Unofficial Official Mega Man Thread

At this point, I sort of wish that they would stop gesturing towards an overarching story and just say, "Here are eight more Robot Masters/Mavericks - have fun!"

Honestly, these days, the overarching plot has gotten to a point where I agree with that statement. I do think the games should have plots, but there's a point where telling some big story is unnecessary. The X series (up until X5) was great and I'm certain the Zero series is too (haven't played it, will get around to it soon). But continuing the series does not require continuing the story.

Megaman 11 sucked.

Mega Man 11 didn't move the needle much in regard to the "overarching plot". Sure we got an addition to the Backstory, but there was nothing to move the Myth Arc forward. If anything, we have Myth Arc Fatigue: Except for that infusion of backstory in 11, we've been at the same state of affairs since 7; the capture between MM&B and 9 happened offscreen, so there was no chance for catharsis. The Pokémon Anime had more plot progression in its past 5 installments^note generational arcs than the Mega Man Classic series in its past 5!^note Granted, most of that happened in Alola. (And, yes, 7 predated the entire Pokémon franchise.)

If your complaint is about the specific game plots overreaching, then I can see that; though I'd say that 10 is the actual offender: At least the plot additions in 11 were used as a lead-in to the Double Gear system. 10 was all: "Oh Noes! Virus got Roll! We have to works together to save the world!" And then you don't have co-op or can even change characters like in later X series games; it took a fan game to utilize that sort of mechanic in the Classic series.

Of course, you could make the case that adding on plot-mechanics leads to the hard choice of whether to incorperate said mechanic in future games or drop it entirely; a conundrum that the Pokémon fandom knows all too well. Unfortunately, in the current marketing climate, Mission Pack Sequels have fallen out of favor. As an example, Pokemon has embraced the Downloadable Content model for its added campaigns^note and re-added mons that would otherwise go into Updated Rereleases. Mega Man could have MPSs due to Grandfather Clause, but have you heard even a rumor of Mega Man 12 being in even a pre-development stage yet? I'm sure that there would have been a post about it on this thread if there was.

But if your complaint is that Light vs Wily permeates the entire franchise, then that ship sailed back in X5; nothing that can be done in the Classic series will change that. Taking the rest of the franchise into account, any additional Classic series games are Interquels by definition; granted the same goes for additional X and Zero games, as well as ZX games if you consider Legends to be the Distant Finale. Again, if that is what you mean by the "overarching plot", then you're not wrong; it's just that those decisions were made decades ago. Having Wily as the villain (at any point) just brings that whole "overarching plot" back in just by his very presence. The only way to prevent this is for 12 to have a Filler Villain and not have Wily be The Man Behind the Man. And then watch the fans go crazy with Epileptic Trees.

EDIT: On that note, it kind of strikes me as odd how just about every '80s game hero has the same villain throughout the entire series: Megaman vs Wily, Link vs Ganon, Simon vs Dracula. Samus is a downplay, but only a slight one: She's set up as a Bounty Hunter, so Mother Brain's Space Pirates should have been just one foe out of many. Yet they and the Metroids they stole were so iconic that missions against unrelated foes were effectively a side series. Mario is the only 80's video game hero with a Rogues Gallery,^note along with one-shots in the RPG serises, and even he gravitated towards his individual archnemesis (Bowser) over time. EDIT 2: Granted, Dracula is an inversion in that he has a Heroes Gallery, but most of its members are of the same bloodline.

Seriously, the ending to Mega Man was open enough to make Dr. Wily nothing more than a Starter Villain and Token Motivational Nemesis. Instead, The Light-Wily conflict dominated the entire timeline, at least up to ZX.

Edited by DonaldthePotholer on Feb 20th 2021 at 10:56:30 AM

Granted dominate feel a lot, the X series while having the light-willy here and there was really mostly about maveirik and sigma with some intent of a sort of huge mythic arc to make the final more papable.

Just woke up from a cool dream where Hypno Woman and Blasto Woman from Fully Charged and a dream-exclusive RM named Lunar Woman had Battle Network counterparts. Hypno would've been useful for Higbsy's 'brainwash the school' plan XD

It's like with Star Wars and Palpatine; everything wrong in the Mega Man timeline ultimately is the result of one person

Can't wait for when Dr. Wily shows up as a zombie on a crane in the new ZX game.

But at least Sigma, Weil, and Master Albert had their agency and got to stand out, in Star War's case, NOPE it's ALL Palpatine and everyone else is a pawn.

Edited by RedHunter543 on Feb 22nd 2021 at 6:07:46 AM

Megaman 11 was great.

With Dr. Wily being behind everything (in contrast with Palpatine), I'd argue it works both better and worse in certain contexts.

Within his own series, I'd argue Wily hijacking plots works even worse than Palpatine for a couple of reasons. The big one is that it's always treated like a plot twist when it should be obvious by now. Indeed, the trope namer really should be "Hijacked By Wily", he does it far more often than Gannon does. In fact, he even does it more often than Palpatine (basically if every Star Wars movie was TROS, that'd be Wily).

Wily hijacking the plots of the X series and the like, I'd argue, actually works pretty well though. This is for a few reasons, but the big one is that it elevates Wily quite a bit. In his own series, Wily comes across as a comedic and pretty tame cartoon villain. The Fridge Horror of the events of the X series and such being in part his handiwork shows that he's actually far from harmless.

By contrast, Palpatine as introduced already sets a pretty high bar. There's not much higher a form of evil that you can elevate him to. He's already Space Hitler at the low points of his career.

Admittedly, this is all coming form a guy who basically liked TROS, and even Palpatine in it. I mean, at the very least Exegol was masterfully creepy. So, take that what you will.

@ Red Hunter: I agree with you for the most part, especially about Palpatine, though Sigma is questionable. At least in the original canon and not MHX, Sigma's evil is due to being infected by Wily's virus. Add in to the fact Wily's consciousness exists to a degree in the virus, and it makes you wonder how much of the Sigma we know is actually Wily's will. At the very least it is made ambiguous, so you could argue that Sigma always believed in Reploid evolution and supremacy but it took being infected from the virus for him to go "humans are weak, but it's out duty to protect them" to "humans are weak, so we must remove them so they cannot suppress us Reploids"

Contrast with Palpatine, where it's legitimately difficult to find anything wrong in the setting from Episode 1 to 9 that he wasn't responsible for in some manner. I actually wonder if the Democracy Is Flawed nature of the Republic was something present without him or Palpatine is entirely responsible for that somehow and everything would be sunshines and rainbows if he never existed

I think one thing is that the virus got Sigma but it also mutated while infecting him to the point that the entire plot of X5 is a ploy to recreate that original virus

It also seems implied that Wily had to convince Sigma to join him rather than just order him. And Sigma was incredibly willing to just kill Zero leaving Wily in the position where he had to somehow fix him.

(Maybe-Wily Isoc ghost also encourages Zero to go kick Sigma's ass in 6 so maybe he's a little sore over it)

I feel its safe to say that Wily's actions kickstarted the conflict of the X series but that Sigma has gone his own way with it.

The way I see it, the domino effect of Wily's actions can be felt through the entire franchise, but he stopped being the one adding dominoes well before the end. Even in X, it's not actually Wily, just a metaphorical ghost left behind in the form of a virus. It was every subsequent villain that kept it going from there.

That's a good approach.

I guess the lack of explicitness about what's going on there gives us something to talk about, at least.

I mean they were hinting at Wily being around in some form back as early as X2

Sargesse having to correct himself when he refers to X as Rock, The fact he was able to fix Zero and cursing his loss at Light's memento

Isoc honestly came off as someone remembering that plot point.

that and someone had to build Berkana

____

So looking at Megaman 6 which gave all its masters stats cause Fighting tournament

There seems to be a wee bit of a bias toward the Warriors.... or namely you have three guys who are clearly gonna win if you were betting money on this combat championship

Blizzard Man

Attack: 88

Defense: 42

Mobile: 113

Total Stats = 243

Centuarman

Attack: 35

Defense: 47

Mobile: 205

Total stats = 287

Flame Man

Attack: 84

Defense: 93

Mobile: 88

Total Stats = 265

Plant Man

Attack: 42

Defense: 103

Mobile: 98

Total stats = 243

Wind Man

Attack: 66

Defense: 129

Mobile: 51

Total Stats = 246

Tomahawk Man

Attack: 157

Defense: 71

Mobile: 149

Total stats = 377

Knight Man

Attack: 121

Defense: 204

Mobile: 60

Total stats = 385

Yamato Man

Attack: 199

Defense: 185

Mobile: 31

Total Stats = 415

Granted like whose line... the stats don't mean anything since A: Yamato man is stated to have the WORST defense of the Warriors due to using light armor to help his mobility which is contradicted by his stats... unless the stats are somehow mixed up.

Edited by FrozenWolf2 on Mar 9th 2021 at 10:25:46 AM

Heads up to any Ruby-Spears Mega Man fans; Wildbrain lost the streaming rights to the show. https://twitter.com/protodude/status/1369828867276423172?s=21

YES! FINALLY! I am so sick of them and their lack of proper marketing for the show, their constant inaccuracies and repeated takedown of fan uploads! This is a big step towards ending their tyranny!

Rereading what I just wrote, I definitely sound like I'm overreacting, but yes, I am pleased by this turn of events.

Happy Anniversary Battle Network.

Insert the "Has it really been twenty years?" line from Battle Network 6 here.

Funny thing is that Battle Network was not only the series that got me in to Megaman as a whole, but also the one that first got me involved with online communities. Though the board itself is no longer accessible, the Kishuku/Rockman.EXE Online forum was the first one I joined way back in 2005. That's where my "ComicX6 handle on this site comes from, actually.

Edited by ComicX6 on Mar 21st 2021 at 1:03:23 PM

Time flies!

Still waiting for Battle Network Legacy collection. I wouldn't mind a Battle Network 7.

Maybe some entirely new Mega Man games too.

It's been a long while since Mega Man 11 anyway.

Also, where's my internet operated oven, Capcom? It's 20XX.

Edited by RedHunter543 on Mar 21st 2021 at 1:07:47 PM

Smart ovens exist

Yeah. It's scary how....prescient Battle Network was.

I've often stated it was a bit too ahead of its time. In the current era of online play and trading, it might have flourished even better.

I know that place. If were thinking of the same site, then it still exists here.

This was back before I was actually part of internet communities, but I was a long time lurker on that place. I was able to watch some of my first online episodes thanks to them, and they had clips of the original series, Axess, Stream and Beast (I came onto the site around the time Stream was airing, and eventually started downloading full episodes to watch). This was just before Youtube became a thing as well.

Man, I'd forgotten those days.

Edit: I forgot. Kirbopher (aka Chris Niosi) was on that place as well, though I think he used a different name there. I think some of the characters from his old TTA series were there as well.

Edited by HandsomeRob on Mar 21st 2021 at 5:42:34 PM

"The wi-fi is down and now the toilet won't flush!"

Edited by WillKeaton on Mar 21st 2021 at 7:23:47 AM

It is quite unnerving how so many of the net attacks that I would have laughed at before have become a reality in todays world.