X8 was the last game in the X series, and this is one I'd heard was pretty good despite not being able to continue the franchise. It's also a game I'd been told by Gunstar was another quite divisive game in the series, and I definitely agree with that opinion as I came down pretty hard on one side of that division XD. It took me 6 hours to see the Japanese version of the game to its conclusion on normal mode.

X8 is yet another very standard entry in the series as terms as story goes. A new generation of reploids based on Axel's form shifting design has suddenly appeared on the scene led by a terrifying new leader, and tackling that new threat is the crux of the game's narrative. X is in it from the start this time, as him, Zero, and Axel can go two at a time to take down the eight main stages of the game before going for the final battles. It's another perfectly serviceable story, even if it does make the really weird choice of substituting out Sigma for this new bad guy. Sigma is still here, don't worry, but he's just at the direction of this new uber-antagonist who is still basically just Sigma in that he wants to make a master race of reploids ruled by himself. It's not a bad story so much as just a weird choice for one, especially given that this takes a very odd turn for a PS2 game and locks the actual final stage behind playing on normal mode or higher, so you won't even fight that real final boss if you're playing the game on easy.

Playing the game on easy might be something you're quite inclined to do as well, because this game is easily the hardest out of the latter half of the Rock Man X games, but not for good reasons. This game looked at how X7 was a bit too easy and cranks the difficulty up in very unwelcome ways, throwing in the trash the very forgiving checkpoint system and having a slew of stages with some really mean and unfair sections (particular the smashing spike blocks) coupled with some pretty damn tough bosses. On top of all that, this also has what is easily the worst vehicle level in the entire series, which is saying something for a series that's no stranger to not very fun and overly difficult bike racing segments. By and large I'd even say this game takes the cake from X6 in being overall quite mean in its design, as the 3D visuals and quite long stages make for an even more grueling experience spread out over the whole game where X6 has its difficulty constrained generally to a few specific stages.

This difficulty (albeit uneven, as many bosses are still quite easy despite how hard the stages often are) also has a really weird effect on the playable characters, as like in every other X game, you can find parts to upgrade X with. There are not only two sets of equipment to find, but you can even mix and match those parts. While Zero has his double jump and Axel has his hovering and 360-degree aiming, X gets these upgrades. This makes Zero and Axel quite strong at the start, but it also makes X laughably powerful by the end of the game, particularly with how good his charge shot gets and how super over powered his phase dash is. Introducing the Piccolo effect to your other playable characters is certainly something I never foresaw happening in the X series, but it's a wild and wacky problem that for me it overshadows even the staggering problems that X6 and X7 face with their multiple characters.

The presentation of the game is overall fine, and it's really not much more than that. The new operator characters have nice designs as do the bosses (although Sigma's final form is hilariously over designed), and the music, while not exactly MP3 player-worthy, is fine for what it is. It refines the 3D style that X7 starts, but not to terribly great effect in most areas.


Verdict: Not Recommended. I come down pretty firmly on the side of not enjoying X8. This is another case where I can see why people might feel this game is better than I find it to be, but I just can't agree with that frame of thought. With all the overly mean design, this is ultimately the weakest entry in the series for me. It isn't necessarily a bad game, and you might well enjoy it, but the "hard because Mega Man HAS to be hard" design philosophy it follows makes things frustrating far more often than they're fun as far as I'm concerned.

It's been quite a time going through so many Mega Man games and the entire X series, even if it took me a while to get to writing about these last three games. My final (and to some I'm sure heretical) ranking of the X games is:
4 > 3 > 1 > 2 > 7 > 6 > 5 > 8
Mind you, that's how much I enjoyed each game. I will definitely concede that X6 is a worse game overall than X5, but X5 is just so bland and the RNG stuff in it drags it down so much that I ended up enjoying X6's flaws and madness more comparatively. X7 is also, as previously stated, a really weird case where it's SO different I find it really hard to compare it to the rest of the series in many ways, but I think sitting below X2 (or above, depending on the day) is fine for me. I'm really glad I took the plunge on the latter X games, despite all the advice against doing that (X3), as it gave me a really cool look into just how flawed yet still enjoyable games in this style and in this series can be. As much as blame deserves to be put on the X5-8 team for making the games the way they did, I think equally if not more blame deserves to be put on Capcom's management for the absolutely absurd production schedule they had these teams on, and I think the X series might still be around had these games been allowed dev cycles of even two years compared to the often sub-12 month productions they too often had.

Some of the stages are too gimmicky for their own good, some weapons suffer the same issue, and Zero continues to struggle at keeping up with his projectile-based coworkers. At the same time however, it's the most competent game in the series since 'X4' and the 2.5D design forms some stages is a nice touch. Additionally, it also brings some sense of finality to the endless fight against Sigma.

'Mega Man X8' is a mixed bag but even the weakest prize from that bag is still leagues better than most of what we've gotten from the past three games.

La carta de disculpa tras lo que dejaron el X5-X6-X7.
Si bien, no es perfecto, ya que el juego tiene bastante backtracking, algunos niveles son inconsistentes o distorsionados en las púas, y demás.

El juego corrige, y arregla los tropiezos del X5 - X7, y la misma arregla y pule los que esos juegos dejaron.
No superan al X2 y X4, pero es un buen juego.

Además la variedad de armas, la mejora de los personajes, en mejorar todo con los chips, y ahora, ya no hay reploides que rescatar, sino que aplicaron lo que el Mega Man 7 y 8 hicieron.
Una tienda para mejoras con la moneda del juego, los Metales.

Recomiendo este juego, si quieres iniciar la Saga X en otro juego que no sea X1 o X4, la misma te deja jugar como tu quieres, en fácil, normal o difícil.
y recordar que el Normal o Difícil, aparte de aumentar la dificultad, ciertos chips son más caros ahí, y ahí peleas contra Lumine.

También lo recomiendo si vienes del mal sabor de boca que dejaron Los 3 Jinetes del Apocalipsis. (X5-X6-X7)

Diría más, pero mejor lo dejo aquí xd

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.

Completed using Mega Man X Legacy Collection 2 on Switch. Played on normal difficulty, and achieved a 100% save file, which involved finding all of the Rare Metals and hidden upgrades. Unlike with MMX1-4, I played this one almost exclusively in Rookie Hunter Mode; I did give it a genuine effort at first, but soon caved in and decided I wanted a more relaxed experience (I attribute this to the oddly restrictive continues system).

After the disappointment that was X5, its disastrous sequel X6, and the lousy excuse for a game X7 was trying to be (which I didn't even finish), I happy to report that Mega Man X8 was breath of fresh air, and a bona fide improvement over its three predecessors. I wouldn't go so far as to rate it as highly as X4, but it truly made an effort to get the series back on track and push it further.

Positives: First off, the opening stage is excellent, and effectively introduces everything the player needs to know. We have three playable characters: X, Zero, and Axl, each with their own strengths in combat as well as platforming. Only two of the three can be brought into a stage at a time, but you can swap between them at the press of a button, and even perform powerful double attacks. The navigation system also gets an overhaul, offering three different navigators, each with their own useful information, and it gives you the option to not only ignore individual transmissions, but also to turn them off completely. And best of all, the X series has finally caught up to the classic series with its own shop system, allowing you to buy handy items with Metals you've collected, or develop advanced gear by retrieving Rare Metals, which are in limited supply. On top of all these improvements, many of the irritating design choices from X5-6 have been reverted, leaving us with a game that feels fresh, not antiquated or afraid to innovate.

Negatives: Unfortunately, this game is far from perfect, I'm afraid. My initial impression was that the gimmicky stages were creative and even fun, but that was only because I unknowingly started with the better ones like Gravity Antonion and Optic Sunflower's stages. Once I got to the likes of Avalanche Yeti and Gigavolt Man-O-War's stages, I realized where the criticisms of this game were aimed at. The rest of the stages were, for better or worse, memorable, and they were certainly hard as well, what with the controls. They're certainly tight as any other MMX game, but everything just feels so FAST; you jump faster, fall faster and even slide down walls faster, and yet somehow dashing feels slow, making for some very demanding platforming. My last major criticism is aimed at the bosses; I will say that they're far more engaging than the last few entries', but they have these overwhelmingly long periods of invulnerability, and it's not always clear when you can hit them without your attack deflecting off. This was very frustrating in the late game, and I'm sure it would've driven me mad had I not played on Rookie Hunter Mode.

In summary, Mega Man X8 easily cleared the bar that had been steadily lowered to hell by X5-7, but it hardly feels like a satisfying conclusion to the series. For nearly every little thing I enjoyed about it, another small thing came along to detract from my experience further, making the game feel like a long match of tug-of-war. I'd surely recommend it to Mega Man fans disillusioned by X series' steep decline, but not to anyone else.

A fantastic Mega Man game and a major rebound after how Mega Man X7 and Mega Man X6 came out. For starters, I very much enjoy the art style shift they took with this game. The lankier proportions and more expressive faces are quite appealing. While I usually prefer 2D art for sidescrolling Platformers like this, I am a big fan of how this game looks overall.

The story is close to the usual Mega Man X fare of "new bad guy gets upstaged by Sigma" but I love the grandiose flair and religious imagery present with this entry. The stages are fun and the different moves/capabilities of each playable character are fun.

Honestly, as it stands, I think this could be a contender for my favorite Mega Man game and I'm currently placing it as such. I would love to revisit it in the future and go for all the unlockables/post-game stuff to check-in on my feelings for this game but, very positive vibes (since I played it in 2020) on it overall!

I really feel like a lot of the love this game gets is for not being horrible like X6 and X7. It's close to being decent but there's too many flaws for me to really like it.
Most of the levels are annoying, or not very fun, the only exceptions i can think are the intro stage, dark mantis, antonio and the forest. The stages are too focused on being gimmicky instead of giving us some good fast action plataforming. It wouldn't be that much of a problem if the gimmicks were actually fun like Antonion's stage, but they're not. At least they're not HORRIBLE (except for Manowar's stage, that is one of the worst levels in megaman as a franchise)

The rare metals and the money grind to buy them sucks, and honestly i feel like most of them aren't worth it. I never even used the Subtanks. Zero's weapons are cool but i didn't find any of them on my own and the levels not being fun made me not want to replay them for upgrades. I really wanted to use the knuckles the whole game but i barely did because i found them when i was close to beating the game.

I know the game is like this and very grindy to give you reasons to replay it with more upgrades each time, and i'm not against the idea of having NG+ in a MMX game, but the levels are not fun for me to want to return to.