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[Mega Man-ish Thread] They Call Him 'Azure Striker' Because He's Azure!
LBD_Nytetrayn
TorontoRegistered User regular
TorontoRegistered User regular
It's time for a new Mega Man thread! The old one is here if you want it, and hopefully Owenashi doesn't mind me ganking his pretty cool OP and putting it here for easy reference:
So, with that done, here's a quick update, as of this post:
Mega Man Battle Network, Star Force, and Zero all seem to be finished for now. X8 and ZXA left us with cliffhangers which may never be resolved, and there hasn't been anything on a Mega Man 11 yet.
Development of Rockman Online continues, but still nothing to indicate that it will ever leave Korea.
Mega Man Universe is dead.
And Mega Man Legends 3 is moving right along, but hasn't been greenlit yet and might be facing trouble:
So, there you have it: the future of the project rests in how well a downloadable demo is received on a newly-released system which will still be about seven months away from its first holiday saturation and has many people waiting for this very game before even considering buying the system in the first place!
No pressure, right?
At least we have some peeks at the preview in the meantime, with videos and details regarding a newly-shown character, the Air Biker Barrett of the Garter Family "Bright Bats." You can find out about him and all the latest regarding Mega Man Legends 3, including about five videos (as of this post) here.
Yeah, never mind. Legends 3 is dead, too.
Other stuff happening:
UDON Entertainment will begin shipping the Mega Man Tribute art book, a collection of many fans/artists' renditions of the Blue Bomber, this Summer. You can check out a preview here, and see the full list of contributing artists here.
Mega Man X is now on the Virtual Console, and word is that Mega Man 5 will join it and the first four NES games there.
Yet another Mega-- er, Rockman Zero soundtrack is coming out.
And finally, Mega Man is getting his very own monthly comic book! You can check out news and the first four issues' covers here.
Whew. Hope I didn't forget anything.
Edit: Well, I guess I did: an incomplete Let's Play of the entire series!
For more then twenty years, the Mega Man franchise has grown to be one of Capcom's solid pillars, right alongside Street Fighter and Resident Evil. Created by Keiji Inafune in 1987 with the original Mega Man game for the NES, the character has spread to multiple series, incarnations and consoles. I myself jumped onto the fan-bandwagon with Mega Man 2, sporting the kind of improvements over the original game that launched it right into "you're not a real gamer if you haven't played this game" status and helped pave the way for the rest of the near fifty original titles bearing the Mega Man brand. So I thought I'd make this thread here for the rest of the fellow Mega Man fans in the forums to chat and argue about the franchise's frequent good and minor bad points. First though, let's highlight the various series for those who aren't aware of how many characters held the Mega-brand.
Mega Man (Main/Classic)
First Game's Release: December 17, 1987 for the NES
Set in the year 200X, the ten games (1-10 as well as 'Mega Man & Bass' and a few other side-games) followed the story of Rock, a not-so-simple robot made by Dr. Thomas Light to help out around the lab, only to be modified into a super-fighting robot when Light's partner, Dr. Albert W. Wily, decided to steal six other robots he and Light created and reprogram them for world-conquering duties. With the aid of Light, a transforming robotic dog named Rush, and his siblings Proto Man and the housekeeping Roll, Rock would defend the world again and again from Wily's crazy ambitions as the original Mega-Man.
Gameplay in the Classic series more or less followed the platforming standards of the time they were introduced with the player having extra lives and passcode-numbers to extend his playing time in case of game-overs. What was unique was Mega Man's ability to actually walk away from a boss-fight taking the bosses' (known as Robot Masters) weapon as his own, making most runs in the game a rock-paper-scissors deal due to the vulnerabilities programmed in. Figuring who was weak to what as well as the stages each boss had tended to bring the back the fans game after game, despite how the game's stories (and some of the bosses) tended to get weirder and weirder.
Mega Man X
First Game's Release: January 19, 1994 on the SNES
A new, more powerful game-console would call for more powerful games and heroes and Mega Man X didn't disappoint. The series, set in 21XX, would focus not on Rock but his 2.0 sibling, X. Created by Dr. Light sometime near the end of Rock's adventures, X would be kept offline for thirty years due to his revolutionary systems requiring testing. Found by a scientist known simply as Dr. Cain, X would become the template for a new type of robot called Reploids. However, there were good reasons why X wasn't brought online right away as some Reploids eventually go nuts. X's adventures would deal with him forced to fight these enemy Reploids (labeled as Mavericks), often lead by former good-guy Reploid, the seemingly unkillable Sigma.
Gameplay for the X-series was for the most part the same as the original; run through eight stages, beat the Maverick boss at the end and keep a copy of his weapon to use on his friends. The series would however bring in new features like the ability to dash on the ground and in the air, jump up and off of walls ninja-style, and collect pieces of armor to add additional abilities to X. As the series moved off of the SNES and to other consoles, players were also able to play as Zero, X's main Maverick-Hunter partner and Axl, a mysterious Reploid who has the ability to mimic the look and abilities of simpler Reploid enemies in the stages.
Mega Man Zero
First Game's Release: November 9, 2002 on the Game Boy Advance.
Prior to the GBA's release, Mega Man games on portable systems tended to be mostly rehashes of stages and fights against old Robot Masters/Mavericks. Once Capcom saw that you could make something original on Nintendo's 32-bit console-on-the-go, they got to work on extending the Mega-legacy there with this four-game series being one of the results. The series begins 100 years after X's time (said time thought to have ended in MMX-6 until they made a couple more games in the series), with a human scientist named Ciel waking up a different-looking and initially amnesiatic Zero from his century-long nap. He discovers that while he was offline, an anti-Reploid government called Neo Arcadia has risen up, led by the last being he'd expect. Zero joins Ciel and her Resistance to stop Neo Arcadia and any other threats to peace between Reploid and humankind.
Anyone who felt that the Mega Man games of late were missing a few notches of difficulty were probably glad or horrified by MMZ's lack of mercy when it came to mistakes. Players also found that while Zero had his fair share of weapons, it wasn't due to mugging dead bosses' corpses. Rather, the special abilities factor of MMZ came from Cyber Elves, simplistic AI in fairy-like physical bodies which gave various boosts to Zero in one fashion or the other such as increasing max-health or preventing stage-hazards like spikes from hurting Zero.
Mega Man ZX
First Game's Release: September 12, 2006 for the Nintendo DSThe newest game-series set in the main timeline of Mega Man lore, MMZX is set two hundred years after (so far) Mega Man Zero 4. Reploid and human relations by this time have resulted in a blurring of the physical differences separating the two groups. What brings any sort of Mega Man into play at this point thus is the use of Biometals, objects which become special armor for specific individuals, imparting the abilities and sometimes even the memories of those the Biometal are patterned after. One particular Biometal become the center of MMZX's story due to those who would use it to bring the evil from MMZ's time into the present.
The two games in the series are unique in that each present two separate pairs of protagonists who fall under the heroic banner of Mega Man. The first feature these two...
Vent and Aile, both sharing the same story in the first game as orphans due to a Maverick attack who work at a delivery service at an older age, this leading them into contact with the Biometal based on X. However, it's not until they actually merge both X's and Zero's Biometals that they end up assuming their proper Mega Man identity, Mega Man ZX.
In their game, they use this double-merging ability with the X-Biometal to good use as they score the Biometals off of the bosses they face and then double-merge for use in other stages. By the second game's time however, they lose all but the Zero and X Biometals. They also lose their star status as these two replace them.
Grey and Ashe as characters have more individualistic stories, at least at the beginning. Grey's a Reploid boy who much like Zero in MMZ wakes up in a lab-tube without any memories of his past while Ashe's a human girl who works as part of the current anti-Maverick force in ZX's time. Both eventually come into contact with Biometal A, seemingly based on MMX's Axl and changing them each into a new Mega Man.
Gameplay with them tends to be somewhat different as they use their Biometal's inherent ability to copy abilities to become complete replicas of the fallen bosses rather then double-merging their Biometal with theirs.
Mega Man Legends
First Game's Release: August 31, 1998 for the Sony Playstation
With CD-based consoles being able to deliver more games in go-anywhere 3D, it's not surprising that Capcom would also bring Mega Man's platforming to the same dimension. Fans would however find Legends' world to be much more lighthearted as well when compared to games in the previous series. Set in a mostly water-covered Earth, humanity strives to survive with the help of Diggers, men and women who venture into technological ruins guarded by Reaverbots to obtain special power-giving crystals called Refractors. MegaMan Volnutt happens to be one of those very Diggers, aided by his Spotter-sibling Roll and their grandfather, Barrell Caskett. When their airship crashes on Kattlelox Island however, they start to discover how much of the world's missing history ties in with Mega's.
Not every series survives it's arrival into the 3D world but Legends has been marked by the fans as one of the successful ones. Rather then stages, Mega runs around a group of ruins that slowly begin to connect to one another with new-found abilities. Fights with Reaverbots however tend not to supply Mega with his gear. Rather it's mostly the broken items found around the ruins and the rest of the games' locations that supply Mega with his gear once Roll patches and remodels them into working order. These tend to range from boosting-items for his Mega-Buster to skates for rapid movement to weapons that usually replace his right arm.
One particular note about the Legends series is the special prequel title, The Misadventures of Tron Bonne, which stars not Mega and his family but the Bonnes, the Team-Rocket-esque villains of both Legends titles. The closest title in the Mega Man franchise to this game which involves a villain in a starring role is the Classic-series' Mega Man & Bass, though Mega Man 10 would follow later in allowing Bass to be a playable, downloadable character.
And after ten years of waiting on a cliffhanger, Capcom has finally done the unthinkable: they have announced Mega Man Legends 3! And what's more, the fans get to help make it! But as you'll see below, it's not all smooth sailing yet.
Mega Man Battle Network
First Game's Release: October 30 2001 for the Game Boy AdvanceWhile MMZ showed how well a portable regular Mega Man game could be, it wasn't the first Mega Man game for the GBA. Rather that went to Battle Network, notable for not only bringing the action-RPG genre to Mega Man but also starting a brand new alternate timeline separate from what was started in the Classics series. In Battle Network's world, the decision was made to focus on the Internet rather then robots. By the year of 20XX, the common item for use thanks to that focus is the (Pe)rsonal (T)erminal or PET for short. Even classes for elementary school children make use of them and the special AIs connected to each known as Net Navis. The two heroes of Battle Network are no exception.
Fifth-grader Lan Hikari and his specially-made Net-Navi MegaMan.EXE would probably have had a normal life together if not for the net-terrorist group, World-Three, causing chaos wherever they go. Not willing to stand by and see innocent life of any sort get hurt by exploding ovens, out of control vehicles and polluted water, Lan and MM.EXE do their best in their respective sides of the world to stop W3 and any other villains natural or artificial.
With Battle Network, jumping through hoops the classic MM way is out the door. Rather, the games follow an almost episodic chain of events with the villains of the game creating a problem somewhere and Lan hooking his PET to the nearest Internet connection so MM.EXE can solve the problem. This usually means running through an dungeon of random enemies, flipping switches and solving puzzles to get to the boss Navi and beating him or her. This results in obtaining indirectly the boss' powers through the use of a chip based on the boss, allowing the player to bring him out briefly in Final Fantasy summoned-monster fashion. Fights tend to go quicker with the use of other chips, Lan being able to go through a 'deck' of selected chips to give MM.EXE attacks via singular chips or an attack made from combining the power of several chips together. Future games in the series would reintroduce the ability to use the abilities of bosses (as well as ally Navis) directly via a fusion ability.
Mega Man Star Force
First Game's Release: August 7, 2007 for the Nintendo DSSimilar to how Capcom went from Zero to ZX for the move to the DS, so too did they move from Battle Network to a new series in the form of Mega Man Star Force. Shifting 200 years past the ending of Battle Network's stories, the primary Internet tech of the world has moved up to the use of electromagnetic waves. Rather relying on NetNavis for companionship, people are motivated to use the PET's replacement, Transers, to set up BrotherBands between other Transer users. Not everyone wants to get along though. Geo Stelar, depressed over his father's disappearance in space, holes himself in his home, away from school and the rest of the world. That changes however when he meets Omega-Xis...
A EM-wave-based alien, Omega and the special world created by EM-waves are able to be seen by Geo thanks to the use of a special pair of glasses Geo's father made. On the run from other EM-aliens, Omega makes a deal with Geo to help fight them off in exchange for helping him find his father. The two are able to merge together, allowing Geo to fight in Earth's EM-world as the newest Mega-Man, unaware that Omega's pursuers are also able to do the same with other humans, but in a much less friendlier way.
Gameplay for Star Force follows much in the same lines as Battle Network, though battles now follow an over-the-shoulder view rather then the 2D-like side view in BN. Battle Chips are now Battle Cards with summon-based versions of bosses and friendly EM-beings available. With the DS's online capability however, players are able to establish real BrotherBands with other people, giving them access to Cards not accessible due to Capcom making multiple versions of the same game like Pokemon. The BB with in-game characters and real players also allow for boosts to the stats for Geo and Omega's combined form.
If you're curious about any of the games, check these three links while enjoying these songs.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mega_Man_(series)
http://megaman.wikia.com/wiki/Mega_Man_Wiki
http://www.themmnetwork.com/
Lyrics NSFW
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ufVQIUEiYc
So, with that done, here's a quick update, as of this post:
Mega Man Battle Network, Star Force, and Zero all seem to be finished for now. X8 and ZXA left us with cliffhangers which may never be resolved, and there hasn't been anything on a Mega Man 11 yet.
Development of Rockman Online continues, but still nothing to indicate that it will ever leave Korea.
Mega Man Universe is dead.
And Mega Man Legends 3 is moving right along, but hasn't been greenlit yet and might be facing trouble:
We took this prototype game, full of potential, and showed it off at the greenlight meeting. As hoped, Barrett’s reception was top-notch. What a response! And yet. . . it’s really difficult to determine just how well-received a sequel to a 10-year-old series will be.
This is where the Mega Man Legends Developer Room comes in. Planned as a place where users could get in on the development process, we knew there was some way we could utilize this to help our project succeed. We ended up reaching an unprecedented agreement. As it happens, it was decided that the prototype version of the game we had submitted within the company would be sold as a downloadable—“Mega Man Legends 3 Prototype Version”. Furthermore, the heat and excitement surrounding this downloadable title would determine whether or not the full game could be greenlit. If hype is strong, the full title will be a go. If not, it’s a no-go. I don’t even want to think about that outcome!
When we’re approved to tell you about the Prototype’s release date and further details, we’ll make another announcement as soon as possible. One thing I know for sure is that it won’t be too long from now. So stay tuned!
Welp, “DASH 3” is really dashing forward now!
So, there you have it: the future of the project rests in how well a downloadable demo is received on a newly-released system which will still be about seven months away from its first holiday saturation and has many people waiting for this very game before even considering buying the system in the first place!
No pressure, right?
At least we have some peeks at the preview in the meantime, with videos and details regarding a newly-shown character, the Air Biker Barrett of the Garter Family "Bright Bats." You can find out about him and all the latest regarding Mega Man Legends 3, including about five videos (as of this post) here.
Yeah, never mind. Legends 3 is dead, too.
Other stuff happening:
UDON Entertainment will begin shipping the Mega Man Tribute art book, a collection of many fans/artists' renditions of the Blue Bomber, this Summer. You can check out a preview here, and see the full list of contributing artists here.
Mega Man X is now on the Virtual Console, and word is that Mega Man 5 will join it and the first four NES games there.
Yet another Mega-- er, Rockman Zero soundtrack is coming out.
And finally, Mega Man is getting his very own monthly comic book! You can check out news and the first four issues' covers here.
Whew. Hope I didn't forget anything.
Edit: Well, I guess I did: an incomplete Let's Play of the entire series!
Like Mega Man Legends? Then check out my story, Legends of the Halcyon Era - An Adventure in the World of Mega Man Legends on TMMN and AO3!
LBD_Nytetrayn on
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I think Legends 3 definitely has more of a chance of generating positive feedback to Capcom, especially if the demo (with rad debug features!) only ends up costing 2-3 dollars. It's one of those games I've probably said "I'd pay $100 bucks if it got announced!" in the past, so <technically> this is a good deal!
Platinum FC: 2880 3245 5111
Steam ID: Good Life
Platinum FC: 2880 3245 5111
I'm now running under the assumption that the game is completely canceled. Maybe something awesome will happen, but I'm not bothering to get my hopes up.
:rotate:
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The most optimistic view out of all of this is is that the eShop will be launching with something of an A-class title.
Don't roll just yet! The combination of Virtual Boy and Mega Man equals Simulation Teenager! It's the birth of a era.
Pokemon White Friend Code: 0046-2121-0723/White 2 Friend Code: 0519-5126-2990
"Did ya hear the one about the mussel that wanted to purchase Valve? Seems like the bivalve had a juicy offer on the table but the company flat-out refused and decided to immediately clam up!"
.....Was that a pun!?
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Pokemon White Friend Code: 0046-2121-0723/White 2 Friend Code: 0519-5126-2990
"Did ya hear the one about the mussel that wanted to purchase Valve? Seems like the bivalve had a juicy offer on the table but the company flat-out refused and decided to immediately clam up!"
I was actually going to check in the last thread if anyone wanted to start the new one and lend them my OP.
Let's Play Final Fantasy 'II' (Ch10 - 5/17/10)
Thanks for offering your blessing, too.
As for Legends 3, here's the whole spiel I posted elsewhere:
Now, granted, that last part is me just looking for the worst-possible case scenario, and that's the best I can come up with. That would give me hope, except this looks to mirror the PSP situation instead.
And, of course, we don't know how long this thing has before Capcom declares it a success or failure. Sure, Zelda is going to move more units... but that could be a month after Legends 3 Prototype hits the shop. With all the emphasis on first-day/week sales these days, will that be too late?
Or it could just be some sort of scare tactic. I won't rule anything out at this point, though I think Inafune leaving the company may have hurt this whole project tremendously, especially if Universe is any indication.
Like Mega Man Legends? Then check out my story, Legends of the Halcyon Era - An Adventure in the World of Mega Man Legends on TMMN and AO3!
Pokemon White Friend Code: 0046-2121-0723/White 2 Friend Code: 0519-5126-2990
"Did ya hear the one about the mussel that wanted to purchase Valve? Seems like the bivalve had a juicy offer on the table but the company flat-out refused and decided to immediately clam up!"
This will be here until I receive an apology or Weedlordvegeta get any consequences for being a bully
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They never really explained fully what happened (I don't think they even ever disclosed the official development team). Basically, after all the negative feedback about the visuals/initial public play tests, they stopped showing it off. Capcom acted like it was getting a major overhaul behind the scenes, but then they just announced it was canceled.
It did have a substantial presence with the promotional videos and all, but considering Inafune was a big part of that, it kind of makes sense that the game ended up canned.
No prob. Here's the replacement picture.
Let's Play Final Fantasy 'II' (Ch10 - 5/17/10)
I just recently replayed the Megaman X SNES games. Three of the best action platformers ever made, in my opinion.
http://www.capcom.co.jp/rockman/dash3/en/3d/model2.html
I hope they get rid of the cel-shaded effect or whatever is going on in the trailers and stick with this. Half the reason why I loved Megaman Legends was because of it's charming low poly graphics.
For reference:
He just looks too...shiny? I don't know how I should put it.
I like the low-poly look Legends had also, but they've done a pretty good job of making everything higher poly while still keeping to the original style. I feel like they might have over smoothed everything if the game was being made for PS3 or 360.
Steam ID: Good Life
Aren't you thinking about Mega Man 8? As far as I know, Mega Man X didn't have any snowboarding.
Edit.- And yeah, I hated those snowboarding sections too.
well, shit, I'm getting old. I would have sworn it was X. Just remember getting my ass kicked at the Castle snowboarding level.
Dammit, now I can't remember what part of Sigma's Fortress it was that frustrated me to no end.
Steam ID: Good Life
Yep. I wonder if that would have been the case had Inafune not left the company...
I was hyped for Bad Box Art Mega Man.
Added. Not sure how to implement the downloadable games and Legends 3, though; I looked over the blurbs for each series, and they mention the first game in each series' release, and an overview of that series, but I didn't see much of a place for individual titles.
After playing the Ride Chaser segment of Squid Adler's stage in X5, the snowboarding levels in MM8 were never a problem for me again...
Something about X2 and 3 always felt a bit off to me, somehow. Hard to explain... it's almost minuscule, yet still noticeable when I play.
In other news, over at The Mega Man Network this week, we're taking a look back at Mega Man's past North American multimedia appearances in anticipation of the new comic book coming out next week.
Like Mega Man Legends? Then check out my story, Legends of the Halcyon Era - An Adventure in the World of Mega Man Legends on TMMN and AO3!
PS2
FF X replay
PS3
God of War 1&2 HD
Rachet and Clank Future
MGS 4
Prince of Persia
360
Bayonetta
Fable 3
DS
FF: 4 heroes of light
I agree; it makes the colors really vibrant.
Loved X4 though, one of my favorites, since I actually owned a PS1 and never had the SNES.
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"Did ya hear the one about the mussel that wanted to purchase Valve? Seems like the bivalve had a juicy offer on the table but the company flat-out refused and decided to immediately clam up!"
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