I don't remember Mega Man X3 being so absolutely awful...

[NeonCrimsonSkye]

The music, the level design, the mood, the bosses, the controls, not having information on which boss is which before selecting it, I don't remember Mega Man X3 being absolute trash in almost every respect. X held up perfectly even though X2 was frustrating. All six original NES Mega Man games hold up and play like I remember. X3, though, this game seems utterly unplayable to me now and nothing is like I remember in the game.

[NeonCrimsonSkye]

Yeah I had that problem as well. Also, the stages seem bland and empty, and the enemy placement is highly questionable.

[冰霜之孤狼1993]

X3 has two versions - SNES version and 32-bit CD-based version (PC/PS1 version and the version used in PS2 Mega Man X Collection). Maybe what you remembered for the Music part was the CD-based version...
As for gameplay part they're largely identical though. Sadly Legacy Collection only referenced the PS1 X3 English opening and ending theme in music player...

[NeonCrimsonSkye]

I never even knew there was a release beyond SNES, truth be told, other than compilations of course. What little I remember... Like Zero's movement, he's like fighting through peanut butter, and I recall him being smoother to use. The music is droll and uninspired, and I remember everything through X4 being pretty good. Couldn't remember even a single boss, though, or any of the story of this one. I remember the love story with Zero and Iris in X4 but none of the story here. I feel like I've hit a Mandela Effect here. Not that it really matters, the other games are all stellar. Mega Man 1-7 and X will always be some of my favourite games ever.

[matohin]

It's really easy to appreciate it once you see how annoying things can get when trying to do them without armor or taking damage in X1-X2. X3 might not be the most unique or memorable game, but it's the most fair out of the first three by far. Except for Volt Catfish, ♥♥♥♥ him and his final attack

[NeonCrimsonSkye]

Most fair? Wha? Mega Man X is one of the most balanced games ever made, it's what made everyone think the X series was actually going to be good! X2, while bloody hard as hell, was still good with a style that really set it apart. X3... doesn't have any of the gameplay balance either of the first two games have (easy enough to beat the first two without upgrades), none of the fun, a lazy and basic boring style, very little to no artistic merit, and level designs so bad that the Average Mario Maker owner can do better. X3 was the sign that the X games were not going in a good direction at all, and while X4 was good, everything that came after was hot garbage. Ironic that most if not all the classic Mega Man series games are at least somewhat good (even 8 and R&F) while X, X2, and X4 are really the only good games in the X series. I don't see any of the fairness and balance you speak of, just bad game design.

[matohin]

Originally posted by NeonCrimsonSkye:

text

X1 is not close to balanced lol. Charged Chameleon Sting and normal Storm Tornado break the game, charge buster is useless otherwise (other than being required for Wolf Sigma if you don't want to use Rolling Shield), half of the bosses in the game are jokes while Launch Octopus is by far the hardest of the main 8, unless you fight Boomer Kuwanger without the dash in which case he gets hard too. Fortress bosses aside from Bospider and maybe Vile and Wolf Sigma are all way easier than Octopus for whatever reason, and Wolf Sigma is a horrible final boss (not to mention the fortress in general is trash past the first stage and even in the first stage the post-Vile shaft is horrifying). Not to mention that the Helmet in X1 is just there so you can access certain other upgrades and the game is very rigid in order: there's a perfect order with one revisit and every other order is basically a worse version of that, there is little replayability.

X2 tried to fix some things but it's a nightmare to play. Violen is an RNG mess in both of his forms where if you get lucky, you'll be fine, otherwise - eat ♥♥♥♥, Serges' first form can also be a pain, most bosses take a pathetically low amount of damage from a fully charged, not upgraded buster and yet quite a ton of them just use that to hide how pathetic their patterns are: bosses like Zero or Flame Stag are pathetically easy but waste your time. And then there's Serges' second form: a cacophony of attacks with two phases that takes forever to destroy, and doing him no damage buster only armorless is an exercise in torture. Or you can just take the armor, use the giga attack and then charged Sonic Slicer to obliterate him. Neat. Also, X2 level designs are really lame. Ostrich, Stag, Moth and quite a few others are really bland gimmick stages.

X3 is consistent: the armor is garbage, but if you go in armorless, there are only two problems you might encounter: Doppler Stage 2 (if you defeat Vile early) and Volt Catfish. The rest of the bosses and stages? Incredibly consistent. Barely any RNG, barely any nonsense. Is it a bit too bland? Yes, though X2 suffered from this even worse. Does X3 have any story or improve on the control issues like the game sometimes eating inputs or the dash not functioning properly? No. Do X3's collectibles suck? Yes. Is X3 by far the most consistent and least annoying to no damage bosses and stages? Absolutely, for the most part. Even Sigma is no longer a pain, being a manageable fight.

Also, X5 and onwards > SNES X. I've played those games a ton and the SNES ones are the only ones I don't care about returning to. X2 in particular because most of it's bosses are boring as hell, only exceptions being the fights against Ostrich, Moth and Centipede. That said, this is my opinion even though I doubt I'll change it anytime soon, so apologies if I come off as a bit too aggressive.

[NeonCrimsonSkye]

Naw, it's perfectly fine, After reading your post, it is obvious to me we're just looking for different things out of the series. To me, I like the simplistic classic setup, so X5 and beyond don't feel like Mega Man or X to be anymore. It's fine to like the ones you like as well, the series went in a different direction, one that was more to your liking. Also, you didn't get too heated or abrasive, not compared to some of the things I've seen written over the years, heh. It's all good. I still have those classic games, and you have the ones you like, so in a way, everybody wins.

[matohin]

Originally posted by NeonCrimsonSkye:

Naw, it's perfectly fine, After reading your post, it is obvious to me we're just looking for different things out of the series. To me, I like the simplistic classic setup, so X5 and beyond don't feel like Mega Man or X to be anymore. It's fine to like the ones you like as well, the series went in a different direction, one that was more to your liking. Also, you didn't get too heated or abrasive, not compared to some of the things I've seen written over the years, heh. It's all good. I still have those classic games, and you have the ones you like, so in a way, everybody wins.

That is fair, and yeah, it's good that all of those games exist. Thank you for making a nice response, as well!

[mdesaleah]

I think X3 was made by the B team, while the devs of X1 and X2 were working on X4.

Would explain why X4 completely ignores X3 while also being much better.

[matohin]

Originally posted by mdesaleah:

I think X3 was made by the B team, while the devs of X1 and X2 were working on X4.

Would explain why X4 completely ignores X3 while also being much better.

It's not a "B-Team". Those are Minakuchi Engineering: they made the first, third, fourth and fifth Game Boy games, very likely assisted in development of 7 and also worked on Wily Wars for the Genesis. They worked on a lot of the games all things considered, even if X3 isn't their best work

[LimBreakRevo]

Originally posted by mdesaleah:

I think X3 was made by the B team, while the devs of X1 and X2 were working on X4.

Would explain why X4 completely ignores X3 while also being much better.

Don't quote me on this, but I think X2 was developed by a different team at Capcom, and some of those people left to found Inti Creates.

[mdesaleah]

Originally posted by LimBreakRevo:

Originally posted by mdesaleah:

I think X3 was made by the B team, while the devs of X1 and X2 were working on X4.

Would explain why X4 completely ignores X3 while also being much better.

Don't quote me on this, but I think X2 was developed by a different team at Capcom, and some of those people left to found Inti Creates.

Would make sense for this to be partially right. I think the team behind X1 and X2 were mostly the same though. But some of them did leave to form Inti Creates, and then they made 9, 10, all of Zero, and both ZX games.

I would probably trust them to make an X9 or at least let Capcom allow them to finish ZXC. Gunvolt isn’t exactly Megaman Zero since it’s focus is more on arcade scoring, but they still know how to do 2D action