This post is part of a series of deep dives into Mega Man X 3. In this piece, we analyze the game’s story.

Here are the links to the rest of the deep dives:

• Weapons
• Bosses
• Environmental Storytelling
• Miscellaneous

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Spoiler Preface!!!

This post contains content that some may deem as spoilers. You have been warned

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Compared to its predecessor, Mega Man X 3 is fairly light on story. This is a pretty standard case of “old video game doesn’t take its story very seriously”.

Right off the bat, we have to deal with the fact that there are at least two different explanations of the setup for the story. Here is what the game’s intro text has to say:

In the year 21XX, all the Mavericks have been neutralized thanks to the efforts of a Reploid scientist named "Dr. Doppler". Using his Neuro Computer he has been able to suppress any abnormal behavior in the Reploids and prevent them from going berserk. Many of the most advanced Reploids have gathered near their new mentor and founded "Dopple Town", a perfect Utopian community. With Dr. Doppler guiding them, the world seemed ready to enter a new golden age...

After a few months ...

The Mavericks who were supposed to have been neutralized by the Neuro Computer suddenly appeared and began to riot. At Maverick Hunter headquarters, all intelligence indicated that Dr. Doppler was the mastermind behind the invasion. Soon, the call went out to X and Zero to destroy the invading Mavericks and to bring Dr. Doppler to justice.

Now here is an excerpt from the SNES instruction booklet:

One version talks about curing a virus (in this case the Sigma virus that we learned about at the end of X2), and the other talks about a “Neuro computer”. One talks heavily about “Dopple town”, and the other barely mentions it. As far as I can tell, the true story is a combination of both. Take the in-game explanation, swap “Neuro Computer” with “anti-virus”, and there’s your scenario.

All in all, it is a very simple and obvious setup for a Mega Man game. Nothing about that is terribly shocking from where I’m standing. And yet I feel like this story has some untapped potential. The idea of a bunch of rehabilitated Reploids dedicating their lives to creating a peaceful utopia is potent. This is a series in which our protagonist is increasingly bothered by war and violence, and yet every single sequel ratchets up both the war and the violence. The idea of someone in this franchise actually attempting to do something peaceful is shockingly rare, and it would have been nice to see it explored in greater depth.

After the introductory material, the story takes a backseat until the final stages. The only “story” moments in between involve the Nightmare Police, and none of it is of any great import.

The Nightmare Police

The Nightmare Police are X3’s equivalent to the X Hunters from MMX 2. They are a trio of additional bosses that exist in addition to the standard eight Mavericks. Unlike the X Hunters, the Nightmare Police are (mostly) not optional fights. You have no choice but to defeat Bit and Byte, who are pictured below with Dr. Dopper himself:

The other difference between the two groups is that unlike the X Hunters, the Nightmare Police aren’t really important to the story. They are presumably an elite law enforcement unit within Dopple Town, who go after X and Zero because it is their job to do so. That’s about it.

The only semi-interesting thing about these guys is the reveal of who their third member is, but even that feels more like a lame attempt at fan wank:

Yes, the third Nightmare Policeman is Vile Mk II. X’s original “rival” from the first game is back and looking for revenge.

I have a confession to make - I don’t understand this series’ obsession with Vile. Yeah, I know he looks kind of like Boba Fett, and as big fan of that particular Star Wars character, I understand that a lot of his appeal comes from the fact that he looks cool and acts mysterious. With Vile, at best he nails the “looks cool” part, but nothing about him is mysterious. He’s just an asshole¹.

Making matters worse is the fact that Vile barely shows up. Unlike Bit and Byte, the first encounter with him is optional. In fact, the fight is hidden. To find him, you have to discover one of three secret passageways that exist in exactly three of the game’s stages.

Should you miss this fight, there is one other chance to face Vile, but it happens in the final fortress, and by then the encounter greatly loses its punch. In fact, it makes no sense at all that this character who is seemingly obsessed with revenge would just sit around and wait for X to maybe/maybe not find him. Does that really count as a rivalry?

All of this is to say that the fact that X3 brings Vile back means absolutely nothing to me. Maybe if his return was delayed by a few more games, and he was given more to do, this could have become some sort of fateful encounter. As it stands, don’t listen to anyone who gushes about this reveal as if it is in any way important or emotional or impactful. Vile’s just a dude.

The Final Fortress

In X2, all three of the X Hunters challenge you to a rematch once you get to the final fortress. In X3 the same thing happens with the Nightmare Police, at least by “default”. Depending on your previous actions, it is possible to truly kill all three in their first battle, in which case you will fight alternative bosses instead. However, it is clear that that is meant as an alternative path through the game, and that rematching the trio is the intended path, at least for first time players.

However, whereas the X Hunters used their rematches to further wax poetic about how important and awesome Zero is, the Police don’t really have anything revelatory to say. It’s just Round 2, for all intents and purposes.

In fact, it isn’t until the fight with Dr. Doppler that the story really kicks in again. After defeating him, Doppler reveals that he was basically corrupted/blackmailed by Sigma, and forced to build him a new body. However, he also reveals that actually did create a Sigma anti-virus: he just never got a chance to use it before Sigma got to him. In an effort to redeem himself, Doppler promises to help you use the antivirus to destroy Sigma for good.

Of course, as usual you still have to fight Sigma. He gives his usual mix of taunts and boasts, but after defeating his final form he does something a little different. Specifically, he chases X through the fortress as it is falling apart. After an annoying sequence in which the wireframe Sigma head from X2 chases you, X finds himself trapped by a dead end.

I am not entirely sure how this is a problem, considering robots like X and Zero teleport around to all sorts of crazy places. Why X couldn’t do the same here, I will never understand. In any case, Sigma uses the opportunity to do something he should have done a long time ago - namely, possess X’s body. Not only would it give him a powerful new form, but it would also eliminate his greatest threat.

While not exactly dramatic, I do appreciate this scene. After two previous confrontations that largely played out in the same manner, it is nice to see Sigma try something that is not only different, but potentially devastating. Later games reveal that X’s potential is supposedly “limitless”, which makes the prospect of Sigma getting his hands on it that much scarier.

Of course, his plan fails. If you still have Zero alive, he drops in and slices Sigma with his Z Saber (apparently he installs the anti-virus into it?):

However, if Zero lost his one and only life, then Dr. Doppler show up to do the job. But while Zero takes out Sigma without issue, apparently Doppler is unable to do it without sacrificing himself:

I have two problems with this endgame (well, three, but we’ll get to the third one later). First, there simply isn’t enough exposition during the course of the game for any of this to have any impact. For example, Doppler’s sacrifice feels hollow considering how little we know about him. If we had seen glimpses of him before turning evil, or even while he was evil, then his redemption narrative might actually have some meaning.

Second, this whole ending scenario feels extremely … final. Computer viruses tend to be stopped dead in their tracks once security patches are written and deletion strategies are devised. The only way for one to “come back” is if an author writes a new variation that uses some different attack vector. Thus if Sigma is a computer virus, and we have an anti-virus, then this should be the end of him for good.

Having said that, this is a science fiction futureworld. It could be that Sigma is a more advanced kind of virus that is harder to “kill”. But if that is the case, why not say so? It would only take a few more lines of dialogue to explain.

In any case, that’s a distraction. My main point is that the ending has a sense of finality to it, as if this could have plausibly been the end of the Mega Man X series, or at least the end of Sigma as the main antagonist. That feels extremely out of character for a Mega Man game; even back then it would have been hard to believe that this was truly the end of Sigma, or even the end of the subseries.

Now, you might be thinking to yourself “What if it WAS meant to be the final game?” And this is where we get to my third and final problem. After escaping the base, X (and Zero, if he’s around) looks on as it collapses, and we get this final closing stinger:

Wow. That’s …. something! And it eventually turns out to be true! Zero and X do end up fighting each other in X5, and depending on the ending you get, X does emerge victorious.

Like with X2, it is hard to say whether these little stingers and teases about the future were part of some grand plan, or entirely coincidental. What is certain is that this is the kind of thing you only toss in when you are pretty darn sure there will be future sequels, in which case the writers backed themselves into a corner. They seemingly offed Sigma for good, while full well knowing that they were going to bring him back. How are they going to explain that one?²

Conclusion

This practically feels like a throwback to the types of stories the NES Mega Man games had. It is so simplistic and straightforward, and it only bothers to show up as long as it absolutely has to.

Part of me is fine with this. It gets the job done, and because the wrtiers did not overthink it, I am not sitting here spending hours trying to poke holes in it.

But there is a part of me that is sad at the fact that the game is so very simple. After all, this isn’t old school Mega Man. This is Mega Man X, and that means darker themes and melodrama. Yet there isn’t much to be found. That’s a shame, too, since X3 is based around an interesting scenario. You have rehabilitated Reploids. A brand new Utopian city in which to plant all sorts of weird sci-fi ideas. A good doctor turned villain with a shot at redemption. This could have been more, and while I don’t consider it a failure on the game’s part that it is not, it does feel like a missed opportunity in retrospect.

Other Thoughts

Here is the instruction booklet’s description of Dr. Doppler:

I’m mostly putting it here because I find it interesting that it refers to Doppler as an “it”. Seems like no one at Capcom can agree on whether or not to gender robots.