This was the first Mega Man game I’ve ever played and now while replaying it, it isn’t quite as hard as I remembered. Yes, dying is pretty unforgiving in this game but enemies drop so many health recovery items and the Z-Saber makes quick work of them too so it isn’t that bad. And you can use some very strong Cyber-Elves to help you if you have trouble. Like the double vitality one. It sucks that you’re going to have to grind for these though since you can only get like one of the higher priced Cyber-Elves if you play through the game normally.
The stages are pretty good but the mission system does make you revisit the same stages multiple times. They do mix up enemy placements or you get to visit a different section of the stage but still it felt a bit like recycled content.
The bosses were quite good as well. They were unique enough and fun to beat quickly with skillful use of the Z-Saber.
Speaking of the Z-Saber, it has never felt as good to use as it does in the Zero games. It is cool, fast and absolutely shreds through enemies and bosses. It gets extra moves too when you level it up a bit.
Controlling Zero feels great too. He is fast and the controls are responsive.
There aren’t as many different weapons to use than in the X games but I didn’t mind that since the weapons we do get are such a blast to play around with. Well, I basically only used the Z-Saber and ocassionaly the Buster but that was enough for me.
Overall, great game with stellar controls but dying is a bit too unforgiving and revisiting the same stages over and over was some lazy game design.