Ninja Gaiden [NES] + R2RKMF: Scrolling Action Monogatari

[Licorice]

plays with a controlled stutter that feels like it's being faxed to the GB in realtime from an office somewhere in early 80s Tokyo

Can't stop laughing lol. A quick view through some YT videos, it doesn't look so bad. Even Trax chugs along quite a bit when things get busy IME.

[BIL]

Lovely little game - I find it genuinely quite likeable in pure action terms, a kind of sidescrolling take on Compile's signature body-ram ethos. You're invincible a lot of the time, but why cry about it? Ram it down! It's the odd chibipocalyptic air that really sold me, though. Disarming combo of fine-grit detailed metropolises and wildernesses with big, characterful sprites. And the BGM is spellbinding at times, the GB speaker singing its little heart out. Not a formally outstanding action game, but more than decent enough to support its stylistic charms.

[Sumez]

I really hate when games just adjust a couple variables and call that "difficulty".

So every single arcade game?

[copy-paster]

https://www.youtube.com/c/UCanBeatVideoGames

Anyone have a word about this channel? Only watched the recent NGIII one but seems promising although this playstyle's not very R2RKMF way but good enough to teach newbies.

[BIL]

Seems like a good dude. Nice thumbnails!

Admittedly, you know anyone who'll tactically engage with scrolling action, rather than trying to headbutt their way through a brick wall while whining about it is good peeps in my book. Getting people to drop the "Nintendo Hard" copium (and its equally unhelpful counterpart, blind controller-throwing rage) is always this thread's raison d'etre.

[Sumez]

Ran into his videos some time back. Not a very professional production quality, but a genuine interest in approaching video games as fun challenges to solve. Like BIL, I think this seems like a cool guy in my book.

[Volteccer_Jack]

Aight, Azure Striker Gunvolt 3 is by far the best entry in the franchise. Prevasion is still godmode and they added a new OP Devil Trigger mechanic, so you're going to need to set restrictions if you want a decent challenge, at least on Normal mode. But playing for score/rank is super fun, and there's a difficult and very awesome postgame Gunvolt mode. I'm a big fan, and that means big text wall, sorry-not-sorry.

Battle Priestess Kirin
Our new protagonist who is for some reason both dragon and cat themed. She throws ranged talismans to seal enemy lifebars which gets cashed in all at once when she strikes with her sword for an instant kill. But just walking up and hitting them wouldn't be cool enough. The star of the show and defining feature of Gunvolt 3 is the Arc Chain:

Spoiler

In addition to being an instant teleport attack, it briefly grants Kirin improved air mobility afterward. You use this ability for everything, be it getting past tricky enemies, navigating platforming sections, or avoiding boss attacks, and it gives Kirin a totally unique playstyle with a lot of room for creative solutions to problems. And the devs were well aware, every inch of this game is designed to test your understanding of the mechanic. Bosses especially have some ingenious tricks in Gunvolt 3. I imagine the boss design discussion going something like, "Is this pattern too tough?" "Who cares, the player can teleport, they'll be fine." And it's glorious, emphasizing the big difference between Kirin's movement and other side-scrollers in the best possible way.

Arc Chain is also how she scores points, as Kirin shares Copen's scoring rules: kill as many enemies as possible without touching the ground. And it's every bit as fun to fly around killing dudes with Kirin as it was with Copen. But unlike Copen who could fly indefinitely with ease, Kirin only gets a grace period of about 2-3 seconds after each Arc Chain before she falls back to the ground. As a result scoring with Kirin is faster-paced and demands more consideration and quick thinking, which makes it all the more satisfying to pull off. This increased challenge is compensated by scoring being slightly more forgiving about small mistakes. Instead of losing all your points the first time you get hit, you now simply get your score temporarily frozen. It's easier now to get 'pretty good' mission ranks, but harder than ever to get the perfect S++ rank.

Dogvolt
For story reasons, Gunvolt is now a Devil Trigger. The GV gauge gradually fills when Kirin uses her sword, and constantly drains when playing Gunvolt, draining further when he attacks or gets hit. Getting turned into a super mode served to improve his design quite a bit. GV used to feel very tepid and weak but he has fast and powerful attacks now, including an electric power bomb, and feels sooo satisfying to play. Even his simple lock-on electricity got cosmetic changes to be more visually impactful. The Flashfield is now on by default and you hold R to turn it off, playing up his out of control power. GV destroys things with his presence alone, and he can't completely turn it off, only redirect it toward lock-on targets.

Of course, because he basically amounts to a second health bar, GV trivializes the already iffy difficulty of Normal mode, with the only downside being that he is worse than Kirin at scoring. My recommendation is to not use GV at all until after finishing the story. Which brings me to...

Post-game
After finishing the story, you unlock Hard and Very Hard. They are identical except that Very Hard bans you from using Image Pulses (basically Cyber Elves from MMZ) so I will just refer to them collectively as Hard mode. Kirin gets reduced HP and severely reduced GV gauge, but stages and normal enemies are unchanged. The big difference is the bosses. Every single boss attack, without exception, is altered in some way to be more difficult to deal with. How this is done varies greatly, it could just be faster or generate more projectiles, many attacks become multilayered, and at least one attack will fake you out if you try to dodge to safety too soon. The common factor is that all of these changes are clearly done with care. The ingenious boss designs I described earlier get elevated to positively machiavellian at times. The special Boss Rush stage is brutal on Hard mode.

D-Nizer
Beyond even Hard mode we have this goofy name. Apparently meant to be an abbreviation for Dragonize, D-Nizer is a difficult Gunvolt-only survival mode that ends if you ever let the GV gauge fall to 0. Since you don't have Kirin, you're now able to gain GV gauge by scoring well. Gunvolt's scoring is based on simultaneous multikills as always, but the addition of the teleport strike makes it possible to link together larger groups than ever before, as it is fast enough to strike new targets during the split-second timing leeway for simultaneous kills. You won't have time to make adjustments, so his setup-focused playstyle remains. D-Nizer mode is reminiscent of racing to feed the soul-devouring sword in PS2 Shinobi, but here efficiency is the driving factor rather than time. You need to build up a hefty supply of energy before each boss fight, since you have to spend energy just to attack. D-Nizer mode forces you to play the whole game in one go with no saves or retries, and with Hard mode bosses. This mode is really, really good. As much as I've hated this character in the past, he is a blast here, and it feels good to see him earn his place as the title character by being the best part of the game. An epic final challenge to cap everything off, and it has its own even harder mode after you manage to beat it once.

Other Junk
The story is surprisingly well-written this time around. It's still weeb crap where the power of J-Pop can revive the dead and take over the world, but I never got the urge to turn off the mid-stage dialogue cuz it was actually entertaining banter for once (disclaimer: I used JP voices, I don't dare try the dub). I also like that the NPC characters directly pop up in a couple stages. It's nice to see them being shown to help out. Another cool but rather odd detail is that the final boss's motives are only explained via a bit of text that appears onscreen for about half a second and is written in code.

Then there's the matter of DLC. Out now are two packs of Image Pulses, the aforementioned Cyber Elf stand-ins, which aren't terribly exciting except for one which radically changes Kirin's scoring. It completely removes the score bonus she gets from Arc Chain and greatly increases the amount of points she gets for hitting enemies with normal sword attacks, which makes an alternate playstyle much more akin to the Megaman Zero games. Truthfully her normal playstyle is more interesting/cool, but it's a fun alternative to play around with, and it seems they intend to have more stuff like this in future packs. There's also a third playable character that will supposedly be added as a free update.

https://www.youtube.com/c/UCanBeatVideoGames

Anyone have a word about this channel? Only watched the recent NGIII one but seems promising although this playstyle's not very R2RKMF way but good enough to teach newbies.

Cool channel, I dig it. The "anything goes" mentality to beating games is important (something Gunvolt devs could stand to learn). He does gloss over some key sections, like for Death hallway in CV1 he basically just says "run through real fast". Maybe devote a bit more time to sections like that. But I like that he went to the trouble of giving full guides for NGIII Act 7 with and without the invincibility power, and does the same thing for CV1 Death with and without holy water.

[BIL]

Superb as always, marked for index! (the update's still a thing - like a veritable R2RKMF cenobite, I am exploring the further reaches of the post character limit )

Bosses especially have some ingenious tricks in Gunvolt 3. I imagine the boss design discussion going something like, "Is this pattern too tough?" "Who cares, the player can teleport, they'll be fine." And it's glorious, emphasizing the big difference between Kirin's movement and other side-scrollers in the best possible way.

These games have always given me the feeling the designers were at least aware of Shinrei Jusatsushi Taroumaru (Saturn), with the shared premise of highly mobile players tagging multiple enemies with big screen-shredding bangs, much stronger than anything you can land individually.

That ethos again rings a bell, Taromaru giving both characters a freely-spammable burst shield that snuffs projectiles, i-frames through everything else, and also extends your airtime. The catch is, it resets your all-important charge shot, so abusing it will naturally sap your destructive momentum - an ugly situation, with the aggressive and quick hordes. The trick is to artfully hole-punch through otherwise-impossible dragnets and bludgeons, otherwise relying on BNB spacing and evasion to launch those waves of mutilation.

A Tale Of POSSESSION (｀w´メ)

Spoiler

Predictably, noobs tend to either ignore the shield (like this clown), or abuse it, making Taromaru seem arcade-tough, when it's really more in line with the previous gen's crop of first-rate scrolling action. For a project developed for cabs, before narrowly securing a console release, it feels about right treating each individual life as a credit. It's a generous game; the designers simply expect players to recognise the gifts they're given.

I really like that approach, tasking the player to "do the impossible" in controlled, artful bursts, as an accent to the natural rigour of 2D action. Obviously, it can be overdone - nobody wants a spamfest - but giving both the player and enemy just the right scintilla of God Attack / God Defense / God Evasion, then having them hash it out in real time is thrilling when done with proper verve.

[Sima Tuna]

When I saw the new character for Gunvolt 3, I was immediately interested. Primarily because she looked like a new iteration on the Mega Man Zero playstyle, which I much prefer to GV gameplay.

[Sumez]

I think I've given up on that series entirely after everyone told me Luminous Avenger iX was much better than the previous Gunvolt games, and I tried it and thought it was horrible
As much as I enjoy the ability to go above and beyond when it comes to mastering a game, I'm not a big fan of all the skill-based gameplay in a video game being tied entirely to a score mode. If I'm playing an action game I want it to try to kill me.

[Volteccer_Jack]

I really like that approach, tasking the player to "do the impossible" in controlled, artful bursts, as an accent to the natural rigour of 2D action. Obviously, it can be overdone - nobody wants a spamfest - but giving both the player and enemy just the right scintilla of God Attack / God Defense / God Evasion, then having them hash it out in real time is thrilling when done with proper verve.

In retrospect, I think that's where Copen fell short and Gunvolt 3 succeeds. Copen's flight was effortless and cost nothing, so it didn't feel like a power but just how Copen moves. Flying around with Kirin or GV demands more care and consideration and that naturally makes it engaging. When the game strikes just the right balance of making an ability very strong yet still demands the player use it correctly, you get a more direct feeling of the power because you're directly involved in making it powerful.

When I saw the new character for Gunvolt 3, I was immediately interested. Primarily because she looked like a new iteration on the Mega Man Zero playstyle, which I much prefer to GV gameplay.

Ignoring the teleport, she plays very similarly to Zero. She even gets sword moves from bosses: upward attack, downward attack, and dash attack. Arc Chain is ever the centerpiece though and her other moves primarily exist as complements to it.

As for GV, there's probably posts in this thread of me calling Gunvolt 1 utter trash, lol. He was marginally better in Gunvolt 2 but I was only there to pick the edgy guy and play 'Rocket Knight x Megaman'. Gunvolt 3 completely turned me around on the character, which is maybe ironic since all the fans of the first two games are mad about him "getting shafted".

Speaking of improvements, I noticed in the end credits that Gunvolt 3 has a different director from the previous games. Creator Yoshihisa Tsuda is credited as Series Director, while Hiroki Miyazawa is credited as Director. Maybe that's normal, I dunno, but it looked weird to me so I did some digging. Miyazawa previously directed the two Curse of the Moon games, and was tapped by the director of Dragon Marked for Death to help overhaul that game's playable characters to be more fast-paced and fun. Turns out, the Gunvolt 3 team were struggling to design Kirin's playstyle, and Tsuda himself couldn't spare more time to focus on solely the gameplay, so they appointed Miyazawa 'Action Director' and had him lead the development of all the gameplay. One quote jumped out at me:

Tsuda:
If you become skilled at it, you can use it to move across the whole stage without having to land even once. That’s the game I aimed to make. But since it’s Miyazawa who’s making it, using the chains only is now very hard to the point I myself can’t pull it off. He’s calibrating it so that those who can pull it off are proven to be truly skilled

Hats off to Miyazawa; Curse of the Moon 2 just got bumped up a couple slots on my to-play list.

I think I've given up on that series entirely after everyone told me Luminous Avenger iX was much better than the previous Gunvolt games, and I tried it and thought it was horrible
As much as I enjoy the ability to go above and beyond when it comes to mastering a game, I'm not a big fan of all the skill-based gameplay in a video game being tied entirely to a score mode. If I'm playing an action game I want it to try to kill me.

Luminous Avenger iX IS better than Gunvolt 1 and 2 in basically every way, difficulty included. Draw your own conclusions from that statement.
Gunvolt 3 is a further improvement, and has a free demo, but if you thought iX was horrible then it's pretty unlikely Gunvolt 3 will win you over. They have maintained their insistence on making the player immortal during casual play. iX 2 is the only game in the series that doesn't have Prevasion, and even iX 2 crumbles if you use the optional upgrades.

The modes in this series that will try to kill you for real, are iX 2 Hard mode, and Gunvolt 3 D-Nizer and Very Hard modes, which is coincidentally one mode for each of the three characters. Buuuuuttt none of these modes are available until after finishing story mode, and in all 3 the difficulty lies mostly in the bosses.

[Sumez]

They have maintained their insistence on making the player immortal during casual play.

Yeah I'm out. Such an awful design ethos IMO.

and in all 3 the difficulty lies mostly in the bosses.

This is another thing that turned me off on every other Gunvolt game. Even if some bosses might be interesting, the stages are all barren and unengaging.
Even if you didn't have "prevasion", enemies wouldn't try to kill you anyway, they are there entirely to work as fodder for your combos - and instead of combining different types of enemies in interesting ways (as an action game should, in my book) they are instead typically spaced out so far that keeping a combo going becomes harder.
I actually ordered a Physical copy of Gunvolt 3 via LRG entirely because I needed one more game to take me over the minimum amount required to bypass customs, but sounds like I should have picked something else -_-

[Sima Tuna]

I have to wonder how they got Gunvolt's difficulty so wrong after the Zero games (especially 2 and 3) got it SO right.

[Volteccer_Jack]

They specifically set out to make the game easy so that even very casual players would be able to see the ending, they even thought of Prevasion as a selling point for marketing, "anybody can do it" type of thing. Gunvolt 1 was basically made for non-action-game-fans from the very start. The story, including the character Gunvolt, was designed to appeal to fans of light novels, I shit you not. But the devteam was full of hardcore action gamers, which is why you have a bipolar game that's impossible to die in yet also demands annoyingly perfect performance to get a good rank.

[Sir Ilpalazzo]

I'm not sure I would say Mega Man Zero nailed its balance, really. I actually replayed those games last month for the first time in some years, and for all their strong points I don't think they're especially refined.

The whole series has absolute best-in-class handling of course; even with all the 2D action I've played over the last decade, I've hardly ever found anything that rivals their extraordinarily satisfying character movement and sword strikes. But the level design constantly suffers from the GBA screen size throughout all four games, and it feels like even at the end they hardly ever gave consideration to the hardware they were working with: enemies constantly appear right on top of you and you frequently have to make semi-blind jumps. And though the attempts to make bosses more complex and involved fights than in the classic and X series are admirable and a good amount of them are fun, they pretty consistently have a problem making boss telegraphs correspond to the following attacks, so a lot of boss fights just see you throwing away lives on them until you've seen enough to be able to actually learn and fight them. Actually going back to get solid scores once you've fully memorized a stage and boss is fun just because of the stellar handling, of course, but ultimately I think they failed to get the balance right, and the learning and re-learning period to get to that point is too abrasively bumpy.

The series definitely gets stronger as it goes along - I'd say the best two are probably 3 and 4, with 2 probably having the worst difficulty balance out of all four games - but I used to think of the Zero series as the most consistent and overall best Mega Man series, and now I don't think I'd call any of them great.

[Air Master Burst]

The series definitely gets stronger as it goes along - I'd say the best two are probably 3 and 4, with 2 probably having the worst difficulty balance out of all four games - but I used to think of the Zero series as the most consistent and overall best Mega Man series, and now I don't think I'd call any of them great.

This is really hard to quantify since most Mega Man series are at least 8 games long and like half of them are gonna be mediocre at best. Like, if X had stopped at 4 it would easily take the crown, but sadly, it didn't. Maybe the Battle Network games are all good? Never played any of them as it ain't really my kinda game, so I can't be sure.

I guess either Legends or ZX would take "most consistent" series but giving either one "overall best" seems like a copout.

[Sir Ilpalazzo]

Well, right out of the gate I would say classic Mega Man is certainly more consistent than X, at least. The NES games + 9 and 10 range from good to great, and though I haven't played 7 and 8 for a while, there's no way they drag down the average enough to put it below the X series, which is genuinely half bad (and I would say even X2 is kind of mediocre).

The Zero games are probably more similar to each other than any other MM subseries games. There's less of a quality gap between Zero 1 and 4 than there is between, like, Mega Man 2 and 5.

[Sengoku Strider]

The NES games + 9 and 10 range from good to great

and I would say even X2 is kind of mediocre

I can't get behind calling X2 mediocre while saying the NES games all range from good to great. Not that the NES games were bad at all, they were just kinda running in place for the last 3, doing the same basic game template with a new situational traversal gimmick added. So if those were good, X2, a challenging game with great controls, colourful huge set pieces and a nice amount of exploration and secrets to discover, has gotta at least be in the good category along with them.

[Sima Tuna]

Well, right out of the gate I would say classic Mega Man is certainly more consistent than X, at least. The NES games + 9 and 10 range from good to great, and though I haven't played 7 and 8 for a while, there's no way they drag down the average enough to put it below the X series, which is genuinely half bad (and I would say even X2 is kind of mediocre).

The Zero games are probably more similar to each other than any other MM subseries games. There's less of a quality gap between Zero 1 and 4 than there is between, like, Mega Man 2 and 5.

I can't agree with any of this, really.

X and X2 are fucking masterpieces. The levels in both range from good to excellent and both are rightly hailed as some of the best games in the mega man franchise. But from about X2 (or X4) to X8, the series spiraled off into myriad directions, most of which were a downgrade from what came before. If not outright horrible. The X formula didn't meaningfully evolve from MMX until MM Zero. Zero was that needed next step. But X and X2 are still amazing games in their own rights, the more so because the latter X games didn't surpass them.

The second major point where I disagree is with this notion that there's not much quality gap between Zero and, say, Zero 3. Zero 1 is practically an unfinished game. The boss fights are good, but many of the other elements suck immense quantities of anus. The open world concept really doesn't work in practice. Leveling weapons is stupid. Weapon balance is all over the place. The game is jank as fuck generally and full of shit-tastic escort missions.

But Zero 3 fixed all of that.

https://strategywiki.org/wiki/Mega_Man_Zero_3/Weapons

No weapon leveling. Cyber-elves you can use without murdering them or your rank. Better bosses. Better levels. Proper stage design rather than a bunch of individual (shit) stages connected into a hub. One weapon doesn't dominate the game anymore. Zero 3 may not seem much different on the surface, but delve under the hood and there are a wealth of changes. Zero 3 is challenging and rewarding for casual play, but has even more depth when you dig into it.

The later Mega Man X games had some good ideas (armors) balanced with a lot of bad ones. Aside from the screen size, which is an innate issue in almost ALL GBA games, I can't think of anything Zero 3 does poorly. Zero 4 suffers a bit for being a redundant, iterative sequel rather than the radical leap forward the series should have been making at that point. Zero 2 is fantastic, but I think it still has a few flaws here and there (some levels that are kinda ass). Zero 3, in my book, is the complete package. The heights that Inti never reached again.

... Although I am leaving room open for Gunvolt 3, which I haven't played, to take that spot as the next evolutionary step.

[Volteccer_Jack]

It seems obvious to me that the hardware was considered at every step of the process in developing the Zero games, from the level design to the artwork to the style of the music. Those games are made to be played on GBA hardware, moreso than any other GBA game. I've never experienced the supposed blind jumps people complain about. Even in the quite rough Z1, the longest jumps you're ever required to make are to things in clear view. Wheel enemies appearing "right on top of you" seems annoying, sure, until you realize shooting them slows their movement. The Z games are very generous about your limited ability to see.

My most abiding memory of Z4 is completing an S-rank run two days after I bought it and thinking it was a bit too easy, an impression which replays years later have not changed. And if there's any boss in the series with hard to read telegraphs, it's the magnet jerk in Z4, again I feel this is an area where the Z games are generous. Certainly more than the SNES X games, which regularly featured nonsense like Wheel Gator leaping up from under the screen without warning. I'll admit Z1 throws a first-time player for a loop; if you don't level your weapons efficiently Z1 becomes a lot harder than it needs to be. I liked that mechanic but Z2 pulled it off a lot better. Z2 probably has the best difficulty balance of all the games.

Maybe the Battle Network games are all good? Never played any of them as it ain't really my kinda game, so I can't be sure.

The first BN game is a bit of a mess, and BN4 suffered for a few reasons, but the rest are great. Both the Z/ZX and BN/SF series are very consistent, I think you can attribute this to having consistent devteams, unlike the classic or X series. Most of the BN1 devteam stayed with the series all the way through Starforce 3, in the same roles 8 years 8 games and a console generation later.

X and X2 are fucking masterpieces. The levels in both range from good to excellent and both are rightly hailed as some of the best games in the mega man franchise. But from about X2 (or X4) to X8, the series spiraled off into myriad directions

It's painfully clear even in X1 that the developers have no idea what they want the game to be. The X armor is a hasty afterthought that could be entirely deleted from the game, except for the dash which should have been a default ability since half the stages and bosses become fucking miserable if you dare to play any stage before Chill Penguin. The Head part to the armor does nothing except unlock the Arm part, LMAO. Which is even completely pointless since the story gives you the Arm part if you don't have it, meaning the Head part does NOTHING AT ALL. X4 is the only game in the series where one gets the impression that the developers had a vision of what the game should be and followed through on completing that vision. I think people have very selective memory when it comes to the X games tbqh.

[Air Master Burst]

The X armor is a hasty afterthought that could be entirely deleted from the game, except for the dash which should have been a default ability since half the stages and bosses become fucking miserable if you dare to play any stage before Chill Penguin. The Head part to the armor does nothing except unlock the Arm part, LMAO. Which is even completely pointless since the story gives you the Arm part if you don't have it, meaning the Head part does NOTHING AT ALL.

You need all the armor parts to unlock the Hadoken in X1, so the head actually DOES do something. Agreed about the dash in X1 being stupid, though.

It's painfully clear even in X1 that the developers have no idea what they want the game to be.

This is where you lost me, though. X1 is an amazing game with brilliantly designed levels and bosses. Even the underwater level is good! The X Armor is clearly meant only as some extra secrets to add replay value for people because it was 1993 and that's just how you did that sort of thing. I just can't see the X Armor as some sort of evidence that the devs weren't focused when the rest of the game is so tightly designed.

[Sima Tuna]

I'll give you the Chill Penguin thing. The dash should have been default in X1. Which is why it's default in X2. Everything else the game does well. One useless armor piece is pretty irrelevant tbh. Certainly not a reason why the game is secretly bad or anything.

I didn't play X or X2 as a child. I approached these games for the first time when emulation came to my household. Even so, I immediately understood what the fuss was about. The levels, music, visual style/consistency and design are all quite excellent. Do Zero 2 and Zero 3 have better bosses? Heck yeah. But Zero 3 is my favorite mega mans of all time, so I guess it would have to. I never got the impression playing X or X2 that the games were slapdash or haphazardly put together. Mega Man Zero 1, on the other hand... Let's just say Zero 2 was a very needed sequel.

[Sengoku Strider]

It's painfully clear even in X1 that the developers have no idea what they want the game to be.

Well...that's a take.

It's one of the most celebrated action games ever created. If it didn't hit you in the masterpiece bone that's fine, there's all kinds of stuff people love that doesn't click for me. But let's not act like it was some mess hastily cobbled together by amateurs fumbling in the dark.

[Volteccer_Jack]

"most celebrated action games ever created"

Hoo boy. Alright, fine, you twisted my arm. Here I go, maximum effort.

May as well begin with the water level. Launch Octopus's stage is not good. It's like 15 seconds long, then you fight 4 bosses in a row, and fight the easiest and most boring one of them twice in a row if you want a heart. That's the entire level. Hell, the only reason it's not the worst water level in the Mega Man franchise is X7 exists.
Here's the water level from MM4.
And here's the water level from MMX1.
The level design is a marked downgrade. "But X series is a different style of gameplay!"
Okay, here's X3.
And X5.
And here's one of those "shit" levels from MMZ1
Even the intro level of X1 is a more interesting level design than Launch Octopus's stage.
Here's a comparison between Launch Octopus's stage and Gunvolt 3's water stage:

Spoiler

If you like your action games to "try to kill you" then you don't like X1.

The X1 devs don't know what a MMX game is or should be. The level designs are just simplistic less interesting versions of NES level designs. You climb the side of a tower, but it's really easy and uninteresting because you have a wallcling and walljump and the enemies are all stationary. Even jumping from one platform to the next, as in Storm Eagle's stage, is slower than it needs to be (having pointless time-waster enemies on half of them doesn't help matters), cuz they haven't yet figured out how to make fun platforming with MMX movement. There's no doubt in my mind this is why Sigma's fortress has no significant platforming after the opening climb. That in itself is a problem because Sting Chameleon's weapon entirely negates all hazards in the game except bosses and pits, and there aren't any pits inside Sigma's Fortress. Meaning Sigma's fortress is a boss rush and nothing more. You can't even skip the Arm part to prevent this.

X2 is a different story cuz the second time around they clearly had the basics figured out. They proceeded to do a million baffling stupid things and I can't even begin to fathom why. Why does Crystal Snail's special attack consist entirely of making the game run like PS3 Blighttown? Why does Zero return in the form of a fetch quest? The world may never know.

People whine about the view in MMZ and say "enemies constantly appear right on top of you". But let's compare MMZ1 to MMX1:

Spoiler

Yup, X1 does it worse.
^^This shit right here is why I say people have selective memory about the X series. So much of what people complain about in later X/Z games is shit that X1 and X2 did first and did worse. "Oh X5 is bad cuz bosses get 2-5 seconds of invincibility ONLY when you hit them with one specific weapon" Meanwhile X2 bosses just become invulnerable for 10 full seconds at a time for no reason at all except that they felt like it (you WISH I was talking about Wheel Gator, but he's just one of the bosses that does that shit).

"X3 bosses are bad because Blizzard Buffalo just rams into the walls over and over"
Meanwhile, the final boss of X1:

Spoiler

At least X1 doesn't make you fight a shitty wireframe model instead of a final boss, can you imagine how bad that would be?

In summary, if you think X5 is bad but think X1 and X2 are "masterpieces" you are lying to yourself.

[Air Master Burst]

First of all, those water stage comparison shots make X1 look WAY more fun than Gunvolt 3.

"Oh X5 is bad cuz bosses get 2-5 seconds of invincibility ONLY when you hit them with one specific weapon"

"enemies constantly appear right on top of you"

"But X series is a different style of gameplay!"

"X3 bosses are bad because Blizzard Buffalo just rams into the walls over and over"

I don't see where anyone here said any of this stuff. Maybe you're projecting based on other discussions you've had on this topic?

If you don't like the level design or whatever that's fine. Claiming the devs were unfocused when it plays better than all the shovelware that makes up like 90% of the SNES library seems a lot more like lying to yourself, but I guess it's easier than just admitting a game everyone else loves might actually be good.

Also, X5 may not be a masterpiece like the first couple, but it's a pretty good game.

[BrianC]

Were the Hyperstone Heist boss quotes mistranslated? Most of them seem a bit odd, and Tatsu's quote is inaccurate (you don't have to defeat the foot soldiers to defeat him). At least they translated the defeat quotes, unlike in SNES Turtles in Time.

[bottino]

I'm far from being a MegaMan enthusiast, but I think that X is the rare instance where right out of the gate you have good ideas interwoven in a solid game (with good room for improvement, sure), unlike both the first MM and Zero.

[BrianC]

I like that Rockman X1-3 have fan translations based on the Japanese script.

[it290]

I've always thought both series sucked compared to OG Mega Man. I don't want to be holding down a button all the time to be viable, nor do I want to be reliant on weird tap dashes and multiple button presses to survive. Original Mega Man has better boss design too. Mega Man X really brings nothing that the original series didn't have other than graphics and 'tude,' both of which time has shown to be wholly unnecessary.

[Air Master Burst]

I've always thought both series sucked compared to OG Mega Man. I don't want to be holding down a button all the time to be viable, nor do I want to be reliant on weird tap dashes and multiple button presses to survive. Original Mega Man has better boss design too. Mega Man X really brings nothing that the original series didn't have other than graphics and 'tude,' both of which time has shown to be wholly unnecessary.

I won't argue your first two points as they're mostly subjective (I vastly prefer both the bosses and the expanded control scheme of X to OG Mega Man), but your last point is just straight-up wrong. The X series introduced all sorts of new things that the OG series never really touched on, like multiple playable characters, multiple endings, vehicles, and crouching. How fun and/or succesful these innovations are may be debatable, but let's not pretend they were just spinning their wheels with the X series.