Part 7: Morning wood.
Before I begin, I'm quoting a post Broken Loose (the guy who made the unarchived MMBN1 LP, and who's shadow I've been laboring in) made explaining DarkChips in detail. I'll give them some spotlighting in a later update, but for now, this is a great explanation for the time being.Broken Loose posted:
For those of you who have never played this, here's a little more exposition:
There are multiple Dark Chips, and each one has a different frightening ingame description and overpowered ingame effect. DarkSword, for instance, is a 500-damage, 2 column, 3 row sword.
If you get Anxious, you will begin the turn with the icon already hovering over the DarkChip. This is a really themey and cool effect, alongside the screen-dimming and crazy sound from hovering over it.
Dark Chips can only be selected by themselves. As in, you cannot upload "normal" battlechips and Dark Chips in the same turn. Also, if you choose to upload a Dark Chip, you are affected by a glitch depending on the chip or chips uploaded. In the case of DarkSword, Megaman acts as if you are constantly holding right on the control pad. This is visible in Epee Em's video. (EPM: Although not intentionally, as I was holding right anyway at the time and made no effort to move back. I forgot about that.)
Okay, so every time you use a Dark Chip (outside of this battle), Megaman's HP permanently goes down by 1. What Epee Em neglected to mention was that he also gets slightly darker. Eventually, he turns pitch black once you get in the extreme ranges, until you are effectively an evil version of yourself. Once sufficiently evil, Megaman's face will appear different in combat and you will no longer be able to go Full Synchro or utilize Soul Unisons. It's the price you pay...
The price you pay for pure fucking power. Once you are evil enough to never be able to Unite or go Full Synchro, you begin fights with Dark Chips available to you. My later playthroughs tried this and it's disgusting. It also works in multiplayer. (EPM: Netbattling 'friends' at the time who used them was plenty of fun...)
Remember the Dark Hole and DarkLicense from Battle Network 3, that allowed you to use the Dark Aura and other ridiculous chips? There are equivalent ridiculous chips (like the fucking disgusting BugBomb that forced glitches onto your opponent, even in multiplayer) that you cannot use unless you are sufficiently evil in Battle Network 4. (EPM: Actually, BugBomb is usable even as light MegaMan. Muramasa is a better example.) Just the same, you cannot use certain "good" chips (like the Guns Del Sol) if you are evil enough.
If you go through an entire battle without being Anxious or using a Dark Chip, Megaman's descent into darkness will reverse and you can regain your color alongside the privileges of being good. You will never get those HP back, though. Also, there's a NaviCust program called "Soul Cleanser" that accelerates the process.
Fucking around with Dark Chips is actually fun and rewarding, and this moral choice system is one of the best I've seen in a video game (instant gratification versus long-term survival). It's a real shame that the execution of Battle Network 4 is so terrible.
Time for another tournament! Sure glad that we went through ToyRobo hell to get here, I'm sure the gameplay will be worth it.
The preliminaries for the Hawk Tournament are annoying, tedious, and incredibly frustrating.
Hidden in every nook and cranny of the game available for exploration this far are these things. BattlePoints. We need to collect 50 of them. It's a massive pain in the ass. It's a scavenger hunt across the whole world open thus far.
But if we beat the Hawk Tournament, Lan will be recognized as the best in all of Electopia! Wow, I can hardly contain my excitement! Not like we haven't proven that over and over already.
I have the locations of all of them memorized. Like PTSD, I get flashbacks of my original playthroughs of this game, agonized memorizes that were best left suppressed. The first place you want to go is back to the Dracky ToyRobo, because this guy gives you a whopping 10 points if you can clear a 3-round battle. Standard fare, it's very easy.
And yes, these points are hidden everywhere, some of them are just completely insane. You can only see the kid back here who gives you one measly point if you wait a few seconds for him to dart in and out of view.
There are also points in the Cyberworld, naturally, especially the generic devices you can jack into. The Netbattle Machine from the first tournament has this program that challenges you to Rock Paper Scissors. Those things on a program's head, by the way, aren't ears. They're hands. Naturally, they can only choose scissors, so this is an easy 5 points.
And yes, even inside people's houses. I think the only screens in the game that don't have any points are Lan's house and bedroom. The tournament committee apparently broke in during the night and hid them.
Out of sheer boredom, I fight AquaMan V2 over here. 1000 HP is quite a bit, but now that I've had some folder improvements, it's entirely doable. Especially with a bit of Full Synchro. As Broken Loose mentioned, you lose the ability to do that when you overuse DarkChips. I like battling, even in this game, DarkChips would make fights less fun.
You also get a view of GunDelSolEX in action, although sadly not a very good one. A later boss battle in this update will demonstrate GunSol1 in a better way, and from there it'll be easier to explain the mechanics of the chip series.
This jackass found a few points and is selling them for a profit. Profiteering from the suffering of others, eh?
Four points for 3000z, ugh. I had just done some zenny farming as well, so this was a finger to my efforts, which had to be extended in order to recoup the loss.
The plot holes...so many plot holes...heh...heh heh...
Did I mention how insanely some of these are hidden? I remember this all too well from hours and hours and, trust me, HOURS of hunting for the fucking things. A few people in the thread have mentioned that they're playing along with me, and if any of you guys have gotten to this point blind, good fucking luck to you.
No notable dialogue, but I did abruptly notice how this mugshot has a pretty nice
face.
Heading back towards where we chased ShadeMan in the beginning of the game nets us the last 5 points...
For your sake, I hope you had one of these already like I did.
Anyway, the reason for the aforementioned zenny farming is this. Meet GameBreaker #2, SuperVulcan. It fires 12 FRICKING SHOTS. They all do 10 damage each, but you can imagine what kind of insane damage you can rack up with it with boosts.
First of all, consider the humble Atk+10 you start the game with. This makes every shot deal 20 damage, doubling the total to 240. ColorPoint, which I already have, is a variation. By sacrificing a column of panels from your field, as if the opponent had used AreaGrab, you get an attack+10 for each panel. Suddenly, SuperVulcan deals a ridiculous 40 damage per bullet, for a total of 480.
The thing is, you use ColorPoint BEFORE a chip, and Atk+10 AFTER a chip. Combine them both and you get 50 damage per bullet, for an utterly insane 600 damage.
There are DoublePoint and Atk+30 MegaChips in this game later on. Those monstrosities yield a total of 100 for each bullet. For 3 chips and a column of panels, that's 1200 damage.
Now add Full Synchro. Alternatively, it can also be boosted with certain souls. Most prominently, GutsSoul in Red Sun which adds an additional +30 to all panel-breaking or null element chips, or MetalSoul in Blue Moon which doubles the damage of null or breaking chips and adds a piercing effect as well.
DarkChips shmarkchips. Who needs 'em?
As a reward for qualifying for the Hawk Tournament, we're given a second folder to play with. The only use I have for it at this point is harvesting the two Vulcan1 * chips it comes with.
Lan, you were JUST TOLD THAT IT WAS!
Fuckup Tally: 79
Oh FUCK!
This is a very, very, very bad layout for this tournament. On one hand, we get WoodSoul, but that means no MetalSoul. WoodMan's scenario itself...well, you'll see. Round1 isn't the issue here. In Round 2, we'll either be up against VideoMan, who's scenario is could be replaced with a giant "FUCK YOU" flashing on screen for 20 minutes and be improved, or Flav, who comes with an irritating quicktime minigame.
On the other bracket of the tournament, because we'll be fighting WoodMan and the game only permits one soul per tournament, MetalMan isn't an option. The HeelNavi and NormalNavi aren't very likely opponents, I'm pretty sure the game favors custom Navis over generic ones, so this means the finals could pit me against BURNERMAN.
Lingering dread aside, Sal and WoodMan make a return from MMBN1 as well, much like multiple viruses had.
They were an optional fight, and WoodMan had a very annoying HP-restoration move that made them kind of tough.
Here you go, Keyboard Fox, another code for the pile.
I like Sal. She's an environmentalist, but unlike all the others like Dave and Annetta, she puts more focus on 'environment' instead of 'mental'. And I'll admit, she's sort of cute given how nice she is, her day job is selling all-natural lunches she's made herself.
Lan naturally is enthusiastic about those.
Since MMBN1, she's been spreading the environmentalist movement as best she can over the internet with WoodMan.
We can't have a tournament scenario without a stupid conflict though, what game did you think this is?
The years haven't treated Hoggish Greedly very well, but at least he's lost weight.
I don't think you'd be able to fit very many buildings on the acre or so that ACDC town takes up.
Mayor Greedly's probably a bit dusty upstairs, but he never was very smart.
I wonder what that is?
Fuckup Tally: 80
I can't imagine why Sal would be bothered, MegaMan! Well, you know the drill, off we go after her. She's headed to ElecTown Square.
Sadly for Sal, she's the lone voice of sanity and brains as far as environmentalists go in the series.
3 guesses what this scenario is going to be:
A. A 'stop the eco-terrorists and defeat the Navi' scenario.
B. A 'navigate an obstacle course' scenario.
C. A 'haul ass back to ParkArea3' scenario.
So...block that Navi?
Call the Officials? Kick him out forcibly? Any sort of effort made against it?
CyberBombs! Considering how defeated enemy Navis always explode with impressive pyrotechnics, you'd think the Cyberworld was resistant to explosives.
Even Lan is aware of why this isn't good.
Fuckup Tally: 81
Which isn't saying much.
Fuckup Tally: 82
No, Lan, the other way around! She fed you, you do HER the favor!
Our first task is to go interrupt a speech being given by Mayor Greedly proposing the ACDC renovations. The eco-terrorists are probably there, after all.
Interrupting the speech and barging past the guard, as well as shoving the mayor out of the way, Lan jacks into the Netbattle Machine. This is the only Navi we have to stop, at least. And hey, who said I was mild?
Walla: Walrus viruses! They'll sit there harmlessly until MegaMan moves onto the same row, at which point they'll fire their tusks down the same row and the one adjacent. The tusks block projectiles themselves.
We get away with the interruption because the guard doesn't like the mayor and found us funny.
Sal calls us back to Castillo, as WoodMan has gone missing abruptly.
Sal's managed to calm down the others, so no other attacks at least, but now WoodMan's MIA.
Gosh, this radicalizer Navi must be ultra-persuasive, if just being near him is enough to sway one's beliefs.
"I think there might be a problem with that, are you sure?"
"Do it for Sal. She's secretly angry and wishes you'd do it, she just won't say it."
"Okay, sounds good to me!"
So now WoodMan's been indoctrinated with terrorist ideals.
Let the gauntlet begin.
We have to slog all the way back to the very end of ParkArea3 again, with wooden spikes attacking us the whole way through.
Only, Capcom coded this section horribly. Exiting a random battle causes the area to fail to load on the emulator, and the same issue happens on the GBA SP and DS on the cartridge version.
I am forced to use GameShark codes in order to disable random encounters, or progressing any further in the game is fucking impossible.
Fuckup Tally: 92
Another +10 because programming Fuckups that render the game unplayable are the worst. Jesus fucking Christ! At least with the data-swapping scripting game-crasher that I covered before it involved doing something that could be easily avoided. This? Necessary. There is no avoiding this. I hope that anybody who goes out and buys an old cartridge version of this game for whatever insane reason has an old GBA they can play this part on, or they've wasted their money.
Upon reflection, I kind of regret not recording how these spikes move. Dodging them is very, very difficult, and they deal 30 HP per hit. They can't kill you, and with random encounters turned off I have nothing to fear, but the knockback they also cause gets insanely annoying.
Well, if you could call a clusterfuck of wooden spikes a tree, yes.
WoodMan's flimsy brainwashing is no match for MegaMan's guilt trip.
You've been a bad Navi, WoodMan.
The terrorist Navi returns and threatens us with his CyberBombs, but WoodMan quickly dispatches him with a Wood Tower, earning a lazy explosion. Most Navis, especially bosses and HeelNavis, will at least recoil in pain as they explode, but Capcom was too lazy to make they extra sprite for this already generic Navi, choosing to make him say "*kaboom!*" instead.
That idiocy taken care of, we return for the tournament match. All 1500 of Sal's followers have come to watch! She's the leader of the environmentalist group, obviously.
WoodMan, being a tree, is very susceptible to two weaknesses that all plants share...
Sunlight and water!
As promised, I'll explain GunDelSol chips now.
GunSol1/2/3 all create a 3-panel spread of solar energy 2 columns ahead of MegaMan. GunSolEX's spread is an additional column larger, giving it a massive range. The chips lack set damage, what they do instead is drain enemy HP at insane speeds as long as you hold the A button down. In a nice nod to the Boktai games, if Lan is in an outside environment when the chip is used, it drains HP even faster. I should note that the sheer speed of the HP drain can't be overstated, a full blast of GunSolEX can do around 400 damage, and I should note that the sunlight even pierces auras, removes Invis, and ignores mercy invincibility.
The sunlight also has the useful effect of removing obstacles from the field without even triggering them. Yes, this includes Guardian. As a bonus, it won't destroy in-battle Mystery Data as well. Finally, they also remove DarkHoles from the field. We haven't seen any of these yet, but they're used similarly to the Hole chip from the last game, boosting the effects of certain chips this time rather than enabling them.
The GunSol chips are stupidly powerful, and the sheer number of useful effects they have can't be ignored. The main drawback is that you can't move while firing them, so pinning down an enemy to ensure maximum damage as well as protecting yourself is crucial to use.
We also get WoodSoul. Eh. Compared to the other souls in this game, it's mediocre, and the only Wood chips for using it at this point are Boomers.
Ah shit.