Part 4: Update IV - Stay true to our beliefs, wherever they might lead us.

Update IV - Stay true to our beliefs, wherever they might lead us

Music: Darkness - Cloud - Low - Lost


We come out of the cutscene into a new zone. This is pretty much Chapter 2's main dungeon, all the enemies up to this point were trash mobs that went down without much effort.



No way back, all we can do is move forward.



The Access Tunnels have a lot of pipes, but not much else. The crystals hold a Mega Fire and a Gain Hyper.



Despite appearances, this is a different hallway. Dungeons get better, guys, I swear. The crystals hold 100z and a Tank Energy ∞. It may look a bit strange to have one of those here, but keep in mind that the last full heal we've seen was back in the room X woke up in, and the last save point was before we met Spider. If you got unlucky or just spent too much time wandering around getting worn down by enemies, this will let you push forward.

Music: Irregular Battle I


This beefy boy is an Einhammer. Starting off, he's able to shoot one of those arm hammers like a ball and chain. Coming with a Wild Rescue Dog is cruel, Gain Life 25 on itself is easy to damage through, while using it on the much stronger Einhammer can really drag out the fight. To make it worse, if you kill the Wild Rescue Dog:





He gets mad. Break Shield, as you might expect, drops his Shield and boosts his Power, while also giving him access to the much stronger Double Iron. The solution?



Hyper Mode. The added defenses on X Fire will let you ignore the boosted strength, and even a partially charged X Collider will kill it.

Music: Darkness - Cloud - Low - Lost


Thankfully, we're already out of the samey corridors.

Music: Recapture Hope


We're now in the main tower proper. Up here is a Build Armor, at the bottom of the room is a Build Speed.



What comes after the samey corridors? Samey ramps.



Off to the side, 100z.



Up even more ramps, we run into someone.



Did you say X? X... You mean the legendary Class S Maverick Hunter? Then... You must help me! My friends are trapped on the other side of this door!

Talking to him again gets us:

X, please help me! You must help my friends trapped on the other side of this door. Please!



Your warranty is up! Take this!

God I love lines like this.

Music: Event Battle


Two Chasers are easy. Three Chasers is where you need someone to sacrifice themselves. The fight is a cakewalk, but that's probably because we haven't seen a save point since the fight with Spider.

Video: The Deal with Jango




Our chapter villain, Wild Jango, everyone. If you recall, he was in one of the small pods back at the Lagrano Ruins.



Spider, your gimmick got countered instantly, you don't get to talk.



Music: Mysterious Enemy


So, you think you can beat him?

What‘ll it pay?



Very well! If you can stop X, you can have as much as you‘d like! In good time, we, the Rebellion forces, will rule over all! Once we do, there'll be plenty of money to go around.

I like this exchange. There's no 'oh we can easily crush him so we'll pay you a pittance to do it for us'. Jango knows he's dealing with X. He knows the guy's track record, so money isn't an object when it comes to taking him down.



but I could use a blank check.

Meanwhile Spider can't even be bothered to look Jango in the eye.

Music: Recapture Hope


Ever since Chief R took him in, he looked up to the Chief like a father. X, take this. It‘s the key to the Data Backup Room where Chief R is being held.

Obtained Key Item 「Security Card」

Those three in the back are loaded with goods. If you need supplies, just have them share their things with you. You don‘t know what kinds of enemies you might face, so be careful! Please... save Chief R!



I hear the siren song of capitalism and am unable to resist.



I heard about you. I will share my items with you. Go ahead and take your pick.



Same stock as the merchant from the start. I grab a few Anti-locks.



I‘m the Resistance weapons specialist. We‘ve got some spares that you‘re welcome to use. But don‘t get me wrong! You‘re not one of us, so I‘ll have to charge you.

I'm the only shot you have at saving Chief R. Aile gave his life to let me get this far. You could at least give a small discount.



I have eyes on that new Fire Buster.



Thankfully, the game has a trade-in system, saving me the extra menuing of changing weapons, backing out, and going back to the shop to sell the old weapon.



I only have Force Metal, but I will share with you what you need. For a fair price, that is.



Our first Force Metal shop has a number of new things for sale. The Thunder Guard will cut Thunder damage by 25%, the Armor and Shield +1 round out the stat quartet, Bind Protection covers another status, Decoy is a generic version of X Heart that revives for 25% HP (compared to X Heart's 10%), but is consumed on use, and just below that is an Analyzer for 1000z, which lets you check an enemy's resistances and available items. I grab a Thunder Guard and swap the LE +100 for it.



Two siderooms hold 100z and this Ultra Fire. Ultra consumables are the big brother of the Mega Fire we saw earlier. It deals a flat 1000 damage and does it to the entire enemy party, compared to the single target Megas.



I call myself a Resistance fighter, but I couldn‘t even save my own friends... But, X... With a real warrior like you around, I feel like I can beat anybody! I can recover your VIT. At least let me do that much for you!

I find it strange that he calls it VIT here. To my knowledge, this is the only time in the game the term is used. Remnant of earlier terminology that never got caught, perhaps?



Even more bloody ramps.



For a brief moment, no ramps. Also a Tank Energy 25.



Going right, we find, you guessed it, another ramp. Unlike other ramps, however, this one has a locked door at the top! Looks like we'll be coming back here once Chief R's been rescued.

Music: Irregular Battle I


It's a Mettaur! These little guys can either plink at you with their trademark pea shooter, or take a page out of Battle Network's book and use the Armor-piercing Mattock Strike.



They'll even duck under their famous helmet when under half health! This gives them resistance to S-type attacks



Shame X can now do something other than sit and wait for it to pop up.



The poor guy is weak against C-type attacks too, just to add insult to injury.

This also shows off an important aspect of Hyper Mode.

Music: Recapture Hope


Hyper only ticks down at the start of the turn when you're in Hyper Mode. If you end the fight before that happens, it costs nothing!



This crystal holds an Eagle Eye, which boosts accuracy.



The sheer lack of ramps on this side must mean we're getting close.

Video: Spider Returns + Wrath of Jango + Spider Reformed


Must be an important room to have a keypad like this.





Spider, for the last time, those are not key cards.

Music: Spider Magic


Which is perfect, for my line of work!



I'd like to mention here that X is voiced by none other than Mark Gatha, the voice of Domon Kasshu in Mobile Fighter G Gundam. You can really hear a good bit of Domon come through when X is pissed like this.



You already introduced yourself.

Now, say your prayers...

The dude has a weakness to fire, we have a hard counter to his barrier gimmick, and we're the protagonist. This will be a snap.



Oh wait no I forgot we're in Cutscene Land. Meaning Mega Man X, Thomas Light's magnum opus, the father of all Reploids, and nine time killer of Sigma, gets his ass kicked by a card shark bounty hunter.



but I can see you like you‘re in slow-motion.



Aile's ID even got knocked out of X's pocket during the fight.

Music: Grief - Sympathy - Pity - Pain II






Gave his life to take down three mooks.



Yes, that's right... He sacrificed himself so Chief R could be saved and the Rebellion forces defeated.







Spider looks into a nearby camera.



But I‘m through with this job!

What are the odds, the bounty hunter who didn't care for sides had a hidden heart of gold all along!

Music: The Rebellion's Ambition


You won‘t get away with this!

Jango doesn't approve.





Music: Spider Magic


Oh no another three Chasers, I hope Spider doesn't have to sacrifice himself to take these guys on.





I‘ll take care of this trash on the way home,





Wait, what do you mean?



Oh wait, I forgot that Spider was in the intro video, meaning that he can wipe the floor with them just by running by.



Music: Recapture Hope


Okay, I want to talk about this.

The only reason Spider flipped is because he was friends with Aile, right? Textbook, 'seemingly amoral guy joins the forces of good because a friend died', right?

Except Spider was helping the Rebellion that Aile opposed, all for a paycheck. This probably wasn't his first time working for them either, Spider just waltzed into Jango's room and asked if he could take the job. You wouldn't let some random nobody drop in on you. Aile wasn't some low level grunt that could be overlooked either. The Resistance soldier earlier said that Chief R was Aile's father figure.. He was well known enough that he had a personal ID for the Precinct directly installed into his chest. Spider has been taking jobs from the Rebellion for a while now, Jango knew him by name. Yet at no point did he ever ask about the Resistance and who ran it. X fought Spider just a few rooms before he met Aile. If Spider did some basic research, he could have backed up X and dealt with the Chasers himself, rather than needing Aile to explode to deal with them.

Spider calls himself Aile's friend, except his own ignorance and greed got Aile killed.

None of this will ever be brought up in-game. As far as the plot is concerned, Spider is now 100% A Good Guy, and as such none of his fuckups will be mentioned.



Moving on.



You can barely see R just behind this Preon's speech model. Mission accomplished!

Music: Event Battle


This here is a Preon Spark. On top of a normal attack, it can use Electric Scissors to try and inflict Bind, Impact Uppercut for a high crit chance, and even toss out a Mega Thunder, however enemy versions of Mega and Ultra elemental attacks don't have fixed damage like the player version, instead acting as generic attacks.

Sparks always use their first action on Electric Scissors, just to try and open the fight with Bind and really ruin your day.



However, they have a weakness to Fire, meaning our shiny new Fire Buster shreds them.

Music: Victory Jingle + Trajectory of Battle I


Well that just wasted the 500z I spent at the shop.

Video: Meeting R
Music: Grief - Sympathy - Pity - Pain II




Damn near everyone in the Resistance knows who X is. How do you not.

I‘m X. A Maverick Hunter, sent by the government.

I think this is the only time where the proper response to 'I'm from the government, and I'm here to help' isn't utter fear.

So you‘re X... I see. What about my men... the Resistance?

I managed to rescue a few of the imprisoned... But it's possible that others escaped during the attack. And... Aile sacrificed himself, to allow me to come this far.

Aile... He did that?!

This is what Aile's been reduced to, his sacrifice getting mentioned every now and then.

Aile crawled hovered so that kid from Mass Effect 3 could walk.



So, you refuse to work with the Rebellion Army?

I‘ve already explained to you. You could scrap my whole body, and even the smallest screw would resist you!

R! And X! You are utter fools to resist the future kings of the Reploids! Hmph! But enough. I believe that it‘s about time that you two...



Oh man, Jango kicked Spider's ass! And Spider kicked X's ass! That must mean Jango could wipe the floor with X!

Are cut down to size. I'll bring this whole building down to the ground too, right along with this dirty traitor!

An explosive device?!

You won't have a screw left to resist after this!

No!

Chief! Can you think of any way I can defuse that thing?

I can! If you go to the monitor room where Jango was, you can stop it! I'll stay here and tell you the route. Don't let me down!



You know how to get the world at large to acknowledge an independant nation? Kill a ton of bystanders just to get a handful of rebels.

Next time: