Mega Man X series post MMX3- Are they worth playing?

[CFFJR]

I've got a question for you guys then, considering this argument. Its very simple.

Where the hell is Mega Man?

That very question has been bugging me since the earliest days of the X series. Capcom's answer to this has always been a collective shrug. "Don't worry about it". That's not good enough for me.

Its seems to me like there must have been a stronger reason for X's creation. We're given the vague idea that he has to fight to unite humanity and robots. Fine. But how did Light foresee such a thing being necessary, when at the time of his creation, X was (supposedly) the only robot that was capable of independent thought?

There had to have been some other factor in Light's lifetime that made him decide that Mega Man wasn't enough and that X must be created (this also leads me to wonder, who came first, X or Zero? They were made in the same time frame, so was one a reaction to the other?).

That being the case, where was Mega Man when all of this was happening? If he wasn't around for some reason, being killed or otherwise, why? And if he was around, what would be his thoughts on the creation of X? We know X was active for a period of time before encapsulated, so did he ever interact with Mega Man in that time?

Here's another thing. Assuming Mega Man wasn't killed, as some of you have told me was outright stated by Keiji, then what did happen to him? He wouldn't have simply died of old age like Light. It seems to me that if he did survive his own era, he'd probably still be around when X was finally activated years later.

These are things that the X series completely ignores.

What I'm getting at here is that sometimes Word of God isn't enough. This isn't a story being told by one guy who has an ending in mind. Its a story being told by a company who's primary interest is keeping the series going as long as possible to make more money. Nothing wrong with that, but there are certain things in the story they are just never going to address lest they mark the series as being finite.

When you're left with blanks that the creators don't intend to fill, you end up doing it yourself.

I'm not saying I'm convinced by Flake's point of view. I am saying it makes sense to me, and I think its a viable way of looking at it.

[o.pwuaioc]

Light says to X in MMX1 that the world may need a new champion - if he was not referring to the original Mega Man, then whom?

[MrPopo]

Here's another thing. Assuming Mega Man wasn't killed, as some of you have told me was outright stated by Keiji, then what did happen to him?

Not quite. Word of God is that Zero did not kill Mega Man. This is not to be confused with Mega Man is not dead.

[CFFJR]

Not quite. Word of God is that Zero did not kill Mega Man. This is not to be confused with Mega Man is not dead.

Fair enough then, but how did he die (if he did)?

Maybe I'm over thinking it, but it seems to me like it must have happened in Light's lifetime to inspire him to make X.

Otherwise, why make X at all? What is it about a free thinking robot that is needed?

[Flake]

If the two stories are connected after all, I always thought a plausible explanation both for Megaman's absence and the construction of X as a thinking robot that could usher in a new era was that Megaman, quite simply, succeeded.

He brought down Wily once and for all, took out Bass, and saved Monsteropolis and the whole wide world.

After that? I'm pretty sure that every single government in the world would be calling upon Dr. Light to destroy his notes and deactivate all the remaining Robot Masters. I mean - what a freaking liability the first 6 were, not to mention the subsequent 72!

So with Megaman gone, what would Dr. Light do? Work on his next masterpiece in secret - hence no Megaman, X's discovery being such a shock to the world, and Wily developing Zero as his last revenge.

But for some reason nothing like this is ever addressed. Which is too bad - the internet is full of fanfics exploring really keen ideas on how the two stories could be linked.

[Xeogred]

I think I just kind of always assumed, like Light and everyone else, Mega Man just died of age. Rusted away or something. X is obviously very far off into the future if we're connecting them, so yeah.

[CFFJR]

X is obviously very far off into the future if we're connecting them, so yeah.

I thought it was only about 100 years?

[Xeogred]

I guess you're right, based off the intro to X perhaps.

But long story short and why I haven't been getting into conversation much, I think you guys are just looking way too into this, lol. Yeah, like I said on the earlier pages I definitely like to connect the two series myself, but I just don't try to analyze and figure out the specifics. The mysteriousness about it all kind of makes it cooler to me anyways.

That said I've always just kind of had that idea in mind, that all the original robots of the Light/Wily era just kind of died out eventually. X is the new era.

[flamepanther]

Remember the mid-way level in Mega Man 7? And the intro level in Mega Man & Bass? I've always suspected that's where the original Mega Man ends up. If not, then it's possible he's just living out his life peacefully somewhere, like Auto is doing. It's never addressed because Inafune didn't want to write the series into a corner, or leave a "sad note" for it to end on. It stays happily and ambiguously frozen in time so that the hero never dies and there can be sequels forever. Forced to choose between the lack of resolution, or the finality of knowing there can never be a new game in the original series, I prefer the first.

Gamerforlife more or less hit the "continuity" nail on the head awhile ago. From a storytelling perspective, practically the only reason for bringing Wily into the story at all in Mega Man X 4 was to connect the series to the original. The plot was going along just fine without him before then. Instead, right around the 10th anniversary of the original series, Capcom dropped us a fun little hint of events bridging the two series.

Also, the Classic -> X -> Zero -> Legends timeline is addressed in "Rockman Perfect Memories" which was a source book endorsed not just by INAFKING, but by Capcom as a whole. Until they contradict it, it remains canon.


As for Mavericks being around before Sigma got the virus from Zero... sure there were, but there are a couple of things about that. For one, we don't know that prior to that point Zero wasn't somehow spreading the Maverick Virus around while retaining the master copy, much as Sigma himself did after the master copy was transferred. For another, prior to Sigma's corruption, the issue evidently wasn't bad enough for X to feel obligated to fight. If most of the earlier Mavericks were indeed acting out of free will rather than because of a virus, this is no different from human crime and evil. It's hardly fair to blame Dr. Light for inventing evil, and the issue was not anywhere near apocalyptic.

So what was it that really made the shit hit the fan? When an army of Reploids decides on a path of open rebellion against humanity? Even then they mostly want to be left alone, not to destroy humanity. Things only went the way the did because the infected Sigma was there, manipulating events from the shadows. And the end of civilization as we knew it? Well, that was the virus again, orchestrating a Gundam-style colony drop onto the Earth.

Dr. Light had a risky idea, and he hid it away. Dr. Cain unleashed that risk into the world, lacking Light's prudence, patience and wisdom to temper that risk. Dr. Wily caused the apocalypse. Suggesting otherwise is like saying Einstein personally bombed Hiroshima.

[Gamerforlife]

Remember the mid-way level in Mega Man 7? And the intro level in Mega Man & Bass? I've always suspected that's where the original Mega Man ends up. If not, then it's possible he's just living out his life peacefully somewhere, like Auto is doing. It's never addressed because Inafune didn't want to write the series into a corner, or leave a "sad note" for it to end on. It stays happily and ambiguously frozen in time so that the hero never dies and there can be sequels forever. Forced to choose between the lack of resolution, or the finality of knowing there can never be a new game in the original series, I prefer the first.

Gamerforlife more or less hit the "continuity" nail on the head awhile ago. From a storytelling perspective, practically the only reason for bringing Wily into the story at all in Mega Man X 4 was to connect the series to the original. The plot was going along just fine without him before then. Instead, right around the 10th anniversary of the original series, Capcom dropped us a fun little hint of events bridging the two series.

Also, the Classic -> X -> Zero -> Legends timeline is addressed in "Rockman Perfect Memories" which was a source book endorsed not just by INAFKING, but by Capcom as a whole. Until they contradict it, it remains canon.


As for Mavericks being around before Sigma got the virus from Zero... sure there were, but there are a couple of things about that. For one, we don't know that prior to that point Zero wasn't somehow spreading the Maverick Virus around while retaining the master copy, much as Sigma himself did after the master copy was transferred. For another, prior to Sigma's corruption, the issue evidently wasn't bad enough for X to feel obligated to fight. If most of the earlier Mavericks were indeed acting out of free will rather than because of a virus, this is no different from human crime and evil. It's hardly fair to blame Dr. Light for inventing evil, and the issue was not anywhere near apocalyptic.

So what was it that really made the shit hit the fan? When an army of Reploids decides on a path of open rebellion against humanity? Even then they mostly want to be left alone, not to destroy humanity. Things only went the way the did because the infected Sigma was there, manipulating events from the shadows. And the end of civilization as we knew it? Well, that was the virus again, orchestrating a Gundam-style colony drop onto the Earth.

Dr. Light had a risky idea, and he hid it away. Dr. Cain unleashed that risk into the world, lacking Light's prudence, patience and wisdom to temper that risk. Dr. Wily caused the apocalypse. Suggesting otherwise is like saying Einstein personally bombed Hiroshima.

Actually, Wily was being mentioned as far back as Mega Man X 2. He is directly mentioned, although not by name, after you defeat Sigma as X and also hinted at when Zero speaks to Sigma. In fact, the conversation between Zero and Sigma sets up Zero's flashbacks in MM X 4



I still think Light is to blame for problems with reploids, though I would agree that Wily and Cain escalated it during the X series, both intentionally(Wily) & unintentionally(Cain). Mavericks are still causing apocalyptic problems in the Mega Man Zero series though, long after Wily's virus is gone. It is them that Wily's creation spends all his time fighting. Zero, a non-reploid, spends his life fighting evil X replicas who have the ability to think and choose freely.

Granted, Light didn't create evil, but all of these reploids exist because of him and are a threat to humanity. It's not a coincidence that he ran diagnostics on X AND accounted for X having to fight. All those upgrades Light left everywhere, a way to make X stronger than the copies of himself he would inevitably have to fight when humanity abused X's technology, which Wily and Cain kind of did. Light knew what could happen when he made X. X's creation was a very real danger that took robot technology in a direction it shouldn't have gone. It's the old sci fi cliche. Sci fi always warns of the dangers of going too far with robot technology. Terminator series anyone?

Reploids should never have existed, even Sigma is just a replica of X. Of course, you could argue that Zero never should have existed either. If X had never been created, many awful things in the MM X series and MM Zero series would have never happened. On the other hand, it's possible that a Maverick Zero would have simply destroyed everything, if X and his technology hadn't existed

If you think about it, both X and Zero show guilt or conflict over their very existence throughout the series. It's more a guilt thing for X and a conflict thing for Zero. They are both indirectly responsible for a lot of crap that happens in the MM X and MM Z series, but it's really Light, Wily and Cain that are to be blamed for everything. Zero and X are the ones that have to deal with it all though, the consequences of them both being created