Mega Man Legends

In a World covered by endless water...

Rockman DASH in Japan, is a 1997 Playstation game that was Capcom's first attempt to take the franchise into 3D. The storyline revolves around "Mega Man Volnutt" and his friends/surrogate family Roll and Barrel Caskett: a team of "Diggers" exploring the ruins left by the Precursors searching for energy-generating refractors that are more precious than gold in their Scavenger World. Opposing them are the Bonne Family, a trio of Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain Pirates. Other foes include Glyde, a pirate who hates Teisel Bonne's guts, Bola and Claymore, two former pirates/bounty hunters who kick some serious ass despite being very old, and others.

  • Mega Man Legends 1 is about Volnutt and the Casketts fighting to keep the Bonnes from destroying an island town to steal an ancient treasure buried there, while uncovering the secret behind a centennial catastrophe about to befall it.
  • The sequel Mega Man Legends 2 picks up a year after the end of the previous game, with Volnutt and the Casketts having beaten Juno and the Bonnes. The game introduces Glyde, Bola, and Claymore as three more rivals to Volnutt, along with the mysterious Yuna and Sera. The plot revolves around the mysteries surrounding Volnutt, Juno, and the origins of both Elysium and Terra.
  • There was also a prequel called The Misadventures of Tron Bonne in which Tron and her Servbots have to go on a crime spree to save her brothers Teisel and Bon from Glyde.
  • In 2008, a new game in the series was released on cell phones in Japan, Rockman DASH Big 5 Island Adventure. The game is a midquel, taking place between the first and second games of the series, and rumors claim that the game might see a release on Wii Ware or DSiware like the formerly-cell-phone only Final Fantasy IV: The After Years.
  • On September 29, 2010, Capcom Europe confirmed [dead link] Mega Man Legends 3 as a Nintendo 3DS title almost 10 years after the release of Mega Man Legends 2... Unfortunately, on July 18, 2011, Capcom announced that, due to it not meeting required criteria, the project had been cancelled, with the Suspiciously Specific Denial that it had nothing to do with sacking Keiji Inafune. What made it worse was that Inafune even offered help to finish the game, yet Capcom refused. Fans were not amused.

Unlike the other games in the series, Mega Man Legends is more of an adventure game with loads of exploration and character interaction, as opposed to the hardcore side-scrolling shooters the other games are. In aesthetic and themes, it's very obviously influenced by Hayao Miyazaki films, specifically Laputa: Castle in the Sky. In fact, the Reavers, the ancient robots found in the ruins of the game, are quite obvious shout outs to the robots in Laputa: Castle in the Sky. Likewise, the archetypes of an adventurous boy, a strong female and lost civilizations are very much present as well.

Despite the small amount of games, characters from this series have made more appearances in Capcom vs. Whatever titles than all the other series combined.

Tropes used in Mega Man Legends include:
  • Abridged Series: For both Mega Man Legends and Mega Man Legends 2.
  • Accidental Pervert: Mega Man seems to fit this trope to a tee. Both of the main games involve optional events where Mega Man ends up walking in on Roll when she's undressed.
  • Affably Evil:
    • Mega Man Juno is polite and calm and sounds like he's taking out the trash when he speaks of genocide. There's no malice at all in his actions.
    • The Bonnes definitely count. In particular, the Servbots, who start a burger restaurant in the first game, and write friendly, polite letters to Mega Man in the second one.
  • After the End: And how. Its been a while, certainly, but The End has definitely come and gone. Several times, if you put it in the main Mega Man timeline.
  • Arm Cannon: The famous Mega-Buster along with several of the other upgradable weapons that can be equipped.
  • Arms and Armor Theme Naming: Mega Man Legends 2 has a pair of air-pirate Recurring Bosses named Bola and Klaymoor.
  • Artificial Human:
    • Turns out everyone in the Legends series (except for Megs himself, a Ridiculously Human Robot) is a "Carbon". Mega Man and Data were actually charged with safeguarding the Master of the Ancients' DNA, presumably the last remaining sample of completely human genetic code.
    • This has been given Foreshadowing in the Mega Man ZX series, with humans and reploids being merged into a single species since the tensions between the two races were settled in the conclusion of the Mega Man Zero series. Evidently, this went horribly wrong and they made the similar-but-inferior servant/replacement Carbons somewhere along the line.
  • Attack Its Weak Point: Plenty of the boss robots are invulnerable in all but one spot. Luckily, it's almost always someplace you can lock onto. This goes double for the "Wake-Up Call" Boss in the second game: the most obvious place to shoot is its thinly-armored head, but there's also an extra-vulnerable spike below its rear exhaust ports.
  • The Bad Guy Wins: The Bonnes at the end of the first game successfully make off with the island's treasure like they intended, Mega Man having other things to worry about as they did so. Sure, they lost nearly everything, but the value of what they made off with allowed them to replenish their weapons and more.
  • Bag of Spilling: An optional dialogue box in the opening cutscene of Mega Man Legends 2 can have Volnutt asking "What happened to my weapons?" (i.e. the special weapons and parts he would have obtained in the first game). Roll admits that cash was tight and that she needed to sell them to make ends meet.
  • Beam Spam: The Mega Buster is completely customizable, letting you install parts to affect its stats. Should you choose to max out its firing speed and the shots it can fire without needing a moment to cool down, while ignoring its power stat, you get what is essentially an infinite spray of weak energy bullets. It works too in a pinch: most enemies lack Mercy Invincibility.
  • Bishounen: Glyde, the Bonnes' nemesis. Their other nemesis.
  • BFG: The Active Buster and Powered Buster special weapons, to the point where Mega Man just looks unwieldy swinging around a gun as tall as he is.
  • Blind Idiot Translation: Every instance of the name "Rock" and later Rockman was replaced with Mega Man. So a 14 year old kid's first name is Mega Man. Okay. It gets worse when The Reveal comes along, and it turns out his name is coincidentally still Mega Man (Mega Man Legends 2 attempts to rectify this by saying Roll named him after her favorite video game character). It gets even more awkward when your main weapon is called the "Mega Man Buster".
    • The shout out to the Z-Saber was mistranslated as the "Zetsabre".
  • Bootstrapped Theme: Flutter vs The Gesellschaft, which has used as a theme for the series in nearly every reference to the series since, including Tatsunoko vs Capcom and Marvel vs Capcom 3.
  • Bowdlerization: Extremely minor overall (it was always a kids' game), but some things just couldn't squeeze by the radar in the US. One such change: the "comic book" Fetch Quest item in the first game is... something completely different. Jim's dialogue when you give it to him doesn't delve into the contents of this mysterious magazine (he only insists that you trade it for his X-Buster), and the item description only says the contents are a "secret".[1] Kind of interesting that they decided to change that in particular when one of the bookshelves (which has no specific graphical details) in the book store says it's full of dirty magazines. Volnutt wouldn't mind taking a peek at them if there weren't so many people around to see him do it.
  • Breakout Character: Tron, who went from being one of the antagonists to having her own spinoff game and being featured in Marvel vs. Capcom 2 and 3: Fate of Two Worlds.
  • Brick Joke:
    • Mega Man Legends 1 gives us this exchange:

Teisel Bonne: Then that will be our new plan! We'll wait for him to open the Main Gate-- we'll let him keep whatever he finds until then! He'll see-- it'll be the Bonnes who'll have the last laugh in this game!

    • Fast forward to the post credits stinger:

Teisel Bonne: Who would've thought there was such a huge refractor down there, and all we had to do was just wander in and pick it up! I told you we'd have the last laugh! Ha ha ha ha ha ha...!

  • Camera Lock On: As mentioned above, Mega Man's lock on ability is similar to Link's.
  • Catch Phrase: "Miss Tron!", said by just about every Servbot.
  • Cherry Tapping: Inverted and only accessible if the player invokes it onto him/herself. In Mega Man Legends 2, when Roll is accompanying Mega Man to the first ruins, trying to use the Lifter on Roll will result in her slapping Mega Man, doing a very tiny amount of damage. Do this enough and...
    • You can carry one special weapon at a time. Unequip it, and Mega Man will resort (in Mega Man Legends 1) to a kick that inflicts minimal damage on anything that's not an empty soda can. It can be used to defeat enemies.
  • Clothing Damage: In Mega Man Legends 2, Tron Bonne is declothed from an explosion right in front of Mega Man. The whole ordeal takes place off-screen, but it is still humorous to see Mega Man's expression, and hear Tron's embarrassment.
  • Cranium Ride: A method to defeat Marlwolf. He tries swatting you off, which inflicts severe damage if he does.
  • Crystal Spires and Togas: Apparently, the Master and all of Elysium's inhabitants, lived in a perfect age and artificial world in space, right after the ZX series, complete with no pain, war nor famine, and all wore togas in a very Roman utopian future. Whether Refractors count as the spires, mileage may vary, yet it doesn't help the fact that the Perfect Pacifist People grew so bored that they got bored to death.
  • Darker and Edgier: Mega Man Legends 2 is this to Mega Man Legends, but that's to be expected considering its deeper plot.
  • Dark Skinned Greenhead: The Mother Units in Mega Man Legends 2, as well as their Servitors.
  • Dating Batman: Tron keeps falling for Volnutt whenever they meet and aren't trying to shoot each other. Sadly, he hasn't a clue.
  • Degraded Boss: The first boss in Mega Man Legends reappears as a two-armed Hammuru Doll in one of the portals. However, it also behaves differently due to terrain layout.
  • Doomed Protagonist: Mega Man and Yuna have been up there for a decade now. I wonder if there's food on Elysium...
  • Downer Ending: By the end of Mega Man Legends 2, Roll and Tron are epically failing at making a space program to retrieve Mega Man, who's stuck on Elysium with Yuna (who's still in Roll's mom's body) and Sera... and the three of them are most likely at the mercy of the Elder System, whose Reaverbots (or commands for the existing Reaverbots) may be even more on the "Kill All Carbons" side than the Ancients we've seen.
  • Drop Pod: Used to get Mega Man to Forbidden Island.
  • Empty Room Psych: The power plant in the first game.
  • Even Evil Has Standards: During the siege of Saul Kada, Teisel steals the town's supplies, except the toilet paper. That would be barbaric.
    • And then the Bonnes save Mega Man from Juno. Killing off an entire island of people is too far for them.
    • The Bonnes as villains have always been thieves, not murderers.
  • Eyes Always Shut: Mega Man Juno again. Race memory from his Japanese VA having voiced Xelloss beforehand? You decide.
    • He does, for a very short time, have his eyes open when he first awakens.
  • Forced Tutorial: In the original game at least. Also suffers from Captain Obvious and Stop Helping Me!.
  • Gadgeteer Genius: Roll Caskett and Tron Bonne.
  • The Genie Knows Jack Nicholson: The test in the second game has questions about real world events, rather than events in the Mega Man Legends world.
  • Global Currency: Zenny. See also Mega Man Battle Network.
  • Goldfish Poop Gang: Bola and Klaymoor from Mega Man Legends 2.
  • Hero Insurance: Averted: you have to pay to rebuild buildings that are destroyed in boss battles (including buildings you need to complete the game).
  • He Was Right There All Along: The boss of the second subgate in Mega Man Legends. A short, yellow pillar that Roll "doesn't pick up any readings" from when you first see it, a Humongous Mecha the next time you enter the room.
  • Humongous Mecha: Largely the province of the Reaverbots, though the Bonnes keep coming close.
    • In terms of sheer size and firepower, Tron's masterpieces probably top even the biggest Reaverbots. Bruno and the Gesellschaft, to name two especially colossal ones.
    • Let's not forget the giant dinosaur found in Saul Kada in the second game, which is bigger than Bruno by a good margin.
    • The biggest so far would have to be the Colossus Reaverbot that serves as the endgame boss of The Misadventures of Tron Bonne. It's so big that the battle against it takes place on the Reaverbot itself. Heck, it's so big that its Hit Point bar goes off-screen.
  • In a World: The beginning of the first game. "In a world covered by endless water..."
  • Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: Teisel Bonne.
    • The other games in the series prove that the Bonnes are competent. They're simply fighting against a highly advanced precursor combat android in the Legends games.
      • The other games prove that Tron is competent. Bon has the excuse of being a baby. Teisel doesn't.
  • Infinity+1 Sword: Traditionally, the Shining Laser (especially once you've sunk enough Zenny into its energy capacity to make it infinite). Easy Mode playthroughs also hand you a Buster Part that turns the default weapon into one.
    • The second game version of the Shining Laser turned out to be even more powerful than the first version. That's saying something, considering the original version with full upgrades could down the final boss in four seconds of fire.
  • Intelligible Unintelligible: Bon Bonne, despite only having two syllables to work with, can get some astonishingly complex points across when necessary.
  • Invincible Minor Minion: The Servbots.
    • Partially averted: you can blast them until they fry and turn a charred, burnt color. After which you can kick them for health.
  • Invisible Monsters: The first game has the Blue Sharukurusu in the Lake Ruins. As if the regular green versions weren't tough enough already, these blue ones will remain invisible until they are near you. Which is probably a few seconds away from impaling you. Nothings screams "Nightmare Fuel" when you hear Reaverbot footsteps, and you can't see the enemy until it's too late...
  • I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: An odd non-romantic example. Roll seems to realize who the amnesiac "Joe" really is, but doesn't reveal the truth because it might ruin the life he's made for himself with a new family.
  • Karma Meter: Volnutt's armor can gradually turn black as he abuses local fauna or conducts other selfish acts (even going straight to jet black for stealing a business loan the Servbots take out, if you decide not to return it to the police instead). This generally nets him higher store and upgrade prices, but is necessary in Mega Man Legends 2 to get a weapon component (sadly, not to the Infinity+1 Sword).
    • Note that in the first game, adopting cats, being nice to Roll, and completing sidequests for the citizens of Kattelox brightens your armor up again. The second game's primary route of redemption was making massive cash donations to the church; prices go down and your reputation betters if you lighten your armor past the default shade, becoming Light Mega Man.
    • In the first game, you can kick a can in one of the first areas behind a shop's counter in order to get money for "recycling", and doing this for a while will turn Mega Man darker, but without any negative effects. A similar can kicking into a garbage for money is in Mega Man Legends 2, but it doesn't have the same effect.
  • Kick the Dog: As mentioned directly above, the game lets you invoke this quite literally. You can kick the dogs in the industrial district of Kattlelox, causing your Karma Meter to go down, and your armor to turn black. Other, less literal, Kick the Dog opportunities are also available, such as keeping stolen money as opposed to returning it.
  • Kill All Humans: The few reploids left aside from Trigger, along with the remaining mechaniloids, are still carrying out their "keep the servant species Carbons in from turning against their masters" orders despite the masters having died of natural causes ages ago.
  • Large Ham: Teisel Bonne:

"I said... CLOOOOSE the HAAAATCH!!!"

  • Law of Disproportionate Response: In the first game, Teisel has no interest in getting involved with the raiding, he claims he left that to Bon and Tron. Then he goes to turn on his favorite TV show, only to find it has been interrupted by an emergency news cast of Mega Man saving the town. Teisel does not take this well.
  • Left Hanging: With the cancellation of Mega Man Legends 3, doesn't look like Mega Man Legends 2 will ever get resolved.
  • Like Brother and Sister: Mega Man Volnutt and Roll Caskett.
    • Except that Reading Roll's diary near the end of the second game reveals that she does not think of the relationship as this (or at least wishes it was something more).
  • Loan Shark: Lex Loath, the Bonne family's exasperated money lender and antagonist of The Misadventures of Tron Bonne.
  • Lost Technology: Collecting the stuff is much of a digger's job description. They go after refractors since all machines in the world run on them, they're good as cash the world over, other technological specimens they're seen gathering include scraps of unreproducible alloys, technical or weapon schematics, parts and assembly kits, when they're not just poking around for historical clues. Then there's robotic guardians of the ruin sites, the workings, much less the function of most ruins themselves, the final bosses of the games, even the protagonist himself, and his dancing pet monkey. Lost Technology is so prevalent in Mega Man Legends, a game of One Degree of Separation with it won't be easy to lose.
  • Macross Missile Massacre: One of Bon Bonne's attacks.
    • Mega Man Volnutt can also do this with the Active Buster, especially if it's fully upgraded.
  • Mecha-Mooks: Reaverbots, Servbots, Birdbots... it's safe to say that Volnutt shoots mechanical objects almost exclusively. (Tron? Not so much.)
  • Mechanical Evolution
  • Mishmash Museum: The first floor alternates paintings and sculptures, and the second floor displays items that you collected when digging (or won from a TV show).
  • Mission Control: Roll Caskett and later Yuna.
  • Naked First Impression: Sera is completely nude when she is first seen by Mega Man when he unintentionally frees her at the center of the Forbidden Island in Mega Man Legends 2.
  • Neuro Vault: Data, for Trigger, himself the amnesiac caretaker of the last pure human DNA.
  • The Not Love Interest:
    • Of course not, since they are-wait, why should you be angry with Tron's advance, Roll?
    • In Mega Man Legends 2, if the player bought all the gifts for Roll, didn't let her take damage in the Yosyonke snowfields, and viewed the bathroom scene, her final diary entry (only viewable if the player travels back from Elysium)outright states that she loves him. Just not how. Although this is heavily hinted in the main story, it's never actually stated except in that optional diary entry.
  • Oh Crap: In the first game, when Mega Man finally destroys the Gesselschaft and the Focke-Wulf, he and Roll suddenly realize that the Bonnes didn't eject from it.
  • Orphaned Series: For a long time, until 2008, where Japanese cell phones got a new game, and late 2010, with Mega Man Legends 3 being announced on the 3DS and then and got canceled again after that.
  • Parental Abandonment: Roll. It doesn't help that her dad's gotten a whole new family trying to rebuild his post-amnesia life and that her mom's currently being bodyjacked by an Ancient that's currently stuck on Elysium.
  • Polygon Ceiling: The third-person action-RPG nature of the game, along with camera control issues.
  • Precursors: We're not quite sure if they count as Neglectful or Abusive, but they were there. Apparently, in layers.
  • Punishment Box: In The Missadventures of Trone Bonne, some servbots sometimes disobey you: when it happens, Tron sends them to the punishment chamber (a minigame that is essentially about applying Video Game Cruelty Potential to the servbot).
  • Rescue Romance: What made Tron fall for Mega Man? Him saving her from a dog.
  • Retired Badass: Bola in Mega Man Legends 2, if only Klaymoor wouldn't keep pulling him in for one last score...
  • Ridiculously-Human Robots: Taken to a new extreme: Ridiculously Human Robot Humans. Or something. The original Japanese is arguably a bit clearer on this, but every "human" character is actually a Carbon: a descendant of artificially created humans meant to populate Terra as long as the Master was around. But then he stopped being around, so the other Ancients want to "re-initialize" Terra to bulldoze the Carbons and dig their kind out of whatever dormancy they're in. See Tomato In The Dyson Sphere below for the short version.
  • Rollerblade/Rocket Boots: Roll's able to make Mega Man a pair of shoes that have built in rocket-propelled roller skates. Which he's able to walk and run in without issue. Maybe because they balance on the heels.
  • Sexy Walk: Most likely unintentional, but Mega Man has one: a rare male example.
  • Shout-Out: While conventional Shout Outs to earlier games exist in droves (from a Classic series mini-cartoon playing on a bar's TV to the Z(et)sabre and X-Buster showing up as weapon materials), Legends has the rare condition of having exponentially more cameo appearances than actual games (many being Volnutt, Roll, Tron, the Servbots and Juno appearing in Capcom vs. Whatever games and in Battle Network scenery).
    • There's also the notable Servbot heads in both Dead Rising games.
  • The Siege: The Bonnes' preferred method of extortion, often leading to Mega Man having to shell out for repairs to damaged/destroyed buildings.
  • Smash Mook: Hammuru Dolls and Jaiwan.
  • Suicidal Gotcha: Mega Man Legends 1's tutorial ruin ends with Mega Man pulling one.
  • Super Title 64 Advance: The Nintendo 64 version of the first Mega Man Legends is (rather appropriately) titled Mega Man 64.
  • Take Your Time:
    • In Mega Man Legends 1, Mega Man Juno is going to "purge" the island! You have to chase and stop him! Oh, that's right, you can go back to the surface and finish up any unfinished sidequests and partake in any TV show minigames, it's not like Juno will purge the island anytime soon...
    • And then in Mega Man Legends 2, oh look, Sera is off to the Elysium to activate the "Carbon Reinitialization Program" and wipe out the entire population of Terra... what's that? You want to run around farming Reaverbots for zenny for several hours? All right, we won't stop you...
      • Except justified in that case since when you reach the final boss chamber Sera reveals she could have activated the Carbon Reinitialization Program at any time, but chose not to, simply because she was jealous with Mega Man Trigger.
  • Tank Controls: Mega Man can turn while moving, but only barely, which puts him two generations ahead of the Resident Evil games on the same console. But he still has trouble with free movement.
  • Terrible Trio: The three members of the Bonne family definitely fit this.
  • Third Is 3D: Well, that was the plan, anyway.
    • Also applies to the series as a whole, being the third series after the original and Mega Man X.
  • Title Drop: The Japanese version's Tomato in the Mirror at the end of the first game is the first time the term "Rockman" is used.
  • Tomato In The Dyson Sphere: How is Volnutt the only one who can understand Data? Simple: he's a Ridiculously Human Robot. Everyone else? Artificially cloned by a race of Ridiculously Human Robots with orders to Kill'Em All upon the last real human's death.
  • Tsundere: Tron Bonne.
  • Turned Against Their Masters: The hybrid human/reploid people knew damn well how risky making the Carbons was, so they set up all sorts of failsafes designed to wipe out the Carbons if they went rogue, or if their numbers reached a certain point. Then the human part of the human/reploid peoples died out, taking the reploids with them due to symbiosis or something, and the Carbons built a civilization of their own. The failsafes interpret this as a rebellion. Oops.
  • Verbal Tic: Birdbots' "ku-keh!", Appo and Dah's random laughter, and so on.
  • Vicious Cycle: The plot of the first game.
  • Victory Fakeout:
    • The first boss only just subverts this. Mega Man Volnutt defeats it, but the boss decides to go for round two and follows him outside, but Volnutt only just gets away in the Flutter.
    • Much later on, Volnutt finally destroys the Gesellschaft and the words MISSION COMPLETE appear, but then the Bonnes reveals the Focke-Wulf, resulting in another boss battle.
  • Video Game 3D Leap: From the 2D of the SNES and NES era to full polygonal models.
  • Villainesses Want Heroes: Tron develops quite an interest in Mega Man as the series develops.
  • Villain Protagonist: Tronne in her game. The main way she works to repair her family's debt is stealing stuff and selling it for cash.
  • "Wake-Up Call" Boss: Before Yakuto Krabbe there was Rush Mamboo, the ice-spewing laser-shooting elephant-sized Reaverbot, which also possesses one of THE longest life bars in any game ever. Seriously challenging for such an early boss.
  • Warmup Boss: The one-armed Hammuru Doll in Mega Man Legends 1, Jaiwan in Mega Man Legends 2. Both are Smash Mooks who move slowly, and their attacks are very easy to avoid.
  • Wolfpack Boss: The wolf-like Karumunas, when you fight 3 of them in the Clozer Woods Sub-Gate.
  • Wrench Wench: Roll Casket.
  • You Are Number Six: The Servbots are all distinguished by numbers (the order in which Tron created them). In The Misadventures of Tron Bonne, you can give them names.
  1. ↑ The bikini-clad model on the cover makes it pretty obvious though.
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