well no, that's definitely not the norm. people don't generally "grind" to buy lives or e-tanks. consider that there's achievements for a) beating the game without continuing, b) beating the game without dying and c) beating the game without ever getting hit. plus, earlier mega man games did not have a shop and put even harsher restrictions on the amount of e-tanks you could carry.RadarScope1 said:At the Wily stages and getting my ass kicked. I shuddered at the thought of grinding on previous stages so I could buy a ton of lives and tanks. But I started doing it. Then I realized I can only have 9 of each! I'm fairly new to MM so this probably the norm, but -- goddamn. All the way through with just 9 lives? It took everything I had just to beat the first Wily stage with my last slice of energy and no extra lives left. Not sure I have the patience to sufficiently memorize all this. Shame to get this far and quit, though. :\
if you're a complete mega man noob and primarily a modern gamer and not used to the challenge of some of the mure brutal 8-bit games then, yes, it's not THAT surprising that you're getting your ass kicked like that
also, remember that, while you can't save in between wily stages, you are NOT bumped back all the way to the beginning of wily's fortress if you lose all your lives, but to the beginning of the respective stage. only once you turn off your system you'll lose the progress you made in the fortress.