!"
I vaguely recall a subplot where one of the characters was afraid that their parents might get a divorce. Am I remembering wrong?
Hey, I loved the Star Force games. I think that focus on isolation, social anxieties, and overcoming those obstacles was what made the first game's plot the strongest of the three Star Force games and better than most of the Battle Network games. Kids are hardly free from fear and anxiety, after all.
Also, the Kamen Rider series can apparently be very dark at times. One season's main plot involved shapeshifting aliens murdering people and assuming their identities, to the point where the aliens forgot that they weren't the originals. Another involved demons running a game where they ran around murdering people by the hundreds to see who could amass the highest kill-count.
4's battle system is great, but the story's the biggest problem for me. The ending area also didn't feel as fun as any of the ones in 1-3.
I own SF1-3 but I still haven't finished the first one. Only problems I found with it was really the battle system since it feels like a big downgrade from the BN series. While things might change later, I liked how in BN, you were connected through others on the net by talking to other net navis and programs. This game, you're kind of alone and all you get to talk to are programs or whatever. For the characters, I still need to get further, but I do like them a lot like I did for BN.
So I'm replaying mega man 1 on the wiiu virtual console. Some thoughts I have
- I forgot just how fast bosses die in this game to their weakness, 2-4 hits at max it's crazy.
- Elec Man's weapon is the best even without the pause trick. Ice man's is next cause freezing enemies is just awesome. Fire man's is okay if you somehow run out of elec man's weapon. Bomb man's sucks, guts man's sucks, cut man's is too slow to be useful.
-The m is broken lol making your own platforms I'm trying to not abuse it to fly over some screens.
- I dunno how you're supposed to arm cannon duel elec man that fights annoying with his weakness.
- I try not to use the pause trick, but screw fighting the green devil without it. Not that g.d. Is difficult, just a long tedious fight not worth the effort.
Stage after green devils have to go to dinner will probably finish later tonight
Hey, I loved the Star Force games. I think that focus on isolation, social anxieties, and overcoming those obstacles was what made the first game's plot the strongest of the three Star Force games and better than most of the Battle Network games. Kids are hardly free from fear and anxiety, after all.
The first game's plot was far more intriguing than the second and interesting in its own right. The fact that Geo wants to hide his identity and how that plays out through the game (especially with Luna, who I feel is one of the best characters) added more spice to the game. The way Geo was handled didn't feel that involving though; for me he was often more grating or flat than sympathetic. It's not until the Gemini scenario that Geo's arc is fulfilled, but what I remember of what that arc meant (
Pat's isolation and etc.
fit in well with Geo.
BN battle system is better. Even the things done to rectify being restricted to one row (shield, lock-on) don't feel any less restricting.
So I'm replaying mega man 1 on the wiiu virtual console. Some thoughts I have
- I forgot just how fast bosses die in this game to their weakness, 2-4 hits at max it's crazy.
- Elec Man's weapon is the best even without the pause trick. Ice man's is next cause freezing enemies is just awesome. Fire man's is okay if you somehow run out of elec man's weapon. Bomb man's sucks, guts man's sucks, cut man's is too slow to be useful.
-The m is broken lol making your own platforms I'm trying to not abuse it to fly over some screens.
- I dunno how you're supposed to arm cannon duel elec man that fights annoying with his weakness.
- I try not to use the pause trick, but screw fighting the green devil without it. Not that g.d. Is difficult, just a long tedious fight not worth the effort.
Stage after green devils have to go to dinner will probably finish later tonight
Thunder Beam is so good cause that range is hideous. It's both funny and screwed up that it takes like 3 Thunder Beams to kill Ice Man but if you go for buster only each shot does one damage. When I've played Mega Man 1, I go for Fire Man first because Elec Man's stage is tedious and I've never tried the fight with just the buster. Fire Storm is decent for that semi-shield you get. Weapons aren't so great on the whole.
MMZ2 is fairly good up until the sequences leading up to the final boss and the final boss itself. It's not hard, actually probably the easiest final boss in the Zero series. You could say that it literally ended Mega Man there and brought Zero into his own light (finally).
And no, actually I HATE everything about Zero 4, I HATE the Zero Knuckle, I HATE the shit story, I HATE the extremely brief ending, I HATE the lack of the guardians, I HATE the terrible cargo train that's supposed to be the hub. I HATE that it was a follow up to an incredibly solid game.
It's the X6 of the Zero series, mildly playable but loathsome after all is said and done.
Mega Man Zero 2's final boss fight wasn't all that great, minus the sequence where he
destroys X's body, and personally I like the sequence where he admits he admits his failures
. Otherwise I like the game. I kinda missed the Metroidvania layout but it wasn't a huge loss.
And yes, Zero 4 is my least favorite Zero game. I don't hate it, but I don't like it all that much, besides the good music in this series. Besides what you listed, I also disliked how simple the weather changing element was and that slight, deliberate altering of the stage was all that separated you from an EX Skill. It would've been better if all of the Einherjar weren't available at once. Still like the ending dialogues, minus Ciel.
IIRC weren't a bunch of the minibosses Golems, too?
Recoil Rod and Chain from Zero 2 so much better.
I guess I'm alone in liking the Zero Knuckle. Taking abilities from bosses was something I missed in the Zero games, and the Zero Knuckle allowed you to do that on regular enemies and had some unique uses on boss fights. The rest of the game wasn't that great though (compared to the other Zero games). Weather system was a bit underwhelming. I thought it was going to be interesting like how X1 had stage alterations in different ways, but it didn't turn out that great.
Zero 4 tried to innovate/change things up too much at once in a bad way.
Thunder Beam is so good cause that range is hideous. It's both funny and screwed up that it takes like 3 Thunder Beams to kill Ice Man but if you go for buster only each shot does one damage. When I've played Mega Man 1, I go for Fire Man first because Elec Man's stage is tedious and I've never tried the fight with just the buster. Fire Storm is decent for that semi-shield you get. Weapons aren't so great on the whole.
I always go for Bomb Man first, second easiest boss to Guts Man and it gives you Thunder Beam and the Magnet Beam for Ice and Fire Man stages. Also I dunno why you'd ever want to do Fire Man's stage without the Ice Beam to freeze the fire pillars. Also the only thing the Fire Shield can hit that the Thunder Beam can't is enemies behind you which I can't really think of any areas that would be useful.
Also it's crazy how far your weapon energy goes in MM1, like I pretty much just spam Thunder Beam and Ice Beam everywhere and never am at less then half a bar by the boss. Tie into the fact bosses only need a few hits and it makes it even easier. Only weapon that drains energy quickly is the magnet beam and IMO it doesn't drain enough for how much it trivializes the game.
The first episode of Kamen Rider I watche had a guy die in a car accident, then come back to life to realize everyone he knew had abandoned him. Then he turned into a monster and killed the guy who was dating his ex. I don't know anyone who has been in that situation. It's purely in the realm of fantasy. People die, but they die in Dragonball Z too.
Star Force is Degrassi by comparison. And considering SF2 and 3 basicaly abandoned that aspect I think Capcom found it unmarketable.
SF1's battle system was more twitch-based than BN's, I find, but it was barebones. Things improve a lot in 2 and especially 3. Customization and transformation are brought back.
You might like SF3. SF2 tried to be BN by being more comical and lighthearted. SF3 gave everyone Wizards and turned Omega-Xis into a Wizard, so the game very much starts with "bam, it's Battle Network now". I thought it was an awful change but to each their own.
The new systems in MMZ4 were great, but the levels were pretty boring and the game didn't really make use of the systems. The Zero Arm was fun to play around with but I don't think it was ever useful. The Cyber Elf system was finally not awful but the game was too easy for it to matter.
You found TheLegendofRenegade! I love his Genesis remixes. Only thing that bugs me is when he inserts "Cowabunga!" into the Shadow Man and Dive Man remixes. Here are some Classic-themed ones that I like:
I think he's done 1 - MM&B of the Classic series, and may check out 9 and 10 sometime down the line. Pretty good, most of them. I hadn't bothered to check if had remixed songs for other series, and he has, so thanks for the heads up. Nice choices, too.
SF1's battle system was more twitch-based than BN's, I find, but it was barebones. Things improve a lot in 2 and especially 3. Customization and transformation are brought back.
You might like SF3. SF2 tried to be BN by being more comical and lighthearted. SF3 gave everyone Wizards and turned Omega-Xis into a Wizard, so the game very much starts with "bam, it's Battle Network now". I thought it was an awful change but to each their own.
Yeah, I'll probably go through them this year. I did enjoy what I played, but I think stuff got in the way.
And hm, didn't know that. We'll see if I end up liking 3 a lot. I generally heard good things about it. What you mentioned could possibly annoy me. The same thing kind of happened later on in the BN anime which bugged me where everyone had cross fusion, but I'll see how this one turns out.
So I've been doing MM homework, based off of some past posts. Incoming long post.
-Quick Man perfect fight: It is stupid as hell. I don't see how his patterns aren't random to some degree. I managed to do it, but it took an obscene amount of tries. Thank Capcom for their mercy in having Quick Man take 2 HP's of damage from a buster shot, and for the relatively short invulnerability period for enemies after a hit in this game.
At the start of the match, it's best to stay still and see what he does first. He'll do one of two things--do a fast short jump across the screen towards you, or do a high jump across the screen. If he does the latter that's great, but if the former that sucks because he might do another short hop or two and fire his Boomerangs then. The problem with this chain of events is that Quick Man is random and he makes his decisions so fast that it demands great reaction from the player. It is ridiculously hard to anticipate when he'll fire Boomerangs, and even worse about the Boomerangs is that they react immediately to your position by going straight at you.
Generally speaking, it is easiest to avoid Boomerangs if they're fired from above. You'll also want to be moving away from the Boomerangs if they're fired above, and will want to jump at least slightly--sometimes one of the Boomerangs will hit you if you only stay on the ground. Stay away from the wall because you won't give yourself room to avoid Quick Man and his Boomerangs; they're not so bad in isolation, but you don't want to put up with both of them coming at you at the same time, it's possibly avoidable at times but you're giving yourself undue stress. If he fires Boomerangs on the ground, more often than not you want to jump toward them--the point is you want to jump over them before the Boomerangs fan out, so you'll have an easier time dodging. If going for a perfect run, be prepared for having to jump twice in quick succession. I could say more, but I'll close at this. I'll fight him again some more later.
I set up a save state at the teleport room on 3DS Virtual Console, not putting up with the BS of running through the stage and killing myself over and over because I took damage. So unfortunately, I also didn't have to deal with the uneven terrain =3
-Mega Man X4 Barebones: I recently completed a barebones run of X4 with X and Zero. No armor pieces, no heart containers, no Tanks, no weaknesses besides Ryuenjin against Sigma's first form, no infinite slashes. For the record, for Zero I killed Split Mushroom sixth and didn't use the Hienkyaku in the game either, though I did double jump when I got it (minus Storm Owl and Cyber Peacock.)
Well. There were some things I was definitely wrong about. I had the wrong impression of the difficulty gulf between the two characters; Zero isn't a vastly more difficult character to play. They're almost equal when you play through the stages. Zero even excels when enemies move closer to him at times. I'm thinking of the jumping spike things that attack you when you're climbing the spiral staircases in Split Mushroom's stage. In a scenario like this, whereas X only gets one shot to destroy whatever is in his path, Zero can swing repeatedly in the air. being said, a situation that Zero specializes in doesn't come up often, and whenever that situation isn't the case, X is sufficient if not slightly preferable as far as charging up a shot and then shooting some small X-busters to take care of an enemy (or enemies, many of them don't take many shots to kill and it's not often that super hefty enemies are bunched together.) Zero is preferable for the minibosses, and the Intro Boss fight against the Egregion dragon is just tragic if you use Zero. X is still preferable for progressing through most stages and for Maverick fights IMO. I'll close this with some scant comments on boss fights:
Jet Stingray: You can't combo Stingray all that often, and you can't destroy all Hunter drones before they reach the ground if you don't have Kuuenbu without sacrificing some damage on Stingray. X can just plow through drones before they reach the ground. Slash Beast: With Zero focus on comboing him, and dash under Twin Slashers with both characters. You give yourself more breathing room with X but it's not a huge difference. Web Spider: Faster with X I think. If you're all pro then you can get in three charged shots every time he drops by in his first phase. You'll put up with a little more stress when Spider launches the spiders but just destroy the spiders on one side and occupy that side and its wall. Split Mushroom: Takes a shit ton of practice to learn to lead the Mushrooms in such a way that you give yourself space to evade, all the while perfecting your jump heights. Can't combo with Zero safely but there's not much difference in approach between the two hunters, because you're always close to Mushroom. Cyber Peacock: Not fun with Zero. toooooooo loooooooong Storm Owl: Pretty fun With Zero somehow. This is just a fun fight if you're not using his weakness. Slightly easier with X, this fight requires more caution and footwork. Fun fact--some frames of the Rakuhouha attack are invincible, so if you use Rakuhouha right when Owl swoops in to grab you, not only should a ton of the feathers hit, you may take no damage if you dash away. May be able to kill him with only 4 Rakuhouha uses. Magma Dragoon: If you go all-out aggressive and don't mind taking some hits with Zero this fight is faster than X I think. With X, it's not like with Zero where you get a little opportunity if you take some damage. It's not that hard anyway though. Frost Walrus: Bizarrely, Zero wasn't comboing him when I played. So this takes way longer than it should. Colonel: He's not bad, I could see an argument either way. Inclined to say Zero takes longer, but difficult? Nah. Double: Cake. Iris: Really, you can just double jump and Kuuenbu all day and win this. Remember to get extra mileage out of your Kuuenbu by turning around once the sword is below Zero: this way he finishes his spinning attack with his saber facing the enemy again. General: Much easier with X. But if you get General on your side, cling to the wall, and get him to constantly use his blue laser attack, your Zero fight is better. Sigma: This was a huge surprise. In another post here I said I thought the Sigma fight would be awful with Zero. The first two forms are easy. With the second form, avoid the spinning scythe attack, and afterwards wall cling so that he throws his scythe on the wall, cling to the wall behind him and attack. Easier than dealing with fucking boomerangs. But in the Sigma's third phase, with the weapon form he is a cakewalk! And protecting yourself from "space dust" that the Sigma head sucks in is easier with Zero. This fight is way way way way way easier with Zero than X.
edit:I've since become more skeptical about barebones X being better for progressing through most stages. If there's no mobility difference, the restrictions of the buster can add a certain tedium to progressing through large swaths of moderately strong enemies.
Yeah I've been going through a MM5-listening kick and gotta say, I love the themes for all the robot masters besides Crystal Man and Stone Man, though I'm kinda iffy on Gyro Man. It's refreshing, when I've had enough of the moodiness of MM3 and MM4.
I'd meant to update my X4 Zero barebones run one of these days, but Greenhowse has done a very good job summing it up. Barebones X is much harder than Barebones Zero for many of the reasons written, especially in terms of short-range melee combat. And I was just as surprised as you were when I fought Sigma! I didn't think Zero would have an easier time like that, haha.
Barebones Zero vs Cyber Peacock was pretty terribad. It took so damned long and it simply unenjoyable. Sometimes barebones runs can be pretty darn fun when you get used to fighting the bosses like that, but oh lordy...
As for Mega Man music...
I guess everyone's on a Mega Man music kick these days. I'm in the middle of listening to the albums released last year to commemorate the 25th anniversary since I didn't get around to them as I was busy with Soundtrack of the Year stuff. I have to say that I've been impressed with the We Are Rock-Men! 2 release so far. The Rockman xover theme is truly the best thing to come out of that game. The rest of the album is pretty darn good, too, but at the moment since this is the first listening phase, I feel like I'm giving the album more credit than I should. I do feel that it might be better than the first album.
I need to listen to the other few albums more, but as of right now, I think the Rock album has some standout tracks, but overall it's just alright (and this is generally the style of music I gravitate to primarily since the electric guitar was my physical instrument of choice for a few years, so it isn't the case that I dislike the genre at all). The techno album is more cohesive and thus stands up as the better album. I haven't touched the Rockman Holic album yet, but I've heard that it wasn't very spectacular. The thing about vocal albums is that I pay too much attention to singers' diction (which I really can't help since I've taken vocal lessons before), and thus I feel like I'm more critical towards them. Well. We'll see how I feel about it.
I do want to go back and compare the two 25th anniversary albums to the 20th anniversary albums, just to see how they're like in comparison to each other. The 25th anniversary albums cover more stuff than the 20th anniversary ones do, but I'm wondering if the quality of the arrangements are better and more cohesive as a whole in one set over the other.
Storm Owl: Pretty fun With Zero somehow. This is just a fun fight if you're not using his weakness. Slightly easier with X, this fight requires more caution and footwork. Fun fact--some frames of the Rakuhouha attack are invincible, so if you use Rakuhouha right when Owl swoops in to grab you, not only should a ton of the feathers hit, you may take no damage if you dash away. May be able to kill him with only 4 Rakuhouha uses.
Magma Dragoon: If you go all-out aggressive and don't mind taking some hits with Zero this fight is faster than X I think. With X, it's not like with Zero where you get a little opportunity if you take some damage. It's not that hard anyway though.
The second Colonel fight is a lot like X1 Sigma in that the difficulty is inversely related to how fast you want to get it over with. If you don't mind taking a long time then you can just be on the top corner whenever he isn't doing his lightning attack and it becomes really easy but really tedious.
Sigma: This was a huge surprise. In another post here I said I thought the Sigma fight would be awful with Zero. The first two forms are easy. With the second form, avoid the spinning scythe attack, and afterwards wall cling so that he throws his scythe on the wall, cling to the wall behind him and attack. Easier than dealing with fucking boomerangs.
Yup, and you do the same with X. It's pretty much the same fight either way.
But in the Sigma's third phase, with the weapon form he is a cakewalk! And protecting yourself from "space dust" that the Sigma head sucks in is easier with Zero. This fight is way way way way way easier with Zero than X.
Yeah I've been going through a MM5-listening kick and gotta say, I love the themes for all the robot masters besides Crystal Man and Stone Man, though I'm kinda iffy on Gyro Man. It's refreshing, when I've had enough of the moodiness of MM3 and MM4.
MM5 gets a lot of crap for its music (and some of it is fucking horrible), but Wave Man, Charge Man, and the music in the 2 castles are awesome - in fact I'd say Charge Man is one of my all-time favorite stage themes. Also I think it has one of if not the best Wily Machine themes in the whole series.
I've always heard people rag on 4 and 5 for their soundtracks. 4 I simply don't agree with. 5 I just kinda agree with.
For me, 4 only had one weak track - Toad Man. Even then, I liked it because it was funky. Many seem to hate Dust Man, but I liked that track.
As for 5, the only tracks I really think are truly awful are the Boss Battle music and Stone Man, but Gravity Man and Star Man both start strong and then go off kilter, imo. They're both funky too, and it's tough to dislike funky music, but they just kinda lose me halfway. Like I said, I love some of the tracks.
Of course, I say all this as someone who listens to the entire OSTs from the first 5 games in my car at least twice a week...
I've always heard people rag on 4 and 5 for their soundtracks. 4 I simply don't agree with. 5 I just kinda agree with.
For me, 4 only had one weak track - Toad Man. Even then, I liked it because it was funky. Many seem to hate Dust Man, but I liked that track.
As for 5, the only tracks I really think are truly awful are the Boss Battle music and Stone Man, but Gravity Man and Star Man both start strong and then go off kilter, imo. They're both funky too, and it's tough to dislike funky music, but they just kinda lose me halfway. Like I said, I love some of the tracks.
Of course, I say all this as someone who listens to the entire OSTs from the first 5 games in my car at least twice a week...
What?! Toad Man's theme is great! Oh and I love MM4's OST as well. The Boss Battle theme from 5 is okay, the remix for it in Complete Works is horrible though. Soooo bad.
Well, I do think that MM5's soundtrack isn't the best, but it isn't bad by any stretch of the imagination. My favorites in the game have to be Charge and Gravity Man.
MM4 Complete Works consisted of the best tracks for me. Truly the peak of that PS1 run.
Cossack Stages 1 - Excellent basswork (truly), good use of synth, fantastic organ Cossack Stages 2 - Yet again, great bassline and good synth rhythm (great synth backing and synth movements as well). Add in the wonderful percussion, and we're in business. Wily Stages 1 - I have to admit that I'm very fond of this one; I love percussion in this one, as well as the piano in here. The woodwind and lead synth sound excellent. Synth trumpets are always nice to hear, especially when synced well in terms of pacing. Wily Stages 2 - Something something Schala likes bass a lot I'm so sorry something something; it's very funk-jazzy and I usually tend to fall for this stuff in a second, to be honest with you. Boss Battle - I like the pacing a lot. It's a lot more cohesive and hard-hitting than its original counterpart because the notes in the first part are no longer isolated staccato notes, and now have proper backing behind them. I also like the genre they decided to go with for this one as well.
Dive Man - You know, the basswork for the entire album is very good. Synth organ and piano are nicely placed, and the theme has good pacing in general. The synth guitar kind of reminds me of some of the work in Arc the Lad, actually. And that's a very good thing. Skull Man - synth guitars and the piano balance each other very well; and the added percussion + lead synth truly helps to add more punch to the piece. Pharaoh Man - Fuck. Yes. Ring Man - Adding synth brass and added percussion truly helps to make this sound more festive and catchier. Bright Man - This. Damn. Bass.
Shoot, let's just say that Rockman 4 Complete Works is pretty damn awesome. Made me like the game even more this time around.
I never liked the Complete Works soundtracks. It's not that they're bad, it's that they're lazy. If you're going to redo the music for the game, redo the music for the entire game. If you're going to crib music from Mega Man 2: The Power Fighters where applicable, then redo the rest of the music to have the same style. Don't do this half-and-half shit where you crib music from MM2TPF and then redo everything else in a completely different style, because the end result is inconsistent and extremely tacky.
I mean, heck, in Schala's selection there, "Dive Man" and "Pharaoh Man" stand out from the others because they were rearranged for a completely different game, and it bugs the HELL out of me.
Did they ever give a reason why 5 and 6 never made it here? I remember 6's release in Japan was stalled for quite some time. After it got released, I was hoping NA PSN finally release those two.
I could buy them, on the Japanese store, but I'd rather not. Just because of my Vita mainly.
I find most of the MM4 remixes to be too upbeat relative to the kinda melancholy original tracks. So not a technical complaint, just a thematic one.
That Pharaoh Man track though, hoo. It's like a Street Fighter 3: Second Impact version of a Darkstalkers track. I need to play some of this on PSP tonight, now heh.
Did they ever give a reason why 5 and 6 never made it here? I remember 6's release in Japan was stalled for quite some time. After it got released, I was hoping NA PSN finally release those two.
I could buy them, on the Japanese store, but I'd rather not. Just because of my Vita mainly.
I really want 5 & 6 Complete Works on NA PSN. I've honestly considered just getting a JP card and buying them off the JP store. Meaning I'd have to probably reset my Vita every time I want to play them, which is a bit of a hassle, to be honest with you.
I honestly just want them for my Vita since I can play them on the go, just like Rhapsody does. The D-pad on Vita is really darn nice for them.
----
I'm replaying Mega Man 2 at the moment. This is the game that got me into video games, and it's the Mega Man game that's near and dear to my heart.
Lol, you're gonna are going to kill me for this, but I swear hear the same 9 notes at the beginning of the Pharaoh Man remix as the Glacius Killer Kuts remix...
I really want 5 & 6 Complete Works on NA PSN. I've honestly considered just getting a JP card and buying them off the JP store. Meaning I'd have to probably reset my Vita every time I want to play them, which is a bit of a hassle, to be honest with you.
I honestly just want them for my Vita since I can play them on the go, just like Rhapsody does. The D-pad on Vita is really darn nice for them.
I'm going to settle for the 3DS MM5 and 6. I've gotten more used to the 3DS pad, but I didn't like the clickiness compared to the old DS pad at first. I prefer the Vita pad, but I still don't own one
Mega Man Zero 2's final boss fight wasn't all that great, minus the sequence where he
destroys X's body, and personally I like the sequence where he admits he admits his failures
. Otherwise I like the game. I kinda missed the Metroidvania layout but it wasn't a huge loss.
And yes, Zero 4 is my least favorite Zero game. I don't hate it, but I don't like it all that much, besides the good music in this series. Besides what you listed, I also disliked how simple the weather changing element was and that slight, deliberate altering of the stage was all that separated you from an EX Skill. It would've been better if all of the Einherjar weren't available at once. Still like the ending dialogues, minus Ciel.
IIRC weren't a bunch of the minibosses Golems, too?
Recoil Rod and Chain from Zero 2 so much better.
I just think that the fact that Elpizo was the one to do X in... MMZ2's penultimate scene was a reverse situation of MMX games where X is usually detained by some field. Instead of the cliche moment where Zero would break out and save X it just sort of happened and Zero didn't give a shit. I think that's what upset me more than anything. It was like Inafune channeled Zero and said "this is how I really feel about X, 死ぬ"
I don't know who the writer for the Zero series is
Despite my exaggerated hate, the game regressed in terms of mechanics and adding enemy parts on the fetching quests on top of the usual cyber elf fishing is tiresome. I feel that it became more tedious and lacked the diversity that MMZ3 accomplishes.
There's quite a few mini-bosses but I believe you may be referring to the Dragon mini-bosses? I'd need an example, it's been quite some time since I last played Zero 4 lol.
And yes the Chain Rod and Recoil Rod have a much more impactful role in their respective games. I actually really like the Recoil Rod and Shield Boomerang combination, especially when playing Hard mode in MMZ3.
I don't think Mega Man's capable of letting humans come to harm. He's not a Reploid. He isn't really capable of independent thought. It's the same reason he lets Wily go in MM7.
As for music, I think the Mega Man X fusion album is the best. It's like 70 bucks before shipping though. Armored Armadillo Boomer Kuwanger
I thought Complete Works 4 was the weakest! It wasn't terrible, but just not the best of the three. Although it had great use of the...didgeridoo, and something something time signatures.
Most of the rearrangements just seemed to lack impact. Like Toad Man for example, it's an unsung hero of the game, but the rearrangement has a slower tempo and the main melody instruments tend to "bleed." Skull Man is great, Bright Man has an unexpected elevator-music arrangement but it works out amazingly well, Cossack 2 is ambitious and the Wily 1 and 2 arrangements take tracks that seem pretty barebones and inject tons of life into them. But I wasn't that keen on Drill Man, Dive Man, Pharaoh Man, and Ring Man's arrangements, besides Toad Man. Dust Man's is...okay. This is a little more up my alley as far as remixes: Toad Man from Teckwerks and Bright Man from Teckwerks. Arguably the bass is given slightly more focus than it needs, and since it's all synth-based/because of the instrument choice his use of sound is limited, but they create more action. I actually love good bass, even some of the modern rock bands I like tend to be boring with bass, and in Bright Man's stage it just sounds so...sexy.
Complete Works 6 is...alright. Some of the tracks just aren't all that amazing by themselves. I will never understand either Centaur Man mix. Tomahawk Man and Plant Man remixes could've been better. But Flame Man, an already amazing track IMO, is now godly. Wind Man wraps up upbeat pep, action-driven guitar, and sky-stage-themed wispiness and relaxation. Knight Man is full of intrigue. Mr.X's relaxing theme is not what I'd expect from a Fortress but I appreciate how peaceful it feels.
I know I said before that MM9 seemed like it took after MM1 and MM2 and that fans of MM3 and MM4 would like MM10 a little better, but I like 2, 3, 4, and 5 a lot, and I just can't help but to feel that 10 excelled in some areas like level design, enemy placement, etc. over MM9.
I love both games, but I do feel that I have to start giving the edge to MM10. Lightning Lord, qq more, Noi, and a few other people had exclaimed that I'd finally seen the light earlier on, lol.
More importantly though, on a tangent I have a similar idea about the NES games. I feel like you can group the entries into pairs. This is totally conjecture and really reductionist, but just for fun:
MM1 and MM2 both feature a similar sounding soundtrack, and basically the same sprite colors as far as I can tell. The physics are the same: Mega Man falls like a brick. The first game has an old school arcade-y sound and feel that isn't as pronounced in the second game, outside of echoing the gameplay and the soundtrack. I think Mega Man 9 retains the arcade-y upbeat soundtrack from these games.
MM3 and MM4 start expanding the game past the 8 Robot Masters, with Doc Robots and Cossack stages. Both feature mostly melancholy or atmospheric tracks (I think Fine Ham Abounds called it minor-scale compositions in another thread, I understand the sound it conveys but I can't use music lingo as my music theory is weak and it's been a long time since I've played piano.) Mega Man's face and buster are more tan than yellow, sound effects for damage are different, physics are different. MM10 looks more like MM1 and MM2 but the music definitely recalls MM3 and MM4's tone.
MM5 and MM6 are hard to describe. With soundtrack tone, they aren't moody like MM3 and MM4, but they feel more relaxed (?) than MM1 and MM2. What's interesting to note is that I feel like MM5 starts making the boss designs more complex and busier from an art perspective. The height of complexity in the past was stuff like Pharaoh Man or Ring Man, but just look at the jump we get with Wave Man, Gravity Man, Flame Man, and Plant Man. I feel like the enemies and design in these games encouraged more use of charging the Mega Buster.
I'd meant to update my X4 Zero barebones run one of these days, but Greenhowse has done a very good job summing it up. Barebones X is much harder than Barebones Zero for many of the reasons written, especially in terms of short-range melee combat. And I was just as surprised as you were when I fought Sigma! I didn't think Zero would have an easier time like that, haha.
Actually, I was of the opposite opinion in that post...
...but I've since had a harder time justifying the idea that Barebones X is easier than Zero on the whole. As much as I think X is still preferable for most all Maverick fights, I've had to change on which barebones character is better for going through stages, and it's Zero for sure. What it takes to make X better than Zero are the Plasma Shot and the Body armor piece. Frost Tower can some minibosses too. But yeah, Zero is just better than X with no armor, I'll have to concede to Hitokage's main idea.
I just think that the fact that Elpizo was the one to do X in... MMZ2's penultimate scene was a reverse situation of MMX games where X is usually detained by some field. Instead of the cliche moment where Zero would break out and save X it just sort of happened and Zero didn't give a shit. I think that's what upset me more than anything. It was like Inafune channeled Zero and said "this is how I really feel about X, 死ぬ"
I don't know who the writer for the Zero series is
Despite my exaggerated hate, the game regressed in terms of mechanics and adding enemy parts on the fetching quests on top of the usual cyber elf fishing is tiresome. I feel that it became more tedious and lacked the diversity that MMZ3 accomplishes.
There's quite a few mini-bosses but I believe you may be referring to the Dragon mini-bosses? I'd need an example, it's been quite some time since I last played Zero 4 lol.
And yes the Chain Rod and Recoil Rod have a much more impactful role in their respective games. I actually really like the Recoil Rod and Shield Boomerang combination, especially when playing Hard mode in MMZ3.
I thought the fact that the roles were reversed mirroring the scene in X1, and the fact that Zero couldn't save X's body, was awesome in its subversion. I'll admit it's kind of anticlimactic because Zero hardly talks in the games and all you see of him reacting to it in that game is that art still after Elpizo destroys the body. He clearly looks pissed, but I'll concede that I don't remember him talking much when X spoke to him in the ending.
If that was all we ever saw of X that would have been very deflating but thankfully the writers decided to (kinda awkwardly) give themselves a TON of breathing space with the Zero 3 ending:
blah blah blah this isn't my body but it's still me Zero, in spirit somehow,
and I believe X shows up a couple times in that game, making his last appearance in the series. But yeah, Inafune more or less doesn't care about X. I don't know who wrote the games, though he at least moved to get the Zero series created. I don't know if it was his plan to have Copy X in Zero 1 be the Original X (a plan that was redacted by someone else after some internal discussion) either.
I totally forgot about the recipe system in Zero 4 too. I don't remember bothering with it at all, I think I couldn't make everything I wanted and just gave up. As for minibosses, I confused Z4 with Z2--I believe Z4 had dragons like you said (Kraken was one of them) and Z2 had golems. It's just been a while since I've played Zero 4, but I remember not liking most of the stages too.
I loved the Recoil Rod for bouncing around, and once you get the EX Skills for the Shield Boomerang it's lots of fun. The spiral shield and the ground tracking shield are just neat. I don't remember them being super practical compared to the saber, and they're at least very unorthodox but they're fun to use.
More importantly though, on a tangent I have a similar idea about the NES games. I feel like you can group the entries into pairs. This is totally conjecture and really reductionist, but just for fun:
We must be both similarly insane, because ever since I was a kid I had a similar but completely different take that the odd and even numbered entries were more similar to one another.
I should make a whole rerun of the NES games once I get a 3DS XL. It'd be nice if they made ports of 9 and 10, but that will never happen, because Capcom. (7 and 8 and MM&B would be nice too, but not more than these 2.)
I've been trophy hunting in Mega Man 10 lately. Recently did a no-death run + buster-only Wily Castle (even with Noi's insistence that I do a Mr. Perfect run and to that I say, "nooooooo") and I'm still planning on playing more of it while I do this Sonic CD 100% run.
After a few runs of MM10, I went back to Mega Man 9, and I love Mega Man 9, but uh...
Uh. Oh man, Mega Man 10 was a step up from Mega Man 9 in a lot of ways outside of the weapons (because MM9 probably has the best weapons in the classic series, imo). MM9 just feels outright weird in some ways (specifically the level design in the Wily levels). I know I said before that MM9 seemed like it took after MM1 and MM2 and that fans of MM3 and MM4 would like MM10 a little better, but I like 2, 3, 4, and 5 a lot, and I just can't help but to feel that 10 excelled in some areas like level design, enemy placement, etc. over MM9.
I love both games, but I do feel that I have to start giving the edge to MM10. Lightning Lord, qq more, Noi, and a few other people had exclaimed that I'd finally seen the light earlier on, lol.
I feel that both 9 and 10 take the most after 1/2, in design. (Of course, both of them take some points from the later games, but the core design is much closer to 2, I'd say.) 10 is much closer to the later games in presentation, that's for sure.
Anyway, my favorite of the NES games is 2, yet I prefer 10 over 9. What does that say?
EDIT: Well, that was an old post, I should have looked where the quoted post led. Sorry.
Listening to the Mega Man X soundtracks while at work. I desperately want SNES games on my 3DS Virtual Console. I just want to play the Mega Man X games on my 3DS. Anyone else feel the same way?
Listening to the Mega Man X soundtracks while at work. I desperately want SNES games on my 3DS Virtual Console. I just want to play the Mega Man X games on my 3DS. Anyone else feel the same way?
Well, I would personally want every game in my library being playable on a 3DS, since I like playing games on handhelds, but yes. At least the NES games are there. (And those that aren't yet will be.)
The SNES is a hot collector commodity right now, it seems odd they aren't trying to capitalize off of that. I'd love to be able to get X1-3, not least of all because I barely played 2 and 3. MM7 as well. I can only assume it has to do with licensing issues.
