AWKWARD ZOMBIE

Megaman Battle Network is a spinoff of the classic platforming series. A weird spinoff. Instead of Wily's robotics research being followed, it was Dr. Hikari's (Dr. Light, the name is untranslated in this series) internet and software research. Instead of robot masters, we have NetNavis, who are basically a sentient OS for the PET (PErsonal Terminal), which is essentially a smartphone.

It's not a platformer, it's an RPG. An RPG with a kickin' rad battle system.

Why am I playing the third game? Because it's the best one.

Update Index

1) HOPE YOU LIKE INFODUMPS
2) Screenshots ruin the purpose of about half this update
3) Two times a deleted computer program

1) HOPE YOU LIKE INFODUMPS


: The world's machines are joined in a worldwide network.
: But there is a dark side to this convenience as well:
: Computer viruses, and an increase in NetCrime
: The Virus lab at SciLab...
: Conducts research into ways of dealing with these viruses.
: One day...
: The students of ACDC School, in ACDC toen, in DenCity,
: took a field trip to the SciLab's Virus Lab.




Meet Lan Hikari, the protagonist and 1/2 of the playable characters. He's Megaman's operator, and twin brother.




And here's Megaman.EXE. The other half of the playable characters, Lan's Navi and twin brother, born Hub Hikari. Hub had Anime Disease and died as a baby. His father, Yuichiro Hikari took his DNA and converted it to computer code, despite DNA being bodaciously twice as complicated as binary. Hub not only became Lan's navi, but his DNA became the basis for all navis, which is why they have actual emotion and learning capacity.
It's "Science"!




Meet my co-commentator, the blink animation.



Indeed they are. And now we have to talk to every person in this room.



: They're so small, but we can use them as a phone, for e-mail,
: as a textbook- But I think that the coolest thing
: about them are the Navis that can run programs for us!
: Take mail, for example. We just open the menu, select
: "E-mail", and our Navi opens the screen for us!
: The menu is opened by pressing the Start Button, right?

This seems pretty commonplace nowadays, but back when these games were released that would have been a big deal.



The game promptly lets us test this amazing feature for ourselves.



Fun fact about MMBN3, the palletes of various things changes depending on whether you're playing White or Blue. The start menu (and all grayscale interface things) are blue in White version, and gray in Blue version. I played White as a kid so this is kinda jarring for me, actually. Also Virus Lab isn't yellow in White.




What? Really? I hadn't noticed the WWW trying to destroy the internet and Gospel trying to rule the world. I definitely didn't stop them both.




This child is dangerously close to the Code Lyoko forehead zone.



: on a field trip to an umbrella factory.
: I wish we could go to an umbrella factory, too! There's no way that
: we'd get away with sneaking off to Net-Battle here...

Dex is one of Lan's *ahem* "friends." He operates Gutsman.EXE and is basically useless except as a source of Gutsman chips.




...has this girl ever been on the internet? Ever? You can't walk 40 feet without getting accosted by a virus.




Ms. Mari is Lan's teacher. She's not all that important in this game.



I'm not transcribing this guy's text. Basically, you can make a battle chip always appear at the start of a battle, so long as you have enough memory for it.





Meet Mayl, operator of Roll.EXE. She apparently didn't get enough sleep before this field trip, or she's just really tired of Lan not paying attention in class.
Mayl is also useless except as a source of Roll chips.





Yai is the last of The Useless Trio, and by far the most useless of them all. She operates Glyde.EXE. Who you never fight, and never get a battle chip from.
She's actually a year younger than the rest of Lan's class, she skipped a grade.





That function is useful if you put your game down for a while and want to start back up from where you left off, Lan/Megaman (whichever one you're not playing) tells you what you need to do.





: Today we're going to learn the basics of virus busting.
: Some of you may already be familiar with this...
: But remember! The basics are vital!
: OK, everyone please jack in by pressing your R button!

Jacking in is how you get on the internet. I don't know how Lan is managing to jack in from that far away from the computers.



For some reason that animation was removed from the international releases of MMBN3, and instead of seeing that when you jack in, you just see a blank screen for about 3 seconds.

And because the virus tutorial is super long and heavy on visuals, and also useless for people who have played these games before (any of them) have a video instead of more screenshots.







If you say so, Ms. Mari.





: Chat? Sure, okay! Dex, Mayl... how about it?
: I'm cool.
: I'm good to go, too!
: OK! We're set!
: Let's do it at my homepage tonight.
: Let's talk after school.





"Ugh, fine."



: That's your homework assignment for class tomorrow.
: Don't forget! I'm talking to you, Dex and Lan! Got it?






And now you have to talk to all your friends even though Yai is the only one with useful info.





Dex and Yai: partners in glare.



Also if you move right after examining something, Lan's sprite rotates. A description from the class frog is now about Dex.




!!!PLOT ALERT!!!





You can jack into the blackboard in here for an upgrade to the thing that lets you set a chip as the first one in battle. Also for these guys!








Mr. Prog! These are the less simple versions of navis, usually carrying out one task each, such as heating coffee in a vending machine, or showing stuff on a blackboard. They're also adorable.



You get to the park to find everyone's already there. everyone goes on for some time about when to meet for their chat, which begs the question of why they can't just talk in person since they live less than 500 feet from each other.
Oh, wait it's because plot is happening!






: Are you going to make me a TV star or something?
: I knew it...I knew this day would come!
: But even still, I need a little time to prepare myself.
: Uh... Right. Anyway, if I may continue...
: We're sponsoring a competition to find the top NetBattler.
: It's called the "N1 Grand Prix."
: The preliminaries are being held in ACDC Square today.
: Why don't you all give it a shot?

Lan and The Useless Brigade all sound off "Us in the preliminaries?" a couple words at a time.



: The finals will be broadcast nationwide.
: The preliminaries could be your first step to stardom!
: Look at the time! Registration will start soon, so...
: If you're interested just jack in and go to ACDC square!

He then leaves, everyone says "I have to try this" and they leave too.
Next time: Fetch quests.

OH MY GOD YES MEGAMAN BATTLE NETWORK

I LOOOOOVE 6: CYBER BEAST GREGAR.

Ohohoho I'm gonna love this.

Just wait until you see what I'm doing with the boss battles.

this game is so fucking rad, can't wait for the rest mang.

2) Screenshots ruin the purpose of about half this update



You can actually jack into this doghouse outside Lan's house. It's a burglar alarm.







It has Mr. Progs! It's gonna be alright, the mailman forgives you.



Oh yeah this is in here too.




Dex tells you you're late to get started with the preliminaries. When Yai, the shortest one who lives farthest from the park and has the most useless navi can start before you, there's a problem.




Welcome to Lan's homepage. It's boring and really only exists to give you a buffer between Lan's PC and the internet at large.



Which looks like this! The net is mazelike, with random encounters with viruses every so often. The road from where you enter an area (in this case, Lan's PC) to the square is a different color from the rest of the tiles so it's not that hard to find where you're going.



Slightly northeast of Lan's PC there's this. SubChips are basically out of battle items , each with a different purpose. The only 3 I can think of are these, which restore 50 HP, one that restores all of it, and one that unlocks purple mystery data (these crystal things)
SubChips are mostly useful if you're about to confront a boss, since if you jack out all of Megaman's HP is restored.



Mettaur: The basic virus. Follows your movement up and down the columns, and if you and it meet it sends a slow moving shockwave down your row. Later versions have more HP, everything on the moves faster, and they hide under their helmets when not attacking, negating all damage.
Canodumb: Canodumbs can't move. If you enter their row they send down a little tracker, and if it hits you you get shot. Later versions just have more HP and do more damage.





In ACDC 2 there's a couple blue mystery datas, as well as a merchant. Buy the Areagrab *. It's well worth the 1200 zenny. I also grab an HPMemory, which ups Megaman's HP cap by 20.



Bunny: Hops around randomly until it's ready to attack you, at which point it moves to your row and fires a paralyzing ring. Take these out first if you can, since being paralyzed is awful in general.


: Your being here means you want to take part, right?
: RIGHT! Everyone here is taking part, like it or not!
: OK! Let's start the 1st round!

I can forgive them for using a number in text as not partof a name because this man is made of internet.



: I'll ask a question. O or X data will be hidden on the Net.
: Then, you go out and find the one that you think is right!






These missions are designed to familiarize you with the ACDC area net, there's a question for each area and one set of data is hidden in each.



I snag an Invis * because invunerability is always nice, as is having more and more * coded chips.
Here, have a montage.
















You should jack out when you're doing missions 2 and 3 and just come back through ACDC 1, it's quicker that way.




"It was so easy I was actually sleeping the entire time!"



Everyone else also did it in a shining moment of semi competence.






You can't get into (or out of) people's Homepages without a security code, since there's a big ol' cube blocking your way. I'm actually surprised they didn't go the literal route, making it a cube instead of a wall of fire.




After a delicious dinner, Lan heads over to Yai's Homepage in ACDC Area 2.








: It's getting late everyone, so let's call it a night.


: By the way, Lan and Dex, did you do your homework?
: Ack!
: I'm sorry, Lan! I forgot, too...

How did Megaman forget something? He's a computer program, he shouldn't be able to do that without being told to.

: Hey, no problem! This assignment's a piece of cake!


: Dex...? Are you okay?
: My disk! I left it at school!
: Guess you'll be on toilet-cleaning duty tomorrow, Dex!

Wow, Lan, way to be a dick.

: Don't make him feel any worse, Lan!



"I swear to god, Dex."


: Take me, too!
: Please reconsider, Miss Yai! It's too dangerous!
: I want to go, too! I always wanted to see the school at night!



"I'm so excited that I'm only pretending to be asleep right now!"

: Don't scare me, Roll! I'm serious!



"Someone has to keep you three from locking yourselves in a supply closet or something."

: What about your homework, Lan?
: Aw, don't be such a pessimist! It'll be fine!
: H-Hey! I didn't say I was going over there!
: What's wrong, Dex? Don't be such a wimp!
: or are you... Scared of ghosts?
: Dex isn't afraid of anything! Bravery is his middle name!



You're going to have to actually open your eyes if you want to convince people.







"Don't make it sound so easy, or I'll glare a hole right through your wheel shoes"





"Don't make me rescue your booty"



"Why are you telling me to be careful of a school operated Navi when I've saved the world twice goddammit"
A quick jaunt to ACDC Area 2 later








"I CAN'T EVEN OPEN MY EYES I'M SO SCARED"




Exiting the house gets you this email from Mayl.


: The school doors are unlocked. Could they have just forgottn?[sic]
: Come as soon as you can! We're waiting in the school!







Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to break into a school when you're all actively falling asleep like this.





Is there something in the air? Do you need glasses?



Indeed he did. You're given the potential placements of Mayl's desk, Yai's desk, the animal cages, and the books.
It's in the frog cage.






Yai has mastered the death glare, holy shit.






And so Team Helpless leaves the classroom, archaic method of data storage in hand.









How he can tell which room it's coming from specifically is a mystery.







I like how people keep warning Lan about something as mundane as tresspassing when he was hanging out in radiation at 50,000 times the background level recently.






: Dex! And Mayl and Yai?
: Aren't you supposed to be waiting outside?
: This is dangerous! Go back!

"LAN DON'T GO IN THERE IT'S DANGEROUS"
"HI LAN WE'RE IN HERE TOO"

: Sometimes you've got to give us a turn, too!
: OK! Ready?
: Of course!
: yeah!
: Here... we... GO!

Everyone charges in after this guy they've been warning Lan about for the past 10 minutes.







: Heh heh! Looks like this is my lucky day!
: Your name is on my organization's blacklist, Lan!
: If I kill you and that Navi of yours,
: I'll get a big, juicy promotion!

Wait a second, he said "kill." Not "capture." Not "delete your navi." Straight up "kill."
This guy is not fucking around.











If by "kill" he means "hypnotize."






: you'll be hypnotized until I get deleted!
: Now that I'm done with them, you're next!




: Ah, well. Today's mission was to steal the TetraCode.
: I don't need to waste time on him!
: FlashMan! I'm transmitting the TetraCode!
: I'll leave Labn and MegaMan to you!

What kind of friend would we be if we didn't check up on our friends instead of stopping the dangerous burglar?





Roll R is the single most useful chip I have right now. It does 60 damage to the enemy closest to Megaman, and then heals me after.





: With that hypnotic beam, we'd better be careful going in...
: Is there any way we can get inside without getting hit?
: If only we had something to block the light...
: Something to block the light...?



He's smug because he remembered the !!!PLOT ALERT!!! from the first update.








Next time: Dungeon!

Yeah, let me give a heads up to everyone out there.

These games are the exact same in terms of setup

Something occurs, turns out a bad guy is behind it, the bad guy has a navi, you go through a puzzle-dungeon to beat said Navi.

It's extremely apparent once you've played all the games...

The story in these games is... not the best. The gameplay more than makes up for it, though.
As you'll see next update.

Also feel free to talk about any of the MMBN games except 3.

3) Two times a deleted computer program



Dungeon!






The principal's computer leads to the school's network. Why the desks and blackboards don't is a mystery to all.


: You must unlock the security door to
: pass to the area beyond it.
: "Keydata" is needed to open each security door.
: The "Keydata" should be around here but it's too dark now.
: I agree.
: It'll be too hard to fine the "Keydata" in the dark.
: Can you do something about it, Lan?
: Okay! Let me figure out some way to make your area brighter!
: Hold on! Program is saying something!








There's the gimmick for the dungeon. The area you're in is dark and you can't see any mystery data until Lan turns on the corresponding light in the real world, at which point they flicker on and off instead of staying on constantly for some reason.
You also need to gather 3 mystery datas that contain Keydata for the various security doors in order to get to the next area. However...



Some of them contain viruses instead of goodies.




The first lightswitch is located in classroom 5A, the same one we got the parasol from.
Here's a montage of all the mystery data in the first area, since this dungeon is really short and simple.











With all that gathered, we get to go to area 2, where you start encountering these things:



Eleballs will bounce around the field like an old screensaver, crossing freely into Megaman's area. If they're in any square adjacent to him in any direction including diagonally they'll emit two balls of electricity that circle around them. They're annoying to fight because they move slowly instead of teleporting like decent viruses do.






The only difference between the gimmick in this area and the gimmick in the previous area is that you need all 3 passwords at once to open this door, instead of using them one at a time.



"Which isn't all that impressive when you realize that Navis don't technically need to use their eyes for any specific reason."



This lightswitch is in the teacher's lounge. This calls for another screenshot spam.








After getting all of those we can finally face Flashman!

Sorta.

You see, I've long since gotten used to fighting these bosses. They're boring, as any boss is when you've played it over a dozen times.
Therefore, I'm going to introduce a little romhacking into the equation.

Open up VisualBoyAdvance's memory editor and you see something like this.



Incomprehensible, right? Put 0801F7D0 into that bar at the top.



Still incomprehensible, right? Not really. If you look closely you can see a pattern.

FF, four 00s, two 02s, an 00, and some other random numbers, closed off by an FF. These are battles. This area specifically for ACDC's net.

The breakdown of that code is as follows:

FFs are for telling the game to stop reading stuff there, and start reading again after it.
Those first three 00s are not to be messed with, they contain stuff vital for battles to load properly.
The fourth 00 says you're Megaman.
The 02 02 are Megaman's starting coordinates. Column 2 row 2.
The next thing says you're controlled by a human. Messing with this makes battles crash.
The next few things are exactly the same, but for viruses. The first value being what virus goes there, the next 2 being the coordinates, the third being 01 to signal a virus, and FF closes it off. You can have up to three viruses per battle. You can't really add viruses to a battle or the next one freezes, luckily changes made in the memory editor are lost when the game is quit.

See this page for more info on battle hacking.

A few quick edits to Flashman's battle and we now have two Flashmans. At once.
That's not really fair to those of you who haven't played these games though, so there's still a normal battle.

Back to story progress.









Vs Flashman.
Vs 2xFlashman.

I don't know what it is about the movement tracker attack he has that fucks me up so bad, I can dodge it fine on other viruses.


: I am deeply sorry, sir...
: I hope you haven't forgotten the rules of our organization.
: Yes, sir! Rule 98!
: Never get deleted, even if defeated in battle!






: Well done, FlashMan!
: That flash is the beacon for a major catastrophe!
: And with that, young Lan, I'll take my leave.







Over right outside this door I'm at!





Your words say you didn't know, but your expression is blaming me for it.












Just outside the school gates, Dex mails us.

: I can't sleep... I'm in the park now. Want to NetBattle?
: Oh, and thanks for today!! Take this as a thank you from me.
: Lan got "DexCode"!!

Now we can use Dex's Homepage as an internet shortcut. It's on ACDC1, in a section past the square. This is probably the most useful place in the game to jack in from.

As a thank you for this, I'm going to delete the shit out of Gutsman.EXE.

Vs Gutsman.
Vs 2xGutsman.

Do not mock Lan's Heely's

also why don't you use the mega buster

I don't use the megabuster until after midway through scenario three.

Oh cool, I wanna explain Navi cards!

Right, Navi cards are basically cards dropped from the bosses of this game, but for the non-optional bosses of the game, you'll have to go through a bit more to get your hands on them.

Lets use Blast man from Megaman Battle Network 6.


Blastman here is the first real boss in Megaman Battle Network 6, when you beat him, you get a set reward of Zenny.

However, after beating him, soon after, you can actually find him hanging around a certain room, in this case, Central Area 2, you can see him and everything, and when you fight him, you fight his EX version.

EX bosses are much more difficult than their original version, they have more health, and are faster, they're generally just a slightly more difficult fight.

In fact, if you know what you're doing, you can actually beat Blastman EX relatively early and get his chip, which is actually pretty good early-game, and getting a rather impressive busting rank on him can net you his regular chip, or getting an S or 10 rank can net you his EX chip.

Each boss Navi has three version of their chips like nearly every enemy in the game, for Blastman, they're...

"Blastman"-Deals 120 damage
"BlastmanEX"-Deals 140 damage
"BlastmanSP"-Deals 150 damage

SP is the 2nd strongest form of a boss in the game, more on that later, but after beating an EX version of a boss, running around that same room will give you a chance to fight that bosses SP version, SP bosses are hard if you come unprepared, so be ready for a fight. And if you get a 10 or S rank on an SP boss, you get their SP chip, the best chip of them you can get.

And by the way, in Megaman Battle Network 6, you can fight "RV" versions of bosses, here's a comparison on difficulty.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dC4sOGUftA
First fight.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8N5TlMXp4Q
RV fight.

It's much the same in 3, you fight a navi, they have a set location on the net where you initiate a battle with their alpha version, which when beaten gives you a navichip, and when you beat them their beta version becomes a random encounter somewhere.

I'll explain that more when it becomes relevant, since I'm going to need to grind for Dash G chips before I fight 2x Flashman Alpha

Screenshotting the next set of updates tonight, it's slow going because of aforementioned Dash G grinding.

Update coming this weekend maybe. it depends on how long I can pull myself away from Infamous.