Fox's First Impressions *Updated*: Diet MegaMan Zero Advent

[Fusion]

Since I am now in possession of this game, I feel the need to present a "first impressions" view of the game.

The story opens, either with Grey awakening directly after a tragic battle, which triggered opening Grey's capsule early, or with Ashe on-assignment.  At some point, the character awakens and finds theirself in the Hunter base.  This serves as, essentially, the base of operations throughout the entire game.

As claimed by multiple sources, you do have a gun in your human\reploid form (with Grey, it's labeled as 'Re' and with Ashe, it's 'Hu').  You get the first live metal on the train stage, which is, of course, Live Metal Model A.  The only true Live Metal you'll come in possession of.  Every other "Live Metal" is just data gathered by the transformation part of Model A.

Speaking of Transforming, how does it work?  Well, you take on certain abilities of the opponent you've beaten.  For example, beating a Falseroid will allow you to transform directly into that Falseroid and play as it.  The capabilities on most of them are not crippled, not all of them can wall-jump, which is a disadvantage.  The advantages, though, is that Capcom actually went the extra mile to make sure the transformations couldn't be done in certain circumstances, though you can still change into the water boss in mid-air, you'll just drop to the ground, and you'll twitch when you try to move.  Semi-funny.

Most of the Live Metals have gathered a somewhat better special attack, though there's no OIS.  The gameplay is far from sword-based, going back to the old days of shooting everything with a GUN.  Model ZX isn't terribly useful, it's charge shot not only takes -forever- compared to Model A's charge shot, it also drains your weapon's power gauge, and even then Model ZX feels crippled.

I haven't actually finished the game yet, that's why I'm posting a "First Impressions" and not a full-fledged "Review".  I'll have time to gawk at the graphics and listen to the music later; right now I've got a Rockman game to conquer.

Update:

Since I have had the time to play as Ashe, I shall note that she plays remarkably more different from Grey unlike Aile did to Vent.  She's more than just a speed upgrade and power downgrade, she's more than just a good looking girl, she's almost an entirely different character gameplay-wise.  Her Model A form replaces the standard shot with a type of laser.  The standard shot can only be fired twice, and the fully charged shot bounces off of walls like the Gemini Laser.  You can fire more than one of the lasers if you can charge them up fast enough.  Her secondary fire is, of course, the lock-on laser, but hers is different in the sense that it's a fast moving lightning bolt that attacks 1 target at a time.

With Ashe, the charge attacks of the 4 transformations change greatly from when you play as Grey.  For instance, instead of a diminishing fire trail, Model F's charge attack will fire an explosive bomb, firing it at the ground will plant a bomb.  Shooting it in the air fires a bomb upward.  The best part is that you can still "combo attack" with the charge blast, which means you can fire 2 bombs in a short time for heavy damage.

I have gained all of the transformations possible, and I will tell you here that there's more gameplay than before.  Not as much area-seeking until near the end of the game, and there are at least 2 locations from Megaman ZX that are revisited (though it's been some time).

When I actually beat the game, I'll be able to perform a full-on review.