And I did.

And I was NOT disappointed.

To briefly go over what Mega Man ZX and by extension Zero and X games are like, they are action platformer games starring Super Fighting Robots on their quest defeat evil-doers and maverick robots. You have busters that shoot foes and charge up to do more damage and can dash to move faster and through the air further. In the ZX series, the world is more openly explorable instead of being a stage-by-stage experience seen in other games, and even rewards explorers with things such as Sub-Tanks that can store extra health you get for later use and power-ups that increase how much health your character has. Now, to move back to the review...

ZX Advent takes what ZX did and improves it by leaps and bounds, all the while focusing not on Zero or X, but rather Bio-Metal "Model A". Fans of the later entries of the Mega Man X series may know what this "A" is. That's right, it's A for "Albert"! What? Loop throwing aside, Model A is clearly (or coincidentally?) based on Axel, giving full use of the missed potential from X7 and X8 by giving players the ability to copy and turn into bosses they defeat, giving you essentially about 17ish characters to play as. 18 if you count the basic forms of two different genders separately. Other improvements include: NPCs now showing an icon above their heads when they have a side-quest as long as you've talked to them at least once before, you're able to multi-task with quests instead of doing them one at a time, not having to forcibly morph back to basic form just to talk to someone, cutscene dialog fully voiced in English, the game doesn't punish you for exploiting boss weak points, a better world layout, many warp points (though on difficulties higher than "easy" you do have to pay a certain amount of "energy crystals", the game's currency, in order to activate them. But they're on forever for that file once you do!), being able to attack foes while you're in "human" form, and being able to look at how much energy is contained in your sub-tanks even if your health is full.

There are also more differences than just story for you when you choose to play as a boy or girl. The male character is a Reploid, and he plays like you'd expect a character to play like in an X-style Mega Man game. Standard bullets, standard charge shot, returning forms play just like they did before. The female character is a human, and she plays a little different. He buster shots are larger and more powerful than the Reploid's, but she can only put out two shots at a time, and her charged buster shot is a laser that can bounce off walls ala Gemini Laser from classic Mega Man only better. Her special moves with different characters will change as well, such as this game's version Model P giving her a barrier as opposed to the Reploid just tossing out a giant shuriken like in ZX. Some of the bosses even have different moves depending on who you play as; a notable boss showing this is Aeolus who has a tornado shot attack that will be like a split shot attack against the Reploid but will fire out a shot on both sides of Aeolus and curve at you when you're the human. There are also returning characters from ZX that will pop up depending on who you are too. And one final note about differences, both characters have special intro stages specific to themselves as well, which ultimately serves as making the game feel like a whole new experience when you choose the other gender instead of just feeling like the same exact game only with a slightly differing story like the previous title. It's hard to recommend only one to play as if you only wish to complete one play, as both are just that recommendable with no real advantage above the other.

This would be a great gift in a Mega Man ZX Advent calendar.

Getting back to the gameplay a bit, an interesting aspect in this game is that the special weapon energy bar is not only shared by all forms, but continually regenerates, essentially allowing you comfortably use the special moves of your various characters, such as the time-slowing power of the horseshoe crab form and the hovering of the best form ever: an undead death-metal rocker condor that head-bangs for the idle animation. In addition to the Health Upgrades, you can also discover Energy Upgrades as well to allow you to use your special abilities even more so.

This game also contains a LOT of nostalgic material and easter eggs, more so than the previous, but it's not really in your face about it, and even naturally incorporates it into the game's environment well. In the game you can find data disc items like in previous games, and one of them you can get off a kid who claims that "the superhero on this thing is scary looking" and it's none other than a picture of Bad Box-Art Mega Man. There's even a shop in town that sells E-Tanks which are an utter life-saver at times, and you can find all sorts of classic memorabilia in one quest in particular later into the game. And the ultimate throw-back is an unlockable mini-game that lets you play as an 8-bit Model A in a Mega Man 3-style level. Playing this really brought a smile to my face. What makes things better, though, is that you can unlock that form for free use within the main game if you manage to clear all the bonus challenges with bosses and beat the game, but you sadly have to start a whole new file to use it.

Speaking of challenges, this game, like many other previous Mega Man titles, unlocks a hard mode that is appropriately named "Expert" mode in this game when you beat it the first time. Expert mode doesn't just lazily slap in more enemies and make foes do more damage though, ohhhh no. Expert mode is far more brutal than that but is 100% fair. The aforementioned Health Ups and Sub-Tanks are all replaced with health pick-ups, and the Energy Ups are replaced with energy pick-ups. However, quest prizes remain, so you can still get ONE Sub-Tank, though that quest for the Sub-Tank is a good way into the game, making the early game fairly brutal. On top of the removal of upgrades, bosses are far more unforgiving, having sharper AI to adapt to you and your own moves, and even just upgraded attacks altogether (example: the flower boss shoots a 3-way lightening blast instead of a single beam of it). Amidst all this, though, each boss is able to be defeated without taking a single point of damage. But to do this, you have to be, as the difficulty insinuates, an expert.

Mega Man ZX Advent was a real treat to play through, and I can wholeheartedly recommend it. The game looks great, plays great, and sounds great (though, if I must make any non-positive remark, is that the game's music is honestly standard fare for the franchise, and I can't honestly say anything stuck to me. But, that's not a bad thing either). If you can find a copy for a reasonable price and really want one of the better Mega Man X-style experiences, then feel free to nab it! Sadly, this marks the end of series. Two games long, but it ended on a rather high note. So what became of the developers of the game?