The Mega(man) Battle Network LP!

Yeah, how dare he not immediately believe a complete stranger who wants to bring him back to a group of people who he thinks wants to throw him away.



Oh great, my Cyber Canister didn’t reset.






Megaman looks around for a bit.










Yeah, if only security didn’t exist.

Lan asks if Megaman knows how to open the door. Megaman tells Lan to give him a second.

The warp leads to an isolated corner of ACDC 2.












Aquaman pauses for a minute and thinks about what he just said. He then realizes his mistake.

Did either Atsu or Ty ever actually tell Megaman and Lan the details of the misunderstanding?









So this HAS happened before. You’d think Lan would remember something like the Net flooding.

By the way, if Aquaman knows he can flood the Net at will, where was he a few weeks ago when the Net was in flames? Well, then again draining the Net probably takes a while.





Okay, Aquaman can both flood and drain the Net at will. So where was he during Flamman’s scenario?




Aquaman asks why Megaman knows about the match.





Megaman jacks out.

That’s quite a rude title.

Shuko enters, the crowd cheers, blah blah blah.






Lan enters, the crowd cheers, blah blah blah.



Now where did that last comma come from?



Lan asks Shuko not to pull any punches. Shuko assures Lan she’ll give it her all.




Megaman and Aquaman wish each other luck.

I still have no clue why they remove the “an” from “Man”.

Anyways, Aquaman is really easy. Really, really easy.




His main attack is a small bubble that’s basically a Bubbler, only instead of a down the row shot it hits the panel two spaces in front of Aquaman.

Aquaman will either use this move only once or he’ll spam it like crazy.





Aside from that, he also summons some faucets that will spray water at you. They’ll stay on the field for about a turn or two, but if you hit Aquaman while he’s raising his arms the faucets won’t be summoned.



His final attack is an Aqua element Mini Bomb that may or may not be a Geyser. Actually capturing him using it is like pulling teeth, so just look at the end result.





The crowd cheers, Lan celebrates, and Shuko mopes.





Wait, I thought only staff members/tournament participants could enter in there.

Yeah, you’ve got two brothers who speak incredibly vaguely and a navi who’s flooded the Net enough times for it to become routine.





The most trouble I had in that fight was waiting for the Custom Gauge to fill up.







To be honest, the first time I saw this I misread “communed” as “commuted”.







Shuko walks away.

That was quite the non sequitur.




The Hikari family is one of the most ideal families ever. What is there to be jealous about?

As soon as the cutscene ends, Yuichiro sends an e-mail.







Personally, I prefer the original name: Soul Unison.



Soul Unison is pretty simple. First, select a chip with an element that corresponds to the Soul you‘re using.



Then select Unite.



And voila. The Soul Unison “chip” will always be the first chip sent to Megaman.

The reason I prefer Soul Unison to Double Soul is because the animation actually shows Megaman and the other navi merging. It’s not two souls sharing the same body, it’s two souls combining into one.



Anyways, Aqua Soul is pretty meh. All it has is a fast charging buster, the ability to charge up Aqua chips, and no slipping on Ice.

Going a little further, most of the Blue Moon exclusive Souls suck compared to their Red Sun counterparts. For example, Guts Soul, the one Alpha Werewolf will get, gives a Guts Punch charge shot as well as Guts Machine Gun (works exactly like Guts Style’s). Oh, and it also adds 30 damage to all non-elemental chips. Like, say, Vulcan and Cannon.




Oh, and they fade after three turns too, can’t forget that. If you’re wondering, no, you can’t go into the same Soul twice in the same battle.

Anyways, allow me to throw up a quick Pro and Con list on Souls:

Pros:
1) When you activate Soul Unison, Megaman will return to his normal standing pose. So if you were paralyzed or something, you’re immediately freed.

2) Some of the Souls have absolutely ridiculous passive effects. Most of these Souls are in Red Sun.

3) The chip charging ability comes in handy with some chips.

4) Unlike Styles, Soul charge shots are based off your Attack stat, so they can actually be used.

Cons:
1) You need to have a chip of the corresponding element to even enter a Soul, and for most souls you need more chips of that element to effectively use the Soul. The only notable exception to this is a Red Sun exclusive soul.

2) No Full Synchro. To be honest, this one flaw alone pretty much renders Soul Unison pointless because of how absurdly broken Full Synchro is.

3) If you choose to mess around with the Karma system in a certain way, Soul Unison is prohibited.

4) You can’t use Regular chips for Soul Unison.

5) Three turn limit.



Every time Megaman gets a new soul, Yuichiro will send an e-mail explaining it, which is kind of creepy as it implies that Yuichiro keeps a file on every navi in existence on the off chance Megaman will Soul Unison with it. Anyways, he’ll go in-depth about what the Soul does then finish with a descriptive summary. I’ll only be showing the descriptive summaries.



You already know what he’s going to say.



Next time: Elderly navis. Because why not.

Current Folder

Cannon A x2
Cannon B
Cannon *
Air Shot A x3
Vulcan 1 V x3
Heat Shot B x2
Heat Shot C x2
Wide Shot C x4
Sword S
Wide Sword S x2
Long Sword S
Guard 1 A x2
Area Grab S
Invisible * x2
Attack +10 * x3

Total codes (not counting * code): 5

As always, after you fight a boss in the story you can face their ghost for their chip. Be warned though: outside of the story, BN4’s bosses all become absolutely ridiculous, with their damage, health, and speed getting buffed significantly. Most bosses also get new moves, and one boss gets an entirely new gimmick.




Taking Aquaman Alpha as an example, his Geyser attack now hits in a cross shape and he can summon a faucet on your side of the screen to restrict movement.

Oh, and he can kill me in two hits.

As a side note, during these fights Battle With Myself (BN4's actual Boss theme) will play instead of Battle Pressure.



Area Grab is pretty much mandatory if I want to live. And even it won’t save me from the bombs.




Pretty much the only way I can win is through Program Advances.




Aquaman’s chip has him use his Faucet attack. It’s pretty useless, especially since it requires an open space in front of Megaman.

Anyways, now that I’ve defeated Aquaman’s ghost, ACDC 1 has a new random encounter.



Aquaman Omega. Notice how he’s been recolored.



It is physically impossible for me to defeat Aquaman Omega. Every single attack he has deals 200 damage (most Omega navis deal damage in multiples of 100), his Geyser now actually acts as a Geyser (in other words, it hits the target panel and everything around it), and he has way too much HP.

Even worse, I can’t run away. Once you unlock an Omega boss, they’re basically guaranteed Game Overs until much later. You just have to hope you don’t run into one.

How much damage does Aqua Unison's charge shot do? Isn't it like 50?

Also, you never* HAVE to bring up the custom screen, so three turn limit is only relevant to battlechip use.

*well, not this game

It does 20 damage at base.

The only way Aqua Soul would ever be useful is by charging up Aqua chips, so yeah, the turn limit matters.

Ever since Battle Network 1’s Bass chip, Capcom has had a policy of keeping Battle Network stuff in Japan. Normally it’s only minor things like (relatively) little side features or the later seasons of the anime, but several Battle Network games have seen release only in Japan. Most of them are cell phone games nobody cares about (I think there was a Wonder Swan game too), but there was one GBA game that never got translated.



Battle Network 4.5 Real Operation.

Why didn’t Capcom release this game? Hell if I know. It’s actually kind of stupid that they didn’t, since the game’s main gimmick,



the Battle Chip Gate, actually made use of all of those real life Battle Chips that were sold a while back. Speaking of those, there were a lot of them, though most of it was Japan only.



Anyways, obviously enough the game is in Japanese. But someone named Spikeman made a translation patch, which while very far from completion at least translates the battle chip names. That’s all I need.



The game starts by prompting you to input the date. See, 4.5 tries to make your GBA into an actual PET, so there’s a calendar system that plays a fairly important role in the game.



The “IPC” in the background refers to the PET company Chaud’s father owns.



Um… what?



Oh good, there’s an English option.



Normally I’d ask you guys what name I should input, but I want to actually get to the rest of the features. Besides, there’s only like five guys who actually comment anyways.

The game then asks for my gender and age.



Erm…



This one turned out to be the High School option.

The game then asks for me to confirm what I selected. After I do so, I’m taken to 4.5’s main gimmick.



The Navi Select screen. As the name implies, I’m allowed to play as characters besides Megaman. Only instead of BCC’s half-assed version of this, every single character is fully sprited.



For now, I’ll go with Megaman. Don’t worry, I can switch navis later.

The main menu of 4.5 is possibly the inspiration for the bottom screen of BN5 DS.



Megaman’s freaking out here because I got an e-mail.



I guess I ought to check it out.




Oh, IPC sent an e-mail. It’s probably an automated “Thank You For Buying This” message.



The whole 23 page e-mail is untranslated, but I’m pretty sure I’m right.



Once I get back to main menu, Megaman starts talking to me. I’m not sure what he says, but I ended up at an input screen.



According to a FAQ I checked, it seems whatever Navi I picked will occasionally ask personal questions (what‘s your brother‘s name, what‘s your favorite thing, what‘s your wish, etc). But since the questions aren’t asked in a set order, I’ll just answer everything with this.

After that, I returned to the main menu. I guess I should go over what everything does.



What this does should be pretty obvious.



Looks like this game will also involve tournaments. Grand.



Are all of those exclamation marks supposed to be there? In any case, I can’t link with anyone so I‘ll pass.

Seems normal enough.



As soon as I got back to the menu, Megaman asked another question. For those of you can understand Japanese, I’m showing the input screen.



Equipment? Are Armors back or what?



Oh, it’s just my chip folder. Anyways, I’m going to guess those bottom two slots are linked to my R and L buttons.



Megaman only has three options: Mega Buster, Shield, and Charge Shot.

Let’s check out my folder.






The last two chips are Gutsman and Numberman.

As you might have noticed, chip codes are gone. There is a reason for this, but I’ll get to that later.




These two options are what allow me to actually play the game. If I jack in, I can explore the Net, fight viruses, find Mystery Data, and all of the other things you can do in a normal Battle Network game.

If I choose to fight in a tournament, I basically get thrown into a BN4 style tournament.



I’m going to jack in first.



Oh hey, it’s BN4’s jack in animation, only green.



I have no clue what those symbols at the top right mean.

Um… yes?




Oh, this program lets me change my personal settings. Looks like you guys get to vote on my name after all!

As soon as I reach the main Net (cleverly named Internet 1), Megaman starts up a tutorial battle.



Unlike every other Battle Network game, 4.5 does not let you directly control a navi. Instead, you actually operate them. The screen I’m at right now is basically Megaman asking which virus he should target.



Following that, he’ll ask how far away he should be from the virus. Immediately after that, the battle starts.



Megaman will move around and dodge attacks on his own. Pressing Up will bring up the target screen, pressing Down will bring up the distance screen, and pressing Left or Right will let you choose between the chips on the bottom. Naturally, pressing A will make Megaman use the chip selected.



In this game, Counters just fill up your Custom gauge. See, what chips you can use is determined by the color of your Custom gauge. Yellow lets you use Standard chips, Blue lets you use Mega chips, and Red lets you use Giga chips.

Every time you use a chip, it will immediately be replaced by a new one.



But if you don’t want to do that, pressing B will shuffle your remaining chips. Note that this will deplete the Custom Gauge. While I’m at it, taking damage and using Support/Mega/Giga chips will also deplete the Custom gauge.




Finally, the L and R buttons essentially act as overrides. Pressing either one of them will have your Navi immediately do whatever action was set to them. Interestingly, while Shield reduced my Custom gauge, Charge Shot increased it.



Whenever you use a chip, your navi will move into position to make the chip hit. But if your navi can’t get into such a position, he’ll just wildly flail around for a bit before just using the thing wherever.



As always, your battles are ranked.



As one final note, pressing select makes your navi stand still and glow yellow. While he’s doing this, any chip you select will be immediately discarded. Also, apparently this is also how you use Program Advances, though if your Navi isn’t synchronized with you nothing will happen. I’m not sure what full synchronization means, but I’m guessing a full Custom gauge.

In any case, I don’t know how to cancel the discard state besides getting hit, and getting hit while in discard drops your Custom gauge down to zero. As such, I really don’t see the point of this.

Back to main menu!



Megaman asked another question.

Now then, I’m sure you’ve noticed those arrows. If I press Left,



I go to this odd screen. I think it’s where you use the Battle Chip Gate.



Pressing right brings me to calendar, which is really laggy.



As long as your last save was from the main menu, you can change your navi every time you start the game. Normally you’re supposed to unlock navis as you go through the game, but unfortunately eight navis require you to insert their battle chip into the Battle Chip Gate. Since I don’t have that, and because I want to give you guys something to choose from, I’m going to hack in everyone else.



Ta-da!



Before I end this update though, I notice I have a new option on the title screen.



All it did was let me reset the time.

Next time: I don’t really know.

Current Folder

Cannon x3
Air Shot x2
Vulcan 1 x3
Mini Bomb x3
Energy Bomb
Sword x3
Wide Sword x2
Crack Out x2
Recover 10 x3
Recover 50
Area Grab
Barrier
Attack +10
Roll
Gutsman
Numberman

This LP will be a side thing I’ll only really progress in while waiting for Alpha Werewolf to upload his section. How often you’ll see updates really depends on him.

0 Month, 0 day("Sun"[day of week= Sun Day = Sunday])

Who's between Elec and Knight?

Isn't Bass supposed to be an Autonavi, not requiring an operator?
AccuseVote Bass

Oh yeah, I guess I should name everyone.



Top Row: Megaman, Roll, Gutsman, Numberman, Fireman, and Woodman.

Middle Row: Windman, Searchman, Aquaman, Thunderman, Metalman, Junkman, and Protoman.

Bottom Row: Starman, Napalmman, Iceman, Elecman, Plantman, Knightman, Shadowman, and Bass.

I think unlocking Bass requires you to beat him, so presumably he was interested in your abilities.

Roll cause she's a girl.

Isn't BN5's Meddy the only other female navi in the series if you don't count the generics and Serenade?

Nah, Battle Chip Challenge had Ring, a genderswapped Ringman.

It turns out that to truly clear EXE 4.5, you have to beat it with everybody. So I guess it’s not really going to be a vote as much as its just me using whatever navi I’m ordered to.



Bass was requested first, so I’ll play as him. Next time I’ll be using Roll.



As you can see, the icon on this screen has changed to reflect that my navi has changed.



I wonder why Bass would want to know things about me. Oh well, all he’s getting is PERCY.



Bass has not been translated at all. From what I can tell though, he has three options for his override buttons. I presume they are Buster Rake, Hells Rolling, and Darkness Overload.



Hah, Bass looks so silly floating around like that.



4.5’s Net is filled with obstacles only certain navis can break. I’m guessing this boulder requires Gutsman or Metalman.



Yes, everyone has item get poses.



Tactics (and Victory) screens also change to reflect your Navi.



Bass still has his Aura. Though from the looks of it it’s just a Barrier 100 now.




Seems I was right about two of the overrides. Unfortunately, Bass has to charge for all of his attacks. Also, Darkness Overload can’t be used if something is in the center panel of the enemy’s first column.



Like I said earlier, 4.5’s navis are all fully sprited for every possible attack. This is a significant change from BCC, where if, say, Gutsman used a Cannon, it’d just show his Guts Punch animation with a Cannon magically appearing out of nowhere.



Bass’ last override turned out to be him just spamming his normal buster.



Okay, let’s progress.

What?



Whatever, I’ll just follow the orange road.



These two guys were having a very heated conversation about… something.



Oh hey, a BBS.



Should have seen that one coming.




Seems this guy is important.




I think I see my name in there. Anyways, I’m sent to a Yes/No choice.



I picked Yes.



And was immediately thrown into a battle.

Seems getting S ranks gets you Bug Frags in this game. I approve of this.



Beating this navi increased Bass’ HP by 50. All of the playable navis have various means of boosting their HP, and Bass’ seems to be deleting specific NPCs.



These weeds look like something Woodman or Plantman might use. Anyways, the nearby BMD held a Mini Energy.



Probably something for Elecman or Thunderman.



Definitely Fireman’s.





I hope Bass has a good reason for deleting these NPCs.



The nearby warp brought me to some place where random encounters are fought on Grass. Interestingly, it seems I can order my navi to target obstacles as well.





The only thing I understood there was “Lan”.



This looks important.




Most of this was unreadable, but I can at least understand this. It seems to participate in Tournaments you have to wait for specific times. This makes me worried since my game’s clock is stuck at 0:00 AM.

Looks like 4.5’s Net is as screwed up as BN1’s; Net 2 led to Net 4.



More electric navi stuff. Also, a nearby GMD gave me an Area Grab.



This tornado is blocking my way to a Gold Mystery Data. I’ll probably need Windman to clear it.



This guy was weird. I think he asked for 500 Z, and in exchange I got… something.

Most of Net 4 is blocked by barriers, so I’ll just go on to what is hopefully Net 5.



So let me get this straight. Net 1 leads to Net 2, which leads to Net 4, which leads to Net 3.




This Net Dealer has something pretty awesome, but I don’t have the money to really buy things in bulk yet. I guess I’ll have to do something about that.

The only code I could find didn’t give max zenny, but 70k is better than nothing.



Air Hockey is an amazing chip in general, but in BN4 it was the most broken chip family in the game. I’ll explain why next BN4 update.



Huh. Unlike both its immediate prequel and its immediate sequel, 4.5 only lets you put 3 of the same chip in your folder.





More HP boosting.





I have no clue.

A nearby BMD held a Copy Damage.



No I didn’t.



In exchange for 690 Z, I got something.



I wonder where this leads.



Oh. Well, seems like I’ve done everything I can on the Net. Time to jack out.




Still no tournament? Eh, I guess this is the end of the update.

Next time: Rolling around.

Current Folder

Cannon x3
Air Shot x2
Vulcan 1 x3
Twin Fang 1 x3
Energy Bomb
Sword x2
Wide Sword x2
Long Sword x2
Air Hockey 1 x3
Recover 50
Recover 80
Area Grab x2
Attack +10
Roll
Gutsman
Numberman

Right then. Time for Gutsman!

Lan tells Megaman that it's a battle versus "Dex's Gutsman", and they can't afford to lose. Megaman agrees.



Dex walks in from the lower right.



Chisao walks in, again from the lower right.




You mean, apart for when you did about a month ago?

Dex walks away.

Now, I have to admit something here. I hate Chisao. As in, I despise the kid. Every time he shows up, he goes on with those "brotherly love" moments and acts infuriatingly. It's also why I never cared about beating Gutsman Alpha during BN3.

Dex runs in.



I'm still not sure why this "Maybe" is here, and why Dex doesn't wait to hear it.


No, that's really not the first conclusion I'd come up with.


See? Even Lan agrees.



Huh.

At this point, Incident starts playing.






Is anybody else reminded of Die Hard 3?

Now, the puzzle itself is pretty lame and obvious. What bothers me, though...


How exactly do you speak in boxes? He can't just be reading out the letters, they'd be in a straight line.





No you won't Lan. You'll go look in the now-available lobby.


Anyway, where were we?