My Opinion on Maverick Hunter X

 

On April 16th I played Mega Man: Maverick Hunter X. In a nutshell, I defeated three bosses: Chill Penguin, Spark Mandrill, and Armored Armadillo. For the details of my experience with the game, read on.

     I enjoyed the trailer to the anime movie The Day of Sigma. I really want to see it. In fact, it’s available on You Tube. But I’m not gonna see it on You Tube, you know why? Because it is meant as a reward for clearing the main X game once through. Right now I can just enjoy the trailer included in the PSP game. Zero and X are buddy-pals.  :3    

    I like X’s voice. Zero’s voice is not bad here, either. The least favorite of the voice acting is Sting Chameleon’s annoying taunt attitude, with the “nyaa nyaah!” I am lightly disappointed that the Mega-Heads that are the extra life items are now just symbolized as X’s helmet. So no more angry Mega Man face. Nyaww.  The music remixes are cool! I forgot which one was my favorite; I think the level with Chill Penguin. And the opening stage, so cool!

Sorry for the long wait...

Sorry for the long wait, guys.  There were some personal events that got in the way of updating Cyborg Haven.
     So now I have a backlog of my Mega Man: Maverick Hunter X news.  Expect a couple of condensed posts coming soon.  ;P
     Also, a new issue of Nintendo Power arrived last week and I wanna talk about a few things, so that is also next.  But...later.

Unreadable Comments

There is a reason why I moderate comments for Cyborg Haven.

     I have received several comments that I cannot read because they are not in English, or rather they don’t contain any of the 26 letters in the English alphabet. They are just squares. Furthermore, they contain at least 35 links (shown as a group of periods) to dangerous websites that can be harmful to the computer when accessed.

I would have published one of those comments, because part of it was readable and it was a nice commment.  What stopped me was the group of unknown links.

I do NOT want to put my readers and their computers in harm's way.  I care about my readers’ safety, as well as my own. So here is my message to the two identities that are sending me these un-readable comments (and you know who you are): If you can read my blog, why don’t you respond in the same language as my blog?  So please, and kindly, if you want to respond to a post then do so in English.   And please please PLEASE refrain from including those links to dangerous websites and videos.  Otherwise, I WILL REJECT THEM.  I’m sorry but that is how it has to be.

Thank you for understanding.

Mega Man: Maverick Hunter X

Okay, personally, I am done buying anything Mega Man related now.  I have enough.  So that’s it.  I couldn’t ignore MM: Maverick Hunter X though.  It’s a portable version of the game, redone in 3D with remixed music, and added scenes.  I read that the bosses are going to have voices, so I’m curious to know what they sound like.  (Dreading it for some reason...0.o)

I read the instruction manual already---well, some of it. Some things I’ll know when I get there, but I had to read up on the armors. So there IS a head armor part.  Huh. That means I was right and I still have to look for it in the original MMX.  And apparently there is a fourth tank after all.

Okay, now I have another plan for MMX. I am not going to finish the Sigma stages, because obviously now X is not fully prepared to face the final Sigma boss.  So next time I am going to focus solely on finding the head armor and the fourth Sub-Tank.

I will write about my first time trying MM:MHX at a later post.  I will start the game later this week.

Mega Man X…April 12th

The fastest way to replenish the extra Sub-Tanks is to go to the Armored Armadillo stage and blast many of those bat enemies. They almost always give out energy pills in the small and large sizes. The larger bat enemy gives out a few mega-heads too, so I always leave and then go back to blast it again and get a new mega-head.

Also, in the Spark Mandrill stage, I went to the health-cap item that I couldn’t get to before. I used the boomerang cutter weapon and I did it right so that it grabbed the item for me, and it increased X’s health capacity. Instead of going to the end of the stage, I used the Exit Unit, because I already cleared that stage.

I made another attempt to finish the game, and unfortunately it didn’t go too well. Long story short, right there. At least I remember now that Boomer Kuwanger is weakest against the Homing Torpedoes. I had an easier time defeating Sting Chameleon. I STILL think the spider sub-boss is the hardest of all these battles in the Sigma stages. It wouldn’t leave X alone. “Don’t touch me, don’t touch me!!”

Sigh. I think I really need to find that head armor. I dunno if there are any more health-cap items, but I do know there is one more armor piece that X needs to find. It just may be the ticket to beating the game. And X must avenge Zero!! Wait, he already kinda did. But again!!!!!!!!

Crisis Core: FFVII on April 11th

I haven’t played Crisis Core since March 5th, so it was about time to get back to it. In a nutshell, I moved a little further in the story but didn’t finish the game. I left off at Gongaga. Of course I know I am pretty close to the end.

-----SPOILERS, PROBABLY…-------

Zack reached the end of the Nibel Plains. I stopped at a save point and a night of a full moon. Cissnei found Zack and realized he was one of the lost samples. Zack got away, but after returning to Cloud, Cissnei found him again and learned that Cloud is the other sample. I can tell she has really mixed feelings about this. She calls Tseng and says “I lost the target.” I have to say that I liked the way that Zack had his sword ready in front of him and then he lowers it ever so slowly when Cissnei lies. It reflects his surprise in Cissnei’s mercy. I wouldn’t call it a change of heart on Cissnei’s end, though. She wants to do a good job as a Turk, but she used to be friends with Zack in the past.  This gives her a conflict of the heart.

Zack uses a motorbike from Shinra to travel the road. Cloud is in the side cart, like he has a choice in the matter. Awww. Anyway, the red guy…er, Genesis, just has to come back and recite more of that epic poem LOVELESS, and one of the two guys that hold Zack by the arms pull some of his hair out and eats it.

“He…he just ate my hair!”  Hmmm, I wonder what Zack's hair would taste like?  Hair gel...? 0.o

So then Zack has to fight that guy because the hair that he ate transformed him to some kind of mechanical monster. I think. Cissnei in the DMW helped out a lot, since each attack was a critical hit. The battle wasn’t even that hard, considering Zack’s level 42. That boss had 63,000+ hit points.

Zack still thinks about Angeal, that there is a possibility that he is still around. Some time ago before the Nibelheim mission, there was a monster with Angeal’s face that appeared in Aeris Aerith’s church, but he wasn’t a threat. Zack still has faith that Angeal is out there somewhere. “Angeal, where are you? What should I do? Tell me…”

They continue on the road and stop at Gongaga. Before going in I made sure Zack checked those treasure chests that were near the abandoned Mako Reactor. Those treasure chests were trapped behinds gates or barrels, but there was a lone guy standing near them that told Zack he can probably use his sword of his to cut those down. So that’s what Zack did (I mean...that's what I made Zack do, hee hee). Two of those chests, however, were shaking, and out came one Griffin each. One of those Griffins provided Zack with an Osmoga material, which I had Zack equip immediately ^,^. This is why I make it a habit to explore an area thoroughly before moving on.  I love the Osmose materia because rather than using ethers, I can steal MP from a monster or person so that I can keep using Thundaga, my most powerful materia right now.

I looked at the map and there was no save point too close to where Zack was located.  I realized I wasn’t ready to finish the game yet because there is more that will happen first.  Jeez, is it gonna be Zack's whole escape chapter I'll play through?  Huh...anyway there was a next zone symbol on the map, so I followed it after I finished exploring.  Then Zack got email form Kunsel.  He was warning Zack that infantrymen were sent to find him. “Make sure you make it back alive, buddy. Promise me.” Ohhh, Zack can make that promise but I know he won’t---can’t---keep it. It’s so cool that Kunsel still wants to maintain their friendship. Kunsel is on Zack’s side.

I found a save point in Gongaga Outskirts. I played a little after that, but I’ll tell more about that later, maybe on the next Crisis Core post. I decided to just save on another file and then play some side missions.  Blechh, I even played the side mission "Experiment 107", in which the opponent was Sephiroth.  Damn that Heartless Angel attack; I never planned to use up my Phoenix Down on one side mission!   Those life-savers are meant for the story-mode missions.  Stupid Sephiroth...

@,@

Cyborg Haven Update

The following items have been removed from my list of "Top 10 Favorite Video Game Characters":

• #9 Lightning, Final Fantasy XIII
• #10 Balthier, Final Fantasy XII

I made the necessary changes because I don't know much about Lightning, except that she has a sister named Serah and "Lightning" is her codename and I am attracted to her stoic face.  As for Balthier, well, I haven't been playing  Final Fantasy XII  lately, so in my person popularity list he went downward a little.  Sorry Balthier, still love ya.

Two items have been added to the said list, moving down two other items from their previous places (these are the new places of the last four items in my list):

• #7-----X (Mega Man X series)
• #8----- Zero (Mega Man X series)
• #9 -----Jak (Jak and Daxter series)
• #10---- Noctis (Final Fantasy Versus XIII)

As it is shown, X and Zero made it to my top ten fave characters and even beat Jak for that matter.  Sorry Jak, still love ya.  I missed out on the Mega Man X  series all these years and now I can experience these games, thanks to the PlayStation 2.   As I played MMX  I've grown quite fond of X and Zero, especially since they are robots androids Reploids (heh, all of the above, really).  Robots are coooooool.

 Noctis has to be in my top ten.  Because, well... he's Noctis. ^,^

Second Upgrade…to PlayStation 3!!!

Me?  On HD?  But my face is dirty, and my pores

are gonna show!  Do you really wanna see that?

I just...

I wanted a PlayStation 3. My parents want Blu-Ray. So we compromised. The PS3 plays Blu-Ray already, since it was first released in Winter 2006.

     So now we have the right TV set for it, but for a while there seems to be a major shortage of PS3s in my neighborhood.  Sold out.   I even went to Amazon.com and bought Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete [Blu-Ray] already (OKAY, Tetsuya Nomura, you win, you’ve got my money, now don’t do another director’s cut of my favorite movie of all time or I will be vewwwy angwwy).

     I already know that the first game I am going to buy for the PS3 is Devil May Cry 4. I really enjoyed DMC3, and here I get to play newcomer Nero. As much as I wanna get Bayonetta and Final Fantasy XIII, I will wait until they cost less, cuz they were just released earlier this year (Bayonetta in early January and FFXIII in early March). DMC4 is going to be the second rated-M game I ever played, the first one being DMC3.  Now that I have the Mega Man X Collection and MMX8 and MMX: Command Mission, I am gonna have to wait a long time to get a second PS3 game.

     High Definition Cloud Strife....mmmmmmm......

NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams on HDTV!!!

Cuuuuuuuuuuuuuuute!!!!!
     The Nintendo Wii was absolutely made for newer TV sets. How could I have allowed myself to miss out on the glory that is NiGHTS: JoD on a flat-screen HDTV?!!! (Well the older TV set worked just fine so it wasn’t necessary to make the switch to HD until recently. We weren’t so eager to upgrade earlier.) I tried out the NiGHTS game on the new TV Thursday night. The intro movie for this game is a woooork ooooof aaaaaart!! NiGHTS is so beautiful!!! And I tried the game play on the new TV set and the graphics are much improved! It was the Aqua Garden Chase Stage because it was the easiest, and it was after 2 in the morning so I didn't want to do a difficult stage right before bed.  I was impressed.  It’s gonna be fun getting back to NiGHTS: JoD again.
     But currently I am Mega Man X crazy.

Return to Mega Man X… my EPIC FAIL

I tried. I really tried.

     It’s been over two weeks since I played the first Mega Man X. I wanted to make another attempt to finish the game and beat the second Sigma battle once and for all. Unfortunately, when I though it would take about an hour and a half to get to that point, I was stuck in the same place for two hours.

Too late, I realized I was out of practice. That spider sub-boss after Boomer Kuwanger is now a pain in the butt. I thought I remembered how to defeat it, because I’ve done it before, but I lost all five of my extra lives.
Godd----t.

     Now I know what to do. Jeez. But it wasn’t only because my sis was playing MMX2 for the past two weeks. My parents wanted to upgrade to HDTV, so they got a 42” Samsung flat-screen, and the delivery guys cancelled the delivery twice, so I was without a connected PS2 for a while. And I wanted to get to MMX last weekend. That explains it, I guess.

This is why I am glad I ordered Mega Man: Maverick Hunter X after all. Yeah, I’d have to play the game all over again, and it will be different from the original version I am playing on the PS2 collection. And there's gonna be anime scenes!!!! But at least I won’t have to wait until the TV is available to use. In fact, only one video game console at a time can be connected to this new TV set, and the VCR/DVD machine has to be disconnected from the TV set if I want to play a game. It’s sort of a drag. But oh well.

Should I get Maverick Hunter X?

Ehhh. I want too many things.

I just bought the Mega Man X Collection this past February, and even though I am almost done with MMX, I have been thinking about also getting Mega Man: Maverick Hunter X. Why? Because it has added anime scenes in the events of the game. I learned about that in, um, where DID I learn about that? Was it Amazon.com? I think it was.  Anyway, I am leaning towards getting it because of that and the improved graphics. And more Zero. So yay.

Besides, I think I might beat it faster than the first time through of playing MMX. I am familiar with the order of the bosses I have to defeat. Plus I can play Mega Man X on the go (in other words, if the TV with the game consoles are being used at the time I want to play, that is was the PSP is good for =P ). For me, this is the year of Mega Man X. I can’t get enough of this X series.

But when am I going to return to (heh, start) Mega Man X: Command Mission and Mega Man X8? I still have those. Well, since I certainly know it will take me and my sister almost forever to finish X1-X6, I could probably start MMX Command Mission and X8 at any time. I think MMX:Command Mission first, since it comes before X8. Although…I do like X8’s side-scrolling format…

Upgrade Planned for Cyborg Haven

I realize that this is a video game blog, and it is mostly words.  I’d have a picture here and there, but that’s all for the visuals.

I recently learned while playing Dissidia that after editing the saved battles, I can convert them to movie files. I had a really good battle of Cloud versus Sephiroth in Destiny Odyssey VII-5.  It was long, but it turned out really well for me, and I had to save it.  I wondered if I can share that with my readers.

So what I’m going to do is, I will do a test battle that I can edit and convert into a movie file before I do it on the actual battles I want to share.  I have a USB cable for the PSP that I can plug into my computer, so I should use it, for that purpose.  I already have my DreamPod (my purple iPod Nano) for music, so I don’t wanna put music in my portable unit.  But I’d really like to transfer that saved Dissidia battle to my computer so I can share it in my blog!

That means I’ll have to change Cyborg Haven’s template. Probably one that allows for video media.

It might take weeks to get this done.  My own Dissidia battles may be the only video game from which I share visual/audio files.  I don’t know quite how to do it with other games or systems.  I just got so excited when I realized it might be possible to share my game play videos of Dissidia on Cyborg Haven. I still want to keep it on Blogger.  It will take time and lot’s of practice, but I want it to be really good.

EDIT 4/6: It's not as simple as I thought it would be.  It will take a lot of time to look into what I would have to do.  I can convert the battles into movie files, that's correct.  But could I put them into my PC?  I dunno anymore.  :'(

The first time I heard Lee Brotherton...

I've never played Sonic the Hedgehog for PS3.  I probably won't, in the future unfortunately.

     But last summer I heard a song that came from this game.  The song was used in a tribute to NiGHTS on YouTube.  The song is "Dreams of an Absolution" sung by Lee Brotherton (aka Bentley Jones).

     This was before I knew there was a NiGHTSintoDreams.com, with a community of NiGHTS fans participating in the site's forums.  So when I watched this NiGHTS tribute, I fell in love with the song, even though it was the theme song for Silver the Hedgehog :3

     I found some more of his songs on iTunes.  Now I have three versions of Bentley Jones' song "So Much More" in my purple iPod Nano, and another song, "Alpha Dog," which I am absolutely crazy about.  If it wasn't for this NiGHTS tribute video, I would have missed out on such a cool bunch of songs. 

      I dunno when I'll be able to get "Dreams of an Absolution," but I dream of that day...

Here's also a link to the YouTube channel of the person who put this video together: http://www.youtube.com/user/StarChaserGal#p/u

A plan for Mega Man X…

So I’ve got this plan. In the final battle against Sigma in MMX, I have to be extremely careful, but at the time I tried it, being careful was just not enough. Since then, I had X acquire another health cap item in the underwater stage. That means that it is a little more possible that I can perhaps beat Sigma’s second battle. I don’t know if there is a fourth Sub-Tank, let alone another piece of armor, maybe for his mega head. But I think I am ready to tackle that long, dragging final stage again.

     So now here’s the plan: When X is trapped between two of Sigma “B”’s weapons (for instance the giant flame torch and the deadly electric pillars coming from the two platforms), I need to pause the game and get X into his Rolling Shield weapon so when he IS trapped between two different attacks, I charge up so he is in a blue shield. This way, if he gets hit twice, he’ll only get hurt once. The best way to fight Sigma B is to use Zero’s buster upgrade and charge it to its fullest, jump on the platform when it’s safe, and hit Sigma on the head. This has to be done quickly because the platform shoots electricity upward which takes half a life gauge out of X. If it is done nearly perfectly every time, it will be possible for me to finish Mega Man X without finding another armor or tank.

If anyone else is discovering the Mega Man X series also, I hope my tips help. I’m not a Mega Man expert, but I learn every time I play.    :)

Mega Man X2…a pain in the ass

Yeah, the title of this post is correct. MMX2 is a pain in the ass.  I’m not saying it’s a bad game.  It’s a great game, really, and of course, it’s a Mega Man X game. However, there are two stages that are really difficult: the Weather Control Stage and the Central Computer Stage.  In the latter, X can’t go too much further into the stage unless he has the weapon that might come from the Wire Sponge.  So the logical choice would be to go to the Weather Control Stage first.  That stage is a pain in the ass too.

     Actually, my sister was doing most of the playing.  Then she asked if I wanted to try the Weather Control Stage.  I gave not a moment’s hesitation and went on with it.  It is fun to play a Mega Man X game again (my sis sorta took over MMX2 from me, but I will be the one to finish MMX).  I got further because I found a certain way to play this stage.

     The weather changes in different intervals, from neutral to hot to rainy/windy.  Like in the classic Mega Man, rainy windy weather affects the speed Mega Man moves and the distance he can jump.  This is a pain when there are narrow moving platforms.  Luckily, when X jumps onto the side of a wall or the side of a platform, he can grab it and jump again until he gets where I want him to go.  That’s what I had to do with these pillar-shaped platforms as the rain and wind knocked X back.  More than half the time X won’t land right on top of the platform, so I have to make him jump multiple times on its side until he’s high enough to get on it.

     There are two platforms and then a stationary pillar, where he needs to do a dash in order to get to it, because it is always going to be raining and windy until after he makes it to that one.  After he successfully reaches that third moving platform, the rain and wind stops, which makes it easier to move on.

As I was playing that level, it took plenty of times to memorize the kinds of enemies and where they will appear so I can have X blast them before they attack him or see him.  The weather also affects which kind of weapons the flying enemies will drop at X.

Oh oh oh!!!  My sister found a Sub-Tank, where was it…in the Weather Control Stage; it's in the first rainy/windy area of the stage where X can go jump up and get a Mega-Head (and extra life item), so it is somewhere in that upper part of the area.

EDIT: I wish I can show what I am talking about, but for now I can only describe the stages.