The Mega(man) Battle Network LP!

Lan’s very interested now.






Like Lan would really get some useful information for free.



Tora explains that he’s founds some jobs at the Sci Lab Help BBS that give good rewards, but he can’t do them by himself.

So instead he wants Lan to do all of them.

Yeah, I don’t really get the reasoning here either.






Tora laughs that it’s a deal and tells Lan he’ll see him tomorrow.







Megaman answers that he went to help Haruka.

Lan asks what it says.



Megaman recalls that Dex was acting strange yesterday and wonders if Dex is finally going to talk about what’s wrong.

Lan decides to go check it out.









Before Dex can explain himself, Tora enters the scene.



Yes.

Dex recognizes Tora.



Tora confirms and walks over to in front of Dex.

Dex agrees and comments that Net Battlers don’t need words to greet each other.




The screen fades to black.




Dex muses Tora might even become one of Lan’s rivals.




Tora turns to Lan and alerts him that he’s heading over to Sci Lab.



Tora and Lan exchange farewells, and Tora rushes out (oddly enough, he heads towards Higsby’s shop instead of the metro). Lan then turns to Dex and asks him to finish what he was saying earlier.






If you think about it, Dex actually tells Lan what’s really going on with that last sentence.

Dex runs off.





Lan decides to head over to Sci Lab.

After the scene, we get an e-mail from Tamako alerting us that she’s opened a shortcut to Beach from her HP.

Yeah, I’m just going to be skipping these, as normal. All that’s really different about these jobs is that at the end, Lan tells the client to transfer the money to Tora. The client will agree but also give Lan something for all of his efforts.

Anyways, there’s actually a reason we have to do this. The reward to the Riot Stopped job is



Not this, but I forgot to pick it up earlier. This is inside the Netbattle machine we fought Tora in.



The other three jobs give a RegUp3, an HP Memory, and a Slow Gauge *.





Why is he anyways?



Lan scoffs that of course he knew that.




Lan asks what Tora means.





What the hell does that mean? Does he just fight viruses for ten hours a day? How is that any better than just battling viruses normally? I mean, it really shouldn’t matter how many viruses you fight if you just need the same strategy to beat them every time. And it’s not like the operator does much besides insert chips/give commands, and all you need for that is some crazy reflexes/an insane folder.

Hell, Douche doesn’t even manually operate Protoman. That means all he’s doing is just watching Protoman and occasionally shouting some orders or something. How is that supposed to help at all?

Lan’s stunned at this news.

This is completely ignoring the fact that if anything the reason why he’s so good is because Protoman has been heavily customized.

Also, cutscene power. Can’t forget that.







One: how do you hide something you do ten hours a day?

Two: I think natural battle instincts and programming skills overshadow whatever hard work you do in a digital world.





Lan’s speechless for a moment, but recovers and asks what Tora’s talking about.



Yeah, he’s only beaten WWW, the Zero Virus, Gospel, and Bass. What kind of accomplishments are those?




Tora decides to give us something else in exchange for all of the help.

Folder 2 isn’t very spectacular, to be honest. All it really has going for it



Are the three chess piece chips it comes with. These all place the corresponding piece in front of you. Pressing A with a Pawn on the field will make it slash (unlike Kingman, who‘s specially made to use these things, our Pawns will not move), Rooks just stand there, and Knights jump around.



It’s also got four Ratton1 H’s, which you can dump into a chip trader to convert into Ratton1 F’s. As a complete side note, the van outside of DNN Studio has Ratty2 viruses inside. Defeating them can get you some Ratton2 chips you can also dump in the chip trader for Ratton2 F’s.

Anyways, time to go to sleep.



Lan gets up, dresses, and moans about how tough it is to be an elementary student.




Lan decides he may as well get going.















So yeah, talk to everybody.

Megaman wonders if Dex is taking a day off.




Yai asks if there’s anything wrong with Dex. Lan tells her to just say something already.





Lan and Mayl express shock while Yai remarks that Dex never told them about it.



Lan suddenly stands up.




Megaman notes there still may be time to go confront Dex.

Lan skates out of the class.



After this, we gain control of Lan.



I’d like to note that during this segment (specifically, right after Ms. Mari drops the drama bomb) the music completely stops until you examine Dex‘s door. After that, Wiping Tears plays.

I bring this up because like Hour of Fate and other BN sorrow themes (such as BN2‘s Vicinity of Sorrow, which only shows up if you go to the destroyed Yumland and while Lan reads Sean’s diary, IIRC) Wiping Tears doesn’t really show up that much.

Lan looks at Megaman and asks if this is it. If they’ll never see Dex again.




Megaman recommends they get back to school.



Then Dex steps out.



Lan’s surprise at seeing Dex quickly wears off.




Dex apologizes and explains that he tried, but whenever he was around his friends the words just wouldn’t come out.

Lan’s response is silence.



The rest of the class walks over.









Ms. Mari begins to cry.




Mayl tells Dex to keep in touch through e-mail, and asks him to say hi to Chisao for her.

Even the random NPCs speak up for this scene.













Megaman comments that now Dex is really gone.




Lan doesn’t respond. Megaman tries to get his attention.

The scene cuts to Lan’s room. Lan asks what Megaman wants to do today.




Megaman remembers that Dex was always ready to hang out.

Then Lan gets some mail.




Megaman reads the e-mail.






Next time: Believe it or not, Press isn’t the worst way the designers implemented the Navi Customizer.

Current Folder

Cannon D x3
Hi Cannon *
Air Shot 3 *
Air Shot 3 *
V-Gun D
Variable Sword D
Shock Wave D x4
Yo-Yo1 D
Plasma1 D x4
Area Grab *
Invisible * x3
Ice Stage * - REGULAR
Attack +10 *
Elec +30 *
Gaia Blade *
Flashman F
Flashman V2 F
Flashman V3 F
Flashman V4 F
Folder Back *

Total codes (not counting * code): 2

I LIVE.

Man, my second semester has just been utter chaos. Dragon Quest IX is not helping matters.




Lan asks how Mamoru is feeling.



Mamoru laughs that he always come to the beach whenever he feels well.





Lan repeats Mamoru’s statement before realizing what it actually means.





Mamoru sighs that he’s never been to school and never had friends. The ocean, his only constant, helps him forget his troubles.








Mamoru’s surprised at the question, but then answers that he’d like to get the super rare chip that everyone on Beach Street has been talking about: Ice Ball M.

He then notes he’d be satisfied with just getting a glimpse of it.

Mamoru weakly gasps for help and begins to cough violently.





Mamoru notes he’s feeling a little better.




Lan confirms. Then, as normal,



He asks an appropriate question at a totally inappropriate time.






It’s theorized HBD stands for Heart Bypass Disorder. I say theorized because the game never really goes into detail about it; all we know is that its symptoms resemble a serious heart attack. Whether or not its cause is genetic or viral is unknown, though I personally believe it to be viral since Lan and Megaman are supposed to have 100% identical DNA (yes, I know identical twins usually don‘t really have 100% identical DNA, but as far as the BN plot goes, Lan and Hub are perfect matches), and Lan certainly doesn‘t suffer from it.

What I’d like to point out is the oddity of Megaman even knowing how to deal with the attacks. He died when he was one. He shouldn’t have any real first hand experience with HBD that he can remember.

I’d guess that Megaman checked it up online whenever he had the chance, but HBD is supposed to be really, really rare; aside from Hub, I think there are only two other people who have it, Mamoru and (maybe, I can‘t remember and don‘t want to check) Mary from the gaiden game Battle Chip Challenge.

Either that, or you just deal with the attacks the same way you deal with normal heart attacks.



If you bother talking to them, the NPCs outside of the hospital will actually have changed dialogue regarding Mamoru’s crisis.

The doctor and a nurse rush over.



The screen fades to black as the professionals get to work.




Lan asks the nurse if Mamoru will be okay.




The nurse sighs that they need to operate on him immediately.



Lan asks why.

Yeah, I have to admit I’d lose faith in something if it failed three times in a row. As they say, first time’s luck, second’s coincidence, and third’s a pattern.






Lan then wonders how they’ll actually change Mamoru’s mind.






So the thing about Ice Ball M is that you can’t find the virus that drops it, Cold Head, normally.



You have to install Fish…



and run around in Hades Computer…



Until the damn things show up.



Thankfully, it doesn’t matter what busting rank you get. Ice Ball acts like a Cannon Ball chip, only instead of breaking the panel three spaces ahead it freezes it. Honestly, it's pretty worthless for the same reason almost all throwing chips are worthless: the animation takes too long, and actually hitting the enemy is far too hard.

The game thankfully provides a hint: two navis in Beach Square will spell out what you have to do. The entire thing is still annoyingly obtuse though.

So even though we only control Lan going to the hospital twice, this NPC’s text implies Lan actually went there fairly regularly.






Mamoru declares that surgery won’t do anything.




Mamoru admits he’s getting sick of everything.



Mamoru doesn’t respond. Lan decides to tell his tale.

Mamoru decides he’ll take the surgery.











Mamoru’s ecstatic and shouts he’ll never give up now.





Megaman also cheers on Mamoru, then notes that Lan should probably get back home.



After you save and go to bed, time skips forward.



Lan hopes Mamoru didn’t change his mind.

Lan then gets some mail from the hospital.











Mamoru lets out a groan.




A nurse walks over and alerts Mamoru that he’s going to be taken to the operating room.




After the nurse and Mamoru leave, Lan decides to follow them.



I missed it, but when the cutscene started the sign on top of the doors turned on.




The scene cuts to three hours later, with Lan pacing around. Megaman recommends he take a break and go outside for some fresh air.

Megaman recommends Lan to just be patient and confidently declares that the operation will succeed.









Lan steps out of the elevator to see vines everywhere.




Then the intercom goes off.






How the hell could vines (thorny vines that look nothing like the Tree of Life at that) grow all over the hospital in just three hours? And are you seriously saying that all of your extremely important life-saving technology doesn’t have a back-up energy source?



The intercom goes off again, this time ordering everyone to evacuate.

Once we head back to the third floor though…




Then the nurse walks up.





Okay, good to see whoever designed this facility wasn’t completely idiotic.



Lan promises to do something about the vines.





The nurse tells Lan that the elevator can take him straight to the basement. Heeding her advice, Lan moves over to the elevator to try it out.




Lan runs back over to the vines and alerts the nurse the elevator has failed.

Lan then runs over to the emergency exit. However, it doesn’t work either.




The Hospital Computer has one of the stupidest puzzles in the game.













For this entire dungeon, we need to install Energy Change. With it, when we examine the trees…





We can choose to sacrifice one of our fire chips to remove the plant.

And I mean sacrifice. To get through this dungeon, you need a lot of Fire chips. As you might imagine, this is hell for those 100% completion players who want as many different chip codes as possible. And it’s even worse if you’re the type of person who throws all unneeded chips into the Trader.



Thankfully, this area does have a virus that drops a Fire chip. Totems don’t move and occasionally shoot fire down their row. If heavily damaged, they’ll spin around and eventually heal themselves. They drop Totem chips, which summon a Totem virus that will alternate between flamethrower and healing you.



Needlers are weird. They’ll constantly fire needles down their row and their column, and every now and then they’ll zoom forward to try and hit you. They drop Needler chips, which I honestly have never used.

BMDs held a RegUp1, an Oil Body program, and a Recover 120 O.







Vineys are very annoying. Why?




They’re totally invulnerable to all non-Fire attacks.



When they attack, though, a vine will start chasing Megaman. If it hits, Megaman will be trapped for a bit. If you hit it, the Viney will take damage no matter what the element was.

They drop Rope chips, which unleash vines on any enemies standing next to Megaman. Any enemies caught will be immobilized and hit three times. These vines will pierce through all guards, so it’s pretty broken. Too bad about the range though.



The first floor is still covered in vines, so you have to go the second floor.



And then go to Yai’s room.





Yeah, water isn’t something you want below you if you’re falling from a high place.

Lan asks if Megaman is okay, completely ignoring the fact that he‘s the one who‘s most likely injured.



Well aren’t you smug?




Next time: Save state abuse!

Current Folder

Cannon D x3
Hi Cannon *
Air Shot 3 *
Air Shot 3 *
V-Gun D
Variable Sword D
Shock Wave D x4
Yo-Yo1 D
Plasma1 D x4
Area Grab *
Invisible * x3
Ice Stage * - REGULAR
Attack +10 *
Elec +30 *
Gaia Blade *
Flashman F
Flashman V2 F
Flashman V3 F
Flashman V4 F
Folder Back *

Total codes (not counting * code): 2

As a side note, I’d really like to change my folder more but I just don’t have access to the chips I need. And, honestly, I won’t until much later.

Alright, things are finally settling down.



The door to the basement is locked.




The nurse isn’t sure if she should just give it away, but she eventually decides that she can’t do anything anyways.




Oh, and in case you thought you could take this time to go somewhere else and grind Fire chips…



Imagine if this scenario was timed.





What? Aren’t the vines the result of the Tree of Life going crazy? How can the result be the cause?

Lan moves to jack Megaman in, but he’s interrupted.






Lan’s got a point here. Kind of hard for elevators to work when there are vines everywhere. But while I could go on about how weird this is…



Anetta is about to say something much stupider, so hold tight until then.



Anetta zooms over (seriously, she moves at like twice the speed of Lan’s run).

Lan? He’s kind of busy trying to save the lives of everyone in the hospital.




The following conversation shows off Anetta’s key personality traits: obscene paranoia and incredible stupidity.







Lan explains that his friend is in the middle of an important operation.





Like I said back in the BN1 LP, almost every single nature activist in the BN series is completely crazy. The sole exception is Sal. And maybe Mr. Press, but his sanity is debatable.

I don’t even see why there are nature activists in the BN continuity. The Earth is perfectly fine.






You know what’s the main feature of the Classic universe, a world without Net technology?

An approximately 200 year long war with only a few stops that completely wrecks the world and humanity, eventually resulting in a flooded Earth and the death of every single human.

I’m just saying.

Anetta’s PET beeps.






So, just to recap, the villain for this scenario thinks that a kid who is trying to stop her from committing a terrorist attack on a hospital is in the wrong.



This is the only plausible explanation for all of this, but it doesn’t fit with the timeline of what Wily did after he went crazy.




With that, Anetta begins to run off.



Now that I look at her, is Anetta even wearing any shoes?




With that incredible statement, Anetta leaves to search the hospital.

With that out of the way, Lan jacks in.



So, remember the first segment of the dungeon? That was kids’ stuff.




Now we have to pick the right weed to burn.

Thankfully, some of the weeds contain varying amounts of Heat Shot I’s under then. And if you do everything just right (in other words, if you save scum), they’ll be all you’ll need.




However, you’re far more likely to find a health recovery panel, viruses, or just plain nothing.




And note that you’re looking for switches and warps.

So unless you’ve been grinding Spikeys for some reason, you’re basically required to save scum.

Making this all even worse, even after you beat Plantman the weeds will still be here. So for true 100% completion, you need to return here and burn everything.

Speaking of Plantman…




Oh goodie, we’ve reached him. I guess this scenario is over already. BMDs contained a Guts Straight Q and a HP Memory. There’s one other BMD, but we can’t access it from here.







I think you’re trying a bit too hard.

Megaman orders Plantman to stop the vines.




Let’s not ask why Anetta was searching the real world for a program in the cyber world.

Remember this guy?




Total chump with a Wood Style. Alright, now we just have to kick the crap out of Plantman and everything’s good.




Ffffff-

Anyways, Lan hurries over to the Operating Room.



I’d like to point out that the vines have all magically disappeared.




And that these vital pipes were apparently disconnected by Anetta.

The doctor shouts that the surgery equipment has stopped working.





Lan desperately asks if there’s anything he can do.






Lan rushes to the panel and jacks in.




So, how could they possibly make this dungeon any worse?




By increasing the amount of vines you need to look through of course. Incidentally, in this patch? There’s nothing of any actual interest.

What we’re looking for is opposite from the patch, behind another tree (the first patch made me burn a tree to reach it as well, so they’re not hints).



For some reason, they decided to hide what may be the only Geddon 2 chip you can pick up here.



As a side note, whenever you use Energy Change the cursor is automatically placed at no. This is very annoying.



Sixteen patches of vines to search through. Joy.




One more thing left…




This warp leads to a random dead end.



I’m glad the designers fought the urge to give this patch some width.

If you save scum through the entire thing, you’ll end up with about five Heat Shot I’s.

BMDs held 1600 Z, a Sub Memory, 2000 Z, a Barrier 100 E, a Full Energy, a Charge +1 program, a Fire Sword R, and a HP Memory.









Megaman confusedly repeats the word “Beast” before realizing that the entire time the WWW has been looking for Tetra Codes.







Seriously Plantman, you’re trying too hard.



Though I guess he may as well, since Plantman is a really easy battle.



His main attack has him fire some thorns down his row. This attack actually has two phases: the part where Plantman preps the thorns, and the part where the thorns are actually fired. If you want to stop this attack, you’ll need to attack during the first phase. Otherwise the thorns will fire anyways.