Mega Man Battle Network 4 Red Sun

"This game had so much potential..."

You would think that as a series progressed, the games would get better, but Capcom seems to dislike that concept. MMBN 4 introduces many ideas that make the gameplay much more interesting, but the story seems rushed and lacks any drama.

Gameplay: 8/10

This always has been the strong point in the MMBN series, and this game doesn't disappoint. The game uses the classic 3 by 6 square battle field, with Mega Man being able to use half and the enemy to use the other half. The custom gauge allows you to use more powerful chips to battle your opponent. The biggest complaint I have about the battle system is the omission of the add button. If you draw five recover chips at the beginning of a battle, you have no way of getting to your arsenal without using some of these chips, which makes battles extremely difficult. The new Soul Unison system introduces a brand new variable into your battle strategy. If you run into a grass type enemy, you can use Fireman's soul to have an advantage. Even though I only use two of the six souls on a regular basis, the others can come in handy in a pinch. Dark Chips also make the game a bit wilder. If you are low on health during a battle, you are given the option of using two insanely powerful chips that will decrease your HP by 1 permanently. This double-edged sword creates a light versus dark argument with the classic cartoon angel and devil argument going on on your shoulders. The new innovations simply expand on the great initial gameplay of the series, but the omission of the add button is inexcusable.

Story: 2/10

What a horrible storyline! Lan goes to tournaments and has to either help or foil each opponent he faces before he fights them. There are multiple paths the storyline can take, depending on who Lan faces, but this is the general premise of the storyline. Lather. Rinse. Repeat. The ending of the game can be seen a mile away and has little to do with what Lan has done prior to that point. In the previous games, you had a group you had to foil at every turn, but this games, evil Dark Chip Syndicate, Nebula only has a pair of original navis to fight! Not to mention that the game is way too short. They even expect you to go through the game three time to earn all of your souls! Add to this the horrible translation (Leg's go Megaman!) and you're almost better off just hurrying through the cutscenes. Not to mention the lack of good dungeons. Instead of having to go through original dungeons that your enemies have corrupted to suit themselves, you end going to the basic internet, over, and over, and over again.

Graphics/Sound: 10/10

The sound is just as great as before, with catchy songs and great boss music. They overhauled the basic non-battle graphics, and I think that they look much better. There is a whole lot more detail than in the previous games.

Replay Factor: 5/10

This game is supposed to live off of the replay factor, but many of the events are very tedious. If you have to face Sparkman in the first tournament, you have to figure out a 9 digit passcode by going around the internet and finding out how many programs there are in a specific homepage and answering equally annoying questions. This is fine the first time you go through the game, but if you happen to ruin into him in your second or third playthrough, you don't want to deal with anything that tedious and 3/4 of the missions are that tedious.

Overall: 5/10 (not an average)

The battle system by it self is great, but the production of the game seems to be lacking. It almost seems like Capcom released this game to see if the consumers would buy something they put so little effort in.. There is no excuse for such a poor storyline or translation. This game probably would have scored higher if the previous games hadn't set the bar so high, but when a series is great, all the games need to be great.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 07/07/04