Part 23: I win. I triumphed over MMBN4.

I will take this as MMBN4's surrender. It erased EVERYTHING after I beat Duo again, and even reloading to before the fight, saving, quitting, and resuming didn't clear whatever flag's been set. No cheats active at all.

I managed to retrieve a viable save file from Mediafire, as I'd sent my save to Hog Butcher so he could make that code. Unfortunately, while this means I can show off the postgame content, JunkMan's scenario, and playthrough 3 in general, is off-limits.

Note for future readers on the LP Archive: The thread was looking forward to JunkMan as the one redeeming tournament scenario in the game.

Fortunately, I managed to find some screenshots of the scenario I could use. They're a bit messed up though, I don't know what emulator was used to take them, but this is about the best I can do.



The usual opening for any tournament scenario applies. Lan and MegaMan in front of the board, blabbering about their opponent or something loosely related.



In YumLand's internet area, there's a cyber junkyard that has had a few problems lately, and well, junkyard, JunkMan, there might be a connection. We're given the key to get in, and it's off we go.



Once we arrive, however, massive piles of junk data start falling, threatening to crush MegaMan! Lan jacks MegaMan out just in time. Or does he? MegaMan starts acting strangely, commenting on how he feels terrible and that they should withdraw from the tournament! Continuing to badger MegaMan with the L-Button, Lan eventually gets suspicious enough and starts asking MegaMan questions like what his favorite food is.

This exposes the fake. It's JunkMan! Turns out that he hijacked MegaMan's body when the junk data fell on him. We then force JunkMan to head back to the CyJnkYrd to retrieve MegaMan's identity program, which requires multiple battles with the controls reversed due to JunkMan interfering.



Booting JunkMan out and getting MegaMan back, MegaMan is (of course) entirely forgiving of JunkMan because of how he realized how JunkMan must feel all the time. While being buried under the junk data, helpless and alone, MegaMan learned that this was how JunkMan both formed and 'grew up'.

JunkMan is a Navi that sort of just spontaneously formed from random bits of trash and junk data, like some kind of digital primordial soup. Nobody's ever shown him any care or kindness, and he's been pretty much all alone for as long as he's existed.

Lan and MegaMan decide to find something that can show JunkMan what kindness is like, and we're eventually routed towards YumLand.



Remember that giant-ass Buddha statue in YumLand? We're allowed closer to it in this scenario, and once we Jack-In, we get some KindData to give to JunkMan. That's all there is to the scenario, it's probably the shortest Blue Moon/Red Sun Tournament scenario. I suspect this is what endears JunkMan to players most especially, but he is pretty pitiful after all.



At the match, JunkMan angrily smashes the KindData instead. He's quite mad.



After winning, though, JunkMan realizes he's beginning to break apart entirely. He's only made of loose bits of junk, after all, he's not very stable at all. Sadly, he confesses to have been craving kindness for a long time, and appreciates the trouble Lan and MegaMan went through for him. Disintegrating entirely, JunkMan thanks us one last time, and we earn JunkSoul.



Or would earn JunkSoul. For me, an All Souls cheat code was the only solution, appropriately enough.

Doodling those was fun. Any time I open MS Paint during an update is a time of trouble.



UnderNet 4 has a door that leads to the postgame, but we need all 6 souls to enter. Well gee, guess what I happen to have now. UnderNet 5 has no notable features, really. There's a NetMerchant, there's LaserMan V2, and some various goodies tucked away in Mystery Data. Snore.



What is important is Bass. In statue form, no less, who knows how he got here. We saw a bit of him during the ProtoMan update. We need the S-ID, or in other words, every standard chip. We naturally have that, so guess what time it is?



Hell yes I do. MegaMan's DarkSoul reacts to Bass' presence, and Bass likewise decides he's had enough of a nap.



Fuckup Tally: 265

Not even Bass is immune to Fuckups.



Bass taunts us with how we enjoy battle above all else, seeking out greater and greater enemies to satisfy our bloodthirsty lust for combat.

Oh, it's all so true! Bass, you flatterer!

Time now for battle.

Bass is vastly different from MMBN4 on in the series, and he gets more significant changes with each subsequent game. His old moveset has been replaced entirely. No more LifeAura, instead, Bass can only be damaged when he stops moving, which usually means mid-attack. And his attacks are all much nastier now. Explosion, EarthBreaker, and even Banishing World have been replaced with:

Shooting Buster: This hellishly evil attack is Bass' primary offense, and easily his most dangerous. He simply blasts the entire field with a hail of gunfire, dodging this is effectively impossible, much like Explosion was. And it goes on for quite a while, meaning that you'd better have something to interrupt him with, or you can kiss your ass goodbye.

Hell's Rolling: Probably his least dangerous attack. Bass holds up two dark energy spheres, and two energy wheels grind through the field from the back of his area. Dodging is easy if you see it coming, simply stay in the middle and step forward. If you mistime this, however, the wheels will simply target and plow right into you.

Dark Arm Blade: Bass closes in and 'slashes' at us with a fistful of dark power, longsword pattern if he's in front of you, widesword if behind. Bass tends to mix this attack up often, sometimes he'll attack only once to drop your guard, other times he'll go in for a front-back-front combo.

Darkness Overload: Bass holds up two dark energy spheres, possibly lulling you into thinking Hell's Rolling is coming up. This is a fake-out. Bass will nuke the back two rows of the field with an enormous dark energy blast. This deals massive damage, and cracks all targeted panels. This may sound like an attack used at low HP, it isn't. Bass can and will pull out any of his moves at any time, he does not hold back this time.

Although, I do come dangerously close to frying his AI as well, notice how later in the fight he decides to use Shooting Buster on only two panels.

Fuckup Tally: 266



I'm kind of disappointed, I remember Bass being much more difficult. I probably just sucked at the game back then. Bass vanishes, MegaMan's DarkSoul inspiring him with an idea of how to become even stronger.

Shit. Even Bass was a relative pushover. I'm so goddamned bored, I haven't had a good fight since MMBN3. All the bosses in MMBN4 are too fucking easy, the only reason I've been taking damage period is because I know I'm going to win anyway and don't care about being hit very much. The stuff that is difficult is that way for arbitrary, stupid reasons.



Oh god it gurgles. Time to head for the bonus dungeon!

Ordinarily, when you defeat Bass, 3 black HeelNavis appear in UnderNet 5. Each of them has an 'EvilChip', and there's 5 of those in the game. These 3 HeelNavis challenge us to 10-round virus gauntlets, victory earns us the Muramasa, BlackWing, and Anubis chips.

The other two EvilChips are a bit trickier to find. ElemperorEX viruses, who rarely appear in UnderNet6, will drop the ElemDark chip with a sufficient buster rating. Or, just use Collect. There's also BugCharge(RS) and BugCurse(BM). To get those, you need to battle LaserManSP or ShadeManSP, and they will have a battle GMD during the fight. Defeat them without breaking the thing, and the GigaChip will be added to your reward. I found LaserManSP much easier to do this with rather than ShadeManSP when I played the game originally.

But hey, I have a full library already, fuck all of that.



Welcome to Black Earth, a lazyass postgame area that entirely fits in with MMBN4. The WWW Area and the Secret Area had an absolute shitload of stuff to do, what about here? There are two areas, the first is basically empty. No bosses, even. The only thing of note is that in Black Earth, NavShado and NavBlack enemies will appear in random encounters. These are just greyscaled NormalNavis and HeelNavis.

Black Earth is supposed to be Murkland, that place Higsby mentioned where DarkChip users get their souls drawn into. It's DarkCyberHell, basically.



You need to have every NaviChip to enter area 2. Full Library code, fuck you, MMBN4. Besides, getting this legitimately isn't even possible, because JunkMan's chips aren't available due to the game's ragequit preventing me from moving on to playthrough 3.



Black Earth 2 is a giant spiral. Along the way are these, the Mirrors of the Heart. Each of them contains a DS Navi, one for each soul in the game. AquaManDS, NumberManDS, MetalManDS, WoodManDS, JunkManDS, and ProtoManDS await.

They're all so pathetic I managed to fit them all into a single video with no editing, the only reason there are cuts in the footage is because I stopped recording after each fight, not expecting them to be so short.

On the plus side, you finally get to see JunkMan in action.

And even if you're the type to skip videos or whatnot, at least watch this part. Fucking hysterical. That was my only death this entire update, yes, I even beat Bass in one try.



This is it, the deepest part of the game, much like how PlanetMan and Serenade's platforms were the deepest parts of their internets. The Mirror of Truth is here. What's this thing do?



Calls out MegaManDS, of course. Yes, Black Earth doesn't have a single fucking unique enemy.



This could be considered the strongest MegaManDS fight of the game. Allegedly, the Mirror of Truth brings out the full power of the DarkSoul, which even when we fought it before, MegaMan kept suppressed.

So, let's see if my hard work in using massively powerful chips with variety and frequency over the course of the game has yielded what I wanted.

Let's see that full power DarkSoul!



Woo, gee, that sure was a tough one, huh. The Mirror of Truth serves a purpose though, a last chance for Navis who have been corrupted by darkness. It allows a Navi to directly confront the evil within, and perhaps defeat it.

It's like therapy, except you beat the tar out of your inner evil. This sounds like something out of a Persona game.



The Mirror of Truth awards us this completely useless program. SoulCleaner speeds up the lightening effect if you stop using DarkChips, doubling the speed at which MegaMan recovers. No, you can't get your HP back. And because I haven't used a single one outside of the forced ShadeMan encounter, this is worthless!



Oh hey, fucking finally. HubBatch is awarded by this glowing, warm light. The Mirror of Truth reflects the light within MegaMan's soul as well.



Or perhaps Hub Hikari. Isn't this just deep and spiritual? Well, we've got HubBatch, and you know me, I do love that program!



Well. Yeah, it's fucking enormous. The bottom-right corner is taken up by BugStop, which I checked to see if that would prevent the usual 50% HP penalty. Nah, of course not.

Considering how my HP is so low even with the HPMemorys I've picked up since Capcom's Revenge slashed my max HP to 0, using this program is suicidal. I have a natural 300 base max HP, this slashes that to 150, making basically any attack at this point of the game an instant kill.

And the bonuses aren't worth it at all. A 1-point barrier, Air/Float/ShadowShoes, and Custom+1. I can fit HP+200, HP+50, FloatShoes, and Custom+2 into the NaviCust. So yeah, more benefits, less penalties, HubBatch is godawful in MMBN4.

What else is around in Black Earth? Well, the BugFrag trader makes a return, and will continue to do so in 5 and 6. Nothing comes from using it, no BassGS or anything, it's just a BugFrag dumping spot. There's also a GigaFolder1 NaviCust program in a PMD, but the GigaChips in this game suck and aren't worth it.

That's all there is to Black Earth. Fucking amazing, ain't it?

Well. There is one last thing here.



Finally, finally, finally. After an entire boring game of shitty scenarios, enraging NPCs, Fuckups, and bullshit....

BassSP, a boss who's actually hard, fun, and a real test of skill. I take him on with less HP than Bass, due to packing my NaviCust with Custom+1, Custom+2, and FloatShoes at the expense of some of my HP.

Ah, the joy of battle!

This isn't the end of MMBN4, yet. Romhacks away, and maybe some general cleanup if I feel like it.