Mega Man: Dual Override Devs Talk Proto Man, Share New Details

Famitsu and 4Gamer had the chance to sit down and chat all things Dual Override with producer Hiroyuki Minamitani, director Shinya Ikuta, and art directors Yuji Ishihara and Shinsuke Komaki. Chief among the topics discussed was Proto Man, whose gameplay demo, while not available to the public, was shown privately to the press. 

Between the two interviews, a handful of new and interesting details came to light, which I've summarized below!

• You cannot switch between Mega Man and Proto Man during a playthrough. You choose to play as Mega Man or Proto Man at the start of the game.

• Stage design between Mega Man and Proto Man is mostly the same, but enemy placement changes between the two campaigns. The team wants players to encounter surprises on a second playthrough rather than already knowing exactly which enemy is coming next.

• The team wanted to include Proto Man as a playable character from the start of development, in part due to fan requests. The name Dual Override came later.

• Dual Override's two art directors are Yuji Ishihara and Shinsuke Komaki. For the game's main visual, Ishihara produced the rough composition and Komaki finished it. Ishihara handled Mega Man while Komaki handled Proto Man.

• In past games, character designs have generally balanced "cool" and "cute." With Dual Override, Ishihara and Komaki pushed things further toward cool, partly to appeal to a broader audience.

• While the basic storyline between Mega Man and Proto Man will be the same, the team says Proto Man will have more characterization than usual. Ikuta points out that Proto Man traditionally hasn't spoken very much, but because he is now a lead protagonist, there will be more opportunities for his personality to shine.

• While designing Proto Man, Komaki remembered that he has a faulty power core and began thinking about how to incorporate that into his design. Komaki sketched Proto Man overheating and venting heat, then pitched the idea internally. From there, the art concept became an actual gameplay mechanic, with the planners determining how venting would function in-game.

• Komaki explains that the new structure on Proto Man's back came about while designing the character for 3D. Proto Man's back has historically never been defined especially clearly, including exactly how his shield attaches to him. The new design gave the team an opportunity to finally work those details out.

• Dual Override's development is split between Capcom's Tokyo and Osaka offices, with a team made up of veteran Mega Man staff and younger planners and designers. One of the younger designers is nicknamed the "Mega Man Professor," thanks to their encyclopedic knowledge of the entire franchise.

• Mega Man 11 focused heavily on faithfully modernizing the series' visual language. With Dual Override, the team is using that foundation to push things further, with the Override forms and Twinkle Girl cited as examples of evolving the series' established visual rules. The team was very happy to see all the fan-art of Twinkle Girl.

• Roll's Dual Override design is not the same as her Pragmata design. The Pragmata team created that interpretation under the Mega Man team's supervision.

• While the game does include a new scoring system, there are no plans for an online leaderboard. Instead, the team encourages players to share their individual scores with one another through social media.

• Proto Man and Mega Man have Custom Chips unique to each other.

• Development on Dual Override is progressing well, the game is playable from start to finish. However, because Mega Man and Proto Man play so differently from one another, the team is currently focused on fine-tuning and adjusting aspects of the game that need to work well for both campaigns.

• A playable demo is currently being prepared. However, no platforms or release date were announced.