Toan Cloud
Uploader
The soundtrack for this game is fairly decent. I don't think it has any bad tracks, and actually has some bops! Songs like Noah's Park, the Ride Armor theme, and Lumine's 2nd Phase battle them are great songs that have the perfect Mega Man X vibe to them. Other songs are good as well. Not every song is that good though. Some like Dynasty (Gigavolt Manowar) aren't that exiting. Overall, a decent soundtrack with some great songs. As for the game, it does a lot right. It controls well, brings in cool ideas like the swap-able armor parts for X, and a shop system that allows you to upgrade the hunters more freely. The navigator system has been greatly improved and allows you to chose what information you want during that stage. Each of the 3 hunters focusing on a different aspect. Alia for general information, Palette for finding secrets, and Layer for enemy patterns/weaknesses. The partner mechanic from X7 is back (one of that game's only positive contributions to the series), and Axl and X have been made more distinct from each other, so that Axl isn't just a weaker X like in X7, playing closer to Bass from the classic series.
That's about where the good stuff ends. The level design and secrets is where X8 fails hard. The stage design for the most part isn't good. Avalanche Yeti's stage is a ride chaser stage. It isn't to bad, but it can be hard to tell where you are landing and is rather slow. Plus, two secrets are at the end of the stage, requiring each character to be used to get them. So unless you know how to get them with exploits, you have to replay the stage. Gigavolt Manowar, another ride chaser stage, is slow and confusing. It also has no secrets so you don't have to come back. A lot of the stages can be described as pace breakers. Burn Roster has slow moving platform sections, Earthrock Trilobyte has you chasing a slow moving robot the whole thing, and as I mentioned before, Gigavolt Manowar especially. Not all the stages are bad though. Bamboo Pandemonium's stage is a more traditional Mega Man X stage. It features a more fast paced design, and the only use of a ride armor. (Coming with an epic theme of course!) Reminiscent of Magma Dragoon's stage in X4, you can bring the ride armor to the boss, but this is where the few problems with this stage start to show. Most secrets require the ride armor, which on it's own isn't to bad, but it is way to difficult and complicated to actually get the ride armor there. Most of the time the armor will fall of ledges because of convayer belts, or just get destroyed from damage. Another more solid stage with few problems is Dark Mantis's stage. You have to sneak around lights not to get caught, or enemies will attack you. It sounds like it would break the pacing, but the way it is set up makes it that you can go fast if you are careful and know what you're doing. The item game in this stage is annoying though once again. You have to copy a robot as Axl to get into a room, then power the generator with Gigavolt Manowar's weapon, which will make platforms at the end of the stage appear to get a Rare Metal.
Rare Metals, which I haven't mentioned yet, aren't direct upgrades, but allow new items to be purchased in the shop. Alternate weapons for Zero and other stuff like that. In the same room, you also need Earthrock Trilobyte's weapon as X to find a rare metal. There are many secrets that require this weapon and seem to be in random, undefined locations. So once again, X8's way to complicated item game starts showing though. Other stages like Gravity Antonian and Optic Sunflower are just meh. Gravity Antonian has a gravity flipping mechanic that is fun I guess, and Optic Sunflower has a challenge type level, that can just be cheesed with Zero's lance weapon. Overall the stage design for X8 rarely gets good. That is honesty where the game falls apart. It had so much going for it, but alas. The story is fairly decent. The thing that makes it a win in my eyes is the exclusion of Sigma as the final boss. Lumine being your final opponent used the expectation of Sigma being the villain, like always, to its advantage.
In the end, X8 is a very flawed game. But the developers were defiantly onto something. Compared to the few games that came before, X8 was honestly a promising title. Showing that the devs were starting to step up their game and get back into the grove of things. All too late though, as X9 was never made. But if it had been, I think it would have been a solid title, or at least good. I didn't mean to make this into an essay about X8, but I guess I just like this game and talking about it. Well, my hands hurt from typing.
That's about where the good stuff ends. The level design and secrets is where X8 fails hard. The stage design for the most part isn't good. Avalanche Yeti's stage is a ride chaser stage. It isn't to bad, but it can be hard to tell where you are landing and is rather slow. Plus, two secrets are at the end of the stage, requiring each character to be used to get them. So unless you know how to get them with exploits, you have to replay the stage. Gigavolt Manowar, another ride chaser stage, is slow and confusing. It also has no secrets so you don't have to come back. A lot of the stages can be described as pace breakers. Burn Roster has slow moving platform sections, Earthrock Trilobyte has you chasing a slow moving robot the whole thing, and as I mentioned before, Gigavolt Manowar especially. Not all the stages are bad though. Bamboo Pandemonium's stage is a more traditional Mega Man X stage. It features a more fast paced design, and the only use of a ride armor. (Coming with an epic theme of course!) Reminiscent of Magma Dragoon's stage in X4, you can bring the ride armor to the boss, but this is where the few problems with this stage start to show. Most secrets require the ride armor, which on it's own isn't to bad, but it is way to difficult and complicated to actually get the ride armor there. Most of the time the armor will fall of ledges because of convayer belts, or just get destroyed from damage. Another more solid stage with few problems is Dark Mantis's stage. You have to sneak around lights not to get caught, or enemies will attack you. It sounds like it would break the pacing, but the way it is set up makes it that you can go fast if you are careful and know what you're doing. The item game in this stage is annoying though once again. You have to copy a robot as Axl to get into a room, then power the generator with Gigavolt Manowar's weapon, which will make platforms at the end of the stage appear to get a Rare Metal.
Rare Metals, which I haven't mentioned yet, aren't direct upgrades, but allow new items to be purchased in the shop. Alternate weapons for Zero and other stuff like that. In the same room, you also need Earthrock Trilobyte's weapon as X to find a rare metal. There are many secrets that require this weapon and seem to be in random, undefined locations. So once again, X8's way to complicated item game starts showing though. Other stages like Gravity Antonian and Optic Sunflower are just meh. Gravity Antonian has a gravity flipping mechanic that is fun I guess, and Optic Sunflower has a challenge type level, that can just be cheesed with Zero's lance weapon. Overall the stage design for X8 rarely gets good. That is honesty where the game falls apart. It had so much going for it, but alas. The story is fairly decent. The thing that makes it a win in my eyes is the exclusion of Sigma as the final boss. Lumine being your final opponent used the expectation of Sigma being the villain, like always, to its advantage.
In the end, X8 is a very flawed game. But the developers were defiantly onto something. Compared to the few games that came before, X8 was honestly a promising title. Showing that the devs were starting to step up their game and get back into the grove of things. All too late though, as X9 was never made. But if it had been, I think it would have been a solid title, or at least good. I didn't mean to make this into an essay about X8, but I guess I just like this game and talking about it. Well, my hands hurt from typing.
