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[Seven Force]

- Beating bosses doesn't always give Zero upgrades, case in point beating Jet Stingray gave me an air dash which is useful but doesn't help with my damage output.

Zero gets more than enough tools to deal with most everything the game can throw at him, so I think giving him better mobility was probably for the best.

Since I tend to abuse the dash cancel trick, I kind of forget that Zero's basic damage output isn't all that hot, heh.

 

[BassForever]

Zero gets more than enough tools to deal with most everything the game can throw at him, so I think giving him better mobility was probably for the best.

Since I tend to abuse the dash cancel trick, I kind of forget that Zero's basic damage output isn't all that hot, heh.

Dash cancel is great... for things that stay on the ground

Also I forgot you get double jump and kuenzan from the same boss (split mushroom) that's pretty much the move for Zero that makes the game 10x easier

 

[Rhapsody]

X4 was fun. More fun than X3 for me, but still not at the level of the first two.

I thought it was a great game that was hindered by how easy it was for most in stages. :/

Also was the last game (?) where you could use armor as soon as you got it. Hated how you needed to complete a set in the later ones.

 

[SkyOdin]

X4 was fun. More fun than X3 for me, but still not at the level of the first two.

I thought it was a great game that was hindered by how easy it was for most in stages. :/

Also was the last game (?) where you could use armor as soon as you got it. Hated how you needed to complete a set in the later ones.

One of the good things about X8 is that it had both two sets of armor and let X use the armor as soon as he got it. It even let you mix and match armor parts. The armor was really good too. The only downside was that the Neutral Armor had a somewhat lousy visual design.

 

[BassForever]

Had a friend over, beaten the entire bottom row as Zero so far the only boss to really give me any trouble was the mushroom one due to being like Gemini Man. Tiger boss was a joke same with the ice walrus boss.

For power ups both Zero's power ups from the ice walrus and tiger boss suck, a down thrust attack should be better then this (ice attack) same with a dash attack (tiger). Course mushroom gives you both double jump and kuenzan which is pretty much GG.

 

[Rhapsody]

One of the good things about X8 is that it had both two sets of armor and let X use the armor as soon as he got it. It even let you mix and match armor parts. The armor was really good too. The only downside was that the Neutral Armor had a somewhat lousy visual design.

That sounds pretty neat. Still haven't gotten around to X8 yet, so that's something I can look forward to (whenever I resume finishing X7).

 

[BassForever]

I should feel cheap for beating Magma Dragoon with ride armor, but I don't cause it's pretty bad ass

 

[qq more]

I should feel cheap for beating Magma Dragoon with ride armor, but I don't cause it's pretty bad ass

It's the correct way!

 

[BassForever]

Cyber Peakcock is a joke with her weakness, even with max health the stupid owl boss is probably the hardest of the 8. Well maybe Magma Dragoon is harder but lol ride armor.

Colonel was a fun fight though still pretty easy, Iris is a joke fight

WHAT AM I FIGHTING FOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOR

Zero's full arsenal feels kind of lacking, his rakuhouha (ground punch), kuuenzan (spin attack), and ryuenjin (fire upslash) are awesome, Raijingeki (thunder stab) is okay, shippuuga (dash attack) and hyouretsuzan (ice downslash) suck horribly, The rest of his upgrades are just capsule upgrades given to bosses (double jump, air dash, saber enhancement).

As much as I think X4 is light years better then X5, that game as I recall did a much better job with Zero's various power ups. I just feel like with Zero in X4 every fight turns into either spamming dash cancel, or spamming kuuenzan with the occasional use of ryuenjin on the off chance it does more damage then kuuenzan.

 

[Videoneon]

Generally most of X's weapons aren't useful anyway, because of his mobility options and more often than not the strength of whatever armor's charged shot. The special weapons are often designed with certain uses in mind (aerial enemies, freezing them, wide range shots, defense, etc) but running and gunning is preferable. X1 had the best arsenal. X8 could have been good but the weapons are just too weak. In X7, there is only one special weapon, and it's called Volt Tornado.

It's not super important for Zero to have a totally useful moveset, while I do agree that Hienkyaku, Hyouretsuzan, Shippuuga belong in the ignore list. Hienkyaku has like a couple uses in stages IIRC, that's it.

I thought the Iris fight was hilariously easy too. You can just spam Kuuenzan and change directions.

 

[Shadow Hog]

Cyber Peakcock is a joke with her weakness

Cyber Peacock's female?

 

[Tizoc]

Cyber Peacock's female?

I could be wrong but I think CP's voice actor in the Japanese ver. is Freeza's voice actor, Ryūsei Nakao?

 

[Blackage]

Megaman X4 is insanely fun, but I think it's because X & Zero just feel more powerful in this game then in any other X game. They FEEL like these elite Maverick Hunters, that can annihilate entire armies, you can literally just plow through the game without stopping your forward momentum.

X5 & 6 kind of got back to putting threats in the world, even if they weren't the best overall games.

If there was a downside to X4 I would only say that it's difficulty is easier and that Zero for his debut playable experience stole the show story-wise from X.

 

[Dark Schala]

Cyber Peacock's a guy. Voice actor in Japanese is Issei Futamata (also was Astro Man in Mega Man 8).

 

[Tizoc]

The Japanese dub is part of the reason I would prefer if they would release the Japanese ver. of the PSX Megaman and X games on PSN (or at least 8 and X4 =V)

 

[BassForever]

My bad on Cyber Peacock's gender lol

The boss fight against the General is dumb, dumb, dumb as Zero. It's almost impossible to hit him when he's doing anything other then firing his platform hand fist at you. I beat him only because he spent the entire fight launching fist, whenever he'd spend most of the fight flying around trying to crush/ram me it drove me crazy. The fight isn't difficult just tedious.

Speaking of tedious

Sigma in this game is somehow both very easy and incredibly annoying. He has 3 forms (the final having 2 life bars) and you get 1 small healing item right before the final form. His first form is a joke which can't even attack if you just hit him the fire attack. His second form is more challenging until you learn how his second attack works. If you let him throw his scythe into the ground you're screwed as his boomerangs are impossible to dodge, if you let him throw it into the wall his eye lasers are very simple to jump over making. His first attack is also easy to dodge if you just stand behind him.

Before I figured out the trick to make Sigma not use his boomerangs I'd get to the final fight with low/half health and get destroyed very quickly. Once I figured out how do always get the eye laser attack I consistently got to the final battle with full health, which was still a pain. I never once was able to figure out how to dodge his electric attack or his sucking attack.

For those who haven't played it Sigma's final form in MMX4 alternates between 3 forms in order Laser robot -> elemental heads -> sigma face -> elemental heads -> laser robot and so on. The laser robot can do one of two attacks both of which are pretty easy to dodge this form has a life bar. The sigma face also has it's own separate life bar that you must take out to win the fight. The sigma face can either do a blowing attack which is very easy to dodge/punish, but his sucking attack is very difficult to avoid getting pulled in. The elemental heads can either do a fire, ice, or electric attack the first two being incredibly easy to dodge, the last one being almost impossible the time I won the fight I just got lucky and he never used the attack.

Overall I enjoyed MMX4, obviously I need to play as X to see how his half of the game works but I still think X4 holds up well. Finally being able to play as Zero for a full campaign was a childhood dream come true and while he's not as awesome as he was in later games (X5 in particular) his campaign is fun enough. I can't help but feel like this game was designed with X first and Zero later as most of the Zero only boss fights work a lot better to his play style then the bosses both characters share.

 

[Videoneon]

My bad on Cyber Peacock's gender lol

The boss fight against the General is dumb, dumb, dumb as Zero. It's almost impossible to hit him when he's doing anything other then firing his platform hand fist at you. I beat him only because he spent the entire fight launching fist, whenever he'd spend most of the fight flying around trying to crush/ram me it drove me crazy. The fight isn't difficult just tedious.

Speaking of tedious

Sigma in this game is somehow both very easy and incredibly annoying. He has 3 forms (the final having 2 life bars) and you get 1 small healing item right before the final form. His first form is a joke which can't even attack if you just hit him the fire attack. His second form is more challenging until you learn how his second attack works. If you let him throw his scythe into the ground you're screwed as his boomerangs are impossible to dodge, if you let him throw it into the wall his eye lasers are very simple to jump over making. His first attack is also easy to dodge if you just stand behind him.

Before I figured out the trick to make Sigma not use his boomerangs I'd get to the final fight with low/half health and get destroyed very quickly. Once I figured out how do always get the eye laser attack I consistently got to the final battle with full health, which was still a pain. I never once was able to figure out how to dodge his electric attack or his sucking attack.

For those who haven't played it Sigma's final form in MMX4 alternates between 3 forms in order Laser robot -> elemental heads -> sigma face -> elemental heads -> laser robot and so on. The laser robot can do one of two attacks both of which are pretty easy to dodge this form has a life bar. The sigma face also has it's own separate life bar that you must take out to win the fight. The sigma face can either do a blowing attack which is very easy to dodge/punish, but his sucking attack is very difficult to avoid getting pulled in. The elemental heads can either do a fire, ice, or electric attack the first two being incredibly easy to dodge, the last one being almost impossible the time I won the fight I just got lucky and he never used the attack.

Overall I enjoyed MMX4, obviously I need to play as X to see how his half of the game works but I still think X4 holds up well. Finally being able to play as Zero for a full campaign was a childhood dream come true and while he's not as awesome as he was in later games (X5 in particular) his campaign is fun enough. I can't help but feel like this game was designed with X first and Zero later as most of the Zero only boss fights work a lot better to his play style then the bosses both characters share.

:lol

I agree the General fight was awful. No Twin Slasher =(

Don't read on if you don't want tips:

Spoiler

Indeed, for Sigma you generally want to force his second form to use the eye laser attack, so you cling to the wall. Once he throws his scythe to the wall, rush to the wall on the side he's going to occupy. His hitbox is deceptive; your sprite can touch him a little bit if you hug the wall and you won't get damaged. The boomerangs, though a pain, are workable but not desirable because you're left with less freedom on the whole to attack Sigma.

As for the final form:

Electric head attack: don't hug a wall, but start closer to one end of the arena instead of closer to the center. Proceed to walk towards the other side, while not dashing, and jump when the ball makes contact with the ground. Dashing and wall jumping in this one gives you a little more stress than you need.

Head Sigma: the vacuum is bullshit and I don't know what you're supposed to do about this other than be patient. The attacks are randomized.

Laser Sigma: When I did my barebones run earlier this year, I discovered how amazing this form is for Zero. Zero fucks up this form big time.

I still think that the eight Mavericks are better tackled with X. But your comment on bosses intrigued me and I started to think about what a certain fight you'll encounter on X's side would be like with Zero. It sounds awful.

Have fun.

 

[BassForever]

Just beat Sigma with X, as a whole X has a way easier time with this game, I can only think of a few bosses that were easier with Zero (Laser sigma, Jet Stingray). X's weapons would be awesome if they did more damage, as it stands they're only really useful against boss fights. Both of X's arm upgrades leave a lot to be desired for me, I like the added damage but I hate the pulse thing the plasma cannon leaves behind, and I have no use for weaker stack able charged shots.

General is a joke on X's side being able to spam his weakness against him. Laser Sigma is the only part of the final battle X has trouble with. His weak point is hard to hit him with (soul body) and X has to platform up to hit him every shot. Duo felt like he was inserted into the plot just to give X an exclusive fight unlike Iris who felt more like a character. The fight with Duo was pretty tough... until I just zerg rushed him with his weakness.

Honestly that's always the biggest fault with the X series bosses, once you find their weakness there's really no incentive to learn how to dodge attacks when you can just bum rush weakness and always win. I kind of wish there was a hard mode option that enabled boss weakness to still do extra damage without giving them the extra flashy animation that basically makes them harmless.

Hover sucks compared to double jump, but it still has it's uses. I honestly forgot to use nova strike never really sure when there was a great time to use it. Though I do plan to quickly play though the game a 3rd time with ultimate armor x just to spam it for fun.

I haven't commented on the voice acting (it's bad) but X is particularly terrible. I understand why Mega Man had a higher pitched voice, but X shouldn't have such a girly voice.

All in all I really enjoy Mega Man X4, I don't think it holds up to the original MMX though I'm not sure how I'd rank it compared to X2 or X3. X2 had the annoying/random X-hunters and X3 had the annoying Bit/Byte/Vile fights that forced me to play the stages in a specific order to have their weakness in the short time frame you have to fight them. Sadly X1 and X4 are the only in the series IIRC that don't put some kind of timer on you.

 

[SkyOdin]

My bad on Cyber Peacock's gender lol

The boss fight against the General is dumb, dumb, dumb as Zero. It's almost impossible to hit him when he's doing anything other then firing his platform hand fist at you. I beat him only because he spent the entire fight launching fist, whenever he'd spend most of the fight flying around trying to crush/ram me it drove me crazy. The fight isn't difficult just tedious.

General isn't that hard or tedious with Zero. You just need to get on the wall behind him when he rises up and slash his head repeatedly. The timing on this can be tricky, since he has an attack that closes that small upper corner you can usually hide in, but you can do a lot of damage quickly that way.

 

[BassForever]

So should I replay MMX5 next or MM8? Or crack out Command Mission which I own but have never played. Really in a Mega Man mood right now

 

[SkyOdin]

I say Command Mission, if you have never played it before. It isn't great, but it can be fun.

 

[SolarKnight]

Seconding Command Mission because of Marino.

 

[qq more]

ZERO

ZERRRRRRRRRRROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

WATCH OUT ZEROOOOOOOOOO

 

[Shadow Hog]

ZERO

ZERRRRRRRRRRROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

WATCH OUT ZEROOOOOOOOOO

Bwa ha ha! KID! I'LLSHOWYOUWHATATERRORISALLABOUT!! DIE! ZERO! JUSDIE!! ZELLLLLLO!!

Bha ha ha ha! Not yet! THE BADDLE HAZ JUSD BEGUNN! DIE! XXX! JUSDIE, X!

 

[Rhapsody]

Command Mission's fun, so thirded on playing that. It has its faults but I was pleasantly surprised on how it turned out.

 

[BassForever]

Just finished chapter 2 of command mission. I like the combat engine but I feel like I either don't have access to the full thing or am missing something. What is the limit/negative to using hyper mode I've only used it on bosses but there doesn't seem to be any gauge to indicate when it's fullt recharged. Can I just use it every single battle without penalty? If not how can I deal more damage? Some battles feel like they drag.

 

[Orochinagis]

My bad on Cyber Peacock's gender lol

The boss fight against the General is dumb, dumb, dumb as Zero. It's almost impossible to hit him when he's doing anything other then firing his platform hand fist at you. I beat him only because he spent the entire fight launching fist, whenever he'd spend most of the fight flying around trying to crush/ram me it drove me crazy. The fight isn't difficult just tedious.

Speaking of tedious

Sigma in this game is somehow both very easy and incredibly annoying. He has 3 forms (the final having 2 life bars) and you get 1 small healing item right before the final form. His first form is a joke which can't even attack if you just hit him the fire attack. His second form is more challenging until you learn how his second attack works. If you let him throw his scythe into the ground you're screwed as his boomerangs are impossible to dodge, if you let him throw it into the wall his eye lasers are very simple to jump over making. His first attack is also easy to dodge if you just stand behind him.

Before I figured out the trick to make Sigma not use his boomerangs I'd get to the final fight with low/half health and get destroyed very quickly. Once I figured out how do always get the eye laser attack I consistently got to the final battle with full health, which was still a pain. I never once was able to figure out how to dodge his electric attack or his sucking attack.

For those who haven't played it Sigma's final form in MMX4 alternates between 3 forms in order Laser robot -> elemental heads -> sigma face -> elemental heads -> laser robot and so on. The laser robot can do one of two attacks both of which are pretty easy to dodge this form has a life bar. The sigma face also has it's own separate life bar that you must take out to win the fight. The sigma face can either do a blowing attack which is very easy to dodge/punish, but his sucking attack is very difficult to avoid getting pulled in. The elemental heads can either do a fire, ice, or electric attack the first two being incredibly easy to dodge, the last one being almost impossible the time I won the fight I just got lucky and he never used the attack.

Overall I enjoyed MMX4, obviously I need to play as X to see how his half of the game works but I still think X4 holds up well. Finally being able to play as Zero for a full campaign was a childhood dream come true and while he's not as awesome as he was in later games (X5 in particular) his campaign is fun enough. I can't help but feel like this game was designed with X first and Zero later as most of the Zero only boss fights work a lot better to his play style then the bosses both characters share.

I never defeated Third form sigma with zero, dunno how the evade most of his attacks so I gave up and used X. Its that time of the year when I just suddenly turn on my console and play Megaman X series actually

 

[SolarKnight]

Just finished chapter 2 of command mission. I like the combat engine but I feel like I either don't have access to the full thing or am missing something. What is the limit/negative to using hyper mode I've only used it on bosses but there doesn't seem to be any gauge to indicate when it's fullt recharged. Can I just use it every single battle without penalty? If not how can I deal more damage? Some battles feel like they drag.

They can only be restored with items, resting, or by leveling up.

As for how to deal more damage, well, other than your equips and force metals I'm not sure what to tell you.

 

[Rhapsody]

Just finished chapter 2 of command mission. I like the combat engine but I feel like I either don't have access to the full thing or am missing something. What is the limit/negative to using hyper mode I've only used it on bosses but there doesn't seem to be any gauge to indicate when it's fullt recharged. Can I just use it every single battle without penalty? If not how can I deal more damage? Some battles feel like they drag.

I can't remember if there was a way to check them. But you recover Hyper mode uses by items, resting, and leveling up, iirc.
So the only penalty is not having it when you need it for a boss.

As for damage, I think I recall battles just taking awhile to begin with. So just get decent sub weapons and target weaknesses.
Also Action Triggers too.

 

[BassForever]

I saw that leveling was a full heal, I guess if i get close to a boss and already spent my hypers I can just grind a level to reset it.

Also I like Spider as a character way more then I've ever liked Axel

 

[Videoneon]

It's been forever since I played CM...

Hyper Mode just comes with a limit to its use IIRC. I think you can use it more than once in a battle, but you don't want to waste it on stuff like random encounters because you have to use an item to refill your Hyper Mode activations. Plus generally when you get Hyper Mode you're supposed to save your WE so you can do that super attack, so HM isn't all that economical unless you're on a particularly troublesome enemy.

Battles drag right now because you only have two party members, and the restrictions of WE (plus the fact that your sub-weapons aren't that amazing right now) sort of make the slowness more pronounced). Second chapter is against Wild Jango, right? You'll get a third party member next chapter, and the character shows up fairly early. Battle system gets better as you get more characters.

I saw that leveling was a full heal, I guess if i get close to a boss and already spent my hypers I can just grind a level to reset it.

Also I like Spider as a character way more then I've ever liked Axel

Yeah Spider's cool. I ended up sticking with Axl later on though.

Damn, I almost miss seeing Axl around. This is what MMX withdrawal does to you.

 

[BassForever]

So will the best party end up being X, Zero, and Axl simply due to them being the big 3 or will the other 3 playable characters give me a viable reason to pick one of them instead? Also will X always be forced in my party? He's kind of been the worst character so far despite his 6 turns of hyper mode :X

 

[SolarKnight]

Marino's hyper mode gives her pretty much all her turns in a row and Cinnamon is a walking subtank.

So yes, plenty reason.

 

[SkyOdin]

So will the best party end up being X, Zero, and Axl simply due to them being the big 3 or will the other 3 playable characters give me a viable reason to pick one of them instead? Also will X always be forced in my party? He's kind of been the worst character so far despite his 6 turns of hyper mode :X

You can swap party members in and out of the party freely mid-battle, like in FInal Fantasy X or Breath of Fire 4, so you can use your entire party in a single boss fight if you so desire. Which isn't a bad strategy combined with Hyper Modes. In any event, the other characters other than the three you mentioned include the character with the highest defense, the character with the highest speed, and the the team's best healer by far. All of them are pretty useful.

Also while X lacks a strong hook, he is probably the most consistently solid character in the game. His biggest advantage is that he has the highest Force Metal resistance of the entire team, making it much easier to use Force Metal to customize and upgrade him. He also has one of the best Hyper Modes. I do think that he should have had a more versatile Action Trigger, though. Just about everyone else shows him up in that regard.

 

[BassForever]

So is there any penalty to final strikes? Cause they just seem to have made the game a lot easier without any real penalty

 

[Rhapsody]

So is there any penalty to final strikes? Cause they just seem to have made the game a lot easier without any real penalty

No, it's just to reward the player for depleting that much off of their current HP that turn. Also gives some sort of Force Metal bonus as well I think. At least it solves your problem of making battles go faster.

 

[BassForever]

Does speed influence accuracy in Command Mission? I feel like Massimo constantly misses even with the +10 hit rate force medal.

Outside of bosses nothing is really that challenging, I've pretty much rolled though most fights without any real difficulty. If I had a complaint it would be that the game harps about elemental weakness that are hard to exploit outside of using mega items unless you get lucky with X's blaster being the right element.

Also I've been spoiled from many eons ago that the main villain is actually

Spoiler

Spider

not that it really bothers me much.

Edit: Wow I suck sorry anyone who saw that >_<

 

[Noi]

the spoiler that keeps on giving

 

[Kokonoe]

I didn't know Command Mission was a RPG until a few months ago when I played it on Dolphin. I always thought it was a tactics game from the screenshots and I avoided it since I wasn't into tactics games back then. I only played a few hours of CM, but it seems like a solid enough experience. The transformations are straight up sextastic.

 

[goldenpp72]

Hey everyone, I recently decided to try and beat all 4 of the Mega Man Zero titles (using the DS collection, yes I know about the alterations) and I had some questions.. I guess I'm trying to figure out how to play the game right. I played up to the 'tower' in Zero 1 and struggled to get that far due to the difficulty, and also played a bit of 2 just to see how it's different.

Basically, anytime I beat a level i'm about rank C (with a few B and D) and I have not yet gathered enough crystals to even raise one of the cyber elves.. I guess what i'm getting at is am I not meant to use these things? I know the game penalizes you rank wise for using them along with any other things but, I'm so used to blowing through the Mega Man series and just using any resource I want, to the point that by not doing so, I feel like i'm not beating the game 100 percent.. The entire dynamic of this series feels so foreign to me, I think i'm getting it but figured I should ask. Should I not be using cyber elves, even to get sub tanks or vitality increases? Is it not meant to be done and only a crutch?

I also think I recall reading in Zero 2, that if you beat bosses with a lower rank that you don't get a weapon or something? I guess I'd like to know all the trappings, stuff that can be missed, or other tips/etc going into the entire series as a whole so I can maximize my playthroughs to be as fun/fulfilling as can be. Any tips would be appreciated though.

Also, can you not replay stages in Zero? Replay bosses in Zero 2? It just feels like the series leaves a lot to be missed or not understood, but I do really enjoy them so far.

 

[Videoneon]

Hey everyone, I recently decided to try and beat all 4 of the Mega Man Zero titles (using the DS collection, yes I know about the alterations) and I had some questions.. I guess I'm trying to figure out how to play the game right. I played up to the 'tower' in Zero 1 and struggled to get that far due to the difficulty, and also played a bit of 2 just to see how it's different.

Basically, anytime I beat a level i'm about rank C (with a few B and D) and I have not yet gathered enough crystals to even raise one of the cyber elves.. I guess what i'm getting at is am I not meant to use these things? I know the game penalizes you rank wise for using them along with any other things but, I'm so used to blowing through the Mega Man series and just using any resource I want, to the point that by not doing so, I feel like i'm not beating the game 100 percent.. The entire dynamic of this series feels so foreign to me, I think i'm getting it but figured I should ask. Should I not be using cyber elves, even to get sub tanks or vitality increases? Is it not meant to be done and only a crutch?

I also think I recall reading in Zero 2, that if you beat bosses with a lower rank that you don't get a weapon or something? I guess I'd like to know all the trappings, stuff that can be missed, or other tips/etc going into the entire series as a whole so I can maximize my playthroughs to be as fun/fulfilling as can be. Any tips would be appreciated though.

Also, can you not replay stages in Zero? Replay bosses in Zero 2? It just feels like the series leaves a lot to be missed or not understood, but I do really enjoy them so far.

-What's up. Not sure which tower you're speaking of...is it Neo Arcadia, or the power plant (with the eight-headed dragon?)

-Cyber Elf use is discouraged, except for in Zero 3 where some types of Cyber Elves do not give you mission penalties. In my mind Cyber Elves are there for people who need assistance with the game as it is presented, and the purest Zero series experience is one where you rely only on the weapons. I do think however that the games want to encourage people to investigate areas and collect all the Cyber Elves. So it's like a leisurely thing to do once you're done with a Mission.

-Zero 2 introduced something called EX Skills. In that game if you finish a mission against most bosses (the eight that show up in mission select, rainbow devil, Kuwagust Anchus) with an A rank, you will receive an additional technique specific to a weapon. Some require button inputs, like the sword EX Skills, and some only come into effect when you equip an elemental chip like the gun EX Skills. You can turn off EX Skills anytime you want if you don't like them.

So yes, generally this requires kind of being a badass and avoiding cyber elf use, damage, and clearing missions as quickly as possible. The Zero series can be very difficult depending on what you want to do!

-In the first Zero game you can't replay missions. Failure to complete a mission remains a failure, and I think this limits the missions that become available to you. You can merely revisit different sections of the world map once they've been opened up to you. You can't refight bosses at will either

In the second Zero game you can't refight the bosses at will either.

The first and second Zero games are significantly different; the mission and world map style employed in the first game isn't seen again.

Hope you have fun though!

 

[SolarKnight]

Basicly, in 2 and 3 you need either an A or S rank to get Ex Skills, which are pretty much the same kind of things you would've gotten just by beating the boss. They can be fun and useful but not really needed since the boss weaknesses are still just elemental charge attacks. The other draw back is that with B and below rank the bosses actually use an easier pattern that doesn't use their best attack.

Cyber-elves are pretty much a crutch and it requires lots of grinding, yeah. At least 1 is the only game without findable subtanks.

4 is much more forgiving overall though. The only thing needed for EX Skills is the right weather and you can use Cyber-elves with permanent effects with no penalty as long as you don't over use them.

 

[SkyOdin]

Hey everyone, I recently decided to try and beat all 4 of the Mega Man Zero titles (using the DS collection, yes I know about the alterations) and I had some questions.. I guess I'm trying to figure out how to play the game right. I played up to the 'tower' in Zero 1 and struggled to get that far due to the difficulty, and also played a bit of 2 just to see how it's different.

Basically, anytime I beat a level i'm about rank C (with a few B and D) and I have not yet gathered enough crystals to even raise one of the cyber elves.. I guess what i'm getting at is am I not meant to use these things? I know the game penalizes you rank wise for using them along with any other things but, I'm so used to blowing through the Mega Man series and just using any resource I want, to the point that by not doing so, I feel like i'm not beating the game 100 percent.. The entire dynamic of this series feels so foreign to me, I think i'm getting it but figured I should ask. Should I not be using cyber elves, even to get sub tanks or vitality increases? Is it not meant to be done and only a crutch?

I also think I recall reading in Zero 2, that if you beat bosses with a lower rank that you don't get a weapon or something? I guess I'd like to know all the trappings, stuff that can be missed, or other tips/etc going into the entire series as a whole so I can maximize my playthroughs to be as fun/fulfilling as can be. Any tips would be appreciated though.

Also, can you not replay stages in Zero? Replay bosses in Zero 2? It just feels like the series leaves a lot to be missed or not understood, but I do really enjoy them so far.

In Zero 1 and 2, you are penalized for using Cyber Elves. It is also a horrible grind trying to get the E-Crystals you need to level them up anyways. Zero 2 makes Cyber-Elves much cheaper, but it can still be an unnecessary grind. In both, using permanent Cyber-Elves, such as the Health increases, will permanently penalize your end-of-stage score and ranking. Furthermore, your ranking (i.e. S, A, B, C, or D) is based on the total scores of all of the missions you have cleared. So getting a bad score on a single stage can keep you from getting back up to the A and S ranks.

In short, there are two different ways to play through the Zero series games: you can either not care about score and use cyber-elves, or you can focus on clearing stages perfectly to get a high score, which involves not using any cyber-elves at all, fulfilling the stages mission perfectly, not dying even once, under a time limit. Obviously, the latter is much more difficult. However, in the Zero 2 and 3, it is the only way to get all of the EX Skills, which can only be gained by fighting the bosses in their more powerful forms which only appear at A or S rank.

Soooo... the Mega Man Zero games aren't really designed to be 100%-ed. It is pretty much impossible to get everything in a single go, and would require a great deal of skill. However, there is a fair bit of flexibility in how you can approach them. I would recommend just focusing on clearing the stages on your first go, and use cyber-elves as you need them. You can save trying to get high scores for a second attempt. If you want the EX Skills in Zero 2, there are Cyber-Elves which will temporarily your Rank to A for just one stage, which will let you acquire a select few EX Skills.

Now, you can't replay missions in either Zero 1 or Zero 2, nor refight bosses at will. However, you can go back to old areas whenever you want to farm enemies or search for hidden Cyber-Elves. In Zero 1, it is a simple matter of taking the elevator to the surface and then walking around. In Zero 2, you just need to talk to the right operator in the base. If you want to farm E-Crystals in Zero 1, the best place to do so is the power plant, if you successfully cleared the mission there.

 

[goldenpp72]

Thanks for the tips thus far, lots of good info to plod through. I'm on the final boss of Zero 1 right now (I assume) and getting my ass handed to me a bit, this is the first time i've ever been truly challenged in a Mega Man game. In my childhood people always talked about the original and X series being so difficult, but this is the only time I've actually been slapped around and had to really nut up. Not having any sub tanks and such is a real pain.

Edit: Just beat the last boss, cool enough ending, but I feel a tad exhausted from the experience lol.

 

[Noi]

The cool aspect of the EX skills is that getting them makes getting other EX Skills / the rest of the game ever easier. Playing Zero 2-3 without them would be way harder.

 

[goldenpp72]

The cool aspect of the EX skills is that getting them makes getting other EX Skills / the rest of the game ever easier. Playing Zero 2-3 without them would be way harder.

How hard is it to get an A rank though? Are there special needs and such? I mean, I beat the first game now but I had a final grade of F for some reason, even though I thought I got mostly Cs and never saw an F throughout the game.

 

[BassForever]

How hard is it to get an A rank though? Are there special needs and such? I mean, I beat the first game now but I had a final grade of F for some reason, even though I thought I got mostly Cs and never saw an F throughout the game.

Did you use cyber elfs? They pretty much murder your score in that game

As I recall your rating in those games is determined by

How many times you got hit
How long it took you to clear the stage
How many enemies you killed
How many lives you lost
Did you use any cyber elves

Ideally to get A/S you need to never get hit, never die, beat the level really quickly, kill all the enemies, and don't use any cyber elves.

 

[SolarKnight]

Don't forget completing the mission. In some stages the mission is directly linked to or just finishing the stage so it's not much of a problem, but in some it's definitely part of the challenge being perfect at everything else while also completing your objective.

 

[SkyOdin]

How hard is it to get an A rank though? Are there special needs and such? I mean, I beat the first game now but I had a final grade of F for some reason, even though I thought I got mostly Cs and never saw an F throughout the game.

There are six criteria that determine your score:

Mission (20 pts), which is determined by how well you completed the special objectives of the stage (such as preventing Ciel from taking damage in Zero 1's intro level).
Time (20 pts), which is determined by how long it took you to clear the stage.
Enemy (15 pts), which is determined by how many enemies you defeat.
Damage (15 pts), which is determined by how much damage enemies did to you.
Elf (15 pts), which is determined by how many Cyber-Elves you used.
Retry (15 pts), which is determined by how many times you died.

Since dying also increases how much time it takes you to clear the stage and how much total damage you took in addition to the flat penalty, dying even once in a stage will tank your score.

Now, your score for that stage doesn't directly translate into your rank. The rank that is displayed is based on the cumulative scores of all of the stages you've cleared. Now, to get an S rank, you need to maintain an average score of 96 or above. A rank requires maintaining an average of 86 or above. As such, there really isn't much margin for error if you want a high rank.

Now, in my experience it isn't unusual to get an F rank at the end of a game. Doing badly against the final boss will tank your score, and it is easy to do badly. One bad mission can destroy your score, even if it is the final mission. I can't exactly recall, but I think some of those points can drop into the negative range if you do poorly enough.

 

[Shadow Hog]

I can't help but think the scoring system sounds incredibly stupid.

Plus, IIRC, good rewards are handed out to high-ranked players. Y'know, the ones who don't need the rewards.