It's now time for the Zero playthrough of the game!
All maps by X GOD.
Unlike the last game, which lets you switch between X and Zero, X4 has you choosing one and forcing you to stick with that character for the entire game.
The game begins with Zero in a capsule. The silhouette of Dr. Wily tells him to go after Mega Man...but why? Suddenly, his head hurts. We see a shocked Sigma, a destroyed lab, destroyed robots...
Suddenly, at Hunter H.Q., an alarm is called for a Maverick sighting. Zero wakes up. They have taken over the Sky Lagoon with the most advanced weaponry available. The army appears to be that of the Repliforce. Zero heads down there without delay.
Sky Lagoon
Unlike last time, where you could use primarily the blaster and the Z-Saber only for the final attack of the full arm cannon charge, Zero is now restricted only to his sword.
Guess what? It's actually fun. By standing still, you can perform a three-hit combo by pressing Square while standing still. You'll be able to tear through tougher normal enemies with this, but you can also continuously slash at the air by pressing Square as you're airborne.
The roly-poly robots will throw grenades at you and shoot at you with guns, while the bulldozer enemies with the spikes will try to run into you. The ball robots walk towards you, while the dragonfly robots fly around.
Shoot down the doors that block your path. Do it quickly so the giant dragon robot in the background doesn't destroy you.
When you reach the reactor, you'll meet Magma Dragoon. He'll tell you that a Maverick destroyed the power reactor. As a result, the Sky Lagoon is about to come crashing down. Magma Dragoon escapes. and X has no choice but to head to the city below and get everyone out.
When you reach the city, you'll find out it's already been destroyed.
Wall-hanging robots will come out of the walls, blocking your path at times, and walls will drop down as you head to the right. Sometimes parts of the floor will rise up. If there are any cracked rock walls, destroy them with the Z-Saber.
Near the end, the floor will collapse on you. You'll find full health (red canister with yellow core inside) and an extra life (Zero's helmet). You'll want to get back up to solid ground with the wall kick before you get crushed by the wall to your left. The weapons pick-ups are blue balls with two horizontal lines, for future reference. Unlike previous games, the weapon and health pick-ups come in three sizes: small, medium and large. Small gives you a small amount, medium refills one-fourth of the respective meter and large is a complete refill.
Once you avoid being crushed to death, you'll meet Iris. She'll tell you a Maverick has shown up, and Zero makes up his mind to defeat it before she can explain further.
You'll soon take on that giant dragon boss from earlier. This dragon has two attacks: firing energy balls from its mouth as well as a flamethrower-style energy ball flurry that hits only if you're close to it. Keep jumping and slashing at its face with the Z-Saber, since that's all you've got for offensive measures. That's all you have to do.
Once you beat the intro stage boss, you'll meet Colonel, the Colonel of the Repliforce. He's only here to save his sister Iris and that the army responsible for all the carnage is not part of the Repliforce. He also thanks Zero for saving Iris. Zero wants him to come to Maverick HQ quietly, but Colonel refuses to lay down his arms, saying the only time the Repliforce will drop their weapons is if they cannot fight any longer. Colonel then teleports away after telling Zero to deem the Repliforce Mavericks if they wish, leaving the situation even more tense than before.
The large yellow Reploid from the introductory cutscene (identified in the following cutscene as General, the General of the Repliforce) soon tells his soldiers through the media that it is now time to create their own utopia for all Reploids and usher in a new golden age to advanced civil rights and liberties for Reploid-kind, also saying that this is not about insurrection or rebellion against their human creators. Meanwhile, the hooded figure laughs...
After the post-intro cutscene, you'll enter the stage select screen. Iris will show up at Maverick HQ, telling Zero that it was her brother Colonel who started the coup and telling him not to fight her brother. Zero must put a stop to this...even if it means fighting Colonel...
You'll then get acquainted with the eight Maverick stages and their missions, which have no bearing on the game whatsoever other than creating a reason as to why you're going there:
Jungle: Infiltrate enemy-occupied jungle and destroy the weapon under construction. (Web Spider)
Cyber Space: A bug has corrupted the network. Dive into cyberspace and exterminate it. (Cyber Peacock)
Air Force: The Repliforce shp has taken off. Pursue and blast it out of the air. (Storm Owl)
Volcano: Dragoon of the 14th unit is a traitor. Locate and bring him back to Hunter HQ. (Magma Dragoon)
Marine Base: Repliforce decimated the city and left. Pursue them aboard a Land Chaser. (Jet Stingray)
Bio Lab: The abandoned lab is now operational. Investigate and destroy the lab. (Split Mushroom)
Military Train: A military train is moving supplies. Cut off Repliforce's supply route. (Slash Beast)
Snow Base: We've discovered a hidden snow base. Halt production of their new weapon. (Frost Walrus)
Volcano
The spiked balls will bounce towards you, but if you can position yourself and time your movements carefully, you can walk under them.
Volcanic rocks will go up and down the bottomless pits soon after the start, so don't cocky and simply dash jump over every single one. You might get smacked by one of those rocks for your impatience.
If an energy pick-up is laying on its side, it's a small pick-up. If it's upright, it's a large one.
The bats will drop bombs, and the Mettaurs just move towards you. There are craters which spew volcanic lava out, which damages to the touch.
The squid robots have three cannons and will fire missiles at you. Fire a fully-charged X-Buster shot at it, then lay waste to it with regular shots. They always fire missiles high, low, both, and then repeat, so be prepared to jump over some missiles if you're not quick enough at destroying them.
Near the end of the first section, watch out for the rolling rocks. They drop down at the top of the slope and then go down the slope, and it can be tough to jump over them as they can sometimes comes down in pairs.
Shoot the wall to get to the second section.
If you're low on health at the end of one area, you'll be completely refilled at the next one.
In the second section, you'll have to dash jump from one platform to the next. You'll be dealing with the volcanic rocks shooting up and down the screen again, and some of them will destroy the platforms after enough of these rocks hit them, so you'll want to be a little quicker when you see that happening.
The Reploids in the Robot Ride armors will slash at you if you get close enough to them.
After the first Robot Ride enemy, dash jump off the left edge to get a Heart Tank and increase your maximum health.
At this point, you'll see volcanic rocks coming down from above like meteors. Keep an eye out while progressing.
When you make it to the lava, you'll find a free Robot Ride armor. You can use this to destroy any volcanic rocks and to traverse the lava, which is really awesome. The Robot Ride has an overhead slash attack as opposed to previous games, and despite being something to get used to, it's pretty efficient. You can even use it to take a lower path and go straight to Magma Dragoon. You'll find out he was the one to let the Sky Lagoon fall, making it official that he's gone Maverick.
There was originally an X capsule above where the Robot Ride armor is, but since Dr. Light didn't create Zero, the capsule won't be there.
Magma Dragoon is pretty easy to take on with the Robot Ride armor. Just pound away at him with it, since you'll have a lot of health on it to withstand more than enough punishment while whittling Magma Dragoon's health bar down. If you lose the Robot Ride armor, just slash at him with your Z-Saber.
Magma Dragoon will leap around the room, landing either at the center or one of the sides. He has a diving jump kick and will also shoot Street Fighter-esque Hadokens at you: one high and one low. He also has a Shoryuken, a flame thrower attack that covers the whole platform and can also be shot into the air, but more often than not, he'll be hitting you with Hadokens.
When you beat Magma Dragoon, you'll find out someone goaded him into joining Repliforce and giving him power. But who?
Beating Magma Dragoon with Zero will give you Ryuenjin. This allows Zero to leap into the air and slash with a flaming sword. To perform it, hold Up and press Triangle. Unlike Mega Man, you won't need energy for most of your special attacks.
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