*Deep Breath*
I really do think Zero 4 rebalanced EX Skills perfectly. Made it so you could very easily get them without any real worry, allowing the player to experience them all first run. They were very basic, sadly, since the shield boomerang AND rod were removed, but they were still good. The removal of just stacking them all on at once was good too. No more omnipotent Zero. Speaking of omnipotence, Cyber Elves were done MUCH better. No longer is it possible to just slap a billion on Zero, call him god, and bash the game in. Not only that, but if you DID do that, no matter how well you do in-stage, you can almost never achieve an S, since the elves lower your score a ton.
But, I do feel like, as I said, some things were watered down or removed, which I didn't enjoy.
I really don't feel like Zero 1 is a "favorite." Again, like X, it was monumental and fantastic, but unrefined. Zero 2 is better in literally every way. One of, if not the best soundtracks (DEPARTURE, BABY!), a really good story, which, although not Zero 3 or 4 levels of amazing, had a very good antagonist.
I actually think Elpizo is my favorite villain, simply because he's not exactly as much of a "Cooker Cutter Evil Scientist" as each Mega Man series has. Omega's good, but he doesn't really have a "Character", persay. No speech outside one line, which was just him asking if he heard the Dark Elf right.
Also, the Chain Rod is hands down the best rod in any of the games. You can't argue that. It had awesome platforming uses, great synergy with the "Up close and personal" kind of style the Zero series already had, and it just worked perfectly. Form change was a nice way to add variety to the game, though it became inferior to the gear system.
The use of Cyber Elves, however, was just as horrible as Zero 1. Not even mentioning the fact it was MANDATORY to 100% (Since you only got the Omega Form by using them all), it was just poorly done.
It's a perfected version of Zero 1, hands down. And while I feel like it aged worse than 3 and 4, it still plays incredible.
Zero 3 is good in the way that it had, so, MUCH, CONTENT.
I mean, not only was the story a nice step from Zero 2, showing Weil's plots, and developing Zero more, it also gave more screentime to the Four Guardians. It's music was just like 2, incredible. Obviously Cannonball stands out as the MVP. The gameplay discarded the Level System, which I feel was very hit and miss, and replaced it with the great gear system that Zero 4 would later hammer out. But you get so much with the game. Tons of stages, tons of bosses, revisits to Zero 1's bosses and stages, a rematch with Copy-X, one of the most climactic finales of any game to date...
WHO EVEN WANTED THE CUSTOM CARDS?
IT DOESN'T MATTER. YOU CAN HAVE CATS IN THE RESISTANCE BASE, AND MAKE IT SNOW BUT ALSO HAVE FLOWERS IN FULL BLOOM.
THAT'S WHAT WE ALL WANTED, RIGHT, INAFUNE?
I feel like Zero 3, in a sense of how much it did, did a lot of stuff much better than Zero 4.
However, Zero 4 did have one of the best endgames in any game I've played. Stellar music throughout, development of the main characters, a heart-wrenching ending, amazing gameplay, and one of if not the best Final Boss I've ever experienced. I could go on where others have about Zero 4's greats, but I rarely see one big complaint.
It felt like I was playing a different game.
The bosses' designs, for me, were a huge letdown from the previous games. They seemed...cartoonish.
Cartoonish. That's what I'm looking for.
The bosses felt really light-hearted, or tried to be silly in ways. The Cockatrice boss literally was just a wimpy bird, who's whole gimmick was he relied on traps. The Minotaur was a complete idiot with a dopey color scheme. The Pegasus was this really posh knight. They didn't really feel like characters, like in 2 and 3. They felt like...Well, comical villains. And it's a shame because Zero did the gritty, darker, more somber or serious atmosphere well.
Not just that, the Z-Knuckle was a throwaway for me. It wasn't a good idea to add that kind of weapon into a game like Zero. Tossing the weapons you no longer needed was tedious and required you to completely remove your hand from the face buttons. I found myself only using it when the game required me to. Unlike in Zero 2, where the Chain Rod was incredibly useful for both platforming AND combat. Zero 3 kinda suffered this problem too, with the Recoil Rod.
Finally, I didn't like the weather mechanic. I never found the bonuses from the weather to be useful, and so I never ended up using it. The only time the bonus has a use is removing the tedium from Kraken's level.
Also, crafting wasn't great. But that's just my opinion. I know some people liked it. Totally valid opinion.
