ReRise From Your Stasis Chamber (Or: Ray attempts to recover his MMZ LP)*

[Raype]

Entry 1: Wake up, and smell the ashes (below)
Entry 2: The overly literal underground resistance and cyber elf cleanup #1
Entry 3: Waste management and you
Entry 4: Supply Demo + Cyber Elf Cleanup #2
Entry 5: ReResearch Center: Deja Vu Edition
Entry 6: Energy Crisis and NPC Dialogue Roundup
Entry 7: A Necromantic Comedy and FUCKING NEO ARCADIAN MILITARIES, HOW DO THEY WORK!?
Entry 8: I, Mechaniloid and "Daddy, What's a 'Shield Boomerang?'"
Entry 9: Stagg Party
Entry 10: A Guardian of Questionable Gender, Which Way to the Factory?, And Cyber Elf Cleanup #3
Entry 11: Is desertion a problem in the desert armies? And How Resistance's (don't) work
Entry 12: I Ain't 'fraid of No Phantoms
Entry 13: They're in our base, killing our dudes!
Entry 14: OPEN SESAME, Boss Recap, and Symbolism Everywhere!
Entry 15: Triple Threat, Base Dialogue Hoedown #2, And Cyber Elf Cleanup #4: Cleanup Harder
Entry 16: Spikeway to Heaven and NPC Dialogue Party #3
Entry 17: Talking Resistance Member Heads #4: I HUNGER FOR ROBOCOCK and How Zero Broke The Game By Eating Tiny Internet Elves.
Entry 18: The Fall of X
Final Entry: Z-Buster Only Golem and New Game Plus Hijinks

Yes, that's right. While I'm gradually getting around to wrapping up that other LP (it's coming, I swear!) I figured I'd start a little bit of the next one. So here goes:




Post level rating screen:




You're assigned "points" based on how well you met various criteria. For the best rankings, clear the level quickly while killing a lot of enemies and barely taking any damage. If you've ever played DMC, it's the same general ranking system. And they're about equal in terms of difficulty in getting A/S.

The biggest issue is the "elf" ranking. Why? Certain elves are used in a similar manner to heart tanks, sub tanks, upgrades and the like from earlier games. And if you use them to improve your stats, it counts as using an elf. Which drops your points. So if you're upgrading Zero, you aren't going to get good rankings. This is INCREDIBLY AGGRAVATING. But we'll cross this bridge once we come to it.

And now, onto the post mission textdump!




Welcome to our Resistance Base, Zero. This is a shelter for injured Reploids who are suspected of being Mavericks. We have fought so hard to survive....

*Reploid: Think "super advanced robot". Light more or less started things out, X was sort of the first true Reploid (advanced AI, free will. X was pretty much an upgrade of the original megaman.). At this point in technology, the line between "human" and "machine" is rather blurry.

*Maverick: Think "evil robot". Basically something that doesn't follow the asimov esque rules that all machines have built in. If you want to use the term loosely, any robot you fought in a prior game would be a "maverick". Although it's also frequently tied to the Maverick virus that caused machines to rebel against humans or go outright insane.

However, we know that the end is coming...

But that's why we have been looking for you. You are our last hope. Most of us think that Zero is nothing but a fantasy. However, a few still believed in your existence and have looked for you...

You ARE Zero, the legendary Reploid who fought with X to save the world 100 years ago.

(See: the entire X series. Although since they take place over an extremely long period of time, it's hard to tell just how far into the future this game takes place. )

X...? that name sounds familiar.

(Their bromance was legendary.)

X... That legendary Reploid is still alive and he's trying to retire all of us.

(He's also doing science. Yes, you're reading this correctly. X is the BAD GUY.)

X is trying to.... retire you... ?

(Sadly, "Retire" doesn't mean he's shipping them off to florida. To flex my geek muscles:

Retire. Dead. Retire. Dead. RETIRE. DEAD. NO RETIRE.)

His plans have already begun. Many innocent Reploids are being retired as we speak...

(Every time you pronunciate, X kills a reploid.)

We need your help. Our future depends on you... Please help us....


>Ok
>No Way

(I feel like being a dick)

>NO WAY

I understand... You need time to think about it. OKay then, we'll find a way to work it out by ourselves. Still, if you change your mind... please talk to me... Okay?

(Yeah, it's one of those choices. Damn you hobson!)

>OK

Thank you... It's like a dream comes true.

(I doubt her Ph.D is in english. Although it may be in engrish.)

Now.... With your help...

(What is with japan and elipses?)

(And thus begins the tale of Zero the resistance fighter. Slayer of robots. Master of laserswords. The great liberator. Collector of little magic dolls!)

[Raype]

*note: It appears I hit a bug. I caused a cyber elf to spawn where a cyber elf shouldn't. Which means no matter what, I can't get one in the first level. In order to avoid this, make sure you kill a lot of those spider spawning web things until they drop an elf before finishing the level. In order to do this, you have to go back at least once to take out a turret twice.



And the other



I caused the first elf to spawn on top of the second. This leads to glitches, and you get the basic idea. I've already taken care of it. Now on with the show.

So, time for some cyber elf collecting. First up, remember this place?



Yeah, they hid one right at the start. Which I apparently neglected to get. See it right there, peeking out behind that little bit of scenery?



Stopping time is less awesome than it sounds.

Next up, remember this area?



I'm sure Ivolt does. Because PURPLE. Anyway, just cling to that wall and it should be obvious.



Then we just walk to the left until we hit the container



Which contains our first health bar extending cyber elf:



Now time to hit up the base for some unfinished business.

---



Huh? Now what? Did you realize your mistake and decide to give me Energy Crystals?

>Yeah, Alright
>Of course not

(Obviously, we want to. Because being nice pays off)

>Yeah, Alright.

Really?

Thank you so much! But I don't have anything to give you in return. Sorry.

(Thanks for nothing, fatass. I hope you get eaten by rabid turkeys.)

---

No harm, though. Now that he's out of the way we're free to proceed along this hallway







To this room



To this cyber elf container.



Isn't she just the cutest?

[Raype]

Are you ready....? Now, listen. What I want to ask you is if you would try and do something that no one has been able to do so far....

(Make X smile? Earn MM10's Mr. Perfect? Make a MM fan concede that Battle Network actually isn't that bad? Convince Capcom to stop milking their franchises way past the point where they're milking BONE? Wait, "no one has been able to do so far"? Doesn't this sound suspiciously like a suicide mission? You have me for about 5 minutes and you're already trying to get me killed? Fuck you Ciel.)

I want you to destroy the Disposal Center, where they retire out comrades one after another...

(Hawaiin shirts and sunglasses optional.)


Even while I speak, they may be retiring a Reploid who is wrongly suspected of being a Maverick.

(Semlar bot 9000, meanwhile, is guilty as charged. Opinions concerning McCainbot vary.)

To prevent any additional loss of Reploid life, please destroy the enemy facility...

Will you accept?
>Yes
>No

(Not like we have much choice. )



(for those of you that need to know, you can paraphrase his dialogue to "I'm Aztec Falcon. I work for Harpia. I'm just disposing of some trash here. You must be more trash. TIME TO DIE!" And now back to base for more post mission dialogue! )



Zero... Thank you. I never thought I'd see the day when the Reploid Disposal Center is destroyed. Innocent Reploids will be safe for a while...

(It was a pile of junk when I STARTED. It can't be that hard to imagine it reduced to... A PILE OF JUNK.)

Thank you so much, Zero.

You ARE Zero, the legendary Reploid...

(She seems extremely prone to reassuring herself of this. A little TOO prone. Something about this whole thing doesn't feel right...)

I'd like to ask your help again when you have time. That is, if you don't mind doing us favors...

("Are these SEXUAL favors?" Come on, you just KNOW he's thinking that. I mean, if he's anatomically correct.)

Please come and talk to me...

I'll be waiting for you...

(Totally playing up the "helpless female" angle. And apparently loving it. She's a total bitch.)

By the way, if you go to the engine room downsatairs, you'll find our engineer named Cerveau.

(I see what you did there, Capcom. Wait a tic, WHY DOES THIS PLACE HAVE AN ENGINE ROOM!?)

He asked me to give this to you.

It's called the Escape Unit. If you use it during a mission, you will be able to abort that mission and evacuate.

But remember, the mission will be considered to be a failure if you evacuate it.

(So it's best to avoid a premature evacuation)

*YOU GOT THE ESCAPE UNIT!*

(Interesting note, you can actually fail missions and have the plot progress. I won't be doing that, but it's a rather interesting way for things to work. So if I chose to, I could skip every level and go right to the finale, more or less.)

(Interesting note the second: The level I just completed? It's right next to the resistance base. This game more or less uses one bigass map. That gate that's up the elevator shaft and to the far right? No longer guarded, and it lets us walk right on out into the Disposal Center level. Which is good, because it's impossible to reach certain parts of the DC with the trans server.)

------------

Additional commentary: Why does Ray hate Aztec Falcon so much?

Well, numerous reasons. For starters, he's completely immune to L1 buster shots. They just bounce right off. Also, he has a rather lengthy invincibility period after being hit, which means multiple hits with L2 shots is going to take ages to wear him down. And that's assuming he doesn't block it with his completely immune weapon, or the player didn't miss somehow.

There's a non recorded pattern where he's completely immune to shots, which has the added benefit of being rather likely to damage the player if they don't see it coming.

So your best bet to deal with him? Your saber. Which is probably a single slash weapon at this point (mine was up to double slash, which is still not that great). And he can be a pain to deal with in melee. Especially if he whips out the aforementioned pattern, which really fucks with you in melee. Oh yeah, and he's projectile heavy, so there'd be a lot of hit and run. Which takes time. Which hurts your rank. And with the boss taking longer, there's more chance of getting hit or even dying. Do you see where I'm going with this?

To make matters worse, he's a fairly early boss, which means you don't have access to the stuff that makes him easy to kill. Unless, of course, you grinded a little like I did here. And even then, your health bar and defense is too low to leave much room for error. Especially if you get juggled by his attacks due to the knockback.

And just to top it all off, it's a timed bossfight. Granted, the timer is REALLY generous and most players should have no problem taking care of him in the alotted time limit. But it adds some tension and leads to people foolishly trying to tank him, or just making stupid mistakes. Which often leads to death. And assuming the timer hits zero, mission failed. Which REALLY hurts you.

Of course, like all megaman bosses, once you figure out his pattern and learn to react properly, he's fairly simple to deal with provided you're properly prepared and don't mess things up too much. Still, he's known for really chewing up newbies that are used to more forgiving setups and he can be one of the major speedbumps this game throws at you.

Oh, and this is the easier version of him. Hard mode makes him about a million times worse.

--------------------

So, looks like it's time to tackle a further level. But what's this? The game branches here? How peculiar!

Choose an option:

>Begin mission (Start a level)
>Process Data (Save/Load/Etc)
>Talk (Talk to Ciel)

(uh....ciel? Your AI alright? You seem to be resorting to...uh.... I mean, not to alarm you or anything, but I think you're glitching a little bit. Talking in command prompt IS NOT NORMAL.)

So, let's examine our level list, shall we?

>Begin mission

Which mission?
>Destroy Train
>Find Shuttle
>Retreive Data

So it looks like I can freely pick a level out of these.

Destroy Train involves heading into a trainyard to rescue a kidnapped cyber elf from X's forces. Obviously, this eventually leads to a train level.

Find Shuttle sends me off to the desert to rescue the crew of a downed aircraft. As one would expect, deserts SUCK ASS.

And finally, Retreive Data sends be back to the research lab to find some important data. Sadly, this is not the start of a star trek crossover.

As for which I will tackle and when. I shall leave that to you. None of these are currently all that time sensitive, and supposing there's no real preference, I shall do them alphabetically.

[Raype]

As noted earlier, there's a couple cyber elves skipped, as well as a new one that unlocked within the resistance base. So let's get on that.

First, let's go keep an old man company. In a totally platonic way:

---



Umm.... You are a new boy, aren't you. Are you kicking butt, so as to become like the other Reploids?

(Those pansies who're only good for cannon fodder and getting captured? Fuck no.)

Listen, son. Are you interested in what I have to say?

>Yes I am
No I'm busy

(Go with the obvious option. Being nice pays off. Trust me on this one.)


You are interested in my story! Thanks for saying that...

I may notlook it, bit I used to be a handsome Reploid. I was very popular with the ladies.

(Oh boy, not only is he an old bastard, he's a dirty old man. This is gonna be one of those kinky stories, right?)

It was the night of the full moon when it happened....

(Werewolves?)

I was carrying containers in a warehouse at the harbor, when I heard a song drifting over the night air. I looked up to find a beautiful lady with long hair singing in front of the crowd that had gathered at the harbor.

(Girl at the harbor? Possibly a hooker. This is gonna be good...)

I was amazed to find that I was deeply moved by her song though my body and mind are made of machines...

After spending time together and talking, we fell in love, and eventually started living together...

(I...um...wha? Is this some sort of new fetish that appeared? Robosexuals? Must be a hell of a sex life. He's a living vibrator. No wonder the human population is in decline...)


Umm? Are you tired of listening to my story yet?

>Yes
Not at all

(Go with the second option. If you pick the first one, you can't go back. This story is gone forever. As is the reward. Until NG+, at least.)

Oh, you want to listen! I told you up to the time we began to live together, didn't I? I'll continue... As time went by, she grew older and older, while I remained the same. She came to resent how she looked, and began avoiding me. So, I asked Ciel to modify me to be what I am now...

So that we could be together.

(Oh....oh god... )

She has long since passed away, but the memory of her will never be erased from my memory chip...

(I'm sure that's sweeter than it sounds)


Thank you for indulging me with your company and listening to my story. Keep this as a token of my gratitude.

*You got a cyber elf!*

---

Then we just head up that elevator shaft to the top, then head to the right until we end up back at the disposal center level...

Remember that cyber elf container I pointed out?



Yeah, that one. Just dash, slash, and jump a second time. You're probably going to need at least two jumps to get it. Relax, it's not timed this way.

Next, we go almost to the end and we see this:



How do you get it? Looks like you have to make some sort of impossible jump up to that ledge from below, right? Nah.



Just slash out 2 of the 3 segments of that spiked pillar, use it as a platform, then leap up the wall to the top. Then just jump and mash the slash button until you clip through and break the container. Nice and easy.

To get back to the base quickly, just keep going to the right until you hit the trans server. That'll take you back to the base, so you can get back to taking care of some missions.

----



Choose an option
>Begin mission
Process data
Talk

Which Mission?
>Destroy Train
Find Shuttle
Retrieve Data

We want to destroy the enemy transport train in order to disrupt their supply. Based on the report from our scout unit... The enemy train is at the old platform loading cargo... The time to attack is now.

Please help us destroy that train. Will you accept?

(In a true ode to standard geurilla tactics, we seek to disrupt their infrastructure, steal their supplies, and use it against them. Well, at least it's not an ice level!)





Thanks to you, the abducted Cyber-elf has been saved!

(I like how she waited until AFTER we started to tell us about this elf. I don't like her withholding important intel like that from us. Bitch.)

And the enemies' supply route has been cut off...

Thank you very much, Zero. We owe all of this to you.

(And don't you forget it, bitch!)

The Cyber-elf you rescued is only a child. But she is a unique Cyber-elf and will learn an awesome ability, when she grows up. Raise her with love and care...

-----

Zero: Last invention of evil genius inventor, legendary warrior, walking WMD, freedom fighter and... FATHER? I smell a shitty sitcom. Or shitcom, as I call 'em.

I like how we have to be the one to raise the kid. Gee Ciel, I'm a little busy. What, with the whole saving the world thing. What do you do? Besides putting out for high ranked resistance members (remember how her room opens up if you go above B rank...?) and pointing out the obvious? Worst mission control ever.

And what kind of father could I possibly be? I kill people for a living. It's what I've always done. I'm a couple hundred years old. And I'm an amnesiac who can't even remember his own name.

Which says nothing of the fact I'm already running a fucking orphanage in my inventory.



See? That's my cyber elf collection as of right now. That large one among the hackers? That's our elf. Very useful, but it takes a lot of energy crystals to get her to a useable level. And... well, she's a rank dropper. Because that's how elves go. So I can't exactly profit off this collection.

[Raype]

Once again, we find ourselves standing in front of Ciel. Which means it's that time again.



Choose an option

>Begin Mission
>Process Data
>Talk

And now the select our mission choice:

Which mission?

>Find Shuttle Old mission from the first listing. This is 2 vids away
>Retreive Data another old mission. Today's choice
>Occupy Factory A new mission. This one is based around seizing an energy base. Think "Reploid food". It's next in line after this
>Rescue Colbor The other new mission. Colbor is a resistance soldier who was checking out the tunnels in search of a backdoor into Neo Arcadia. It's our job to save his ass

So, next up we tackle the "Retrieve Data" Mission

-----

Do you remember the place in which we met? We had no choice but to escape then, but my research tells me that there remains some very important information for you there.

Wouldn't it have been better to just grab it on our way out? And for that matter, why not fully research the lab BEFORE leading an army of men to their deaths?

The enemies must be trying to obtain it before you do...

Go and retreive it before it's too late...

MMZ: apparently not a fan of class based weapon locks

Will you accept?

>Yes
>No





We have analyzed the data you retrieved...

But, most of the data is damaged and is useless...

Not to self: Next time get the data, THEN kill the boss. Or at least kill the boss in such a way he remains more or less intact. I got a little bit carried away.

The good news is that we can restore the information on your weapon. If you want to know more about it, ask our engineer named Cerveau. I'm sorry that the mission ended poorly, but we hope you will continue to help us.

That's right kiddies, we're about to score our first new weapon. Time to head to Cerveau, who hangs out in the engine room.



Zero, you came just in time. Look at this. It's a weapon called the Triple Rod. You can attack in any of the eight directions. It requires some technique, but I'm sure you'll be able to handle it.

*You got the Triple Rod!!*

So we just scored the triple rod. So what is it? It's pretty much the bastard child of a Z Saber and a spear. The major draw of it is that it can hit in 8 directions and it has really good reach, especially once you level it. Sadly, it kind of lacks the AoE goodness of Zero's Saber, as it's more of a "poke" than a "slash". Also, it starts at L1 (of 5), so it's not quite as good outright. I tend to prefer the saber, but the Rod can be really useful, especially in situations that call for it. I'll be attempting to pull it out in the next installment to give you some idea of how it looks in action.

----

And with that over, I'm gonna go grab that last cyber elf. Remember that shaft I pointed out? The debris fell in such a way that it completely wiped out the level. Fortunately, it also opened up the wall and created this great shaft that leads right to it. Just keep climbing until you hit this room:



Once again, seems like a complicated jump is in order. And you can do that. If you want those energy crystals and you happen to be an idiot. The real trick here is to use our newfound Triple Rod to hit the container through the wall. Just do a wall grab and keep hitting Rod + Up until you nail it. Then we just keep repeatedly wall grabbing until the elf floats down to us. Nice and easy.

And that just about does it. Tune in next time when I assault a factory and take on a boss whose weakness I don't happen to possess. This will be fun. In a very unfun kind of way.

[Raype]

And now, we pull off the occupy factory mission. It all starts with going through Ciel's dialogue tree and selecting Occupy Factory...

----



Unfortunately, our stock of energy is running out...

Energy Stock crashes! Investors snatch up bassnium stock! Turmoil on Wallclimb Street!

If we could use the abandoned factory, we could generate the energy...

Abandoned factory? This is starting to sound like the beginning of a really shitty horror movie.

But the boss guarding the factory is too strong for us to gain control of it... Will you destroy the boss for us?

And here's where we accept the mission. I like how they call it a "boss". The fourth wall is rather shaky at times.





Thanks to you, we have gained control of the factory. Now we can live without the fear of retirement.

And thanks to some of the proposed social security reform, so can you!

Thank you very much. It's like our dream has come true. We feared that we were doomed...

----

So, that's another update down. But wait, shouldn't I wrap up the remaining cyber elves? Sure, I should. But I have to swing back that way later anyway. Plus the directions to get back to the base are probably best illustrated in a later video. So I'll do that. But for now, let's do some NPC dialogue roundup!

*Note: Not all of this dialogue will appear right now, some of it is from earlier.

----

First, let's check in on Alouette, who's found in the same area as before, one floor up from Ciel...

I'd say you are like *Codename here*. That's why you could save Ciel, I guess. Oops, I almost forgot... I heard that a Cyber-elf who was in Ciel's room is missing. It's said to be a baby elf, so I wonder if it lost its way home or something...?

The after effects of our looting expedition

If I become a scientist like Ciel, I want to study Cyber-elves... Ciel is very kind and generous to anyone. I think I should follow her good example. I never felt kindness from others, when I was
in Neo Arcadia...

When I grow up, I wanna be just like Ciel! Yeah, this is foreshadowing. But it won't come to pass until the next major timeskip for the main MM storyline. It's worth noting that Reploids tend to get a lot of shit from humans, and that was before X went full on Final Solution. Then again, you can't exactly blame the humans either. The reploids are near immortal, absurdly powerful, almost indestructible (Zero has been more or less reduced to a pile of scrap metal like 3 or 4 times by this point, the bosses take a lot of abuse before going down and they can still come back later for the obligatory Capcom Bossrush), they have large military organizations more or less completely under their control, and they can go maverick at a moment's notice. Without warning too, since as far as the games illustrate, most mavercks up to this point were created by GODDAMN COMPUTER VIRUSES. And by now there's been human vs machine wars on and off for about 200 years. Some of which have had seriously catastrophic effects on the world and it's human population (reploids tend to be a little less susceptible to some of it, what with the whole "biomechanical" thing they got going on). Which says nothing of the occasional giant robot or random reploid going haywire and killing dozens or even hundreds of people. There's a reason pretty much everything outside of the major cities is filled with burned out ruins, piles of rubble, and inhospitable wasteland.

I wonder if this place is safe. I wish you'd stay and help us, if this place is attacked...

I foresee trouble in our future...

'd never thought about the importance of our existence...

But everything changed when I met Ciel.

Ciel once told me that... I am like a security blanket. That she can feel relaxed, no matter what, as long as I am by her side... That's why I made up my mind to stay with Ciel forever.

This doll is a present from Ciel. She made it for me. To tell you the truth, Ciel is the only human in this base! Are you surprised?

General "Ciel is the greatest" dialogue. Okay, so you get the idea Ciel is extremely important and we get some insight into Al's character. Now let's go see an old man for more ramblings of "the good old days".



Welcome, son. You must have a lot of time on your hands!

Will you spare time to listen to what I have to say?

Say yes, dammit.

I'll tell you a story of when I was a sailor. The first ship I was assigned to was a huge, gorgeous yellow vessel.

He worked in a yellow subma- boat?

Storms and high winds tossed me into the ocean many times during my freshman days. Every time I fell in, I'd cause the crew a lot of trouble.

Wait, can reploids swim? I'm rather curious about this. I've not seen one do it, but I'm not completely sure they wouldn't be able to, if they were lightweight enough and waterproof. But Mega, X, and Zero tend to sink like stones, only gaining the ability to moonjump when submerged.

I can't remember how many times I thought I should quit the job and go back home...

Hmmm? Do you wish to leave now?

Say no. Rewards, man. Rewards.

Okay, let me continue. Time passed, and I became a full-fledged sailor.

Disgusting momentary though: Andrew pulling a Sailor Bubba.

I traveled all over the world and got to meet lots of people, and experienced emotional farewells. There's just as many farewells for that as there are hellos.

It seems the geezer had a woman in every port. Who he used as ports. For is P.E.N.I.S drive.

Funny, I know that some of my bosses were very demanding, yet I only have fond memories of them now. Once peace is restored, I'd like to go see the ocean again.

Thank you for sharing your time. As a token of my gratitude, I'll spare you some Energy Crystal.

And for that, we get some extra crystals. If I'm not mistaken, we'd get the cyber elf if we didn't acquire it earlier.

*Interesting note: Any soldiers rescued thus far will be found throughout the base. Their dialogue tends to be rather pointless, but it's worth noting that they're there, and that all those vacant rooms are now populated
---

And that about wraps up this update. next up: another short update, possibly with some filler text to make it bigger. Maybe I'll cover NA's hierarchy or something. The cyber elf cleanup will have to wait until I get around to rescuing colbor. But we need something before we can do that....

[Raype]

And now it's time for my least favorite mission in this game. Hold onto your hats kids, this is going to be one hell of a painful ride.

----

By now, you know the drill. Go to Ciel, blab for a bit. And we select Find Shuttle



Some of the abducted Reploids seem to have hijacked an enemy transport plane and have now escaped. But the plane disappeared over the desert...

Note that this is one of the few times that the resistance soldiers do anything more than die/get captured/block hallways. Shuttle stealing motherfuckers are hardcore. Also note that it's another rescue mission, but at least it's a nice twist...

They might have crash-landed in the desert, and so we sent our scouts to look for them... However, our scouts are having difficulties due to the hordes of hostile enemies in the area... I'm sorry, but will you go and help their rescue?

And, once again, it's our job to clear the horde of enemies. Since the typical resistance reploid is useless for anything besides a single use human shield. Keep in mind Ciel's escorts from the beginning had a hard time dealing with the basic goomba level pantheon. Hopefullly we get to the shuttle crew before they resort to robo cannibalism.





Another comrade has been saved, thanks to you. According to his report, enemies are planning to conduct a large scale attack on the Resistance Base. If that happens, we will need your help again... We appreciate your continued support, Zero.

They know where we are? And they're mounting an offensive? Good thing I rescued him. This intel will allow us a lot of time to set up some defenses and evacuate the civilians. Maybe even launch a counter offensive to prevent the attack. Or we could just sabotage their plans. I mean, we have this awesome intel and a lot of time to act on it. So we're surely going to be able to prepare for their arri-

*Sirens blare*

God. Fucking. Dammit.

So yeah, next update will be me dealing with the NA invasion. No, it's not actually tied to completing that particular mission. It actually happens after you do X number of levels (pass or fail doesn't really matter). It's just that, with the preferred boss order, it happens right now. I find that fact hilarious.

----

So, my reasons for hating this level should be painfully obvious. It's a long level, it uses the same map as far, far too many levels (and they don't even alter it in an interesting way like the Disposal Center map's retread), it's a goddamned escort mission, it's timed, both you and your partner have to avoid taking much/any damage, the vultures are dicks, and Anubis is a huge, HUGE pain without the fire chip. Basically, picture that fight, but about 2-3 times longer. Also, his patterns get worse as he gets closer to death. Which means you'll have to avoid his staff throws while taking on a LOT of zombies. Zombies who, as illustrated, are combo friendly. And since it takes longer to wear off that last 1/4 bar....

Well, you get the idea. Anubis can be a bit of a bitch to deal with. But no worries, we got FIRE.

----

So, now that we've seen a decent percentage of bosses, I figure it's time to tackle a very important issue here. Specifically, the hierarchy of neo arcadia and how it's structured. We've seen a lot of "subordinate" this and "guardian" that, with some "master X" something or other in there. So, who's giving orders to who?



As clearly indicated, Neo Arcadia's El Presidente For Life is the lovable little blue bastard who now rules with an iron X Buster and is in the process of killing fucking everybody.

Below him, we have the four guardians: Harpuia, Fefnir, Leviathan, and Phantom. These guys are all at the head of a branch of military that NA has. These aren't the "actual terms" of course, but it's more or less equivalent terms here. They also double as personal protectors for X. Think "Secret Service", just with more laser swords.

And then we have the various underlings of the guardians. As a general rule, each of the divisions have their own "gimmick". Harpuia's regimen is filled with fliers/speed, Fefnir is "The Muscle" and his underling Anubis calls several subordinates to attack you, Leviathan's team consists almost exclusively Ice/Water aligned reploids, and Phantom's group has a lot of technical fighters.

Then below that we have the other guys. These tend to be fuckhuge mechaniloids, specially designed pantheon (X like mechs), and general weirdness (one appears to be a mass of SOMETHING with a mechaniloid core). As these tend to be mindless machinery, one would figure they'd be below the machines that can actually, y'know, TALK. And hold rank in a military force.

And below even that we'd have the other mechaniloid/pantheon forces. The general enemies that we spend our levels slashing right through. Weak as shit AI, stupid, small, mass produced, with minimal offensive and defensive equipment. Cannon fodder, basically. Although they do manage to take out the resistance redshirts greenshirts on occasion.

I'll be sure to fill in the additional details as they become available. I figure by the time we hit 4's ending this chart will likely be absurdly huge. But for now, a complete listing of Z1's bosses will have to do.

[Raype]

PREVIOUSLY ON MEGAMAN ZERO:

Zero accomplishes a rescue mission, only to learn of an impending NA invasion. Upon being notified of that, an alarm sounds

----



A giant enemy Mechaniloid is approaching our base. If we don't do something, it will destroy our base in no time!!

By "we", I assume you mean "me", right?

Everyone! Guard the front of our base at all costs! Zero! Go around and attack it from the rear...

So our strategy here is pretty much "shove a Z Saber up it's butt"? I like it.

That should buy us some time...

You are our only hope...

Good luck, Zero.



If you didn't stop the Giant Mechaniloid, the Resistance Base would have become a sitting duck. Thank you, Zero. With your cooperation, maybe peace will be restored...

This is, of course, assuming there's anything left alive by that point. The MM world's definition of peace? Reduce everything that doesn't want peace to pieces.

----

So, now that that's out of the way, whaddya say we go grab that last remaining cyber elf, eh?

So, obviously, we just go up the ladder of the resistance base, and then head to the right until we end up at the Disposal Center Level. Once there, we just go to the backside of the huge yellow thing and drop down the now opened shaft




Just cling to the right wall and slide down. You really can't miss it. This one is sort of noteworthy as being one of our sub tank carrying elves. VERY useful once the game starts turning into an endurance run, at least if you opt to use elves. Which is something I can't do. The pain, the pain!

And with that out of the way, I figure we should kill some time. Been a while since we talked with Cerveau...

----



Zero, I created a new weapon for you! It's called...Oh, I haven't named it yet... Say, I'll call it Shield Boomerang!

Not only can you use the Shield Boomerang to block enemies' bullets, but you can also throw it if you charge it. However, you can't perform a dash while you equip the Shield Boomerang. Keep that in mind.



----

(Disregard the poor numbering system and the discrepancies this causes in future videos. I sorta forgot you could get the SB at this point. Not that I really would have used this weapon anyway, but still...)

So, yeah the shield boomerang is our fourth and final weapon. Very focused on defense, slow, technical, has a good ranged attack, and alright if you intend to use an unusual build. But for all practical purposes, I tend to rag on the thing as being a horrible weapon choice for anything. It won't come up unless I feel the urge to point out how it's pretty much outclassed by everything and there's really no point in learning it since being decent at the game pretty much negates the only real reason you'd ever use it. Not that it even excels at that either.

I see it as little more than a waste of a precious equipment slot.

And that's another update in the bag. Tune in next time when we seek out a secret Neo Arcadia base and perform yet another rescue. Because they were clearly lacking inspiration when coming up with reasons for us to go out and kill shit.

[Raype]

Continuing from last time, now that we've gotten that incident out of the way, it's time to choose a new level. Right now we can: Protect the factory (unlocked after the first factory level), Rescue Colbor (unlocked after destroying the train), Duel in the Desert (Unlocked after taking down anubis. In reality, this is the invasion that resistance soldier was talking about), or Find hidden base (unlocked after taking out ganesh).

In order to make things easier in the short run, we'll be knocking off the "find the hidden base" mission first....

----

Go to Ciel. Hit Up. Select begin mission. Select Find Hidden Base. Prepare for blah blah blah



We have received information that there is a hidden base of the enemy somewhere in the desert, and that they are holding Reploids in it...

For such bumbling idiots, these guys seem surprisingly capable of getting intel at times. Odd...

We have been trying to locate it, but...

If there is a hidden base, and if Reploids are being held there, we must save them as soon as possible... Will you find where the hiden base is? They must be somewhere in the desert...!

Will you accept?
>Yes
>No

Ciel really needs to finish each thought before starting a new one. Also, learn to can those elipses. And the resistance soldiers need to learn how to stop ending up in deep shit every 5 seconds. Anywho, let's get on it





Zero... Thanks to you, as many as seven Reploids have been saved...

Seven reploids. That's THIS MANY. Also, note how she sas "as many as". We actually don't need to rescue all 7 to clear the mission (although you lose points for leaving men (or women) behind. This is their way of covering their asses through bizarre wording, and without having to stick code inside their dialogue.

We cannot thank you enough... You know what? My experiment is going fine so far... Once we succeed in developing a substitute energy, we plan to find a place to live a happy life. Somewhere out of the reach of our enemy, Neo Arcadia...There, we'd like to live in peace, free from the anxiety of hunger in a warm blanket of happiness...

So, wait, what's this "experiment", why is ciel so focused on it, and why is an alternative energy source so important? All in due time.

If that happens... You are going to come with us, aren't you, Zero?

Gentlemen, I do believe that the lady is sweet on us. Zero, being the aloof ladies man that he is, refuses to confirm or deny anything here.
----

And with that, we've freed some more soldiers, repopulated a little more of the base, completed our collection of elemental chips, and unlocked the final mission of the game: "Stop the Hacking".

If you wish to run into those now freed soldiers they're largely found in the Energy Room guarding the crystals. They tend to just thank Zero and one gives out a hint related to a very obvious Resistance Base cyber elf (one that we got ages ago). Nothing of any real importance there.

Since we no longer have to worry about boss weaknesses, the game is completely open at this point. So you're pretty much free to tackle the remaining levels whenever you want.

Tune in next time when I finally get around to rescuing Colbor. Who spent the last several days in extreme danger while we refused to lend a hand. Zero, you're such a dick.

[Raype]

Time to do some guardian slaying, while also performing a long overdue rescue. Time to Rescue Colbor.

----

This mission is access just like all the others. Except this time we select "Rescue Colbor"



One of our comrades named Colbor said he was very sorry that we couldn't help but rely on you.

At least this guy feels bad about it. Unlike the rest of the resistance that makes me do everything and they often don't even try to do shit

He seems to have found a way into their base through the subway area, but we have lost contact with the Colbor team...

I'm willing to wager it's not just the subways having bad reception...

I just hope that he is alright... If you don't mind, will you go and look for him?

Will you accept?
>YES
>No





Thanks to you, our comrade, Colbor was rescued. Thank you so much... He sometimes makes mistakes, but he is a good Reploid at heart. Please forgive him.

I can easily forgive the guy because he TRIED. And used me as a last resort. Unlike the rest of you useless fucks. In any case, the backdoor into NA is apparently a death trap, so it's never heard from again.

----

And now that that's done, we can head over to both that area and the factory to clean up some left over cyber elves.

But before that, it might be a good idea to show how to get there, and where the factory is in the huge map where this game takes place:



With that out of the way, let's clear some cyber elves.

---

First, we'll grab the 3 remaining in the Rescue Colbor mission (since it's slightly closer).

We'll begin by going through that door on the raised platform just before where we started the level where we'll encounter this area:



It's a straight trip right to the elf.

As for the remaining two, we have to go partway into the level. Remember those turtles, particularly the two right next to each other, one of which was behind two break away platforms?



That's it right there. These are pretty straightforward. Just slide or jump down. Once you know they're there, it's pretty easy to grab them.

*Note: If you die while between missions, you get dumped back at the command room (where you talk to ciel). Any items you grabbed will remain intact.

And that covers that mission.

Now onto the factory:

The first leftover elf was inside the wall after the security cameras (they're, thankfully, deactivated, along with all of the factory's other defenses).



Just break that wall and slash away those fans. It's rather obvious where this one was.

Next, we go to that huge bottomless pit for some platform hopping.



Just wall climb up to the top of the platform, then use the pogo stick of doom to clip through the wall and break the container. Then we just stand around until the elf flies right to us.

After the bottomless pit, we just have to climb that ladder and wallclimb until we see this:



Just keep mashing Jump and Saber slash until you break the container. Or use the triple rod or shield boomerang. It should break without much of a problem.

And finally we get the most important Elf in this level, a Nurse Elf that puts a second level to your health bar (like the way the boss' health bars function). Just go to the last ladder of the level (it's below the boss shutters).



Then dash, cling to the left wall, and wait until you clip through the hidden pathway.

And you should end up with a cyber elf list that looks like this:



Default
Time to do some guardian slaying, while also performing a long overdue rescue. Time to Rescue Colbor.

----

This mission is access just like all the others. Except this time we select "Rescue Colbor"



One of our comrades named Colbor said he was very sorry that we couldn't help but rely on you.

At least this guy feels bad about it. Unlike the rest of the resistance that makes me do everything and they often don't even try to do shit

He seems to have found a way into their base through the subway area, but we have lost contact with the Colbor team...

I'm willing to wager it's not just the subways having bad reception...

I just hope that he is alright... If you don't mind, will you go and look for him?

Will you accept?
>YES
>No

Something has gone horribly horribly wrong.





Thanks to you, our comrade, Colbor was rescued. Thank you so much... He sometimes makes mistakes, but he is a good Reploid at heart. Please forgive him.

I can easily forgive the guy because he TRIED. And used me as a last resort. Unlike the rest of you useless fucks. In any case, the backdoor into NA is apparently a death trap, so it's never heard from again.

----

And now that that's done, we can head over to both that area and the factory to clean up some left over cyber elves.

But before that, it might be a good idea to show how to get there, and where the factory is in the huge map where this game takes place:

Something has gone horribly horribly wrong.


With that out of the way, let's clear some cyber elves.

---

First, we'll grab the 3 remaining in the Rescue Colbor mission (since it's slightly closer).

We'll begin by going through that door on the raised platform just before where we started the level where we'll encounter this area:



It's a straight trip right to the elf.

As for the remaining two, we have to go partway into the level. Remember those turtles, particularly the two right next to each other, one of which was behind two break away platforms?

This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 788x274.


That's it right there. These are pretty straightforward. Just slide or jump down. Once you know they're there, it's pretty easy to grab them.

*Note: If you die while between missions, you get dumped back at the command room (where you talk to ciel). Any items you grabbed will remain intact.

And that covers that mission.

Now onto the factory:

The first leftover elf was inside the wall after the security cameras (they're, thankfully, deactivated, along with all of the factory's other defenses).



Just break that wall and slash away those fans. It's rather obvious where this one was.

Next, we go to that huge bottomless pit for some platform hopping.



Just wall climb up to the top of the platform, then use the pogo stick of doom to clip through the wall and break the container. Then we just stand around until the elf flies right to us.

After the bottomless pit, we just have to climb that ladder and wallclimb until we see this:



Just keep mashing Jump and Saber slash until you break the container. Or use the triple rod or shield boomerang. It should break without much of a problem.

And finally we get the most important Elf in this level, a Nurse Elf that puts a second level to your health bar (like the way the boss' health bars function). Just go to the last ladder of the level (it's below the boss shutters).



Then dash, cling to the left wall, and wait until you clip through the hidden pathway.

And you should end up with a cyber elf list that looks like this:



Although you may have one more HP extending Nurse Elf. (It's located over the desert arch, but I can't get there right now...)

----

And that pretty much does it for this long winded update. Tune in next time when we head back to the desert for a duel with another of the guardians.

[Raype]

Time to get some sand between our toes as we battle hordes of foes

----

It should be second nature by now. Go to Ciel, push button, receive mission.



We've got a report that enemies are assembling in the desert area. They haven't started their attack yet, but a large scale assault can be expected.

I like how they actually wait until I decide to do something before they attack. Unlike certain other bosses that have to be all "NO, YOU'RE DOING THIS MISSION NOW". Pushy dicks.

Even though our comrades built barricades and are taking precautions against their attack, I am still worried. If you don't mind, will you go and help them?

Will you accept?
>Yes
>No

Barricades? When we get to the mission it doesn't look like they've barricaded shit.





Thank you, Zero. If our defense line was broken, this Base wouldn't last long...

Without me, you guys wouldn't have lasted 5 minutes. How the hell did you get by before Zero came along?

Still, I can't believe you wiped out such a large number of enemies... You are truly a legendary hero

The rating screen, however, not only believes that I wiped out that many enemies, but says that I should have wiped out a lot more.

----

Looks like we can add another mission to the "complete" pile. And now that the large number of random reploids is gone from the desert arch, you can go get your HP extending elf from the top of it. (I'll be collecting it during the next cleanup).

And in order to pad this update a little, how about we detail how the resistance is set up?

----


As you can see, Ciel sits right at the top of everything. She's also in charge of the energy research (at this point, it seems possible she's the ONLY person involved in energy research....)

Next, we have the actual "doing shit" part of the resistance. Obviously, Zero is a huge part of this. Then we have the recently rescued Colbor and the long dead Milan (Who appears to be there simply so he can die and give us his gun. Or to add some depth to the whole thing by having Ciel lose a friend to war.) We also have the chronic slacker and resident fatass Hibou, who appears to be more of a "base staff" kinda guy. And we also have the various nameless soldiers who we've rescued over the course of the game.

Next, we have Cereau, who happens to be our on site engineer. He keeps our stuff running nicely, and supplies pretty much all of Zero's weapons. Since the resistance is staffed almost exclusively by non humans, he also does double duty as a medic. usually for stuff that can't be fixed easily.

Then we have the civilian groups. Alouette obviously fits in this category, as does the elderly rambler Andrew (with his "if only I was younger" talk being the extent of his active duty), and finally the chronically injured Dande.

Later, things get a bit more structured as the resistance grows and gets a more military minded leader. But that'll have to wait until the sequels....

----

And that about does it. See you next time when I defend our recently acquired factory from a rather obnoxious guardian.

[Raype]

IIIIIIIIIIIIIts that time again. Let's go protect us a factory!

----

DEFEAT DIALOG MAN. YOU GOT: MISSION



Thanks to you, we've gained control of the factory. But I don't think we can hold it forever... Can you go and check on the factory for me?

Sadly (or perhaps fortunately, depending on your point of view) this isn't the start of a factory/safety inspector minigame. Instead, it's yet another "stab things until they die" mission






Zero, I'm sorry that we are always risking your life... How long do we have to live like this, anyway...?

Until the premise runs thin and/or capcom stops turning a profit. Which might be "forever". Or not, as this series (thankfully) avoids that issue.

I'm sorry, I'm kind of depressed... I'll do my best to develop a substitute energy. If we can obtain a substitute energy, we could live happily in a quiet place...

More talk of substitute energy sources. There's actually a very good reason why she feels this way, and is so hellbent on finding an alternate energy source even in the middle of a war. It's not really stated until the sequel though.

Until that happens, I hope to have your continued support, Zero.

Which means we have to keep busting our asses until she figures out a new way to generate energy. Not like several brilliant people have been trying unsuccessfully to find a feasible alternative to fossil fuel based internal combustion for decades, right? RIGHT?

----

No additional statements this time. I figure I'd keep this one relatively short. Tune in next time when I tackle the remaining guardian: Leviathan. Now taking bets on what element it'll be, and what its level gimmick is.

[Raype]

Time for the requisite water level. OH BOY!

----



The main server of the Resistance Base has recently become the target of several malicious hack jobs.

I take it these hack jobs aren't hack jobs, else they'd be easily foiled.

We know that the hackers are in a hidden base located beneath the desert.

If you know where it is, HOW THE FUCK IS IT HIDDEN!? Speaking of which, why didn't NA pull out, and why didn't the resistance bomb the hell out of the base or something? Surely they've procured at least some form of artillery over these last few years. It's not like the NA base is well defended or anything. Ciel cracks the code in about 2 seconds. And it has a tiny defense force. And a backdoor, apparently (we did get out through the boss room, after all.).

If we don't do something about it soon, we will have many problems with the generation project of the new energy.

Shoddy translation get!

Zero, will you sneak into their hidden base and destroy their main computer?

Will you accept?
>Yes
>No

Again, she said "main computer". So this isn't going to end up being a Tron styled level. Although stuff does go that way once reality starts having a shit fit and the internet goes haywire. But that's later...




The MMZ series bosses are apparently less of a sausage fest. It seems having roboboobs and a mechavag isn't a good enough reason to stay off the battlefield anymore. Desperate times and all that.



Attempts to hack into our base have ceased, thanks to you.

Thank god Neo Arcadia only had enough in its budget for one set of supercomputers, and didn't plan for this eventuality. X is apparently a really shitty president. All that warmongering over the last century or so doesn't appear to be helping. Especially since he's throwing multi million dollar weaponry at some lightly armed desert dwelling infantry in the middle of an energy crisis which is surely wreaking havoc on the Neo Arcadian Economy. A resistance which, according to propaganda, are a group of psychotic terrorists whose only motivation is killing shit for no reason. Which was largely true of the last group X wiped out. But these guys haven't done shit. Why does all of this sound familiar....

I'll do my best to achieve my mission to develop a substitute energy. The future of all the Reploids depends on us!

And now that that's over it's time to deal with the final dung-

*Alarm Blares*

Seriously? AGAIN? Motherf-

----

So it appears that we're once again thrust into a forced mission. The last one of the game, in fact. And I cannot do any elf collecting and I figure I'll just keep this update short-ish as well. Tune in next time when we defend our useless comrades yet again.

[Raype]

And now it's time for a huge wall o' text, some actual plot progression, and a short mission video!

----

Last time: We cleared the "stop the hacking" mission and it appeared things were set up such that we'd head to the final area of the game, being that the mission list has been fully polished off. But then, the alarms sounded....




Soldier: We've got a problem!! Enemy troops are attacking our base! We can't hold out much longer! The main gate will be destroyed any minute now!



Begin the evacuation immediately! Remember that the elderly and children take priority!

Considering the number of soldiers, that's pretty much just Alouette and Andrew.

You should also evacuate, Zero. Thank you for having helped us so much...

Ciel, hurry and head for your evacuation transport.

Zero: Proving that chivalry isn't dead, it's just practiced by unparalleled dicks.

It's okay. This is my fault.

Your fault?

Her fault? Repeating lines! And no, it's not because she left the gates unlocked.

The world has become out of control. It's all because of Neo Arcadia... Extreme justice, where peace is maintained by force. Reploids were sacrificed for the happiness of humans.

This sounds suspiciously like the kind of plot summary you find on the back of a box...

It was I who created Neo Arcadia...And it was I who regenerated X... It was I...

Dun dun DUUUNNN! Yeah, this whole time we were cleaning up Ciel's mess. All those people that died? Synthetic blood on her hands. The whole reason X is still up and around? Her. The reason that broken utopia is out there? Yup. And all before hitting 18. Hell, this happened at an age when most little girls are playing with dolls and learning to read. Instead, she played with homicidal sentient super robots and created an orwellian society powered by genocide. If she ever ends up living to Dr. Light's age, robogod help us all.

What? What do you mean "regenerated"...? You resurrected X like you resurrected me?

No. It's different... You are an original, meaning that you are exactly like what you used to be... But X is...

A toaster? A cyborg? A ham radio with teeth? Made of people? Actually a council of about 6 people who call themselves X? SPIT IT OUT GODDAMMIT, THIS IS IMPORTANT.

You should go now... Help everyone evacuate...

You bitch. Just when we were getting some backstory you shut up. Ugh, fine. I'll help those people. But we'd better get some explanation out of you. Or sex. Sex is also good.



Filling in for Dr. "Overly Obvious" Ciel, we have nameless soldier #877-D playing the part of Mission Control

[Raype]

Wait, weren't we evacuating a moment ago?

We have been saved again, thanks to you... Still... As long as X exists, maybe someday...

Yeah, it'd be great if he didn't exist. But don't feel bad, it's not like it's your fault or any- Oh.

So, you'll only be happy if X does not exist... I'll take care of that. Just tell me where he is.

You can go directly to the core of the enemy base with the Trans Server... Unfortunately, we haven't cracked the security system of their Trans Server yet...

Wait, why would NA put a trans server right on their leader's front door? Isn't that kind of like making a single easily accessed button that self destructs your impenetrable nearly invincible battleship and putting it in plain sight? I can understand the accessibility issue, but, really? Sooner or later, someone's gonna crack those codes.

Without the Trans Server, you won't be able to reach your destination easily... And if you are away from the base for such a long time, I don't know what might happen to us...

Ciel is back nameless soldier guy. You can go back to dying or pacing back and forth now. But hey, at least he realizes they're all useless.

*a ? appears over Zero's head*

Huh?

*A golden cyber elf floats down from the cieling. It looks familiar...*



I'VE CRACKED THE SECURITY SYSTEM OF THE TRANS SERVER... I'M SORRY THAT IT TOOK SO LONG... BUT NOW YOU CAN ENTER NEO ARCADIA WHENEVER YOU WANT.

Dude, capslock. Sidenote: The name field says ????

You... You're the one who gave the Z-Saber to me...

NOW GO. TERMINATE THAT COPY OF ME... TERMINATE WITH EXTREME PREJUDICE...

But extreme prejudice is what got us into this mess in the first place!

*The cyber elf floats out of the room via the left door*

Wait, who are you...!? ...... It's not possible...

Did he say that I can now use the Trans Server!?

Yeah, let's just forget about the creepy all caps talking superhacker cyber elf that just floated by.

Yes... He did...

I'm going now! Take care!

Zero, head for the Trans Server. You can trust us to protect this place.

Not bloody likely!

Good luck... Zero...


----

How very convenient this all was. A problem appears and it's subsequently dealt with by magic elves. No, really.

There's some base dialogue if you wander around. I don't believe I'll bother posting it (at least not at this juncture) unless people want it. It largely boils down to "Oh shit, that was crazy. Is Ciel okay?" from the redshirts, Alouette being scared about being deported back to NA, Andrew stating that if only he were a little younger he'd be kicking ass, and Cerveau being really, really worried about Zero (yeah there's...uh....YEAH.)

So, since we're off to Neo Arcadia, let's take a look at the boss listing, shall we?



4 slots left to be filled, 3 levels left to go. Very good. And while this is up, how about I elaborate a little more on my brief comment in this video, the mythological basis of these bosses?

----

In this video, I pointed out that Hanumachine is rather mythologically based. He's not the only one. The original series based each boss around a random object. The X series relied heavily on animals (although things got rather odd as it went on). This series relies on mythology. So how about we take a moment to take a gander into that?

During the prologue, we battled a golem. The general idea here is that they're an incomplete imitation of human life. Being that they're typically large, soulless, obediant, human-like, easily made out of whatever's on hand, and imposing they become a somewhat popular part of various fantasy works. If you come across a fuckhuge army of superhumans, it's probably a bunch of golems. It's worth noting that robots are somewhat analogous to golems, and as the MM storyline goes, mechaniloids being "reploids without souls" built to "carry out tasks" takes this a step further. The golem is an especially good example, being that it's humanoid but appears to lack any intellectual ability beyond carrying out orders. A further note of excellence here is that some of the earlier mentions of golems have them being deactivated by altering text that is inscribed into their head (apparently part of the ritual to create them). How did we stop this golem? By attacking its head. And the only melee attack available at the time? It's an instant kill.

Next there's Aztec Falcon, who appears to be poorly named, being that eagles are typically more associated with the Aztecs. It appears there's little idea behind the character behind "Aztec sounds cool and foreign" and "we need some a bird boss". Of course, the fact that he presides over what's essentially a giant altar where reploids are "sacrificed" for the good of "the people" would appear to align with the popular image of the aztec culture.


Following that, we had the Pantheon Core boss in mission 3. While most people would immediately the temple.the term is actually used in a more general sense of "Pan theos" or "All of the gods". Take note that they're all degraded look-alikes of X and they're EVERYWHERE. And make sure to notice that X has a serious god complex and built an army of clones. Further evidence that X is completely off his nut. In summary, X thinks he's a god now.

Once we took out that guy, we headed back to the lab to battle Maha Ganeshariff. The Maha Ganeshariff. The Maha part obviously referring to his hilarious girth (he's unquestionably the Reploid heavyweight champion of this game). While the Ganeshariff is apparently a way of identifying him as some aspect of Ganesha, the elephant headed hindu god. While there's numerous ideas and interpretations of this guy (hinduism often has varied interpretations of things), it popular ones tend to peg him as a "god of learning". Being that he's essentially a giant walking server, it seems appropriate. A further note of awesomeness is that he's also identified as a remover of obstacles. He's a load bearing boss, and his demise puts a HUGE OBSTACLE IN YOUR PATH. Of course, taking him down also awards you the triple rod. As any cyber elf hunter (or anyone paying close attention to this LP) will tell you, the triple rod is used rather extensively to clip through walls to break containers.

After that whole ordeal, we did battle with the "guard orotic". Said boss has 8 snake like heads. This appears to be a rather direct parallel to Orochi an 8 headed snake monster from japanese mythology. The connection seems rather mild, yes? An 8 headed princess eating monster of japanese folklore seems to only have the 8 headed thing and a name in common with this boss. However, once Orochi was slain, a certain sword was discovered in the corpse. Apparently this uber sword was a rare drop. Anyway, this sword changed hands numerous times over the years, and eventually underwent a name change. Why did this name change come about? The wielder used the sword to burn his enemies to death. Guard Orotic drops a flame chip. Huzzah.

With flame sword in hand, we headed out to the desert to fight Anubis Necromancess III. It's a desert fight against a jackal-esque robot who raises corpses. Not exactly a hard connection to make to the egyptian god of death. Doubly good since he's also a necromancer and specializes in raising the dead (hell that's pretty much his major gimmick). As for the rest, his fight is heavily egyptian themed (the staff, the sumbols on the pillars, it's in a desert, etc.). As for the fire elemental weakness, it's largely based off the concept that undead things tend to be weak to fire. An RPG cliche that I do not seem to recall (or find) any real idea behind. Aside from old monster flicks/novels, but I guess that applies since we're dealing with a mummy here.

After dealing with the desert, we ended up doing battle with Blizzack Staggroff. I am rather unable to find anything in that name that appears to play off much, aside from "durr hurr, russia is cold so we made a russian robot who's ice elemental." I guess they had trouble coming up with enough ideas for this game.

Somewhere in there we also fought the hittite hotide. Somewhat referring to the Hittite tribe. However this particular boss finds its origins more in the Battle of Kadesh. To summarize the idea here, the Egyptians were pushing into the hebrew's territory and were in the middle of a serious push. Cities are falling quickly. Enemies dying left and right. You know the drill. Ramesses II ends up trying to take Kadesh. He largely gets the idea that the enemy forces are more or less rolling out the welcome mat for him to take it, as intelligence states that they're running away. While interrogating some spies a short while later, he ends up having a serious "OH SHIT" moment when he learns that the entire hittite army is more or less bearing the fuck down on him. Not such a big deal, but his forces are spread more than a little thin and he has pretty much no time to do anything. What follows is pretty much an absurdly huge chariot battle that is to the ancient empires what 1940's north africa was to modern tank warfare. Make sure to note that these aren't the smaller more agile chariots you tend to see in movies, and are instead rather sizable and heavy multi-man affairs. So, how did the Egyptians fend off the approaching army? Well, they had a more agile force as opposed to the Hittite's larger and heavier armaments. So they simply used their speed to their advantage by flanking them, in between bouts of sniping. How does this factor into this boss fight? Our somewhat small and brute force challenged army took out a large, extremely tough foe by getting behind it and using our speed to our advantage. Essentially, that whole battle on a smaller scale, but with robots. As for the shield we acquire afterward, it could potentially be a hint towards the fact that the battle ended up being primarily a defensive one for the side we're on.

Once we completed that series of missions, we ended up going toe to toe with the guardians themselves, beginning with Harpuia. A potentially interesting name, being that one of his first attacks to come out is an air throw. As for a mythological grouping, these guys occasionally filled in as wind elemental flying demons who more or less torment the damned and drag them to hell. Harpuia, our flying, wind and lightning elemental boss who has several birdlike feature, is frequently seen as being an active participant in the ongoing "reploid witch hunt", which features (among other things) a subordinate of his (Aztec) killing them. It's also worth noting that these are inhuman monsters that have human faces. Again, Harpuia is a reploid. And one who exists predominantly to do battle and kill things, something he seems rather willing to do as long as it lets him keep his delusions of being a hero. A further hilarious reference here is that the harpies were fended off by the sons of Boreas, god of the (quite cold) north wind. Guess who's weak to ice? Of course, we can add another sort of irony here in that Harpuia is the only boss with a proper 100% guaranteed loop, and harpies are often tied to eternal unending torture. And it's worth noting that the bird-like parallel gets rather "in your face" a while later. But we'll deal with that when the time comes...

Since it seemed like a good idea at the time, we journeyed out to the desert to do battle with Fefnir. The parallels here are rather direct: Both are extremely strong and violent, both are fire based, and both have fuckhuge and powerful alternate forms. It's worth noting that you can use the uneven terrain in this version of his bossfight to your advantage, somewhat mirroring the original myth.

Next in line, we have Hidden Phantom. Being that this one is rather self explanatory, I guess I don't really need to explain how the concept of ghosts would apply to this hard to damage, frequently vanishing, teleporting, and nearly unstoppable foe. Especially once you consider that japanese ghosts tend to be vengeful wandering spirit motherfuckers who can come back from the dead solely to get revenge on a single person. It's worth noting that, much like the other guardians, his name manages to get more meaning as the series drags on.

To conclude our guardian slaying, we topped it off with Fairy Leviathan. To start with, we have the word fairy, yet another human like nonhuman creature ( a recurring trend, being that all guardians and several subordinates appear to work with this convention). Being mischievous magic using and oftentimes elementally based creatures that float about seems an appropriate fit for this boss. Her mission involves computer hacking which is preventing the resistance from carrying out their tasks. She uses extensive ice based attacks. And she flies (or, rather, floats) rather freely during the fight. Her subordinate also carries out what's pretty much a kidnapping of several resistance soldiers (blizzack) and her level is a hidden base located underground not far from the resistance base. Both of which are sort of in line with that. As for the other part of her name, Leviathan would tie more into her EX skill and her affinity for water. The TL ; DR version of what leviathan is pretty much places him as a fuckhuge super powerful nigh invulnerable pant-shittingly horrifying megademon who lurks beneath the waves. He tends to pop up to the surface just long enough for people to catch a brief glimps and proceed to void their bowels. To make matters worse, its mouth is a one way ticket to hell. Essentially, it's the abrahamic religion's Cthulhu. Being that this is japan, they have to turn that into a cute little girl. Because that's their schtick. But it still carries over somewhat (Leviathan is sometimes identified as a sea serpent. This character's EX skill is a near unkillable ice elemental sea serpent.). Also, leviathan is occasionally stated to be a female monster (and in this case, the character is a female, and the only female guardian). Furthermore, the connection to water applies here. And eventually the name kind of sticks a little better once sea monsters get involved.

It's worth noting as well that the 4 guardians of X happen to have more than a little bit in common with the four symbols, being that we have a bird (harpuia), a dragon (Fefnir), a snake (Leviathan), and a tiger (the rather fast guy with touches of white who is obsessed with heroism, Phantom).

And then we hit this installment, wherein I battled Hanumachine. While the name would make you think of Hanuman, the character is more based around the similar-ish Sun Wukong. As pointed out in the video, pretty much every single attack is directly copied right out of this character's movelist. Be it the clones, the extending staff, or the shapeshifting into a killer fireball. Even the boss' appearance (monkey-bot) and his penchance for popping into the base to cause complete turmoil falls more or less in line. Chances are, if you've spent any time with japanese media you've come across this guy in some form.

Spoiler warning:

Among the remaining bosses, we have the Pantheon Ace (pretty much just a flying pantheon) and then we have the Asura Basara. Asura Basara being based off of the Asura almost completely (and it's worth noting that his position kind of fits the mythological positioning of "below the gods".) Of further note is that it's weak to electricity, and depending on how screwball you believe the translation to be, his other name could be hinting at the Vajra. Irregardless, being that it's an important item in eastern religions and this is an obviously eastern religion inspired boss means that it kind of works even without that.

Next, we have Herculious Anchortus. You're probably expecting some sort of Hercules or Heracles inspired rant. Nah, he's a Hercules Beetle who attacks with anchors. Although he does have a few things in common (he's a very brute force centric boss, his level is greek themed, and his element is electricity, possibly owing to his heritage). Also a frequently unmentioned part of the myth states that he had a twin brother. Although, all the godliness, smarts, and strength went to herc. The basic idea to take from this is that the ancient greeks pretty much wrote the script to Twins. And considering the backstory to Dionysus they may have also written Junior. Make of that what you will. Like other things here, this is going to come into play later...

Then we have the Rainbow Devil. Part of this goes back to the classic MM inspired designs that are found all over Neo Arcadia (he's a recycled cameo boss). Although a good point to be made here is that this one uses a pantheon (clone of X) as a core. Possibly alluding to the concept of a devil being that he's a fallen god/angel (pantheon). The angel/god idea becomes especially glaring once we hit X himself. I'll avoid spoiling that too much, but suffice it to say, One Winged Angel, Power Gives You Wings and Holy Halo all apply. IN SPADES.

And now we're off to Neo Arcadia. What appears to be the last (or one of the last) human cities, a technological superpower, and a complete paradise (or so they claim). Built by the survivors of a global apocalypse. Partially noteworthy due to it having a tower that reaches all the way into space, where X (who fancies himself a god) resides. Do I need to say this one? Bonus points go out due to Arcadia featuring both a straight and an ironic name considering the original usage. On several levels, even: the original idea was a city where reploids and humans were in balance. This got corrupted into the hellish city we know today. And it gets worse. So much worse. Also, it's a futuristic super city, green though it may be. Quite unlike the natural lifestyle it's typically tied to. Especially when you consider how it manages to stay afloat. Although, hilariously, much of the world is lifeless wasteland. Seems this passes for nature in the future.

These names are also important on an overall type scale, but that won't make sense until later.