Drake Wank #8 - Mega Man Legends · 4:01am May 14th, 2016
Over the last couple of years, you may have heard a lot of ruckus over Mega Man Legends coming to the PSN, and have wondered "what the heck is that?" Well, allow me to enlighten you and explain why it was such a big deal to see MML and its sequel come to PSN.
Mega Man Legends came out for the PS1 around the 90s. For those of you who don't remember the series at the time, it was the dying days of the Super NES. Mega Man Classic was dead but beloved, and the Mega Man X series was taking the series into the next generation. The Mega Man franchise's gameplay and tropes were well established - eight bosses spread across themed platforming stages, fight them, earn their weapon, use them to fight the next one, rinse and repeat until you can go fight Wily/Sigma.
So Mega Man Legends kinda threw fans for a loop when it hit with a 3D third-person over-the-shoulder shooter with platforming and RPG elements. In fact, if you palette swapped the main character to another color and changed his name, you would never peg them as Mega Man games. No Dr. Wily, Sigma, or Dr. Light, no robot masters, no earning weapons from fallen bosses. Mega Man Legends was just nothing else the Mega Man series has ever given us, it was almost the exact opposite.
And that's why it was GOOD.
I love Mega Man (duh), but let's be honest, the series stagnated very quickly. The Mega Man games were far too formulaic and tired for their own good. The X series was good but it started to get dull around the third game, and IMHO their efforts to break up the monotony in later games just made them worse. The Mega Man games had repetitive gameplay and concepts, recycled a lot of their graphics between games, and very weak stories.
If I may make a cheap jab - the Mega Man series was the Call of Duty of the NES/Super NES era. 
Legends zigged where the other games zagged. Where Classic and X had weak or bad stories, Legends has a very complex and interesting story. Where the original games are 2D platformers, Legends was a 3D wide-open action shooter. Instead of earning new weapons from bosses, Legends encouraged you to explore to find stuff to build new weapons with and then upgrade them. Another point of divergence is the voice acting. Granted, Legends' voice acting won't win any awards, but at least it was decent. The biggest problem with the games were the audio mixing, where background noise and music too often drowned out the voices, but the voices were at least nice to listen to.
And this in a time where Capcom also gave us this.
So, what is the story of Mega Man Legends? Far in the future, the world is flooded and covered in water, insert Al Gore joke here. Civilization survives on small isolated islands that remained above land, using airships to get around. In this society, resources are scarce, so people use Quantum Refractors to power their machines. Refractors are crystal-like shards of material that, when spun in a generator at high speeds, generator a power field. Humanity has long lost the technology to produce refractors, though, and so they gather them from the Reaverbots.
Around the world are ancient underground ruins full of Reaverbots, robots that attack and destroy any intruders into the ruins. No one knows where the Reaverbots or ruins came from, but the Reaverbots are powered by refractors. Explorers called "Diggers" regularly venture into the ruins to thin out the Reaverbots and gather refractors for civilization. They work in tandem with a Spotter, a partner who stays above ground working various monitoring equipment for them, and may also help build and maintain the Digger's equipment.
Into this world come Mega Man Volnutt and Roll Caskett, a Digger and Spotter pair who explore the world with their airship, the Flutter. As most Diggers are wont to do, they make a living exploring ruins and salvaging and selling what they find, but they also have some pasts to cope with. Roll was raised by her grandfather, Barrell (geddit?), after her parents vanished while on a dig when she was a kid, and she harbors hope that someday she'll find out what happened to them. Mega Man, meanwhile, was found sealed in stasis in a ruin by Barrell as a kid, and he took Mega Man in to raise him, too. As the events of the games unfold, they'll learn the truth about Roll's parents and Mega Man's past, which connects both of them to the Reaverbots and their masters. They also have to deal with various gangs of sky pirates, most prominently the Bonnes, who become their archenemies as a matter of principal after Mega Man keeps getting in their way.
Also, just gonna through out there - Roll was one of my first childhood crushes. Not just because she's cute, but because she's your mission control on digs, letting you know about things she finds, she builds and upgrades all your gear, and she pilots all your vehicles including an airship, spotter car, boat, and train. She's also not afraid to go out into the field piloting those vehicle into battle with the Bonnes. Roll never fights but she's still awesome.
So, story aside, why is Legends a good series? Great gameplay. To me, these are the 3D Metroid games we never got in the N64 era. Mega Man explores the ancient ruins with his buster and an interchangable arsenal of secondary weapons, including cannons, grenades, missile launchers, and more utility weapons like the Drill Arm to bust down walls and the Vacuum Arm to quickly gather dropped power-ups. You can also equip various add-ons to increase your buster stats, and other stuff like Jump Springs to jump higher, armor to reduce damage, Jet Skates to rapidly dash across the ground, and a safety helmet to reduce knockback. Yeah, that's probably one of the things everyone knows about Legends; Mega Man does not have his trademark helmet most of the time, it's an optional bit. As you explore the ruins you find scrap materials that Roll can use to build you new gear, and your various new powers let you explore the ruins in new ways, like Jump Springs letting you jump onto unreachable platforms to access whole new areas underground.
Between digs you can partake in various sidequests. In said sidequests you'll learn this Mega Man may be one of the nicest damn guys you'll ever meet. You can donate to the hospital to help fix a crippled girl's leg, you can escort a pregnant woman to the hospital after she goes into labor, you can help the police solve crimes, donate to the church, buy presents for Roll, donate some of the stuff you find on digs to the local museum, and donate money to help rebuild towns attacked by pirates. Oh, and I'd be remiss to not let you know that this is in the first game.
Being that it was such a huge departure from what Mega Man was at the time, Legends did not sell very well and failed to find an audience. The first game had some clunky controls, too. The sequel fixed them but no one really cared. Legends quietly faded away into video game obscurity, but over the years built up a fanbase and got a loyal following. Capcom announced Legends 3 several years ago, and then canned it only a few months later to the outrage of many.
Meanwhile, it took a long time for Legends to come to PSN. Why? Capcom used a real life TV station's callsign for a station in the game, and also plastered a real drink on vending machines. They didn't have the license to use them anymore, but Sony doesn't let games on PSN modify their code, they have to be just as they were originally. After years, presumably Capcom decided to bite the bullet, pay for the licensing fees again, and now Legends 1 and 2 are on PSN. Go check them out if you have the money and want to experience a cool over-the-shoulder shooter with some unique action-RPG mechanics.
Great post about some of the best Mega Man games. I still haven't played them, but I've followed Mega Man news a lot over the years, so I am glad both are finally on PSN, so basically available to everyone. I am definitely getting both before they disappear (you never know with digital games). Ugh, the MML3 debacle. Though Mega Man in general is a dead franchise as far as Capcom is concerned now (aside from ports, and those ports only focus on Classic), still a relief to see Legends on PSN.
Ah, Megaman Legends. I need to replay that one of these days, AND finish MML2. I've got both of them and The Misadventures of Tron Bonne for PS1 still. Good times...good times...
No? I must be the only person who actually likes the "repetitive" gameplay of the classic and X series, because I never understood the hype over Legends. Like, it's not Mega Man. :C