Although the only way to move in the game is on foot, once Roll Caskett repairs a support car, she is able to directly take Mega Man to specific areas. In Legends, large gems called Refractors are used as a power source. Small shards of them can be exchanged for money, and in the game, enemies that are destroyed will often drop these Refractor Shards. When shards are picked up, the equivalent amount of Zenny, the game's basic unit of currency, is added automatically. The health of Mega Man can be increased through the game in the shops, while it can be recovered through packs bought at shops, obtaining red spheres from defeated opponents or by asking the character Data to recover Mega Man's health. Mega Man also has a Life Shield which reduces the damage that he can receive from enemies. The damage caused by enemies can also be reduced by obtaining upgrades to Mega Man's armor or his helmet. Mega Man's interactions with characters from the game can also affect the price of objects. If the player makes Mega Man be rude with characters, prices from objects will be increased and the dialogues with people will also change.
The power of Mega Man's main weapon, the Buster Gun, depends on Buster Parts equipped. Buster Parts can be equipped to upgrade four stats of the Buster Gun; Attack (how strong it is), Rapid (how fast it fires), Range (how far the shots go), and Energy (how many shots can be fired before pausing). Buster Parts can be retrieved from stores or from dungeons. Additionally, Roll is able to create Buster Parts from unusable objects found in the ruins. Roll is also able to make weapons for the player, using specific combinations of parts that can be found in dungeons or bought in shops. Many of these weapons supplement the Buster Gun. The only way to refill them in the field is an item that can be bought, but only one can be carried. Only one special weapon can be equipped at a time, and the only way to switch is to talk to Roll, unlike the original series. Special weapons can be upgraded, and have five stats; Attack, Rapid, Range, Energy, and Special. In order to upgrade them, the player must pay a specific amount of Zenny.
Plot
Setting and characters
The Legends series takes place on a flooded Earth. Because of the flooding, only a few sparse islands exist and energy sources are rare. In order to satisfy this increasing demand for energy to power up machinery, quantum refractors found in ancient ruins are used. These refractors are valuable; they serve as an energy source, and their shards are used as currency. However, the main goal of every person is to find the Mother Lode, an item of supposed infinite power that can fill the need for the energy in one swoop. Those who try to excavate these ruins are called "Diggers" ("Digouters" in the Japanese version). The protagonist of the game is Mega Man Volnutt, a Digger living in a ship called Flutter. He lives there alongside Roll Caskett, his Spotter who is searching for her missing father, Barrel Caskett, Roll's grandfather, and Data, a mysterious monkey that talks in gibberish only Mega Man himself can understand. The game's antagonists are pirates known as the Bonnes who want to steal Kattelox's secret treasure in order to become rich. They consist of Teisel Bonne, the leader of the group. His sibling is Tron Bonne, who builds most of their robots used in their elaborate schemes (and develops feelings for Mega Man), and the youngest brother, Bon Bonne, who can only say one word—"Babu!" The Bonnes are accompanied by forty Servbots, robots under the care of Tron. They live and travel in their flying warship, the Gesellschaft.
Story
Mega Man Volnutt exits a ruin after finding the refractor inside. After dealing with the Reaverbots blocking his way out, he makes his way to the Flutter, which leaves the ruin. However, the Flutter experiences some engine problems and crash lands on Kattelox Island. From there, the Casketts try to find a way to repair their ship. However, when the pirates the Bonnes attack Kattelox's city with giant mechanical weapons, Mega Man decides to stop them. Once Mega Man defeats the Bonnes, Kattelox's mayor, Amelia, tells Mega Man the Bonnes are searching for the island's secret treasure and that it is said if somebody obtains it, a great disaster will befall the island. Amelia asks Mega Man to investigate the island's ruins. With a refractor found in a ruin, Roll and Mega Man repair the Flutter, allowing them to find a cave to continue exploring the island. While exploring the cave, Mega Man activates the Main Gate, a dungeon where he should be able to find the reason why Reaverbots from the island are being activated. Mega Man confronts the Bonnes who, after being defeated once again, decide to let Mega Man enter the Main Gate, planning to steal the treasure from him afterward.
When Mega Man explores the depths of the Main Gate, he discovers it is actually a stasis chamber for the ancient robot Mega Man Juno, a 3rd class bureaucratic unit from Eden, a space station orbiting above the planet. When he is accidentally awakened from his sleep by Mega Man, Juno refers to Mega Man as "Mega Man Trigger", and realizes that Mega Man is suffering from memory loss. Juno claims that the island's population needs to be purged so it will be more controllable, and confronts Mega Man when he tries to stop him. After a struggle, Juno is defeated and dies. Even with Juno's physical body gone, he transfers his backup data into the systems of Eden, preventing the halt of the Carbon Purification Process. Data gives new commands to the system, stopping the Purification and deleting Juno's backup data from Eden. Data then reveals to Mega Man that he contains all of his previous memories from when he was Mega Man Trigger. Mega Man had stored his memories into Data as a way to prevent Eden from ever tampering with it. Data promises to restore Mega Man's memory when the time comes. The residents proclaim Mega Man a hero and the Caskett family rides off in the repaired Flutter to continue their journey. The Bonnes sail on a vessel built by Tron out of the scraps from the Gesellschaft, with the giant refractor from the main gate and Bon Bonne in tow.
Reception
Since its release, Mega Man Legends has received moderately positive critical response from video game publications although the ports for Nintendo 64 and PC received from mixed to negative comments. GameRankings had an average of 73.73% for the PS version. The PC and Nintendo 64 version had lower averages of 33.67% and 63.94%, respectively. On Metacritic, the Nintendo 64 port holds an aggregate 59 out of 100 based on six reviews The jump from a 2D platform video game series to a 3D action-adventure game was well received, as reviewers compared it with other video game franchises whose changes were overall negative. Despite the change, critics liked how Legends shares various elements from the original Mega Man series. Game Informer liked the variations of Mega Man's special weapons as "There is plenty of shoot-em-up action for fans of traditional Mega Man titles." The storyline of the game was also praised, being labelled as "solid" by Game Informer and "engrossing" by GamePro, the latter praising the bosses characters as one of the best ones from the whole series. On the other hand, the game's difficulty received mixed reviews with focus on the boss battles, but praise in the addition of a tutorial mode later added to the Nintendo 64 port.
Next Generation reviewed the PlayStation version of the game, rating it three stars out of five, and stated that "first impressions can be a killer, and the game just doesn't possess the most outstanding graphics or mechanics to hook the merely curious after just one play. For those who look deeper, it's a diamond in the rough."
The N64 port, however, received criticism by Famitsu for being too similar to the original game. IGN commented that the PlayStation game "was a poor experience", asking "why Capcom ... decided to make Nintendo 64 owners suffer through it unchanged". GameSpot thought that the graphics were outdated and that apart from not having any update from the original game, some music and sound clips were lost during conversion. The PC version received a more negative review; GameSpot gave it a "bad" 3.6 out of 10 stating gamers would find the PlayStation port more worthwhile. Similarly to Famitsu's review of the Nintendo 64 port, GameSpot complained about the lack of additions to the PC port. The PC's conversions of the cutscenes during the game were found to have a mistake which makes a character start a dialogue while another one is still talking.
