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Rockman ZX: Reviews

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Game Score: 10/10

Story
The story takes place some time after the Megaman Zero series. It takes place after some big war between humans and Reploids, when both humans and reploids started living in peace. But as in all megaman games, there are some reploids that turned Maverick and became evil. The two main protagonists, Vent and Aile, have suffered the loss of their family because of maverick attacks. They are taken care of by Girouette, who owns a delivery service. At the beginning of the game, Girouette and whatever character you chose to control are out to deliver Live Metal, a substance that is said to contain information about past events and battle experience from beings of the past, to Prairie, the leader of the Guardians, a group who has for goal to defend people from Mavericks. After a few events, the main character gets possession of the X model Live Metal, and Girouette the Z model, which enables them to take the form of warriors from the past, as they join the Guardians to help fight the Mavericks. Now although I don�t understand Japanese, the story seems quite interesting, although from what I�ve seen there are some rather predictable plot twists, but overall it doesn�t seem too bad. Still, megaman games have rarely been known for the stories, gameplay is where it's at.

Sound
Now here�s something nice. The whole game features voice-acting. All the story related conversations are not only text, but also voices. The main character you choose also says different things when attacking, and more importantly, you can hear Prairie�s briefing for the more important missions, so you will know where to go. Only thing left to know is if they will redo all the voice-acting in the English version, or if they�ll get rid of it altogether. As for the rest of the sounds, well the music is normal, what you�d expect from a megaman game really. The rest of the sounds like attacks and shots seem to be recycled from older megaman games.

Graphics
Well first off, the game features anime scenes during certain events, and they look quite good, even though the video quality could be a bit better. I guess it�s like that to take up less space on the cartridge. Anyways the scenes tend to look quite nice and fun to watch. Now for the in-game graphics, I must say I�m slightly disappointed. Not that they look bad, because they look quite nice, but because they look pretty much the same as in the Megaman Zero GBA games. One would think that the DS would show some higher quality 2D than the GBA, but really it doesn�t look that much better than its predecessors. That said, the character designs are pretty cool, and the different transformations look really nice. All in all the graphics look good, but could have been done a bit better to fit the DSs higher 2D capacities.

Gameplay
So, what�s so special about Rockman ZX that makes it worth buying? Well the gameplay of course. This time instead of being level oriented, the game actually just has one big map where you travel through different areas. It actually plays like Castlevania/Metroid quite a bit. It�s just one big level with places that can�t be accessed at certain times because you either lack certain card keys or abilities to reach them. I find that this way of playing actually fits the megaman franchise very well.

The game is set up in a series of missions. As you progress through the game you will receive missions that will ask you to go to new areas of the map, and as you complete missions you will receive new abilities or card keys that will give you access to new areas. For example, at first you can�t open yellow doors, but after a few mission you get a yellow card key, which enables you to open them and going to new places. Obviously, each mission ends with a boss battle. Each boss has some kind of weak point. When you beat a boss, it gives you a ranking in levels depending on how well you performed against it and how much you hit his weak point. The level, from 1 to 4, determines how strong the Live Metal you will gain after the battle. After the boss, most of the time you will be close to a mission/save/teleport point, where you�ll confirm you completed the mission (top option), be able to save your game (middle option, then first option) and be able to teleport to another area (last option).

Now for the interesting part of the gameplay, here�s the new system in this game called the R.O.C.K system (which I�m expecting to have its named changed to M.E.G.A system or something like that in the US release). It enables you to equip Live Metal to change form. Each model of live metal has different weapons and abilities, and each form can do a basic dash on the ground. For example, model H gives you the ability to float and air dash, the L model lets you swim in water and the F model lets you break certain blocks. Also, each model has a different function for the bottom screen. The H model shows the life remaining on a an enemy, the L model shows a big map with a red cursor that shows where items are, and might also show hidden items, the F model, when you pause the game, let�s you choose the trajectory for the bullet it�s guns shoot and the P model shows a smaller map than the L model, but shows enemies and secret passages. The X and ZX models don�t have a special bottom screen function. Finally there�s another form you always have from the beginning: the Human form. It doesn�t have any attacks and it can�t dash. It�s almost useless. But wait, humans seem to be able to do things reploids can�t! For the first time in a megaman game, as far as I can remember at least, you can CROUCH!! Yes, completely new to megaman games is the ability to crouch and move around when crouching, letting you pass through small passages your reploid forms can�t. So that�s basically what the forms can do ability-wise. To enable easier form-changing, you can press the X button, which let�s you change form anytime during gameplay, so you can keep your eyes on what�s happening around you. Each form plays a bit differently, so there�s some gameplay variety here, which is nice.

Now we know about each forms abilities, but what about weapons? Same as abilities, each form come equipped with different weapons, some with more than one. The primary weapon is used with the Y button, and the secondary weapon is used with the R button. You can decide which weapon is primary or secondary as well. Model H uses 2 different swords, with different attack arcs, and using them one after another will release a small beam. Model L uses a lance, which is used mostly like a sword, but it can spin around you when you are swimming underwater. Model P uses shuriken that shoot straight forward when used normally, but that are shot in different directions when in the air. Model F has one cannon on each arm, and can have their bullets moving however you want them to by customizing their trajectory on the touch screen as I explained before. Model X plays just like Megaman in older megaman games. Finally, model ZX plays just like Zero from the Megaman Zero games, with him using a sword and a gun. Each weapon also has a charge attack, and some weapons have more depending on which direction you are pressing while shooting the charged shot. Also note that the models might not already have some of the charged shots right from the start. Model ZX has the same charged shot as Zero in Megaman Zero. Model X has a similar charge shot from Megaman X. Model H can throw a ball of electricity which can paralyze certain enemies, as well as create a tornado. Model L can make a block of ice that he can hit to make move, enabling you to ride it, as well as creating an ice dragon. Model F can shoot fireballs as well as destroy breakable blocks and make a wave of fire appear in front of him. Finally, model P can shoot a big Shuriken, and do some kind of cloaking or something of the sort. So as you can see each model plays a bit differently, may it be from different abilities and weapons, so the gameplay is really varied and figuring out which model to use when is quite fun.

Import-Friendly?
It�s a bit hard to handle at first, since the first few missions aren�t that obvious if you don�t know Japanese. But afterwards, you mostly just need to either go back to the base to visit Prairie or select the first mission in the list. When you select the mission, listen to what Prairie says and she�ll say what Area you must go to next, you should clearly hear where you should go. After that it�s just a matter of finding the area in the big map and where to reach it from. But there are guides and maps on the net that help out quite a bit for that. Other than that you�ll also be missing the story which can be a bit frustrating, but honestly I never play megaman games for the story. But still I suggest waiting for the English version is you don�t know Japanese as it will be a bit easier to play.

Conclusion
If you're a megaman/rockman fan, there's really no reason not to like this game. It's very fun to play, it features normal Megaman gameplay with its own little twist. Of course it has quite a bit of difficulty if played in any mode other than Easy, so megaman Zero fans will be pleased to see this game is just about as hard as the MMZ games. The different models are all very fun to use and give a lot of variety in the gameplay. Finally the Castlevania/Metroid style of play works really well here and is used at it's full potential. This is a great addition to any Megaman fan's collection, although, again, I suggest to wait for the english version of the game if you don't know japanese.

Pros
Awesome gameplay
Challenging
Voice-acting is good (in japanese)
Castlevania/Metroid style of play works really well here
Cool anime cut-scenes

Cons
Graphics are a bit unsatisfying considering they look almost exactly the same as the GBA Megaman Zero games