Lan oversleeps come the following morning, and on the day of the fieldtrip too, but for once it’s not entirely his fault since the Sub PET doesn’t have an alarm function. So we have to make a mad dash to school where Lan meets up with the rest of his class in the lobby, and then it’s off to Yoka. Yoka appears to be a rustic, Japanese mountain town, complete with the classic hot spring-equipped inn. There’s also a zoo, but it’s currently closed, so Ms. Mari gives the class a free day. It seems this fieldtrip is an extended one. Since we can’t jack in there’s not much to do other than explore the areas that we can reach and get a feel for the area. Standing by a series of snack vendor stands is a Sub Chip-selling scientist:
- Mini Energy – 100z
- Sneak Run – 200z
- Untrap – 100z
The Ura Inn itself has multiple areas to it, the outside, the lobby, main hallway, guest room, bath area (which is currently closed), and an area behind the bath that has a pathway leading off somewhere that’s fenced off. After examining the fence Ms. Mari calls everyone to assemble for dinner and bath (wow, that was a short day) and after a couple scenes of Lan and his classmates doing typical things you see anime school children doing when on a trip to an inn, like lounging in the hot springs and having a pillow fight, everyone goes to bed.
Lan and Megaman are woken up in the morning by an email from Yuuichiro, who has not only managed to fix the PET (magically changing the Sub PET into a full PET in the process) but also included a little something extra, the sucktacular Xtra Folder (one of several preset, non-editable extra chip folders we can get in this game) and the Navi Customizer, perhaps the last major staple of the series to be introduced.
So, Navi Customizer tutorial time. Accessed via the status option in the menu, the Navi Customizer lets us power up Megaman by installing various programs into him. These programs can do anything from boosting his Mega Buster stats and HP to letting him start battle with access to more than five chips and much, much more. The customization screen appears as a 4 x 4 grid called the Memory Map onto which programs are placed. Each program takes up a certain amount of squares on the grid. But we can’t just install programs willy-nilly. First off, programs must have at least one square located on the Command Line, an arrow that crosses the middle of the grid, while programs that have a plus pattern on them cannot touch the Line. Secondly, programs of the same color cannot border each other. Finally, Megaman can only equip certain colors of programs at one time. At the moment he can only use white, pink, and yellow-colored programs. Once the desired programs are selected from the list and put on the grid, hitting RUN will activate them. At the moment we have three programs available: Undershirt, which lets Megaman survive an attack that would normally delete him with 1 HP, and Attack + 1 and Speed + 1, which boosts his buster’s power and rate of fire by one point respectively.
Now, if any of the above rules are broken the programs will still work properly but Megaman will be infected by a bug for each faulty program. Bugs manifest themselves as negative effects in battle, such as Megaman gradually losing HP, constantly moving in one direction, firing blanks from his buster, etc. Fighting while bugged can actually be a legitimate strategy, both because there are some rare bugs that are actually beneficial, and for one other reason that I’ll get to in the near future. Finally, while the Memory Map may be small at the moment, there are items called Expand Memory that’ll increase the size of the Map, allowing for more programs to be installed.
With that done, we have to go meet up with the rest of the class in front of the zoo. But first, let’s raid all the places that we couldn’t get to before. In the guest room we can jack in to the TV for an Unlocker. Inside here is a new type of panel, sand panels which mire movement. In the lobby we can jack in to an armor display for a Sub Memory.
At the small gift shop right outside of the inn’s entrance a new character has appeared – the owner of the shop and, according to one of the art books, the younger sister of the inn’s manager Tamako Shiraizumi
◊. We can freely challenge her and her Navi, Metalman.
Metalman
◊
HP: 500
Element: Normal
Attacks:
- Metal Gear – Two metal gears move back and forth on the middle row of each area, dealing 20 damage if they hit Megaman. They can be destroyed by breaking attacks.
- Metal Missile – Metalman launches missiles into the air which will come down and hit random panels on Megaman’s field for 20 damage per hit.
- Metal Boomerang – Metalman hurls a circular saw blade around the perimeter of the field for 20 damage.
I remember that the very first time I played this game Metalman was nearly impossible for me. Why? Because I had bugged up my Navi Customizer without knowing, making it so that Megaman kept moving in the wrong direction and could barely dodge everything. Once I figured out what I was doing wrong, he wasn’t that difficult. The gears can be troublesome sure, as they can make dodging Metal Boomerang a pain, but overall Metalman’s attacks don’t do enough damage to be much of a threat unless you’re really sloppy.
Winning gives us Metalman M. His chip has him punch the panel in front of him, breaking it. Right before he strikes you can actually use the D-pad to quickly reposition him.
Afterwards, we can jack in to Tamako’s display stand to access her homepage. Her homepage connects to Yoka’s area of the Net, but we don’t have the code needed to get past her security cube yet. Not to mention that the path beyond is too small to traverse yet. Inside her homepage is 900z and a PMD containing Snake D. Her homepage contains a new type of panel: metal panels, which are immune to cracking or breaking. The rest of the class is already assembled in front of the zoo’s entrance. Chisao’s there too, since Dex has invited him along. Before going in we can jack into the zoo’s ticket machine for a Regular UP 1.
The zoo itself is divided up into two areas, and it’s home to lions, gorillas, elephants, and other creatures that one would typically find at a zoo. It’s noted that most of the animals seem to be angry or otherwise sullen. In the first area there’s a Repair * chip hidden inside of a trashcan, and in the second area there’s a jack in port in an emergency alarm that’s hidden in a covered walkway containing a Regular UP 1 and a PMD with a Geyser B chip. After looking at all the animals Lan meets up with the girls at the lion exhibit. One of the lions suddenly starts roaring, startling them but doing no harm. Well, they might not be doing any harm, but the zoo’s condor flying off with Chisao might. Uh, well, that’s…a thing. And a bit Hilarious in Hindsight given that fake viral video a few months ago of a golden eagle trying to fly off with a baby. Dex comes running after his little brother, but the whole group is forced to retreat when they see that now the lions are indeed out of their exhibits and very, very angry.
So yeah, all of the zoo animals are loose all over Yoka. Some of them, like the elephants and giraffes don’t do anything but block the way, but the lions, gorillas, and giant anacondas are a different story. Good thing there are no chimpanzees at the zoo, otherwise things could get real ugly real fast. We can’t get out through the gate since it’s now locked, but the animals have knocked down a fence leading away from the zoo, allowing us to escape. It turns out to be the path behind the inn’s bath area that was blocked off before, allowing us to loop around back to the zoo’s entrance. The animals are loose in the inn as well, including a hippopotamus that’s lounging in the bath. They’ve also left feces all over the place, gross.
Back at the entrance we find that the condor has perched atop an electrical tower, along with an apparently unconscious/in shock Chisao. We learn from one of the zoo staff that the reason that the animals are acting up like this is because the warden is using the electronic health monitoring chips under their skin to control them. The only way to stop them, and this save Chisao, is by jacking in to the zoo’s network via the information display located at the panda exhibit and accessing the server to stop the program. Off we go.
The Zoo Computer’s gimmick is kind of an odd one. The path will be blocked by various types of viruses (represented on the overworld by a generic Mettaur sprite) and in order to remove them we have to pick out the appropriate Program from a pool. For example, say we have a monkey virus that Megaman says looks hungry. The only way to remove it is by bringing it a banana Program. The virus will eat the Program and then explode from overeating or some such. Yeah, it’s strange. Later we’ll have to do things like bring over Programs that complete a virus set and even deal with viruses that aren’t animals at all, but inanimate objects like nuts and jars. Either way, everything will eventually explode.
After four areas of this, Megaman reaches the server, where a bestial Navi named Beastman awaits. His operator is Inukai, who reveals to Lan that he’s not actually a zoo warden but really a WWW agent. This is much to Lan and Megaman’s surprise, as they’d assumed that Wily was dead following the destruction of his original lab. Inukai orders Beastman to delete Megaman while he uses the animals to get the kids in the real world.
Beastman
◊
HP: 500
Element: Normal
Attacks:
- Jumping Claw – Beastman jumps in front of Megaman and attacks with a three-panel-wide slash for 20 damage.
- Beast Ray – Beastman charges diagonally at Megaman for 20 damage.
- Wild Rush – Beastman’s disembodied claws will shoot diagonally at Megaman before Beastman’s head flies down one row. Each stage of this attack deals 20 damage.
Beastman’s attacks aren’t all that damaging, but he is fast. Very fast. The hardest part of this battle is simply trying to hit him. Luckily though, he does have a few small vulnerability frames, namely during Jumping Claw. Since his HP isn’t too high, holding out for a Program Advance, specifically Life Sword, is a recommended strategy.
Winning gives us 1500z.
With Beastman’s defeat Inukai’s control over the animals wane, but since the whole thing was a cover for his real scheme, stealing the second Tetra Code, it doesn’t matter. Lan tries to get more information on Wily out of Inukai, but the man signs off. The WWW has to wait, says Megaman, Chisao comes first. Freed from Inukai’s control, the condor flies off, leaving Chisao all alone up on the tower. He falls, but Dex is there to catch his little brother. For once, Dex can be a genuine hero.
Back at WWW’s base, Wily gnashes his teeth over the defeats of Flashman and now Beastman, before quickly changing his mind. After he’s still got two of the four Tetra Codes, and what’s more, as long as “he” is on his side, Megaman can never hope to stop him.
Virus Listing
- Wind Box
- Wind Box's are immobile, and do nothing but constantly blow wind that forces Megaman to his back column.
- Beetle
- Beetle viruses are very similar to Beetank viruses from the previous two games, only that they're not confined to a single column. Beetle's fire bombs that create a three-panel-wide explosion, and stronger versions fire multiple bombs at once.
Soundtrack
- Yoka Village
- Yoka's quirky, yokel-y theme.
- Navi Customizer
- Each Navi Customizer theme uses the same kind of relaxing, mellow techno music.
- Maze of Wilderness
- This track reminds me of a Sonic theme for some reason.
- Proof of Courage (Battle Network 3 ver.)
- Sadly it lacks the neat refrain that Battle Network 2's version had.
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