The Biggest Game Project on this Planet

Megaman X: Command Mission

Okay okay, this is REALLY the last game in the Megaman X series, I swear!

Megaman X Command Mission then, is a turn-based RPG, set in the Megaman X Universe, so that means lots of recognisable characters in a generic RPG environment with items, and equipment and bosses. There, done.

Goodbye!

Well, no actually, there's more to it, and it's mostly bad I'm afraid.

Let's start with the good:
In keeping with the original style of the MMX games, and with it's 3D PS2 outings, the game is entirely cell-shaded to create a cartoony feel. There are a lot of familiar enemies in here from previous X games, and they all look like very faithfull 3D renditions of their 2D counterparts, very nice.

Bad:
Environments are kinda boring though. Dungeons are a pretty straightforward affair, there are some occasional gimmicks and puzzle-ish things to do, but nothing really special. Enemy Encount rate is all over the place, ranging from "I can't even take one fucking step" to "HEEEELLLLLLOOOOOOOOO!? -OOOOO -OOO -OO -o......?" *tumbleweed*
The real trouble are the bosses though, they can be really hard. In a very very CHEAP way. In essence they're pretty easy, but most of them are SO fast and SO powerful that you'll just be totally frustrated trying to deal with the massive onslaught, having to heal every two turns and not getting enough of a chance to attack.
Levelling up is pretty useless too, it doesn't go that fast in the first place, and it doesn't really make much of a difference. Most of your success lies in equiping the right weapons or Force Metal (Force Metal gives you extended status and abilities, kinda like accessories in the Final Fantasy series), and in the use of your character's Hyper Modes.
During Hyper Mode your character becomes a lot stronger on all accounts, gets more powerful moves etc. but it can only be used for a couple of turns.
There really is not very much challenge here, just frustration at how unfairly fast and strong some of the bosses are.

Good:
LOADS of stuff to collect. First of all, you get a Sky Room that contains a jukebox, a video player, a figure collection and a sketch collection amongst other things.
The Jukebox plays music from the game, the VCR plays cutscenes, the figure collection is just that, and the sketch collection is a whole SLEW of artwork and sketches by the designers of the game.
Now I am a HUGE fan of the Megaman X series artwork, so this was definitely worth the while for me, and it certainly doesn't disappoint, but I don't know if more casual gamers would want to bother with this.
Figures can be obtained by finding Figure Tokens in dungeons, and by connecting your GBA to your Gamecube you can also find Treasure Tokens to buy even more special figures.
Sketches, music and the like can be unlocked by deploying worker droids to the areas you've visited, and having them search items for you, this will also bring you handy weaponry, hidden keys to access secret areas and loads of other stuff.
So like I said, plenty of stuff on the side to keep yourself busy with, IF you're into collecting, cos there are no actual real subquests or subevents or such.

Bad:
Voice Acting is atrociously godawful. TURN IT OFF. One Problem: You can't.
A lot of battle-cries are so painfully bad they don't even make sense unless you know Japanese and can pretty much figure it was probably translated directly into non-sensical English.
Music is very forgettable as well, dull, uninspired techno-ish elevator ditties, a disgrace to the series which has always had extremely high Musical Standards.
Well, most of the time anyway.
Also, there's a plottwist at the end that is so completely predictable that you want to kick everyone in the face for not putting two and two together. Fuck it, there's this mysterious guy called Spider, who comes and goes as he pleases, and then there's this Colonel Redips (REDIPS! The name alone is stupid enough to make you wonder, and it takes about 1 second to figure out) who only transmits his messages when Spider's not around. Hmmmmmmmmmm. Spoiler? Only for idiots.
If you think this is a spoiler, you DESERVE to have it spoiled.

The battle system is decent. At the bottom right of the screen you get a graph indicating the order of turns for the next couple of attacks, as has become pretty much standard in a lot of RPG's since Final Fantasy X, and you can use the A, X or Y button (Gamecube only!) to attack. The X and Y functions consume Weapon Energy, the A function is your standard attack. Accumulate enough WE, and you can pull of an Action Trigger Command to do big damage. It works and there's some strategy to the battles, especially for bosses, but it's not very exhilirating or anything.

And that's pretty much the gist of the game. It's decent but never really interesting. And considering the fact that it gets REALLY annoying towards the end, with too many bossfights and too much frustration, I can't help but wonder who would enjoy this. I certainly won't recommend it to RPG fans. Nothing to see here folks, move on!
The only value here is for Die Hard Megaman X fans, like myself, and you have to be a REAL Die Hard, cos I don't see anyone else bothering to the end. As I said, the collection element was enjoyable, the artwork was fantastic, as usual, but the game itself is 'meh' at best. Only real fans need apply.

If you want to see Megaman in a GOOD RPG environment, stick to the Battle Network Series on GBA, and ignore this like the skanky crack-ho heroin slut that it is.
To indicate my contempt for this game, I shall give it a 7-.
Yes. That seems bad enough.

posted by Ingen! @ 4:08 PM