Mega Man X: Command Mission

Written by D'Marcus Beatty  on September 09, 2004

Final Glimpse: Because you can never have too much Mega Man.

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Mega Man has unquestionably seen the lion's share of titles, from his humble beginnings on NES to the Mega Man X series to the Mega Man Legends adventure titles. Although the currently popular Battle Network series is a Pokemon-esque RPG title, Mega Man has yet to have a true turn based RPG in his name. The Legends was more of an action adventure, and the Battle Network takes its cue more from Pokemon or Yu-gi-oh than from Final Fantasy. Well, come this September, fans of the little blue android will finally experience Mega Man's world from a role-playing viewpoint in his latest adventure, Mega Man X: Command Mission.

Command Mission puts the players in a traditionally Mega Man X world, complete with Reploids (Mega Man language for androids), partners Axl and Zero, and a world-threatening problem. This time, the plot revolves around a new mineral called force metal that endows reploids with new abilities. The mineral apparently crashed onto Mega's world from outer space, and the site of the crash, an island named Gigantis, currently has the monopoly on force metal and decides to rebel. This is where Mega Man and his allies come in, as a strike force infiltrating the island. Command Mission is a cel-shaded video game, and is beautifully animated and designed. All of the characters are instantly recognizable, and this may be one of the best visual presentations of the Mega Man world to date.

Much like an expected RPG, Mega Man can explore and interact with NPCs and buy assorted items and weapons from shops as well as manage his party members. In addition to the regular NPC interaction, another area of interest is the battle system, which, on the surface, appears very similar to a standard turn based combat system. Mega Man X, Axl, and Zero face off against their foes, each party occupying different sides of the screen. Each character has a battle meter that is tapped for attacks. Different attacks require different amounts of energy, so more powerful attacks will take more time and combat turns to charge than regular attacks. There are also different super-powered attacks that require more input from the player, such as Mega Man X charging an attack by holding down the attack button before attacking, or Zero inputting a fighting game like sequence before performing a special attack. This seems similar to Final Fantasy III's (or VI for purists) combat system, which had a number of techniques to keep the gamer involved in the fight.

Command Mission also has a system like a hybrid of Final Fantasy Tactics and the soon to be released Jade Empire, in that certain defeated enemy characters are recruited to your team. After their conversion, your enemies-turned-allies can be sent away to discover new information or items, or can even come back defeated if you send them into an area that they aren't prepared enough to explore.