Mega Man X8

Mega Man X8, known as Rockman X8 (ロックマンX8) in Japan, is a game of the Mega Man X series released for the PlayStation 2 in 2004. The game was later ported to the PC in South Korea, Europe and the United States.

Story
In 21XX, the humans have by now grown weary of Reploids becoming Maverick and their endless rebellions. Thanks to new technology, humans began migrations to the Moon with the "Jakob Project". As part of the project, the Jakob Orbital Elevator was built in the Galápagos Islands, and a highly advanced new generation of Reploids have been created to work in the Moon's surface. However, Vile captured the Reploid in charge of the Jakob Project, Lumine, and several Maverick attacks break out around the world. The Maverick Hunters have to fight against the Mavericks while trying to locate Lumine. After defeating the Mavericks, it's discovered that Sigma was behind the attacks, and he was with Vile and Lumine on the Moon. His plan was to destroy the old Earth to create a new world with "his children," the New Generation Reploids. X, Zero and Axl head to the moon and destroyed Sigma once again, but after Sigma's defeat, Lumine appears to destroy them saying that Sigma's legacy lives on in the New Generation Reploids. After a difficult fight, Lumine was defeated, but not before striking Axl's helmet crystal and rendering him unconscious.

On the trip back, X and Zero ponder the nature of Reploid evolution and Sigma's final death while Axl's crystal gives a faint ominous glow.

Later, Lumine's death halts the future production of copy chips in New Generation Reploids, but due to the need for them in the development of space travel, copy chip production begins again some time later.

Gameplay
Gameplay is largely the same as previous games. Both X and Axl specialize in mid-long range fighting while Zero is the same with close range. X, however, was changed from X7 to be more like his original incarnations in terms of firing. He can only fire straight ahead now, possibly to make his gameplay different from Axl (who can fire in all directions). Axl receives new guns upon defeating Mavericks and can use them indefinitely, like Zero's techniques. Zero can also obtain new weapons from certain Rare Metals that make gameplay with him vastly different. His new weapons include a Glaive, Knuckles, Hammer, Fan and the large sword used by Sigma (available upon starting a new file after completing the game on Normal or Hard difficulty).

Certain enemies (and even bosses) can now execute a "guard", which makes them invulnerable to most attacks. However, the three characters can use "guard break" attacks, allowing them to defeat these enemies. The "guard breaks" are: X's fully charged shot, Zero's third Z Saber slash, and every eighth shot of Axl's Double Bullet rapid fire. Certain Special Weapons can also instantly break guards or ignore barriers, notably Gravity Antonion's weapons and the Sigma Blade.

Double Attack
Destroying enemies in chains and collecting red, diamond-like power-ups fills up the Attack Gauge to the left of the player characters' Life Energy. Filling up this bar allows the players to execute a Double Attack when an enemy is in close proximity. As the name implies, the reserve character appears alongside the player character, and both go on a frenzy, destroying all enemies on-screen, akin to a Giga Attack. Executing this attack as the last attack on bosses, Extra Finish (EXF), allows the player to obtain the highest ranking on the mission. In addition, if a character was killed during the mission, filling up the gauge can also automatically revive that character with half energy.

Metals
Players collect Metals by destroying enemies. These Metals act as currency, used to buy upgrades in the Research and Development Lab section of Maverick Hunter Base. Also hidden in the stages are Rare Metals, which, if collected, unlocks a new item/upgrade in the R&D Lab. The Chips are divided into four categories for characters: All (which includes Sub Tanks, Retry Chips, etc.), X, Zero, and Axl. After unlocking the operators, their categories are also available. Heart Tanks and Sub Tanks can only be obtained by buying them from R&D, but some of them must still be collected as Rare Metals in the game, similar to previous games. If playing on Easy difficulty, the characters start out at maximum health, negating the need to purchase life-ups. Additionally, 1-Ups are represented by Retry Chips. On Easy difficulty, unlimited Retry Chips are given, on Normal, a maximum of five Retry Chips are given and three chips on Hard difficulty. Extra Retry Chips can be bought from the R&D lab. Unlimited Retry Chips are given on Intermissions.

Unlockable characters
Navigators can be unlocked to play, each by using one more than the other two navigators on a mission, then buying them at the R&D for 36,000 metals. This basically allows the player to choose female heroes if they wish. Alia, Layer, and Pallette are X, Zero, and Axl's female equivalents, respectively. They are, however, different in the fact that none of the navigators can use the male's special armors, and Palette cannot use the copy shot. Navigation and plot elements/dialogue are also disabled as a side-effect from using a female hero as part of the team.

Intermissions
Another new feature in Mega Man X8 are Intermissions, which are sort of like mini-games. After completing a portion of the game, a random intermission is unlocked; other intermissions are unlocked by playing the game file over and over. These are unlike normal maverick missions, in that the stages are continuous (possibly infinite, with certain exceptions). All Intermissions can be played over and over, as well as reward a generous amount of Metals, which can be useful in gathering large amounts of Metals for high-priced items in R&D.

 There are four Intermissions: 


 * Noah's Park (intro stage): Defeat as many Crabs-K as possible and survive through a mass of enemies in the waterfall section (where Crabs-Y was fought for the second time). The game keeps record on how many Crabs-K where defeated (with a maximum of 9999 Crabs-K, but the intermission still continues until the player is defeated). The only way to complete the mission is to destroy the claw belonging to Crabs-Y while surviving this stage. This intermission is always available first.


 * Inferno: The player must make their way down through ascending platforms (similar to certain sections in the main stage). The game records on how deep the player descended.


 * Central White: Here the player simply race against time through the icy wilderness, destroying ice walls in the way.


 * Troia Base: Fight all eight Mavericks within a 10-minute time limit.

Bosses


Eight Mavericks: Others:
 * Dark Mantis
 * Bamboo Pandamonium
 * Earthrock Trilobyte
 * Gigabolt Man-O-War
 * Avalanche Yeti
 * Burn Rooster
 * Gravity Antonion
 * Optic Sunflower
 * Crabs-Y
 * Vile V
 * Sigma
 * Lumine

Armors


Mega Man X8 combines the one-part-at-a-time feature of Mega Man X-X4 with the multiple armor feature of Mega Man X5 and Mega Man X6. With the first capsule that X finds, Dr. Light bestows the Neutral Armor upon him. When selecting the Neutral Armor, X is given the choice to mix-and-match the parts he finds onto the Neutral Armor. They come in three sets: The Standard Parts, which X begins the game with; the Icarus Parts (Red) and Hermes Parts (Blue); and the Ultimate Armor (Purple), the latter only being accessible through a code or by starting a new game from a save file being cleared with X reaching 100% on upgrades and cannot be mixed in with other armor parts.

When all of the Icarus Parts or Hermes Parts are equipped at once, the armor is named accordingly, and a special Giga Attack feature is added to the full armor. While equipping the Icarus Armor, X can perform the Giga Crush, and while equipping the Hermes Armor, he can perform the X-Drive. Finally, with the Ultimate Armor, X can perform the invincible dash known as Nova Strike. Unlike the previous versions, a full energy meter is not required to use a Giga Attack, though the effect is lessened (Though in the case of X-Drive, it has the option to be turned on/off).

Both Zero and Axl get armors as well. Zero's is his traditional black armor, but is different from previous games as it can be equipped at the start of a mission rather than a permanent attachment (the original Red Armor can still be chosen). It increases Zero's attack power and allows him for longer dash distance while halving his defense. The code for this armor (for the PS2 version) is: L1(x2), R1(x2), L1(x4)

Axl's armor reduces the damage that he takes, gives him longer dash distance, and allows unlimited hover time while he shoots in the mid-air, as well as unlimited transformation time. The code to unlock this armor (for the PS2 version) is: L2(x3), R2(x3), L2(x3), R2

Demo Version
A demo of this game is available on the PS2 version of Mega Man X: Command Mission. It includes the entire Noah's Park intro stage with some differences:


 * Some of the songs that play (especially the ones before the actual stage) have been improved on the official release.


 * In the English version, Japanese voices for X, Axl, Zero and Alia are used with English dialogs.


 * Hitting pause only gives players the option of returning to the Title Screen.


 * One area that can be opened in the official release, remains sealed here.


 * Only one life is given, and the player must replay the entire stage from the start if defeated at any point in the stage.

Trivia

 * Mega Man X8 was the first game in the series not to be available in Japan first.


 * The Japanese opening theme is "WILD FANG" by Janne Da Arc, from the album JOKER.


 * Although the graphics are 3D, the game is played mostly in a 2D perspective, with the exceptions of Gigabolt Man-O-war and Avalanche Yeti's ride-chaser-esque stages.


 * This is one of only two games, the other being Mega Man X6, in which Sigma is fought as a non-final boss; he is fought at Gateway (the second to the last stage), albeit only a copy, and as the penultimate boss as well. In X5, he is also fought as the first boss in the intro stage.


 * Paradise Lost, an epic by John Milton which this game is named after, Satan (formerly Lucifer) rebels with 1/3 of the Angelic host of heaven. Parallels can be drawn to Lumine and the New-Generation Reploids.


 * The Jakob Orbital Elevator is based on the Biblical story of "Jacob's Ladder" where Jacob, later named Israel, has a dream of a stairway that leads to Heaven that Angels use to travel to Earth. The stairway is shown in Paradise Lost and is destroyed after Adam and Eve eat the forbidden fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.


 * Much like Mega Man X7, Mega Man X8 features no interactive ladders.


 * Cut Man appears as a hidden mini boss with his original 8-bit appearance in Optic Sunflower's stage. If playing the PlayStation 2 version, the memory card must contain a save of Mega Man X: Command Mission or a code can be entered at the title screen. In the PC version, the player must obtain high scores in the training sessions. This makes Mega Man X8 the only X game where the player can fight against a classic Robot Master.


 * This and Mega Man X4 are the only games in the series to have more than one music track per stage. Unlike Frost Walrus, who had a theme for each of his two areas, changes in music only happens in some parts of some stages in Mega Man X8. Most of these are variants of the main stage theme, but all of them have the intention of emphasizing a particular event within the stage (such as the sudden lava rise in Burn Rooster's stage or entering a Ride Armor in Bamboo Pandamonium's stage).
 * The same happens with the Maverick battle theme. On Normal difficulty and up, each of the eight main Mavericks will enter Overdrive mode after sustaining a determined amount of damage (75% in Normal, 50% in Hard). When this happens, they'll execute a special attack and become temporarily immune. The music will switch to a more frantic pace and melody, and will stay like that for the rest of the battle. This is also a feature exclusive to this game.


 * This is the first game in the X series that allows the player to replay the intro stage. This feature was first seen in Mega Man 8 and Mega Man & Bass then later seen in Mega Man Maverick Hunter X and Mega Man Powered Up.