Mega Man Zero 2 (Game Boy Advance) review "Mega Man Trauma Zero 2."

Zero has chosen the path of least resistance by leaving his allies to fight the oppressive forces of Neo Arcadia on his own. Good to know he’s just as reckless and thoughtless as ever. In this game mechanic and story driven through-line, Zero continues his habit of defending the defenceless and opposing the bad Reploids. Having defeated Copy X, what’s a lonely hero to do?

Let’s find out.

Continuing its technological Western style storytelling, we encounter Zero trudging through a wasteland caused by decades of war. Wandering the desolate landscape, he fights aimlessly and has lost his purpose. Do tell. Now he needs to get back to Ciel and the Resistance, and your job, having pressed the “Start” button (or “+” as the case may be), is to make it through the intro level.

You’ve got a few of Zero’s many implements of Reploid destruction at your disposal, including the Buster, a recoil absorbing energy pistol (why?) and his trusty Z Saber. This works a little differently coming from the Megaman X series. It’s fast, and as you build up its rank, you’ll be able to charge it for a powerful reflecting strike that will defeat the defences of most enemies. Does that make sense? It will.

If you pop into Zero’s menu, you’ll see he’s in bad shape to match the physical damage shown in the opening cutscene. It’s details like this that really add to the depth of these games. It’s also a clever way to reset Zero’s skills back to nothing for you to build up during the game that doesn’t feel like an afterthought. Thankfully, there are fewer ranks to increase, so its quite a bit more achievable.

You might struggle through the advanced platforming, aerial enemies, mid-bosses and end-of-level boss this introduction throws at you. This is no milk run. MMZ2 has high expectations of your platforming and strategic skills. Having worked your way through all of that, though, you’ll be met with another cutscene, and then the introduction to the story proper.

There’s a New Resistance Base, with a new commander and our returning scientific hero of the series, Ciel. She’s not so depressed this time, thankfully. Yes, that was a thing. If this series had a middle name it would be “trauma.” Mega Man Trauma Zero 2. Sounds about right.

As with the first game, we’re given the option of exploring the world, which focuses primarily on the members of the resistance, who are mostly present. You’ll rescue of a few of the resistance fighters, which further engrosses you in the story. Dialogue with these characters is sometimes limited to flavour text, but on some occasions there are deeper interactions that keep things engaging.

All the dramatics makes for some on-your-toes storytelling, so we get on with that. The commander, Elpizo has a plan to destroy Neo Arcadia, and you’ll be tasked with missions to aid with that goal. Immediately we see that Zero and the new commander don’t get along, raising the tension quotient. This is all fine and dandy for us, as things will go wrong in dark and mysterious ways, and Zero will have to adapt as the situation changes.

Fortunately for him, and us, he’s got a lot more flexibility this time around. As you satisfy certain conditions, new Forms will become available to Zero. Choosing one of them will enhance one or more of the following attributes: Power, Defend and Speed. The return of mission ranking means that if you achieve a rank of A or S, you can receive EX Skills, which enable new attacks for Zero. Nothing but grind, here, even though INTI Creates rewards your effort in a satisfying fashion.

Elves make a return, and just as in the first title, they fall into one of three categories: Nurse, Animal and Hacker. Nurse types can restore health, augment your life bar, and much more. Animal types will improve your physical abilities and Hackers will change data in the world, having an impact on game mechanics. For example, some can change enemy types into weaker foes. Their descriptions leave a little to be desired in determining who does what, unfortunately. This can lead to mistakenly using an Elf before it would be useful to do so.

INTI Creates dabbles in new weapon types as well, giving us immediate access to the Chain Rod and Shield Boomerang. Both are fun but stunted, even though the level designs and mission scenarios make the latter a use-or-fail requirement. The Chain Rod is more handy, able to disarm enemies carrying shields and slice them up from a distance as well as enabling you to swing from platform to platform. The Shield Boomerang is a literal description of its function and ability, and is actually pretty functional and fun to play with.

As mentioned, ranking weapons up is a requirement to make full use of their abilities, including Zero’s ability to charge all of them. The Buster throws a large bolt when charged, and doesn’t have the visual flare of X’s implementations in his series of games. Zero never did much with the buster, anyway, so that fits in both theme and character motivation. For some reason the Z Saber doesn’t have its always handy spin attack. Pity. The charge attack of the Chain Rod is flat out useless. He spins it at an angle over his head for a second or so. Weee. Lastly, he throws the Shield, which fills out the second portion of its name.

One of the things I always liked about the implementation of Zero’s weapons in this environment is that they seem like clever uses of energy where said scarcity exists. Neo Arcadia has control over the available resources, and the Resistance has to be smart about their survival. Elpizo is the “goes wrong” part of this story’s scenario, and he provides one of many compelling reasons to play through this lore heavy, thoroughly world-built game.

Your goal, as the hero who has a name but barely has an identity, is to assist Ciel as they control resources to protect themselves (and the humans) while retiring Reploids as “inferior citizens”, which is a tale as old as war. It certainly holds to the habit of the Mega Man games penchant for tackling real world issues, though this one goes harder than most. Something you won’t regret.

Another change from Mega Man Zero is the introduction of bosses alongside mission offerings. You’ll be given four operations to choose from, guerrilla strikes against Neo Arcadia, and upon completion of these, what I would call a “mid-game” mission occurs, punctuating the scenario. Quite a few things change after this, but you’ll have four more to deal with, though your goal will look different in an unexpected way.

Once again, INTI Creates delivers a rollercoaster of a story that presents enough challenge and variety to satisfy your craving for dash-and-slash platforming. They also feed the story itch whilst seeding new ideas for future exploration. What’s more is the polish the game needed in the first is present here. Sprites are animated with character communicating detail and move things right along. This isn’t a story that sits still for anyone, and nor should it.

Tweet

Community review by hastypixels (September 09, 2025) Retro, and moreso all the time.