rock man zero

[MechDeus]

Alright, decided to toss this in here since we've already got the thread: Review.

Graphics: Positively incredible. The backgrounds are wonderful, chock-full of large buildings and ships, other times with gorgeous animation like the shimmering desert and all sorts of machinary blinking and flashing away. The levels themselves are nicely done, each area feels like it flows to the next, and there's a wonderfully cohesive design to everything. The art style is somewhere between the X series and Legends/Dash, and has some of the coolest looking bosses in any Megaman game since X (I need a rom to grab some screenshots of their faces, I simply can't let their portaits go to waste!).

The animation of the characters is beautiful, and does not detract from gameplay. Enemies are a joy to watch move, especially bosses, and the death sequences are great. As you use the blade, enemies and bosses all have a seperate death animation that features them being cleaved in half, and you can see the inside tubes and wires, lined with blood (the gun simply has enemies traditionally explode for deaths). This game far and away features the most amount of blood I've ever seen in a Megaman game, and I certainly hope it doesn't get edited for domestic release.

There are lots of little details that are nice (like the spark that appears when Zero leaps off a wall), and the only detraction I could find is that character portaits don't blink (and that's pretty damn minor).

Gameplay: The majority of it is immediately familiar to anyone whose played the X series. You can leap off walls and slide down them, you have your chargeable gun (it's a seperate gun that he holds) and sword, no ducking, a dash move and dashing wall jump, and so on. However, everything's had something added to improve it in some way.

At first, the gun is chargable for a simple more powerful shot. As you progress, you'll find Element Cards that will take your charge shot a step further and add an elemental power to your full charged-up shot. This takes the place of Megaman's gaining boss weapons against bosses, as you must now pick the right Element to damage the boss with (which only takes effect when fully charged). New effects are also added through this, as Fire will cause flames to engulf your enemy, Ice will freeze them in a large block of, you guessed it, ice, and Lightning will cause them to be surrounded in electricity.

Your sword has been massively upgraded (if any of this was in MMX6, forgive me, as I haven't played it yet) and can now be charged with Elements just like the gun. As you progress, you'll also learn a highly valuable spin move that deals damage all around, and increases the sword's usefullness by a factor of ten.

The game exudes an old-school platformer type of skill, wherein enemies have all sorts of continous respawning (and since there's backtracking at times, this can be a major pain) and is all about learning the levels. The bosses are the same way, following exact patterns that will beat you senseless the first five to ten times, but once you've got their pattern down, the situation reverses and they'll have a hard time hitting you. Frustrating as hell as you go through at first, but by the time you learn the stage and boss, it'll all be smooth as silk. Level goals will also vary from simply blow through to the end boss, getting assignments like rescue and escort to safety (easier then it sounds, not like most protect missions, which are only controller-throwing frenzies) and defuse the bombs.

A nice touch is that all the levels are eventually interconnected (ala Megaman Legends) if you find all the transporters. Damned nice touch, as the game helps to show it's not just random areas, but everything links to the base somehow.

Mysteries to me since I don't read Japanese:
Throughout each level, you'll be graded on how well you did, and the game keeps track of this throughout to the end. However, I have no idea what effect it has.

Also, there's a whole other section in the Selection Menu where you can select "souls" to use. As you play, you'll come across glowing spheres that you can collect, both from enemies and from containers, which will then show up in your menu. You can pick from what you've collected at any transporter, and then use them in-mission, but I don't know what they do or their effects.

Sound: Unfortunately, none of the music is terribly memorable, but there are a few high-quality tracks sprinkled throughout (some of the boss music is great). None of it is bad in any way, but you probably won't think of it afterwards, unlike older tunes from early Megaman games.

The sound effects are all great, explosions, firing noises, voices, all well-done and sound great (headphones all the way). Some of the voices can get on your nerves (listening to that green boss belt out what sounds like "Honey!" every time he fires a certain shot was annoying, and the monkey-boss... oh God, listening to that thing shriek as it ran back and forth, I really wanted to kill it. And I did ), but most are wonderful, and much more then I expected out of the GBA.

Overall: A few cheap areas and annoyances aside, this is my favorite GBA game yet, and my favorite Megaman game with MMX and MM3, and I can't even figure out the story or some of the helpful items. I highly recommend it once it gets released in the language of your choice, I'll be first in line for my English copy!

[edit] Also, I'd like to say the last boss was incredible! Great stuff, wonderful, just wonderful! Can't spoil anything for you, but I mean... DAMN! Cool stuff, damned cool stuff.

[FX]

Thanks for the honest review I can't wait to get my hands on this one in a couple of weeks.

[MechDeus]

Glad someone enjoyed it !

Something else I forgot to add: The amount of sprite rotation in the game. It's used for lots of enemy deaths (falling backwards), as well as various enemies spinning, attacks (watch the beam attack from the first boss), and other sprinkled areas. I really like the way that looks, so I'm glad to see it used plenty in here.

The "souls" bit carries over from game to game (you can save your game after you beat it and start a new one from it, but it seemed to have no effect until I opened the menu and found all the ones I collected before still with me), and are divided up into three catorgies. One's identified by a heart, and the other two are odd symbols. I think they can be used for some sort of powerup or increasing your attack, I need to experiment (they can only be activated in the menu screen, and then they'll appear once you leave the menu).

Another thing I forgot to mention: The stage setup, it's unlike any other Megaman game. You're normally in a base, where you can run around and talk to people, and you get your missions from Roll. Talk to her, and she'll offer a number of assignments (I'm guessing two or three, I usually just picked the first one they offered since I couldn't tell what each was until I started it). Kinda wierd and different, but very nice. MM's definately moving in a new direction, and I can't say I'm complaining. You can also talk to her and save your game, which helps out tons, especially considering how hard some of the levels are.

All in all, the games clock said it took me a bit over two and a half hours to beat the game, but I think that with all the learning and retrying and failing and so on, it took closer to six or so. Hard to say...

Just wish I knew what the story was. Near as I can figure, Reploids (I think that's what they are) are overrunning the world, and Zero and X are missing. The last of the humans have gathered in a base where they've been chased by the Reploids, and come across a broken Zero. Roll uses something, it looks like a fairy, which reconstructs Zero, who helps the humans from the invasion and gets Roll back to base (helped by a mysterious benefactor). From there, they work to stop what's going on and try to figure out why things are happening so screwy. I've got a few more theories to add to that, but it would ruin the game so I won't post them.

Actually, does anyone know a way to change text to the same color as this background? I'll post some spoilers then, but not until I'm sure only those who want to see them can.

[Finch]

Add another thanks, MechDeus. Rrrgglegrlglerlgle.... The more I hear, the more I like...
BoF II, MM Battle Network 2, and this... Good ol' Capcom.

[FX]

Thanks MD, for not putting any spoilers. I haven't been this hyped about a MM game for quite a while now.