It is here! It is finally here! The long-awaited take on Mega Man X8! Why has it been so long-awaited, you ask? Well, not only because this is the last X
installment as of publishing this video, but also because it is considered by many to be
a return to form, a last hoorah, after the catastrophes that were X6 and X7. A good deal of fans even seem to list X8 as
one of their favorites, if not their number one favorite, of all the eight titles. That sounded promising, I had to admit, however,
there is a peculiar man in green who threw a wrench into things by coming out and basically
saying X8 sucks. And by no means is he the only one with this
opinion, either; in spite of all the love for X8, you can also find plenty people who
think it’s meh or at least overhyped. Who’s right and who’s wrong? I can’t tell you that, but what I can do
is share my perspective, so in good ol’ fashioned Quickies Don’t Cut It style, we’re
gonna crack this son of a bitch wide open and analyze it from top to bottom. Remember how X7 tried to bring the series
into 3D and it could suck a fart outta your butt? I’m sure you do: the level design and enemy
placement did not account properly for the added dimension, the developers implemented
a very generous lock-on mechanic that made shooting stuff a bore, and the camera was
often restrictive and incompetent. Well, X8 tosses all that out the window and
fully goes back to side-scrolling action, with only left and right and up and down to
worry about. It does so in a 2.5D style, so everything
is 3D modeled and stages may bend you around corners, but all the gameplay elements are
locked to the typical two axis. While a part of me would’ve liked for X8
to take the 3D aspect of X7 and improve upon it (and drastically I might add), I’m also
totally fine with X8 going the safe route and sticking to what’s proven to work. Sometimes ya gotta know your limitations,
and considering how many of X7’s problems are no longer even a factor in X8, the decision
to go entirely 2.5D in and of itself already makes X8 the better game. Admittedly, that’s not much of a compliment,
but X8 also corrects many other of X7’s mistakes. One of these is the controls and movement;
while the controls were responsive as always, the characters in and overall speed of X7,
for some reason or another, felt noticeably heavy and slow compared to the rest of the
series. X8 addresses this and perfectly recreates
that ultra tight control and fast, satisfying movement that the first six games had: from
the dashing to the wall-jumping, fans will feel right at home here and there’s not
a single shitpick I can think of. We’re back to how the simple act of moving
around can be a lot of fun, and once you’ve mastered the mechanics and stages, speeding
through various setpieces sicknasty is pure bliss. I’ve even heard people say these are the
best controls and movement physics period, and while there are nuances between the SNES
and PS1 generations and now X8, I found X8 largely handles very similarly to the rest
of the series pre-X7. In other words: it plays very well. I think Zero in particular benefits from this. His combat was about as sluggish in X7 as
the movement in general, which took much of the excitement out of his playstyle and made
him a bit of a handicapped twit compared to Axl and X in many cases. Seeing Zero back to his free-flowing and effective
self in X8, as he was in X4, 5 and 6, yeah that’s sweet; I actually wanna play as him
again, and he’s more useable on bosses, since his improved speed and mobility over
X7 makes it more manageable to get out of the way and avoid attacks. Due to the similarities with X4, 5 and 6,
though, there isn’t much else I can say about Zero in X8: he can double jump like
usual, and his techniques, unlike Axl and X’s secondary weapons, are seamlessly integrated
into the controls with intuitive button combinations. The new techniques are cool, especially that
mid-air rotation spin -- that one’s sick -- but they’re also kinda been there done
that, and more of a stylish factor than anything else. Axl, on the other hand -- where in X7 he played
just like X only with a couple different abilities, in X8 he has been altered quite a bit. He is no longer capable of running and shooting
at the same time like X still is, but as a result of that, he can freely circle-aim with
his rapid-fire gun. This is great for taking out targets at various
angles, though you’re only limited to eight directions. Bullets do go off in between, so flicking
between two directions to hit misaligned enemies does the job, but I dunno why the limitation
is even there. Perhaps it was to equalize the D-pad and the
analog stick, but if so, that’s just dumb -- can’t make much more of that. Regardless, there’s also Axl’s roll move,
which no longer grants him invincibility frames, making it kinda pointless now. That said, since it’s mapped to down + dash
in X8 instead of a double tap dash like in X7, at least you won’t be fucking rolling
into pits anymore by accident. Credit’s due where credit’s due, right? Finally, the copy shot doesn’t need to be
charged anymore and foes die a helluva lot quicker from it, so experimenting with the
copy ability is a more efficient process. You can even hold onto a reploid’s DNA and
enable or disable it at will, allowing you to conserve the energy, and inversely, turn
back to normal if you became some useless wanker. Trust me, this’ll still happen most of the
time -- Axl himself is simply more versatile in combat -- but at least the puzzle applications
of the copy ability are a little less obvious this time around, so that’s something. Of course, that leaves us with our good boi
X. What’s rad as hell about him in X8 is that
we can now mix and match armor pieces on him between two sets: red and blue. Each set has four pieces, making for sixteen
possible combinations, and I have to say: I found myself actively swapping around between
stages. For example, when I am facing many or tough
bosses, I’d want 50% damage reduction over being entirely invincible to weaker enemy
attacks, and I’d want a faster dash with invincibility frames over a higher jump. However, when I’m merely hunting for collectibles,
I’d prefer that higher jump, and I’d prefer a jump that damages foes upon contact over
decreased charging speed for my weapons. Sometimes you may even face a bit of a dilemma,
like do I prepare myself more for a level itself or the Maverick fight that ends it? It’s a really natural evolution of the armor
system with a degree of customizability we haven’t seen yet, and it completely fixes
the X5 and X6 nonsense of being unable to wear an armor until you gather all its pieces. The only thing I found a little unnecessary
is that a new armor piece replaces the equipped one for the rest of the stage. This is not a huge issue, but sometimes it’s
like: yo, give me that other piece back, please. I will say, though, that I personally found
X is initially somewhat outclassed. His lack of a double jump or hover generally
makes him less favorable for platforming segments, as Zero and Axl can correct mistakes more
comfortably and extend airtime, and only being able to shoot straight ahead also proves to
be a hinder at times. With ducking removed in X8, especially, dispatching
of tiny toddlers along the ground as vanilla X can be a bit of a hassle. By the way, I don’t know why they got rid
of ducking -- it made for some cool, if minor extra depth -- but whatever. Many opponents are now rocking shields, as
well, which are shattered by Zero’s third combo slash, Axl’s repeated, concentrated
shots and X’s full charge shot. X is fine and can even be advantageous for
this with certain enemy arrangements and bosses, since you can charge while standing out of
the way and during attack phases respectively, but breaking shields on enemies that pop in
front of you as X can mess with your gameplay flow. Thankfully, he does even out with his mates
as you obtain armor pieces and secondary weapons; perhaps not always in the same attributes,
but in the bigger picture? Yeah, I’d say so. As such, preference of playstyle becomes the
most important factor in picking your Hunters, and that’s exactly how I like it. I’m glad to see X, Zero and Axl are now
substantially differentiated, unlike in X7, and that I find them all fun and worthwhile
to use in their own right, unlike in X7. I’m sure you could list more pros and cons
they have under different circumstances, but with so many variables to consider, I find
that sort of thing hard to properly analyze. Too many variables is also part of the reason
I’ve always had trouble finding meaningful stuff to say in all these reviews about the
special weapons you gain from the Mavericks. Unexpectedly, X8 is no different. Like, the Drift Diamond is an ability I used
to freeze strong enemies, occasionally I used the Green Spinner to kill larger threats swiftly,
but beyond that I got nothin’, much less so to go in-depth about it. What doesn’t help is that the X series has
expanded ever so much with new mechanics and features, and granted you more mobility and
moves from the very beginning than Classic Mega Man. What was once a big deal in Mega Man 1 and
2 due to their simple and limited number of mechanics is something that’s grown largely
irrelevant as far down the line as X8. At this point, why should I go out of my way
to experiment with a truckload of Maverick abilities when I have to shift through them
and possibly take potshots in doing so? Why should I feel the need to use Axl’s
secondary guns when his primary one is powerful enough and the only one that can break enemy
shields, anyway? I mean, more power to the people that see
practicality in many of these tools, but me? I’d be down for some serious streamlining
done to the secondary weapons. Reduce the number of them, for Christ’s
sake, and design dope, thoughtful challenges and puzzles around that smaller pool of weapons. Sometimes less is more, y’know. It’s not an X8 specific criticism by any
means, but this is the last opportunity I get to mention it, and being able to carry
two characters into a stage at once further accentuates the issue. Obviously, don’t take that as me dissing
the duo feature, because I enjoy it just as much here as I did in X7. Actually, I’m lying -- I enjoy it even more
in X8. Now that the three heroes are better differentiated
and balanced, it further enhances that experience of going bitch hunting in a team effort, and
you now only lose a life and thus return to a checkpoint when both characters have run
out of health. I never thought it was a major flaw that X7
didn’t do the same, as I usually switched over before my current character was about
to die, but X8 doing this switch automatically upon a character dying is a nice luxury. It would have been swell if the same applied
to touching spikes and falling into pits, but I’ll take what I can get, I suppose. X8 also added this Tag Assist malarkey, where
you can switch to your partner to free yourself from enemy clutches. Sounds chill, but there’s literally nothing
to this at all. It could’ve used like an element of risk
vs. reward, and I think quick time events would have been an excellent fit: succeed
the QTE and the captured Hunter is released without any damage, or fail the QTE and the
captured Hunter is released but both Hunters take damage. As is, I always just swap back and forth as
soon as I get caught and move on as if nothing ever happened. Alright... Lastly, there is the new Double Attack. See this meter at the top left? That one grows by grabbing these red-blue
diamonds, as well as by racking up combos. Combos are lost either when you take a hit
or when you don’t deal damage for too long, and the higher the combo the further the meter
fills. Once it’s full, you can summon a spherical
matrix around your character, and if this sphere touches an opponent, your pair joins
together for an orgy of bullets and saber slashes. This usually wipes out all regular foes on
screen and bosses lose a decent chunk of their health. Naturally, this is the type of move you mostly
reserve for the bosses. It’s a neat and flashy gimmick, for sure
-- it’s sick to finally see a team move of sorts -- though I wish there was more of
a punishment for failing the activation; if you mistime or misplace the sphere, you can
try again indefinitely, as the energy bar refills over and over in next to no time. Now, I’m not saying the entire bar should
drain instantly, but I think 25% of it or so would be sufficient to have a little more
consequence to messing up. This by extension discourages players from
spamming attempts at triggering Double Attacks. All that being said, I can appreciate how
X8 improves upon ideas that were introduced in X7, and adds some new ones on top of that. The developers could have easily played it
safer and gone back to the simplicity of X4’s mechanics, but outside of the 3D, they decided
to go forward instead and I think they did it well overall. The opening stage, Noah’s Park, is also
a good tutorial for all the new play mechanics, as well as the movesets and controls of all
three characters, while managing to be fun and natural at the same time. Some of the more complex concepts like the
enemy shields do rely somewhat on dialog from the tutorial bitch to be explained properly,
but I don’t mind that for an opening stage and you can ignore navigator calls like in
X6 and X7. X8 even allows you to disable Alia and the
other pointlessly added navigators altogether, so no more of this. Relish in that sweet, sweet silence. Once Noah’s Park has been cleared, the eight
main Maverick stages open up, and this is where things get interesting. Detractors of the game have their reasons
for feeling the way they do about it, and the level design is typically among those
reasons. I think it’s accurate to say that X8’s
selection of levels is the most gimmicky of the whole X series. In a gaming context, however, gimmicks are
not necessarily bad; in fact, when used right, they can enhance a game’s variety and help
in setting stages apart from one another: think of having to avoid security lights and
traps in Central Computer in X2, and clearing an obstacle course against a timer to achieve
the highest rank in Cyberspace in X4. It’s important, of course, that these gimmicks
are fun and engaging, mesh well with the flow of the gameplay and are generally well-executed. This is where X8 doesn’t quite hit the mark
for me. I should start by talking about my favorite
stages and why I like them the most: Booster Forest and Pitch Black. These are pretty standard Mega Man X affaires
in many ways: side-scrolling running and gunning, making your way around various hazards, and
setpieces that allow you to show off your platforming and wall jumping prowess. What differentiates them, then? Well, the gimmick of Booster Forest is that
you can carry a Ride Armor all the way from the start of the level to the end. In order to do that, though, you’ll need
to place it on conveyor belts and pick it up again before it falls off the stage, bring
it to higher ground with raising platforms, and not lose it to pits or combat along the
way. By no means is the Ride Armor necessary -- you
can finish the level totally fine without it -- but the further you bring it along,
the more items and secrets you can reach and find, and you can brutally murder enemies. As for Pitch Black, the enemy facility you’re
infiltrating is covered in darkness by a good bit. This means you need to be cautious of where
you’re going, keep enemies that act as light sources around to be able to see, and at one
point sneak around security lights to avoid encounters with guards. There’s even a possibility of passing through
the security lights without causing trouble, as well as turning on the lights for the entire
facility, making the second half fully lit and thus easier. I have no idea why J hates Pitch Black (alright,
let’s not play fools... ‘cause he needs to git gud), but in my opinion, it and Booster
Forest are quality stages; both deliver on the Mega Man X gameplay flow you’d expect,
while creating their own identity through their unique, competent gimmicks. Unfortunately, the remainder of the six Maverick
stages… I think they fall short, to various degrees. Most of us can probably agree that the worst
of the bunch has to be Dynasty, where you’re chasing Gigabolt Man-O-War through a rando
city. The more complex core mechanics have made
place for the Ride Chaser’s simpler mechanics, and beyond that, there isn’t much going
on. The stage is functional: you dodge or blow
up holographic signs and traffic to prevent damage and a loss of velocity, snag Booster
pickups to gain bursts of speed, and it controls better than the highway garbage in X7, but
it just isn’t eventful or satisfying. If you fall behind too far in, it becomes
a pain to catch up as Booster pickups appear less and less, and often when you do boost,
it sends you slamming into obstacles. On the other hand, if you do well early on,
you’ll likely stay right on Gigabolt’s tale and finish in under a minute. At least in that case the level doesn’t
overstay its welcome, but either way there isn’t much to master here. The next example of a stage I don’t care
for, which does use the core mechanics, actually, is Troia Base. Here, you go through a series of... mini games,
for lack of a better term -- kiiiind of inspired by Gunstar Heroes, I think, for the two of
you that have played that at least -- in which you fight off enemies in a dedicated room;
the better you perform, the harder subsequent mini games are, and the more rewards you get
by the end. It’s a novel shake up the first time you
do the stage, but the appeal of it is lost about as quickly as a 100 minute long Jak
and Daxter review… Oh wait. The first mini game takes a minute no matter
what -- no way to end it any earlier -- while most others can be over in ten seconds, if
that, almost as if they might as well not exist. Seriously, what was that? A few seconds of holding fire and we’re
doneso? I guess the stage can be considered more engaging
if you aim for perfect ranks across the board every time, but it says something about your
mini games and how entertaining or satisfying they are, when I found some of these extremely
short bursts of platforming and wall jumping in between more fun to revisit. And that’s really the crux of the issue
with much of X8’s level design: it’s not that I found it bad or broken -- far from
it -- I just didn’t find it very replayable. When it isn’t really gimmicky like Dynasty
or Troia Base, I noticed there’s more auto-scrolling than usual. Inferno springs to mind first, with the majority
of it made up of sections where the camera is panning down, and you have to stay in between
the top and bottom of the screen by using the platforms. The first time, I enjoyed myself with this
level, since I wasn’t familiar with the patterns and enemy placement, and so the speed
of the scrolling was a threat. Naturally, on every subsequent playthrough,
it turns into more and more of a snorefest, because my experience diminished the challenge,
yet I can’t control the pace accordingly. The result is that I’m waiting for the game
to catch up with me instead of the other way around. This is one of the main reasons people often
don’t fancy auto-scrollers too much. Don’t get me wrong, I did still die in Inferno
every now and again on later playthroughs, but the stage contains about four minutes
worth of this stuff -- it’s simply not compelling for so long. The climb at the end in particular is so repetitive
and devoid of stimulating activity that it’s a mind numbing waste of time. Granted, Inferno may be the most egregious
example, but it’s not the only one. In Metal Valley, you’re chased by a berserk
Mechaniloid across a deserted metal quarry field. You can outrun it, but you’ll be waiting
for the Mechaniloid to catch up once you reach the level’s dead end. Then, after clunking its head three times
with a crane, you’re going through the stage backwards, where all you can do is follow
the poor guy as it stomps through the level. While not as long as Inferno, Metal Valley
is more boring, if you ask me, if only because it’s never even challenging to begin with;
you just sorta get pulled around like a dog on a leash, and attack stuff on flat lines
of level design. Barely any intricacies here, and right before
the showdown with the Maverick, you do the Mechaniloid’s head in with a crane again. Back and forth, back and forth to hit the
switches with no escalation... Did I mention Metal Valley is boring? There’s also Central White, which is more
Ride Chaser shenanigans. You can dash to your heart’s content, so
do that as much as you safely can, but there are still multiple segments where you’re
going straight on flat terrain and shooting incoming waves of enemies. Woohoo. The mini bosses also drag on with extended
periods of time where you cannot hit them at all, and overly long introductions and
explosions. No joke, the first one explodes for like twenty
seconds. What’s wrong with a boom and moving on? Even the first of the final stages, Jakob,
is more auto-scroller: an elevator ride during which you kill foes for close to four minutes
until you reach space. That’s all she wrote. Now, if the combat had some depth and was
engrossing, I perhaps wouldn’t bat an eye so much, but no -- you’ll be taking out
most of these enemies with little to no effort. As a matter of fact, that leads me to another
one of X8’s annoying habits in general: locking you into a room and having you fight
waves of enemies. All I ever do during these segments is stand
in a corner and blast away as Axl, or use the Z-Saber and its giant hitbox to wreck
whatever spawns in. This shit is in Noah’s Park, three out of
the eight Maverick stages -- two of them being Booster Forest and Pitch Black, meaning even
they are bogged down to some extent -- and in all of these levels, there are not one,
but two of these dedicated enemy rooms. Sure, none of them should last longer than
half a minute, but all the same it’s mindless busy work. Integrate foes and combat with the platforming
and other hazards; y’know, make more actual level design -- not this crap. Or do it like Pitch Black’s searchlight
section, where fighting guards is a punishment for getting caught. Add up all the complaints and you have a mix
of stages that don’t sport the best pacing and lasting appeal. Variety and each level being distinct is great,
but outside of Booster Forest and Pitch Black, I don’t think X8’s stages bring the best
kind of variety to the table. I’ll repeat: on the first playthrough this
doesn’t have to be an issue at all; in fact, I was enthused by the constant variation and
shake ups. It was like: damn, look how many unique mechanics
and ideas they’ve crammed in. But then as I played the game more and more,
I realized many of the gimmicks are shallow and there was a lot of time spent kinda waiting
around or doing little of value. I suppose it’s subjective, of course, as
I suspect not everybody will be bothered by what I consider ‘’shortcomings’’,
here. I mean, we all enjoy games for different reasons;
perhaps you love the gimmicky approach and auto-scroller sections, and don’t find it
hampers replayability. I have no intention of taking that away from
you, and I have to give X8 credit, as well, for being pretty light on the cheap enemy
placement and such. I was expecting Central White to contain that
typical, unforeseeable Ride Chaser bullshit found in X4 and X5, but to my surprise only
one or two unfair deaths occurred on my first playthrough of it. Beyond that, I didn’t really have any trouble
here because I could see what’s coming up fine. Sometimes you’ll need to be fast on the
reflexes, but you can always slow down if necessary. You’re not told you can slow down, which
maybe contributes to some people having bad experiences with Central White, but uh yeah,
I was happy to see an actual decent Ride Chaser stage for once. Primrose is also an example of a stage with
a gimmick that can kill you instantly, but it teaches its layout flipping mechanic very
naturally by employing the typical progression of: mechanic introduced in a safe environment,
mechanic combined with potential for damage, mechanic used in an advantageous way, and
then building more demanding and complex scenarios around those fundamentals. The escalation is a bit slow, in my opinion,
and I would’ve liked to see more precision and timing heavy set pieces designed around
the layout tilting toward the end, which is also the reason why I don’t find the level
as good and replayable as Booster Forest and Pitch Black. Another reason is this fucking spike room
that comes straight from hell and misleads you into death. Combined with a harsh checkpoint, this part
severely pissed me off on my first playthrough, but it’s about as unfair as the level design
ever gets, I think. Still, Primrose is probably my third favorite
stage in the game for not being an auto-scroller, and having an interesting gimmick with cool
possibilities. And pro tip: if you do this level as your
third, a battle with Vile takes place in the infamous spike room instead. Don’t know why, but you’re welcome. Unfortunately, while the level design may
be fine, if flawed, there’s an aspect of X8 that can make said flaws stand out tremendously. I’m not referring to Retry Chips, though
those certainly don’t help -- no, it’s 100% completion... Fuck me sideways with three mega dildos, I
hate 100% completion in X8. Let’s start with the little things, shall
we? Zero and Axl cannot acquire X’s armor pieces,
a shittacular design choice carried over from X7. This is pure padding and also means that a
team of Zero and Axl is a no go if you’re out for armor pieces. The fact there are eight of them in X8 only
adds insult to injury. Secondly, four of the Rare Metals are conjured
into existence using a charged up Crystal Wall from X. As far as I know, the game doesn’t tell
you you can do that, and even if you know to do it, break a leg finding all the digging
spots, dude. Like, without outside assistance, how was
I to know there’s an item in front of this power generator? The ones in Primrose and Booster Forest are
at least in suspicious locations, to be fair, but on the whole, do you really fancy wankering
around like a dumbass, digging places for stuff? Some clues or hot and cold pointers would
have been much appreciated. This isn’t even mentioning the backtracking
potential it creates; you’ll need both the correct boss weapon and one of two capable
armor pieces to charge said weapon, and the chances of a newcomer missing either before
playing stages containing underground Rare Metals are very high. Sadly, armor capsules only opening for X and
underground Rare Metals are merely the tip of the iceberg, because will you be doing
a lot of backtracking without a guide, believe you me. I actually don’t even know where to begin
with this, so let’s just examine a few examples. The worst one has got to be at the very end
of Central White: you need Zero’s double jump to climb this ledge, then you need Optic
Sunflower’s weapon to melt these ice cubes -- fire doesn’t even work, so shoutouts
to artificial solutions -- then you need X for the armor capsule, and you’ll probably
need Axl to cross this gap to a Rare Metal. You can reach it with vanilla Zero and very
precise timing (or spamming characters swaps if you’re a dirty, skanky little cheater),
but it’s plausible somebody would resort to Axl’s hover instead. Of course you probably won’t run into all
four possible roadblocks, but frankly, redoing the entire stage once is tedious enough, let
alone four times. Booster Forest is no slouch, either, with
three out of four items requiring the Ride Armor in some capacity. Seems harmless, except when you lose the Ride
Armor or die anywhere, you have to redo the entire level because there are no Ride Armors
at checkpoints. The last of these items can choke on my balls
especially, because it took me three attempts to figure out how to pass this series of spikes. That’s three Booster Forest revisits in
full in trying to obtain the last item alone. There’s also Axl’s Copy Ability and how
it’s mandatory for an item in three stages. This is a double-edged sword, because I do
like that the Copy Ability is used for some clever puzzle-solving -- not the obvious rubbish
as seen in X7 -- but anytime Axl isn’t in your team, that’s even more backtracking
to add to the list. Normally, I’d suggest all items should be
obtainable with at least two of the characters to tackle this problem, but since the Copy
Ability is so limited in use already, I can, under this special circumstance, see why that
wasn’t done. Now, those are examples of retreading of ground
you can avoid by planning your stage orders and characters, however, X8 also has some
of it you literally cannot escape. Inferno, for instance, has three items that
each require a different character; if only Zero and Axl could obtain armor pieces, we
wouldn’t be having a problem. Metal Valley has an underground item, even
though the boss of this stage is the one to grant you the Crystal Wall. Why not place that underground item in another
level? Heck, even the opening stage, has three items
only reachable on a second visit. It’s for arbitrary reasons, too, like this
door that wasn’t open initially but now is? The point of this, understand I do not. The stupidest case of the bunch, though, is
Troia Base, which has one Rare Metal for perfecting all missions in one flawless run (this is
a giant pain in the gonads, by the way, but I’ll spare ya the details), and another
Rare Metal for perfecting one specific mission only. Problem is, both rewards spawn in the exact
same spot, so do the flawless run and it overlaps that mission specific Rare Metal, forcing
you to replay the entire level to get the latter. Are you kidding me? They couldn’t program the two items on top
of each other? You’re toying with my patience, game. Perhaps I’m beating a dead horse, but the
chore that is 100% completion, particularly the first time, is legit. No other X title has made me reach out for
the internet nearly as frequently as X8, and the amount of possible backtracking involved
is insane. You see now why the shallow level gimmicks,
auto-scrollers and combat rooms got on my nerves? Honestly, the ability to warp between checkpoints
once a stage has been beaten would have been sweet as far back as X1, but it was damn near
essential for X8 and it’s still not here. Imagine how wonderful it would be if you could
just teleport to the desired area when you needed to bring Axl’s Copy Shot somewhere. Imagine how wonderful it would be if you didn’t
have to redo all of Central White every single time you couldn’t get an item. I’m sure somebody would think of an argument
against fast travel, but as far as I’m concerned, it could never weigh up against the advantages. It’s a bummer, ‘cause the substance of
a fun 100% quest is there, and you can finally see how many remaining items a stage holds
again since X3. But eh, we’re not quite done, because I’d
argue 100% completion doesn’t even stop with amassing items in stages. Save files technically say it does, but there’s
also the R&D Lab. Those Rare Metals I’ve been mentioning? Outside of X’s armor capsules, they are
the only collectibles in X8’s stages, and basically what they do is put up actual upgrades
and items for purchase in the lab. Some of these upgrades and items can even
be bought off the bat. All combined, the shop goodies range from
expanding character Health and Weapon Energy bars to expanding Zero’s Z-Saber combo,
and from Health and Weapon Energy tanks to one-use items like a shield that prevents
you from dying on spikes instantly. This is all done to introduce a new concept
to the X series: currency, which are Metals in this game. Metals can be earned throughout stages by
checking out nannies and crooks and simply defeating opponents, and the higher your combo
in those lame-ass combat rooms specifically, the more Metals you’re rewarded with. For them two elements mentioned above alone,
I think the shop system is a welcome addition. It also gives options in how you buff up your
team at any time, which is a nice bit of player freedom. Don’t expect to buy everything, though,
because you won’t stash nearly enough Metals by normally going through the levels. This can be seen as a positive, considering
it imposes limitations on the player, but it can also be seen as a negative if you go
out of your way to amass Rare Metals, only to discover afterwards the stuff they unlock
is simply too expensive. You can farm normal Metals if you want, a
process most efficiently done through these Intermission Stages of which I have no idea
how they actually become available, but this is ludicrously boring busy work that I do
not have the patience for. At least the option is there for those with
the will and the time to kill, so it’s kind of like an RPG in that sense, where grinding
equates to better stats. The R&D Lab is also where you buy your Retry
Chips, and not maxing these before heading out, is asking for trouble. So, the Retry Chips, what are they exactly? Well, X8 decided to make lives something you
must buy instead of something you can find in the stages, and something you can only
bring a total of five of at once. We’re back to the rules of running out of
lives, potentially right before the end of a level, and then having to restart it from
square one. To be honest, I can see a certain appeal in
having to do an entire level with a limited pool of lives, and if that’s the type of
skill and endurance testing the developers wanted to derive challenge from, I don’t
think that’s inherently wrong. The reason it sucks harder than Ryan last
night in many ‘80s and early ‘90s games specifically is because their design was often
unfair to begin with, so the further you’re sent back as a result of cheap bullshit, the
more frustrated and cheated a player will feel. X8 is thankfully pretty fair in that regard,
as I’ve said before, however, it does still have its moments: some boss attacks can happen
too fast for a new player to read in time, and on the whole, the game has a bigger fetish
for pits and spikes than Exo does for GameCube, HDMI-modded, flicker filter disabled, 4K integer
scaled Enter the Dragonfly footage. Now, outside of THIS... the majority of pits
and spikes are placed fairly, so dying from them is usually the player’s fault -- unless
you count the sides of spikes killing you -- but it’s so human to make tiny slip ups
from time to time, and I can’t be the only one who felt agitated in those moments. Combined with Retry Chips, it gives off a
sense that the developers had trouble creating complex and thoughtful challenges, and decided
to resort to a bunch of simpleton, instant-kill hazards and limited lives as a substitute
for difficulty and longevity. Technically not unfair design, but I wouldn’t
blame anybody for calling it lazy and frustrating. So, what happens is that X8, in my opinion,
is not all that hard in terms of the actual content presented to you to overcome, if you
get what I’m saying, but that it’s very punishing and unforgiving of player error. Maybe some people dig that, but me personally,
I prefer games where the moment to moment gameplay is tougher yet more satisfying, while
being able to practice endlessly; I believe it to be a more resourceful source of challenge
than being sent back to redo previous shit, because you ran out of lives on something
that may not even have been that difficult. All of this is to say X5, 6 and 7 did good
in making lives meaningless, and that the Retry Chips seem regressive to me, especially
in conjunction with the by now well dissected level design flaws. You can play on Easy mode, which has infinite
Retry Chips, but the game in general is easier, everything in the shop is unlocked so there
are no Rare Metals to collect, and the credits suddenly kick in before the two final bosses. I despise when a game flips you off like that;
if you can’t even finish on Easy mode, who would bother picking it? It’s a trap, man, so play on Normal mode. You may not appreciate the Retry Chips, but
I don’t find X8’s overall design problematic enough that the experience is ruined by them. Again, J is a bit of a cry baby and should
bow to his master RZ. There is one exception that irrefutably crosses
the line, though: Sigma Palace. This last stage has a Vile mini boss, many
screens wallpapered with spikes, and three bosses in a row before you win. Sheesh, you think that’s enough? That’s too bloody much to do on one set
of Retry Chips, and they show no mercy with those final bosses. It’s not like X1 or whatever where you have
two shorter, less dangerous phases before the last phase -- no, three lengthy, full-on
bosses with multiple phases therein, and zero health replenishment between any of them. And the grand motherfucker of cheap-ass bullshit
is that the last phase of the final, final boss sports a not so obvious timer that, once
it runs out, is a 100% guaranteed death. Oh my God... The timer isn’t that strict, but why is
it there at all? Just to try everything the devs could to skim
you of Retry Chips at the last possible moment? Screw you, that’s garbage! There should have been a split between the
level itself and the three final bosses, seriously. It’s left a sour taste in my mouth about
Sigma Palace, which is regrettable, because the final bosses themselves are some of the
better ones in the series. The Sigma encounter is brutal with a wide
range of hard hitting and quick attacks, really requiring great reflexes and anticipation. It’s very fast-paced with little down time,
and all the telegraphs are there to be learned, which is how I like my bosses: fair and satisfying. The first battle against Lumine is also quite
cool. It’s slower than the Sigma one, with Lumine
often dancing around invincible and not doing too much between assaults, but the premise
is that he cycles through attacks from the eight Mavericks. This makes for a diversified fight that comes
together to see if you still recognize the various telegraphs and know how to act upon
them. The last battle against Lumine is my least
favorite, however. I’ll be forever salty about the timer baloney
and beyond that it isn’t particularly remarkable. We’re not talking about a complete push-over,
but the attacks aren’t all that threatening. I kinda like how you have to remember the
positioning of these vertical spears for when they rise back up from the ground, but the
rest of it is pretty predictable. Sigma’s honestly the hardest and most fun
boss of the three, if you ask me. The good news is, the Maverick fights are
solid overall in X8. The bosses have this quality to them where
every attack is telegraphed, meaning that avoiding damage should always be possible,
but on your first time you’re likely not going to notice or react upon all these tells;
some of them are quite subtle, while others are followed up by the attack very shortly. This is the good type of trial-and-error -- so
not cheap hogwash X6 is plagued with -- although as mentioned before, this can still lead to
some frustration due to the Retry Chips. That’s not a flaw of the bosses, though,
because where’s the challenge in a fight, or stage for that matter, if you can master
everything the first time; there’s nothing wrong with catching newcomers off-guard, so
long as the tell and reasonable chance to avoid a negative outcome was always there. What I also enjoyed about the bosses in X8
is that all of them have three phases they go through: the first is calm and simple,
the second ramps things up a bit and the last is where the fellas go ham with a dangerous
attack. Bamboo Pandamonium, for example, starts out
only shooting a rocket and summoning these poles from the ground, then he adds the tossing
of bombs into the mix, and finally he’ll gain the ability to perform this forward supercharge
that does hella damage. I don’t think I need to make much of an
argument for why this is cool: having a fight escalate multiple times progressively ramps
up the intensity, and it prevents the whole affaire from becoming repetitious. Not every overdrive phase is as exciting as
the others -- Earthrock Trilobyte summons these crystal walls for a while, which are
really easy to manoeuvre through -- but I appreciate the attempt at spicing up the boss
encounters this far into the series. And taken together, I had a fun time with
the Mavericks here. Yes, even Earthrock Trilobyte, which in spite
of his lackluster overdrive, is decently challenging with these projectiles bouncing around the
room, demanding you to adjust your positioning as you try to sneak in hits. My favorites, however, were probably Dark
Mantis for how unpredictable he can be and therefore requiring onpoint reflexes and anticipation,
and Burn Rooster because his kick ricochets him back and forth between objects and walls,
which becomes trickier to dodge as the arena becomes more cramped for space. That’s all fine and dandy, but there’s
one design choice that may put people off, and that’s how the bosses become temporarily
invincible at set health percentages. It could be seen as bogging down the pace
of the battle, and I think this state of deflection could have used some clearer visual communication
to prevent any and all confusion for newcomers. I’ll accept that for what it is, though,
for the benefit the boss deflection provides: it forces players to deal with and take the
various attacks of bosses seriously. This handled itself naturally in most of the
X titles considering you’re a one-man army; after all, you’ve only got one health bar,
and so bruteforcing posed a significant risk of dying. With the advent of X7, you’ve got two characters
and thus two health bars against one opponent, so balancing measures were in order. The game did this by simply giving bosses
a boatload of health, which works, but as a result, fights usually took forever, which
made dying and starting over especially soul crushing. X8’s bosses, by contrast, really don’t
have that much health, but because there are intervals where you cannot inflict damage,
you have no other choice than to learn their attacks and patterns to some extent. This approach, while maybe not the most elegant,
is at least superior, since it reduces the length of the Maverick encounters -- they
are shorter in X8 than in X7 -- while simultaneously tackling the problem of X6 where you could
often hack or shoot away blindly without consequence. And you didn’t even have two characters
there. Oh, but don’t say that, though, because
X6 wasn’t unbalanced or unfinished -- it was supposed to be hard! My dick’s supposed to be hard... Now anyway, despite the improvements, the
balancing is not perfect in X8 -- not even close. When a character takes damage, you see these
red bars, which steadily regenerate to green if you switch over to the other teammate,
or steadily disappear as long as you don’t switch. This is not a poor mechanic at all, incorporating
some small, strategic, on-the-fly decision making, but the reality is there are so many
resources available to restore health already: you can fully upgrade each character’s lifebar
to max through the R&D Lab -- no dividing Health Containers between the Hunters here
-- and assuming you found all the corresponding Rare Metals, we’re back to being able to
carry four Sub Tanks. Why? You can even refill these Sub Tanks for pocket
change in the shop, and pickups within stages still refill them, as well. I don’t think I need to spell out what this
means for the boss encounters, and it’s even worse if you use their weaknesses on
them. X8’s boss rush, in particular, is an absolute
joke for these reasons. Truthfully, they should have gotten rid of
Sub Tanks altogether and perhaps even reduce your possible max health; we already have
two characters -- sufficient, as is -- and it would make that health regen swap mechanic
thing truly meaningful instead of extremely redundant. Self-imposed challenges is really the only
way you’re gonna get the most out of these bosses, and even the Hard difficulty doesn’t
do enough to solve this; it limits max health and throws bosses into overdrive sooner, but
all Sub Tanks are still present. Hard also reduces the number of Retry Chips
you can carry to three, so that just makes the stages with their pits and spikes more
nerve-wracking to play. Another opportunity for the game to rebalance
itself was the New Game Plus mode; think of the Ratchet & Clank titles and their challenge
modes, how the difficulty is increased to account for all your amassed upgrades and
weaponry. Unfortunately, X8’s New Game Plus is not
adjusted: it’s entirely the same shit as before, only with all your upgrades and items
transferred over. You can unlock the three navigators as playable
characters, which is admittedly a cool bit of bonus content they didn’t have to include,
but they’re incredibly expensive, so I couldn’t be arsed. Honestly, you’re better off printing out
this image of Alia, Palette and Layer in bikinis, if you’re craving navigator action. This is official art in the X Legacy Collection,
by the way... Not sure I find that awesome or concerning… So, you may have noticed I haven’t brought
up the story yet, and there are two simple reasons for that: I don’t like starting
reviews with the typical stuff, and X8’s story was mostly one ear in out the other
for me, anyway. The basic plot is fine: there are these mass
produced, new-generation Reploids that can copy the DNA of other Reploids, which Axl
was actually the prototype of. Their ability to change their shape according
to a task makes them the perfect workers for the Jakob Project, an effort by mankind to
research and colonize the moon through the use of an orbital elevator. This operation is ultimately an attempt to
escape the ever continuing Reploid rebellions that have been taking place on Earth for years. All is well and good, until the leader of
the project, a Reploid named Lumine, is for unknown reasons kidnapped by Vile, who hasn’t
seen the light of day ever since X3. The Maverick Hunters set out to rescue Lumine
and collect information about what’s going on, and then the story just kinda grinds to
a halt. The team chit chats between every level, but
most of it is filler that has little bearing on anything: X repeats his disappointments
and concerns about war for the millionth time, Axl acts like a tryhard and the new navigator,
Layer, has a love interest for Zero. Zero’s feelings for her aren’t explored,
though, so that relationship goes nowhere. In fact, there isn’t any sort of character
development to speak of, and perhaps I wouldn’t be bothered by that, and the lack of real
plot progression, if the actual dialog was better. Ugh, what are these lines? Not all the small talk is bad like this, but
I found none of it particularly entertaining or thought-provoking. The only new, relevant information that’s
revealed during these Hunter Base conversations is that the copy chips of all new-generation
Reploids closely resemble Sigma’s DNA, however, this falls into the background and isn’t
elaborated on until you reach the final bosses, meaning more dead air until then. Once you do reach those final bosses, Sigma
tells you that he’s been out for the Jakob Project all along. He plans to wipe out humanity and all the
old-generation Reploids that don’t contain his DNA, and start a revolution with the new-generation
Reploids in space. Who’d have thunk. But then, when you beat Sigma, Lumine steps
in as the top leader of the evolution and thereby becomes the true villain of X8. A lot of fans really like that, and while
it is nice to have Sigma not be the ultimate bad guy for once, I found Lumine rather boring;
freaky af, no doubt about it, but a forgettable character otherwise, I suppose in part due
to the severely limited screen time. The opening also clearly communicates something’s
fishy about Lumine, so the plot twist he’s evil wasn’t nearly as much of a plot twist
as the fact he’s a guy and not a chick. Anyway, it’s confusing shit, because why
would Vile, who confirms to work under Sigma’s orders, kidnap Lumine? Was the kidnap like a collaborative trick
from Sigma and Lumine to lure out X, Zero and Axl? If so, why risk getting them involved? That clearly wasn’t the smartest of ideas. What’s even weirder is that, after defeating
Sigma, Lumine says to the Maverick Hunters that the plan has gone smoothly thanks to
them… What? How are they advancing the plan by interfering
with it? Did Lumine want Sigma dead? Don’t see why he would, but then kill him
yourself! Like, is there something I’m missing here? When the story is finally going somewhere
after so long, it doesn’t seem to make all that much sense. Lumine also explains new-generation Reploids
sport the power of going Maverick at will, since their copy chips were derived from hundreds
of older Reploids. This included Sigma and his philosophy of
evolution. So Sigma’s DNA is part of the mix, fine,
but going Maverick at will? Isn’t one of the key features of the new-generation
Reploids supposed to be that they’re resistant to the virus? After all, X4 shows Sigma getting the virus
from Zero, which I assume is why he goes Maverick later -- not his own DNA. Perhaps what happened is the virus inside
Sigma triggered the development of new code, and the copy chips didn’t read that developed
code as a product of the virus... I’d buy it, but the game doesn’t answer
the question, neither is it, to my knowledge, ever defined anywhere in the series what exactly
the virus does to a Reploid’s mind and how quickly it takes effect. It’s messy storytelling, which is a shame,
because the lore of the X series is intriguing in concept with a lot of potential; the execution
just couldn’t deliver. Oh well, Lumine gets asswhooped, and in his
dying breath he breaks Axl’s crystal. Axl’s knocked unconscious and we end on
a cliffhanger for what actually happens to him. Too bad the X series stopped after X8 and
we never got an answer. Oops. As for X and Zero, they share a little conversation
about continuing to fight the Mavericks and their evolution, even if that goes against
their own destiny, ending the game on a pretty badass and inspirational note. Besides that
little moment, though, can’t say I gave a monkey’s about X8’s story, and the presentation
doesn’t quite pull me in, either. Now, I’ll be reasonable -- the voice performances
stomp and pound all over what was in X4 and X7. For the first time (not counting Command Mission),
we’ve got some acting in the X saga that’s actually competent. Some of the Mavericks are ridiculous...
and Alia sounds stilted and pronounces words with ‘’L’s and ‘’R’’s in them
in a weird way... but for the most part it’s all palatable and not too distracting: Lumine
sounds appropriately mysterious and freaky... Sigma has that delicious, hammed up villain
quality to him... and the heroes themselves can finally be taken a bit
seriously. X’s actor, Mark Gatha, in particular, managed
to deliver a confident, yet compassionate and caring sound that fits the type of character
he is very well. Lucas Gilbertson also does a good voice for
Zero, although I find his delivery is kind of off. It’s as if he’s losing his mind at the
end of many of his lines. Lastly, we have Jeffrey Watson for Axl, and
I definitely like him better than the whiny brat voice we got in X7. It’s a bit too arrogant and forced sometimes,
the dialog also being part of that... but it’s fine otherwise. Overall, the acting isn’t special or anything,
but I wouldn’t mind seeing most of this cast return and improve for a potential X9
in the future with better direction. Won’t happen, I’m aware. Sssshhh. The in-engine cutscenes are also not totally
laughable, how about that? You see the developers experimenting more
with cinematic camera movement and angles, and all of the Mavericks enter the scene in
their own unique fashions instead of just being there already. Characters are animated more believably with
more detail and their mouths actually open when they talk. It’s doesn’t classify as lip-sync, though,
and choreography remains limited, with the peeps standing in place as they banter back
and forth. We may have gone a step up from X7, but compared
to something like Sonic Heroes, which isn’t even impressive presentation-wise for its
year or release, X8 is still clearly a couple ticks below that. Makes me wonder what the budget for the game
was, when you take into account, as well, that all the Hunter Base conversations are
presented in Game Boy Advance style with a handful of 2D images of different expressions
for each character. The 2D assets aren’t even scaled well: text,
menus, character portraits, UI -- it’s all soft and uneven, some of the worst I’ve
seen in a sixth generation title. The X Legacy Collection version of X8 does
polish this over somewhat, but the results, while even, are a bit jagged, so not ideal. As for the graphics themselves, I don’t
think they’ve aged well and even for the time they left a lot to be desired. What first stuck out are the character models;
they’re all so tall and thin and the faces look... malformed and derpy. It’s not as jarring during most gameplay
itself, but when viewed from a short distance, they are not a pretty sight. Dive a little deeper, and only more shortcomings
come to light, like circles for character shadows... I mean, c’mon, this isn’t the PS1, guys;
for a late 2004, sixth generation title, the absence of shadow mapping or something in
that ballpark is pretty bad. Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex did it
in 2001 and has more stable performance to boot. Sometimes X8 doesn’t even draw a shadow
underneath vehicles or characters at all when it should, like in Central White here, or
in the middle of this elevator in Booster Forest. It looks unfinished, almost, and then you
move to the sides and your circle shadow magically poofs back in, like what? Particles can be noticeably pixelated, even
from a moderate distance, and, I’m sorry, but as soon as the game starts in Noah’s
Park, you see this ugly-ass, 2D foliage in the foreground, and these ugly-ass, 2D trees
and leafs in the background. That’s not a promising first impression,
and the environments in general just don’t do it for me. Many of the levels look drab and uninspired,
like Metal Valley, Pitch Black, parts of Inferno -- smeared with dull greys and browns and
lacking in memorable aesthetic design. It’s even worse when in one of these levels,
you have blatant pop in that the Alchemist from Spyro 2 would be able to see. Seriously, we’re not pushing a ton of polygons
here on this linear, restricted path, and there’s still staggering slowdown. Ai... I’ll admit, a couple of the stages have
good eye-candy, like Troia Base, sporting nice art direction, as well as decent particles,
various moving parts and lights, and this neato effect when walking along the ground. It’s not so generic or boring; it’s a
bit lively and vibrant, and along with Primrose, I’d say they’re the two most appealing
areas in the game. On the whole, though, while I’ve certainly
seen worse and can take it for what it is, X8’s visuals are plain underwhelming. And no, as far as I could tell, the X Legacy
Collection port doesn’t enhance most of this; it removes all the slowdown and bumps
up the resolution to native 1080p, obviously, but the rest of the graphics shebang goes
untouched. It’s the version I recommend regardless,
though the original is also a perfectly fine option if you must. It has 480p support, so with the aid of Component
cables it can look pretty presentable on a modern TV. The 480p mode is also botched, however: the
gameplay itself is flawless, yet the pre-rendered cutscenes are off-centre with cutoff as a
result, so pick your poison between that or everything in 480i. It really baffles me such a glaring problem
was never fixed. Another reason the XLC version is superior
is the near non-existent load times, but if I’m honest, the loading isn’t that obtrusive
in the PS2 original, anyway. For one, it’s only once per level (boss
rush included) so that’s already a massive improvement over X7, and stuff is actually
being loaded during the Maverick intros now, which is an obvious, but a good optimization
trick regardless. Man, X7: a game so awful I’m still shocked
a year after ripping it to shreds. I guess that leaves us with the music, but
what do I say? I mean, I liked it, but broadly speaking it
had a tad too much electric guitar for my tastes and that buttrock sound to it that
reminds me of Sonic Adventure 2. Jeb’s gonna murder me for that... After seven or so playthroughs of X8, I’d
be hard pressed to remember half of the tracks, as a bunch of them are rather bland and forgettable. There’s even some ambient guitar shenanigans
going on in Pitch Black, and though it fits, it’s really boring. That said, not everything is electric guitar,
and some of the buttrock stuff is pretty sick and memorable with good composition. X8 definitely has one of my least favorite
scores of the eight titles, but nonetheless, here are a few pieces I found myself returning
to after finishing the game. Mega Man X8 is a fine experience and I enjoyed
it for what it was: from the great controls and core mechanics to the balanced characters,
and from some of the nice stages to the solid boss fights, I can see myself picking the
game up again from time to time in the future. I think it’s got quite a bit of heart with
many cool unlockables and references and such, and I’d be down to see a potential X9 build
and improve from here. On the flip side, X8 definitely is not the
return to greatness I was hoping for: with a lot of questionably executed level design,
annoying Retry Chips, terrible 100% completion and a mediocre story and presentation, the
total package still bears the marks of second stringers. Like X5, I see a great game in here, but for
me it simply lacks the consistency and timeless addictive quality that the X series’ best
titles have. There is certainly more wiggle room for X8
to be loved by players than X6 and X7, but I’m left wondering if that’s one of the
main reasons it’s loved to begin with. Alright... There we have it, the X8 review. Thank you for watching and I hope that the
video lived up to the hype. Special shoutouts to all the lovely folks
scrolling by on screen, and if you like my endeavours on this channel and wanna support
them, consider backing my ass on Patreon -- it’d be much appreciated. Have a fantastic day and take care.
