Mega Man 64 2

The gameplay in Mega Man Legends 2 is very similar to that of its predecessor and has a few changes. The player controls the protagonist Mega Man Volnutt in his explorations through ruins and fights against Reaverbots. The ruins, however, are from various islands in contrast to the prequel in which most ruins belonged to Kattelox Island. The player is able to travel to other islands with Roll's ship, the Flutter, although he can only enter certain islands by completing different missions.

Unlike Mega Man Legends in which the player could enter to different ruins by having the approval of Kattelox's mayor, here the player must pass different tests in order to win Digger licenses from a specific level. The license allows Mega Man to enter into ruins which are forbidden to lower-class Diggers. Additionally, when winning a license, the Reaverbots' health is higher, but once they are destroyed, they drop more refractors' shards which are used in shops to buy items. Mega Man's interactions with other characters can also affect the character's state depending whether he is good with other people or makes them angry.

Mega Man Legends 2 brings back several characters from its predecessor. This includes the protagonist Mega Man Volnutt (whose original name is Mega Man Trigger), a Digger in charge of exploring ruins to find Refractors, Roll Caskett, his spotter, who is searching for her missing parents, and Data, a mechanical monkey who contains all of Mega Man's original memories. Roll's grandfather, Barrel Caskett, also appears alongside his old friend Werner Von Bluecher in search of the Mother Lode, a legendary treasure supposed to have infinite energy. The pirates "the Bonnes", made up of siblings Teisel, Tron, and Bon, and their Servbot followers, return once again as antagonists of the series but allied with three new members: a blonde-haired man named Glyde previously seen in The Misadventures of Tron Bonne who uses Birdbots as servants, and Bola and Klaymoor, a floating samurai and an enormous man wearing armor, respectively. Other characters include Yuna and Sera, whose purposes remain unknown during the game's start, as well as the Master: a 3000-year-old man who is referred to as the last "true" human.

A news conference is held by Professor Barrel Caskett and his old friend Werner Von Bluecher about the upcoming journey to the Forbidden Island in a large airship called the Sulphur Bottom to search for the Mother Lode. Barrel recognizes a reporter, Yuna, as his lost daughter, Matilda Caskett, who warns them of the catastrophe that could transpire if they pursue their journey. Yuna escapes with her servant, a Reaverbot flying machine-like being named Gatz to break the windows for her escape. Ignoring her warning Bluecher continues to the center of the island. Yuna orders Gatz to give warning shots but due to the hostile retaliation of the Sulphur Bottom, Gatz damages the engine, forcing the airship to descend to the island below.

In 1999, Capcom announced that the series' spin-off, The Misadventures of Tron Bonne, would include a demo of the game. The demo was meant to show off the game's improved graphics and a larger scale universe. The demo, titled Rockman Dash 2 - Episode 1: Roll's Critical Moment (ロックマンＤＡＳＨ２ エピソード１ ロールちゃん危機一髪！, Rokkuman DASH 2 Episōdo 1 Rōruchan Kiki Ippatsu), features an independent story in which Tron has kidnapped Roll and Mega Man sets to rescue her. It was only included in the Japanese version of the game and the PlayStation Portable port of the game.

The game was released for the PlayStation in 2000 in Japan, as a regular release and another one under the label of "PlayStation the Best". It was later released in 2000 in North America and in 2001 in Europe. Unchanged Japanese ports of the game were also released for the PC in 2001. Work also began on a Nintendo 64 port of the game, but the project was cancelled due to the poor sales of the original Legends on N64 with the console being near the end of its life cycle at the time.

The game was generally well received by critics in comparison to its predecessor. 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 games such as the ones from the Zelda franchise, the dungeons and missions were praised. Boss fights were also found to be entertaining, although some of the bosses' heights are larger than the ones featured in the first game. 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.