X3 I've played by far the least of the original 3 X games. Playing through it once again It's pretty clear as to why. All the new ideas that are introduced feel pretty underdeveloped. Ride armors, for example, are really underutilized. The bosses really fail to stand out and I don't look forward to fighting any of them. The same could be said about the stages. I never liked the soundfont change from X1 to X2, but this game hits a halfway point between the two that I don't think reaches the highs of either. There's still a banger here and there though.

The golden armor is one of the cooler final upgrades as well as the ability to get the Z saber, but getting these things can be cryptic. The buster upgrade by itself is arguably worse than the normal buster because of the way it functions. It messes with your controls and the benefits of using it are not nearly as good as older buster upgrades.

At the end of the day it's still an X game in the OG engine so I love to play it.