Part 71: Early Bird

Turns out I was just checking the wrong part of the tree.



Doing this is crazy. But it just wouldn't be in the style of this LP thread not to!



Welcome to UndernetZero! This secret area has, if I recall, 3 different places you can enter it from, and they all lead to different sections of the area that are mutually exclusive. This segment of UndernetZero is the smallest.

But hey, this early in the game, the Undernet!



PulseBulb: Ehehehe. I know I'm playing the game right when I run into viruses out of order. We won't be seeing PulseBulbs normally for a few updates. They zip around the field quickly, and take only breaking damage while in their shells. When they line up in the same row with MegaMan, they'll rush forward to just in front of him, open up, and shoot a T-shaped electrical pulse identical to ShadeMan's Crush Noise attack.



SnakeArm: These sand worms jump in small arcs from one adjacent panel to another, only vulnerable when above the panels unless you're using an attack that breaks the panels or is Cursor type. Occasionally, they'll appear in front of or behind MegaMan and jump at him.



More importantly, there's a gravestone right here at the end of the path.



Erk. We all recognize THAT epithet!



Yes, I'm going to be fighting HIM this early in the game.



MegaMan and Lan are on their toes, of course, as Bass is always an extremely dangerous threat!







TankCannon: Remember how way, way back in MMBN2, Chaud mentioned that Bass can record chip data and use it any time? Well, looks like he's picked up a TankCannon to punish players who hang out in the back row too much.



Hell's Rolling: This attack returns from MMBN4 and 5. It has a difference now that both wheels are launched at the same time, rather than one after the other. So you have to rush forward between them so they curve around you to dodge them.



Shooting Buster: Ah, the most hated of Bass' attacks returns. Blasting away at the whole field, this nigh-unavoidable attack gets even worse in this game. How? NO MERCY INVINCIBILITY, THAT'S HOW! This attack can kill you in under 3 seconds.



Breath of Falzar: WHAT. Bass is NOT supposed to have this attack at this point in the game! In fact, this attack is supposed to be something he only uses in Gregar version! Looks like MegaRock and Prof.9 couldn't resist making the 'easy' Bass fight of the game a bit tougher. Well, as you can see, Bass calls on Falzar's power...somehow...and yanks out Falzar's head, Gospel Cannon style. The extended T-shape is not too hard to avoid, but be warned that it pierces Invis.

Not pictured: DarkSword. Yes, Bass also has a DarkSword for whenever he feels like being nasty. The attack animation is too quick for me to screenshot.

He'll gain more attacks later in the game. As you can see, he's lost Darkness Overload and Chaos Nightmare from MMBN5.

It took me a while, but I beat him. No BeastOut either, because my strategy involved using AquaCross' fast charge shot to knock him out of his attacks. Also, as I mentioned before in the thread, a friend-of-a-friend made a remix of Soul Ablaze, and I was specifically asked to overlay it over this fight. So I did.

You can download the full remix here.



I beat your horrifying BassXX form last game, pal, I'm not afraid of you.



Bass never seems to remember MegaMan, but MegaMan and Lan have been recalling him fine. I guess Bass has heavily corrupted memory files or something due to all the battles he's been through, bugs and dark energy he's absorbed, Alpha devouring him, etc.



I love the fact they let you fight him this early! It's so fun and hard!



Bass dropped this. It either does something cool or useless, depending on whether or not the patch changed a specific aspect of the crossover Boktai content that was removed in the normal game.



This IS the last game, after all.

Bass having Breath of Falzar this early kind of spoiled it, but yeah, that was the Bass fight. There's also BassSP and BassBX (Where he gets Breath of Opposite Version's Cybeast) in the normal game.

The patch adds BassGX, who appears in the Stuffed Toy Zone after beating BassBX and having all chips in the game. I have no idea what I'm in for way later on, but "normal" Bass having Breath of Falzar bodes ominously.



But until then, I'll be preparing for that fight with BassGX, no matter what it is.



Anyway, time to get back on track with the story, fun although that early taste of the postgame was.



After a brief explanation of what a prosecutor is for Lan, he remembers to actually introduce himself.



This is kind of like saying SuperMan is a good person, Ito. Lan's saved the world how many times?




I wonder what the full list of five is. We already know 3 of those five, at least.



No, it's not all that weird for Ito to know that. For one, actually recognizing Lan shouldn't be hard. For two, running background checks is part of his job.



As it turns out, Ito's an admirer of Yuuichiro's.



We get sent on a "look around and talk to all the NPCs" mission, anyway.



Most importantly, we need to discover this: The might JudgeTree! It's a computer-controlled automatic judge, to prevent bias from being in the-good lord there are so many ways this could go wrong.



Lan's still a kid at heart...



And an idiot at mind...



This is Lan whacking the JudgeTree to try and get its attention.



Well, he gets attention alright!



Oh great, we've gone from flamethrowers to tasers.



Lan, you have nobody to blame but yourself for this one. You were effectively hitting a judge, what did you expect? I'm surprised there aren't more Phoenix Wright jokes, to be honest, since Capcom made that series too.



Shady saves the day by jacking in and disabling the Security Bots. Woo?



Shady's aware of the Cybeast inside of MegaMan, and warns Lan that despite MegaMan seemingly having it under control, Falzar could break free at any time.



If it comes to that, he will not hesitate to destroy MegaMan.



Lan, being the protagonist, isn't going to listen to that garbage.



Ito arrives finally, presumably after wading through Security Bots. Shady is a heck of a suspicious character.



Yes, aggravate the lawyer, Shady, that'll serve you well.



More crypticism from Shady before he finally shuts up and leaves. At least Iris is CUTE when she's being mysterious, Shady's just a jerk.



Time to get Blackbeard's trial underway!



Yes, that giant hammer pounds itself up and down.



Ito goes on to summarize what happened at the Aquarium.



Lan is an idiot. We know this. What's he like under pressure?



An idiot.



However, he pulls himself together and adds to the case against Blackbeard by bringing up how he took Mick hostage and threatened him unless Lan would reopen all the cages and tanks.



Considering the mountain of evidence that presumably includes security camera footage and even more witnesses that have been called in previously, the trial proceeds quickly. Blackbeard lacks any kind of defense.



He gets sentenced to the ominous-sounding "Punishment Room". We'll see what that actually entails later.




Blackbeard goes berserk upon hearing his verdict.



And struggles the whole time as he gets dragged off by a Security Bot.



We've sentenced a criminal to who knows what in the Punishment Room, but it's all a learning experience!



Despite what you almost did to yourself, Lan?



As a matter of fact, Ito designed the JudgeTree! Or, at the very least, it was his concept that Green Town took a liking to.



Note that I've cut out several of Ito's rants about justice. The guy really does love it.



Isn't that cute, it's hero admiration.



Ah, we can go get the next Cross now! I'll save that for its own update.