The Mega(man) Battle Network LP!

I think it's obvious that NAXA really does not actually want to deflect the asteroid. What other possible explanation could you give for their decision to keep the world-threatening asteroid a secret?

"Hey Boss, an asteroid is about to destroy the world. Should we alert the rest of the world so we can work together to deflect it?"

"Nah, let's just bring over three scientists and have them think of something."

*After Yuichiro explains his plan*

"Boss, we're supposed to make a gigantic laser, right? Why don't we alert the rest of the world so we can set up a network of lasers that will all strike the same spot? I mean, our world pretty much specializes in network technology after all."

"Nah, let's just make one gigantic laser out of parts that are too weak to stand more than one shot. We're homaging X5 after all, and the laser there didn't fire more than one shot."

"But wasn't that laser really old? And wasn't it hastily upgraded with various pieces of technology? And wasn't the only reason they used that laser because Sigma had totally screwed over the world's machiner-"

"STOP QUESTIONING ME."

Preventing widespread panic and mayhem? Imagine how much would break loose if a world-destruction-event actually had verifiable facts behind it.

At the end of the game they spill the beans. By then though, it's too late for the rest of the world to do anything, so they panic. Well, until someone gives a pep talk.

Except they don't have to tell the public. They just have to tell the governments.

And even if there was an information leak, while some people would panic other, more qualified experts would be able to help. And honestly, I'm not even sure if people would panic. NAXA has something like a half a year to do something about the asteroid, and Battle Network's world has already been proven to be capable of making plain old miraculous machines (BN2's Environmental System comes to mind). Besides, in the short time frame given NAXA was able to make a laser that could deflect the asteroid, so it stands to reason that other countries would be able to. And even if there was a widespread panic, a pep talk would fix it.

Still, this is BN4.

So last time we left Lan, he had just been kidnapped.




You appear to be in a hotel. Pretty nice of the kidnappers.



Somebody should make a grammar error bingo card for this game. The Free space in the middle can be “something stupid/vastly improbable happens”.



Man, two lines is a row.

Lan’s stunned to hear he’s been kidnapped.



That’s awfully convenient. Either these kidnappers are entirely incompetent or-










Or this is the preliminary round of the Blue Moon tournament.



Lan repeats what the game just told the player, just in case the player forgot in the two second interval between.

Megaman points out they need to find a place to jack in from.

Stay classy Capcom.




Seems Lan suddenly has anxiety issues. Either that, or the sprite artists didn’t want to make a bathroom area.




Clever.

Okay, let’s get on with this.




Yet another reminder.





That text spacing makes me sad.



The Mr. Prog wishes Megaman luck.



Netopia Area is basically a hub. There are three exits.



The north path leads to Net Frica Area.



The east path leads to Yumland Area.



And the west path leads to Sharo Area.

I’m sure you’ve noticed these little green boxes.



Cue virus battle.





By the way, you can find Static chips inside Netopia Battle GMDs. This is the first standard Dark aligned chip you can find, and sadly it’s pretty much the best. Static is essentially a Tornado, only the more bugs you have in your Navi Customizer the more tornados will appear.






The last chip is a Grab Banish P. If you have any area lost to your opponent, Grab Banish will damage one enemy based on how many panels you’ve lost.






If they’re alone, Boomer EX’s will stop attacking the rim of the area and just target Megaman’s row. This can be problematic if you get row locked, which admittingly normally doesn‘t happen. Unfortunately, since I have terrible luck most of my middle row was cracked. The one panel that wasn’t was stolen by a Panel Grab.



Hahaha I can’t do anything.

Netopia Area’s accessible BMD held a HP Memory.




Lan skates to the door and puts his ear to it.

Lan backs away from the guy who “kidnapped” him.



I know I’m beating a dead horse, but still. Missing question mark.







Bonds enters the room. Lan asks him what’s going on.




Well, I have to admit that this is a great way to see how Lan works under pressure.

Lan’s surprised to hear the whole thing was a test.








Bonds and the blond guy wish Lan luck, then leave.

Lan was supposed to say that last line.








Megaman points out that first Lan needs to get some rest. Lan yawns and agrees.



Megaman asks how Lan feels.







Not yet you won’t.



At this point, Megaman gains access to all of the areas Netopia Area is connected to. I’ll go to Yumland Area first.



The first thing of note in Yumland is that it’s connected to ACDC 2.



The second is this guy. For 4000 Z, he’ll sell the last of the three parts.

Next up is Sharo Area. Unlike Yumland Area, which was pretty much a straight road with a lot of paths branching off, Sharo Area is a mess of one-way panels.



Where you want to go though, is here. Behind the door is a female navi and a PMD holding a Black Bomb Z.



Sadly, Megaman will not show her the parts he has. Before he’ll do that, he has to go to



Net Frica Area. It’s essentially one giant square with a road leading to the left.




Net Frica Area connects to a closed off section of Sharo Area.










The dialogue doesn’t show it, but Megaman asks if anyone else can make a C-Slider.



The navi will explain the three parts she needs, the fact that they’re on the black market, and the general location of the dealers.

No, I don’t know why Megaman couldn’t make the thing himself.



Thankfully, the navi doesn’t want Megaman to pay her.



Anyways, the C-Slider!



With it, Megaman can finally cross all of those rails. It’s kind of like BN3’s Press, only it doesn’t require Navi Customizer space. No, all it requires is 9500 Z.



While some of the C-Rails are just shortcuts around an area, most lead to BMDs or PMDs.



Off to the Undernet!



♫ Heel's Paradise ♫

For all of the shit I give BN4, it probably has the best Undernet in the entire series, with the best theme and design.



It’s also got some ridiculous viruses. Spidy viruses will just stand still when the battle starts, but eventually they’ll start crawling around Megaman’s field, with later levels leaving webs in their wake. Since there are Poison panels in the Undernet random encounters, this is a huge problem. Anyways, Spidy viruses drop White Web chips, which fill one enemy row with webs. Which row that is filled depends on the level of the White Web chip.



Invisible path!



A useless PMD!




And one completely random and expensive Net Dealer!



Inside the Battle GMDs of the entire Undernet, you can find Dark Lines. This darkness aligned chip turns Megaman’s entire row into Holes.

Unfortunately, not only does Dark Stage do the same thing, Dark Line is a Mega chip.



Also in the Battle GMDs is Mine! It might have been useful, but lolZcode.



Under 2 is a maze of ramps.



It’s also where the second Expansion Memory is.



Unfortunately, I still don’t have any Spin Colors so I can’t change my set-up.



Under 3 has a link to Sharo’s Space Center.



It’s also got a new virus. Kilbys will occasionally appear on the top row of Megaman’s side and shoot a lance that will hit Megaman’s column. If Megaman is in the top row though, they’ll just move around doing nothing. They drop Side Bamboo chips, which summons a Kilby to hit the column three panels ahead.



Under 3’s gimmick is that it’s both huge and based around two warp panel paths.



One path leads to my next destination, Under 4.



The other leads to Under 6.



As a final note, Under 3 has some awesome GMDs.



And as a final, final note, Elmperors. These guys change their element based on the panel type they’re standing on and will slowly convert their entire row to that panel. Also, as long as they’re on a special panel, they’ll constantly regenerate health. They drop Element chips, which are basically a three panel long flamethrower. These will do more damage if Megaman is standing on a corresponding special panel.



Under 4 is a gigantic mass of C-Rails.



Yet another new virus. Bomb Boys create a Boy Bomb in front of them and slowly push it forward. Once it reaches Megaman’s side, it explodes and hits his entire field. They drop Boy Bomb chips, which form a similar bomb on Megaman’s rightmost column. This bomb (which you can push) only hits the panels around it though.



The path to Under 5 is blocked, and it won’t be opening for quite a while.

This game’s Bug Frag trader also sells a Giga chip. Unlike BN3 though, it’s a lot harder to get to 100 Bug Frags.



You’ll definitely want to save up for it though, so you’ll have to ignore all of the other things.




And now for the best part of BN4.




The Boktai crossover.

Grammar errors are the best way to introduce someone to a new world.







Megaman repeats Django’s declaration, then realizes who must be inside that coffin.



I love this line. Shademan, Mr. Stereotypical Villain, was extraordinarily smug. To Django though, he’s just another vampire whose name he can’t be bothered to remember.




This is actually a hint.

That’s right, Django beat Shademan without recharging the Gun Del Sol. That is how awesome he is.

Django growls that if the purification doesn’t happen soon, Shademan will reawaken.



Random ellipse!





Django probably has no idea what an operator or a PET is, but hey, sunlight.





Oh never mind, seems Django magically has knowledge he shouldn’t know.





Okay, so if I’m reading this conversation right, Django first appeared somewhere in the Undernet. He encountered Shademan, then chased him all over the Undernet, dropping the Solar Sensor at one point. Even without it, he defeated Shademan and dragged him all the way to Under 4. Ignoring the fact that he shouldn’t have been able to get past the C-Rails or the warps, that’s pretty damn spectacular.

Megaman volunteers to look for the Solar Sensor.

…I think Otenko’s wishing us luck?



Before we continue, I need to jack Megaman out…



Fly back to Electopia…



Head to Castillo (or Elec Town)…



Jack in from the stand…



And head back to the Undernet.








Under 6 is a direct copy of BN2’s Under 2.



It’s got yet another new virus. Circle Kills move around the borders of their area, and if they line up with Megaman they’ll fire a shot. They drop Circle Gun chips, which are kind of like Magnums in that time freezes and a cursor rapidly moves through the enemy area. The differences are that the cursor moves around the borders and that the panels hit aren’t destroyed,



This BMD is very easy to miss.

*sigh*







More stuff I’ll never use.





In other words, the postgame area.







Pfft.

Megaman seems to be perfectly fi-



God damn it.




Under 6 links to a side area of Under 5.



The only point of this side area is to see the statue that NPC was talking about. Seems after he blew himself up, Bass got moved here.



This battle amused me due to how ridiculously stacked against Megaman it was. There’s a Wally EX on the top and bottom rows, and the entire field is ice. Every time Megaman moves up or down, he’ll trigger an attack. Good thing I got a HP +100 prize before this, or Megaman might have died.



Whew.



If Lan didn’t jack in from a place with sunlight, this cutscene won’t start. It’s kind of annoying, but it makes perfect sense. You know, aside from the fact that now that Lan’s PET doesn’t require a wire to jack in, there’s nothing stopping him from just walking outside or something.




Django’s thanks are interrupted by Otenko, who warns that Shademan is about to wake up.





This would have be so awkward for Lan if I had jacked in from Elec Town.




…Why is it in quotes?

Django points the Gun Del Sol up.



The screen shakes, then darken as the Pile Drivers rise. Meanwhile, Shademan’s coffin rattles then starts to move.







That sprite was created solely for this side quest and looks exactly like Django‘s coffin pulling sprite. If only the rest of the game had so much attention to detail.



The Gun Del Sol starts to flash and the Pile Drivers aim their mirrors at the coffin.








It seems to be working quite well.



Or not. Man, I’m glad Shademan couldn’t do that in Boktai 2.




Because this side quest is awesome, for once Megaman doesn’t just stand there. Instead, he opens fire on Shademan.

Shademan screams in pain and the dark lasers he’s somehow shooting out of his sides are pushed back by the Pile Drivers.

I don’t know why they chose to shove ellipses into that yell.





Shademan died as he lived, setting new heights in the stereotypical villain department.









This is why Shademan is so much easier in BN5. Yep, this side quest canonically happened (Megaman references it when he shows up in Boktai 2, and it‘s not like Solar Cross came out of nowhere). That is how awesome it is.







To the south? That’d be… a blank void. I guess a portal popped up,

Not only did he actually pull his weight in this side quest, he gives something extremely useful! Django, you are the best side character ever.







Django runs off.




And he took the competent text spacing with him.

Sorry about that Alpha Werewolf.






Anyways, as awesome as that side quest was, here’s the real reason why I did it. Nebula Code allows me to open all of those blocked doors. It’s a huge hassle to get though, what with the 19,500 Z required to reach it.

Alright, time to get all of those until now blocked BMDs.




Even though it's only one block now, Bug Stop is pretty useless. Why? Because it takes up valuable Command Line space.

I forgot to get an image of ACDC 3’s Nebula BMD. It held a Jealousy chip.






The NPC nearby is a Bug Frag trader.



He’s the only way in the game to get a Shooting Star chip, so after I get Signal Red I’ll be saving up for this.



Hooray. Too bad I can’t use this because I still don’t have any Spin Colors.



And now there‘s only one more thing to go over.



The most annoying boss in the game. Shademan Omega is basically a stronger Shademan, with one key difference.



If you hit him with anything besides the basic buster shot or the Gun Del Sol, he’ll split into bats that will quickly fly off the screen. Only one of these bats is Shademan, and if you hit one of the others nothing will happen. The annoying thing about this is that not only do the bats fly off the screen very fast, giving you little time to attack, but the bats also have Super Armor, which as always makes the battle much harder.

What makes this battle even worse is that Battle GMD up there. Inside is a Giga chip. If Shademan’s bat hits it, the Battle GMD is destroyed. So if you want the Battle GMD, you can only attack Shademan while he’s in the bottom row (or the middle if you want to risk it). Thankfully, there’s another boss the same Battle GMD shows up in, and he can’t destroy it.



But the above two problems only matter if you’re trying to S rank him or something. What really makes Shademan a pain are his moves. First, Red Wing now summons three 200 damage bats. Trying to destroy these with the buster is pretty much impossible, so you’ll need to maneuver around them.

Something that is very hard to do since Shademan can follow it up with Crush Noise. This move can hit through Invisible or mercy invincibility, and it will either confuse or paralyze Megaman depending on whether or not it follows Red Wing.



And as a final fuck you, at low health Shademan will start summoning a hand to grope Megaman. If he uses this during Crush Noise...



Did I mention he can use all three of his attacks at the same time? Because he can.




After a truly epic amount of save state abuse, I managed to defeat Shademan Omega with the Battle GMD intact.




And what do I get? A crappy darkness aligned Giga chip that transfers any of Megaman’s bugs to the enemy and a useful Mega chip dragged down by its WTF chip code.

Now am I forgetting anything? Oh, right, BMDs.

Yumland’s BMD held a RegUp 2, Sharo’s BMD held a HP Memory, and Net Frica’s BMDs held a Barrier 100 W and a Jungle program. Under 1’s BMD held a RegUp 1, Under 2’s BMDs held an Exp Memory and a Speed Max program, Under 3’s BMDs held a HP Memory and a Recover 120 Q, Under 4’s BMDs held a HP Memory and a Custom 1 program, and Under 6’s BMDs held a Hole * and an Attack +1 program.

Okay, back to the plot.








Lan screams and backs away.




The lion thing asks if Lan is telling the truth.

Lan responds there’s no way he’s going to put his hand into something that might bite it off.








Lan moves forward, but hesitates.





Lan shoves his hand in.




The lion thing tells Lan to go to the tournament board. Instead, Lan cheers that he’s been cleared and fist pumps.



The lion thing is not amused.



Argh.

Next time: A shining example of BN4 WTF.

Current Folder

Heat Shot C x4
Wide Shot 1 C x4
Twin Fang 1 C x3
Magnet Bolt 1 C x4
Variable Sword V x3
Air Hockey 1 F x3
Air Hockey 3 V
Boomerang 1 *
Blinder *
Invisible * x2 - REGULAR
Attack +10 * x3
Gun Del Sol EX G

Total codes (not counting * code): 4

As you can see, I’ve drastically rearranged my folder.

Since I ended up getting exactly 300 images, I don’t want to make another post just for my Navi Customizer set up. If you want to see it, just go back a few posts.

Whoops, forgot to show something. So much for a perfect 300.





This is a cameo appearance from Hideo Kojima, someone you all probably know.

X code for Shademan! Wow BN4 sucks. Aren't the navi chip codes based on the first letter of its Japanese name.

Although now I wonder why none of the Bass chips have F codes.

Wow, Battle Network 4 has SO many typos. Still can't believe that they spelled Z-Saber wrong. What's up with that? He's not even a repliroid, but whatever.

That's how it was for a while, but Operation Shooting Star changed around some of the chip codes simply because there were too many S coded navis. Incidentally, in BN5 Shademan's chip is S coded.

Most of them do actually. The exceptions are BN2 Bass V3 (for the Darkness PA) and the BN3 Bass chips (I have no idea why).

Short update here, I'll do the preliminaries and upload the tournament matchups next time. For now, though:

GUTSMAN OMEGA IN 15 SECONDS

Burnman Alpha's location and chip:

(That's in Park2)

BURNMAN OMEGA IN 2 SECONDS

Roll Alpha's location and chip

(That's in the lower part of Town3)

ROLL OMEGA IN 14 SECONDS

I did want to mention a few things, though.
The victories against Gutsman & Burnman Omega were pure luck; The DarkLance doesn't cause mercy invincibility, so after hitting once, when they moved to the back row again - they died from the second hit.

Burnman's chip is relatively powerful, especially on a darkstage. It does three strikes to the panel two panels in front of megaman - two of them are from burners summoned above and below it, one from Burnman. At least, I believe so. Topman's still has better potential, I believe, and Gutsman's does break the enemy's entire field; Regardless, I use them all.

Burnman's fight, due to the luck, didn't have my strategy for him. Basically: You want to use Airhockey and other breaking chips to break his Burners (they come back after a while), and if you can't break just one of them - let it pass you, then stand in it's way so it can't go back. You'll want a defense chip for that, though. Alternatively, don't let it get to the back row by blocking the way.

Let's see you do that with Shademan Omega. Meanwhile, I'm going to be in a corner moping about how little trouble you had.

That's going to require a lot of luck. I'll basically need two things: To have ChargeMAX on, and three DarkSwords in a row.

If you ignore the Battle Mystery Data though, Dark Bomb and Dark Lance would work pretty well.