have written this article a while ago. Because of the disappointing sales of Star Force, Battle Network is getting a second wind, and I for one am a bit disappointed with this turn of events myself.Gameplay wise Battle Network is enjoyable, but I find Star Force more polished myself. My main complaint is the story to Battle Network games are just god awful on average. The future of Battle Network for now looks to be in re-releases, so we won't even have any new stories for a while. What I'd like to do right now since Battle Network's future is pretty apparent, is compare it to Star Force.
I hate to say it, but this really comes off as a rant against Battle Network and less about the future of the series. Skip the block quoted text if you rather just read my thoughts on Battle Network's actual future.
Let's look at what the series are about. Star Force would have you believe the theme is about the power of friendship with the Brother Bands and link power, but it's about more than that. It's about growing up and taking responsibility. Geo goes from a scared kid who runs from his problems to confronting them like an adult and even taking on the problems of others. It's about family as Geo loses his father and Omega-Xis sort of takes on that role as a father figure. It's about compassion as Omega-Xis goes from a hard boiled uncaring self-centered alien to learning to care about others as he develops a bond with Geo.
What is Battle Network about? Ugh? At best, this one does try the power of friendship TM, if you ignore that 90% of the time Lan and Mega Man's friends are completely useless and actually do quite a bit to hinder Lan's progress. Lans always rescuing his incompetent buddies and damn is he quick to put MegaMan, his brother, in danger, even for really trivial battles. Lan and Chaud sort of develop a friendship as part of their rivalry, but Chaud kind of acts like a dick the whole series and even in the last game he doesn't appear to trust Lan's judgment all that much.
Lan is hardly ever challenged on the emotional level. Everyone loves the ending of Battle Network 3 because it's the only time Lan has any development at all. He has charisma, but he's not very deep, and neither are the other characters.
Mayl plays the love interest and she's so heavy-handedly overt about her feelings to Lan she's just comically unrealistic and a good chunk of her dialog is either the damsel in distress or gushing over Lan. She most directly compares to Sonia. Sonia is confident in the way she feels about Geo, but her attitude towards him has a little bit more teasing. In the first game shes as emotionally broken as Geo and looks to him for strength which explains why she develops an interest in him. Compare this to Lan who usually treats Mayl like shit in the typical school age gender war fashion. Sonia isn't a damsel in distress like Mayl either and actually could be considered Geo's side kick in combat.
Dex is exactly like Lan in every way, obsessed with food and Net Battling, except, unlike Lan, Dex isn't very successful about it. I don't even see what the point of Dex's character is, as he adds nothing towards the story. His counterpart, Bud, is a little more complex. In the first two games Bud is trying to be the strong tough guy, but he's actually vulnerable to the will of the villains. He probably shows the most support for Geo out of all his friends, but his interaction with Taurus causes Bud to become a liability that by the third game he eventually takes under control and uses his power to help out.
Yai is there only to make stupid jokes about how rich her family is and Roll and Glyde do absolutely nothing the entire series except get captured constantly. Star Force has a few pointless characters as well, as Zack and Harp might as well be props they're so uninteresting.
Then you have Lan's parents. Where to start? Could these people be any more horrible? Lan's father is either sending Lan head first into dangerous terrorists lairs or he isn't there at all. He also enjoys playing god in the abomination of science and ethics in the creation that is MegaMan.exe. His mother, good god, she is so worthless and oblivious it makes you wonder how the hell Lan survived childhood.
Geo's parents are so much better written. His father is missing and is protrayed almost like a deity to Geo, and his mother is quite sympathetic. She's trying to be strong for her son who is going through some severe depression but she also has her own emotional baggage from losing her husband. This really comes to a head in Star Force 3 where she is desperately afraid of losing Geo who has been lying to her about where he is going and what he is doing. Geo doesn't get her consent to go to these dangerous places and actively hides what he is doing from her. When she does find out his identity as MegaMan, she reluctantly lets him fight for the Earth's future as, A. he's the Earth's only hope, and B. Geo basically has super powers to protect him. I ask you what is keeping Lan from getting a bullet in the head other than the villains mass incompetence?
Finally there's Luna, Geo's other love interest. She's incredibly ambitious, and her insecurity comes off arrogance. Deep down though you can see she really cares about her friends, and especially cares about Geo, but she's deeply afraid to let him see that. She comes from a wealthy family like Yai does, but her being rich isn't the only thing about her character. If anything, the reason Luna is rich is to highlight her deep loneliness from having neglectful parents with high expectations. She is complex but endearing like most of the Star Force characters, something the Battle Network characters really lack.
You've also got Chaud, ProtoMan, Bass, the other villains and the like but none of these roles are particularly strong enough to carry the series.
It could be the reason that Battle Network is a hit and Star Force isn't is because Star Force quite frankly is a bit more mature. Battle Network appeals to a younger audience not concerned with the themes of Star Force, where as Star Force appeals to an audience that quite frankly, probably is old enough to recognize the milking of a cash cow when they see it. I guess it's just caught in a bad spot for its demographic. In any case, I expect the DS port of Battle Network 3 to sell like hot cakes to long time fans.
Don't get me wrong, I don't hate Battle Network, and I really don't hate the characters in that series. I just think Star Force is much better. Battle Network is mindless, but entertaining. Star Force has a heart to it though, and that's why I prefer it.
As to where the series will go from here, well it already ended in Battle Network 6. What is likely to happen is we'll see a slew of Battle Network ports to the DS if it goes over well. Capcom has started Re-Airing the old Battle Network Anime in Japan and the merchandising machine may start anew. If Operation Shooting Star takes off in the states as well, we could see the return of Mega Man NT Warrior, or even possibly the series that were never dubbed, such as Stream, Beast and Beast+. I wouldn't get your hopes up, but at least Axess will probably get a DVD release soon.
If the game continues on after Battle Network 6, Patch, Lan's son, will probably become the protagonist and likely along with MegaMan.exe as his navi. I don't see where this story can go and still be interesting personally, as Patch is probably just going to be a carbon copy of Lan, and I'm not sure it makes sense for Patch to be saving the world when Lan should still be capable of doing so. Still no point in bad mouthing the potential for a story that only has vague concepts on it so far and might not even happen.
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