BombermanBoard

Soniti 254 · #18 Posted: Tue Nov 09, 2010 9:27 pm

Duke Serkol wrote:

Soniti 254 wrote:

All I meant was that, in general, the story in Mega Man is never really the strong focus of the games. The story is really just the excuse that the game exists

Yeah well, that's what I call a troublesome lack of effort on the programmer's part. It's kind of like those people that criticize some movies saying "Oh sure it's great, but if you take away the soundtrack it's not nearly as good." It obviously wouldn't be, because they're taking away part of the experience. Same is for videogames. Just because they can exist without a real plot doesn't mean they should.
The industry isn't doing anyone, not us nor itself, a favor by largely dismissing storylines as an unnecessary aspect of videogames.

If you're talking about video games now, then yeah. But these games were originally made in the 80s-early 90s. Video games, at that point, were pretty exactly as the name implied. Stories didn't become a serious part of a non-RPG related game until the Super NES/Sega Genesis era and even then the story was only there to provide a background for the game.

Mega Man 9 and 10, for all intents and purposes, were homages to the original material in nearly every way. They were made as though they were brand new Nintendo games. The simplistic stories were no exception to this rule.

Duke Derkol wrote:

Soniti 254 wrote:

Didn't mean to put it out like that. What I meant is that, at this point, the Mega Man X story is pretty much beyond help, and any effort they'd make to it just add more questions and problems rather then answers.

Yeah, unlike the classic series (which already had a direction, namely going into the X one) the story of the X series has already outlived its original purpose and intent... so the only way to go would be a completely different direction, forgetting Sigma and all attached plot threads.

No disagreement here. That'd probably the only way to make a new X game without making more plotholes and such.

Duke Serkol wrote:

Soniti 254 wrote:

On their own, ignoring the events that happened beforehand, the stories of each game isn't that bad, but when put together it's a giant mess. The only real way to make the X storyline better is to reboot it, or continue the Maverick Hunter X project and fix any plotholes and such, and that isn't gonna happen.

Things were going rather well up to X5. it's too bad there's no chance they'll remake just the games from X6 onward (nor is there any that they'll get that far remaking the previous five first).

As I said before, considering that the remakes of original Mega Man and X didn't sell as much as Capcom hoped and Inafune out of the picture, I'd be very surprised if they continued the Powered Up or Maverick Hunter X projects at this point.

Duke Serkol wrote:

Soniti 254 wrote:

It doesn't matter if the later chapters are written better then the previous ones, unless the whole book is written better, it's not going to be a very good read.

Yeah, that's why I say the only way is a completely new direction, not to mention that the ties to the Zero series have already been muddled up enough.
I think they may actually have tried to do so with Command Mission, but nothing more came of it.

I can generally agree with this.

Duke Serkol wrote:

Soniti 254 wrote:

So you didn't find it strange that Sigma always has a similar appearance in each game? Somebody or something must keep making a new body for him, cause I really doubt Sigma just happens to have a ton of spare bodies for him to use in his basement somewhere.

Don't think so, uh?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVMctYNyMlw

Even if Sigma didn't have spare bodies like that hidden all over the planet (and really I would if I was him), he's a virus, he can bend the will of other reploids to make him a new body (like he did with Doppler). He can probably even take control of an automated factory and make himself a temporary one if need be.

You bring up some valid points here. To go into something a bit unrelated, to be quite honest, instead of just leaving hidden bodies for myself to take, I'd make most of them go and fight for me. Seriously, if I had a ton of spare bodies to use like Sigma apparently has, I'd make much better use of them and make my own Sigma army, rather then just get killed by pesky Maverick Hunters and go take a new body. I suppose Sigma is simply too obsessed with revenge to actually do this.

Duke Serkol wrote:

Soniti 254 wrote:

Who rebuilt Vile again and why was he rebuilt in first place?

Sigma? Lumine? Vile was a legend among hunters before he became a maverick. That's reason enough to give him another chance to make X and Zero's lifes miserable.

Perhaps, but he still got his ass kicked by X and/or Zero twice before X8. I somehow doubted that three would be a charm in this case, especially when the only real difference is that he had a green color scheme.

Duke Serkol wrote:

Soniti 254 wrote:

Or how does Dr. Light's hologram know of Zero or Ayla or how does he seem to make more suits of armor for X to use, despite being dead for over a hundred years, or how it suddenly developed some kind of personality by X5 (maybe even earlier, I don't remember)? These things never bothered you?

Most people assumed Light has an A.I. replica of himself making these capsules. In Japan he never spoke like a recorded message that was Capcom USA screwing up.
The real reason though it seems was only revealed in the Zero series, more specifically its storyline guides. Now that does piss me off. I shouldn't have to buy books to understand these things.

I haven't read any of the guidebooks, so I can't really comment on it. With the guidebooks though, that's just typical Capcom fixing any plotholes or answering any unanswered questions. They do that with the Resident Evil/Biohazard franchise as well.

Duke Serkol wrote:

Soniti 254 wrote:

They explained the ability to play as certain characters as being clones? That's just so ridiculously cliched and overused. Suppose it's the only one that works without creating more questions, but still...

Yeah, considering there's going to be countless players meeting each other, it was either clones or creating new "classes of characters" that only had a superficial resemblance to the originals yet in the end played pretty much the same... I'm glad they're going with the clones.

Actually, I think it would've been neater to be able to create a character. Maybe have the original characters being NPCs you can invite to your party. I may just be a nut regarding character creation though. Would've made more sense then just flat out using clones, but that's just my opinion.

Duke Serkol wrote:

Soniti 254 wrote:

Again, Dr. Cain wasn't a very important character anyway. I completely forget about his existence when I play the games until I see him. Besides, in the remake, the guy was clearly on life support and on the verge of death. Even if he wasn't killed in the explosion, I doubt he'd be alive by the time X2 takes place.

But what good does it do for the remake to kill him? Does it serve a point? Does it help fix a plothole?
No.

I think that Maverick Hunter X was more of a "reimagining" of the same story, rather then a exact retelling. So certain things can be different. They changed X and Zero's relationship to being best of friends already when it was originally a "subordinate and his/her respected higher-up" kind of thing, for example. Or changing Vile so he wasn't actually working for Sigma and instead is just doing his own thing. Or even how Sigma got the scars on his face. Making Dr. Cain much closer to death certainly isn't that much of a big deal. I'd say that his legacy (not even sure if that's the right word I'm looking for) is much more important then the actual character himself. His appearances in the other games he appeared in could very well be replaced with someone else, that's about how important he was.

Took me so long to write this I got booted. lol