After trying to beat this game and shelving it for months I finally went ahead and replayed it with the intent to finish. And finish it I did.
It's actually pretty okay, at least I think so. For starters, I originally lambasted X5 for its level design as I found a lot of enemy placement and general level design to be a bit much, but in hindsight, I think they're quite fine as long as you exercise caution; it's something I similarly realized when playing as X in the prior game. X and Zero also still control like a beaut, thankfully. That being said, level design is nowhere near as tight as X4 was; while still designed well around X and Zero, that's only if you're playing as Fourth Armor X; as the level design will have you making use of abilities they both have normal X doesn't. And even then, some sections still are a bit too much, such as Dark Dizzy's first half with the spawning bat enemies, and the entirety of Zero Space, but just you wait, I will get to Zero Space soon enough, because I have a couple of words for it.
Oh yeah, and Alia needs to shut her goddamn mouth, but you already knew that.
I do feel like Megaman X5's biggest strength comes in its soundtrack, with it probably being my second favorite in the MMX series behind X6. A number of tracks, in addition to being absolute bangers, are a real great tone setter for one of the more dire stories in the Megaman franchise. I mentioned it before, but X5 does a really good job of selling you on the doomsday scenario on play here; a space colony is mere hours away from crashing into the Earth and causing an apocalyptic disaster like this shit is Sonic Adventure 2, and Sigma has spread the Maverick Virus all over the world, causing former hunters to go batshit insane as they practically beg you to put them out of their misery. While not peak fiction, it's a massive step up from the outrageously retarded plot laid out in X4, and the music does a real good job contributing to it, with stage music generally feeling somber and urgent to accompany what's at stake. That, and the OST just generally goes pretty damn hard.
When it comes to presentation, however, where X5 falters is in the graphical department. I don't exactly know what happened, but X5 just feels.. like a total mess graphically. While X4's spritework looks gorgeous, X5's spritework looks rushed and stage assets end up clashing with one another as you'll see simple sprites right next to very obviously and incredibly ugly pre-rendered sprites, and this becomes noticeable as early as the intro stage. My friend Luminosity goes into more detail about this in their review; I highly suggest giving it a read.
Megaman X5's greatest sin, however, is in its final stretch. The game drops the ball during Zero Space, and it drops the ball HARD. All three stages feature Mario Maker-tier enemy placement where damage boosting feels like a necessity, and I swear to god they must love those Ride Armor enemies because they're used constantly throughout them, and no, they're not fun to deal with. The bosses also take a nosedive in quality in a game where the bosses were already a mixed bag to begin with; the Shadow Devil takes horrendously long to deal with, Rangda Bangda W is made more annoying than its X1 counterpart with the protruding spikes in the walls, and fighting normal Zero is ridiculously underwhelming, especially in the presence of the iconic X vs. Zero music. Not only that, but Jesus fucking Christ, who thought it was a good idea to jack up everyone's health during the boss rush? Boss rushes in Megaman are already unnecessary as is, it only gets worse when they take ridiculously long to defeat them again. Just an overall frustrating endgame all around, although still a cakewalk compared to what a certain scientist would have up his sleeve in the next game.
Really though, despite its numerous flaws, some of which I neglect to mention in this review as it's already long enough, Megaman X5 ain't bad, and I think I was too harsh on it last time. While nowhere near as fun as its predecessor, it's still not too shabby in its own right.
And believe you me, it is far from the worst of it.
It's actually pretty okay, at least I think so. For starters, I originally lambasted X5 for its level design as I found a lot of enemy placement and general level design to be a bit much, but in hindsight, I think they're quite fine as long as you exercise caution; it's something I similarly realized when playing as X in the prior game. X and Zero also still control like a beaut, thankfully. That being said, level design is nowhere near as tight as X4 was; while still designed well around X and Zero, that's only if you're playing as Fourth Armor X; as the level design will have you making use of abilities they both have normal X doesn't. And even then, some sections still are a bit too much, such as Dark Dizzy's first half with the spawning bat enemies, and the entirety of Zero Space, but just you wait, I will get to Zero Space soon enough, because I have a couple of words for it.
Oh yeah, and Alia needs to shut her goddamn mouth, but you already knew that.
I do feel like Megaman X5's biggest strength comes in its soundtrack, with it probably being my second favorite in the MMX series behind X6. A number of tracks, in addition to being absolute bangers, are a real great tone setter for one of the more dire stories in the Megaman franchise. I mentioned it before, but X5 does a really good job of selling you on the doomsday scenario on play here; a space colony is mere hours away from crashing into the Earth and causing an apocalyptic disaster like this shit is Sonic Adventure 2, and Sigma has spread the Maverick Virus all over the world, causing former hunters to go batshit insane as they practically beg you to put them out of their misery. While not peak fiction, it's a massive step up from the outrageously retarded plot laid out in X4, and the music does a real good job contributing to it, with stage music generally feeling somber and urgent to accompany what's at stake. That, and the OST just generally goes pretty damn hard.
When it comes to presentation, however, where X5 falters is in the graphical department. I don't exactly know what happened, but X5 just feels.. like a total mess graphically. While X4's spritework looks gorgeous, X5's spritework looks rushed and stage assets end up clashing with one another as you'll see simple sprites right next to very obviously and incredibly ugly pre-rendered sprites, and this becomes noticeable as early as the intro stage. My friend Luminosity goes into more detail about this in their review; I highly suggest giving it a read.
Megaman X5's greatest sin, however, is in its final stretch. The game drops the ball during Zero Space, and it drops the ball HARD. All three stages feature Mario Maker-tier enemy placement where damage boosting feels like a necessity, and I swear to god they must love those Ride Armor enemies because they're used constantly throughout them, and no, they're not fun to deal with. The bosses also take a nosedive in quality in a game where the bosses were already a mixed bag to begin with; the Shadow Devil takes horrendously long to deal with, Rangda Bangda W is made more annoying than its X1 counterpart with the protruding spikes in the walls, and fighting normal Zero is ridiculously underwhelming, especially in the presence of the iconic X vs. Zero music. Not only that, but Jesus fucking Christ, who thought it was a good idea to jack up everyone's health during the boss rush? Boss rushes in Megaman are already unnecessary as is, it only gets worse when they take ridiculously long to defeat them again. Just an overall frustrating endgame all around, although still a cakewalk compared to what a certain scientist would have up his sleeve in the next game.
Really though, despite its numerous flaws, some of which I neglect to mention in this review as it's already long enough, Megaman X5 ain't bad, and I think I was too harsh on it last time. While nowhere near as fun as its predecessor, it's still not too shabby in its own right.
And believe you me, it is far from the worst of it.