I'm David, welcome to my brain. Here I write to not only show that I can but to share my opinions on various topics. Mostly Video Games, Anime, Movies and Tokusatsu. Though I am open to suggestions and never afraid to admit when I'm wrong. Have a good time in here and be sure not to mess with my memory, it's bad enough as it is.
Hey guys, I know I'm very late I mean given what's been going on I think that you can cut me some slack while I focused on other priorities. But anyway during these UNCERTAIN TIMES we have to keep ourselves and each other occupied and hopeful. So what better way than to give people hope for the future by looking at a civil war between robots for the safety of humanity? I know I was going somewhere with this but screw it it's the Month of Mayga Man once again and now I can finally talk about my favorite entry in the Mega Mans series; Mega Man X.
Last year I started off by talking about my favorite robot Masters from the classic series so why not do the same for the X series? Now admittedly the Mavericks aren't exactly as memorable as their Robot Master predecessors so there may be some times where aesthetics triumphs over all or only because their weapon is awesome but at least it will be much shorter since there's 8 mainline X games as opposed to the 11 of the classic series. Now rest assured there are some bad Maverick bosses in these games, but that's for next time for now let's get to the good ones.
From the Original Mega Man X we have Storm Eagle.
Originally a Maverick hunter alongside X and Zero; Storm Eagle fell in with Sigma after he was bested in battle by the former Maverick Hunter leader. In battle he relies on both his aerial skills and the arena to eliminate anyone who dares to stop him and his new master. He provides a decent challenge for those who pick him as their first stage and his weapon the Storm Tornado is one of the best weapons in the franchise for the amount of coverage and damage it can dish out to common enemies. Him being a formerly noble Maverick Hunter also gives a decent amount of weight to the encounter between him and X in Maverick Hunter X where you can hear the regret in Eagles voice as he declares his intention to fight for Sigma. Also the humanoid bird design is simple but effective, a nice base to judge other Mavericks by in my opinion.
X2 we have yet another bird Maverick, Overdrive Ostrich
Just like Storm Eagle Ostrich was formerly a Maverick Hunter who joined Sigma after recognizing his new speed after he was forced into retirement when he lost his ability to fly after an accident on a mission. (But then again good thing he was based on an Ostrich which ca't even fly in the first place so I honestly don't know how he could fly in the first place, rockets maybe?) Anyway his weapon is one of the three that works on the X-Hunters, making him a top priority if you want to save Zero. Thankfully his strategy is easy to figure out and provides a decent challenge if you do decide to go after him first. Though outside of the X-Hunter weakness his Sonic Slicer is just ok.
Blizzard Buffalo was picked for X3, though mostly because he was the only one you can beat to star the weakness chain.
Now a major problem with X3 is that there's no happy middle ground with the bosses, either you stream-roll them with their weaknesses or they crush you with their high defenses, nearly unavoidable attack patterns and hard hitting attacks. The only reason Blizzard Buffalo is on this list is because he has an exploit that you can use to take him down and start the weakness chain. Though to be fair his weapon does cause enemies to drop heath when they're destroyed with it so there's that.
X4 I picked the only Maverick that actually affected the story, Magma Dragoon
Now unlike Storm Eagle who only go expanded on in the remake; Maverick Hunter X Magma Dragoon's actions actually do have an impact on the story as he was the one who caused the Sky Lagoon to crash thus sparking the conflict between the Maverick Hunters and Repliforce. Though his reasoning was rather weak as he only helped Sigma so he could have a chance to fight X and Zero. Now at least outside of Japan this is weak but apparently this is elaborated in expanded material that never left Japan. But aside from that we do have a chance to fight him using a Ride Armor making him at least a decent choice for the first pick of the weakness chain. Also he's basically a walking Street Fighter reference and hey if Capcom decided to reuse him as the practice mode boss in X5 I'm guessing someone else liked him too.
For X5 I picked one of two survivors of Repliforce, Spiral Pegasus
As X4 was the first to try to expand on the Maverick's back stories aside from "humans suck all hail Sigma" Pegasus here is a sign of continuity between the games as he and Burn Dinorex are the last surviving members of Repliforce. Now X and Zero don't want to kick him when he's down but since Pegasus has a component for the Rocket that is humanity's last hope and that he's infected with the Sigma Virus he unfortunately has to be taken down. Plus Pegasus has the chance to avenge either General, Colonel or Iris (depending on who fights him) while trying to uphold the honor of his fallen organization. Also just like Storm Eagle his outdoor battle arena offers him a major advantage, on top of the fact that his weakness doesn't annihilate him in one click of a button making for an actual challenge that I can appreciate. Sadly his weapon is just ok with X and rather tricky to pull off for Zero but nevertheless I have to give the thumbs up for fly boy here.
X6 is Blizzard Wolfang, the best of the worst Mavericks from the Worst game in what I consider the worst game in the X series.
I'll save my complaints about X6 for later but hey at least Wolfang looks cool (pardon the pun) and at least this game really tries to give the Mavericks some decent backstories for why they're helping the bad guys. Mostly due to a debt that they owe the main villain of X6, Gate. In Wolfang's case he was blamed for a cave in that North Pole research team and left to freeze to death by Alia. Shame that only gets mentioned at the end of the level but I can at least acknowledge the effort, but that's all.
X7 is where I bring up yet another avian Maverick, Wind Crowrang.
X7's Mavericks all have their own unique quirks, most of which can be fixed by switching to the Japanese audio track on the Legacy collection. But just like X6 there's not much to these guys other than Axl's former teammates. Out of all of these guys I'd say that Crowrang is at least the most interesting from a visual perspective. Maybe it's just because the Avian Mavericks still have the pseudo humanoid design along with their wings but I just think that they look cool. I'll unfortunately have more to say on Red Alert when I get to the worst Mavericks list but at least Crowrang just barely manages to slink on by on his design.
Lastly we have X8 and the last bird, Burn Rooster.
X8 is a step back in the right direction for the most part in terms of Maverick designs. Of these New Generation Reploids I have a bit of a soft spot for Burn Rooster. While the rooster design sounds goofy the emphasis of his legs in his design blends in well with his flaming kick attacks, those talons helping out with that. On top of that if players aren't careful and minding the arena Rooster can roast them with his desperation fire tower and Melt Creeper combo. With that I'm officially back in action, next time I get into the guts with what I consider to be the worst Mavericks.
To conclude the first (and hopefully not last) month of Mayga Man I’ll go down the list of almost all of the classic Mega Man games and list them all from the ones I’d rather not play again to my personal favorites. I’m not saying that the worst one on this list is terrible I mean all of classic Mega Man is sound and has a fantastically simple yet effective foundation but it’s just the one that I felt didn’t do much more then that at the end of the day. Though before I start with anything; no, Mega Man and Bass is not on the list. Mostly due to me not playing it, I mean I have the GBA version but with everything else wrong with Mega Man and Bass on top of that screen crunch, no thank you. So we'll start with my least favorite to my personal favorite.
Well you know what they say, worst is first and for me that’s Mega Man 5. Now I've been marathoning the classic games and I guess that my have affected my ratings I fully admit that, but yeah there's other reasons why I'm not the biggest Mega Man 5 fan. Namely some of the weapons suck, looking at you Power Stone, Charge Kick and Star Arrow (yes I know it's not a weapon technically but it's the weakness of one of Wily's forms so it counts.) Though this entry did introduce Beat and the Mega Tank, literal lifesavers during the Wily Castle stages. But yeah I may give Mega Man 5 another shot in my spare time but for right now, it's at the bottom of my list.
The one time anyone was afraid of Dr Wily.
Following that is the one that started the annoying extra castle gimmick to begin with, Mega Man 3. But not only did we have the predecessor to the extra castles but we also had to figure out the weaknesses of the Mega Man 2 robots with Mega Man 3 weapons thanks to the Doc Robots. Those stages are merciless, if you die against the first Doc Robot of the Extra stage then it's back to the start with you. Now with the rewind feature in the legacy collection this is more of an annoyance than anything but without it, welcome to pain, especially in the Needle Man Doc Robot stage. This on top of the final boss being taken out with one of the worst weapons in the game doesn't help, but at least we got Rush and sliding which became main-staples of the classic series (except when 9 and 10 took out sliding but whatever.)
Now I would have put the original Mega Man at the bottom of the list just for the American box art alone. But it’s the first of the series so of course it wouldn't hold up compared to the later games. Hell, this would most likely be just a one hit wonder if not for Mega Man 2 but I’ll still cut the first game some slack since it was the first untested game in the series so some missteps are expected. Nevertheless this game is classic Nintendo hard and if you can beat it without the rewind feature or exploiting the Elec beam trick then you deserve all the credit out there. But of course if you use the rewind feature I certainly won't blame you, especially with Guts Mans stage, ugh.
After Mega Man 1 is the end of the retro revisits, Mega Man 10. Sure it still has the store and selectable difficulty that could help less experienced players and it does let you play as Bass without having to suffer Mega Man and Bass, but it doesn't get much higher on my list. The special weapons are a major step down from Mega Man 9 in my opinion, some of the robot masters are borderline impossible to beat without their weakness or just have very annoying patterns "cough Commando Man cough". Though this again could be because of me being burnt out on the series due to my marathon play though of the classic series for this month. But if I still put it so high on my list despite said burn out it does speak to its quality so make it what you will.
After 10’s annoyances next on the list is the proper end of the original NES era, Mega Man 6. After playing though 5 NES games a little annoyance does tend to creep in when it feels like you're playing the same game six times in a row. Though this game did introduce the power and jet adaptors, while we did lose Rush due to this the trade off was not only becoming one of the most powerful iterations of Mega Man and making the robot master weapons almost useless. Unless you were using them against the castle bosses I mostly just stuck to the adaptors for the majority of my play through. So while the adaptors make this game the most fun I had with the NES era it came at the cost of what made the series special to begin with so I have to knock some points off there resulting in a rather meh entry overall.
Now here’s where we start to get to the good ones. After the meh of 6 we get the revisit to the classic design that was the pinnacle of the NES aesthetics but with modern sensibilities, Mega Man 9. It seems that after 10 years of hibernation, the classic series got the revamp it needed thanks to Inti creates' take on the blue bomber. Not only creating a challenging game but giving us some of the absolute best Robot Master weapons in the game. Though the trade off was removing the chargeshot and slide but it seems fair with weapons this good and level design this solid to complement them.
Here we have what is considered to be the best game in the series, Mega Man 2. Now I have to admit that Mega Man 2 does hold up far more than the original game. The weapons are very versatile, the introduction of E tanks was a god send and the difficulty of the level design was just right. However there is the problem of the seizures that this game can cause you around the Wily stages. So I have to knock off points for a game that while overall very solid and genre defining can still seriously hurt people.
Now we have the only Super Nintendo entry of the classic series, Mega Man 7. After the 6 NES games in a row, this with the new graphics, music and challenging game play was just what the doctor ordered. They even brought back the adaptors by finding all of the letters to spell out RUSH hidden in the first four stages. Yes the 8 robot masters are split up into two categories for story purposes that, while it does hurt replayability quite a bit doesn't hurt the sheer fun that this entry can provide. But its not perfect, like I said the story decision to cut the stage selection in half hurts replay, some of the bosses suffer from Spark Mandril syndrome and that Wily Capsule final boss fight, like Caddicarus said can suck on cold meat!
Coming in at #3 we have my personal favorite entry of the NES era, Mega Man 4. After the very shaky implementation of the extra castle stages that felt like padding in Mega Man 3 and after this game Mega Man 4 somehow seems to perfect the concept. Also the Robot Masters while many can be challenging (especially Skull Man) can be much easier to handle with the newly introduced charge shot for the Mega Buster. The special weapons are also very effective for more than just Robot weaknesses, not a terrible one in the bunch. This combined with the introduction of easy E-tank dispenser Eddie makes this is the most balanced and refined NES era Mega Man game as of this list.
#2 has the the slot filled by the only PS1 entry, Mega Man 8. A key factor for me in judging these games seems to be how useful and fun the robot master weapons are to use and does that ever show with Mega Man 8. Not only do they help with normal enemies as well as not being instant win buttons against the Robot master they're strong against but they can also help you with environmental puzzles and cover the 40 bolts hidden throughout the 8 stages. The upgrades while limited due to the limits placed on them via the 40 bolts can make Mega Man into an unstoppable force if you have the right combination of upgrades. This combined with the MST3K quality English dub makes Mega Man 8 a personal favorite of mine and it saddens me that we'll most likely never return to the 32 bit aesthetic of this game again, but c'est la vie progress marches on and what not.
We end this long, long list with what I consider to be the best of the classic series so far, Mega Man 11. Now it’s not because it’s the newest game, I honestly feel like this is the most refined, enjoyable and overall fun classic game so far. The weapons are fun to use, the stages are not too long, have a good difficulty balance and the inclusion of the double gear system allowed the developers to really change the challenge of Mega Man. Though that’s mostly with the speed gear, the power gear does the impossible job of making these great weapons even better (even potentially alluding to how Dr Light got the idea to let Mega Man X charge his special weapons with the arm parts.) Also we finally get some proper backstory as to how Dr Light and Willy’s relationship started to sour back when they were students at the Robot University. On top of the main game and its multiple difficulty options it comes with a plethora of optional challenges while, superfluous can still give you a few hours of challenges for those looking for it. But whoever came up with the Dr Light trials is as nuts as Dr Wily. I'll platinum this one someday but not today. Also the extra bolt item is only available if you play on a Saturday, what, why? But those trials combined with the outright awesome music makes this, for the time being my personal favorite classic Mega Man game.
Starting with the first game there’s only one Robot Master in this bunch that haunts my nightmares, Guts Man. His stage is unholy with the bottomless pit jumps with the dropping platforms, his weapon is far too situational and without his weakness I can never beat him because I can never get the timing for his jumps down so he just steamrolls me. Not to mention his overuse in the series as a whole makes me really tired of the guy, really fast. Why Wily insists on reusing this bucket of bolts is a mystery to me. But one that I'm in no hurry to solve.
Speaking of hurry my pick for worst in Mega Man 2 is Quick Man. Once again like with Guts Man if you don’t have his weakness he’ll reduce you to scrap faster then you can say Gangsta’s Paradise. But when you do have his weapon he’s a complete and utter joke. Literally just press the button and he goes down with the power of Za Worldo, even if you can't use your Mega Buster while he’s immobile he just takes damage from not being able to move. It like his restless leg syndrome is absolutely fatal to him or something.
As for my pick for my worst Mega Man 3 boss of course I was going to pick Top Man. I could go on about how his boss fight is rather easy but of course I’m going to pick on him for his special weapon. Why wouldn’t I; his weapon the Top Spinner is one of the absolute worst weapons in Mega Man history. You can take major damage just from using it, it doesn’t damage any of the regular enemies as far as I can tell and it just drains your weapon energy from one use and do nothing, even if it’s used on the enemies that it’s supposed to work against. But yet for some ungodly reason it can take out Gamma in one attack if you can do it right because the game seems to hate you.
Moving on to Mega Man 4 we have the biggest jobber in the series. All you have to do to beat Toad Man is just hit him with the standard lemon blasts. It will restart his patterns and cause him to just jump over you, repeat until you win and get not only his weapon but the Rush Marine. If it wasn't for the fact that his weapon is basically a screen nuke I'd honestly consider Toad Man to be the easiest boss in the series. I mean even Spark Mandril and all the flack he gets for the naming of the trope doesn't even compare to how pathetic Toad Man is.
Charge Man from Mega Man 5 is a robot that runs on coal and steam, as confirmed by the Wiki this design makes Charge Man incredibly impractical and high maintenance. Why in god's name would Wily design Charge Man off of a steam engine instead of an electric train, aesthetics? It just makes for a pissed off Thomas the Tank Engine. If that wasn't bad enough his attack is almost as bad as Top Man and his weakness, the Power Stone hits with one of the worst firing patterns I've seen for a weapon. Combined with the invincibility of his charge and coal attacks make him a pain to fight, just an all around pain in the caboose to deal with.
I have to be honest, I really don't have an issue with any of the Robot Masters of Mega Man 6. But if I had to make a pick I guess Wind Man would have to get the short straw. Though most of the Robot Masters and their respective weapons are easily ignorable in this entry due to the existence of the Rush Power and Flight Adapters making the weapons almost useless except agains the bosses. Though speaking of Wind Man he has the same weakness as Quick Man and can be taken down in 7 shots with the Centaur Flash. So I guess that's my reason, sorry buddy.
Moving on to Mega Man 7 we have Freeze Man the only one of the first 4 robot masters of that entry that I have issue with. The rest of the three have easy to dodge patterns and can be great for first time players. Freeze Man on the other hand has very hard to read patterns and seems to have counters for every attack you have. Unless you have his weakness and exploit it he'll just leave you out in the cold. I mean I could have gone with the ones who actually have Spark Mandril syndrome but in this case this guy is a beginners trap as far as I can guess.
From the first four Robot Masters of Mega Man 8 I have my pick, Clown Man. Like I said with Freeze Man; Clown Man is the one of the first four that can give first time players a rather sizable headache. Not to mention I find his final design a major step down from his submitted and design. In case you don't know Mega Man 8's Robot Masters aside from Tengu Man and Astro Man were contest winners, and Clown Man's original design is much more terrifying and cool than the one they went with. Yes I know the original might not fit in aesthetically but come on!
For Mega Man 9's retro throw back my pick for worst Robot Master is the hot headed Magma Man. His attack pattern is annoying and almost guaranteed to hit you thanks to the uneven terrain of his boss fight room, his weakness doesn't even fully kill him and just how does he even move his shoulders? Though at least his special weapon isn't too bad. But then again so are most of the Mega Man 9 weapons so what makes his so special? Honestly just like with Mega Man 6, I'm kind of reaching on this one.
The same cannot be said for Mega Man 10's Commando Man. Remember Guts Man and my complaints about him? Well imagine his jump causing quakes coupled with recision jumps and rocket launchers that cause major splash damage and you have Commando Man. Not even the fact that he's green can save him from my ire since he reminds me far too much about my most legit hated Robot Master in the series. Besides his Weapon isn't too bad even if it is too fast to control properly and is basically a remote controlled Crash Bomber.
Oh dear lord Torch Man where do I start with his guy. Let's start with his stage where unless you know what you're doing you'll be treated to more instant deaths then you can shake a stick at. It's full of tight jumps, instant death fire walls (that admittingly can be stopped with Tundra Man's weapon) and bottomless pits. Then there's the guy himself, unless you know what you're doing with the speed Gear his Torch Jutsu, overwhelming power, insane speed and awesome voice will make you his brand new punching bag. Not to mention that when he activates his Power Gear he can become a flaming meteor of fiery death.
So that's my picks for my least liked Robot Masters in the Mega Man games released to date. Now I would keep up the pattern for next week's entry but since John Wick Chapter 3 comes out this week that takes priority, since you do not refuse John Wick by any means necessary. But in case you haven't seen them (shame on you first of all) he's my link to the second movie to get you prepped for the third one. Afterwords I'll go over my overall favorite Mega Man games of the classic era. Which I bet won't be controversial at all.
Special thanks to my Patreon backer Jesse for his support.
Sorry for the lack of Mega Man 11 Robots this was the best one I could find.
Welcome one and all to a new theme month. For every Monday of May this year I’m going to cover a topic related to one of the most beloved game series of all time, Mega/Rockman. After going through both the Classic and X legacy collections i’ve got a bit of the Blue bomber stuck in my head and I figured i'd just go with it. As for this list I’ll be covering my favorite Robot Master from each of the 11 games of the classic series so far. But before I start let me clarify one thing, this list is only listing my favorite robot master from every numbered entry, not overall just going from Mega Man 1 through 11 mostly focusing on their design and aesthetics. So without further ado we'll start with my favorite Robot Master from the first game, Elec Man.
"Well isn't this a shocking choice?!"
Now considering that the original game had only 6 Robot Masters (not counting Time Man and Oil Man from Powered up) there wasn’t much to choose from. So I figured I’d just go for the one who annoyed me the least and Elec Man won by a landslide. Since it was the first game I’m willing to give the lack of diversity in design some slack since, hell everybody thought that Mega Man was gong to be a one and done series with the first one until Inafune and his guys completed Mega Man 2 on the side so for the first game, Elec Man gets the job done. Plus his weapon the elec beam is an undoubted life saver. I did the Elec Beam trick agains the Yellow Devil and Wily, I admit it and you all did too!
"Guess I was just a cut above the rest."
For my pick from Mega Man 2 what many people consider to be the best game in the classic series my favorite Robot Master is Metal Man. Yeah unoriginal but you have to admit that his weapon the Metal Blade is by far one of the most broken weapons in gaming. Aside from that a robot that was made strictly for the purpose of killing Mega Man and was given said OP weapon to do it while covered in sharp, pointy blades it seems like this was the one that would get the job done. Though the name for this guy is more than a tad redundant since, well robots are made of metal. It'd be like calling a human, Meat man.
"Expecting someone else? The world just bites doesn't it?"
For the third game which apparently had the worst production history that Inafune worked on (until Mighty Number 9 that is) we have Snake Man. Now how a snake themed Robot would fit into gathering energy crystals to power a giant peace keeping robot is questionable but hey I guess Wily just wanted an excuse to make this guy. Nevertheless this guy does look cool, I meanthere's just some constants that make things cool by default, one of those being snakes. Plus he's green and with my favorite color on top of a basic but functional design makes Snake Man my favorite Mega Man 3 Robot Master.
"Yep, I'm awesome, no bones about it."
Another default design that earns cool points, skulls. I mean if you want a robot that just screams evil, just add a skull or two and you're good to go, why do you think Wily has the whole skull motif in the first place? Now as for the functionality of this guy as a combat robot he pulls it off really well as without his weakness it's a hard time taking him down. Though sadly this Skull Man has no relation to that other Skull Man but oh well he works well otherwise. So from a design and fighting stand point I kind of dig Skull Man.
"Sorring high above the, HEY, great now I'm hungry."
Oh I had to make that joke. Sadly Mega Man 5 seems to be where the Robot Master designs were getting to be a bit of the same old, same old. So I had to go with the Robot most often mistaken for a Sandwich. On his own he can be taken down pretty easily with the Mega Buster and provides a fair challenge, though with his weakness he's no trouble at all. But just keep an eye out for him because if you're not careful this green menace will make you a Mega Sandwich, right Barry?
"Sorry, this steed's anything but noble!"
After the meh of Mega Man 5 Mega Man 6 takes a page from G Gundam's book and goes for an International theme for their robots. (Though thankfully nothing as stupidly hilarious as the Windmill Gundam, HAH.) (Side note possible list for dumbest robot designs in future.) And representing Greece is the time master Centaur Man. Now aside from the fact that he's my favorite color I also like the, well Centaur design of him.
Most of the time the Robot Masters just stick to a humanoid form but as the name implies Centaur Man is definitely going to stand out from the crowd with his equine design. Though just like Gyro Man if you know what his patterns are he makes for a decent first boss in Mega Man 6. Though no, I won't be making a Jojo reference with Centaur Man's time stop powers, we have more then enough of them thank you very much.
"What a lovely night, care to go get a drink with me?"
Now that we're finally done with the NES aesthetics (for now anyway) we move on to the Super Nintendo with Shade Man. Now, I love the blatant evil vampire design of this guy. He was originally built for a haunted house amusement park and after Dr Wily made some modifications he became a real threat. Not only could this guy unleash super sonic attacks but he can also make like his design and suck oil out of robots to regain his strength making for a tough fight if you're not careful. Also the fact that even with his weakness he doesn't have Spark Mandril syndrome and reset his patterns after being hit it is a major plus.
" Oh dear, why'd I have to be here?"
Moving to the PS1 entry we have Astro Man. Once again its the green guy that gets the pick but I also like the spherical design and how he flies around with his anti-gravity spheres. Though trying to fight this guy can be a problem, when you fight him it can get really hard to hit him and his Astro Crush attack is basically a screen nuke. Though to compensate somewhat is that he has a terrible case of Spark Mandril syndrome since if you hit him with his weapon you'll stun lock him if you keep the offense on and he'll never get a shot off. Also since he shows up in Mega Man and Bass he's technically my pick from that game as well since I'm not touching that beast, especially the GBA version since it's the only one I have access to without emulators.
"When I'm done, you'll be seeing a lot more then stars!"
After the classic blue bomber's 10 year hiatus we go back to the 8-bit aesthetics. So for that entry we have the goofy looking but somewhat cute Galaxy Man. Aside from green and unique designs I also have a weakness for robots that can transform such as Galaxy Man. He can turn into a classic 50's style UFO, fly around and even drop black holes to draw Mega Man into a painful love tap if you're not careful. Also his stage is a rather interesting challenge with the warp tube gimmick and the grabber enemies are a decent test of your memory making for an overall decent robot.
"That Terui Ryu guy stole my entire gimmick, where's my lawyer?"
Yep another transformer for this list and boy this guy is a beast without his weakness. Now the transformer gimmick was cool enough but if you go into a fight with him without his weakness Nitro Man's going to leave you as roadkill pizza. On top of the wheel cutters he throws he can also go so fast he can climb up the walls of his arena. Even if you know his weakness triggering the major damage can be a pain, but I won't give it away for those who haven't played. But yeah a fast, transforming motorcycle bot, of course he's cool.
"It's playtime everybody!"
Last we have my personal favorite from the most recent classic Mega Man game, Bounce Man. I mean, how can you not like this guy, he's a big, bouncing ball of joy who looks like if the Disney version of Baymax was painted pink. On top of that his personality makes him seem like a big kid who just wants to have fun and bounce around. Which makes the fact that you have to fight and destroy him just because he was reprogramed by Wily into a war machine all the more sad. Also his stage is just my personal favorite one from Mega Man 11 since it's just a big old bounce castle/ indoor amusement park and I've always loved those when I was a kid so seeing that got my nostalgia gears turning.
Please be sure to read, comment, spread the links, re-tweet and follow me on Twitter @OnDavidsBrain! and support me on Patreon.
1996 that's where it all started. Though of course since I'm talking about Pokémon Yellow it's a little bit later than that but that's getting off topic, point is Pokémon; big thing back then big thing now. I've been going through this game on the virtual console in preparation for Pokémon Sun and Moon. FYI planning on getting Sun since my little bro is most likely getting Moon and planning on getting Litten as my starter because I like me some fire kitties and I think my preferred starters need more fire types. So far my preferred starters are Bulbasaur, Cyndaquill, Treeko, Piplup (also haven't beaten a Gen 4 game since they sucked and aside from Ponyta Chimchar was the only other fire type Pokémon until they updated in Platinum, hoping that if they do release an updated version of Diamond and Pearl like they've done with Ruby and Sapphire they keep the Platinum roster) Snivy and Froakie so yeah only one fire type, gonna need to fix that. Anyway in honor of Pokémon's 20th anniversary here's the list of my final Pokémon teams since my resurgence in Pokémon with the release of X and Y. April 30, 2014 was when I beat Pokemon X, my team consisted of a level 70 Greninja, a level 63 Aegislash, a level 64 Snorlax, a level 64 Lapras, a level 66 Xerneas, and a level 68 Charizard not a bad way to start. July 3. 2014 I got into the hall of fame in Pokemon Black 2 Normal mode, my team had a level 62 Emboar, a level 56 Stoutland, a level 56 Magnezone, a level 56 Golduck, a level 56 Zoroark and finally my level 52 Metagross. December 13, 2014 I finally beat Steven in Alpha Sapphire with my team, my roster was a level 55 Warren, my level 51 Latias, my level 55 Kyogre, my level 54 Metagross, my level 55 Dusclops and the Pokémon I've been with since day one, my level 58 Sceptile. Then came January 29th 2016 when I beat Pokemon Black ( at least beat N and Ghetsis) with my Level 52 Reshiram, level 46 Tornados, Level 47 Vaniluxe, Level 44 Scolipede, Level 45 Bouffant, and last but not least my level 52 Samurott. Which leads to my replay of Pokémon Yellow, and let me tell you going back to Gen 1 after all the innovations made in the latest generations made this journey quite the arduous one. My legendary team was my Lv 50 Pikachu, Lv 44 Venusaur, Lv 45 Charizard, Lv 43 Blastoise, Lv 42 Hitmonchan, and Lv 45 Kabutops. Can't wait to get my golden team in Pokémon Sun, now I have some unfinished business in HeartGold where I'll finish what I started years ago. Pokémon is owned by Nintendo, Game Freak, Ken Sugumori, and Satoshi Tajiri.
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One year, hard to believe it's been one whole year since I've started my look at this game, and we're not even done with the Persona series yet. But hey I'll only get better with time and things should go by somewhat faster when I get to Persona 2 Eternal Punishment but for now, its time to put this bitch on ice! With the mirror completely restored the gang frees Ms Saeko from the mask, but then Two Face shows up!
No but close enough, her name is actually Tomomi Fujimori, Ms Saeko's best friend when she was in school.
But hey at least she's better then that other female Two Face.
Stay classy DC, stay classy.
Japanese Two Face is of course pissed off and possesses the mask transforming into a monster called Lady Masquerade.
INCOMING MESSAGE FROM THE BIG GIANT HEAD!
Said big giant head can use Bufudyne and Magrydyne which hits every party member with heavy ice and gravity damage respectively. She also has God Kandori's Panic Voice skill so keep an eye out for that too. After a very long and very tense battle the group manages to destroy the Snow Queen mask once and for all. Saeko recovers and explains that Tomomi was the one possessing the mask after falling under its power like the three guardians. Saeko explains that in their last year at St Hermelin they both competed for the role of the Snow Queen and Tomomi won the part. However it was due to Saeko secretly withdrawing thinking she could give her friend one role she beat her over, Tomomi however thought the reason why was because Saeko was afraid of the curse. Tomomi did not take this well and when she tried the mask on it burned half of her face.
After the group convinces Saeko that what happened wasn't her fault Elly notices that even though the Queen is dead and Saeko is saved the school is still frozen, and that's when the true mastermind appears, Nyx the Night Queen.
Nyx is the Goddess of the Night in Greek Mythology It was said that she was originally born from Chaos. She has given birth to many offspring including Light, Day, Death, Sleep, Doom and Fate.
She proclaims that while she failed as the Snow Queen, now that's she's free from Tomomi's human weakness and the mask; the Night Queen is now free to freeze the world in Eternal Night from the heights of the Ice Castle. The gang leave to confront the Queen but Tomomi shows up before they leave to apologize to Saeko for all the trouble she caused as the Snow Queen and suggests keeping the completed Demon Mirror as a shield against the Night Queen. So she transfigures the Demon Mirror into the Spiegel Shield, which only Naoya can equip. She also mentions that the hero's costume from the Snow Queen play is still in storage inside the Gym and that it could be useful. She then passes on and says that she'll be looking down with the previous queens so that nobody else would end up like them.
So once you've stocked up on recovery items, fused new Personas and did anything else you think you need to do head to the locked room behind the room leading to Nemesis Tower to find a portal. Nanjo is there observing it and gives the group a Phurba Dagger weapon for them to use, unless you already purchased one in which case you have a spare one to sell. Inside the room is a ball of plasma which can teleport the five party members to the second floor of the Ice Castle so they can chase down the Night Queen.
Now be forewarned, this place is hard but nowhere near as annoying as Thanatos Tower, but mostly since there's no time limit or losing Persona usage if a party member is knocked out. But the Ice Castle does contain some of the strongest enemies in the game and there are very little chances to come back to the first floor. The second floor is less of a challenge then it is a test of your patience. The main floor is split into a 6X6 grid with paths in-between the grids. The problem is that some of the intersections force you to move in a pre-guided direction. On top of that the encounter rate here is pretty high so if you take a wrong turn you'll have to run the risk of encountering several powerful demons. The only advice I can give you is to equip a Persona with Estoma, take your time and make sure you have plenty of Revival beads.
Once you make it to the third floor go left from the staircase you came from to find the gym storage room. Inside you'll indeed find the hero's costume which becomes the best armor for Naoya for the Snow Queen Quest. However for it to spawn you need to talk to Brown who will point out something shiny on the ground next to him in front of the frozen student, the shiny thing in question is a note telling you that the costume is next to the vaulting horse next to the ball cages. There's where you'll find the rest of the Spiegel armor and the Spiegel Blade. Continue on to the fourth floor where if you find a stair case you are close to obtaining the Totems for the Ultimate Personas for the Snow Queen Quest.
Once you make it past the puzzle you'll be dropped back to the third floor cut off from the rest with only a classroom and a pit fall at the end of a small hallway, go inside and you'll find two Jack Frosts named Raiho and Reiho, who've meet previously if you've been exploring the rooms on the 1st floor. They'll trade you the Totem cards for the Ultimate Personas in exchange for Ambrosia. And now is the time to talk about the Ambrosia and how Thanatos Tower is even more evil than how I described it last time. See the Ambrosia you get depends on the order of the towers you've conquered. In order to get all five pieces of Ambrosia, you have to beat Thanatos Tower first; the hardest tower filled with Demons that could squash a low level party like a bug. Fortunately here's a link to a page where you'll get tips on how to survive the Tower.
But for the purposes of this review we'll assume that the party has all five Ambrosia pieces and can now get their Ultimate Persona. Naoya's is Amon Ra as it was the main game. Yukino gets Durga of the Empress Arcana.
In Hinduism Durga is a Devi, the supremely radiant goddess, depicted as having ten arms, riding a
lion or a tiger, carrying weapons and a lotus flower, maintaining a
meditative smile, and practicing mudras, or symbolic hand gestures and is an embodiment of creative feminine force.
Ayase's Ultimate Persona is Freyr of the Magician Arcana.
One of the most important gods of Norse Paganism, associated with farming, weather and as a phallic fertility god.
Elly's Ultimate Persona is Michael of the Judgement Arcana.
An Archangel, Michael is one of the 50 principal angels in Christianity and one of the 10 Archangels of Islamic tradition. In Christianity, he is viewed as the field commander of the Army of God and led it in the war against Satan and the fallen angels. In Islam, Mikail serves as one who delivered bounty and sustenance to all living things as commanded by God.
Brown's Persona is Tyr of the Justice Arcana.
Tyr is the god of single combat, victory and heroic glory in Norse mythology, portrayed as a one-handed man.
I hope you're psyched abut these new Personas, because the pit fall drops you all the way back to the second floor.
Once you make it to the end of the fourth floor you'll run into Raiho and Reiho again who will take you to the fifth floor of the castle. The fifth though eighth floors are more of a interconnected maze so if you feel like you're going the wrong way, you're not just look at the map and you should be fine. But make sure that you check inside every room you come across. Like for example on the seventh floor Aki is inside the classroom looking for dear old dad though she oddly says that he's wearing their uniform and a black mask. But she teleports away when it's clear to her that they haven't seen Kandori.
In a classroom on the fifth floor you'll run into Mai who's looking for "her" in a white mask. But second verse same as the first and so like Aki Mai warps out. Later on the sixth floor we find Kandori in the Student Council Room.
Or at least something that looks like Kandori because last time I checked Kandori stopped wearing his old school uniform at least two decades ago.
Whether it is the real Kandori or not he asks if you've seen "her" already. He tells you she's painting away on the floor below "keeping the gate to paradise shut with the blackness of despair". So the group finds the girl in the art room below.
Doesn't she remind you of someone? Nah probably just me
She apparently went a little crazy as she says that she's "painting over their future in blackness" and is going on about what we already know of her from the main game about how she's alone and can only observe the happiness of others. Before she warps away she proclaims that she's sick of being alone and will destroy the entire school. So now on the eighth floor the group finally encounters the Night Queen on the stage. She's more then ready to fight however Maki and Kandori show up to offer assistance to the Night Queen and Kandori tells the group that if they want to fight the trio to come to the very top of the Castle before warping the five to the ninth floor. Thankfully he'll offer you the chance to go back to the first floor, but he forgets to tell you that it's a one way trip!
Besides outside of the room there's not only a save point but also a Velvet Room so you shouldn't really need to go back to the first floor unless you're in desperate need of items. So two more floors and the group finally corners the Night Queen who's fused with the masked Maki and Kandori to become Queen Asura.
And don't even dare to figure out how the hell this thing's anatomy works in a real sense because you'd just go insane.
Queen Asura may have three heads but thankfully its 15000 HP is shared between them, however it can swap between the tree active heads and thus alternate its weakness' and strengths. As it is the final boss of the Snow Queen Quest it's not going to be easy. The center head can cast four different types of elemental spells. The Green Head (Kandori) can deal status effects while the yellow head (Maki) can not only heal itself but also has the All Guard and Symphony of Lament skills that Pandora has, and like Pandora if Naoya has Amon Ra at it's highest lever unleash Hieroglyphein on them and keep on it. Though here's a free tip, while Maki is the white mage of the creature she is vulnerable to elemental attacks so if the Queen has her head active go to town.
Eventually Queen Asura goes down and the Night Queen swears she'll return so long as people try to turn hope into despair, so unless a certain bread of evil bunny cats show up in this world and girls from the ages of 4 to 16 start gaining magical powers I'm sure she'll neeeeever bother anyone again. As for Maki and Kandori, the two retreat saying that improvising wasn't enough and they'll meet Naoya again soon. But we already know what happened with that. With the Night Queen gone the school is returned to normal and everyone is safe again. But there's no time to rest as with this distraction done with the five head out to find Maki and Mark and help them stop Kandori.
Outside the school they find Mark who was overwhelmed by the demons at SEBEC HQ and asks for help saving Maki. The five agree to help and the Snow Queen Quest ends with the six making their way to SEBEC HQ to stop the true cause of the demon invasion of Mikage-Cho.
With that we end our look at Shin Megami Tensai: Persona. My thoughts are as follows, it definitely helped to lay the ground work for the series and what would come after; unlike the rest of the Megaten series which primarily focused on playing with differing morality, the demons and fighting apocalyptic threats, this game established the strength of the Persona series; which is the characters, personal story lines and a more human element. The characters were distinct and slowly but surely we saw arks for them and their development, from how Nanjo started as a Proto-Kaiba but slowly developed into a open minded person, to Reiji learning to move past his hatred for his father and Kandori, to Maki where the team helps her ideal self overcome her massive amounts of self-loathing. We see that the human mind is capable of creating great beauty and true horror given the right circumstances, and through the bonds shared between those close to you one can overcome most obstacles life throws at you and by staying true to yourself one can strive for greatness.
The game play however is where this game suffers. While it did set up the ground work for the game play for future installments, the first run was shaky for me, though mostly due me having played the far more refined Persona 4 first. I found the demon contracts to be more then a chore without a guide and the parts where I had to go through dungeons a second time after I already made it to the end was more than a tad annoying and just felt like extending the game play. The Personas as well were vary limited, though again I preferred to stick to the Personas that were most compatible with the characters. The music for the PSP re-release is really damn good, once again Megaten composer Shoji Meguro knocked it right out of the park especially with the battle music, giving the right mix of tension and epic in their uses. Every score fit the mood it was trying to depict and that for me is a great sign for a game score where you can't imagine any other music in the background, even the song played in the school before the demons show up is catchy as hell.
Overall I wouldn't recommend this game to someone who wants to get into the Persona/ Megaten franchise. But I would highly recommend this game to people who've only played Personas 3 and 4 to see where the series started from, though if you don't want to try watching a let's play. Persona 1 is available on the PSN at the time of this article for about $20 for your PSP or PS Vita. Next time we come back to the Persona retrospective we take a look at one of the more underrated games in the Megaten franchise, Persona 2 Innocent Sin where we see the developers have refined and improved on Persona 1 in every respect, till then, keep the voice in you loud and proud.
Shin Megami Tensai Persona is owned by Atlus and Sega. Catwoman Guardian of Gotham is owned by Doug Moench, Jim Balent and DC Comics. Dragon Ball, Dragonball Z and Dragonball GT is owned by Funnimation, Toei animation, Fuji TV and Akira Toriyama. Dragonball Z abridged is owned by Team Four Star. 50 First Dates is owned by, Adam Sandler, Happy Madison, Flower Films and Columbia Pictures.
