Zero (Mega Man)
Zero is one of the main characters in the popular Mega Man X (in Japan, Rockman X) series and Mega Man Zero series of video games. In the X series, he is one of the highest ranking "Maverick Hunters" who is fighting to stop Sigma's forces of infected Reploids, known as mavericks, from exterminating humanity.
Incidentally, Keiji Inafune, Mega Man creator and a current senior corporate officer at Capcom, had admitted to creating Zero to be Mega Man X himself, the character who would replace Mega Man as the hero. However, due to concerns that players would find it hard to relate Zero with the original Mega Man due to the large visual differences between the two characters, he was made Megaman X's partner, and the Mega Man X widely known today was designed for this purpose instead. Eight years later, Zero did eventually get his own starring role, in the Mega Man Zero series.
Game History
Template:Spoiler Though Zero's full origins are never outright stated, they are strongly implied throughout all the Mega Man series. In Bass' ending for Mega Man 2 - The Power Fighters, Dr. Wily informed Bass that he was working on a new robot that would replace Bass as his strongest creation. The silhouette of this robot was shown, looking highly like Zero. Beyond this, no more is mentioned on the subject in the classic series; however it is once more implied in Mega Man X4 that Dr. Wily is Zero's creator, as in his opening sequence it depicts the mad scientist lecturing Zero on Mega Man (who he refers to as "his nemesis"), and how he must destroy him. Beyond this it is not mentioned what happened to Zero, Wily, Mega Man or any of the other characters in this timespan.
Zero returned not long after Mega Man X was discovered. A Maverick at this point in time, Sigma was sent to the underground tunnel in which Zero had been spotted to take care of him personally. After a long, hard battle, in which Zero appeared to be nearly victorious, the crystal in Zero's forehead began glowing with a "W" (another Dr. Wily reference), causing him extraordinary pain. Taking advantage of this, Sigma (who was horribly injured by this point) slammed his fist into the crystal, smashing it and knocking Zero out. Upon leaving with the unconscious Zero, Sigma made the request that Zero be sent back to Dr. Cain's lab for examination.
Dr. Cain reprogrammed Zero to no longer desire to kill humans and instead better society. Sigma, who had taken an interest in the robot, then took Zero under his wing and trained him to be an elite Maverick Hunter, including making him highly proficient with a sword. Soon after the training was finished, Sigma himself went Maverick, and the events in Mega Man X began to unfold.
X, feeling guilty over humanity's desperate situation, decided to join the Maverick Hunters. Zero kept a close eye on X, saving him twice from one of Sigma's stronger allies, Vile. In the second battle, Zero sacrificed himself to give X a fighting chance. If X had not already obtained the Arm upgrade from Dr. Light's hologram, he, in his dying breaths, gave this upgrade to X.
In Mega Man X2, an organisation called the X-Hunters revealed to X that they planned to find the parts of Zero and restore him as a general in Sigma's army. X then was forced to collect the parts of Zero before the X-Hunters did. Whether or not this was accomplished in-game, when X went to face Sigma, Zero was standing by his side. If X had failed to collect the parts, Zero himself would attack X, but if X had collected the parts, the Zero would instead be a copy, colored black, which the true, revived Zero dispatched with his new Z-Saber, which would become his signature weapon. After the fake Zero was defeated, he helped X make his way to Sigma's lair.
In Mega Man X3, Zero was actually playable in a limited fashion, in that he could be called upon for assistance at any point in a given level except for boss fights. In the game, Mavericks attacked Maverick Hunters HQ, causing both X and Zero to rush back as soon as possible. X was kidnapped, forcing Zero to save him from his captors. Later on, in Dr. Doppler's hideout, Zero aided X in taking down the Maverick outbreak. Optionally, he could give his life to defeat one of the bosses, letting X obtain his Z-Saber; canonically, however, this didn't happen. At the end of the game, it was revealed that Sigma was, at this point, a virus; at the time, this seemingly had nothing to do with Zero, but later on, proved to be a pivotal factor in Zero's personality.
In Mega Man X4 he was fully playable for the first time. Zero, unlike X, was more familiar with Repliforce, in particular his love interest, Iris, and her brother, Colonel. As of such, Zero tried his best to make peace in the conflict, not war, seeing it in the best interests of all involved. Zero and Colonel, however, could not see eye-to-eye, and wound up fighting twice throughout the conflict. The first fight ended in a draw when Iris stepped in. The second, however, wound up with Zero unwillingly killing Colonel. Heartbroken by the terrible act Zero had committed, Iris herself battled him, and also wound up dying in his hands (much to his regret). He went on to uncover Sigma once again and stopped him from destroying the planet with Repliforce's space station, Final Weapon.
Zero played a pivotal role in Mega Man X5. The space colony Eurasia was set to impact the Earth (which had recently been coated in a large breakout of the Maverick virus), which would cause catastrophes of unimaginable proportions. Unbeknownst to all, Sigma was behind the downing of Eurasia, and with good reason - he had been informed by an unknown source (some theorize a reincarnation of Dr. Wily, being that Sigma touts his incredible knowledge of Zero's workings, although it isn't known for certain) figured out that if the Eurasia, which was infected with another virus, collided with the Earth and its Maverick virus, the end result would create a new virus - the Zero virus. The Maverick Hunters stopped the crash, and then found Sigma's hideout and promptly went to shut him down - however, X was badly injured, and Zero was practically left for dead. Dr. Light revived X, and the Maverick Hunter went on fighting Mavericks in memory of his fallen friend.
Alternatively, Eurasia crashed with Earth, causing terrible problems on the surface (although it wound up anything but destroying the planet). The end result was a Maverick Zero, who X had to defeat later on. The ending was mostly the same, except X had no memories of Zero.
Later, at the beginning of Mega Man Zero, Zero was discovered in suspended animation (allegedly, according to Mega Man creator Keiji Inafune, where he was left for dead at the end of X5) by a human scientist named Ciel, who leads a band of Reploid freedom fighters. Ciel used the Cyber Elf Passy to revive Zero, who in turn saved Ciel from forces of Neo Arcadia. As it turned out, Neo Arcadia was the government of the world at this time period, and they had sworn all Reploids to be liabilities, creating a sort of Orwellian future for Zero's kind. Zero agreed to join her team in fighting this oppression of Reploids.
Later on Zero learned of what had happened in his years in stasis; X had managed to finally defeat Sigma, but soon after the Elf Wars broke out. X sacrificed his body to stop the worst of all, the Dark Elf, leaving him in a more ethereal form. Soon after Neo Arcadia had sprung up, along with Copy X, who was in charge of purging the planet of Reploids. To make matters more complicated, the one who had started the Elf Wars, Dr. Weil, also made his comeback around Zero's return, and he seems to know a lot about Zero no-one else does...
Later in Megaman Zero 3, Zero figured out that the body he inhabits is a fake even though he still has his soul. This led to a final battle between him and the "Original" Zero. After this battle, Zero manages to purify the Dark Elf and destroy Omega once and for all, but Weil escapes.
A different version of Zero appears in MegaMan Network Transmission, but with a surprisingly similar origin as his twin. In the title, he was a virus created by Lord Wily and World Three in an attempt to bring down the Internet by infecting the Navis that inhabit it. He is a very deadly virus and the main boss of the game, but if the player performed a certain number of significant acts in the game, Zero would be reborn as a Navi himself. He is only one of two characters from the X series to appear in the Battle Network series, the other being Colonel.
Voice Credits
- Mega Man X (All, Eastern): Ryoutarou Okiayu
- Mega Man X7 (Western): Jack Merluzzi
- Mega Man X8 and CM (Western): Lucas Gilbertson
- Mega Man Zero (All): Yuuto Kazama