Hey, to everyone watching this video after or maybe even before the Zero video, ignore the fact I called this the 5th series🫠

Area M is actually Ragnarok's Remains, while Area N specifically is Weil's lab from Zero 3. The fact that the space station landed so close to his lab doesnt seem like just a coincidence to me though.. 😅

I love how many references ZX had, almost made it feel like a celebration of the entire series of sorts. God these games are so underrated.

The amount of references put into these games just shows how much the dev team loved what they were working on. The ZX subseries is my favourite within the franchise and seeing all these little things just makes me love it even more. Great video!!

I'm so glad that this video exists. The amount of references hidden in the background, locked behind random sidequests, or compressed beyond human recognition is insane. Each one deserves to be pointed out and admired. ...Even the Challenger from the Future references I guess.

There's a couple things missing here. Megaman ZX has some level design references to classic Megaman games. The disappearing blocks in area N have the same pattern as the ones in Heatman's stage from Megaman 2, and there's a segment in Purprill's stage where you can break a mett helmet to reveal a room with some collectables, which shares the same exact layout and enemy placement as a part of Stoneman's stage from Megaman 5 where you also shoot some fake blocks in the same spot as the mett helmet to reveal a secret room. There might be more but I only remember these two.

MM Zero 3 references: Area N is actually a dimensional break in reality allowing cyberspace entry from the real world just like in Zero 3. This also happened when Omega first landed in Zero 3, signified by holographic green doors. The presence of Omega Zero within is not a coincidence. The hexagonal patterns of Area N are a throwback to Cyber Peacock stage to indicate the area as part of Cyberspace. The battles against some of the Gentle Judges and Einherjar are actually similar to the hidden battle with Phantom in Cyberspace that they're all Cyber Elves returned to their original form via their presence in Cyberspace. The fact that Childre Inarabitta's body appears in the Arctic Zone is proof of this. Their stages also have Cyberspace themed background (hexagons and greenish tint). Omega Zero is unique as he's not a Cyber Elf, but a glitch containing the final memories of Omega Zero when he fought Zero in Zero 4, as indicated by the glitchy backgrounds showing the hidden lab containing Zero's capsule. He's also the only one with a drop item that allows usage of his abilities, but none of his conciousness.

In megaman zx the character fleuve is implied that he is megaman zero's perrot, maybe he asked ciel to make him older like she did with andrew. in megaman zx advent in the mission to get a plant, if you choose the right plant, you can water it after completing the mission and it will give you a strawberry, after you use it to recover life, it can be born again in the plant after you water it again.

I played zx series for god knows how many hours, but man i missed so many reference from this game. Truly the series of all time

Additional MMX References: Bifrost attacks with spiked spinning wheels similar to Wheel Gator. Both animals look similar and from the Crocodylia order. Queen Bee has drone attacks similar to Blast Hornet. Both insects are from Hymenoptera insect family and also look similar. Argoyle's charged attack is similar to Zero's Twin Dream in X5. Or Soul Body if you wanna go the X4 route.

man this really shows how much IntiCreates loved this series,soo many details and references to rather obscure stuff only someone who really loved this franchise would know,these games are indeed a labor of sheer love

I really wanted to see ZXC and Legends 3. Because it was obvious that ZX was slowly leading up to Legends. Hope isn’t lost. Only time will tell

One additional reference: Biometal A actually looks like an inverted Biometal W, hinting his connection to Weil more than the other Biometals.

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="908">15:08</a> I've done this sidequest with all the available plants to see the different reactions I get. They give the same reaction except the cactus (and the one you mentioned). If you talk to Amy she says something along the lines of the cactus being a good partner to talk to. If you play the legends series Volnutts room in the first game also has a cactus in it. If you examine it the text states that Data mentioned its a good conversationalist. Another callback I thought was neato.

Man the devs for ZXA really decided "let's make 3 references To a game barley anyone knows about"

Coincidentally, they also have references for Battle Network littered in this game...

I love the zx series so much, I replayed it 3 times 4 days in a row

Character References in ZX: Serpent is a reference to Sigma, with both characters having similar body types and ideologies. Prometheus might be a soft reference to Bass, with both being the edgy creations of the main antagonist of their respective series who act as a rival to the main protagonists while feeling largely resentful towards their creators and plotting against them in secret. In the case of Bass, it's to prove to Wily that he's the strongest Robot Master in existence in accordance with his programming. In the case of Prometheus, it's to get revenge for the torture he and Pandora were put through and treated as basically slaves against their will. Prometheus takes it a step further, wanting to destroy the entire world for being too influenced by his creator (who I won't mention by name to avoid spoilers). He seeks to destroy everything his creator ever made to make his revenge complete. An additional tidbit about the Area D Highway: The place where you battle Giro coincides with the part of the stage design of the highway in the first MMX where you first battle Vile/Wawa, and where Zero makes his first appearance to save X. There's also a cruel irony regarding Giro going Maverick since the original version of the virus was actually just a sort of anti-virus developed by Dr. Wily (Likely as a safeguard to prevent Dr. Light or anyone else reprogramming him) to keep Zero in his "normal" state, which happened to be destructive. Zero therefore couldn't go Maverick, the phenomenon was exclusive to other Reploids who got infected with it, as it was meant for him and in other Reploids acted like malware, corrupting them. As such, the cruel irony is that even after Zero has cast aside everything that once tethered him to Wily's dark legacy, his successor still manages to fall victim to it in a way. A few additional tidbits regarding Omega and Model Ox: 1. The flickering background during the fight actually has more detail than its Zero 3 counterpart. (As an aside, I'd love to see a version of this with the color added back in and the background flames some day) 2. There are two small differences from Model ZX while playing as Ox without overdrive. The first is that you can spam the triple slash very slightly faster as Ox due to the delay on the third slash being slightly reduced in comparison. The second is that the fully charged Buster Shot is only one object, as opposed to Model ZX which fires off three objects. If Model ZX's charged shot hits enemies and obstacles in just the right way, the smaller orbiting projectiles can continue on without it, dealing a bit of damage to any enemies they hit. Because Model Ox only spawns the one projectile, it can't replicate this. About the Train level in ZXAdvent: It might actually be a direct reference to the train level from X4, though with both trains having different appearances. About Model A: The comment about the plate on his head is actually a confirmation that the connection to Axl is story related as well. Model A and Axl are different characters, but the heavy connection between the two of them is proof that when the main antagonist created Model A, he did so by using Axl as his main inspiration. The statement specifying that Model A specifically isn't the same character as the one he's based on is also a soft confirmation that somehow the other Biometals are in fact the same characters as their resemblances, though we don't know if this also applies to Model X and Z since X died at the end of Zero 3 and Zero was implied to have died at the end of Zero 4. The three remaining members of the four guardians are implied but not outright confirmed to have died at the end of Zero 3, so it's possible that somehow character death doesn't matter and Model A is just special. Also, this interview is also a hard debunk regarding the fan theory that the timeline splits after X6 and that the Zero series takes place on one split and X7 and 8 are on the other split. While Zero 1 was likely (actually, it definitely was) made with the intention of it being a sequel to X6, it's pretty obvious by the time you get to Zero 3 that this detail has been retconned to make more sense with Zero having been unsealed early in X7, as Zero is confirmed to be waking up in Zero 1 from a completely different sealing from the one that happens at the end of X6 due to the fact that he's in a completely different body and Omega is in possession of the original. Axl is a part of the Zero timeline, even though he's not around anymore by the time of Zero 1. Or to put it another way, no timeline split, just retcons that were necessitated by dev teams not talking to each other enough. About Ceratanium: I've never heard anything about it being used to create Mega Man Classic's armor, but it WAS definitely used to create Hard Man's armor. My understanding is that it wasn't widely used as armor until during the X series, at which point almost any metal that a robot or reploid has on their body is probably made of Ceratanium due to its legendary toughness. About Nick: A fun fact about him is that he appears to be an "Old Model" Reploid from around the time of the Zero series. As the Zero series takes place after the time that X7 and X8 take place, and the Elf Wars stunted technological development for a while between the X series and Zero series, this likely places him as the same generation as the "Next Gen" Reploids from X7 and X8 that Axl is a prototype of, or of a generation from immediately after. About Model Z's fate: It's a lot less ambiguous than people think. Model Z outright states multiple times that he knows what he's doing and isn't about to die. When Grey and Ashe wake up back at the camp after being rescued by Vent and Aile, neither one of the veteran heroes is lamenting Model Z's loss, which is a strong indication that he turned out fine. Adding to this is the fact we have learned since that there was a third game silently planned and canceled titled "ZXC", further indicating that Model Z is still alive in events after (Though we still don't know what the C stood for). Much more ambiguous is Prairie's fate, as Vent and Aile now appear to be in a commanding role among the Guardians, having enough authority to use the Guardian Base as a battering ram, and referring to it as belonging to them, as well as the crew. Prairie never makes an appearance in person in ZXA, nor does she ever get mentioned. As such, it's unclear if she died, retired, or is simply taking a vacation or something. (My personal headcanon is that she left in search of Ciel, since Ciel was never outright confirmed dead due to her body never being found)

The tube-like structure in the background of that stage in ZXA also resembles X8's bosses refight stage.

One detail that I liked about fighting Omega in ZX was that his Saber and Buster Charge animations were from the Zero series as well. Surprised no one's mentioned that yet lol

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="363">6:03</a> yeah it's not implied it's stated fact especially when you go through the Vent storyline. Also fun fact all the Bionetal cipher codes in ZX Advent are references to Gundam Entries. In ZX Serpent's final form is the Devil Gundam from G fighter, and The great game runs like the Gundam Fight from G Fighter.

Not a fan of the ZX series, but I really enjoyed the video. My favorite reference since I first played those games was Wire Sponge's body, the kind of stuff that makes you truly believe these games are set in the same continuity as the classic, X and Zero series.

Great vid, didn't realize or appreciate these references until I began to look at the entire franchise as a whole. And it's almost poetic that the ZX duology would have all these given that these are the last games in the timeline to take place on the same earth before it would be flooded in Legends.

Can't believe I'm just now realizing that the double merged model's attacks were based on x1 charged attacks. Which would explain why their separate forms don't have those moves outside of model f's fire wave

This was a very thorough easter egg rundown for games that few people will really appreciate. Impressive work! So many things I never noticed before.

This should have at least 100K views, the detail that you went through is insane!

I can't believe the amount of references I missed in the backgrounds if ZX thank you for this vid. Also you've quickly become one of my favorite mega man content creators keep up the good vids

You forgot to mention one thing about Serpent, especially when he said “Evolution requires sacrifice”, it was a direct reference from Sigma himself.

Ive been playing the X, Zero and ZX series for years now, mostly Zero series, yet I never knew most of these references. 😮

There is a special room in the Atlas mission, which depending on the month will give you a special item to equip, one of these items transforms Argoyle's attack into the Mega Ball from Megaman 8.

In ZX Advent, tho I might stretching here, it seems the entire tower that Rosespark inhabits appears to be the remains of Neo Arcadia. Even in the background of his boss room, you can see the X core from the tower covered in plants and vines. Queenbee's area is heavily hinted to be the destroyed remnants of Slither Inc's HQ from the previous game. Her boss arena being the blown up top floor where Aile/Vent faced off against Serpent.

Super gnarly review, I've never played it but am now. I remember all of Capcoms MegaMan series in its entirety but never played this DS era ones. Thank you for the informative vid. Peace and love

Street fighter reference. The one attack omega zero has where he dash short hops and if he touches you he slashes you multiple times is a reference to Akuma/Gouki's signature technique, the Raging Demon/ Shun Goku Satsu.

several months late but I'd like to add what I know the insignia for the Raiders in the game actually resembles Red from Mega Man X7, and they're likely precursors to the Sky Pirates in Mega Man Legends. if the symbol means anything, it could imply that after X7, Red Alert evolved into the Raiders and then later the Sky Pirates there's no symbol for this one but the Hunters are also precursors for the Diggers in Legends

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="686">11:26</a> you can also use a sword wave attack in the override state by holding down and attacking

The stained glass window has a golden organ a reference to X8's Boss Survival stage. There's also Storm Eagles ship on the screen when speaking to Carley, and giving the pick axe to Kidd could be a reference to Megaman Legends, when you have to give a pickaxe to the three kids to build their club house.😅

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="577">9:37</a> I like the transitions used for the Cannon Ball segment.

I swear these games I had to get into. Especially with zero and all the biometals and the searches for the hearts and tanks. Completed them all and I actually miss play them especially the elves

Man... These levels are apparently corpse yards with all the dead bosses you find. I can't believe I never noticed that.

At <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="183">3:03</a> HOW did you do that? :O I am absolutely amazed at your ability to see them, even though, when you zoomed the images in before talking about it I got the feeling I had seen it before :o I am amazed at the amount of Zero Series' Artwork that's hidden in the background of MegaMan ZX! The MegaMan Zero Series is one of my favorite game series EVER. And I am so glad ZX Includes so many details about it 🥰 To me the ZX Series is kind of an epilogue to the Zero Series to show us the thriving world that Zero and Ciel created 🥹💖 Also, actually, Model OX's rising fire slash is not Zero's Ryuenjin it's an EX-Skill from Zero 4 if I remember correctly!

You did a very thorough job with this, I was surprised how many of these I missed. Very good video man, keep it up!

Thank you for this great info stuff XD Always love that hard work from the games are acknoledged

The Area G is same as Fire Temple from Mega Man Zero 2

Dont forget there is also another character named "Aile" in command mission

CHALLENGER FROM THE FUTURE IS CANON CONFIRMED

Awesome! Great video, there is so many things about Z series that I need to know. Thanks a lot !

I kinda thought the double-fan hero the comic enthusiast was talking about was original Zero from X8, where one of the weapons in his arsenal are two fans that act as a sort of shield when standing still

I read somewhere that the ruins of the Tree of Life from Zero 2, where X was enshrined and what may potentially be parts from the Derelict Spaceship from 3 are in Area I of ZX. While I can see some things that might be similar, such as what might be ruins either in the background of the first part of it, or part of the background in the Steephinx arena. I haven't been able to see what might be the spaceship, but that might also be the thing in the first background, though it doesn't really match up at all.

Nice mixing of the cannonball tracks.

I'm amazed that your able to point out the most minute Easter eggs in this low poly hard to see game😂.

Dude, you are simply AWESOME! I loved your video, it gave me such a good feeling of nostalgia after seeing that remnants of the past still exist at different times in history haha

Great video, I knew of some of these references mentioned here and surprised by others. Also you missed one Challenger from the Future reference that is in ZX, when talking to the young guardian Sardine, He'll mention one of the toys he got from Silure looked like an oven with legs, I assume this is a reference to Konro Man. Also fun capcom references in ZX most overlook, the toy seen with Sardine is called Little Moby, this is a reference to Mobi-chan, a chibi version of one of the mechs from Hyper Dyne Side Arms as an item/mascot who often cameos in other capcom titles (including another Mega Man title, Mega Man 2: The power fighters as one of the points items that appears as after a boss is defeated.) Another capcom series reference is said by an npc in Area C in ZX, on top of the building left to the arcade is Halison, an npc who mentions being a photojournalist, in one of the conversations with them in the game they'll mention a famous cameraman, one who was a famous wartime photojournalist. This is most likely a reference to Frank West of the Dead Rising series (which the first game released around the same time as ZX) and his iconic quote of "I've covered wars y'know." but yeah very great video. keep up the good work. Edit: Also forgot to mention two references to past events in the series. one npc named luke mentions how war in the past ravaged both city and nature possibly referring to the elfs wars and another reference is made by an npc named Jeff who mentions how his grandfather told him how long ago they faced an energy crisis and how the city they live in now is a paradise compared to then a possible reference to Neo Arcadia.

You had a missed opportunity to mentioned ZX Area M and Area N theme sounds a little like X5 credits theme. I told you that in the "References in X5" video. But is all good. Also, the ending where the main character running on the highway also reference Megaman 1 ending. Original Megaman, X, Vent, and Aile ran in the left direction. Aile has a same name as that disabled Reploid who unnecessarily sacrificed himself to defeat a couple of weak Peons in X Command Mission. Heck, XCM Aile would sacrifice himself to defeat some Mettaurs.

So many references that i didn't notice, thanks for the video ❤

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="624">10:24</a> is like, the best drop out of any megaman song.

These videos are great man! Keep up the good work

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="1132">18:52</a> idk why but learning a spirit of zero (literally or not) still kicking the guardians ass spirit (literally or not) from beyond the grave is just comedy to me. Somethings never change and these brats will learn to respect their elders

Great video, great job, and great Premiere. You explained a great deal and portion of all of this. I never knew this while playing this game

Nice job, never knew about all of those references. I guess the devs really wanted to show that all of this is canon and that they're connected.

It's worth noting that the area that leads to Omega is cyberspace BECAUSE of Omega's presence. It's stated in ZERO3 that Omega's power is so intense that it actually causes rifts into cyberspace to appear (hence why that is a gameplay mechanic in ZERO3). ZERO3 and ZERO4 (and subsequently ZX/ZXA) also delve into the fact that cyberspace is effectively 'robot afterlife' whereupon losing their bodies, reploids end up in cyberspace as cyber elves and are gradually broken down over time before being swept away with the datastream, like a digital River Styx or Sanzu River. The immediate exceptions to this are the Four Guardians, X and later on Zero, as we we know that X and Phantom hang on for a good while after their bodies are destroyed, and in the artbook for the ZERO series there is an image of the Four Guardians as cyber elves watching the fall of Ragnarok. The Live Metals in turn basically serve as storage units for the cyber elves, protecting them from further data decay. Which should tell you a lot about why Omega is so much beefier and more powerful in ZX: He's been in cyberspace for at least a century or more, and not only has he barely lost any power at all, but he's still so powerful that he can cause the real world to blur with cyberspace.

ha, i was planning a similar video to this as i replayed zx and zxa for the xth time, but it looks like you beat me to the punch, very thorough video, and wow, good job spotting things i never noticed, like those compressed posters?! awesome find. never noticed childre in area f (or HALF the stuff in ZXA!)... anways you're getting a sub from me, i've always loved geeking out about megaman, and i'm glad i'm not alone in that lol. <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="700">11:40</a> lol, tryna get that chip is always fun

The Ciel imagery in Model W/Ouruboros could be a reference to the fact that Ciel is the "creator" and "messiah" of the Zero/ZX era due to her creation of Copy X, finding Zero, the Baby Elf from Zero 4 and her discovery and creation of the Biometals. With how heavy religious themes are used in the megaman series having a "cathedral" or massive structure used to immortalized someone as important as Ciel isn't a massive thing to not happen due to the influence she had to the Zero Era and the ZX era.

Hard revenge sounds like it integrated a remix of the charging weapons.

I feel like being able to find the corpses of boss enemies is the darkest thing in the zx series I’ve seen so far.

Mega Men come and go, but the Met will always be eternal.

Theme remix of weil shows that Serpent was being used by Model W aka Weil spirit in that biometal.

In Area L, there are texts in between Protectos' boss area that said Data M.G. Server; M.G. stands for Maha Ganeshariff, the boss from Zero 1 and those 3 large orbs that can be seen in the background of Protectos' boss area resembles his body.

Model W is named after Dr Weil, who is named after Vile, who is named after Dr Wily.

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="825">13:45</a> Also, regarding MORE references to X1, the breaking glass in a building's observation area. (cough cough, Storm Eagle, weeze)

In zero 3 I found a reference that's not to a MegaMan game. The change in omega's color palette from the intro stage to the next fight is a reference to Rct 3 and 1.

There is soooooooooooo much info here thanks for making this!!!

KZfaq popping off with these recomendations, absolutely sweet.

The best thing about ZXAdvent and it;'s ambiguous ending is that if Capcom ever makes a ZX3 or something, they will totally ignore it and just create new characters in it. XD

Fun fact The Omega Fight in ZX its actually How Omega in Zero 3 should have been but due to Hardware limitations and the fact that its a 3 phease boss fight they decide to Nerf Him

I often wonder if the Omega Zero fight in ZX is how they originally wanted the fight to be in MMZ3, but had to make it a bit easier, either because the GBA couldn't handle such a boss, or because it was the last boss of 3 that make up the final boss fight.

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="829">13:49</a> KING CRIMSON!

W video Loved the cannonball part 🔥

So the Yashichi is not only a Mega Man thing. Capcom has used it in a number of their games, usually in the arcades. It was first used and became a staple in 1942 which was their breakout arcade STG in 1984.

I'd Like to Believe that a Relative of Master Albert Built Axl, and this is possibly why Albert was able to Make not only Model W with the True A-Trans Ability once Ouroboros was Fully Constructed, but also Model A, which was possibly his Attempt at making a Standard Ciel Style Biometal (i.e. It's not a Fragment like the Model W ones) and then of course made Grey to Test it... and eventually Advent happens.

This only reminded me of a time Capcom and Konami made video games. Wish they'd make a few new Mega Man games.

Amazing video :3

random realization but I noticed the silhouette of the letter N resembles a flipped Z. ( area N. ) so yea that is interesting.

Amazing video

They went so deep with the lore in this game. Still sad zx 3 got canceled.

Video is awesome

capcom really need to make another sequel after Zx and Advent, bring back Zero and Ciel would make the company a lot of money.

zero died got reborn as a rock and died again

I'd like to imagine that all the bosses from the Zero series are in Area N... they watch from the Warped reality in which they now live in. And oh my god, Aztec Falcon would not be happy about what they did to his body... <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="231">3:51</a>

The upward tornado from Model HX can either be referring to F.C.S.T or P.G.T.S (Fully Charged Storm Tornado and Power Gear Tundra Storm respectively(Base Tundra Storm does the same, but I prefer Power Gear Tundra Storm.).)

I think there's a lot of references in the song names of megaman ZX Advent, specifically the guardian base (Grand Nuage) and Ceil/Prairie being french words for Sky and Meadow...and the hunter base being called "Sky High". Theres something else in French having to do with Area D, but I cant go through em all cause I'm at work 💀

Someone REALLY liked Rockman & Forte apparently lmao

Great video, commented for more traction

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="398">6:38</a> Little missinformation over there. W Tank debuted in Mega Man IV for the game boy.

Unsure if it's meant to imply they're the same, but Flueve in the Guardian base has similar glasses to Perroquiet from the Zero series. I think their general size and stuff is similar too.

Amen brother great information

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="226">3:46</a> relationship issues

Didn't talk about Aile's ability to change her color palette and one of the colors is Roll's color palette.

I did know quite a few Classic series references in ZX/A, but I never noticed even one of the old dead remains of the Zero/X Reploids and Mechanaloids. Kinda grim to see them in the background like that. But a grim undertone is nothing new to this franchise 😅

I’m probably 100% wrong but in ZX Advent Ouroboros’s theme sounds like it took at least a little inspiration from Boomer kuwanger’s theme from Megaman X.

ngl i was 1/2 hopeing you would add the Mythos version of Cannon Ball to end off the two ingame versions due to it being the Official and Best Remix of the song (tho shoutouts to the remastered fan animation of Zero vs Omega Zero that came out recently)