The History of Mega Man Legends
Mega Man Legends (PlayStation, 1997; Rockman DASH in Japan) is set in a distant future where Earth is mostly ocean and civilization clings to islands. Diggers descend into ruins hunting Quantum Refractors, the era's energy source. Teenage digger Mega Man Volnutt, found as a baby in the closed Nino Ruins and raised by Professor Barrel Caskett alongside his granddaughter Roll, digs against Reaverbot guardians and the Bonne family of pirates: Teisel, Tron, baby Bon, and their 41 Servbots. The DASH of the Japanese title is an acronym: Digouter's Adventure Story in Halcyon Days.
THE MAKING
The first fully 3D Mega ManLegends was the first fully 3D action adventure game in the franchise, introducing RPG elements and a sandbox style island to explore in place of the stage select structure. Keiji Inafune produced, as he did all three Legends games, and his affection for it is on the record: at the 2007 Tokyo Game Show he named Mega Man Legends his favorite game, "a title that really didn't sell well in the Mega Man franchise". He has also put the economics plainly: creating a Rockman game for the next generation consoles of that era would cost around 15 million dollars to fund and develop, the arithmetic that hung over every sequel discussion.
The American name nearly changed twice. Capcom at one point planned to release the game in the United States as Mega Man Neo, and then as Mega Man Nova, before keeping Legends.
THE EDITIONS
One island, many portsTHE CLIFFHANGER
Stranded on ElysiumLegends 2 streamlined the 3D action, opened multiple islands and sky locations, and then ended with Mega Man Volnutt stranded on a remote satellite called Elysium, unresolved. That ending waited a decade for its sequel: Mega Man Legends 3 was announced for the Nintendo 3DS in September 2010, nearly ten years after the American release of Legends 2, and cancelled in July 2011. The fan campaign that answered it, 100,000 Strong for Bringing Back Mega Man Legends 3, also known as Get Me Off the Moon after Volnutt's predicament, is part of this game's legacy now. What Capcom actually said, and what it never explained, is documented on this Library's Legends 3 page, linked below.