USgamer Looks Back at the Finer Points of Mega Man Legends

With Mega Man Legends poised to finally arrive on the North American PlayStation Store next week (unless you own a PlayStation 4 or PlayStation Portable), USgamer’s Jeremy Parish is taking the opportunity to look back at some of what made the game so great in the eyes of so many.

Of course, the main quest is quite memorable in its own right, but Mega Man Legends also sported what felt like something of a sandbox game at a time when sandbox games weren’t quite a thing yet. Though you were largely confined to a single island, it was a pretty open world you had to explore, whether you wanted to help the environment by kicking the can into the recycling bin, participate in game shows, help the sick and needy, or even just listen to some tunes at the local music store.

In his time on Kattelox, [MegaMan] can become as involved in the lives and dreams of the island’s citizens, as the player sees fit. You can certainly just breeze through the story like you would any other action game, and the resulting experience would be perfectly decent. But if you really take the time to slow your pace and experience all the little mini-tales that play out over the course of the adventure, Legends becomes more meaningful in every sense. When disaster looms over Kattelox, you can go and fight to save the island because it’s a video game and that’s what you do; or you can go and fight because you’ve seen into the lives of countless innocent people and dearly wish to protect them. When the citizens of Kattelox come and wave farewell to [MegaMan] and the Flutter crew at the end of the game, the investment you make into Legends’ world determines whether it’s a crowd of strangers saying thank you or a group of dear friends regretfully wishing you the best as you depart.

To read more about the relatively uniqueness provided by the game’s singular location, its different approach to hub world design, and the option to be a less-heroic hero (plus some ideas it brought out before bigger names subsequently made them more famous), check out how Mega Man Legends fits the mold of being a “Comfort Food Game” here.

LBD "Nytetrayn"

David Oxford, or “LBD ‘Nytetrayn’,” as he is sometimes also known, is a freelance writer of many varied interests who resides in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. If you’re interested in hiring him, please drop him a line at david.oxford (at) nyteworks.net.

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