Mega Man Battle Network (2001)

Game #20/200 Mega Man Battle Network, which may be the most nostalgic of the hundreds of games I spent my childhood playing, far exceeded what I anticipated based on the negative feedback I've read leading up to me playing it. I will note right away that I did not play the "Legacy Collection" version, so who knows what new stuff I missed out on, but the original held up extremely well for a 22-year old Gameboy Advance game. It's clearly not a perfect game -- in fact it plays a lot like an experimental title that wanted to test the waters as opposed to invent a new a genre right out of the gate, but its brilliance really can't be stifled, even by its rushed pace and lackluster storyline. To start with the negatives, the game moves in "episodes" more or less, which isn't inherently a problem, but the 11-hour game is so choppy that you move from one episode to the next without a ton of exposition and basically no character development at all. I haven't replayed the sequel titles yet, but I can see MMBN1 functioning much more as a prologue to the follow-up games in the series as it's just much too bare bones in terms of narrative. The enemy organization is so casually introduced and you're so suddenly thrown into the narrative in a hero role after essentially stopping your oven from exploding. You're swept along without much engagement between your main character and the other characters. The gorgeous sprite work and fun chiptunes keep you interested in the charming in-game world, and Lan and friends are likeable enough despite their cliche personalities, but you're certainly left wanting more. The story is still somehow fun, maybe because of its ultra simplicity, and delivers a pretty cool yet unimpressive ending.

I won't spend much time on the art or music, but I encourage you to at least look at the game to see if it's for you. It captures the heart of the colorful GBA JRPG aesthetic (Golden Sun, Mario & Luigi, Fire Emblem, etc.) and the character designs are OUTSTANDING. The net navis particularly are very impressive -- among my favorite character designs in any game series. Two issues with gameplay (maybe 3): the first and most problematic is the Internet map. This is a really common complaint. It's very samey and labyrinthine, redundant and exhausting. Due to the high encounter rate and lots of backtracking it isn't too satisfying to traverse (not completely intolerable either though). The second issue is the poorly explained fetch quests that sometimes pop up. You will have to find a really obscure location or NPC based on limited clues, which will have you talking to like every NPC in the (admittedly small) game world. It's just kind of boring. The third thing I was going to mention was the inability to easily run and the high encounter rate, but it's really not as bad as people say. You can throw a few escape chips in your deck and get by OK. Not to mention the fights are really fun. I never got bored of the encounters personally. But one other complaint I have to acknowledge is Elecman's stage. I remember this from my childhood, so I simply used a map online for it now (and it was a lot of fun). Unbalanced puzzle design in the game stems from this level primarily.

The battle system is unprecedented and incredibly fun. You load a deck with chips that match in either name or "code" (essentially an identifying letter) and build a deck that synergizes so that you can use many of your chips in one round and dominate the enemy. You draw a hand of 5 chips randomly, so you want many chips with the same letter. But you also want to include powerful chips, which may use an obscure letter, so you have to decide. This is a neat infusion of the card genre into the JRPG, something we've seen before, but probably not to this great effect. The battles take place in real time and are essentially puzzle-like, strategy/action encounters. They take place on a 3x3 grid and your goal is to defeat enemies before your health is depleted. The boss encounters are abundant and especially fun and creative. It is rare that a battle system is so engaging and enjoyable (Grandia's comes to mind as a competitor, but not as good). Other than the fights, exploring the "real world" is a blast too. I enjoy talking to every NPC and reading their banal dialogue. I'm not sure why. I also love clicking everything in the environment. Sometimes you are rewarded by finding a chip or some money, but usually you just read a short blurb about whatever you looked at. It helps immerse you within the game world, even if the text is only occasionally interesting or funny. It's a joy to tap on objects, talk to NPCs, and stroll through the vibrant environments. There is a special charm in MMBN that makes it so worth playing. The start of the 6-game adventure is a really nice prologue to the action to come and a fun experience that contains the core of what makes the series so excellent despite its flaws.

This game didn't give a strong first impression for the series, but thankfully I heard this is probably the worst one so it goes up from here.

• Ability to save anywhere
• End game spoiler: I found it funny that as the WWW lab is self-destructing, Lan, Chaud, and Mayl walk away casually instead of run.

• Encounter rate is super high
• Mega Man has their health restored at the beginning of every fight. This is all well and good, except the difficulty is balanced out by having every enemy do a ton of damage, making it easy to lose any encounter. This really starts to become noticeable by about the midway point in the game.
• The game is pretty cryptic with what you're supposed to do and the hints aren't great. I remember early on in the game, the hint tells you to play outside and then go home, so I thought there was supposed to be an event outside of the house. That isn't the case, the real objective is to just go home and sleep.
• The game could've benefited from having a map. It's pretty easy to get lost when environments are just the same hallways and backgrounds.
• Dungeon designs are incredibly tedious. Particularly the waterworks and the power plant.
• Getting upgrades can feel pretty grindy with how expensive they are at the shop

Disclaimer : I used maps for the dungeon and at the finale of the game I used a cheat code to avoid grinding for money.

Game Summary : Takes place in a tech centered future in which AI programs known as Navi keep things running smoothly. Human operators also have Navi that live in a personal device called a PET (PErsonal Terminal). These Navi can be sent into electronics to explore, resolve issues, and battle other Navi. You play as a kid named Lan and your Navi is Mega Man!

The battle system takes place on a 3x6 grid split down the middle. You can freely move around your 3x3 portion to avoid enemy attacks and fire with your Buster. You also have the ability to use special attacks throughout the battles by utilizing a chip based system. These chips can be direct attacks, attack a range, heal yourself, or even damage or steal a portion of the enemy's 3x3 grid. I do recommend looking up some gameplay, as I don't feel like I can adequately describe this battle system through words.

Review Portion : Your enjoyment of the game will likely hinge on your enjoyment of the battle system. I found it unique, fun, and enjoyable to gain and try out new chips. If it doesn't grab you though, the story will likely not be enough to keep you engaged. I will say that if you find it a bit boring or grindy at first, maybe stick with it for a bit as it begins to feel more intense as you level up your Buster and gain new chips.

I enjoyed the designs of the dungeons as far as aesthetic and puzzle elements go (except for the battery dungeon), but they can be fairly tough to navigate without a map. As the game has no way to zoom out, it's easy to get lost or accidentally having to double back multiple times to solve puzzles or get items. The encounter rate isn't overly high and there are escape chips to leave random battles, but I can still see it being a deal breaker for some so I suggest using maps.

The story revolves around a terrorist group called WWW trying to take over the web. It's pretty straight forward with minimal character growth for most, but it is the first in a series so I'm not going to be overly judgy about this. I did enjoy the plot and there is a twist at the end that stand out in my mind as especially fun. I do wish there were more in the way of optional content with story elements, but again this is the first in a series and a fairly short game so that criticism will become more relevant with future titles.

As to my disclaimer about using cheats at the end I did this to grind out money to buy the last few upgrades for Mega Man. After beating the game I don't think having these upgrades would have been at all necessary and you shouldn't worry about having to do the same in order to enjoy or beat the game.

Summary : A unique experience that despite being a spin-off doesn't require a love of Mega Man to enjoy. Play with maps to avoid potential frustration and you're in for a great time.

Personal Score : 9

"Objective" Score : 8

Ended up enjoying this game MUCH more than I expected to! Though now that I'm near the end of the main story I don't particularly want to spend many hours grinding for money to get the last few upgrades, so it's time for a little cheating. For anyone interested in playing this I don't think I'll NEED the last few upgrades to beat the game, I just want them. :p

NOTE: My review is not based on a full playthrough, I have played about 4 hours of the game (it is supposedly around 14 hours long) but could not manage anymore due to my frustration with it.

I had really high hopes for this game. JRPGs is probably the genre I enjoy playing the most along with platformers and I love the classic Mega Man games for the NES (Mega Man 2 and 3 especially are two of my all-time favourites). So combining one of the greatest platform heroes with a JRPG structure and a unique deck-building battle system sounds like a heaven sent. Super Mario RPG and Paper Mario pulled it of really well after all.

Sadly enough, this game is not fun to play. The main two problems are these combined - Horrendous dungeon design and high encounter rate.

I constantly get lost in the digital landscapes Mega Man are traversing. Due to the high encounter rate, I cannot get the time I need to build a mental map of the area and what I need to do, resulting in each battle becoming frustrating instead of a fun experience. To me, this game is like that one part in the original Final Fantasy whereas each step is a random encounter, but extended to every dungeon I played. Since the visual design is very flimsy and homogenous, it is also difficult to distinguish one room from another, since everything shines in extreme colour palettes and look the same.

I unironically had to have an online guide by my side constantly to even get a grip of what to do, something I probably need to do 2-3 times in a regular 50 hour JRPG. I think I have spent more hours reading the guide for this game than all Final Fantasy games I have played (I, III, VI, VII, IX, X, XII) combined.

The overworld exploration is not that great either. Music in the real world is really grating to my ears, and the visual style is not my cup of tea (I really like the battle graphics tho!).

While there are good things with the game (Battle system is unique and interesting, the deck-building seems fun in concept), they do not compensate for the absolutely awful dungeon layouts, lack of natural progress in the design and a constant feeling of NOT wanting to continue.

If a game in a genre I am accustomed to and with a character I love make me feel like it is a punishment to have to play more of it, I cannot motivate myself to grade it higher than 1/5. Hopefully the sequels are better.

I don't know if I am judging this game fairly based on the fact that it came out in 2001, but so far this is a pure trash experience in my opinion.

The battle system is cool, but the role playing experience, puzzles, sense of direction and soundtrack is absolutely awful. I will give it a couple of more hours, but if nothing interesting is happening soon, this is by a large margin the worst Mega Man game I have ever played.

Finished this today. Very confident in my original 3/5 rating. The concept is fantastic, and the general loop of the gameplay is enjoyable but there are a lot of rough edges. I'm going to play the sequel at some point and see if they hammered out some of the details.

Also they did the weird thing that happens in so many games where the second to last boss is the hardest and the last boss is pretty easy. Weird how that happens so often.

So after playing a few more hours I'm beginning to understand my 3/5 more. I enjoy the chip collection and the flow of the battle, but the random encounters are a slog. Also, it has this weird habit that I feels possibly due to a technical limitation. There are a bizarre number of story beats that only appear after LEAVING an area. For example, if you have to go to the Ham Sandwich Emporium to pick up a Ham Battler v2 you'll go in and poke around for 15 minutes. The Ham Battler v2 will not be there. However, once you get frustrated and leave the Ham Sandwich Emporium (triggering a map change) you'll get a message that says "Hey, I just got an email. It turns out the Ham Battler v2 is actually at the back of the store! Let's check there!" and now you'll go back into the previous map it will magically be there. This happens with such frequency that it has to be a technical limitation. Maybe the map loading is wonky, and this was a way around it? It's so tedious, it couldn't be a design choice...right?

.........right?