"Inafune also revealed that he wasn't responsible for the creation of Mega Man himself. "I'm often called the father of Mega Man, but actually, his design was already created when I joined Capcom," he explained. "My mentor [at Capcom], who was the designer of the original Mega Man, had a basic concept of what Mega Man was supposed to look like. So I only did half of the job in creating him. I didn't get to completely design a Mega Man [protagonist] from scratch until Zero (Mega Man X, SNES). Back when the SNES was coming out, I was asked to give Mega Man a redesign, so I created this character. But I realized that this design wouldn't be accepted as Mega Man, so I had another designer create the new Mega Man, and I worked on Zero to release him as the 'other main character' that would steal all the good scenes!" "

So, he didn't make Mega Man, or X. But he DID make Zero. D:

I...I don't know what to believe anymore...

(quote tabs are being stubborn, so enjoy some regular quotation marks instead.)

source

Edited by Mr.Mettaur on September 24, 2007 at 16:00:46.

Good thing I never really trusted him in the first place.

(takes a shot)

This explains the Zero series sadly...>_<

dun...
DUN...
DUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUN!

"Zero (...) as the 'other main character' that would steal all the good scenes!"

... riiiiight... oh damn, he did.

Well, if you know anything about the early concept for Rockman, you would know that this is good for Inafune's image. There was apparently some TV series called "Rainbow Man" which involved a super hero that could change color based on his different powers. They were pretty serious about it too...

Perhaps this explains the change in direction? At any rate, Inafune took the concept and made it what it is today. Yes, it's half-finished, but it's awesome nonetheless.