Beyond the door is a vast room flooded with polluted water. At the far end is Wily, standing on a raised stage with a Pulse Transmission System behind him. On the floor around the stage are more of the devices, each one occupied by an unconscious WWW member, probably reduced to vegetables after being destroyed in the Cyberworld. Lan announces his intention to delete Alpha, but Wily says that he’s too late since Alpha has already been 80% decoded. In just a few minutes it will awaken and Wily will transmit it to the world via the antenna complex on the castle’s roof. What’s more, there are no jacks in the room, no way for Megaman to get at Alpha.
Or there wouldn’t be, had Wily not eliminated Inukai. As Wily steps in to his Pulse Transmission chair and activates it Lan spots and empty chair elsewhere in the room, the one where Inukai would’ve presumably sat in. Megaman’s hesitant to use it out of fear for Lan’s wellbeing, but it’s the only option left to them. Lan gets into the chair, inserts his PET into an available slot, and activates the system. He finds himself in Cyberworld, standing across from Megaman. After a brief moment of surprise at actually being in the Cyberworld he starts to say that seeing Megaman like this is like a dream, but quickly stops in horror as he realizes the irony. Megaman asks him what’s wrong, but his operator shrugs it off, saying that they need to find Wily. The two merge as well and move out.
Up ahead we see Bass and Wily at a giant green device. This is Guardian, Wily explains, and if Bass destroys and absorbs it he’ll become even stronger. Bass asks him why he wants to make him even stronger, and Wily says that he doesn’t care what Bass does with this power as long as it’s aimed at Net society. Bass replies that he hates humans, not necessarily Net society, but since he’s amused by the old man he destroys Guardian anyway and absorbs its remnants with his Get Ability Program.
At this point Megaman and Lan arrive, and Wily leaves it up to Bass to dispatch them. Bass and Megaman get into an argument over the nature of humans, with Bass saying that they think of humans as nothing more than tools and Megaman and his operator strongly disagreeing. Bass says that he’ll weed out Navis who can’t exist on their own while Lan and Megaman prepare to prove themselves through battle, since it’s the only thing that Bass will accept.
Bass
HP: 1000
Element: Normal
Attacks:
- Airburst – Bass shoots an energy blast down one row for 100 damage.
- Explosion – Bass briefly charges up his busters before randomly firing shots down all rows for 100 damage per hit.
- Earthbreaker – Bass moves into Megaman’s area and smashes the column in front of him, breaking the panels and dealing 100 damage.
- Life Aura – Bass is protected by a regenerating aura that blocks all attacks that do less than 100 damage.
Bass isn’t up to his usual standards, I guess destroying Guardian might’ve taken some of the wind out of his sails. He has nothing going on here that we haven’t seen before, just at a more manageable level. My favorite chip for this battle is Step Sword since it works really well in dropping Life Aura when he’s charging up for Explosion. I guess if one goes in completely unprepared they’re gonna have trouble, but by this point in the series that shouldn’t be happening.
Winning gives us 2000z.
Bass is in disbelief that he actually lost after the battle. Wily mutters that he was hoping that Megaman and Bass would take each other out, and then tells him that their partnership was not built on any sort of mutual foundation of reconcilable goals at all, but that he was simply using his power to destroy Guardian. Yes, even Gospel’s Super Navi Development Project was leading up to this moment, Alpha’s awakening. Speaking of, the area begins to shake, and as Wily launches into yet another peal of insane laughter Bass is swallowed up by a blob of Alpha that rises up through the floor. Even Bass can’t do anything to defend himself and is swiftly and unceremoniously absorbed. Even Wily isn’t safe, as he quickly follows suit. That should teach him to mess around with giant Internet kaiju! (it doesn’t)
Lan and Megaman don’t get absorbed. Instead they get treated to the main event: Alpha’s main body rising out of the goop in all its one-eyed, gelatinous glory. And so we come to the final boss: the Internet itself.
Alpha
◊
HP: 2000
Element: Normal
Attacks:
- Devil Hand – One of Alpha’s claws swipes at the column that Megaman is currently on before the other shoots down the row at him, each claw dealing 50 damage.
- Reverse Vulcan – The gun pods on Alpha’s shoulders open up and fire Gatling gun rounds into Megaman’s area, tracking his movements and dealing 20 damage per hit.
- Red-Eyes Delete – Alpha shoots a laser beam that hits the middle panel of Megaman’s rightmost column, cracks it, and creates a shockwave that spreads to the column’s two other panels and down the middle row for 80 damage.
- Alpha Arm Sigma – A giant needle protrudes from Alpha’s body and begins to rapidly flash lightning in a set pattern – down the middle row and then the two adjacent ones – for 60 Elec damage per hit.
- Alpha Arm Omega – Alpha shoots a giant missile down the center row. If it reaches the back of the field without hitting anything it will explode the back two columns for 100 damage.
This fight seems to have been inspired by the Green Devil fight from Megaman 8 in that Alpha’s weak point, its core, is protected by a layer of slime that needs to be hacked away at. When the core is fully exposed and is purple it can be damaged, but its shielding will eventually begin to regenerate, and Alpha’s attacks are geared towards keeping Megaman out of the middle row, giving him time to repair the shield. Since Alpha stays in place it’s easy to peg him with slow, multi-hitting attacks like Random Meteor or Shake. What Alpha really doesn’t like though, are the Zeta Cannon Program Advances. Those will decimate it in absolutely no time at all. Overall I found Alpha to be a little easier than Gospel was, though that might just be down to better chip selection and muscle memory than actual difficulty. Still, it’s a satisfying battle.
Alpha’s core and main body explodes, leaving behind a giant door. Lan and Megaman decide to head through it since why not? They’ve already come this far, might as well see things through to the end. Inside is an office space that’s cluttered with computers and other old machinery. Lan wonders if this is the real world, but Megaman says that it’s just an image file, albeit an old one. They eventually that this must be SciLab some time in the past and wonder what the purpose of the room is. An old, bearded man appears, telling them that this place was meant to keep Alpha sealed.
With a shock Lan recognized the old man from old photographs – it’s his grandfather, Tadashi Hikari
◊. When I said back at the end of the first game that Tadashi was basically the Dr. Light of the setting, I certainly meant it. He’s even got the same “AI from beyond the grave” thing going that his Classic counterpart did. And here’s some trivia for you, if you translate Tadashi’s name you get “right light”, Capcom having a bit of fun with the names there. He’s not depicted in-game wearing that Hawaiian shirt, though.
Tadashi recognizes the two as his grandchildren and after hearing that they were the ones who defeated Alpha he asks what happened to Wily. Upon hearing that he was absorbed he expresses regret that such a brilliant mind went astray (we find out later in the series that the two used to work side by side before their falling out). He explains that he’s here to monitor Guardian. He had lost hope when it was destroyed, but now that Alpha’s core is gone the body will start to fade away. He asks his grandchildren how Net society has been doing and gives them a letter of some sort to give to Yuuichiro when they get back. The room begins to shake, heralding Alpha’s collapse. Tadashi urges Lan and Megaman to leave so that they won’t get trapped. The two promise to make his dream of a peaceful Net society a reality before leaving.
Leaving the area isn’t done via a cutscene, we have to manually bring Megaman back to the area’s jack in (or I guess pulse in, in this case) point. But before we can get that far he suddenly gets swallowed up by another piece of Alpha’s body that’s still alive. Lan finds himself in a pitch-black, empty space. Megaman says that he can already feel Alpha trying to absorb him, and that in a few they’ll be nothing more than junk data after it finally fades away. Lan’s desperate to escape, and Megaman sees only one option: to sacrifice himself by overloading himself, allowing Lan to escape by punching a hole in Alpha. Lan begs him not to, but Megaman’s determined to see this through. Speaking as Hub Hikari, he tells his twin brother that he has to have a future where he can make people happy like he was able to make him, and speaking as Megaman he tells Lan that just because he’ll be gone doesn’t mean that he can slack off. Lan again begs for Megaman to not leave him, but it’s too late. The screen goes white and then a single beam of light is seen escaping from the Cyberworld.
When Lan wakes up he’s been brought outside by the others. Tora praises him as being the best Net Battler in ACDC, only for Lan in his grief to shoot back that he’s the worse operator around since Megaman’s gone. There’s no time to dwell on this though, for the laboratory starts to explode, and everyone has to beat a quick retreat back to the boat. The narration then picks up, saying that within the next ten hours all Alpha activity around the globe began to cease. The world is saved.
When the group finally makes it back to Beach Street the girls are still waiting for them. Yai congratulates them and says that everyone is waiting back in front of the TV station. Tora goes off to bring Cossak to the hospital, while the others go on ahead. At the TV station are Lan’s parents, Chisao, and even Chaud’s father, Shuuseki, who finally gives his son a bit of praise before taking his leave. Tora eventually comes back amidst the celebrating to report that Cossak should be fine, and he speculates that Bass, despite his words, couldn’t bring himself to kill his creator. After this he says that he’s going to head back home to Swapopolis, with plenty of stories to tell his brothers.
Finally, Lan goes over to his parents, and tells them about everything that happened at the WWW base, from Wily’s and Cossak’s fates, meeting his grandfather, and Megaman’s sacrifice. When he’s finished Yuuichiro finally seems to realize that he was essentially playing God when he created Megaman. If Navis can have a will and their own emotions, he says, then they’re no different from humans and he says that what he did to Lan was terrible, as not only has he lost a Navi, but he’s also lost his brother. Lan however insists that his father’s wrong wasn’t wrong since he loved being with Megaman, and that he’d laugh at him if he saw everyone being sad. He then asks if Yuuichiro knew about Tadashi’s data being inside of Alpha and his replies yes. In fact, that was the reason that Alpha was never deleted up until now.
… Meaning that all of this could have been easily avoided. Ergh, I had completely forgotten about that little detail, it’s been so long. If SciLab had the capacity to delete Alpha once and for all, then why did they go through the extra step of putting Tadashi’s data inside to monitor it? I guess I can think of a few justifications for it, but that’s not how denouements should be handled, dammit! Sigh.
Well, after finishing the conversation, Lan goes off by himself. Standing at the end of the Beach Street pier facing the ocean he begins to promise that he’ll shape up in Megaman’s absence. He gets overcome with emotion and admits that he doesn’t want to be alone, which is the cue for all of his friends, even including Sean and Chaud, to cheer him up. Lan thinks to himself that he’ll be okay, and goes to join them.
The narration picks, saying that four months have passed since Alpha’s destruction. The Officials searched what was left of the WWW base and recovered all of the WWW operators, while Lan has come down to Beach Street so that he can talk to Megaman. He says that he’s getting used to having to get by without Megaman minding him, and that tomorrow is his first day of sixth grade. The thing is, sixth graders have to have Navis of their own, so his father will be giving him a new one. And so, since he won’t be able to say it again after tomorrow, Lan shouts out his jack in catchphrase one last time: “Jack in, Megaman, execute!”
The credits roll after the fade to black. As usual miscellaneous scenes are played over them, though this time they seem to have a more comical bent, like the group having some fun with their hypnotized personas from the start of the game, Gutsman missing the Cyber Metroline, and some literal toilet humor at the zoo. After they end there’s a brief scene where a voice wonders where he is and if he’s alive. Something growls, and the voice wonders if it will save him…
The final scene shows Lan in his room, getting ready for his first day of sixth grade. After he falls asleep the screen fades to black as Yuuichiro comes home and begins talking with Haruka. He has Lan’s new Navi, but since his son is already in bed he says that he’ll just install it overnight. He says that they finally managed to decode Tadashi’s message today, and that it spoke about an isolated part of Alpha, the only part that Alpha itself couldn’t touch. He says that that was where Tadashi’s data was stored, along with one other thing. Haruka asks what this other thing was, and her husband simply chuckles and says that she’ll see tomorrow.
The next morning Lan’s alarm goes off and as he groggily tries to rise a voice says that he’s glad that he has finally learned to wake up by himself. Lan wonders if this is a dream, but the voice assures him that it isn’t.
“Good morning, Lan!!”
Soundtrack
- Vs. Alpha
- I like how this track put emphasis on the fact that you're fighting something that's completely alien and unnatural-looking compared to the previous two final bosses. The refrain is what really carries it.
- Farewell
- And the credits theme. Like Tree of Life it got an arrangement on the OST, only vocalized.
- And the credits theme. Like Tree of Life it got an arrangement on the OST, only vocalized.
And that's the end of the main game. Ostensibly it feels more like the end of a series than a game, but that obviously was not the case, since there are still three more games in the series to go. I'll have some stuff to say about that when I get there. But for now, the postgame beckons.
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