2018-12-30

So, I've been playing a lot of ROCKMANX3 recently. I tried to do a ROCKMANX 25th Anniversary marathon playing all eight games in a row, but petered out in the middle of X5. A bit reason for this was because it took me five hours to complete X3. So I wanted to get my revenge on the game by playing it more thoroughly -- it's probably the RX game I've played the least of out of the entire series. Or, at least, it was. I've been playing a lot the past couple weeks, heh.

Anyway, I've been playing around with the special weapons, which are always one of my favorite parts of ROCKMAN games. So I want to do a little bit of analysis of the arsenal as a whole. I'll be splitting them into tiers that start with E tier being the worst -- weapons that are absolute garbage that the devs should be ashamed about -- through D-C-B-A and then finally S tier. The ranking will be mostly based on usefulness, with the most universally useful weapons going into A tier. S tier is reserved for weapons that are not only very powerful, but also perfectly balanced or incredibly fun to use in my opinion. Weapons that are simply overpoewred while being unbalanced are still getting lumped into A-tier.

Small adjustments to tiers will be made based on my own personal preference. Even if two weapons are equally powerful (or useless), if one of them really appeals to me for whatever reason, it may land itself in a higher tier.

So, let's just get right to it. I'm gonna go in the order that I acquired the weapons in my last playthrough.

Tornado Fang

Tornado Fang is an interesting weapon. It's the thing you use to bust down breakable walls, giving it at least that uniqueness. Otherwise, you fire a tiny flying drill that will get "stuck" in whatever it hits and slowly damage whatever it's stuck to. While that sounds great, the damage output is pretty minimal, and after doing enough damage, it will eventually pierce through and fly off the edge of the screen, so you'll probably have to fire another one to defeat anything other than the weakest of enemies.

For a while, I thought that was all it could do. Then after a playthrough or two, I accidentally fired it rapidly twice in a row. If you do this, you get a spreadshot of three drills, rather than the normal one, and all three of them can get stuck and cause damage in unison. The biggest problem with this is that the spread doesn't tend to work very well; with smaller enemies, only one drill will get stuck anyway, and with larger ones, you're lucky to have two of them get stuck. The damage is still small enough that it takes a while to defeat the enemy, so there's no real advantage to using it over your standard buster shots, especially since it's deflected by the same things those are.

The charged version seems powerful, but it's nearly impossible to use. Once you charge it up, X's arm turns into a drill that you can use to damage enemies. It's much more powerful than the little drills, but it has two huge weaknesses. The lesser of these two is that the weapon energy drains fast. Normally, I'm all for that kind of thing, since it's well-balanced if the weapon is pretty powerful. But this is like SUPER fast. And it starts draining as soon as the charge finishes and keeps draining as long as you're holding the drill, whether or not you're actually damaging any enemies or anything.

The second flaw, the major one, of the charged version of Tornado Fang is that it breaks when it touches anything that would deflect a normal buster shot. Which means trying to get close to most enemies to even use it is ridiculously difficult, since you'll probably lose the drill and have to charge all the way back up again just to use it again. And during that fruitless endeavor, you probably lost like 8 weapon energy or something, too. There are plenty of other weapons that can dish out similar damage from afar, so it's really hard to find a good use for it.

If you don't have any decent weapons but you do have the arm upgrade for some reason, I guess this could be situationally useful. Plus you do need to use it to break down walls. In all, it was a decent idea but the execution was quite lacking.

TORNADO FANG RANK: D

Frost Shield

This was one that took me a while to warm up to. Which is funny because it's cold. (Get it?)

Using it, you fire a weird ice dagger thing that moves very slowly across the screen, though it does accelerate a little as it goes. When it collides with something, it does massive damage to the target. And what's even more interesting is that if it defeats the enemy it hits or if it collides with a wall instead of an enemy, it will attach to the wall or floor and create a fan of ice spears that will cause the same massive damage to the next thing to touch it. Of course, it shatters after being touched, so it's not like some infinite trap you can place. But it's still quite powerful and interesting.

This can take out a lot of different enemies in a single hit, and even destroys bulkier enemies in a few hits. It can take out the centipede miniboss in only five attacks! The biggest problem is that there are always lots of projectiles and stuff flying around, and enemies are largely stationary. So you have to get right up on top of an enemy and fire the thing in their face to ensure you hit them, as it's unlikely to reach it from afar with its slow speed, and very few enemies will actually move around enough to hit the fallen ice fan.

The charged version is weird, as it causes X to get a mass of ice spikes on his arm. I guess this is where the "shield" name comes from. It's basically the same idea as the charged Tornado Fang, except this time, it doesn't constantly drain energy while it's being held (making the charged Tornado Fang even more useless by comparison). Instead, you have a limited number of times it can damage enemies before shattering. But there's one fatal flaw: like the Tornado Fang, it completely shatters upon hitting anything that can deflect a normal buster shot. Add to that the fact that almost all enemies in this game fire projectiles at you, causing the charged Frost Shield to waste several of its attack counts on those projectiles, it's nearly impossible to use this effectively.

It's sheer force alone makes up somewhat for its poor speed, and unlike the Tornado Fang, the blade of ice is fairly large so you don't have to worry about completely missing. But there's one huge boon that really ranks up Frost Shield: when it defeats most enemies, it guarantees the enemy will drop an energy capsule. So not only is it powerful, but it basically works as a healing mechanism. Since it's so strong, you can easily make use of it throughout the game, filling up your subtanks effortlessly as you go. This one attribute locks in the Frost Shield at a high ranking, and also makes it one of the more unique weapons in the series. If it wasn't for the charged version breaking constantly and the design revolving around moving enemies in a game where almost all enemies stay still, I would have landed the Frost Shield in Rank S.

FROST SHIELD RANK: A

Parasitic Bomb

I was originally quite disappointed with this weapon, as it comes from the sexiest boss in the game, and I didn't understand what the hell it was supposed to do. When used, it fires some weird-looking cross-shaped thing that hits enemies and does some damage to them. And it costs a lot of weapon energy. I later noticed that when it hit certain enemies (like the ones that have around 5 to 6 HP) it would instead latch onto them, and then just kind of... get stuck there. You can only have one on the screen at a time, so all you would do is incapacitate an enemy and then have to go on without being able to use your weapons. It reminded me of the Spark Shock from Mega Man 3, which is one of the worst weapons in the entire franchise. At least with this, though, you could move through the 'captured' enemy without taking damage.

For some reason, I never used the Parasitic Bomb on a weakling enemy until way later. And this is where it really shines. When it latches onto a smaller enemy, it not only immobilizes them, but it starts carrying them around. If there's another enemy nearby, it will smash the smaller enemy into the larger enemy, dealing massive damage. It's often enough to take out the larger enemy, too. And since there are lots of little enemies placed everywhere, this is extremely useful throughout the game.

Latching onto the medium-level enemies without carrying them ends up being quite useful in a lot of places, too. There are several places where you just need to get past that one enemy which is guarding some energy capsules or other items, and you can just toss a Parasitic Bomb onto them and safely grab the items. Doing this in some elevator shaft sections, I realized that after a while of being paralyzed, the enemy will eventually explode, allowing you to shoot another Bomb (which is nice as you continue up the elevator shaft, but hardly useful anywhere else).

So not only is this thing incredibly useful, its method of attack is super unique and fun. Capturing one enemy to watch it ram into another enemy, destroying both, is extremely satisfying.

The charged shot pales in comparison, but it's hard to top such an interesting design. When charged up, four homing cursors appear around X, and if there are enemies on the screen, they'll quickly target them and then send out tiny hornet bots to attack them. They seek pretty quickly despite their minimal damage, and work pretty well when there are lots of enemies on the screen as long as you're able to stand in a safe place and give the hornets time to destroy them. It's very cute and fun, and you know I love the bug theme.

After discovering its true usefulness, the Parasitic Bomb ended up becoming one of my favorite weapons of the entire ROCKMANX series.

PARASITIC BOMB RANK: S

Ray Splasher

When I did my marathon run of this game, I went in not remembering much about the game and being pretty ignorant about how most of the weapons worked. I actually thought the Ray Splasher was the only useful thing in the entire arsenal. Amusingly enough, it's now one of my least-used weapons.

Ray Splasher is kind of cool in concept. It fires a rapid spray of little energy pellet things, but they don't go straight. They go like 30 degrees up and down from where your bullets would normally go. This sounds like it could be really useful, but most enemies in this game are stationary and on the same vertical plane as you so there's often no benefit to this at all. They are pretty strong, so if you stand right in front of an enemy to where the trajectory makes no difference, you can usually take out medium and smaller enemies pretty quickly. But you can also use something like Frost Shield and get free health pickups, or send a much-safer Parasitic Bomb from afar and take out multiple enemies at once.

The entire game isn't just one big straight line, so there are a few places that the Ray Splasher comes in useful, and it's the weakness to a few bosses where its trajectory actually does help quite a bit. So, I guess, at least it has that going for it.

The charged version of the Ray Splasher puts a ball at the top of the screen that sprays out random Ray Splasher shots around the screen. Chances are none of these are going to hit the enemies you want them to, and you could much more easily hit them with another weapon that you can actually aim, instead of taking up all the time to charge this one with the hopes that it might actually hit something a couple times.

It's strong and has an interesting trajectory, but there's just not much way to make good use of it in the game, and almost anywhere where it's helpful, there's something else that's even more helpful. Decent design, but the rest of the game's design just doesn't allow for it to be particularly useful.

RAY SPLASHER RANK: C

Bug Hole

The most amusingly-named weapon in the game, the BUG HOLE! This was changed to "Gravity Well" in the English version of the game. I guess they thought "B.Hole" sounded pretty weird to English-speakers, hehehe.

Anyway, you get this weapon from a bug, it has bug in its name... it has to be super cool, right?

Wow, is this a let-down! It took me forever to figure out what the hell this thing even did, and when I did figure it out, it was... really underwhelming.

The Bug Hole fires a little mechanism that opens up into what I assume is supposed to be some kind of black-hole-like thing. It sits on the screen and makes a little animation, and then it goes away. Most of the time, that is all it does.

If the enemy is weak enough -- and by this I mean like, maybe two or three enemies in the entire game are even weak enough to be susceptible -- then it will wait a while, immobilize the enemy for a bit, and then destroy it. But it takes a while for it to "get going," so even though this works on some (some meaning not all, or not even most) projectiles, it takes way too long to 'charge up' to actually be of any use.

The charged version of the Bug Hole is even more of a disappointment. X throws some kind of gravity black hole ball thing into the air, and all these lines move across the screen as if the entire game is being engulfed into the abyss. Looks like it might be a fun screen-cleaner like the Gravity Hold from ROCKMAN5. But guess what? It still only affects the same two or three weak enemies that are even susceptible to it. Anything else, and it does absolutely nothing.

I can't think of a time at which you would want to wait a long time and perform risky maneuvers just to take out some minor enemies that could easily be taken out in a more efficient way by any other weapon in the game, including the standard buster. I tried to find places where this could be useful -- maybe there's an enemy somewhere that's very hard to reach, and since the Bug Hole reaches the entire screen at once, this would be really useful! Well, I couldn't find any places like that, or if I could, the Bug Hole wasn't capable of damaging that enemy.

The only time the Bug Hole ever is useful in any way is in Electro Namazuros's stage where it's required to charge up the Bug Hole to power a lift that takes you to an upgrade capsule. That's it. And they easily could have just made any other weapon do that, so that's not particularly redeeming.

BUG HOLE RANK: E

Triad Thunder

This is the first one on the list that I think I'm really going to struggle coming up with a fitting rating.

The Triad Thunder is a pretty cool concept. When used, X shoots out three orb thingies: one above him, and two below him to the left and right. The orbs send bolts of electricity between each other, forming a protective barrier in a triangle around X. Now, if you know me, you know I love triangles. So that part of the concept is already pretty cool. And I love barrier and shield weapons, too.

There's a bit of delay from firing it, so you can't use it as a reaction to projectiles or something and expect to be saved. And then it dissipates after a little bit, shooting thunder beams in three directions (perhaps a nod to the Thunder Beam from the original ROCKMAN?) This makes it kind of hard to use as a shield, so you're mainly going to be using it to, well, destroy enemies.

It's pretty powerful, but like the Ray Splasher, you have to stand right up on top of an enemy to use it. And because of the triangle shape, you have to be even more dangerously close, or the enemy has to be at your feet. And it doesn't dispel all types of projectiles, just the kinds that can be destroyed, so you have to be careful about that kind of thing, too. It's great if you've memorized the stages and know exactly where you want to use it, but otherwise, you're probably better off using another weapon.

I guess if you got the Triad Thunder early enough in the game, it would be your only decent-damaging weapon, but Namazuros is a difficult boss, and if you're trying to be efficient, you'll want to have at least the arm upgrade and the Bug Hole by the time you go there, meaning you'll already have the Frost Shield. Either way, it's still good for creeping up on certain projectile-shooting enemies. But if you're like me, you'd rather dash up to them quickly and blast them in the fast with Frost Shield or capture them with Parasitic Bomb or something.

A few bosses and minibosses let the weapon shine, though, which is nice.

The charged Triad Thunder is another story, though. X punches the ground and sends two massive electricity balls across the screen. I don't think the balls actually do anything but add to the effect, because as soon as he punches the ground, everything gets destroyed. And I mean everything. I've yet to find something that doesn't instantly die after using a charged Triad Thunder (well, at least normal enemies; I'm sure the bosses don't die instantly lol). It's a little annoying because you basically have to sit and wait out the animation, but that's not too big of a deal considering you have an all-powerful weapon capable of destroying anything in your path. You also are required to use it to open a few hidden passageways to collect all the items in the game.

I initially wanted to give Triad Thunder a B because I feel like it's overshadowed by other weapons that I like better, but I feel like the ranking should be more based on how well the weapon can hold on its own. And it's pretty good on its own. The powerful charged version definitely increases its ranking, too, so I think it should get a solid A rank. I guess it not being in my favor as well as some other weapons will just bar it from getting that elusive S rank.

TRIAD THUNDER RANK: A

Spinning Blade

Here's another great one. I'm actually assigning these ranks as I type up these little analyses, so I don't actually know what exactly the rank will be until I'm done, because I might change my mind by the end. I usually have a pretty good idea, though, and I think this might be the second S rank for this game.

When the Spinning Blade is used, X fires two blade disc things in front of him. They move forward for a bit, but then swoop back around like boomerangs, one heading upward and the other downward. It's a really unique trajectory I don't think I've seen anywhere else in the series. It can be a little counter-intuitive at first when you're wanting to utilize this trajectory to hit something in front of you that's a little out of reach, as you actually have to turn backward. But in a way, I think that makes it more fun.

These little blade boomerangs are quite powerful, too. And if you stand up close to an enemy and hit them with both as they first disperse, you'll do damage with both, which is super strong. And you can spam this, too, to dish out tons of damage at once. Even large enemies don't stand too much of a chance against these things. Though with the bigger guys, you do take a little bit of risk since you'll have to stand there for a bit during the spam and they might attack you.

The biggest flaw in the Spinning Blade is that the blades immediately despawn when they're off the edge of the screen. This is great for when they're already moving backward, as you're "done" using them then and want them to be gone so you can fire more. But this is terrible when you're standing near the edge of the screen and need to hit something behind you, because they're just going to disappear as soon as you fire them. And there are several places in the game where you would definitely want to use them this way, which makes it quite frustrating.

That fatal flaw alone makes me want to knock the rank down an entire letter. But...

That's made up for by how amazing the charged version is! When charged, X fires out a HUGE spinning blade attached to some kind of cord like a yo-yo. And this thing is big, I tell you! It's also ridiculously powerful and doesn't break upon hitting things like almost everything else in this game. What's even better about it is once the thing is spinning in front of you, you can rotate the directional pad to rotate the blade in a large radius around X! You can hit almost anything with this, and with the massive damage you can deal, it will destroy pretty much anything. It's a ton of fun, and useful pretty much anywhere since it has amazing range and power.

Even if the uncharged version of this was as worthless as the Bug Hole, I think the charged version may be enough to give this thing a B or A rank on its own! But the uncharged version is quite good, too, so that's why I'm going to elevate the Spinning Blade to the top rank.

SPINNING BLADE RANK: S

Acid Rush

Ah, the tragedy that is the Acid Rush. This weapon has a really great concept that I like a lot. I tried really, really hard to make good use of it.

The Acid Rush fires a little blob of acid that moves upward for a little bit, then plops onto the ground in front of X. When it hits the surface, it splashes into four little beads of acid, all of which can cause individual damage to enemies. And it doesn't have to splash on the ground -- if you jump and shoot it into the ceiling, it will rain down its splash. Of course, you can shoot it into a wall, too, to splash it off of there. It should have been called the Acid Splash.

Now, this concept is my kind of weapon in design. But there's a huge problem... It's weak as hell! You can hit enemies with the initial blob, and it seems to do around 3 damage, which is... not much at all. You can take out the weakest of enemies with this, but it's very slow, and you're better off using anything else. And other enemies require multiple shots, which is not helpful at all, as you can't spam this weapon. So maybe you're supposed to hit with the splashes, right? Do more damage by hitting more times? Wrong! The splashes are even weaker that the main blob! I think they could have saved this weapon by allowing it to hit an enemy and then disperse into splashes, allowing the splashes to rain down and cause additional damage. Maybe that was the original intent but it wasn't programmed properly? I don't know.

The charged version fires out multiple larger blobs that kinda bounce around... but again, they're stupid weak. It's a huge shame. There's not really any reason to charge this up unless you really don't have anything else to use.

I guess if you went to Seaforce's stage first and this was all you had, it wouldn't be terrible. And there's a few places where you can utilize its upward trajectory. But outside of that, this is a weapon with great concept but greatly flawed execution.

ACID RUSH RANK: C

Overall

And that's all of 'em. In the end, we had Sx2, Ax2, Cx2, D, and E. Seems like the distribution actually favors the upper tiers! Which is somewhat surprising to me, considering how adverse I've always felt about this game. I'm really starting to like it more and more. If I were to assign point values to each tier rank and average them out, the ranking of the entire arsenal overall would be something like a B-.

I'm really surprised how much fun there is to be had with a lot of these weapons. It's a shame that the game's overall design is a bit lackluster and the enemy variety is so small. If this game had the design and variety of the first X game, I think these weapons could have gotten even higher rankings, as part of what hurts them is the lack of ability to be used very creatively thanks to the lack of creativity in the stage designs.

I had a lot of fun writing this even though it took several days (I blame being sick) so I want to write them for the other two SFC games, maybe even for the whole series. It'll be interesting to average out the scores for all of them and see which games overall get the highest average arsenal scores.

#mega man x3 #rockmanx3 #rockman #rockmanx