All the way back in 2019, we reported on the release of a then-upcoming Gatcha game produced by none other than Capcom; Rockman X DiVE. This game sought to expand the mythos of the Megaman X universe by taking place within a digital database known as the “Deep Log” that is used to record the exploits of X, Zero, and all of the other characters of the series, as well as the various situations that make up the expanded Megaman X universe. The player is tasked with exploring classical areas and scenarios from the MegaMan X universe and beyond using “Hunter Programs”, which are representations of characters from the greater MegaMan universe, even expanding into far-reaching branches of the MegaMan Mythos such as the Classic, Zero, ZX, Battle Network, and Star Force series’ in order to give players a greatly expanded roster to choose from. And that’s not even mentioning their crossovers with Street Fighter, Monster Hunter, and Devil May Cry!
Just a tiny portion of the game’s roster, but even here we have Classic Megaman, Megaman X, Megaman Battle Network and Megaman Starforce represented, in conjunction with some unique costumes exclusive to Rockman X DiVE, one cut character from Megaman X2, and even Ryu and Akuma from Street Fighter!
However, earlier this year it was announced that Rockman X DiVE would be shutting down, and had its final day on September 27, 2023. This was then followed-up by the announcement of Rockman X DiVE Offline, which compiled all of the content of the now-defunct Gatcha game into a single, cohesive package for players to make their way through wrapped up with an up-front purchase price to get all of the content that players had strived for with daily chores and in-game purchases in previous years. However, this version of Rockman X DiVE is very much true to its name in that it’s lost all online connectivity, leaving players alone in their journey through the Deep Log and into the final depths of the game’s story. And so ends the story of Rockman X DiVE; a fun, but ultimately obscure game that went out with a bit of a whimper instead of a bang… right?
Not Quite! Something that went under the radar for many players, especially those who got involved with the Steam version of the game, is the fact that Capcom licensed Rockman X DiVE to the game development firm Nebula Joy. According to reports shared on the official Megaman X Dive Discord, the announcement of the closure of Rockman X DiVE and the release of Rockman X DiVE Offline was something of a shock to Nebula Joy’s development team. However, rather than take this as a sign of the end, they actually worked with Capcom and procured the license to continue development of Megaman X DiVE without the continued content support of Capcom Taiwan. It took them a while to fully pull this trigger, but MegaMan X DiVE has now officially started a new era of content that goes beyond what even Rockman X DiVE had developed during its active time. But before we get into that, let’s take a look at what Megaman X DiVE currently has to offer:
Megaman X DiVE Gameplay
Just like the classical Megaman X series that it’s based on, Megaman X DiVE is a side-scrolling action game with an emphasis on gunning down opponents or getting in range for powerful close-range attacks depending on your character and weapon choices.
Characters all have two unique skills that can be used with a cooldown period, as well as a number of passive skills that can greatly influence their gameplay. All characters are equipped with two weapons that the player can freely choose from and switch between on the fly, with all weapons falling into a classification that determines how they interact with different aspects of the game. Busters are the classical arm-cannon weapons of the Megaman series, and they tend to have good average stats and are all-around easy to use. Melee weapons like Zero’s Z-Saber offer high damage output, but require that players get in close in order to actually land hits. Machine Guns tend to have very high damage-output and/or useful effects, making them very strong options in a lot of scenarios. Sprayers frequently have medium-short range, but high damage output and an emphasis on inflicting status effects in most cases. Finally, launchers tend to be long-range weapons that do splash damage when their attacks hit a target or reach the end of their range.
Note that this is a very, very general overview! There are many weapons that break the mold and perform in ways that greatly defy their archetype in unique ways.
So using all of this together, what exactly can players do in Megaman X DiVE? What type of game modes are actually available?
The Main Story
The “main” mode of the game, Story basically takes a normal Megaman X level and splits it up into 6 parts, with parts 1 to 2 and 4 to 5 consisting of normal platforming stages, while part 3 holds a mini-boss and Part 6 is where the stage-boss lurks. Bosses that players encounter through Story Mode are pulled from across the Megaman universe, with stand-out examples like Dynamo, Vile, and even deeper cuts like Dr.Psyche/Mad Nautilus making appearances along the way. It’s also possible to DiVE into Co-Op mode where two players tackle a stage from Story Mode and beyond at the same time, working together to clear obstacles and take down the stage’s boss. But since this only rewards resources twice per day, we’re not going to touch on that here too much.
The main story is currently broken into 20 chapters, with Hard Mode going up to chapter 18. The story here focuses on the player teaming up with RiCO, the bouncy, blue-haired current administrator of the Deep Log, to repair errors and discover the source of the changes being made to this Megaman X database.
Events
Megaman X DiVE has constantly-running events that tend to last anywhere from one to two weeks and offer players a chance to gather resources not normally attainable, such as exclusive cards to power up your characters or resources used to unlock new skills and abilities. These events very frequently focus on series’ outside of Megaman X, and will tend to mirror any currently available character/weapon banners, with the currently running event as of this writing focusing heavily on the game Megaman ZX Advent as the character ZX Aile makes her rerun.
In conjunction with short-running events, players are also able to take part in recurring daily events that quickly grant additional resources. Fortunately, it’s possible to “skip” these events once they’ve been completed once, turning them into a one-tap source of daily riches.
Challenges
Megaman X DiVE has many daily challenges available for players to optionally tackle, ranging from tackling some of the game’s bosses, to making speed-runs of the story-mode’s stages, to the “Deep Recorder” which allows players to tackle a simple mini-game for resources on a weekly basis, to completing the “Jacob Orbital Elevator”, which poses players with unique stages that they must complete within a time limit. Most of these challenges refresh daily, and many can be “skipped” for ease-of-gameplay once they’re completed, making them non-intrusive parts of a player’s daily tasks.
Player-Versus-Player
Megaman X DiVE’s PvP is definitely one of the prime gameplay-modes, as it's easily one of the most competitive game-modes currently available. PvP pits players against each other with the intent of draining the other character’s HP before your own HP drops to Zero, as is pretty standard in most PvP games. Each round is best-of-3, with the Ranked mode that resets each month or so requiring that players utilize 3 different characters that all share the same 2 weapon picks. This is where character choices can greatly influence the game’s outcome, as most characters have very different play-styles from one-another. From long-ranged attackers that can shoot through terrain to KO from off-screen to speedy beat-down characters that seek to end the opponent as quickly as possible, it’s very encouraged for players to play according to their own style, using their favorite characters and weapons to win.
However, this is also where we have to mention an issue. As Capcom continued development of Rockman X DiVE, they started to incorporate a lot of power-creep into their later characters and weapons, to the point where many of the newer units vastly outclass the older ones. We will touch on that soon, as we definitely have a silver lining to that cloud, but it definitely is a cloud when most matches in PvP come down to abusing invincibility frames (iframes for short) and attacks that take 75-100% of the opponent’s HP in a single volley. This can be especially annoying for new players, as Ranked PvP is a great source of resources, but is also infested with nigh-invincible juggernauts that can stone-wall players out unless they have similar characters and weapons. In particular, we currently have at least one character in the game that is so centralizing in PvP that he has little to no true counter-play currently available in the game. And those of you who play will see that I use that character in the screenshot above to get through the game's Ranked mode, albeit begrudgingly.
That said, there is good news on that front! Megaman X DiVE’s development team is actually very understanding of their playerbase, meaning it’s very common for players to “boost” one another, trading wins until they’ve obtained the highest rank possible and ensured maximum rewards. And this is 100% legal within the game’s community! Just jump on the game’s official Discord and you’ll probably find someone willing to help out if you look for a while. Without this fact, I couldn’t really recommend Megaman X DiVE PvP, but with this helping-hand always present it’s actually not so bad. And despite the above complaints, it can actually be a lot of fun to play!
Raid Bosses and Guild Bosses
Credit to my guildmate, BCrossZero, for this screenshot. I apparently never actually took a screenshot while this boss was active!
The other “big” game mode of MegaMan X DiVE has to be Raid Bosses. These are powerful, immortal bosses that are almost always the final bosses from various Megaman games (most frequently Sigma from the Megaman X series) that give players a limited time to deal as much damage as possible. It’s possible to tackle them up to 5 times per day (10 per day if you also use your Elemental Metal, the game’s premium currency, to purchase more runs), with each character and duo of weapons locking for the day after each run.
The final boss of Megaman X5 as a Raid Boss. Credit to my guildmate, MashoodX, for this screenshot, in which he managed to hit the maximum allowable damage with 41 seconds left on the clock
Raid bosses come in two flavors: proper “Raid Bosses”, where all players compete for the highest possible score during the one-to-two week Raid Boss run, and “Guild Bosses”, where guilds consisting of up to 30 members works together to out-damage other guilds. It’s worth noting that Raid Bosses are actually pretty rare nowadays, with Guild Bosses showing up around once a month to give players a frequent source of punching bags to unload on. Needless to say, raid bosses are a bit of an investment for players, as it takes at minimum 5 characters and 10 weapons to make the maximum number of free runs for a day, and the weapons/characters utilized for Bossing aren’t always super-useful in PvP, which is the other big game mode. On top of this, players are given an additional Attack Bonus based on how many characters/weapons they have invested resources in, meaning players that have been around for a long time will tend to deal a lot more damage than newer players. However, the player-base has been petitioning Nebula Joy to release at least some raid bosses that don’t count this added bonus, meaning we may see a future where it’s 100% a game of skill and chosen units!
The Death of Capcom, the Rise of Nebula Joy
I have personally played Megaman X DiVE since the Nebula Joy version was released back in 2021. So why am I only writing an article about it now that it looks like the game as a whole has waned? Because, for the first time since the game’s release, I finally have real and established hope for the future. As already stated, Capcom made a mess of the game’s meta during their run, with late-game characters and weapons outright eclipsing older units hopelessly. But since Nebula Joy took over, they’ve already made some major changes despite only releasing new content for a few short weeks as of the writing of this article.
The Revival
As with many Gatcha games, Megaman X DiVE has characters and weapons divided into “ranks”, utilizing the commonly-seen “B”, “A”, and “S” rank. Sadly, the characters in “B” and “A” rarely see real use, and tend to be forgotten outright, with few “S” Rank alternates for them coming to light. Well, the very first thing that Nebula Joy did when fully taking the reigns is take some of our criminally under-utilized characters and release them as S-Rank Variants.
While this trend was admittedly started by Capcom with the release of “S-Class Hunter” variants of X and Zero, B and A rank characters respectively, it’s now coming full circle with even more re-envisioned characters. As of this writing, we now have the new S-Rank characters “Maximum Massimo”, and “True Zero (Z)”. This takes two fan-favorite characters and brings them into the new era with a lot of new power. And even more than that it shows that Nebula Joy actually understands their game. These characters are designed to work with what are arguably the two biggest game-modes right now, with Maximum Massimo designed as a boss-killer for raids, while True Zero (Z) is designed to assassinate other players with ease. And while Maximum Massimo is admittedly a bit of a disappointment at the moment, the development team has promised updates and changes to improve him in the near future, showing that they are actually listening to their player-base.
The Restoration
One of the most heart-breaking parts of playing X DiVE has been watching my old favorite characters slip into obscurity as I’ve been given the choice of either using the new-hottness or losing to the new-hotness as my personal favorites slip down towards unusability.
But that’s no longer the case!
Another promise made by the Nebula Joy team was a re-balancing of older characters, and oh boy are they delivering! As of this writing, we’ve just received our first update of an older character, and it’s very significant!
Back when Rockman X DiVE first dropped, one of the absolute best characters in the game went by the name of Black Zero; a version of Zero donning black armor that has been utilized as Zero’s “ultimate” form in many of the main-line Megaman X games. He was outstanding in just about any game mode, but he ultimately fell off pretty hard as more and more characters could do his job but better. Well, Nebula Joy has gotten their hands on Black Zero, and the results are phenomenal.
In his update, Black Zero was given huge buffs to his Speed, damage output, and overall utility. He can now use his more utility-based rushing skill twice in a row instead of once while dealing substantially more damage, while his previously-less-than-useful screen-clear attack that sends energy bullets out from his position and in every direction now homes in onto a target, meaning it deals huge damage and is very hard to evade.
And this is just the first character! The game’s Nebula Joy developers have said that they’re going to begin revamping the entire roster in this way, meaning we may very well very soon see a day where new players can pull basically any character and have a treasure that’s genuinely worth using somewhere in the game.
The reckoning is here, and Nebula Joy is showing that they’re willing to actually make Megaman X DiVE work again!
The Future and Beyond
For the first time since picking this game up back in 2021, I can honestly say that I have hope for its future. While many in the DiVE community may be more skeptical than I am, especially of Nebula Joy itself, I for one am 100% willing to give them the benefit of the doubt and say that they’re actually working towards a more balanced and open game. While the game is still a bit predatory due to the nature of Capcom’s previously mentioned trends, I currently have faith that it’s on its way towards being something genuinely fun again. Elemental Metal (the game’s premium currency) is easier to get than ever before, and it’s not terribly difficult to get enough for a ten-pull within a few days' time. On top of this, Nebula Joy frequently hosts Livestreams on Youtube and Twitch where they give out codes for free resources, which makes saving for the next big character or weapon a breeze. Add to that the fact that they’re pretty good at re-running banners that the community asks for, and the game’s barrier to entry seems to be falling lower every day. It’s now to the point where I’d love to invite anyone who’s gotten this far into this article to get onto Google Play or the App Store and download Megaman X DiVE for yourselves. We’ve currently got a banner running for ZX Aile, who is absolutely one of the best characters in the game for any game-mode and an outstanding starting point for any player, as well as the promise of a Devil May Cry crossover event rerun possibly next week, or soon after at worst (Dante X is better than Virgil Zero, for the record). If you’re a fan of basically any Megaman series, then I’d say that Megaman X DiVE is definitely worth a try. I'll definitely admit that the game doesn't have a great degree of polish and is in need of more than just the bandages that that Nebula Joy is currently applying to help patch up the many issues, but I'm hopeful that genuine change is on the horizon. And if you do decide to give it a chance, then please @ me on the official Discord. I’m Raven8 over there as well, and I’ll gladly welcome you to one of my favorite games, and help you get started in any way that I can!
My main hope right now is that the rebalance goes smoothly, and that PvP becomes less one-hit-kill-vs-iframes than it is now. There was a time where we had a lot more strategy and careful play, and I admittedly miss those days. Either way, I can honestly say that I am cautiously excited for future of Megaman X Dive.
