History YMMV / MegamanZero

** Dr. Weil, even from the start, had pretty warped ideas of right and wrong, [[FantasticRacism blaming the entire Reploid race for the crimes of the Mavericks]] and intending to make a way to control them all. It's entirely possible all the suffering and destruction around him at the time (going through the main ''VideoGame/MegaManX'' series alone: the Maverick Wars, [[VideoGame/MegaManX3 the fall of Dopple Town]], [[VideoGame/MegaManX4 the Sky Lagoon Disaster, Repliforce's rebellion]], [[VideoGame/MegaManX5 a colony drop]], the emergence of yet [[VideoGame/MegaManX6 another strain of the Maverick Virus]], [[VideoGame/MegaManX7 the Red Alert rebellion]], ''and'' [[VideoGame/MegaManX8 a large-scale rebellion by the New Generation Reploids]], all in his lifetime) left him severely unhinged.

* IAmNotShazam: Despite the series' name, Zero is still just "Zero", yet "Mega Man Zero" has become a widely used term. This was made fun of in ''VideoGame/MarvelVsCapcom3'' and officially used in ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosUltimate'' to differentiate this version from the ''X'' series design.
* ItWasHisSled: Dr. Weil and Copy X's very existences are common knowledge by now. [[spoiler:Also, Zero's body being a copy of the original Zero along with Omega's true nature and Zero's DyingMomentOfAwesome in the GrandFinale.]]

* WhatDoYouMeanItsForKids: The entire series qualifies, for the reasons listed on the [[NightmareFuel/MegaMan Nightmare Fuel page for the entire franchise]]. There's also the fact that the Neo Arcadian government basically performs systemic genocide on Reploids to "solve" an energy crisis. And the game was rated E in its original release (it was bumped up to T with the release of ''Zero/ZX Legacy Collection'', most likely due to inclusion of the Japanese versions, which had bisected enemies bleed out red oil).

* MagnificentBastard: [[CyberNinja Hidden Phantom]] is the leader of the Zan'ei Army and the most professional of the Four Guardians of Neo Arcadia. Before encountering Zero in front of an old factory, Phantom scatters bombs throughout the building in an attempt to further hinder the heroes. As a ninja, Phantom makes use of several different tricks and tools during the fights against him, showcasing his skills. His desire to [[NobleDemon help others while destroying Mavericks]] is strong enough for him to make a final attempt to kill Zero before he dies. After being encountered in Cyberspace [[VideoGame/MegaManZero3 over a year later]], he decides to test Zero's resolve after having learned that his body is a weaker version of Omega's. Upon defeat, Phantom reacts with dignity, [[DareToBeBadass urging Zero to show the world what he's truly capable of]].

** Ciel with Zero. Thanks to the large amounts of ShipTease between them, many fans warmed up to the pairing better than the original [[DeathByOriginStory doomed]] [[VideoGame/MegaManX4 Zero/Iris]].

* RonTheDeathEater: A rare example ''by the creator himself.'' [[WhatCouldHaveBeen Originally]], X himself [[RogueProtagonist was to become]] a tyrannical KnightTemplar dictator rather than just a clone of him, but ExecutiveMeddling prevented this at the last second, as Creator/{{Capcom}} thought it was too dark. Although Creator/KeijiInafune likely had a reason for X becoming bad, we can at least see the potential of it from the backstory for this game.

** Dr. Weil, even from the start, had pretty warped ideas of right and wrong, [[FantasticRacism blaming the entire Reploid race for the crimes of the Mavericks]] and intending to make a way to control them all. It's entirely possible all the suffering and destruction around him at the time (going through the main ''VideoGame/MegaManX'' series alone: the Maverick Wars, [[VideoGame/MegaManX3 the fall of Dopple Town]], [[VideoGame/MegaManX4 the Sky Lagoon Disaster, Repliforce's rebellion]], [[VideoGame/MegaManX5 a colony drop]], [[VideoGame/MegaManX6 the emergence of yet]] ''[[VideoGame/MegaManX6 another]]'' [[VideoGame/MegaManX6 strain of the Maverick Virus]], [[VideoGame/MegaManX7 the Red Alert rebellion]], ''and'' [[VideoGame/MegaManX8 a large-scale rebellion by the New Generation Reploids]], all in his lifetime) left him severely unhinged.
** Another point for Weil is that the ColonyDrop he was planning might be the only means he thinks he has left to [[DeathSeeker to finally die]], and his VillainBall during the final act of the game is actually an act of goading Zero into finishing him off.

** Dr. Weil, even from the start, had pretty warped ideas of right and wrong, [[FantasticRacism blaming the entire Reploid race for the crimes of the Mavericks]] and intending to make a way to control them all. It's entirely possible all the suffering and destruction around him at the time (going through the main ''VideoGame/MegaManX'' series alone: the Maverick Wars, [[VideoGame/MegaManX3 the fall of Dopple Town]], [[VideoGame/MegaManX4 the Sky Lagoon Disaster, Repliforce's rebellion]], [[VideoGame/MegaManX5 a colony drop]], [[VideoGame/MegaManX5 the emergence of yet]] ''[[VideoGame/MegaManX5 another]]'' [[VideoGame/MegaManX5 strain of the Maverick Virus]], [[VideoGame/MegaManX7 the Red Alert rebellion]], ''and'' [[VideoGame/MegaManX8 a large-scale rebellion by the New Generation Reploids]], all in his lifetime) left him severely unhinged.

** Another just as plausible interpretation for the above is that Copy X's programming ''was'' left intact... or at least [[CameBackWrong as intact as could be]]. Depending on how one views [[{{Necromancer}} Weil's expertise in DNA resurrection]], Copy X MK-II isn't so much the "real deal" as he is ''a copy of a copy'', meaning his data very well [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_loss could have degraded,]] leading to him being even more unstable than the Copy X of the first game. And considering ''that'' Copy X was already a naive PsychopathicManchild, it wouldn't be out of the question to say Weil deliberately chose to revive Copy X for this reason, knowing it'd make it even easier for him to play the EvilChancellor to a PuppetKing (with [[spoiler:the booby trap]] simply being extra insurance).

* EvilIsCool: Copy X's armor would spectacularly break any ''VideoGame/MegaManX'' game, essentially being ''[[VideoGame/MegaManX5 X5]]''[='s=] [[GameBreaker Falcon Armor]] with extra firepower and [[VideoGame/MegaMan5 Charge Man's]] weapon thrown in for fun.

** Likewise, the fate of [[spoiler:X and the Four Guardians]] as of the end of ''Zero 3''. The former indicates he's just about out of [[LivingOnBorrowedTime time]] thanks to the destruction of his body in the previous game, complete with a final TakeUpMySword speech; [[spoiler:Phantom is hanging out in Cyberspace after his TakingYouWithMe moment in ''Z1'', having learned the truth about Zero and [[DareToBeBadass daring him to confront his destiny]]]]; and WordOfGod originally stated (via the ''Complete Works'' book) that [[spoiler:the other three Guardians [[HeroicSacrifice died shielding Zero from Omega's explosion]]]]...only for Creator/IntiCreates president Takuya Aida to later revise that answer: their names were removed from Neo Arcadia's register in the aftermath of the game's events, meaning the public believes them to be deceased, but it's possible they're now fighting for humans somewhere outside of Neo Arcadia's surveillance. [[note]]This version of events actually matches [[https://web.archive.org/web/20130917225900/http://www.capcom-fc.com:80/staffroom/archives/2005/06/_4_1.php U-CAPCOM's response to a fan letter in 2005]] ([[https://kobun20.interordi.com/2013/02/10/fate-of-the-four-guardians/ translated here]]), wherein the dev team noted that the Guardians more or less ended up as [[SequelNonEntity Sequel Non-Entities]] but probably were off somewhere protecting mankind from Weil's oppressive regime.[[/note]] Furthermore, "Vile's Incident"[[labelnote:*]]a story featured with the ''Remastered Tracks Rockman Zero: Physis'' soundtrack that recaps the events of ''Z3'' and ''Z4'' and serves as a WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue two years after ''Z4''[[/labelnote]] contains an image of [[spoiler:X and the Four Guardians]] seemingly observing [[ColonyDrop the fall of Ragnarok]] during ''Z4''[='s=] endgame. While confirmed to be little more than an EasterEgg on the part of series illustrator Toru Nakayama and thus difficult to fit into the timeline, this led to the widespread {{Fanon}} assumption that [[spoiler:the Guardians [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence became]] [[EnergyBeings Cyber-elves]] just like X and live on in Cyberspace along with him]].

** Dr. Weil, even from the start, had pretty warped ideas of right and wrong, [[FantasticRacism blaming the entire Reploid race for the crimes of the Mavericks]] and intending to make a way to control them all. It's entirely possible all the suffering and destruction around him at the time (going through the main
** Is Copy-X in Zero 3 helping Weil entirely of his own accord out of gratitude towards the one who revived him and a desire to prove himself, or is his obedience purely due to having been tampered with by Weil when he was resurrected? Early in Zero 3 he remembers his initial defeat and expresses his desire to make a mark over Zero as the "hero", lending credence to the first interpretation, though the stutter in his voice and the bomb revealed to be inside him makes it clear that he was most certainly altered in some way from how he was originally. It could also easily be both, with Weil altering his personality subtly to ensure he was always receptive to the doctor, but otherwise allowing him free reign.
''VideoGame/MegaManX'' series alone: the Maverick Wars, [[VideoGame/MegaManX3 the fall of Dopple Town]], [[VideoGame/MegaManX4 the Sky Lagoon Disaster, Repliforce's rebellion]], [[VideoGame/MegaManX5 a colony drop]], [[VideoGame/MegaManX5 the emergence of yet]] ''[[VideoGame/MegaManX5 another]]'' [[VideoGame/MegaManX5 strain of the Maverick Virus]], [[VideoGame/MegaManX7 the Red Alert rebellion]], ''and'' [[VideoGame/MegaManX8 a large-scale rebellion by the New Generation Reploids]], all in his lifetime) left him severely unhinged.

* EvilIsCool: Copy X's armor would spectacularly break any ''VideoGame/MegaManX'' game, essentially being ''X5''[='s=] [[GameBreaker Falcon Armor]] with extra firepower and [[VideoGame/MegaMan5 Charge Man's]] weapon thrown in for fun.

** Dr. Weil, even from the start, had pretty warped ideas of right and wrong, [[FantasticRacism blaming the entire Reploid race for the crimes of the Mavericks]] and intending to make a way to control them all. It's entirely possible all the suffering and destruction around him at the time (going through the main ''VideoGame/MegaManX'' series alone: the Maverick Wars, [[VideoGame/MegaManX3 the fall of Dopple Town]], [[VideoGame/MegaManX4 the Sky Lagoon Disaster, Repliforce's rebellion]], [[VideoGame/MegaManX5 a colony drop]], [[VideoGame/MegaManX5 the emergence of yet]] ''[[VideoGame/MegaManX5 another]]'' [[VideoGame/MegaManX5 strain of the Maverick Virus]], [[VideoGame/MegaManX7 the Red Alert rebellion]], ''and'' [[VideoGame/MegaManX8 a large-scale rebellion by the New Generation Reploids]], all in his lifetime) left him severely unhinged.

* BrokenBase: Whether the original plan [[FallenHero to have X himself be the villain of the first game]] rather than Copy X would have been a good idea or not. Some fans think it's a good thing it didn't happen and that it would have derailed his character, not to mention it would prevent the entire ''[[VideoGame/MegaManZX ZX]]'' series from being a thing. On the other hand, a lot of people feel that it was [[TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot an instance of wasted potential]] and would have been much more interesting and emotionally resonant than what actually happened (especially considering that foreshadowing for it exists in the X games themselves).

* CompleteMonster: [[BigBad Dr. Weil]], known in Japan as [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Dr. Vile]], is notable for being one of the most evil beings in the entire franchise. Following the peaceful resolution of the Maverick Wars by the sapient super-program, the Mother Elf, Weil decided that Reploids needed to pay for their crimes. To this end, Weil corrupted Mother Elf by turning her into the Dark Elf, and triggered the Elf Wars. Weil used the Dark Elf and her children, the Baby Elves, to control Reploids and force them to fight each other in massive battles, which resulted in the deaths of 90% of all Reploids and 60% of all humans. Defeated, exiled and transferred into a mechanical body for his crimes, Weil eventually returned a hundred years later, consumed with a thirst for vengeance directed at all life for the perceived crimes against him. Weaseling his way into becoming the supreme ruler of Neo Arcadia, Weil turns it into a [[DystopiaJustifiesTheMeans dystopian hellhole]]. When he breaks his citizens to the point where they're desperate enough to risk escaping into the wastelands to form their own colony, Weil decides to obliterate their new home with a KillSat. When his KillSat is disabled, Weil attempts to [[ColonyDrop drop it upon the colony]], killing everyone in the region. Cruel, megalomaniacal and displaying an unprecedented level of sadism in the series, Weil reveled in the suffering of others and desired nothing less than to make human and reploid alike feel like their existences were living deaths.

* GrowingTheBeard: While the various ''Franchise/MegaMan'' sub-series have all been celebrated, ''Zero'' is often recognized as the one with the most developed themes and narrative out of them all. The first ''Zero'' was a pretty standard ''Mega Man'' story, but starting with ''Zero 2'' the games became much more mature and original than any of their brethren. The fact that ''Zero'' is the only series to have a proper conclusion is indicative of this.

** The antagonists of the first three games in this series all have the Greek letter Omega [[BroughtToYouByTheLetterS as their symbol]]. Sure most of them are {{Knight Templar}}s, but they still [[WellIntentionedExtremist mean well]], fighting for the sake of humanity. But later we're introduced to an actual character named Omega, who is everything that the antagonists (except one) ever stood against.

** Likewise, the fate of [[spoiler:X and the Four Guardians]] as of the end of ''Zero 3''. The former indicates he's just about out of [[LivingOnBorrowedTime time]] thanks to the destruction of his body in the previous game, complete with a final TakeUpMySword speech; [[spoiler:Phantom is hanging out in Cyberspace after his TakingYouWithMe moment in ''Z1'', having learned the truth about Zero and [[DareToBeBadass daring him to confront his destiny]]]]; and WordOfGod originally stated (via the ''Complete Works'' book) that [[spoiler:the other three Guardians [[HeroicSacrifice died shielding Zero from Omega's explosion]]]]...only for Creator/IntiCreates president Takuya Aida to later revise that answer: their names were removed from Neo Arcadia's register in the aftermath of the game's events, meaning the public believes them to be deceased, but it's possible they're now fighting for humans somewhere outside of Neo Arcadia's surveillance. [[note]]This version of events actually matches [[https://web.archive.org/web/20130917225900/http://www.capcom-fc.com:80/staffroom/archives/2005/06/_4_1.php U-CAPCOM's response to a fan letter in 2005]] ([[https://kobun20.interordi.com/2013/02/10/fate-of-the-four-guardians/ translated here]]), wherein the dev team noted that the Guardians more or less ended up as [[SequelNonEntity Sequel Non-Entities]] but probably were off somewhere protecting mankind from Weil's oppressive regime.[[/note]] Furthermore, "Vile's Incident"[[labelnote:*]]a story featured with the ''Remastered Tracks Rockman Zero: Physis'' soundtrack that recaps the events of ''Z3'' and ''Z4'' and serves as a WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue two years after ''Z4''[[/labelnote]] contains an image of X and the Four Guardians seemingly observing [[ColonyDrop the fall of Ragnarok]] during ''Z4's'' endgame. While confirmed to be little more than an EasterEgg on the part of series illustrator Toru Nakayama and thus difficult to fit into the timeline, this led to the widespread {{Fanon}} assumption that [[spoiler:the Guardians [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence became]] [[EnergyBeings Cyber-elves]] just like X and live on in Cyberspace along with him]].

* LoveToHate: Ask any of Weil's fans, they'll say how horrifically despicable he is (and how he never suffers VillainDecay unlike previous {{Big Bad}}s) what makes him such an effective villain. Omega gets this as well, because of his sheer coolness.

** "[[DarkMessiah WARE WA MESSIAH NARI!!]] [[EvilLaugh HAHAHAHA!!]]" [[labelnote:Translation]]"I will be the Messiah!! Hahahaha!"[[/labelnote]] [[labelnote:Explanation (Spoilers!)]]Said by Omega when confronting Zero after the latter learns [[spoiler:his body is a copy of the original possessed by Omega]]. [[EvilIsHammy The delivery of the line]] (courtesy of Creator/JunichiSuwabe) with the dramatic music is what sells it.[[/labelnote]]

* RonTheDeathEater: A rare example ''by the creator himself.'' [[WhatCouldHaveBeen Originally]], X himself was to become a tyrannical KnightTemplar dictator rather than just a clone of him, but ExecutiveMeddling prevented this at the last second, as Capcom thought it was too dark. Although Creator/KeijiInafune likely had a reason for X becoming bad, we can at least see the potential of it from the backstory for this game.
* SavedByTheFans: X. Not from death ''per se'', but from being an AxCrazy dictator. Similar to what happened to [[Franchise/KingdomHearts Axel]], this resulted in his inaction with regards to the Guardians' attempts to kill Zero. The sequels give him other things to worry about and the issue really doesn't come up again.

** Even if they chose to abandon the original plan where X was the villain of the first game in favor of having Copy X, they still could have made it so that some of the foreshadowing from the ''X'' series didn't go to waste. After ''X4'' had Zero be visibly uncomfortable when X wanted him to promise to kill him should he become a Maverick, Zero finds out that the X he will fight is a copy right before the final stage and thus has no qualms about fighting Copy X because he knows that he is not really his former best friend, and Copy X freely admits that he is a copy instead of following through with the masquerade that he is the same Reploid and using it to try to [[HeroicBSOD break Zero]]. Even then, much of Zero and Copy X's dialogue concerns how Zero feels that Copy X doesn't live up to the original without exploring how the latter is a ShadowArchetype representing a path the real X could have taken (and was going to, [[spoiler:which dialogue from the real X confirms was something [[ItGetsEasier he was very close to doing]] [[HeWhoFightsMonsters after fighting for so long]] and the reason for why he chooses to leave the rest up to Zero]]).

** Harpuia's voice is provided by Creator/MegumiOgata, a woman. Plus his name is derived from the legend of the Harpy, half bird, half-''women''. It does not help that he's wearing the exact same clothes as Leviathan (the female Guardian) with a PaletteSwap (what appears to be a [[BareYourMidriff midriff-baring shirt]] and panties).

* CompleteMonster: [[BigBad Dr. Weil]], known in Japan as [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Dr. Vile]], is notable for being one of the most evil beings in the entire franchise. Following the peaceful resolution of the Maverick Wars by the sapient super-program, the Mother Elf, Weil decided that Reploids needed to pay for their crimes. To this end, Weil corrupted Mother Elf by turning her into the Dark Elf, and triggered the Elf Wars. Weil used the Dark Elf and her children, the Baby Elves, to control Reploids and force them to fight each other in massive battles, which resulted in the deaths of 90% of all Reploids and 60% of all humans. Defeated, exiled and transferred into a mechanical body for his crimes, Weil eventually returned a hundred years later, consumed with a thirst for vengeance directed at all life for the perceived crimes against him. Weaseling his way into becoming the supreme ruler of Neo Arcadia, Weil turns it into a [[DystopiaJustifiesTheMeans dystopian hellhole]]. When he breaks his citizens to the point where they're desperate enough to risk escaping into the wastelands to form their own colony, Weil decides to obliterate their new home with a KillSat. When his Kill Sat is disabled, Weil attempts to [[ColonyDrop drop it upon the colony]], killing everyone in the region. Cruel, megalomaniacal and displaying an unprecedented level of sadism in the series, Weil reveled in the suffering of others and desired nothing less than to make human and reploid alike feel like their existences were living deaths.

* CompleteMonster: [[BigBad Dr. Weil]], known in Japan as [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Dr. Vile]], is notable for being one of the most evil beings in the entire franchise. Following the peaceful resolution of the Maverick Wars by the sapient super-program, the Mother Elf, Weil decided that Reploids needed to pay for their crimes. To this end, Weil corrupted Mother Elf by turning her into the Dark Elf, and triggered the Elf Wars. Weil used the Dark Elf and her children, the Baby Elves, to control Reploids and force them to fight each other in massive battles, which resulted in the deaths of 90% of all Reploids and 60% of all humans. Defeated, exiled and transferred into a mechanical body for his crimes, Weil eventually returned a hundred years later, consumed with a thirst for vengeance directed at all life for the perceived crimes against him. Weaseling his way into becoming the supreme ruler of Neo Arcadia, Weil turns it into a [[DystopiaJustifiesTheMeans dystopian hellhole]]. When he breaks his citizens to the point where they're desperate enough to risk escaping into the wastelands to form their own colony, Weil decides to obliterate their new home with a KillSat. When his KillSat is disabled, Weil attempts to [[ColonyDrop drop it upon the colony]], killing everyone in the region. Cruel, megalomaniacal and displaying an unprecedented level of sadism in the series, Weil reveled in the suffering of others and desired nothing less than to make human and reploid alike feel like their existences were living deaths.

** "Megan Man Zero." Once pre-orders for the ''[[CompilationRerelease Zero/ZX Legacy Collection]]'' went live, a few fans noticed that physical stores offering pre-orders (with placeholder cases on the shelves) all had the same hilarious [[https://www.reddit.com/r/Megaman/comments/el4p85/megan_man_zero/ typo]] on the box. People took the name and ran with it.

** Ciel with Zero. Thanks to the large amounts of ShipTease between them, many fans warmed up to the pairing better than the original [[spoiler:[[DeathByOriginStory doomed]]]] [[VideoGame/MegaManX4 Zero/Iris]].

%%* SpiritualAdaptation:
%%** ''Anime/CasshernSins'' is often called "the ''Mega Man Zero'' anime".
%%** ''VideoGame/MetalGearRisingRevengeance'' can be deemed as a 3D ''Mega Man Zero'' game because of their many similarities.
%%** ''Anime/Dororo2019'' for the same reasons as ''Casshern''.
%%** Some have also noted that there are many conceptual similarities with ''ComicBook/NovasAventurasDeMegaman'', though it's generally agreed among those aware of that comic that the ''Zero'' games handle those ideas ''much'' better than the earlier comic did.

* TrueArtIsAngsty: The ''Zero'' series is by far the darkest the franchise has ever gone, and yet it's often held up as some of the finest the franchise has ever offered in terms of writing and characterization, with little of the {{Narm}} that made some of the attempts in the ''X'' series fall flat.

** After looking at Harpuia's motives, personality and the situation he's in, it's pretty easy to feel sorry for him. First introduced as [[TheDragon a loyal right-hand man]] within the Neo Arcadian power structure, he quickly establishes himself as a NobleTopEnforcer and the closest to the original X in temperament and ideals. Come ''Z2'', he's [[DragonAscendant now in command of]] a moderately more benign Neo Arcadia, [[WhatYouAreInTheDark willing to]] [[AdoptTheDog spare enemies like Zero and Elpizo]], and [[HeelRealization expressing doubts about]] [[MyCountryRightOrWrong the administration he's dutifully served since birth]]... just in time for Dr. Weil to swoop in during the third game, reinstate [[CameBackWrong an even more flawed incarnation of Copy X]] as a PuppetKing, and pretty much wipe the slate clean--including [[spoiler:''destroying'' an entire city full of innocent lives]]--when all Harpuia truly desires is peaceful coexistence between human- and Reploidkind. At this point, Harpuia defects in the name of protecting civilians [[spoiler:and ultimately dies so that Zero can live on to finish the job]]. All in all, a TragicHero who spends most of his screen time [[HeroAntagonist fighting for the wrong side]].

** Likewise, the fate of [[spoiler:X and the Four Guardians]] as of the end of ''Zero 3''. The former indicates [[spoiler:he's just about out of [[LivingOnBorrowedTime time]] thanks to the destruction of his body in the previous game, complete with a final TakeUpMySword speech to his old buddy]]; [[spoiler:Phantom is hanging out in Cyberspace after his TakingYouWithMe moment in ''Z1'', having learned the truth about Zero and [[DareToBeBadass daring him to confront his destiny]]]]; and WordOfGod originally stated (via the ''Complete Works'' book) that [[spoiler:the surviving three Guardians [[HeroicSacrifice died shielding Zero from Omega's explosion]]]]... only for Creator/IntiCreates president Takuya Aida to later revise that answer: [[spoiler:their names were removed from Neo Arcadia's register in the aftermath of the game's events, meaning the public believes them to be deceased, but it's possible they're now fighting for humans somewhere outside of Neo Arcadia's surveillance]]. [[note]]This version of events actually matches [[https://web.archive.org/web/20130917225900/http://www.capcom-fc.com:80/staffroom/archives/2005/06/_4_1.php U-CAPCOM's response to a fan letter in 2005]] ([[https://kobun20.interordi.com/2013/02/10/fate-of-the-four-guardians/ translated here]]), wherein the dev team noted that the Guardians more or less ended up as [[SequelNonEntity Sequel Non-Entities]] but probably were off somewhere protecting mankind from Weil's oppressive regime.[[/note]] Furthermore, "Vile's Incident"[[labelnote:*]]a story featured with the ''Remastered Tracks Rockman Zero: Physis'' soundtrack that recaps the events of ''Z3'' and ''Z4'' and serves as a WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue two years after ''Z4''[[/labelnote]] contains an image of [[spoiler:X and the Four Guardians seemingly observing [[ColonyDrop the fall of Ragnarok]] during ''Z4''[='s=] endgame]]. While confirmed to be little more than an EasterEgg on the part of series illustrator Toru Nakayama and thus difficult to fit into the timeline, this led to the widespread {{Fanon}} assumption that [[spoiler:the Guardians [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence became]] [[EnergyBeings Cyber-elves]] just like X and live on in Cyberspace along with him]]. ''ZX'' provided no conclusive evidence either way, [[spoiler:as the aforementioned characters all show up in the form of Biometals]].

** Harpuia, Fefnir, and Leviathan all [[spoiler:died when Omega's body exploded]] at the end of ''Zero 3'', but unless the player paid attention to WordOfGod ([[AllThereInTheManual which was only made available through an artbook]] and [[FlipFlopOfGod has since been called into question by later Word of God]]; see HesJustHiding above), they'd assume [[WhateverHappenedToTheMouse they simply disappeared with no explanation]]. All things considered, some believed they should have had a better sendoff, either in ''Zero 3'' or ''Zero 4''.

** [[BigGood X]]. [[spoiler:The only cure for the virus that they had worked tirelessly in looking for for well over a century is weaponized into a living Maverick-maker. His best friend's body is stolen and converted into a mindless weapon that wipes out most of the planet's already perilous population, with Zero going into an intended eternal stasis, leaving X with basically no shoulder to lean on for moral support. He's forced to manage the virtual entirety of the world's remaining population and all Maverick activity by himself and effectively kill his body in order to seal the aforementioned corrupted cure which not only leaves him off, but leads to his soul then being split into fifths. X is forced to watch as the copy made to take his place ruins the haven that he had so desperately fought to create and preserve and his "offspring" are then tricked into being assassins and strongarms for the sociopathic copy. Finally, X is murdered in his comatose state by a villain who just wanted the Dark Elf in a screwed-up and misguided attempt to save all Reploids from further retirement and destruction. X did not even get a chance to fight back against his assassin. He finally spends the rest of [[VideoGame/MegaManZero4 the following game]] slowly, slowly dying and using every precious ounce of power for the sake of others.]]

%%** After looking at Harpuia's motives, personality and the situation he's in, it's pretty easy to feel sorry for him.

* HesJustHiding: Since even official materials go back and forth on whether or not [[spoiler:Zero died on Ragnarok]] and he has a history of doing this, a common fan theory is that he survived somehow. Made even more confusing in ''VideoGame/MegaManZX'' since [[spoiler:Zero ''does'' reappear, but as a Biometal. Because of this, it doesn't give either argument anything to work with]].

* RonTheDeathEater: A rare example ''by the creator himself.'' [[WhatCouldHaveBeen Originally]], X himself was to become a tyrannical KnightTemplar dictator rather than just a clone of him, but ExecutiveMeddling prevented this at the last second, as Capcom thought it was too dark. Although Creator/KeijiInafune likely had a reason for X becoming bad, we can at least see the potential of it from the backstory for this game.]]

** Even if they chose to abandon the original plan where X was the villain of the first game in favor of having Copy X, they still could have made it so that some of the foreshadowing from the ''X'' series didn't go to waste. After ''X4'' had Zero be visibly uncomfortable when X wanted him to promise to kill him should he become a Maverick, Zero finds out that the X he will fight is a copy right before the final stage and thus has no qualms about fighting Copy X because he knows that he is not really his former best friend, and Copy X freely admits that he is a copy instead of following through with the masquerade that he is the same reploid and using it to try to [[HeroicBSOD break Zero]]. Even then, much of Zero and Copy X's dialogue concerns how Zero feels that Copy X doesn't live up to the original without exploring how the latter is a ShadowArchetype representing a path the real X could have taken (and was going to, [[spoiler:which dialogue from the real X confirms was something [[ItGetsEasier he was very close to doing]] [[HeWhoFightsMonsters after fighting for so long]] and the reason for why he chooses to leave the rest up to Zero]]).
** Harpuia, Fefnir, and Leviathan all [[spoiler:died when Omega's body exploded]] at the end of ''Zero 3'', but unless the player paid attention to WordOfGod, they'd assume they simply disappeared with no explanation. All things considered, some believed they should have had a better sendoff, either in ''Zero 3'' or ''Zero 4''.

* YMMV/MegaManZero1
* YMMV/MegaManZero2
* YMMV/MegaManZero3
* YMMV/MegaManZero4

* AlternateCharacterInterpretation:

** Whether Zero is [[ObliviousToLove aware of Ciel's feelings]], [[JustFriends doesn't feel]] the same way, or doesn't know how to approach them due to his nature as a LivingWeapon. The fact he's both TheStoic and a MasterOfTheMixedMessage doesn't help. Although if "[[ImageSong Clover]]" is to be believed, he [[DidYouThinkICantFeel reciprocates]].
** Dr. Weil, even from the start, had pretty warped ideas of right and wrong, blaming the entire Reploid race for the crimes of the Mavericks and intending to make a way to control them all. It's entirely possible all the suffering and destruction around him at the time (Going through the main series alone; The Maverick Wars, the fall of Doppler Town, the Sky Lagoon Disaster, Repliforce's rebellion, a colony drop, the emergence of yet ''another'' strain of the Maverick Virus, the Red Alert rebellion, ''and'' a large-scale rebellion by the new generation reploids, all in his lifetime) left him severely unhinged.
** Another point for Weil is that the ColonyDrop he was planning might be the only means he thinks he has left to [[DeathSeeker finally]] die, and his VillainBall during the final act of the game is actually an act of goading Zero into finishing him off.
* BrokenBase: Whether the original plan to have X himself be the villain of the first game rather than Copy X would have been a good idea or not. Some fans think it's a good thing it didn't happen and that it would have derailed his character, not to mention it would prevent the entire ''ZX'' series from being a thing. On the other hand, a lot of people feel that it was [[TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot an instance of wasted potential]] and would have been much more interesting and emotionally resonant than what actually happened (especially considering that foreshadowing for it exists in the X games themselves).

* ContinuityLockout: The four games are so continuity-heavy that they only really make sense storywise when played in order back-to-back. Both [[CompilationRerelease re-releases]] thankfully make this a lot easier.

* EvilIsCool: Copy X's armor would spectacularly break any ''VideoGame/MegaManX'' game, essentially being ''X5's'' [[GameBreaker Falcon Armor]] with extra firepower and Charge Man's weapon thrown in for fun.

* GoodBadBugs: The Orbit Shield. Basically, there are two flavors. The first is where you throw the Shield Boomerang, then rush forward and start jumping over it so that you don't catch it and it goes in a circle indefinitely, and the other is the "automatic" version where you jump and throw it against something it'll bounce off of, allowing you to stand idle and let it do its thing (orbit around you, hence the name). While its utility is pretty limited, it makes for a fantastic method of leveling up the Shield Boomerang by making it so you don't have to charge it over and over, as you can do the automatic version in both Zero 1 and Zero 2 (In Z1 on the infinitely recovering tower enemies in the overworld version of the second stage, destroy one block of them first and bounce it off the top, and in Phoenix Magnion's stage in Z2, off the infinitely rising lava buckets). The manual version can also be used to farm kills in Burble Hekelot's stage for the Defense Form without wasting precious time charging it over and over (on the pair of enemies that jump up from the bottom of the screen together and spawn infinitely, before entering the temple portion).
* GrowingTheBeard: While the various ''Mega Man'' sub-series have all been celebrated, ''Zero'' is often recognized as the one with the most developed themes and narrative out of them all. The first ''Zero'' was a pretty standard ''Mega Man'' story, but starting with ''Zero 2'' the games became much more mature and original than any of their brethren. The fact that ''Zero'' is the only series to have a proper conclusion is indicative of this.

** During the ''Alouette's Good Day'' audio drama, Rouge and Joan starting going at each other over the names they've chosen for the two baby elves. It's mostly meant to be funny, but during the discussion Joan points out that Rouge's simulation for Operation Righteous Strike would fall apart under even minimal scrutiny. Joan is proven tragically correct halfway into ''2'' where the entire operation gets every participant besides Elpizo killed, and reduces Elpizo to [[LaughingMad something much worse]].
** In ''VideoGame/MegaMan7'', Mega Man tries to kill Dr. Wily, but is unable to due to his programming before deciding to settle for simply capturing him again in later games. Likewise, Dr. Light's fear of X breaking the first rule of robotics was why X was sealed before ''VideoGame/MegaManX1''. While ''VideoGame/MegaManX4'' reveals that Sigma's ego played a part in the events leading to his corruption and resulting wars, this series shows that Dr. Light was misguided: the first rule is important, but people like Dr. Weil or Dr. Wily just don't deserve that kind of protection- the robot hero killing the human villain is what finally ended the fighting here, and would've ended it 200 years sooner, but without the massive death and destruction from the Maverick Wars.

* IAmNotShazam: Despite the series' name, Zero is still just "Zero", yet "Mega Man Zero" has become a widely used term. This was made fun of in ''VideoGame/MarvelVsCapcom3'' and officially used in ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosUltimate'' to differentiate this version from the X series design.
* ItWasHisSled: Dr. Weil and Copy X's very existences are common knowledge by now. [[spoiler: Also, Zero's body being a copy of the original Zero along with Omega's true nature and Zero's DyingMomentOfAwesome.]]

** "WARE WA MESSIAH NARI!! HAHAHAHA!!"[[note]]I will be the Messiah!! Hahahaha![[/note]] [[spoiler: Said by Omega when confronting Zero after the latter learns his body is a copy of the original possessed by Omega.]] [[EvilIsHammy The delivery of the line]] with the dramatic music is what sells it.
** "Megan Man Zero." Once pre-orders for the ''[[CompilationReRelease Zero/ZX Legacy Collection]]'' went live, a few fans noticed that physical stores offering pre-orders (with placeholder cases on the shelves) all had the same hilarious [[https://www.reddit.com/r/Megaman/comments/el4p85/megan_man_zero/ typo]] on the box. People took the name and ran with it.

* PolishedPort: The ''Zero'' series has the fortune of receiving two great [[CompilationRerelease Collections]].

** The ''Zero/ZX Legacy Collection'' has almost the same features as the aforementioned ''Zero Collection''. The lower screen artwork has been reworked into a dedicated Gallery menu. A new Save Assist system is introduced, removing the tedium of losing lives. The ''Legacy Collection'' also features original music and remixes of the most iconic tracks of the series (with the PC version gaining a small modding scene), as well as a speedrun mini-game in the form of Z-Chaser. Finally, you can switch between the Japanese and Western versions of the games as you like.

** Ciel with Zero. Thanks to the large amounts of ShipTease between them, many fans warmed up to the pairing better than the original [[spoiler: [[DeathByOriginStory doomed]]]] Zero/Iris.
** Neige with Craft and Andrew with his wife, some of the most blatant examples in the entire [[strike: series]] franchise.
** Some fans ship Zero with Fairy Leviathan. Leviathan's overall rather playful and (later on) obsessive attitude makes it very easy to interpret it as her having a crush on Zero. DatingCatwoman probably helps in this case.

* RonTheDeathEater: A rare example ''by the creator himself.'' Originally, [[spoiler: [[WhatCouldHaveBeen X himself was to become a tyrannical]] KnightTemplar [[WhatCouldHaveBeen dictator]] rather than just a clone of him, but ExecutiveMeddling prevented this at the last second, as Capcom thought it was too dark. Although Keiji Inafune likely had a reason for X becoming bad...at least, we can see the potential of it from the backstory for this game.]]
* SavedByTheFans: X. Not from death per se, but from being an AxCrazy dictator. Similar to what happened to [[Franchise/KingdomHearts Axel]], this resulted in his inaction with regards to the Guardians' attempts to kill Zero. The sequels give him other things to worry about and the issue really doesn't come up again.

** Even if they chose to abandon the original plan where X was the villain of the first game in favor of having Copy X, they still could have made it so that some of the foreshadowing from the ''X'' series didn't go to waste. After ''X4'' had Zero be visibly uncomfortable when X wanted him to promise to kill him should he become a Maverick, Zero finds out that the X he will fight is a copy right before the final stage and thus has no qualms about fighting Copy X because he knows that he is not really his former best friend, and Copy X freely admits that he is a copy instead of following through with the masquerade that he is the same reploid and using it to try to [[HeroicBSOD break Zero]]. Even then, much of Zero and Copy X's dialogue concerns how Zero feels that Copy X doesn't live up to the original without exploring how the latter is a ShadowArchetype representing a path the real X could have taken (and was going to, [[spoiler:which dialogue from the real X confirms was something he was very close to doing [[HeWhoFightsMonsters after fighting for so long]] and the reason for why he chooses to leave the rest up to Zero]]).
** Harpuia, Fefnir, and Leviathan all [[spoiler: died when Omega's body exploded]] at the end of ''Zero 3'', but unless the player paid attention to WordOfGod, they'd assume they simply disappeared with no explanation. All things considered, some believed they should have had a better sendoff, either in ''Zero 3'' or ''Zero 4''.
* ToughActToFollow: Not the games, but the music. The Classic and X series became so remembered by their awesome music that the music of the first game was perceived as forgettable because it could not measure up to those of the other series. The sequels sought to have better music.

** Harpuia's voice is Creator/MegumiOgata, a woman. Plus his name is derived from the legend of the Harpy, half bird, half-''women''. It does not help that he's wearing the exact same clothes as Leviathan (the female Guardian) with a PaletteSwap (what appears to be a [[BareYourMidriff midriff-baring shirt]] and panties).
** Cubit Foxtar is based on a Kitsune, which can change genders, hence his androgynous appearance. Curiously, he is portrayed as a female in the original Japanese games.

** Polar Kamrous, despite the matching build and deep voice, is female. Weirdly enough, the Complete Works book refers to Kamrous as [[FlipFlopOfGod male]].
* WhatDoYouMeanItsForKids: The entire series qualifies, for the reasons listed on the [[NightmareFuel/MegaMan Nightmare Fuel page for the entire franchise]]. There's also the fact that the Neo Arcadian government basically performs systemic genocide on Reploids to solve energy crisis. And the game was rated E in its original release (it was bumped up to T with the release of ''Zero/ZX Legacy Collection'', most likely due to inclusion of the Japanese versions, which had bisected enemies bleed out red oil).

** Ciel. In two separate occasions, she thought that she was doing the right thing, but it only ended up giving rise to worse problems. The first one would be for creating Copy-X, who went insane and started a genocide against the Reploids. The Resistance is partly her effort to make amends for what she's done. The second time was successfully researching an energy source that she believes would put an end to the war, only for it to be a catalyst to a new conflict. Mind you, this is a person who longs for peace as much as X, and she is very young at the series' start, and also human. And then there's the fact that, at series' end, [[spoiler:she is waiting faithfully for Zero to come back, when it was completely impossible.]]

** [[BigGood X]]. [[spoiler:The only cure for the virus that they had worked tirelessly in looking for for well over a century is weaponized into a living maverick-maker. His best friend's body is stolen and converted into a mindless weapon that wipes out most of the planet's already-perilous population, with Zero going into an intended-eternal stasis, leaving X with basically no shoulder to lean on for moral support. He's forced to manage the virtual entirety of the world's remaining population and all maverick activity by himself and effectively kill his body in order to seal the aforementioned corrupted cure which not only leaves him off, but his soul is then split into fifths. X is forced to watch as the Copy made to take his place ruins the haven that he had so desperately fought to create and preserve and his "offspring" are then tricked into being assassins and strongarms for the sociopathic copy. Finally, X is murdered in his comatose state by a villain who just wanted the Dark Elf in a screwed-up and misguided attempt to save all reploids from further retirement and destruction. X did not even get a chance to fight back against his assassin. He finally spends the rest of the following game slowly, slowly dying and using every precious ounce of power for the sake of others.]]

* WoobieSpecies: Reploids, who are subjugated and oppressed by Copy-X's forces. By the start of the first game, countless Reploids have been unjustly branded as Mavericks and killed to preserve power for humans.
* {{Woolseyism}}: Some of the boss names are changed overseas. In particular, Dr. Weil's name was originally Dr. Vile. There's already [[VideoGame/MegaManX another guy who's named Vile]] (who is originally called [[Franchise/StarWars V]][[ShoutOut A]][[WritingAroundTrademarks VA]]), so the name change is to avoid confusion. If pronounced in German, it can still be read as "vile". There's also the fact that it's quite meaningful in its own right (being the BigBad, Dr. Weil is the Dr. Wily of the Zero series).

** The ''Zero/ZX Legacy Collection'' has almost the same features as the aforementioned ''Zero Collection''. The lower screen artwork has been reworked into a dedicated Gallery menu. A new Save Assist system is introduced, removing the tedium of losing lives. The ''Legacy Collection'' also features original music and remixes of the most iconic tracks of the series (not to mention the possibility of including mods), as well as a speedrun minigame in the form of Z-Chaser. Finally, you can switch between the Japanese and Western versions of the games as you like.

* ContinuityLockout: The four games are so continuity-heavy that they only really make sense storywise when played in order back-to-back. Both [[CompilationRerelease re-releases]] thankfully makes this a lot easier.

* RonTheDeathEater: A rare example ''by the creator himself.'' Originally, [[spoiler: [[WhatCouldHaveBeen X was to become a tyrannical]] KnightTemplar [[WhatCouldHaveBeen dictator]], but ExecutiveMeddling prevented this at the last second, as Capcom thought it was too dark. Although Keiji Inafune likely had a reason for X becoming bad...at least, we can see the potential of it from the backstory for this game.]]

** The ''Zero/ZX Legacy Collection'' has almost the same features as the aforementioned ''Zero Collection''. The lower screen artwork has been reworked into a dedicated Gallery menu. A new Save Assist system is introduced, removing the tedium of losing lives. The ''Legacy Collection'' also features original music and remixes of the most iconic tracks of the series, as well as a speedrun minigame in the form of Z-Chaser. Finally, you can switch between the Japanese and Western versions of the games as you like.

* ContinuityLockout: The four games are so continuity-heavy that they only really make sense storywise when played in order back-to-back. Both [[CompilationRerelease Compilation Re-releases]] thankfully makes this a lot easier.

* ContinuityLockout: The four games are so story-heavy that they only really make sense storywise when played in order back-to-back. The DS CompilationRerelease thankfully makes this a lot easier.

* YMMV/MegamanZero1
* YMMV/MegamanZero2
* YMMV/MegamanZero3
* YMMV/MegamanZero4

* AnticlimaxBoss:
** Despite all of the buildup to him in the first game, Copy X is a surprisingly easy final boss, especially compared to the bosses and Four Guardians you just fought again beforehand, mainly due to his predictable, easy to avoid attack patterns and lack of stamina. The second phase has a few cheap attacks at its disposal that'll kill Zero in a hurry if you let your guard down, but as a trade-off, you can defeat him with just a few fully charged Z-Saber strikes. [[FridgeBrilliance It makes sense from a story standpoint]], since it hammers home that he's an inferior copy of X.
** Elpizo from the second game. If you can avoid his six-orbs energy absorption attack, you can pretty much dodge anything else he throws at you. His second form is arguably even easier, basically being a large floating target in the middle of a large empty walled room with easy-to-dodge attacks. Compare this with the spike-laden stage that you have to traverse to get to him, as well as the BossRush in between. A few blows from your charged Z-Saber will destroy his second form in a matter of seconds.
** Omega's first 2 forms, thanks to the GBA limitations, are slower and more predictable than what is implied from the story. His first form is a repeat of the first fight against him (the ''first boss'' in the game) with faster attacks and one new one that are still easy to dodge. Once the intimidation factor of his [[AttackOfThe50FootWhatever huge second form]] goes away, you realize how telegraphed and slow his attacks are.
* BreatherBoss:
** In the first game:
*** Anubis Necromancess III's attacks are relatively easy to dodge, although both the Zombies and the scepter deal a lot of damage. The technique of the crushing structures is fairly easy to avoid.
*** Fairy Leviathan is arguably the easiest of the four Guardians normally. She makes up for it later, while Fefnir actually got somewhat weaker. Harpuia in the first game, however, stands out as being a [[AIBreaker total idiot]] who doesn't know what to do about being hit with ice attacks. He will always respond to one with the same attack where he sends three shockwaves, one low, one high, and another one low. This takes long enough that you can build up another charge, even without a fully leveled weapon (or in Hard Mode where the Shield Boomerang is the only thing you can charge) and weave through to clock him again. Rinse, repeat, and he's down with minimal effort.
** For the second game:
*** Somehow, Harpuia got ''easier.'' Besides his EX attack, he heavily telegraphs every attack he makes, and while his AI isn't as broken as it was last game, he can ''still'' be knocked into a predictable, easily dodged combo. The only way he'll pose any threat is if you let him set up his Options and do ''nothing'' to immediately destroy them; which more or less means standing there and doing nothing.
*** The Armored Phenomenon forms of the the Guardians take away their maneuverability and generally heavily telegraph every single move they have. Fairy Leviathan's ''does'' have some issues with certain tells for when she charges, but otherwise all of them are easier than the normal forms of the Guardians, which is fairly impressive for Harpuia.
*** For normal bosses, Phoenix Magnion ''if'' you figure out his gimmick. He'll only ever counter your attempts to hit him; so if you just use a weak slash and then catch him with a charge shot when he retaliates, you can completely control the flow of the fight. If you have the lightning chip, it's entirely possible to stop him from ever once attacking.
** For the third game:
*** Volteel Biblio is ''annoying'', but by now you have ice attacks and a rudimentary understanding of how to play this game. He takes so long to actually attack that any threat of him filling the screen with difficult-to-avoid projectiles is nonexistent. And when he leaves his hidey-holes, he's just combo fodder.
** For the fourth game:
*** Maoh the Giant. He's more difficult than the intro bosses, but anyone with even a small degree of skill with Zero's mobility will run circles around him, ''especially'' considering he follows [[ThatOneBoss Commander Craft.]]

* ContestedSequel: The opinion on whether ''Zero 4'' matches the quality of the previous two games varies. Some consider Zero Knuckle, the chip system and having only one Cyber-elf major innovations, while others don't think they quite match the part system and the Satellite-elves of ''Zero 3''. However, almost everyone can agree that ''Zero 4'' wraps up the overarching storyline of the saga in a very satisfying way.

* EvenBetterSequel: ''Zero 2'' was already a SurprisinglyImprovedSequel for ''Zero 1'' but ''Zero 3'' perfects the formula. It is widely considered the best in the series and one of the best Mega Man games ever made. Satellite-elves were considered the most obvious improvement, as you could mix and match between two of them at any point in the game without affecting the rank. This game also introduced additional head, armor and foot parts you could customize to your liking. Of all the new weapons, Recoil Rod was praised for being more or less a combination of the best parts of both Triple Rod and Chain Rod [[note]]The stage design, boss fights and finding secrets greatly encourages the use of Recoil Rod[[/note]]. The weapon skills were scrapped altogether, meaning you didn't have any need to grind anymore. The story was also considered the best with increasingly higher stakes and has a more interesting and menacing villain in Dr. Weil when compared to Copy X and Elpizo in the previous entries.

* FauxSymbolism:
** At the end of the first game, Cyber-Elf X starts projecting an image of himself in a blue robe when talking to Zero. A halo also appears above his head in this form.
** Copy-X. If his first form full of angelic wings isn't enough, in his OneWingedAngel form, he almost literally turned into a seraphic angel. Add to the fact that he's fighting Zero, a crimson-horned reploid.

* GoddamnedBoss:
** Volteel Biblio of the third game; a large portion of his fight is akin to a whack-a-mole, except that the holes are spread far apart. His head will appear in one hole while his tail will appear in another, shooting a slow homing ball of electricity.
** Pegasolta Eclair of the fourth game has a clever but annoying tendency to fly up to avoid your attack. He can only be attacked if he's attacking, which you'll have a hard time with since spends most of his time far from the ground.
** Mino Magnus is annoying: He's weak to ice attacks, but he has HitboxDissonance due to his invulnerable shoulders. His magnetizing GrappleMove will cripple you and make you more vulnerable to his magnetic attacks, and his DetachmentCombat attack needs quite the timing and fingerwork to avoid.

* HilariousInHindsight: During the "Stop The Hacking" mission in the first game, Ciel urges Zero to "Find the computer room". VideoGame/ShadowTheHedgehog would turn the same line into [[MemeticMutation a meme]] a few years later.

* MoralEventHorizon:
** Copy-X crossed the line in the first game by committing genocide against the Reploids.
** Elpizo crosses it when he destroys X. This even applies InUniverse, as he is the only final boss with no dialogue between changing forms for Zero, while Zero does talk a little with Weil, Copy X and Omega.
* PlayerPunch: Elpizo aims for getting the Dark Elf, and to do so, he had to destroy the [[SealedInsideAPersonShapedCan seal]], X's body. [[spoiler: When Zero finally catches up to him near the seal, he [[ForcedToWatch forces Zero to watch]] by binding him with the Baby Elves' powers as he stabs X's body, destroying it and releasing the Dark Elf.]]

* ScrappyMechanic:
** While the Cyber-Elf system isn't bad by itself, the first game punished the player with a lower rank for using them ''at all'' despite them being a major selling point. Later games toned this aspect down by only punishing the player for using the more GameBreaker Cyber-Elves, and finally just giving the player one Cyber-Elf that they can upgrade however they want, and only punishing them for overpowering it.
** The weapon proficiency system in the first game is also considered to be a pain. Because of his memory loss Zero needs to "relearn" many basic techniques, such as multiple Z-Saber slashes. This can require many players to LevelGrinding just to stand against early bosses effectively. In addition the retry system is also dated due to lives being very rare. Meaning that if you lose all your retries in a level you will need to either start from the last save point or give up the mission, and in the case of the later you don't get your retries back. Thankfully these were both improved upon in the sequels.
** While the Form System of ''Zero 2'' is most certainly not this, the acquisition of Ultimate Form most definitely is. Like with the first game's Ultimate Mode, earning it requires you to use all Cyber-Elves by the final boss, and this form is earned upon loading that game's save file. Unfortunately, that means that your Cyber-Elf use from the previous game is carried over, and therefore getting anything higher than D Rank is impossible. Worse, unlike the other games, there is no option to start a completely new game with this Ultimate Form, meaning you cannot have both A/S Rank and Ultimate Form ever, no matter how many times you start a NewGamePlus from that same file. Only in ''Collection's'' Easy Mode can you have both Ultimate Form and a rank above D. This is probably why the requirement for Ultimate Mode in ''3'' and ''4'' completely dropped the need to use all Cyber-Elves and simply required collecting each game's respective collectibles (plus fully growing your Cyber-Elf in the case of ''4'').
* SignatureScene:
** First game: The fights against the first boss and Copy X.
** Second game: The first level, remembered for its music, the surprise DualBoss in the mandatory BossRush, and [[spoiler:"Elpizo stabbing X" and the subsequent TransformationSequence of Elpizo]].
** Third game: The fight against Omega and TheReveal that [[spoiler:he is in Zero's original body, and the ending, specifically X's [[ButNowIMustGo farewell]].]]
** Fourth game: The fight against [[BigBad Dr. Weil's]] final form, and the final scene, [[spoiler:a shot of Zero's broken helmet to confirm his HeroicSacrifice.]]
* SoOkayItsAverage: ''Zero 1'' is considered weakest of the series, although most would say it's still slightly better than just average. Common criticisms include a relatively weak plot and unreasonable grinding requirements for weapon skills and cyber-elf upgrades. Speaking of cyber-elves, the fact that the game's only collectible downgrades the Hunter Rank when they're actually used is considered a ScrappyMechanic. Overall, the game is hard to recommend stand-alone but is [[ContinuityLockout required to play the rest of the series]]. Thankfully, all of the above issues were improved upon in the sequels.

* SurprisinglyImprovedSequel: While ''Zero 1'' overall is considered a decent game, it also has its issues both gameplay- and story-wise and many consider it the weakest, not the kind of game that would reach the all-time greats as a whole. Luckily, ''Zero 2'' streamlines the grinding issues ''Zero 1'' has in both Cyber-Elf and weapon skill department, introduces EX skills you could acquire by beating a boss with Rank A or S (thus giving actual incentive to go for such ranks and suffer the wrath of an entirely new attack outside of being a hardcore player), replaces the divisive Triple Rod with a more convenient Chain Rod and includes two additional Sub-tanks meaning you don't ''have'' to risk any Cyber-elves and thus lower the rank. It also puts a much larger emphasis on the story and characterization compared to the rather bare-bones plot in ''Zero 1'', something the later games would follow up on and which the series as a whole would be known for.
* ThatOneAchievement: Getting 2 of the minigames in the third game requires you to beat the game with perfect 100 points in your average score. This means completing ''every'' mission perfectly - complete every sub-objective, beat levels quickly, kill a minimum amount of enemies and take no more than a small amount of damage. Oh, and not using your elves (at least not the Fusion ones) or entering Cyberspace.
* ThatOneAttack: Fenri Lunaedge from ''4'' shouldn't be that bad. Sure, if the weather is in his favor he has an icy floor that can make dodging his wheel jumps a little tricky, but he constantly leaves himself open to punishment from the buster. The fight might take a while because it just simply isn't safe to be next to him and combo him with the Z-Saber (he has an attack with very little wind-up where he just stabs you if you're too close), but it should be easy, right? '''No'''. Fenri has two attacks that are pure and utter hell to avoid:
** The first, Tenrō Shikku, is described on the actual wiki as ''looking impossible to avoid'', mostly because it absolutely does. Fenri leaps diagonally towards the wall away from him, letting out an energy slash in front of him, before dashing to the other wall unleashing two more slashes, before jumping to the opposite side from where he started while throwing out another energy slash. There is no way a player will ever figure out how to dodge the attack short of looking up a video of Fenri's fight online, because the 'solution' to it is so backwards. You have to ''dash towards him during the first attack'', [[ViolationOfCommonSense which looks like it's the absolute last thing you should be doing]], dash back, then dash jump between Fenri and the last attack. Good luck figuring that out on your own. You won't.
** The other is his EX Skill, White Fang. It's deceptively simple; he unleashes two {{Sword Beam}}s, one from the ground, one from the ceiling. All you have to do to dodge it is climb the wall and then fall. Problem is, falling from the wall can be a little finicky to do given it's more than likely you'll hug it again as you go down, getting yourself caught by the second beam. Not only that, Fenri can spam it as many times as he wants - it's not unusual for him to use it three times, and there's no real tell for when he's going to do it again and when he's going to stop.
*** The ''worst'' part about all this is if you fight him at a rank where he'll decide to use White Fang; both Tenrō Shikku and White Fang have pretty quick wind-ups, meaning you need to begin dodging them almost as soon as you see the tell. The problem? ''The tells for both attacks are almost identical.'' The only difference is that Fenri will lift his head slightly for Tenrō Shikku. This sounds like it should make it easy to preempt the attack, but in practice the player will be so on edge about getting the actual dodge for each attack done correctly that it can be easy to choke and begin the wrong dodge for the attack Fenri uses. ''Mercifully'', Fenri is incredibly fragile, so if you take out Sol Titanion first you might be able to whittle him down quickly enough to where he doesn't use these two attacks often, and Fenri won't actually enter a stunned animation from getting hit with fire if he's about to use Tenrō Shikku, so that makes the tell a little more obvious.
* ThatOneBoss:
** Aztec Falcon: As he's the second mission boss, you'd be fighting him with minimal abilities (unless you spend a lot of time grinding somewhere else; in Hard Mode, you can't even grind), his boss room is rather narrow, and his attacks cover a lot of space. His wings are also invulnerable, making it harder to hit him when he shoots arrows from his wings.
** Phantom is this when compared to the other Guardians. Unlike the others, he's NonElemental, thus he has no weakness. You can interrupt most of the other Guardians' attacks; for Phantom, you can only intercept his DashAttack. He also plays it nasty with said attack - if you jump over it, he'll quickly dash back to you; if you interrupt it, he may sometimes resume the attack. He also has a DoppelgangerSpin attack where, if you hit the wrong Phantom, he'll do a powerful counterattack; he might also quickly dash at you if you're close to the real him. Some temporary phantoms may appear when Phantom is using the doppelganer spin and contact with them causes big damage. During the second fight with him, he has a KaizoTrap attack should you defeat him. In the secret fight against him in the third game, a number of his attacks are upgraded - his FuumaShuriken move shoots spreads of kunai multiple times, and his zigzag floating move has him spamming spreads of kunai while floating. On the ''other'' hand, given the secret fight takes place in Cyberspace, where you have unrestricted access to ''all'' of your Cyber Elves' powers, even this upgraded fighting style [[CantCatchUp can be overcome much more easily]].
** Phoenix Magnion from ''Zero 2'' is also confusing. He'll avoid your initial attacks and then counterattack with one of his own, at random. He's fond of TeleportSpam, especially after you attack him. He can only be attacked while he's launching an offense of his own. Worse, the area has "holes" where blasts of magma will shoot out at intervals; during your first fight, depending on which room you're fighting him, the holes are either scarce or covering the entire floor. During the rematch, the design is ''always'' the latter one.
** Kuwagust Anchus from the same game becomes nigh-impossible on Hard Mode if you have an A or S rank. He moves quickly and his grab moves are hard to avoid, especially one that comes after he sucked you in with his tornado. His A/S rank attack is really hard to dodge: He has to be attacked, ''in-flight'', to avoid taking damage, while you're troubled with the wind blowing against you. You have to attack him ''enough'' or you'll eat quite some damage. [[GuideDangIt The game doesn't hint at that at all.]] Or you can just hit him once with chain rod with right timing to derail his attack, as shown [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GiQm2R4PcXQ here]].
** Heat Genblem from the fourth game. One of his strategies is to walk slowly towards you, then quickly defends with his shell if you attack. Keep attacking and he'll counter with an ElementalPunch. Another of his hard strategy has him floating next to one of the walls, then firing a continuous laser beam while spinning; you have to follow through or you'll get hit. He's rarely open to attacks, and when he is, you'll have a hard time dodging him to actually attack. To top it all off, thunder attacks (his weakness) are rather weak in this game, due to one of them relying on absorbing shots for its power and the other being a dashing stab, which is worthless against an opponent who's invincible from the neck down. [[labelnote:Except...]]The key flaw in his strategy is that it's completely possible to sting him while he's doing his laser spin, as the open hatch on his body across from where he's firing is totally vulnerable. If you have the Junk set, you can even tear him apart before he can finish spinning in the first place.[[/labelnote]]
** Also Craft of the same game; he has a plethora of attacks that will limit your space. Especially, his bayonet attack deals quite some damage if you get hit (and it bypasses MercyInvincibility, too), and his sniping laser would need a split-second timing to dash under (unless you have the DoubleJump chip), and a thrown mine that will give you hell if you don't know you can smack it to detonate it before it splits. He also has an evasion move where he can go through you. In the second fight, his EX Skill is a MacrossMissileMassacre that can cover the entire screen unless you can slice a few of the missiles. While it's not a miracle cure for the battle, it is helpful to know that he stands around long enough after his bayonet charge that you can triple slash him from behind, which is notably more powerful than a charged slash. It's a little safer to set your Elf to Hacker-2 so you can use the slightly faster upward slash, and get moving again sooner.
* ThatOneLevel:
** One of the most infamous missions in the series is "Protect the Factory" from the first game. After beating the boss - this being the only mission in the game that ''starts'' with a boss battle - you need to find and disarm 8 bombs scattered around the level. Finding the bomb locations isn't a hard task by any means, but three of them are placed in a very tricky spot - a section with floating platforms and lots of [[GoddamnedBats flying enemies]]. The main problem comes from the small field of view and inability to look around, all of which leads to constant leaps of faith and mission retries after yet another failed landing.
** Neo Arcadia Shrine, part 1. The [[GoddamnedBats annoying bird enemies]] are bad enough, but there are also {{Temporary Platform}}s that have no side grip, shoot bullets downward, leave no margin for error, and are placed above enemies which you will likely land on should you fall. There's also ''[[BossBonanza three bosses]]'': Pantheon Aces, Asura Basura, and Herculious Anchus.
** Neo Arcadia Tower due to the abundance of SpikesOfDoom.
** ''Zero 2's'' Power Room stage, filled to the brim with lava and exploding Telebombs and not much room to maneuver. The stage design is very different from the others, where you have to find 4 chambers with generators; it doesn't have a finish, and you only fight the boss when you destroy the final generator. And to top it off, the boss is an absolute nightmare. Worse still, one of the Cyber Elves hidden here is pure GuideDangIt material. You essentially have to play ''VideoGame/SpaceInvaders'' in one section, kill every enemy while being blocked by moving platforms that hurt you if you touch them, and after that have to hit the fast-moving UFO in the three seconds from when it emerges to when it leaves.
** The Bombardment Aircraft. You start off leaping between moving shuttlecraft which ''shoot at you'' while you're using them as platforms, on top of Pantheons shooting at you on top of them, requiring perfect timing so as to not to be knocked into the massive BottomlessPit. Once past that section, you have to fight a miniboss who fires fast-moving, area-damage missiles at you until you hit it. When you hit it, it drops a row of bombs which can only be avoided by standing exactly where it was previously hovering. Then you navigate through a series of timed stage hazards that will eat right through your tiny lifebar and require expert timing to pass unharmed. ''Then'' you have to do a HoldTheLine section protecting Ciel for 90 seconds, which counts for basically your entire mission score. If she gets hit, goodbye A or S rank. Naturally, this is a BulletHell sequence plus the Pantheons who you have to hit while blocking every bullet. This also ends with a very powerful boss.[[note]]It should be noted that the miniboss, a gunship styled after a ladybug, is ''extremely'' weak to Ice, to the point that if you're not playing on Hard Mode, it's possible to [[OneHitKill off it in one shot]] by using the Chain Rod's charged attack and the Ice Chip. Defending Ciel also becomes trivial if you simply park yourself right behind her and hold out the Shield Boomerang, which will deflect the vast majority of the crap that section throws at you.[[/note]]
** There's also the Shuttle Factory, which is also long, contains lots of lava and other stage hazards, and a tough boss fight against Fefnir at the end.

* WinBackTheCrowd: The first game impressed after the disappointing ''VideoGame/MegaManX6'', and the ''Zero'' series continued to improve while the ''X'' series declined even further with ''[[VideoGame/MegaManX7 X7]]''.

* CompleteMonster: [[BigBad Dr. Weil]], known in Japan as [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Dr. Vile]], is notable for being one of the most evil beings in the entire franchise. Following the peaceful resolution of the Maverick Wars by the sapient super program, the Mother Elf, Weil decided that Reploids needed to pay for their crimes. To this end, Weil corrupted Mother Elf by turning her into the Dark Elf, and triggered the Elf Wars. Weil used the Dark Elf and her children, the Baby Elves, to control Reploids and force them to fight each other in massive battles, which resulted in the deaths of 90% of all Reploids and 60% of all humans. Defeated, exiled and transferred into a mechanical body for his crimes, Weil eventually returned a hundred years later, consumed with a thirst for vengeance directed at all life for the perceived crimes against him. Weaseling his way into becoming the supreme ruler of Neo Arcadia, Weil turns it into a [[DystopiaJustifiesTheMeans dystopian hellhole]]. When he breaks his citizens to the point where they're desperate enough to risk escaping into the wastelands to form their own colony, Weil decides to obliterate their new home with a KillSat. When his KillSat is disabled, Weil attempts to [[ColonyDrop drop it upon the colony]], killing everyone in the region. Cruel, megalomaniacal and displaying an unprecedented level of sadism in the series, Weil reveled in the suffering of others and desired nothing less than to make human and reploid alike feel like their existences were living deaths.

** Mino Magnus is positively annoying: He's weak to ice attacks, but his hitbox is often obscured by his invulnerable shoulders. His magnetizing GrappleMove will cripple you and make you more vulnerable to his magnetic attacks, and his DetachmentCombat attack needs quite the timing and fingerwork to avoid.

* GrowingTheBeard: While the various ''Mega Man'' sub-series have all been celebrated, ''Mega Man Zero'' is often recognized as the one with the most developed themes and narrative out of them all. The first ''Zero'' was a pretty standard ''Mega Man'' story, but starting with ''Zero 2'' the games became much more mature and original than any of their brethren. The fact that ''Mega Man Zero'' is the only series to have a proper conclusion is indicative of this.

** The ''Mega Man Zero Collection '' includes an Easy Scenario for players who want to dip their toes into the series' infamous difficulty, improves the music quality to be on par with the DS hardware, allows customization of the controls, and features artworks of characters in the lower screen at appropriate moments (for example: Harpuia's artwork appears when you fight him). The [[NoExportForYou Japan-exclusive]] E-Reader function is also included as unlockables.

** The other attack is his EX Skill attack, White Fang. It's deceptively simple; he unleashes two {{Sword Beam}}s, one from the ground, one from the ceiling. All you have to do to dodge it is climb the wall and then fall. Problem is, falling from the wall can be a little finicky to do given it's more than likely you'll hug it again as you go down, getting yourself caught by the second beam. Not only that, Fenri can spam it as many times as he wants - it's not unusual for him to use it three times, and there's no real tell for when he's going to do it again and when he's going to stop.

** Phoenix Magnion from ''Zero 2'' is also positively confusing. He'll avoid your initial attacks and then counterattack with one of his own, at random. He's fond of TeleportSpam, especially after you attack him. He can only be attacked while he's launching an offense of his own. Worse, the area has "holes" where blasts of magma will shoot out at intervals; during your first fight, depending on which room you're fighting him, the holes are either scarce or covering the entire floor. During the rematch, the design is ''always'' the latter one.

** One of the most infamous missions in the series is "Protect the Factory" from the first game. After beating the boss - this being the only mission in the game that ''starts'' with the boss fight - you need to find and disarm 8 bombs scattered around the level. Finding the bomb locations isn't a hard task by any means, but three of them are placed in a very tricky spot - a section with floating platforms and lots of [[GoddamnedBats flying enemies]]. The main problem comes from the small field of view and inability to look around, all of which leads to constant leaps of faith and mission retries after yet another failed landing.

** Neo Arcadia Tower due to the abundance of SpikesOfDoom all over the level.

* TheyChangedItNowItSucks: Some fans aren't too fond of Zero's new human-like design, or at the very least feel that [[spoiler:Omega's final form should have resembled Zero's ''X'' appearance instead of being simply a slight PaletteSwap of his redesign]].

* CompleteMonster: [[BigBad Dr. Weil]], known in Japan as [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Dr. Vile]], is notable for being one of the most evil beings in the entire franchise. Following the peaceful resolution of the Maverick Wars by the sentient superprogram, the Mother Elf, Weil decided that Reploids needed to pay for their crimes. To this end, Weil corrupted Mother Elf by turning her into the Dark Elf, and triggered the Elf Wars. Weil used the Dark Elf and her children, the Baby Elves, to control Reploids and force them to fight each other in massive battles, which resulted in the deaths of 90% of all Reploids and 60% of all humans. Defeated, exiled and transferred into a mechanical body for his crimes, Weil eventually returned a hundred years later, consumed with a thirst for vengeance directed at all life for the perceived crimes against him. Weaseling his way into becoming the supreme ruler of Neo Arcadia, Weil turns it into a [[DystopiaJustifiesTheMeans dystopian hellhole]]. When he breaks his citizens to the point where they're desperate enough to risk escaping into the wastelands to form their own colony, Weil decides to obliterate their new home with a KillSat. When his KillSat is disabled, Weil attempts to [[ColonyDrop drop it upon the colony]], killing everyone in the region. Cruel, megalomaniacal and displaying an unprecedented level of sadism in the series, Weil reveled in the suffering of others and desired nothing less than to make human and reploid alike feel like their existences were living deaths.

** Omega's first 2 forms, thanks to the GBA limitations, are slower and more predictable than what is implied from the story.

** One of the most infamous missions in the series is "Protect the Factory" from the first game. After beating the boss, you need to find and disarm 8 bombs scattered around the level. Finding the bomb locations isn't a hard task by any means, but three of them are placed in a very tricky spot - a section with floating platforms and lots of [[GoddamnedBats flying enemies]]. The main problem comes from the small field of view and inability to look around, all of which leads to constant leaps of faith and mission retries after yet another failed landing. It's also the only level in the game that starts right from the boss fight, which more likely means developers ''knew'' that the mission is already hard as hell, so they save players trouble of completing the bomb section from the start after losing the boss battle.

** The Bombardment Aircraft. You start off leaping between moving shuttlecraft which ''shoot at you'' while you're using them as platforms, on top of Pantheons shooting at you on top of them, requiring perfect timing so as to not to be knocked into the massive BottomlessPit. Once past that section, you have to fight a miniboss who fires fast-moving, area-damage missiles at you until you hit it. When you hit it, it drops a row of bombs which can only be avoided by standing exactly where it was previously hovering. Then you navigate through a series of timed stage hazards that will eat right through your tiny lifebar and require expert timing to pass unharmed. ''Then'' you have to do a HoldTheLine section protecting Ciel for 90 seconds, which counts for basically your entire mission score. If she gets hit, goodbye A or S rank. Naturally, this is a BulletHell sequence plus the Pantheons who you have to hit while blocking every bullet. This also ends with a very powerful boss. [[note]]It should be noted that the miniboss, a gunship styled after a ladybug, is EXTREMELY weak to Ice, to the point that in not-Hard Mode, it's possible to [[OneHitKill off it in one shot]] by using the Chain Rod's charged attack and the Ice Chip.[[/note]]

* TheyChangedItNowItSucks: Some fans aren't too fond of Zero's new human-like design, or at the very least feel that [[spoiler:Omega's final form should have resembled Zero's ''X'' appearance instead of his redesign]].

** Even if they chose to abandon the original plan where X was the villain of the first game in favor of having Copy X, they still could have made it so that some of the foreshadowing from the ''X'' series didn't go to waste. After ''X4'' had Zero be visibly uncomfortable when X wanted him to promise to kill him should he become a Maverick, Zero finds out that the X he will fight is a copy right before the final stage and thus has no qualms about fighting Copy X because he knows that he is not really former best friend, and Copy X freely admits that he is a copy instead of following through with the masquerade that he is the same reploid and using it to try to [[HeroicBSOD break Zero]]. Even then, much of Zero and Copy X's dialogue concerns how Zero feels that Copy X doesn't live up to the original without exploring how the latter is a ShadowArchetype representing a path the real X could have taken (and was going to, [[spoiler:which dialogue from the real X confirms was something he was very close to doing [[HeWhoFightsMonsters after fighting for so long]] and the reason for why he chooses to leave the rest up to Zero]]).

* WhatDoYouMeanItsForKids: The entire series qualifies, for the reasons listed on the [[NightmareFuel/MegaMan Nightmare Fuel page for the entire franchise]]. There's also the fact that the Neo Arcadian government basically does a systematical genocide on Reploids to solve energy crisis. And the game was rated E in its original release (it was bumped up to T with the release of ''Zero/ZX Legacy Collection'', most likely due to inclusion of the Japanese versions, which had bisected enemies bleed out red oil).
* WinBackTheCrowd: The first game impressed after the disappointing ''VideoGame/MegaManX6'', and the ''Zero'' series continued to improve while the ''X'' series declines even further with ''[[VideoGame/MegaManX7 X7]]''.

** Ciel. In two separate occasions, she thought that she was doing the right thing, but it only ended up giving rise to worse problems. The first one would be for creating Copy-X, who went insane and started a genocide against the Reploids. The Resistance is partly her effort to make amends for what she's done. The second time was successfully researching an energy source that she believes would put an end to the war, only for it to be a catalyst to a new conflict. Mind you, this is a person who longs for peace as much as X, and she is very young at the series' start, and also human. And, then there's the fact that, at series' end, [[spoiler:she is waiting faithfully for Zero to come back, when it was completely impossible.]]

** Almost all the tragedies in the ''X series'' are inflicted on Zero, and even more are piled on here. Like the fact that [[spoiler:he wakes up seeing the current state of the world, and freshly awoken, he has to continue fighting, ''again'']], and [[spoiler:he was able to finally return the world to a peaceful state, which was what he and X have been fighting for a long time, only for him not to see it come to fruition, seeing as ''he's dead''...]]