Thriving off the pastiche of early morning 90s anime, somewhere between Astro Boy, Pokémon and One Piece, Mega Man Legends wears the sanguine smile of a lost decade of anime, a face recognizable to only the most jaded of despondent 20-something weebs and old-head otakus. Conceptually light, the game mostly treads the same footing as it’s inspiration: our plucky protagonists crash-land on a distant island, foil bumbling sky pirates, and unearth treasure and secrets aplenty in the name of fortune and getting back home. It’s simple, it’s clean, it’s the foundation for a generation of anime writing, but like the greatest baby anime, the concept isn’t what sells you on Mega Man Legends: It’s simply a gateway to some stellar vibes.
Driven by low-stakes and a peaceful atmosphere, the game brings to mind the feeling of waking up just in time to catch Pokémon before you run off to school, the emotions bound to that half-hour slice, the hominess of the entertainment you grow up with. Like an audio-visual security blanket, Mega Man Legends is nostalgia given form, a work built not for overshadow competition and breaking new ground, but to provide an experience that felt immediately familiar, yet uniquely new.
Even compared to its predecessors, Mega Man Legends sits in sharp contrast; as if in reaction to the lethal edge and melodrama of the Mega Man X series, a story of betrayal, loss, death, and general misery, Legends expounds boundless optimism in the face of adversity, unbreakable bravery in the face of crushing odds, and a bunch of goofy doofuses filling a cast of instantly lovable faces. If anything, the game designed to take advantage of the new technology afforded to the PlayStation feels like a much more genuine reconciliation of the tone of the original Mega Man series, while the game designed to retain the old-school fan base was deeply tinged by the style and aesthetic of gritty, grimy 90s OVAs and anime.
Talking about the mechanics in a game like this feels pointless: You are there, without question, to experience the story, meet the characters, and appreciate the world the game has developed. The gameplay itself exists as a method to feed that experience to you; while deeply dated, and reflective of the past of game design in its philosophy, it stands less as a foundational flaw of the game and more part of the overall story. In an inversion of John Carmack’s infamous quote, the gameplay is expected to be there, but it’s not important.
It’s difficult to speak uncritically about a game with such an established cultural relevance, and it’s equally difficult to find something meaningful to say. For me, Mega Man Legends is the epitome of a bygone era of anime, a touchstone on a generation of anime that inspired artists, writers and directors through the present day. It’s watching Yu-Gi-Oh as you wake up, it’s catching Digimon during a lazy Sunday. It’s emblematic of nostalgia as an idea, and how it relates to the media we approached as children, and how those tastes shape what we love and appreciate now.
Driven by low-stakes and a peaceful atmosphere, the game brings to mind the feeling of waking up just in time to catch Pokémon before you run off to school, the emotions bound to that half-hour slice, the hominess of the entertainment you grow up with. Like an audio-visual security blanket, Mega Man Legends is nostalgia given form, a work built not for overshadow competition and breaking new ground, but to provide an experience that felt immediately familiar, yet uniquely new.
Even compared to its predecessors, Mega Man Legends sits in sharp contrast; as if in reaction to the lethal edge and melodrama of the Mega Man X series, a story of betrayal, loss, death, and general misery, Legends expounds boundless optimism in the face of adversity, unbreakable bravery in the face of crushing odds, and a bunch of goofy doofuses filling a cast of instantly lovable faces. If anything, the game designed to take advantage of the new technology afforded to the PlayStation feels like a much more genuine reconciliation of the tone of the original Mega Man series, while the game designed to retain the old-school fan base was deeply tinged by the style and aesthetic of gritty, grimy 90s OVAs and anime.
Talking about the mechanics in a game like this feels pointless: You are there, without question, to experience the story, meet the characters, and appreciate the world the game has developed. The gameplay itself exists as a method to feed that experience to you; while deeply dated, and reflective of the past of game design in its philosophy, it stands less as a foundational flaw of the game and more part of the overall story. In an inversion of John Carmack’s infamous quote, the gameplay is expected to be there, but it’s not important.
It’s difficult to speak uncritically about a game with such an established cultural relevance, and it’s equally difficult to find something meaningful to say. For me, Mega Man Legends is the epitome of a bygone era of anime, a touchstone on a generation of anime that inspired artists, writers and directors through the present day. It’s watching Yu-Gi-Oh as you wake up, it’s catching Digimon during a lazy Sunday. It’s emblematic of nostalgia as an idea, and how it relates to the media we approached as children, and how those tastes shape what we love and appreciate now.
DeAndre Cortez Way’s 2009 critique of Braid is well known for how it pioneered games analysis on Youtube, but it’s even more famous for its assertion that the game lacked central purpose. While entertainment is generally associated with some degree of pointlessness, there’s also expected to be some degree of enrichment, whether that be through the merit of competition, mastering challenge, or constructive escapism. If the audience is left without a lasting impression, the experience may as well have never happened, so it’s important for games to construct purposefulness, regardless of how artificial it is.
I started reevaluating this concept when Roll called me up as I exited a dungeon, mentioning that I must be getting hungry, and that I could have a slice of the apricot pie she baked as soon as I got back to the ship. The line is completely pointless. The subject never comes up again, it doesn’t build into any new characterization, and the game would be functionally identical without it, but even so, they went to the trouble of writing and recording a voice line for it. Similarly, while Roll is established as your mechanic, she’s not the person who saves your game and heals you, it’s a small robotic monkey that constantly does The Monkey like Johnny Bravo, and I can’t fathom why. That is to say, I can’t fathom why it’s constantly dancing and I also can’t fathom why it was included in the game at all, but there it is. The more I looked for it, the more I noticed how Legends is completely saturated with pointlessness, including its plot. The stakes are incredibly low, you’re simply trying to find a treasure before the Bonne Family Pirates do, but they’re such a loving family of good-natured criminals that you wouldn’t mind them winning. In multiple cutscenes, MegaMan seems like he wants to communicate to the Bonnes that there’s no real reason to fight, but they keep doing it because they love it. Details like these give the game a totally unique atmosphere of joyous pointlessness, like the developers themselves were building the game in ways that made them laugh, regardless of how much sense their design actually made. The game feels like a celebration of doing things entirely for their own sake, and not getting too caught up in finding a grand purpose. I wouldn’t exactly call it The Myth of Sisyphus for kids or anything, but at the very least it’s a perfect example of how pleasant it can be that there ain’t no point to the game.
I started reevaluating this concept when Roll called me up as I exited a dungeon, mentioning that I must be getting hungry, and that I could have a slice of the apricot pie she baked as soon as I got back to the ship. The line is completely pointless. The subject never comes up again, it doesn’t build into any new characterization, and the game would be functionally identical without it, but even so, they went to the trouble of writing and recording a voice line for it. Similarly, while Roll is established as your mechanic, she’s not the person who saves your game and heals you, it’s a small robotic monkey that constantly does The Monkey like Johnny Bravo, and I can’t fathom why. That is to say, I can’t fathom why it’s constantly dancing and I also can’t fathom why it was included in the game at all, but there it is. The more I looked for it, the more I noticed how Legends is completely saturated with pointlessness, including its plot. The stakes are incredibly low, you’re simply trying to find a treasure before the Bonne Family Pirates do, but they’re such a loving family of good-natured criminals that you wouldn’t mind them winning. In multiple cutscenes, MegaMan seems like he wants to communicate to the Bonnes that there’s no real reason to fight, but they keep doing it because they love it. Details like these give the game a totally unique atmosphere of joyous pointlessness, like the developers themselves were building the game in ways that made them laugh, regardless of how much sense their design actually made. The game feels like a celebration of doing things entirely for their own sake, and not getting too caught up in finding a grand purpose. I wouldn’t exactly call it The Myth of Sisyphus for kids or anything, but at the very least it’s a perfect example of how pleasant it can be that there ain’t no point to the game.
Mega Man Legends is one of those games I find impossible to talk about without treading a whole lot of well-worn ground. Everyone knows about this game, everyone has an opinion, everyone loves Tron Bonne and wants to take Data home with them and dress them up with like, cute little hats. You see a copy of Mega Man Legends and you just want to give it a kiss, this is a perfectly normal and healthy reaction.
"It's just like playing an OVA," absolutely. 100% correct. It's wholesome, it's charming, it fills you with warmth, and even if you're playing it for the first time today, I'm sure it will stir some fuzzy feeling of nostalgia in you. The setting, story, and characters are just perfect, and the art style has spawned a near infinite supply of imitators, especially now that we're firmly in the era of people making games and basing their whole artistic profile around evoking PS1 era graphics. This is not a criticism, I love how this game looks, how it sounds, and how it feels steeping myself in its world.
For as immaculate and pure as Legends presentation is, the gameplay feels remarkably flat. A lot of dull, boxy corridors and unengaging enemy encounters really drag down the parts of the game where you're not bummin around town and helping people with their problems. Mega Man also feels a bit too stiff, and I blame all of this on the fact that it's a game from 1997. For better and for worse, there was a lack of homogony at this time, which meant there was no real standard for how to design this sort of game, and it ends up feeling a bit clunky as a result. You can kick the shit out of that can, though.
I can't hold that against Legends too much, but it does firmly root it into category of "games I gel with but don't like playing." I'd say there's a concerning amount of those at this point, but I also play a lot of video games. I'm in my 30s and I live alone, what else am I going to do? I guess I could look up the voice actors in this game, see what they've been up to. That sounds like fun!
Uh... uh oh... oh no! TEISEL, NO!!!
"It's just like playing an OVA," absolutely. 100% correct. It's wholesome, it's charming, it fills you with warmth, and even if you're playing it for the first time today, I'm sure it will stir some fuzzy feeling of nostalgia in you. The setting, story, and characters are just perfect, and the art style has spawned a near infinite supply of imitators, especially now that we're firmly in the era of people making games and basing their whole artistic profile around evoking PS1 era graphics. This is not a criticism, I love how this game looks, how it sounds, and how it feels steeping myself in its world.
For as immaculate and pure as Legends presentation is, the gameplay feels remarkably flat. A lot of dull, boxy corridors and unengaging enemy encounters really drag down the parts of the game where you're not bummin around town and helping people with their problems. Mega Man also feels a bit too stiff, and I blame all of this on the fact that it's a game from 1997. For better and for worse, there was a lack of homogony at this time, which meant there was no real standard for how to design this sort of game, and it ends up feeling a bit clunky as a result. You can kick the shit out of that can, though.
I can't hold that against Legends too much, but it does firmly root it into category of "games I gel with but don't like playing." I'd say there's a concerning amount of those at this point, but I also play a lot of video games. I'm in my 30s and I live alone, what else am I going to do? I guess I could look up the voice actors in this game, see what they've been up to. That sounds like fun!
Uh... uh oh... oh no! TEISEL, NO!!!
I think SuperSpeedRaven likes this game
eu já maratonei yakuza do 1 original até o 6 (pretendo começar judgment em breve! tô jurando isso tem uns 2 anos) e se me perguntarem de alguma side quest dele eu provavelmente vou falar que não sei, não lembro, não fiz, com algumas exceções. é engraçado até que ainda sim eu amo os ambientes desse jogo e associo eles a minha experiência com o jogo de uma forma bem forte e marcante.
no finalzinho do mml, enquanto estava para dar tchau pro povo da cidade, minha namorada, que zerou tem uns dias, apontou que a mulher que ainda estava grávida no meu jogo, no dela já estava com filho e nomeou ele de megaman porque ela fez a sidequest. eu achei um charme isso e eu gosto dessas diferenças, mas pensei muito que considero mml um jogo estilo yakuza, o joguinho focado numa só cidade charmosa, cheia de lugares pra visitar e interagir.
minha relação com esses jogos é de dar uma passeada, fazer alguma quest que apareça no caminho e ir curtindo a história. não me levem a mal, tem vários jogos que eu perco horas fazendo esse tipo de coisa, mas acho que em jogos de cidade assim o que eu absorvo e guardo pra mim são as pessoas que eu conversei, as construções que vi, os acontecimentos e consequências deles. fiquei fascinadíssimo quando li na biblioteca da cidade que o mundo supostamente funcionava em vários ciclos - toda vez que um ciclo acabava acontecia um desastre que acabava com a sociedade de lá.
depois de desbravar várias escavações e chegar na construção central que é base de tudo o que acontece abaixo da ilha onde a cidade se encontra, você descobre que isso é bem literal e o megaman fica olhando para o amontoado de informações que recebe no final igual o neo fica no final de matrix reloaded, fica parecendo que esse jogo se passa numa realidade alternativa controladinha e projetada pra gente explorar, se afeiçoar e ver tudo ruir diversas e diversas vezes (vai saber quantos megaman passaram por isso sem ter memória nenhuma), aí novas sociedades nascem, crescem, constroem se esbalecem e puft chegou a hora de destruir tudo novamente. é uma revelação bem legal, eu achei lindo como foi tudo construidinho assim.
claro que nossa afeição vence, quem disse que eu não decorei o caminho pro hospital, me acostumei a andar pelas florestas e campos pra achar passagens pro sub-solo, ou fui todo preocupado reconstruir umas casas que foram destruídas. tenho certeza que se fizessem megaman legends anualmente eu ia prestar atenção nas mudanças que ocorrem no apple market a cada sequência e quebraria o ciclo que as forças tecnológicas misteriosas querem impor aquela cidadezinha todas as vezes.
no finalzinho do mml, enquanto estava para dar tchau pro povo da cidade, minha namorada, que zerou tem uns dias, apontou que a mulher que ainda estava grávida no meu jogo, no dela já estava com filho e nomeou ele de megaman porque ela fez a sidequest. eu achei um charme isso e eu gosto dessas diferenças, mas pensei muito que considero mml um jogo estilo yakuza, o joguinho focado numa só cidade charmosa, cheia de lugares pra visitar e interagir.
minha relação com esses jogos é de dar uma passeada, fazer alguma quest que apareça no caminho e ir curtindo a história. não me levem a mal, tem vários jogos que eu perco horas fazendo esse tipo de coisa, mas acho que em jogos de cidade assim o que eu absorvo e guardo pra mim são as pessoas que eu conversei, as construções que vi, os acontecimentos e consequências deles. fiquei fascinadíssimo quando li na biblioteca da cidade que o mundo supostamente funcionava em vários ciclos - toda vez que um ciclo acabava acontecia um desastre que acabava com a sociedade de lá.
depois de desbravar várias escavações e chegar na construção central que é base de tudo o que acontece abaixo da ilha onde a cidade se encontra, você descobre que isso é bem literal e o megaman fica olhando para o amontoado de informações que recebe no final igual o neo fica no final de matrix reloaded, fica parecendo que esse jogo se passa numa realidade alternativa controladinha e projetada pra gente explorar, se afeiçoar e ver tudo ruir diversas e diversas vezes (vai saber quantos megaman passaram por isso sem ter memória nenhuma), aí novas sociedades nascem, crescem, constroem se esbalecem e puft chegou a hora de destruir tudo novamente. é uma revelação bem legal, eu achei lindo como foi tudo construidinho assim.
claro que nossa afeição vence, quem disse que eu não decorei o caminho pro hospital, me acostumei a andar pelas florestas e campos pra achar passagens pro sub-solo, ou fui todo preocupado reconstruir umas casas que foram destruídas. tenho certeza que se fizessem megaman legends anualmente eu ia prestar atenção nas mudanças que ocorrem no apple market a cada sequência e quebraria o ciclo que as forças tecnológicas misteriosas querem impor aquela cidadezinha todas as vezes.
Eu joguei esse game na época que eu tinha play 1 (ou seja, a uns 20 anos atras), mas nunca terminei (sei lá o porque). E depois de um jogo gigante de mundo aberto, eu precisava de algo curto. E finalmente eu entendo pq os fãs desse game tem tanto carinho por ele.
O charme que esse game tem é inegavel, principalmente com os designs dos personagens e as musicas, que na maior parte são bem mais calmas e até algumas vezes nem tendo trilha no jogo.
Diferente dos outros jogos 2D de Mega Man, aqui nos vamos nos aventurar em uma ilha com uma cidade relativamente pequena e dungeons para coletar dinheiro e peças para fabricar armas. Pois zé, nada de 8 robos com poderes diferentes, aqui a Roll fabrica as suas armas com os itens que vc encontra, como minas, lança foguete, um sabre de luz e por ai vai.
E por ser um game em 3D de play 1, o maior problema dele é a camera. MINHA NOSSA COMO ERA TERRIVEL CONTROLAR A CAMERA PELO L1 E R1. Apesar de ter um sistema de lock on, nao da pra se movimentar quando vc ta travado em um inimigo. É um problema da época, mas se vc ta acostumado a jogar jogo antigo, vc acaba se acostumando.
Mesmo terminando o game em 2023 e enfrentenado seus controles datados, nao tem como nao ter um carinho por ele.
O charme que esse game tem é inegavel, principalmente com os designs dos personagens e as musicas, que na maior parte são bem mais calmas e até algumas vezes nem tendo trilha no jogo.
Diferente dos outros jogos 2D de Mega Man, aqui nos vamos nos aventurar em uma ilha com uma cidade relativamente pequena e dungeons para coletar dinheiro e peças para fabricar armas. Pois zé, nada de 8 robos com poderes diferentes, aqui a Roll fabrica as suas armas com os itens que vc encontra, como minas, lança foguete, um sabre de luz e por ai vai.
E por ser um game em 3D de play 1, o maior problema dele é a camera. MINHA NOSSA COMO ERA TERRIVEL CONTROLAR A CAMERA PELO L1 E R1. Apesar de ter um sistema de lock on, nao da pra se movimentar quando vc ta travado em um inimigo. É um problema da época, mas se vc ta acostumado a jogar jogo antigo, vc acaba se acostumando.
Mesmo terminando o game em 2023 e enfrentenado seus controles datados, nao tem como nao ter um carinho por ele.
This is the best Mega Man series. Only a malfunctioning Servebot could disagree.
A pretty simple yet oozing with charm game that never overstays its welcome.
It both visually and (mostly) gameplay wise holds up incredibly well, especially for a game released in 1997. I think in terms of just presentation alone it easily knocks most of its original Playstation peers out of the park. From the very bright, warm, colorful aesthetic that reminds me a lot of the Miyazaki films, and to the often clever ways the developers mix and match 3D models with 2D sprites for the graphics. Compared to the more simplified cartoonish aesthetic of Classic Mega Man, to the modernized futuristic edge of the X series, and so on, this stands out for having probably my favorite “look and feel” of any Mega Man series.
It's weird to label this as an “RPG” because whatever elements it has are pretty light and almost superficial to what’s just a 3D running gun shooter with tricky tank controls. The amount of grinding you have to do to get the best weapons and armor is just insane in a game like this. Maybe if the enemies had a higher drop rate or if the dungeons were a bit more experimentally designed (which is weird considering Mega Man is universally known to have really specialized level design) then this could’ve felt a more rewarding effort worth taking. In my playthrough I didn’t really need to try this until the last boss of the game which I loved for how Kingdom Hearts-ish it was designed.
Also apparently this game had sidequests?? I never really bothered with that many of the NPCs to really do much of these, besides the game show and funding to rebuild the city after it got wasted in some battles. On top of that there’s apparently this hidden morality system which exists to only turn your suit darker????
Overall, a pretty great game. Tron Bonne Stans rise up.
It both visually and (mostly) gameplay wise holds up incredibly well, especially for a game released in 1997. I think in terms of just presentation alone it easily knocks most of its original Playstation peers out of the park. From the very bright, warm, colorful aesthetic that reminds me a lot of the Miyazaki films, and to the often clever ways the developers mix and match 3D models with 2D sprites for the graphics. Compared to the more simplified cartoonish aesthetic of Classic Mega Man, to the modernized futuristic edge of the X series, and so on, this stands out for having probably my favorite “look and feel” of any Mega Man series.
It's weird to label this as an “RPG” because whatever elements it has are pretty light and almost superficial to what’s just a 3D running gun shooter with tricky tank controls. The amount of grinding you have to do to get the best weapons and armor is just insane in a game like this. Maybe if the enemies had a higher drop rate or if the dungeons were a bit more experimentally designed (which is weird considering Mega Man is universally known to have really specialized level design) then this could’ve felt a more rewarding effort worth taking. In my playthrough I didn’t really need to try this until the last boss of the game which I loved for how Kingdom Hearts-ish it was designed.
Also apparently this game had sidequests?? I never really bothered with that many of the NPCs to really do much of these, besides the game show and funding to rebuild the city after it got wasted in some battles. On top of that there’s apparently this hidden morality system which exists to only turn your suit darker????
Overall, a pretty great game. Tron Bonne Stans rise up.
Really beautiful structure to uncovering the depths of the island. Finding new entry points, realizing that it's one huge, interlocking network. A shame we don't see much more of this dungeon-crawling-influenced, platformer-esque type of design for 3D games.
Amazing contrast between friendly surface areas and the droney ambience of the underground - feels reminiscent of Dark Souls's approach to ambience 14 years later. The way Roll's radio-filtered voice comes in at the right times to describe stuff works really well to punch up the anime emotions or atmosphere.
Once you got used to it the controls were actually pretty cool. There's a bunch of things that could have been ironed out without losing the combat's identity (in particular, the ability to aim without auto-lock on would have helped a lot. Likewise, a faster camera speed and bigger FOV in boss arenas).
Uncovering dungeon maps slowly and finding treasure is fun, even if it's pretty easy most of the time and you don't need most of the treasure.
It was also fun to hop around the towns and occasionally run into random quests. Really fun atmosphere there.
Overall a really interesting world structure, interesting that within a year or two, Ocarina of Time would come out.
Weak Points:
- The pirate fights were.. acceptable story-wise (I think it got old after a while though), but from an execution standpoint they were sometimes unwelcome and sloppy. In particular parts of the air fight and the sea fight - neither were mechanically interesting, and took forever. (Taking down their airship was a little cool, though - that's the kind of setpiece fight I think Works, since it's not really hard but it feels really cool).
- Special weapons ended up being underutilized. I didn't make a handful of them and pretty much dropped everything for the buster around midgame.
- The buster's range is overpowered - it ends up flattening many of the enemy designs
- The regular enemy designs aren't that interesting - the camera system struggles to reasonably handle 2-3 quick enemies. Encounters can be fun (circling and stopping to shoot at the right time), but some enemies involve just waiting around for them to drop their shield.
- Game was obviously rushed at points - the final dungeon in particular was a lot less interesting than the 2nd and 3rd sub-gates. The sub-cities definitely felt like they were going to have more narrative significance, and the drill ability didn't amount to much (there wasn't much reason to use all those shortcuts between the subgates by the end of the game.) Perhaps, too much budget spent on pirate fights...
Amazing contrast between friendly surface areas and the droney ambience of the underground - feels reminiscent of Dark Souls's approach to ambience 14 years later. The way Roll's radio-filtered voice comes in at the right times to describe stuff works really well to punch up the anime emotions or atmosphere.
Once you got used to it the controls were actually pretty cool. There's a bunch of things that could have been ironed out without losing the combat's identity (in particular, the ability to aim without auto-lock on would have helped a lot. Likewise, a faster camera speed and bigger FOV in boss arenas).
Uncovering dungeon maps slowly and finding treasure is fun, even if it's pretty easy most of the time and you don't need most of the treasure.
It was also fun to hop around the towns and occasionally run into random quests. Really fun atmosphere there.
Overall a really interesting world structure, interesting that within a year or two, Ocarina of Time would come out.
Weak Points:
- The pirate fights were.. acceptable story-wise (I think it got old after a while though), but from an execution standpoint they were sometimes unwelcome and sloppy. In particular parts of the air fight and the sea fight - neither were mechanically interesting, and took forever. (Taking down their airship was a little cool, though - that's the kind of setpiece fight I think Works, since it's not really hard but it feels really cool).
- Special weapons ended up being underutilized. I didn't make a handful of them and pretty much dropped everything for the buster around midgame.
- The buster's range is overpowered - it ends up flattening many of the enemy designs
- The regular enemy designs aren't that interesting - the camera system struggles to reasonably handle 2-3 quick enemies. Encounters can be fun (circling and stopping to shoot at the right time), but some enemies involve just waiting around for them to drop their shield.
- Game was obviously rushed at points - the final dungeon in particular was a lot less interesting than the 2nd and 3rd sub-gates. The sub-cities definitely felt like they were going to have more narrative significance, and the drill ability didn't amount to much (there wasn't much reason to use all those shortcuts between the subgates by the end of the game.) Perhaps, too much budget spent on pirate fights...
It's ok but takes a while to get to the fun parts for me. Once you begin exploring all the dungeons I was starting to have a great time. Yeah everything about combat and exploration is simple but it just clicked down there.
Fellas, we gotta get the funny monkey dance trending on TikTok.
DESIRING ANALOG STICKS IN HALCYON DAYS
So I first played this game as MegaMan 64, way back when I was plugging anything and everything into Project 64 on my crappy Compaq laptop. I knew absolutely nothing about it, but I did like Mega Man, so there wasn't much of a reason not to give it a try, right?
It was... Weird. I know I beat it back then, but even though I was kind of obsessed with MegaMan (or Rock) Volnutt and Roll Caskett for a while there, I recall not being terrifically enthused about the experience as a whole. Why, exactly? Well, that's what I'm here to find out.
The game follows the aforementioned duo along with Roll's grandfather Barrell, and a robotic monkey named Data. They earn their living as Diggers, an occupation that entails delving into ruins in search of quantum refractors, an energy source that doubles as a globally-accepted currency. It's a dangerous job, and after a near scrape, they soon find that their airship (dubbed the "Flutter") is having some trouble staying afloat. Roll crash-lands the ship on the nearby Kattleox Island, and after being welcomed in by the small settlement's friendly citizens, they start work on getting the Flutter airborne again. It's not long after that a family of pirates, known as the Bonnes, suddenly start attacking the island in search of a legendary treasure rumored to be hidden underground. Mega steps up to fight off these thieves, but along the way stumbles headlong into the truth behind this legend - a secret that might have been patiently waiting for him to discover it.
I don't think it's reasonable to say that Mega Man Legends doesn't look its age - it's unquestionably a product of the upper 90's. Amongst its peers, though, it's one of the better looking 3D games of that era. It's bright and colorful and makes good use of baked-in shadows to help the flat shading pop. You might not like it, but this is what peak 3D looks like. It's telling that when the game was ported over to the N64 in late 2000(!), it looked right at home on the system. I think it's fair to say the graphics are one of the first things that come to mind for most people when the topic of Legends is brought up, if all of those "Mega Man Legends-inspired" 3D games (not that one), animations and models out in the wild are any indication. Of course, they probably wouldn't be quite so fondly remembered if the art style and the characters they're applied to weren't also rock-solid. The main and supporting cast have iconic designs and they translate very well into 3D. These may very well be my favorite designs for Rock and Roll in the entirety of Mega Man's history. And I need to give big props to whoever was in charge of designing the character's faces during cutscenes. You'll see a lot of cool tricks being used, like textures that are obviously custom made for the scene they're being used in, giving a pseudo-3D perspective. A lot of effort and love clearly went into making the cast look as good as possible.
On the audio end, Legends simultaneously surprises and disappoints. To wit, the voice acting is actually quite good for its time. It's nothing mind-blowing by any means - no Oscar-worthy displays here - but all of the voiced characters sound exactly how you might expect them to. Not only do I think there are no bad performances in the game, I think some of them really nail the delivery. In particular, Mega Man, Roll, Tron and the Servbots sound downright adorable. Teisel Bonne chews it up in every scene where he appears, and he's my favorite character as a result (just don't look too deep into what his actor had been up to in the intervening years). On the other hand, the music is just decent, with a few catchy standout pieces. The OST on the whole isn't anything to write home about, which might be acceptable for other franchises - but c'mon. This is Mega Man we're talking about, here. It really ought to be bangers from top to bottom. But what's here does suit the tone of Legends well, and perhaps it's simply a trade for how broad the soundscape is, with plenty of short one-off pieces to match every scene and location. Very few recycled tracks.
So how about the story? It's fun! Some good worldbuilding, and it doesn't dwell on any particular note for too long. Legends does a great job of building its own identity and not relying on what had already been established in the franchise up to this point. Mega is here, and so is Roll. You jump and you shoot. You can get new weapons. That's about it. It's telling that one of the only other familiar elements that appears here is Wily, who has gone from being a mad scientist to... A rad old seafaring dude. This game's story supposedly takes place a few thousand years after the other games and boy does it show. As to the story beats themselves, everything is paced well and the Bonnes serve as entertaining antagonists. Things predictably start getting real just before the final showdown and it's all capped off with a pleasant, feel-good ending, while also leaving plenty up in the air for the inevitable sequel. The only downside I could possibly level at the narrative is that you don't get more of it. Legends is rather short and leaves enough on the table that it's hard to imagine what it must have been like not being able to jump into the second game right after the first. Hopefully that game doesn't have the same problem!
All in all, the presentation layers are well-constructed and have definitely conferred a kind of timeless coolness to the world of Mega Man Legends. It stands out from other iterations of Mega Man, both past and present, and inspires a lot of imagined scenarios in me of other stories that could be happening in other parts of its world.
But games have gameplay! So how's that?
Well!
Let's start off by discussing the elephant in the room, which is the fact this is a 3D adventure game that predates Sony's first dual-analog controller (from a development standpoint, anyways - the Dual Analog was released a few months before Rockman DASH's debut, although the game doesn't make any use of analog controls). Predictably, it's got some quirks. Press the D-pad to make Mega move or strafe in the indicated direction. Press L1 and R1 to turn, R2 to lock onto an enemy. Square and Triangle to fire your weapons, Cross to jump, Circle to interact and do other walking-related activities. There's a couple other fancy tricks you can perform, like a dodge roll, but all of them feel a bit cumbersome in practice. The biggest issue for me is the way the targeting system works. It's not unlike the 3D Zeldas insofar as you press down the button to lock onto the nearest enemy. That can be a problem. Unless I missed it, there's no easy way to switch targets. Once you're locked on to a foe, that's it, until something else moves in a bit closer. You're also rooted to the spot while targeting, and it's tricky to perform any kind of evasive maneuver while in this stance. What's more, you can free-aim so long as there's no target close enough to lock onto. Shame when there might be something you'd prefer to target, but can't because whatever's closer takes precedence - there's no way to force free aiming. So maybe circle strafing is the way to go? The game does have a sort of soft lock-on where your buster shots naturally gravitate towards whatever's in the center of your camera, and you can fire while strafing... As long as you don't try to walk backwards. Mega circles around pretty fast so trying to shoot smaller, more mobile targets means a high possibility of over adjusting. Either way, precision means standing stock still, and mobility means a distinct lack of control over shooting. The more dynamic fights really make you wish for a more fine-tuned movement scheme. The game really isn't too difficult on the whole, so it's not a game-killer, but it is very clunky and can sap some of the enjoyment out of the experience.
Legends follows a very familiar gameplay structure of event, dungeon, event, dungeon. You'll delve into one of the several gates that dot Kattleox with the intention of blasting bad guys and scooping up treasure. Once you're done, it's typically capped off with a boss. Between each engagement you can spend time exploring the island, collecting gear or interacting with and helping out the various NPCs. Kattleox is deceptively large, having a reasonably expansive map to gallivant about but only so much to see and to do. Some buildings will be host to one or two sidequests, or perhaps a minigame, but otherwise don't serve much of a purpose. At least one area is conspicuously altogether unused. Meanwhile, the great outdoors are sparse and largely just serve as connectors between dungeon entrances. The dungeons themselves are also something of a letdown. When I first dove in, I was excited by the prospect of plumbing the depths for whatever secrets I could find. Every now and again I would encounter cracked walls I couldn't proceed past, or ledges I couldn't reach, and recognized I would probably need upgrades to proceed further. Once I finally had them, I broke through these barriers to find... Largely more of the same. There really isn't anything noteworthy or exciting about the dungeons in Legends. Most of the environments are bland and same-y and the enemy types aren't diverse, either. There are no gimmicks to speak of and not a whole lot of "hidden areas" - just parts of the dungeon that you can't access until the plot demands. Hell, most of the areas I unlocked mostly served as bridges to other parts of the dungeon, maybe with an item tucked in, but nothing worth getting worked up over. What's more, there's a lot of hallways, and maneuvering those with the given camera and aiming controls could be a real pain in my rear at times.
Other gripes... The weapon system was a bit underutilized. You have a remarkable selection of sub-weapons at your disposal, some of which are quite powerful and require rare parts to build, a lot of money to upgrade, or both. With that being said, your armament grows at a reasonable pace, but there just aren't enough meaningful fights between start and finish to give you much of a reason to invest time into working on them. This is especially noteworthy during the last section of the game when you need to start going out of your way to complete sidequests for access to the last few weapon components. Once you've spent all this time getting your hands on them, you're still asked to grind out some cash to upgrade their statistics. Of course, you also have maybe one or two bosses left to fight, and then you're done. Standard enemies go down just fine to an augmented buster and so there's no real reason to invest or diversify your sub-weapons for general combat. Bosses are where they really shine due to their higher damage output and limited ammo. At least a couple of your special weapons are fairly broken to start with and get even better after you drop some cash into them, so you're better off just picking one and dumping your resources into it. Assuming you're playing on the Normal difficulty, the big bads will drop easily enough. If there were some fun ways of earning zenny I might have been more inclined to do the grinding anyways, but the most efficient means you have is to leverage respawning enemies to rake in cash. Also, this is just a personal note, but it's a little disappointing that the Blue Bomber's trademark ability-stealing isn't represented in any way here. Not that any of the boss designs really support the concept anyways, but it would have been cool if at least a portion of your weapons were gained from ripping the bits off of baddies and grafting them to your arm. C'est la vie.
Also, there's actually a "karma" system built into the game! It's keeping score on how heroic or naughty you are, though it doesn't go out of its way to tell you this is happening. Helping people out or choosing to be kind instead of a jerk will make you... Gooder. On the other hand, vandalizing the island, attacking friendlies or just generally not being very nice will make you the opposite of that. The key issue is that there's really no meaningful difference to whether or not you're heroic or anti-heroic. No plot changes or shop modifiers or optional events. Some dialogue changes and you might impact a couple of very small details on the island. Otherwise, the only noteworthy difference is that Mega's armor darkens when you're a really nasty dude... But good luck ever seeing that organically. As you might anticipate, there are far and away more opportunities to be a goody two-shoes than there are chances to act up, and there are actually even less ways to net negative karma in the international version of the game (because somebody determined assaulting pets and wildlife might have been just a step too mean-spirited for a kid-friendly game in the English-speaking world). There's a singular event towards the end of the game where you can make your karma plummet to rock-bottom by being a particularly greedy little bastard, but there's basically no repercussions so... Y'know. I actually think this system had a lot of potential. For instance, there are artifacts you can donate to the museum in this game. Donating them all gets you a step further to the best weapon in the game - not that you'd be aware of that. Alternatively, you can sell them for profit, but the amounts you earn are fairly negligible. I'd wager most would be inclined to donate them on principle (if they even know they can, but that's its own problem). What if there was some shady back alley dealer who'd buy them off of you for a mint, but doing so would hurt your reputation? What if the trade off for more funds in your pocket would then mean higher prices at shops, somewhat undermining your efforts? Maybe you could even cut a deal with the pirates? More circumstances where you could be evil for fun or profit would have added a lot to this, as would having real consequences for your actions. As it is, all being a bad dude does is make Volnutt look like he dropped through somebody's chimney. I will say, though, if nothing else, that the denizens of Kattleox all make it abundantly clear how much they admire and appreciate MegaMan for his efforts. If you get that warm fuzzy feeling when your favorite bundle of polygons thanks you for giving them a ring, then maybe being the goodest guy to ever good will serve as its own reward.
Oh, and the few available minigames were just not much fun, except for maybe the "racing" one. Honestly, zipping around with the jet upgrade was one of the more enjoyable parts of the game. They should have expanded on that some.
The more I played, the more I felt that Legends was just kind of missing that X-factor (no pun intended). The combat worked in a pinch but wasn't especially enjoyable. The dungeon crawling was mundane as could be. The game was big in charm but low in character, if that makes any sense at all. Even though Legends shines like a big golden refractor aesthetically and conceptually, it largely smacks of mediocre fifth-generation 3D adventure game... Because once you dig beneath the surface, that's exactly what it is. All the pitfalls of this era and genre are present, which is a bit hard to swallow given the franchise's history of simple, tight gameplay. What's more, it never truly capitalizes on the strengths of its setting. It falls into that oh-so-familiar territory of "cool concept, middling execution" that managed to win its fair share of hearts but obviously still had a lot of maturing to do. MegaMan Volnutt's first story is one that I'll happily retell, but not one that I have any particular desire to relive.
Of course, this wasn't the end - Rock and friends would make yet another outing a few years later on the same system. I'm eager to see if they'd grown from their experiences.
So I first played this game as MegaMan 64, way back when I was plugging anything and everything into Project 64 on my crappy Compaq laptop. I knew absolutely nothing about it, but I did like Mega Man, so there wasn't much of a reason not to give it a try, right?
It was... Weird. I know I beat it back then, but even though I was kind of obsessed with MegaMan (or Rock) Volnutt and Roll Caskett for a while there, I recall not being terrifically enthused about the experience as a whole. Why, exactly? Well, that's what I'm here to find out.
The game follows the aforementioned duo along with Roll's grandfather Barrell, and a robotic monkey named Data. They earn their living as Diggers, an occupation that entails delving into ruins in search of quantum refractors, an energy source that doubles as a globally-accepted currency. It's a dangerous job, and after a near scrape, they soon find that their airship (dubbed the "Flutter") is having some trouble staying afloat. Roll crash-lands the ship on the nearby Kattleox Island, and after being welcomed in by the small settlement's friendly citizens, they start work on getting the Flutter airborne again. It's not long after that a family of pirates, known as the Bonnes, suddenly start attacking the island in search of a legendary treasure rumored to be hidden underground. Mega steps up to fight off these thieves, but along the way stumbles headlong into the truth behind this legend - a secret that might have been patiently waiting for him to discover it.
I don't think it's reasonable to say that Mega Man Legends doesn't look its age - it's unquestionably a product of the upper 90's. Amongst its peers, though, it's one of the better looking 3D games of that era. It's bright and colorful and makes good use of baked-in shadows to help the flat shading pop. You might not like it, but this is what peak 3D looks like. It's telling that when the game was ported over to the N64 in late 2000(!), it looked right at home on the system. I think it's fair to say the graphics are one of the first things that come to mind for most people when the topic of Legends is brought up, if all of those "Mega Man Legends-inspired" 3D games (not that one), animations and models out in the wild are any indication. Of course, they probably wouldn't be quite so fondly remembered if the art style and the characters they're applied to weren't also rock-solid. The main and supporting cast have iconic designs and they translate very well into 3D. These may very well be my favorite designs for Rock and Roll in the entirety of Mega Man's history. And I need to give big props to whoever was in charge of designing the character's faces during cutscenes. You'll see a lot of cool tricks being used, like textures that are obviously custom made for the scene they're being used in, giving a pseudo-3D perspective. A lot of effort and love clearly went into making the cast look as good as possible.
On the audio end, Legends simultaneously surprises and disappoints. To wit, the voice acting is actually quite good for its time. It's nothing mind-blowing by any means - no Oscar-worthy displays here - but all of the voiced characters sound exactly how you might expect them to. Not only do I think there are no bad performances in the game, I think some of them really nail the delivery. In particular, Mega Man, Roll, Tron and the Servbots sound downright adorable. Teisel Bonne chews it up in every scene where he appears, and he's my favorite character as a result (just don't look too deep into what his actor had been up to in the intervening years). On the other hand, the music is just decent, with a few catchy standout pieces. The OST on the whole isn't anything to write home about, which might be acceptable for other franchises - but c'mon. This is Mega Man we're talking about, here. It really ought to be bangers from top to bottom. But what's here does suit the tone of Legends well, and perhaps it's simply a trade for how broad the soundscape is, with plenty of short one-off pieces to match every scene and location. Very few recycled tracks.
So how about the story? It's fun! Some good worldbuilding, and it doesn't dwell on any particular note for too long. Legends does a great job of building its own identity and not relying on what had already been established in the franchise up to this point. Mega is here, and so is Roll. You jump and you shoot. You can get new weapons. That's about it. It's telling that one of the only other familiar elements that appears here is Wily, who has gone from being a mad scientist to... A rad old seafaring dude. This game's story supposedly takes place a few thousand years after the other games and boy does it show. As to the story beats themselves, everything is paced well and the Bonnes serve as entertaining antagonists. Things predictably start getting real just before the final showdown and it's all capped off with a pleasant, feel-good ending, while also leaving plenty up in the air for the inevitable sequel. The only downside I could possibly level at the narrative is that you don't get more of it. Legends is rather short and leaves enough on the table that it's hard to imagine what it must have been like not being able to jump into the second game right after the first. Hopefully that game doesn't have the same problem!
All in all, the presentation layers are well-constructed and have definitely conferred a kind of timeless coolness to the world of Mega Man Legends. It stands out from other iterations of Mega Man, both past and present, and inspires a lot of imagined scenarios in me of other stories that could be happening in other parts of its world.
But games have gameplay! So how's that?
Well!
Let's start off by discussing the elephant in the room, which is the fact this is a 3D adventure game that predates Sony's first dual-analog controller (from a development standpoint, anyways - the Dual Analog was released a few months before Rockman DASH's debut, although the game doesn't make any use of analog controls). Predictably, it's got some quirks. Press the D-pad to make Mega move or strafe in the indicated direction. Press L1 and R1 to turn, R2 to lock onto an enemy. Square and Triangle to fire your weapons, Cross to jump, Circle to interact and do other walking-related activities. There's a couple other fancy tricks you can perform, like a dodge roll, but all of them feel a bit cumbersome in practice. The biggest issue for me is the way the targeting system works. It's not unlike the 3D Zeldas insofar as you press down the button to lock onto the nearest enemy. That can be a problem. Unless I missed it, there's no easy way to switch targets. Once you're locked on to a foe, that's it, until something else moves in a bit closer. You're also rooted to the spot while targeting, and it's tricky to perform any kind of evasive maneuver while in this stance. What's more, you can free-aim so long as there's no target close enough to lock onto. Shame when there might be something you'd prefer to target, but can't because whatever's closer takes precedence - there's no way to force free aiming. So maybe circle strafing is the way to go? The game does have a sort of soft lock-on where your buster shots naturally gravitate towards whatever's in the center of your camera, and you can fire while strafing... As long as you don't try to walk backwards. Mega circles around pretty fast so trying to shoot smaller, more mobile targets means a high possibility of over adjusting. Either way, precision means standing stock still, and mobility means a distinct lack of control over shooting. The more dynamic fights really make you wish for a more fine-tuned movement scheme. The game really isn't too difficult on the whole, so it's not a game-killer, but it is very clunky and can sap some of the enjoyment out of the experience.
Legends follows a very familiar gameplay structure of event, dungeon, event, dungeon. You'll delve into one of the several gates that dot Kattleox with the intention of blasting bad guys and scooping up treasure. Once you're done, it's typically capped off with a boss. Between each engagement you can spend time exploring the island, collecting gear or interacting with and helping out the various NPCs. Kattleox is deceptively large, having a reasonably expansive map to gallivant about but only so much to see and to do. Some buildings will be host to one or two sidequests, or perhaps a minigame, but otherwise don't serve much of a purpose. At least one area is conspicuously altogether unused. Meanwhile, the great outdoors are sparse and largely just serve as connectors between dungeon entrances. The dungeons themselves are also something of a letdown. When I first dove in, I was excited by the prospect of plumbing the depths for whatever secrets I could find. Every now and again I would encounter cracked walls I couldn't proceed past, or ledges I couldn't reach, and recognized I would probably need upgrades to proceed further. Once I finally had them, I broke through these barriers to find... Largely more of the same. There really isn't anything noteworthy or exciting about the dungeons in Legends. Most of the environments are bland and same-y and the enemy types aren't diverse, either. There are no gimmicks to speak of and not a whole lot of "hidden areas" - just parts of the dungeon that you can't access until the plot demands. Hell, most of the areas I unlocked mostly served as bridges to other parts of the dungeon, maybe with an item tucked in, but nothing worth getting worked up over. What's more, there's a lot of hallways, and maneuvering those with the given camera and aiming controls could be a real pain in my rear at times.
Other gripes... The weapon system was a bit underutilized. You have a remarkable selection of sub-weapons at your disposal, some of which are quite powerful and require rare parts to build, a lot of money to upgrade, or both. With that being said, your armament grows at a reasonable pace, but there just aren't enough meaningful fights between start and finish to give you much of a reason to invest time into working on them. This is especially noteworthy during the last section of the game when you need to start going out of your way to complete sidequests for access to the last few weapon components. Once you've spent all this time getting your hands on them, you're still asked to grind out some cash to upgrade their statistics. Of course, you also have maybe one or two bosses left to fight, and then you're done. Standard enemies go down just fine to an augmented buster and so there's no real reason to invest or diversify your sub-weapons for general combat. Bosses are where they really shine due to their higher damage output and limited ammo. At least a couple of your special weapons are fairly broken to start with and get even better after you drop some cash into them, so you're better off just picking one and dumping your resources into it. Assuming you're playing on the Normal difficulty, the big bads will drop easily enough. If there were some fun ways of earning zenny I might have been more inclined to do the grinding anyways, but the most efficient means you have is to leverage respawning enemies to rake in cash. Also, this is just a personal note, but it's a little disappointing that the Blue Bomber's trademark ability-stealing isn't represented in any way here. Not that any of the boss designs really support the concept anyways, but it would have been cool if at least a portion of your weapons were gained from ripping the bits off of baddies and grafting them to your arm. C'est la vie.
Also, there's actually a "karma" system built into the game! It's keeping score on how heroic or naughty you are, though it doesn't go out of its way to tell you this is happening. Helping people out or choosing to be kind instead of a jerk will make you... Gooder. On the other hand, vandalizing the island, attacking friendlies or just generally not being very nice will make you the opposite of that. The key issue is that there's really no meaningful difference to whether or not you're heroic or anti-heroic. No plot changes or shop modifiers or optional events. Some dialogue changes and you might impact a couple of very small details on the island. Otherwise, the only noteworthy difference is that Mega's armor darkens when you're a really nasty dude... But good luck ever seeing that organically. As you might anticipate, there are far and away more opportunities to be a goody two-shoes than there are chances to act up, and there are actually even less ways to net negative karma in the international version of the game (because somebody determined assaulting pets and wildlife might have been just a step too mean-spirited for a kid-friendly game in the English-speaking world). There's a singular event towards the end of the game where you can make your karma plummet to rock-bottom by being a particularly greedy little bastard, but there's basically no repercussions so... Y'know. I actually think this system had a lot of potential. For instance, there are artifacts you can donate to the museum in this game. Donating them all gets you a step further to the best weapon in the game - not that you'd be aware of that. Alternatively, you can sell them for profit, but the amounts you earn are fairly negligible. I'd wager most would be inclined to donate them on principle (if they even know they can, but that's its own problem). What if there was some shady back alley dealer who'd buy them off of you for a mint, but doing so would hurt your reputation? What if the trade off for more funds in your pocket would then mean higher prices at shops, somewhat undermining your efforts? Maybe you could even cut a deal with the pirates? More circumstances where you could be evil for fun or profit would have added a lot to this, as would having real consequences for your actions. As it is, all being a bad dude does is make Volnutt look like he dropped through somebody's chimney. I will say, though, if nothing else, that the denizens of Kattleox all make it abundantly clear how much they admire and appreciate MegaMan for his efforts. If you get that warm fuzzy feeling when your favorite bundle of polygons thanks you for giving them a ring, then maybe being the goodest guy to ever good will serve as its own reward.
Oh, and the few available minigames were just not much fun, except for maybe the "racing" one. Honestly, zipping around with the jet upgrade was one of the more enjoyable parts of the game. They should have expanded on that some.
The more I played, the more I felt that Legends was just kind of missing that X-factor (no pun intended). The combat worked in a pinch but wasn't especially enjoyable. The dungeon crawling was mundane as could be. The game was big in charm but low in character, if that makes any sense at all. Even though Legends shines like a big golden refractor aesthetically and conceptually, it largely smacks of mediocre fifth-generation 3D adventure game... Because once you dig beneath the surface, that's exactly what it is. All the pitfalls of this era and genre are present, which is a bit hard to swallow given the franchise's history of simple, tight gameplay. What's more, it never truly capitalizes on the strengths of its setting. It falls into that oh-so-familiar territory of "cool concept, middling execution" that managed to win its fair share of hearts but obviously still had a lot of maturing to do. MegaMan Volnutt's first story is one that I'll happily retell, but not one that I have any particular desire to relive.
Of course, this wasn't the end - Rock and friends would make yet another outing a few years later on the same system. I'm eager to see if they'd grown from their experiences.
I played it a little bit on release and only got around to finishing it over a decade later. First off: as someone who enjoyed the mainline series a lot, I was just a little bit disappointed that a series known for its varied stage designs with all manner of gimmicks had you wandering samey-looking corridors with samey-looking designs in this game.
That said, there was so much charm that I can give it a pass for that. It's amazing how much they were able to imbue a previously established character with his own personality and a fresh mythos. The setting, dialogue and rogues gallery were pitch perfect and made me really love playing this game!
That said, there was so much charm that I can give it a pass for that. It's amazing how much they were able to imbue a previously established character with his own personality and a fresh mythos. The setting, dialogue and rogues gallery were pitch perfect and made me really love playing this game!
charming and lots of fun to explore, but starts off really poorly. sit through its first hour or so and it'll get good
the characters, world and gameplay all come together really well to capture the feeling of playing through an OVA. Really great overall, though I wish there were a few more dedicated dungeons.
I’ve played a lot of Mega Man games in the last six months, and even when they start to show the signs of burgeoning narrative ambition in the X series, those games are too held up by their own stupidity and refusal to consider the implications of their own worldbuilding for me to say that they’re really About anything. By the year 1997 we’re at a clear point where the X series has established characters, sort of, and a jumble of recurring ideas, kind of, but there’s no real coherence to anything narratively, no actual throughline to that world. And that’s fine with me, it’s really not what I’m here for, it’s mostly something I focus on a lot in my writing about these games because that stuff takes an ever-growing presence in these games to thus far no payoff.
But that IS also what makes Mega Man Legends feel like such a breath of fresh air when it hits the scene on the Mega Man timeline. It’s not just the radical directional shift in gameplay this one adopts (though I do really enjoy that too), and I wouldn’t call it an entirely aesthetic thing either – no, this game is obviously one of the most beautiful and pleasant to look at in the history of the medium, but Mega Man has always had exceptional aesthetics, it’s the one thing that’s virtually unassailable across every iteration of the series so far. For me I think the thing that’s so immediately remarkable about Legends is the clear and deliberate focus on the voice of the game and the characters, something that has never been present in the franchise before. The series has a lot of CHARACTER, but it doesn’t really have characterS, right? Even X and Zero, the closest thing to fleshed out guys we have so far are kind of shallow and stupid caricatures of cardboard cutouts. Legends may not win any awards for MegaMan Volnutt’s personality but the fact that this guy has such a strongly defined voice and wants and, most importantly, that the cast of people around him is much more strongly defined and central to the game than he is, makes the game stand out immediately from its parent series.
Because as much as Mega Man Legends is a run n gun 3D dungeon crawler with light RPG elements it’s equally if not moreso one of those cool mid 90s to mid-00s Japanese games where you don’t have a lot of clearly defined goals (or if you do they’re not really urgent) and you kind of just vibe with all the side characters in a small semi-open world. This is a hard thing to describe but I feel like you know what I’m talking about right? Games like Majora’s Mask, Shenmue, Chulip, most mid-period Harvest Moons, maybe Chibi-Robo? The kind of game where when you were a kid it was easy to ignore the main plot and just chill out. I never played Mega Man Legends as a kid but it would have fit right in with that collection of “games that aren’t walking sims that I forced into that mold because I’ve always been like this I guess.”
This small island and it’s little city of comically fastidious bureaucrats and fantasy policeman who are just inept enough to be funny and unthreatening and workaday tradespeople baking bread and selling clothes and operating tv stations is outrageously detailed, full of little secrets and stuff that help you fill up your health bar during unexpected boss fights in normally safe zones or crafting materials that let your friend research new weapons for you, but it’s full of entirely superfluous stuff too, seemingly just for the sake of character. Multiple buildings and storefronts let you enter and are full of NPCs with bespoke dialogue that have no practical in-game benefit to you, with a fully modelled interior to explore. Lots of NPCs will give Volnutt a little yes or no question to answer for no reason, it’s cute! There are sidequests too but they’re usually stuff like help out the local kid gang with building up their clubhouse by finding a hammer and a saw, or hang out with a local sick kid, or find something this lady could use to add a little splash of color to her landscape painting. It’s a relaxed atmosphere, a game full of friendly people being generally nice, full of unthreatening villains and bright blue skies. The vibes, as they say, are immaculate here. I do want to shout out the voice acting in particular, which strikes that Saturday morning cartoon vibe perfectly but because it’s 1997 there’s not really an entrenched anime voice actor industry that just defaults into all of these roles, so you get a bunch of low budget Canadian tv people doing these voices instead in a way that gives this game some incredible character. MegaMan Volnutt himself is actually voiced by a thirteen-year-old boy rather than an adult woman doing an Anime Kid voice it’s a really distinct sound from anything you would hear today.
The gameplay is pretty slick too. I assume this is an unpopular statement here, I feel like it’s easy to see any game with tank controls and be like ah it’s clunky it’s old it doesn’t feel good or intuitive, and fuckin surprise surprise here comes ina crawling out of her well to defend an old game’s aged elements but hear me out a little bit. Anything that feels unintuitive only feels that way because we don’t have muscle memory for it, right? I have two really distinct memories from my childhood of Adult Non-Gamers pretending to take an interest in my video game at a family gathering and just being unable to conceptualize the basic movement controls of Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia and Dragon Ball Z Legacy of Goku II. These are not, these aren’t difficult games to parse, right, it’s just that someone who has literally never interacted with a game until her 50s doesn’t know how to do it. It’s fine!
So having the weird control scheme it has doesn’t automatically make Mega Man Legends unworthy, right? There’s more to it. You have to consider the game that’s built around those controls, and I think MML is pretty well constructed. If anything, the game is tuned a little too easy, with most enemies absolutely confounded by the very simple strategy of a nonstop circle strafe around them, which will serve you like 90% of the time. But by and large I found that enemies were placed pretty thoughtfully, platforming challenges were designed with the fact that your control over your character and the camera is slow and limited, and in general things are designed in such a way that I rarely felt that I was wrestling with the controller, it all felt really well done to me. There are a lot of movement options in this game too, within a couple hours of starting I was really just zooming the fuck around.
The ending of Mega Man Legends isn’t a triumph or a tragedy or a big sequel hook or anything. It has all of those thing but those aren’t the focus. The ending is the quiet few minutes where the car is getting packed up at the end of a trip and you have a moment to say goodbye. You’re encouraged to take one last lap around town, where all the important characters and sidequest NPCs are scattered around to let you know they’re gonna be thinking about you, and they appreciate the little stuff you’ve done for and with them over the last 15-or-so hours. It feels right. I did sing the praises of the dungeon crawling a bit, and I did like it, but the core of the game is fucking around, competing in game shows, helping out a pregnant woman, adopting cats, thwarting the world’s least threatening bank heist. It feels right to spend the real time saying goodbye to the stuff that matters, and spend relatively little on the actual plot stuff which is mostly pretty limp. Just like meeeee I’m very sick right now if this review is incoherent that's why okay I’m gonna go take a nap game good
But that IS also what makes Mega Man Legends feel like such a breath of fresh air when it hits the scene on the Mega Man timeline. It’s not just the radical directional shift in gameplay this one adopts (though I do really enjoy that too), and I wouldn’t call it an entirely aesthetic thing either – no, this game is obviously one of the most beautiful and pleasant to look at in the history of the medium, but Mega Man has always had exceptional aesthetics, it’s the one thing that’s virtually unassailable across every iteration of the series so far. For me I think the thing that’s so immediately remarkable about Legends is the clear and deliberate focus on the voice of the game and the characters, something that has never been present in the franchise before. The series has a lot of CHARACTER, but it doesn’t really have characterS, right? Even X and Zero, the closest thing to fleshed out guys we have so far are kind of shallow and stupid caricatures of cardboard cutouts. Legends may not win any awards for MegaMan Volnutt’s personality but the fact that this guy has such a strongly defined voice and wants and, most importantly, that the cast of people around him is much more strongly defined and central to the game than he is, makes the game stand out immediately from its parent series.
Because as much as Mega Man Legends is a run n gun 3D dungeon crawler with light RPG elements it’s equally if not moreso one of those cool mid 90s to mid-00s Japanese games where you don’t have a lot of clearly defined goals (or if you do they’re not really urgent) and you kind of just vibe with all the side characters in a small semi-open world. This is a hard thing to describe but I feel like you know what I’m talking about right? Games like Majora’s Mask, Shenmue, Chulip, most mid-period Harvest Moons, maybe Chibi-Robo? The kind of game where when you were a kid it was easy to ignore the main plot and just chill out. I never played Mega Man Legends as a kid but it would have fit right in with that collection of “games that aren’t walking sims that I forced into that mold because I’ve always been like this I guess.”
This small island and it’s little city of comically fastidious bureaucrats and fantasy policeman who are just inept enough to be funny and unthreatening and workaday tradespeople baking bread and selling clothes and operating tv stations is outrageously detailed, full of little secrets and stuff that help you fill up your health bar during unexpected boss fights in normally safe zones or crafting materials that let your friend research new weapons for you, but it’s full of entirely superfluous stuff too, seemingly just for the sake of character. Multiple buildings and storefronts let you enter and are full of NPCs with bespoke dialogue that have no practical in-game benefit to you, with a fully modelled interior to explore. Lots of NPCs will give Volnutt a little yes or no question to answer for no reason, it’s cute! There are sidequests too but they’re usually stuff like help out the local kid gang with building up their clubhouse by finding a hammer and a saw, or hang out with a local sick kid, or find something this lady could use to add a little splash of color to her landscape painting. It’s a relaxed atmosphere, a game full of friendly people being generally nice, full of unthreatening villains and bright blue skies. The vibes, as they say, are immaculate here. I do want to shout out the voice acting in particular, which strikes that Saturday morning cartoon vibe perfectly but because it’s 1997 there’s not really an entrenched anime voice actor industry that just defaults into all of these roles, so you get a bunch of low budget Canadian tv people doing these voices instead in a way that gives this game some incredible character. MegaMan Volnutt himself is actually voiced by a thirteen-year-old boy rather than an adult woman doing an Anime Kid voice it’s a really distinct sound from anything you would hear today.
The gameplay is pretty slick too. I assume this is an unpopular statement here, I feel like it’s easy to see any game with tank controls and be like ah it’s clunky it’s old it doesn’t feel good or intuitive, and fuckin surprise surprise here comes ina crawling out of her well to defend an old game’s aged elements but hear me out a little bit. Anything that feels unintuitive only feels that way because we don’t have muscle memory for it, right? I have two really distinct memories from my childhood of Adult Non-Gamers pretending to take an interest in my video game at a family gathering and just being unable to conceptualize the basic movement controls of Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia and Dragon Ball Z Legacy of Goku II. These are not, these aren’t difficult games to parse, right, it’s just that someone who has literally never interacted with a game until her 50s doesn’t know how to do it. It’s fine!
So having the weird control scheme it has doesn’t automatically make Mega Man Legends unworthy, right? There’s more to it. You have to consider the game that’s built around those controls, and I think MML is pretty well constructed. If anything, the game is tuned a little too easy, with most enemies absolutely confounded by the very simple strategy of a nonstop circle strafe around them, which will serve you like 90% of the time. But by and large I found that enemies were placed pretty thoughtfully, platforming challenges were designed with the fact that your control over your character and the camera is slow and limited, and in general things are designed in such a way that I rarely felt that I was wrestling with the controller, it all felt really well done to me. There are a lot of movement options in this game too, within a couple hours of starting I was really just zooming the fuck around.
The ending of Mega Man Legends isn’t a triumph or a tragedy or a big sequel hook or anything. It has all of those thing but those aren’t the focus. The ending is the quiet few minutes where the car is getting packed up at the end of a trip and you have a moment to say goodbye. You’re encouraged to take one last lap around town, where all the important characters and sidequest NPCs are scattered around to let you know they’re gonna be thinking about you, and they appreciate the little stuff you’ve done for and with them over the last 15-or-so hours. It feels right. I did sing the praises of the dungeon crawling a bit, and I did like it, but the core of the game is fucking around, competing in game shows, helping out a pregnant woman, adopting cats, thwarting the world’s least threatening bank heist. It feels right to spend the real time saying goodbye to the stuff that matters, and spend relatively little on the actual plot stuff which is mostly pretty limp. Just like meeeee I’m very sick right now if this review is incoherent that's why okay I’m gonna go take a nap game good
Full analysis of the game on my YT if you'd like to support my efforts there!
Mega Man Legends is a game that managed to surprise me in what it was going for. For years I'd heard comparisons to other 3D games of its time (even those it technically predates) and hearing pretty unfavorable comparisons while people would praise the charm the game absolutely exudes from just looking at it. Playing it for myself after all these years has left me in total awe. This whole package clicks together a lot of things that I just fuck with and appreciate in games in general.
Like that art direction man, the fuckin Ghibli/Nadia Secret of the Blue Water ass aesthetic, that Tatsuro Yamashita For You album cover art summertime aesthetic, the vibes, THE VIBES, they're all there man. This game, these character models, everything about the visuals is peak 90's PS1 aestheticism to me. I never even played this game as a child yet looking at it just fills me with a kind of warm nostalgia that's just really nice to sit in.
Gliding around this island, exploring its depths and mysteries hidden within it, learning more about both Mega Man and Kattleox as a place, meshing with the people of the island and getting closer to them as ya help em out with their day to day problems. By the end of the game I came to adore Kattleox, slowly becoming one of my favorite locations in a game due to how much focus and attention every inch of it gets. It ends up feeling alive in ways that feel so great to just be in, characters running around doing their thang while you're doing your own thang, climbing buildings, going on dates, hanging out, running the news station, working on their own artistic masterpieces. None of them are waiting for you to come back to them, they're all just living their lives.
The characters too, oh my GOD the characters. Data, that little dancing friend, just such a wonderful little companion/save point for ya. The Bonnes and their Team Rocket-esque goofiness that Mega Man has to reign in every now and then, Mega Man's dumb goofy energy, Roll and Gramps laid back and inquisitive yet caring demeanors. The whole cast just hits the neurons really well for me here, especially the Bonnes who were a treat every single time they appeared.
The only rough spot I majorly had with this game was just the gameplay is a little rough, part of that from age but I honestly think the encounter design in this game just isn't the best. The lock on can be a total mess in any fight with more than 2 enemies, jumping and shooting doesn't feel the best. Thankfully though if something ever bumps ya on the head a bit harder than ya'd like ya can just go and upgrade your shit which is at least nice as a kind of trade off but I really do hope Tron Bonne and Legends 2 fix that a bit.
Such a beautiful experience that I cherished quite deeply by the end, honestly reminds me of when I first finished Trails in the Sky FC, I was just in total awe there as well. I'm gonna miss Kattleox and I really hope to go back someday soon.
Why didn't they just roll with calling him Rock in the US release of this one! Mega Man doesn't make no damn sense as a name you'd call someone on the regular! I'm sorry is that Mega Man heresy? Oh no they're beating down my do-
Mega Man Legends is a game that managed to surprise me in what it was going for. For years I'd heard comparisons to other 3D games of its time (even those it technically predates) and hearing pretty unfavorable comparisons while people would praise the charm the game absolutely exudes from just looking at it. Playing it for myself after all these years has left me in total awe. This whole package clicks together a lot of things that I just fuck with and appreciate in games in general.
Like that art direction man, the fuckin Ghibli/Nadia Secret of the Blue Water ass aesthetic, that Tatsuro Yamashita For You album cover art summertime aesthetic, the vibes, THE VIBES, they're all there man. This game, these character models, everything about the visuals is peak 90's PS1 aestheticism to me. I never even played this game as a child yet looking at it just fills me with a kind of warm nostalgia that's just really nice to sit in.
Gliding around this island, exploring its depths and mysteries hidden within it, learning more about both Mega Man and Kattleox as a place, meshing with the people of the island and getting closer to them as ya help em out with their day to day problems. By the end of the game I came to adore Kattleox, slowly becoming one of my favorite locations in a game due to how much focus and attention every inch of it gets. It ends up feeling alive in ways that feel so great to just be in, characters running around doing their thang while you're doing your own thang, climbing buildings, going on dates, hanging out, running the news station, working on their own artistic masterpieces. None of them are waiting for you to come back to them, they're all just living their lives.
The characters too, oh my GOD the characters. Data, that little dancing friend, just such a wonderful little companion/save point for ya. The Bonnes and their Team Rocket-esque goofiness that Mega Man has to reign in every now and then, Mega Man's dumb goofy energy, Roll and Gramps laid back and inquisitive yet caring demeanors. The whole cast just hits the neurons really well for me here, especially the Bonnes who were a treat every single time they appeared.
The only rough spot I majorly had with this game was just the gameplay is a little rough, part of that from age but I honestly think the encounter design in this game just isn't the best. The lock on can be a total mess in any fight with more than 2 enemies, jumping and shooting doesn't feel the best. Thankfully though if something ever bumps ya on the head a bit harder than ya'd like ya can just go and upgrade your shit which is at least nice as a kind of trade off but I really do hope Tron Bonne and Legends 2 fix that a bit.
Such a beautiful experience that I cherished quite deeply by the end, honestly reminds me of when I first finished Trails in the Sky FC, I was just in total awe there as well. I'm gonna miss Kattleox and I really hope to go back someday soon.
Why didn't they just roll with calling him Rock in the US release of this one! Mega Man doesn't make no damn sense as a name you'd call someone on the regular! I'm sorry is that Mega Man heresy? Oh no they're beating down my do-
I gotta say, this game is surprisingly fun, and holds up pretty damn well!
This game has always had my attention. A 3D Mega Man that's more of an adventure game? Sounds kinda weird, but pretty interesting. I then gave the game a shot, and I really do not regret doing so.
The game revolves around Mega Man Volnutt and his step-sister Roll, who crash-land onto an island in need to a power source for their house-plane-jet thingymabob, only to stop a much more sinister plot as they delve further underground. Along the way, they're interrupted by reaverbots and the Bonne family, a family of criminals who want to make them mad stacks. This game's story, characters, voice acting, and overall presentation is one of the most charming things I've ever seen in a video game. Contrary to the other games in the series at this point, the game actually has good voice acting. Or, good comparatively, anyway. The writing is super fun and entertaining as well. I struggle to put into words how the presentation feels, but play it for yourself, it's really good.
Graphically, the game looks rather nice. At this point in the PlayStation's life, most games looked on the simpler side, and when they didn't, they usually either relied on pre-rendered spites a lot or dated textures. This game, however, has a bright color pallet and pretty good textures, all while running at a mostly consistent 30 FPS. The art style does a pretty great job of masking how simple the visuals can actually be when you break it down, but with appealing graphics and an impressive draw distance, I'd say the game looks good anyway.
The soundtrack is rather forgettable, sadly. A lot of the time, the game forgoes music entirely, instead going for ambience. There isn't anything wrong with that, and the ambience is fitting and sounds good, but when there is music, it's usually nothing that'll stick in your head. That being said, when it's played during gameplay, it works really well with the bright visuals, as it's cheery and fun. I think the music works great in-game, but not so much outside.
Gameplay wise, this game is pretty fun too. Instead of a jump`n`shootin action game, it's more like an open adventure game like Zelda, but mixed with a third person shooter. Despite how much I hate backtracking, I never hated it in this game, partially because pretty early on you're able to fast-travel around. The game controls pretty good for the time. Yes, it's a bit clunky by today's standards, and it has no dual-analog/Dualshock support, but for the time it could be a HELL of a lot worse. Tank controls are optional and off by default, and generally you never think too much about them, which is a great thing for controls. I have some gripes, but they're very minor, like how you can't shoot while moving backwards, you're forced to stay still while you lock-on, and how the game can sometimes be vague on what to do. My biggest gripe is probably how you're unable to switch special weapons outside the van. Why they did this, I have no clue, but it restricts when you can use your special weapons and overall discourages experimentation.
Overall, this game was a surprise treat to play. It's a fun adventure game with one of the most charming presentations I've ever seen in a game. Sure, this game has aged in some aspects, but it's overall a great time. Solid 8.5/10.
As for what version you should play, the PS1 version's pretty good, and the N64 version's also solid, though inferior. If you can understand Japanese the PSP port is the best version, but if not, I'd advise against playing the PSX version on PSP, as the game uses 3 of the shoulder buttons regularly.
This game has always had my attention. A 3D Mega Man that's more of an adventure game? Sounds kinda weird, but pretty interesting. I then gave the game a shot, and I really do not regret doing so.
The game revolves around Mega Man Volnutt and his step-sister Roll, who crash-land onto an island in need to a power source for their house-plane-jet thingymabob, only to stop a much more sinister plot as they delve further underground. Along the way, they're interrupted by reaverbots and the Bonne family, a family of criminals who want to make them mad stacks. This game's story, characters, voice acting, and overall presentation is one of the most charming things I've ever seen in a video game. Contrary to the other games in the series at this point, the game actually has good voice acting. Or, good comparatively, anyway. The writing is super fun and entertaining as well. I struggle to put into words how the presentation feels, but play it for yourself, it's really good.
Graphically, the game looks rather nice. At this point in the PlayStation's life, most games looked on the simpler side, and when they didn't, they usually either relied on pre-rendered spites a lot or dated textures. This game, however, has a bright color pallet and pretty good textures, all while running at a mostly consistent 30 FPS. The art style does a pretty great job of masking how simple the visuals can actually be when you break it down, but with appealing graphics and an impressive draw distance, I'd say the game looks good anyway.
The soundtrack is rather forgettable, sadly. A lot of the time, the game forgoes music entirely, instead going for ambience. There isn't anything wrong with that, and the ambience is fitting and sounds good, but when there is music, it's usually nothing that'll stick in your head. That being said, when it's played during gameplay, it works really well with the bright visuals, as it's cheery and fun. I think the music works great in-game, but not so much outside.
Gameplay wise, this game is pretty fun too. Instead of a jump`n`shootin action game, it's more like an open adventure game like Zelda, but mixed with a third person shooter. Despite how much I hate backtracking, I never hated it in this game, partially because pretty early on you're able to fast-travel around. The game controls pretty good for the time. Yes, it's a bit clunky by today's standards, and it has no dual-analog/Dualshock support, but for the time it could be a HELL of a lot worse. Tank controls are optional and off by default, and generally you never think too much about them, which is a great thing for controls. I have some gripes, but they're very minor, like how you can't shoot while moving backwards, you're forced to stay still while you lock-on, and how the game can sometimes be vague on what to do. My biggest gripe is probably how you're unable to switch special weapons outside the van. Why they did this, I have no clue, but it restricts when you can use your special weapons and overall discourages experimentation.
Overall, this game was a surprise treat to play. It's a fun adventure game with one of the most charming presentations I've ever seen in a game. Sure, this game has aged in some aspects, but it's overall a great time. Solid 8.5/10.
As for what version you should play, the PS1 version's pretty good, and the N64 version's also solid, though inferior. If you can understand Japanese the PSP port is the best version, but if not, I'd advise against playing the PSX version on PSP, as the game uses 3 of the shoulder buttons regularly.
The Megaman Legends Retrospective - Part 1
I adore Megaman Legends. I played this game for the first time in 2021, and despite many aged aspects of the title, I ended up really, really enjoying it. For this review I’ll highlight a couple things I both liked and disliked.
The Good
I. Presentation
This is one of the best looking 3D PS1 games by far. The anime art style, with very angular and sharp character designs blend in perfectly with the polygonal 32-bit hardware. Some areas do look really big and blocky sometimes, but all of the characters transitioned perfectly from the page to the screen. As a friend of mine stated, the visual style “oozes nostalgia” and I couldn’t agree more.
The English dub of this game is surprisingly actually really good. Coming from a 90’s Capcom game, I was expecting more of “wow what a mansion” or “w-megaman” quality voice ““acting””, but the dub had actual effort and competent voice direction. Sometimes I feel characters need to speak up, they’ll sound like they are mumbling and can be hard to hear, but mostly it’s passable. Reminds me of a charming English dub for an old OVA or something.
I honestly couldn’t remember very much of this game’s soundtrack. Not to say that it’s bad, I did like a couple tunes (Apple Market, Roll’s Car, The Flutter), but it’s definitely very different from what you’d expect of a “Rock”man game (although basically everything about Legends is what you wouldn’t expect of this series).
II. Characters
I absolutely adore this game’s cast of characters. Volnutt is one of my favorite iterations of the Blue Bomber, and Roll Caskett is just plain adorable. However, the Bonnes absolutely steal the show. They’re so cartoonishly evil (specifically Teisel) and kinda give off Jesse/James/Meowth vibes, being the comic relief bad guys but still being an active threat. I mean seriously, if you don’t like Tron Bonne you’re probably soulless. Most of the NPCs in Kattelox island are also charming, I really liked doing the sidequests to help them (i.e curing the girl who lost her ability to walk by donating to the hospital), it made me feel good.
III. Overall Story
Short but sweet is the best way to describe it. Aside from the pre-final boss stuff (believe me I’ll get to that), It’s a fun and enjoyable plot that’s simple to follow. The structure also allows for Legends to feel almost like… a children’s/teen’s anime from that era. I actually cared for these characters and how they would be involved in the story.
The Stinky Bits
There are a couple bits about this game I’d like to address, nothing game ruining but they did miff me off to a certain degree.
I. Vehicle Defending
Both of the vehicle defense bits in this game absolutely suck. The boat one isn’t too bad once you retreat the first time so you can appropriately face the boss, but the aerial battles are really bad, since you gotta do THREE whole parts with only one life bar on your ship. To make matters worse, if you’re super underpowered, you could borderline sotflock your entire playthrough because of how the progression works during that bit. It’s a very punishing and unfair difficulty spike, especially when everything else about the game is fairly balanced. Luckily it’s only these two segments and you’ll never have to deal with them ever again.
II. Grinding
Although somewhat expected of a game with RPG-like elements, grinding to upgrade your arsenal in this game kinda blows. I was planning on upgrading my active buster subweapon all the way, but the amount of time I’d have to spend grinding was absurd, so I settled on only leveling it up halfway and just tanking the final boss. Really the only valid strategy for grinding is to constantly clear out the sub-cities and respawn the enemies each time, even so it’s just unfun and time consuming. I can only imagine how long it would take to max level out the Shining Laser (a super overpowered weapon in the game which is basically a completion reward), and it would most likely not be fun.
III. The “Central” Antagonist (Endgame Spoilers)
This game has one of the weirdest tone shifts I’ve ever seen. You go from the “charming and sometimes atmospheric” feel of the story to “oh ok everyone’s about to die” extremely quick once Juno shows his face. It feels unearned as there’s no buildup or payoff as Juno just goes “I am going to kill everyone I just activated the thing immediately.” Like you can give a motivation to the player to make them want to conquer the villain, but this just feels cheap. Juno himself just isn’t even an intriguing or nuanced villain, let alone even having character. He just pops in at the very end to kick Volnutt in the robo-nuts before final boss time.
IV. Sequel Baiting (Ending Spoilers)
The one element that has fricked this subseries into oblivion is the tendency to sequel bait the audience. I should say that this is NEVER a good idea especially if you have no idea if your product will even succeed to begin with. After beating Juno the game dumps a bunch of plot twist exposition on us, giving us more questions with this ending rather than answers. It makes the ending feel almost hollow and undercooked. However, like I said, basically everything else about this story is pretty good.
Conclusion
And those are my overall thoughts on Megaman Legends 1. In my opinion, it’s very good, a little rough around the edges in some areas, but great regardless. If you want to play this game, I’d recommend buying it off of the United States PSN store (it’s only 10 bucks) before the shop is inevitably shut down because funni Sony hating stinky old games for whatever reason. However you’ll really only be able to play it on PS3/Vita because of the PSP not having enough buttons.
If you couldn’t tell, I really really like this game lol. I might not revisit this one often, but I had a spectacular experience with only a few things I actually disliked. I will look forward to playing through Misadventures of Tron Bonne and Legends 2 when the time comes, I hope they hold up just as well.
9/10
I adore Megaman Legends. I played this game for the first time in 2021, and despite many aged aspects of the title, I ended up really, really enjoying it. For this review I’ll highlight a couple things I both liked and disliked.
The Good
I. Presentation
This is one of the best looking 3D PS1 games by far. The anime art style, with very angular and sharp character designs blend in perfectly with the polygonal 32-bit hardware. Some areas do look really big and blocky sometimes, but all of the characters transitioned perfectly from the page to the screen. As a friend of mine stated, the visual style “oozes nostalgia” and I couldn’t agree more.
The English dub of this game is surprisingly actually really good. Coming from a 90’s Capcom game, I was expecting more of “wow what a mansion” or “w-megaman” quality voice ““acting””, but the dub had actual effort and competent voice direction. Sometimes I feel characters need to speak up, they’ll sound like they are mumbling and can be hard to hear, but mostly it’s passable. Reminds me of a charming English dub for an old OVA or something.
I honestly couldn’t remember very much of this game’s soundtrack. Not to say that it’s bad, I did like a couple tunes (Apple Market, Roll’s Car, The Flutter), but it’s definitely very different from what you’d expect of a “Rock”man game (although basically everything about Legends is what you wouldn’t expect of this series).
II. Characters
I absolutely adore this game’s cast of characters. Volnutt is one of my favorite iterations of the Blue Bomber, and Roll Caskett is just plain adorable. However, the Bonnes absolutely steal the show. They’re so cartoonishly evil (specifically Teisel) and kinda give off Jesse/James/Meowth vibes, being the comic relief bad guys but still being an active threat. I mean seriously, if you don’t like Tron Bonne you’re probably soulless. Most of the NPCs in Kattelox island are also charming, I really liked doing the sidequests to help them (i.e curing the girl who lost her ability to walk by donating to the hospital), it made me feel good.
III. Overall Story
Short but sweet is the best way to describe it. Aside from the pre-final boss stuff (believe me I’ll get to that), It’s a fun and enjoyable plot that’s simple to follow. The structure also allows for Legends to feel almost like… a children’s/teen’s anime from that era. I actually cared for these characters and how they would be involved in the story.
The Stinky Bits
There are a couple bits about this game I’d like to address, nothing game ruining but they did miff me off to a certain degree.
I. Vehicle Defending
Both of the vehicle defense bits in this game absolutely suck. The boat one isn’t too bad once you retreat the first time so you can appropriately face the boss, but the aerial battles are really bad, since you gotta do THREE whole parts with only one life bar on your ship. To make matters worse, if you’re super underpowered, you could borderline sotflock your entire playthrough because of how the progression works during that bit. It’s a very punishing and unfair difficulty spike, especially when everything else about the game is fairly balanced. Luckily it’s only these two segments and you’ll never have to deal with them ever again.
II. Grinding
Although somewhat expected of a game with RPG-like elements, grinding to upgrade your arsenal in this game kinda blows. I was planning on upgrading my active buster subweapon all the way, but the amount of time I’d have to spend grinding was absurd, so I settled on only leveling it up halfway and just tanking the final boss. Really the only valid strategy for grinding is to constantly clear out the sub-cities and respawn the enemies each time, even so it’s just unfun and time consuming. I can only imagine how long it would take to max level out the Shining Laser (a super overpowered weapon in the game which is basically a completion reward), and it would most likely not be fun.
III. The “Central” Antagonist (Endgame Spoilers)
This game has one of the weirdest tone shifts I’ve ever seen. You go from the “charming and sometimes atmospheric” feel of the story to “oh ok everyone’s about to die” extremely quick once Juno shows his face. It feels unearned as there’s no buildup or payoff as Juno just goes “I am going to kill everyone I just activated the thing immediately.” Like you can give a motivation to the player to make them want to conquer the villain, but this just feels cheap. Juno himself just isn’t even an intriguing or nuanced villain, let alone even having character. He just pops in at the very end to kick Volnutt in the robo-nuts before final boss time.
IV. Sequel Baiting (Ending Spoilers)
The one element that has fricked this subseries into oblivion is the tendency to sequel bait the audience. I should say that this is NEVER a good idea especially if you have no idea if your product will even succeed to begin with. After beating Juno the game dumps a bunch of plot twist exposition on us, giving us more questions with this ending rather than answers. It makes the ending feel almost hollow and undercooked. However, like I said, basically everything else about this story is pretty good.
Conclusion
And those are my overall thoughts on Megaman Legends 1. In my opinion, it’s very good, a little rough around the edges in some areas, but great regardless. If you want to play this game, I’d recommend buying it off of the United States PSN store (it’s only 10 bucks) before the shop is inevitably shut down because funni Sony hating stinky old games for whatever reason. However you’ll really only be able to play it on PS3/Vita because of the PSP not having enough buttons.
If you couldn’t tell, I really really like this game lol. I might not revisit this one often, but I had a spectacular experience with only a few things I actually disliked. I will look forward to playing through Misadventures of Tron Bonne and Legends 2 when the time comes, I hope they hold up just as well.
9/10
Actually a pretty good game. The controls felt really clunky at first and the beginning was a slog, but the game slowly grows on you with its cast (most notably the Bonnes), the music (especially in town and the later dungeons), and the fun dungeon exploration with all sorts of items and treasure to find. Eventually the game peaks with a super cool final boss and some interesting revelations, and I'm surprised that I actually really want to see where it's going. I'm also amazed at how good this game (a 1997 PS1 game) looks, holding up perfectly even to this day.
tem jogos que as palavras me fogem e esse é um deles. eu posso falar como ele é um dos jogos mais visualmente bonitos já feitos, como o uso de musica clássica é surreal, como os tank controls não são nem 1% tão ruim quanto o resto desse site reclama, como toda sidequest é fofa, como a Tron é ícone, como a dublagem americana é charmosa, como o jogo simplesmente surta do nada nos últimos 10 minutos. coisas que certamente todo mundo falou
mas eu acho que esse eu quero focar em outra coisa, eu quero focar em como eu engajo com videogame hoje em dia. eu ando em uma revolução, ou crise dependendo da conclusão, com videogame, eu perdi a minha capacidade de não querer jogar um jogo só pra terminar. sim, triste, lamentável e coisa de youtuber ruim. e porque isso é relevante pra mega man legends? porque esse é jogo de viver. é um skyrim, um gtazinho, em mini escala. a cidade é seu open world e é pra você explorar cada canto dela, ficar pulando em telhado, se divertir e não ligar pro tempo. mas eu não consigo mais fazer isso. provavelmente porque sou adulta e tenho outros compromissos, acabo ficando extremamente consciente do quanto tempo o jogo ta levando. fui procurar guia de sidequest porque não tava afim de falar com todos os NPCs depois de cada dungeon.
isso, pra mim, é ruim. eu não consigo aceitar que minha interação com jogos mudou, que hoje em dia as coisas são diferentes. se eu tivesse jogado mega man legends com meus 9 anos, eu teria, sem duvida, passado mais tempo na cidade fazendo absolutamente nada e chutando a latinha que fica no chão do que prosseguindo a história. mas hoje em dia não consigo mais isso, parece plástico, parece uma tentativa de retorno a algo que eu não sou mais. mas também me entristece essa minha corrida pelo termino do jogo. a verdade é que 10h de jogo hoje em dia não tem o mesmo peso de 10h de jogo há 20 anos atras, agora parece curto, consegui formar uma ligação superficial com os personagens daquela cidade mas não o suficiente pra eu me emocionar muuuuito (me emocionei um pouquinho) quando tive que dar tchau pra eles. é meio triste, queria conseguir retomar um pouco a essa epoca mas da minha propria forma, sem ser um espelho do que era antes. quem sabe eu estou trabalhando pra isso.
o pior é que quando eu for pensar nesse jogo em retrospecto, minha memoria vai suplementar todos esses sentimentos que fiquei confusa e não senti direito nela. vou lembrar como se eu tivesse vivido nessa cidade e me emocionado muito ao sair dela. é estranho, minha cabeça é esquisita mas eu acho que deixei de tentar entender. talvez seja um sentimento de culpa por estar jogando quando eu deveria estar fazendo outra coisa. talvez eu não saiba mais direito porque eu jogo videogame. costume? experenciar arte? passar o tempo? preencher uma lista? seja la o que for talvez eu devesse passar um ano sem jogar. mas não vou e provavelmente continuarei dançando essa valsa pelo resto da vida, só espero que acertar os passos volte a ser algo mais natural e menos consciente.
mas eu acho que esse eu quero focar em outra coisa, eu quero focar em como eu engajo com videogame hoje em dia. eu ando em uma revolução, ou crise dependendo da conclusão, com videogame, eu perdi a minha capacidade de não querer jogar um jogo só pra terminar. sim, triste, lamentável e coisa de youtuber ruim. e porque isso é relevante pra mega man legends? porque esse é jogo de viver. é um skyrim, um gtazinho, em mini escala. a cidade é seu open world e é pra você explorar cada canto dela, ficar pulando em telhado, se divertir e não ligar pro tempo. mas eu não consigo mais fazer isso. provavelmente porque sou adulta e tenho outros compromissos, acabo ficando extremamente consciente do quanto tempo o jogo ta levando. fui procurar guia de sidequest porque não tava afim de falar com todos os NPCs depois de cada dungeon.
isso, pra mim, é ruim. eu não consigo aceitar que minha interação com jogos mudou, que hoje em dia as coisas são diferentes. se eu tivesse jogado mega man legends com meus 9 anos, eu teria, sem duvida, passado mais tempo na cidade fazendo absolutamente nada e chutando a latinha que fica no chão do que prosseguindo a história. mas hoje em dia não consigo mais isso, parece plástico, parece uma tentativa de retorno a algo que eu não sou mais. mas também me entristece essa minha corrida pelo termino do jogo. a verdade é que 10h de jogo hoje em dia não tem o mesmo peso de 10h de jogo há 20 anos atras, agora parece curto, consegui formar uma ligação superficial com os personagens daquela cidade mas não o suficiente pra eu me emocionar muuuuito (me emocionei um pouquinho) quando tive que dar tchau pra eles. é meio triste, queria conseguir retomar um pouco a essa epoca mas da minha propria forma, sem ser um espelho do que era antes. quem sabe eu estou trabalhando pra isso.
o pior é que quando eu for pensar nesse jogo em retrospecto, minha memoria vai suplementar todos esses sentimentos que fiquei confusa e não senti direito nela. vou lembrar como se eu tivesse vivido nessa cidade e me emocionado muito ao sair dela. é estranho, minha cabeça é esquisita mas eu acho que deixei de tentar entender. talvez seja um sentimento de culpa por estar jogando quando eu deveria estar fazendo outra coisa. talvez eu não saiba mais direito porque eu jogo videogame. costume? experenciar arte? passar o tempo? preencher uma lista? seja la o que for talvez eu devesse passar um ano sem jogar. mas não vou e provavelmente continuarei dançando essa valsa pelo resto da vida, só espero que acertar os passos volte a ser algo mais natural e menos consciente.
the funny monkey
it was amazing. the story was simple but i really liked that about it. It was cool to explore the caves and how unlocking the special weapons would end up connecting the caves together. The camera control was a little weird but easy to adjust too. I definitely recommend this game
Esse jogo esbanja charme. É uma mistura de dois estilos típicos dos 1990: dungeon-crawling 3D e aventura semi-aberta cheia de NPCs. Esses dois elementos são divididos meio que explicitamente no subsolo (onde estão as dungeons) e a superfície (onde está a cidadezinha cheia de NPCs que você pode explorar) e se complementam muito bem. É um game até que relaxante, com uma ótima vibe para apenas ficar explorando e vagando por aí.
Sobre os controles e se ele “envelheceu mal”, que parecem ser críticas comuns ao jogo, deixo aqui o link da linda e perfeita poyfuh em que ela explica muito melhor do que eu como “intuitivo” é aquilo que você aprendeu ou tem costume de usar, só porque algo não é como você está acostumado não quer dizer que é ruim.
Sobre os controles e se ele “envelheceu mal”, que parecem ser críticas comuns ao jogo, deixo aqui o link da linda e perfeita poyfuh em que ela explica muito melhor do que eu como “intuitivo” é aquilo que você aprendeu ou tem costume de usar, só porque algo não é como você está acostumado não quer dizer que é ruim.
Legends was absolutely a risk by Capcom,but something I'm all too happy about them making. Legends has far more story and cast of characters than the usual Mega Man game would, and honestly that plays to it's strengths. While the voice acting is a bit over the place at first, the further you dive into this game, the better the acting gets along with everything else.
The game starts out rather mildly, with our cast of characters already in the middle of an adventure, and in doing so helps showcase everything different about Legends and the other styles of Mega Man. From Mega Man talking to Roll, to exploring dungeons akin to the Legend of Zelda, or fighting via a 3rd person shooter prospective, The beginning is glaring in the fact that it's not the same game with Mega Man while still offering exactly the appeal to it. Soon enough you'll find yourself on the main part of the game, focusing solely on one island, and while it does act as a neat hub, it's easy to recognize that their is more depth to it than the adventure digging would let on. From mysteries to mini games to just chatting with towns people, Legends really makes it clear that it wants to set up an atmosphere, and it excels at it.
Its not completely flawless despite my praises though, and largely this has to do with the final boss. While difficulty spikes happen sometimes in games, the amount of spiking is kinda ridiculous when compared to the rest of the game. In a lot of ways, the final boss is roughly 3x harder than it needed to be, and the fact that I had to grind as much as I did just to stand a chance, then proceed to get my ass kicked till I learned about the bosses pattern to take it on is troubling to say the least. While grinding does make the game easier, the fact that my final moments of the game was roughly 1/3 of the time I had on my adventure makes it incredibly dull and weakened the pacing immensely.
When it comes down to it though, I enjoyed my time greatly with Legends, and while the game does have some hang ups in the beginning, you learn to get used to it and things get better the further you go in. While I wish the grinding near the end was paced better, perhaps with another added dungeon, the way Legends is now is still a suitable adventure despite it.
The game starts out rather mildly, with our cast of characters already in the middle of an adventure, and in doing so helps showcase everything different about Legends and the other styles of Mega Man. From Mega Man talking to Roll, to exploring dungeons akin to the Legend of Zelda, or fighting via a 3rd person shooter prospective, The beginning is glaring in the fact that it's not the same game with Mega Man while still offering exactly the appeal to it. Soon enough you'll find yourself on the main part of the game, focusing solely on one island, and while it does act as a neat hub, it's easy to recognize that their is more depth to it than the adventure digging would let on. From mysteries to mini games to just chatting with towns people, Legends really makes it clear that it wants to set up an atmosphere, and it excels at it.
Its not completely flawless despite my praises though, and largely this has to do with the final boss. While difficulty spikes happen sometimes in games, the amount of spiking is kinda ridiculous when compared to the rest of the game. In a lot of ways, the final boss is roughly 3x harder than it needed to be, and the fact that I had to grind as much as I did just to stand a chance, then proceed to get my ass kicked till I learned about the bosses pattern to take it on is troubling to say the least. While grinding does make the game easier, the fact that my final moments of the game was roughly 1/3 of the time I had on my adventure makes it incredibly dull and weakened the pacing immensely.
When it comes down to it though, I enjoyed my time greatly with Legends, and while the game does have some hang ups in the beginning, you learn to get used to it and things get better the further you go in. While I wish the grinding near the end was paced better, perhaps with another added dungeon, the way Legends is now is still a suitable adventure despite it.
Fiquei muito surpreso com o tanto que gostei de Mega Man Legends, e também com o fato desse jogo ter sido lançado em 1997, pós Super Mario 64 mas antes de jogos como Ocarina of Time e Metal Gear Solid, numa época onde ainda estavam descobrindo a melhor maneira de se controlar um personagem num ambiente totalmente 3D. E se, obviamente, a jogabilidade de Mega Man Legends mostra sua idade, eu acho impressionante o quanto ele acerta em suas ambições.
Pra começar no seu aspecto visual, bem colorido, com seus personagens de proporções exageradas e incrivelmente expressivos. Um estilo muito charmoso que se destaca entre os vários jogos de gráficos 3D mais rudimentares do PS1. A trilha sonora combina bem com cada ambiente, fazendo um bom paralelo com uma história que vai de um clima quase "bobo" de um desenho animado para um tom mais sério com seus próprios mistérios a serem revelados. Tanto a família Caskett quanto os piratas Bonne são todos bem carismáticos, e de um modo geral os personagens quase não parecem viver no mundo pós-apocalíptico apresentado na introdução do jogo. É um contraste curioso.
Um detalhe importante é que eu joguei Mega Man Legends num PS Vita, e por isso pude adaptar seus controles para "simular" o uso dos dois analógicos. Não é algo que funciona perfeitamente bem, mas consegui me adaptar rapidamente e fica aquela sensação que faltaram alguns detalhes pra jogabilidade ser realmente muito boa, apesar de bem funcional. Se os corredores das suas dungeons não oferecem uma ação lá muito interessante, as boss battles em cenários mais abertos são bem mais divertidas de se jogar, e há um bom número delas em todo o jogo. Que aliás tem uma duração ótima, contando também com bastante conteúdo opcional disponível explorando a ilha de Kattletox e conversando com os seus habitantes.
Uma verdadeira pérola da biblioteca do PS1. Apesar da dublagem tosca (que às vezes ajuda no humor) e de algumas limitações meio chatas (só poder trocar de armas especiais fora das dungeons), Mega Man Legends é um jogo de muita personalidade. E isso é algo que eu espero encontrar nas suas duas sequências lançadas, que com certeza jogarei.
Pra começar no seu aspecto visual, bem colorido, com seus personagens de proporções exageradas e incrivelmente expressivos. Um estilo muito charmoso que se destaca entre os vários jogos de gráficos 3D mais rudimentares do PS1. A trilha sonora combina bem com cada ambiente, fazendo um bom paralelo com uma história que vai de um clima quase "bobo" de um desenho animado para um tom mais sério com seus próprios mistérios a serem revelados. Tanto a família Caskett quanto os piratas Bonne são todos bem carismáticos, e de um modo geral os personagens quase não parecem viver no mundo pós-apocalíptico apresentado na introdução do jogo. É um contraste curioso.
Um detalhe importante é que eu joguei Mega Man Legends num PS Vita, e por isso pude adaptar seus controles para "simular" o uso dos dois analógicos. Não é algo que funciona perfeitamente bem, mas consegui me adaptar rapidamente e fica aquela sensação que faltaram alguns detalhes pra jogabilidade ser realmente muito boa, apesar de bem funcional. Se os corredores das suas dungeons não oferecem uma ação lá muito interessante, as boss battles em cenários mais abertos são bem mais divertidas de se jogar, e há um bom número delas em todo o jogo. Que aliás tem uma duração ótima, contando também com bastante conteúdo opcional disponível explorando a ilha de Kattletox e conversando com os seus habitantes.
Uma verdadeira pérola da biblioteca do PS1. Apesar da dublagem tosca (que às vezes ajuda no humor) e de algumas limitações meio chatas (só poder trocar de armas especiais fora das dungeons), Mega Man Legends é um jogo de muita personalidade. E isso é algo que eu espero encontrar nas suas duas sequências lançadas, que com certeza jogarei.
Uno de los juegos más diferentes en toda la serie de Mega Man, ahora enfocándose más en la historia y cambiando a su vez el enfoque del gameplay. Si bien, sigue siendo un juego de acción, ahora también está muy centrado con la exploración del mundo y las minas.
Lo primero de lo que hablar es la historia: bastante carismática, con personajes divertidos pero a la vez bastante interesantes, se siente como jugar una caricatura de los 90. No solo eso, sino que el mundo y los gráficos apoyan esta idea, dándole un estilo visual bastante único para la época, creando un mundo lleno de carisma y con un montón de posibilidades de expandirlo (por algo existen varias secuelas).
Probablemente lo más controversial del juego es su forma de jugarlo. Es algo como...controles de tanque, pero no realmente. Personalmente a mi no me molestó ya que me acostumbré fácilmente a ellos gracias a que también tiene un sistema de lock-on muy rudimentario. Con este si tengo problemas, ya que...es muy extraño. No tengo problema con que no te indique qué enemigo estás observando con una retícula, pero si que a veces el buster no funciona al correr en círculos con los enemigos, o siquiera cuando vas corriendo de lado a lado, a veces no funciona, o a veces Megamano se detiene un poco antes de volver a correr. No sé si fue por el control o algo así, pero sin duda es algo extraño.
El gameplay como tal es bastante bueno, disparar a los enemigos se siente bien y la variedad de armas le da esa misma variedad a los combates. Es un poco de hueva que tengas que cambiarlo con Roll, en lugar de los Mega Man clásicos donde puedes cambiar tu arma cuando quieras, pero personalmente eso no me afecta mucho ya que siempre tenía ciertas armas secundarias que usaba la mayor parte del tiempo.
En ciertas ocasiones hasta se siente como una especie de "metroidvania" ya que obtienes mejoras para Mega Man al explorar los diferentes escenarios del juego que te ayudarán a pasar los que vendrán en el futuro.
Lo que si hay que mencionar es que es una especie de RPG, esto en el sentido en el que puedes usar diferentes objetos que cambiarán las características del buster de Mega Man: puedes hacer que haga mucho más daño, que tenga más alcance, poder disparar más rápido o con más consistencia, etc. Sin duda es una forma muy interesante de hacer tu propia "build" por llamarlo de alguna forma, y esto va muy bien con la exploración, ya que estas mejoras las puedes encontrar tanto comprándolas o explorando las minas.
Siento que todo lo que se propuso este juego lo hizo excelentemente, tal vez lo único medio raro son los controles pero otra vez, es fácil acostumbrarse a ellos ya que sin duda la historia te hará seguir jugándolo. De mis juegos favoritos de Mega Man.
Lo primero de lo que hablar es la historia: bastante carismática, con personajes divertidos pero a la vez bastante interesantes, se siente como jugar una caricatura de los 90. No solo eso, sino que el mundo y los gráficos apoyan esta idea, dándole un estilo visual bastante único para la época, creando un mundo lleno de carisma y con un montón de posibilidades de expandirlo (por algo existen varias secuelas).
Probablemente lo más controversial del juego es su forma de jugarlo. Es algo como...controles de tanque, pero no realmente. Personalmente a mi no me molestó ya que me acostumbré fácilmente a ellos gracias a que también tiene un sistema de lock-on muy rudimentario. Con este si tengo problemas, ya que...es muy extraño. No tengo problema con que no te indique qué enemigo estás observando con una retícula, pero si que a veces el buster no funciona al correr en círculos con los enemigos, o siquiera cuando vas corriendo de lado a lado, a veces no funciona, o a veces Megamano se detiene un poco antes de volver a correr. No sé si fue por el control o algo así, pero sin duda es algo extraño.
El gameplay como tal es bastante bueno, disparar a los enemigos se siente bien y la variedad de armas le da esa misma variedad a los combates. Es un poco de hueva que tengas que cambiarlo con Roll, en lugar de los Mega Man clásicos donde puedes cambiar tu arma cuando quieras, pero personalmente eso no me afecta mucho ya que siempre tenía ciertas armas secundarias que usaba la mayor parte del tiempo.
En ciertas ocasiones hasta se siente como una especie de "metroidvania" ya que obtienes mejoras para Mega Man al explorar los diferentes escenarios del juego que te ayudarán a pasar los que vendrán en el futuro.
Lo que si hay que mencionar es que es una especie de RPG, esto en el sentido en el que puedes usar diferentes objetos que cambiarán las características del buster de Mega Man: puedes hacer que haga mucho más daño, que tenga más alcance, poder disparar más rápido o con más consistencia, etc. Sin duda es una forma muy interesante de hacer tu propia "build" por llamarlo de alguna forma, y esto va muy bien con la exploración, ya que estas mejoras las puedes encontrar tanto comprándolas o explorando las minas.
Siento que todo lo que se propuso este juego lo hizo excelentemente, tal vez lo único medio raro son los controles pero otra vez, es fácil acostumbrarse a ellos ya que sin duda la historia te hará seguir jugándolo. De mis juegos favoritos de Mega Man.
Don’t worry, Tron. If anyone can do it, he can.
I mean… Mega Man Legends should probably, at the very least, be mentioned in the same conversation as Super Mario 64 when we talk about positive 2D-to-3D conversions. It’s an unbelievably confident, interesting game that shakes up the Mega Man IP with good voice acting (!), a robust and surprisingly dark story, open exploration, can kicking, stat-altering equipment, and dungeon crawling. Oh, and Tron Bonne, of course. Gone are the days of Robot Masters, Mavericks, boss weapons, and stages (for now). The game even has things like an optional morality system, lots of items to find, and, I suspect, sidequests that most players will never even be privy to. Legends also has this low-poly, 90s anime aesthetic that is utterly to die for, and it’s unthinkable that nobody has tried to ape this exact look in the years since. It’s certainly not perfect, but, for Capcom’s first stab (and, unfortunately, one of their only stabs) at a 3D Mega Man title, it’s not terribly far off.
I mean… Mega Man Legends should probably, at the very least, be mentioned in the same conversation as Super Mario 64 when we talk about positive 2D-to-3D conversions. It’s an unbelievably confident, interesting game that shakes up the Mega Man IP with good voice acting (!), a robust and surprisingly dark story, open exploration, can kicking, stat-altering equipment, and dungeon crawling. Oh, and Tron Bonne, of course. Gone are the days of Robot Masters, Mavericks, boss weapons, and stages (for now). The game even has things like an optional morality system, lots of items to find, and, I suspect, sidequests that most players will never even be privy to. Legends also has this low-poly, 90s anime aesthetic that is utterly to die for, and it’s unthinkable that nobody has tried to ape this exact look in the years since. It’s certainly not perfect, but, for Capcom’s first stab (and, unfortunately, one of their only stabs) at a 3D Mega Man title, it’s not terribly far off.
It's got excellent art direction, some solid dungeon design, and an enjoyable story, but it's let down by it's dated controls and occasionally obnoxious structure. It took me a bit of time to adjust to the controls, but I liked them fine. However, several bosses near the end of the game expect way more of the player than the controls really allow. That made the last hour or so pretty annoying. Some of the dungeons are fun, but some want you to backtrack needlessly. I did also like a lot of the characters, even if the dialogue felt clunky at times. The first half was pretty fun overall, with some good exploration and some light puzzle solving. An uneven experience, that I liked fine.
Tron Bonne's sweaty pantyhose