So here marks the second half of the X series, the more infamous half from what I'm aware of. I had to admit, I was really intrigued with that knowledge lingering in my mind. It made me wonder what my takes would be on the second half of the X series. And so as for X5 it's... an interesting one. I don't think it's a bad game by any means---and I really would have liked to have given it a higher score, but I just found a decent bit about the game to be kind of frustrating in ways. And I feel like those aspects unfortunately just hold it back for me a good bit.

To start off with the negatives to get that out the way, it did seem like they threw a lot at you to start with? It seemed like they sort of throw you in with a bunch of different mechanics such as the time limit, the enigma and shuttle preparation, weapon and life parts you gain from beating a boss, etc. Now, I don't think it's bad for a game to have a lot of mechanics, but I just wish we could've been more eased into all of these different things. As for the time limit mechanic before the colony crashes into Earth... I'm torn on it. On the one hand, it adds tension to your choices and raises the stake quite a bit, which I definitely like. On the other hand, it also discourages exploration for sub tanks, heart tanks, and armor pieces since it costs an hour visiting a stage. Now once you do get to the final act of the game, you could probably get everything you need, but I feel like the fun in these games is being able to travel to other locations freely and get whatever you need to help you during the game, whether it be a sub tank or an armor piece to give you that extra bit of help. So yeah, just kind of has me mixed on how to feel about that. As for the enigma and space shuttle parts in general... ngl... really don't like that it's entirely up to RNG. It just kind of sucks having such important plot beats being all up to chance, especially how you can potentially lose Zero if you're just simply unlucky. If the RNG was only in place for the enigma, then maybe that'd be okay, but even the space shuttle thing too? Yeah, just wasn't a fan of that personally. Another thing I wasn't personally a fan of... probably the armor piece setup this time around. Being restricted from using any pieces of a particular armor until you get all of them is kind of blegh to me, it's never been like that in the past. I liked each piece having its own unique feature, so even if you had one piece, it still gave you a great upgrade on its own. Idk, it just rubbed me the wrong way with how they did that compared to the prior games. Also, while I thought some of the stages were good, a couple of them were filled with dickery. Looking at you Tidal Whale with your long ass mini boss fights, and don't get me started on Volt Kraken's stage... you can barely get READY for it before you fall into a pit lmao. And then the boss rush taking forever this time around was just not fun either. Anyway, I probably have more gripes, but then I'd be getting into nitpicky territory (if I haven't already). It's just sad because by the time I was at the final boss, I just wanted it to end, and I hate feeling that way about a game it just sucks feeling like that.

B-But anyway, alright no more negatives, time for positives! Firstly, Alia existing---I mean, I like that we have more established characters added to the Maverick Hunters other than just X and Zero. I genuinely really like that addition to the overall series, such as us giving us Alia. Alia is very nice, and AP likes Alia a lot. E-Erm, anyway... ahem, I also enjoyed the story a good bit this time around too! The premise being a giant space colony on route to crash into the Earth? As a Sonic fan, I definitely appreciate such a plot setup lmao. I also really enjoyed the Zero stuff in this story as well, one of my favorite scene being the conversation he has with Dr. Light if you have him meet Zero. Honestly, might be one of my favorite moments in this series tbh. And man, as for the ending you get if Zero survives the space colony explosion and you beat Sigma with him? I have to just say that my heart was ripping apart seeing X holding Zero's lifeless body, and then that CG of the two of them both getting shot by Sigma, like mannn. And then with Zero telling X to live on while he gives Sigma that last blow all the while he's slowly dying and thinking about his life. Just... man... that is some really strong stuff, and as a fan of the X and Zero bond... was a really big fan of all that. I am aware that this was originally supposed to be the end of the X series, so if this did end in that way, that would've made for quite the ending. Also, another interesting aspect, the whole Dr. Wily thing! It really is a cool thing how the presence of a character who is long dead (I think), still has an influence on the people he despises, and it just gives you that really ominous undertone of how strong a man's utter hatred can be. Real JoJo ass energy with that, I honestly like it. I feel like the theme of Shadow Devil definitely represents that well, and even though that boss frustrated me, I think that's some pretty great show don't tell storytelling if intentional. And this is coming from someone who hasn't even played the original Mega Man games and only knows some key details of the story. Honestly, dark and tragic are probably good ways to describe this game because there's even these sad undertones of fighing the bosses, as they simply want to be put out of their misery from being infected (or in the process of becoming infected). Really has that same feeling from X4 that made me feel connected to the story. As for the music, I really liked it a good bit! Not as much as prior entries, but there's a lot of bangers such as the opening stage, the first Zero stage, and definitely the boss themes like the Shadow Devil theme (which was cool to learn it was a remix of a MM track), and the Vile 2 remix. Which, I cannot BELIEVE that piece of shit Rangda Bangda came back. Personally, I sort of have a grudge against him, like he kicked my ass back in X1 so many times, and he did the same thing here in X5, like, fuck him lmao. The Falcon Armor was also pretty interesting too... it's shot power was ass, but I liked the invincibility it has when you're flying. I never did get to try the Gaia Armor though unfortunately, never got all the pieces for it. Aside from the stages I mentioned disliking, overall, they were not too bad. I think my favorites were probably Spiral Pegasus and Shining Firefly, I just think they had some really interesting gimmicks to their stages. I also liked a few of the abilities you could get in this one too. Like, dude, if you can give me an ability to stop time, like... that's it, that's just going to be one of my favorite abilities ever lmao. So yeah, and also more QoL updates when it comes to losing a life and game overs. Very much appreciate the more forgiving "Eh, you can just continue from your very last checkpoint if you lose all your lives", like I appreciate that a lot. I do like the overall progression of how these games sort of get more and more forgiving, that is very much welcoming and I am all for that.

Mega Man X5 is... it's difficult for me to really rate how I feel about it. It's sort of how I felt with X3 where I felt so in the middle of that one that it just made me feel indifferent to most of it. However, unlike X3, I... I like this one. It's okay! It's neat! It's not one of my favorites, and I have a good amount of problems with it. But when I was having fun with the game, I was well... having fun with it. There's a lot I like about X5, and I can totally see why some people have this as their favorite, especially when it comes to the story. I didn't even touch on the small details I enjoyed such as Volt Kraken having been buddies with Launch Octopus from X1, or X and Zero actually having their foreshadowed fight that results in a tie. Honestly, I liked the game enough to even try out the Improvement Project mod, which I have to say, I'm quite enjoying it more than I did the original! Maybe I'm enjoying it more since it's a game I've already beaten, or it's because of the QoL updates and fixes, but either way, regardless of the factors, it definitely feels like a genuine enhanced version of the original. It's always so amazing to me how people go out of their way to make full on projects for games they are passionate about, and how it can really improve the experience of said game too. So yeah, overall, X5 was okay for me! Who knows, maybe upon further revisits I might like it more, that or I'd just play through the game via the Improvement Project (tbh I don't think I'd be that against replaying the original though). Either way, I don't think this one was bad and it gave us Alia so that actually makes it perfect maybe lmao.

Yeah, this one is going to be really difficult to talk about. I really wanted to like this one, I really did! But... I just couldn't like it, it was just way too blegh. It makes AP sad because I heard that this one was really disliked too, but I thought maybe I'd like it? Unfortunately, no... this is probably my least favorite one so far (spoiler, the next one actually is lmao). Even with X3 and how indifferent I was to that one, I at least could have some enjoyment with it through Rookie Hunter mode. Even when I put Rookie Hunter mode on and used the Ultimate Armor for this game, I still ran into so much frustration and irritation.

I'm going to try and make this a shorter one than normal, so... at first, I wasn't really sure why this entry was disliked almost as much as X7's. I mean, it looked like it'd play just like X5 to me, wasn't really sure what would be here to dislike. Then when I started playing through the game more and more, then I was starting to see why. The level design really was just... all over the place. What sucks is that some of these levels had such gorgeous designs and environments, but there were so many instances where I was just thrown off by what the game was asking of me, or just from being annoyed at a particular level's gimmick. Three stages come to mind for me when I think of how much they irritated me, whether it be Ground Scaravich's stupid totem pole enemies, Blaze Heatnix's mini boss that came back like five fucking times, and then Blizzard Wolfang's awful... AWFULLL... falling ice block section. It sucks because I really do like a lot of the ideas for these stages, and hell, I wasn't even all that against the whole Nightmare gimmick. Though, those levels could also be dickish too with their level design... erm anyway, now it's not all bad. I think two levels I genuinely really enjoyed were Metal Shark Player's and Shield Sheldon's. Well okay, I liked the first half of Metal Shark Player's stage---it reminded me of Mario levels where you need to be patient and not get crushed to death by stuff. And I did think Shield Sheldon's stage was cool with its laser puzzles, I thought that was a pretty creative and fun level. I did really like the music also in this game too... even in the stages I disliked, I was still vibing with the music though lmao. The Gate stages can go to hell though, fuck them. Normally I enjoy the final levels in these games as they get me hyped up for the finale, but these just didn't hit for me. And then Gate himself as a boss was... I don't even know how I beat him really lmao. I just stood in the corner and spammed one of my weapons until I kept making his own attacks explode to kill him lmao. Just really bizarre, definitely one of the weakest bosses I've seen in the series so far in terms of enjoyment. Sigma was okay in this though... I thought it was cool how they remixed his themes from X1 and X2 into a single arrangement, that was nice.

But yeah... so... can't say I was too much of a fan of a good amount of stuff in this game. I will say though that story was good! Well, with the rough English translation put to the side, I appreciated Alia being more fleshed out as a character, alongside Gate being an interesting antagonist. There was a lot of interesting lore that came out from this one, with me even feeling bad for a couple of the Mavericks in the game, lke Blizzard Wolfang, who I thought had a pretty tragic story. Overall, the story stuff for this one was neat. The whole Zero thing though, I mean... lmao. Honestly, I think if the excuse for him coming back was simply that he went on vacation leave, I would've bought that more than what we did get as the explanation lmao. Either way though, personally, I didn't care too much about the Zero retcon stuff. I love Zero, he's my favorite character in the series, so I'm just going to say it's all good he's still alive because I'm hella biased towards him lmao. Also, the entire X and Zero meeting each other again scene with that forearm bromance bump they do at the end is peak Mega Man X content for me, so it's all good lmao. Anyway, so yeah, X6 to me was... just a bit below indifference for me. I really did want to like this one... but in general, it just was not very fun for me. It has its good points for me, but I really wish I could've came out liking this one more though.