Mega Man Zero 4 se convirtió en mi juego favorito de la saga y uno de mis preferidos en general. Me resulta difícil expresar con palabras lo mucho que amé este videojuego, tanto mensajes como mecánicas, lo adoré de principio a fin.

Desde esa introducción donde se nos presenta en pocos diálogos la situación crítica de nuestros héroes y los humanos debido al regreso de Weil, hasta esa sección inicial en el área zero, tan llena de vida, con esperanto reproduciéndose de fondo como símbolo de la última esperanza de la humanidad, ya nos indica lo especial que va a ser el viaje que tenemos ante nosotros.

Empezando con las novedades en el gameplay, Zero Knuckle se convirtió en mi arma favorita de todas las incluidas en cada entrega. Mientras Recoil Rod y Chain Rod eran novedades divertidas de las que terminaba cansándome, Zero Knuckle me invitó a experimentar en todo momento, descubriendo constantemente nuevos trucos, armas, interacciones y combos. Es muy divertida de usar.

Otro gran acierto es el sistema de climas, que además de ser una forma diegética de cambiar la dificultad, sirve para desbloquear las habilidades especiales (en mi opinión, mil veces mejor que depender de las notas al final del nivel). Llámenme loco, pero Mega Man Zero 4 es también el juego de la saga con el mejor diseño de nivel y propuestas en cuanto a este. Lejos de ser siempre un pasillo a la derecha hasta el jefe, ofrece diferentes desafíos basados en el área y el clima, lo cual es muy refrescante.

Nunca fui demasiado fan de los elfos durante la saga y solía ignorarlos. Pero en este juego, me encantaron. Solo tenemos uno. Ahora es posible asignar múltiples atributos simultáneamente sin exceder el límite. Es simple, práctico y simbólico (quiero decir, nuestro elfo compañero LITERALMENTE SE LLAMA "CREER", saben lo cool que es eso?!)

Pasando a los jefes, amé el énfasis que se hace en estos al inicio, presentándolos como el grupo a vencer. Dándoles personalidad en pocos diálogos, lejos de ser solo los conos a derrotar como en juegos anteriores. En especial para Craft, que sirve como tercer punto de vista en el conflicto, a Dr. Weil y Zero, siendo sin duda el jefe secundario más desarrollado de esta saga de videojuegos y una agradable sorpresa.

Hablando del elefante en la habitación, Mega Man Zero 4 tiene un enorme énfasis en su apartado narrativo, y aquí es donde brilla. El final de este juego se convirtió rápidamente en uno de mis favoritos de la ficción. Ese clímax es precioso y la conclusión a 20 años de historia: ¿Por qué seguimos luchando? ¿Para qué luchamos? ¿Vale la pena seguir adelante en un mundo que no aprende? ¿Es posible un futuro mejor? Todas estas preguntas nos las hacemos durante la aventura. En Mega Man Zero 3, probamos que éramos Zero, ahora es hora de demostrar por qué somos el Reploide legendario.

X y Zero vieron su sueño cumplido.

El villano fue derrotado. La naturaleza está regresando a la tierra, y la paz entre los Reploids y los humanos finalmente se logra, pero el héroe no pudo presenciar ese final. ¿Quién hubiera dicho que el Reploide que tuvo la peor de las vidas, que vio a sus seres queridos morir en sus narices, lleno de dolor y creado para destruir, sería quien al final le daría esperanza a Ciel y a la humanidad?

Todo en una de las mejores batallas finales en la historia de los videojuegos, llena de diálogos poderosos y una de las realizaciones más conmovedoras que tuve el agrado de ver. Estoy agradecido de haberle dado una oportunidad a esta saga.

Vaya viaje. Caballeros, sin duda nos encontramos ante ficción máxima.

You know how FE combat is pretty bad when it’s just “bunch of blue units against bunch of red units” because you can aggro the red units one by one with a tank, clean house with the other blues, move the tank up one space, spam end turn until it’s over, and that’s why FE thrives when map design, enemy compositions, chests and valuables, recruitable NPCs you don’t want to kill with a counterattack, turn limits, enemy AI, map objectives and win conditions run directly counter to that?
What if we removed all of that and made a merge units mechanic that doubles your stats in a game with low level DnD campaign tier numbers that further benefits the spam end turn strat?

You know how FE has three plots they recycle every few games? What if we put all of them in at once, having the astoundingly high number of around NINE chapters each to start, develop and conclude?

At least they finally nailed menu management, cartridge blast processing technology makes animations a joy to watch and skip both, and whoever came up with the idea of having battle tracks being map themes with added instruments that switch in and out instantly deserves a Grammy

-- Warning, strong language --
This review is not a part of my FE series replay reviews, as I am not being "objective" or "fair" as game reviewers tend to think they are. I am here to CLEAR SOME SHIT UP for glue eating individuals that say this game is bad. This one is personal for me because I'm tired of hearing the same tired ass takes about this masterpiece of a game, because even though liking it isn't a hot take, dissenters of this game have one fuckin critique and still rank it among the worst in the series, which is egregiously cap when Revelations and Sacred Stones exist and are actively the worst games.

Let's talk about expectations for a Fire Emblem game nowadays, as I feel like especially right after the release of Engage, I've come to understand what FE fans have come to expect from a new entry in the series. I imagine the thoughts bouncing around in their heads sound a little something like this:

"Wow! I can't believe we're getting a new FE, I sure hope that it has the weapon triangle, a fully fledged child/marriage system with skill inheritance, shit fuckloads of skills to grind and abuse in combat, and hella optional maps for grinding. Otherwise I'm going to pound my chest like an ape on twitter dot com and scream about how the franchise is going down the shitter and elitists are the bane of the fucking franchise."

While they're right about that very last part, I feel like this game was victim to these expectations, as I have seen nothing but idiot after idiot complaining about something or other that this game didn't completely fucking axe from the original experience. Let's real talk for a second here: the original game sucks fucking donkey dick. Gaiden is by no means a fun experience. I just replayed it. You are a fuckin contrarian if you say it is, and a super mega chud if you say it's better than this game. This is a remake, and while it does very little to improve the shitty map design and approach to enemy placement (or lack thereof), it does SO FUCKING MUCH to reimagine and improve the limited source material and create something truly magical that you have to be a soulless bastard to hate this.

- Gameplay: This is the actual worst part of the game, but not nearly as bad as people make it out to be, and in fact, Three Houses stole many aspects of this game's playbook for itself. For instance, this entry gave us the Mila Turnwheel, something that every entry since has seen, as well as combat arts, something that Three Houses made an integral aspect of its combat. While the maps are often just locations with enemies placed on them with little-to-no rhyme or reason, I find that the maps aren't nearly as atrocious if you just don't suck balls at the game. Crazy idea, using the tools the game gives you to beat it, such as warp rescue strats on Alm's route, Peg knight abuse against cantors and monsters on Celica's route, and just using your brain on either. Yes, swamp maps are annoying, but also, they added the turnwheel for a reason, so use it.
-Map Design: It's fucking trash. Like this is the one weakness of the game in my mind. The maps are not fun to play, at best, unit growth is something to drive the player on maps, but no real meaningful side objectives or obj variety on maps. However, again, as this is a remake, there is only so much they can do with this, as Gaiden was a JPN only title prior to this, and if they HAD done radical revisions, it would honestly change the identity of the game.
-Soundtrack: This game has the best soundtrack in the entire fucking series. Fates might be a close second, but this is the greatest glow-up of a remake's soundtrack I've ever heard. If you need proof: "Lord of a Dead Empire," "Scion's Dance in Purgatory," "The Sacrifice and the Saint," "Pride and Arrogance," "With Mila's Divine Protection," "TWILIGHT OF THE GODS," do I need to list any fucking more??? "Heritors of Arcadia"???? Anything else? It's not close, and tbh it doesn't fall into the very common FE trope in modern entries of shoe horning the fuck out of the main motif into every single goddamn map theme in the game, thank God.
-Voice Acting: This is the first fully-voiced Fire Emblem game, at least in main cutscenes and support conversations. It is for the most part really, really fucking good voice acting. Like way better than I would have expected for a 3DS title, especially given the mixed bag that we got with Fates. Ian Sinclair's Berkut genuinely fucking KILLS his performance, but genuinely I cry at some of this game's voice acting every single time I play it, and I think Kyle does a phenomenal job at Alm.
-Story: This is the part that confuses me most about this game. I get hating the gameplay, or maybe even some of the dialogue, as it doesn't really feel like FE dialogue in some places, but how in the actual fuck do you hate this game's story? The story of Alm and Celica is so fuckin moving to me, and I genuinely choke up every time I see them get torn apart at the end of the prologue. The implementation of the two new characters, Berkut and Fernand is also very well done, as it gives characterization to some of the founding members of the Deliverance who tended to get shafted in the original game. It felt like most of the story was happening in Celica's route in the original, whereas this game's storytelling feels more leaning towards Alm, but ultimately more equal, which is something I appreciate about it.

At the end of the day, I get you not liking Shadow of Valentia as a Fire Emblem game, I do. But this game is a fucking masterpiece apart from the series it comes from, and does so much to further that series, even if it feels like it takes a few steps back in other places. Echoes is a perfect example of a masterful remake; loyal to the source material in most places, while adding enough to keep the experience fresh and engaging for new audiences. Now that I've not only gotten onto my soapbox, but also did a fucking cartwheel off of it, I hope that you can understand just how special this game is to me, because I feel like it was very formative to the kind of video games that I enjoy to this day.

[EDIT: I fuckin forgot to mention the god tier glow-up of the character designs. The redesigns of some of these characters are night and day, and it's fucking insane how they managed to turn some of the ugliest designs in the original (Boey) into some of my favorites. I cannot stress enough just how amazing this game's artstyle is and how much of an improvement it is, which to be fair really anything would be from the original NES title...]

(Escrita em 2019)

Fire Emblem: Three Houses é um jogo que apareceu para mim justamente no momento em que estava na seca por um desses, e ainda assim conseguiu me desapontar bastante. Estava buscando um jogo de anime com muitas waifus e combate de turno por muito tempo, e este é com todas as letras e funções um desses. A premissa de que você era um professor e que eventualmente toda escolha, feita e não feita, voltaria para te morder na bunda após o timeskip o tornou ainda mais interessante, especialmente ao considerar que todos estavam falando que essa era a história mais profunda de Fire Emblem em muito tempo.

Embora no começo a novidade mecânica e a super saturação de waifus me manteve transfixado, eventualmente os problemas do jogo começaram a aparecer em alta: os personagens, especialmente em minha rota, são quase todos estereótipos genéricos, e a conversa entre eles é em maioria bem fraca/cansativa; o jogo, inicialmente desafiador, rapidamente fica trivial, seu combate se tornando uma formalidade até as últimas 3 fases; e, por fim, por meu azar acabei pegando um lado da história em que a narrativa é uma bagunça, com bem menos atenção dada à ela e aos personagens dela do que em outros caminhos. Todos esses problemas me deixaram com um gosto ruim na boca, e ver que outras rotas tiveram caminhos bem mais tonalmente consistentes e completos, até quando envolviam personagens da minha rota, tornou-o ainda pior.

Minha insatisfação vem de um caso de azar que reflete o maior problema, em minha opinião: tentando fazer 4 jogos inteiros dentro de um, com várias diferenças de perspectiva entre eles, é sem dúvidas uma tarefa complicada. Quando você considera em adicionar 26 personagens que podem fazer parte de cada uma dessas rotas e que cada um deles tem várias interações um com os outros, todas com dublagem completa, aí que as permutações começam a sair dos eixos da razão. Eles atiraram no próprio pé com tamanha ambição, e com o baixo orçamento da série era apenas estatística o resultado de que algumas rotas e personagens seriam bem menos balanceados e bem cuidados que outros. Infelizmente, tirei o palitinho mais curto em todas as loterias do jogo, e acabei saindo incomodado de um jogo que tinha sido entregue em berço de ouro na minha mão, dado o desejo do momento. Faz parte.