Capcom Knows What Happened Between Classic and X, but Ain’t Telling (Or Did They Already?)
What happened in the time between Mega Man and Mega Man X, and how they connect, has long been a source of mystery, speculation, and fan fiction about Zero murdering everyone. Is it possible any answer exists at all? According to Capcom, it does indeed, but they’re playing their cards close to their vest.
Coming from The Reploid Research Lavatory, which has been translating answers to fan questions from the recently released R20+5: Rockman & Rockman X Official Complete Works:
Q03: Has what happened in the interim between the Rockman series and the Rockman X series been decided? Or is there no canon version of what happened?
CAPCOM: Of course there is such an outline, but don’t expect an official announcement of it. Players have always enjoyed using their imaginations to come up with their own conclusions, and we wouldn’t want to take that away from them…
However, has Capcom really been so quiet on the matter?
While of course nothing has been explained in detail, dots have been connected here and there. In fact, nearly three years ago when Rockman Zero Collection was coming out, Capcom of Japan posted a timeline that seemed to indicate the X series had its origins from the events of Mega Man 10:
At least 200 years ago
The birth of XWhen an incident occurred where an unknown computer virus came from space and causes robots to become violent and riotous, Dr. Light completed the battle robot “X” worrying about the future of Earth. Hypothesizing X could battle robots infected by viruses, he gave X the perfect virus counter-measure. Meanwhile Dr. Light developed a great number of armors, but this presented the possibility of X becoming a threat to mankind. To confirm the safety of X’s cognition program, Dr. Light sealed away X in an analysis capsule.
1XX years ago
The birth of ZeroZero was produced by Dr. Wily, who schemed at taking over the world. But he contained a flaw in his cognitive program that made him violent and unwilling to obey instructions, so Dr. Wily himself sealed Zero in a capsule.
Curiously, though, this timeline has completely disappeared from the Rockman Zero Collection homepage, so far as I can tell. Perhaps a recent retcon? But to what end? Mega Man 10 and the Zero Collection are basically the last new Mega Man games to be released (not counting Xover).
Anyway, though, you should definitely check out all of Kobun #20′s great translations!
News Credit: GoNintendo
Tags: answer, Capcom, connection, Inti Creates, Japan, Mega Man 10, Mega Man Classic, Mega Man X, Mega Man Zero, Mega Man Zero Collection, R20+5, translation
Filed under: Mega Man News
The “The Reploid Research Lavatory”?… As in, a bathroom?..
On a side note, that timeline also confirmed that at least X6 was canon, and it as well as other Inti Creates information actually debunk Zero’s ending.
in Megaman X5 and X6, how does Dr. Light know Zero and that X would later wield Zero’s Z-saber in honor of Zero? How was the Blade armor and The Shadow armor created?
Ref. Mega Man Xtreme 2.
I thought they took the timeline down ages ago, shortly after posting it?
Because Dr. Light is a boy scout. A paranoid boy scout who prepared for everything, INCLUDING, but not limited to: holographs of him to prepare X; armors taking advantage of Zero’s saber… which, at the time of Zero’s creation by Wily wasn’t even thought of yet. So yeah. Dr. Light is the badass boy scout. Paranoid, but badass. XD
I thought there was a computer hidden away always taking in all the data on X over time to make him stronger. but the real question is why did the recording of light turn in to light talking to them? that computer ether stated thinking it was light or light made some time travel hologram communicator and was lazy and made the recording talk.
I’d like to think those holograms are actual A.I.
There’s also the one ending to X5 where (err…spoilers I guess), X ends up a mangled mess, and for some reason, Dr. Light appears in all his hologrammy goodness, outside of a capsule, and repairs him somehow.
What if the technology for the hologram AI (his behavior DOES points to it being an AI) is what leads to the creation of the cyberelves?
I always liked it the way Capcom has had it all this time. The original and X series are very different in terms of mood and setting and I liked that separation (for the most part) between the two. I’m probably in the minority on this though.
At this point what does it matter what bits and pieces are “official”? Megaman X6 was never meant to happen and went beyond the planned storyline, what’s “official” is a distinction a fan should make, do you take in every bit of information put out by Capcom or do you only take it from the key creators in the series? Parts are practically fan fiction… by people who just happen to work there >_<
Even saying this, I'd be happy if a new game came out even if it did contradict parts of the story again, just to have Megaman alive and kicking would be good!
Wouldn’t that explanation for X be more appicable to the story of Megaman 8?
I think it would, which could also easily explain why X’s counter-measures are so perfect simply because it’s originally supposed to counter the “evil energy”. Then, there’s the matter of the Zero/Maverick/Sigma Virus. The Roboenza Virus from MM10 can be seen as a prototype for what was eventually inserted into Zero, or Zero’s capsule.
In other words, Dr. Light is Batman.
“what’s ‘official’ is a distinction a fan should make.”
Uh, no. Just because it wasn’t planned to happen doesn’t mean we shouldn’t discount it unless creatives tell us to. As fans we are not to determine canon. We can make up fanon, but not canon
I agree. It matters EVERY BIT what’s “official”. Just because X6 was never intended to happen doesn’t mean it didn’t. X6 was created, and Inti Creates incorporated it into the story. Just because you think a game is bad doesn’t mean you get to treat it as “nonexistent” out of a bias.
I think you’ve got to look at the actual people involved, not just the company as a whole in these situations. For an extreme example, imagine Capcom’s bought out by another company and they decide to make X9 with little to no research. All’s well and good until Zero starts talking like a woman, then hitting on X! They’ve mistaken him for a female! Would you take it as canon that he suddenly changed gender between X8 and X9 or would you think “these people don’t know what they’re doing with this property”?
Same. I like to think of the classic series as more of those old Saturday morning cartoons that have that 80′s feel of good vs evil and they we got the early 90′s X series action cartoon that usually has little to nothing to do about how each manages to connect to one another a side from the small little tidbits of cameo thrown in or little to no mention of the roots. That’s just how I see it anyways. And why do I use cartoons? Well that’s what feels like when I think of the story.
Canon is literally whatever the creators say is canon.
They may have discrepancies, but that’s always something the company can rectify later. It’s their creative work, and it’s their choice to shape and mold the series, whether we like it or not.
Not to mention if fan’s got to choose what was canon the series would be a mess….. every fan has their own interpretation and own wishes for what the story of Mega Man should be… and some of them are quite terrible.