Rate the MegaMan Battle Network series

[Deadly Messiah]

Who here has played the Battle Network series? What do you rate each game?

I give BN1 8/10 because it was a pretty neat concept after I finally gave it a chance. The navis were cool and had interesting designs to make fresh stuff using original Robot Masters.

BN2 9/10 because the styles were cool additions, and it was fun. This game was an improvement upon the original one, and had even cooler looking navis.

BN3 7/10. It was a cool game, but some of the missions were boring (like BubbleMan's stuff), the styles continued to be a cool concept, and the villians rocked. Plus this was the only game where Bass was a part of the main story without having to do some rediculous, boring, and impossible quest to fight him.

BN4 4/10. This game was just blah. The story was dumb and didn't make much sense. There were hardly any battles with REAL navis. The missions were just plain boring and repetitive. Capcom took out everything that made the lst 3 good such as Styles and replaced them with crappy souls which weren't really helpful (in fact, I used each one once just to see what it does). People tell me you fight different navis in the tournaments when you replay the game, but that just doesn't give me enough motivation to replay it. Especially since you only get to 1 save slot, so if I start over, I lose all my saved data I had at the final boss (which is also why I have never replayed the previous games again). The only good thing in this game was the final boss, even if he was a though SOB.

I think Capcom should end BN with 4, and make another Network Transmission game, and have the return of Zero. Plus it would be cool if they brought the Sigma Virus into NT2, and also have MMX navis.

[the Amanda]

I've only played BN3, so I'm in no position to rate. I've been thinking about getting another, I'm trying to choose between BN2 and BN4. I've heard varying opinions on BN4, what would everyone recommend? (I guess the first poster would recommend BN2).

[Deadly Messiah]

Yes, I'd say do BN2. Here are a list of Navis that are supposedly in BN4, but I have not found at all.

SparkMan
TurboMan
VideoMan
WindMan
YamatoMan
PlanetMan
RingMan
SerachMan
KendouMan
JunkMan
AquaMan

[Conekiller]

I wonder if you can trade the Souls back and forth thru Red Sun and Blue Moon, cuz I don't feel like playing thru the game twice (essentially) jsut to get some Souls.


I like the idea of the souls, I just wish they would have incorporated Navi-specific Megaman redesigns earlier.
I've just started playing BN03 Blue and I'm having a blast (but it is kinda hard)

[Captain Harlock]

Battle Network 1: Kinda innovative for Mega Man. A good start though. 6/10

Battle Network 2: Storyline was kinda weak, but the system was improved with the styles. 7/10.

Battle Network 3: The best one. The high point of the series. Continued it's track record so far with using the "If it ain't broken, don't fix it" mentality by improving upon the style system even more. 9 / 10

Battle Network 4: Sucks. Plain and simple. No styles and a crappy story. 3/10.

I guess you could say Megaman.exe needs a reboot! Hahahaha, I'm so witty. =(

[J.E.Smith]

People tell me you fight different navis in the tournaments when you replay the game, but that just doesn't give me enough motivation to replay it. Especially since you only get to 1 save slot, so if I start over, I lose all my saved data I had at the final boss (which is also why I have never replayed the previous games again). The only good thing in this game was the final boss, even if he was a though SOB. .Actually, even if you start over on Hard Mode(And then later Super Hard), you keep all the Zenny, chips, Souls, Customizer Programs, and upgrades you collected in the previous go-through. In fact, all the Blue and Purple Mystery Data items you collected are replaced with new ones(The ones you didn't get stay the same of course). All the random encounters in the Net with the V2 and V3 verisons of the Navis you fought in the previous mode will be available to you from the get-go. All NetDealer stock will be exactly the same as it was before(Anything you bought before you don't have to buy again)The catch is that the enemies will be stronger and have more HP.

So don't think that the game was easy, because it sounds as though you've only beaten Normal Mode.

[Razor]

I'm going to have to be the vocal minority, and say that BN 4 rocks more so than the rest of the series.

Why? Well, for one, there's a large effort to make things different, but also make the same basic style of gameplay that is the series' trademark remain. You still fight the same way, and have the chip system, but things like Full Synchro and Dark Chips (while I don't use them) have a profound effect. There's more ways to organize things. There's different ways to fight. I think it's awesome.

Styles vs. Souls... I think the styles are profoundly more useful. With the styles, it was all same old same old. Elec Team didn't play very different from, say, Elec Guts. There wasn't that profound a different going on. Now, look at the Souls. Aqua Soul does exactly what any given Aqua Style would have done, but better. You get to charge aqua chips. Likewise, Fire, Guts, Wood and Thunder do everything that their Style change counterparts could do, only better (except for Guts, but I think the Guts Buster's machinegun + vulnerability is a damn good trade off). And Search Soul... Search Soul is the most useful out of all of them. It has a charge attack that hits no matter where you are, for crying out loud!

I also like the story. BN3 is a great story, of course, and so are BN2 and BN1. The story of Cossack and Bass is profoundly tragic, and the backstory to Serenade is good too. Now, BN 4 isn't as epic, but it has lots of good points. For one, it handles all of these Net Battles in a more realistic fashion. In BN1-3, nearly everyone Lan fought, with the exception of some guys on the side-lines, was working for the bad guys. Here, Lan faces people with their own agendas and their own stories. Nebula isn't the be all end all of the threats he faces. Instead, they sit back and bide their time, and interact when they have to. And a lot of these stories are pretty character driven. Mr. Match gets character development. Mr. "I'm a complete and total jack arse" gets CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT. Mayl and Roll finally get to be more than victims, and the romance sub-plot between them and Lan actually starts to go somewhere. And I found Regale to be an awesome villain... his actions at the end put him on the level of Sean and Forte, my favorite big bad guys from this series. And then there's his origin. I nearly freaked out when I found out he was Wily's son. And then there's the change in Lan. There's very few instances where he does something incompetent, and there's even a line about how he doesn't have trouble with homework or sleeping in anymore. He's in control of most situations, and he and Megaman encounter it with less fear and apprehension than usual. He and Mega don't let this whole dark chip business get to them, and instead decide to move past it, instead of letting it hurt them.

And finally... I have a greater REASON to play through this game more than once now.

All in all, I love BN4. Of course, I don't hate BN3. I love it. It's a great game. So is BN1 and 2. But if I had to rank them...

BN 4
Network Transmission
BN 3
BN 2
BN 1
Battle Chip Challenge

[Deadly Messiah]

Actually, even if you start over on Hard Mode(And then later Super Hard), you keep all the Zenny, chips, Souls, Customizer Programs, and upgrades you collected in the previous go-through. In fact, all the Blue and Purple Mystery Data items you collected are replaced with new ones(The ones you didn't get stay the same of course). All the random encounters in the Net with the V2 and V3 verisons of the Navis you fought in the previous mode will be available to you from the get-go. All NetDealer stock will be exactly the same as it was before(Anything you bought before you don't have to buy again)The catch is that the enemies will be stronger and have more HP.

So don't think that the game was easy, because it sounds as though you've only beaten Normal Mode.
I don't recall mentioning it was easy. I'm saying that it wasn't fun enough to replay over just for different navis. Plus I lose my saved data of being at the final boss. I don't care about my stats. I always keep 1 saved game at the final boss so that if I don't beat it on the replay for various reasons, I still can fight the FB anytime I want to.

[J.E.Smith]

I don't recall mentioning it was easy. I'm saying that it wasn't fun enough to replay over just for different navis. Plus I lose my saved data of being at the final boss. I don't care about my stats. I always keep 1 saved game at the final boss so that if I don't beat it on the replay for various reasons, I still can fight the FB anytime I want to.Well, it's kind of a shame to hear that considering you won't be able to find everything this time.

In order to fight Bass in this game, you need to get all six souls and all the standard chips to unlock the doors leading to him. Don't know if you noticed it yet, but the first door is in UnderNet 5. After you beat him and get his chip, he then escapes to the Black Earth, this game's Secret Net. To get in there you need five certain chips which can only be found in the UnderNet.

Three of them require fighting some pretty difficult ten round survival battles, one requires beating ShadeMan or LaserManSP without breaking the GMD, and the other you get from those black lamp viruses in UnderNet 6. Then in Black Earth you have access to the BugFrag Trader and the DS chips of the nonverison specific Navis in GMDs. Black Earth 2 can only be accessed by getting all the Normal and SP Navi chips. In BE2 you fight aganist the DS verison-specific Navis.

At the end you fight MegaMan DS again, except he's naturally harder than the one you fought before the last boss. After you beat him you get the SoulCleanser Customizer program, and if you're fully light you also get HubBatch. Then BassSP appears as a random encounter in Black Earth2. You have to S-Rank him or use the Collect program to get the Giga chip Black Barrier/Delta Ray.

You haven't truly beaten BN4 until you beat BassSP. And as you can guess Bass is a greater challenge than Duo. And if you want a even greater challenge, an SP verison of Duo is available as well if you find absolutly everything and get all seven icons on the title screen. All chips(Three icons for each class), all souls, all P.A.s. The last two are for beating Duo which you've already done and beating Bass SP.

There. Now you know everything you're missing out on.

[Conekiller]

So....can you trade Souls between BN04 games or do you have to play thru both versions of the game to get them all?

[J.E.Smith]

So....can you trade Souls between BN04 games or do you have to play thru both versions of the game to get them all?
Nope. Like Giga chips, souls can't be traded. When I said you needed all the Souls, you just need the six Souls you can get in that verison.

However, if you have both verisons, trading your soul data allows you to use the Free Battle Tournment at Higsby's late in the game. This allows you to battle one of the six Navis from the other verison at a time and obtain their sercet chips(Which don't count in your library totals by the way).

[Deadly Messiah]

Actually I have never gone out of my way in any game to fight Bass except Network Transmission (I never beat him though) because I find Capcom's requirements dumb and rediculous. Most of their games are like that, and I play to have fun, not be bored and frustrated.

[Conekiller]

Nope. Like Giga chips, souls can't be traded. When I said you needed all the Souls, you just need the six Souls you can get in that verison.

However, if you have both verisons, trading your soul data allows you to use the Free Battle Tournment at Higsby's late in the game. This allows you to battle one of the six Navis from the other verison at a time and obtain their sercet chips(Which don't count in your library totals by the way).
So you only have the 6 souls within the confines of the game they came in? What are the Navi's secret chips (you'll have to forgive me if this is a dumb question, I'm only part way thr BN03, my first BN game so I'm still a bit unsure of how everyhting works)

[Batman's Biggest Fan]

I don't own MMBN4 and I just got MMBN3 so I can't participate yet. But is Network Transmission any good?

[J.E.Smith]

Well, the Navis have no secret chips in BN3 for starters(Unless you count the V4 chips which you need Team styles to get). The only secret chips in BN3 are Balance and Delta Ray, which you need to link up and battle with another verison.

In BN4, the secret chips(Which as I stated before can only be obtained by sending your soul data to the other verison which allows to fight the Navis you got the souls from in Higsby's Free Battle Tournment, which can be accessed in his shop after you get the Customizer.) work a bit differently.

If both you and that Navi make it to the final round and you win you get that Navi's secret chip. The verison of the chip depends on that game's current difficultly level. If the game's on Normal you get the V1 chip, V2 on Hard, and V3 on Super Hard. Some of the chips involve time freezing and the Navi doing an attack, and some don't. For example, Roll's secret chip Roll Arrow has Roll shooting an arrow that destroys the chips your oppoenet is holding at the moment. ProtoMan's chip HawkCut has him slashing the enemy in front twice with a WideSword and LongSword. FireMan's chip Meteors dosen't freeze time, but shoots five meteors down two panels in front of MegaMan, and so on.

[Deadly Messiah]

I don't own MMBN4 and I just got MMBN3 so I can't participate yet. But is Network Transmission any good?
Oh yeah, it was awesome. It wasn't really that hard, so don't listen to people when they say it is too hard. It has the feel of an original MM game, but with the BN chips and stuff. It is really fun and one of the best MM games. I give it a 5/5.

[J.E.Smith]

Oh, and Messiah, here's the trick to beating Bass on Network Transmission.
All you need is two or three Z-Cannon PAs. Just do the
"stand in front of the warp leading to him and using up all your chips except the ones you need for the PA" trick and the fight will be over in no time.

[Deadly Messiah]

So let me get this straight, I just need to waste all my chips except Cannon, Hi-Cannon, and M-Cannon, then make a Z-Cannon using those 3, do what I normally do and wait until the bar goes back to the top, and then go into the battle, hit him once with the buster, shoot him with the Z-Cannon, then hit Z and load up another Z-Cannon, shoot the barrier again, hit him with another Z-Cannon, then use my fill up bar subchip, and do the same process again? Shouldn't I at least have 1 or 2 of the healing chips with me?

[J.E.Smith]

The more I think about it, it might be a good idea to have some healing chips or subchips with you just in case you don't get all your shots with the second Z-Cannon in. I didn't need to heal because Bass didn't me even hit me once due to the Z-Cannon's temporary invisiblity. I think I was able to bring him down with two, but it may take three depending on how many shots you can get on him before the timer on the Z-Cannon runs out. I never even used the buster once the whole time, as soon as the fight started I activated the Z-Cannon and broke his aura with that, then continuted to peg with him shots before it ran out.