Sequels to video games often have large shoes to fill. They are expected to push the ideas and framework of their predecessor to new heights, to solidify the essence of what made the previous game so great and to trim the parts that were hindering the original vision.
In a good number of cases, games manage to accomplish this feat. Super Mario World, Sonic the Hedgehog 3, Super Metroid, Final Fantasy IV, etc. They live up to the hype and standards surrounding them, and some have even helped birth new genres or refine them. These are the pinnacle examples of what good sequels can accomplish.
So then, what happens when you have a sequel to a game that was already subpar… and it winds up being an even worse experience?
Enter Mega Man Zero 2.
This game takes two steps forward in fixing certain problems I had with Zero 1, but then also takes two steps back for new problems like its level design as well as problems from Zero 1 that it flat out did not fix at all.
Let’s start with the very few positives I have. Firstly, the Retry system has been removed and the traditional life system has returned. I don’t know if this is because of the Legacy Collection, since that was the version I played for this game or not, but it is a welcome improvement… that still has problems that I despise but we’ll get back onto that.
Secondly, the music is much better. They don’t reuse Zero’s theme from the X series, which means I don’t have to hear it be absolutely butchered, and the other music from the game is pretty good. There are points where the background music sounds like asses farting directly into my ears, but personally those moments were few and far between and weren’t experience ruining.
Next, while there are times where you will revisit earlier stages, those revisits usually take place in an area within that stage that you didn’t see previously, allowing for a different aesthetic. Sometimes though you will just go to an area that looks aesthetically the same and it sucks when that happens.
Finally, the story is at least a step up from Zero 1. Zero finally returns to the resistance after wandering the earth fighting against Neo Arcadian forces on his lonesome. He returns to find the resistance under the lead of a new commander, the reploid Elpizo. Elpizo is a very arrogant and stubborn leader who ultimately means well, but his brash decision making results in terrible consequences.
He commands Zero to help him and his army with taking down specific Neo Arcadian operations to bolster the effect of “Operation: Righteous Strike”, which is meant to destroy the defenses and army of Neo Arcadia, something which former commander Ciel believes is a bad idea. Ciel is also working on a way to create a renewable energy source using these Baby Elves that she’s found, and believes that if she can do so, they can solve the energy crisis and stop Neo Arcadia from hunting them down.
Damn, if that doesn’t hit home nowadays, huh?
Zero winds up helping out Elpizo, who then decides to start “Operation: Righteous Strike” despite the protests of Zero, Ciel, and Cerveau. This results in a massive failure as the Neo Arcadian forces knew this would happen, and much of the resistance winds up completely annihilated, resulting in Elpizo snapping and deciding to go and destroy Neo Arcadia on his lonesome.
It is somewhat implied earlier in the story that Elpizo is jealous of the admiration that much of the resistance has for Zero, and this envy along with the guilt of his failures is what begins his Face-Heel Turn.
Zero is eventually sent by Ciel to find Elpizo, eventually coming into conflict with the Three Guardians once more, before finding out that Elpizo has gone to the deepest part of Neo Arcadia to awaken the Dark Elf using the Baby Elves that Ciel was studying earlier. This of course means world destruction and the extinction of the human race (as well as Reploids honestly) and needs to be stopped.
This ends with a final bout between Zero and Elpizo, now powered by the Dark Elf after he killed X’s body to release it. Elpizo loses and comes to his senses, realizing that he had done the wrong thing. The Dark Elf then temporarily turns to the light and frees Elpizo’s soul, before turning back to evil and escaping the scene.
Zero and X ponder on what has transpired, thus ending Mega Man Zero 2’s story.
It’s definitely more engaging than Zero 1, I’ll say that much… but the story could not save this game from the other myriad problems it has.
Onto the many complaints and I’ll start with the most egregious: The level design in this game is the fucking pits. Spikes are fucking everywhere, like it’s an X6 reunion party. Literally the first recommended level of the game is an ice level with spikes all over the fucking place. Spikes on the walls, on the ceiling, on the floor, fucking everywhere and it feels so fucking senseless.
Not only that, but the level of Phoenix Magnion has a very similar gimmick to, guess who, Blaze Heatnix’s stage from X6, with you fighting the same mini-boss at least 4 times, one right before the boss fight itself, which also has a 30 second cutscene before it, which you have to witness every time you die.
If there is something I hate about both Zero 1 and this game, it is the fucking unskippable cutscenes. This is a problem I swear only exists in the Zero series, because guess what. If you die at a boss in X5 or X6, games that came before this one, they wouldn’t do the fucking dialogue before the boss fight, you would just fight the fucking boss. Why is it that this doesn’t apply to Zero 1 or this game? It’s the single most aggravating shit and serves nothing but to waste time mashing buttons to get to the god damn fight.
Another thing I hate, carried over from Zero 1, there are no checkpoints if you play this game raw. These levels aren’t short either and making even a single mistake (which is very easy to do in an early game with your first playthrough because you don’t know where shit is, and also the overwhelming amount of spikes) will result in you going to the very beginning of the stage, which fucking sucks.
Again, the X series, hell even the Classic series had fucking checkpoints, what is with the Zero series and this bullshit.
If you are going to play this game for the first time, I recommend using the Legacy Collection’s checkpoint feature that it added. It makes the game far more bearable to experience. That or use save states if you intend to emulate this shit.
Bosses in this game feel far more learnable than in Zero 1, which is nice, but there’s still some fights that just feel like ass, and I’m mostly referring to the fight with the double beetleborg brothers. One of which is a boss from Zero 1 who reappears in the final dungeon for the rematch and it was a 2 Vs. 1 fight in a fucking Mega Man game where you don’t really have the tools to deal with that shit, and there aren’t even walls to walljump on to avoid most attacks for this fight. It sucked massive dick.
Cyber Elves return and are still useless 90% of the time. They still have some that lock health upgrades behind themselves, which is a terrible design choice when again, the X series had a perfectly functional way of doing this.
And of course, weapon grinding also makes a comeback… I still have to grind for a basic three hit combo… in a fucking Mega Man game.
There is so much about this game that just pisses me off to an almost irrational degree, but weapon grinding basically not even changing between Zero 1 and now was the biggest deal breaker for me.
The moment I booted up the tutorial and realized that my basic necessities from Zero 1 were gone, I wanted to quit playing the game immediately. It looked as though almost nothing had been fixed, and honestly… almost nothing had been fixed with this game.
When you play a sequel to a game, you would at least expect more than just two improvements… but no. Mega Man Zero 2 fails to deliver much of any positive improvements and instead adds more problems.
EX Skills, which are only given to players who have high rankings and beat a boss, basically fucking new players out of techniques that would probably make the game a lot more enjoyable and manageable. New forms where the way of acquiring them isn’t actively told to you, and most have very specific requirements.
It all just results in an experience that had me wanting the game to end before it even started.
I didn’t try to be excited, I didn’t try to put too high of an expectation on this game like I did with Zero 1. I only expected at least some baseline improvements, and Zero 2 didn’t even give me that.
What I got was a mangled remake of X6 in all honesty, and it disgusts me on an inherent level.
As an aside, I’ve been told that Zero 1 and Zero 2 get better upon replays, but I ask you this: If a game isn’t fun or remotely enjoyable upon the first playthrough, why would anyone want to replay it to see if it gets better. A game should present its encompassing positive traits on a first playthrough, because if it can’t do that, then I don’t believe those positive traits exist.
I’m not looking forward to Zero 3 at this point, or Zero 4. Zero 2 has damaged my perception of this series to such an extent that I’m afraid that even having the most minimal expectations for its sequels will just leave me further disappointed.
I hate this game, because it couldn’t even fulfill the most basic needs to even be a subpar sequel.
In a good number of cases, games manage to accomplish this feat. Super Mario World, Sonic the Hedgehog 3, Super Metroid, Final Fantasy IV, etc. They live up to the hype and standards surrounding them, and some have even helped birth new genres or refine them. These are the pinnacle examples of what good sequels can accomplish.
So then, what happens when you have a sequel to a game that was already subpar… and it winds up being an even worse experience?
Enter Mega Man Zero 2.
This game takes two steps forward in fixing certain problems I had with Zero 1, but then also takes two steps back for new problems like its level design as well as problems from Zero 1 that it flat out did not fix at all.
Let’s start with the very few positives I have. Firstly, the Retry system has been removed and the traditional life system has returned. I don’t know if this is because of the Legacy Collection, since that was the version I played for this game or not, but it is a welcome improvement… that still has problems that I despise but we’ll get back onto that.
Secondly, the music is much better. They don’t reuse Zero’s theme from the X series, which means I don’t have to hear it be absolutely butchered, and the other music from the game is pretty good. There are points where the background music sounds like asses farting directly into my ears, but personally those moments were few and far between and weren’t experience ruining.
Next, while there are times where you will revisit earlier stages, those revisits usually take place in an area within that stage that you didn’t see previously, allowing for a different aesthetic. Sometimes though you will just go to an area that looks aesthetically the same and it sucks when that happens.
Finally, the story is at least a step up from Zero 1. Zero finally returns to the resistance after wandering the earth fighting against Neo Arcadian forces on his lonesome. He returns to find the resistance under the lead of a new commander, the reploid Elpizo. Elpizo is a very arrogant and stubborn leader who ultimately means well, but his brash decision making results in terrible consequences.
He commands Zero to help him and his army with taking down specific Neo Arcadian operations to bolster the effect of “Operation: Righteous Strike”, which is meant to destroy the defenses and army of Neo Arcadia, something which former commander Ciel believes is a bad idea. Ciel is also working on a way to create a renewable energy source using these Baby Elves that she’s found, and believes that if she can do so, they can solve the energy crisis and stop Neo Arcadia from hunting them down.
Damn, if that doesn’t hit home nowadays, huh?
Zero winds up helping out Elpizo, who then decides to start “Operation: Righteous Strike” despite the protests of Zero, Ciel, and Cerveau. This results in a massive failure as the Neo Arcadian forces knew this would happen, and much of the resistance winds up completely annihilated, resulting in Elpizo snapping and deciding to go and destroy Neo Arcadia on his lonesome.
It is somewhat implied earlier in the story that Elpizo is jealous of the admiration that much of the resistance has for Zero, and this envy along with the guilt of his failures is what begins his Face-Heel Turn.
Zero is eventually sent by Ciel to find Elpizo, eventually coming into conflict with the Three Guardians once more, before finding out that Elpizo has gone to the deepest part of Neo Arcadia to awaken the Dark Elf using the Baby Elves that Ciel was studying earlier. This of course means world destruction and the extinction of the human race (as well as Reploids honestly) and needs to be stopped.
This ends with a final bout between Zero and Elpizo, now powered by the Dark Elf after he killed X’s body to release it. Elpizo loses and comes to his senses, realizing that he had done the wrong thing. The Dark Elf then temporarily turns to the light and frees Elpizo’s soul, before turning back to evil and escaping the scene.
Zero and X ponder on what has transpired, thus ending Mega Man Zero 2’s story.
It’s definitely more engaging than Zero 1, I’ll say that much… but the story could not save this game from the other myriad problems it has.
Onto the many complaints and I’ll start with the most egregious: The level design in this game is the fucking pits. Spikes are fucking everywhere, like it’s an X6 reunion party. Literally the first recommended level of the game is an ice level with spikes all over the fucking place. Spikes on the walls, on the ceiling, on the floor, fucking everywhere and it feels so fucking senseless.
Not only that, but the level of Phoenix Magnion has a very similar gimmick to, guess who, Blaze Heatnix’s stage from X6, with you fighting the same mini-boss at least 4 times, one right before the boss fight itself, which also has a 30 second cutscene before it, which you have to witness every time you die.
If there is something I hate about both Zero 1 and this game, it is the fucking unskippable cutscenes. This is a problem I swear only exists in the Zero series, because guess what. If you die at a boss in X5 or X6, games that came before this one, they wouldn’t do the fucking dialogue before the boss fight, you would just fight the fucking boss. Why is it that this doesn’t apply to Zero 1 or this game? It’s the single most aggravating shit and serves nothing but to waste time mashing buttons to get to the god damn fight.
Another thing I hate, carried over from Zero 1, there are no checkpoints if you play this game raw. These levels aren’t short either and making even a single mistake (which is very easy to do in an early game with your first playthrough because you don’t know where shit is, and also the overwhelming amount of spikes) will result in you going to the very beginning of the stage, which fucking sucks.
Again, the X series, hell even the Classic series had fucking checkpoints, what is with the Zero series and this bullshit.
If you are going to play this game for the first time, I recommend using the Legacy Collection’s checkpoint feature that it added. It makes the game far more bearable to experience. That or use save states if you intend to emulate this shit.
Bosses in this game feel far more learnable than in Zero 1, which is nice, but there’s still some fights that just feel like ass, and I’m mostly referring to the fight with the double beetleborg brothers. One of which is a boss from Zero 1 who reappears in the final dungeon for the rematch and it was a 2 Vs. 1 fight in a fucking Mega Man game where you don’t really have the tools to deal with that shit, and there aren’t even walls to walljump on to avoid most attacks for this fight. It sucked massive dick.
Cyber Elves return and are still useless 90% of the time. They still have some that lock health upgrades behind themselves, which is a terrible design choice when again, the X series had a perfectly functional way of doing this.
And of course, weapon grinding also makes a comeback… I still have to grind for a basic three hit combo… in a fucking Mega Man game.
There is so much about this game that just pisses me off to an almost irrational degree, but weapon grinding basically not even changing between Zero 1 and now was the biggest deal breaker for me.
The moment I booted up the tutorial and realized that my basic necessities from Zero 1 were gone, I wanted to quit playing the game immediately. It looked as though almost nothing had been fixed, and honestly… almost nothing had been fixed with this game.
When you play a sequel to a game, you would at least expect more than just two improvements… but no. Mega Man Zero 2 fails to deliver much of any positive improvements and instead adds more problems.
EX Skills, which are only given to players who have high rankings and beat a boss, basically fucking new players out of techniques that would probably make the game a lot more enjoyable and manageable. New forms where the way of acquiring them isn’t actively told to you, and most have very specific requirements.
It all just results in an experience that had me wanting the game to end before it even started.
I didn’t try to be excited, I didn’t try to put too high of an expectation on this game like I did with Zero 1. I only expected at least some baseline improvements, and Zero 2 didn’t even give me that.
What I got was a mangled remake of X6 in all honesty, and it disgusts me on an inherent level.
As an aside, I’ve been told that Zero 1 and Zero 2 get better upon replays, but I ask you this: If a game isn’t fun or remotely enjoyable upon the first playthrough, why would anyone want to replay it to see if it gets better. A game should present its encompassing positive traits on a first playthrough, because if it can’t do that, then I don’t believe those positive traits exist.
I’m not looking forward to Zero 3 at this point, or Zero 4. Zero 2 has damaged my perception of this series to such an extent that I’m afraid that even having the most minimal expectations for its sequels will just leave me further disappointed.
I hate this game, because it couldn’t even fulfill the most basic needs to even be a subpar sequel.
7 Comments
The unskippable cutscene thing seems strange to me since I distinctly remember the cutscene before the final Elpizo fight being skipped whenever I lost a life to it
@PKMudkipz I mean, difficulty is one thing for me, but in this case the amount of instant kill obstacles all over the place was just a representation of my least favorite things about this franchise. I specifically remember the section with the molten lava buckets where you have to make precise dash jumps in between them and I cringed because it was such a tight jump that either meant instant death from being crushed or from the lava and it just makes me think of my X6 playthrough with similar circumstances involving the moving platform walljump section in that game. Checkpoint wise, if they are in the game they're so incredibly sparse that it practically feels like there's no checkpoints at all. I agree it's better than Zero 1, but ultimately I couldn't see myself playing this game without the Legacy Collection's system, being sent back to the very beginning of the stage for dying from a single mistake is such a dated game design choice, even by early 2000s standards. I'm glad you enjoy the game though, I just genuinely see no charm in this whatsoever.
@Midrulean: To my credit, I beat Elpizo on my first try so I didn't get to see that, but I was referring to every other boss fight in the game. Unless there is a way that I don't know about which can skip the animations and dialogue boxes, I would have to keep mashing the A Button over and over to skip through dialogue upon subsequent deaths. Phoenix Magnion is probably the worst offender because you have to beat the mini-boss before him and his entry animation is like 15 seconds long and that's before any dialogue boxes. It feels like a solid minute before I can actually rematch the boss because of that.
@Midrulean: To my credit, I beat Elpizo on my first try so I didn't get to see that, but I was referring to every other boss fight in the game. Unless there is a way that I don't know about which can skip the animations and dialogue boxes, I would have to keep mashing the A Button over and over to skip through dialogue upon subsequent deaths. Phoenix Magnion is probably the worst offender because you have to beat the mini-boss before him and his entry animation is like 15 seconds long and that's before any dialogue boxes. It feels like a solid minute before I can actually rematch the boss because of that.
i agree with mudkipz on this one. sad to say that i feel most people nowadays who play these games always end up disliking them specifically for the difficulty factor. if that’s not for you then i totally get it and i definitely think there are some stinker sections in this game. also the “traditional life system” has never been in the zero games. post zero 1 the retry chips are still fucking there. the only difference after z1 is that you don’t get an option to restart your save file upon death.
i think the replayability of this game is exactly what helps it shine. if you didn’t like it the first time, that’s fair, but i still recommend replaying it because it DOES get better on replays. i feel that if someone doesn’t like a game on a first playthrough but heard praise of it on a replay, wouldn’t you want to see a game you dislike become good? these games very much rely on your skill as a player and encourage you to replay them. the section you mentioned with all the spikes is a non issue if you understand how the controls work. use the momentum from the ice to jump over the spikes, it’s that simple. the lava bucket thing is also a tight jump yes but it’s completely reliant on your skill. discovering new routes and such makes the game better and i believe is what makes these games great. typically i don’t think games in general get better on replays unless they are specifically designed for it like this game. this entry in the series is just accentuating the fundamental mechanics of the zero series. this series requires memorization, quick reflexes, and honing your skills; ESPECIALLY the last part. unfortunately i think the save assist added in the legacy collection completely defeats this main philosophy of the zero series. being able to infinitely retry a boss or section goes against the speedrunning playing style encouraged. you’re encouraged to play the game to a point where you have entire levels mastered and you can beat them quickly in one go.
if this wasn’t for you and you don’t wanna replay the game, then fair enough, i just personally believe that most who dislike this series didn’t give the games enough of a chance to show how brilliant the fundamental design is when you fully understand the core mechanics. comparing this game to x6 is going a bit too far imo.
also, for the record, i do understand where you’re coming from as i had similar feelings on my first play of zero 2 as well.
i think the replayability of this game is exactly what helps it shine. if you didn’t like it the first time, that’s fair, but i still recommend replaying it because it DOES get better on replays. i feel that if someone doesn’t like a game on a first playthrough but heard praise of it on a replay, wouldn’t you want to see a game you dislike become good? these games very much rely on your skill as a player and encourage you to replay them. the section you mentioned with all the spikes is a non issue if you understand how the controls work. use the momentum from the ice to jump over the spikes, it’s that simple. the lava bucket thing is also a tight jump yes but it’s completely reliant on your skill. discovering new routes and such makes the game better and i believe is what makes these games great. typically i don’t think games in general get better on replays unless they are specifically designed for it like this game. this entry in the series is just accentuating the fundamental mechanics of the zero series. this series requires memorization, quick reflexes, and honing your skills; ESPECIALLY the last part. unfortunately i think the save assist added in the legacy collection completely defeats this main philosophy of the zero series. being able to infinitely retry a boss or section goes against the speedrunning playing style encouraged. you’re encouraged to play the game to a point where you have entire levels mastered and you can beat them quickly in one go.
if this wasn’t for you and you don’t wanna replay the game, then fair enough, i just personally believe that most who dislike this series didn’t give the games enough of a chance to show how brilliant the fundamental design is when you fully understand the core mechanics. comparing this game to x6 is going a bit too far imo.
also, for the record, i do understand where you’re coming from as i had similar feelings on my first play of zero 2 as well.
yea I completely agree with everything josh said
@Josh My belief is this. If I replay the game and wind up being better at it, that isn't going to erase the miserable first playthrough that I have had. I personally don't believe that myself improving at the game will make the game better, it just means I would have improved. I could improve at a game like Sonic 06, learning the ins and outs of the jank to use it to my advantage, but that wouldn't make the game good or fun, it would just mean I got better at playing it.
I fundamentally don't understand the logic of a game that isn't fun on a first playthrough getting better subsequently, because I always have a vibe as to when a game is super replayable. It's just a feeling I get in my chest, where even if the first playthrough was rough, there was an underlying sense of value in going back, I had that feeling with Dark Souls 1 and AM2R and went back to replay those games multiple times each, sometimes immediately after the first playthrough.
I do not get that feeling from Zero 1 or Zero 2. Both of these games lack that vibe for me because of basic things that other Mega Man games that came before it simply did better. I feel like if I tried to replay either of these, especially without save states or the Legacy Collection's checkpoints, I would come out hating them even more than I already do because basic things like a three hit combo, or health upgrades are locked behind things that should have never been in a Mega Man game to begin with.
I am sorry I compared the game to X6, but I can't help but see some similarities when certain points in the game just have the exact same level of unpleasantness to me, or are just straight up similar circumstances like the Phoenix Magnion/Blaze Heatnix level comparison.
I'll see about retrying Zero 1 and Zero 2 in the way they were intended, and if I enjoy them then I will gladly eat my words, but I'm very much a person who is set in their ways and my opinions usually do not change on games, and when they do it's usually for the worse, so I have zero expectations that this will be an exception.
Also sorry if this response came off harsh, I didn't get to sleep well and I'm typing this up at 5 in the morning.
I fundamentally don't understand the logic of a game that isn't fun on a first playthrough getting better subsequently, because I always have a vibe as to when a game is super replayable. It's just a feeling I get in my chest, where even if the first playthrough was rough, there was an underlying sense of value in going back, I had that feeling with Dark Souls 1 and AM2R and went back to replay those games multiple times each, sometimes immediately after the first playthrough.
I do not get that feeling from Zero 1 or Zero 2. Both of these games lack that vibe for me because of basic things that other Mega Man games that came before it simply did better. I feel like if I tried to replay either of these, especially without save states or the Legacy Collection's checkpoints, I would come out hating them even more than I already do because basic things like a three hit combo, or health upgrades are locked behind things that should have never been in a Mega Man game to begin with.
I am sorry I compared the game to X6, but I can't help but see some similarities when certain points in the game just have the exact same level of unpleasantness to me, or are just straight up similar circumstances like the Phoenix Magnion/Blaze Heatnix level comparison.
I'll see about retrying Zero 1 and Zero 2 in the way they were intended, and if I enjoy them then I will gladly eat my words, but I'm very much a person who is set in their ways and my opinions usually do not change on games, and when they do it's usually for the worse, so I have zero expectations that this will be an exception.
Also sorry if this response came off harsh, I didn't get to sleep well and I'm typing this up at 5 in the morning.
didn’t come off as harsh at all, i do understand where you’re coming from! your points here do make sense and i get it. it wasn’t for you and that’s perfectly fine. if your opinion on the games doesn’t change on replays then who am i to say that you’re wrong lol. honestly at this point i do suggest trying out zero 3 if z1 and 2 didn’t click with you, as it’s easier and has much more refined design, as well as cyber elves not penalizing you for using them and having a much more abundant supply of e crystals. i admit the cyber elves in z1 and z2 do have their upgrade requirements a bit too high which is where they kinda fail.
PKMudkipz
2 years ago
I'm 99% sure Zero 2 has checkpoints though. They might be sparse, but they're definitely there. Even Zero 1 has checkpoints, albeit with diminished usefulness due to the life system.