The long and winding road that Mega Man fans have traveled over the past couple of years is something everyone should at least be partly familiar with by now.
It's about a boy in blue who basically put Capcom on the map, well before Ryu, Chris Redfield, Dante, and all the rest were even born. And how his legacy and contributions were completely disregarded and ignored, to the point that the publisher appeared to exhibit honest to goodness contempt for his mostly loyal of fans.
From finally green-lighting the one game that everyone wanted so badly, and making working conditions so intolerable that the character's creator had no choice to leave the company, and which more or less sealed the fate of the franchise, to creating a free to play iOS game that was offensive on every conceivable level.
But in recent times, Capcom seems eager to make amends and give Mega Man the recognition he so richly deserves. The recently sanction Street Fighter X Mega Man fan game was a step in the right direction.
Though according to Destructoid, they might have just taken the boldest step forward, something that diehard Mega Man fans have been dying to hear for many years now. And that's the admission that the original Mega Man series and its successor, the Mega Man X franchise, exist on the same timeline.
In the recently released Mega Man R20+5 resource guide, an encyclopedic collection of everything relating to Mega Man, a Capcom representative was asked if there exists a timeline that links both series. And the answer:
"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…"
In various games, namely Mega Man: The Power Fighters and Mega Man X4, there have been illusions that both series were connected, but there's never been anything official said about the matter.
And while the above sentiment hardly counts, it does stand for something. That Capcom is willing to go on the record, on a couple of franchises that, up until recently, they had clearly not cared the least bit about.
Hopefully Capcom will take note of the success of Zelda: Hyrule Historia, and capitalize on the fact that gamers love mythos. And better yet, games that take advantage of mythos.
