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 PlayStation 2 in 2004. The game was later ported to the PC in South Korea and Europe and is available for download via "digital purchase" from GameStop.

Story
In 21XX, the humans have by now grown weary of Reploids becoming Maverick and their endless rebellions. Thanks to new technology, humans begun 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 happen around the world. The Maverick Hunters have to fight against the Mavericks while trying to locate Lumine.

After defeating the Mavericks, it's discovered Sigma was behind the attacks and he is with Vile and Lumine on the Moon. He plans to destroy the old Earth to create a new world with "his children", the new generation Reploids.

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 gets new guns upon defeating Mavericks and can use them indefinitely, like Zero's techniques. Zero also gets new weapons from certain Rare Metals that make gameplay with him vastly different. His weapons include a Glaive, Knuckle, Hammer, Fan and a large sword used by Sigma (available upon starting a new file after beating 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.

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.

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 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 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.

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 38,000 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.

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).


 * Inferno: Make your 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 in a set time limit. This takes place in the Gateway (not on Troia Base).

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 accesible through a code or by starting a new game from a save file being cleared with X reaching 100% on upgrades.

When all of the Icarus Parts or Hermes Parts are equipped at once, the armor is named accordingly, and a special 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.

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 is white, which 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 (into Reploids) time.The code for this (for the PS2 version) armor is: L2(x3), R2(x3), L2(x3), R2

Demo Version
A demo of this game is available on the PS2 version of Megaman 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.
 * Japanese voices for Megaman, Axl, Zero and Alia are used with English written dialogs (for the English version).
 * Hitting pause only gives you 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.
 * Although the graphics are 3D, the game is played more similarly (with certain exceptions) to previous Mega Man X games, rather than most of X7.
 * This is one of only two games, the other being X5, in which Sigma is not only fought as the final boss; he is fought in the Gateway (2nd to last stage), albeit only a copy, and as the penultimate boss as well.
 * Paradise Lost, an epic by John Milton which this game is named after, Satan (formerly Lucifer) rebells 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 Isarael, 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
 * Unlike most of the games Sigma appears in, he actually was a fake villain rather than an actual main villain, as it turns out in the ending that Lumine was behind all of the events of the game, and Sigma was nothing more than a pawn.
 * Cut Man appears as a hidden mini boss with his original 8-bit appearance in Optic Sunflower's stage.
 * Even though the gameplay of this game is similar to the previous Mega Man X games,there are no ladders in any of the stages.
 * 1-Ups are represented by Retry Chips in this game. Due to this, X, Axl and Zero technically have only one life, with Retry Chips representing the times they can continue in a stage. For Easy Difficulty unlimited Retry Chips are given, for Normal, a maximum of five Retry Chips are given and three chips on Hard Difficulty. Extra Retry Chips can be built by Pallette at the lab. Unlimited Retry Chips are given on intermissions.
 * Mega Man X8 marks the first and only time the player can select to go through the intro stage again on the Stage Select screen. Interestingly, this is also the only title where an Armor Capsule is located in the intro stage (due to the inability to put one in Gigavolt Man-O-War's automatically scrolling stage).