It’s been a few months since I reviewed a Megaman game. That time was the 3rd and thought of as the best entry into this part of the franchise. So let’s go right to its start.

Megaman Zero was to have been the game after Megaman X5, and if you get the main ending to that game you can see how. Set 100 years after the X era we find Scientist Ciel working with a group called the Resistance searching through ruins when they are attacked by the forces of Neo Arcadia who slaughter everyone accompanying her, she is rescued when she delves deep into it and finds the sleeping body of the legendary robot Zero.

I should state there is no in universe reason for the change in appearances from X to Zero eras. It’s just one of artstyle, but others have tried to come up with explanations of upgrades and other reasons. But as said it’s according to sources just an artistic one.

You’re caught up on things soon. X is the ruler of Neo Arcadia and is running a harsh regime that will hunt down and destroy reploids due to an energy crisis, any reploid they deem is rogue will be hunted down and terminated, and so the Resistance formed to try and fight for the safety of Reploids against this harsh regime. A bit of a reverse of the X era and one that would have been great  going from X 5 directly into. But X6 happened and more after, but anyway…

Mechanically you control Zero as you would in the X era games. He has a dash, can jump up walls and is equipped with a Sword and Blaster which you can either use in rapid succession or charge up. Rather than a level selection you start out (after opening level) in the Resistance base and can even talk to people in there. You get “levels” which take the form of missions to complete to progress the game, these end with bosses and you are rated on how well you did. The Mission System is considered the big failing of this game. It’s possible to fail these for one, but also because dying even once lowers your score getting a good rating is exceedingly hard… and that’s if you even have extra lives to begin with as those are very rare, so most levels you get one shot at in a game with spikes and bottomless pits. If you have a high rating the bosses you face also have additional attacks, but some things are only unlocked by having a high rating.

The game has the feature of Cyber Elves as a consumable to help you such as give you permanent power ups… BUT using them will lower your scores so the main mechanic is built to not be used if you want content.

The bosses like all Megaman Games are the highlight with a very varied amount of them. You get some that are in the style of X era animal themed, some that are more giant machines, and the 4 Guardians of Neo Arcadia who come across more like player characters than enemy bosses thanks to their human designs. It is worth noting that since Zero doesn’t get powers from beating bosses, there is no order to fight them by weapon weakness. You can get some power ups by completing some missions, but some bosses don’t have elemental weakness so you just have to learn their attack patterns with no means to make the fights easier like in other Megaman games.

You do fight a number of them for the second time when you storm into Neo Arcadia to fight X. But you soon find that “X” is actually a copy made by Ciel after the original went missing so you fight and destroy this Copy X as the final boss. Originally this was going to have been the real X but the people working on it realized that’s a bad look to kill the protag of the previous game which in between they turned into a big villain, kind of makes you look petty.

There are elements of what makes people enjoy the Zero games here, but it’s very clunky and has lots holding it down. You complete it so you say you completed the first game then move onto the rest which are a lot more solid.

Rating: 🎮🎮