Overview
A Comparison of What you get in Casual Scenerio and “Normal” Mode
Introduction
Hi, I’m Nysch, or Myst, or Any number of other pseudonym’s I go by on the internet, by now my name has lost all meaning to be honest. However, I am an avid gamer and I have written several “unofficial” guides for different games before.
Today I will cover Megaman Z/ZX Legacy Edition, and some of the fundamental differences between the “Casual Scenerio Mode” and “Normal” Difficulty.
To Begin with Regardless of Game in the series, you’re going to be getting ALOT less achievements for playing in Casual Scenerio Mode, but that’s not what this guide is about. It’s about understanding just what the differences are between normal gameplay and “easy mode” as I will refer to it from here on out. This guide will also cover some of the differences between other settings as well.
Megaman ZX: Advent
When Starting a Legacy I find it best to start with the final title, so we will begin with Megaman ZX: Advent, the last of the games in the library.
In ZX Advent you have 2 characters to choose from on startup regardless of other settings, A human Girl, and a male Reploid, now they have different “base transformation” speeds, but something to understand is they also have completely different storyline, so both are worth a playthrough.
In Advent, Easy Mode affords you the following Bonuses:
– You do NOT have to pay to activate warp points
– PC Damage Output is buffed
– PC Damage Input is nerfed
– Falling and Spikes only damage you not cause instant death
These are the “good” things about causal mode, and to be perfectly honest this should be how all the series handle it. We’ll get more into that in Megaman Z Series but the library doesn’t always follow this pattern.
Some of the negatives include:
– Less Achievements
– Easier Bosses
– No Real Challenge
These are fairly innocent changes to the gameplay, and in ZX Advent you will be dying somewhat at a reduced pace but nothing “Too Easy”, mostly it’s just a “Helping Hand”
Megaman ZX
Similiar to Advent (it’s successor) Megaman ZX Has the “right” way of doing Easy Mode the only major difference being there are no warp points pay for in the first place.
While we’re on Megaman ZX Let’s talk about the characters:
No – They don’t have completely unique Stories
Yes – They do have some unique subquests/abilities
The Uniqueness of the characters is mostly asthetic but here are some examples:
Vent – Cannot Change their “Outfit” (read: Color Palette)
Aile – Can Unlock the ability to change their Outfit (read: Color Palette”)
Vent – Pays 20 Energy Credits for Smelling Salts
Aile – Pays 10 Energy Credits for Smelling Salts.
Things like that.
As you can see with Megaman ZX your choice of character effects game play in a more significant manner than the easy mode itself.
Megaman Z3: The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly
Megaman Zero 3 is perhaps the worst implementation of “Easy Mode” in the library. It /significantly/ changes your game-play experience in ways that seemingly are “Too Easy” and “Different from a Storyline Perspective”
Examples:
In “Easy Mode”:
– Many Dialogs between NPCs/PC are changed and even omitted
– You start with a nearly full array of cyber elves with the ability to make the game take seconds instead of hours.
– Your damage output is buffed
– Your damage input is nerfed
– You cannot die instantly
– You do not get the benefit of many “Unlock” Scenes
– Achievements are largely unavailable
– Gives you instant access to several “late game” body chips
In “Normal Mode”:
– You get all he unlock Dialog and Scenes
– You CAN Die from Spikes/Holes Instantly
– Your Damage output is based on Enemy Weakness
– Your Damage Input is standardized
– You get all the unlocks as if you played through normally
– Achievements are available
– You earn Body chips “Normally”
Add the “Bonus Card” System to this and you have a recipe for a meaningless game with no real difficulty and if I do say so myself a pretty disappointing storyline. If you play Zero 3 in Easy Mode know that you are cheating yourself of the only real meaning it has.
Megaman Zero
Moving from worst offender to Second Worst, Megaman Zero is similiar to Z3 in it’s definition of “Easy Mode” but it doesn’t make the game as if you had infinite health from a pro-verbal standpoint. Instead it simply unlocks almost all the cyber elves, and those give you more survivibility than normal games, but it also doesn’t give the same sense of fulfillment
To Be Clear: The Damage Buffs/Instant Death things are true of pretty much all “Easy Modes” so youu can pretty much assume that for the rest of the series.
One thing Zero does NOT do that Z3 does: Give you almost all the chips at the outset.
Megaman Z2
This one I haven’t played as much as the others on Casual Mode because I was graced to have played the original in it’s time on the GBA. But suffice to say the normal context applies.
Megaman Z4
Here’s the real problem with Z4,
“Easy Mode” – is just about doable.
“Normal Mode” – is mission impossible.
’nuff said.