>>142290480>>142290462>>142290499Okay the history of Zero's "design intention" is a mess that has been telephone to hell and back for decades.
Let me tell you what the most direct interviews on the matter say is the case.
-Inafune while developing X1 wanted to use his design for Zero as the MC for Mega Man X. HOWEVER he wasn't rejected, Inafune was a scarred he'd lose face just by submitting a design that COULD be rejected. So he instead designed what we'd identify as a time-skip verison of Mega Man for X and submitted him, but also submitted Zero to be used as a supporting character.
Then Inafune basically started working on X2 with the concept that it would be a game about rescuing a rebuilt Zero from a new group of enemies. This
X3 was outsourced and Inafune had no direct involvement in its development. Which is the first game Zero was playable in and he was broken as fuck compared to X.
Inafune did lead the charge to make Zero the focus of X4 and X5. However he intended Zero to "Stay dead" in as far as he was cultivating to get a Zero spinoff made, where Zero is repaired 100 years in the future after being destroyed in X5. He was unaware of the development of X6 which brought Zero back into the X series. However claimed he never felt like it was a major faux pax since they baked in a huge buffer time that Zero can just have his heroic last stand before getting back up at another time in the next XX years.
All of this is according to Inafune himself.