How can you not know? It's in the Drama CD in TH-cam. Just search Megaman Zero Drama CD there's a whole bunch of them and my personal favourite Ragnarok.
I can personally attest to what you were talking about at the end with the story. When I played Zero 3 when I was younger and not that into the overall Megaman franchise, I thought the story was alright, but I didn't understand why so many people were saying this story was amazing and almost perfect. After diving deeper into the series' lore through media outside of the games, I can look back on Zero 3 and understand why MM fans love this story so deeply. I very much doubt this will ever happen, but hopefully future mainline Mega Man games will focus on presenting most, if not all the important lore for the story, within the game itself.
Gonna add in as a guy who started from Zero 4. I really do love the story in that game. Main reason being actually speaking to the humans there and having them speak of what happened in the past games was really one of the reasons I have gotten more into Megaman. Seeing the settlement beginning with being pessimists trying to survive to people who wants a brighter future just made me want to save them. Its a game I love to go back on NG+ cause when you get as many parts as possible you can really make your own Zero. Is Zero 3 better, me trying to be objectively as possible yeah. When I played the hell out of Zero 3 and when I knew more about X I really cried at the thought of him gone just as I did with Zero dying in Z4. I can definitely say that knowing that this wasnt the only time that Zero died now its like really weird but hey hes still awesome. As a guy that I can says as a fan of the entire series now. Zero 4 is my favorite game because it got me invested in the story of the Megaman franchise. Its a game that I really like all the bosses. (Except you Mino Magnus) Like I am even invested in the story of Classic Megaman because of it. Soooo yes I am very biased with Z4 and I am not gonna lie about it.
@@loyalcav1575 Funnily enough, at least Z4 doesn't really need that much overall context to be an impactful story (not like Z3, as John said, half the story is not presented in the games). Obviously the ending it's more rewarding if you played all Zero games, but Z4 on itself has a more concise story and a great conclusion that no matter if you're new to the series or a long time classic fan, it WILL get you! 😅
Let's GOOOO! Fun fact : There is ONE instance of the cyberspace door NOT deducting 5 points for entering. And of course, it's during that one exact stage where we get to refight Phantom. Another thing, the baby elves were actually created to be a sort of dark elf locator BY Weil, so ge didnt need to trick them to help him.
So that means… That means…! “He made the baby elves and allowed them to be a line of defense for omega.” *Insert Lanipator destroying his vocal cords here.*
Another interesting fact about that, if you play on Hard Mode, the ONLY Cyberspace door you can find is the one for the optional Phantom rematch, and of course, if you DON'T complete that battle, you'll get the 5 points penalty, if you defeat Phantom, then the penalty is nullified.
@@CrossKaizer17 There are some people who just might not think to do it, or don't realize that you can still dash given that most of your other commands are disabled during that moment. Admittedly, I don't think I realized that I could still dash until my second time fighting the boss, but I made sure to every time after that.
Here's the implied reason as to why X exiled Weil instead of execute him : You make a fair point about X terminating hundreds if not thousands of maverick robots, but that's just it, X's enemies were always Reploids, as in ROBOTS. Now, remember back to the intro sequence of MegaMan X1 where during Dr. Light's warning about X's potential he mentions Asimov's Rules of Robotics. Specifically the FIRST rule : "A robot must never harm a human being", which...well X never violated. Executing Weil while corresponding with the 0th rule would still violate the first rule. ...Now flash forward to Zero 4 where Weil dies. Who kills him? Oh right the ONE robot (and reminder : Reploid means Replicated Android, which...well X and Zero are the progenitors of, so they TECHNICALLY aren't reploids, even if they are called that) that a certain humanity hating death machine creating insane scientist created who most likely DIDN'T program in such laws of robotics failsafes specifically so he could cause untold mayhem and ruin Dr. Light's legacy from beyond the grave. Of course unlike X, Zero would kill a human bastard like Weil. As per usual, it is Ironic that Dr. Wily's greatest creation to destroy the world to spite Dr. Light would be one of the strongest defenders of said world.
Actually, Zero is in alignment with the laws of robotics, when he kills Weil: "Zeroth Law: A robot may not harm humanity, or, by inaction, allow humanity to come to harm." Edit: oh, you mention the zeroth law. I would argue that the zeroth law takes precedence over the first law. It's a bit like the trolley problem: Kill one human ( that actually augemented himself to be more machine than man ), or not do it, and kill millions of people in the process.
On Zero 4, Weil says that it were the humans of the time that banished him. He doesn't even mention X. I know that it's told that X was the defacto leader of Neo Arcadia, but knowing Weil, he would've taken personality that he'd been banished by a reploid instead of humans. Granted, that's in the audio track, and I don't know if it's in the in-game dialogue.
Funny how you mention X only fighting robots. I know it's not canon, but in his story in the card game Teppen the one that witnesses Wesker murdering Spencer in the Spencer Mansion is X, not Chris and Jill. X's reaction? Complete and utter shock and could barely gather his bearings when Wesker proceeded to attack him.
I think it's implied that the Judges were modified by Weil and his supporters behind the scenes, effectively rigging his own trial... Even if it admittedly just augmented his hatred of Reploids and Neo Arcadia at large, it did provide him the means to survive and try Project Elpis of his own accord especially since to revive the Dark Elf, X needed to be physically destroyed as his body sealed the thing AND he was his opponent on what to do with the Mother Elf back in the old days with X's Idea winning out over his to end the Sigma Virus and Maverick Wars.
@Squirrelsquid and whe you think about it...Zero aligning with the *Zero*th law is also ironic. Problem is, that Light ONLY mentions the first rule in his message to the future in X's capsule. As for precedence? That's debatable considering it was only an ammendment later published by Asimov.
I think a lot of that has to do with forgiveness. We've all done something bad in our past that we're not proud of, so people can understand when someone is truly sorry for what they've done. But still, there are certain acts that can't be forgiven, like almost wiping out all life on earth using a roided out Cyber Elf.
4:24 - Fun fact, Doctor Weil BUILT the eight judges that collectively act as Neo Arcadia’s judicial system. They sentenced him to become immortal but not unaging and then Darth Vader’d his body so he’d have to suffer for all eternity in direct retribution for his war crimes. Apparently no one saw an issue with this obvious ploy to give Weil an in to come back and take revenge on the world for not bending over and taking his bullshit the first time around. Conspicuously, Neo Arcadia’s eight judges became much more draconian and debauched after a lifetime of just benevolence and total competency at running the legal system around the time they sentenced Weil.
I think it's worth mentioning now that the Mutos Reploids names aren't total nonsense they reference Mythological creatures. For example Burble Hekelot is a reference to Heqet the Frog headed fertility goddess from Egyptian mythology and Childre Inarabitta is a reference to the Hare of Inaba of Japanese folklore. In fact Mutos Reploid is actually a mistranslation of their Japanese name MYTHOS reploid. if your interested in more John I will be happy to elaborated because I am a big mythology nerd.
Yeah they are a bit too much of a transliteration of the Japanese pronunciation of their names, which probably fudges them up. Oh well, CAPCOM localization back then wasn't exactly great I guess...
If that's the case, maybe the mythos reploids as a enemy group is probably reference to the mythos cyborgs from cyborg 009,at least the idea of it, after all megaman franchise is heavily influenced by many mecha anime , manga ,and tokusatsu from its time like astro boy and casshern for example, there's someone pointed out that the Maverick virus is inspired by the nutso wave from astro boy and the flute from kikaider
@@D.Lewis_ Certainly these are the ones I know of for the first three games and the bosses of four once that becomes relevant. Aztec Falcon/Aztefalcon: "The Ultimate Bird Sparking with Lightning" He's pretty simple a falcon with Aztec imagery He may be based on the legend of the Eagle eating the snake depicted on Mexico's Flag. Anubis Necromancess/Anubistep Necromances III/V: "Redemption lore of the underworld" Obviously based on Anubis and Necromancer. Maha Ganesheriff: "Big, Hard Ball Genie" again another obvious one he's Ganesha the serve in his body references his ties to Knowledge and Education. Blizagg Staggroff: "Cervine lord of Absolute zero" As the name implies he's based on a stag a White Stag specifically in Celtic Folklore they are believed to be messengers of the Otherworld or Afterlife. Hanumachine: "Super Monkey of Knowledge" Again based on the Hindu Monkey God Hanuman though with a bit of Sun Wukong Thrown in. Herculious Anchus: "The LIghtning Beetle" Nothing to extradinary he's just a Herculous beetle Robot. Hyleg Ourobockle: "The Shinobi serpent of the hidden forest" Hyleg here is a bit more extraordinary the first part of his name is derived from Astrology as Hyleg is a term describe "The planet with the greatest essential dignities" what ever the hell that means but it also could be a reference to the Hydra, and Ourobockle is a reference to Ouroborous the Mythical snake that eats it's own tail used as a motif for the cycle of life or immortality. Poler Kamrous/Polar Kambeas: "The Alpha Bear of the Ice blade" again she's a Giant polar bear hence the first half of her name but the Kamrous part may reference Kamui the divine spirits of Ainu folklore as they belived bears to be divine in nature and often sacrificed them to the Kamui. Phoenix Magnion: "Fire god of Illusion" He's a pheonix Nuff said. Panter Flauclaws: "Black Panther of Lightining" He's named after the Demon Flauros from their Ars goetia who is described as being able to take the form of a big cat. Kuwagust Anchus: "The wind god of Pincer Attacks" Again like his brother he's a beetle no myth here his name is a combination of Kuwagata the japanese word for stag beetle and Gust Burble Hekelot: "Guardian of the Tree's Shadow" Again as i previously mentioned he's named after Heqet the frog headed fertility goddess. Blazin' Flizard: "Mandala Crumbling Fire Dragon" and Left flame Judge of the Eight Gentle Judges. He's based on Frilled Lizard hence his name though he could be a reference to the Salamander. Childre Inarabitta: "Death Rabbit of Frostbite" and Left Ice Judge of the Eight Gentle Judges. As previously mentioned he's based on the Hare of Inaba and the fact he's in a Water level is a reference to how the Hare reached the Japanese mainland by conning a bunch of Sharks to use as platforms mario style. Devilbat Schilt/Hellbat Schilt: "Paralyzing Death God" and Right Thunder Judge of the Eight Gentle Judges. Again not much he's just a Vampire *BlehBleh* Deathtanz Mantisk: "Priest of the Killing Blade" Moonlight Judge and Vice-Chief Judge of the eight Gentle Judges. He's based on both a Praying mantis and the Grim Reaper natch. The Tanz in his name means dance in German so it could be a reference to the Franz Liszt Composition Totentanz. Volteel Biblio: "Skilled Eel Lightning God" Left Thunder Judge of the Eight Gentle Judges. Of course he's based on an Electric Eel although he maybe based on the Maori Eel God Tuna. The Biblio means book in latin due to the fact you fight him in a library. Cubit Foxtar: "Foxy Poison of a Hundred Spirits" Right Flame Judge of the Eight Gentle Judges. He (Yes the fox is not a girl just a super androgynous man the audio drama's make it more obvious) is based on the Kitsune Cubit from Kyubi meaning nine tails the fact he's so feminine is a reference to Kitsune deceiving travellers by turning into beautiful women. Tritesta Kelverian:"Guardian of Bestial Cries" Dark Judge and Chief Judge of the Eight Gentle Judges. He is based on Cerberus in fact Tritesta means three headed in Latin. Glacier Le Cactank: "High Lord of the Super Ice Ball" Right Ice Judge of the Eight Gentle Judges. He's cactus and he controls ice. Nuff said.
@docbaker3333 actually about the beetle brothers,I think they suppose to be loosely base on the Japanese gods Raijin and Fujin with Herculious begin Raijin with electric base attack and kuwagust begin Fujin with wind focus attack despite being the same element as his brother, as they basically had wind related charther considering electric type Side note Herculious is red and Kuwagust is blue also an refer to the red oni,blue oni trope especially with beetles brothers
24:50 a little thing about this, anytime something like this happens in the series (the reploid mind control immunity thing) it's because X & Zero aren't reploids, they're robots originally created in the past (of course other characters after rockman x3 just think of them just as reploids anyway but in truth they aren't the same) by light & willy so it should be guessed, reploid rules don't apply to them
The reploid rules were created by Dr. Cain, not Dr. Light or Wily. That's why X was limitless potential or limitless danger. I just imagine that X chose to follow these rules as an example. Especially since he led Neo Arcadia.
X and Zero aren't robots, as robots don't have free will. They are Androids, Artificial Man. They are just as capable of creation, destruction, and free will as humans. Reploid literally means Replica of Androids. Reploids are immune to most mind control, unless reality warping viruses, gods (mother elf), or super scientist spirits are running about. Oh wait... X is immune due to Light's paranoia about such things and X's inability to be fully copied, plus his 100 year mental testing and mental reinforcement in himself. Also, light is shown to be willing to reprogram X to fix him, if it comes to that. X5 ending. So no reprogrammation can stick. Zero is immune as the maverick virus was always meant to be his to control. Mother Elf is literally an antivirus created to deal with the maverick virus made from his systems, so his systems already are immune to it. Also Zero's body was made to be able to come back from the dead, no matter how dead someone tries to make him.
25:00 I think Zero’s immune to Omega’s signal because he isn’t a reploid, since reploid’s are robots made in the image of megaman X. Where Zero is his own unique creation.
Slightly serious but can I say thank you for your Channel? Your commentary on some of my favorite games ever has gotten me through some of the darkest periods of my life. Things are looking up now and I can just be hype for today's video but there was a time where your uploads was the only thing I was looking forward to. And I appreciate the work you put in
John just mad MZ4 proves Zero is the greater android between him and X, and, by extension, Wily is the better inventor. Didn't even need to baby his creation with capsules containing armor upgrades. *Wily dabbing*
@@altreon3608 to be fair... he's not wrong... Not only does Zero achieve Light's dream of peace between man and machine... He does it in a not depraved way that light's ideals always lead to, despite the best of intentions... and it also directly puts the world on the path to the Legends series, where machine was freed of Man's involvement as humanity is extinct. No person in Legends is actually human. They are Carbons. All of them are a different species to humans. So Zero achieved both dreams, in one set of actions.
As someone who has no familiarity with the zero series outside some cultural osmosis. I find it very odd they would push so much of the SUPER IMPORTANT LORE that is very good. To audio dramas. Don't get me wrong. I love me a good audio drama. But a lot of this story i would be very lost on if john had busted his butt to do all of this for us to make it more digestable. I kinda wish the legacy collection had done more with this like the final fantasy 10 collection square did. Regardless great job as always, John!
It’s not just you. I agree completely. Until Johns retrospective, I didn’t even know they existed. The Zero Collection on the DS didn’t have them either.
More implication that they wanted to put this game series on consoles (hence all the anime voice acting that slipped through) but couldn't for various reasons
It's a case where being stuck on GBA as Mega Man games was kind of a crippling blow for the ambition these games had. Inafune and Inti clearly wanted a more ambitious story and series, but they only had so much they could do on a 2001 handheld with tiny cartridges and a traditional game structure that didn't allow for all that much. The way I see all that extra material is just them trying to spill out all the ideas into paper and dramas for the most dedicated because there was no other option.
Now that you mention it, the amount of Megaman story and lore present in side material reminds me of FFXV, Destiny, Star Wars' Expanded Universe, etc. It's (mostly) wonderful material to explore IF you get into it enough to spend all day reading and researching. But it makes the respective games feel almost shallow, by themselves. Thanks for bringing both perspectives into view, and great video!
As someone whose been a mega man fan since a kid, I appreciate these videos so much. I’ve played these games to death but still have yet to go into things such as the mentioned audio dramas. Makes the games story beats so much more dramatic and that montage at the end with omega really was great
That final comment at the end of the review about the ending's impact honestly hit me like a brick. As someone who has sentimental value to the series, I learned of at least part of the supplemental material whether I knew its source or not even before playing the game myself. This helped elevate the climax of the story much higher in my mind than the game puts on the table alone. In a way I kind of want to delete my mind of all the information I have about the series and play them completely blind just to have a clue of what a newbie would think of the narrative. On the topic of stupid supplemental lore you would never find in-game, the Eight Gentle Judges actually had a unique system to go through where the elemental Judges would interrogate the defendant with X, the big guy based off Cerberos would deliver the sentence, and the Mantis Judge would decapitate the defendant if need be.
So there's a neat hidden detail that I really like about Zero's identity in the Omega fight that I don't really see anyone comment on. If you look in the background of Omega Phase 3, you can see a certain signature "W" among the wreckage. And it's on YOUR side of the field, hinting that Weil is full of it and our Zero is the real one.
i read it was also a reference to Wily as the destruction of Omega put an end to Dr. Wily's robots and even some books refer to Area X-2 and the omega symbol with "Dr. W. No.∞" and "Dr. W LASTN. ZERO" as references to Wily.
@@NEETKitten Well that W on the scraps also look like a V with and extra line in the middle. That's the exact same change they did for the Zero 4 boss icon, so I am pretty confident that it stands for Weil, since that just what all hints seem to be pointing to. If they use the exact same graphic for the jap and English version, then I would agree (I don't know if they do)
Call me a simp for Megaman lore, but I was pumped to have the audio drama clips back 🥹 Awesome video as always, can’t wait to see the conclusion of this series and overall thoughts in your eventual Zero 4 vid!
The fact you said the Eight Gentle Judges have some wasted potential was an eye-raiser to me that I haven't realized until now. Makes me wonder if there could've been a scenario where they were preserved
sadly even X and ZX bosses suffer the same the same thing where even they have nothing to do with the story and are just some wasted potential where we would only see once and never again
@@aaaaaaarrrrrrrrggggggghhhhhhhh Pseudoroids are indeed a thing that should've been explored more instead of just being an excuse to get Biometals. I feel like this issue only began to affect the X games around X3 or X4. My reasons for X3 is that it introduced Dr. Doppler, the first victim of the Maverick Virus. X4 is something everyone has said at this point. But X5's a bit funny because it involves "Mavericks" that aren't actually evil. It even had Spiral Pegasus who literally only challenges you due to it being what Colonel would've wanted. X6's bosses are okay in lore. X7 could've easily been more effective if the bosses weren't Mavericks but ordinary people that got caught up in Red Alert's ways of handling Maverick activity. X8 should've been the transition to Pseudoroids but I know that this technically isn't possible due to disjoined development times.
@@lexisacrimmino same, after that, it started to spread towards Zero and ZX. The bosses even felt like as if, if the bosses were not there, then the game would still feel the same since the bosses felt like cardboard than an actual character. I mean, why are the eight gentle judges the bosses when they have nothing to do with the story and not the solider reploids instead, cause that would have fit in much better. Even Mario and sonic games has better boss battle, than X, Zero and ZX
And it's a shame because you'd almost expect these guys to have similar importance flare as the Four Guardians when they have humanoid forms in a similar vein to them too. The amount of info regarding them that's non-game is baffling because it would've been nice to see how things such as Tretista's dog circuits work, or how Volteel got to the way he is now
You have no idea how long I've waited for this review. It baffles me that most aren't privy to the fact that this is easily one of the best, if not the best, Mega Man game. Pure action and story for the entire duration of the game. I love this game a lot so I know it's nostalgia at it's best; but given the recent attention to these games due to the collection being released, I've seen many people in the fandom agreeing that Zero 3 is the pinnacle of Mega Man action and storytelling. Great Vid John
If there’s anything that I pray Capcom would do, it’s to make a remake of all the four games. They can remake all the zero games by putting them together as one game, and each one can be individual chapters. They’ll be able to incorporate all the hidden lore, whether it be in an extra menu or during gameplay. Like the climatic speech zero says during Omega‘s fight.
Recent events in many countries show that Weil's plan of saying X is dead and Zero is the one who killed it so he has to take power would very much work.
That and KNIJohn has the fucking gall to tell us people remember 100 years ago when people barely remember the specifics of COVID Lockdowns from 2 years ago.
Regarding the zero one bosses being back the wiki states that Dr Weil specialized in both weapons development and Reploid DNA revival so it does make some sense that he was able to resurrect those 3
Random fun facts! You are allowed to use Cyber Space without penalty and if you defeat Hidden Phantom on the Sub-Arcadia stage. Additionally, hooking up with Battle Network 4 will spawn some viruses in Cyber Space as a nod to that series. I think Anubis Necromancess has a different weakness in this game compared to Zero 1, if I'm not mistaken. He also has a different Roman numeral in his name. I wonder who keeps killing this guy's other versions. Maybe Zero does it offscreen? Cubit Foxtar, despite the extremely feminine appearance, is actually male. I remember being surprised to learn that. But also, I guess that means Leviathan is the only woman with a position of authority in Neo Arcadia? Omega Zero's giant X/Zero hybrid form never actually uses its sword for an attack because of cartridge space issues.
On the third point, Anubis and.. The bear one, I forget their name, are supposed to be female. So that brings Neo Arcadia's total of female officers from 1 to 3.
@@NEETKitten to be fair, Anubis was confirmed male back in the mid 00's. I believe they chose necromancess cause they liked the sound better than necromancer.... Honestly the reason is so stupid I try not to bring it up cause it hurts to think about.
And the wait is finally over (And all the worth). Seriously, if there's a reason this game is considered, "The Best Mega Man experience", it's literally because it does so much in a standardized X-styled game, has a good degree of "Nostalgia" given how much of the first game's stuff it brings back, the combat system is truly at its best here, and the revamped mechanics only make the degree of options and customization all the better. Z3 deserves all of its praise, and it's easily a game I'd recommend to any newcomer to the MegaMan franchise.
Oh man, you'd love the old animation of the Zero Vs Omega battle then. It helps with all your issues about how there's just nothing for the character to do and feel and say about having their world shattered like that.
Okay, now I see why Capcom was initially throwing around the idea of making Zero 3 the conclusion to the series. If you focus on just Zero's arc, him getting to face down his dark past and origins, and overcome even a physical manifestation of it, makes for a fantastic climax to the story of this complicated hero we've followed for so long. And hey, even without that context it's still a fun trope to make the make the unbeatable hero's greatest challenge an evil version of himself (see also Doom Eternal). In any case though I'm glad they went one game further to wrap up the Dr. Weil and Neo Arcadia situation. Learning Sigma got defeated once and for all offscreen was kinda like "oh," so it's good they didn't do that again with the next big bad. Plus there was still plenty there regarding the difficult relationship between humans and reploids that led to all of this in the first place, which I imagine will get discussed in the next vid.
I remember how Megaman Zero series story actually reinvigorated my interest in good stories. Back then I was a bit angry slightly after-16 y.o. but not exactly young adult yet. Back then I dropped my interest in creativity, had no job and was kinda drowning in self-loathing. Then this little series comes along and I see potential for storytelling. Trying to add to what was there. Having my own headcannon. While I never became a writer or something, it gave me a good kickstart to a hobby of Role-Playing games and made me appreciate a good story and ideas of narrative design. I may not become a writer but this game is definitely responsible for kickstarting my interest in the RPGs and becoming at least a good GM for people that play with me. So... I kinda have a lot to thank this game series for. As a whole I mean. I really wish that this series would be remade into something like a JRPG? Then maybe we would have proper story, maybe Zero would get some help from time to time, other characters could join him and not like for one cutscene, but for most of the game, like Harpuia could? And we would get enough text and dialogue in the game that would allow players to see story proper. I do believe if entire story from Zero 1 to Zero 4 would be put in like 4 act proper single game it could have been pretty good one. Not Xenogears of Final Fantasy level story, but strong enough for fans to actually enjoy it in fullest and maybe devs properly using all elements together. Who knows? Well, we have what we have, I suppose... Unfortunate but fact. Still, wishful thinking never dies I guess.
So apparently, the guardians died after omega explodes. Now I'm not the type to ignore lore and push my own headcanon, but since that is a very anticlimactic end for these characters I have decided to ignore it and posite that the guardians began aiding the resistance against Dr. Weil, helping humans and reploids that are trying to defect from Neo Arcadia.
It's conflicting info, one of the dev people confirmed they had no idea that the Guardians "died" and instead had some canon that they're all fighting on fronts beyond Neo Arcadia's control and helping people and reploids from them. It doesn't help since Z4 has no mention of them in any shape or form.
Yeah, it's a "fuzzy" word of god situation for sure. I don't think them all dying in the explosion is necessarily a *bad* end for them, especially considering that X was also gone, it felt appropriate, but if that is what happened, they conveyed it horribly, almost certainly because that wasn't the original intent. I have a suspicion that they tried to have their cake and eat it too and ended up fumbling the bag horribly, which is a shame because they were cool, at least conceptually, even if Harpuia and debatably Phantom were the only ones with any "real character" to them.
@@SaberToothPortilla Them dying in the explosion is kinda appropriate as well because they're made based on X and when push comes to shove they all proceeded to protect Zero out of instinct, much like what X would've done in their situation.
@@prodbypriestJudah-gi6xtIt’s a grey area since Phantom is also there, and he’s long dead at that point. X is also there, and he’s supposed to be gone for good too.
The very first Zero game I played. Although it was very hard at first, it was so fun. Although my copy of the game doesn’t save, I didn’t mind playing the game over and over again just to have a blast.
John, my god, that entire sequence from 30:27 onwards, that is incredible editing skills, holy shit. I'm excited to see what you do in the future with this kind of dedication and effort.
one thing i enjoy about the thing of having a LOT of off game lore it's what separates the casual fan to the REAL fan, as said, just a really big fan of a media would spend their time reading or listening to audio dramas or suplementary lore. It might be really annoying, i agree on that, but in a community view, it creates a fan that really loves the series as a whole, no joke i think almost every megaman fan knows about every single detail of the entire lore, they would explain the entire thing with pleasure, and i fucking love this type of fan, i love seeing a community that tries to really understand everything the game has to offer.
Really enjoy these videos dude! As a kid I loved the series and I remember getting this for Christmas one year (and even the now irrelevant strategy guide, God bless my parents) I've still never forgot the game and the climactic ending. I don't really play megaman games anymore (or most games for that matter) but seeing these kinds of video essays just gives me that cozy nostalgia feeling and helps me remember that magic of being a kid lost in some nerdy game. It's also funny now we look back and see the flaws but at the time 11 year old me was just trying to figure out how to beat the next boss and get that sweet new move. Anyways thank you for making these!
4:22 a bit of theorizing but i think weil was tortured. as in he was left in space under life support which made him unable to do anything but also still alive. and in copy x times, security was lowered since... reploids were killed off. so with lowered security, weil builds some thing a majick to go back to earth and stuff. 25:06 i assume all reploids have a chunk of x's coding inside, due to them being created FROM X, so Zero is immune cuz he wasn't created from X.
These games lived on their ideas and aesthetics, even if the execution was less than masterful due to coming out on a yearly basis, being limited by the hardware, or requiring additional mediums. Fun Fact: Zero 3 was part of the 15th anniversary of Mega Man. Capcom decided it should link up with a small indie title called "Mega Man Battle Network 4". Like Pokémon Ranger, BRAND NEW copies had one Z-Saber chip to give to Battle Network 4 players. If you didn't have a brand new copy, Battle Network 4 players could change Zero 3 for players by trading any Battle Chip. The enemies in Cyber World are replaced with Battle Network Viruses like Beetank, Swordy, or Puffy. This feature isn't in the Zero Collection or Legacy Collection. Oh there was also the Japanese Only "Battle Chip Gate". If you had Battle Chips, you could unlock the minigames of the Four Guardians without needing to unlock them in the game.
John, you should consider a collab with J's reviews. He is very knowleadgable about megaman lore and your editing style and humor would go so well with his!!
As a fun fact with Mega Man Zero 3 and how combos work. There are roughly 6 levels of priority on moves(I don't remember the exact amount off the top of my head), and each move procs a similar level of I-Frames. This allows you to do some pretty wild damage on every boss. A couple extremely easy combos are the triple slash(1,2 and 3) into the rising uppercut(4), a charged saber(2) into the rising uppercut(4). Both will end up doing roughly 2 charged slashes worth of damage, with a potential extra hit if you can land a Saber Smash while coming down from the uppercut(which also happens to be the single hardest hitting attack in the game). If you want to crank the silliness even higher, the Orbit Shield skill has a priority of 0, so you can just open any combo you want with it for an extra few points of damage.
It’s, interesting, how despite my utter disdain for some franchises almost forcing you to view supplemental material to understand a story, Zero 3 is one of the few examples I can think of that breaks past that disdain. I feel like it’s because the story itself can still hold itself up even if you don’t go out of your way to watch the audio dramas, which I really appreciate.
The elevator level you dont even have to use the central room to find the doors you need to find. You can just walk in and take note of the rooms design. The four rooms you need to find have the same different texture than the other rooms. Just walk in and immediately walk back out if the room isnt what you're looking for. I find it a lot faster to do that than to keep going back to the central room to remember where im going
The Sunken Library is interesting in that it’s part of an odd recurring motif in the Megaman timeline: the constant erasure of history. Right from the very beginning, Dr. Light’s lab is buried deep underground where X was found. That same area is sealed later, as explained very quickly and loosely in X6. The Sunken Library is the only place where files from the Elf Wars can be found. Characters in ZX hardly know Zero or Neo Arcadia. History is constantly being erased to the inhabitants in the Classic timeline, a direct result of constant warfare, allowing the same mistakes to be repeated and thus prolonging the wars. Literally everyone and everything from past games are referred to as vague legends and poorly understood. Ceil understood this, directly tackling the on-going energy crisis, but couldn’t implement the change she wanted to see due to her circumstances. Given the above, it should be no surprise that Neo Arcadian humans are not very bright. 60% of all humans died in the Elf Wars, likely at the hands of their neighbor reploids under the influence of Omega. You don’t simply kill billions of humans in just 4 years without employing an absurdly large army. (If we were to assume the human population was 8 billion before the Elf Wars, then that means 4.8 billion humans died during the Elf Wars. That’s on average almost 3.3 million humans dying per day!) That shit would have instilled everyone with PTSD and trust issues for generations, and thus they’d be very welcoming of any form of peace, even if it means an oppressive authoritarianism that scapegoated the minority.
Omega's second from is weird. Not only it combines X and Zero, but the supposed "Dark Elf" part in the middle looks a heckin' lot like Bass from Classic Megaman series. Which is pretty damn weird, ngl.
Look I love Megaman Zero 3, one of my favorite Megaman games period, but Weil's backstory of "You committed crimes against humanity so we're going to make you immortal and exile you. That surely won't cause any problems in the future!" is nothing short of absolutely absurd
It was probably a rushed decision. Since Weil loved humans so much, the best punishment they could think of was stripping him of EVERYTHING that made human, including death itself.
I love that you actually went over some of the supplemental content because no one else seems to have done that. I don't even remember if Ben Saint did...
I think cyberspace (aside from the Phantom secret boss) is primarily to let you get the benefit of all your elves and get a bit of an OP power fantasy when replaying levels without permanently tanking your score. Honestly a big fan of its inclusion for general messing about after the first two games basically had you either go all in on the elves (if you wanted ultimate mode/form) or ignore them entirely for rank/ex skills.
It's entirely possible to play by using cyber elves and still have a good rank at the end, I don't know why people think you can only do one or the other (well except for Zero 2 if you want to go for ultimate mode but you can always use them all at the end to still have the EX skills)
24:58 Oh, my gosh… So at first I thought, “Well it also might not have worked because Zero technically isn’t a Reploid.” …Until I remembered that isn’t Zero’s original body. I can’t see any reason for them to *not* have produced his new body the same way they produce Reploids, sooo… I had never thought about it before, but I guess since the Elf Wars Zero has actually been a Reploid, huh?
You may be looking a bit too deep, because as X states.. he IS the real Zero. His body is fake, but he is the real soul and heart of the original, legendary Android (let's face it, he's not a reploid.) This was also supposed to be the original conclusion of the series, but they left the Weil thread dangling which leads directly into 4. 2-4 are directly link to one another through plot threads, something missing from the first game.. sort of. As for Omega himself, I think the main reason they kept him a darker pallette swap was to not confuse the plot anymore. The new art style is an aesthetic change only seen by the player, in the game world, nothing has changed. The creators just wanted to refresh the art for the new series. By making Omega look different from Zero, would undermine that whole idea that they are #1. The same #2. just an art style change.
“Hundreds of reploids” Note the distinction. Humans he protected…non-lethally/nonharmfully subduing them where necessary including in areas like the Archie Comics which *Capcom had to sign off on.* So yeah.
Lol it's kind of ironic that I got into your channel because of your Zero review, but you have such an brutal- albeit justified- hate for the series. I grew up with a love for the series, but you're absolutely correct that most of the actual story is just not in the games themselves. And as someone who had Zero as his official first Megaman game, I actually had to research a lot from the past games just to get what the Zero series was going for.
18:37 I like to think that almost no one knew about Weil starting the war in the first place. From what I can tell, he was pretty anonymous about starting the Elf Wars, but only a few people (such as co-workers or something idk) could have known about it. But yeah I dont know how people just forgot about what he did lol
Zero 3 is my absolute favorite platformer, so needless to say, I'm very relieved to hear that the game suited your tastes. There's always a risk with games that are both relatively unknown and highly praised by those who did experience them, since new players may feel like the games don't live up to their hype in retrospect. Plus, Zero 3 is basically just the absolute perfection of the improvements that Zero 2 made to the formula, which may not be enough to elevate the title above its predecessor to those who weren't interested in what that game tried to do in the first place.
32:07 Canonically, X and Zero are meant to look identical to how they were in the X series and only look different here due to different art directors. It's possible they scrapped this for consistency to said statement.
Basically, the story suffers from the writing problem of "writing for the author." If the story leaves out all the relevant information, the reader has to try to fill in the blanks. Clearly, the game cuts too much for a casual player to connect the dots, which is why the story will be flat, instead of that pop. The lack of explaining, or showing, of the story Is probably due to technical constraints, but that doesn't mean it's not a real, objective knock against it. This post brought by the Battle Network 3 gang.
My first Zero game that I dont remember finishing (Zero being the final boss is something I never remembered), but those animal bosses with their silly names are imprinted in my mind.
Pretty Sure the Whole Exiling Weil instead of killing him thing comes from what they did to him. Dude's technicaly immortal i belive, they banished him to spend Millinia in the empty ruin world he created as a sort of "We're probably going to all die off because there's only one human setlement left on this plannet so once we die you'll be stuck with an eternity of being isolated and alone in an empty world" as a vindictive alternative because they reeeaaalllyyy wanted him to suffer
I dont think you noticed, and i looked for it on the comments without success, but there is an additional super neat feature on the Digital Space: you can connect Megaman Zero 3 to MMBN4 and the MMBN4 game would get a Z-Saber chip, and transfer a chip (doesnt matter which) that would turn every enemy from the cyberspace in MMBN viruses.
The reason Weil wasnt executed? lemme just do a little spoiler warning real quick. He built the judges who sentenced him. who are those judges? Why, The Eight Gentle Judges you fight in this game.
Zero 3 is definitely a favorite. I don't love that A rank is required for ex skills either, but when you consider how unnecessary they are, how many moves are available from cyber elves and chips, and how varied Zero's 4 weapon moveset is from the get go, I can see how they imagined first time players being happy with fusing cyber elves and jumping into cyberspace at every opportunity. I think it would still be a pretty fun way to play. Plus, if you unlock Ultimate mode, a second playground where you're already at max power in terms of chips and elves is the perfect time to start focusing on rank.
31:38 I had a completely different interpretation of what was happening. I thought that Omega was only the Zero from X1. The rebuilt Zero from X2 onwards was actually the same copy that you play as in the Zero games, with Zero's kamikaze'd body in X1 being kept by Wily/Serges/Weil, repaired, improved, and given a Z-saber over the course of those one hundred years. I felt that it made a lot of sense, tied the whole thing back to the first X game, and added a bit of dramatic irony to the line in X2 about how "there is only one Zero."
I always thought the judges for the longest time were made by our big bad and he just claimed they were the judges or ruling body of the city. Just something he made to enforce his rule upon everyone.
21:28 I wonder what that "favor" was 26:25 you get new EX skills that can be used to combo. 26:42 oh yeah I didn't get the subtank on my first run so I ended up having a bad time. 31:58 oh yeah there's also that one mod chip that you get from Zero 4 shich could mean something if Zero were a standalone series I guess?
I'm so pissed Elpizo actually had a backstory and I never found out until I saw this video
Its called buy the audio drama.
How can you not know? It's in the Drama CD in TH-cam. Just search Megaman Zero Drama CD there's a whole bunch of them and my personal favourite Ragnarok.
Mega Man fans when you just like the videogames instead of consuming every piece of media made of it
@@coreywong6229Sorry we don't live in Japan
@@SpideyfanX dats the joke.
“Or will zero 4 burn up and fizzle out on impact?” Ok you didn’t have to go THERE 😂
OHHHHHHH it's referencing THAT
Let's mosey, Zero. We have an evil scientist to kill
I can personally attest to what you were talking about at the end with the story. When I played Zero 3 when I was younger and not that into the overall Megaman franchise, I thought the story was alright, but I didn't understand why so many people were saying this story was amazing and almost perfect. After diving deeper into the series' lore through media outside of the games, I can look back on Zero 3 and understand why MM fans love this story so deeply. I very much doubt this will ever happen, but hopefully future mainline Mega Man games will focus on presenting most, if not all the important lore for the story, within the game itself.
Gonna add in as a guy who started from Zero 4. I really do love the story in that game. Main reason being actually speaking to the humans there and having them speak of what happened in the past games was really one of the reasons I have gotten more into Megaman.
Seeing the settlement beginning with being pessimists trying to survive to people who wants a brighter future just made me want to save them. Its a game I love to go back on NG+ cause when you get as many parts as possible you can really make your own Zero.
Is Zero 3 better, me trying to be objectively as possible yeah. When I played the hell out of Zero 3 and when I knew more about X I really cried at the thought of him gone just as I did with Zero dying in Z4. I can definitely say that knowing that this wasnt the only time that Zero died now its like really weird but hey hes still awesome.
As a guy that I can says as a fan of the entire series now. Zero 4 is my favorite game because it got me invested in the story of the Megaman franchise. Its a game that I really like all the bosses. (Except you Mino Magnus) Like I am even invested in the story of Classic Megaman because of it. Soooo yes I am very biased with Z4 and I am not gonna lie about it.
@@loyalcav1575 Funnily enough, at least Z4 doesn't really need that much overall context to be an impactful story (not like Z3, as John said, half the story is not presented in the games). Obviously the ending it's more rewarding if you played all Zero games, but Z4 on itself has a more concise story and a great conclusion that no matter if you're new to the series or a long time classic fan, it WILL get you! 😅
Let's GOOOO!
Fun fact : There is ONE instance of the cyberspace door NOT deducting 5 points for entering. And of course, it's during that one exact stage where we get to refight Phantom.
Another thing, the baby elves were actually created to be a sort of dark elf locator BY Weil, so ge didnt need to trick them to help him.
I remember when I got the DS collection as a kid and learned that. I felt as though I'd broken the game or found some secret reward lol
I had no idea! I've always backtracked to fight Phantom after clearing the stage to avoid losing points.
So that means…
That means…!
“He made the baby elves and allowed them to be a line of defense for omega.”
*Insert Lanipator destroying his vocal cords here.*
Another interesting fact about that, if you play on Hard Mode, the ONLY Cyberspace door you can find is the one for the optional Phantom rematch, and of course, if you DON'T complete that battle, you'll get the 5 points penalty, if you defeat Phantom, then the penalty is nullified.
Massive respect for finishing Omega with the dash attack. I ALWAYS made sure to use that move for the final blow when I was younger.
and I always make sure I pass thru Omega right after xD
@@neo7538 Wait you can dash back through him a second time?
I always try to end up behind him for style points
wait, you mean there are people who DON'T do that?
@@CrossKaizer17 There are some people who just might not think to do it, or don't realize that you can still dash given that most of your other commands are disabled during that moment.
Admittedly, I don't think I realized that I could still dash until my second time fighting the boss, but I made sure to every time after that.
Here's the implied reason as to why X exiled Weil instead of execute him : You make a fair point about X terminating hundreds if not thousands of maverick robots, but that's just it, X's enemies were always Reploids, as in ROBOTS. Now, remember back to the intro sequence of MegaMan X1 where during Dr. Light's warning about X's potential he mentions Asimov's Rules of Robotics. Specifically the FIRST rule : "A robot must never harm a human being", which...well X never violated. Executing Weil while corresponding with the 0th rule would still violate the first rule.
...Now flash forward to Zero 4 where Weil dies. Who kills him? Oh right the ONE robot (and reminder : Reploid means Replicated Android, which...well X and Zero are the progenitors of, so they TECHNICALLY aren't reploids, even if they are called that) that a certain humanity hating death machine creating insane scientist created who most likely DIDN'T program in such laws of robotics failsafes specifically so he could cause untold mayhem and ruin Dr. Light's legacy from beyond the grave. Of course unlike X, Zero would kill a human bastard like Weil.
As per usual, it is Ironic that Dr. Wily's greatest creation to destroy the world to spite Dr. Light would be one of the strongest defenders of said world.
Actually, Zero is in alignment with the laws of robotics, when he kills Weil: "Zeroth Law: A robot may not harm humanity, or, by inaction, allow humanity to come to harm." Edit: oh, you mention the zeroth law. I would argue that the zeroth law takes precedence over the first law. It's a bit like the trolley problem: Kill one human ( that actually augemented himself to be more machine than man ), or not do it, and kill millions of people in the process.
On Zero 4, Weil says that it were the humans of the time that banished him. He doesn't even mention X. I know that it's told that X was the defacto leader of Neo Arcadia, but knowing Weil, he would've taken personality that he'd been banished by a reploid instead of humans. Granted, that's in the audio track, and I don't know if it's in the in-game dialogue.
Funny how you mention X only fighting robots. I know it's not canon, but in his story in the card game Teppen the one that witnesses Wesker murdering Spencer in the Spencer Mansion is X, not Chris and Jill. X's reaction? Complete and utter shock and could barely gather his bearings when Wesker proceeded to attack him.
I think it's implied that the Judges were modified by Weil and his supporters behind the scenes, effectively rigging his own trial... Even if it admittedly just augmented his hatred of Reploids and Neo Arcadia at large, it did provide him the means to survive and try Project Elpis of his own accord especially since to revive the Dark Elf, X needed to be physically destroyed as his body sealed the thing AND he was his opponent on what to do with the Mother Elf back in the old days with X's Idea winning out over his to end the Sigma Virus and Maverick Wars.
@Squirrelsquid and whe you think about it...Zero aligning with the *Zero*th law is also ironic.
Problem is, that Light ONLY mentions the first rule in his message to the future in X's capsule.
As for precedence? That's debatable considering it was only an ammendment later published by Asimov.
About neo arcadians forgetting the sins of criminals... I think it happens way too often in real life, i think that's actually (sadly) accurate
People don't remember what they had for breakfast.
I think a lot of that has to do with forgiveness. We've all done something bad in our past that we're not proud of, so people can understand when someone is truly sorry for what they've done. But still, there are certain acts that can't be forgiven, like almost wiping out all life on earth using a roided out Cyber Elf.
4:24 - Fun fact, Doctor Weil BUILT the eight judges that collectively act as Neo Arcadia’s judicial system. They sentenced him to become immortal but not unaging and then Darth Vader’d his body so he’d have to suffer for all eternity in direct retribution for his war crimes. Apparently no one saw an issue with this obvious ploy to give Weil an in to come back and take revenge on the world for not bending over and taking his bullshit the first time around.
Conspicuously, Neo Arcadia’s eight judges became much more draconian and debauched after a lifetime of just benevolence and total competency at running the legal system around the time they sentenced Weil.
I think it's worth mentioning now that the Mutos Reploids names aren't total nonsense they reference Mythological creatures. For example Burble Hekelot is a reference to Heqet the Frog headed fertility goddess from Egyptian mythology and Childre Inarabitta is a reference to the Hare of Inaba of Japanese folklore. In fact Mutos Reploid is actually a mistranslation of their Japanese name MYTHOS reploid. if your interested in more John I will be happy to elaborated because I am a big mythology nerd.
Yeah they are a bit too much of a transliteration of the Japanese pronunciation of their names, which probably fudges them up. Oh well, CAPCOM localization back then wasn't exactly great I guess...
If that's the case, maybe the mythos reploids as a enemy group is probably reference to the mythos cyborgs from cyborg 009,at least the idea of it, after all megaman franchise is heavily influenced by many mecha anime , manga ,and tokusatsu from its time like astro boy and casshern for example, there's someone pointed out that the Maverick virus is inspired by the nutso wave from astro boy and the flute from kikaider
Hey, could you list all of these references out? I would like to know about them. It would be a great addition to this vid as well.
@@D.Lewis_ Certainly these are the ones I know of for the first three games and the bosses of four once that becomes relevant.
Aztec Falcon/Aztefalcon: "The Ultimate Bird Sparking with Lightning" He's pretty simple a falcon with Aztec imagery He may be based on the legend of the Eagle eating the snake depicted on Mexico's Flag.
Anubis Necromancess/Anubistep Necromances III/V: "Redemption lore of the underworld" Obviously based on Anubis and Necromancer.
Maha Ganesheriff: "Big, Hard Ball Genie" again another obvious one he's Ganesha the serve in his body references his ties to Knowledge and Education.
Blizagg Staggroff: "Cervine lord of Absolute zero" As the name implies he's based on a stag a White Stag specifically in Celtic Folklore they are believed to be messengers of the Otherworld or Afterlife.
Hanumachine: "Super Monkey of Knowledge" Again based on the Hindu Monkey God Hanuman though with a bit of Sun Wukong Thrown in.
Herculious Anchus: "The LIghtning Beetle" Nothing to extradinary he's just a Herculous beetle Robot.
Hyleg Ourobockle: "The Shinobi serpent of the hidden forest" Hyleg here is a bit more extraordinary the first part of his name is derived from Astrology as Hyleg is a term describe "The planet with the greatest essential dignities" what ever the hell that means but it also could be a reference to the Hydra, and Ourobockle is a reference to Ouroborous the Mythical snake that eats it's own tail used as a motif for the cycle of life or immortality.
Poler Kamrous/Polar Kambeas: "The Alpha Bear of the Ice blade" again she's a Giant polar bear hence the first half of her name but the Kamrous part may reference Kamui the divine spirits of Ainu folklore as they belived bears to be divine in nature and often sacrificed them to the Kamui.
Phoenix Magnion: "Fire god of Illusion" He's a pheonix Nuff said.
Panter Flauclaws: "Black Panther of Lightining" He's named after the Demon Flauros from their Ars goetia who is described as being able to take the form of a big cat.
Kuwagust Anchus: "The wind god of Pincer Attacks" Again like his brother he's a beetle no myth here his name is a combination of Kuwagata the japanese word for stag beetle and Gust
Burble Hekelot: "Guardian of the Tree's Shadow" Again as i previously mentioned he's named after Heqet the frog headed fertility goddess.
Blazin' Flizard: "Mandala Crumbling Fire Dragon" and Left flame Judge of the Eight Gentle Judges. He's based on Frilled Lizard hence his name though he could be a reference to the Salamander.
Childre Inarabitta: "Death Rabbit of Frostbite" and Left Ice Judge of the Eight Gentle Judges. As previously mentioned he's based on the Hare of Inaba and the fact he's in a Water level is a reference to how the Hare reached the Japanese mainland by conning a bunch of Sharks to use as platforms mario style.
Devilbat Schilt/Hellbat Schilt: "Paralyzing Death God" and Right Thunder Judge of the Eight Gentle Judges. Again not much he's just a Vampire *BlehBleh*
Deathtanz Mantisk: "Priest of the Killing Blade" Moonlight Judge and Vice-Chief Judge of the eight Gentle Judges. He's based on both a Praying mantis and the Grim Reaper natch. The Tanz in his name means dance in German so it could be a reference to the Franz Liszt Composition Totentanz.
Volteel Biblio: "Skilled Eel Lightning God" Left Thunder Judge of the Eight Gentle Judges. Of course he's based on an Electric Eel although he maybe based on the Maori Eel God Tuna. The Biblio means book in latin due to the fact you fight him in a library.
Cubit Foxtar: "Foxy Poison of a Hundred Spirits" Right Flame Judge of the Eight Gentle Judges. He (Yes the fox is not a girl just a super androgynous man the audio drama's make it more obvious) is based on the Kitsune Cubit from Kyubi meaning nine tails the fact he's so feminine is a reference to Kitsune deceiving travellers by turning into beautiful women.
Tritesta Kelverian:"Guardian of Bestial Cries" Dark Judge and Chief Judge of the Eight Gentle Judges. He is based on Cerberus in fact Tritesta means three headed in Latin.
Glacier Le Cactank: "High Lord of the Super Ice Ball" Right Ice Judge of the Eight Gentle Judges. He's cactus and he controls ice. Nuff said.
@docbaker3333 actually about the beetle brothers,I think they suppose to be loosely base on the Japanese gods Raijin and Fujin with Herculious begin Raijin with electric base attack and kuwagust begin Fujin with wind focus attack despite being the same element as his brother, as they basically had wind related charther considering electric type
Side note Herculious is red and Kuwagust is blue also an refer to the red oni,blue oni trope especially with beetles brothers
24:50 a little thing about this, anytime something like this happens in the series (the reploid mind control immunity thing) it's because X & Zero aren't reploids, they're robots originally created in the past (of course other characters after rockman x3 just think of them just as reploids anyway but in truth they aren't the same) by light & willy so it should be guessed, reploid rules don't apply to them
The reploid rules were created by Dr. Cain, not Dr. Light or Wily. That's why X was limitless potential or limitless danger. I just imagine that X chose to follow these rules as an example. Especially since he led Neo Arcadia.
X and Zero aren't robots, as robots don't have free will. They are Androids, Artificial Man. They are just as capable of creation, destruction, and free will as humans. Reploid literally means Replica of Androids. Reploids are immune to most mind control, unless reality warping viruses, gods (mother elf), or super scientist spirits are running about. Oh wait...
X is immune due to Light's paranoia about such things and X's inability to be fully copied, plus his 100 year mental testing and mental reinforcement in himself. Also, light is shown to be willing to reprogram X to fix him, if it comes to that. X5 ending. So no reprogrammation can stick.
Zero is immune as the maverick virus was always meant to be his to control. Mother Elf is literally an antivirus created to deal with the maverick virus made from his systems, so his systems already are immune to it. Also Zero's body was made to be able to come back from the dead, no matter how dead someone tries to make him.
21:08 Fun fact about Sunken library level, every time you enter in a wrong door you lose 2 mission points...
That explains why my score sucked
Editing some visuals together over Zero's monologue from the audio drama gave me some delicious full-body chills. Thank you for that.
IT STILL HITS
25:00 I think Zero’s immune to Omega’s signal because he isn’t a reploid, since reploid’s are robots made in the image of megaman X. Where Zero is his own unique creation.
Yeah, even if his body is a replica, Zero and X aren't reploids (replicated androids) but ROBOTS.
Slightly serious but can I say thank you for your Channel? Your commentary on some of my favorite games ever has gotten me through some of the darkest periods of my life. Things are looking up now and I can just be hype for today's video but there was a time where your uploads was the only thing I was looking forward to. And I appreciate the work you put in
That second phase of Omega straight up looked like the Megaman version of Omnimon from Digimon. That was so sick
Omnimon is called Omegamon in the Japanese dub, so it might be an intentional reference
@@roltas8801 that's right! I totally forgot about that
@@roltas8801 I always just figured it's because the Dark Elf pretty much only recognizes X and Zero.
@@roltas8801 Oh shit! I never made that connection before.
"Can't wait for the next one to fuck this up"
Z knuckle was pretty fun though. Admittedly weird at times but fun
John just mad MZ4 proves Zero is the greater android between him and X, and, by extension, Wily is the better inventor. Didn't even need to baby his creation with capsules containing armor upgrades. *Wily dabbing*
@@Psytinker keep it in your pants, bro
@@Psytinkerfound Dr. Wily's alt
@@altreon3608 to be fair... he's not wrong... Not only does Zero achieve Light's dream of peace between man and machine... He does it in a not depraved way that light's ideals always lead to, despite the best of intentions... and it also directly puts the world on the path to the Legends series, where machine was freed of Man's involvement as humanity is extinct. No person in Legends is actually human. They are Carbons. All of them are a different species to humans. So Zero achieved both dreams, in one set of actions.
As someone who has no familiarity with the zero series outside some cultural osmosis. I find it very odd they would push so much of the SUPER IMPORTANT LORE that is very good. To audio dramas. Don't get me wrong. I love me a good audio drama. But a lot of this story i would be very lost on if john had busted his butt to do all of this for us to make it more digestable. I kinda wish the legacy collection had done more with this like the final fantasy 10 collection square did. Regardless great job as always, John!
It’s not just you. I agree completely. Until Johns retrospective, I didn’t even know they existed. The Zero Collection on the DS didn’t have them either.
It's mind boggling. It's like reading a book with half the pages missing.
More implication that they wanted to put this game series on consoles (hence all the anime voice acting that slipped through) but couldn't for various reasons
It's a case where being stuck on GBA as Mega Man games was kind of a crippling blow for the ambition these games had. Inafune and Inti clearly wanted a more ambitious story and series, but they only had so much they could do on a 2001 handheld with tiny cartridges and a traditional game structure that didn't allow for all that much. The way I see all that extra material is just them trying to spill out all the ideas into paper and dramas for the most dedicated because there was no other option.
heard there was pushback against 2D games in consoles back then too
Now that you mention it, the amount of Megaman story and lore present in side material reminds me of FFXV, Destiny, Star Wars' Expanded Universe, etc. It's (mostly) wonderful material to explore IF you get into it enough to spend all day reading and researching. But it makes the respective games feel almost shallow, by themselves. Thanks for bringing both perspectives into view, and great video!
"Wario missionary" - Omega, 2004
It's good to see another vid from ya, John.
YES
As someone whose been a mega man fan since a kid, I appreciate these videos so much. I’ve played these games to death but still have yet to go into things such as the mentioned audio dramas. Makes the games story beats so much more dramatic and that montage at the end with omega really was great
That final comment at the end of the review about the ending's impact honestly hit me like a brick. As someone who has sentimental value to the series, I learned of at least part of the supplemental material whether I knew its source or not even before playing the game myself. This helped elevate the climax of the story much higher in my mind than the game puts on the table alone. In a way I kind of want to delete my mind of all the information I have about the series and play them completely blind just to have a clue of what a newbie would think of the narrative.
On the topic of stupid supplemental lore you would never find in-game, the Eight Gentle Judges actually had a unique system to go through where the elemental Judges would interrogate the defendant with X, the big guy based off Cerberos would deliver the sentence, and the Mantis Judge would decapitate the defendant if need be.
That's fucking brutal. I never knew that but that makes sense.
So why would they keep that away from us and made them cardboards
So there's a neat hidden detail that I really like about Zero's identity in the Omega fight that I don't really see anyone comment on. If you look in the background of Omega Phase 3, you can see a certain signature "W" among the wreckage. And it's on YOUR side of the field, hinting that Weil is full of it and our Zero is the real one.
i read it was also a reference to Wily as the destruction of Omega put an end to Dr. Wily's robots and even some books refer to Area X-2 and the omega symbol with "Dr. W. No.∞" and "Dr. W LASTN. ZERO" as references to Wily.
Well it's part of the Fusion Omega Armor, so the scraps probably stand for 'Weil', but it's a nice headcannon.
@@wolfbeat6427 I'd agree if it weren't for the fact that: A) Weil's name was "Vile" in Japanese, and B) it looks almost exactly like Wily's logo.
@@NEETKitten Well that W on the scraps also look like a V with and extra line in the middle. That's the exact same change they did for the Zero 4 boss icon, so I am pretty confident that it stands for Weil, since that just what all hints seem to be pointing to. If they use the exact same graphic for the jap and English version, then I would agree (I don't know if they do)
Call me a simp for Megaman lore, but I was pumped to have the audio drama clips back 🥹
Awesome video as always, can’t wait to see the conclusion of this series and overall thoughts in your eventual Zero 4 vid!
The fact you said the Eight Gentle Judges have some wasted potential was an eye-raiser to me that I haven't realized until now. Makes me wonder if there could've been a scenario where they were preserved
sadly even X and ZX bosses suffer the same the same thing where even they have nothing to do with the story and are just some wasted potential where we would only see once and never again
@@aaaaaaarrrrrrrrggggggghhhhhhhh Pseudoroids are indeed a thing that should've been explored more instead of just being an excuse to get Biometals. I feel like this issue only began to affect the X games around X3 or X4. My reasons for X3 is that it introduced Dr. Doppler, the first victim of the Maverick Virus. X4 is something everyone has said at this point. But X5's a bit funny because it involves "Mavericks" that aren't actually evil. It even had Spiral Pegasus who literally only challenges you due to it being what Colonel would've wanted.
X6's bosses are okay in lore. X7 could've easily been more effective if the bosses weren't Mavericks but ordinary people that got caught up in Red Alert's ways of handling Maverick activity. X8 should've been the transition to Pseudoroids but I know that this technically isn't possible due to disjoined development times.
@@lexisacrimmino same, after that, it started to spread towards Zero and ZX. The bosses even felt like as if, if the bosses were not there, then the game would still feel the same since the bosses felt like cardboard than an actual character. I mean, why are the eight gentle judges the bosses when they have nothing to do with the story and not the solider reploids instead, cause that would have fit in much better. Even Mario and sonic games has better boss battle, than X, Zero and ZX
And it's a shame because you'd almost expect these guys to have similar importance flare as the Four Guardians when they have humanoid forms in a similar vein to them too. The amount of info regarding them that's non-game is baffling because it would've been nice to see how things such as Tretista's dog circuits work, or how Volteel got to the way he is now
@@lexisacrimmino Same
You have no idea how long I've waited for this review. It baffles me that most aren't privy to the fact that this is easily one of the best, if not the best, Mega Man game. Pure action and story for the entire duration of the game. I love this game a lot so I know it's nostalgia at it's best; but given the recent attention to these games due to the collection being released, I've seen many people in the fandom agreeing that Zero 3 is the pinnacle of Mega Man action and storytelling. Great Vid John
If there’s anything that I pray Capcom would do, it’s to make a remake of all the four games. They can remake all the zero games by putting them together as one game, and each one can be individual chapters. They’ll be able to incorporate all the hidden lore, whether it be in an extra menu or during gameplay. Like the climatic speech zero says during Omega‘s fight.
Recent events in many countries show that Weil's plan of saying X is dead and Zero is the one who killed it so he has to take power would very much work.
That and KNIJohn has the fucking gall to tell us people remember 100 years ago when people barely remember the specifics of COVID Lockdowns from 2 years ago.
what happpened where?
Regarding the zero one bosses being back the wiki states that Dr Weil specialized in both weapons development and Reploid DNA revival so it does make some sense that he was able to resurrect those 3
Random fun facts!
You are allowed to use Cyber Space without penalty and if you defeat Hidden Phantom on the Sub-Arcadia stage. Additionally, hooking up with Battle Network 4 will spawn some viruses in Cyber Space as a nod to that series.
I think Anubis Necromancess has a different weakness in this game compared to Zero 1, if I'm not mistaken. He also has a different Roman numeral in his name. I wonder who keeps killing this guy's other versions. Maybe Zero does it offscreen?
Cubit Foxtar, despite the extremely feminine appearance, is actually male. I remember being surprised to learn that. But also, I guess that means Leviathan is the only woman with a position of authority in Neo Arcadia?
Omega Zero's giant X/Zero hybrid form never actually uses its sword for an attack because of cartridge space issues.
On the third point, Anubis and..
The bear one, I forget their name, are supposed to be female. So that brings Neo Arcadia's total of female officers from 1 to 3.
@@NEETKitten Polar Kamorous is female, but I don't think Anubis is.
@@NEETKitten Anubis has been confirmed male, despite being Necromancess.... Cause reasons... So it's 2.
@@lanereynolds4567 Ah ok. Yeah I don't accept that. The name thing bugs me too much.
@@NEETKitten to be fair, Anubis was confirmed male back in the mid 00's. I believe they chose necromancess cause they liked the sound better than necromancer.... Honestly the reason is so stupid I try not to bring it up cause it hurts to think about.
And the wait is finally over (And all the worth).
Seriously, if there's a reason this game is considered, "The Best Mega Man experience", it's literally because it does so much in a standardized X-styled game, has a good degree of "Nostalgia" given how much of the first game's stuff it brings back, the combat system is truly at its best here, and the revamped mechanics only make the degree of options and customization all the better. Z3 deserves all of its praise, and it's easily a game I'd recommend to any newcomer to the MegaMan franchise.
Oh man, you'd love the old animation of the Zero Vs Omega battle then. It helps with all your issues about how there's just nothing for the character to do and feel and say about having their world shattered like that.
Dr. Weil: "Not bad, for a fake."
Zero: "Did I ask?"
You know it’s amazing to see the amount of story details that went into making this gba series.
Now I wonder what a large-scale remake of this games, that actually incorporates the supplementary material into the games, would be like.
Okay, now I see why Capcom was initially throwing around the idea of making Zero 3 the conclusion to the series. If you focus on just Zero's arc, him getting to face down his dark past and origins, and overcome even a physical manifestation of it, makes for a fantastic climax to the story of this complicated hero we've followed for so long. And hey, even without that context it's still a fun trope to make the make the unbeatable hero's greatest challenge an evil version of himself (see also Doom Eternal).
In any case though I'm glad they went one game further to wrap up the Dr. Weil and Neo Arcadia situation. Learning Sigma got defeated once and for all offscreen was kinda like "oh," so it's good they didn't do that again with the next big bad. Plus there was still plenty there regarding the difficult relationship between humans and reploids that led to all of this in the first place, which I imagine will get discussed in the next vid.
I remember how Megaman Zero series story actually reinvigorated my interest in good stories. Back then I was a bit angry slightly after-16 y.o. but not exactly young adult yet. Back then I dropped my interest in creativity, had no job and was kinda drowning in self-loathing. Then this little series comes along and I see potential for storytelling. Trying to add to what was there. Having my own headcannon. While I never became a writer or something, it gave me a good kickstart to a hobby of Role-Playing games and made me appreciate a good story and ideas of narrative design. I may not become a writer but this game is definitely responsible for kickstarting my interest in the RPGs and becoming at least a good GM for people that play with me. So... I kinda have a lot to thank this game series for. As a whole I mean.
I really wish that this series would be remade into something like a JRPG? Then maybe we would have proper story, maybe Zero would get some help from time to time, other characters could join him and not like for one cutscene, but for most of the game, like Harpuia could? And we would get enough text and dialogue in the game that would allow players to see story proper. I do believe if entire story from Zero 1 to Zero 4 would be put in like 4 act proper single game it could have been pretty good one. Not Xenogears of Final Fantasy level story, but strong enough for fans to actually enjoy it in fullest and maybe devs properly using all elements together. Who knows? Well, we have what we have, I suppose... Unfortunate but fact. Still, wishful thinking never dies I guess.
that's assumin that having harpuia along for the ride is the "favor" he was referring to.
So apparently, the guardians died after omega explodes. Now I'm not the type to ignore lore and push my own headcanon, but since that is a very anticlimactic end for these characters I have decided to ignore it and posite that the guardians began aiding the resistance against Dr. Weil, helping humans and reploids that are trying to defect from Neo Arcadia.
It's conflicting info, one of the dev people confirmed they had no idea that the Guardians "died" and instead had some canon that they're all fighting on fronts beyond Neo Arcadia's control and helping people and reploids from them. It doesn't help since Z4 has no mention of them in any shape or form.
Yeah, it's a "fuzzy" word of god situation for sure.
I don't think them all dying in the explosion is necessarily a *bad* end for them, especially considering that X was also gone, it felt appropriate, but if that is what happened, they conveyed it horribly, almost certainly because that wasn't the original intent.
I have a suspicion that they tried to have their cake and eat it too and ended up fumbling the bag horribly, which is a shame because they were cool, at least conceptually, even if Harpuia and debatably Phantom were the only ones with any "real character" to them.
@@SaberToothPortilla Them dying in the explosion is kinda appropriate as well because they're made based on X and when push comes to shove they all proceeded to protect Zero out of instinct, much like what X would've done in their situation.
Wait, so that artwork of the Guardians in new outfits in Zero 4 isn’t canon?
Well, that sucks.
@@prodbypriestJudah-gi6xtIt’s a grey area since Phantom is also there, and he’s long dead at that point. X is also there, and he’s supposed to be gone for good too.
Love the extra lore you put in your videos. Makes your reviews fairly unique
I really enjoy the shoutout to proto stuff like that piece of concept art I somehow hadn’t seen before
you put so much effort in the editing for this video and you didn't have to. I'm glad you enjoyed it.
How did I KNOW you were gonna start with "I am the Messiah!" and Cannonball? XD
The very first Zero game I played. Although it was very hard at first, it was so fun. Although my copy of the game doesn’t save, I didn’t mind playing the game over and over again just to have a blast.
?!?!?!?!?!? PRO GAMER ALERT
20:20 Huh, I guess John CAN facetank his problems away.
John, my god, that entire sequence from 30:27 onwards, that is incredible editing skills, holy shit. I'm excited to see what you do in the future with this kind of dedication and effort.
one thing i enjoy about the thing of having a LOT of off game lore it's what separates the casual fan to the REAL fan, as said, just a really big fan of a media would spend their time reading or listening to audio dramas or suplementary lore. It might be really annoying, i agree on that, but in a community view, it creates a fan that really loves the series as a whole, no joke i think almost every megaman fan knows about every single detail of the entire lore, they would explain the entire thing with pleasure, and i fucking love this type of fan, i love seeing a community that tries to really understand everything the game has to offer.
Really enjoy these videos dude! As a kid I loved the series and I remember getting this for Christmas one year (and even the now irrelevant strategy guide, God bless my parents) I've still never forgot the game and the climactic ending. I don't really play megaman games anymore (or most games for that matter) but seeing these kinds of video essays just gives me that cozy nostalgia feeling and helps me remember that magic of being a kid lost in some nerdy game. It's also funny now we look back and see the flaws but at the time 11 year old me was just trying to figure out how to beat the next boss and get that sweet new move. Anyways thank you for making these!
4:22 a bit of theorizing but
i think weil was tortured.
as in he was left in space under life support which made him unable to do anything but also still alive.
and in copy x times, security was lowered since... reploids were killed off.
so with lowered security, weil builds some thing a majick to go back to earth and stuff.
25:06 i assume all reploids have a chunk of x's coding inside, due to them being created FROM X, so Zero is immune cuz he wasn't created from X.
This is correct. Kinda funny how that works.
These games lived on their ideas and aesthetics, even if the execution was less than masterful due to coming out on a yearly basis, being limited by the hardware, or requiring additional mediums.
Fun Fact: Zero 3 was part of the 15th anniversary of Mega Man. Capcom decided it should link up with a small indie title called "Mega Man Battle Network 4". Like Pokémon Ranger, BRAND NEW copies had one Z-Saber chip to give to Battle Network 4 players. If you didn't have a brand new copy, Battle Network 4 players could change Zero 3 for players by trading any Battle Chip. The enemies in Cyber World are replaced with Battle Network Viruses like Beetank, Swordy, or Puffy. This feature isn't in the Zero Collection or Legacy Collection.
Oh there was also the Japanese Only "Battle Chip Gate". If you had Battle Chips, you could unlock the minigames of the Four Guardians without needing to unlock them in the game.
John, you should consider a collab with J's reviews. He is very knowleadgable about megaman lore and your editing style and humor would go so well with his!!
As a fun fact with Mega Man Zero 3 and how combos work. There are roughly 6 levels of priority on moves(I don't remember the exact amount off the top of my head), and each move procs a similar level of I-Frames. This allows you to do some pretty wild damage on every boss. A couple extremely easy combos are the triple slash(1,2 and 3) into the rising uppercut(4), a charged saber(2) into the rising uppercut(4). Both will end up doing roughly 2 charged slashes worth of damage, with a potential extra hit if you can land a Saber Smash while coming down from the uppercut(which also happens to be the single hardest hitting attack in the game). If you want to crank the silliness even higher, the Orbit Shield skill has a priority of 0, so you can just open any combo you want with it for an extra few points of damage.
I didn't know about the story of tk31! Also imagine if they had used zeroes body from the X series! I think my mind would've melted. 🔥🔥🔥
It’s, interesting, how despite my utter disdain for some franchises almost forcing you to view supplemental material to understand a story, Zero 3 is one of the few examples I can think of that breaks past that disdain. I feel like it’s because the story itself can still hold itself up even if you don’t go out of your way to watch the audio dramas, which I really appreciate.
0:36 well now we can say there's been a J's Reviews cameo in a KNIJohn video I guess
John uploaded. Time to watch all of his long format videos again because I have a problem with restraint!
Oh shit, an upload from John. It's been three thousand years!
The elevator level you dont even have to use the central room to find the doors you need to find. You can just walk in and take note of the rooms design. The four rooms you need to find have the same different texture than the other rooms. Just walk in and immediately walk back out if the room isnt what you're looking for. I find it a lot faster to do that than to keep going back to the central room to remember where im going
that's what I did the feirst time, then I didn't do that the second time because I just decided to memorize all of it
5 months late - thanks! love your reviews and this is the GOAT platformer
The Sunken Library is interesting in that it’s part of an odd recurring motif in the Megaman timeline: the constant erasure of history. Right from the very beginning, Dr. Light’s lab is buried deep underground where X was found. That same area is sealed later, as explained very quickly and loosely in X6. The Sunken Library is the only place where files from the Elf Wars can be found. Characters in ZX hardly know Zero or Neo Arcadia. History is constantly being erased to the inhabitants in the Classic timeline, a direct result of constant warfare, allowing the same mistakes to be repeated and thus prolonging the wars. Literally everyone and everything from past games are referred to as vague legends and poorly understood. Ceil understood this, directly tackling the on-going energy crisis, but couldn’t implement the change she wanted to see due to her circumstances.
Given the above, it should be no surprise that Neo Arcadian humans are not very bright. 60% of all humans died in the Elf Wars, likely at the hands of their neighbor reploids under the influence of Omega. You don’t simply kill billions of humans in just 4 years without employing an absurdly large army. (If we were to assume the human population was 8 billion before the Elf Wars, then that means 4.8 billion humans died during the Elf Wars. That’s on average almost 3.3 million humans dying per day!) That shit would have instilled everyone with PTSD and trust issues for generations, and thus they’d be very welcoming of any form of peace, even if it means an oppressive authoritarianism that scapegoated the minority.
Omega's second from is weird. Not only it combines X and Zero, but the supposed "Dark Elf" part in the middle looks a heckin' lot like Bass from Classic Megaman series. Which is pretty damn weird, ngl.
You ever notice how the side of Omega’s mech armor looks similar to the Zero Helmet from the original games?
And the other side is like X, and the middle body is white, just like a certain digimon...
@@inconemay1441 I’m not referring to the giant form in the last battle, but the original battle suit that encases the original Zero body.
Look I love Megaman Zero 3, one of my favorite Megaman games period, but Weil's backstory of "You committed crimes against humanity so we're going to make you immortal and exile you. That surely won't cause any problems in the future!" is nothing short of absolutely absurd
It was probably a rushed decision. Since Weil loved humans so much, the best punishment they could think of was stripping him of EVERYTHING that made human, including death itself.
I love that you actually went over some of the supplemental content because no one else seems to have done that. I don't even remember if Ben Saint did...
Omega's 2nd form looking like Omegamon? Nah probably a coincidence.
Yo heads up once you beat zero 4 people are gonna ask for zx -and gunvolt- to finsh the prophecy
I think cyberspace (aside from the Phantom secret boss) is primarily to let you get the benefit of all your elves and get a bit of an OP power fantasy when replaying levels without permanently tanking your score.
Honestly a big fan of its inclusion for general messing about after the first two games basically had you either go all in on the elves (if you wanted ultimate mode/form) or ignore them entirely for rank/ex skills.
It's entirely possible to play by using cyber elves and still have a good rank at the end, I don't know why people think you can only do one or the other (well except for Zero 2 if you want to go for ultimate mode but you can always use them all at the end to still have the EX skills)
24:58 Oh, my gosh… So at first I thought, “Well it also might not have worked because Zero technically isn’t a Reploid.” …Until I remembered that isn’t Zero’s original body. I can’t see any reason for them to *not* have produced his new body the same way they produce Reploids, sooo… I had never thought about it before, but I guess since the Elf Wars Zero has actually been a Reploid, huh?
Mega Man Zero 3 is the Sonic Adventure 2 of Mega Man games
You may be looking a bit too deep, because as X states.. he IS the real Zero. His body is fake, but he is the real soul and heart of the original, legendary Android (let's face it, he's not a reploid.)
This was also supposed to be the original conclusion of the series, but they left the Weil thread dangling which leads directly into 4. 2-4 are directly link to one another through plot threads, something missing from the first game.. sort of.
As for Omega himself, I think the main reason they kept him a darker pallette swap was to not confuse the plot anymore. The new art style is an aesthetic change only seen by the player, in the game world, nothing has changed. The creators just wanted to refresh the art for the new series. By making Omega look different from Zero, would undermine that whole idea that they are #1. The same #2. just an art style change.
editing was top notch here
That final line brought Count Dankula's one thing to mind... "This in the business is what we call "foreshadowing"."
“Hundreds of reploids”
Note the distinction.
Humans he protected…non-lethally/nonharmfully subduing them where necessary including in areas like the Archie Comics which *Capcom had to sign off on.*
So yeah.
Lol it's kind of ironic that I got into your channel because of your Zero review, but you have such an brutal- albeit justified- hate for the series.
I grew up with a love for the series, but you're absolutely correct that most of the actual story is just not in the games themselves. And as someone who had Zero as his official first Megaman game, I actually had to research a lot from the past games just to get what the Zero series was going for.
25:00
Isn't Zero immune cos he isn't a reploid? I mean, he's in a new body, but maybe the mind control waves can't manipulate Zero's "core"
Yooo, this is under an hour. Is everything alright at home??
What an awesome video man! Thanks for the coverage of one of my personal favorite video game series
18:37 I like to think that almost no one knew about Weil starting the war in the first place. From what I can tell, he was pretty anonymous about starting the Elf Wars, but only a few people (such as co-workers or something idk) could have known about it. But yeah I dont know how people just forgot about what he did lol
Zero 3 is my absolute favorite platformer, so needless to say, I'm very relieved to hear that the game suited your tastes. There's always a risk with games that are both relatively unknown and highly praised by those who did experience them, since new players may feel like the games don't live up to their hype in retrospect. Plus, Zero 3 is basically just the absolute perfection of the improvements that Zero 2 made to the formula, which may not be enough to elevate the title above its predecessor to those who weren't interested in what that game tried to do in the first place.
I can't wait to see the Zero 4 and Zx series videos, i hope you're planning on doing them
Didn't expect the GOAT to drop Zero 3! Hope to see the 4th installment soon! This was a great video! 🙏
32:07 Canonically, X and Zero are meant to look identical to how they were in the X series and only look different here due to different art directors. It's possible they scrapped this for consistency to said statement.
Basically, the story suffers from the writing problem of "writing for the author." If the story leaves out all the relevant information, the reader has to try to fill in the blanks. Clearly, the game cuts too much for a casual player to connect the dots, which is why the story will be flat, instead of that pop. The lack of explaining, or showing, of the story Is probably due to technical constraints, but that doesn't mean it's not a real, objective knock against it.
This post brought by the Battle Network 3 gang.
Thanks for taking the time to make this I really enjoyed it worth the wait
babe, wake up! KNIJohn just dropped another Megaman video!
My first Zero game that I dont remember finishing (Zero being the final boss is something I never remembered), but those animal bosses with their silly names are imprinted in my mind.
I literaly meet ur channel today and I was wainting for the next video!!
Pretty Sure the Whole Exiling Weil instead of killing him thing comes from what they did to him. Dude's technicaly immortal i belive, they banished him to spend Millinia in the empty ruin world he created as a sort of "We're probably going to all die off because there's only one human setlement left on this plannet so once we die you'll be stuck with an eternity of being isolated and alone in an empty world" as a vindictive alternative because they reeeaaalllyyy wanted him to suffer
I'm with X. Fuck that guy.
I dont think you noticed, and i looked for it on the comments without success, but there is an additional super neat feature on the Digital Space: you can connect Megaman Zero 3 to MMBN4 and the MMBN4 game would get a Z-Saber chip, and transfer a chip (doesnt matter which) that would turn every enemy from the cyberspace in MMBN viruses.
Zero is essentially Inafune's vision of Megaman realized.
The reason Weil wasnt executed? lemme just do a little spoiler warning real quick.
He built the judges who sentenced him. who are those judges? Why, The Eight Gentle Judges you fight in this game.
So he failsafe his sentence so he won't be executed by then at all?
@@tensedart3470 yep. What he didn't expect was to just be exiled rather than be in jail.
@KaijinZero well exlie is the polar opposite of Execution in the extreme punishment case. So he probably overestimate his programming
Oh the judges didn't exile him or choose the punishment. That was all on the humans. All they did was keep him from dying.
@KaijinZero so the humans did choose his punishment but yhe judge kept execution out of the subject.
Intro is cold chefs kiss
Zero just proves he's a baddass with just 1 thing the fact he could kick his own ass and still win
For me, The flaw is the lack of the character moment of the eight gentle judges
Zero 3 is definitely a favorite. I don't love that A rank is required for ex skills either, but when you consider how unnecessary they are, how many moves are available from cyber elves and chips, and how varied Zero's 4 weapon moveset is from the get go, I can see how they imagined first time players being happy with fusing cyber elves and jumping into cyberspace at every opportunity. I think it would still be a pretty fun way to play.
Plus, if you unlock Ultimate mode, a second playground where you're already at max power in terms of chips and elves is the perfect time to start focusing on rank.
Are you going to do video essays like this for Star Force 2 & 3?
Yes he will.
He hasn't played Star Force 3 on stream, but 2 is already done.
After this, however, is the .Hack GU Volume 3 review.
31:38 I had a completely different interpretation of what was happening. I thought that Omega was only the Zero from X1. The rebuilt Zero from X2 onwards was actually the same copy that you play as in the Zero games, with Zero's kamikaze'd body in X1 being kept by Wily/Serges/Weil, repaired, improved, and given a Z-saber over the course of those one hundred years. I felt that it made a lot of sense, tied the whole thing back to the first X game, and added a bit of dramatic irony to the line in X2 about how "there is only one Zero."
I always thought the judges for the longest time were made by our big bad and he just claimed they were the judges or ruling body of the city.
Just something he made to enforce his rule upon everyone.
I like how you say Dr. Weil's name with a German accent so it works as either Weil or Vile (his original name in Japan).
The jokes in the beginning were excellent, don’t have any complaints about the rest of the review.
Waiting for your MZ4 breakdown! Loved this video. I share exactly the same thoughts.
21:28 I wonder what that "favor" was
26:25 you get new EX skills that can be used to combo.
26:42 oh yeah I didn't get the subtank on my first run so I ended up having a bad time.
31:58 oh yeah there's also that one mod chip that you get from Zero 4 shich could mean something if Zero were a standalone series I guess?