Well I just finished the easy scenario mode of the Zero Collection. This won’t be a full review, there is too much game and too much love to go over it all.
When I found this game, I was ecstatic. I have mentioned that the Zero series is my favourite Megaman iteration, because of its depth, pacing, plot treatment, and smooth-ass gameplay (when you get good), but most importantly, because I played loads of it during my developmental years. In this case, during high school me and a friend had Japanese copies of the first two and pretty much knew them back to front. We had our own names for the characters that turned out to be different to the localised ones, names I think are superior (we called Harpuia and Elpizo: Hyperia and Elpis, for example). Later, I bought the 4th installment in English, which was a very different experience. But now I’ve played them all in a row and got the complete overview.
Well, I say complete. Easy Scenario mode drops you in Ultimate mode automatically, which normally requires you to totally clock the game and rewards you with ultimate power-ups, after you’ve struggled through the hard way. This means you can breeze through it, and I did. The game ranks you at the end of missions, and I usually scored very high, except in damage. I got damaged a lot. I had loads of health, I could take it. Need to work on that in normal mode. It’s not really the Zero experience to breeze through like that. People shouldn’t buy this game and just play that mode. The games are about dying a lot, learning patterns, honing your reflexes. When you play it as much as I did, you get good at that.
So which games emphasise this feeling? I think maybe 2 is the hardest, 4 is the easiest. But all are rewarding in this way. To really judge that, I probably need to play again in normal mode. But I can say other things comparing them all.
The games form a cohesive, complete story. Not all of them are strictly necessary, though. Each game could be the end of the series, some more open-ended than others. They do build on each other, though, so playing any of them requires the ones before in terms of plot (and sometimes gameplay). The way they are connected is really gratifying, as we see characters return and in some cases grow. The threats reveal larger threats behind them, which develops over the course of several games.
This developing threat comes to a head in 3, where early on you confront a terrifying robot from the games’ backstory, Omega. (Later you find its true identity, which makes it more significant.) It is then joined by the Dark Elf, the antagonist of 2; Copy X, the antagonist of 1; and Dr. Weil, who becomes the antagonist of 4. This combination of strong enemies makes me think of Zelda 4 Swords Adventures, wherein you fight Vaati, Ganon AND Dark Link. Imagine if Mario fought Bowser, then Donkey Kong comes out, Wart jumps up behind you and Wario starts laughing at you. It’s awesome.
Which brings me to 4. When you defeat three of these threats during Zero 3, the 4th installment only has Weil, which makes its scale seem a little smaller. Its design aesthetic is also very different, as it had a different lead designer than the other three. All in all it feels different, a little tacked on. It makes sense when you find out that a bit like the X series which was supposed to finish with X5 (and thus continue to the Zero series), the original plan was for a trilogy. I’m not complaining that they added another, and it certainly rounds out the story in a conclusive way, but it is somewhat different.
The Four Guardians are major characters in the first three, but are conspicuous in their absence in 4. Official word was they were elsewhere during these events, but later statements retconned this, saying they died during the climax of 3. This ties to the artwork featured in one of the soundtracks (although labelled “fanart” officially, it was produced by the developers of the game) which depicts *SPOILER the Guardians as Cyber-Elves with X, watching the fall of Ragnarok.* Anyway, whatever happened, they are great characters and lend some continuity to the series as they return for revenge, and eventually sort of join your side. They are also very important to the two ZX games.
The other characters are also unique, especially unique in the fact that this game HAS characters, unlike some other Megaman series games (although I haven’t played the later ones with cutscenes). A cast of varied Resistance members, even some humans in 4. The important ones though are X, Ciel, and to a lesser extent Cerveau the engineer. They don’t interact all that much, but they have personality, especially when you read into it.
This brings me to the issue of supplemental materials. I love the style of the official artwork of these games, it’s very beautiful and in addition to the manual and many examples on MMKB wiki, there are unlockable galleries in the game. A cool feature, and it even includes the gameplay-modifying e-Reader cards for 3 that never made it to Australia. The Japanese advertisements for this game were wonderfully animated in anime style, even if it’s only 15 second spots. And developer Inti Creates very lovingly constructed multiple soundtracks for the series, with great art, remastered and arranged tracks, and even spoken drama audio tracks that flesh out the story. However, the manga produced for this series is utter tripe. A dull, watered-down story, ugly art, butchered and maimed characters, dumb Mary-Sue little boy protagonist (an unfortunate trend in shonen manga). It’s pretty bad. Granted, I haven’t read the 3rd volume, which seems like it takes itself less seriously.
Anyway, the best part about these games is the games, and I loved playing them again, and 3 for the first time. I look forward to playing them in normal mode (Ultimate mode already has the collectibles, so you literally just rush through). Before that, I might play ZX first as I acquired it at the same time. Haven’t decided yet.
I might finish up here, this wasn’t a complete review or anything, as I didn’t exactly have a full game experience in easy mode. But it reminded me why I love Megaman, and it’s because of Zero. It actually made me want to play more X series, at least the ones with playable Zero. Anyway I recommend the Zero collection for those who like the X series if you haven’t given it a go, it’s available for those in the US on Capcom’s online store (if you’re inlcined to give Capcom money, which many people aren’t at the moment for good reason). It’s a hard series though so keep in mind that you need the skillz that pay the billz. (The z is for Zero.)
