I finally finished 100% Veteran mode on 1.00.4 up to Sigma Stages and then 1.00.51 from there on. I initially had a weird softlock after game over at Sigma where X would walk into the wall when coming back to re-fight Velguarders. Going to another stage first and then back seemed to have permanently fixed that.
Pros:
- Upgrades: Finding all the secrets and requiring a resource to upgrade was a welcome twist to just finding capsules. I also enjoyed the 2-part upgrade system as well as it really gave X some much needed traversal tools.
- Levels & Design: The main stages were fun and very X feeling in layout. The game looks like a true X1 re-telling all down to the sprite work. Very impressed here.
- Boss designs: Sigma Stage bosses were fun to play and I enjoyed them as a whole. The main 8 bosses are a fun take on and inspired by original X/X2 bosses. (although the first Sigma Stage boss is a tad repetitive in layouts. Adding 1 or 2 other attack "setups" would make it a little more diverse.)
Cons:
- Door transitions need sped up as they are just really slow. The camera that follows also needs sped up as it drags/lags behind when X can move forward. X also stops so close towards the center of rooms instead of closer to the door for many bosses when it doesn't make sense to.
- Dropped inputs in regards to double jump just not refreshing or working in some scenarios, and happens pretty frequently. Double jump also doesn't refresh when sliding and falling off the wall, but air dash does.
- Hadouken input is frustratingly inconsistent to input "correctly." It just.... rarely would it actually do it.
- Fire/Water Velguarders/Sigma Form 1 & 2 deal slightly too high of damage on Veteran mode to feel good. 1 or 2 less points would go a long way to feeling better.
- Boss Weaknesses are visually non-existent and I could never reliably tell if the weapon I was using was the proper weakness. They just didn't feel like they matched up well, so I mostly used the X Buster for most of the fights.
Overall, I give the current state of the game on 1.00.51 an 8.0/10.
Amazing work to the team. If the above were corrected, I would rate this closer to a 9.0, but given the frequency of dropped inputs and jarring slowness of door transitions; it affects the flow of the game, and getting demolished at the end repeatedly due to insane contact damage over made the ending rougher than it needed to be.
But, the levels looked fantastic. The music was fun to listen back to on subsequent runs. The bosses were unique enough to be interesting in ways I enjoyed. The weapons themselves were fun and useful throughout the stages.
I greatly enjoyed my time with this and recommend it to anyone who hasn't played it yet.