When Lan and Megaman arrive in Kotobuki they’re greeted by a bizarre sight. A circuitry-like pattern has spread over a good chunk of the town, and an apartment complex is surrounded by strange flickering lights while it appears to be dissolving. The two decide that that must be where Gospel’s headquartered and decide to check it out. Kotobuki is almost entirely deserted save for a few foolish souls whom I imagine will soon drop dead thanks to radiation poisoning. There’s a vending machine by a convenience store that we can jack in to for a Regular UP 3. The lobby of the apartment building is abandoned as well, but there’s a card reader what can be jacked in to for a Bug Frag and a PMD containing a Guardian O. They find that the elevator isn’t working, until Lan kicks the doors. He goes to hide in case the occupant is someone from Gospel, but then a familiar voice calls out to him to wait. It’s actually Dex, Mayl, and Yai, come to investigate the place as fellow City Net Battlers!
Wait…how did they get here before I did (well, okay, I did do those jobs first)? And when did Yai become a City Net Battle, she didn’t take the Z License exam with the others? Anyway, Lan’s justifiably concerned about them being exposed to the radiation, but apparently they’re all wearing something called “Mag Wear” courtesy of Yai’s father that’ll shield them. Dex reports that the entire building seems to be one gigantic servers, as there are apparently servers growing, that’s right, growing, all over the place on the second floor, which is as high as they were able to go. Those three can’t do anymore and decide to leave before the radiation can get to them, bringing things down to, as always, Lan and Megaman. From this point forward the three can be found hanging outside of Kotobuki’s Metroline station, and talking to Yai there will prompt her to give us an Attack + 20 *.
Right now the elevator only goes up to the second floor. In order to progress we of course have to jack in to one of the servers in the apartment rooms and fix things in the network. Once inside the Apartment Computer Megaman is greeted by the sight of a half-assembled building top hanging in midair. Lan realizes that it’s actually the missing parts of the apartment complex, and Megaman figures that the radiation must be so strong that the real and cyberworlds are slowly warping together. As ludicrous an idea that is, I feel that the writers missed an opportunity to expound on this phenomena a bit. I mean, the real world and cyberworld warping like this is definitely a concept that could have had a lot of mileage in it, but as it stands it’s never mentioned again past this little scene. Though perhaps this is where the anime eventually got the inspiration for the Dimensional Areas in Axess?
All right, the thing for this network is that the warp points are on the fritz thanks to the radiation. Instead of moving Megaman further along, they will instead bring him to a new area entirely. In order to fix the warps we need to collect items known as El Bits and insert them into the appropriate device. Doing so will automatically bring Megaman back to where he first stepped into the warp, and if he steps into it again it’ll take him where it’s supposed to. The El Bits also have a numeric code attached to them, and the first two digits correspond to one of the complex’s floors. Once they’re inserted into their devices, Lan can reach those floors via the elevator in the real world. If this sounds complicated in any way, it really isn’t in practice. Each area of the Apartment Computer is big and some degree of backtracking is required to get all of the Mystery Data (there’s even a Power UP in there), but the layout generally leads you to where you need to go.
There’s one El Bit that’s a bit of an outlier, though, El Bit EV. This one governs the elevator itself and its device is at the very end of the network. But as Megaman approaches it Airman, Quickman, and Cutman jack in to bar the way. They’re not the originals though, merely copies programmed with no directives other than to delete Megaman. So it’s time for the traditional Megaman boss rush, even more so than is usual for Battle Network since we fight them all in a row. However, they’re all in their base forms, so they’re barely a threat.
Airman
HP: 300
Element: Normal
Attacks:
- Air Blast – Airman fires a blast of air down one row for 15 damage.
- Triple Tornado – Airman launches three small tornadoes, one on each row, down the field for 10 damage. One tornado will move more quickly or slowly than the others, giving Megaman an opportunity to slip past.
- Double Tornado – Two whirlwinds are created in Megaman’s area, which then move towards him for 10 damage.
Zzz…
Quickman
HP: 400
Element: Normal
Attacks:
- Quick Boomerang – Quickman hurls the spikes on his gauntlets down one row and back for 40 damage.
- Double Boomerang – Quickman hurls two Quick Boomerangs one after the other on two adjacent rows for 40 damage.
Well, he still blocks all non-breaking attacks when standing still, but his HP is so low that’s no longer a nuisance.
Cutman
HP: 600
Element: Normal
Attacks:
- Rolling Cutter – A pair of scissors will travel around the outer edge of Megaman’s field. Coming into contact with it deals 80 damage.
- Scissor Boomerang – Cutman hurls the giant shears on his head like a boomerang down one row for 100 damage.
- Scissor Snip – Cutman goes into his front column on all fours and snips the panel in front of him for 80 damage.
Okay, his damage is still acceptable, but his pattern is real easy to exploit. The fact that I got Gater on my first draw certainly didn't hurt either.
With that out of the way, Megaman fixes the final device, and now we can reach the top floor. We can also reach a number of other floors, but there’s nothing of interest save for an HP Memory hidden on the ninth floor.
Upon taking the elevator up to the thirtieth floor the scene quickly shifts back to the Gospel Admin
◊. Really strange-looking, isn’t he? He’s even constantly glowing and shifting colors. This is what radiation does to you, kids! He orders bug fusion to commence, which is heralded by a rumble that Lan feels as soon as he steps out of the elevator. Megaman warns him of a spike in the radiation, nearly fifty-thousand times normal, but we’re still given no choice in the matter. Upon entering the only room we can, the penthouse suite, Lan rushes over to the door to an adjacent room get can’t get through because it’s electrified (apparently this is due to the radiation too…?). Luckily there’s a server in the room that we can jack right in to.
This network doesn’t have any gimmicks, just branching pathways, and it’s motif is as Gospel as it gets what with its spiked pathways and Sigil Spam everywhere you look. We have to delete the…radiation…control program…in order to proceed. Said program looks like a green spiked ball, which is of course glowing green. Standing in our way are copies of Knightman, Magnetman, and Freezeman.
Knightman
HP: 800
Element: Normal
Attacks:
- Kingdom Crusher – Knightman shoots his mace down one row for 60 damage.
- Broken Wall – Knightman fires his mace into the air, causing rubble to fall on three random panels on Megaman’s field three times in a row for 40 damage.
- Royal Wrecking Ball – Knightman swings his mace in an arc that hits all panels surrounding him for 60 damage.
- Leap – Knightman leaps one panel forward, cracking all panels on the field when he lands.
- Stone Body – When colored gray, Knightman takes only 1 HP of damage from all non-breaking attacks.
- Panel Grab – If Knightman has no more room left to move forward, he will steal the panel immediately in front of him.
As before it’s only a matter of waiting for him to drop his guard.
Magnetman
HP: 1000
Element: Elec
Attacks:
- Magnet Missile – Magnetman sends a magnet down one row that can make a ninety-degree turn to track Megaman for 50 Elec damage.
- Magnet Hold – Magnetman creates a black ball of pure magnetism and sends it down one row that slowly tracks Megaman’s movements. It deals 50 Elec damage and paralyzes.
- N-S Tackle – A blue duplicate of Magnetman appears behind Megaman and the two Magnetmen charge, sandwiching Megaman between them for 200 Elec damage.
- Magnet Line – Magnetman turns one row of panels into magnet panels.
I’m using Aqua Custom Style at this point so he was a little concerning, but still not much as long as the magnet panels are minded.
Freezeman
HP: 1000
Element: Aqua
Attacks:
- Ice Tower – Freezeman sends out a series of seracs that track Megaman’s movements for 100 Aqua damage.
- Icicle Fall – Three icicles fall on random panels of Megaman’s area for 50 Aqua damage.
- Ice Shield – Freezeman surrounds himself in a cocoon of ice, protecting him from damage.
- Wind – When Freezeman is out of his cocoon a constant gale will force Megaman to his back column.
- Ice Stage – Should a majority of Freezeman’s area be damage, he will turn all panels on the field into ice panels.
Still a paper tiger.
After they’re destroyed Megaman shoots the program until it explodes, allowing Lan to get through the door. Once we’re jacked out, it’s time to save, as we’re now at the point of no return.
Soundtrack
- Determination in the Heart
- I suppose a less Engrishy name for this track should be something like "The Heart's Determination." Either way, it's the track for Kotobuki.
- You Can't Go Back
- The theme for the networks inside the apartment complex. This game kicked off the tradition of the final area themes being awesome arrangements of the game's main theme.
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