Whereas Sonic made me start to love video games it was Mega Man who made me stay.  I don’t know what it was about Mega Man that made me love his games.  It could have been the game play, the challenging levels and boss battles, or the fact that he had a freaking CANNON FOR AN ARM!  Either way Mega Man is a huge part of my video game life, and normally the classic formula of running right in a screen has been perfect for me, until I played a little gem called Mega Man Legends 2.  I played Mega Man Legends first and couldn’t get past the first damn boss for the longest time, granted when I was playing the game I was renting it from Blockbuster at the time.  I rented Legends 2 from blockbuster as well and didn’t get past the first main dungeon boss.  Luckily I found both games on sale, bought them and beat them multiple times.

This review is going to be on Legends 2, why Legends 2 you ask?  Well because the adventure is grander in 2.  You get to go to more islands and explore the world, literally, in 2.  The story is longer and instead of 1 island about to be destroyed, its the whole effing world you have to save.  Also you could actually read what Roll wrote in her diary because reasons.

The Legends series is something that Capcom wanted to try differently with Mega Man.  It was his first time in a fully 3D environment and the developers changed the lore a bit to give the players a brand new story, but the gameplay is where Legends differs from all other Mega Man games at the time.  The game played like an action RPG, enemies can move at you, around, and even end up behind you, you hunted down buried treasure (literally) to earn money and find new items to build and customize weapons and buster parts.  Combat could happen almost anywhere, unless you’re in a town or city, but even while strolling down a meadow a big ass reaver bot (robots you destroy in game) can pop out and shoot at you.  It was a different game with one of my favorite characters and it quickly became one of my favorite games of all time.

The only thing I really remember pissing me off was looking and exploring every, single, freaking, thing to find new items.  I needed to find a gear to have Roll make a drill so I could progress in a dungeon.  I spent hours, literally HOURS, well over a 100 hours, looking for the gear, even saving up to 2 million zenny (in game money) because I thought I needed to buy it, but no, I found it because I finally caved and looked it up online.  It was in a box in the beginning of the game.  I found it, made the drill and continued with the game after spending weeks saving up that stupid 2 million.  That rant aside I loved playing this game and I know I’m going to love playing it again.

So as I am playing Legends 2 the graphics are not that bad.  Granted this is a PS1 game so I know it’s not going to be amazing but they did get the refractors to look like actual crystals than the last game which looked like giant ass diamonds.  I’m also not liking Mega Man’s voice.  I forgot they switched voice actors from Legends to Legends 2 but dear lord, he sounds like a little girl!  The game play however is just like I remember, decent controls, the lock on is more responsive and there’s an alarm feature where I can see if I’m safe from enemy reaver bots or that I’m being targeted.  However one big ass complaint I have is that damn digger test.  I passed it the first time and spent the next hour and a freaking half trying to pass the next level of testing.    The test is you fighting through a small ruin with pre-equipped weapons and you have to destroy every reaverbot within the time limit to pass the test.  The first go around isn’t hard and its quite easy, the second time for the more advanced license is a bitch and half.  Also I can’t go into a new dungeon because I don’t have that certain license.  Another thing that I liked about Legends more than Legends 2 is because even though the ruins in Legends turn out to be just one big ass dungeon, you had fun discovering the different pathways and finding new items and treasure.  In Legends 2, sure you have the main dungeons and ruins that progress the story and you could go back to those ruins with the drill arm to get new items, but usually the drill arm opens up a single room and not a whole new set of rooms.

Items wise there are some special weapons that were brought over from Legends 2 but there are some new ones, like a long range cannon (which is my favorite for early in the game) and a bazooka that has a nice exploding effect that damages other enemies if they are near enough.  However just like Legends if you customize your mega buster just right you could get through the entire game with only using your mega buster.  Makes you wonder why you need special weapons in the first place.  The story still holds up and that ending still makes me want more and even more pissed that Legends 3 was cancelled.

Now the big question is does this game still hold up for me and the answer is, “Fuck yeah it still does!”  I have spent hours and hours playing this game when I was a kid, and even when I was grinding to find that damn gear I was still having fun.  Now that I know where to find the damn thing the only thing I need to do is pass that damn test and explore that one ruin that has eluded me all these years.  Other than that the story is great, there are a few more side quests to do, and even though the dungeons are a bit limited (to me even though there are more of them in this game) they are still fun to explore.  I will always have a soft spot for this game and if someone comes up to me and tells me this game is shit, I just may or may not take a mega buster to their face.