Mega Man X5 Is Really Weird

[@DuoDynamo]

I think the key issue with X5 is that it doesn't put the player in control. - You keep being interrupted by Alia. - You have a time limit. - You can't choose which parts you get (you can't even get them all). - The RNG can make you lose Zero even if you do everything right. - The stages are riddled with auto-scrollers. - The item-game leaves no room for variety and experimentation like past games, where you could choose to have just some of the armor parts if you so wanted. The game really wants you to play it the way IT wants to, not the way YOU want to. I don't feel that with any of the other X games (maybe X6, but even that game isn't as rigid as X5).

[@WackyWeasel0211]

Oh yea. The game will lock you in its pace. Alia makes sure that will happen 🧑‍💻

[@MastaGambit]

Not even X6 takes agency away from the player the way X5 does. Like yeah the level design is ass, but it at least has more options for dealing with situations. The parts system is actually pretty good in theory, it just requires too much grinding before it gets good.

[@MisterX867]

I'm glad you mentioned the Mega Man X5 Improvement Project! It's one of those things that I'm shocked more folks don't know about.

[@barrickfischer]

What've realized 10y ago playing all the series (except for X7) is that the basic plot structure recycles for both X5 and X6. Zero dies in X1 and then comes back in X2. An uprising started in X1 but Mavericks. Then, X4 also has an uprising but only Repliforce. Then, Zero dies again in X5, which also happened in X1. The only biggest reveal is that Zero is the source of all the maverick conflict with his virus. And then he comes back again in X6, which he also did in X2. Only that time, it's his virus + program that auto-restored him. The newest threat is from a crazy and vindictive reploid professor named Gate. He created an artificial virus from Zero's chunk. Then I realized that X3's conflict was also started by a crazed professor until he revealed to be trying to revived Sigma. The same can be said for Gate having revived Sigma in X6

[@Khanbar]

Good video. The heart tank on the truck in Grizzly’s stage is obtainable with Zero if you use invincibility frames and the hyper dash and speedster parts. X5 is also frustrating in that Spiral Pegasus/The Skiver’s weapon downgrades Zero, as it disables his very useful Saber Dash Cancel.

[@PikangsFutaba]

Yup, that's why in Speedruns that involves the good ending, they do the Enigma Skip to destroy the colony (at least on Ps1 version where there is a consistent way to manipulate the RNG of the Enigma vs Colony to make it guaranteed to destroy the colony), and beat all stages except the final one to detour to Pegasus/Skiver's stage in a all stages run.

[@squallleonhart9387]

With all the callbacks to previous games I’m surprised they never thought to bring back Vile, probably because they already brought him back in X3 and they probably felt people would get tired of him coming back all the time, which is what people already feel about Sigma himself.

[@brandonwilliams6119]

>Megaman X5 is a reverse Sonic Adventure 2 It’s funny think about since X5 came out in the year 2000 and SA2 came out in 2001, Megaman Zero 4 would pull from SA2 having Zero fight Weil’s final form while he tries to crash the Ragnarok into the Earth, Zero succeeds in the end but doesn’t make it out alive just like Shadow when using Chaos Control to stop the Ark, they both made promises to little blonde girls Maria and Ciel. The similarities really show themselves when you think about both games.

[@AlexHidanBR]

X5 is the renaissance of the X series

[@Chrisezo]

I wish that the modders for the X games, would figure out a way to edit the games on the X Legacy collection for Steam, because as easy as it is to modify the original ROMS, its unfortunate that you don't have them under 1 specific collection, and as for the X5 mod, I really like the improvements that they did, but I also wish that they upgraded the GAEA armor to let you use the part system, because a speedster and a jumper part on that armor would make it really good, but I mainly know that the reason why the GAEA still cannot use the parts, is because it would be even more broken if you could equip the buster upgrades, such as the faster charge shot, since the GAEA armor already has a pretty quick charge shot, with the buster upgrade it would be pretty much instantaneous, and as a result it would be pretty busted, I also kind of wish that they let you use the powers with the GAEA armor, since the original ROM already has the sprites for the different colors of the powers using the GAEA armor, but I guess that Capcom decided to nerf the GAEA armor at the last minute, and even with the dash fix that the mod has for the GAEA armor, its still pretty difficult to beat the Shadow Devil stage with it since you cannot use Dark Hold, and its part of the reason why nobody ever uses that armor in X5. In the original SNES trilogy I think my favorite game is X3, only because of the Zero Project mod, because without it I just don't like X3, then as for the PS1 trilogy, I have to say that even with the mods and stuff X4 just feels like the best game of the 3, as while the mods do fix both X5 and X6 they just still feel like rushed games, and no amount of tweaking will be able to finish a game like that.

[@PikangsFutaba]

Well... you can actually enable the parts system to the Gaea Armor... but that requieres you to use a HEX Editor on the patched .bin file of the game (I think if you get the hack via patch that you can get a readme file to let you know what part you have to HEX Edit to enable the Gaea Armor to equip parts)... which is something I did because is fun.

[@0Impeesa]

Honestly, the Gaea Armor's charge is practically instant as it is, and it shreds everything. I like to use it for the rest of the game as soon as I get it. Yes, including the Shadow Devil stage.

[@AlexHidanBR]

Your comment makes me wonder if in an alternative timeline where they made "Mega Man Maverick Hunter X5" they'd fix all those things or not

[@jinthekingkazama1159]

@@AlexHidanBR Honestly, I feel like the Maverick Hunter X series would be very different from the original Mega Man X series, because the story of Maverick Hunter X1 was slightly altered in some way.

[@GoeTeeks]

it's interesting how, for a game that was intended to be the last in the series, they made a large number of changes to it that affect the series going forward (shots not going through walls, a navigator, difficulty selection, rescuing reploids, slower overall movement speed, hand rails, etc. etc.). It's like they set themselves up to require a sequel with all of these major engine changes.

[@cristianandresgaticadiaz228]

There's a 100% items 1 revisit route with Zero in X5 improvement, (if you play with just X there's no 1 revisit route) 1. Axle the redd (no items, get Twin Dream) 2. Dark Dizzy (most important weapon, Twin Dream works for the armor part) 3. Grizzly Slash (Dizzy's weapon for the Heart Tank) 4. Duff McWhalen (Dizzy's weapon for the Heart Tank, Twin Dream for the armor part) 5. Squid Adler (F-Splasher for the Heart Tank, since it's been two hours, Hyper Dash is completed) 6. The Skiver (Dizzy's weapon + Hyper Dash for the armor part) 7. Axle revisit (F-Splasher for Heart Tank, Dizzy's weapon for the armor part) 8. Izzy Glow (Dizzy's weapon for the Heart Tank, Adler's for the EX-Tank) 9. Mattrex (you don't need anything for the items in this stage so you could do this one anywhere in the order)

[@Solsuna]

Alia constantly interrupts you when you play as X, but for some reason she has to do it all again when you play the same stage as Zero. Its another unintentional way of deterring you from playing both characters.

[@christopherballero866]

Unfortunately X5's: RNG ending, horrible routing, time mechanic, confusing part system, slow levels, boss levels, & Alia making the game pacing slow really hurts especially compared to the previous X entries

[@TheKorenji]

Yeah... and this guy has THE AUDACITY to say X3 is worse... The PSX bias is showing.

[@acedfirefist]

Glad to see you making more content. Subbed last vid and looking forward to the next

[@razzlarence7368]

I managed to find a way to do the whole game backtrack-less (in addendum, of course). You need to do some HEX editing (readme file in the mod is very specific with this) to get the nova strike for 4th armor X. with the giga attack, you can get the armor part in Spiral Pegasus's stage. His ability will allow you to do crescent grizzly's stage backtrack-less (I go to the right side of the spikes, use the ability to get some height with the pause tech for a little, then use the air dash and giga attack to get the heart tank). You can naturally do Mattrex's stage, volt kraken(need gaea arm part from Mattrex's stage) and tidal whale's (you only need volt kraken's weapon for the upgrade and heart tanks, thanks to addendum) without backtracking. with the jumper and speedster parts equipped for zero, you can do Axle The Red's stage backtrack-less, you can just barely double jump over the left spikes and make your way to the right, I like to wall cling and let go, then jump and repeat my way up the path to the gaea foot parts. You can do Dark Necrobat just fine with Zero by using the clone ability from ATR to hit the armor part wall. With these parts and abilities for zero, you can also do Izzy Glow's stage without going back. TLDR: Backtrack-less MMX5 (addendum mod) discovered (need Nuova strike/Giga Attack for 4th armor X & parts obtained after 1 hour instead of 2 via hex editing in addendum mod) Route: Pegasus(4th Armor X only w/ G. Attack) Cresecnt Grizzly (4th armor X only with pegasus ability and G. Attack) Dynamo (get Crescent parts now) Mattrex Volt Kraken (gaea arm. X only) Dynamo? (I think here but honestly it doesn't matter by this point) Tidal Whale (4th armor X only) Axle The Red (Zero only & w/ Speedster/Jumper parts) Dark Necrobat (Easier with zero & ATR clone ability, but do-able with X by this point) Izzy Glow

[@FabulousJejmaze]

I think the RNG with the cannon and shuttle is such an interesting thing. What other game even works like that? It makes for an interesting story I think. You mostly play Zero, do everything right, but then he still fails and X has to pick up the pieces with 0 heart tanks? The fact that that can happen and you don't know if it will, that makes the game much more exciting to me.

[@gregoriocruz4530]

This was the one X game where I liked the US opening theme, as opposed to the Japanese version.

[@co81385]

By the way, I am with you- nowadays, I enjoy Zero's playthrough way more in this game. The game is easy enough, but Zero really is a wrecking ball in this game, especially once you get some parts to add to him. Your video made me realize something else about this game- Zero's boss weapons are way more useful than X's!

[@WildArmACF]

I have literally had Enigma destroy the satalite with no bosses defeated. I was surprised. only happened once

[@gust20xx32]

Nice review I myself remember getting very disappointed with the lack of animated cutscenes. X5 was supposed to be a continuation at the same level of storytelling of X4, but what we saw was a downgrade. Something that made me appreciate X4 even more: for its rarity in this regard. I also didn't like how the special weapons were made so underpowered. But the thing I remember to this day was the LV.96 rematch boss battles... aaargh! And I am a person that genuinely enjoys any boss rush in the franchise. Except X5's... because it takes ages and gets repetitive very fast -- pattern recognition and dodging are made irrelevant. Sigma's battle playing with X I remember being very frustrating too, and not in the cool, intense way the battle with Wily in MM7 was (this one is super fun). X5's Sigma was unfair (like a preview of most of what X6 would be). X5 looked uglier than X4, probably because of budget issues, which is a shame for a game supposed to be, just like it was said, a final game. (all the references from past games were really cool, and this game has many) IMO, X3 is much funnier and well produced than X5. I like playing X3...I never enjoyed playing X5 very much. (Time to go look for this X5 improved project, I guess)

[@PikangsFutaba]

Xtreme Mode aside of adding more enemies... REMOVES ALL RANDOM DROPS from the enemies (this is also the same for X6 by the way), meaning that ONE particular tank pretty much useless (the weapon tank). Edit: The Shuttle, NOR the Enigma are fired automaticly if the timer reaches zero... IF you don't collect the 4th part of each plan, as the attack with the 4 parts take priority over the "Time Over" scene that leads you to the bad ending, but to be honest... while the shuttle pieces increases the odds for the good ending compared to the Enigma, everything is RNG based, not to mention that on Ps2/Game Cube Mega Man X Collection have like 35% chance at minimum to lead you to the bad ending with a full built Shuttle, the Enigma skip with the 4 parts odds is like 10%, while in the original is like 20% chance of happening, by the way, the Falcon Armor charged shot allows you to fire through walls like how it was on X4 and the other previous games (not the non-charged or the low charged buster shot)... also it got it's changed quirks on X6 like axing out the flying ability for an Air Dash, downgrading the charged shot as it can no longer go through walls... but allowing you to charge weapons to compensate that, so... yeah, also, the 3 visits to Whale's stage if you get the Good Ending route, you can get everything on 2 visits as the 1st one as long as you have Kraken's weapon, you can get the heart with Zero, and the 2nd for the Falcon Armor part with X, otherwise is as you say, 3 visits (also... is not 100% needed the Gaea Armor, but you remove a headache with it as with the Falcon Armor you have to time properly your flying time to not touch spikes). Edit 2: Yeah, the Parts system wasn't that great in X5, it got modified in BOTH Xtreme 2 and X6, for Xtreme 2 you have to buy them with DNA Souls, but you want to farm a lot of them to unlock the parts to buy in the 1st place, making it kind of annoying to fully explore it outside the Boss Rush mode, and X6 you have to deal with BOTH rescuing Reploids who can potentially be lost due to the Nightmare enemies and getting enough Nightmare Souls to get at least to A rank to be able to equip at least one of them... but X6 aside of the Limited Part you can equip once you get GA rank, taking an advantage of a very useful glitch, you can equip pretty much all normal parts with a single slot unlocked (however with X probably you want to have Quick Charge equipped while ignoring the Ultimate Buster part). Edit 3: The Credits song is actually X's Bad Ending song, in the JPN version (unless you playing it via X Legacy Collection 2 while not being the JPN version) you get a different song (the same goes with the intro as the non-JPN versions uses the title screen song). Edit 4: The RNG outcomes are still there in the Improvement Hack... but under some conditions, the Enigma has the RNG based situation as long as you get at least 1 part, otherwise is guaranteed to fail, the Shuttle at the other hand... no parts = guaranteed to fail, 1 to 3 parts is the same vanilla RNG based situation, all 4 parts = guaranteed to work against the Colony, even so, you can edit the hack settings to restore the RNG or other stuff, like changing how many parts you can equip with both X (including Armors... making the Gaea Armor more decent despite not allowing you to use the Maverick Weapons) and Zero, or re-enabling the Fourth Armor Nova Strike (that works in the same way as in X4 that you have to recharge it to use it again).

[@bobafett6174]

Mega man x5 is the first mega man game I ever played

[@shinysamurott613]

I think you did a good job discussing just how, overall weird X5 is, and there's even more you didn't touch on, like the ranking system, that, no joke, punishes you if you kill too many enemies. I feel like a lot of the issues that it has had a lot of much better solutions, like the backtracking for X could be mitigated heavily if you could use the individual armor parts, which would be really nice for the Gaea Armor especially as it would be actually viable for use during the game. Or how the parts system could be made much better by tweaking the aforementioned ranking system, and you know, actually telling you what you're getting. On that note, it is actually possible to get the Gaea Armor without the Falcon Armor in the original game, it just requires some wack use of Zero, and the parts system, but it still doesn't make much of a difference as you still need to play about 6 of the stages to actually get the full thing, but hey it's an option, just kind of an impractical one. That imo is the real biggest issue with the Gaea Armor, because you can't realistically get it until you're already late in the game, it's only real purpose is to get collectibles you couldn't get before and not much else. Power Bomb syndrome I call it. Sure you could use it in the final stages, but it's not a great pick for stage 1 because of its worse mobility and by stage 3 and 4 you can have the Ultimate Armor so it barely matters. It's honestly a big shame X5 turned out the way it did as, for me at least, not only is it a massive drop off compared to X4, it also pales in comparison to any of the SNES Trilogy, a downward trend that only got worse with X6 and X7, with the series not seeing any substantial quality again til X8 and MHX but by then it might have been too late. Very happy you brought up X5 Improvement Hack though. I've already played the hell out of it myself, easily the best way to play the game that brings it way up in quality, on par with the first four games imo. It already fixes about as much of the game's issues as you could reasonably expect and from what I hear it's actually still being worked on. RN I think they're working on the armor parts making it so they actually display individual pieces and giving them both better access to the special weapons, Falcon can actually charge them and Gaea Armor will actually be able to use them. For your route, I think it's actually possible to beat the game without any revisits, though you would need to use both characters for it, it's been a while so I'd have to revisit it to make sure, but I feel like I remember getting everything without revisits But anyway, good video, and good luck with X6, fun fact, that's my least favourite game in the whole franchise. I certainly have, thoughts on it.

[@WackyWeasel0211]

Totally agree. The Improvement Hack really fixes the game. I think the core gameplay is perfect, as usual, and level design are good for the most part. So fixing everything else surrounding the core gameplay and you make the game many times more enjoyable. Many of the tweaks in the Improvement Hacks aren't that hard to implement, given if you were the developers of the game back then. If only... 😢

[@kontakonta5360]

I feel kind of crazy I was playing X Dive and replayed X5 last week because of finding the improvement project addendum I find myself having the same feeling in that I enjoyed my time but it also had me still feeling a bit off I think it is because while the patch does tweak the game a lot into feeling more pleasant a lot of the issues would require a redesign to fix

[@TheHuanosta]

Why do you talk like every thing is a question?

[@davidcounsil2466]

He’s a valley girl

[@brandonwilliams6119]

Dunno about you but I personally enjoyed his commentary, it’s not that big of a deal, X5 really is a weird game with baffling design choices.

[@qlasalle]

It helps with people from getting annoyed and helps with clarity.

[@MahouPoint]

It’s called up speak

[@anthonykarnes6804]

Autism

[@WackyWeasel0211]

ALIA - Automatic Level-Interrupting -Assistant- Annoyance On a real note, coincidentally, I just replayed X5 the day before this video, so your video comes up at a perfect time for me. X5 seems really rushed, which is really strange to me, considering that it may have the most development time out of all the X games. Prior to X5, the X games had been released annually, except for the jump from X3 to X4 (from SNES to PS1/Saturn). From X4 to X5, there was a 2 years gap. They even kept up with the schedule afterwards, with X6 released the year after X5, and a gap year for X7 and X8 to be released with the same pattern. So, within 2 years-time from X4 to X5, having the longest gap between installments in the series, you would have imagined that X5 would have had a much better production value. The scope of the game was clearly expanded, with SO many new ideas. Compared to X4, you have the following: - Playable X and Zero in the same campaign - Multiple Armors (with a possible intention of mixing the armor parts) - Branching storylines, with multiple endings - The story is actually pretty enjoyable (climatic and dramatic as hell) - The introduction of an actual support team (Alia, Signas, Lifesavers, Douglas) - Parts system - Adaptive difficulty (as reflected in boss lv) - A timer countdown (to force you to weigh in on your stage choices/routing) - Rankings system Those are a lot of features to be included in a X game compared to the previous ones. You did not see that many features being added in from X1 to X2 to X3. Heck, X4 seems basic in feature sets, compared to the SNES titles. This is why it saddens me when X5 does not live up to its massive potential. The game design totally fumbled ALL of the new ideas in many ways. The story dialogues are also worse (at least, in the English translation. They got awesome boss names tho). I came to realized some of its lost potential when replaying the game, but with some adjustments (the X5 fan project) to the game design. The game is WAYYY more enjoyable, simply by just having a better parts system (getting all the parts is possible in one cycle), a shared health bar, better armor system, and a sure way to choose your endings. The core game is solid, and most of the stages are fun to play. It's just that the new ideas introduced to spices up the game - the things surrounding the core gameplay, crumbled. X5 has so much potential. But it's called potential for a reason.

[@raydespoir]

Yup, you have to live up to your potential. I feel conflicted because I enjoyed X5 when I was younger but I realize it is a bad game now. And I want it to be better than what it is to vindicate my earlier enjoyment of it.

[@timdryer]

X5 and X6 give me gaming PTSD! I still refuse to touch X7 and X8 because of them.

[@GoeTeeks]

X8 is fine. It's got a couple lackluster levels but more or less is pretty fun. X7 is awful. They did not know how to make X work in 3D and it shows.

[@lpfan4491]

Good. X7 is straight up the worst game in the series and X8 is not good enough to make up for that tragedy.

[@RadiaUmbra]

Tbh you're not missing much, after unfocused mess (x5), dogshit (x6) and boring and sloppy 3D (X7), the fact that X8 is just alright is ridiculous. It's insane how inconsistent the X series is compared the classics, I'd argue that even X2 and X3 aren't even that good.

[@ashharkausar413]

I enjoyed the game. Also big props to the folk(s) that worked on the x5 improvement project!

[@AstroTibs]

Whale was sped up by 50%, not by 150%

[@co81385]

I have a love/hate relationship with this game. There are some good ideas attempted in this game, and I actually do like the endgame/fortress levels better than X4. But, the levels in this game, to me, feel very "boxy". They're not as large and free-flowing as those in the previous games. The parts system is fun, but it could have been implemented so much better. Also, the difficulty is a bit inbalanced. Starting the game with the Fourth Armor makes the levels too easy to get through with X. But then, the Falcon Armor further breaks the game, and Zero can rip through the bosses like they're wet pieces of toilet paper.

[@tman8876]

Added crouching, 10/10

[@yurivitorio407]

I think I'm alone here, but it's my favorite one. I liked the backtracking because I had just a few games on the psx, so I didn't mind exploring every inch of the game. I didn't know about the Alia problem until I saw this video, but that maybe be just me, cause Navi from ocarina of time never bothered me. But I think all the criticism is fair. I also love the soundtrack. The only thing I think sucks about this game is the hoverbike stage.

[@JustRichGatesTv]

🔥🔥🔥

[@espelhodasconstelacoes]

Got yourself a new sub, bro, God bless ya and Jesus loves ua :D

[@mrpro538]

nice video. Personally I really enjoy X5, but I can't deny the fact that it's rather flawed, especially with Alia. I still really like the level and boss design though

[@deckstor1]

X4 is the best But X5 is still better than X7 and X8 style.

[@bored_robot9263]

this game is designed so randomly like no design decision makes any sense to me. even x6 doesn't suffer this much from nonsensical basic design choices (it's still a worse game than x5)

[@MastaGambit]

0:15 JUST LIKE WITH X6 LOL

[@kbxthegamemaster06]

has anyone told you you sound like guilewinquote

[@Rutawind]

Is weird another word for bad?

[@MCHuang]

X3 was weak? Wtf?

[@DarthMizaru]

Megaman! Megaman!

[@NYCHeavyHitz212]

Weird ass game indeed.

[@Mugiwara2k]

Good video.

[@ligeringspirit1133]

It's not the best in the series...

[@coraini666]

That's just a dude justifying a bad game. Do not watch