Mega Man Battle Network 4
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
This article does not cite any references or sources. (July 2007) Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed. |
| MegaMan Battle Network 4 Red Sun / Blue Moon | |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Capcom Production Studio 2 |
| Publisher(s) | Capcom |
| Designer(s) | Keiji Inafune |
| Platform(s) | Game Boy Advance |
| Release date | June 17, 2004 (NA), October 18, 2004 (EU), December 14, 2004 (JP) |
| Genre(s) | Data action RPG |
| Mode(s) | Single player, Multiplayer |
| Rating(s) | ESRB: Everyone |
| Media | Cartridge |
MegaMan Battle Network 4 is the fourth game in the MegaMan Battle Network series. Like Battle Network 3 before it, Battle Network 4 has two different versions, Red Sun and Blue Moon, that differ only in minor story and gameplay details. Battle Network 4 is compatible with the e-Reader, and can be linked up with Real Operation and the Battle Chip Gate for NetBattles, they are present in the English versions.
Contents |
[edit] Story
 |
This article or section describes a work or element of fiction in a primarily in-universe style. Please rewrite this article or section to explain the fiction more clearly and provide non-fictional perspective. |
The game starts out with a cutscene. Scientists suddenly discover a massive asteroid hurtling towards the Earth. It has just passed Neptune. The scientists scramble to alert their superiors against this new threat.
Meanwhile, MegaMan and Lan Hikari have found themselves engaged in battle with a super-powerful Navi named ShadeMan. ShadeMan’s armor is too powerful for MegaMan to penetrate, but ShadeMan has lost his weapon systems, so he retreats. MegaMan notices that ShadeMan dropped an unknown chip. He and Lan are told by Higsby that it is a DarkChip, a chip that makes a Navi super-powerful, but also turns that Navi evil. They hold on to it, vowing never to use it.
Later that day, Lan comes home to find his mother on the floor, in a gas-induced sleep. A note on his computer instructs him to surrender the DarkChip, or they will do more to his family.
Lan and MegaMan go to an amusement park, where they meet ShadeMan again. He demands the DarkChip, which MegaMan destroys in front of him. ShadeMan engages MegaMan in battle. ShadeMan is still invulnerable to MegaMan’s weapons, until a powerful chip inexplicably appears in MegaMan’s inventory. When he uses it, ShadeMan is defeated easily. MegaMan soon realizes that he used a DarkChip.
Lan and Megaman then enter a series of net battle tournaments. It's revealed to them that the tournaments were held to determine the world's strongest net navi. Because the asteroid is discovered to have a computer controlling it, a net navi could travel to it and stop it. Megaman is sent to the asteroid, and upon entering the asteroid's control room, he meets Laser man and Duo, the Operating System of the asteroid. Duo explains that he must destroy the Earth, because it is full of evil. After his "speech", Duo extracts Megaman's DarkSoul which is defeated by Megaman. After the defeat of MegaMan’s DarkSoul, Duo allows MegaMan to try to divert the asteroid. Try as he might, the asteroid is too heavy for him to divert alone.
MegaMan is able to channel the goodwill of the people on Earth, which gives him the strength to move the asteroid away from the Earth. Duo agrees to leave the Earth alone for several hundred more years.
[edit] Gameplay
Battle Network 4 greatly differs from Battle Network 3 in many ways, the most notable of which is the concept of DoubleSoul (Soul Unison in the original). DoubleSoul is similar to how the classic-style Mega Man could acquire the weapons of the Robot Masters that he has defeated: by using DoubleSoul, MegaMan.EXE could use the powers of other NetNavis in the same manner as how classic Mega Man could use the powers of the Robot Masters through their weapons. To perform a DoubleSoul, which lasts for a temporary amount of time (three turns), however, a chip must be sacrificed for the battle.
Another key feature is that it takes a minimum of three playthroughs of the game's main story mode in order to uncover all of its secrets - although many criticize the game for the same reason. After each playthrough, a player is permitted to either continue with their existing game or to start a new game at a higher level of difficulty, although any save at a higher level of difficulty will overwrite a save of the lower level. Thus, it is very important for those players who want to collect all chips and power-ups to be sure that all blue/purple mystery datas and all V1 virus' chips and program advances have been collected before starting Level 2. The same is true for going on to Level 3.
Finally, DarkChips, which are powerful chips that give many negative side-effects, make their debut in this game: a mood indicator in the corner of the screen shows the mood of MegaMan, and should the mood change to a negative one, random DarkChips will appear in MegaMan's Custom Screen. Each DarkChip will have many negative (and a notable permanent) side-effects, and will taint MegaMan's own soul with darkness. Should the darkness overwhelm MegaMan, he will find that a different selection of chips are made available to use, with a different selection of Program Advances (like the infamous "DarkNeo" Program Advance, which involves the Bass GigaChip) therein. Also, when you use a DarkChip (aside from the battle with ShadeMan in the ToyRobo), MegaMan permanently loses 1 HP for each and cannot regain all HP lost, even if you were to purify yourself. There are also special chips (like the 5 evil chips) that can only be used if MegaMan is completely consumed by dark power.
[edit] Emotion Window
The Emotion Window is a mood indicator that lets the operator know MegaMan's current state based on fighting performance. The window also changes whenever DoubleSoul is used, to a mugshot of the corresponding Soul used.
Full Synchro is a heightened state of focus gained by performing a counter-attack against a virus (I.e. attacking the virus just before it attacks). In this state, Battlechip attacks are doubled in strength. It is possible to consecutively achieve Full Synchro by continuously counter-attacking and thus doubling effectiveness in battle. Full Synchro expires when the player fails to counter-attack a virus, or when MegaMan suffers damage.
Conversely, when a fight is not playing in MegaMan's favor, he gains an anxious expression and following this, Darkchips begin to display themselves in the Custom Screen. Also during this emotional state, DoubleSoul transformations are disabled. The player can return to a normal, calm state by successfully counter-attacking a virus, score hits on the enemy, or winning the battle.
If, during battle, MegaMan suffers repeated hits at a rapid rate, he goes into a state of rage which is similar to Full Synchro in the way that it doubles Battlechip attack power, but instead of a focused expression in the emotion window, MegaMan has an angry expression and in the battle screen he glows orange. As such, it can be considered a desperation state which gives the player a chance to turn the battle towards their favor. Rage will expire when the player attacks and damages a virus, or if the player successfully counter-attacks, at which point the player will instead go into Full Synchro. It also expires after a while if no chip is used.
The Emotion Window is a feature that has lived on in the Battle Network 5 and 6 games. The basic functions of the Emotion Window stated above (Full Synchro, Anxiety, and Rage) have not changed since, though the anxiety emotion has been removed in Battle Network 6, replaced with Tired and Very Tired status.
[edit] Battle Chips
"Battle Network 4" brings out many new chips, with standard chips weighing in with 150 unique attacks. Mega Chips fell in number from the previous game, only having 60 different chips. Instead of V1, V2, V3, V4, and V5 chips (previously found in Battle Network 1 and 2 with V4 and V5 chips found only in 3) are now (Navi), (Navi)SP, (Navi)DS. Five version-exclusive Giga Chips appear in each version. There are 56 of a new kind of chip, Secret Chips. Most of these are obtained by winning Higsby's "Free Tournaments", though there are a few exceptions. For example, the player may obtain the "Z-Saber" chip by linking their game with a copy of Mega Man Zero 3. There are eight DarkChips in this game with bad effects to your Navi's soul and emotions. (See above section for information on DarkChips.)
[edit] Title Screen Badges
In the previous two games, players earned different colored stars on the title screen for completing certain tasks. Battle Network 4 replaces these with badges (sometimes called icons or marks instead) on the top of the title screen, and continues these for the remainder of the series. Battle Network 4 only includes an additional badge for collecting all six Soul Unisons. Most players do not consider this game truly completed unless all badges (or at least all chips) are earned.
[edit] Development
 |
Please help improve this article or section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. (February 2008) |
[edit] Reception
|
|
Please help improve this article or section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. (February 2008) |
[edit] RockMan EXE 4: Double Pack
Capcom of Japan gathered together their surplus of RockMan EXE 4: Tournament Red Sun and RockMan EXE 4: Tournament Blue Moon games and put them in a special edition box that was release in Japan only on December 31, 2004 along with a special E-Card for the E-Reader.
[edit] Trivia
 |
Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines. The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones. |
- The graphics in this game get a significant facelift from the previous games, and would keep a similar graphical style for the final two games also.
- This game is capable of linking with Mega Man Zero 3. Doing so will give you the 'Z-Saber' chip. It is mistranslated as "Z-Saver" and is described as a Reploid sword that could strike three consecutive times. You can only get one copy of the Z Saber chip per copy of Mega Man Zero 3, however, so in order to get a copy in both versions, you must link the two versions together, compare libraries, and buy another copy from Higsby's.
- As a loan-out from Konami, Django and Otenko from Boktai make appearances in this game, first in a Django theme park robot and later in the Undernet. Django's weapon, Gun Del Sol, and the Piledriver as a Program Advance with three Gun Del Sols is also available in the form of a battle chip. Otenko makes a guest appearance when you press the L button with the "humor" program installed. Lan even admits that it is Master Otenko. His appearance is random though. Another Otenko joke is available with the "humor" program installed:
Megaman:" Did you hear the one about Otenko?" Lan:"No. How's it go?" Megaman:"Forget it. It's over your head." Lan:"Huh?" Django is also in a joke.
- The "Red Sun" and "Blue Moon" Giga Chips have reappeared in MegaMan Battle Network 6 as the "SunMoon" Program Advance.
- Some of the released Blue Moon versions were bugged so that the players game would have a drastic framerate drop whenever transitioning from anything back to the main map. It IS possible to complete despite the glitch, but would require a large amount of patience to complete. however, if the battle was skipped, the player could keep playing through and Continue and Continue 3 caused no problems during the WoodMan story. The problem seems to be related to the wooden spikes during the event, as the slowdown doesn't occur in any other area during the event and not in Park Area until the cutscene triggering the aforementioned spikes occurs.
- Near the end of the game, there is a man at the end of VampireManor wearing a bandanna (who looks similar in appearance to Hideo Kojima the creator of the Boktai games) and claims in the game to be the creator of the comic book character Django. He provides clues to a lotto number that can be used to obtain the secret chip, GunDelSolEX. The clues are made to be solved by someone who has played Boktai 2: Solar Boy Django (The Clues give the code 74293099).
- Megaman Battle Network 4 is the last game in which mainstay GutsMan.EXE can be fought in America. Real Operation is the last game you can fight Gutsman.EXE.
|
|||||||||||||||||
