Little X in the Giga City – Let’s Play the Mega Man X Series
Hey, it’s the next one of these! I’ve already played through the whole Classic Mega Man series here , so now it’s time for the X series. You can also find a full list of the whole X series here in case you just want to scroll through a Youtube playlist for some reason. And lastly, here’s a riff of the prequel OVA, The Day of Sigma:
The NeXt Generation - Let’s Play Mega Man X1
Now, every robot has a chance of saying, “I’m more than just a robot. Die, Wily.”
Long ago, there was a genius roboticist named Dr. Thomas Light. His expertise in the field had helped populate the world with advanced robots who helped people in their every day lives. But at the end of the day, they were mere machines, bound to the will of humanity. But recently, a scientist named Dr. Cain made a discovery: Dr. Light had created something even more advanced than the robots of that time period. A new type of robot who could think for himself, who Dr. Light had named X. Although X could not be finished before Light’s passing, all he had needed was time to ensure that he wouldn’t become a threat. But that time had passed, and Cain could unseal X from his capsule. Indeed, X was far more advanced than any robot the world had seen before. By using Light’s notes, Cain was able to mass-produce more of these robots, which came to be known as “Replica Androids,” or “Reploids” for short. These Reploids integrated quickly into society, and seemed to be a greater boon than their predecessors. However, a problem soon arose: the ability to think freely came with the danger of turning against humans. Although robots had been used as tools against the world before, now they could go maverick and become a threat without a human master. A group of Reploids were banded together for the purpose of combating the threat of Mavericks, but even these Maverick Hunters are susceptible to going Maverick themselves. Sigma, formerly a Reploid Commander, has begun a rebellion against humanity. With eight other powerful Mavericks by his side, the casualties could be immense. Even without their superiors, the Maverick Hunters must muster the strength to stop Sigma’s rebellion. And amongst their ranks is the original Reploid, X, a mere Class-B Hunter who must nonetheless prove he’s not going to be left in the dust.
It’s finally time for Mega Man X! Although the Classic series did eventually move to the Super Nintendo, the X series got the console first. And as far as reputation goes, X1 is incredibly popular. And for good reason: it’s got solid level and boss designs, it looks amazing, and the soundtrack breathes even further life into each stage. Yes, X1 is most certainly a classic, which is a good note going into this game.
… the bad news is, it’s one of the best games in the series. A series with seven other games after it. That’s… not usually where you want the best entry to be. Ah well, let’s not worry about that yet! Let’s just enjoy X1 while we have it.
Episode List (click for more details)
Zero-Sum Game - Let’s Play Mega Man X2
Don’t be so down, X, you’ve already got a fan clu- oh wait those guys hate you personally.
X may have defeated Sigma, but there’s still work to be done to clean up the remnants of his rebellion. Thankfully, that’s just a factory raid away from being finished! … Or at least it would be, if there weren’t another shadowy organization lurking just around the corner. And this group seems to have a particular interest in X’s deceased friend…
Welcome to Mega Man X2! X1 did well, and we know from the Classic games that Capcom is no stranger to a long series, so this was more or less inevitable. So how does X2 fare against its predecessor? Well, this game is far more polarizing than the universally-loved X1, so you can probably guess the answer is, “less good.” And when compared to the advancement from Mega Man 1 to 2, X2 doesn’t really do anything incredibly new or exciting after X1. Personally, though, I’m pretty fond of it even if it isn’t quite as good as the first game. It stands up well enough on its own, which is more than what some of the actually bad games in the series can say.
Episode List (click for more details)
Topple the Dopple - Let’s Play Mega Man X3
Everyone loves Dr. Doppler, a lovely Reploid who cured the Maverick Virus! 5 seconds later We regret to inform you Dr. Doppler has gone Maverick.
It seems the threat of Mavericks is over and done with! A Reploid scientist by the name of Dr. Doppler has figured out a way to suppress Maverick abnormalities, thus ensuring the safety of Reploids and Humans alike. Everyone was so overjoyed that they decided to found Dopple Town, which promises to be a perfect utopia. One problem: Mavericks have not been dealt with, and now there are a whole lot of them rampaging around Dopple Town under the command of Dr. Doppler himself. Well, damn. With a new threat in play, X and Zero move out to suppress the threat of Doppler’s minions, before they get too out of hand.
Welcome to Mega Man X3! Hey, you know how Mega Man X2 didn’t have enough time to bake, and was kinda so-so compared to X1? Well, here we go again! X3 did not have that long of a development time after X2, but it shows… differently than it did in X2. Where X2 was a bit too short for its own good, X3 can feel a little drawn out in places without enough substance to make it feel worthwhile. And one of its major mechanics, the ability to play as Zero, wound up being too restrictive to be fun. So good news if you were disappointed by that: this LP uses a hack designed to make it easier and more worthwhile to play as Zero ! So while X3 still isn’t my favorite X game, we at least have this. And it does make things much more enjoyable.
Episode List (click for more details)
Outer Heaven by Reploids, for Reploids - Let’s Play Mega Man X4
Hold up, just what are we fighting for, anyway?
A recent Maverick attack has been blamed on a Reploid army by the name of Repliforce. But Repliforce has not only denied these allegations, but take them as a grave insult. They have decided to revolt and establish their own settlement away from the humans who would so quickly label them as enemies. Which, of course, has labelled them as enemies of mankind. X and Zero have no choice but to regard Repliforce as Mavericks, and battle against the insurrection.
Welcome to Mega Man X4! We’re leaving the Super Nintendo behind for the Sony Playstation this generation, which means a bit of an overhaul for the X series. The jump may not be as big as the Classic series’ shift tov16-bit, but it’s not insignificant. And joining us for this new style is Zero, who’s feasibly playable without a hack this time around! In fact, X and Zero have distinct playstyles and slightly differing perspectives on the game’s storyline. Add that to some solid level design and bosses, and you have a good first impression for the PSX’s X games. Savor it while you can.
Episode List (click for more details)
Alia Called, She Says it’s the End of the World as We Know It - Let’s Play Mega Man X5
Dawn of the first stage. 16 hours remain.
Not long after Repliforce’s attempted coup, a new space-based threat has emerged. Someone has attacked the space colony Eurasia, and now it’s on a crash course towards the Earth. Worse yet, Sigma is back already , and has wasted no time attacking civilization. X and Zero head out to stop him, unaware that they’re playing right into his hands.
We’ve made it to X5, the game with the opposite dev cycle problem that most of the Mega Man games have had up until now. It’s been about three years since X4 released, and now it feels like there’s strange new meat on the bones X4 introduced. That’s not to say X5 is all bad; there’s a lot of ideas going on with this one. Some of them work, and some of them do not. It certainly doesn’t reach the lows that we’re going to see after it, but it also feels a little bloated compared to X4. (Also, some of the level design’s really bad, imo.)
If you want to cut a little bit of the awkward design out of your playthrough, there’s now a hack that actually makes several improvements to the game . This LP will be showcasing said hack, which means things’ll look a bit different if you’re used to vanilla X5. But I highly recommend it; it’s made playing X5 for the LP much more enjoyable.
Episode List (click for more details)
Nightmare on Reploid Street - Let’s Play Mega Man X6
You’d better hide yourself before you repair yourself.
It’s been three weeks since Mega Man X5 happened, and the world is unsurprisingly still in turmoil. But not long after Zero’s death, phantom images have haunted the world, alongside various other miscellaneous effects, a phenomenon which has been named the “Nightmare.” A man named Isoc has called to Reploids around the globe to put an end to this crisis, but the Maverick Hunters aren’t so certain his intentions are pure. Especially since the main eight investigators all seem to be linked to a mysterious Reploid named Gate, who unbeknownst to them has had a recent change of heart…
Hoo boy, welcome to Mega Man X6, a game characterized by both a surplus and lack of ambition, somehow. There are a bunch of new mechanics which, while interesting, add to the clutter bogging down the usual pace of an X stage. The same thing goes for the story, which does try to go places, but is also held back by the utter disinterest they had following up any consequences of X5’s storyline. In short, the game’s kind of a mess. But just like with X5, I’ll be making it slightly less of a mess with the Mega Man X6 Tweaks hack.
Episode List (click for more details)
X in the Third Dimension (Now Featuring Less X)
Now featuring less of Mega Man “Actually Both Sides are Wrong” X.
After the last defeat of Sigma, the world is finally on the road to recovery. The Nightmare Virus is done and dusted, and now civilization can reemerge. I assume humans are back on the surface, even if we continue to not see them. But even as things improve, the Maverick Hunters still find difficulty returning to their prime form. And worse for them, X has finally had enough of the constant fighting, and has retired. So who’s going to take care of the rising crime rates? Why, everybody’s favorite mercenary band, Red Alert! Everyone knows them, and everybody loves them! Now let’s just hope they don’t experience any sudden moral deterioration.
Well. It’s X7. While the X series tried to keep its core design throughout the PS1 games, this is where they finally tried to implement 3D sections into the formula. And, well, it certainly changes things. But 7 is usually regarded as the worst game in the series, so as you might imagine there wound up being a lot of problems with this change. Now thankfully, a recent mod called N’s Edition aims to clean up a lot of the oddities that really drag down the game. Does it fix all of them? Probably not, but at least we can go through this one with fewer road bumps!
Episode List (click for more details)
X and Crew vs the Inexplicable Biblical Allegories - Let’s Play Mega Man X8
Hold on tight, Axl! We’re blastin’ off to the moooooon!
Humanity has bounced back from the Eurasia incident. A new generation of Reploids has been produced; these new Reploids are, apparently, resistant against viruses and are in no danger of going Maverick. With these developments, humanity once again sets its sights towards space. They begin the Jakob Project, which aims to build an elevator that reaches the moon itself in order for humans and these new Reploids to migrate away from the Maverick-infested Earth. But unfortunately, those old Mavericks have designs on the moon as well. And while the threat of Sigma seems to be gone for good, an old rival has arrived on the scene to make sure the Jakob Orbital Elevator doesn’t wind up in the hands of humans.
At last, we’ve reached the final Mega Man X platformer. After X7 didn’t go over particularly well, its successor reigned in a decent bit. The 3D sections are mostly gone, and the game as a whole leans towards 2.5D levels. That’s not to say this feels entirely like an SNES game with 3D graphics, though. There’s more emphasis on the partner system, including additional special attacks that can be used as long as both characters are active. X, Zero and Axl are also just a touch more distinct in their gameplay styles, and you don’t have to wait half the game to have everyone available. It’s an interesting step forward that doesn’t exactly feel like what came before it. And considering this is the last game in the series, we never saw what could have come after, either.
Episode List (click for more details)
(Platformer) Postmortem
Sigma may not have the patience for turn-based battles, but X sure does!
Giga City is under threat by a Maverick named Epsilon and his Rebellion Army. X’s unit has been dispatched on a reconnaissance mission to assess this new threat. However, this isn’t going to be such a simple mission this time around. The Rebellion Army is stronger than the Maverick Hunters are used to, or at the very least they’re a lot more prepared for JRPGs than our typically-platforming heroes. Either way, X is gonna need more friends and a lot more EXp if he’s going to take down Epsilon.
And so, the Mega Man X series ends not with a canon platformer, but with the RPG spinoff. Released around the same time as X8, Command Mission was the ever-rare Mega Man RPG that wasn’t just its own series. It didn’t exactly have the confidence of Inafune, but time has shown that such a thing isn’t an accurate tell of quality. In any case, while this is an RPG, the developers did want to keep the X series feel, and in the end it made quite the distinct game.
Episode List (click for more details)
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COMPLETED ✅ Little X in the Giga City – Let’s Play the Mega Man X Series by Fefnir
