Tag Archives: Capcom

Megaman ZX Advent Review

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This is one of those manga titles that is just so tragic on every level. It’s got solid art and it’s based on a game that should be a lot of fun. Just give me a straight to business manga where the heroes are fighting off the mavericks. It’s not that complicated…and yet the series goes straight to being a gag manga like the Zero title. It only gets serious for the final two chapters and of course by then it’s over anyway so there’s not even much of a point by then. It’s a true shame….feels bad man. Feels….baddddddddd.

So the manga starts with Ashe on one of her treasure hunts when she bumps into a little kid named Grey. He has the ability to bio merge with the model robots that are nearby and so he can become Megaman. Ashe figures that will be handy in her hunts and so she recruits him to the team. Grey is happy to help since he just loves to mess around. Their mission is officially to grab Model Ws which can be used to help resolve the energy shortage on the planet but Ashe just wants to be rich so that’s her main priority. Will she be able to get rich in 10 chapters?

Every chapter has a different maverick show up to cause some trouble and take names. The heroes pack them up and go on their way. The chapters are fairly short so it’s easy to go along with the formula approach but it’s just not a great formula. So you’ve got Ashe, Grey and Model A running around all the time. Model A’s whole character is that he’s a perv and that’s even how he is introduced in each chapter’s cover page. Man that’s a sad reputation to have. The manga seems aimed fairly young so at least his antics don’t get too crazy but he still tries to cop a feel and such which is just disgraceful for a Mega Man character.

Model A is just awful the whole time. Then I don’t get why this series decided to not have Ashe be a fighter. Basically she can’t fight at all and I don’t know what she would have been doing before Grey showed up. Evidently she’s been in the group for a while so did her hand gun actually prove to be all that she needed? This is even worse when we find out in the very last chapter that she also has the ability to merge into Mega Man but didn’t realize that because she always had to keep her distance from Model A since he was so suspect.

I don’t blame her for not wanting to merge with him but it’s all just such a forced way to keep her out of the battlefield. If you were going to make her a noncombatant anyway then just don’t even put her in that arena. Have her stay as a support/treasure hunter right through to the end. Otherwise it’s just a tease the whole time. Even with that she still manages to be the best out of the trio.

For Grey, he’s just too young. The kid is always messing around and never gets serious. I suspect that he really doesn’t even understand the true gravity of the stakes right now. Not like there’s much danger since he can dominate any opponent anyway but they should have made him a little older. That would have done a world of good for the character if you ask me.

Aside from the main 3, you have the robot for each chapter but of course they’re dead almost as soon as they appear so they don’t get a lot of character. For example Buckfire is up first and before he can sizzle the characters then he is vanquished. The water type is blown up before she can even be introduced. Rospark at least gets to have her main trait as a flirt but is still taken out without mercy. The most tragic one might be Vulturon because the poor guy was just trying to play his music but he was doing better than Ashe so she declared that he had to die.

The scene is played as a gag as they murder the poor guy but when you actually think about it, he hadn’t really done anything wrong yet. Sure, as a maverick he probably would have done something soon and in most games the villains are basically shoot on sight but with how the robot reacted you couldn’t help but feel bad for him. He really didn’t think he had done anything to deserve being completely destroyed and I can’t really argue against that.

Albert was the big villain in the game so you’re probably waiting for him to turn evil here but that barely happens. He’s the comic relief scientist for most of the chapters as he tries to use the W energy for good each time but it tends to backfire in his face. He has Ashe and Grey babysit his kids at one point as well. The only time they get to fight him is when the W energy takes him over and they beat him up real fast. Then he’s back to being comic relief again. Such is the fate of Albert in this continuity.

Interestingly in the final 2 chapters it’s like a whole completely different series just like with Megaman Zero. Suddenly Albert is evil and shady and there is a whole new group of villains. You have Prometheus and Pandora talking about how the great Megaman war is approaching as all the Megaman are gathering across the planet. We see characters like Vent and Aile, Omega, the 4 guardians from the Zero games, Grey and Ashe, and someone who looks like Copy X all show up. It’s a great premise for a series that’ll never come out.

Why have all the cool things at the very end when it won’t amount to anything? It always reminds me of what a wasted opportunity this would have been. There’s so much cool potential that you can do with this instead of the actual gag manga that we got. I suppose I’m glad that these two final chapters were added in at the end but this is really the tone and feel that the whole series should have had. It would have been so cool and I want to see those characters mix it up. There’s a lot of great lore here.

Another thing that holds the series back is that it’s not very funny. I can’t say I’m surprised as comedic manga tend to be funnier when they aren’t the gag types. Gag manga tend to rely more on crude humor and everyone being super exaggerated instead of acting like real characters. That’s what holds them back here. The crude humor isn’t excessive at least, it’s probably just a scene or two but the main humor like Grey having to mimic animals to transform just doesn’t land. You probably won’t crack a smile here.

The art being strong is definitely the best point of the series. That’s at least something that you can point to if you want something really good to say about the series. There just isn’t much of a sense of purpose to this title and since I liked the original ZX a lot, this felt like a real step down. As always I’m glad for more Megaman content but I’m not sure why the Zero and Zero related titles tend to become gag titles. Doesn’t feel like that would be the first thing you think of when it comes to Zero right?

Again I have to point to the final 2 chapters on what you’d want to see in a Megaman title like this. A Megaman war would be unbelievably awesome. Even if you don’t go and grab some of the ones from alternate timelines like EXE or Starforce, there is still a lot to love here. My money would be on Omega and Vent as the top big dogs in the arena for sure. They should be able to soundly crush all of the other Megas in attendance but the fights would all be awesome nonetheless. You shouldn’t waste someone who is really good at drawing action scenes on a series without much action.

Overall, Megaman ZX Advent is a series that you’ll probably finish very quickly. After all 10 chapters goes by in the blink of an eye especially when they’re short like this. It’s not good but if you really want to see some more Megaman action then you may as well go with it. At least if they ever do decide to bring this one back and adapt the Megaman war then you’ll have some context for it. That’s definitely the best case scenario by a mile and is the optimal way to think about it even if that’s a super long shot. It’s more likely to hope for an X Dive manga which would be pretty awesome to be fair.

Overall 5/10

Rockman.EXE Operate Shooting Star VS Review

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It’s always fun to see Megaman EXE getting some more content. In this case it was in the form of a good ole oneshot. It’s also based on the real life game of Megaman Battle Network this time which is a different approach. I always like the game based titles like Beyblade so I think you could do a whole lot with this premise. In the end it was only a single chapter so in a way it’s over just as soon as it has begun but I had a good time with it. The art is solid and it shows why you need a balanced deck of battlechips.

The chapter starts with Raito playing in a battle against in friend. Unfortunately Raito gets absolutely crushed because he always just picks whatever chip he has on hand without actually thinking of a full plan or how to counter attack. This puts him in a rough place right from the jump. Still, it’s a friendly fight so there’s no harm. That is..until a grown up shows up and takes offense to Raito saying that he could eventually become the strongest. This guy wants to show that there is a big gap between kids and adults in the wide world of Megaman. Can Raito take him down or is it going to be game over for him?

It was intense to see this random adult show up to try and beat a kid at Battle Network. I mean it’s not that serious right? You’d expect the guy to just walk away but instead he really doubles down on how emotionally invested he is to the point where he even slugs Raito during the fight. Yes, there’s a point where he walks over and punches him before going back to the game. That was really crazy because of how random it was. I guess there’s not much that Raito could actually do to stop him though.

In the game Raito quickly learns how to use advanced combos as well as the new Star Force card and pulls through but considering that he was dueling like a beginner at first, it may be a turnaround that’s a little too quick for some. At the very least I feel like the other guy had a stronger strategy. His cards were also better with how he had the various navi chips at the ready. It’s hard to deal with those. I can’t say that I played too many multiplayer matches in Battle Network but with the way the gameplay is set up, having a lot of those navi chips is a must.

It was nostalgic to see the oneshot accurately show off the gameplay mechanics though. That’s definitely the right way to handle this if you’re not going to do a story about the actual characters. It was also neat seeing Star Force show up. I never ended up getting the crossover so I’m less familiar with the new mechanic but if you’re actually controlling two Megamen at once that sounds intense. Definitely opens up the door for a lot of new strategies. The Program Advance was also suitably powerful here and really did a number on the opponent.

Overall, there’s not a whole lot more to discuss because ultimately this is a quick adventure. It’s only around 30 pages or so and it’s a pretty straight forward duel. As this was to promote the crossover game I’d say they did a good job with it. I would be interested in playing the game after reading this. I’d like for more titles to get promotional manga like this, it helps really take you to the next level and of course I just want more Megaman content. If you’re looking for a fun little title to read then this is definitely the one to check out. It won’t take long to read and it just makes for a good time.

Overall 7/10

Megaman X3: Defeat the Doppler Army! Review

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Time for another Megaman adventure. This time X is really put through the wringer as the situation gets a lot more personal. The story to X3 is really solid so I’d love a modern remake with full animation and cutscenes. That said, I want X9 even more so we can skip all of that if we can just get the games to continue. There’s so much more to do here!

The story starts really quickly as Zero calls Megaman and explains that everyone has gone maverick and the city is attacked. It really seems like every robot folds immediately to mind control in this universe. Well, Megaman heads over and is quickly betrayed by his old friend Mac. Zero destroys the guy and tells Megaman to keep his guard up at all times. It seems like the nice scientist who joined up recently (Doppler) may actually be a traitor but Megaman likes to think that he is just being manipulated.

Well, lets just say that he wasn’t at least based on this oneshot. There isn’t really time for that kind of twist right now at least. Still, Mac worked well as the opening traitor and while we only knew the guy for a page in this version, it showed how once again Megaman’s friends let him down. He took the Doppler part hard as well so Megaman even has to cry a bit here. It’s nothing new for the hero to get emotional. The one downside to having emotions in a world where nobody else does is that Megaman is often betrayed by everyone and there’s nobody he can really have help him out in this area.

Sure, Zero’s a great friend but as he admitted on multiple occasions, he doesn’t have emotions either so while he can try to console Megaman, it may not be very effective. It’s the thought that counts but in this version Zero doesn’t appear after he saved Megaman in the opening scene anyway. Vile gets to appear briefly which is fun although he’s called Vava for some reason. I assume that was just something up with the translation because I’ve never heard of that translation before.

It was cool to see him and I’d say this is what puts X3 above the other oneshot adaptions. This felt like more of an ensemble cast with the big characters like Zero and Vile showing up. The traitors helped to raise the stakes and make this personal for Megaman as well. So ultimately this was just a fun adventure and I don’t really have much negative to say about it. As always you’re lucky if you are the first robot master to appear. The ice fighters get a full battle here but most of the rest of the mavericks really don’t get more than one panel to them. Megaman even beats around 3 in a page which was impressive.

It makes sense so you can cover as much as possible though. Considering that we got to have Bit and his partner as well as their fused super form too, I would give the manga a lot of credit for including all of the key parts here. I would say that even without any prior context you can really keep up with the flow of what’s going on. You may not get some of the finer details on why everyone’s being mind controlled or being a traitor but that won’t stop you from enjoying the adventure.

Of course the art is pretty solid here as well. The character designs are on point and you can always feel a lot of action during the battles. The pages are easy to read through so you end up blasting through the whole thing right away. We also got the quick Dr. Light cameo and the classic power ups again. I feel like Megaman should just keep those upgrades on all the time but maybe they drain a lot of energy. It would at least spare him the effort of having to go and track them all down every time.

As a final note, I still enjoy Megaman’s confidence here. While he is usually known more for being dramatic and trying to talk every opponent down, Megaman can jump into action as needed. Due in part to the fast pacing of this manga adventure, Megaman usually jumps right into action. He’s shown to have good battle experience as he immediately figures out each maverick’s weakness and ends the fight quickly. So in a way, the fact that everything is sped up just makes him look even more impressive as a fighter.

Overall, Megaman X3 the oneshot reminds me that the game had a really fun story. It’s not a surprise as I did read the X3 full manga adaption not too long ago but it’s always nice to see it presented in different ways. The games really had complete stories and I can see why they were so well liked. We really need them to return at some point and that would be extremely hype. In the meantime, this is a oneshot I would definitely recommend checking out. At around 30 pages the size is good so you get to see all of the robot masters. We don’t cover the full game as there is a cliffhanger at the end but this way you can go and buy the video game to see how this really ends.

Overall 7/10

Megaman the Comic Review

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This is a very short comic with only 4 pages so there isn’t much to say but I’ll quickly run you through what goes on here. It’s a classic origin story for Megaman as we see Dr. Light turn him into a fighting machine. The comic starts with them seeing on the news that many robots have been going crazy. Megaman is determined to put this right and quickly because he’s just a nice guy. Light figures that the only way this will work is to give Megaman a transformation from a peaceful robot into a combat one. The procedure is apparently quite painful and even seems to turn Megaman’s hair white (Although that could just be the electricity). Megaman has now been born and is ready to take down evil!

That’s about it. There’s only so much you can really do in a short amount of time like that. I appreciate seeing a look at Megaman’s origin but I absolutely think this should have been a few pages longer so we could have seen some action. Maybe have Megaman go up against a squad of powerful villains or something like that even if they’re just minions. It would put a nice cap on the adventure and really give you hope that Megaman could save us all. If you do that, then the adventure immediately becomes a lot more memorable and hype.

At least you can quickly get a feel for all of the characters’ personalities. Roll is shown to be very cautious so naturally she gets worried when Megaman decides to embark on this adventure. He may not make it back alive after all. You have Dr. Light who halfheartedly protests but has the equipment on hand so he turns Megaman into the hero right away. It didn’t feel like he was as reluctant as you’d expect. The danger was rapidly taking out the town so he made the hard calls here.

Finally you’ve got Megaman who will be taking all of the actual risks. He did well to volunteer for such a dangerous role right away. You can sense his heroic spirit here and it’s easy to see how he would end up becoming the ultimate champion of Earth. He was willing to take all of the risks and never looked back. Ultimately he would lead the land to an era of peace.

The art is good here. The character proportions are all right and it’s easy to follow along with what’s happening. The colors are vibrant and so I had no issues on that front. The writing/dialogue is also good so the comic really made the most of its 4 pages. It would work well as the pilot to a true ongoing but I think you could also make the origin a lot longer and that would be cool. There’s a lot to explore there.

Overall, This was a very short review but at only 4 pages I would have to really stretch things out to talk about it longer. It’s a fun little comic and I would definitely check it out if you’ve got a minute to spare. I’m always glad to see Megaman content of any kind. It feels like the franchise just hasn’t gotten a whole lot of attention lately outside of X Dive with regards to new content so I’d like to see Capcom step up there. At least the fans are quite dedicated and keep translating so many of the older works though. It all helps to keep the brand alive.

Overall 5/10

Megaman Star Force 3 Review

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Megaman Starforce was always a fun part of the overall Megaman franchise so it’s a shame that it didn’t last longer. 3 games is nothing to sneeze at though so I guess that’ll have to do. This manga’s not a oneshot but with only two chapters it might as well be. This one ignores the events of the first manga (Probably for the best) and picks up the third game’s timeline assuming that the first two were done accurately. The artwork is excellent as expected and this really would have been a great ongoing if it had kept on. The start was really quite solid.

The manga starts with a flashforward as Megaman uses the Red Ace form to take out a powerful robot and he seems to have saved the world. We then cut to the present where digital viruses have become more frequent in their attack lately. This is because of the mysterious Meteor G which is approaching the Earth. A police officer named Shidou is concerned about this because right now the projections show this meteor destroying the whole planet when it lands. He doesn’t know of anyone who is powerful enough to stop it though. Meanwhile, Geo helps his classmates stop the viruses but he’s still concerned about this and wants to stop the threats quickly so he can go into space and find his father.

As you can imagine, the peace doesn’t last long. Geo is quickly attacked by Spade Magnet. Spade was once just a nice guy called Magnet, but the noise was attached to him by two mysterious villains so he went rogue. The noise quickly contaminates any fighter that it touches and battling a noise fighter can even corrupt you as well. That makes it particularly tough to fight against someone like this. If you reach the 100% noise level then that would be game over. The opening fight is definitely pretty solid. While it’s clear that Geo has the edge in his Megaman form, he has to try not hurting this guy too badly while also protecting his friends.

That makes the fight a little trickier but fortunately Shidou shows up and can transform into a super mode as well. That at least means that Geo doesn’t have to fight on his own which is huge here because being on your own is really a recipe for disaster in this kind of battle. The back and forth of fighting Spade while also resisting the noise makes for a good dynamic. By the end of the title Megaman is basically immune to noise which is good though. This is a solid dynamic for a fight or two but it would probably get old otherwise.

Spade was also a solid opening threat because he is definitely powerful enough to go toe to toe with these guys while not being crazy strong yet. Then in chapter 2 we get Jack who is significantly stronger. His battle with Megaman is epic and the lead would not have been able to claim victory here without surpassing his limits. Jack has a terrific design and I like his confidence. I feel like they are channeling a bit of Bly/Bass into this character with how he acts. Given that I’m a big fan of both of those characters, that bodes really well for Jack.

The 2 chapters open up a lot of intrigue and suspense with the villains in the shadows. We know there’s a whole villain group out there now. At the end the title says to read the game to find out what happens. The game was a blast but it’s too bad this couldn’t have adapted everything. Imagine a Star Force 3 full adaption with this artist? That’d be a wrap without a doubt. There’s just no way that it wouldn’t immediately be a top tier Megaman title. The artist has not lost his talent at all as the designs and action scenes here are fantastic. It makes reading the series a real pleasure.

Of course the characters are also solid. Geo makes for a solid main character who always gets down to business and wants to help out. The manga doesn’t overdo it with making him too timid or anything. He may have a hard time dealing with Luna but Geo doesn’t get too flustered or anything. He just keeps on going with his journey and that pays off. Luna’s a solid heroine too even if she is obsessed with Megaman. She reminds me of Black Cat who loved Spiderman but wanted nothing to do with Peter Parker. Luna isn’t mean to Geo or anything though so automatically she’s a much nicer character right from the start.

As for Shidou, I like this character. He may not have had a ton to do just yet, but he knows enough to trust Megaman right away and even ask for his help. I’m glad he didn’t go too far down the path of thinking that Megaman had to be destroyed. Mind you, just considering it for a moment still did hurt his character but it wasn’t anything that he couldn’t take back. As the title went on I’m sure he would have gotten better and better.

Overall, This is a really solid title. It’s basically a oneshot even if there are 2 chapters but it accomplishes a lot. If this is the kind of manga that is supposed to get you to play the game, well I’d say that it did a good job of it. I’d certainly be more interested in playing the game after reading this…if I didn’t already play it of course. If you haven’t checked this title out yet then you should change that. It’s a high quality action title and a look at what could have been if the Star Force series had just been a little more popular and kept on going. Either way I won’t soon forget this era. After the EXE part of the series, Star Force is definitely still my favorite one. X/Zero would be in third and then good ole Classic. ZX would be higher if we had more lore in there.

Overall 7/10

Megaman: Future Planet Voldos Review

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Time for the next Megaman oneshot. I have to give this one some major props for being what I would consider a true oneshot. It’s over 60 pages long and tells a complete story from start to finish. It’s not over in the blink of an eye and as a result it gets to really be remembered a little more easily after finishing it. The new villain Geist is definitely solid and I like the idea of giving the old robots some new moves. All in all, this is a solid story.

The oneshot starts off with a mysterious figure named Geist appearing and he kidnaps Roll and Dr. Light. All of Megaman’s old foes have returned as well with Geist granting them new abilities to take Megaman down with. That means their old weaknesses are no longer applicable either so Megaman will have to adapt quickly or he is going to be taken down. Can Megaman really defeat these fighters or is it all over for him and who is this mysterious Geist fellow?

I won’t spoil his identity but Geist is definitely fun. The guy is quite smart to be able to use a new gravity stone to give the robot masters their new abilities. For example, Gutsman can now move his blocks after throwing them which makes it harder to dodge or repel. Then you have Elecman who has a super thunder strike now. honestly I’m not sure how gravity factors into that but we can roll with it. Of course a robot like Gravityman would benefit from this but ironically he is one of the robots who is taken down the quickest. I suppose Megaman had enough practice fighting through gravity by that point in the story.

With 60 pages, Megaman is properly able to go up against a lot of fighters and even navigate the enemy castle. This is the level of detail that would be missing if this was a quicker story. So all of the extra pages really had a lot of good use here. We also get to see Megaman strategizing throughout the fight and wondering what’s going on. You could easily turn this into a nice little OVA and then extend some of the fights a bit. Due to just how many villains there are here, the fights themselves are still small for the most part.

After all, Megaman’s taking on fighters from the first Mega Man game and then others as well. The two longest fights would have to be the battle against Gutsman as Megaman learned about the gravity upgrades and then the battle against Geist. Both of those battles were definitely a lot of fun so that worked out pretty well. The structure is also in line with how it would be if this was an actual game adaption. Maybe Capcom should take a note from this manga and make a game where you fight some familiar faces but they have new abilities. No need to always be making new villains right?

The artwork here was definitely solid. The character designs are on point and I did like how the battle scenes were drawn. I think a good amount of effort was put into this adventure and it ultimately helped ensure that the villains felt like real threats here. Even Mega Man had to acknowledge their skills as he said an older version of himself would not have had a shot. It’s nice to see that he has been getting stronger after each adventure which makes sense.

As a final note, it’s only too bad that we didn’t see Proto Man step in. I guess he doesn’t always have to appear but of course it is fun when he does. Megaman barely made it through some of these fights so I’m sure he wouldn’t have minded the backup. In a way Geist is ultimately making more trouble for future villains though as we see that Megaman absorbed the upgraded robot master abilities so now he is stronger than ever. Talk about arming your enemies right? That’s the risk when fighting a hero who can copy abilities with a single touch. There is just no safe way to fight him.

I wonder if Megaman can copy abilities from minions too. We’ve never really seen him do that, but it could be because he just isn’t tempted. What could a minion have that he would really want right? We see that even the minions here got power ups which is handy and rather nice thinking of Geist. It feels like minions are usually left out but it’s important to power them up too since they are the first defense against Megaman. So if you make them nice and strong then you can potentially slow the blue bomber in his tracks.

Overall, The actual planet Voldos may not be explored all that much here but it is responsible for the new gravity stone. That is central to the plot so it all evens out in the end. It’s a good way to jump start a new story like this. Why be constricted to the games when you can come out with original plots right? I’d love to see an ongoing Mega Man title right now that’s story based with a lot of big battles. In the meantime these oneshots do the trick though and I would definitely recommend checking it out. There are no real negatives to be had here.

Overall 7/10

Fight! Megaman X Review

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Time for a very quick oneshot Megaman X manga. This one’s definitely blasting through the first game at record speeds as it adapts the whole game in under 18 pages. You have to admit that this is quite the impressive feat right? Well, I definitely had fun with it and the art is pretty solid. It’s like a fun little minicomic and since it will take less than 5 minutes to read, why not check it out right?

The basic plot is that Sigma has gone crazy for some reason and launched a war on the world. Mega Man X is the only fighter who can hope to stop him. (Zero doesn’t appear in this story) So Megaman gets to work and makes short work out of each enemy until he also takes Sigma down in a single blow. It turns out that Megaman truly is the ultimate fighter out of all reploids and everyone should fear his abilities. The narrator says that the battles are not over but with Sigma out of the way I think it’s safe to say that they are. Who would dare to rise up against Megaman?

I’m guessing the author is a fan of the fire maverick because he’s the only one who actually beat Megaman the first time. It was good to see that not just everyone would fall to Megaman without a fight. These guys are here to win after all and are used to being the strongest in the land. It goes without saying that they just wouldn’t roll over like this. There’s no time for more than a quick one panel fight for most of the mavericks but it’s still nice to see one put up a fight.

As mentioned, the art is pretty good here too. The pages are very clear and the character designs are on point. You certainly can’t go wrong there and it makes this even easier to read. It works well as a quick cliffnotes version of the first adventure too in case you want to jump right into Megaman X2. You could just read this and you’ll have covered the plot of the first game. Sure, some characters are cut out but you get the general idea which is the important thing.

There’s only so much I can say about 16-18 pages though so this will be a fairly quick review. As a parting note, the story does remind you why the Megaman X series is such a great concept right out of the jump. A future in which mavericks fight using special abilities with the world at stake just sounds awesome no matter how you say it. This story is certainly no exception to this, not by a longshot.

Overall, This is a fun story. There’s a lot you can do with one shots as it gives artists time to practice or you can just see a nice little story with the characters. I’m surprised the story wasn’t more of an original adventure or something but the first game’s plot has aged well so it’ll always end up being fun to read about. I’ve got some more oneshot stories coming up so get ready for those. We’ll see if they’re as solid as this one. As long as Megaman X is taking names I expect we’ll be in good hands though.

Overall 7/10

Mega Man X Dive Update

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I have now maxed out all purple and blue grade characters! In my last update I had done the same for weapons so now that means only golds are left in both categories. Those I won’t ever complete most likely since they take so much time but this was another good milestone. Additionally I finally unlocked Bass EXE, the greatest character of all time so I’m feeling pretty good about that. We’ll see what the next big accomplishment is!

Megaman X4 Review

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The Megaman X adventures continue as we head into X4. The manga has always made sure things were quite tough on X and this series is no exception. Just when X feels like he has finally beaten the bad guys and can relax, things go off the rails again. The series had to end rather quickly so we don’t actually make it to the ending of the game this time but it’s still a fun adventure. If you’re a Megaman fan or just want a good action title then this is a good one to check out.

The story starts with X and Zero enjoying the peace from the space station. It seems like the world is finally back to normal since Sigma is no longer around. X no longer has access to his post death environmental form and is back to his standard gear. For some reason Zero doesn’t seem pleased at how everyone is cheering on X as a hero but doesn’t say anything. Unfortunately peace is very short lived as a monster known as Eregion appears and immediately destroys an entire city. It begins laying waste to the world until X and Zero stop it.

The government needs someone to blame though so they say Repliforce is behind the incident. There is a lot of machinery around which does seem to link them. Repliforce is to be disbanded and all of the robots incinerated to achieve world peace. Repliforce doesn’t agree with this though and declares war on humanity. Zero ends up joining them as he doesn’t think it’s right for them to all be destroyed while X is left with the Maverick Hunter group to take them all down. Will X really be able to put aside his feelings and destroy Zero and the Repliforce members or will he have to abandon the fight?

By this point X is sick and tired of always having to fight off these mavericks. He takes it all rather hard and the worst part is how he can never save anyone in time. Later on the Repliforce group shuts off a power grid which ends up taking out a bunch of hospitals so many people die. As X watches all of this go on with no way to stop it. This has been a running theme in each series where X does save the day but only after major casualties. It’s why he has retired several times and why he detests the mavericks so much.

At the same time X has so much humanity within him that he is unable to keep from crying many times. He certainly cries a lot in this series as well and you can see how he’s emotionally unbalanced at this point. A ticking time bomb of emotion you can say and it does catch up to him. After X is defeated by Frost Walrus and he has to watch as another one of his close friends is murdered right in front of him, X goes completely insane. He turns into a dark form and just wants to murder everybody.

It was certainly a drastic shift although it’s one that doesn’t last long as the series quickly ends up finishing. I thought it was interesting although I think this already happened to X in a previous series. Either way it makes sense that this would all start to effect X quite a lot. You really do feel bad for him, I dare say that few main characters have suffered nearly as much as he has.

Meanwhile Zero is a mixed bag here. The mild subplot of him being jealous of X feels completely out of left field. By the end of the series we learn that what he is truly jealous of is X’s ability to feel emotions. Zero can feel sad and everything but he can’t cry, it’s just impossible for a robot like him and he takes that personally to the point where he even strikes X. Zero’s decision to stay close to Repliforce to keep an eye on them is very much in character with how he operates though and he got a lot of good fights. Having X and Zero in different locations was a good way to have each of them deal with a lot of mavericks.

Like with X things don’t go very well for Zero though as he can’t save everyone either. Being a Maverick Hunter is really a business where you shouldn’t expect any gratitude since nobody seems to like them at this point. Zero has his skills as always though and looks very impressive here. He’s still one of the strongest heroes on the block that’s for sure. At this point X and Zero are the only two good maverick hunters so they better keep their guards up.

As for the villains, Eregion was a cool one to start things off. He’s fairly mindless but still a strong maverick who really put the heroes in a tough spot. I certainly missed him when he was gone but you won’t forget that intro scene. Cyber Peacock is another fun one mainly because I enjoyed the mini arc where Zero enters the data world. In a way it reminds me of Battle Network which was always fun. Magma Dragoon doesn’t do a whole lot but I always like his Street Fighter type moveset which is handy for any fight like this. He is able to get up close and deal massive amounts of damage at any given point.

For someone with a big role though, Frost Walrus is your guy. This guy gets a ton of credit not just because he defeated a whole army of fighters but because he beat X and the Flame reploid in a 2 v 1 fight. Sure, X was using his base armor, but that’s been enough to defeat most fighters up until now. Against Frost Walrus that didn’t cut it. Walrus doesn’t really hold grudges either and approaches the fight as he would any other. He even lasted for a little bit against X in his rage mode. If not for Walrus doing so well and Double goading X on for a while, the hero may not have gone back into his more powerful forms to end the series off. Without a doubt you won’t see a villain more memorable than this guy here.

Colonel has a big role too of course since he is one of the Repliforce leaders. He has a big rivalry with Zero so they fight quite a few times but I definitely didn’t like him much. He’s never worried about putting Iris in trouble and puts her in a really tough spot all the time. He’s not as honorable as he tries to act. I agree with Colonel that Repliforce is being used as a scapegoat and of course he should be fighting back but intentionally targeting civilian areas like the hospital is really an underhanded play. There’s absolutely no honor in doing that.

Iris is a good character though. She does her best to keep Zero and Colonel from fighting at any cost. Additionally while Iris was conflicted about what side to join, she was doing her best to heal everyone she could. As a doctor she believed her role was to heal everyone regardless of faction and made good on that ideal for as long as she could. Then you have the General who is easy to mix up with Colonel. This guy’s a solid character and while he may not be the one giving out the orders, General follows them rather well. He’s just strong enough to be a threat without overshadowing the others.

It wouldn’t be a Megaman X manga without a traitor though right? That’s where Double comes in. By day he is the comic relief newcomer who doesn’t know anything but then he is one of the top mavericks on the villain side by night. Even his whole design changes into something that looks really cool. He works well enough as the traitor although it’s so fast that you don’t have a lot of time to process this on an emotional level. I don’t think X was particularly broken up about it at least. Man, robots don’t stay as Maverick Hunters for very long do they?

I would mention Sigma, but he doesn’t actually get to appear. As I mentioned earlier, this story ends early so the cliffhanger is the two heroes about to fight him. Too bad it couldn’t get 1 more chapter though since I think that’s really all it would have needed in order to have adapted that fight. It was soooo close, but it just wasn’t meant to be. Too bad too since I rather enjoy Sigma’s X4 design. I have a lot of nostalgia for the game in general since X4 is one of the first Megaman X games I played. It really holds up quite well as both a challenging and enjoyable game. The fully animated cutscenes were also a blast.

The artwork here is very nostalgia since it reminds you of the first 3 adaptions. That said, I do think the art has slipped a bit. Some of the action scenes can get incredibly chaotic to the point where it is really hard to know what’s going on. You know in a general sense of course but following the play by play during an action scene can be a bit of a trial. It means each chapter will take you a little longer to get through but ultimately I still want to emphasize that the art is good. Even if it may not beat the first 3, the action scenes are on point and the character designs are solid.

X4 tackles quite a lot of themes here so it’s a shame that it couldn’t have been longer to really expand on them. Like how X is the only machine who can cry and so Zero and the others are sometimes envious of this. Crying is a rather big theme in the manga and also the reverse which is that X can lose himself in the rage. I think if we had gotten more chapters we likely would have seen the two of them have a big fight to try and get X back to normal. He sort of just went back to normal on his own which was odd.

Then you can also see why X is so upset. He makes a speech about how he’s been stopping Mavericks since forever and saved the world a few times but it feels like nothing has changed. The depressing part is that nothing has changed. It’s hard to look at the world before he saved it and afterwards and see any kind of tangible change. It just isn’t there at all. Everyone is still dying constantly and the divide between robots and humans is as big as ever. After all, the government was very quick to say that every robot in Repliforce should be terminated.

X doesn’t have much time to even think about this before the group is committing terrorism everywhere. Otherwise though, you can see why Zero didn’t like this since it implies that the robot lives are meaningless. They can simply be snuffed out when they are of no more use to the government. By all means X needs to fight for the robot’s rights but once they start hurting civilians X is forced to go against them. It’s interesting because X really can’t reason with them at all right now since every minute spent talking is one where the villains are blowing more people up.

Zero quickly sees how irrational they are as well. The group could have made more good points but in the end they were just too quick to attack. So I would say they are all mavericks just using this as a convenient time to strike. Especially once we have the link to sigma. Some of them seem to really believe in the cause but then they should have been more careful with their targets. I’m convinced that they could have talked X into their side if they were more patient.

After all, X is someone who will absolutely be willing to talk and debate ideas. He’s that kind of robot but they didn’t give him a chance to do it. It was poor planning by Repliforce and another thing to blame Colonel for. As a final note, I really like the strong continuity among the X titles. We have flashbacks to the original series and even some previous guest stars. It’s always nice to be reminded that the previous adventures happened. Of course we know they did but that confirmation is important since otherwise it can quickly be forgotten.

It also gives us a chance to see why X isn’t using his big super powers from last time. It seems like he just lost them and for the upgraded armor he stopped wearing them since it was a time of peace. After being goaded on by Double, X was able to take these back out and go on the offensive. X is very strong in his own right so I can see why he left these initially but I was glad when he went back to get them. Underestimating the enemy is not something you ever want to do.

Overall, Megaman X4 is a great manga. You can certainly see where it starts to feel rushed near the end even though just one or two chapters could have made a difference. The series is filled with ideas even if a lot of them don’t really get to be completed. All in all, it still serves as a solid conclusion to the series. It would have been nice if it could have had a happier ending for X though as he still has no reason to feel anything but despair at how hopeless the whole situation is. To this day I will always be surprised at the absolutely massive body count in this series. Thousands die in every title like it’s nothing. X’s world is certainly the roughest timeline to be apart of. If you haven’t checked this series out then you definitely should.

Overall 8/10

Mega Man X Dive Update

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I have now maxed out all Blue and Gold grade weapons!! Maxing out all Legendary grade weapons will probably take a super long time but this is a good start. I’ve also maxed out all B rank characters so I’m heading over to A rank fighters next. Gotta keep on styling on every maverick that gets in the way of Megaman!