You're too slow! I read and analyzed all of your moves before you even got close to me.
Zero
Zero is a character from Capcom's and the main protagonist of the . He is a high ranking member of the in charge of defeating Sigma's forces from exterminating humanity.
Zero is a playable character in Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds, Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, and Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite.
Profile
Appearance
In his Mega Man X incarnation, he sports blue eyes, a blond ponytail with a blue band, as well as a red helmet with several "horns" and a blue, triangular energy crystal in the center of his helmet. His body is the standard build of a reploid, despite the fact that he is technically an android, as a reploid is a replica of X built in 21XX. As of Mega Man X2, he also has shoulder guards with the letter Z on both of them.
In his Mega Man Zero incarnation, his appearance is sleeker and more human-like. Like most of the characters in the Mega Man Zero series, he sports a vest that he wears over a skintight bodysuit. The energy crystal located on his helmet is now green, and he now has black eyes. His skin is also paler.
Personality
A hardened soldier and war-torn veteran, Zero is cold, calculated, and ruthless on the battlefield. Once a competitive and daredevil Maverick Hunter, devastating events and close tragedies of those close to him and related to the Maverick Wars brought him to light the sorrows and suffering of the conflict. However, he knows when to show restraint, and can easily tell right from wrong. He comes off as sarcastic and distant, even to his closest allies X and Axl. However, deep down, he is caring and would always put his life on the line for his friends, no matter the consequences. This can be proven by the fact that Zero dies a total of two times in the X series alone, three if you count the non-canon scenario of Mega Man X5 where he sacrifices himself to protect X from Sigma.
He also acts as a mentor to X and Axl, and is a competent leader, being the commander of the Special 0 Unit of the Maverick Hunters. Outside of his duties as a Maverick Hunter, he yearns to find out about his past.
However, in the Mega Man Zero series, his personality is a bit different, possibly due to his amnesia. He is far more silent, having very little lines in the first Mega Man Zero game compared to the rest of the series. He doesn't show a solid personality in this series, though at one point in Mega Man Zero 3, when his friend Ciel begins to question her own actions, Zero assures her that what she is doing is right, and inspires her to continue going on. Later on in the series, he eventually regains his memories, but having experienced a lot in his lifetime, he remains taciturn and without much to say.
His future personality also shows signs of deep indifference and coldness to those inhospitable to him and his friends. In Mega Man Zero 4, he and Ciel attempt to warn the human residents of Area Zero, the last habitable place on a devastated Earth, of the grand threat of the powerful Ragnarok satellite cannon. Faced with much resistance, and their complaints of how Reploids, their wars and destruction that potentially destroyed the world, and how Zero is nothing but the cause of the series' conflict, he leaves them, while telling Ciel that the humans have been warned and that it is up to them to decide whether to evacuate or be destroyed by Ragnarok. Despite this, he also has much hope in humans, as he believes it is within them to change the world for the better.
Lastly, the most notable difference in terms of personality between his Mega Man X incarnation and his Mega Man Zero incarnation is that the former fights for justice and peace as a Maverick Hunter, while the latter fights on his own accord, refusing to be acknowledged as a hero. There at also hints of him believing in fighting at full power, as Zero's never one to hold back in fights.
Abilities
The ultimate result of the infamous research, Zero was built with the intention of surpassing anything Wily had built before, and to destroy his long time nemesis's creation, Megaman, as well as his own misguided creation, Bass. Being made before the introduction of standard mass-produced Reploids and during the construction of X, his internal processes and construction are considered to be more advanced than most known robotics and on par with X's parameters and capabilities.
He is initially outfitted with an armament known as the , an arm cannon capable of firing of blasts of energy as well as manipulating it to launch it in special variations and projections.
During the X2 series and onward, Zero adopts and becomes the user of the , a beam sword that became his trademark weapon. Not only capable of manifesting itself as a beam of light, it is also capable of changing its consistency, ranging from different wavelengths of frequencies, different states of energy, including pure electricity, ice, and fire, and to even various mass compositions, including metal, crystal, and even foliage, to suit a variety of situations in combat and on the field.
Zero is also outfitted with the Learning System, a system not unlike the Variable Weapons System in its copying and adaptation of certain weapons, but adapts various abilities and techniques of opponents and enemies, and even goes as far as copying the kind of power and possible energy projection emitted from the attack.
As an android created by Dr. Wily, he possesses superhuman strength, speed, and durability. All Reploids possess these attributes, but it is unknown on how stronger they are than humans exactly.
However, underneath his exterior displays of ability and performance, just like X, Zero holds an immense and potentially limitless capability for adaptation and power. Via his power grid and many gameplay incarnations of him, Zero is a traditional Glass Cannon (weak on defense but strong on offense) as in the main Mega Man games, most of his attacks did an immense amount of damage. But in his fighting game counterparts, Zero has his traditional low health but makes up for it with great combo potential and versatility despite not being overly strong. Thus, it can be stated with Zero's swordsman skills and with his other abilities, Zero can adapt to practically any foe he fights, and his long combos tend to show Zero often and always fights at his best and does not tolerate holding back.
The reason for his low health is mainly due to his creator and Dr. Light being unable to provide future armor upgrades for him that involve his durability (barring the secret Black Zero armor), and thus his defense mainly stayed consistent throughout the Mega Man X series. Despite this, he makes up for this with skills in other fields/strengths and great adaptation to many situations.
Story
Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds
Zero hitches a ride with the Silver Surfer back to his own world. Silver Surfer, instead, accidentally takes Zero to , the setting of the Mega Man Zero series, due to him not being able to tell the two apart (as they are essentially the same world in a different time). They soon travel to a different world in order to take Zero back to his homeworld.
Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite
Zero is amongst the heroes and villains who are brainwashed by Ultron Sigma and Grandmaster Meio. He is first spotted by Strider Hiryu, X, Captain Marvel, Nova and Rocket Raccoon. According to X, his core routines were changed to allow Ultron Sigma controlling him. After being defeated, his core routine is restored and returning to the right side once more.
Gameplay
Zero plays similar to his TvC counterpart, and like since his SvC Chaos counterpart, is versatile as a Rushdown/Cross-Up Point character. In gameplay, Zero mainly uses his trademark weapons, the Z-Saber and Z-Buster. He also performs a wide variety of attacks and techniques that he gained during the X series (having a projectile and anti-air makes him a standard shota clone). Zero focuses on an offensive playstyle that has strong rewards and high risk, as Zero's normal attacks and special moves don't do a lot of damage on their own, but are meant to be strung together in super-long and highly damaging combos, a la gradually grinding down his opponent with skillful swordplay with no holds barred.
Theme Songs
Quotes
Gallery
Trivia
- His Level 3 Hyper Combo is the infamous Genmurei (yelled here as "Genmu Zero!") from the equally-infamous X vs. Zero battle from Mega Man X5. This also doubles as a Bilingual Bonus, as Genmurei literally translates to "Phantasm Zero".
- Zero briefly gains Awakening Zero's crimson Battle Aura during said hyper, however, it is possibly due to the fact that Zero is not under the virus is the reason why the Genmu Zero is yellow instead of green, and why it fires one wave instead of two like in the boss fight.
- A very subtle reference also comes from the color of his Z-Saber during Genmurei. Zero's Z-Saber can obtain a power-up from one of the Mavericks via his Tenkuuha (Aether Supremacy) ability (or in the case of in Mega Man X5 and Mega Man X6, from power-up parts) in several games (these three cases turn his saber purple), allowing him to deflect projectiles (the only exception was Mega Man X7, where he had this augment from the start). In Mega Man X8, beating Earthrock Trilobyte earns you the technique Rekkyoudan (Violent Mirror Severing), which gives the Z-Saber a yellowish-orange glow. During his Level 3, the Z-Saber exhibits both of these properties.
- Zero's Hadangeki and Genmu Zero are inversed in color in MvC3; the original Hadangeki was yellow in color, while Genmu Zero during Awakened Zero's Mega Man X5 boss fight was green. However, Hadangeki was already green in Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars.
- His character theme is a remix of his Boss Fight theme from Mega Man X2.
- In his ending, Zero also mistakes Silver Surfer's addressing of Mega Man Zero (as in the series, not Zero himself) as the title the Surfer gives him and quickly corrects him on it. This was one of the many problems found in a manga adaptation of the Mega Man Zero series.
- Zero in his X-Factor mode can be seen as a nod to Maverick Zero, in the infamous X vs Zero fight in Mega Man X5.
- All of Zero's attacks came from each of the Mega Man X series games he was playable in from Mega Man X3 to Mega Man X8.
- The Hyper Zero Buster originated from Mega Man X3, while Shippuuga, Hienkyaku, and Ryuuenjin originated from Mega Man X4. The Sogenmu and Genmu Zero techniques came from Mega Man X5, while Sentsuizan and Rekkouha came from Mega Man X6. The only move that originated from Mega Man X7 was Hadangeki. Raikousen originated from Mega Man X8. Because of this, he now has one attack from every main series game he has been playable in.
- His standing L, M, and H in that order is a nod to Zero's basic saber combo. His crouching M is a nod to his pre-Mega Man X6 crouching attack, and his jumping M attack is a nod to his midair saber slash. All of these animations along with the saber itself are before Mega Man X6 (especially since Zero gains new animations as well as a new saber).
- Zero's stance in Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars has both fists formed, while his leading hand in MvC3 is not clenched into one; this is a nod to Zero's original stances in Mega Man X3-Mega Man X5 (shown in Tatsunoko vs. Capcom) and Mega Man X6 (shown in MvC3).
- Zero is one of only 6 characters (the other being Hsien-Ko, M.O.D.O.K., Spider-Man, Super-Skrull and Shuma-Gorath) in the game to have a special quote fighting himself. This is due to him fighting "himself" in some games, namely in an opening cutscene in Mega Man X5, and the Zero Nightmare in Mega Man X6, as well as the Copy Zero from Mega Man X2 which Zero will destroy if X manages to have him repaired before that battle.
- Ryota Niitsuma, producer of MvC3, announced that he replaced Mega Man with Zero because he felt Zero had more variation in his moves.
- In Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 one of his new win quotes can contextually be taken as a reference to (or even something of a jab at) the huge demand for Mega Man X: "If X were here, he would have tried to talk things out first. Unfortunately for you, X isn't here." Although it's highly likely the line is meant to be Zero suggesting to his opponent that if X were present before the fight it -along with their defeat- might not have happened at all, due to X's famous technical pacifist nature.
- Zero's ending in UMvC3 is slightly changed so that after saying he isn't Mega Man Zero, he says right after if someone like that ever existed, which is semi-ironic, since both Zero and "Mega Man Zero" are essentially the same being, just in different time periods.
- But Zero himself doesn't know this since his incarnation in the game is his Mega Man X appearance, and his Mega Man Zero incarnation never appears in this game (especially since Zero in the Mega Man Zero series lost his memories).
- Zero in the original released version of MvC3 had a snapback glitch with his Sougenmu, where if only Zero's shadow connected on a target during his Shippuuga animation (if any of their assists were on screen), the foe would fly out but no one would be tagged in, thus making Zero or his teammates all alone on the field. This led to very cheap time-outs with such an exploit, and was removed in the update patches. (Zero's Sougenmu would end if he used a snapback).[1]
- When pitted against Frank West, Zero will call Frank "a civilian" at the start of a fight, and when Zero defeats Frank, he'll make a Dead Rising reference using Frank's catchphrase "I've covered wars, you know!" (i.e. Zero will say "You may have covered wars, but you're still a civilian.") and comment about his eyes and brain being "so weak that he must rely on a photon capture device". Zero likely refers to it in this technical sense because cameras in the future obviously look much different than the one Frank uses.
References
External links
- Capcom Database:
- Mega Man Knowledge Base:
- Wikipedia: Zero