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Mega Man X4 - Zero Rising

Man God

Non-Canon Member
Jet Stingray is easy to beat even without the double jump, I was able to kill it in a matter of seconds by scaling walls into Kuuenbu and pretty much spam that whenever Stingray switches spots. With X, it's pathetically easy since you can just scale walls into charge shot.



The problem isn't so much the damage soak (though IIRC, how much they tank attacks depends on the countdown timer in relation to your rank), it's the amount of invincibility frames that bosses are given before you're allowed to damage it again. Which is precisely why Zero is OP in X5, his melee attacks are fast and can hit bosses multiple times vs. X losing out on extra damage when he uses the charge shots (especially charge shots with lingering damage effects like the Fourth Armor or Ultimate Armor) or even regular shots for that matter. Even then, I didn't find any of X5's bosses to be particularly frustrating in terms of damage soaking when I had multiple playthroughs as X and Zero.

Your explanation is superior to anything I could do on it. The invincibility frames were always generous in the X series but it gets ridiculous around then.
 
Gamerankings only had five reviews. Five. Wikipedia cited more than that. Also, those reviews were generally positive.
Seriously, a video link is not a coherent response. Look, that video takes place before the incident at the Sky Lagoon that triggers the Repliforce coup d'etat. And yes, they use the word "coup" constantly in the game, which is clear enough proof that it is a full scale rebellion to usurp control of the world government. The creation of a utopia for reploids is strongly implied to involve full scale war against humanity for control over the Earth.
X doesn't even appear in any animated cutscenes other than the opening and his ending. Most of his cutscenes are dedicated either to setting up the plot as a whole or setting up a single boss fight against a person who isn't even connected to the Repliforce plot. X has no personal connection to any of the events in the game, and has nothing equivalent to Zero's massive backstory flashback. For Zero, X4 is a major turning point in his life. For X, the entire game is filler.
Uh, no that is clearly what he was talking about. This is why I say that you need to work on your reading comprehension.
Nah, Zero can handle every fight in the game just fine. He sometimes requires different strategies than X, but there are just as many places where Zero is better at certain challenges than X is. The only clear advantage X has is his extra defense from the armor, and that doesn't apply if you are going for an unarmored X run.
[QUOTE7. He says "dragon version of Ryu with fireballs and uppercuts making him quite the foe to fight for either character." as if him being like RYu is the reason why he's challenging? Also he threw some hyperbole in there.Hey, it's a cool fight. It's a challenging fight. Are saying that Magma Dragoon isn't hard or isn't a fun fight. You seem to be wanting to mock the OP without actually making any thoughts or statements of your own.
He is obviously talking about the quality of the content, and the unique ways these themes were implemented in this game. Execution matters, and new twists on old ideas are always good to see. It is hardly odd to talk about stuff like that.
Turst me, I've played this game a dozen times over since the year it was released. I know it front and back, and I can tell you where every health tank, sub tank, and weapon upgrade is from memory. I can still tell you the route I created to get the maximum number of upgrades possible before you beat the fourth boss (I had trouble fighting Colonel as a kid). I mostly completed an unarmored X, no boss weapon run of the game too. I can tell you the strategies on how to beat every boss in the game with either character. I'm not an absolute master of the game, but I know it.

Honestly, maybe you should stop nitpicking little details and start paying more attention to the context of the words you are reading. You keep taking single sentences out of context and nitpicking them without understanding where they fit in a paragraph, let alone the rest of the post. Your comprehension of the X4 story seems similarly isolated and disjointed.

2. You still din't do what I said. Is using google and putting more than 2 seconds of effort something you can't do?

3. And the very next cutscene has the general say that they mean no harm and are not going against the humans. I mean I can load that cutscene as well if you want? Just admit you lost here. You can't imply something when they DIRECTLY SAY IT IN GAME. Talk about desperation.

4. Actually X does have animated cutscenes outside the intro and ending. More nonsense out of someone who I'm now starting to wonder has even played the game AND he gets an extra boss fight.

5. Very first sentence had him say the below would be a list of difference from other X games. Now let's talk about your reading comprehension.

6. I'm not the only one who has mentioned the differences in this thread. I suppose it could be your subjective opinion the stages, bosses, lack of special areas, means that Zero was designed for them as well as X was but you seem to be writing it off as fact.

7. Try posting this again, you messed up the quote tags.

8. Except he's not at all in anyway. He clearly typed it in as usage of themes across stages. he did type "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/nUoTyj8XEAg/maxresdefault.jpg", he clearly state it as if X4 had stage design that had a variety of themes and small details within those themes (hence why he said rocks falling in the fire level.) I have no idea why you keep pretending he said something he didn't say.

Yes you played it a dozen times. That's why tyou think the plot at the start of the game is not clear and implied there was a coupa gainst the Humans when both cutscenes before and after the coup had the General say they were not against the Humans.

And also saying that X only had animated cutscenes for the intro of his story and the end during his story,

Maybe you should stop being delusional and actually read about what people right, develope your reading comprehension, and stop trying to argue with someone over a plot you clearly forgot about if you DID play the game? No shame in saying "oh ok I forgot about that" it's not hard. I mean seriously, I have no idea why you are putting zero effort on research. You doubled down on the repliforce plot misinformation "TWICE" now.
 

kayos90

Tragic victim of fan death
2. You still din't do what I said. Is using google and putting more than 2 seconds of effort something you can't do?

3. And the very next cutscene has the general say that they mean no harm and are not going against the humans. I mean I can load that cutscene as well if you want? Just admit you lost here. You can't imply something when they DIRECTLY SAY IT IN GAME. Talk about desperation.

4. Actually X does have animated cutscenes outside the intro and ending. More nonsense out of someone who I'm now starting to wonder has even played the game AND he gets an extra boss fight.

5. Very first sentence had him say the below would be a list of difference from other X games. Now let's talk about your reading comprehension.

6. I'm not the only one who has mentioned the differences in this thread. I suppose it could be your subjective opinion the stages, bosses, lack of special areas, means that Zero was designed for them as well as X was but you seem to be writing it off as fact.

7. Try posting this again, you messed up the quote tags.

8. Except he's not at all in anyway. He clearly typed it in as usage of themes across stages. he did type "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/nUoTyj8XEAg/maxresdefault.jpg", he clearly state it as if X4 had stage design that had a variety of themes and small details within those themes (hence why he said rocks falling in the fire level.) I have no idea why you keep pretending he said something he didn't say.

Yes you played it a dozen times. That's why tyou think the plot at the start of the game is not clear and implied there was a coupa gainst the Humans when both cutscenes before and after the coup had the General say they were not against the Humans.

And also saying that X only had animated cutscenes for the intro of his story and the end during his story,

Maybe you should stop being delusional and actually read about what people right, develope your reading comprehension, and stop trying to argue with someone over a plot you clearly forgot about if you DID play the game? No shame in saying "oh ok I forgot about that" it's not hard. I mean seriously, I have no idea why you are putting zero effort on research. You doubled down on the repliforce plot misinformation "TWICE" now.

You know that your tone reads extremely confrontational, right?
 

RK128

Member
Look, I fucked up making the OP and will accept that. I could of did more research and that was it; plain and simple.

But no one should be arguing and being negative here; I started this Retrospective to be positive to the series, not cause more bitterness to be linked to it.

This does NOT change the fact I am done making Mega Man Retrospectives for at least a few months. But no one has to be mean to one another over petty crap; I fucked up and lets all leave it at that.

And everyone leave OhNoDangerItsaPentagonRun alone; I settled my beef with him already and we are on good terms about the Retrospective. He brought up points I glossed over and I took it the wrong way. I was being childish, so to speak.
 
You know that your tone reads extremely confrontational, right?

You do realize so does his right?

Look, I fucked up making the OP and will accept that. I could of did more research and that was it; plain and simple.

But no one should be arguing and being negative here; I started this Retrospective to be positive to the series, not cause more bitterness to be linked to it.

This does NOT change the fact I am done making Mega Man Retrospectives for at least a few months. But no one has to be mean to one another over petty crap; I fucked up and lets all leave it at that.

And everyone leave OhNoDangerItsaPentagonRun alone; I settled my beef with him already and we are on good terms about the Retrospective. He brought up points I glossed over and I took it the wrong way. I was being childish, so to speak.

Thank you for clearing this up.

Your explanation is superior to anything I could do on it. The invincibility frames were always generous in the X series but it gets ridiculous around then.

I think X8 is how long it takes for the frames to go back to reasonable.
 

Onemic

Member
Nice retrospective! It actually makes me want to play the X/Zero series again even though I sucked at them. I could never beat X1 :(

And Pentagon, it's ok to criticize someone, but do so constructively. Instead, you come across as a complete asshole with your post.(and based on the way it was written it also comes across as driveby shit posting more than anything else) It would be a whole lot more constructive to instead advise the OP on how to improve his retrospectives in the future rather than just shitting on it to make yourself look more knowledgeable and informed.
 

kayos90

Tragic victim of fan death
You do realize so does his right?

Not really since I don't want to automatically assume that your intent is to be confrontational. I'm only posing a question since I'm not made aware if your intent is to be confrontational but if you want to make assumptions then we totally can!

If your intent is to be confrontational then you're not promoting an environment that creates productive and meaningful discussion but also you're just being a straight up jerk. I guess this would bode well for the community since you're a junior member and if your attitude gets you banned then... well. I'm fine with that.

If your intent is not to be confrontational then it's all good and fun but then you should read into my comment and maybe change up how you're typing up your retorts so it doesn't make you sound like a jerkface.

With this being said, where do you fall under?
 
Nice retrospective! It actually makes me want to play the X/Zero series again even though I sucked at them. I could never beat X1 :(

And Pentagon, it's ok to criticize someone, but do so constructively. Instead, you come across as a complete asshole with your post.(and based on the way it was written it also comes across as driveby shit posting more than anything else) It would be a whole lot more constructive to instead advise the OP on how to improve his retrospectives in the future rather than just shitting on it to make yourself look more knowledgeable and informed.

I realize my first post, due to it being made on mobile, didn't add more text to make it look more constructive. But I have already been over that with the OP over PM. I was not intending to be an ass.
 

SkyOdin

Member
3. And the very next cutscene has the general say that they mean no harm and are not going against the humans. I mean I can load that cutscene as well if you want? Just admit you lost here. You can't imply something when they DIRECTLY SAY IT IN GAME. Talk about desperation.

4. Actually X does have animated cutscenes outside the intro and ending. More nonsense out of someone who I'm now starting to wonder has even played the game AND he gets an extra boss fight.

...

Yes you played it a dozen times. That's why tyou think the plot at the start of the game is not clear and implied there was a coupa gainst the Humans when both cutscenes before and after the coup had the General say they were not against the Humans.

And also saying that X only had animated cutscenes for the intro of his story and the end during his story,

Maybe you should stop being delusional and actually read about what people right, develope your reading comprehension, and stop trying to argue with someone over a plot you clearly forgot about if you DID play the game? No shame in saying "oh ok I forgot about that" it's not hard. I mean seriously, I have no idea why you are putting zero effort on research. You doubled down on the repliforce plot misinformation "TWICE" now.
I was going to make a much longer and detailed post, but out of respect to RK128's wishes, I decided to delete it and focus entirely on the plot discussion, which i think is still meaningful.

Now, if you go back and look at what I wrote earlier, I had said that X only "appears" in two cutscenes, which is true. X appears onscreen in the opening video (where he just fires his X Buster), he speaks from off-screen in the cutscene where Double betrays and kills the Hunters, and X finally appears onscreen and speaks during his ending cutscene. The other cutscenes in X's story are entirely focused on other characters: Sigma, General, and Double.

And yes, the Repliforce stages a coup d'etat against the standing human government. The basic plot flow of the game is as follows:
1) Sigma approaches General to incite him to rebel against the humans but is rebuked.
2) Sigma orders Magma Dragoon to destroy the Sky Lagoon and pin it on the Repliforce. The Maverick Hunters order the Repliforce to disarm and surrender as a result.
3) In order to avoid having the Repliforce dismantled, or worse yet branded as Mavericks and destroyed, General decides to attempt a coup against the world government in order to establish an independent nation of Reploids. This is in essence a declaration of war against the Maverick Hunters.
4) Full scale hostilities break out between the Repliforce and the Maverick Hunters who are fighting on behalf of the human-controlled world government. The Repliforce starts to deploy large scale weapons, Jet Stingray "decimates" a city, Storm Owl leads a full scale bombing operation on a populous city, etc.
5) X and Zero make appeals to Colonel to stop the coup, but he refuses to back down.
6) The Maverick Hunters rout the Repliforce, forcing them to fall back to Final Weapon, their trump card. There, X or Zero defeats General.
7) Sigma attempts to use Final Weapon to destroy the humans on Earth, but is stopped before it can happen. Final Weapon is destroyed, and only a handful of Repliforce soldiers remain to reappear in X5.

By the time 4 happens, all of General's claims that the Repliforce isn't going to hurt humanity have gone up in smoke. Mega Man X4 involves a full-scale war between two Reploid armies, and by all appearances a lot of civilians get swept up in it. This is even ignoring that the Repliforce made the Final Weapon. The only reason it doesn't count as the most destructive conflict in the X series is that Mega Man X5 happens and eclipses everything else in that regard.

What Mega Man X4 represents is a major tone shift in the X series. Up to that point, the term "Maverick" was mostly used to refer to Reploids that had gone crazy and turned into evil villains for the most part, usually due to virus infection. However, X4 introduces the idea that Maverick is often used a label for the political enemies of the current government, and has a conflict that is more socio-political in nature. This idea doesn't really get used too much again in the X series itself outside of Mega Man X Command Mission, but it forms the entire basis of the story for the Mega Man Zero games.
 
I was going to make a much longer and detailed post, but out of respect to RK128's wishes, I decided to delete it and focus entirely on the plot discussion, which i think is still meaningful.

Now, if you go back and look at what I wrote earlier, I had said that X only "appears" in two cutscenes, which is true. X appears onscreen in the opening video (where he just fires his X Buster), he speaks from off-screen in the cutscene where Double betrays and kills the Hunters, and X finally appears onscreen and speaks during his ending cutscene. The other cutscenes in X's story are entirely focused on other characters: Sigma, General, and Double.

And yes, the Repliforce stages a coup d'etat against the standing human government. The basic plot flow of the game is as follows:
1) Sigma approaches General to incite him to rebel against the humans but is rebuked.
2) Sigma orders Magma Dragoon to destroy the Sky Lagoon and pin it on the Repliforce. The Maverick Hunters order the Repliforce to disarm and surrender as a result.
3) In order to avoid having the Repliforce dismantled, or worse yet branded as Mavericks and destroyed, General decides to attempt a coup against the world government in order to establish an independent nation of Reploids. This is in essence a declaration of war against the Maverick Hunters.
4) Full scale hostilities break out between the Repliforce and the Maverick Hunters who are fighting on behalf of the human-controlled world government. The Repliforce starts to deploy large scale weapons, Jet Stingray "decimates" a city, Storm Owl leads a full scale bombing operation on a populous city, etc.
5) X and Zero make appeals to Colonel to stop the coup, but he refuses to back down.
6) The Maverick Hunters rout the Repliforce, forcing them to fall back to Final Weapon, their trump card. There, X or Zero defeats General.
7) Sigma attempts to use Final Weapon to destroy the humans on Earth, but is stopped before it can happen. Final Weapon is destroyed, and only a handful of Repliforce soldiers remain to reappear in X5.

By the time 4 happens, all of General's claims that the Repliforce isn't going to hurt humanity have gone up in smoke. Mega Man X4 involves a full-scale war between two Reploid armies, and by all appearances a lot of civilians get swept up in it. This is even ignoring that the Repliforce made the Final Weapon. The only reason it doesn't count as the most destructive conflict in the X series is that Mega Man X5 happens and eclipses everything else in that regard.

What Mega Man X4 represents is a major tone shift in the X series. Up to that point, the term "Maverick" was mostly used to refer to Reploids that had gone crazy and turned into evil villains for the most part, usually due to virus infection. However, X4 introduces the idea that Maverick is often used a label for the political enemies of the current government, and has a conflict that is more socio-political in nature. This idea doesn't really get used too much again in the X series itself outside of Mega Man X Command Mission, but it forms the entire basis of the story for the Mega Man Zero games.

No.

One, repliforce was already labeled as maverick. The coup was to make their own nation but not to go against the humans, which the game directly says.

As for the coup we have no clue how big or even if there was a real war all we know is the only group fighting repliforce were the maverick hunters. Also we have no idea where the humans are the last human we saw in the series up to this point was Dr.Cain.

Also I think Sigma led development to the final weapon as General clearly had no real intention of using it looking at his sacrifice to blow it up, and him not wanting to go against the humans. This would also explain how Sigma was even able to activate it.

Also there wasn't a shift, and MMZ has other plot issues for another day. The reason why the humans and MHs went against repliforce in X4 was because they thought they went crazy, thought they were influenced by a macerick.

X5 continues this by having sigma somehow covering the whole world with his virus, making everyone go insane. Hell, some of the bosses in X5 tell you they are going insane or flat out snap right in front of you. I think one of them wants you to kill him.

So what shift? MMZ is about humans wanting to destroy reploid in general. Completely different.
 

SkyOdin

Member
No.

One, repliforce was already labeled as maverick. The coup was to make their own nation but not to go against the humans, which the game directly says.

As for the coup we have no clue how big or even if there was a real war all we know is the only group fighting repliforce were the maverick hunters. Also we have no idea where the humans are the last human we saw in the series up to this point was Dr.Cain.
No, the Repliforce weren't labeled as Mavericks until after the Sky Lagoon disaster. Until that point, they were slated to replace (or at least compliment) the Maverick Hunters as the main forces used by the government to fight the Maverick threat. Now, when you say the "game" says that the Repliforce wasn't going to fight humans, what you really mean is that General, a character in the game said that. However, just because a character says something doesn't mean that they are being entirely truthful, or that their plans actually worked out. Now, what General was saying in his speech wasn't as straightforward as you seem to have taken it. The entire point of General's speech in the first place was to serve as a declaration of independence from the human government and to serve as justification for their actions. The actions of the Repliforce were in clear defiance of the orders handed down to them from the government and Maverick Hunters. As such, they had already gone against the will of the humans. What General is saying is that the Repliforce were different from the Mavericks. Instead of being a force that sought to annihilate mankind, the Repliforce was fighting to build their own nation of independant Reploids. However, the Repliforce was willing to use whatever means they saw necessary to achieve that objective, and that included hurting humans.

In short, the Repliforce rejected the notion that Reploids were subservient to humans, and instead used military force to assert their equality and independence. As a necessary part of their ideology and goals, killing humans was inevitable. It wasn't their goal, but it was certainly a clear consequence of their actions. In contrast, the Maverick Hunters and X prioritized the protection of human lives above all else. This is really important in establishing stuff in later X games and the Zero games, and even the Legends series. This conflict here is a defining one for pretty much the rest of the franchise.

Also I think Sigma led development to the final weapon as General clearly had no real intention of using it looking at his sacrifice to blow it up, and him not wanting to go against the humans. This would also explain how Sigma was even able to activate it.
I don't think so. General was surprised that the Final Weapon started up after the boss fight against him. Most of the surviving Repliforce forces had fled to the Final Weapon, which was supposed to serve as the base from which they would build their new nation (possibly in space). Presumably, it was meant to serve as deterrent against aggression from the Maverick Hunters. However, Sigma hijacks it after General's defeat. If it was Sigma's to begin with, he would have used it much earlier. It is entirely possible that acquiring Final Weapon was one of Sigma's main goals in instigating the conflict. If he had it from the start, he would have fired it, destroyed humanity, and blamed it all on the Repliforce.

Also there wasn't a shift, and MMZ has other plot issues for another day. The reason why the humans and MHs went against repliforce in X4 was because they thought they went crazy, thought they were influenced by a macerick.

X5 continues this by having sigma somehow covering the whole world with his virus, making everyone go insane. Hell, some of the bosses in X5 tell you they are going insane or flat out snap right in front of you. I think one of them wants you to kill him.

So what shift? MMZ is about humans wanting to destroy reploid in general. Completely different.
Mega Man Zero's conflict is actually more complicated than that. Humans and Copy X didn't want to destroy Reploids. Rather, they simply saw it is a grim necessity. The entire world was wracked by a severe shortage of resources in the aftermath of the Maverick Wars and Elf Wars. In particular, energy was critically scarce. There wasn't enough energy to support the current population of both humans and Reploids. Therefore, the Neo Arcadian Reploids chose to reduce the Reploid population in order to prevent loss of human life. However, Reploids that didn't want to be killed ran away and formed a Resistance in order to save their own lives. Ciel, believing that human and Reploid life were equal in value, recruits Zero and then tries to develop a new energy source so that no one had to be sacrificed. It is basically the high-tech equivalent to the question of what happens if the Earth doesn't have enough food to support its population.
 
No, the Repliforce weren't labeled as Mavericks until after the Sky Lagoon disaster. Until that point, they were slated to replace (or at least compliment) the Maverick Hunters as the main forces used by the government to fight the Maverick threat. Now, when you say the "game" says that the Repliforce wasn't going to fight humans, what you really mean is that General, a character in the game said that. However, just because a character says something doesn't mean that they are being entirely truthful, or that their plans actually worked out. Now, what General was saying in his speech wasn't as straightforward as you seem to have taken it. The entire point of General's speech in the first place was to serve as a declaration of independence from the human government and to serve as justification for their actions. The actions of the Repliforce were in clear defiance of the orders handed down to them from the government and Maverick Hunters. As such, they had already gone against the will of the humans. What General is saying is that the Repliforce were different from the Mavericks. Instead of being a force that sought to annihilate mankind, the Repliforce was fighting to build their own nation of independant Reploids. However, the Repliforce was willing to use whatever means they saw necessary to achieve that objective, and that included hurting humans.

In short, the Repliforce rejected the notion that Reploids were subservient to humans, and instead used military force to assert their equality and independence. As a necessary part of their ideology and goals, killing humans was inevitable. It wasn't their goal, but it was certainly a clear consequence of their actions. In contrast, the Maverick Hunters and X prioritized the protection of human lives above all else. This is really important in establishing stuff in later X games and the Zero games, and even the Legends series. This conflict here is a defining one for pretty much the rest of the franchise.

I don't think so. General was surprised that the Final Weapon started up after the boss fight against him. Most of the surviving Repliforce forces had fled to the Final Weapon, which was supposed to serve as the base from which they would build their new nation (possibly in space). Presumably, it was meant to serve as deterrent against aggression from the Maverick Hunters. However, Sigma hijacks it after General's defeat. If it was Sigma's to begin with, he would have used it much earlier. It is entirely possible that acquiring Final Weapon was one of Sigma's main goals in instigating the conflict. If he had it from the start, he would have fired it, destroyed humanity, and blamed it all on the Repliforce.

Mega Man Zero's conflict is actually more complicated than that. Humans and Copy X didn't want to destroy Reploids. Rather, they simply saw it is a grim necessity. The entire world was wracked by a severe shortage of resources in the aftermath of the Maverick Wars and Elf Wars. In particular, energy was critically scarce. There wasn't enough energy to support the current population of both humans and Reploids. Therefore, the Neo Arcadian Reploids chose to reduce the Reploid population in order to prevent loss of human life. However, Reploids that didn't want to be killed ran away and formed a Resistance in order to save their own lives. Ciel, believing that human and Reploid life were equal in value, recruits Zero and then tries to develop a new energy source so that no one had to be sacrificed. It is basically the high-tech equivalent to the question of what happens if the Earth doesn't have enough food to support its population.

1. I said repliforce was labeled maverick before the coup. This true, not sure what you're arguing here.

2. You are literally making your own story about the general that does not exist in the game. There isn't room for intepetation.

3. No repliforce did ZERO actions. So you saying they were rebelling to excuse their actions makes zero sense. The "human government" thought they were mavericks because of sky lagoon, which they had nothing to do with.

4. Again no, General even killed himself. The only main force against them were the irregular hunters.

5. You are assuming killing humans being killed is inevitable based on nothing but a made up view of the games plot that doesn't exist. Also an assumption.

6. No it doesn't this does not tie into anything at all. Repliforce went rouge because they were set up by a maverick and that sae maverick influenced their actions once the coup started.

7. No they didn't launch final weapon until the end of the game. Which General had control of, and lost control after he is defeated. Also all surviving members of repliforce did not go to FW that your assumption. Heck one of them is a boss in X5.

8. Which changes nothing about what I said.

MMZ plot is humans wanted to solve the reploid problem and went after them. They used similar logic, and nonlogic in ZX.

X4s plot was a maverick blaming a group and then the group influenced by a maverick, starts doing activities that helps the mavericks plan. And the humans send the reploid focused Maverick Hunters to stop them.

Not even close to the same.
 

SkyOdin

Member
First of all, it would help if you avoided this numbering scheme you use to respond to points. I am having trouble figuring out which statements I've made you are responding to with each of your bullet points. Breaking my quote block up would help, or you could respond in a more structured arguments. As it is, it is difficult to have a discussion like this. I will try my best though.
1. I said repliforce was labeled maverick before the coup. This true, not sure what you're arguing here.

2. You are literally making your own story about the general that does not exist in the game. There isn't room for intepetation.

3. No repliforce did ZERO actions. So you saying they were rebelling to excuse their actions makes zero sense. The "human government" thought they were mavericks because of sky lagoon, which they had nothing to do with.

4. Again no, General even killed himself. The only main force against them were the irregular hunters.

5. You are assuming killing humans being killed is inevitable based on nothing but a made up view of the games plot that doesn't exist. Also an assumption.

6. No it doesn't this does not tie into anything at all. Repliforce went rouge because they were set up by a maverick and that sae maverick influenced their actions once the coup started.

7. No they didn't launch final weapon until the end of the game. Which General had control of, and lost control after he is defeated. Also all surviving members of repliforce did not go to FW that your assumption. Heck one of them is a boss in X5.

8. Which changes nothing about what I said.

We seem to be talking past each other here, though. Of course the Repliforce were not considered Mavericks until the Sky Lagoon incident. That's what I said. However, it isn't as simple as saying that they were unfairly blamed for the Sky Lagoon and then targeted by the government for that reason. Rather, as seen in the talk with Colonel at the end of the intro stage, the Repliforce refused to disarm when ordered and instead declared their independence. The Repliforce's pride was a significant factor in the start of the plot of MM X4. When I said that General was justifying the actions of Repliforce in his speech, I meant the actions that Repliforce was about to undertake, not anything they did previously. A rebellion wasn't the pretext for an action, it was the action itself. The Repliforce War didn't happen because the Repliforce were declared Mavericks, it happened because the Repliforce rebelled against their orders.

Now, General and the other soldiers of the Repliforce bore no animosity towards humans, but instead fought out of both a sense of self-preservation and pride in themselves. Now, I think it isn't a huge leap in logic to think that when the game says that someone "decimated the city", that there were casualties involved. Likewise, it doesn't take a big jump in logic to think that firing massive lasers downwards from an aerial battleship positioned over a city would cause some damage. In one of the Mega Man X Official Works books released by Capcom, the events of Mega Man X4 are referred to as the Great Repliforce War. That name certainly implies a large scale to the conflict. It is safe to say that while the Sky Lagoon incident served as the trigger for the conflict, it quickly grew much larger from there.

Also, yes, it was principally a conflict between Repliforce and the Maverick Hunters. However, the Maverick Hunters are a much larger organization than just X and Zero. Those two are just individual unit leaders in an organization of unspecified size. It has been stated in supplementary materials that Signas from X5 had a predecessor who resigned from his position as commander of the Hunters after the events of X4 due to his regrets over the conflict.

Now, General sacrificed himself to save the Earth because he truly did not want to see humans die unnecessarily. That doesn't mean that he wasn't responsible for human deaths himself earlier, it just means that he wasn't a genocidal sociopath. The entire point of the story is that Reploids wanted to be respected by humans and have their pride and independence. That desire was even voiced by Iris in her death scene, who wished to live in that Utopia for Reploids. The Repliforce desiring that Utopia enough to kill for it and not wanting to shed blood unnecessarily are not contradictions.
MMZ plot is humans wanted to solve the reploid problem and went after them. They used similar logic, and nonlogic in ZX.

X4s plot was a maverick blaming a group and then the group influenced by a maverick, starts doing activities that helps the mavericks plan. And the humans send the reploid focused Maverick Hunters to stop them.

Not even close to the same.
No, humans had no part in the events of Mega Man Zero 1, other than Ciel of course. The decision to cull Reploids in order to solve the energy crisis was made by
Copy
X, the absolute ruler of Neo Arcadia. The city of Neo Arcadia was ruled and managed by Reploids for the sake of humans. The Reploids who were consigned to death were sentenced by the Eight Gentle Judges, all Reploids themselves. Humans remained mostly passive, putting their faith in X, the only Reploid who they saw as being on their side.

Now, Mega Man ZX is a completely different story, since the human versus Reploid conflict has completely ceased to be an issue, and has nothing to do with the central conflicts of either ZX game.
 

Cyrus_Saren

Member
My favorite Megaman X game, with the original Mega Man X being second.

This one just did a lot right. Gameplay was fun, controls were nice and tight. About the only bad things I can think of is the voice acting not being good and the loading but, considering the era it was in, nothing can be done about that. And the voice acting now does give a certain charm to it.

Good write up, OP. I await your other threads about the series when you get back into it.
 

RK128

Member
My favorite Megaman X game, with the original Mega Man X being second.

This one just did a lot right. Gameplay was fun, controls were nice and tight. About the only bad things I can think of is the voice acting not being good and the loading but, considering the era it was in, nothing can be done about that. And the voice acting now does give a certain charm to it.

Good write up, OP. I await your other threads about the series when you get back into it.

Thank you for the kind words :). Will come back when I get through more games and start the MM Retrospective again closer to Late May/June.
 

PSqueak

Banned
A little detail i loved from this game, is that Split Mushroom and Magma Dragoon carried Sigma's insignia instead of the Repliforce insignia in their health bars, since they were working with Sigma directly in incriminating the Repliforce.

This was later carried over to Megaman X5, where Skivier had the Repliforce insignia and Dark Dizzy had the Sigma insignia as remanents of their respective factions, while the other "mavericks" were infected civilians.
 

RK128

Member
A little detail i loved from this game, is that Split Mushroom and Magma Dragoon carried Sigma's insignia instead of the Repliforce insignia in their health bars, since they were working with Sigma directly in incriminating the Repliforce.

This was later carried over to Megaman X5, where Skivier had the Repliforce insignia and Dark Dizzy had the Sigma insignia as remanents of their respective factions, while the other "mavericks" were infected civilians.

That was a nice touch I noticed during my time with both X4 and X5 :). Great detail work by Capcom for sure! Also liked how the Squid Maverick was a friend of Launch Octopus and told X off about killing his friend.

And instead of typing a new post, here is what's going on for future Retrospectives:

Hello everyone.

Today was.....quite the day for my Mega Man Retrospective :l. I mean, most you saw the X4 thread and how everything went down there! But not that things cooled down, I have clear thoughts on the matter and will do the following for this retrospective going forward.

I am sticking to my guns and not making any more Mega Man Retrospectives for a few more days, but for different reasons. I want more time to go through a few titles (MM Zero, MM Battle Network, Mega Man 5 & 6, Mega Man X5) before making Retrospectives on them to avoid the 'event' that happened today.

But the Retrospective is back on! Just....going to take a bit longer to come back then I expected it. Not to mention college work is pilling up and I have to make that a priority (need to keep up strong grades).....making lesson plans and writing two papers will take quite a bit of time to get done :(.

I will have two Retrospectives come out this weekend though; one for Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction and Spyro the Dragon 2: Rypto's Rage. Will hopefully have the upcoming Mega Man threads up in the next few days but will not be as rapid as my MM4 and MMX4 threads (to avoid issues that happened today).

So, Retrospective is back on but needs more time.

tumblr_mqb3xhFo9u1rwxvn2o1_250.png
 
I have the Mega Man X Collection for GameCube (which covers MMX1-6), and while I've been meaning to play through the whole thing, so far, I've mostly sunk time into MMX1 and just have sort of lightly sampled the rest of the series, the bulk of which are new to me. I wound up liking X5 and X6 a lot less than I was expecting to (too much dialogue, didn't enjoy the time limit and hostage rescue novelties at all, and difficulty seems to have shot through the roof), and I wound up LOVING what I played of X4. Something about this one just hits some sort of sweet spot of 32-bit 2D Mega Man gameplay and aesthetics that MM8, X5, and X6 all missed for me.

My two cents! Enjoy your retrospectives as always, RK128. Take whatever time you feel you need, and keep school first, GAF will still be here when the semester is over!

P.S. FWIW the Mega Man 6 jetpack rules
 
As of today, the Mega Man Retrospective is over, as least for a few months.

I hope you all enjoyed my thoughts on the series so far and that the franchise gets great games in the future.

Thank you for your time.

Nice work, OhNoDangerItsaPentagonRun. You just ruined it for everyone.

Hope that you're happy.
 

Onemic

Member
I just got X4 on my PS3! Played it and then I remembered how much I suck at megaman when I couldnt beat the spider boss.(For reference: I could never beat the last stage in X1) Feels bad man :(
 

RK128

Member
Nice work, OhNoDangerItsaPentagonRun. You just ruined it for everyone.

Hope that you're happy.

Don't worry, the Retrospective isn't over :). Just that my plans for the other Retrospectives will be pushed back toward later in the week (as I have a lot of college stuff to do the next few days).

Will have the Battle Network thread up soon enough though.

I just got X4 on my PS3! Played it and then I remembered how much I suck at megaman when I couldnt beat the spider boss.(For reference: I could never beat the last stage in X1) Feels bad man :(

The trick is to stand still when he is moving around and keep an eye out for moving leaves. Once you see some falling down, dash left/right then land a few saber swipes/charged shots to the Spider Maverick.

At the end-point of the fight he stops this pattern and shifts to moving in a circle around the electric web. At this point he sends in little spiders to attack which can be taken with saber swipe or charged shot. Keep on attacking (easier with X as you can wall cling) and then you beat the guy!
 
Megaman X4 is a decent game but is filled with issues and gameplay and plot based on who you play as seem to be giving you a taste of the back and forth struggling Inafune and Capcom were having.

Inafune was a baby he wanted Zero so bad, he tried to be a producer and tried to run the series his way, even though he was running it into the ground and the plot has never made sense regardless, it also wans't his, and it pisses me off people say he's the "creator" of megaman and he led that go for years, probably pissed off Capcom as well. He wanted Zero to have been in megaman X's place since the first game, which would have led to gameplay changes I'd rather not have had.

Megaman X4's plot captures that perfectly. Inafune wanted X4 to place importance or Zero and his backstory along with Iris and Colonel, yet everything around that is basically nothing. 80% of the plot of the game is on X's side of the story. The ending of X's story, though both playthroughs before the end seem to be canonical in certain ways, seem to be the canon as well.

First off stage design seem to favor Zero for progression (in most cases) while favoring X for everything else like hidden paths short cuts, etc.

The Boss Battles were built with X in mind. Outside maybe Colonel.

Sigma seems to be built with Zero in mind as well.

But the main thing is that X's Dialogue with everyone in the game and Zeros are completely different. And seems to be based on Capcoms own spin based on the writers and the double producers.

  • In Megaman X's story, X mentioned that humans may die and people die after Sky lagoon falls.
  • Split Mushroom actually tells X he's under orders to Destroy Him and X says "who" and Split says "Take a wild guess" indicating Sigma is involved and half the Repliforce are mavericks. While Split is just there to fight Zero.
  • Cyber Peacock actually tells X he was ordered to test X's abilities through his level. Also that X had limitless power.
  • Only to X does Magma Dragoon say HE made the Sky Lagoon fall. Said basically Sigma offered him a chance to fight X if he pretended to join Repliforce. Literally, just to fight X.
  • Double cements the Sigma intrusion by killing hunters and revealing he's a spy.
  • The difference between the X and Double fight and the Zero and Iris fight is amazing. Zero find Iris and just is like "hey" and Iris is like "You killed my brother it's over" and then Zero kills her and she's like "I wanted to believe" and Zero is like "what am i fighting foorrrrrrrrrr!" and that's it. While Double actually confirms that there are Actually mavericks, that them, hunters, and Repliforce were intentionally pitted against each other, and again, he was a spy.
  • The General is another one. With Zero he's just like "General people died" then General says "I have no regrets less fight" Then the weapon activates on the satellite. While in X's story General actually tells X the goal is to build a utopia for Reploids and any interference will be stopped. X says that the fighting is mindless, which it is, and General says that they have no choice but to fight because they have been labeled mavericks. The General even tells X when the laserr activates that HE should hurry up and stop it and X says he'll stop it. While Zero just ends with General saying "oh no someones controlling the laser"
  • Sigma is the biggest issue, you get a cutscene with Zero and Sigma showing Zero was a maverick even though that he transferred the Virus to Sigma and then it just ends and you go to the final boss room, while Sigma literally tells X, "Double did a good job we got the Hunters and Repliforce to kill each other", which makes Double more important to the plot than Iris, Sigma also tell you Repliforce built the weapon and he intended to use it to destroy the Earth.

I mean that's like 80% of the plot. If you play as Zero all you get is literally Zero knows the Colonel and Iris is his sister, he likes his sister, Repliforce goes on a coup, He kills Colonel and Iris, Sigma reveal some info about Zeros' past and that's it.

X's story literally has the whole main plot of the game you are currently playing. You would have Zero idea of what's going on.

This happened in X5 as well

  • Grizzly Slash (yes I'm going to use the Gun and roses names) Actually tells X he is slowly being infected by the virus, and that he wants to fight before he has no control over his mind, while he just wants to attack Zero just because.
  • Squid guy's actual motivation for quitting the hunters is because X killed Launch octopus and then he slowly goes crazy. While he mentions quitting the hunters to Zero but for no reason.
  • Izzy Glow tells Zero he wants to analyze Zero and X through battle since he is about to be taken over by the Virus. But actually makes a comment about the rough entrance you had to make since the start of the level blowing up bridges and doors, and X says it's because the whole lab is infected. He then says he won't cooperate with hunters, and says that he may be wrong but he won't make up his mind and fights X.
  • Duff Mcwhalen tells Zero to fight him because why not. While he tells X either if you haven't launched the laser that he won't let you take control of the sea without fighting him. or if you already launched the laser, that the sea is infected by the Virus and he wants to meet the same fate.
  • Both X vs. Zero fights have info you won't ever see if you are not Zero in this fight.

  • Sigma in the final boss tells X that an old man who i would assume is Wily but we see no from of him at all, Not only built his body, but also that the virus at the start of the game taking over the world was not significant enough and that he had to make the colony hit the ground. oddly he says this if you actually destroy the Colony to. He even tells X, unlike Zero, that the old man build multiple robots, that they knew eachother and they both hate X.


I'm actually happy Capcom made X6 because although some questions remained as well as holes from X5, X6 at least tried closing a decent number of them


BTW I liked the direction Capcom went with experimenting instead of using the stale formula over and over.

I'd gladly take:

Capcoms:
X6
X7
X8
X command Mission
X Collection
Megaman Collection
Xtreme 1-2


Over Inafunes:

MMB1-6
Starforce103
Zero104.

Post X5, in fact, technically ZX was mostly controlled by Capcom as well.
 

SkylineRKR

Member
I feel MMX4 was built around Zero. Boss fights made sense with him. With X it was just very dumb like beating Dragoon with the tornado move. With Zero its an actual good fight.

Maybe storywise not, but gameplay wise, I think so.

Stage select theme is GOAT.
 

RK128

Member
Megaman X4 is a decent game but is filled with issues and gameplay and plot based on who you play as seem to be giving you a taste of the back and forth struggling Inafune and Capcom were having.

Inafune was a baby he wanted Zero so bad, he tried to be a producer and tried to run the series his way, even though he was running it into the ground and the plot has never made sense regardless, it also wans't his, and it pisses me off people say he's the "creator" of megaman and he led that go for years, probably pissed off Capcom as well. He wanted Zero to have been in megaman X's place since the first game, which would have led to gameplay changes I'd rather not have had.

Megaman X4's plot captures that perfectly. Inafune wanted X4 to place importance or Zero and his backstory along with Iris and Colonel, yet everything around that is basically nothing. 80% of the plot of the game is on X's side of the story. The ending of X's story, though both playthroughs before the end seem to be canonical in certain ways, seem to be the canon as well.

First off stage design seem to favor Zero for progression (in most cases) while favoring X for everything else like hidden paths short cuts, etc.

The Boss Battles were built with X in mind. Outside maybe Colonel.

Sigma seems to be built with Zero in mind as well.

But the main thing is that X's Dialogue with everyone in the game and Zeros are completely different. And seems to be based on Capcoms own spin based on the writers and the double producers.

  • In Megaman X's story, X mentioned that humans may die and people die after Sky lagoon falls.
  • Split Mushroom actually tells X he's under orders to Destroy Him and X says "who" and Split says "Take a wild guess" indicating Sigma is involved and half the Repliforce are mavericks. While Split is just there to fight Zero.
  • Cyber Peacock actually tells X he was ordered to test X's abilities through his level. Also that X had limitless power.
  • Only to X does Magma Dragoon say HE made the Sky Lagoon fall. Said basically Sigma offered him a chance to fight X if he pretended to join Repliforce. Literally, just to fight X.
  • Double cements the Sigma intrusion by killing hunters and revealing he's a spy.
  • The difference between the X and Double fight and the Zero and Iris fight is amazing. Zero find Iris and just is like "hey" and Iris is like "You killed my brother it's over" and then Zero kills her and she's like "I wanted to believe" and Zero is like "what am i fighting foorrrrrrrrrr!" and that's it. While Double actually confirms that there are Actually mavericks, that them, hunters, and Repliforce were intentionally pitted against each other, and again, he was a spy.
  • The General is another one. With Zero he's just like "General people died" then General says "I have no regrets less fight" Then the weapon activates on the satellite. While in X's story General actually tells X the goal is to build a utopia for Reploids and any interference will be stopped. X says that the fighting is mindless, which it is, and General says that they have no choice but to fight because they have been labeled mavericks. The General even tells X when the laserr activates that HE should hurry up and stop it and X says he'll stop it. While Zero just ends with General saying "oh no someones controlling the laser"
  • Sigma is the biggest issue, you get a cutscene with Zero and Sigma showing Zero was a maverick even though that he transferred the Virus to Sigma and then it just ends and you go to the final boss room, while Sigma literally tells X, "Double did a good job we got the Hunters and Repliforce to kill each other", which makes Double more important to the plot than Iris, Sigma also tell you Repliforce built the weapon and he intended to use it to destroy the Earth.

I mean that's like 80% of the plot. If you play as Zero all you get is literally Zero knows the Colonel and Iris is his sister, he likes his sister, Repliforce goes on a coup, He kills Colonel and Iris, Sigma reveal some info about Zeros' past and that's it.

X's story literally has the whole main plot of the game you are currently playing. You would have Zero idea of what's going on.

This happened in X5 as well

  • Grizzly Slash (yes I'm going to use the Gun and roses names) Actually tells X he is slowly being infected by the virus, and that he wants to fight before he has no control over his mind, while he just wants to attack Zero just because.
  • Squid guy's actual motivation for quitting the hunters is because X killed Launch octopus and then he slowly goes crazy. While he mentions quitting the hunters to Zero but for no reason.
  • Izzy Glow tells Zero he wants to analyze Zero and X through battle since he is about to be taken over by the Virus. But actually makes a comment about the rough entrance you had to make since the start of the level blowing up bridges and doors, and X says it's because the whole lab is infected. He then says he won't cooperate with hunters, and says that he may be wrong but he won't make up his mind and fights X.
  • Duff Mcwhalen tells Zero to fight him because why not. While he tells X either if you haven't launched the laser that he won't let you take control of the sea without fighting him. or if you already launched the laser, that the sea is infected by the Virus and he wants to meet the same fate.
  • Both X vs. Zero fights have info you won't ever see if you are not Zero in this fight.

  • Sigma in the final boss tells X that an old man who i would assume is Wily but we see no from of him at all, Not only built his body, but also that the virus at the start of the game taking over the world was not significant enough and that he had to make the colony hit the ground. oddly he says this if you actually destroy the Colony to. He even tells X, unlike Zero, that the old man build multiple robots, that they knew eachother and they both hate X.


I'm actually happy Capcom made X6 because although some questions remained as well as holes from X5, X6 at least tried closing a decent number of them


BTW I liked the direction Capcom went with experimenting instead of using the stale formula over and over.

I'd gladly take:

Capcoms:
X6
X7
X8
X command Mission
X Collection
Megaman Collection
Xtreme 1-2


Over Inafunes:

MMB1-6
Starforce103
Zero104.

Post X5, in fact, technically ZX was mostly controlled by Capcom as well.

You did a wonderful job breaking down the plots for X4 and X5 and thank you for doing this! It explains a lot and you bring up a great point; X has a lot of important story elements while Zero has more character interactions in X4.

The only thing I was confused with your post was MMB1-6; are you talking about Battle Network or some other Mega Man sub-series?

Thank you for the great post and have a great night man :).
 
I was talking about Battle Network

I feel MMX4 was built around Zero. Boss fights made sense with him. With X it was just very dumb like beating Dragoon with the tornado move. With Zero its an actual good fight.

Maybe storywise not, but gameplay wise, I think so.

Stage select theme is GOAT.

No way, that's like one example, and even then Dragoons plot is only clear if you play as X, Zero doesn't even have 8 "special moves" he has 6. Web Spider, Slash Beat, Split Mushroom, Storm Owl, Jet Stingray, are pretty much boss's. Colonels attack patterns only really make sense fighting someone with long distance weapons, and the General is the General.
 

Onemic

Member
The one problem I have with this game is the wall jumping. Why is it not like in MMX where you can wall jump in the other direction by pressing the opposite directional button? It was very intuitive in MMX, but in X4 if you try and wall jump like that you'll simply drop down. Now the only way to properly do it is to do a regular wall jump and for the split second that X/Zero is in the air press the opposite directional button. It's extremely clunky and will probably end up being a huge negative for me once I really start putting time into it(As Im trying to beat X1-X5 in chronological order now)
 
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