Part 106: The Last Grinding.
Taoto posted:
Since I have Epee's blessing, I'd like to take this time to show off the removed boss of the US version to all of you. As you are already aware, the fourth and fifth game had a crossover with Konami's Bokura no Taiyou games, also known as Boktai. There was a third game in the series that had a crossover with MMBN6, however, due to the poor sales of both Boktai games in the US, the third game never was brought over. This led to one of the worst content removals ever executed, by Capcom of America. More on this later. For the time being, let me introduce you to:
Hakushaku. Hakushaku can be found in the Immortal Area, one of the areas that was removed in the US version of the game. To enter the Immortal Area, you need to have the bat key from beating Bass the first time in Green Area and take it to the end of Underground 2, as well as to face Hakushaku, you have to complete a side-quest involving Django and Otenko. Much like the original time you face ShadeMan in 4, you cannot damage Hakushaku the first time you face him. After a little bit in the fight, there will be a cutscene involving Django and Otenko, then you face him again for real. Fun fact: Hakushaku literally translates as "Count", as well as Elec Man's operator from the first game, Count Zap, was known as "Elec Hakushaku" in the Japanese version. Not a bad translation, all things considered.
Meteors Mk.I
Hakushaku will typically start the battle by lobbing up to five different meteors at once, which will burn the panels they land on for a couple seconds. Luckily, they don't always come clustered together, so stealing panels will always help. The panels will flash to indicate where the meteors will hit.
Elec Cross
Hakushaku will move two rows in front of you, the panels will flash very briefly, and then he will do an electric attack in a + shape on the ground. He will always go two panels away so that you will be in the center of the targeted area when it starts.
Meteors Mk.II
This is a different version of the first attack, where he will repeatedly lob up to six pairs of meteors onto your side of the field. The pairs will always be adjacent to each other vertically, so just move left and right to avoid it.
Blood Spikes
Hakushaku will summon up to three groups of three spikes from the ground in a random, adjacent formation from where you stand. All of Hakushaku's attacks make the panels flash, so as always, just pay attention on where to avoid.
Rain of Blood
This is probably the only somewhat dangerous attack Hakushaku has. The panels will flash over a 3x3 area, then Hakushaku will rain blood down over the area. I suppose it's possible that it hits any 3x3 area on the grid, but I've only ever personally seen him use it on rows 2,3 and 4, so the back row is safe. The only thing that makes this potentially dangerous is that it's possible to have Meteors Mk.II or Blood Spikes occurring at the same time, though it's unlikely since he usually stays in his attack animation through both of those.
If I recall correctly, it's still possible to get the Hakushaku SP chip in the US version of the game via Gold Mystery Data (and they changed the name to HackJack before "removing" it), but doing so will immediately crash the game.
I'd like to thank Nigoli for the perfect save I was able to use to get this, since apparently my various saves over the years all corrupted themselves while in my external hard drive.Also, Epee, if you're wanting the Django chips and PA , let me know.
Quoting this in the update so that the archival script is sure to grab it.
So begins a rather annoying new title screen icon achievement the patch added in.
I could do this since defeating BassSP. Once you've done that, the graves of WWW Navis defeated over the course of the game start glowing, provided that you've S-ranked their SP.
You're then thrown into the RV (Revenge) Navi fights. I didn't even bother recording these, because unlike the GD Navis, these are basically just faster and stronger versions of mostly simple bosses. The RV Navi content is in the vanilla game, but what we have to do with them is added by the patch.
The graves stop glowing once you've defeated the RV Navi. Much like the DS Navis in MMBN5 however, they'll start glowing again once you jack out and return.
One thing I should mention: You can fight the RV Navis with LinkNavis normally. When you do this with MegaMan, you get a rematch with BassSP. Normally when you try this with a LinkNavi, the BassSP encounter doesn't trigger. The patch changes that, and what we're trying to do here is beat BassSP with all 5 LinkNavis now that they've been levelled up to maximum level by the completed genocide of PunkNavis across the game.
As for why I'm bringing this up with this particular screenshot? That's because when using a LinkNavi, you don't have access to TomahawkSwing (Unless, obviously, you're using TomahawkMan). This makes Nightmare viruses a gigantic pain in the ass, because most sword chips aren't really worth using at this point in the game. For the first time in the game, I ran away from a fight because the only sword chip in my folder is AssassinSword.
The main handicap with using LinkNavis is that you don't have the bonuses you'll be used to with the NaviCust. So I'm deprived of NumberOpen, for example. Fortunately, the LinkNavis have a few default programs installed, hence why AquaMan gets an extra chip on the custom screen.
Incidentally, CircusManRV is just nasty.
After beating all the RV Navis, BassSP proceeds to insist that the grave at the end is in fact the LinkNavi's, despite each LinkNavi having their own grave already. Well, it didn't work with MegaMan, so that grave has to be put to use somehow!
Even without NumberOpen, the absurdly powerful folder I've built makes easy work of BassSP. We now get unique dialogue added by MegaRock and Prof. 9.
Bass' personality is pretty easy to write for. Even some goons got in on it:
Glazius posted:
So I guess there's nothing like a comedic scene where Bass uses GetAbility to absorb, say, the Joke program from Megaman and then runs around trying to work out what possible use it has?
Somebody has to have made a comic of that at some point, at least.
Screaming Idiot posted:
I'm sad that there isn't a Grenademan.exe and even more sad that Bass didn't accidentally get "Self-Destruct" from him.
"Behold my new power, Megaman! I've absorbed the ultimate destructive program from the fallen WWW navi!"
"N-not Grenademan! Bass, you don't know what it's capable of!"
"I know exactly what it's capable of! Now, watch as I-*BOOM*"
As an aside, Bass actually managed to use GetAbility on the HubBatch program in the manga. You can imagine how that went. Bass' presence in satellite computers makes them explode because he's so powerful.
Due to DiveMan being a colossal pain in the keister, I discovered a useful combo. Paralyze+ and GroundMan's utility chip basically recreates the old MomQuake P.A. from MMBN2 and MMBN3, dropping stunlocking rocks on opponents from above. Each rock deals 120 damage, and GroundMan drops like, 6 of them. While invincible.
Tonight. You. Poor GroundMan. CircusManRV has a nasty tendency to pull out his tent rape attack while I'm in the middle of an attack of my own, which doesn't provide enough time to dodge.
Likewise, ColonelRV has a nasty habit of pulverizing the LinkNavis because after going through all the other WWW Navis, odds are good your HP might dip below 550. And 550 HP is the magic number he starts using Colonel Goku Satsu at.
"This grave was meant for MegaMan, then AquaMan. Those miserable Navis were able to defeat me, therefor, this grave will be yours!" This only gets funnier as you bring in LinkNavis again and again.
By the way, before anyone asks, no, there's no reaction to having a LinkNavi examine their own grave.
CircusManRV! Stop manhandling my LinkNavis!
Did you know that Colonel's Screen Divide attacks are counted as sword element? Poor TenguMan gets double damage, making this arguably the hardest of the LinkNavi gauntlet runs.
"I have tried this three times already. I went through the trouble of waiting here for people to delete those fool Navis, I will not be denied victory!"
I just like the way he says it, what can I say. Hello, cloud! I'm going to chop you!
RRRRRRH!
"Fool! I will reign supreme as most powerful of all Navis!"
To be fair, Bass' memory did seem to get permanently corrupted in MMBN3 due to all the BugFrags he absorbed. The poor guy more or less has digital Alzheimer's.
DustMan does not take any of CircusManRV's shit, and responds with a giant space laser chastity belt.
"This time, things will be different!"
Bass has now vowed to absorb all five LinkNavis. You'd think this would have repercussions, but nope. That's the last of Bass. I should have saved the BassBS grudge match for here.
On to the Program Advances, now officially scraping the bottom of the barrel as far as game content goes! I was requested to show them all off, but...screw it. I've been LPing this series for over a year, I want to be done already. So instead, I'm showing off the Throwback P.A.s that allude to the other games in the series.
Representing MMBN1 is the DublHero P.A., which used to actually come in two variants: DeuxHero and 2xHero. I don't know why they chose to do that, really. Either way, this P.A. causes MegaMan to blast away at the enemy field while ProtoMan slashes up a storm.
Representing MMBN2 is the Darkness P.A., which has been severely nerfed from it's 3000 damage original incarnation.
DarkMega appears for some reason and uses the GospelBreath attack. Worth mentioning that there's evidence that DarkChips were slated to return to MMBN6 but were cut, so DarkMega's involvement is something of a cameo of that beta content as well.
Bass then flies in and uses a DarkSword attack. Both attacks deal 300 damage, a pathetic tenth of the original Darkness P.A.'s power.
MasterCross is patterned after MasterStyle from MMBN3. Since I missed the screenshot, the combo to activate it is FirePunch3 A, AquaNeedle3 A, ElecPulse3 A, and RiskyHoney3 A. Note that that's the same order of elements that the original P.A. had: Salamander, Fountain, Bolt, and GaiaBlade.
MegaMan opens up the P.A. by splitting into the various Crosses used in the game. And yes, in Gregar version, this P.A. uses those Crosses instead.
All the Crosses whale on the enemy with a variety of attacks.
Followed by the whole field exploding. All in all, a pretty faithful recreation of the original, if weaker.
You've seen Sun-Moon plenty by this point, so we'll skip that one and go to MMBN5's TwinLeaders P.A.!
ProtoMan slashes the enemy, Colonel uses ScreenDivide. Woo.
One metric fuckton of offscreen grinding and misery later, the game is almost complete. All that's left now is the true final boss and the epilogue. We've come a long way, but as far as gameplay goes, I've finally finished.