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Mega Man X Legacy Collection Cover Art
Cquote1

"'X' is the first generation of robots which contain an innovative new feature--the ability to think, feel, and make their own decisions. However, this ability could be very dangerous. If 'X' were to break the first rule of robotics (A robot must never harm a human being), the results could be disastrous and I fear no force on Earth can stop him. Approximately 30 years will be required before we can safely confirm his reliability. Unfortunately, I will not live to see that day, nor do I have anyone to carry on my work. Therefore, I have sealed him inside this capsule, which will test his internal systems until his reliability has been confirmed. Please do not disturb the capsule until that time. 'X' possesses great risks as well as great possibilities. I can only hope for the best."

September 18, 21XX

T. Light
—Message from Dr. Thomas Light, intro to Mega Man X on the SNES
Cquote2


In the year 21XX, War Was Beginning...

Mega Man X, the Darker and Edgier Sequel Series to Capcom's Mega Man, follows the exploits of the original Blue Bomber's future successor.

As his final masterpiece, Dr. Thomas Light created Mega Man X, a robot with a special "X-factor" that allows him to think, feel, and make decisions like a human does. As the page-topping quote points out, Light sealed X sealed inside a capsule designed to run ethics testing over the course of a few decades to ensure X would not turn out evil. A century later, scientist Dr. Cain unearths X's capsule and finds himself astounded by Dr. Light's engineering miracle. He decides to mass-produce a line of robots based on X, naming them "Reploids" ("Repliroids" in Japan), but glosses over the fact that he doesn't understand all of X's systems. What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

Soon after their activaiton and deployment into the world, some of Cain's Reploids begin developing serious bugs and glitches that cause them to become extremely violent—and, in many cases, outright insane—and break the First Law of Robotics ("A robot must never harm a human being"). These malfunctioning Reploids become known as Mavericks ("Irregulars" in Japan); to combat the Maverick menace, Dr. Cain helps create the "Maverick Hunters," a group of advanced Reploids authorized to use force in apprehending or outright stopping their violent brethren.

Cain's work backfires once again when practically the entire Maverick Hunter group, including Sigma—Cain's first Reploid and the leader of the group—turn into Mavericks themselves. Why the others turned, we have no idea, but Sigma turned soon after getting into a fight with "Zero," a mysterious and insane robot of similar capability to X (but of unknown manufacture). Sigma's defection heralds the beginning of a massive war between Mavericks and humanity—and since he feels responsible for the Maverick outbreak, X decides to team up with Zero (who turned sane after his fight with Sigma) and put a stop to the war.

The series saw several sequels on the Super Nintendo, Playstation, Sega Saturn, Playstation 2, and Gameboy Color. It also spawned Mega Man Zero, its own (some might claim even Darker and Edgier) Sequel Series for the Gameboy Advance, in 2001. An anime OVA, The Day of Sigma, came with the PSP updated release of the first game (Maverick Hunter X).

Do not confuse this series with Mega Man 10, the tenth game in the original line's series (which came out well after Mega Man X did).

Two character sheets exist for this franchise: one for the main series, and one for Command Mission.


Games In The Series[]

  • Mega Man X (SNES, DOS, iPhone): The series debut. The classic Mega Man gameplay has been considerably expanded upon to be far more action based, not to mention more flexible and fast.
  • Mega Man X2 (SNES): A Mission Pack Sequel. Also notable for usage of a special microchip, which allowed for 3-D wireframe effects.
  • Rockman X Interactive (cancelled): A cancelled Full Motion Video entry into the series [detailed here]
  • Mega Man X3 (SNES, PS 1, Saturn, PC): First game where Zero is playable. A port was released for the Play Station and Sega Saturn, including cd-quality music, a save feature and anime cutscenes, but only in Japan prior to its PC port and its inclusion in X Collection. Like X2, it also used a microchip in the SNES version for 3-D effects (the PS 1 and Saturn ports just used their native 3D for the effects). Developed by Minakuchi Engineering, their final Mega Man game before they dissapeared in the early 2000s.
  • Mega Man X4 (PS 1, Saturn, PC): Mega Man X's official Playstation and Saturn debut. First game where Zero is fully playable. First 32-bit game in the series, and also introduces an even darker tone to the proceedings after the grim undertones of X3. Debut of the adorable, if ill-fated Iris!
  • Mega Man Xtreme (GBC): A Game Boy Color spinoff, semi-port of Mega Man X1 & 2, with some new opponents added.
  • Mega Man X5 (PS 1, PC): Incorporates a Multiple Endings system more heavily into the gameplay than before. Intended as the series finale, but this never came to pass. Debut of Alia and Signas.
  • Mega Man Xtreme 2 (GBC): Similar to the first, but with elements of all three SNES games, and more original bosses as well.
  • Mega Man X6 (PS 1): A game that tried to continue the series' legacy and lead into Zero 1. Alia becomes more plot relevant here, leading to her eventual playable debut in X8.
  • Mega Man X7 (Play Station 2, PC[1]): Mega Man X's 3-D debut. Debut of Axl. Known for the severe clunkiness of its 3-D segments.
  • Mega Man X8 (Play Station 2, PC): The actual series finale. Abandoned the 3-D elements in favor of a 2.5D platforming approach. Alia was first playable here! Sigma dies for good, and is not the end boss.
  • Mega Man X Collection (Play Station 2, GC): A compilation of the first six games, plus Mega Man Battle & Chase.
  • Mega Man X Command Mission (Play Station 2, GC): Mega Man X's sole foray into the RPG genre.
  • Mega Man Maverick Hunter X (PSP): An updated remake of the original game. It was intended to be part of a line of remakes of the series, but poor sales put a stop to this.
  • Maverick Hunter (cancelled): An attempt to make a photo-realistic, FPS re-imagining of the series.
  • Mega Man X Legacy Collection: Compiles the 8 mainline games across two volumes.
  • Rockman X Dive (iOS, Android): Mobile game featuring the largest playable cast in the series so far

Other Media[]

  • Rockman X (Manga): Adaptations of the first four games with many original elements added.
  • Irregular Hunter Rockman X: Another manga, that was largely a prequel to X1.
  • Novas Aventuras de Megaman: One of the darkest things ever related to Megaman to date, "Classic" and "X" characters mingle freely, alongside a mix of "X"-leaning and "Classic"-leaning original characters.
  • Rockman X Mega Mission: Trading card series that tells an original storyline.

Tropes present in the Mega Man X series[]

  • Two and a Half D: X7 and X8. The former's gameplay jumps from 2D to 3D seamlessly without warning. The latter is a better example, with most of the gameplay being 2D with some occasional 3D moments.
  • Aborted Arc: Zero's past was all but dropped after X5, both in the Post Script Season (after X6's hint at Wily anyway) and Mega Man Zero and onwards (though a seemingly unrelated throwback or two occurs in the ZX series).
    • Referred to again in, of all places, Tatsunoko vs Capcom.
      • In a Meta sense the Mega Man Maverick Hunter X version of the timeline as well after poor sales killed off the chance for continuing the story.
  • Action Girl: the three Navigators in X8.
  • Actor Allusion: Likely unintentional, but the English voices for X and Sigma from X8 onwards are the same as Domon Kasshu and Master Asia from G Gundam, respectively. In the Day of Sigma OVA, X delivers what strongly resembles a Shining Finger to Sigma.
  • Advancing Boss of Doom: In X5, there's a battleship that serves as an Advancing Mini Boss of Doom.
  • After the End: X6 onwards, because of the Eurasia Crisis in X5.
  • All-Encompassing Mantle: During the first phase of his battle, Metamor Mothmeanos, the moth boss in the second game, has a cloak that surrounds his body, making him look like a chrysalis. Metamor's transition has him shed his cloak, revealing his moth form.
  • All There in the Manual: The developers decided to resolve all the plotholes and Canon Dis Continuity problems with the Mega Man Zero Official Complete Works that was for the aforementioned Sequel Series. Your Mileage May Vary if they succeeded or not.
  • All Your Base Are Belong to Us: The opening of X3 has X and Zero's home base besieged by Dr. Doppler's Mavericks.
  • Amazing Technicolor Battlefield: The Fortress Levels of X5 qualify.
  • A Mech by Any Other Name: Ride Armors.
  • An Ice Person: Chill Penguin, Blizzard Buffalo, Frost Walrus, Duff McWhalen, Blizzard Wolfang, Avalanche Yeti.
  • Anime Theme Song: "Makenai Ai ga Kitto Aru" ("We've Definitely Got a Love that Won't Lose"), "Monkey", "Moon Light"/"The Answer", "CODE CRUSH", "WILD FANG", "Jounetsu Setsuna", and "Don't Wanna Be" for X4, X5, X6, X7, X8, Command Mission, and Maverick Hunter X respectively. Most of these games also had their own ending theme song.
    • And let's not leave out "One More Time" for the PS 1 version of X3.
    • And X2 brings it full-circle (or rather, begins the whole trend) in "Sekai ga owaru Toki" ("Moment When the World Ends"). This one only played in commercials for the game.
    • Many of them also had their own ending theme songs.
  • Another Side Another Story: Vile Mode in Maverick Hunter X.
    • Zero's storyline in X4, though this is also a case of Schrodinger's Player Character, as X is absent in his storyline. To a lesser extent, he's this in X5 and X6. Not so much in X3 or especially the 3D games, which rely on tag-team gameplay.
  • Anti-Hero: Vile of Maverick Hunter X: Vile Mode. Either that or Villain Protagonist.
  • Anti-Villain: The Repliforce of X4, though they do cross the Moral Event Horizon in the climax. Arguably Dr. Doppler in X3. Also Gate in X6, Red Alert in X7, and the Rebellion from Command Mission.
  • Arm Cannon: The titular protagonist uses this for his job, firing either plasma bolts or other projectiles depending on the weapon; it sits in his right arm, but has been shown in his left arm sometimes, such as when he faces to the right in earlier games. Certain bosses also have this feature:
    • First game:
      • The mammoth irregular, Burning Noumander, has been given Arm Cannon replacing his right arm's (consequently nonexistent) hand; he uses this to launch fireballs.
      • Launcher Octopuld has six arms, each having cannons on the end that the octopus irregular launches his torpedoes from.
      • Storm Eagleed, the eagle irregular, fires his Storm Tornadoes from one which adorns his right arm.
    • Third game: The hornet boss, Explose Horneck, has this feature on her right arm; she summons bees from it.
    • Fourth game: Storm Fukuroul, the owl boss, launches his Double Cyclones from this feature, which is on his right arm. Jet Stingren, the stingray boss, can draw his foes closer with one that adorns his right arm.
    • Eighth game: Bamboo Pandemonium, the panda boss, has two that replace his (consequently nonexistent) hands. Quite uniquely, his cannons can extrude knives that can function as makeshift claws.
  • Art Evolution: The appearances of the main characters were slightly altered in X8 (X's helmet, Zero's ponytail, Alia's upgrade of her chest, and the overall proportions are the most blatant examples). Word of God claims that it's to make them look more human.
  • Artistic License Physics: In Day of Sigma OVA, Sigma launches several large missiles, think ICBM sized, at Abel City. Several of these missiles touchdown and explode, leaving massive, smoking craters. Obviously, the shock waves from the explosions should've leveled the city outright.
    • During his battle, Flame Mammoth uses the ground pound move, also used by Gutsman and Hardman, to violently shake the ground when he lands from a jump. Problem is, Flame Mammoth's weight is 719 lb; most cars and trucks available today are heavier than he is, and they just don't release that much energy when they fall from similar heights.
  • Attack Its Weak Point: Bigger and uglier bosses tend towards this.
    • In the original game, Sigma had to be defeated by shooting at his face, which was embedded in the forehead of a giant wolf. Rangda Bangda also had to be defeated by shooting its eyes and nose when it sent them out. Bospider also took damage from shooting his backside when he slammed the ground.
    • In X2, Serges can only take damage by shooting the cockpit of his tank.
    • The fusion of Vajurila FF and Mandarela BB, Godkarmachine O Inary, in X3 only takes damage by shooting his humanoid upper torso or jackal-esque head. So does Sigma in his second phase.
    • The Repliforce General takes damage by shooting his face in X4.
    • In X5, Sigma again cannot be hurt by shooting anywhere on his body barring his head in his second phase.
    • In X6, Sigma takes damage by shooting down his throat. The Mother Nightmare also takes damage from shooting her eyes; if she gets shot anywhere else, she does not get hurt. Rainy Turtloid combines this with Shielded Core Boss due to two green gems on his shell generating a shield that protects his body.
    • In X7, Sigma only takes damage during his second form by shooting his head.
  • Attack of the 50 Foot Whatever: Sigma's final form in X1, the intro stage bosses of X2 and X3, Eregion and The General from X4, Illumina in X6, Sigma's One-Winged Angel forms in X5, X6, and X7 and the intro stage bosses from X7 and X8, as well as a reappearance of said robot later in X8.
  • Automatic Level: There's a section of Sigma's first fortress that's full of springs. The springs launch you toward the ceiling when you step on them, making the section rather difficult, but if you just use the dash feature you bounce from spring to spring avoiding enemies and zooming past the lasers, landing at the end without a scratch.
  • Avenging the Villain: A common motivation for bosses in the series is to avenge a character who previously fell at your hands.
  • Ax Crazy: Vile. Beyond trying to kill X to become the "strongest" (and later for revenge), he apparently destroys other Reploids for the hell of it, according to the OVA and Vile Mode in Maverick Hunter X.
    • Double, after he reveals his true intentions.
    • Zero when he is found in the cave by the Maverick Hunters.
  • Awesome but Impractical: A lot of X's helmet upgrades tend to fall under this. Aside from the secret armor upgrades, the SNES ones, and their Gameboy Expies, aren't much use once you memorize where they'd be useful. Play style or character preference does the same to most of the PS 1 ones as many reduce weapon energy usage (which Zero nor the Ultimate Armor really need), the Shadow Armor speeds up sword attacks, and the Gaea Armor has no stated function at all. Aversions are X4 (game play is set up so weapons are still useful), X7 (attracts power ups from further away), and X8 (a weaponized form of X1's part and a quick charge, though the Nova Strike makes weapons useless again).
  • Back From the Dead: Sigma is the king of this, although he has an excuse, seeing as how he's The Virus.
    • X6 gets a special mention as he's brought back as a zombie...er, Robot Zombie?
    • Zero's in the running as well.
    • Vile also deserves a mention. He even also got new bodies. Dynamo never even died.
    • Colonel, General, and Sageese/Serges seem to have pulled this off once each, if you take the Xtreme games as canon. Per tradition, the standard bosses also pull this off for a Boss Rush in each game, though X8 and Maverick Hunter X justify this; the former game has Guardroids take on the DNA of the fallen Mavericks, while in Maverick Hunter X, Sigma rebuilds their bodies without including their personalities.
  • Background Boss: Rangda Bangda (W) and Sigma's second (third in X5's case) forms in both X1 and X5; Giant Mechaniloid CF-0 in X2; Maoh the Giant in X3; the first encounter against Eregion in X4, Illumina and Sigma's second form in X6; Yadokari and Sigma's second form in X7; the second Crabz-Y encounter in X8.
  • Badass Automaton: All other Mega Men in both timelines start as utility mechs or average humans, then get upgraded into the heroes they become. X and his crew, however, are badass warriors right off the workbench. Alia's the usual ex-utility mech story, though.
  • Badass Biker: Anyone who can properly use the Ride Chasers has to be.
  • Bad Boss: It is heavily implied that Flame Mammoth spends most of his time in his unit mocking those inferior to him in terms of strength. As an added bit of laser-guided karma, he's also the only one of the former Maverick Hunters in the first X game that defected to Sigma's side to not have any of his unit go with him, although given the setting where he is fought, he probably didn't need them anyways.
  • Bash Brothers: X and Zero as bosses in Maverick Hunter X: Vile Mode.
    • For a playable version, in X8, you can use 2 characters in a level, essentially creating your own Bash Brothers.
  • Beware the Nice Ones: Doppler in X3 (and Bit to a lesser extent), Iris and Double in X4, Lumine in X8, and sometimes X himself. This also applies to some of the standard bosses like Blizzard Buffalo and Tidal Whale.
  • Big Bad: Sigma. Albeit only 4/5ths of the time. X6 (probably, though he is still clearly the Final Boss), X8, and Command Mission are the notable exceptions.
    • X5 might count, with the whole Dr. Wily thing....
  • Bigger Bad: Dr. Wily. Sigma may be directly responsible for most of the problems in the series, but it was Dr. Wily who created Zero in the first place, thus giving Sigma the Maverick virus.
  • Big Damn Heroes: Zero's Establishing Character Moment, doubles as a Dynamic Entry. Happens several other times:
    • In X3, either Zero or Dr. Doppler, depending on the actions made in the game, will appear to save X from (Virus) Sigma.
    • A subversion at the beginning of X5: You as the player are the one coming to the rescue of the one in distress (who was even in disrepair), when Sigma personally attacks them.
    • X8's Hard Mode: Whoever is the backup character will be captured by Vile after that Mini Boss fight, and the main player character will have to traverse the rest of the final level alone. In an awesome Gameplay and Story Segregation aversion, Sigma traps the main player halfway during the Boss fight, and, true to the trope, the backup character will return to save his partner.
  • Big Sleep: Iris's death scene in X4. Zero's reaction would have been a Tear Jerker, if not for the Narm.
  • Bittersweet Ending: Very common in the series. X2 is one of the few games with a truly happy ending, whereas X3 is retroactively made into a full Downer Ending.
  • Black Box: X and Zero. Being made by Dr Light and Dr. Wily, respectively, their technology is not fully understood and they are difficult to repair. This leads to the imperfection in Reploids that was the main cause of them going Maverick (before the virus), as well as other minor plot points, such as the Nerfed Falcon Armor that was repaired imperfectly by Alia, or the mysterious resurrections/repairing of X and Zero from their state at the end of X5. In Zero's case, it leads to (somewhat supported by the Sourcebooks) Epileptic Trees about (maybe) Serges and (more overtly) Isoc being actually Dr. Wily himself.
  • Blackout Basement: Spark Mandrill's stage in X1, especially if entered after beating Storm Eagle. In X6, some stages also qualify (where you have to use misleading lights as a guide), if the right requirements are met, and X8's "Pitch Black" stage.
  • Blind Idiot Translation: X6. Which is a shame, because beneath the awful, awful writing, there's actually a reasonably serviceable story.
    • Damn shame the same can't be said about the game play.
    • Just how bad is the translation? See if you can try to make sense out of the below exchange:
Cquote1

 Zero: Shield Sheldon...Too bad about your previous life.[2]

Shield Sheldon: Don't be. I was new as a bodyguard. That's all.[3]

Zero: Maverick Hunters are supposed to be able to tell a Maverick from a Reploid. Our officers are not good enough... They could cost us everything.[4]

Shield Sheldon: Reploids all over the world have been needing you. I was useless as a bodyguard... And was useless to everyone else. When I accepted that fact, I accepted my fate. However, there turned out to be someone who needs me. He has given me one more chance. And therefore, I am going to fulfill my mission as a bodyguard now. I'll protect him, even if it means that I have to sacrifice my life. Come on, Zero! [5]

Cquote2
    • There's also this gem in Metal Shark Player's stage (which is itself a mistranslation of Prayer). When faced with a wall of spikes:
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 Alia: You can't jump across spiny area!

Cquote2
  • Blob Monster: The infamous Yellow Devil from the classic series comes back in X5, as a fortress boss, now black-coloured and named Shadow Devil. Sigma himself has taken on this form at least once, though he went unfought, and has also spawned mini blob monsters another time.
  • Blood Knight:
    • While generally overlooked, Magma Dragoon is probably the biggest example of this trope in the franchise. To wit, he causes a civil war and very nearly The End of the World as We Know It just so he could fight the protagonists!
    • More than a few Reploids in X5 seem more interested in fighting the protagonists than they are about doing something to help save the world. Many of them (especially Duff McWhalen and Grizzly Slash) say that they've been infected by the Virus and want to fight the heroes and die with dignity. Some, like Squid Adler, do actually give X and Zero what they need, only for the Virus to choose that moment to take over their minds and force them to fight.
      • Each X5 boss seems to have different reasons for fighting, and oddly enough, the reasons can change depending on which plan to stop the Colony Drop is active. And if the colony has already been destroyed/crashed, some bosses will already have been seized by the virus.
  • Bonus Boss: There's a Bonus Mini Boss in the first game, guarding one of the Light capsules. The term got murky during X3 and X6.
  • Boobs of Steel: Puns aside, Layer and Iris are fairly well-endowed for reploids. The strength part is not too emphasized though, but in the case of Layer, it does make a good contrast with her melee attacks, compared to Alia's and Palette's long-ranged attacks (The former is larger-chested than Iris). Berkana is a real (Reploid) witch and has the biggest rack in the series. Marino and Ferham have large chests too. They both have a tendency for close ranged attacks.
  • Book Ends: The Zero series reveals that this series "ended" with the main characters sealing themselves for different purposes, which is the same state they are found in at the beginning of this series.
    • During X4, we learn that before the events of the first game, Sigma had smashed Zero's head crystal, thus transferring the Maverick Virus. At the end of X8, Lumine smashes Axl's head crystal.
  • Bonus Feature Failure: In X8, the navigators, Alia, Palette, and Layer, are unlockable as playable characters. They are basically clones of X, Axl, and Zero, respectively; however due to Gameplay and Story Integration, Alia cannot get X's capsule upgrades, Palette cannot copy enemies, and Layer gets a nice aversion by only being unable to use the Zero Armor. You also have to purchase all of X, Axl, and Zero's purchasable upgrades a second time in order to access them on Alia, Palette, and Layer. Additionally, using even one of them when running a stage will forbid you from choosing a navigator for that stage. Level Grinding the Navigators at least gives you something to do on your New Game+, and fully powering them up changes, of all things, the Capcom logo screen, which is pretty cool.
  • Boss Only Level: The duel against Colonel in X4, if you're playing as X.
  • Boss Rush: Every single game.
    • X1 is the only one to intersperse boss fights throughout Sigma's Fortress. The other games lock you in a room with 8 doors.
    • The PSP remake of the first game has X realize that Sigma had the bodies of the eight bosses repaired, but not the personalities, when he starts having the rematches.
    • Justified in X8: the Bosses in the Boss Rush are new generation Reploids copying the data of the Boss.
      • There's a variation in the second half of the final level: most of the enemies are now using their abilities to morph into weaker versions of the Sigma fought a level earlier, now a Disc One Final Boss.
  • Boss Subtitles: Mimicking the original Mega Man. Though many descriptions bosses in this series and the sequels get sound a lot darker than the original ones.
  • Bottomless Pits: Of course.
  • Bounty Hunter: Red Alert starts off as something like this.
  • Boxing Kangaroo: Vanishing Gungaroo in X7.
  • Brainwashed and Crazy: What the effect the Maverick Virus seems to have on Reploids is. Their personalities are often altered and they become violent and homicidal, sometimes to the extent that they lose all sense of themselves and go insane. Most also join Sigma's forces after infection, though whether it's forced or willing depends on the Maverick.
    • The only one completely immune to the effects of the Virus is X, who nevertheless takes damage from it when he's infected. It doesn't stop him worrying about the possibility of going Maverick, but that's for other possible reasons. He is effectively immune from the Virus.
    • Zero also appears to be immune, and is actually strengthened by being infected. The path to X5 s bad ending as well as Zero's origin in X4 reveals that Zero actually isn't quite immune....
  • Broad Strokes: In order to not confuse the fans, Inafune started the Zero series off with the title character sealed instead of dead, the latter of which was the original concept (how X5 ended, that is). Still leaves Capcom to make more X games.
  • Brought to You by The Letter "S": A stylized Greek Letter Sigma (Σ) for the Mavericks, and Zero's own stylized "Z". It's a surprise that X himself doesn't have one.
    • He arguably does have one in his X8 design, but it's in the side of the helmet and might just be a screw or something.
    • Other Maverick groups get similar insignia in X3 and X4. The enemy insignia in later games diverges from this, though the one in X7 does resemble a highly stylized R combined with an A.
  • Calling Your Attacks: Zero with his Command Arts; bonus points for calling them mostly in their Japanese names. Especially of note would be X8, where X, Axl, and several of the bosses join in the act as well (X continuing this in Maverick Hunter X), with X always doing it in English for good measure. Magma Dragoon, an otherwise normal boss in X4, also does this with Street Fighter-based attacks. Many normal bosses also do this in X7.
  • Camera Screw: One of the many reputed problems regarding X7.
  • Camp Gay: Tornado Tonion, of X7.
  • Capcom Sequel Stagnation: When it began is a subject of much debate, but X6 and X7 were widely panned. X8, however, is regarded more favorably by comparison.
  • Captain Ersatz: Does Vile remind you of anyone? His original Japanese name is VAVA, for cripes' sakes!
    • Made even worse by the fact that v's and b's are switched in Japan like l's and r's. To spell it out, "Baba."
  • Card-Carrying Villain: The Nightmare Inspectors, Red Alert and most of Sigma's minions.
  • Character Development: It's hard to tell through the awful writing, but in X6, X actually seems more confident and decisive about situations, best displayed by his Badass Boast to Sigma:
Cquote1

  X: I have to work for the reconstruction of the world... I have no time to waste on you... If you show up, I'll defeat you.

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    • A speech which actually has shades of Zero's personality to it.
  • Character Select Forcing: X6 was horrible about this; choosing the wrong armor set made the game very hard in the fortress. A variant also existed in X8, where most of the main stages required the X/Axl team to collect all or most of the items hidden throughout—effectively benching the most popular character in the series!
  • Characterization Marches On/Anthropomorphic Shift: Not applied to only one character, but the concept as whole for the series. In the beginning X was said to be special, not only for being the origin to all Reploids but for being to most humane out of the bunch, his emotions and potential for growth can be compared to that of any human; in turn other reploids, and even Zero the other Super Prototype himself, commented on how they couldn't (or considered a waste to) feel and express themselves like X did. Reploids were in general not that humanlike in design on average, with the likes of Sigma and Agile having inhuman glowing optics and other inhuman features, while other Reploids looked even less human, notably the common enemy Reploids like Hoganmer. A few games later, this concept seems to be all but abandoned, pretty much all other Reploids and Zero are Ridiculously-Human Robots, they express themselves and have distinctive personalities like any other human; X now is more of a outspoken pacifist, as opposed to someone who worries because he was the only one who could. Robots are often even shown to have families (Reploid mothers taking their children to the store), love interests, and more humanized forms (even for most villains). This leads into the two later series as well (though it’s more justified as X was now able to be replicated more perfectly, and by ZX, humans and Reploids are being hybridized.
  • Charged Attack: Shouldn't need elaboration. In this series, even all but one of the Special Weapons qualify. Also applies to the Z-saber in X3 and X6 (when used by X).
    • That's Type B. Giga Attacks sometimes fall into this category, as Type A.
  • Chekhov's Boomerang: Axl's Copy ability. In X7, it's revealed to be part of Sigma's Excuse Plot in the game. Then, in X8, Axl is revealed to be a prototype to the New Generation Reploids, with everyone in the line apparently having the same ability. Again, it comprises the plot of the Big Bad in the game. Then it comes back again in Command Mission, with final boss Redips and his officers in the far east Hunter division being the products of secretly restarted copy chip manufacturing.
  • Christmas Rushed: The most likely reason that X6 failed to reach its potential. Not only did it come out just a few months after X5, but the North American version hit the stores mere days after the Japanese version! (December 4, 2001 and November 29, 2001; respectively. We all know how that turned out...)
  • Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Almost every game features an ally turning on you, with Sigma's revolt in the first game being the most notable. The exceptions are the Game Boy Color games, though Sigma does backstab the new villains, as even X2 fits if you read into the backstory. (once again, these are treacherous Maverick Hunters you have to deal with)
  • Clear My Name: The plot in X6 starts with a Palette Swap of Zero, called the Zero Nightmare, wreaking havoc. X decides to investigate the Zero Nightmare to clear Zero's name. For some reason, this is not part of the plot entirely, since defeating the Zero Nightmare is optional. And guess what? A Secret Character (not that Capcom was fooling anyone...) will be unlocked upon defeating it.
  • Clipped-Wing Angel: In X5, Sigma collapses into a bloblike form that cannot do much once you destroy his giant body.
  • Colour-Coded Timestop: The Dark Hold ability from X5.
  • Combining Mecha: Bit and Byte's One-Winged Angel form is them combined. It's also the first fortress stage.
  • Continuity Nod: X5 is chock full of these, going back to the Classic games. There's also a prime example in X6, where the plot is driven by the Big Bad getting infected by the The Virus from Zero's piece that he took in the crash site of the Colony Drop.
    • In X's bad ending in X5, he states his dream is to create a paradise where humans and reploids peacefully coexist. The name of that paradise? Elysium.
      • Given that X5 was meant to be the lead-in to Mega Man Zero, this might also refer to Neo Arcadia, albeit with a name change.
    • After Gate is defeated in X6, X sees Isoc's lifeless body, which Alia says is similar to the Erasure phenomenon from Xtreme 2.
    • X8 contains some of these. Sigma makes a reference to Zero's virus infecting him in their first battle, and the colony virus is brought up by X.
  • Continuity Snarl: Zero. That is all. Determining which parts of Maverick Hunter X count seems to be tricky for the fanbase as well.
  • Cool Airship: Storm Eagle had his personal airship, called the Death Rogumer. After his defeat, it crashed on Spark Mandrill's power plant, causing the power to fail. In X2 Wheel Gator commanded the Dinosaur Tank. Repliforce had a bunch of fish-like airships commanded by Storm Owl.
  • Cranial Processing Unit: Many large bosses and minibosses (as well as Sigma's One-Winged Angel forms) can only be damaged in the head. In addition, more than a few One-Winged Angel bosses, mostly those of Sigma, have the head of the transforming character, often all that is left of them after they explode, attach to a new body.
  • Create Your Own Villain: Most notably, Sigma became the man he is today when he shattered Zero's head crystal.
  • Cultural Translation + Punny Name: In the North American version of X5, the bosses' names were plays on current and former members of Guns N' Roses.
  • Cute Bruiser: All of the female playable characters to some extent.
  • Cyber Cyclops: Various Mechaniloids. Vile is also apparently this.
  • Dark Side: Sigma's Evil Plan in X5 entails mixing a Virus set in a falling Colony with the Sigma Virus, which he spread across the Earth with a little help from X and Zero by blowing up his dummy body, which was full of the virus. Supposedly, the two Viruses will merge, making a new more potent virus to make Zero revert to his original state of evil
  • Darker and Edgier: Naturally, Your Mileage May Vary, but in general, the early entries in this series are an excellent example of this trope being used well, without dumping on the original series.
    • X2, for example, shows a very violent way to kill a maverick; if you kill Wire Sponge using his weakness, the poor dude gets sliced in half. It and its sequel are both also more downbeat than the original, plot-wise.
      • The post-SNES games, however, manage to be even darker than the SNES trilogy (the unpreventable death of a major ally [6] in X4, for one), marking a tone shift for much of the franchise as a whole, and do manage to dump on the original series in some circles.
  • Deadly Euphemism: "Retirement."
  • Defeat Equals Explosion: Bosses explode more violently than heroes now. Most of these explosions leave nothing behind. Some of them do leave a body for a separate death scene, while Sigma leaves behind his head in the first game.
  • Death Cry Echo:
    • Starting from X6:
      • Blaze Heatnix the phoenix and Rainy Turtloid the turtle: [pained groan]
      • Blizzard Wolfang the wolf: "Goodbye..."
      • Commander Yammark the Dragonfly: [pained scream]
      • Ground Scaravich the dung beetle: "Such a shame!"
      • Infinity Mijinion the daphnia water flea: "What the hell are you doing!?"
      • Metal Shark Prayer the shark: "I'm gonna die..."
      • Shieldner Sheldon the clam: "So... decisive..."
    • This feature even returns in X7:
      • Flame Hyenard the hyena, Hellride Inobuski the boar, and Vanishing Gungarun the kangaroo: [pained scream]
      • Snipe Ariquick the anteater: "I missed!" [growl]
      • Soldier Stonekong the gorilla: "Good... job!" (english)/"Amazing!" (japanese)
      • Splash Uofly the flying fish: [sibilant hiss followed by a gurgle]
      • Tornado Debonion the onion: "You didn't like it!?"
      • Wind Karasting the crow: [pained groan]
    • In X8:
      • Bamboo Pandemonium the panda bear: "Is this... the end...?"
      • Burn Kokekokker the jungle fowl: [maniacal laugh]
      • Darkneid Kamakil the praying mantis: "I CAN'T BELIEVE IT!!!"
      • Gigabolt Dokragen/Man-o-War the jellyfish: "Oh yeah!"
      • Earthrock Torirovich the trilobyte and the fake Sigma: Big No
      • Gravitate Antonion the ant: "I never thought... I would be defeated...!"
      • Ice-Snow Yetinger the yeti: "Incredible...!"
      • Optic Sunfloward the sunflower: "Can't lose to the likes of you...!"
      • VAVA: [pained groan]
      • Real Sigma: "No! Impossible! How could you... you couldn't! Destroy the old world... new age...!" [cue Big No]
    • Irregular Hunter X:
      • Armor Armage the armadillo: "It... was a good fight...!"
      • Boomer Kuwanger the stag beetle: "So... strong!"
      • Burning Noumander the mammoth: "Choo!"
      • Icy Penguigo the penguin: [pained groan]
      • Launcher Octopuld the octopus: "The artist's explosion!"(JP)/"Even my explosion is beautiful!"(EN)
      • Spark Mandriller the mandrill: "So this is what it's like!"
      • Sting Chameleao the chameleon: [unsettling gurgling]
      • Storm Eagleed the eagle: [Big No]
      • VAVA: "No! I can't lose to X!"
  • Degraded Boss: A Boss that has been degraded so much, he was turned into a Mook (an Elite Mook, but still)! And he's Sigma of the previous games! See Boss Rush above.
  • Did Not Get the Girl: Poor Zero. This happens to him four times, counting the sequel series. X also apparently had this off-screen in the sequel series.
  • Dirty Cop: Most of the villains in the first two games. A few in later games are this, too.
  • Disc One Final Boss: The X-Hunters, Dr. Doppler, General, Dynamo, Gate, Red, Epsilon, Berkana, and, ironically, Sigma himself in X8, not once, but twice! Capcom is in love with this trope.
  • Disc One Nuke: See one of the gamebreakers below. Also, through a cheat code, the Ultimate and Zero Armors can be available at the very start of some of the games (X5, X6).
    • The first game gives us a double-dose. Chill Penguin's stage, which has the mandatory Leg Capsule. There's also the fact that the aforementioned Boss is a Warmup Boss, meaning that defeating him would be a good start for the game!
    • It's tricky, but far from impossible in X1 to beat Storm Eagle first (without the ability to dash against his wind) so long as you know where and when to start running. The reward, Storm Tornado, rips through stages like nothing.
  • Distaff Counterpart: In X8, Alia, Layer, and Pallette are counterparts to X, Zero, and Axl, respectively.
  • Distant Finale: Zero's ending in X6 (where Zero seals himself to get rid of the virus within him) is stated to happen long after the end of the whole Mega Man X series.
  • Do Not Run with a Gun: X can run while using his normal weapons, but Easter Eggs (like the Street Fighter moves he gets in a couple of games) are another story.
    • Zero is the one who really takes it on the chin here; in several of the games, he puts away his Z-Saber after each attack or combo, and you can't move until he does this. (You also can't move until his ponytail finishes falling.) The Play Station 2 X games fix this by having him keep the saber out at all times, which looks silly but makes practical sense. In his own series, Zero has a much smoother combat system that never pins him down.
    • Much like Bass from Mega Man and Bass, Axl in X8 can fire in multiple directions (including diagonally), but he can't run while doing so.
    • Also Vile from Maverick Hunter X's Vile Mode.
  • Double Knockout: Happens to X and Zero.
  • Doppleganger Attack: From X4 onwards, there would be a Boss that specializes in creating at least one copy of himself, whether or not his Boss Weapon was based on this ability. Split Mushroom, Axle the Red, Infinity Mijinion, and Flame Hyenard have this ability.
  • Dub-Induced Plot Hole:
    • When obtaining the Zero/Black Armor in X5; Dr. Light, of all people, was the one who gave it to Zero! And he (Light) made it just for him (Zero)?!
      • Light specifically states that he couldn't make a compatible armor, but he could boost Zero's power.
      • In the Japanese version, Light talks about releasing the power that sleeps in Zero.
        • Those who receive the bad ending will have to wonder why in God's name Light thought this was a good idea.
    • In the same game (but a different capsule), Zero asks Dr. Light if the latter knew who created him (strangely enough, Zero was talking to what may just be a recording). Dr. Light claims he does not know; whether he's hiding the truth from Zero, or he genuinely doesn't know, tortured many a mind to no end.
    • The conversation between Dr. Light and Zero (starting at around 5:50) is more or less the same here as in the Japanese version, one of the parts where the translation is decent.
    • And of course, the big one from X3:
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 "Unknown to X, his destiny has already been decided. To save mankind, he must destroy Zero. But only time will tell, when and why..." — X3 Ending

"In his memory, he knows his destiny is fixed to do battle with Zero. And beyond this point, what will they see?" — Rockman X3 ending.

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    • In X5, Squid Adler/Volt Kraken talks about how X killed Octopardo. Yes, it was a tragedy what happened to poor—wait, who's Octopardo? Turns out he's referring to Launch Octopus, using a mistransliteration of his Japanese name: Launcher Octopuld.
  • Dub Name Change: Most of the Mavericks (Icy Penguigo to Chill Penguin, Storm Eagleed to Storm Eagle, etc). The name of the rogue Maverick from the first, third, and eighth games got his name changed from VAVA (which in Japanese would be pronounced roughly like "Boba," as he's a Boba Fett Expy) to Vile (in fact, the reason they couldn't just call him "Boba" outright was because of trademark issues, so they had to spell it VAVA).
    • And in fact, the term "Maverick." They were called "Irregulars" in Japan, though this is probably because the noun "irregular" in English refers to non-conventional or private military forces of the type usually employed by governments (which might be a good description of the organization to which the heroes belong), something wholly unlike what the Japanese name was supposed to mean.
  • Dummied Out: X8 might have been planned to have X, Zero, and Axl to be Navigators like their Distaff Counterpart. In the 2nd PC CD of it, you could find a folder of Japanese Voice Actors' sound data, including the main characters' voices as Navigators(!). The idea seemed to be scrapped out because it would involve further scripting and scenarios. It's amusing to find that Axl feels very, very bored to have his job as a Navigator in his line.
  • Dying as Yourself: Iris in X4. Many of the bosses in X5 that are infected by The Virus also challenge X/Zero for this reason. Dr. Doppler gets this if you don't save him. Gate and Red to a lesser extent.
  • Dying Like Animals: Many Mavericks would fall under this; for example, many bosses from the first two games would be Jackals (like Spark Mandrill and Wheel Gator) or Snakes (like Chill Penguin). Dr. Doppler is an example of a Mule.
  • Early-Bird Cameo: Zero's special armor can be seen as early as X2, in the canon ending, even, although it officially debuts in X4. Some of Zero's signature attacks also debut in the same game in the other ending, although there's little difference, before becoming officially playable himself, also in X4.
    • Again in X2 and X3, Sigma's One-Winged Angel, a virus, seems insignificant at first (the battle is fought inside a computer, falsely justifying the form), until it was revealed one game later as Sigma's "true" form.
    • Zero also has one in Mega Man 2: The Power Fighters, in Bass's ending, in which he's shown in a blueprint.
  • Early Installment Weirdness:
    • The Hadoken and Shoryuken make appearances in the first two games, but later games did not have Street Fighter move capsules.
    • Early villain designs had a more menacing and inhuman appearance compared to later ones. Sigma and Vile's design remains as The Artifact of this older design ethos. Doppler can be considered a bridge between the early villains and the later ones. While he looks more human, he has a rather haggard, harridan appearance compared to characters like Ferham and Lumine.
      • Doppler is also the only major antagonist who can be spared.
    • Older armors were usable even in part, newer ones have to be fully assembled. There was also no Ultimate Armor until X4. The first three games also had one armor each. X7 brings back some of this weirdness.
    • Ride Chasers were originally used like Ride Armors were, and not consigned to their own solo levels.
  • Easter Egg: The Hadoken and Shoryuken, of course, plus there's also unlocking the three Navigators as playable characters in X8.
  • Easy Mode Mockery: The True Final Boss below.
  • Electric Jellyfish: Gigabolt Man-O-War from Rockman X8 fits this bill. He takes his design from a jellyfish (but not his English name, which comes from Portuguese Men-O-War, which many label him as).
  • Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors: Per the previous series, everyone's weak to something; you just have to figure out what.
  • Elemental Shapeshifter: Toxic Seahorse in Mega Man X3 can turn into acid. How a robot does this is anyone's guess.
  • Eleventh-Hour Superpower: In the 2nd X vs. Vile battle in the first game, after Zero's Heroic Sacrifice to destroy Vile's Ride Armor, all of X's energy is restored for some reason, ready to fight Vile on equal footing now. This was even Lampshaded:
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 Vile: What the-? Where did that energy come from?!

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  • Enemy Chatter: Starting from X4.
  • Energy Being: The Sigma Virus's true form is this, and it is actually the precursor to the Cyber Elves from the Zero series. Another example seems to be Dr. Light, as revealed by his ability to hold conversations, heal X, and edit his memories even outside of his capsule. Of course, he probably was only able to so because Cyberspace had partially merged with the ordinary world thanks to the Zero Virus's influence.
  • Evasive Fight Thread Episode: X5.
  • Everything Is Better With Penguins: Chill Penguin from X.
  • Everything Is Even Worse With Sharks: Metal Shark Player from X6.
  • Everything's Better with Chickens: Burn Rooster from X8.
  • Everything's Better with Monkeys: Spark Mandrill from X and Soldier Stonekong from X7.
  • Everything's Better with Spinning: In most of the games where he's playable (both in this series and Mega Man Zero), one of the skills Zero learns is a rising slash. In X8, he instead gets a spinning rising slash, similar to Link's Spin Attack in Super Smash Bros.
    • He has the spinning slash since X4, after you beat Split Mushroom. It has been one of his staple techniques through this and the Zero series.
  • Everything's Squishier with Cephalopods: Launch Octopus from X and Squid Adler from X5. Though they are anything but squishy...
  • Everything's Worse with Bears: Grizzly Slash (Crescent Grizzly) from X5. Subverted when Monstrosity Equals Weakness comes into play, seeing as he's the easiest Boss in the game.
    • X8 featured Bamboo Pandemonium, the single largest boss in the game. Pandas may not actually be ursine per se, but they still conjure up the image quite nicely. That said, his face is still very cute. And he can kill you with one hit of his Desperation Attack.
      • Actually, giant pandas are ursine, as was discovered through genetic research several decades ago. However, he is still an interesting case in that, when people think of bears making things worse, pandas aren't exactly the first bears they think of (though in real life, they can still do some damage when angry).
  • Everything's Worse with Bees: Blast Hornet of X3.
  • Executive Meddling: Zero is supposed to be the Mega Man X, but was instead turned into the secondary character, replaced by an Expy. Another example: see Franchise Zombie below.
    • According to Mega Man X Official Complete Works, Inafune himself made the decision after he finished the design for the main character, deciding people would not relate him to Mega Man because he looked too different. So he had someone else design the main character, and instead presented his design as the "side character."
  • Expy:
    • Apart from the obvious example (X is based on the original Mega Man), there's also Lumine's One-Winged Angel, which, in terms of production dates, is preceded by Copy X's own One-Winged Angel from Mega Man Zero as well as Colonel Redips' God-Emperor form from Command Mission.
    • Wily designed Zero to be pretty much the new-and-improved Bass. However, Zero seems to evoke Proto Man in his early appearance (both are red, have a powerful buster, are Big Brother Mentors to Mega Man/X, and voiced by the same person). The Bass resemblance does not come until Command Mission, wherein his Hyper Mode resembles Bass with Treble Boost equipped.
    • Axl, especially in X8, pretty much evokes Bass more than Zero does, with the colors black and grey, having multi-directional spammable attacks, being very mobile compared to the others, and being Blood Knights. However, Axl does not let his Blood Knight persona stop his quest to make the world better, whereas Bass has a harder time controlling his urge to fight.
    • Signas is essentially a (much) more reasonable Colonel, and Redips is an Expy of either of them, managing to be far less reasonable than either.
    • Avalanche Yeti seems specifically based on Frost Man. Several Mavericks borrow from earlier Robot Masters, in fact: Ride Boarski is like Turbo Man and may have partially inspired Nitro Man, Dark Necrobat looks quite a bit like Shade Man, Commander Yammark looks almost exactly like Gyro Man, Launch Octopus is based on Napalm Man right down to the missile launcher shoulders, Boomer Kuwanger a mixture of Cut Man and Quick Man, Flame Hyenard borrows from Burner Man...
    • Vile is a pretty obvious Shout-Out to /Expy of Boba Fett. His name in Japanese (VAVA, which would be pronounced like "Boba" in Japanese) even reflects this.
  • Eye Scream: Two of Rangda Bangda's weak spots are its eyes, and it must be blinded AND lose its nose to be defeated.
  • Fake Difficulty: X6. It gets particularly Egregious in Metal Shark Player's stage, where there's a ceiling trying to crush you, instant death spikes, and ice all on the same screen.
    • Gate's fortress is even worse. Three words. Spikes of Doom. No, Capcom, coating virtually every surface with them does not constitute as difficulty.
  • Fake Longevity: The Central Museum in X6, if you're trying to save all the Reploids. It requires multiple runs to get into all the rooms, each of which has at least one reploid.
  • Fake Ultimate Hero: Subversion: the current Steel Massimo wasn't the real dead hero of the same name, but he does grow to be one as the story progresses.
  • Fighting Your Friend: The penultimate boss fight of X5...
    • Climax Boss: Built up by four games worth of storyline? Check. Very awesome boss battle theme? Check. Supposed to end the series? Check. Mega Man X vs. Zero is the right way to go. Tweak a few more things in the storyline, and it would even be more awesome. The battle was even reused for the future series (spoilered because said battles will spoil the original mentioned above): Copy-X vs. Zero (twice!) for Mega Man Zero, and MegaMen X vs. Z in Mega Man ZX.
    • There's more than a few other times where X and co are forced to fight those who would otherwise be friends, due to the nature of the series. Fiancés and adoptive parents aren't safe from this.
  • Final Boss Preview: Many fortress bosses make early appearances in intro stages.
  • Finishing Move: For X8, there's the tag-team attack, which, if inflicted as the final blow for the boss, nets the highest rank.
  • Fire, Ice, Lightning: Some of the games have Mavericks who use these;
    • X: Flame Mammoth aka Burning Noumander the mammoth (fire), Chill Penguin/Icy Penguigo the penguin (ice), and Spark Mandrill(er) the mandrill (lightning). Interestingly enough, Fire beats Ice which beats Lightning, completely opposite of what happened in the original Mega Man.
    • X4: Magma Dragoon aka Magmard Dragoon the dragon (fire), Frost Walrus aka Frost Kibatodos the walrus (ice), and Web Spider/Spidus the spider (lightning). Fire still beats ice, but this time, lightning is on the opposite side of the cycle to fire.
    • X5: Burn Dinorex aka Mattrex the tyrannosaurus rex (fire), Duff McWhalen aka Tidal Makkoeen the whale (ice), and Squid Adler the kraken (lightning). Fire and lightning are still on the opposite side of the cycle to each other, and ice beats lightning.
    • X8: Burn Rooster aka Burn Kokekokker the jungle fowl (fire), Avalanche Yeti aka Ice-Snow Yetinger the yeti (ice), and Gigabolt Man-O-War aka Gigabolt Dokragen the jellyfish (lightning). Here, lightning beats ice which beats fire.
  • Five-Bad Band: Evil example in X6:
  • Flanderization: Especially because Executive Meddling forced the series to go beyond the creator's planned ending, X5.[7]
    • X goes from being a reluctant, yet willing fighter to become more whiny as the series goes. This becomes prominent in X7, where he pulls out a Ten-Minute Retirement, so not only do his allies get screwed over, you started playing a Mega Man X game without playing as him. Fortunately, X8 restores him to his original reluctant, yet willing fighter persona.
    • Sigma goes from being a intelligent schemer who nearly destroys the world several times to a slobbering robot zombie obsessed with destroying the heroes (To be fair, his mind has degraded due to the number of times the guy and X squared off.). He reverts back to an intelligent schemer come X7.
    • Even the term "Maverick" isn't safe; originally used to describe out-of-control Reploids (initially mostly voluntarily following Sigma, before being used to refer to viral infectees in X3), then it became a warped political tool to refer to any designated target starting with the Repliforce (though the Repliforce's complete idiocy in handling the situation that got them declared Maverick in the first place would have necessitated their disbanding anyway, and they very much became out-of-control by the end (even though it's really the government's fault for them going out of control)) that escalated to the point it became a convenient tool to refer to anyone that needed disposing of (as shown in X6, X7, and Command Mission), even non-harmful Reploids trying to stay alive during an energy crisis like in the Zero series, and by the climax of that series it can even refer to humans.
  • Floating Continent: Sky Lagoon in X4.
  • Flunky Boss/Me's a Crowd: Flame Hyenard is the worst offender here. You're riding on a Mechaniloid that's trying to shoot you down with missiles! And if that's not enough, he makes two copies of himself as well!
    • Infinity Mijinion from X6 is even worse. It's reflected on his namehe can make copies of himself indefinitely, to the point of filling the entire screen with his clones.
    • Split Mushroom and Axle The Red also qualifies.
    • Rafflesian and Botos from Command Mission, notable in that the former's minions aren't just copies of herself.
    • Metal Shark Player makes invulnerable copies of other bosses entirely.
  • Foregone Conclusion: The Day of Sigma. That is all.
  • Foreshadowing: In his ending of X4, X begins to have doubts over his committment to being a Maverick Hunter, telling Zero that he fears that one day, he could become so obsessed with destroying Mavericks that he would become little better than them. Enter Copy X....
  • Forgotten Fallen Friend: X loses his memories of Zero in the bad ending of X5.
  • Four-Legged Insect: The insect bosses are missing their middle pair of legs entirely, with the front pair replaced with humanoid arms.
  • Franchise Zombie: Series creator Keiji Inafune wanted to stop the series after X5, but Executive Meddling forced three more games and an RPG spinoff out of the series, and quality suffered as a result.
    • One could make the argument that the better move on Inafune's part would have been to take control to make sure the games went in the direction he wanted to build up better to Mega Man Zero.
  • Full Boar Action: Hellride Inobuski aka Ride Boarski, a mohawked motorcycle-based gang leader.
  • Fusion Dance: In the first fortress stage, the two members of the Nightmare Police, Vajurila FF and Mandarela BB, combine and form the Godkarmachine O Inary. Doubles as One-Winged Angel. Before he and Mandarela BB combine, Vajurila FF says this gem:
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Take a look at these new upgrades!

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  • Gameplay and Story Integration: Being infected by The Virus in X5 causes X to constantly take damage for a time. Zero becomes invulnerable
    • Convoluted example in the same game: At the start, the player has to choose which character to use for the first level: either X or Zero. Choosing one will have a bonus in that character's abilities (the Force/Fourth Armor or the Z-buster, respectively). The other bonus will not be available for the rest of the game, on account of being severely damaged by Sigma prior to the first Boss battle.
    • And again in X5: fail to stop the Colony Drop, and Zero will "awaken," and will be unavailable for the rest of the game.
  • Gameplay and Story Segregation: When VAVA is piloting a Ride Armor, there's no reason to assume he cannot be hit. The guy has his head sticking out, but if you shoot him, you fail to deal damage. At least you can destroy the mecha in X3, but in Irregular Hunter X, VAVA can only incur damage if shot directly, averting this trope.
  • Game Breaker: The Nova Strike of the Ultimate Armor, especially the X8 variation.
    • Another Game Breaker from the same game: Zero Armor + Sigma's BFS = instant Guard breaks plus instant kills to most enemies (Bosses are also taken down easily). Of course, they can be used together.
    • The C-Sword from X5. It gives Zero a double jump and an incredibly powerful spinning slash. Zero already tears bosses to pieces in X5. You do the math. To make it even more powerful, you get it from Grizzly Slash/Crescent Grizzly, the weakest boss in the game. What's funny is that getting it actually makes Grizzly marginally harder in the Boss Rush, as it replaces your jumping slash and he's immune to his own power. Of course, by this point, you'll have the power he's weak against, so it balances out.
  • Giant Spider: Bospider from X, and Web Spider from X4.
  • The Good, the Bad, and The Evil: The games starting from X3 tend to do this. Usually, the heroes are good, the new Reploid group of the week is bad, and the forces of Sigma are evil. Usually, the bad either are swiftly defeated by X and company or become evil themselves.
  • Good Is Not Dumb: X, a Reluctant Warrior who lives in an increasingly Crapsack World infested with The Virus, capable of turning even his best friend against him. And if it weren't for his perfect suffering circuit, the guy himself would be at risk. Often referred to as 'too trusting' in-universe and 'emo' outside of it because he doesn't like killing people.
  • Good Old Robot: X and Zero are this, as they aren't technically Reploids ("Replicated Androids"), but rather the original articles all Reploids are based from. Not just that, they are immune to The Virus because of this status. Though they're just referred to as Reploids altogether (in-story) to avoid confusion because of their basically similar mental capacities.
  • Good Scars, Evil Scars: Axl and Sigma both have scars as part of their signature appearances. Red as well.
  • Grand Finale: X5. Callbacks to the earlier series and the rest of the X series, a Climax Boss foreshadowed by all four of the previous games, the return of a classic villain, and a potentially apocalyptic plot. A fitting end to the series...Too bad they had to keep making more games.
    • At least X8 didn't suck. (and also killed Sigma for good) That's good, right? Right?
  • Grasp the Sun: Lumine does this to the Earth before the Final Battle.
  • Gratuitous English: The original Japanese names of the Mavericks. X6 and beyond used these for all translations, leading to such oddities as Metal Shark Player (?), Vanishing Gungaroo, and Tornado Tonion (no, we don't know what a Tonion is either. But the boss is a giant onion).
    • "Tonion" is an attempted Woolseyism on "Debunion" (debu/"fat" and onion). Vanishing Gungaroo's name is a portmanteau of "gun" and "kangaroo". In general, many Mavericks' Japanese names are a corruption of the English name for whatever animal they resemble—Wheel Gator's Japanese name is Wheel Alligates, for instance. It's just that in X6, they stopped changing them to make sense for the English version.
    • Metal Shark Player's bizarre name comes from a mistranslation of "Prayer," as in praying. Suitably, he has an ability to resurrect old bosses using the scrap metal nearby.
    • In one case, Magna Centipede, this was actually sort of averted. It was thought that Japanese kids wouldn't know the English word "centipede," so the developers spent a lot of time trying to think of a better name before settling on "Hyakulegger," "hyaku" meaning "a hundred."
    • And in the cases of Boomer Kuwanger and Infinity Mijinion, the names are only partially in English—leaving English speakers baffled as to what a "Kuwanger" is.[8]
  • Gravity Master: Gravity Beetle of X3 and Gravity Antonion of X8 can use gravity to their advantage during their fights. Upon losing half his health, Gravity Beetle lowers the gravity. Gravity Antonion can change the gravity in his room, although thankfully the camera rotates to avert Interface Screw.
  • Gravity Screw: Cyber Peacock's stage in X4, Dark Dizzy's stage in X5, and Gravity Antonion's stage in X8. Gravity Antonion himself can change the gravity during his fight, and the camera also rotates to go with the changed gravity to prevent an Interface Screw.
  • Grey and Gray Morality: As the series went on, the lines separating who's the good guys and the baddies became increasingly blurred. While X3 introduced the horrifying concept of the Maverick Virus, things could be cleaned up if the player was skilled enough. X4 showed how the label of "Maverick" can be tossed around indiscriminately and how this can have tragic consequences, X6's plot only happened because Gate was betrayed and cast out of a society simply because he took risks no one else would (aside from his creations being too strong), and Lumine in X8 genuinely believed that his force-evolution plot would end the wars. X5 has Mavericks who are a ragtag bunch of assorted characters on varying levels of morality, while X7 and Command Mission follow X4 to a T (except that X7, not counting Sigma, has no actually evil Mavericks at all).
  • Guide Dang It: A minor, yet mandatory, example in X6: High Max (as the second fortress Boss) requires a certain combination of attacks to beat.
    • The Hadouken upgrade in the original, and most of the special unlockable powers in the following installments.
    • An optional version is the method for unlocking Axl's special armor in X8 (you have to deal the final blow to the boss with him as well as pick up all of his upgrades), but you might well end up doing it without even knowing it.
    • The power weakness order can be a Guide Dang It, especially to the uninitiated. Each boss is weak to a certain power, but there is hardly any hint as to what power. If you've played previous installments, there's a bit of logic to it—wind blows out fire, fire tends to burn plants or melt ice, etc. — but you're otherwise playing a guessing game. Moreover, the game usually has a preset pattern which allows you to defeat every boss with the least amount of trouble, not to mention taking advantage of the weaknesses of any of the special bosses along the way. Again, there's not a hint on what this is. The games do tend to lean towards Monstrosity Equals Weakness, but this isn't a universal truth.
      • The special bosses are even worse about this. While regular bosses have an obvious reaction to the power they're weak against, most special bosses don't, so the only way to tell if you're doing it right is to check the amount of damage you do. This is particularly important in X3, as defeating the special bosses with the right weapon is essential to getting the Z-Saber upgrade for X.
  • Guns Akimbo: Axl's weaponry is generally this.
    • There's also X's buster upgrades in X2 and X3. The former can fire two buster shots one after the other, and the latter can combine the buster shots into one, more powerful shot.
    • Launcher Octopuld aka Launch Octopus in the first game has six tentacles that shoot missiles at his opponents.
    • Bamboo Pandemonium from X8 has dual busters sticking from his arms in place of hands. And these come packed with knives that function as makeshift claws!
  • The Gwen Stacy: Iris' death in X4. Zero's final memory before he apparently dies in X5 is of her face, to which he apologizes. Whether Iris comes back from the grave or not has never been revealed. Gate in X6 is a gender-reversed example.
  • Heads I Win, Tails You Lose: Maverick Hunter X features this as the Final Boss battle if you play as Vile. Beat X and Zero, and the following cutscene shows them seriously damaged. Then they pull themselves together, stomp you with one shot, and leave you to die. Great reward.
    • When you play as X, the intro-stage battle with Vile has been changed from a Hopeless Boss Fight to one of these. You have to do a certain amount of damage, but then Vile will simply waste you; Zero's entrance then proceeds on schedule.
    • In X5, X vs Zero — No matter what character you use and Zero's condition (being Maverick or not), your fight will end in a draw.
  • Heart Container: Heart Tanks.
  • Heroes Prefer Swords: Subverted — X prefers an Arm Cannon. It's Zero who prefers swords (more specifically, a Laser Blade).
    • X actually acquires a Laser Blade (specifically, Zero's) in X6, but he can't use it as well as Zero does. His armors in the game amplify its powers, though.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: In the original game, Zero sacrifices himself in the first game to destroy the Hopeless Boss Fight and give X his BFG if he doesn't have it already. Zero clung to the back of the mech, where there were no weapons, no way for the arms to reach him, and Vile's exposed head is in front of him. The manga adaptation of this scene shows X trying to attack Vile's exposed body, but stopped by a force field. The SNES version has X paralyzed after being over powered by Vile, and the PSP remake has Vile grab X while the latter is distracted seeing a downed Zero. However the effect is lessened when you realize neither game explains why shooting Vile isn't an option. The PSP version even shows that it wouldn't be too difficult for Zero to aim just a little higher.
    • Here's a subversion of the usual terms of the Heroic Sacrifice, concerning both X and Zero. They both sacrificed their physical bodies (Zero sealing his own while X used his to seal something) for the good of everyone they care for. That doesn't mean they're dead, though. Zero's now a Sealed Good in a Can, while X has become a cyber-elf to guide the future generation of heroes. By the end, X retreated to the afterlife, and Zero sacrificed himself for real.
  • Heterosexual Life Partners: X and Zero, until Axl shows up. At one point in X5, X claims Zero is not only his best friend, but his only friend.
  • He Who Fights Monsters: A common theme is to have villains formerly pursue Mavericks themselves; pretty much every anti-Maverick group that isn't the Hunters, such as Repliforce, shows these tendencies. The first two games had most standard bosses be ex-Hunters themselves who had joined the enemy. Sigma is a double subversion; he was infected with an unknown virus, but his later actions show that he has become his own villain.
  • Her Heart Will Go On: Alia's pretty clearly moved on from Gate. Not only has the effort to rebuild him been forgotten after X6, she doesn't seem to stress much about it afterwards, and recent marketing materials show him with Sigma's henchmen, while Colonel, Iris, and even Red are still close to Zero and Axl respectively.
  • Hey, It's That Voice!:
  • Hijacked by Ganon: Sigma is incredibly good at this: the X-Hunters in X2, Dr. Doppler in X3, the Repliforce in X4 (although this was Lampshaded by one of the bosses, and Sigma's involvement is strongly hinted at as early as the cutscene right after the intro stage), Gate in X6, and the Red Alert Syndicate in X7. Surprisingly, this doesn't happen in X5 and X8; X5 has Sigma possibly acting out a plan made by Wily, which could mean he was Hijacked By Wily, and in X8 Sigma is Hijacked By Lumine.
    • Sigma refers to Wily as his partner in X5, so it's likely that the two were working as equals.
  • Hoist by His Own Petard: Happens to Gate in X6, where he resurrects Sigma, only for the latter to nearly destroy him (the ending is ambiguous as to whether or not Alia chose to or was even able to repair him), and deny his (Gate's) role in his resurrection.
  • Honor Before Reason: Repliforce tried to invoke this (turned out more like "Loyalty Before Reason"). If they weren't so obstinate at the beginning of X4, we might have avoided the resulting war.
    • Maverick Hunter X has the pre-fight dialogue with several of the Mavericks point out that they're followers of this logic. X specifically points out that their actions will have them classified as Mavericks, and they don't deny it, but believe that what they're fighting for is right (again, "Loyalty Before Reason"). The one exception is Storm Eagle, who doesn't deny the Maverick classification, but seems genuinely remorseful about the fact that he'll be considered a psycho and have to fight X as a result.
  • Hopeless Boss Fight: Vile (whose Ride Armor protects him) and High Max, the first times you fight them in X and X6, respectively. The former does it again in the first phase of his rematch in the fortress, although after that Ride Armor is destroyed, he can be defeated normally. Gameplay and Story Segregation ensues, though, since the guy could still be shot in his Ride Armor, logically speaking.
    • In Maverick Hunter X, the first time you fight Vile, you're required to beat him (by shooting him in the head rather than the ride armor). Failure means that he just plain kills you. This changes the meaning of the fight entirely (X is no longer considered underpowered, just stupid for approaching the damaged ride armor before confirming the kill).
  • Hot Scientist: Alia. Just see her X8 design.
  • Humongous Mecha: The Gigantic Mechaniloid series of bosses.
    • Some of the Mavericks themselves (particularly General) could count as these on their own.
  • Hurricane of Puns: X7's boss names. Vanishing Gungaroo? Tornado Tonion? (He's a Fat Bastard)
  • Hyperspace Arsenal: Here are all of Zero's weapons in X7 and X8:
  • The Immune: Played with. Most Reploids will become the chaotic, rampaging Mavericks upon The Virus's infection. But X, with his Suffering Circuit inside him, will instead get hurt upon infection, as the circuit's trying to prevent him from being rampaging and genocidal. The only one who's seemingly immune is Zero, and he even becomes stronger the more the virus infects him, as shown in the gameplay. It has to do with Zero being not only the original source of the virus itself, but he is actually made to be able to use it as a power source.
    • In X's case, he actually has perfect virus countermeasures, created by Dr. Light because he foresaw X would deal with viruses in the future, due to the Roboenza incident in Mega Man 10. That, or the Evil Energy from 8.
  • Inexplicable Treasure Chests: The Dr. Light capsules, in all games. A popular Epileptic Tree for it is that all of them are actually one, single capsule.
    • Just to give the most bizarre example, there's a capsule in the Dinosaur Tank, a place that is flying all the time and did not exist in Light's time.
  • Infinity+1 Sword: So many...
    • X: Hadouken and Zero's Z-Buster. Subverted in the latter's case, as it requires you not to complete the Sidequest.
    • X2: Shoryuken and Giga Crash.
    • X3: The Hyper Max Armor chip and Zero's Z-saber.
    • X4: Nova Strike, Ultimate Armor, and Black Zero.
    • X5: Ultimate and Zero/Black Armors; both armors exist as infinity plus one armors since their first appearance, with the exception of X7.
    • X8: Sigma's BFS. This game also marked the first (and so far, only) appearance of Axl's "White Armor."
  • Informed Attribute: Of the setting itself. Just how well do humans and Reploids get along? It'd be nice to know, but the one recurring human has been retconned out of the series recently. Becomes fairly ridiculous when Lumine mentions that said relationship has irrevocably changed and manages to confound the heroes. Do they know either?
    • Also, given how much personality the Robot Masters had in the Mega Man series in games where they had dialog as well as the various mangas and adaptations, what makes Reploids so different aside from overall power?
  • Inherently Funny Words: Metal Shark Player. Tornado Tonion. Flame Hyenard. X6 and X7 are a goldmine.
  • Innocent Blue Eyes: Alia has blue eyes and no bad bones in her body. The main antagonist inverts this trope, having blue eyes that glow bright, and not a single good bone is present in his body.
  • Instant Awesome, Just Add Dragons: Magma Dragoon from X4, definitely. He's one of the few "standard 8" bosses who has a larger connection with the story, and he's the only one who actually talks to you after getting defeated. Oh, and his appearance and moveset are definitely based off Akuma....
    • Egregion, the opening stage boss in X4, is a gigantic dragon Mechaniloid.
  • Instrumental Theme Tune: Variable X, the theme that symbolizes X's growth and Zero's trust in him. It was this at first, but later the theme became more attached to dramatic scenes mostly involving Zero's death or any sacrifice he makes for X. That said, the theme still follows both warriors, zig-zagging to which one it truly represents, leading to the conclusion it belongs to both of them.
  • Interface Screw:
  • Japanese Beetle Brothers: Boomer Kuwanger (Kuwagatamushi) and Gravity Beetle (Kabutomushi). They actually are brothers, too.
  • Jerkass Façade: Zero. Despite his tough-guy (and occasionally smart-alecy) attitude, he repeatedly shows throughout the series that he is actually a nice guy who cares very deeply for his friends and allies.
  • The Jimmy Hart Version: Compare The Final Countdown and Infinity Mijinion's stage music, or Neon Tiger's stage music and "My Michelle" by Guns n' Roses.
  • Joke Character: CutMan, 8-bit in graphics, music, and appearance, is a Bonus Boss in X8. His sprite animation may be a Shout-Out to Paper Mario.
  • Jossed: After years of fan speculation that Zero killed the original cast of the old series, Keiji Inafune casually stated in a question and answer session that this was not true and "was not a part of Zero's character."
  • Judge, Jury, and Executioner/Knight Templar: The Maverick Hunters were forced into this trope more often than not due to both extreme circumstances and the complete unwillingness of their targets to cooperate. Needless to say, X was very unhappy about this fact. This continues into the Zero series and even the ZX series.
  • Jumping Off the Slippery Slope: By the end of the game, more sympathetic groups of Mavericks are prone to pulling this off, such as Red Alert in X7 and Lumine in X8. Repliforce manage to slide gracefully off of it enough you still feel bad for some of them, same with the Rebellion, while the poor Nightmare Investigators don't even get to do that before they get massacred. Subverted by Colonel Redips, as it turns out, there was no slippery slope to start with!
  • Just Think of the Potential: Dr. Light, seeing that the "X" stands for a variable that represents unlimited potential, and thus, a connotation of danger, averts this trope by sealing him in a capsule for 30 years for morality testing to assure that he'll do what's right (or alternately, because The World Is Not Ready to accept him as a living, sapient being on par with humans). Dr. Cain, on the other hand...
    • And the End of X8, stating the production of Copy Chips was restarted later, though enabling Reploids to go Maverick at will.
  • Kill All Humans: Suddenly, Reploids, thanks to their advanced programming that allows them to enjoy a personality, can malfunction and end up wanting to exterminate and not care about humans, aptly named Mavericks. Thanks to the circuit that makes X "worry" about the value of humans and Reploids not being perfect in other Reploids, and thus extremely vulnerable to the virus, which exploits the cracks.
    • This is also at times implied to be an inherent part of the reploid's free will: Just as a human can freely choose the Dark Side, Reploids can do the same. The flaw simply makes them more vulnerable to physical and external influences on their behavior.
  • Killed Off for Real:
    • Though this wouldn't be the first time, Sigma (finally!!) has been stated to have been killed at the end of the last released game. The next game, chronologically, as well as the next series, somewhat proves this, since he doesn't appear in them at all.
    • X5 supposedly has this happen to Zero as well, to end the series. Of course, Capcom didn't make it stick...
  • Kill Sat: The Final Weapon in X4. The entire Repliforce War turns out to be a Kansas City Shuffle by Sigma to take control of it. Optic Sunflower also seems to use one as his desperation attack.
  • Kill the Ones You Love: Zero is the most notable example, but both Alia and Axl have been forced into it, with Axl's being more or less Patricide.
  • Knight, Knave, and Squire: X, Zero and Axl respectively.
  • Laser Blade: Zero's Beam Saber is the most famous, but Sigma has one of those first.
  • Last Breath Bullet: In X5, Sigma starts it by shooting X and Zero at the same time with a back attack. Zero has enough power left to give a parting counterattack as he fades away, finishing Sigma off.
    • Lumine also does the same thing to Axl, with a tentacle-like appendage from his body.
  • Leeroy Jenkins: "Stay back X! I'll take him on!" Guess what? Vile comes out on top and has Zero at his mercy.
  • Level Map Display: In X3, the head upgrade gives X access to a (very rudimentary) map of the level, dividing it into small sectors, and showcasing the special items of the level.
  • Levels Take Flight: The stages for Storm Eagle (X), Storm Owl (X4), The Skiver/Spiral Pegacion (X5), and Wind Crowrang (X7) all involve (in some way) their personal armadas, with the actual battle against these Mavericks usually taking place on their personal aircraft/flagship.
  • Light and Mirrors Puzzle: Shield Sheldon's stage in X6.
  • Lighter and Softer: X8 is the lightest game since the SNES originals. While many of the rank-and-file Mavericks have sob-stories, the major villains here are more clearly evil, and you don't end up losing any allies, a first since X3 (unless you count the possibility of losing Doppler in that game if Zero is damaged by Mosquitus).
  • Limit Break: Giga Attacks. Also, each boss, starting with the third game, will unleash a more powerful attack starting at 50% health, but only once (it either is very difficult to avoid, or has a lingering effect).
  • Linear Warriors, Quadratic Wizards: Zero and X respectively, in a way. Zero, as a prominent Z-saber user, is stronger than X at first, but when X is fully upgraded with the weapons from bosses as well as Powered Armors, X becomes an all-powerful warrior in his own right.
  • Lip Lock: This is the reason for Zero's infamous "WHAT-AM-I-FIGHTING FOOOOOOOOOOR!" line in X4, since his lip movements have his mouth open wide when he says it.
  • Lost Forever: In X6, there are reploids scattered throughout the levels waiting around to be rescued. God help you if a nightmare virus infects one of them, because they will be lost forever, taking the items they give with them. X7 does the same.
  • Luck-Based Mission: X5 and the cannon. The cannon will only successfully fire half the time, no matter how well you do.
    • Also, the shuttle can in fact fail to destroy the colony even if you do gather all the parts. Conversely, you can fire the cannon right off the bat and it actually has a decent chance of destroying the colony.
    • The success of the shuttle seems tied to which character you've been giving preference to. For instance, a playthrough focused on building up Zero will usually have a successful Shuttle Operation, for obvious reasons.
  • Lucky Seven: Inverted in X7, where X gets booted to the sidelines for a good chunk of the game, crippling the good guys until the Red Alert faction pops up to deal with the Bad Guys, and even then...
  • Macross Missile Massacre: Happens literally (the massacre part, that is) in the climax of the OVA.
    • Bamboo Pandamonium aka Bamboo Pandemonium can launch missiles during his battle, and Bamboo's weapon is called Green Spinner, which X can use to do the same upon getting his hands on it.
  • Magma Man: Magma Dragoon from X4.
  • The Maverick Hunters
  • Meaningful Name: Aside from the obvious examples (see Theme Naming below), let's take a look at X4's mole. In addition to the aforementioned reveal as a double agent, this guy also has two forms to go along with his role, and he's weak to the Double Cyclone.
  • Mechanical Evolution: Done rather uniquely; all Reploids are 'replica androids' derived from the titular X, who was designed with 'limitless potential,' the capability to evolve to (hopefully) overcome any obstacle he was presented with. As X is forced to fight and evolve, more and more powerful Reploids can be made based on him, allowing the species itself to evolve over time.
  • Mega Manning: X's Variable Weapons, Zero's Command Arts, and Axl's Special Arms.
  • Minecart Madness: Armored Armadillo's stage in X1. The minecarts themselves travel very fast, mow down nearby Mooks in an instant, and are in fact required to cross the large chasm connecting the end of the mine to the entrance of the Boss Room.
  • Mini-Mecha: The Ride Armors seen in most of the games, available for use to the playable characters. Vile more than often uses them in his appearances as well.
  • The Mole: Double in X4 is the clearest example.
  • Monstrosity Equals Weakness: The biggest and ugliest bosses are often the easiest to hit. Examples include Iris, Crescent Grizzly, and most intro stage bosses. Defied by High Max and General, though.
  • Moral Dissonance: In the bad ending of X5, Doctor Light erases all memories of Zero from X's mind and installs a program that rejects any further data about him, thus essentially removing all traces of Zero from X's life. The fact that Doctor Light would do something so incredibly unethical to spare X's feelings is mind-boggling.
    • Arguably, much of the series centers around this, given what Maverick Hunters actually do. This issue is occasionally addressed, albeit very mildly, and nothing ever changes regardless. However, it does lead into the Zero series....
  • More Dakka: Axl in X8, where he got multiple arsenals from the bosses. One of them, in particular, is the Ice Gatling. Very cool, isn't it?
  • More Hero Than Thou: In X5, in order to stop the Colony Drop, one of the heroes has to maneuver a shuttle into crashing into it. Zero volunteered himself, as he stated that, whether or not he (Zero) survives the crash, the world is still in danger, and X is needed more than he is.
  • Motive Decay: Sigma was once a (probably) charismatic revolutionary. Upon turning Maverick, his initial goal was for the Reploids to reign over mankind (akin to Magneto) before he became obsessed with the defeat of the heroes.
  • Multiple Endings: Subversion in X2 and X3. Gathering all of Zero's parts and keeping the same character alive, respectively, definitely changes things in the final battles, but they only slightly affect the ending. Played straight in later games, though.
  • Multipurpose Tongue: Sting Chameleon from X1 is all about this trope. He uses his tongue as his primary attack, which has him lash out with his tongue akin to a whip, and can hang from the ceiling to rain damaging spikes down from the ceiling with his tongue.
  • Mutually Exclusive Powerups: In X3, in addition to the Powered Armor, you can get an upgrade chip from the capsule that will upgrade one of the parts. Once you select one (by accepting Dr. Light's offer to add the chip to the respective part), you can't have the others, but you can still get the other armor parts. However, there's a secret way to get all of them at once, and with a nice touch of gold color!
  • Named After Somebody Famous: The Maverick bosses in X5 are named after the members (and ex-members) of Guns N' Roses. As far as can be told, this was primarily inspired by one of them being a rose and having a stage littered with, well...
    • Also, if you ever heard I Used to Love Her, parallels to the previous game intensify quite a bit.
  • Never Trust a Title: X isn't the main character of X7. Fans weren't happy.
  • New Game+: Xtreme 1 and 2 allowed this, particularly with the latter's parts system. X8, which features the most item collection in the series, lets you cut loose with all your prizes—indeed, it's the only way to unlock each character's special armor.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: The 1st part of the Evil Plan in X5, where Sigma baits X and Zero into fighting and defeating him at the beginning of the game, spreading The Virus all over the Earth. One should know that it's a trap, since your Arch Enemy wouldn't have let himself get beaten that easily.
    • In a bizarre twist earlier in the series, Sigma's battle with Zero pre-X. Sigma's actually The Hero in this scenario, and the whole battle (possibly when Sigma punches Zero's helmet crystal) was the cause of The Virus passing onto him, triggering his Face Heel Turn and, in turn, Zero's Heel Face Turn.
      • Although, it could be that Sigma as a Maverick would be preferable to Zero remaining a Maverick, given what we see in the next series.
  • Nintendo Hard: X6, thanks to the endless array of instant death spikes.
    • Combined with every other instant-kill trap, utilized in the most sadistic way possible.
  • No Damage Run: Kind of in X5. Completing the first four stages without using a single continue will allow the Cannon to completely destroy Eurasia, making the remaining four stages entirely optional (with new dialogue to accommodate this), as well as giving slightly more exposition on the Zero Virus during the intro to Sigma's fortress.
  • No Endor Holocaust: Averted in X6; just because you blew up the space colony doesn't solve the problem of the debris crashing and causing havoc.
  • No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Played with in Maverick Zero and Sigma's battle in X4's flashback cutscene. It seems like Sigma is controlling the fight, but Zero just keeps getting up, laughing, and finally winning a Single-Stroke Battle, fist to Beam Saber, and then turns the tables completely. Zero is only beaten when his head crystal glows, causing him a headache, and then Sigma punches it, making his opponent unconscious.
  • No Ontological Inertia: Many instances. For one, X wouldn't be harmed by spikes if he stands on them right after he defeats a boss.
  • The Obi-Wan: Dr. Light, to X. Strangely enough, he also serves as an advisor to Zero in X5 and X6. The latter fact was dropped in subsequent games, possibly to remove confusion.
    • Or because he simply had no more advice to offer.
  • Obvious Beta: X6 definitely has shades of this. With the lazy level design, the unspeakably bad translation that was completely impossible to make out at times, and several missing tracks from the sound test (including Zero's own freakin' theme music, which is also one of the best tracks in the game.), it's pretty clear that Capcom rushed this out as soon as possible to squeeze one last bit of money out of the PS 1 before it faded away completely (the game came out in late 2001). The PS1 lasted for longer than that, even!
  • OC Stand In: Dr. Cain often gets this treatment from fans.
    • Not just that, humanity itself sometimes also gets this treatment, since they're oddly never seen (not even in the cutscenes!).
  • Odd Friendship: A Technical Pacifist and a warrior? Hmm... Especially when they were destined to kill each other.
  • One-Hit Kill: The Hadouken and the Shoryuken from the first and second games, respectively. For something "weaker", there is the Z-saber from X3, and the Nova Strike from X8, both of which inflict two-hit kills.
    • Also from X8, regardless of how much energy the players still have, the Final Boss's Paradise Lost attack will always result in instant death if the timer runs out.
    • From X5 comes one in the form of Genmurei, an attack Awakenening Zero uses if the battle progresses too long. True to the trope, it covers up the entire area in front, leaving no chance to escape or survive. Here's a video of the Genmurei, time set to when Zero does it.
  • One Hundred Percent Completion: Collecting all the items in X8 and upgrading the three/later six playable characters, which even has a percentage counter for each character. Fully upgrading (100%) each of the male characters is the only way to obtain his infinity plus one armor without the use of codes.
  • One-Man Army: In X7, Zero comes close to literally being one, after X retires, until at least he was joined by the "volunteer" Axl.
    • In fact, most of the legwork of the Maverick Hunters seem to rely only on X, Zero, and (later) Axl. It's only in The Movie Day of Sigma that other Maverick Hunters are actually shown fighting (and, even then, just briefly), as well as X8 as Secret Characters.
    • This is played with, since the Mavericks always seem to rely on a mere 8 bosses and their Faceless Goons, suggesting that both sides deploy forces against each other beyond what we see.
  • One-Winged Angel: Sigma abuses the hell out of this trope.
    • He's also a dumbass at this trope. According to the sourcebooks, none of the fortress bosses from the first game were working right, and his battle body wasn't finished.[9] In X3, aside from just barely finishing the Kaiser body before starting the war, he didn't use it in a place where he could use the speed. In X5, he even says his giant body isn't finished. Finally, in X7, he never bothers to just smash the platforms you're on. In X8, he becomes a flat-out Clipped-Wing Angel.
    • Lumine in X8 not only grows angel wings, but the background suddenly becomes cloudy and sunny... despite your fighting on the moon.
    • Quite a few other antagonists do it too, notably Double, who is one of a few who only fights after pulling a one-winged-angel. Few of them get to die as themselves from there. In one case, even a lower-ranked boss from Command Mission gets to reveal a true form.
  • The Other Darrin: Considering his expanded role in future series, Zero has had the most voice actors in the series at 4 (5 if one counts his Zero voice actor, since there was no English audio). X and Sigma won't be left behind either, having 3 actors each.
    • X deserves special mention for changing Japanese voice actors mid-series, unlike most other characters who have one per series.
  • Outside the Box Tactic: While many bosses have Logical Weaknesses, the Launch Octopus has one of these - the boomerang attack can cut off his tentacles and prevent him from using his homing attack. This is also done to Flame Mammoth. Many special bosses have weaknesses like this, and some are even symbolic.
  • OVA: Day of Sigma, available after finishing the first game's remake. It's a prequel to events in the series; however, it retcons certain aspects of the series canon (eg. Sigma's motivations, Dr. Cain's death [he was shown/mentioned in games up to X4; especially in X2, where it was he who rebuilt Zero from the parts X stole from the X-Hunters], etc.).
    • It should be noted that Maverick Hunter X was intended to use Inafune's originally intended plot for the X series, so maybe Dr. Cain wasn't supposed to be around for that long.
  • Panthera Awesome: Neon Tiger from X3 and Slash Beast from X4. Wild Jango from Command Mission is based on a small cat, a bobcat to be exact.
  • The Paragon Always Rebels: Sigma and his squad.
    • Also Repliforce, considering they're dubbed "the strongest army on Earth" and they want to seclude themselves from humans to create their own society, deciding to terrorize them, and ultimately threatening them with doomsday. Red Alert are a similar case, but aren't quite as high and mighty.
      • Gate and Doppler, though it was forced in their cases, moreso with the latter.
  • Password Save: In the first three games.
  • The Phoenix: Blaze Heatnix of X6.
  • Physical God: Arguably, but X is hinted to be one. The endings of the first three games have pictures of the bosses, along with power and speed calculations, capping at 25600 for the final bosses. X (and Zero) has his power and speed as ???.
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  Cyber Peacock: His potential... is limitless?! Not possible.

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    • Also Maverick Zero, according to, in Sigma's words, an "old man" (Possibly referring to Dr. Wily).
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 "Zero is the most powerful thing in the universe, when purified by The Virus."

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  • Pieta Plagiarism: Zero does this in X4.
  • Platform Battle: A few bosses, most notably the rematch against Serges in X2 (set on floating platforms above a bed of lethal spikes) as well as Gate's boss fight in X6 (this time above Bottomless Pits).
  • Platform Hell: Gate's stages in X6, which often approach I Wanna Be the Guy levels of frustration and difficulty.
  • Playing the Victim Card: Some of the bosses do this to you. They're not necessarily wrong, either
  • Playing with Fire: Flame Mammoth, Flame Stag, Magma Dragoon, Burn Dinorex/Mattrex, Blaze Heatnix, Flame Hyenard, Burn Rooster, from X1-X2, X4-X8 respectively. Strangely, X3 is the only game without a fire-themed maverick.
    • Velguarder can shoot fireballs out of his mouth.
  • Point of No Return: X4 through X7:
    • X4: After X goes through the third stage, which contains the Boss Rush, he will be forced to play the final stage after going through the portal, which triggers a cutscene where he arrives in the area where the fourth stage will start and he and Sigma have... a pep talk, to say the least.
    • X5: The Boss Rush occurs when the gang gets through the fourth stage of Zero Space. After all eight Irregulars are trounced, a portal appears. Touching that triggers the final stage without any opportunity for restocks.
    • X6: Double-subverted. After X defeats High Max at the end of the second stage, he is forced into the third stage immediately. Upon beating Gate, X goes back to the Hunter Base to restock, and the fourth stage opens. However, X will be forced to go into the final stage without any opportunity to restock his resources when the Boss Rush is completed; fortunately for X, the final stage is quite simple and Sigma doesn't hit him as hard, and there are not much enemies.
    • X7: After X and company get through the second stage and fight with Red, they will be forced to go through the final two stages.
  • Polygon Ceiling: X7 is just short of Bubsy 3D.
  • Post Script Season: X5 was meant to cap off the series and segue into the Zero series, but stuff happened and Capcom threw together four more installments that didn't really involve Inafune's input.
  • Power Armor: The Mini-Mecha mentioned above, complete with a separate health reservoir, speed dash, and titan punches. X3 introduced a few variants, including one with Spikes of Doom and an amphibious one with Super Not-Drowning Skills.
    • X's various armors from Dr. Light's capsules is a more standard version.
  • Power Crystal: Many Reploids have these. In particular, most of the humanoid ones have at least one on their forehead.
    • Special mentions goes to Zero's Booblights.
    • In particular, X's head crystal starts to glow when he's in his critical health.
  • Power Glows: In the first three games, X will glow with a different color as he charges his Buster to the next charge level. Zero also does this, but only in X3.
  • Power Levels: In X3, the images were combined with ratings for strength and speed. Most of the bosses topped at about 10,000 for one or the other, Sigma made it up to 16,000 both, and Battle Body Sigma reached 25,600 for both (despite the fact that he was slower than dirt). Interestingly, X and Zero both had ratings of "?", which is confirmed in X4 when Cyber Peacock proclaims that X's potential is limitless (though he immediately tries to discredit his readings by claiming it's not possible).
  • Power Trio: The heroes don't technically become one at least until the final stages of X7.
    • Superego: X, the Martial Pacifist who really cares about his enemies.
    • Ego: Zero, who is considered a senior by the other two.
    • Id: Axl, who likes to get into X and Zero's nerves.
  • Pre-Explosion Glow: Starting from X4 onwards, all of the bosses do this after being defeated (sans Dynamo, who isn't dead).
  • Properly Paranoid: Has happened several times. Whenever the public panics over a group of Reploids, they're at least partially correct in their panic...
    • X4 features the Repliforce, whom, while seeming like peaceful protestors, actually ordered one of their members to destroy a city even after they were declared Maverick for the destruction of a city, and another to terrorize the skies. And then we see their ultimate project...
    • In X6, the Inspectors are labeled Mavericks on a whim. The Inspectors turned out to actually be willingly working for someone whom was accidentally brainwashed into evil. They seemed okay with leaving innocents at the mercy of the Nightmare Virus, too.
    • Red Alert are similar, with them having no problem with endangering innocents, and allowing their infected members to continue service.
    • Command Mission has the Rebellion, who, as it turns out, want to force evolution onto countless Reploids, which would kill the majority of them.
  • Promoted to Unlockable: Zero in X3. And by "unlockable," we mean "push the L button on the pause screen."
    • Vile in Maverick Hunter X's Vile Mode.
    • Inverted with X in X7; he's Demoted To Unlockable. Fans weren't happy.
    • Alia, Layer, and Pallete in X8.
  • Put on a Bus: Axl's copy-chip powers were meant to herald a new age of Reploids, so much so that an entire line had been manufactured. Cut to the Zero series, and there's not a single mention of either Axl's eventual fate or the technology itself. There's also the humans and their technology that fled underground in X6; again not mentioned in Zero.
    • Given the debacle caused during X8, it's probable that the project was simply canceled. Command Mission references several characters being products of the program being illegally restarted.
  • Racing the Train: Slash Beast of X4 shows up to the Traintop Battle by running parallel up to, then jumping onto the train car used as his boss room.
  • Rank Inflation: X5 goes for B, A, SA, GA, PA, and MH ranking scales. X6 goes D, C, B, A, SA, GA, PA, UH.
  • Real Time Weapon Change: Since the series started on the SNES, the shoulder buttons were used as an alternative to pausing for the weapons.
  • Recurring Boss: Not counting the Boss Rush, Dynamo, High Max, the Nightmare Police, Colonel, General, the X-Hunters, and Vile. While Vile and Dynamo are the only ones to persist between games (not counting Sigma himself, of course), the others are fought at least twice, often taking on alternate forms. On the SNES, the first battles with these characters could be skipped.
  • Redemption Equals Death: General, Ferham, and, if you get the bad ending of X3, Doppler.
  • The Reveal: Zero's X4 opening cutscene. A silhouette of an old man (obviously Dr. Wily) lecturing Zero to destroy his nemesis, Mega Man X.
  • Rhino Rampage: Tunnel Rhino of X3.
  • Right-Hand-Cat: More like Right-Hand-Dog. Sigma's first in-game appearance in X1 is in the final level, alongside a "pet" robotic wolf named Velguarder that serves as the level's first boss fight. Sigma implies that the player should be able to defeat Velguarder easily. Lo and behold, Velguarder meets his demise, especially even quicker if he is killed with the Shotgun Ice, and Sigma attacks later.
  • Robo-Family: X is considered to be a 'brother' to Mega Man, considering that he was also made by Doctor Light and carries on his legacy. This is made more explicit in a Brazillian comic.
    • Iris and Colonel call each other brother and sister because they were supposed to be the same reploid, but were split into two.
    • Also Techno and Midi, who shared the same CPU. Isoc and Hi Max seem to have something similar going on.
    • And that makes X pretty much everyone's father except for Zero. It's not expanded on much.
    • Axl and Lumine are also technically related, since Axl is Lumine's prototype.
  • Rouge Angles of Satin: From the first game: "YOU GET HORMING TORPEDO." They didn't bother correcting it in the English version, it seems.
    • X6 also had this. When Sigma taunts X during his transformation to his One-Winged Angel form, several of Sigma's words are misspelled. ("battle" > "baddle," "just" > "jusd," "begun" > "begunn," "just die" > "jusdie")
  • Secret AI Moves: Any time you fight Zero, he'll start using moves he most certainly did not have when using him, such as his signature buster-buster-Sword Beam combo from X2 before he was playable. X is guilty too. Regardless of whether or not you obtained the Ultimate Armor, he'll use it. He also uses moves from the previous installment in the series, which do not carry over from game to game.
  • Schematized Prop: You can see X's full blueprint in the opening cutscene in X1.
  • Schrodinger's Player Character: In X4, Zero and X have a identical yet separate storyline. X never shows up in Zero's story, while Zero only appears once in X's story, when he's flying to Earth after destroying the Final Weapon.
  • Screaming Warrior: The title character in later entries into the series (in particular, those with voiced pre-boss dialogue). Reaches Large Ham territory introducing the Sigma fight in Maverick Hunter X.
  • Screwed By The Video Game Company: Keiji Inafune apparently wanted to make more Maverick Hunter X remakes of X2 through X6 for the PSP. Unfortunately, due to apparently low sales, Capcom's executives vetoed it. What makes this worse is this tied in with the Mega Man X Collection. The makers of the XC had developed a large series of improvements for each game (such as re-dubbing X4, giving X6 a new translation, re-mapping one of Zero's moves in X6 so that fighting on ropes was no longer extremely dangerous, and throwing in other various extras). However, someone at Capcom Japan didn't like this, thinking the extras would make the XC overshadow the upcoming Maverick Hunter X series, and so forced the XC's developers to remove all extras and improvements (which were IN the game at some point, as evidenced by a line change in X1, and the re-mapped Zero move from X6 having a different command listing, but the actual way to perform it remaining the same) so that the MHX series could lay sole claim to them. Naturally, the series died after the first game, and so the extras ended up never being used at all.
    • they were still in late enough that they were still referenced by info on the box and manual the removal of the new and updated content was pretty much almost literally a last minute thing.
  • Sealed Evil in a Can:
    • Zero's capsule sealed The Virus. He was infected by it during his fight with Sigma, having his armor breached during the battle. He is still the only carrier of it besides Sigma, though.
    • Arguably, in a related case, Zero himself was a sealed evil, with the Maverick Hunters temporarily containing him in the lab he woke up in, right before the above events came to pass.
  • Secret AI Moves: X5 is pretty bad about this. When you end up challenging either X or Zero, the character gets moves you cannot (or no longer can) use. X can use several powers from the previous game, which he can use a lot better than he ever could in that game, while Zero gets a huge upgrade to his ranged attack abilities. The latter might have been excusable if only Maverick Zero could do it (instead he he's just cheaper and gets a one-hit kill attack on top), but Zero can use these powers regardless of the circumstance.
  • Secret Character: Zero in X6. Also, see Easter Egg above.
  • Seldom-Seen Species: Some of the Mavericks fall under this (how many of you knew what Infinity Mijinon was supposed to be before reading the page?)
    • Earthrock Torirovich was designed after a trilobyte, which had gone extinct long ago in real life.
    • Burn Dinorex was built with a Tyrannosaurus Rex design despite the fact that dinosaurs went extinct (Thanks, Asteroid.) in 65 million B.C.
  • Self-Imposed Challenge: A common one among players is to defeat all of the stage bosses using only the X Buster. Others inlcude beating the game with no damage or beating it without upgrades or hearts.
    • YouTube let's player HideofBeast takes this to downright masochistic levels, having done a minimalist, no damage speed run of X4-6 on Extreme Mode. This is especially painful when you take into account the horrid level design of X6 and how much of a pain in the ass it is just to beat it normally.
  • Sequel Hook: X8 ends with one, where Lumine, in his last breath, knocks Axl comatose, and leaves a strange fragment on his helmet. It gets no mention in Command Mission, which might or might not be the next chronological game.
  • Shades of Conflict: The games can vary tremendously. In the first two games, you are heroically trying to put down a murderous revolution mostly caused by an army of cruel, traitorous Dirty Cops, though about one of them per game seemed more noble than the rest. The third game features an outbreak of The Virus, and requires you to put down innocent people who have been reduced to drooling drones, yet one of the victims, their leader, manages to find a cure for himself, and his life is in your hands from there. In the fourth game, you're a bit more trigger happy, dealing with wrongfully accused people doing everything in their power to justify your need to take them down, plus in one case, yet another victim of The Virus. Both the third and fourth also include a few scumbags partially responsible for what goes on. The games just get more ambiguous from there. The sixth, for example, has no real villains until the climax.
  • Shock and Awe: Spark Mandrill, Volt Catfish, Web Spider, Squid Adler, Tornado Tonion, Gigavolt Man-O'-War.
    • Velguarder can also shoot electrical fireballs from his mouth. X can dodge this by standing near Velguarder so the fireballs fly over his head.
  • Shotoclone:
    • There are hidden special attacks for X in the first two games that mimic Ryu and Ken's signature attacks from Street Fighter. X's Shoryuken returns in X4 (charged Rising Fire) and X8 (comes with the Ultimate Armor).
    • Magma Dragoon is an utterly blatant Shotoclone, complete with Akuma's topknot and magatama.
    • In X8 as well, two of Zero's techniques change into the Shoryuken and the Tatsumaki Senpukyaku when he's equipped with the K-Knuckle.
  • Shoulder Cannon: Vile/Vava.
  • Shout-Out:
  • Shrug of God: Inafune himself says that whether or not Serges/Sageese is really Dr. Wily is for the player to decide.
    • The makers of X6 wouldn't tell people for certain whether Isoc is Dr. Wily or not either.
  • Skippable Boss/Sequence Breaking: In X5, you can skip the 8 Maverick stages by immediately using the Enigma Cannon and/or the Shuttle, and then you can access the fortress stages.
    • Likewise, the three X Hunters from X2 move randomly from stage to stage, and appear only in designated rooms within the stages, sometimes off the stage's main path. There is also an additional boss in the final stage, depending on whether or not you defeated all three X-Hunters while battling the eight Mavericks.
    • Vile's reappearance in X3 is completely optional, depending on whether or not the player finished that stage before he appeared on the map. Bit and Byte are similarly optional.
    • In X6, if you beat Nightmare Zero and High Max in the secret areas, Gate's secret lab becomes accessible.
  • Skyward Scream: Zero in X4 gets a big one.
  • Soundtrack Dissonance: Blaze Heatnix's level. His stage music is one of the fastest paced and intense songs in the series. The level itself, on the other hand, is one of the slowest paced in the series, comprised almost entirely of battles against the same mini boss.
  • Space Elevator: The Jacob's Tower.
  • Species Surname: Just about every standard boss has this, though in X7, these are made puns, and Command Mission is an exception.
  • Speed Echoes: Whenever X/Zero dashes, they leave a trail of holograms of themselves. This is carried over to the Zero and ZX series.
  • Spell My Name with an "S": Liberion or Rebellion? Hmmm...
    • And then there is Axl...
    • There's also Pallette.
    • There's also some confusion between "Fourth Armor" and "Force Armor". Its name actually is Fourth. Force is a mistranslation derived from both words being the same in Japanese.
    • Blizzard Buffalo had his name spelt "Bilzzard Buffalo" in his anime intro in X3.
  • Spikes of Doom: Par for the course for a Mega Man game, but this got really bad in X6.
  • Spikes of Villainy: Sigma added these to his armor after his Face Heel Turn. They often adorn it in his later incarnations. A few other early villains do this as well.
  • Stop Helping Me!: Alia constantly interrupts you in X5 to give you tips that are almost always Captain Obvious statements. It thankfully became optional in X6 and her hints were less obvious.
  • The Stool Pigeon: Lifesaver defies Signas's orders to remain quiet on Zero's mysterious virus readings and snitches to X, causing their fateful showdown and nearly getting them both killed. He Gets away with it, too. It's not that surprising that Lifesaver has never been seen since.
  • Stealth Pun: X6 having Metal Shark Player (the jumping part can also be done literally, considering one of Shark Player's attacks) and Zombie Sigma.
    • The ice-themed armor being named Absolute Zero? (That doubles as Genius Bonus as well.)
  • Stuff Blowing Up: Many fans said that that's what make them love this series (especially true to the boss' cinematic explosions), as opposed to the tamer "pew pew pew!" of Classic (though player chatacters still do the "pew pew pew!" when killed, and would so in Zero and ZX as well). You know why.
  • Stuffed Into the Fridge: Iris in X4 was only the start... Alia would be fridged between this series and Zero.
  • Strictly Formula: If there's some new Reploids introduced, chance are they're evil or just want to backstab people. Most of the time, Sigma is behind all of these.
    • It then becomes a plot twist when it turns out in X8 that Sigma is not the Big Bad and the Final Boss of the game.
  • Superhero: What, you think that they're not this?
  • Super Prototype: Both X and Zero, but (arguably) subverted with Axl, who is a prototype to the New Generation Reploids.
    • Justified, given the poorer 'mass production models' of which X was supposedly the prototype (Reploids) were more akin to crappy knock-offs made by a significantly less gifted scientist; it took centuries just to completely fix all the problems with them. Not to mention it can also be seen as an aversion if you call Mega Man the prototype and X the finished model.
  • Surprisingly Good English: Dr. Light's warning in Mega Man X's intro is written in 100% fluent English in both the Japanese and overseas releases of the game.
  • Swiss Army Weapon: X basically is one of these, thanks to the massively upgraded Variable Tools System originally used by Mega Man (now called the Variable Weapon System). Zero's Z-saber is a more literal version, sort of, as are Axl's guns. Vile is shown with these abilities in various parts of his body in Maverick Hunter X.
  • Sword Beam: The Z-Saber in X3, but only when X uses it, and even then only if he has one of the Buster Upgrades.
    • The same Z-Saber in X2 and X5, when Zero uses it against X.
    • A few bosses can also do this, and there's also the Blade Armor in X6 and the Hadangeki from X7
  • Sword Lines: Everytime the Z-Saber is swung, it creates these.
  • Sword Sparks: In this cutscene, where Colonel and Zero fight, their Laser Blades create electric sparks.
  • Synchronization: In the spinoff, Mega Man Xtreme, the characters Techno and Middy share the same CPU despite being in different bodies.
  • Tagalong Kid: Axl in X7. Neither Zero nor the rest of the Hunters want to send him out into battle, but he insisted, seeing the game's crisis was started over him. Later, X8 and Command Mission depict him as having "grown up", becoming an accepted member of the Hunters. They also have more straight examples in Palette and Cinnamon, respectively, both of whom are often paired with Axl. There's also Middy from Xtreme.
  • Take Up My Sword: In X1, if the player hasn't acquired the upgraded Arm Cannon before entering Sigma's fortress, X receives Zero's arm cannon after defeating Vile. In said game, it doesn't make any difference from getting the real Arm Cannon from the capsule, but in Maverick Hunter X, Zero's Buster gives off a huge Red single hit blast charge shot instead of the one from the capsule [10]
  • Taking You with Me: The X series supposedly ends when Gamma Sigma, in his last breath, tries to take both X and Zero with him, twice in a row. The first time wasn't a success, but the second time? Zero actually dies, but X survives.
    • Don't forget Zero's Heroic Sacrifice in X1, where he blows himself up, leaving only his torso, to destroy Vile's nigh-invulnerable Ride Armor. Maverick Hunter X changes it from blowing himself up to taking the brunt of the explosion when he destroys Vile's Ride Armor.
  • Team Shot: An awesome one is pulled off near the end of X8, as the three heroes prepare to take on Lumine.
  • Technicolor Death: Every time a boss is defeated. In X2-X3, the explosions are blue.
  • Technology Marches On: Zero started having dreams where he sees Dr. Wily's silhouette in X4, which came out in the late 90's. With the introduction of online resources like Google and wikipedia, it's a little baffling why Zero doesn't spend some time on the internet looking through historical databases of old robotics experts.
  • Thanking the Viewer: Capcom games love to do this, and this series is no exception.
  • Then Let Me Be Evil: A common element starting with X4, where a new group of Reploids is falsely accused of Maverick behavior, and then they commit truly Maverick deeds in turn (Such as Repliforce leveling entire cities). Though X7 shows that at least some of those bosses had the Sigma Virus MK. II, which is so powerful one of them appears to be dying of it.
  • Theme Naming: the main three characters of the series (X, Zero and Sigma) are all named after symbols from various "alphabets" (zero's a number, but you know what I mean).
    • The name X represents the infinite possibility as stated by his creator, Thomas Light. He even has a theme song that is named Variable X.
    • In particular, in Sigma's and Zero's case, Keiji Inafune says that Sigma and Zero basically represent the idea that nothing is absolute. Sigma was a powerful leader of the Maverick Hunters but after Zero passed the virus to him, his allegiance changed. Circumstances can change anything, and nothing is absolute.
    • Zero's name is a reference to the number, which is unique among numbers. Like X, Zero represents limitless potential, just in a different way.
  • This Cannot Be!: Several villains are quite fond of using this trope when they're defeated, such as Vile in Mega Man: Maverick Hunter X when he is defeated by X in Sigma Stage 1 and he screams "Noooo... I can't lose to X...!" before exploding.
    • Also, Sigma's last words in Mega Man X8:
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 Sigma: (being defeated) Impossible! You couldn't... destroy... old world... new age... Hrrgh! Argh! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooooo!!!!! (then he blows up)

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  • This Is a Drill: In Maverick Hunter X, the remake of the first game, Spark Mandrill gets a drill for a right hand as a pun on his name.
    • Also Tunnel Rhino of X3 and Grizzly Slash of X5 (although we don't get the drill weapon from the latter).
  • Title Drop: Mega Man X8: Paradise Lost. Guess what's the final boss' attack name?
    • In Maverick Hunter X, after Zero sacrificed himself to destroy Vile's mech:
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 X: Zero! Hang in there, buddy!

Zero: X... I'm always telling you... to be more careful... but now look at me...

X: Don't waste your energy talking, Zero. We've gotta fix you up.

Zero: There's... no time for that... Sigma is close... Very close...

X: Zero...

Zero: Go now... Maverick Hunter X...

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    • Storm Eagle also calls X by his full title, but only on the second playthrough.
  • Title Scream: In X4.
  • Too Good for This Sinful Earth: Iris in X4.
  • Too Long; Didn't Dub: Probably done for Rule of Cool, all of Zero's (or Layer's) moves were left untranslated in X4, X6, X7 and X8.
    • This is also the case of Boomerang Kuwanger, from the first game. Kuwagata means "stag beetle" in Japan. Though they have good reason for doing this, as another beetle (Gravity Beetle) comes in the third game.
    • As well as Infinity Mijinion in X6. Mijinko means "daphnia" (aka water flea). All of the X6 bosses are like this, actually.
  • Tragic Monster: Some Maverick Bosses are actually innocent (e.g. Blizzard Buffalo) if not outright heroic (e.g. Neon Tiger) individuals, or have sympathetic backstories (like Volt Kraken) before being infected; and then there are many other Mavericks who are only termed as such by the government (most of the Bosses in X4 (though granted, their army was acting treasonously), X6's Nightmare Investigators, as well as Command Mission's Rebellion army). Storm Eagle, from the very first game, was strong-armed into working for Sigma. The most tragic one of all, is, of course, Zero's girlfriend Iris, complete with a monstrous form she ends up taking. There's actually more of these than legitimately evil bosses.
  • Traintop Battle: The lion boss, Slash Beastleo, from the fourth game fights X on top of his train.
  • Trippy Finale Syndrome: X5, to the max. It is caused by the concentration of the Zero virus being so strong that it caused the formation of a "Zero Space," in which Cyberspace and the ordinary world merge. This is similar to Omega's power causing doors to Cyberspace to appear in Zero 3. He is, after all, the original Zero.
  • True Final Boss: Lumine in X8's Normal and Hard Modes. On Easy, it's just Sigma.
  • Turns Red: In contrast to the NES originals, bosses start becoming more dangerous when low on HP. In X1, this was limited to two of the Sigma fortress bosses simply moving faster, but in X2, the Mavericks began unleashing new and more powerful attacks after their HP hits 50%.
    • In X2, Morph Moth starts the battle in a larval stage and doesn't reveal his true form until low on HP. Meanwhile, Flame Stag doesn't reveal much in the way of new attacks, but the color of his fire upgrades from red to blue (in the rematch against him, the flames already start out blue). Wire Hetimarl gains a thunderbolt attack when his health falls below half.
    • The third game has these examples:
      • The seahorse irregular, Acid Seaforce, can flatten his body against the ground and then pop up in another spot to surprise X when his health falls below half.
      • Gravity Beetbood the beetle lowers the gravity, but a danger zone spawns at the ceiling, meaning pulling high jumps in his room would be a bad idea...
    • In X8, every boss will turn invincible and pull out a Desperation Attack at 25% health. It becomes quite annoying once you avoid it and are waiting for the Mercy Invincibility to wear off...
  • Tyrannosaurus Rex: Mattrex, complete with fire breath. Justified, as he's a robot.
  • Unconscious Objector: On the Maverick Hunter X OVA, X gets impaled with a light saber and given a Hannibal Lecture, he has a flashback, finds some courage to keep fighting , and reacts for a brief moment, enough to pass through Sigma's Saber and cause him his signature Scar (at least in this version); when Sigma reacts and is going to attack, he notices X is now immobile (he kind of stabbed him right into his energy generator or something like that) so he retires, satisfied as he witnessed the Hidden Potential Dr. Cain talked about.
  • Updated Rerelease: X3 got a Playstation/Saturn rerelease with a revamped soundtrack and a full video opening and unique openings for each Maverick. It was only released outside Japan on PC until the release of Mega Man X Collection, as it was the version of X3 included.
  • The Unfought: A few Mavericks, mainly in later games, are never taken down by the players, most notably Isoc in X6, as well as Aluce and Cedar in X7.
  • Unique Enemy: The Mega Man era Bubble Bat in Armored Armadillo's stage. Relatively easy to miss, as you're supposed to be on a speeding trolley when you go past him.
  • Van Helsing Hate Crimes: Shades of this appear in later games starting with X3; the Maverick Hunters dutifully destroy any Reploid that goes "Maverick", according to their standards... which would be fine, if those standards were limited to those Reploids actively infected with The Virus or deliberately causing grievous harm to humanity and/or Reploidkind. Unfortunately, it seems to encompass any form of resistance against the natural order of things, including otherwise non-hostile acts like peacefully exiling themselves to their own space colony (Repliforce and the Rebellion Army; though there are reasons for both of those, albeit not entirely concrete justifications) or merely having traits that could potentially cause problems with controlling them (Nightmare Investigators). In fact, it's revealed in X5 that the (unseen) Maverick Hunter commander in charge during X4 retired in disgrace for misapplying the label of "Maverick" on Repliforce, and thus causing the deaths of hundreds or thousands of relatively innocent Reploids, and causing others to become truly Maverick in retaliation. Furthermore, the commander who labels the Rebellion "Maverick" in Command Mission was a Manipulative Bastard who fancied himself a god. Doesn't stop X or Zero from blowing away their Designated Villain targets, though.
    • While Repliforce and NI are both sympathetic in one way or another ([11] and [12]), they do have their own faults ([13] and [14]). The same applies to Red Alert, though many of these members seemed to be victims of The Virus.
  • Victory Pose: All of the heroes has one each after defeating a boss.
  • Video Game Remake: Maverick Hunter X to X1, which serves as a Continuity Reboot.
  • Villain by Default: All of the villains in this series (and also ZX series) are called Mavericks, ranging from the virus-infected ones, wrongly-accused ones or just the plain criminals with free will.
    • Mega Man Zero plays this from the different side, as La Résistance who is composed of innocent Reploids are judged Mavericks just because of energy shortage. True Mavericks do appear a few times.
  • Villain Decay:
  • Voluntary Shapeshifting:
    • When his health falls below half, the seahorse boss in X3, Acid Seaforce, can flatten his body against the ground, slide around, and then revert back to his standard proportions to surprise X from below.
  • The Virus: Dr. Wily's (later Sigma's) virus, which acts as a Hate Plague on Reploids, removing their inhibitions and turning them violent. It became one entity with Sigma after Zero passed it to him, making his true form an essentially immortal Energy Being. It also doubles in function as a power source for Zero, which "purifies his body", bringing to surface his "true self." Word of God states also that Dr. Wily himself was brought back by the virus, which could mean that his consciousness is carried in it, explaining how he could contact Sigma. There were also some other viruses throughout the series, such as the Nightmare and Colony Viruses. though Sigma's remains the most important. By X7, it has upgraded and is able to possibly kill Reploids, given the pain that Flame Hyenard is in. Sigma's DNA itself has become a virus, as shown in X8.
  • Wall Jump: This game is the king of this trope. Combined with Jump Physics, the players can climb a single wall with this. This is later carried over to Zero and ZX series.
  • Warmup Boss: The bosses of any introductory stage (excluding Vile in X1, who was a Hopeless Boss Fight).
  • Well-Intentioned Extremist: General in X4. Lumine also seems to be one, as do Red and Epsilon.
    • Sigma from Maverick Hunter X might count as well. He never outright said he hated humans, but that they were a necessary sacrifice so that Reploids could evolve, feeling that humans were holding Reploids back.
  • Wham! Episode: X4; well, most of it anyway. Mavericks that have more to do with politics instead of being voluntary crooks (like in X1 and X2) or victims of The Virus (as was shown last game, which itself was thus a Wham! Episode in its own right), Iris' death (which unlike Doppler's couldn't be prevented), and X wondering if he can keep doing the same thing over and over (although the last one was subverted). The whole thing even started off with a WHAM: Dr. Wily appearing for the first time, and to Zero, no less! Thus supplementing the trope directly below...
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 Sigma: Zero... He is... last... of the doctor's creations...

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      • Which at the time could have been taken to mean the last of Light's creations.
    • X8 is also a big wham, as Sigma dies for good, for one thing. The new villain also attacks newcomer Axl, leaving him in critical condition. Alia is also on the battlefield for the first time.
  • What Could Have Been: Maverick Hunter X is said to be Inafune's reimagined storyline for the series, with better graphics (as it's on the PSP) and focus on plot and characterization. Unfortunately, it didn't sell well.
    • The design for X was actually not the Mega Man-esque one we know, but instead a red robot with booblights and long hair we know nowadays as Zero. Because he thinks that the design doesn't look like the original Mega Man, Inafune discarded the design and then created a new character for that design. And then Inafune says that Zero will steal all the good scenes.
    • According to this article the person who designed X's Ultimate Armor for X4 also made an armor for Zero, that would've been related to Dr. Wily. It sadly didn't make it into the game. Though this does explain why the Black Zero code in X4 didn't do anything: like the purple recolor of X, the new color just meant that the code worked and that the secret armor was unlocked.
    • X was shown in an earlier level during the trailer for X7, so his break may not have been planned at the start...
  • What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?: The boss intro screens in X8.
  • What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic: Pretty much all of X8, though Maverick Hunter X seems to indicate that this was what the series was trying for the whole time.
  • When All Else Fails Go Right
    • Played with in Mega Man X6; as the second part of the Infinity Mijinion level opens, you do have to go right to progress. But directly to the left of the starting point (Behind the Black) is one of the game's upgrade capsules, which most players would miss because of this trope.
    • There's also some variations in other games in the X series: The heart tank for Storm Eagle's level is directly above the player, unreachable from the start point, so you have to go right, then left when you get high enough. In Armored Armadillo's stage, you need to go right to get away from a death machine, then go back left to get a sub tank. In fact, from the very first game, the X series has delighted in hiding things from the player that assumes forward is right.
    • The general case applies as well, starting from the original Mega Man days and carrying forward from there; most levels (if not all) start you at the left end and send you to the right.
  • Where It All Began: A subversion: in X2, Sigma is fought in an earlier Maverick stage, but not necessarily the first stage.
    • Plus, the map shows that the stage is located in a different place, implying that the Computer Core was duplicated for the North Pole facility.
    • Subtly implied in X5 when X or Zero goes to fight Sigma. In the background of the first fight are two dilapidated capsules, one red and one blue...
  • White Gloves: Many characters to count, starting from X and Zero.
  • White-Haired Pretty Boy: Zero's copy in X2 (and the Black Zero armor that is based on said copy), and Dynamo.
  • Wolverine Claws: Shining Tigerd, the tiger boss in the third game, has these on his hands. Slash Beastleo from the fourth game can strike his foes down with this, too. Bamboo Pandemonium in the eighth game has knives put in his dual busters.
  • Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Gate. The unlucky bastard may have been a prick beforehand, but the guy got infected by the Zero Virus. Anything that makes you crazy enough to think resurrecting Sigma is a good idea has got to be nasty. Also, the Investigators were his creations that he resurrected after they were killed off by his old bosses instead of being reassigned.
  • World Half Empty: Especially after the Colony Drop. Gets even worse in the Zero series. At best, ZX leaves us with a world half full, that is slowly becoming half empty again.
  • Writer Revolt: Played oddly. Inafune's original plot for the Zero series is that having X as the Big Bad who has gotten Knight Templar over all his stress, and Zero is the hero. It's good that Executive Meddling are not always bad - that's what prevents X's character from being derailed too heavily in said series. We get Copy-X instead.
  • X Marks the Hero: This is a very odd example, because it involves all three of the main heroes. Axl has an X-shaped scar centered on the bridge of his nose, Zero has a stylized X-above-Z emblem on his left shoulder, and X is, uh, named X.
  • Xtreme Kool Letterz
  • You Can't Fight Fate: No matter what happens in X5, Zero and Mega Man X will always have their destined battle.
    • However, Zero is still more or less the master of Screw Destiny, since Dr. Wily programmed him to be a weapon of mass destruction; technically, Zero is one, but he doesn't use his abilities for the evil purposes Wily wanted him to.
      • Though yes, they are later forced to duke it out in ZX.
  • You Can't Thwart Stage One: In X5, your initial defeat of Sigma is part of his plan, setting in motion a Colony Drop. You then spend most of the game building machines to prevent the crash — but no matter how good your luck is, you can't stop it completely. What's more, the second thing you try may turn Zero evil, and this was also part of Sigma's plan. (Even if Zero's okay, he and X will end up fighting, leaving just one hero to stop Sigma.)
  • You're Insane!: Maverick Hunter X has the titular Azure Hunter pointing out that Sigma has completely lost it to his subordinates. None of them deny it, but rather believe that Sigma, despite his insanity, has a good point, and people would rather ignore it than deal with the implications.
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 Sigma: Our potential is limitless!

X: You think you have potential?! You're insane, Sigma!

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  • Your Princess Is in Another Castle: X8's "Gateway" (never mind the title!) level is the standard Mega Man X formula for the final level: shorter than most levels, the Boss Rush initiated halfway, and confronting Sigma as the Boss. However, this Sigma is not even the real one. The final level is on the moon afterward.
  • Zeerust: The first game's pre-title intro is done as a computer read-out on X's data and Dr. Light's warning about his abilities, prefaced by a boot-up sequence. Despite the OS being as advanced as 2114 (with RAM to match: all told, the system's packing 40,960 terabytes of memory) asides from the blue typeface it's a clear knockoff of DOS.
  1. In Korea only
  2. Sorry about what happened before...
  3. It's not your fault. I was inexperienced and foolish at the time, unused to my job as a bodyguard. It was no excuse.
  4. We're supposed to be able to tell a Maverick from a normal Reploid, and we failed in that duty. We failed you, and it cost you everything.
  5. Maverick Hunters have always been needed to protect Reploids. I wasn't any good as a bodyguard, couldn't even protect the people I was supposed to. Once I knew that I was useless, I knew there was no point in resisting any further. But now, there's someone that needs me, someone that I can protect. I'm going to perform the duty I failed at before, even if doing so means I'll die! Come on, Zero!
  6. Doppler could be saved, Zero came back in the sequel, and the Green Biker Dude was fairly minor
  7. Except Inafune actually had no involvement with X5. He left his position as Mega Man X executive producer, simply leaving his team to finish the series. He should have expected Capcom to keep wanting sequels.
  8. For the record, "Kuwanger" comes from "kuwagata" (stag beetle) and "Mijinion" comes from "mijinko" (daphnia).
  9. Though in Sigma's defense regarding this particular bit, it's implied X forced his hand.
  10. it has the original Pink swirly multi-hit Charge shot.
  11. They are framed, and some of its members (especially Double) are actually moles working under Sigma, and it's Magma Dragoon who brought down the Sky Lagoon.
  12. They were accused Mavericks because they're hard to handle and their DNA datas are unreadable - pretty petty reasons.
  13. They refused to resign in for interrogation and instead they go to their Kill Sat; they want peace and seclusion out of Earth, it's just that they're breaking the law.
  14. The Hunters saw through the ruse created by the NI the moment Isoc started calling for Reploids to volunteer to help destroy a "ghost" of Zero gone bad. Not just that, said "ghost" are actually Gate's own creation.
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