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Forgot to publish this one. So, we reach one of my favorites aesthetically-wise - The Gateway Stage. It just sounds and looks gorgeous too. I don't like the re-fight stages, but this (along with the creepiest shit I've ever seen a re-fight stage to pull off, The Soul Asylum from X7) just shows what a visual and audio treat those stages can be. Too bad none of Classic titles to my knowledge did anything like this, even the most recent Rockman 11. So here I chose “X7“ combination (Axl and Zero) as well as Layer because of the previous scene. The re-fight capsules are located in the next room, on a giant... tree made of organ pipes? At least this is what my head keeps interpreting it as. Maybe because of how much X8 depends on mythos, this might be the first Yggdrasil we've gotten until the seal of Dark Elf in Zero-series. Looks gorgeous either way. And here all of the capsules have a hint as to who you'll encounter in each of them. You need to remember what colour corresponds to each Irregular too as it will be important later on. I've started with the one who gave me less trouble originally. (All of these Irregulars, by the way, are New Generation Repliroids that are taking the form of these 8 fallen beings.) And then I went up to the most difficult one... Eh... You see, the remix I was using for these boss fights is always longer than the fight itself. I decided to use the second part of the track on the last Irregular as it will be the last time you'll hear it in the playthrough. Too bad I didn't think of finishing the things off with Optic Sunfloward - my first Irregular here. That would be meaningful in some way and epic, or something. At least you got to hear the second part of this track. And here I'd recommend you using X and Zero combination instead. You'll need Zero here, but Axl is bad at killing the enemies fast. Did I mentioned I needed to play this stage 3 complete times? I wanted to include each Navigator's reaction to Gateway exploading after the last Irregular was beaten as we need to make our way out of it before it's too late. Then we meet up with... Sigma. Aaand his speech is rather strange, especially when he talks to X. It's not like the broken patter he had in X6, but it is just... wierd. Sigma as a boss is a nightmare to do damageless, I think. First, this is one of the only bosses in the game that needs his guard to be broken with hunters' normal attacks (remember these?) or else you'll go down really quickly. Sigma also has annoying projectile attacks that can only be destroyed with Zero's Z-Saber slash. And then... disaster strikes. Sigma's Overdrive is making the whole floor burning... in a freaking space, what the funk?.. But this basically makes you unable to stand on the floor anymore. Now you need to constantly wall-jump and know EXACTLY when to try and dodge Sigma's slash attack. But, Sigma's weaknes is... Darkneid Kamakil's weapons. He is weak to darkness... But you'll soon learn why. However, Axl is a useful boi in this situation, others can't really reach Sigma with their Dark-Elemental weapons. As Sigma dies... he turns into a Guardroid like other 8 Irregulars just now? He wasn't Sigma? Wow, that's new. But the real one must be somewhere anyway, right? New Gens are using his DNA Data for crying out loud. And Ax the Hunters get in touch with the Hunter Base, Navigators start to tell them there's a multiple Sigma signals on the surface of the Moon and... even Zero seems to recognise these and tell everyone that he really feels Sigma thus confirming Navigators' words. You sure has a special connection to the evil itself, right, Zero?.. And it all ends on X saying that they are almost at the final distanation. Just one more push forward and they should FINALLY be done with all this. “Hanta Timu, Shutsudō!“
