Like other games in the series, Mega Man X7 in which the player fights through an octet of selectable stages.

The game takes place after previous installments as mechanical being known as Reploids work diligently to rebuild the Earth after several parts from the planets were destroyed by the renegade "Mavericks".

[6] In X's absence, Maverick activity rapidly begins to rise, which leads to the formation of an unsanctioned anti-Maverick vigilante group known as Red Alert.

As the group grows more and more reckless, one of their members, a new generation Reploid prototype named Axl, decides to defect.

Axl is chased through a city by a mechaniloid sent by Red Alert to retrieve him, and the ensuing chaos draws the attention of Zero.

[8] Elsewhere, Red communicates with a mysterious figure known as "The Professor," who gives him additional power and shows him what Axl's copy ability can do.

This feature allows for X to become available after the opening stage with any collected armor parts kept and all the chip upgrades from the previous game are retained.

When starting the game, the player has only access to returning Maverick Hunter Zero, a Reploid who fights with a sword, and newcomer Axl who especially in fire weapons.

If the item (a glowing red sphere) is picked up, Axl will transform into a copy of the enemy he destroyed, with all of its features (speed, weapon, etc.).

He explained that transitioning the character models of Mega Man X from 2D to 3D graphics was a challenge, but that including both 2D and 3D gameplay was not, as they had planned to have them in equal amounts for the game.

[15] The development team took into account the less-than-favorable reception for Mega Man X6, but instead of simply trying to make the next game new and fresh with 3D graphics, they decided to focus on "getting 3D right".

[1] Yoshikawa thought the team would have to create "polygon friendly" bosses, but decided to stick to the traditional design concepts set forth by the early Mega Man X games.

As the series had finally transitioned into 3D, Yoshikawa also expected the team to rethink the way the game was made as they had done in the first Mega Man X title.

The ending theme is "Lazy Mind", performed by Showtaro Morikubo, the voice actor for X in the Japanese games.

[30] Despite liking the switching, GamePro found enemy interaction to be poorly executed especially the handling of Axl's auto target.

[31] GameRevolution liked the Reploid system for letting players enhance their characters through chips as they found the gameplay challenging.

[28][30] Criticism has been aimed at the English voice actors' performance, to the point that it has been recommended to try listening to the original Japanese audio.

"[28] IGN instead placed the blame wholly on the 3D sections: "We can't help but think that Mega Man X7 would have been better-suited staying 2D.

But until Capcom realizes that the better action-oriented 3D titles allow you to manipulate the camera whole-heartedly, future installments of the series will likely run into the same problems that this one did.

[38] GamesRadar compared it with the similarly poor received Castlevania for the Nintendo 64 due to how both games tried staying away from their predecessors' formula by adding 3D gameplay and the transition failed to gamers.