Mega Man X: Command Mission

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Mega Man X: Command Mission
GameCube version cover art
Developer(s)	Capcom Production Studio 3
Publisher(s)	Capcom
Platform(s)	PlayStation 2, GameCube
Release date	JP 2004-07-29 NA 2004-09-21 PAL 2004-11-19
Genre(s)	Role-playing game,Science Fiction Action
Mode(s)	Single player
Rating(s)	ESRB: Everyone
Media	1 DVD-ROM / 1 Optical Disc
System requirements	Action Replay for use codes

Mega Man X: Command Mission, or Rockman X Command Mission (ロックマン, Rokkuman Ekkusu Komando Misshon^?) is a video game in the Mega Man X series of titles by Capcom. However, it differs from the original X games in that it is a turn-based, role-playing game rather than a side-scrolling action game. The story seems to have taken place somewhere in the middle of X8 and Mega Man Zero. New characters have been featured in this game: Spider, Massimo, Marino, and Cinnamon join the trio of X, Zero, and Axl.

The game itself sees a departure from the main Mega Man X series, abandoning many of the old conventions: side-scrolling action, the old art style, choice of which Maverick boss to fight (though this returns for a brief portion of the final chapter) and the appearance of Sigma (the regular foe in the series).

Contents 1 Story 2 Gameplay 3 Characters 3.1 Protagonists 3.2 Rebellion Army / Liberion Army 3.2.1 Cadre 3.2.2 Mavericks 3.3 Hidden Bosses 4 Critical response 5 Trivia 6 References

[edit] Story

In 22XX AD, a new substance known as Force Metal was extracted from the debris of a small meteorite. Technology based on the metal revolutionized the field of Reploid Engineering.

Giga City, an artificial island in the middle of an ocean, was built purposely for the mining and smelting of Force Metal. Everything seemed to go well until a band of Reploids armed themselves and launched a rebellion on the island.

Its leader, Epsilon, was branded a Maverick by the Government, and dispatched a Maverick Hunter team to Giga City to liberate Giga City from Epsilon's grasp.

As X and Zero travel to the ruins, a collapsed pillar separates them. X must then fight his way to a place where he and Zero are reunited. Upon reaching Epsilon's destination, Shadow betrays the team, Epsilon's Cadre appears and knocks Zero away. X has no choice but to escape and gather a resistance team to assist in defeating the minions of the Liberion army.

[edit] Gameplay

Mega Man X: Command Mission was designed by the same team that created the 3D, Mega Man X7 game. Graphically, it shares similarities to the game, though the style of X and Zero have changed somewhat.

The game follows a narrative that forces the player to go to the different stages in order, which abandons the stage select feature of many Mega Man X games.

The action is split between a Field Screen and a Battle Screen, with the player always in the center of the field of view and with a map of the surrounding area in the bottom-right hand corner of the screen.

Player spend their time in one of the situations described below. The hub area linked to Central Tower. From here, players transfer to the different Adventure Stages. They can visit previously completed Adventure Stages, as well as ones vital to progressing through the story.

Similar to other Mega Man X games, stages are spread around Giga City, which have to be cleared to progress through the story. Most of the time, the adventure stages are "empty", with enemies appearing randomly throughout the level as with traditional RPGs.

Throughout the game, the player may come across abandoned robots. Collecting them enables the player to deploy robots to Adventure Stages, where they can then search for money, information, data or rare items. Some robots may require special parts in order to be used.

As with many RPGs, characters or enemies can be induced to enter different states of affliction that may affect their performance during battle. These status effects can all be healed by "Cure One," or "Cure All." Some names were changed due to the fact the characters are machines. These are as listed below:

• Virus - 5% damage is dealt to a character's health bar after every turn. Healed by "Vaccine Program."
• Blind - Enemy hit probability is reduced by 25%, whilst enemy attack probability is increased by 50%. Healed by "Clear Vision."
• Freeze - Unable to move for a certain time period. Can be healed by an enemy attacking the character that's frozen, or by the item "Warm-up."
• Bind - A character's speed is halved. Healed by "Anti-Lock."
• Berserk - Character becomes non-operational and attacks, friend or foe, at random. Can be healed the same way as "Freeze," or by the item "Cooler."

During battles, there is an order of elemental weakness, in a Rock-Paper-Scissors style that goes as follows:

• Fire is weak to water
• Water is weak to thunder
• Thunder is weak to fire

The game features the appearance of Force Metals, special alloys from meteorites that fell from outer space. Reploids and robots equipped with Force Metals gain special abilities, however, the energy that these metals exude may have unwanted side effects.

X and his companions can equip these Force Metals, which can be made from special recipes collected from Deployment Missions. However, they can only equip a certain number of Force Metals. They give Reploids special abilities. Exceeding the amount they can equip may lead to them becoming Maverick, which results in them attacking their partners (or themselves) randomly in battle. Finally, some Force Metals may cancel out the side-effects when equipped.

There two different versions of the game. For the Ps2 and Gamecube. Here are the differences between both versions.

• The GameCube version makes use of the GBA-GameCube connector. Players can connect a GBA to the GameCube, which enables the player to use a special radar function to find secret items. A radar screen appears on the GBA screen, showing the immediate area around the player, the direction the player is facing and the location of any hidden items.
• The PlayStation 2 version includes an unlockable demo version of Mega Man X8. Furthermore, having a Command Mission save file while in Optic Sunflower's stage in Mega Man X8 will activate a warp before the boss door that will bring you to an easter egg battle against an 8-Bit Cut Man. This can also be done via a code on the title screen, without the aid of a Command Mission save file.
• The frequency of enemy encounters is higher in the GameCube version. Also, if gamers take too many turns to defeat an enemy, they experience penalties far quicker in the GameCube version than in the PlayStation 2 version.^[1]

[edit] Characters

Main article: List of Mega Man X characters

[edit] Protagonists

• X - The main character. He uses his trademark arm cannon, the X Buster, as his weapon. His Action Trigger is "Charge Shot", which amplifies the X Buster to attack all enemies. His Hyper Mode is "X Fire", with his X Buster replaced with a claw attack. While in Hyper Mode, his Action Trigger becomes "Charge Collider", a claw thrust with a multi-hit energy blast. His second Hyper mode is "Ultimate Armor", which can be obtained by defeating Rafflesian in Tianna Camp. While in Ultimate Armor, his Action Trigger is Nova Strike, which turns WE into time for firing weapons, each represented by a different button. Voiced by Mark Gatha (USA) and Takahiro Sakurai (Japan).
• Zero - A friend of X, and a fellow Maverick Hunter. He joins X up until the end of the prologue, then isn't seen again until the end of the fifth chapter (he helps you fight a boss), then joins the party permanently during the sixth chapter. He uses various swords as his weapons. His "Soul Saber" has a slash that differs from all of his other weapons. His Action Trigger, "Command Arts", requires you to input 2D fighting game -like joystick movements to execute a multi-hit sword combo. New commands can be acquired by inputting certain amounts of commands. His Hyper Mode is "Black Zero", which is his black armor from Mega Man X4-X6 and X8, and increases his attack and defense. His second Hyper mode is "Absolute Zero", which utilizes claws and talons as well as Ice elemental attacks, just like the temperature absolute zero. In this form, Zero appears similar to Bass in his "Treble Boost". Absolute Zero's Action Trigger is Calamitous Arts, which turns WE into time for hitting the enemy with physical attacks that are ice based. When the commands X and Y appear at the same time, that attack is gurranteed to be a critical hit. X or Y to the side is a normal slash. Up is a powerful uppercut. Down is a smash downward. A has a low chance of freezing. Voiced by Lucas Gilbertson (USA) and Ryotaro Okiayu (Japan).
• Axl - A friend of X and Zero. He uses twin pistols as his weapon. His Action Trigger, "DNA Change", allows Axl to take the form of some bosses from the game and use their powers to help in battle. His Hyper Mode is "Stealth Mode", which makes Axl temporarily invisible and protects him from attacks and status effects and greatly increases his regular attacks, but also prevents him from healing. Voiced by Jeffrey Watson (USA) and Minami Takayama (Japan).
• Spider - A bounty hunter who joins X in the Central Tower. He uses playing cards as his main weapon. His Action Trigger, "Fortune Card", lets Spider play a round of draw poker, which can have different effects depending on the hand he receives. His Hyper Mode, "Trickstar", is similar to Axl's Hyper Mode, making him immune to damage, healing, and status effects. Initially, he was hired by the Rebellion's Wild Jango to take out X, but when he attacks X (making him drop Aile's ID), he realized about Aile due to the ID X dropped when attacked. Revealing that Aile was an old friend (his former partner, to be exact), Spider breaks the deal with Jango and joins X's team. Voiced by Nobutoshi Canna.
• Steel Massimo - A heavily-armored man who uses lances. He unfortunately receives double damage from all elemental attacks. His Action Trigger is the "Berserk Charge", which is a blast of energy in which the degree of damage increases as Massimo grows in levels. His Hyper Mode is "Glint Armor", which turns him gold and improves his offense and defense.
• Cinnamon - A nurse Reploid who actually holds Professor Gaudile's Force Metal Generator inside of her. She uses hand attachments (drills, boxing gloves, etc.) for weapons. Her Action Trigger, "Angelic Aide", heals herself and her teammates. Her Hyper Mode is "Iron Maiden", which changes her from a nurse to a maid and boosts her stats. Voiced by Ai Nonaka.
• Marino - A stealthy ninja thief who uses a variety of ninja tools (knives, ninja stars, etc.). Her Action Trigger is the "Emotional Reel", a slot machine which can unleash a number of attacks. This is a good way to steal items if the player does not have "Item Capture." Her Hyper Mode is "Quicksilver", which changes her into a more revealing black outfit and boosts her speed to insane levels, giving her multiple turns in a row. Voiced by Mariko Suzuki.

• Chief R - Leader of the Anti-Rebellion Resistance. He gets killed during Redips's ambush on the characters.
• Nana - Operator of the Teleporter. Once rescued, players can go back to previously cleared stages. Her name is a pun, as "nana" in Japanese is "seven", explaining the 7's on her breastplate. Voiced by Akemi Kanda.
• Professor Gaudile - Creator of the Force Metal Generator and also the creator of Cinnamon. He looks a lot like Duckbill Mole, an optionable boss.
• Colonel Redips - Commander of the Far Eastern Division Maverick Hunters. He informs X periodically on important matters. Later in the game, we learn that he was actually Spider (Redips is backwards for Spider), using a DNA changing ability similar to Axl's to change from Spider. He is the game's final boss as well, revealed to have been a Maverick since before the events of the game and the manipulating force which drove said events into action. He has 3 forms (although the final two are the same with minor variations). His first form is Colonel Redips, and is fought after Depth Dragoon. His second (invincible) and third forms are both named Great Redips, and are the result of Redips fusing with the Supra Force Metal fragments. Marino can steal the Rei Ichimonji from his first form, SFM fragment Alpha from his second, and SFM Fragment Beta from his 3rd and final form.

[edit] Rebellion Army / Liberion Army

[edit] Cadre

• Epsilon - Leader of the Rebellion Army. He is the final boss of Chapter Nine. He has 2 forms: Regular and Eject. It is revealed that Epsilion only wanted a peaceful rebellion, and never intended to use the Supra Force Metal in "Maverick" ways.
• Ferham - The only female member of the Cadre. She is weak to Thunder Elemental attacks. Boss of Chapter Eight. She eventually sacrifices herself to rid the world of the Supra Force Metal.
• Botos - The boss of Chapter Seven. He is weak to Water Elemental attacks. A weak version of him is fought in Chapter 8, as well as several clones/illusions that he creates to impede the player's progress. Botos is a power-hungry Reploid that driven by greed, even up to his last moments.
• Scarface - A boss that appears twice in Chapter Nine. He is weak to Fire Elemental attacks. Despite being a part of the Rebellion, Scarface lives by a code of honor, usually never fighting to kill and only attacking when he is attacked first.

[edit] Mavericks

• Shadow - The Maverick Hunter that betrayed X and Zero to the Rebellion Army. A mid-way Boss in Chapter 6. At first, he appears to be a respectful Reploid, but become more and more hateful and malicious after he is revealed to be in cahoots with the Rebellion. Defeating him gets the player the Z-Ichimonji, a weaker version of Zero's Rei Ichimonji saber.
• Wild Jango - Boss of Chapter Two. He is weak to Fire Elemental attacks. Attempted to destroy Hunter HQ in a missile strike and even had Preon mechaniloid minions injure Spider for breaking their deal.
• Dr. Psyche/Mad Nautilus - Boss of Chapter Four. He has no elemental weaknesses. He blackmailed Professor Gaudile and attempted to steal the Force Metal Generator, only to be stopped by X, Spider, Massimo, and Marino.
• Silver Horn - Boss of Chapter Three. He is weak to Thunder Elemental attacks. He was the one who captured and tortured the original Steel Massimo, as well as capturing Nana and forcing her to work for him.
• Mach Jentra - Boss of Chapter Five. He is weak to Water Elemental attacks. Uses a machine known as "Duboar" to create many different hordes of Preon mechaniloids in the Rebellion's prized soldier factory.
• Incentas - Boss of Chapter Six. He is able to switch between all three elements giving him different attacks based on the element. It is against him that Spider sacrifices himself in order to allow the others to escape.
• Depth Dragoon - Depth Dragoon was the final guard for Colonel Redips in the Far East HQ. Very confident of his abilities, he demanded a duel with X and his friends to see if the stories of the Class-S Hunters were true. Dragoon's appearance was of a seahorse-like humanoid attached at the waist to a serpentine oarfish Reploid. He also seemed to see himself as a dispenser of justice (one of his attacks includes him stating "The guilty shall be punished!"). His element is Thunder, and therefore is weak to fire. One of the earlier games in the series features a Magma Dragoon, who differs a bit in appearance and would be a fire-elemental in this game.

[edit] Hidden Bosses

• Duckbill Mole - Platypus-like hidden boss in Melda Ore Plant. There are two of them, and they are guarding Zero's Absolute Zero Hyper Mode. They are weak to water attacks.
• Rafflesian - Female, dancing hidden boss in Tianna Camp. She fights alongside two Belladonna enemies. Defeating her grants the player X's Ultimate Armor Hyper Mode.
• The Tails Clan - The tails clan can only be reached after comepleting the game once, acquiring the "Central Key" to the special sealed bowels of Shaft 999F. A group of nine humanoid fox-like robots, each more powerful than the last. They consist of Onetail, Twotails, Threetails, Fourtails, Fivetails, Sixtails, Seventails, Eighttails, and finally Ninetails, the hardest boss of the game. Defeating Ninetails get's Axl's strongest weapon, the Ancient Gun, and his strongest DNA transformation, dealing 999 damage each hit for nine hits on one opponent through use of Nintails' Nine Fragments attack. The Tails Clan are based on the legendary kitsune.

[edit] Critical response

The differences between the GameCube and PlayStation 2 versions don't warrant much of a response from the critics, such that most of the reviews for both versions are 100% identical in wording and even layout.^[2][3] IGN does, however, prefer the GameCube version slightly more and gave it an extra .1 in its review score for having a slightly more consistent framerate, marginal improvements in graphics (less jagged, less drab colors, etc.), and faster loading times.

A common complaint is that the game is too short^[4] and too linear,^[5] with one reviewer stating that the game was "too far on the easy side".^[6]

Though reviewers liked the cel-shaded and colorful look of the game, Phil Theobald of Gamespy noted that "most of the environments tend to be rather bland and end up looking a lot alike."^[5]

Generally, the battle system is praised. The concept of pressing combinations of buttons to pull off techniques or improve a technique's power is generally well received,^[7] which is said to be one of the game's highlights.^[8]

Scores tend to be exactly the same for both versions, with the overall consensus being that the game is above average but not for hardcore RPG fans.

[edit] Trivia

Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines. The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.

• As a pack-in, this game included the MegaMan NT Warrior TCG card 'Mega Man X'.
• All of the Tails Clan are able to use the Hadouken, the trademark fireball attack used in Capcom's Street Fighter series. Most Megaman X fans will also remember this technique as the secret Dr. Light capsule in Mega Man X.
• Several signs imply that the Tails Clan may indeed be nothing more than weaker, lesser-tailed shadow clones of Ninetails, except for Ninetails himself (see his section in the list of Mavericks for details).
• Not one appearance or mention is made of Sigma, the main antagonist of the Mega Man X series, or any support characters who commonly appear in the series.
• Some early trailers for the game showed X in his traditional armor as well as a different method of performing his "Charge Shot" Action Trigger.

[edit] References

v • d • e Mega Man X video games Main series Mega Man X • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 • 6 • 7 • 8 Spin-offs Mega Man Xtreme • Mega Man Xtreme 2 • Mega Man X: Command Mission Related articles Characters • Reploid  • Maverick (List of Mavericks)