Like all the other games in the series, the ninth installment uses the same battle mechanics that its predecessors have used. Weapons all follow a rock-paper-scissors triangle of swords beat axes, axes beat lances, and lances beat swords. Weapons also have a set number of uses, and all weapons, including spell tomes, will inexplicably break when the counter hits zero. And finally, as in real life, death is permanent.

The story begins with the Greil mercenaries, a ragtag group of soldiers that take on jobs for pay. At the helm is Greil, a man whose skill, charisma, and kindness know no equal. His son Ike is finally old enough to join the mercenary group, and at the beginning of the game, he starts going out on simple jobs in order to learn the ropes so that one day, he’ll be able to lead the company. But before long, the neighboring country, Daein, makes a surprise attack on the group’s home country, Crimea, and the Greil mercenaries find themselves caught in the middle when they accidentally find Crimea’s princess. The decision to protect her quickly turns into the largest war the continent has ever known.

As in the other games in the series, most of Path of Radiance takes place on the battlefield with sections of plot advancement coming before and after each chapter. But shortly into the game, the group encounters a merchant caravan, and from that point on, each mission begins at a base camp. From here, the player can view conversations that can simply be entertaining, provide hints for the next battle, or sometimes even result in a new character joining the team. These base conversations greatly add to the experience and are a welcome addition to the series.

The base camp also serves another purpose. In previous games, there was a rudimentary map that could be moved around to find shops and armories. This time around, the merchant caravan serves as a one-stop shop for all sorts of items and weapons. Another new addition to the series is the ability to forge weapons. For a price, players can craft a weapon and customize it to their needs. They can make the weapon more powerful, lighter, more accurate, or increase the critical hit percentage. Afterwards, the custom weapon can be named, and the player can even choose the weapon’s color. With enough money, weapons more powerful than any that can be found in the game can be made at any time.

Previous Fire Emblem games have had extra dungeons or an arena in which to train for extra experience, but since there is no map, this is not possible. Instead, players can award bonus experience, which is earned by meeting certain conditions or finishing battles quickly, to characters to any member of the party, and there is no distinction between it and regular battle experience. In this way, weaker characters can be brought up to speed, or units that didn’t see much action can make up for lost time.

Aside from equipment, characters can also equip skills that are acquired throughout the game. These range from always attacking first in battle, to increased stats when HP are low, to being able to carry another character without any drop in speed. Several of the skills are very useful, and many characters join the party with one of the better ones already equipped. There are also class-specific skills that can be unlocked with a special item. Though rare, these items can make a good character nearly unstoppable, but as all skills can only be equipped once and are lost if removed, special care must be used when deciding whom to use them on.

One final improvement to the system is that characters no longer require specific items to class change. One item works for all classes, but even better, it can be done with simple experience. The level cap is once again twenty, but characters can continue to gain experience. The next gained level will cause a class change, and nearly every stat will receive the same boost that previously only came from class-specific items.

There is also a new stat called Biorhythm that cycles throughout a battle from good to bad and back again. When a character’s biorythym is higher, they have a better chance of dodging and getting critical attacks, and when it is low, the opposite is true. It sounds important, but in reality, it has almost no effect whatsoever on battles, and it’s very easy to forget about it entirely.

The biggest change to the gameplay is the addition of the laguz, a race of shape-shape shifting people that can take on forms such as cats, lions, hawks, or even dragons. Each of the laguz tribes has their own country, and there are many instances of racial prejudice that goes both ways between the laguz and beorc, what the race of normal men is called. Since the laguz have animal forms, they have no need of weapons or armor, but to balance them against the beorc, they have a transformation guage. Each turn, the gauge slowly fills, and when it maxes out, the laguz will shift to their beast form. After that, it will slowly deplete until it empties, and the cycle will begin anew. Shifting provides a bonus to every stat, but laguz can only attack in animal form, so half of the time they can do nothing but defend.

Throughout the game, laguz of nearly every tribe will join Ike’s party, and like other games in the series, it is up to the player whether or not to use them. On the whole, the laguz are neither better nor worse than their beorc counterparts, and since nearly every character has the potential to be a powerhouse, there is no wrong way to play. And with such a large group of characters, the choice mainly comes down to whether you’d prefer another sword user, or perhaps a mage or laguz. Any character can be useful, and even though Ike is the main character, he may not end up the most powerful. It all depends on usage and luck with level ups.

As in other games in the series, everything from the simplest attack to the stats gained from gaining a level are all based on a random number generator and a series of formulas based on character stats. Nowhere is this more apparent than when leveling up. Depending on how kind the RNG is, the character may increase in one, two, or nearly every stat. Of course, it is also possible to gain a level and get no stat increases. Sadly, this can happen several times throughout the course of the game for various characters. Because of the randomness of level ups, it can be extremely frustrating, especially when using bonus experience to level people. It is made all the more annoying since there is no soft reset function. If players want to restart for any reason, they must physically hit the reset button or choose the suspend function during battle. Since about one third of all the experience points in the game come in the form of bonus experience, it can make for a lot of resetting while hoping for good stat gains.

When all the preparation is complete, the player can leave base camp and begin the next battle, but before the fighting starts, the player can pick who will participate, where they should start, take one last look at their items, view the map, or see the conditions for victory or defeat. Once the player chooses to start, the first turn begins, and you can move any character in any order. Should an enemy be in range of any unit, the player may choose to engage it. Before the actual combat begins, a menu will show up with the damage, hit percentage, and the critical attack percentage for both sides. At that point, the player can initiate combat, and it will happen exactly as shown in the box. If the opposing fighter survives, it will counterattack. After that, that character’s turn is finished, and another character can be moved. Play continues until everyone has made their moves or the player physically selects to end it from the menu. Then the next team, which is usually, but not always, the enemy force will get to move all of its units. Play will go back and forth until the conditions for either victory or defeat have been met. Most missions will end when the player has killed all the enemies, but others require a boss be defeated, the team to survive for a set number of turns, or a unit to reach a certain square. Some missions will also have a time limit in the form of a set number of turns to complete the goal.

The Fire Emblem series has never been particularly known for its topnotch graphics, but Path of Radiance is quite pretty. With the move to the GameCube came a substantial jump in the visual department. All the character models are now 3D, and attack animations are so nice, it’s almost worth keeping them on throughout the entire game. There are also around a dozen full motion videos that have some of the best graphics that Nintendo’s little purple box ever had, and the character portraits, one of the things the series is known for, have never looked better.

As good as the visuals are, the game’s soundtrack is even better. Path of Radiance probably has the best original soundtrack of any Fire Emblem game. While it may be true that Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn has a better soundtrack, that is only because it contains nearly every song from Path of Radiance and then some. The FMVs are also fully voiced, but unfortunately the voice track is so quiet it can be hard to hear the voices. As for the voice acting itself, it’s only so-so. Not all the voices fit the characters, but the intonation is decent. The sound effects are pretty much unchanged from other games in the series, and as such, they are somewhat lackluster but offer a sense of nostalgia. Though nothing spectacular, they get the job done.

Fire Emblem games are known for their deep and twisting plots, and Path of Radiance does not disappoint. Though a large part of the plot is just Ike winning battle after battle, there are several twists and turns that set this story apart from the others. While the plot does have a definite conclusion, Path of Radiance is not a standalone game. Its sequel, Radiant Dawn, is very much a continuation of the story, and for full understanding of the plot, both games must be finished. Some of the events of Path of Radiance are not explained in detail, and there are some secrets that are not meant to be known until the later chapters of Radiant Dawn that directly pertain to this game.

Path of Radiance is one of the longest games in the series. Completion will take anywhere from 40-65 hours depending on the number of times battles have to be replayed. This series is known for being particularly difficult, but this is one of the easier ones. That said, some of the harder chapters will probably require several attempts to finish, but many stages can be completed on the first try. The last boss in particular is amazingly easy and is somewhat outclassed by the guards protecting him. There is really only one hard boss fight in the entire game, and that comes down to luck more than anything. Furthermore, that fight doesn’t have to be won. It can be skipped entirely, or it can end in a draw. For those that want more of a challenge, there is a harder difficulty, and there is also an easy setting for first time Fire Emblem players.

After finishing the game, there are several features that are unlocked. First, there are up to three challenge maps that can be played depending on what the difficulty setting was set on, and they are harder than anything in the normal game. Through those, the player can also unlock some bosses and special weapons, but none of them can be used in the main game. There is also the ability to pass on some of the stats to returning characters in Radiant Dawn by loading a save file from the epilogue. And lastly, by connecting either Fire Emblem game for the GBA via the link cable, some extra maps and art can be unlocked as well after.

In conclusion, Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance is arguably one of the best RPGs on the GameCube. It makes several refinements from previous games in the series and takes no steps backwards. With a storyline that stays exciting from start to finish and the most diverse party ever found in a Fire Emblem game, it’s hard not to sit down and play for hours at a time. And for those that enjoy the plot, Radiant Dawn picks up where Path of Radiance leaves off and adds more action to the already good plot. It may be hard to find this game these days, but it’s definitely worth tracking down.

Skies of Arcadia tells a tale about a young boy growing up, leaving home, and discovering the world for himself. The main character, Vyse, is the son of a famous Blue Rogue, a group that plays Robin Hood to the Black Pirate’s Blackbeard in Skies of Arcadia. Vyse and his childhood friend Aika leave home on a journey of discovery after the abrupt arrival and sudden kidnapping of a mysterious young woman by the evil Valuan Empire, which wants to use her to conquer the world. If this sounds familiar, it’s with good reason. Skies of Arcadia Legends uses some of the oldest clichés in the book, from the eternally optimistic main character, to the empathic, compassionate love interest, to the highly technological Evil Empire, shrouded in a veil of smog. The story’s more interesting and imaginative parts are largely due to the setting. The world of Arcadia is without any real ground, the continents being made up of large landmasses that float freely between layers of furiously swirling clouds. No one knows what lies below or above these barriers, but there is an ancient prophecy (yes, they use this one, too) that details how an advanced ancient civilization brought about the apocalypse, which tore the continents from their moorings and created the world as it is now. Large swathes of the story have to do with the conflict between Vyse’s Blue Rogues and the evil empire of Valua as they fight over the weapons of mass destruction left behind by the Ancients. The overuse of these predictable and uninspired ideas ultimately undermines the overall message of the story. It talks a lot about the joy of exploration and the greatness of people who wonder what lies beyond the next horizon, but it takes a great deal of the edge off to discover that what in fact lies beyond that horizon is a land of stereotypes and predictability.

Other aspects of the story, such as the translation and character development, leave a great deal to be desired. Though Fina, the aforementioned Mysterious Stranger, receives a great deal of development, not very many of the other characters change in any real capacity at all. The other two main characters end the game in much the same state that they began, with their bizarrely superhuman optimism showing nary a scratch. The various support characters Vyse and company come into contact with during the course of the game actually receive a bit more development than the main cast, in some cases. Though the story has a worthwhile message, the two-dimensional cast and the fact that it stumbles over its own feet means that Skies of Arcadia Legends is far too clumsy and unoriginal to have much impact.

Combat bears a striking resemblance to some of the Grandia systems, at least superficially. Characters have a large open field to move around on, but the player does not have direct control of their movements. Instead, the moves a player selects determines how a given character will move. For example, defending characters will slowly back away from any and all enemies, while characters ordered to perform a basic attack will rush forward into the fray. Spells have areas of effect on the battlefield which vary from spell to spell; some move in lines, others cover a circular area, while a few are simple single target attacks. The system overall is a fairly solid example of a traditional turn-based combat system with a few extra elements thrown in. The biggest step Skies of Arcadia Legends takes away from the basic formula is the use of SP, or Spirit Points. Spirit Points are a sort of pool of MP which is shared amongst the party and which regenerates by a set amount every turn. Special attacks and magic both require the use of SP, and the game is balanced so that the player cannot expect to unleash each character’s strongest attacks every turn, forcing players to strike a balance between offense and defense. In the end, the combat system hangs its entire fortune on the creative use of Spirit Points, without which it would be just another basic turn-based system.

Matching up nicely with its pirate theme, Skies of Arcadia Legends features a second combat system for ship-to-ship combat. In this system, the player puts in a series of commands all at once, selects the order in which they will be executed, and then watches them play out over the four turns that make up one combat round. The ship is treated as a sort of character in its own right, with its own equipment, basic stats, and SP meter, relying on crew members for special moves and magic. The best parts of this system come in the occasional interludes during which Vyse is called on to make a command decision – close in on the enemy and risk heavier fire, or hang back and protect the ship? Try to outmaneuver the enemy, or just go in all guns blazing? It’s not always clear which command would work best, so the player is often left trying to out-think the enemy, which adds a great deal to the experience. Ship-to-ship combat is an interesting, if somewhat slow combat system, but it would have been a great deal more fun without the existence of superweapons. To explain; early on, the player gains access to a devastating special weapon, which follows the player in one form or another throughout the rest of the game. The effect of this weapon, translated into gameplay terms, is more or less “You win the battle.” The game tries to limit the effectiveness of the superweapon by allowing it to be used only on specifically marked turns, but the weapon is so powerful that in many cases all the player need do is survive until that turn comes around to win the fight. The weapon’s effectiveness drops slightly as the game goes on, but even late in the game, it will be the primary method by which all major battles are ended.

The game’s menus are set up a bit strangely. Rather than having options such as Item, Magic, Status immediately available, the player is prompted to select a character first, and then given the option to have that character use an item, cast magic, and so forth. Each character’s status report is actually spread over two different screens. At the main menu, the player can hit right or left on the D-pad to see a character’s stats and equipment, but must select a character to see magic level, accumulated EXP, and various other minor status elements. On the whole, the menu setup is a great deal more complicated than it really needs to be, and can take a while to get used to. Control on the field and in combat is actually a great deal more solid, with the only real issue being the somewhat clumsy camera. The overall translation is more or less free of errors, though it does come off as a bit stiff at times, with even very informal characters speaking in a somewhat stilted, formal tone.

While most of Skies of Arcadia Legends has a sound that hovers somewhere on the edge of Noriyuki Iwadare’s upbeat style, the game has a number of tracks which make little or no sense in the overall scheme of things. For example, the title screen theme is closer to Vivaldi’s Four Seasons than anything else, while a few of the early dungeon themes sound more like they came out of Motoi Sakuraba’s catalogue. This mishmash makes it hard for the soundtrack to leave a particularly strong impression one way or the other, with the lack of a strong musical theme leaving a lot of the sound feeling aimless.

Skies of Arcadia Legends uses a bit of limited voice acting, with a few key phrases being used to suit a given situation – a shy “Uh-huh,” for example, to accompany a nod and a blush from Fina. There are enough different phrases for each character that the voice acting doesn’t become repetitious, but the overall quality of the acting is fairly low, which limits the impact the voice clips have. Characters come off as excessively stiff largely due to the robotic quality of the acting, and are nearly unintelligible in combat due to the ill-advised use of an echo filter that renders phrases down to mere mumbles. Taken as a whole, the game’s sound is more aimless than actually bad.

Visually, Skies of Arcadia Legends has joined that group of late-PSOne era titles whose visuals have passed their sell-by date, a fact that the lack of a strong overarching visual style does nothing to mitigate. Still, the game’s visuals were solid for the time, and some parts of it still stand out. The wide variety of facial expressions, for example, go a long way towards humanizing the otherwise fairly stiff cast, and the stylized character designs still stand out as being very solid, particularly the exaggerated faces. On the whole, the visuals don’t show a particularly strong pirate influence, aside from the occasional eyepatch or funny hat. The airship design, on the other hand, is one of the game’s stronger points, with most of the ships showing a great deal of creativity and uniqueness, although the ship that Vyse and his crew eventually end up with isn’t exactly strong pirate material. In the end, although time hasn’t exactly been kind to the game’s visuals, it retains enough charm to be adequate, even with the lack of a cohesive style to hold it together.

Between the ease of leveling and the aforementioned ship-to-ship superweapons, Skies of Arcadia Legends shouldn’t provide too much resistance to anyone who pays a bit of attention to keeping their armor and weapons up to date. Aside from a fairly long main quest, there are a decent number of sidequests to explore, some of which add bits of backstory and plot. Between the two of them, Skies of Arcadia Legends eventually comes out at around fifty to sixty hours to complete.

For the era of its release, the original Skies of Arcadia would have been a fairly solid title, and fit well into the general atmosphere of the time. But by the time Skies of Arcadia Legends came out in 2003, these ideas were already well past their prime. With a self-defeating story, aimless visuals and music, and a cast that doesn’t develop much at all, Skies of Arcadia simply has not aged well. On the whole, the game provides an interesting window to early 3D RPGs, and it should provide some enjoyment for those who are looking for a lengthy, easy RPG, but for people without a nostalgic link to the game, it just doesn’t have the originality or depth to carry itself.

The events of Wind Waker, which take place centuries after the events of Ocarina of Time, focus on a Hyrule inundated by a catastrophic flood. The story begins with an extremely young Link on the island known as Outset, setting out to rescue his abducted sister. It will eventually grow into the prototypical Zelda story, with Ganon trying to gather the three pieces of the Triforce in order to rule the land of Hyrule, with very little coming as unexpected. The characters are all rather two-dimensional and the overall story hasn’t got much to say, serving mostly as an impetus to move the player from island to island, solving puzzles and gaining new weapons and tools.

As with most Zelda games, combat is handled by a free-roaming action RPG system, with plenty of focus on swordplay. Most of the enemies aren’t fights so much as puzzles to be deciphered – a fight against a heavily-armored foe will test your ability to figure out how to remove his armor more than your swordsmanship. In the end, the combat system is fairly weak, but it isn’t really the focus of the game any more than the plot is. Where the game really focuses is on the multitude of puzzles to be found deep in Wind Waker‘s dungeons. The format is supremely predictable – enter a dungeon, get a new weapon, use that weapon to get to and defeat the dungeon’s boss, wash, rinse repeat. The way it keeps things interesting is by throwing in some new tools and unusual puzzles, but the vast majority will be very familiar to players who have played other Zelda titles. The biggest difference is the presence of a watery overworld rather than a land-based one, and the unique visual style.

Wind Waker uses a fairly unique cel-shaded visual style full of bright greens and blues, which, combined with the presence of a very youthful Link, lends the game a very fresh feel. This visual style isn’t quite the sophisticated, adult link many players were clamoring for after the release of Ocarina of Time, but it is still a highly effective, well-designed look that carries the game quite well. The visuals give the game most of its sense of style, with the bright, fluid colors and swirl designs finding their way into just about every aspect of the game, from the motion lines of wind on the world map to the hilt of the Master Sword itself. The omnipresence of these design elements does make some of the game’s areas feel like repeats, particularly towards the end of the game, but on the whole it keeps up enough variety to make things interesting. In the end, the visual style is cohesive, unique, and probably the strongest part of the game.

The game’s soundtrack is much more forward than normal for a Zelda title, with bright flutes and strings taking up most of the memorable melodies. The instrumentation, however, is the only real change; the vast majority of the tracks to be heard in Wind Waker are reiterations or re-imaginings of traditional Zelda tunes. For a series that relies on tradition to the degree that Zelda does, this isn’t really a huge issue, but it does make the soundtrack feel, like the rest of the game, a bit predictable.

Overall control is a bit of a sticking point with Wind Waker, especially where the camera is concerned. The default camera position tends to navigate corners poorly, letting Link get out of sight before re-positioning itself behind him. Basic control is a bit more responsive, with Link’s movement and item use being easy to manage as long as Link isn’t too close to the item he’s trying to interact with. At close range, the camera tends to zoom in too far, making precision control much more difficult.

As with many Zelda games, Wind Waker is fairly short and fairly easy. The game should take most people around 25 hours to complete, though it could go much higher given the amount of sailing a player is expected to do, and the obtuse, directionless nature of some of the hunt-and-fetch quests in the later half of the game. Still, the game’s overall difficulty should present no real problem for the average player, as most puzzles have fairly easy to understand answers, and combat as a whole requires very little skill.

For all the controversy it caused, The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker is a fairly average game. While the combat system and story are both pretty blase, the quality of the visual style and puzzles are both fairly high, which helps to elevate the game overall. The end result is a well-balanced, though not particularly exciting game. The fact that it isn’t a revolutionary step forward for the Zelda series means that players who don’t get hung up on its pedigree will find it much more enjoyable than those expecting the next major shift in the series.

First, a little background. I am one of the biggest Rocktards (Mega Man fans) around. So when I first heard about a Mega Man X RPG, I was excited. I never had much fun with the only other major RPG based on the Mega Man universe and it’s offshoots: Mega Man Battle Network. However, X and it’s offshoots have always been my favorite sub-series of the Mega Man mythos, and thus the idea of an RPG based upon this series made me giggly. RPGs typically have greater stories, and there was plenty of fodder to flesh out in the X series.

Sadly, Capcom decided to take XCM in the “separate story” direction, placing the game’s setting in the future after the events of any of the X platformers, including the then-unreleased X8. This could have turned out well, but they went with basically an extended version of the platformer’s stories. The characters, while believable, are a bit low-dimensional. The main hunters that appear, X, Zero, and Axl, fit their roles as they usually do, with X being the reluctant hero, Zero being the aloof badass, and Axl being the eager new guy. The extras that round out the other character slots are made up of residents of the game’s locale, Giga City. You have a secretive bounty hunter, a ninja girl-bot, a child, and a heavily-armored “hero.” Each gets a chapter or two of the story to develop, but it seems like after said chapters, with the notable exception of the main Maverick Hunters, the rest just fall to the wayside outside of battle. For example, the heavy “hero,” who isn’t quite the hero he makes himself out to be, doesn’t get much screen time after his introductory chapter, which is the second out of 10. So, the story suffers a bit from a lack of character, but really, a super high-quality story isn’t something to expect from a Mega Man game.

The battle system, in which you’ll be spending the majority of your time with the game thanks to it’s slightly too-high encounter rate, helps to make up for the lax storyline. Characters have the typical RPG staples: Statistics that govern damage dealt and received, upgradeable weapons, “armor” in the form of Force Metals that change statistics in various ways, and even a form of MP.

When you start a battle, each character starts with a certain amount of Weapon Energy, which powers the sub-weapons you can use. These sub-weapons range from simple missiles, to elemental warheads, to missiles that deal status attacks, and even special abilities limited to a single character that allow for double attacks, extra money/EXP/Force Metal Energy from enemies, and more. Characters earn WE every turn to a maximum of 100%. Each sub-weapon has a different energy drain, and of course, sub-weapons are optional to use. Regarding Life Energy, it’s restored using Sub-tanks, which allow you to restore 25%, 50%, or 100% to either one character or all characters for differing amounts of Sub-tank energy. There is only one other way to heal yourself reliably, and I’ll describe it later on.

Each character has a unique skill that they can use when their WE equals 50% or more, with more WE allowing for more time to use the skill, or more power allocated to the skill. Examples include: X’s Charge Shot which will hit all baddies and gives a guaranteed critical at 100%, Zero’s requisite fighting moves which you chain together with button combinations for massive damage, and the child’s incredibly useful ability to heal everyone for percentages of Life Energy based on increments of 10% by simply rotating the right analog stick/camera stick.

Finally, every character has what’s called a “Hyper Mode”, which is essentially a state of increased stats, new abilities for some, and a form change. As well, when in hyper mode, characters are immune to status attacks, and any they are currently afflicted with are repaired. The catch is you have limited turns of hyper mode, and the turns do not recharge after battles without using some rarely found items, so they are best used in sticky situations and boss battles. However, it does behoove you to use these as they can help you attain the conditions for a Final Strike. A Final Strike occurs when you have three active party member and deplete an enemy’s remaining Life Energy by around 80% in one turn. A bar on-screen will notify you of how close you come to it. The result is a very devastating attack that will in all likelihood finish off the enemy, a bonus in Force Metal Energy, as well as some bonus Weapon Energy to the character that started the Strike. On bosses, it can result in almost double the EXP that you would normally receive.

Battle difficulty is quite varied, and factors that can influence this are levels, force metals equipped, weapons in use, and which characters are in the current battle. The latter isn’t as big a deal since you can switch any character out for any other at any time with no penalty. I’ve been in random battles that tested my patience only to be followed by a boss that went down without so much as a single hyper mode use. Conversely, some bosses are a major pain in the butt. Incentas, I’m looking at you. As such, some advice: Always use elemental resistance force metals when you have a clue that the boss will use elemental attacks, and never overlook the elemental weapons some characters can get.

Outside of battles, there are a few distractions for you. There are an insane amount of collectibles in the game. From sketches, to music files, to figurines from every chapter, you can collect quite a bit. Some of the items are found in dungeons or in vending machines, but otherwise you must use the Deployment Center. The Deployment Center allows you to take broken mechaniloids, repair them, and send them off to areas you’ve cleared to get items, ranging from the previously mentioned collectibles to weapons, force metals, and even keys that open previously locked (optional) parts of that area. The final distraction that can and will likely benefit you the most is the Force Metal Generator. It allows you to take force metals, either found or bought, and forge new, more powerful ones out of them. You can’t forge every metal in the game, but you can get some hard to find/buy ones earlier than normal using the Generator. It uses the aforementioned Force Metal Energy.

Overall, the 3D graphics are fairly good. The original Hunters all look like themselves, and the new characters have really cool designs. X boasts a new “command” body that looks pretty cool, Zero is his same old red pony-tailed self, and Axl’s… Axl. The game characters are cel-shaded in keeping with the fad at the time of it’s original release, but it works for it well. The generic reploids are kind of generic, but they get the job done of conveying the sense of reploids living in a city. Similarly, the sound is good, with the same old robot-walking noises and classic sounds like the charging X-buster and slashing Z-saber. The music is mostly forgettable, though some pieces are good, and some are almost as catchy as old Mega Man tunes.

Mega Man X: Command Mission is essentially what it advertises: A Mega Man X RPG. The story is on par with the X series, the almost never-boring battles include using special skills that require more than just your standard confirm button pushing, and you even have a boss rematch at the end. Just watch out for the sometimes wild difficulty and the mostly overkill encounter rate. If you’re a fan of the series and are interested in what an X RPG would be like, it’s a worthy purchase, especially now when it’s been out for so long. Just don’t go in expecting Shakespeare.