A very good RPG and a satisfying ending to the X series.
Story: It is the year 22XX, a mineral was discovered called Force Metal, which produced an immense amount of power.
Because of force metal engineering and reploid performance improved dramatically and a facility for refining Force Metal was build in an island called Giga City, thanks to Force Metal people began to live more comfortable lives.
However several months later a group of renegade reploids began a rebellion under their leader Epsilon and ruled the island in an iron fist, using the power of Force Metal.
The government deployed S class maverick hunters X and Zero along with government official Shadow to investigate and stop the Rebellions.
Game design: In terms of graphics Megaman X Command Mission is a marvel, the cel-shaded animations and well designed character models and animations makes this game one of the best looking cel-shaded game on the PS2.
There are in game cut scenes with well written dialogues and with an interesting and deep story, with its share of twists.
Like I mentioned this game is an RPG, not an action platformer, however the RPG is more like a direct translation of a Megaman RPG than a typical Final Fantasy RPG.
The game is linear and events are split into different chapters, there is an intro chapter, 8 main chapters and a final chapter.
In each chapter you will be fighting enemies, recruiting new characters and fight boss battles in the end of each.
The game contains many hidden contents as well as a playable demo of Megaman X8.
Game play: In the real world you will control X, you will be moving around worlds going through doors, talking to people and can dash to move quickly or pick up items.
You will encounter enemies at random and will be taken to the battle screen.
The battle is turn based (like Final Fantasy X) and will be a 3 man battle.
You will ally with more characters and can switch at anytime.
Each character will have a main attack (eg, X-buster, Z-saber, etc) and 2 sub weapons (eg missiles, armor boost, etc), using sub weapons will cost you WE.
WE can be filled in every turn, once it reaches above 50% you can execute character's signature ultimate attacks, once activated the ultimate attacks will involve button interactions (eg, hold X to charge or press button commands for combos, etc), the more WE% the powerful the attacks, each character will have their own signature ultimate attacks and they level-up as you progress.
Each character also has their own hyper mode, where their attack powers and defense increase (Though X is the only one with a distinguishable transformation, while the rest merely change color scheme).
Each battle will give characters Exp. points and can then level up.
Every RPG game has some special upgrade system (eg, Final Fantasy VII as Materia), in X Command Mission we the Force Metal system.
Characters can equip all different kinds of force metal to upgrade attributes (eg, increase power, be immune to statues ailments, add more WE% etc) however characters can equip a limited amount of Force Metal, if they equip more than they can handle then they will overload and will suffer from statues ailments during battle, the further you level up the more powerful force metal you can equip.
You can purchase force metal at shops, get them from defeated enemies and can eventually create your own force metal, provided you have the ingredient.
Sound: The music in the game is great and very fitting for an RPG. Voice casts are once again implemented and taken to a new level, with many well spoken dialogues (and that's saying a lot for a Megaman game!) and with many great sound effects.
Megaman X Command Mission is a satisfying ending to the X series, the game has an incredible amount of production value put to it (too much perhaps) with a deep and engaging story.
There are also hidden contents to keep you coming back for more and the graphics are just simply incredible.
Then again this really may depend on how you see it, as a Megaman RPG it delivered and was well produced, as an RPG alone however it may disappoint, because the game may be a bit to linear, straight forward and short, although collecting tokens and images is interesting it would have been nice to place a few distractions here and there (like a few mini-games other than just fighting), although you can talk to people all you do is talk and nothing else (it would have been nice to place a few sub-missions or something) the worlds, although look really great, feel kind of cramped and small and it would have been nice to be somewhere a bit more open.
Then again judging by how the game is presented and how the concept was set, the game is by all means a Megaman game, just in RPG form.
Fans may be skeptical at first seeing that the last game in the series maybe an RPG, but given the opportunity and time you will appreciate the game play and style and may be able to recognize it as a Megaman game.
As for RPG fans I'd say you could get this game if you want to kill a few days.
The game does have potential and I think a sequel wouldn't be out of the question, though it's least likely to happen.