Mega Man X5 Masochist Challenge Part 12: The Coolest Damn Fight in the Series

The last actual stage in the game, and, just like the last one, it's one of my favorites. X5 did a much better job with the final stages than X4. They have a bigger sense of finality to them.

My love for this stage is obviously elevated a lot by the coolest damn fight in the entire series.

I love the Zero fight in X2. But this one takes it up a notch. Well, in every other way then the difficulty level, which still, unfortunately, remains easy enough to be done with your eyes closed. Zero's AI is also exactly as exploitable in X5 as it was in X2.

But the style more than makes up for it. I play around with Zero a little bit because I wanted to prolong the fight by just a little. At least you get to enjoy the music for a while longer.

The stage itself is short, sweet, hard, but never unfair. It also features obstacles more than enemy clusterfuck, unlike the previous stage. It's a call back to the original series, which relied a lot more on platforming than it did on overcrowding the screen with enemies.

My attempts here had more to do with speed optimization than dodging through enemies.

That said, the stage could be done a lot better, but we'll just have to live with what we have here.

But back to Zero.

The reason I love the fight so much goes all the way back to X1. At the end of X1's intro stage, after we've gotten our ass handed to us by Vile, Zero gives us his speech about how we need to get stronger and reach our potential. Initially, X sucks as a Mega Man. After playing the classic series, we're given this new Mega Man, X, who has a pathetically small healthbar, and seems almost overmatched by most of the enemies in the stage. And then we have an unwinnable fight at the end.

We look at Zero and think: "Why can't I play as that guy? Why am I stuck with this shitty Mega Man, while this cool guy cuts off Vile's arm with a single buster shot?"

Then we grow stronger and start to get the hang of things until Zero's suicide bombing at Sigma 1. We get Zero's buster and finally, we're strong enough to take on Sigma.

X2 and X3 are just about going through the motions - until at the end of X3 where we hear that we're destined to take Zero on in a decisive battle.

That's what we wait for after X3's credits.

In a way, it all comes full circle; all the way from X1's intro stage to second to last stage in X5.

And don't get me wrong: Capcom and good storytelling are like Mega Man and Dr. Wily; destined to be at odds with each other for all eternity.

But this one thing they did get right, in my opinion.

And I have to admit: childish as it may be, I still get a huge kick out of no damaging Zero as Unarmored X. It just goes back to my first time playing Mega Man X, wanting to be as cool and strong as Zero.

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