Meet the only journalist to play Mega Man Legends 3

It’s been about two months since Capcom announced the cancellation of Mega Man Legends 3. Hopefully, you’ve been able to get over all the sour feelings, because if you haven’t, the following is reeeeeally gonna break your heart.

You may remember about the Mega Man Legends 3: Prototype Version, a demo / prologue of sorts that was planned for the launch of the 3DS eShop. Obviously, the game was delayed at the last second and later shelved along with the main project. This has led to speculation that the digital title was of extremely low quality and reflective of the the development as a whole, thus partly to blame for the project’s demise. Stranger is the knowledge that (as far as anyone can tell) only a single journalist was able to take the Prototype Version for a test drive.

That man was Chris Hoffman of Nintendo Power, and he took a moment to answer some questions about his experiences. His responses reveal that not only was the Prototype Version pretty much in a complete state, it was also very polished and chock-full of content. The takeaway from the interview is that, despite gamers’ fears that Capcom was charging two dollars for a glorified demo, the actual product contained hours of gameplay as one would expect from a much pricier, complete digital release. The Legends team was really giving it their all!

Hit the jump for some quick bites from the interview and a link to the full article on GamesRadar.

As had been mentioned in the past, the only playable character in the Prototype Version was newcomer Barrett, though Chris hints that it might have been possible to play as Mega Man in the included debug room had he spent more time with that portion of the game. Regardless, gameplay remained faithful to previous Legends outings, with various control schemes suited to more modern style or to series purists.

It appeared that none of the old voice actors were brought back on board for the sequel, but at least Teisel’s new VA was given a big thumbs up. The bulk of the acting was performed by new characters, but while Chris didn’t explicitly state that the acting was super fantastic, he did comment that it was “infinitely better than the narrator from Mega Man Legends 1!”

There were at least 10 missions in the Prototype Version, from Reaverbot battles and ruins exploration to racing and chauffeuring. Most impressive were the boss battles, including a fight against the winning Bonne mecha fan design, the Donner Wels. Even with this breadth of content, there were still parts of the game that remained unfinished. However, the designers cleverly hid these elements in plain sight. For example, portions of the town still under construction were literally 2D movie backdrops, an indication that they would be complete in time for the full game.

It seemed like Mega Man Legends 3 — at least the Prototype Version — was gearing up to be something amazing indeed, erasing any doubt that it was poor quality that brought the project to a halt. In fact, had everything in the Prototype Version been indicative of the final game, Chris believes that Legends 3 could have easily scored in the 7 to 8 range. That, of course, doesn’t factor improvements and tweaks that likely would have been made as development continued.

I suggest going on over to GamesRadar and reading the full transcript, if nothing else, just to give this chapter in Capcom history a little closure.

Exclusive Q&A with the only journalist to ever play Mega Man Legends 3 [GamesRadar]