Mega Man ZX Advent

This takes the foundation that ZX set down and refines most of it. The Metroidvania world is used better in this game. The game presents stages more organically compared to the first ZX game. When your objective of most new zones is to get to the end and beat the boss to unlock another transceiver, that resembles a classic Mega Man stage. Where the game loses points is the lack of points to warp out of. The reason why this is an issue requires explanation.

This is a game with RPG-like subquests that reward special items and EC, the currency in the game. A lot of these subquests have you revisit old zones to complete tasks. While there are multiple warp points to unlock as you make your way through zones, you can only warp out at transceivers. This is an issue in the case of an area like the Scrapyard, where if you warp in at Scrapyard-1, you have to make your way to Scrapyard-4 to save your game and leave the area.

I was demotivated to explore because I would have to go through levels (sometimes in their entirety) to leave, and this is made worse when you have to redo puzzles and difficulty maneuvers that you’ve already done.

E-Crystals are the currency in this game but aside from unlocking warp points, there isn’t much use for them. It feels like an unfulfilled mechanic. A lot of the subquests don’t reward you with anything but more EC, too. The developers were trying to pad out this concept but didn’t have meaningful interactions to go with it.

That’s a lot of complaining, but I want to say this game is pretty good. In this game you gain multiple forms to transform into, and most of them found some use in my playthrough even if some took most of my time. The challenge is pretty good, for the most part. I think this game is a good example on why Mega Man’s insta-kill spikes doesn’t transcend all gameplay types though. In this game, they just came off as pointlessly punishing. Also, while the game’s difficulty is fairly challenging, there are some parts that are brutal, like the aforementioned Scrapyard and the final stage. I know final stages are supposed to be hard but damn, that final level is like getting stabbed in the kidneys!

The boss fights are pretty good. It’s sometimes hard to decipher what exactly your strategy should be for fighting your enemy when you have a dozen different forms with their abilities, but I will say that Chronoforce’s time slow ability is always useful.

I was playing on the Legacy Collection and maybe the audio mixing meant for a handheld system doesn’t work for consoles, but I found the music very low. Relistening to the soundtrack off of an album, though, I recall a lot of songs so I can’t say that it’s forgettable. I don’t even know there’s volume levels on Mega Man ZX Advent.

The story isn’t terribly interesting either but this is a fun game to play and explore, despite its flaws.