Yoshihisa Tsuda Talks About Mega Man 7's Development, Famicom Easter-Egg

Mega Man 7 is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, and perhaps in light of the occasion, one of the game's planners, Yoshihisa Tsuda (credited as "Hisayoshi"), took to Twitter to reflect on its tight—and even smelly—three-month production deadline.

"During the final stages of Mega Man X2's development, when all that was left was mostly debugging, I was suddenly summoned to a meeting with the senior staff in the development department," writes Tsuda. "They told me, 'Starting tomorrow, you'll be moving on to work on Mega Man 7.' The master-up deadline was three months away... From that day on, my memories of going home almost completely disappeared."

Tsuda, as you may recall, had a two-hour commute from his home to Capcom. As a "mid-career hire" at the time, he wasn’t eligible to live in Capcom’s dormitories.

He continues, "Back then, I just assumed this was how development always worked. Besides, I joined the company mid-career because I wanted to work on Mega Man, so I was completely okay with it. As for the short development timeline, I figured, 'Well, even if there are delays, it’s not really my responsibility, right?'—a bit like Joseph Joestar’s 'think in reverse' strategy. That said, a three-month development period is incredibly short."

Tsuda also touched on rumors about air quality issues in the Mega Man 7 development room. Responding to a fan's question, he wrote, "For some reason, the development of Mega Man 7 took place in a cramped room where over 10 programmers were packed tightly together. The inspectors scolded us about it, so after that, we kept the door open. The CG and sound staff worked at their own desks, while I was running around all over the place."

Tsuda also reflected on the appearance of the Famicom in Junk Man's stage. "In Junk Man's stage, some elements were completely removed in later ports. The stage designer at the time asked, "I want something impactful in the background of Junk Man’s starting area—can I put a Famicom there?" I replied, "Well, I think it should be fine as long as it’s a mechanical redesign, probably?" (not very thoughtful). Turns out, it wasn’t fine. My bad."

Interestingly enough, the Famicom looked even less mechanical in early production, as seen in the pre-release Sample ROM (images via the Cutting Room Floor):

Even though the Famicom was removed, Tsuda pointed out that something else managed to survive the future revisions—something many of us may have never really noticed: "By the way, the controller-like terrain right after the Famicom still made it through, didn’t it?"

Indeed, the two platforms after the Famicom are actually Famicom controllers lying flat. You can even make out the D-pad and face buttons on them

Despite the three-month development time, Tsuda holds no ill will towards Mega Man 7—in fact, he’s proud of it, especially considering the attention to detail and the inclusion of features like the secret Versus Mode.