Part 49: Doc Regal's World!
Thank you, everyone, for being supportive and understanding for the largest delay between updates the thread's seen. On the plus side, I can truthfully say that I've been institutionalized, I guess!
Right, picking back off here, we've cleared the FactoryComp areas and are ready to move on to the final boss and end of the storyline.
As usual, the game brings us to the room we always see the villains plotting in. Regal isn't around, however, and there's no sign of where he went. Given that there was only one Nebula mook the entire time, it'd be hilarious if this was an absurdly elaborate and contrived decoy HQ, but that isn't the case.
The trick is to search around the room, the rightmost display case has a Jack-In port, with a randomly-placed fallen helpful Navi.
This was also the computer where GutsMan, Roll, and Glide were being held, remember the scene of MegaMan being corrupted? And I love how the generic Navi describes them. Those are literally the only distinguishing features those three have.
Yes, this is MegaMan's real response, which immediately prompted a quick edit of the screenshot.
Oh glorious day, they've been sucked into the DarkGalaxy as well! Gone! Yes!
The completely unexplained expositional Navi also somehow knows the secret route to where Regal's gone off to, as well as where Mayl, Dex, and Yai's PETs are.
Mr. Randomly Helpful expires, but yup, here we go.
A hidden door panel pops open from behind one of the Nebula symbols, and this right here is the door of no return.
Team Colonel shows up to provide, at the least, moral support. Given that being without a Navi in the MMBN setting makes you nigh-useless, it's all they can do.
More MAN TIME out of them, of course.
We've come a long way, really. For the very first time in the series, I won't disagree with this one damned bit. Princess Pride, Dusk, Dingo, Higsby, Ribitta, Baryl, all of you should be proud to be helpful NPCs in this series. Seriously, it's a goddamned miracle. Contrast them to Dex, Mayl, and Yai, or hell, pretty much anybody else besides Beardman and Mamoru.
With the support of Team Colonel, let's finish this game and put an end to Regal's idiocy once and for all!
...
Even when those fuckers aren't here, they ruin everything!
Anyway, you know what this prompt means! Time for the final boss.
Now in the Land of No Convection, Lan finally reunites with his father, although there's no time to celebrate.
Dumbassery aside, I think any parent would be proud of their son for saving the world about twice a year.
Blah blah SoulNet blah. As usual, it's not like the villain's plan will have any real repercussions once initiated.
Lan hesitates to go on to try and stop Dr. Regal, but thankfully, Team Colonel arrives to help on that front at least.
Your stupidity and asinine, self-contradicting plans are over!
However, much like Alpha, SoulNet goes active just moments too soon to be stopped.
No! Dr. Regal's plan of a world corrupted with evil has come to pass! What kind of horrifying changes will this have on the already insane MMBN world!?
: "It's Doc Regal's world~!"
"It's Doc Regal's world~!"
Oh, blink animation, your timing is as impeccable as always. Lan is not impressed.
The others aren't faring so well, however. Lady Pride is even being tainted with Fuckuppery!
Higsby begins to turn green as his body grows increasingly muscular! Good thing he was wearing purple elastic boxers.
Who knows what Baryl's feeling. This is, if I remember right, the same in Team ProtoMan.
Nobody messes with the helpful NPC allies! Regal, you bastard!
And here's where the Capcom Science rears its head. Regal is surprised that SoulNet isn't affecting Lan. At the least though, this is a decent example of a Chekov's Gun trope in use. MagnoMetal having unique properties was hinted at back in the DrillComp scenario. And it being relevant to SoulNet was alluded to by the Oran Island VisionBurst.
The thing is, Lan doesn't have a Faraday Cage of the stuff, just the amulet. This is like expecting a bulletproof vest to protect you from a shot to the head.
Well, despite Lan having a MagnoMetal amulet made by Dr. Tadashi Hikari, Regal isn't worried about his plans. Ah, pattern recognition, the Achilles heel of many a villain. Regal goes on to describe how it can amplify evil within souls.
Calling out his actions, Dr. Regal dramatically...
...Places the disk in.
Whatever!
Despite what you might expect, SoulServer has a brain theme rather than a heart theme to portray souls. And while the screenshots don't really show it, the physical SoulServer itself is shaped like a giant brain.
And once again, DTDS adds a stupid textual error introduced by a lazier retranslation. This was originally "I'm on fire", but there's been an obvious find -> replace done that's changed all the instances of "fire" to "flames".Capcom of America:
BUT IT SOUNDS COOLER.
At least replacing "fires" to "flames" worked out. Guess who's ALREADY fucking back?
All four DarkLoids. We don't fight them again, much as a boss rush of them would be interesting. Presumably they came back so fast due to being in the FactoryComp when deleted. Hell, ShadeMan came back at least twice in MMBN4. The Django subquest, and after you do that, you can fight his SP form, that is, which is explained as being him weakened by the PileDriver.
And of course, CockMan is also around, as are BlizzardMan and CosmoMan.
You know, it really stops being dramatic or tense at all when they do this every single game...
But hey, Team Colonel's okay. I'm happy with this.
Well, that makes some sense, I guess. Given that everyone is connected by their souls and NebulaGray is an integral part of the DarkGalaxy, navigating to SoulServer from wherever they were seems semi-plausible enough. About as much as you can ask for, given the circumstances.
TomahawkMan and ShadowMan are both well suited to taking on CockMan. The former gets an elemental advantage and immunity to paralysis and hitstun, while the latter is an evasion specialist.
NumberMan's NumberBall attack is devastating for ShadeMan, given that it acts as offense and defense to block the bats swarms and likely smack him in the fanged face if he tries his Crush Noise attack. ToadMan can paralyze with croaks, and that's not counting the potent anti-DarkPower abilities he has.
NOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Fuck this, on to the final boss already!
Were you expecting NebulaGray to be a blue
So here's what the thing actually is, at long fucking last. Several years ago, Dr. Regal made a digitization of humanity's inherent evil. Given the Pulse Transmission technology from MMBN3 and how Navis already have souls, this isn't too ridiculous by his standards.
What this entails is anybody's guess. Was Regal just laughing to himself at the computer and hitting a giant "INCREASE THE EVILNESS" button or something? That would not be out of place, really.
That system then takes that EvilData and converts the file format or something.
NebulaGray is that system, the swirling portal is presumably the wellspring of EvilData. DarkChips are made in the factory this way, remember the giant tank of concentrated evil?
Makes you wonder what would happen if the good side of humankind was put through the same process. Or the neutral side. Or any other possible facet of somebody's personality.
This line starts off slightly menacing.
As long as there is evil and conflict in humanity, there will be an infinite supply of DarkPower.
Aaaand then it goes classic Regaltarded. Oh man, how did I not think of that portmanteau sooner?!
Uh. I honestly think that Regal was grasping at straws how to end that with some grandiose statement and just went with whatever sounded sorta neat. 
We won't be fighting the fireball, per se, though.
NebulaGray swirls in circles around the portal and conjures up some evil fires or something that it brings together.
Combining them all together, we have our final boss!
And it's been criticized for having a silly design often in the thread. I actually think it looks cool, but it definitely is the least technological or 'cyber' of all the final bosses in the series. Contrast with the others we've seen before. I said that this game emphasizes fantasy over sci-fi, didn't I?
I wound up having to switch to my backup folder I've been assembling behind the scenes, as my normal folder can't do enough damage to NebulaGray unless I spammed ChaosUnisons, which seemed cheap and less entertaining. This paid off well.
Oh, and the final boss theme is probably one of the best Capcom's ever made. I tagged the video so that the related videos link to it, so be sure to enjoy it. I'm cutting the update off here because the ending sequence of this game is long, unlike MMBN4's. Not as bad as MMBN3's, at least, so I don't need to make videos instead.