Exactly what "cheats"/convenience option did they put here?

[RAWRmonger]

I didn't have much trouble with these games for survival, however getting the abilities, dependent on Rank, was hard.

[CrowRising]

There's "Casual Scenario" mode, which basically just swaps the games over to easy mode where the enemies are weaker and you don't die from falling down a pit or touching spikes. You cannot unlock Model Ox in ZX while playing in casual scenario, but other unlockables such as the minigames in Zero 3 and 4 and the permanent Model X in ZX unlock after only a single playthrough of casual scenario. Casual Scenario has it's own save files.

Aside from that there's "Save Assist" which can be toggled on and off while in any difficulty, placing little quick save checkpoints in the levels that you return to when you die, getting back full HP and Weapon Energy and keeping all your lives, and you can collect special in-game cards for Zero 3 that are activated and deactivated in the gallery that have a variety of effects from changing certain in-game sprites to boosting the power of certain weapons.

You can also return to your most recently touched Save Assist point when they are enabled via the collection menu (tab on keyboard, options on DS4, etc.) while playing any of the games, or from the title screen of any of the games. The collection menu also features the ability to return to the title screen of the game you are currently playing at any time.

[ShadowDragon8685]

Originally posted by RAWRmonger:

I didn't have much trouble with these games for survival, however getting the abilities, dependent on Rank, was hard.

Very little. My main beef with the Zero series from back in the day - the way they lock good stuff behind suffering your way through ridiculous hard-mode gameplay - is unchanged. They added "save assists" but they don't help much - they basically mean you get infinite lives and don't get penalized for dying, but you still get fully-penalized for taking your time, for getting struck, and, worst of all, for using cyber-elves.

Then there's "Casual Scenario" mode, which might as well be "does baby need to be coddled mode"? It completely makes a mockery of everything by giving you literally everything off the get-go. This is way too much of a compensation in the wrong direction, because it entirely robs the player of any joy derived from exploration and acquisition. There's no "I earned it because I found it," they just start you off in uber-elite mode.

Save-Assist just isn't enough. The Zero games needed a "Zero Always has A Rank" mode, to ensure Zero could always get every EX skill. Unfortunately, that was apparently a bridge too far for Capcom. I forced myself through Zero 1 and 2 only getting like, one or two EX skills via using the A-rank hacker elves, but as before back-in-the-day I found 3 to be just way the hell too difficult. To hell with it, I'm gonna try ZX.

[ShadowDragon8685]

Just tried ZX...

I really appreciated being able to choose a female protagonist for a first, but...

I was really, really, really disappointed with the obligatory change from being able to use X-alike armor and moves to Zero-alike armor and moves. It's like they made an entire sprite-set and the swap interface just for a "Gotcha!" to make you think you were gonna be able to swap between X-Buster and Z-Saber combat modes, and then it's all "Psych! You're now permanently cosplaying as Zero from Megaman Zero."

And yes, you still have the Z-Buster pistol, but I don't want an energy pistol, I want a frigging Mega Buster on my arm!

Sod it, gonna play Dwarf Fortress.

[CrowRising]

Originally posted by ShadowDragon8685:

Originally posted by RAWRmonger:

I didn't have much trouble with these games for survival, however getting the abilities, dependent on Rank, was hard.

Very little. My main beef with the Zero series from back in the day - the way they lock good stuff behind suffering your way through ridiculous hard-mode gameplay - is unchanged. They added "save assists" but they don't help much - they basically mean you get infinite lives and don't get penalized for dying, but you still get fully-penalized for taking your time, for getting struck, and, worst of all, for using cyber-elves.

Then there's "Casual Scenario" mode, which might as well be "does baby need to be coddled mode"? It completely makes a mockery of everything by giving you literally everything off the get-go. This is way too much of a compensation in the wrong direction, because it entirely robs the player of any joy derived from exploration and acquisition. There's no "I earned it because I found it," they just start you off in uber-elite mode.

Save-Assist just isn't enough. The Zero games needed a "Zero Always has A Rank" mode, to ensure Zero could always get every EX skill. Unfortunately, that was apparently a bridge too far for Capcom. I forced myself through Zero 1 and 2 only getting like, one or two EX skills via using the A-rank hacker elves, but as before back-in-the-day I found 3 to be just way the hell too difficult. To hell with it, I'm gonna try ZX.

Save-assist basically counts as a save state that always returns you to full health (and weapon energy when applicable). This can be abused heavily to ignore hits you take, cyber-elves you use, etc. by either dying, or manually returning to the save assist checkpoint you last touched. The only time you will ever have what you are doing really matter in terms of rank with this knowledge is during a boss fight, which you can also reset as many times as needed to get your desired outcome. If you are still having trouble getting A rank with this knowledge, that's your own fault, not the game's. It gives you plenty of a crutch to lean on to get those A ranks without much trouble.

Casual Scenario doesn't give you literally everything. For example: It gives you two subtanks and most of the head and foot armor parts in Zero 3 but not the chest armors and none of the EX Skills. It only gives you a handful of Cyber-Elves as well.

In Zero 4 it also gives you two subtanks and most if not all of the armor chips, but again none of the EX skills.

Zero 1 and 2 give you more, with Zero 1 giving the most, but even they don't give you literally everything. Zero 2 for example gives most of the Cyber Elves and four subtanks, but only gives you one additional armor: the Ultimate Armor.

[RAWRmonger]

Originally posted by CrowRising:

In Zero 4 it also gives you two subtanks and most if not all of the armor chips, but again none of the EX skills.

Just a side note, but in 4, you can get the EX skills (couldn't remember their names) automatically by playing on the "harder" weather.

[CrowRising]

Originally posted by RAWRmonger:

Originally posted by CrowRising:

In Zero 4 it also gives you two subtanks and most if not all of the armor chips, but again none of the EX skills.

Just a side note, but in 4, you can get the EX skills (couldn't remember their names) automatically by playing on the "harder" weather.

That's true regardless of whether Casual Scenario is active or not.