Part 48: MegaMan Battle Network: Corruption.

You know, having the layout of the Nebula HQ set up this way would be a great tactical advantage if there were actually any Nebula thugs around to try and attack us.



Well, that was quick. No time to mourn KnightMan, on to the second FactoryComp. Lan looks bored. Pride has presumably been left behind where she was because she can't really do anything without her Navi.



Maybe I spoke too soon! No way to get Higsby or Dingo up there.



Ah, Dusk Ex Machina. Did anybody actually think we weren't going to see him again?



In case you aren't gifted with pattern recognition skills, we'll be going through the FactoryComp areas with the teammates in the order we acquired their souls.



Unlike the first FactoryComp, the second one starts ShadowMan and MegaMan in separate sections of the area. The goal of getting MegaMan to the end with the support of the teammate is still the same.



This time though, MegaMan can barely do anything except be let ahead on a mostly straight path. As he continues though, he opens up more paths for ShadowMan.



It's interesting to note that in each FactoryComp the viruses seem tailored to be very easily taken care of with the teammates. KnightMan made jokes out of Dominerds in the first area, ShadowMan likewise has no trouble with NinJoy viruses or the magnet panels.



Once again, the DTDS version of the game makes everything easier. I can't stress how much these maps help in the FactoryComp, I hadn't even been using them up until this point. By the way, see that blob? Those things rain from the sky occasionally and deal 40 damage if they hit, they're nothing to worry about if you just keep moving.



So wait, do you use the Muramasa or Roukanken? _{Fucking hell, that has to be the most neckbearded reference I've made in the whole LP.}



Appley: These are what I deem the weirdest viruses in the game. Appleys stay hidden in their apple shells and hop around for a while, after doing so they spit seeds at your side of the field and make a grass panel. When they're in the shells, only fire attacks will hurt them, not even breaking chips will work. The real danger is that whenever you kill one, time will freeze and they will restore all the HP of another virus by sacrificing themselves. Normally what you want to do in any game is destroy the healing units first, but this is reversed for Appleys. Leaving them alone for last is the best bet, since they're pretty harmless and can only heal things by dying themselves.



Again, MegaMan doesn't play much of a part in FactoryComp2.



Darkloid time, and since we're going in order....ShadeMan again. I have had enough of this stupid vampire already, though at least he's switched to generic evil laughter instead of going WHEEEEEE all the time.



Unlike before, ShadowMan takes a more proactive offense towards the DarkLoid. Excellent!



ShadeMan is, as usual, only interested in MegaMan. Who really shouldn't be turning his back on ShadeMan, but I digress.



Hey, no fair doing that before being deleted! ShadowMan gets sucked into the DarkGalaxy, firmly establishing that this is going to happen with everyone. It kind of loses the impact.

That said, time for the final fight with ShadeMan in the series. And you know what? I'm going to give him what he wants. Darkness this, DarkPower that, the darkness in MegaMan, blah blah fucking blah!

You want it so bad, ShadeMan, here you go! The theme of this fight is using nothing but DarkInvis with ShadowChaos (fitting revenge for ShadowMan) and completely curbstomping this fucking recurring boss out of the series. I love how this turned out! Interestingly enough, take note of the glitch that happens with ShadeMan draining HP through DarkInvis.



ShadeMan says he'll return yet again, thanks to NebulaGrey.



NebulaGrey seems to be the core of Nebula activity, whatever it is. ShadeMan proceeds to explode with impressive pyrotechnics yet again.



Battle Network 4?



Higsby's starting to recognize a pattern here. Dingo is just eager to smash things and avenge the others.



It's a bit of a shame I had to split the updates for the DarkChip Factory so much, as we go through we get to see how DarkChips actually get produced. Here, piles of purple dust is processed or condensed into purple chunky stuff, which then gets pressed into chips by the machine we saw earlier. Okay, it's not a very in-depth process.



What Higsby said. There's 4 DarkLoids and 4 FactoryComp areas, so naturally to fit all the teammates in, we have two of them with us at once now.



Unlike FactoryComp2, everyone starts together again. TomahawkMan will indeed get to crush things, since I always swap NapalmMan in for him in Liberation Missions, this is the most action he'll get in the whole game.



The number of obstacles skyrockets from here on out, as you can see. Once again, MegaMan is pretty useless.



Chopping down the wall leads to a teal button to unlock the teal barrier so NumberMan can progress.



Decryption is as usual no effort for NumberMan.



Weirdly enough, there are a lot of redundant obstacles along the same pathways. The complexity of FactoryComp3 is much higher than the previous two, and actually more so than FactoryComp4 as well.



It's impossible to tell via screenshot, but NumberMan and TomahawkMan both wind up on either side of the end of the area to unlock two gates that open the way to CloudMan.



We all know where this is going, unfortunately...



After some trivial banter, we'll finally get a few answers.



I thought black holes were...nevermind. Okay, we got an answer and it wasn't very helpful. It's CloudMan though, what do you expect?

The theme for this fight is revenge for that embarrassing trainwreck fight against him before in the Liberation mission. It goes from very satisfying to very wrong quickly.



Much like all times previous, CloudMan has a last attack once defeated.



CloudMan calls up the DarkGalaxy!



To suck up NumberMan.



And TomahawkMan.



Okay, CloudMan is getting my nomination for biggest asshole in the entire MMBN series. He's every horrible boss gimmick rolled together, he gets MegaMan kidnapped and corrupted into the terminally stupid DarkMega, kills Colonel/ProtoMan, has them corrupted, and then sucks two of your teammates into the DarkGalaxy purely out of spite. And mocks you the whole time.



Seriously, over the course of this LP, my favorite comments from the thread have been people learning from my updates. Beardman took me by surprise with how popular he became, people understand how completely idiotic Nebula and Dr. Regal are, etc. Now I hope people remember this about MMBN5:



CloudMan is a COCK.



MegaMan mopes that CloudMan was right for a while.



He doesn't get two lines of it before Higsby and Dingo tell him to stuff it and man up. Revenge! Purging Nebula and Dr. Regal from the series! We can't forget our goals here!



So here's the source of the DarkChips. This is the beginning of the production lines, a trickle of physical dark energy.

Darkness is the lack of light. You can't have dark energy in this sense because that's an oxymoron like "hot ice", "dense emptiness", "Capcom Science", etc. Although, perhaps accidentally, this does fit in with the vague space theme Nebula has. Dark energy is the term used to refer to whatever the heck is accelerating the expansion of the universe.

You CAN have energy in physical form, however, that's called matter. I'm greatly oversimplifying things, of course.



One final barrier, but we've run out of teammates. And even if we hadn't, there's no accessing those terminals from here.



Admirably, Lan decides not to give up even in this hopeless situation and just try whatever they can.



Desperate situations are a magnet for heroes and allies though, so thankfully, Baryl and Ribitta show up.



Time for the last FactoryComp!



Once again, everyone starts out separated from each other.



The layout here is a literal straight line for MegaMan that must be opened up by Colonel and ToadMan's progress.



Been a while since we saw that gate in ACDC 2, huh? Due to the order being the souls we obtained, we technically have our first teammate and last teammate working with us now.



Now that I think about it, just about any Navi with healing abilities would be a very potent anti-Nebula Navi. Christ am I glad Roll was taken away at the beginning of the game, or she'd actually have a reason to be around!



A bit further in, ToadMan and Colonel can and must switch sides via that walkway on top of the area to continue.



Once MegaMan gets far enough, the 3 paths merge together.



It then splits apart so that Colonel and ToadMan can unlock the final two doors to CosmoMan, the end of the FactoryComp.



Colonel being Colonel, he's not going to just stand there while we fight.



Likewise, the endlessly enthusiastic ToadMan wants in on the action as well.



It's taken a long, long time, but finally Arashi's "Don't be so over-dramatic" line has an equal. Fitting, given how much MMBN2 is referenced in this game.



DarkGalaxy time, once again.



Colonel, displaying his usual competence and overall awesomeness, attacks CosmoMan to try and interrupt the DarkGalaxy. It's too bad, as we saw from BlizzardMan, not even deleting the DarkLoid will stop it.



And CosmoMan isn't only going to target ToadMan. Due to opening right in front of him, this is all the reaction time Colonel gets before being sucked in.



ToadMan, being a quadruped, has enough force behind his movements to struggle for a while before he is sucked in as well. The destruction of Team Colonel is complete.



MegaMan is pissed, to say the least.



And I do exactly that. For once, the voice acting works out in favor with nice timing on that last attack.



No more DarkLoids! And as that's the end of the FactoryComp, time for a cutscene to show what Regal's up to in the meanwhile.



Capcom thermodynamics! Regal apparently doesn't mind being mere feet away from boiling lava. SoulServer is fine though.

Mt. Fuji, the mountain Mt. Belenus is just a different name for, erupts with basaltic or mafic lava, which is hotter than felsic lava, and typically erupts at temperatures exceeding 950 degrees Celsius (1742 degrees Fahrenheit). For reference, iron has a melting point of 1538 degrees Celsius (2800 degrees Fahrenheit).

That said, Regal better have some pretty impressive cooling systems on that thing, computers have a nasty tendency of roasting themselves during strenuous operation, let alone while half-submerged in lava.



All things considered, it's amazing that Regal actually could do this. Dr. Hikari and Dr. Wily both were unable to finish this, so...wait, no, they couldn't finish because of ethical concerns and overcoming those problems, Regal just doesn't give a crap about them.



Hard to tell if he's sweating because of the situation or because of being in a lava-filled crater. You know, volcanoes also tend to feature a lot of nasty gases like CO2 and various sulfuric gases. This is right up there with the Gospel HQ in terms of danger, although not quite as mindbendingly insane.



As usual, Dr. Regal's motives are full of shit. I mean, just look at these previous 3 screenshots!

"Our fathers would be so proud of their research being completed!"
"This isn't what they wanted!"
"I don't care what they would have wanted!"

I hate Dr. Regal so much.



Yes, we've been told this before!



What theory!? What possible theory could there be?! Is Regal a FOR SCIENCE villain, or is there actually a point to this? And where the hell is the science in this, not just in general considering the subject matter, but what actual theory is being tested? "If I build SoulNet, it will do what it's supposed to"? Jesus Christ.



Morally, Yuuichiro is correct here.



Factually, however, he's not. Hey, SoulServer does what it's supposed to, the microservers already proved that it works. Which...from a scientific standpoint, already proved the "theory", making Regal even stupider. Yes, those were small-scale experiments, but the entire country of Electopia isn't much of a small scale.



But here's where we finally get told what the hell Regal's planning. Step 1: Activate SoulServer.



Step 2: Install NebulaGrey, the "dark star" of the DarkGalaxy, a dimension of pure evil.



DarkChip-style corruption on a global scale. At the very least, the actual intent of the plan makes sense. Everything else? Not one damned bit, Regal still isn't sure if he wants to be the ruler of the world or not.



I actually like this line. For all the idiocy of Nebula, for all the staggering incompetence over the course of two games, this is actually a serious threat to the world and is basically an instant end-of-civilization.



Yeah, way to go Yuuichiro. What's worse is that he didn't do this after MMBN4, where he learned of Dr. Regal's evil and saw what happened with Duo's Asteroid.



Although it's hard to blame him, considering SoulServer was never intended to be used this way. If the whole "People linking their souls together uncontrollably and going berserk" problem could have been fixed, SoulServer would have been a tool of peace and understanding.



Before anyone asks, yes, Dr. Regal does have a means of keeping himself protected from the effects of SoulServer. It's really, really stupid, of course.



As if everything doesn't come down to us in the end all the time anyways.