Megaman Battle Network

Megaman Battle Network

All Screenshots are from lparchive -- Link 1 Link 2


I love the Megaman Battle Network series. While this game is not as unpopular as Equinox, StarTropics, and Mystical Ninja, most of the forum members here don't know the series itself, so I will take the time to introduce this amazing series.

Basically Megaman Battle Network (MMBN) is a mix between Megaman Action, a Trading Card Game, and an RPG. First, I'll introduce how the series work, then I'll share my thoughts about every game in the series later.

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Day 1


The world of MMBN is drastically different from its original counterpart. Everything is controlled by the internet and the programs, starting from the ovens, zoo system, and even amusement parks. And everybody owns a Netnavi, a computer program with artificial intelligence. Netnavis can help that human's life in many ways. Also, Netnavis can 'jack in' to computerized devices, and may roam around the network inside it.


Of course, Viruses and Evil Organizations can ruin everything in this internet life. If a program gets attacked by a virus, various chaos can occur, like fire bursting out of oven, animals getting out of cages, and amusement parks breaking down. That's why Netnavis can bust viruses and fix things back to normal. And this kind of incidents almost always happen on Megaman Battle Network games, naturally!


Well then, let's introduce the characters. The left guy is Lan Hikari, who is an average school kid. He oversleeps all the time, he normally gets F on schools, but he still has some 'nice' friends. But situations he occur are not normal at all. Somehow he almost always encounter those incidents, which I explained above. Thankfully, his Netnavi is here to save the day.

The right guy is Megaman.EXE, who is Lan's Netnavi. His motif is definitely the real Megaman from the classic series. He is Lan's best friend, really. They make jokes together, Megaman chastises Lan if he procrastinates or oversleeps, and so on. And he has probably the best virus busting skill ever in the entire Megaman Battle Network world. And he will always fix the problems if those incidents occur and cause problems.

Of course, Megaman and Lan get to play in different areas. Lan gets to play around in the real world, while Megaman gets to play around in the internet cyberworld. So, the format of the MMBN games mostly go on like this.


1. Lan lives his normal life on the normal world, where he gets to talk with others, go to school, and et cetra.


2. Either a situation (ex. there is a license test/competition/errand) or an incident strikes him. (Oven explosions! Zoo outbreaks! Amusement Park Explosions!)


3. Megaman goes through the cyberworld and goes through the situation (License Passed! Competition won! Errand finished!) or faces the incident (Oven fixed! Zoo fixed! Amusement Park fixed!).

4. Go back to step 1, and let the plot progress.

It might seem very cliche, but it is actually very fun to go through. There are variety of areas and cyber worlds that would probably captivate you until the end. These cyber world dungeons even have different gimmicks for each of them, depending on the incidents.


I bet that you are most curious how the battles work, really, since I've even stated that this game is actually a Megaman Action + Trading Card Game + RPG Hybrid. Well, we'll find out tomorrow! Until then, goodbye.

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Pop Quiz!
It's quiz time! Try to get the answer right. This one is going to be easy.

Question: Name the main characters of the MMBN series.

a. Lan & Megaman.EXE
b. Dan & Nessness
c. Yoshi & Mario
d. Kid Ying & Dr. Yang
e. Glendaal & Shadax

Try to get the answer right! You don't have to put the answers on spoilers!

Are you going to play through the game and post about it here? That's my guess anyway.

EDIT: Nevermind, it says TNT in the description. I've never played the game, so I guess it'll be a good thread for me.

Yep, Zero, you are right.
Anyways, Day 1's records are added to the main 1st post, so check it.

Cool, the games always interested me...I'm more curious about how the battle system works than anything though, it looks really strange.

I never played the game. I did watch the cartoon though so I kind of know what the game is about. I can't wait until you talk about the battle system though.

Day 2

Credit goes to lparchive for the MMBN6 footage -- Link (Played by Epee Em)

I will explain the battle system this time.


This game has a random encounter system- you will encounter viruses (main enemies of this game) as you walk across the cyberworld. (There are definitely no random encounters on the real world.) The encounter rate is not as high as other games with random encounter, though.


As I said before, the battles of this game is a 'Megaman Action + TCG + RPG' hybrid. 0 called it strange but it isn't.

I'll explain the action part first. Megaman's action is restricted to the red side of the field, while enemies are restricted to the blue side of the field. You will have to dodge the enemies' attacks by moving Megaman from tiles to tiles. And trust me, analyzing enemies' attacks is very important in this game.


Next, I'll tell you how to attack in this game. Your main option is to use special items called battlechips. This is where the TCG part comes in. During the game, you will gather many battlechips. All the chips you get will be stored in your folder. From the folder, you have to choose thirty (no less, no more) chips you are going to use in battles.


In battles, five (it can be increased) out of thirty battlechips you chose will be randomly selected. You can use these chips on battles. But there is a catch- you see the alphabet letters under the chips? Only chips with the same letter or the same type can be used at once. There are also (*) codes, which is a wildcard can substitute any letter. No, it's not like Sticker Star, you don't lose a chip if you use it.

You may also use the Mega Buster, which is the key weapon that Megaman used on his original games. It is weaker than the battlechips, but it will never run out. Also, you don't have to worry if you used all your chips- if the 'CUSTOM' gauge in the top fills up, the game will draw another five chips for you to use.


After winning a battle, you will of course win stuff. There is no EXP in this game, you upgrade stats by items instead. However, you will receive either Zenny (the currency of all Capcom RPGs) or a Battlechip for you to use. You will more likely get more Zenny or a better Battlechip if you defeated the viruses in a fast time. (See the Busting Lv. Up there? It goes from 1-10, and S. If it is higher, you did better defeating the enemies.)


This is how it works. You will understand once you see the video.

Anyways, I like this battle system because it nicely combined the three different video gaming genres, which I explained above. Also there is no need to grind that much, as long as you get the chip you want. This RPG game is more about action skills and assembling a nice arrangement of chips than grinding and grinding, really.

And so, we looked at the main gameplay of the MMBN games. Tomorrow, I'll go through every MMBN games, tell my thoughts about each game, and either recommend or not recommend it.  Well then, goodbye!

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Polls

Pop Quiz Answer
a -- Lan & Megaman.EXE [ 2 ]
b -- Dan & Nessness [ 0 ]
c -- Yoshi & Mario [ 0 ]
d -- Kid Ying & Dr. Yang [ 0 ]
e -- Glendaal & Shadax [ 0 ]
What? [ 1 ]

Congratulations to Zero and Gameguy who got it right, and not so congratulations to the one person who voted for What. I know who that person is. Really.

Instead of a quiz, there is going to be a poll this time. Participate.

Lol, I voted for the last option on the poll. In reality though, I'm not sure...it's interesting, but it seems kind of dependent on chance and repetitive. But maybe it's just the way you made it sound.

Winters Thief Zero wrote:Lol, I voted for the last option on the poll. In reality though, I'm not sure...it's interesting, but it seems kind of dependent on chance and repetitive. But maybe it's just the way you made it sound.

Don't worry, it is less chance-based than missing an attack or geting critical hitted. (Really the random draw doesn't affect the gameplay that much. If there was no random draw and you could use all 30 at once, what's the fun in that? You would probably use only the strongest chip every time, and that's boring.) And there are variety of chips to make things interesting.

I see...hm. Still not sure about it, but I do still want to at least try out the game at some point as I've of course never played it.