Trivia / Mega Man 11

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• Acting for Two:
  • Japanese:
    • Nobuo Tobita voices Dr. Light and Auto.
    • Katsuyuki Konishi voices Rush and Torch Man.
    • Masaki Terasoma voices Pile Man and the Robot Institute of Technology Chairman.
  • English:
    • Chris Hackney voices Auto and Blast Man.
    • Jon Bailey voices Rush and Torch Man.
    • Christopher Corey Smith voices Acid Man and the Robot Institute of Technology Chairman.
• B-Team Sequel: Zig-zagged; while development of the game was brought back in-house at Capcom (9 and 10 both being developed by Inti Creates), it's the first main entry in the "Classic" series made without the involvement of Keiji Inafune, instead being developed largely by veterans of the Mega Man Star Force series.
• Creator's Favorite: While nothing conclusive has been stated, the sheer imbalance in exposure and unique treatment Block Man gets compared to every other Robot Master in the game (being the first Robot Master to be introduced, getting his own pre-release event, being the only Robot Master to get lines and personal focus in the game's intro, and having a unique Power Gear form that sticks around until it's defeated and a unique desperation phase that no other boss has) implies that he was a favorite of the developers.
• Cross-Dressing Voices:
  • Ayaka Fukuhara provides the Japanese voiceover for Mega Man.
  • Bounce Man is respectively voiced by Yukari Tamura and Bonnie Gordon.
• Follow the Leader: The game's announcement comes in the midst of a long line of revivals and revisiting of roots from some of Mega Man's fellow mascots and contemporaries, including Mario (who had a throwback to the Wide-Open Sandbox gameplay of his earlier 3D entries with Super Mario Odyssey), Link (who also revisited the Wide-Open Sandbox elements of his debut in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild), Sonic the Hedgehog (who came roaring back with the mega-popular Sonic Mania), Samus Aran (whose return in Metroid: Samus Returns was lauded and greeted with open arms), Crash Bandicoot (who returned to prominence with the well-received Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy), and Spyro (whose original trilogy got its own remaster in the form of the Spyro Reignited Trilogy after the whirlwind success of the aforementioned N.Sane Trilogy).
• Irony As He Is Cast: For those most familiar with Marc Swint as the Hot-Blooded fire-type specialist Kiawe in Pokémon the Series: Sun & Moon, given Ground and Rock beat Fire in Pokémon, it can be funny to hear Swint as the Earth-themed (though arguably still Hot-Blooded) Block Man.
• Meme Acknowledgement:
  • At the Electronic Entertainment Expo booth showcasing this game, the Capcom employees went ahead and referenced Dr. Light's Elmuh Fudd Syndwome from Mega Man 8, specifically "When we find that meteor, we'll find Dr Wahwee."
  • When Dr. Wily "took over" the official Mega Man Twitter account to promote the game, one fan couldn't resist asking him why he never made "Spiked Wall Man" ^note a joke originating from a popular 2007 fan animation to stop Mega Man. His answer? Apparently spikes are hideously expensive.
• Milestone Celebration: The release marks 30 years of the franchise, though the actual launch date would be in 2018 (which lines up with the 30th anniversary itself, as well as landing on the 30th anniversary of Mega Man 2).
• The Other Darrin:
  • None of the English voice cast for the main characters return from Mega Man 8 or Mega Man Powered Up.
  • Given Takeshi Aono's death in 2012, Dr. Wily is now voiced by Hideyuki Umezu. ^note Since Mega Man 8 and X4, Aono was the longstanding voice of Wily in all his appearances with voice acting, including having the honor of being the only PS1-era VA to reprise the role for Powered Up.
  • Mega Man is now voiced by Ayaka Fukuhara, rather than Hekiru Shiina (The Power Battle, The Power Fighters, the Wish Upon a Star OVA), Ai Orikasa (8, Battle & Chase, Super Adventure Rockman) or even Yumiko Kobayashi (Powered Up).
  • Roll is now voiced by Yuka Iguchi, a newcomer for the Mega Man franchise.
  • Rather than being voiced by Shōzō Iizuka and Issei Futamata respectively, both Dr. Light and Auto are now voiced by Nobuo Tobita.
  • Despite having voiced Dr. Light in Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite (which only had English-language voice acting), Michael Mislove does not return to the role here. Instead, Doug Stone takes over.
• Production Nickname: Block Man, the brick-themed Robot Master that gives Mega Man the Block Dropper, was given the tentative name of "Renga Man".
• Refitted for Sequel:
  • For Mega Man, Akira Kitamura initially wanted to have Mega Man change his appearance when using a different weapon due to inspiration on Ninja Captor'', but presumably due to copyright infringement on said series and/or the technical limitations of the NES, the idea was dropped in favor of changing the colors, which stuck for most games. In this game that concept was finally implemented.
  • The concept of Mini Devils, as well as a cycloptic ice crystal and a snow rabbit enemy from Mega Man 10 are revived via an attack pattern for Yellow Devil MKIII for the former while the other 2 are revived as Eye Ice and Snow Robbit, the latter of which is a new relative of the Robbits from Mega Man 2.
• Schedule Slip: An edition of Nintendo Direct was planned to coincide with the release of a demo for the Nintendo Switch version and the reveal of Bounce Man. However, an earthquake hit Hokkaido on the day the Direct was meant to air, causing the broadcast to be delayed. The demo and Bounce Man reveal were released regardless, and when the Direct did come a week later, most of it was information that seemed redundant by then, with the only real piece of new information being how the amiibo functionality, which was exclusive to the Switch version, worked.
• Sequel Gap: The last major Mega Man game, Mega Man 10, released 8 years prior in 2010. Even counting the fanmade-but-officially-licensed Street Fighter X Mega Man in 2012, that still leaves six years. Surprisingly enough, this actually isn't the largest gap between sequels in the main series — that distinction goes to the ten-year gap between Mega Man & Bass and Mega Man 9.
• Trolling Creator: Over mid-2017, content for this game was teased twice before the official announcement, but barely anyone noticed. ^note The only suspicions were from the moderator of Rockman Corner, who noticed that both pieces of concept art were in the same style (even identifying the artist as Yuji Ishihara, who had worked on the spinoff RPGs Battle Network and Star Force beforehand), and suspected something.
  • In Mega Man Legacy Collection 2, Capcom left in a piece of "completely random" concept art from this game, and just hand waved it as Mega Man 8 concepts they might never use.
  • When Roll got a new Nendoroid figure, it was first teased with concept artwork of her brand new never-before-seen design. It was marketed as an anniversary edition version of Roll, not even mentioning this game was even in development, and the Good Smile Company does not do Canon Foreigner designs of their own for Nendoroids, which they first tried to pass this Roll as. Surely enough, the actual toy was officially unveiled after Mega Man 11's announcement.
• What Could Have Been:
  • A female Robot Master was considered for the game, but her weapon didn't line up with the others and she was cut.
  • When the game was first revealed, the Japanese promotional site had an early title screen◊ that was missing the Double Gear System, instead featuring a black background with a "floor" and "ceiling" in a grid pattern, as well as the silhouettes of (from left to right) Torch Man, Block Man, Blast Man, Acid Man, Fuse Man, Tundra Man, Impact Man, and Bounce Man.
  • The Robot Masters were intended to use both Speed and Power Gears in their battles, but this was cut down to just one Gear per boss to prevent the pace of each fight from slowing down.
  • During testing, the idea of the Robot Masters attacking Mega Man during their stages was considered, but was abandoned as it made the stages extremely long and gave away the boss's abilities early. In the final game, only Impact Man attacks during his stage, albeit as his three component parts.
  • In the concept art for Air Stone and its Fire and Nut variants, there was originally going to be an Air Ice, which attacks the same way, but with ice bits instead of stones, fireballs, and nuts.

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