Part 92: Colonel Goku Satsu.

MegaMan is back in working order, and I don't have any jerk chatbots to harass me. This is a good situation.



*Seconds later.*



Lan, as usual, is going to wuss out of attacking MegaMan. Nah, not really, it's about time we finally do some proper confronting.



After some hesitation, and MegaMan himself asking to be stopped, it's time to finally tame the BeastOut berserk MegaMan. This boss is, for the usual space-limitation reasons, referred to as FBeast.



Talons of Falzar: LongSword, then WideSword slash directly in front of you. It has such a slow start-up time that the only way you're getting hit by it is if you're standing right in one of the back corners. However, this attack is dangerous because it will paralyze you in place.



AquaNeedle of Falzar: As chip. 3 spikes rain down from the sky, one of them targeting your panel, the rest targeting random other panels.



Boomer of Falzar: As chip. A boomerang circles the perimeter of the battlefield. These are pretty mediocre attacks, so either this is an anticlimax boss, or he has some other trick up his sleeve.



Gatling Gun of Falzar: If you get paralyzed by the Talons of Falzar attack, FBeast follows up with this brutal attack. He'll just unload the BeastBuster on your sorry face, doing around 150 points of damage, give or take 50. That's on top of the one or even two hits the Talons will smack you with. Quite a lot, considering I'm using the literal tank GroundMan who has only 500 HP. This is the only threat in the fight, and that said, it's easy to avoid because the Talons of Falzar are.



MegaMan passes out, following the battle. What's funny is that this fight is allegedly very ferocious and difficult.




And yet I only took a measly 20 points of damage. The upcoming dialogue becomes sort of silly. Poor FBeast.



Presumably, Falzar prevented this from working sooner.



We all should recognize that characteristic laugh by this point!



Nothing quite like aiding the villain to make a (anti)climactic showdown feel sour. Actually, come to think of it, I've forgotten what happened to JudgeMan and ElementMan at this point. They haven't shown up yet.



We're addressing a deranged clown Navi who's infamous in the game's fanbase for having a rape attack. I don't even want to know how low CircusMan will stoop to.



Now Yuika's going to send CircusMan after GroundMan, who just fought FBeast!



See now, this cutscene just loses all effect when you do well against FBeast, and that isn't exactly hard to do. "Oh no, I lost 20 HP in that fight, what will I do!?"



CircusMan begins to do his energy-sucking dance like he did towards the start of the game, only for an unknown voice to interrupt.



ProtoMan, still wearing that cloak and hood for whatever reason, arrives to slice right through CircusMan. Good riddance.



Ah, the clown gets what it deserves at last. ProtoMan chucks the cloak aside, no longer needing it.

I just realized this, but they changed Chaud's eyes to bright blue for some reason, they used to be brown. Look at this old mugshot:



Pretty clearly brown eyes.



Regardless, CircusMan practically soils himself and jacks out in fear.



ProtoMan proceeds to use a Recovery chip on MegaMan. I missed the screenshot, but it comes complete with the usual "pixels rising upwards" and positive beep sound effect.



First there was SpoutAquaMan, then TenguMan, and now GroundMan. This is thankfully the last time you need to do this. MegaMan's gotten in trouble three freaking times over the course of the game. What did he get, GlideCross?

Although, note that the HP counter has switched back to MegaMan's. We're semi-officially back in control of him.



That's because it's time for plot-relevant confrontation number two.



ProtoMan has a point, MegaMan just recovered and GroundMna is (allegedly) worn out from the fight with FBeast.



It's too late, Colonel's arrived. And he just almost cut GroundMan in half right there. GroundMan is sparking with damage, but bad luck with screenshot timing isn't showing it.



Lan urges GroundMan to jack out, and what do you know, for once someone complies. I think that's the first time since the original confrontation with Falzar that someone has actually made a retreat successfully. At least they bring up the point in this game instead of the characters forgetting the option exists entirely!



Colonel mentions that he's not interested in little fish anyway. That quote would probably be better suited if I were using SpoutAquaMan.



This is, incidentally, the first time Baryl's appeared before the protagonists in this game. Chaud points out that there isn't anybody else who could operate Colonel and be WWW's commander. Laugh at the obvious maybe, but people in the thread wondered if Baryl'd be back when Colonel showed up alone at first.

Canonically, Team Colonel seems to be the version of MMBN5 that 'actually happened', so Chaud is at least familiar with Baryl and Colonel from the one cutscene they appeared in. They were helping ToadMan and MegaMan cure DarkColonel, if you don't remember.



ProtoMan brings up that they've fought before in the JudgeTree computer. ProtoMan was evidently the narrow victor of that fight, but notes that Colonel knows what to expect this time. Which is fittingly appropriate for the way ProtoMan is actually fought in the games, since he specializes in fast, surprising attacks.



MegaMan proceeds to deflate the tense moment with an argument for settling this with talk rather than battle. Considering that I have (as of this writing) about 180 videos on YouTube up consisting of MegaMan fighting, he really isn't one to be talking. I have a feeling I'll be breaking 200 by the end of MMBN6, considering what I've seen of bonus boss added content.



MegaMan, did you learn nothing from the JudgeTree? Or BubbleMan? Trying not to be violent in this series causes far more problems than it ever resolves. Even the moments where someone has to be brought back to their senses verbally usually accompanies a battle. The only exceptions are the previous FBeast encounters in this game and DarkProtM in MMBN4. And we all know how the latter went.



MegaMan even gets out of a fighting pose. You'd think after all these in-game months of constant battle, he'd be less, I dunno, naive.



Colonel at least drops out of his own stance as well. That's at least a sign Colonel is willing to tell MegaMan to shut his mouth.




So there you have it. Colonel isn't evil per se, he's just supremely pragmatic. If something gets in the way of his objective, the obstacle will be removed, simple as that.

Although you know, considering all the garbage about souls and synchronicity in MMBN5, you'd think MegaMan would have been clued into this at some point due to getting ColonelSoul. Then again, souls were always completely ridiculous, and things like getting shot at by SearchMan evidently counted as spiritual communion.

Have I mentioned how much better and more likable the Cross system is lately?



MegaMan, however, has observed a crucial point. He brings up how weakened GroundMan was a moment ago.



He was too weak to take on CircusMan, let alone a direct slash from Colonel. Despite having 480 HP to work with, but hey, GBA game. I wouldn't expect a different cutscene depending on battle performance.



Colonel doesn't have mercy, so yes, it was hesitation. Colonel knows when he's attacking an innocent and can avoid unnecessary cyberblood on his hands.



This strikes a nerve. You know, an ellipsis is just such a versatile thing, no wonder RPGs throw them out so much. They're basically shorthand for "Insert context-sensitive reaction here."

It'd work better, again, with facial expression mugshots like DTDS had. I wonder how feasible it would be to hack them in, the MegaRock and Prof. 9 patch is certainly capable of adding new graphics to the game.



It's a little odd to realize how cynical and jaded I've become in contrast to MegaMan. That's true, being "supremely pragmatic" doesn't mean Colonel hasn't been doing evil things.



This is Colonel-speak for "you've hit the target dead-on". Dead-On! Apply directly to the forehead!



Ask question...



Get answer.

Colonel slashes at MegaMan, but ProtoMan....takes the hit. Despite having a sword of his own to parry with. Or his shield. And if Colonel cut through him, wouldn't MegaMan have been hurt anyway?

What can I say, MMBN6 isn't perfect, but it's as good as the series gets.



Honestly, part of the series' integral core is how kind MegaMan and Lan are. It'd be hard to imagine them taking ProtoMan seriously and actually becoming like him and Chaud.



More evidence for Team Colonel being the canon game, since Lan didn't really know Baryl at all in Team ProtoMan. It's been basically confirmed by this point.



Lan, I know you're supposed to be the innocent friend-of-all-things type of protagonist, but really!




Bravo, Baryl. See, this is why everyone likes you.



Chaud reminds Lan and MegaMan of what's actually at stake here.



You know what that means, time for the showdown with Colonel! This is why FBeast was so easy, because you don't get any break between the fights. That said, you switch from the LinkNavi to MegaMan, so you effectively get healed back to full for the fight. But if you lose to Colonel, you'll have to fight FBeast again.



ColonelArmy: Colonel's cut out the middleman. Rather than drop RockCubes which turn into soldiers when MegaMan enters their row, Colonel just calls in his soldiers directly. They don't have swords this time around, they'll just open fire with machine guns.



Screen Divide: The signature Colonel attack. Colonel swipes his sword, and either a <-shape...



.../-shape, or \-shape slash will center on MegaMan. Just dodge it by stepping forwards and backwards. Which is exactly what the ColonelArmy soldiers make more difficult.



Colonel Rockets: Colonel's got some new toys entirely for MMBN6, and this is the only one that he actually used in this fight. Pulling out a multi-missile launcher, Colonel's rockets target your panels. The thing is, they also crack those panels.



This can be something of an issue. That said, this is much more of a problem for Gregar version, because Falzar users get TenguCross and Falzar BeastOut, both of which come with auto-AirShoes.

Colonel also has two attacks he either wouldn't use due to poor luck on my part or because he just doesn't use them in this fight. Because he's Colonel, I'll grab the sprites for you.



Neo Screen Divide: Yes, that's the actual name of this attack, I remember it. Well, it's either that or Screen Divide Z. But regardless, you can clearly see that it targets all but two panels on MegaMan's side of the field, so dodging this is tough, especially with broken panels thanks to Colonel's rockets.



Colonel Goku Satsu: I forget the name of this one, but you'll never forget this attack. Colonel throws his mantle quickly and with little warning at MegaMan. If it connects, this is all you see. MegaMan is deleted instantly. Or at least he is if you aren't using UnderSht. How the attack works is that it deals a fixed amount of damage, and Colonel will only use the attack when your HP is lower than that number. As you can expect, how much damage that threshold is increases based on his version, the highest I'm aware of it going is 550 HP.  The patch adds even tougher versions of bosses, so we might yet see that cap increase... 

From a mechanics standpoint, Colonel Goku Satsu is interesting in the fact that it's the only 'intentional' instant-kill attack in the series. I mean, Bass has had Banishing World and Darkness Overload both doing 500 or 700 points of damage respectively, but Colonel Goku Satsu is unique in that it's intended by the programmers to kill you immediately. This is also the only attack in the entire series that relies on your HP to trigger, not your enemy's.



Yeah yeah, I didn't even use BeastOut at all in that fight. I did use GroundCross and DustCross for the sake of demoing them, though. Colonel, you're tough and all, but you're still just fodder for the viewers.



Heavily injured, Colonel doesn't understand what MegaMan's about to do. ProtoMan just kind of sits there being ignored.



MegaMan offers mercy, but gets rebuked with a slash.



Yeah, Colonel's stubborn like that.



It's a nice spin on the X series, don't you think? Here we have Colonel, and the only question is obvious:

"WHAT AM I FIGHTING FOOOOOOOOAAAARGHH!?!??!"




I agree with Baryl, but Lan's the protagonist, so what he says goes.



Nice timing there, blink animation. You can just feel Lan's exasperation.



Lan, if you turn this into a Final Fantasy "this is my story" thing...



Fair point, not once in this whole game has Baryl ever said he wanted to be doing this. He's just been calling it his duty.




Baryl never said he wanted to.



In "exchange" for the "obligatory" gratuitous quotation mark "use".



The game's sad theme flares up for this.



Wait until we get to Baryl's backstory later on. Pretty much all he's done his whole life is follow orders.




A bit melodramatic, but there you have it. Protagonists have a strange way of being compelling and accurate.



Another valid point, nothing's stopping them. Their underlings have rebelled, the Mayor's being hauled off to prison, and it would more or less just be Wily left.




As you may have imagined, however, Baryl has his reasons for being with Wily. Again, wait for Baryl's backstory.



With that, Colonel vanishes backwards.