Video Game / Mega Man X8

As the Grand Finale to the Mega Man X series, spoilers for all the previous games preceding this one, including Mega Man X7 may be unmarked. You Have Been Warned!

"That's right. The Orbital Elevator is under our control now... It begins now, X. A new world will be born!"

— Vile

Mega Man X8 is the eighth and final game (so far) in the Mega Man X series released in North America for the PlayStation 2 on December 7, 2004. It was later released in Japan, Europe, South Korea in the following year along with a port on Windows PC.

It is the year 21XX, long after the Red Alert incident. The humans seek asylum from the Maverick Wars by colonizing the Moon in the "Jakob Project". As part of this project, a new generation of Reploids are put into production. Each contains a DNA Copy Chip that lets them freely change their bodies and nullify viral infections (Axl is revealed to be a prototype of these Reploids), making them immune to the Sigma Virus. These new generation Reploids help construct an orbital elevator to transport workers and materials into space. The director of the project is a Reploid named Lumine.

However, Lumine is suddenly kidnapped by the Maverick Hunters' old enemy Vile, and a worldwide Maverick riot breaks out amongst the new generation Reploids. The Jakob Project has been hijacked for reasons unrelated to any virus. Now it's up to X, Zero, and Axl to stop these new Mavericks and rescue Lumine.

As you may have guessed by now, the gameplay of X8 is very much like its predecessors as players complete a series of stages and defeat the bosses to earn their special weapon. In addition to gaining special weapons from bosses, players can develop upgrades for the heroes with Metals scattered through the stages and dropped by slain enemies. Just like Mega Man X7, players bring a duo of Maverick Hunters into each stage; however, this time, all three playable characters are available from the get-go, each with their own distinct gameplay style. Despite this game's use of 3D visuals, the developers ditched the 3D free-roaming gameplay of X7 after being harshly criticized by critics and fans alike and went with a 2.5D approach akin to the previous games in the series.

The game's eight Maverick bosses are all part of the rioting new generation Reploids:

• Optic Sunflower, a virtual reality trainer. He gives Shining Ray (X), Tenshouha (Zero), and Ray Gun (Axl).
• Gravity Antonion, an anti-gravity researcher. He gives Squeeze Bomb (X), Juuhazan (Zero), and Spiral Magnum (Axl).
• Dark Mantis, a weapons manufacturer. He gives Shadow Runner (X), Rasetsusen (Zero), and Black Arrow (Axl).
• Bamboo Pandamonium, a rocket science manager. He gives Green Spinner (X), Youdantotsu (Zero), and Blast Launcher (Axl).
• Gigabolt Man-O-War, an energy maintenance worker. He gives Thunder Dancer (X), Raikousen (Zero), and Plasma Gun (Axl).
• Earthrock Trilobyte, a metal miner. He gives Crystal Wall (X), Rekkyoudan (Zero), and Bound Blaster (Axl).
• Burn Rooster, a scrap incinerator. He gives Melt Creeper (X), Enkoujin (Zero), and Flame Burner (Axl).
• Avalanche Yeti, an environmental researcher. He gives Drift Diamond (X), Hyouryuushou (Zero), and Ice Gatling (Axl).

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Mega Man X8 features examples of:

• 100% Completion: Collecting all the items in X8 and upgrading the three (later six) playable characters, which even has a percentage counter for each character. Fully upgrading (100%) each of the main characters is the only way to obtain his Infinity+1 Armor without the use of cheat codes. The stages themselves even have a percentage rating.
• 2½D: The gameplay of X8 is mostly 2D, but the game uses the 3D space to have enemies appear from the background, and in some cases like Dark Mantis' stage, incorporates the foreground into the 2D plane. Gigabolt Man-O-War's stage plays very much like a rail shooter as you chase him down while dodging on-coming traffic and street signs.
• Action Girl: Alia, Layer, and Pallette become one once unlocked.
• Actually a Doombot: The justification for this game's Boss Rush is that the revived bosses and Sigma are new generation Reploids copying each of them, as evidenced by them changing back after defeat.
• Advancing Boss of Doom: A giant Mechaniloid that chases the player for the first half of Trilobyte's mission. The second half involves the player chasing it.
• Advancing Wall of Doom: A mini-boss in Optic Sunflower has a wall of spikes approaching the player from behind but it will stop at a certain point to give them less room to dodge the mini-boss' attacks. It can be pushed by guard-breaking attacks.
• Ambiguous Situation: Due to confusing writing, the answer to "who's behind who?" in the story is very unclear. Lumine says that Sigma helped his plan all along, and that the entire rebellion was his and the other New-Gen Reploids' doing, which is clearly what The Reveal seems to go for. However, Sigma says that the New-Gen Reploids were his "children", and that Sigma oversaw the Jakob Project which in turn created the New-Gen Reploids including Lumine. This makes it unclear whether the Lumine somehow forced Sigma to bend to his will, Sigma was in charge all along with Lumine simply waiting for the Maverick Hunters to eliminate the former, or the two worked as equals with Lumine simply taking sole control after Sigma's death.
• Angels Pose: Rare Male Example with the Weapon Get screen, which shows X, Zero and Axl posing this way after demonstrating their new weapons. Their positions vary depending on who you're playing as.
• Angrish: When Bamboo Pandemonium reaches half his stamina, there is a chance for either this or Bamboo saying, "It's all over!"
• Ant Assault: Gravity Antonion is a Reploid modeled after the ant, and he's the Mad Scientist and a Maverick who believes in Sigma's cause that the world is evil and needs to be resetted (read: completely destroyed). In battle, he employs a lot of Gravity Screw and can create massive blocks four times his size to throw at the player character.
• Anti-Frustration Features:
  • Instead of normal lives, the player is given "Retry Chips", and how many can be held vary on difficulty. Easy offers infinite Retry Chips, Normal is limited to three but also provides two free Retry Chip that refreshes in between stages, and Hard is limited to only three. Players can also buy Retry Chips back from the R&D Lab, which also refreshes in between stages and the cheapest Retry Chips are available first.
  • The player can spend Metal at the R&D Lab to refill their Sub-Tanks, instead of having to do so within a level.
  • There are a few Intermission levels that exist solely for the player to grind Metals if they need to.
  • There are now two more navigators — Layer and Pallette — who specialize in giving hints as to boss weaknesses and pointing out secrets in levels, respectively. Players who don't like the Navigator system also have the option to turn it off entirely.
  • Axl can now bank copy abilities for later use instead of transforming on the spot. He can also cancel out of a transformation with the Character Switch button to preserve copy energy, and if he ends up in an area that can only be entered or exited with a copied form, he's locked into that form until he leaves, even if he runs out of energy.
  • Unlike X7, Lazy Backup is (mostly) averted, as unless a character is put in an instant death scenario like falling into Spikes of Doom or into Bottomless Pits, they'll simply retreat while the secondary character takes over. Refilling the Double Attack meter will also restore a bit of that character's health, allowing them to return.
  • If you fall into a Bottomless Pit while in a Ride Armor, your character will automatically eject to give you one last chance to save yourself.
  • The Double Attack is one of the game's gimmicks, and defeating a boss with a Double Attack boosts your Hunter Rank for the stage. If hitting the boss with a One-Hit Kill attack—X's Nova Strike, for example—would kill them, they will survive with one hit point, turn invincible, and execute an easily-avoided Desperation Attack. This ensures that the player can't kill the boss by accident and screw themselves out of the Double Attack finish bonus.
• Anime Theme Song: "WILD FANG" by Janne Da Arc for the Japanese PlayStation 2 version and the 2004 PC version.
• Armor-Piercing Attack: X's charge shot, the third slash of Zero's combo, and Axl's eighth bullet will stun a guarding enemy. You can flip over a Mettool and hit its soft underbelly. Bamboo Pandemonium's and Gravity Antonion's weapons will do this by default, as will the T Breaker and Sigma Blade.
• Attack Reflector:
  • Zero and Layer's Rekkyoudan can deflect weak enemy fire with a blade swing, and that bullet may or may not collide with an enemy; this technique gets upgraded with the B Fan, as it allows them to reflect the shots back directly to the attacker.
  • The B Fan can deflect shots by default if the character stays still, as well as X and Alia's Crystal Wall.
• Attract Mode: The game's opening FMV intermixes story scenes along with some gameplay footage.
• Auto-Revive: If one character has fallen in battle, refilling the AT gauge will bring him or her back with some HP. Having the Spare Energy item on hand will also save the player from death once and recover some HP if their partner was already defeated.
• Auto-Scrolling Level: Gigabolt Man-O-War must be pursued on a Ride Chaser due to his ability to fly and shot down quickly before he challenges the Hunters to an actual Boss Battle. The Hunters also use a Ride Chaser to approach Avalanche Yeti's base, complete with Shoot 'Em Up mechanics.
• Back from the Dead: Vile for the third time. And Sigma, of course. Subverted by the Maverick Bosses, since some New Generation Reploids were impersonating them in the Boss Rush, right down to having the same powers.
• Backtracking: Some of the items will require returning to previously cleared stages using a Maverick weapon/skill, a character or Neutral Armor upgrade, or both to uncover their Rare Metals. Examples include a Rare Metal in Burn Rooster's stage that requires Zero's Juuhazan skill and the T Breaker (the latter of which is found in this stage), a Rare Metal in Noah's Park that requires the Icarus head parts to break a crumbling ceiling, and various Rare Metals hidden in certain stages that require at least the Hermes/Icarus arm parts and X's Crystal Wall to unearth them (one of which also happens to be in Earthrock Trilobyte's own stage).
• Bash Brothers: Very much like X7, except all three heroes are readily available, and unlike X7, Axl isn't an under-powered version of X. The Navigators can join in on the action too after unlocking them. See Big Damn Heroes, Limit Break and Regenerating Health below for the mechanics that spawn from this.
• BFS: True Sigma wields one during his boss fight. It can be obtained for Zero in a New Game Plus after you reached 95% completion for him (the last 5% is the BFS itself).
• Big Bad: Sigma as usual, but he was actually just a pawn for the real Big Bad, Lumine. Of course, Sigma is still implied to be the Greater-Scope Villain as he somehow headed the Jakob Project which created Lumine and the other New-Gen Reploids, so it's very uncertain.
• Big Creepy-Crawlies: Gravity Antonion, Earthrock Trilobyte and Dark Mantis.
• Big Damn Heroes: If you get immobilized by something, you can use Tag Assist to free your active character while switching between the two. This leads to an awesome moment of Gameplay and Story Integration in the Sigma Palace when, after you deplete 1/4 of his health, Sigma will automatically grab you (this is scripted); in Normal, you can use the Tag Assist as usual, but in Hard (where mid-boss Vile will grab your other character and leave you traversing the rest of the stage alone, including the showdown with Sigma), said other character will jump in and save you, implying that Vile has been dealt with.
• Big "NO!": X lets one out upon dying via falling into a Bottomless Pit, losing all of his HP, touching spikes, etc.
• Bigfoot, Sasquatch, and Yeti: Avalanche Yeti, who is based off a yeti, however, his long pointy red nose also makes him resemble a snowman.
• Blackout Basement: Dark Mantis's military base, since it's technically a Stealth-Based Mission. Using Gigabolt Man-O-war's weapons on a hidden generator, however, will turn on the lights and you can eschew the entire stealth segments.
• Blade Spam: The D Glaive modifies Youdantotsu into Renyoudan, a quick 6-hitting thrust attack.
• Bonus Feature Failure: The Navigators, Alia, Layer, and Pallette, are unlockable as playable characters. They are basically feminine clones of X, Zero, and Axl respectively; however, due to Gameplay and Story Integration, Alia cannot get X's capsule upgrades, Pallette cannot copy enemies, and Layer gets a nice aversion by only being unable to use Zero's black armor. You also have to purchase all of X's, Zero's, and Axl's upgrades again as Alia, Layer, and Pallette, since their upgrades don't carry over to the Navigators. Additionally, using even one of them when running a stage will forbid you from choosing a Navigator for that stage. Level Grinding the Navigators at least gives you something to do on your New Game+, and unlocking one of them changes, of all things, the Capcom logo screen.
• Boss-Only Level:
  • Gigabolt Man-O-War is unique in that there are only hazards in his level prior to his proper fight, although you do have to chase him down and shoot down his ship form to get him to start his actual fight.
  • Gateway is the requisite Boss Rush level, with no minor enemies. It only has three rooms, the starting point (where the main Boss is actually fought), an L-corridor and the hub containing the Boss teleporters. Troia's Intermission replays the whole thing except the boss with Sigma at the end.
• Boss Rush: In the second to last stage of the game, as you might have expected from a Mega Man X game. The Intermission of Optic Sunflower's stage also features an optional boss rush where you must defeat the Mavericks under a time limit.
• Bottomless Magazines: The biggest change to Axl is that his weapons have infinite ammo and he can rapid-fire them at any angle. They are considerably weaker and a little less varied than X's weapons to compensate.
• Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs: The first Mega Man X featured armor upgrades that X can use immediately upon finding a Light Capsule. X5 later foregoes this due to "security reasons" and the armor parts cannot be used until the set is completed, but introduces multiple armor sets for X. X8 not only features being able to use armor parts on the fly again upon finding a Light Capsule, the Neutral Armor's Icarus and Hermes parts are interchangeable between the two sets.
• Classic Cheat Code: If hoarding Metals is not your idea of fun, there are cheat codes in the PlayStation 2 version as well as the X Legacy Collection 2 re-release to unlock the heroes' Infinity+1 Armors and the Navigators instead. There's also a code to unlock the bonus boss battle with Cut Man in Troia Base. These cheats codes were, however, removed in the 2004 PC port.
• Combination Attack: Position your character next to a target and press the Double Attack button, and both your chosen characters will beam in and blast the crap out of it and everything else on the screen caught within the spherical matrix. It can also be used against bosses to deal a substantial amount of damage to them or finish them off with style.
• Combos: A combo counter appears as you land successive hits on enemies. Part of your mission rank is determined by doing as many combo hits as possible; using Axl makes it easier. Enemies will also drop Metals of higher value, up to the red ones, when defeated with a high combo chain. Getting hit by enemies, or taking too long a break between attacks, will make your combo counter drop; there's a purchasable chip that extends the combo window, making it easier to keep a combo chain going.
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: The Metals you collect are in different colors (and sizes) based on their value. From lowest value to highest: blue (1), yellow (5), red (50), purple (500), and rainbow (3,000); Rare Metals (white) opens up a new upgrade for you to purchase. The Super Metals are only found from defeating the Maverick bosses, while the purple ones only show up in a few places and are not dropped by slain enemies, but they can be earned by performing well in a Multi-Mook Melee room.
• Colorful Contrails: Whenever the Maverick Hunters or Navigators are dashing, they leave a faint color-coded trail of their primary colors as they dash through. This also applies to dashing wall kicks.
• Combat Hand Fan: The B-Fan is a pair of laser tessen that can be used to block projectiles by standing idle. Your attack range is reduced, however.
• Continuity Nod: When Optic Sunflower activates his Kill Sat as a desperation attack, an image of the Final Weapon can be seen in a hologram in the background before it fires.
• Central Theme: Progress. A lot of the plot concerns new Gen-Reploids and a recently constructed Orbital Elevator, with a big deal being made over their immunity to the Sigma Virus. The Mavericks often mock X and Zero for being outdated and Axl for being a prototype. To cap it off, Sigma, the series Big Bad, ends up being Hijacked by Ganon via a new villain who claims they were using him, and during said villains battle, his attacks and abilities largely mirror X's taken up to eleven.
• Crucified Hero Shot: The game's Japanese cover art as pictured above features a silhouette of Lumine posing with his arms outstretched to his sides.
• Death Cry Echo:
  • Mega Man X: "NOOOOOOO...!!!"
  • Burn Rooster: (Laughs madly.)
  • Bamboo Pandamonium: "Is this... the end...?"
  • Optic Sunflower: "I can't lose to the likes of you...!"
  • Dark Mantis: "I can't believe it!" (In Japanese, his line was, "What the hell!?")
  • Gravity Antonion: (Groans in pain.) (In Japanese, his line was, "I never thought I would be defeated!")
  • Earthrock Trilobyte: "No!!" (In Japanese, his line was, "This can't be!")
  • Gigabolt Man-o-War: "Oh yeaaah!" in Japanese, "Cheese and rice!" in English
  • Avalanche Yeti: "Incredible..." (In Japanese, he says, "It's incredible...")
  • Vile V: "Guo!!"
  • Sigma:
    • First (?) fight: "Noooo!!!"
    • Final fight: "Impossible! How... could you... You couldn't... Destroy... the old... world... new age... Hrrgh! No!!!"
• Death from Above:
  • As you descend the volcano to get to the room Burn Rooster makes his lair in, this comes in the form of a Descending Ceiling.
  • Avalanche Yeti causes snowflakes to rain down from the ceiling for his desperation attack.
  • When Optic Sunflower loses half his HP, he activates a Kill Sat to rain deadly lasers from above.
• Degraded Boss: Exaggerated. A copy of Sigma is the boss of Gateway. Come the next level and suddenly all enemies are copies of Sigma, except much weaker for no real reason. (Maybe Sigma didn't get to power his fakes enough?)
• Descending Ceiling: In Burn Rooster's stag, before his fight.
• Desperation Attack: All Mavericks turn invincible and unleash overdrive attacks when they reach 25% (Normal) or 50% (Hard) health. Their invincibility instantly wears off after the attack in question.
• Difficulty Levels: The game has the standard Easy, Normal, and Hard difficulty level, each with their own changes to gameplay and what secrets can be unlocked upon clearing them.
  • Easy: All characters' Life and Weapon Gauges are maxed out from the start, all Rare Metals are already unlocked and given to each character (the armor parts for X, however, must be found), players have infinite Retry Chips, and bosses won't perform their desperation attacks at all, however, the game ends at the Gateway, no items from the R&D Lab can be carried over into New Game+ (but the Metals collected can be carried over), and the Navigators and the Ultimate Armors cannot be unlocked.
  • Normal: All characters' Life Gauge starts at 18 HP and Weapon Gauge starts at 72 WE, Rare Metals must be found and developed at the R&D Lab, players have five Retry Chips (three can be developed plus two are available for free between stages), bosses will perform their desperation attacks when their HP reaches 25% or below, the game's final stage is accessible, items developed from the R&D Lab can be carried over into New Game+, and the Navigators and the Ultimate Armors can be unlocked.
  • Hard: All characters' Life Gauge starts at 12 HP and Weapon Gauge starts at 24 WE, players only have three Retry Chips, enemies are 50% stronger and some of them have new attacks compared to Easy and Normal modes, bosses are more aggressive and perform their desperation attacks when their HP reaches 50% or below, two Hard mode-exclusive story sequences are added in the final stage to shake things up, items developed from R&D can also be carried over into New Game+, and the unlockables from Normal mode can also be obtained.
• Discount Card: The Metal Discount item will make every other purchasable items cost 10% less Metal. It costs 5,000 Metals to develop, however.
• Distaff Counterpart: The Navigators are this to the Maverick Hunters. Originally, the Maverick Hunters were supposed to fill their place as Mission Control if the Navigators were dispatched but the idea was scrapped in the final release of the game, however, the PC version's second installation disc has some Japanese voice-over recordings of the Maverick Hunters as mission control left over.
• Divergent Character Evolution:
  • When Axl debuted in X7, he was an underpowered version of X who stole X's ability to hover. Now Axl's special weapons are completely different from X's and he relies on More Dakka compared to X (akin to a machine gun versus artillery). Axl can also rapid fire in eight directions now (similar to Bass), so he avoids the Denial of Diagonal Attack that continues to plague X.
  • The Ride Chaser's blasts now operate differently. Axl auto fires small shots, X must fire them manually but he can charge the shot to cover a larger area, and Zero uses a short range blast that covers a wide arc in front of his vehicle.
• Diving Kick: Zero's K Knuckle changes Enkoujin from a fiery downwards Sword Plant to a flaming diagonal dive kick attack.
• Double Unlock:
  • Many of the items in the game not only requires you to find the Rare Metal for it in the Maverick stages, but also pay for them with Metals you've collected throughout the game.
  • To play as the Navigators, first you have to beat the game on at least Normal to unlock the navigator that you used the most during your playthrough — the other two can be unlocked by replaying at least four stages in New Game+ (any cleared stages except Noah's Park will still count) — then fork over the 40,000 Metals (or less if you have the Metal Discount) to unlock each of their weapons.
• Easter Egg: If Zero is equipped with the K Knuckle, he can perform a Hurricane Kick with Rasetsusen and a Shoryuken with Hyouryuushou. X can perform a Shoryuken when he equips his Ultimate Armor.
• Easy-Mode Mockery: The game ends after you beat Sigma on Easy. You also can't access the secret items and characters on Easy, and you don't keep your items and upgrades on New Game+. You do, at least, can carry over the Metals you've collected into Normal mode.
• Easy Level Trick:
  • One of the rooms in Bamboo Pandamonium's level features an endless assault of Ride Armor enemies. It's suggested that you demolish them with the Cyclops Armor, but a better alternative is to switch to Axl, stick to the uppermost part of the entrance and wail on all the enemies with the Axl Bullets (or Optic Sunflower's Ray Gun for an even quicker combo increase). As long as Axl keeps firing, he will not slide down, and the enemies won't bother to jump up to hit him. Time-consuming, but it would rack up your hit counter to 200+.
  • An alternate strategy is to simply stand at the left side of the screen and spam the Cyclops' stun cannon whenever the enemy Ride Armors get close enough, which freezes them in their tracks and leaves them wide open for a follow-up pummeling.
• Electric Jellyfish: Gigabolt Man-O-War exemplifies this in the Americas; a man-o-war is different from a jellyfish but the idea is there. In Japan, however, he really is a jellyfish.
• Elevator Action Sequence: The first of the final stages in the game after beating the eight Mavericks...IN A SPACE ELEVATOR!
• Emergency Energy Tank: The Sub-Tanks, as usual; you'll need to find the Rare Metals for them. There's also the life bottles and weapon bottles, in case you don't have the sub-tanks yet; they have to be repurchased after use.
• Epigraph: The game ends with a quote from Dr. Light: "Humans and robots living together in harmony and equality. That was my ultimate wish."
• Evolving Vanity Plate: The game's Capcom vanity plate when booting the game with a new save file at first features a blue splash screen with silhouettes of the Maverick Hunters whom shout "Capcom!" all at once when the company's logo appears. After clearing Normal mode, the splash screen changes to red with Layer shouting "Capcom!" instead. Upon clearing Hard mode, the silhouettes of the Maverick Hunters are replaced with the Navigators as they shout "Capcom!" instead.
• Eyes Out of Sight: Layer. Her eyes are always hidden behind her hair.
• False Friend: Turns out, Lumine was the real bad guy!
• Feathered Fiend: Burn Rooster, a fire-elemental rooster Maverick.
• Fighter, Mage, Thief: Zero, X, and Axl respectively (and to that extent, Layer, Alia, and Pallette). To wit: X (Mage) is the well-rounded character who focuses on long-range combat, and his special weapons do the most damage to bosses, but have limited supplies. Zero (Fighter) has limited ground mobility but strong close-ranged attacks, and his special moves do a decent amount of damage to bosses. Axl (Thief) is the weakest in terms of dealing damage, but he's very agile and has the ability to shoot rapidly in eight directions without consuming energy.
• Final-Exam Boss: The first phase of the true final boss will use all of the desperation attacks of the eight Mavericks. The good news is that he also gains the boss' weakness while emulating them save for few that renders him completely invulnerable.
• Fire, Ice, Lightning: Burn Rooster, Avalanche Yeti, and Gigabolt Man-O-War respectively.
• Fixed Damage Attack: Inverted, Hermes Armor (its body part, specifically) gives X fixed damage defense. No matter how much damage X took, it will always be subtracted by a few, fixed amount of units. This means he has complete immunity to weak enemies/attacks with the armor.
• Flying Flightless Bird: Burn Rooster is capable of flying despite being a mostly flightless bird.
• Gameplay Grading: You're graded on how quickly you've beaten the stage, highest combo, and enemies defeated, earning a letter rank based on your performance. There's also a bonus for No Damage Running a stage as well. Doing an Extra Finish (finishing the boss with a Double Attack) will also count for your rank.
• "Get Back Here!" Boss: Gigabolt Man-O-War does nothing other than fighting and flying away prior to his proper fight.
• Goomba Stomp: Piloting a ride armor gives you the ability to do this to smaller enemies (even guarding Metools.)
• Gravity Is Purple: Gravity Antonion's weapon, the Squeeze Bomb (which X can copy after defeating him), is colored black and purple. Antonion himself is also colored mostly purple.
• Gravity Screw: In Gravity Antonion's stage, you have to push switches that rotates many of the rooms 90º or 180º to access teleporters closed off by blocks. Later Antonion himself can turn the gravity of his boss stage, screwing with your movements and potentially make the existing big block fall on you. Fortunately, the screen rotates to prevent an Interface Screw.
• Guide Dang It!:
  • Finding the Rare Metals that need to be unearthed by a fully-charged Crystal Wall. The other secrets such as the Light Capsules and the floating Rare Metals can be this, too, but at least Pallette will help you giving some hints if there's any nearby, if you choose her as the navigator. The floor also tends to have a special mark on them that signifies that you need to use charged Crystal Wall on it.
  • X's armor parts often do not have their effects completely described. For example, Body Parts I is stated to halve damage, which is true. However, its lack of red health depletion (meaning that all damage X incurs is recoverable by tagging out) is phrased as if it was a drawback, possibly due to translation issues, and its recoil elimination is not explicitly pointed out anywhere.
• Heart Container: Unlike the previous installments, Life Ups and Weapon Ups have to be developed in the R&D Lab for each character.
• Holodeck Malfunction: Optic Sunflower sabotaged the Troia training base so its simulations are quite lethal.
• Idiosyncratic Combo Levels: As you rack up combo chains from attacking enemies, you get a phrase associated with the counter such as "Super", "Electrifying", and "X-cellent".
• Immune to Flinching: The Icarus body parts give X this effect, allowing him to shake off most attacks without knockback. The Shock Absorber chip for Zero and Axl can provide this effect for them as well.
• Infinite 1-Ups: Only on Easy and during Intermission stages.
• Infinity +1 Sword: X, Zero, and Axl can unlock their Infinity+1 Armors in New Game+ on Normal or Hard if they are fully-powered to 100%. X's Ultimate Armor grants him infinite weapon energy, the devastating Nova Strike, and the Shoryuken move; Zero's Black Armor turns him into a Glass Cannon and extends his dashing distance; and Axl's White Armor boosts his agility and allowing him to hover indefinitely while firing his weapon. Zero's Σ Blade, an actual sword that's also unlockable on New Game+, is capable of wrecking enemies in seconds and breaks their guard, as well as halving his Giga Attack's energy use.
• Invulnerable Attack: Whenever a boss pulls a Desperation Attack when their HP reaches a certain threshold, they are invincible for the duration of said attack.
• Killed Off for Real: It is implied that this is the end of Sigma. Even still, it's stated that the copy chips of the New-Generation Reploids, which contain his viral DNA, were eventually in production again, so he may come back anyway. And while Sigma himself may be gone, his virus persists on until it's finally cured with the Mother Elf in-between the X and Zero series.
• Late-Arrival Spoiler: The artwork of Mega Man X: Legacy Collection 2 has Lumine with an evil grin in the background.
• Lazy Backup:
  • Averted, unlike Mega Man X7. If the point Maverick Hunter runs out of health, his partner immediately switches in and the fight continues. You only lose a life if both Hunters are beaten. Furthermore, if you manage to fill up the AT Gauge while one of your Hunters is knocked out, it will automatically be converted into some health for the downed Hunter.
  • Played straight should you fall into instant death traps like Spikes of Doom or Bottomless Pits.
• Legacy Boss Battle: Cut Man can be fought in Optic Sunflower's stage. He is animated similar to Paper Mario's 2D art-style. The method of encountering him differs on each version. If you're playing the PlayStation 2 version, you can must either have a game save of Mega Man X: Command Mission on your memory card or use a cheat code to fight Cut Man; on the PC version and X Legacy Collection 2 version, however, you have to beat all of the hard level simulations in order to fight him.
• Light Is Not Good: Lumine, who takes form of a seraphim-like angel in his second form, complete with the Sigma Palace being changed to a radiant golden sky.
• Limit Break:
  • Besides health and weapon energy, there is a third AT Gauge used for team powers. If the teammate is down, filling this bar will revive him at 1/4 health. If both Maverick Hunters are able, though, you can perform a Double Attack, which demolishes all enemies on the screen and heavily damages bosses; using it to finish off bosses will also make it more powerful and intense. During which, X unleashes a Wave-Motion Gun, Zero's saber grows huge, and Axl whips out the Guns Akimbo and sprays the area with bullets.
  • X's Giga Abilities for his armor sets, like the Giga Attacks from the previous games.
• Matrix Raining Code: In the temporary space where the Maverick Hunters or Navigators perform their Double Attack.
• Meaningful Name: The Jakob Project (a Space Elevator); Noah's Park is less meaningful, but it does fit with the symbolism of the game in general.
• Mercy Mode: Unlocking Intermissions requires you to fail the mission a certain number of times depending on the stage.
• Meta Twist: Would you believe that Sigma isn't the true Big Bad or Final Boss this time? In fact, he may have finally been Killed Off for Real.
• Mini-Boss: As an alternative to Multi-Mook Melee below, Vile may visit the stage to try to hinder you. Defeat him and you can pass to the next section of the level; he's weak to Avalanche Yeti's weapons.
• Mini-Game: The Intermissions in Noah's Park, Optic Sunflower's, Avalanche Yeti's, and Burn Rooster's stages feature mini-games where you must destroy as many crab Mechaniloids as possible, a timed boss rush, destroy obstacles on a Ride Chaser, and descend deep into the volcanic factory respectively. These Intermissions can be a good way to rack up Metals.
• Mission Control: The Navigators, each with their own analytical specialty. Layer handles enemy and boss strategies, Pallette can help you find hidden items, and Alia is a light mix of the two. You can choose to go without them, if you want.
• Mook-Themed Level: The only enemies in the final moon level are new-gen Reploids mimicking Sigma. With this in mind, the actual Sigma himself could also count as a King Mook.
• Multi-Mook Melee: There'll be some rooms in the stages where you'll be trapped with multiple respawning mooks trying to hound you; notably in Bamboo Pandamonium's stage, the mooks are riding Ride Armors. Kill them all and then you can pass.
• New Game Plus: After beating the game, you can start over with all of your possessions from the previous round, although what can keep and eventually unlock depends on the difficulty. On Easy, you can only keep your Metals with nothing else kept or unlocked, although you can start New Game+ on Normal with all your Metals. If you first start the game on Normal or Hard, however, you're allowed to carry over your Metals along with your upgrades. If you fully-powered all three Maverick Hunters to 100% on Normal or Hard, you also have access to their Infinity+1 Armors, Zero's Σ Blade, and the Navigators as playable characters (see Double Unlock above) on your New Game+.
• Money Grinding: Averted on Easy, since every Rare Metal has been unlocked and purchased for you, but played straight on Normal or Hard. A few items can be bought as you casually go though the game, since they go around the 500-4,000 Metals range, while other items will take some dedicated hours hoarding Metals since they cost well over 20,000 Metals.
• No Final Boss for You: On Easy, you're locked out of the true final boss battle that unlocks the true ending and the other unlockables.
• Not Me This Time: The Maverick Hunters AND Sigma himself think Sigma is in charge of the new rebellion.
• Old Save Bonus: In the PlayStation 2 version, those with a save file for Command Mission in their memory card can access a bonus boss fight with Cut Man in Optic Sunflower's stage. The PC version and the Mega Man X Legacy Collection 2 release changed the requirements to getting a top rank in every simulation room in the stage (which was already required for getting one of the Rare Metals).
• Palette Swap:
  • X's body changes color whenever he equips a boss's special weapon without his armor like in previous games, while only his extremities changes color with the Neutral/Ultimate Armor equipped. Zero's and Axl's Infinity+1 Armors also changes their color palette.
  • The next-generation Reploid mooks are teal-colored on Easy and Normal, however, on Hard mode they sport a red color scheme instead.
• Peninsula of Power Leveling: The Intermissions, particularly the one in Optic Sunflower's level, are perfect for Metal farming.
• Piñata Enemy: The giant Mechaniloid in Earthrock Trilobyte's stage. While you're chasing it, you can hit it as many times as you want and it will constantly drop red Metals as you go along. Axl is going to be your go-to guy for milking every bit of Metal you can get from it.
• Plant Person: Optic Sunflower, sunflower Maverick who hijacked the "Helios" Hunter virtual training facility.
• Power Fist: The K Knuckle changes Zero's moves into awesome martial arts moves, as well as modifying a lot of his special techniques. The drawback is that his normal combo no longer breaks guards (but at least the modified Juuhazan, which breaks guards, is faster to perform) and his attack range is very short.
• Proactive Boss: Gigabolt Man-O-War's level is a big chase against him, with you on your Ride Chaser and him flying around the city area, occasionally leaving bomb traps or exploiting tight turns to slow you down. Shoot him enough with your Ride Chaser and he'll go down to a platform, initiating the proper boss battle.
• Rank Inflation: For each stage and your overall Hunter Rank. From lowest to highest: D, C, B, A, AA, and finally AAA. In the Japanese version, AA is replaced with 特A (Special A) and AAA is replaced with S.
• Red Herring: X and the team are first led to believe that the new generation Reploids' Copy Chips are to blame for them going Maverick, since they contain Sigma's DNA in them. It seems that Sigma believes this himself, to some degree. However, Lumine reveals that they were not influenced by Sigma at all and instead consciously chose to follow him.
• Regenerating Health: Taking a note from Marvel vs. Capcom, some of the damage taken can be healed off if you switch Hunters. The Hunter on standby will gradually convert his red health.
• Rise to the Challenge: After Burn Rooster meets his defeat, the magma in the volcano that you climbed down to access Burn's lair will begin to rise. You have to climb up to reach the true goal, which appears hundreds of metres above the battlefield. Fortunately, there are platforms that you can use to escape the scalding-hot liquid rock. Did Burn cause the lava to rise?
• Rule of Symbolism: Plenty of things in this game references The Bible. The first stage is called Noah's Park^note Referencing Nhoa's Ark.. The stage after you defeat the 8 Mavericks is called Jacob's Elevator, and the Orbital Elevator project is called the Jacob Project.^note Both of these reference Jacob's Ladder. And EVERY SINGLE DAMN THING about Lumine screams off Lucifer.
• Rings of Activation:
  • Teleportation machines generate four rings around the target.
  • Optic Sunflower has an ability called "Change Space", which allows him to change the position of the scaffolding in the room. This ability is accompanied by a series of shining rings materializing around Optic Sunflower.
• Secret Character: Alia, Layer, and Pallette can be unlocked as secret characters.
• Self-Imposed Challenge: Invoked. The game does give you the option to delete items and upgrades off your characters so you play through the game without them, but you won't get back the Metals you used to develop them. There's also the Navigators, as Alia cannot get armor upgrades that X can and Pallette who cannot use Axl's copy shot abilities, while Layer gets an aversion by not being able to use Zero's Black Armor.
• Sequel Hook: Lumine, in his last breath, knocks Axl comatose, and leaves a strange fragment on his helmet. It gets no mention in Command Mission, which may or may not be the next chronological game.
• Shoryuken: Zero gets an ice variant with Hyouryuushou, although he'll say "Shoryuken!" instead of the actual move's name if he's equipped with K Knuckles. X can perform the iconic Street Fighter move if he is equipped with his Ultimate Armor. Avalanche Yeti (from whom Hyoryuushou is gained) can also do this.
• Shout-Out: One enemy has the Morph Ball, blatantly lampshading the game's Metroidvania elements.
• Situational Damage Attack: X's Giga Crush and X-Drive special abilities from Icarus and Hermes Armor respectively. Both abilities come with a gauge that refills itself over time whenever X is active (being switched back stops the refilling). Both abilities' effects will vary depending on how much the gauge is filled; the former will cover varying range and do varying damage, while the latter will last with a varying amount of time.
• The Sociopath: Every single new generation Reploid save for Axl is revealed to be this, as they can become Maverick at will in the sense of turning off their conscience thanks to Sigma's DNA inside the chips.
• Space Elevator: The Jakob Project's aim is to build a giant elevator that can carry humans to the Moon, so they can colonize and restart civilization. Sigma builds his palace there, and Lumine plans to convert it into his base of operations.
• Spoiler Opening: The opening spoils the true ending with a glimpse of Axl being knocked comatose by the tentacle that bursts from Lumine's dead body.
• There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Launching a Double Attack against end-level bosses deals out heavy damage, and finishing them off with this move earns you a nice EXF bonus at the end of a stage.
• This Was His True Form: The New Generation Reploids reveal their true forms when they die in the Boss Rush.
• Title Drop: Mega Man X8: Paradise Lost. Guess what's the true final boss' ultimate attack's name?
• Title Scream: When the player starts with a fresh save file for the game, X will announce the name of the game at the title screen. After clearing Normal mode for the first time, then it's Zero who announces the game's name instead. After clearing Hard mode, then it's Axl who announces the game's name instead.
• Took a Level in Badass: Alia, once unlocked. She goes from helping you kick some ass to actually doing that herself. The other Navigators can join in the ass kicking as well.
• Trailers Always Spoil: The game's 2004 TGS trailer uses footage from the FMVs around the end to imply that Lumine is the game's true villain. The E3 2004 trailer in Western territories makes this even more obvious as Lumine (in a modulated voice) thanks the Maverick Hunters for taking Sigma out and assuring them that he isn't coming back.
• True Final Boss: Lumine, if you're playing on Normal or Hard.
• Turns Red: The bosses will do this after reaching 25% or 50% of their HP, depending on the difficulty. While battling the Mavericks, their boss battle music changes as well to let you know the kid gloves are coming off.
• Unique Enemy: Optic Sunflower's stage consists solely of fights against enemies that don't appear anywhere else outside of the one room each of them has.
• Upgrade vs. Prototype Fight: Axl, a prototype of the new generation Reploids, is fighting against the final product.
• Video-Game Lives: Handled differently from the previous games. In X8, you have Retry Chips that act like continues in order to resume at the stage's checkpoint; however, you have a limited number of them (unless you're on Easy) and they must be re-purchased after using them, however, Normal mode gives you at least free two refreshable ones in between stages.
• The Virus: The impetus for building the new generation Reploids was to find a way to resist the Sigma Virus. It works, but the catch is that they have Sigma's DNA data inside them, which is arguably even worse than being infected.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: Axl and the new generation Reploids can access and mimic vast amounts of Reploid DNA, allowing them to change forms to withstand injury and viral infection. He can also use it in-game with his Copy Shot; copying some mooks' forms are required to solve some puzzles.
• Wave-Motion Gun:
  • Optic Sunflower's desperation attack consists of him commanding The Final Weapon to fire an energy beam at the player's position.
  • The arm piece of the Icarus Armor transforms X's fully charged shot into this. He also uses this beam during a Double Attack.
• Wing Shield: The Final Boss' Desperation Attack, where he covers himself with his robot wings while teleporting every 3 seconds; the screen will slowly darken until it goes black, and you'll then die, unless you quickly attack the boss to make him uncover himself and then hit him some more to damage him.
• Wreathed in Flames: Whenever a boss is coming close to their desperation attack threshold, they'll cloak themselves in a fiery aura to let the player know the kid gloves are coming off.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: This is the general attitude the next generation Reploids have towards the older generations. Also implied to be Sigma's attitude towards Zero, after several games of wanting him to be returned to his true self.
  Optic Sunflower: "My master remembers you well. You had the chance to become the ultimate destroyer. That's ancient history now..."
• Your Princess Is in Another Castle!:
  • After defeating Burn Rooster, the stage does not end. Instead, the lava begins to rise and our heroes must Rise to the Challenge before reaching shelter and finishing the stage.
  • The "Gateway" (never mind the title!) level is the standard Mega Man X formula for the final level: Shorter than most levels, the Boss Rush initiated halfway, and confronting Sigma as the boss. However, this Sigma is not even the real one. The final level is on the Moon afterward.

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