The Fate of Mega Man X: New Generation Reploids and Fear of a Changing World
Mega Man X8 is about the uncertainty of the future - the fear of being left behind by a ruthless new generation. This pertains to ancient robots such as X and Zero, but also the Mega Man X series itself in a meta way.
Around the release of X8 in 2004, 3D first-person shooter games such as Halo 1, Call of Duty, and Medal of Honor were becoming increasingly popular (though they hadn't quite reached the mind-boggling popularity seen in the late 2000s with games such as Halo 3 and Modern Warfare). This put pressure on Japanese platformer shooters such as Mega Man. The games were rapidly falling out of popularity, especially in the West where Mega Man X had normally seen success. After a failed attempt at relevancy with Mega Man X7, it was time for a different approach.
The New Generation Reploids featured in X8 are different from the Reploids fans know. The Guardroids, used as the face of the New Generation, are portrayed as cold and silent, and uniform in appearance. They have only vaguely humanoid faces, looking more like something out of Killzone than Mega Man, and are painted in drab colors such as black, green, and brown. They don't possess arm cannons or busters, but instead wield weapons and firearms (even their prototype, Axl, wields pistols and has black armor). They all look the same, and they all work the same. However, they have gone berserk and now plan to doom humanity to die on the Earth while they reach new heights.
These Guardroids force older Reploids such as the more colorful X and Zero out of the limelight, making them feel old and outdated. Even the duo's rival, Vile, has been resurrected with a new design that evokes the military with its dark green hue and beefy arsenal. He comes as a harbinger of the destruction of the old and the introduction of the new. It's in the line he spouts every time he interrupts a stage: "Why don't you just give up now and get it over with? The world as you know it? Mavericks? Kiss it all goodbye! Mayhem, doom, and destruction! That's what we were built for!" Vile has already sold out to the ruthless new generation that is all about killing and mindless progress. Complex moral quandaries such as Mavericks are fading - if you put a gun in someone's hand, they will shoot it without question. The old world of heroes and mascots is dying out in exchange for games about faceless soldiers on drab battlefields. It's easier that way. Not that Mega Man X has ever been a paragon of storytelling and philosophy, but maybe its criticizing itself too.
Meanwhile, the dreaded Sigma is just barely holding onto existence, his appearance being that of a deteriorating demon after resurrecting over and over again. This whole cycle is getting tiring for him, but now he doesn't even have to keep it up - the New Generation Reploids can easily take his place via their copy chips. Soulless villains will be aplenty in the new world.
In the final cutscenes, Lumine ridicules X and Zero for trying to stop the future (Lumine's meta role is unclear, as he seems the exact opposite of the FPS style; maybe he represents executive distaste of Mega Man around this time?). However, their New Generation friend Axl snaps them out of it, fighting back against Lumine and inspiring them to maintain their morals no matter how dire things look.
X8 can be read as a final lament of the X series before accepting its own age and succumbing to the merciless new generation of Western video games (a similar idea is explored much deeper in Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots). Capcom tried to adapt to the 3D world with a prototype New Generation Reploid, Axl, in X7, but its failure forced them to accept defeat and return to 2D. While admitting the series' fall from relevancy, the game also gives a shining message of hope at the end, one saying that they will fight no matter what to avoid this ultimate demise. It's a sad story; as we know, X8 was the last X game. Maybe an X9 could happen in the distant future if nostalgia is high enough - we did get Mega Man 9 to 11 after all - but the video game industry is still very unfriendly to games of this style. Maybe the X series is doomed to fail in this new world after all, and can never return. Only time will tell.
