Support NeoGAF

[Watch Da Birdie]

Just downloaded Mega Man X off the Wii U, haven't played it in years, so I went in mostly blind...I managed to get through to the end of the game without too much difficulty, but one thing I noticed was that I had NO CLUE what weapons to use against the Mavericks. In fact there were only like three Mavericks (Armadillo, Mandrill and Chill Penguin) where I even noticed I had found their weakness weapon by unique animations, sometimes it seems like none of my weapons seemed to do much, so I just spammed the Homing Missiles.

Looking through the Weakness Guide of GameFaqs, I realize, like, none of the weaknesses really make sense except for Chill Penguin being weak to the Fire Wave.

Flame Mammoth isn't weak to the Water Boss's attack, but instead to Storm Tornado. And because Storm Eagle's level is filled with Fire Wave-destructible blocks, you'd assume it's the other way around or something.

Spark Mandrill is weak to Ice, for some reason. Chill Penguin is probably the first level you'll go to since, well, a Penguin seems weak, and he is weak,, and then you've got 7 other Bosses and no clue who to use the Ice Attack on. Could you possibly freeze the Octopus? Clip the wings of Storm Eagle? Nope, take down the Electric Boss.

Armored Armadillo is weak to Spark Mandrill, even though shocking Launch Octopus seems more logical since water conducts electricity.

Launch Octopus is weak to the Rolling Shield. Ice, Electricity, cutting his arms off with the Boomerang, all of them seem more sensible to me.

Boomer Kuwanger is weak to the Homing Torpedo. This makes sense, sort of, since he constantly teleports around, but you don't know he can do that till you reach him. Instead you might think, being a bug, Sting Chameleon's weapon would be effective.

Sting Chameleon is weak to the Boomerang Cutter, although, as I stated, it'd seem more sense to be the opposite. Personally since he camouflaged against leaves, I thought Storm Eagle was his weakness as it could blow his cover away. Nope.

Storm Eagle is weak to Sting Chameleon's attack...because...I don't know.

It sort of removes the fun of Boss Weaknesses when, instead of being intuitive and easy to figure out, you gotta trek through the level and then switch quickly between your Weapons to figure out their weakness, and even then it seems some of the Bosses don't have unique animations when hit by their weakness, so you aren't sure if you're doing more damage than usual and you need to test all your weapons while the boss attacks you while unfocused. Maybe I'm just so used to the typical RPG Pokemon-style weaknesses that Mega Man's took me by surprise.

Anyone else figure out the Boss Weaknesses on their first try?

 

[Exuro]

Don't forget that you can

Spoiler

cut off Flame Mammoth's trunk with Boomerang Cutter.

 

[Anteo]

Launch Octopus is weak to the Rolling Shield. Ice, Electricity, cutting his arms off with the Boomerang, all of them seem more sensible to me.

Well is not like you cant...

Besides that, I agree

 

[Metallix87]

This was likely done on purpose, to differentiate X from the original series. Here, the Robot Masters have been built to resist the expected weapon, and instead you have to experiment and see what works.

 

[Seven Force]

Part of the fun of Mega Man boss weakness is experimenting to see what does and doesn't work. Doubly so in X1, since some bosses have a secondary weakness that also changes their attack pattern (Like the aforementioned Boomerang Cutter/Launch Octopus thing)

 

[Callo Merlose]

Sigma saw the mistakes that a German doctor made a century before him and chose to be smarter.

 

[Skilletor]

I think that's good. It would be boring if the weakness was predictable. It would mean you built shitty robots as well.

Sigma saw the mistakes that a German doctor made a century before him and chose to be smarter.

^

 

[L Thammy]

Most Mega Man games since 1 have had unintuitive boss weaknesses, frankly. The ones with simplified weakness systems being exceptions (Zero, ZX, Battle Network, Star Force) obviously.

X is actually better than most in that many of the main eight bosses react obviously to their weakness. Most Mega Man games don't have that.

 

[FrontalMonk]

Spark mandrill weakness being ice made sense. The water boss had a torpedo, and melted ice is water...when you mix water and electricity, bad things happen.

Same with Flame Mammoth and the wind attack. after all, a strong enough gale can wipe out a flame.

 

[Sophia]

Every boss has different thresholds, actually. And some bosses have special mechanics against weapons other than their primary weakness. Thus most bosses have a minor and a major weakness. A good example of this is Launch Octopus, who's major weakness is Rolling Shield and minor weakness is the Boomerang Cutter.

Flame Mammoth has the dubious honor of three weaknesses. Storm Tornado (major weakness), Boomerang Cutter (cuts off his trunk) and Shotgun Ice (Minor weakness)

 

[Gamerloid]

Classic game... I just never get tired of it.

Took me a long time to learn the weakness of every boss. Would usually just get it wrong and then just mega buster them to death. Not that easy on some bosses. Not sure how many times I played to learn the weakness, I'm still baffled by the Octopus' weakness...

Good thing the Hadoken will kill a boss with one hit. No need to guess!

 

[Regiruler]

Most Mega Man games since 1 have had unintuitive boss weaknesses, frankly. The ones with simplified weakness systems being exceptions (Zero, ZX, Battle Network, Star Force) obviously.

X is actually better than most in that many of the main eight bosses react obviously to their weakness. Most Mega Man games don't have that.

Really? 4, 6, and 10 (the ones I played) made somewhat a bit of sense.

 

[Hyoukokun]

I can come up with plausible explanations for a few of these:

• Ice taking out electricity - having lived through a major ice storm, I can see how this one works. Electric power lines and ice don't mix.
• Wind takes out fire - You typically put out a candle by blowing it out, so this sort of makes sense. (Doesn't hold for larger fires, of course)
• Chameleon beats Eagle - Eagles are well-known for their eyesight ('Eagle Eye'). Chameleons are well known for blending in with their surroundings and being hard to see.

 

[Trike]

All are weak to hadouken. Seems pretty straightforward.

 

[JinjoUnchained]

This is the case with every Mega Man; some of the weaknesses are intuitive, most are arbitrary. It harkens back to when gamers didn't mind dying, restarting, and experimenting.

 

[Mechanized]

There is no defending this really. Its dumb but the game is amazing so who cares.

 

[TheShampion]

If it is any consolation, the game is actually a lot more fun if you challenge yourself to beat every boss with the megabuster. The bosses are way too easy if you use the weapon they are weak against.

 

[Sophia]

This is the case with every Mega Man; some of the weaknesses are intuitive, most are arbitrary. It harkens back to when gamers didn't mind dying, restarting, and experimenting.

I only find that the weaknesses are needed for a few bosses anyhow. Chill Penguin, Flame Mammoth, Storm Eagle, and to a lesser degree Launch Octopus are all easily beaten with the Buster.

It's also not that hard to experiment, seeing as you can easily tell which weapons the boss is weak against. Virtually all of them have a special animation.

 

[BassForever]

Don't forget that you can

Spoiler

cut off Flame Mammoth's trunk with Boomerang Cutter.

I dunno why you spoiler tagged that

You can also cut off launch octopus's tentacles the same way.

Also op the weakness aren't really meant to be elementally driven but attack pattern driven for the most part

Launch octopus is weak to rolling shield, when running away from his whirlpool attack you can fire it and it'll bounce off the wall and time perfectly to hit him when he finishes that attack

Chill penguin is weak to fire wave, the attack has exactly enough range to destroy both of his ice sculptors and hit him at once.

Flame mammoth is weak to the storm tornado, the attack is long enough and stays still that flame mammoth will often jump into it.

Boomer Kuwanger you already mentioned (teleports and is weak to homing missiles)

Sting Chameleon is weak to boomerang cutter, when he clings to the walls he's always at the perfect hight to fire your boomerang on the ground and then dodge his attacks while it circles back and hits him.

Spark Mandrill is weak to shotgun ice, he attacks by dashing jumping over him and shooting the weapon at the wall will have it ricochet back and hit him.

Armored Armadillo is weak to the electric spark, the attack has the ability to run up the walls if it misses, and armored armadillo has an attack where he rolls around bouncing into the walls. There is no great timing for this sadly

Storm Eagle is weak to the chameleon sting, whenever be flies onto the screen it's always a set distance away from X that the weapon will hit him.

At least this is how I always saw it for years

 

[L Thammy]

Really? 4, 6, and 10 (the ones I played) made somewhat a bit of sense.

Bright Man beats Pharaoh Man. Ring Man beats Dust Man. Dust Man beats Skull Man. Skull Man beats Dive Man. Dive Man beats Drill Man. Drill Man beats Toad Man.

I mean, when you have obvious powers like fire and electricity it tends to make sense, but then when you start going into weird powers like "Pharaoh"...

If it is any consolation, the game is actually a lot more fun if you challenge yourself to beat every boss with the megabuster. The bosses are way too easy if you use the weapon they are weak against.

It's easy to avoid walking into the bosses in X as well, so it's one of the best games to play buster-only

 

[Videoneon]

Ice beating Spark Mandrill...not sure. Perhaps mandrills do not have cold environments as native habitats, but I don't see how ice directly defeats electricity. Any sort of inclement weather screws up a power line.

Electricity beating Armored Armadillo, Armadillo's shields are held together by powerful magnets or some shit

Rolling Shield beating Octopus is just a logic thing--fairly weak energy shield absorbing small torpedoes

Torpedoes seek out Boomer Kuwanger, who hides

Boomerangs cut Sting Chameleon's tongue, an important tool for his attacks (perhaps it also cuts Chameleon's tail, the other form of attack)

Sting Chameleon beating Storm Eagle, I have no clue. There's a sort of tradition where laser or spacey type weapons beat wind bosses.

Storm Tornado blows out the fire I guess, though in some instances wind makes a fire stronger.

Fire melting ice.

Bright Man beats Pharaoh Man. Ring Man beats Dust Man. Dust Man beats Skull Man. Skull Man beats Dive Man. Dive Man beats Drill Man. Drill Man beats Toad Man.

I mean, when you have obvious powers like fire and electricity it tends to make sense, but then when you start going into weird powers like "Pharaoh"...

Bright > Pharaoh: Pharaoh Man is a mummy, mummies sleep, you're disturbing it with a bright light so he's the only one sensitive to it
Ring > Dust: Clogging the vacuum, sort of similar to Wood > Air
Dust > Skull: No idea. The Skull Barrier is simply an energy shield though, so I wonder if the piles of scrap somehow are supposed to neutralize it.
Skull > Dive: Another modestly-defensive shield weapon protecting against small projectiles
Dive > Drill: Torpedo seeking out underground or "hidden" enemy.

Tenuous, somewhat, but possible to explain.

 

[Trike]

I dunno why you spoiler tagged that

You can also cut off launch octopus's tentacles the same way.

Also op the weakness aren't really meant to be elementally driven but attack pattern driven for the most part

Launch octopus is weak to rolling shield, when running away from his whirlpool attack you can fire it and it'll bounce off the wall and time perfectly to hit him when he finishes that attack

Chill penguin is weak to fire wave, the attack has exactly enough range to destroy both of his ice sculptors and hit him at once.

Flame mammoth is weak to the storm tornado, the attack is long enough and stays still that flame mammoth will often jump into it.

Boomer Kuwanger you already mentioned (teleports and is weak to homing missiles)

Sting Chameleon is weak to boomerang cutter, when he clings to the walls he's always at the perfect hight to fire your boomerang on the ground and then dodge his attacks while it circles back and hits him.

Spark Mandrill is weak to shotgun ice, he attacks by dashing jumping over him and shooting the weapon at the wall will have it ricochet back and hit him.

Armored Armadillo is weak to the electric spark, the attack has the ability to run up the walls if it misses, and armored armadillo has an attack where he rolls around bouncing into the walls. There is no great timing for this sadly

Storm Eagle is weak to the chameleon sting, whenever be flies onto the screen it's always a set distance away from X that the weapon will hit him.

At least this is how I always saw it for years

I think the point was that you cannot guess who is weak to what based off of the character select screen, so going through a stage to try and beat a boss only to find out that your weapon is useless is pretty defeating. The weaknesses are pretty unintuitive, but the Mega Man games have always been littered with questionable weaknesses. Part of the challenge of the games has always been figuring out the boss weaknesses. If your weapon turned out to be useless, you had to figure out the boss attack pattern. Or if this is Mega Man 2, ask if it is appropriate to use Metal Blade. The answers is almost always yes.

 

[megarockexe]

Bright > Pharaoh: Pharaoh Man is a mummy, mummies sleep, you're disturbing it with a bright light so he's the only one sensitive to it
Ring > Dust: Clogging the vacuum, sort of similar to Wood > Air
Dust > Skull: No idea. The Skull Barrier is simply an energy shield though, so I wonder if the piles of scrap somehow are supposed to neutralize it.
Skull > Dive: Another modestly-defensive shield weapon protecting against small projectiles
Dive > Drill: Torpedo seeking out underground or "hidden" enemy.

Tenuous, somewhat, but possible to explain.

Isn't Pharaoh's eye cut or something in one of the arcade fighters? All the weakness change again, and most seem to make sense with cross-game weapons and weaknesses.

 

[Roto13]

I dunno why you spoiler tagged that

You can also cut off launch octopus's tentacles the same way.

Also op the weakness aren't really meant to be elementally driven but attack pattern driven for the most part

Launch octopus is weak to rolling shield, when running away from his whirlpool attack you can fire it and it'll bounce off the wall and time perfectly to hit him when he finishes that attack

Chill penguin is weak to fire wave, the attack has exactly enough range to destroy both of his ice sculptors and hit him at once.

Flame mammoth is weak to the storm tornado, the attack is long enough and stays still that flame mammoth will often jump into it.

Boomer Kuwanger you already mentioned (teleports and is weak to homing missiles)

Sting Chameleon is weak to boomerang cutter, when he clings to the walls he's always at the perfect hight to fire your boomerang on the ground and then dodge his attacks while it circles back and hits him.

Spark Mandrill is weak to shotgun ice, he attacks by dashing jumping over him and shooting the weapon at the wall will have it ricochet back and hit him.

Armored Armadillo is weak to the electric spark, the attack has the ability to run up the walls if it misses, and armored armadillo has an attack where he rolls around bouncing into the walls. There is no great timing for this sadly

Storm Eagle is weak to the chameleon sting, whenever be flies onto the screen it's always a set distance away from X that the weapon will hit him.

At least this is how I always saw it for years

There. You get it.

 

[redcrayon]

I don't think they need to be intuitive, only our need for them to be out of a sense of order makes it seem odd. Elemental weaknesses are overused anyway.

Megaman X is a 12-stage platformer from the early 90s, and cost about £50. it comes from a time when dying and replaying stages (or, in Megaman's case, usually the bosses) again and again to discover your preferred order was part of the running time. If it was obvious what the optimum order was based on the level select screen or without any experience of actually fighting the bosses, they wouldn't be the barriers to progress they are supposed to be, and you could finish the game a couple of hours after getting it home from the shop.

Also, weaknesses make sense when they have elemental properties, but not all of the bosses do, and the over-reliance on fire-wind-water-earth tends to get a bit mixed up anyway when you include ice and electricity as elements. MMX has more elemental bosses than most of the other games, but the weaknesses are designed to keep the player guessing, the boss fights challenging at first, and the game interesting as they experiment and discover the unique animations. They are not to help people beat every boss first time around as they easily select the right elemental weapon every time, based on the name of the boss, in the corridor beforehand with no experimentation or effort at pattern recognition etc. I would have felt a bit ripped off if the game was that easy, MMX is one of the easiest in the series anyway.

The bosses are super-easy when you know their weaknesses, it turns lengthy battles requiring plenty of dodging, like with Armored Armadillo, into a joke. I always thought that was a reward for experimentation when, in most Megaman games, you have a boss-rush later on, designed to make you feel really powerful as you easily tear through them again. The comedy unique animations are a nice touch of humour too, I love them

 

[Videoneon]

Isn't Pharaoh's eye cut or something in one of the arcade fighters? All the weakness change again, and most seem to make sense with cross-game weapons and weaknesses.

Yes, Pharaoh Man is weak to the Quick Boomerang. Some of the weaknesses in that are weird though. The hell does Dive Missile do to Slash Man, or Slash Claw against Cut Man? Gyro Attack against Centaur Man? Gemini Man is weak to the Pharaoh Wave, and I don't see why. It melts his crystal in the stun sprite but Search Snakes just made more sense. I think Capcom just sort of realized they had a semi-plausible weakness cycle with:

Gemini > Napalm: destroying the bombs, Napalm Man has been weak to weapons that bounce off walls...
Napalm > Guts: Guts Man weak to bombs again
Guts > Air: a new one that makes sense
Air > Quick: Quick Man took moderate damage from the Air Shooter in MM2 but this one kinda makes sense too.

and then just did whatever with the what was left, and called it a day. It seems like they made sure to stick to a sort of formula. Each group of six robot masters in Power Fighters featured three returning RMs from Power Battle and three new RMs.