The Mega(man) Battle Network LP!

So yeah, these guys actually do this part for you. Real nice of the game.

Still, how they do it has to be seen to be believed.

















So yeah, presumably all Netbattlers do that. So while Megaman is doing his thing, Lan is flailing about like he’s having a seizure.

(I love how this screen capture turned out).

Then again, Lan isn’t an Offical, so I’d like to think he’s more calm about it.




Man, wouldn’t it be great if we didn’t have to do anything for this scenario?



Too bad that isn’t happening though.



The Mother Computer’s security is retarded. I normally wouldn’t use such a strong word, but seriously.




I just have to walk over C, A, and T, and I’m clear to go.

Yes, the most important computer in Electopia is protected with nursery rhymes and clichéd sayings.

Anyways, after our first battle…






Yuichiro proceeds to phone in.





In other words, depending on how you battle, you’ll get a style change to reflect it. Normal navis have this happen naturally (though probably not as dramatic), but since Megaman is a digitalized human soul he needs a secondary program to change his code for him (if you don’t recall, .Bat programs are used to simplify time-consuming tasks like, say, rewriting a program).

Your style change can be either Electric, Aqua, Heat, or Wood. The element you get is completely random. You can not affect it any way. Even if you fill your folder with Aqua chips and only battle aqua viruses, your element is not guaranteed to be Aqua. Seriously, people have checked the game’s code.

Anyways, there are four actually five styles. Before I explain what they are, you have to understand how Style changes are obtained.

Basically, from now on every time you fight 280 battles, you’ll get a new Style change. While a Style’s element can not be determined (unless you hack anyways), you CAN determine what Style type you get.

Here are the Style types:

Guts: If you delete enemies with your buster a lot and don’t use many chips, you’ll get this. Doubles the Buster’s attack power, but Rapid and Charge are reduced to one. You also get Super Armor; in other words, unless the attack is paralyzing you will not flinch (you still get mercy invulnerability though). This also makes it so getting hit does not affect your Busting level, aside from paralyzing attacks anyways. It’s pretty nifty, but second place at best.

Team: If you use Navi chips a lot, you’ll get this. All Team does is allow you to put eight Navi chips in your folder instead of five. So yeah, pretty crappy.

Shield: If you use Recovery or Shield chips a lot, you’ll get this. Gives Megaman Fast Barrier (start all battles with a 10 HP barrier) and a Shield that will block attacks if you press Left and B. This one is pretty meh.

Finally, Custom. I’ll let Yuichiro explain it for me.




If you use a lot of chips every turn, you’ll get points for Custom. This is far and beyond the best Style of the original four.

As Yuichiro said, your playing style will affect your Style. As you go through a battle, your actions will give you various points toward the different Styles. At the end of the battle, the Style with the most points will get a point (yeah, that didn‘t really come out right). At your 280th battle, the Style with the most points is what you’ll get.

Note that you’ll never get a Style you already have, or an element you already have (though you can trade Styles with friends, so you can end up with two Styles of the same element).

Alright, now for the elements.

Aqua Styles take double damage from Elec attacks and have a Bubbler as a charge shot. Their charge time is extremely fast; at Charge level 5 you’ll be able to pump out a stream. This one is personally my favorite.

Heat Styles take double damage from Aqua attacks and have a three panel flamethrower as a charge shot. They also can cross Lava panels without taking damage (other elements will take 50, or 100 if you’re Wood). They have the second fastest charge time, but that doesn’t mean it’s anywhere close to that of Aqua’s.

Wood Styles take double damage from Fire attacks and have a eight hit Twister as a charge shot (the twister hits the panel two spaces in front of Megaman). They regenerate HP on Grass Panels. With a certain chip, they can achieve Cardboard Immortality, something I will explain in detail when we get that chip. They have the third fastest charge time, though honestly I think it’s pretty much the same as Heat’s.

As for Elec…




Elec has a ridiculously slow and weak charge shot. It’ll stun though, so some people like it.

Your elemental charge shot’s damage is not based off of your buster Attack stat. Instead, it’s based on what level your style is.

AquaV1- 30 damage, AquaV2 - 40 damage, AquaV3 - 50 damage.
HeatV1- 50 damage, HeatV2- 75 damage, HeatV3- 100 damage.
WoodV1- 10 base damage, WoodV2- 15 base damage, WoodV3- 20 base damage.
ElecV1 - 10 damage, ElecV2- 20 damage, ElecV3 - 30 damage.

How do you level up your Style? It depends on your type, but all you really need to do is fight a lot. Guts needs 120 battles, Team needs 130 battles, Shield needs 100 battles, and Custom needs 160 battles for each level up.






Note that Megaman can store up to two separate Styles besides Normal Style.

Anyways, while normally I wouldn’t do this, since I’m using an emulator I can hack what Style and what element I’ll have.

So…

What Style do you guys want me to use for the game? Personally, I’d prefer Aqua Custom, but it’s up to you. And if you really want me to, I could use Hub Style right now.

To simplify the voting process, just say an element and a Style. Polls close at the end of the day, since I’m starting the next update on Monday.

Next time: Shadowman!

Current Folder
Cannon A x3
Cannon B x2
Shotgun B x3
Cross Gun *
Mini Bomb B x3
Sword S x4
Guts Punch B
Cold Punch B x3
Zap Ring A x3
Guard *
Recover 10 A
Area Grab S - REGULAR
Rock Cube * X3
Attack +10 * x2
Attack +30 *
Airman A

Total codes (not counting *): 3

I say, go with what the game happened to give you, ElecCustom style.

I'd like to see a Shield style. Oh say, Aqua.

Since you're hacking anyway, would it be too much trouble to show off the sprites for all the styles?

Meanwile, I guess I'll vote... uhh... Heat Custom. Burning Finger!

There you go.

May as well keep track.

Elec: 1
Aqua: 3
Heat: 1
Wood: 0

Guts: 0
Shield: 1
Custom: 4
Team: 0

I would play Aqua Custom myself, so I'll vote for that as well :P

Custom, pick your own element.

Hah, I kind of like the random subtle racing helmet type deal the Team sprites have going on, but it's true that the team ability doesn't seem at all useful LP-wise, so I'll leave my vote alone.

Alright, Aqua Custom it is.

Incidentally, I guess I should go over the Styles as they appeared in the anime.



In the anime, Guts style was given the heat element. This was Megaman's first Style, and it was basically your normal super form: increased power and durability.



Megaman's second Style was Wood Shield. It was pretty unspectacular. He had a little shield, and a tornado creating ability.

To put things in perspective, this Style only showed up in three episodes, while Guts showed up in eight.



His third Style was Elec Team. Since folders didn't exist in the anime, Team style went through a huge revamp. Instead of letting Megaman use more Navi chips, it let him fuse with other navis and use their attacks as well. This guy showed up in seven episodes.



And then there was Aqua Custom.

Anime Megaman can not use Aqua Custom normally. Lan had to input an extra code (BN3 thing) to shoot Megaman's power high enough to support this Style (incidentally, all that extra code did in BN3 was just boost your HP by 200).

And there's a reason, because Aqua Custom was ridiculously story breaking. Since there's no Custom Screen, what it did was if Lan put in a chip, the Style would automatically triple (or quintuple) it. This basically guaranteed a Program Advance, which in the anime was a ridiculously strong attack that required perfect synchronization between Operator and Navi. In other words, guaranteed OHKOs. Of course, every time Megaman used this he lost a lot of energy, but eh.

It only appeared three times.

I really need to stop relying on Google Images for this stuff.

Aqua Custom.

Poll's already closed.

But yeah, that won anyways.

Dang you tripod.com, now I have to look for Aqua custom and Elec team on my own... lol
EDIT: Found a wiki with all 4 and a few more lol...
http://megaman.wikia.com/wiki/Style_Change
Warning: Special style spoilers, but then again most know em anyways by now.

Alright, let’s move on.



“Somehow”?



R-I-V-E-R




…



N and B.



By the way, if you end up getting the password wrong, you’re allowed to restart it with no penalties. Seriously, is this supposed to be security?

The BMDs in this area held 800 Z, a HPMemory, and a Recover 30*.





A ninja warps in.



Then one of the Official navis runs in, shouting for Megaman to wait.




Megaman’s response?



Yeah, I have no clue.

Anyways, Megaman jacks out.

The pink navi asks if the orange one is alright.





The pink navi predicts that they have no chance if they face the ninja head on.

The green navi notes there’s only one way to win.

The orange navi agrees that that’s there’s only one option.





Heroic music begins to play as the navis prepare to commit suicide. Yeah.





I love how badly the last one was translated.





The navis rush the ninja and the screen goes white.



Good thing there are back-ups, huh?



There’s one more door. As soon as we jack into its control though…

Dude, what’s there to find out? Shadowman is attacking the Mother Computer in order to terrorize Electopia.



WHERE DID HE COME FROM?!



What’s so hard to believe? That thing’s like a huge target.



…I think he’s supposed to be telling Lan to leave it to the Officials (in other words, him) but the translators screwed up.





Megaman decides to follow anyways.

Anyways, guess what we have to do now?






Bad logic puzzles! Just try and ignore the fact that if Protoman is actually ahead of us he should have already solved these.

Every single one of these programs say the others are lying.





So yeah, they were trying to do a logic puzzle here but failed miserably. Program D is the right one.

And even if you didn’t figure it out, you could just brute force the thing.

New virus. Kill Plants stand still, and every now and then spit a seed on your side of the field. The seed will form a homing Wood Tower. They drop Tree Bombs, which do the same thing. If you hit a seed with a water attack though, it will immediately sprout.





If you thought this was an actually hard puzzle, think again. There’s another hint.



W-A-T-C-H







So yeah, they pretty much gave up here.

A-L-M-O-S-T-T-H-E-R-E

Up ahead are Protoman and Shadowman.



Megaman says “Protoman…!!” I think he’s supposed to be asking Protoman what’s going on.



Megaman says he’ll provide assistance.

Well they can’t respond if you won’t stop talking.



Yeah I have no clue.



Douche orders us to search the main system.





Lan’s fine with taking orders from Megaman it seems.




The BMDs of Mother Computer 2 held a Spreader P, a RegUp1, 600 Z, and a Wrecker Q.

The net of the Mother Computer has been tampered with according to a Mr. Prog near the start.



Now there are Grass panels. Wood elements recover HP on it (in BN2, incidentally, they recovered HP much faster than in the other games), but any element standing on it takes double damage against Fire. Grass panels are also destroyed by any Fire attacks that pass above it.

Incidentally, at this point I finally remodeled my folder into a R-B-L tri-coded folder.



Mushys move around the screen for a bit before they appear on your side and release damaging (and at later levels status ailment inflicting) spores in the panels around them. They drop Spice chips, which damage all enemies on Grass panels.





This one was actually confusing, but I just brute forced the first input and figured it out from there.

W-I-G-G-E-M-M-A-S-K-K-N-I-F-E

For once it’s an honestly clever puzzle.

U-C-A-N-G-O



This time you have to make sure you move over the N on the right, instead of the one right next to A.




This puzzle is nonsensical to me. You’d think this would be hard, but there are only three possible starts: O, D, and N, so it’s easy to brute force.

D-U-M-P-S

Yeah, I have no idea.

The BMDs of Mother Computer 3 held a Bug Frag, Shotgun *, a Panel Out 3 *, and a Recover 80 F.

Mother Computer 3 leads to Mother Computer 4.



This alone should be enough, but I have to be thorough with all of this screen capturing.





I’m not even going to tell you what the answer to this one is.

A-P-P-L-E



This one is pretty clever actually.

B








This Mr. Prog then says Program 1 Program 2 four times straight.

D-O-N-T-G-I-V-E-U-P

Mother Computer 4’s BMDs hold 1000 Z, Wide Sword L, and a Hammer T.

Surprisingly, Mother Computer has five areas instead of the normal 4.




R-A-C-C-O-O-N



G-I-K-M-O-Q-S-U-W-Y






I don’t understand this at all.

Anyways, according to GameFAQs the answer is S-Y-S-T-E-M-A-H-E-A-D.

S-Y-S-T-E-M-C-L-O-S-E






In other words, get some Sword chips, pronto.

If that was too hard for you…





V-I-R-U-S

And with that, we reach Shadowman.

The BMDs of Mother Computer 5 held 1400 Z, a RegUp2, and a Full Energy.



There’s a Nintendo cameo here. Can you find it?





Megaman realizes that Protoman is battling a fake.



Cut to the real world.





So to defeat a ninja you’re giving us a really powerful gun.

Okay…



This is kind of useless then.

Yuichiro apologizes for making such a rushed program.



They are so jinxing themselves.



STOP DOING THAT HANDMOTION. PLEASE.

Cut back to the Cyberworld.

Lan reminds Megaman they only have one shot.



You could totally hit a ninja with that.

Shadowman points out that if they miss, they’ll hit the Mother Computer’s core.





Protoman warps in, late as always.




Megaman protests that he’ll hit Protoman as well.



Heroic music is playing here too. Seriously, what is with this glorification of suicide?

Shadowman is silent for a second before butting in.




Protoman notes his strength won’t last much longer.



Welp, there goes all the dramatic tension. Thanks Protoman.




But right before Megaman fires…

Damn it, were the translators half asleep at this part?

Douche jacks out Protoman.



Megaman curses (read: he says “Darn!”, which is really odd since Lan just said “Damn“)




Uh-huh.



Shadowman is just as annoying as always.



His main attack has him leap up in the air and fire shuriken at you. He’s invincible while doing this, and can use this as a counter to the Megabuster.



Shadowman’s gimmick is that he will form two clones that also move around the field. They can be destroyed with buster shots, or by flinching Shadowmn, but they’re mostly harmless except when Shadowman does



His fire wave attack. Every Shadowman on the field will release a wave of fire that goes down their row. Note that the battle starts off on grass panels, so this can really hurt.



At low health Shadowman will spawn two blue clones. They will move around your side of the field.



And try and slash you. They can only be destroyed with Sword chips.

Thankfully, all of Shadowman’s attacks do relatively little damage. Reset time.




Went well until the end, where he managed to summon some blue clones.

Lan asks if Megaman is okay.






When a world renowned expert on navis volunteers to examine your critically damaged navi, what would you say? If you would say yes…



You’re not Douche.

Douche strolls away.



Yuichiro then asks if Megaman has any problems in his main system.



Yuichiro congratulates Lan and Megaman.



Yeah, by fighting a fake and failing to help us land an instant deletion.



Those guys actually helped.



Pretty sure it was mainly Yuichiro. You know, Chng.Bat and all.





Lan thanks Yuichiro. Which is kind of odd, since there’s no real reason for him to, but I guess he’s just that nice.



It really says something about Yuichiro’s ability as a father that this is a wonderful surprise.

Lan denies it.



Lan decides to go home.




…He successfully deleted Yumland's army and he single-handedly penetrated deep into the Mother Computer. What the hell are you talking about?






I’m surprised they were even looking at Lan.




Well that’s a pretty subjective rule.

Dude, they don’t even know you.

Megaman asks what’s wrong.





Megaman tells Lan to give up sweet-talking and to do his homework.




Lan mopes.

…It already said that.




Megaman reminds Lan about his homework. Lan answers that he’ll do it when he gets back.



As a final note, whenever you get a new Style Yuichiro will send you an e-mail explaining it.

Next time: A tasteful look at America from Japan’s point of view.

Current Folder

Shotgun *
Cross gun *
Bubbler R x4
Tree Bomb R x2
Sword L
Wide Sword L
Long Sword L
Fire Blade R x4
Guts Punch B
Cold Punch B x3
Area Grab R - REGULAR
Rock Cube * x3
Attack +10 * x5
Attack +30 *
Roll R