Mega Man X5

Several months have passed since the events of Mega Man X4. The series' primary antagonist, Sigma, has been revived once again, and conducts research on the origin of the "Maverick Hunter" Zero. He decides to attempt to unlock Zero's true power, hoping to destroy X in the process. Sigma attacks the Hunters directly, but intentionally loses, thus spreading the Sigma Virus across the Earth and throwing it into chaos. Meanwhile, a Reploid mercenary named Dynamo is hired by Sigma to cause a space colony, Eurasia, to collide with Earth in 16 hours. To prevent Eurasia from striking the planet, the Hunters pursue two options: fire a powerful cannon called "Enigma" at Eurasia and vaporize it, or if the Enigma fails, launch a space shuttle and pilot it into the colony, destroying it. To maximize their chances, X and Zero are dispatched to collect parts for the two devices with the aid of their new teammates Alia, Douglas, and Signas. The necessary parts to upgrade the Enigma and shuttle are held by eight Mavericks, and X and Zero must defeat them to claim the parts.[8]

Whether the Enigma and shuttle succeed or fail is randomly determined by the game. Obtaining the parts increases the chances of success, but the Enigma and shuttle can be used at any time, even before any Mavericks are defeated. The following scenarios can occur:

• The Enigma is fired and will either succeed and completely destroy Eurasia, or fail and only destroy part of it.
  • If the Enigma succeeds, Eurasia is destroyed, but this releases the Zero Virus.
  • If the Enigma fails, Eurasia's orbit will shift slightly and its impending impact will be delayed. In this scenario, Signas will begin the space shuttle plan, and X and Zero are dispatched to recover the parts.
• Like the Enigma, the shuttle can either succeed or fail.
  • If the shuttle succeeds, 86% of Eurasia is destroyed and Earth is no longer in danger. Zero, who pilots the shuttle, safely returns, but some remains from Eurasia still crash into Earth, devastating its ecosystems and spreading pollution all over the planet. (The events of Mega Man X6 show this is the scenario that actually occurred.)
  • If the shuttle fails, only part of Eurasia is destroyed and crashes into Earth, causing a disaster as most Reploids and humans are wiped out. Zero becomes a Maverick.
• If time runs out, Eurasia crashes into Earth, and the planet barely survives. Zero becomes a Maverick.

Whether the Enigma and shuttle succeed or fail, a new virus appears on the Earth, dubbed the "Zero Virus" by Alia. The location of the virus' origin is discovered, and the Hunters investigate a bizarre underground fortress (if Zero became a Maverick, only X is playable for the remainder of the game). Deep inside the fortress, X and Zero cross paths, where mutual suspicion and mistrust leads to a duel between the heroes.[9]

After the duel, Sigma appears to try and take advantage of the situation, and the story diverges slightly.

• If Zero became a Maverick, he sacrifices himself to save X, and X continues on alone to defeat Sigma.[10]
• If Zero did not become a Maverick, he saves X and himself from Sigma, and both have a chance to confront Sigma.[11]

The game has three possible endings:

• If Zero became a Maverick, X defeats Sigma alone, but is badly damaged. Dr. Light appears and repairs him, but deletes all of his memories of Zero.[12]
• If Zero did not become a Maverick, Sigma tries to make the Hunters' victory for naught by taking them both down with him. Zero manages to finish Sigma off, and the endings diverge again depending on the player character.[13]
  • If X defeats Sigma, he inherits Zero's beam saber and continues to fight as a Maverick Hunter.[14] (The events of Mega Man X6 show this is the scenario that actually occurred).
  • If Zero defeats Sigma, he reflects on his origin and life, with visions of a blurred Dr. Wily and Iris, before dying.

The main gameplay remains similar to previous installments, with some changes:

• X and Zero can duck.
• X and Zero's shots will not travel through walls.
• Unlike X4, the player can freely switch between both the shooter X and the swordsman Zero when selecting a stage,[15] but the choice of character at the beginning of the game permanently affects the other character.
  • If X is chosen, Zero loses the ability to fire his Z-Buster.
  • If Zero is chosen, X loses his armor from Mega Man X4, called the "Fourth Armor" by the game.
• There are four available armors for X—the Fourth Armor, Falcon Armor, Gaia Armor, and Ultimate Armor.
  • The Falcon and Gaia Armors must be assembled from Dr. Light's upgrade capsules in four parts, but unlike previous Mega Man X series games, X cannot wear the new armors until they are fully assembled. Zero can enter the upgrade capsules to download the data for later use by X, but cannot use the armors himself.
  • The Ultimate Armor is obtained via a cheat code entered at the beginning of the game or from a special capsule that can be found near the end of the game.
• Zero can receive a black armor, either with the use of a cheat code at the beginning of the game (like in X4), or by entering Dr. Light's Ultimate Armor capsule. Unlike X4, in which it was purely aesthetic, the black armor in X5 will upgrade his defensive and offensive power, increase his weapon energy, and grant him the Shock Buffer, Shot Eraser, and Virus Buster parts even if not previously obtained.
• Sigma Viruses appear in levels which can infect X and Zero:
  • If X is infected, he will enter a state where his health rapidly declines.
  • If Zero is infected, he becomes briefly invincible, with increased attack power.
• Performance during stages will be graded based on completion time, damage taken, and mavericks destroyed, modifying X and Zero's "hunter ranks" which are initially B and SA respectively.
• Mavericks will have a "level" based on the time remaining to destroy the Engima, hunter rank, and number of previous Mavericks defeated. Mavericks of high enough level will grant weapon and life upgrades when defeated, and Mavericks of even higher level will grant special "parts" when defeated that enhance X and Zero's abilities.

Mega Man X5 was originally meant to be the last game of the Mega Man X series. As stated by producer Keiji Inafune, "I had very little to do with X5. I just told the team to 'finish off the series with this title,' and left it at that. That's why the game itself has a real feel of finality to it."[1] However, Capcom decided to publish Mega Man X6 the following year, in which Zero survived his fight from X5, much to the dismay of Inafune.[16] Haruki Suetsugu, an artist for Mega Man X4, designed nearly all of the characters and promotional artwork for Mega Man X5. Suetsugu added various details to set the characters apart from one another.[1] X's new Falcon Armor was designed by Ryuji Higurashi, who wanted it to resemble a bird with beak-shaped chest piece, wings coming out of the back, and a talon-like arm cannon. Suetsugu designed the Gaea Armor, which was meant to resemble Sanagiman from the Inazuman manga series.[1] The Maverick bosses in the English localization of Mega Man X5 are named after members of the American hard rock band Guns N' Roses.[1][17] Capcom voice actress Alyson Court, who was involved in the game's localization, came up with the new names as a tribute to her then-husband's love of the band.[18] For the Mega Man X Legacy Collection 2 release, the Maverick Bosses names were changed to translations of their original Japanese names.[19]

The musical score for Mega Man X5 was composed by Naoto Tanaka, Naoya Kamisaka, and Takuya Miyawaki. The Japanese version of Mega Man X5 features one opening theme, "Monkey", and one closing theme, "Mizu no Naka" (水の中, Inside the Water), both composed and performed by Showtaro Morikubo and his band Mosquito Milk.[20] All of the game's instrumental and vocal music was compiled on the Capcom Music Generation: Rockman X1 ~ X6 soundtrack released by Suleputer in 2003.[21] The theme songs were also included on the Rockman Theme Song Collection, published by Suleputer in 2002.[22]

Mega Man X5 was generally well-received, with IGN giving the game an 8.5 out of 10. However, they added that though the game was fun to play, it was "more of the same" from Capcom, and that Mega Man, like many other series made by Capcom, was being milked for as much as it was worth.[29] GameSpot similarly commented that "Fans of the classic 2D games will no doubt find much to love in X5, while those who can't get into the aging conventions and mechanics probably won't care a great deal for it."[15] The Official UK PlayStation Magazine said that the game was "unforgivably primitive".

According to the Japanese publication Famitsu, Mega Man X5 was the third best-selling video game in Japan during its release week at 46,033 copies sold.[32] It placed at number eight the following week with an additional 22,963 copies sold.[33] Media Create sales information showed that the game was 96th best-selling video game in Japan during 2000.[34] Dengeki Online reported that Mega Man X5 sold a total of 215,687 copies in Japan by the end of 2001, listing it as the 132nd best-selling game of the year in the region.[35] The game was eventually re-released as part of Sony's PlayStation The Best for Family range of budget titles in Japan.[36] Toy Retail Sales Tracking (TRST) sales data showed that Mega Man X5 was the fifth best-selling PlayStation game in North America for the month of February 2001.[37] The game was included on the North American Mega Man X Collection for the Nintendo GameCube and PlayStation 2 in 2006.[38]

• Official website (in Japanese)
• Mega Man X5 at MobyGames