Mega Man X DiVE Review – A Great Job At Existing, But Otherwise Shallow

Many franchises have dabbled in mobile gachas such as Dragon Ball Z, JoJo, and even Pokémon. So, of course, it wouldn’t be unexpected to see the blue bomber take the stage. Introducing Mega Man X DiVE, a platforming mobile game available exclusively in Japan for about a year but has now since found its way into the West, thanks to publisher and developer NebulaJoy. If that name sounds familiar, that’s because they’re the same publishers who are going to release the Chinese-only Devil May Cry mobile game in western territories.

Mega Man X DiVE has players clear quests and embark on a few story missions. Its narrative begins with you, the player, just chilling and gaming in your room, playing Mega Man X, when suddenly you get sucked into the game’s Data Log, a plane of existence that stores memories of the experiences of every player who has played the Mega Man X series. But due to data corruption, the plane is at risk of being destroyed. And, of course, it’s your job to replay the stages and restore the corrupted data to normal.

You must first log in using NebulaJoy’s system using a Google or Facebook account to start the game. You can then pick one of the three available servers. Generally, I’m not too fond of these types of forced logins, but it is what it is. I suppose that’s one way to prevent bots or cheating accounts.

The gameplay is pretty straightforward. Each stage has some platforming, and they’re all recreations inspired by actual Mega Man X levels. However, these recreations are mostly similar in theme and not layout. They vary, but at the same time, they’re so unoriginal that I’d rather go play Mega Man X to play through the actual levels.

The story doesn’t do the game any favors either. It really lacks immersion, not to mention the characters are all shallow, just telling you about some silly things such as “We gotta repair this corruption, and I am just the one who can help!” This equates to an exceptionally watered-down premise that failed to catch my attention. And while there is one original character, the guiding girl RiCO, her voice becomes annoying as she just shouts during the tutorials most of the time.

There are several characters you can obtain. And yes, if swimsuit characters are your thing, I’m pleased to announce they are present. But I guess now I got to say the forbidden word: Gacha. Yes, this game has a gacha/summoning system. By using these rainbow hexagons called Metals, players can obtain weapons and characters from various iterations within the Mega Man X universe. Each character has a unique skill, and each weapon behaves differently, allowing for a wide range of strategies.

The performance of the game is nothing of note. Constant login failures and disconnections seem to be a common issue. Here comes one of the red flags…it appears the developer wishes to investigate the issue by collecting IP addresses. I’m pretty sure that nobody with common sense would just hand over that information. It’s simply not a component a developer typically needs to fix server issues, which makes me worry about what kind of information is being collected and transmitted.

The game features two modes where you can play with other people. You have PvP, where you are matched against a random player, with a simple objective of “kill the enemy,” and there’s Co-Op mode, where you and other players can tag along and clear special stages. Unfortunately, latency and lag issues are expected due to my region, so I have been unable to win a single match. The game itself isn’t to blame, though. Still, I’m pretty sure that, statistically speaking, most players dislike player-vs-player modes in gacha games because they aren’t a matter of skill but a matter of how much money you spend.

Mega Man X DiVE is a passable experience, but I would definitely not recommend it to anyone, even hardcore Mega Man fans. The title is just too bland, and you’ll probably run out of things to do really quickly. The story is also pretty meh at best as it doesn’t really add anything to the beloved series. Overall, the game can excel, but it is mediocre due to its faults.