This may sound like an odd question, but I'm curious... what is people's opinion of Mega Man X5 here?

I'm interested to hear some additional takes on this game as I re-played it a few years ago and actually had a lot to say - which you can see here:

WARNING Some Spoilers! (http://www.gamefaqs.com/ps/258931-mega- … iew-153527)

Personally the game wasn't as mediocre as I remember and X5 was kind of damaged retroactively by Capcom.

I thought it was a fine game, especially considering the lack of quality 2D platforming around when it came out. Nothing exceptional and the timer aspect felt forced, but very enjoyable. Really for me, the last good Megaman X game and a fairly strong follow-up to X4.

Yeah, X6, X7 and X8 didn't really add anything noteworthy to the story or franchise... X8 tried to but that aspect of it struck out with me.

However, I'm sure some find it "funny" I even care about the story at all.

Loved the soundtrack, hated the game. This is the game that started the decline of the series, which wouldn't see another good entry until X8, but it felt too little too late at that point.

I didn't like any of the changes they made. Having to collect all parts of an armor before you can use it, bosses that level up, all of it just took the fun out of the series for me.

Actually, I wholeheartedly agree with your statement here. X5 really is a step below X4... but I kind of feel like I have to give it some slack.

Why?

If X5 was the last game in the series (as planned) it would be a whole lot more tolerable in general IMO... but something like X6 retroactively boomerangs back and just amplifies X5's weaknesses.

Agreed.
X5 finally brought the conclusion that the series has been heading for since the start, but then Capcom obviously had to trample all over that and tack on all kinds of stupid new plot elements and basically just pretend that the events in X5 never happened.

Any game after X4 would be a tough act to follow regardless of it's quality. I liked X5 well enough at first, some of the stage music is nice, it's a tougher game, certainly. But the more I play it, the more the small things irked me.

I think my biggest issue is how lazy the whole goddamn thing is. After X4's wicked anime cutscenes (which I had never ever seen before), it was easy to be let down by X5's static images. Sprite animation took a massive tumble back down the stairs, being nearly as lazy as X3 in that regard. Capcom's spritework at one point was damn near unrivaled, so I was a little let down.

I barely touched X6, and haven't ever played X7 or X8, so I don't know (or care, really) how the story develops. It was kind of weird how much focus was on Zero towards X5's conclusion, though, and I hear that only got worse as the series went on.

I still wouldn't say no to a 16-bit X9, done in the same vein as Megaman 9, though.

I agree the lack of FMV (outside the opener) was a letdown... but looking at back at it X4 probably had a bigger budget being released during the franchise's 10th anniversary. Additionally, given how X5's story has a few varying paths the cost of FMV probably would have ballooned vs X4.

X5 isn't nearly as bad as X6 in that regard. If you know what you're looking for there is some terrible animation in X6... or rather the lack of it. Don't know what's worse tho... X6's animation or X7's constant loading and frame rate dips.

Seriously, even as a slightly disillusioned fan, you are not missing a damn thing. The sad thing is X8's story tries to be important but is anything but.

I kind of get why they they did this as they were setting up the Zero series... but then the Zero series was a big bust for me personally (outside the music!)

I kind of have a stipulation on this one. If they do this for God's sake make the link between MMX and MMZ more tangible. I personally hated how in Mega Man Zero I was always reading about events that had little/no correlation to what I was experiencing in MMX outside the main link. I know, I know, it's silly this what I'm asking for but it has always bugged me.

Actually, the entire series was working towards that very conclusion, so it's not that odd.
Then they made X6 to tie the X series into the Zero series, which really wasn't needed (it could have been set in a different/alternate universe), and then by the time X7 rolled around, everything was out the window.

It's true pretty much everything was out of the window by X7, but Zero's ending in Mega Man X7 did *appear* to be a reference to the events of the Zero series.

However, to me it came off as really silly since everything was already so fudged up by that point anyway.

X8 was kind of guilty of the same thing. I thought it was kind of silly to start talking about things that happened before the first game at such a late hour.

Still, again, outside the decent enough gameplay of X8 you're not missing for not playing beyond X5.