Dear Reader:
Capcom almost made a different Mega Man game before they went with Mega Man 11
It certainly took a long time for Mega Man 11 to come out, and many fans are happy to see it release. Oddly enough, there was a slight chance that Mega Man 11 wouldn't have been made due to another project! In an interview with Mega Man 11 producer Kazuhiro Tsuchiya, we learn that another Mega Man project was considered, but the team went on to Mega Man 11.
There’s a lot about the story of us wanting to make a Rockman game, but I might say, it must have been fate. I worked with director Oda on Resident Evil 0 HD before. After development reached its goal, he called me and asked: “What should we do for our next project? I want to make a Rockman game…”. Since I was thinking of what to do for Rockman’s 30 years anniversary at the same time, I answered: “If we make a game, shouldn’t we start right now?”.
It was a coincidence that I was in charge of “Rockman Classic Collection” too, so I thought I must go with the flow and make a game right away. Oda’s word back then, “It’s Capcom’s duty to correspond to fans’ hope”, left a deep impression in my memory. I could feel how serious he was when he said the word “duty”. Since then, we put out so many plans, and a lot of people in the company was cheering for us… Our initial plan wasn’t Rockman 11 actually. But I want this to be released in another form eventually, so details about it will be kept a secret for now. (laughs)
Until I can actually do it, I must keep it a secret! (laughs) Well, as the development for Rockman 11 started, it took quite some time to recruit enough members, so I did some market researches and theoretical analysis on approaches to revive the brand. After incorporating what I wanted to do and going through different simulations, it’s decided that “Rockman must make a triumphant comeback!”. I believed once I did this for the 30 years anniversary, the series could live on for another 10, 20 years.