Spoilers for Mega Man ZX are left unmarked. You Have Been Warned.

Mega Man ZX Advent is a 2D Metroidvania developed by Inti Creates and published by Capcom, released in 2007 for the Nintendo DS. It is a sequel to Mega Man ZX and is currently the last game in the ZX series.

Set 4 years after the events of ZX, the player can control either the Reploid Grey or the Cyborg Ashe. In both cases, Grey/Ashe join the hunter's ranks in order to repel the Mavericks. Along with these, a strange of group of "Mega Men" with the Biometals from the previous game are found battling each other in a so called "Game of Destiny".

After a Maverick attack while loading cargo, Grey/Ashe must team up with the mysterious Biometals A to repel the Mavericks and get to the bottom of what is going on.

Tropes:

• Anti-Frustration Features: Advent features a number of improvements over the original ZX:
  • It does away with the cumbersome mission system, allowing players to tackle any stage and sidequest at their leisure as soon as it becomes available.
  • The game also has waypoints at the start of every sub-stage that can be activated with enough E-crystals, allowing the player to warp straight to the start of that sub-stage from any Transserver.
  • Weakpoints in Advent are harder to hit but carry no penalty for hitting them, unlike in ZX, where hitting an enemy's weakpoint (which were typically quite large) would result in the player receiving a "damaged" biometal with a smaller energy bar.
  • While ZX's map only consisted of a vague world map, ZX Advent's map has much more information, showing how many sub-stages are within each area, as well as providing a map of the current sub-stage.
  • Since your A-Trans forms' special attacks are often needed for stage progression, you slowly regenerate BM energy over time to ensure you don't get trapped anywhere with no energy.
  • ZX needed you to un-merge before getting to talk normally to civilian NPCs, otherwise they'll mistake you for a maverick and won't say anything helpful. Advent does away with this mechanic; presumably due to Biometal becoming more publicly well-known, neither your humanoid nor Megamerged states will scare anyone, and you'll automatically revert to being Mega Man Model A if you try to talk to an NPC while using one of the forms gained from A-Trans.
• Arc Words: The "Game of Destiny".
• Awesome, but Impractical: The Pseudoroid A-Trans abilities. Turning into the bosses themselves as a power is incredibly cool and unprecedented in a main series Mega Man game. The issue is that they all lack at least one core movement ability, like dashing^*Everyone except Buckfire, Hedgeshock, and Argoyle, Wall Jumps^*Everyone except Buckfire and Vultron, ladder climbing^*Everyone except Argoyle and Hedgeshock, and even normal grounded movement^*Chronoforce, Rospark, Bifrost. By comparison, the Mega Men transformations, which are almost entirely identical to their ZX versions, are a lot more universally applicable. The being said, they all have a use of some kind, though some of their niches are quite rare. ^*Buckfire is almost universally applicable to any situation as a result of his rate of fire and strong mobility, his only real weakness being his size; people new to the game can exploit Chronoforce's Time Bomb with wild abandon and he's a really good shield but once again can't be moved outside water; Rospark is useless without a pole to cling to but with one is incredibly powerful, which would be a solid niche if not for the fact you need him for most of those poles anyway, limiting the choice of who you might use for a given section; Queenbee is incredibly useful for newer players because she can fly out of any bad situation but she guzzles weapon energy faster than it respawns; Argoyle is also universally applicable and smaller than Buckfire, but Buckfire is stronger and by this point you have the other Models who are overall better; Bifrost is pure Rule of Cool but shouldn't be used beyond just goofing off; Hedgeshock falls under the same category of Argoyle; and finally Vulturon is widely applicable and moves at a relatively fast clip, and his attack is unique in surrounding his entire body, but its range is abysmal, meaning he's only really the superior choice in a small number of situations.
• Bittersweet Ending: More on the "sweet" than the "bitter", but Advent ends with the heroes triumphant, having saved the world from Master Albert, seemingly destroying Model W truly once and for all and thus putting an end to Dr. Weil's vile legacy, and having come to terms with their pasts and intending to face the future with hope and see all the wonders the world has to offer, thus completing their character arcs. However, their victory didn't come without sacrifices and multiple questions of certain characters' survivals are still up in the air plus one of the apparent Big Goods Master Thomas is revealed to have malevolent intentions in The Stinger and is partnering up with the surviving four enemy Mega Men for another scheme.
• Bookends: At the start of the game, Grey/Ashe will wake up in the infirmary of the Hunter's Camp after defeating the boss of the intro stage. After defeating Master Albert and blacking out inside of Ouroboros, both of them will wake up inside the infirmary for the final cutscene.
• Boss Tease: About 1/4th into the story, you'll meet the "Enemy Mega Men" in the end of 2 stages (Aeolus and Siarnaq in Rospark's level when they come to retrieve a Model W, Thetis and Atlas in Chronoforce's level since they wanted to get a good look at the new competition). Like Grey/Ashe, they're also participants in the "Game of Destiny," but none of them are in any mood to fight at the moment (Siarnaq just wants to get the Model W and finish the mission, Atlas doesn't think the newbie is worth her time and punctuates that by dropping them into the water to fight Chronoforce, Thetis isn't in the mood to fight, and Aeolus thinks he's giving them a small favor to grow stronger in preparation for their proper fight).
• Bragging Rights Reward: Model a, or "Model ancient". You have to earn all 24 boss medals with 3 per boss, which is damn hard and shows mastery of the entire game by defeating each of the Pseudoroids with specific requirements like using certain attacks as finishers, weakpoint-only damage, not hitting certain parts of them, and so on. Your reward is only usable as a very lightweight New Game Plus option that's automatically given to you on a new save, and it sucks so bad that it's hands-down the worst form of both games. It's effectively nothing more than a gag reward and proof of victory.
• Call-Back:
  • The entire Sage Trinity is named after the main scientists of the original series: Master Thomas = Dr. Light, Master Albert = Dr. Wily, and Master Mikhail = Dr. Cossack.
  • The final level, Ouroboros, has a striking resemblance to Ragnarok from Zero 4. This is because Ouroboros was made from hundreds of Model W, which were spawned from Ragnarok. Also, Model Z disappears inside, much like how Zero "disappears" in the destruction of Ragnarok.
• Casual High Drop: In Ashe's storyline, she in the intro jumps off the Hunters' airship down several hundred meters to the Raiders' ship below her and manages to land safely. This pretty much establishes her as a badass even before she gets her hands on the Model A.
• Chekhov's Skill: Model A's homing shot. While it is useful in the normal stages beforehand, the final boss fight is one time when the homing shot is essential.
• Cherry Tapping: Some of the boss medals require defeating a boss with a weak or hard-to-use attack. One example is Hedgeshock's gold medal, requiring you to fight her entirely in Human/Reploid form, where your only attack does minimal damage.
• Color-Coded Elements: The colors of the area icons on the world map correspond with the element of that level's boss.
• Continuity Nod:
  • The first part of the Arctic Ice Floe area has a background similar to the background of the first part of the X1 Intro stage.
  • The operator in Hunter's Camp is named Nana, like the operator from Mega Man X: Command Mission.
  • One of the missions you undertake at the Floating Ruins has you searching the ruins for outdated artifacts; these include the L Tank from 4, the ever-recurring Energy Balancer, the Yashichi recovery item from the original and Mega Man 8 (called "Pinwheel" in-game), and the Lightbulb which served as life energy back in the original Mega Man. All four of these items are given explainations for their antiquity by the time of ZX (i.e. the L Tank was never mass-produced, etc.).
  • One of the side quests has you finding the remains of a Mechaniloid to salvage in the Oil Fields. The Mechaniloid in question is a Utoboros, one of the mini-bosses from Launch Octopus's stage.
• Darker and Edgier: While Serpent was abominable and got Giro killed, Albert is far more immoral, and his machinations cause a notably bleaker outcome that threatens the entire world by comparison to Serpent's more isolated incident. If you start with Grey's story, it also features two Hunters that are murdered with a Gory Discretion Shot, to the point that Grey's starting weapon is pilfered from one of their corpses after he wakes up. This isn't helped by the rival Mega Men, who are all crazy bastards in their own rights.
• Decomposite Character: Grey and Ashe themselves can be considered split-expies of Axl. Ashe has Axl's cheerfulness, cockiness and recklessness, while Grey is an amnesiac boy who wants to know about his origins, much like Axl.
• Dual Boss: Argoyle and Ugoyle. They also have many Combination Attacks that are quite hard to avoid.
• Eco-Terrorist: Thetis is one of the villains, and his motivation for terrorizing the people (and feeding their souls to Model W Fragment) is that people have been ruining his beloved seas.
• Endgame+: Beating the game allows you to unlock a bonus room in the Raider airship in the Oil Fields that has a chance of dropping unique chips with differing effects (though only on certain months).
• Foreshadowing:
  • The Game of Destiny (which is then fully revealed in the second game) is foreshadowed in the first game, mostly in Aile's storyline with Prometheus cryptically stating he wants to see if she's worthy of being a part of the "game" before fighting her, Pandora saying all Mega Men must fight until only one remains, and Serpent all but states their battle was destined for the right to obtain Model W and the world.
  • Albert's status as the true Big Bad is foreshadowed as early as the first game in Aile's storyline, with Prometheus making constant references to a mysterious figure who's been manipulating everything behind Serpent. In his dying moments, Serpent flat-out states to Aile they both share the blood of Model W's creator. And in the second game, there's many Cryptic Conversations that involves, in Grey's words, "the 'HIM, HE and HIS' guy" before finally revealing the mysterious chessmaster, Model W's maker, and Master Albert are all the same person.
  • The Mysterious Lab includes three capsules: One for Prometheus, one for Pandora, and one for a mysterious "Prototype" with a model number before the other two. This is eventually revealed to be for Albert's true body. The fact that Grey was in another part of the lab in a similar-looking capsule, as noted by himself, also foreshadows the reveal that he was created by Albert too.
  • Model A's origins and Albert's true abilities are hinted back during the fight with Hedgeshock, who exclaims that Model A's powers are just like Albert's.
• Gambit Pileup: ZX Advent is a veritable Gambit Casino, due to the number of villainous factions and the fact that none of them particularly like each other. Specifically, the enemy Mega Men are trying to accumulate Model Ws (as per Master Albert's Game of Destiny) in order to become incredibly powerful. Albert is just using them, however, to feed the Model Ws so that they'll become the Ouroboros. The Mega Men know this, and are planning to backstab Albert, then fight amongst each other until only one remains to inherit Model W. Then there's Prometheus and Pandora, creations of Albert who in the previous game claimed to be the voices of Model W (after pretending to work for that game's Big Bad), but are now inclined to destroy everything that Albert made, including Model W. After the game is beaten on Hard mode, it turns out Master Thomas actually wants to reset the world as well, but in a different manner than Albert, hence why he wanted the latter killed. As for Model W, it stands to gain from any of these things happening, and is probably manipulating the entire cast, given its origin as explained in the first ZX game. And then there are the Guardians and Model ZX, who are only playing the Game of Destiny to destroy Model W and thus crash the Game. You got all that?
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Master Albert's demise comes from his own back-up body Grey and his unaltered descendant Ashe.
• Holiday Mode: Advent has unique chips and healing items that can be attained in one of two rooms in the Raider airship in the Oil Fields depending on the month (with the former only available on a cleared saved file). Adjusting the month in the DS settings can let you have those items quickly.
• I'm Having Soul Pains: Acquiring a Biometal's data causes Model A to unlock Exposition, causing Grey/Ashe intense pain. Acquiring Model Z and Model X's data also causes Aile/Vent to suffer backlash due to being in close proximity with Grey/Ashe as their data gets copied instead of teleporting out like the enemy Mega Men.
• Improvised Scattershot: One of Thetis' boss moves (in Ashe's storyline) is to generate a chunk of ice in front of him, then he slashes it with his halberd, causing a spread of icicles to shoot out. After Ashe gains his form, she can use a weaker version of the attack.
• Ironic Episode Title: Advent (means "the second coming") is a second game of the series, yes, but the titular Mega Man ZX is not the hero of this game — They're replaced with Grey/Ashe and Model A.
• Joke Character: Model a (lowercase), which plays like the original Mega Man 1. Although it does have a small advantage in being short and harder to hit. Also, easier to overlook on this as there are not really times when it would completely alter an area, the shots will go through walls that don't have the ability to reflect bullets.
• The Law of Conservation of Detail: Subverted due to its attempts to avert You All Look Familiar, where pretty much everyone you meet has different designs and personalities, except for the guys in uniform, who still act different. In other words, trying to rely on this trope to see who is important is completely pointless for this game. Though of course, as in all Mega Man games, the only ultimately really important ones are the robot animals/things actively shooting you.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: When the final boss fight is interrupted by a vengeful Prometheus and Pandora teleporting in and kill-stealing Albert before the fight even begins, Model A declares "I didn't think this is how the game would end...", a statement that could refer to both the Game of Destiny and the actual game.
• Left Hanging: Advent, while ending on an explosive and mostly-triumphant note for the heroes, left at least 4 major loose ends across both games unanswered: (Ciel's fate before the events of ZX, Prometheus and Pandora's fates after the confrontation in Master Albert's undersea base, and Model Z's fate post-Heroic Sacrifice are unknown; and Master Thomas positions himself to be the next Big Bad with the four enemy Mega Men on his side in The Stinger).
• Lethal Joke Character: Chronoforce's form; it can't move at all on land, but is immune to attacks from above and its charge shot, the Time Bomb, is quite useful. You can even change form after it's activated.
• Living Ship: Ouroboros stage has a heart-like machine that beats like a real heart, and also blood vessels-like lining in the background. Also, when Albert is defeated, the linings are coloured grey, signifying that the Ouroboros is dead as well.
• Locomotive Level: Buckfire's stage, where the Hunters are transferring Biometal Model A to Legion for the reward only to be attacked by Mavericks seeking to reclaim it (and in Grey's scenario, finish off the "Defective" escapee), which overlaps with Traintop Battle as it is specifically happening on top of a train. Interestingly enough, it's a plot point. The fight causes so much damage to the train that it's grounded on the way to Legion, prompting the Sage Trinity to give the Model A Mega Man the mission to repair the train and finish the journey. Indeed, going back to the train before repairing it shows it still stuck there.
• Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me:
  • Chronoforce's top shell is impervious to spikes and most attacks. It makes two of the Final Boss' otherwise annoying-to-avoid attacks a trivial matter.
  • Siarnaq's Reverse Shrapnel in Ashe's story can also act as this.
• The Master: The Sage Trinity all have the title "Master" before their names. Two out of the three are evil.
• Mighty Glacier: Bifrost; he has a great attack power, but he moves very slowly. Bonus point of being An Ice Person, fulfilling every sense of the trope name.
• New Game Plus: In addition to the standard "beat the game and unlock Hard Mode", completing the game and obtaining all 24 Medals from defeating the bosses on one playthrough will unlock the option to play Model a for any subsequent playthrough with either character. Playing on a completed file puts you right back before the final mission, but you can now access a room in the Raider's airship that depending on the month will drop special equippable chips. Completing the story with both Grey and Ashe will also unlock "Survival Road", a bonus Boss Rush against every boss in the game.
• Nostalgia Level: Floating Ruins, Highway, Scrapyard, and Control Tower are all implied to be the locales of the previous installment (Area A, Area D, Area F, and Slither Inc. building), between being located in the same general area relative to each other and reusing graphics. Heck, Master Mikhail says that the machines in the Scrapyard used to be covered in snow (as they were in ZX) and you can spot the broken glass capsules Serpent used to contain Cyber-elves in Control Tower's Boss Corridor.
• "Not So Different" Remark: Prometheus tries to invoke this with Ashe, claiming they are "two peas in a pod" in that they both fight for Revenge: Ashe against him for almost killing her and her friends (and making a fool of her during their first encounter), and himself against Albert for using him and his sister for centuries. Ashe fires back he's got it wrong, prompting a mocking "The Reason You Suck" Speech from Prometheus about she's "playing" at being a hero when she's not.
• One-Time Dungeon: The Undersea Volcano. Once this level is completed, the location cannot be revisited due to how it was destroyed by the formation of the Model Ws into Ouroboros, which only puts a further question mark on the fates of Prometheus and Pandora.
• Outside-the-Box Tactic: Advent's final boss has some otherwise hard-to-avoid attacks if not for the fact that transforming into Chronoforce makes you immune to two of them, and another can be easily avoided by using Model H and upward-dashing then hovering over the blue lasers.
• Paying It Forward: Grey was saved by a group of Hunters in an unknown lab and then gets nursed back to health in their camp. This inspires him to save others in need, even the Raiders (who are the Hunters' antithesis).
• Poor Communication Kills: The reason Grey/Ashe end up fighting Aile/Vent in the Quarry is because both sides assume the other is a hostile Mega Man working with Albert, and the vague answers they give each other just exacerbates this. Ashe is particularly guilty, in that while Grey simply tells Aile he's there to retrieve the Model W when she demands to know what he wants with it (just for Legion, not Albert), Ashe just blows off Vent's same question and says she's going to take it whether he likes it or not. Luckily, both sides figure things out and patch up afterwards.
• Production Foreshadowing: Advent includes a minigame based on the NES Mega Man games. And then Mega Man 9 came out, done by the same developer, Inti Creates.
• Ragnarök-Proofing: If you take a certain quest, you can find some surviving old "artifacts" like the L Tank and the Yashichi from a distant past despite the world going through multiple global-scale disasters over four centuries.
• Real-Time Weapon Change: The bottom screen has the icons of the available A-Trans forms, that you can transform into when you touch the icon, without the need to pause.
• Red Herring: When Albert reveals his true nature, he declares that Grey and Ashe were "Made in my image." At first, they just assume that they were given Albert's DNA at some point like all the other Chosen Ones were. However, he eventually reveals that what he really meant is that Grey is a backup body for Albert, while Ashe is a distant descendant of his.
• Retraux: The Mega Man a minigame. If you're crazy enough, the 8-bit "Model a" can even be unlocked for the main game.
• Save the Villain: Grey/Ashe want to do this for Prometheus and Pandora, but Model A points out there's no way they can carry both of them out of the Collapsing Lair in time, so they're forced to leave them to an Uncertain Doom.
• Sequel Hook: At the end of Advent, Master Thomas revealing he's Evil All Along.
• Shared Life-Meter: Argoyle and Ugoyle, when fought, initially appear to have a single health bar. However, when you activate Model H and use it to Enemy Scan them, you'll see that each of them has their own health bar. It's a lot more noticeable if you focus attacks on only one of the two, who will collapse once their life bar is depleted and leave the other with a weakened moveset.
• Spanner in the Works: If not for the two Hunters Mick and Robin fumbling in the mysterious lab and accidentally releasing Grey from his People Jars, and later the Hunter Billy saving the nearly drowned reploid and taking him under the camp's wings, he wouldn't be the one to stop the Big Bad's plans.
• Stealthy Mook: The Inviz mooks in the Floating Ruins stage can periodically turn invisible, only going visible to shoot at you.
• The Stinger: After the credits rolls, it revealed that the enemy Mega Men are Not Quite Dead and Master Thomas is not as benevolent as he appears.
• Superhuman Transfusion: It's revealed in Advent that in order to be able to Megamerge, the "Chosen Ones" needs to be infused with Albert's blood, which contains his DNA, which is the key for Megamerging. It can be argued that the DNA is "datafied" as humans and reploids have machine parts. Not entirely played straight, but it's still there.