Monday, May 18, 2009

A Look At The Mega Man X8 Prototype

The very first trailer for Mega Man X8 never ceases to amaze me as it is filled with all sorts of subtle differences from the final version of the game. Can you spot them?



A breakdown:

- One of the more interesting differences is that of the "flashes of dialogue" seen throughout the trailer, phrases presumably spoken by the main cast during the course of the game.To my knowledge, none of those lines are ever spoken nor referenced in the final -- a possible indication that the footage was based around an early draft of the script. That or the dialogue was thrown together specifically for this trailer.

-The lighting in "Noah's Park" (prologue stage) varies depending on which character the demonstrator is playing as:
  • X: lighting is very "afternoon-ish", bright and bland.
  • Zero: lighting is glorified in an orange/red tint, almost as if a sunset is occurring nearby, Sky is orange.
  • Axl: "dawn" type of lighting; very soft, kind of foggy. Greenish tint. Sky is a light blue
Seems like that, at one point, X8 had a sort of "passage of time" system where the appearance of a stage altered to reflect specific times of day. A gimmick or an actual integral part of gameplay?...

- At 1:12, you can briefly see X and Axl attacking onscreen at the same time. Such a maneuver is impossible to execute in the final as two teammates cannot attack onscreen at once, the "scramble system", the act of switching out one teammate for another, does not allow it. There are, however, certain times in the final where two teammates appear onscreen at once, but not in this sense. Pictures of this strange technique can be seen here and here.

- Zero's "dash-slash" animation is a bit different, he appears to perform a jab rather than a quick slash. (0:34)

- Zero appears to run a bit faster than the final. Frankly, I like this speed better, always thought he moved a bit too sluggish in the final.

- Although it's kind of hard to tell from the video quality, the character models of X, Zero and Axl contain a thick "cel-shaded" style that was not used in the final game. Example seen here.

- The HUD (heads up display; health bar, combo counter, etc.) is absent.

- Enemies appear in spots that they normal don't appear in.

- The Land Torpedo enemy does not attack the player, merely paces -- a behavior not in the final version.

- Finally, Lumine's voice near the end of the trailer is not spoken by Elinor Holt, rather a temporary actor who gives the character a much lower and less menacing voice.

5 comments:

  1. The lighting things is probably just a special effect done for this trailer, since it doesn't seem to occur at any other point.

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  2. One thing I have noticed about the demo in Mega Man X: Command Mission is that when X shoots, the shots are actually sprites, all of them, instead of polygons like in the final game. I think they may have been sprites in this version too. Personally I think the sprites looked better. Also, the color of the charging seemed a little different to me as well.

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  3. MaverickHunterAshMay 19, 2009 at 2:05 AM

    God, I must have watched this trailer like a million times back in the day... I was so pumped for X8, especially with the surprising twist that Sigma might actually die this time. Good memories.

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  4. A good portion of the dialogue given in the trailer is actually from the game in some manner. Most noticable being Rooster's line about "justice", Zero talking about "destiny" in his ending, and talk of Axl being incomplete and left out.

    The "what we're doing has no meaning" line from X's ending when he's pondering about Lumine's words but like the others, is obscured by different translation and some rewriting.

    Lumine's infamous talk of Sigma being defeated and not returning seems to be "Now that you've defeated Sigma, I suppose you're satisfied." in the final, but that's a stretch.

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  5. Axl seems to shoot noticeably slower.

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