Part 44: Slippy's Hit!

Due to a screwup with IrfanView settings, 40 minutes of gameplay has been lost. Thankfully, they were mostly expositional side stuff and I realized what was going on before the really important parts. This means it's time for MS Paint.

However, after the first VisionBurst or so, there was something of a thread derail. It all started when Maple Leaf(?) and notoriousman made the SmugLanSP picture. Then Maple Leaf posted an edited mugshot of sad Lan that showed up a few updates back. Then MissEchelon, with prompting from Walterion (who kept egging everyone on), made this atrocity:



This kicked off a storm of mugshot editing over the course of several updates' time, which itself derailed into the much more awesome "add a beard and a gallon of testosterone to characters" derail of a derail. That's where the "Man Time" picture came from originally, inspired by Screaming Idiot. Many avatars were produced, so if you lurk or join the forums and see some mutant MMBN avatars, this was the source. Then it got to the point where people were making requests for genderbending and things got uncomfortable.

And what do you know, an MS Paint update again...You reap what you sow! Too bad there's no chances to use the rest of them.



Lana for Screaming Idiot's avatar Starkclamp made/bought.

The chapter opens with Mayl complaining about how useless she is. She asks Lan if he's a part of that 'Famous Secret Team of Navis' that liberated the internet. He confesses and tells her to cheer up because he's the protagonist and can't fail.



Dexette by Chic Trombone, Yai-With-A-Huge-Jaw by Six of Spades.

Lan asks Mayl to keep it a secret, but Dex and Yai emerge from Higsby's, having heard everything. Sigh. One of those cutscenes, where for some reason these three get dragged out to make the same tired "We're you're friends!" speech they've made every game multiple times.



Of all people, Ribitta from MMBN2 and 3 shows up, having overheard everything. Oh great, the paparazzi. She wants to write a story on the UnderNet, but doesn't know where it is. Lan refuses pointedly, civilians and NPCs are suicidal to go in there. Ribitta gets pissy and wanders off, saying she'll look for it herself.

At least Baryl calls us and tells Lan to come and talk.



Baryletta by Prawn Salad.

In a way, the plot of the game flows similarly to MMBN4, although in a much less grating way due to the dungeons being not just navigating the internet with some stupid gimmick. The "Teammate Dungeons" like the SciLab Mainframe, DrillComp, ShipComp, and GargComp take place, we fight teammate, add teammmate to team, then it's Liberation Mission time! And between every few of these Teammate Dungeon-Liberation Mission bundles there's something that relates to story progression outside of liberating the internet.

So, hunting for the Hikari Report. After telling Baryl about the VisionBurst, Baryl actually naming that for the first time in-game, Baryl says that since the message mentioned Gow, so Gow's important. After a brief trip to the ACDC VisionBurst, however, it turns out that Gow isn't there! Which shouldn't be possible, because a VisionBurst represents a fixed moment of time, so the dog can't have changed places.



Lan's going to have to use his brain to solve this one. Unfortunately, fed up with everything in the stupid world, Lan's brain escaped when he was 9 and became a supervillain out to destroy the world, leaving the bare minimum brain cells behind to keep Lan functioning.

Capcom's writing hasn't treated them so well.



The solution is to ask Lan's mom, duh, Gow was the family dog and all. After a short conversation, we're given the hint that we need to be someplace dusty. Only one area like that in the game, so off to Oran Isle! A generic old man NPC cleans up the, um, deserted island apparently, and as it turns out, he used to work there!

By amazing coincidence that hasn't happened in some form or another at least 9 fucking times by now in the series, Dr. Hikari Sr. entrusted the man with some data 30 years ago. The old man's Navi, back where we got the OldKey when we first visited the mine, gives us an old code that opens a security cube near the back of SciLab3, right next to where CloudMan was.

This in turn leads to...Dr. Hikari Sr.'s Navi! This is the guy who made Alpha and Guardian, along with the internet itself, among other things. Said Navi must be amazing, right? Nah, it's a generic NPC. He gives us another VisionBurst key and an obvious clue for where it goes, near the end of DrillComp4. And then breaks down entirely, having fulfilled its only function after 30 years.

Alright, now that that's out of the way, if you can behave yourselves, here we go again. Considering how I write updates, I'm sure people will notice the thread is open before I actually finish it, but whatever.



So, here we finally are, in front of the next VisionBurst.



Rather than leading to ACDC Town again, this one leads to Oran Isle way back whenever. It might not be the same time period as the 11 years old ACDC VisionBurst.



Well, the very first NPC immediately in front of us is excited about the MagnoMetal that hasn't been mentioned since KnightMan went nuts in the DrillComp. Another one of the NPCs present mentions that Oran Isle is jam-packed full of minerals. Given that coal is only formed in sedimentary rock, I suppose Oran Isle used to be submerged until ocean levels dropped.



Pride did mention offhand that she was looking for MagnoMetal for...I forget, something like an advanced PET? Turns out Dr. Hikari Sr. was a decade or two ahead of her.



RPG Problem Solving: Talk to it if it's friendly, kill it if it isn't. After checking with all the NPCs, there's no Gow.



Considering that this area is even smaller than ACDC Town, it's surprising MegaMan missed Gow until he started barking.



Along with a Nebula thug who apparently followed in after us. Hi!



Bye!



And lo, did the blink animation once again provide silliness.



Gow barks loudly, the force of the dog's voice knocking MegaMan over, prompting Gow to make a break for it. Oh great, anyone who's had a dog get loose knows how much of a pain this'll be.



Sigh. Well, time to go looking. Just check around the area and you'll find Gow in the bamboo.



Not once, but twice!? Stupid dog! You made me look bad!



OOGA BOOGA BOOGA! Great, nice to know that because Gow is stubborn and MegaMan's weakness is apparently barking, Nebula got the benefit of all our work tracking these VisionBursts down.



Oh right, that. BlizzardMan again!



Here's your explanation for now, this actually gets revisited in more detail later. So here's why ShadeMan kept being able to revive, not because he was a vampire-themed Navi, but because of being a DarkLoid. Ah shit, you know what this means. They're baaa-aaack. Presumably something involving Duo's intervention or simply being in that asteroid when deleted prevented LaserMan from pulling this.



Rather than stick around and fight, BlizzardMan pulls out with Gow, successful. Capcom must love the fact that emails and phone calls are such a focus of the digital setting, given how they can just lead the player to the next objective without even having to bother with explaining how someone got to wherever the protagonist is.



SciLab is under attack! Gee, nice to know how the place has such stellar security. Nebula outright invaded and kidnapped the most important scientist right out of the place at the start of the game. Now there's a direct attack going on. Protagonists: the first, last, and only line of defense.

You know those commercials where everyone is too stupid to carry out a normal life without the benefit of whatever ridiculous product is being advertised? I wonder what those are like in MMBN. Everyone really is that incompetent and helpless.



Before we head back, however, there's a hidden former Nebula mook off to the side of one of the exits of the mine. You know the drill now, purple skull doors can be opened freely for us. It does cost 3000z, but this game is much more generous about money than MMBN4 was. Not triggering security codes within the game probably helps. , but so does the lack of everything in the damned world demanding money all the time, preventing you from building up a reserve.



Guess who's behind the SciLab attack? Fortunately, we don't actually fight any of the revived DarkLoids until the obligatory endgame boss rush.

Although seriously, it's happened 3 times already MegaMan. You know what to say about this.



The SciLab attack was intended as a distraction while Nebula hunted for Gow, but considering that that actually wound up succeeding before the attack was carried out, it's all kind of pointless. And a really nice showing of how goddamned useless NPCs are as usual, even if they're some of the allegedly smartest and most heavily-defended in the whole setting. I really love how the Official NetBattlers have more or less gone unmentioned since MMBN3, Chaud back in 4 being the only one we've seen since. Baryl isn't actually affiliated directly with them.



ShadeMan teleports out, having apparently lost his vanish-in-a-cloud-of-bats trick from 4. Oh, oh no. Nebula HeelNavis.



So frightening.



Colonel notes that it's been established that Nebula, laughably ineffective as an evil syndicate that they are, is still not as worthless as the fucks on our side. Using SciLab as the team's base isn't going to work. Well, Nebula Navis, DarkLoid or HealNavi, can be compared to insects splattering against the windshield of a car on the interstate. Attacks like this are going to get annoying fast.



This follows MegaMan telling Colonel what happened in the VisionBurst. In one line, MegaMan asks a question he already has the answer to, Capcom gets an untallied Fuckup, and admits his own inexplicable failure to withstand being barked at by a dog.



Since presumably Gow was everything Regal needed for whatever the Hikari Report is or featured, Baryl is correct, we're now approaching the end of the story.



Good thing we have Colonel and Baryl!



"Yeah, yeah, praise wastes time, shut up and find us a new base." Sending Lan to do this is questionable, let's look at the rest of the team:

Princess Pride is the sovereign of an entire goddamned country. Something tells me she has some secure location protected by Creamland's national defense force or something.

Dusk is an infamous, genocidal merc who certainly has connections in the criminal underworld. Considering how wanted some of the people he deals with probably are, the guy's not likely to be a stranger to hiding important people.

Dingo is a Native American/Native Netopian, and as a video game character, this means he either has spiritual magic to draw from or has partial ownership of a casino. Possibly both.

Higsby...



Is the one the game goes with. Naturally. This is the same in Team ProtoMan as well, Raika and SearchMan don't get involved. Making it a bit out of left field.



Higsby will help us, but he's currently busy with a personal emergency. NumberMan got jumped while carrying customer information, and now it's lost. A disaster for Higsby's for certain, but between this and the Ms. Mari(ko) thing before...Stop being so needy, dammit!



Fortunately, Higsby provides pretty specific directions. Unfortunately, they're that NumberMan was in EndArea3 looking at something cool, which means traipsing through that stupid place yet again.



After GargComp, however, specifically after the CosmoMan liberation, GargCastle sent us their PC code for their security cube, which is literally 10 seconds away from our destination. A handy shortcut.

And yeah, GargCastle is a deathtrap and subsequent legal shitstorm waiting to happen.



You can't even see MegaMan here, but heck, just mash A and you'll find the thing.



I don't know a thing about customer information databases, but something tells me a chip shop won't have much in the way of personal information. Then again, if it was something like credit info, ho shit.



Attention customers! Scram!



Maid fetish register girl, Nanako! Stare emptily into space ahead!



Obviously, yeah, not much of a secret if Higsby is going to let his customers see this. A store room, Higsby? This could be a hideout for a club of elementary school students between the boxes, but really?



Oh damn. Let's get Baryl in here!



It even has a desk high enough for Baryl to stand behind authoritatively and everything!



Lan's response to this is literally "The surveillance alarm?!". The alarms Baryl set up at some point in the back of EndArea5, the path to the UnderNet, have been set off by somebody! I think we can guess who it is, time to intercept!



But first, a bit of habitual careful exploring of a new environment leads to this discovery. The next line is about how it may be possible to, yes, send MegaMan into an old floppy drive.

An earlier plot point was how PETs use infrared signals like a TV Remote to connect with the Cyberworld. This isn't exactly compatible with floppy drives, to say the least. We've already established that really old devices that haven't seen use in decades can process and handle MegaMan inside, at least...



Whaddaya know, this is where the SoulCleaner program is hiding this game. JusticeOne J is a chip only obtainable in the postgame, however. Not like I'd even make this trade, what use do I have for SoulCleaner? The PC also has a RegUp or HPMemory upgrade as well, I forget.

Anyway, on to EndArea5!



Oh Jesus Tapdancing Christ. I know where this is going...



Thankfully, things get skipped over at least.



The Humor program's back. I wanted to compile a list of the jokes but quickly grew annoyed with how tedious transcription was. No game script with the list of jokes is apparently out there, but here's a sample:







That one didn't even have a punchline. Stopping for the sake of sanity...



It's ToadMan, back from MMBN2 along with KnightMan and ShadowMan. What is it with this game and MMBN2 Navis? Team ProtoMan gets MagnetMan and NapalmMan, even. 5 out of the 12 total teammates are from the game, and not counting the eponymous leaders, they make up half.



The resemblance is...remarkable, don't you think?



Ribitta is a journalist. Has there ever been a single journalist character ever who isn't invasive, suicidally overconfident in the "OH BOY A HOT SCOOP TIME TO IGNORE ALL POSSIBLE DANGER" sense, obnoxious, and gets in the way of everyone who actually has any damned idea what they're doing?



Oh great, look who's joined the party. ToadMan is interrupted by CloudMan, who blows the dark gate open.



ToadMan is Aqua elemental, recall, so CloudMan would just tear shit apart in a fight between them. ToadMan could of course just fucking Jack-Out, but we all know that's never going to happen.



Fortunately, Colonel arrives. CloudMan readies a Thunder Storm attack.



Ah, just looking at that felt good.



Stick to the pond, froggy!



Fucking journalists!



CloudMan survived, even more fun news. Wow, this situation just keeps getting better and better, doesn't it!



That's not really something you can prevent, given the circumstances. CloudMan's too far off. And if DarkLoids revive indefinitely, why not use overload attacks more often? Infinite suicide bombings. Fucking ToadMan! Slippy! Ruiner of everything! Colonel, get this guy off-



...me...





Fade out.



At least there's still Baryl for a hefty supply of manliness, Pride.



And for leadership, that too.



Yeah, gee fucking thanks! You got one of the most likable characters in the series deleted! For a news report on the UnderNet of all places. Hey, Dusk, you're in a pretty convenient position right where you're standing...



He died as he lived: with testosterone erupting out of every CyberPore.



Insult to injury is that CloudMan went down with him, but will just revive. Of course! What could grant Nebula, an evil organization with some of the least intelligent, self-defeating operations with the previous Master Plan not even making any sense period, an advantage? How about a cripplingly stupid reporter? Higsby may have attacked us out of misunderstanding and led to the GargCastle shenanigans, but at least he didn't get anybody KIA!



If losing MegaMan isn't going to deter Baryl, neither will losing Colonel.



What's odd is the insistence that the team is without a leader now. Colonel explained things at the beginning of Liberation Missions, but the team is perfectly capable of taking orders from Baryl and carrying out the missions themselves.



Considering that Lan does the operating already, this doesn't even change all that much from a story standpoint, much less a gameplay standpoint.



Lan's reaction is of course a repeat of what happened when MegaMan got kidnapped, moping that he isn't good enough to lead the team.

To be fair, Lan might just about be entering puberty at his age. Remembering that, suddenly a lot of his more stupid decisions and angst make sense.



Lan is woken up early the next day by someone at his door.



Well, how straightforward. Let me see, your qualifications include:

"Getting Colonel deleted"
"Ignoring all advice no matter what authority figure it comes from"
"Throwing yourself into danger and making other people save you"
"Invading the privacy of others and always being on the hunt for 'the next big scoop' no matter how obnoxious you have to be"

We regret to inform you that we cannot employ you at this time. Should hiring conditions, namely, having any basic fucking standards, change, please feel free to contact us again.



You're an NPC in the MegaMan Battle Network series. BULLSHIT.



And if we're lucky, ToadMan will wind up as frog's legs for some Netopian Navi with an atrocious accent, Ribitta will be an idiot and let the UnderNet dwellers know who she is, where she works and lives, etc., and this matter resolves itself from there.



On the bright side, it's UnderNet time!



Get outta my way! All the best stuff awaits!



As usual, the UnderNet is as part of a pseudo-dungeon for part of the game, which at least usually helps one get used to the layout. And no, the UnderNet isn't always this bloody red color, that's the "Nebula controls this area!" filter. So, we've had ice, ranked Navis, a sniping asshole, and stupid fucking keys as the gimmicks to the UnderNet before, what'll it be for MMBN5?



Ah, of course. Someone in the thread mentioned before, but it bears repeating: MMBN5 is the most "techno-fantasy" the series gets, and it's had those elements from the very start with the Hub-Lan Synchronization thing. So this is keeping with that theme. No, they aren't CyberGhosts, we don't use a CybSutra, we don't fight V2 Navis.



These are explicitly the souls of the dead, though I neglected to screenshot that line. They float around the UnderNet regardless of pathways and chase after MegaMan, swirling around in large groups. They're pretty much impossible to avoid.



When they possess MegaMan, one at a time, they'll inflict a certain random bug in-battle.



As usual, the UnderNet is a convoluted maze of ramps, teleporters, one-way conveyors, and branching, labyrinthine paths.

Also as usual, it has a nice, atmospheric theme.



First of all, notice how the emotion window normally displayed is gone. This is due to the flicker-based effects this series is so fucking in love with, it's flickering to show that MegaMan's emotions have been bugged, and he'll randomly switch every few seconds randomly from normal, anxious, panic, angry, or, rarely, Full Synchro. However, using a SoulUnison or ChaosUnison prevents changes to the emotional state, so this particular bug is pretty easily nullified.

Secondly.

Skarab: These guys throw their bones, which will chase MegaMan around indefinitely. Players of MMBN1 will remember SkullMan having a similar attack with tracking scythes, so I consider this possibly a reference to that. I forgot whether the base Skarab or later versions' bones will cause confusion and reverse controls as well, due to forgetting to let myself get hit by the fairly slow attack to check, but I know that the chips they drop do that. When hit with an attack that isn't normal buster shots, the Skarab will temporarily collapse into an invulnerable pile of bones for a few seconds, immobile but also unable to be damaged further. Multi-hit attacks are useless unless you can stun them beforehand. When they collapse, though, the bones they've thrown will vanish.



Uh, yeah, huh...So, some of the bugs can be pretty dangerous, especially paired with certain battles, which as usual in the UnderNet are dangerous combinations of enemies and terrain.



Ow. Ow. Here's an example, in this fight, MegaMan moves two spaces at a time instead of one. This basically works like ice panels, and after one movement forwards or backwards and one up or down, MegaMan is locked into the corners of his side of the field.



Hey, look, a custom sprite NPC! Yeah, he's an optional boss, but getting to him requires using a secret pathway in EndArea. I think he might be available to fight already, but I've utterly forgotten the way there. Don't tell me though, I'm pretty sure of the vague location.



Christ is my HP dropping like a stone. That BMD wound up holding an HPMemory, at least. I'm actually liking this section, it's like playing with BugStyle's limitations in MMBN3 again. Shit, between how I've been steamrolling MMBN5 what with all the insanely powerful stuff it practically stuffs into the player's hands and the overall pathetic ease of MMBN4's bosses, I'm wondering if I'll get worse at these games.

Playing something actually challenging like this is fun.



Of course, I couldn't resist pulling out an old trick from MMBN3 once the SparkyEX and WuNoteEX viruses on an ice stage showed up. Even without bugs, that combo is an example of how the UnderNet's encounters stack against you. Moving around up and down to dodge the WuNote won't save you from the Sparky, you'll be forced to move forward to dodge it, quite likely smacking MegaMan with collision damage on the WuNote's bushes. The Sparky even deals double damage, being on ice panels.

Said trick from MMBN3, "cardboard immortality", involves a grass-element StyleChange (Or in this case, TomahawkChaos) and having UnderSht on. UnderSht always gives you one last HP on an otherwise lethal hit, unless you already have 1 HP. Grass-element on grass panels regenerates HP, making what's essentially an invincible, regenerating barrier. This has been nerfed since MMBN3, obviously, for one thing the rate of HP regeneration seemed to slow down greatly. And of course, TomahawkChaos only lasts one turn.



I had FullEnergy subchips obtained from MysteryData somewhere, but wound up not really needing to use them. Once I got out of the "Fire, Forget, Fuck it" mindset for battles and took things seriously, even the bugs weren't such issues.



Two bugs at once happen sometimes, that or they happen every time and I sometimes don't notice one of them due to playstyle. Here's the aforementioned emotion bug combined with a bug that cracks every panel MegaMan steps off of. Worth noting that each of these bugs correspond to bugs that can be created in the NaviCust, the emotion bug can be caused by bugging Humor, the panel bug with FloatShoes.



The Undernet being the usual explosive amount of goodies ripe for taking that it is, over here in a PMD is the NeoVari V MegaChip, an upgraded VarSword. Here's yet another batshit crazy gamebreaker! It's telling, however, that I won't use it because I suck at button inputs on the keyboard. Hell, I sucked at them back when I originally played the games, my brain is wired that way.

I forgot to check, but NeoVari's base damage is something like 240. If you're good with the inputs, however, just fucking look at this:

X-Slash: Function's like StepCross without the step part, slashing in an X shape in front of MegaMan. The center of the X is hit twice for 480 damage. Input: Down, Right, Up

Piercing Sonic Boom: Identical to ProtoMan's Sonic Boom, pierces obstacles and enemies however. Only hits once. Input: Left, B, Right, B

Double LifeSword: Self-explanatory, two consecutive LifeSword-range slashes. Input: Up, B, Down, B, Up, B

Yeah, one MegaChip that can do nearly 500 damage to a gigantic chunk of the field. But yeah, eh, I've already got a catastrophically powerful arsenal, why bother with something I'm not even all that good at?



That Navi next to MegaMan in the previous picture is the UnderNet's BugFrag Dealer, and in tradition from MMBN3, of course he's got a GigaChip. BugCharge, returning from MMBN4, fires one blast from Gospel's mouth for every bug MegaMan is afflicted with. This guy has plenty of other swag as well, but the BugFrags in MMBN5 come in at a pathetic trickle. I miss the days of farming hundreds of the things off GutsMan V3.



Yet another PMD holds the second ExpandMemory! With a full NaviCust grid to work with, time to retool things.



Custom+2, Collect, SoulTime+1, Support, and two Attack+1 programs. I could close that single central tile by swapping Support for UnderSht, come to think of it. This will probably see me until well into the postgame, until Collect is no longer useful and I replace it with something.



Seriously, I cannot get over how near-identical these two are.

However, Lan and MegaMan didn't come here to begin another Liberation Mission. They came here to drag ToadMan and Ribitta back to safety.



They aren't having any of that, but who cares? The only difference from MMBN2 is that those annoying tadpoles don't shoot out anymore, replaced with a bouncing frog that creates water panels.



So apparently this was some plan of theirs to get MegaMan and Lan to accept the role of leader. Sure, why not.



Heroic theme swell!



Camaraderie!



Lampshade Hanging! All the hallmarks of a "team coming together" scene.



Now you're talkin'.



In direct opposition to that idea is the door itself. Violence and force can't break it is the thing, so not even TomahawkMan can destroy it.

How CloudMan busted through the one before is a plot hole of finest quality, but you know what they say in NetFrica...



ToadMan has better luck with, erm, singing/croaking.



Yeah, ToadMan is officially the Support unit of the team now. Rather shoehorned into the role, don't you think? The idea of "frogs and toads croak...and that heals things" wouldn't enter my mind, but thankfully, I'm not a Capcom thinker. In Team ProtoMan, the nurse-themed Meddy with a similar name but no other connections to a MegaMan X character makes a lot more sense as a Support Navi.

I will, however, shut up and welcome ToadMan and Ribitta to the team, because ToadMan's Order Point action is very useful.



Looks like KnightMan is the one arbitrarily sitting this one out. No, we will never ever have the whole team in action at once. There's apparently some sort of fixed cap that only 5 members of the team can participate.