Part 62: Plunger Mettaur!
My only complaint with this game is that the cutscenes go on for too long. They're completely tolerable in-game, but communicating them in the LP takes a frustrating amount of time. Time that could be spent playing this game instead!
This is Tab. The ensuing conversation is a bit more awkward due to the English language.
While I don't exactly have a transcript of the original Japanese version, I have a feeling this was based off of honorifics rather than the use of Mr., which makes a bit more sense. I mean, what kind of 6th grader calls a classmate Mr.? Can't really be helped though, that's just the closest English equivalent.
See what I mean? If you know about honorifics, this conversation seems less strange.
Either way, as an apology for the trouble, Mick gives Lan the Graffiti item. It's not entirely useless, but Lan points out that Mick is basically just giving us his doodles.
The Graffiti serves a specific purpose, besides embarrassing Mick further.
Remember how the door to CentralArea3 was unpassable because some jerk hid the key? Well, that was Mick. The Graffiti is actually a drawing giving the player a clue where the key is hidden.
And of course, having it sets the event flag that lets you find it at all. 
I bet you were wondering when we'd actually get to the game's namesake! Cybeast Falzar and Cybeast Gregar have statues dedicated to the disasters they supposedly wrought on the Internet. They're just myths, though.
There's absolutely no way they could be real, after all. Nope. Nosiree, not a single chance in a million. Just a myth. As in, not real, nonexistent, figments of the imagination.
Huuuuuuuurrr they're real, of course.
Mick hurries away, and Tab reveals that he's the game's Higsby equivalent. The chip shop in town that's currently closed for renovations is actually owned by his family. Making his full name Tab Aster.
If only he had a brother with a rock-themed Navi named Alab.
Anyway, time to make our way to CentralArea3. The Graffiti item needs to actually be checked for you to get the hint, but it's really obvious.
Also, Mayl sent us the Roll R chip, which fits perfectly into my folder which is already nearly R unicoded. Isn't this game great? We get all the positives of having friends and none of the stupid, annoying characters!
By the way, from here on out the Cafes let you buy coffee. Unlike what I'd remembered, they give a random gameplay hint, which may or may not include a Number Trader code.
Also, we can turn MegaMan into a coffee gourmand. Each Cafe in the game's coffee gets its own description of the flavor. We have a mission, people. Sample the coffee of the Cyberworld and determine which is most delicious!
Also, for those who don't pay attention to filenames, this marks the end of the "School is a Blast" set of images, all nearly 300 of them. Not important for the LP, but I'm happy to finally be making progress!
This is the only spot in CentralArea2 that fulfills the criteria on the Graffiti, so it's easy to find and directly on the way to the door.
Guess who's also around in CentralArea2? BlastManEX! The series has changed a lot in its "boss levels".
MMBN1-2 both had simply V1 (no suffix), V2, and V3.
MMBN3 had V1/2/3 and Omega.
MMBN4/5 had Basic (no suffix), Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Omega/SP and DS.
And finally, MMBN6 simplifies this to Basic, EX, and SP level, while certain boss fights way later on get unique suffixes much like BassXX did. That wasn't the first time Bass got his own suffix, BassDelux/BassDX and BassGS were the first times.
From what I've been told about the sequel series Starforce, MMBN6's naming scheme gets carried on, complete with uberbosses that get their own suffixes.
Basically, EX = V2, SP = V3, and you are in serious shit if you're fighting something with a different suffix.
This hack, from what I know of it, adds at least 2 bosses that have other suffixes.
And here's that attack he didn't use in the first fight!
Blast Wave: I think this is the actual name for the attack. As you can see from the screenshot, BlastMan gives you a few seconds warning about which direction the fire will shoot from.
The BlastMan B chip is pretty strong for this point in the game. Someone in the thread pointed out earlier that it'll be quite a while in the game before this chip isn't an automatic normal battle victory when used, as every virus for several chapters will die instantly to it.
120 damage down all 3 rows is just beautifully simple in how effective it is, huh?
And here's where he is, because I accidentally ran forward into the battle before actually taking the screenshot showing where it was.
Welcome to CentralArea3! As you can no doubt see, the main feature is a gigantic chasm. This spot is, according to legend, where Cybeast Falzar and Cybeast Gregar waged their final battle before sinking into the depths of the Cyberworld.
Also, fun fact, it is very difficult for me to not call Gregar "Greiga", because I learned his original Japanese name first online. So until an official translation came out, all I knew him as was Greiga, and force of habit took hold. Falzar was originally just Falzer, so that's hardly different at all.
Another fun fact, I learned the names from the RockMan.Exe Undersquare website. And some writers from said website have been commenting routinely in the thread. This feels very strange.
CentralArea3 links to every other main Cyberworld area in the game. Hence the name CentralArea. The thing is, we can't enter any of them right now. There are a total of 5 areas connected to CentralArea3, 2 of them have "elemental gates" like this cloud that we can't get past yet. The other elemental gate in the area is a large tree. If only we had TomahawkMan around!
The third area requires an AreaPass key item we won't be getting for a while.
And the fourth area has a wet pathway. Basically, there are ants in the way and we can't step on them.
And here's what we actually came here for, the Cybeast statues.
Wizdog...Wizmonkey...no, no, not that wretched song again...
Now the story feels more like Pokemon Ruby/Sapphire. Although, this applies the usual logic of the series. That is, absolutely none, so don't think too hard about how the Cyberworld has been different in every game despite these two shaping it. Or about why two Cybeasts would be able to shape the Cyberworld at all with their battles given that the areas could be restored from backups.
Now we get individual descriptions of the duo.
You may have noticed Gregar has an uncanny resemblance to Gospel from MMBN2. Capcom being lazy and editing old designs? Or an intentional nostalgic throwback? As you can imagine, we'll be learning more later in the game.
MegaCyberChicken has an entirely new design, by contrast.
Actually, that sounds kind of like the TinHawk DarkGuardians from MMBN5. Although the mental image of Falzar scooping up the NPC programs, eating them, and regurgitating them to feed its chicks is highly amusing.
No, Falzar doesn't actually have any chicks. No Gregar puppies either.
Creative name, ain't it?
You'd think that it'd be sealed up with CyberCement or something, but no. There isn't even a safety fence. So more likely than not, also at the bottom of the pit are a few splattered remains of those who were unlucky enough to fall in.
Speaking of beasts, Alpha was referred to as "The Beast" several times in MMBN3. There's no connection, but it makes me think that what Lan should be really saying here is "Yeah, sounds like the Net's just full of incredibly powerful digital engines of destruction waiting for some maniac to take advantage of!"
Well beyond his vocabulary, but you get the point. Since this is the last game of the series, you'd think that the world simply ran out of monsters.
You'd be wrong. Starforce is set 200 years in the future on the same world. The world of MMBN is just stuffed to the brim with final bosses! And that's when final bosses from outer space aren't visiting, or some idiot with a monocle isn't turning souls into them!
After that story, you get prompted to Jack-Out and head to bed, starting up the next cutscene.
Remember how the entire reason Lan moved here was so Yuuichiro could work on the Expo network? Time to cover that.
Mayor Cain here is also the Principal of Cyber Academy, for the record, his office is located on the second floor of the building. Which explains the security of the school, since it also functions as City Hall for Cyber City.
There's plenty of foreshadowing in this scene.
The program Mayor Cain is talking about isn't known to the general public, something Yuuichiro points out.
An associate of Mayor Cain's knew about it. This is probably how Yuuichiro got the job in the first place to head to Cyber City, actually.
Yes, an 11 year-old program is still powerful enough to be of immense use. How much use? Wait and see. I have no doubts that some of you will be able to figure out what this scene foreshadows, but keep your mouths shut!
Partly as a security measure, and partly because the other part of the program is already in use. What, you thought something this handy was just going to be sitting around?
That said, even just the part Yuuichiro has will be more than enough for what the Expo needs.
And said program is 11 years old, to reiterate. This would seem implausible if it weren't for the fact that Dr. Hikari Sr. and Jr. have both been established to be just that good. Let me see, MegaMan, Alpha, Cyberworld, Soulnet...this program really isn't too special compared to some of the family's other accomplishments.
And Mayor Cain, presumably due to his connections with teachers and scientists, is able to guess how the program works accurately. So the program is basically a RegUpEleventyBillion.
From one cutscene to the next! Oh, that Lan, always coming to class late.
Gotcha! Lan's already in his seat, Mick's the one late to class. Except, uh, he kind of has a good reason.
Another reason why this game is great, of course. It has a penguin!
Mick didn't realize that the penguin had been following him.
And this is why you're always told not to feed the animals whenever you visit someplace that has them. They learn. They know you have more food. And if you don't, well, depending on the animal, maybe you're the "more food"!
That penguin is waddling behind Mick with a bottle of Worcestershire sauce and a knife tucked under its wing.
Mr. Mach doesn't quite know how to handle this situation. How would you react if a kid walked up to you with a penguin following him around? That sounds like the beginning of a really bad joke, not an actual real-life situation! "So, a kid walks into class with a penguin following him..."
Lan can be proud to no longer be the least intelligent person in the series.
"Oh forget it, I have tenure. Just get to your seat..."
After class, the penguin starts squawking hungrily and making a racket.
Mick stays with the penguin, much to his dismay, and Lan gets his first friend-related errand from Cyber City. To be fair, I'm a lot more okay with helping out a penguin than I am with slaving along for Mayl or something.
The Biology teacher sends us to his aide, who is responsible for feeding the animals kept at the school. And doesn't Cyber Academy just hire the best and brightest?
The Biology teacher's aide doesn't exactly have fish to feed the penguin because Cyber Academy's animals are much smaller than it. I mean, maybe he could scrounge up some anchovies, but that's not really going to feed it.
Fortunately, his grandfather is a fisherman, so he calls ahead and asks him to bring some fish to the bus station. This is one of those "NPC ping pong" times, as you can tell.
That solves the problem of getting fish!
Naaaaaah! This is MMBN! A problem isn't solved until a virus has been busted!
Ooh, a triple feature!
Piranha: Wow. These viruses hold the "longest hiatus from the series" award in terms of enemies, a Gregar-specific boss holds that record for Navis. These guys first appeared in MMBN1's Waterworks! They move up and down the column they're on and fire out targeting cursors. If they manage to target MegaMan with them, all Piranhas on the field will shoot spears from their mouths down the row. This is a nice touch, as much like real Piranhas, the danger is in packs of them, not the individual.
Puffy: Not to be confused with the viruses from MMBN2 of the same name. Puffies are stationary and fire spikes from their backs at MegaMan's panel every few seconds. At first. If you hit them once, they get irritated and start firing two spikes at a time at a faster rate. Hit them again and they'll fully inflate (which looks hilarious) and fire 3 spikes at a time in quick succession. Hitting them more doesn't change their attack patterns further. Incidentally, the emulator has trouble with their attacks and doesn't show them until the spikes are hitting the panels. Thankfully, the panels they target flash yellow, so I'm still able to dodge them.
Starfish: These viruses have a very simple attack pattern. They don't move, and fire three bubbles down the row, which turn once they reach your back column and disappear. The danger is what happens if you get hit by the bubbles. This induces a new status effect in MMBN6: Bubble status. MegaMan gets trapped in a bubble and can't move for several seconds, leaving him wide open to enemy attacks. What differentiates this from Paralysis is that electric attacks deal double damage.
There we go, finally! We've got some delicious fish for the penguin.
Man, now I'M hungry. Glad I don't do VLPs, I get to take a break for food here!
Oh, right. We probably should address that. Penguins aren't native to Cyber City, as you can imagine.
Mick is of little help here despite being the one who found it. Most likely he just ran into it on the street, gave it a snack, and here we are.
Thankfully, this is a setting where the Internet solves every problem. Even if it also causes every problem. Although it's not exactly absurd to imagine that someone's put up a "Penguin missing, if found call..." message somewhere.
Time for the first area outside of Central Town, we'll be visiting it online first before Lan can head to the physical place.
Possibly the writer's giving Mick some karmic retribution for the BlastMan scenario, Mick gets a lot of teasing over the chapter. Mostly from Lan, who notes how he and the penguin make a good pair.
Once we Jack-In, we get an email that warns that civilian Navis have been coming under attack lately from an unknown assailant.
NetQuakes only tend to happen when something really powerful is involved. Whenever Bass shows up, the screen tends to shake like crazy, for example, and remember that part in MMBN3 when the path literally ripped itself apart in front of MegaMan in Undernet3?
This program mentions the identity of the attacker the email mentioned. I spoiled the appearance of this Navi back in MMBN4 when someone mentioned that one of the Navis was creepy. I won't do so again now, but for those reading this in the archives....rest assured, this Navi is easily the most horrifyingly deranged enemy in the entire series.
Hey, I was wondering when one of these would turn up! MMBN6 adds a new category of Mystery Data: Gold Mystery Data. It has a rare chance of appearing instead of a normal Green Mystery Data, and contains significantly better rewards. Whether and where it appears in is set when you Jack-In, so it's difficult to farm them.
These pipes are still leaking, so we can't pass. A repair Navi was called, but he hasn't showed up yet.
The repair Navi is in the Cafe, so it's easy to find him. You'll even pass by him on the way to CentralArea3 in the first place. He's misplaced his ToolPrgm, so guess what, time to go looking for it!
The only home we can enter is Lan's own, so...
Oh no. Run! It's going to eat you!
Yes, we've just jacked into a toilet.
Yes, that is the fabled Plunger Mettaur.
While MegaMan is completely disgusted...
Just look at it! It's an adorable little Mettaur wearing a plunger shlucked onto its helmet! This is the cutest update we've had since Mamoru, we've got Plunger Mettaur AND a penguin!
No, really, MegaMan doesn't.
He even interrupts the series standard "Battle routine, set! Execute!" catchphrase when Lan initiates it.
And no, Lan is NOT listening.
Blink animation, you rascal!
The battle with Plunger Mettaur is identical to the old Virus Breeder battles from MMBN3, in that we fight a complete 'family' of viruses. Other than that, it sadly isn't too notable.
And look at my chips. The poor things get torn apart with two MachGun1s, Roll, and a TankCannon1.
Delivering the plunger back to the repair Navi, the pipes get fixed.
Grab your monitor and shake, folks! A NetQuake strikes.
We can't investigate the source of them, so all we can do is finally head to SeasideArea and look for penguin-related information.
We're currently blocked from progressing to the later SeasideAreas, but before we go investigate the penguin, there's something very important here.
A warp to the Stuffed Toy Zone! This area is the hub of most of the things the patch added to the game. It doesn't have much yet, but we can have a sneak peek at what's available already. The patch came with a readme, so I know what to expect from here later, but for now, this area doesn't have a lot.
They are. They'll also change over the course of the game, for now there's only one battle that will appear.
Also, you can buy SubChips from the program. It sells FullEnergy and LocEnemy SubChips, and considering what will be appearing here later, which I won't spoil, it's very helpful to have a ready supply at hand.
BOO!
DarkMech: These viruses normally appear in the Undernet, this is far earlier than the normal game will have you fight them. They warp around the field and have a very nasty attack pattern. First they'll fire balls of electricity (note the Starfish...) that can turn once when they get in the same column as MegaMan, much like the old Ratty virus' Ratton bomb attack. If it hits MegaMan, he'll be paralyzed. And if MegaMan is ever paralyzed, DarkMech viruses use their second attack: teleporting in front of him and slashing him for very high damage with both of their blades. At this point in the game, this combo is an instant kill.
BigHat: These viruses teleport around and occasionally throw FlashBombs onto your side of the field. You have one second. If that FlashBomb goes off, MegaMan is instantly paralyzed. Great synergy with the DarkMech!
TestVirus: These do not appear in the normal game. They're just walls of 500 HP that don't do a single thing. They were presumably used to test the effects of various chips while the game was in development.
The battle looks intimidating, huh? Well, I admit I was surprised at first, but it isn't all that hard. The first priority is killing the BigHat and DarkMech. The perfect chip for this is the Boomer chip that drops from Battle Green Mystery Data in CentralArea.
It does 100 damage to the whole perimeter of the field, automatically killing the Starfish and BigHat, while the DarkMech gets reduced to 80 HP. And guess what, thanks to the new element system, which I will describe at the end of this update, DarkMechs take double damage to Cursor element chips, which include MachGun1s.
That leaves the TestVirus, which has effectively 1000 HP, far more than can be dealt at this point in the game by your folder. OldStove viruses in CentralArea3 drop the creatively-named FireBurn1 chips, which shoot fire down the 3 panels in front of MegaMan, but also crack those panels. That gets rid of the Holy panel, and mopping the TestVirus up afterwards is easy. I also could have used an AirShot or TankCannon1 to push the TestVirus off the Holy panel.
Overall, I like this fight very much! It's a test of how well you can strategize and problem solve with the resources available to you this early in the game.
The fights in the Stuffed Toy Zone award you with rare chips. A Navi+20 * code is what I got for getting a rank 10 on the fight. Do I get something better for an S rank?
Nope. This makes me think that the fights are coded to only drop their chip rewards once so you can't farm them. Well, back to SeasideArea!
...PFFFFFFT! Yeah, this is how silly-looking the Puffies get after hit 3.
Here's the BBS! MegaMan narrates a recent post of relevance.
The penguin escaped from the Aquarium, of course. So we'll be off to return it!
As Mick now usurped Lan's position of Series Idiot, he also inherits the Solid Snake Dialogue tendencies of his predecessor.
Mick's Navi chimes in what Seaside Town's contribution to the Expo is.
You know, compared with CopyBots, water treatment just kind of...uh...well, it's important and all, especially for developing countries, but...
Wait, no, water treatment means no more WaterGods in NetFrica. Praise this wonderful advancement!
More Mick abuse at the hands of the writers!
Oh my god, the penguin acts just like my puppies do! I LOVE CUTE THINGS! 
Wow, that was kind of embarrassing. We arrive at Seaside Town, which is mostly dominated by the Aquarium, which has the novelty whale entryway. Also, we meet Blackbeard here. Yes, that's his name, and that's also what it was in the original Japanese. (Kurohige)
And he's just been thrown out of his job as animal trainer.
Blackbeard may be a throwback to Inukai from MMBN3, who was a zoo director who mistreated the animals and caused them to go berserk.
Speaking of animal mistreatment, guess why the penguin fled the aquarium?
And guess what, we came here for nothing!
Tormenting you!
Still tormenting you!
Tooooooorment!
Alright, now onto the new element system for MMBN6, as promised. The elements themselves are unchanged from MMBN5, but MMBN6 changes the way they interact.
There are now more weak to-strong against relationships. The standard Aqua > Fire > Wood > Elec > Aqua cycle is the same as ever, but now there's a new one:
Breaking > Sword > Wind > Cursor > Breaking
The logic is that Breaking Chips will "shatter the sword", Sword chips "split" wind, Wind blows off Cursor, and Cursor snipes Breaking. There are also the occasional enemies that are weak to or only able to be hit by certain elements but not actually the element that would be weak to that attack normally. Much like how the old Shadow viruses could only be hurt with Sword chips.
+/-, Recovery, and Obstacle elements make a return, but they aren't strong against or weak to anything, barring certain exceptions like Rock Cubes shattering instantly when hit by a breaking attack.
Additionally, much like how Bubble status doubles the damage of electric attacks, there are other status conditions added to the game which affect the damage of certain elements. I'll cover those as they come up.