its the fourth one. mega man zero, four. its not the zero 3 two that i wanted, although it’s the fourth zero game that we needed. i’m rereviewing this because this is the only zero game i haven’t expressed my current thoughts on regarding replays. also i went on vacation and brought my ds plus zero collection and ended up replaying all the games for the millionth time lol so this is fresh in my mind.
this game occupies a weird space in my head. like, yeah i really enjoy it but i’m not sure how to stack it up against the others due to its more lackluster motives. its the perfect emotional tie up for the series however gameplay-wise it’s a bit confused. the classic eight stage level select seems to be there just for the sake of being different than the previous titles. ironically on replays i end up doing a similar order of stages because most of the bosses just aren’t that fun to fight against without certain ex skills that i want from other bosses. heat genblem (da turtle) was the only boss i fully enjoyed due to his fun patterns along with weil phase 1. the other bosses did things that you had to deal with, while these two had patterns that you could accurately form more of a strategy based on.
i think inti realized they had made a masterpiece with zero 3 and didn’t know where to go from there, so they tried to incorporate new things to differentiate it from zero 3. in retrospect, i’m not disappointed that this game is less like zero 3 in design simply because i think another zero 3 would be boring. if every zero game was like zero 3 they would all be great games yeah but there wouldn’t be much to identify specifics between them. each game has that special quirk or technical intention that makes it a recognizable entry in the series (minus the story/graphics). i feel like zero 4 is kind of the sonic cd of these games. does weird shit for the sake of doing weird shit. weather system is cool but the challenges added to stages feel artificial and more so challenging your endurance rather than skill. i prefer the old method of getting ex skills because it’s reliant more on actual skill than some bullshit obstacle tacked on to stages. the cyber elf system was downgraded to be…simpler? not sure what they were going for. regardless it serves its purpose and works effectively. my only gripe is that effects don’t stack which most would assume to be the standard.
all in all, i seriously do love this game even with my frequent frustration with it lol. these complaints aren’t ‘minor’ per say, they just display z4’s quality in comparison to z3 which set the bar really fuckin high. i love playing this as much as z1 and z2 due to its fundamental and mechanical roots. shit feels good to control. collective and accurate usage of ex skills is as fun as ever despite removal of the shield boomerang. also the music fucking bangs EVEN on gba. i will defend the gba ost until i die i really like listening to it. the cd versions are obviously godlike and i prefer them though.
“I don’t ever recall calling myself a hero, I am Mega Man Zero 4.” - Zero mega man, 2005
this game occupies a weird space in my head. like, yeah i really enjoy it but i’m not sure how to stack it up against the others due to its more lackluster motives. its the perfect emotional tie up for the series however gameplay-wise it’s a bit confused. the classic eight stage level select seems to be there just for the sake of being different than the previous titles. ironically on replays i end up doing a similar order of stages because most of the bosses just aren’t that fun to fight against without certain ex skills that i want from other bosses. heat genblem (da turtle) was the only boss i fully enjoyed due to his fun patterns along with weil phase 1. the other bosses did things that you had to deal with, while these two had patterns that you could accurately form more of a strategy based on.
i think inti realized they had made a masterpiece with zero 3 and didn’t know where to go from there, so they tried to incorporate new things to differentiate it from zero 3. in retrospect, i’m not disappointed that this game is less like zero 3 in design simply because i think another zero 3 would be boring. if every zero game was like zero 3 they would all be great games yeah but there wouldn’t be much to identify specifics between them. each game has that special quirk or technical intention that makes it a recognizable entry in the series (minus the story/graphics). i feel like zero 4 is kind of the sonic cd of these games. does weird shit for the sake of doing weird shit. weather system is cool but the challenges added to stages feel artificial and more so challenging your endurance rather than skill. i prefer the old method of getting ex skills because it’s reliant more on actual skill than some bullshit obstacle tacked on to stages. the cyber elf system was downgraded to be…simpler? not sure what they were going for. regardless it serves its purpose and works effectively. my only gripe is that effects don’t stack which most would assume to be the standard.
all in all, i seriously do love this game even with my frequent frustration with it lol. these complaints aren’t ‘minor’ per say, they just display z4’s quality in comparison to z3 which set the bar really fuckin high. i love playing this as much as z1 and z2 due to its fundamental and mechanical roots. shit feels good to control. collective and accurate usage of ex skills is as fun as ever despite removal of the shield boomerang. also the music fucking bangs EVEN on gba. i will defend the gba ost until i die i really like listening to it. the cd versions are obviously godlike and i prefer them though.
“I don’t ever recall calling myself a hero, I am Mega Man Zero 4.” - Zero mega man, 2005
2 Comments
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HylianBran
2 years ago