Mega Man Battle Network 4 Blue Moon

"A Stepping Stone Title..."

WAKE UP LAN! Like we haven't heard that one five billion times before, not that the creators of MMBN really care. Over the last couple of years, fans of the Battle Network series have truly been blessed with some great titles. MMBN was a great introduction to the series, establishing itself as a hit among GBA fans. A year or so later, out popped MMBN2, Capcom's answer to the acclaimed hit. Fast forward yet another year, and we have MMBN3, a game that most would still call the best entry in the series. Keeping up with that trend, here we are with MMBN4, a miserable follow-up that probably never should have existed.

While some may say that MMBN4 is a great game, it really does have its problems. Part of it stemmed from the fact that because they were shooting the titles out every year, they burned themselves out. Just like anything else in life, if you do too much, you really can fizzle out. MMBN4 seemed rushed, problem plagued, and actually rather boring, all curses from their rushing. Whether we do like it or not though, this game did serve a purpose. Without it, we would have lost out on some great ideas, most of which transitioned perfectly into the next game.

One of the most prominent of those ideas would have to be the new soul unison system, or SU for short. With it, the player can link up with other navis to create a cross that allows MM to gain the powers of that navi. This was actually something that the fans had been wanting for quite some time, and it was great to finally get it. With it, battles went to a completely new level, allowing for strategies that some would have previously deemed impossible.

And even though battles were great to begin with, it's the truth, SU allowed for a new depth level that truly broke the mold for the series. Before it, battles basically relied on you and your chip folder, possibly in the later incarnations introducing the style system to even things out. Unfortunately, SU was practically the only shining light that this game has to offer besides the graphics, which was truly depressing.

With that being said, have you ever wanted to become EVIL (Cue thunder and lightning)? Not those evil little guilty pleasure spurts, but truly EVIL (Cue thunder and lightning)? In MMBN4, we are introduced to a new system that allows us to be just that, and although it may be something that a newer player may like, it really winds up cheapening the game play experience. At about the half way point of the game, you are introduced to the dark chips, evil chips that can make MM evil. These chips hold incredible power, but also come with an incredible price. For every chip you use, you'll loose karma, and slowly become EVIL (Cue thunder and lightning). Along with that, HP is also lost. This is a degenerating process, often forcing a player to give up due to the lack of HP. It does have its perks, I won't lie to you with that, but in the end it really winds up cheapening any experience that the game had to offer.

Not that they didn't do it on purpose, because in reality this game can get hard. Most likely you will die, not once, not twice, not even ten times before you beat it. In a way, this was to alleviate that stress for a newer player who won't necessarily sit with the game until the end. Some that could get through the game on their own still use it though, which cheapens things considerably in their case. If you do decide to go without them, then you are in for a bumpy ride. The first run of the game is pathetically easy, but that does change after the difficulty amps in the second and third run. By the third run, it's almost as if you are basically being tortured if you don't have a good folder.

But that's probably another point in itself. In order to experience everything the game has to offer, a player will most likely have to play it three times to get all six souls (three in the first, two in the second, and one in the third). Because of that, most people will be turned off due to the insane amount of time you'll have to be sitting there in order to beat the game.

Most of it's boring too, likely because of the hideous plot that was written for it. Lan, once again, is thrown into a never ending quest to save the world. We've got some new-fangled baddies on the block, some of which actually are pretty humorous and will play a enormous role in up-coming titles. That's actually something to watch out for, even if you do just want to mash the A button in an attempt to skip it. Most, if not all, if the new enemies in this game will return in the future, allowing you as the player to get a decent back-story of each and everyone of them.

Since they did have to tack something on in terms of story, a meteor is coming towards the earth. Whoppers, like I haven't seen that one before. It's a big cliché if you ask me, a cliché that probably should have been avoided at all costs. Scientists are getting together to make things right, and so we have the plot of this game. Meanwhile, Lan is invited to participate in some tournaments.

Because of the way that the game is set up, tournaments really do play a large role on what the story has to present. Practically they, making it as if, govern everything about this game. Each segment of a tournament is divided into different story segments, often relying on amazingly boring fetch quests in order to get the point that's needed across to the player. At the end of the quest, a couple of lines are said, and then a battle takes place.

In all actualities, the story really doesn't get excellent until around the last hour or so, and considering that the game lasts an typical of 25 hours or more to complete, things can get very potholed awfully quickly. Why should we have to wait such an extraordinarily long period of time to have things finally become interesting? Point is we shouldn't, and yet they still made us.

Since the rest of the game was virtually garbage, there had to at least be some fine points. Meet the fresh graphics that will be used for the next couple of installments. While they do wind up making things look impractical compared to other titles in the series, they do have their high points. For one, they actually make things look much richer. Instead of that grainy look that was used in the times of yore, now we get a much more colorful atmosphere that actually adds to the experience.

Not to say that some won't have problems with it, because they do tend to wind up making things look unrealistic. Whereas in the past Lan was of a larger size, he and the environments around him have become chibi looking. Not chubby, but chibi. That's probably what hurt this game the most, the smaller size that everyone took. They all look like kindergarteners now. It was a trade-off, a trade-off that some weren't willing to make. They did choose to keep it though in the following titles, so if that doesn't speak enough I don't know what does.

MMBN4 had its problems, and it would be a lie to say that it didn't. What's good though is that the game had some great ideas that helped the next couple of games get to greater heights. Think of it as a stepping stone, you can't get to a greater height if you don't step on that stone first.

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 03/21/07