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00:00It shouldn't have been hard. It shouldn't have been a job. I wanted to close this retrospective
00:18on a high note, but Mega Man ZX Advent finds creative ways to go two steps forward and two
00:25steps back. Mega Man ZX left me feeling kind of empty. It felt like more of the same as previous
00:31Mega Man games with the pros and cons coming with it. New ideas ranged from good to bad and a package
00:36I thought was overall worth one playthrough but nothing more. Mega Man ZX Advent has all the tools
00:41at its disposal to make a good game, but they just failed. But I'm getting way ahead of myself.
00:47This is the sixth and final episode of my retrospective on Inti Creates' first wave of Mega Man games.
00:53We started off with the Zero series and Game Boy Advance, which I really loved the progression
00:56of, and the rebirth with ZX, which like I just said, didn't impress me all that much. ZX Advent,
01:02I have less memories of than ZX 1. Since I tried that game on and off before finishing in 2016,
01:07I played ZX Advent right after that, and it was quite the blink-and-you-miss-it experience.
01:12I remember pretty much nothing from this game before going back to it, and here we are today.
01:17Let's start Mega Man ZX Advent. The game's story is once again split into two,
01:21when we play as the male, Gray, and the female, Ash. The difference between these two is far more
01:27substantial than Vent and Ale from ZX 1. Vent and Ale had the same exact backstory,
01:32and more or less replaced each other in the canon, depending on which one you picked.
01:36The personalities were the same, as well as a few minor differences, but nothing worth getting
01:39excited about. Gray starts his campaign as a robot just released from Stasis earlier than expected,
01:44as Pandora arrives to erase him since the memory reprogrammed was not complete. Gray escapes from this
01:49facility, but falls into a river before being picked up by the hunters, a group of people who
01:54collect treasure and take missions, I guess. Meanwhile in Ash's playthrough, she is a hunter,
01:58and is leading an air raid to find some treasure before being wiped out by Prometheus,
02:02before ultimately waking up at hunter base. You see, what's interesting is that unlike Vent and Ale,
02:07Gray and Ash are two separate entities. I pointed this out a second ago, but what I mean is that later in
02:12Ash's playthrough, she visits the lab from the beginning of Gray's playthrough with signs of a struggle,
02:15meaning that Gray existed in Ash's run, but he died at the end of his intro stage. And vice versa,
02:21Ash died in her intro stage in Gray's playthrough. So the ZX series is a bit of a split timeline,
02:26and Ash's playthrough she meets an older, more experienced Vent, evidenced by his switch from
02:31spiky hair to long, flowing locks. At this point in the story, Gray meets up with Ale, who has longer
02:36hair as well. Since Vent and Ale replace each other in ZX1, the timeline split works like this. If Vent is
02:43the one who lost his mom in a Maverick raid and works for Jiro Express, then he's the one who gets
02:47Model X and stops Serpent. Later on, Ash just barely survives the air raid, Gray dies at the
02:51bridge, then she gets Model A and teams up with Vent. If Ale takes Vent's place, then Gray lives from the
02:57bridge fight as Ash dies in the opening. Not that these events are remotely connected, it's just the
03:02sequence of events. Now anyway, Grash gets cornered by Prometheus and Pandora looking to settle the score,
03:07until Model A on New Bottle Metal demands that they mega merge with it to gain the power to fight back,
03:11to which they win and begin taking work from the Sage Trinity at Legion HQ. Master Thomas,
03:16Master Albert and Master Mikhail. In attentional reference to Dr. Light, Dr. Wild and Dr. Kossak
03:21from the classic games, Master Albert turns out to be the villain all along, no surprise there,
03:25and is going to reform this world by finding pieces of Model W. As Grash teams up with Ventle to stop
03:31this, the Model W fragments come together to form the Ouroboros, also known as the Damned Donuts from
03:36Mega Man X6. You know, at least this game actually says the name and tells you what that is, since X6
03:41left you pretty boned on that front. But anyway, how is the story? I skim past the latter part of the
03:46game just now, because that's where the problems come in for me. I finally realized just what it is
03:51about the ZX games from a narrative point of view that leaves me so disinterested, since that's how I
03:55felt about both games. The ZX series is so concerned with setting up backstory and lore to the Mega Man
04:02universe, since a lot has changed in between 04 and ZX, I get that, but the problem is that the
04:07story these games frame that backstory exposition around is so boring and done before. In the last
04:12review, I made a stink about the same evolution speech happening at the end that we already got
04:16in a lot of the X games and 04. When I saw the first boss of ZX Advent doing the same thing, I just
04:22groaned because it's been done to death! It's like when someone tells a really good joke, but once you
04:28laugh, they decide to say it every day. It just loses its luster, you know? As for the backstory,
04:33this game is way more centered around that than ZX1 even was, since that game at least had Jiro's
04:39death, Prairie, the interesting links to MMZ, Vental's backstory, Serpent's human sacrifices for
04:44energy, the works! I mean, ZXA just has you stopping pseudoroids who work for Master Albert one by one,
04:52gradually uncovering the past before the final boss. But as far as conflict goes within the story,
04:57after each boss, we learn about what's really going on with these Mega Man models, and that is,
05:01Albert has made all the Mega Men so that there'd be a Mega Man war between the destined holders of
05:06Model H, P, F, and L, and so on to determine the true king of the Mega Man lineage, with each Mega Man
05:11model not really caring about how much of a waste of life that truly is. Prometheus and Pandora get more
05:16development in this game as they were also created by Albert, but they are free thinkers, and so their
05:20bodies were made to last a short amount of time, so once they start getting rebellious, they need to go
05:24back for repairs and promptly be reprogrammed, and that's been going on for a very long time. Hence
05:29why they hate Albert and want to destroy him so much, which is a good motivation, and possibly the
05:34most interesting thing in this story. But again, I feel no urgency when playing this game, or ZX1.
05:39Compare this to Zero Two, where El Paizo steals the baby elves, and he's going to try and destroy
05:43X and use the Dark Elf to power himself, or the Righteous Strike failure, the Neo Arcadian counterattack,
05:49or in Zero Three, where Wild and Copy X destroyed a whole town to find the Dark Elf, or the time Wild
05:54killed Copy X, blamed the resistance, took over Neo Arcadia, and all nearby reploids before X saved
06:00the day? Or Zero Four, where Area Zero was back from X5 and X6 as Wild presented a clear and present
06:06danger, with the robot racism commentary not feeling remotely forced? My point here is that there were
06:11plot twists, exciting moments, drama, threatening villains, real stakes, and character moments, learning
06:16Zero was a clone, and Omega was the real Zero from the X games was a great twist that changed how we
06:20viewed the lead up to, and the story of, Zero One. The ZX games feel like Zero One from a narrative
06:26perspective, but that was before Zero Two through Four, and this is after, and is therefore lame by
06:32comparison. The plot of Zero One had a lot more intrigue than this exposition fest to begin with.
06:38The whole Mega Man war amongst these people created for that purpose is a neat idea, but I would much
06:43rather be playing a game about that, but instead we have to fight Albert on the Ouroboros. Another
06:49big reason why I didn't care about the story in this game is because I knew it wasn't going anywhere.
06:53After the credits in extreme mode, you see a cutscene where Master Thomas was evil as well as Albert,
06:58but when Albert turned against them, he aided the Hunters in taking him down. But he actually
07:03agrees with Albert that the world has gone down the tubes as the centuries have gone on from Classic,
07:07to X, to Zero, and now this. Where this was going was that Master Thomas was going to decide to
07:12flood the world and start over, which would be a tie-in to the backstory from the Mega Man Legends
07:17series. However, because of the problems Mega Man had in the 2000s that I discussed in an editorial
07:21a few months back, these games did not sell well and so we never got a ZX3. I mean, I would have
07:27loved to see Vento and Grash fight against whatever Thomas had planned alongside the Mega Man war,
07:33ultimately fighting in vain since we know the world's going to get flooded in Legends. Yes,
07:37I would love to see that. That sounds amazing. It sounds like one of the best and most tragic
07:44Mega Man stories ever told, but it didn't happen and all I'm left with is a truckload of exposition
07:49that sets up an event I never got to see. Now, in this current Mega Man revival era, could it happen?
07:54Yes. I think the first two Legacy Collections leading to Mega Man 11 has shown that. The X Legacy
07:59Collections will hopefully lead to an X9, with a Legends and Zero Legacy Collection hopefully coming to see
08:05both the ZX and Legends franchise come back to some kind of conclusion, but as of December of 2018,
08:11I'm not going to sit here and speculate. I've got a game to review, and this is it.
08:15If you need another reason why this story was so hard to sit through for me, well, reason three,
08:19and this is the final nail in the coffin. ZX1 had some minimal Japanese dialogue, but for ZX
08:24Advent, they decided to give it a full English dub. I used to think this was pretty good stuff, but
08:29holy mother I was wrong. I don't even know how to describe this. The quality of the audio is
08:37absolutely awful. Well, how's that lock coming? This is one tough nut to crack, but I'm almost there.
08:45But then the acting is wooden and awkward with unfitting voices or extras just flat out not trying at all.
08:53For a raider to make it this far is quite something. I'll accept my thorny embrace,
09:03and allow your soul to be scattered like petals on the plain.
09:11Stay away from me! Stop! I'm the one you want!
09:17With X7X back as gray in his full board glory,
09:21Are you here to kill me?
09:22Vent and Ale were supposed to sound super wise and mature, but they just sound dull and lifeless.
09:28I want to go around the world in the Guardian base. There are a lot of things that still need
09:34finding. I just have nothing to say about this other than these performances are just not good.
09:39That's that. The soundtrack is similarly weak. I mean, it's not terrible, but it's definitely my
09:44least favorite soundtrack from this entire retrospective. Relatively black composition,
09:48okay sound, but it's certainly not something I'd ever listen to,
09:51and I'm probably going to forget it within a few days. But I do have my favorites.
10:05that sound, but it's pretty good.
10:12Huh, for once I talked about the music before the graphics.
10:37Well, I was on the subject of audio, so one thing just leads to the next.
10:41You know.
10:42Graphically, Mega Man's ZX Advent looks about as good as you'd hope.
10:47Again, I really don't want this video to come off as super cynical, but this game came
10:51out right after ZX and it looks about the same, with some really varied looking boss designs,
10:56but the areas themselves rely on a lot of dull colors that make the overall aesthetic
11:00come off as dry and drab.
11:02Maybe that was intentional, but I don't know.
11:04The gameplay is where the real problems start, though.
11:06Model A is the first time in this retrospective where the core gameplay style doesn't revolve
11:10around Z Saber combat.
11:12Instead, it's just the Buster.
11:14When it comes to gameplay differences, in both Human and Model A form, Ash can only shoot
11:18two Buster bullets on the screen at once, whereas Gray can shoot the usual three.
11:21Ash's charge shot is also tiny, but it can ricochet off the walls for a few seconds.
11:26Gray also functions in a more standard Mega Man fashion, since he has the usual charge
11:30shot.
11:31Both have an overdrive attack, sending bullets flying all over the screen, which usually
11:34takes a few points off a boss's health bar, so it's pretty useful.
11:37I also like the secondary weaponry, where you can lock on targets and send lightning
11:40after them.
11:41Beyond that, Model A can dash, wall jump, the works.
11:44With the core gameplay done, I want to talk about what makes ZX Advent fail for me, and
11:47that can be boiled down to three things.
11:49One, the transformations.
11:51Two, the line I mentioned at the beginning.
11:54Two steps forward, two steps back.
11:56And three, the level design.
11:58So let's jump in with transformations.
12:00In ZX1, the single best element of the game was the biometal system.
12:05This allowed for you to have five distinct gameplay styles with the same core gameplay,
12:09but distinct features that made it worthwhile, and that was great.
12:13I've always said that when doing multiple gameplay styles, make sure it plays consistently
12:17with the franchise established and is fun in and of itself.
12:21Something like Zero and X4, or Nero and DMC4 would pass this test.
12:25The Panda King in Sly 3, or Big in Sonic Adventure would fail.
12:29So Gray and Ash actually transform into the bosses you defeat, and I was already concerned
12:34once I beat the first boss, Buckfire, and began playing as him.
12:37He can shoot fire darts, which is nice.
12:39He goes at decent speed, but he can't wall jump properly.
12:43Sure, he can break the ice when you need him to, but is hardly useful outside of that,
12:48since I always switch to Model A.
12:50But that's only one.
12:51But once I unlocked Rose Spark, I knew something was wrong.
12:55This guy has an utterly abysmal ground speed, can't defend himself for shit, and can hardly
13:02jump off the ground?
13:03The one usage is the ability to fly up and across pipes.
13:08Honestly, this is the kind of gameplay you'd expect from a bad NES game.
13:13This transformation is barely playable.
13:15But if you want to increase the uselessness, you then beat a giant fish boss called Chrono
13:20Force, and his transformation can swim freely through the water and freeze time, but on the
13:25ground, is completely immobile.
13:28This, this is, what?
13:34I'm sure you've heard of this word before.
13:36It's called situational.
13:39That's the big problem with all the new transformations.
13:42They have one special ability, but outside of that, they are completely useless for combat,
13:47for platforming, and so on.
13:48Later on, you unlock more transformations, such as the Bifrost, which is a giant lumbering
13:53dinosaur that breaks obstacles with his mouth, but you guessed it, he has zero mobility and
13:57can't even pass through doors.
13:59Voltron is a skeleton that plays the guitar, and I guess he clears nearby enemies, but he-
14:05Wait, what is that running animation?
14:08There's like two frames!
14:10He can balance scales?
14:12Yep, that's it.
14:14The Queen Bee can lift switches out of the ground and jump several times.
14:19The Hedge Shock can roll into a ball and go through gaps.
14:24And lastly, the Twin Gargoyles become one, and you can make a shadow version of yourself
14:29and collect power-ups from behind walls.
14:32Has my point been made yet?
14:33The game has to contrive reasons for these transformations to exist, and that is the definition
14:39of sloppy game design.
14:41If poles weren't there, I would never use Rose Spark once.
14:45The biometals in ZX were utilities, I cannot stress this enough.
14:50I never used any of those forms from the last game because I had to.
14:54I did because they were useful, and therefore I wanted to.
14:57If you're going to give me the slow, lumbering Bifrost to crack blocks, then I'm not using
15:02them unless you're forcing me to do so.
15:04To add insult to injury, the five forms from ZX1 are unlockable in this game after the first
15:09three transformations I listed, and guess what?
15:11But they are identical to how they played in ZX1, which is a good thing, technically
15:17speaking, because those forms were amazing in ZX1, but the new forms suck!
15:22So because of this, they get replaced by the good forms.
15:25Why would I use Chrono Force to swim when he's a huge target and can't move on the ground,
15:29when I have the form that can wall jump, dash, and slash on the ground with great coverage
15:35underwater?
15:36To highlight how much better the Mega Men were over the bosses?
15:40That's terrible design!
15:42Oh yeah, Queen B can jump infinitely?
15:44Good for her, but I'm picking Model H with the glide, the vertical, and horizontal dash.
15:48And oh wait, good ground control.
15:51Hmm, what a concept.
15:53Sure, this game has tons and tons of forms, whereas ZX had a max of seven.
15:57But in this game, there are 14 forms, and 8 of them are garbage one-time-use gimmicks!
16:055 of them are identical to ZX1, and 1 of them is new, but good, that being Model A, but Model
16:11ZX is one of the returnees, and since that has the X-Buster and the Z-Saber, you can bet
16:16your ass that this replaces Model A for me.
16:18All in all, the transformations in this game are absolutely terrible.
16:22And yeah, this is quite the strike against the game all about transformations.
16:25Alright, so two steps forward and two steps back.
16:30Which, in case you didn't know, means that the game makes no headway whatsoever.
16:34Boss fights.
16:35These were improved in ZX1 since they weren't easy to cheese and still had some real challenge
16:39to them, none of that fake stuff I hate in like X6.
16:42But in this game, bosses are sometimes decent for the same reasons as ZX1, however, if it's
16:47not that, then it's a clusterfuck of clones all over the screen, status effects hindering
16:52play experience, and sometimes you have to just stand there and do nothing and you win.
16:55So this game literally has every single type of Mega Man boss that there is.
17:00Subtanks had quite the regression in ZX1 thanks to the terrible drop rate, which I'd
17:04say is much improved in ZX Advent, except for the damn final boss stage where for some
17:09reason we can't grind health since the enemies are stingy with it.
17:12Also, this game introduces this one spot where you can fill your subtanks for 50 E-crystals
17:16each, which is a great idea.
17:18But then there were no save points in sight and I had to backtrack through two whole areas
17:24again in order to find a spot to transport, since for some reason every room has a warp
17:28point you must pay to use.
17:31But the game is really lacking in save rooms that also allow you to transport to these
17:35warp points.
17:36ZX Advent has a much better map than ZX1 and better sense of navigation since the map is
17:50far smaller, it tells you where to go, and is filled with a ton of tiny details built
17:54for replay value like a Metroidvania should.
17:57However, this damn game still has lives, meaning game overs results and going way back earlier
18:02in the game to just re-travel to the same points in the map you already did.
18:06You also can't restart the mission anymore, you have to go back to the last save, which
18:10potentially could have been several missions ago.
18:13But the end of it all is the lamentably miserable level design.
18:17This first example isn't level design, but can I just point out how I used A-Trans over
18:21a pit, my controls locked, and then I died?
18:24But more importantly, when ZX Advent isn't just doing standard Mega Man X fair with dashing
18:30and wall jumping, I'm telling you, they really loved spike-based blindsides in this
18:36game.
18:36Like the floating ruins area 3, or the waterfall ruins area 3, where spikes came clean out of
18:42nowhere under me or above me, what have you.
18:45These are just beginner's traps, you get over it, but again, dying has such a high consequence
18:50with the freaking backtracking.
18:51They also put in surprise pits when this is on Metroidvania, how am I supposed to know
18:56in the damn maze, every Great Mega Man game needs one of those by the way, that this is
19:01a pit, when plenty of other examples exist where you just drop down?
19:06I mean really, that's it.
19:08You know, going back and watching this footage makes me feel like, yeah, a lot of this stuff
19:12probably is my fault, I'm watching it again, and I'm like, yeah, that was probably my player
19:16error.
19:17But, it's just, everything happens so fast that it just feels very frustrating to play.
19:22But the real issue is just the fact that with the damn lives, as I ranted about so heavily
19:26in ZX1, it's just that it makes the game really stressful to play when getting a game
19:32over could result in 20 minutes of backtracking.
19:36That's really where my issue lies.
19:38The level design's just dull, or filled with blindsides to make the game drag out even more
19:43than it already does.
19:44With the final stage, yet again, being an obnoxious gauntlet filled with spikes, barely any health,
19:50a two phase final boss, another abysmal boss rush, and you have to do it with whatever sub
19:55tanks you have, and however many lives you have left, and I just don't care.
20:00I quit.
20:02Yeah, I beat the game, but I'm ending this review right now.
20:06For what reason?
20:08Well, it's because playing the awful boss rush in ZX Advent just hit me like an 18-wheeler.
20:13I had a sudden realization.
20:15I don't want to talk about an easy final boss stage with no chance of recovering sub-tank energy anymore.
20:20Mega Man's ZX Advent suffers from the same problems as so many Mega Man games.
20:26At this point, the nonsense story about the new generation, the awful boss rush in the
20:31same stage as the final boss, lives in a Metroidvania, crappy power-ups, you name it,
20:36these things have become standard.
20:39My journey reviewing the X series, the Zero series, and the ZX series has shown me that
20:44Mega Man had so many chances to improve, but they never learned.
20:49They never took the hint, stepped back, and re-evaluated how they made these games.
20:55Mega Man just time and time again, just did the same thing, dwindled in sales, and died.
21:02What I said in the future of Mega Man editorial a few months ago holds more true than ever.
21:07Mega Man died because the games just never improved, and how can you when there's a
21:11strict deadline and six games a year?
21:13Don't tell me whose fault it was.
21:15Just look back at Mega Man in the 2000s and see how crystal clear it is now as to why Mega
21:20Man died, and be happy we're in a new era where quality seems to be the priority.
21:26Is my opinion fact?
21:28No.
21:28But I'm just frankly tired of the same mistakes over and over again.
21:33I thought this was just me being sick of Mega Man, but I realized that this is not true
21:37since I just went back and did another playthrough of Mega Man in base, a game that I love, and
21:41I enjoyed it just as much as ever before as both characters.
21:45I'm confident that if I reviewed X4 today, or Zero 3, they would have been the same videos
21:50as they were when they were originally released.
21:53Leaving me with only one conclusion.
21:55Mega Man ZX Advent just sucks.
21:58Speaking of Zero 3, it only makes me sad since the Zero series strived for new ideas and
22:04great stories.
22:05I don't love Zero 4, but would I play it any day over the ZX series?
22:10Sure would.
22:11Do I want the ZX games to continue?
22:13Well, as I said in the story review, I think there's a lot of potential there, but I want
22:17to see some major gameplay changes before I get hyped about that.
22:21I didn't want this retrospective to end on such a downer, but that's how it is sometimes.
22:26What more can I say?
22:27I hope you all got what you were hoping for from this retrospective.
22:30I mean, despite this review's tone, I loved working on it, despite not enjoying the ZX games
22:35that much.
22:36But, that's the end.
22:39Thank you all for watching, and I'll see you next time.
22:56Thank you all for watching, and I'll see you next time.
23:26I'll see you next time.
23:27I'll see you next time.
23:30Bye.
23:31Bye.
23:32Bye.
23:32Bye.
23:33Bye.
23:34Bye.
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