Mega Man Battle Network 6

In general I don't think most of the Battle Network games are that fun. I mean they have their moments and I certainly enjoy the game enough to finish them but the game can get real old real fast after a while and I don't see myself replaying any of these games any time soon... with the exception of this one. Battle Network 6 is everything the Battle Network games were working to be, it has nearly perfected everything the previous games were trying to achieve. This game is fun the whole way through and dare I say that it's good enough to consider the purchase of both versions for yourself. It's a shame it came at the end of the series instead of the beginning but what a wonderful send off it was.

The Battle Network series has had quite a few evolutions in it's time. The start of the series introduced a new concept, the second game toned down the tedium, the third game pushed through a decent story and the fourth and fifth games tinkered with opening the world up more through double soul and controlling other Navi's. Finally we get to 6, that takes all the lessons learned and pushes the series to its fullest potential. If you stopped playing these games after 4 or 5 you've really missed out. Most fans either have 3 or 6 as their favorite and generally if 6 isn't your favorite, it's right next to 3 and vice versa.

New Features

• Double Soul has been replaced with the Cross System
• You can unlock and control other Navi's at just about any time.
• Beast-Out added, the main feature of this game.

Story
We start at Lan's school one day when Lan has a sad announcement to make to the class. His dad has been relocated to Central City and Lan and his family are moving away. Everyone's sad to see Lan go, yadda yadda yadda, we start playing in Central City. His first day in Central City Lan saves a girl from a crazed robotic dog and she thanks him and runs off. This girl is important later.

Lan heads to school to meet his new teacher and class mates but one of the other kids is kind of a dick. We're introduced to the Copy-Roids, or blank robot machines you can use to upload your Net Navi to and the Copy-Roid will assume the form of the Navi, without weapons of course. For the first time ever, MegaMan gets to walk around the real world.

After this the dick head kid named Mick throws a tantrum. He wants to rough Lan up a bit and an evil Net Navi shows up named BlastMan convinces him to set the school on fire and Mick goes from stupid punk kid to stupid punk criminal in a matter of seconds. Well I guess his setting the school on fire to teach Lan a lesson about... something "prank" gets out of hand and BlastMan refuses to listen to Mick. Lan goes in and stops him and everyone has a good laugh while Mick gets detention for nearly blowing up the school... ha ha ha... ha?

Anyway we learn about two giant cyber beasts named Gregar and Falzar which had a legendary battle that nearly destroyed the internet and they created a big fat crater in the middle of it. Baryl, from the last game, is reviving the WWW in order to capture the Cybeasts and use them for ill gotten gains.

Lan goes through a few scenarios before discovering the new WWW's plan. The Cybeasts reawaken on the net and CircusMan captures and absorbs one of them. MegaMan isn't strong enough to take the other Cybeast and figures the only way to save the net is to absorb it himself, much to Lan's protests. MegaMan absorbs the beast and it causes him to morph into whichever Cybeast your version contains and he flips out and goes on a rampage. Using one of his friends Navi's, Lan manages to get MegaMan back under control and Lan's dad helps MegaMan manage the Cybeast. Their concern is however that MegaMan could one day be beyond helping and they'd have to delete him.

The game begins to unravel with a conspiracy involving Mayor Cain of the city, Lan's teacher, the girl he saved who keeps showing up (named Iris) and Dr. Wily who turns out to be pulling Baryl's strings. There's a lot of plot twists in this game for a Battle Network game really. Anyway Chaud shows up at some point and arrests Mayor Cain for his crimes using a new spiffy cloak throwing animation. Anyway, Wily plans to use the Copy-Roids to use the Cybeasts to attack the real world, and Iris turns out to be a Net Navi who used to be a part of Colonel (Baryl's Net Navi).

Lan convinces Baryl to betray Dr. Wily and Colonel and Iris go to battle one of the Cybeast (the version you aren't playing) and MegaMan takes on the other Cybeast. They all defeat their Cybeast opposition, but MegaMan's Cybeast fuses with him again and is just about to go on a rampage. Iris and Colonel, fuse together to save MegaMan and then self destruct to destroy the Cybeasts once and for all. The place starts exploding... again... for no reason... and Lan tells Dr. Wily that he needs to atone for his crimes and if he does, maybe he'll be able to get back to researching. Everyone escapes the blast, even Dr. Wily later and we come to the final ending for Mega Man Battle Network.

We get an epilogue to the series. Lan moves back to ACDC and Dr. Wily reforms and furthers the research of the Internet with huge advancements. Baryl is never seen again, but we know he survives because he gives Lan the Copy-Roid that Iris was using for MegaMan to live out the life he never had as Hub. Twenty years later all the characters lives have gone on to better things. Dex became Mayor, Yai went on to run her fathers company, Chaud became an international Net Official, the new characters did shit no one cares about, and Lan and Mayl married and had a child named Patch. Lan would go on to become a Net Scientist himself like his father and MegaMan would stay by his side, brother and friend. Peace would last the world... for about 200 years or so... but that's another story entirely.

While definitely not a Pulitzer winner, Battle Network 6's story is satisfying even if it's convoluted, and it's good to see every loose end tied up in a nice bow... wait a second...

Post Game Content

Yeah almost forgot we have just a couple more guys to take care of. Since this is the last game after all, it wouldn't be right to let it go without one last Net Battle between the two rivals of Chaud and Lan. ProtoMan has been powered up to ungodly levels of difficult, but MegaMan has the power of the Cybeasts under his belt. Don't forget to show Chaud just why he is number 2.

Next up is something that actually can happen somewhere in the middle of the game if you go exploring in the wrong places. MegaMan and Lan come across a strange grave in the Cyberworld. It reads "Here lies the god of destruction." God of destruction? Who's that wonder Lan and MegaMan. The grave then fucking explodes and guess who shows up? I really hope you got your HP-Memories because Bass ain't fucking around anymore. "WHO DARE DISTURBS MY SLUMBER!" Well Bass already hates MegaMan's guts and they get into a fight. Bass loses but he decides to retreat for now and build up his power.

Later, in the real post game content, MegaMan and Lan come across a Cyber Graveyard... yeah... All the graves say the names of just about every Navi in this game and in a few others. How odd since many of them are still alive. MegaMan and Lan then come up to a blank grave. "Why is this grave blank?" says MegaMan. "BECAUSE IT'S YOURS MEGAMAN!" shouts Bass. Fuck...

Fight him again and Bass thinks he's getting cheated because MegaMan is using the power of the Cybeasts. He runs off with a scheme to end this once and for all.

Later while hanging around in the crater left by Falzar and Gregar, Bass shows up again. By this point MegaMan and Lan are just about like "leave us the fuck alone Bass, shit!" but Bass does something unexpected. He extracts the Cybeast from MegaMan and now you have to face a Cybeast Powered up Mega Man DS... shit. After that grueling fight you'll probably be hurting, and at that point, Bass is now ready to fuck you up. YOU SUNOFABITCH! Bass gives probably the most cheesy, yet awesome lines in the series. "I WILL REDUCE YOU TO THE ONE'S AND ZERO'S FROM WHENCE YOU CAME!" Well it's time to finish this once and for all, and Bass' bullshit trick of kicking you while you're down isn't going to stop him from getting his ass handed to him. Bass screams that if he's going to be deleted he'll take you with him, and then explodes. Lan wonders if Bass is truly gone once and for all being how he seems to show up without rhyme or reason. MegaMan basically says if he shows up again they'll just have to kick his ass again. Lan agrees and they get themselves Bass' Giga chip.

Don't worry Lan, Bass never shows up again! Unless they make Battle Network 7 which might happen if Operation Shooting Star goes well. Anyway folks that's Battle Network for now... and perhaps forever.

Aesthetics
We're in completely new settings from the previous games and they all have their interesting points, especially the Cyberworld which feel more like cities in an alternate plane of existence more than previous games where they just feel like filler points to hit the player with random encounters. You'll see Cyber Cafes... in the very literal sense, tree's, statues... um... plumbing? The network stages range from a nasty weathered storm to a wooden forest network.

In the real world Lan visits an aquarium a floating city and a court house made out of trees and the series has noticeably evolved from it's roots.

On the character design section we've lost Double Soul but gained the Cross System which is nearly functionally and visually the same thing. Just like in previous games MegaMan combines his form with that of another Net Navi and it tries to blend the results. On top of this you have the Beast-Out ability in which MegaMan lets out an animal like roar and morphs to take on the beasts shape. While this is cool enough, you can also combine it with the Cross System to have Crossed Beast Outs which blend the three elements (MegaMan, Cybeast and Net Navi) together and they just look very good.

I should note that while these designs are cool looking, the game has done little to advance graphically, but it's not the number of colors in your pallet, it's how you use them.

Sound
This game has a new title theme from 4 and 5 but it's still not as good as the original 3 games. There's a few tracks I dig on here, such as BlastMan's level theme and the ACDC town's theme has been tweaked a bit but overall I have to give the whole sound track a "meh". Adequate, but not memorable. On the sound effects department there aren't many things different from the other games except the roar MegaMan gives from Beast-Out which is pretty cool.

Design
The network stages are some of the best in the series. There's a decent gimmick for each stage and while the isometric Pacman stage is kind of a pain in the ass, the minigame involving the Judge Tree is pretty fun... albeit really easy.

Let's talk about the changes this time. The main problems with Double Soul was that you really had to build your folder around it to make use of it, and it wasn't very flexible for different situations because you'd have to build a new folder to use a new Double Soul and it could become a pain in the ass to manage. Cross System is essentially Double Soul, but flexible. You do not need a sacrificial chip and can use Cross System at any time, meaning no more waiting for certain chips to show up to make use of it. You can also take advantage of all your Cross System forms at any time.

Next up you have Beast-Out, which I suppose is functionally the same as Cross System except much more powerful. Beast-Out has MegaMan form with his games Cybeast and powers him up. If you want, you can even combine the Cross System forms with Beast-Out to get a third form that takes advantage of both abilities. This game caters to more action with these forms than previous games, but a lot of them take advantage of your chip abilities too so strategy will still come in to play.

On top of this, once you unlock a Cross System form, you can play as that Navi at just about any time afterwords. To tell you the truth it isn't all that useful as none of the Navi's are as powerful as MegaMan himself and you'll only need them when the game either forces you through the story or to unlock a door somewhere but it is a more interesting use of the other characters as compared to Battle Network 5's use.

The folder building system is a bit tweaked now. You can hold a number of the same chips based on their MB value. I can't recall the exact values off hand and didn't find it personally a hindrance in any way. Fans I've talked to feel this is the best way to balance the system. In addition to this, you can tag two cards together so if one shows up so will the other one, allowing you to come up with a devastating combo.

One last thing on design. The Battle Network games can be a pain in the ass with regards to their maze like mapping. It has gotten better over time, Battle Network 4 hardly had any real maze layouts until you got to the Undernet. This game is probably the best about toning down the mazeyness of the maps and in fact later on you can buy items to get yourself short cuts to cut off even more time when you backtrack. Quite handy.


Playability
Unlike the other games, you could probably pick up and play this one no problem. Even though the learning curve is still there, it's not even as harsh. Beast-Out makes a lot of tough situations a breeze, but I would say the final bosses of this game (Bass excluded) are a fucking joke compared to even the easier final bosses of the series. Even powered up they aren't that hard and one strategy for Gregar works well enough just using the Cross System and your buster. This game isn't terribly challenging, but none the less fun.

Extras

• Money isn't quite as hard to get in this game if you keep up on the jobs when they become available. Make sure you invest as much as you can when the one Navi asks you for a loan.
• Falzar is probably the easier game simply because TenguMan's Cross form and Falzar's Beast-Out both give you AirShoes which I have to say is the handiest ability to have on call. Gregar's form is pretty cool though and I found to be more damaging personally, SlashMan's Cross System as well is also quite powerful. Honestly though, the game is fun enough and the experience is different enough to warrant buying both games if you so desire.
• Talk to the Cyber Cafe owners and buy their coffee just about every time you're passing through the area. Eventually they'll give you a prize for being a regular customer.

Battle Network 6 is the best game in the series hands down. If you never have played a Battle Network game, this is the one to play and its much easier to pick up compared to the rest of them. This one is worth trying out even if you don't like Battle Network all that much. I like three, but I think every thing came together much better in 6, and 6 doesn't have that annoying as shit press program that 3 does.

Playthroughs
N/A