The "Real Operation" part comes into play with the gameplay mechanics: during the overworld exploration, the player will still control the Navi directly. However, during battles the character will move on their own according to specified settings. What this is meant to simulate is how a "real" NetNavi would perform in the world of Battle Network, being AI companions who are mostly autonomous but with input from an operator. Battle Chips are handed out at random and made available three at a time, and it is up to the player to order their Navi to attack effectively.
The game's main selling point was the compatibility with the BattleChip Gate toy, which allowed the use of real-life chips to activate attacks and characters in the game. It also features a battery-powered time system, which changes enemy patterns and enables various events as well as the tournaments. The ability to control other Navis would later be utilized in the succeeding titles Mega Man Battle Network 5: Team Colonel and Team ProtoMan and Mega Man Battle Network 6: Cybeast Gregar and Cybeast Falzar.
Although it was a Japan-exclusive release, fans have since worked on an English translation that was finished on October 2019
, as well as a mod that restores traditional Battle Network gameplay. There is also an unused feature in Battle Network 5: Double Team DS that, when reactivated, restores a Real Operation-esque gameplay system (however it is incomplete as you can never change your Navi's chip folder from the default setting).
This game features the following tropes:
- Addressing the Player: Upon booting up the PET for the first time, you'll be asked for some personal information and afterwards your Navis will make small talk with you, such as asking about your crush or family members.
- Artificial Stupidity:
- The AI is typically good at dodging... under normal conditions and will slip up every now and then if you take too long fighting. Two or more attack patterns going on at once, ice floors and status effects make it very likely for the AI to take several hits in a row.
- A trial-and-error aspect of the game is figuring which enemy out of a group should be focused on so the Navi stops being a punching bag: focus on one virus and it will get hit by another; focus on the other guy and suddenly the AI will dodge everything. Sometimes it will also walk straight into an attack after deleting one enemy and suddenly switching targets as a consequence.
- On top of going bananas on ice panels, the AI will not attempt to avoid poison panels. There will be instances where it can dodge a repetitive attack pattern to a safe panel, but it will instead walk into poison every time.
- Cirkill viruses run circles around the enemy field and were already pretty annoying to fight in 4. This game makes them even worse because the Navi AI just won't. stop. running. into. their. bullets, even if there just one Cirkill and no abnormal panels on the board.
- If two Moloko viruses are running side by side, THE AI WILL ALWAYS SIDE-STEP THE WRONG WAY!
- Sword chips are automatically aimed, and if a target is not available the AI will teleport randomly and likely take damage until it either can slash something or it runs out of time and swings at nothing instead. When it comes to Long and Hero Swords, you must set the Navi to be at point-blank range with the target, or else it will waste the sword's range.
- The AI can never take advantage of holes and obstacles on the field to just stand still and safely hit enemies.
- KendoMan's basic attack pattern involves him rushing in a straight line across the row. It is predictable and easy to counter, but oddly enough the AI can only dodge this if set to stand on the back column.
- Awesome, but Impractical:
- It might seem cool to get Bass on our side for once, but while he starts out with a Barrier 100 (instead of a Life Aura) he doesn't get to have the zillion HP he usually has as a boss and his unique charged attacks leave him completely vulnerable. Darkness Overload does good damage but hits specifically the final two columns and can be blocked if anything is in Bass' way. Bass' other attack, the random machine gun that's devastating when he's a boss, is only at peak usefulness after every buster upgrade is found, with the final one being in the last section of the secret area.
- Giga chips hold tremendous power but require a full Custom gauge. Final Gun in particular must be charged by the Navi before it is actually used.
- Looking forward to using Program Advances? Only three chips are ever available at once during battle, drastically reducing the chances of an Advance becoming available. To input one, you must discard the correct sequence of chips while the Navi becomes a sitting duck. And while using the BattleChip Gate lets you input an Advance at will, even Mettaurs will be likely to interrupt the attack anyway.
- Backtracking:
- By the time you encounter SearchMan you should already be familiar with his minigame, so what he does is force you to return on foot from Internet 10 to 2 before starting the mandatory version. Thankfully, once you clear the minigame your Navi is set back to Internet 10.
- Later, when you encounter him in Chaos Area 1, he'll force you to backtrack to Internet 7, effectively forcing you to make two trips through the entire Undernet (and a bit of Chaos Area 1 itself), which are filled with high-leveled viruses. Thankfully, this encounter is optional.
- NapalmMan tells the player to walk from a comp linked to Undernet 1 aaallllll the way back to Internet 1 so they can take on his minigame.
- Every time you defeat a hidden boss, you must jack out to receive the e-mail that triggers the next one.
- By the time you encounter SearchMan you should already be familiar with his minigame, so what he does is force you to return on foot from Internet 10 to 2 before starting the mandatory version. Thankfully, once you clear the minigame your Navi is set back to Internet 10.
- Bonus Level of Hell: Chaos Area, where LaserMan and Bass are, opens after clearing the Official Tournament.
- Boring, but Practical: Being limited to just three chip choices is a pain. So, to owners of the BattleChip Gate, even plain attack enhancers and Area Grabs become twice as useful since they can be used at will. It's great to also have healing chips on hand instead of having them occupy folder space and appear at inopportune times in-game.
- Bribing Your Way to Victory: Players who purchased a BattleChip Gate can insert real battle chips into the game without worrying about the randomized inventory, albeit with a limit on how many times each kind of chip can be inserted until jacking out. It is one huge advantage to have. Also, there are 8 characters who can only be unlocked via the BattleChip Gate, and the chips that do that have no other function in gameplay.
- Cap:
- With the BattleChip Gate on, each individual physical chip you own can only be used a few times. This limit only resets after jacking out.
- You can only register one Navi per weekday for the weekends' Silver, Gold and Official tournaments.
- Charged Attack: Every character has at least one.
- Continuing is Painful: Don't forget to save often, as a game over will kick you back to the title screen.
- Counter-Attack:
- Counters fill the entire Custom Gauge, making them especially important. However, they do not grant double damage for the next attack like in the main games from 4 onwards. It also boosts the battle score, making it possible to earn S ranks even if the battle goes on for too long.
- The Counter chip does just that, instantly, to any enemy in their vulnerable state. Otherwise, it just poofs.
- Creative Closing Credits: After clearing the Official Tournament with 13 Navis, the staff roll is displayed. It features several skits of Navis fighting and ends with MegaMan and ProtoMan performing Double Hero to defeat Bass.
- Crosshair Aware: The enemy the player's Navi focuses on will be marked with a crosshair.
- Damn You, Muscle Memory!: The game plays very differently from the usual Battle Network installment. The automated AI and the new Battle Chip input rules often make tasks that would be easy in the other games much more difficult.
- In here there is no such thing as a Program Advance made up of three copies of the same chip. The Giga Cannon series, for example, require an Attack+10 of all things and then two copies of the same Cannon chip.
- Difficult, but Awesome: Program Advances must be set in the middle of a battle while the Navi is defenseless. It takes luck, planning, and dexterity, but it sure is exciting when it does work right.
- Disc-One Nuke: The BattleChip Gate enables the player to use any overpowered physical chips they own right off the bat, with the limitation of having to jack out or finding golden Mr. Progs at Internet 7, 12 and Undernet 3 to use them again.
- Epic Fail: WindMan's minigame has the player charge up a tornado to launch a dummy Mr. Prog into orbit. Succeeding shows it landing on its intended destination with a parachute and failing causes it to land elsewhere on its head and ask the player to try again. If the player screws up such that the Mr. Prog doesn't even leave the launch area, it falls on its head and actually breaks, all while WindMan complains about the player's lack of skill.
- Escape Battle Technique: Using the L button on the menu prompts the "tactical retreat" option, and you can select it anytime. The chance of it working increases the more maximum HP your Navi has and the fuller the Custom gauge is.
- Excuse Plot: Bordering on No Plot? No Problem!. You sign up for Net Battle tournaments and receive e-mails warning of Darkloids being up to no good, and that's it.
- Fake Longevity: The game is designed to be cleared in over three weeks by time-gating the main tournaments. Unfortunately, it lacks a plot or a significant number of activities to entertain the player in the meantime.
- Game-Breaking Bug: The game revolves around real time-based events, so if the internal battery runs out it will become far more unplayable than a Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire cart on the same situation.
- Good All Along: As it turns out, the supposed Darkloids you're fighting throughout the whole game are actually a part of a test set up by the Officials. The only truly evil Navis fought by the player are ShadeMan, LaserMan, and Bass.
- Gotta Catch 'Em All: A full chip library is required for the post-game, as usual. All chips must be obtained in-game to be recorded, but slotting something into the BattleChip Gate is what enables the little icons for them in the library.
- Gratuitous French: One Fight Day challenger in Internet 6 mixes French in his dialogue.
- Guide Dang It!:
- You must control the distance between the Navi and enemies to aim certain chips correctly, but what goes unexplained is that sending the Navi to the back row seems to put them on the defensive, allowing them to dodge certain attacks better.
- Part of the quest for registering into the Official Tournament involves defeating the bosses hidden in certain areas, which is an optional task in the rest of the series. One Official Navi only hints at this by stating the aptitude test for the tournament had already started when the player became an Apprentice Netbattler.
- Heart Container: As opposed to getting HPMemories from shops, 4.5 offers a number of unique ways of gaining extra HP. Some Navis are required to clear minigames, others might absorb certain post-battle elemental Battle Chip prizes, and others still might be required to challenge Navis around the Net to combat. There are a handful of Navis who have methods unique to them, such as GutsMan getting more HP every 8 battles or ThunderMan erecting statues around the Net.
- In-Universe Game Clock: One of the game's main features. Date and time affect events and enemy encounters in the cyberworld.
- Different viruses appear throughout the week based on the day. Monday has more frequent encounters with WindBox and Weather viruses, Tuesday has an increase in Fire viruses, Wednesday has Aqua, Thursday has Wood, and Friday has Elec.
- The Everyday Tournament is hosted at four specific times every day in four different locations.
- The Silver, Gold, Official, and Under Tournaments are available to be registered for on weekdays. They then become available on the PET menu during Saturday and Sunday.
- Different Navis are available to fight on the Net depending on what day it is, such as Star Man appearing in Internet 4 on Sundays.
- Mondays (and early Tuesdays) are Trash Day, with junk piles stored around the Net for clean-up. These piles occasionally have chips, zenny, or Bug Frags in them.
- Wednesdays are "Ladies' Day", so Roll will get discounts from most shopkeepers except the Bug Frag Trader. There are also a few dealers who sell Giga Chips on this day only to Roll.
- On Fridays, you will find NormalNavis, HeelNavis and virus tamer NPCs looking for a fight.
- Joke Item: To even fight at all you need the Custom gauge filled out as fast as possible, so the Slow Gauge chip is even more useless than before.
- Of course, this makes it even more dangerous when a virus has it equipped...
- Level Scaling:
- The difficulty of a location's Every Day Tournament increases once it is cleared, so you can't rely on it forever for the tickets that unlock certain gates.
- Virus encounters become stronger for any Navi who has beaten the Official Tournament.
- Limit Break: To unleash a Program Advance, you must press Select and discard the appropriate sequence of chips in order. Because you can only pick from three chips at a time and the Navi becomes vulnerable in discard mode, this feature is made more complicated than in the main games.
- Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: Some Navis start out with a shield they can equip, and it blocks most attacks other than airborne ones or those of the Breaking type. This is so you can try to protect your Navi from their own enormous Artificial Stupidity.
- Mana Meter: The Custom gauge has this role. Standard chips cost 1/4 meter, Mega chips cost 3/4 and Giga chips cost the full gauge. Some chips don't consume the gauge but still require it to be filled enough. You can fill the meter faster by using a Navi's buster shot or performing counters. Also, actions such as shielding or shuffling chips consume the gauge, too.
- Musical Nod: MegaMan's theme on the PET menu is a short version of Running Through the Cyberworld from the first game. Many of the other Navis likewise have the stage themes of their counterparts from the original Mega Man series or an appropriate leitmotif.
- Nerf: The Full Custom chip is nearly useless in this game because of how it being a Mega Chip clashes with the new rules. Instead of instantly filling the Custom gauge from zero as it should, it will just fill its remaining quarter.
- No Fair Cheating:
- Changing the in-game date resets the player's money and cancels any active events, but this can't really keep them from exploiting the system and beating the game early.
- Even though Fast Gauge is a Standard chip, you can only input it once on the BattleChip Gate.
- No Campaign for the Wicked: None of the Darkloids (real or fake) are playable.
- Downplayed in the case of StarMan, NapalmMan, and PlantMan, all of whom were villains in their last appearances. Subverted outright if you unlock ShadowMan and Bass as playable Navis.
- NapalmMan does work for a Dark Guild that operates covertly and seems to do some kind of shady work with viruses. Whenever something goes wrong, the guild typically hires NapalmMan to clean up their mess before the Officials show up in order to keep their activities clandestine.
- ShadowMan can receive missions to delete Official Navis or regular Navis in painful ways from clients, despite otherwise spending the game doing work for the Officials in deleting the Darkloids.
- Bass makes it clear from the outset that he's only allying with the player out of morbid curiosity. While he is content listening to their orders, he gains more HP by deleting hapless Navis that he runs across and only fights the Darkloids because he's starved for anything resembling a challenge.
- Downplayed in the case of StarMan, NapalmMan, and PlantMan, all of whom were villains in their last appearances. Subverted outright if you unlock ShadowMan and Bass as playable Navis.
- Oddball in the Series: The game has significant changes for the series' battle system and has no substantial storyline beyond competing in tournaments for the sake of it.
- Promoted to Playable: Several boss characters from previous games are playable in this one, including Bass.
- Rank Inflation: The battle grading ranges from 1 to 10 and then a S if the player performs really well. The S rank grants a Bug Frag on top of a chip or money prize for normal encounters, and three Bug Frags for bosses.
- Real-Time Weapon Change: You can shuffle your folder during battle at the cost of 1/4 of the Custom gauge. By pressing Select you can also input Program Advances and discard Battle Chips, but your Navi will be defenseless during this process.
- Save-Game Limits: You can only record one player profile, but each character has their own campaign, and most resources are not shared between them.
- Secret Character: The game starts out with MegaMan, Roll, GutsMan and NumberMan. Nine other Navis are unlocked by clearing the Official Tournament with each character or by inserting their Navi chips into the BattleChip Gate. There are also a secret eight that are only unlockable through the latter in the base game.
- Sequential Boss: Each of the Tournaments involve defeating three Navis in a row, though you are healed between each round.
- Status Effects: Effects such as confusion and blindness can have disastrous results in this game thanks to the automated AI, which will become a complete sitting duck and stop responding to charged attack commands. It won't even use the shield!
- This Looks Like A Job For Aqua Man: The peashooter buster shot, while typically less useful than the other weapons you can equip to your Navis, occasionally have situations where it is handy. One such example is the VideoMan fight, where his tape will continually stretch over the field frequently enough that the charged shots become cumbersome.
- Took a Level in Kindness: JunkMan is significantly kinder than his portrayal in the last game.
- Tsundere: Despite despising mankind, Bass amusingly behaves like this. In the PET menu he does an ominous Aside Glance with glowing red eyes and acts aloof but follows the player's orders anyway, has a few supporting comments to give, and tends to be rather curious about the player's family and hobbies.
- Unexpected Gameplay Change: While a fair number are optional, there are six minigames that the player can clear to advance further into the internet. Some characters can also find tickets for playing those minigames offline and will earn extra HP from clearing them.
- Wake-Up Call Boss: The black HeelNavi that is always seen training in Internet 2 turns out to be Omega-level when challenged on a Friday.
- Warm-Up Boss: The first Fight Day challenger on Internet 1 has just 300 HP and no noteworthy skills. One can earn a lot of Bug Frags from repeatedly S-ranking him.
- A Winner Is You: After clearing the Official Tournament, you get a brief victory speech from your Navi while they're showered with confetti. If you clear the game with the 13 Navis on the top two rows, you also get to see the staff roll.
- Years Too Early: Another Fight Day challenger in Internet 6 calls the player lightyears too early to beat him if he wins.
