Hello, friends. It's been a little while since an update, I know. I have a couple things ready to write, like a new entry for SaGa 2 and ROCKMAN2, and then just need to do a little bit more playing in other things to keep writing on those. I recently became a Twitch Affiliate, so I've been doing a lot of streaming when I can because I'm kinda hyped about it. Not that much will come from that, but... it's still fun. The Stardew Valley mutiplayer beta has been released, too, and I've been playing that with my friends. And then I've of course had the general Health Issues™ and I've been dealing with more Life Things than I'm really capable of handling well recently.
But among all that, a very cool thing happened! And that's what we're here to talk about today. A group of ten fans, myself include, got together on GameFAQs to do this Mega Man Weapons Draft thing. Basically, we took turns and picked weapons from the entire series to create a 'dream arsenal' of sorts to be used in a hypothetical new world for Rock to explore that had obstacles and enemeis both old and new.
I've talked about before how one of the most interesting thing about Mega Man as a series is that despite its simplicity it lends itself to a wide range of play styles that differ from player to player allowing for many unique ways to experience the game even though you're essentially going through the same stages and accomplishing the same goals every time.
This draft worked to highlight and explore those difference in play style and preference between ten different players of the series. We could see what kinds of things different players prioritized and things like that, and see how it felt to get something you wanted taken away from you before you could grab it.
It was a ton of fun. The rules are pretty simple to explain, too. The game was organized by GFAQs user EnigmaZero, and we used a randomized order to select our picks from a list of pretty much all of the weapons and utilities in the classic series. Each round the order reversed, so the two on the ends got to pick twice in a row. I was the second person in the order, so I got two picks close together. There were 127 items to choose from and ten of us playing, so each participant chose 12 items each, leaving only seven unpicked.
So, I'm going to talk a bit about my "strategy" and resulting arsenal.
There weren't really any concrete goals to what we were trying to create, so everyone had different values. Some people wanted to have the most powerful set, some people wanted to be prepared for any type of hazard they may encounter, etc. Personally, I wanted to have a well-rounded set that was fun to play with. The "fun factor" was my most important quality, so I was mainly hoping to grab up weapons I simply enjoyed using from the series, even if they weren't necessarily the most powerful of their type.
As far as variety, I made a list of the types of usefulness that were most important to me:
- Shield Weapon
- Ground Weapon
- Anti-air Weapon
- Mobility Item
- Wall-Breaking Item
- Seeking Weapon
- Directional/Aimable Weapon
- Freezing Weapon
- Anti-Gabyoall Weapon
Since we got a total of twelve picks, and I only had nine important qualities (some of which could even overlap), I figured I'd spend the rest of my efforts into filling in holes and balancing out the set, grabbing some high-power weapons in there.
Before I go into the individual picks, I want to note that EnigmaZero made some cool graphics and a poll for the results of the draft over at GameFAQs. You can see the topic and images with everyone's picks and vote on whose arsenal you like best over at This link!
Also, everyone started with of course Rock's standard Mega Buster and the Rush Coil, as that's pretty common starting equipment in the games. We had the choice of the normal Rush Coil or the Mega Man 5 version of Rush Coil. I was the only person who picked the MM5 Coil. I've never understood why people seem to vastly prefer the other coil. They both have the same functional result (give you a higher jump), but you have more versatility and control with the MM5 Coil. I guess it does require a slight bit more technical skill to use, but I feel like that wouldn't deter most players. But you can control the height of your jump with the MM5 coil, whereas with the standard coil, you're forced into one height and one momentum. And since my goal here was versatility, the MM5 Coil felt like a much better fit.
Round 1
I was super curious how the first round was going to start off. Surprisingly, the very first pick was for Search Snake. That's definitely something that I thought would be available for most of the draft. I wasn't interested in it anyway, because there are better ground-rovers out there like the Ice Wave or Plug Ball.
My general strategy going in was to look at the 'needs' I had and see which would be the most dire to pick up quickly. I made a little list of all the items and weapons that could fulfill each property, and then looked it over to see which categories didn't have a lot of options and which of them contained only popular options... basically, stuff I would feel like I needed to pick earlier.
The most obvious first round pick for me was definitely a shield weapon, as there are few good shield weapons in the game. I either wanted to nab the Jewel Sattelite or the Junk Shield, and since I got to pick second, I got to grab the best shield in the entire series, Jewel Satellite!
It's a solid start, too. A shield is one of the most vital parts of an arsenal to me, and the Jewel Satellite functions not only as an amazing shield, but a pretty powerful weapon if you're willing to get close to enemies.
The rest of Round 1 saw a lot of "powerhouse" weapons being taken, like Metal Blade, Pharaoh Shot, and Thunder Beam. I was pretty happy to see this, and kind of expected it, because raw power was not one of my priorities and that meant that more of the utility/fun weapons were left open for me.
Round 2
Round 2 started with another strange pick -- Super Arm. At this point I started to get worried that the picks were going to be super random and things I really wanted were going to get gobbled up fast solely by chance. But then the rest of the round continued and a bunch of raw-power weapons like Drill Bomb, Flash Bomb, Rain Flush, and Flash Stopper got picked up. I really am not fond of screen-clear weapons so I was glad to see a lot of these going early. And Drill Bomb is a great weapon with the utility to break open barriers as well, but my first choice for a barrier-breaker was actually the Hard Knuckle, which I figured wouldn't be popular enough to get taken very early anyway.
Round 2 was reverse order of Round 1, so I only had to wait for Lil_Bit83 to make her two picks before I got to pick again for Round 3. The second pick of Round 2 after Super Arm was actually the MM3 Rush Jet, so I got kinda paranoid about picking a utility. I wasn't planning on taking a utility this early, but Huey's Rush Jet pick scared me into it. I ended up going with the MM4+ Rush Jet. I figured I may as well grab it as early as I could, and I'd be getting another pick soon enough.
Round 3
I wasn't particularly worried about picking Rush Jet as my second pick since I only had to go through Lil_Bit83's two picks before I could pick again. But sadly, I was in for a shock when she chose Air Shooter as one of her picks. It was my primary choice for an anti-air weapon (especially since I'm in the middle of my ROCKMAN2 Play Diary where Air Shooter is a valuable tool I'm attached to) so I was really sad to see it go.
And now I was starting to get even more paranoid. I originally thought that since I was mostly focusing on weapons with various utilities that weren't necessarily all-powerful nor popular, I'd have an easy time snatching them all up and getting a dream arsenal. But after having my Round 2 pick "forced" on me and then something I thought I wouldn't see go before I got to it gobbled up before I even got my third pick, I was really freaking out.
I was very close to grabbing the Hard Knuckle as my third pick simply because I was so worried all my unpopular picks were going to be taken before I could get to them. Fortunately I gave myself some time to think about it and realized that I had actual popular things on my list that I should get out of the way beforehand, and ended up going with the Hornet Chaser. With its seeking ability and ability to pick up items and return them to Rock, it was a solid addition to any arsenal, and from the responses to it, one that many other players wanted, so I'm glad I picked it up when I did.
And at this point, all three of my choices were items from Mega Man 9. I mean, it's not too surprising since that game has great weapons and stage design. A lot of MM9 weapons were going fast.
Round 4
The end of Round 3 and the return trip through Round 4 saw a lot of good weapons being taken, as well as a lot more variety. The Super Arrow was picked up, which is a fun choice, and someone even grabbed the Wheel Cutter, something I was hoping to nab when I didn't have anything else I knew to grab at the time.
My turn started to approach again, and I was getting pretty excited that I was going to get the opportunity to grab the Plug Ball when it was my turn. I didn't realize at the time I was going to still have an all-MM9 arsenal through the fourth round.
But everything was ruined when Redmage1987 chose the Plug Ball in his pick, which was the pick just before mine. I was pretty set on choosing it that I didn't even have a backup plan. And the Ice Wave had been taken earlier in the round, so my backup for the Plug Ball was also gone.
I had no idea what to do and hastily chose the Hard Knuckle out of paranoia. I thought about grabbing up a backup-backup ground rover like the Water Wave, but I figured that stuff like that wouldn't be popular enough to get taken up, and at this point none of the remaining ground-rovers were all that great anyway, so my arsenal would be equally well-off with pretty much any of them.
Round 5
The round started off with Lil_Bit83 choosing the Rolling Cutter, which was a bit of a disappointment, since it was one of my best options for an anti-Gabyoall weapon that fit with the rest of my arsenal since the Ring Boomerang was taken earlier. As much as I love the Danger Wrap, I already had the Hornet Chaser and planned to take the Gyro Attack so I had plenty of "slow moving things that go up" already.
I did indeed take the Gyro Attack as my fifth pick. Being probably the most well-regarded item in Mega Man 5, I figured I should get it while I could. It satisfied my need for an aimable weapon, and its aiming mechanism actually functions a bit better than competitors like Shadow Blade (which I'm really surprised hadn't been taken yet) or Knight Crush albeit with a little decrease in power. But I prefer utility to power, so Gyro Attack was the better choice for me. And with Gyro Attack and Hornet Chaser, I felt like losing out on the Air Shooter wasn't too bad.
It seems I wasn't the only one eyeing Knight Crush, as it got taken by Redmage1987 on the very next pick. The rest of the round went 'safely' with a lot of things being picked that I wasn't interested in like the mighty Tornado Blow or that I already had covered with better items like Star Crash and Dive Missile. Probably people were wanting to get their shields and homing items in now and not be stuck without any.
Round 6
Coming back on Round 6, the Magma Bazooka got taken, which was something I would have liked to have grabbed as a 'powerful' item later. At this point I was starting to realize that saving the idea of a strong damage-dealing item for late was probably a bad idea, since the late-game options will probably include little if any weapons like that.
Despite that, when my turn came around, I noticed I was severely running out of options for an Anti-Gabyoall weapon, so I ended up going with the Chill Spike, which could also work as a freezer weapon. I was hoping to actually pick up the Ice Slasher or GameBoy-enhanced Spark Shock later in the draft, figuring that at least one of them would last for a long time, but now their usefulness in my arsenal seemed to drop due to picking up the Chill Spike. It's a great weapon, though, so I was happy to have it along.
The draft was now halfway over, and my arsenal was completely weak utility items. That's kind of how I expected it to go anyway, and I was still hoping to grab something powerful by the end. But I still wanted to sort out all my priorities.
Round 7
Lil_Bit83 picked up the Water Wave, which I was hoping to grab myself, and the Danger Wrap, two solid choices for the halfway point. Now that it was around to me, I realized my options for ground weapons were pretty much gone, and I realized the last half of the draft was going to be making concessions and settling for stuff I really didn't even originally want. So I decided to go ahead and grab one of my favorite weapons in the entire series, the Charge Kick, to make sure I had it in my arsenal.
Not only do I love the Charge Kick, but it's pretty powerful -- probably the most powerful weapon I'd chosen so far, and it grants a bit of mobility and invincibility, and can at least take care of ground enemies that are directly in front of me. I still wanted to pick up a ground-roving weapon, but in the chance that I would not be able to at all, the Charge Kick at least satisfied part of that need.
Round 8
At some point through the end of Round 7 and beginning of Round 8, someone mentioned a quality that I totally forgot to consider in my original priorities list -- shield-piercing ability. A lot of the best shield-piercers like Solar Blaze and Laser Trident had already been taken. I also still didn't really have a powerhouse weapon yet, so when my turn came around, I ended up going with Yamato Spear. Lots of power, good speed, and can pierce shields. Its biggest downside is its terrible energy consumption. But since I like playing with utility more than power, I only really pull out power weapons now and then in a stage, meaning its energy-greedy nature isn't too harmful to me. And if I need a lot of power with a lot of energy, I can at least stand back and toss Gyro Attacks around everywhere.
Round 9
At this point, I was feeling like most of my priorities had been accounted for. I had a way to break barriers, fend of Gabyoall, aim attacks and ward against things in the air, attack in pretty much any direction, pick up items, and seek out enemies. I could even pierce shields and dash through things with invincibility or freeze enemies as needed, so it was time to just start picking fun stuff and add a little raw power to the arsenal.
So I went with Napalm Bomb. I really like the "drop in front of you but very strong" weapons like this, Concrete Shot, and Flame Blast. The other two had been taken, and MM5 is my favorite game, so I was happy to take my beloved Peanuts.
I got a little criticism after the draft for having too many MM5 weapons in my final arsenal, but honestly Gyro Attack, Charge Kick, and Napalm Bomb are all really amazing weapons. Napalm Bomb easily takes out almost anything in the game with a single shot or a few rapid drops, and it even bounces around on the ground which gives it a bit more range and versatility compared to Flame Blast or Concrete Shot. Gyro Attack is one of the most maneuverable weapons in the entire series, allowing crane-game-like functionality that allows you to pretty much aim it at anything on the entire screen. And Charge Kick grants completely invulnerability while it's in use and destroys a LOT of enemies. What other weapon allows you to simply pass through enemies without even bothering to fight them? Take that, Sumatrans!
Anyway, my love for MM5 aside, I was pretty happy with my arsenal at this point, and I realized my last few picks were just going to be "whatever" at this point, so I didn't have much fear about the rest of the draft.
Rounds 10-12
The final rounds were mostly just everyone picking stuff that complemented what they already had from the remaining choices. I picked up Wind Storm to finally have SOME kind of ground-roving weapon, and at least it also is cute with how it picks enemies up after defeating them. Plus I've been playing MM6 a lot recently and have come to appreciate it a little more. I'm still bitter about the Plug Ball thing, though.
In Round 11, I grabbed the Top Spin, another of my favorite underrated weapons. Let's one-shot most of the enemies in the game simply by jumping into them, and have a fun and unique spinny animation, too!
For my last pick, since I was the second to last to pick, there were only nine options left. None of them were particularly fantastic, and none of them really fit with my arsenal, so I just grabbed the Power Stone to continue my devotion to MM5. It's a terrible weapon but it can be fun in some contexts, at least. Twelve weapons is kind of a lot, so I didn't really have much need at this point anyway. I guess I could have gotten Rush Question or something.
Conclusion
I only talked about my personal experience here, so if you want to see my final arsenal alongside everyone else's, hear what others have to say, and discuss the draft and vote on your favorite picks, head over to the GameFAQs topic by EnigmaZero that I mentioned before.
I had a ton of fun participating in the draft, as did everyone else. It was so fun not only to be able to make the picks and see what everyone else picked, but we talked about our choices and Mega Man games in general throughout the whole thing, so it was a really fun social experience as well.
We all liked it well enough that we're doing another draft, this time choosing stages throughout the series to make a sort of 'dream game' that would be fun to play through.
And now hopefully I'll get back to actually updating some play diaries ;D
