Saturday, June 12, 2010

The Many Alterations in Zero Collection

In compiling the four Mega Man Zero titles for the Mega Man Zero Collection, it appears Capcom has taken the opportunity to make a handful of slight alterations, additions and changes to the original Game Boy Advance games -- little tiny things that would have gone largely unnoticed if not for the keen eyed fans of the GameFaqs forums. A list of these alterations below:

  •  In all four games, Ciel has been given one extra frame of running animation.
  • Credits theme for Zero 4 is the lyrical version that was removed from the original release of Mega Man Zero 4.
  • All blatant references to death and/or dying within dialogue have been edited. For instance:
    • Harpuia says "finish me" instead of "just kill me."
    • Elpizo says "time to meet your end" instead of "time to die."
    • When Zero falls unconscious in Zero 2, Harpuia's line has been changed to "To live or perish?" instead of the original line, "To live or die?"
  • Zero 2's two player mode has been removed entirely.
  • BGM and sound effects have seen a major boost in quality thanks to DS hardware. In some cases, whole sound effects have been replaced with newer effects such as the warning sirens during transfer sequences.
  • Alouette has new dialogue in Easy Scenario Mode; she makes reference to how in Zero 4, players' ranks won't be affected by Cyber Elf use.
  • A typo in Zero 2 was fixed. Originally the word "DEFEND" in the description for the Ultimate Form read "DEFEMD."
  • The "layering" effects during Zero 3's introductory cutscene has been cleaned up a bit; sprites appear a tad smoother.
 
Noticed anything not mentioned here? Speak up in the comments.

33 comments:

  1. Sounds really great! But i'm still trying to find a store in the UK that has it stocked =/
    It has been released in Europe hasn't it?

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  2. Nice Capcom, omitting death and dying. Way to kiddy up the most "mature" series in the franchise.

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  3. The Zero 2 multiplayer mode was removed? ;_; Well, at least the extras make up for it.

    I have two questions:
    Is it possible to make the Battle Network viruses appear in Zero 3 without a link?
    Hellbat/Devilbat Schilt kept the same names from the original USA and Euro versions?

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  4. The Battle Network 4 extras remain intact, they can be turned on/off in the mod card menu.

    Devil Bat is the same.

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  5. Heh... "DEFEMND". That reminds me of a certain typo in the original Mega Man 6, where Mr. X "X-claimed" (bad pun, I know) "My scheme for world domination has faild!". That ended up getting fixed in Mega Man: Anniversary Collection, just like the "DEFEND" typo.

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  6. There was some comment about resolution problems. Was that true?

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  7. ^
    MMZC has garnered criticism for its GBA screen resolution. The games do not fill the entirety of the DS screen and as such, have a black border to make up for space.

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  8. Aw, so it doesn't seem as if some changes were made to the Omega/Final Weil AI so that they could fully "physically" move huh? I was hoping Inti would get to improve on it since the DS technically shouldn't have as much limitations as the GBA.

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  9. Not "dying" words? :( Does that mean there won't be blood-like either?

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  10. the boosted music and AMAZING sprite-work really make up for any small alterations.
    I just finished Zero 2, and so far these games are hard, but so darn FUN!

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  11. I'd have to say the changes are all positive, the death changes (as listed) are all of characters with some sort of philosophical or posh(best way of putting it) way of talking. "just kill me" doesn't sound like harpuia, and "to live or perish" sounds a little more like harpuia. assuming you don't agree then remember it's three lines in the whole series, will you remember the game for three sentences?

    Now when it comes to changes they COULD have done I think it should have filled up the screen but that means redrawing and losing its validity as a collection, possibly losing all sorts of designs etc in the process...

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  12. They fixed Herculious' name back to "Anchus" so it's translated from Japan correctly now.

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  13. Ok, this is another reason to keep EMULATING its rom instead of buying that game

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  14. The Oblivious PrattlerJune 12, 2010 at 6:06 PM

    Wow, did Capcom let 4Kids get their hands on the scripts? Well, it doesn't matter. I don't like the Zero series anyway, and if I do play this version, the "Never Say Die" factor won't annoy me. I may buy it just to say I have it.

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  15. @kotipelt-
    Y'know what? Never mind, I'm not even gonna bother :3

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  16. Why do they always change the language and nix the mood? Well, I'm not selling my old cartridges now.

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  17. @kotipeltox: Hell No. The additions of this game greatly outnumbers the downsides. The word 'collection' alone gives you your money's worth!

    But I have to say, I'm still waiting for the day that NA gets a 'perfect' unmodified MegaMan Collection.

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  18. @kotipeltox: Hell No. The additions of this game greatly outnumbers the downsides. The word 'collection' alone gives you your money's worth!

    But I have to say, I'm still waiting for the day that NA gets a 'perfect' unmodified MegaMan Collection.

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  19. @ kotipeltox

    Oh man, look at this big guy, EMULATING a video game. Man you are such a bad dude, aren't you?

    Get a life.

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  20. Did the blood make it back into the games? I'm guessing no since death/dying reference have been removed.

    Going to have to wait on this game anyway since my cash flow is non-existent at the moment.

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  21. @Midnite:

    I'm still waiting for them to resume Mega Man Mania's development.

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  22. @Alfredo:

    There was BLOOD in the original games? How does that work? Since when do robots bleed?

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  23. Actually, all the blood is still intact, from what I can tell.

    And honestly? Perish sounds better than die, anyway. It means exactly the same thing, but sounds more poetic. The other two were unnecessary, but they certainly do not detract from the experience, and the intention is still pretty obvious. I don't feel like anything was "kiddified", especially since there's still obvious, on-screen deaths (with blood).

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  24. @Krazy Monkey

    Oh, man... I've been waiting forever for Mega Man Mania to come out. I'm so sad that collection never saw the light of day.

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  25. Maybe it's just been a while since I played my GBA copies, but I thought all references to death were always gone in the English versions. At least, I know Zero 1 referred to death as "retirement" incessently, and so far, so has Zero 2...

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  26. I wonder why they changed all the references to death... oh well! Sounds like a bunch of nice improvements, otherwise! Except for the lack Zero 2 multiplayer...

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  27. Trolls as always I see. Personally I do not mind the changes. The Zero series generally is supposed to have a dark nature in terms of presentation and story. alone which would be enough to make it 'mature' to some. You do not need what-appears-to-be blood splatter or direct references to death to make a game 'mature'. And by mature, I mean something less happy-go-lucky that the classical series tends to reflect on.

    In some ways, it reminds me a bit of Majora's Mask. Very dark, and didn't need a lot of mature themes to capture that essence. Even Legends, especially the second, could be considered quite dark to a few...

    People seem to be a little too panicky when it comes to censorship.

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  28. The Zero Collection is worth your money. The normal mode for Zero 1 is still pretty hard though.

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  29. Zero 3 makes this collection worth it. Most epic game, in my opinion. That plot twist at the end had me in total shock (no spoilers).

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  30. For god sakes, you @$$hats with the "kiddified" comments are too stupid to be playing these games.

    Anyways, has anyone noticed the new animation that comes off of dashing from walls?

    I'm pretty sure that's one I haven't seen.

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  31. Has 4Kids gotten a hold of the script for the most mature continuity? If I remember right, the last Non-classic Megaman game released in the states was Starforce 3, and it mentioned death and dying several times, especially when you get to the part where Joker kills Luna

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  32. I knew something was up! I can't believe no one noticed this...

    Zero 1 now starts you with three lives, even on the Normal difficulty setting! It used to start you with zero, so one death = Game Over, which was particularly a pain considering how rare Extra Lives are in the first game...

    Zero 1 is now actually... Playable!

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  33. The "Z-Buster" translation error in Z1 was fixed. The weapon now correctly reads "Buster Shot" in all four games.

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