X8 is what you get if you decide you're going to fix X7 but somehow figure that the only issue with that game was the camera, which is an incredibly daft way of looking at the problem. X7 was going to be a bad game from the moment they started developing the tech for it, trying to map a fast-paced 2D action game to 3D, without much regard for preserving the way it played.
The result was a tedious mess with a long list of issues, which includes: awkward physics that create problems not only during fights, but while climbing and moving around on platforms. 3D animations that are just not as snappy as 2D -- achieving that requires a lot of polish -- resulting in a game that feels slower overall. Characters feel unresponsive, as attack animations are far longer and unnecessary additions such as turning animations are added. In fact, while the playable characters are the ones for which this issue is immediately noticeable, almost every enemy in the game has this issue too, which means that bosses feel stilted and unthreatening.
There's more: back when the games were 2D, there was a clear distinction between foreground and background due to distinct rendering styles (X6 is arguably an exception, but it's not a bar for quality). When everything is 3D and stuff flies into and from the background, that distinction is a lot harder to make, resulting in stages that are more difficult to read, and hits or deaths you would have seen coming from a mile away before.
This is also an issue with lighting, color, and the use of perspective. For the former two, 2D games enjoyed well-defined color palettes with defined edges between one stage element and the other. You could see spikes in your peripheral vision as soon as it entered the screen, thanks to their marked shape framed by the clearly understandable platforms, whereas now they blend into details on floors and walls. Details which, by the way, you wouldn't normally see, if not for the use of perspective to accentuate that yes, this is a 3D environment you're looking at! It looks pretty, but adds more noise and makes distances harder to parse compared to the 2D analogues.
The PS2 itself factors in, its relatively low processing power for a 3D console contributing to the limited visuals, slower pace, loading times, etcetera. Only after all that, then you have the design issues, including the camera that seems like it belongs in an RPG of sorts. But forget about the camera for a moment, and look at everything else that comes before it. Can a good Mega Man X game come out of that mess? It can't. And that's what X8 ultimately felt like: a sequel that removes the 3D gameplay from X7, but keeps most of the other problems.
Which isn't to say the game is an exact copy of X7, it did bring new ideas to the table, among which are some very cool ideas and some terrible ones. On the good camp, characters have been reworked and are much more interesting this time around. All of them are available from the start, and power ups are no longer restricted to the character that picks them up. Each of their main gameplay issues have been solved, as well.
X is now back to having two armors, the Hermes and Icarus armors, both of which are crazy powerful and can be mixed and matched if you feel like it. The downside is that they're ugly as heck, but I'll take it after X7's pretty but anemic Glide Armor. His charge shot is back to being good, since it covers a larger part of the screen and there is no lock-on mechanic anymore. This also means Axl loses the spot of top ranged character, but as he can now hover for an extended period of time as well as control the direction of his shots, he finds himself a niche in shooting things outside of their attack ranges.
Something that also helps Axl is a newly added mechanic where switching characters allows the character in the back to restore HP, encouraging the player to not focus on a single protagonist. Still, I prefer having Zero in the back, who still feels sluggish compared to his X4 incarnation, but his Z-Saber now reaches farther, and if it doesn't fit your playstyle, he can collect other weapons to use, like a glaive and a hammer. It's all very stylish, and while I personally stuck to the Z-Saber, I hear the extra weapons are legitimately useful on the Hard difficulty setting.
That said, to get those weapons, you have to go through the upgrade system, and this is where things gets stupid. X8 decided just picking up the upgrade in a stage was too easy. Not only did they make the acquisition methods convoluted -- I don't think most of these are possible to figure out without a guide -- but you also have to grind metals in stages to be able to equip them.
How grindy is it? About a third of my final playtime was spent away from the controller while the shoot button was held down and Axl farmed metals for me. There are faster methods than the AFK one, but it's still hours worth of farming, and you have to do it to get all the upgrades. To add insult to injury, extra lives also have to be bought with metals: the EX-tank is gone, the game is back to booting you to stage select on a game over, and if you want to have more than two lives, you're going to have to fork over those valuable metals.
It's an awful system. Better than rescuing reploids for upgrades and having to redo stages over and over, I guess, but still awful. And then again, you still have to do that, since backtracking is at its worst since X5. In fact, X8's stage design is centered around frustration more than anything else. There are two Ride Chaser stages that play like X7 stages on steroids and can just eff right off. There's a Ride Armor stage that's infuriating in how the armor handles, and in the wonky stage gimmicks that force you to retry dozens of times. There are spikefests that call to mind all of the innate issues to the game I've mentioned above. It's all awful.
There's also a ranking system for the stages, NG+, multiple navigators you can experiment with on stages, but god, I am not submitting myself to this game one more time, and neither should anyone. Mega Man X8 is a sad attempt to salvage the franchise, and puts a long-delayed end to a franchise that kept going for at least three games too long.
The result was a tedious mess with a long list of issues, which includes: awkward physics that create problems not only during fights, but while climbing and moving around on platforms. 3D animations that are just not as snappy as 2D -- achieving that requires a lot of polish -- resulting in a game that feels slower overall. Characters feel unresponsive, as attack animations are far longer and unnecessary additions such as turning animations are added. In fact, while the playable characters are the ones for which this issue is immediately noticeable, almost every enemy in the game has this issue too, which means that bosses feel stilted and unthreatening.
There's more: back when the games were 2D, there was a clear distinction between foreground and background due to distinct rendering styles (X6 is arguably an exception, but it's not a bar for quality). When everything is 3D and stuff flies into and from the background, that distinction is a lot harder to make, resulting in stages that are more difficult to read, and hits or deaths you would have seen coming from a mile away before.
This is also an issue with lighting, color, and the use of perspective. For the former two, 2D games enjoyed well-defined color palettes with defined edges between one stage element and the other. You could see spikes in your peripheral vision as soon as it entered the screen, thanks to their marked shape framed by the clearly understandable platforms, whereas now they blend into details on floors and walls. Details which, by the way, you wouldn't normally see, if not for the use of perspective to accentuate that yes, this is a 3D environment you're looking at! It looks pretty, but adds more noise and makes distances harder to parse compared to the 2D analogues.
The PS2 itself factors in, its relatively low processing power for a 3D console contributing to the limited visuals, slower pace, loading times, etcetera. Only after all that, then you have the design issues, including the camera that seems like it belongs in an RPG of sorts. But forget about the camera for a moment, and look at everything else that comes before it. Can a good Mega Man X game come out of that mess? It can't. And that's what X8 ultimately felt like: a sequel that removes the 3D gameplay from X7, but keeps most of the other problems.
Which isn't to say the game is an exact copy of X7, it did bring new ideas to the table, among which are some very cool ideas and some terrible ones. On the good camp, characters have been reworked and are much more interesting this time around. All of them are available from the start, and power ups are no longer restricted to the character that picks them up. Each of their main gameplay issues have been solved, as well.
X is now back to having two armors, the Hermes and Icarus armors, both of which are crazy powerful and can be mixed and matched if you feel like it. The downside is that they're ugly as heck, but I'll take it after X7's pretty but anemic Glide Armor. His charge shot is back to being good, since it covers a larger part of the screen and there is no lock-on mechanic anymore. This also means Axl loses the spot of top ranged character, but as he can now hover for an extended period of time as well as control the direction of his shots, he finds himself a niche in shooting things outside of their attack ranges.
Something that also helps Axl is a newly added mechanic where switching characters allows the character in the back to restore HP, encouraging the player to not focus on a single protagonist. Still, I prefer having Zero in the back, who still feels sluggish compared to his X4 incarnation, but his Z-Saber now reaches farther, and if it doesn't fit your playstyle, he can collect other weapons to use, like a glaive and a hammer. It's all very stylish, and while I personally stuck to the Z-Saber, I hear the extra weapons are legitimately useful on the Hard difficulty setting.
That said, to get those weapons, you have to go through the upgrade system, and this is where things gets stupid. X8 decided just picking up the upgrade in a stage was too easy. Not only did they make the acquisition methods convoluted -- I don't think most of these are possible to figure out without a guide -- but you also have to grind metals in stages to be able to equip them.
How grindy is it? About a third of my final playtime was spent away from the controller while the shoot button was held down and Axl farmed metals for me. There are faster methods than the AFK one, but it's still hours worth of farming, and you have to do it to get all the upgrades. To add insult to injury, extra lives also have to be bought with metals: the EX-tank is gone, the game is back to booting you to stage select on a game over, and if you want to have more than two lives, you're going to have to fork over those valuable metals.
It's an awful system. Better than rescuing reploids for upgrades and having to redo stages over and over, I guess, but still awful. And then again, you still have to do that, since backtracking is at its worst since X5. In fact, X8's stage design is centered around frustration more than anything else. There are two Ride Chaser stages that play like X7 stages on steroids and can just eff right off. There's a Ride Armor stage that's infuriating in how the armor handles, and in the wonky stage gimmicks that force you to retry dozens of times. There are spikefests that call to mind all of the innate issues to the game I've mentioned above. It's all awful.
There's also a ranking system for the stages, NG+, multiple navigators you can experiment with on stages, but god, I am not submitting myself to this game one more time, and neither should anyone. Mega Man X8 is a sad attempt to salvage the franchise, and puts a long-delayed end to a franchise that kept going for at least three games too long.