First of all, I did not like how the characters controlled compared to the earlier X games.
The stages are either meh or complete ass. Dynasty, Inferno and Primrose especially stood out as very bad stages.
One stage that I did find cool however, was the elevator level.
Because of these stages I really appreciated the Retry chips.
I liked the many upgrades that were available with chips. However, it also meant that in order to be effective you would have to focus on one character because you get nowhere close enough chips to upgrade all three characters a reasonable amount.
The beginning is a little rough but as soon as you get armor the game becomes extremely easy. The Icarus body armor especially trivializes the game.
As for the bosses, they were alright. I found most of them somewhat interesting and unique.
Although, the final boss did kill me twice with some bullshit. First time he pushed me off the platform which was an instant kill and then in his last phase he just has an instant kill attack? Fucking stupid.

Here we have it the final Megaman X game and let me say I’m glad that this one was actually pretty good!

X8 returns to form being mainly a 2D game with a few 2.5D sections. Level design is pretty good there’s a few frustrating bits on there but at this point every X game has that. Having X, Zero and Axl available form the start is great and I liked that there’s now a money system that you use to buy a lot of your upgrades but you have to find some of those upgrades on the levels before you can buy them so exploration is till there.

Presentation wise it’s still pretty solid I do miss the sprite style of the earlier games but this one still looks good and the voice acting is pretty good too!

Top 3 Maverick Names!
3) Earthrock Trilobyte
2) Avalanche Yeti
1) Gigabolt Man-O-War

Overall playing all these games has been real fun and while some I’d wait awhile before I revisit most I’d love to play again!

Mega Man X8 decides to ditch the 3D gameplay of X7, and focus strictly on 2D Action.
Alongside that, it also has an in-game currency, allowing you to buy more life energy and other components to make your characters stronger, ditching the Heart Tanks from previous games.

Does it work?

My answer is a resounding YES!

Mega Man X8 not only is more faster-paced than its predecessor, but it's such a fun game to play! Not every stage is a winner, but I had fun with most of them, with their varied level design and fun gimmicks.

The story revolves around the rise of a new generation of Reploids, and the fact that all of them can transform to many more Reploids than Axl could, including Sigma!
I found the story of this game to, while not the greatest, to be much better than the last few games. What helps is the fact that this game's voice acting is much better than previously, and the dialogue feels very natural!

Coupled that with some nice graphics, and a good soundtrack, and you've got yourself one of the best games in the Mega Man X series.

It might not be my favourite, but it gets pretty close.

Controls smooth as butter (though I personally prefer how the psx games control), fantastic boss design, and some of the best writing in the series (which isn't saying a lot but the final few cutscenes really left an impression on me) but mannnn I kinda actually didn't enjoy my time with this one as much as the others??? By the end of the game you're used to the bullshit but this has by far my least favourite stage design in the series, hitting you with spikes fucking everywhere and often before you have time to react because of how the camera works. Lumine's stage isn't even that bad because by then you're used to it all after having played gravity antonian's stage lord knows how many times but of all the games to drop the infinite lives that the psx games gave you they couldn't have chosen a worse one. It's objectively better than x6 and 7 but I'd genuinely rather revisit those games than play x8 again. Only giving it a higher rating because I can recognise it's a far better game and that final cutscene ending the game on such a good note.