Mega Man Legends 2 - Reception

The game was generally well received by critics in comparison to the prequel. GameSpot directly stated that with Legends 2's release, Capcom was able to turn "what began as a mere spin-off into a worthy stand-alone franchise", while Allgame's Jon Thompson stated it "trumps its predecessor in almost every way, and shows that Capcom is certainly learning from its mistakes in the genre". IGN's Adam Cleveland mentioned Mega Man Legends 2 was "the most involving game I've seen with Mega Man, and is one of the best, too". Publications commented that the gameplay was highly improved and that the variations of controls helped the players. Despite being compared with other RPGs such as the ones from the Zelda franchise, the dungeons and missions were praised. Bosses fights were also found to be entertaining although some of the bosses' height are larger than the ones featured in the prequel. Famitsu found that the game's overall sense of action was superior to the first incarnation, considering the ability to be assisted in missions by computer controlled characters as well as its mini-games and events.

The graphics got from positive to mixed reception. The graphic design and style was praised, but still reviewers criticized that the level design was still blocky and primitive. The story and cutscene animation were universally praised, and compared to watching an anime. In comparison to the first game, the story was also found to be darker and deeper. Eurogamer also focused in this, finding the game's story to be a more "rolling narrative rather than a simple 'click the face, beat the boss, save the world' sort of cop-out" comparing it with the original 2D series. Sound effects and music were likewise well-received, with the exception of Mega Man's voice, which was derided as too feminine.

GameRankings had an average of 76.60% for the PS version, while Metacritic had 76 favourable reviews out of 100 for it. In a 2007 retrospective of the Mega Man series, Jeremy Parish of 1UP.com ranked Mega Man Legends 2 as "Worth it!", praising its graphical improvements over the first title and commenting that its unresolved ending is "is one of gaming's greatest injustices". In a similar feature, GameSpot stated that the game could "fix lot of the flaws in the original and is a substantial improvement upon the Legends formula". 1UP.com analyzed Legends 2's ending and found it unfortunate as the plot involving the Elder System mentioned in the game's ending remained unresolved.

The PlayStation version of Mega Man Legends 2 was the 139th best-selling video game in Japan in 2000 at 88,131 units sold. The PSP version of the game barely made it into the Famitsu top 500 best-sellers list in Japan for 2005 at a mere 15,309 units sold by the end of the year.