Why wasnt X5 the last game?

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Offline Karasai♪

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on: April 30, 2012, 01:07:37 AM
Everyone knows that it was suposed to end at x5, but for some reason they made 6 and Inafune wasnt a part of it.

I beat it today, and the final battle was just ugh

The heroic music, the giant sigma boss, the Ultimate Armor, it was perfect.

The REAL final battle against Sigma!

X6 is just terrible. Zero is a gimmick character. He is very useless and has no reason to be played as. I didnt like it.



Offline ViperAcidZX

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Reply #1 on: April 30, 2012, 02:50:13 AM
Worst part to me is that the game feels incomplete and they rushed it out the doors just for the sake getting more money, and maybe it could of been just that (but might be wrong though). X6 is somewhere between X7 being my least favorite of the X series, but my lot of hatred goes to X6 due to a lot of bad memories of Gate's Lab stages, Metal Shark Player's pancake maker of DEATH, the bad translations, the pathetic Reploids turning into monster if those damn Nightmare viruses get to them, and farking High Max.

If I recall correctly, Capcom wanted to address the issues of the PS1 game for Mega Man X Collection, but there was also a conflict with some plan Inafune had to remake the other games in X series like he did with Maverick Hunter X for the PSP that a lot of the reworking of X6 was never completed.

The funny part to me is that I was [crazy enough] to be willing to 100% complete my through X6 (save all those hapless Reploids, find all those items, armor parts, et cetera) and succeeded in both Normal and Extreme difficulties.


Offline Flame

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Reply #2 on: April 30, 2012, 04:31:21 AM
Oh look, it's THIS discussion again...

Quote
Zero is a gimmick character. He is very useless and has no reason to be played as. I didnt like it.
Because he wasnt a gimmick in X3? or X4?

Also, USELESS? You have GOT to be [tornado fang]ing kidding me, when Zero is the most broken thing ABOUT X6. His buster is overpowered and all bosses seem to be weak to one particular special weapon, it's called "Zero". Even Sigma goes down without a fight against Zero. (Not to say Final Sigma is hard without him, but Zero definitely has the easier fight than any of X's Armors.)

Inafune was not involved with X5 either. He left the production to his team, telling them to "finish the X series" and left his role as X series Producer to go work on the Zero series. The team saw the series still had potential, and X6 was made.

And X5? a great ending? ill grant you that the final Sigma fight is pretty epic- but X5 is far from a perfect ending. It's a pretty shitty one.

...When Larry the reploid accountant goes maverick of his own accord, he's certainly formidable during tax season, but he isn't going to provide X the challenge needed to make him grow as a warrior and reach his potential.


Offline VirusChris

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Reply #3 on: April 30, 2012, 07:09:47 AM
Actually, I remember the time when Mega Man X5 is close to release and I had a video game magazine telling me the secret codes to unlock the Ultimate Armor for X and Zero and told me how to beat the 8 bosses. That is my first time reading up on it and I instantly got the game when it came out.

I liked it for the most part, but I HATED the fact I couldn't get ALL of the power up item to customize with and it's nearly impossible to get both X and Zero to their maxed rank sometimes (I get close!). And with the ending of the game and the mentioning of Wily, I was actually expecting the next X game so I wasn't aware that Mega Man X5 was suppose to be the final game in the X series and to me I didn't see it that way.

That's why X6 is my favorite, and when I saw it in a video game magazine I got excited and said "Finally! MMX6 is out!" again without realizing MMX6 was made behind Inafune's back however I loved a lot of things about it! True it was challenging to yes the least, especially some of the Gate Lab Stage especially the spiked entrance where I was forced to use Shadow Armor X to get it (I wasn't aware at the time to use the power up special moves to use as platform IIRC) when I couldn't get past them with normal X or Blade X (Ultimate X had no problem for me) and Zero was easy to sneak into.

I ALWAYS 100% that game, saved all those Reploids, got all the Power Up Customize Items, obtain both Blade and Shadow Armor for X, unlock Zero (I never once got the ending where you didn't save Zero), maxed out the Hunter Rank for both X and Zero, gotten both Endings (which confused me in X7 with Zero until I thought maybe Zero enters that capsule at a later time), and unlocked both Ultimate Armor X and Black Zero (sucks that I couldn't get BOTH at the same time). I loved the game, and I wasn't fully aware of the translation mistakes but I did notice some things were off from the dialogue and I liked the Japanese voiceovers.

The level designs for frustrating due to some levels, but I always found a way around them and I appreciated them more and enjoy challenging myself to get past them. Surprisingly I never really used Zero's Z-Buster as the Z-Saber always seemed more powerful when using it against bosses and the Z-Buster seemed like it had limited range (I haven't played in a while so I'm not sure).

And I liked the endings for X6 for X and Zero, especially Zero where I believe Capcom was trying to bridge a connection between MMX and MMZero.
I loved both MMX5 and MMX6 and brought a lot to the series, though I agree with X5 felt a little rush at times and I played X5 in the order where the characters told me to collect the items as fast as I can the first time around where Zero ultimately smashes into the Space Colony and it was a success which made sense to my in X6 as I thought that was suppose to happen. Silly me to not know that was one of few different story paths in the game to lead to the game's endings.

Either way I'm glad X5 wasn't the final game in the X series!


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Offline Flame

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Reply #4 on: April 30, 2012, 08:11:07 AM
X5 has an ass backwards ranking system, though I dont remember if it's X only, or general, which punishes you fro defeating enemies.

I always felt the mission results screen was very odd, particularly the weapons part, where it asks you what you want, weapons and energy or weapons and life, particularly because even when you dont have the option of one or the other , it gives you the option and shows the one. Always found that weird.

You cannot fully power up one character, because the game forces you to get some of the power ups as X, and the amount of backtracking you need to do for the armors is pretty ridiculous, particularly needing McWhalen's weapon to get the capsule in his stage. That infuriates me because it's in plain sight but you cant get it till you beat the stage. The Falcon Armor's sole purpose seems to be to get the Gaea Armor, and neither are all too helpful in the final stages (IMO) because the falcon lacks power, and the Gaea lacks speed/mobility, and although it is a boss slaying machine, it is tough to get through the final areas, particularly the first final stage.

I Just found the X6 Armors more useful. Blade has the broken feature to allow X to hover in the air indefinitely until you release the dash/jump button, and while it's wannabe plasma shot is wonky as all hell, it is still better than Falcon's tiny charged shots.

And Shadow just ups everything that made Gaea good, and adds a bit more mobility. It isnt slow as Gaea was, and you can super jump. It's ultimate also covers far more area.

Back to X5 though, theres also the issue of Zero's death, mainly that he dies regardless of where he is- X could be right next to Sigma, but Zero will be the one who's all jacked up, while X gets off with barely a scratch. It's just so wonky. They also dont adequately explain WHY Sigma is supposed to be dead for good. I dont think X does either, but X6 actually does more to establish the fact that Sigma had suffered a permanent defeat that time.

X6 really improves on many of X5's flaws and ideas, and I for one, enjoy it's challenge.

...When Larry the reploid accountant goes maverick of his own accord, he's certainly formidable during tax season, but he isn't going to provide X the challenge needed to make him grow as a warrior and reach his potential.


Offline Zan

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Reply #5 on: April 30, 2012, 02:44:05 PM
The biggest reason why I don't think X5 could ever be the ending, is the way it is at at odds with itself and X2. By X's miraculous revival, Zero's is guaranteed as well. Nothing of X5's finality makes sense given Wily's presence, and the disappearance of Zero's corpse.



Offline Blackhook

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Reply #6 on: April 30, 2012, 08:48:49 PM
Every time...EVERY F... TIME! This stupid STUPID and POINTLESS bitchin' about the whole X5 being the last game in the series bullshit. Really guys? You wanted Guns and Roses to be the final 8 mavericks of the series? (granted, what we got afterwards wasn't that great either...but still). Why wasn't it the last game? Because they screwed up making it seem like a last game. Fighting Sigma's almost finished body? [sonic slicer] please. An Epic ending woul have you fight his completed body. X3's Sigma seemed more final than that. Sigma from X8 is him at his finest. The aging demon that was soon to be replaced by an even bigger threat! X8 was a nice set up for that. The virus evolved beyond Sigma, and he become nothing more than a mook. Even due to it's poor presentation, X8 felt more like a final battle...but it was a set up for a bigger threat. Lumine > Redips and eventually Omega and Weil.

Oh yeah, my point. The series' plot started becoming interesting after X5...too bad that all games beyond X2 weren't as fun and thought out anymore gameplay wise...you dull or overly complicated for its own good.


Offline Sakura Leic

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Reply #7 on: April 30, 2012, 09:10:46 PM
Honestly if it did end with X5 the Zero series would be very cliche.  They would have to make a clone Zero who isn't actually Zero in order for it to make sense instead of Zero's mind being transferred to another body, in other words it would be Omega being the good guy and Zero fulfilling Wily's desire, if they were actually going to go with that. Plus I wouldn't like the fact that, if X5 was the last game, then X would become evil due to being obsessed with power or something meaning that Dr.Light's efforts would have be in vain and his name would be dragged in mud for the rest of time.  Light and X have been through too much [parasitic bomb] to have that happen and I'm glad it didn't.

Not to mention besides the horrible English translation and the BS nightmare collecting you have to do to get extra scenes X6's story sets up a lot of interesting things since Gate's reploids were destroyed for being too powerful despite the fact that in fact only half of of them were actual not evil, careless or scumbags.  I mean if you compare Gate's reploids to the prominent members of Repliforce you can see that at least 3 of them were pretty selfish, and highly destructive without care for how their actions hurt others, not to mention if not for Colonel's idiocy the Repliforce war wouldn't have happened, while only 3 of Gate's were like that.  Although I'm having trouble deciding on whether to include Metal Shark Player to that list because he just seems very obsessive of DNA like Gate and Isoc though he probably would go to any lengths to do so and he did raise the dead to fight you. Okay maybe I should put him in that list too since he did disturbed Sting Chameleon, Magna Centipede, and Blast Hornet's rest.  But anyway out of both Gate's Reploids and Repliforce 50% of them had questionable morality.  It may not be much different but considering Repliforce was supposed to support the Hunters that's pretty nuts.  Then again most of the known Hunters were definitely not saints either so I guess I shouldn't really be making too many comparisons to Repliforce's "standards" *coughMagmaDragooncough*.

But I will concede that X6 does have it's fair share of "how the heck did Capcom think this was fun or not cheap" in terms of gameplay and it's not for everyone.  The massive amounts of enemies in the game make almost everything a cheap enemy placement, Gate's Lab, the nightmare collection and if you defeat the maverick or don't collect the soul it's gone though Dynamo does fix that, the fact that if the nightmare infects a reploid with a item that item is gone forever, trying to bring back X1's gimmick of defeating certain mavericks and the environment changed but making most of the effect harmful, and Gate and High Max's boss fights.  Not to mention when my brother did Blaze Heatix's stage it took him ages for him to defeat all those mini bosses simply because he was using X's Falcon armor's giga attack and he had some bad luck and not to mention the fact there's five of them, seriously 2 or 3 would be enough.  Another thing I was annoyed with was Ground Scaravich's stage, the layout is pretty randomized and you might have to go through it several times to get everything, for some reason my brother always find the alternate path there and always fights Zero there but I couldn't find it, and the last totem pole enemy is a [sonic slicer] due to the placement. X6 is not for beginners or casual Megaman X players, it may be fun to some who like the challenge, like Chris and Flame do, but it's quite irritating to most who just want to play the game.  It's really a mixed bag leaning towards the negative side, but I understand why some people enjoy it.

The only thing I'm really confused about is if Capcom had such little time to finish the game how come there is so much in there?  I mean would have expected the game to be lacking challenge because of it and yet there's so much stuff going on.  I guess maybe they didn't have time to plan the placements or to omit some of the gimmicks but it still doesn't make sense to me.  I guess it a game designer thing that I'm not getting?

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Offline KoiDrake

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Reply #8 on: April 30, 2012, 10:07:55 PM
We should have a whole thread dedicated for the newcomers to [sonic slicer] about X5, it seems to be trend around here.


Offline Gaia

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Reply #9 on: April 30, 2012, 10:45:05 PM
And I wonder why people have a beef with X6.. Seriously having Alia ping you at the worst time in X5 was always annoying, even in Mattrex's stage. Also, again? jeez people. What is done has passed, get over it. Sigma was an aging villan and eventually needed to be replaced, by an enemy from within. Which is why I liked Lumine in a sense.

Workshop/DA/YT/Photobucket なにかんがえてるの!?
So its about ass now huh? EVEN THE ASS HAS 'EXCEEDED'!

One mention of LEGENDS and everyone goes batshit.  :\

Yep, every time when someone mentions that game people get energized for an apparent reason whatsoever. It's like this everywhere else, trust me.

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Offline Sakura Leic

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Reply #10 on: April 30, 2012, 10:59:14 PM
We should have a whole thread dedicated for the newcomers to [sonic slicer] about X5, it seems to be trend around here.
I know right?  This is like, what, the 3rd topic about this?

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Offline VirusChris

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Reply #11 on: April 30, 2012, 11:43:45 PM
I understand some of your beef with X6's difficulty level, I'll admit some of the enemy placement has gotten me to go "Are you kidding me?" moment especially when it's hard to attack them from my position but I always look for another way around it and better myself to overcome my obstacle. I was even doing a double take on the Ground Scaravich's stage with the random map changes because the first time I went through it I went to the hidden area where the Zero Nightmare was and gotten Zero unlocked after it.

After that I never got to that area again during my second time, but I've gotten it from time to time. But I did find it annoying at times that I have to replay the same level again and again to save all Reploids and get all the items. Also I hate the not saving the Reploids from the Nightmare results in the lose of their amazing power up items which is why I save before the stage and reset the game when it happens and move faster to save them.

I've played the game so many times and beaten it as well that I know all the Reploid position and have saved them all many times. But it's been a while so I not sure right now if I play the game again.

Another thing I always found it annoying that they forced you to listen to Alia's comments in X5, which I greatly thankfully for in X6 (but strangely I always answer them, most of the time), especially when you want to play through the game again from the beginning.


And IF the X series ended in X5, I wonder how much would that affect the story of MMZero? I kinda grateful that the X series continued and that the Zero series became what it is today.


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Offline Flame

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Reply #12 on: May 01, 2012, 01:02:12 AM
Due to X6 setting up Zero for a 102 year seal rather than X5's leaving him dead until Zero 1, even though Wily was still out at large, we got much of the rich backstory Z3 and 4 gave us.

without that, it very likely would have remained the original concept of Revived Zero vs X.

or simply had the events of the Elf wars go on  without Zero, but then we would not have had Omega.

Who knows really, but X6 was one of the best stories in the X series, Gate probably the best Villain in it, and it felt like a natural continuation of X5's story. (yet again proving how much of a bad "finale" X5 was, when the rushed game that came after feels like it very much belongs where it is)

Also, because the X series continued, it was able to in turn, provide continuity nods to the Zero series. (Sigma defeated for good, orbital Elevators starting to pop up as of X8 and Command Mission, slimmer designs for some Reploids in Command Mission, stuff like that)

...When Larry the reploid accountant goes maverick of his own accord, he's certainly formidable during tax season, but he isn't going to provide X the challenge needed to make him grow as a warrior and reach his potential.


Offline Hypershell

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Reply #13 on: May 01, 2012, 02:56:05 AM
Zan was a lot shorter and more to the point than I could ever hope to be, but suffice to say, I don't think of X5 as much of a series ending.

Besides the obvious flaws in the "finality" of the storyline that Zan already mentioned, I also think that their method of killing Zero leaves the entire game feeling cheap and unsatisfying.  Zero dies in a boss explosion, something we see over a dozen times a game, and not only that but there's a 50/50 chance that said explosion happens directly in X's face, who regardless gets off with a sore arm.

Furthermore, even looking at X5 solely as a gameplay experience, the game simply reeks of missed potential.  Alia constantly interrupts, it's impossible to obtain more than half the power-ups (and even that requires repeated suicide), the boss battles are excessively long thanks to overly generous invulnerability frames after the use of weakness weapons, the armor balance is entirely out of whack, with your starting "4th" being overpowered and Gaea virtually impossible to complete in any reasonable amount of time, and Zero's boss AI is one of the slowest and most moronic that the series has ever seen.  Say what you want about how ball-breakingly hard X6 is, but it corrected all of those problems.  And the whole multi-armor thing was never used to its full potential until X8.

X6 is just terrible. Zero is a gimmick character. He is very useless and has no reason to be played as. I didnt like it.
Your status as any kind of Mega Man fan is in serious question if you honestly beat X6 without noticing that EVERY SINGLE BOSS IN THE DAMN GAME is weak to the Z-Buster.

And that's not even touching the topic of how wonderfully broken the Ensuizan is.

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Offline Soultrigger

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Reply #14 on: May 01, 2012, 09:05:29 AM
X6 may be bad, but X5 isn't much better.  X5 felt like a lot of missed potential along with horrible, horrible planning and execution.
X6 improved a couple of those things (collectibles, ranking, Zero fight), but it reeks of cheap difficulty and low budget (in a bad way). Blaze Heatnix and Blizzard Wolfang look pretty damn cool in their artwork, but the sprite work is just so gross.



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Offline Gaia

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Reply #15 on: May 01, 2012, 07:16:03 PM
Speaking of which, did you know that Sheild Sheldon's sprites were pillowed and desaturated from the get-go?

Workshop/DA/YT/Photobucket なにかんがえてるの!?
So its about ass now huh? EVEN THE ASS HAS 'EXCEEDED'!

One mention of LEGENDS and everyone goes batshit.  :\

Yep, every time when someone mentions that game people get energized for an apparent reason whatsoever. It's like this everywhere else, trust me.

It got really messy to find my sprite and comic topic, so it's in my sig.


Offline Flame

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Reply #16 on: May 01, 2012, 08:02:13 PM
Skivver's sprite was no better than Heatnix's. He's a horrible horrible Storm Eagle clone, and yet even Storm Eagle was better animated than he was. At least he had FLAPPING WINGS. (and at least Heatnix does too)

I'm convinced that Heatnix's stage was actually unfinished, so they just tossed in the minibosses to make up some stage length. I mean, the beginning part once you beat the first donut, is fairly fun, and pretty interesting in concept. But it abruptly ends with a drop into a miniboss room.

If you take the alternate route, there is yet another vertical "stage" area. But it is pitifully short. I'm certain that that's the type of stage they wanted to do, but time constraints forced them to pad the stage out with artificial length through the use of the minibosses.

The only one of those minibosses that actually FEELS like it belongs where it is, is the vertical climb one. Granted, that's the toughest one, but it's still the only one that has any semblance of NOT being out of place.

Same for The Museum, Although there, I think they wanted to do something like what they did, but im not convinced the final execution was exactly what they had in mind. Could be part of the "randomized" stage layout they *supposedly* wanted to do with X6's stages. or maybe they just wanted to do something with different areas of the museum but under the time constraints, simply didn't figure on a better way of doing it.

...When Larry the reploid accountant goes maverick of his own accord, he's certainly formidable during tax season, but he isn't going to provide X the challenge needed to make him grow as a warrior and reach his potential.


Offline Gaia

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Reply #17 on: May 01, 2012, 09:31:16 PM
I never paid attention to each of the flapping sprites of the wings for each. Now that I actually look at Heatnix's sprites again, I can say that Eagle's sprites for BOTH Extreme (an 8-bit game no less!) and X1 graphics made it look like actual flapping of 'dem wings. I can't say for Yammark, as he is a flying insect that rubs his wings together for flight, same with Izzy Glow. The flapping for Dark Necrobat is another story due to his batty origin (try comparing him with shade man's flapping animation in MM7).

For some reason, I always ended up taking the alternate route in some of the stages (Always ended up fighting Dynamo in Mijinion's stage and always dodged the red marker for Turtloid's stage whenever that showed up.

Workshop/DA/YT/Photobucket なにかんがえてるの!?
So its about ass now huh? EVEN THE ASS HAS 'EXCEEDED'!

One mention of LEGENDS and everyone goes batshit.  :\

Yep, every time when someone mentions that game people get energized for an apparent reason whatsoever. It's like this everywhere else, trust me.

It got really messy to find my sprite and comic topic, so it's in my sig.


Offline Align

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Reply #18 on: May 01, 2012, 09:31:51 PM
Could be part of the "randomized" stage layout they *supposedly* wanted to do with X6's stages.
In hindsight this was a pretty terrible idea from the start, stage design being of such paramount importance to a fun and balanced platformer.



Offline Hypershell

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Reply #19 on: May 02, 2012, 01:35:17 AM
I consider that "announcement" to be overhype/mistranslation of the Nightmare System, which is basically X1 except rarely beneficial, and not any indication of the developer's intent.  Kinda like how both X7 and X8 were allegedly cooperative (the earlier mistranslating Scramble Change and the latter mistranslating Double Attack).  If anything shows an intent that they couldn't follow through, it was probably the fact that the Nightmare System can open an alternate path in Wolfang's level, which is a matter of branching paths more than it is "randomizing", not really the same thing.

I have to concede that the actual randomized block locations in Scaravich's level are pointless at best and annoying at worst.  It's the same basic theme/direction and you're just hoping they're not in the way.

I don't really call X6 "cheap" difficulty.  I mean, it's hard as hell, yes, but it's legitimate.  Inticreates has a tendency of "faking" difficulty by either encouraging you to ignore power-ups (MMZ) or blind-siding the player with hazards you couldn't possibly react to (MM9).  X6 is easily overcome through either careful planning or just sheer determination, and it actually balances quite well with the game's wealth of power-ups (which goes far beyond what MMX games typically offer).  The Reploids' health restores offer a crutch for the early-going, while return trips expect you to have grown familiar enough to make it on your own.  You legitimately feel far more powerful after you've obtained Shadow Armor, Overdrive, and 16 Life-Ups, because you ARE.  The core level design of X6 is rock solid and its power-up locations have enough availability to encourage the basic game formula's non-linear nature.  Growing stronger and choosing your own path, two core elements of Mega Man where X5 failed miserably; your starting armor is over-powered, being literally the end-game secret minus Nova Strike, and the game is very obviously made with a specific stage order in mind, to the point where obtaining the Gaea Armor without visiting all 8 stages is virtually impossible.  What mainly weakens X6 is the Nightmare System, which is manipulatable only with advanced knowledge, otherwise leaving the player feeling helpless.  It could very easily be salvaged with a few user-friendly tweaks, though (a more straightforward menu, more weapon counters, and the ability to restore a cleared stage to neutral condition).

The other thing that works against X6 is, simply put, perception.  The game is not only badly localized but its harder obstacles are of a more open nature which seasoned Mega Man players are simply not accustomed to.  In most Mega Man games there is "one" solution to a given obstacle.  One weapon that destroyed that one block, one power-up that you need to clear that one jump.  In X6, there are multiple ways to clear any given obstacle.  People see it, look at whatever is most apparant, assume that one thing is outright required, and call the game broken for not making sure that they already have it.  The truth is that nine times out of ten they're giving up too easily, but it is admittedly a force of habit that the rest of the series encourages.

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Offline Flame

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Reply #20 on: May 02, 2012, 02:59:04 AM
I would say what weakens X6 is not the Nightmare system itself, but rushed development. If it had more development time behind it, the Nightmare System might have been better designed, and some of the more blatantly rushed stages might have been more fleshed out.

...When Larry the reploid accountant goes maverick of his own accord, he's certainly formidable during tax season, but he isn't going to provide X the challenge needed to make him grow as a warrior and reach his potential.


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Reply #21 on: May 02, 2012, 03:48:35 AM
I would say what weakens X6 is not the Nightmare system itself, but rushed development. If it had more development time behind it, the Nightmare System might have been better designed, and some of the more blatantly rushed stages might have been more fleshed out.

True, but all in all X6 is still an amazing and great game! And I love it to this day!
Though I wouldn't mind having a few tweaks there and here... too bad the remakes for X2 - X6 for the PSP didn't quite make it. Do you think it's possible they can still remakes of them on the VITA instead? If they go with it I mean, even without Inafune (though I wonder how), and it would be see to see how X6 would've been handle with better development time.


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Reply #22 on: May 02, 2012, 04:04:42 AM
Yeah, you really gotta wonder, if the MHX series had reached 6, would they have completely remade stages like Heatnix? Would they have improved on the Nightmare system?

Noone can say, but it would have been nice.

But yeah, X6 is still a great game, and I dare say better than X5. I cant bear to say it's better than X4, but then again, both are almost completely different beasts, so to compare them probably wouldnt be too fair, since X4 follows the X1-3 style, while X6 is literally a sequel to X5, in every way, a game who's style, feel and scope changed completely compared to the games before it.

X6 is the game I most often find myself going back to. More than X4 or 5. Because since it throws so much [parasitic bomb] at you, trucking on through it all like a champ just feels so damn good.

...When Larry the reploid accountant goes maverick of his own accord, he's certainly formidable during tax season, but he isn't going to provide X the challenge needed to make him grow as a warrior and reach his potential.


Offline Soultrigger

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Reply #23 on: May 03, 2012, 02:21:37 AM
@Hypershell

Not to invalidate your post, but I'd have to disagree with you there.

It's not that I hate multiple solutions to one problem, it's that I hate how nothing feels planned. For example, that "leap of faith" in Gate stage 2? If that was supposed to be a wall meant to obstruct players that don't have some sort of necessary power up, that's fine. What's not fine is throwing it at the player in part 2 of the stage, especially after having to deal with the [parasitic bomb] storm that is Hi-Max and his stage. Because of the devs negligence or lack of sympathy, now you have to replay the whole part 1: if you struggled with it the first time, have fun struggling through it again. Most of the time, this issue isn't apparent, but quite often players find themselves in the situation when they picked Shadow Armor, but not Speedster/Hyper Dash/etc.

And about the element of progressively becoming stronger? The majority of X6, as least how I played it (which works, btw), is spent tanking enemies and obstacles because of how impossibly hard it is to avoid everything. In my head, I'm not thinking "so-and-so is charging at me from this direction, so I should dodge it like this". Instead, I'm thinking "okay, to advance, I have to kill this guy, so I'm just gonna focus all my crap on him and not pay attention to anything else". Instead of the difficulty placed on the reactions of a player, instead the difficulty is all in planning ahead. Personally, that is not how I want to play a Mega Man game.

For example, in X2 I might attempt to make a no power up run. It's hard as hell, but at least when I make a mistake, I know that it was my fault most of the time and there is indeed ways to dodge so-and-so. But X6? Unless I was a masochist, how can I blame myself when I can't even trust that the devs know what they're doing?

On the flip side of the coin, like what Sir Cromington said, that is also what makes X6 fun in its own, unique way, in that it's so horridly planned that players have fun attempting to survive the [parasitic bomb] storm. In that sense, I enjoy X6, but personally, I don't want future Mega Man games to be like that.



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Reply #24 on: May 03, 2012, 04:28:19 AM
No one's saying they should. We love our X6, but by no means are we ignoring it's flaws, of which there are quite a few, and almost all of them tied to rushed development and localization.

But the fact is that for every 1 fault, it makes 2 improvements, and in the end, the good parts outshine the bad, if you can look past it. Mainly because it's good points are all things it improved from X5.

...When Larry the reploid accountant goes maverick of his own accord, he's certainly formidable during tax season, but he isn't going to provide X the challenge needed to make him grow as a warrior and reach his potential.