Part 2: The Same But Different
Update #2: The Same But DifferentDouble Update Bonus!
Well, this is a familiar sight.
And here we come upon our first minor change: new mugshots for the cast. I personally do like the new mugshot for Lan.
Ooh, fancy. I appreciate the little bits of effort they put into making this game better.
Just to be clear, this will be a full-length LP, but the BN1 stuff will have free reign as far as discussion goes. Anything in the thread referring to the new content is off-limits, you hear?
This warning has now been in the OP and in the updates themselves. You have no excuses.
So, WWW has been around for an unspecified amount of time -- a stark contrast to other games where the evil organization first debuts to the world by the game's first chapter.
Now you may think that it's Sunday going by the text, but it's actually Monday. Poor old Dad doesn't get the weekends off.
Oh, I see they missed a period. Good to see that these games are still the same as ever.
"It was about some guy in the future coming back to the past or some bullshit like that."
One of the first big changes that I can see is that we press B to walk. Lemme repeat:
Running is the default. We press B to walk.
We press B to walk.
We press B to walk.
HOLY FUCK WE HAVE A CODE RUN. I REPEAT, WE HAVE A CODE RUNThe game devs have learned how to make quality of life improvements. I hope this keeps up. Yes I'm looking at you, power plant you rat fuck.
It's funny how most chip descriptions in Battle Network go from a narrator-esque description to Lan's inner thoughts. They repeat this in every game.
Why hello, Bottom Screen. The game displaying the Location is something I'm quite happy about, since the Internet Areas in this game are just separated by numbers.
They did something similar in the BN 5 remake, and all the StarForce games. They CAN learn.
I...don't like MegaMan's mugshot in this game. I think it's the worst of all the redone ones.
He looks younger. Maybe it's the neck.
I'm only leaving this screenshot in for one reason: they introduced anime voice acting in the game for certain key lines and phrases. ...Only you can't turn it off.
I'm disappointed the translation team didn't redub it with comical voices Please don't, dear god.
They did something similar in the BN 5 remake, only this doesn't star the
amazing voice of Colonel 
Sweet, they redid the shitty old Menu. It has more pizzaze.
Redone Chip Library screen too. You can see they added 5 new chips, since we're at 179 max instead of 174.
While this was called Steal in the original game, the translators took it upon themselves to rename it to AreaGrab, just for series consistency. They also took it upon themselves to polish the chip descriptions so that they read more like Battle Network 6's.
Thank you, translators, for putting in that extra effort to make sure this game is better.
...There is a dump all chips to pack feature. HALLELUJAH. I won't be using it much right now, though.
This screen also got a tweak as well. We don't have armors in this game, people, so please bear that in mind.
Armors were weird, and only in BN1 the Original, so I'm glad they're gone.
Instead of the CrossGun K in the original, the game has Dad give us our very first asterisk chip, a new addition to this entry in the franchise. Going right in the folder.
Oh no Netcrime!
Haruka's mug didn't get tweaked, so it's a bit jarring with the rest of the cast, even if she isn't a major character, it's a bit inconsistent.
Mornin' and Morning? Prof 9, since you whine about these in Chrono X, I'm gonna whine about these to you, too.
Alternatively it's a way to communicate the fact that Lan's a kid. He's just not as formal or precise as his mother.
You don't have to do this, but it's a hint to grab something:
It's a Recov10 A. SIGH.
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Mayl's is the second worst of the new ones, for me. Though, I will compliment it by saying it conveys the young girl look they were going for.
Bwah! That's... That's a mugshot, yikes. She does look a lot younger, yes.
Lan's personality in this game was probably the strongest in the franchise. I think that explains Yeti's avatar.
Part of it, at least. The rest of the bullshit is courtesy of goons from the Yu-Gi-Oh LP.
Mayl was also a bit more pushy. Fun fact: She was supposed to be a tsundere-type character originally, but since their popularity was waning, the creators decided against it. They just gave it to Luna Platz instead.
Geez. This girl is already training him.
You will *not* see banter like that in the later games. Enjoy it while you can.
I don't know, I like these two idiots. Their conversation is charming, and I wish the writers kept it up.
?
Quick, throw Chips at your oven, I'm sure that will help.
It seems a bit weird, but let's keep in mind that Lan is still going through the Hero's Journey. In that, he hasn't had his "call to action" yet. And no, the FireMan scenario doesn't count as that was incidental.
I don't wanna go. You can't make me.
Good lord the fucking forehead aaaaaaaaa. Well, there's your revamped Yai mugshot.
WHOA. GOD. What did they DO.
: Shut yo stupid ass. I's only failed dis class twice. A'ight?Charming.
This motherfucker got some chin.
Charming.
: Bitch, step off. No-one asked you and yo tumor-ass head.
: Damn right.
: Or be a quadrilateral whose diagonals bisect each other at right-angles.GangsterDex is surprisingly erudite.
I am going to wreck all of you bitches. Make the whole class versus me so it's fair.
Ah, there's that smug-ass Giver we all know and... know.
I forgot that this actually sets up a funny joke, later.
: Come say that to my face. I fuckin' dare you.
Oh no, the tutorial. SKIPPING (most of it).
You can skip this. YOU CAN ACTUALLY SKIP THIS JACK IN ANIMATION NOW.
AAAAAAAA
Eyy, the maps. They look good. They're very useful especially since I know you guys get lost all the time. I don't. Git gud.
Again, being able to navigate bullshit does not make it good. I'm glad they added maps, and especially maps you don't have to find.
They definitely revamped the Custom Menu. For one, we can now see the chip codes, which is my favorite improvement. We can no longer have half of our folder in one screen, and you can now press Select to see the field just like in Battle Network 3+. Notably, we can also run away for free without needing an Escape chip!
Selecting one chip greys out the others we can't select. Great.
OK, guys, so this isn't a straight port of Battle Network 1. They added in this line. Yay.
Best addition to the game, hands down. Even better than auto-run.
No. We fight.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzdOv4P4_9U
Only 200 HP. Easy pattern, again, you've seen this before in the original BN1.
GutsMan is pretty much never hard unless you're deliberately handicapping yourself.
I swear to God that screenshot was on accident. I swear.
Goons.gif
tag urself i'm those guy's legs in the back
This is a Giver LP. Which means...grinding and enemy analysis time. There's also an audio clip that plays each and every time you jack in.
Kill me.
No. Suffer.
I'm shit at screenshotting at times, but this was a Shotgun K. The translators would like to know if there were any changes in the Blue Mystery Datas, so I'll try and document best I can.
These guys also made Progs speak in ALL-CAPS to be consistent with Battle Network 4-6.
Hey, the best boys are back!
On the note of chip changes, hoo boy, there are a lot of them to cover, so I'll do them when relevant. For instance, enemies that can drop chips will always do so at Level S. Which, thank Christ for that one. If you remember my BN3 LP, then... yeah.
The "best" drop that comes at a Rank of S can now be gotten starting at Level 8 than a Level 9, and the chances have overall been raised.
Busting Level 4 now consistently drops better rewards, such as slightly higher Zenny.
Hell, a lot of chips had their codes changed. Just based on what I've seen at the start of the game, we have:
Shotgun (BN1): K M N Q R
Shotgun (OSS): K M N R *
Crossgun (BN1): C E F J K
Crossgun (OSS): E F J K *
Recov10 (BN1): A C E G L
Recov10 (OSS) A C E L *
...and many more, once I get to them.
They made a lot of small, mostly pointless changes. Giver and I will be doing our best to keep an eye out on everything in order to keep track of what's changing.
So, Canodumb in this game is unique in that the cursor it shoots out will only hit that square. Meaning, you can stand in the same row and not get hit. Observe:
Also, the buster's frames reset per movement input, so feel free to Left,Right,B spam all day long like the above.
I think everyone that played these games figured that out, even if they didn't understand exactly why. I know that I learned that while playing these games as a wee child.
This game features the same Ranking system as the others, which I'll re-summarize for those who forgot.
Battle Rewards System:
Time
0.00 ~ 5.00: +7 points
5.01 ~ 12.00: +6 points
12.01 ~ 36.00: +5 points
36.01 and up: +4 points
Movement
0 ~ 2 steps: +1 point
3 or more: +0 points
Times You Took Damage
0: +1 point
1: 0 points
2: -1 points
3: -2 points
4 or more: -3 points
Multiple Deletion:
Double Delete: +2 points
Triple Delete: +4 points
Getting a Rank of S requires 11 points. Therefore, in a match with two viruses, we need to get a Double Delete(+2) without getting hit(+1) in 5 seconds or less (+7) whilst moving no more than twice (+1). This is the hardest and most frequent scenario of S-ranking.
However, even in OSS, they still don't tell you when you got a double or triple delete. Makes me sad.
Learning all about the numbers makes it seem intimidating, but it's really neat. Honestly, just try to kill things fast and that's most of your points right there.
So let's see it. We have 2 viruses, with two chips above our head. Depending on what they are, we can maybe earn a double kill.
The second chip was CrossGun, so I had to line up the virus formation to allow me a simultaneous kill. Pretty much what you always wanna do is look at chips that can hit multiple enemies as that lets you S-rank and get better chips. CrossGun/Shotgun are good for this. Cannon is not.
In general, a lot of the early-game chips are hard to S-rank with, but that's part of the fun of the Chip folder - you start out with weak stuff, but by the end of the game you're hopping all over the field and killing things instantly. Makes it tedious to begin, but, well, that's why we learn how to blitz through the early-game.
Ahhh, no more Zenny for S-ranks. NICE.
Battle Network 1, 2 and now this game were really guilty about putting a single virus on the field. There is no point to this. You can't get a shot at an S-rank, even. I suppose it's mitigated by the chip drop changes, but still. On a more positive note, I do like the aesthetic of the in-screen chip description.
The real reason I jacked into here, this fucker. We can meet a Mettaur2 really early. He deals 40 damage, but he's a Mettaur, so come on now.
Fuck you.
I JUST praised you for increasing the drop rate and you pull this shit!?
Good job, game.
At lower levels, you'll get Guard, which you can hold down the A button to summon a shield for 3 seconds. Won't work on enemies that specifically ram into you, though. And yes, the translation team changed it from MetGuard to just Guard for later game consistency.
Good job translators.
Got it. Finally. This thing does a solid 80 damage so it can one shot most viruses we encounter in this scenario. And I'm done here.
Oi, fuck that asshole.
"NetSafety"? I've never heard of this organization.
Well, theoretically they're a group of world-wide workers devoted to ensuring the Net is Safe, hence the name.
LEAVE! Begone! No-one likes you!
I like to imagine Haruka is talking to this workman and then he just says "Hello." blankly.
I suppose it's fair that the control panel would alter every appliance in the house. Fine.
Gotta centralize to make things easier. Though, uh, I fail to see why a control panel on the wall over there is useful for an oven all the way in the kitchen.
Gee.
What are you talking about, we're having this safety guy check things out, there's no way we could have an oven fire.
>Looks evil
"He's so helpful!"
I take no responsibility for what happens.
He's just really into his job!
We can finally cash in our points since the last update.
I'll transcribe since this shop is massive:
Guard A 3p
Escape F 5p
LongSword N 8p
Recov50 * 15p
PanelOut1 * 20p
Repair * 30p
CrosBomb J 40p
RockCube * 50p
Recov120 * 60p
SloGauge * 70p
Invis1 * 80p
PanelOut3 * 100p
AreaGrab S 150p
FastGauge 500p
GutsMan G 30p
WoodMan W 80p
SkullMan D 100p
SharkMan S 120p
ProtoMan B 150p
GutsMan2 G 180p
WoodMan2 W 300p
SkullMan2 D 500p
SharkMan2 S 700p
ProtoMan2 B 1000p
HeroSword B 3000p
Well, I can tell you that the NaviChips are a shit choice to buy. You can get those easily enough in this game since the boss' HP is still low. There's probably a lot better ways to farm points, and no doubt playing with another live player yields more points, but it still isn't worth. I'll probably farm up the asterisk-coded stuff. The quantities are infinite, so farm away, friends.
If you like doing tedious minigames, that is.
See you guys in three weeks when Giver has a full set of HeroSwords.
Welcome to the worst Internet layouts in the series. The maps are super helpful at least.
They tried. The first attempt is allowed to be a stumbling block, as long as they don't repeat their mistakes. And they did, BN2 had a much better Internet layout.
Gotta find Yai's lost program. Don't mind if I abridge stuff. Again, you should know most of this by now.
Hey, we got Yai's twitter address. Too bad all she posts is mirror selfies with the flash on, the glare from her forehead is insane.
Alright, so, Green and Blue Mystery Data on the regular Internet areas and dungeons (read: not small comps) are exactly the same in Battle Network 1. They can also be savescummed to change the reward drop, so this means I'll be farming these heavily. The development team changed the datas to reflect the new chip codes, so it's worth covering.
Each area has 4 chip drops, and 4 Zenny drops. I'll only show the 4 chips and the highest Zenny value for the area. There's a 50% chance you'll get a virus in later areas, since there's no Untrap. Time to savescum and show each reward. Just imagine the scene from Dr. Strange, but with mystery data.
A green octahedron instead of a shapeless Chaos God. That'd sure change the outcome. Wait, what if Dr. Strange was a Mr.Prog?
GREEN MYSTERY DATA, I'VE COME TO BARGAIN! ALSO I BARK BECAUSE I AM A DOG-SHAPED ALARM, WOOF WOOF!
And there you have it.
Nothing fantastic, but this is the first area, temper your expectations.
You see what I mean? Absolutely no difference. The Blues even respawn, too. Terrible.
Of course, the blue mystery data behind this door actually matters. It's a little confusing, I know.
If I show pictures of Progs, maybe MissEchelon will draw us pics.
It's as good a plan as any, I think.
Even MegaMan hates Mr.Progs.
"Ugh fuck we had to find this stupid program like last week, Yai."
Spreader I is OK, if you decide to buy multiple of them from the shop. But before that...
Yoink.
Oh man, the shop changed the price of the Hammer chip. Why you may ask?
Bam. This chip got a sizable buff. Going from a meager 100 to a respectable 220. This is great, but it's a 10,000 a pop. For a total of 3 Hammers to buy, you're looking at 30,000 Zenny. SO YOU KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS.
[Pictured: Giver hard at work.]
GREEN MYSTERY DATA, I'VE COME TO BARGAIN!
Alternatively: Let's do the time warp again!.
We can actually meet Fishys in here that will drop what I like to call BestFriendAttack.
It only does 50 damage in here, but the cooldown is far lower than in BN2 and 3. Still, the HP of the viruses is pretty low, so 50 is just fine.
Get over here and give me a hug, says Megaman.EXE as he rams his face straight into a virus.
Why yes, I sat here to get 30,000, savescumming the GMDs for 1000 apiece to get all 3 Hammers.
Was there ever any doubt?
And I bought one of these, because why not. Just one.
Bahahahahahahaha. ALL MINE. Just look at this folder, it's all "AAAAAAAAA"
Alright, so after the little fetch quest, if you press L, Lan says this line. This isn't a translation choice; it's part of the actual Battle Network 1 translation we got many years ago.
Is it really?
Huh. So it is.
So, who wants to see something cool?
Go to the Start Menu, and press Up, X, Left, Y, Right, A, Down, B. If you did it right, you'll hear a "ding". We then load up our game and see...
Do you really need this. You already have 3 Hammers, do you need to break this game over your knee even more.
