About all I can really remember about my run through was that I was in a desert base right after... well, that would be a spoiler, now wouldn't it?

i played and finished it ages ago. i now just keep the save file so i can go through the final chapter with no troubles at all.

shame i can't get X's purple scarf. i simply can't get the required amount of hits in a final strike. ox; also i still haven't found the secret code for the extra models. (i've the GC europian version)

i enjoyed it. i was thinking of playing through it again.

also SH, you might want to finish it to answer you're question.

Purple scarf? I didn't realize there was one... How many hits are required for that?

Interesting timing for this topic, as I've just been thinking about playing this game again since I haven't in quite a while. I ended up liking it more than I expected to, so it's actually one of my favorites in the X series. Decent storyline (although I was slightly annoyed with the way one part turned out), nice battle system, interesting new characters, and just quite a bit of fun to play overall. Plus the Absolute Zero hyper mode is awesome. Also the most recent X series game to use the Zero design I prefer (hopefully it won't be the last, after the changes in X8 ). I'm definitely hoping this one gets a sequel sometime.

i can't remember, but it's a number i can't get anywhere near. (200? 400? )the scarf is one of the final things you can get.

the point you didn't like is possibly the same one i didn't like either. there were parts of the game that made me go 'argh! so obvious!' ^.x;

a triple-digit number?? Yikes... Don't think I'll be trying for that one anytime soon, I'm not even sure how that would be possible... o_O

EDIT: After looking around a bit, I ran across this page that says the requirement for unlocking the purple scarf is collecting all of the sketches. However, the requirement for unlocking sketch #5 is achieving over 150 consecutive hits. In which case I'm back to wondering how that's even possible... o_O

yes, that's exactly what i'm trying to do. ^^; it was 150 hits.

apparently people have managed to do it near the beginning of the game with spider selected, when you're weaker. (and in hyper mode?)

I've gotten up to the point where I got all the characters, but then Zero left the party after he, Axl and X made such a good team together against Mach...can't even remember the last name at the moment.

What is up with X's changed outfit? And the "scarf" (which just seems like a pointless addition though it is kinda cool)? They offer no real explanation in the game and I suppose it doesn't matter, but it is different enough that I was thinking he'd gone all "Sith" on us for this game. But he looks brighter in the actual game, it's neat overall, though it's weird they didn't do similar things to Zero and Axl who are both EXACTLY as they are in MMX7 if I'm not mistaken.

I don't know about you, but I think it's great that they've got not one, but two female characters in this thing. Not to mention that there are a lot of female Reploids present in lots of roles. Now granted, having girls in a game for the sake of having girls (or worse, putting them in for guys to ga-ga at unless that's the entire point of the game) is not the best reason. But since a female robot should technically have no real differences in power and ability to a female robot besides structural differences, it makes sense that female Reploids could be used in more than the "support" roles that they seem traditionally used for. But Marino, neat as she is, still reminds me heavily of Rouge in more than one way. Which can be good or bad, take your pick.

And what's up with Zero being all elitist and whatnot?! And what's up with Axl's voice being so...I don't know how to describe it, it set me off a bit at first, though his ability to transform into defeated bosses is INCREDIBLY useful and made me like him immediately. This is my first time using Axl as well.

Overall, they did a top-notch job on doing the enemy models, creating details and things. And they even designed it to almost feel like one of the regular games, at least in the sense that you go through different "stages" to fight the bosses and whatnot. And you can go back and find other things you missed before. I'm still dinking around with the deployment center.

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apparently people have managed to do it near the beginning of the game with spider selected, when you're weaker. (and in hyper mode?)

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Yeah, that's because certain characters are just plain better for certain aspects during Final Strike. Spider for one thing eventually starts doing some kind of rapid-fire attack during Final Strike. I think Cinnamon and X in his first Hyper Mode are supposed to be very useful for getting a high amount of hits.

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What is up with X's changed outfit? And the "scarf" (which just seems like a pointless addition though it is kinda cool)? They offer no real explanation in the game and I suppose it doesn't matter

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Supposedly it's a 'stealth' armour, and the scarf is actually a signal disruptor or something along that line.

blast, i guess i'd have to do the game over sometime. ^^;

personally i'm amased he doesn't set things on fire with his 'scarf', and why doesn't he leave burn marks across the floor when he dashes?

Cinnamon= TEH MAJOR PWNAGE.
I don't like Charging her action Trigger with the springy PS2 analog stick, though.

And can someone explain why Massimo is so completely useless? His only possible use would be as a meatshield, but his tanking ability is pathetic because of his laughable resistance, negating entirely his high HPs.

This game is fantastic, but the lack of character balance really irks me. On the one hand you've got people like Zero and Cinnamon who absolutely plow through everything in their way, then you've got people like Marino, Spider, and Massimo who just get in the way of your decent fighters.

Actually, recently I went back to the boss room where I fought Mach Jentra - and guess what's inside.

Mets. Nothing but MetCommanders and these pink Mets that have a chance of dropping Build LEs.

And guess what else I discovered? That you can build your team without X being in the party, meaning you can use Massimo, Cinnamon and Marino all at the same time. Which means Mets are open season. I've yet to take full advantage of this and get Build LEs, but I need more money for the weapons from the secret weapon shop anyway at the first ruins you go to in the game. Deployment center rocks.

Usually I keep X in my party, and now that I've got Axl he's earned himself a fairly permanent slot as well. With Marino along to provide C-type weapon support, it covers most of the bases. Though I did notice that Cinnamon does have C-damage attacks on top of high natural elemental resistances, which does seem somewhat unusual. Maybe I'll try using her more often, her Action Trigger is more useful and reliable than Marino anyway.

Spider I found to be powerful - if you can build up his WE enough to take advantage of his weapon's superpowers. Then he can start wiping left and right. But Axl basically took his place when it turned out Axl's attacks and his Action Trigger were both better.

Massimo does seem fairly useless though, IMO - he can't equip many FMs, he's slow and it's hard for him to hit almost anything, not to mention elemental weaknesses that can't be made up for with FMs because of low slots.

It honestly seems like they've set it up for you to use X, Zero and Axl as a party together - they all have maximum FM slots, powerful weaponry and attacks, and they all have good Action Triggers (although I still don't have the hang of Zero's Trigger yet). Zero would also make a suitable replacement for Massimo in an all C-type team, but of course he has to be all elitist and suddenly rush off almost immediately after you get him again. Oi.

So those are some of my impressions; thanks for that info, Lea.

I would DEFINITELY suggest using Zero over Marino.
Hawkeye + Heat Haze + Hyper Mode + AT = Over 20 basic AT Dragon Slashes If you're quick enough.

In short? PWNAGE.

And Cinnamon can be quite the damage dealer with Kitty Gloves.

Advice Terg: once you get the Melda Key, equpi fire resistant metals and water-based weapons and go there...you'll thank me.

BTW: I think you can also get the 150 hit combo off with Ultimate Armor X. if it's at 100% and you can button mash like no one's business. I've gotten like 130 before...and that's because my hands got tired.

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What is up with X's changed outfit? And the "scarf" (which just seems like a pointless addition though it is kinda cool)? They offer no real explanation in the game and I suppose it doesn't matter, but it is different enough that I was thinking he'd gone all "Sith" on us for this game. But he looks brighter in the actual game, it's neat overall, though it's weird they didn't do similar things to Zero and Axl who are both EXACTLY as they are in MMX7 if I'm not mistaken.

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It's partially explained in Gimallia Mines...though I think it's just for the heck of it.

i forgot what i did with Massimo, but i made him pretty playable during the final parts of the game.
he was hitting nearly everything and dealing massive damage.
his high HP count is nice allowing for plenty attacks, but as it was stated his low endurance can suck. I abused the hell out of his hyper mode though.

I don't know about anyone else,i like the Armor X had throughout the game. to me X always seemed so...Bland. and that's really the only way to describe it.

X's ultimate armour was wonderfully overdone i found. his wieght seems to be so much that he needs rocket boosters just to stay upright!

i feel like playing it again, the bright colours and everything appealed to me.
*digs out the game, evicts PSO from her GC and plays through chapter 10 again for a bit*

the only thing i didn't like was the limited range of facial expressions. X went through the entire game looking mildly annoyed. ^^; i guess i've got too used to the overacting in the cut scenes of the sonic games.

Well, Chapter 10's worth going through again anyway for multiple Supra Force Metal Alpha and Beta.

Just got access to the secret weapon shop at the Lagrano ruins...Are these the best weapons in the game or just really advanced from where I'm at right now? Deployment center just got a bit more attention from me now that I've discovered just how useful it can turn out to be. And now I'll be sacrificing the next several game hours getting the money to make the most of this weapon shop. 😛

I do like the new design - I was just interested in knowing if there was some kind of reason in-game for it or not. At the same time though, it would have been excellent to see him in his original configuration in this fully 3D environment, even if it was just an option you could turn on and off. Regardless, nifty-cool.

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Just got access to the secret weapon shop at the Lagrano ruins...Are these the best weapons in the game or just really advanced from where I'm at right now? Deployment center just got a bit more attention from me now that I've discovered just how useful it can turn out to be. And now I'll be sacrificing the next several game hours getting the money to make the most of this weapon shop. 😛

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IIRC they're not the best weapons in the game; they're just very powerful and some tend to have interesting gimmicks. DO get Cinnamon's Kitty Gloves - five C-type hits in a row with a chance of lowering enemies' stats per hit.

Saving up for that one now. 😛 I'll probably just move on without the others though, it's too much to expect to get 100000 zenny right now unless I dedicate myself to that, and one of my weaknesses in RPGs is that I can't do mindless leveling/moneying up for long without getting bored. Better in this game than some, though.

Are there any good moneymaking strategies that anyone uses? I've recently started to use "Get Zenny" on enemies to boost the money they give and that helps, but that doesn't do anything too dramatic from what I've seen.

Offhand, I seem to remember that the Gold, Silver and Giant Mettaurs drop thousands of Zenny. They're in the mines (the Giant ones can only be found in certain small rooms, and they tend to run unless you steal from them). I think the Gold coughs up the most.

i'm pretty sure gold drops the most, but they're also the most annoying to kill due to their habit of running from battle. ^^;

Yeah, with the Eternal Forest I noticed if you go four times to the left, you face off a group of Mets - one Gold, one Silver, a Counter, and a healernursie one. The Gold one keeps running away though, and it was hard for me to finish out the Eternal forest right after that by going to the weak path to get out.

How far can you go in the Eternal Forest before it ends, BTW? I think I've hit my limit for my current level, I was only barely able to finish off those twin advanced D-Rexes this last run. It's worth going through to get the items and money though.

And, do you mean Tianna mines? I know you can find the nurse Mets in good number along with commander ones in the room where you fought Mach Jentra - and since the nurse ones occasionally drop Build LEs, I think it would be worth it to take a C-hitting team in there and keep fighting for a few hours for power-ups. I know there are other critters that also drop Build Stat items, like the turtle things in the lava areas of Mach Jentra's area, but does anyone know any other good enemies/spots to gather other statup items?

when i say i've finished the game, i mean compleately finished. hidden bosses and the entiraty of the eternal forest as well. ^^

i ended up turning to a FAQ to help me through the endless forest however, because i kept getting lost/would run up against something too hard to beat and would get wiped out. right now i can't remember without checking up on gameFAQs, but i think it's about 24 different ending rooms.

all my characters are over level 50 now and i've a ton of SFM, so it was easier for me.

but yes, it gets horribly hard near the end. ^.x;

...

O_O

*looks at own characters, who are all currently at level 36*

<_<

methinks some leveling up is in order... >_>

i find going through chapter 10 a few times was good for leveling.

Level 36? I only hit level 40 after beating the Tails clan (and IIRC I gained one or two levels per battle with them). 36 should be fine at that point.

I remember going through every path in that cursed Eternal Forest.

I even wrote a huge FAQ for Command Mission, but never translated it from paper to digital text, so it's rather useless right now except for my own reference.

The Mines are the best power leveling place in the game, for everyone's information. Giant Mettaurs are good for building experience early and can drop scythes for Massimo, I believe. They sell for a good bit. Gold and Silver Mettaurs drop lots of money (the most of any normal enemy in the game), though the more you hit them, the less they drop. The trick is to smack them to hell and back with Zero in one would with some defense-ignoring goodness.

In addition, you can also take advantage of exp and FME gains by using fire attacks on Fire Globs and Thunder attacks on Thunder Globs. They get stronger like hell though, and can run away.

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Level 36? I only hit level 40 after beating the Tails clan (and IIRC I gained one or two levels per battle with them). 36 should be fine at that point.

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Hmm, maybe I should try that again (if I can pull myself away from SW Battlefront II), as I've only tried a couple times so far... I'll probably level up a bit first though, just to be on the safe side.

While my other characters struggle in comparison, Cinnamon has bloomed into an incredibly powerful warrior capable of single-handedly taking down huge robots that even X balks at.

You guessed it. Got the Kitty Gloves! Worth every Zenny.

Though if I knew I was gonna get so much cash out of this next chapter, then I would've gone ahead to get the cash faster in the first place.

Thanks for the tips, this has produced some good discussion.

i never really used cinnamon in battle. but after seeing so many posts praising her kitty gloves, i'm going to try using her more often.

I never really used her that much either until Wonderbat brought up the idea - and she's worth it with the Kitty Gloves.

BTW, I was talking about this with one of my brothers, and we realized that it made little sense for there to be little boy/girl Reploids. I mean, Reploids don't grow up, yet one of the little boy Reploids uses that very phrase. The current theory I have is that perhaps the likelihood of becoming a Maverick is increased if a Reploid is immediately constructed into a full-size battle-ready body. So, to stem that likelihood, the current Reploid population might be building most new ones in smaller "children" bodies first to give them time to develop their abilities and personality without the stress of combat, and then later on when the Reploid "child" has matured they might be transferred to a new, "adult" body.

But then again, that's just one I cobbled up, as it doesn't seem quite right that Reploids "grow" - though the technology could be possible. Any thoughts on this?

i know there's several theories on the megaman community, but i like the one that runs on the idea of very advanced nano-bots making the child reploid 'grow' to adulthood. it makes sence, as they must have some kind of nanotechnology to fix any wounds they get.

but your idea makes sence, while mine is more far-fetched. ^^;

Considering that plenty of reploids aren't built for the purpose of fighting at all, I don't think "battle-ready bodies" or combat stress can be considered important factors. Plenty of the Maverick bosses in the games were never even meant for combat to begin with.

While it does seem sorta uneeded to have child reploids, it could be that some reploids simply wanted to mimic human family relations. After all, some are already considered siblings (Colonel and Iris, Boomer Kuwanger and Gravity Beetle). They could simply build a child (maybe even using sources from both "parents'" reploid DNA codes - after all, that's pretty much how the four generals of the Zero series were made) and, as the child's mind matures (as reploids are clearly stated to be capable of), rebuild him/her into a more mature body (despite that nanobot theory, we know they don't grow through age other than upgrades/rebuilding - look at Andrew of the Zero series. He only looks old because he requested to be rebuilt to look that way, so as to match the human he'd fallen in love with who had been getting upset that she grew old while he continued to look young).

"Growing Up" might be like in Ghost in the Shell, where every few years, they get a body upgrade.

Anyway.

I partially agree with Terg; if the Reploid is raised to be compassionate, there's no fear of them turning Maverick. Though there are cases to the contrary, like Axl and Signas, to name a couple, where they seem to be good from the start.

True, stuff that's been said makes sense. Admittedly, I see little purpose/function in even bothering to differentiate between male/female robots, but since they were modeled after humans there's probably some cultural foundation set there. Had no idea about Boomer Kuwanger and Gravity Beetle though, that's not mentioned in the games is it?

And yes, my bro and I had talked about that old guy, as well as the chubby Reploid from MMZ (he says he can't help being built chubby; I say, hey, get remodeled or something, robo-liposuction!). Some stuff, like the less-competent "fat" Reploid, don't make much sense at all design or even culturally/socially-wise. Any ideas about that in particular?

Something that was recently talked about in the chatroom was about how the Zero of MMX7/8/Command Mission isn't the "real" Zero, but something like Wily using his body or something. Any input on this? Listing of sources might be nice too, I only have the first MMZ and am not really planning on expanding to the rest of the series.

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Something that was recently talked about in the chatroom was about how the Zero of MMX7/8/Command Mission isn't the "real" Zero, but something like Wily using his body or something.

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Huh, never heard that theory before... That doesn't make much sense to me, considering that Wily is pretty much completely evil/insane, which Zero certainly isn't. I can't think of anything that would suggest that to be even a remote possibility...

Just sounds like another fan theory based on absolutely nothing to go on, to me. Is it possible? Sure, why not. But given what we know, we can surmise that this is not the case CURRENTLY.

I had a feeling it was an attempt to explain and correlate events between the ending of MMX6 where Zero sealed himself away in the capsule, and something that happens late in the MMZ series - I have no experience with any of the games after the first MMZ, so I don't know what plot has happened to even create a basis for such a theory. The character "Weil" was also mentioned, in reference to this theory/hypothesis.

Anyhow, I've gotten into the mines that everyone's been mentioning, I tried to fight that six-armed boss but unfortunately was not prepared for his multi-elemental strategies. But I'm raking in the cash now, so I'm just going to grab some stronger weapons and beat the guy down. Is there any way to keep this guy to one element, or do you just have to deal with it as it goes?

i equipped each character with weapons for each element to counter whatever he's using, and equipped all the force metals i had at the time that healed you when you were hit with the element it's for.

(i'm tired and not making sence here, but remeber if you hit something with a fire element with a fire attack, it'd heal and get stronger? it does that for you. i've utterly forgotten the name of the FM, but it can only be found and not made. ox; )

^ Reverse Fire/Water/Thunder FMs.

As far as I know, you can't stop him from switching elements, so you're just best to prepare to attack flexibly (either prepare a variety of elemental stuff to take advantage of weaknesses, or just go in with completely neutral attacks) and go in with various elemental defences.

Everyone says they had problems with Incentas, but I just hammered the hell out of him and used X Fire when he changed his element to water.

thanks cham, you said what i was trying to say.. but in a much clearer way. ^^

Where can you get those Reverse Element FMs?

I wouldn't worry about those metals. I made it past Incentas no sweat without them. I seem to remember relying heavily on Trickstar mode Spider, though. Not to mention, REVERSE metals are usually drops. RARE drops.

Beat him and Botos, so now I'm in Chapter 8. I did manage to get a Reverse Fire FM, which was basically useless since he kept using fire on the wrong people, but I was powerful enough this time to take him down. Botos was also surprisingly easy, though Black Zero was the main reason he went down so quickly.

I'm currently investigating those secret bosses that you can beat to get additional powers for Axl...I ran into that funny plant dress lady, she's hard. I'm curious about what the extra powers you get with Axl are though, whether they're worth getting for that or not.

Concerning Rafflesian (the plant dress person), if you haven't done this yet...

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Advice Terg: once you get the Melda Key, equpi fire resistant metals and water-based weapons and go there...you'll thank me.

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...I'd strongly recommend doing it first. It's reward will be a big help for completing that battle (and both are definitely worth completing), not to mention being awesome on it's own.