This is a PC port of a /very/ grindy mobile gacha game. If you were expecting a successor to the X series, spiritual or otherwise, this is not it. Everything is themed off the X series and the content within them, but so much of the formula has been changed that it should be considered its own thing.

The Good
========
* There's some nice nostalgia here, between remakes of chunks of stages and updated music tracks
* This is probably the first PC Capcom port I've played that didn't have issues with resolutions or framerates

The Bad
=======
* The grind. There are... A heck of a lot of items for you to level in a bunch of ways, but only a (relatively) small handful of stages compared to other similar games that try to do this.
* The scaling. Challenge/Hard mode of levels doesn't grant XP, loot or money. It's intended to be played after you've progressed through a few full chapters of the normal difficulty it seems, but it still just feels like a pointless slap in the face. Likewise, even if you have the resources, you cannot level up anything in your inventory until you've exceeded certain account level thresholds. This is not made clear, you just sort of have to figure it out on your own.
* The inventory. There are items (cards) you can equip to characters. Whatever you do, do NOT obtain multiple of a gold-tier card, as you cannot get rid of them by selling or merging. Despite this, they still count against your inventory limit.
* Wonky controls. They've set it up so Steam will *strongly* encourage you to use a controller if one isn't detected prior to launching the game. However, at least half of the game doesn't work at all with controller inputs. Additionally, it feels as though core mechanics (IE: Double-jump and Air-Dash) have not been properly playtested, as they just don't function as-intended a chunk of the time. This leads to....
* Leftover laziness from janky monetization expectations. There's thankfully no microtransactions or loot boxes in this. However, almost none of the game was really tweaked or redesigned to accommodate for that massive of a core change. What I mentioned earlier about inputs being dropped feels like it was semi-consciously done to encourage you to spend money on more play time, as is a typical practice of mobile gacha games.
* It'll still crash if you look at it funny. I got to a boss fight about five chapters or so in. A scripted stun led to a game crash.
* Achievements are ambiguously tied to unrelated game progress. There are some achievements on steam tied to acquiring certain amounts of gear. Say [x] number of characters, or weapons. However, let's suppose you've gotten 20 characters early on somehow. You'll only receive incremental achievements for obtaining characters of smaller quantities after completing a chapter.
* The aim assist feels more like a burden than a boon. Your character will only face whichever way the game thinks it should. You can move somewhat freely, but you have little to no control over which way you actually face. This leads to frustrating progress blocks that you essentially have no control over until the game decides to cooperate with you. You /will/ miss certain level challenges (such as time) as a result of this.

This is a PC port of a /very/ grindy mobile gacha game. If you were expecting a successor to the X series, spiritual or otherwise, this is not it. Everything is themed off the X series and the content within them, but so much of the formula has been changed that it should be considered its own thing. The Good ======== * There's some nice nostalgia here, between remakes of chunks of stages and updated music tracks * This is probably the first PC Capcom port I've played that didn't have issues with resolutions or framerates The Bad ======= * The grind. There are... A heck of a lot of items for you to level in a bunch of ways, but only a (relatively) small handful of stages compared to other similar games that try to do this. * The scaling. Challenge/Hard mode of levels doesn't grant XP, loot or money. It's intended to be played after you've progressed through a few full chapters of the normal difficulty it seems, but it still just feels like a pointless slap in the face. Likewise, even if you have the resources, you cannot level up anything in your inventory until you've exceeded certain account level thresholds. This is not made clear, you just sort of have to figure it out on your own. * The inventory. There are items (cards) you can equip to characters. Whatever you do, do NOT obtain multiple of a gold-tier card, as you cannot get rid of them by selling or merging. Despite this, they still count against your inventory limit. * Wonky controls. They've set it up so Steam will *strongly* encourage you to use a controller if one isn't detected prior to launching the game. However, at least half of the game doesn't work at all with controller inputs. Additionally, it feels as though core mechanics (IE: Double-jump and Air-Dash) have not been properly playtested, as they just don't function as-intended a chunk of the time. This leads to.... * Leftover laziness from janky monetization expectations. There's thankfully no microtransactions or loot boxes in this. However, almost none of the game was really tweaked or redesigned to accommodate for that massive of a core change. What I mentioned earlier about inputs being dropped feels like it was semi-consciously done to encourage you to spend money on more play time, as is a typical practice of mobile gacha games. * It'll still crash if you look at it funny. I got to a boss fight about five chapters or so in. A scripted stun led to a game crash. * Achievements are ambiguously tied to unrelated game progress. There are some achievements on steam tied to acquiring certain amounts of gear. Say [x] number of characters, or weapons. However, let's suppose you've gotten 20 characters early on somehow. You'll only receive incremental achievements for obtaining characters of smaller quantities after completing a chapter. * The aim assist feels more like a burden than a boon. Your character will only face whichever way the game thinks it should. You can move somewhat freely, but you have little to no control over which way you actually face. This leads to frustrating progress blocks that you essentially have no control over until the game decides to cooperate with you. You /will/ miss certain level challenges (such as time) as a result of this.