Mega Man ZX Prequel

[PowerPanda]

Five years ago, a Chinese game maker named Hunger-Z released a MegaMan Fangame known as "Rockman ZX Prequel: Light & Dark". Being released almost entirely on Chinese sites, it didn't make its rounds in the English or Japanese fan circles at first. A while later, Rockman Labs released an unofficial machine-translated version. While this gave the game exposure in the English-speaking world, the Rockman Labs version introduced a handful of bugs that made it difficult to fully enjoy. They also took most of the credit for the game, erasing Hunger-Z from parts of the credits. By examining the exe file, I was able to find Hunger-Z's info and reach out to him. I found out that he is imminently putting out a version 2.0 of the game, and using the opportunity to (rightly) take credit back for himself. While the 2.0 release might have a machine-translated script at first due to his target release date (July 30th), he and I are working together to render the script in native English shortly thereafter.

So of all of the MegaMan Fangames that exist, why did I offer my help on THIS one? Simply put, because it's an awesome game! This game isn't just a derivation of stuff that came before it. Hunger-Z took the best parts of the ZX series, Zero series, and X series to craft a title with its own unique identity.

The world and the storyline are from the ZX series. Biometals, Guardians, Prairie, Giro, Prometheus, and Pandora are all here. You have a large, interconnected map that borrows from Metroidvanias, with quests that have you backtracking to get extra upgrades (but with a cleaner presentation than ZX).

The gameplay though? It's a mixture. At the beginning of the game, you'll have to choose between 2 characters: one biomatched to Model X and the other biomatched to Model Z. Like X4, your choice will stick for the entire game. Instead of different biometals, you'll get EX Skills and Chips that you can equip, like Zero 3-4. Model X plays exactly like the intro stages of MMZX, with a double buster cannon. Instead of switching weapons, you'll get EX skills that will replace your 2nd charge shot with a special skill. Model Z plays like X4. You ONLY get a sword at first, but your EX skills can be comboed together to increase Z's versatilty. For both characters, you can equip MMZ-style chips to your Head, Body, Weapon, or Feet that give you special effects. Some of the chips are from ZX/ZXA, some from Zero 3-4, and some are from X 5-6. Also for both characters, the Zero/ZX combo system comes into play, so that you can stack damage through i-frames.

Pretty much the only downside to ZX Prequel is that it re-uses assets from other games. All of the environments borrow tilesets from the Zero and ZX series (with one notable and intentionally nostalgic callback to the X series). All of the bosses are sprites you have seen before in Zero/ZX. However, each boss has completely new attacks and patterns, and is usually a different element. The music is borrowed from several sources. It is hard to fault a fangame for this though, since the Mega Man franchise has been borrowing tilesets and even boss sprites from itself since its inception (looking at you, gameboy Mega Man series).

Hopefully this gets you excited. I personally think that it is a top tier game, and I'm excited that more people will get to experience it now. Here is a review from Go Galactic that gives a good overview of what to expect. It's of the buggy Rockman Labs version, but it highlights all of the right stuff.

[EvilJagaGenius]

Interesting, I'll look forward to it.  Would you recommend playing the machine-translated version as soon as it releases or waiting for the revised version?

[Operator0G]

so a version 2.0 is coming out on the 30th? any news on the sequel to this, zx zeta?

[PowerPanda]

Interesting, I'll look forward to it.  Would you recommend playing the machine-translated version as soon as it releases or waiting for the revised version?

The revised version won't be too far behind, so play the machine translated version through the first 2 levels to get excited, and then wait for the rest.

[kuja killer]

Oh my god this game... So i was recommended by my good friend Thanatos-Zero to try this out, so im like hmm, okay i'll check it out.
here: https://www.romhacking.net/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=4675

I downloaded the latest 1.14 or whatever, and the game at least runs okay for me, 60 FPS ...i hear sound effects but...
There's no music whatsoever period. It just doesnt play or load or something i guess. Those .ogg sound files that comes in the zip file. I can play them back just fine in say Media Player Classic for example...but why the hell does the game not play back the music, i triple checked the options and the sound and music were turned on and everything seems fine... just no music is the only single thing

I DESPERATELY tried to contact the author of this game "sousou" on his youtube videos, he never responded. I tried signing up the the "rockman lab" chinese forum, and i posted a reply in that guy's dicussion topic about this game - never got a reply... and THEN the thread was mysteriously deleted a few days later....all i got was a stupid "your comment was liked by sousou" and he also deleted his "english version released" youtube video... what the fuck!!

So i deleted the game cause ...screw it. Waste of my time. I cant stand "fan games" im sorry. i only perfer the world of romhacking and romhacks.

[PowerPanda]

so a version 2.0 is coming out on the 30th? any news on the sequel to this, zx zeta?

Keeping in mind that all of our conversations have to go through Google translate, and there's the possibility of miscommunication, he's going to work on ZX Zeta as soon as ZX Prequel is done. He says it's in the late stages of development on Zeta.

So i deleted the game cause ...screw it. Waste of my time.

So here's the thing. Rockman Labs/Sousou stole the game, removed Hunger Z's name from a bunch of places in the credits, added a Google translate version of the script to put it in English without doing any checking on basic things like "does this text fit the size of the window?", and released it. Sousou had NO IDEA how to use Game Maker Studio, and in the process of putting out his version, introduced a crap ton of bugs that he had no idea how to fix, then abandoned the project. Then Rockman Labs shut down their forums.

It's really not Hunger Z's fault on any of that. I've seen creators give into bitterness and abandon projects over far less. But Hunger Z said, "People seem to really like this, so I'm going to make a stable 2.0 version that's better than ever, and take credit back for myself." He's accepting help from other people, like redrawing portraits, bug testing, and in my case, an English adaptation.

I'm going to say, give this one another chance once the stable version is out. Seriously, in playing the 2.0 beta, the only 2 bugs I've found so far are: 1) if you release a charge shot on the exact same frame you get hit, it travels backwards (kind of a fun bug that I'm sure speed runners will put to good use), and 2) A single OGG file has a slight 1/10th of a second stutter when it loops. That's it. That's the extent of the bugs, and even those might be fixed before release. Aside from that, the game plays as buttery-smooth as the official Zero/ZX games.

[kuja killer]

Oh i see, did not know about the author being different. I just assumed cause that was literally like the 1st result on google for "megaman zx prequel" ..leading to that youtube video from that specific person's youtube channel...but all his megaman videos are deleted now though. Didn't know it was by someone totally different. Sorry.

I would try it out again but "only" if the stupid music glitch was fixed. That was my sole reason for deleting it. Cause it sucks to play with just sound effects. I played through at least the intro stage until i got to the city, to save the game for the first time when testing, but that was it. There was still no music at that point.

I'm on Windows XP so "maybe" that'd be it but i dont know. I've been able to play a few other megaman "game maker" fan games before that had OGG files for songs/sounds bundled with it, and those games worked just fine no problem ... but not this ZX prequel for whatever reason.

[Operator0G]

Sousou really did delete anything to do with megaman... or anything not related to genshin impact on their channel... wow lol. Considering the fact that its the 30th at this time of posting... is there a possible link for 2.0 of zx prequel?

[kuja killer]

yea...i went through so much trouble trying many times to get a single word from him and never any luck...

So then...if powerpanda can tell "Hunger Z" about this "music not playing" problem i tried to describe ?? Hopefully he'll fix it ?? If not, then i have no reason to give it another chance.

[PowerPanda]

2.0 is not available yet. I am able to play it because HungerZ gave me the final beta so that I could prep for the translation effort. I have translated the menus at this point, but still don't have the full script. It looks like he missed the target window of July 30th, so I don't know what his new release date is. I know that he's working every day on this, so it'll probably be soon.

Kuja Killer, I don't know how many more ways I can say this. You played a bootleg version. The bugs that you encountered were added with the bootleg, and aren't from the original. It's like complaining that the bootleg DVD you bought from that guy on the street corner has low resolution and audio sync issues. Or worse, it's like you're complaining that a romhack is a buggy unplayable mess, but in reality you patched a headered ips to an unheadered rom. There's nothing for Hunger Z to "fix", because those issues were never present on the version he is working on.

[kuja killer]

Oh okay. sorry sorry.
Alright well then. i'll wait until this 2.0 release comes out officially, and i'll report back just in case, if it's alright or not.

[Operator0G]

Well, its at the least great to see official progress on prequel and zx zeta. Can't wait for their releases!

[Jorpho]

I'm on Windows XP so "maybe" that'd be it but i dont know.

I'd say that sounds pretty suspect. I wonder if perhaps it's using a separate XP codec that hasn't been updated to support some new standard of .ogg ?

[PowerPanda]

I have permission from Hunger Z Ridley to do a localization, rather than a translation, of the bosses from the game. I tried to get permission to change "Elf" to "Elph". It would have required redoing images though, not just text, so I didn't get permission on that one. Thankfully though, Brasso is no longer "Brazo", the spanish word for "arm". He laughed when I explained that one to him.

All of these bosses will look familiar, as they are recolored sprites of bosses from the Zero/ZX games. That being said, when you fight them, they all have different attack patterns, and feel new. When you beat the game, you unlock a boss rush.
 

[Operator0G]

Its great to see more updates on the localization of the game. Only boss that I was surprised that stayed the same from the original series was magmole.

[Elyos03]

I have permission from Hunger Z Ridley to do a localization, rather than a translation, of the bosses from the game. I tried to get permission to change "Elf" to "Elph". It would have required redoing images though, not just text, so I didn't get permission on that one. Thankfully though, Brasso is no longer "Brazo", the spanish word for "arm". He laughed when I explained that one to him.

All of these bosses will look familiar, as they are recolored sprites of bosses from the Zero/ZX games. That being said, when you fight them, they all have different attack patterns, and feel new. When you beat the game, you unlock a boss rush.
 

Nice names you came up with. It's usually not that easy to idealize bosses that aren't even that major of characters (Like Hyperion, Erebus and Brasso for example).

(also, you just had to kill sonic like capcom killed duff mcwhalen -_-)

[PowerPanda]

Sonic the blue hedgehog was an invention of the Rockman Labs version. It's original name in Chinese is Erina, going off of the Latin name.

Magmole is an original name. The one from ZX is Flammole. I was trying to go off of something related to a shrew, but Magmole was just too perfect for his attack patterns, which involve the magma in the room.

[Elyos03]

Sonic the blue hedgehog was an invention of the Rockman Labs version. It's original name in Chinese is Erina, going off of the Latin name.

Magmole is an original name. The one from ZX is Flammole. I was trying to go off of something related to a shrew, but Magmole was just too perfect for his attack patterns, which involve the magma in the room.

Wait, Blue Ice Hedgeshock has three names?

(also, i'm well aware of that magmole thing)

[nanashi89]

Will this be for Windows or DS?

[PowerPanda]

Windows for sure, and possibly more. He's mentioned that he moved to Game Maker Studio 2, and that quick exports to other systems are possible. He plans on putting ZX Zeta on Android, so I'm hoping that applies to ZX Prequel 2.0 too. I'd love to stick it on my Retroid Pocket 2!