History Videogame / MegamanX4

* PromotedToPlayable: While ''X3'' is Zero's actual debut as a playable character, his use is limited and he can't fight bosses. This is the game that gives him a full gameplay experience.

* KillEmAll: [[spoiler:Every character except X, Zero, and Sigma are dead by the end of the game]].

* TemptingFate: One of the darkest instances of the franchise, with X setting up one of the central conflicts of ''VideoGame/MegaManZero'' in the end of his playthrough with a simple request to Zero.[[note]] Even if it's Copy X that's gone maverick in the ''Zero'' series, X himself admits that he lost his innocence over the centuries of fighting and came dangerously close to becoming a maverick himself, which leaves Zero as the one who has to take care of X's former duty to the world.[[/note]]
--> '''Mega Man X''': "Zero...I-If I become a maverick...you ''have'' to take care of me.

* Cyber Peacock, gives [[PlayerGuidedMissile Aiming]] [[EnergyWeapon Laser]] to X, and [[SmartBomb Raku]][[GroundPunch houha]] to Zero; is weak to Soul Body/Ryuenjin.

* Magma Dragoon of the 14th Special Unit, gives [[PlayingWithFire Rising Fire]] to X, and [[FlamingSword Ryuen]][[{{Shoryuken}} jin]] to Zero; is weak to Double Cyclone/Raijingeki.
* Frost Walrus of Repliforce, gives [[ElementalBarrier Frost Tower]] to X, and [[AnIcePerson Hyou]][[SwordPlant retsuzan]] to Zero; is weak to Rising Fire/Ryuenjin.

* RouteBoss: On X's story route, X must fight Colonel twice, first after defeating four Mavericks and then again after all eight are defeated, then X must fight Double in the final stage. on Zero's route, the first battle with Colonel happens in a {{cutscene}}, and then Zero must fight [[spoiler:Iris instead of Double]].

* RouteBoss: On X's story route, X must fight Colonel twice, first after defeating four Mavericks and then again after all eight are defeated, then X must fight Double in the final stage. on Zero's route, the first battle with Colonel happens in a {{cutscene}}, and then Zero must fight Iris instead of Double.

* DoubleAgent: [[spoiler:[[MeaningfulName Double after he decided to show his true colors to X.]] [[DoubleReverseQuadrupleAgent However]], he also says "Mavericks" (the side he supposedly belongs to) as among the "idiots, all of them", implying that his ultimate loyalty isn't to Sigma and is working against him too.]][[note]]This could just be [[DubInducedPlotHole a grammar mistake in the English script]], as Sigma also acts shocked to realize Zero was a Maverick, despite just telling Zero about their original fight.[[/note]]]]

* WhamEpisode: [[spoiler: This is the installment of the series that asks [[WhatMeasureIsANonHuman "What measure of non-human]] [[RidiculouslyHumanRobot are Reploids?"]]

** This theme remains prominent throughout the rest of the X series, and is further explored and taken to its logical conclusion in the ''VideoGame/MegaManZero'' series. Unfortunately, this game suffers from a lot of FridgeLogic due to Repliforce's status as a military complicating things, because the expectation of soldiers (robot or not) obeying the orders of their superiors has been a given for centuries, and the orders they refused were pretty reasonable (disarm and come in for questioning over the destruction of Sky Lagoon, which they were the primary suspects of) while their stated reason for refusing was not (pride). So as far as anyone could tell, this military organization just went rogue, committed a massacre, and told the arresting officers to pound sand. Then when the world governments take this the wrong way and declare them Maverick, Repliforce makes a big speech about not wanting to harm humans and just wanting to make their own nation, but proceeded to send out some of their commanders who committed straight up war crimes, while they themselves built a giant weapon capable of wiping out all life on Earth to retreat to.]]

* ArrogantGodVsRagingMonster: It's revealed that [[spoiler:Sigma and Zero fought before the former went mad and became the series BigBad and the latter becoming a Maverick Hunter. Before X1, Sigma was the noble commander of the Maverick Hunters and the most powerful Reploid built at the time. Once he learned of a "Red Maverick" wrecking havoc and killing Reploids, he voluntarily set out to take care of him on his own to prevent more lives being lost. Zero, the [[TheBerserker Red Maverick]] who was built by Dr. Wily a century prior, had a program error in his brain that made him violent to anything that moved, thus he showed no fear or hesitation as he charged at the more experienced Sigma in a blind rage. Sigma, instead of finishing Zero off from the start with his LaserBlade, choice to fight hand to hand, waiting until Zero had an improvised weapons before drawing his own. For a while, they were even matched, with Sigma having a slight edge, until Zero gained the upper hand and savagely beat Sigma until his arm was ripped off, and half his was torn. Had the Wily symbol, which acted a fail-safe, not caused Zero enough pain to make him stop, Sigma would have lost his life. Though he won the fight, this event led to Sigma being infected by the Maverick Virus due to being in close proximity to Zero.]]

* BittersweetEnding: While X's ending is only somewhat bittersweet, Zero's ending really qualifies for this. [[spoiler:Sigma is once again defeated and the Final Weapon is destroyed along with him, but the Repliforce fiasco has taken untold lives, not just the presumed thousands in the Sky Lagoon crash and the subsequent conflict, but including all of the newly introduced major characters such as Iris, Colonel and General (the former two being killed by Zero, the latter performing a HeroicSacrifice to destroy Final Weapon). Also, Zero tragically rediscovers his former Maverick history as the unwitting source of the Sigma Virus. Even after he saves the day, he even wonders if all reploids will go Maverick after all. Whereas [[VideoGame/MegaManX1 the first]] [[VideoGame/MegaManX2 two games]] ended on a triumphant note and [[VideoGame/MegaManX3 the third game]] on a mildly bittersweet note, this game really ended in a much more melancholy way.]] It also retroactively turns the ending of ''X3'' into a DownerEnding; [[spoiler:we find out in this game that despite his efforts, Dr. Doppler's antivirus is useless against the Sigma Virus in the long run, the latter finding a way to overcome it, and that Sigma didn't even ''need'' to infect others to incite another war, but instead pull strings from the shadows and turn the Maverick Hunters and Repliforce against each other. Doppler's potential HeroicSacrifice was all for nothing.]]

* DoubleAgent: [[spoiler:[[MeaningfulName Double.]]]]
** DoubleReverseQuadrupleAgent: [[spoiler:Double again. He says "Mavericks" (the side he supposedly belongs to) as among the "idiots, all of them", implying that his ultimate loyalty isn't to Sigma and is working against him too.[[note]]This could just be [[DubInducedPlotHole a grammar mistake in the English script]], as Sigma also acts shocked to realize Zero was a Maverick, despite just telling Zero about their original fight.[[/note]]]]

* {{Fauxshadow}}: Happened unintentionally. X, in his ending, tells Zero to retire him if he ever goes Maverick. This was supposed to come to pass in ''Videogame/MegaManZero'' as the original BigBad was the real X who lost his compassion due to countless wars and became a KnightTemplar that Zero has to stop, instead of the copy of X (what ends up happening).

* GuardStationsTerminallyUnattended: Double, X's assistant, reveals himself to be TheMole and starts slaughtering Maverick Hunter coworkers when X's away. One of them tries contacting X, but when X answers, Double kills the guy and then tells X that "it was nothing".

* HonorBeforeReason: After the Sky Lagoon incident, Colonel refuses to disarm his troops to come in for questioning out of pride, which, [[AllThereInTheManual combined with their lackluster performance on the field]], makes Repliforce as a whole look suspicious. Justified, however, in that (as the manual has stated) he was built without the supposed capability of compassion and pacifism that he was supposed to have, thus he lacked the capability of peaceful reasoning.

%%* OminousOwl: Storm Owl.

* SayMyName:

* {{Shotoclone}}: Magma Dragoon.
* SinisterStingrays: Jet Stingray. While most of the Maverick bosses are merely told to be occupying a location, he is stated to have destroyed an entire city during the military coup and is now hiding in the ocean.

* WhamEpisode: [[spoiler: This is the installment of the series that asks [[WhatMeasureIsANonHuman "What measure of non-human]] [[RidiculouslyHumanRobot are Reploids?"]] Whereas before X and Zero's enemies had gone Maverick due to a virus, now they are required to face off against their former allies, the Repliforce. Rather than victims of a virus, Repliforce have simply chosen their own way, independent of the will of their human creators. Their move to create a place of their own, for Reploids only, doesn't even necessarily threaten harm to humankind; it's simply that a group of Reploids acting entirely independent of their human creators causes humanity to label them Mavericks ''as a whole'' in fear of what their freedom and full self-determination might mean. Repliforce's violence is a response to the perceived injustice of this situation, initially begun as a matter of self-preservation and escalating on both sides from there. In the aftermath of this conflict, X begins to seriously worry that one day even he will go Maverick; meanwhile Zero's reality is shattered when he discovers he ''was'' a Maverick previously. Both of them begin to grapple with the possibility that Reploids may eventually, perhaps inevitably, become self-determining to such an extent that the Maverick label will ultimately apply to any and every Reploid who thinks and acts for themselves. This theme remains prominent throughout the rest of the X series, and is further explored and taken to its logical conclusion in the ''VideoGame/MegaManZero'' series. Unfortunately, this game suffers from a lot of FridgeLogic due to Repliforce's status as a military complicating things, because the expectation of soldiers (robot or not) obeying the orders of their superiors has been a given for centuries, and the orders they refused were pretty reasonable (disarm and come in for questioning over the destruction of Sky Lagoon, which they were the primary suspects of) while their stated reason for refusing was not (pride). So as far as anyone could tell, this military organization just went rogue, committed a massacre, and told the arresting officers to pound sand. Then when the world governments take this the wrong way and declare them Maverick, Repliforce makes a big speech about not wanting to harm humans and just wanting to make their own nation, but proceeded to send out some of their commanders who committed straight up war crimes, while they themselves built a giant weapon capable of wiping out all life on Earth to retreat to.]]
* WhenAllYouHaveIsAHammer: Zero only has his [[LaserBlade Z-Saber]], so most of his upgrades give him more powerful or versatile sword techniques.

* WilyWalrus: Frost Walrus is a gigantic robot walrus with ice powers who looks down on the small and weak and acts like a roughneck.

* GuideDangIt: A few:
** Are you wondering why Web Spider is not affected by his weakness, Twin Slasher? Here's a hint the game never tells you about: try hitting his web with ''both projectiles''.
** When playing as X, if you defeat 4 bosses, you get into an intermission with [[spoiler: the Colonel, which results in a boss battle. If you decide to try reloading your save file, you will immediately go to this battle. The battle with the Colonel will be a much harder battle if you did not get any health hearts, body upgrades, nor Frost Tower (Colonel's weakness). Worse, there are no walls to cling on, so you have to dodge his attacks with more precision.]]
** Getting the Body Armor in the Volcano level. There was no mention that full-charging a Twin Slasher would break the rocks.

* NiceHat: Many Repliforce officers wear one, like Colonel, General, Web Spider, Jet Stingray, and Storm Owl.

[[YearX In the year 21XX]], years following the Doppler rebellion, a global Reploid military called "Repliforce" is formed to help combat the constant Maverick uprisings. However, they consistently fail to protect humans, causing humanity to distrust them and their military might. This controversy creates tension between Zero and his sweetheart Iris, who is the sister of Colonel, an influential leader in Repliforce.

* WhamEpisode: [[spoiler: This is the installment of the series that asks [[WhatMeasureIsANonHuman "What measure of non-human]] [[RidiculouslyHumanRobot are Reploids?"]] Whereas before X and Zero's enemies had gone Maverick due to a virus, now they are required to face off against their former allies, the Repliforce. Rather than victims of a virus, Repliforce have simply chosen their own way, independent of the will of their human creators. Their move to create a place of their own, for Reploids only, doesn't even necessarily threaten harm to humankind; it's simply that a group of Reploids acting entirely independent of their human creators causes humanity to label them Mavericks ''as a whole'' in fear of what their freedom and full self-determination might mean. Repliforce's violence is a response to the perceived injustice of this situation, initially begun as a matter of self-preservation and escalating on both sides from there. In the aftermath of this conflict, X begins to seriously worry that one day even he will go Maverick; meanwhile Zero's reality is shattered when he discovers he ''was'' a Maverick previously. Both of them begin to grapple with the possibility that Reploids may eventually, perhaps inevitably, become self-determining to such an extent that the Maverick label will ultimately apply to any and every Reploid who thinks and acts for themselves. This theme remains prominent throughout the rest of the X series, and is further explored and taken to its logical conclusion in the ''VideoGame/MegaManZero'' series. Unfortunately, this game suffers from a lot of FridgeLogic due to Repliforce's status as a military complicating things, because the expectation of soldiers (robot or not) obeying the orders of their superiors has been a given for centuries, and the orders they refused were pretty reasonable (disarm and come in for questioning over the destruction of Sky Lagoon that they were the primary suspects of) while their stated reason for refusing was not (pride). So as far as anyone could tell, this military organization just went rogue, committed a massacre, and told the arresting officers to pound sand. Then when the world governments take this the wrong way and declare them Maverick, Repliforce makes a big speech about not wanting to harm humans and just wanting to make their own nation, but then sent some of their commanders out to commit straight up war crimes, while they themselves built a giant weapon capable of wiping out all life on Earth to retreat to.]]

* WhamEpisode: [[spoiler: This is the installment of the series that asks [[WhatMeasureIsANonHuman "What measure of non-human]] [[RidiculouslyHumanRobot are Reploids?"]] Whereas before X and Zero's enemies had gone Maverick due to a virus, now they are required to face off against their former allies, the Repliforce. Rather than victims of a virus, Repliforce have simply chosen their own way, independent of the will of their human creators. Their move to create a place of their own, for Reploids only, doesn't even necessarily threaten harm to humankind; it's simply that a group of Reploids acting entirely independent of their human creators causes humanity to label them Mavericks ''as a whole'' in fear of what their freedom and full self-determination might mean. Repliforce's violence is a response to the perceived injustice of this situation, initially begun as a matter of self-preservation and escalating on both sides from there. In the aftermath of this conflict, X begins to seriously worry that one day even he will go Maverick; meanwhile Zero's reality is shattered when he discovers he ''was'' a Maverick previously. Both of them begin to grapple with the possibility that Reploids may eventually, perhaps inevitably, become self-determining to such an extent that the Maverick label will ultimately apply to any and every Reploid who thinks and acts for themselves. This theme remains prominent throughout the rest of the X series, and is further explored and taken to its logical conclusion in the ''VideoGame/MegaManZero'' series. Unfortunately, this game suffers from a lot of FridgeLogic due to Repliforce's status as a military complicating things, because the expectation of soldiers (robot or not) obeying the orders of their superiors has been a given for centuries, and the orders they refused were pretty reasonable (disarm and come in for questioning over the destruction of Sky Lagoon that they were the primary suspects of) while their stated reason for refusing was not (pride). So as far as anyone could tell, Repliforce just went rogue, committed a massacre, and told the arresting officers to pound sand. Then when the world governments take this the wrong way and declare them Maverick, Repliforce makes a big speech about not wanting to harm humans and just wanting to make their own nation, but then sent some of their commanders out to commit straight up war crimes, while they themselves built a giant weapon capable of wiping out all life on Earth to retreat to.]]

* WhamEpisode: [[spoiler: This is the installment of the series that asks [[WhatMeasureIsANonHuman "What measure of non-human]] [[RidiculouslyHumanRobot are Reploids?"]] Whereas before X and Zero's enemies had gone Maverick due to a virus, now they are required to face off against their former allies, the Repliforce. Rather than victims of a virus, Repliforce have simply chosen their own way, independent of the will of their human creators. Their move to create a place of their own, for Reploids only, doesn't even necessarily threaten harm to humankind; it's simply that a group of Reploids acting entirely independent of their human creators causes humanity to label them Mavericks ''as a whole'' in fear of what their freedom and full self-determination might mean. Repliforce's violence is a response to the perceived injustice of this situation, initially begun as a matter of self-preservation and escalating on both sides from there. In the aftermath of this conflict, X begins to seriously worry that one day even he will go Maverick; meanwhile Zero's reality is shattered when he discovers he ''was'' a Maverick previously. Both of them begin to grapple with the possibility that Reploids may eventually, perhaps inevitably, become self-determining to such an extent that the Maverick label will ultimately apply to any and every Reploid who thinks and acts for themselves. This theme remains prominent throughout the rest of the X series, and is further explored and taken to its logical conclusion in the ''VideoGame/MegaManZero'' series.]]

* AdaptationalDumbass: The Maverick Hunters in their handling of the suspicion surrounding Repliforce in the Manga. While Repliforce was framed in both, in the game, various Repliforce troops[[note]]the Knot Berrets[[/note]] and equipment[[note]]Kyunbyuun, the wasp enemies[[/note]] were attacking Sky Lagoon, which combined with Repliforce's shoddy reputation (a report in the manual describes Repliforce as being ineffective and potentially dangerous after severely botching some Maverick pacification efforts) would make the Maverick Hunters' suspicion of Repliforce more understandable. In the Manga adaptation however, not only did Repliforce have a much longer, less controversial service record, the sum total evidence that Repliforce was responsible for Eregion's attack on the city was some Repliforce component found in the enemy wreckage. The possibility that it was stolen from Repliforce is never considered by the Maverick Hunters.

* DayInTheLimelight: The game heavily focuses on Zero rather than X. This is apparent when X is chosen, he only has a voiced scene and after defeating Sigma and asks Zero to kill him if he ever goes Maverick. Zero has more story focus, especially with his conflict with Colonel, and losing [[spolier:Iris]].

[[ExtyYearsFromNow In the year 21XX]], years following the Doppler rebellion, a global Reploid military called "Repliforce" is formed to help combat the constant Maverick uprisings. However, they consistently fail to protect humans, causing humanity to distrust them and their military might. This controversy creates tension between Zero and his sweetheart Iris, who is the sister of Colonel, an influential leader in Repliforce.

* AdaptationalDumbass: The Maverick Hunters in their handling of the suspicion surrounding Repliforce. In the game, various Repliforce troops[[note]]the Knot Berrets[[/note]] and equipment[[note]]Kyunbyuun, the wasp enemies[[/note]] were attacking Sky Lagoon, which combined with Repliforce's shoddy reputation (a report in the manual describes Repliforce as being ineffective and potentially dangerous after severely botching some Maverick pacification efforts), would make the Maverick Hunters' suspicion of Repliforce more understandable. In the Manga adaptation, not only did Repliforce have a much longer, less controversial service record, the sum total evidence that Repliforce was responsible for Eregion's attack on the city was some Repliforce component found in the enemy wreckage. The possibility that it was stolen from Repliforce is never considered by the Maverick Hunters.

* AdaptationalDumbass: In the game, various Repliforce troops[[note]]the Knot Berrets[[/note]] and equipment[[note]]Kyunbyuun, the wasp enemies[[/note]] were attacking Sky Lagoon, which combined with Repliforce's shoddy reputation (a report in the manual describes Repliforce as being ineffective and potentially dangerous after severely botching some Maverick pacification efforts), would make the Maverick Hunters' suspicion of Repliforce more understandable. In the Manga adaptation, not only did Repliforce have a much longer, less controversial service record, the sum total evidence that Repliforce was responsible for Eregion's attack on the city was some Repliforce component found in the enemy wreckage. The possibility that it was stolen from Repliforce is never considered.

* EyeBeams: Sigma in the second phase can attack with this.
* FaceHeelTurn: Magma Dragoon, who betrayed the Maverick Hunters.

* FireIceLightning: Magma Dragoon, Frost Walrus, and Web Spider respectively.
* FeatheredFiend: Cyber Peacock and Storm Owl.

* GiantSpider: Web Spider.

* MushroomMan: Split Mushroom.

* OminousOwl: Storm Owl.

* VideogameSettings
** {{Cyberspace}}: Cyber Peacock's stage.
** JungleJapes: Web Spider's stage.
** LethalLavaLand: Magma Dragoon's stage.
** LevelsTakeFlight: Storm Owl's stage.
** LocomotiveLevel: Slash Beast's stage.
** MadScientistLaboratory: Split Mushroom's stage is an abandoned lab full of biological horrors.
** SlippySlideyIceWorld: Frost Walrus' stage.

* UnderlingWithAnFInPR: The leader of the Repliforce, called General, announced their intent of exiling into space to give themselves a new home, supposedly without violence. As Repliforce is supposed to be an army that answers to the government to deal with Maverick threats[[note]]and that, prior to this, they were accused for being responsible for [[ColonyDrop the Sky Lagoon incident]][[/note]], this is met with much suspicion, with the Maverick Hunters (our heroes' group, who, until this point, was Repliforce's ally) declaring the whole Repliforce to be Maverick. Then several elite Repliforce members are dispatched to defend themselves from the Hunters... and 2 of them, Jet Stingray and Storm Owl, would go on to terrorize cities to distract their attention, basically making their "vow of non violence" moot and justifying their Maverick branding.

** [[ShockAndAwe Lighting Web]] can be used to make an [[ImprovisedPlatform improvised wall]] for X to WallJump off of.