Reploid
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A Reploid, or Repliroid (レプリロイド Repuriroido?) in the original Japanese games, from the science fiction video game series Mega Man X, Mega Man Zero and Megaman ZX, is a robot with complete free will and thought processes comparable to that of humans. The term originally was reserved for robots whose design was ultimately derived (or "replicated") from the original Mega Man X design, but throughout the series the term has been extended to cover any robot with similar intellectual capacity. Some fans of the series commonly use the term outside the context of the Mega Man X setting to refer to any robot that has the capability to think and make decisions for itself without human programming.
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[edit] Origins
Some time around 100 years after the events of the Mega Man Classic series, after the apparent death of Dr. Thomas Light, an archaeologist named Dr. Cain was excavating one of Dr. Light's laboratories, and discovered a capsule containing a highly advanced robot named "X". X represented a substantial jump in robotics technology, so Dr. Cain attempted to reproduce X's technology from Dr. Light's original work and notes. When he was unable to reproduce the technology perfectly, Dr. Cain was forced to invent alternative solutions. All robotic designs based on that technology have been referred to as "Reploids", since they are imperfect "replicates" of the original X.
[edit] Technology
[edit] Mind
In 20XX, robots that resembled Mega Man were not entirely capable of free will. In an example, Dr. Wily's Robot Masters were capable of limited thought and moral decisions which lead to such things as hobbies and preferences as these aspects were already set in their programming, giving the programmer some kind of status as a God. Dr. Wily usually abused this aspect and most programmed or reprogrammed his robots to hate Mega Man to the extreme. Reploids however do not posses similar structure in their AI, giving them absolute free will to same extent as human beings have. This however has lead to the concept of Reploids becoming criminals or rebels, which leads to the classification as a Maverick / Irregular.
[edit] Body
By default, a Reploid's body is a mimicry of the human body with biomechanical organs and parts. This concept can be thought of as an advanced version of a homunculus. The biomechanical construction allow for human actions such as sensory abilities, breathing (displayed by air bubbles while submerged) and consumption, although this also allows for fatigue, pain and exhuastion. However, most Reploids choose to enhance themselves through more mechanical means such as enhanced leg parts and primitive mechanical muscle. Being a maverick hunter requires such modifications for basic combat. Some Reploids such as the original Steel Massimo have mechanically enhanced themselves so far that they resemble primitive 20XX mechanics more so than the more advanced 21XX design. Another example of this form of enhancement was used by Vile in all 3 of his incarnations, where by choice he removed most of his biomechanical organics in order to house concealed weapons or vernier rockets/thrusters inside of his limbs. Reploid growth is an unpredictable factor, as displayed by Mega Man X's Axl who has matured into a teenager since X7, and Mega Man Zero's Alouette, who has retained an adolescent age throughout the Mega Man Zero game series. Finally, the power of the robotic body is variable, but the majority of Reploids lifting and power capacity far exceeds that of normal humans. Maverick Hunters usually can lift in the proximity of around several thousand pounds, while civilian and normal Reploids are somewhat weaker, but still beyond human strength.
[edit] New Generation Reploids
The New Generation Reploids were created in Mega Man X8 from the prototype Axl. Their main purpose was to serve as the workers for a space elevator project, known as Jakob. These reploids were fitted with a chip that granted immunity from all viruses known at the time, and also permitted these reploids to change the shape of their bodies (like Axl). However, this ends in failure, as the advanced chip also incorporates data from Sigma, causing them to go Maverick at will. It can also be argued if the Sigma Virus (that is Sigma itself) contaminated all the DNA data, thus creating "clones" of Sigma with very different nature.
Lumine, the main supervisor of Jakob, believed himself and all new-generation Reploids to be superior to even the original Reploids, and plotted to destroy both humans and old-generation Reploids alike.
[edit] Notes
- Reploids have an unfortunate tendency to become Mavericks for multiple reasons that have changed with each new installment in the X series, these methods include a Reploid willingly choosing an evil path (classifying it as a Maverick), choosing a path considered deviant to the humans wishes, and the Maverick Virus, seemingly created by Dr. Wily and originally implemented into Zero, though Sigma has been its main carrier. The Maverick Virus has been the primary cause of Mavericks for most of the games in the series.
- Reploids come in every shape and size, and their designs range across the areas of humanoid and anthropomorphic to abstract. Many designs are reminiscent of the robot foes of Mega Man.
- Notably, all of the 64 Maverick bosses from the 8 mainstream X series games (8 bosses for each game) are anthropomorphic. Most of them are based off of animals and only 4 are based off of other aspects of nature (namely plants and in the case of Mega Man X4's Split Mushroom; fungi.)
- In Megaman Zero, the anthropomorphic Reploids of Neo Arcadia are called Mutos Reploids.
- In Mega Man ZX, reploids were given human mortality, except for reploids who had been built before this redesign.
[edit] See also
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Mega Man X • Mega Man X2 • Mega Man X3 • Mega Man X4 • Mega Man X5 • Mega Man X6 • Mega Man X7 • Mega Man X8 |
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Mega Man Zero • Mega Man Zero 2 • Mega Man Zero 3 • Mega Man Zero 4 |
