Mega Man Legends occupies a bit of strange space in the Mega Man series. While beloved by many today, it was considered something of a commercial failure back when it was initially launched — a fact that took its creators, including its producer Keiji Inafune, by surprise.
Despite that, Inafune has previously said, on a couple of occasions, that the title is still one of his favourites in the series, considering it "to be like a clumsy son", according to a Gamespot interview from TGS 2007.
It was in that same interview that he also provided a potential reason for its disappointing commercial performance, stating that it was just far "too early for its days" and that the industry simply wasn't ready for a sandbox-style Mega Man title at the time.
In a newly translated excerpt from Inafune's mostly undocumented 2011 book, What Kind of Decision is That!, it seems he offered another potential cause for the game missing the mark — one that has recently come to light thanks to the folks at Rockman Corner. In this excerpt, Inafune attributes the game's failure to arrogance, and misunderstanding Mega Man's audience, which at the time he states was mostly elementary school children.
He believed it was possible to evolve the series further, and "the kids would still follow", and that "mistake cost them big time":
"At the time, Mega Man was a massive hit with elementary school children. We were confident—too confident—that no matter what we did, they’d support us. So we changed things. We introduced 3D graphics, added RPG mechanics, and tried to bring in a broader audience: older fans, teens, even self-proclaimed "otaku" who had outgrown the series.
We thought we could have it all. Aim high, and the kids would still follow. But they didn’t.
The reviews were positive. The game itself wasn’t the problem. The problem was that we misunderstood our audience.
We assumed we could move on, evolve past them, and they’d just come along for the ride. We underestimated them. We underestimated their loyalty, their intelligence, their expectations.
And that mistake cost us—big time."
According to Inafune, he was called in to meet his boss, after the failure of the project, and was told "You can’t change the past. The only way forward is through the future". This led Inafune to try to win back the player's trust and became the foundation for the successful Mega Man Battle Network series.
As Inafune puts it:
"We went back to our roots. We stopped trying to impress everyone and remembered the joy of making something for someone.
The result? We earned back the love. We earned back the trust. And yes, we earned back the money, too."
You can read the full extract (which is a little bit longer and features more Inafune's words) over at Rockman Corner's Website.