Part 52: Final Transmission.

Last time, we finished the rest of the boss rematches and were standing at Wily's last door. Our goal: stop Wily from using the Internet to bring about Armageddon.

Good thing Wily doesn't know about the Geddon series of chips, or we'd be kinda screwed. I can totally see him making like a Geddon X chip where it affects the entire internet.

No wait that's what happens in MMBN5 for the Liberation missions!



After over two years of this LP!

2+ years, 5 sets of commentary, and we're finally at the end. Kinda nostalgic, huh.





They weren't hard.



The camera then pans to show these pawns of his.





Anetta, you stupid fucking bitch! You walked into this room, saw the purple liquid and STILL thought "Hey, Wily's trying to help nature!"

To be fair, she's a fanatic, Wily's gifted with a silver tongue, and this is MMBN where logic takes a backseat to radioactive server growth.







Oh, only 80? I thought we had less time than that.

Wily got the free version of the software from the guys that made the old Windows progress bar. 'It's been at 80% for five hours, how much longer will it oh it just finished.'



Apparently, the last 20% will take a few minutes, even though the first 80 took well over a day. There is a good reason for this, which we'll see in just a moment.





And then once that happens, the nuclear missiles will get hacked, and then...Game Over.

Quick, let's make Alpha play chess with itself so we can teach it not to be a hateful bastard.





Wait, no jacks?

What? What.



Shit. Wily IS smart! He just went Genre Savvy on us, I don't believe it.



Wily sits down, laughs for the third time this update and proclaims he will become Alpha's brain, thereby performing another Forced "Full Synchro."

Hng.



Lan, looks around for a bit and eyes this machine. This one's empty, presumably because it was meant for Inukai.

You know, Wily probably should have thought about that before jacking himself in.

Also that phrase sounded a lot less dirty in my head.







Pffft, as I said last update. So long as Lan's IQ doesn't drop below 5, we're fine.



Lan's mantra for everything, right here.

At this point, he's correct, though, since we only have a few minutes before Alpha takes over the world and worrying about possible brain damage is (besides more or less moot when it comes to Lan) a waste of time.



Fused your brain with your Navi and it gets deleted? Fall unconscious. Censorship.

If we discount Battle Network 4 and Mr. Match, that is...

That actually explains a lot about that scenario, actually.









This will be...our final jack-in.

I always see the games as two sets of three. The first trilogy is (in my opinion) better, but just because MMBN1 is tolerable instead of terrible. I fully enjoyed the second and third games of each set, and replayed each of them multiple times. MMBN5 is still probably one of my favorite games of all times, and I've recently replayed MMBN6 because of EPM's LP of it.



Also spoiler alert getting your consciousness encoded into data probably REALLY FUCKING HURTS.





https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6hA-XoiQ2Q

One of the best tracks in the series. This played during the Tank computers, too, but it seemed very appropriate to show it here.





It's honestly kind of heartwarming.

Two brothers, reunited at last.





Remember that dream at the start of the scenario?





You jinxed it! Giver, this is all your fault!





"Just a prophetic sense of doom, nothing to worry about, off we go to save the day."





The ultimate weapon has been made. This is the true Full Synchro. The result of a human fusing with a Navi that have completely bonded with one another. A little DNA helps, too.

It's probably this right here that lets Lan Full Synchro with MegaMan in the future games, as well as know his mental state. This is, of course, assuming the writers of MMBN4 had half of a functioning brain, which is debatable.





We can't actually leave this. This is as final as it gets.





The viruses are just thematic. This is the only place in the game where we can find AlphaBug3s and the KillerEye is simply taking direction from Alpha's design. Slimey's fit with the whole jelly-like design Alpha has.

The AlphaBugs don't drop chips, which kinda makes me sad. I would have liked to see what they could do. Maybe a health drain like Roll, only without the time stop? Eh, whatever.

Moving onward...





And this right here is why Alpha is only 80% decoded. Guardian is protecting the last 20%.

It's really inconvenient to get rid of without taking the 200 damage, so can you blame him?





For the record, Bass and MegaMan don't get any kind of gameplay power up. Strictly narrative here.



Gee, Bass, I don't know. Maybe he's counting on the Guardian destroying you, or at least consuming most of your power?





What a brilliant psychopath.







He has over-the-top confidence...



...social charisma...



...he makes it seem like he cares about people's feelings...



...and best of all, he's highly effective in inducing sympathy and guilt in other people. All of those are used to win over those imbued with power and position that they want themselves.

Like I said, Wily's got a silver tongue. It's really easy to play to people's emotions, especially when you keep your own throttled, or at least as focused as Wily's are. Besides, he's a Battle Network Doctor, he's probably got PhDs in psychology.



By having Bass destroy Guardian, Wily will be able to merge with Alpha, thus obtaining the power necessary for his goals. Does this sound like any LPer you know?

Yeah, me

Bass charges up an attack and destroys Guardian.







Well, shit. Lan and MegaMan couldn't beat Bass before. Now Bass is even stronger.

Eh, just do that Balance trick again.



Little late to the party, MegaMan.





I find it funny how they say "You again!" consecutively.

Collective thread reaction to Giver's reveal: 'You again? '



Don't worry MegaMan. Bass just had a conversation with Anetta. His opinion doesn't surprise me one bit.

Also, flicker effects.

I prefer to think of it as Bass has transformed to his Shiny version. Equal strength (except for the first game) just with bragging bonus attached.





The irony here is simply astounding.

??? I don't get it



And after about thirty minutes of staring at it, I now understand the irony. I'm sick and that tends to play havoc with my mental faculties, give me a break.



I don't know, when all you have is a NetNavi, everything looks like a virus...



I kid, I kid.







Hit a nerve there, Bass?



Only problem, that doesn't work. Humans are by nature herd creatures, and it stands to reason that anything based off of their neurological patterns (such as, oh, I don't know, a program that thinks like a human) would follow the same basic instincts. And before anyone complains about the 'herd creatures' thing, try to explain the existence of Something Awful otherwise





It's a shame Bass never got redeemed at any point in the series. Then again, the only direction you can go with Bass would be to redeem him. And if you redeem him, he won't be as cool anymore.

I don't know I think raw fucking power is a pretty good character arc. Make him go out on (and possibly with) a bang.

But you can only do that so much with Bass.





Yes, let's fight.







Fight at 2:50

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpkGaXvZLLo

Assuming Guardian made Bass stronger, then I guess we're left to assume that Lan and MegaMan's Full Synchro bridged the gap by a HUGE amount. Either that, or when MegaMan first fought FlamMan, he was really, REALLY tired from the fight. Or maybe Guardian made Bass weaker.

What's probably happening is a) Lan and MegaMan are now acting as one, saving a whole lot of time, b) Bass might be a little tired from breaking Guardian, but the power boost brings him back to normal, and c) we all know that the post-bossfight cutscenes act like MegaMan has 1 HP left.

Dealing with Bass is a good exercise in strategy. See, you aren't supposed to fight him the normal means. You're supposed to wait until he's about to fire one of his gigantic Buster attacks, then damage him to stop it. If you don't do that, then he'll get his Aura back, meaning you'll have to waste a chip to break it before you can lay down any damage. This is a nerf from Battle Network 2, where Bass got his Aura back regardless if you damaged him or not.

It's still considered the LifeAura, which is a chip we can use, if we're willing to waste a MegaChip slot on something that really isn't that useful...

Another option is to simply use:

These chips shut Bass down completely. The mask that appears will block any and all frontal shots, while damaging him through his Aura. Stack a few in your folder and go to town.

Once Bass gets down to half HP, he'll start using Earthbreaker, which, as I explained earlier, completely drops the one defense he has. The developers put that in to help you deal with the fact that you need to waste a chip to drop his Aura. Frankly, I don't see the need. He only has 1,000 HP and the majority of your folder should be comprised of attacks greater than 100 by now. If that isn't the case and you absolutely need Earthbreaker, then you've messed up horribly. What with elemental bonuses, NaviChips, and everything else, this shouldn't be a tall order. And just like the video, a well-timed Left+B will immediately negate any threat from the Aura.

His regular attacks aren't really that threatening either; he has to jump to your row to use the first one, giving you plenty of time to dodge if you're in the back row, and his other attacks all have a pretty big charge-up time as well as remaining motionless the entire fight, allowing for pretty much any attack to hit. Earthbreaker might be nasty the first time a player encounters it, just because it breaks the column. If you're trapped up in the front, well... That could be a problem. Not a huge one, but a problem.



You suck.

_{I totally lost to him my first time playing this game}

Although, I can't say that. My quality can be summed up as such:







You just explained that...?

I'm sorry I'm just fascinated by the way your health is dropping by two every digit



Period's hiding behind the arrow, there.





Right. Wily tried to clone Bass and his power in the second game just so that power can be used to destroy Guardian. Naturally, that didn't turn out well, so Wily opted to go for the real deal instead.

This is the second time we've dealt with Bass as a prelude to the real boss fight (spoiler there's the real boss fight coming up)











Now, now, MegaMan. He isn't dirty, he's fucking genius.

You use the tools given to you, and when your best tool is your massive intellect you can do a hell of a lot in this setting.



The screen starts shaking.







RIP Bass.

Nah he's totally okay we just have to wait for the collector thingy...



...oh. Bye Bass







Be careful what you wish for...



RIP Old Man

...because on certain occasions you'll get it. Ya did say all of it, geezer.





Done in by his own evil plan.











I guess MegaMan thinks this will be too easy for a final boss fight, because I kinda agree.

YESS
YESSS
YOU GOT IT WHEN IT MATTERED

And to all you whiny bitches complaining about our constant about Blink animation, shut up this is fantastic okay

Fight at 2:05. It may or may not be apparent that my computer is dying. AlphaBug has seeped into my machine.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-GguVZFZTU

This is it. The final boss. Alpha's difficulty entirely depends on what kind of chips you choose to bring. Should you bring multi-hit attacks, then he's an absolute joke, but stick to one-hit wonders and you've got a problem. It's mainly due to the two-tiered defense around his core. Each tier has a defense of 25 HP that slowly regenerates if you don't keep attacking. This is hidden, but the actual HP values of the tier also regenerates over time. So, if you break through tier 1 but don't attack tier 2, tier 1 will eventually form back. However, in the short time tier 1 reforms, it's HP is REALLY low. You can see this in the video where I'm spamming buster shots. The reason for this type of video is because compared to the challenges already faced in this LP, Alpha is kind of a joke. Instead, you just get a beatdown using some effective strategies.

I'm going to admit, my over-reliance on LifeSword and charged buster attacks on my first playthrough made Alpha way more of a challenge than he should have been, since I didn't have Wood style when I first played. I think I eventually beat him, but it was close. And a preemptive shut up to you, Giver, I was like 8. I didn't understand how this game worked I only knew when you put three chips together it did like 400 damage.



This chip will completely stop 95% of Alpha's moves. That is, if you can somehow kill BubbleMan Beta or get lucky via Chip Trader.



Amazing for this fight. And I can't believe I actually found a use for Needler! You'll see these in the video, but they just turn Alpha into dust.



These chips can form Zeta-level Program Advances which completely destroy this boss. Since Zeta level advances rely on mashing A to deal damage, and because Alpha doesn't have any mercy invincibility, you can deal as much damage as you want. Yes, there are more Zeta Program Advances, but they aren't as effective as the ones above.

Pretty much anything that does a lot of hits in a concentrated zone is fantastic. YoYo in particular is one I like, because if you're three columns away it just kinda tears into him.


When Alpha does the Lightning Rod at really low HP, just remember that it can be stopped. The Lightning Rod can take about 450 HP before the attack ceases. Is it worth doing that over simply dodging the move? No, but it's a fun fact. Just don't try that against Omega Rocket -- the missile he used that blows up the back two columns. That thing has way too much HP to break.

Wait you can break the Lightning Rod? Holy shit. Anyway, he may seem a bit over-armed with weaponry and such, but remember, he's originally a weaponized program.

Everything else is self-explanatory, but the real show stealer is here:



The awesomeness! The power! The Bruce Lee kick!

I like how the kick is only there for like a few frames while everything else gets a little lag to it.

I mentioned this a few updates back when I used the Lotto Numbers, but if you put together the chips Salamander *, Fountain *, Bolt *, and GaiaBlade * together, you'll get MasterStyle. A Program Advance that's known for sheer awesomeness. If the enemy is located in the first two columns and doesn't have holes on either side of them, this move can deal 1000 damage minimum. Stack an Atk+30 on it and it's even stronger.

Like any multi-hit attack, Atk+ chips affect every hit. This is going to be especially important fairly soon.

There are several problems with Master Style, however. The first being that it requires 4 MegaChips, so that limits your NaviChip options severely. Unless you have TeamStyle equipped, you'll only have one more MegaChip to put in your folder. Secondly, 3/4 of the chips required to make the Program Advance won't be usable at all. That's because you need the proper style element to use any one of the given chips. In a PvP or S-ranking environment, that's simply a dead draw. MasterStyle looks awesome, but it's highly impractical. You use this more for laughs and a flashy finish than anything strategic.










RIP Kirby





When this happens in video games, the first thing I think is... "True Final Boss"

Except you're forgetting that MegaMan boss fights only have two stages. And, we haven't had our full plot-dump yet.







Right, let's finish this fight.

yeah let's do this shit and



Nah, suspense is more fun.

You tease!