YMMV / Mega Man X7

• Angst? What Angst?: Axl is surprisingly eager to tear apart his adoptive family members in Red Alert. He wasn't on the best terms with some — like, say, Gungaroo or Warfly — but there's a history implied between him and others like Stonekong, Tonion, Crowrang or Anteator that isn't really brought up. This continues with the death of Red: after a big scream, Axl is right back to his old self in the next scene. In his defense, Axl wasn't the one who dealt the killing blow in that case; it was Red's decision to go down in the self-destruct.
• Annoying Video Game Helper: Alia recovered this status with her infamous "Can you hear me?" prompts, and slow, unskippable text if you answer them; although she still isn't as annoying as she was in Mega Man X5. It's actively invoked in the game's release as part of Mega Man X Legacy Collection 2, where a particularly cruel achievement requires you to listen to all of Alia's dialogue in one playthrough.
• Anti-Climax Boss:
  • Sigma's first phase is one of the few final bosses that can be trivialized with his weakness, as he gets stunned and resets his pattern like a regular boss would. While the same applies to Red and Sigma's second form, Red abuses Teleport Spam and Malevolent Architecture to make hitting him with anything a challenge, and Sigma's second form has three weaknesses, but only one of them will stun him and the opportunities to hit him with any of the three are slim because he spends most of his time out of range. Sigma's first form is fought in a room without any real hazards, and the area is too small for him to effectively move out of range. Though, since Zero's effective technique is a homing ranged attack, you can spam it and knock over Sigma every time he teleports to try to attack.
  • The second form can also be mostly cheesed if you realize three simple facts: the highest platforms can block certain projectiles and get you out of his beam's path, the Gokumonken — Zero's special deflection guard obtained from Soldier Stonekong — can deflect some of the other projectiles back at Sigma, and the body upgrade from X's Glide Armor stops him from being knocked down by the Rocket Punch; which, especially combined with his defence upgrades, takes away what is otherwise one of Sigma's most dangerous attacks. Considering how annoying Sigma is and how much you've had to slog through to get to this point, though, some players will easily call it fair game.
• Awesome Music:
  • The music is as kickass as any other Mega Man game. "Code Crush" (the Japanese theme of the game) in particular is a standout tune.
  • Other stand-outs include "Awake Road Again" (Zero's portion of the intro stage), "Cyber Geometry" (Cyber Field), "Conflict" (vs. Red), and "Our Blood Boils" (vs. Sigma 1st).
  • "Soul Asylum" (the theme for the Teleporter Room) sets up the usual Maverick rematches in a particularly creepy but memorable fashion, with its Geiger Counter-like buzzing, hypnotic distortion effects and the lead tune sounding like it's coming from a broken music box. Perfect for what is essentially a Reploid graveyard.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: Sigma having large, bombastic final boss forms is nothing new for the series, but X7 has his fight occur like this: After fighting his first form in a falling elevator, you're suddenly thrown in a strange swirling abyss with floating debris with a giant robot that appears without context, with the ending simply acting like the heroes never interacted with either of these scenarios.
• Captain Obvious Reveal: The mysterious figure known as the "Professor" was Sigma all along. Sigma is heavily shrouded in shadow during cutscenes, but his distinctive bald head, forehead gem, and scarred, glowing blue eyes are still easily recognizable. Also, every other character's name appears in text boxes as they speak, but before Sigma's "reveal" towards the end, you'll see "???" instead of his name.
• Contested Sequel: It's frequently debated if this game is better or worse than Mega Man X6, especially when it comes to the game mechanics and level design. One side says X7 is the worse one due its perceived tacked on addition of Axl, messy internal gameplay, and slower pace. The side that considers X6 the worse one cites the game's unfair level design and unpolishedness.
• Event-Obscuring Camera: The camera often gets stuck behind walls, generates blind jumps for what should be basic platforming, and is overall clunky. Snipe Anteator's stage invokes this, as you can flip the camera to travel along the ceiling.
• Game-Breaker: While X is the go-to example mainly due to his Charge Shot, he's not the only one to have a weapon that's super-strong:
  • The G-Launcher obtained from Gungaroo is effectively Axl's version of X's Charge Shot, and can provide comparable and sometimes superior results thanks to its faster rate of fire even when X has Quick Charge at his disposal; only held back by being more stiff to handle and getting blocked by some things that X's shots pass through; such as the platforms in the Sigma 1 fight.
  • Defence in general is another great way to bust the game, as any of the three characters will end up able to tank anything short of Red and Sigma if they have the Shock Absorber and Triple Barrier parts (Power 3 and Special 3 respectively) combined with a pile of Life Ups. X takes it one step further with the Body upgrade from his Glide Armor, which not only halves the damage he takes again but also prevents him from ever being knocked down; a massive help against certain attacks like Sigma's Rocket Punch.
• Narm Charm: Despite Sigma's cheesy direction, Walter Roberts has a hilariously hammy performance that makes Sigma seem like he's having a great time bothering the Hunters again.^* Doubly so if you look at things from an in-universe perspective, considering Sigma wasn't exactly of "sound" mind the last go-round. Lines such as "Thanks for coming by, fellas!" or "Ready for the real thing?" seem out of character for Sigma, but they're undeniably charming. And you can't help but love his doofy Dr. Claw growl.
• Never Live It Down:
  • It was in this game where X developed the reputation of being a pansy to much of the fandom, particularly due to his 10-Minute Retirement, then repeatedly complaining about "Why must we fight?" and shouting "Stop it!" constantly when firing a charged shot. Mega Man X8 pulled an immediate 180 on this direction the very next year, showing that the developers at Capcom agreed with the criticism, but this Wangst phase for X permanently scarred the character's image in the gaming scene.
  • Though Axl was Rescued from the Scrappy Heap in later games, many fans still won't forget him being a perceived Replacement Scrappy to X as main character.
  • This game in general is something of a case for the entire franchise. Many fans do not want another 3D Mega Man game unless it has Legends in the title due to X7 poorly executing it. Tellingly, even the future platforming installments that were in 3D (Mega Man X8, Mega Man Powered Up, Mega Man: Maverick Hunter X, and Mega Man 11) stripped out any actual 3D gameplay. ^note X8 had two 3D vehicle stages not unlike the Central Circuit stage in this game, but both were on rails.
• Polished Port: The version in the Mega Man X Legacy Collection 2 is a solid way to play the game thanks in no small part to better picture clarity than previous releases, as well as the near-complete removal of the original's long loading screens.
• Porting Disaster: The Korean-only PC port of X7 was a rushed port of the PlayStation 2 version and it shows. The game's graphics quality went down (especially on high resolution displays) with jagged character models and missing shadows, with only way to close the game being ALT+F4 and task manager. It also lacks English voice overs unlike most versions.
• Replacement Scrappy: Axl replacing X as main character here wasn't well received by the fanbase due to his obnoxious personality and having barely any positive differences with X gameplay wise. He was Rescued from the Scrappy Heap in later games, though; becoming older and more likeable and gaining a more unique and interesting playstyle — similar to that of Bass in Mega Man & Bass — in the sequel.
• The Scrappy: Flame Hyenard. Not only does the unorthodox setup of his boss battle^note To start with, Hyenard summons two clones that attack you in what appears to be the arena itself, but trying to hit them deals no damage. The real Hyenard can be found atop a giant gazelle-shaped mechaniloid that bombards the arena with missiles, which the player has to slow down — by way of shooting it in the legs — and then climb up to get to him. Once up there, Hyenard will attack you in two different ways depending on where you're standing on the gazelle mechaniloid; being on the body makes him summon his clones — where they'll run around you, throw fire or dash into you all at once to knock you down — while the head/neck/shoulder areas have the mechaniloid fire volleys of missiles that come down on you. This makes it easier to attack Hyenard and prevents him from summoning his clones, but the lack of traction and narrow space makes it very easy to slip off and fall either back down or into the lava below. make him borderline That One Boss, but he's infamous for having an extremely annoying voice. He and his clones constantly clip over each other and frequently repeat, disturbingly evocative of his character as a tortured hyena, as he runs around screaming "BURN! BU-BURN TO THE-BURN TO THE GROUND! BURN!" like a broken record. He's slightly more tolerable to listen to in the Japanese version, but it's still aggravating.
• Scrappy Weapon:
  • Ride Boarski's weapon, the Moving Wheel (or Zankourin for Zero), is Snipe Anteator's weakness. Unfortunately, it's very hard to hit with, thanks to its lack of homing and exceedingly narrow range; and even if you do, the boss takes very little damage from it.
  • Explosion fires a large shot that moves slowly forward a short distance before disappearing, and consumes the entire default Weapon Gauge in one shot. While it can atomize random enemies that stand still as it will deal multiple hits during its slow movement, Mercy Invincibility means for most bosses, including those meant to be weak to it, only the first hit will register.
• Seasonal Rot: While fans are split on whether X6 is worse, the game is still one of the least popular games in the Mega Man franchise due to the perceived poorly executed shift to 3D, weak Mavericks, poor English dub, and X being Unintentionally Unsympathetic.
• That One Achievement: In the X Legacy Collection 2 re-release:
  • "Smooth Operator": More annoying than difficult, it involves answering all of Alia's support calls. Answering them is optional in X7, but this achievement is reminiscent of the mandatory calls back in X5, which were unanimously panned by fans. What makes this even worse is that at least you could speed through the text boxes by Button Mashing in X5, but with X7, the text appear at a much slower rate, even while mashing buttons.
  • "Who Rescues the Rescuer?": Rescue all 128 Reploids. As stated by other entries throughout this page, it's not an easy task. If a single Reploid gets offhandedly killed by an enemy's attack, your only choice is to start the stage from the beginning.
• That One Attack: Sigma's second form has a Megaton Punch that deals a ton of damage, charges quickly, can knock you into the Bottomless Pits, and there's nothing stopping him from spamming it over and over again. Whenever he appears on the far side of the arena, get ready to quickly air dash away from his range. However, you can completely nullify this either by using Zero's Counter-Attack^note Gokumonken, learned from Soldier Stonekong to strike back and knock Sigma out of the move, or by using X's Glide Armor body upgrade to cut its damage and stop him from knocking you off the side.
• That One Boss:
  • Flame Hyenard. He starts the fight riding on the back of a giant Mechaniloid circling the arena while sending out two clones to attack you, and you need to temporarily disable the Mechaniloid to scale it before you can actually start the boss fight proper. From there, his favorite tactic is to perform a Doppleganger Spin and then surround you, forcing you to dodge projectiles in a small area (and trying to get out of it results in an unavoidable attack that doesn't do any damage, but knocks you down and opens you up to follow-up attacks). And even if you know who the real Hyenard is, if you made the mistake of going into the fight without Zero you're forced to rely on the game's finnicky lock-on mechanic to hit a moving target that's fast enough to evade your shots unless you get very close to it, which also opens you up to getting hit by his projectiles. The Mechaniloid itself also shoots missiles at you during all of this. Though, on the other hand, Zero and the D-Glaive make the fight much easier. ^* An obscure piece of information is that while the antlers of his mech cannot be targeted, they can still be damaged and destroyed by firing at them while too far away from Hyenard to lock onto him, but not so far away that he moves from its head. Eliminating both of them will shut down its missile barrages, which can make it safer to either jab Hyenard from its back with the D-Glaive or take point near its neck and fire shots at him with the G-Launcher or X's charged shots while he stays on its head.
  • Red. His entire battle is fought on a small series of platforms over Bottomless Pits, he's fond of Teleport Spam, he counters every attack with a projectile of his own, and he has a phantom doppelganger alongside him to flank you with even more long-ranged attacks.
• That One Level:
  • Flame Hyenard's level, the Lava Factory. The first half is a 2D checkpointless Marathon Level with almost Everything Trying to Shoot You. The second half is a 3D section that will frequently have you flung by knockback into the lava that is better left cheesed by the Glide Armor or else you're in for pain. Not helping either segment is that there are wounded Reploids littered around the level that are placed in close proximity to several potential death traps.
  • The first portion of Wind Crowrang's stage (Air Forces), where the player has to platform across a squadron of flying jets. The camera angle makes it difficult to tell where you are, the shadows don't help much, and your aerial momentum is warped while dealing with jets that move, which is not helped by the stage being somewhat inconsistent on where you can Wall Jump, or the game's brutal knockback. By comparison, the rest of the stage after you get to the main battleship isn't too bad.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!:
  • Changing the alarm beeps from Mega Man X6 for Alia's support calls was seen as a step back, since the old sound was seen as less annoying. Hearing her say "Can you hear me, X/Zero/Axl?" each time can be grating, especially since it can be repeated by walking over the area where it triggers multiple times.
  • The Reploid rescue mechanic was already unpopular in X6, where they could be killed by Nightmares. But making the Reploids vulnerable to all hazards made it even harder to handle.
  • The automatic lock-on wasn't well received either due to the finicky target-switching, and making the game lose the series' strategic elements.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: X is not playable from the beginning. You have to unlock X by beating all 8 Mavericks — or rescuing 64 Reploids, which still requires getting through 4 stages at the minimum — in order to play as him. By the point you've unlocked him either way however, Axl and Zero have gotten enough Chip upgrades from the rescuable Reploids that X gets left in the dust by comparison, even if do you use all the remaining ones on him. This means X only gets time to shine on the New Game Plus.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • X's 10-Minute Retirement could have been handled a lot more gracefully. The series was constantly building up to a Crisis of Faith where X would either double down on violence (the original concept for the Mega Man Zero series, before it was ultimately replaced by the similar Copy X) or give up on it altogether (X7 proper). Unfortunately, it's never explained what X was doing to help the world instead of fighting — for example, getting into science to help develop countermeasures against the Sigma Virus, or taking a more command and/or diplomacy-based role — or even go into detail as to what caused his crisis of faith, causing his angst to feel more like Wangst. What should have been a pivotal moment in X's Character Development instead felt rushed.
  • Zero and Sigma also had some character potential with how they reacted to X's retirement. Zero does seem a bit grumpier than usual but it's never explored, and his reaction to X's return — in the dub, at least — is a completely unemotional "Okay. Do as you please". One must also wonder how Sigma feels about his nemesis retiring. Would he want to get X fighting again? Or would Sigma empathize, also being tired of the perpetual cycle of death and being reborn, only to fight again?
  • The conflict with Red Alert opens a lot of threads about the global dynamics of Maverick hunting, and the grey area where vigilantes lie. We also don't see much of Axl's relationship with Red Alert pre-Sigma, which undermines the gravitas of Axl fighting his old teammates and, later, his reaction to the death of Red, the closest thing Axl had to a father. We get a glimpse of these aspects in the opening FMV, but it only makes one wish they would Show, Don't Tell more with Red Alert's operations.
  • As mentioned above, X's 10-Minute Retirement had the effect of sidelining him in the first game in the series that allowed for two Maverick Hunters to conduct field operations in tandem. Whereas X6 missed the opportunity to show how X might've had to adjust to fighting on his own from start to finish without Zero's help for the first time since X2, this game did the opposite, de-emphasizing the Bash Brothers aspect of his relationship with Zero — who himself is saddled with babysitting Axl for most of the story. Thankfully, X8 would address this by placing a stronger focus on the dynamics of the X/Zero/Axl Power Trio and expanding upon the Double Hero system introduced here.
• Underused Game Mechanic: While A-Trans is the unique special ability of Axl that is the reason Red Alert rises to prominence and catches Sigma's eye, it's only usable on a tiny handful of enemy types, many of whom are so limited in ability — mainly just for level traversal, item collection, and Reploid rescuing — that players are better off sticking to Axl's regular abilities unless they want to collect everything.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: The biggest criticism of X's character in this game. By all rights, having gone through multiple mini-wars and several near world-ending catastrophes all caused by the same antagonist who stubbornly refuses to die with no seeming end to the madness would make even the most hardened of veterans incredibly frustrated and consider retirement. Since X1, X has pondered the never-ending cycle of conflict at the end of each game — it's almost a tradition at this point. However, X's insistence on trying to find a peaceful solution to Mavericks, Reploids who have proven many times in the past that they can't be reasoned with and are incredibly dangerous, willing to kill multiple innocent people with little provocation, on top of him refusing to do anything about it until the final levels, on top of him being one of the most powerful Maverick Hunters in the organization, so much so that there was an apparent sharp decline once he left, all come together to make X come off as irresponsible. Mega Man X8 provided some much needed Character Rerailment by still portraying X as a war-weary Martial Pacifist but having him be far more mature and pragmatic about the situation, outright stating — without so much as a fuss — he knows he needs to end the newest conflict under his own power and as soon as possible in order to prevent innocents from being caught in the crossfire:
  X (X8): Axl's right. There's no time to be wishy-washy. Even as we speak, Mavericks are causing havoc.

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