GAME HINTS

Story

Two hundred years have passed since the events in the Mega Man Zero series. Humans and Reploids have decided that the best way to stop all the bickering and wars that keep breaking out between them is to merge themselves. So now, there is no real difference between a human and a Reploid; they’re both the same.

Unfortunately, this does not seem to have helped with the Maverick problem.

Girouette runs a “transport” business (essentially they are couriers) named Giro Express. Two of his employees, Vent and Aile, lost their parents to Mavericks. Their rather routine lives take a new twist when one day they are asked to deliver some Biometal...

Special Features

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Screen shot from Capcom.
More so than even the Zero series was to the X series, this game is largely a continuation of the Zero series. The graphics and game play are extremely similar, the drawing style is virtually identical, and the plot makes specific mention of characters and events in the Zero series.

You have a choice of playing as one of two characters. Unfortunately the plot does not take them both into account; they substitute for each other in the plot sequences, and the game acts as if only one or the other exists, not both. Also, just to add to the confusion, some other minor plot points change based on your character for no obvious reason. For example, in Aile mode, Giro is old hat with using Model Z, but in Vent mode, Giro is newly chosen, just like Vent. It will be difficult to reconcile this and decide which plot is supposed to be the “real” plot, unless you just assume that all of Vent’s plot is canon and all of Aile’s isn’t.

You are stuck playing the character you chose at the beginning for the entire game. However, unlike with many of the X series games, here the game play is virtually the same regardless of which character you are using. (Honestly, Aile seems to serve no purpose in the game other than just being there so that they could offer players a female protagonist—which is of dubious importance considering gender of the ZX characters is rather subjective (just look at Giro) and she looks almost identical to Vent anyway. Autofire points out that Vent has slightly less recoil and Aile crawls faster, but overall the differences between them are minor.)

The “special weapons” of this game are models. Model X plays very much like the classic X series (assuming an X with no special weapons available), and, of course, Model ZX is virtually identical to Zero from the Zero series. All of your other models represent special weapons; you use the model’s weapon energy to fire charged shots, which is equivalent to using special weapons in traditional games. Furthermore, in classic games you could upgrade your X-Buster to enable you to charge special weapons; here, you accomplish this same thing by acquiring the second half of a particular model, which allows you to charge to two levels instead of one, which in turn opens up the ability to use the second version of the model’s special attack.

In short, they’re all the same basic ideas; you just execute them in slightly different ways. If you’ve played previous Mega Man games, you should find this one to be very familiar once you figure out its peculiarities.

On other fronts, this game brings back the interconnected stage feature from Mega Man Zero 1, which is great to see. Now all they have to do is improve the mapping system and add a few more transervers, and it’ll be perfect.

Silliness and Sloppiness

  • In the opening anime sequence, the subtitles say “M.E.G.A System” but the voice-over says “R.O.C.K System.” Oops.
  • When Vent/Aile transform, they say “R.O.C.K on!” Cute, Capcom. Cute.
  • Other characters in the game can transport (teleport) from any sort of random location. So why do we heroes have to use the very small selection of transervers that the game offers?
  • There’s a Proto Man car from Battle & Chase sitting in the city. (The manual actually shows a picture of Vent talking to the kid by the car, but they cropped the car out of the image.) There’s a Rush Roadstar elsewhere in the city. (Ironically, the two kids who own the cars remind one more of Mario and Luigi than Mega Man and Proto Man.)
  • When you walk through a door, your character gets stuck in his running animation while the door opens. Mysteriously, when NPCs like Giro go through doors, they stand nicely in front of the door until it opens, then walk.
  • Model ZX’s hair is 6 ribbons in the anime, 2 ribbons in the artwork, and normal ponytail hair (ripped straight from Mega Man Zero) in the sprite art.
  • Model ZX’s saber charge graphics only appear after it’s fully charged, even though the charging sound effect plays the entire time.
  • Serpent calls all of the Biometal users “Mega Men” even though Aile is female, and not a “man” at all...

Review

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Play Control: 4
Virtually identical to Mega Man Zero, although the characters have slightly different capabilities here. For example, in human mode Vent/Aile can duck, which I actually tend to do on accident, so I suppose it’s just as well that it doesn’t work when morphed.
Graphics: 4
Screen shot from Capcom.
The graphics are sometimes a little confusing about what you can stand on and what you can’t, what are doors and what aren’t, and what doors are locked and which ones aren’t. Otherwise, the backgrounds are pretty well done.
Animation: 4
The sprites are very similar to the Mega Man Zero sprites, just reworked for the new characters. So nothing is really new here, but the quality is still quite good.
Music: 4
The music’s pretty good, and many of the tunes make interesting use of stereo. None of the songs immediately jumped out at me as being of “must record” quality (though the intro/forest stage music after you get Model X came close), but none of them grated on me either.
Sound Effects: 3
The voice acting is in Japanese, and sometimes Vent sounds more feminine than even Aile. The sound effects are pretty much from Mega Man Zero, with the characters still having individual footstep sounds and such. Actually there are quite a wide variety of footfalls for various surfaces, including a splish-splash for walking in rain.
Plot: 3
Personally, I would have preferred one plot with both Vent and Aile, rather than two separate plots for each of them, one of which we have to totally disregard. There are also a few places of ambiguity in the plot. But overall the plot execution is fairly typical.
Difficulty: 3 (moderate)
The game isn’t overly difficult on normal mode, much more tolerable than the Mega Man Zero games mostly because you aren’t being graded. Note though that there are no continues, so once you run out of lives, you will lose everything you did since your last save. Still, this isn’t a terribly big deal, and you can always use easy mode if you have troubles.
Replay Value: 3
There are both required missions and optional side quests to do here, although I must admit that I find side quests somewhat odd in a game such as this. I mean, sometimes I just have to look at a guy and say, “Yo, I’m trying to save the world here—can’t you deliver your own love letters?” But the side quest system does give you a number of things to do. There are also two characters to play as, but this doesn’t have much effect on the game itself and so it’s not really worth going through as both characters unless you just want to replay the game anyway.
Polish: 2
This game is basically Mega Man Zero with new characters and a new way of accessing special weapons. Not bad, but for a “new” series, there is nothing really new here.
Overall: 85%
As you can tell, despite the new title, this is really just a Zero series game with a bit of a makeover. So if you enjoyed the Zero games, you’ll like this one. If you bypassed the Zero games because you thought they were too hard, give this one a try. There’s nothing that really blows me away about it, but it is a good solid quality game.

+ Plus:
There’s no ranking system. You can spend as much time in a mission as you feel like without being penalized. (In fact, being in a mission just determines whether you get plot-related events when you visit a certain area. Seems a little strange to be able to visit an area, then go back to a transerver, take a mission, and return to the same place you were before, and suddenly stuff is happening there when it wasn’t moments before...)
- Minus:
It is way too easy to get lost in this game. I’m all for free exploration, but an even halfway decent mapping system would have been nice. (The one in the game is so useless it may as well just not exist at all.) It doesn’t help that missions and particularly quests often send you to areas you’ve never seen before, while offering you no clue as to how to find them. It’s like you’re expected to explore and map out the entire game yourself before you even start taking missions...

Suggested Order

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You receive “missions” instead of a standard stage select screen. This list includes only those missions that are required for beating the game. Optional quests and such aren’t listed. For information on how to actually reach the missions, see the map.

At any rate, there are only certain times when you choose the order of your missions. I’m going to be weird and get you Model HX immediately. This allows you to wipe out most of the rest of the bosses with ease (unless, of course, you want to L4 them all, in which case you’re on your own). Plus you get a Sub Tank right out of the starting gate, and with Model HX it’s easy to pick up a second one too.

  • Locate Giro (Head up the ladder and right from the B-2 transerver door.)
  • Pass the Test (Start at the B-2 transerver. You have to find the Guardians in order, from left to right. When you’re finished you must run all the way back to the transerver because the one they leave you at doesn’t allow you to transport, contrary to what the Guardian says to you.)

  • Mavericks Detected (This stage is deliberately meant to resemble the Mega Man X1 intro stage.)

    (Poor Giro, gone already. Why do they even bother wasting time designing characters that are just going to bite the dust five minutes later?)

    Screen shot from Capcom.
  • Search the Plant (Get: Model HX)
  • Save the People (Get: Model HX 2)
  • Fight the Mavericks (Get: Model FX)
  • Find the Survivors (Get: Model LX)

  • (Interlude)

  • Secure the Biometal (Get: Model PX)
  • Protect the Lab (Get: Model PX 2)
  • Attack the Excavators (Get: Model FX 2)
  • Recover the Disk (Get: Model LX 2)

  • Stop the Dig (Find Area M from Area A-4)

    After Serpent predictably beats you to Model W (now who didn’t see that one coming?) you head off to the final missions.

  • Repel the Army (Find Area O from Area D-3)
  • Destroy Model W (Use the hallways between elevators to refill weapons and Sub Tanks.)

Teleporting Hatches

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There are teleporting hatches in a couple of different parts of this game.

First, in the last mission you go up an elevator and enter computer rooms. Inside each room, stand on the crystals that are in the corners of the room and press Up (they could have made this a little bit more obvious). These are teleporting hatches.

Room 1:

(1) Hivolt
(2) Hurricaune

  
Room 2:

(1) Lurerre
(2) Leganchor

  
Room 3:

(1) Fistleo
(2) Flammole

  
Room 4:

(1) Purprill
(2) Protectos

Second, in Area N you can find doors that require you to have copies of Mega Man Zero 3 and Mega Man Zero 4. These lead to rehash battles with bosses from those two games. Their orders are:

Bosses

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If I don’t mention a particular weapon for a boss, you can probably use Model HX to wipe him out. If I do specify a certain model, then either I’m assuming you don’t have Model HX yet, or it’s easier to use something different.

Giga Aspis (Intro stage boss)
Fire super-shots at the head. It will move off the screen, then slam its tail from the same edge where it disappeared. Stand on the opposite side of the screen and jump the rocks that get kicked up, or I believe you can super-shot them away. After doing this, the snake will move back on the screen low to the ground before straightening up again. Sometimes the snake dives toward you, goes off the screen, then comes on that side again. This then reverses all of its attacks.
Screen shot from Capcom.
Rayfly (Locate Giro boss)
A plane. It keeps dropping blocks that shoot at you. Destroy the blocks by shooting the ones with red gems and the resulting explosion will damage the boss if the plane is above the blocks at the time.
Tentalamia (Mini-boss)
This is what looks like a large dive helmet sitting in the center of the room with an eye or eyes in the middle. Stand on top of the machine, in the center, and attack the snake-like things that come out. When you have hit enough of them, the mini-boss should blow up.
Crushpactor (Mini-boss)
A tank with a spiked arm. Some variations of this boss have a scrolling floor which will pull you toward the tank. This is bad; if you get too close, it’ll slam its arm down on you, and once hit, it can be hard to escape at times. So in these cases, stay on the wall and fire from there. When the tank charges you, if it has its arm up, you need to stand below it, in the corner of the room. Otherwise, you have to climb the wall, although the tank will knock you off the wall when it slams into it if you are touching it at that moment. The tank can also fire a laser, though if you damage the cannon enough, you will destroy it, and it can no longer fire.
Powmettaur (Mini-boss)
A giant Met found in Area H. Just blast the heck out of it whenever its helmet is up and its eyes are revealed. When it hovers back and forth, you need to dash underneath it to avoid taking damage. The Mettaur will toss out helper robots that you have to destroy separately, but you’ll probably end up hitting them while you’re shooting at the Met anyway.
Lava Demon (Mini-boss)
This is a normal Galleon that gets engulfed in lava and turns into a monster. You can’t hurt it in its lava form; wait until it goes down to just a head sitting on the floor, and aim for that. Thunder ball attacks from Model HX (level one charge) work pretty well.
Diadrake (and variations) (Mini-boss)
These things can send out sonic beams that reflect on the other side of the screen. Just let them go over your head and don’t stand too close to the far side of the screen, because you need to be ready for them to rebound. When it air-dashes toward you by starting high, run forward and stand underneath it to avoid it. When it dashes by starting low, run away from it and stand in the opposite corner of the room. You can slash off the lion’s tail, thereby forcing it to spend time making a new one.
Pandora
She’s a witch archetype. She can fly around on her staff and create a potion-like thing which will move toward you and shatter (climb the wall over it). She can also send balls of lightning after you. When she sends the two pieces off her head after you, whack them repeatedly to get them to retreat.

She disappears and reappears a lot. To finish her off quickly, cast a tornado on top of her right after she reappears.

Prometheus
He, too, can teleport, and he disappears and reappears before just about every attack. When he appears in the center of the screen, in the air, he’ll cast four skull pods to the corners of the room which shoot purple shots at you. You can destroy the pods (though they have a lot of hit points each), or keep moving from one wall, then down and across the room to the other wall, to try to avoid the shots. You can still hit and damage Prometheus in the center of the room while doing this; I would try to strike him with a charged shot with every pass that you make.

When Prometheus appears on the ground in the center of the room, he’s going to send rainbow blades down the wall, across the floor, and up the other wall. Dash-jump off the wall and over his head to avoid this (hit him with a charged attack first).

Finally, when he appears on one side of the room, he’s going to do a series of slashes that usually ends with a corkscrew uppercut that carries him off the top of the screen, though sometimes he’ll just slash. You can avoid this attack by hanging out on the wall in the upper corner of the side of the room that he is heading toward; his final slash and his corkscrew will just barely miss you up there.

Drop a tornado on him in either of his first two attacks (where he stays in the center of the room) to wipe him out pretty quickly.

Screen shot from Capcom.
Prometheus and Pandora (Area O)
Each one appears, performs an attack, then disappears, alternating between the two of them. Damaging either one will take health off their shared energy meter. Most of their attack patterns are the same but there are no walls here to climb, which makes it difficult to avoid certain attacks. The easiest thing to do is just plant a tornado on top of them whenever they are motionless (such as when Prometheus is doing his thing in the center of the screen). (Side note: Does anyone but me find the Highlander plot to be a little...well, ridiculous?)
Omega (Area N)
He’s very fast and he has virtually every technique that Zero ever obtained throughout the entirety of the X series. Probably the easiest way to deal with this guy is to stay away from him, as most of his attacks require short range to use. Blast him with charged super-shots at every opportunity. If he does get close, hit him with a triple-slash if you can, but only if the first slash makes him reel; otherwise get the heck out of there. One thing you do not want him doing is popping his seven-hit combo on you, but he has to get close to do that, so don’t give him the opportunity.
Serpent (Final boss 1)
He fights a lot like a Street Fighter character, which is kind of cute. And he can use OIS mode, which is even cuter. But he’s relatively slow (at least compared to Omega); this helps you to keep away from him and to dodge his attacks. His cannon shoots a <-shaped group of tiny spheres at once that move at slightly different speeds from each other. He can shoot horizontally or diagonally from the air. He also has a slide, an uppercut, and a ground-slam move. And he can charge up and fire a large sphere that moves slowly enough to make it nontrivial to jump over (but you can shoot it to slow it down and/or knock it off course). Stay at a distance and blast him. If you get good at dashing (and dash-jumping off walls), you shouldn’t even need a Sub Tank.
Model W (Final boss 2)
He has several modes. When he’s low to the ground, you want to hit his normal head. When he rises all the way up, you need to strike the green gem in the forehead of the big lower face. Plant a tornado in the center of the room in either case to hack off large chunks of his energy meter. If you run out of weapon energy, jump and slash (if you can—the clinging sparkles tend to get in the way here). If all else fails, try shooting straight up at the gem with Model FX.

His attacks are varied. He has green spheres that can break into daggers that travel diagonally. He can also grab you and drain health (mash the buttons to escape). At the middle level (where you can hit him practically anywhere), he’ll start shining a purple light that shoves you away from it, as well as dropping little sparkles that will cling to you, slowing you down and making it near impossible to jump. He also has a fireball attack; after you dodge the large fireballs, jump and circle-slash away the little ones. And at the highest level, the hands on either side start shooting lots of shots from the right and the left. He can also form a crystal in the middle of the screen, which the hands then smash; stay at the edge of the screen and jump to avoid the shards, then dash under the hands as they return to their original locations.

Note: If you die to either of the last two bosses you have to fight them both again. You have no opportunity to refill your weapons or Sub Tanks, so only use them when you are fairly certain you have a shot at winning.

Saved Games

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This game uses saved game data. There are three save slots on each cartridge. Use a transerver to save your game.

When you beat the game, you’re given the chance to save clear-game data. It’s okay to save over your previous save with this because the clear-game save puts you just before the last mission (though it takes into account the new areas you’d visited and the E-Crystals you gathered and such while in the process of beating the game). The main difference is the save now has “cleared” marked on it. Certain things will only happen if you are playing a clear-game save.

Items

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Life Ups
    Screen shot from Capcom.
  • Area D: It’s found near the beginning; just drop down into a gap in the highway.
  • Area I-5: It’s high and to the right, on a ledge protected by spikes. Use Model HX’s tornados to lift a platform that’s on the ground nearby.
  • Area F-2: Break some ice bricks using Model FX and work your way up and left. Use Model HX or whatever method you prefer to cross the spikes you see up there, and you will find the Life Up to the left.
  • Area J-1: You swim through some spike corridors, then you can find a door in the back wall which is kind of tricky to see because it doesn’t stand out much. When you go through the door, there’s another brief spike corridor and then the Life Up.
Sub Tanks
  • Area E-4: From the giant gears room, follow the lower path down and to the right. There are several step-like ledges with conveyer belts. Dash-jump off the highest of these onto the ledge to the upper right and destroy the robot over there. The tank is right behind it. (It helps to turn off the power first.)
  • Area A-2: It’s right over the door that leads from Area A-1. You’ll find a wall there, and you can see the Sub Tank on the other side. Slide down this wall and walk on the ledge that’s underneath the Sub Tank. Then climb the wall on the left side. You can pass through the wall and ceiling here and reach the Sub Tank via an invisible passage.
  • Area K: This one’s weird. On easy mode you can just walk left from the K-4 transerver room and find the passage that’s in the ceiling in about the second area over. Break the bricks using Model FX and head right. There is a pool of lava which on easy mode you can just land in to get across. Otherwise, you have to approach this area from the front and race the moving wall of lava here. Not fun. (Slowing down the lava via the control panel in K-1 would probably be a good idea.) Anyway, either way that you do it, once you’re across the lava, switch to Model PX to help you see and walk through the wall to the hidden door. Inside the room, hit the red switch, then leave and continue to the left. Travel to Area K-3 and go up the vertical passage surrounded by spikes. Head right. Go up the vertical tunnel with the rising lava. You end up in Area K-1; go left and look up to see the red door you opened above and to the right a bit of the cable car. Go through this door and navigate the water using Model LX. To the left is the Sub Tank.
  • Area X: Complete the “Deliver the Energy Pack” quest multiple times. (You have to alternate it with the “Deliver the Aid Kit” quest.) This apparently doesn’t work on easy mode. (On easy mode I did the quest half a dozen times and never got the tank.) Thanks to several people for pointing this out.
Miscellaneous

Talk to people repeatedly (stand there talking to them over and over until they start repeating themselves) to get various items. You can’t do all of these right from the start of the game, so be sure to talk to people throughout the adventure.

  • Quick Charger Chip: Talk to Fleueve several times (use the “Talk” menu item) and he’ll eventually give this to you.
  • Eraser Chip: Talk to Carrelet (in the HQ; he’s in one of the rooms) several times and he’ll eventually give this to you.
  • Featherweight Chip: Talk to Bar (in the HQ; he’s in a hallway) several times.
  • Absorber Chip: Talk to Leonardo (a citizen in a room near the fountain) repeatedly.
  • Ice Boots Chip: Take the Pink Crystal you get from a quest and give it to Jack, a citizen near the green door in C-1.
  • Ice Boots Chip: Finish the “Find Mushroom” quest.
  • Wind Boots Chip: Finish the “Gather the Screws” quest.
  • Extender Chip: Finish the “Smash the Rock” quest.
  • Frog Chip: Talk to Kenny in a room in C-1 while wearing armor. (Thanks to Andrusi.)
  • E Tank: This is a joke item that looks like an Energy Tank from the original series. Buy it from Cédre (in the HQ; she’s down past the power core) for 200 EC.
  • W Tank: This is a joke item that looks like a Weapon Energy Tank from the original series. People tell me this can be obtained by attacking the doll in Prairie’s room repeatedly. (Could be really handy for the final battle against Model W...)
  • Smelling Salts: Talk to Scombrésoce (he’s in the HQ at the end of a hallway) several times.
  • Bread: Talk to the baker’s granddaughter Lucia in the town not far from the A-2 door. (This is a joke referencing the old Reploid who quizzes you in one of the original Zero series games.)
  • Candy: Snatch this off the crane in the crane game in Area H-3.
  • Orange: Talk to Max in Area C. Thanks to several people.
  • Apple: Use the charged fist punch of Model FX to slam the tree at the upper right of Area A-3. This will sometimes result in various things dropping down, such as enemies. I believe you can also get an apple doing this.
  • Cake: People keep mentioning this, so I suppose I will as well—if you talk to Sherry (a girl in Area C-1) on your birthday (according to the calendar on the DS), she’ll give you birthday cake. I have not personally verified this one but it sounds legit.

Tips and Secrets

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General Notes and Tips
  • Here is a map of the game (printer-friendlier version). It does not include all details in the stages, but it will show you how to reach one area from another. Only doors that lead to another area are shown; doors that simply lead to dead-end rooms are generally not included.
  • Mega Boy has created far more detailed maps that show all of the routes and passages. Don’t look at these if you don’t want spoilers.
  • When you take a quest or mission, the map page of your subscreen will tell you specifically which area or areas you need to go to.
  • Let the game sit on the title screen for a while and watch all of the demo sequences (you can skip the story scenes without resetting the cycle). You’ll learn quite a few nifty tricks...
  • Transervers give you 1-Ups if you refill your health while you’re low on 1-Ups.
  • Even outside of the city, many enemies won’t attack you if you are in human (Hu) form. Of course, they will still hurt you if you run into them.
  • There are two difficulty modes available from the start. Easy mode makes it so that enemies require less hits to be destroyed, and might reduce damage done to you as well. Also many enemy and boss attack patterns are altered or missing on easy mode. Biometals require less EC to repair. Also, in easy mode if you fall into a bottomless pit, your Biometal will catch you and carry you back out. Likewise, spikes and lava do not kill you instantly in easy mode, they only damage you. (Oddly, getting crushed by a stray barrel will still kill you.)
  • If you have beaten the game on normal difficulty or higher with both Vent and Aile, you can keep Model X even after acquiring Model ZX in all of the games you start after that. (Too bad they don’t give you Model X retroactively on your existing save files.) Note that I’m not sure whether you need to keep cleared game save files around for both Vent and Aile in order to qualify for this, or if just beating the game with them each is enough.
  • People keep mentioning this to me, so I figured I should post it. Talk to Luca (the girl who gives you the “Find the Purse” quest) several times while she has her purse (you can do this even before doing her quest), and she’ll offer to change Aile’s clothes. This is merely a random color swap; you don’t get a totally new sprite or anything. The color change appears to have no functional purpose; it’s just there for fun. Keep talking to her over and over to get different color combinations.
  • Using Model HX you can see the “weak spot” of a boss (it displays in red). This is not the same as his elemental weakness and, despite being called a “weak point” by the game, has nothing to do with inflicting more damage on him. The weak spot determines whether or not you damage the boss’s Biometal and it doesn’t matter what kind of attack you use when you hit it, or how much damage that attack does. Any attack on the enemy’s weak spot will damage the Biometal. (Technically this translates to hitting the boss during certain frames of his animation.) Damaging the Biometal is not the end of the world, however, as the only real effect it has is the weapon energy meter of the model will be smaller until the Biometal is repaired.
  • Later in the game, Pseudoroids will start reappearing in various boss rooms. (The affected areas will flash on your map.) This is so that you can try fighting them again to get L4 Victories (defeat the boss without damaging his Biometal). You do not need to do this to beat the game.
  • Using any sort of saber-type weapon, you can destroy large temporary items like E-Crystals and energy capsules. The destroyed items will turn into various smaller items which may or may not be related to what you destroyed. For example, you can destroy large E-Crystals and get life energy pellets. This is actually pretty cool.
  • Remember you can use a combination of models to reach new areas. For example, to reach a high ledge, air-dash upward using Model HX, then while at the peak of your jump, switch to Model PX and hold Up as you fall to grab onto the ledge. And so on.
    Screen shot from Capcom.
  • Once you get the second half of Model HX, it will be your main boss killing machine for the rest of the game. Simply plant a tornado directly on top of the boss (charge up and press Up + fire). In many cases, the tornado will do multiple hits; a single tornado can take out a huge chunk of the boss’s energy meter, sometimes killing him flat out particularly if he doesn’t move. This won’t work on every boss; some of them turn invulnerable after the first hit lands and the other hits don’t affect them. Also, some bosses move around too much to make this practical. But it’s still useful in many places.
Miscellaneous Area Tips
  • There’s a 1-Up that returns each time you revisit the area through a green door in Area C-1. There’s also a full-life canister that’s easy to reach through the door marked “A-02” nearby. All of these are quickly reached from the B-2 transerver.
  • To get across the pit in the cable car in Area K, stand inside it and press Up.
  • You can turn off the power in the Area E power plant by finding and destroying a yellow-white bulb in E-3 (cross the giant gears, then walk through the wall guarded by a Shock Face). This will turn off the conveyer belts and the various electric traps.
  • The antennas in Area L can be disabled briefly by shooting them; paralyze, freeze, or burn them using elemental attacks to extend this time by a small amount.
  • In the dark areas of Area I, use the lower screens of Model LX or Model PX to navigate.
  • Destroy thorny walls (found mostly in Area A) with a fire attack from Model FX.
  • Model HX’s thunder attacks can activate machinery, such as the cars in the city, and platforms in Area I-4.
  • The wind-based attacks of Model HX can put out fires in Area G. This works any time your attacks have an element applied, so, for example, charge up and use a thunder ball, or activate OIS mode and slash.
Quests

This is a brief listing of most of the optional side quests you can receive. Not all of them are listed here, but this should get you started. Talk to people frequently throughout the game to receive quests.

  • Deliver the Letter: Easy one; just find the girl by the fountain. Keep running right through the city to get there.
  • Sending Another Letter: Area C-2 again. Might want to open up the C-2 transerver first, before doing all of these.
  • Yet Another Letter: Just take it to her. Again.
  • Not Another Letter: You know the drill.
  • Guess What? A Letter: This guy just doesn’t get it.
  • One More Letter: As before. When you are done with this, talk to the girl again after a bit. (Not right away; leave and go elsewhere and come back.) She’ll ask you to deliver a letter back to Truite. (Oddly, they can send the letters to the transerver for you to deliver, but they can’t just send the letters directly to their recipients without you hand-delivering them?)
  • Deliver a Reply: (“I wonder if that means she likes me or hates me?”)
  • Find the Flower: Area A-1. It’s high up, by the thorny wall that blocks a door. You can get there with a combination of Model HX and Model PX (or possibly just Model HX using the wall to the left, a reader submits).
  • Find the Pearl: Area F-2. Find shells and slash them to open them. For me, I found it after a long corridor of spikes you need Model LX to swim through, but this might be random.
  • Purify the Lakes: Area B-4. There will be boxy containers with liquid purifier inside. Shoot or slash them to knock them off their ledges and into the dirty water.
  • Trim the Weeds: Area C-2. Climb the buildings and slash all of the weeds you see up there.
  • Find the Boy: Area G. Find a boy (Kenny) in one of the rooms, then hunt down all of his friends. Kenny is in room 7, unless they randomize it. Next one is in room 5. Next one is in room 7, through the window. Next one is down in the lower left corner of Area G-2. The last guy is just where I figured he’d be: go left out of Area G-2 into G-1 and climb the wall there. The last kid is Jeff and he’s the one you were looking for.
  • Find Mushroom: Go to Area A-2, grab the mushroom just outside the transerver room, and take it to the requestor. That’s not what she wants, so go back to A-2 and search for a bird. It will be small and will fly away when you approach it so you have to jump and touch it as it flies away. If you miss the first time, scroll it off the screen, then go back to somewhere near that same area and try again. Get: Ice Boots Chip.
  • Gather the Screws: Area K. One screw you can reach by heading left from the K-4 transerver room. One screw is in the lava in K-3; damage yourself and use your temporary invincibility to get down there. One screw is in K-4 where the lava moves from the left of the screen (it’s under a ledge and under an enemy). One’s in the vertical tunnel that fills with lava, across from a Chain Anchor. Another is in that same vertical tunnel, on the left side of the area with spikes. Note: the game does not tell you when you get them all. You just have to know you have them all, and go back and give them to the requestor. Get: Wind Boots Chip.
    Screen shot from Capcom.
  • Find the Rock: Area K-1. The rock is half hidden behind a walk-through wall where you ride up a platform on a geyser and then walk through the wall from the right. Take it back to Guardian HQ.
  • Smash the Rock: He sends you to Area E-4 to find Oeillet. She’s standing out in the open; you can’t miss her. Don’t turn off the electricity. When she tosses the rock onto the belt and it gets crushed, walk over and pick up the pieces to receive some Ceratanium (remember that?). Return it to the requestor. Get: Extender Chip.
  • Clean the Room: Area C-1, through the door from the main C-1 area. The room you want is the door over the head of the requestor. You need to move balls around. Land directly on a ball while it’s sitting still and it will bounce high. When you have all of the balls in the lower left corner of the room, your mission marker should start flashing.
  • Deliver the Aid Kit: Area L. Destroy the big gray blocks to find these. They vary between Area L-1, Area L-2, and Area L-3. When you find one, bring it to Muguet to finish the mission.
  • Deliver the Energy Pack: This is the same basic idea as the Aid Kit one. Take it to Rose.
  • Find the Purse: She’s in C-1 in the area through the door marked “A-02.” Find the pochette in Area B. I found it not far from the transerver, up and right a little, on a high ledge. (How’d she drop it way up there?)
  • Quiz Partner: Talk to the green boy by the Rush Roadstar (Lou). He’s right near the C-3 data room. For me, the answer was Dribble Trouble.
  • Another Quiz: This time, the answer for the question I got was Apple. I don’t know if they randomize these. If you get it wrong, you still get the crystal. Get: Pink Crystal.
Omega

In Area N you can find Omega (from the Mega Man Zero series) across a long pit of spikes (disappearing/reappearing platform puzzle). If you can manage beat him and get back across the spikes alive, you can earn a reward. Head left from where you fought Omega to the main section, then go down (don’t go up). At the bottom, head right into the room down there, past the area where you need Mega Man Zero 3 and Mega Man Zero 4 to open the doors. Through the door to the right you’ll find a “mysterious rock.” If you’re playing on a clear-game save, use the “Talk” option with Fleueve and he will take the rock and make Model OX for you. This doesn’t work on easy mode. (You can fight Omega all you want, but on easy mode you earn nothing.)

(Note: According to Capcom’s site, you can get the “mysterious rock” by defeating the eight bosses from Mega Man Zero 3 and Mega Man Zero 4. I have not personally seen this happen, but it might work. All I can verify right now is that defeating Omega is definitely one trigger that does in fact give it to you.)

Endings

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Vent’s Ending

Vent calls Serpent a Maverick, but Serpent argues that Vent is the one who is the Maverick, because he is the one who is stopping “progress.”

Screen shot from Capcom.
Vent wonders if Serpent has a point—that he is blocking change. But the six Biometals circle him to encourage him. And then Giro shows up in Cyber-elf form to remind him that he did fight for change—he changed his destiny. Giro also adds that Vent was always a pain in the behind, but that Giro cared about him anyway. Vent finally returns to the highway and, as Prairie and the other Guardians find him and surround him happily, Vent decides he now has something to protect, and the power to protect it.

Aile’s Ending

Serpent tells Aile that “his” blood (that is, the blood of the man who created Model W—three guesses as to who that is) flows through her veins as well, which rather upsets her. But the six Biometals circle her to encourage her, and even Giro shows up in Cyber-elf form to remind her that she can determine her own destiny. By the time Aile returns to the highway where the Guardians wait, she has decided that the sacrifices the others made for her have given her the will to fight for a good future.