They're debatably similar, but no, Zero's role's a LOT more in-depth than Proto Man's. Zero is almost always fighting the same fight X does if he can get the chance (at least, he does X4 onward), whereas Proto Man doesn't actively join Mega Man's side and has a more laidback, "I'll get involved when I want to be" style (even if he DOES save the day frequently).

Zero's also not Proto Man's successor, either, but a new Wily Bot entirely (I don't think "Reploid" really fits his bill, seeing as THEY were derivatives of X). I mean, sure, nothing confirms it in-game, but nothing confirms it the other way, either.

And the real sinker - Inafune designed Zero to be Mega Man's replacement, not Proto Man's. Of course, then came the concern that Zero would be too different from the Blue Bomber, and thus X was made and Zero's status was relegated to sidekick. Still, I think that'd be the best evidence.

Proto Man was actually originally built by Dr. Light and Dr. Wily before Wily became his lovable mad scientist self - Zero was apparently an advancement of Bass, or at least the role that Bass was supposed to play as Dr. Wily's answer to Dr. Light's Mega Man, though the similarities to Proto Man are likely not coincidental.

As far as I've always seen, X is a separate unit from the original Mega Man, as the games have not indicated that he remembers stuff from before he was X.

EDIT: posted at the same time about with SH there.

Okay, so X is "next year's" model of Mega not Mega himself. The fact that Zero was created before X makes him even more like Protoman even if he ain't Proto's succesor, but it could be possible that the color scheme of Zero is based off of Proto couldn't it? Also, MM, MMX, MMZ, and MML are all the same continuity yes with MMBN being a different continuity entirely right? Sorry to be so ignorant about Mega but how come Zero in MMZ looks fairly different than the Zero in MMX are they different bots?

how come Zero in MMZ looks fairly different than the Zero in MMX are they different bots?

The only explanation I've heard is that it's just supposed to be a different art style. The Zero in that series isn't supposed to be a panty-wearing little girl different from the one in the X series.

I think that Zero's body auto-upgraded itself during the time it was contained inside the capsule - at the unexpected cost of losing his memory. That would explain why he would still be physically powerful enough to deal with the more modern threat of MMZ even though it's at least one hundred years after the X series, and technology is bound to make leaps and bounds in the meantime.

Although I wish the future wasn't so androgynous. XP

MMZ3 explains some things about Zero's body that should be known before considering any theories, and that is...

Spoilers (Select To Read): ... that the body he's had since being awakened by Ciel was a copy made from his original body by Dr. Weil, who then went and created Omega using Zero's original body. The final battle in that game consisted of Zero having to fight his original body that was sealed inside the Omega "shell". The original looked just like Zero's current "copy" body, but slightly redder.

Honestly, it really is just a design alteration. You think Sega had to invent some malarkey to explain Sonic's green eyes and longer spikes for Sonic Adventure? Not that it stopped anyone else from putting forth theories.

Like Archie.

Psx, just out of morbid curiosity, who is that girl in your avatar who's been yelling constantly since her first appearance?...

Yeah, I've been wondering about that pic myself.

i wonder about alot of the anime sigs he puts together.
but seriously, i'm curious too.

WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU STARING AT!!

The lady with the rabies is Sae. She's from the shoujo manga Peach Girl. Other than the fact that she's a total @#%$ (as Cooki described her to me once), I know nothing about her or the series that spawned her.

...

I think she yells. A lot.

So THAT'S Sae! I remember her from an RP, Cooki used her as a character in it.

She'd be cuter if she wasn't so angry. Ah well.

But yeah, totally off-topic but I'm glad somebody asked. XD

Now think about it, MMZ that's a different zero it isn't the same one, because as far as I know you do face the real zero (like the one in your picture). It's like a complete different story. Except that of course X is your enemy, they basically tried to come up with something weird in my own opinion but that involves few X (series) characters. I believe is something like years after the X series ends or somethin like that

Um, no. It's the same Zero. His body may have changed but his personality and memories (more or less) are intact, Cyber Elf X pretty much sums that up at the end of MMZ3.

I ran across this a while ago. I do not know if many fellow Mega Man fans out there have played the Mega Man PowerBattles. Its like street fighter but with mega man characters. It was released on arcade in the early 90's. I did a goole and found some of the dialog and screenshots.

If you beat the game with a certain character certain facts will be revealed. For X, you see Dr.Light and Mega Man talking about the robots future. Then Dr. Light mentions how he sees that by developing Artificial Intellegence it will revolutionize robotkind. Also hints on a new "creation" that can able to incorporate this technology. Possibly X.

For Zero, You see Wily and Bass arguing. Wily mentions that Bass outter skin metal was created by an accident. But he learned from his mistakes and now has made a stronger alloy. Thus he was creating a new robot to take down Mega Man. Then Bass mentions "This long hair sissy, is going to beat mega man?"

So in turn Zero was created by Wily, and not upgrade from Protoman. X was a new model not MM upgrade. Plus If you reference X4 where Wily appears and mentions "You were my greatest creation, He is my enemy...." and so on. If there skeptics try find the game and play it on MAME.

Before I forget. in MMX5 or MMX6 been a while since I played them. If you beat a game and depending on luck. You will see an added bonus footage clip. Where Zero is talking to a scientist about containing his body to prevent future virus outbreaks. The scientist says it will take one hundred years to purge his systems from the virus. Zero mentions something like I do not worry for there is a stronger reploid out there.

100 years pass and zero body change due to the system purge/cleaning. But we do not know that his body is a copy until MMXZ3.

Kinda funny how MMX does not mention Protoman, MM, Light and Wily. Or who won the their epic war. Same thing with MMXZ they do not mention how sigma got beaten and whatever happen to Dynamo, Signas, and the rest of the crew. All we know is Cyber Elfs cut the war down to 3 years. But thanks to Capcom they like to keep some mysterious a mystery. Its been a while with no MM9. No signs of X series dying down. As well with the MMXZ series.

Please use the edit button from now on. Thanks.

its just capcom leaving plot holes to be filled in by later games. so they dont have to go around complicating the storylines to explain why they never mentioned it before. the shortlived zero series has finished now, mmz4 was the last one and i believe the ending you speak of would be zero's X6 ending, which does take some luck to do, as the fight with gate is a royal pain in the... nevermind, but i always was anyway.

Acuratek, welcome.

most of the posters here are pretty up to date with their megaman(Classic,X,Zero,Legends,BN) so there's no real reason to explain it.

Yeah, the X6 ending was supposed to have branched over to Zero, but they decided to make more games. As for Zero 4 being the last game, I haven't played it yet (don't give me any spoilers please,) but I wouldn't be surprised if it ended up continuing. After all, I've heard that Megaman was supposed to have ended at Megaman 3 (at least, I think it was 3) and X at X5.

(note: I've heard this some of this from the GameFAQs forums, so I imagine this could be wrong.)

without spoilers, i can safely say that this SHOULD be the last zero game, not nessacarily the case though, things have been known to happen before.

Yeah, everything thing seems to suggest that Zero 4 is the last, but that last screen hints that it might not be (check the more recent Zero 4 topic; I posted it there.)

looks to me like all doubts are out of the way

There's gonna be another Zero game. How else is capcom gonna make money off of their longest running franchise EVER?

easy, it has the battle network series ^_^

No it doesn't. BN6 is the last Battle net game.

as for Z4, this is the last Zero game as well. The Team working on it said they didn't feel comfortable making another one as it fills itself out in the end.

it hasnt been said that BN6 is the last one, what was said was either that it will be the last one on GBA or that it will be the last one for a long while.
And to further answer ace54's question, they've already set it in motion. re feeding us the old games as remakes or collections.