Inafune Doesn’t Know “If Anybody Will Have the Guts to Fight Against the Company Right Now”

Transformers: The Movie, this ain’t.
…the old one, we mean. Pre-Michael Bay. 1986.

In that movie, when Autobot leader Optimus Prime died (spoilers), his last words were that “one day, an Autobot shall rise from our ranks and use the power of the Matrix to light our darkest hour.”

On the other side of things, this is reality, and while former Capcom development leader Keiji Inafune has not passed on, he did leave the company, much to the disappointment of many fans. As noted again recently, he had hoped to be able to continue two of the games he had left unfinished with Capcom, Mega Man Universe and Mega Man Legends 3, under the banner of his new company, Comcept. Instead, he was told “that won’t be necessary,” and months later, the projects were both scrapped, much to his disappointment.

More recently, Joystiq spoke to Inafune at the Tokyo Game Show, where instead of pointing fingers and casting blame, he instead reflected on how difficult it was to get Mega Man Legends 3 started in the first place.

“The two projects were really hard to even get started, because the title is kind of old,” he said in reference to Mega Man Legends 3. “We were bringing it back. It wasn’t easy for me to get the go ahead from the company, I was fighting against the company, and now it’s been canceled.”

To bring the Transformers: The Movie analogy full-circle, Inafune’s hope is that someone will rise from the ranks at Capcom, pick up the torch, and fight on for the project in his stead. However, he is not especially confident that such a thing will happen. “I don’t know if anybody will have the guts to fight against the company right now,” he admitted.

If such a person were to exist, however, they currently remain unknown. And while there was no Matrix-passing involved or blue lights shining upon a chosen one, Inafune noted that he left behind “a really good team,” any one of which could potentially emerge as a future leader within the company. “I didn’t choose anyone,” he points out, “but I’m kind of hoping that someone will come forth.”

…and light our darkest hour, with Mega Man Legends 3… right?

Thanks to Mainfinger for passing this along.

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