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Today the steam-powered robots rebel against the digital: Mega Man X DiVE
Next week will be something different as I will be featuring the first interview I've done with Butterscotch Shenanigans.
Strap in because today this landscape game brings you the power of Megaman. This is one of the most surprising mobile games I've seen put into action. This game is a quality game but suffers from a few of the minor P2W flaws.
At first, I thought this game would have some kind of cheesy mechanic that would just be loosely based on Megaman EXE but this is a proper platformer with a slightly watered-down version of a real Megaman game. The controls are optimized very well for mobile gameplay.
This game uses a player-level system that gives your main robot stat boosts. There is a power level that grows based on collecting everything like gaining mastery ranks in Trove. There is a lot to collect in this game but sadly most of it is locked behind Gotcahs and only a hand full of things can be unlocked during normal play. Though once you unlock a weapon or robot you have a way to upgrade the items with alternate methods.
When you complete a level, you get a results screen. Each level has 3 stars worth of clear conditions. I did not see anything that directly uses the star count to unlock anything at this time so do not stress trying to get all the stars. There may be a leaderboard for it.
Here is the basic weapon overview. You get a lot of numbers telling you how effective an item is. As you level these numbers grow. Once you perform certain tasks you can upgrade the item in the gallery which improves your total power level and rank.
Each weapon you unlock has a rank from B up to S. You must level up these weapons using exp flash drives, but you can only level up weapons to match your player level. I do not know if there is an upper-level limit.
Here is a quick example of some of the tasks you need to do to unlock gallery levels.
I know we are skipping around a bit here but there is a lot to go over and there is no easy way to organize this information as it is a bit all over. This screen here shows you the options. I did not screencap every tab as this blog will be quite long already.
This is the main screen you will see in between levels and equi[meant upgrading. You can see here the two different kinds of currencies. One is a coin and the other is a rainbow-colored object. The latter is the premium currency and it is divided between free and paid. There are some things you can only buy with paid currency and this puts a lot of content behind a paywall. Dives are the main levels you play through. Capsules are the gotchas where you can unlock stuff but there are some that required the paid currency to use. Missions are daily rewards or other quests you can do to earn premium currency and other upgrades. Equip takes you to the screen with all the weapons you unlocked. Character gives a list of all the robots you have unlocked as well and we will go over that later. Last is a research lab that allows you to research upgrades as well.
Here is what the leaderboards look like. This game just came out and already people have a very insane power level. This makes me believe this game is very much pay to win but the only PVP related aspect sets everyone to the same base.
Now we return to the gallery. Here is the list of the robots you can unlock and their rank by color. As you fill out the gallery and your level rises you gain more passive power that makes your robot even stronger.
Next is the weapons. There are many more weapons that have different attack patterns and most of them are unique. These weapons all have different powers but you really want to focus on S ranked items as they are the strongest. This is a major problem with most of these kind of game as anything below S rank becomes useless but in this game they force you to keep everything because you have to upgrade everything to raise your pwoer level.
The last part of the gallery is the most confusing as I have been unable to figure out how to obtain more of these cards. These items are equipable, up to 3 and they can not be shared between bots. Each card gives you a specific kind of stat boosts that are uniuqe to each item.
You get a chance to spin a wheel once a day for random items or you can pay to spin more times. Generally there isn't anything too helpful in this wheel and just gives a slight boost to your missing items.
Here is an example of the Gotcha page. You can gain one free spin a day or pay different currencies to get more spins. These are completely random and gambling. You have a high chance of landing on something you already earn and as thus you earn tokens or other things related to the tipe of object you get from the gotcah.
When you dig into the repository of the equip menu, you come to this screen that shows armor pieces. I have not made it far enough to figure out this part or where to find these items.
A quick view at the equip button. Weapons takes to your weapon collection and the repository takes you to the image above this one. The last option is locked behind a level cap and I do not have any information on that one.
When you click on the mission button you are brought to this screen. There are several things you can do to earn the free version of the premium currency and can be used to get more bots or weapons.
This screen leads you to the research tab. You can research items and then bosses on the second lock. The last lock I have not progressed to at the time of this blog. I have screenshots of the research page later in this blog. You must collect parts and spend physical time to research these, generally an hour or two dependant on the difficulty of the research.
When you click on the character tab you see a list of all the possible robots you can unlock. You start with the basic X megaman from megaman X games. You can collect memory shards from various means.
When you click on dive, you arrive at this level select screen. There are, at the time of this blog, 14 major areas. Each level is derived from a Megaman game as seen in the bottom left of the screen. When you progress beyond stage 3 you can start playing on hard mode for each level for even better rewards.
When you click on a level you get a more detailed list of things for the level, how to get stars or what you unlock for beating the level. In each level is a hidden collectable, sometimes two, as shown by the purple and white question mark. Some levels have a gimmick that has to be used to obtain the hidden collectable.
When you go into item research, you can collect daily items here too. Extra energy or a box with a random item for you. You can see how many research slots you have. The first upgrade costs Z coins and the second one is bought with Free premium currency. The third slot is only unlockable with paid premium currency
Here is the main research hub. You must farm items from different levels to be able to research memory shards for a weapon or robot.
Lastly is the shop menu. You can buy some things for real money, some for paid premium currency or with toekns you get from previously collected gotcha items.
Overall:
5 of 5 cogs.
Overall this is a megaman game on mobile. Everything about this screams the classic gameplay but a bit more modern and easier. Most anyone can play this game easily enough.
Story:
3 of 5 cogs.
There is a short tutorial that introduces a story then... nothing. Typically there is story among levels in this type of game but it's not present here. That confuses me as even the base game has some story in it but it's not present for long here on mobile.
Amount of ads:
none, not even optional ads.
Accurate Advertising?:
💯%
The ads for this game and the screenshots do not hide anything. The ads is what made me pre-register for this game and to try it out. I still have this game and wish to play it for a time longer until the paywalls get in the way.
Graphics:
5 of 5 cogs.HD Megaman art from the style of Megaman X and above. There is not much more to say about the art rather than to simply enjoy it.
Gameplay:
5 of 5 cogs.The gameplay is the most surprising in a mobile game. It pulls off a platform game very well with the 3d graphics. Due to the nature of this each level feels unique and increase replayability.
Free play:
75%
This is a free to play game but... there are some hidden paywalls to some content that is very important to gameplay. I hope these issues are addressed in some way to make the game feel more friendly and less pay to win.
Fun factor:
🤖 Classic Megaman!
Are you an indy programmer or game dev?
If so, you can leave a comment or contact me on social media for a chance to have an interview with you posted to my blog. I am looking for many devs that focus on mobile programming. If you have a cross-platform game, that is fine too as long as it's on mobile.
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