The next day begins with Megaman trying to wake Lan up, for it’s the day of the Den Battle Tournament. The preliminaries are being held at the Elec Town square, but once we talk to the man there he says that we have to register with a Navi in Town Area 3 first, and we’re given the Jomon Code item. We can now jack in to a computer display by Jomon Electric to access their homepage, which in turn connects to Town Area 2. On the upper level of Town Area 3 is a merchant:
- HP Memory – 2500z
- HP Memory – 6000z
- HP Memory – 10000z
- Cannon C – 2000z
- Invisible * - 3300z
- Recovery 80 B – 5000z
- Time Bomb K – 12000z
With Cannon C we can make the Giga Cannon 1 Program Advance, which has replaced the Zeta Cannon series. Instead of getting five seconds of unlimited Cannon shots and invincibility, we get one single shot that deals 300 damage.
The Navi we need to register with is towards the back of the area, and it’s simply a matter of inputting a three-character-long name. This probably has something to do with linked play, but since it doesn’t really matter I’m just going with LAN. The game doesn’t let you fool around and put something like ASS in. Once we do that and go back and talk to the tournament guy the preliminaries begin in earnest. To pass we need to undertake three challenges from three people, a scientist, a female Official, and a young Official (that’s what I’ve decided to dub the Shilly-type NP Cs who aren’t Shilly).
The young Official wants us to find a place called Mettaur Village and retrieve some data he left there. The hints that some Navis in ACDC Area and the Town Area point us to the giant monitor above Jomon Electric. There, a Heel Navi is bullying the Mettaurs, and since these are benevolent viruses we have to defend them, learning in the process that the Heel Navi’s names have been mistranslated as Heal Navis. Anyway, after beating him returning to the young Official completes the quest.
The scientist says that he’s looking to be inducted into the Electopian Bug Society, the same one the unnamed bug guy from Battle Network 2 was part of, and he wants us to find a male and female goldbug. Both of them are in ACDC, one in one of the park’s bushes, while the other is on the couch in Yai’s house.
The female Official’s task is the simplest one of them all: a three-round survival battle. It introduces EX viruses. Since in this game viruses don’t fully upgrade to their second forms (more on why later) EX viruses are basically 1.5 forms. Nothing that special about them, though a few have slightly altered attack patterns compared to their regular first, second, and third forms.
Once we’re done with all three problems we’re told that we’ve passed the preliminaries and told to take the Metroline to Den Dome. Once there we’re supposed to use the back entrance to the venue (but not before jacking in to an outdoor hotdog stand for an HP Memory). This takes us to a back lobby containing another jack in-able object, a vending machine containing a Recovery 50 S, which in turn has a door leading to the waiting room for the contestants. Examining a row of stacked folding chairs reveals a Regular UP 1. Finally, talking to another young Official officially begins the Den Battle Tournament, and we go over to a board to check out the pairings.
Since this would be a very short update if I cut here, we're going to go on to the first of the numerous tournament scenarios, where any sort of momentum the game’s narrative could’ve had is given the coup de grace.
So, let me explain how the tournaments work. There are three rounds and a total of eight competitors including Megaman, though one of them is a generic that will always lose to facilitate the rest of the matches. There are six possible opponents: two generic Navis (a Normal Navi and a Heel Navi), two regular bosses, and two version-exclusive bosses. Megaman will always fight one Navi from each of the three groups, and the order is predetermined at the start of each playthrough, so you can’t reset before looking at the board to get a different lineup.
The tournament scenarios, while there is some degree of overlap, will generally fit into one of the following three categories:
- The operator has some sort of problem that Lan helps them out with.
- We have to play a mini game with the opponent.
- The operator is a dick that actively tries to sabotage Lan and Megaman’s chances of winning.
Since the lineup that Lan fights is randomized, and the tournaments are the bulk of the game, this has the effect of turning it into a Random Events Plot. The asteroid and Dark Chips? They barely come up at all. At best the scenarios are inane and time-consuming, at worst they’re straight up aggravating. If they don’t seem to be too bad at first, don’t worry. They get worse and downright antagonistic later on.
On the plus side, they’re very easy to write about.
So our first opponent happens to be the Normal Navi, who’s apparently been given the name Ponta. The rule for these scenarios is that if Lan doesn’t meet the operator right away, he will soon, so as soon as we leave the waiting room Lan hears someone calling his name, only there’s no one around. The camera pans around the lobby to show that the place is indeed empty, but when it comes back to Lan there’s a little girl standing behind him. She introduces herself as Yuko, Ponta’s operator, and says that it’s her dream to have a Net Battle with a Navi like Megaman. Since she’s a hyperactive ball of energy she also wants to play tag with Lan before the match and runs outside. Before Lan joins her, Megaman comments that he has a strange feeling about the little girl. There’s something about her that reminds him of himself. Hm.
Yuko’s waiting outside the Den Dome, and after running around for a little bit Lan gets an email from his mom asking him to come home since someone’s here to see him. Back home Lan meets a man who introduces himself as Yuko’s father. He asks Lan if his daughter was having fun, and mutters that that’s a very, very bad thing. He explains that Yuko has the power to summon Navi ghosts on the Net, even evil ones. Since she’s so fixated on the tournament, ghosts have started appearing all over the Net, but luckily Lan decides to help because of the dead twin brother thing. So we’re given two items: a Cyber Crystal and a Cyber Sutra.
The way this is gonna work is that once we’re on the Net the Cyber Crystal will be displayed at the top-right corner of the screen. Normally it’s blue, but once we get near a ghost it’ll turn yellow, and then red once we’re right on top of it. By hitting the A button, the ghost will be revealed and Megaman will recite a sutra (basically a phrase like “dash dash space enter space”) and the ghost will move on to the afterlife. Navi Heaven, I guess. The ghosts are mostly located at dead ends and corners, and most are benign but a few are malevolent and will attack us with viruses. There are four evil ghosts to purify, and once they’re gone we can end this task by talking to Yuko’s father again.
Afterwards we have to run all the way back to Den Dome and go through the doors in the waiting room where the arena is. Yuko appears at the Net Battle machine after Lan does via another cutaway, and the battle then begins.
Ponta (Normal Navi)
HP: 300
Element: Normal
Attacks:
- Cannon – Ponta pulls out a Cannon and fires a blast down one row for 20 damage.
- Sword – Ponta slashes the panel in front of him with a sword for 30 damage.
- Lil Bomb – Ponta throws a bomb three panels ahead that explodes in a three-panel-wide range.
- Wind – A Wind Box virus is summoned to blow wind that constantly pushes Megaman to the back of his area.
- Fan – A Vacuum Fan virus is summoned to suck in wind that constantly pulls Megaman to the front of his area.
- Fanfare – A Trumpy virus is summoned to play a song that grants Ponta invincibility.
- Recovery 50 – Ponta recovers 50 HP.
We’ve already fought a Normal Navi before, but this is the first true “boss” fight against one. The primary difference is that now they start using support chips. They’re still not very difficult, but Wind and Fan can be annoying depending on one’s play style and Fanfare certainly is as you’ll have to waste resources destroying the Trumpy. Still, the two basic Program Advances available at the moment, Life Sword and Giga Cannon 1, will bring the battle to a quick end.
After the battle Yuko reveals that she is actually a ghost herself, having died a long time ago. Her presence was what was riling the ghost Navis on the Net up, but now that she’s fulfilled her dream of Net Battling an opponent like Megaman she can move on to the next world, which she does in a shower of light as Lan says farewell. The match’s referee is left speechless.
After the battle we can jack in to the Net Battle machine for a Spreader N and then we have to manually leave the arena so that the matchups for the second round can be announced.
Virus Listing
- Volgear
- Volgears behave exactly the same way they did back in Battle Network 1, staying out of Megaman's line of sight and attacking him with Fire Towers. Their EX versions, however, instead simply hit three random panels inside of Megaman's area with fire.
- Shrimpy
- These shrimp viruses move up and down one column, firing bubbles down one row at Megaman whenever they align. When these bubbles hit an obstacle they will also damage additional panels. Shrimpy's shots also damage the panel behind the point of impact, Shrimpy 2s shots burst into a > shape, and Shrimpy 3s' shots bursts are three panels wide.
- Vacuum Fan
- Unlike their cousins the Wind Boxes, Vacuum Fans suck in air instead of blowing it, constantly pulling Megaman to the front of his field.
Soundtrack
- Den Dome
- What a boring name.
- Player Entrance
- Pray you don't get saddled with a crappy lineup.
- Battle Pressure
- And this is the boss battle theme that one will be hearing the most in this game.
- Sad Rain
- This is your cue to feel sad.
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