This review contains spoilers
This game is a strange mixed bag that I can't help but appreciate. It does so many weird things and strays somewhat far from the more focused and concise design of the first 6 NES games, and then the evolution of that formula that 7 did. A lot of stages include crazy gimmicks, like snowboarding or flying shmup sections (I especially enjoyed the Wily Castle 1 snowboarding stage. Really difficult and took a lot of practice to nail!), and they sometimes go on for too long. But the stages are still fun even if they're not "traditional".
I'm conflicted on how I feel about them splitting the Robot Masters into two groups of four again. On one hand, this game does it even worse than 7, because the first four Robot Masters all have cyclical weaknesses only against each other (Tengu>Clown>Grenade>Frost), and then the second set also has cyclical weaknesses only against each other (Sword>Search>Astro>Aqua). This wasn't the case in 7, and nothing really made me think that this WOULD be the case. So I struggled for a while trying to logically figure out ANY of the weaknesses for the later bosses. I wouldn't go so far as to say this is a bad design choice, but it's one I definitely disliked.
On the other hand, the benefit of this is that there are stages in the second half of the game, like Sword Man's stage, that take full advantage of the fact that you have a specific set of weapons. They run you through a gauntlet testing your skills with the first four weapons, and I thought that was awesome. The level design in this game had a fair mix of challenge and fun.
The Robot Masters in general were great this game. They were all extremely fun to fight, using weaknesses or not, and their personalities were really cool too. I like that Tengu Man spoke like a samurai, or how Search Man has two heads with two personalities and screams "WILY BANZAI!!!" when he gets killed, or how Astro Man just starts shrieking if you target him with Homing Sniper (Astro Man's VA, Issei Futamata also voices Web Spidus and Cyber Kujacker, two of my favorite bosses from X4). As I said with X4, giving the bosses voice acting and more dynamic animations really helps make them more fun characters. Even Cutman and Woodman got voices for the first time in this game. The Japanese voice acting for everyone else was pretty good.
The animated cutscenes were great, even if the story was a little lame. Forte hardly had anything to do. Considering how 7 cemented Forte as a new rival to Rock, I expected him to show up a little more often instead of just whining to fight Rock the whole time. Duo was a lot less important than I thought he'd be. I like him as a character though, and I'd love to see him return someday.
This game was neat, but it just makes me wish there was a genuine Rockman anime (Wishing Upon A Star doesn't really count lol) because the intro cinematic with Electrical Communication is the best part of the game.
I'm conflicted on how I feel about them splitting the Robot Masters into two groups of four again. On one hand, this game does it even worse than 7, because the first four Robot Masters all have cyclical weaknesses only against each other (Tengu>Clown>Grenade>Frost), and then the second set also has cyclical weaknesses only against each other (Sword>Search>Astro>Aqua). This wasn't the case in 7, and nothing really made me think that this WOULD be the case. So I struggled for a while trying to logically figure out ANY of the weaknesses for the later bosses. I wouldn't go so far as to say this is a bad design choice, but it's one I definitely disliked.
On the other hand, the benefit of this is that there are stages in the second half of the game, like Sword Man's stage, that take full advantage of the fact that you have a specific set of weapons. They run you through a gauntlet testing your skills with the first four weapons, and I thought that was awesome. The level design in this game had a fair mix of challenge and fun.
The Robot Masters in general were great this game. They were all extremely fun to fight, using weaknesses or not, and their personalities were really cool too. I like that Tengu Man spoke like a samurai, or how Search Man has two heads with two personalities and screams "WILY BANZAI!!!" when he gets killed, or how Astro Man just starts shrieking if you target him with Homing Sniper (Astro Man's VA, Issei Futamata also voices Web Spidus and Cyber Kujacker, two of my favorite bosses from X4). As I said with X4, giving the bosses voice acting and more dynamic animations really helps make them more fun characters. Even Cutman and Woodman got voices for the first time in this game. The Japanese voice acting for everyone else was pretty good.
The animated cutscenes were great, even if the story was a little lame. Forte hardly had anything to do. Considering how 7 cemented Forte as a new rival to Rock, I expected him to show up a little more often instead of just whining to fight Rock the whole time. Duo was a lot less important than I thought he'd be. I like him as a character though, and I'd love to see him return someday.
This game was neat, but it just makes me wish there was a genuine Rockman anime (Wishing Upon A Star doesn't really count lol) because the intro cinematic with Electrical Communication is the best part of the game.