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

If you run out of battery power you don't automatically get a non-standard gameover. The Scientist guy in the room with Lan gives you a crank-powered mini generator and you get to play a button mashing game to recharge the battery. I don't know if this can happen more than once, but I'd venture to guess it should, otherwise it would be entirely possible to render your game permanently unbeatable. Not even Capcom is that mean.

Also, is it just me or was there a massive plothole just now? The program Count Zap got was a fake, meaning that Wily shouldn't be able to use it to complete his plan and make the Life Virus.

Wow, really? From what the game told me at the beginning of the dungeon, I thought I would just plain old stop regenerating health.

But really? Crank powered? In BN3, Megaman's PET was able to temporarily power a hospital. I don't think you could recharge it that way.

Maybe there's a reason the Life Virus sucked so much.

Besides Hub.BAT.

Alright, we’ve got even more mail.



Not really, no.




Yuichiro asks that we talk to him.

Higsby has some new stuff.




Turns out I was wrong about Buster Sword; you just need to buy it. Still useless though.



Say, wasn’t there someone who wanted a Repair H?




This kid makes custom chips. If we do give him what he wants, we’ll get a Buster Guard.

To the Waterworks!






This guy wants us to jack in to check what’s wrong with this vending machine.






…What the crap is that thing? Well, when I hit its shield with a charge shot it raised it, and I got a clear shot to delete it. Not sure how it attacks.

That’s all there was in there, so I jacked out and talked to the guy again. He gave me a Repair G, which is actually part of a Program Advance.



He’s still going on about this I see.

…I guess he’s at V2?



GAH.

Anyways, turns out I was wrong earlier. There are a whopping FOUR navi chips with S codes.

Speaking of S coded navi chips…



Skullman V3 is ready for battle.



Turns out Skullman’s damage threshold is 100 damage. So those swords I started with? Didn’t really help much.

Still, I found out that if Skullman flinches his arm attack is cancelled.



Charge shot spam still works great though.



Does he? Meh, haven’t beaten on Gutsman for a while.



Man, he flinches to EVERYTHING.

Anyways, Mayl tells us she’s cheering for us on the sidelines, and Yai dispenses random information on the Undernet.

Well, I guess Lan should go cheer up Douche. I’m sure talking with the kid who humiliated him will make him feel better.




I swear, if he accuses Miyu or something…

Okay, if I was a douche, where would I be in a city.



The overly large office building of course!



And what do you know!



By Douche’s logic, Yai is part of the WWW. Hell, by that specification, Chaud is labeling himself a WWW member.




Methinks Douche is having some ego problems.



So you’re telling me you can’t just force yourself in? Cause, just saying, that’s something Protoman could do pretty well.

Now Douche, I realize your ego has been hurt, but that’s no reason to take it out on other peop-



Busy accusing a grown woman of being a member of a terrorist organization in broad daylight in the middle of the city.



Lan explains he heard Douche was having some problems, so he came to help.



Because two heads are better than one? Because Lan isn’t an absolute douche and thus can actually communicate with others? Because Megaman isn’t as widely recognized as Protoman?



Because you’re clearly unstable right now?

Douche proceeds to walk away.



Megaman starts to say something, but Lan interrupts him.




Megaman agrees and notes they’ll need to get to the Undernet.




Higsby actually gives Lan important info on the WWW in both this game and Network Transmission. It’s actually kind of neat.

Higsby pauses for a moment, but decides that since Lan got him out of the WWW, he’ll help Lan.





This thing will let us into Net 5.

Yes, the Undernet in this game is Net 5-8.

Incidentally, the explanation of the Undernet given in BN3 makes it really hard to understand exactly how WWW conquered the place. But eh, this game came before that.

After getting lost in Net 4 for a bit, I reach the exit.

Lan celebrates.



Lan immediately asks what’s wrong.



What.



…Didn’t I just kick the crap out of this exact same battle? Anyways, it turns out those shield things fire out three cannonballs that hit your field. I don’t think they break panels though.



Wow! It looks exactly the same as the normal Net!

Then we get some mail, much to Megaman’s confusion.




Higsby admits he doesn’t know how to open the locks. But he says that one of his old WWW friends is at SciLab now.



Still, don’t leave Net 5 just yet.




As you can see, one more Power UP and two more HP Memories, and I’ll be at level 100.



This door leads to Net 9, but it’s a one way path.



Alright, one HP Memory to go.

The guy we’re looking for is pacing around SciLab. He denies he’s in WWW at first, but when Lan explains he decides to help.





The scientist tells Lan that to unlock the other two doors, he’ll need memos from two other reformed members. I find it kind of convenient that all four doorkeepers reformed.

And with that, I have officially passed the original play through in this thread. From now on? New stuff.

The scientist will also tell you who the other two are.



Megaman recommends we start with the lady. It should be obvious who it is.



Wait, it’s not her? Dang!



Ah, there we go.

Yuri asks to see Megaman.




Yuri notes that she can open some of the locks, but she wants to check our data library first. Apparently you need to collect a certain amount of chips to move on. I have no idea what the number is though.





Is “Hah!” her voice tic, or is she just being sarcastic?



I guess that answers my question.

Incidentally, this was the stopping point for me in my actual game. I found the old man really easily, but I could not find Yuri. Why?

Because I didn’t know you could go into the school.



This guy is surprisingly easy to find. Like the woman he denies that he was in WWW.




Is Megaman just that impressive? Or is it the Level 96 thing?



No wonder he left.

The old man confirms that he can open the door, but he wants to see Megaman one more time.




The old man muses that Lan might be the one to stop EndGame.

To Net 6!

…You know, I really should have jacked in from Miyu’s place.

After more random encounters then freaking Skies of Arcadia, I make it to my destination.



It’s really nice how the game lets you get all three memos before you have to go on the Net.

Anyways, Net 6 is very bland. There’s no NPCs, and there’s really nothing special except the door to Net 7 and Elecman V2.





Still easy. I don’t think I’ve really mentioned it yet, but the Megabuster is absurdly broken in this game. The two levels of charge is fairly annoying, but the x16 multiplier, along with the relatively low HP totals in this game and the relatively high damage thresholds makes it a very reliable source of damage.

Of course, that’s after you boost the Attack and Charge to reasonable levels, and PowerUPs are fairly expensive. Then again, you can get a lot of money easily by running around the Net checking GMDs.

Speaking of Power UPs, I checked a guide and found where the last one is.

Excuse me for a second while I turn on No Random Encounters (seriously I am sick of this encounter rate) and jog on over to Net 14.





Back to Net 6!



Once I got back, I turned off No Random Encounters. I’m sad to see it go, because Net 7 doesn‘t have anything at all.



Net 8 is just as bland until the end.



Well, it has this too I guess.



Bombman asks for our name. Megaman gives it to him.



Incidentally, Bombman is a Solo Navi.



Megaman demands that Bombman hand it over.



Lan notes Bombman isn’t very intelligent. He decides they have no real choice beyond brute force.

Okay! Bombman. Looks easy enough.



The very first thing he did was kick his bomb onto my side of the field. Then three more bombs formed. They can be destroyed.

Methinks this battle will resemble Numberman’s.

The bomb’s explosion… is kind of hard for me to explain. Look, you see that picture up there?

XOOOOO
AXXOOO
XOOOOO

The X’s are where the bomb hit. The A is where the bomb was. The radius is an extended cross I guess.

Anyways, aside from that Bombman has some Mine chips.

Bombman really doesn’t do much. He just summons bombs, stands there for a while, and occasionally kicks them at you.



I didn’t save before the battle, so no resets for me. Mind you, I only got hit once, by the first bomb’s explosion, which I really wasn’t expecting.



Megaman proceeds to pick up the GMD that was nearby.






Uh-oh.



The screen flashes white for a bit, but when it returns to normal nothing seems to have changed…

Lan asks if Megaman is okay.




Bombman has somehow exploded the path to the WWW server.

Lan groans that they were so close, but Megaman reassures him.



Lan decides to talk to Yuichiro.





That’s fairly interesting.

Next time: We’re near the end of a Megaman game. You know what that means.

Let’s see what Yuichiro has to say on the matter.



Yuichiro is happy to help. He then apologizes for being away so often.




Yuichiro somehow gleams from that statement that Lan did talk to Douche, and that they had a fight. He admits that Douche is hard to deal with.

Lan changes the subject and presents @WWW.





Yuichiro notes that with @WWW they should be able to find WWW’s lab with SciLab‘s technology.




Lan decides that that’s okay, but he wants to know the location too.

Yuichiro pauses for a moment, then refuses.

Lan demands an explanation.




Lan pleads to be able to help finish the job.




Yuichiro states that the WWW will probably start striking harder. Megaman could be deleted, and Lan’s actions could trigger a war.

He asks if Lan can accept that responsibility.



We’re actually given a choice. If you pick “Hmm…” though, Yuichiro will tell you they should talk about it later and the conversation will end. Talking to him again will bring you to the same choice again.

So yeah, you have to say “Yes!” But why wouldn’t you?



Lan thanks Yuichiro. Yuichiro tells him to practice Net Battling.

And with that, it’s time to head home and go to sleep.

That means it’s cutscene time!



Yahoot (yes, that is his name) notes that it’s only a matter of time before their lab is discovered.

Wily declares that that’s no problem, much to Yahoot's confusion.

The four programs float together.





It appears BN1 Wily is significantly less sane than BN6 Wily.

Yahoot asks if End Game is about to start.




See? That’s really his name.

We cut back to Lan, who has just woken up. He’s gotten more mail.



Yuichiro then notes that there’s no way in or out of there. No roads, rails, or airports, and it would take too long to walk there.



Guess we have to find the secret way in from you-know-who.

Before we leave the house though…






Wily declares that WWW’s next target is Electopia’s military satellites.




I have no idea if this makes sense or not, but I doubt it. In any case, the crisis music starts permanently looping from here on.

Megaman tells Lan they have to hurry. Lan proceeds to skate off, much to Haruka’s confusion.



If you talk to Haruka again, she’ll stutter that they hate to protect their home. She then hopes that Yuichiro will come home.

Once we leave the house, we’ll get a mail from Battle ML that gives more information on Auras. There’s a reason why we’re being given so much information by the way.

You know, I probably should give a quick explanation.

There are two separate kinds of defensive barriers. First off are the Barrier chips, second are the Aura chips.

Barrier chips have a set amount of HP. Once the barrier’s HP is depleted, it will fade.

Aura chips, on the other hand, nullify all damage under a certain number. In later games this number is usually some multiple of 100. In other words, unless the Aura is hit with an attack that deals at least 100 damage, nothing will happen to the Aura.

In BN1 though, there are also elemental auras that will instantly fade if hit with the opposing element.

Moving on, on the way to Higsby is Douche.

Kind of busy trying to save the world here.



Wait, what?

OH HELL YES.




Time to get Protoman’s chip and destroy the game‘s difficulty! WHOO!




Much to my surprise, Protoman’s charge is a lot faster now (that wasn’t what surprised me) and after his first Stepsword he’ll do another (that surprised me).

The battle still takes forever and a day.



Much to my annoyance, Protoman no longer hits every enemy on the field. He’s now basically a stronger Roll that doesn’t provide a heal.

Oh well, at least he’s B coded.

Talking to Douche again reveals that Protoman V3 is already ready. Was I supposed to battle him during Bombman’s scenario?




You got demoted and you know it.



You know, I’ve just realized my folder is the worst possible one for dealing with Protoman.

On the other hand, with all of the Protoman B chips I’m getting, I can start replacing those Dash Bs.

In any case, after a lot of attempts I get what I want.



A few more attempts and I complete the set.



Much to my displeasure though, it turns out there is a limit on navi chips: five total.

Thankfully you can put multiple copies of a navi chip in.

In any case, after a fair amount of attempts, I manage to assemble five Protoman V3 chips (Protoman chips work very well against Protoman, so S ranking got easier after a while).

Incidentally, on my final battle a really weird glitch happened where Protoman somehow got hit by Protoman V3 three times straight, taking damage every time he stopped flinching.

Seriously, it was weird. But I got a Protoman V3 out of it, so I won’t look a gift horse in the mouth.



Higsby is gone. But something is flashing on the desk.



Megaman is befuddled by the fact that it’s a Metroline pass.



Megaman then notes the pass is expired.

Even though Higsby is gone you can still shop. Just talk to the register to activate Higsby’s automatic shop program.

By the way, as an aside it turns out Armor DOESN’T make you take double damage from the element it’s weak to. Instead, you just take normal damage instead of half. Which I guess still counts as double damage but whatever.

Armor is really, really, overpowered.

While I should be checking with the Metro officials, I’d like to direct your attention to this guy in the Filtering Room of the Waterworks.




What will he give for this extensive list of chips? You’ll find out!

Speaking of Sharkman I guess I have to battle him.

And as it turns out, Protoman V3 DOESN’T WORK ON HIM.

Unless he’s in the front column and none of his fins are on your side of course.

I eventually just gave up and insta-deleted him with a Gameshark code to get V2 and V3.

While I guess I could have just run around Net 6 and gathered Elecman V3 chips to beat him, that’s honestly going to take too long.

Anyways, the other two chips are dropped in Net 15 (look for the red acorn things) and Net 16 (look for Gaia3s)



On the way I encountered Colorman. Surprisingly, Protoman V3 works against him.



I think this is the game’s way of admonishing me for hacking.

Anyways, back to that guy!






Now why did I work so hard to get this?

Because of this.








Protoman and Megaman appear, charge up, and blast the whole field for 400 damage.

And I’m pretty sure it does more if you area lock.

Aside from the awesomeness of Double Hero (or 2x Hero as this game calls it), HeroSword is a very powerful B coded chip, and my folder is B-F coded after all.

Alright, on with the plot.



Not. This guy is moaning that someone stole his money from his account near the Metroline on the Net.



Why is he still hanging around there?

After a fairly quick battle, let’s check back in with that guy.



How’d he know Lan helped him?



Yay.

Okay, seriously, back to the plot.



A nearby conductor notes that another conductor told him he can occasionally hear a train even when there’s nothing nearby.



Well, time to start searching.

As soon as we enter ACDC school, Lan and Megaman hear a sound.



Lan wonders if this is where the secret Metro is.



Megaman and Lan note the sound they heard earlier is getting closer.

They realize it’s the secret Metro, and Lan opens the door.



The screen scrolls back to Lan, who’s found a staircase.




Lan tells Megaman he’s just hearing things.

Lan and Megaman then discuss the Metro in front of them. Lan declares that it’s time they go to the WWW Lab, but Megaman points out their pass is out of date.

Lan decides to try it anyways.

Lan proceeds to do standard subway procedure (insert pass, walk through bars), but ends up slamming straight into the bars.




Lan proceeds to run out.




Once we get to Government Complex, we get more mail on Auras.




In the Japanese version, the super aura is called “Dream Aura”. That would make more sense here. Unless they mean this aura has a lifetime warranty or something stupid like that.

Some of the NPCs here have interesting things to say.






And then there’s Sal.



Because Dr. Wily trying to destroy Electopia is totally nature’s vengeance.



Lan shows the WWW pass, and Yuichiro notes that he’s heard rumors of a secret Metro.

Lan asks if Yuichiro can get the pass to work.



A quick *beep beep boop* later, and voila!



Once you get back to ACDC you get more mail. Apparently that WTF hell snake I saw back when I was trying to clear the “seven battles or less” challenge is a really rare virus that has a really rare chip.

Figures.

Anyways, once Lan uses the secret Metro, the scene cuts to Yuichiro.




Haruka has a feeling the two are in trouble. Yuichiro reassures her and declares he’ll look after them.



Haruka apologizes for calling Yuichiro while he was working. Yuichiro responds by apologizing for not being at home more.




Yuichiro is relieved to hear that.

Haruka then hangs up just as another scientist rushes in.






DUN DUN DUN!

We cut back to Lan, who is now in the mountains.



There is purple water everywhere.

Seriously, what is Wily doing that turns water freaking purple?



Megaman then notices the hacking rocket. Lan decides to break in.



O.o

I’ll admit I raised an eyebrow at this scene. But why are these guys here of all places? Was Wily expecting Lan?

Lan quickly unties all three of them. Higsby releases a torrent of thanks.



The old man tells Lan not to worry: he’s used to hard times.

Ms. Yuri tells Lan to head up quickly.

Incidentally, you can totally challenge Numberman right now if you want to.

The door to the next floor is locked unfortunately. However, Megaman is able to jack in.



Who’s ready for dungeon recycling? A nearby reformed WWW navi gives you another Ice Block.

At the end of the dungeon is a huge fire.



Lan notes he can see the lock program from where Megaman is standing.



Lan is surprised to see Yai.

Yai declares she’ll explain later and sends in Glyde, who promptly flies into the fire and lets out a flash.



HOW DID HE DO THAT?! Seriously, that’s just random.



Megaman runs up and shoots the lock program a bunch.

Lan thanks Yai. We can then jack out (yeah, no Fireman rebattle. I am confused as well).



Talking to Yai also gets us a Roll3.

Next up is Numberman’s dungeon with Numberman helping us hack through a super barrier at the end.



The scene then cuts to Wily, who’s preparing to load the Life Virus onto the rocket. Yahoot alerts him to intruders. Wily orders him to take them out.




Coming up next is Iceman’s dungeon. At the end is a giant block of ice.



That gets sucked up by Iceman, who along with Froid comes out of nowhere.

WWW repeat dungeon four is Colorman’s. The final HP Memory is here.





At the end is a giant rock that Gutsman smashes.

Lan’s happy that everyone’s come to help, but he’s also really confused.



I’m really surprised, incidentally, that there was no boss rush.

Once we reach floor 3, we get more mail.





So while they were making the four elemental programs did they just wonder what would happen if they were fused into a virus or something? Seriously, how does this thing already have a name?



The writer notes he has no idea how to fight it, but he also adds that there’s evidence that the Life virus’ defense was copied by someone *cough*Bass*cough*.

Surprisingly enough, we don’t have to hack the lock of floor 3‘s door to enter.



This is the meeting room. If you examine the huge portrait just off-screen twice though…



We can jack in here. The reason we have to do so?




We can’t do jack in there.

The final recycled dungeon is Elecman’s, but we don’t have to mess around with batteries here. We just have to navigate invisible paths.



This Mr. Prog warns us we won’t be able to save from here onwards.

So yeah, make sure to save.

Once we move forward a bit from there, Megaman sees a path that requires electricity to run, much to his surprise since there were no slots to put in batteries.



Roll then runs up.

Lan asks why everyone is here.

Mayl answers that when she saw him at the school entrance, she told everyone to come help.

This does not answer how she got Froid to help when Mayl doesn’t even know Lan helped him, or how she got WWW passes for the secret Metro, or why Lan‘s allies showed up in that specific order.

Lan mutters that he was handling everything perfectly fine by himself.




*groan*

…That makes no sense at all.

After Megaman destroys the last key he orders Lan to thank Mayl.



Mayl is expecting some kind of ungrateful retort, but…



Mayl starts to cry.



Megaman’s about to jack out so they can move onwards, when someone stops him.




Yahoot declares that Megaman will not go onwards.





Magicman summons viruses to help him out. This is fairly annoying.



He also shoots out fire similar to Skullman‘s. That’s it for his movelist. Really.



I pretty much just sped through this battle. No real point in trying to S rank this.






I think he meant to say “bit of”.

Magicman proceeds to stand up and blast Megaman with some “Life Magic“. This apparently kills Megaman, which must mean that Megaman is a zombie.

Which, now that I think about it, he is actually. Sort of.

Protoman wonders if he’s too late.





For those not interested in computer stuff, a .bat file contains a series of commands. They’re usually used to help automate repetitive or tedious processes.

Well, that’s a condensed explanation, but I guess you get the point.



The call is from Yuichiro.

Lan tries to tell him what happened to Yuichiro, but Douche beats him to the punch.



Damn right you were. Seriously, for a navi whose speed is renowned, the operator is pretty damn slow.

Yuichiro tells Lan that Megaman can still be saved.



Yuichiro tells Lan to apply Hub.Bat to Megaman as quickly as possible.

And by “as quickly as possible”, I mean after Yuichiro gives an info dump.



Yuichiro notes the information may make it hard for Lan to use Megaman. Lan replies he doesn’t understand what he means, but he’ll do anything to save Megaman.



Hour of Fate starts playing. I mention this because this is the only time in the whole game where it plays.

…I don’t really think that’s how DNA works.

For those wondering, Hub suffered from HBD. It’s never explained what that stands for (or exactly how he got it), but judging by its symptoms (essentially a heart attack), which can be seen in BN3, most people go with Heart Bypass Disorder.




…But he was born before Lan. How can they be twins?



BUT YOU JUST SAID YOU HAD ONLY ONE SON! Was that a mistranslation or something?

Most people theorize the 0.001% difference was the eye color.



Basically, Yuichiro decided to keep Hub's original genome just in case. What Hub.bat will do is correct the DNA inside of Megaman back to the original version. Seeing how this is freaking DNA we're talking about, I'm sure you can see why they would make a program to do it.









This may sound cruel at first, but imagine if you were a navi and your operator refused to use you. You’d be stuck in the same room (your PET) for the rest of your life.




Yuichiro repeats to Lan the whole “If you take damage Megaman takes damage, if Megaman takes damage you take damage” thing, which incidentally doesn’t make much sense at all.

Anyways, the whole point of synchronization is that it cuts down on the time between hearing orders from the operator and executing the orders as the navi.





Next time: The final battle!

Incidentally? The whole “Megaman is Lan’s brother Hub’s soul digitalized” thing? Every game after BN1 expects you to already know that fact. That’s why I’ve been pretty much casually tossing around the name.

So hey I haven't been commenting here much. This is all your fault, Blitzblast! YOU mentioned Battle Moon Wars and made me forget about everything else ever.

Magic Man is the biggest miss in the game in my opinion (Life Virus is a second). I mean, you have this guy who is called Magic Man and therefore can do anything, and you give him virus-summoning and slow flames? Really?

I'm just annoyed he didn't do any card tricks.

I mean, that's what his Classic incarnation was all about.

And if Battle Moon Wars is so fun it sucks people in like a black hole, I don't see how that's my fault.

In any case, all of this BN LPing has led me to get BN5 Team Colonel and restart my BN5 Team Protoman (after comparing libraries of course. So I'm at the beginning of the game and I already have Standard, Mega, Dark, and P.A Complete)

I was thanking you, man.

Not like he has much of a choice. Either let Hub die or use Hub.bat and hope he doesn’t die.

Hour of Fate stops playing. And it is never heard from again.




There’s no reply.




A green beam of light hits Megaman, and he starts to glow.








Megama- no, Hub is surprised to hear Lan say his real name.



Yuichiro explains that they used Hub.bat to save him.





Hub notes he can feel the energy inside him. He then apologizes to Lan for not telling the truth… despite the fact Yuichiro told him not to.

In return, Lan apologizes for ordering around Hub for all those years. Hub responds that he had no problem with those orders: he always regretted not being with Lan in the real world. But being able to watch Lan grow made him happy.

Hub then tells Lan that they have to hurry and get to the Life Virus.

At this point your ability to save is disabled. Why?



Well, you can’t really see it, but in reality all of Megaman’s stats are now six. That’s right, they’re actually above the stat caps. This makes Megaman deal 6 base damage, charge super fast (he’ll reach pink charge in the time it took for him to reach green charge at charge level 5), and he’ll fire the Megabuster as fast as you press the button.

Aside from that, he will not flinch from anything. He won’t even bother bracing himself. In other words, he’s gained Super Armor. He still needs to have some armor on if you want to take half damage though.

After this game, whenever Hub reveals his true powers like this he’ll only do it in a cutscene. There is a very good reason for this and you’re about to see why.



Didn’t he just come to help us? A douche to the very end it seems.

Anyways, turns out that locked door from earlier didn’t lead to the rocket room. In fact, we never go into that locked door. Who knows where it goes.



The Life Virus slowly floats to the rocket.





So press it.




Lan skates up and shouts at Wily to wait.



In case you didn’t know, Hikari means Light in Japanese.

Wily notes he should have expected the Hikari’s to interfere to the very end.




Considering the alternative is the destruction of Electopia, I’m all ears.




Wily worked on robots, while Tadashi (that’s his first name. It means “right”, incidentally, so it‘s a joke on the whole Dr. R/Light thing) worked on networks.

They both consumed themselves in their work, but one day, in order to win an international competition, Electopia had to choose which project they would fund.

This is the turning point in the universe. If Tadashi’s research is cancelled, he’ll take up making robots as well and the Classic timeline will occur. But in this alternate universe, Wily’s research is cancelled, causing the Battle Network timeline.




So yeah, I have no idea what he was talking about earlier with the whole “Tadashi kicked me out of his lab” thing.



If it wasn’t for Tadashi, the world would be absolute hell. Seriously.

Wily explains he created the WWW to get back at Tadashi.



This is awfully petty, but Wily isn’t at his sanest right now. Honestly, if there’s one thing BN5-6 did better, it’s making Wily sane.

Lan points out Tadashi didn’t personally cancel Wily’s research, so it couldn’t be his fault.






Honestly, you should have heard this guy at the beginning of Network Transmission.



Lan rushes forward and jacks in Hub while Wily is posing and laughing.



Seriously, Wily’s just pointing his finger up in the air and laughing. This is the villain of this game people.

The final area is just a long path.



Oh hey it’s this thing. Turns out that it just shoots fire down your row if you let it attack. Still didn’t get a chip from it though.

Say hello to the Life Virus!

Remember how I said in my BN6 LP that Falzar was easier than the Life Virus? I was wrong. The Life Virus is absolutely pathetic in so many ways it’s not even funny.

First off, I’m going to ignore the fact that freaking Blastman SP had more health than this guy.



As you can see, the Life Virus has a 100 HP Aura. It will drop it whenever it attacks though.

Note the Life Virus is charging something. It does that throughout the battle.

Finally, note the little red virus in front of him. That virus is part of the Scuttle family, and we’ll see all four elemental versions of it throughout the battle. If you destroy it another will pop up soon. Anyways, the red one shoots fire down the row, the blue one shoots aqua towers at you, the green one shoots wood towers, and the yellow one releases homing thunderballs,



Once it finishes charging the Life Virus might release this beam. It does 200 damage, but since I have armor on it only does 100. I’m pretty sure all of the Life Virus’ attacks deal 200 base damage by the way.




The Life Virus’ second charge attack is this sword. It hit’s a 3 x 2 radius, but you’ll be safe in the back row. Which is where you should be really since in this battle you’re just spamming the buster.



The final attack has the Life Virus drop a meteor on your field. It will cause all of your columns to explode one at a time, like a Gaia virus. This is probably the hardest attack to avoid.

Anyways, this battle boils down to either breaking the aura with something and ripping in to its health, or waiting for it to attack and countering with Megabuster spam. It’s really, really easy.

There may be a reason for this though. As you might recall, the Elec program Wily got was a fake. So you could say the Life Virus is only at 75% power.

However, there’s only one good way to finish this fight, so excuse me while I load an earlier save state.









I killed it with the force of sheer awesome. This is the internet after all.



Trust me. This is for your own good.



Uh-oh.

What? That doesn’t even make sense!



I’d be surprised if this wasn’t Wily.



Wait, Wily didn’t do this?






Jeez, what’s up with Douche’s personality? It keeps shifting.

Lan greets the other two, not even bothering to answer Douche’s question. Douche then asks about the Life Virus. I don’t know why, I mean that message went over the intercom and-

You know, now that I think about it, where the hell is everyone else in the WWW?

Anyways, Lan decides to answer Douche’s second question. The Life Virus? It’s history now.

Something blows up while Mayl cheers. Lan then asks where everyone else is.



So why are we standing around talking?




We cut back to Wily.



The screen flashes white.




Lan apologizes, but Haruka remarks she never really thought raising two boys would be easy. She asks for Yuichiro’s input.



Yuichiro then thanks Haruka.



Haruka and Yuichiro then look at each other and say “Honey…” at the same time.



Lan notes it’s really embarrassing.

So yeah, until the end of BN6 the whole Lan/Mayl thing is pretty much one-sided affection on Mayl’s part, and questionable affection on Lan’s part, as literally everything Lan does could be taken as a sign of love or a sign of friendship.




I imagine the reason why Hub encourages the whole Lan x Mayl thing is because he wants to see his little brother get hitched. You know, since he can’t.



So yeah, most Lan x Mayl segments end up like this.

-Something vaguely romantic happens.
-Mayl comments that Lan and her should do something like that.
-Lan does not understand.
-Hub and Roll admonish Lan for being dense.

Let’s just say there’s a reason I prefer Lan x Iris to Lan x Mayl. I mean, Lan still didn’t reciprocate Iris’ affections, but at least the pairing wasn’t being shoved down our throats constantl- oh my god why am I talking about shipping.

Roll and Hub agree on the fact that Lan is dense.





I don’t know if you remember, but we recently saved your life. I think that kind of makes up for an eleven year old not noticing the affections of a childhood friend, which he really shouldn‘t anyways with the Westermarck effect and all.

You know, now that I think about it, if it weren’t for BN6’s epilogue you could really claim that it was because Mayl was always so lonely that she headed to Lan’s house to play that screwed over her relationship with Lan.



Not complying to Mayl’s every wish.



Oh great, it’s the peanut gallery.



Mayl is screaming at Lan for not getting the hint, and you see this as the grounds for a relationship?

Weren’t we supposed to be celebrating Lan’s victory here?



Looks like Lan isn’t that dense.



Of course in later games Lan continues to not realize the fact that Mayl is in love with him, so I guess what he concluded from Yai’s statement was that Mayl wants to climb a tree with him.



You know, if we really do go with the Westermarck effect, for Lan this is the equivalent of his sister proposing.



…? Sorry, but this relationship has been pretty much one sided affection.



My sentiments exactly.