Inafune Answers Your Questions… Finally!

Perhaps you remember that back in December, during Mega Man’s great 22nd birthday hurrah, Capcom*Unity was hand picking questions from Unity members to be answered by the Mega daddy himself, Keiji Inafune. I have to admit, I actually forgot about it myself! Of course Mr. Inafune is a busy guy, but not one to pass up a promise. The answers to the selection questions have finally come. Here are the first five, straight from Capcom*Unity.
1) Bigopinion asks: Inafune-san! Rockman is getting pretty old! Thank you for sharing such a wonderful franchise with the world for all these years!! If you could take the Megaman franchise into any new direction — away from the 2D sidescrolling action adventure we have grown to love through the years — where would you go with it??

Inafune-san: Thanks to you for many years of your support for Mega Man! You are right, the Mega Man game is known for its 2D side-scrolling action. But we are also constantly seeking for a new direction. We don’t want to do just something new in a random manner. It’s got to be not just new to the series but something completely original, something you have never seen when it comes to Mega Man. I hope I can share exciting news with you sometime in near future. Till then, stay tuned!

2) Overdriveostrich asks: I was wondering, why did you choose to make another 8 bit original series MegaMan with MegaMan 10? Did you consider doing a MegaMan X9 with 16 bit Super Famicom(SNES) graphics?

Inafune-san: One of the biggest reasons for going with the 8bit style was the success with Mega Man 9. MM 9 succeeded beyond our wildest expectation. We had initially thought of bringing back to the series the feel of the NES to create a sense of nostalgia with MM9. Receiving the great reaction from the fans over it, we decided to establish the style as the game genre for Mega Man. In line with this concept, reviving the 16 bit game style in the series seems like a great idea. We certainly would like to consider trying it out in future when there’s a chance.

3) Akuknives asks: Inafune-san, are you thinking of brushing off the old Robot Masters contest? and have you thought about other contests such as a Stage Theme Music submission contest? With 8-bit music being so popular these days, surely there are plenty of musicians with tracks to submit, don’t you think?

Inafune-san: Unfortunately this time, we are not able to hold the Robot Master Contest. But we want to bring it back in near future if an opportunity arises. What I hope to do with the Robot Master Contest is to create Mega Man together with all the fans. The Stage Theme Music contest sounds really interesting so I would love to setup a system for the fans to submit their music and make it happen.

4) Manson asks: Was there any overarching theme when choosing boss robot ideas for each of the classic RockMan games? If so, could you give us some examples?

Inafune-san: Mega Man has had many unique boss characters throughout the series. What I work hard most on in creating these characters is to come up with a design that clearly represents each character’s not only physical features but its personality and battle style. We make variations in illustration details by series, such as making the design further simpler or adding more lines depending on the series, but the fundamentals of Mega Man character designing is focused on creating distinct and imaginative art that tells a story of a specific character to the players.

5) Rockmasterx asks: Hello Keiji! I’m from Spain and a Megaman/Rockman fan, I have aprox. 57 original megaman games in my collection and my goal in life is complete this collection! xD Well here are my questions:(sorry for my bad english) Is there any possibility that you make the next Megaman X with graphics style of “odin sphere” or “muramasa: demon blade”? I think that is a good 2-D Style and the gameplay of megaman X-X6 can be restored.

Inafune-san: 57 of them!? That is amazing!! And I should thank you for that. I think Odinsphere and Muramasa are really good games, but we probably would not mix Mega Man X series with those styles. We would love to work with brand new 2D game ideas rather than borrowing one from elsewhere.

More Inafune answers will be posted on Unity tomorrow, and later on we’ll get some answers to questions asked to manga artist Hitoshi Ariga. Stay tuned!

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