Mega Man Battle Network started out as a horror game

Coming from an Inside-Games interview with scenario writer Masakazu Eguchi and other members of the dev team...

Eguchi: Actually, the team’s first game was a horror game.

IG: Oh? What do you mean?

Eguchi: It started with, “what should we make for the GBA?” It had us making a game that links to your heartbeat with a wearable device. The theme was “having fun while your heart pounds”-horror game.

Matsuda: I went to Expoland’s haunted house for research.

Kaji: You remember it quite well, huh? (laughs)

Eguchi: Thinking that now… how did that become EXE? (laughs) I wonder…?

Kaji: Certainly, the mechanics became quite difficult to handle.

Matsuda: After that, card games gained popularity around that time. We wanted to reap the trend while upholding Capcom’s pride.