Mega Man X6: Revisited
Jul. 23rd, 2004 04:13 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lbd_nytetraynNo big secret that I feel that Mega Man X6 is, or at least was at the time(given peoples' feelings on X7, both for good and bad), perhaps the worst title in the entire Mega Man X series.
Now, I've been playing through the PS MM games recently... and I guess maybe I've lightened up, or become more objective, or something. MM8 is better than I remember, but I think X5 steeled my reflexes for the snowboard stages there. And I've grown to be able to tolerate the voices.
Playing X6, I feel that while yes, it was rushed, it was actually a tragedy that it was. This game actually had the potential to be one of the greatest of all the series... but because it was rushed, it fell way short. Let's look at some different points of the game...
First, we have the intro. In my opinion, this is definitely the best intro to any of the games in the series. Pure Capcom-styled art(as opposed to the crummy off-model anime of X4), with touches of animation, and the original soundtrack. No doubt the soundtrack here was kept BECAUSE it was rushed... a mixed blessing, no doubt. Had they taken longer, at least in porting it to the US, no doubt the game would have been better, but we'd have lost a really nice opening sequence.
Translation of dialogue, isn't the best, but not as bad as people say, for the most part. Again, likely more the result of being rushed than anything. Worst part here is the childish cover-ups of cursing in a game meant for an older audience in the first place(according to the developers)...
"Drat! He's back!"
"My longest enemy who's killed my best friend, destroyed the Earth, and attempted to wipe out mankind numerous times is back. Well, drat! Drat it all!"
Voices: Casting is top-notch, and the acting is great. Pity it's not in English. X7 later gives us our choice, a trend I hope to see continued, but the English casting is dubious, and for the most part, the range of acting nonexistant. You may not know what exactly it is they're saying in X6, but you can be damn sure they mean it, whatever it is.
Music: Some of the best in the series, in my opinion. I especially like the opening stage, the boss music, Gate's Lab's theme, Gate's theme, and the remix Sigma theme during the final battle. I.D.E.A. makes a great ending song, and I enjoyed the remixes of other music from the X series thoroughly.
Stage graphics: Some of the best I can remember; they have more of a look like a really detailed cartoon background, like in so many anime, as opposed to others backgrounds which I believe blended with the characters more, but looked less real. Favorites are Amazon Area, Inami Temple, and the colony crash site. The statues in the back of Gate's lab are cool, too... maybe too cool for the E rating it got?
Enemy graphics: Here is where the game starts to slip a bit, seeing enemies with less animation than ever before. On top of that, there are just fewer enemies altogether in this title; many are returns from X4 and X5, while most of the rest are Nightmares, or one of about five other new enemies for this game. No doubt, this is due to a lack of time... and I feel I know where the biggest lack of time may have come from. More later.
Player graphics: All in all, I felt they were good. Seeing new Zero sprites and animation was a nice touch.
Control/gameplay: For the most part, control is as good as ever... at least for X. Zero seems to have slowed down a bit since his death, and the inability to turn off one of his moves that seemed to have been misprogramed in the rush does not help.
I'm sure you all know the move I'm talking about, too. The one that drives you into a pit or spikes whenever you try and attack from a wire. If I'm not mistaken, though, when you gain this ability, Alia tells you that to activate it, you press DOWN and attack, not up, which is where the trouble comes from, as you have to hold up to grab the wire, or else fall through it.
I also seemed to have some control issues when fighting Gate. For some reason, it just seemed like it would not respond at crucial times, like when I'd be holding onto a platform or wall one second, and the next, I'm helpless.
A big plus is the way Alia is handled. Far better than in X5, it's entirely up to you whether or not she says anything... with a few minor exceptions.
I like the idea of rescuing Reploids/people; I came up with it for a MM game before Capcom even did. Even the part about getting items from them was an idea I had. What I do NOT like is that you only have one shot to get the item/rescue the Reploid, else be hitting reset. A bit of a nuisance.
But not as much a nuisance as the dead-ends the game provides. X6 seems rather notorious for not only putting you in situations where there is NO way out, but for also pumping you stock full of lives before reaching them... leaving you to have to find a way to kill yourself off 10 times if you don't want to lose something you'd gotten. Pits that can't be crossed, enemies that can't be killed...
...and frankly, it would have easily been avoided if they'd just let you exit a stage before it's completed. I'll never understand their anal-retentiveness regarding that one.
The Nightmares seem to make for annoying enemies, though, in that they break the rules of gameplay. As of X5, they removed the ability to shoot through walls, no really big deal. They even made a special weapon for the Falcon Armor to counter that. Yet they remove that option here from the armor, but allow the Nightmares to move AND shoot through walls. Other enemies, too.
The method of getting upgrades is a bit better than X5, I think; you have an idea of what you're getting, rather than the near randomness of X5's system. Still a shame you can lose so many items without even realizing it, though.
Story: Where this game perhaps excels above all others before it. More cut scenes, more information on enemies...
And with a new enemy in Gate, even for just one game, the story felt refreshing to me. High Max and Isoc were neat as well.
Overall, it felt a lot more complete as a story, far more than X4 did, which left out many, MANY details... X is barely seen in the story segments.
Of course, part of where the story falls is Zero's return, an unavoidable part of it...
Zero: In my opinion, the worst part of Mega Man X6 is Zero's return. I'm sure it was a late-in-development mandate by upper management, for reasons such as his popularity, or to lead in to the Zero series, without realizing the story Inafune had set in place.
Zero seems like such a small part, but I imagine in development, adding him in was a HUGE undertaking for the developers who were no doubt on a very tight schedule as it was.
First, there was his sprites. Though the reasons remain unknown, Zero's style is decidedly different from before, perhaps to differentiate him from the Nightmare and from the now saber-wielding X. So a number of sprites were added, including several new weapons and mechanics, I'm sure, resulting from items and defeated bosses.
Voice recordings had to be made, and no doubt a partially rewritten script to accomodate the addition of Zero. Of course, they were clever here, in a way... rather than scrap what had been done, I'm betting they made Zero's scenes seperate from X's; note that unlike X5, they don't share any scenes; it's either X, or it's Zero, with a few exceptions that rely on Zero anyway, such as his return, and the ending. Everything else seems separate from X here, which leads me to believe that X's cutscenes were made first, and Zero's added in later. They no doubt would have had to redo X's endings to include Zero, and of course give Zero his own loner ending.
All in all, I believe that with more time, maybe even if Zero hadn't been forced in, or rather, patched on(seriously, his presence in this game reminds me more of Knuckles' playability in Sonic 3 than Zero's role in X5), X6 could have had more time for polish and cleaning up, and would have been one of the best games of the series...
...and who knows? Maybe they could have even included that Nightmare System that they used to advertise the game with.
Maybe someday we'll get to see X6 the way it was meant to be, rather than how it was forced to be.
LBD "Nytetrayn"
Now, I've been playing through the PS MM games recently... and I guess maybe I've lightened up, or become more objective, or something. MM8 is better than I remember, but I think X5 steeled my reflexes for the snowboard stages there. And I've grown to be able to tolerate the voices.
Playing X6, I feel that while yes, it was rushed, it was actually a tragedy that it was. This game actually had the potential to be one of the greatest of all the series... but because it was rushed, it fell way short. Let's look at some different points of the game...
First, we have the intro. In my opinion, this is definitely the best intro to any of the games in the series. Pure Capcom-styled art(as opposed to the crummy off-model anime of X4), with touches of animation, and the original soundtrack. No doubt the soundtrack here was kept BECAUSE it was rushed... a mixed blessing, no doubt. Had they taken longer, at least in porting it to the US, no doubt the game would have been better, but we'd have lost a really nice opening sequence.
Translation of dialogue, isn't the best, but not as bad as people say, for the most part. Again, likely more the result of being rushed than anything. Worst part here is the childish cover-ups of cursing in a game meant for an older audience in the first place(according to the developers)...
"Drat! He's back!"
"My longest enemy who's killed my best friend, destroyed the Earth, and attempted to wipe out mankind numerous times is back. Well, drat! Drat it all!"
Voices: Casting is top-notch, and the acting is great. Pity it's not in English. X7 later gives us our choice, a trend I hope to see continued, but the English casting is dubious, and for the most part, the range of acting nonexistant. You may not know what exactly it is they're saying in X6, but you can be damn sure they mean it, whatever it is.
Music: Some of the best in the series, in my opinion. I especially like the opening stage, the boss music, Gate's Lab's theme, Gate's theme, and the remix Sigma theme during the final battle. I.D.E.A. makes a great ending song, and I enjoyed the remixes of other music from the X series thoroughly.
Stage graphics: Some of the best I can remember; they have more of a look like a really detailed cartoon background, like in so many anime, as opposed to others backgrounds which I believe blended with the characters more, but looked less real. Favorites are Amazon Area, Inami Temple, and the colony crash site. The statues in the back of Gate's lab are cool, too... maybe too cool for the E rating it got?
Enemy graphics: Here is where the game starts to slip a bit, seeing enemies with less animation than ever before. On top of that, there are just fewer enemies altogether in this title; many are returns from X4 and X5, while most of the rest are Nightmares, or one of about five other new enemies for this game. No doubt, this is due to a lack of time... and I feel I know where the biggest lack of time may have come from. More later.
Player graphics: All in all, I felt they were good. Seeing new Zero sprites and animation was a nice touch.
Control/gameplay: For the most part, control is as good as ever... at least for X. Zero seems to have slowed down a bit since his death, and the inability to turn off one of his moves that seemed to have been misprogramed in the rush does not help.
I'm sure you all know the move I'm talking about, too. The one that drives you into a pit or spikes whenever you try and attack from a wire. If I'm not mistaken, though, when you gain this ability, Alia tells you that to activate it, you press DOWN and attack, not up, which is where the trouble comes from, as you have to hold up to grab the wire, or else fall through it.
I also seemed to have some control issues when fighting Gate. For some reason, it just seemed like it would not respond at crucial times, like when I'd be holding onto a platform or wall one second, and the next, I'm helpless.
A big plus is the way Alia is handled. Far better than in X5, it's entirely up to you whether or not she says anything... with a few minor exceptions.
I like the idea of rescuing Reploids/people; I came up with it for a MM game before Capcom even did. Even the part about getting items from them was an idea I had. What I do NOT like is that you only have one shot to get the item/rescue the Reploid, else be hitting reset. A bit of a nuisance.
But not as much a nuisance as the dead-ends the game provides. X6 seems rather notorious for not only putting you in situations where there is NO way out, but for also pumping you stock full of lives before reaching them... leaving you to have to find a way to kill yourself off 10 times if you don't want to lose something you'd gotten. Pits that can't be crossed, enemies that can't be killed...
...and frankly, it would have easily been avoided if they'd just let you exit a stage before it's completed. I'll never understand their anal-retentiveness regarding that one.
The Nightmares seem to make for annoying enemies, though, in that they break the rules of gameplay. As of X5, they removed the ability to shoot through walls, no really big deal. They even made a special weapon for the Falcon Armor to counter that. Yet they remove that option here from the armor, but allow the Nightmares to move AND shoot through walls. Other enemies, too.
The method of getting upgrades is a bit better than X5, I think; you have an idea of what you're getting, rather than the near randomness of X5's system. Still a shame you can lose so many items without even realizing it, though.
Story: Where this game perhaps excels above all others before it. More cut scenes, more information on enemies...
And with a new enemy in Gate, even for just one game, the story felt refreshing to me. High Max and Isoc were neat as well.
Overall, it felt a lot more complete as a story, far more than X4 did, which left out many, MANY details... X is barely seen in the story segments.
Of course, part of where the story falls is Zero's return, an unavoidable part of it...
Zero: In my opinion, the worst part of Mega Man X6 is Zero's return. I'm sure it was a late-in-development mandate by upper management, for reasons such as his popularity, or to lead in to the Zero series, without realizing the story Inafune had set in place.
Zero seems like such a small part, but I imagine in development, adding him in was a HUGE undertaking for the developers who were no doubt on a very tight schedule as it was.
First, there was his sprites. Though the reasons remain unknown, Zero's style is decidedly different from before, perhaps to differentiate him from the Nightmare and from the now saber-wielding X. So a number of sprites were added, including several new weapons and mechanics, I'm sure, resulting from items and defeated bosses.
Voice recordings had to be made, and no doubt a partially rewritten script to accomodate the addition of Zero. Of course, they were clever here, in a way... rather than scrap what had been done, I'm betting they made Zero's scenes seperate from X's; note that unlike X5, they don't share any scenes; it's either X, or it's Zero, with a few exceptions that rely on Zero anyway, such as his return, and the ending. Everything else seems separate from X here, which leads me to believe that X's cutscenes were made first, and Zero's added in later. They no doubt would have had to redo X's endings to include Zero, and of course give Zero his own loner ending.
All in all, I believe that with more time, maybe even if Zero hadn't been forced in, or rather, patched on(seriously, his presence in this game reminds me more of Knuckles' playability in Sonic 3 than Zero's role in X5), X6 could have had more time for polish and cleaning up, and would have been one of the best games of the series...
...and who knows? Maybe they could have even included that Nightmare System that they used to advertise the game with.
Maybe someday we'll get to see X6 the way it was meant to be, rather than how it was forced to be.
LBD "Nytetrayn"
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no subject
Date: 2004-07-23 02:57 am (UTC)As for X6.. yeah. From a conceptual perspective X6 was perhaps the best. But more than just the one-shot factor of rescuing reploids was the fact that the reploids are all hanging right in the way of enemy attack-same with X7. In MMZ2 we saw the reploids to be rescued finding safe places to hide until Zero arrived to tag them into the Trans-system. I'm not against having to fight to rescue some reploids, but these should be rare and rewarding.. and not a death race with a bottomless pit below you. .
..Really wish the last three games hadn't been rushed.. or handled by the B-team. Hard to tell which, just that the development was so very weak.
no subject
Date: 2004-07-23 04:03 am (UTC)LBD "Nytetrayn"
no subject
Date: 2004-07-23 07:46 am (UTC)But you're right. Story-wise, X6 was certainly a breath of fresh air. For the majority of the game, I was actually convinced that Sigma had died in X5 and Gate would carry on his legacy, sort of a "post-apocolyptic Sigma". Sigma carried out his ultimate scheme to destroy X and Zero, and succeeded, at the cost of his own life. That certainly would have been better than the zombie Sigma we were stuck facing at the end of the game.
So all in all, X6 wasn't that bad. I consider X7 a MUCH worse game, considering I still haven't even beaten it yet. >_>
no subject
Date: 2004-07-23 02:36 pm (UTC)I forgot to mention, using the Ultimate Armor makes the game FAR more bearable, as it helps compensate for the bad designs in most cases.
As for the Gate Stage, it is possible to use the Shadow Armor, you just need Jumper and Hyper Dash equipped. 'S what I used.
As for Sigma: Hell, I'd have been as happy if X6 was just "finishing the job." That's what it seemed like, but then they had to pull out the so-called "twist."
LBD "Nytetrayn"
no subject
Date: 2004-07-23 08:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-07-23 11:35 am (UTC)X6 I haven't beaten, I never liked it, but I see what you mean. The one part of X6 I did like was the boss battles. It was like an evolution of X5's system...the bosses had, for the most part, three attack strategies instead of just one like in all the other games. It's great fun to fight them without special weapons. Stopped playing at Gate Stage 1 because, yeah, spikey death, and I never beat Metal Shark Player's stage. Compressors blow.
Maybe its because I never got anywhere in his fortress, but I thought Gate was pretty flat. He struck me as just a remake of Doppler.
no subject
Date: 2004-07-23 02:41 pm (UTC)X4 was alright, but somehow, I couldn't even bring myself to do anything past fighting Sigma in it recently. X5 is the most fun to me, frankly. Shadow Devil is easy with X and Squid Adler's weapon. X7, I've played a bit of, but haven't really gotten to sit down with it to learn it. I just sort of rushed to see as much as I could in a short time.
X6 I haven't beaten, I never liked it, but I see what you mean. The one part of X6 I did like was the boss battles. It was like an evolution of X5's system...the bosses had, for the most part, three attack strategies instead of just one like in all the other games. It's great fun to fight them without special weapons. Stopped playing at Gate Stage 1 because, yeah, spikey death, and I never beat Metal Shark Player's stage. Compressors blow.
Shadow Armor is a wonderful thing, especially in Gatetown. And yeah, the compressors blow. I saved Sharkey for last, and went in with the Speedster equipped.
Maybe its because I never got anywhere in his fortress, but I thought Gate was pretty flat. He struck me as just a remake of Doppler.
Oh my, no. Doppler was incredibly flat next to Gate... Gate had a wealth of depth for his limited appearence... it's little wonder he's so popular. If you want me to tell you why, let me know. Gate might be the greatest villain of the X series, perhaps only short of Sigma, whom he might surpass on account of Capcom beating a dead horse.
LBD "Nytetrayn"
no subject
Date: 2004-07-23 12:24 pm (UTC)The story was good but it has it faults.
no subject
Date: 2004-07-23 02:42 pm (UTC)LBD "Nytetrayn"
hi.
Date: 2004-07-23 02:41 pm (UTC)its the thing responsible for randomly putting nothing but darkness with just a few spotlights in a stage. I dont see HOW that was a new "gameplay" "innovation" but at least they gave it a proper name.
Re: hi.
Date: 2004-07-23 02:48 pm (UTC)New Nightmare System – randomizes level maps, enemies and endingsbased on how you play the game
I think that due to time constraints, they weren't able to do what they wanted with it, and we wound up with a cheap-ass bastardization of what the Nightmare System was supposed to be.
What we got was not what they advertised(which pisses me off on another level, as it's Capcom lying to us yet again). Level maps aren't randomized. Enemies aren't random by how the game is played. As for endings... I guess I can give them that. Technically.
LBD "Nytetrayn"
no subject
Date: 2004-07-23 06:22 pm (UTC)Thinking back, you might be right... I'd actually say they're about the same, more or less when it comes to the Mavericks. But still, it seemed like a far cry from the older days when each stage had its own unique enemies, with just a few shared.
I still think X5 is the "worst" in my opinion (good plot? Guess so, but I'm not reading a book. I'm playing a game, and the game overall disappointed me.
While I can respect the sentiment, they chose to add story to it. I say if you're going to do it, do it right, and do it well. My expectations for something like Mario or Donkey Kong for story are rather low, so I don't expect much. But as long as they're bothering to go this extra mile with the X games, then I say they should really go as far as they can with it.
X4 had a decent little story, but most of it was hidden away in manuals, guides, and sourcebooks. X5 pulled away from a need for that, and X6 even moreso.
As far as X6 solving anything? I never really expected that. I just wanted the further adventures of X, and it started as what seemed to be a nice little revenge story, with X going after these guys who are besmirching his best friend's name all over the place. I feel Zero's return weakened that, as well as X5's story. Same with Sigma; he was really unneccessary, and with Zero's return helped undo all that came from X5 but the Earth being in ruins.
I did like how closely the stories of X5 and X6 connected, however, something that's never really been done in the X games before, closest being X1 and X2.
LBD "Nytetrayn"
no subject
Date: 2004-07-24 04:15 am (UTC)As for X8... again, I trust nothing of Capcom USA, even if the bigwigs were at E3. I'm waiting to see what they have to say about it closer to release before I pass judgement.
LBD "Nytetrayn"
no subject
Date: 2004-07-23 06:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-07-25 12:02 am (UTC)(three of them)