Mega Man Battle Network 4 Blue Moon

"This game isn't as bad as some say, it's actually pretty good."

Ok, so this is the forth game in the Megaman Battle Networkrk Series and here's my review of various ups and downs for it. The bad reviews I've read from all over influenced my decision not to but it and the good reviews left more to be desired. My goal is to change that.

Gameplay- 9/10

Megaman Battle Network 4 introduces some new mechanics to the MMBN series, some good, some bad.

Let's start with the souls. Throughout the game you obtain souls which let you "fuse" with certain navis by sacrificing a certain type of chip. The soul lasts for 3 turns, but they can do some powerful things. For instance each soul can power up their type of chip, (the same type used to fuse) doing double the damage for that chip. Each soul also adds other abilities such as changing the B-button charged attack, advantages on certain types of terrain, or other abilities which make each style unique. You can use souls to add more to the strategic part of the game.

The navi customizer has been changed a bit. There's no longer a program for fastguage, but there's still a chip for it. This is somewhat disappionting, but we had to use the chip in MMBN2, and I don't see a problem with doing it again. Also there are lots of new programs along with one new rule, you can only have up to 4 colors of programs in the navi customizer. This is much better then having to be in a certain style (from MMBN3) to use certain colored programs.

Now I'll tell you about dark chips. You can use dark chips after you've been hit 5 times without fighting back. These chips are incredibly powerful, but I think the price you pay is definitly NOT worth it. After each battle in which you used a darkchip, your MAX hp is decreased by one... permanently. However, you are not forced to use darkchips. You can be like me and completly ignore them, which is why darkchips don't affect the score on gameplay.

The last part about gameplay I want to talk about is the reduction of chip codes. They've reduced the number of codes per chip from 5 (6 counting * code) to 3 (4 if it has a * code). This is a good thing, trust me. (some of you are problebly thinking "WHAT!?") Let me explain. With only 3 codes per chip, that reduces the amount of useless codes for each chip. Those who played the previous games know what I'm talking about. With 5 codes per chip, I'm sure there were at least 2 codes per chip you never used. Having only 3 codes per chip reduces the useless chips you get, which is a good thing.

Graphics- 8/10

The characters have been reduced in size when you aren't in battle. It's a little annoying, but you get used to it. I really enjoy the internet layout in this game. The main path is still colored, yet much wider then the other paths. I prefer this over the way it was in MMBN3, where each path was the same size. The Undernet is a little confusing at first, but it's not that bad.

Sound/Music- 10/10

In the previous games I enjoyed the boss music along with several other tunes. This game is no exception. Not much else to say.

Story- 6/10

Most of the game revolves around tournements, each with random "mini-senarios". There are 3 tournements, which means they take up most of the game. There is an evil organization, which seems to be more of a sideshow then the main story. I think it should be the other way around, thus the score of 6. I don't know about you, but I would rather expand on the evil organization rather then have lots of mini-senarios throughout the tournements. The one thing I really liked about the story was at the end. I won't spoil it, but I will say that the final boss is quite difficult, unlike the past games.

Replayability- 10/10

Once you finish the game, you get to replay it again on hard and super hard mode. You get to keep everything you had before, and the mini-senarios in the tournements are different. You have to play through normal, hard, and super hard mode in order to get all the souls, along with the chips and other various things you couldn't collect in the previous mode.

Overall- 8/10

The only major problem I see is the story, which I described above. If you still aren't sure, rent first, then buy it if you like it.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 07/26/04