Mega Man Battle Network 4

Mega Man Battle Network 4
Developer(s)	Capcom Production Studio 2
Publisher(s)	Capcom
Producer(s)	Keiji Inafune
Designer(s)	Masahiro Yasuma
Artist(s)	Shinsuke Komaki
Writer(s)	Masakazu Eguchi Hiroshi Yamashita
Composer(s)	Toshihiko Horiyama
Series	Mega Man Battle Network
Platform(s)	Game Boy Advance
Release date(s)	JP December 14, 2003 NA June 27, 2004 PAL October 18, 2004
Genre(s)	Real-time tactical role-playing
Mode(s)	Single-player, multiplayer
Rating(s)	CERO: Free ESRB: E (Everyone) PEGI: 3+
Media/distribution	ROM cartridge

Mega Man Battle Network 4, known as Battle Network Rockman EXE 4 (バトルネットワーク ロックマンエグゼ4^?) in Japan, is a video game developed by Capcom for the Game Boy Advance (GBA) handheld game console. It is the fourth game in the Mega Man Battle Network series. Like the game before it, Battle Network 4 has two different versions, Red Sun and Blue Moon, that differ only in minor story and gameplay details. Battle Network 4 is compatible with the e-Reader, and can be linked up with Rockman EXE 4.5 Real Operation and the Battle Chip Gate for NetBattles. It is able to link with Mega Man Zero 3, and contains references to Konami's Boktai series.^{[citation needed]}

Story

The game starts out with a cutscene. Scientists suddenly discover a massive asteroid hurtling towards the Earth. It has just passed Pluto. The scientists scramble to alert their superiors against this new threat.

Meanwhile, MegaMan and Lan Hikari have found themselves engaged in battle with a super-powerful Navi named ShadeMan. ShadeMan’s armor is too powerful for MegaMan to penetrate, but ShadeMan has lost his weapon systems, and is then also confronted by Protoman, so he retreats. MegaMan notices that ShadeMan dropped an unknown chip. He and Lan are told by Higsby that it is a DarkChip, a chip that makes a Navi super-powerful, but also turns that Navi evil. They hold on to it, vowing never to use it.

Later that day, Lan comes home to find his mother on the floor, in a gas-induced sleep. A note on his computer instructs him to surrender the DarkChip, or they will do more to his family.

Lan and MegaMan go to an amusement park, where they meet ShadeMan again. He demands the DarkChip, which MegaMan destroys in front of him. ShadeMan engages MegaMan in battle. ShadeMan is still invulnerable to MegaMan’s weapons, until a powerful chip inexplicably appears in MegaMan’s inventory. When he uses it, ShadeMan is defeated easily. MegaMan soon realizes that he used a DarkChip.

Lan and Megaman then enter a series of net battle tournaments. It's revealed to them that the tournaments were held to determine the world's strongest net navi. Because the asteroid is discovered to have a computer controlling it, a net navi could travel to it and stop it. Megaman is sent to the asteroid, and upon entering the asteroid's control room, he meets LaserMan and Duo, the Operating System of the asteroid. Duo explains that he must destroy the Earth, because it is full of evil. After his "speech", Duo extracts Megaman's DarkSoul which is defeated by Megaman. After the defeat of MegaMan’s DarkSoul and a fight with Duo himself, Duo allows MegaMan to try to divert the asteroid. Try as he might, the asteroid is too heavy for him to divert alone.

MegaMan is able to channel the goodwill of the people on Earth, which gives him the strength to move the asteroid away from the Earth. Duo agrees to leave the Earth alone for several hundred more years.

Gameplay

Battle Network 4 greatly differs from Battle Network 3 in many ways, the most notable of which is the concept of DoubleSoul (Soul Unison in the original). DoubleSoul is similar to how the classic-style Mega Man could acquire the weapons of the Robot Masters that he has defeated: by using DoubleSoul, MegaMan.EXE could use the powers of other NetNavis in the same manner as how classic Mega Man could use the powers of the Robot Masters through their weapons. To perform a DoubleSoul, which lasts for a temporary amount of time (three turns), however, a chip must be sacrificed for the battle.

Another key feature is that it takes a minimum of three playthroughs of the game's main story mode in order to uncover all of its secrets - although many criticize the game for the same reason. After each playthrough, a player is permitted to either continue with their existing game or to start a new game at a higher level of difficulty, although any save at a higher level of difficulty will overwrite a save of the lower level. Thus, it is very important for those players who want to collect all chips and power-ups to be sure that all blue/purple mystery datas and all V1 virus' chips and program advances have been collected before starting Level 2. The same is true for going on to Level 3.

Finally, DarkChips, which are powerful chips that give many negative side-effects, make their debut in this game: a mood indicator in the corner of the screen shows the mood of MegaMan, and should the mood change to a negative one, random DarkChips will appear in MegaMan's Custom Screen. Each DarkChip will have many negative (and a notable permanent) side-effects, and will taint MegaMan's own soul with darkness. Should the darkness overwhelm MegaMan, he will find that a different selection of chips are made available to use, with a different selection of Program Advances (like the infamous "DarkNeo" Program Advance, which involves the Bass GigaChip) therein. Also, when you use a DarkChip (aside from the battle with ShadeMan in the ToyRobo and in free tournaments at Higsby's shop), MegaMan permanently loses 1 HP for each and cannot regain all HP lost, even if you were to purify yourself. There are also special chips (like the 5 evil chips) that can only be used if MegaMan is completely consumed by dark power. Conversely, if MegaMan does enough battles (about 1000) without ever using a Dark Chip, he will turn brighter in color and allow him to more easily achieve Full Syncro mode.

Emotion Window

The Emotion Window is a mood indicator that lets the operator know MegaMan's current state based on fighting performance. The window also changes whenever DoubleSoul is used, to a mugshot of the corresponding Soul used.

Full Synchro is a heightened state of focus gained by performing a counter-attack against a virus (I.e. attacking the virus just before it attacks). In this state, Battlechip attacks are doubled in strength. It is possible to consecutively achieve Full Synchro by continuously counter-attacking and thus doubling effectiveness in battle. Full Synchro expires when the player fails to counter-attack a virus, or when MegaMan suffers damage.

Conversely, when a fight is not playing in MegaMan's favor, unless in a doublesoul, he gains an anxious expression and following this, Darkchips begin to display themselves in the Custom Screen. Also during this emotional state, DoubleSoul transformations are disabled. The player can return to a normal, calm state by successfully counter-attacking a virus, restoring HP, scoring hits on the enemy, or winning the battle.

If, during battle, MegaMan suffers repeated hits at a rapid rate, or if he is stunned for a period of time, he goes into a state of rage which is similar to Full Synchro in the way that it doubles Battlechip attack power, but instead of a focused expression in the emotion window, MegaMan has an angry expression and in the battle screen he glows orange. As such, it can be considered a desperation state which gives the player a chance to turn the battle towards their favor. Rage will expire when the player attacks and damages a virus, or if the player successfully counter-attacks, at which point the player will instead go into Full Synchro. It also expires after a while if no chip is used. Unlike Full Synchro, if Mega Man is hit while in rage, he will not revert back to his normal emotion. During "Full Synchro" and "Rage" Megaman's attacks double, giving him an extra advantage.

The Emotion Window is a feature that has lived on in the Battle Network 5 and 6 games. The basic functions of the Emotion Window stated above (Full Synchro, Anxiety, and Rage) have not changed since, though the anxiety emotion has been removed in Battle Network 6, replaced with Tired and Very Tired status.

Battle Chips

"Battle Network 4" brings out many new chips, with standard chips weighing in with 150 unique attacks. Mega Chips fell in number from the previous game, only having 60 different chips. Instead of V1, V2, V3, V4, and V5 chips (previously found in Battle Network 1 and 2 with V4 and V5 chips found only in 3) are now (Navi), (Navi)SP, (Navi)DS. Five version-exclusive Giga Chips appear in each version. There are 56 new kinds of chips, called, Secret Chips. Most of these are obtained by winning Higsby's "Free Tournaments", though there are a few exceptions. For example, the player may obtain the "Z-Saber" chip by linking their game with a copy of Mega Man Zero 3. There are eight DarkChips in this game with bad effects to your Navi's soul and emotions. (See above section for information on DarkChips.)

Title Screen Badges

In the previous two games, players earned different colored stars on the title screen for completing certain tasks. Battle Network 4 replaces these with badges (sometimes called icons or marks instead) on the top of the title screen, and continues these for the remainder of the series. Battle Network 4 includes seven icons, one for defeating the final boss Duo, one for getting all Soul Unisons, one for collecting all Standard-level battlechips, one for all Mega-level chips, one for all Giga-level chips, one for using all Program Advances, and the last for defeating Bass (Forte in Japanese) in his Omega form.

Development

Capcom of Japan gathered together their surplus of RockMan EXE 4: Tournament Red Sun and RockMan EXE 4: Tournament Blue Moon games and put them in a special edition box that was released in Japan only on December 31, 2004 along with a special E-Card for the E-Reader.

Reception

Reception
Aggregate scores
Aggregator	Score
GameRankings	69% (Blue Moon)[1] 71% (Red Sun)[2]
Metacritic	67/100 (Blue Moon)[3] 68/100 (Red Sun)[4]
Review scores
Publication	Score
1UP.com	B-[5]
Famitsu	34/40[6]
Game Informer	7/10[7]
GamePro	[8]
GameSpot	6.8/10[9]
GameSpy	[10]
IGN	6.5/10[11]
Nintendo Power	3.7/5[12]

The two versions of Mega Man Battle Network 4 entered Japanese sales charts as the second and fourth best-selling games of their release week and continued to appear on the top 10 best-sellers list for the following six weeks.^{[13][14][15][16][17][18][19]} The game sold 535,836 copies combined by the end of 2003 and an additional 393,014 copies by the end of 2004.^[20][21] Mega Man Battle Network 4 has sold 1.35 million copies worldwide as of December 31, 2008.^[22]

The game is considered the Black sheep of the Battle network series, as well as the reason for the drop in the series' popularity. Notable criticisms include the lack of any real story; Most of the game played is going through the three tournaments and solving some issue with your opponent before battling him or her. Further exacerbating this is the fact that the potentially world-ending asteroid is treated as a B plot until the player is involved almost at the very end of the game.

Another criticism is the addition of the Double Soul system. The inability to go into it whenever a player wanted, the need of a proper 'sacrificial' chip (one's preset chip could not be used either, even if it was the proper type), and the fact that it only lasts for 3 turns made it unpopular with the fanbase.

Another major criticism with the game was the fact that in order for a player to get everything in the game (Double souls, chips, etc.), one had to play through the game three times, the changes in the game being difficulty (replacing Viruses with stronger versions), and who Mega Man faces in tournaments (subsequently changing the story).

Minor criticism was met with the change in graphic styles which stuck with subsequent games, going from a more 'realistic' look to thicker lined, brighter colored and smaller sprited graphics.

References

1. ^ "Mega Man Battle Network 4 Blue Moon for Game Boy Advance". GameRankings. http://www.gamerankings.com/gba/919000-mega-man-battle-network-4-blue-moon/index.html. Retrieved 2010-07-04. 
2. ^ "Mega Man Battle Network 4 Red Sun for Game Boy Advance". GameRankings. http://www.gamerankings.com/gba/918999-mega-man-battle-network-4-red-sun/index.html. Retrieved 2010-07-04. 
3. ^ "Mega Man Battle Network 4: Blue Moon (gba) reviews". Metacritic. http://www.metacritic.com/games/platforms/gba/megamanbattlenetwork4bluemoon. Retrieved 2010-07-04. 
4. ^ "Mega Man Battle Network 4: Red Sun (gba) reviews". http://www.metacritic.com/games/platforms/gba/megamanbattlenetwork4redsunpublisher=Metacritic. Retrieved 2010-07-04. 
5. ^ Barnholt, Ryan (July 6, 2004). "Mega Man Battle Network 4 Review". 1UP.com. http://www.1up.com/do/reviewPage?cId=3133282&did=1. Retrieved 2010-07-04. 
6. ^ Matsuyara, Yoshiku (December 3, 2003). "Japan News - Aktuelle Wertungen der Famitsu - 03.12.2003" (in German). Looki.de. http://www.looki.de/games/japan-news_news_n15068.html. Retrieved 2010-07-04. 
7. ^ "Reviews: Mega Man Battle Network 4". Game Informer (Sunrise Publications) (134). June 2004. 
8. ^ Rice Burner (June 28, 2004). "Mega Man Battle Network 4 Red Sun Review". GamePro. http://www.gamepro.com/article/reviews/36408/mega-man-battle-network-4-red-sun/. Retrieved 2010-07-04. 
9. ^ Provo, Frank (July 13, 2004). "Mega Man Battle Network 4 Red Sun Review for Game Boy Advance". GameSpot. http://www.gamespot.com/gba/rpg/megamanbn4red/review.html. Retrieved 2010-07-04. 
10. ^ Vassar, Darryl (July 4, 2004). "Mega Man Battle Network 4: Red Sun / Blue Moon". GameSpy. http://gba.gamespy.com/gameboy-advance/mega-man-battle-network-4-blue-moon/528846p1.html. Retrieved 2010-07-04. 
11. ^ Harris, Craig (August 19, 2004). "Mega Man Battle Network 4: Red Sun - Game Boy Advance Review". IGN. http://gameboy.ign.com/articles/540/540590p1.html. Retrieved 2010-07-04. 
12. ^ "Now Playing: Mega Man Battle Network 4". Nintendo Power (Nintendo of America) (182): p. 123. August 2004. 
13. ^ Jenkins, David (December 19, 2003). "Latest Japanese Sales Charts – Week Ending December 14". Gamasutra. http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/3252/Latest_Japanese_Sales_Charts__Week_Ending_December_14.php. Retrieved 2010-06-21. 
14. ^ Jenkins, David (December 29, 2003). "Latest Japanese Sales Charts - Week Ending December 21". Gamasutra. http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/3275/Latest_Japanese_Sales_Charts__Week_Ending_December_21.php. Retrieved 2010-06-21. 
15. ^ Jenkins, David (January 8, 2004). "Latest Japanese Sales Charts - Week Ending December 28". Gamsutra. http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/3307/Latest_Japanese_Sales_Charts__Week_Ending_December_28.php. Retrieved 2010-06-21. 
16. ^ Jenkins, David (January 12, 2004). "Latest Japanese Sales Charts - Week Ending January 4". Gamasutra. http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/3318/Latest_Japanese_Sales_Charts__Week_Ending_January_4.php. Retrieved 2010-06-21. 
17. ^ Jenkins, David (January 23, 2004). "Latest Japanese Sales Charts - Week Ending January 18". Gamasutra. http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/3372/Latest_Japanese_Sales_Charts__Week_Ending_January_18.php. Retrieved 2010-06-21. 
18. ^ Jenkins, David (January 30, 2004). "Latest Japanese Sales Charts - Week Ending January 25". Gamasutra. http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/3395/Latest_Japanese_Sales_Charts__Week_Ending_January_25.php. Retrieved 2010-06-21. 
19. ^ Jenkins, David (February 6, 2004). "Latest Japanese Sales Charts - Week Ending February 1". Gamasutra. http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/3424/Latest_Japanese_Sales_Charts__Week_Ending_February_1.php. Retrieved 2010-06-21. 
20. ^ "2003 Top 100 Best Selling Japanese Console Games". The MagicBox. http://www.the-magicbox.com/Chart-BestSell2003b.shtml. Retrieved 2010-06-21. 
21. ^ "2004 Top 100 Best Selling Japanese Console Games". The MagicBox. http://www.the-magicbox.com/Chart-BestSell2004.shtml. Retrieved 2010-06-21. 
22. ^ Roper, Chris (May 23, 2008). "Capcom Releases Lifetime Sales Numbers". IGN. http://retro.ign.com/articles/876/876345p1.html. Retrieved 2010-06-20. 

External links

• Official website (Japanese)