Why is X6 so hated?

[Chibi310]

Just out of curiosity since X6 has always been my favorite X game in the series since I first played it way back when. Even as a child it never bothered me that the game was hard, I just found it to be the natural order of things since Megaman was all about perseverance through adaptation. And complaining about Megaman being hard is basically retarded due to the fact that the entire series (ALL OF THEM!) are famous for being hard.

So come to my surpires I hear stories about the game being "Too Hard". and this quality confused me. The only part of the game I ever found to be "Too Hard" was the Hell Sigma Phase 2 fight, due to my reflexes not being up to scratch. But, that didn't change the fact that it was also my favorite Sigma to fight since no other sigma tested you to this extent. Not even X4 sigma is hard since you can literally get through the first 2 phases without so much as a scratch with barely any effort at all.

Like what aspect of the game was truly unfair?

You are warned about the "Chaotic" nature of the Nightmare influences, and there is a hint to how to deal with most of them (After beating a stage, the stages where the Nightmare Influences you can now deal with turn red) so that can't be it since you are given a heads up, and by virture if you're a veteran of Megaman, then you should by this point in time have the mentality of "experiment with your weapons" so the Nightmare's chaotic effects shouldn't be an excuse.

Heck I found it to be awesome that both Gate and HighMax are both Puzzle bosses! Something you do not normally see in a Megaman.

So again, what is it about this game that is so hated? Or am I just crazy and the Megaman community have all become a bunch of noobs. Because I'm also hearing stories about X Challenge being too hard as well (I haven't touched hard mode yet so I have no input for that, but I have beaten Normal mode).

[Spaceboy]

I'm right there with you i've personally always loved X6 and my only real problem with it were some bad stage designs. It seems like everything people hate about X6 is over exagerrated or just a lack of skill (as bad as that sounds) X7 was the game i always hated

[Chaoslord 87]

My biggest complaints about X6:

- very crude and impossible Level design without certain Armors, Abilities and/or weapons.
For example Blaze Heatnix stage with the rising purple Lava segment and the 4th encounter with the red donut miniboss. And some segments of Gates Lab are also completly impossible for certain Armour types (Gates Lab 1, where you need Jumper or Blizzard Wolffangs weapon to jump high enough and the second part of Gates Lab 2 with Shadow Armor X since he has no Air Dash)

- some Mavericks are very hard or impossible to beat without any upgrades / weapons if you pick them first (Infinity Mijinion) and High Max, which you can fight without even beating a single Maverick is without any special weapon absolut invincible.

Aside from these two points and some hilarious translation errors " I´ve had to hide myself while I repaired myself ", X6 is not a bad game in my opinion. It is certainly not as well rounded as X4 (if you ignore the subpar or terrible voice acting) but it is better as X7.

I would even say, that X6 is the Dark Souls of the X series. Definitly hard but doable.

[Xenkaroshi]

Here's the thing for me: I came in to this X collection without having beaten any of them, never seen footage of the PS1 installments. People said X5 was trash, I actually enjoyed it alot. But I wanna make it clear that I'm experiencing these games for my first time, not having nostalgia cloud my judgment.

The problem with X6 is the stage design, I've beaten all of the classic series and X-X6 at this point - im a veteran fan and I've raced people on MM 1-6, even speedran MM1.

X6 suffers from the MM8 design in the sense that every stage is severely built upon a gimmick that doesn't suit a megaman title - and its taking over even worse in this game with even worse gimmicks. Turtle stage you gotta search around for all the objects the game forces you to destroy in order to progress, Heatnix you chase a square through the entire stage to kill, sheldon you attack a few mirrors to solve a puzzle, shark you stop every few steps and wait til you can progress, scaravich is just oddly designed..

The "Wily stages" and I do not give any !"#¤% in regards of what they are actually called... First stage I had no idea what devs wanted me to do in order to progress, I could figure out the ice move was used ot get up above the first spikes, but I could not make the 2nd jump for whatever reason (probably because you needed jumper part equipped). I figured Zero would have no issue with his double jump - but as heart upgrades are permanent for the character collecting them - he was utterly useless for me at this point.

And so I figured the game FORCED me into finding the shadow parts just to progress and beat the game. Now, even though this isn't completely 100% true for those whom will correct me... Keep in mind, this ain't my first rodeo - and this is how I felt about it...

As for the final stages, no words needs to be explained for any of them, they are just complete utter trash... fighting the nightmare boss with shadow armor is just that - a nightmare. And gate was horrible too.

I found most of the weapons to be useless and it pissed me off like nothing else when I actually activated a fully charged weapon attack, it was in the animation of having been activated and shots were on screen... then I get hit and the effect completely stops!?!?!

X6 plain and simply fails to be what a megaman is supossed to be about. It also fails to be a good game.

Anyone believing it is worth playing today is either nostalgia driven or naive in their thinking for what a good game is. Everyone is free to feel however they want as much as I am for my opinion, but from a universal acclaim - most people will tell you that X6 was a failure and its time to re-evaluate the opinion you have. Granted - if at the end of the day, you still for whatever reason feel like the game is good. Ain't nobody stopping you son..

[Chibi310]

Although I do agree that the Gate Lab stages are nuts especially the first one. I would have to disagree on the matter that X6 is bad overall.

Simply put, MMX6 probably lives up to the Megaman Ideal more than any other megaman game in the series. When looking into the details of the previous Megaman games, I can't for the life of me ever remember anything from X2 or X3 and I've beaten them multiple times, even getting the golden armor and Shoriyuken in one of them (Can't remember which one was it that has it).

X1 is fun to play every once in a while, but after your first time, it quickly becomes more of a drag to start, and the bosses are in in my opinion over-hyped. Many consider them to be "Iconic" yet, to me they only have the "First game WOW factor" working for them. The stage changing gimmick was (and still is) a neat aspect of the game. But when you take a good look at it, you can't really come back to this game after you beat it, because everything is just a push over. Especially if you know the order to take the game on, at that point it's an embarassment of a game.

X2 and X3 both have nothing significant to them, besides X3 with the Ride Armors, but all the stages in both the games are easily forgetable, and do not offer anything interesting beyond "Go right, Shoot enemy, Beat boss". The only deviation you do in these games is looking for the Dr. Light Capsules, and maybe Vile or the X Hunters, or Bit/Byte. But usually they're all within the main path forward and do not demand anything from you. And again, the games become absurdly easy once you figure out what to do.

X4 has more creative stage designs within them, but fall short to the same detail I mentioned for X2 and X3. The stages are just a progress forward system and that's it. No true Dexterity test anywhere or mental challenge. Although X4 is easily the most beautiful of the Megaman X games, being very lush and detailed in the graphics department. Again, the game becomes too easy on repeat playthroughs, and do not offer much in the challenge department. It also doesn't help that if you play this game as a veteran, it's significantly easy. But, I do not consider that a fault of the game, it's a fun game and what I think to be the perfect start to get people into Megaman X.

X5 used to be one of my favorites, dispite it's shortcoming, and I will admit is the only game where I am locked with the nostalgia glasses on. But, the game overall, loves to waste your time. So yes, I do agree with the sensus that X5 is bad. Since it uses all the weaknesses of the previous X games, and adds more misery to the lackluster stage design. One aspect that this game has going for it, is that it brought the idea of having multiple armors to choose from!

X6 just radically changes everything everywhere. At least each stage offers something different to do, and doesn't just repeat the stage formula of the previous games of "Go right, Kill enemies, Beat boss, get power, repeat". X6 forces you to stay on your toes more than any other X game, it makes you experiences the full breath of your abilities, since you must exploit everything you have learned and mastered from previous battles and charge forward. It's also the only X game that makes sure you don't underestimate ANY aspect of it. Heck X6 also gives you a Mission beyond Find the Boss and kill him, you have to rescue the reploids and prevent them from dying, where this seems bad at first sight, you are rewarded for your tinasity and dedication. And, even if you know what you're doing, this game does not ease up! It crushes lax play, which is the only thing that makes repeat play throughs of the previous games feel less and less "Exciting" each time.

Also I've noticed that out of all the previous X games, X6 is the only one that actually makes you enjoy the Agility of X and Zero. Be honest, how much do you need to meanuver around evading enemies and aiming your shots at break neck speeds in any of the previous games? Almost never!

If the Megaman ideal is growing stronger and getting better. Why is it that the second game that asks that of the "Player" himself, the only one considered a "Bad Game"? When X1 did that by just making you seem weak at the beginning, X6 pushes you to do better at every chance it gets. Not even the bosses let you take it easy (Except for Commander Yamark and Ground Scaravich Don't know what happened with them).

[Xenkaroshi]

Well I call the bull of the sheets, but you are entitled to an opinion mate. If you enjoy the game then thats good for you! It was torture for me >_> I'm just happy X5 wasn't as trash as everyone said it was, so that's enough of a win for me personally.

[Chibi310]

True, I'm more interested in hearing the horror stories that everybody has about X6. Admitedly I know it's a moot point by now to try and defend X6, but it's honestly a hobby of mine. So apologies if I come off as a bit hostile.

[Billon]

The very "high difficulty / bad level design" people like to complain is what made the game interesting to me.
I had so much fun trying to figure out how to beat this game, it became my favorite in the series.

[Chad Emperor Crimson]

This game is a guilty pleasure. The game is full of ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ design choices. First, the game is impossible to complete with basic X if you don't have the Jumper part. Also, the parts system is very poor with handling, because the reploids holding them are vulnerable to Nightmares. The Nightmare system is very flawed too. The red spaceas mean nothing, as after beating a stage a nightmare effect is permanent, and you're dealt one of 2 or 3 possible effects. The effects are stage crippling. If you get Darkness on Rainy Turtloid's stage, a hostage is almost guaranteed to die. Fortunately, the Hyper Dash part is in a position where it won't die on the Alt Path. I'll do a full rundown of every stage.

Commander Yammark: Not too bad of a stage, and the only one that doesn't have extreme issues but the straight path has 1 part where it doesn't show where spikes are when you jump so you have to take a leap of faith. The Alternate Path has a segment where X can't beat unless he airdashes, and Basic X can't do that.

Shield Sheldon: The stage on the main path is painfully short. The lasers you need to control are completely random in how they fire, so you have to sit and wait or even go back to reset it. The bottom path leading to the Alternate Route has the lasers designed so it's almost impossible to not get hit by them due to the cramped spaces. The Alt Path doesn't have anything too bad.

Ground Scaravich: This stage is just a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ with the rocks falling from the air. The paths you take are completely random, so you may have to replay this stage countless times so you just so happen to get the rooms with all the hostages, the Armor Part, the Heart Tank, and the Alt Path crystal.

Rainy Turtloid: The acid rain puts huge pressure on you, and you need to explore somewhat to find the little buttons to break. This stage is full of purple robots that only expose themself for seconds at most. The Darkness nightmare that occurs after beating Infinity Mijinion makes this stage unplayable. The Alt Path is just long.

Infinity Mijinion: The level is just a straight path slanting downward. That's it. The Alt Path is horrible. The Heart Tank and Light Capsule are literally next to each other by walking to the left. The reploids give you extra lives purely because of this area. This also has one of the worst placements in the game. To the far right, there is a series with 3 reploids. If you don't grab the middle one immediately, it WILL DIE because the Nightmare is right on top of it, so if you grab one of the others and fall, whatever part it was holding is now gone for that save file. Quick tip, if the HELP text above a reploid disappears, then the Nightmare has officially killed it.

Metal Shark Player: The worst stage in the whole ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ game. Every bit of the level is a giant metal crusher. The first segment is fine because you can jam it with the ride armor, but this is the only one on the main path where it happens. The 2nd one is nothing memorable except for the last one where the path branches to the bottom and left. At this crusher, there are 2 Nightmares that will attack you. The crusher length is too short to get hit by one and live, so you need to get hit before going through it so you can clip through them with your invincibility frames. The main path from here is on the bottom, and the Alt Path is on the left. The Alt Path has a giant pit that you need parts in order to cross. Then, there is a long crusher with a ride armor that you NEED in order to not die at the end. At the end of this path though, is the Shock Buffer part that reduces damage by half. The main path is the worse part. In here, there are parts where you need to DUCK to not die. BUT due to the game's terrible coding, if you let go of DOWN you will DIE. This is in contrast to Mario, where if you let go of down when there's no room, you'll just stay ducked.

Blaze Heatnik: This stage has about 5 large Donut shaped bosses you need to defeat. This stage is horrible without going to it with Zero and Infinity Mijinion's screen nuke weapon that rains lasers down and makes the Donuts a joke. The Alt Path is nothing special, but has a Sub Tank which helps a lot.

Blizzard Wolfang: This stage is mediocre at best. At the end, there are 3 segments where ice blocks fall down that you need to use as platforms. The Alt Path is fine, but can't be accessed unless you activate Blaze Heatnik's Nightmare effect in which fireballs rain from the sky. On the Alt Path, use a fireball and invincibility frames to grab the reploid holding the Jumper part. This is easier if you use the D-Barrier found in Commander Yammark's stage that increases invincibility frames.

In conclusion, X6 is a fun game for me mechanically, but extremely flawed and is objectively a bad game. The only way I enjoy the game is cheating with the armor code (Left, Left, Right for Ultimate X and LB, LB, LB, RT for Black Zero). My character of choice is Zero because of his superior damage and mobility. In addition, unless you fight the Mavericks in the order I listed them, you are guaranteed a miserable time. Maybe another time I'll get into the problems with the final levels and the Nightmare system in other situations.

[Red]

Originally posted by chibi310:

...

Oh boy where do I begin? As someone who played this when it came out I never really thought the game was as difficult as people make it sound like online, and since I didn't have internet back then I wasn't even aware of the popular reception of the game.

So while it's not particularly hard for me, I still can see the atrocious level design. The game is so badly designed it gets to a point where you cannot even complete certain stages as X without the jumper part and without the Shadow armor or as Zero without the ceiling clinging move (Character which you can lose the chance of unlocking). This has NEVER been the case in MMX games, and it's hilariously worse because you can get to the first gate stage without even beating all the mavericks to begin with and zero is locked forever if you kill all the mavericks before unlocking him first.

Heck, from both collections this is the ONLY game that warns you that you may have to RESET THE GAME in certain instances if you use rookie hunter mode, it's THAT bad.

Also criticizing levels in other X games for not being memorable is BS when the ones being memorable in X6 are so for the completely wrong reasons. It's easy for something to be memorable when it's extremely bad.

* Slow paced level with a ceiling that can constantly crush you + enemy placement to cause knockback on you while you're crouching.

* Bland stage with a robot on the background with some the final countdown ripoff as the background music. SUPER easy to meet a pattern impossible to dodge.

* Remember that one time a stage with ice physics was ever fun? No? Me neither.

* Stage with a boring-ass puzzle and so short you couldn't even call it a stage.

* Rainy stage is kinda cool but the gimmick drags for too much.

* Ground Scaravich... There's no defending this stage. it just sucks. Pure RNG whenever you backtrack to this stage.

* I would say something about Yammark's stage but I don't even remember it.

* Blaze Heatnix's stage... LOL. Talk about dragging an idea to the ground with those sub bosses.

* Final stages: SPIKES SPIKES SPIKES and can't even complete them all as any character. First section of Gate stage tricks you into bringing the shadow armor yet after you're done with High Max you must either pull off an extremely difficult *frame perfect* jump or get a GAME OVER and restart the ENTIRE STAGE again with the blade armor to be able to air dash through a certain section.


The reploid rescuing mechanic is fun on paper until you realize that they can be easily killed by nightmares, at that point it just becomes a painful slog loop of constantly resetting the console when one of them dies, emptying your tanks and losing your extra lives in the process. All the """""Skill""""" involved here most of the time is to quickly react to a reploid+nightmare setup you're definitely NOT ready for on your first playthrough.

The nightmare effect mechanic is practically inconsequential. Almost none of them ever matter and the game doesn't even explain how it works anyway.

The alternative routes are affected by the same bad level design so a good idea is once again shot down. Special mention going towards the fact that you can meet High Max via them with no special weapon whatsoever, making that fight *impossible to win*. Even if you have some you still may be unable to beat him depending on your max energy and the weapons you have.

The bosses are unbalanced as ♥♥♥♥, they're either pushovers you can beat without even moving or they're ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ ridiculous like Infinity Mijinion (Actually IDK who else besides him is actually hard by default) to the point where you better have either his weakness or a fully buffed character. Gate's fight drags for an eternity (I already mentioned High Max). Overall the bosses are big letdown, I have NO IDEA how the heck can anyone find them challenging at all.

The special weapons are ♥♥♥♥ except for maybe two. Zero's techniques are fine until you unlock the Ground Scaravich one that kills you if you attack in the air while trying to stay attached to the ropes.


I don't hate this game, but it's BS to say that it's a good game at all, it's flawed in almost every single aspect except MAYBE the music. Even the armor selection isn't fully great because the Blade armor is badass and the Shadow armor is super fun to use, but the latter in particular looks like a Deviantart reject.

Even then, I still enjoy X6 more than X7 but there's a reason why I'm leaving X6 for last in this collection so far. Saying that "MMX6 probably lives up to the Megaman Ideal more than any other megaman game in the series" is... I have no nice way to put this so I'll just be blunt, it's ignorant and borderline retarded. You're entitled to your opinion of course, but that one statement in particular is just stupid. If Megaman games were meant to be LIKE THIS then the series would've died after the second game.

[KaZudra]

X6 is a sad case where rushed development in a pre-patch era can backfire.

Honestly, This one is the easiest to fix because everyone has already pointed out what's wrong with it, a little stage edits here, modifications to the nightmare system there, a complete overhaul to Blaze heatnix, and viola.

[Red]

You mentioned the "Pre-patch" era and that reminded me that the devs were so incompetent in X6 they locked level 4 Virus Zero behind a soul requirement that's impossible to meet without locking out the Virus Zero fight from your current playthrough to begin with. So legitimately fighting him and obtaining Black Zero is impossible due to a stupid oversight.

[Ultimate Zerx]

X6 is a good game. I actually enjoy it the most especially when it was the first game I finished all by myself. Previous X games were played by my friends and I learnt pretty much everything.

I agree it is hard and frustrating in so many levels. Jeez I don't want to start that. But anyway, if you think X6 is the worst, just remember there's X7 and do you want to accomplish all achievement? You can be my guest.

[Rainy days.]

How to play X6:
Beat the intro stage
Proceed to Mijinion's stage
Enter it's Nightmare Stage
Beat Zero
Proceed to main Zero throughout the game for a straight-up cake walk through an already easy game.

[Chibi310]

Interesting, I was thinking that the responses would be overwhelmingly negative, but there's an actual balance here between likes and dislikes, with valid arguments on the dislikes side of things.

For things that I honestly disliked about the game though:

-Blaze Heatnix stage, the Ouroboros Mechanaloids didn't bother me at all except for the second to last one in that stage, due to the near imposibily to hit the lower weak spots without risking instant death or damage. I'm a boss rush fanatic wherever boss rush shows up, so fighting the Ouroboro Mechanaloids multiple times in different arenas is fun to me.

-Infinity Mijinion stage, in the secret zone, that one Reploid that's right on a nightmare at the bottom right. Only way to rescue that one is to just suicide towards it.

-Gate Lab 1, That beginning part alone. CapCom should've at least given us a heads up about it, since I first went there with the Blade Armor and ultimate Buster equipped which made it impossible to ascend through, since I couldn't use the Ice Block as a foot hold.

-Ground Scaravich, I don't know what the hell happened with this boss. He's pathetically easy and non-threatening. Even on the rematch he remains as the weakest boss in the game.

-The various Noob Traps in the game I do have a problem with, since there is no way to turn around and go the main route once you realize you're illequipped to progress. Like in Metal Shark Player's stage where you cannot make that jump to the Alt Zone without the Blade Armor (Yes I do it without Jumper and Hyper Dash), and the check point and point of no return are both right there before the jump so you're stuck there having to punish yourself for searchng for secrets early on. Or HighMax, it's too easy to accidentally run into him without a weapon.

-Blizzard Wolffang stage, I'm not entirely sure if it's luck based or not, but getting to the Alt area of this stage is an annoyance. Because I for the life of me still cannot figure out how to manipulate the game to grant me entry when I can collect everything that's over there.

This is all that comes to mind on what I dislike... Everything else didn't bother me much, if anything it enhanced the experience for me, like in Ground Scaravich stage, the onslough of rocks being thrown at you and Nightmares, if you take it easy or are somewhat aggressive with your buster/Z-saber it's not that horrible. Yes I do agree that the Nighmare Effects are a nuesense, but that's the point of them, my least favorite are the Commander Yamark effects (The mosquitoes!).

[Oguzhan]

As a person who actually likes the game lemme explain.

Nightmare system : It is completely random and almost all of the effects are annoying. Sometimes it is bugged too , so even if it says there is no nightmare eff there will be a nightmare eff.

Gate: No need to explain this abomination of a boss.

Stages: The first Castle stage requires X to have a certain part from a reploid who can die. Some of them like metal shark player and blaze phoneix also have annoying gimmicks. Also the enemey placement is sometimes the kitchen sink. Also you can't beat the game as unarmored X basic X.

Randomness: The game is very random. This includes getting certain upgrades meaning you gotta replay the stages over and over again depending on your luck.

Reploids: Some of these guys are mandatory for X and they die really quickly.


Now not everything is bad about the game to be fair. The strong points are.

The music : Amazing stuff. Easily the best out of the playstation games and probably one of the best in the series.Has a lot of variety of themes.

The weapons: They are pretty op especially the ones for Zero aside from his grand scarovich weapon.

Different ways to finish: You don't actually need to beat all mavericks to reach the final stage.

The controls: They are as good as ever. Still no megaman zero quality or megaman X8 but very good.