Mega Man Battle Network 5

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Mega Man Battle Network 5
The cover of Mega Man Battle Network 5: Double Team DS, which includes the content of both Game Boy Advance versions
Developer(s)	Capcom Production Studio 2
Publisher(s)	Capcom
Designer(s)	Keiji Inafune
Series	Mega Man Battle Network series
Release date(s)	^JP December 9, 2004 (Team of Blues)^[1] ^JP Febrary 24, 2005 (Team of Colonel)^[2] ^EU June 10, 2005 (GBA)^[1]^[2] ^NA June 21, 2005 (GBA)^[1]^[2] ^JP July 21, 2005 (DS: Twin Leaders)^[3] ^NA November 1, 2005 (Double Team DS)^[3]
Genre(s)	Data action RPG
Mode(s)	Single player, Multiplayer
Rating(s)	ESRB: Everyone
Platform(s)	Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS

Mega Man Battle Network 5 (ロックマンエグゼ5, Rockman EXE 5^?) is a Japanese-developed role-playing video game. Developed by Capcom Production Studio 2 (developers of the Mega Man Legends series^[4]) and published by Capcom, it is the fifth game in the Mega Man Battle Network series.

Battle Network 5 comes in three different versions: Mega Man Battle Network 5: Team ProtoMan and Mega Man Battle Network 5: Team Colonel, both for the Game Boy Advance, which have similar gameplay but slightly different supporting characters and stories,^[5] and Mega Man Battle Network 5: Double Team DS, which includes the content from both games. Double Team DS, which also includes extra content, is the first Mega Man game to be released on the Nintendo DS, and, to date, the only game in the Mega Man Battle Network series to be published on the DS.

The first version to be published, Rockman EXE 5: Team of Blues was first published in Japan in December 2004.^[1] It was followed by Rockman EXE 5: Team of Colonel, in February 2005, and English-language versions of both games released in North America and Europe in June 2005 as Mega Man Battle Network 5 Team Protoman and Mega Man Battle Network 5 Team Colonel respectively.^[2] The enhanced Nintendo DS version was first released in Japan, under the name Rockman EXE 5 DS: Twin Leaders, in July 2005, then later in English in North America in November 2005 and in Europe in April 2006 as Mega Man Battle Network 5 Double Team DS.^[3]

1 Gameplay
- 1.1 Connecting with other games
- 1.2 Double Team DS
2 Story
- 2.1 Characters
3 Development
4 Critical reception
5 References

[edit] Gameplay

Gameplay in Mega Man Battle Network 5 in this game is largely similar to that of its predecessors. The intrepid youngster Lan Hikari and his NetNavi (a sentient computer program) MegaMan.EXE must work to defeat the once-again-revived Nebula crime syndicate. Lan explores the real world and interacts with people and places there. When Lan jacks his PET, a handheld computer into a computer with an interface jack (of which there are many), he can upload Mega Man to the cyber network. In that network, Mega Man can explore, but he's also threatened by viruses.

MegaMan battles viruses in Double Team DS.

When Mega Man encounters viruses (or, later, hostile NetNavis), the screen shifts to a battle screen, set on a six by three square grid. On the left half of the grid is Mega Man, and on the other half are his opponents. Mega Man has a relatively weak arm cannon, the MegaBuster, but his main weapon is Lan's library of battle chips, one-use-per-battle special attacks which grant various abilities, including simple attacks, defensive effects, terrain transmogrification, or assistance from other Navis. Before battle, the player makes a folder of thirty battle chips, and each turn of a battle (measured by a timer bar at the top of the screen), the player is presented with a random selection of these chips. The player can send Mega Man up to five battle chips, after which the battle takes place in real time, with MegaMan, controlled by the player, attacking with his MegaBuster, dodging attacks, or activating battle chips from his queue.^[6]^[5]

As implied by the games' titles, other Navis besides Mega Man play a much larger role. Mega Man joins a team led by either Lan's and Mega Man's rivals Chaud and ProtoMan.EXE or new characters Baryl and Colonel.EXE, and the members of this team assist MegaMan in various ways. Soul Unisons, originally introduced in Mega Man Battle Network 4 return: by using a chip of the right element to activate a Soul Unison (instead of its normal effects), Mega Man can take on the attributes of one of his teammates. For example, if Mega Man Soul Unisons with ProtoMan, he his MegaBuster turns into a powerful sword.^[5]

MegaMan uses his LongSwrd special ability in the second liberation mission in Team ProtoMan.

The team plays its largest role in Liberation missions. In Liberation missions, Mega Man and the rest of his team enter a part of the internet controlled by the Nebula crime syndicate, in order to free it from their control. Each Navi works autonomously, choosing corrupted Dark Panels to Liberate, or clear of Nebula's influence, to clear a path to the boss Navi controlling the area. Attempting to liberate a panel leads to a time-limited battle with a group of viruses. Each Navi has different abilities, including a unique chip always available to them in battle, a different weapon in place of the MegaBuster, and an out-of-battle ability which can clear multiple panels, protect teammates from damage, or other effects. These out-of-battle abilities almost always require Order Points, limiting their use. ^[5]

Also new to Mega Man Battle Network 5 are Dark Chips, super-powerful chips. While they appeared randomly in Mega Man Battle Network 4 when Mega Man was badly damaged, they are much more like normal battle chips in this game, in that they can be added to the battle chip folder like any other chip. Their extra power comes with a price: every time Mega Man uses a Dark Chip, he loses one point from his maximum hit points, permanently.^[7] He can, however, use a Dark Chip for a Soul Unison; this is called a Chaos Unison, which is like a normal Soul Unison except that his MegaBuster is replaced with the effects of the Dark Chip he used for the Chaos Unison. While using this effect doesn't cause HP loss, it has to be done with careful timing, as charging with poor timing causes the Chaos Unison to end and an invincible, evil version of Mega Man to join the viruses and attack Mega Man for a short period of time using random battlechips. ^[5]

[edit] Connecting with other games

Much like previous games in the series, Game Boy Advance copies of Mega Man Battle Network 5 can connect using the Game Boy Advance link cable, to battle head-to-head or to trade battle chips.^[5] Unusually, Mega Man Battle Network 5 can also connect to other games and accessories as well.

Mega Man Battle Network 5 continues the theme of crossovers between the Mega Man Battle Network and Boktai series, reputedly originally initiated by Hideo Kojima, creator of the Boktai series, at the urging of his son, who is a fan of the Mega Man Battle Network series.^{[citation needed]} By using a pair of Game Boy Advance Wireless Adapters to connect a Game Boy Advance running Mega Man Battle Network 5 to a GBA running Boktai 2, a mode called "Crossover Battle" can be unlocked in both games. In Crossover Battles, both Solar Boy Django (controlled by the Boktai 2 player) and Mega Man (controlled by the Mega Man Battle Network 5 player) simultaneously battle ShadeMan.EXE, a vampiric Navi, in a race to see who can defeat him first.^[6]

Japanese versions of the GBA games are also compatible with the e-Reader. e-Reader cards, when scanned, give Mega Man special powerups, ranging from minor effects or one-time items to a special card that gives Mega Man the powers of Bass.EXE and unlocks a special sidestory where Mega Man confronts Bass. Japanese gamers can also attatch an accessory called a "Progress Chip Gate" to their GBA, which allows real-life toy battle chips to be used in-game. Interestingly, a Japanese Progress Chip Gate will work perfectly on English game cartridges.

[edit] Double Team DS

Mega Man Battle Network 5: Double Team DS includes the content from both Game Boy Advance games, and the player can choose which version to play when beginning a game. By making progress in one version of the game (either in a separate save file or in a GBA version of the game in the GBA slot of the Nintendo DS), the player can earn TP Chips (transport Chips), which allow the player to temporarily trade a teammate from one version of the game for its equivalent from the opposite version. For example, a player playing the Team ProtoMan version of the game would normally be supported by GyroMan.EXE. By using a TP Chip, that player could switch GyroMan with ShadowMan.EXE, the equivalent from Team Colonel.

Double Team DS also makes use of the DS's touch screen, mostly as a second screen. The menu screen is styled after the PETs from the Mega Man NT Warrior anime, and uses the touch screen to select menu entries. The second screen is also used for maps of the internet areas, once special map data is found. For battles, Mega Man can also download battle images of two of his teammates with the Party Battle system: these images can switch places with Mega Man mid-battle, or jump onto the battlefield to help Mega Man by attacking viruses, protecting Mega Man, or other effects.

Double Team DS also takes advantage of the greater storage space available for DS games, using this space to include voice samples taken from the MegaMan NT Warrior anime.^[8] This is not the only explicit reference to the anime; the touch-screen PET closely resembles the PETs from the anime, and, in the Japanese version, the opening intro song is a remixed version of Be Somewhere, the theme from RockMan.EXE Stream.^{[citation needed]}

By inserting related games, including other Mega Man Battle Network games, various secret features can be unlocked in Double Team DS. Sometimes these secrets are minor, such as remixed music from previous games.^{[citation needed]} Inserting a completed copy of a GBA version of Mega Man Battle Network 5 or Boktai 2 (or Boktai 3 in Japan), however, unlocks special Crosses. Unlike the Crosses of Mega Man Battle Network 6, these are always-on special abilities based on those of other characters (Bass.EXE in the case of a completed copy of Mega Man Battle Network 5, Django in the case of Boktai 2).^{[citation needed]}

Within a few months of the release of the DS version, Capcom recalled all the GBA versions of BN5 from all retailers and game stores and only allowed the stores to sell the DS version. Thus the only way to buy the GBA copies new is to order from Capcom's website.

[edit] Story

Lan Hikari and his friends, Dex, Mayl, and Yai, are called to Sci-Lab headquarters for the revelation of the latest research project Yuichiro, Lan's father, has been working on. Before he can reveal it to them, however, mysterious agents take over Sci-Lab, subduing everyone with sleeping gas, kidnapping Yuichiro, and stealing the PETs (and thus the Navis contained within) of Lan's friends. These agents turn out to be working for Dr. Regal and his crime syndicate Nebula, which has returned after being defeated in Mega Man Battle Network 4.

While Lan is unconscious, Nebula takes over the internet. To counteract Nebula's efforts, Chaud (in Team ProtoMan) or Baryl (in Team Colonel) form a secret, elite team of Navis, and Lan is wanted as the team's Navi operator, with Mega Man a member of the team. This team, which attracts new members as it progresses, liberates each section of the internet, revealing new secrets about both Nebula's plans and Yuichiro's research project. The membership of the team and how they join differs between the different versions of the game, but their roles are largely similar.

Nebula's latest plan, at first, seems to be the creation of Dark Chips, battle chips that corrupt the user. At one point, they even kidnap Mega Man, corrupting him and recruiting him by implanting a Dark Chip in him. This plan escalates, however, when Nebula corrupts the End City transmitter, corrupting NetNavis everywhere, causing them to act erratically and aggressively. It escalates further, when they spread microservers all over the net that cause people in the real world to act similarly. To complete this plan, however, they need Yuichiro's research project.

Starting with a clue from an encrypted message on Yuichiro's lab computer, Lan and Mega Man discover VisionBursts hidden in the net. These VisionBursts, virtual snapshots of ACDC Town from the year of Lan's birth, turn out to have further clues to Yuichiro's research project. This project turns out to be the unfinished work of Tadashi Hikari, Lan's grandfather, and his research partner, Dr. Wily.

Their project is SoulNet, a network connecting the minds and souls of people and Navis everywhere. While Tadashi Hikari and Dr. Wily hoped to bring people together with this invention, Dr. Regal, who turns out to be Dr. Wily's son, plans to upload NebulaGray, a Navi composed of pure hatred, to SoulNet, to shroud the world in darkness. Lan's team infiltrates the Nebula base and reaches Regal just in time to see him upload NebulaGray. Lan retrieves his friends' PETs, his teammates rescue Yuichiro, Mega Man defeats NebulaGray in a final confrontation, and Yuichiro rescues an amnesiac Dr. Regal from the self-destructing base.

[edit] Characters

Main article: List of Mega Man Battle Network characters

The membership of the liberation squad differs between the two versions of Mega Man Battle Network 5. Recruiting each member involves largely similar challenges and each character fills a certain role on the team, but the motivations and in-game abilities of each character are sometimes quite different.

In both games, the liberation team is lead by an experienced official Netbattler, with a Navi with a sword for an arm. In Team ProtoMan, the team is lead by Electopian official Netbattler Chaud, Lan's recurring rival and operator of the swordsman Navi ProtoMan.EXE. His equivalent in Team Colonel is the new character Baryl, a Netopian official visiting Lan's home country of Electopia. Baryl is the operator of Colonel.EXE, a Navi who can adapt any chip to connect to his arm and adapt any object to fight as a soldier for him.

Lan explores an abandoned mine in Team ProtoMan.

The first addition to the team is a Navi returning from Mega Man Battle Network 2, one who can protect the rest of the team from attacks. This second operator is drilling in otherwise-abandoned mine on Oran Island, and unknowingly endangering Lan's vacationing friends. In Team ProtoMan, this is Tesla Gauss, who has inherited MagnetMan.EXE from her Gospel agent father, Magnets Gauss. In Team Colonel, this is former Gospel agent Princess Pride, operator of KnightMan.EXE.

The leader of the liberation team then hires a free agent to join the team, but this free agent insists on testing Lan and MegaMan at length, forcing them to overcome a series of challenges. In Team ProtoMan, this free agent is series newcomer Charlie Airstar, a Netopian helicopter pilot, and his agile Navi, GyroMan.EXE. In Team Colonel, this is former Gospel agent (now revealed to be a mercenary) Dusk and his ninja-like Navi, ShadowMan.EXE.

The next member of the team is recruited when Lan foils his plot to steal Ubercorp's booster system, a system that amplifies a Navi's effectiveness a thousandfold, from aboard the cruise ship Queen Bohemia. In Team ProtoMan, this is fireworks maker Fyrefox and his Navi NapalmMan.EXE, and in Team Colonel this is Netopian Native American Dingo, operator of TomahawkMan.EXE. Both of them get aboard the ship by being hired on to offer the passengers Netbattles for entertainment, but they have different motivations: Fyrefox wants to make more-specutacular fireworks, while Dingo wants revenge for the production of the booster system, which ruined the livelihoods of many in his home community.

The next member of the team is brought on to crack the security systems of Yuichiro's computer, in an effort to discover what he was working on when he was kidnapped. A wedge is initially driven between this member of the team when Nebula imposters of MegaMan and this member's Navi fool them into thinking that the other is an agent of Nebula. Once they realize their error, they team up and defeat the Nebula imposters. In Team ProtoMan, Lan and MegaMan are suspicious of the close-lipped nature of Sharo soldier Raika and his military-minded Navi SerchMan.EXE, while in Team Colonel they are suspicious of how desperate shopkeeper Higsby, operator of NumberMan.EXE, is to join the team.

The last member of the team forces herself onto the team, in order to accomplish her own goals. In doing so, however, she accidentally gets ProtoMan or Colonel (depending on the version) captured and corrupted by Nebula, and the team must confront and rescue him. In Team ProtoMan, this is series newcomer Jasmine, operator of medic-themed Navi Meddy.EXE, and she seeks to find a medical book hidden on the Undernet to cure her grandfather. In Team Colonel, this is DNN reporter Ribitta, owner of ToadMan.EXE, and she seeks to deduce the identities of Team Colonel.

[edit] Development

This section is a stub. You can help by expanding it.

The fifth installation of the game was first advertised in Japanese magazine, Corocoro Comic in August 2004.^[9]

[edit] Critical reception

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In North America, both the Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS versions of Mega Man Battle Network 5 met with fairly tepid critical reception, with Metacritic and Gamerankings aggregate scores just shy of 70% for all versions.^[10]^[11]^[12]^[13]^[14]^[15] Reviewers panned the game for its lack of innovation over its predecessors, describing it as an "incremental advancement,"^[6] "an old, whiffy GBA kids RPG,"^[7], and "just too darn much like its predecessors."^[8] Reviewers often highlighted the reuse of aging art and sound assets from previous games,^[8] comparing them unfavorably with contemporary Game Boy Advance games.^[5]

Reviews weren't entirely unfavorable, especially when the topic of Battle Network 5's predecessor was concerned. Gamespot, in particular, compared it favorably with Mega Man Battle Network 4.^[5]

On the other hand, both the Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS versions were well-received in Japan, where they generally got positive reviews, most notably from Famitsu. ^[16] ^[17] ^[18]