Mega Man Legends series

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The Mega Man Legends series was the third Mega Man franchise which debuted on December 18, 1997 in Japan in and September of 1998 in North America on the PlayStation. It is one of the spinoffs in the Mega Man series from Capcom.

Series overview

The Mega Man Legends (Rockman DASH in Japan; "DASH" being an acronym for "Digouter's Adventure Story in Halcyon Days") series was, at first, regarded to be strange by fans of other Mega Man games; but some skeptics who played the games soon grew to love the characters and plot. The Legends series, while considered underrated, is said to have developed beyond anything seen in other Mega Man games. The series was thought to have no connection to the Classic, X, or Zero series at all until the official sourcebook for all Rockman series was released.

This series has not been given a sequel since the year 2000 and many fans have been demanding one since the cliffhanger at the end of Mega Man Legends 2. However, at this time, there are no plans for a Rockman DASH 3/Mega Man Legends 3.

Voice Quality

In many Capcom-developed games before Legends, the quality of the English voice acting was very poor, arguably the worst being Mega Man 8. Most casual gamers and fans found the voice acting in the games laughable, comparing its bad quality to Speed Racer and dubbed Godzilla movies. What most disgusted fans was the "effeminate" high-pitched voices provided for Mega Man and Mega Man X. The voice acting quality in the Mega Man Legends series, however, is said to be a completely different story.

Most fans and game magazine reviewers regard the voice acting as "impressive", "fantastic" and even "inspiring", giving the series a much better reputation. Despite the fact that many Mega Man fans were disputing Legends as strange and not very "Mega Man", there was the one part that North American Mega Man fans (for the most part) appreciated greatly and kept in mind: Mega Man finally had a male-sounding voice. However, when original Mega Man Volnutt voice actor Corey Sevier was replaced by Suzan Roman, fans began to lose a bit of faith in Capcom of America's abilities.

Plot

The player controls Mega Man Volnutt, a teenage digger and archaeologist of sorts who searches underground ruins mainly for Quantum Refractors, which are the civilization's primary source of energy. He was found on Nino island in at bottom of the nino ruins that were closed off as a baby and was raised by Professor Barrel Caskett along with his granddaughter, Roll Caskett. Many fans like to point out a possible love interest between Mega Man and Roll, since Mega Man is not related to Roll. The confusion may also be caused by the fact that the Mega Man and Roll from the original series actually were related. However, if you read "Roll's Diary" near the end of the second game (Legends 2/DASH 2) just before journeying to Elysium and before defeating Sera, you can read an entry mentioning that Roll "realizes how much she loves him." It is unknown if this means romantic love, or sibling love.

Giving them trouble are the Bonnes, a group of pirates consisting of leader Teasel Bonne, his sister, Tron Bonne (who is also allegedly infatuated with Mega Man), the large "baby" robot, Bon Bonne (known primarily for his oft-repeated line, "Babu!", which has become a catch phrase among the series's fans) and the 40 Servbots. More trouble is given to Mega Man by the Reaverbots, the techno-organic semi-intelligent residents of the underground ruins who serve to protect its contents.

There are only two main Mega Man Legends games at present, plus a spinoff PlayStation game, titled The Misadventures of Tron Bonne (or Tron ni Kobun in Japan), which is basically a prequel to the series.

Legends and the Mega Man Timeline

According to the sourcebook, Rockman Perfect Memories, the Legends series takes place after the X series (or, more logically, the Zero series). Some have even speculated on such a connection based on comments in the X series; most notably, the use of the word "Elysium" (with a capital E, indicating it is a proper noun) in one of the endings of Mega Man X5. Other examples include the frequently-seen Reaverbot eye symbols that appear in Hyleg Ourobockle and Burble Hekelot's levels in Mega Man Zero 2 and Hanumachine's level in Mega Man Zero 3. There also appears to be a Quantum Refractor in the background of one of the later levels in Mega Man Zero 3. The CIEL System is not mentioned after Mega Man Zero 3, supporting the reason for the search of the Mother Lode. Supposedly, the ending of Mega Man Zero 4 foreshadows events, most likely the cause of the flooded world that Legends takes place on. Most recently, there has been some speculation that one of the main characters in Mega Man ZX named Giroutte may be the Master from Mega Man Legends 2, although there is no proof except that the two characters look similar.

Notes

• Mega Man Legends is the first 3-dimensional Mega Man action game.

• Mega Man Legends was also released on the Nintendo 64 in 2000, retitled Mega Man 64. A port for the Sony PSP has also been released only in Japan.

• Extremely early in the North American localization of Rockman DASH, Mega Man Legends was going to be called Mega Man Neo and later Mega Man Nova.

Cameos

• Marvel vs. Capcom 2 (Sega Dreamcast, arcade 2000, PlayStation 2 2001, Xbox 2001): Tron Bonne is a playable character from the start, while a Servbot, Mega Man, and Roll are unlockable characters.
• Auto Modellista (PlayStation 2): Servbots appear in the workshop.
• Mega Man Battle Network series (Game Boy Advance): The servbot can be seen as a doll in Mayl's house. There is also a reference made to a television series called "The Bonne Bunch" (probably a parody of The Brady Bunch)
• Namco X Capcom (PlayStation 2): Mega Man Volnutt, Roll Caskett, Kobun (Servbot), Tron Bonne, and even Mega Man Juno appear in the company crossover game released only in Japan. Mega Man/Roll and Tron/Servbots appear as playable duos in the game. Keiji Inafune was directly involved in the development of the game.Namco and Capcom did not announce plans to release this title outside of Japan.

Series Trivia

• As stated, the title Rockman DASH is an acronym for Digouter's Adventure Story in Halycon Days.

• Interestingly enough, Purifer Units in the Japanese versions are called Irregular Hunters (Maverick Hunter). However, the fact that the Irregular Hunters in the DASH, formally (but not necessarily) the Zero series and the X games are the same thing is speculation for now. Also, the world of Terra is called Earth in original Japanese version. (This was carried from Mega Man V for the Game Boy.) Even more interesting, Elysium in the Japanese version of Mega Man Legends 2 (Rockman DASH 2) is actually called "Heaven".

• It should be noted that the main character is called "Rock Volnutt" in the Japanese version. In the English version, all occurrences of "Rock" are replaced by "Mega Man". This has resulted in a translation error, causing such anomalies as "Mega Man Volnutt" and "Mega Man Buster" (although his primary weapon is still called the "Mega Buster" in one of the sub-menus). Also, in the ending credits of Mega Man Legends 2, "Mega Man" is simply referred to as "Rock".

• Throughout the whole series, the Bonne Family not only uses various different German terms as names for their machines, in fact, many (or maybe even all) of them are based after German military vehicles, such as the Gesellschaft (society), Gustaff (common name), Maulwurf (mole) or Jagd Krabbe (hunter crab), to name only a few.

• Series creator Keiji Inafune has stated in the official 2002 Rockman series sourcebook, Rockman Perfect Memories, that the original, X, Zero and Legends series all share the same timeline in that particular order; (The Mega Man Battle Network series exists in an alternate timeline). A rough translation from the book states "thousands of years after the "X series", the Diggers' adventures play out on the world stage!!"

Name

In the original Japanese version, the main character is called "Rock Volnutt" (in the Japanese version of the Classic series, Dr. Thomas Light originally named his creation "Rock", instead of "Mega"). Each the time the character is mentioned by name, he is always referred to as "Rock". In the North American versions, all mentions and/or references to his original name are replaced by "Mega Man". While this has been the case in the previous series, in the case of the DASH/Legends series, this may actually be a localization error; his weapon is referred to (in the dialogue) as the "Mega Man Buster" (in the menu screens, it is referred to as the more "correct" sounding "Mega Buster"), while his "full" name is constantly displayed (and heard) as "Mega Man Volnutt".

Packaging artwork

Image:MMLegendsBox.jpg|Mega Man Legends
Sony PlayStation
1997 Image:megaman64.jpg|Mega Man 64
Nintendo 64
2000 Image:MMLegends2Box.jpg|Mega Man Legends 2
Sony PlayStation
2000 Image:Misadvbox.jpg|The Misadventures of Tron Bonne
Sony Playstation
2000

Related links

• [Mega Man Legends Station] - A growing fan-site with pictures, multimedia, and info on the Mega Man Legends series. The Legends fanbase in this site is growing steadly (and becoming more elite).
• [Mega Man Legends Universe] - Contains sprite comics and MIDI music for the series, as well as much more information.
• http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/megleg3 - A Rockman DASH 3/Mega Man Legends 3 petition that hopes that Capcom will make a third game in the series .
• [DASH/Legends 1 Wall Trick @ www.rockmanpm.com]

 

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