Mega Man Zero
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"I never cared about justice, and I don't recall calling myself a hero. I have always only fought for the people I believe in. I won't hesitate... If an enemy appears in front of me, I will destroy it!" - Zero
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Mega Man Zero, known in Japan as Rockman Zero (ロックマンゼロ Rokkuman Zero), is the first game in the Mega Man Zero series developed by Inti Creates and published by Capcom. It was originally released for the Game Boy Advance in 2002, and later for the Wii U's Virtual Console.
Plot
Over a century after Sigma's defeat in the Mega Man X series, a new government called Neo Arcadia was formed to maintain peace. The leaders of Neo Arcadia began hunting down Reploids unjustly labeling them as Mavericks. Now the only hope for the Reploid is a legendary Reploid: the Red Hero that is named Zero. Feeling that the Reploids were being wrongly accused, Ciel flees from Neo Arcadia and creates a Resistance against Neo Arcadia.
Why It's The Legend
- The graphics are incredible for a GBA game released in 2002, as it's almost like an anime or even a 2D game with HD graphics.
- This style would also be used for the Mega Man Battle Network series, though it's a bit different than the Zero series.
- Even the weakest-looking area will never look bad, thanks to how Inti Creates makes the game.
- For the first time in the Mega Man franchise, Zero is the main character and he is fully playable, which is a great idea for a Mega Man game, especially for the fans of Zero.
- Tight, solid, responsive, and comfortable controls at the same time. Zero will always respond when you do an action, and you will likely not fall to your death if you are close to a pit, thanks to how well programmed the game is.
- Great box art for all regions, especially the Japanese version, which had a lot of details and you could see other characters other than Zero, unlike the NA/EU cover.
- The soundtrack is awesome; even for a Mega Man game, it'll never even sound bad. This includes, but is not limited to:
- The remix of the Zero theme of the first Mega Man X game is very good and possibly even better than the original, as it's had great instruments and it's sound almost, if not perfect, because of that.
- The boss battles (and also the intro theme for most parts) sound great too, as it's got a bit of a menacing tone to it. It also fits the bosses and the dark tone of the game well too.
- Neo Arcadia theme is great too and fits the stage well too, and it's also one of the best songs of the game due to how great it is.
- The world is surprisingly big for a GBA game. Every level is interconnected into one huge map, which is very impressive for a GBA game, especially for a 2002 one as it's still a bit early in the GBA life cycle.
- Altrough they can sometimes be too hard, the boss fights are fun and are awesome, they also make you try to get a strategy to beat them to make everything better, but in the end, they are easier due to the fact that you have three abilities.
- It's fun to kill enemies with the saber for the most parts because you cut the enemies in two for a lot of them. Killing enemies also leads you to improve the skill of both your saber and gun (which is mostly useless for the most parts).
- The gameplay is amazingly fun, even if it's too hard, especially with the sword because it's stronger, and the platforming is quite fun too. You can also go very fast if you want.
- Speaking of the gameplay, it's very smooth and can be great if you want to do styling in the game.
- There's a decent number of replay values, such as a ranking system that rewards Zero depending on his performance on every mission, which was a first for a Mega Man game; not even most of the X games have this system.
- The Cyber-Elf system is pretty well executed.
- There are 3 types of cyber-elves: nurses, animals, and hackers. Nurses can heal you or add more HP bars; animals can add or improve abilities; and hackers can edit data. Hackers can add more time, kill enemies, and more. This can be very helpful due to how hard the game is sometimes.
- The intro is one of the best seen on the GBA, as it's very detailed despite the GBA's only ability to do basic animation, and it shows that the GBA can do awesome intros.
- The later games in the series would also use this system before the first level (or mission) starts; this is an awesome system, even for a Mega Man game.
- It's spawned three. great sequel.
- The story is amazing; it takes place 100 years after the X series. Ciel and the Resistance seek the legendary hero Zero but are pursued by Neo-Arcadian forces. They find the ruins where Zero is sealed and awaken him. Zero is disturbed to learn that Reploids suffer horrific oppression at the hands of a maniacal ruler, who is none other than his former partner, X. Zero helps the Resistance fight X's forces, including the Four Guardians, to liberate the Reploids.
- Altrough it's not the entire story of the game, it's still well explained, and the pointer would be too long.
- Great ending, and it'll be continued perfectly in the second game.
- You can fully customize Zero by finding customization chips.
- There are a lot of new, likeable characters, Some of them appear only in the Zero series.
Bad Qualities
- The game has no lives; it only continues; therefore, you get an instant game over if you die.
- To make things worse, the number of continues is limited. You only earn money when you complete a mission. This was fixed in the Zero/ZX Legacy Collection.
- This problem was taken care of in the sequels.
- This is also a huge problem considering how hard some missions are.
- The weapons' level system can lead to lots of grinding, especially with the gun due to how underpowered it is.
- There's somewhat of a learning curve with the cyber-elves. If you don't catch on to it early, you will suffer.
- The management system is terrible. Once you try a mission, you cannot leave without beating the stage or quitting, but if you quit, you cannot revisit it ever on your save file.
- The gun is quite pointless due to how underpowered it is, and it can take a lot of hits just to kill an enemy; in fact, you can beat the game only with the sword (except in the beginning of the game).
- The game is most of the time extremely difficult; even for a Mega Man game, some missions are very hard and can be unbeatable depending on your skill. Fortunately, the sequels (especially 3 and 4) toned down the huge difficulty of the first one.
- Some of the boss fights, like Copy X, are also very difficult since you need to beat all of his two phases in one go. If you die, you need to start the battle from the very beginning, which is extremely frustrating and can make you take longer in this boss battle than playing the entire game (However, this depend on your skill).
Reception
The game receives positive reviews from critics, who praise the game's graphics, soundtrack, and gameplay but also criticize its extreme difficulty. The game got a score of 82/100 on Metacritic and an 81% on GameRanking.
Trivia
- The Repliforce symbol appears in the yellow submarines in Fairy Leviathan's mission, Stop the Hacking.
- Originally, the villain of the story was supposed to be the original X, not Copy X, and the game would end with Zero retiring the real X for good. This was changed mere weeks before the game went gold due to Capcom staff realizing that it would send a negative message to fans of the X series.
- The Tokusatsu film Hakaider is a direct inspiration for the story of Mega Man Zero, a spin-off film of the Kikaider.
- Due to this story change, this game is the only one in the Zero and ZX series that does not have a character from the previous game as a boss.
- Zero's theme from Mega Man X can be heard as the theme for the first mission.
- This game is, chronologically speaking (based on the series timeline), the first game in the Mega Man series to not feature boss information when taking on a mission (strictly speaking, the Mega Man Legends series was first since they were designed before the Zero series).
- This is the only game in the series in which it is possible to clear the game without obtaining all weapons. Mega Man Zero 2 and Zero 3 made it mandatory to obtain them before proceeding with the game. Mega Man Zero 4 had all the weapons at the beginning.
- This game is the only installment in the series in which Zero can repeatedly use a single Z-Saber slash to defeat bosses without the invincibility timer taking effect. Mega Man Zero 2 and onwards would no longer allow Zero to defeat bosses in that manner.
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