A Thorough Analysis of Mighty No. 9

[Sevaan_Sevant]

I will just start by saying I absolutely love Mighty No. 9. I have kept extensive notes on the pros and cons of this game, and while it has legitimate issues, the quality of the game is not bad overall. I would say it's a 6/10, maybe a 6.5. I would also say the difficulty for the Platinum is about a 7/10 (to me, anyway), even when considering Hyper difficulty, Boss Rush, and Challenge 36 (I found Batman: Arkham City much harder). I went above and beyond with the game, though, by getting all S ranks on Normal and Hard (I'm close on Hyper), clearing all extra Accomplishments, and playing Ray's DLC to the end on Normal, and I plan to do even more in the game over time. Currently, I have 21+ hours in the game.

 

Edit: I Platted the game again on an alternate account a few days after initially making this post. Still fun, still not too hard to me. Pretty sure I'm up to 29+ hours now.

 

Edit 2: I have gotten all S ranks, on all difficulties (including Maniac), with both characters. Ray required absolute perfection in most of her levels, and it was a pain on all difficulties. I would say the difficulty for this to me was an 8/10 at its hardest (still found Arkham City harder. Kero Blaster, as well, since I still haven't gotten its last trophy). I'm pretty sure I have over 45 hours of playtime. The Platinum is like a 3/10 to me at this point; I can do it effortlessly. I actually did all this back in mid January, but I'm a massive procrastinator.

 

These are all of my notes on the game. I like to believe they're mostly objective and reasonable (except the ones that are obviously more subjective). If you don't want to read them all, I ask you just read the top few for each category, as those are primarily the most important ones. Or don't read any at all. Your choice.

 

Note: I just refer to ReXelection forms as "powers" for simplicity's sake.

{+} is a pro, {—} is neutral (possibly balanced by a good and bad thing), and {X} is a con

+ Good gameplay system in place that focuses on knowing exactly how to keep a flowing combo going (although, it's not required). The gameplay seems somewhat difficult for a lot of first time players, but everything in the game can be overcome. It can even become easy, given enough practice. It's a very skill-based game, but no one should expect to be great at it on their first time playing, kind of like with rhythm games. At very high skill levels, this game can be very satisfying and fast-paced

 

+ I feel the ranking system is tuned pretty well for each condition (I think damage taken could be a little more lax, personally). When first starting the game, D's and C's were common with me, reflecting my amateur skill and experience. But as my skill was built, my rankings reflected it well (assuming I wasn't having a bad run), and I eventually got all A's without too much stress on Normal (my Hyper playthrough was all A's and some S's. I also only got two B's on Hard). As I am now, though, I can easily get all S ranks on Normal and Hard (mostly true for Hyper, too), really reflecting my 21+ hours of playtime

 

+ Some challenges can be—well, quite the challenge, but they can also be fun and unique, while also teaching you some of the intricacies of each power

 

+ Accomplishments offer a decent number of unique challenges and achievements for players who want to go for them. They also keep track of what date you earned each one, which is kind of neat

 

+ The dash is pretty good. Chaining multiple offers a great sense of speed. The control of the dash—while a little tricky to master—is also good. It's got a wide hitbox for absorbing enemies, as well

 

+ You can set shortcuts for 3 powers, and you start each stage with the top power being mapped to Triangle (with default controls). This essentially means you have 4 powers mapped, with the one assigned to Triangle being customizable mid-stage. This is a good system if you take the time to figure out the setup (put your three shortcutted powers at the bottom of the list, then you only need to sort through 5 powers for Triangle)

 

+ Energy regenerates over time or through absorbing enemies, instead of only through pickups like in Mega Man. I feel this is a better system, since it's impossible to get stuck because of using up all of a power's energy (Aviator and Battalion/Countershade are necessary in the Factory stage), unlike in some Mega Man games

 

+ Environments look fine, and some character designs are kind of cool (to me)

 

+ The voice acting is fine. There are some silly lines, but I would say the actors do a good job at delivering theirs (you do have veteran voice actors like Matthew Mercer as Pyrogen, Yuri Lowenthal as Beck, and Steve Blum as Countershade, so it's not like they're a bunch of amateurs). I believe the reason Call talks how she does (in English) is because she is supposed to act as a foil to Beck and the other Mighty Numbers to emphasize their advanced personalities and ways of speaking, since she was created by Sanda, and the Mighty Numbers were built by Dr. White. I would say her voice actress delivers her lines just fine to fulfill this purpose.

 

+ The amount of extra lives you start each stage with can be adjusted up to 9 on Normal difficulty. This is really helpful for getting to know stages and bosses

 

+ Controls are fully customizable

 

+ There's only a few, but there's some nice 2D images at the end of the game

 

+ There is a sound test for every song, sound, and voice line in the game

 

+ Cutscenes are skippable (with how much you could end up replaying levels, I don't think they would have actually considered not allowing this). The end credits are also skippable (sometimes they aren't in games, but with how long they are in this game, it definitely makes sense)

 

+ Each Mighty Number can help you in another stage when they are defeated. These can range from literally useless (like in the Power Plant and Highway stages) to moderately helpful (like in the Oil Platform and Water Works Bureau [Pyro removes the ice when fighting Cryo] stages), with some unique voice lines, as well. Could be better, but it's a neat feature (even if not exactly original)

 

+ I like how all of the Mighty Numbers have robotic names, but all of them also kind of have more human nicknames. Pyrogen: Pyro, Cryosphere: Cryo, Dynatron: Dyna, Seismic: Mic, Battalion: Batt, Aviator: Avi, Brandish: Brand, and Countershade: Shade. I think this may have been done specifically to make them passively feel a bit more human. This took me quite a while to actually register, but it's kind of a neat thing

 

+ Call has unique lines before and after finishing stages under the "Explain" option. The Mighty Numbers also have some lines under "Advice." To add even further, bosses have multiple unique lines when you die to them. It's very small, but it's a nice little thing they didn't have to do

 

— Battalion's power is a bit overpowered. Most of the other powers aren't exactly useless individually (Pyrogen's is rendered pretty obsolete by the inclusion of Battalion's), but Battalion's is just so good that it wouldn't be beneficial to use anything else 90% of the time. Some Mega Man games also have this problem, tbf. Cryosphere, sometimes Brandish, and occasionally Dynatron are still pretty helpful for getting high combos, though. Aviator has its uses for high jumps, blocking projectiles from above, and slowing fall speed. Its qualities actually make it very helpful for skipping entire sections of a level and improving Time Trial times. Countershade also serves well in certain spots if you really don't care about combos. I find Seismic and Pyrogen the least helpful with the inclusion of the other powers. Pyrogen has the property of often killing enemies outright without being able to absorb them. I don't really like that, and it also takes too long to charge. Seismic can block projectiles, but so can Brandish, so they're almost identical in their uses, but Brandish has better control

 

— The game has technical bonuses for doing specific things during boss fights and stages, or going really fast in the case of Speedster bonuses. This can give a sense of reward for playing well, even if they only give points. The issue is that the game doesn't give hints or keep track of these bonuses—for the most part—for achievements and accomplishments. Tallies under every stage for each technical bonus for said stage would've been a cool way to have a feeling of collectibles in the game for extra content (they technically still are collectibles, and they're required for the Platinum, but they'd FEEL more like collectibles, and it would just be helpful)

 

— I initially thought Dynatron was a badly designed boss fight due to unavoidable damage if you only have Beck's normal attacks. Then I remembered (18+ hours later) that the Action Shift button exists, which allows Beck to jump up and shoot at the floor, destroying the zapper things he normally couldn't. I also realized almost every power in the game let's him destroy ones on the ground easier. So, it's really not that bad, but it may appear bad to inexperienced players (and experienced ones, apparently. I might just be an idiot, though)

 

— The writing (or English translation) seems to be more targeted towards kids, with some rather wacky or silly dialogue. May not be some people's cup of tea. However, I will say that I personally like Avi's very energetic personality and lines (his boss fight lines repeat a bit too much, though). I also absolutely love Cryosphere's puns, especially with the delivery from her voice actress. My opinions, though

 

— I found the music good, but music is often highly subjective. I like the City, Oil Platform, Mine, Highway, Capitol Building, and boss themes. The tracks I love are the Radio Tower, Trinity: Phase 2, first end credits, and VR challenge themes. I do think a handful of the songs can sound a bit same-y during some parts. I can't describe what sounds the same as anything else but "crystal-y." They sound crystal-y. I don't know. The second end credits song is a rap song made specifically for the game, which I think is pretty cool. It was unexpected for me, so I enjoyed it for that reason. You can also turn on retro music, but I mostly prefer the normal music. Neat option, though

 

— The sound mixing has the music turned down way too low. So low that I literally did not process in my mind that music was playing for 80% of my playtime, partially due to the constant voice lines and sound effects. However, I replayed the game with the music at max with everything else greatly lowered, I turned my TV volume up, and I could finally hear it well enough to form an opinion on it

 

— The game doesn't pause when selecting powers, but it's not necessarily required if you set your shortcuts right

 

— Tells you what bosses are weak to what power by having "Advice" appear as an option when selecting a stage. Whatever Mighty Number appears to talk is effective against the boss of the stage. You can also tell by what MN appears to help you during the stage if you don't find out from Advice, making the reveal inevitable if you know about it. This makes figuring out the Mighty Numbers' weaknesses trivial, but it also keeps the player from wasting time through trial and error

 

— A Restart option would have been nice when going for S ranks. The VR challenges have one, so why not the normal stages? It's overall only a minor time save, though

 

— Xel is displayed before each boss fight. Pretty sure this doesn't actually tell you anything about the boss. It doesn't really have to, but the numbers just seem a bit arbitrary

 

X Level design has a lot of pits, insta-kill obstacles, and some leaps of faith (that usually end in death). This sort of makes health less important outside of boss fights due to the high probability of insta-death and the low probability of dying to enemies before then (unless you're on Hyper difficulty. That's my experience, anyway). Even two bosses have insta-kills, those being Pyrogen and Battalion. I really feel like most of the level design in the game is what other games would have if it were all remixed for a Hard difficulty. Many spots that have insta-kill spots just shouldn't on Normal difficulty. I think it's fine for Hard and Hyper, though. But let's be honest: at least a handful of Mega Man games are way more BS than what's in this game

 

X The character graphics are rather lacking. I would say the worst part of them is that no characters move their mouths when talking. Even just moving their mouths up and down probably would've been fine

 

X The game has crashed a few times in my 21+ hours of playtime. Not too many times, and some were harmless, like when selecting the Oil Platform level, but it happened multiple times in the Robot Factory level. I believe it primarily happened when I died in that level (only sometimes), so it seems it can mostly be avoided if you "git gud." Still an issue, though

 

X Very serious frame drops during the final level when destroying the regenerating cell blocks with Battalion's power on PS4 Slim. This can end up eating your inputs and making you fall to your death during the rising wind section (I've never personally died to it, though, since I'm usually up high and recover in time with a dash). This is one of the few times frame drops actually occur (it occurs in the Oil Platform and [I believe] the Highway stage, as well, but not as seriously), and it's easy enough to avoid by using another power or being up very high when you detonate the bomb

 

X The Prison boss takes too long to beat, even with good RNG. It usually takes me 2½ minutes. The boss's moveset also becomes predictable and simple once you figure it out, making it an uninteresting fight for the length, too

 

X AcXel Recovers are not kept between lives. This could probably be seen as neutral since they're never REQUIRED, just helpful, but I think most players would probably prefer that you keep them

 

X Powers can't be changed on a ladder or handhold. Very minor, but slightly annoying at points

 

X The Co-op challenges cannot be done locally. Mind you, I don't have anyone I could actually play with, but still. I don't know exactly what the challenges are like, since I am quite certain I won't find anyone to play with through a public room, but I feel like they probably could have made it work considering the network experience sounds exactly like what you would expect from playing on the same screen: the camera focuses on Beck, Call automatically catches up if she falls behind, and it doesn't matter if she dies

 

~~~~~~~
 Ray's DLC
~~~~~~~

 

+ Ray offers a unique gameplay style compared to Beck. Her gameplay emphasizes speed, avoiding damage, and defeating enemies. All her powers are unique, as well. Her normal attacks, dash (which now deals damage), and some powers will instantly absorb enemies if they're defeated by them. This is important since her health constantly drains until absorbing an enemy or getting a health pickup

 

+ Ray's DLC adds one new level for Beck. Could be improved upon a little bit, but at least insta-kill obstacles aren't a concern, and it introduces three new enemy types. I actually like how it's possible to avoid absorbing all of the destroyed robots at the beginning of the level while still maintaining a fast pace by jumping and dashing from the top of the crates. This is so it doesn't affect your Xel Absorptivity Average. You could instead absorb them all for an AcXel Recover. It's actually pretty good level design. I also think Ray is a tough but fair boss

 

+ Ray's DLC mixes up what enemies appear where. Sometimes for the worse, but it's mostly fine, and it's neat they put in the effort

 

+ There's some nice 2D images as a part of Ray's DLC. The few 2D images in the game are just very clean

 

— Playing as Ray on Normal is probably harder than playing on Hyper mode with Beck at some points. Good if you want a challenge, not so much if you don't with a character you're not used to

 

— Ray's ranking system is pretty damn strict. I got a D on almost every level for my first attempt on each. I mean, that's fine, since I needed to learn her unique gameplay style, as well as getting used to her unique powers, but you have to play pretty well to get an A, and nearly perfectly to get an S. Speed gives the most points, but the times can be much stricter than with Beck (the times for him are usually pretty lax, tbf). And when you consider her gameplay style basically makes the game as hard or harder than a Hyper mode playthrough with Beck, you really need to be extra careful not to die, because a single death in most stages means you automatically lose out on the S (this made Maniac pretty rough in some stages). I would call this neutral because while the requirement for perfection can be frustrating, it does really test your skills, which is good for those who mastered Beck's gameplay and want more out of the game

 

— The game doesn't tell you how to actually access Ray's levels, even in the PSN description for the DLC (you have to press Up on the stage select menu, by the way). A quick Google search can remedy this if you can't figure it out, but it's a little odd for something you have to pay extra for not to explicitly tell you how to access it

 

X Some bosses are just not designed for Ray's gameplay and powers

 

X The ending for Ray's DLC didn't really feel like a proper conclusion to her story. It's not exactly explained who Bill (Dr. White) is to her. I mean, I assume he's her creator, sure, but why was she deteriorating and needing to absorb robots? I suppose this is more so an issue just because there will almost certainly never be a sequel to the game. Unfortunate, because you've got a great game here held back by issues that could easily be improved upon (level design and character graphics)

 

X Ray doesn't get to use AcXel Recovers (outside of ones given by Patch). I would call this an issue mostly because they would actually be more helpful for her than for Beck, and they could be used at strategic moments to avoid death or large damage due to her gimmick

 

X Some spelling is suddenly... weird with Ray's gameplay explanation in the Tips menu (all instances of "this" is replaced with "ther"). Very minor thing, but the rest of the game is fine with spelling (though it does sometimes add some words to the subtitles that the characters don't say)

 

 

So, there you have it. Got anything you think is bad to add? Anything good? Disagree with some of my points? You can tell me if you'd like, but I will stand strongly by the fact that this game is very much overhated. Is it a disappointment? Oh, certainly, but that's because many people were expecting something great or amazing.

 

I hope I can convince someone to at least give the game a shot. The learning curve is rough, won't deny that (I died many times early on to the bosses and stages alike, just like most other people), but it can be so worth it if you really get into it. I would play it over most Mega Man games, personally.

Edited March 10, 2023 by Sevaan_Sevant
Added new notes and things to say

[GodKaio-Ken]

I think  the issue most people have is that while it's fun, it's blatantly and obviously not a fully finished and fine tuned product when it was so hyped up pre-launch. 

 

I had fun with the game, I'd play a sequel if one was made, but the thing is I'm a 100% gameplay type of gamer. I don't care about all the small things wrong with Mighty No. 9 because of that. 

 

The Gunvolt series is probably closer to a spiritual successor to Mega Man. 

 

Edited March 6, 2023 by GodKaio-Ken