Why does everyone hate Mega Man X6?

[AquaTeamV3]

how exactly DOES the Blade Armor's pseudo plasma discharge work anyway? it appears at random.

The Blade Armor's ghetto plasma ability activates when you shoot a larger enemy.  It still isn't that useful because the shot is rather weak anyway, and the hits afterward don't really help much.  Power definitely isn't the Blade Armor's strong point, that's for sure.

[Hypershell]

Unfortunately it's based on the enemy's type rather than their health, which means that Nightmares simply laugh at you.

You pretty much need rapid-fire and special weapons to use the Blade Armor effectively.  It's charged attacks, and even its Giga Attack, are just too weak.

[Align]

The charged saber is almost a decent weapon, isn't it?

[Hypershell]

Yeah.  Almost.  Certainly fares better than the charged buster against Nightmares, although that's not saying much.

[Reimu Hakurei]

Bump.

I am replaying Mega Man X6 and I am beginning to understand why some people hate the game. Some levels are not really well designed and it almost feels that Capcom is honestly trying to hard to make difficult game. X6 is boatloads better than its predecessor but at same time I wished that Capcom actually make the effort to make the game fun. Some levels are honestly irritating and require certain parts to use, the nightmare effects could had expanded upon even more, the bosses were to easy even with unarmored X and I really wish that they used the Xtreme2 system for parts. The game is irritating but in a good way although I understnad why this game is hated most fo the fans.

[Bolt Crank]

It's not that they didnt put the effort into it, it's that it had a rushed production schedule from the start and is therefore, IMO, basically unfinished. Look at Heatnix's stage. After the first miniboss, you have this wonderful little section of stage. Which then suddenly and abruptly ends and drops you into another miniboss fight. If you take the alternate pathway, you go to a vertical climb that again, resembles more of some kind of stage. Those two parts are shining examples of what they could have done and probably wanted to do, but ultimately couldnt finish due to time constraints and therefore used minibosses as filler.

[Karasai♪]

I've always wondered why Shield Sheldon's stage is really short.

I think Turtloid has the 2nd worse stage, the rain drains your health, and there's like the Nightmare clones of the opposite character chasing you, and then there's a bunch of enemies..

[Gaia]

I can clear that stage in under a minute. Sheesh, to add insult to injury, Sheldon's stage is one of the few good ones!

[Treleus]

No, no it's not. :/ It's one of the most disappointing pieces of level design I've ever experienced. Coincidentally, it's also the shortest.

Even if you take the long way to the optional sub-boss (before which you can't really tell where the doors lead), prepare to bungle through a shitload of mirrors and an even shittier load of zip lines and Nightmares past the portal jump. The only neat thing about that stage was the hidden wall hiding the armor. I'm not sure what to think about having your character stop there and comment about the breeze in order to indicate you should go through the wall. That's probably a good idea, but then I think it could've been done a little more subtly rather than stopping you.

[Karasai♪]

I think the battle with Gate should have been SO much better, but they went with a cheap excuse of a boss.

He could have had all the investigator's moves

[Treleus]

That would've made it more interesting. As it is, he's challenging and unique enough with his can-only-be-damaged-by-himself shtick, but throwing in a mechanic where he's constantly changing his weakness and his power might've been interesting. Moreso than Lumine 1st form anyways.

[Reimu Hakurei]

The Gate fight was even worse when you had to worry about the [tornado fang]ing pit on top of it. I really wish the designers had mroe time with this game.

[Hypershell]

I think the Gate fight is perfectly fine except for the fact that he may randomly decide to not attack you for a while.  That gets a little annoying.

[Sylkebeach]

Gate's the reason. It's because he is...

  AS CRAZY AS A SQUIRREL WITH RABIES!!!

[Ladd Spencer]

Ah, Gate's stage. What, you need to not have jumper on but need to have hyperdash to do it as unarmored X?

[Bolt Crank]

You don't need Jumper. Just Hyper Dash. But Jumper doesnt hurt.

[Ladd Spencer]

Sometimes it does I think. You wind up hitting the wall a lot.

[Reimu Hakurei]

But you need to get past the 'leap of faith'.

[Ladd Spencer]

Remember how awful it was before you knew no amount of effort could make up for being improperly equipped?

I feel that's one of the big things that gets X6 a lot of guff.

[Hypershell]

Well, X6 *IS* more open than any other game in the series, so I can see how that would catch people off guard.  Knowing the game is built that way, though, it's one of the things I love about it.  It's not just that the game doesn't hold your hand in equipping you for the obstacles, but rather, the fact that the obstacles themselves have multiple solutions.  It makes you use your head, find the method that best suits your preferred equipment, and such.

Such obstacles are confined to the alternate paths, which are in no way required, and the game's final stretch, when other than your own short-sightedness you really have no excuse to NOT be properly equipped.  I pity those who play the game for the first time on X Collection, though.  On the PS1 you have the Start/Select/Load Previous Data option available to you at all times.  On X Collection, you damn well better save frequently, especially if you don't enjoy X5-part-collecting levels of suicide.

[Treleus]

You're making it sound like there are clever workarounds to certain obstacles. To me it was more like every iteration of a character could bypass the same obstacles their own way. With the Nightmare System, the obstacles they'd generate didn't sense make when trying to match them up to the weapon to deal with them. Why would an anchor destroy a solid steel block, or a shield shoo flies away? The idea is good, but there could've been much better ways to implement that system.

As for the leap of faith segment, anyone can surpass it without part upgrades except X, and people shouldn't be punished for using him. It's challenging enough, without a technically impassable segment, to not have all the features the armors or Zero afford, and there's absolutely no way for me to know I had to use either a Hyper Dash or a High Jump part. As a rule, the parts system should've been optional. Plus, I enjoy the simplicity of X's unarmored form. If I can't reach certain areas with him, that's fine as long as it's not in my way.

I don't know about X6 being the most open game. I thought X3 was pretty open. It had better hidden secrets and more interesting things to find than a bevy of part upgrades, like [tornado fang]ing Ride Armors. Yeah, the Frog one was slow and plodding, but 3 out of 4 good ones is pretty damn good.

[Bolt Crank]

people shouldn't be punished for using him

The game sets the standard in the Intro stage, by starting you with an armor. It isnt for shits and giggles, The game is telling you there that you will NEED armor for this game, and if you decide to not use them, then game isn't punishing you, you are punishing yourself by ignoring what the game has told you is required.

X5 starts you with an Armor too. It too, sets the bar, telling you that for that game, Armor is a default. You will require an Armor. And that Armored X will be your "default X".

more interesting things to find

That's entirely subjective.

yeah Ride Armors were cool, but they didnt feel all THAT useful, since they were hindered by first off, finding a summoning platform, and secondly, if the stage allowed you to use it for more than a minute or two before you hit a door or small corridor.

And X6 meanwhile, has some pretty interesting parts. Ultimate Buster for one. X6 also includes special parts that can be used once per stage, like, overdrive.

Overdrive plus Ultimate Buster is the CLOSEST we will EVER get to Xtreme 2's levels of Ultimate Buster Godhood with X.

[Hypershell]

Well, Trel, most of your complains you've already made earlier in the thread, and for the most part Flame beat me to the punch on the response.  Although, in all fairness, starting with the armor is optional in X5 (pick Zero, you don't get it), and the extra part slots give you some incentive to experiment without armor.  Neither point is true in X6.  Your DEFAULT FORM in X6 is armored.  Unarmored is super-hard-with-no-point-except-to-prove-you're-a-badass mode.  It's that simple.  In no video game whatsoever is it considered remotely intelligent to turn off your default abilities without knowing what's ahead.

Yeah, I love Kangaroo and Hawk Ride Armors as much as the next guy, but in X3 you can use them for all of 2 minutes before the stage demands you leave them behind.  Not amazing.  You're further hindered by a generally weak arsenal; even if it barely beats out the Blade Armor, X3 has NOTHING on Shadow+Ultimate Buster+Overdrive.  Hell, no X game period has anything to that level of destructive power, save Xtreme2.

Yes, yes, I know, kill Zero for his saber, but the game is nearly over by then and you still have to stumble through the crapass double shot for every saber wave you fire.

[Treleus]

The game sets the standard in the Intro stage, by starting you with an armor. It isnt for shits and giggles, The game is telling you there that you will NEED armor for this game, and if you decide to not use them, then game isn't punishing you, you are punishing yourself by ignoring what the game has told you is required.

X5 starts you with an Armor too. It too, sets the bar, telling you that for that game, Armor is a default. You will require an Armor. And that Armored X will be your "default X".

Then why does "default" X even exist? For shits and giggles*? In any case, I don't like being started off with the armor from the last game, especially in the case of X5 and X6. Bringing over an ability or two into X's standard armor from the last game is fine, but recycling armor and telling the player they HAVE TO SHOULD use it is bullshit.

*By the way, that pretty much sums up X's involvement in his own series after X4: for shits and giggles.

That's entirely subjective.

yeah Ride Armors were cool, but they didnt feel all THAT useful, since they were hindered by first off, finding a summoning platform, and secondly, if the stage allowed you to use it for more than a minute or two before you hit a door or small corridor.

And X6 meanwhile, has some pretty interesting parts. Ultimate Buster for one. X6 also includes special parts that can be used once per stage, like, overdrive.

Overdrive plus Ultimate Buster is the CLOSEST we will EVER get to Xtreme 2's levels of Ultimate Buster Godhood with X.

I'll take the Ride Armors from X3 over either parts systems from X5/X6. Hands down. The Ride Armors were situational and limited, but they were fun to find and fun to use for the most part, and they didn't disappear after use. The parts change your gameplay slightly and there's an abundance of them, so I pretty much dislike them for the same reason I dislike Cyber-Elves: they're another step towards RPGing-up your action game. Too much clutter of powerups that mess with object variables like how fast you can move or jump or whether pressing X shoots lemons or fully charged shots--not even different shots, just the same ones you've always had. This is not my kind of action game. This is an RPG encroaching on an action game. I don't think having so much focus on that level of customization is what made Mega Man X fun to play. In part, Ride Armors were what made Mega Man X fun to play. Also finding a decent armor, instead of two middling ones.

Power's fine, but being ridiculously overpowered gets played pretty quickly. At least with a Ride Armor your punching the [parasitic bomb] out of stuff and stomping on things, which is way more fun to me than just starting out a level with a ridiculously overpowered buster. Even if the Ride Armors are highly situational, they're at least more fun to find in that you know you've found them. With the parts in X6, unless you have a guide on hand, it's a tossup.

[Hypershell]

they're another step towards RPGing-up your action game.

You realize that's EXACTLY what the point of the armor system was in X1, right?

starting out a level with a ridiculously overpowered buster.

Nobody in their right mind would defend starting the game with the end-of-game secret armor minus one attack.  Why Capcom couldn't at LEAST revisit the stock charge, I will never know.

In X6, oddly enough, your buster shot is the full and sole "practical" reason that anyone would ever use unarmored X over Falcon X.  It's larger and it actually has better piercing abilities; Capcom over-nerfed Falcon's shot to the point where any enemy whatsoever will stop it dead in its tracks.