Mega Man X4

Mega Man X4
No, this isn't happening! There's no reason for me to go on! What.. WHAT AM I FIGHTING FOOOOOOOOOOR?!" — Zero's most infamous and famous lines in Mega Man X4.
Protagonist(s): X Zero Genre(s): Action Platform Platform(s): Microsoft Windows PlayStation Sega Saturn Release Date: August 1, 1997 Developer(s): Capcom Publisher(s): Capcom Series: Mega Man X Predecessor: Mega Man X3 Mega Man Xtreme 2 (chronologically) Successor: Mega Man X5

Mega Man X4 is a video game developed by Capcom made for the PlayStation 1. It is the sequel to Mega Man X3, is the first instrumental of the PlayStation 1/Sega Saturn Mega Man X Trilogy and is overall the fourth game in the Mega Man X series, as well as being the second game in the series to be released on the Sega Saturn and PlayStation after Mega Man X3. The game was later rereleased as part of the Mega Man X Collection for the PlayStation 2 and GameCube in 2006, as well as the Mega Man X Legacy Collection for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and Steam in 2018.

Plot

Taking place in the 22nd century, the Mega Man X series is set in a society populated by humans and intelligent robots called "Reploids". A military task force called the "Maverick Hunters" is implemented to suppress the uprising of "Mavericks", Reploids that begin to exhibit dangerous and destructive behavior.

Why It Knows What It's Fighting For

1. You can play as both X and Zero, each with their own abilities and bosses to fight.
   • Since this is the first time Zero is actually playable, he different than X3 did in which he cannot shoot but can swing his sabre in which it swiftly kills enemies at close range. Instead of weapons, Zero gains techniques which alter his moveset or grant him a special attack such as Tenkuuha which upgrades the sabre to destroy enemy projectiles, Ryuuenjin which is a special move similar to Shoryuken or Hienkyaku which grants an air dash. Zero cannot access the Light capsules and has no upgrades for his armour.
2. Lots of replay value due to having two characters with eight different boss choices and playstyles.
3. Well-animated cutscenes, looking like something out of an action anime show.
4. The graphics look nice for a PS1 and Saturn title and it's also one of the best looking Mega Man X titles.
5. Awesome soundtrack.
6. The new weapons are fun to use and some have unique concepts like the Ryuuenjin acting as a Shoryuken for zero, Aiming laser as X to shoot targets at any direction, Soul Body which creates a duplicate of X that damages enemies in front of him or Lightning web acting as a wall jump plaftorm.
7. There are two buster upgrades, but you can have only one at a time and that the upgrades are changeable at anytime which is an improvement over X3's optional upgrade capsules in which only one can be chosen which will be permanent. The choices are good as well being an explosive buster shot or four stored charge shots.
8. This game marks the debut of the Ultimate Armor and Black Zero, both unlockable through cheat codes. While Black Zero is just a cosmetic upgrade for Zero reminiscent of the fake Zero from Mega Man X2, X's Ultimate Armor is basically an upgraded version of the armor unlocked via normal means, allowing for unlimited uncharged special weapon usage, unlimited Nova Strikes, and all parts are given to X immediately upon finding a Dr. Light capsule instead of having to find each part separately.
9. Boss Fights are really well done, with bosses like Slash Beast having really well done slash and charge attacks, Colonel who is able to teleport and block attacks or Split Mushroom who clones himself around the arena. Sigma has a fun boss fight where he has two forms at once during his final faces where he splits into a cyborg with a gun (Gunner Sigma) and a gigantic face of himself (Earth Sigma), each with their own health.
10. The stage design is a step up from X3, making levels easier is that the stages are split into two parts and losing all lives will respawn you at the start of the half you died on. The stages also have unique design choices for example: Cyber Peacock stage involves 3 trials that you must speed through to progress, finishing fast will reward the player with upgrades, Jet Stingray's level entirely focused on the Chaser Bike or Web Spider's stage is a beautiful stage that shows the graphical improvements of PS1 with the rainbows in the background and having many interesting setpieces with the waterfalls and jungle areas.
11. There are a variety of unique level stages with unique and interesting themes that haven't been seen in any other game in the Mega Man franchise since then, such as a Cyberspace Space Station for Cyber Peacock's stage to fit with his space themes attire, and a West Coast Sea area with zero beaches for Jet Stingray's stage and it's another Chaser Bike level this time, which is very creative for the water area of the game to take place in.
12. It relies less on Artificial Difficulty and more on trying to balance out the gameplay mechanics in a very subtle way that is a major step-up from the older Mega Man games where Trial & Error was extremely present in the game and cause some cheap moments to happen occasionally which isn't the case for the fourth X game, as the levels are more modernised to make the game appeal more to new players rather than causal players to get accustom to the wide variety of mechanics and gimmicks the game has to offer while at the same time still keeping the core identity of what makes the franchise so addicting in the first place.
13. Smooth and responsive controls for PS1 standards, since the characters have solid movement physics and the collision course is so good that it doesn't ruin the game and the characters respond well with the command of either the Saturn or PS1 controllers that moving the characters and using attacking combos feels very fun to pull off and makes the game more fun as a result.

Bad Qualities

1. The voice acting is laughably bad in the English version, especially the infamous line said by Zero after the boss fight with Iris "No, this isn't happening! There's no reason for me to go on! What....WHAT AM I FIGHTING FOOOOOOOOOOR?!?!?" scene. Characters like X or General have voices that don't resemble their appearance and the line delivery is devoid of emotion.
   • The reason is because it shares the same voice actors as the English version of Mega Man 8. X also has the same voice actress as Mega Man from that game, and as a result, sounds like a 14-year old girl, in complete contrast to the Japanese version, where X has a male voice actor.
2. The story is one of the worst in the series. It has an interesting concept by trying to portray grey morality to both sides, but it fails spectacularly due to the sloppy story writing. Everyone holds the idiot ball so the plot can advance. The worst offender here is the blatant favoritism Inafune has for Zero. And while Zero gets development for his backstory and his interactions with Repliforce as he knows them personally, X just goes out and kills things like its an ordinary Thursday with nothing new.
   • The worst oftener has to be Magma Dragoon, as his reasoning for destroying the Sky Lagoon and causing millions of deaths is extremely stupid. Why did he do this, you may ask? Because he wanted to duel X and Zero, that's it. Couldn't he just go talked to them and request a duel?
   • Colonel is stupid as hell and started an entire conflict just because he wouldn’t chill out and drop his weapon and come with the hunters.
3. As stated above, the story mostly focuses on Zero than X even though the name of the game is MEGAMAN X.
   • In fact, Zero’s campaign has more cutscenes than X’s campaign.
4. The endgame is very disappointing. Instead of full sized stages like the Sigma stages of X1, Hunter Stages of X2 or Doppler Stages of X3, X4's endgame only has a few short corridors with enemies, and the largest stage is still very short with a few jumps over a pit or using Electric Web to jump over spike walls.
5. The game becomes stupidly easy when your health and weapon energy constantly restores at checkpoints. Since losing all your lives respawns you at the last checkpoint, collecting lives becomes worthless and the challenge becomes much easier. In fact, X can run past enemies without firing and will usually get rewarded a full energy pickup afterwards, making the battle trivial.
   • Weapon energy as well becomes even more useless as the game introduces a Weapon tank which is Subtank but for weapon energy, but the problem is that you'll even barely use it as you can simply die to restore energy or as X get an helmet upgrade that removes the limit of ammo. Its even more useless with Zero as well since he doesn't have weapon energy for his techniques except for Rakuhuouha and that technique can refill via damaging yourself.
6. Weapons are a mixed bag, such as Web Spider acting as a gimmicky platform that disappears too quickly, Double Cyclone having an awkward arc, Rising Fire being extremely limited in usage to firing only upwards.

Reception

Critical reception for Mega Man X4 has been generally positive. Critics praised the ability to play as either X or Zero, a concept many found to expand upon the then perceived exhausted gameplay formula of the Mega Man X sub-franchise during the 1990s. Critics praised the added option to play through the game as either X or Zero, noting that the drastic differences in the way the characters played the same levels added to the game's replay value.

Trivia

Magma Dragoon, one of the bosses of the game uses moves such as the Hadouken from the Street Fighter series and is one of the few bosses in the series to have post-battle dialogue.

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