Mega Man X has seen his share of trouble in the past few years. The last few games in the X series (the most recent being X7) have been, well, uninspired to say the least. Given Mega Man's long history of platform-based games, it was quite a surprise to see that the latest X title is a full-on, turn-based RPG. This was somewhat of a risky move on Capcom's part considering that Mega Man hasn't had the best of luck in switching genres (remember that a game called Mega Man Soccer actually exists).

Sure, a lot of people doubted how good a Mega Man RPG would be, but their worries were alleviated somewhat when it was announced that Command Mission was being developed by the same team that created Capcom's popular PS2 RPG, Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter. The end result, it turns out, isn't nearly as good as Dragon Quarter, but it's by no means a terrible game.

X and Company

The story is much like the previous X games -- a tangled web of anime inspired cyberpunk techno babble that will confound all but the most dedicated fan fic writer. Still, the X universe fits in well within the RPG genre. Here, the story and characters can be fleshed out far more than they could in a platform game. Unfortunately, aside from the two lead characters, X and fan favorite Zero, the other characters aren't terribly interesting. New heroes like roguish bounty hunter, Spider, and the cute 'n' innocent healer, Cinnamon, are straight out of the Big Book of Anime Clichés. The infamously bad voice acting from the Mega Man series isn't all that prominent this time around. Although the voices are never great, they certainly aren't as offensive as in past games.

Only three characters can be in your party at once.

I really enjoy the game's graphical style. The muted, almost washed-out colors help create an atmosphere that reflects the gritty tone of the storyline. Unfortunately, most of the environments tend to be rather bland and end up looking a lot alike. The Mega Man series typically has great level design, but here, the areas here seem to blur together.