This retrospective, part of the Mega Man Retrospective, took a lot longer to make then I anticipated. Between trying to get through a lot of the game and ensuring I experienced a majority of the game, I feel bad I made you all wait a good extra week then I originally promised. This is a little preface, as I will ensure this does not happen again with future Retrospectives.
Now that is out of the way, Legends 2! Following the success of Legends 1 and a spin-off game Misadventures of Tron Bonne, the studio behind Mega Man Legends returns with another 3D adventure for the Blue Bomber.
This is a great sequel that fixes a lot of the little issues many had with Legends 1. A proper lock-on feature, better controls/camera system, dungeons having unique visual designs and gimmicks and a story hoping across a wide selection of locations. Legends 2 feels like a world adventure and does this make it the better game than Legends 1?
The game has some history and here is what I found on Wikipedia regarding this:
"The demo, titled Rockman Dash 2 - Episode 1: Roll's Critical Moment (ロックマンＤＡＳＨ２ エピソード１ ロールちゃん危機一髪！ Rokkuman DASH 2 Episōdo 1 Rōruchan Kiki Ippatsu?), features an independent story in which Tron has kidnapped Roll and Mega Man sets to rescue her. It was only included in the Japanese version of the game and the PlayStation Portable port of the game. The game was released for the PlayStation in April 2000 in Japan, as a regular release and another one under the label of "PlayStation the Best". It was later released in October 2000 in North America and in August 2001 in Europe] Unchanged Japanese ports of the game were also released for the PC in July 2001. In September 2005, Capcom ported the game to the PlayStation Portable but it was only published in Japan.[43] Like the preceding game, the music was composed by Makoto Tomozawa with the ending theme used in the Japanese version being Hara Fumina's "Naite Ii Yo" (泣いていいよ?, lit. "It's All Right to Cry"). In October 2009, Capcom released Capcom Special Selection Rockman Dash 2 (CAPCOM SPECIAL SELECTION ロックマンDASH2?), which is composed of a soundtrack including 17 tracks from the game and an artbook. The artbook also shows characters which were not featured in the game with all of them sharing the name of Mega Man like Mega Man Volnutt and Mega Man Juno."
So the game got a great intro demo for Japanese players and NA/EU gamers got a lengthy demo covering some early sections of the final game. When the game released in 2000, it got high scores and everyone loved it, but sales wise, it didn't like the world on fire. This lead to the Legends series hibernating for quite a while, with PSP ports of Legends 1 & 2 coming out in Japan (with the PSP version of Legends 2 fixing something I will be touching on when I get to the gameplay).
The entire Legends series would later release on North American PlayStation Network, with Legends 2 being the latest release early this month. Made an entire Topic for it on NeoGaf after all
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The story of the game is that Rock Volnut (Mega Man's official name in this sub-series), Roll and Data relaxing on the Flutter, while Barrel (Rock and Roll's father) is on a giant flying craft with an old partner. Both discuss plans on exploring a place called 'The Forbidden Island' with the Bonnes & Glide sneaking in on the ship as reporters.
The craft gets sucked into the Island, pushing Rock, Roll and Data to visit the island themselves, but they first land on as snow covered island to try and make a machine to penetrate the harsh climate of the Forbidden Island. The story gets more crazy when Rock finally lands on the Forbidden Island and accidentally frees two beings called Accents. After all of this happens, Rock is tasked to find three keys that will allow the Mother Lode to be unlocked.
If that sounds like a fun adventure, its because it IS one! The writing is as great as past Legends titles and the core story for the characters is quite strong. Morality comes into play to a points, with Rock's actions while not affecting the core story, effecting little things in interesting ways.
Overall, I really liked this story and the strong characters of Legends 1 come back in full force here.
The core gameplay is a major face-lift from the original Legends. Core design is the same, with Rock finding various weapon parts that Roll converts into tools he can use to explore new locations and every main area has a hub to explore. But the gameplay is where a lot changed. The lock-on works like 3D Zelda, with it allowing you to move around when attacking instead of being locked in place. In addition, the game supports full analog control allowing you to look around and have greater control on Rock's movement.
Really enjoy the combat now, as thanks to these improved controls, fire fights are streamlined and feel quite rewarding. If anything, I would not be surprised if Insomniac took Legends 2 to heart when designing the combat system for Ratchet & Clank 2, as the controls mirror how Ratchet works when you hold down the strafing button.
But, what about the dungeons? If the gameplay takes notes from 3D Zelda, so should they? Well, they DO and it leads to some interesting results. The core design of each dungeon is different, with them having unique themes, gimmicks and core design elements. The Forest Dungeon for example focuses on Rock climbing up to a higher floor and repeatedly taking on another Digger.
......Then we get to the water dungeon. I hate this. I hate this. I HATE this place. You want to know why? Because it takes forever to get anywhere. This place is the reason this retrospective too so long to write, because I spent five hours backtracking to get the drill arm, grinding zenny and getting lost for a good three hours trying to find the second water key. The design is fine, with a lot of floors to explore and its nice it has a lot of hidden goodies to find if you explore but when you are underwater, Rock moves like a tank and is really slow. And when the game asks you to do some platforming? Good luck with that.
I'm making it sound like its the worst thing in the world, but it really isn't. If you take your time and come prepared, it should only take 2 hours at most to get through everything here. But it is a major flaw to Legends 2. Thankfully, the JP PSP remake of Legends 2 fixed this by making Rock faster when underwater, so it takes less time to get through the place.
The other dungeons are a lot better and the final one in particular is a lot of fun. Overall, outside of one sour dungeon, the rest are a lot of fun.
The game also introduces a lot of 'prologue' portions before you complete dungeons, with you either helping a town, saving some brothers sister from a pirate, and defending a flying base from being destroyed. It makes this world quite huge and makes the game feel longer, and that is always a good thing if done well.
The presentation here is a big step up from Legends 1, and that game looked great on the PlayStation 1. Here, the character models are more detailed, the music is more catchy and the dungeons have striking designs. Not to mention the cut-scenes got a big step up too, with better animation, more movement and them feeling 'grander'.
The music is something I want to highlight too, as I really like a lot of the tracks in the game.
Flutter Theme: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-_c2-kARr4&list=PLFuN7I79hDh0AIcuMO8efpMh8iKRZTzeA&index=1
Abandon Mine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SeBZ7pH0VvU&list=PLFuN7I79hDh0AIcuMO8efpMh8iKRZTzeA&index=4
Tron's Jagd Krabbe: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiXkr7JVv8s&index=5&list=PLFuN7I79hDh0AIcuMO8efpMh8iKRZTzeA
Flutter on Fire: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhkG4mz_kDY&index=6&list=PLFuN7I79hDh0AIcuMO8efpMh8iKRZTzeA
Saul Kial Ruins - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-bhaEs_tCY&index=13&list=PLFuN7I79hDh0AIcuMO8efpMh8iKRZTzeA
Tiesel's Blitzkrieg - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAhilrZ0tUY&index=15&list=PLFuN7I79hDh0AIcuMO8efpMh8iKRZTzeA
Reaverbot Boss - Wolfon - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wsf0gEyahBA&list=PLFuN7I79hDh0AIcuMO8efpMh8iKRZTzeA&index=16
Glyde's Base - Area 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IH9R9VPw5F4&index=18&list=PLFuN7I79hDh0AIcuMO8efpMh8iKRZTzeA
Just want to cover one final thing before concluding; controls and difficulty settings.
Control:
Special Controls - PlayStation 3/PlayStation TV/Vita TV
Analog Stick - Walking/Running
Right Stick - Strafe Left/Right
X - Jump (Left/Right + X = Dodge Roll)
[] - Shoot
Triangle - Special Weapon
O - Interact/Pick Up
R2 - Lock-On
Special Controls - PlayStation Vita
Rear Touch Pad (Top Right) - Lock-On
Right Stick - Strafe Left/Right
X - Jump (Left/Right + X = Dodge Roll)
[] - Shoot
/\ - Special Weapon
O - Interact/Pick Up
Special Controls - PlayStation Portable
L & R - Strafe Left & Right
D-Pad - Moving around
Analog Stick (Different Directions) Lock-On
X - Jump (Left/Right + X = Dodge Roll)
[] - Shoot
/\ - Special Weapon
O - Interact/Pick Up
Difficulty: You can complete a diggers test later in the game and you have two classes to unlock; A and S. Both unlock access to one of two extra dungeons to complete, which house items that can be converted into powerful weapons. But the game gets harder, with A being 'Hard' and S being 'Super Hard'. If you do NOT want your game getting more challenging, ignore this or make a new save to try the difficulty out.
Overall, I really enjoyed my time with Legends 2. It is a great Zelda-like experience and its clear that the team making the Legends games got better from what they learned with Legends 1. Rock may be on the moon, but he got new life from newer generations playing the Legends series thanks to their North American PlayStation Network releases, like myself. I never played the Legends series before until recently, so I have the PSN releases to thank for me covering Legends in this Mega Man Retrospective!
Lets keep on exploring and one day, we will get Rock off the Moon.....
