Part 9: NaviCust!
Because I can't connect to the internet with Lan, a fitting moment given I'm writing this with no internet myself, I can't pre-record the next doubled boss fight, so that video will be slightly delayed in production.
I'd just like to point out that Lan has an action figure of his brother. That's rad as hell.
Lan, naturally, oversleeps on the day he has to leave for Yoka.
He probably stayed up late all night excited. As usual.
MegaMan usually handles that, but the SubPet doesn't have an alarm function.
That'd suck, though. Can't really blame Lan if his alarm didn't go off.
Nothing of note can really happen, so just heading to the school for progress is all we can do here.
Ms. Mari is rad as hell also.
The field trip is intended to just be a zoo visit, but plans change of course.
Yai is mostly concerned with the hot spring's quality. If it's anything like a public pool, it probably gets pissed in regularly, so...
It's a hot s ring. You'll notice there's no p in it. Let's keep it that way.
Fade out and back in, with a "Later that day..." transition, and here we are. New area means new swag all over the place.
Except we can't get any of it because we can't jack in.Alas, Epee Em continues to experience the sting of no internet access, even while playing MegaMans
Well, the zoo was the whole point of the trip, so off we go?
Makes sense, which is unusual in the MMBN-verse
Not quite.
Oh good, I was worried for a bit there, things making too much sense...
Everyone voices irritation, naturally, though Ms. Mari calms the kids down by explaining that this will just be a day off. Presumably this involved a few calls and arrangements, but nobody cares about infrastructural planning in a JRPG.
Things just happen, one after another. Then again, this could have been pre-arranged with the parents for a laff. I'd buy that.
With that, we're free to just explore. There's a specific destination to head to to trigger plot movement, but I took the time to talk to everyone to flesh out the setting. Starting with this little girl and her father. Though, practically speaking, this will give the readers a decent look around the Yoka area, which will be handy later on.
God, I want some cake now. THANKS EPEE EM.
Funnily enough, there actually IS a lottery game involved in Yoka, but it doesn't become available until later. This isn't it, but it provides a good opportunity for me to bring that up.
I'm going to assume the cut-off end of the line is something along the lines of stuffed toy, because otherwise, that's the best game everrrrr
Mmmm...I could really go for some of that myself.
I should not be working on updates just before dinner! Aaaaaaa
I'm not sure if it's pinball, pachinko, or what, but I'm sure it does indeed fit. Yoka, if you can't tell, is a homesy, folky area that features an old-fashioned charm.
It's your stereotypical hot springs town, and I am ok with that!
As for the reason the zoo closed, an employee explains that the zoo manager suddenly said so.
Arbitrary inconvenience is par for the MMBN course, so nobody really pays it mind.
Things just happen, y'know.
An old man here explains how power lines go underground exclusively in MMBN-land, this above-ground structure is just on display as historical.
That's pretty cool, I imagine the "check before you dig!!" sort of ads would be well more dire than they are when you don't have powerlines underground everywhere.
I will reiterate what a tease it is for all these things to be within reach yet unavailable.
I sort of imagine you sat there mashing the button and swearing. Confirm??
Weirdly, the Yoka Slope here becomes a bit of a minor waypoint for this game. All throughout the game, there will be NPCs here talking about the slope or interacting with it in some way. There's even a Job BBS request that involves it, if I remember correctly. I bring this up because it's weird for the series to draw focus like that. All hail The Slope.
I'm going to come out and say it's probably also one of the few places that isn't run by computers. Truly a wonder of this world.
The local souvenir shop is a pile of crap, incidentally.
They don't even sell things relevant to Yoka!
Sounds exactly like the souvenir shops in the small towns around here...
And I'm pretty sure, based on other prices seen in the games, that this is a huge ripoff. We'll actually run into a character here who runs the place, and she's actually the operator of a Navi we can fight.
Always overprice souvenirs, it's tradition.
The Ura Inn owner is a kindly, traditional lady dressed in equally traditional Japanese clothing.
Also the same height as Lan.
Apparently, deer scares aren't enough to bother boars at all. Nothing short of what I assume to be a blank round will do the job!
There's a few families who stay at the Ura Inn, and one of them stays there for the whole game. Note that samurai armor too, it can be jacked into later.
Isn't the Ura Inn like, an old-fashioned sort of place? Is their son an old man?? So many questions.
One of Lan's classmates mentions Style Changes, which return from MMBN2. I'll give them a more in-depth re-explanation when they actually come up later in the game. For now, I'll just remind the readers that they're basically just "prestige classes" of sorts that are determined by your play style.
This game has more styles than MMBN2, and thus it is more glorious. Seriously though, style changes are hella fun, and I really like the BN games that have them
She makes it sound like some sort of CyberPuberty though.
A fairly accurate representation??
No idea why it's a picture of MegaMan and ProtoMan duking it out, but sure, it does look cool I guess?
You'd think so, but on closer inspection...
Jazzhands
If you go out this back entrance, which you need to do, you'll find a back area behind the local hot springs.
Yai's back here too, but the game directs you to find this rickety fence here.
Also Yai's back here!!
You'll want to remember that this is back here, because the game triggers progress once you examine the fence, and you can take that as a sure sign it'll be relevant later.
But that sign says keep out. I hope you're not planning on breaking any trespassing law- oh wait we did that earlier on with the school, huh. I guess we're past that point.
Ms. Mari announces bath time for the hot spring, and that means...
Yes, Lan brought the SubPet into the spring. What would you expect from him?
Oh dear lord, the water's already yellow. I guess there was a p in hot springs
MegaMan's relaxed as all heck too.
Lan agrees, but then realizes that MegaMan isn't exactly in some sort of CyberSpring.
IT WOULD BE PLAUSIBLE, THO.
Well, half the series is premised on Lan and MegaMan having sibling unison-thingies and sharing sensations, so maybe MegaMan's getting some feel-good vibes anyway.
Yeah, let's roll with that.
Yeah man, why the hell not!
Yum yum?
Pillow fight at the inn! Everyone but Yai is enjoying themselves muchly.
Ooh, neat, they actually have custom sprites for this scene, too. Gotta admit, that's spiffy!
The next day arrives, and it's time for the zoo trip.
ZOO TRIP? ZOO TRIP??? So exciting!!
Email arrives from Yuuichiro, annnnd...
and?? oh my gosh more exciting than zoo trip???
Perfect, everything's functioning well again.
Always good to have internet back! ...I hope your internet is up now, Epee!
The game also forces you to check the email, not allowing you to leave the room until you do, which has an additional surprise for us.
Mmmm, it's not that big a surprise that you wouldn't read an email from our best bro Dex, but-
The NaviCust! This thing basically lets MegaMan equip various programs like you would equipment in any other RPG, except there's a special puzzle-like interface for it. And, in true MMBN fashion, it's trivially easy to snap in half.
oh. Ohhhhh! God I love this thing except for one specific program
Yuuichiro also sent a non-customizable extra folder, the first of several we'll find in this game, but the NaviCust is way more important. That said, it's important to have that, because you can sometimes configure your NaviCust to be incompatible with your current Folder setup.
I'll abridge the tutorial to these simple rules:
1: Programs without a plus pattern on them go on the Command Line, which Yuuichiro's text box is blocking partially here. At least one block of the program needs to be on the Command Line somewhere.
2: Programs with a plus pattern can't touch the Command Line, same deal in reverse.
3: Programs with the same color can't touch.
4: You can only use programs of the colors specified next to MegaMan's style type. We're currently NormalStyle, so we can only use pink, yellow, and white programs.
There are later means to break those rules in fun and powerful ways. You can also deliberately screw up the programs to bug MegaMan, and there are a few upsides to doing so. For example, if you bug 3 Buster-related programs at the same time, your buster becomes RockCube. Which sounds useless until you remember the synergy with AirShot! So on so forth, the NaviCust adds a huge extra level of customization to the game.
NaviCust really is a fantastic addition to these games.
After you've finished all that, you hit RUN. The current programs thus far are UnderShirt, which lets MegaMan keep 1 HP on an otherwise lethal hit so long as he isn't at 1 HP already (surprise, you can break this easily), and a pair of buster programs that are basically useless in my hands.
MegaMan is cheerful and optimistic about the NaviCust, and you should be too!
I am, because you're running a pretty pink program! ...and I guess UnderSht is a pretty decent program to start with. And because I know you're going to be using my favourite program later, and this is a good first step towards that, mwahahaha
Also, errors are not the same as bugs. If you REALLY break things by trying to use a program of a color you don't have access to, you create an error, and there's no way to actually get MegaMan back up and running in that case. Later on we'll be able to do amazingly powerful things with this, of course. This is Battle Network, you try and name me something customizable that CAN'T be broken in these games.
I question Yuuichiro's judgment in providing this possibility to noted idiot, Lan. But then, I'm sure it'll be fine.
Back on track, it's time to loot and plunder Yoka's jack in spots!
Also check out the zoo! Wheee!!
This TV has an Unlocker.
An easy 4000z saved there!
There's a jack-in point in the lion headed fountain in the spring, but it's not active until later in the game. Also, these here buckets are guarding something of incredible importance. I'm not joking. More than any security system, more than any NetNavi guardians, these buckets form the most almighty protective barrier in the whole series.
Somebody piled those up extremely tidily, patting themselves on the back for doing a good job setting up that protective barrier
The samurai armor has a jack in port, but none of these areas have new viruses to speak of.
Always check suits of armour for Mr Progs. That's just basic common sense.
A SubMem item is inside though, which means we can carry more
There are other SubChips, allegedly.
Also, one of the Mr. Progs slips up and reveals that the armor is actually a disguised air purifier.
I'd be secretive too if I owned an Ionic Breeze or something.
Meet Tamako, MetalMan.EXE's operator. I won't be doubling this fight up until later in the game because there's a scripted point we'll be fighting MetalMan a few chapters ahead, and that'll be a better point to double up. I can't actually access ACDC area, which is necessary for the romhacking to work, so MetalMan and the next boss are going to be postponed.
Tamako is pretty cool but her hairclips seem kind of hazardous.
MetalMan's a total chump anyway is the thing. He's absolutely predictable, slow, and always follows the same pattern over and over. First he launches missiles that rain down on you, then he throws his Metal Blade in a boomerang pattern. The gears grind back and forth, and are apparently meant to make him tougher, but they really don't manage to. Later in the game he'll mix things up with a punch attack, but even then. I just decided to wait until I got LifeSword ready for the sake of PA completion, that's how stupidly easy MetalMan is.
I like MetalMan.exe, he's a cool guy. I don't understand why he has gears patrolling the field insteaf of y'know, the metal blades that otherwise seem to be his motif.
Let's get the plot moving again already!