Punishment for playing

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1. Rasterman (rasterman@detroitriotcity.com)'s status on Friday, 28-Apr-2023 13:03:36 JST Rasterman

   in reply to
   The entire series has only two things going for it: the controls are excellent, as one would expect from a Mega Man game, and the music is acceptable.
   
   Zero uses his trademark sword and a gay ass pistol instead of a buster arm, which is already less cool. Then he gets a Captain America shield, which is mostly trash and a spear, which has its moments. The more you fight with each weapon, the more it has a chance to level up. With each level, a weapon gains some new move or effect.
   
   Then there are the cyber elves. You find them in crates as you make your way through levels and they have a portrait and a description of what they do. Some times the description is abstract. Turns out you need to feed the elves to make them grow before you can use them. That means spending e-crystals. So, a good elf will require 2000 e-crystals to grow. How much do you earn on an average level? About 50. So that means you need to grind. Grinding on a linear action platformer. They took an unfun aspect of Mega Man X, which was to fill up your sub tanks, and expanded it. You want Zero to stop slipping on ice? There's an elf for that. Slide down walls more slowly? Elf. Get a bigger health bar? Elf. Everything that makes your character cooler now requires you to find and grow an elf, which involves grinding by visiting a level over and over and killing the same enemies over and over because e-crystal drop rates are not equal. This is why the Japs are bug people. They don't mind this mind-numbing task.
   
   So the cyber elves are shit.
   
   The art style makes everyone look extra cute, which sucks, since the original and X series weren't precisely grim dark to begin with. This looks like a caricature of the previous series by comparison. And that contrasts with the edgy plot that takes itself too seriously. Metal Gear Solid was more lighthearted than this travesty of a game.
   
   A massive problem with the game is the difficulty. This isn't on par with the Mega Man or X series. This has a difficulty where it doesn't feel as if you accomplished anything by succeeding. It's like a bad Mario Maker level that takes way too long to end. Maybe the GBA screen has something to do with it; but the amount of YOLO jumps you have to make is offensive, especially because many of those end in a bed of spikes. Enemy placement is the bad faith equivalent of debating race realism with Destiny. Enemies are loaded before you see them on screen, which means by the time you see them, you are already about to be hit by a projectile. I had to replay MMX to confirm this was not just always the case and I just memorised where every enemy was. And bosses, while being bullshit, at least they tend to be the most enjoyable part of a level.
   
   On top of it all, every stage you beat gives you a grade. I forget if that serves a purpose. On the next one it does. Here it seems everything you might want to do in a Mega Man game, or just an action platformer in general, takes away points from your final score. Took your time because you wanted to explore looking for secrets? Yeah, you get a penalty on your score. Took damage because the Mega Man series lets you make that mistake? Penalty. Used a cyber elf to get a cool effect that only lasts for one level and you can't replenish it again? Penalty. It's like they value being a soulless bugman that only speedruns the game over and over. But OK, it's not like they are hiding gameplay mechanics behind getting a good score... That will be Mega Man Zero 2.
   
   Right, Mega Man has always absorbed powers from his enemies, which was one of the great things about the series! Yeah, revived Zero doesn't believe in that. You get your new moves and three elements after defeating bosses: fire, ice and electricity. Out of 8 bosses, 6 will be vulnerable to the elements (2 to each) and 2 won't. So it all boils down to which element to attack enemies with where it's electricity->fire->ice->electricity. Exciting.
   
   And then you beat the game and you're presented with Hard mode, because you're not Oriental enough if you don't play Hard mode, where the bullshit increases and the reward remains the same.
   
   As I continue with the other games, I might not be able to describe things so well, since it all gets so bad, it started blending together in my mind; but if you don't continue reading, just remember this series is abominable and Crapcom should feel bad about making it. Maybe Konami was onto something with the pachinko turn. If you're gonna make trash like this, maybe just sell gacha games with Mega Man stickers for the Japs.