This game is odd. The story is fine. I like the twist. X, Zero, and Axl all feel great to control. They're all very distinct and feel very evenly balanced. I like the navigator system and the partner system. Its fun trying to balance which ones to use. Zero's weapons are all super fun. His techniques except his spinning move all kind of suck. His weapons make up for it though. Axl's weapons are also really great. His copy shot is whatever. X's weapons kind of suck, but his armors are great. I like the Hermes Armor a lot. I used its parts instead of the Icarus armor. The chip system is also really cool. I like collecting them and buying new chips to power me up. Though, collecting the collectibles is really tedious. Especially since I don't really like the levels. They all feel really one-dimensional and slow. Its feels like they only focus on one idea and one idea only without considering if they're fun. The fact that you have to replay these slow levels multiple times in order to get everything is really annoying. I also don't really like the music that much. I feel like this game has a really good baseline, but it doesn't really apply it in a way I like.
This review contains spoilers
I'm conflicted.
Out of all of the Mega Man X games, X8 is the one that has so many things that I love about it yet also has a lot of damning aspects that drag the experience down for me.
Let me start with the positives: This game has the best controls out of any X game. The characters feel so smooth and fun to control. I don't really know how to describe it, but they feels so fun to play around with the characters and their abilities more than every other game in the series. Speaking of which, X, Zero, and Axl all feel really balanced in this game and they all have distinct characteristics that make them stand out. X has the charge shot and can equip his set of armors but can only shoot straightforward, Axl can shoot in 8 directions but can charge his weapons, and Zero has his collection of swords and double jump but has the shortest dash length. They all their pros and cons and it doesn't feel like one character has a much bigger advantage or disadvantage over the other. It just kinda baffles me that we went from X7, which had the worst controls and character balancing in the series, to X8, which had the best.
I also love the new shop system they implemented into this game. No more heart tanks, sub tanks, or rescuable reploids that may give you items at the end of a stage; now you purchase items and abilities with the metals you earn from the stages. It's a fun system that gives light to a new gameplay idea and gets rid of a formula that became stale by the 6th entry.
The bosses are a lot of fun as well, as they now have invulnerability frames so that you don't kill them so easily and have phases so they don't end up repeating the same mundane patterns over and over again. I'm not saying the bosses in the previous games were bad (aside from X7, of course) but you could kill them easily with their weaknesses, which is a little lame.
Another aspect are the list of quality of life improvements this game provided. First off, there is more than one navigator now; Alia gives usual advice to newcomers about tips on the stages, but now there are two new navigators: Layer and Palette. Layer will give you tips on the bosses, and Palette will provide hints on finding items in the stages. And if you don't want any navigation, you can always go into a stage without a navigator, which is very nice feature. I also love that you can mix and match X's armor sets to however you wish. The two new armors in this game, the Icarus and the Hermes armor, are already fun to use on their own, with the Icarus armor being more offensive oriented while the Hermes armor is more defensive oriented. However, because X is given the neutral armor near the start of the game, you can customize X with whatever parts you want on him. I personally just put the Icarus armor on him throughout most of my playthrough, but to each their own. You can even quit a level even if you haven't finished it yet; such a small change that goes a LONG way.
Lastly, I would like to talk about the characterization. I LOVE the character interactions in this game. I love seeing moments like X being so serious about taking down sigma and stopping the war, or Zero exchanging to Layer about the events of X5, or Axl maturing from the events of X7, or Vile being an evil son of bitch in front of the heroes. X8 just has a lot of great characters moments that made me smile, and, again, coming off of X7, makes me wonder how the team characterized X so poorly in that game.
So, all of this sounds like X8 is an amazing game, right? Well, no. The thing is is that X8 drops the ball on some aspects that drag the game down considerably. (To be continued...)
Out of all of the Mega Man X games, X8 is the one that has so many things that I love about it yet also has a lot of damning aspects that drag the experience down for me.
Let me start with the positives: This game has the best controls out of any X game. The characters feel so smooth and fun to control. I don't really know how to describe it, but they feels so fun to play around with the characters and their abilities more than every other game in the series. Speaking of which, X, Zero, and Axl all feel really balanced in this game and they all have distinct characteristics that make them stand out. X has the charge shot and can equip his set of armors but can only shoot straightforward, Axl can shoot in 8 directions but can charge his weapons, and Zero has his collection of swords and double jump but has the shortest dash length. They all their pros and cons and it doesn't feel like one character has a much bigger advantage or disadvantage over the other. It just kinda baffles me that we went from X7, which had the worst controls and character balancing in the series, to X8, which had the best.
I also love the new shop system they implemented into this game. No more heart tanks, sub tanks, or rescuable reploids that may give you items at the end of a stage; now you purchase items and abilities with the metals you earn from the stages. It's a fun system that gives light to a new gameplay idea and gets rid of a formula that became stale by the 6th entry.
The bosses are a lot of fun as well, as they now have invulnerability frames so that you don't kill them so easily and have phases so they don't end up repeating the same mundane patterns over and over again. I'm not saying the bosses in the previous games were bad (aside from X7, of course) but you could kill them easily with their weaknesses, which is a little lame.
Another aspect are the list of quality of life improvements this game provided. First off, there is more than one navigator now; Alia gives usual advice to newcomers about tips on the stages, but now there are two new navigators: Layer and Palette. Layer will give you tips on the bosses, and Palette will provide hints on finding items in the stages. And if you don't want any navigation, you can always go into a stage without a navigator, which is very nice feature. I also love that you can mix and match X's armor sets to however you wish. The two new armors in this game, the Icarus and the Hermes armor, are already fun to use on their own, with the Icarus armor being more offensive oriented while the Hermes armor is more defensive oriented. However, because X is given the neutral armor near the start of the game, you can customize X with whatever parts you want on him. I personally just put the Icarus armor on him throughout most of my playthrough, but to each their own. You can even quit a level even if you haven't finished it yet; such a small change that goes a LONG way.
Lastly, I would like to talk about the characterization. I LOVE the character interactions in this game. I love seeing moments like X being so serious about taking down sigma and stopping the war, or Zero exchanging to Layer about the events of X5, or Axl maturing from the events of X7, or Vile being an evil son of bitch in front of the heroes. X8 just has a lot of great characters moments that made me smile, and, again, coming off of X7, makes me wonder how the team characterized X so poorly in that game.
So, all of this sounds like X8 is an amazing game, right? Well, no. The thing is is that X8 drops the ball on some aspects that drag the game down considerably. (To be continued...)