Mega Man Zero was a good game that needed
to be refined in order to be one of the greats in Mega Man history. Mega Man Zero 2 did just that and turned out
a damn fine game with a few kinks still left to iron out, but Mega Man Zero 3 is where
it is at. This is easily the fan favorite of the entire
Zero saga and I have no problem seeing why, during the X retrospective, my favorites were
X1, X2, and X4, with Maverick Hunter X and X3 not being far behind. But despite having played all of those games
far more, Mega Man Zero 3 stands right alongside them. Where would I rank it? Well, the title says all, but I can explore
that in more depth as the video progresses. This wasn’t always my perspective though,
of course, I first played Zero 3 in 2015 and it was my least favorite of the Zero saga
because I thought it was too long, and I didn’t really “get it”. But of course, as time went on, I saw the
flaws of Zero 1, I appreciated Zero 2 more, and Zero 3 greatly went up the more I explored
the mechanics. This game isn’t without flaws though, but
I can get into that later. Since I don’t have too much to say in regards
to introductions, I want to talk about something I noticed. In fact, I was going to put this in the X7
review, but I decided to scrap it because...reasons. But have any of you ever noticed just how
much better the Mega Man box arts look in Japan than in other regions? Oh, I am sure you are well aware of the infamous
NES box arts for the first few NES Mega Man games, but since that has been talked into
the ground, I won’t dare mention it even when I review the classic series one day. Japan did get the better boxes in the classic
series yes, but this trend carried over to the X and Legends games. I guess they thought shots of characters standing
there looking at you was cooler to us westerners than you know...artwork, but hey, at least
both were fine. Europe has always had some hit and miss Mega
Man artwork as well, but oh...my….god. Shit hits the fan when you reach the sixth
generation. Instead of speaking of it, let me show you. This is Mega Man X7 in Japan, looks great,
highly detailed, lots of colors, here it is in America, it is fine, we have all the characters,
the logo, nothing too out of place and merciful hades! What is that? X artwork I have never seen anywhere else,
that terrible logo, X6 zero on the back of the box, you name it. Worst part being these tacky solid color backgrounds
with the white lines to fool you into thinking it has more depth than it actually does. But the worst part being...every Mega Man
game in the entire sixth generation had this garbage! X Command Mission, X8 with this...green looking
X...Zero 2, the battle network series got touched as well, with minimal effort to distinguish
the two versions of one game. But the reason I have saved this absolute
junk for Zero 3, is because Zero 3 is the worst offender. The NA boxes for the Zero games were hardly
ever faithful to the Jap. ones, but they got the point across in the same vein as X7 and
X8 from America. But no, the European version of Zero 3 tries
to replicate the Japanese one with that epic picture of Zero next to Omega on the solid,
blood red background with great lighting on the characters….they didn’t come close. Like who in the hell thought this was okay?! Zero’s eyes are facing totally different
directions, the background is a solid orange, no lighting, no detail, no effort, and at
the time of writing, I vote that youtube gaming please remove these pieces of shit from the
game image in the description and at the very least, make it the American version. That is all, just wanted to bring this to
everyone’s attention. Let us actually get to the game now. Zero 2 ended with the Dark Elf free to roam
and do whatever it pleases, the resistance just lost Elpizo, X’s original body is gone,
and the mysterious Dr. Weil who had caused the mother elf to become the dark elf and
was banished from Neo Arcadia 100 years ago because of that, seems to be back with the
equally mysterious Omega at his side, ready to cause some chaos. So needless to say, everything is stacked
against the resistance from the very beginning of Zero 3, and the odds aren’t getting any
better from here. Zero 3 opens with a recap stating all that
in case you missed the previous two games. The story itself starts in the middle of the
frozen wild as the resistance is investigating a crash site. The soldiers are not as worried because apparently,
Ciel has finally finished her research on a renewable energy source that caused Copy
X to go rogue before Zero 1, which inspired the resistance to form. However, the neo arcadians have yet to respond
to Ciel, which is when this mission is revealed to be more than they thought as Neo Arcadians
are already here with Harpuia, Fefnir and Leviathan getting their asses kicked by whatever
it is inside of this crash site, as Zero steps in to see what it is. This giant abomination is, Omega. The threat that the new villain, Dr. Weil
was ready to unleash thanks to the hold on the dark elf going away in Zero 2. Speaking of which, we are finally introduced
to Dr. Weil, the one responsible for the mother elf turning evil, long banished from Neo Arcadia
back before Copy X even existed. I don’t have anything to say about him just
yet, but in another twist, Dr. Weil has rebuilt Copy X...complete with a stutter. Of course, the Guardians let Copy X take reign
of Neo Arcadia since that is why they exist, but since Harpuia has been the one leading
Neo Arcadia in the time since Zero 1, he has grown to think for himself more and is not
trusting of Dr. Weil since he was banished for a good reason. However Copy X accepts Weil with open arms
since he rebuilt Copy X after all. So now, both Neo Arcadia and The Resistance
are in a race against time to find the dark elf before the other side does. Things get interesting at precisely this point. Zero finds the baby elves, I swear everytime
I say elf in these videos, I feel 1% dumber. Anyway, Dr. Weil is with the baby elves, and
it is here that we find out that he created them. In the previous video, I gave the baby elves
a very menacing outlook, however Zero 3 changes my perspective quite a bit. In Zero 2, X told Zero that the baby elves
can twist the minds of humans and reploids to help them reunite with their mother. It sounds evil, but Zero 3 shows just how
impressionable these baby elves are, making me feel bad for them as Dr. Weil manipulates
then and makes them think Zero is bad because he hurt the mother elf back in between the
X and Zero games when he helped X seal her away when her power went out of control, again,
thanks to Weil corrupting her technology. Dr. Weil also forces the very young and impressionable
baby elves to fight against Zero which is horrible every time I see it since obviously
you have to fight against them! After several missions trying, nobody can
find the Dark Elf, until Neo Arcadia locks the signal, but the only way to get to it,
is by launching a missile strike on the city the dark elf escaped to! Harpuia steps up and says the goal of Neo
Arcadia is to protect man and reploid alike, and that this is a senseless slaughter, to
which he is put down by Weil and Copy X, as they launch the missile. Zero fails to stop it as Omega finds the Dark
Elf in the rubble. The Baby elves rejoice now that they have
found their mother, but Weil orders Omega to absorb the power of the Dark Elf, making
him complete as Neo Arcadia can use Omega’s full power to inflict their “justice”. Harpuia is disgusted by how many of its own
citizens were just killed in the crossfire, and fights against Omega. A futile effort given Omega’s current power. Harpuia is so beaten up after this that Zero
saves his life by bringing him to Cerveau for repairs. Suddenly, Copy X and Dr. Weil make a surprise
transmission, announcing that us mavericks will be spared if Ciel hands over the new
energy source right now, and after what they have just done, she rightfully doesn’t believe
them, meaning that at the end of the day, Elpizo was right back in Zero 2 when he believed
Neo Arcadia was only going to take the new energy source by force, and the only way to
end this conflict will be with action. Action that Zero takes as he makes his way
to Copy X’s throne room. Once again, the story really ramps up at this
moment. Copy X again doesn’t have the power to destroy
Zero, but X arrives to stop the proceedings, Copy X doesn’t care and tries to go to his
ultimate form again, this was a mistake as he implodes from within. Remember, Weil is the one who rebuilt Copy
X. The real X suspects that Weil pinned a kill
switch on Copy X knowing Zero would kick his ass. X’s supsision is confirmed, since Weil wasn’t
even in the room that they were battling in, and yet seconds after destroying Copy X, Weil
announces to the people of Neo Arcadia that their beloved leader, X has been slain by
the maverick extremists, Zero and the resistance, and that X declared in the event of his death,
that Weil would control Neo Arcadia. Oh my god. He planned this from the very beginning. I didn’t mention this in Zero 2, but it
is important now, the people of Neo Arcadia didn’t know that Zero killed Copy X at the
end of Zero 1, since the guardians never disclosed that info. So now, in their minds their leader has only
just been killed, but before this, Weil has gained Copy X’s favor by really picking
up his Ego, and by giving him the power of Omega at his fingertips, meanwhile, Harpuia
was talking back to Copy X earlier. All in an effort to now lead Neo Arcadia as
he pleases, with the fully powered Omega at HIS fingertips, as well as the baby elves
he has in captivity. You guys can see this already, right? For a Mega Man game, this is a very in depth
story, and, not gonna lie, I was on the edge of my seat to see this climax go down. You should be too, because now comes the time
for the serious revelations. In the following missions, Zero uncovers a
full factory that has been abandoned, or so it seems on the outside, on the inside, we
find the cloning facility of the baby elves, there are countless amounts of them, and guess
what, as apart of the programming made by Weil...whatever baby elves go loose will use
their power to get some fool to release the dark elf for them, so Weil could power up Omega. Next, In a sunken library, Zero learns about the elf
wars, of which he still has very limited memory of. The Elf wars was the end of the maverick wars
as Cyber Elves and Omega had kept the mavericks at bay since the mother elf was designed to
allow Mavericks to see the light, and come back to normal, but this was the thing Weil
undid, by having the mother elf herself go rogue. Back to Omega though, now that Weil has the
dark elf infused with Omega, he can control all reploids on a mass scale, including the
entire resistance base, except Ciel since she is a human, X since he is a cyber elf
by this point, and even if he was physically here, he wouldn’t be controlled since he
is not a reploid, he was made by Dr. Light, and Zero, he is also not a reploid since he
was made by Wily. So with the whole base out for Zero and Ciel,
they best be glad X is a cyber elf since guess what, X comes back to save the day! Using his powers, he protects everyone in
the base from Omega’s projection, but that took up a lot of his energy, and Omega would
need to be destroyed in order for the rest of world to be saved. Which means, it is time for the castle stages. Zero destroys the baby elves once and for
all, but Dr. Weil escapes to parts unknown, leaving Zero to battle Omega at full power. In Omega’s second form, he is giant monster
with X and Zero statues...weird...but then, it is revealed that the base that was just
destroyed was not far off from where Ciel found Zero back in Zero 1, and this is where
the final battle is going to take place. In the rubble...Zero emerges? Yeah, Dr. Weil reveals the truth, Omega is
really Zero inside that suit. How? Well it is revealed that the Zero body from
X2 and onward had succumbed to the virus in the midst of the elf wars, hence why he was
sealed off. Some may be wondering why Omega Zero looks
this way since you’d think he would have the X2 onward Zero design, and while that
would have been cool, I have been saying it since Zero 1, this is an artstyle change,
not canon. Anyway To finish off the war, a replica of
Zero’s personality from the X games was made and this is the Zero that was put in
slumber at the end of X6, and is our player character. Omega Zero as he is called, is Dr. Wily’s
Zero, this is the beast that Sigma battled in the flashback from X4 that had the maverick
virus transferred to him, and the Zero that Sigma attempted to awaken in X5, that we prevented
in the good ending. This adds credence to the idea that X6’s
Zero takes place after the whole X series, my only issue with that in my X6 video, guys,
was the fact that nothing in the game said so, nor did the game explain why that was,
we can only assume thanks to Zero being X7, X8, XCM, and the backstory from these games. Weil mocks our Zero for just being a copy,
and that Omega is the genuine article, but X says that while he knew the truth about
this Zero, and had clearly been reluctant to tell Zero this throughout the game, but
he didn’t say it because X puts it best...it doesn’t matter which body it is, Dr. Wily
might have made Zero a certain way, but Zero chose to be X’s friend post Sigma battle,
he chose to stand by X throughout the Maverick wars, and since those were his own thoughts,
his own perspective, it doesn’t matter which body it is. The heart of X’s best friend Zero is standing
right here, we are playing as him as we now have to destroy Omega Zero for good! Harpuia, Fefnir, and Leviathan, all patched
up even arrive to take a few shots in on Omega before he regains full power. Weil made the mistake of escaping the scene
before the battle since now he can’t protect Omega as X and Zero destroy him, releasing
Weil’s hold on the Dark Elf, returning her back to her original state as the mother elf! After a flash of white, we have quite the
sad moment that I am sure most Mega Man fans can easily remember, I said X used a lot of
his cyber elf energy throughout Zero 3, and his body was destroyed in Zero 2, and so he
announces to Zero that yes, just about all of his energy is spent, and this is unfortunately,
his goodbye to Zero. Proud of him for choosing his own path and
destroying Omega, freeing the Dark elf from weil and so on. Telling Zero that he trusts in him to finish
the job and defeat Dr. Weil one day, but he will not be there to attend. I have been saying this since my X1 review,
I have always found the story of X and Zero throughout the X and Zero games to be very
engaging, so this is a very satisfying and heart warming, if a little sad, goodbye. When Zero regains consciousness, he is at
the resistance base, having been brought there by the Mother Elf who thanks Zero for stopping
her while she was on her rampage. Free from all evil forces, the mother elf
flies away to parts unknown. Zero himself thanks Ciel, Cerveau and the
resistance for having stood by him in this dark hour, reaffirming what X told him earlier. It doesn’t matter what body he has, he is
Zero, because he fights for the good of others, and that is the path Zero chose all those
years ago prior to X1. Now, Zero and the resistance are ready for
whatever Dr. Weil will throw their way in the final chapter of the Zero series, Mega
Man Zero 4. Uhhhh….what the hell do I say? Well let’s start with the obvious, this
story was amazing! Easily, my favorite story told in the entire
Mega Man series. Some folks had been concerned I was going
to be complaining about a lot of the same canon issues I took with the later X titles,
but guys, I do that with stories I think are terrible. Mega Man Zero 3 is certainly not my favorite
story in the history of gaming, I mean I can think of several game stories right off the
bat that beat this, but not everything is a comparison. On it’s own merits, Mega Man Zero 3 is a
great story from start to finish, and that fact alone makes it stand out from Classic
series and its stock storyline, or the X series and it's all over the place writing quality. Mega Man Zero 3 builds off of the stories
we got in Zero 1 and Zero 2, as well as taking some ques from the X series to craft a great
tale as we finally learn about the elf wars, we learn about what happened to the mavericks. As well as having stakes higher than we have
ever seen with missiles blowing up cities, Dr. Weil’s evil nature in general establishing
him as a credible villain, heartfelt moments like X’s talks with Zero throughout, character
development for Ciel as she takes her own stand against Neo Arcadia when they won’t
take the solution she has been slaving away at peacefully, character development for the
guardians as well, Harpuia especially as they have gone from hating Zero in Zero 1, gaining
respect for him by the end which grew in Zero 2, and ending with them standing alongside
him in the battle against Omega in the climax, truly a good way for them to go out, since
yes. The guardians will not appear in Mega Man
Zero 4. They go off and do lord knows what after this. But at the center of this story is Zero coming
to terms with who he is as he remembers it all from the Maverick Wars, to the Elf Wars,
and destroys Omega, effectively killing off Dr. Wily’s Zero once and for all and cementing
his legacy as a hero. I mean this story has it all, I mean I know
that was a massive summary dump, but like Zero 2, I have the most to say about this
story as a whole, and less on the individual moments. But like I said, this is a story that really
stands out in the Mega Man series, and I can’t wait to talk about the conclusion in Zero
4. The presentation of the story and game as
a whole hold up just as well as the writing. Sprites are again the same as they have always
been, always looking good with new environments looking quite varied in terms of colors and
designs. More images to tell the story, you name it. I mean, I don’t have much to say when it
comes to the graphics of this game, I loved the look of Zero 1, I thought it got better
in Zero 2, and Zero 3 continues with the new boss sprites looking even better than the
other games. In fact some locations return from Zero 1
and Zero 2, and they look twice as detailed than they did back then. Completing the package would be the amazing
soundtrack, hands down the best soundtrack in the Zero series with diverse set of compositions
to fit the different environments, with the soundtrack not being remotely held back by
the GBA’s compression. The soundtrack is appropriately melancholy
to match the story, with the renditions of For Endless Fight, and Sand Triangle being
the best examples...but those are far from the game’s best...but the highlights for
me being the iconic ending boss fight theme, cannonball that is just as epic as the story
sets it up as….and the ending theme that matches the emotions of the scene just as
well... Mega Man Zero 3 plays just about the same
as Zero 1 and Zero 2. Yeah, no joke everything is the same as before,
be sure to switch to control type c, shoot with b, jump is a, dash with L, switch weapons
with R, third verse same as the first and second. So let us waste no time and talk about how
ingeniously designed Mega Man Zero 3 is. Combat in Zero 3 is easily the best in the
entire Mega Man Series. It gets a lot of focus throughout the game,
to the point where you could argue this as a more of a hack and slash with platforming
elements than a straight Mega Man platformer, and the one thing a good action game needs
is plenty of variety to keep in fresh the more you play. So let us look at the weapons. We of course have the returning Z Buster and
Z Saber from the get go and...WHAT THE?!?!? The star system has been removed! No longer must you pointlessly grind enemies
to unlock the Charge shot, or the Z Saber swings. I mean, Zero 2 greatly streamlined this, but
still, this added nothing to both Zero 1 and Zero 2 and made the intro a lot less fun to
get right into than say X4. Zero 3 is not concerned with wasting your
time, and you will see why by the end of this review. This is a beefy, challenging game for all
the right reasons. So yes, your Z Saber and Z Buster are at full
power from the very start of the game, which could be game breaking, but is not at the
end of the day since there are still plenty of upgrades to get by the end. The Shield Boomerang is also back, with the
new rod weapon being….the recoil rod...they have been developing these rod weapons as
a good range ability since Zero 1. The Triple Rod was...okay. When fully powered it did serve as a good
distance option but again, you had to level it up with the star system, but you could
only get it half way through the game so then it would be weaker than the Z Saber and Buster
you had already grinded for. The Triple Rod’s bounce attack was also
weak since you had to make contact with an enemy in order to get off the ground, and
many enemies were airborne, or directly in front of you, meaning attacking with the other
weapons made more sense. The Chain Rod in Zero 2 was a massive improvement
in both combat and level design with the ability to swing around, but it was kind of janky
and therefore meant you had to practice it to get it down. But it was the kind of practice that didn’t
come from skill mastery, but adjusting to awkward, but still competent gameplay. Now that I have hyped it up so much, let’s
talk about...the recoil rod...Not only is it a great weapon diagonally, but it also
has a short range, meaning that the Z Buster is still a viable option when enemies are
a bit further away. But I just love using the charge shot to push
enemies out of my way, sending them flying into one another, it is so inherently satisfying. The best part, no doubt about it, is by charging
it up, and holding down, Zero will use the energy to propel himself really high in the
air which is a phenomenal platforming tool! But I can discuss that with more when the
topic of level design comes up. Cyber Elves are back of course, and these
too have received a change. In previous games, you found the elves themselves
and then you had to go to Ciel or the transerver to download the three you wanted, and for
some they had to be leveled up through E Crystal grinding. I never thought about just how restricted
the Cyber Elf System was until I played this game again for review purposes. In the stages, you will find top secret discs,
and you take them to Cerveau for analysis. These discs are either interesting trivia
like the CDs in Mega Man and Bass. But more often than not, here is where you
will get your cyber elves. This menu might seem like it is a bit confusing,
but let me explain. Satellite 1 and Satellite 2 are a list of
permanent Cyber Elves like this one in the nurse category that will drop small units
of health every now and again for you, or the other one I use being from the animal
category that shoots directly forward along with you. Some even take the place of the form powers
you got in Zero two like the upward third slash. You can infinitely mix and match the satellite
Cyber Elves to your liking, and that is awesome. Again, not three at a time, any two, at any
time. Oh yeah, it is real in gameplay switching! Don’t like the elf you picked, flip over
to the menu and change it! This doesn’t just go for the satellite elves
by the way. Some still require E Crystals, like the sub
tank ones, or the heart tank elves, but if you know which one you want to power up, get
in a stage, get those crystals since just like Zero 2, the number is very easy to get,
but now you can power these elves up in the midst of the gameplay, meaning that I care
more about it since I am in control, I can do it whenever I want, as opposed to thing
on my checklist in between missions. The elves in the other crystal categories
can give you such benefits as allowing the Z Saber to destroy enemies bullets like you
are jedi, or boosting the shield boomerang’s power, you name it. If the promise of being so powerful wasn’t
good enough for you, check this shit out, thanks to Omega being awakened in the story,
this causes an opening to the digital realm in all stages, this is a place where all who
have become one with Cyber energy, or cyber elves are to roam free. You guessed it, in this area, all of your
underpowered Cyber Elves come alive and you become a God. This can not be used during mini bosses, and
regular bosses. It is a short term power trip, correct me
if I am wrong, but I believe this negatively affects your rank, but it is a good motivator
to get the E crystals, hunt down the secret discs, because when you do, you don’t need
this portal, you are just that powerful at default and YOU put in the work to earn it. The portal also takes away the detail from
the environment and makes everything an ugly green, and with areas that look this good,
who would want that? But back to rankings, why do you want that
to stay up? Well the returning EX Skills are here to whip
you into shape. Once again, defeating a boss with rank A or
S gives you a special ability to one of your four weapons. I didn’t even come close to unlocking them
all, but the ones I did get...very cool. Like the gas bomb Z buster charge shot, the
Upward stab Z Saber Slash, or my personal favorite. The 100 Slash that is given to recoil rod
allowing to really wreck enemies and bosses. While yes, there are few elves granting you
level A access, this is a small amount, and you need to master the stages, take no damage
and so on, to earn them all. The elemental chips are also back to experiment
with, but every boss grants a chip as opposed to just three. These modify Zero’s body like allowing you
to run faster, dash through certain enemies, make it so that Zero doesn’t react to crumbling
terrain, allowing Zero to regain health by standing still like X3 or Mega Man and Bass. Charging faster, and when combined with the
cyber elf that does the same thing, you can do some real damage. Automatic charging of weapons, and my favorite
being the foot part that allows you to double jump, and when you combine this with the recoil
rod charge jump….I can’t describe how far you go, this game is so much fun with
all these power ups, it really has to be played to be believed. So, if you can become so powerful? How is this game not a complete push over? I am glad you asked. Mega Man Zero 3 has some of the best level
design in the history of Mega Man. I can only think of two instances of screen
chruncing goodness by the way. But back to the good stuff. If your timing skills are not good, Zero 3
will wreck you. The first stage in the first set, the fire
level is brutal with these platforms you need to jump on falling into the lava really quickly,
and you just plainly need to get good at dashing to survive this. I mean, all the information is clearly indicated
on the screen, so getting through it is your problem. This game puts Zero in a wide variety of situations,
like battling giant robots on snow sleds as we fly through the arctic. Or the sunken library where you need to slow
down your pass to avoid getting electrified, but then need to learn the map of the final
room in order to quickly tell where the data logs on Omega, and Dr Weil are hidden in the
maze. Sounds tedious, but it is very easy to do,
and is therefore a good break from the pace. The only two stages that are a bit lame are
1, the underwater stage with more screen crunch deaths than I can count. Second being this elevator stage that makes
you fight enemies. Since combat is so diverse in this game, I
don’t really mind since I can recoil rod over their heads, push them off the ledge,
push them into each other and so on, but I can see why it wouldn’t be fun for most. Anyway, this game really loves changing it
up in the levels to keep it fresh, like avoiding the quick sand in the sand stage, then bam,
platforming, bam mini boss. When it comes to finding some of these secret
discs, it is a lot fun as well. Like thinking outside the box when there is
a mound of snow in the place of a pit, maybe a disc is under there. You can burn all the green in the run down
city stage and there is a disc and some health. But nothing compares to finding the two physical
sub tanks. Get this, you need to dash off this cliff,
with the recoil rod charged, bounce off of this enemies head when he reveals himself,
giving you enough height to reach the ledge and get the sub tank. Or the other one, where you press the switch
to make the block move, this gives you enough time to reach the other side, but now it is
too far away to dash towards. What do you do? Bust out the recoil rod, and bounce over on
top of the block and that sub tank is yours. That is not the only use of the rod, early
in the fire stage we are taught that these crates can be moved by a charged rod, and
you see one later in the stage over some spikes, you push it, unsure of what it does, but little
did you know that you just gave yourself a platform later in the stage to reach a secret
disc. Ahhh...I love this game. Another great thing is how this game is not
like your usual Mega Man game in length. After the intro stage, we have four stages
like Zero 2, then the middle stage to stop the rocket, which fails and allows Omega to
get the dark elf, then three stages...GEE THEY REALLY SHORTENED THIS GAME UP! But no, next comes another middle stage where
we battle Copy X, then...four...more...amazing...stages filled with all the elements I have already
discussed, then a couple of castle stages. What can I say, this is how it is done! We aren’t conforming to the Mega Man norm,
we are expanding it, just like Mega Man 2, or X1 did all those years ago. The game can totally afford to have those
three stages in between the middle stages since they are all bring backs from Zero 1
and Zero 2, but with new level design, and for the Zero 1 bring back especially, you
can really see the difference in quality with the setpieces. If I can give you one piece of advice, start
with the Mantis’ stage. His boss is the easiest of the bunch, and
his stage has the first sub tank in it. I say this because, unfortunately, I don’t
like the bosses in this game very much. The patterns feel way too sporadic for the
early fights, and you just don’t have the defense to deal with it which makes getting
game overs on the two stages to the left more annoying since you may have mastered the level
design, but you are gonna do it all over again because you died on the boss. Once you power up, you really wreck all of
the bosses from that point forward, so there was no middle point. By contrast, I really like the bring back
bosses from Zero 1, all are given new attacks that really flesh them out, you even have
an optional fight against Phantom, the guardian who died in Zero 1, since like I setup earlier,
those who have become one with cyber energy live here physically, and he is no exception. A good set of brought back bosses can’t
save what is ultimately a weak set of battles for the Zero series standard, but as you can
clearly tell, I get my jollies from Zero 3 out of the stages and combat, so therefore
I am not too offended by this, but it is one mark against this game, but as the X retrospective
as shown, this game is not alone in it’s failure to find a balance in boss design. I don’t have much to say on the castle stages,
but I want to talk about the final boss, which is really my least favorite part of Zero 3. In the story, it was excellent. It is three phases, the music is great, but
in gameplay...sadly this is too easy. The first phase against Omega is mostly the
same as the intro stage fight, only a little more complicated, but you are so much more
powerful that it is not a big deal. The Second phase barely touched me even though
I tried to let him on numerous occasions. With the final phase being the biggest let
down since he hits like a truck and has four health bars, but I dealt with him in no time
which is such a let down, if the game is going to allow me to be this powerful, design the
final boss with this in mind, because I loaded up my save file from 2015 on the Wii U, and
I got my ass reasonably kicked because of how low power I was. Honestly, since the final boss was so quick,
it made the ending feel less impactful than it actually is because of how fast it came. But can I just listen to this official final
boss remix one more time... Once you beat the game, Hard Mode is unlocked
with only one Saber swing, I was going to try this, but in my opinion, it just makes
the game a little too slow when the default weapon turns into X’s saber from X6. Having said all that...how do I feel about
Mega Man Zero 3 overall? This game...is one of my favorite games of
all time. When starting up again, I wasn’t sure how
well this claim was going to hold up since I got my ass kicked by the first boss I picked,
but...his pattern isn’t unbeatable per say, I just needed an edge, and that edge came
when I one sub tank, and it was then I realized just how good Mega Man Zero 3 is. From the moment I grabbed that subtank, it
was an fast upward spiral of quality. The game from the get go ditches a lot of
the mechanics that dragged down the previous two games, and crafts a game that is endlessly
replayable. If Mega Man Zero 1 is a revolving door of
issues with retry chips, cyber elf grinding, and weapon farming, then Zero 3 is a revolving
door of positives that encourage player growth. You get your ass kicked by mini bosses and
bosses, but the cyber elf portals show you how much more powerful you will be later,
giving you the want to level up. The EX skills can be obtained, but only if
you want to grow your skills to get more and more. The real time cyber elf switching added a
lot to the game, the weapons are the best yet, the story was not only just as good as
the previous two, but surprisingly gripping. The soundtrack was very well done, the graphics
are at all time high for the series, and while the boss design is lacking. The level design, the secrets, the massively
varied combat system all make up for it in what is my favorite Mega Man game. I have played X1 - X4 more times than all
of the Zero games, but I know good design when I see it. There are two stages I don’t like, but this
game doesn’t have any bosses that feel unbeatable, side quests that aren’t fleshed out, it
is not bloated despite it’s length. Nor does it have a gimmick stage to offset
the balance. It also, like I said, leaves all the bullshit
from Zero 1 and 2 behind and crafts a beautiful game. If you haven’t played this, I strongly recommend
it. Now anyway, that just about covers Zero 3. We are halfway through the marathon, and so
I will see you next week, for Mega Man Zero 4, for the game boy advance. How well does the series climax stack up? Find out next time. Thank you all for watching and take care.
I remember replaying this game to the point where I knew the map designs like the back of my hand. I played it once just to get to fight Omega Zero one more time before playing ultimate mode.
Also this game was famous for it's Omega Zero hack, which I gotta say was really fun to demolish enemies with the power of the real zero.
This is the only MegaMan zero game I played when I was you ger, so I am a bit biased. But I have played the other three but for some reason it just didn't have the charm that made three great in my eyes.
Best mmz game hands down.
Zero 3 is fantastic. If I had to make a list of my favorite Mega Man games, Zero 3 would be in the Top 10, maybe even Top 5.
Its one of my favorites. Always a joy to boot it up and easily have some fun
Your reviews are cash money dude. Good shit
It's good but overrated.
How do I feel about the game?
https://youtu.be/fd83TC0ESKY
My first megaman game I played 12 years back so I'm biased on all the zero series. Iirc there was a secret boss in one of the stages and it definitely gave the 7 year old me a pleasant surprise. Still hate that fox boss though.
I like 2 and 4 more, but it's good.