Part 14: I would genuinely prefer a Saturday morning kid's cartoon villain.
Jesus fucking Christ!
Fuckup Tally: 179
Roll, what the hell are you even saying? Another one of those "Changed the dialogue, left some of the old stuff in" situations, I guess.
Fuckup Tally: 180
Yuuichiro apparently decided that sending GutsMan, Roll, and Glide for their inevitable Power of Friendship contrived rescue for the game was a better idea than asking for someone competent. Like...Chaud? Anybody else? Someone who isn't one of these three, who have done absolutely nothing overall, and literally absolutely nothing except get attacked by ShadeMan in this game?
This is supposed to be something new? How will Lan ever handle the strain?
God, fuck all of you, you're like a triad of Wesley Crusher.
No, actually, let's not. Putting the plot on hold for the sake of goodie-scavenging and a sidequest.
For the sidequest, you have to Jack-In from someplace sunny, which itself gives away what we're doing. NetFrica's statue is my choice, as it's a 10 second run away from the UnderNet.
Back in UnderNet 4, time to address this! It's Django and Otenko!
As far as crossovers go, this is about as good an explanation as you can really get between two completely different genres of game.
Boktai 1 was released around the same time as MMBN4, Boktai 2 came about a year later. In the interim, it seems as though Django has been wandering around purging the multiverse of vampires. Incidentally, this "explains" how Metal Gear Solid 4 has a Solar Gun, both games were made by Hideo Kojima.
I don't think Django had any experience with nanite-fueled Vampires, however.
On the other hand, we've had plenty of experience with ShadeMan.
Time to roast the stupid bastard with a massive helping of focused solar energy! Oh boy!
Unfortunately, UnderNet4 lacks any light period, let alone sunlight. Man, why did the Boktai games never have a promotional campaign with SunnyD?
Somewhat ironically given that this is an actual crossover with a Hideo Kojima game, MegaMan for once doesn't employ Solid Snake mode. He even makes a helpful suggestion, to transfer light from Lan's PET and use it to fuel the PileDriver.
Despite the suggestion coming out of nowhere, given that the Boktai series is a comic and not a game in the MMBN-verse, this is workable. We just need to retrieve the Solar Sensor item that Django dropped while he was fighting ShadeMan. He said he dropped it around UnderNet2's entrance, so it's not particularly far.
Incidentally, I noticed that right about here was when MegaMan transitioned to 100% Light MegaMan. This makes it easier to get Counter Hits, as I've mentioned, and it also has an additional effect that I wound up showing off entirely by accident later.
Ah crap. So much for simplicity, the Solar Sensor has been moved to UnderNet6, which has absurdly difficult viruses that I can barely mount a sufficient offense towards.
Aaand now for a first. During my meltdown in the ProtoMan scenario, I counted a Fuckup for Capcom poorly removing these conveyors. My judgement was clearly muddied by the overpowering rage, but as you can see, the conveyors are intact.
Fuckup Tally: 179
Redacted. I'm still keeping the Out-Of-Spite Fuckup, though.
Speaking of spite, this asshole demands 10,000 zenny in exchange for the Solar Sensor.
Back with Django, now bankrupt, this is why you need to Jack-In from someplace sunny. If Lan isn't in the sun, this won't work until you come back from a proper Jack-In spot.
Barbecue time.
ShadeMan takes a bit of persuading to cooperate, namely several buster shots. There's an actual ShadeMan fight in the Boktai game as well, which is a lot better than a fetch quest and cutscene, but hey, it's MMBN4. We should just appreciate that they gave enough of a crap that I can't actually call out any Fuckups.
This event, I should add, oddly counts as the ShadeMan V2 fight. After leaving and returning, ShadeManSP will be wandering around as a random encounter, and because of the PileDriver, he can actually be fought and damaged normally.
It would be rather amusing to stuff Edward Cullen into what's essentially a pair of solar lasers. And don't think this is the end of the Boktai stuff, the rest of the series has crossover content as well.
Sort of. It's only accessible in MMBN5: DTDS (the version I'll be playing) by having a Boktai 2 cartridge in the DS' GBA port. And Crapcom of America saw fit to remove access to it entirely in MMBN6, for whatever hideous reason.
Fucking hate you. Anyway, rest assured that one way or another, 5 and 6 will have their content shown off as well, probably due to hacking or GameShark code abuse, because even in 6's case, the stuff is all in there, Capcom of America just made it inaccessible by normal means.
As for MMBN4, we get the GunSol3 chip! This completes our collection.
If you have any sense of pattern recognition, you'll realize that this is 3 chips in sequential order with shared chip codes.
AquaManSP, meet PileDriver!
But don't leave just yet. This is easy to miss, but examine ShadeMan's coffin! You get the NebulaCode, which allows you to open the purple skull doors. Hey, this has been a traditional thing since the first game, it had purple skull doors as well, so did 3, 5 and 6 have them, and MMBN2 had the Gospel security cubes.
In ACDC1, you can find the BugStop program. In MMBN3, it was gimmicky, in that it stopped all bugs, but took up an entire row and column of the NaviCust. In MMBN4, BugStop is a single tile.
This about wraps up everything notable about my last little sweep over the game for goodies. ParkArea3 has a BugFrag trader past a C-Slider pathway, this Collect program will come in handy.
Before heading up to the endgame, I was reminded that there's a BCC code around here as well, and sure enough, there it is. I've had LAN, MAYL, CHAU, MARY, and LAN. So there's only one more.
Right, endgame time. Dr. Regal warns everyone that high voltages will be generated as he operates, so for safety's sake, time to back off.
Like the sheep that they are, the 4 useless NPCs comply.
Yuuichiro has other ideas, and isn't budging.
I'll give him credit for noticing that the original laser plan failed, Dr. Regal just so happened to have a backup idea, and when MegaMan was 'deleted', had a suitable Navi ready.
Fuckup Tally: 180
However, it's blown to bits by the usual "Wait, how the hell did they know that?" crap. The fact that this keeps happening has convinced me that my guess that the script was rewritten sloppily is exactly right. Yuuichiro doesn't really have any way to know Dr. Regal is the leader of Nebula.
Fuckup Tally: 181
And if he did, why the fuck did he just stand there!? "Yeah, guys, Dr. Regal is actually the leader of an evil syndicate, I meant to tell you earlier, but it sort of slipped my mind." Fuck.
Dr. Regal has a valid point here. Stopping his plan of hijacking the asteroid isn't going to do a hell of a lot in terms of stopping it's approach. By the way, the game hasn't said it yet, but guess how close the Asteroid is to Earth. I'm bringing this up now because it's more relevant than when the game brings up how close it is next.
A FEW FUCKING HOURS! Fuckup Tally: 182
Over a game that spanned the course of less than 3 months in-game time, an Asteroid has made it from Pluto to Earth's upper atmosphere. Capcom Science! Where do I fucking begin...
Fuckup Tally: 183
Somehow, nobody noticed the Asteroid that is now about as close to the planet as the fucking Moon is.
Fuckup Tally: 184
Somehow, a spacecraft constructed by an alien civilization or something, complete with a Cyberworld, that's compatible with Earth's, has survived in perfect functioning order despite traveling at literally ludicrous speeds. There's nothing in space to create significant friction, mind you, but come the hell on, what's propelling the damned thing!? Oh yes, it's actively propelled, just watch and wait for that.
Fuckup Tally: 185
Out of context, this looks fine, but in-game, Yuuichiro develops dissociative identity disorder out of nowhere. Lan and MegaMan arrive, but Yuuichiro had known we were coming, Dr. Regal thought we'd been blown to bits.
Here's proof, should you care. I missed the screenshot previously, but an NPC hands Lan a "DadsNote" item that Yuuichiro had written in advance. It hasn't come into play yet, but just wait for it.
Fuckup Tally: 186
Look, Capcom, I can tolerate "we write like shit" as an excuse. Inconsistent shit is enough to warrant a Fuckup, remember the random terrorist Navi from WoodMan's scenario? He exploded similarly lazily, with "*kaboom!*" being all we got. At least that bothered to include the asterisks...
Lan charges up towards them, but Dr. Regal somehow rigged the bridge scaffolding with explosives without anybody noticing.
After Lan dives for safety, we get a Capcom Action Sequence to go along with the Capcom Visual Effect grin and Capcom Science Asteroid. This is Yuuichiro being punched in the back of the head by Dr. Regal offscreen.
Fuckup Tally: 187
I almost wouldn't put it past them to reveal that there are actually multiple Asteroids, but no, it's just the usual stupid typographic error.
tHE mAStEr HaS GIveN mE tHe ChANce tO iMiTAte toRGo aGAiN! THiS iS aBOuT As CliCHe aS yOU caN gEt.
Quality writing, folks. This is just terrible. You'd expect this out of the intro sequence or ending of an NES game, not a game released in 2003. Dr. Regal will become Master of the World after achieving his Plan of Darkness. He rules over his Evil Group, commanding hundreds of Dark Minions. It can't possibly get any more cookie-cutter, any more generic, any more Mad Libs Dialogue than this.
No, really, it can't. Yeah, if you're too dumb to put two and two together, Dr. Regal is LaserMan's operator.
This cutscene goes on and on, and Dr. Regal isn't nearly going to shut up yet, we still have several more cutscenes even after the Asteroid dungeon.
Look, if it's villainous and on this list, Dr. Regal probably says it.
Right, and that note Yuuichiro told the NPC to give Lan? This is all it says. It was "Bring your child to work day" at Capcom, and one of the writers figured "Hey, why not?" when one of the little spawn started making suggestions.
As if that's ever an issue. We've already done this for DenCity's power plant in MMBN1, and not to mention the Gospel Computers, which were actively sparking once the power got cranked up.
Fuckup Tally: 188
You'd think that a society where damned near everything is wired up with a Cyberworld would be used to the idea of insulatation.
And besides, caution is something only non-protagonists should have.
Well, here we are, inside a fucking Asteroid with its own compatible Cyberworld! MegaMan has absolutely no issues at all being here. Welcome to the third and final actual dungeon of this place.
We had ShadeMan's bat bullshit in the ElecTower and the distilled hell that was the ToyRobo set of areas. Now we have the Asteroid. These are the only three actual dungeons in the game, isn't it nice? So, given the precedent, how much fun do you think this is?
Boatloads, of course. First of all, the gimmick here is that to access the next area, you need to step over the numbered tiles in a specific order. Once you've stepped over one, it becomes impassable, and you need to go around in circles through the most convoluted way possible through the area.
Stepping on them out of order results in MegaMan being flung back to the beginning of the area, and all the tiles resetting. This is tedious and boring, but not nearly as rage-inducing as the bats or ToyRobos.
What makes this live up to the standards of MMBN4 is this 'magnetic disturbance' black hole. Every 3 virus battles or so, about 30 seconds of running around the area, this will appear. MegaMan will then be sucked inside of it, booted back to the beginning, and all the tiles will be reset.
What the game doesn't tell you in any way at all, or even hint at, is that by mashing the A button, MegaMan will "swim down" away from the black hole, and you can avoid having to start all over that way. Knowing this is the difference between a dull dungeon that makes you mash the A button over and over periodically, or a torturous hell with a nigh-impossible time limit.
At least the background is pretty.
CirKill: The last of the three major Fuck You viruses in the game, along with BomBoy and Spidy. They move in a circle however possible, very quickly at that. When they're on the same row as MegaMan, they fire a shot at him. This incredibly simple attack pattern manages to be infuriating due to the sheer rate of fire and movement speed these things have. In about 3 seconds of time, they'll have already popped off 2-3 shots at you, depending on your row. Good luck dodging when you have other viruses to worry about.
And yes, they get paired up very often with Spidy viruses in UnderNet6, and those encounters are best described as "Kill everything in 5 seconds or else". Wee.
The Asteroid is an incredibly bland final dungeon consisting of four areas. I just don't have anything to say about it, and compare that to the Gospel and WWW computer areas from the previous two games, those each merited their own updates.
Fuckup Tally: 189
And because Capcom couldn't be assed to give LaserMan a walking sprite, he appears using the same static-y warp hole he used at the end of the Hawk Tournament. This is despite a perfectly fine warp hole being right behind him, and he's explicitly stated to be coming from where it leads. But no, walking out of the portal would require a new sprite.
LaserMan takes after his operator in terms of stock evil villain dialogue.
MegaMan responds likewise with a Power of Friendship retort.
Whatever, let's kill him already.
The fight with LaserMan is worth elaborating on. That palm laser attack of his with the preparation frames is notable for being invis-piercing and NaviCust-nullifying, much like the BlueMoon GigaChip is.
The Dark Laser attack creates a Hole on the field, which causes LaserMan's HP to regenerate. The GunSol chips remove Holes, however. And remember what I mentioned before about Light MegaMan? Light MegaMan will remove Holes from the field merely by stepping on them, giving me a very easy way to counter LaserMan's attempts at restoring his HP.
LaserMan pulls a ShadeMan, rambling about the DarkSoul before the usual pyrotechnics ensue.
Dr. Regal's another of those Inconsistent Motive villains. Look, what the hell do you even want with the thing?! I'd be willing to bet Capcom has no fucking idea either. Look, Dr. Regal, an Asteroid isn't an orbiting death ray you can threaten the world with Bond villain style.
Fuckup Tally: 190
You can't create a World of Darkness with the planet-killing Asteroid unless you mean a very literal World of Darkness due to the debris blotting out the sun prior to nearly all life on Earth being wiped out.
Fuckup Tally: 191
We'll see about that. The final boss and ending await us, and in true MMBN4 style, come out of complete nowhere with no relevance to the rest of the game! The only dramatic cliffhanger is whether or not we can break 200 Fuckups by the end of this playthrough.