The digital version of Game Informer's Mega Man 11 cover story is now available to read online for subscribers. The story covers a lot of ground and reveals a couple new, interesting details about the game.
I am a subscriber and I took some time to jot down some notes you might find interesting. You can read those after the jump. I will not, however, be republishing ANY images from this issue. You'll have to pick it up yourself or wait for screenshots to drop online officially.
- Mega Man 11 producer Kazuhiro Tsuchiya reiterated it was a difficult environment for everyone at Capcom to say, "I really want to work on Mega Man" following Keiji Inafune's departure in 2011. Inafune was the brand's leader, so to speak. When he left there was a sense of emptiness among staff. No one knew how to fill his role.
- Over the last seven years there were several pitches for new Mega Man games. Koji Oda, Mega Man 11's director, was the first to receive a greenlight.
- In redesigning Mega Man for MM11, Oda said they experimented with making the Blue Bomber "super masculine" and even "pretty". Ultimately they went with his classic look.
- The MM11 team experimented with different ideas and concepts that would eventually become MM11. To get to that point, though, the team heavily discussed taking the franchise in a brand-new direction or sticking with a straightforward, familiar design.
- In order to test the game's art style, the team took some of their favorite stages from Mega Man 5 through Mega Man 10 and redesigned them with Yuji Isharaha's "modern anime look".
- A screenshot shows Mega Man using Rush Jet to navigating through a tunnel of platforms.
- One of Mega Man's forms looks remarkably similar to Star Force Mega Man, right down to the Omega Xis buster arm. As previously stated, these forms reflect the Robot Master weapon Mega Man currently has equipped, taking on their physical characteristics. Game Informer does not say if this is the result of defeating a Robot Master that looks like Omega Xis, though. Maybe it's a bonus legacy costume? It's up for speculation.
- There are a few screenshots of Mega Man running through a forest being chased by a wall of fire. In another screenshot of the same stage, there's a totem pole, a tent and a big wooden "Welcome!" sign featuring a Battle Network-style Mettaur. This stage looks a bit like a summer camp set during the evening.
- Game Informer could not disclose the secret behind those little gear icons beneath Mega Man's health bar. However, GI were told it's a "nice addition to the action and helps balance the difficulty." This system is still a work in progress, but the hope is it will give players more tools to face death and still have fun.
- Game Informer got to demo the game a bit and they say the controls are very tight and true to what you're accustom to. Both the charge shot and slide are back.
- Players will have a number of difficulty options at their disposal. An easier difficulty, for example, will provide extra platforms over spikes and pits and less space between checkpoints.
- As per tradition, there will be eight Robot Masters to tackle. The brick Robot Master seen at the end of the 30th anniversary stream was tentatively named Renga Man, which translates to Brick Man in English. It has a new name now which was not disclosed. This Robot Master is apparently one of Dr. Light's most beloved creation.
- The Robot Masters in this game are former allies of Dr. Light.
- Robot Master weapons will have multiple uses. Game Informer notes that the construction stage Robot Master grants a weapon that can be used to perform a mid-air dash attack. It's useful for tricky platforming.
- You can map Mega Man's weapons to the right analog stick and hot-swap between them with a simple flick.
- MM11 will not have a female Robot Master. Oda said, "There was actually a female Robot Master at the concept stage [for Mega Man 11], but when we paired up all the different weapons, she was one of the Robot Masters that didn't make the cut. We definitely feel like there are plenty of opportunities to add female Robot Masters in the future. This is one of those things where we feel like it's all about what fits best for each occasion, and there are those occasions where a female would be more appropriate than a male."
That's about it for now. Again, you'll have to pick the issue up yourself for screens and all the details. For everyone else, though, Game Informer online will have all kinds of MM11 news and details hitting all month long. Stay tuned!
"In redesigning Mega Man for MM11, Oda said they experimented with making the Blue Bomber 'super masculine.' Ultimately they went with his classic look."
ReplyDeleteThat doesn't surprise me in the least. Everyone knows the Japanese always stick with anime kid looks for such games.
and i think it's a good thing in this case. drastic redisign of a iconic character are always a tricky matter.
DeleteI worry more about the potential backlash people would have if Mega Man were to go super masculine. You know how such incidents become laughingstocks, like when they tried the same crap with Bomberman.
DeleteThere's also a brief part in the issue that states none of the robot masters are female as the one concept they had was rejected because her weapon didn't fit.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure someone cares about that.
I wonder what her weapon was? What did they mean by "fit"? Hope we can see her design via artbook in the future...
Deletewell, each weapon have to be something that look reasonably like the weakness of another robot master, maybe it's about this.
DeleteYou're right, someone does care. I look forward to seeing concept art in the gallery when the game goes live.
DeleteI care. If there aren’t more female cannon characters, the fanfiction will yet again be plagued with female OC characters. Capcom should slap some eyelashes on the brick robot master and call it a girl. It is literally that easy to solve the problem. I mean, they’re robots; their genders are all about aesthetics and shouldn’t impact a robot’s performance. If a prepubescent child model can be the best fighting robot, there is no excuse not to have more lady bots in various roles. Think of the fanfiction, Capcom. Just add eyelashes and do us all a favor.
DeleteIf it's as shallow as slapping some eyelashes or what have you on some random brick Robot Master, than why is it a big deal or small deal at all...
DeleteNot saying that I'm appose to "female" Robot Masters or anything. I will say tho that female Robot Masters should use different naming conventions, in fact I rather like what Battle Network did, instead of adding Woman to Ring.EXE they just dropped the Man, and that's fine and feminine same goes for Splash. Also shoehorning Roll into an active traditional Mega Man action role (pun not intended), is also kinda unsettling for me, again not saying I mind female playable characters in that way just saying I'd rather they make more sense for it, or make Roll playable in ways that suit the character in side modes or missions.
There's not much sense needed to be made for Roll to be playable. She was already playable in Powered Up. Heck we even got ProtoMan in 9 and he wasn't important to Mega Man's story in the game. And let's not forget the playable navigators in X8. Really, just refine what you have from her Powered Up moveset tbh. She'd be a fun melee character.
DeleteAlso the idea of making a playable character only for mission modes kind of a very dumb idea. Sounds like just wasting a perfectly good playable character for nothing.
I think Capcom has difficulty in designing female robots because it's hard to differentiate them from males. All robot masters were male minus Splash (& Honey), and they were given so much diverse designs. It's sexist, but I think Capcom wants to design the females so they are easily identifiable as a female. Classic bots can't rely on feminine associated features except theme and eyelash, so no hair, hourglass figures, and boobs like Reploids. Also since 99% of robots are male, and male was the default, they probably need to think why this specific one would be female aside from “gender equality”.
DeleteLook positive: At least they considered having a female robot. They’re probably playing safe because this is a totally new Mega man with a new team. They have so many new things in, they need to make sure those are good. If they succeed this game, they’ll have more time and space in small things like representation in the next game
Roll I'd be okay seeing in an IF mode. It irks me for people to want Roll to have a combat mode and fight. Rock made the choice to fight, Roll didn't. That's the main part of the story, so having Roll able to replace Rock kinda ruins it for me. Protoman is the rogue ally/rival of Megaman, Bass was made by Wily as Megaman's Rival. I'd prefer Roll to stay as support and have a new female fighter.
It has nothing to do with importance in the story. Protoman was always a fighting robot (well after Wily reprogrammed him) same as Bass, same as Duo.
DeleteYou could literally play as every Robot Master in the MMPU including regular Rock, it was just a fun extra side thing for a cute little side game. Same as the X8 mode it was literally like a hack mode that just reskinned X, Zero and Axl with the already modeled and voiced navigator counterparts. How shallow and petty would it be if Roll was just a reskinned Mega Man?
Also when mentioning side modes how would that be a waste of a playable character, as it would be specifically designed around the character but making a basically alternate Mega Man that probably won't add much to the gameplay outside of steal more spotlight from the title playable character and break consistency of the character (and yes every time Roll fought in the past it was comic relief and out of context to any sort of continuity).
I don't even care if Roll is playable, but don't act like her being playable for no reason whatsoever after 30 years in a mainline game for the sake of it is any less of a dumb idea.
"It's sexist, but I think Capcom wants to design the females so they are easily identifiable as a female"
DeleteIt's not sexist, good grief... If anything it's a lack of sex (as in the gender or whatever) attentiveness. I really hope all this progressive (as in the ideology) activism BS pervading every aspect of everything ever is kept at bay when regarding the intentions of development related to an innocent and well established series like Mega Man.
(I'm the anon who wrote the "It's sexist" thing)
DeleteWasn't sure it was sexist or not, good to know it isn’t. I rewrote that part several times. I personally didn’t think so, but wrote that because I assumed most of the people who want female RMs would argue so. I personally hate the whole gender equality thing in fiction. I understand their concern, and would make sense in some context, but in many cases they're nitpicking at an fictional work that just have a world like that.
And people will emphasize gender. “Wow, they added a female!” is okay. Then it gets to “They're a great character because they're female!” “This is a good game because there's a girl in it!” Yeah I'm exaggerating, but that's a trend I see...
From the update, it seems the female RM design was one of the many concepts they had. It suggest they didn't force themselves to create a female design, and they didn't force themselves to include her just for representation. I think that's really "progressive" enough.
Something feels lost in the transition to an 'anime' style megaman. Actual game looks pretty good aside from the animations
ReplyDelete"Game Informer got to demo the game a bit and they say the controls are very tight and true to what you're accustom to. Both the charge shot and slide are back."
ReplyDeletepffft, like I'd trust a games journalist about a game's mechanics. When they can competently complete a cup head tutorial, then we'll talk.
They should have had the protodude test it out.
The guy who played the game for Game Informer is a die hard Mega Man fan. He joked on Twitter that he owns nine versions of Mega Man X.
DeleteThe journalist that failed Cuphead's tutorial was a finance writer. His ability in games isn't particularly relevant or revelatory.
I dont trust anybody but Tommy from Team Meat, that guy knows controls.
Delete@Anonymous
Delete1) that sounds more like a die hard X fan. X and classic are very different games, and many X fans are not classic fans.
2) I know plenty of non-mega man fans that collect every version of X1 because everyone loves X1
yes, because one finance writer for the industry totally represents every single gaming journalist in the whole world
Deletegive me a break
No, but it's definitely a trend in gaming journalism
DeleteJust watched the GI video about MM11.. and yes, the guy is somewhat aware of mega man games, but he still seems like a casual.
DeleteHope the Rush Jet plays like in MM3 :)
ReplyDeleteI sure hope not, that dawg was broke!
DeleteWhy not just build challenges around how it was in MM3? That seems better then nerfing it to me, and you are rewarded for playing smart with your weapon energy for it as well.
DeleteThere is virtually no way to build challenges around it. Just like how rush jet armor broke MM6's level design.
DeleteRush jet takes the platforming out of the platformer. To make a challenge for it, you'd have to make it necessary to use, because it circumvents all platforming, just like how bass's treble boost breaks MM10's challenges.
I'm seriously hoping that they don't backpedaling from Mega Man 10 and give us Protoman and Bass as playable characters. I'm dying to see them in this new style. And even more to play as them.
ReplyDeleteBass has a different gameplay style from Mega Man, so I can see him coming back.
DeleteProto Man? He just played like how Mega Man did in the other games, having his slide and charge shot, but more knock back, and damage + a shield, unless they make him his god mode self from Powered Up + his higher damage, I don't think he'd be all that interesting to play since Mega Man his abilities back.
I'd love to see Roll playable properly tbh they gave her that armor in "Upon a star" OVA & MvC but it's never been seen since would be cool to give her a shot https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-9glCa8YLtCc/WYE_-R0mzFI/AAAAAAAAB-M/ezUbYmgICYIyD4NxZN077rjw37KMWsizgCLcBGAs/s640/rollova.jpg
DeleteWell, they can make proto playable, but this time making him different from Mega Man. just because they did'dnt make him different before does'nt mean they can't make him different this time.
DeleteProtoman played very differently. only two shots at a time, double damage, double knockback, and the a shield that reflects projectiles every time he jumps. He has a lot of the same abilities, but he plays differently enough. If you give him a faster charge shot than mega man, bam! you got a fun new character that is worth unlocking. Just don't go making him like PU where he shoots nothing but full charge shots.
DeleteCant wait. I am so excited!
ReplyDeleteHope Bass and Protoman are playable in this title. I love that awesome art by Game Informer,BTW.
ReplyDeleteShame about no female robot masters this time. Splash Woman's design was pretty good! That said, I'm liking "Brick Man" as far as revealed bosses goes so far. Pretty excited for this title.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if Roll will be playable? Would be really cool. Proto Man and Bass too please!
A "masculine" Megaman? Yeah, Ruby Spears covered that.
ReplyDeleteA "pretty" Megaman? That's how we got stuck with Zero.
Megaman, Sonic, Mario, Spider-Man, Superman, Batman, Mickey Mouse, Bugs Bunny, Charlie Brown... You just don't screw with iconic designs. It never works out well.