YMMV / Mega Man V

• Accidental Innuendo:
  • Uranus's weapon is called the Deep Digger.
  • Mercury's weapon was originally called the Snatch Buster. It's really no wonder why it was renamed to the Grab Buster outside of Japan.
• Anti-Climax Boss: Despite being the only character in the series to have ever defeated Mega Man, Terra is almost pathetically easy when he's actually fought, since he stands still on one side and only attacks with a slow, easily-manipulated Spark Chaser and an easy-to-jump-over immobilizing shot. If anything, he's even easier if one doesn't use the Deep Digger to deal more damage.
• Awesome Bosses: Sunstar, being a challenging Robot Master who managed to avert Dr. Wily hijacking the Final Boss position from himself and fights Mega Man one on one, without using any form of a Wily Machine. The battle is tough and fast paced, and even if you know his pattern, he still presents a good challenge. As a result, he's widely regarded as one of the best Robot Master battles, as well as one of the best Boss Battles period, in the entire series. His kickass boss music only sweetens the deal further.
• Awesome Music: Sunstar’s boss theme is one of the most rocking tracks on the original Game Boy. It’s an intense and climactic track that perfectly compliments the battle against one of the strongest Robot Masters in the franchise.
• Best Level Ever: All levels are generally liked, but by far the most well-received is the Shoot'em Up space level after the fight with Terra. A not-unwelcome change-up of the gameplay where you actually fight the Wily Star itself at the end. Being a space level seems to have helped.
• Catharsis Factor: In his first appearance, Quint just appears out of nowhere without any fanfare (Unless you read the supplementary material) and teleports out just as abruptly after being defeated. Here, he's treated like the rest of the bosses... including the fact that you finally get to destroy him this time.
• Epileptic Trees: Given that Quint actually blows up after being defeated (unlike in Mega Man II), many fans point to this game as being Mega Man's ultimate fate — dying at the hands of his past self — hence why he's absent from the Mega Man X series. This, however, ignores the multitude of Quint copies just before his fight (implying the Quint fought is one such copy), and that supplementary materials state that Mega Man never destroys Robot Masters to the point of being irreparable, something he outright demonstrates when he defeats Sunstar at the end and attempts (and fails) to invoke Defeat Equals Friendship rather than finish him off.
• Even Better Sequel: Widely regarded as the best of the Game Boy Mega Man games, and one of the best Mega Man games of all time.
• Fridge Brilliance:
  • It's weird that Uranus, named after a planet with no solid surface that was named after a sky god, is earth-themed, but given that his stage has an Egyptian theme and his bull-like appearance, he may be based on Ptah, an Egyptian god who was known as the "ruler of the sky," said to have created the world (explaining his name), associated with bulls (explaining his appearance), and was the god of architecture (explaining his weapon and element).
• Genius Bonus:
  • Neptune's serial number is higher than that of Pluto, something which makes sense when you consider that at the time of the game's release, Pluto's elliptical orbit had temporarily taken it closer to the Sun than Neptune.
  • Jupiter's weapon is effective against Saturn and it's a lightning-based one to boot. If only Saturn's was also effective against Uranus...
    • In addition, Jupiter's birdlike appearance is likely an allusion to the fact that, in Classical Mythology, Zeus/Jupiter was symbolized by an eagle.
  • Mercury's ability to steal items and his energy-leeching weapon allude to Mercury being the god of thieves.
  • Venus's bubble/water association likely stems from the fact that Aphrodite/Venus was born from seafoam.
  • Saturn's stage has Fooley enemies that slow down time, as well as Saturn's Black Hole attack doing so. The titan Cronus (aka. Saturn) was often mistaken with Chronos, the God of Time due to similar-looking/sounding names.
• Goddamned Boss: Mercury is one of the easiest Stardroids to defeat, due to only having three easily dodged attacks. However, like the Yellow Devil, he's invincible while in blob form, and will transform as soon as he takes any damage, dragging out the fight for far longer than necessary; worse yet, his weakness, the Black Hole, is locked behind the second set of stages and can't be used to speed the fight up until the Boss Rush. His shots can also take away any items you have if they hit, including S-Tanks.
• Good Bad Bugs: The Brain Crusher is supposed to be a repetitive Puzzle Boss, only taking damage from bombs that explode next to it. With a combination of sliding and Break Dash, you can clip into the Brain Crusher and launch Black Hole (which fires straight upwards) into its hitbox repeatedly. Each shot deals a lot of damage even though all bosses besides Mercury are supposed to be immune to Black Hole, and if it dies from this, the game skips the second phase and jumps to the cutscene that plays before Sunstar.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: Two consecutively fought bosses are shaped like giant hands.
• It Was His Sled: The only thing more well known than Dr. Wily being the villain again is Sunstar hijacking the spot of Final Boss from him.
• One-Scene Wonder: Sunstar is neither seen nor mentioned until the last few minutes of the game, and he's Killed Off for Real shortly after, but his imposing design, the raw power he demonstrates in his challenging boss fight and death scene, and his usurping the Final Boss position from Dr. Wily cemented him in the minds of players.
• Scrappy Mechanic: Two of the four crystals hidden in each of the second set of Stardroid stages are unfortunately placed. In Uranus's stage, the crystal is hidden behind a wall requiring Pluto's Break Dash... while the crystal in Pluto's stage needs Uranus's Deep Digger. Either way, if you want the Power Generator, backtracking is inevitable (and mercy on you if it's Uranus's stage you need to backtrack to).
• Scrappy Weapon: The only weapon widely criticized is the Deep Digger, for being a knockoff of another hated weapon (Super Arm) that can only be used in very specific spots.
• That One Boss: Uranus. He's manageable enough if you have the Break Dash, but otherwise you're in for what is by far the hardest Stardroid battle, as the Mega Arm won't do more than a single damage point, his attacks are more damaging than those of any of the other Stardroids, and he even has a One-Hit Kill move which he uses with some frequency.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Sunstar is an ancient alien doomsday weapon with goals of universal conquest, who even usurps Dr. Wily's position of final boss. You'd think he'd be a good recurring non-Wily Big Bad for Mega Man to face (with the possibility of further elaboration on the civilization that created him and the Stardroids), but after his defeat, he's destroyed in a planet-sized explosion and has never been seen nor mentioned since.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: Despite introducing the concept of advanced alien robots from an ancient civilization, one of which is a doomsday weapon seeking to conquer the universe, no other game in the series builds upon the Stardroids, Sunstar, or their creators, and the invasion of alien robots immune to Earth's weapons has no visible impact on the planet's history. Mega Man 8 would also feature alien robots, but Duo and the Evil Energy have no apparent connection to the Stardroids.

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