Mega Man Battle Network 4
| Mega Man Battle Network 4 | |
|---|---|
|
European Red Sun version box art | |
| Developer(s) | Capcom Production Studio 2 |
| Publisher(s) | Capcom |
| Producer(s) | Keiji Inafune |
| Designer(s) | Masahiro Yasuma |
| Artist(s) | Shinsuke Komaki |
| Writer(s) |
Masakazu Eguchi Hiroshi Yamashita |
| Composer(s) | Toshihiko Horiyama |
| Series | Mega Man Battle Network |
| Platform(s) | Game Boy Advance, Wii U Virtual Console |
| Release date(s) |
Game Boy Advance
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| Genre(s) | Real-time tactical role-playing |
| Mode(s) | Single-player, multiplayer |
Mega Man Battle Network 4, known as Rockman EXE 4 (ロックマンエグゼ4 Rokkuman Eguze Fō) in Japan, is a video game developed by Capcom for the Game Boy Advance (GBA) handheld game console. It is the fourth game in the Mega Man Battle Network series. Like Battle Network 3 before it, Battle Network 4 has two different versions, Red Sun (Tournament Red Sun in Japan) and Blue Moon (Tournament Blue Moon in Japan), that differ in story and gameplay details. Battle Network 4 is compatible with the e-Reader, and can be linked up with Rockman EXE 4.5 Real Operation and the Battle Chip Gate for NetBattles. It is able to link with Mega Man Zero 3, and contains references to Konami's Boktai series.
Plot
Scientists from NAXA (the equivalent of NASA) discover a massive asteroid hurtling toward the Earth. After their plan of firing a laser at it fails and it is discovered to have a computer in it, the executive team from NAXA decide to hold a worldwide Net Battle tournament in order to find the best Operator and NetNavi pair and send said Navi to the asteroid to change its course.
Meanwhile, MegaMan and Lan Hikari go with Lan's father, Yuichiro to Elec Town, the electronics district of DenTech City, to go shopping. While there, he meets up with friends Mayl and Yai, Operators of Roll and Glide (originally named Glyde in the first game; the name was taken from the MegaMan Legends character). Naturally, Lan jacks Mega Man into the boombox terminal so all three friends and their Navis can hang out together. While in the terminal, a mysterious Navi later revealed as Shade Man, goes after Roll and takes her away. After deducing that Shade Man would like noise, Lan and Mega Man jack in to Elec Town's loudspeaker and confront Shade Man. Shade Man’s armor is too powerful for Mega Man to penetrate, but after losing his weapons systems and being confronted by ProtoMan, ShadeMan retreats. Mega Man notices that ShadeMan dropped an unknown chip. The duo are told by Higsby that it is a DarkChip, a chip that would make a Navi super powerful, but would also taint that Navi's heart. They hold on to it, vowing never to use it.
As the world is unaware that this worldwide tournament is more than just a competition, Lan and Mega Man decides to sign up for the local branch. Being the team that they are, they are able to best each competitor they come up against, and are promoted to the Eagle/Hawk Tournament (the name is either one depending on the version), the regional branch of the competition. While at the Castillo, the amusement park where the Eagle/Hawk Tournament takes place, Lan and Mega Man meet Shade Man again inside of one of the park robots gone haywire. He demands the DarkChip, which Mega Man destroys in front of him. Shade Man engages Mega Man in battle; Shade Man is still invulnerable to Mega Man’s weapons, until a mysterious chip inexplicably appears in Mega Man’s inventory. When he uses it, Shade Man is defeated easily. Mega Man soon realizes that he had used a DarkChip.
After completing both the Eagle/Hawk Tournament and the Red Sun/Blue Moon Tournament (held in Netopia), it's revealed to Lan and Mega Man that the tournaments were held to determine the world's strongest NetNavi. Mega Man 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, as it is full of evil. After his exposition, Duo extracts Mega Man's DarkSoul, all of Mega Man's evil thoughts and intentions, which is defeated by Mega Man. After the defeat of DarkSoul Mega Man and a fight with Duo himself, Duo allows Mega Man to try and divert the asteroid. Try as he might, the asteroid is too heavy for him to divert alone.
Mega Man is able to channel the will of the people on Earth, which gives him the strength to move the asteroid away from it. Duo agrees to leave the Earth alone for several hundred more years, and Dr. Regal, the son of Lord Wily, the man who formed Nebula—the crime syndicate that manufactures DarkChips—jumps off the NAXA building to avoid arrest and is assumed dead. All is right with the world: Netcrime ceases and Nebula is put to rest, until the events of Mega Man Battle Network 5.
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, Mega Man.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 resulting in a host of 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 Mega Man's Custom Screen. Each DarkChip will have many negative (and notable permanent) side-effects, that taint MegaMan's own soul with darkness. Should the darkness overwhelm MegaMan, he will find 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 Shade Man in the ToyRobo and in free tournaments at Higsby's shop), Mega Man 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 Mega Man is completely consumed by dark power. Conversely, if Mega Man does enough battles (about 1000) without ever using a Dark Chip, he will turn brighter in color and allow him to more easily achieve Full Syncro mode.
Emotion Window
The Emotion Window is a mood indicator that lets the operator know Mega Man'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 Mega Man's favor, unless in a doublesoul, 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, restoring HP, scoring hits on the enemy, or winning the battle.
If, during battle, Mega Man suffers repeated hits at a rapid rate, or if he is stunned for a period of time, 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, Mega Man 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. Unlike Full Synchro, if Mega Man is hit while in rage, he will not revert to his normal emotion. During "Full Synchro" and "Rage" Meg Man's attacks double, giving him an extra advantage.
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.
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 new kinds of chips, called, 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.)
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 includes seven icons, one for defeating the final boss Duo, one for getting all Soul Unisons, one for collecting all Standard-level battlechips, one for all Mega-level chips, one for all Giga-level chips, one for using all Program Advances, and the last for defeating Bass (Forte in Japanese) in his Omega form.
Operation Battle Mode
Linking any edition of Mega Man Battle Network 4 with the Battle Chip Gate expansion for Game Boy Advance (Sold in Japan only) would allow you to play as a Navi, depending on what Navi chip you owned. Instead of selecting chips like in normal gameplay, the custom gauge at the top would fill up and change to four different colors as it filled up, white, yellow, and blue, and red. when the bar is yellow, you can use a regular chip. When it is blue, you can use a mega chip, and at red you can use a giga chip. shooting fills the gauge up faster.
Development
Capcom of Japan gathered together their surplus of Rock Man EXE 4: Tournament Red Sun and Rock Man EXE 4: Tournament Blue Moon games and put them in a special edition box that was released in Japan only on December 31, 2004 along with a special E-Card for the E-Reader.
Reception
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The two versions of Mega Man Battle Network 4 entered Japanese sales charts as the second and fourth best-selling games of their release week and continued to appear on the top 10 best-sellers list for the following six weeks.[13][14][15][16][17][18][19] The game sold 535,836 copies combined by the end of 2003 and an additional 393,014 copies by the end of 2004.[20][21] Mega Man Battle Network 4 has sold 1.35 million copies worldwide as of December 31, 2008.[22]
The game is considered the black sheep of the Battle network series, as well as the reason for the drop in the series' popularity. Both versions received generally negative reviews upon release, with notable criticisms including the lack of any real story. Most of the game played is going through the three tournaments and solving some issue with your opponent before battling them. Further exacerbating this is the fact that the potentially world-ending asteroid is treated as a B plot until the player is involved almost at the very end of the game.
Another criticism is the addition of the Double Soul system. The inability to go into it whenever a player wanted, the need of a proper 'sacrificial' chip (one's preset chip could not be used either, even if it was the proper type), and the fact that it only lasts for 3 turns made it unpopular with the fanbase.
Another major criticism with the game was the fact that in order for a player to get everything in the game (Double souls, chips, etc.), one had to play through the game three times, the changes in the game being difficulty (replacing Viruses with stronger versions), and who Mega Man faces in tournaments (subsequently changing the story).
Minor criticism was met with the change in graphic styles which stuck with subsequent games, going from a more 'realistic' look to thicker lined, brighter colored and smaller sprited graphics.
References
- ↑ "Mega Man Battle Network 4 Blue Moon for Game Boy Advance". GameRankings. Retrieved 2010-07-04.
- ↑ "Mega Man Battle Network 4 Red Sun for Game Boy Advance". GameRankings. Retrieved 2010-07-04.
- ↑ "Mega Man Battle Network 4: Blue Moon (gba) reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved 2014-04-10.
- ↑ "Mega Man Battle Network 4: Red Sun (gba) reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved 2014-04-10.
- ↑ Barnholt, Ryan (July 6, 2004). "Mega Man Battle Network 4 Review". 1UP.com. Retrieved 2010-07-04.
- ↑ Matsuyara, Yoshiku (December 3, 2003). "Japan News - Aktuelle Wertungen der Famitsu - 03.12.2003" (in German). Looki.de. Retrieved 2010-07-04.
- ↑ "Reviews: Mega Man Battle Network 4". Game Informer. No. 134 (Sunrise Publications). June 2004.
- ↑ Rice Burner (June 28, 2004). "Mega Man Battle Network 4 Red Sun Review". GamePro. Archived from the original on 2009-11-10. Retrieved 2010-07-04.
- ↑ Provo, Frank (July 13, 2004). "Mega Man Battle Network 4 Red Sun Review for Game Boy Advance". GameSpot. Retrieved 2014-04-10.
- ↑ Vassar, Darryl (July 4, 2004). "Mega Man Battle Network 4: Red Sun / Blue Moon". GameSpy. Retrieved 2010-07-04.
- ↑ Harris, Craig (August 19, 2004). "Mega Man Battle Network 4: Red Sun - Game Boy Advance Review". IGN. Retrieved 2010-07-04.
- ↑ "Now Playing: Mega Man Battle Network 4". Nintendo Power. No. 182 (Nintendo of America). August 2004. p. 123.
- ↑ Jenkins, David (December 19, 2003). "Latest Japanese Sales Charts – Week Ending December 14". Gamasutra. Retrieved 2010-06-21.
- ↑ Jenkins, David (December 29, 2003). "Latest Japanese Sales Charts - Week Ending December 21". Gamasutra. Retrieved 2010-06-21.
- ↑ Jenkins, David (January 8, 2004). "Latest Japanese Sales Charts - Week Ending December 28". Gamsutra. Retrieved 2010-06-21.
- ↑ Jenkins, David (January 12, 2004). "Latest Japanese Sales Charts - Week Ending January 4". Gamasutra. Retrieved 2010-06-21.
- ↑ Jenkins, David (January 23, 2004). "Latest Japanese Sales Charts - Week Ending January 18". Gamasutra. Retrieved 2010-06-21.
- ↑ Jenkins, David (January 30, 2004). "Latest Japanese Sales Charts - Week Ending January 25". Gamasutra. Retrieved 2010-06-21.
- ↑ Jenkins, David (February 6, 2004). "Latest Japanese Sales Charts - Week Ending February 1". Gamasutra. Retrieved 2010-06-21.
- ↑ "2003 Top 100 Best Selling Japanese Console Games". The MagicBox. Retrieved 2010-06-21.
- ↑ "2004 Top 100 Best Selling Japanese Console Games". The MagicBox. Retrieved 2010-06-21.
- ↑ Roper, Chris (May 23, 2008). "Capcom Releases Lifetime Sales Numbers". IGN. Retrieved 2010-06-20.
External links
- Official website (Japanese)
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