Clex - My point wasn't that you have to enter too many buildings in MML, it was more of a general observation about 3D games: going from 2D to 3D, towns became town-sized, which makes them longer to traverse, which IMO is to the detriment of pacing.
MML isn't the worst offender, but even with Kattlelox (and you call yourself a fan, smdh) being compact, I still find it annoying.
For what it's worth, I'm still playing the game. I'm in the Clozer Woods sub-gate, and enjoying MML a bit more now than I was when we recorded.
You got me there, Gui. XD I always think of Barrel Casket when you first arrive on the island pronouncing it's name wrong.
Mega Man Legends 2 has a lot less jank in the controls and is far more linear and less sprawling, so... I think Dr. Metts is right on the money in that you will like that one more.
one little trick that I'll mention for you to potentially put to use is that you can actually run-stop cancel your buster shots and bypass the normal rate off fire restriction that having a low rapid stat would force upon you. pretty much just hold the fire button and feather up on the D-pad to fire your buster more rapidly. this does not work while using the strafe or while jumping. this is because when you stop running, Rock Volnutt goes back into his hold the buster out to fire animation, and on frame one of that animation, the game is hard-coded to fire a buster shot, so he fires the shot every time he goes back to standing still.
Another thing that becomes more important in Legends 2 but is handy here is that the the side roll you get when you hit the jump button while pivoting (L1, R1) is totally invincible. feel free to roll through explosions, robots charging you, traps within the dungeon... as long as you're not in the danger zone when your feet hit the ground, you're good!
Make sure to try not to take hits when the little metal bar above your health bar is open and the health meter is red. that little thing is actually a sort-of precursor to Halo style regenerating shield health. it can get broken to the point where it won't shut until you get it repaired by Roll or the Junk Shop or something, but that usually only happens if you take massive damage.
Still, I'm glad you're getting into it a little more.
EDIT: just now getting to the back half of the podcast... I'm astonished that in the discussion of nuanced story telling in video games that mention wasn't given a to a game that people wouldn't shut up about last year and declared you a soulless Gamergate monster if you didn't immediately enjoy and do fanart and remix the music and post it on every form of social media you have available. Then again, that certain example is something I could see members of this podcast denouncing given that they dislike a Nintendo game that certain indie darling draws a lot of parallels to. I know Ty Shughart talked about it on the Famicast in between bouts of Killer Instinct-itus.