Mega Man Zero 2

I've mentioned a few times that Mega Man Zero 2 is considered by many to be the worst of the series, but that really could give you the wrong impression that this game is bad. Really, it's just not as good as the other games, but still in its own right fantastic. I've said it before and I'll say it again, the Zero series is probably the title for title best series in the franchise. I kinda want to lump ZX and ZXA into this series as well in the quality department, but I can't for the fact that they take place in two distinct time periods, not to mention that while ZX plays similar, it doesn't match Zero in style.

And style is what this series has, and this game is no exception. There is improvement here from the previous game in new features and levels, but it has a sort of "just passing through" feel to it as it doesn't throw us into the premise like the first game, nor does it have the huge climax of the third or forth games. The final boss isn't all that memorable and while there are some cool changes game play wise, it doesn't match the innovation of the first nor does it have the cool features of the other games. On it's own though this game is still pretty damn good.

New Features

• The Triple Rod is gone, say hello to the Spike Chain.
• Zero gains new forms based on how you play him. These forms enhance your play style.
• Remember how getting an A or S rank on a boss would allow you to see them perform extra attacks? Well now you get more than bragging rights as beating a boss with an A or S rank gets you an EX skill. Think of them as the bosses weapons.
• Not a new feature, but worth mentioning, Cyber Elves energy crystal consumptions are much more reasonable this time.
• The world isn't free roaming and connected like the last game and plays a bit more like the traditional Mega Man formula.
• Multiplayer... yeah I don't know why either...

Story
A year has passed since Mega Man Zero 1 and Zero has been wandering the desert the entire time evading Neo Arcadia forces who are pretty pissed about him killing Copy X who still hasn't been revived yet. Zero is trying to get in contact with the rebellion again and the battles over the year have taken their toll on him. He fights off one last force at the start of the game before collapsing from exhaustion... or something, I dunno can robots get exhausted? Harpuia finds him and apparently drops him off at the new resistance base.

Um... huh? I mean... maybe I understand they want to show Harpuia as an honorable soldier, and I do think he's a pretty awesome character... but more of concern than not taking Zero prisoner at the least is the fact that HE KNOWS WHERE THE RESISTANCE BASE IS! If Neo Arcadia knows where it is... why did they let them build it? Well they do attack it later and all but why even let it get finished... eh? This franchise and its stupid shit I swear...

Anyway Ciel has given command of the Resistance to a new Reploid leader named Elpizo, a bit of a brash and arrogant leader who believes the resistance needs to be more offensive in order to return to peace between Reploids and Humans. Ciel in the meantime has devoted all of her time to developing a new energy source as a way to end the energy crisis which she believes will end the termination of innocent reploids and hopefully stop the war.

Once Zero is rested up it's time to go run the resistances stupid errands. Stopping supply lines, rescue their missing buddies, attack their super computers that sort of thing. While out on a mission X 1.0 shows up and talks to Zero. Sup X? Apparently "both Baby elves have awakened" and they'll "do anything to reunite with their mother... the dark elf."

Alright? Before X can elaborate on any of this crap he decides to leave. Nice, thanks a lot, suddenly X has become the useless one. Back to the base, Elpizo had developed a strategy for a full frontal assault on Neo Arcadia... so apparently he's a moron. Ceil begs him not to do it because the risk of casualties and just wants more time. Elpizo doesn't listen and leads his troops into a very predictable slaughter. Zero heads after him and reaches a scene full of many dead resistance soldiers... or should I say retired resistant soldiers?

Zero finds Elpizo passed out in front of the three remaining Guardians (remember them?) and Zero makes a vow to not let anymore resistant soldiers die. Before the guardians even have time to laugh off a claim, the base calls Zero to teleport back because a giant fucking aircraft is about ready to bomb them back to 200X. Zero and Ciel (yeah she goes too!) go and stop it.

When they get back to base, Elpizo has taken off and vowed to destroy all the humans to create a utopia for all Reploids! Well, looks like those guardians were on to something with that Maverick talk after all. Elpizo steals the baby elves and runs around a bit getting stuff he needs to break into Neo Arcadia to steal the Dark Elf and Zero chases after him just arriving seconds to late each time.

It turns out the Original X's body is being used to seal the Dark Elf and Elpizo ends up teleporting to the base with the plan to destroy X's body! Cyber Elf X tries to stall while Zero makes his way through the guardians and their minions who are now under the Dark Elves control and spouting typical Maverick nonsense you would have gotten out of the original X series. Not incredibly important to the narrative, but we do get an awesome scene with Harpuia trying to fight the control and flat out begging Zero to kill him so he can stop Elpizo. Harpuia is the best thing to come out of this series, seriously.

Anyway, Zero finally gets to Elpizo just in front of X's body. Zero tries to stop Elpizo from destroying it, but he's to late. Elpizo destroys X, and merges with the Dark Elf and enters final boss form. Zero kicks his ass and Elpizo snaps out of his Maverick frenzy and regrets what he was about to do as he lays there dying. The Dark Elf saves Elpizo by turning him into a Cyber Elf and Elpizo thanks Zero and heads off into obscurity. Cyber Elf X, now homeless, remarks that the Dark Elf wasn't always evil, but actually stopped the Maverick Wars by curing the Reploids of the Maverick Virus. Well one day a human jack ass named Dr. Wiel (no relation to Dr. Wily) corrupted her and used her to start to Elf wars by having the reploids start killing each other. X and Zero stopped him and his creation Omega before Zero sealed himself away. Yes... all of this is explained just now at the end of the game.

After the credits roll a vault is shown and a mysterious voice says that it is time for Omega to awaken. DUN DUN DUN!

Aesthetics
As stated in Mega Man Zero, this series continues a unique and visually appealing art style that really suits the drama of this game. There's been a few more animation improvements, a little more frames for Zero, some new character portraits here and there, but overall the game retains most what Mega Man Zero started.

The stages greatly resemble the post apocalyptic feel from Mega Man Zero 1 and while they look great, unfortunately they reuse half the levels in this game. They do reuse Neo Arcadia's basic tile set from the first game but it does seem appropriate considering Zero has to revisit it. Another level resembles one from the first game in the train level, although there's a boss fight on top of it two that is pretty cool.

The bosses themselves range from the Guardians new abilities to turn into death vehicles, to a dancing snake, to a teleporting phoenix, to a hungry frog. Being a new series, Zero hasn't succumbed to a creative lapse that the X series has with... ugh... Tornado Tonion.

There isn't much to add. If you like the art style from the first game, you'll love this one just as much.

Sound
The soundtrack has greatly improved since the first game even though a few tracks are reused or slightly tweaked. There's some great stuff here though and the tracks seem much more varied than before. A couple of songs sound like something you would hear in the original Doom soundtrack, and that's a compliment believe it or not! The song Gravity, in particular sounds extremely Doomish.

As far as the regular sound effects go it's pretty impressive to see that Inti Creates has managed to get a few voice clips in without them sounding terrible, although they aren't much. A chuckle from the villain here, some grunts from Zero and the bosses there, the operators in the game saying "Transfer" although it sounds more like "Transfort".

Design
Even with the new features in the game not a hell of a lot has changed. The forms are there to enhance your play style more than provide you real advantages and enhancements, although the smart player will switch between them for when the situation calls for it.

The EX abilities give incentive for the player to perform better in order to unlock them, but the game is pretty difficult to the point where many players won't ever get them. A lot of them augment the players arsenal and a few give new moves, but these abilities are not like the boss weapons and weaknesses in a typical Mega Man game, but are more like little bonuses. They are powerful for clearing the stages though, but you won't absolutely need them.

The stages are well done, and although the environments are revisited the design is changed up amongst them to keep it from being repetitive play wise at least. The bosses have some interesting patterns and make use of interesting arena, such as atop two moving trains. Interesting though is that the final boss doesn't change his arena at all, something every final boss, except this one, does in this series.

The guardian fights are broken up into two phases. The first phase is reminiscent of the original fights with some slight variation, but the second phase they all power up and take the form of a giant vehicle of death thing which I think is pretty cool.

A few changes have been made to make this game a little less tedious and easier. If you're a Cyber Elf collector you'll be happy to know that they cost a fuck ton less E-Crystals, and E-Crystals themselves are more abundant, making farming them take much less time. In addition, the old system of having a set number of lives before having to reload a save is over. Now the game plays more traditional refilling your lives after a game over and the like.

One last addition to this game is the spike chain. It's kind of a gimmick weapon that is both fun and frustrating. Pulling blocks around to get to subtanks and the like has some interesting mechanics not explored to often in the Mega Man franchise in the area of puzzle solving, and you can use the chain to grapple walls and ceilings for exploration. Occasionally the game asks you to swing from one grapple to another though which is a pain in the ass as the precision required is pretty tight, and it's hard to get enough of a swinging motion to get enough height. The chain makes up for this though by allowing you to yank enemies shields away from them which is just as awesome as it is hilarious!

Oh yeah, there's a multiplayer mode as well, but I've never played it. From what I've read it's just a collection of minigames

Playability
Aside from the aforementioned problems with the Spike Chain the game plays as well as any other Mega Man game. The Zero series is still the toughest series of the franchise of course, but this one is a wee bit easier, learning from the last game and removing some of the more annoying features.

Extras

• Boss Order: I'd start with the Hyleg Ourobockle (Forest Level) to grab the sub tank. He doesn't have an elemental chip, so after him I'd head for Panther Flauclaws (train level) to grab the Elec Chip because Phoenix Magnion is kind of a pain in the ass without it. From there, take out Phoenix, then Poler Kamrous.
• There are 10 EX skills in the game, but you only need to maintain an A or S rank for at least 6 of them. There are 4 cyber elves that will raise your rank to an A until the end of the mission which guarantees you an EX skill. Use this if you have trouble maintaining that rank through out the whole game or just want to abuse Cyber Elves.
• One of the forms, Ultimate Form, requires you to use every Cyber Elf. This absolutely kills your rank and it won't ever come back up, so if you're planning on getting all the forms and all the EX skills on a single save file, do this after you get the EX skills.

Zero 2 is a great game and you'll enjoy it, but it's not the best of the series. Don't take this as a put down to this game however, and look at it as a testament to the quality of the series.

Playthroughs
Speed Run by Mike Uyama