Vent (ヴァン, Van?) and Aile (エール, Ēru?) are the two main protagonists in the first installment of the Mega Man ZX series, the sixth sub-series in the Mega Man franchise.
Profile[]
Their young lives forever change after their first encounter with Biometal, a substance that stores the data of a Reploid or human. Vent and Aile use the M.E.G.A. (Meta-Encapsulated Granule Awareness) System, to activate the Biometals and change into a form similar to what the Biometal was based off of. They use the Biometals to defend themselves and others from Mavericks. In French, Vent means "Wind" and Aile means "Wing".
Their age are 14 years old in the original Mega Man ZX game. Ten years prior to the events of ZX, they went with their mother(s) to the fair, where their mother(s) was/were killed in a Maverick attack (Vent's scenario reveals that the Pseudoroid Purprill was responsible for the incident). At the beginning of the game, Vent and Aile work for Giro Express and are asked by the Guardians to transport the Biometal Model X. They later come into the possession of Model X, and later Model Z when Giro sacrifices his life to save them. They also later obtain Models H, F, L, and P.
Story[]
Childhood[]
Both Vent and Aile work for Giro Express, but the one that the player chooses to play as is the one that Giro decides to take with him at the outset of the first game. Neither one is ever seen or mentioned in the other's storyline; however, a promo movie for the game features both of them coexisting in the same timeline. The official ZX site also says that Aile has "plenty of spunk to keep Vent on his toes", again suggesting they are in the same timeline. Their backstories are identical, and other than gender the main differences between them is different dialogue in certain scenes, and very minor gameplay changes. Though the two never come in contact with each other within the story of either game, they are shown together (along with six of the other Mega Men) in Model A's data in ZX Advent.
Young Adulthood[]
Vent and Aile return in Mega Man ZX Advent, as young adults (now being 18 years old), with Vent appearing in Ashe's story, and Aile in Grey's. Both of them still retain their Model ZX transformation from the first game. Due to the timeskip between ZX and ZX Advent (about 5 years), both now sport new looks; Aile has a long thin ponytail and Vent has Giro-like hair. Both wear blue versions of Model ZX's jacket instead of the shirts that are seen in ZX. In ZX Advent, Grey/Ashe fights Aile/Vent when the two encounter a Model W - when Grey/Ashe state their intent to retrieve the Biometal, Aile/Vent stands in his/her way, as she/he intends to destroy the Biometal. After their battle, the two become allies. Dialogue between the two after the battle indicate that Vent/Aile has known about the other Model Ws, hinting that he or she had found and destroyed a number of them between then and the end of the first game.
Trivia[]
- Vent means "Wind" and Aile means "Wing" in French.
- Aile is also Turkish for "family".
- Their appearance in outfit, hair (except for hairstyle) and eye color are identical, making them look almost like twins. However, there is no proof whatsoever of what their relation actually is.
- Interestingly, based on ciphers from Mega Man ZX Advent, both stories may really be just the same storyline with similar details, except the character(s) picked may just be what happened if one instead of the other became the Biomatch (additionally, in one commercial for ZX they both actually appear and work together).
- It is also possible that Aile and Vent could be alternate universe counterparts of each other.
- Vent's crawling speed is slower than Aile's, but he gets knocked back less than Aile when struck by an enemy. Aile can crawl faster than Vent, but also gets knocked back further than him when hit by an enemy.
- Vent is always used for humor in Mega Man ZX. In the commercial, Aile slaps his back and makes him drop his boxes, while on a mousepad that came as pre-order bonus for the ZXA Tunes, he is forced to clean while Ashe listens to music.
- In the manga, Vent is seen taking out a PET from Mega Man Battle Network 6 and a Servbot toy from his pockets.
- After rescuing the Guardians and citizens from Area G in Mega Man ZX as Aile, the player may go to the room at the right end of the Guardian Base to change her outfit to an alternate color. The player can also do this in the city from the start in easy mode, or after a quest in normal and hard modes.
- Cover art for the ZX soundtrack shows Aile wearing headphones and listening to music, using Biometal Model X as the CD player.
- Excluding spin-offs, Aile is the first playable female protagonist in the entire Mega Man franchise. She is not, however, the first female playable character in the series as Roll and Kalinka were playable in RockBoard.
- Furthermore, the first female playable characters in a mainline title are Alia, Layer and Pallette, from Mega Man X8. However, being secret unlockable characters, they do not qualify as protagonists.
- In the original Mega Man ZX both Aile and Vent are voiced by the same voice actress: Sanae Kobayashi. In Mega Man ZX Advent, Vent is voiced by Kenji Nojima while Aile is voiced by Sanae Kobayashi in the Japanese version. In the English version, Vent is voiced by Dario, and Aile is voiced by Yuko Yunokawa.
- Aile, despite being female, is never referred to as "Mega Woman." The reason for this is that the ones who possess Biometals are simply dubbed "Mega Man" regardless of gender.
- Aile has seven color swaps when she talks to Luca. Though she will be in default during dialogue and status mugshots. These include:
- Yellow shoes and jacket with dark red hair.
- Teal shoes and jacket with pink hair.
- Pink shoes and jacket with blonde hair.
- Silver shoes and jacket with chestnut hair.
- Pink shoes and jacket with brown hair.
- Purple shoes and jacket with red hair.
- Green shoes and jacket with orange hair.
- Unlike Vent, it is never made explicit whether Purprill the Mandroid was the Maverick responsible for Aile's parents death, although she implies it was indeed the case when she yells at Purprill: "I'm the one with the memories here. You get out of my park!".
- Vent, Aile, Grey, Ashe and Geo Stelar are the only playable incarnations of the original Mega Man protagonist who have yet to make their playable debuts in a fighting game involving Capcom characters.
Gallery[]
For more of these characters, see their gallery.