Part 69: The Glory of BeastOut!

Fair point.



So, like any good Japanese protagonist who has something evil inside of him (tasteless cock jokes aside), MegaMan is unconscious.



Well, he's awake, but he's also convulsing and screaming in agony. Not an improvement.



Falzar isn't being peaceful inside of MegaMan, as you might assume. At least he's unconscious again and not wailing in pain.



Well, the alternative was letting it rampage freely, possibly falling into whatever group CircusMan works for's hands. We've traded one problem for another.



"No, eavesdropping is punishable by death in this household young man!"



Yuuichiro notes that Falzar's power is making MegaMan too unstable. If he made a mistake while analyzing him, MegaMan might be deleted. It's sort of like a "red wire or blue wire" bomb defusing dilemma at the moment. Doing nothing is bad, but taking an action might cause the explosive result ahead of time.



Nksor to the rescue! Good old Iris, fulfilling the Token Mysterious Character role of providing help when all seems lost wonderfully.



I forget whether or not I included a screenshot of it, but you can actually visit the place where you get the HealWater ahead of time. Sadly, you can't skip this upcoming segment by getting some ahead of time.



Why couldn't it have been HealCoffee?



Well, it's worth a shot.



Lan's bandanna confers infinite ammo, that's why he wears it all the time.



No time for asking silly questions like that, Lan!



Yuuichiro has several protests, noting that more Evil Spirits are spreading through the Cyberworld due to the Cybeast's awakening. And that, y'know, Lan doesn't have a Navi at this point.



Like a million digital voices cried out, and were silenced.



Thankfully, we DO have a Navi we can use to get the HealWater!



Yup, AquaMan will do nicely.



God, no. Here we go again!



Due to the pathways being less open in this area, at the very least this means there are fewer options to choose from when approaching the Evil Spirits.



This'll trigger a counterattack, but all things considered, there's not much I can do about that. I'll always prioritize getting rid of the enemy over my own HP, this applies to both Evil Spirits and battles. Besides, the alternative is the possibility of costing me a successful run of each puzzle.



As you can see by our increased number of Soul Weapons, the number of the Evil Spirits is increasing. We've got more to deal with. And more complexity is bad because it offers more opportunities to screw ourselves over.



Don't make the mistake of attacking this blue spirit head on, you can circle around behind it for a backstab.



I'm surprised I got through all of the Evil Spirit puzzles for this part of the game on my first try for each.



When they return later in the game, we'll see about that.



Double ax action!



I'm forced to waste a sword here, because I don't want to risk not having a needed gun if the situation requires it.



Hoo dear.



The best course of action is to open up the back row, so I can use my last ax to kill the front row from behind.



This larger cluster may be intimidating to look at at first, but it's no big deal. Also, I once again missed the screenshot, but I shot the other red spirit as well.



Oh yes, nothing quite as satisfying as wiping out a large swath of the little jerks in one swing.



Four down, two to go...



SeasideArea2 is where things start getting tough. Why? Well for one thing, it's more open, so there are more possibilities to consider.



The other reason? Lots and lots of conveyors. They're kind of SeasideArea's thing.



You definitely want to wander around the area for a while to get a sense of what leads where in relation to the Evil Spirits.



And at this point, you'll have to start making some tough decisions about which Soul Weapon to use.



I'm only including this screenshot because the transition to the next is kind of awkward.



Yeah, I left those two reds behind and went after the cluster that was over here with a sword, leaving me open to the counter. I missed another screenshot here, sorry about that.



Almost missed this one, but nope! Just knife the lone red.



This cluster is a bit weird in the way I go about it. First off, uncork it by exterminating the red via a knife between the eyes.



Followed by a sniping.



And another sniping. This one, however, will leave me open to a counter, and with my HP dipping this low, it's starting to be a definite concern. I don't remember whether or not you can be deleted by the spirits, or if the puzzle resets, or you just get reduced to 1 HP and can't be damaged further.



This, thankfully, leaves me free of counters.



Just stab this guy...



The ax or the sword could be used here, either way I get a free BugFrag out of it due to the other being left over.



Alright, only one more of these for a good long while!



Jesus Christ!



Well, stabbing the red is best, because you can then circle around to attack the other spirits from behind.



Just like this.



It's a pretty clean sweep after getting rid of the red and getting behind the group.



Position is everything.



The counter attacks are starting to weigh heavily on AquaMan. Well, at any rate, the yellow spirit gets a knife to the back for his trouble.



Well. This is going to be...interesting.



My methods are probably a bit weird, but they work. I want to eliminate that blue spirit, and taking the red with it seems to be a better option than using a sword to go after the yellow.



Of course, said yellow is a bit of a problem.



Sniping this yellow is one thing, but to wade back into the fray, I'm going to need some HP.



I don't even remember where I got this. Good thing the early game loves throwing healing SubChips at you, eh?



Good thing I used that, because this is going to sting. In hindsight, I should have axed the red and yellow pair behind AquaMan first.



Yeah, ow. Retribution!



Recklessness is probably one of my flaws I need to keep more in check in this LP, come to think of it. Oh well, it gets the job done, doesn't it?



You'll notice I have quite a few Soul Weapons left. This isn't over yet, despite how it looks. SeasideArea3 has a bunch of stragglers I saved for last, I wanted to make sure I could deal with the big ending bunch of Evil Spirits first.



Still, it's almost over, and I'm really grateful for that. Once all this is done with, I can go back to playing the game and not having a few hundred images of backlog to work through first.



Swords are the order of the day now.



FINALLY!



All is well, and light returns to the Cyberworld and this LP.



Oh for the love of Anger Impact! Guess who's going to show up and despoil the happiness?



-He's a clown.
-He can capture and absorb giant monsters.
-He's got stars for eyes that do not gleam with any hint of a soul.
-He's basically Pennywise the Clown in Navi form.
-He can suck the life energy out of Navis by dancing.
-He can fly.
-Some twisted Japanese kid designed and submitted this freak to a contest. Presumably by piecing together every nightmare they'd ever had.
-CircusMan won said contest, presumably over plenty of sane submissions.

None of this is what gives him his reputation as an evil rape clown, however. Wait until next update.



Oh geeze, I'm at 60 HP! How am I supposed to fight CircusMan like...



...This? Oh. Huh. Finally, back to the real fun of the game, battling!



CircusMan inexplicably runs off rather than confront AquaMan personally. I'm not going to complain.



With the Evil Spirits vanquished, CircusMan driven off for the time being, and the HealWater in our possession, it's time to...well, see if this even works at all.



Is that a "no"?



I wouldn't be surprised if "HealWater" was originally "HolyWater" in Japan, given the pseudo-demonic vibe the Cybeasts have.



There's a blinding flash of brilliant light...



And that's a bad thing.



Whatever gave you that idea, AquaMan?



Ooooh dear.



How AquaMan intends to do this is definitely memorable.



There's no friendship speech. Not even a battle. What does AquaMan do?



Pimp slap MegaMan in a too-quick-to-catch flash to black. Although the effort damaged AquaMan greatly, as you can see by the sparks.



Okay, so merely attempting that almost deleted AquaMan entirely, but still! Percussive maintenance is the best kind of solution to any problem!



Besides, AquaMan will be fine.



Right, that. MegaMan's unconscious again, but he does seem to be better off than before at least.




Much like the DarkSoul in MMBN4/5, MegaMan now has to undergo an intense inner struggle, this time against an entirely foreign entity, not just his own evil side.



There is, thankfully, no "bad ending" for this game where this happens. That would just be horrible and depressing.



Remember how insanely powerful ChaosUnisons were, due to MegaMan gaining control over the DarkSoul? Same concept.



All the brains in the world (almost literally) and he can't do a thing about this. All that can be done is waiting.




Lan is, needless to say, extremely worried about MegaMan. Horrible power in our favor, or against?



Finally, sunrise arrives, and Yuuichiro checks in.



Victory! The Cybeast Power is ours!



He's been up the whole night, after all. Fade to black.



Ehehehe. Aww. That's sweet.



Yuuichiro left a message in the PET for them as well.




Cue the Cybeast tutorial!



See that? We've got a button that replaces the stupid old "Unite" button that replaced the Add button.



It releases some of Falzar's power. Releasing 100% of the power would be dangerous for MegaMan, so it only releases a portion of it.



There's a way to release all 100% of it, as well as release it in a varied way, but we'll get to those special methods later.



Time to press the big, shiny, golden button and unleash unspeakable power!



WEEEEE!



Complete with red irises. And trust me, The power of BeastOut is pretty insane.



One of the limits on this power, first of all, is that you only get 3 turns of it. Technically. The counter doesn't automatically refill to full after every battle, it refills by one point for each battle you fight without using BeastOut. So there's a "cooldown" factor you'll need to keep in mind.



So, onto what the BeastOut power actually is. First of all, these chips get an automatic Attack+30. SuperVulcan returns in this game, I should note. In V code. Guess what I'll be up to later?

Worth noting that MegaMan gets an auto-AirShoes effect as well, due to flying over the panels.



Additionally, attack chips that don't dim the screen will get an auto-target feature. MegaMan will warp to whichever panel would be most effective to use the chip from, usually directly in front of an enemy.

This is something of a double-edged sword, however. For one thing, you can't pick which target you want to go after, making using those chips slightly more difficult. I like how it emphasizes wild brutality, however, very fitting for Cybeast power. The other thing to worry about is, of course, accidentally teleporting yourself right into an oncoming attack.



The buster gets replaced with the FalzarBuster, which fires in a T-shape in that the whole column in front of MegaMan gets pelted with feathers as well as the row ahead of him. It's rapid fire as well, making it a very strong buster.



Lastly, any elementless, non-timestopping chip can be charged. Using it while charged causes MegaMan to use a WideSword-LongSword double claw slash attack, effectively doubling the chip's power.



What can I say, BeastOut lives up to the hype. It's just incredibly powerful with a dash of strategic abilities. Gregar BeastOut trades those abilities for more raw power, but I'll let Broken Loose cover that, assuming he doesn't fall too far behind due to his computer trouble.



God YES!