Megaman X – Command Mission. This is not going to be easy to review. Through most of this review, I will likely be ranting about different cheezy and seemingly unnecessary features. At its core, MXCM sounds like something that’s been done before: a Megaman themed RPG. However, that also means it’s been done BETTER. But then again, this is Megaman X, not just Megaman and not Megaman.exe, which is about the most annoying name Megaman’s come across yet.
Before I even walk into this review, we need to see where we’ve been, what Capcom’s been doing with other RPGs and Megaman themed RPGs, and where we’ve arrived.
Megaman X – Core Series
The SNES had a lot of new versions of old classics. For example, Super Mario World, Super Metroid, Super Punchout…you get the idea. It was really cool to see familiar games coming back with awesome 16-bit sequels. Megaman X was no exception, except that it was an entirely new series. A lot of the more retarded kids in my school tried to claim it was Megaman 10 and that we had missed a few Megaman games that were only released in Japan.
Of course, these were the same kids that didn’t believe me later when I said there was a Megaman 7 on the SNES, so fuck ‘em. In any case, beyond it being 16-bit, the enemies, terminology, and all of it was different. Sure, the core formula was still there. You could approach any of the 8 robot masters in whatever order you chose, but certain ones were weak against others, the stage difficulties varied, etc.
What was also interesting in this one was that of upgrades. See, you started with a pretty small and pathetic life bar. Now some may claim that was unnecessary and was only done so you could have the upgrades, but I’d have to respectfully disagree, then punch you in the balls. In any case, it was interesting to see this new branch of Megaman games and they were indeed very awesome.
They eventually went from the SNES to the PSX and then on to the PS2. And that’s where they eventually went wrong. See, Capcom felt the pressure to start doing 3D shit with Megaman and it kinda failed. Both Megaman X 7 and 8 were pretty fucking terrible. They tried adding new characters, modes, etc. It just resulted in a less classic, utterly shitty sequel line.
To be fair, I never played X 3 – 6 very in depth, but I played the shit out of 1 and 2 greatly, enough to beat the second, which is one of the few Megaman games I’ve actually beaten (just don’t have the patience I guess).
Other RPGs
With Capcom’s involvement in the Breath of Fire series alone, I knew it was only a matter of time until a full blown Megaman RPG would come out. Lo and behold, a very short, but awesome series came out: Megaman Legends. Legends’ setup is basically what I would describe as almost a more kid-friendly, 3rd person Metroid archetype of sorts.
You can collect money, use it to buy stuff, search dungeons and such for treasure, get in major battles with giant robots, and much more. There was a pretty good story for both titles as well. I wouldn’t say it’s deep or anything as far as RPGs go, but I would still qualify it as a light action/RPG or possibly action/adventure, were it not for the different stat mods and such.
For whatever reason, Capcom’s not taken another crack at another Legends title. Maybe it just didn’t get enough attention…I don’t know. In any case, they started yet ANOTHER Megaman RPG line: Battle Network (or Megaman.EXE in Japan). This is one of those really weird, frantic card-based titles. And really, it’s not bad…just a little confusing at times.
For some reason, that series has flourished to a ridiculous level. And yes, there are other Megaman series I’m probably missing that could have the action/RPG derivitive I love, but I haven’t played them, so I don’t know. The point is we have Capcom establishing itself as a pretty well-rounded company being able to do all of these things, most of them successful.
Hell, look at Dead Rising. You have a modern zombie title that ISN’T Resident Evil, lots of humor, plenty of difficulty, new game+ from the get-go, and even RPG elements that don’t drag the game down like some RPG hybrids have done in the past. If that isn’t proof positive Capcom is fully capable of making an amazing action/RPG title, I don’t know what is.
The Result
And yet…MXCM is not…well, it’s not bad…but I can’t really say it’s good either. Let’s put it this way. Normally when I think of an RPG, I think random encounters, turn-based combat, leveling up, possible grinding, and a pretty steady difficulty level that’s really only made easier by grinding and adjusting your strategy when necessary. MXCM is most of these, so you’d think I’d be happy…but I’m not.
When I think Megaman X, I think a game that has great levels and level design, tough bosses, awesome music, lots of awesome abilities, and of course, Megaman X at the helm, just being a badass with his overall presence. That is not this game. The music’s pretty decent and the bosses can be tough at times, but the level design is awful and uninspired and often take place in generic places to begin with.
Nevermind that you really don’t get any awesome abilities, stage select, or anything like that. No, it’s a fairly linear RPG with no real action, a super cheezy plot, and the voice acting vying for being yet even cheezier. Another problem is despite the fact that everything has God awful low-res textures and a pathetic excuse for a cel-shading engine, it still takes a good 10 seconds or more to load each encounter, also adding in that there’s no more than 30 seconds of walking between each battle.
To be fair, the battles and effects are bright, colorful, and have a variety of built-in minigames, but even those feel like all too familiar nods to other, more successful games. Battle progression is entirely turn-based, which, even for an RPG nut like me, seems to slow the game down to a crawl. Why? Not even factoring in the ridiculous amount of time it takes to load in and out of the battle, this is a MEGAMAN game and things aren’t exactly kept at a brisk pace.
You walk slow, it has to load virtually every area, there are too many bland hallways to count, the mapping system leaves a lot to be desired, there’s too much terrible and unnecessary dialog at times (and of course spoken cutscenes have to be loaded), and some of the more powerful attacks in battle have to be loaded. Bottom line: this is the slowest, most redundant Megaman title you will ever play, and I’ve played Megaman motherfucking Soccer.
My question is why couldn’t they have done something similar to Megaman Legends? Or maybe fine tuned it more so that the pacing wasn’t thrown off so horribly? But not all is bad in this game. For one, there’s a lot of unintentionally funny stuff. Sure, that’s not a great thing to say about the game, but it’s true. Most of the cutscenes I was literally laughing out loud watching because of how ridiculously melodramatic and stupid they are.
On top of that, it is an interesting idea at the very least. There are a lot of interesting features like having no true recovery items, but being able to access your energy tanks anytime to recover status, HP, etc. The level up, upgrade, stat, force armor, and weapon systems are also pretty cool and allow for a lot of customization. Over time, you get more and interesting shops and such you can access as well.
While there’s a lot of things they…borrow…from other RPGs, it still makes an interesting blend for battle, especially with the aforementioned tough boss battles. And Axl, who doesn’t make an appearance until later unfortunately (even though I really don’t like him from a character design standpoint), has the ability to use boss abilities from bosses you’ve destroyed…but only Axl, not X, who is EXACTLY the motherfucker that should be doing that.
Conclusion
In the end, it’s not a bad game, but it’s pretty generic and kinda dumb for an RPG. Actually, the same applies even for a Megaman title. It’s still fun, but it’s very slow and definitely not up to par to most RPGs. Really, you’d be better off doing either one of the Megaman Legends titles and if you want something truly different, then yeah, give Battle Network a go. I can vouch for at least the first two.
Tags: 2, axl, breath, command, console, episode, exe, fire, game, gaming, man, mega, mission, obvious, play, ps, ps1, psx, Review, role, rpg, station, video, x, zero
I played a bit of the more recent XBL demo, and enjoyed it for a little bit. Not enough to put me over the edge to purchase it though… It’s funny that I spent a retarded amount of my life playing the better NES titles and Capcom was a HUGE part of these. Konami had some good one’s as well. Must be out of the loop since I was unaware of the MM RPG stuff.
I will always argue that there is a place in gaming for the old school stuff. If you haven’t spent a chunk of life playing it, it remains novel. At this point, time travelling doesn’t stick well… on to new and flashier things.
That being said, if you HAVEN’T ever played the classic style of side-scrollers from the day, heed Gun Sage’s words well. These games are unforgiving. You have to be good, there is no escape. If you die, you lose a life. If you run out of lives, you start over.
With all of that being said, great obvious review. MegaMan OBVIOUSLY should stay a part of the past, and not become a fucking RPG. Let’s take the prefix “re” and attach it to the source word, “tarded.”
Well done sir. This game sounds like a loser.
It’s kinda one of those guilty pleasures. There really are a lot of bad aspects to it, yet it’s still fun somehow. Maybe that’s because I like a lot of the behind the scenes stuff like the force armor and various different concepts. Again, though, a lot of these are ripped off and usually done better in other games prior to and after this.
I got Megaman 9 on XBL and I STILL haven’t beaten the 8 bosses yet. This is partially because it’s retardedly hard, but also because it actually feels harder than the classics. I don’t know, maybe it’s just me. I’ll probably also get 10 when it comes out. The other Megaman RPGs, especially the two Legends games, were great…so I really have no idea what happened here.