Mega Man X DiVE
Developer(s)	Capcom Taiwan
Publisher(s)	Capcom Taiwan (Asia), Capcom (Japan), NebulaJoy (other regions)
Producer(s)	Hideto Yoda (Asian version), Kenichi Hashimoto (Japanese version)[1]
Artist(s)	Keisuke Mizuno[2]
Composer(s)	Yuko Komiyama[3]
Platform(s)	iOS, [4] Android[4]
Release	Asia: March 24, 2020;[5] service ended September 27, 2023[6] Oceania: March 26, 2020[7][6] Japan: October 26, 2020; service ended[8][9] North American/European version: August 16, 2021
Genre(s)	Action role-playing[4]
Mode(s)	Cooperative video game multiplayer single-player

Mega Man X DiVE, known in Japan as Rockman X DiVE,^[10] was a 2020 mobile game developed and published by Capcom, primarily its staff from Taiwan.^[4] It is a 2D action game using 3D models, and all abilities found in previous series games (wall kicking, dashing, dash jumping, ride armor operation, etc.) are implemented without any restrictions. While the game was originally released only for mobile phones, in September 2023, the game was ported to Steam, iOS, and Android under the new name Mega Man X Dive Offline.^[11]

Gameplay

First Armor X (middle) in one of the Jakob levels.

Cooperative play and competitive play are multiplayer, while other game modes are singleplayer. Also, at first only the story (normal) can be selected, and as the player level increases, the number of modes that can be selected increases. The elements that allow to interact with other players (competitive play, cooperative play, raid bosses, DNA portal) will be discontinued at the same time as the online version of the app ends.

Story mode involves conquering stages like in previous series works. One stage is divided into six parts, and a boss character appears in the third. There are items in various parts of the stage that will increase the status for a certain period of time, and you will receive rewards depending on the number collected. The item "Deep Element" that can be entered is placed here. In this mode, players proceed in a certain order starting from stage 1. There are also "normal" and "hard" stages for the same stage, each with different content and placement of enemies and items. Once players clear stage, they can retry it as many times as they like, and if they meet all the specified conditions and clear it, they can "skip dive" and only get clear rewards without playing the stage.^[12]

In Challenge Boss, players only fight boss characters that have appeared in other modes "Skip dive" is also possible under the same conditions as in story mode. In Time Attack, people compete with three other randomly selected players for the clear time of one stage selected from the story mode. Target stages and competing players change daily. In DNA Portal (online version only), players can use special stamina to traverse the map. The amount of recovery changes depending on the player's hunter program and weapon registration. Here programs, weapons, and traversed maps will be reset. In Event, players conquer special stages with set objectives such as enemy defeat rate and time attack. Rewards can be obtained depending on the goal achievement rate. A limited time event stage may appear-^[13] "Skip Dive" is also possible, but only in this mode, they do not have to meet the specified conditions, but need a special consumable item.

The offline version adds missions, including seasonal special events, similar to the online version, and has been changed by becoming playable once a certain player level is met. A Cooperative play (online version only) allows player to complete one stage at the same time. All stage configurations are exclusive to this mode. In Battle (online version only), players compete against other players online. Each player has 3 remaining lives within a stage that spans several horizontal and vertical screens, and the side that loses all remaining lives loses. There are free competitions and those aiming for the top rankings. Meanwhile, in Raid Boss online version only. Event held for a limited time. When the cumulative amount of damage inflicted by all players on a server reaches a certain value, it will be defeated, and all players who caused damage will be paid a defeat reward. After defeating it, they will proceed to the next round, but the cumulative amount of damage until defeat will increase as the number of laps increases.^[14]

Premise

The game recaps the story from the Mega Man series but with the player being the main character with protagonist X being the data the player controls. The game contains several original characters like ViA and RiCO whose characterizations are revealed throughout the story.^[15] The Player, until due in part to some corrupted data known as Maverick Data, gets transported into the Deep Log, a massive database with data on every Mega Man game. They must progress through the scrambled code of the Maverick Wars, Elf Wars, and the Game Of Destiny, to destroy the Maverick Data causing the slow corruption of the Deep Log.^[16]

Development

The original plan was launched by Capcom Taiwan, and after approval by Capcom in Japan, the project started moving around March 2018. Besides Capcom Taiwan, illustrations and 3D animations were produced by Capcom Japan. The original character Riko was newly drawn by Keisuke Mizuno. Mizuno also supervises all 2D illustrations and 3D models of other characters. Supervision and quality control related to IP. Quality control is thoroughly checked by their team in Osaka. Going back to the original story, the producers and directors at Capcom Taiwan enjoyed the series as and believed the online game would be appealing. While the game was conceived as a Mega Man X game, the staff said there would be "endless" possibilities.^[17] This game marks Capcom Taiwan's inaugural venture into developing original titles. Back then, Yoda was residing in Taiwan and held a deep affinity for the series. He took the initiative to connect with the producer of Mega Man in Japan and negotiated with him to make a Mega Man game in Taiwan. They kick started the project around May 2018, and finished it into 2 years and 10 months later.^[18]

The work started with the idea of developing a smartphone game focusing on the action part of the series so there are no actions that can be performed in performed like the actual gameplay. All actions were executed through the players' hands. The team received a lot of feedback, so they were taking those opinions into consideration when making balance adjustments before releasing the Japanese version. Hashimoto does not think there is anything like this level of side-scrolling action on a smartphone, so he would like like people of the generation who were playing to find the original appeal as well as attract younger fans.^[17] Nakayama, known for his work on Mega Man Zero, provided additional help.^[18] Mizuno in particular liked working as artist due to his desire to produce more Mega Man X games. The character χ-kai started as an April Fool gag related to the regular X but ended becoming an actual character with his own characterization. Original characters were requested by Yoda. The team worked into them expressing their personality and characteristics through their design. Rico and Via were one of the hardest ones to develop in order to fit the series. Mizuno was glad with the fact that Rico received positive response by the audience as a result of the challenges of being a heroine even if she did not fit at first. Previous characters were designed with sprites in mind, so for several of them, they lacked a rear view, images of the soles of their feet, or weapons.^[18] Besides new characters, Mizuno designed new armors for X and Zero. He had no problems with X as the artist took advantage of the hardware's capabilities,^[19] while Zero instead took too much effort in order to retain his iconic design in the process in contrast to the protagonist whose simpler design was made to be given armors in all of his appearances.^[20]

Mega Man X Dive is developed by Capcom Taiwan, Capcom head office in Japan is in charge of design supervision and quality control checks.^[21] Released in parts of East and Southeast Asia on March 24, 2020. Released in Australia and India on March 26, 2020. jun sang the theme song "Recognize" for the online version but it could not be used due to multiple factors until doing it based on his own ideas.^[18]

As the online version approached its shutdown, Asada, a seasoned producer with a wealth of experience in numerous games, was brought in to oversee the offline version.^[18] Offline version was released on September 1, 2023.^[22] Service for the Japan and Asia online versions ended on 13:00 September 27, 2023^[23][24] The offline version does not carry over play data from the online version, and is treated as an independent game. Compatible devices are iOS, Android, and PC Steam.^[11] Asada suggested using a controller for the Steam version. They include Capcom collaboration characters from Monster Hunter, Street Fighter and Devil May Cry. Nevertheless, they carried the other 120 characters. It is a one-time purchase game, offering all the original content once buying it.^[18]

Reception

While praising the gameplay and visuals, Multiplayer felt it was not a proper homage to the franchise to the point it did not feel like an actual Mega Man game.^[25] Despite preferring a sequel rather than Dive praised the accessibility of the story but had mixed feelings about customization required to level up and whether or not the stages are appropiately designed.^[26]

In Capcom's financial report for the quarter ending December 31, 2020, mobile content sales were up 80.7% year-over-year. The boost is owed to Dive and the mainland China release of Street Fighter Duel. Both titles raised mobile revenue up 4.7 billion yen, or US$45 million.^[27]

In regards to Offline, Joel Couture of Siliconera scored it a 9 out of 10, calling it a good adaptation from the original product for retaining most original works and its focus on single-player mode but criticized the story mode for being too short. He also highlighted the difficulty might be too much for the newcomers if they do not follow the rules properly.^[28]

References

External links

• Official website