This time, Lan and Megaman give the “it is the year 20XX” introduction themselves. Right away one can tell that the script is much better-written and has more energy in it than in the previous games, no doubt largely due to how Capcom's localization efforts seemed to have been born-again once they started working on the Ace Attorney series. Another thing I like about this game is that all of the rather hit-or-miss mugshots from the previous two games have been replaced with new ones of much higher artistic quality, and all the old generic NPC designs with one or two exceptions have been replaced. Battle Network 6 still has the smaller graphic style for the spritework introduced in the fourth game, but it has a softer quality to it that looks really colorful and nice. It definitely feels like the development team put a lot more effort into this game.
The game proper begins in a location that we haven't seen since Battle Network 3, the classroom at ACDC Elementary. It's the end of the day, and Ms. Mari
◊, another face we haven't seen since that game, says that she has an announcement to make, that today one of their classmate's will be moving to another school, and well, it's Lan. He explains to the class that his father's been transferred, so he and his family are moving to a place called Cyber City, a much more direct pun (not to mention being in English) than the one for Den City. Immediately the scene jumps forward to the day of departure, showing Lan in front of his house with his parents Yuuichiro
◊ and Haruka
◊ saying farewell to his classmates and friends. Yuuichiro explains that Cyber City will be holding an expo on environmentalism, Net Society, and the relationship between the two, and the mayor has asked for his help in handling the large influx of Net traffic that's expected once it opens. Since Cyber City is apparently working on next-gen network technology, they will be staying even after the Expo so that he can do more research. But, he says, they'll still be in the same country, so it's not like they'll never see each other again. He and his wife then leave Lan to say his own goodbyes. They go about as you'd expect, Dex
◊ says that he'll still be his rival, Yai
◊ tells him to write, Mayl
◊ makes him promise to come back and visit, the other kids chip in, and Ms. Mari's sad that Lan's leaving since their class was going to be her first one to graduate from the school. Lots of sentimentality and people getting choked up.
But it must come to an end. The screen fades to black while Lan internally monologues (he does that a fair bit in this game) that he's sad to leave ACDC behind but now he has a new adventure to look forward to in starting his new life in Cyber City. So we jump ahead to just after the Hikaris have moved in to their new home in Cyber City's Central Town, showing Lan in his new room and he and Megaman deciding to take a look around town.
The new Hikari household is set up similarly to the old one in that we can only visit Lan's room and the downstairs kitchen/living area. Well there is one major difference other than the furniture's orientation: there's actually a bathroom downstairs. On that we can enter, with a toilet even! How often do you see that in an RPG? Lan has a Boktai poster in his room as this game continues with the crossover elements, but to a much lesser extent than in the past two games. The Japanese version had Django Mega chips just like Battle Network 5 did and even another vampire-busting scenario with Django himself like in 4, but these were all scrubbed from the overseas version likely because Boktai had petered out in the West by the time this game was released. The only remnants of it are that poster and the Gun del Sol chips.
Because I've been making a habit of pointing it out, once again everyone has a new PET. This game's model is called the Link PET, and it resembles an iPod. The original ones, at that.
Going outside, Central Town is a lot like ACDC Town, only with a few aesthetic touches that makes it look more urban, like homes being condos instead of individual houses, and instead of a park with a squirrel statue we have a plaza with a fountain. But there's still a battle chip shop (which is of course closed), a public transportation station (something called the LevBus instead of a subway line), and the gates of what will be Lan's new school: Cyber Academy. Back behind the chip shop is the entrance to the expo site, which is currently blocked off because it's still under construction, and will be for quite some time. Lurking near the chip shop is a scientist selling the usual Sub Chips:
- Mini Energy – 100z
- Unlocker – 4000z
- Locate Enemy – 7000z
Locate Enemies went up in price again...
It's at the plaza where a cut scene starts up. Megaman notices a brown-haired girl in a dress being menaced by a small robotic dog (the same one that showed up in the very beginning of the anime, in fact) and notes that viruses are most likely behind it. Lan, ever the altruist, even in an unfamiliar city, jacks in. After one psychedelic jack-in animation The Tutorial is once again upon us.
Megaman's finally gotten a new battle sprite. It's the same general pose as the one he's been sporting since 2001, but much less stiff-looking and with more fluid animations. The tutorial itself is the same as it's always been, though since Dark Chips aren't in this game the Worried and Evil emotions are no longer in. But there is one big, important change that's been made to the battle system that isn't mentioned. In addition to the classic Fire/Aqua/Elec/Wood elements a second elemental wheel has been added, consisting of Sword, Break, Cursor, and Wind, with the order going Sword > Wind, Break > Sword, Cursor > Break, and Wind > Cursor. Like the chip attributes, this is primarily for the benefit of the new transformation system introduced in this game.
After that's taken care of and the dog settles down Lan tries to introduce himself to the girl and asks if she's okay, but she just mutters a barely-audible thanks and walks away. Megaman figures that she's just embarrassed, and then ends up receiving an email – two actually. The first is just a general notice from the Net Police, Cyber City's Officials and yet another reference to the anime, and the second is from Yuuichiro telling Lan that he's hooked his computer up to the Net. That'll be our next stop, naturally.
But first we can jack back in to the robot dog to snag 600z from a Blue Mystery Data.
When we access Lan's homepage there's a Program there who says its in charge of the mailbox. Basically, since Cyber City is strict on security residents cannot receive emails from out-of-state directly on their PE Ts. Instead, all out-of-town mail, meaning anything from ACDC, will be sent to this Program. There'll be a little notification above its head when there's something new.
The first Internet area, Central Area, is laid out in a manner reminiscent of Battle Network 2's Net layouts. It's pretty spacious and easy-to-get-around, and all the familiar types of Mystery Data and skull doors are scattered around. A lot of the paths have a translucent effect to them, and pathways on upper levels now cast shadows on the floor below, which is a nice touch. At the back of Central Area 1 is a space called a Net Cafe. Net Cafes can be identified by the coffee mug sign and counter, and basically Megaman can drink some sort of cyber-coffee there for 10z. Whenever he does so the guy at the counter will give him a piece of information and if you drink enough coffee he'll eventually give you an item for being a loyal customer. Each Internet area in the game bar the Undernet and one other have cafes to visit. At this one there's also another Sub Chip dealer:
- Full Energy – 1000z
- Locate Enemy – 7000z
- Sneak Run – 100z
In order to get through to Central Area 2 we need to have a Reflector 1 chip, easily gotten from Mettaurs. Reflectors are pretty much identical in function to the Guard series, Megaman erects a shield to reflect an attack, but instead of reflecting it as a slow-moving shockwave it's reflected as a burst of energy. It's nigh-instantaneous, great for getting counters. That brings me to another point about this game – the battle chips here are really good. Heck, the game pretty much forks over an absolute ton of power to you on a silver platter. Another example being the Crack Out series, which formerly simply broke a panel, being replaced by the Crack Shot series, which also sends the panel flying down one row and dealing the not-inconsiderate-for-this-point-in-game amount of 60 damage.
Moving on to Central Area 2 there's a merchant right at the area's start:
- HP Memory – 1000z
- HP Memory – 2000z
- HP Memory – 4000z
- HP Memory – 8000z
- Spreader 1 L – 600z
- Recovery 30 * - 1000z
- Tank Cannon 1 R – 2400z
- Yo-Yo L – 4600z
We can't go any further as there's a security door blocking the way to Central Area 3 and we need a key that we don't have to open it. Shame too, since according to a Navi who's fuming at being locked out there's supposedly a giant hole of some kind there to see. So, there's nothing to do but jack out and go to bed. Better stay rested for the first day at Lan's new school.
Virus Listing
- Mettaur
- The classic Mascot Mook of the Megaman franchise appears in this series as the most basic enemy virus. Mettaurs will move up and down one column, and upon aligning with Megaman will swing a pickax, unleashing a shockwave that will travel down one row. If there are more than one Mettaur on the enemy field they will only attack one at a time, and stronger versions of the virus are able to hide under their helmets to block attacks when not attacking themselves.
- Gunner
- Gunners are similar to Cannodumbs, except these turrets are manned by a tiny soldier. They send a crosshair down one row and if they lock on to Megaman they'll fire several shots at that panel. Stronger versions can hit an entire row and even damage panels to boot.
Soundtrack
- Theme of Megaman Battle Network 6
- Easily my favorite title screen theme since Battle Network 2. It has a fitting sense of finality to it and is arranged multiple times in this soundtrack.
- Promise
- With this track being the first. The game's designated sadness theme. It gets a lot of play towards the end of the game.
- In the Room (Battle Network 6 ver.)
- Kick off your shoes, put up your feet, and stay awhile.
- Central Town
- This track was given a vocalized treatment on the official soundtrack called Past and Future.
- This track was given a vocalized treatment on the official soundtrack called Past and Future
- Digital Strider
- The main Internet theme. It reminds me of Battle Network 2's.
- Battle Field
- The virus battle theme sounds more serious than usual.
- Enemy Deleted! (Battle Network 6 ver.)
- Compared to this, at least.
- Game Over (Battle Network 6 ver.)
- Battle Network 4's game over jingle got slightly altered in this game.
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