Topic: Why does everyone hate Mega Man X6?

[Flame]

I love how X and Zero both have boss explosions when you beat them, and despite that are both fine afterwards. (well, yknow, aside from battle damage)

[Karasai♪]

But then again, it would be weird to not have them have a explosion.

IMAGINE IT

[Hypershell]

Very, very true.  The X series has to appeal to our inner pyromaniacs.

Why mix gameplay and story?

For one thing, Zero's survivability has a direct impact on gameplay at an earlier point.  It's one hell of a letdown to either suck or have rotton luck, crawl through the Awakened Zero battle, then go back and do it right, only for Zero to die at the end anyway.  Besides, X6's story impacts its satisfaction as well; how awesome is it to kick the series baddie while he's down?  I loved that part.  It breaks the stereotype of "fantasy good guy always plays defense".

Also, I was deliberately trying to be brief.  If you want a gameplay justification for X5's lack of satisfaction, that's easy: You start with an armor that is offensively far more powerful than either of the two sets that you have to collect.  Hell, it's literally the end-of-game secret minus Giga Attack (they could have at LEAST used the Stock Charge...), and the only armor outside of said secret that can charge special weapons.  The whole lack of proper access to power-ups applies, too.  X5 downplays the usual series theme of growing stronger, more through blunders in the way of balance and availability than through any deliberate action that I can see.  It is perhaps the single weakest entry in the series in that regard.  Ditto for the non-linear nature of stage selection.  Both of these are key elements to Mega Man's appeal, especially in the X series, and they are both severely weakened in X5.

I love how X and Zero both have boss explosions when you beat them, and despite that are both fine afterwards. (well, yknow, aside from battle damage)

They have nothing on Dynamo.

[Flame]

True that, but I remember the SNES games not doing the boss explosion when a character lives past the battle. Battle simply stops and dialogue happens. Kinda like Highmax in the intro stage. (except for the fact that you couldnt beat him anyway) but the PSX games had the best boss explosions of the X series, so hey, might as well flaunt it right?

[Treleus]

If there's one single thing I love above all else in X6, it's that victory was damn well satisfying.  There's a tremendous difference between how powerful you are at the start and how powerful you can potentially become, far more so than in the other games, and it nicely compliments the unusually high challenge, making you feel that you have overcome great obstacles and relish in how badass you are compared to a couple of hours ago.  I certainly cannot say the same thing for a game that ends with half of Zero's body vaporizing when he wasn't even on screen to begin with.

Technically the game ends after you've narrowly wrecked Sigma's [parasitic bomb], which by his second form is no small feet.

I never really got that with X6. Probably because I wasn't having that much fun. High Max was a challenge, but his role was pretty much a blatant ripoff of Vile's role in X1, only with less impact and relevance to the story. Gate was a dandy. Nightmare Sigma is Sigma's coolest looking second form, but also goes major cheapo at the end with the undodgeable energy balls. Reminds me of those cheap purple squares from Gamma Sigma in X5. God I [tornado fang]ing hated those things.

[Flame]

Those purple squares.

All of my hate.

[Treleus]

Those purple squares.

All of my hate.

Heaven help you if you were trying to beat Gamma Sigma as unarmored X.

Which, if you're an old school boss, you should play through and beat every X game with.

[Rin]

Because of you guys, I'm playing through X6 again...

[spoiler]I [tornado fang]ing hate you people.[/spoiler]

[Karasai♪]

Sigma never used the Purple XBox of death on me, what gives?

[Waifu]

Very, very true.  The X series has to appeal to our inner pyromaniacs.
For one thing, Zero's survivability has a direct impact on gameplay at an earlier point.  It's one hell of a letdown to either suck or have rotton luck, crawl through the Awakened Zero battle, then go back and do it right, only for Zero to die at the end anyway.  Besides, X6's story impacts its satisfaction as well; how awesome is it to kick the series baddie while he's down?  I loved that part.  It breaks the stereotype of "fantasy good guy always plays defense".

Also, I was deliberately trying to be brief.  If you want a gameplay justification for X5's lack of satisfaction, that's easy: You start with an armor that is offensively far more powerful than either of the two sets that you have to collect.  Hell, it's literally the end-of-game secret minus Giga Attack (they could have at LEAST used the Stock Charge...), and the only armor outside of said secret that can charge special weapons.  The whole lack of proper access to power-ups applies, too.  X5 downplays the usual series theme of growing stronger, more through blunders in the way of balance and availability than through any deliberate action that I can see.  It is perhaps the single weakest entry in the series in that regard.  Ditto for the non-linear nature of stage selection.  Both of these are key elements to Mega Man's appeal, especially in the X series, and they are both severely weakened in X5.
They have nothing on Dynamo.

Not mention that X5 had some horrible level desgins and it bashes for mssing any small itme or task.

[Treleus]

Sigma never used the Purple XBox of death on me, what gives?

Did you [twin slasher] him with the Ultimate Armor before he got the chance?

[Karasai♪]

Nope 

[AquaTeamV3]

Nightmare Sigma is Sigma's coolest looking second form, but also goes major cheapo at the end with the undodgeable energy balls. Reminds me of those cheap purple squares from Gamma Sigma in X5. God I [tornado fang]ing hated those things.

Dude, the purple cube attack is on a completely different level than those energy balls.  They're dodge-able, you just have to leave the green platforms alive so you can jump over the high ones.  The low ones of course can be ducked under.

[Treleus]

You're right. I remember them being much cheaper than they are.

[Hypershell]

High Max was a challenge, but his role was pretty much a blatant ripoff of Vile's role in X1, only with less impact and relevance to the story.

I majorly disagree.  Even though yes, High Max role mirrors that of Vile in X1, there are some differences that I feel make him majorly relevant to the series and to X's character.

Numero uno is that X1, for both X and Zero, is their "infancy" when clearly neither of them has matured into the force that they've later become.  It actually lends a lot of clarification on what X is, to be reminded that he is continually growing more powerful.  Not only that, but when you DO defeat High Max, you do so without any outside aid.  X really never got to go solo against Vile until X3, which somewhat undermined the "growing stronger" theme that X1 was trying to set up.  In X6, the difference in X's power is shown within gameplay twofold.  Not only are newer abilities relevant to High Max's defeat, but his default abilities that previously failed are making a stronger impact than at the first encounter (the X-Buster previously has no effect on High Max but will later stun him).

There's also the fact that when X confronts High Max for the final time, we see X's total disregard for an outsider's rationale about why he is inferior.  For a character who is otherwise very hesitant and conflicted, it's very refreshing, and about as badass as he's going to get.  X6 kept X passionate but made him a *LOT* less whiney and more determined; beneath that shoddy localization is one of the best representations of X's character as his fans envision him.

[Treleus]

I majorly disagree.  Even though yes, High Max role mirrors that of Vile in X1, there are some differences that I feel make him majorly relevant to the series and to X's character.

Numero uno is that X1, for both X and Zero, is their "infancy" when clearly neither of them has matured into the force that they've later become.  It's actually lends a lot of clarification on what X is, to be reminded that he is continually growing more powerful.  Not only that, but when you DO defeat High Max, you do so without any outside aid.  X really never got to go solo against Vile until X3, which somewhat undermined the "growing stronger" theme that X1 was trying to set up.  In X6, the difference in X's power is shown within gameplay twofold.  Not only are newer abilities relevant to High Max's defeat, but his default abilities that previously failed are making a stronger impact than at the first encounter (the X-Buster previously has no effect on High Max but will later stun him).

There's also the fact that when X confronts High Max for the final time, we see X's total disregard for an outsider's rationale about why he is inferior.  For a character who is otherwise very hesitant and conflicted, it's very refreshing, and about as badass as he's going to get.  X6 kept X passionate but made him a *LOT* less whiney and more determined; beneath that shoddy localization is one of the best representations of X's character as his fans envision him.

[tornado fang], man.

NOW I have to go play that [tornado fang]ing game again. Thanks, Hypershell *sigh*.

[Karasai♪]

I thought High Max was annoying.

[Hypershell]

I think Falcon Armor is about the only form in the game that DOESN'T have some way of utterly dismantling High Max.

[tornado fang], man.

NOW I have to go play that [tornado fang]ing game again. Thanks, Hypershell *sigh*.

You're welcome.

[Treleus]

No, seriously man. [tornado fang] you.

I just finished going through a lovely endless loop of facing off against the fourth Nightmare Snake in Blaze Heatnix's stage, with unarmored X on X-treme mode, before I decided to break out of it and regroup with some armor. I would've had a much better time of it--and probably beaten it too--if it weren't for THE BEES:



THESE LITTLE SHITS are why everyone hates X6. I'd like to [twin slasher] whoever programmed and designed those little nightmares with a spiked mace.

[AquaTeamV3]

Well, you can always swap the nightmare effect to the silver boxes (MSP's stage), which may or may not be a better fit.  That said, the dragonflies aren't really the reason people don't like X6, or at the very least they're low on the list.  What gets most people is either the segment after beating High Max in Gate's lab that requires certain parts if you're unarmored/Shadow, Blaze Heatnix's donuts, or Mijinion's blinding nightmare effect.

X6 is one of those games that you have a love/hate relationship with.  Some segments are really well-done, and others make you want to kick a puppy.  Multiple people have put it this way: Megaman X6 is to the the X series what the Lost Levels are to Mario.

[Treleus]

They may not be the only reason, but they're a perfect example of an obstacle or enemy that literally does nothing for the experience but ruin it or make it worse. Especially during Blaze Heatnix's stage.

[Karasai♪]

This reminds me, I tried to beat MMX6 again, but gave up at Mijion's boss battle because it's just.....i dont even know how explain it. 

[Satoryu]

Mijinion, you just have to buster him in the face the entire time. Hitting him with a saber is suicide. There's still luck involved though. If he decides to stay close to the ceiling, be wary. If he goes WOO-HOO, you're in trouble.

I just finished going through a lovely endless loop of facing off against the fourth Nightmare Snake in Blaze Heatnix's stage, with unarmored X on X-treme mode, before I decided to break out of it and regroup with some armor. I would've had a much better time of it--and probably beaten it too--if it weren't for THE BEES:



THESE LITTLE SHITS are why everyone hates X6. I'd like to [twin slasher] whoever programmed and designed those little nightmares with a spiked mace.

No wonder you hate this game. Playing it unarmored is just plain insane.

The dragonflies are one of the least annoying Nightmare effects because you can get rid of them. Just keep Yammar Option on at all times. And they drop health and ammo too. Nothing else in the stage drops ammo, and the only other way to get health is Reploids.

Having said that, though, I did change my route in the 8boss run so that I could avoid them in Heatnix. Specifically, the one in the top third doughnut room. I have a much easier time setting up my charged Metal Anchor with having to deal with the 50/50 shot of him hitting me.

[Hypershell]

No wonder you hate this game. Playing it unarmored is just plain insane.

Uh, yeah, unarmored X exists pretty much just to show off your manliness.  If you're going to [sonic slicer] about that, then don't use him.

Honestly, if I were to start X6 without going on the old Reploid scavanger hunt first (I love gathering up all the parts/armor before beating the Mavericks; also Shadow Armor vs Nightmare Zero is FUN), I'd start with Blizzard Wolfang.  His weapon is extremely useful for accessing hard-to-reach places.  Turtloid, Shark, then double back to Blaze Heatnix, and you can wail on his minibosses with the charged Metal Anchor, and complete the Shadow Armor.  Also, besides the Central Museum, the Reploids in the other levels generally don't cough up any good parts.

[Karasai♪]

i never use the buster, I always use the "Hyper Saber Dash trick" when playing as X.

And also I used Zero for Mijinion