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Sadly, you can't actually Dual Wield in this game. "Mission!"
Mega Man Zero is another entry into Capcom's popular flagship series Mega Man, although it is a more direct sequel to Mega Man X and is even Darker and Edgier than the latter series. The first game was released for the Game Boy Advance in 2002 and continues the story of Zero, the partner and best friend of the latter series' protagonist.
A century after the Elf Wars, themselves an unknown number of years after the X series, Zero awakens to find the world is still not at peace and Reploids are being hunted by Neo Arcadia. Ciel, a human scientist who leads the Reploid resistance revives Zero and asks for his help in stopping Neo Arcadia and to bring peace between humans and reploids.
The series lasted for 4 games and spawned a sequel series Mega Man ZX, which runs to this day.
An Updated Rerelease for the Zero series saga has been announced for the Nintendo DS.
See the series's character page for more info.
Tropes present in the Mega Man Zero series:
- Adaptation Decay: The Rockman Zero manga.
- After The End: this series is set after two apocalyptic events, the Colony Drop of X5 and the Elf Wars.
- All There In The Manual: Much of the backstory and plot details are given in drama tracks, but not in the games themselves.
- All Your Powers Combined: the "mimic elf" in the fourth game; it has 21 abilities that were adapted from cyber-elves from the previous games. And, in Ultimate Mode, all these abilities can be used without a single penalty, and, true to the trope, all at the same time.
- Antivillain: The Guardians and Craft.
- Art Evolution/Shift: In part because the new character designer for the series, Toru Nakayama.
- Awesome But Impractical: The Proto Form, reward for beating Zero 2. It not only makes Zero a Glass Cannon, but it disables the upgrades the players have made to their weapons (eg. the Z-saber's combo).
- Ax Crazy: Both Omega and Weil, and super ax crazy at that. While Omega loves destruction, Weil managed to nearly wipe out the world's population with Cyber Elves, super advanced computer programs that helped eradicate the Maverick Virus, but ironically led the world to its current state.
- Badass: Many Reploids that aren't Red Shirts or Mecha Mooks, but Zero, as always, is the Most Triumphant Example.
- Big Bad: Dr. Weil. Even more so, that the events in the first two games (where he wasn't the Big Bad) were somehow connected to him.
- Big Damn Heroes: the Guardians and Mega Man X himself at the end of Zero 3. Enough said.
- Bishonen Line: Omega is the only boss in the series with three forms. The first two are huge, with telegraphed, easy-to-dodge attacks. His final form is the same size as Zero, and just as agile. And it has a melee combo that bypasses Mercy Invincibility and can be a instant kill if you don't have HP upgrades.
- Bittersweet Ending: Sure, the bad guy is killed and the world is saved and peace is restored but... the ending cutscene starts off with Zero's survival in deep doubt. Ciel runs off to a hill to cry her heart out in peace. She then regains her composure and looks hopefully to the sky, telling Zero to come back soon...cue a shot of his broken helmet in the desert somewhere.
- Blind Idiot Translation: Especially the first game.
- Ciel: "It was I who recreated the duplication of X..."
- Also, some of the boss names suffered, especially Tretista Kelverian. As he's a Cerberus-themed character, his name is clearly supposed to be Tretista Cerberian.
- Blood Knight: Fefnir.
- Bolivian Army Ending: used literally yet subverted between Zero 1 and Zero 2. Zero 4, on the other hand...
- Boss Rush: It's a Mega Man tradition.
- In Zero 2, one of the Boss fights is a Dual Boss: a Boss from the previous game, joining his "brother" to fight Zero together.
- Zero 3 and 4 handwaved this trope, since the main field of research of the Big Bad before his Start Of Darkness is "Reploid DNA revival".
- Bragging Rights Reward: In Zero 1 getting an A or S rank did nothing for you. Subverted in 2 and 3 where you got a new technique (see Mega Manning) that made the game easier. Played straight in 4 where getting the power had nothing to do with rank.
- Also, most bosses in the games reserve a special attack that you will only see if your rank is A or S.
- Brainwashed And Crazy: Powers of the Dark Elf and its progeny. Also, the Bosses of 3 and 4.
- Broken Base: after the end of the series, some fans still believe that Zero is still alive since they Never Found The Body (doesn't help that his biography in the Complete Works claimed his fate as still "unknown"). Other fans believe otherwise, thinking that the fact alone would ruin the significance of his Heroic Sacrifice.
- Brought To You By The Letter S: as a Funny Aneurysm Moment, all Bosses for the first 3 games have the Greek letter Omega as their symbol; the fourth game replaces this with W/V. Zero's own signature Z is gone, for obvious reasons, but concept art for the Z-knuckle shows that the chips representing the weapon retains the iconic symbol.
- Bus Full Of Innocents: Area-3079, a whole city block, the target of a missile by Dr. Weil with Omega inside, who is to capture the Dark Elf, spotted inside the area. Needless to say, Zero fails the mission somewhat, with possibly hundreds of innocents killed.
- There's also one in the final game, which is the entirety of Neo Arcadia itself! Not part of the Big Bad's plans; in fact, the target of the attack was Dr. Weil himself, by his Bastard Understudy.
- Call Forward: In "Record2_Irregular Passion", the radio drama that serves as Elpizo's Start Of Darkness. The last line is Elpizo's cry of "More POWER!!" (Motto CHIKARA O!!), which he screams fairly often during the final boss battle against him.
- Chaotic Evil: Omega, and how.
- Charged Attack: With the saber, no less. I mean, sure, the Buster's still there as a dinky little pistol, but still - Charged Saber.
- Handwaved by Word Of God claiming that X installed the technology that controlled his own Arm Cannon to the saber before giving it back to Zero. This explains why the Rods can charge (they're all variants of the saber), but no such explanation for the Z-Knuckle.
- The Guardians all have a charge sequence right before their special attacks (although this feature appears only in the first game). Justified, since all four of them are descended from Mega Man X. So does Omega.
- Actually, the Guardians have charge attacks in the second game as well. You just have to let them live long enough during the fight to see them use it.
- Chekhov's Gun: when Zero first visits Ciel's room in Zero 2, there is a tank containing a cyber-elf. Turns out, this is one of the Baby-elves.
- Cloning Blues: Copy X and Zero, although it's subverted in the latter's case. Also, the Pantheons.
- Colony Drop: Weil's second plan for Ragnarok.
- Complete Monster: Dr. Weil qualifies big time.
- Continuity Nod: Phoenix Magnion in Zero 2 summons the spirits of Zero's foes from the Mega Man X series to assist during the fight. Agile, Vile, Bit and Colonel pop up for some tag team fun.
- In Zero 4, Dr. Weil summons the bosses from Zero 3 to assault the hero.
- Again in 4, the setting is the Colony Drop from Mega Man X 5, ironically the target of the game's own Colony Drop.
- A mission in the first game has Zero traverse a tower that is revealed to be a rebuilt MacGuffin from Mega Man X 8. This arguably brings the post-X5 series out of Dis Continuity.
- In the first game, you encounter Repliforce (from X4) submarines. They are in a lake under the desert.
- Omega Zero's signature attacks, the Z-buster and Z-saber combos, make a return for the third game.
- Ceratanium, a special alloy that was last mentioned in the classic series, returns in Zero 4.
- Crapsack World: supposedly set up by the Colony Drop in the previous series. Ironically, the "cure" to this dying condition is in the ruins of the aforementioned Colony Drop itself.
- The whole Elf Wars caused a huge amount of damage too, with 60% of all humans and 90% reploids being wiped out.
- Crowning Moment Of Awesome: Zero, now The Hero this time around, gets a tad bit too many of these, even compared to the previous series. And no one is complaining. Shining example: Zero vs. Omega.
- And another: Badass vs. Complete Monster (everyone knows who's referring to what, of course). If that isn't enough, there are things which make it awesome in its own way.
- Crowning Moment Of Heartwarming: at the beginning of the second game, a lot of La Resistance soldiers overjoyed to see Zero back with them once more, expecially Ciel.
- In Zero 4, after defeating Craft for the second time, Zero finally showing where his true loyalties lie. And this was before his immortal World Of Cardboard Speech.
- Also from Zero 4: Zero keeping his promise to X up until the end.
- Cyber Cyclops: Pantheons are eerie, one-eyed mockeries of X's design.
- Cyberspace: part of the gameplay in Zero 3, supposedly caused by the arrival of Omega. In Zero 4, the storyline requires Zero to enter one.
- Darker And Edgier: And bloodier, if you're playing a Japanese copy. This is
arguably the darkest saga in the Mega Man series, hands down.
- Diagonal Cut: Pretty much any enemy killed by the Z-Saber.
- Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu: Despite being human, Dr. Weil seemed pretty much invincible thanks to his Powered Armor. This was well-evidenced by the fact that he survived—with little more than a scratch—being struck by a laser from a space station that reduced the city around him to ashes. Then, in what is the greatest Crowning Moment Of Awesome of any Mega Man game, our hero Zero actually manages to kill this "invincible" villain using only the weapons at his disposal.
- The Dragon: Omega, debatable; Craft from Zero 4, however, is definitely one.
- Dying Moment Of Awesome: It's Zero we're talking about. What are you expecting?
- Earn Your Happy Ending: the peaceful era after hundreds of years of war has finally come, and the enmity is finally dissolved between humans and Reploids by the two sides working together. However, it's subverted in that, those who really fought hard for such peace, Mega Man X and Zero, sadly never had the chance to see it.
- Well, after finally earning their peace and an end to the fighting, they get jammed together, merged with a human, and have to fight some more. Each without an actual body to call his own.
- A bit unsettling, if you think about it. X and Zero are atleast lucky in that the ones they merge with are actually good people, allowing them to continue contributing to the fight for peace without having to get up and do any actual fighting. The poor Four Guardians in ZX before you rescue them and in ZXA, however...
- Actually, X got to see it, as he was the leader of Neo Arcadia for most of its existance. He was only replaced by Copy X (after using his body to reinforce the seal on the Dark Elf) about a decade before the first game, meaning he ruled for 90 years.
- Not really. At the end of Zero 1, X tells Zero about the endless maverick uprisings that he had to put down, admitting that he stopped caring at some point (though he seemed to have started caring again after sealing Dark Elf).
- El Cid Ploy: Copy-X.
- End Of The World As We Know It: Double Subversion in Zero 4: the Colony Drop really isn't going to bring out the aforementioned effect; however, seeing as the target of the drop is a New Eden area in a Crapsack World, it arguably comes close.
- Energy Being: the cyber-elves.
- Ensemble Darkhorse: Harpuia. One of the most well developed characters in the series. Also Omega. So popular that he came back in Mega Man ZX as a Bonus Boss.
- Evil Knockoff: Copy-X again. And of course there's the grand inversion that was Zero.
- Executive Meddling: Keiji Inafune originally intended for the real X to be the big bad of the original game, but because of the Executive Meddling in the X series, he was forced to change it to a copy.
- The Faceless: X himself from Zero 2 onwards.
- Fan Nickname: the series is often referred to as the "2nd Maverick Wars", with Mega Man X then referred to as the 1st.
- Fanservice: non-ecchi example: in one of the drama tracks, X and the Four Guardians, in ceremonial uniforms, watch as Ragnarok descends from the sky. This was confirmed to be non-canon by the official Complete Works released later.
- Fantastic Racism: arguably what drove the intentions of the three Big Bads. Copy-X against the Reploids (ironically, he is one), Elpizo against the humans, and Dr. Weil against both, seeing as he's technically neither race anymore. And Weil's motives for the Elf Wars is this as well, thinking that Reploids, as machines, do not deserve the freedom given to them, and chastises them for instigating the long-running Robot War that ravaged the planet.
- Finishing Move: subverted with the EX Skills of most Boss enemies (even including those that can't be, er, Mega Manned).
- Fire Ice Lightning: literally, as the simplified version of the Elemental Rock Paper Scissors compared to its predecessors, where, on the second game onwards, Bosses are always grouped in fours (one for each element and the fourth for a non-elemental). Three of the four Guardians, Fefnir, Leviathan and Harpuia, respectively, even embody these elements.
- Five Bad Band: although their roles as Hero Antagonists/Knight Templars make it a mixed and subverted Five Man Band:
- Foreshadowing: each game has at least one example before an important reveal, in the form of character's dialogues. In order:
- Before the gauntlet that are the final levels:
Unknown Elf(the real X): "Go. Terminate that copy of me!"
- After one of the first missions:
X: "The Baby Elves will do anything to reunite with their mother. Stir the humans' minds and bring chaos... It's all to meet their mother, the Dark Elf... The Dark Elf that I sealed..."
- Upon defeating Omega in the first encounter, Copy-X and Dr. Weil issue a challenge to La Resistance to find out who can capture the Dark elf first. Before leaving, Weil gives the following cryptic remark:
"Let's see how far you get with that body!"
- before being sent off to the Ragnarok core to stop the Colony Drop:
- That last one may qualify as fuel to the series Tear Jerker, if you squint long enough.
- Four Is Death: aside from the Four Guardians, there's the Elf Wars, that lasted for only four years, yet brought so much damage to the world. Partial subversion: the only reason the war ended on its fourth year was because of Zero only reappearing at that time. Also, there are four games in the series.
- Funny Aneurysm Moment: why would all the Bosses have the Omega letter as their symbol, considering the obvious implications?
- A God Am I: Omega's trademark exclamation is "Ware wa messiah nari!" which translates to "I am the Messiah!" Yeah... Omega's pretty much crazy. And backing it up pretty well too.
- His creator Dr. Weil takes it one step further. "Ware ga akuma da!", which translates to "I am the Devil!" Then again, he really is.
- Grand Finale: the first in the series to have one (followed only a few months later by Battle Network). The fascist government that the heroes are fighting against is finally gone, and the Big Bad, desperate, is getting ready to destroy the last hope of healing a dying Earth with a Colony Drop. The hero confronts the Big Bad, passing up the chance to escape to safety so he can stop the Colony Drop and the Big Bad once and for all. Add the fact that the hero finally finds his purpose in fighting the war, a problem that has plagued him since the previous series, and that peace is finally restored after a very, VERY long time, So Yeah...
- The last bit is a clincher, since Zero, who was created by the same Dr. Wily who started the entire Robot War in the first place, is the one who finally ended it.
- Green Aesop: plot of the final game: protecting the last trace of nature from a Complete Monster bent on making sure that his empire is the only inhabitable place left on Earth.
- Guide Dang It: You can't find all the Cyber-elves without one.
- Zero 2 only slightly hints at the Forms system; after that, the players will have to rely on luck unlocking each of them unless they consult a guide. A player can possibly even go through the whole game without unlocking a single one (until completion, of course, where the Bragging Rights Reward for beating the game is the Proto Form).
- In Zero 3, players tend to ignore entering Cyberspace so as not to lower their rank. However, entering the Cyberspace in a specific stage is key to obtaining the best foot chip in the game.
- Fortunately, entering Cyberspace in the completed stages does nothing. Still the specific stage is late into the game. And we're assuming people can't figure out that revisiting stages has no effect on ranks.
- You have to guess most of the recipes in the Item Crafting feature in Zero 4, unless, of course...
- Halfway Plot Switch: happens in Zero 2. The first half of the game has Zero taking care of missions for La Resistance, or, more specifically, for its new commander Elpizo, in preparation for his Operation Righeteous Strike. When the Operation turns out to be a disaster, Elpizo becomes the designated Big Bad of the game, and the second half is spent trying to find him, and stop him from his plans.
- Hero Antagonist: Harpuia is really just an honest guy trying to protect humanity. Too bad the term Maverick has undergone severe Flanderization.
- The Neo Arcadian Military personnel that aren't clearly enjoying themselves in retiring innocent reploids. Pretty much the entire Zero 2 lineup consists of reploids defending military installations you are trying to destroy to help confuse the Neo Arcadian defenders from your imminent attack, or are trying to keep the Baby and Mother Elves out of the hands of those who would use them for malicious intent *cough*Elpizo*cough*. Then 3 comes along and from then on they're all reprogrammed, obsessed with revenge, joined Weil, or built by him.
- The Hero Dies
- Heroic Sacrifice: Zero at the end of the series.
- Hoist By His Own Petard: subverted by Weil being the target of the Kill Sat he himself created upon its completion, yet was able to survive.
- Honor Before Reason: The Guardians, especially Harpuia, are all nice, heroic guys, but they are bound to obey the will of Neo Arcadia, even if that "will" is obviously that of a fascist tyrant who goes against everything the city once stood for.
- Hot Blooded: Fefnir. This Troper considered him as somewhat of a patron of that trope long before I realized it was a trope.
- Humans Are Special: The villains all hold this view, to the extreme. But played straight in Zero 4, where Zero has a short line about how humans are the ones who can change the world and tells Craft the reason he failed is because he was a reploid built for war, while Zero was fighting for Ciel (a human).
- Humongous Mecha: there is a Boss in the first game that qualifies, "Hittide Hottide". Needless to say that the entire mission is spent trying to destroy this monster. Also a borderline example of Battleship Raid.
- Idiosyncratic Difficulty Levels: although it is only one uniquely-named mode, the Ultimate Mode present in all four games. It's almost always the hardest mode to unlock (all games present a Gotta Catch Em All requisite), with good reason: it's the best mode of play in the series. Simply put, it's a middle point for hardcore players who resent Easy Mode, and casual ones and/or "newcomers" who resent Hard Mode, arguably enjoyable for both tiers.
- Inexplicable Treasure Chests: the boxes containing cyber-elves (1 and 2) and Secret Disks (3).
- Ironic Echo: The Big Bad of Zero 1, Copy-X, annihilates all Reploids for the sake of mankind. Then comes the Big Bad of Zero 2, Elpizo, and his plan to annihilate mankind for the sake of the Reploids.
- And Zero 3 has one from all the way back in Mega Man X 2: this time, it's Zero's turn to wish someone read the blueprints better. As in X2, the original body of Zero is powerful enough to trash the copy in a single combo. Too bad our hero ended up in the copy body...but he still wins.
- Item Crafting: In 4, Zero makes customization chips out of "recipes" of enemy parts.
- Infinity Plus One Sword: The Ultimate Form in all 4 games.
- The secret Cyber-elf Jackson in 1.
- Ultima Foot Parts in 3.
- Killed Off For Real: Zero at the end of the fourth game, even though he's died and come back many times before, this time it seems like he's really gone for good... until he comes back in Biometal form in Mega Man ZX. Phantom, except when he comes back in cyberspace (rumored to be where reploids go when they die) in MMZ 3, and then when he comes back again in the ZX series as a biometal.
- Kill Sat: the true means of Operation Ragnarok.
- La Resistance
- Lawful Good: X. Arguably Harpuia though you could make a valid argument for Lawful Neutral with good leanings as well. See Hero Antagonist. He opposes the resistance, but with good intentions (protecting humanity), believes that protecting innocents is more important than the war, and would rather die than be possessed by the dark elf. Phantom as well, as he would rather, (and does), die to try and prevent Zero from getting to Copy X. The drama tracks expand more on his personality, also supporting this alignment.
- Lost Forever: Zero 3 has the Battle Network chip Z-Saver [sic] in Ciel's computer. This is a once-only chance. Not once-per-game, mind you, once per cartridge. If it gets traded off, anyone else who gets their hands on the cart is stuck with whatever you traded the Saber for (which is sadly, most of the time, a Guard chip).
- Love It Or Hate It: Not the games, but the manga. Even those who like it agree that its Adaptation Decay, though.
- Love To Hate: Omega. Easily one of the more popular villains in the franchise despite being a one shot character. Popular enough to come back as a bonus boss.
- Magikarp Power: Zero's weapons in the first two games apply, as well as the "Mimic elf" in the fourth.
- Meaningful Echo: Zero's lines from the end of the first game:
I won't stop! If an enemy appears... I'll terminate it.
- Mega Manning: In Zero 2 and 3, if you get an A or S rank, Zero gains a new attack that mimics the boss's key technique. In 4 all you had to do was fight the boss in a tougher stage.
- The Zero Knuckle from Z4 can rip off all types of weapons from Mooks.
- In a lesser example, Z3 has Zero collect "custom chips" from defeated Bosses, with some chips reflecting some innate ability of the Boss (Absorber, prevents recoil damage, from gigantic Tetrista Kelverian; Double Jump, from the high-jumping Cubit Foxtar, etc.).
- Metroidvania: The HUB of the first game.
- Monstrosity Equals Weakness
- My Country Right Or Wrong: Harpuia.
- Names To Know In Anime:
- Names To Run Away From Really Fast: The big bad's Japanese name is "Doctor Vile". That pretty much says it all.
- Mind you in German, Dr. Weil is pronounced "Doctor Vile".
- Neutral Good: Ciel.
- New Eden: Area Zero.
- New Game Plus: although what you carry on to the next playthrough is dependent on the game.
- Nightmare Fuel: In Zero 4 it's not only the very fact that Weil somehow survived a giant laser rained down upon him, but what his appearance is like afterwards. This
 ◊ is truly one of the most disturbing, frightening, and utterly evil images in any GBA game.
- Nintendo Hard: especially the first two games. The critics even cite that "it's not cheap to use cyber-elves to make the game(s) easier".
- No OSHA Compliance: In Z1, you have to restore power to your base so that the Red Shirts can take the elevator to the shuttle bay so they can evacuate the base. Because, apparently, there are no stair, ramps, or ladders.
- Not So Fast Bucko: in Zero 4, let's see: Craft has just destroyed Neo Arcadia, the symbol of Reploid oppression in the series, with Ragnarok, taking Dr. Weil with it. Before Craft could fire for a second time, Zero puts a stop to him. It's over, right? Nope, since Dr. Weil survived, and cue the Colony Drop.
- The Obi Wan: X.
- One Winged Angel: Pretty much every single final boss, 3 out of the four members of the 1st Quirky Miniboss Squad (although the 4th was implied to have one as well), everyone in the 2nd Quirky Miniboss Squad, and, finally, one Mook. Boy, did Capcom go overboard with this one.
- Opening Scroll: every game except the first a'la Star Wars, yet again.
- Perspective Flip: simply put, the roles of hero and villain is flipped between the "Mavericks" (La Resistance) and the "Hunters" (Neo Arcadia), a complete reversal of the previous series.
- Power Trio: Ciel (Superego), Zero (Ego), and Elpizo (Id) in Z2. It doesn't end well.
- Previously On: each game after Z2 features a prologue of sorts that narrates what happened in previous games. The narrator in Z4 is actually a character introduced later in the same game: Neige.
- Prophecy Twist: averted thanks to Executive Meddling. Mega Man X 3 clearly states that, to save mankind, Mega Man X must destroy Zero (word for word), meaning that they will have to fight to the death. The twist was that Inafune planned on making X himself the bad guy (the original Big Bad of Zero 1), a Knight Templar executing Reploids for the sake of humanity, and it was actually Zero who is The Hero that must bring balance and order back to the two races. The X series continuing on after X5 obviously changed all of that.
- It could also be argued that the twist is the characters' failure to execute the prophecy, as such allowing the creation of both the Mother/Dark Elf and Omega. These resulted directly from Zero's slumber, which ended the Maverick Wars...and made things worse. What Were We Fighting For indeed! Of course Zero was a big enough hero to end it all eventually, but so much destruction resulted that it arguably counts.
- Put On A Bus: reversed yet played literally in Zero 4. It's the main characters who are put on a bus (a truck, actually) but the rest of La Resistance stay put in the original base, and were as good as gone from the script, save for some cameos.
- Pyrrhic Victory: It's easy to say that all installments (even the Grand Finale) leave some sort of crushing blow to the heroes.
- Quirky Miniboss Squad: the Four Guardians, minus the "quirky" part. The manga, on the other hand...
- Weil's Numbers, the main Bosses of Zero 3, could probably count as well.
- Red Shirt: subverted; ever since Zero joined the La Resistance, few members of its troops have ever bit the dust. Zero even makes a vow that no more of his teammates will ever be killed senselessly while he's around.
- After the first game, maybe. In it, the resistance members drop like flies, with copious (or not so much, in the English version) amounts of blood. Plenty die in the opening stage, some more when fighting against Harpuia, or when the base is invaded. In this last example, there were even decapitated bodies lying about. Also of note was the utter fiasco of Elpizo's Operation Righteous Strike, in the second game.
- Zero did make the vow after Righteous Strike, so the subversion possibly comes after that.
- Rewriting Reality: The Remastered Tracks says Cyber Elf's powers work like this, by rewriting the programming code of reality via Cyberspace. Too bad they die after that... new models and really powerful ones such as X and the Mother Elf are exempt from this, though.
- Ridiculously Human Robots: All Reploids. Up to the fact that Reploids are now capable of aging and even falling in love, with humans. Best not to think about it too much. Here's a notable exchange:
Neige: I was amazed at how Craft fought to protect the humans. Hehe, it's kinda strange, a human falling for a Reploid.
Craft: Then I fell in love too.
- And there you have it, the lines that spawned a thousand invocations of Rule 34.
- Actually manages to avoid Squick, in fact, due to the execution of the characters' relationships.
- Same goes for one Reploid who actually married a human. He even went so far to modify his age-appearance to match hers and stayed that way even after she died as a way to remember her. A mixture of a Crowning Moment Of Heartwarming and Tear Jerker.
- Riding The Bomb: the latter half of a mission, including the level's Boss Battle, in Zero 3 takes place inside a missile as it was launched towards an unsuspecting target.
- Robotic Psychopath: Doesn't even begin to describe Omega.
- Say My Name: Ciel shouts out Zero's name at least three times. The last time she does it, it's a hopeless bid for Zero to get out of Ragnarok even though it's probably too late by that time.
- Shout Out
- Ciel's line after the first Boss battle in the first game:
- Shut Up Hannibal: When Dr. Weil mocks the reploid hero's ideal of protecting humanity by declaring himself to be a human, Zero has this to say.
Zero: "I never cared about justice, and I don't ever recall calling myself a hero... I have always only fought for the people that I believe in. I won't hesitate... If an enemy appears before me, I will destroy it!" - Mega Man Zero 4
- Spell My Name With An S
- A carry-over from the X series: the Japanese term is Repliroid; the English term is Reploid.
- Zero 3 reveals that the animal-like Reploid bosses are known as Mythos Reploids, referring to the fact that they're all based on various mythological figures. The English translation slipped up and translated it "Mutos" (the katakana is myutosu, for those curious. Japanese transliteration of Greek can be sort of weird).
- Spotlight Stealing Title
- The Stinger: at the end of Zero 2, Dr. Weil commands his creation Omega to act.
- Technicolor Death: Defeated bosses are usually engulfed in a spherical blast that emits beams of light after being defeated. The explosion may be justified due to them being robots; since Zero's trademark weapon is a sword, it may have compromised their power systems. The radiating beams of light part? Not so much. Also, the attack that depletes their health meter causes much more damage than any other attack (blowing a chunk out of them if it's a charged beam shot, Diagonal Cut if it's with the sword), but that's probably another trope.
- Theme Naming: Bosses are named after various mythological creatures; Resistance members are named mostly after French names of birds. In the latter's case, the handle of the one who named them is French for "sky".
- Timed Mission: some missions have a time limit. The most notable one is the Final Final Boss of the series, which gives the player only 2 minutes to finish him off or it will definitely be The End OF The World As We Know It, again...
- Subverted in an earlier mission. Ciel asks Zero to stop Craft before he fires the Ragnarok laser at Neo Arcadia. As soon as Zero reaches the second door to the Boss Room, Ragnarok was fired, and Neo Arcadia is instantly destroyed.
- Tomato In The Mirror: the relationship between Zero and Omega Zero.
- Underwater Boss Battle: once an installment. Zero 3 has a subversion in Childre Inarabbita's level, where fulfilling the mission's objectives will decrease the Boss Room's water volume to knee-high depths.
- Updated Rerelease: The Megaman Zero Collection for the Nintendo DS.
- Untrusting Community: The citizens of Area Zero in 4 don't think very highly of Zero and the Resistence at first.
- Ungrateful Bastards: during the Battle for Area Zero, most of them didn't take too kindly to being rescued by Zero...
- Very Definitely Final Dungeon: the final location in each game has some sort of climactic impact to the storyline. In order: Area X, the Big Bad's headquarters and palace of sorts; Yggdrasil, a tower where the Dark Elf is sealed; Dr. Weil's secret laboratory, which, coincidentally, was near where Zero was sealed at the beginning of the series; and finally, the Kill Sat-turned-Colony Drop Ragnarok.
- Video Game Cruelty Potential: the use of Cyber-elves. However...
- Violence Is The Only Option: unfortunately for the series' resident Actual Pacifist, this happens in Z3.
- Well Intentioned Extremist: Elpizo, arguably Copy X as well.
- Walking The Earth: Zero does this from the end of Zero 1 to the beginning of Zero 2.
- The War Sequence: in the first game, which is the mission that introduces Fefnir.
- Wasted Song: Weil's Zero 3 theme, "Curse of Vile", only gets really interesting long after you'd be done reading the dialogue it accompanies.
- What Do You Mean, It's Not Symbolic?: All over the place. Many bosses are named after obscure figures from mythology around the world, the final game brims with Norse mythology, and of course there's Copy X's Beam Spamming seraphim form.
- What Measure Is A Nonhuman: the main conflict in the series involves the dwindling rights imposed on the Reploids, relentlessly persecuted for trivial reasons. Later, the humans receive this treatment as well, ironically from the most inhuman of them all.
- What The Hell, Hero?: Neige delivers one to Zero at the end of the battle for Area Zero.
- What The Hell, Townspeople?: Zero chews out the Caravan on attempting to abandon Neige when she's kidnapped.
- Where It All Began: The final battle in Zero 3, Zero vs. Omega Zero, takes place where Zero was found at the beginning of the series.
- Who Wants To Live Forever/The Punishment/What An Idiot: Weil's punishment for staring the Elf Wars was to be placed inside a suit that stopped him from dying.
- World Sundering: the aforementioned Elf Wars, the closest thing to The End Of The World As We Know It that the Mega Man series ever approached.
- World Tree: Yggdrassil, the prison of the Dark Elf.
- Worthy Opponent: The Guardians, especially Harpuia and Fefnir.
- You Should Know This Already: Revealed very late in the first game that Ciel built Copy X, leading to the first conflict in the series. The sequels never even bothered to safeguard such a plot twist.
- You Shouldn't Know This Already: ALL of Zero's sword skills in this series are adapted from the skills he learned in the X series. Yet, thanks to his amnesia, he has to relearn them again.
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