
Fans of the title point out its various additions to the X formula, such as multiple Armors, Reploid rescuing, and Part customization, praising it for adding new levels of depth and customization to the game.
Contested Sequel: While no one will claim it to be as bad as the Audience-Alienating Era of X6- X7, opinion on X5 is divided on whether it is considered one of the best titles of the series, a good-but-flawed follow-up to the games before it, or one of the weaker titles of the series. Oddly enough, when the X Legacy Collection 2 version of X5 changed these names back, some of the fans who wanted the original Japanese names were upset at the loss of Duff McWhalen, considering the name so stupid that it was oddly endearing compared to the others. Either people find them a nice and awesome Shout-Out to the band, or redundant and laughable compared to the original Japanese names (not to mention being completely incongruent with the naming conventions for Maverick bosses up to and after that point). version are a rather heavy point of contention within the fanbase. Broken Base: The Guns N' Roses names of the bosses in the U.S. Even his most powerful move, Dark Hold, can become an extreme liability to him if you manage to counter it. He's strangely passive, preferring to harmlessly fly around the top of the screen in a predictable pattern and only occasionally attacking with even more predictable attacks. is sorta undercooked compared to the other 3 Mavericks that are introduced alongside him. X and Zero can keep their respective character bonuses, both characters share Life and Weapon Ups, parts can be earned at any point in the game), allow X to use incomplete Armor Parts similarly to the former, tweaked some of the RNG mechanics for the game's endings, and features a retranslated English script.
Better Than Canon: In lieu of the X6 Tweaks project for X6, the X5 Improvement Project Addendum features many quality-of-life improvements for X5, such adding the option to turn off the reviled interruptions by Alia, restores the missing voice clips, altered title screen art, and original Maverick names into the Western release, implements many gameplay tweaks and rebalancing (e.g.
However, this led to some disagreement among the fanbase, as detailed below. Author's Saving Throw: For the 2018 X Legacy Collection 2 release of the series, Capcom announced that the Japanese Maverick names would be used worldwide, in place of the Guns N' Roses-inspired ones used for the original western release.