The Shrine

<div style='font: 9pt ; text-align: left; '>Does Capcom seriously expect people to be able to get anywhere close to the higher rankings their first time through these games???

I sorta noticed this during MMZ, but as I'm currently playing through MMZ2 at the moment where the rankings actually matter, it's become a lot more apparent. I'm not going to beat around the bush here - for me, these games are HARD. And as far as I can tell, to get an S or A ranking (to be eligible for the EX attacks), you have to be damned near perfect - take no damage, spend no time exploring the level, etc. - and how the heck are you supposed to be perfect your first time through, not knowing what the game is going to throw at you?

To be honest, the whole ranking system is something that takes a bit of the enjoyment of the game from me - I mean, if I go about the level at my own pace, get killed a couple times, use an Elf or two, then finally manage to beat the boss, I get a screen at the end telling me how bad I just did. It's a bit of a downer, you know?

Anyway, I was just wondering if you know if the higher rankings are designed for those who are on their second or third playthroughs, or am I just really bad?

Regards,
<i>-57</i></div>

<div style='font: 12pt ; text-align: left; '>I use an emulator so I can easily redo any mistakes, and I can't really imagine myself enjoying the game without it because some of the game is just so hard. Basically, you're SUPPOSED to use the Cyber Elves that end up doing things like take your life X4, make you not die when you hit a spike, and so on. But doing so completely trashes your rating and makes you feel like you suck. I can get S ranking on a level I know inside out about 50% of the time. I really don't see how you're even supposed to get an A ranking the first time. Oh and what makes it worse is that the enemy kill count, if you kill too many you lose points too! So you have to know how many to kill ahead of time and kill exactly that many.

Don't worry about the EX skills, none of them are more useful than the charged Saber/Triple Rod anyway. You can use the elves that give you a temporary class A rank if you want them really bad. However in Z3 some skills are quite good (like the burst shot).</div>

<div style='font: 10pt "Stylus BT"; text-align: left; '>Or harder than the X series was in any case.

First time players are supposed to be using the cyber elves. I was able to maintain S throughout the first two games on my first go around but I had to do some of the levels over several times by restarting my saved file. My distaste for seeing crap like Bs and Cs won out over my desire to get on with the games, but just barely since I found the story quite good. Most anyone will recommend however that it's best to forget about the rank altogether on your first playthrough. If it's more than a minor annoyance to keep an A/S rank then it's not worth the trouble at all.

Also, I was thrown off when I first played MMZ thinking that you are ranked for each stage when in fact your ranking is an average of how you did on all stages up to whatever point you're at thus far. Just something to keep in mind. It makes it easier to keep a good rank in later stages if you get a little sloppy provided you were rocking the game in the beginning.</div>

<div style='font: 9pt ; text-align: left; '>I found the same thing. The games are quite hard, even for MM games (there's been some doozies recently). Who cares about the rankings? If something is that bloody hard to get, it's just not worth it</div>

<div style='font: 9pt ; text-align: left; '>Z3 is supposed to be a lot more forgiving, too</div>

<div style='font: 12pt ; text-align: left; '>Well, there aren't as many spike/pits in Z3... most bosses don't hit that hard, and Shadow boots make things a lot easier too.</div>

<div style='font: 9pt ; text-align: left; '>Good. The first two start off quite hard, but once you get into them, it's a little easier</div>