Mega Man Battle Network 4-6 Part #47 - Would an assault on a DarkChip factory be....Black Ops?

Part 47: Would an assault on a DarkChip factory be....Black Ops?

As I have a gigantic amount of screenshots, I'm going to be splitting up the endgame. I've currently played all the way up to the end of the final dungeon. If you're bored, have a peek at the filenames to see how much is being cut out in order to not have a ridiculously gigantic update set.

Here we are, the way to the endgame. Let's have a look at what Team Colonel thinks about all this.

Confidence, confidence, and more confidence, really.

I admit, appearing on national TV dressed as a frog all the time probably desensitizes one to performance anxiety.

You know, Dusk, looking at your mugshot, I just realized that you being able to see is an accomplishment. One eye has that milky white scar tissue over it and the other is clamped nearly shut.

Oh, Higsby.

Let's get moving already! Once we know where we're going anyway.

Electopia is Japan, so that makes it Mt. Fu-

-Mt. Belenus. No, really, it is Mt. Fuji, just renamed.

While playing, I got suspicious of this specific height and Googled it. Yup, 12,389 feet (3776 M) tall, it's Mt. Fuji.

Although unlike the real Mt. Fuji, the volcanic crater is exposed. Nebula HQ is in there, although Mt. Belenus is stated to be dormant.

Just like in MMBN4, a helicopter is going to deliver us to the final area.

Get to the...uh, InvisiChoppah!

Oh for fuck's sake! You can't see it, but the rope ladder and shadow for the helicopter is reused from MMBN4 entirely. But once again, flicker-based special effects get in the way. And apparently, the InvisiChoppah has more empty frames than most effects do, so it's going to be invisible due to sheer bad luck/timing.

Oh hell no.

I DESPISE YOU ALL!

Nebula HQ, here we are. And despite the claim that the volcano is dormant, looking at the background graphics reveals lava bubbling out. Perhaps not as dormant as one might think.

By the way, the music here is pretty much great from here to the end of the game. Welcome to the DarkChip Factory.

We pan over the place. Regal doesn't take after his father much, no skulls. On the other hand, those are clearly anti-aircraft turrets! Which for some reason didn't open fire on the InvisiChoppah. You have to be kidding me, unfortunate screenshot timing actually seems to fit in with the game. Screwup-centric stealth technology!

Dingo wants to storm the place, but Dusk reprimands him for being too reckless.

Well, he IS a trained assassin/mercenary and whatnot.

The secret entryway we'll be taking, as the front door is out of the question, isn't an air duct or something similar. Instead, it's...a back door left open. Okay, sure.

What has Scooby Doo taught any of us? Splitting up in places like this is a bad idea.

Well, off to the back door? Where Dusk was apparently just ambushed? Onwards!

Regal is so damned generic his base is literally a secret volcano lair. And at a national landmark, for bonus points. That said, geothermal power makes it fairly self-sufficient, so maybe the idea has merit. Assuming you don't punch through whatever's capping the magma...

Pride and Ribitta are nervous, but Higsby and Dingo are ready to forge on ahead. A secret door, eh?

I wouldn't call this secret. You can Jack-In to that pipe right there, by the way.

Inside is a few goodies, but also a virus I forgot to give a description for earlier.

Draggin: If Seadra was fire-type, you have this thing in terms of design. It warps around the field randomly, only pausing to fill the panel MegaMan is on and one adjacent panel with fire columns.

Entering the door, we reach the...main hall. Literally, that's right where the main gate would open up if it could actually be entered. So the 'secret way in' is more or less a Visitor's Entrance side door.

Yup, we're splitting up even more despite what happened to Dark. Considering how Gospel's henchmen were all Navis and the WWW was basically a small terrorist organization run by Wily, Nebula has no excuse for their HQ to be so empty! Regal has those thugs in gas masks, we've seen plenty by now.

By the way, Baryl's talking about a door that my screenshots didn't show. Eh. Baryl and Ribitta go through that route, which is apparently a side route through the base, while the majority of the team proceeds through the DarkChip factory.

Well, if any henchmen actually showed up, yes, we would be. Baryl takes Ribitta due to how ToadMan can neutralize DarkPower.

Before leaving, however, Baryl hands over the CrossDivide GigaChip, the second you'd normally be able to acquire in the game without abusing the DTDS Number Trader. In Team ProtoMan, Chaud forks over DeltaRay instead. The actual first GigaChip available is either Phoenix or DeathPheonix from Higsby's for 25,000 zenny after GargComp or so.

The team moves on, though before continuing...it's an evil motivational poster! DrkMtPst!

An evil SOVIET motivational poster, no less!

You can jack into it because it's a BBS. This is actually very useful because it contains a shortcut to UnderNet3, as well as a merchant without anything really worth buying.

Anyway, catching up with the others, we arrive at the DarkChip Production Plant. Appropriately, something so integral to Nebula has its own Fuckup.

You can Jack-In. Can you guess what's in here?

The final DarkChip! This gives me the DarkComplete mark on the title screen, though I can't show you it due to the emulator save issues I mentioned last update.

Well, here's possibly why there's no henchmen around: energy security doors! Here's our endgame dungeon, folks. Unlike the Asteroid and Apartment systems, each FactoryComp is its own single area. Like the tanks on Skull Island were in MMBN3.

As you can see, there are two computers involved, so as you might have guessed from the theme of the game, it's a co-op endgame area.

Dingo wants to be included, but Pride points out that because they don't know what to expect, sending in their defensive unit is a better idea.

So, FactoryComp1, with KnightMan!

The first thing you'll notice is that the music here is a damned masterpiece.

KnightMan and MegaMan can be switched between each other with the X and Y buttons, or Q and W on my keyboard layout. This is the same as during Liberation Missions, so getting used to that is no issue.

As for the actual layout of the FactoryComp...holy shit, look at the bottom-right of the screen! F-a-c-t-o-r-y-C-o-m-p? That's 11 letters, not 8! One of the most sacred tenants of the series has been violated!

I agree, HP.

As you can probably guess by the presence of a color-coded door and a button, the FactoryComp areas all focus around maneuvering MegaMan and his teammates to the buttons to keep the doors open so each Navi can proceed. Enforcing this structure are copies of the obstacles that barred Liberation Missions until we got the appropriate teammate to open the way.

It's still funny to watch MegaMan get blasted at by a gigantic vulcan turret.

KnightMan, naturally, has no trouble accessing the switch.

There are two new faces in the FactoryComp areas.

Flashy: These little light bulb alien viruses can be insanely annoying later on. For now, they warp around the field getting faster and faster until it's impossible to hit them, until stopping in front of MegaMan and emitting a +-shaped burst of electricity around themselves. Later versions follow this up with a second x-shaped burst. They're sitting ducks if you simply get out of the circle of panels around them, though they can make fights with already tough viruses chaotic.

And yes, the color-coded buttons correspond not only to doors, but who can trigger them. As an interesting note, the button colors seem to match the Team Colonel Navis despite Team ProtoMan being made first. This purple button matches KnightMan, MagnetMan wouldn't match. Unless the button colors vary depending on the version?

MegaMan's switches aren't guarded by anything because MegaMan is useless on the overworld. The pattern for the FactoryComps is that the teammates open up the way for MegaMan to proceed to the end. A nice adherence to the theme, I guess.

Due to the nature of the area, i.e., twisting paths without any landmarks punctuated by identical doors and buttons, screenshots don't really do a good job of showing how to navigate, but that's fine because it's very simple. Particularly on the DTDS version, due to the inclusion of maps.

Oh, right, BlizzardMan. Yeah, the revived Darkloids are the bosses of the FactoryComp areas, and fight like normal bosses this time instead of along Liberation Mission rules. So they've all got videos, and I decided to fight them with themes.

BlizzardMan's theme is showing off the Souls. Although I didn't do such a good job of it due to my folder lacking Aqua and Wood element chips, so ToadSoul and TomahawkSoul get shafted. At the least, I demonstrate the others well enough I hope.

However, BlizzardMan introduces us to a new DarkLoid trick:

The DarkGalaxy.

A black hole of such size would evaporate very quickly, though of course this is CyberWorld. Nebula's a bit weird, I mean, they almost have a space theme but don't really try very hard to stick to it. The name, the DarkGalaxy, some nonsensical plot involving the Asteroid, CosmoMan being the DarkLoid leader...

Anyway, the DarkGalaxy could be thought of as some sort of alternate dimension of pure darkness. We won't ever be actually going there, I'll say that now, but we'll be getting a bit more info on it as we go.

BlizzardMan explodes, leaving MegaMan to get drawn in. Dingo, this is not the time!

I'm so proud of the two protagonists for getting more and more used to the idea of doing this.

Unfortunately, while they think of doing it, it won't work. Go figure. The DarkGalaxy black hole draws MegaMan in with so much force that he can't escape even that way.

Seeing an ally in danger, however...

KnightMan blocks the pull of the DarkGalaxy, as it apparently only focuses on one target at a time. MegaMan can escape now, but abandoning a teammate is unthinkable!