I love it!
Just kidding, I hate it
Every stage just feels like one big gimmick and nothing else. Even X6 and X7 still consistently have different gimmicks plural. Minus Blaze Heatix and Shield Sheldon but anyway. The stages that are especially egregious for this were Inferno (just an auto scroller, boo), Metal Valley (conceptually cool but there is practically nothing in that stage that specifically poses any sort of threat), and Dynasty (just pure ride chaser with clunky controls, no thanks. At least Booster Forest, Central White, and Primrose actually try to be traditional Mega Man X stages you'd see in an older game (especially Central White, big Jet Stingray vibes there), but they fall pretty flat. I don't like a lot of the music in this game either. I'm not opposed to rock at all, in fact I am a metalhead. But where X8 goes wrong is how samey the instruments are, how repetitive a lot of the songs get, and how it really feels like literal background music with how uneventful it sounds most of the time. It's middle of the road for me. So why do I hate this game exactly, you may ask? It feels empty and underwhelming especially given its the last mainline Mega Man X game with no X9 in sight. I'll give it points for it's story though, since the other X games lack in that aspect or make the mistake of treating it like an afterthought (yeah I'm talking to YOU, X4).
X8's demake fixes a lot of the issues I had with the game, minus music.
My music highlights because despite what I've said, there's a few I like:
-Inferno (Descending): Favorite in the whole game, goes on for a decent while and actually sounds fleshed out
-Metal Valley (Overheat): Really cool sounding, it's a shame it's one of the shorter and repetitive ones
-Noah's Park: Really good intro stage music, the main melody and length make it stand out in a sea of the same instruments for the rest of the game. I'd genuinely place it above a lot of other intro stage themes, including X6.
-Lumine Phase 2: Who actually hates the song?
-Vile: Vile NEVER misses with music
-Copy Sigma: It's like X3's Sigma 1st but actually realized and memorable
-Sigma: A damn good remix of the above, fitting for the twist
-Booster Forest (Ride Armor): With how uneventful the normal music was, this was needed
-Dynasty: Futuristic jazz music is the kind of variety I wish this game had more of, catchy too. Best part of the garbage stage it belongs to.
-Primrose: I love my reject X4 stage theme, kinda glad they didn't go with the prototype, this game needed tracks like this
-Central White: Gets stuck in my head and I'd put this pretty high on a maverick stage theme list.
-Boss: Well of course
-Gateway: A very different fortress stage theme for Mega Man X, psychedelic rock that almost reminds me of Pink Floyd, Hello Ocho, and the third stratum theme from Etrian Odyssey V
-Jakob Orbital Elevator: No one can hate Jakob Elevator
-Sigma's Palace: SUDDENLY, Final Fantasy music!
-Vs Maverick: Don't let the name fool you, this is the miniboss theme. It's also a BANGER, and I'm not sure how no one talks about it. Only negative is that the melody is kind of drowned out by the background instruments, especially notable when the guitar comes in.
that's it
but enough of my opinion, if you have the means try it, my opinion is a hot take in the community
