Um... I liked Legends 2 but didnt care much when Legends 3 got cancelled? WHY ISNT THAT IN THE POLL
Sorry, I was busy for several days, but I added the option if you cared to vote.
It's what bugs me the MOST about X7.
The potential was there, the game looked good, the underlying concept of X in 3D was there and worked more or less, it just needed fine tuning. They needed to take what worked in X7, and play with it.
Command Mission came out right after, and while it was a completely different gameplay style, it still seemed to improve on some of X7. Cutscenes were all cinematic for the first time since X4, using in game models, the 3D world felt immersive, the areas unique and well thought out, and nice to look at, and the actual gameplay was fun. And overall the game felt like the dev team really enjoyed making it. The amount of detail and thought that went into it tells me as much. Of course you can barely compare it to any other X game, but still.
Then X8 comes out and it's just a 2.5D X game with bland forgettable level design, terrible gameplay choices, (putting every single item into the shop therefore killing much of the stage replay value). Graphically, I still say X7 looks better than it- a lot of the music just felt too samey to me, and only some of the OST stands out IMO. And overall, X8 just doesnt feel like it has anywhere as much soul as the previous games. It just feels too alien compared to previous 2D entries. Even X7's 2D sections felt more traditional X series than X8.
Aaaaaand.... we never got another X game past X8.
It bugs me they never tried to fix the 3D formula for another try. It's what the franchise really needed.
I agree with everything you said about X7.
For Command Mission, leaving out Massimo, Marino, and Cinnamon out of cutscenes most of the time was a real bad idea.
As far as X8 goes, I like the shop idea, but Legends 1, Legends 2, and Command Mission did it better. X8 is one of my favorite Mega Man games though.
Agreed on X7. X7's 3D gameplay engine was actually really good. What killed the game was: a really awful camera, trying to shoehorn 2D mode in, and a lack of polish. The game played really well in 3D mode. Wall kicking felt solid, aiming was intuitive, and attacks were calibrated nicely for 3D space.
The 2D mode was most of the problem. The 3D calibrated attacks (especially Zero's) were not very effective in 2D. When you dash wall jumped, you were forced to land lower than where you jumped (not necessarily a 2D mode only issue though, but much more apparent here). Auto aim in 2D was way overpowered.
Axl's damage ratios and lack of auto fire (if I recall correctly) was way out of whack too. X8 did him infinitely better.
Sigh. It's depressing to think what could have been, versus what we got. Such a large gap.
I agree with the cool aspects of the 3D mode, especially during the fight against Red at Crimson Palace. But the 3D mode was not beneficial in the fights against Ride Boarski and Snipe Anteator.
As far as the 2D mode goes, it is pretty good, but it was annoying during the fights against Wind Crowrang and Sigma's first form, especially with the latter on Hard.
Despite Axl's weak damage output, he has 2 major advantages:
First, his regular shot of the G-Launcher has great power, size, and infinite ammo.
Finally, Axl's barrel roll in X7 is completely invincible to any attack, including contact damage, though there is a very small recovery time. Although his barrel roll in X8 covered more range and has no recovery time, the roll is no longer invincible against physical attacks (sword or fist) and contact damage.
Oh, I forgot to mention 3D mode's movement speeds were too damn slow. They turned them down to match 2D mode, which made 3D mode clunky.
As much as I love Mega Man X7, I have to agree with you about the clunkiness. No such clunkiness existed in any 3D area when I played Mega Man Legends 1 and Mega Man Legends 2.
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