Inti Creates might be the master at crafting fantastic games, then hampering them with the most confounding, pernicious, thoughtless, counter-productive, anti-fun design decisions.
Consider this, Zero 2's newest addition: EX skills. These are widely derivative of Zero's moves from the Rockman X series. In those games, you simply obtained new moves after defeating the corresponding boss. In Zero 2, you obtain EX skills by defeating a boss with an A or S rank, but not the rank acquired on the current stage (that would be too simple), but rather whatever your rank was the previous stage. By the time you've obtained an A-rank on every stage for the EX skill, you certainly proven you don't need these skills, and have likely played the game enough.
Simple things such as health upgrades fall against the same hurdle, unnecessary gatekeeping. In the X series you found a health upgrade. Your health was then increased. In Zero 2 you find a health upgrade, take it back to base, feed it energy crystals (should you have enough in the first place), transfer it from one menu to another, then you can finally improve your HP a solid 4 pixels. This feels like X5 syndrome all over again.
And you will need those health upgrades because, dear God, why. At the start of the game Zero can be described as a glass canon, minus the latter part, stemming from his pitful damage and dearth of moves. Basic attacks like charging the buster or swinging Zero's saber more than once need to be unlocked. It's MUCH briefer unlocking moves than it was in the first game, but... that just highlights how Inti Creates recognised what a pointless hassle it was. Why keep it? For the love of Ciel do not pick Flaming Flamingo as your first boss. Fighting a potential first boss should not be more difficult than all the end-game bosses. For a game which splits the Rockman series' traditional 8-stage layout into two-halves, why is (by far) the most difficult boss & stage in the first half? Fervent Falcon is even one of the better bosses in the series, he's just set horridly early. Potentially running into him before Zero musters up the immense dexterity to swing his sabre twice in a row is a recipe for agony.
The game's hard, but that's not really the problem. On my recent playthrough, I didn't die until an insta-kill in the boss rush. These are still issues. Locking out so much that makes the game fun to play is simply baffling. The problems don't cease there.
Some sections of the game just flat-out suck. There's no elegant way to say Inti Creates should've deleted spikes from their level editor. I love Frost Kibatodos' theme Ice Brain, but his stage is about negotiating ice physics with bizarre momentum, avoiding accelerating at high velocity into a spiked wall within the purview of a squashed GBA screen. A few stages (such as the train and Sake Harpoon's) are interesting in concept, but more tedious to play for not evolving much behind the concept. I'm convinced Power Room (more accurately called Pain Room) was Inti Creates way of deliberately demoralising the player. Coincidentally this is also Fervid Falklanders' stage.
Despite the amount of bullshit fitted onto an 8MB cartridge, I still am fond of Zero 2. There's a lot of love. Theming the stages as missions is a great way to inject a feeling of purpose into them, as well as affording some in-stage objectives. Every boss feels ground-up built to be a unique encounter, rather than designed from some generic template (though admittedly a couple of them don't mesh well with the aforementioned small screen estate of the GBA), and the end result is a game surging with memorable boss fights. The chain rod opens paths for unorthodox platforming challenges, and surprising works well. You can even skip entire portions when you acclimate yourself to the rhythm of the weapon. The story & setting are leagues above the X-series. While the X-series was content to pit X against Sigma and his latest Hollywood-induced weapon fascination that week, followed by X staring into the sunset, the Zero series has real emotional pieces. It's not particularly incredible, but it's competent. The game might be worth completing solely for the end credit's theme, Awakening Will. In a franchise renowned for its music, Awakening Will is one of its best songs (give a listen to the official remastered version if you've already beat the game https://youtu.be/rDHSYrkHIFU).
There's a lot to love about Rockman Zero 2; there's a lot to despise about Rockman Zero 2. Even if someone patched the game so the distribution of EX & weapon skills less stupid, and Cyber Elves less grindy, the game would still have annoying shortfalls. It's less a diamond in a rough, more a ruby someone flung poop upon for no good reason. Despite my predisposition toward games of this nature and this series, it's a tough sell. I like it. I also acknowledge it can be total horse shit. Inti Creates created Zero 2 in one year. And while the only thing I can make in a year is failed New Year's resolution, that doesn't excuse all the problems present.
Consider this, Zero 2's newest addition: EX skills. These are widely derivative of Zero's moves from the Rockman X series. In those games, you simply obtained new moves after defeating the corresponding boss. In Zero 2, you obtain EX skills by defeating a boss with an A or S rank, but not the rank acquired on the current stage (that would be too simple), but rather whatever your rank was the previous stage. By the time you've obtained an A-rank on every stage for the EX skill, you certainly proven you don't need these skills, and have likely played the game enough.
Simple things such as health upgrades fall against the same hurdle, unnecessary gatekeeping. In the X series you found a health upgrade. Your health was then increased. In Zero 2 you find a health upgrade, take it back to base, feed it energy crystals (should you have enough in the first place), transfer it from one menu to another, then you can finally improve your HP a solid 4 pixels. This feels like X5 syndrome all over again.
And you will need those health upgrades because, dear God, why. At the start of the game Zero can be described as a glass canon, minus the latter part, stemming from his pitful damage and dearth of moves. Basic attacks like charging the buster or swinging Zero's saber more than once need to be unlocked. It's MUCH briefer unlocking moves than it was in the first game, but... that just highlights how Inti Creates recognised what a pointless hassle it was. Why keep it? For the love of Ciel do not pick Flaming Flamingo as your first boss. Fighting a potential first boss should not be more difficult than all the end-game bosses. For a game which splits the Rockman series' traditional 8-stage layout into two-halves, why is (by far) the most difficult boss & stage in the first half? Fervent Falcon is even one of the better bosses in the series, he's just set horridly early. Potentially running into him before Zero musters up the immense dexterity to swing his sabre twice in a row is a recipe for agony.
The game's hard, but that's not really the problem. On my recent playthrough, I didn't die until an insta-kill in the boss rush. These are still issues. Locking out so much that makes the game fun to play is simply baffling. The problems don't cease there.
Some sections of the game just flat-out suck. There's no elegant way to say Inti Creates should've deleted spikes from their level editor. I love Frost Kibatodos' theme Ice Brain, but his stage is about negotiating ice physics with bizarre momentum, avoiding accelerating at high velocity into a spiked wall within the purview of a squashed GBA screen. A few stages (such as the train and Sake Harpoon's) are interesting in concept, but more tedious to play for not evolving much behind the concept. I'm convinced Power Room (more accurately called Pain Room) was Inti Creates way of deliberately demoralising the player. Coincidentally this is also Fervid Falklanders' stage.
Despite the amount of bullshit fitted onto an 8MB cartridge, I still am fond of Zero 2. There's a lot of love. Theming the stages as missions is a great way to inject a feeling of purpose into them, as well as affording some in-stage objectives. Every boss feels ground-up built to be a unique encounter, rather than designed from some generic template (though admittedly a couple of them don't mesh well with the aforementioned small screen estate of the GBA), and the end result is a game surging with memorable boss fights. The chain rod opens paths for unorthodox platforming challenges, and surprising works well. You can even skip entire portions when you acclimate yourself to the rhythm of the weapon. The story & setting are leagues above the X-series. While the X-series was content to pit X against Sigma and his latest Hollywood-induced weapon fascination that week, followed by X staring into the sunset, the Zero series has real emotional pieces. It's not particularly incredible, but it's competent. The game might be worth completing solely for the end credit's theme, Awakening Will. In a franchise renowned for its music, Awakening Will is one of its best songs (give a listen to the official remastered version if you've already beat the game https://youtu.be/rDHSYrkHIFU).
There's a lot to love about Rockman Zero 2; there's a lot to despise about Rockman Zero 2. Even if someone patched the game so the distribution of EX & weapon skills less stupid, and Cyber Elves less grindy, the game would still have annoying shortfalls. It's less a diamond in a rough, more a ruby someone flung poop upon for no good reason. Despite my predisposition toward games of this nature and this series, it's a tough sell. I like it. I also acknowledge it can be total horse shit. Inti Creates created Zero 2 in one year. And while the only thing I can make in a year is failed New Year's resolution, that doesn't excuse all the problems present.
OvisAries
1 year ago
By the way, that last line is pure gold lmao.