Mega Man: Fully Charged

[RedFox99]

1 minute ago, Sean said:

from disgruntled Mega Man fans (and virtually nobody else from what I've seen online)

Well, most people would probably be disgrunted if a series they were a fun of was getting a crummy TV series. 

2 minutes ago, Sean said:

about how it's different from the games

Maybe because the differences are being executed badly.

[Sean]

6 minutes ago, RedFox99 said:

Well, most people would probably be disgrunted if a series they were a fun of was getting a crummy TV series. 

Maybe because the differences are being executed badly.

So far, not a single person has come forth and convinced me why the changes in Charged Up are bad while the changes in Battle Network (which really aren't that much more faithful to classic/X than this cartoon's are) are fine. So methinks a lot of double-standards are being held against this show from people who were dead-set on hating it in the first place.

[RedFox99]

Just now, Sean said:

So far, not a single person has come forth and convinced me why the changes in Charged Up are bad while the changes in Battle Network are fine. So methinks a lot of double-standards are being held against this show from people who were dead-set on hating it in the first place.

Maybe because Battle Networks did the changes much better.

[Sean]

Elaborate.

[RedFox99]

Just now, Sean said:

Elaborate.

Well, from what I remember of Battle Networks. It didn't seem as bad ad Fully Charged (especially since I don't recall any of the characters saying how clever their jokes were).

[SenEDDtor Missile]

22 minutes ago, Sean said:

So far, not a single person has come forth and convinced me why the changes in Charged Up are bad while the changes in Battle Network (which really aren't that much more faithful to classic/X than this cartoon's are) are fine. So methinks a lot of double-standards are being held against this show from people who were dead-set on hating it in the first place.

Haven't watched the show myself (lack of interest), but the worst aspects seems to be lowbrow cheesy writing and weird looking artstyle.

[Ryannumber1gamer]

1 minute ago, Sean said:

So far, not a single person has come forth and convinced me why the changes in Charged Up are bad while the changes in Battle Network are fine. So methinks a lot of double-standards are being held against this show from people who were dead-set on hating it in the first place.

I can't speak a word on Battle Network because not only have I never played it, I simply don't give enough of a shit enough to play it.

But to me, the reason I hate this show is simple, because even looking past the fact it's meant to be a Mega Man show, I see it as nothing short of completely generic, sub-par, and terrible. 

The voice acting does not feel like it fits whatsoever beyond maybe Dr. Light. Mega Man constantly sounds like his voice is cracking or just too arrogant for his own good while the other VAs are just pretty generic.

Going off that, Sgt. Night as a villain isn't interesting or charismatic. Not even bringing up Wily, he's just a generic "i'm against this but ill use it to suit my own goals" character. They keep trying to imply something or other to make him interesting but it's also implication, never showing it or adding to his character. Like for example, the best one I can think of a comparison is maybe Shredder from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. In the 2003 version for example, Shredder is a businessman who helps the city out and is a legitimately suave and charming character, using it to his advantage to try bring Leonardo and the other Turtles into the foot clan. Meanwhile, he's running his secret crime businesses through the foot clan while still keeping on the businessman facade.

It feels like what they're trying to do with Night, portray him as some kind of heroic figure, or charming guy who's using robots to prove his own point and in the end, he comes off as confused, one note, and hypocritical in his actions. Instead of making him complex in his actions, or giving himself a reasoning and/or justification for doing this, it comes off as yet another confused "taking control of the city by proving a point" villain. 

And similarly, Aki himself feels just as confused, because it feels like they keep wanting to have their cake and eat it too. Sometimes, he's like Dr. Light, fighting for everlasting peace, and wishing to talk others down. Other times, he seems to very clearly have a crap ton of fun taking down robots and getting into scraps, right down to things like using Wave Man's loss for his pet to steal his weapon, or mocking Fire Man to coax him into a fight. Like yeah, I get that they're doing bad things, but they're also just robots, possibly having gone through their own tragedies, or hell, possibly even reprogrammed for all we know, and Aki never once questions this. Ice Man seemed like he was trying to do something good, only being completely wrong about doing it, and in one of the descriptions of a new episode, even wants to be a hero seemingly, yet we're told to just go along with it and assume they're bad. Sometimes, there's an attempt to talk them down, other times it's just full on joking, snark and attacking without much consistency and the result is making Aki seem a lot more like your typical snark filled "hero" who loves a good fight.

Tying into those confused points is the next point, the story and writing in of itself is pretty awful in my opinion. Not one joke in this entire series has landed for me. Every time there's a neat little detail or idea brought up in the story, or the background, it's undercut by a stupidly forced pun, joke, quip or something else entirely. The aforementioned scene in the museum, having box art of several of the Mega Man games is a legitimately neat idea, yet it's undercut by having Guts-Man's butt making an appearance to reference a meme. The part with Aki and Fire-Man trying to discuss things about the nature of robots could've been interesting and tied into a bigger narrative or grounded the show a little more like Adventure Time, and instead Mega Mini comes out to undercut it with a bad joke.

To be frank, the writing is what absolutely kills the show, even disbarring it entirely as a Mega Man product, because looking at it as another general show, it comes off as just lazy writing, filled with bad puns, and desperate attempts to justify said puns as funny. With small musical cues like "ha, gotem" or even worse, Mega-Mini complimenting the joke in the same manner as Sonic & Tails' jokes in the modern line of games, it makes the show feel like it always needs to justify itself as funny, or speak down to the audience that this is the part where you should be laughing. 

And that's not even getting into the visual style, which I just find totally unappealing. Now, to give it some props, I like a few of the new designs. I actually think Dr. Light's new design actually looks pretty neat. Still keeping in tone of his original design while updating and altering it. Even Mega Man when he's in his armor actually looks alright compared to that first piece of art we got. But the other designs to me just fall in the ranges of generic, or downright awful.

Most of the robot masters designs have a spectrum of "alright, i dont like as much, but its fine" and absolutely horrible. For example, I wouldn't call Fire Man's design bad. I wish it wasn't a giant mech design like Guts Man, for example, but it's alright, I suppose. But then the likes of Ice Man, Hypno Woman, Blasto Woman, or even the supposedly leaked Cuts Man design just all look downright terrible to me, while the humans fall squarely into the realm of generic CGI background character to me.

It's a shame that I feel like this, because when it does manage something cool, or clever with background nods to the series at large, if it's not undercut, it can actually be a nice little easter egg, like Ice Man's theme playing during the pixel art section of his episode, or similar the other robot masters with those remixes. But those small little cool moments aren't enough to save what barring the title of the show, I feel is terrible. 

At the end of the day, I admit, I've nitpicked about the changes to the series, or poked fun at the fact this or that wasn't done, but my biggest issue with Fully Charged isn't the fact that it's different, my issue that it guts out everything that made Mega Man unique, distinct, or fun in the first place while replacing it with meaningless generic nonsense that falls flat on it's face as it's own product to me before it falls flat as a Mega Man show. If this show had another name altogether, with everything else the same, I'd probably still hate it and call it out on the same exact points because at the end of the day, I still see it as painfully generic, terribly written, and filled with awful visuals with or without the Mega Man name attached.

[Sean]

That's fair. I'm not concerned about whether people like the show or not since I have no interest in watching more of it myself. But seeing people deride Fully Charged for its changes from the games, while either ignoring or giving Battle Network a pass for it, bugs me, and I haven't seen many (if any) reasons that indicate why the changes are inherently bad to begin with

[Ryannumber1gamer]

2 minutes ago, Sean said:

That's fair. I'm not concerned about whether people like the show or not since I have no interest in watching more of it myself. But seeing people deride Fully Charged for its changes from the games, while either ignoring or giving Battle Network a pass for it, bugs me

Well again, I can't speak for Battle Network. Have little to no knowledge on that particularly series other than Bass being some kind of unkillable monster or some such with a scarf or cape or something. My interest pretty much begins and ends with Classic and X, possibly Zero too. 

By all means, if I play Battle Network and it's subject to the same shit I dislike about Fully Charged, than I shall call it out for that too though. 

[Soniman]

I mean WIly being made into Mega's best buddy instead of the charming memorable villian most people know and love is a change I dont think needs elaborate explaining on why its not the smartest move

[Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon]

2 hours ago, Ryannumber1gamer said:

My interest pretty much begins and ends with Classic and X, possibly Zero too. 

My friend. If Legends 3 ever gets made, I have to open your eyes to that glorious world you're missing. 

[Ryannumber1gamer]

Just now, Jovahexeon Megumin Academy said:

My friend. If Legends 3 ever gets made, I have to open your eyes to that glorious world you're missing. 

To be honest, I'd be all over Legends but it is nowhere near readily available here. If a LC ever comes of Legends, I will get it, otherwise Capcom was so lovely to continue screwing us over by not releasing the PS1 classics onto the PlayStation Store.

[Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon]

2 hours ago, Sean said:

seeing people deride Fully Charged for its changes from the games, while either ignoring or giving Battle Network a pass for it

I mean.... there is the fact that Battle Network actually had good writing and changes that made sense might have something to do with it.

The fact that reception to the characters, changes and whatnot in the pachicslot game should speak volumes to that.

[Sean]

>Battle Network
>good writing

 

sorry don't have time to make a more thought-out reply. anyway BN games are usually full of some pretty crappy writing and stories lol except for PARTS OF BN2 and 3. And while those games had their moments, the plots weren't nearly as amazing as I remembered them to be ten years ago.

[Ryannumber1gamer]

6 minutes ago, Sean said:

>Battle Network
>good writing

 

sorry don't have time to make a more thought-out reply. anyway BN games are usually full of some pretty crappy writing and stories lol except for PARTS OF BN2 and 3. And while those games had their moments, the plots weren't nearly as amazing as I remembered them to be ten years ago.

Could be worse.

Could be X6.

[Ratcicle King]

X6 doesn't have a bad plot

Having a bad plot implies it has some semblance of storytelling.

[Sean]

At least you didn’t have to replay X6’s story thrEE GOD DAMN TIMES WTOFJWNDKS

[pppp]

Long answer on why I hate on the show:

 

On 8/16/2018 at 3:51 PM, pppp said:

I've seen the 10 eps that have been released so far to form my own judgement. This show is pretty bad sorry. The comedy falls flat cause most of it is just bad puns. Seriously 90% of the jokes are puns. Fire Man's episode means hot/fire puns, Wave Man means water/bath puns, Ice Man means ice puns and so on and so on. The most appaling thing is how Mega Man and Mega Mini love to commend themselves on how "clever" their puns are. There's a moment in the Drill Man episode where Mini tells Aki "2 Drill puns in one sentence. Nice." with Aki replying "I try". Yes the writing is that desperate to make you think it's clever. Here's the basic formula the show follows: Aki has some kind of contrived and lame dilemma(Seriously one is Rush getting sad and running away from home just because Aki jokingly called him lazy. No I'm serious.) that ties into whatever personality flaw the robot master has. After fighting and constantly mocking the robot master, everything ends with a speech about how "violence is bad" or "we shouldn't judge on appearences" that always comes across as hamfisted and insincere cause the writing is poor and spends most of its time having Mega Man needlessly being a dick to the robot master, so forgive me if I can't suddenly feel heartwarmed.

The characters are all typical archetypes that never really rise above that. Suna for example is just generic smart girl that is school president. If you were wondering if they had a good reason to replace Roll with her, well they didn't.

Also so much for the whole "This is for little kids/a new audience, it's not for old fans", the 1st ep literally starts by reenacting the opening title screen of Mega Man 2 in pixel art, the composer constantly shoves the Mega Man 2 theme in alot of places(It's Aki's ringtone for example) sometimes for no real reason, like when Mini suddenly pulls an electric guitar from his ass and plays it. Also memes and other classic remixes exist.

The animation/action coreography is nothing to write home about either. The pixel skits look cool, but wouldn't make sense to make it 8 bit pixel art rather than 16 bit considering this is more based on Classic Mega Man? There's 8 bit music, shouldn't the pixel art match that? It's kinda inconsistent.

It all comes together to form a cynically made show that is unfunny, insincere and misunderstands its source material.

It can get better I suppose, but so far, it's not just a bad Mega Man cartoon, it's a bad cartoon period. The fact that Mega Man games are no strangers to bad writing is no excuse, if the show is bad, it's just bad. If anything that's all the more reason why this show should have had more care put into it, to learn from the mistakes of the past.

 

Short answer: It's a badly made and cynical show that instead of entertaining the audience shoves puns down their throats.

@Sean You keep insisting on this narrative that people are only hating on it because of the changes made to Classic Mega Man. That's only the cherry on top, it's what I mentioned above that has people hating on it.

For the record I dislike Battle Network as well, but at least the writing wasn't so cynically filled with bad one liners 90% of the time. I admit It's been years but I don't remember that being the case.

[Ryannumber1gamer]

13 hours ago, Soniman said:

I mean WIly being made into Mega's best buddy instead of the charming memorable villian most people know and love is a change I dont think needs elaborate explaining on why its not the smartest move

I'd argue that's another reason why Sgt. Night sucks as a villain. It'd be a different thing altogether if Wily at the very least was completely removed from the series, like the X series, where bar a few references and one implication that he helped Sigma in one of the later titles, he was totally gone from it. 

Here, we have a in-name-only version of the character who's been dethroned from charming memorable villain to wacky comedic sidekick for Aki, and it wouldn't be so bad, except the writers are so desperate to show it off, as if they were being sly or clever or something. Right down to Bert being a different way of saying "Albert" and even cutting his hair off in a scene to try make him look like the original version, again in a vain attempt to seem clever when it just comes off as stupid.

[Balding Spider]

12 hours ago, Ratcicle King said:

X6 doesn't have a bad plot

Having a bad plot implies it has some semblance of storytelling.

For real. It's not enough that it retcons a major event of X5, they also bring back Zero that makes (no pun intended) zero sense. They couldn't even keep it straight within the context of the game.

Zero: I hid my self so I could repair myself.

The dude was a destroyed torso by the end of X5

Also Zero to Dr. Light: I don't know how I was repaired.

SMGDH

[KoDaiko]

18 hours ago, Sean said:

So far, not a single person has come forth and convinced me why the changes in Charged Up are bad while the changes in Battle Network (which really aren't that much more faithful to classic/X than this cartoon's are) are fine. So methinks a lot of double-standards are being held against this show from people who were dead-set on hating it in the first place.

I sorta said it a while back:

On 7/23/2018 at 8:32 PM, KoDaiko said:

What makes me be sad is that they said something along the line of “this cartoon is based off Classic”. So, an adaptation of Classic? No. A story based on the universe but different characters like X? No. An AU using Classic characters but with a totally different world and story like BN? No.

The story is basically Classic, the world is silimar to Classic,  the theme is the same as Classic, they even push the nostalgia of Classic via sprite/music, but they redesign/replaced the character/mechanics. If we’re going that far, why not a faithful adaptation? Why treat it a new series??

[...]

Now, when it airs I’m going to try treating it as a totally new series. But I will forever question the decision of the creative staff behind it.

Basically, FC gave a bad first impression because there isn't enough changes to make it it's own unique series. BN feels like a completely separate reboot, while FC feels like an inaccurate adaptation. BN is a different & new series that only uses the name and SOME detail from classic, similar to the tradition of a blue Rock/Megaman and red Roll in almost every series. The world is different, the mechanics are different, the design is different, the story is different..... Meanwhile, FC claims to be something new while trying to recycle 80% of its source material and shoving "references/memes" down our throats. 

 

After posting the above post I kept a distance because I understood I wasn't part of the target audience and it may be another TTG or Sonic Boom. I do post some updates/new information to share with you guys, but I haven't watched the cartoon itself (yet) and tried not to be upset over something.

 

[Sean]

7 hours ago, pppp said:

 

@Sean You keep insisting on this narrative that people are only hating on it because of the changes made to Classic Mega Man. That's only the cherry on top, it's what I mentioned above that has people hating on it.

Dude it's because people have been hating on the changes since day fucking one. Every single bit of new info we got, people would keep shitting on the cartoon and decrying it as an insult to Mega Man. It never had a chance. That it has mediocre writing and jokes is almost like the "see? I TOLD YOU IT'D BE BAD" victory lap around the track at this point.

Quote

For the record I dislike Battle Network as well

[pppp]

3 minutes ago, Sean said:

 

Huh. When I insulted someone a while back I got a warning point. I guess staff members above the rules. Not cool IMO but whatever.

[Sean]

4 minutes ago, pppp said:

Huh. When I insulted someone a while back I got a warning point. I guess staff members above the rules. Not cool IMO but whatever.

Nope, just dicking around bro

[Polkadi~☆]

2 minutes ago, pppp said:

Huh. When I insulted someone a while back I got a warning point. I guess staff members above the rules. Not cool IMO but whatever.

I can tell it was meant to be in a joking manner, but it's harder to say so when the response is just an image.

 

Now, Battle Network, it takes elements of Classic Mega Man and does something different. It's not like Fully Charged, in which it's basically a rewritten Classic Mega Man, but more tries something else. For instance, all robot masters are programs in a digital world. Everyone has their own thanks to a device, and you have MegaMan.EXE by your side. Working with your friends and the other robot master programs (who are still fully sentient), you all fight for... Whatever the plot demands. It's similar, yet different.