In regards to his "Mega Man Zero" incarnation, GameSpot believed the character's redesign was well employed based on his presentation. IGN considered Zero's retake be like a breakout character due to how he develops his own skills unlike previous versions of the Mega Man cast. Destructoid simply described Zero as "a red death machine who uses pistols, lightsabers, shields, and multiple other melee weapons..." due to his dark characterization when compared with previous main characters. Nevertheless, Nintendo Life noticed that across Zero's spin-off, the title Reploid continuously showed a character arc that would make him more likable to gamers, earning the spotlight for the first time based on how he was originally a side character. Similarly, US Gamer referred to Zero to have one of the more elaborated story arcs in the Mega Man franchise in general due to how he changes between the "X" series and the "Mega Man Zero". The writer further added that the apparent misrelationship between Zero and X before the revelation the latter was a clone gone corrupted was one of the darkest things seen in Capcom's games due to the idea of Zero working to kill X, the former protagonist of the series.