When we get back to Lan and Megaman they’re occupied with running maintenance on Lan’s homepage. Hey, Navis actually doing mundane technical stuff for once! When they’re done Megaman receives a visit from Mayl’s Navi Roll. She’s got a message from Mayl asking Lan if he wants to go with her to Dentown in order to go shopping for a birthday present for Yai. We’re given the option to decline her invitation, but in true But Thou Must! fashion doing so prompts Megaman to ask us again until we agree. And then of course we have to go physically deliver the response to Roll in Mayl’s network instead of simply emailing it. The meeting place is at the Metroline station, so let’s go.
Once outside we get an email from Froid thanking us for what we’ve done. To play us back, he’s gotten us onto the Official’s mailing list, meaning that from now one we’ll be getting periodic emails discussing either current events or battle tips. It’s not really that deep or useful in this game, but it does serve as the foundation for the BBS message boards that appear in future installments.
Speaking of battle, Higsby has added a few more chips to his stock:
- Fast Gauge A – 3000z
- Geddon 1 H – 3000z
- Interrupt L – 8000z
- Recovery 150 L – 10000z
Mayl’s nowhere to be seen when we arrive at the station, so Lan takes great relish in chewing her out for being the late one when she finally does arrive. But something’s come up for her, so we get to go on ahead to Dentown alone.
Dentown is divided up into five areas: Blocks 1 thru 4, and Central Dentown. There’s not really that much going on in this area, despite it being downtown Den City. There are very few buildings that we can actually visit, and there are no jack in ports on the overworld save for the dungeon that’s coming up. Anyway, we some direction in the form of an email from Mayl telling us that she’s taking the bus in and that we should try looking for an antique shop, since that’s what Yai’s into right now. She does give us the Roll 2 R chip as a way of making us do everything, though.
Before we find the shop, let’s first visit the only other building we can, a school located in Block 4. The teacher there is…Ms. Mari! No wait, it’s actually her identical twin sister Ms. Yuri! Yep, unlike the anime where Ms. Yuri was the second-in-command of Nebula, the operator of Needleman, and one of Duo’s “probes”, in the games she’s just a palette swap of her sister. She will have a touch of importance a little further on down the line in this game, though. For now the only thing we can do in here is jack in to the blackboard for a Power UP.
There’s an antique shop on Block 2, so that’s our destination. The owner, a woman named Miyu
◊, wants to battle us because she can sense the “bright, burning soul” of Megaman, so let’s oblige.
Skullman
◊
HP: 600
Element: Normal
Attacks:
- Ghost Fire – Skullman sends a ball of blue fire down one row for 80 Fire damage.
- Boomerang Bones – Skullman’s arms detach and slowly spin around Megaman’s area. They can be destroyed, and making Skullman recoil will cease the attack. They deal 80 damage.
- Skull Stomp – Skullman’s head pops off and comes crashing down on Megaman’s current panel for 100 damage.
Another not-too-difficult boss. I guess the main thing that Skullman brings to the table at this point is the fact that he’s the first boss that can attack with an element other than his default, though the main boss of the update has that as its main gimmick. One thing to be careful of is that he’ll still use his other attacks while Boomerang Bones is active, so one has to be mindful that they don’t accidentally run into them while trying to dodge the other attacks.
I find the guy’s recoil animation funny. It’s like he’s about to fall to pieces.
Winning gives us 2500z.
After the battle Miyu gives us /Miyu, which we will need in order to access Internet Area 4. Miyu’s network is located in a magnifying glass at her counter, and inside is, as usual, @Miyu and a Barrier S chip. Jacking in to the large urn in the shop yields a Quake 3 C.
Time to go meet up with Mayl. After hauling ourselves over to Block 1’s bus stop as stipulated by her email the traffic lights suddenly start to spaz out until all of the lights are green. Cars immediately start to crash into each other one after the other, and we get an email from none other than the WWW! The sender is Madd, and her scheme is apparently to scam the people of Den City into buying a program path to fix their cars’ “defective” autodrive programs for the exorbitant price of one million zenny. And in a sadly-expected case of NPC-gullibility, they swallow it hook, line, and sinker, heading off to Central Dentown. Lan and Megaman, being main characters, instantly see through that BS and jack in to the nearby stoplight to fix the program.
So the gimmick for this dungeon involves floor color. The pathway is broken up into red and blue sections, and Megaman can only pass over sections that are lit. By walking through colored orbs, all of the red sections in the area will light up while blue dims, and vice versa. Though the path does look complicated at first glance, it’s actually somewhat straightforward and you’re pretty much led through the area. The areas are pretty much a massive loop, and to fix the traffic lights the starting area needs to be red when we get back to it. Then it’s just a matter of flipping a switch and we’re done.
With the traffic lights fixed we have to head to Central Dentown and talk to the sheeple to convince them that they’re being scammed. With her scheme foiled, Madd vows to break all the traffic lights in the city, and also get back at Lan at the same time. She mentions having read his file, and how there’s nothing more sad than losing a loved one before walking away. As soon as we try to leave the area Lan gets a frantic call from Mayl – the bus she’s in has gone out of control! We need to make tracks for Block 4 and jack in to the traffic light there in the hopes of stopping the bus.
This area’s a little more complicated in its layout, but still pretty straightforward. It does require a bit of looping to get all the Mystery Data, though. Unfortunately Lan and Megaman aren’t fast enough to stop the bus, so now we have to haul ass to Block 2. Along the way we get a call from Madd gloating over the bug she’s put in the bus’s gasoline control program. If the bus doesn’t stop – kaboom. Yep, this is how Madd plans to get back at Lan. Y’know, despite the petty and banal nature of most of the villains in this series, I have to hand it to Madd for deliberately gunning for one of Lan’s friends. That is pretty high up there on the villainy scale.
Anyway, third verse same as the first. Once again the two fail to stop the bus, but this time the electric crosswalk barrier just manage to snag it, slowing it down. Block 3 is where we have to go next. After snagging an HP Memory inside this area’s network and going through the motions yet again we manage to slow the bus down even more. Time to hit Central Dentown for the final push.
This area’s different from the others in that it has four switches that need to be flipped so that all the lights in the intersection will turn red, hopefully stopping the bus for good. This time we succeed, but Madd calls to tell Lan that he’s too late, only to be puzzled when the bus doesn’t explode. Turns out Colorman got distracted by a pink girl Navi, so it looks like we have to save Roll now.
In the bus’s network Roll’s under attack from Colorman and oh god does that animation look wrong. Good thing Navis don’t have junk.
Colorman
HP: 600
Element: Normal
Attacks:
- Fire Tower – Colorman’s red mannequin sends a stream of fire down the field towards Megaman for 100 Fire damage.
- Aqua Tower – Colorman’s blue mannequin sends a stream of geysers down the field towards Megaman for 100 Aqua damage.
- Homing Ball – Colorman’s ball bounces from panel to panel on Megaman’s field for 100 damage.
Colorman is yet another boss that sticks to the back row, but he at least moves up and down it. His primary gimmick is that he can attack with both Fire and Aqua elements through the use of two bowling pin-esque mannequins on his side of the field. They’re indestructible and have a bad tendency to get in the way, so just like with the Numberman battle I recommend using the Shockwave and Quake chip series on him, especially since Quake 2 and Quake 3 can hit additional panels, eliminating the need to carefully aim.
Winning gives us 3000z.
With Colorman defeated we’ve saved Mayl and stopped Madd from reenacting a certain Keanu Reeves movie. Spirits are high, enough for Megaman and Roll to try playing Shipper on Deck for their operators something that Lan acts quite oblivious to. Get used to this.
Cut to WWW’s base, where Wily’s busy chewing out Madd for her failure. He decides that it’s time to bring Den City down once and for all, and calls upon Count Zap for what will be the biggest, baddest, most audacious and aggravating scheme yet.
Virus Listing
- Mosquito
- These bugs will rocket down the row when they align with Megaman, draining his HP upon contact and replenishing their's by a set amount.
- Candevil
- These demons send fire down one row upon aligning with Megaman. In the back column they is set a candle that will slowly regenerate this virus's HP. Destroy the candle to deprive the Candevil of its lifeline.
- Jelly
- Jelly viruses remain largely immobile, constantly charging up energy. Upon hitting maximum charge, they unleash a wave that covers the entire field. The wave cannot pass through broken panels, obstacles, or other viruses, so using them as a shield is the only way to dodge the wave. Jellys can be either Aqua or Fire element.
- Mollusk
- These aquatic viruses shield themselves in bubbles to compensate for their low HP. The bubble can be stripped away by attacks, but they will eventually pop back into existence. Mollusks attack with Aqua Tower, though they can only send geysers down one row with no tracking.
Soundtrack
- Red or Blue
- The eclectic theme for the traffic light network. Reminds me of a car alarm.
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