Mega Man Zero 4

If you ask me the weakness Zero game in the series is Zero 4. It's not bad has some neat ideas, but in the end they scrapped a lot of things that you wouldn't know you would miss until they are gone. Zero 4 is very down to the basics, don't expect to do a lot of exploring, don't expect to use a lot of different Cyber Elves and don't expect a lot in the way of armor chips. You can expect a lot of tough boss fights and interesting levels and a nice grand finale to the Zero series. What holds this game back are the new systems in implements and the rather obscure and obtuse design around some of them.

New Features

• You get one Cyber Elf this time named Croire who has many features but you can only make use of 3 at a time.
• Collecting Secret disks are gone, introduced with this game is the parts system.
• New weather system introduced, don't ask me how they control the weather...
• New Weapon the Crotch Grab... er Zero Knuckle!

Story
Boy, you thought the last game was a bit of a downer...

Several Months after Mega Man Zero 3 a group of Humans are fleeing Dr. Weil's forces from Neo Arcadia. Zero and the resistance come to their aid as they are heading for a site known as area Zero, the crash site of the Eurasia space colony from Mega Man X5... damn, there's a throw back. Due to the environmental controls on the downed colony, Area Zero is showing signs of natural wildlife, something that could revive the rest of the world if humanity takes care of it, and the refugees of Neo Arcadia plan to colonize it. They aren't too friendly of reploids seeing as how many of them view all the wars that have been started recently have been over reploid affairs (Maverick Wars, Elf Wars, the resistance themselves, and now Dr. Weil).

Ciel and Zero meet a human reporter named Neige who is helping the refugees escape Neo Arcadia. She appreciates their help, but they want the resistance to leave them alone. Well unfortunately for the refugees, Dr. Weil is taking notice of the Area Zero colony and wants to destroy it. He sends out 8 reploids lead by Craft, commander reploid of the group to investigate Area Zero and help construct Ragnarok, a giant space cannon that they'll use to blow the shit up out of Area Zero, leaving Neo Arcadia the only place left in the world humans can settle and force them under Weil's rule.

Craft isn't exactly a sympathizer with Weil's causes but is worried that his friend Neige, and other humans, will just be slaughtered in a struggle that he sees as ultimately futile. Eventually Ragnarok is completed and Craft is in charge of it's operation. Weil tells Craft to fire on Area Zero but in a surprise twist he fires on Neo Arcadia! This blows the fuck up out of the last human settlement in the world and Ceil sends resistance members to evacuate the city and look for survivors. Weil is presumed dead and Zero goes to stop Craft before he can fire again on Neo Arcadia. Craft goes down and Zero teleports back to base... and then... the cannon fires again! Something else is in control of Ragnarok and is sending it hurling towards Area Zero. Since Neo Arcadia is destroyed, if Area Zero goes to, that could mean the end of humanity!

Zero is a bit delayed getting back to Ragnarok but finally makes it there to encounter Dr. Weil who survived the attack on Neo Arcadia. Dr. Weil explains that after the elf wars, the humans in order to punish him built an armor that would continually regenerate him so he would live out in exile for all eternity... harsh... Crashing Ragnarok into Area Zero to wipe out humanity will be his ultimate revenge.

Zero fights him and takes him down and the space station is still coming down. Ciel tells him to teleport out now, but Weil is still alive and in his super powered up ultimate death form. Zero says if he can take down Weil the resulting explosion will take out Ragnarok saving Area Zero.

Weil notes that since Zero has fought Dr. Weil, technically a human, Zero has gone Maverick. Zero then says this...

"I never cared about justice, and I don't recall ever calling myself a hero... I have always only fought for the people I believe in. I won't hesitate... If an enemy appears in front of me, I will destroy it!"

Zero defeats Weil and Ragnarok explodes saving humanity. Ciel and the resistance try to get in contact with Zero, but there's no response, just static. The humans watch pieces of Ragnarok exploding in a meteor shower in the sky. Ciel runs off to be alone to cry while the credits roll. You literally watch Ciel crying while the credits are going on. As if that wasn't a kick in the balls, Ciel promises to build the human/reploid utopia that Zero and X believed in. She looks into the sky and tells Zero to "Just come back someday...I...I believe in you!"

Then we get a shot of Zero's cracked helmet among the debris of Ragnarok. Nice! Actually if you look closely at the picture you can see a silhouette that could be a person... then again, it could just be debris from Ragnarok.

Considering the continuation of this game is Mega Man ZX, it is probable to assume Zero did not survive the crash. The Mega Man Zero Complete Works book has his status listed as "whereabouts unknown". I think that means if Capcom decides to make a Zero 5, which seems unlikely to me, they won't have the character officially dead. A youtube video has dubbed this Zero's Finest Hour, which I think would be a great subtitle to this game actually. If you want to watch the video, I recommend you turn off annotations unless you want to read the video uploader's horrible love of 4chan memes.

This section here is a stupid tangent no one except obsessive fans could care about. You have been warned.

I should point out that a lot of fans have problems with this game because of a rumor that Capcom executives pushed for a Zero 4, and this game was made with the sole purpose of killing Zero. The only source of this rumor I can find is from TV Tropes, a site where anyone can upload whatever asinine opinion they have about anything. Although there might exist something that I haven't found, I have yet to see a quote or article from a reputable source that Capcom got pushed for a bunch of retcons for Zero 4 to happen.

The Capcom prevented X from being the main villain theory is contradicted by the Mega Man Zero Complete Works books in the interviews with the designers. I don't know where that rumor started, but I think it's bogus and I think the same thing about this about Mega Man Zero 4. I've seen rumors that Mega Man Zero 4 was supposed to take place between Mega Man Zero and Mega Man Zero 2, rumors that say the guardians were supposed to have lived through Mega Man Zero 3 and rumors that say Dr. Weil was not supposed to be the leader of Neo Arcadia for Zero 4.

The first rumor comes from the fact that Mega Man Zero 3 ties up a lot of loose ends. Except that Dr. Weil is specifically said to still be a threat at the end of it. He had just lost his ability to control reploids through the Dark Elf and Omega, but had still assumed leadership of Neo Arcadia because he was in charge of the Neo Arcadian armies because Copy-X gave him that position after he broke up the Guardians. This is how Weil assumed power uncontested.

Fans also point out that there is no mention of Craft's unit until this game and that Harpuia points out that Weil is powerless without Omega. To this I say, Wiel quickly resurrected several enemies for Zero 3, and as commander of the army, had plenty of resources to assemble the new unit between Zero 3 and 4 if the unit did not exist before it. Likely it did though. As far as Harpuia's statement is concerned he could be just referring to the power of the Dark Elf as well.

As far as the fate of the guardians, the Mega Man Zero Complete Works book says they died shielding Zero from the explosion. Yes, I realise in Zero 3 this really isn't showed... or implied, and it is likely the designers considered having them died off after they started development on Zero 4. The contradiction that the Guardians were still alive during Zero 4 comes from artwork one of the Dev members did showing the Guardians and X seeing Ragnarok go down. This is dismissed in the book as non canonical.

I'm not saying Capcom would not interfere with the works of their artists or that they would not keep a series going after the creators didn't want it to, we have seen that with X6 and there is a quote attributed to Inafune stating as much. What I'm saying is there is a very good chance that some of the calls of retcons and executive interference in the Zero series are bullshit as they lack sources. TVTropes and Wikipedia are not credible sources unless they have sources linked to them from interviews or articles from people that would actually know for sure what happened. I'm calling bullshit on some of this stuff for now, but if you are reading this and can prove to me with some sources that these rumors are in fact true, by all means contact me and I'll amend this review.

Regardless of whether or not this story has controversy surrounding it, it is a decent way to end the series and set up Mega Man Zx.

Aesthetics
There's a lot of great artwork here and a lot of good color used considering it's a Game Boy Advanced game. Nearly all the screenshots I used were from cutscenes because that's when the game is at it's best visual wise.

Character design wise the bosses are a lot less on the mythical side and more on the animalistic side. I particularly love Cocapetri who I suppose is supposed to be a cockatrice like that of dungeons and dragons as he turns you to stone, but he looks like a big chicken! I get on this franchise for having stupid bosses all the times and this isn't the first chicken in the series, but it is pretty hilarious to even hear Zero taunt him for looking completely useless. Even better the chicken dude is a bit cocky (ha!) and really hates how Zero insults him.

I'm not to big a fan of Neige's design myself because I think she looks and acts a bit on the cliched side of the dangerous action girls attitude, but that's more a personal preference I suppose.

Ciel's got a new mugshot herself when she speaks to you and it looks like she's been on the receiving end of some domestic abuse. Seriously, she has these really dark circles on her eyes that I think are supposed to be makeup, but look like someone punched her.

The animation is alright, but Zero's Z-Knuckle animation reminds me of Colonel Volgin's crotch grab from Metal Gear Solid 3. If you're as immature and juvenile as I am, then you will find this to be the best animation in the series.

Sound
My favorite in the series myself but not anything I'll hum to myself. There's quite a few sound clips of the bosses saying various things and even Dr. Weil laughing and saying some stuff... but it's in Japanese. The music to this series is distinct to it, but not much between each title and to tell the truth, I am just so out of things to say about the sound of this series.

Design
Overall Zero's levels follow a formula like this. A gimmick exist in the stage depending on the weather (I'm not kidding) and you can change the weather depending on if you want to deal with this gimmick and the bosses ability which will be aided through the gimmick. Each stage has a mini-boss about half way through and then you'll fight the main boss. If the weather is suited to the boss, you'll win their EX skill after beating them (it's no longer based on rank), but if the weather is not suited to them, they'll be an easier fight but you won't get the skill.

Most of the levels feature decent gimmicks such as the Magnet level in which you need to choose between two polarities to affect jump height and certain enemies. Some levels have giant death rays firing at you, wind blowing over treacherous platforming, one annoying level where the sun is too hot and you need to find shade to live. One level is just horrible though where you need to navigate a timed under water maze. Note to developers, mazes are never fun.

You'll likely be getting the EX skills this go round, but most of them aren't that great. The best effect from them is whatever elemental ability is attached to them because this time around you won't be getting any elemental chips. This means the bosses weaknesses won't be so easy to take advantage of, and unfortunately the strongest attack in this game against just about all enemies is a triple slash combo and I don't like having some utility taken away from me.

Your cyber elf can be programed up to fire elemental shots, but this isn't too useful as it's like having a gun floating around your shoulder, firing at random intervals that you aim by jumping. Really unreliable. More on Cyber Elves, this time you only get one. You feed it E-Crystals and it can handle more effects, most of which are the same from the previous games, and it allows you to use them without penalty the more bosses you defeat. I suppose this is more balanced than the Satellite elves of the last game, but you can only use 3 effects at a time, one from each row (Nurse, Animal, Hacker). If you don't give a shit about rank (and why should you), you can max out your elf's abilities in any or all of the rows.

Among other new features is Zero's weapon the Z-Knuckle in which Zero can grab an enemy and use them in some form as a weapon. Most weapons aren't anywhere near as good as your Z-Saber or Buster though, and the ones that are quickly run out of ammo. The Z-Knuckle itself can be used to instant kill some enemies however and it is pretty fun to use, so I wouldn't chalk it up in the useless category.

Parts on the other hand are a bit of a mixed bag in the design area. On the surface they are an interesting idea. Each enemy drops a part named after the enemy, you combine the parts from recipes that various people in the game and your elf give you to get new parts. The problem is the game doesn't give you a hell of a lot of recipes and the ones it does give you aren't that helpful. On top of that the enemy names are really odd in a lot of ways and unless you keep inventory of every single enemy you kill, you aren't likely to remember just what the hell a Gangagun or Mechanmoid is when the game tells you to combine them. It's one of those ideas that works on paper but doesn't seem feasible without some sort of guide. Experimentation leads to just tons of failure combinations as well and I can't really see a rhyme or reason how most of the recipes create some objects. The only way experimentation could work would be just hours and hours of combining just about everything over and over giving you hundreds of thousands of failed combinations. I really don't like the parts system in this game, and Zero 4 as a whole has a lot more obscurity in design compared to the other games which is why I rate it lower in my mind than all the others. It still is an enjoyable experience though.

Playability
One new mechanic is Zero's ability to hold on to wires like in X4-6. It's not difficult but you will be required to master your maneuverability with this to finish this game. This game is more difficult than two and three and about on par with one, see my extras section about Sub Tanks if you want some help.

Extras

• Boss Order: Start with the Underground forest to get the only easy SubTank in the game. After that I'd say it's up to you but try to leave Mino Magnas and Sol Titanyan for last when you can have more health from your elf to beat them.
• To get two of the subtanks you'll need to trade an S-Crystal to one of the resistance members. Get a Faital(Beam Cannon Stage), Mechameson (Living City), V.Fire (various, Beam Cannon works) and a Ceratanium (just about each stage has one hidden out of the way). The last Subtank you'll have trouble with is in the Hibernation chamber. Go during sunny weather and use the Z-Knuckle to grab a card key out of the hands of one of those crab bots. Take the Card Key and use it to attack the door with electricity running through it, there is a Sub Tank in that room.
• For your ease in obtaining parts, here is a list of the enemies with pictures.

Zero 4 is a good send off, but Zero 3 was better. This Z-Knuckle is fun but hunting for parts is particularly annoying, especially since you can miss some parts in some stages that you can't revisit. Plus the Guardians are dead and that leaves the game lacking a decent supporting cast. Still the ending is what should sell this game to you and it is a bit of a masterpiece as far as Mega Man games go.

Playthroughs
Tool Assisted Speed Run by K.H. (aka. klmz)