After the accident that MMX7 was, MMX8 managed to bounce back greatly.
While redesigning the characters, this game also introduces new characters and bring back some... Older ones (decently this time). And with that, manages to refresh the series alongside its 3D graphics.
I won't lie, it was cool to finally hear dubbing with a decent quality in a MM game after playing so many since a kid 🙏
In general, we could consider this game a rebirth of the MMX series, after what MMX6 and MMX7 were for the fans, but well, from its rebirth to this day, MMX is a series about to be brought back, or not, by Capcom.
If I were to consider the factor fun and the polishment, this one would easily be the best of the MMX series for me.

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.

Mega Man X8 is a fascinating game, impressive and frustrating in equal measure, though not exactly for the reasons one would expect. Following directly after the dark era of the X series, and what I would consider to be the low point of the Mega Man franchise as a whole, X8 had a lot to carry on its shoulders alone. I’ll get the obvious out of the way first - relative to X6 and X7, X8 is essentially the second coming of Jesus Christ himself, but I don’t want to judge the game strictly through that comparative lens.

Starting off, X8 drops you right into the action with a tutorial stage that, in my humble opinion, is the second best opening act in the entire series right after the original X. There’s not a ton of wait time, the controls are sharp and instantly responsive, and it gradually introduces you to each of the three playable main characters in platforming segments that are tailored for their respective kits. The stage bosses and enemy design convey each character’s strengths and weaknesses, differences in range and power, and it properly demonstrates the new double attack mechanic in real-time. They even brought back the best X7 mechanic, being able to bring two characters into the field at once and switch between them at will, and you get a taste for how the flow of that will feel during the rest of the game. It’s an amazing introduction and it FEELS like Mega Man X again, something closer to the SNES trilogy, and it got me so incredibly pumped to get into the rest of the game. Unfortunately though, this is where X8 begins to really show its hand in a way I can only describe as an incredible foundation without the follow-through to nail the execution of any of its (many) great ideas.

Take the act of simply controlling one of the main characters, for instance. Simply moving around, dashing, wall-climbing, and lining up your shots hasn’t felt this good since X1-3. It’s super precise, satisfying, and everything I could every want out of a platformer, and they succeed in this ‘game feel’ with all three characters’ and their kits, priming you for how fun experimentation is going to be….only to never give you the chance to do so. The only stage in the entire game that’s played “straight” is the tutorial, with every following level playing around with some gimmick or stage concept that never give you the chance to…have fun with how fluid these characters’ movesets are. Most of the stages themselves are solid, with a handful of some strong highs, but I can’t help but be disappointed by this design choice. Everything in X8 feels very segmented and separated, and without a through-line with which the game’s ideas can flow, without that cohesive glue, X8 is just kinda left feeling like it has a bit of an identity crisis.

This design philosophy erodes into other areas of the game, too. There’s a shop akin to something in the later entries of MM classic, a hugely welcome addition, and heart tanks have been replaced by spending currency for permanent health upgrades (a change that I actually like). The problem arises when you realize that having an abundance of health doesn’t particularly matter outside of bosses because X8’s stage design is obsessed with spikes, bottomless pits, blocks that will crush you, and a bunch of other random shit that will kill you instantly. Especially the spikes, why are there so many spikes in this game man? Who did this? Why? For what purpose?

This is to say, of course, that you’re almost only ever in relatively little to no danger or immediate one-shot danger with little in-between. This leaves a lot of the upgrades feeling, once again, good in concept but lacking in execution.

Backtracking has never been something I’ve been particularly fond of within the X series but it’s always been ingrained within the DNA of the series and it’s something I’ve come to expect. Being able to switch characters on the fly could have and should have streamlined the secret-finding process, but instead the exact opposite - it lengthened the secret hunting process to new extremes. Certain characters are required for certain secrets meaning that there really is no “stage routing” like in the original X games as you’re almost guaranteed to have to play each stage at least twice at the absolute bare minimum, and that’s assuming you know exactly what to look for and don’t fail to do so. More realistically, especially without a guide, you’re going to be playing each stage anywhere from 4 to 5 times to accommodate for any failures and the simple act of sniffing the secrets out in the first place. This goes doubly so without a guide because essentially every secret in this game is vague as hell, stuff with multiple bullet points of very specific information you need to follow in the right order and using specific abilities on an empty spot in the corner of this one room type-beat. On one hand, it does encourage replay value to a degree, and I actually don’t think it was the designer’s intention for every run in X8 to be a ‘100% run’, but it always makes the X worms in my head go a little crazy if I don’t collect everything and regardless there’s definitely such a thing as too obscure.

And yet, despite it all and what it may sound like, I still somehow came out of X8 with a strikingly positive impression. The story and all of its religious motifs are pretty neat and I like how tonally distinct these elements are from the usual X fanfare (and the final bosses are metal as hell). It took all of these entires for a game in this series to finally ‘justify’ the end-game boss rush with a reason that makes sense in-game and that’s super cool. Banter between the navigators and the Maverick Hunters in between missions is really cool and finally gives me a sense that these guys are actually…working on a team, as a team, which is something I’ve always felt the X series has struggled to convey. While I did mention that secret hunting is tedious, the secrets themselves are really cool and do make the exploration process worth your time. More shop items and ways to customize the characters, and especially the new weapons that entirely change the way you approach the game. (and I’m personally really glad that some of these replace bonuses obtained from saved Reploids which has never been something I’ve enjoyed doing). X8 finally gets the armor system right, too, giving you two armor sets for X with completely mix-and-match sets that you can tailor to fit your playstyle (with bonus attributes if you choose to commit to the pieces in one set). This is perfect and a good example of proving that X8 has learned lessons from the design shortcomings of some of its predecessors.

Zero’s D-Glaive is the single most fun thing any 2D platformer has ever incorporated, it’s so ridiculous and it feels incredible to use. I want an entire game where I can exclusively use it, they finally made Zero cool as fuck again I’m so happy.

X8 is a good game, but it could have been even better than what we got. Missed potential but there are some really strong highs and it restored my good faith in what the X games are capable of doing when they’re firing on all cylinders. We need that X9….

(I don’t typically do ‘long-form’ reviews like this on this website but if this gets more than, like, 1 like lmao maybe I’ll continue the trend)

Now this is much better. Mega Man X8 is a return to form after the critical failure that was X7, harkening back to its fundamental 2D routes after a failed execution of converting the popular sub-series into the third dimension, opting for a 2.5D approach to its gameplay. Everything has been given a makeover visually and physically character-wise, and it looks vastly better than what came beforehand. This is one of the more overlooked games in the series, but how does it hold up in 2023 standards? Pretty solid, honestly.

Let's start with the gameplay. What's great about marathoning these sorts of games is that I don't need to reiterate how the game functions when they remain consistent, but I will say that the Maverick Hunters feel so fast and snappy to control that it's genuinely refreshing. The swap mechanic returns after X7, and I've said before in my review that this feature alone makes X, Zero, and Axl feel like a fighting team, and X8 embodies this. Noah's Park, the opening stage, does an excellent job of introducing this mechanic in a 2D space while allowing the player to get a feel for each character. There are moments where character-swapping can be beneficial for situations like getting caught by an enemy and calling in the other character to destroy it with a push of a button. It's just those minor things that make a well-thought-out mechanic even better. X and Zero play identically to how they were in the PS1 games, but for Axl, they made some tweaks like removing the auto-lock on and activating the hover by pressing the jump button twice. Because of that, Axl became one of my favorite characters to use, and with Zero by his side, they were like an unstoppable duo. Bosses now have these desperation attacks whenever their health reaches close to zilch; it's a great way to keep the fights engaging while keeping the players on their toes, so I appreciate that they added a little something to spruce it up without the player exploiting them in designated areas or glitches as an advantage.

For completionists out there, there are these big triangles to collect, aka rare metals. Essentially they unlock certain items that can be obtained from the shop like upgrades and weapons exclusively for Zero. This is a perfect segue to talk about the shop itself, as metals are the only form of currency that can be purchased to buy health upgrades, retry chips, and the stuff I mentioned a sentence ago like Zero's D Glaive for example; this gives you so much range, and once you obtain it, it's over for the common enemies. Heart Tanks have been relegated to Life Up chips you can purchase, making it easier for everyone to have max health bars, so I appreciate that change. These metals are scattered everywhere, where on the ground, defeating enemies, or being rewarded by defeating them fast in certain rooms. There's a lot of shit to collect if you're going for 100%, so you'll be here for a little while.

While I appreciate the amount of stuff you can obtain and purchase, this leads to my major issue with Mega Man X8; it is marred with tedious grinding and can take a few hours to purchase everything. There is one practical way to grind for metals if you're playing it on the Legacy Collection as I did. Go to Metal Valley, pick Axl and another character you like, and keep dashing away from the giant robot until you reach the oil tank wall (where the Light capsule resides), stop there, switch to Ray Gun, and keep firing at the robot until you've collected enough metals. Like I said earlier, this should take about a few hours, and during that time, you might make a grip on your own. Most of the items are reasonably priced if you've bought every upgrade or weapon for the Maverick Hunters, but then come the unlockable characters. Alia, and the two new navigators, Layer and Palette can be unlocked via New Game+ depending on which navigator you used the most. They play identically to how X, Zero, and Axl feel to control and it's cool seeing them in action, but they require an obnoxious amount of metals to even unlock them, 40,000 to be more specific for each, 36,000 if you bought the metal discount from the shop. I was able to unlock them all and obtain 100%, but the few hours I spent out of my 12-hour playtime were spent on grinding. I also find the level design to be cheap at times. It's not X6 levels of cheapness, far from it (the levels are decently designed), there are a few areas in the game that I found either frustrating or nerve-wracking like the literal spike fest in the final levels where you have to be cautious of your jumps and air-dashing; Booster Forest (Bamboo Pandamonium's stage) has that aggravating rare metal placement where I have to flip-flop between getting on and off the ride armor just to press some switches; mess it up, and you have to start the stage all over again. But I think the worst level in the entire game in my opinion is Central White (Avalanche Yeti's stage); a ride chaser level with a length that feels like it goes on for an eternity. Checkpoints are scarce here meaning if you die on the second fight of the mid-boss, you start halfway again. This goes on for like 6-7 minutes if you don't die once and keep X alive to obtain the light capsule.

The story itself is alright for Mega Man X standards. A big step up from X7 that's for sure, but I wouldn't say it's well-written. Sigma returns (obviously) alongside the creator of the Jakob Project, Lumine. They try to do this thing where the big bad from seven consecutive games isn't the final boss this time and instead, it was another individual holding the reins, which I sensed coming from a mile away. Even with its antagonists, I just wish they would illustrate it better with who's controlling who and their motivations, but other than that, it's your typical Mega Man X story. I'm happy to say for the first time in an X game, it has decent English voice acting. Everyone in X8 carries with their performances and it makes the poorly written story tolerable to the ears. X, Zero, and Axl feel like they belong together as a team instead of being conflicted with each other like in X7, and I'm glad they shifted X's personality back to how he was pre-X7, claiming his titular spot once again with the other two at his presence.

The music in X8 is genuinely underrated. There's a whole lot of electric guitars in the soundtrack and I do quite like it. I'm just gonna skim through my favorites before I wrap things up. Vs. Vile is the best theme our familiar rival has, and it feels so tailor-made for a recurring sworn enemy like Vile. Central White (Avalance Yeti's Stage) has got to be my favorite ice-themed stage as that bass was slappin' so hard, perfect for something like a high-speed ride chaser level. Gateway is a beautiful song; it deviates from the electric guitars in favor of something melancholic and relaxing to the ears before our fellow Maverick Hunters take on the Mavericks once more till they reach their destination. Vs. Lumine - Second Form has got to be one of my favorite final boss themes from a Mega Man game; it's as if the lyrics from the Bible were replaced with electric guitars blaring in the background while our heroes take on one last battle.

Mega Man X8 is a huge step up from before and is one of the more overlooked Mega Man games, and of course I say this as this was the lowest-selling game in the franchise. Sadly, X7 tainted the legacy of the series due to the decline in quality not to mention the overabundance of games that Capcom released in the early to mid-2000s, which is a shame really. It is by no means my favorite, but as the last mainline game in the series so far, I think it ended on a good note. I hope that Capcom recognizes the potential of this franchise once again after the recent Legacy Collections have been financially doing well lately, and I hope we get an actual conclusion to the X series with X9 if that ever happens someday.

Ok at least it is a much better entry then what X7 tried to do and failed by making it into 3D, so thank god X8 plays like the previous entries, which are X1 to X6.

But one nitpick I have to say about the game is that why would Capcom really have to force you to play the game all over again in either in the Normal and Hard mode, just to fight the true final boss, why not just make it also available in the easy difficulty, simple as that.

But overall I had fun.

é muito triste esse ser o último Mega Man X porque a Capcom estava cozinhando algo bom

nesse jogo X, depois de um dilema moral no X7, resolve que a solução é ser ultra fascista e agora além de lutar ele também é júri, juiz e executor. achei coerente pois acontece muito na vida real mesmo. mas o mais engraçado é que o gameplay corrobora com isso. enquanto no X5 seu rank aumentava por matar menos inimigos, no X8 quanto mais combos e mais robôs você destroçar melhor seu rank. coerente pra um jogo onde ser Maverick é questão de escolha e não de erro de programação, X agora tem menos justificativa moral ainda pra matar todos, mas continua matando igual.

Zero continua distante e emocionalmente indisponível pra todos, incluindo pra nova operadora que é gamadinha nele (Layer voce é ícone mas merece melhor...). Mas há um ar de melancolia aqui, ele na verdade pegou o manto do X no X7. ele não quer mais lutar, todo chefe tenta recrutar ele pro lado do Sigma e ele mal tem energia de responder de volta. ele pensa no seu fim inevitável e que deve continuar agindo até lá, mas qualquer indício de paixao e objetivo já sumiu dos olhos dele. esse homem vive em si mesmo.

Axl deixou de ser protagonista pra ser boneco moleque ele é ok

o ponto alto pra mim foi a inclusão de mais 2 operadoras com a Alia, a Layer e a Palette. elas servem pra guiar você pela fase com objetivos diferentes (A Alia é mais geral, a Layer foca em chefe e a Palette em ahad lugares escondidos) mas sinceramente você vai escolher a que mais gostou e ficar por isso. até porque a que mais gostou vai ser a primeira que você vai habilitar em um NG+. sim o jogo tem um NG+ visto que há um sistema de loja e upgrade permanente (que requer um grind danado de recursos no qual utilizei uma fita de cabelo pra prender meu controle e sai para almoçar) e é nele que você pode jogar com as 3 meninas. na verdade ela não são mais que skins dos personagens principais relacionados a elas (X, Zero e Axl respectivamente), mas me deixou tão contente que simplesmente terminei o jogo uma segunda vez e não podia ter sido mais legal

que aliás, ilustra um problema sério que eu tenho: parar de jogar jogos de mau humor, afeta terrivelmente minha impressão dos jogos. não estava aguentando as fases do X8, até porque escolhi umas complicadas de cara (a que gira e o autoscroller) então minha primeira impressão não foi favorável. mas rejogando eu percebo que a ideia de cada fase ser radicalmente diferente é bem divertida, e queria que eles fossem até mais malucos pois o jogo fica meio fraco quando tenta ser maluco e mega man x clássico ao mesmo tempo. que aliás, ele também consegue ser bem mega man x na sequência final de fases, sinceramente a minha preferida da série inteira e que redimiu o jogo inteiro pra mim. adorei todas as lutas de chefe , mesmo que algumas sejam bem fáceis

imagino que várias sensibilidades temáticas aqui estejam na série Zero, então fico cada vez mais ansiosa pra me adentrar nesse mundo o quanto antes. Lumine inicia um conceito interessante para a série, onde sua ascensão divindade é superar as maquinações de seus criadores e possuírem vontade própria (e cita como a nova era, a evolução dos Reploids), incluindo a vontade de ser mau ou de poder julgar as ações de Sigma como justificadas. Se eles continuassem depois desse, acho que teriam coisas muito interessantes pra dizer...