Now for those comments... I decided to choose the Japanese voice acting, mainly because I've had traumas from the voice acting of the previous games (X4...)

You won't be seeing Axl much in this run, because he's slow, ineffective and lacks the ability to shoot while walking.

Intro. Not much to write home about. The "walls closing in" part went really smoothly, and I'm happy about it. The excuse of a boss at the end falls down quietly.

Burn Rooster's stage went well. It's rather simple (and slow) thanks to the long, long autoscrolling parts. I take the Helios Foot Parts as I go, thus gaining invincible dash, which shall prove its worth on later stages. There weren't many mistakes in this stage, and Rooster co-operated somewhat nicely. This stage is one of the very few that actually benefits from Axl's presence.

Earthrock Trilobyte. I chose this stage right away, because the stage has Body Part Icarus, which halves the damage taken, and more importantly, enables me to get past enemies without "recoiling", similiar to shock buffers of the other two. I rely on that quite a bit throughout the game. The second fight with the Mechaniloid could have been faster, I miss when hitting it with the crane. I also missed the first double attack on Trilobyte, which is humiliating, but all in all, things could have gone much worse.

Bamboo Pandamonium. The ride armor does massive damage to the masses, but after the first wave I ditch it, because Vile will make his appearance later. I get the foot parts Icarus for Dark Mantis. I shoot melt crawler accidentally instead of blasting Pandamonium first when I was supposed to finish him off, damaging my time.

Optic Sunflower; the third trial could have gone better, but otherwise there are no big mistakes. I deliberately botch the trial number one, because I have no need for the metal generator, and the sub-tank is somewhat essential (or at least it should have been...) I hate Sunflower, he tries to make the battle longer at all costs. It's especially frustrating because the weakness costs so much in Weapon Energy. I used to balance it out with Zero's technique, but when you're supposed to actually do the run, guess what happens to Sunflower's courtesy.

Gigavolt Man-O-War is a pain in the rear. It's horrible to run unless you have loads of WP, which I don't have. On the other hand, it takes more time to buy the stuff than it gains in Man-O-War. Man-O-War is a piece of cake.

Avalanche Yeti. Another vehicle map. Yay. Fortunately, I discovered that the slow- down after a hit can be reduced by changing characters. You can also use it to speed up the overall speed, but it's risky. Plus, it can seriously damage the mothership battles. I take head parts Helios. Yeti himself didn't make too much resistance.

Dark Mantis. I equip the foot parts Icarus for the stage. I make my way to the generator room, put the power on, take the D Glaive and rush to the ending. I was a bit uncertain at the pits, as you probably can plainly see. Mantis was a bit too careful (or lucky) to my liking.

Gravity Antonion's stage is pure nightmare. I messed up with the switches big time. Energy means nothing to me, as you get to recharge it in the mid-boss anyway. After that things seemed to get better. Antonion fight was not that great.

Jakob. Up we go. Not much happening in the stage, so I just go with the flow. I scold Vile a bit and he flees. His desperation move takes forever. Alas, Drift diamonds didn't always find their way to the target, again hurting my time a bit.

Gateway: More or less the same as the previous boss battles. There is some mix-ups in the navigation part. Copy Sigma is ridiculously easy.

Sigma Palace went great. Lumine Mk.1 was a close call, but I didn't need the sub- tank at all, which was a bit surprising. Feel free to observe how Zero's Rasetsusen does massive damage to Lumine's second form. A double attack, and it's all over.

I left the recorder running a bit after I finished the run; consider it my victory lap.

Here is the improvement for my X8 run. About a half hour difference in comparison. This is probably the last time I play this game for a while. I'm officially retiring unless I get showed up big time. I'm not even planning to do an any% run for the game. If you want to try one, be my guest.

First, about 100% in this game. 100% consists of all armors, weapons, and upgrades for X, Zero, and Axl over one full game and a new game plus onto hard. The Navigator weapons, as a matter of fact, do not count. As you will see, I got them, but didn't buy the upgrades for them. Oh well.

The tools used to make this run were a Magnavox TV, a Sansui VCR/DVD-RW, a Sony Playstation 2 (duh), a Joytech Wireless controller (highly recommended), and a Panasonic VHS-C Palmcorder. (You'll find out what that was for soon.)

Most mistakes were minimal, as I cut down my time on all but one level. But here's what I will mention:
- Both Antonion playthroughs consist of one or two unnecessary flips.
- The third miniboss in Trilobyte's stage (just before the boss) continues to give me problems.
- I did not use the cave path in Yeti's stage. That way is very laggy and it seems that both paths are just about the same length. I could be wrong.
- Toward the end I was getting very careless. After Pandamonium the second time I rush jobbed it. I just wanted it to get done ASAP.
- I recorded on standard play this time. But I didn't take into consideration the consequences...

I am very happy with the results. And you probably will be too. Enjoy!