Honestly I kept bouncing off this game for over half a decade, and now that I have played it, yeah no it's really good. My ratings for each case as of now

Case 1 - 6/10
Case 2 - 7/10
Case 3 - 8/10
Case 4 - 9/10
Case 5 - 9/10

Ok since I don't feel like writing down a whole lot, here's the basic takeaways of my thoughts of this game.

I very much enjoy the things it refined or expanded upon. I like having two captains more than 1, I enjoy the reworked Pikmin types as well as the new types of Purple and White, I generally like the areas and most of the new enemies and bosses, and for the most part, I like the idea of the new cave diving system, due to the challenge it introduced being to keep pikmin alive rather than keeping an eye on a clock.

However, the caves kind of suck in the latter half of the game. Valley of Repose and Wistful Woods have some awful fucking caves, both because of the enemies and hazards they threw in, and especially because of the RNG of that jumbles the layout of these floors that can at times, just be actually unfair. Not like "oh this game is being mean so it's unfair", no I just mean the game thought starting the map off with a white wollyhop, or an angry bulbear, or a fucking gatling groink would be a fun start to the floor combined with occassional onslaughts of other enemies. It's all too much at times.

I still like this game for as bitter as I feel about the caves, but I think I just like Pikmin 1 more. I like it's structure more, and while it at time had some frustrations, it certainly didn't just outright piss me off.

Fuck Bulbears.

This game feels like a worst paced version of Mega Man 3, made worst by the X series structure, and admittedly how they handle the X hunters.

In terms of the things I care about a notable bit in these games, I think the mavericks themselves and their weapons are a bit less good than X1's, but I still like them overall I guess. The 2nd Armor is a bit better than the First Armor, but I kind of miss it's buster. Just give it this one's shoe functionality and I'd be happy. It's other effects like map searching or a screen wipe are a bit too situational for me to care about.

I think overall the stages are fine in the main section of the game, the only one I think that sucks for sure is Flame Stag's stage for the volcano section at the beginning of the level because it's too fast at times, and if it touches you, it's really hard to get away. It's honestly better to get insta-killed by it, but it doesn't even do that, it just takes 1/3 of the bar I think per hit. Otherwise the stage is fine, but that section especially sucks. I do like some of them tho, like Bubble Crab's is a race to the finish with a big robot fish, Overdrive Ostrich introduces the ride chasers and they're fun, minus the noise they make (they hurt my ears), and Morph Moth is delightfully unsettling.

I think the main game is fine, but I think the X Hunter Base levels, essentially Wily Castle stages, just suck 1 after another. Either because gimmicks in the stage themselves are just not fun like in Stage 1 with more climbing segments or in Stage 3 with it's jet platform you have to guide by jumping to switch it's direction, and it's just too finicky, or the bosses just aren't fun.

Violen is the same as his normal fight and it's annoying in both because of his stupid wrecking ball, Serges gets a different fight, and it's worse than his first fight. First one was just annoying because he was hard to hit, the second one is just bad because it takes that issue, and makes it a ton worse. And I'm not really that big of a fan of the Sigma fights... well more specifically the Sigma Virus phase, but it's just hard to keep up with how much the fight goes on rather than it just being outright bad. I think the only fight that I kind of like is Agile's fight. I like his first fight, and this second one is cool too, but more because it's a fun gimmick that can become a bit of a mess more than it being a hard but fun fight, especially going buster only in the latter.

I should probably mention why I think the game has worst pacing row quick, both for this review and to clarify some thoughts on MM3. I think MM3 is overall fine just considering the main game and the wily castle, but the Doc Robot stages reusing old stages to have rematch against the last game's bosses with a completely different set of weakness weapons was more a slog than actually fun. It just took a stab to the pacing, and made the game feel longer than it should be.

I think why this game's a bit worse about it is partly because of what it is compared to 3. MM3 is a relatively simple platformer with a random low point in the middle. This game intends to be more focused on collecting things throughout stages and completing a lot of it's hidden challenges if you want to get X to standing a chance more than just obtaining the weapons. From armor pieces to heart and e-tanks, to even finding some secret bosses. It's certainly not as straightforward I suppose.

I also think part of it just comes from how I like to play X games, I like to get everything I can in it so not only is there nothing left to scour the levels for once i'm done with them and I get a sense of completion out of the task, but I'm more ready for the challenges later to come. Because of the nature of this game's upgrades, it necessitates revisiting and exploring levels, similar to what MM7 and MM8 encouraged through hidden secrets in levels or through bolts. I think with that in mind, I like X1 because there isn't really much else to worry about in the main stages, and because of that, when I finish levels and I got the right stuff, it's pretty simple to head back and collect what I need with no skin off my back. It's a pretty leniant collection loop.

Doing this for X2 was a bit more of a hassle, partly on me, but also I think on the game. On me, well this is my first playthrough, of course it's gonna take a bit more time to figure out how the game works or where it hides stuff, and especially in nailing down a route, I don't really have it well planned out. But on the game itself, I think finding a good route is made a little inconvient based on the stipulations. There's plenty of collectibles that either require the airdash from the legs part, or a certain weapon like the speed burner with it's charged variation you only get from the buster upgrade. There's quite a few collectibles that are hidden with extra stipulations rather than just being in tricky spots, and considering the weakness order, it's a bit inconvient to play it like a standard mega man game in that regard.

My example is that I started with Wire Sponge, but I should've probably started with Overdrive Ostrich so I could have gotten the Leg parts so I could get some other stuff and generally improve my movement, but no I can't do that, I need wheel gator's weapon to even get it. In the weakness chain, overdrive ostrich would beat out wire sponge who would then beat out wheel gator, then I'd go back and get the upgrade. Until I do that, a lot of the games collectibles are locked off from me unless i'm super technical about my movement, which i'm not. But I didn't do that, I went Wire Sponge, Wheel Gator, then Overdrive Ostrich and went ahead and fought him with the buster only. Part of the blame is one me for the order, but no matter what, this was the one MM game i've played that's gotten me to break the weakness weapon chain, and not in a way I particularly like.

What complicates this a bit more is if you want to try and just complete the stages weakness to weakness while also trying to fight all the X-Hunter fights. Ignoring that some of them are just a pain in the ass to get to because they are just straight up hidden in the stages which makes sense as optional fights. If you're going for them, you gotta hope that they actually land on one of the 6 remaining stages after you unlock them. Either you try and knock them out early by going off route, hope they're there, or just keep leaving and revisiting levels to reset where they spawn at, especially if you want to face off against one in particular. That last one is just if you don't feel like fighting someone like serges or something. I get that tbf.

Y'know, i'm thinking on it now, and honestly while I do like fighting optional bosses because a secret fights are cool, considering I just don't like 2 out of the three fights, and I end up having to rematch them all anyways, I think it makes things worse in hindsight. I did a lot of work just to not end up fighting Zero at the end. Now, storywise, I think it makes more sense that X would want to save Zero and would end up going out of his way to get his parts back, it makes sense to the characters and the player, especially after X1, but also, I missed a really cool fight with Zero. It's not like I can easily go back either without doing a whole second playthrough, so I just didn't get to fight him. I mean granted, I already think the sigma fights after it are enough trouble normally, so having a tough fight prior be gone is probably easier at the end of the day, and it is cool to have him cut down a copy so effortlessly as he makes a flashy return, but I dunno man, I think the X-Hunters are just kind of busy work...

Trying to account for them in main stages and then deal with them in the latter half of the game just isn't that fun, and combine that with me thinking the collection order is a bit more tedious than normal, and me thinking the stages and bosses aren't that cool... yeah this game feels like a drag more times than not. Overall, not one of my favorites. Not very well paced, not as interesting as X1 in bosses or weapons, and the endgame just kind of tanks in quality. Fucked up... That being said, here's my boss ranking.

8. Wheel Gator
7. Morph Moth
6. Magna Centipede
5. Flame Stag
4. Crystal Snail
3. Wire Sponge
2. Bubble Crab
1. Overdrive Ostrich

I'll be honest, I'm not really gonna be able to give an actual review for this game, because I really just don't feel like playing it anymore. It's more boring and more frustrating than X2, and I kind of just don't really care to finish it.

I did at least get through the main 8 mavericks, and I did come away with a few issues that hinder my fun. For one, the armor set additions kind of suck, especially the buster. It's a cross-shot kind of idea, but the charge up shot for it either alone or timed to get the cross shot feels too imprecise and non damaging for the amount of time it requires to charge. The airdash is alright, but I still kind of just like a normal airdash being honest...

I think most of the bosses are alright, but a lot of them break really easily under their weakness weapon. The other 2 required fights in Bit and Byte are really unfun, and basically make the X-Hunter issue worse by forcing the player to fight them. Vile is a cool return tho.

Last thing, I think a thing that's easy forget but annoying all the same is this game's issue with respawning enemies after offscreening them for a bit is too unruly sometimes, especially since the basic enemies themselves are more stifling than endearing.

I don't think it's really my worst mega man experience, part of my boredom is that I'm just wanting to get to X4, but also part of my boredom is it feels like x2 but worse, which felt like x1 but worse. I think it does say something though that I just don't want to finish it after putting up with some of the bullshit in the other games.

Oh yea and before I forget, here's the mavericks ranked (Keep in mind a lot of them are very boring but i'll try something)

8. Neon Tiger
7. Blast Hornet
6. Gravity Beetle
5. Volt Catfish
4. Tunnel Rhino
3. Blizzard Buffalo
2. Crush Crawfish
1. Toxic Seahorse

I have played this game before, it's like one of the 3 I did touch before and one of the 2 X games I beat, the other being X1, and I was already expecting to like this game quite a bit. Like when I came to it, it'd be a really good bump in quality after whatever X2 and X3 were, but oh god, I did not expect to be so pleasantly surprised that I played it twice in a row. There was a technically good reason. I played as X and I wanted to compare him to Zero and that left some interesting personal notes, but I already played Zero the past two times I played this game, I just wanted to replay him because it'd be fun, and I just like this game a lot.

It's such a massive step up in quality that I think blows even X1 out of the water, let alone the other two that by comparison are progressively more sluggish and worse to play that I just didn't want to finish X3 at all. It's so fluent, it does a lot of quality of life changes in such small ways that it makes the game so much more comfortable, and there really isn't that much to deal with in terms of the collection that you can't already get on the first run of stages, albeit with a few game overs to get some stuff. Especially if you play Zero who only really needs the heart tanks and the different sub tanks.

On top of all that, this is the first game that the Mavericks are actually really cool to me, especially with the flavor text behind them, and how they handle the weapons and techniques they grant is pretty well handled in my opinion. I mean with Zero, it's just additions to his moveset, it's more his relationship with bosses based on his swordplay rather than relying on a strict weakness chain as heavily as X does is neat, but with X, it's mainly down to how they handle weapon energy.

One of the things you can get is the helmet armor part for the fourth armor, and it specifically makes it so that attacking with the weaker, normal versions of the weapons will cost no energy. It'll cost you if you use the charge versions like you'd expect, but the fact that you're a bit more free to use weapons makes me more willing to use them outside of boss rooms. A couple I got a few good uses out of bosses and collectibles aside, was the electric web for it's wall hopping, or the twin slasher for it's handy range coverage (despite it being weaker than a normal buster shot).

It also helps that not only do they finally introduce the weapon energy subtank, but now they refill your weapon energy if you die at a boss, even if you wasted it fully in the last fight. It ironically voids the use for the weapon subtank where it would've been really helpful before, but I'm fine eaither way. In a lot of other games, without a way to grind out energy, it was just really easy to fuck yourself over using the weapon if I was trying to figure out a boss or just fucked up and died on a failed run, and force yourself to do a buster only run basically because I can't do anything else. It's just good to have.

Going back a second to the armor, it's also pretty good, arguably my favorite so far. The Helmet I already explained how it's good, but the leg part is pretty handy because not only is it an airdash, but also doubles as a hover. It's a little finnicky but the option is handy. The Body Armor part does the damage reduction but also introduces the Nova Strike which is really cool to use and actually a lot more interesting than X2's screen nuke or X3's barrier. And the charge shot, inspeaking of something that blows X3 out of the water, the buster parts can be really cool. I said parts, you get an option between either a super shot that leaves a plasma orb that lingers on hit, or just stocking up on 4 charge shots that can be used at will. All on top of being able to charge weapons as typical. I think that the plasma is the clear winner in what I'd stick with, like without a doubt, but it's still really cool you get the choice. Both are also much more useful than X3's buster shot, like a lot more, like holy shit X3's buster sucks.

I didn't really play X in this game because Zero I think is a bit cooler, and his sword style was a lot more unique to me than what most of the series offers where it was just going buster only. It also probably helped that X4 is more Zero's story than anything, as X is just kind of there. But actually playing him, he's pretty alright. I think he's weirdly kind of the "easy" mode, but only because his buster makes a lot more fights just a bit easier since you get to keep your distance and I think some of the boss patterns are a bit more leniant (i.e. Slash Beast or Magma Dragoon). But I don't care, it was a fun run, and far easier at hooking me than before.

That being said, I also played Zero, and revisting him was a bit weird. His style is a lot more about getting up close, so remembering how to play him was remembering to take advantage of the little gaps in enemy patterns to pepper in slashes. Magma Dragoon was a good example in that regard, as to beat him, I had to learn to sneak strikes during his hadoken combos and abuse his weakness weapon when he starts doing shoryukens and spitting fire, quite literally. What was also weird to learn is that X got an extra, simpler fight against Colonel, which is funny because he has significantly more value to Zero, but I dunno.

While I feel this story is actually pretty alright compared to other entries in the X series, or even the series as a whole, it also feels a bit too easy to question why some characters act the way they do. Like Repliforce just makes their situation worse by not being willing to talk things out at all. I'm not gonna say Maverick Hunter force was perfect for going right ahead and deeming ALL OF REPLICFORCE as Mavericks, so they did end up having a reason to fight back, but still. I also have to wonder how Sigma ended convincing the General of anything because the first scene we see of him is telling Sigma to sod off after he tries to convince to turn on humanity. I want to assume it's because that he was forced to after figuring out what Magma Dragoon did, but I'm not clear on that. I poke holes, and I think I could try at it more, but I'm not gonna bother right now. I do think I like MM8's PS1 cutscenes a bit more. Partly because they are better audio balanced... mostly, but also because the dialogue I think is just a bit funnier to meme about. That being said, I like what we get here overall. I do just love the Sigma versus Zero scene, it's really well done.

Overall, I think X4 is at this point, what I consider MM11 is for the classic series, an incredible refinement of a formula with it's own additions and streamlining that makes it hard to beat. The addition of Zero as a playable character with his own campaign, the reworking of armor and super abilities, just a bunch of small additions or adjustments that make the game feel really good to play. It's probably my favorite Mega Man game right now, Classic or X, but I can't say that doesn't make me a bit worried for the games coming after. I just hope this game isn't the peak of the X series...

Anyways, i'll continue X5 later, for now, let's rank the bosses. I was originally gonna rank the bosses seperately for X and Zero, but my ranking is close for both to just come to an average essentially.

8. Cyber Peacock
7. Storm Owl
6. Jet Stingray
5. Slash Beast
4. Frost Walrus
3. Split Mushroom
2. Web Spider
1. Magma Dragoon

I'll be honest, I replayed this because I did want to see if my old verdict on the game held up. As a reminder, I really didn't respect that the game got rid of the slide and charge shot, and I did not like the level design like at all. I thought it was cheap and frustrating, but doable with Mega Man at least. All of which sucked because I really liked a lot of other things about the game. I liked the robot masters as characters especially, I liked their weapons, I liked the wily bosses, I loved the music, I especially really liked the story, or at least the nugget of lore about robot expiry dates that I think they should've done more because it was compelllllling.

Coming back to it now, not in the midst of a megaman marathon that burned me out of playing games for a week after failing to get past Megaman X5's second level, I like it a lot more.

I don't think it's what I would call that outstanding for a Mega Man title, but the level design certainly wasn't as frustrating as I remembered. It still can be, I really did not like Hornet Man's, Plug Man's, and especially Jewel Man's stages, and some of the WIly Stages (mainly stage 2), but you know what, it is whatever. Weapons still are really fun, was a lot smarter idea starting with Hornet Man though so I got the Hornet Chaser and could just deal with annoyances from a far. It was a lot cleaner of a playthrough.

I'm still not jazzed about the lack of charge shot and slide, those I think make the level design like more interesting or potentially at least, but I do think this game completely doable without it, it can just be kind of tough.

Alright game now, I will go back to MM10 when I feel like dealing with it, but I don't know if I'll think much better of that one.