Mega Man X5

• Genre: Action Platforming
• Spoiler Free Review: Yes.
• Time Played: ~10 Hours
• Too Short/Long: It's fine.
• Did I cry: No.
• Soundtrack: Pretty good, I don't think it's as standout as the prior.
• Why I played: Megamanthon continues
• Jank: It's a bit jankier than X4. Not so much in standard gameplay, but just how the game feels a little more mashed together, X5 feels like a Romhack, rather than a properly designed sequel.
• Difficulty: The difficulty in X5 comes with understanding all it's systems and how the game functions while still getting the most out of it. It's otherwise one of the easier ones... except for that damn final boss. They always make Sigma just so frustratingly difficult.
• Pleased/Disappointed: I'm more neutral with X5, I mean I'm please to play it again, but it's not perfect.
• Recommend to others: No more than any other X game, at this point, I'd say start with either X or X4 and play from there, but I wouldn't prioritize this one.
  

Mega Man X5 is a pretty divisive game for Mega Man fans. A lot of people just straight up hate this game and some will even claim it's the worst. It's not without it's problems, but generally speaking I think people are too harsh on it. Sure there are aspects you can nitpick to say "This isn't as good as this" when referencing specific aspect of it, but just because something else did it better doesn't make it bad. X4 was so good(outside the voice acting) and what did we get after that? A partially asset flipped game that feels a bit rushed, but tried to experiment with new systems, trying to modernize a formula we've seen over a dozen times at this point.

I don't hate them for trying even if others may, even if it wasn't the best execution. I think in the end there are both positive and negatives about the unique aspects of X5, but it does make me recall something. Mighty Number 9. Mighty Number 9 was condemned for being a low-effort game that seemed unpolished and low budget - something surprising for a Kickstarter that brought in over 3 mil, a very high amount for early kickstarters at the time. People thought that's AAA money and they should get a AAA game. First off, that's not AAA money. At the time Mighty No 9 came out, AAA game budget was already 5x or more than that at it's lowest. Second, and this is where I seem to lose people. Mega Man has never actually been a AAA franchise. First, the majority of Mega Man games came out before AAA gaming was really a concept. Almost all Mega Man games were made on low budgets, or small window of development time, or with shortcuts made to get the game out sooner/cheaper. Many Mega Man games weren't even "fully priced" at time of release, some PlayStation X games costing 40 at release when most games were 50, or something like that. By comparison, Mighty Number 9 is a higher "quality" game than most Mega Man games. Is it better? That I feel is matter of personal preference regardless. I personally think it's actually a very good game, and I personally think it stands among the best Mega Man games.

Playing Mega Man X5 just makes me think of how many Mega Man "fans" are so full of shit. There are so many that only like the classic series, and when I say classic series I mean 1-6 specifically. Maybe 9 and 10, too. Or Mega Man X fans who only like 1-3, saying everything after the SNES era sucked. So naturally these so-called Mega Man fans aren't going to like this modernized Mega Man-esque game that has it's own unique systems even if it has aspects that are familiar in it's structure and design. Look, you can like what you like, and if that's what you prefer that's fair, but the stuff you didn't prefer didn't necessarily suck, and you might be viewing some of it through rose tinted glasses.

That said, I've been considering how nostalgia plays into my enjoyment of these games while playing, and while I am nostalgic for key moments and the series as a whole, I don't have that stand out game that I've always thought meant more to me than the others, I think that allows me at least some objectivity when playing these games at least in comparison to each other. Sure they were formative in my enjoyment of 2D action platformers - one of the genres I play more than any other, and maybe that plays into my overall enjoyment versus other games.

Mega Man X5 may not have slick animated scenes like X4, but it makes more effort than any prior game to flesh out the story of Mega Man X, and I'm not going to be mad at a game for trying to give me a reason to care about characters other than just they said two lines earlier in the game. They try expanding the core team of characters a bit and there are a bunch of variables in dialog, dependent on who you are playing, and whether or not you have completed a certain mission or two. I really didn't need Alia's sass telling me I'm wasting my time because I wanted to play levels to get upgrades instead of going to the finale with the bare minimum(you can possibly access the "Sigma Stages" before beating a single Maverick), but it shows that even if the game needed more time to cook, they were putting an effort forth. They were trying to make the game more dynamic and evolve with other game series of the new generation, back before how to make these types of improvements were codified.

So basically, while it might not be the best one, I still really like Mega Man X5