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...Wow. That is bad programming.

That's Wood Man's scenario, isn't it?

Shame you didn't get to talk about Blue Moon stuff, though.

Aqua Man's scenario is pretty funny due to the "I didn't press a vending machine button fast enough. This is why my parents are DEAD" part. And Junk Man's scenario was pretty sad, too.

Battle Network 4 was actually my introduction to the series, as weird as that may be. I had a generally positive opinion of it as a result, but then I checked out the other games, and I became less than impressed.

You might have answered this before, and I apologize if so, but do you plan to do the rather tedious postgame?

I've been trying to play these games as completely as possible, so yes, I'm gonna try to. I've actually never gotten to this game's postgame area before, not having the patience (or skill) back then to proceed beyond the Bass battle.

One interesting thing I learned around the time you were starting BN 3, and I decided to play through BN 4 and make it much easier: BN 4 really does not like it when you try to manipulate the memory locations containing your zenny total.

How does it show it's displeasure? By setting your zenny total to 0. That can really screw you when you need 500 zenny for this tutorial.

Also: This new layout is used in Battle Networks 5 and 6 as well.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't 6's main obvious story gimmick that Lan and his family had moved? Thus giving an excuse to retire a lot of old battle chips and introduce new ones?

Ah, I may have gotten a bit ahead of myself there, but Lan does go back to visit ACDC at one point roughly three-fourths of the way through the game.

I may be wrong, but I believe that the Netbattle Ban didn't have anything to do with the licenses.

Additionally, isn't Dex supposed to be in Netopia?

Well, of course Yuuichiro will just make the laser fire an extended stream of incomprehensible coding at the meteor, confusing it enough to make it veer off its original path.

Or something.

Maybe they identified Shademan from the battle HUD?

I think I know why they didn't use the "fight enemy generic navis directly" thing again after 4: That's pretty much the entire plot of Battle Chip Challenge.

It's worth mentioning that the person with the DNC says "Full volume!" when he turns on the speakers earlier in the game, yet no one gets headaches until Shademan turns the speakers on full volume.

...I'm starting to think that even with the mostly hand-off control scheme and repetitive events employed by Battle Chip Challenge, it's still better than BN 4...

I'm just amazed Capcom actually integrated the billboard requests from previous games into the main game. They did it poorly, but still.

Weirdly, I remember at least the gist of most non-Normal/Heel navis tournament scenarios. I completely forgot how Gutsman's went until reading this.

I guess it traumatized me so badly, I just wiped it from my memory.

Eh, I prefer Double Soul over Soul Unison. "Soul Unison! Proto Soul!" doesn't sound as badass as "Double Soul! Proto Soul!" (Or Roll Soul, or Guts Soul, or... you get the picture.)

I think the main issue with the Gutsman scenario is "How in the hell did Chisao set up this whole kidnapping plot with the clues and deliverymen in the span of the fifteen seconds he ran out of the room after being yelled at by Dex?"

In Blue Moon, Lan meets an unlucky girl named Shuko who ends up accidentally causing her Navi (Aquaman) to believe that she's throwing him away. Fortunately, they reconcile and work their differences out... after he floods the net. Less annoying that Gutsman's scenario, at least.

I do find it strange that the tournaments don't present you with some sort of reward, outside of what you gain from the Navi battles and preceding wild goose chases anyway. If they had given you something for them, it might have helped the tournament pretense be less blatant padding.

Very slightly less blatant.

As a minor gripe, you can't actually talk to the old man in front of Jomon Electric until you talk to another guy who tells you that the old man in front of Jomon Electric can help you.

It's a shame that Lan and Megaman don't think to hand the Dark Chip over to Mamoru or Sean, who never appear in the series again. Or anyone without a Navi, really. They could have reasonably disposed of the thing.

Aquaman Alpha is found in ACDC Area 1, incidentally. There's pretty much a Navi ghost for every main area of the internet.

Princess Halberd deserves her own game.

She also deserves being able to actually wield a halberd, but that's neither here nor there.

It's amusing to note that you can Soul Unison with the Dark Sword battlechip in Blue Moon version if you have Proto Soul, but only if you aren't in anxious mode. Chaos Unison inspiration?

...The writers really liked the "parent helping Lan out to fix their kid's screwup" plot, didn't they?

And what a lesson it is.

I am a bit saddened that Windman never appeared in another Battle Network game besides 4, since I felt there was some more storytelling potential with him. Though I might actually just miss him more because I liked his design when I first played.

It would lessen the blow of certain people in this game not showing up again in the series if you actually got to spend time with them in this game. Why does Megaman Soul Unison with the Navi of a girl who spends most of the scenario trying to kill him, but he doesn't with someone like, say, Topman?

Anyway, in Blue Moon, your next Soul is from either Woodman (Sal's Navi who is tricked into doing terrorist acts) or Metalman (who Lan doesn't remember from BN 3 for whatever reason).

I can't help but feel that there'd be a lot of ways to choose a strong Navi that'd be better than a tournament. Especially considering the tournament will only have 8 participants.

Gee, I wonder what Navi was responsible for weakening the laser!

The idea behind the preliminaries is just odd to me; it seems like it could go wrong at any time. I like to think it did at some point with some other contestant.

One of the NPC Navis mentions how his operator completely freaked out during it.

The stupid thing about the preliminaries is that after Lan gets kidnapped, you see Bonds on his own saying something to the effect of "I wonder where Lan went", which makes no sense given that he's a co-conspirator.

Additionally, Woodman is in Park Area 1 while Metalman is in Undernet 3.

Paulie was a douche and deserved to be banished into the wilderness. His scenario was the most sadistic thing to come out of this game.

Well, clearly, Megaman was affected by the curse due to his data being based off of Hub, an organic being.

At least, I like to think that's how it is, because it's the only explanation that makes the remotest sense. Still not very much, but a low value's better than zero.

...Why, Capcom devs? Why would you do this to us?

/me remembers how Inafune stays young.

...Oh yeah, that's why.

The worst part about the curse is that it continues to drop HP even during the jack-in animation. Why would you do this!?

In Blue Moon, you fight either Protoman (who has a watered down version of his Dark Chip plot from the Axess anime) or Junkman (a Navi made out of junk who wants Megaman to kill him since he feels unloved).

Remind me, about how far along are we in the game (ignoring the post-game content)? 66%? 75%?

From here to the credits? There's maybe about an hour or so left if you play straight through and ignore a sidequest that's coming up.

I wonder how the tournament competitors interact with each other. I mean Chillski probably would have tried something even without fighting Lan, but the tribal elder might not have seen the other competitors as a threat to Raoul. So what logically would have happened if they were set to fight each other?

How on Earth does Chilliski go all the way to Sharo, knock out the scientists, bug the satellites, and come back to Netopia in time for the blizzard to reach said country from Sharo in the span of seconds after Megaman tells Coldman to knock it off?

Also, Coldman can be hit with his Ice Cubes in this version if you use Windman's Air Shot buster.

Doesn't Glyde only appear in the opening scenario, besides this? I mean, at least Roll and Gutsman get their own scenarios in Red Sun.

Yep. His case pretty much encapsulates a big issue that Battle Network has, and that most of its supporting characters might not as well exist, given how little they contribute or get developed. Battle Network 3 took some steps in the right direction, and Battle Network 6 is mostly okay in that regard too, but then you get cases like this game.

I definitely feel that Star Force handled its cast much, much better than this series did.

Speaking of Star Force, what are the odds of you continuing on to the trilogy after BN 6?

I've considered it. It'll depend on whether or not I'm burnt out by the time I finish Battle Network.

You also can get a Giga Chip from a GMD in Shademan Omega's battle, though it's hard to keep intact because BN 4 Shademan is a jerk and wants you to despair.

Protoman Alpha is in Undernet 6 and Junkman Alpha is in Undernet 2.

I'm guessing Regal was going to figure out what to do with the asteroid once he had it, considering it a useful tool.

Of course, Laserman making it to Duo would not have helped humanity's case, although getting to see the Big Bad Ensemble arguing with each other might have been worth it.

The people you don't encounter in any given playthrough are probably just precognizant. They see that they fought Lan in some alternate timeline, and that gives them resolve. Or something.

It's worth noting that the game pretty much trolls you here if you've been relying on Dark Chips. Because you can't use them at all in this fight.

So, if you've been evil this whole game? Fuck you, here's your reward.

Incidentally, in Blue Moon, Sal is the one that convinces everyone to cheer instead of Mr. Match.

"Alright, so we have to fill this tournament scenario with 6 possible opponents."

"How could we possibly make all of those unique, though?"

"We don't! We just give two of the contestants generic Navis, so we only need to actually think of 4!"

"But what about their actual personalities?"

"Eh, just have them recite lines from previous characters; nobody'll notice the similarities."

"Brilliant!"

MFM: Thanks for the laugh!

MFM: I would like to say that your idea is stupid and that there is no way the writers were that idiotic.

Sadly, in this case, I think you might actually be giving the writers too much credit...

It does make me wonder what happened on the writing side of things. According to the credits one of the scenario writers from the first three games left, to be replaced by someone else, but the other was a veteran of the series. He admitted in that interview I linked to in the introduction that he had a hard time coming up with a new story after Battle Network 3, but still.

"But luckily for our protagonist Tetsu is somehow on the roof of the Den Dome"

It's worth noting that this is probably the tamest level of inanity this game offers.

I like to think he wasn't arrested because he already had been twice before, and the police were sick of the same old song-and-dance with him. So they decided to cut out the middle man and just let him wreak some more havoc without the jail phase.

Huh. The final soul that I got in Red Sun and Blue Moon were Roll and Wood respectively. Maybe the final tournament you get them from varies?

...Yeah, Lan really is an idiot when it comes to matters of the heart. On the plus side, at least he's not a hopeless idiot, as proven by the ending of BN 6...

Jacking out would make too much sense. Everyone in the game has a stupidity quota they need to fill.

That comment's pretty funny in light of the next scenario.

Have you noticed that with her chip-destruction attack Roll is primed to fight Normal Navis, Heel Navis, and Megaman, but not most specialized Navis?

That's normal Navis, heel Navis, and any Navi operated by Lan (as BN 5 proves, other Navis may not need chips as much as a generic or Mega Man, but they are far more effective with them).

But yes, you're right. That means Roll is surprising powerful, she just never gets a chance to show it off...

First thing I'll do when I become president: Make Foot Bomb a nationally recognized sport.

...Foot Bomb sounds like it's up there with Quodpot for pointlessly gratuitous explosions in a fictional sport.

Mr. Famous just beat the guy so badly, he completely forgot how to Net Battle. Because he's Mr. fucking Famous.

@MFM: "Famous. Just Famous."

Because that joke just had to be used.

I assume he's famous for rendering people incapable of Netbattling with his sheer power. He does state in BN 2 that only one person has ever beaten him before.

...Is this just a simple up/down left/right swap? If so, then this is once again a setup that's easily solved with an emulator.

...The BN devs seem to have had luck in designing mechanics that emulators can exploit/bypass, didn't they?

It's just a button reversal, yeah. However, this game apparently has a crapton of DRM that can be triggered if you mess around with the ROM, including several ways of outright game-breakage.

...Narcy's a guy?!

Yeah, he clarifies that point pretty quickly in his intro.

Fun fact: In the anime he was voiced by Hiroshi Kamiya in an incredibly over the top manner before he really gained his current celebrity seiyuu status.

@Comic: ...Since when does "remapping the controls in the emulator's options" constitute screwing with the ROM?

I'm a pleb that knows very little of ROMs. Anyway, if it's just a matter of changing an option instead of hacking the game than I suspect that the reversal will work anyway, but as I said...

If this is how the officials treat Lan, it's no wonder he usually doesn't bother investigating Nebula in this game.

I'm beginning to think that Regal was supposed to refer back to scenarios like this when giving examples of mankind's evil, but this was removed when they put together enough scenarios that they had to randomly shuffle them.

It is a bit funny that you submitted this on the day of Shin Megami Tensei IV's release. I got it, too, but I haven't opened it yet.

That slipcase is just so pretty, and I want to preserve it.

I await the recharge of your MMBN batteries for BN 5. Especially since I can once again confidently give commentary for it.

My condolences to you for having to play through this game.

I tried replaying it after replaying BN 3 and only got through one playthrough before quitting out of disgust.