This post is an analysis of how Mega Man Zero does environmental storytelling. Here are links to the rest of the deep dives:
Recently I spent some time going over the great examples of environmental storytelling in old Mega Man games. I must confess that I largely wrote those pieces to serve as a contrast to this one. As it turns out, Mega Man Zero is one of the worst examples of environmental storytelling in the greater franchise.
I was planning on taking a bunch of screenshots on my Switch to use in this post, but I found out the hard way that the game spits you back to the beginning after you beat it, and I didn’t want to replay through all the early parts. Instead, I had to resort to taking screencaps from a Youtube playthrough. Next time I promise to take interesting screenshots as I am playing through.
Mega Man Zero actually fails on two fronts - environmental storytelling, and scene transitions. Since I don’t have my own screenshots, I can’t really show you many examples of the latter - most of the Youtube playthroughs of the game just jump from mission to mission, and never bother to explore during the downtime in between. I will do my best to put it all into perspective.
Let’s start off in the desert, since this is the area where the greatest number of missions take place.
There are three things to notice in this image. The first is that we are, indeed, in a hot arid desert. Second, notice the gate to the right. This leads into the Resistance Base, which in turn leads into a ruined city. Put a pin in that for later.
Third, I made a joke in another post about how the world of Mega Man Zero must be freezing cold, what with all the characters wearing heavy boots and bodysuits. However, this image proves that Reploids must not, in fact, feel temperature, otherwise the woman posted at the gate would be melting.
Moving further into the desert, we occasionally come across the hulls of destroyed vehicles. Here we see a tank:
I’m puzzled at how big it is. Either this is several times larger than a real life tank, or my theory that the characters are all the size of children is correct.
We also have a helicopter:
These vehicles are beautifully detailed, and they tell us that there was some sort of battle that was once waged out here in the desert. But that is about all they tell us. A small smattering of wrecks tells us nothing about the size and scale of the battle, nor does it tell us anything about who fought, or who won.
What they should have done is add some additional wreckage into the background of the stage. Some more debris in the middle and long range backgrounds would have made the desert look like a cross between a boneyard and a graveyard.
There are other bits of wreckage throughout the desert, and rather than provide that much needed context I’m craving, they make things even more confusing. For instance, here’s a dump truck, and a … regular truck:
And here is a bunch of … stone columns? Dafuq?
I have no idea what this is supposed to represent. We have evidence of a war, but also civilian vehicles and ancient ruins. Nothing about this place makes any sense. I honestly think the game would be better off if the desert contained nothing but sand dunes. At least that would portray the fact that the place is a true wasteland.
We are done with the desert, so let’s take that pin out and explore what lies beyond that gate. As soon as you pass through it, the desert ends, and you encounter what looks like a military base. This is where the heroic Resistance forces set up shop. Actually, it is more accurate to say that their base is situated underground, below the base. Most of it looks like this:
If we head back up to the surface again, the area immediately after the gate looks like this:
We finally see some detailed ruins in the background, but it’s all long range. There are none of those medium-range details that give one the sense that the place where Zero is is in any way connected to what is in the distance. It exists as nothing more than window dressing that feels entirely disconnected to the rest of the stage.
Here is another shot that shows something green underneath the concrete:
Is this supposed to be grass? Mold? If it is any sort of vegetation, then how is that even possible? We just came in from a desert so arid that it lacked cacti, tumbleweeds, or anything that is (or was) living. And now we’ve got weeds or something. How does the climate possibly change that quickly?
If you continue to move to the right, the garages and storage buildings of the military base give way to a road with guard rails:
I guess it makes sense for there to be a road leading into the base, but the transition from one to the other feels far too abrupt.
Also, hopefully you notice that it is raining in this screenshot. So we went from a hot, arid, sunny desert, to a dark, rainy cityscape which is cold (or temperate) enough for vegetation to grow. I ask again - HOW DID THE CLIMATE POSSIBLY CHANGE THAT QUICKLY?
Anyway, this stretch of road ends in a line of buildings in a - you guessed it - abrupt fashion (I’m sorry to keep using that word, but it fits!):
Next to these buildings is a crane:
I guess safety measures went out the window when the apocalypse is happening.
Here we finally see a decent background:
We get some of that medium and long distance detail that finally connects everything together into a cohesive whole. Ironically, I never noticed this artwork while playing the game, as it is extremely blurry compared to the crisp pixels of the foreground sprites.
Here are some more blurry buildings and some destroyed vehicles.
I think this proves that Zero and his pals are as tall as eight year olds. Look at him compared to the height of the door on that truck. Also, the vehicles are so big that you can’t see anything behind them.
Moving to the right again, the medium-range detail is gone from the background. We just get some wall-to-wall buildings:
This area of the game is the only real view we get into the apocalyptic damage caused by the forces of Neo Arcadia, and it stinks. Everything above is just another smattering of “stuff” thrown together without rhyme or reason.
After running through this cityscape, we move into the Disposal Center, which contains a decent bit of spritework:
Moving on, there is a mission that takes place on a runaway train. At the start we see a bit of skyline that is no more impressive than what we saw on the NES:
As you run across the top of the train, there is not a single bit of background detail to be found:
Remember Gravity Beetle’s stage in Mega Man X3? Remember how clouds and towers scroll by as you run along the top of an airship?
Yeah, me neither.
There is another mission that takes place underneath the desert. As you descend underground, you come across this scene here:
Those look like broken buildings to me. Perhaps the desert was once part of the city. Maybe some disaster caused a bunch of structures to be sucked underneath the surface. Put a pin in that for now.
Moving left, we come across this transition, where the buildings in the background become obscured by a wall. Looks like we are entering a building:
Inside that building is an iced over body of water:
Later on, in another mission, this ice will be melted, and two big warships will be floating in the water. Why was it icy in the first place? Why did it melt later? Why were the ships put in there? Were they there to stop Zero, or is it part of some fleet? If it is a fleet, where does it possibly go?
I’m not sure why I am asking these questions anymore. It should be clear by now that nothing in this game is put together with any attention to logic.
Once you cross the ice, you can gain access to what is clearly an underground prison:
Let’s take that pin out. Previously I considered that maybe the ruined buildings underground came from the surface. But if that were true, that would mean that they sit next to a fully intact prison and a small lake. Nothing about that fits.
We are almost done with this torture folks. Here is an outdoor mission - I have no idea what these platforms are supposed to be:
If they are meant to be part of a road, then they should not be at such wildly varying elevations.
Here is a grim little scene:
If these are child Reploids, then I hope they aren’t dead.
This is another outdoor mission, in what looks to be an industrial area:
This background looks pretty good, but the mission is fairly short, so you don’t get to see much of it.
There is a mission that takes place entirely in an interior base. The entire thing looks like this:
If you think this looks boring, you’re wrong; it is punishingly boring.
The last screenshot I have to share is from the game’s end, which takes place inside Neo Arcadia:
It sure does look like a peaceful utopia, but we don’t get to see much of where people live or work. We see this (apparent) park, and a command outpost, and that’s it.
Conclusion
Mega Man Zero’s art direction is atrocious. Nothing flows and nothing makes sense. The only question I have left is why.
Is the Game Boy Advance hardware not potent enough to render any more detail?
Did the GBA’s screen resolution limit how much they could fit in the backgrounds?
Or were the developers simply getting their feet wet with the platform?
Part of me wants to know the answer, so that I at least have some context, but in the end it doesn’t change the fact that it looks uninspired. Please, please tell me it gets better in the sequels.