It's finally happening: we're covering Mega Man Zero! I've worked incredibly hard on this video and am very happy with the result, so I hope you all enjoy!
Don't worry Most of the problems in zero1 gets addressed in later entries in 2 you have forms which are like different suites that gives you unique powers a lot of them are unfortunately niche and hard to get also 2 in my opinion is the hardest zero game not because of life chips but only due to bosses and level design Zero 3 is considered to be the best with no weapon levelling a revamped cyber elf system and the coolest sub weapon with great bosses levels and all Zero 4 is....... It does have a very nice ending and I love it despite it's shortcomings (at least compared to 3)
X1 was Capcom trying out the new SNES hardware capabilities, Z1 was Inti Creates experimenting to find its own identity and deviating from the formular. Dashing and wall jumping alone added so much to the X series without removing or changing other defining aspects of the classic games. But with Zero 1, they tried to rework basically everything and as a result, corners had to be cut. I'm glad that they stuck to their gun and improved on it with later installments. (They kiinda reverted back to X series a bit with Z4, but it's still very much doing its own thing)
The only opinion I had a gripe with in the whole video was weapon level grinding. Yes the grind is there and it is annoying, but if you just go up to a nest of jumping spiders and only kill the spiders, it'll take about 5 minutes to max level each weapon. Yes, that is 20 minutes that I 100% agree shouldn't exist, but at least there is a way to mitigate it.🥲
Fun fact (or upsetting): Z1's villain was supposed to be the real X. It was at the eleventh hour that Capcom firmly told Inti-Creates "Absolutely not". And honestly, this is a case where I agree with the higher ups on a creative decision. Writers and devs should generally be given freedom without being stifled. But sometimes they need someone to hold them back and say "No". Look, we all like Zero. But even in X's own series, Zero was shown favoritism storywise. To then double down and pull a Darth Vader descent into villainy stunt with X would just be insulting.
I’d say the century of fighting alone would tend to change a person. To say nothing of putting one’s fate in the Mother Elf, only for that to also go awry thanks to Dr. Weil.
@@osurpless The issue for me is that undermines all the testing Light implemented to make sure X had a good heart, a major plot point of the X series. Copy X makes a lot more sense because he didn't get that, he was created on a short time scale after the real X went AWOL. Plus we get the badass line where Zero asks, was the real X this weak?
"Favoritism" Maybe because he was supposed to be Mega Man X. His design was originally going to be X, but it wasn't considered "Mega Man" enough. He was _always_ supposed to be the protagonist.
@@saltystick_99 So? They still went with the "more Megaman" design for the protagonist, then sidelined the protagonist for a considerable chunk of the story.
@@redblack8766 It's not their fault Zero offered a more interesting story than X. MMX was always something that emphasized the story more and Zero was a gold mine for it. In fact, They *should've* made the Mega Man X games RPGs (i.e: Command Mission) because the side-scrolling action is too difficult and dated, as well as horrendous for story telling.
If there's one thing I like about Zero 1, it's the atmosphere. It''s surprisingly bleak for a Mega Man game, way more so than X5 and X6. The mission structure is also pretty cool despite its issues.
@@metroided34 No way, the art style really shows just how narrow the gap between human and reploid had gotten. Reploids are no longer the bulky, robotic units they were but instead sleek humanoids.
43:26 I actually disagree. Zero's amnesia does serve a purpose and it's to hide what happened during the massive time gap between X and Z series. That will become much more prevalent in Z3, but I suppose we can't touch on that yet. Also I don't really see a problem with him being an empty vessel since he was always a reactive character even in the old series, just with a real personality 💀 being without his memory and attachment to anyone, I can see why this Zero feels so cold and distant. But it's the actions that matter the most and it's obvious he cares about the lives of the Resistance, as much as he loathes the injustice Copy X has placed on them.
Um, how would Zero have learned of that s=== IN F===ING STASIS?! No, the purpose his amnesia serves is to make him unhesitant to fight his old friend, or rather, someone resembling his old friend, a story explanation for going into the gameplay right off the bat. Which is fine, and could've been explained as Ciel erasing his memories before waking him, but nope, "hibernation sickness"… something X was never confirmed to have suffered except maybe in the Maverick Hunter X version of events where he only faintly remembers Dr. Light. But X could be, ahem, _X-tra_ special in that regard.
I personally feel the ranking system was the biggest problem with these games. Not because I can't get good, but because if you can't get good or find specific items, you'll never get the full experience
Yeah, I wish the ranking system had taken more inspiration from DMC tbh. DMC's ranking system is so good because it allows skilled players to unlock additional moves and abilities much faster, not locking them behind getting a SSS. Doubly so since a lot of EX skills open up the combo system for bosses in Zero 2-3.
I remember when I was younger I would basically have to just choose which one of the bossweapons I wanted because there was no way I could actually A rank them beyond the intro. Nowadays I really enjoy having a very substantial reward for playing well (since, well, I'm good enough now lol) but it definitely couldve either been toned down to needing a B (which is INSANELY more lenient) or just have the reward be something other than the boss moves.
the main issue with ranking was just how much a single death tanked your score. you could play a stage almost perfectly, die at the boss once, and be hit with like a C or lower, because point requirements drastically increase upon death. the ranking requirements were actually pretty lenient otherwise and it's very apparent if you don't die through a stage. a really great addition for this due to the collection is the new checkpoints. since they act more like a time reverse than a proper death, all impact on your score is removed. this makes A to S ranks drastically more attainable and stage play becomes much smoother as you don't need to replay them much or at all.
My largest issue is the fact T2 and T3 cyber elves PUNISH YOU PERMANTLY. So, let me get this straight: if I play the game NORMALLY, incrue the needed energy crystals to feed the bastards, and then use it.. I forever have screwed myself... for getting something that was otherwise a REWARD in any other title? Excuse me?! I'd be FAR more forgiving if the cyber elves were HALF the upgrades and the others required platforming challenges. If I recall, the sequel fixes this by making two sub tanks obtainable normally, with the other two as elves. Why couldn't heart containers be made this way as well? Story wise, I get it: using elves in general is a no-no because it kills them. In effect, that means the buffs given are always with you, so they will always allude that "Well, you only got here because you sacrificed something else." However, when the only way to get items that previously were obtainable by actually doing some kind of puzzle is via a time sink... yeah, no. T1 uses? Yeah, that I can fully get behind (even the funny haha metaur ones). But upgrades that require you to actually burn time, only to be punished in unfixable way? Uh.. no.
@@FlameSoulis This decision always made no sense to me either, ESPECIALLY since in Z1 you basically had to grind for a very substantial amount of time to use them anyway. The sequels (at least 3 does?) add actual subtanks that you are free to use and 3 even has a system where you can equip a few cyber elves of your choice without any punishment. They really stuck to their guns on what does and doesn't punish your rank across games for better or worse (mostly worse because of what another comment mentioned about how dying works) but at least they slowly made you able grow your character over the iterations.
I still think Zero 3 is the best when it comes to gameplay. No weapon star-system bs, no retry chips, can use all the best foot parts, can use certain cyber elves when ever you want without lowering your rank, etc. My only personal complaint is that you get the split heavens (ryuenjin) in the later stages of the game.
The Zero series is definitely different, but I wouldn’t say it failed with Zero 1. The first entry seemed more experimental. The overall game experience in gameplay, upgrades, and story presentation would improve over the series - with Zero 3 being the peak. You can tell the developers were making adjustments in the later 2 entries. Plus the additional media to expand on the Zero lore like the MMKB is amazing! I’m glad that Triple Rod combos are getting praise, and that Magnus Zero got a mention. He actually made a Zero 1 review with insights that helped me gain a better appreciation for what Zero 1 did.
All good points except maybe the extra lore media meant only the richer, more singular megafans could really fully keep up then. It's obvious that Mega Man overall only ended up being super-remembered via its original trilogy and X1 due to other games being one or more of the following: released late in their system's life; poorly marketed; released so near one another as to effectively be competing for attention and overwhelming potential buyers; overshadowed by even bigger releases; or way too big of a break from what people expected from Mega Man. Actual game quality or even the franchise's notoriety for being samey had very little to do with it. After all, Pokémon.
You said that Zero 3 was the peak of the series when it came to gameplay, Upgrades and story presentation. So was Zero 4 a downgrade? Because I thought it was a great ending game from the series.
@@alphonsejohnson5601 I personally like Z4. The ending is phenomenal, and the story writing leading up to it helped in making my top 10 favorite Mega Man games. The EX Skill/Combo system, the nerfed Cyber Elf system, the mostly mediocre Z-knuckle weapons you can collect, and really the Parts Systems were more so of not what I would expect from a sequel following what Z3 did. The part system grinding specifically can take a chunk of time like Z1, but not as much as Z1. Now Inti Creates was initially developing a 1.5 game of Zero in the wilderness. Part grinding and using enemy weapons would make sense - maybe even cool, while Zero’s traveling the desert. But Capcom said they needed one more sequel, and Inti used what they had to create Z4. So while I wish that Z4 had more polish in some aspects, I can understand the context of its development and I truly love and appreciate the closure Z4 did for the Zero series.
@@Glitchedpixel5 I would low-key love that! Zero 2’s intro stage is my favorite, and I would absolutely love to know what happened during his journey then!
it's a funny point at the end about how X1 was so clearly well-done while Z1 had so many issues, it really feels like the series took opposite trajectories. it feels like the X series went down and up with an overall downwards trajectory, while Zero left the 1st as the worst one by far.
Man, It's just great to hear your voice and see this style of game review again. I don't care how long it takes or what games you cover, I will always be here to enjoy it!
I have some thoughts on your take on the story. First, I 100% agree that I wish that the resistance members and NPCs had something more meaningful to say. In the later Zero games and especially in the ZX titles (with some exceptions), the characters have cool designs but I never feel like I want to connect with them because they don't introduce new story directions and don't contribute to the main story. In other words, they feel like filler. In an ideal world, every character would contribute to the main theme of the story like in Majora's Mask, but more NPC's like Andrew who give interesting side stories or implications through dialogue would go a long way. The "Andrew Solution" isn't ideal for every character, but short of rewriting the whole story, I'm not sure what the catch-all fix is for the NPC problem. (Giving rewards for talking to characters only works if they have anything interesting to say, otherwise I would just button mash to skip the dialogue. Side missions could either be completely skipped, hurting the storytelling potential depending on how it is handled, or be absolute garbage like that 1 sub tank from ZX. Integration to the main missions could also be problematic as it would either limit what kind of stages would be made or be an interruption to the player, and again, they need to say something interesting for it not to be hot air in the first place.) Second, I think your grievances of Copy X partially miss the point. The idea behind Copy X is that of a child who is worshipped as a savior without having done anything to earn that title. Copy X was created as a response to X retiring as leader of Neo Arcadia in order to prevent panic, as X had achieved high status among the people not only for the Maverick Wars but also being Neo Arcadia's leader. This explains his personality. He's an egomaniac, because from his creation he was worshipped by the humans as a perfect leader. He's insecure, because he knows he doesn't have the experience or ideology of the real X and is jealous of him as a result. He's a coward who only cares about his fragile ego and when confronted with a major problem like the energy crisis he chooses the action that would benefit his public perception the most (Wipe out the minority Reploids for the majority humans) rather than seek for the best outcome for all. I believe his lack of experience is also why he immediately resorts to the Ultimate Armor when Zero fights him and why Zero calls him weak, since Copy X hasn't actually been in a real fight before. However, I do believe your take is interesting, having Copy X actually examine the past and believe that the world is better off without Reploids, and it could present an interesting rationale for his actions. Maybe he could have seen this as his way of surpassing the real X. Whatever the case, I'm glad they ditched their original plan of making the real X evil. Third, Zero's amnesia, which exists to set up a later plot point in Zero 3. It's not like his personality really changes as the games go on and his memory recovers, so get used to stoic Zero. Not saying it couldn't have been done better, but unless you want to "read the lore" through audio dramas, this is about as much as you're gonna get.
I honestly really love how they implemented Copy X. Having X become evil leaves me with a really heavy heart. X is a great example of a heroic ideal, similar to Superman. To corrupt that feels so wrong, especially when this character archetype seems like a dying breed. I imagine their original intent would have been to explore a layer of X that was barely touched upon in his series at that point, his loathing for violence and the cycle of it. To have him actually respond to the endless fighting and be further fleshed out. (It's hard to fathom that two separate instances of this idea being explored were only used to crap on X.) Anyway, with Copy X existing, we not only have the self-righteous parody of X, but we also see an X that has grown as a leader, as well as, more jaded from the decades of war. While we see little of his compassion, even telling Zero to show Copy X no mercy, he is still a consistent force in helping the resistance and Zero achieve their goals. And his brotherhood with Zero is as strong as ever. He's still giving his all even from beyond the grave and the suffering he's endured over the years.
@@lomaxionpeerixonez2022 This playlist has all of them with accompanying English translation. Spoiler warning for Zero 2-4. ruclips.net/p/PLPAA2yRwpYtxCN7YAjEzW10CES3DJFiXt&si=8CWHbVSww_vhMHW3
I always thought Andrew's NPC was an homage to the movie Bicentennial Man. So, in a way, even this character lacks depth. It's nice to have easter eggs here and there, but after filling the game with its own world lore and content, especially when the game feels empty in this area.
Zero having amnesia gives me the context I need to understand why he doesn’t respond to things so for me with context in mind I didn’t give a fuck if he cried about x being evil cuz at that moment he doesn’t have an emotional connection to anyone or anything
The grinding is so bad, I swear the fact you find Zero has been in the desert grinding endless waves of copy-x droids between the end of Zero 1 and the start Zero 2, has to be an intentional joke by the developer.
There's something I feel is often forgotten in discussions regarding skill and difficulty: The primary purpose of video games is having fun, not difficulty for the sake of it. Someone could have fun spending hours or days on one boss/level in a highly difficult game, yet still have a bad experience with an overall easier game because of HOW it's making itself difficult. One horrible aspect about Z1 is how you CANNOT skip boss cutscenes on each attempt, something they already got right for several Megaman games. No amount of yelling "git gud" and "skill issue" will make this design choice remotely OK cause practically NOBODY enjoys sitting through cutscenes like that. Oh I'm sure you'll find a few unicorns on this planet who unironically wish all games forced you to watch cutscenes on each attempt, but unicorns shouldn't be used as standard.
Hard agree. Hell, I think people who are into higher skill/difficulty play are generally *more* sensitive to that sort of thing. If you're tackling something that's genuinely challenging you, for whatever skill level you're at, you basically always want to get into another attempt as quickly as possible after failure. Game Overs at least gate your attempt behind repeated gameplay, which (presumably) reinforces skills to make you better at the game, but gating an attempt behind a cutscene has no such advantage and all the same disadvantages. You should probably always be able to skip cutscenes (especially in any kind of action game), but you should definitely be able to skip cutscenes you've already seen.
@@SaberToothPortillalol that's why I haven't started another playthrough of Metro Exodus yet. You can't skip any of the "cutscenes" even if you've seen them already.
I'd disagree that the primary purpose of videogames is having fun and substitute that for something along the lines of "providing an impactful experience," (just because I've experienced too many games that have moved me in amazing ways but which did not stimulate me or make me happy in the ways "fun" is conventionally thought of) but otherwise i'd agree with everything you say here
@redblack8766 THAT is one of the reasons i dropped z1 & 2. I really dont have patience for cutscenes (especially unskippable ones) anymore. I'll take Z3 with its streamlined gameplay any day
It's still weird to me that the Mega Man series didn't really touch on human-robot relations at all until the Zero series, and barely even did it there. The X series literally only had 1 human and he was forgotten about after X3.
To me it feels like they were saving that for the Zero series on purpose, due to Inafune's Zero bias. Replaying the X series knowing that Inafune wanted Zero to have his own game from the start and only begrudgingly made X the titular character makes it really sad and obvious in hindsight.
@@petergriscom3431The first time they really mention anything in-game about humans and reploids living together was in X2. And I really don't think Inafune was thinking that in nearly a decade Zero might get his own spin-off title and then he'll start to actually focus on human-robot relations. It's more like story wasn't really considered important in the Mega Man series in general. I'd say the mega man franchise as a whole barely has the story of a single typical JRPG.
@@Blurns to be clear you're talking about robot-human sex because i am talking about both ways (Z and ZX had human-robot pairs but there is no indication how physical the relationship got). Pre-Z the level of robot technology is still murky if they're still just AI and not truly sentient (you can argue they still aren't fully in Z and ZX depending on the model). Basically Z is where robots have advanced enough to be true companions instead of advanced furbys/aibos. The mechanicum is memed to not care about tech levels anyway (toaster fuckers), tech itself is love no matter how simple or advanced.
I dont like how the EX skills require A-S rank in later games to get them. I prefer how Zero 3 and 4 do things. In 3 you can equip 2 elves with no penalty and every stage either has at least 1 permanent upgrade that can be put into those slots or has chips which further augment your gameplay alongside them And Zero 4 just reverts to giving you the weapons, given you dont turn the stage hazards off, which you can do for some reason
My favourite part of the series is after the first game Zero2 immediately throws you in action with a brutal level 😂 while you hear the best theme in probably the whole series
I like how so much of the criticique in this is fixed and streamlined in the 4th game but the irony is that it ended up being the last game. I LOVE the Elf system in MMZ4, its just so much more personalized
Everyone complains about the grinding but like... you don't have to, you can absolutely manage with just saber and level 1 blaster charge. The point of the system was to get stronger as you go through the game I believe, but everyone treats it like 'if I don't max everything it will be too difficult' Though if I could change the system and not downright remove it, I'd just make it so when you beat a stage your most used weapon gets exp(the game already tracks most used) What I will complain about how the game never explains that you can do a skull bash, or charge mutiple weapons at once if your control scheme is better, this goes for all 4. Same with reversals for the most part(though I believe they are just a byproduct of the games movement)
Great video! Watching this makes me realize that I've never given the Triple Rod a proper chance even though I've been replaying this game for over 15 years at this point... I always default to the Z-Saber and Buster combo since they feel natural to me as someone who played the X games a whole lot as a kid. The grindy nature of the weapon leveling system also always disincentivized me from trying anything else. I have little patience for grinding so I just stuck with what I already knew would work out for me. I'm looking forward to seeing your videos on the sequels, particularly 3, as that's my favorite one!
Overall, the Zero games are still more fun platformers than the X series, but I don't know why all of them have weird incomprehensible meta systems behind the core gameplay.
it's a game very much about getting players to high level play. the controls are made exceptionally tight and the combo chain system is also made that way on purpose to get the most fun possible. playing the game at the highest level is one of the all-time most exhilarating experiences you'll have with any platformer, blazing through stages and bosses like pure butter. and they really wanted you to reach that level. that's actually why the ranking system exists.
It's actually insane how well Azure Striker Gunvolt improves upon your critiques of MMZ1. The music becomes more fleshed out to the point where each stage sets a tone but also has banging vocals when you play well enough, the backgrounds and sprite work are more expressive, detailed, and colorful, the enemies have more character, expression, and personality, and Gunvolt and Joule have a more fleshed out relationship compared to Zero and Ciel. In a way, ASG is better spiritual successor of the Zero series than the X series.
48:13 Fun fact, this was originally going to be after X5. The sleep thing was a hasty post-X6 retcon, where he was originally resurrected before the X6 stuff happened. Of course, other details are filled in by the other games, but this game doesn't try to address what happened, and it makes me curious what would if X6 didn't bring back Zero the way it did.
From what I understand, Keiji Inafune always envisioned Zero becoming the main character over X. That's why the timeline and circumstances surrounding Zero's hibernation was weird. The intent was to make a different game, a different Zero. Ideally, X6 wouldn't have even come to pass if Inafune had his way, so that resulted in the need for more story shenanigans. For me, I just wish the transition wasn't so harsh given how great the X series was (which apparently Inafune came to loathe a bit because of X's popularity). The lore would have been much more impactful imo if we actually got to experience any of it.
6:42 - Can I just say how ripped off I felt when I got the Fire chip for beating the factory guardian (a boss that fights using all four in-game elements in a set cycle) rather than the train engine (who primarily goes at you with a huge flamethrower while herding you with rising piston-spiked ceiling platforming antics)?
In conclusion, you really should check out the rest of the series. And research more on the lore, while you're at it. The games don't have room to tell you everything.
"failed" for me zero / ZX is a much better megaman game, i whish there where more games like this... so sad that ZX advent was the last one. (im a HUGE fan of megaman series) and not getting the "hability" of the enemies is a good thing, this is NOT megaman, its zero, he does not have the copy system, and to be honest... i pretty much never use those habilities on megaman games asides from killing the right boss with the right ability. Zero weapons actually makes the gameplay have a lot more variety (it does not deplete any energy so you can use it all the time)
19:25 - 19:46 You say just barely reach the log but I don't see how this isn't for the right reasons because it seems to be the point of the challenge. I don't think it's a visibility problem since it's just showing a platform to time carefully, not like you even really need to see or use the rest of the platform anyway, more often than not you'll probably land i'd say. If anything i think it was designed with the visibility in mind. And the video even shows you falling off with not much attempt to get back up when you did it perfectly right before it.
Apparently there's an audio drama explaining events just before Zero's hibernation as well as some other events in the story that some talented people have dutifully translated faithfully with animatics for your viewing pleasure. Not even the Legacy Collection is safe from script edits. Some people even animated specific events from said audio dramas which Zero 1 apparently couldn't be added to have context on how we got here (possibly time constrains as well as... the mega saturation). Indeed Zero 1 was a rough start, like another Mega Man title on the GBA. The first time I played it was on VBA before I got bought Zero 3 at GameStop. My bro later bought me the Zero Collection for DS for my birthday. It had extras from the eReader Cards built into it that mitigated the need use it the eReader for the Zero 3 cartridge but they're unlockables which is fair. It's just a neat add-on.
It's the first review of this game that i watch which someone said all the things that i thought while playing/replaying the game. Specially the "difficulty", like you said, is most of the times superficial and not honest with the player (great example that you gave in mentioning DMC). The screen crunch is what i always felt while playing the Zero games on the GBA, detailed and nice looking sprites but cramped in a small screen. Take a look at the castlevania games for the gba, detailed but done in a way which i can understand what is going on and react accordingly. I also thought the same about the collections, making the games with a widescreen aspect ratio and more visibility. Such a solid review with a lot of good points and criticism, but also giving the game the credits that it deserves. This game had some good ambitions but being locked with gba capabilities was a shame knowing that games like X7 exist.
Despite its mixed success, the Zero series is worthy of respect for its willingness to attempt new things and scrap old staples. The Classic & X series had long staled. Still... how did anyone thinking grinding in an action platformer was a good idea?
I still remember when you played the games on twitch in 2020. Makes me remember your takes from back then and its fun to see how your opinions on this game have evolved.
16:35 Personally I think NOT using permanent upgrades should be a positive score multiplier, rather than strictly punishing those who use upgrades. (Ya know, reward those seeking greater challenge, while not inconveniencing / shaming those who don't want a greater challenge.) If you're worried about no-upgrade challenge runs having "easier" high scores, then add a "secret" higher rank like S+ or S++ that are only available to un-upgraded players. Kinda like what Sonic Forces did.
Yes, you don't need to grind all weapons to max level. But if you don't, you won't EVER see most of your weapons operating at max level. It's basically content tossed in the garbage because you never get to experience it unless you force it to happen.
Personaly, it's because they locked previously instantly unlockable moves from the X series behind this major grind. This is specially baffling regarding weapon charge attacks and 3 hit combo. These were unlocked out of the gate in the X series and kept a nice flow going. Having this arbitrary leveling system just to simulate gameplay progression is terrible, since it penalizes you for avoiding unnecessary enemy encounters. It also has the inverse effect IMO since the lack of moves at the start make the initial stages HARDER.
Came from a stupid twitter thread and, unsurprisingly, the video is more well thought out than that user's whining made it out to be. Fantastic video bro!
Great and very thorough review, loved hearing your thoughts on Zero 1. You can tell how much work and research went into this. This series struggled with balancing its desire for difficulty and the side systems employed for the sake of accessibility/progression, and no other game exemplifies this more than the first rough entry. That said, that solid core really is strong and shines even here. The more I replay these games, the more clear the flaws become, but the less they seem to matter. They're so fun to control and rewarding to master. Thanks for bringing a spotlight to them!
I appreciate the suggestion. However, this might sound crude, but it's kind of intentional. RUclips is a ruthless market, and titles that leave little to the imagination or don't spark much of the viewer's emotion statistically don't work as well. I understand that people dislike sensationalism or clickbait if you want to call it that, but the proof is in the pudding that it does work. And from my perspective, so much work goes into making these videos, I want them to reach as many people as possible. Hope that makes sense. :)
There's a scene in mega man zero 2, where if you talk to this old guy with big fat glasses, he says: "I wanna see your insides, so do you mind if I rip you apart?" "Ha ha ha. I'm kidding." "No really, I'm just kidding." "Don't look at me like that."
Well, ZX has an unintuitive map, but in my opinion, it has some of the best boss and level design in the franchise. Way better than Advent, though that one has an actually usable map.
@@domc8089 I think X suffers a tiny bit from that, mainly due to the dash not being immediately available and you needing to tackle Chill Penguin first because of it. Granted, it's not a deal breaker or anything and it's certainly better than any of the other first installments in the franchise, but it's still something I feel they dropped the ball, especially in MHX where they had the chance to fix this, being a remake and all, but instead all they did was just change the armor parts around, which was kinda pointless in the end.
Somehow Retropolis Zone returned. Anyway, looking forward to the coverage of the other Zero games, especially 3. Zero 3 is up there with X4, X1 as one of my favorite 2D platformers ever made.
The Mega Man Zero series failed at giving us bosses that aren't the same fire-thunder-ice guys over and over. They could've atleast added more elemental bosses tbh
Thanks! Well, it helps that I'm quite a number of years older (I was barely 20 when I did X4-X6), but it's also just different direction. Back in the day I wanted to sound energetic, which pitched up my voice, but these days I aim for more relaxed and neutral. This style is closer to my regular speaking voice.
Those games stop being fun because of the capping and nerfing and redesign, and being deceitful in advertisement, people entered thinking about the game one way and ended up being something else.
One of the biggest reasons I got the Legacy Collection was because of checkpoints, which does make extra lives redundant, but I totally like the idea. I just wish they did that sooner for the Classic and X Legacy Collections, would've saved me the metals in X8 for more useful things.
I also find it weird how Zero 1 doesn’t even have a proper stage select screen with boss pictures and you only get to select like 3 from the start, after Aztec Falcon I believe.
Zero 1 was alright for me, didn't even need to use guides except for how to use cyber elves, i was so stupid i only realised how to use cyber elves just before copy X. I did play it on the legacy collection with the checkpoints on, i've played it without them too. Anyway, Z2 was the hardest for me, never finished it.
Going by the video's title, I was expecting it to be a lot more negative, but honestly most of the points you raise are fair and ultimately you say it is the good game that it is. Nice review. Looking forwards to your vids on the sequels in light of your thoughts on this one, particularly concerning the elf systems and the story in general.
Those were some insane wall-jumping skills in Neo-Arcadia tower. I wouldn't ever be able to do that lol. And I can at least get to copy X without using a single cyber elf. Zero 1 is hard. and when I was a kid, I didn't have the best time, but playing it multiple times, and learning how to beat it on hard mode (granted I cheesed a lot of it with the Shield Boomerang) was a surprisingly fun time. I don't think it's bad by any means. The later games are much more forgiving, but I honestly don't find this one much worse than the rest of the series. Also for their 4th release, like ever, I think Inti Creates did a fantastic job with bringing Mega Man to the handheld.
When I tried a Zero game, I hated it. Zero was completely neutered, gone was his weapon combo from the X games, and he was given this crappy pea-shooter. I believe I moved through an area, talked to an NPC, groaned at how unfun it was, turned it off and never looked back. Now that I know it has a crappy RPG style grind mechanic, I couldn't be less interested.
That's awesome that you feel good about the skill you developed with the game. People can be surprised with how far a little dedicated practice can get them. I appreciate your perspective on the bossess in this game. I've never heard anyone touch on it in this way before. Enjoyed the video, as always. Have a nice day everyone.
Right when I came to terms with the fact this review would never happen... it happened. Great to have you back, RZ, this review is a great reminder that you're one of the best reviewers out there. You knocked it out of the park.
First of all welcome back, i've always loved your videos and this one is just as good as ever. I would just have used a different title because the current one will probably get some hate clicks thinking that you're bashing the game unfarly for being too hard and/or being different from the X series, but seeing as you were in fact mostly positive and welcoming of the changes I would use a less negative sounding title, unless of course getting hate clicks was the objective. Everyone aggres on the cyber elf system and as you play more inti create games you'll see that they have a different mindset than AAA studios, they sometimes just throw ideias to the wall and see what sticks, they later backtrack some ideias and improve on others based on fan perception. About copy X I had the same outlook for a long time, wishing that they actually comitted to the idea that the villain would be the real X, but honestly the story we got is really good and now I think this was for the best. The idea here is to highlight how a person's upbringing can mold said person. The original X was considered a low tier reploid at the start and was subtantialy weaker tha the rest and only got approval after he struggled to show results, but he also was an idealist and was never ok with violence because of all this. Copy X on the other hand was raised as the ruler of the world from day 1 basically, he acts like an insecure egomaniac because that's exactly what he is, even tho he is a perfect copy technically speaking, on the more human side he is a completelly different person than actual X, he is the basic spoiled ruler trope, but executed with a different flavor that adds to X's character and the worldbuiding of the series in general, well that's my view on it at least.
16:18 That strategy can only go so far though. Look at how well that went for Ninja Gaiden. Mean. Gotta get good or give up. Yea- no buddy. What you get is teetering at the edge of failure, where one bad game will ruin it all. From Software's games like Armored Core and Demons' Souls were hard but they were also nice to you. Demons' Souls rewarded you for getting back to where you died. Not a big ask if you've made it there once before. Get help if you gotta. Elden Ring was made for the use of spirits and even incentivized it. But you got dipshit players trying to get others to sabotage themselves and adopt a very wrong way of thinking and playing the game "DURRR DO IT BY YOURSELF. SPIRITS ARE LIKE HAVING HELP IN TUTORIALS. YOU NO GIT GUD IF YOU GET HELP. HONOR IN INVASION. FAIRNESS IN INVASIONS DURRRRR". There's no shame in getting help. There is no honor in invasions, only duels. And invasions are NEVER fair for the invader. Armored Core, unless it was an important mission you CANNOT fail, will just move on and eventually reset your playthrough while giving you a bonus upgrade to help you do better next time. Even though only 1,2, and in a special way Last Raven did this. Last Raven gives you a choice to restart the hour or restart the playthrough with everything you had, including the money. 6? Restart at checkpoint, fully healed and with max repair kits. It's because of these niceities that people stick around for. The lack there of is what Ninja Gaiden got. People leaving and never coming back.
I get what you are saying, and I agree that ways to soften the challenge are a good thing. My point was that at least their intentions would be clear if they just rolled with the goal to make the game hard, rather than having these systems to make it easier but then also make those systems very prohibitive to even use. Note that I compared to Devil May Cry for how to do this right. As a side note, Ninja Gaiden (at least 1 and 2) do have health items and weapon upgrades to help people out. Only 3 got rid of this stuff.
Maybe I'm just fucking insane, but I was so god damn stubborn during my most recent run of MMZ1 that I did not at all indulge in the use of Cyber Elves so I had no utilitarian benefits they provided, and my health bar was at the bare minimum. But the obnoxiously repetitious grind required to fully max out any Cyber Elves was a stark deterrent for me. I do love the entire Zero series and I do think it's really cool that they gave Zero his own sub-series of games given that he was mostly included as a secondary character in the X series (even when playable) but with how assbackwards the approach they took to the Cyber Elves in MMZ1, it's really no wonder why they continued revamping how they were included and used all the way up through Megaman Zero 4.
- I have a somewhat hot take (depending on who you ask) that X1 having no slide and then starting you without the dash is arbitrary and does more harm than good. Well, Z1 gimping the basic moveset is even worse, for the very reasons you mentioned. - 8:22 There's a patchwork solution of sorts. You can finish the intro stage then go back and level up the saber and buster to max. Keep a save slot like that and use it to start playthroughs, which will be saved on different slots. Hey, I did say patchwork. - I distinctly remember playing through Z1 not spending any crystals except a small amount for that fat robot (cause nothing encourages the usage of a system like slapping you for daring to even touch it, amirite?). I reached the final boss and had trouble with him, mostly due to the unbelievably stupid design choice of unskipable cutscenes on each retry. That's when I thought "Screw it, I don't care about the rank. It's the end of the game anyway". But when I tried to grow the cyber elf which doubles your health bar, I didn't have nearly enough crystals, and I assure you I killed most enemies I've come across and explored the stages for collectibles. The amount of blatant padding in this game is absurd! - At least in X8 the retry chips were cheap, so you could easily buy 3 after a game over, and normal mode always gives you the minimum two after exiting a stage (not just after gameovers). All it needed to do was put some collectible retries in-stage. Z1's implementation on the other hand feels like it was deliberately crafted to be the worst of all worlds because "muh difficulty".
Fantastic video! The Zero series is one of my favorites, and replaying it this past year went surprisingly smooth. I knew generally how to circumvent Zero 1's... older qualities, so I played the base version of the legacy collection for the switch and I was met with no brick walls. The grind is definitely a holdover from older RPG's, and it makes the game feel fragmented in a strange way. If you're super good and don't get hit through the whole game and want a good rank, the cyber elves basically don't exist. Mixed with strange, cryptic descriptions spoken by the elves themselves, it's kind of difficult to see a first time player really using the elves in a helpful way which they might need. The game was apparently what it needed to be, and it is a lot of fun. The team's skill grew with their new releases and that's why I like this series. They're all the same kind of fun in different ways.
I really hate the Elf system in this game, having to grind 1500 E-crystals each time you find one that gives a sub-tank or extra vitality is CRIMINAL. On top of this, the game deletes the best EC grind spots as you progress the story.
Good stuff on the nature of the soundtrack, and while Neo Arcadia is a banger to me (especially the Remastered Tracks release), the most interesting thing about the logistics of working with limited GBA audio is that the series nevertheless each got a remastered score release. Wonder if it was just more the market at the time in Japan, or the developers wanted as much establishment of the new series as possible?
It should be noted that Type A Controls have a niche application in allowing you to charge the Shield Boomerang without needing to hold it out, thus retaining your ability to easily dash. Since it's the only weapon you can charge in Hard Mode, this can be really handy. About the Casual Scenario, it's mainly something you'd want to use to see the story before actually playing the games.
The Zero games had the best story of the entire franchise and this was possible thanks to the X series. I hope they would remake the Zero games in full true 2d hd with way more story, content, harder difficulty and so on.
4:46 X7 and X8 also let you use the buster while another weapon is selected. Also X8 (not sure about X7) lets you use charge one weapon and use another without cancelling the charge. You can't charge both at the same time, though. The first one you start charging takes priority until you fire or it's cancelled.
Holy shit you're actually back, You have no idea how many times I've been rewatching your Mega Man and Sonic videos waiting for a return. Welcome back king.
This video was actually super clean! I haven't seen one of your vids since Quickies Don't Cut It on X6 and I'm glad you're covering one of my favorite game series. Can't wait for part 2!
![BLACK BAG - Official Trailer [HD] - Only in Theaters March 14](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Du0Xp8WX_7I/mqdefault.jpg)
It's finally happening: we're covering Mega Man Zero! I've worked incredibly hard on this video and am very happy with the result, so I hope you all enjoy!
Don't worry
Most of the problems in zero1
gets addressed in later entries
in 2 you have forms which are like different suites that gives you unique powers a lot of them are unfortunately niche and hard to get also 2 in my opinion is the hardest zero game not because of life chips but only due to bosses and level design
Zero 3 is considered to be the best with no weapon levelling a revamped cyber elf system and the coolest sub weapon with great bosses levels and all
Zero 4 is.......
It does have a very nice ending and I love it despite it's shortcomings
(at least compared to 3)
Very happy to see you had the inspiration to do another review! Love how thorough you are in your work!
X1 was Capcom trying out the new SNES hardware capabilities, Z1 was Inti Creates experimenting to find its own identity and deviating from the formular. Dashing and wall jumping alone added so much to the X series without removing or changing other defining aspects of the classic games. But with Zero 1, they tried to rework basically everything and as a result, corners had to be cut. I'm glad that they stuck to their gun and improved on it with later installments. (They kiinda reverted back to X series a bit with Z4, but it's still very much doing its own thing)
The only opinion I had a gripe with in the whole video was weapon level grinding. Yes the grind is there and it is annoying, but if you just go up to a nest of jumping spiders and only kill the spiders, it'll take about 5 minutes to max level each weapon. Yes, that is 20 minutes that I 100% agree shouldn't exist, but at least there is a way to mitigate it.🥲
Can't wait for your zero 3 review
Fun fact (or upsetting): Z1's villain was supposed to be the real X. It was at the eleventh hour that Capcom firmly told Inti-Creates "Absolutely not". And honestly, this is a case where I agree with the higher ups on a creative decision. Writers and devs should generally be given freedom without being stifled. But sometimes they need someone to hold them back and say "No".
Look, we all like Zero. But even in X's own series, Zero was shown favoritism storywise. To then double down and pull a Darth Vader descent into villainy stunt with X would just be insulting.
I’d say the century of fighting alone would tend to change a person.
To say nothing of putting one’s fate in the Mother Elf, only for that to also go awry thanks to Dr. Weil.
@@osurpless The issue for me is that undermines all the testing Light implemented to make sure X had a good heart, a major plot point of the X series. Copy X makes a lot more sense because he didn't get that, he was created on a short time scale after the real X went AWOL.
Plus we get the badass line where Zero asks, was the real X this weak?
"Favoritism"
Maybe because he was supposed to be Mega Man X. His design was originally going to be X, but it wasn't considered "Mega Man" enough. He was _always_ supposed to be the protagonist.
@@saltystick_99 So? They still went with the "more Megaman" design for the protagonist, then sidelined the protagonist for a considerable chunk of the story.
@@redblack8766 It's not their fault Zero offered a more interesting story than X. MMX was always something that emphasized the story more and Zero was a gold mine for it. In fact, They *should've* made the Mega Man X games RPGs (i.e: Command Mission) because the side-scrolling action is too difficult and dated, as well as horrendous for story telling.
"What Mega Man Zero FAILED to Do..."
Well, it failed to stop me from grinding.
If there's one thing I like about Zero 1, it's the atmosphere. It''s surprisingly bleak for a Mega Man game, way more so than X5 and X6. The mission structure is also pretty cool despite its issues.
...I'd say that the situation was bleaker than it was in X5 and X6, hence the atmosphere being bleaker.
the artstyle ruins it though.
@@metroided34 No way, the art style really shows just how narrow the gap between human and reploid had gotten. Reploids are no longer the bulky, robotic units they were but instead sleek humanoids.
@@KaitouKaiju They all look chibified and it honestly ruins both Z and ZX for me.
Zero 1 feels like a brutal war in motion, while X6 feels like scavenging for scraps after the world ended. I personally think X6 is bleaker.
43:26 I actually disagree. Zero's amnesia does serve a purpose and it's to hide what happened during the massive time gap between X and Z series. That will become much more prevalent in Z3, but I suppose we can't touch on that yet. Also I don't really see a problem with him being an empty vessel since he was always a reactive character even in the old series, just with a real personality 💀 being without his memory and attachment to anyone, I can see why this Zero feels so cold and distant. But it's the actions that matter the most and it's obvious he cares about the lives of the Resistance, as much as he loathes the injustice Copy X has placed on them.
Zero was in stasis, so there would be a massive gap between the X and Zero series anyway.
Not a massive gap, just 100 yeara later
The same could be achieved by keeping his memories of the X era, since he still would've been out of commission throughout the entire Elf Wars
Um, how would Zero have learned of that s=== IN F===ING STASIS?! No, the purpose his amnesia serves is to make him unhesitant to fight his old friend, or rather, someone resembling his old friend, a story explanation for going into the gameplay right off the bat. Which is fine, and could've been explained as Ciel erasing his memories before waking him, but nope, "hibernation sickness"… something X was never confirmed to have suffered except maybe in the Maverick Hunter X version of events where he only faintly remembers Dr. Light. But X could be, ahem, _X-tra_ special in that regard.
It's just over done.. too many stories used it before. But I liked the storyline. I guess did a 🤷🏾♀️😑 when I realized he lost his memory
I personally feel the ranking system was the biggest problem with these games. Not because I can't get good, but because if you can't get good or find specific items, you'll never get the full experience
Yeah, I wish the ranking system had taken more inspiration from DMC tbh. DMC's ranking system is so good because it allows skilled players to unlock additional moves and abilities much faster, not locking them behind getting a SSS. Doubly so since a lot of EX skills open up the combo system for bosses in Zero 2-3.
I remember when I was younger I would basically have to just choose which one of the bossweapons I wanted because there was no way I could actually A rank them beyond the intro. Nowadays I really enjoy having a very substantial reward for playing well (since, well, I'm good enough now lol) but it definitely couldve either been toned down to needing a B (which is INSANELY more lenient) or just have the reward be something other than the boss moves.
the main issue with ranking was just how much a single death tanked your score. you could play a stage almost perfectly, die at the boss once, and be hit with like a C or lower, because point requirements drastically increase upon death. the ranking requirements were actually pretty lenient otherwise and it's very apparent if you don't die through a stage.
a really great addition for this due to the collection is the new checkpoints. since they act more like a time reverse than a proper death, all impact on your score is removed. this makes A to S ranks drastically more attainable and stage play becomes much smoother as you don't need to replay them much or at all.
My largest issue is the fact T2 and T3 cyber elves PUNISH YOU PERMANTLY. So, let me get this straight: if I play the game NORMALLY, incrue the needed energy crystals to feed the bastards, and then use it.. I forever have screwed myself... for getting something that was otherwise a REWARD in any other title? Excuse me?!
I'd be FAR more forgiving if the cyber elves were HALF the upgrades and the others required platforming challenges. If I recall, the sequel fixes this by making two sub tanks obtainable normally, with the other two as elves. Why couldn't heart containers be made this way as well?
Story wise, I get it: using elves in general is a no-no because it kills them. In effect, that means the buffs given are always with you, so they will always allude that "Well, you only got here because you sacrificed something else." However, when the only way to get items that previously were obtainable by actually doing some kind of puzzle is via a time sink... yeah, no. T1 uses? Yeah, that I can fully get behind (even the funny haha metaur ones). But upgrades that require you to actually burn time, only to be punished in unfixable way? Uh.. no.
@@FlameSoulis This decision always made no sense to me either, ESPECIALLY since in Z1 you basically had to grind for a very substantial amount of time to use them anyway.
The sequels (at least 3 does?) add actual subtanks that you are free to use and 3 even has a system where you can equip a few cyber elves of your choice without any punishment.
They really stuck to their guns on what does and doesn't punish your rank across games for better or worse (mostly worse because of what another comment mentioned about how dying works) but at least they slowly made you able grow your character over the iterations.
I still think Zero 3 is the best when it comes to gameplay. No weapon star-system bs, no retry chips, can use all the best foot parts, can use certain cyber elves when ever you want without lowering your rank, etc. My only personal complaint is that you get the split heavens (ryuenjin) in the later stages of the game.
But that it's fixed with the proper New Game+ it has so nothing wrong with that
Most people hold this opinion tbh
Split Heavens is quire strong in all the Zero games for how easy it is, so I don't really mind it showing up later.
Zero 3 was where the series peaked.
Zero 4 felt like a small step down, sadly.
The Zero series is definitely different, but I wouldn’t say it failed with Zero 1. The first entry seemed more experimental. The overall game experience in gameplay, upgrades, and story presentation would improve over the series - with Zero 3 being the peak. You can tell the developers were making adjustments in the later 2 entries. Plus the additional media to expand on the Zero lore like the MMKB is amazing!
I’m glad that Triple Rod combos are getting praise, and that Magnus Zero got a mention. He actually made a Zero 1 review with insights that helped me gain a better appreciation for what Zero 1 did.
All good points except maybe the extra lore media meant only the richer, more singular megafans could really fully keep up then. It's obvious that Mega Man overall only ended up being super-remembered via its original trilogy and X1 due to other games being one or more of the following: released late in their system's life; poorly marketed; released so near one another as to effectively be competing for attention and overwhelming potential buyers; overshadowed by even bigger releases; or way too big of a break from what people expected from Mega Man. Actual game quality or even the franchise's notoriety for being samey had very little to do with it. After all, Pokémon.
You said that Zero 3 was the peak of the series when it came to gameplay, Upgrades and story presentation. So was Zero 4 a downgrade? Because I thought it was a great ending game from the series.
@@alphonsejohnson5601 I personally like Z4. The ending is phenomenal, and the story writing leading up to it helped in making my top 10 favorite Mega Man games. The EX Skill/Combo system, the nerfed Cyber Elf system, the mostly mediocre Z-knuckle weapons you can collect, and really the Parts Systems were more so of not what I would expect from a sequel following what Z3 did. The part system grinding specifically can take a chunk of time like Z1, but not as much as Z1.
Now Inti Creates was initially developing a 1.5 game of Zero in the wilderness. Part grinding and using enemy weapons would make sense - maybe even cool, while Zero’s traveling the desert. But Capcom said they needed one more sequel, and Inti used what they had to create Z4. So while I wish that Z4 had more polish in some aspects, I can understand the context of its development and I truly love and appreciate the closure Z4 did for the Zero series.
@@Ethan_Schaub_Z1 I wonder why they can't still go and make that megaman zero 1.5 game
@@Glitchedpixel5 I would low-key love that! Zero 2’s intro stage is my favorite, and I would absolutely love to know what happened during his journey then!
One thing I hated that they removed from all the Zero games was the ability to air dash.
Agreed it also never really made sense
it's a funny point at the end about how X1 was so clearly well-done while Z1 had so many issues, it really feels like the series took opposite trajectories.
it feels like the X series went down and up with an overall downwards trajectory, while Zero left the 1st as the worst one by far.
X sereis suffered from moving past its original end date(X5), while the Zero series ended naturally at Zero 4.
@@theimpersonator7086 That is if you don't count the ZX duo as Z5 and Z6.
@@toumabyakuya why would you? they do entirely different things
@@toumabyakuya ZX duo is there own thing honestly, even if they carry over some Weil stuff from 4. Just like how the Zero sereis is distinct from X.
@@ridgenyan-botxv367 Capcom doesn't seem to agree with you here, seeing how they were added to the Zero Collection.
The bosses are always so overconfident and psychotic until they get sliced in half
Man, It's just great to hear your voice and see this style of game review again. I don't care how long it takes or what games you cover, I will always be here to enjoy it!
Thank you very much! I appreciate the kind words and your monetary contribution!
@@RetropolisZone fr tho, really glad to see your stuff again bro :D God bless ya and Jesus loves ya!
get a room
I have some thoughts on your take on the story.
First, I 100% agree that I wish that the resistance members and NPCs had something more meaningful to say. In the later Zero games and especially in the ZX titles (with some exceptions), the characters have cool designs but I never feel like I want to connect with them because they don't introduce new story directions and don't contribute to the main story. In other words, they feel like filler. In an ideal world, every character would contribute to the main theme of the story like in Majora's Mask, but more NPC's like Andrew who give interesting side stories or implications through dialogue would go a long way. The "Andrew Solution" isn't ideal for every character, but short of rewriting the whole story, I'm not sure what the catch-all fix is for the NPC problem. (Giving rewards for talking to characters only works if they have anything interesting to say, otherwise I would just button mash to skip the dialogue. Side missions could either be completely skipped, hurting the storytelling potential depending on how it is handled, or be absolute garbage like that 1 sub tank from ZX. Integration to the main missions could also be problematic as it would either limit what kind of stages would be made or be an interruption to the player, and again, they need to say something interesting for it not to be hot air in the first place.)
Second, I think your grievances of Copy X partially miss the point. The idea behind Copy X is that of a child who is worshipped as a savior without having done anything to earn that title. Copy X was created as a response to X retiring as leader of Neo Arcadia in order to prevent panic, as X had achieved high status among the people not only for the Maverick Wars but also being Neo Arcadia's leader. This explains his personality. He's an egomaniac, because from his creation he was worshipped by the humans as a perfect leader. He's insecure, because he knows he doesn't have the experience or ideology of the real X and is jealous of him as a result. He's a coward who only cares about his fragile ego and when confronted with a major problem like the energy crisis he chooses the action that would benefit his public perception the most (Wipe out the minority Reploids for the majority humans) rather than seek for the best outcome for all. I believe his lack of experience is also why he immediately resorts to the Ultimate Armor when Zero fights him and why Zero calls him weak, since Copy X hasn't actually been in a real fight before. However, I do believe your take is interesting, having Copy X actually examine the past and believe that the world is better off without Reploids, and it could present an interesting rationale for his actions. Maybe he could have seen this as his way of surpassing the real X. Whatever the case, I'm glad they ditched their original plan of making the real X evil.
Third, Zero's amnesia, which exists to set up a later plot point in Zero 3. It's not like his personality really changes as the games go on and his memory recovers, so get used to stoic Zero. Not saying it couldn't have been done better, but unless you want to "read the lore" through audio dramas, this is about as much as you're gonna get.
I honestly really love how they implemented Copy X. Having X become evil leaves me with a really heavy heart. X is a great example of a heroic ideal, similar to Superman. To corrupt that feels so wrong, especially when this character archetype seems like a dying breed.
I imagine their original intent would have been to explore a layer of X that was barely touched upon in his series at that point, his loathing for violence and the cycle of it. To have him actually respond to the endless fighting and be further fleshed out. (It's hard to fathom that two separate instances of this idea being explored were only used to crap on X.) Anyway, with Copy X existing, we not only have the self-righteous parody of X, but we also see an X that has grown as a leader, as well as, more jaded from the decades of war.
While we see little of his compassion, even telling Zero to show Copy X no mercy, he is still a consistent force in helping the resistance and Zero achieve their goals. And his brotherhood with Zero is as strong as ever. He's still giving his all even from beyond the grave and the suffering he's endured over the years.
There's audio dramas? Where do I find them?
@@lomaxionpeerixonez2022 This playlist has all of them with accompanying English translation. Spoiler warning for Zero 2-4. ruclips.net/p/PLPAA2yRwpYtxCN7YAjEzW10CES3DJFiXt&si=8CWHbVSww_vhMHW3
@@danikvelocity3120 thank you
I always thought Andrew's NPC was an homage to the movie Bicentennial Man. So, in a way, even this character lacks depth. It's nice to have easter eggs here and there, but after filling the game with its own world lore and content, especially when the game feels empty in this area.
Zero having amnesia gives me the context I need to understand why he doesn’t respond to things so for me with context in mind I didn’t give a fuck if he cried about x being evil cuz at that moment he doesn’t have an emotional connection to anyone or anything
The grinding is so bad, I swear the fact you find Zero has been in the desert grinding endless waves of copy-x droids between the end of Zero 1 and the start Zero 2, has to be an intentional joke by the developer.
"This isn't fun anymore..." -Zero
@@AkabalthyIt's not over yet!
Capcom always knew how to poke fun at themselves. Sega needs to take notes.
@@CarbonRollerCaco Sega did put out an entire visual novel type game The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog for free as an April fools joke.
Not giving you the boss weapon because of rank BS and Cyberelf grinding for upgrades was a stupid idea. Don't know what the hell they were thinking.
Complaining about a 2 decades old series is plain dumb. Get good.
@DontKnowDontCare6.9 I can complain about wtf I want to complain about. It's horrible game design even for the time it released in.
There's something I feel is often forgotten in discussions regarding skill and difficulty: The primary purpose of video games is having fun, not difficulty for the sake of it.
Someone could have fun spending hours or days on one boss/level in a highly difficult game, yet still have a bad experience with an overall easier game because of HOW it's making itself difficult.
One horrible aspect about Z1 is how you CANNOT skip boss cutscenes on each attempt, something they already got right for several Megaman games. No amount of yelling "git gud" and "skill issue" will make this design choice remotely OK cause practically NOBODY enjoys sitting through cutscenes like that. Oh I'm sure you'll find a few unicorns on this planet who unironically wish all games forced you to watch cutscenes on each attempt, but unicorns shouldn't be used as standard.
Hard agree. Hell, I think people who are into higher skill/difficulty play are generally *more* sensitive to that sort of thing.
If you're tackling something that's genuinely challenging you, for whatever skill level you're at, you basically always want to get into another attempt as quickly as possible after failure.
Game Overs at least gate your attempt behind repeated gameplay, which (presumably) reinforces skills to make you better at the game, but gating an attempt behind a cutscene has no such advantage and all the same disadvantages.
You should probably always be able to skip cutscenes (especially in any kind of action game), but you should definitely be able to skip cutscenes you've already seen.
@@SaberToothPortillalol that's why I haven't started another playthrough of Metro Exodus yet. You can't skip any of the "cutscenes" even if you've seen them already.
I'd disagree that the primary purpose of videogames is having fun and substitute that for something along the lines of "providing an impactful experience," (just because I've experienced too many games that have moved me in amazing ways but which did not stimulate me or make me happy in the ways "fun" is conventionally thought of)
but otherwise i'd agree with everything you say here
@redblack8766 THAT is one of the reasons i dropped z1 & 2. I really dont have patience for cutscenes (especially unskippable ones) anymore. I'll take Z3 with its streamlined gameplay any day
If there's one universal truth, it's that when it comes to Mega Man and Zero analyses, quickies just don't cut it! Welcome back, man.
It's still weird to me that the Mega Man series didn't really touch on human-robot relations at all until the Zero series, and barely even did it there. The X series literally only had 1 human and he was forgotten about after X3.
To me it feels like they were saving that for the Zero series on purpose, due to Inafune's Zero bias. Replaying the X series knowing that Inafune wanted Zero to have his own game from the start and only begrudgingly made X the titular character makes it really sad and obvious in hindsight.
@@petergriscom3431The first time they really mention anything in-game about humans and reploids living together was in X2. And I really don't think Inafune was thinking that in nearly a decade Zero might get his own spin-off title and then he'll start to actually focus on human-robot relations. It's more like story wasn't really considered important in the Mega Man series in general. I'd say the mega man franchise as a whole barely has the story of a single typical JRPG.
Robots haven't progressed enough for some mechanicum romance until the end of X
@@targetseeker Human-robot relations doesn't just mean "romance", and that is not at all how I intended it.
@@Blurns to be clear you're talking about robot-human sex because i am talking about both ways (Z and ZX had human-robot pairs but there is no indication how physical the relationship got). Pre-Z the level of robot technology is still murky if they're still just AI and not truly sentient (you can argue they still aren't fully in Z and ZX depending on the model).
Basically Z is where robots have advanced enough to be true companions instead of advanced furbys/aibos.
The mechanicum is memed to not care about tech levels anyway (toaster fuckers), tech itself is love no matter how simple or advanced.
I dont like how the EX skills require A-S rank in later games to get them. I prefer how Zero 3 and 4 do things.
In 3 you can equip 2 elves with no penalty and every stage either has at least 1 permanent upgrade that can be put into those slots or has chips which further augment your gameplay alongside them
And Zero 4 just reverts to giving you the weapons, given you dont turn the stage hazards off, which you can do for some reason
My favourite part of the series
is after the first game Zero2 immediately throws you in action with a brutal level 😂
while you hear the best theme in probably the whole series
Glad to see I also wasn't the only one thinking 2's intro stage was weirdly tough
theme is awesome indeed, the amount of minibosses tho...
I like how so much of the criticique in this is fixed and streamlined in the 4th game but the irony is that it ended up being the last game. I LOVE the Elf system in MMZ4, its just so much more personalized
I don't look up a play order. It really demeans the ability to play the levels in any order I want and it's not needed. Plus I like to guess.
If you know everyone's weakness.. then you already won the fight. It becomes boring & not a big bad a$$ dual
Everyone complains about the grinding but like... you don't have to, you can absolutely manage with just saber and level 1 blaster charge. The point of the system was to get stronger as you go through the game I believe, but everyone treats it like 'if I don't max everything it will be too difficult'
Though if I could change the system and not downright remove it, I'd just make it so when you beat a stage your most used weapon gets exp(the game already tracks most used)
What I will complain about how the game never explains that you can do a skull bash, or charge mutiple weapons at once if your control scheme is better, this goes for all 4. Same with reversals for the most part(though I believe they are just a byproduct of the games movement)
Nice vid RZ! Can’t wait for Z2 one! Also great to see you back again.
Great video! Watching this makes me realize that I've never given the Triple Rod a proper chance even though I've been replaying this game for over 15 years at this point... I always default to the Z-Saber and Buster combo since they feel natural to me as someone who played the X games a whole lot as a kid. The grindy nature of the weapon leveling system also always disincentivized me from trying anything else. I have little patience for grinding so I just stuck with what I already knew would work out for me.
I'm looking forward to seeing your videos on the sequels, particularly 3, as that's my favorite one!
Overall, the Zero games are still more fun platformers than the X series, but I don't know why all of them have weird incomprehensible meta systems behind the core gameplay.
it's a game very much about getting players to high level play. the controls are made exceptionally tight and the combo chain system is also made that way on purpose to get the most fun possible.
playing the game at the highest level is one of the all-time most exhilarating experiences you'll have with any platformer, blazing through stages and bosses like pure butter. and they really wanted you to reach that level. that's actually why the ranking system exists.
have you ever heard of a story.
Y'know, like what the definition of a story is?
It's actually insane how well Azure Striker Gunvolt improves upon your critiques of MMZ1. The music becomes more fleshed out to the point where each stage sets a tone but also has banging vocals when you play well enough, the backgrounds and sprite work are more expressive, detailed, and colorful, the enemies have more character, expression, and personality, and Gunvolt and Joule have a more fleshed out relationship compared to Zero and Ciel. In a way, ASG is better spiritual successor of the Zero series than the X series.
It’s worth noting that the Legacy Collection has a save assist that puts checkpoints into the game.
48:13 Fun fact, this was originally going to be after X5. The sleep thing was a hasty post-X6 retcon, where he was originally resurrected before the X6 stuff happened.
Of course, other details are filled in by the other games, but this game doesn't try to address what happened, and it makes me curious what would if X6 didn't bring back Zero the way it did.
From what I understand, Keiji Inafune always envisioned Zero becoming the main character over X. That's why the timeline and circumstances surrounding Zero's hibernation was weird. The intent was to make a different game, a different Zero. Ideally, X6 wouldn't have even come to pass if Inafune had his way, so that resulted in the need for more story shenanigans. For me, I just wish the transition wasn't so harsh given how great the X series was (which apparently Inafune came to loathe a bit because of X's popularity). The lore would have been much more impactful imo if we actually got to experience any of it.
6:42 - Can I just say how ripped off I felt when I got the Fire chip for beating the factory guardian (a boss that fights using all four in-game elements in a set cycle) rather than the train engine (who primarily goes at you with a huge flamethrower while herding you with rising piston-spiked ceiling platforming antics)?
In conclusion, you really should check out the rest of the series.
And research more on the lore, while you're at it. The games don't have room to tell you everything.
Wow, just searched your channel out of nostalgia for 2017 and you have a new Megaman video up today! That's amazing!
"failed" for me zero / ZX is a much better megaman game, i whish there where more games like this... so sad that ZX advent was the last one. (im a HUGE fan of megaman series)
and not getting the "hability" of the enemies is a good thing, this is NOT megaman, its zero, he does not have the copy system, and to be honest... i pretty much never use those habilities on megaman games asides from killing the right boss with the right ability.
Zero weapons actually makes the gameplay have a lot more variety (it does not deplete any energy so you can use it all the time)
Always good to see a new upload from you, my friend. You haven't lost a step.
19:25 - 19:46 You say just barely reach the log but I don't see how this isn't for the right reasons because it seems to be the point of the challenge. I don't think it's a visibility problem since it's just showing a platform to time carefully, not like you even really need to see or use the rest of the platform anyway, more often than not you'll probably land i'd say. If anything i think it was designed with the visibility in mind. And the video even shows you falling off with not much attempt to get back up when you did it perfectly right before it.
Apparently there's an audio drama explaining events just before Zero's hibernation as well as some other events in the story that some talented
people have dutifully translated faithfully with animatics for your viewing pleasure. Not even the Legacy Collection is safe from script edits.
Some people even animated specific events from said audio dramas which Zero 1 apparently couldn't be added to have context on how we got here
(possibly time constrains as well as... the mega saturation).
Indeed Zero 1 was a rough start, like another Mega Man title on the GBA. The first time I played it was on VBA before I got bought Zero 3 at GameStop.
My bro later bought me the Zero Collection for DS for my birthday. It had extras from the eReader Cards built into it that mitigated the need use it
the eReader for the Zero 3 cartridge but they're unlockables which is fair. It's just a neat add-on.
It's the first review of this game that i watch which someone said all the things that i thought while playing/replaying the game. Specially the "difficulty", like you said, is most of the times superficial and not honest with the player (great example that you gave in mentioning DMC). The screen crunch is what i always felt while playing the Zero games on the GBA, detailed and nice looking sprites but cramped in a small screen. Take a look at the castlevania games for the gba, detailed but done in a way which i can understand what is going on and react accordingly. I also thought the same about the collections, making the games with a widescreen aspect ratio and more visibility. Such a solid review with a lot of good points and criticism, but also giving the game the credits that it deserves. This game had some good ambitions but being locked with gba capabilities was a shame knowing that games like X7 exist.
Despite its mixed success, the Zero series is worthy of respect for its willingness to attempt new things and scrap old staples. The Classic & X series had long staled. Still... how did anyone thinking grinding in an action platformer was a good idea?
Retropolis Zone came back when we most needed him.
Pretty cool video, please don't go on a 2 year hiatus for the next one 😂
I can easily say, without fail, this WILL be a good one.
Welcome back, RZ! 🙏🙏🙏
So glad to have you back doing long form analysis of my favorite games. Please keep up the great work!!
Very solid review! And I appreciate the mention. 👍
Thanks, man! Your videos have been instrumental in understanding the deeper tech and systems of the Zero games.
Yeah failed to be worse than X, Zero series is a banger
I still remember when you played the games on twitch in 2020. Makes me remember your takes from back then and its fun to see how your opinions on this game have evolved.
16:35 Personally I think NOT using permanent upgrades should be a positive score multiplier, rather than strictly punishing those who use upgrades. (Ya know, reward those seeking greater challenge, while not inconveniencing / shaming those who don't want a greater challenge.) If you're worried about no-upgrade challenge runs having "easier" high scores, then add a "secret" higher rank like S+ or S++ that are only available to un-upgraded players. Kinda like what Sonic Forces did.
I’m kind of mad I wasn’t notified of this video, and am only just seeing it! You did a great job with this one, though!
Ok I thought you talking the entire Zero Series. Zero 2 and 3 addressed most weak points such as lack of special moves.
don't really agree with the complaint about the weapon grinding tbh
like, why do you feel like you need to grind everything to max level? You don't.
Yes, you don't need to grind all weapons to max level. But if you don't, you won't EVER see most of your weapons operating at max level. It's basically content tossed in the garbage because you never get to experience it unless you force it to happen.
Agreed. I don't think they should have done it that way, but it's not a huge deal. I've played this game several times and never grinded once.
Personaly, it's because they locked previously instantly unlockable moves from the X series behind this major grind. This is specially baffling regarding weapon charge attacks and 3 hit combo. These were unlocked out of the gate in the X series and kept a nice flow going.
Having this arbitrary leveling system just to simulate gameplay progression is terrible, since it penalizes you for avoiding unnecessary enemy encounters. It also has the inverse effect IMO since the lack of moves at the start make the initial stages HARDER.
The Zero games failed…at making other Rockman/Mega Man games look good. Because it’s the GOAT!
Came from a stupid twitter thread and, unsurprisingly, the video is more well thought out than that user's whining made it out to be. Fantastic video bro!
I welcome people getting mad on Twitter with open arms if it brings in folks like you. Appreciate your comment and glad you enjoyed!
Great and very thorough review, loved hearing your thoughts on Zero 1. You can tell how much work and research went into this. This series struggled with balancing its desire for difficulty and the side systems employed for the sake of accessibility/progression, and no other game exemplifies this more than the first rough entry.
That said, that solid core really is strong and shines even here. The more I replay these games, the more clear the flaws become, but the less they seem to matter. They're so fun to control and rewarding to master. Thanks for bringing a spotlight to them!
Wasn't Zero suppose to be X, because then Japanese fans wanted Megaman so they put X into the game?
Iirc the development team thought Zero original design is a drastic depature from his predecessor so they made X's current design
Very fair review. My only thing would be to change the title to Zero 1 to clarify that this is a review of the first game and not the series.
I appreciate the suggestion. However, this might sound crude, but it's kind of intentional. RUclips is a ruthless market, and titles that leave little to the imagination or don't spark much of the viewer's emotion statistically don't work as well. I understand that people dislike sensationalism or clickbait if you want to call it that, but the proof is in the pudding that it does work. And from my perspective, so much work goes into making these videos, I want them to reach as many people as possible. Hope that makes sense. :)
There's a scene in mega man zero 2, where if you talk to this old guy with big fat glasses, he says:
"I wanna see your insides, so do you mind if I rip you apart?"
"Ha ha ha. I'm kidding."
"No really, I'm just kidding."
"Don't look at me like that."
Much as i enjoy the Zero series i find it completely unplayable without cheats.
It's interesting how literally the first of EVERY mega man series has first game syndrome.
How? X1 is one of if not the best X game
Except X, that series got it right on its first try compared to the likes of say Street Fighter 1 and even the original Megaman 1.
Well, ZX has an unintuitive map, but in my opinion, it has some of the best boss and level design in the franchise. Way better than Advent, though that one has an actually usable map.
@@domc8089 I think X suffers a tiny bit from that, mainly due to the dash not being immediately available and you needing to tackle Chill Penguin first because of it. Granted, it's not a deal breaker or anything and it's certainly better than any of the other first installments in the franchise, but it's still something I feel they dropped the ball, especially in MHX where they had the chance to fix this, being a remake and all, but instead all they did was just change the armor parts around, which was kinda pointless in the end.
@@michag798love ZX, but travelling is not one of my favorite features of that game, i get tired of pressing L repeatedely.
Somehow Retropolis Zone returned. Anyway, looking forward to the coverage of the other Zero games, especially 3. Zero 3 is up there with X4, X1 as one of my favorite 2D platformers ever made.
Well, that's a good thing.
It makes Megaman Zero feel different from Megaman X and thus have it's own indentity.
It succeeded at being better than X in everyway. So it failed to be like X
Xd?
I hope you cover zero 2 -4 in future videos because they improve ALOT on the problems with zero 1
Yeah, I'll be doing Zero 2-4.
The Mega Man Zero series failed at giving us bosses that aren't the same fire-thunder-ice guys over and over.
They could've atleast added more elemental bosses tbh
I love your work. But out of curiosity how did your voice change so much compared to your old vids? I would love to know the technique XD
Thanks! Well, it helps that I'm quite a number of years older (I was barely 20 when I did X4-X6), but it's also just different direction. Back in the day I wanted to sound energetic, which pitched up my voice, but these days I aim for more relaxed and neutral. This style is closer to my regular speaking voice.
@@RetropolisZonethanks for the tip! lowering the energy sounds like a good idea to lower pitch ♥
Those games stop being fun because of the capping and nerfing and redesign, and being deceitful in advertisement, people entered thinking about the game one way and ended up being something else.
The Return of the King
One of the biggest reasons I got the Legacy Collection was because of checkpoints, which does make extra lives redundant, but I totally like the idea. I just wish they did that sooner for the Classic and X Legacy Collections, would've saved me the metals in X8 for more useful things.
I also find it weird how Zero 1 doesn’t even have a proper stage select screen with boss pictures and you only get to select like 3 from the start, after Aztec Falcon I believe.
Cuz they were going for a diferent style of game
Until they sorta reverted back to boss select in Z2 .
Zero 1 was kinda freeroam
Zero 1 was alright for me, didn't even need to use guides except for how to use cyber elves, i was so stupid i only realised how to use cyber elves just before copy X.
I did play it on the legacy collection with the checkpoints on, i've played it without them too.
Anyway, Z2 was the hardest for me, never finished it.
Yet to watch the video of course, but I figured it was obvious Mega Man Zero isn't meant to be 1-to-1 like Mega Man X.
he doesn't pay attention to story or character development.
He only want MC to be strongest there is, no questions no excuses.
Hulk be damned.
Going by the video's title, I was expecting it to be a lot more negative, but honestly most of the points you raise are fair and ultimately you say it is the good game that it is. Nice review. Looking forwards to your vids on the sequels in light of your thoughts on this one, particularly concerning the elf systems and the story in general.
Those were some insane wall-jumping skills in Neo-Arcadia tower. I wouldn't ever be able to do that lol. And I can at least get to copy X without using a single cyber elf.
Zero 1 is hard. and when I was a kid, I didn't have the best time, but playing it multiple times, and learning how to beat it on hard mode (granted I cheesed a lot of it with the Shield Boomerang) was a surprisingly fun time. I don't think it's bad by any means. The later games are much more forgiving, but I honestly don't find this one much worse than the rest of the series. Also for their 4th release, like ever, I think Inti Creates did a fantastic job with bringing Mega Man to the handheld.
It's always a good day whenever someone posts an hour-long Mega Man analysis video. 🍿
When I tried a Zero game, I hated it. Zero was completely neutered, gone was his weapon combo from the X games, and he was given this crappy pea-shooter. I believe I moved through an area, talked to an NPC, groaned at how unfun it was, turned it off and never looked back. Now that I know it has a crappy RPG style grind mechanic, I couldn't be less interested.
@Plus_Escapee
Try zero3. The devs grew a brain and removed that mechanic completely by then. The combo system was improved, too
That's awesome that you feel good about the skill you developed with the game. People can be surprised with how far a little dedicated practice can get them.
I appreciate your perspective on the bossess in this game. I've never heard anyone touch on it in this way before.
Enjoyed the video, as always. Have a nice day everyone.
MMZ2, 3 and 4 surpasses MMX series in general
9:59 bursted out laughing when you were complimenting their uses, as you get "saved"
Right when I came to terms with the fact this review would never happen... it happened.
Great to have you back, RZ, this review is a great reminder that you're one of the best reviewers out there. You knocked it out of the park.
First of all welcome back, i've always loved your videos and this one is just as good as ever. I would just have used a different title because the current one will probably get some hate clicks thinking that you're bashing the game unfarly for being too hard and/or being different from the X series, but seeing as you were in fact mostly positive and welcoming of the changes I would use a less negative sounding title, unless of course getting hate clicks was the objective.
Everyone aggres on the cyber elf system and as you play more inti create games you'll see that they have a different mindset than AAA studios, they sometimes just throw ideias to the wall and see what sticks, they later backtrack some ideias and improve on others based on fan perception.
About copy X I had the same outlook for a long time, wishing that they actually comitted to the idea that the villain would be the real X, but honestly the story we got is really good and now I think this was for the best. The idea here is to highlight how a person's upbringing can mold said person. The original X was considered a low tier reploid at the start and was subtantialy weaker tha the rest and only got approval after he struggled to show results, but he also was an idealist and was never ok with violence because of all this. Copy X on the other hand was raised as the ruler of the world from day 1 basically, he acts like an insecure egomaniac because that's exactly what he is, even tho he is a perfect copy technically speaking, on the more human side he is a completelly different person than actual X, he is the basic spoiled ruler trope, but executed with a different flavor that adds to X's character and the worldbuiding of the series in general, well that's my view on it at least.
16:18 That strategy can only go so far though. Look at how well that went for Ninja Gaiden. Mean. Gotta get good or give up. Yea- no buddy. What you get is teetering at the edge of failure, where one bad game will ruin it all.
From Software's games like Armored Core and Demons' Souls were hard but they were also nice to you. Demons' Souls rewarded you for getting back to where you died. Not a big ask if you've made it there once before. Get help if you gotta. Elden Ring was made for the use of spirits and even incentivized it. But you got dipshit players trying to get others to sabotage themselves and adopt a very wrong way of thinking and playing the game "DURRR DO IT BY YOURSELF. SPIRITS ARE LIKE HAVING HELP IN TUTORIALS. YOU NO GIT GUD IF YOU GET HELP. HONOR IN INVASION. FAIRNESS IN INVASIONS DURRRRR". There's no shame in getting help. There is no honor in invasions, only duels. And invasions are NEVER fair for the invader. Armored Core, unless it was an important mission you CANNOT fail, will just move on and eventually reset your playthrough while giving you a bonus upgrade to help you do better next time. Even though only 1,2, and in a special way Last Raven did this. Last Raven gives you a choice to restart the hour or restart the playthrough with everything you had, including the money. 6? Restart at checkpoint, fully healed and with max repair kits. It's because of these niceities that people stick around for. The lack there of is what Ninja Gaiden got. People leaving and never coming back.
I get what you are saying, and I agree that ways to soften the challenge are a good thing. My point was that at least their intentions would be clear if they just rolled with the goal to make the game hard, rather than having these systems to make it easier but then also make those systems very prohibitive to even use. Note that I compared to Devil May Cry for how to do this right. As a side note, Ninja Gaiden (at least 1 and 2) do have health items and weapon upgrades to help people out. Only 3 got rid of this stuff.
Maybe I'm just fucking insane, but I was so god damn stubborn during my most recent run of MMZ1 that I did not at all indulge in the use of Cyber Elves so I had no utilitarian benefits they provided, and my health bar was at the bare minimum. But the obnoxiously repetitious grind required to fully max out any Cyber Elves was a stark deterrent for me. I do love the entire Zero series and I do think it's really cool that they gave Zero his own sub-series of games given that he was mostly included as a secondary character in the X series (even when playable) but with how assbackwards the approach they took to the Cyber Elves in MMZ1, it's really no wonder why they continued revamping how they were included and used all the way up through Megaman Zero 4.
If I play Zero 1 I never use elves either, I got used to playing it that way
Shits amazing. Dark, action packed, controls are simple, it’s detailed as hell. My only issue was not being good enough to be faster
- I have a somewhat hot take (depending on who you ask) that X1 having no slide and then starting you without the dash is arbitrary and does more harm than good. Well, Z1 gimping the basic moveset is even worse, for the very reasons you mentioned.
- 8:22 There's a patchwork solution of sorts. You can finish the intro stage then go back and level up the saber and buster to max. Keep a save slot like that and use it to start playthroughs, which will be saved on different slots. Hey, I did say patchwork.
- I distinctly remember playing through Z1 not spending any crystals except a small amount for that fat robot (cause nothing encourages the usage of a system like slapping you for daring to even touch it, amirite?). I reached the final boss and had trouble with him, mostly due to the unbelievably stupid design choice of unskipable cutscenes on each retry. That's when I thought "Screw it, I don't care about the rank. It's the end of the game anyway". But when I tried to grow the cyber elf which doubles your health bar, I didn't have nearly enough crystals, and I assure you I killed most enemies I've come across and explored the stages for collectibles. The amount of blatant padding in this game is absurd!
- At least in X8 the retry chips were cheap, so you could easily buy 3 after a game over, and normal mode always gives you the minimum two after exiting a stage (not just after gameovers). All it needed to do was put some collectible retries in-stage. Z1's implementation on the other hand feels like it was deliberately crafted to be the worst of all worlds because "muh difficulty".
Fantastic video! The Zero series is one of my favorites, and replaying it this past year went surprisingly smooth. I knew generally how to circumvent Zero 1's... older qualities, so I played the base version of the legacy collection for the switch and I was met with no brick walls. The grind is definitely a holdover from older RPG's, and it makes the game feel fragmented in a strange way. If you're super good and don't get hit through the whole game and want a good rank, the cyber elves basically don't exist. Mixed with strange, cryptic descriptions spoken by the elves themselves, it's kind of difficult to see a first time player really using the elves in a helpful way which they might need.
The game was apparently what it needed to be, and it is a lot of fun. The team's skill grew with their new releases and that's why I like this series. They're all the same kind of fun in different ways.
Zero failed?
Nah. None of its flaws are exclusive to these games. Its pretty much the perfect megaman experience
I really hate the Elf system in this game, having to grind 1500 E-crystals each time you find one that gives a sub-tank or extra vitality is CRIMINAL. On top of this, the game deletes the best EC grind spots as you progress the story.
The stark contrast in zero 1 vs zero 3 is honestly insane
TRUE!
Good stuff on the nature of the soundtrack, and while Neo Arcadia is a banger to me (especially the Remastered Tracks release), the most interesting thing about the logistics of working with limited GBA audio is that the series nevertheless each got a remastered score release.
Wonder if it was just more the market at the time in Japan, or the developers wanted as much establishment of the new series as possible?
I don't think I used a single Cyber-elf at all because as a lore-run I didn't gel with the idea of them dying for a power-up for myself.
8:03 Have you consulted Magnus Zero's guide on weapon leveling?
13:33 "...or miss the checkpoint for the boss, and get erect" well I cant say thats happened to me, but to each their own sir
It should be noted that Type A Controls have a niche application in allowing you to charge the Shield Boomerang without needing to hold it out, thus retaining your ability to easily dash. Since it's the only weapon you can charge in Hard Mode, this can be really handy.
About the Casual Scenario, it's mainly something you'd want to use to see the story before actually playing the games.
The Zero games had the best story of the entire franchise and this was possible thanks to the X series. I hope they would remake the Zero games in full true 2d hd with way more story, content, harder difficulty and so on.
4:46 X7 and X8 also let you use the buster while another weapon is selected. Also X8 (not sure about X7) lets you use charge one weapon and use another without cancelling the charge. You can't charge both at the same time, though. The first one you start charging takes priority until you fire or it's cancelled.
Holy shit you're actually back, You have no idea how many times I've been rewatching your Mega Man and Sonic videos waiting for a return. Welcome back king.
This video was actually super clean! I haven't seen one of your vids since Quickies Don't Cut It on X6 and I'm glad you're covering one of my favorite game series. Can't wait for part 2!
Even though I have the zero series on my Steam account (and thus, on my Steam Deck), I prefer the game on the NDS.
Bro woke up and decided to post peak.
I see that time has not diminished the quality of your stuff in any way.
Finally! He's returned, after the Ninja Gaiden streams.