Mega Man Battle Network 3

Regarded by many as the best in the series, Battle Network 3 perfects all of the elements that came before it, introduces new elements that would last the rest of the series and started the trend of releasing two separate versions of the same game, although it did have 3 versions. Black was the name of the blue version in Japan, and I've included the box art of this version as well.

Even though Battle Network 3 has a lot of new features, what sets it apart in most fans minds from the rest of the series is the story. Yeah, you read that right, for what it's worth, this game has some well written moments, especially the ending. That's not to say you'll be quoting the dramatic scenes to your friends like you would a good movie or something, but this game is definitely above the standard for Mega Man games and for its own series. Don't worry, Battle Network 4 returns to business as usual story wise.

New Features

• Battle Chips are divided into categories, Standard, Mega and Giga chips. All of them have separate rules for folder building and help balance out the power.
• You can now gain bugfrags from combat by hitting enemies at certain times.
• The Navi Customizer is introduced. More on that in the design section.
• New style changes exclusive to each version.

Story
A tournament called the N1 Grand Prix is being held and everyone wants wants to enter to show they are the best Netbattler in the world. Naturally most of the main characters are interested in entering, including Lan and his arch rival Chaud.

While this is going on, the WWW has reformed and are causing more trouble. Lan must be the unluckiest kid around because everywhere he goes the WWW just happen to show up too. They've hatched a plan to steal these items known as TetraCodes to unleash a monster on the world... well an internet monster, but you know how it is...

That monsters name is Alpha, the original prototype of the internet that went berserk and started absorbing Navis and Programs like crazy. Seeing how dangerous it was, Sci-lab sealed it away in the internet where no one would find it, except it's in plain site most of the game.

Listen, I said the story had its moments, I didn't say it was written by Shakespeare.

Anyway, in between foiling the WWW's plans, Lan and Chaud make it to the N1 Grand Prix finals, but before they can have their epic and highly anticipated show down, the WWW reveals itself as the holders of the tournament. It was a plan all along to announce their return to the world on the biggest stage of them all! Not exactly subtle are they?

Lan and MegaMan then go and infiltrate the undernet in an attempt to discover WWW's headquarters in a segment that takes way too fucking long, and MegaMan meets the head of the Undernet, Serenade.exe. He reveals the WWW's location and MegaMan, Lan, Chaud, Protoman, and a few more scrubs from the supporting cast head to the secret WWW island skull fortress to put a stop to them. What is with the parents of these games and just letting their kids go off to battle with fucking terrorists? Anyway, there, they find out Bass.exe is working with the WWW to unseal Alpha so he can merge with it and wreak havoc. Dr. Cossack makes a cameo here as well as Bass' original creator.

Anyway, Lan's companions all demonstrate the utmost incompetence in facing the most annoying stage in the entire series and all that's left is Lan and MegaMan. They go to face Wily who wants to merge his brain with alpha using a technique called Pulse Transmission. Basically you strap yourself to a chair with your PET and you and a Navi can enter the cyberworld.

Lan follows after Wily and Pulse Trans himself into Alpha. Him and MegaMan sync together and meet up with Bass and Wily. Bass destroys the final security strong hold on Alpha and then fights MegaMan. He loses and Wily comments that he only used Bass to unleash Alpha and that Bass would not be able to merge with him. Before Bass can react, Alpha swallows him up! Then it swallows up Wily! It pops up in super final boss form ultra power! MegaMan and Lan defeat, easily the hardest boss in the entire fucking series, and a door appears. Inside is the data remains of Lan's grandfather Tadashi Hikari (Dr. Light). He reveals that he had sealed himself inside Alpha to stop it from being unleashed on the world, then he gives Lan a note. Alright... whatever... Conveniently the base starts exploding just as they cover the important plot points and MegaMan and Lan attempt to escape.

Tradegy strikes however as MegaMan and Lan are swallowed up by Alpha! Uh Oh! MegaMan hatches a plan, if he can overload himself, he'll create a hole in alpha that Lan will be able to use to escape. Unfortunately MegaMan himself would be sacrificed in the process. Lan argues and pleads MegaMan to stop but before he can act, MegaMan overloads and expulses Lan out of Alpha.

Lan wakes up surrounded by his friends and quickly goes to look at his PET but MegaMan isn't there. Lan starts to panic but Chaud quickly snaps him out of it as the whole base is exploding in typical nonsensical Mega Man fashion. Lan returns to his friends and family successful, but noticeably devastated from his loss. Lan gives his father the note his grand father gave to him which is encrypted and then runs to the docks to say his good byes to MegaMan. He promises to start doing his homework and getting up on time.

A few months pass and we see Lan again on the docks. He talks about entering the sixth grade soon and how his dad will have to get him a new Navi soon. Just then the e-mail sound goes off on the PET and Lan quickly looks to it for MegaMan... but it turns out to be another persons PET nearby. Lan sulks and returns home, and the credits roll.

Up to this point, Battle Network 3 has actually managed to show some real emotional impact, but being a kids game and not wanting to turn in all their chips now off the cash cow this series has already become, Lan's father decodes the note from Lan's Grandfather which talks about a space inside Alpha that can hold bits of data that Alpha wouldn't be able to touch. Guess what Dr. Hikari finds there?

Lan wakes up in the morning to a familiar voice... "Is this a dream?" he says. "It's not a dream! Good morning Lan!" cheerfully replies MegaMan.

Despite the last 5 seconds being a bit corny the ending is really good. It's really the first, and practically only time, we see this side of Lan, and there can't be enough said about MegaMan's heroic sacrifice. The whole sequence brings emotion to the series for really the first time. One of the nitpicks I have with Battle Network is that the characters are so simple and lack some real character flaws. Lan himself has very little or no character development and he's not even held back by his age. The other characters personalities serve to set up the same dumb jokes over and over, and Dex is pretty much a carbon copy of Lan, except fat and unsuccessful.

But even though the majority of this game follows those conventions set by the previous games, this scene really shows just how attached to the characters the audience can get. They are 1 dimensional, but they aren't unlikable, and this scene really tests the players emotional interest in the two protagonists, and for that, it should be credited. Battle Network 4 on the other hand... Jesus...

Post-Game Content

So yeah, during the main game you earn ranks within the undernet. But you didn't quite make it to number 1. Time to knock off a few posers and prove who the best damn Navi-Operator combo is. So you head to the Undernet's secret server and there you meet Serenade. He is a Navi beyond gender and beyond good and evil... technically wouldn't all computer programs be this? Anyway you face him and become rank 1. Yay. Then he gives you some time trials which are a pain in the ass. Whoopee.

Anyway, hidden in this secret server is a chip trader that operates off of bugs. The thing is, it gives the best damn chips in the game. So naturally Lan and MegaMan load up on it when suddenly the damn thing roars and an earthquake happens. Suddenly Bass appears! Bass doesn't seem to recognize either of them so its hard to say if this scene happens before the Alpha incident and he has never met them (remember the Bass from BN2 was a copy and the real Bass fight isn't canonical) or if it takes place after Alpha but he has lost his memory. Either way, MegaMan notes how much more powerful Bass must be now and they fight. MegaMan wins and Bass questions his power. MegaMan notes that Bass is limited in his strength because he lacks an operator and "the power of friendship" TM. Bass gets angry, flips out and then takes his ball and goes home in a puff of smoke. MegaMan says he thinks they'll see him again, but if they do, they'll just beat him again.

One last story thing, Chaud will challenge Lan to finish what they started at the N1 Grand Prix to see who should hold the title. You can face Chaud multiple times and he'll power up Protoman based on how far along you are in the post game content. Once you beat his final form he'll promise to keep training to beat you some day, and you can continue challenging him.

After all that's done you can face even more challenging versions of all the bosses including Alpha, but there's no story attached to it.

Aesthetics

Graphically the game hasn't received much in the way of enhancements from Battle Network 2. It's not too big of a deal right now, but eventually it becomes a sticking complaint with the critics out there. Of course, the gaming media is full of blowhards as it is giving pretty much any triple A game that can functionally reach the title screen a perfect score, but it's a legitimate complaint when Cacpom gets into their comfortable groove with any series.

The outdoor areas and internet junctions don't strike me as any more or less impressive than Battle Network 2, they're ok, but pretty much similar enough that they don't stick out apart from each other. The individual network stages do have their own unique feels and looks to them however, and more is done with them, albeit minor.

Character design we'll get to see redesigns of FlashMan, BubbleMan, MetalMan and PlantMan just to name a few. We'll also meet... sigh... BowlMan... a Net Navi who shoots bowling pins and bowling balls at you.

You know, in the world of Battle Network people customize their Navi's to match their own personalities, so it's not a stretch of the imagination that some fan of bowling might make BowlMan. I mean, I'd imagine if that was the world we all lived in, I know my friends would base their Navi's off of their favorite sports teams and what not. This character however is Rank 2 of the Undernet crime syndicate and he just seems so out of place... and so stupid. All well, I can't complain he isn't creative, just to what end though?

There isn't much you can complain about though, for a while the GBA was the system to port all of a companies SNES titles to, and even Nintendo's top seller for the GBA at the time was Super Mario Advanced 2, an enhanced port of Super Mario World. So at least it was something original compared to everything else out there.

Sound

Not much new here. A lot of tracks from the other two games, but the main theme has been remixed a few times to appropriately lead into it when called for. I love the theme of this series as I've said many times, and when it's used for the correct emotional emphasis, it works wonders. There isn't anything to complain about with the sound in this game and it is used appropriately where needed, like the ending having a notably sad theme and what not. The overall tracks just don't stand out as much as other Mega Man games, and the panic music track named "Incident Occurrence!" gets really annoying really fast.

Design

The removal of the powerups for the buster being replaced with the Navi Customizer adds a whole new level of freedom for the player to develop a play style that suits them. Gone are the days when exploration and a lot of zenny would fully power up MegaMan's buster, and it's not typical to power up Attack, Rapid and Charge all the way. That said, we have a whole new host up ability upgrades from extra health to extra chips. This, combined with a revamped style change system and players can come up with some real unique combinations for MegaMan, giving a much more diverse competition in multiplayer mode. A bit of a shame that such a thing won't be as readily available today.

The way the customizer works is you have a square space for which you can put ability blocks in. The blocks have different colors and different shapes, and there are rules that apply to how you can fit them together. You end up with a Tetris like jig saw puzzle that you have to mess with to get the maximum benefit.

As mentioned the style change system has been revamped to support the Navi Customizer better. As you gain style changes and level them up, you gain ability blocks for the customizer. You can only hold one style at a time now, but once you level it all the way up, you can keep the customizer blocks and use them in a new style change. If you plan to 100% this game as well, you'll at bare minimum need to use Custom Style and Team style at various points. The only reason to keep a style in this game though is to make use of it's elemental properties for your own strategies.

This game introduces Mega and Giga chips, an attempt by Capcom to better balance the game. You can have up to 5 mega chips, but no two of the same Mega Chip, preventing you from filling up your folder with FullCust and all of the same Navi Chips. Giga chips are really powerful but you can only have 1 of them. This format would continue the rest of the series and into Star Force.

The network stages are a bit lack luster this game. The first stage has you turning lights on to see, another stage has you setting things on fire and removing bubbles, and the final network just fucking sucks. If you screw up your timing on it, a machine picks you up and drops you back to the start of the level... I hate that level. Another annoying aspect is some stages and internet junctions require you to use a navi block program to compress MegaMan's size. While it's not a huge block, it's incredibly annoying to being forced to take a combat useless program with you for arbitrary travel points.

The bosses are all interesting to fight as always, but Alpha is the hardest boss by far. His annoying gimmick is that you have to wear down his shield before you can damage him. The Wood element style fucks him up royally though. The time trials are also hard as shit, but there are some good strategies online for dealing with them and it's not like you are required to do them to complete the main game.

Although not so much a design decision as much as a genius marketing one, Battle Network 3 establishes the NumberMan lottery, and along with this all the Navi Customizer blocks come with compression codes to make them smaller, and error codes to activate them under certain circumstances. The reason I bring up those 3 seemingly unrelated elements is because all of the codes to use these things are hidden in every conceivable promotional tool of the series, including magazine promotions, other games, toys and especially NT Warrior the running cartoon at the time. All of these give the player advantages they normally wouldn't have in a run through, although some of these codes are hidden in the game itself, and others are required to get certain chips for 100% the game.

Speaking of 100% the game, you won't be able to do it without having access to both copies of the game. Although you won't have to collect both sets of giga chips (each is unique to its own game), you will need to have both BowlMan and MistMan's chips. This is a bit of a kick in the balls to be sure as the GBA is a generation back now. That means if you plan on getting this game now, and intend to get 100% on it, you will have to buy both games, have access to either two GBA's or two NDS' and have to beat the game twice which is entirely identical except for these two bosses and the giga cards. If you do decide to go out of your way to do this however, use the Blue version for your post game run as the FolderBack giga chip is the most powerful and broken chip in the game.

Playability
As I played through this game I found that building a folder around a Program advance or two wasn't as feasible as previous games until well into the post game content, and even then the time trials won't let you use your own folder. This game, more than the others, will really test your reflexes and skill over your preplanning and strategy. There are a few game breaking ways to dominate to be sure, but your old tricks won't work here. Oh yeah, and if you've never played a battle network game before, the difficulty and learning curve are as steep as the others.

Extras

• Undershirt + Wood Element + Grass Stage = almost total invincibility. You'll regen constantly and any damage you take won't reduce you past 1hp. Fire enemies can fuck you up though if they burn your grass.
• Speaking of the Wood Element, the charge shot on this buster fucks up Alpha's really annoying shield, although a fully powered up GutsHeat style can completely remove Bass' Life Aura.
• The NumberMan lottery machine can really help you out in powering up your folder early on, but if you don't want an unfair advantage, you should still consider using it to fill out those missing chips when you need to collect them all. GameFaq's has a complete list of codes.
• Do the Jobs as soon as they pop up. You'll gain some HP-Memory, Bug Fragments and Zenny, but more importantly you might get the Spin items, which give you more freedom with the Navi Customizer.
• One of the Jobs in the game will be about a treasure hunt. Before you return the item to the requester of the job, follow the treasure hunt first, it'll lead you to 300,000 zenny!
• I tried to get a screenshot of Bass.exe GS, Bass' final form, but after an hour of trying I'm pretty sure he doesn't respawn after you beat him once. Luckily, he's the penultimate final boss so I did get at least one shot of him.

While I do find the network stages tedious or boring, there is a fuck ton of stuff to do in this game, both before and after you beat it. The customizer adds whole new levels of depth to the game and this is as far as the style changes will evolve before the whole system is changed for Battle Network 4 and 5. A lot of players think this is the best Battle Network game and that position certainly isn't without merit.

Playthroughs
N/A