Permanently Jacked In: Let's Play Mega Man Battle Network!

That's Vile, not Sigma.

anyway, good job with the LP so far, keep it up.

...That's the second time I made that mistake, after knowing that it's wrong. Must be the huh-hisis.

At least you're not calling him "Boba".

More updates will come soon. At the moment I'm infected with Megaten-Persona4. It's a rare disease to find where I live.

I just discovered this, and it is awesome. It's been a very long time since I've played MMBN1, but I logged an absolutely absurd number of hours getting every chip so I could fight Bass. I remember fighting SharkMan for 2 straight hours trying to get that damn SharkMan3 chip. Not to mention the lengths I went to to get a Muramasa.

Speaking of which, are you planning to fight all of the optional bosses. At the very least, you need to get Anubis from Pharoahman; I'm firmly convinced that it's the best chip in the game. And ShadowMan is just really fun to fight.

I'm going for the 100%.

You know, when I finished my BN6 LP, I realized I had a bunch of free time until my November Fire Emblem LP.

So I wondered what I should do.

I thought about playing Battle Moon Wars.



But I already beat that. On both Real normal and Super hard 10. And as kickass as the game is, I’m not up to replaying it until I forget the plot.

Then I decided to try finishing Megaman 10. But it turns out that playing BN for so long basically rotted my skills to absolutely nothing, and I died horrendously again and again.

After that I checked to see if I had any homework assignments left. I didn’t.

So, I’ve decided to sacrifice my useless free time to resurrect this LP. Again.



As a note, I'm not really going to be as hilarious as Dark Blue Flannel was in his interpretaions of the game. I'm just not that kind of LPer. I apologize to anyone who was expecting more of that.

I also recommend that you've read my BN6 LP already. Would help, since it means I don't have to write how the battle system works again.

Here we go!



With the exception of BN6, I’m pretty sure Lan starts every BN asleep.

Anyways, Lan’s not waking up. Megaman yells that if he doesn’t wake up soon, he won’t get to school on time.

Lan’s still not waking up.

Then Megaman… shouts the news or something. Hell if I know.




In any case, this rouses Lan.





Megaman notes that there’s some battle chip data attached.

Lan finally gets up and rubs his eyes for a bit.



As you may have noticed, BN1 has a different art style from BN6. In fact, BN1-3 (as well as BCC and the GCN game Network Transmission) all use this larger style. And honestly, though it’s kind of ugly they make a lot of poses out of it, unlike BN4.5-6’s more compact design that had a lot less sprites.

That’s far from the only difference mind you. BN1 is VERY different from BN6. In fact, it’s different from most of the BN games in general. Like the classic series, it’s not until BN2 that things really get standardized.



In any case, we can’t access the menu yet so walk Lan over to the first generation PET.



Lan and Megaman still do fist pumps, they just don’t hold the pose until you press A again mind you.

Anyways, as you can see this PET is a LOT different from BN6’s Ipod rip-off. For one thing, it’s unfoldable and it has a keyboard.

Oh yeah, we also get this.



Lan and Megaman exchange good mornings.



In BN1, the “you got mail” animation doesn’t stop until you press A.



The menu is a lot more plain as you can see. In any case, inside our folder is the first big difference.



In BN1 you can not run away from battles without the use of an escape chip. Yeah.

On the other hand, in BN1 as soon as you beat a random encounter your health is automatically restored to full if I recall correctly (I lost my actual BN1 cartridge a while back). So… yeah.

In any case, our current folder is a nine coded monstrosity, filled with crappy chips.

Let’s check the e-mail Dad sent us!



Oh… joy. That’s… totally useless.

Anyways, continuing with the differences, let’s check the Library.



There are no Mega chips or Giga chips in this game. It isn’t until BN3 that those two show up. Program advances still exist, but they’re pretty different.

Aside from that, BN6’s memory limitations didn’t exist either. You’re allowed to put 10 of any chip in your folder. Though I think navi chips are limited to 5.

Yeah, this is a game that gets a LOT easier the further you go in, why do you ask?

Also, in BN1-3 every chip besides the navi chips and the super secret chips had at least 5 chip codes. In fact, in BN2 it was technically possible to get chips with any codes. Needless to say, the amount of folders you could build with all this was pretty much endless.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.



In BN1 and BN2, the Navi Customizer did not exist. Thus, to boost Megaman’s buster stats, you had to purchase special items called Power Ups.

In BN1 there were also special Armor items; they cut all damage you receive in half, but they were also elemental, meaning that some attacks did double damage instead. They have to be purchased.

HP Memories are still around though.

Anyways, we’re not allowed to go on the Internet yet, so head to school.



Anyways, if you decide to eat breakfast you’ll get a Recover 10 A.



I too am confused as to what exactly she’s late for.



The ACDC gang obviously are more important in this game since Lan still lives in ACDC town. It’s apparently Mayl’s habit to walk to school with Lan. This may seem odd, but then you realize that Mayl lives right next door to Lan.

Moving on, Megaman notes that Mayl looks grumpy. How he knows this considering he can only see out of a screen that is presumably closed or facing Lan’s leg? Eh…







Lan tells Megaman to quiet down.



Hilariously enough, they were too lazy to give Mayl upwards facing sprites. As such, when she moves diagonally she… just shuffles sideways while still walking forward or something, it’s hard to explain.

Anyways, Mayl talks about



Lan replies with a grunt.

ACDC in BN1 is a lot different from ACDC in BN6. For one thing, it’s much larger and you can actually enter the school (which, for some reason, is replaced by Yai’s house in BN5 onwards).



The actual class is still the same though.

Anyways, the NPCs just fill you in about WWW or the oven incidents. Talking to Dex results in him challenging you to a Netbattle, but Yai will rush up and tell you to stop. Dex manages to convince her to look the other way, but then the bell rings.



I love how they bothered to give Dex a sideways sprite and yet couldn’t be bothered to give some better walking sprites to Mayl.

Anyways, Dex tells Lan to meet him after class.



First period is Virus Busting. Ms. Mari asks the class if they know what’s been happening recently. One kid answers that WWW has been on the rise. Dex boasts that they’re no match for Gutsman, to which Yai and Lan reply that WWW wouldn’t even care about Dex.

Anyways, TUTORIAL TIME.



BN1 has a really weird jack in animation.



Alright, let’s go over the differences now.



First off, as you may notice, in BN1 the chip codes are not under the chip icons.

Okay, now for the minor things.

Cannons now have significantly less lag, Mettaurs attack faster, and the Megabuster has less of a cool down, making it easier to rapid fire if you‘re close to the enemy. And finally, you can’t charge your buster yet.



Here’s a good look at Megaman’s original battle sprite. He used this from BN1 to BN5.

Also, see that Add button?



Basically, if we press it, we have to survive the next turn without chips. If we do so, the next time we bring up the custom screen we can use five more chips. You can do this twice per battle.



Yeah, the chip selection for the tutorial is pre-determined. Now, to show off one last difference.



Unfortunately, I deleted the Met with my second steal, but as you can see I stole every bit of area the enemy side had besides one panel. This is known as area locking, and when combined with chips or program advances that are supposed to spread attacks out throughout the enemy field, it results in absurd amounts of damage.

This was made impossible after BN3. They made it impossible to steal any bit of the last column.



After that, the game skips to after class. Megaman recommends we go home, but we have a challenge to fulfill.



Yeah, BN1 really emphasized that Navis are programs. You’ll see talk about backups, versions, etc throughout the game. Later BNs cut back on this to try and make navis more human like.

Still, it just makes me laugh to think of mass produced Gutsmans.

Then I remember the last Wily stage in Megaman 1.

Moving on now.



BN1 has some really cool boss music.

Anyways, as you might note we no longer see the names of the enemies. Also, Gutsman has absurdly low HP.



Gutsman has three attacks. One is a glorified Mettaur shockwave.

Another cracks an entire row.



Of note is that back then, holes actually take out the entire panel. Looks awesome, no?



It took a while, but I managed to get a picture of Gutsman’s last attack: Guts Punch.



By the way, Recovery chips freeze time in this game. It’s very annoying.



I missed it, but when Megaman is deleted in this game he explodes into green balls of light, as is tradition.

Okay, let’s win now.



We don’t get a prize. Shame. I missed it again, but when bosses die in this game they take a relatively long time to blow up, and while they do this they’re in their hurt pose (which in this game looks hilarious as they generally tend to do pelvis thrusts). Basically, you just missed Gutsman somehow balancing on his toes while leaning back and spastically convulsing

Next time: Oven shenanigans!

Anyways, I’ll continue with my weekend updates, but if I don’t finish before November I’ll be putting this on hold.

Wow this game is short. I've already completed the next update.

Still, don't expect double updates all the time.

Alright, let’s survey ACDC school.



Or not because as soon as you leave the class you’re automatically transported to the gates. I tried to get back in but Megaman stops Lan from doing so.

Anyways, we also got some mail.



Dad’s got a Power Up program for Megaman, and he promises to give it as soon as he gets home.

Just saying, this probably would have been better as a surprise gift.

Ms. Mari’s e-mail is just a few more basic game mechanics I already knew.

Anyways, we may as well survey the ACDC of BN1.

First difference between the BN1-3 version of ACDC and the BN5-6 version.



Cars.

Actually, I’m pretty sure these guys are only in BN1. Huh.

Well, moving on.



The park with the pink squirrel was originally a lot bigger too. You can’t see it, but that kid there is spinning around like a top. He’s apparently looking for a place to hide, since he’s playing hide and seek with his identical twin.



I don’t think this will be a very long game.



The Metroline and Dex’s house are located down here.

Between Lan’s house and Dex’s house are also these houses.



Yeah, BN1 ACDC is a lot bigger than BN6 ACDC, why do you ask?



Finally, Yai’s house is over here.




Both Mayl and Yai have identical twins stalking them it seems.



As always, you can jack in to the dog house. It’s worth mentioning that in this game, Lan shouts “Jack in! Megaman.EXE, transmit!” instead of “Jack in! Megaman, execute!”



The net in BN1 is fairly… bland. That’s really all I can say about it. Anyways, there’s a Shotgun K in a BMD here.

Okay, guess we should go home now.




Haruka asks if Lan’s heard about the ovens exploding.

Megaman reminds Lan that Mayl was talking about it earlier.



Ah… Mr. Match, looking as suspicious as ever. Seeing as how the guy who was running the LP earlier already got past this, I’m pretty sure I don’t need to dance around the issue.

Mr. Match is proof that the officials of Electopia are retarded.

He appears throughout the series, and in general he is being evil and committing acts of extreme arson. Yet he keeps getting free, to the point that he apparently gets bored of crime and becomes a teacher in BN6 Gregar. It is weird.

Also, he actually wears that uniform throughout the game if I recall correctly. Kind of odd fashion choice.

Anyways, Mr. Match says that Net Safety believes a virus is behind ovens suddenly exploding into flames. As to how something that is supposed to cook things by radiating heat, not by exposing them to a flame, is supposed to burst into fire…

Well, the BN series doesn’t really give a damn about reason.

…Aren’t you checking the thermostat? What does that have to do with the oven?



How would we do that? Is he just uncomfortable being around children or something?

Anyways, Megaman recommends that we go on the Net.



Amusingly enough, this “examining” seems to involve punching the thing.



Huh. Well what do you know.

Anyways, to the Net.



The Net in BN1 is freaking confusing and annoyingly bland.

Anyways, ahead we see Glyde.



Apparently this is the first time Megaman has met Glyde. Considering that Yai won’t shut up about PETs, I find this odd.

Well, in any case, one of Yai’s programs has gotten lost and Glyde wants us to find it. Sure, Glyde could do it himself but…



And that’s why he was standing right outside Lan’s HP clearly waiting for Megaman.



Glyde gives us @Yai, the precursor to P-Codes.

Anyways, I checked: yes, your HP refills itself between random encounters.



Say hello to the Cannondumb series. I’m not sure if I spelled their name right, but it should be something like that. If you line up with them they fire a cursor. You get hit by the cursor, they shoot the panel you‘re on. And only the panel you’re on; if you move forward you won’t get hit, despite all reason saying they should be firing a shot straight at you.

They drop Cannon chips.

In my battle with them, I discovered that the Add button only gives you 5 (or 10) extra chips for one turn only. After that, you’re back to just selecting from 5. Kind of lame.

In any case, now seems like a good time to start streamlining my folder.



I can’t really reduce the number of chip codes I have, so I’ll just work on putting as many Cannons as I can in my folder. As always, first to go are the Mini Bombs.



I love how bold WWW is in this game. See, Lan hasn’t crippled them yet so they can put barriers with their names on them and there’s nothing the officials can do about it.



Oh, a Net Merchant.

Well, in the interests of getting through this game with minimal fuss, I guess I should turn on max zenny.



Oh wow is the money screen supposed to look like that?

Anyways, the HP Memories were surprisingly cheap (only about 11,500 Z for all 5 of them), but the Power Ups were not (7000 Z for both). Aside from that, I purchased all three Cannon C and Widesword K chips, as well as the Hammer A chip. These all went straight into my folder.

Now, to be perfectly honest aside from the power up programs I really didn’t need to hack to get the money to buy the chips. My folder is honestly so bad that I’m likely to only get Zenny from battles anyways. But, like I said, I’m trying to speed things up a bit. Don’t worry, I’m not going to just fill my folder with normally expensive crazy powerful chips.

Besides, said chips usually have awkward chip codes.

Anyways, the Power Ups!




You may notice that Megaman has a level. HP Memories and Power Ups will increase this level, and it tops out at level 100. I can’t quite remember what your level did though.

Anyways, I chose to boost Attack and Charge because my Rapid is good enough as it is (also because by moving left and right while you fire you can pretty much cancel the cool down). Speaking of Charge, once it’s at level 2 you can start firing a charge shot.

But BN1 (and BN2 for that matter) were different about their charge shots. Like the Classic series, you have two levels of charge.




A green charge does 8x damage. A pink charge does 16x damage. They took this out and replaced it with only one level of charge that does x5 damage in BN2, and x10 from BN3 onwards. Oddly enough though, some chips (such as Leader’s Raid in BN5) still show the green charge.

Much to my displeasure, I find that I made the wrong choice; I should have put both Power Ups into Charge, because damn the charge is slow at level 2.



Anyways, here’s the reason I picked all those Cannon chips. Putting in Cannon A, B, and C in that order gives me Z-Cannon 1. Using it gives me 5 seconds where I am invincible and where pressing A fires a Cannon. Since Cannons have a lot less lag in this game, it’s ridiculously broken.



In case you’re wondering, I’m trying to grind Shockwave K chips in order to try and get my folder down to Cannon chips and K coded chips.

Anyways, here we see a Fishy virus. They dash forward at you. They drop Dash chips which make you rush forward and deal damage to anything in front of you.



Here’s Z-Cannon 1 in action by the way.

In any case, after a decent amount of grinding (during which I actually got enough zenny to restore my money back to max), I manage to eke out a tri coded folder.

Cannon B x 10
Dash B x 4
Shockwave K x 10
Shotgun K
Widesword K x3
Widesword S
Steal S

The loss of Z-Cannon is sad, but at least my folder is a lot more fluid now.

Unlike BN6, this will not be able to carry me through the game, but it’ll do well enough to at least make me stop failing at virus busting.



Once we find the lost program we have to talk to Glyde, who’s moved to Yai’s Portrait Comp.



Glyde thanks us and gives us a Spreader I… which I’ve already bought. I’d complain about the waste of money if it weren’t for the fact that I have nothing to do but waste money.



But… Megaman doesn’t eat…

Anyways, jack out and head over to-



Over at the kitchen is Haruka, comically running around with white liquid (presumably sweat) bursting out of her head.




Seriously, Haruka is a lot more childish in this game from the looks of it.

Lan notes that the repairman just came. Haruka replies that the repairman said it was fixed and left. Well, looks like we have to save the day.



I’d note that jacking into an oven on fire seems weird, but in BN3 Lan jacks into a tank that is trying to shoot him so I guess this doesn’t really compare.

Megaman enters the system and Lan asks what he sees.



There’s something wrong with the oven that‘s currently on fire? That’s just crazy talk.



Anyways, until we get the IceBlock from the thawing section of the oven computer (no I don’t know why an area that is all about melting ice would have ice for us to use), we have to go around all of the fire.

As soon as you take a few steps in though, Megaman pauses and notices a virus.



Lan notes that Mayl was right.

Anyways, the screen flashes white. What powerful virus will we face…?

What.



How anticlimactic.

Moving on…



There are no sub chips in this game, so this mystery data isn’t locked. It’s just purple. Because.



As you may have noticed, BN1 actually has a lot of different panel styles, unlike later games where’s it always the same red/blue tile.



The Mr. Prog gives us an Ice Block that can be used to extinguish only seven fires. As you may expect, if you run out you have to run back here and restart.

There isn’t anything really special about this area to be honest. It’s just an oven after all.

As soon as you try and leave though…




Shit.



The oven’s getting worse, and Lan’s lost connection with Megaman. Lan’s phone rings, and laughter goes through it. Lan asks who the laugher is.



Wait, how’d he get Lan’s phone number?

Lan recognizes him as the panel repairman.



Honestly, WWW stands for World Three. As for what that’s supposed to mean…

Lan realizes that all of the other oven explosions were this guy’s fault.




…What about the do-



…The door locks from the outside? What? Anyways, we need to get to Lan’s toolbox (he calls it that if you press L for a hint).




Oh wow I screwed up here. Anyways, Lan gets a Water Gun.

Lan’s water gun is apparently a shower nozzle. Also, I have no idea how it fired off that much water considering it’s smaller than Lan.

Alternatively, it was a Mudkip.




Megaman gets up. Lan asks if he’s okay, and Megaman replies with an affirmative. Lan then tells Megaman to hurry up before things get worse.



Ahead is a Steal A. Honestly, I have enough Cannon As that I could rearrange my folder to shift out all the B coded chips for A coded chips, but all I have to replace the Dash Bs are MetGuards so I’ll pass on that idea.



OH GOD IT’S DEAD.

Anyways, on the way to the next area is another BMD with 200 Z. That’s honestly pretty worthless.

Anyways, the Oven Control Area is filled with fires, requiring strategic use of the Ice Block.



I was wrong, Megaman still holds his fist pump until you close the message box. Lan doesn’t though.

Also in this area is a PMD with a Little Bomb T (basically a Mini Bomb, only its explosion covers an entire column. Still worthless.)

Anyways, I probably missed some stuff but I don’t really care. I can check back later.

Once you get past the fire maze, you’ll see an injured Mr. Prog who will warn you that a boss battle is approaching.





Battle Network 1 has all of the robot masters from Megaman 1 with the odd sole exception of Cutman, who shows up in BN2.



I think this goes beyond mischief.

Fireman realizes that Megaman is the Navi of the house and laughs.

Fireman is pathetic. He also has three attacks (that’s actually the magic number for most bosses).



The first one has Fireman shoot out a stream of fire down one row. It’s extremely easy to avoid, as Fireman has to charge up for it (which he will do by doing a bunch of squats). Note that he fires for a really long time, and he always goes up to the front row to do it. He’s just asking to be hit with a Widesword.

Or you could just nail him with a Cannon while he charges, whatever floats your boat.



His second attack is a wave of fire that slowly chases you. It’s also easy to avoid, as it can’t go backwards.





His final attack has him stand straight up, jiggle for a bit, then fire three bombs at you that will explode after a bit.

Fireman’s attacks are really easy to avoid, so he basically relies on reducing the amount of area you have to avoid with this attack.

Anyways, as is standard it’s reset time.




Easy as pie.



Because Fireman was stupidly weak.

Mr. Match then mutters that at least he finished his mission. Lan asks what he means.



Lan is understandably confused.





…Why would something that important be in Lan’s oven anyways? Since Match finds the Fire program in here, I can only assume Yuichiro was trying to save on gas or something.

Mr. Match proclaims that soon there will be war and everyone will be dead. Chilling.

He then ditches, leaving Lan incredibly confused.

Lan and Megaman congratulate each other as well. Megaman then notes that Lan is worried about the WWW.



Megaman replies that this is only our first encounter with them after all, so Lan shouldn’t be too worried about being confused.







Megaman is shocked that Lan is hungry for some reason. Did he forget Lan hasn’t eaten since he’s come back from school or something?



That pun is and forever will be terrible.




Haruka then states that’s she’s too tired from all of the excitement to cook something else.



Great.

Anyways, there’s still stuff we can do. For one thing, we can go in to Dex’s house and battle Gutsman to earn /Dex, which will allow us to access Internet Area 2 if I recall correctly.



Or not.

Well, you can jack into his Gamecube to find a Cross Gun K, and Dex’s computer to get @Dex.



Mayl’s house has two floors. But what’s important is that ServBot doll. Inside it is a HP Memory and these guys.



These guys drop Invisible chips. They’ll always stay out of your row until they attack. They’ll turn invisible and reappear in front of you to smack you with their tongue.

Oddly enough, they apparently also drop Recover 10 chips. I’m not sure why.



These guys jump around the field. Occasionally, they’ll transform into giant steel versions of themselves and land on Megaman. They drop Quake chips, which are another type of bomb chip. Still worthless.

The piano on the first floor also has an @Mayl inside.

Yai’s house also has two jack-in points: the telephone, and the painting. Inside of the telephone is an Escape J, and I’ve already been to the painting.



By the way, when I went back to Mayl’s Piano comp in order to establish a link between it and the net, I found that Megaman was unable to decode this GMD for some reason. Same thing happened when I went to Dex’s HP.

Much to my surprise, while roaming Internet Area 1 I found a respawned BMD. It appears that on the main Net, there isn’t actually any “special” mystery datas.

Anyways, it turns out I can’t face Fireman V2 just yet, so I may as well just go to sleep.

Next time: I forget. I think it was Stoneman.

Pretty sure Stoneman's up next, yeah.

Also: I fully endorse the second revival of this LP!

Holy crap so much free time.

Okay, you know what? I’m just going to post my updates as soon as I finish them now. I want to really speed through this.



You know the drill: when Lan sleeps, cut scenes play.

The game skips ahead several days.

It’s night. A dog howls.





Oh, looks like it was Numberman.

The screen fades to black…

And it quickly pops up again with Lan rushing to school.



The text auto scrolls here, so this screen cap came out pretty badly. Lan’s complaining that nobody came to wake him up.



Lan asks how much time he has left.





Lan responds with a “Duh!”.



Lan asks if he got any new mail, much to Megaman’s annoyance. Megaman asks if Lan even heard what he said.



He did.




The other one is from Yai.



That makes no god damn sense at all… unless Yai has a voice modifier or something. Hell, I’m pretty sure Lan sits in the front, so I can only assume Ms. Mari is blind.

I’m with Lan on this one.

In all actuality, we can’t explore much of the area since we do need to get to class. But we can go to the Nurse’s room and steal some stuff.



Normally I wouldn’t call it stealing, but it’s a recovery chip in a nurse’s room. What else could it be?

Anyways, the door next to the Nurse’s room leads to an empty class.



Repair sets your side of the field back to normal panels.



A nameless video game teacher NPC that is not a total rule stickler? You impress me BN1.

Anyways, upstairs is our classroom, and the library. Guess which one we’re going to.



And that’s pretty much it. For now.




Fascinating. Anyways, we should probably get to class now.

Not.




Okay, NOW let’s go.




How will Lan sneak to his desk considering he’s in the front row and wearing bright orange?



A fade to black of course. Always works.



I’m just going to pretend that by now Ms. Mari is so used to this she’s just overlooking it.




In the anime, incidentally, Higsby has a giant crush on Ms. Mari.

Teaching = Trading? What’d he major in? Game mechanics?




I spy with my little eye a typo.



Lan was under the impression teachers were robots.



I don’t…



Ms. Mari asks that we give a warm welcome to Higsby.



Did I take that long getting here?





Wow, they gave everyone side sprites. Anyways, this is a hint about program advances I guess.

Dex complains about our new teacher.



We still can’t battle him.

Meanwhile, Yai gives another hint about program advances.





God, she’s jinxing us.

After you talk with everyone the bell rings.



Another typo, and a verbal tic. This does not bode well.

Mayl asks where Ms. Mari went.



Dex is shocked. Higsby commands everyone to quiet down and notes that first period will be study hall. Dex rejoices, but Higsby tells him to hold his horses.



Dex is now sad. Yes, in the span of maybe twelve seconds he went from surprise to joy to sadness. Sheesh.




Damn, I missed it. While jacking in Higsby actually spun around in a complete circle.





It’s clearly a malfunction. Did the big green “ERROR” not tip you off?




You mean the net terrorists wanted to control the net? You’re pulling my leg.






A boy starts screaming for some reason. Mayl wants to know why WWW would want to destroy the world.

Dex shouts that there’s no way he would help WWW. Some random girl then shrieks that she can’t turn her terminal off. Some random boy then notes that the door is locked.



…You know, there’s a class below us and in the next room. Surely they’d hear us?




Oh.

Anyways, the power of repetition is apparently enough to get kids to turn evil. Who knew?

Anyways, let’s go save the day agai-





Yai tells Dex that he should calm down and let Lan handle things. Dex isn’t listening.






You couldn’t see it, but Dex was flapping his arms like crazy. I can only assume Gutsman is hand powered.



OH MY GOD GUTSMAN IS DEA-

Never mind then.








Okay, now I’m just confused. In this picture, Lan’s holding his fist pump until I close the message box, despite the fact that earlier he didn’t do this. Seriously, will this game make up its mind?

Anyways, there’s no real reason to not use Roll, so I replace my Steal S with her.




Lan orders Megaman to find the program locking the doors.



Why thank you.



For some reason Glyde is here. He is an unhelpful as always.

Moving on, further ahead is a BMD with a Shockwave L.



Here we see… Bugtanks I believe? They fire bombs onto your side of the field. This version drops Little Bombs.





Way to be helpful.

Here’s a good example of how navi chips used to work. When I use Roll, time freezes and Roll appears where I stand. Roll then moves to the closest enemy (she doesn’t just teleport there, we actually see her path of movement) and attacks. But the enemy doesn’t take any damage until time starts moving again.

Further ahead is a BMD with 800 Z.




Megaman asks Lan to go count the number of chairs.



Anyways, with that lock passed the doors of 5A are now unlocked. Lan gets everyone out while Megaman continues ahead.



Grand. The right path leads to a HiCannon I, the left path goes nowhere, and the center path is the way we need to go.




Further ahead we reach our first stupid puzzle.



Yup. We have to guess. Thankfully, they tell you if the required number is higher or lower than your number, and which numbers are right/wrong, but that just makes me wonder how this is supposed to be a good security. If you mess up enough times, the passcode changes, though they even tell you what the change is.



Alright, I think you get the point by now. Let’s skip ahead. BMDs I found on the way held 400 Z, a Spreader H, and a HP Memory,



Megaman informs Lan he’s stuck in a trap. Lan asks where Megaman is, and Megaman tells him near the AV room.

Before we can go into the AV room though, Higsby runs out and smacks into us. He apologizes, snorts again, and runs off, much to Lan’s confusion. I would have screen captured it, but the text auto scrolled and I was holding the turbo button.



Lan restarts the computer, fixing it, thus freeing Megaman. The BMDs on the way to the next forced stop hold a Quake1 A and a Cannon C.



We need to go find Ms. Mari. She was sick right?



Huh.

Well, let’s check another classroo-




…Oh come on! This is just repetition! It’s not even subliminal messages, they’re just shouting stuff at you.

Anyways, Ms. Mari’s stuck in the storeroom. Oddly enough, she’s perfectly capable of fidgeting so one wonders why she doesn’t just use her knees to take off the gag.





Screw that, I need to look around this place. Who knows what I could find.



See what I mean?




Ms. Mari then hands over her ID card because Lan helped her. Yeah, I really don’t see the logic there either.



Anyways, we need to insert one last password.



Oh this game.



Unfortunately, right after I put in the code a cutscene started playing, so taking pictures and getting a good rank is going to be a pain… not. Numberman is truly pathetic.

Megaman notes they have to stop the announcement program as fast as possible.



O.o




…What did Lan know?

Higsby admits he felt bad at first, but he’d do anything for rare chips.

Well, anything but use a torrent I guess.



Yeah, all the best chips aren’t in stores.



Oh no, woe is me.



Numberman is a test to see how fast you can fire the buster. Normally.

At first, Numberman will only send three Numberballs at you. Each of them have their HP on them. You’re supposed to use your buster to clear out the lowest one, but I have ten Cannons and ten Shockwaves that are perfect for this job.

Amusingly enough, in BN1 these things did not roll. They just magically teleported from column to column.



Once he takes enough damage, he changes patterns and starts throwing a die on the field. The damage it does depends on what side is facing up. I was expecting this attack to act like it does in BN5 and explode in a 3x3 radius but…




In this game it turns out it hits the whole field one column at a time. Still, this means with good timing you can dodge the explosion. Or you could just destroy the die.

In the second picture you can also see a Time Bomb that Numberman is summoning. It is about to be cut in two by a Widesword.

Numberman stays still for the entire fight. Seriously.




I have no idea why I got a 6 on this, considering I got hit a whopping once and basically deleted Numberman as fast as possible (waiting for mercy invulnerability to fade is annoying). I guess BN1 is just really demanding about this sort of thing.



Lan yells that Higsby has been wrong all along.





Megaman tells Lan that Higsby understands, and that Lan should probably stop.



Of course Lan doesn’t listen.



Nothing like getting the crap beaten out of you to change your way of life.



I don’t like the looks of that snort.




Lan notes Higsby does need to pay for his crimes. I mean, I guess he did incite waves of child delinquency all around the country. Meh.

Megaman orders Lan to restart the server and bring things back to normal.

The scene cuts to the actual server. Dex, Yai, Ms. Mari, Higsby, and Lan are near it. Lan walks forward, fiddles with it, and then contacts Mayl to see if it worked.



Dex and Yai congratulate Lan. Lan then congratulates Megaman.



Lan moans that he fixed the server too soon.

The game cuts to after class. Lan and Megaman are both exhausted, but they both suddenly remember something.



Megaman recommends we surprise Yuichiro by going to SciLab. Megaman also wants that Power Up program. Lan decides to do so.




Dex sits here if you’re wondering.



This is the entrance to the school. BN1 is the only game where we see it. Inside the car, by the way, is a HP Memory and a new virus.



…I’m going to be honest and say I don’t remember what these guys are called... I think it was something like Remobit. Anyways, they don’t move but they slowly destroy every panel on your side of the field panel by panel, column by column with some kind of zapping machine...

Yeah, these things are weird.

In any case, since it’s been a day we can face Fireman V2 over here.





Took a bunch of resets since I had to adjust to and compensate for Dash and Shockwave’s lag (what I found was that if you‘re in the front column you really don‘t need to worry about it), but I got a S rank. Fireman’s chip has him hit the entire row in front of you for a nice chunk of fire damage (100 at V1). I kick out Roll for him because it’s not like I care about taking damage anyways with the whole “heal fully after every battle” thing.

The reason I reset, incidentally, is because when I first battled the guy I got hit once due to the lag on Dash, and ended up with another 6 rank.

Next time: SciLab stuff! And Stoneman. Hopefully. It’s really hard to do next times when you honestly have no idea what’s happening next.

Yeah, turns out there was a landslide, so the metroline’s grand opening isn’t happening. Sad.

Anyways, a nearby NPC has some more details on it. Lan asks him what caused the problem.



If there’s an accident, the safety program should kick in to stop the train, but the program was hit by a virus. The guard muses that since nobody got in from the control room, it’s likely they got in from the Net.

…So you can access something as important as transportation systems from a place where everybody is allowed to go. Really, you guys are practically asking for problems like this.



Before we can do so though, we get some mail.



Mm, I could use the Gutsman chip. So let’s head to Dex’s house and bat-



Umm… yeah… I stole it from the nurse’s office I think. What about it?



…Didn’t you just challenge us anyways?

…Meh, not like I’m using the damn things anyways.



Gutsman V2 has double the health. He is just as easy. Sadly, you STILL don’t get his chip.




Megaman notes Dex looks pale. Dex moans.



Seriously, what does that even mean? Is Lan just saying “Question mark” out loud or something?



I kicked his ass yesterday and the ass of the viruses that kicked Gutsman‘s ass. What’s he so surprised about?

Lan wonders if Dex will refuse to give his link.



I think you just suck at operating. Seriously, out of control Gutsman in Network Transmission? Crazy hard. At first anyways.

Anyways, Dex notes that he’ll keep his promise, and gives us /Dex, which will let us into Internet Area 2.

Yes, Dex controls all internet traffic between Internet 1 and Internet 2. I don‘t get it either.

Dex also hands over



How nice of him.



Internet 2 starts off with a fork. To the left is where I need to go. To the right is where I am going to go.



Oh! Swordys! These guys try to hit you with their sword. They have Steal chips, and can attack with either Sword, Widesword or Fightersword. Note that the later versions deal elemental damage.