Part 10: Snake Eater

With MegaMan discarded, Lan can't do much at the moment. If you try going back into the hotel, he sees no reason why he should speak to MegaMan and refuses to talk to him if you try to interact with the PET.

So, let's go somewhere else. Maybe there's someone we can talk to.

Not this kid.

In a surprising twist, Higsby is here in Netopia!

I intentionally left out a bit of dialogue foreshadowing this, but there's an NPC downtown who mentions how someone who kept saying "huh!" left a Chip Trader nearby.

Lan is, of course, happy to see Higsby in addition to being concerned about not being able to fund their mutual chip collecting addictions.

Conversation shifts to whether he and MegaMan are doing well together, and Lan mentions that he wants nothing to do with him anymore.

Higsby gets upset and starts to cry upon hearing that Lan and MegaMan aren't friends anymore, recalling how the only reason he turned his life around was because of the both of them.

Even while crying, he manages to slip in his verbal tic.

Lan is mature enough to realize that the stress of the situation caused him to "unfairly" lash out at his brother for giving him terrible advice. Either way, he decides to make peace with him.

This, incidentally, is the only time in the series I can recall Lan and Hub having an argument, so I guess Higsby is a really convincing speaker. Huh!!!

Music: Busy Street of a Foreign Country

Now that Lan has spoken to Higsby, a few NPCs have updated dialogue about Lan looking happier. I do like that a number of the NPCs seem to be looking out for him, at least. That's pretty charming.

Here's the NPC I mentioned, incidentally.

This girl also continues to find Lan wild and crazy.

While I can't disagree that Lan does fit the definition of both of those words, I have no idea why she believes this. Maybe she thinks he's going through a "bad boy" phase or something due to his earlier funk?

Lan returns to his room to speak with MegaMan.

As it turns out, someone broke into his hotel room and attacked MegaMan with some viruses before stealing Lan's passport while he was gone.

Lan doesn't care about being robbed a third time, though, and makes sure to fix up the damage from the fight.

Yay!

There's also an HP upgrade for MegaMan that's in the fridge, for some reason. You can't get it before this point due to the fight. For some reason, Lan will indeed pick it up if you go back to the hotel room and examine the fridge. Kind of undermines the fight a bit, but it's not like Lan was going to ditch MegaMan for good, so whatever.

Higsby is also in town and gives Lan three chips to celebrate making up with MegaMan. Higsby is a cool guy.

Over by the castle, Old Man gives you information on his underground connections in order to help you find out where your passport and battle chips are. He tells you to look for Jim on the back streets.

Who is Jim?

Music: Alley

Why it's the foul-mouthed kid from earlier!

Jim agrees to help Lan if he pays up.

In exchange for his assistance, he wants a Guard *, a "rare" chip that I have multiple of in my pack.

Unfortunately, my pack was stolen and I forgot to save one for this event. Oops.

Jim doesn't expect payment up front, mercifully, and instead says that Lan should jack in and check Netopia area before someone sells his passport on the Undernet.

However, we can't shouldn't jack in because Lan is not exactly well-liked at the moment.

Nothing is actually preventing you from going into the boombox, mind you, but there's a Security Cube at the end that you can't pass.

If you come here earlier, you can find out why Lan isn't exactly popular walking around.

A number of the NPCs will also be unfriendly to you, as we saw with Jim earlier.

At Jim's suggestion, we talk to Raoul, the leader of the minority clan here.

In order to get his assistance, though, we have to prove ourselves worthy of his help.

You know what that means.

Boss Fight: ThunderMan

ThunderMan, another Battle Network exclusive character, is another of those Navis who likes to stay in the back. He also has an annoying gimmick of not only using long-ranged attacks, but also sending his clouds after you. The clouds are more dangerous than ThunderMan himself given that the Navi only has one attack while the clouds use two and can also bump into you, which causes flinching and lowers your rank if you aren't in a Guts Style!

Despite the type disadvantage, you can still fight him with an Aqua Style and do well at this stage of the game if you're cautious. I wouldn't recommend it for V3, though.

- Auto-Lightning: If a cloud's path is obstructed by MegaMan or an obstacle, it will release electricity in a + shape to damage MegaMan or destroy the obstacle.
- Stormcloud Thunder: ThunderMan summons lightning balls in the clouds. When the clouds line up with the player, they release the lightning ball.
- Thunder Bolt: ThunderMan summons three consecutive lightning bolts that track the player and strike down on them.

Raoul is impressed by Lan's skills and gives him the code to his Security Cube after the match.

Nah, that's next game. And Battle Network 5.

The NPCs are now fond of Lan and remain so for the rest of the game.

Into the radio!

Welcome to Netopia area. Or, as I happened to find out upon re-reading MissEchelon's LP, "Ameroppa" area as it says on the wallpaper. It seems that wasn't updated from the original game and still uses the Japanese name!

A purple Normal Navi directs you towards the Netopia Square.

On the way, you can also find NumberMan peddling some wares. He isn't able to be fought in this game, though.

Netopia Square has my favorite color palette.

Here we find some Mr. Progs, presumably making fun of the robber who spoke terrible French. Mr. Prog owns.

Inside of the actual Square, which is made of four squares of the primary colors + green, a few NPCs mention seeing a Heel Navi that left the area earlier. Some NPCs also mention that Netopia Area is very close to the Undernet, a fact we could infer from Jim earlier.

There's also this Mr. Prog, who the robber was lucky to have missed!

In Netopia 3, we find the thief in the middle of trying to sell the passport to someone else. He attempts to attack MegaMan with a virus upon being confronted, but it doesn't go well for him.

MegaMan successfully chases the HeelNavi away

and the other one pleads innocence if you speak to him.

Hooray, we got our passport back!

If you were inclined to try and go to the Undernet, you'll find a Mr. Prog here blocking it off. He will remain here for the entirety of this scenario.

Well, at least we resolved everything before the situation got too bad!

Oh, right.

Jim actually doesn't speak to you here when you leave the net, so you're fine if you don't have the chip. There's also no punishment for saying no (even though I only spoke to him once I got the chip) since he knows where your pack is and won't tell you until he's paid.

To satisfy his request, you can head over to Den Area 3, where the Security Cube is blocking off access to the Netopia areas and fight Mettaurs if need be, as well as fighting Mettaur 2s in Netopia.

But let's say you didn't know these details and were freaking out. I recently learned an alternative method to handle this situation!

Our sauced friend over here gives us a tidbit of advice.

If you journey back to Netopia Castle, you can find a girl and her mother who are sightseeing from Electopia.

Speaking to the girl gets you 30 Guard * chips instantly.

I had a good laugh at this line.

Thanks, buddy!

Giving the chip to Jim seems to make his day. Now that he's been compensated for his help, he gives Lan the last bit of information necessary to proceed with the game.

Oh boy. This part...

To the north of the girl that has a thing for Lan is a jewelry shop.

Inside you'll find a racist old lady.

More importantly, though, the woman at the counter across from her will inform you that there is a millionaire here who is a frequent shopper.

You don't need to speak with her to find Ms. Millions. I just like showing NPC dialogue.

Ms. Millions has actually been here the whole time and will not speak to you before this point. But once Jim sends you here...

You have a few dialogue options here with Ms. Millions, but the only one that will get you anywhere is asking for your chips back. As it turns out, she bought your chips for 500,000 zenny. Not to use, mind you. Just to have.

Seeing as Netbattling is the only law in the Battle Network universe, we have to fight for them.

Boss Fight: SnakeMan

SnakeMan is very easy to defeat given that all of his attacks are pretty slow and non-threatening, barring one that he uses at low HP which comes out quickly. The real issue is that if you're on the same row as him, he'll hide in his jar and cannot be damaged at all until you move up/down. Come out of there and fight me, you coward!

Just use ranged AOE chips, preferably ones that paralyze or freeze, and you should have him beaten easily enough. Zap Ring is also good for sniping him before he can go into his pot.

- Snake Buster: SnakeMan can fire blasts at MegaMan's location, tracking MegaMan as he moves. These do not cause flinching.
- Snake Arrow: Snakes will continuously pop out of the 3 permanent holes in SnakeMan's area, and dart forward.
- Snake Bite: SnakeMan repositions his jar about 3 panels in front of the player, which is pointed towards MegaMan now, and suddenly pops out to bite him.

After the battle's climax, Ms. Millions is satisfied with how thoroughly we've beaten her snake and is now willing to make this a happy ending.

And with that, we get our chips back.

She also throws in some money and her Security Cube code.

And that was the Ms. Millions portion of the story. Thanks, Japan!

Regarding her name, the artbook says Ms., so now I'm going to assume the Mrs. above is a Ms.translation.

Incidentally, from what I hear, only the passport and chips are required to get back. Your zenny will be permanently stolen if you don't get it back from the guy who speaks terrible French in a certain amount of time.

Fortunately, we got everything back, so let's head off to sleep and not worry about such things.

Part 12: The Hottest Mix-Tape of 20XX

The next day, Lan is ready to head out and go home.

Yes, the game just skips here after you beat KnightMan. It seems like there's less "Go home and go to sleep to progress the plot" moments in this game. I only recall it happening a few times so far.

That sounds like just enough time to get up to some side shenanigans!

For starters, this guy is selling three souvenirs for 1000 zenny each: a Broach for Yai, a RoboX for Dex, and a Golden Ring for Mayl. Because Mayl is the love interest, you see.

Granted, Lan has to give her SOMETHING to distract her from the fact that he's never going to actually retrieve that Wireless plug she bought him from the KnightMan computer.

Sorry, but long-distance relationships are a lot of work.

A number of NPCs are impressed to hear about how Lan resolved what happened in the castle.

Raoul's still recovering, but he's doing well enough to NetBattle with ThunderMan V2.

Makes sense.

The old lady who is racist against Electopians admits that she's not here for jewelry, but is just here for the girls.

I'm not sure what to make of that.

Ms. Millions continues to be inappropriate and also is available for SnakeMan V2 battles.

I think you might be enjoying losing too much!

This is not Jennifer. It's the lady who pointed out the hotel.

The Official back at the castle gives the ONBA Code now, allowing MegaMan to break that last Security Cube between Den Area 3 and Netopia.

Despite doing this, I forgot to check on the BBS in the Square. Aw nuts.

Educate yourself about other countries, you weirdo.

The girl who was robbed tries to give Lan a pep talk in case he still is feeling a little negative about his experience.

I also went on the net and gave KnightMan V2 a thrashing in Netopia 1. Still easy.

Don't mind the higher HP. I put this off until later in my redone Let's Play just to spread out the videos a bit.

During this time in said LP, I took care of QuickMan V2, who I only put off to avoid dealing with his obnoxious V3 before I was ready.

I hunted down CutMan V2 in Yumland 2 as well, who I only put off because I wanted to beat QuickMan first. I like keeping bosses in order.

Curiously enough, while I was heading around to take care of other Gospel Navis I hadn't beaten yet, I found Roll here in Yumland. Looks like Mayl got her ALicense while Lan was away.

After taking care of CutMan, I decide to take advantage of the fact that the Mr. Prog that blocked off the Undernet is now gone.

Music: Fearful

The Undernet is now sporting a new glowing Xbox-esque motif.

It will also have its own unique theme in every Battle Network game going forward.

The Undernet has its own Square as well.

Inside, we learn important facts about how to be a bad guy.

A few people aren't happy about MegaMan being around, though they won't do more than threaten him.

There's an Undernet BBS, but there's not a lot posted now. I'll save this for the next scenario.

normies get out reeeeeee

In some areas of the Undernet, you can find this little dog virus. This is the Battle Network version of Rush, and he gets a slightly expanded role in the anime as Roll's pet who can control/summon viruses.

Later games also have him show up in something of a support role to MegaMan, albeit not in the story.

In a fun bit of continuity, we also find NumberMan here. Remember that he did have a code that unlocked a blocked off portion of the Undernet in the last game.

After taking care of ShadowMan V2, I decided to get back to the plot.

Ribitta is no longer at the arrival airport, but Chaud is at departures. He also has ProtoMan V2.

Despite his boasts, he did not defeat MegaMan next time.

Whatever you say, nerd.

Hmm? Now what's this about?

Meh, I'm sure it's nothing.

Talking to NPCs is its own reward.

In the next area there's a bearded old man who dresses like his clothes were custom-made by Two-Face.

There's also a father with three kids who seems to be feeling unwell.

Also, this kid.

Whiskey.

After finishing looking around, Lan decides to board the plane. He ruminates that his trip was a little rough, but there were good times along with the bad.

Quite possibly in a different part of it that looks nothing like what was shown here.

While on-board the airplane, Lan has a dream about returning to Electopia and being snuggled on by Mayl at the airport.

Curiously enough, Mayl is acting like her BN1 self here.

Also curious is that Lan doesn't seem to get love, but is able to create an image of Mayl obsessing over him in his head.

Lan then wakes up on the plane after an announcement from the captain.

Music: Sky Travel

Hub picks on Lan a little bit here, which is kind of funny. It's great when we have moments where MegaMan gets to be mischievous.

MegaMan then wants to see the cockpit of the plane for some reason. Lan says he doubts the pilot would allow that, but MegaMan says that he's sure the pilot will if they ask really nicely.

This game came out in the same year as 9/11, incidentally, so I have to imagine this was written back before certain changes in procedure even though the game's Japanese release was in December.

The plane has a lot of NPCs to talk to. Let's start in the Economy section.

In the back row is a girl who is excited to go to Electopia; I think another NPC earlier in the game said something similar. The scowly kid from before is also to the far right.

The blond man sitting next to Lan gives him a Repair chip for speaking with him, which changes all panels on your side of the field to Null panels. Apparently he learned how to speak Electopian recently, but is excited to visit the country soon. There's also a sleeping scientist and an elderly woman to the right.

The front row is devoted to the kids of that man at the airport who had a stomachache. Apparently he was feeling too bad to make the flight, so he let his kids get on board without him.

Alright then.

Since Lan will be on this plane for the whole scenario, there's a SubChip dealer inside of a television in coach.

Business!

There's not much to mention here aside from an entomologist

and the Two-Face suit guy from before, who turns out to be president of Gauss Inc.

First Class!

There's an elderly woman here who made a great fortune, but didn't find her wealth gave her much happiness.

There's also this guy.

This guy is the guy.

I know I said that about Mr. Famous, but believe me when I say that this guy right here may be the greatest NPC in all of Battle Network.

Whiskey.

And finally, the cockpit.

As it turns out, the plane runs itself largely due to being connected to the internet, so the pilots just make sure everything is running smoothly.

The pilot is okay with letting Lan look around, recalling how a similar experience when he was a kid made him want to be a pilot. Lan is fairly excited until they hit a patch of turbulence. The pilot urges him to go back to his seat while they head through the rough patch.

After that calms down, Lan resumes talking to everyone. The man next to him mentions the turbulence almost gave him "cataract arrest".

A few NPCs are cool, like this girl who's studying Navis or Dr. Iron Fist, who gives Lan a free Silver Fist chip for talking to him.

So true.

Gauss gives some details about a special program held on the plane when spoken to.

Everyone in first class seems okay.

The entomologist is also here. Poor guy.

After enough people are spoken to, Lan winds up gorging himself on too much airplane food and goes to the bathroom.

While inside, he overhears that a spider happened to get free on the plane. I'm sure this has nothing to do with that poisonous thing the scientist was talking about earlier.

To be safe, though, MegaMan suggests giving the details of the spider to the entomologist.

Heh.

Gauss tries to give Lan some helpful advice.

The old woman in first class muses on how much she enjoys traveling.

And this guy continues to be the best part of this scenario.

So, as it turns out, the spider is very poisonous venomous. Shortly after this revelation, there's a scream.

The Official Netbattler on board has been bitten by the spider.

Fortunately, most of the passengers seem to think nothing is going wrong.

This might be the best concentration of NPCs I've ever seen in one area.

People in economy class continue talking about Navis. Gauss mentions he's pretty good with his Navi.

Maybe we can Net Battle sometime.

Meanwhile, the woman in first class is warming up to the other occupant.

Amazing.

To progress the scenario, we need to speak to Dr. Iron Fist, who treats the bitten Official.

And also chews out the flight attendant for being flippant about the handling of the spider.

Dr. Iron Fist, you're alright with me.

Lan offers to catch the spider, and Dr. Iron Fist tries to talk him out of it by cautioning him that it's poisonous venomous.

Lan won't be dissuaded, though, so Dr. Iron Fist tells him to at least try and keep the situation as hush as he can to avoid a panic.

It's kind of surreal suddenly having an adult that's responsible in this game.

The entomologist from before is worried about the fact that there's a red-eyed wooly spider on the plane, but quickly sets up a plan to catch it.

In order to get the spider, we need something to catch it in, like a box or a hat, something to prop that up, a string to tug it once the spider is under the container...

It begins.

Lan asks why they need whiskey and the entomologist points out that the spiders like the smell of it due to it being similar to the pheromones they emit.

Sure, why not?

The old woman in Economy has a pair of chopsticks. As well as a story!

"Huh? What is it? Oh, these chopsticks? Well, actually, my husband made them. He and I have been making chopsticks for 45 years now. We have a dream. We want to take our chopsticks abroad... And show the world how great they are. We scrimped and saved for the trip, but he passed away. We were always together. But then we had to break apart. Just like a pair of chopsticks..."

Oh. Well, that got sad suddenly...

"I was very sad when my husband died. But to keep our dream alive... I decided to go to Netopia alone. The Netopias loved my husband's chopsticks... I'm so happy... Sniff, sob... I'm sorry for rambling on and on. Would you like to hear the story of how we met? Oh, you're busy? I see. Too bad. Would you like some chopsticks? Take as many as you want."

Well, that had a happy ending, at least.

This girl in Business keeps talking about her plans for the future. This has nothing to do with anything. I just liked hearing about it.

Whatcha workin' on?

The other two items are obtained without much incident.

Now we just need the whiskey.

The following dialogue has not been altered or reworded in any way.

Whazzat? You want summa DIS whiskey?

Wha? You still up in my face?
...... A'right, kid. We'll see whassup.
You want summa DIS? It ain't gonna be free...

You gotta show me what you made of!
I'm gonna sing a tune, dig? You join in.
If you can keep up wit' ME, you'll get yo sip-on!

A'right! Here I go's! 1.2.123 YO!

Now Da's freestyle, kid! Right off da top-a my HEYAAD!
A'right. You got it? It's YO turn, now! 1.2.123 YO!
Chicky-chick BABY! Make me go KABOOM!
Can ya digit LADY! Oh my Lovefire! Comin' to ya SOON!
Dang, boy! You got ryt-THEM! Here ya go, kid!

Part 14: The Ice Age

Not too long after Lan gets back home, trouble starts brewing again.

The scenario starts with Yuichiro and a scientist discussing how Gospel's attacks seem to be getting worse, before shifting to how Yuichiro has been working overtime to try and thwart their efforts. The scientist suggests that he spend some time with his son, prompting the above line.

Suddenly an earthquake!

Both of them find this odd, as natural disasters are supposed to be monitored and suppressed by the Environmental System. More on this in a bit.

However, it seems like not only are there earthquakes in Electopia, but floods in Yumland as well as ozone deterioration in Netopia!

Looks like your time off is going to be a while yet, Yuichiro.

Back home, Lan and MegaMan discuss the earthquake

only to find that Roll is in danger. Again.

I want to say words about Lan's friends here, but I'm going to hold off on that for a good while. I want to at least finish Battle Network 3 before I discuss how I feel about them, which means it won't be until early Battle Network 4 that I'll finally be able to share my thoughts.

I'm sure anyone who has played those games has a good idea of what I think, though.

Anyway, the NAL has decided to give Lan a free pass to let him fly at will. So now Lan can take ten hour flights whenever he want. This means that, hypothetically, you could have Lan fly between Electopia and Netopia 100+ times and cause this scenario to happen over the span of months or years if you were so inclined.

Yai offers her home as a shelter during the earthquakes since it's resistant, which is nice.

I'm jumping ahead a bit here, but when Lan and MegaMan ultimately resolve this incident, everyone's dialogue in ACDC changes except for Yai's due to her house's resistance. That's an amusing detail.

Oof. Having had an appendectomy a few months ago, I know how rough that is.

But that's not why I came here.

No, I'm here for Mr. Match, who is loitering around the airport.

How is he here and not in jail? Battle Network.

He says this after reminiscing about how he almost set Lan and his mother on fire.

But true to his word, he's not up to anything and just wants to have a friendly Net Battle with his new Navi.

I really like this exchange for some reason. It's like MegaMan is struggling to call him a person.

Boss Fight: HeatMan

No, I did not forget to take a picture of HeatMan V1 and have to settle for a picture of HeatMan V2 in the next scenario. Why would you even insinuate that?

HeatMan's tougher than FireMan, of course, but that's a given since he's a late-game boss competing with a Navi who was the first boss of the series. He can retract into his lighter temporarily to avoid damage, leave Lava Panels on MegaMan's field to restrict his movement, and also release fast flame towers. He also has Air Shoes and Float Shoes to ignore panels. Overall he isn't too bad, though.

Incidentally, in the anime, FireMan is converted into HeatMan by Mr. Famous into order to better fight the Gospel Navi responsible for this scenario. In the games, FireMan is just customized and made into HeatMan by Mr. Match for whatever reason. As a fun detail, FireMan and HeatMan share the same emblem, albeit in different colors.

- Flame Tower: HeatMan summons a Flame Tower that moves forward, going up and down depending on the player's position.
- Heat Press: HeatMan will drop at the player's current position, leaving behind a Lava Panel.
- Grand Burner: HeatMan retracts into his case and raises flame pillars from flashing panels on MegaMan's side of the field.

After beating him the first time, Mr. Match gives Lan an HP Memory for MegaMan.

Well, nothing left to do but address the scenario...

All major internet areas now have ice blocking off pathways.

At present, MegaMan can only break white ice, but there are three other colors: red, yellow, and blue.

As the scenario goes on, MegaMan gains the ability to break other kinds.

Every time you break ice, though, you have to fight against a fixed trio of viruses. Sometimes they're annoying and sometimes they're easy. Depends on which ice you're breaking.

Now you might be thinking "I have to go save Roll because that's what Mayl asked me to do!"

You would be wrong.

What you ACTUALLY need to do is talk to this person here in Den Area 2.

You then save this guy, who is trapped behind white ice, and he gives you a RedFrag to take to Lan's dad.

Kotobuki continues to pray for things to get better.

Upon meeting Dr. Hikari, he gets Lan up to date on all of the disasters around the world. You'd think Lan would've overheard that somehow before now, but whatever.

Anyway, the Environmental System. Turns out people made a system that suppresses natural disasters to the point where the pent up energy will destroy the world. Naturally, this system is online, rather than being in a closed network or something, and currently under attack.

I have no words about how absolutely absurd this is beyond wondering how an internet system is preventing holes from forming in the ozone layers.

Yuichiro leaves to go work on the Environmental System. At this point, this music begins playing in the overworld for pretty much the rest of the scenario until you beat the boss.

To simulate my experience, put that song on repeat for about an hour.

Ms. Millions now has SnakeMan V3 available to be fought.

And Raoul is also available with ThunderMan V3.

You don't need to come to Netopia for this scenario, mind you. I just came to S-Rank both. This will be important. Later.

Also, this guy is feeling better and will be able to fly soon. Yay!

Since people can take tests online now, the testing room has been shut down.

I wasn't kidding about that guy still trying to get his BLicense to this day.

Roll is in the exact same spot she was in before the MagnetMan scenario started, which is why I was surprised to see her there so early.

Presumably, the red ice that was blocking the way to Roll prevented her from jacking out. And using proper spelling.

Now, I'm sure you're wondering what saving Roll does to advance the plot of this scenario.

The answer is nothing. Because Roll has nothing to do with the plot of this scenario beyond arbitrarily triggering the next event flag upon being rescued.

Narratively, everything could have progressed quicker if you didn't need to save her here. At the very least, Mayl gives you Roll V3 afterwards.

What actually moves the plot forward is looking at the chat boards in Den Square.

Nothing terribly helpful here, unless you didn't know how to do the Curse PA.

This is the post you need to read to advance the plot.

Why is Crow able to talk about the Undernet here now despite previous posts showing the Admins clearly don't like this kind of talk?

Because this scenario is dumb, of course.

Ice continues to be a problem across the net.

And people are reacting to Gauss' arrest.

With our new lead, Lan heads off to figure out how to summon Doc.

This guy here lies to you in order to get you lost. Dick. I already know how to explore this area, though, so it's no big deal.

Incidentally, this is what Undernet 2 looks like in Battle Network 2.

For whatever reason, this location is recycled wholesale in Battle Network 4 as Undernet 6. But we'll see that we get there.

Heading to Under Square doesn't give us the password, but it does give us information from this guy that we have to pay for.

He then directs us to a Navi in Netopia Square.

That Navi isn't there, and his friend instead directs us to where he is in Netopia Area.

That Navi then has us give him a chip for the information we need.

As it turns out, the keyword to summon Doc is WWW.

Despite what you might think, this is not Doctor Wily we're summoning. He blew up, remember?

We then need to go back to the Undernet.

MegaMan posts on the BBS.

You can't use Escape in boss fights, you liar.

The Navis hanging around the Square have new dialogue after MegaMan posts the keywords.

One even recognizes MegaMan as the Navi who took down the WWW and gets afraid.

The Doc is over by the shops in the Undernet. Initially he speaks condescendingly to MegaMan with baby talk until the topic of a cure for the ice comes up.

He then demands all of MegaMan's power ups and battle chips in exchange for his help.

Just a prank, bro. He also gives an Anti Recovery D.

Turns out he has a YellFrag to make a YeloCure. Not sure why both of those refer to yellow in different ways, but okay.

The only problem is that he needs a HeatData. But we don't have one, so he yells at us to bring one to him.

Where do you find HeatData? Well, for starters, the game doesn't give you a hint at all.

But much like Roll is in Yumland early, there's a Mr. Prog who came to the same area from the grill computer in Okuden in order to take a break. He mentions that he works with HeatData. He gets trapped behind red ice in this scenario and alludes to it, so the only way you'd know where to find HeatData is either by looking it up or going around and breaking every bit of ice that you could given that he's out of the way.

Naturally, that prog doesn't give you the HeatData. Instead you need to go all the way to Okuden Valley to get it.

Another earthquake then happens afterwards.

Lan then gets a message pointing out that natural disasters are on the rise. This doesn't seem like a problem initially

until you remember that earlier in the game, Mayl pointed out that they couldn't look at the news to find out what was going on during the bomb detonation because there was no service out in Okuden.

But never mind that, because we have to go back to the Undernet. Again.

Part 16: Resurrection

For a week after the FreezeMan scenario, everything was fine.

And then they sent in the clones. This cutscene actually starts with ProtoMan deleting copies of CutMan and QuickMan, only for both to show back up again almost immediately after.

I suppose we'll have to do something about that.

Apparently, this incident has been ongoing for three days and Chaud has been dealing with it for that duration.

The Officials and Yuichiro contemplate how to handle this situation considering that Lan was supposed to have destroyed the Gospel base, yet their attacks don't seem to have slowed in the slightest.

Unfortunately, the attacks by ShadowMan and KnightMan have crippled the Official forces, and FreezeMan's shenanigans releasing so many powerful viruses made things worse as well.

The Officials have no choice but to rely upon City Netbattlers at this point.

The next day, Lan finds out about the event in question (and even sees Ribitta on the news!), chatting with MegaMan about how they took care of FreezeMan before deciding to investigate.

Poor Haruka. I imagine she sounds resigned as she says this.

Most NPCs around the world are just worried at this point, and will remain that way for the rest of the game.

There's also a kid at ACDC who has spent the whole game working on his summer project. It was deleted by viruses and now he has to start over.

Others are preparing to deal with the threat. I believe the implication is that while Lan and MegaMan go to resolve the major threat, the City Netbattlers are dealing with the revived Gospel Navis on the net.

If that is the case, I like that. It prevents most of the world from looking useless.

One of the Metroline attendants mentions the StoneMan scenario from the last game and how that prompted them to be more diligent about their security.

Checking the plane from the MagnetMan scenario reveals that some of the inhabitants of Kotobuki have evacuated for some reason and taken to staying on the plane for now.

The airport seems to be understanding, at least.

If one good thing came out of this, it's that the guy who mugged people's chips seems to have found a new hobby.

Chaud also remains here for the rest of the game and has ProtoMan V3 ready for battle.

Nope!

This girl is still happy to see Lan, but she seems to be focused on helping out where she can.

The Underground is going through a bit of trouble at the moment.

And the dialogue surrounding Ms. Millions continues to be memorable.

One thing I haven't really talked about are NPCs that give quizzes around the world. This is a tradition that continues throughout the series.

This is one of the creepier examples of it, however. A 230 year old ghost has been unable to pass on and possessed the body of someone he found in Netopia Castle to keep giving quizzes. He is unable to pass on until Lan answers all 15 of his questions correctly. When he finally does, the old man he's possessing mentions that he first visited Netopia Castle at the age of 13 and has no memory of his life between then and now. Holy shit, Capcom.

Kotobuki Square is no longer very active.

Gospel HQ, meanwhile, has plenty of evil Mr. Progs and Heel Navis roaming around.

Despite that, the corrupted Mr. Progs from the first game are not able to be fought in this game. Or ever again, actually.

MegaMan finds a portal in the back spitting out Navis and caps one to death. Unfortunately, the portal proves more resilient, so Lan and MegaMan opt to ask their father for advice.

Jennifer is also hanging around the Mother Computer now and will trade Lan a third folder for a Big Bomb *. Speaking to her again afterwards has her inform him that she developed a new program advance of Lil Bomb, Cross Bomb, and Big Bomb.

Yuichiro is worried when Lan arrives and mentions he'd hoped that Lan wouldn't get involved. He even said as much at the meeting earlier when the Officials decided to rely on City Netbattlers.

Lan protests that he's gotten involved in plenty of Gospel events and has come out without a problem.

Lan decides not to elaborate on the times he was almost blown up, barbecued, or killed in a plane hijacking.

Yuichiro decides to be straight with him.

Apparently, Kotobuki is putting out a ridiculous amount of radiation, hence the evacuation of the occupants.

Massive understatement, though Yuichiro does explain that the radiation could kill Lan.

Yuichiro then mentions that the Officials have set up a special car that can absorb radiation and get Lan close enough to Kotobuki. He'll also be fitted with a MagSuit that will soak up to 50k the normal amount of radiation.

However, he doesn't want Lan to do it still.

Lan protests that he wants to do it and that Yuichiro would have a harder time asking someone else to go and do something life-threatening like this instead of his own son. I... don't think that's true.

At the very least, Lan says he'd rather die fighting injustice than let it go on.

The hero theme plays here too, but I'm still holding off on it.

Yuichiro sees that he can't change Lan's mind, so he gives him the KotoPass and MagSuit.

An NPC here helpfully recaps the major plot beat from the first game, even though Lan and MegaMan would both know this.

There is no ridiculous Hub Batch power-up that breaks the final boss this time, though.

Just a bit of sidetracking to take down MagnetMan V2 in Undernet 2.

And I'll bully FreezeMan V2 in Undernet 7 while I'm at it.

I also took out HeatMan V2, since Mr. Match was ready for a rematch.

And with that, we're off!

At the Hall of Doom, the leader of Gospel detects Lan heading towards Kotobuki Town.

It also seems like those Bug Frags I traded weren't disposed of properly at all!

Music: Determination in the Heart

Upon arriving in Kotobuki Town, Lan and MegaMan react in shock.

I, uh... I'm guessing this building isn't normally like that.

Fortunately, while the radiation is intense, it's still within the safety levels of the MagSuit.

These NPCs do not have MagSuits and did not evacuate for some reason. The former guy is seemingly mostly okay.

The latter, however, is walking sideways due to the radiation. I don't think radiation works like that, but yikes.

Inside, Lan finds all of his friends waiting for him. They got the elevator working, but haven't been able to progress past the 2nd Floor.

Lan calls Mayl a dummy and asks if she forgot about the radiation, but Yai's rich dad knows the Netopian king and got him to develop some radiation protection suits.

In their sizes, apparently. Are their parents okay with them being here?

For that matter, when did Yai become a City Netbattler? She skipped out on getting her ZLicense at the start. Maybe she got it while Lan was overseas?

As far as them knowing Kotobuki was irradiated, though, I assume they just watch the news unlike Lan.

Also, apparently the radiation is causing servers to grow from the floor.

I don't think radiation works like that.

At any rate, Dex did most of the heavy lifting here and was thereby exposed to the most radiation, causing him to feel ill.

The trio decides to depart at Lan's behest and he goes to handle the rest. For the rest of the game, they remain just outside of the Kotobuki Station. GutsMan V3 can be challenged there and Yai also gives Lan an Atk +20 * if spoken to.

Sure enough, there are servers growing from the floor. Somehow.

That doesn't seem normal. Lan jacks in, and so begins the final dungeon.

Music: You Can't Go Back

For starters, the music is much better than BN1's final dungeon theme. More immediately concerning, though, is the fact that the radiation is somehow fusing the real world and the internet together.

I don't think radiation works like that. This is probably where the Dimensional Area and Cross Fusion ideas from the anime were born, though. Even the manga has moments where MegaMan and other Navis come to the real world, as well as the opposite of Lan going into the Cyberworld.

The gimmick here is simple in concept. Throughout the area, MegaMan will find warp holes that will teleport him to the wrong floor of the condominium network. These correlate to actual floors you can visit.

Throughout the network are pieces called ElBits.

When inserted into their specific spots, the ElBit will teleport MegaMan back to the spot he originally came from before he was warped to the wrong address and the teleport pad will now work properly.

That's pretty much it. It's not hard at all, and the multiple floors really only exist so that you can visit specific sections of the network that get isolated after you fix the areas.

That said, it does get very disorienting very quickly with all of the warping around that you'll do.

MegaMan eventually makes his way through the network, finding one last place to install the ElBit EV.

This game around, however, he has to deal with an unexpected threat. Clones!

You know what that means.

Boss rush!

They're all V1, though, so they die to a stiff breeze. They didn't even manage to hit me once.

The elevator is now fully operational and can take Lan all the way to the top.

A door on the 9th floor has an HP Memory stuck in it, though, which is the last HP Memory in the game. All others can be obtained before this point.

I also got all of the PowerUps, too, so my Buster is maxed out.

In the Hall of Doom, Bug Fusion begins. I'll hold off on showing off our main villain's mugshot for the moment.

MegaMan points out that the beginning of Bug Fusion has caused the radiation to begin to climb towards 50,000.

Lan won't be stopped by this, though, and decides to proceed.

In the next room, Lan finds no one. When he tries to enter the nearby room, though, the door electrocutes him.

Apparently, the radiation on it is 50,000 times normal, which is causing the door to electrocute Lan.

I don't think Capcom understands radiation.

Lan decides not to give up and jacks into the nearby server to deactivate the door.

So begins another short dungeon.

This one has no teleport pads, though, and is just a winding pair of corridors.

It also has some annoying viruses, as you can tell by my HP.

At the end, MegaMan runs into these jerks again.

ShadowMan is conspicuously absent, likely due to being a hired merc.

I don't remember how I got back to 1000 HP since I didn't heal beforehand and don't have any Recover chips in my folder. Maybe you're auto-healed before the fight? You are indeed auto-healed before stationary fights. I'm not sure if this is true for all V1 bosses, but I can confirm it happens with V2 bosses.

Regardless, they also fell pretty easily.

MegaMan takes out the radiation program, but Lan is feeling woozy. Despite that, he insists that he's fine and opts to continue onward.

Taking out the radiation program also does nothing about all of the radiation surrounding everywhere else in the building.

Part 18: Epilogue

So you might be wondering: "What kind of consequences will result from Lan being in all of that radiation?"

The answer is none. Not the slightest bit of effect. Not so little as a mild cough upon awakening.

Lan and MegaMan celebrate how they've stopped Gospel and the servers have shutdown. I don't know what this means for the servers growing out of the floor.

Sean's desk apparently disappeared into the aether at some point during the final battle. Probably because Lan needs to notice something for this next scene.

That being a book detailing Sean's tragic past, of course!

So, as it turns out, Gauss' scenario isn't the first time Sean's hand to deal with bugged planes.

I've seen people suggest that Sean wanted to die in order to be with his parents, and I suppose that makes sense.

But at the same time, that seems to contradict his desire to make the SuperNavi project and control the world.

To sum up Sean's backstory quickly since I already have a ton of images to cut down on: his parents boarded a plane, said plane was bugged by some criminal, plane crashes, they die, Sean is depressed, his extended family keeps him around but is cruel to him (presumably only keeping him because he inherited his parents' fortune), he grows to distrust everyone and winds up feeling alone in the world.

Lan and MegaMan are pretty easily swayed to compassion by this. And, I mean, it is very pitiable and all, but it's a pretty big turnaround from how Lan was at the start of the last update. Keep in mind that Sean has tried to kill him at least four times at this point.

Then again, Lan has friendly Net Battles with Mr. Match, so this is probably a silly point for me to get hung up on.

Sean comes to, conveniently after Lan has read the entirety of his tragic past, and believes that Lan is going to murder him.

He will also have no negative effect from the radiation, mind you.

Lan says he's not going to do that, and Sean whines a little, saying he doesn't want to live. Lan tells him that he's going to be punished for his crimes and Sean starts whining about how that's more proof that everyone hates him

but then Lan throws this in at the end, saying that after Sean's done his time for what he's done, he'll be there for him.

The scene fades out before Sean can give a coherent response. If you look closely, you can even see that Lan is holding out his hand for a handshake.

And with that, Gospel has been disbanded forever.

Sean is arrested, because duh, but everyone gives him some leniency, likely due to him being a kid. Lan attributes it to the fact that he told people about his past.

Sometime later, Lan and Co. are at Okuden Valley for another camping trip.

Dex gives Lan the business for being late with the firewood, and Lan complains that Dex is being rude.

Dex admits that's probably true and there's no reason for him to complain after all that Lan's done, and calms down.

And then starts crying while... quoting one of Whiskey Guy's songs, apparently?

Yai wants some BBQ fish again, so she sends Lan to handle it.

I'm assuming the radiation gave Lan superpowers, because he's able to catch multiple fish from the stream with his bare hands. That or the person that taught him how to fish earlier is some kind of carp whisperer.

Also, Higsby is here.

He doesn't fish too well and falls into the water.

Lan brings the fish to Yai, when Mayl chimes in that she's forgotten her knife again.

Honestly, how do these kids even function without Lan?

Lan calls Yai short and goes to get a knife from

his parents. Who are being all lovey-dovey, much like the last game.

This exchange gets me every time.

When Lan returns with the knife, he finds that Chaud has already beaten him to the punch and gotten one for Mayl. When she thanks him for it, he says "Anything for you."

I'm not sure why he asks Mayl this instead of Chaud. Or why Lan, who is supposedly oblivious to love, is getting flustered at the idea of her accepting Chaud's knife over his own.

Regardless, this is the only time Chaud and Mayl are ship-teased to my recollection, aside from a moment in Okuden earlier shortly after Chaud gives that "I-It's not like I came here to see YOU" response to Lan.

Fortunately Roll doesn't overhear this!

While Mayl vacillates on whether she should use the knife that Lan brought after all, Lan and Chaud go for a walk to talk about things. Lan groans that he really hates having to say it, but he's grateful for Chaud's help and extends a hand to him.

Surprisingly, Chaud accepts.

It's also at this point that Chaud goes from putting himself over Lan to seeing them on more even footing. Character development!

Lan and MegaMan claim they won't lose to Chaud or ProtoMan.

ProtoMan gives the above response, which is a little funny.

Seems like the whole being friends with his operator thing is still a work in progress, though.

As Lan leaves Chaud behind, he finds his dad ruminating on something off to the side.

As it turns out, he wants to talk about Sean.

Yuichiro states that "Every time he accessed the Net, someone was working his unconscious." I'm assuming that's meant to be sub-conscience.

Now this line here is rather interesting, since it implies that Sean was being mind-controlled. Assuming that is the intention of the line, that could explain the inconsistencies in Sean's behavior. Sean himself admits that he wants to die when the radiation stops, which would be consistent with his plans' potential to be fatal to him. Presumably, then, his NetMafia actions were the result of someone else controlling him.

But, in that case, why would that person continue to use someone who was clearly at risk of ruining their plans at so many points? It seems rather risky.

Well, never mind plot hooks for Battle Network 3; we have food to eat!

And so everyone has a grand old time at the barbecue.

Nothing could possibly ruin this moment.

Oh. It looks like school resumes tomorrow.

Maybe demonstrating MegaMan's new Style Change abilities granted by a program from another country would count?

Lan tries to pull a fast one.

It doesn't work.

That doesn't stop him from committing to the shtick, though.

You know you're still there and everyone can still talk to you, right?

Credit Roll

Music: Peace Again

Sometime after the events of 2, Lan and friends go through ACDC.

I'm assuming the NPC girl there is the one that's always outside of Mayl's house.

MegaMan and friends meet at the entryway to the Square, with GutsMan suddenly logging in in the middle of everyone and surprising them.

Ribitta is doing some kind of report at the cafe in Marine Harbor, something intriguing enough to draw Mr. Famous' attention.

Meanwhile, Lan and Dex use the chip trader. Lan seems to get something good, while Dex begins to cry when it's his turn.

Mr. Prog finally manages to get past the valve in AirMan's stage with support from MegaMan.

Unfortunately, MegaMan himself doesn't fare too well immediately afterwards.

Presumably, this is a continuation from the camping scene above, with Higsby again falling into the water when Dex and Lan run past.

In more positive news, Yumland's net seems to be repopulated and CookMan has been restored as well.

Granted, since the game has been saved before the fight with Gospel, this won't reflect in the YumSquare once I resume.

Lan, Chaud, and Raoul sightsee on top of Netopia Castle, along with some NPCs.

For some reason, ProtoMan decides to visit KnightMan's stage and is accosted by the three ghosts.

But since he has cutscene powers, he destroys them all in the field instead of having his HP sucked and his money stolen. Wish I could do that.

Whiskey Guy sneaks into the credits as we see the spider ran around under the hat for a while after it was caught.

Don't ask me how that works.

In a rather cool moment, we get MegaMan and ProtoMan squaring off against ShadowMan's minions.

In the spot where ShadowMan V2 is located, no less!

And after a quick recap of the final scenario,

we're shown that everything with Sean is going to be just fine.

Hm... still another buffoon over here...
That rotting weakling... Human!
Manipulating brats as if I really cared.

Humans... worthless creatures.
One day they shall face my judgement...

Part 20: The Ultimate Navi

Before heading to the next area, I make a quick retreat in order to activate the V2s of the previous bosses.

PharaohMan V2 is in WWW Area 1, still.

Ditto for NapalmMan V2 in WWW Area 2.

The final area brings in a lot more pink than the preceding ones.

There's even a Rush virus variant here that is pink. Unlike the one in Undernet 6 that only has 10 HP but takes 1 damage from everything, this one takes normal damage from everything but doesn't take additional damage from multi-hit attacks.

We also see a new type of Scuttle virus: a Scuttlest! These silvery crabs inherit the Life Virus' laser beam attack in addition to a stronger than usual Aura.

There are two staircases that lead downward that result in the area becoming green again, though it gets pink again as you head back up.

Seeing as I have clearly run out of things to say about this area... Program Advances!

As I touched upon very briefly when Higsby was introduced, Program Advances are created when you align chips of the same code in a certain order.

The result is a stronger than normal move that typically relates to whatever chips you put into it.

Big Heart, for example, looks like the usual usage of a Roll Navi Chip. However, as opposed to recovering 60/80/100 HP like Roll V1/V2/V3,

Big Heart is a full heal to MegaMan's HP, plus a few moments of invisibility. Very handy for emergencies, though it's obtained somewhat late!

There are a few other Navi Program Advances as well. Guts Shoot, a PA that's easy to put together with early-game chips, involves GutsMan throwing MegaMan at one enemy for 400 damage.

Gater, a mid-game PA that you can very easily put together by the time you first get to Netopia, is a lot more broken. Cindy of the Under Square's board mentioned that Mr. Famous used this on her, though he doesn't actually use it in his boss fights, mercifully.

If he did, you'd have to contend with a 100 damage attack that hits 9 times for 900 damage, and is unable to be avoided by most enemies in the game. Keep in mind that you can use this up to five times per battle if you have enough GateMan chips!

Bodyguard, one of the late game PAs, is absolutely ridiculous. This attack involves 18 shuriken being thrown at your opponent, each dealing 100 damage. Each shuriken also stunlocks the enemy, making this an absurdly good boss killer.

Finally, there's Double Hero, also a late-game PA. This is the signature PA of the first game, involving MegaMan and ProtoMan teaming up to blast/slash the whole enemy field for 8 hits of 70 damage, totaling up to 560 damage.

Keep in mind these damage values are just base damage. Each of these attacks can be boosted. And in the case of the multi-hit attacks like Gater, Bodyguard, or Double Hero, that makes each individual hit do more damage, resulting in a significant increase in overall damage to the PA!

One Atk+30 on Bodyguard raises the damage from 1800 to 2340!

A welcome addition to Battle Network 2 is also the addition of a PA Memo that shows you the various combinations you can use to make a Program Advance as soon as you use it once. For example, if I used Gater with the Wind, Fan, and GateMan battlechips, the PA memo would still show me that I could put that same PA together with GateMan V2 or GateMan V3 in lieu of his base chip.

Mini-Boss: Protecto3

One last upgrade of Protecto is introduced in this area, though there is only one enemy configuration. This specific group requires the usage of the Life Sword 3 PA plus an Atk+20 at minimum or the combo I demonstrated in the above video.

The final door in this area requires 200 chips to open.

The final door... opened.

Well then what was that "final door" thing all about?

A test? You were testing me?

You... are "the Chosen One!"
"The Chosen One?"
You have won a seat among the future rulers of the Net!

With your skills, you'll shoot right up the ranks, really!
The WWW!?
Correct. This is the new HQ of the restored WWW!

In case the WWW wallpaper and skulls on the ground didn't give it away.

Also the location being called WWW Area in the menu.

And leading the restoration of our proud WWW...
...is I, inheritor of this land's great power, PlanetMan!
And our first act in this, the dawn of the WWW era will be...

Whaaat!? Not while I'm around you don't!
My my... have you no... ambition?
You show such promise, it seems a shame...
I won't let you get away with this!
I'm afraid you don't have a choice, for if you don't join us...
You will be destroyed... A fitting...
...if regrettable sacrifice to the glory of the WWW!
MegaMan! We can't lose this one!

Let's rock! Battle routine, set!
Execute!

Boss Fight: PlanetMan

The WWW Area's leader is another EXE character with no Robot Master counterpart. You may notice that PlanetMan, who is a planet, has two planets circling him, making him a physical representation of World 3.

Visual puns aside, PlanetMan is not terribly difficult. He stands in place the whole battle and mainly attacks you by having his planets throw attacks your way and occasionally sending out a tiny space ship. He's also Wood element, so fire attacks really burn him up. The only noteworthy thing about him aside from his nifty design is that his V3 is the enemy with the most HP in the game at 2200. At low HP, he also will summon a Green Planet, which will passively heal him while it is on the field.

- 2X Planet: If any planets are destroyed by being hit by their opposing element, PlanetMan will spawn two new planets after some time.
- Fire Tower: When the red planet is on MegaMan's row, it will fire a series of flames down that row.
- Aqua Tower: When the blue planet is on MegaMan's row, it will fire a series of water eruptions down that row.
- Zap Ring: When the yellow planet is on MegaMan's row, it will fire a series of paralyzing sparks.
- Wood Tower: When the green planet is on MegaMan's row, it will fire a homing Wood Tower.
- Black Hole: PlanetMan creates a black hole and sucks in rocks from the back of MegaMan's area, which fall into the holes.
- Paper Brigade: PlanetMan sends a tiny paper airplane at MegaMan which fires tiny bullets.

Somewhere, sometime, somehow, the WWW will rise again!!

He explodes after this and never reappears in the series again. A shame, given he had a cool design.

Man, those WWW guys just won't stay down, will they?

Lan and MegaMan assure each other that they'll handle the WWW on the unlikely chance that they pop up for a fourth time. Lan then gets hungry and decides to go get a snack after jacking MegaMan out.

Of course, given you can't jack out in this area, MegaMan has to go back to Area 1 first. You are perfectly capable of going to the Army Data spot and jacking out with no problem.

However, whether you do so or not, the next time you return to the entryway...

MegaMan senses a fearsome power approaching as the screen begins to dim to an oppressive blue.

Then suddenly, a figure appears behind him.

Um, Lan... this Navi looks the same as the one we beat...
But I've never faced anything that felt this powerful!
This one blows the last one away... totally away!
You one of PlanetMan's cronies!?

Well, then, what the heck are you!?
Bass! I roam the Cyberworld and fight the strong!
He means business! I've never felt this much hate before!
I know! I can feel it through my PET!
Yes... you are strong... you are worthy opponents!

Yes... I'm looking forward to this very much!
Heads up, Lan! Here he comes!!
I'm ready!! Battle routine, set!
Execute!
Now, my worthy foes! You shall learn the joy that is battle!

Boss Fight: Real Bass

I've been spending the whole game avoiding using Program Advances if I could help it, typically because I wanted to try something new. Instead, I've been trying to use an A-code folder that revolves around stunning and setting up multi-hit attacks. It's gotten me through the game, and it's been pretty fun to use.

Then Bass shows up with this Aura and I have to build a new folder.

So the real Bass. If you thought the one in Kotobuki was too easy, then get ready to be pleased/horrified by the real deal! Whereas the copy only had two attacks, Bass mixes up his patterns a lot more, though he still typically spends a lot of time using Air Burst two or three times before bringing out one of his bigger moves. Still, he can get away with it now due to his Aura.

The main thing you need to be sure you can do is pull off 100 damage attacks consistently. V3 Heat Styles have the advantage here since their charged busters do that without the need of support from chips! From there, it's just a matter of wearing down his HP, being mindful that his Aura will pop back up after he recovers from flinching or finishes one of his big attacks.

- Life Aura: Any damage that is lower than 100 will have no effect on Bass while he is within his Aura.
- Air Burst: Bass shoots a powerful green energy sphere down his current row.
- Explosion (Y): One of Bass' classic charged attacks, forewarned by his arm glowing yellow. Bass shoots over a dozen Air Burst attacks down all rows in patterns that seem impossible to dodge, but can be avoided with frame-perfect movements.
- Explosion (B): One of Bass' classic charged attacks, forewarned by his arm glowing blue. Bass sweeps MegaMan's field with Air Burst fire in a horizontal figure-eight pattern.
- Explosion (R): One of Bass' classic charged attacks, forewarned by his arm glowing red. Bass shoots six individual panels in MegaMan's field at once, and then he shoots again in a different pattern; he repeats this up to twelve times, with the interval between each volley shortening.
- Earth Breaker: Bass will hop around his area quickly and then attempt to smite MegaMan with an overhead-slamming arm strike. This attack ignores most if not all defenses and will break an entire column of panels. Bass drops the Life Aura for the duration of this attack, making this attack his biggest vulnerability. It is only used at lower HP.

After the battle, Bass is noticeably NOT exploding.

That a Navi outside the Cyberworld could even wound me!
Next time, I might even try really fighting you...

"That meeting will actually be canon, though, so we can finally have something more meaningful than these post-game encounters where you barely wound me."

Seriously, in Network Transmission it's considered an accomplishment for MegaMan to put tears in Bass' cape.

MegaMan is initially concerned, though Lan perks him up. The both of them resolve to deal with whatever problems thrown at them by the future games.

And with that, the game well and truly ends.

Almost. There's still a few loose ends to tie up.

First off, Bass leaves behind his V1 chip after you defeat him.

Second, PlanetMan V2 is available to fight in WWW Area 3, assuming that you have jacked out since beating Bass.

Third, there's this girl. I believe she appears near ACDC Park come the final scenario, or perhaps after beating Gospel. Either way, she wants you to S-Rank every Navi in the game (Bass excluded).

This seems like a good time to share all of those V3 videos I've been withholding. For the sake of entertainment, I've made specialized folders for each of the bosses, some themed with allusions to their scenarios.

• AirMan V3 (Wind + Poison Gas)

• GutsMan V3 (No Styles + Punch-themed)

• ToadMan V3 (Elec Folder)

• QuickMan V3 (Bombs)

• GateMan V3 (Gater)

• CutMan V3 (Rock beats Scissors)

• ShadowMan V3 (ProtoMan)

• ThunderMan V3 (Wood Folder)

• SnakeMan V3 (Fire Folder)

• ProtoMan V3 (No Styles + Sword-themed)

• KnightMan V3 (Cracked Panels)

• MagnetMan V3 (Wood Folder)

• HeatMan V3 (Aqua Folder)

• FreezeMan V3 (Elec Folder)

• PharaohMan V3 (Projectiles)

• NapalmMan V3 (Aqua Folder)

• PlanetMan V3 (Fire Folder Mk. II)

After S-Ranking all (non-Bass) bosses, something interesting happens the next time MegaMan does enough battles to achieve a Style Change.

What's this...?
A style change!?
...It must be...
But what style...?

Yuichiro then calls.

As Yuichiro explains: "During battles with strong Navis, with a continuously full-synchro state, MegaMan's subconscious runs hub.bat, which was supposed to be switched off before. Call it... Hub Style! MegaMan is probably very powerful now, but... his body is in worse shape, with 50% of the usual HPs. So he does a lot of damage, but is weak. It's up to you, Lan!"

Despite the sheer power and importance of Hub Style, its in-game appearance unfortunately doesn't look as grand as was envisioned in concept art due to GBA limitations.

That doesn't stop it from being completely BONKERS, though, in that it has attributes of every Style.

- Normal Style: There are no V2 or V3 upgrades. The buster is also unchanged from normal, doing non-elemental damage.
- Guts Style: Attack power is doubled, while rapid-fire is reduced. SuperArmor also negates battle penalties caused by flinching.
- Custom Style: Every round of battle starts with ten chips available.
- Team Style: Eight Navi chips can be put into a folder.
- Shield Style: MegaMan begins every battle with a 10 HP Barrier, and can make a shield with the back button and B at the same time.

The only cons to this form are the non-elemental buster, the fact that your HP is halved (maxing out at 500), the Style can never be obtained again if it is overwritten, and Hub Style cannot use the Normal Style exclusive chips like Fighter Sword for some odd reason.

As a fun bit of trivia, Bass also winds up getting Hub Style in the manga. MegaMan isn't Hub in that universe, though, so it's just a super form called Hub Style there. For some reason. More on manga Bass later!

On the topic of Bass, he wasn't kidding about intending to fight you for real next time. He now shows up as a random encounter in WWW Area 3, much like PlanetMan V3. Yes, it is a little annoying when you're trying to find a specific one of them and the other shows up instead!

Boss Fight: Bass Deluxe

This fight with Bass isn't too different from the first, save for the increase in speed, damage, and his Aura getting a little beefier.

However, he now drops new chips on defeat. In addition to the Life Virus' signature aura, Bass can also drop his V2 chip.

And his V3 chip! This is the only game in the series to give Bass V2 and V3 chips, incidentally, as all other games figure just having a Bass chip is powerful enough!

On that note, let's talk about the final Program Advance on the list.

Chances are that you probably won't see it in a normal game. It requires BassV3 X, AntiNavi X, and one of four Gospel chips that only were released at events (FireGspl, AquaGspl, ElecGspl, WoodGspl). The WiiWare re-release of Battle Network 2 does make the Gospel chips available by just accessing the Network menu, though.

Putting these three chips together makes

an obscenely overpowered Program Advance!

This is Darkness, the signature PA of Battle Network 2.

How much does it do? Oh, just a paltry 6000 damage.

The final thing of note are stars on the title screen. Upon completing objectives in the game, stars are added to the title menu to signify your progress.

These are:

- Yellow: Defeat Gospel.
- Green: Defeat the real Bass.
- Red: Obtain all 250 normal chips.
- Purple: Obtain all 10 multiplayer chips.
- Blue: Complete the PA Memo. (Darkness is not required.)

The final challenge comes when you have all five stars.

Highlight (point to, but don't select) New Game and enter the following button commands: Left, Left, Right, Left, Right, Left, Right, Right.

Doing so causes the New Game option to become orange, which unlocks the game's Hard Mode, which gives enemies more HP and the ability to inflict greater damage. Mandatory virus battles also have new (and significantly more difficult) formations, such as the solo virus that attacks the Square being updated to having a faster poison and two HardHeads that provide support in locking you down.

So, how do I feel about Battle Network 2 in the end? It's pretty fun, I'd say. You could probably tell, but I was enjoying this game a lot more than the previous one. Y'know, until FreezeMan's scenario caused a dip in quality. That aside, the only other problem I can really think of is that collecting chips is still a pain seeing as there were still times where I'd get Zenny from an S-Rank, though not as frequently as OSS subjected me to.

Fortunately, this should be the last game in the series where I have to endure dealing with that kind of thing!

As far as positives go, you've probably got a good idea of what I like so far. The incidental dialogue was entertaining, the characters were far more memorable, the boss fights were much improved so you didn't have nonsense like SharkMan (even if some boss gimmicks were a little obnoxious TOADMAN), areas were given so much more life, the soundtrack was nearly double the first game's, the Square was a fun addition and also a playful nod to 2chan and other such boards, etc.

I was even pleasantly surprised to find that Hard Mode has its own save file and doesn't overwrite your previous clear! Apparently, you also get the special Sanctuary battle chip on both of your files once you beat it, though later games would go on to make that a chip that you can obtain normally.

Speaking of which, I've never given Hard Mode a spin before, but perhaps I will in the future. I still have four more games to go, though, so I'll let that wait for now, much like 100%ing OSS.

For now, I'm going to dive into Battle Network 3. After a small break, of course.