Dynafire has 132 chronicles

1. Under the Radar #6: Mega Man Legends
   

   Player Chronicle -- Posted on Jun 03 2009

   We all know who Mega Man is. He's the delightful little blue fellow that has a cannon for an arm. I don't know about you, but when I was a kid, I imagined a future where I would have a cannon-arm and have to dispatch unruly robots whose brows were constantly furrowed. It's just too bad that the real world is nothing like that.
   
   Most of the Mega Man series consists of difficult, yet enjoyable, platformer/shooters. I would be willing to bet a dollar that everyone who reads this will have played a Mega Man game at some point in their lives. However, I will go double or nothing and say that no one but the most devoted fans/confused shoppers have played Mega Man Legends.
   
   You see, MML is different than the others. This game takes Mega Man and his sidekicks to the third dimension, and makes a 3rd person shooter/RPG out of it. There is an actual storyline to this title, and while it may not be Final Fantasy quality, it's satisfactory. You are hunting down these refractor shards that are apparently an ancient power supply or something, that you're going to do something with. I don't really remember the plot. But anyway. After your first mission, you are attacked by pirates and are forced to set down on an island. From there, you're pretty much free to roam about the area.
   
   Speaking of the pirates, they are more comic relief than anything. From what I remember, the reason they're there in the first place is that there's a rumor of a giant refractor hidden under the island. Or something like that. They're constantly coming up with new ways to attempt to kill you, and become extremely frustrated when they fail. There is actually voice acting in this game, and contrary to most games, it's actually decent. Eventually, however, they are replaced as the main antagonists and you're faced with a new foe, which I shall not spoil.
   
   The "world" in this game is not very large. The island you're on is pretty small, and there are only about 5 different areas you can go. That doesn't make the game any less fun though. The dungeons and ruins you have to go into are fairly large, and have plenty of enemies to fight, equipment and items to find, as well as holding the occasional boss fight. The somewhat small environment has its benefits, however. You can get pretty much anywhere on the island in a matter of a couple minutes, which is good since you'll be backtracking a lot.
   
   You're able to upgrade all of your weapons, and create new ones should you find the right parts lying around. The only downside is that you can only carry one special weapon at a time in addition to your normal buster cannon. You can't switch them out on the fly either, you must go back to see Roll every time you want to switch it out, which is a lot. There are a lot of these weapons to make, so if you're looking for a good way to kill time, hunting down the appropriate items is sure to waste a few hours. Ultimately though, you'll be using the normal buster most of the time, since it never runs out of ammo, and you can acquire rather good upgrades for it early in the game.
   
   I don't really think I did a very good job describing this game (mainly because of the time constraints I've been under for the last week or so), but I can assure you that Mega Man Legends is one of the funnest Mega Man games in existence, and the second MML game is even better. Perhaps I'll discuss that one another time.

   
   

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Dynafire has 3 comment s on this chronicle.

1. Seripha
   Posted On Jun 04 2009

   Another great choice for your series. I rented this game once when I was younger, but I still remember it rather well. It is different from the Mega Man games we are used to, but it is definitely not a bad one.

2. MaTrIx
   Posted On Jun 04 2009

   I think I played it once at a friends house back in the day.

3. JackDaniels624
   Posted On Jun 04 2009

   While I understand why you would find having a cannon arm shooting evil robots appealing in real life...Just think about that for a second. Do you REALLY want to be pushed around by robots hoping that a trained soldier plans his jumps perfectly time and again to save our free lives? Or how about how often Wily manages to take control over the city?
   
   Oh and no, I never played this game...Megaman (for me anyway) will only be in 2d...