The Chinese media reported on the interview, where Kazuhiro confirmed that Mega Man X9 is not currently in development, but Capcom isn't against the idea. For PlayStation 4 on the PlayStation 4, a GameFAQs message board topic titled 'Mega Man X9 apparently confirmed'. In the year 21XX, the world was once again endangered by natural disasters. Only the Maverick Hunters can investigate the one who was behind the cause of the disasters. Mainly, this seems to be another group of reploids called the Voltz Foundation. Signas and Alia were still working under the Maverick Hunters but they did some research on the incoming disasters. Only Megaman X, Zero, and Axl.
A little over seven years ago, I started off Retronaissance, my main blog, with a series of 12 “MegaRants”, articles dedicated to one of my all-time favorite video games — the MegaMan series. And the very first of these rants was a treatise on what may very well be the most beloved iteration of the Blue Bomber as far as the West was concerned: MegaMan X. A series that merely started out as simply not being my favorite, but that mild trickle of antipathy would eventually swell into a full-blown tsunami of hatred that has only recently managed to begin receding. Of course, it’s difficult to give all of the credit to the games themselves. As with many things in life, there were several factors that led mild annoyance to turn into blinding rage.
But honestly, my thoughts have recently turned back to that article. It just feels… incomplete in retrospect, considering the fact that when I had originally written the rant in question, I’d only played through 5 and two thirds of the mainline X series, the two “Xtreme” spinoffs on Game Boy Color and the PSP remake, Maverick Hunter X. Since then, I’ve filled in the blanks of what Capcom saw fit to translate for North American audiences — Hell, by now, I can actually claim to have completed every single mainline game in every MegaMan series — and frankly, now seems like as good a time as any to revisit this old concept with more wisdom and less anger than I had in 2013.
Why revisit it here? Well, simply put, Radical YMCK is where I like to put my unfiltered thoughts and considering that my editor on Retronaissance is a big-time X mark, let’s just say that things probably wouldn’t go well. More importantly, I’ve been trying to keep the other site a bit more positive this year… and something tells me that yelling at my least favorite iteration of one of my favorite video games like it’s 2013 doesn’t fit into that plan.
Let’s start with the main crux of my previous argument. MegaMan X6 and X7 are probably in the top five worst games that Capcom officially made in the series, and I’d argue that X6 probably transcends that qualifier and may not only be one of the worst MegaMan games period, but also one of the worst games Capcom ever made. I can forgive X7: it was a game built on entirely misguided aspirations, attempting to transcend the traditional MegaMan platformer beyond its usual two-dimensional scope. X6 recycled X5’s competent engine and some (myself included) speculate that the game might have been made poorly on purpose.
More importantly, my assessment that the series has a 50% success rate in terms of “good” games seems to have been accurate. I have lightened up on X5 upon replaying it — playing X6 well after the fact has led me to believe that X5’s slight decline almost seems like it was designed to protect me from the horrors that awaited me further down the X line — but considering the fact that most fans of the series think the X series itself peaked with the very first game, it just seems ridiculous that they consider themselves fans of the series and not the original game itself. Granted, in recent years, I’ve seen more love for the second and fourth games in the series, but even that sort of implies that there’s a steep drop-off in terms of quality. The weirdest thing about it is the hailing of X8 as “the second coming” of proper MegaMan X action, when in reality, it’s worse than X5 was. The thirst is amazing. And that’s probably the biggest danger I’d associate with that particular brand: would a truly mediocre X9 outsell even MM11 by leaps and bounds simply based on the brand name recognition alone?
I do have to admit that my worry of the X series literally being cursed seems even more irrational than it did back in 2013. Having said that, MegaMan X’s first playable appearance in an official fighting game came with Marvel vs. Capcom Infinite and while it would be naive to outright claim the debacle that was MvCi’s disastrous existence on the Blue Bummer, a small piece of me still playfully wants to do so. Admittedly though, on that note, I guess we also have evidence that MMX isn’t quite as detrimental to the entire series’ health as I used to say: the MegaMan X Legacy Collections will be joined shortly by one containing the entire run of the Zero and ZX games later this month (failing another unforeseen delay). While I’m not completely confident that the remaining MegaMan offshoots will get similar compilations, it’s good to know that X didn’t outright kill it for once.
I guess that brings me back to my views on the game’s lore and story in general. While my thoughts on the general setting of 21XX hasn’t changed much from the original article, I do have to apologize for my admittedly mistaken view that MegaMan X is merely a whiny pacifist. But before you X fans cheer for a victory, the reality of the situation is far worse — in fact, this revelation is what inspired me to sit down and write this post in the first place. But what inspired me was a complaint — I’m not sure if I saw it somewhere online or just dreamed it up in my own head, to be honest — directed at the original MegaMan, that his childlike innocence meant that his views on morality were immature, to the extent of believing that justice was as black-and-white as “stopping the bad guy”.
Megaman X9 Download
“MegaMan” X, on the other hand, is modeled after a teenager — roughly 14 years of age, by most of what I’ve seen online — and much like how the original’s build resembling a boy between the ages of 8 and 11 informed his attitude toward saving the world, so too has X’s. But while the original MegaMan has the simple and optimistic nature of a child, X’s attitude toward saving the day has been colored by a high school freshman’s level of understanding of moral relativism. He’s like the ridiculous caricature of “centrism” you’ll often see in online discourse. You know, “Let’s compromise between the people who want to kill noone and the people who want to kill everyone by only killing half the people.” Okay, maybe not that extreme, but in the game’s endings themselves, you’ll often see him muse why humans, Reploids and the Reploids who want to kill humans either because they were infected by a virus or just outright decided to be omnicidal maniacs can’t live together in peace and harmony.
Now granted, by the time X8 rolled around, he’ seems to just be mad as hell at the idea of the endless war that has become the Maverick conflict, to the extent where he no longer has a single fuck to give, but that almost feels like it was written as a reaction to the outright “bitchy contrarian pacifist” role he took on throughout X7 Although, I guess it could have also been written as a way to tie in with his portrayal in the Zero series: as a warrior who grew numb to showing mercy to a seemingly endless onslaught of enemies, set on exterminating humanity. I mean, while that does sound a little too deep for Capcom’s writing staff circa 2004, they really did like to keep on tying the X series post-X6 into the Zero games — and to a ludicrous degree most of the time. Kind of sad when you recognize that MMX is, at worst, the second most popular imprint for the franchise in the West.
And don’t even get me started on Sigma. Playing through the Legends games only cemented what I already assumed about Sigma back when I wrote the original rant. Compared to literally every other major villain throughout the entire MegaMan multiverse, Sigma’s motivation is one-note and bland. Essentially, he wants to kill all humans in a setting where there are basically no on-screen humans, especially when compared to every other MegaMan iteration period. Meanwhile, you’ve got the Classic Dr. Wily, who is literally trying to prove that he’s the superior roboticist to his old college classmate. Or there’s his alternate universe counterpart — Lord Wily from the Battle Network games — who essentially got pissed off because the internet took off instead of robots, which actually makes him more of a hero in my book.
Megaman X9 Confirmed Battle
Then you’ve got series with multiple main antagonists. The Zero series — as much as I loathe to keep bringing up just how much it shits all over its direct ancestor — managed three. Copy-X (the best X, mind you) suffered from the delusion that he could be superior to his template in every conceivable way, Elpizo was an extremist who wanted to punish humanity itself for the sins Neo Arcadia commited against the Reploids in their name and Dr. Weil was essentially cursed with immortality for his crimes against nature and wanted to exterminate everything in revenge. MegaMan Juno was a literal last-minute victim who essentially wanted to exterminate the world’s inhabitants because it was his job, but Sera’s devotion to her job was also tainted with hatred for MegaMan Trigger, because The Master (the last human alive) loved him as much as he hated her. Of course, both of them were overshadowed by the wacky antics of the Bonne Family, who were technically recurring antagonists, even if they were never really the most major threat. Serpent was effectively brainwashed by Model W, but Albert’s scheme was interesting… albeit not as interesting as the cliffhanger that would (nay, SHOULD) have led to the third and final ZX game would have been. And well, admittedly, Star Force’s rogues gallery was kind of a mess overall, ranging from a paranoid alien overlord who thought humanity planned to destroy his own world, some chick who went nuts after her boyfriend died and a literal crime syndicate led by a megalomaniac — God, it’s disgusting how much Star Force 3 really wanted to be a Battle Network game.
Yet people still hold up Sigma as this pinnacle of villainy within the series. Armed with a bland design and a laughable motivation, I just don’t get the love for him… especially when pretty much every main antagonist in the X series — regardless of how minor and/or fake they were — just comes across as way cooler. I still maintain that Dr. Doppler had an awesome design. Gate’s motivations were interesting, even if they were mangled by a piss-poor translation. Lumine had a real personality and motivations that actually kind of made sense to some degree. Dynamo is second only to Zero in terms of being the best character the X series has to offer. And even that damned purple/blue/green Boba Fett knockoff Vile went from being a by-the-book dragon to becoming downright yandere for X in later iterations. Now granted, MHX tried to give Sigma some additional motivations, something about evolving the Reploid species, but they didn’t really go far enough into that. Don’t get me wrong, I love ciphers as main villains (Dark Fact springs to mind), but not when they’re the final boss of seven games… and a major antagonist in the eighth.
And don’t get me started on the concept of Mavericks. Like, X4 is my favorite game in the series by a wide margin, but it also irreparably broke the Irregular idea wide open. In the first three games, the Mavericks were essentially Sigma’s minions by way of viral infection… and the outbreaks that happened before Sigma went viral were essentially caused by defects in Reploids’ and Mechaniloids’ programming. But then X4 introduced the concept of “political Mavericks” — in the Repliforce’s case, it was because they were choosing to abandon humanity and the Earth to form their own space colony — which would eventually beget the idea that certain Reploids (like the aforementioned Vile) could simply choose to go Maverick. This matter was only further complicated by X8, where it was sort of implied that only the new-generation Reploids could choose to go Maverick, even though Vile seemed to prove that it was already possible. Now granted, the idea of political Mavericks was used to great effect in the Zero series, but that came at the expense of the reasoning behind the X series’ robotic adversaries.
But I guess if I really pushed myself, I could forgive the vast majority of these flaws. The main reason I still hate MegaMan X is because of its terrible, horrible, no good, very bad fanbase. I swear, during the dark days of the entire franchise, if any other iteration of MegaMan got anything even resembling attention, they would all just freak out and start screaming. Classic got a ninth game after a long hiatus? They should’ve made X9 instead! Legends 3 almost happened? Should’ve been X10! Classic MegaMan got a comic adaptation that was freaking awesome? Time to bitch until they either give X his own comic or he essentially butts in and makes sure that the comic doesn’t make it beyond the third game in the canon! They’re considering putting a MegaMan character in any fighting game? So God help me, if it’s not X, expect to hear endless bitching from the peanut gallery. And the worst part is, I’ve got friends who like the X series the best out of the entire MegaMan canon, and they’re not exactly as insufferable about it… but Heaven help me if I should even remotely express an iota of annoyance at the shithead fans that make up the (extremely) vocal segment of that fanbase. It’s like they’d rather side with those assholes than let me vent my one iota of my frustrations about what they did to a franchise I grew up loving.
And even the “good” X fans are still incredibly needy. Like, Capcom’s already confirmed that a new proper MegaMan game is in development, and even though X has a mobile game — which is honestly pretty good, and would be awesome if I could get a Bluetooth controller working properly on my phone — I’d be shocked if Capcom’s next big MegaMan project wasn’t X9 (or whatever they plan on calling a new MMX-based platformer), just due to the fact that they announced the X Legacy Collections literally the same day they announced MegaMan 11. And yet, I constantly have to reassure even my friends in the fanbase. “Oh, I’m sure X9 will be next, just be patient.” Like, shit, I’d much rather see a ZX3 developed by Inti Creates (a pipe dream, which has become a lot more real in light of the announcement of the impending Zero/ZX Legacy Collection), which would have absolutely no bearing on any internally developed projects. But I know that if any MegaMan project that isn’t X9 gets announced, I’m going to have to deal with the same level of caterwauling and bitching that I did when Capcom mysteriously decided to follow up MegaMan 9 with MegaMan 10.
And that’s all I really have to say about the series. I think my thoughts have finally solidified for the time being, at least until X9 inevitably comes out. I do love a good rant. Hopefully, my next piece on Radical YMCK will be a bit more positive, but considering my line-up, I kind of doubt it.
A little over seven years ago, I started off Retronaissance, my main blog, with a series of 12 “MegaRants”, articles dedicated to one of my all-time favorite video games — the MegaMan series. And the very first of these rants was a treatise on what may very well be the most beloved iteration of the Blue Bomber as far as the West was concerned: MegaMan X. A series that merely started out as simply not being my favorite, but that mild trickle of antipathy would eventually swell into a full-blown tsunami of hatred that has only recently managed to begin receding. Of course, it’s difficult to give all of the credit to the games themselves. As with many things in life, there were several factors that led mild annoyance to turn into blinding rage.
But honestly, my thoughts have recently turned back to that article. It just feels… incomplete in retrospect, considering the fact that when I had originally written the rant in question, I’d only played through 5 and two thirds of the mainline X series, the two “Xtreme” spinoffs on Game Boy Color and the PSP remake, Maverick Hunter X. Since then, I’ve filled in the blanks of what Capcom saw fit to translate for North American audiences — Hell, by now, I can actually claim to have completed every single mainline game in every MegaMan series — and frankly, now seems like as good a time as any to revisit this old concept with more wisdom and less anger than I had in 2013.
Why revisit it here? Well, simply put, Radical YMCK is where I like to put my unfiltered thoughts and considering that my editor on Retronaissance is a big-time X mark, let’s just say that things probably wouldn’t go well. More importantly, I’ve been trying to keep the other site a bit more positive this year… and something tells me that yelling at my least favorite iteration of one of my favorite video games like it’s 2013 doesn’t fit into that plan.
Let’s start with the main crux of my previous argument. MegaMan X6 and X7 are probably in the top five worst games that Capcom officially made in the series, and I’d argue that X6 probably transcends that qualifier and may not only be one of the worst MegaMan games period, but also one of the worst games Capcom ever made. I can forgive X7: it was a game built on entirely misguided aspirations, attempting to transcend the traditional MegaMan platformer beyond its usual two-dimensional scope. X6 recycled X5’s competent engine and some (myself included) speculate that the game might have been made poorly on purpose.
More importantly, my assessment that the series has a 50% success rate in terms of “good” games seems to have been accurate. I have lightened up on X5 upon replaying it — playing X6 well after the fact has led me to believe that X5’s slight decline almost seems like it was designed to protect me from the horrors that awaited me further down the X line — but considering the fact that most fans of the series think the X series itself peaked with the very first game, it just seems ridiculous that they consider themselves fans of the series and not the original game itself. Granted, in recent years, I’ve seen more love for the second and fourth games in the series, but even that sort of implies that there’s a steep drop-off in terms of quality. The weirdest thing about it is the hailing of X8 as “the second coming” of proper MegaMan X action, when in reality, it’s worse than X5 was. The thirst is amazing. And that’s probably the biggest danger I’d associate with that particular brand: would a truly mediocre X9 outsell even MM11 by leaps and bounds simply based on the brand name recognition alone?
I do have to admit that my worry of the X series literally being cursed seems even more irrational than it did back in 2013. Having said that, MegaMan X’s first playable appearance in an official fighting game came with Marvel vs. Capcom Infinite and while it would be naive to outright claim the debacle that was MvCi’s disastrous existence on the Blue Bummer, a small piece of me still playfully wants to do so. Admittedly though, on that note, I guess we also have evidence that MMX isn’t quite as detrimental to the entire series’ health as I used to say: the MegaMan X Legacy Collections will be joined shortly by one containing the entire run of the Zero and ZX games later this month (failing another unforeseen delay). While I’m not completely confident that the remaining MegaMan offshoots will get similar compilations, it’s good to know that X didn’t outright kill it for once.
I guess that brings me back to my views on the game’s lore and story in general. While my thoughts on the general setting of 21XX hasn’t changed much from the original article, I do have to apologize for my admittedly mistaken view that MegaMan X is merely a whiny pacifist. But before you X fans cheer for a victory, the reality of the situation is far worse — in fact, this revelation is what inspired me to sit down and write this post in the first place. But what inspired me was a complaint — I’m not sure if I saw it somewhere online or just dreamed it up in my own head, to be honest — directed at the original MegaMan, that his childlike innocence meant that his views on morality were immature, to the extent of believing that justice was as black-and-white as “stopping the bad guy”.
“MegaMan” X, on the other hand, is modeled after a teenager — roughly 14 years of age, by most of what I’ve seen online — and much like how the original’s build resembling a boy between the ages of 8 and 11 informed his attitude toward saving the world, so too has X’s. But while the original MegaMan has the simple and optimistic nature of a child, X’s attitude toward saving the day has been colored by a high school freshman’s level of understanding of moral relativism. He’s like the ridiculous caricature of “centrism” you’ll often see in online discourse. You know, “Let’s compromise between the people who want to kill noone and the people who want to kill everyone by only killing half the people.” Okay, maybe not that extreme, but in the game’s endings themselves, you’ll often see him muse why humans, Reploids and the Reploids who want to kill humans either because they were infected by a virus or just outright decided to be omnicidal maniacs can’t live together in peace and harmony.
Now granted, by the time X8 rolled around, he’ seems to just be mad as hell at the idea of the endless war that has become the Maverick conflict, to the extent where he no longer has a single fuck to give, but that almost feels like it was written as a reaction to the outright “bitchy contrarian pacifist” role he took on throughout X7 Although, I guess it could have also been written as a way to tie in with his portrayal in the Zero series: as a warrior who grew numb to showing mercy to a seemingly endless onslaught of enemies, set on exterminating humanity. I mean, while that does sound a little too deep for Capcom’s writing staff circa 2004, they really did like to keep on tying the X series post-X6 into the Zero games — and to a ludicrous degree most of the time. Kind of sad when you recognize that MMX is, at worst, the second most popular imprint for the franchise in the West.
And don’t even get me started on Sigma. Playing through the Legends games only cemented what I already assumed about Sigma back when I wrote the original rant. Compared to literally every other major villain throughout the entire MegaMan multiverse, Sigma’s motivation is one-note and bland. Essentially, he wants to kill all humans in a setting where there are basically no on-screen humans, especially when compared to every other MegaMan iteration period. Meanwhile, you’ve got the Classic Dr. Wily, who is literally trying to prove that he’s the superior roboticist to his old college classmate. Or there’s his alternate universe counterpart — Lord Wily from the Battle Network games — who essentially got pissed off because the internet took off instead of robots, which actually makes him more of a hero in my book.
Then you’ve got series with multiple main antagonists. The Zero series — as much as I loathe to keep bringing up just how much it shits all over its direct ancestor — managed three. Copy-X (the best X, mind you) suffered from the delusion that he could be superior to his template in every conceivable way, Elpizo was an extremist who wanted to punish humanity itself for the sins Neo Arcadia commited against the Reploids in their name and Dr. Weil was essentially cursed with immortality for his crimes against nature and wanted to exterminate everything in revenge. MegaMan Juno was a literal last-minute victim who essentially wanted to exterminate the world’s inhabitants because it was his job, but Sera’s devotion to her job was also tainted with hatred for MegaMan Trigger, because The Master (the last human alive) loved him as much as he hated her. Of course, both of them were overshadowed by the wacky antics of the Bonne Family, who were technically recurring antagonists, even if they were never really the most major threat. Serpent was effectively brainwashed by Model W, but Albert’s scheme was interesting… albeit not as interesting as the cliffhanger that would (nay, SHOULD) have led to the third and final ZX game would have been. And well, admittedly, Star Force’s rogues gallery was kind of a mess overall, ranging from a paranoid alien overlord who thought humanity planned to destroy his own world, some chick who went nuts after her boyfriend died and a literal crime syndicate led by a megalomaniac — God, it’s disgusting how much Star Force 3 really wanted to be a Battle Network game.
Yet people still hold up Sigma as this pinnacle of villainy within the series. Armed with a bland design and a laughable motivation, I just don’t get the love for him… especially when pretty much every main antagonist in the X series — regardless of how minor and/or fake they were — just comes across as way cooler. I still maintain that Dr. Doppler had an awesome design. Gate’s motivations were interesting, even if they were mangled by a piss-poor translation. Lumine had a real personality and motivations that actually kind of made sense to some degree. Dynamo is second only to Zero in terms of being the best character the X series has to offer. And even that damned purple/blue/green Boba Fett knockoff Vile went from being a by-the-book dragon to becoming downright yandere for X in later iterations. Now granted, MHX tried to give Sigma some additional motivations, something about evolving the Reploid species, but they didn’t really go far enough into that. Don’t get me wrong, I love ciphers as main villains (Dark Fact springs to mind), but not when they’re the final boss of seven games… and a major antagonist in the eighth.
And don’t get me started on the concept of Mavericks. Like, X4 is my favorite game in the series by a wide margin, but it also irreparably broke the Irregular idea wide open. In the first three games, the Mavericks were essentially Sigma’s minions by way of viral infection… and the outbreaks that happened before Sigma went viral were essentially caused by defects in Reploids’ and Mechaniloids’ programming. But then X4 introduced the concept of “political Mavericks” — in the Repliforce’s case, it was because they were choosing to abandon humanity and the Earth to form their own space colony — which would eventually beget the idea that certain Reploids (like the aforementioned Vile) could simply choose to go Maverick. This matter was only further complicated by X8, where it was sort of implied that only the new-generation Reploids could choose to go Maverick, even though Vile seemed to prove that it was already possible. Now granted, the idea of political Mavericks was used to great effect in the Zero series, but that came at the expense of the reasoning behind the X series’ robotic adversaries.
But I guess if I really pushed myself, I could forgive the vast majority of these flaws. The main reason I still hate MegaMan X is because of its terrible, horrible, no good, very bad fanbase. I swear, during the dark days of the entire franchise, if any other iteration of MegaMan got anything even resembling attention, they would all just freak out and start screaming. Classic got a ninth game after a long hiatus? They should’ve made X9 instead! Legends 3 almost happened? Should’ve been X10! Classic MegaMan got a comic adaptation that was freaking awesome? Time to bitch until they either give X his own comic or he essentially butts in and makes sure that the comic doesn’t make it beyond the third game in the canon! They’re considering putting a MegaMan character in any fighting game? So God help me, if it’s not X, expect to hear endless bitching from the peanut gallery. And the worst part is, I’ve got friends who like the X series the best out of the entire MegaMan canon, and they’re not exactly as insufferable about it… but Heaven help me if I should even remotely express an iota of annoyance at the shithead fans that make up the (extremely) vocal segment of that fanbase. It’s like they’d rather side with those assholes than let me vent my one iota of my frustrations about what they did to a franchise I grew up loving.
And even the “good” X fans are still incredibly needy. Like, Capcom’s already confirmed that a new proper MegaMan game is in development, and even though X has a mobile game — which is honestly pretty good, and would be awesome if I could get a Bluetooth controller working properly on my phone — I’d be shocked if Capcom’s next big MegaMan project wasn’t X9 (or whatever they plan on calling a new MMX-based platformer), just due to the fact that they announced the X Legacy Collections literally the same day they announced MegaMan 11. And yet, I constantly have to reassure even my friends in the fanbase. “Oh, I’m sure X9 will be next, just be patient.” Like, shit, I’d much rather see a ZX3 developed by Inti Creates (a pipe dream, which has become a lot more real in light of the announcement of the impending Zero/ZX Legacy Collection), which would have absolutely no bearing on any internally developed projects. But I know that if any MegaMan project that isn’t X9 gets announced, I’m going to have to deal with the same level of caterwauling and bitching that I did when Capcom mysteriously decided to follow up MegaMan 9 with MegaMan 10.
Megaman X9 Playable
And that’s all I really have to say about the series. I think my thoughts have finally solidified for the time being, at least until X9 inevitably comes out. I do love a good rant. Hopefully, my next piece on Radical YMCK will be a bit more positive, but considering my line-up, I kind of doubt it.