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.


 * 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, 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 Legends 3 as a Nintendo 3DS title almost 10 years after the release of 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, 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 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 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:
"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!"
 * Abridged Series: For both Legends and 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.
 * In Legends 1, Mega Man walks in on Roll while she is in her room changing, and in Legends 2, he enters the bathroom just as Roll is getting out of the bathtub. Both times are completely accidental (although in her diary Roll wonders if Mega Man is doing it on purpose since it happened twice).
 * In both games, Mega Man pumps his fist triumphantly after leaving the room, and you get the short music of a goal accomplished which calls into question how accidental it was. Note that the fist bump was removed in the English version of Legends 1, but maintained in the N64 port.
 * Also, in Legends 2, Tron Bonne is left naked when her clothes burn off when the robot she was piloting explodes after a fight with Mega Man. The camera is on Mega Man as Tron questions why he is just staring blankly at her until one of her Servibots points out to her that she is Naked. See for yourself.
 * Also from Legends 2, not so much Getting Crap Past the Radar as the radar having a huge blind spot is Sera's visible (although not frontal) nudity at Forbidden Island.
 * In the first game, checking the bookstore in town will have him come across a Dirty Magazine, which might be fun to read... but people could see!
 * Affably Evil: Mega Man Juno.
 * 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: Legends 2 has a pair of air-pirate Recurring Bosses named Bola and Klaymoor.
 * Artificial Human:
 * This has been given Foreshadowing in the
 * 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.
 * 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".
 * 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.
 * The Bad Guy Wins:
 * Bag of Spilling: An optional dialogue box in the opening cutscene of 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"  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. (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.
 * 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:
 * Legends 1 gives us this exchange:

"Teisel Bonne: Who would've thought there was 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...!"
 * Fast forward to the post credits stinger:

""I said... CLOOOOSE the HAAAATCH!!!""
 * Camera Lock On
 * 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 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 MML1) 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 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.
 * Cross Dressing Voices: The first game had Mega Man voiced by male VA Corey Sevier, but the second game the voice was given to Susan Roman, who voiced in the first game.
 * In many reviews of the second game, this voice change was a constantly-brought-up complaint - not because the voice acting was bad, but because at the time no one knows why it was changed. The original VA was only 14 when the first game came out. Apparently his voice changed too much between the first and second games for him to be viable and/or they wanted a VA who would be able to do his voice consistently.
 * Crystal Spires and Togas: Apparently,
 * Darker and Edgier: Legends 2 is this to Legends, but that's to be expected considering its deeper plot.
 * Dark Skinned Greenhead: The Mother Units in 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 Legends reappears as a two-armed Hammuru Doll in one of the portals. However, it also behaves differently due to terrain layout.
 * Development Hell: An odd case where it wasn't, actually, in development, but it still fits: Keiji Inafune expressed a desire to make Legends 3 for quite some time, and fans certainly wanted it, but the relatively low sales of the first two games meant Capcom wasn't willing to invest in it. Until now.
 * Unfortunately, it's back to development hell, or possibly worse.
 * Doomed Protagonist:
 * Downer Ending: By the end of Legends 2,
 * 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 MML world.
 * Goldfish Poop Gang: Bola and Klaymoor from Legends 2.
 * Global Currency: Zenny. See also Mega Man Battle Network.
 * 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 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
 * The other games prove that Tron is competent. Bon has the excuse of being a baby. Teisel doesn't.
 * Infinity Plus One 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 2 to get a weapon component (sadly, not to the Infinity Plus One 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.
 * 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:


 * 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 Part 3, doesn't look Part 2 will ever get resolved.
 * Like Brother and Sister: Mega Man Volnutt and Roll Caskett.
 * Except that
 * Loan Shark: Lex Loath, the Bonne family's exasperated money lender and antagonist of Misadventures.
 * 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 Lost technology is so prevalent in 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
 * Naked First Impression: Sera is completely nude when she is first seen by Mega Man  in Legends 2.
 * Neuro Vault:.
 * The Not Love Interest: Of course not, since they are-wait, why should you be angry with Tron's advance, Roll?
 * In 2, if the player bought all the gifts for Roll, didn't let her take damage in the, and viewed the bathroom scene, her final diary entry (only viewable if the player travels back from )  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
 * Orphaned Series: For a long time, until 2008, where Japanese cell phones got a new game, and late 2010, with Legends 3 being announced on the 3DS and again after that.
 * Then it got Screwed By The Videogame Company and got canceled again.
 * Parental Abandonment: Roll. It doesn't help that
 * 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.
 * Punishment Box: In The Missadventures of Trone Bonn 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 Legends 2, if only Klaymoor wouldn't keep pulling him in for one last score...
 * Ridiculously Human Robots: Taken to a new extreme: 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.
 * The Siege: The Bonnes' preferred method of extortion, often leading to Mega Man having to shell out for repairs to damaged/destroyed buildings.
 * Shout In: 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.
 * Smash Mook: Hammuru Dolls and Jaiwan.
 * Suicidal Gotcha: Legends 1's tutorial ruin ends with Mega Man pulling one.
 * Super Title 64 Advance: The Nintendo 64 version of the first Legends is (rather appropriately) titled Mega Man 64.
 * Take Your Time:
 * In Legends 1,
 * And then in Legends 2,
 * Except justified in that case since.
 * 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.
 * 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.
 * Tomato In The Dyson Sphere: How is Volnutt the only one who can understand Data? Simple: . Everyone else?
 * Tsundere: Tron Bonne
 * 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.
 * Video Game 3D Leap
 * 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 1, Jaiwan in 2. Both are Smash Mooks who move slowly, and their attacks are very easy to avoid.
 * What Could Have Been: Legends 3, in its entirety.
 * 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 Misadventures, you can give them names.