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X is the most unfortunate MegaMan character

Boss Doggie

all my loli wolf companions are so moe
it's not stupid reasoning. it's a plot point that the entire x series was always building towards in some form or another. they were constantly dropping hints that x and zero would eventually have to fight (and not in the way that happened in x5 and x6) and that x was constantly terrified that he would become the very thing he was fighting against. let's not act like that came out of left field here.

it does feel like most of the backstory for zero was just trying to undo the damage caused by executive meddling and x5/6, so i'm sure the actual planned narrative would have been better developed if it all went as intended.

Nah, the whole gist is that it undermines the whole point of X being a paragon. That's the whole point of his character. To turn him evil feels like Inafune's attempt to destroy the character people have grown to love because it was not his baby.

X is to Zero as the Red Ranger is to the Green Ranger. Both are cool but one just has more style and steals all the spotlight until people start ignoring the Red Ranger altogether. And then you feel for bad for the red ranger because he was supposed to be the leader.
AIHBN11.jpg


soxl7Pq.jpg

I disagree on the grounds that despite being a darkhorse, Jason managed to remain relevant and known as a team. Jason still called the shots and was still shown to be superior. The only time it petered off was when Rocky came in, and at that point Jason has left.

More like Axl is Dan.

Nah I disagree. He started off bad in X7, but in X8 and CM he's definitely worthy of being called a Maverick Hunter. Problem is he is a post-Inafune character so he gets shafted.
 
I disagree on the grounds that despite being a darkhorse, Jason managed to remain relevant and known as a team. Jason still called the shots and was still shown to be superior. The only time it petered off was when Rocky came in, and at that point Jason has left.

I agree, though I don't know if he was referring to Power Rangers or their Japanese counterparts being Geki & Burai from Zyuranger.
 

Boss Doggie

all my loli wolf companions are so moe
I agree, though I don't know if he was referring to Power Rangers or their Japanese counterparts being Geki & Burai from Zyuranger.

In Zyuranger Burai wasn't also a showstealer.

In fact, sixth rangers aren't show stealers in Sentai.
 

SkyOdin

Member
Nah, the whole gist is that it undermines the whole point of X being a paragon. That's the whole point of his character. To turn him evil feels like Inafune's attempt to destroy the character people have grown to love because it was not his baby.
I'm not a big fan of Inafune myself, but to be fair to him, I don't think he was behind that potential plot twist in Mega Man Zero. From all I've read, Inafune was busy with the Battle Network series at the time, and had almost zero input in the Mega Man Zero series. The plot falls squarely on IntiCreates. However, Capcom intervened and fixed it, and IntiCreates made some great games, so I can't really get angry at them in the end.

I just want to add that X's Command Mission design is the best he's ever looked.
Agreed.

While X looks great in his SNES and PS1 games, I always thought that his original design didn't translate too well to 3D graphics. The Command Mission redesign fixed that problem brilliantly. X and Zero benefit from having really simple core elements to their design, which allow them to be redesigned quite extensively while still looking "right". The addition of the beam scarf was a cool touch though, and it makes X stand out a bit more compared to the original Mega Man.

As far as Zero is concerned, I'm a fan of the design he has on the Rockman Zero Mythos CD case. It is a cool elaboration on his MM Zero design that sadly never made it into any game.
 

MogCakes

Member
Screw X. Maybe if X had some personality I'd feel bad about his portrayal but he's a walking wack bot compared to Zero.

I prefer X's reserved and dutiful nature to Zero's consistent teenage melodrama. Plus, X's blaster just makes way more sense than Zero's laser sword. Look cool it may, but it can't wipe an entire screen of mooks in one satisfying blast.
 

Boss Doggie

all my loli wolf companions are so moe
I just want to add that X's Command Mission design is the best he's ever looked.

Where's my toy model of that??

I really dig the energy scarf he has.

The only other Capcom game to feature this is the recent Strider Hiryu game.
 
I like the april fools redesign TruForce Collectables used for their X figure, myself. Perhaps a bit too mechanical for my taste with the joints considering the character (but the final design was for an action figure, to be fair, and thus doesn't stand out like other figures would), and some might argue the design is a bit too busy, but it keeps the spirit of the character while adapting his design for today's visions of what futuristic design principles might be. Give him the energy scarf, and we're gold.

Speaking of which, I have all three variants of the figure. Money well spent, the quality is phenomenal.

3116.jpg


Anyhow, X. Yeah, I think X has a tendency to get the short end of the stick, but the X series I feel was poorly handled in general, with so many missed opportunities. While MHX was promising, I honestly feel it didn't got nearly far enough with changing up the plot. The fact that the one human character who actually had a presence in the games aside from the Light hologram, Dr. Cain, was unceremoniously offed before the game even starts made me realize that perhaps Inafune didn't have as much of a grasp of what direction the story should be going in as he thought he did.

I don't dislike Zero by any means, though I do think his shilling is a bit overplayed, much like Wolverine. It doesn't help that he basically became a flat character in his own bloody series. Sure, his grand "fuck you" speech to Dr. Weil/Vile was fantastic, but aside from his the fact that he protects people, he barely has any character aside from being stoic as hell. Thank God he was surrounded by people who actually had character.

Though, I think one of the biggest issues with the X and Zero series is the fact that the whole thing eventually degenerates into an endless cycle of violence, with the peace X wishing for never coming true until Weil gets taken care of... Only to fall apart in the ZX series where it's basically implied that the whole world is fucking drowned by Master Thomas and the remaining heroes end up having to pick up the pieces with the Master system, leading to Legends. That's a freaking tragedy, right there, and I'm pretty sure that's the fault of shoddy writing and planning rather than being intentional.

Personally, if I was given the job, I'd just plain reboot the whole thing with a somewhat similar art style and tone, shift things towards more of a hard sci-fi direction a bit, just have X go through the regular 30-year testing as planned, but in the possession of the Cossack family along with the rest of Light's stuff, with Rock having long retired rather than being conspicuously absent. Make Cain a bit younger and one of the Cossacks' competitors in the robotics industry. Move most of the post-X3 cast forward to the start, and properly integrate Command Mission and its cast with the rest of the story more cohesively. And give Axl a new gimmick. I mean, I like him and all, but his whole transformation shtick makes no scientific sense and barely even has a purpose in gameplay outside of Command Mission.

I do wish Ian Flynn deviated from canon more with the comics with X, but I suppose Capcom probably mandated that he stick to it.
 

True Story: When X3 came out I thought Mac was the green biker dude reconstructed, and that he turned on X for leaving him for dead during the X2 opening.

Honestly I like that spontaneous headcanon better than him being some nobody hunter that manages to incapacitate X like it's nothing. Even Vile needed to wear him down with Ride Armor before he could do that.
 

Boss Doggie

all my loli wolf companions are so moe
I like the april fools redesign TruForce Collectables used for their X figure, myself. Perhaps a bit too mechanical for my taste with the joints considering the character (but the final design was for an action figure, to be fair, and thus doesn't stand out like other figures would), and some might argue the design is a bit too busy, but it keeps the spirit of the character while adapting his design for today's visions of what futuristic design principles might be. Give him the energy scarf, and we're gold.

Speaking of which, I have all three variants of the figure. Money well spent, the quality is phenomenal.

3116.jpg


Anyhow, X. Yeah, I think X has a tendency to get the short end of the stick, but the X series I feel was poorly handled in general, with so many missed opportunities. While MHX was promising, I honestly feel it didn't got nearly far enough with changing up the plot. The fact that the one human character who actually had a presence in the games aside from the Light hologram, Dr. Cain, was unceremoniously offed before the game even starts made me realize that perhaps Inafune didn't have as much of a grasp of what direction the story should be going in as he thought he did.

I don't dislike Zero by any means, though I do think his shilling is a bit overplayed, much like Wolverine. It doesn't help that he basically became a flat character in his own bloody series. Sure, his grand "fuck you" speech to Dr. Weil/Vile was fantastic, but aside from his the fact that he protects people, he barely has any character aside from being stoic as hell. Thank God he was surrounded by people who actually had character.

Though, I think one of the biggest issues with the X and Zero series is the fact that the whole thing eventually degenerates into an endless cycle of violence, with the peace X wishing for never coming true until Weil gets taken care of... Only to fall apart in the ZX series where it's basically implied that the whole world is fucking drowned by Master Thomas and the remaining heroes end up having to pick up the pieces with the Master system, leading to Legends. That's a freaking tragedy, right there, and I'm pretty sure that's the fault of shoddy writing and planning rather than being intentional.

Personally, if I was given the job, I'd just plain reboot the whole thing with a somewhat similar art style and tone, shift things towards more of a hard sci-fi direction a bit, just have X go through the regular 30-year testing as planned, but in the possession of the Cossack family along with the rest of Light's stuff, with Rock having long retired rather than being conspicuously absent. Make Cain a bit younger and one of the Cossacks' competitors in the robotics industry. Move most of the post-X3 cast forward to the start, and properly integrate Command Mission and its cast with the rest of the story more cohesively. And give Axl a new gimmick. I mean, I like him and all, but his whole transformation shtick makes no scientific sense and barely even has a purpose in gameplay outside of Command Mission.

I do wish Ian Flynn deviated from canon more with the comics with X, but I suppose Capcom probably mandated that he stick to it.

I guess Axl's mimicry should be more about program mimicry than actual physical looks.

With that said he should keep the "new generation of Reploids" shtick who are immune to the virus.
 
Really taken aback by some of the hate that Zero's getting in here. Never even considered using Mega-man in any of the X games, always straight to Zero once given the choice.
 

MogCakes

Member
It's because of the Inafune hard-on for Zero that I vastly prefer MMX to any of the other X titles. I didn't bother with MMZ either. Zero is flat out uninteresting to me.
 

Videoneon

Member
positive words about Mega Man X....\(^o^)/

I'll come back to this later. I'll say that there was some foundation laid in X6 to finally take back the spotlight/some importance (even if it wasn't particularly glamorous, and the game itself wasn't well-received). I think it makes sense that a staunchly pacifistic character gets some fulfillment by finding political methods to help the world. X7 ruins X of course, but by Command Mission, certainly X8, X is at the forefront. Remember that scene in CM where X corrected Zero about distrusting the other party members? Yeah....
one of them was a traitor...but not all of them =p

I don't know shit about Megaman, but is this the one who was shunned in Marvel VS. Capcom 3, where Zero got in? I remember people being upset about that.

Mega Man X was consistently at the top of DLC polls or character wishlists.

DAMN IT CAPCOM
 

Village

Member
Is Zero hate some kind of new trend?

Its specialized thread for neogaf, it sort of comes with the territory. It sort of means nothing outside of it, but its meant for people to vent their frustrations in sort of a constructive way.
 

21XX

Banned
I disagree on the grounds that despite being a darkhorse, Jason managed to remain relevant and known as a team. Jason still called the shots and was still shown to be superior. The only time it petered off was when Rocky came in, and at that point Jason has left.

Where am I, what year is it and what is going on?
 

IzzyF3

Member
I agree with you OP, he often gets shafted in crossovers too ;_;

Maverick Hunter X gave me high hopes, alas it didn't bring a MHX2.

>And then there's Mega Man Zero. Originally X was meant to be the villain. If it weren't for Capcom it would have been true. Imagine being an X fan only to hear that for some odd reason your favorite character becomes a villain in the most stupid reasoning.

I'm glad that didn't happen. Would have been so bad.

Word.

Remember the ending to X4.
X asked Zero to destroy him if he ever went Maverick
. Which foreshadowed what the Zero games were supposed to be. It feels like they really tried hard to phase out X. The Zero games were fantastic though, so no complaints there.
 

SolVanderlyn

Thanos acquires the fully powered Infinity Gauntlet in The Avengers: Infinity War, but loses when all the superheroes team up together to stop him.
I just want to add that X's Command Mission design is the best he's ever looked.



Where's my toy model of that??
This bridged his design from X -> Zero really well.

Is Zero hate some kind of new trend?
Zero hate is as old as the series itself. Of course the resident "cool character" has a camp of people who hate him, mostly for that reason.

It was kind of ridiculous how much he mattered in the Playstation trilogy. He functioned much more effectively as a support character in the SNES games.
 
In Zyuranger Burai wasn't also a showstealer.

In fact, sixth rangers aren't show stealers in Sentai.

True, but Burai was the most popular ranger in Zyuranger. He was so popular within Japanese fans, that they started paying more attention to him while the other five Zyurangers were being overshadowed, hence one of the reasons why the writers wanted to kill him off.
 

SolVanderlyn

Thanos acquires the fully powered Infinity Gauntlet in The Avengers: Infinity War, but loses when all the superheroes team up together to stop him.
True Story: When X3 came out I thought Mac was the green biker dude reconstructed, and that he turned on X for leaving him for dead during the X2 opening.

Honestly I like that spontaneous headcanon better than him being some nobody hunter that manages to incapacitate X like it's nothing. Even Vile needed to wear him down with Ride Armor before he could do that.
Honestly, the headcanon of the ordinary Mega Man fan is 90% likely to be better than whatever Capcom wrote. Example:

Anyhow, X. Yeah, I think X has a tendency to get the short end of the stick, but the X series I feel was poorly handled in general, with so many missed opportunities. While MHX was promising, I honestly feel it didn't got nearly far enough with changing up the plot. The fact that the one human character who actually had a presence in the games aside from the Light hologram, Dr. Cain, was unceremoniously offed before the game even starts made me realize that perhaps Inafune didn't have as much of a grasp of what direction the story should be going in as he thought he did.

I don't dislike Zero by any means, though I do think his shilling is a bit overplayed, much like Wolverine. It doesn't help that he basically became a flat character in his own bloody series. Sure, his grand "fuck you" speech to Dr. Weil/Vile was fantastic, but aside from his the fact that he protects people, he barely has any character aside from being stoic as hell. Thank God he was surrounded by people who actually had character.

Though, I think one of the biggest issues with the X and Zero series is the fact that the whole thing eventually degenerates into an endless cycle of violence, with the peace X wishing for never coming true until Weil gets taken care of... Only to fall apart in the ZX series where it's basically implied that the whole world is fucking drowned by Master Thomas and the remaining heroes end up having to pick up the pieces with the Master system, leading to Legends. That's a freaking tragedy, right there, and I'm pretty sure that's the fault of shoddy writing and planning rather than being intentional.

Personally, if I was given the job, I'd just plain reboot the whole thing with a somewhat similar art style and tone, shift things towards more of a hard sci-fi direction a bit, just have X go through the regular 30-year testing as planned, but in the possession of the Cossack family along with the rest of Light's stuff, with Rock having long retired rather than being conspicuously absent. Make Cain a bit younger and one of the Cossacks' competitors in the robotics industry. Move most of the post-X3 cast forward to the start, and properly integrate Command Mission and its cast with the rest of the story more cohesively. And give Axl a new gimmick. I mean, I like him and all, but his whole transformation shtick makes no scientific sense and barely even has a purpose in gameplay outside of Command Mission.

I do wish Ian Flynn deviated from canon more with the comics with X, but I suppose Capcom probably mandated that he stick to it.
This is all great stuff. I think Capcom oversimplified the story because it's an action game and needed to be easily accessible to its primary audience, which is children. But that doesn't mean it needs to have all the poorly written faults in its story that it does.
 

TreIII

Member
I wonder why Ciel never made a body for X

Well, she technically already did that once...and that didn't go so well.

Otherwise, I imagine she didn't have the time or resources for another attempt, when she was trying to make a new type of energy solution that would have ended the reason for the conflict in the first place. Or at least, before Dr. Vile/Weil showed up and ruined shit.
 

Boss Doggie

all my loli wolf companions are so moe
Mind you guys I don't hate Zero, I just hate how he gets shilled because he is Inafune's baby and in the process shafted X, a potentially interesting character.

Where am I, what year is it and what is going on?

hey it's true

True, but Burai was the most popular ranger in Zyuranger. He was so popular within Japanese fans, that they started paying more attention to him while the other five Zyurangers were being overshadowed, hence one of the reasons why the writers wanted to kill him off.

non-red rangers being overshadowed is a common thing though, at least Geki was still calling the shots

also Burai wasn't as frequent anyway
 

Videoneon

Member
Anyway I like X because I think he adds weight to the whole idea of integrating robots into society. It's a problem that's still not really solved through the Zero series but he adds more emotional presence to it especially as a protagonist, rather in the Zero series it's shown through the antagonists (Copy X as head of Neo Arcadia, Elpizo's backstory, Dr. Weil being an ass.) Zero is carrying on the work of X, as was basically said in the Zero 1 ending IIRC

I don't hate Zero, but I think if what we saw of Zero in the X series is a rough indication of what the plan for him was intended to be in the beginning (more or less) he would have been an inappropriate lead. I didn't want this series to be purely about who's the best action hero. Zero resolves himself to fighting which makes him a good counterpart to X and there's a good duality there, but it's not really interesting for story purposes.

The X series is a lot of wasted/unused potential at this point, but I liked the idea of the games taking a look at broader society instead of simply dealing with localized conflicts that have to do with how special the protagonist is, or simply beating the same villain. Which isn't to say these elements aren't present in X (they are) but Mega Man games generally resign themselves to these ideas and I was happy to think of X building Eurasia and traveling to a new world in CM, and dealing with the fallout of the nightmare in X6.
 

Boss Doggie

all my loli wolf companions are so moe
Just a heads up on the folks wondering, my favorite MegaMan is Volnutt, but X is my second-best.
 

MegaLeon

Neo Member
As a massive X series fan, what leaves me truly disappointed about Capcom leaving megaman to a slow death is that we had huge amounts of well-estabilished lore that we'll never see adapted into games.

Things such as Sigma being finally blasted by the mother elf, the elf wars, X and Zero fighting Omega, Axl possibly going full apeshit.

 

vato_loco

Member
I'm learning so much from reading this thread. I didn't even know
X was in stasis or something
. I love X as a character but I also really like Zero. Hell, X4 was amazing because X was all about strategy and long distance fighting and Zero was all about getting all up in enemies' faces and destroying them.

Now I'll have to play them all again...
 
As a massive X series fan, what leaves me truly disappointed about Capcom leaving megaman to a slow death is that we had huge amounts of well-estabilished lore that we'll never see adapted into games.

Things such as Sigma being finally blasted by the mother elf, the elf wars, X and Zero fighting Omega, Axl possibly going full apeshit.

That's nothing. The one that blew my mind was the Japanese only card game that mentioned a Megaman X clone (not Copy X from MMZ) (of all things!)

edit - so wait, I thought Sigma was finally destroyed due to
not being able to regenerate on the moon
at the end of MMX8? Where did the mother elf thing come from?
 

Gunstar Ikari

Unconfirmed Member
X is the dullest protagonist in the entire Mega Man franchise IMO, even worse than the ZX guys. Zero is lame too, but X is lame on an entirely different level.
 

MegaLeon

Neo Member
That's nothing. The one that blew my mind was the Japanese only card game that mentioned a Megaman X clone (not Copy X from MMZ) (of all things!)

edit - so wait, I thought Sigma was finally destroyed due to
not being able to regenerate on the moon
at the end of MMX8? Where did the mother elf thing come from?

Yeah I got it wrong, Sigma was destroyed, but the Sigma virus was still around and that's what the mother elf was used for.

Again, this is all stuff being retold in the Zero series - would have been awesome to see it unfolding in an actual game.
 

SoulUnison

Banned
EXE and Volnutt have the most "character" by far, just by virtue of being in game genres where there's real dialog, not just a paragraph of throwaway lines before a boss fight.
Classic doesn't even get that.
 

SolVanderlyn

Thanos acquires the fully powered Infinity Gauntlet in The Avengers: Infinity War, but loses when all the superheroes team up together to stop him.
As a massive X series fan, what leaves me truly disappointed about Capcom leaving megaman to a slow death is that we had huge amounts of well-estabilished lore that we'll never see adapted into games.

Things such as Sigma being finally blasted by the mother elf, the elf wars, X and Zero fighting Omega, Axl possibly going full apeshit.
As interesting as seeing the Elf Wars would be, at least the gap was bridged from X -> Zero in some form, even if it was only mentioned in passing. The gap from Classic -> X is still a giant unknown and likely always will be. Unless you count the games with Quint as canon, which would explain why Mega Man disappeared.

He's from the Carddass game Rockman X Mega Mission (which is canon).
Mega Mission is canon? Really? (Serious question - Mega Mission has some really cool maverick redesigns so it would be awesome if this could be confirmed)

This is iX for the uninitiated - he's basically an evil green X. They probably took influence from Quint's design.

 
I prefer X's reserved and dutiful nature to Zero's consistent teenage melodrama. Plus, X's blaster just makes way more sense than Zero's laser sword. Look cool it may, but it can't wipe an entire screen of mooks in one satisfying blast.

You wanna talk about satisfying, let's talk about dashing and leaping all across the screen cutting your enemies clean in half in a shower of "oil."

Zero's teenage melodrama at least has more entertainment potential than X's eternal "wahhhhhhh I don't want to fight but I must FOR PEACE" schtick.
 

Boss Doggie

all my loli wolf companions are so moe
He's from the Carddass game Rockman X Mega Mission (which is canon).

I thought he was older than the card game.

But yeah he is canon. Man Megaman X is really rich with its background stuff. Like you got the supposed mavericks having personality (and man Storm Eagle has a sad fate) and some even surviving and joining your side.
 

MogCakes

Member
You wanna talk about satisfying, let's talk about dashing and leaping all across the screen cutting your enemies clean in half in a shower of "oil."

Zero's teenage melodrama at least has more entertainment potential than X's eternal "wahhhhhhh I don't want to fight but I must FOR PEACE" schtick.
Not as clean a destruction as X's buster. I will never see IRIIIIISS or WHAT AM I FIGHTING FOOORRRRRR as anything more than cringe worthy.
 

21XX

Banned
That's nothing. The one that blew my mind was the Japanese only card game that mentioned a Megaman X clone (not Copy X from MMZ) (of all things!)

edit - so wait, I thought Sigma was finally destroyed due to
not being able to regenerate on the moon
at the end of MMX8? Where did the mother elf thing come from?

From what I remember, Sigma's programming was completely destroyed at the end of X8, but the Sigma Virus lived on through Zero. So while there wasn't a physical manifestation of Sigma, the virus was still a threat and Mavericks were still an issue. The mother elf was meant to be a sort of Sigma virus antibody and was created from some of the Sigma virus in Zero's body.

I think. It's probably best to just go along for the ride and not think too, too much into it.
 
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