“Iris, did us reploids all turn out to be Mavericks after all”?

After hearing that line, it kind of hit me just how absolutely… tragic this story was. From the manipulation, to the senseless violence, and the killing… who truly was right in this story? I feel like all of this can be seen as an allegory for human nature as a whole, with even our heroes having to make some really messed up choices. What’s really the definition of becoming a Maverick, is it absolutely that black and white as to if one is or isn't? And how does one truly identify as fighting for justice or fighting for injustice? It is honestly quite chilling just how much all of this fighting was caused and how much this could’ve been avoided… had it not been for the manifestation of pure evil that is Sigma. It is Sigma who manipulates Magma Dragoon to set Sky Lagoon ablaze, causing the Maverick Hunters and Repliforce to become wary of each other. It is Sigma who manipulates the General and Colonel into starting the coup. It is Sigma who indirectly caused the deaths of many innocent lives and caused genuinely good people into conflict with one another resulting in terrible fates. And the fact is, even with everything X and Zero do… Sigma just keeps coming back. He said it before, he will always come back no matter how many times he is taken down. And with that it just… really goes to show just how much of an evil bastard he truly is and what kind of damage he can do.

U-Uhhh, anyway… with that opening out of the way, you can probably tell I liked X4’s story quite a bit lmao. Despite not having much experience with other Mega Man series, I’ve become pretty interested and invested in the lore of this series and its characters. Which I guess is a testament to how good this series is if it can stand on its own like that. I had seen a review of this game a few years back, and this story always interested me, and I was looking forward to seeing how I’d like it. And in truth, I really did quite enjoy it. To uhhh… get this out the way, the voice acting for the dub is… less than perfect. I’ve known about this for a while, I think most people on the Internet know about the infamous line Zero has near the end of his story lmao. BUT, I didn’t mind it too much, and at points, I thought it was kind of okay. I’m more or less tolerant of old dubbing, so it didn’t bother me too much. But still… IMDISAPPOINTEDINYOUKERNAL, lines like that were funny af to me lmao. And of course, I always respect hearing voice clips in-game (because I’m weird like that lmao), such as X and Zero’s jump noises, or Sigma’s “TREMBLE IN TERROR YOU ARE FINISHED”, like those are Eggman level for me tbh lmao. But anyway, to get back on track, I found the story to be really interesting, especially with its theming around morality. The story beats were engaging and emotional, and it was enjoyable seeing the differences in the narrative from X and Zero’s perspective, and how they also align. I also really liked the characters introduced in this game, such as the Colonel, Iris, and the General. Even Double I found to be a really interesting and cool antagonist, and was pretty surprised by his betrayal—now that was one of the things I didn’t remember when I learned about this story long ago through that review. It really added that extra spice to X's story, which I quite liked. Zero's story was really cool too, such as his interactions with the Colonel and Iris. We even get more lore and background on his conception and when he was originally a Maverick. I have to say though, both the endings for X and Zero were probably my favorites parts of the story. We've seen X become concerned with the horrors of fighting in the Maverick wars before, but I believe this is the first time we see him ponder on the idea of himself becoming a Maverick. And then him telling Zero to kill him should he turn into one and with Zero refusing to acknowledge what he said? Like, I know Zero is more willing to make the tough choices, but the fact that he just straight up refused to answer X’s request just shows how much he cares about him, and I just… I just love their dynamic and bromance so much, it makes me so happy. And then Zero's ending was just... man, his was just depressing with him regretting the actions he had to do to the people he cared about and it showing that even someone as hardened as him can be affected by the horror that is war and conflict and make him question his own self (perhaps even question what he's even fighting for, if you will lmaooo). Just both those endings were quite sad, but I feel that it elevated their characters a lot for me (even though they were already my favorites lmao). But yeah, Colonel and Iris I think were my favorite new characters. Iris was so precious and I love her relationship with Zero, and I really respected the Colonel’s pride and honor as a member of the Repliforce. I think the General may have been the only character I wish we could’ve seen more of, but I think even his small contributions to the story were pretty cool. Now, I guess maybe there were parts in the story that could’ve been written better, but either way, I just really enjoyed the story for this game, maybe even more than I should have lmao. But yeah, even with the dub, I just really liked the story for this game and the whole vibe it was giving off, very enjoyable tbh.

As for the gameplay... whew boy, where do I begin with how much I loved it all. First off, getting to choose between X and Zero was something I was really excited for before I started this game, and I was glad I wasn't disappointed. It was really cool seeing the differences between the two, and how good both of them felt to use, with X having that classic gameplay style I've grown to love from the past four games, while Zero having a more up close and personal fighting style with his Z Saber (which was hella addicting to use). It made the playthroughs for each of them in my opinion feel distinct and really fun, with both having their own sets of strengths and weaknesses, and going through the levels as the two of them felt like two very different experiences with how you could navigate through them. There were points in X's story where I had trouble dealing with certain obstacles and mini bosses, where as in Zero's story they weren't as difficult for me. Vice versa where I found myself having an easier time dealing with bosses with X than I did with Zero. I think between the two, I still liked X the most. Zero was really fun to use, but he was a bit more difficult, but I hope on future playthroughs I can get better with using him though. As for the stages, man... they have to be some of my favorite stages in the entire series. I really liked all of the stages and found their locales and level designs to be all be really fun and challenging. Whether it be Cyber Peacock's unique as hell network simulation stage, hopping from train cart to train cart on Slash Beastleo's stage, or the really fun hoverbike riding in Jet Stingray's stage. At first, I had a good bit of trouble with all of them, (especially Jet Stingray's lmao) but once I started getting the hang of this game, I was able to complete them better, and it was really rewarding beating them. I also really appreciate how much more forgiving this game is compared to the prior three. I very much appreciate more checkpoints, and how even when you lose all of your lives, you can start from the second act of the level if you so choose. Just QoL stuff like that makes me really happy to see, and makes me get less frustrated since I don't have to redo the entire stage again. I found it to be completely fair in its difficulty, and I really appreciated them doing that. And also, even if you die, your weapons get restored so you don't have to worry about going into a boss again with having some of your weapon wasted. Also speaking of weapons, another thing I appreciated? Your special weapons having unlimited uses for their regular attacks! Once you get the X Buster upgrade, you no longer have to worry about your special weapon regular shots taking ammunition. Sure, the charged weapon shots still do, but I think that's totally fair though. But yeah, I REALLLYYYY hope they keep that going forward... and all of those other QoL updates I really liked tbh. Loved the bosses in this one too, like Magma Dragoon with his Hadouken or Slash Beastleo and his cool ass entrance. My man literally keeps up with a train ON FOOT, and then hops onto it to face you---absolute badass. My favorite boss fights were probably the fights with the Colonel, whether that be with X or Zero, those were really cool. Only thing I may not have liked though, was the final boss, specifically the third phase. I just felt like... there was just too much going on, and it was just way too difficult. I had to put it on Rookie Mode for both X and Zero for that, it was just way too much lmaooo. Maybe in the future if I play this game more, I'd be able to beat it, but yeah... that was just too much. Also Zero's fight with the General was kind of a pain too so I had to lower the difficulty for that as well. Aside from that though, that's... kind of it for any complaints? The gameplay for this one was just really awesome to me. Other than like a few things, I genuinely had little to no issues with it at all personally.

The presentation for this game is... goodness this game is absolutely GORGEOUS. I know this game came out in 1997 and all, but this game still looks fantastic to me. Not saying that games during that era couldn't look good, definitely not, but this game looks like it can be compared to some games that have come out today. The spritework is absolutely stunning on the Legacy Collection, and I was really amazed with the jump from how good the games looked on the SNES to here. The music for this game is also... easily, EASILY, my favorite OST from the series by far. Listening to the tracks from this game has made me realize just how much I love the PS1 era of music, and goodness do these tracks absolutely HITTTTT. I love practically every stage theme, with my favorites being Jet Stingray's, Storm Owl's, and Split Mushroom's. I really love the Final Weapon stage themes as well, but usually the final level themes in these games end up being some of my favorites. Even in X3 I really liked the first Dr. Doppler Stage theme, and I wasn't too big on that OST unfortunately. But yeah, the boss themes went really hard too, like the Sigma themes. And my absolutely FAVORITE track of the OST, has to be the Opening Stage theme for X. I've heard this theme actually, from the first Project X Zone game, but man... the original goes so fucking hard. It is easily in my top 5 favorite Mega Man X tracks for sure, like it's so good... it's so damn good. So yeah, I absolutely loved the OST for this game, hell, even the Stage Start jingle is like one of my favorite ones lmao. Big fan of the PS1 era music vibe... and this one has it in spades with its soundtrack.

Megaman X4 is an absolutely fantastic game in my opinion. I can see now why it's held in such high regard by a lot of people. Even if it's not perfect in some ways, I still think this is a game that now has a special place in my heart for how much fun I had playing it and enjoying the experience of it. Considering how long I rambled on about this in not much of a professional review way, I guess that's an indicator of how much I enjoyed it too. And you know, maybe me dissecting and analyzing the story this much might be kind of weird, but honestly, I kind of like being able to dissect and analyze the things I enjoy even if they aren't incredibly complex stories. And this story I just found to be completely fascinating, even if there's lines like "STOP THE KOOP NOW", you know lmao. I don't know if I'm describing what I'm saying well, but I just think anyone should be able to freely talk about or dissect a story, even if it could be seen as too extra or too simple to get anything out of. And honestly, I feel like I'm going to think about this game for a while from what I took away from it personally. I really enjoyed my time with X4, for its story, levels, gameplay, and music---and its just overall late 90s to early 2000s energy I just vibed with so hard. And I have to say, it's easily my favorite X game out of the ones I've played so far, I really loved this one. This is a game I can definitely see myself replaying in the future for sure, especially to try out the secret forms X and Zero have. But yeah, X4 is truly something special for me tbh, and I'm really happy I ended up enjoying it as much as I was hoping I would.

“Iris, did us reploids all turn out to be Mavericks after all”?

After hearing that line, it kind of hit me just how absolutely… tragic this story was. From the manipulation, to the senseless violence, and the killing… who truly was right in this story? I feel like all of this can be seen as an allegory for human nature as a whole, with even our heroes having to make some really messed up choices. What’s really the definition of becoming a Maverick, is it absolutely that black and white as to if one is or isn't? And how does one truly identify as fighting for justice or fighting for injustice? It is honestly quite chilling just how much all of this fighting was caused and how much this could’ve been avoided… had it not been for the manifestation of pure evil that is Sigma. It is Sigma who manipulates Magma Dragoon to set Sky Lagoon ablaze, causing the Maverick Hunters and Repliforce to become wary of each other. It is Sigma who manipulates the General and Colonel into starting the coup. It is Sigma who indirectly caused the deaths of many innocent lives and caused genuinely good people into conflict with one another resulting in terrible fates. And the fact is, even with everything X and Zero do… Sigma just keeps coming back. He said it before, he will always come back no matter how many times he is taken down. And with that it just… really goes to show just how much of an evil bastard he truly is and what kind of damage he can do.

U-Uhhh, anyway… with that opening out of the way, you can probably tell I liked X4’s story quite a bit lmao. Despite not having much experience with other Mega Man series, I’ve become pretty interested and invested in the lore of this series and its characters. Which I guess is a testament to how good this series is if it can stand on its own like that. I had seen a review of this game a few years back, and this story always interested me, and I was looking forward to seeing how I’d like it. And in truth, I really did quite enjoy it. To uhhh… get this out the way, the voice acting for the dub is… less than perfect. I’ve known about this for a while, I think most people on the Internet know about the infamous line Zero has near the end of his story lmao. BUT, I didn’t mind it too much, and at points, I thought it was kind of okay. I’m more or less tolerant of old dubbing, so it didn’t bother me too much. But still… IMDISAPPOINTEDINYOUKERNAL, lines like that were funny af to me lmao. And of course, I always respect hearing voice clips in-game (because I’m weird like that lmao), such as X and Zero’s jump noises, or Sigma’s “TREMBLE IN TERROR YOU ARE FINISHED”, like those are Eggman level for me tbh lmao. But anyway, to get back on track, I found the story to be really interesting, especially with its theming around morality. The story beats were engaging and emotional, and it was enjoyable seeing the differences in the narrative from X and Zero’s perspective, and how they also align. I also really liked the characters introduced in this game, such as the Colonel, Iris, and the General. Even Double I found to be a really interesting and cool antagonist, and was pretty surprised by his betrayal—now that was one of the things I didn’t remember when I learned about this story long ago through that review. It really added that extra spice to X's story, which I quite liked. Zero's story was really cool too, such as his interactions with the Colonel and Iris. We even get more lore and background on his conception and when he was originally a Maverick. I have to say though, both the endings for X and Zero were probably my favorites parts of the story. We've seen X become concerned with the horrors of fighting in the Maverick wars before, but I believe this is the first time we see him ponder on the idea of himself becoming a Maverick. And then him telling Zero to kill him should he turn into one and with Zero refusing to acknowledge what he said? Like, I know Zero is more willing to make the tough choices, but the fact that he just straight up refused to answer X’s request just shows how much he cares about him, and I just… I just love their dynamic and bromance so much, it makes me so happy. And then Zero's ending was just... man, his was just depressing with him regretting the actions he had to do to the people he cared about and it showing that even someone as hardened as him can be affected by the horror that is war and conflict and make him question his own self (perhaps even question what he's even fighting for, if you will lmaooo). Just both those endings were quite sad, but I feel that it elevated their characters a lot for me (even though they were already my favorites lmao). But yeah, Colonel and Iris I think were my favorite new characters. Iris was so precious and I love her relationship with Zero, and I really respected the Colonel’s pride and honor as a member of the Repliforce. I think the General may have been the only character I wish we could’ve seen more of, but I think even his small contributions to the story were pretty cool. Now, I guess maybe there were parts in the story that could’ve been written better, but either way, I just really enjoyed the story for this game, maybe even more than I should have lmao. But yeah, even with the dub, I just really liked the story for this game and the whole vibe it was giving off, very enjoyable tbh.

As for the gameplay... whew boy, where do I begin with how much I loved it all. First off, getting to choose between X and Zero was something I was really excited for before I started this game, and I was glad I wasn't disappointed. It was really cool seeing the differences between the two, and how good both of them felt to use, with X having that classic gameplay style I've grown to love from the past four games, while Zero having a more up close and personal fighting style with his Z Saber (which was hella addicting to use). It made the playthroughs for each of them in my opinion feel distinct and really fun, with both having their own sets of strengths and weaknesses, and going through the levels as the two of them felt like two very different experiences with how you could navigate through them. There were points in X's story where I had trouble dealing with certain obstacles and mini bosses, where as in Zero's story they weren't as difficult for me. Vice versa where I found myself having an easier time dealing with bosses with X than I did with Zero. I think between the two, I still liked X the most. Zero was really fun to use, but he was a bit more difficult, but I hope on future playthroughs I can get better with using him though. As for the stages, man... they have to be some of my favorite stages in the entire series. I really liked all of the stages and found their locales and level designs to be all be really fun and challenging. Whether it be Cyber Peacock's unique as hell network simulation stage, hopping from train cart to train cart on Slash Beastleo's stage, or the really fun hoverbike riding in Jet Stingray's stage. At first, I had a good bit of trouble with all of them, (especially Jet Stingray's lmao) but once I started getting the hang of this game, I was able to complete them better, and it was really rewarding beating them. I also really appreciate how much more forgiving this game is compared to the prior three. I very much appreciate more checkpoints, and how even when you lose all of your lives, you can start from the second act of the level if you so choose. Just QoL stuff like that makes me really happy to see, and makes me get less frustrated since I don't have to redo the entire stage again. I found it to be completely fair in its difficulty, and I really appreciated them doing that. And also, even if you die, your weapons get restored so you don't have to worry about going into a boss again with having some of your weapon wasted. Also speaking of weapons, another thing I appreciated? Your special weapons having unlimited uses for their regular attacks! Once you get the X Buster upgrade, you no longer have to worry about your special weapon regular shots taking ammunition. Sure, the charged weapon shots still do, but I think that's totally fair though. But yeah, I REALLLYYYY hope they keep that going forward... and all of those other QoL updates I really liked tbh. Loved the bosses in this one too, like Magma Dragoon with his Hadouken or Slash Beastleo and his cool ass entrance. My man literally keeps up with a train ON FOOT, and then hops onto it to face you---absolute badass. My favorite boss fights were probably the fights with the Colonel, whether that be with X or Zero, those were really cool. Only thing I may not have liked though, was the final boss, specifically the third phase. I just felt like... there was just too much going on, and it was just way too difficult. I had to put it on Rookie Mode for both X and Zero for that, it was just way too much lmaooo. Maybe in the future if I play this game more, I'd be able to beat it, but yeah... that was just too much. Also Zero's fight with the General was kind of a pain too so I had to lower the difficulty for that as well. Aside from that though, that's... kind of it for any complaints? The gameplay for this one was just really awesome to me. Other than like a few things, I genuinely had little to no issues with it at all personally.

The presentation for this game is... goodness this game is absolutely GORGEOUS. I know this game came out in 1997 and all, but this game still looks fantastic to me. Not saying that games during that era couldn't look good, definitely not, but this game looks like it can be compared to some games that have come out today. The spritework is absolutely stunning on the Legacy Collection, and I was really amazed with the jump from how good the games looked on the SNES to here. The music for this game is also... easily, EASILY, my favorite OST from the series by far. Listening to the tracks from this game has made me realize just how much I love the PS1 era of music, and goodness do these tracks absolutely HITTTTT. I love practically every stage theme, with my favorites being Jet Stingray's, Storm Owl's, and Split Mushroom's. I really love the Final Weapon stage themes as well, but usually the final level themes in these games end up being some of my favorites. Even in X3 I really liked the first Dr. Doppler Stage theme, and I wasn't too big on that OST unfortunately. But yeah, the boss themes went really hard too, like the Sigma themes. And my absolutely FAVORITE track of the OST, has to be the Opening Stage theme for X. I've heard this theme actually, from the first Project X Zone game, but man... the original goes so fucking hard. It is easily in my top 5 favorite Mega Man X tracks for sure, like it's so good... it's so damn good. So yeah, I absolutely loved the OST for this game, hell, even the Stage Start jingle is like one of my favorite ones lmao. Big fan of the PS1 era music vibe... and this one has it in spades with its soundtrack.

Megaman X4 is an absolutely fantastic game in my opinion. I can see now why it's held in such high regard by a lot of people. Even if it's not perfect in some ways, I still think this is a game that now has a special place in my heart for how much fun I had playing it and enjoying the experience of it. Considering how long I rambled on about this in not much of a professional review way, I guess that's an indicator of how much I enjoyed it too. And you know, maybe me dissecting and analyzing the story this much might be kind of weird, but honestly, I kind of like being able to dissect and analyze the things I enjoy even if they aren't incredibly complex stories. And this story I just found to be completely fascinating, even if there's lines like "STOP THE KOOP NOW", you know lmao. I don't know if I'm describing what I'm saying well, but I just think anyone should be able to freely talk about or dissect a story, even if it could be seen as too extra or too simple to get anything out of. And honestly, I feel like I'm going to think about this game for a while from what I took away from it personally. I really enjoyed my time with X4, for its story, levels, gameplay, and music---and its just overall late 90s to early 2000s energy I just vibed with so hard. And I have to say, it's easily my favorite X game out of the ones I've played so far, I really loved this one. This is a game I can definitely see myself replaying in the future for sure, especially to try out the secret forms X and Zero have. But yeah, X4 is truly something special for me tbh, and I'm really happy I ended up enjoying it as much as I was hoping I would.