Rolling onward into the next entry in the series, I'm about to tackle MMZ3. Easily my favorite of this quadrilogy. It sports several improvements on the game mechanics and provides some pretty interesting level design. Furthermore, I feel the plot hit a high point in 3 in my opinion. At the very least, I feel it goes far above 1 and 2. Of course, this also means there's going to be quite a deal more talking than the previous entries. As for this LP, expect numerous fuckups in the dialog and some terrible, terrible dub jobs. You have been warned.
Index:
Entry #01: Omega Rises
Entry #02: More Base Exploration
Entry #03: Extreme heat, and me without marshmallows.
The story thus far:
Megaman Zero 1
A group of resistance soldiers are seen fleeing an army of killer machines while searching an ancient lab. While the forces are decimated, Ciel manages to locate Zero, having apparently been in stasis for an extended period of time. Once resurrected, he immediately shows why he's a legendary hero.
However, there is a problem. He is afflicted with severe amnesia, which renders him unable to remember much of his fighting style, his history, or even his name.
Ciel fills him in on the details of his previous life as a maverick hunter, a renowned warrior, and a legendary hero. Then informs him that he's needed once more. His former partner and close friend X has changed quite a bit in the intervening years. He is currently a tyrannical dictator of the last surviving human city of Neo Arcadia.
Amid an energy crisis X made the choice to sacrifice his own kind for the sake of the humans. While the humans were more than happy to continue their affluent and simple lifestyle, the reploids were less pleased by such a thing. Repoids that were deemed unnecessary or that showed any signs of opposing X's regime were rounded up and shipped off to death camps for "retirement". Those that were more fortunate fled the city with Ciel, a human scientist specializing in reploid technology, and founded the resistance.
Their plan is to create a new energy source in the hopes X will change his anti-reploid policy. However, in order to do this they need time and supplies. Both of which are not easy to come by. And that's where Zero comes in. His mission would be to save as many reploids as possible and launch geurilla operations against Neo Arcadia to procure the supplies necessary for Ciel to continue her research. And, in the worst case scenario, he'll also serve as a valuable defense against the NA military.
Being the heroic type and having nowhere else to go, Zero had no choice but to agree.
Things proceed rather smoothly, even though Zero's actions eventually catch the attention of the 4 Guardians: Harpuia, Phantom, Leviathan, and Fefnir. 4 great warriors modeled after X himself who serve as generals of the Neo Arcadian armies. The ensuing battles leave many resistance soldiers dead. But Zero fought on.
Finally, a great opportunity presents itself. Zero is given the ability to attack Neo Arcadia's inner sanctum directly, with the idea being that it'll disrupt the Arcadians long enough for the Resistance to flee to a new location. The plan is a success.
However things became rather complicated. The X in charge of Neo Arcadia is revealed to not be the X Zero knew a century ago. Instead, he is a "perfect copy" created by Ciel, who hoped to use X's fame to unite the humans as well as the reploids. Unfortunately for her, he was not quite as perfect as she had hoped, leading to her guilt over the numerous reploid deaths and her eventual creation of the Resistance. With this revelation, Zero moved onward to eliminate X. And after a long and hard fought series of battles, both X and Hidden Phantom fell. And a huge explosion destroyed Area X.
Zero was assumed dead.
But things were not as they appeared. Zero survived the ensuing explosion and receives a brief farewell speech from the original X, who had been assisting Zero behind the scenes since he awakened. While he had tried his best to repeatedly save the world these past 100 years, he is unable to continue, and leaves it to the only person he can trust to carry on his task: Zero.
Agreeing with his friend's wish, Zero begins waging a one man war against evil.
One Year Later....
Megaman Zero 2
Zero continues wandering the wastelands of the future battling the forces of Neo Arcadia. However, he's grown tired of the fighting and wishes to reunite with the resistance to recover a purpose. After finally wearing himself out, he is rescued by Harpuia and dropped off just outside of a new Resistance base.
Since Z1 they've grown quite a bit. New recruits are easily spotted. They're a more organized force. Their base is considerably more advanced than their previous one. They appear to owe much of this to Elpizo, their new leader. Elpizo is a former Neo Arcadian citizen who was recently labelled a Maverick. Luckily for him he was rescued during the finale of Z1. And with him came the Baby Elf Crea, which has since become the cornerstone of the new energy research. Ciel, seeing Elpizo's abilities to organize and lead, decided to relinquish her leadership position to their new recruit so she could focus more on her research in the hopes it would end the war.
However, their philosophies clashed. While Ciel sought a peaceful resolution through scientific progress, Elpizo believed that the war could only be won through military might. He wished to proceed with "Operation Righteous Strike", a plot to weaken Neo Arcadia's infrastructure and then march resistance troops on the city in the hopes of taking it. Ciel reluctantly gave her approval on the grounds that he not be too severe. Elpizo agreed.
And this is where Zero comes into the picture. Freshly healed and repaired, he's recruited into Elpizo's forces to run a few errands in preparation for the strike. Along the way he acquires a second Baby Elf, Prea.
With Neo Arcadia sufficiently weakened, Elpizo gives the orders to begin Operation Righteous Strike, despite the pleas of Ciel and Cerveau to "wait a little longer". Due to a request from several Resistance seniors, Zero agrees to babysit. He transfers to the front lines of the battle.
When he arrives, he finds the strike zone filled with death. The team Elpizo had built to carry out the strike was completely obliterated, save Elpizo himself who was critically injured. The guardians lead the fight on the Neo Arcadian side. During a discussion with them, it seems they've got a rather negative opinion of Elpizo, and will no longer tolerate the Resistance's existence the way they have in the months following X's death. This operation set NA-Resistance relations back to pre-Z1 levels.
Zero quickly returns to the base to prevent a counterattack. In the ensuing chaos, Elpizo swipes the Baby Elves from Ciel's lab and runs off on a quest for "more power" having clearly lost his marbles during the failed attempt at overthrowing Neo Arcadia.
While pursuing Elpizo in the hopes of talking some sense into him, his plan becomes clear: he wishes to infiltrate a high security area of Neo Arcadia and unseal the Dark Elf, a super powerful cyber elf that was responsible for the Elf Wars, an exceptionally destructive war that left the world in its present state of decay. His plans for this Dark Elf? The complete elimination of humanity. Truly Elpizo had gone maverick.
Zero pursues him deep into Neo Arcadia until he comes to Yggdrasil. The final resting place of the original X, who had helped Zero subdue the Dark Elf during the Elf Wars. As a final act, X had used his body as a sort of final seal on the Dark Elf. Elpizo destroys X and the Dark Elf is once again in a complete form. Using this new power, Elpizo strikes at Zero.
They fight, and Elpizo falls to Zero's blade.
In death, Elpizo realizes what he was doing and shows regret for his actions. The Dark Elf, showing some unusual behavior, then transforms him into a cyber elf. X appears in his cyber elf form to tell Zero that originally the Dark Elf wasn't evil, but had become evil due to the actions of Dr. Weil.
Zero searches his memories for the truth of what the Dark Elf is, and why he feels he knows her. But he can't seem to place the feeling. Possibly due to some leftover amnesia.
Elsewhere, a mysterious voice speaks to "Omega" about the recent developments and tells it to awaken.
Two months have passed since then....