Mega Man Battle Network 4 Blue Moon

"A decent game, yet an underwhelming sequel."

Let me start off this review by saying that I've been a longtime fan of the Megaman Battle Network series. The battle system, storyline, strategy elements, pretty much everything about the series appealed to me. When I heard of the next chapter of the series being released, I was excited, and immediately found out all I could about the game. I was disappointed by the fluctuating review scores for the game, but didn't really care. When I finally purchased and completed the game, I had lost a lot of hope in a great series.

Story: 5/10
The stories for the various installments of this series have been quite good, which is surprising for a Megaman series. You follow the adventures of Lan Hikari, who lives sometime in the 21st century in AC/DC Town. At his time, technology is quite advanced, and people have their own “Net Navis”, which are almost cyber representations of the person. However, virii lurk the net(cue dramatic music), so the operators of these Net Navis use battle chips, which allow the navis to defend themselves against the viruses. Lan's Net Navi is called Megaman.EXE, who is proficient at fighting viruses. Lan's friends all have their own Net Navis, as does pretty much everyone else in the game. Net Navis all have their own personalities, and the sections of the Internet are built a lot like cities/towns in real life, except for the fact that they have wallpaper. Net operators also take part in Netbattles, in which they battle one another using their navis. Of course, the operators have to have some skill, as they need to input battle chips to lead their navis to victory. Lan is a skilled Net Op, who, along with his powerful navi Megaman, has saved the world three times.

The story of this particular installment is laid out in a different format than the previous games. There's a little story involving a bunch of jolly good scientists, including Lan's father, who are just casually trying to save the world from its eminent destruction at the hands of a gigantic meteor. I love Capcom because of their outstanding originality. Of course, Lan doesn't know of this, because his father is too important to have time for him. Lan just spends his time hanging out with his friends, netbattling, drinking vodka, etc. Then, a Netbattle tournament comes up, and Lan and his friends enter it with high hopes. After the tournament, which is full of randomly picked scenarios, you'll go through another scenario, then another tourney, then another scenario, then another tourney, and then another scenario! The whole tournament thing can get pretty annoying after a little while, since the stories of the scenarios are boring. Hey, Lan gets pushed around by some guy, but his opponent in the upcoming battle rushes to the rescue. What a guy! Can he and Lan defeat these two thugs? Another one concerns one of your old friends, an environmentalist, Sal, who wants to save nature from the bad people who threaten it. Save her navi, and stop your foes! Some of them can even get a little weird. Lan meets a little girl, his next opponent, who wishes to play with him. In the end, Lan finds out that she's a ghost, who's happy she could find a friend before she fades away. Lan also ends up being chased around by a Dark Syndicate, and Megaman is tempted to turn to “the dark side”. The story is compiled of various unoriginal parts that give you one less reason to continue playing.

If you ask anyone who's played the game, they'll tell you all about the dialogue. I mean really, this game has almost as many spelling errors as Zero Wing(You know, “All your base are belong to us”). For example, in one scenario in Red Sun, Lan's mom says, “What a nice young man she was”. I once decided to replay the game to count all the spelling errors, but I realized that I'd have to sit through the same lame plots all over again, so I gave up.

Music: 7/10
I enjoyed many of the main tunes that were played in the previous BN games, but this one had pretty bad music. The theme music for those games was excellent, but this one has a new theme, which is full of random, annoying sounds. The new tunes played during the actual game will add to the frustrating, repetitive gameplay(which will be covered in its respective section). Also, you'll find that the music is overplayed, and you will quickly want to turn your sound off.

The sound effects for MMBN4 were done pretty much along the same lines as the previous installments. The battle music, unlike the rest of the game, is done fairly well, and the sound effects for the different attacks sound like you would imagine them to. There's no voice acting, in case you were wondering, which shouldn't be a surprise, as this a GBA game.

Graphics: 9/10
The new game's graphics look noticeably different from the other games. The visuals during battle look pretty much the same, except for some slight tweaks here and there, but the graphics shown when walking around the real or cyber world are different. All the characters look slightly cel-shaded, and the environments look better as well. It may take some time to get used to Megaman's big head and small body, but in the long run, the graphics for the game have generally been improved.

Gameplay: 7/10
The gameplay of the Battle Network series is what made it so enjoyable. The first game introduced a promising new series. The second offered outstanding gameplay, coupled up with a new innovation to the battle system: styles. The third game added more strategy to the series with a new tool, the Navi Customizer. The fourth game ended the styles and started something new; soul unisons. There's also the option to turn “dark”, which lets you use overpowered chips that look fancy and manly. I'll get into all of this, but first, I shall explain the general gameplay of the game.

In the BN series, you get to frolic around the Real World, and wander through the Cyber World(Internet). In the Real World, you control Lan, while in the Cyber World, you have to use Megaman. In the Real World, you go to the place the game tells you, and usually end up having to “jack in”. In other words, you plug your PET, a clever acronym that stands for Personal Electronic Terminal, into a port, so that your navi can enter the Internet. The Internet is divided up among various different areas. While you're running around, you'll find yourself taking part in random battles with viruses. When you start the game, you'll get a “chip folder”. This folder has 30 battlechips that can be used when battling viruses/other navis. As soon as a battle begins, you'll be asked to choose among five(there can be a wider selection if you meet the requirements)battlechips. Chips are given codes, which are letters from A-Z. If two or more of the chips have the same chip code or are the same chip, you can select all of them for use in battle. There is also a * chip code, which can be chosen with any other chip/s, regardless of the chip or its code. Chips are also given a type classification, which has to do with the whole Soul Unison thing. Once you pick your chips, you can select the OK button to begin the fight. The battlefield is spit up into 2 sections, which are divided into 3x3 squares. Megaman moves around the 9 red squares on the left, while the virii move around the 9 blue spaces on the right. You cannot access the opponent's area, unless you use certain chips to gain more spaces. There are different landscapes that will sometimes appear on squares that often have different effects on Megaman. At the top of the screen, there is a gauge that slowly goes up as the battle goes on. Once it is full, you can once again choose from a selection of chips. Each interval between choosing battlechips is considered a turn. During a battle, the A button activates the first battlechip that you have selected, and the B button fires your buster. You can hold down the B button to charge up your buster for a more powerful shot. Your buster initially does 1 damage per shot, but its power, as well as its speed and charge time, can be increased using the Navi Customizer.

The Navi Customizer, introduced in BN3, lets you, well, customize your navi. You can acquire various NaviCust blocks throughout the game. The customizer is set up like a stange puzzle. You must place various blocks, each of which add an effect or powerup to Magaman, on a large square piece. There are many different combination possibilities, adding more depth to the game.

The new addition to this game, as mentioned before, is the Soul Unison ability. This lets Megaman become one with another navi, at least for 3 turns. Once you attain a soul, you must “sacrifice” a certain type of chip. For example, if you're playing Red Sun and have the Fire Soul and a fire type chip, you can select the option to use that chip to activate a unison. Each unison gives you a different set of abilities, and a new appearance. For example, the Metal Soul turns your charge buster into a punch that cracks the panel in front of you and does heavy damage to anyone there. It also lets you charge up “cracking” chips, so that they do double damage. You must sacrifice a cracking chip to activate Metal Soul. The soul system has its flaws, however. For one thing, some souls are just plain worse than others, and there's little you can do about it. Also, both games have six exclusive souls, but you wont get all of them if you play through the game only once. On your first playthrough, you'll get three, one from each tournament. On your second run, you'll get two more, and then you'll get your final soul on your third time through. This can get extremely repetitive and frustrating, considering that the poorly done scenarios are the game's weakest point.

After each battle, you'll get a “busting rank”, which grades how well you did in the battle. The rank ranges from 1-10, and you will get an S rank if you do particularly well. You will also get something for each battle, and your prize is [usually] better if you achieve a high busting rank. You can get your health restored, zenny(money), or a battlechip that is related to one of the virii you deleted.

Overall, the gameplay is decent, but is brought down by the story. You'll definitely have some fun fighting virii and other navi.

Play Time/Replayability: 6/10
This game will take the casual gamer anywhere from 15-20 hours to complete. If you want to spend time unlocking certain chips and the such, the play time of BN4 is greatly increased. The unfortunate thing about the replayability of this game is that it almost forces you to beat the game three times. You'll probably want to use all of the soul unisons available to you, so you're going to have to beat this game all those times. This definitely brings the game down, because, chances are, you will get bored of doing the objectives of the game over and over. However, if you enjoy the game(or just want to unlock all the secrets), there are plenty of things to do, such as collecting all the chips and fighting secret bosses.

Which Version?: The only major differences between the two versions are the souls and some of the boss battles. I'd recommend Red Sun for the casual gamer looking for something new and Blue Moon for a fan of the series, as its souls are harder to use. Neither game is better than the other, but if you're having too much trouble deciding between the two, do what I did: Eenie-meenie-minie-moe.

The Final Recommendation: If you're a fan of the series, rent the game, and get it if you like it and want to do all the side quests, unlock all secrets, etc. If you're new to the series, just rent either 2 or 3, and knock yourself out.

Megaman Battle Network 4 is a decent game on its own, but just doesn't match up to the standards of the previous installments. Hopefully, Capcom can put the series back on track with the next installment.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 03/16/05