Mega Man Zero 4

"Easily exceeded my expectations"

Mega Man 4 and Mega Man X4 were both tired and uninspired games, so I had all the reasons to believe Mega Man Zero 4 was going to suck.

Thankfully enough, I was wrong.

OVERVIEW:

Mega Man Zero 4 is a two-dimensional, (mainly) non-linear amalgamation of a platformer and shoot 'em up.

CATCH:

The Cyber Elf system is again changed. Now you only have one Cyber Elf that can emulate Nurse, Animal and Hacker effects. Also, chips are no longer found, and you have to build them from enemy parts.

Completely new are the weather conditions and the ingenious Zero Knuckle.

GRAPHICS:

Similar to others, really. There is a really impressive scene in the first stage, and it kind of puzzles me why there wasn't more scenes like that.

SOUND:

The music is great, and so are the sound effects. The voice acting is really annoying this time, and it's kind of shame that you can't just turn it off without turning off all the sounds.

GAMEPLAY:

The Cyber Elf system is changed, or should I say, compressed. Rather than collecting different Cyber Elves, you get one Cyber Elf who can invoke different elf effects. One power of each category (nurse, animal, hacker) can be equipped, and more effects can be gained by raising the Elf with E-crystals. Max Level dictates what kind effects we can use without penalty.

E.g. If I want 4 points extra vitality, extra speed and boost to my weapons while having max level of 4, I will set Nurse to level 2, Animal to level 1 and Hacker to level 4 to get those effects. The combined level will be 7, but since my max level is 4, I take 3 points penalty at the end of the stage.

There are more chips than in MMZ3, but they can not be found from stages or got from bosses. In stead, you need to retrieve enemy remnants and build the chips from them. It's lot like Vagrant Story, really.

The weakness with these systems is that they put focus on mindless killing rather than exploration. It still isn't as tedious as in MMZ and the weather system makes revisiting stages slightly more interesting.

MMZ4 gets rid of both Rod and Shield Boomerang. The replacement more than makes up to it, however. The Zero Knuckle has surprisingly many uses for glorified fist. Zero can rip parts from enemies and use them as subweapons. These include ray cannons, missile launchers, axes, whips, shields, grenades and claws. This is a extension of Mega Man's principle of making enemies taste their own medicine, and the sheer quantity and variety of subweapons easily makes up for the lack of Shield Boomerang.

And it doesn't end here. The stage design takes advantage of the Zero Knuckle, as Zero can hang on rails and yank stuff with it. Not everything Zero can tear apart and use are weapon, as Zero can carry key cards, magnets, lamps and water hoses with him. Zero Knuckle even beats Recoil Rod as far as versatility goes. Eat your heart out, Gravity Gun. The only downside is that Zero Knuckle does not have any EX Skills.

Speaking of EX Skills, the stages can now have different weather conditions. These conditions drastically affect the stage, and player can change them. If the weather conditions are correct, player can extract defeated commander's EX Skill. Player no longer has elemental chips, and the EX Skills have their innate elements.

CHALLENGE:

Mega Man Zero 4 has about the same level of difficulty than MMZ3. Since EX Skills no longer require A rank or higher, they are easier to get. Pantheons are replaced with faster, stronger, better Variant models. Most stages have sub-bosses, and most of them are more irritating than the actual bosses. The first form of the final boss is similar to Dracula, and shouldn't be very hard for Castlevania players. The second form is much harder, partly thanks to the time limit.

There is a Easy Mode that makes things easier, but you can't get EX Skills and Cyber Elf is limited to Lv 5, so it kind of sucks.

STORY:

A group of humans escape from Neo Arcadia, which is now governed by Dr. Weil. They plan to establish a commune to Area Zero, where the space colony Eurasia once crashed. Their caravan is assaulted by Variants, and resistance convoy happening to be nearby comes for help. Zero successfully fends off the threat , but the refugees turn out to be ungrateful bastards, who are distrustful towards reploids and thought Neo Arcadia used to be a paradise. Well, if you discount genocide and totalitarian leadership, it certainly was.

Despite this, Ciel and Zero decide to watch over them. This turns out to be a wise decision, since Weil orders cmd. Craft and Einherjar (Eight Warrior) to carry out operation Ragnarok (Geez, how Norse can you get?). Their goal is to wipe Area Zero from existence and destroy all natural habitats.

The story is inherently Mega Man. The cast is reduced to bare minimum, and almost all characters serve some sort a purpose, and the few plot twists pretty much is all the plot progression this game has.

I couldn't have it any other way.

LONGEVITY:

Mega Man Zero 4 is slightly longer than average Mega Man. The standard Hard and Ultimate Modes bring some replay value, and there are some fairly pointless minigames to be unlocked.

CONCLUSION:

Mega Man Zero 4 was inventive and fresh when I expected tired and uninspired. This is the last Mega Man Zero, and the series certainly was great to the end, rather than leaving the bitter aftertaste like the X series. I'm anticipating MMZX with great expectations.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 09/25/06