Capcom Fixing 18-Year-Old Localization Problem

Localizing games has never been an easy, or an exact affair. As proof, we only need look back 18 years, when Capcom was getting ready to launch Mega Man X5 on the PlayStation. Now, like many companies, Capcom hired a third-party company to do the job for them, but what makes this case famous was that Erik Suzuki, the head of this specific third-party company (Genazea, for the record), asked his wife to name the Maverick bosses that littered the game. And she decided, to the ire of fans around the world, to name the bosses after Guns N’ Roses, rather than the more standard animal names the mavericks enjoyed in Japan (and in earlier games of the series).

As mentioned, fans weren’t super keen on this particular decision, because it was both inauthentic and because, well, they weren’t very good.

But here’s the thing: eighteen years later, Capcom released a trailer for Mega Man X Legacy Collection X Challenge mode, which you can see below.



You sharp-eyed fans might notice that those original Guns N’ Roses inspired names are now gone: and they’ve been replaced with more traditional, expected Maverick names. And as it turns out, that’s no accident. From a Capcom spokesperson:

"In our mission to make these collections an authentic Mega Man X experience, we took the opportunity to better align the naming of the Mega Man X5 Mavericks across all regions for better narrative cohesion across the series, making the names more aligned with the original Japanese version release. We hope that fans appreciate our intent to unify the Mega Man X Maverick-naming convention all these years later."

So that’s pretty interesting. Frankly, I applaud the decision, if only because it makes things consistent, but I’m sure for a great many fans the increased authenticity is a reason to celebrate.

Mega Man X Legacy Collection comes out on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC, and Switch on July 24.