History YMMV / MegaManX6

* AuthorsSavingThrow:
** Alia was severely disliked in ''X5'' for her unskippable dialog about obvious things and for being a shoehorned tutorial too late into the series. This game makes most of her dialog skippable and the lines she has are more contextualized and less patronizing.
** Zero's Z-Buster was seen as [[ScrappyWeapon weak and useless]] in ''X5''. Here, while it has the same limitations of only working on the ground and requiring [[DoNotRunWithAGun Zero to stand still]], it is stronger and has a faster rate of fire.
** The parts system is improved over ''X5'' since players can grab everything and fully empower either X or Zero.

* MorePopularReplacement: Some fans believe that Gate serves as a better BigBad than Sigma, citing that his involvement in the story is more personalized, he has a unique backstory with Alia, and that his ultimate plan of a MonsterProtectionRacket to let society know of his genius when they had previously turned it down is [[TheChessmaster brilliant]]. It also helps that, unlike [[VideoGame/MegaManX3 Dr. Doppler]], [[VideoGame/MegaManX4 Repliforce]], or [[VideoGame/MegaManX7 Red Alert]], he's not actually [[HijackedByGanon being used by Sigma]], and is instead ''using'' Sigma as [[GodzillaThreshold his secret weapon]], which is a concept that wouldn't be explored again until Lumine in ''[[VideoGame/MegaManX8 X8]]''.

** One of the Mavericks you fight in the game is an aquatic creature named [[WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants Sh]][[WesternAnimation/RockosModernLife el]][[VideoGame/{{Splatoon}} don]].

* HarsherInHindsight: A subtle example regarding the release of this game. It has been noted that ''X6'''s quality issues were partially because it was rushed out near the end of the [=PlayStation=]'s life cycle, as the [=PlayStation=] 2 was on its way. It may strike some fans as this trope, as that exact thing happened to ''VideoGame/MegaMan6'' for the [[UsefulNotes/NintendoEntertainmentSystem NES]].

* ItsTheSameSoItSucks: For all of the changes later releases of the game have made, fixing the infamous BlindIdiotTranslation is not one of them. There's also been some requests to re-map Sentsuizan's command to Down+Attack instead of Up+Attack due to the frustrating rope segments, but this was never changed either.

** Sigma is [[GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere so superfluous to the plot]] that he might as well have been left out. The idea of a desperate Sigma on his last legs is explored much better in ''X8'', where his goal is to FlingALightIntoTheFuture for his dream of Reploid supremacy. It doesn't help that Sigma was meant to stay dead after ''X5''.

** Sigma is [[GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere so superfluous to the plot]] that he might as well have been left out. The idea of a desperate Sigma on his last legs is explored a little better in ''X8'', but not by much. It doesn't help that Sigma was meant to stay dead after ''X5''.

** After defeating the D-1000, the boss of the intro stage, it isn't completely obliterated after it explodes. Suddenly, the [[EvilKnockoff Zero Nightmare]] teleports in the room, slashes the D-1000's remains, then teleports away as the latter explodes again. This time, there is no trace left of the D-1000. As for the Zero Nightmare's sudden appearance, it's never explained why it helped X in the first place, with later encounters only establishing the Zero Nightmare has a ''[[AxCrazy very]]'' [[MoodSwinger erratic personality]] and possibly some of Zero's memories yet never following up from that first appearance -- despite the fact that the Zero Nightmare sometimes attempts to pass himself off as Zero. It comes across as a poor attempt at allowing X to be aware that Zero may still be alive...for some reason.

* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: Many players describe the music in this game as some of the best in the franchise. Even detractors usually have no problem admitting as much. [[LethalLavaLand Blaze]] [[ThePhoenix Heatnix]] is so rocking that it's not weird to hear people complimenting the song and hating the level. Many wondered if Capcom put all the time and effort into the songs than the actual game.

** After defeating the D-1000, the boss of the intro stage, it isn't completely obliterated after it explodes. Suddenly, the [[EvilKnockoff Zero Nightmare]] teleports in the room, slashes the D-1000's remains, then teleports away as the latter explodes again. This time, there is no trace left of the D-1000. As for the Zero Nightmare's sudden appearance, it's never explained why it helped X in the first place. It comes across as a poor attempt at allowing X to be aware that Zero may still be alive...for some reason.

* ItWasHisSled: That Zero is alive, which is important because Zero was explicitly destroyed in the previous game. Then again, with [[SpoiledByTheManual the manual]] mentioning a "Resurrected Hunter" '''who cannot be anyone other than Zero''' as a SecretCharacter, featuring artwork of X and Zero [[BackToBackBadasses back-to-back]] (with X looking pretty chipper for a guy whose best friend is supposedly dead), ''and'' stating that [[{{Retcon}} Zero is merely MIA as opposed to KIA]] (along with the back of the game case reading "Zero is Missing"), one wonders if Creator/{{Capcom}} actually intended for this to be a secret at all.

** Gate's second stage, especially the first half. The first half is a spike-covered hellhole clogged with enemies, and full of floating columns that require constant wall-jumping to stay on, combined with totem poles that block your path and need to be destroyed in addition. With Zero, the difficulty ramps up to the 9th degree when said totem poles are always just out of reach of your Z-saber, requiring lots of tricky jump attacks. The second half, while not as hard, alternates between tight corridors with lots of enemies (and that same DescendingCeiling) bearing down on you and the acid rain from Rainy Turtloid's stage combined with precarious wall jumps over bottomless pits if you're X. [[note]]And if you were hoping to make things slightly easier for yourself by going in with the spikes-immune Shadow Armor? Tough luck, because one of those wall jumps over a bottomless pit is placed in such a way that you ''need'' an air dash to make it across all the way (which the Shadow Armor cannot do) ''unless'' you happened to equip some combination of the Speedster, Jumper and/or Hyper Dash parts to give X the extra boost to make it across (and if you haven't or failed to rescue the Reploids holding those parts? Even worse luck!)[[/note]] Zero, on the other hand, gets another round with the trash compactor from hell. On top of that, it's a two-boss stage, fighting High Max at the halfway-point and [[ThatOneBoss Gate]] at the very end for the cherry on top. By comparison, the final stage holding the BossRush and Sigma is ''far'' more straightforward and easy.

** Isoc's presence and the implications of his character, while solving the issue of Zero's UnexplainedRecovery, [[VoodooShark raises a few other questions as a result]]. The biggest is Isoc going through the trouble of repairing Zero ''without'' trying to "fix" his programming -- which was the goal of Sigma and Wily's EvilPlan in the previous game (and canonically failed to happen). This also could've been a way to give the Zero Nightmare more relevance to the plot, as while he's an EvilKnockoff created by Gate as [[FalseFlagOperation a means to justify the existence of the Nightmare Investigators]], he appears to have some of the original's memories. (Note how X's exchange with him in the Secret Area of Blizzard Wolfang's stage has the Zero Nightmare refer to X as a blue '''robot''', for example.) [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools On the other hand]], fans would've likely seen anything regarding [[FaceHeelTurn a Heel-turned Zero]] as a rehash of both the aforementioned ''X5'' and the Fake Zero scenario from ''X2'' (which coincidentally featured Serges, another character implied to be an incarnation of Wily). Additionally, while out-of-canon, ''VideoGame/TatsunokoVsCapcom'' shows Wily delivering Zero to safety after the FinalBoss and [[SoProudOfYou expressing pride in Zero's accomplishments]] despite the fact that [[AntiAntiChrist he never fulfilled his original purpose]], possibly explaining away Isoc's decision to let Zero be and sing his praises should he triumph over High Max.

** Nightmare Mother. A boss in which even refined skills and talent at this game can still warrant utter luck on the part of the player. Imagine two squares, 1/4 in size of the entire arena circling around the room. On Xtreme difficulty, they go even quicker, to the point where you may need the Hyper Dash and Jumper parts to avoid getting hit repeatedly. (And if you lost those Reploids that give those out, tough nuggets!) Its moveset is also at home in a ShootEmUp for that matter! Many of its hits are crazy in {{spread shot}} arcs, or the Mother will place itself in areas in which the player will find themselves in very uncomfortable areas just to get around and by. Finally, the Mother is impossible to read - given that its pattern can have the boss go in any direction once the pattern stops combined with shots in arcs that may be impossible to dodge based on the cellular position of the Nightmare Mother itself, the player may have no choice but to take a few hits anyway!

** After [[WhatHappenedToTheMouse disappearing from]] ''X5'' as a KarmaHoudini, Dynamo is back. Unfortunately, despite him collecting Nightmare Souls giving the opportunity to be a plot-relevant rival by gradually powering himself up over multiple encounters, he's a [[LoneWolfBoss completely irrelevant]] OptionalBoss with only one variant, you still can't give him his comeuppance, and hasn't made an appearance since.

** After [[WhatHappenedToTheMouse disappearing from]] ''X5'' as a KarmaHoudini, Dynamo is back. Unfortunately, he's a [[LoneWolfBoss completely irrelevant]] OptionalBoss, you still can't give him his comeuppance, and hasn't made an appearance since. He could've been a plot-relevant rival that is actually a threat, he could've been a completely new bossfight since he should be superpowered judging by the amount of nightmare souls he collected.

** Sigma was meant to be permanently defeated at the end of ''X5'', so ''X6'' can potentially make a new villain like Isoc, Dr. Wily's implied vessel. Instead Sigma becomes the FinalBoss as usual.

** After defeating the D-1000, the boss of the intro stage, it isn't completely obliterated after it explodes. Suddenly, the [[EvilKnockoff Zero Nightmare]] teleports in the room, slashes the D-1000's remains, then teleports away as the latter explodes again. This time, there is no trace left of the D-1000. As for the Zero Nightmare's sudden appearance, it's never explained why it helped X in the first place. It comes across as a poor attempt at allowing X to be aware that Zero may still be alive...for some reason.

* SoOkayItsAverage: If you're not turned off by its flaws, this game falls under this. The game has got a lot of ideas which could have made for a fun game, but due to a ''very'' rushed and tight development schedule was never ironed out or revisioned and resulted in a broken mess.

** The [[{{Nerf}} downgrades]] to the Falcon Armor (e.g. removing its nigh-invincible flight in place of an air-dash, charge shots can't go though walls anymore) were understandable given how much of a GameBreaker it was in ''X5'', but the strip-down was so bad especially in the face of the game's upscale in difficulty that it was poorly received by the players.
** The ''X Legacy Collection 2'' release completely replaced the original opening and ending songs with new tunes that many fans don't find as memorable or fitting. Even worse, even switching to the Japanese version doesn't help with this. This doesn't apply to the Japanese release of the collection, however, since all songs are kept there.

** There a few hints that imply that Isoc is actually a [[BackFromTheDead vessel]] for Dr. Wily (hints include calling Zero a "robot" instead of a Reploid), but he "dies" at the end and nothing comes out of this. The only assumption is that it was a plot point to be followed up in a sequel, but ''X7'' and ''X8'' [[AbortedArc never even come close to bringing up Isoc again]]. Also, despite being shown to be able to paralyze Zero (and therefore that he has some extra powers at his disposal, or at least the ability to tamper with Zero given his knowledge of Zero's inner workings), he is one of the only villains in the series to be TheUnfought.

** Sigma is [[GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere so superfluous to the plot]] that he might as well have been left out. The idea of a desperate Sigma on his last legs is explored a little better in ''X8'', but not by much. It doesn't help that Sigma was meant to stay dead after X5.

** Sigma was meant to be permanently defeated at the end of ''X5'', so ''X6'' can potentially make a new villain like Isoc, Dr Wily's implied vessel. Instead Sigma becomes the finalBoss as usual.

* AntiClimaxBoss: The final boss, Sigma, is significantly easier than the rest of the game. His first form is a complete joke, almost to the point of being a ZeroEffortBoss, as he just lumbers around the room and fires off attacks which barely even scratch you, even worse if you use his weakness. His second form is somewhat more challenging, as his attacks can do serious damage if they connect, but he follows a predictable pattern and there are several safe spots in the room, meaning it's still quite manageable; [[FlunkyBoss the green blob-heads that he spawns]] can sometimes drop life energy (and even 1-ups!) if they're destroyed. Zero especially will have a good time attacking him with Guard Shell-enhanced normal saber attacks or Ensuizan.

** Just like he was in ''X5'', Dynamo (one of the {{Bonus Boss}}es) is the easiest boss in the game, compared to the Nightmare area you have to traverse to get to him. He also falls down easily to his weakness weapons, and if you do so, he drops a big Nightmare Soul (which you normally get from the 8 bosses, for 200 points), up to 3 times. And the best part, you can engage him countless times.

** Infinity Mijinion. His green bubble attack and constant replicating means he can easily [[IncreasinglyLethalEnemy get out of control and occupy almost the entire screen if you can't keep him in check,]] and even his weakness weapon is awkward to use against him.

** After [[WhatHappenedToTheMouse disappearing from]] ''X5'' as a KarmaHoudini, Dynamo is back. Unfortunately, he's a [[LoneWolfBoss completely irrelevant]] BonusBoss, you still can't give him his comeuppance, and hasn't made an appearance since. He could've been a plot-relavent-rival that is actually a threat, he could've been a completely new bossfight since he should be superpowered judging by the amount of nightmare souls he collected.
* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: As it is completely possible to beat the game without unlocking Zero, the game could have taken the opportunity to explore X having to fight on his own for the first time in a while by changing his cutscenes depending on if Zero has reunited with X or not to show contrast between how he handles conflicts under his current circumstances. Instead, the only X-exclusive cutscene to be adjusted by Zero's presence (or lack thereof) is the final one, and since every other scene has to work with or without Zero, there isn't a chance to develop the impact of X fighting by himself. Sigma was meant to be permanently defeated at X%'s ending, so X6 can potetntially make a new villain and a new arc that involves Isoc, Dr Wily's implied vessel.

** Sigma is [[GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere so superfluous to the plot]] that he might as well have been left out. The idea of a desperate Sigma on his last legs is explored a little better in ''X8'', but not by much.
** After [[WhatHappenedToTheMouse disappearing from]] ''X5'' as a KarmaHoudini, Dynamo is back. Unfortunately, he's a [[LoneWolfBoss completely irrelevant]] BonusBoss, you still can't give him his comeuppance, and hasn't made an appearance since.
* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: As it is completely possible to beat the game without unlocking Zero, the game could have taken the opportunity to explore X having to fight on his own for the first time in a while by changing his cutscenes depending on if Zero has reunited with X or not to show contrast between how he handles conflicts under his current circumstances. Instead, the only X-exclusive cutscene to be adjusted by Zero's presence (or lack thereof) is the final one, and since every other scene has to work with or without Zero, there isn't a chance to develop the impact of X fighting by himself.

** Subverted with Zero's UnexplainedRecovery. X wonders how he survived, causing Zero to state the infamous "[[BlindIdiotTranslation I hid myself while I tried to repair myself]]" line. Keep in mind that ''VideoGame/MegaManX5'' [[WhatCouldHaveBeen was supposed to be]] the last ''X'' entry, ending with his death. Furthermore, his next appearance was going to be his reemergence ''centuries'' later as seen in ''VideoGame/MegaManZero1'', making it clear that the dev team just {{Handwave}}d him into ''X6'' with no real thought whatsoever. While players never get a coherent explanation beyond what Zero tells X, an exchange between Zero and [[VirtualGhost Dr. Light]] has Zero admit he really doesn't know who was responsible for his repairs while in a critical state. Dialogue from [[MadScientist Isoc]] instead suggests ''he'' was largely responsible for Zero's restoration between games--which might be a hard pill to swallow given [[BlackBox Zero's nature]] if not for the fact that, like [[VideoGame/MegaManX2 Serges]] before him, Isoc is implied to be [[BackFromTheDead an incarnation of Dr. Wily]] (who was established to be Sigma's benefactor in the previous game by WordOfGod).

* ContestedSequel: Some fans appreciate the difficulty of this game as a fun challenge, the gameplay upgrades over the previous UsefulNotes/{{PlayStation}} ''[[VideoGame/MegaManX MMX]]'' games, ''[[VideoGame/MegaManX4 X4]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/MegaManX5 X5]]'', the more balanced focus between X and Zero, and giving Alia more relevance to her character, while others dislike or hate this game for its unfairness and for being an unplanned sequel that caused more confusion in the plot. Some detractors would even say that this game is ''worse'' than ''VideoGame/MegaManX7''.

* GoddamnBats:

** The Nightmare Snakes of Blaze Heatnix's stage. They're not that difficult to deal with, but they have [[DamageSpongeBoss ridiculous HP]] and spread shots that are deceptively hard to dodge. Oh, and there's '''''five''''' of them, which you have to engage sequentially. If you don't have the right tools to finish the battles faster, then it becomes a total chore as you pathetically run around those things, shooting/slashing each of the four glowing weakpoints every Snake carries. The fourth one in particular is TheDreaded for being fought during a [[RiseToTheChallenge climbing sequence]] where half of the screen consists of fire and the other a random assortment of platforms and Nightmares that only serve to get on your way.

* SugarWiki/MostWonderfulSound: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-arH4cwIsLM Zero's victory theme,]] especially after an extremely difficult level.

** After you defeat Gate, the following cutscene when he reveals that he resurrected Sigma as a last resort. Sigma claims he didn't need Gate to bring him back from the dead and brutally injures him, and Gate lets out a ridiculously high-pitched and drawn-out scream which sounds way more hilarious than it should given the circumstances.

** The Korean-only PC port has much higher system requirements than the ports of ''[[VideoGame/MegaManX4 X4]]'' and ''X5'' and has noticeable screen flickering problems.

** Rescuing Reploids. The devs sought to better develop the system as ''VideoGame/MegaManX5''[='s=] usage of it was deemed underdeveloped by the playerbase. However, their mortality from Nightmare Virus possession ruins the fun this could have had. This is worsened by the fact that some carry with them parts that may be necessary for you to complete certain objectives, and when they die (due to the Nightmare Virus infecting them -- and they may be put ''very close'' to those Reploids), so do your chances of obtaining them. It becomes so distracting to the overall gameplay experience that a few people view it as an irritation rather than a feature.
** The Nightmare Phenomenon. Although comparable to ''[[VideoGame/MegaManX1 X1]]'''s own stage effects, they are far more detrimental here. Special mention goes to Infinity Mijinion's [[BlackoutBasement Nightmare Dark]], which renders Commander Yammark and Rainy Turtloid's stages near-unplayable. A notable runner up is the Yammark Nightmare which produces little flies that take some immense punishment to get rid of unless you shoot them with with the Yammar Option. Zero has no trouble with them, but they love to get in the way of X's shots. What's even more of a scrappy mechanic is that the game is [[GuideDangIt vague on what exactly triggers a Phenomenon]] in the first place and more importantly how to get rid of it. [[note]]Each stage has two specific Phenomenon that can affect it at a time, and going to a stage will trigger its related Phenomenon in the other affected stages. However, each stage can only have one active Phenomenon at a time. The only way to get rid of the Phenomenon in a stage is to play ''another'' stage to trigger the other specific Phenomenon. Good luck memorizing which stages are affected by which Phenomenon triggered by what source stages, on top of either completing the stage in question or just killing yourself several times to force a game over and return to the stage select screen manually to get the desired Phenomenon.[[/note]]
** The secret areas are very rough. They are reached through blue teleporters (which are also sometimes used to just get to the next part of the stage?) and you're trapped once you go inside, forcing you to face whoever's waiting in the boss room before you can exit. If it's the Zero Nightmare, it's not that big of a deal, but if it's High Max and you're unprepared...either try to defeat him before you're ready, or kill yourself until you can return to the stage select screen (thanks to the Reploids all giving you extra lives, this may take a while too).

** Getting Parts is a Scrappy Mechanic of itself; getting the ability to '''equip''' a lot of them stinks. You have to collect a ton of Nightmare Souls to boost your Rank, which is tied to your ability to hold parts. To be able to equip three or four parts, you have to collect over 5,000 and the maximum 9,999 souls respectively. The souls however only go eight per Nightmare Virus (four if you let the orb shrink from not grabbing it fast enough), 200 for each of the eight Nightmare Investigators (and if you take too long to defeat one, you'll actually only get ''100''), and 600 per [[BonusBoss Dynamo]] encounter if you hit him with his weakness weapon and make him drop three 200 souls. The grind is so tedious and frustrating that many just settle for two parts and a limited upgrade (which only requires 1,200 souls, which is bearable in a normal run for both X and Zero without much grinding).

** Sentsuizan has its detractors for making rope sections even harder. If you kept Up pressed and need to do a saber attack, Zero would dive would to the floor or, much worse, BottomlessPits. This is most apparent in the secret area of Infinity Mijinion's stage, the Weapon Center, which has almost no solid footing and relies mainly on rope navigation.

* ThatOneAttack: Gate's orb attacks. To damage Gate at all, the player has to blow the orbs up and let the backlash orbs from each giant orb hit him. However, you're constantly above a bottomless pit during the entire fight and the orbs that launch back at him also shoot at the player who is likely too close to the orbs to get away without taking a hit. You can straight up lose the fight if you don't have two full Sub Tanks with you into the battle.

** Blaze Heatnix's stage is a BossBonanza with the Nightmare Snakes with four weak points, some of which range from aggravatingly hard to nigh impossible to hit without taking hits or flat-out dying in turn depending on which fight you're on. Use of the Rekkoha or charged Ray Arrow and Metal Anchor, however, will shred all that HP in a matter of seconds. There's also the fact that the only enemies in the entire stage are the aforementioned Nightmare Snakes and Nightmares, which means absolutely no health or weapon powerups.

** The [[{{Nerf}} downgrades]] to the Falcon Armor (e.g. removing its nigh-invincible flight in place of an air-dash, charge shots can't go though walls anymore) were understandable given how much of a GameBreaker it was in ''X5'', but the strip-down was so bad especially in the face of the game's upscale in difficulty that it was poorly received by the playerbase.

* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: Many players describe the music in this game as some of the best in the franchise. Even detractors usually have no problem admitting as much. [[LethalLavaLand Blaze]] [[ThePhoenix Heatnix]] is so rocking that it's not weird to hear people complimenting the song and hating the level.

** Gate. Hope you have a ''LOT'' of patience, [[MarathonBass because you're sure as hell going to need it here]]. Unlike the other bosses you dealt with, you ''can't hurt him'' directly, not even with [[LimitBreak Giga Attacks]]. So to hurt him, you [[TennisBoss must destroy his energy spheres so they break up into smaller spheres and hit him]]. Problem is said spheres can also hurt you and they can produce effects that can make the fight even more tedious -- from making the ground slippery, [[HomingProjectile to following you around]], [[BulletTime slowing the game]], and [[MookMaker spawning]] [[FlunkyBoss Nightmares]] on Xtreme mode. The battle takes place above BottomlessPits with few very small platforms that Gate can destroy temporarily if his health goes low. As if all that wasn't bad enough, [[LuckBasedMission depending on the RNG you get]], Gate may take a good while moving around before throwing out spheres, meaning the fight can drag multiple minutes longer than it otherwise would, without you being able to do anything about it.

* AntiClimaxBoss: The final boss, Sigma, is significantly easier than the rest of the game. His first form is a complete joke, almost to the point of being a ZeroEffortBoss, as he just lumbers around the room and fires off attacks which barely even scratch you, even worse if you use his weakness. His second form is somewhat more challenging, as his attacks can do serious damage if they connect, but he follows a predictable pattern and there are several safe spots in the room, meaning it's still quite manageable; the [[FlunkyBoss green blob-heads]] that he spawns can sometimes drop life energy (and even 1-ups!) if they're destroyed. Zero especially will have a good time attacking him with Guard Shell-enhanced normal saber attacks or Ensuizan.

** Zero's UnexplainedRecovery. X wonders how he survived, causing him to state the infamous "[[BlindIdiotTranslation I hid myself while I tried to repair myself]]" line. We never get a coherent explanation beyond that. Keep in mind that ''VideoGame/MegaManX5'' [[WhatCouldHaveBeen was supposed to be]] the last ''X'' entry, ending with his death. Furthermore, his next appearance was going to be his reemergence ''centuries'' later as seen in ''VideoGame/MegaManZero1''. It's clear that the dev team just {{Handwave}}d him into ''X6'' with no real thought whatsoever.
** [[HijackedByGanon Sigma]] being revived, seeing that ''he wasn't even mentioned once in the game until that point''. (Not counting the intro, of course)

** Alia was severely disliked in ''X5'' for her unskippable dialog about obvious things and for being a shoehorned tutorial too late on the series. This game makes most of her dialog skippable and the lines she has are more contextualized and less patronizing.
** Zero's Z-Buster was seen as [[ScrappyWeapon weak and useless]] in ''X5''. Here, while it has the same limitations of only working on the floor and [[DoNotRunWithAGun standing still]] it is stronger and has a faster rate of fire.

* ContestedSequel: Some fans appreciate the difficulty of this game as a fun challenge, the gameplay upgrades over the previous ''VideoGame/MegaManX'' UsefulNotes/{{PlayStation}} games, ''[[VideoGame/MegaManX4 X4]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/MegaManX5 X5]]'', the more balanced focus between X and Zero, and giving Alia more relevance to her character, while others dislike or hate this game for its unfairness and for being an unplanned sequel that caused more confusion in the plot. Some detractors would even say that this game is ''worse'' than ''VideoGame/MegaManX7''.

* FauxSymbolism: For some reason, Gate's heavily fortified lab entrance has figures/statues that resembles a semi-mechanical devil and a similarly semi-mechanical headless angel. As you progress through the stage, the devil statue gains bat wings, and finally stands as if roaring, while the angel statue gets chained and progressively stripped of materials. Probably a vague commentary on Gate's SanitySlippage, but only comes off as tacky since religious themes barely have anything to do with the series except for ''X8''.

** How the Nightmare works is incredibly inconsistent or most generously is ''very'' versatile in application, to the point that it feels like it just does whatever is convenient to the story or level design. On paper, it [[YourMindMakesItReal causes deadly hallucinations]], but it can also irreparably corrupt reploid civilians, power a giant robot in such a way that it's invisible to scanners, teleport X and Zero to other areas that are effectively communications dead zones (no explanation as to why it doesn't just cut off comms entirely,) create an evil clone of Zero, and somehow allow Gate to control all of Reploidkind. About the only thing that's actually clear about The Nightmare is that it was reverse-engineered from Zero's viral DNA, effectively making it a sub-species of the Maverick/Sigma/Zero Virus.

** Aside from infecting civilian reploids so you can't rescue them, Nightmare Viruses can pass through walls (in a game where your shots can't), have an aggravating projectile attack and lunge attack, and take a ton of hits to kill. And even if you kill them, if you don't grab the Nightmare Soul that's left behind in a timely manner, they'll quickly respawn.

** High Max in Gate's Fortress. It's not that you can't hurt him by that point in the game; but it can take some time to get a shot in on him[[note]]unless you use Blade Armor's ChargedAttack[[/note]] that you'll be waiting for a long ass time to get that hit in.

** One of the Mavericks you fight in the game is an aquatic creature named [[WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants Sh]][[WesternAnimation/RockosModernLife el]][[VideoGame/{{Splatoon}} don]].

* ItsHardSoItSucks: The very high difficulty (both fake and legitimate) has alienated a few players, although others are actually attracted to the game because of it.
* ItsTheSameSoItSucks: For all of the changes later releases of the game have made, fixing the infamous BlindIdiotTranslation is not one of them. There's also been some requests to re-map Sentsuizan's command to Down+Attack instead of Up+Attack due to the frustrating rope segments, but this has never been changed either.
* ItWasHisSled: That Zero is alive, which is important because Zero is explicitly destroyed in the previous game.

*** Even though said final boss [[HypocriticalHumor is guilty of coming back every game, himself]]. Then again, his [[CameBackWrong botched resurrection]] in this one reflected [[FranchiseZombie the game's status]] perfectly in the eyes of its detractors.
** Zero and X's reunion scene is made into a meme in Japan called "Obentou" (meaning "Lunch Box") where the caption is changed into Zero saying that he woke up early and made a lunch box for X. It's because their faces look more appropriate for such exchange rather than what's actually in the game. Parodies of this involve 2 characters from other series replacing Zero and X.
* SugarWiki/MostWonderfulSound: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-arH4cwIsLM Zero's victory theme]], especially after an extremely difficult level.

** In spite of the serious tone of the game, some of the resurrected Maverick names and ideas are just ridiculous. Just try saying Rainy Turtloid, Metal Shark Player and Shield Sheldon (the latter being a silly looking Clamfish-styled reploid) without chuckling.[[note]]This is likely the reason behind most of the DubNameChange of Maverick bosses in the previous games.[[/note]] Also, one of the bosses, Ground Scaravich, is a robot dung beetle, whose main attack is rolling his rock ball at you.
** After you defeat Gate, the following cutscene when [[spoiler:he reveals that he resurrected Sigma as a last resort. Sigma claims he didn't need Gate to bring him back from the dead and brutally injures him, and Gate lets out a ridiculously high-pitched and drawn-out scream which sounds way more hilarious than it should given the circumstances]].

** The Korean-only PC port has much higher system requirements than the ports of ''X4'' and ''X5'' and has noticeable screen flickering problems.

** Rescuing Reploids. They sought to better develop the system as ''VideoGame/MegaManX5's'' usage of it was deemed underdeveloped by the player base. However, their mortality from Nightmare Virus possession ruins the fun this could have had. This is worsened by the fact that some carry with them parts that may be necessary for you to complete certain objectives, and when they die (due to the Nightmare Virus infecting them - and they may be put ''very close'' to those Reploids), so do your chances of obtaining them. It becomes so distracting to the overall gameplay experience that a few people view it as an irritation rather than a feature.
** The Nightmare Phenomenon. Although comparable to ''X1'''s own stage effects, they are far more detrimental here. Special mention goes to Infinity Mijinion's [[BlackoutBasement Nightmare Dark]], which renders Commander Yammark and Rainy Turtloid's stages near-unplayable. A notable runner up is the Yammark Nightmare which produces little flies that take some immense punishment to get rid of unless you shoot them with with the Yammar Option. Zero has no trouble with them, but they love to get in the way of X's shots. What's even more of a scrappy mechanic is that the game is [[GuideDangIt vague on what exactly triggers a Phenomenon]] in the first place and more importantly how to get rid of it[[note]]Each stage has two specific Phenomenon that can affect it at a time, and going to a stage will trigger its related Phenomenon in the other affected stages. However, each stage can only have one active Phenomenon at a time. The only way to get rid of the Phenomenon in a stage is to play ''another'' stage to trigger the other specific Phenomenon. Good luck memorizing which stages are affected by which Phenomenon triggered by what source stages, on top of either completing the stage in question or just killing yourself several times to force a game over and return to the stage select screen manually to get the desired Phenomenon.[[/note]]
** The secret areas are very rough. They are reached through blue teleporters (which are also sometimes used to just get to the next part of the stage?) and you're trapped once you go inside, forcing you to face whoever's waiting in the boss room before you can exit. If it's the Zero Nightmare it's not that big of a deal, but if it's High Max and you're unprepared...either try to defeat him before you're ready, or kill yourself until you can return to the stage select screen (thanks to the Reploids all giving you extra lives, this may take a while too).

** Getting parts is a scrappy mechanic of itself; getting the ability to EQUIP a lot of them stinks. You have to collect a ton of Nightmare Souls to boost your Rank, which is tied to your ability to hold parts. To be able to equip three or four parts, you have to collect over 5,000 and the maximum 9,999 souls respectively. The souls however only go eight per Nightmare Virus (four if you let the orb shrink from not grabbing it fast enough), 200 for each of the eight Nightmare Investigators (and if you take too long to defeat one, you'll actually only get ''100''), and 600 per [[BonusBoss Dynamo]] encounter if you hit him with his weakness weapon and make him drop three 200 souls. The grind is so tedious and frustrating that many just settle for two parts and a limited upgrade (which only requires 1,200 souls, which is bearable in a normal run for both X and Zero without much grinding).

* SoOkayItsAverage: If you're not turned off by its flaws, this game falls under this. The game has got a lot of ideas which could have made for a fun game, but due to a VERY rushed and tight development schedule was never ironed out or revisioned and resulted in a broken mess.

* SuspiciouslySimilarSong: Inifinity Mijinion's theme starts just like Music/{{Europe}}'s ''The Final Countdown'' and Metal Shark Player's theme sounds just like the theme from ''Film/TheTerminator''. The Gate's Lab theme is a reprise of the second X-Hunters fortress theme from ''VideoGame/MegaManX2''.

** Gate. Hope you have a ''LOT'' of patience, because you're sure as hell going to need it here. Unlike the other bosses you dealt with, you ''can't hurt him'' directly, not even with [[LimitBreak Giga Attacks]]. So to hurt him, you [[TennisBoss must destroy his energy spheres so they break up into smaller spheres and hit him]]. Problem is said spheres can also hurt you and they can produce effects that can make the fight even more tedious -- from making the ground slippery, [[HomingProjectile to following you around]], [[BulletTime slowing the game]], and [[MookMaker spawning]] [[FlunkyBoss Nightmares]] on Xtreme mode. The battle takes place above BottomlessPits with few very small platforms that Gate can destroy temporarily if his health goes low. As if all that wasn't bad enough, depending on the RNG you get, Gate may take a good while moving around before throwing out spheres, meaning the fight can drag multiple minutes longer than it otherwise would, without you being able to do anything about it.

** Ground Scaravich's stage revolves around getting teleported to four random areas, all of which are some half-baked platforming segments with FakeDifficulty in the form of nearly every bit of available space being packed with Nightmares and damaging asteroids. It is especially hard when trying to rescue reploids or any other sidequest.

** Infinity Mijinion's stage isn't too bad by itself, though the second part ''does'' get annoying if you don't have Meteor Rain/Ensuizan or the Ultimate Armor. The secret area on the other hand is a bottomless pit that can only be crossed with ropes, swarming with Nightmares and injured reploids. If Blaze Heatnix's phenomenon is in effect, there will be falling lava rocks as well (you can visit Metal Shark Player's stage to take care of that problem, however). This is where the Sentsuizan's flaws are most apparent; you ''will'' need to attack and jump a ''lot'' just to get through, let alone get all the injured reploids, so if you're playing Zero, you'd best take this area on before defeating Ground Scaravich, or else prepare to practice briefly releasing up just long enough to attack then holding up again before Zero misses the rope and falls to his doom.
** Gate's second stage, especially the first half. The first half is a spike-covered hellhole clogged with enemies, and full of floating columns that require constant wall-jumping to stay on, combined with totem poles that block your path and need to be destroyed in addition. With Zero, the difficulty ramps up to the 9th degree when said totem poles are always just out of reach of your Z-saber, requiring lots of tricky jump attacks. The second half, while not as hard, alternates between tight corridors with lots of enemies (and that same DescendingCeiling) bearing down on you and the acid rain from Rainy Turtloid's stage combined with precarious wall jumps over bottomless pits if you're X[[note]]And if you were hoping to make things slightly easier for yourself by going in with the spikes-immune Shadow Armor? Tough luck, because one of those wall jumps over a bottomless pit is placed in such a way that you ''need'' an air dash to make it across all the way (which the Shadow Armor cannot do) ''unless'' you happened to equip some combination of the Speedster, Jumper and/or Hyper Dash parts to give X the extra boost to make it across (and if you haven't or failed to rescue the Reploids holding those parts? Even worse luck!)[[/note]]. Zero on the other hand gets another round with the trash compactor from hell. On top of that, it's a two-boss stage, fighting High Max at the halfway-point and [[ThatOneBoss Gate]] at the very end for the cherry on top. By comparison, the final stage [[spoiler:holding the BossRush and Sigma is ''far'' more straightforward and easy.]]

** There a few hints that imply that Isoc is actually a [[BackFromTheDead vessel]] for Dr. Wily (hints include calling Zero a "robot" instead of a Reploid), but he "dies" at the end and nothing comes out of this. The only assumption is that it was a plotpoint to be followed up in a sequel, but ''X7'' and ''X8'' never even come close to bringing up Isoc again. Also, despite being shown to be able to paralyze Zero (and therefore that he has some extra powers at his disposal), he is one of the only villains in the series to be TheUnfought.
** Like Dr. Doppler before him, Gate was ''almost'' the series' first antagonist to not have anything to do with Sigma. His interesting [[TallPoppySyndrome backstory]] and [[FoeRomanceSubtext relationship]] with Alia were more than enough to make him a potentially compelling villain. And what did they reveal in the end? Well...

* TheWoobie: The villains in this game alternate between this and JerkassWoobie with exception of Blaze Heatnix because he's just an asshole. Put simply, all of them are victims of unfortunate circumstances that ended with being unjustly labeled Mavericks, or in Gate's case, the victim of being looked down on for his creations being too powerful, despite the existence of X and Zero being accepted.

** Gate. Hope you have a ''LOT'' of patience, because you're sure as hell going to need it here. Unlike the other bosses you dealt with, you ''can't hurt him'' directly, not even with [[LimitBreak Giga Attacks]]. So to hurt him, you [[TennisBoss must destroy his energy spheres so they break up into smaller spheres and hit him]]. Problem is said spheres can also hurt you and they can produce effects that can make the fight even more tedious -- from making the ground slippery, [[HomingProjectile to following you around]], [[BulletTime slowing the game]], and [[MookMaker spawning]] [[FlunkyBoss Nightmares]] on Xtreme mode. The battle takes place above BottomlessPits with few very small platforms that Gate can destroy temporarily if his health goes low. Even worse, depending on the RNG you get, Gate may take a good while moving around before throwing out spheres, meaning the fight can drag multiple minutes longer than it otherwise would, without you being able to do anything about it.

** Gate. Hope you have a ''LOT'' of patience, because you're sure as hell going to need it here. Unlike the other bosses you dealt with, you ''can't hurt him'' directly, not even with [[LimitBreak Giga Attacks]]. So to hurt him, you [[TennisBoss must destroy his energy spheres so they break up into smaller spheres and hit him]]. Problem is said spheres can also hurt you and they can produce effects that can make the fight even more tedious -- from making the ground slippery, [[HomingProjectile to following you around]], [[BulletTime slowing the game]], and [[MookMaker spawning]] [[FlunkyBoss Nightmares]] on Xtreme mode. The battle takes place above BottomlessPits with few very small platforms that Gate can destroy temporarily if his health goes low.

** Metal Shark Player's stage is the [[DescendingCeiling trash compactor stage]] from hell. Extremely cramped spaces flooded with enemies abound, and lots of stretches requiring extreme feats of speed and precision to clear the further you go, including one point near the end that only gives you exactly your height in wall to cling to to avoid falling into spikes. If you've beaten Blizzard Wolfang before this stage, some parts of the stage will also be riddled with slippery ice and if you clear Ground Scaravich's stage mentioned below, blocks will appear in inconvenient locations that can only be destroyed or pushed with his weapon. The Hyper Dash part, and Rekkoha in Zero's case, help to ease the pain to a significant degree, however. What really takes the cake though is the secret area, which is [[AutoScrollingLevel an auto-scrolling section]].

* BetterThanCanon: The ''X6 Tweaks'' project has been viewed by many players as a ''vast'' improvement over the original version of the game, mitigating a lot of the game's infamous difficulty, restoring some of the leftover but unused features, addressing the game's many errors, and giving players a proper localization of the game. And for those that the feel like the changes to the gameplay make ''X6'' too easy, they can customize the patch however they like, and a workbook is available to help educate them on how the modifications work.

** Turtonator from ''VideoGame/PokemonSunAndMoon'' has the exact same stance as Rainy Turtloid, which people familiar with X6 made out immediately upon its reveal.

** Zero's UnexplainedRecovery. X wonders how he survived, causing him to state the infamous "[[BlindIdiotTranslation I hid myself while I tried to repair myself]]" line. We never get a coherent explanation beyond that. Keep in mind that ''VideoGame/MegaManX5'' [[WhatCouldHaveBeen was suppose to be]] the last ''X'' entry, ending with his death. Furthermore, his next appearance was going to be his reemergence ''centuries'' later as seen in ''[[VideoGame/MegaManZero1 Mega Man Zero]]''. It's clear that the dev team just {{Handwave}}d him into ''X6'' with no real thought whatsoever.

** Sentsuizan has its detractors for making rope sections even harder. If you kept Up pressed and need to do a saber attack, Zero's dive would impede him to grab ropes until he falls to the floor or he dies. This is most apparent in the secret area of Infinity Mijinion's stage, the Weapon Center, covered below under ThatOneLevel.

** Ground Scaravich's stage revolves around getting teleported to four random areas, all of which are some half-baked platforming segments with FakeDifficulty in the form of nearly every bit of available space being packed with Nightmares and damaging asteroids. It is especially hard when paired alongside the rescue of reploids or any sidequest.

** There a few hints that imply that Isoc is actually a [[BackFromTheDead vessel]] for Dr. Wily (namely him calling Zero a "robot" instead of a Reploid), but he "dies" at the end and nothing comes out of this, with the only assumption being that it was a plot point to be followed up in a sequel but ''X7'' and ''X8'' never even come close to bringing up Isoc again. Also, despite being shown to be able to paralyze Zero (and therefore that he has some extra powers at his disposal), he is one of the only villains in the series to [[TheUnfought lack a boss fight]].

** After [[WhatHappenedToTheMouse disappearing from]] ''X5'' as a KarmaHoudini, Dynamo is back. Unfortunately, he's a [[GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere completely irrelevant]] BonusBoss, you still can't give him his comeuppance, and hasn't made an appearance since.

* ViewerGenderConfusion: You'd be forgiven for thinking Commander Yammark is a woman at first glance, what with those big eyelashes and slender frame. Once you get into battle you can hear his surprisingly masculine voice come through.

** Zero's UnexplainedRecovery. X wonders how he survived, causing him to state the infamous "[[BlindIdiotTranslation I hid myself while I tried to repair myself]]" line. We never get a coherent explanation beyond that. Keep in mind that ''VideoGame/MegaManX5'' [[WhatCouldHaveBeen was suppose to be]] the last ''X'' entry, ending with his death. Furthermore, his next appearance was going to be his reemergence ''centuries'' later as seen in ''[[VideoGame/MegaManZero1 Mega Man Zero]]''. It's clear that the dev team {{Handwave}} him into ''X6'' with no real thought whatsoever.

** Gate was ''almost'' the series' first antagonist to not have anything to do with Sigma. His interesting [[TallPoppySyndrome backstory]] and [[FoeRomanceSubtext relationship]] with Alia were more than enough to make him a potentially compelling villain. And what did they have to do? Well...

** The [[{{Nerf}} downgrades]] to the Falcon Armor (e.g. removing its nigh-invincible flight in place of an air-dash, charge shots can't go though walls anymore) were understandable given how much of a GameBreaker it was in ''X5'', but the strip-down was so bad especially in the face of the game's upscale in difficulty from ''X5'' that it was poorly received by the player base.