<div style='font: 12pt ; text-align: left; '>Well, I'm at the end now, and I think it's pretty safe to say this game is not going to be better than X4 unless Lumine turns out to be Omega in a way that make sense (yeah right, he's said 3 words since the beginning of the game).
This game is very anti-Zero. With the increased hitbox around Zero and seemingly every boss in the game has a good attack that can hit you at melee range, the X8 Zero is probably the most useless version ever (not sure about X7, didn't play that). Axl does more damage just firing from range with any of his weapons than Zero can do with a 5 hit combo which also freezes you up forever you might as well have a sign says 'please kill me'. Now you could stop at say, 3 hits, but then you could've used Axl instead and do more damage and from far away.
The most extreme example would be the Copy Sigma fight. You can't stand anywhere on the ground, and you absolutely cannot hit Sigma without landing on the ground (and take a ton of damage) with Zero. I can swear you can't even hit Bamboo Pandamonium without colliding with him (hitting his arm doesn't seem to hurt him, but touching his arm will hurt you). You're probably better off going Axl & X because at least X isn't rendered useless by just about every boss in the game.
Actually, there is one place you need Zero, against Sigma, because he puts up a barrier at a range outside of Axl's barrier piercing attack (Blast Launcher) and if you don't destroy the barrier he does an attack that covers the entire screen and basically instantly kills you. Oh yeah, did I mention Sigma is hard, just because he has an attack that can instantly kill you? You either end up have to use Zero (who is useless against every other attack he has) or you've to move Axl into mid-range. Or how about the jumping acrobatics on spikes in the area before him? Hope you are really good at them, because you're going to need all your 3 or 5 lives for Sigma (Hard/Normal).
The story looks like it borrowed some ideas from the Zero series with each stage giving you some info on what's going on. However it doesn't do as good a job as say Z2 or Z3 where each mission appears to have meaning (including the obligatory filler stages between the 8 bosses and the final boss). Actually, X8's story is basically the same as every other one except every stage they actually update you on what's going on (Mavericks are rebelling again, surprise surprise). I still haven't seen Lumine since the intro...
On the plus side, this game is one of the best looking in the X series (though I think X4 has better style to it). The voice acting is respectable, and the Vile fights are pretty interesting. I think it's worth the money, but I'd say the Zero series are still a better buy if you haven't played them yet.</div>
This game is very anti-Zero. With the increased hitbox around Zero and seemingly every boss in the game has a good attack that can hit you at melee range, the X8 Zero is probably the most useless version ever (not sure about X7, didn't play that). Axl does more damage just firing from range with any of his weapons than Zero can do with a 5 hit combo which also freezes you up forever you might as well have a sign says 'please kill me'. Now you could stop at say, 3 hits, but then you could've used Axl instead and do more damage and from far away.
The most extreme example would be the Copy Sigma fight. You can't stand anywhere on the ground, and you absolutely cannot hit Sigma without landing on the ground (and take a ton of damage) with Zero. I can swear you can't even hit Bamboo Pandamonium without colliding with him (hitting his arm doesn't seem to hurt him, but touching his arm will hurt you). You're probably better off going Axl & X because at least X isn't rendered useless by just about every boss in the game.
Actually, there is one place you need Zero, against Sigma, because he puts up a barrier at a range outside of Axl's barrier piercing attack (Blast Launcher) and if you don't destroy the barrier he does an attack that covers the entire screen and basically instantly kills you. Oh yeah, did I mention Sigma is hard, just because he has an attack that can instantly kill you? You either end up have to use Zero (who is useless against every other attack he has) or you've to move Axl into mid-range. Or how about the jumping acrobatics on spikes in the area before him? Hope you are really good at them, because you're going to need all your 3 or 5 lives for Sigma (Hard/Normal).
The story looks like it borrowed some ideas from the Zero series with each stage giving you some info on what's going on. However it doesn't do as good a job as say Z2 or Z3 where each mission appears to have meaning (including the obligatory filler stages between the 8 bosses and the final boss). Actually, X8's story is basically the same as every other one except every stage they actually update you on what's going on (Mavericks are rebelling again, surprise surprise). I still haven't seen Lumine since the intro...
On the plus side, this game is one of the best looking in the X series (though I think X4 has better style to it). The voice acting is respectable, and the Vile fights are pretty interesting. I think it's worth the money, but I'd say the Zero series are still a better buy if you haven't played them yet.</div>
