GAME INFO
Released: 1998
System: PSX/PC/N64/PSP
Creator: CAPCOM
Mega Man Legends, known in Japan as Rockman DASH (ロックマンDASH Rokkuman Dasshu?), is the first game in the Mega Man Legends sub-series of Mega Man games from Capcom. It was released on the Playstation in 1997, Nintendo 64 in 2000 under the title Mega Man 64, Microsoft Windows in 2001, and PlayStation Portable in 2005. It stars a different spiritual incarnation of Mega Man (Rockman), with the personal name Rock (in the Japanese version; explained further in the article) and the surname Volnutt. Apparently the series takes place many thousand years after the Zero series, according to the Rockman Perfect Works Sourcebook.
STORY
The Legends series take place in a flooded Earth; (which is referred to as Terra in the second game by Yuna) supposedly it is many thousands of years after the Mega Man X (Rockman X) series (or more logically, the Mega Man Zero and Mega Man ZX series). Because of the flooding, only a few sparse islands exist and energy sources are rare. In order to satisfy this increasing demand for energy to power up machinery, refractor shards found in ancient ruins are used. These refractor shards are valuable, they serve as an energy source, and are used as currency. However, the main goal of every person is to find the Mother Lode, an item of supposed infinite power that can fill the need for the energy in one swoop. Those who try to excavate these ruins are called "Diggers" ("Digouters" in the Japanese version). Those who assist information-wise from an outside location are called "Spotters".
The game begins with Rock (Mega Man) Volnutt, a Digger trying to exit a ruin after finding the refractor inside. After dealing with the Reaverbots blocking his way out, he makes his way to the Flutter, an airship which leaves the ruin. The Flutter doubles as a "home" for the Caskett family. This includes Roll, his Spotter, Barrel Caskett, their grandfather, and Data, a mysterious monkey that talks in gibberish only Rock himself can understand. However, the Flutter experiences some engine problems and crash lands on Kattelox Island. From there, the Caskett family tries to find a way to repair their ship. They also meet much antagonism from air pirates called the Bonnes. They consist of Teisel Bonne, the leader of the group. His sibling Tron, who is a mechanical genius and builds most of their robots used in their elegant schemes, and develops feelings for the main character. The last is Bon, who can only say one word "Babu!". The Bonnes can understand him anyway. They too are seeking refractor crystals but they steal from others and only want to become rich. What first appears to be a straightforward task of repairing the Flutter becomes much more as these ruins are revealed to be related to the so called "Main Gate", a place feared by the residents of the island because of a legend that a mysterious being lurks within.
The Main Gate is actually revealed to be a stasis chamber for the robot Rockman Juno (Mega Man Juno), a 3rd class bureaucratic unit from "Eden", a space station orbiting above the planet. When he is accidentally awakened from his sleep by Rock, Juno makes many strange revelations, calling Rockman Trigger (Mega Man Trigger) and claiming how the island's population needs to be purged so that it becomes more controllable. He calls the residents of the island carbons, which will not be explored further until the events of the sequel. At one point Juno realizes that Rockman Trigger is suffering from "memory loss" and electrically shocks him in order to "reinitialize" him. The Bonnes help him escape the electrical trap and sends him to confront Juno while rooting for him. When Rock is at the door right before Juno, Data appears mysteriously and recharges his energy, while giving him advice as well (gameplay reason). After a huge struggle between the two, Juno concedes defeat and seemingly dies. This is largely due to him being an "3rd class Aristocrat model (Bureaucratic Model)", in comparison to Rockman Trigger's supposed title "1st class Irregular Hunter (Purifer Model)"
Even with Juno's physical body gone, he transfers his backup data into the systems of Eden, and the Carbon Purification Process (it was a rectangular object from Space with very strange markings seen in the ruins, like the Reaverbot symbol) was still continuing its preparations...until in a rather unexpected twist, Data gives new commands to the system, effectively stopping the Purification and also deleting Juno's backup data from Eden. Data then reveals that he contains Rock's previous memories, of when he was Rockman Trigger. Rockman Trigger apparently put his memories into Data as a way to prevent Eden from ever tampering with it. Data promises that he will restore Rock's memory when the time comes. After much rejoicing, the residents proclaim Rock as a hero and the Caskett family rides the repaired Flutter to new horizons...with the Bonnes trailing not far off in a makeshift boat with a ridiculously huge refractor crystal (from the Main Gate)
SPECIAL WEAPONS
Special weapons are not obtained from bosses. Instead, Roll Caskett (Rock's for all intents and purposes adopted sister, and who, according to the English translation had him named after her "favorite video game character") is able to make weapons for the player, using specific combinations of parts that can be found in dungeons, or bought in shops. Many of these weapons supplement the Buster Gun quite nicely, such as the Active Buster (a homing missile launcher), Machine Buster (a fast-firing machine gun), Blade Arm (an energy sword), and Splash Mine (a simple proximity mine). Special weapons have limited ammo (with a couple exceptions involving upgrades). The only way to refill them in the field is an item that can be bought, but only one can be carried. Another problem is that only one special weapon can be equipped at a time, and the only way to switch is to talk to Roll. Special weapons can be upgraded, and have five stats; Attack, Rapid, Range, Energy (now referring to the maximum ammo), and Special (an upgrade specific to each weapon). However, not every weapons can be upgraded in all five categories.
GAME INFO
Released: 1999/2000
System: PSX/PC/N64/PSP
Creator: CAPCOM
The Misadventures of Tron Bonne, known in Japan as Tron ni Kobun (トロンにコブン Toron ni Kobun?, lit. "Henchmen for Tron"), is a video game that was developed and published by Capcom for the Playstation. Released in Japan in 1999 and in North America and Europe in 2000, the game is part of the Mega Man Legends (Rockman DASH) series and the prequel of the first Legends game. Rather than focusing on the "good guy" characters of Megaman Trigger and Roll Caskett, the game follows series antagonist Tron Bonne, sister of the criminal Bonne family of air pirates. The Japanese counterpart included PocketStation support whereas the North American and European version did not.
The game has the same voice acting from the rest of the other Legends games for its main characters. In the North American version, Tron Bonne is voiced by Caroly Larson, while Teisel is voiced by Rob Smith (Tesshō Genda in Japan). This is the only game in the Legends series where Ikue Ohtani does not provide Bon Bonne's voice for the NA version.
In the Japanese version Tron Ni Kobun features two songs, Love Letter and Magic! both sung by Mayumi Iizuma, Tron Bonne's Japanese voice actress
STORY
The family's leader, Teisel, is seeking an ancient ruin (the Nakkai Ruins) to try and uncover a gigantic Refractor (Diana's Tear) that will sell for lots of zenny. He has a short rendezvous with Bon Bonne, but he and Bon are quickly subdued and captured by Glyde (for Teisel defaulting on his 1,000,000 zenny loan), a rival air pirate in the service of Mr. Loath. Tron finds out that the funds used to build the Bonnes' flying fortress was funded by Mr. Loath, and can only watch helplessly, having chosen to act as Spotter for the mission. She is delivered an ultimatum -- pay off the loan (of one million zenny), or Teisel and Bon will not be seen again. Seeing no other options, Tron suits up in a custom Gustaff mecha and begins her quest to pay the ransom through any means possible -- especially by theft.
GAME INFO
Released: 2000
System: PSX/PC/N64/PSP
Creator: CAPCOM
Mega Man Legends 2, known in Japan as Rockman DASH 2 (ロックマンDASH2 Rokkuman Dasshu Tsū?), is the sequel to Mega Man Legends. It was released for the PlayStation in April 2000 in Japan, and October 2000 in North America and an unchanged port of the game was also released for the PlayStation Portable in Japan and for PC in February 2003 and August 2002 in Japan.
STORY
The events in the game take place one year after those of the first game. At the start of the game, MegaMan and Roll are watching a press conference on the Flutter's television, which shows Prof. Barrell Caskett with his old friend/rival Von Bluecher, who is announcing that his new ship, the "Sulphur Bottom" will land on Forbidden Island. This feat has only happened with partial success a few times before, once when Barrell and Bluecher did it 30 years ago. They lost consciousness after landing, but not before seeing a mysterious girl. When they awoke, they were on a nearby island, where it is an eternal winter. It is said that all of those who survive have seen this girl, but know nothing about her. This island is filled with mystery because it is surrounded by a seemingly impenetrable cloud. This cloud has swallowed up many ships and their passengers, who have tried in vain to land. It is rumored among the digger community, that the legendary Mother Lode is somewhere on this island.
As Von Bluecher is giving his speech to the press, we see the pirates The Bonnes amongst the crowd, with a few new faces, who are rival pirates of the Bonnes. Since the ending of the previous game, the Bonnes opened up a fashion store, which failed miserably (mostly because Tiesel only stocked the store with merchandise that he himself liked) and put them back into debt, which is why they are joining forces with other pirates to help them regain their vast wealth.
One of the reporters, in a very cryptic manner, starts asking Bluecher about the others who have disappeared on that island. She also states that the Mother Lode is not on that Island, but rather if one were to find it, a horrifying disaster would occur. When she is about finished, Barrell gets a look of shock on his face, and he shouts out a name... "Matilda". The same name as Roll's lost mother. After that, she breaks a window and jumps out of the ship, seemingly onto nothing. A few moments later, we see her flying away on a reaverbot-like machine.
Some time after this has occurred, Data accidentally sets the interior of the Flutter on fire (while trying to cook). While MegaMan does manage to put the fire out and keep the Flutter in working condition, the interior is so badly burned out that it would take a long time to rebuild. Rock and Roll put this aside for a more important task, to build a craft that could penetrate the clouds surrounding Forbidden Island. They plan to do this using blueprints left behind by Roll's parents, who seemingly disappeared years ago. They land at Calinca Island to carry out this plan (and possibly repair the Flutter).
At the shop in Yosyonke Town, Roll discovers with a shock that someone has a craft that looks just like the one in the blueprints. A man named Joe owns such a craft, and Roll believes that he has a connection to her parents. However, Joe is in a fragile condition and he had left to excavate a Ruin. MegaMan and Roll leave to find Joe badly injured in the ruin. They take him back to the town only to find out that he had amnesia for the past 10 years and he couldn't remember anything about his past life. Apparently in the past, he was a high ranking Digger who was badly injured and taken in by a barkeep, whom he married. He does however, let them use his craft, the Dropship. Later in the story, he helps them out to battle pirates. He also is seen throwing away a picture of Roll's family, which might indicate importance in future installments. Back to square one again, Roll and MegaMan go encounter more adventures with the usual antagonism from the Bonnes and also a new enemy, Glyde and his Birdbots. Glyde is a rather narcissistic man who eventually gets defeated many times. The birdbots are the counterparts to the Servbots and are generally ill tempered and foul.
Eventually, MegaMan's past life is revealed in full. He was an Irregular Hunter from Elysium as mentioned in the first game. However, what wasn't revealed was the fact that 3000 years before the present day, the last remaining human referred to as The Master was the one who ruled Elysium and all of its people. He created all of the Units, Reaverbots, and the ruins on Terra. He is also believed to have created the people of Terra, of which he and his people refer to as "carbons". He was also apparently very close to MegaMan Trigger, and they shared a bond that the main villain of the story, Sera was extremely envious of. Sometime in the past, The Master realized that the summary execution of carbons was wrong and asked his partner, MegaMan Trigger, to destroy the System that he had created to protect himself. They were both on Terra at the time, and without the life-sustaining powers of Elysium, the Master eventually died, leaving his genetic code with Trigger. He died, though, with a better understanding and love for the people he had created.
And so, Trigger fought to destroy the system, and the entirety of the System fought back. However, Yuna, the Mother Earth, slowly came to realize where Trigger was coming from. She decided not to switch sides completely, but to become neutral. Sera, in discontent with Yuna's decision, came to Terra personally to deal with Trigger. Sera was significantly weakened outside of Elysium, and the two fought each other to a stalemate. Both had expended all of their energy. Yuna, seizing the moment, locked them both away in stasis fields and placed them on separate islands. Trigger was forced to reset his system, so he could heal. However, resetting a system flushes all of its memories, so Trigger plugged his memories into Data. However, many years later it was, a man by the name of Barrel Caskett sneaked into the Nino Ruins and found the stasis field. Upon touching it, the field melted away, and a baby (along with a mechanical monkey), was laid out before the bewildered man. Not wanting to get in trouble for sneaking in, he took the child and raised it as his own, along with his granddaughter Roll. The baby was given the name of Megaman.
What happened to Roll's parents are also revealed somewhat. Roll's parents went in search of the Mother Lode on Forbidden Island, but never returned. Yuna found Roll's mother (Matilda) hurt and dying. Yuna took pity on her, and decided to use some of her own body to repair Matilda. She, however, overestimated herself, and used too much to function properly. She had to 'borrow' Matilda's body. However, because she had destroyed her original shell, she was no longer recognized as a Mother, and no longer had to stick to the behavioral parameters set by the System.
Some time in the future, MegaMan unlocked Sera from her stasis field, and Sera attempted to perform the Carbon Reinitialization Program and recover the Master's genetic code from Trigger's destroyed shell. In the ensuing battle, Sera's original shell was destroyed, but her programming was moved to a recreation of Yuna's body. In doing so, Sera was no longer part of the system, and Elysium shut down. This caused the 'old system' , called the mysterious Elder System to begin reactivating. The series abruptly ends here, with MegaMan, Yuna, and Sera stranded on Elysium, and the Elder System slowly coming to life.
Meanwhile, back on Terra, Roll, the Bonnes, and Von Bluecher are struggling to build a working spaceship, with the intent to follow MegaMan into Elysium, but with little success. Nonetheless, MegaMan would remain faithful to Roll doing whatever she can to rescue them until the time comes when they are rescued.