The Colonel icon has been added to the title screen, signifying that the postgame has begun. But, before we embark on that, there's some boss-related housekeeping to take care of. Since we defeated the Alpha forms of all four Darkloids in the Dark Chip factory their Beta forms have been made available to find and fight. With the exception of Cosmoman, all of them can be found in set locations in the area where their liberation mission was held. Cosmoman's in Undernet 4 rather than in End Area 5 like you'd expect. Next, Gridman and Larkman's Omega forms can't be fought by challenging Mr. Famous and Larkman. Instead their found as random encounters in Oran Area 2 and Undernet 2 respectively after their Beta forms have been defeated.
The entrance to the postgame area is located in a side area of Undernet 2 that can only be accessed through an alternate path in Undernet 3. A golden Program at the end of this small area tells us that it can open up a portal to a part of Murkland called the Nebula Area if we've A: beaten the game, and B: have at least one-hundred Standard chips in the library, neither requirement being a problem for me. Once the portal's open, it's actually a better idea to hold off on charging into it just yet. This is because opening this portal will promote all viruses on the Net to their level 2 forms, as well as changing the content found in the GMDs, so it's recommended to go around and get better chips, maybe try out a Program Advance or two, just generally buff up your folder, since the Nebula Area does not play around. Talking to the Program again will get it to close the portal, returning the viruses to normal.
Heading through the portal, Lan and Megaman are confronted with...a liberation mission! Given that there's only one of him, Megaman's concerned about fighting through the whole area allby himself, which is when Colonel appears, saying that he sensed his presence here and came as it's him duty to support the team. And with him are Knightman, Tomahawkman, and Numberman. It's not the whole team, but it'll be enough, and Colonel declares that the liberation mission of Nebula Area 1
◊ is on.
Liberation missions in the postgame are a significant cut above what we've seen so far, as the map attests. The dark panels are much more dense, traps are more abundant, and the viruses are very tough. There are five Dark Holes to hit, so we need to get cracking. The viruses in here are pretty strong, so sadly I can't count on one-turn-liberations to speed my progress along. I was able to destroy the first Dark Hole in the first phase, but afterwards my progress slowed down a lot as the next two are way out there at the far reaches of the map. The boss of the map, Shademan, doesn't make things any easier with his constant sniping of the team with his field skill. When we finally do reach him, all he has to say about the area is that it's where all the hate on the Net aggregates. That's not very informative, but we do have a battle to fight.
Shademan Beta
HP: 1200
Element: Normal
Attacks:
- Shade Talon – Shademan slashes the column in front of him for 200 damage.
- Red Wing – Shademan summons a small bat that behaves like a slow-moving ratton, traveling down the row and making a right angle turn to strike the target for 120 damage.
- Crush Noise – Shademan fires a sonic beam that hits the panel in front of him and the following column for 120 damage as well as either paralyzing or confusing the target.
- Shade Drain – Shademan appears either in front of or behind the target and bites them several times, draining away a total of 180 damage and healing himself by the same amount.
The Darkloids' Beta forms aren't as heavily buffed up as other Navis, probably to make it easier on the player during liberation missions. I discovered during this battle that it's actually very, very easy to counter Shademan when he's using Crush Noise. Countering him and following up with a juiced-up Quake 2 hurts him significantly.
Shademan explodes for the final time and we get our prize:
- Under 11: Black Wing W
- 11-12: Shademan DS S
- Over 12: 5000z
After the mission Colonel tells everyone to basically be cautious as we don't know anything about this area before jacking out. Once Megaman's the only Navi left he hears a voice commanding him to smite the great evil that lurks deeper in the area. And then the mysterious disembodied voice drops off the Justice One J Mega chip. I guess giving us free stuff is Duo's way of trying to make up for the mess in the previous game.
Due to the way Nebula Area's set up, I'm gonna cut the update here for now.
Comments
