Mega Man: Legends Creator Kickstarts Spiritual Successor

[Dragonzeanse]

Wait...MN9 isn't out for three months right...and the guy's already got another Kickstarter up. Look, I get that people love Megaman, but this seems a bit too early for me, especially considering there's only a month for this one, meaning there's still like two months before the FIRST game releases by the time this money's pocketed.

Just stinks to me is all.

inXile, developers of Wasteland 2 and the upcoming Torment: Tides of Numenera, have done this as well, though they had Wasteland 2 to show for it (81 on Metacritic, with free content coming to current owners) before they decided to open a Kickstarter for The Bard's Tale IV while Tides of Numenera is still in development. Crowdfunding is becoming a platform for investment, as an alternative to traditional publishers, which I think is fine. But since Mighty No. 9 isn't out yet, I would have been more comfortable to see the end result. This is too soon.

Besides, it's not the most offensive Kickstarter to me. I've seen far worse, like Shenmue 3. I find that one far more gross, or at least I did when they didn't even have a budget breakdown at the beginning. It appears to have the necessary transparency for me to trust it. I don't think it "stinks." I think it's overly eager, but if I had to describe the aroma, it's more like a nutty flavor rather than a rotting corpse like ones [http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-12-20-black-isle-returns-with-odd-crowdfunding-pitch-for-post-apocalyptic-strategy-rpg].

 

[Darmani]

And at this point, I'm concerned about fans who are ok with this type of behavior, and give these greedy fools a pass. I bet you're ok with Sony launching their own Crowdfunding site huh?

One thing is not the other, and you're going to have to provide me with proof that Inafune's new project is being pursued in bad faith before I give this sort of negativity any credence.

Well gee why does he need a KS for an anime series to make a new IP? When he pulled a similar stunt with MN9? And asking for more funds to make DLC, I don't give a damn if you give don't give it credence. The fact he didn't wait till MN9 was released to ask for more money for two projects is ludicrous.

If this was just about the game, it wouldn't be too bad, but he's pushing it by asking us to chip in for an anime series. If that's not greed I don't know what it is.

Its not *greed* persay but it IS ambitious and confident and a little inconsiderate on the side of his crowdfunding backers.

TBF normally, at this time, thanks to tons of on floor good word we'd be hyped but, currently, there are... issues with the gaming online community and the press that reports. Also with KS as a whole and "reboots" too.

It is perfectly sane and reasonable for potential backers to hold their money after donation fatigue/drives regarding Shenmue 3, Bloodstained, and Broken Age 2's disappointment.
Yeah Inafune has NOTHING To do with Broken Age or likely even Doublefine, but that doesn't underestimate that we've seen projects, high profile ones from so on go weird. And Mighty No. 9 has gone in ways I'm not...intrigued by that at the least have put me from
"I can trust this guy, no matter what, and he'll deliver to"
"Let's taste the pudding before ordering it, shall we?"

I don't like his going after a possibly even greater commitment to an animated project. The alpha play released makes me skeptical, Dina has left a bad impression, and on and on. None of this will make M#9 a bad game. I, in fact, hope it can still be a good one. But that just means I need a product I can access and use before I decide to further invest in further projects.

Now a good thing is that he's separating the projects this time. No taking the money and splitting it and thus risking loss on premium of a product. But that's got its own drawbacks, focus on the anime or the game. And given his aims so far.. .do I want to support either before I can see what and how he delivers?

This is donation, being skeptical is perfectly natural, just like him making decisions is, but at this point I'd suspect he'd get his own investors, and at least time this in such a way that the original M#9 backers would be positioned to testify and encourage and share how great his company is with meeting each mark, deadlines, and the product is glorious too.

That's not happened as of yet so skepticism from the greater public ESPECIALLY post e3 and a number of burnouts and issues with crowdfunding as general revenue and means, are coming up.

 

[Fox12]

I was scared.

Now I'm terrified.

Mighty No. 9 could have been an innocent little spinnoff, but now he's aiming to create a franchise. I'm curious to see how Capcom responds... especially since they may have a case, if they chose to pursue this.

What case could Capcom possibly have? They didn't want to make his games, so now he's split-off to his own development studio to create them. That'd be like if Domino's stopped giving me hours, and then tried and sue me when I quit to open my own pizza place. Unless I'm using one of their trademarks, they can't touch me.

Yes, but you're using something called common sense, which the copyright departments of most countries don't have. Capcom has the money and power to crush comcept if they really wanted to, even if they "lost" the case. There are enough obvious similarities for them to possibly win, though, in a court of law. It doesn't matter if they don't utilize the IP, they still own it. Heck, there are entire copyright troll groups that organize themselves around that concept.

 

[major_chaos]

Welp then you're apart of the problem.

You wound me sir, I'm bleeding from my wound... wait nmv that's just pizza sauce, clumsy me.
See the big issue with your little barb there is that there is no problem here. The "problem" is me liking things you don't like.

Tell you what, you keep hating things and assuming the absolute worst at all times, and being annoyed about a random stranger on the internet, and I'll be over here liking things and playing what I want and supporting who I want, my enjoyment ever so slightly increased by the knowledge that doing what I love is somehow passively annoying random strangers on the internet. Deal?

 

[Cyneric]

Wait...MN9 isn't out for three months right...and the guy's already got another Kickstarter up. Look, I get that people love Megaman, but this seems a bit too early for me, especially considering there's only a month for this one, meaning there's still like two months before the FIRST game releases by the time this money's pocketed.

Just stinks to me is all.

inXile, developers of Wasteland 2 and the upcoming Torment: Tides of Numenera, have done this as well, though they had Wasteland 2 to show for it (81 on Metacritic, with free content coming to current owners) before they decided to open a Kickstarter for The Bard's Tale IV while Tides of Numenera is still in development. Crowdfunding is becoming a platform for investment, as an alternative to traditional publishers, which I think is fine. But since Mighty No. 9 isn't out yet, I would have been more comfortable to see the end result. This is too soon.

Besides, it's not the most offensive Kickstarter to me. I've seen far worse, like Shenmue 3. I find that one far more gross, or at least I did when they didn't even have a budget breakdown at the beginning. It appears to have the necessary transparency for me to trust it. I don't think it "stinks." I think it's overly eager, but if I had to describe the aroma, it's more like a nutty flavor rather than a rotting corpse like ones [http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-12-20-black-isle-returns-with-odd-crowdfunding-pitch-for-post-apocalyptic-strategy-rpg].

I actually explained how this argument is wrong, like ten or so posts up, and people are still using this as an example? HOW!?

I'll just copy and paste it here then, because using Brian Fargo to assert your claim that this sort of stuff is over eager or too soon, is basically the worst argument you can make.

Brian Fargo didn't wait and you have your games mixed up. Wasteland 2 kickstarter happened, then Torment Tides of Numenera happened WHILE Wasteland 2 was still in development. If you're going to use a developer to support your claims of greed, Brian Fargo is not the developer that you want to use to make a coherent argument. I'm not saying Fargo is greedy, it's a smart business move to keep your art/concept people constantly working, and it makes good business sense to do so.

Lets go further, and ante up that he also didn't wait on the Bards Tale for Numenera to be released either.

Source: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/inxile/wasteland-2 Started March 13th 2012
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/inxile/torment-tides-of-numenera Started March 6 2013
http://store.steampowered.com/app/240760/ Wasteland 2 Released September 18 2014
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/inxile/the-bards-tale-iv Bards Tale still on Kickstarter for funding

Torment Tides of Numenera is still not released yet by the way

 

[crimson5pheonix]

Some negative nancies in this thread. I would sacrifice a goat if I thought it would get more MML. Well if Capcom comes in here, they'll think they were right for cancelling MML3 >.>

 

[Secondhand Revenant]

Some negative nancies in this thread. I would sacrifice a goat if I thought it would get more MML. Well if Capcom comes in here, they'll think they were right for cancelling MML3 >.>

Sacrificing a goat could get you dinner at least.

I'm tentatively looking forward to this. I like MML, that I even remember it enough to have fond memories of it despite not paying attention to Mega Man games says something for how much I had liked it. But I'm just wary...

 

[ShakerSilver]

People need to take note there is absolutely no guarantee this game will be good at all. Mighty No. 9 was co-developed by Inti Creates - the team that worked on the Mega Man Zero games as well as Mega Man 9 & 10 - so it's not unreasonable to say that Mighty No. 9 may be decent. However, the team that worked on Megaman Legends is still at Capcom and the developer that Comcept is working with for ReDASH is some mobile/browser game developer. Keiji Inafune, while being the producer for the Legends games, was still only tangentially related to their development.

A healthy dose of skepticism would do well when looking at Kickstarter projects, and when Keiji Inafune involved, the dosage won't be covered by just a mere spoonful.

 

[Dragonzeanse]

Wait...MN9 isn't out for three months right...and the guy's already got another Kickstarter up. Look, I get that people love Megaman, but this seems a bit too early for me, especially considering there's only a month for this one, meaning there's still like two months before the FIRST game releases by the time this money's pocketed.

Just stinks to me is all.

inXile, developers of Wasteland 2 and the upcoming Torment: Tides of Numenera, have done this as well, though they had Wasteland 2 to show for it (81 on Metacritic, with free content coming to current owners) before they decided to open a Kickstarter for The Bard's Tale IV while Tides of Numenera is still in development. Crowdfunding is becoming a platform for investment, as an alternative to traditional publishers, which I think is fine. But since Mighty No. 9 isn't out yet, I would have been more comfortable to see the end result. This is too soon.

Besides, it's not the most offensive Kickstarter to me. I've seen far worse, like Shenmue 3. I find that one far more gross, or at least I did when they didn't even have a budget breakdown at the beginning. It appears to have the necessary transparency for me to trust it. I don't think it "stinks." I think it's overly eager, but if I had to describe the aroma, it's more like a nutty flavor rather than a rotting corpse like ones [http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-12-20-black-isle-returns-with-odd-crowdfunding-pitch-for-post-apocalyptic-strategy-rpg].

I actually explained how this argument is wrong, like ten or so posts up, and people are still using this as an example? HOW!?

I'll just copy and paste it here then, because using Brian Fargo to assert your claim that this sort of stuff is over eager or too soon, is basically the worst argument you can make.

Brian Fargo didn't wait and you have your games mixed up. Wasteland 2 kickstarter happened, then Torment Tides of Numenera happened WHILE Wasteland 2 was still in development. If you're going to use a developer to support your claims of greed, Brian Fargo is not the developer that you want to use to make a coherent argument. I'm not saying Fargo is greedy, it's a smart business move to keep your art/concept people constantly working, and it makes good business sense to do so.

Lets go further, and ante up that he also didn't wait on the Bards Tale for Numenera to be released either.

Source: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/inxile/wasteland-2 Started March 13th 2012
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/inxile/torment-tides-of-numenera Started March 6 2013
http://store.steampowered.com/app/240760/ Wasteland 2 Released September 18 2014
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/inxile/the-bards-tale-iv Bards Tale still on Kickstarter for funding

Torment Tides of Numenera is still not released yet by the way

... And?

You spent this post saying my argument is wrong, yet didn't refute it. You simply said "They can't do it because they already have a game in development!" First of all, you failed to consider pre-production as a factor in games development, something the art team that you mentioned is working on for The Bard's Tale IV. This is frequently done before the game truly enters development crunch periods. Regardless of whether or not they started their Tides of Numenera campaign before Wasteland 2's release is moot. The game is out and it's critically acclaimed, and I myself have quite enjoyed what I've played so far.

You're enacting a fallacy by using a past example that has become dated. inXile has a product that they crowdfunded to show their previous work, which should be enough to inspire confidence in their products. If they have a bomb because they're taking too many projects at once, tough luck. Kickstarter is, by its very nature, a risky venture. You're not opposing Kickstarter, near as I can tell, but you're opposing the idea of doing a Kickstarter before a previously crowdfunded game is already out. That may have mattered with Torment: Tides of Numenera, but it doesn't now.

Your argument is the only one that is wrong here. You're using dated information as evidence to your point, and frankly, I don't see why you would even have to refute what I'm saying. Your information, even if it were still accurate, doesn't contradict me, since my point wasn't "inXile shouldn't have done Tides of Numenera before Wasteland 2 was out." That's not what I was saying.

In fact, I'm fine with Red Ash's Kickstarter before Mighty No. 9's release. Production still needs to be done for Red Ash, and it hasn't even been funded yet, so the likelihood that it won't happen is very possible. Considering that it has only raised just over 1/4 of its goal so far demonstrates that a lot of people, despite Mega Man Legends 3's cancellation disappointing many fans, shows that they either don't know about the campaign, or aren't comfortable pledging yet. I'm inclined to say the latter plays a role in this, since we're on this forum discussing it.

Should inXile have waited to start a campaign for The Bard's Tale IV until after Tides of Numenera was out? There's not enough information for me to comfortably render a verdict, but as it stands, I don't mind since inXile's only example thus-far has been released to critical and commercial success. People got what they paid for. Why shouldn't that be an example of their commitment?

Had your information still reflected the present, I would have considered it, but it's not. It seems to me that you just want to argue for the sake of arguing. Typical internet discussion.

People need to take note there is absolutely no guarantee this game will be good at all. Mighty No. 9 was co-developed by Inti Creates - the team that worked on the Mega Man Zero games as well as Mega Man 9 & 10 - so it's not unreasonable to say that Mighty No. 9 may be decent. However, the team that worked on Megaman Legends is still at Capcom and the developer that Comcept is working with for ReDASH is some mobile/browser game developer. Keiji Inafune, while being the producer for the Legends games, was still only tangentially related to their development.

A healthy dose of skepticism would do well when looking at Kickstarter projects, and when Keiji Inafune involved, the dosage won't be covered by just a mere spoonful.

As nuanced as this post is, I don't think anyone who doesn't recognize the risks of crowdfunding should be making pledges to begin with. Everyone should be skeptical. Campaign pages should exist to tame the skepticism of its investors. Red Ash has a budget breakdown, a video pitch, the rationale for using Kickstarter, and even addresses concerns about Mighty No. 9's development (a different team will be developing Red Ash, but under Keiji Inafune's direction). It hits all the right notes for me; the ethical question of asking for money before your previous crowdfunded project has been released is something a lot of people are going to have to decide for themselves, however.

 

[william1657]

Meh.

I liked the Legends series for its characters, story, and setting, and making this a direct sequel seems like it might limit these characteristics.

Still, I am interested to see a basic plot summary or a trailer for it.

 

[Nailzzz]

I've been a huge Mega Man fan since the early NES releases. Sadly, after how ill treated so many of the KS backers were treated by Dina during MN9, I will not be handing any money over to any company that treats its customers like that. It was totally unacceptable and I cannot support this as a result.

 

[DrOswald]

I really don't get all the hate. The timing of the kickstarter doesn't seem suspicious, shady or greedy in the least to me. It looks like they have finished their game and are looking to make a new one. But they have to pay their staff so they got to know if they can make a new one now. I think you have to be specifically looking for greed to see it there. As it is, it just seems to me that the complaint is "that game creator wants to keep making games! What a greedy bastard!"

As for the actual game, the art looks great, and as much as I love Mega Man Legends, that game has not aged well in terms of gameplay. It was basically trying to invent the third person shooter genre. I can't imagine that this will have worse gameplay than Legends. So great art + an almost certain improvement in gameplay. Looking forward to it. I might even back it, and I did not back Mighty No. 9. This game looks a lot more interesting.

Also, the design of Call is fantastic.

As a final note, about people calling out the fact that Keiji Inafune is an artist and producer and not a designer, I am not sure that is a bad thing. I think it might actually be a good thing. The value of the role of the producer is in general greatly under appreciated in game creation.