This game is really good. You can play as both X and Zero. In this game, I prefer to play as Zero. His moveset feels so dynamic and fluid. Its a lot of fun. I like all his special moves, except the dashing one he gets from Slash Beast. I like the little pause there is when hitting an enemy with him. Its so satisfying.
X is fine, but what really brings him down is that his weapons kind of suck. Most of the time, I'm just using the charge shot and maybe Storm Owl's weapon. I prefer the Plasma Shot over the Stock Shot. The Plasma Shot is just so satisfying to hit.
The Mavericks are all really fun as Zero, but they all feel way too easy as X. When you're Zero, you feel like you're really sparring with the boss. Its really great. X just trivializes bosses. They feel more like a formality, especially with special weapons. I did like how some bosses, like Storm Owl, Magma Dragoon, and Jet Stingray all have different layouts in their boss rooms. It makes them feel unique. I especially like bringing the ride armor to Magma Dragoon. I don't particularly like Ride Armors that much, but I think its sick to fight him with one.
The stages are all great. Jet Stingray's is the only one I don't like. Its an auto scroller but its not very long or hard so its whatever. I also don't really like the elevator in Split Mushroom's stage. I like trying to speed run Cyber Peacock. I like storming the trains of Slash Beast. I like the lasers in Storm Owl. They're good stages. I will say though, that the music in this game is pretty whatever. I don't remember any of it. The upgrades are pretty fun to collect. There's only like the one in Magma Dragoon's stage that I think is convoluted, otherwise they're fun to search for.
The Sigma stages are pretty underwhelming. The Sigma fight itself is great, but the stages leading up to it are whatever. They aren't very interesting or anything, just kind of there. It's a shame because it makes the end feel pretty anti-climactic. This game is amazing. I highly recommend. Its visually gorgeous and very fun.

(Continued from my X3 review)

Huh, I guess they did do better.

This is my favorite X game. The core gameplay is really fun for both main characters and the stages and bosses make great use of it. The story is hilariously dumb and I've come to accept that I don't like Mega Man's PS1 spritework, but that doesn't detract much from one of the finest games in the franchise.

The last great Mega Man X game.

Much like the game itself, this review will be in two parts. I usually keep these reviews to just gameplay and presentation, as I feel the story speaks for itself, or in many cases, the story is so minimal that the narrative is actually what happens to the player and it could become more of a memoir than my thoughts on the game itself (fun to write though!). Regardless, in this case I feel like the story (or lack thereof) warrants some discussion.

As a video game, 1997’s Mega Man X 4 is nearly unmatched. X1 is definitely the more pure experience but it’s very close for me. It’s one of my all time favorites. It’s incredible in the hands; dash jumping through a level has never felt better. Its presentation is sublime; the spritework is lovely, and perfectly suits the setting. The levels are beautifully rendered, the characters have this delightful shine to them, every special effect and buster blast looks just Anime enough to match the game’s animated cutscenes. When you dash, you leave an afterimage trail of your silhouette. It’s very very cool.

The music is an excellent graduation from the original 16 bit tracks. A comfortable blend of guitar rock and synth techno, it has the Mega Man X vibe you would expect, if a little subdued and relaxed at times. The songs aren’t all catchy bangers but they’re pleasant enough. Slash Beast, Magma Dragoon, Jet Stingray, and Final Weapon are some pretty great themes though. Final Weapon definitely has that dire urgency while still sounding great. These songs have never left my mind and I will be able to hum along to them after years of not hearing them again, as though I am the Mega Manchurian Candidate.

Playing as X, you’re given about what you would expect from a Mega Man X game. The levels are simple and split into two parts and each part follows a loose theme, either through gameplay or setting. Playing on a system that allows for quick loading times makes the two part level layout almost unnoticeable in something like Magma Dragoon’s stage though. The first half of Cyber Peacock’s stage testing your quickness and rewarding you for getting through the level under a certain time to get an S rank really stands out in this series, and I like it a lot. You’re rewarded with the most broken item in the game if you’re a good enough player, but if you’re that good you might not need it.

The collectible armor parts add a new level of utility for X, especially the hover boots (which also give you an air dash), but nothing beats the previously alluded to helmet from Cyber Peacock’s stage giving you infinite special weapon energy. It feels like cheating but at the same time it’s also kind of unnecessary.

In a rare decision across the expanded Mega Man franchise at that point in time, Mega Man X 4 resets your weapon ammo whenever you die. This means that the endgame boss fights aren’t a war of attrition, but focus more on execution (this of course excludes rationing out your sub tanks). This makes unlimited ammo somewhat unnecessary as, technically, you already have unlimited ammo. This also makes the Weapon Tank unnecessary too, as you have no reason to refill ammo that hasn’t been spent.

The only situation I’ve considered where the W Tank makes sense, is the very particular situation where you’re doing an armorless (or just helmetless) playthrough and you’re at the final boss, who is weak to Soul Body: a weapon with only 8 shots. You’ll need to get 8 more Soul Body shots to finish the job somehow, right? I’m glad the option is there, though playing the game as intended and getting everything causes some redundancy.

If you ask me, the helmet should have just doubled your ammo count. Nice and simple. The W Tank would still be useless though I guess.

Anyway, X is a good and indulgent time. His voice clips are grating and annoying in English but we live in a world where you can easily play the Japanese version, which is a lot more pleasant and fitting.

It’s interesting to me that Zero’s inclusion in this game as a playable character is also pleasant and fitting because by all accounts he shouldn’t. Zero is a square peg that fits in this round hole. His mode is definitely harder than X’s, but I’m not sure if I can say it’s a capital H Hard Mode. It’s Weird Mode.

Zero doesn’t get armor upgrades, and he doesn’t get special weapons from the Mavericks like X does. Instead, he gets movement upgrades like a double jump, and also simple button input combo moves like a flaming uppercut sword slash. He only gets four elemental moves (three if you’re counting the useful ones), the rest are all passive upgrades. Because of this, the bosses share weaknesses in ways that don’t totally line up with what they’re weak to in X mode.

Magma Dragoon is weak to X’s wind based Double Cyclone and you can imagine it cooling his body, but he’s also weak to Zero’s lightning based Raijingeki, for some reason. Fire guys being weak to lightning will be a running theme with Zero in future games, and I couldn’t tell you why, but this game sets that precedent.

Since Zero gets his double jump and air dash and Z Saber upgrade from the Mavericks, and there’s no armor upgrades for him to pick up, the spots where the armor capsules are hidden for X are barren. Save for an extra life in Cyber Peacock’s stage, there’s no reason to look around, and it can be a bit confusing on a first time playthrough. Just put an extra life in all the capsule locations, simple as that.

Regardless, Zero mode is a good, if strange time. And it’s a good thing it’s a good time, because as much as this is X’s game, it’s Zero’s story.

As a story, Mega Man X 4 is a bit of a mess. The plot is important enough to the developers that they paid animators and voice actors to help tell it. It’s important enough that every boss fight is predicated with a few lines of dialogue to give these Mavericks some personality and even motivation. And yet, it’s not quite enough to really nail it. And I’m not necessarily talking about how unintentionally funny the cutscenes are in English.

SPOILERS FOR AN ANCIENT GAME BEYOND THIS POINT YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

I wasn’t initially going to go in enough depth to need a spoiler warning but it’ll be a lot easier than if I was being vague, oh well.

While X’s story is a springboard for detached musings on what it means for a group of artificial people wrongfully accused of breaking the laws of robotics, Zero’s story is a crisis of self, and the downfall of a loving family plagued by stubborn pride; brought down by hubris and love at the hands of a trusted friend who is fulfilling his bloody destiny he does not want.

It’s more personal, but at the same time, not personal enough. Zero and his friend? Lover? Coworker? Iris aren’t given enough time together enjoying each other’s company for the infamous What Am I Fighting For? scene to be dramatically effective, rather than funny. Zero has more cutscenes than X already, but maybe just one more of Zero and Iris having a tender moment or something. Some lines of dialogue. Anything.

The death? murder? manslaughter? (Robotslaughter?) of Iris and her brother Colonel at the hands of Zero, who was only following orders (lmao), is not only meaningful for Zero’s outward relationship but also his inward relationship with himself. The game begins with the ancient android Zero not dreaming of electric sheep, but his shadowy creator, who Mega Man fans will know as Dr. Wily from the Classic series. This shadow tells him his destiny is to “destroy his nemesis” (in this case being the original Mega Man but I guess any Mega Man will do) This is further compounded by a flashback to a hundred years after his creation, of Zero’s first encounter with reploids. We see the robot gore of his brutal slaughter of an entire unit of Maverick Hunters. We watch him gleefully try to rip then-Maverick Hunter Commander Sigma’s head off. He was built to be a monster. And now, here we are, having a blast “retiring” Mavericks bad fighting our friends. You want to think that Zero is resisting his destiny by not fighting X, but is he really?

We can’t place all the blame on Zero though, the reploid army Repliforce is run by brainless idiots who only care about pride and honor and won’t take five minutes to clear their names of a terrorist attack. I think on paper, a group of reploids are well within their rights to leave a society that will baselessly accuse them of a crime they didn’t commit, but I wouldn’t want to live in whatever nation Repliforce created.

There are much, much better stories that ponder the humanity of an artificial person and the politics that are brought about in a world with artificial people, but Mega Man X 4 is technically one of those stories, but first and foremost, it’s a fun game to play.

I’ve beaten Mega Man X 4 so many times that I have lost count. I’ve 100%-ed as both X and Zero, I’ve put in the code for the secret Ultimate Armor for X and Black Zero color swap and done a 100% playthrough with each of them. I attempted to do an armorless X playthrough but got steamrolled by the already pretty tricky final boss. Maybe I’ll come back to it again and do it right.

This game is great and I fully recommend it, with the caveat that you know what you’re getting when you go in. This game’s like a good boyfriend. It’s goofy as hell, but it will treat you right.