Mega Man X: Command Mission (My Impressions)

[Anonymous]

Well, I picked this game up earlier today.. I could have chosen almost any other RPG on the Gamecube (Future Shop has great stock), but I decided to pick this game up for two reasons. First reason is it just seemed completely different from the typical RPG in the previews, and the second reason is that I am just a big ol' Mega Man fan.

After the normal Gamecube bootup screen and Capcom logo, there is a lengthy intro movie (by Mega Man standards) which is a bit of an opener to the events in the game... Not that it is really important because this game doesn't appear to have a very strong storyline at all. This is the basic premise (spoiler free): A powerful maverick stages a rebellion and wishes to overthrow.. Well.. Everyone.. He wants to be the ruler and he wants everyone to accept his beliefs and goals. Typical villain, yeah.. So X sets out on a journey to end it by the looks of things. Of course, Zero tags along but you lose him at one time. I know he'll be back because Zero always comes back.. Just like Sigma... But I am hoping that Sigma won't appear later in since this game is supposed to be a side story to the main plot of the X series..
The characters and enemies are all cel-shaded and look pretty good, actually. The screenshots on the net don't do them justice at all.. The rest of the graphics, such as the stages, are all pretty average looking.. Not to mention they are pretty bland overall. I'm on the third stage and there is just no variety in the game's stages. The first room of every stage basically tells you what the rest of it will look like but there are exceptions, of course.
Now, you will notice that I was saying "stages" above.. This is not your typical RPG where you go exploring. Instead, it feels really linear so far like FFX. It's basically any other Mega Man X platformer disguised as an RPG. You are thrown into a stage (the game calls them chapters) and must progress through it. Each one has numerous cutscenes, random battles, and treasures.. ANd of course, there is the maverick boss at the end. I am on the third chapter and have been playing for roughly two hours so far, so they aren't too small.
While the story and key RPG features in this game seem to be a bit lacking, the game REALLY makes up for it with a very strategic battle system. The closest thing to it I can think of off the bat is Valkyrie Profile's battle system. You press A to perform a main attack and Y/X to perform secondary attacks. You can change these around in the equip menu so there are many combinations of attacks. You can also go into "Hyper Mode" during a battle. This seems to provide the selected character with an armor/weapon upgrade and they can kick some serious ass... But the gem of the battle system is definitely Final Strike. If you deal more than 75% damage to any enemy in one turn, you get to lunge at that opponent with all three characters and mash the buttons like hell, racking up thousands of points of damage. The most I have gotten so far was a 70 hit combo with about 10,000 damage.. You have roughly three or four seconds to execute the combo. It closely resembles "Purify Weird Soul" in Valkyrie Profile only with Final Strike you can dish out a hell of a lot more damage.
There are no healing items.. You use your Life Tank to heal. Each healing technique uses up the tank's energy. Say you want to use Heal 50% Life (restores 50% max HP), it will use 33% of the tank's total energy. I think the tank's max capacity is 200%, so you can definitely use it a lot.. But don't get too obsessed with it or you won't be able to heal at all.. You shouldn't need to heal often anyway. The battles are pretty easy so far (but fun) and all HP is recovered when a character levels up.
Enough of the battle system. There is a little more left to cover..
The voice acting is pretty well done, surprisingly. There are, yes, some extremely corny lines that may make you chuckle, but as a whole I am impressed so far.
The music is typical Mega Man X stuff, so theres not much to report on that end..

So far, this game has exceeded my expectations. While it's not a great RPG, it is certainly a fun game. If you are a loyal Mega Man fan like me then this game is a must.

[Noriyasu]

x_x...thx, i'll look 4 it in the stores...eventho i have no money^^;