Mega Man Battle Network 4 Red Sun

"The Review for the RockMan EXE Lover"

Let’s be honest. You clicked this link expecting me to bullet point for you the different aspects of the game, including such subjective rankings on different levels of a game, weighing music, which you probably hardly care about, for the most part, and general gameplay on the same level. You expect me to rate graphics and storyline out of ten and to somehow combine them into one neat little package that won’t really convince you to buy the game or not. But when you get down to the nitty gritty, the real RockMan EXE lover doesn’t really care about any of these things. For the real RockMan EXE player, the game only begins once the storyline has ended.

I gave the game a four out of ten because when I go to look at reviews for games I really want, I go to the negative reviews first. I don’t want the candy-coated cuddly version of what someone has been socially programmed to think a game is. I want a guy that really sat down and played a game, and some aspect bothered him enough to get him to take the time to sit down write about it, instead of shelving it and never thinking of it again. When I want to buy a game, I want to find out what I’m going to have to suffer through to enjoy the good parts, because let’s face it, video games are made to be fun. Some fail and some do well, but overall they’re made to have a good time with, so hearing the good stuff doesn’t help much. You probably already know it. I gave the game a four because after spending a decent amount of time with it I have found that in the long run I am going to hate it, much unlike the rest of the EXE titles. It’s a sub par replacement for the otherwise outstanding EXE3.

For the rest of the review I’m assuming that you know what I’m talking about when I use specific terminology. After all, this is, “The Review for The RockMan EXE Lover.” Anyhow, with that out of the way, here we go. Into the bad and the ugly. Oh, and some of the good. I’m going to start with ten and drop or add points accordingly. The old “innocent until proven guilty” bit.

Souls: -1
The old style system is gone in favor of the new soul system, which drops your possibilities for RockMan customization. Now you can only have six souls, as opposed to twenty-four previous possible combinations of element and soul. Whether or not you like this is a matter of preference. It does incorporate some aspects of old school RockMan games, as you can change in specific situations to suit your needs, but each time you fuse (go into a soul) it only lasts three rounds. Also, your soul/style is no longer based on your style of play, but rather it is a randomization for each time you play through. You’ve got to play through the game three times to acquire all six souls before you move on to the secret areas, which is pretty weak if you keep getting stuck with the same boring tournament scenarios, which are the only part of the game that gets re-randomized. I’m only dropping one point for this because it actually does boil down to a matter of preference, and I’m feeling nice.

Version Split: +/-0
Though there were two versions in EXE3, I blame that on Capcom of America. There is no chip trading nuisance to complete the game now, but the only thing specific about the two different versions are the six souls and a sparse number of tournament situations. Oh, and the five still-untradeable GigaChips. Anyhow, I’m not going to count off for this even though I don’t plan on purchasing both versions just to collect all the souls. The task of laboring through the game six times would be far too monotonous.

Navi Customizer: -1
Though I am one that is happy to see the NaviCust return, I don’t welcome it as much as I expected. It has been severely nerfed in terms of RockMan customization. I guess the new theme with this series is not letting you do what you want. Anyhow, program compression is gone, and SaitoBatch not engulfs the entire command line, rendering the entirety of your NaviCust essentially useless. I would have dropped two points for this, but there are some improvements, such as the removal of quest-specific NaviCust programs. For example, the ever-so-annoying press program is now history.

Chip Changes: -2
So much stuff has changed. Chips now only come in three codes, and some in *. This drives me mad, as I love building folders and NetBattling. The game only begins when I toss my storyline folder out the window and start to dig in to the rest. The fact that the number of chips has dropped dramatically, and that the codes that they come in are more restricted, I find myself trying to choose what to put into folders that won’t hinder me too much as opposed to what I could possibly put in that would benefit me more. This may be one of Capcom’s moves to slow down folders in general, but it’s just going to lead to weaker mono-coded folders, because of a resistance of change to what will still be weaker dual-coded monstrosities. Also, secret chips are introduced. Apparently it was not enough to just have hard to find or acquire normal chips, we’ve got to have secret class, which can either be standard or mega class chips. Frankly, this makes no sense to me, whatsoever.

Program Advances: -1
Though some PAs suffered necessary nerfs, others simply died. The majority of useable Program Advances in the game dropped to an unhealthy low because they’re all now in what was previously Zeta forms in EXE3. Most work in three progressive codes, instead of one cohesive one. Note that each chip only comes in three codes of its own and you see the evident code-clashing problem.

Darkness: -1
So Capcom comes up with this brilliant idea. Let’s make dark chips that you can use when it looks as if you’re down and out. Sounds good. Only problem is that you’re stuck with –1 HP every time you do so. Permanently. And you’re restricted from using specific battle chips in dark form. Instead of using this as a new innovative idea, which it had great potential to be, Capcom decides to screw you, because we all know it’s going to bug us endlessly if our pause screen reads 999 HP instead of 1000 when we finish the game. So, not only do you not get to use Dark Chips, it takes up two possible slots on your custom screen unless you’re spending your three turns in either JunkSoul or NumberSoul. Oh, and to make it even better, you’re barred from using about 1/5 of the total chips in the game, which also happens to be about half of both the Mega and Giga chips. Oh joy! So you’re damned if you do, damned if you don’t. However, there is one remedy for the situation. No, it’s not a NaviCust block that fixes your HP problem. It’s an E-Reader. And E-Reader cards. Something else you have to buy to get your HP back if you feel like using all of the game’s chips. It all boils down to a nasty marketing ploy, which, as a dedicated fan, pisses me off. This only takes one point off because, quite frankly, it’s a travesty to give a RockMan EXE game any less than a four, but this one is pushing its luck.

Perhaps the next installation will make Capcom realize its many fatal errors. I hope they don’t drive one of my favorite series further into oblivion with the next installation. But this one gets a woeful 4/10.

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 01/10/04