With Mega Man Battle Network Legacy Collection on the horizon, we’re going to dive back into the archives for another developer interview, from around the time the games were originally published.
Today’s interview comes from Rockman EXE5 Ultimate Navigation CHAOS. This Japanese strategy guide for MMBN5 was published by Shogakukan on July 20th, 2005–7 months after the release of EXE5 Team of Blues, 5 months after the release of EXE5 Team of Colonel, and just one day before the release of EXE5DS Twin Leaders.
Translated by Midori, edited by Prof. 9. This English translation uses official English localized Mega Man Battle Network terminology where possible. This interview was originally printed in black, red and white; some images have been replaced by higher quality sources.
Mega Man Battle Network 5 Development Staff Interview
The “Mega Man Battle Network” series takes massive leaps in evolution with every new title. But what kind of ideas brought about this evolution, and what hardships were undergone to achieve it? We asked the three main staff members who’ve been attached to the series’s development from the very beginning.
Capcom Development Team #2 Planner
Mr. Masahiro Yasuma
Since the first MMBN, he’s been deeply involved in planning not only the game systems, but also the things like BattleChips and details of hidden parameters. Seeing the film last spring, he says “I was reaffirmed just how cool the MMBN characters are.”
Capcom Development Team #2 Designer
Mr. Yuji Ishihara
He is mainly in charge of designing the Cyberworld characters like Navis and Souls. In addition, he coordinates the graphics team. “Unlike the previous final bosses, I designed Nebula Gray with hair like a wood carving.”
Capcom Development Team #2 Planner
Mr. Masakazu Eguchi
He is primarily involved in the game’s story. Up to “4,” he has appeared publicly in tournaments and other events as the character Mr. Famous. He likes to joke around, but he also has a passionate side, stating “MMBN is basically a coming-of-age story for Lan”.
Drawing out even more of the fun of MMBN
— The “MMBN series” has undergone various updates to its systems with each installment. One of the new features of this title is the ChaosUnison system. Where did that idea come from?
Yasuma: Originally, I was thinking about how we could power up the DoubleSoul system introduced in the previous game. In thinking of how to change it, I wondered… is there a different direction we could go to give the play style a new flavor, rather than simply strengthening it? In “4,” the good and evil play styles were completely separate from one another; if you were “good,” you couldn’t use DarkChips. I thought, wouldn’t it be cool to use DarkChips in battle even if you are good? And began from there. A new play style where, even if you’re good, you can control the power of darkness within your heart and make it a strength; something neither good nor evil. So I wanted to create this “chaos hero” aspect.
— Another new feature are the Liberation Missions. How did you go about coming up with those? They’re a pretty big change.
Yasuma: It started with thinking about how to draw out even more of the fun of MMBN, and I thought it’d be neat to have a deeper connection between the conditions before entering battle and the conditions during battle. While journeying on the Net, the terrain where MegaMan is standing could also affect the field of a battle occurring there. For example, if there is lava on the map, when starting a battle, there would also be lava panels. With this in mind, we looked towards board game and simulation game style elements in thinking of rules that would influence the advantages and disadvantages on the field in battle. However, focusing too much on simulation elements would introduce complexity that would raise the skill floor of the game too much. So we opted for a more board game-ish approach, where you flip over DarkPanels like you’re flipping over cards.
— Was wanting to make other Navis into playable characters also a part of it?
Yasuma: There was that. In the previous title, “4,” there was a system where you could use every Navi in Operation Battle mode. We thought of trying to let you use multiple Navis in regular gameplay.
Eguchi: After all, getting to use a variety of Navis is fun.
Yasuma: However, if you can just use different Navis all the time, it would dilute the theme of the game. It’d be a problem if players were uncertain whether they should level up MegaMan or ProtoMan. Because of that, by framing the ability to use different Navis as missions, we limited it to scenes where you cooperate as a team.
— It sounds like there were a lot of changes to rules and such throughout the process. How did you feel about Liberation Missions once you’d finished them?
Yasuma: Ultimately we ran out of time. There are things I wonder about doing differently… But, I’m pretty proud we could bring out the characteristics of each Navi through the Liberation Missions. Being able to divide up the roles like, I’ll investigate with this guy, and I’ll attack with this guy; it worked out pretty well, I think.
Choosing characters to fit predetermined Navi roles!!
— As the 5th game in the series, there are many returning Navis. What criteria did you use to choose them?
Eguchi: This time, we started by selecting Navis based on what roles we determined they would serve, rather than the story or designs.
Yasuma: As the planner, I first started with assigning the DoubleSoul groups to each team. I allotted six Navis each to typings like Sword and Fire, and sought to first balance the strengths of each team. After that, I made sure each team would have iconic characters.
Eguchi: On the one hand, ProtoMan was a no-brainer. But even though ProtoMan is popular, he is already a firmly established character. So we made his counterpart a newly appearing Navi. From there, we’d let players choose whether they wanted to go with the familiar ProtoMan, or the new, unknown character.
Yasuma: At the time, I worried there wasn’t another character with the same presence as ProtoMan. Ultimately, I went with Colonel from “Mega Man X4” to bring in someone with a cool presence.
— Colonel’s attire has a number of changes from his appearance in “Mega Man X4.”
Ishihara: The original Colonel looks too militaristic, so I downplayed that while still making him as cool as possible. A major point is his mantle. He is the first character in the MMBN series to have a mantle as a design element. Though you could call it a mantle, Bass’s tattered cloak has an entirely different feel. I wanted to create a sense that he’s an outlier.
— Was it difficult to give personality to a character you selected from another series?
Eguchi: Not that much. I wrote him as the soldier I saw him as, so coming up with his lines was surprisingly easy.
— Speaking of characters from other Mega Man series, TomahawkMan is one of them, too.
Ishihara: Right, the original one appeared in “Mega Man 6.”
— What criteria did you use to pick returning characters from the MMBN series?
Yasuma: Since the Navi concepts like the scout role and attacker role were set from the start, we chose Navis who fit the appropriate image. A speedy-looking guy would be good for reconnaissance, and a rowdy-looking guy would be good for assault. But even though I wanted to have a good balance across the series, we ended up bringing back a lot of Navis from “2” (laughs).
Eguchi: A lot of ex-Gospel members (laughs).
The hardest one to design was Colonel, naturally
— What things did you keep in mind while designing the new characters?
Ishihara: Since the team members were initially chosen by priority of role, their visual appearance was not a big consideration. Because of that, we ended up with a bunch of intimidating-looking characters. Therefore, we adjusted the appearances and colors of the new Navis, so they wouldn’t all be so scary-looking.
— What characters would you say came out well?
Ishihara: Personally I like GyroMan, but I didn’t hear very many compliments on the design (laughs).
Eguchi: Hey now, he got a lot of screen time in the anime (laughs).
Yasuma: Though, he may not have been big with kids. I think only older people understand this guy’s charm (laughs).
Ishihara: Honestly, above all else, I wanted to make him transform. It’s something that actual toys can do… That’s what I had in mind with this design, and I even included a pixel concept. (Editor’s note: The following segments are a bit more interesting to read if you reference the illustration gallery on pages 83~85.)[1] Anyway, unfortunately, he never got a toy (laughs).
— Isn’t Meddy the first girl Navi besides Roll?
Ishihara: Outside of the numbered games, there was Battle Chip Challenge, which had one named Ring. But for the mainline series, Meddy is the first.
— How come you chose a girl Navi?
Yasuma: Because at just a glance, the team’s Navis looked too gruff (laughs). We had to add a girl Navi, or it’d have been too dull.
Ishihara: Actually, Meddy was originally a character named DrugMan who comes to help out. Partway into the design process, I also did a design of an herb-themed character.[2] Although I was really into it, the people around me rejected the design (laughs).
— How about Baryl? He’s got a bit of a unique flair among all the other operators in the series so far.
Ishihara: He’s a silent, stoic man, so he’s hard to characterize. He doesn’t have any parts on him, and his stubble is also hard to draw… I was fine-tuning little details on his face until the end.
— Who gave you the most difficulty?
Ishihara: Colonel, naturally. I didn’t have a lot of time, so I thought maybe I’d just do a few small changes from his “Mega Man X4” design. Then at one point, I thought he’d look pretty cool without his military cap, and from there I just kept going and going… He’s maybe the top one or two characters I’ve had to draw the most.
— How many times do you normally draw a character?
Ishihara: If I’m quick, I can nail down a character in 5 to 10 drawings.
— Incidentally, who did you design the quickest?
Ishihara: NumberMan was pretty quick (laughs).
— Over to Mr. Eguchi, what character did you have the most difficulty planning?
Eguchi: It wasn’t really any particular version or character I had difficulty with. More than that, what caused difficulty was a character’s personality would shift as they were being created. For example, initially I was moving forward with Charlie as this ‘flirty bad boy’ type, like Sleggar from “Gundam”. But then all of a sudden he ended up like “Lupin III” (laughs). On the opposite end of the spectrum, Dusk was also tough. He’s supposed to be a man of few words, but he appears about as often as Charlie does in the ProtoMan version. As the story moves along, there are some scenes Dusk has to lead… While writing dialogue I’d chastise myself like, “Wait, Dusk is leading the scene!?” (laughs).
The collaboration with “Boktai 2”
— If it’s alright, I’d like to talk a little about the collaboration with Konami’s GBA game “Boktai 2: Solar Boy Django”. Appearing in both “4” and “5”, this time Django also gets his own chip. There are some who’ve protested ‘Isn’t this favoritism for Django!?’…
Eguchi: Maybe he is a bit too strong (laughs). The Django chip uses moves that aren’t even in Boktai 2, for starters…”
Yasuma: But if more players can easily complete the story with that chip, I think it’s fine.
— Why did you make Django a NaviChip in “5”?
Yasuma: In the previous game, Django appeared on the field screen, but he never appeared in battle. So if we made him a chip this time, we could have him appear in battle. Simply put, we thought that’d be more fun.
— What about ShadeMan? Even though he was a villain, he returns from the last game.
Yasuma: For starters, since “4” and “5” can be considered the Nebula arc story-wise, I thought it’d be fine to bring him back. And now, even though he originated from the MMBN series, he feels right at home as an enemy boss in “Boktai 2” (laughs).
The allure of playing evil
— I’d like to return to the topic of battles. When you were talking about deciding on the team Navis, you mentioned having to balance the strengths between the versions…
Yasuma: We tried to keep them the same in overall balance, but content-wise, I think the Colonel version has a bit more destructive power. For instance, KnightSoul and ToadSoul have the ability to charge chips by holding the A Button, which doubles their attack power. On the other hand, the ProtoMan version is geared more towards battles that take some careful setup. For instance, powering up NapalmSoul by spreading grass, or powering up GyroSoul by spinning the propeller. Doing that takes some prep, so there’s less room for error. The Colonel version may have firepower, but it has its own quirks. The balance should be overall the same, but the content differs a little. So it’s like, ‘I like this one. Which do you like?’ Even in terms of characters, the ProtoMan version feels like a squad of soldiers, but the Colonel version is more like a ragtag crew of mercenaries. There are many peculiar characters.
Eguchi: I feel like NumberMan is reining in the deviation of the team overall (laughs).
— Between good and evil, ultimately, which side was intended to be stronger?
Yasuma: Hmmm, I think they’re fundamentally similar. However, we did try to make sure that playing good would be more consistent. People who go for ultimate moves right away, or people who like to risk all or nothing will lean more towards evil. And as a developer, I see both sides winning and losing and ultimately reaching a balance.
— But putting the developer’s role aside, on a personal level, do you prefer good or evil?
Yasuma: I’m a bit uncertain, but in the end, good, I think.
— By uncertain, you mean you also like evil?
Yasuma: There is an allure to evil (laughs). Despite all else, evil play has explosive force. Evil can upset good’s carefully prepared strategy in one blow with a powerful chip. That catharsis is the appeal of evil. But I think evil has to rely on placing wagers more than coming up with a strategy. For that reason, perhaps, the more you play the game, the stronger good becomes in the end. That kind of good play style, where you polish your strategies and keep evil suppressed, is pretty cool to see.
MMBN, where the unexpected always happens
— There’s been some discussion of ABD (Auto Battle Data) tactics (see page 51)[4] in battle tournaments at events. Did you already envision how ABD could be cultivated during the game’s development?
Yasuma: Honestly, I had no intention of being able to cultivate ABD whatsoever. I envisioned it as a sort of ‘battle history’ that would manifest naturally through completing the story. When you see your Dark DoubleSoul unleash its evil power, you realize this is how you have played. It was as simple as that. I never had the intention of deliberately cultivating your ABD a certain way.
— Incidentally, my ABD uses Invisible repeatedly (laughs).
Yasuma: That’s all you (laughs).
— There were also overpowered ABDs at tournaments that used DarkThunder over and over.[5]
Yasuma: Completely unintended. In modern terms, it’s ‘unintentional emergent gameplay’.
Eguchi: When you go to so many events, you truly find the unexpected, including those sorts of plays. And what’s more, it seems the techniques players use are evolving year after year.
— I suppose it’s a sign of how much everyone is getting into MMBN.
Yasuma: In that sense, I hope we can make more games that everyone can dig into and find unexpected strategies.
— Thank you for taking the time out of your busy day. We look forward to what you have coming next. Good luck!
What’s going to happen next?
At the end of the interview, I was able to ask just a little about what kind of contents to expect in the next installment of the EXE series. With the Nebula arc from “4” and “5” concluded, it seems like the theme will be entirely new.
“We plan to show more of the magic of MMBN in a different form from the Nebula arc.” — Yasuma
“We will definitely release a Mega Man even more incredible than what’s been done so far, with more of the same cool designs so far.” — Ishihara
“We plan to have things around Lan changing a little bit. I promise there will be some surprising new developments, so please look forward to it.” — Eguchi
Stay tuned for more!!
Translation notes
[1] Pages 83~85 of the book feature an art gallery containing some of the Navis and DoubleSouls in the game. The GyroMan pixel art which Ishihara is referring to can be seen below. It can also be found on page 139 of Mega Man Battle Network Official Complete Works.
[2] The art gallery in the book also shows some concept art for Meddy. Specifically, an early character design is shown, named “Medicine,” as well as a sidekick character “Herb-chan.” Medicine is also found in Mega Man Battle Network Official Complete Works on page 140, but this specific coloration is not in the OCW.
[3] A colored version of this image can be found on page 115 of Mega Man Battle Network Official Complete Works. There are some minor differences between this sketch version and the colored version.
[4] Page 51 of the book explains the mechanics behind Auto Battle Data (ABD). This is a strategy where, while playing through the story, you intentionally only use certain chips or Program Advances. If done correctly, your Dark DoubleSoul will only use those chips and PAs in battle.
[5] Notoriously, Auto Battle Data could be trained with powerful chips like DarkThunder to stunlock your opponent. This led Capcom to implement restrictions for Dark DoubleSoul in official tournaments. Additionally, in Double Team DS, Dark DoubleSoul was adjusted to not spam the same chips as frequently.
