When Lan goes through the door Baryl is already confronting Wily on the other side. The biggest draw to this room are two enormous Copybots standing on a raised portion of the floor. Wily welcomes Lan, and admits that Baryl's betrayal is the only thing he hadn't predicted so far. We've got one last chunk of exposition to get through, and Baryl kicks things off: not only was Wily the one who created Colonel, but he was also the man who raised him.
Wily picks up from here. After he left SciLab (he still insists that he was kicked out, which is a nice show of continuity) but before he dedicated himself to destroying his rival's Net Society he was contracted by a military commander in Netopia to design military robots (another point of continuity – remember the robots from the end of Battle Network 3?), and that man was Baryl's father. Wily continues his story by saying that eventually a war broke out in some foreign country several years later, and Baryl's father ended up as one of the conflict's casualties. Wily claims that that brought his hatred for the current society back to the forefront of him mind, but first he decided to pay back his debt to Baryl's father by raising his son to be a better soldier than even him.
It's interesting that Regal's never once mentioned or referenced during this monologue. That would certainly go a long way towards explaining why the two came out so differently.
At this point the two giant Copybots finish charging and Wily calls Iris over to begin preparations. She completely ignores Lan when he calls to her, prompting Baryl to say that she can't hear anything when she's in “operating mode.” Finally the time has come for Baryl to reveal what exactly this girl is. He explains that Colonel was originally created to be something like the epitome of a Navi. He was powerful, fast, decisive, and an ability to freely remote-control electronic devices, and above all have a great capacity for empathy and kindness, which I guess back then was a huge deal as Yuuichiro hadn't quite figured out how to make Navis sentient yet. However on the day his father died Wily removed the control ability from Colonel, as well as his kindness. Wily spells it out for Lan: he used those programs to create a new Navi for controlling military weaponry, and Iris is that Navi.
Now, I know this is supposed to parallel the backstories of their Reploid counterparts from the X series to some degree, but really why would you make a military Navi look like a girl in a dress, or let alone give her empathy? You'd think someone like Napalmman would be a better option, but so is the way of the JRPG, I suppose.
Anyway, Lan starts to insist that Iris can't be in the real world if that's the case but quickly realizes the obvious answer: a Copybot. In fact, it was Iris's Copybot that we likely used during Diveman's scenario. And if Wily's got two enormous ones...that's bad news, to say the least. To drive the point home, Iris calls on Falzar and the Copybot on the left turns into it with an ear-splitting screech. Iris then leaves her Copybot in order to fulfill her role as the controller of the Cybeasts. Baryl's plan is to take on Falzar, saying that if Iris and Colonel become one again Colonel should be able to handle it. Wily just laughs and says that if that ever happened, Iris and Colonel are programmed to self-destruct. Regardless, Baryl says that he can at least stop Iris and jacks in (presumably into the giant device the Copybots are currently hooked up to). He immediately collapses, apparently still suffering from the beating he sustained a few updates ago.
At this point Megaman starts screaming and the Cybeast inside of him finally breaks free and enters the other Copybot, and the two Cybeats Gregar
◊ and Falzar
◊ stand side-by-side in the real world, their combined roars powerful enough to cause electronics all over Cyber City to malfunction and blow up. Very bad, since this is shown to endanger several of the systems that the city relies on. Except for the Judge Tree. They're better off without that.
After this display of power Wily orders Iris to use the Cybeasts to blow away Lan and the traitorous Baryl away, and predictably...she refuses. Wily has been rather Genre Savvy up until this point, but Iris breaking free of her operating mode was something he didn't foresee at all. This is why you shouldn't give your weapons' AI empathy. Never ends well. She apologizes for keeping Lan in the dark this whole time and then, prompted by Colonel, gives her side of the endgame exposition dump. She originally ran away from Wily because, predictably, she realized the pain and suffering she was inflicting on people and could no longer bear it. In Cyber City for the first time she encountered a society that didn't want war and settled down in peace, at least as much as a Navi can. She took classes at Cyber Academy like a normal child (I assume she just up and stole one of the school's Copybots). Despite having found peace, however, she constantly lived in fear of Wily finding her again, but Lan's heroics around the city have finally convinced her to fight alongside her brother to defeat Wily. Wily laughs to himself, amused that he's now been betrayed by pretty much all of his underlings. Megaman urges Lan to jack in two, saying that the four of them as two pairs of siblings should be able to defeat the Cybeasts. In we go.
The final network is just an identical set of two short pathways. One leads up to Falzar, where Colonel and Iris are squaring off against it, and the other leads to Gregar, which will be our final boss. In the Cybeast Falzar version, those positions are swapped. Before they head out, it turns out that despite Gregar finally managing to break free, Megaman can still utilize its Beast Out power, saying that it's like it's been carved into him. Lan says that he'll ask their dad to remove it after everything is finished. Once we reach Gregar Wily insists that we'll never defeat it, but when has he been right about this sort of thing? The final final battle is upon us at last.
Gregar
HP: 2500
Element: Normal
Attacks:
- Beast Pressure – Whenever Gregar crashes to the ground two pieces of debris will fall on Megaman's side of the field for 50 damage.
- Mane Lightning – Gregar generates a bolt of lightning that hits the column before it and its entire row for 100 Elec damage.
- Tail Cannon – Gregar fires spikes from its tail at Megaman's column for 70 damage per hit.
- Gregar Breath – Gregar breathes flame on the panel in front of it and the following two columns for 100 Fire damage.
- Big Claw – Gregar's claws slash a 3 x 3 area before its head shoots down one row for 100 damage per hit. The next chip in Megaman's queue is destroyed.
- Mega Beast Tackle – Gregar roars before charging down one row, dropping lots of debris down on the field for 80 damage per hit.
Despite looking like Gospel, Gregar doesn't fight much like it. First off, it is constantly moving. It is by far the most mobile final boss in the entire game series, Star Force included. However, it's head is always in either the first or second column of its area so (is it really a surprise by this point?) Slash Cross is tailor-made for this battle. Ironically, Gregar's pretty good at countering normal Beast Out tactics.
Gregar actually has two hitboxes, the first being its head and the second being the panel immediately behind it, so chips that can pierce and hit multiple times like the Chargeman series can really do a number on him if you're able to get the timing right.
A neat thing about this battle that I didn't notice until typing this up is that most of Gregar's attacks are drawn from the special charge attacks of its various Beast Out forms.
Both Cybeasts have been defeated, but Gregar appears to be made out of slightly sterner stuff than its avian counterpart since it attempts a last-ditch effort at survival by taking Megaman over again. Wily's practically giddy at this since not only can his plan still succeed, but it's got the added irony of Tadashi Hikari's grandson destroying Net Society.
Megaman, now in Beast Out form once again, leaps over to Colonel and Iris's platform and not even Lan invoking Hub's name can bring his Navi back under control. Lan shouts at the two to run, but Colonel says that there is indeed a way to save Megaman. Yeah, he and Iris plan to sacrifice themselves by merging together and destroying the final Cybeast with their self-destruction. Wily's at a loss as to why they'd throw away their lives like this, but Iris says that it's because they want Lan to have a future, that nothing can come from his hatred. Colonel tells Lan to deliver a message to Baryl, that even though he was deleted destroying Gregar, it wasn't due to fate, but it was by his own will. The hero theme surges one final time as two begin to glow gold and merge together. Colonel charges forth and literally rips Gregar's spirit out of Megaman. Lan jacks him out, but there's no such recourse for Colonel. He says farewell and his self-destruct triggers, taking the final Cybeast with him.
In the real world the device that the Cybeasts' Copybots are hooked up to have begun to explode, and Wily finally accepts his defeat and tells Lan to leave, since once the Force Program that was powering everything goes up, the explosion will be powerful enough to utterly level the place. Lan insists that he escapes too, because he has to live and make amends for every human and Navi that was hurt by the WWW. And then, he adds, maybe one day he can be a real scientist again. Wily gives a wry chuckle at that possibility, and wonders why he feels a sense of sadness. Lan says it's the kindness that he thought he had thrown away, because humans aren't like Navis that can simply throw away their emotions like programs.
The explosions start to get worse and Wily observes that the Force Program is almost done for. Here Baryl regains consciousness and ascends the small flight of stairs to where the other two are. He asks of Colonel and Lan tells him what happened, including Colonel's final message. Lan urges all of them to run, but Baryl throws him down the stairs and says that he has a home and family to return to. To punctuate that all of Lan's friends rush into the room to see what's been going on. Lan and them all escape just as the screen starts to fade to white.
So, once again Lan starts narrating, tying up a few loose ends. Despite the explosion being powerful enough to level the expo site and damage Central Town, Wily somehow survived the ordeal and was arrested. Then again, if he survived getting his mind eaten by a cyber-amoeba, he can survive a mundane explosion. Yuika, Ito, and Vic were arrested by Chaud, not having gotten very far injuring themselves the way they did. Mr. Mach was arrested too, but Lan notes that he's already out, since he wasn't a bad guy and did help stop the WWW. Baryl, however, was nowhere to be found.
The date jumps forward a bit, to the day everyone graduates from ACDC Elementary. In the familiar Class 5-A Ms. Mari reads some congratulation messages, an excuse to name-drop a number of past characters like Masa the fish vendor, Higsby, Princess Pride, Metalman's operator Tamako, etc. There are a few students from Cyber Academy there too, since their school was damaged in the explosion. Eh, it's a contrived reason to have everyone together but since this is the big ending, I'm not going to rag on it. Mick's a bit envious that Lan's homeroom teacher was someone like Ms. Mari, as he describes his teacher as a worthless old man who ditched them. A voice shouts “Who's a worthless old man?!” and Mr. Mach enters the classroom, here to see his own students' graduations. They all cluster around him, and of course Mick's beside himself with joy in his tsundere way. The final bell rings, and both teachers give their final farewells. Afterwards Ms. Mari calls Lan up to tell him that earlier this morning a man came asking for him and left a large box in the Teacher's Room. Lan asks what he was like and she describes him as having long hair, stubble, and being quiet. Even Lan doesn't need this spelled out for him.
The scene changes to outside Lan's old house, where he explains that Yuuichiro's research in Cyber City was canceled after all that went down, so he and his family moved back to their old home. Of course this is the first time Mick and Tab have seen Lan's hometown, and they're both taken by its more residential and peaceful atmosphere compared to Central Town. Dex and Mick eventually get into a little debate over who gets to Net Battle Lan, and just as he gets annoyed with them a voice says that he can't tell that they're junior high students now.
Naturally it's Chaud, come to fill the group in on what's been happening with Wily's arrest. It turns out that he's actually been very graceful about the whole thing and cooperating with the authorities. He even thanked Lan. The others speculate that Wily must have finally let his past go. Eventually Dex laments that being junior high students means that they won't be able to hang out online and Net Battle all the time anymore, prompting Lan to ask everyone where they're going for junior high. He, Dex, and Mayl are going to a school creatively named Den Junior High, while Yai's apparently going to a girls-only private school. Mick and Tab are staying at Cyber Academy, while Chaud...he says that he's overseas to Netopia University, having already graduated high school. I guess that's no surprise, given how much of a hardass his father was shown to be. He says that he intends to join the Worldwide Officials, and asks everyone what they intend to be in the future. Lan says that he wants to be a scientist and expand the Net, Dex blurts that he's going to be mayor of ACDC, Yai and Tab are going to work for their respective family businesses, Mick says he wants to be a teacher (final proof of his soft spot for Mr. Mach), and of all people, it's Mayl who doesn't know what she wants to do. If it weren't for the, uh, societal implications here *coughhousewifecough* I'd say that that was the most realistic answer of the bunch. They're all only twelve, after all (ignoring Yai).
Anyway, Dex wants to know what Lan's gift was, so he tells the others to wait and quickly runs inside his house before coming back out and presenting...Megaman, who walks out the front door and gives everyone another round of congratulations. Lan introduces him as his older brother Hub, making me wonder if he ever filled his friends (other than Mayl and Chaud) in on that backstory, because otherwise I'd imagine he's be getting some weird looks right now. This isn't any old Copybot either, it was Iris's. Lan says that they should all go on the Net together.
Everyone relocates to the squirrel statue in the park, and Lan says that even though they'll all have different schools and lives, they'll always remain friends. Everyone, even Mick and Chaud agree, and as the tradition dictates, the scene ends with Lan jacking in.
The credits return to the style of the original three games of playing scenes over the staff roll. As the music track is called Future, this time they depict events that happen in, well, the future. Everyone's Navis (even Tab's) are shown meeting up, the Den City group says farewell to Chaud as he leaves to go overseas, Mick visits Plata the penguin while Fanny the elephant seal has taken an interest in Tab, Baryl is still out there, and the Hikari family is reunited in the real world thanks to Iris's Copybot.
After the credits we have the mother of all timeskips in this series with the phrase “20 years later...” If you didn't believe that Wily turned over a new leaf before, it's revealed that he eventually made a Cyberworld-wide “Net Reinforcement System” based off of Colonel and Iris. The Colonel part of the program automatically deletes viruses and criminals, while the Iris part of the system repairs damage to the Net. Ironically, it's Dr. Wily of all characters in the Megaman franchise, that ends up brightening the world, in two universes at that (and it's even voluntary here)! Now there's a scientist who's working hard to lay the foundations for a new Net Society.
The screen fades in to show the old Hikari household. Someone has overslept and is running late, but it's not Lan. Nope, it is his son Patch, a last stab at the series's computer-oriented Theme Naming. There aren't any mugshots or sprites during this epilogue segment, so it's left up to your imagination what everyone looks like now. After a few lines speculating over which one of his parents Patch takes after more, Megaman reminds Lan that he has a scientists' meeting today, throwing him into a bit of a panic. Some things truly will never change. Lan also mentions that since Chaud is coming from Netopia to be there, he can't afford to be late lest he have some smart remark for him. He and Patch (and Megaman too I think – from the dialogue it sounds like he's still using the Copybot) rush out the door to catch the Metroline.
A melancholy version of the game's main theme strikes up as Lan wonders if it's really been twenty years now. Everyone pretty much became what they wanted to be (Lan even expresses his disbelief that Dex actually became mayor), Lan and Mayl married, had Patch (must have been at a somewhat young age, come to think of it), and now they're all working towards building a brighter future, the future dreamed of by Yuuichiro, Tadashi, and even Wily. It'll be difficult, Lan reflects, but as Megaman says they've overcome everything so far. It's onward to the future, and so for the final time Lan calls out the old jack in invocation: “Jack in! Megaman, Execute!!”
At long last, we have reached the end of the Battle Network story. It has the distinction of being only of three Megaman series to reach a definitive end, and the only one to actually spell out "THE END." The games had a lot of ups and downs, but it's good that was able to go out on a high note.
Next up is the usual postgame, featuring some of the usual challenges. Battle Network 6 was actually the first of the games that I managed to get 100% Completion on, so going through it for this blog won't be an entirely new experience for me like 3, 4, and 5, but it's ending battle is at least very memorable. Right now I'm almost done with the grind for the Standard Complete icon which'll allow me to access the latter portion of it, so hopefully I'll have it up soon and close the book on this series.
Soundtrack
- Decisive Battle
- I remember at first being a little disappointed that the music for the final boss was a remix of the regular boss battle theme, but perhaps it was meant as another bookend with the first game, which did the same with the Life Virus battle.
- Future
- I still wonder why Battle Network 4's credits were the only ones in the series to fully spell out the staff's names.
- Epilogue
- Want to make my inner 16 year-old sentimental? Play this.
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