Mega Man Zero 3

The Zero series has been pretty enjoyable up to this point and this game continues a positive trend. Zero 3 is widely regarded as the best in the series and with a series as good as this one, that's high praise. Zero 3 is to the Zero series what Mega Man 2 is to Mega Man. Everything has been refined down to the finest points of the series. We've got fantastic gameplay, great visuals, an awesome sound track and for once a decent story this time. All the elements for a good game are in Mega Man Zero 3, and this one is a must play.

New Features

• Forms are removed, weapon leveling is also gone. Cyber elves make up for everything that was replaced.
• Cyber elves now come in Secret Data Disks which also house E-crystals and interesting information about the characters, settings and enemies.
• You can now use certain cyber elves without killing them. Using them this way does not affect your ranking either!
• Newly introduced is the cyber world, more on this later.
• New bodychips, head chips and foot chips.

Story
Two months after Zero 2, Ciel has completed her new source of energy known as the CIEL system... well that's a bit egotistical to name it after yourself now isn't it Ciel? Anyway she sends notes about the system to Neo Arcadia hoping that peace can finally be achieved. One day a space craft crashes near the base with the same readings as the Dark Elf. Zero, Ciel and a couple of scrubs head out to investigate. There Zero runs into Harpuia and the guardians who are fighting a giant monster reploid named Omega who they seem to recognize from the Elf wars 100 years ago. Zero fights Omega but is interrupted a man named Dr. Weil. Harpuia recognizes him as the man who started the Elf wars and Omega's keeper who they banished years ago. Just then, Copy-X shows up, rebuilt albeit with a bit of a stutter and is apparently working with Weil and Omega. He sends Harpuia and the Guardians back to Neo Arcadia and challenges Zero to finding the Dark Elf before Neo Arcadia does.

Zero goes on a hunt looking for clues and comes across the Baby Elves but Weil takes them away before Zero can capture them. Back at Neo Arcadia, Harpuia asks Copy-X if they can trust Weil. Copy-X says Weil was banished without proper procedures and has atoned for his past deeds. Copy-X throws a bit of a tantrum and tells Harpuia that the four guardians are going to step down and Dr. Weil will assume leadership of Neo Arcadia's armies. They track down the location of the Dark elf and launch a missile the size of a rocket ship at it into a densely populated area with Omega on board!

Zero jumps on board the missile to stop it and Omega but the Baby Elves hold him up and the missile explodes onto the human settlement. Omega finds the Dark Elf and absorbs it. Just before they can attack Zero, Harpuia teleports in.

"... We, the Reploids of Neo Arcadia... We are defenders of humanity. The only justice here. Is this wasteland what you people call justice?! Weil!!!"

Harpuia attacks Omega but is quickly struck down. Zero grabs him and teleports back out to the Resistance base. Harpuia is damaged but he'll survive, and they put him in maintenance. Just then Copy-X contacts the resistance. He says he'll end the war in exchange for the CEIL system and will guarantee their safety if they surrender. Ciel says she can't trust him being as he just blew the fuck up out of some human city... pretty reasonable argument. Copy-X, insulted says that Ciel will face the same consequences as her Maverick friends and signs off. He then sends several battalions towards the resistance. Ceil is upset that her technology could not bring peace, but Zero tells her she did her best and what comes next is his job. Zero has a lot of cool one liners this game.

Zero stops the advancing forces and then goes to face Copy-X.

After they fight the real X shows up and tells Copy-X that Weil has deceived him. Copy-X gets pissed off and goes to transform into his powered up mode but explodes from a trap Weil placed on his body. Just then a broadcast plays across Neo Arcadia. Weil announces that X has fallen in battle (remember his first death was covered up) and states that as commander of the armies he will take the leadership of Neo Arcadia.

X tells Zero he has to stop Weil and is about to say something about Omega but stops himself. He leaves Zero with this, "The heart is what counts. Not the body..."

Zero teleports to the base and they begin to track down Weil. Once they figure out his location Weil activates the Dark Elf to control all the reploids in the world, starting with the resistance base which begin to turn their guns on Zero and Ceil. Cyber Elf X quickly shows up and disables all the resistance members rendering them unconscious.

Zero heads off after Weil but ends up in the Cyber Space region of Sub Arcadia where he runs into Phantom, the fourth guardian Zero slew in the first game. Phantom has learned everything and tests Zero one last time before retiring back into Cyber Space.

Zero finally confronts Weil who reveals to Zero that despite his robotic appearance Weil is a human, but Zero hardly hesitates before saying that Weil is just another Maverick to him. Nice Zero. Nice.

Omega teleports in fused with the Dark Elf and the fight begins. Zero breaks his outside armor and in the ensuing fight causes the floor to collapse. Zero fights a powered up Omega as they head deeper underground before finally crashing into the area that Zero was discovered by Ceil in.

Weil compliments Zero, saying his power is "extraordinary, for a mere fake." Suddenly bursting from Omega's wreckage is... Zero... buwhaaaa? So apparently Omega is Zero's original body, and the Zero we've been playing as is the original Zero's heart and personality but in a new body. They do battle in a fight that can only be described as fucking awesome since Omega fights similar to Zero in X5, and Zero barely musters up the strength to beat him... but...

Weil begins to use the Dark Elfs power to begin to revive Omega. Zero too damaged to stand(despite how well you fought against Omega...) struggles to regain his composure. Just then Harpuia and the Guardians show up with X to help Zero. X tells Zero to finish what he started a century ago and Zero strikes down Omega and the resulting explosion rocks Zero to the ground. The Guardians shield Zero's body and sacrifice themselves for him. X communicates with Zero that his energy has been spent and that he can no longer remain in this world and that Zero needs to remain to stop the threat that remains from Weil. X leaves the world in Zero's hands and then... uh... dies... Yeah... they killed off X and his guardians... shit that's kind of a downer...

Zero wakes up at the resistance base as they see the Dark Elf, now cured from Weil's curse... some how... flies off to be free. Ciel tells Zero that "Even if your body is a copy... As long as your heart is your own, you are zero. The one and only, Zero..." Zero thanks Ciel and seems to have found some comfort. The credits roll.

Yes folks, for one of the very few times in the franchise, this game has a pretty good story. Sure, it kinda throws a lot at you about what happened before Zero 1, but the characters have really come into their own in this game and good characters can really make a good story sometimes. For a game about robot wars this one was definitely one worth telling.

Aesthetics
I could almost just write this section off entirely as living up to the standards that the Zero series sets and be done with it, but I think it's worth noting that this is some of the best stuff in the series. You've got buildings covered in wild life, your snowy plains, your post apocalyptic stuff, and lets not forget one mission takes place on top of and inside a fucking missile.

I don't particularly think to much of the standard bosses in this game and they reuse a few old ones but the main characters are done very well. Weil is extremely striking in a lot of hand drawn shots of him in the game and he's a decent vilian overall. There are few better games on the GBA. The DS wasn't out yet and neither was the PSP. Sure... you could have gotten a Nokia N-Gage which I suppose would of had better graphics... then again you could also have just burned your money if you wanted some real special effects...

Sound
Just about every song has an ominous foreboding feeling to it. Even the ones that are a little more rock and roll to them. Not that they don't fit, that's the mood of this game hands down. I think Zero 2 had better music actually, but this game has much more going for it than Zero 2 does and the sound here isn't bad by any means.

Design
Changing from Zero 1 and 2 is the ability to make use of Cyber Elves without fucking up your rank. Feed an elf enough E-crystals and you can convert it to a Satellite elf. This elf hovers around you giving you the effects of it without killing it. If you couldn't give two shits less about the elf however, you are still free to fuze them to you.

Another aspect are the Cyber Worlds. If you're having trouble with a stage you can enter the Cyber World version of it where every cyber elf you have with a little "a" next to them will activate on you, but not kill or use up the elf. Entering the Cyber World will deduct 5 points from your score but it'll still help in keeping your rank up if you aren't going for a perfect 100 run, which is much more reasonable of obtaining this time.

Mission objectives are really intense this game as one has you racing a submarine, another has you taking out security cameras, and well, need I say more about the missile level?

Also making its way into the game are the new body chips. Much like collecting armor in the X series, these chips will give you special abilities when equipped like charging your buster faster, keeping you from getting knocked back when hit, or allowing you to jump across water. You'll get them from bosses and from finding them in the levels so keep an eye out. The Double Jump foot chip works wonders navigating those tricky spike sections.

The fight with Omega is really one of the best fights of the franchise. He has a total of 9 health bars and 3 forms, and his third form is quite a throwback for the series. Although his first and second forms are pretty damn easy, the third form is quite a bitch. It works well as the games climax because it really is the highlight of the game.

You'll also get a new weapon called the Recoil rod which is a bit like the triple rod except you don't need an enemy to launch yourself into the air. Just charge shot the ground below you.

Playability
The Zero series is renowned for being hard but this is the easiest game of them although the first Lava Stage always gives me trouble from those fucking cannon things. Honestly even without using the cyber elves this one isn't that bad. The game controls as smoothly as any Mega Man game.

Extras

• You're unlikely to get it from a used cart unless you have a game shark, but you can trade a special battle chip to Battle Network 4 from this game. Doing this also gives you new enemies in the Cyber World. You can only do this once per Zero cart however.
• As far as boss order goes, you're pretty safe to just go left to right.
• The recoil rod can move and break certain blocks and launch you in the air, use it to find hidden items.
• I recommend you make a satellite out of the elf that doubles your energy and another satellite out of the elf that drops energy capsules for you. Work towards making several satellite elves out of situational setups such as the elf that reduces damage from spikes as you can switch between elves at any time.
• If you want to collect EX skills, don't forget about the elves that boost your rank to A. Remember, you don't need to keep the A rank after the fight, just go into the boss fight with it.

Mega Man Zero 3 is the best of a good series. Zero 4 isn't quite as good but has a nice climax to the series. If you've never played any of the Zero games, Zero 3 is a nice one to start with, even though it isn't the first story wise it'll cover a lot of the points you'll need to know to get going. Definitely a must play for any Mega Man fan.

Playthroughs
Best I could find was a TAS, sorry.