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Battle Network 2 – Pre-Let’s Play Notes
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Preface
- This is the first game in the series I ever played. As such, I have great nostalgia for it despite a number of issues it has.
- Due to this game not having a DS remake or alternate version, it is the only mainline entry with a single release.
- I've never played Hard Mode before in all of the times I've interacted with the game, so I'm curious to see how it feels in comparison to the original game.
- I've heard that Hard Mode makes getting Pop-Up from the Mole/Rush virus impossible without using a specific chip. Mole1 now has 15 HP but can only be attacked 10 times before escaping. The only way to defeat Mole1 in Hard Mode is using the Whirlpool or Blackhole chips, as the whirlpool will insta-delete any virus. It can also still be earned from the Chip Trader.
- Navis without Counterparts: GateMan, CookMan, ThunderMan, PlanetMan
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AirMan
Personal Notes
- Missable: First E-mail: Subject "More viruses!", from a girl the first time in the school classroom.
- Opening menus in the pause screen can reset the gas cloud cycles.
- The Gospel event chips do breaking damage in addition to doing 600 damage and having a wide radius. No wonder all future event chips were comparatively toned down.
Commentary
- The chip inside of the school desk seems to be able to be picked up from any desk that's examined first.
- The Japanese version of the game has a different jack in animation.
- All of the Squares/PCs have octagons to denote what they are, which is somewhat helpful later in the game.
- Why don't Lan and Co. open or break a window in order to vent out all of the gas? Yai's family can afford to buy new ones, and it'd be less of a problem than Yai dying. Are the windows polycarbonate panels?
- I can't tell if Arashi is blackmailing Yai's parents or jumping the gun by trying to off Yai. Maybe he's intending to use this as a marketing ploy to target other rich families? "Look what I did to the Ayanokoji's kid!"
- The first boss of the second game is a non-elemental boss, much like in Star Force 2.
- How on Earth was this game rated E for Everyone when the very first scenario involves an elementary school girl talking about her naked body. Did the ESRB even look at this game for more than five minutes?
- Kids are made of titanium in this timeline. There's mass death in every other game in the Classic timeline, but Yai can survive being completely swallowed by multiple gas clouds the size of her body and walk it off the next day without a trip to the hospital.
- Immediately after saving Yai from someone taking advantage of a hole in her security, Lan takes advantage of Yai's trust and puts a hole in her security.
- The description of GutsMan's chip seems incorrect. "Creeps" might have been intended to be "cracks".
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QuickMan
Personal Notes
- Missable: Bubbler G: from a scientist in "Camp" - Okuden.
- Sneak Run seems to be able to filter out V3 bosses. AirMan seems to be affected, but test to see which others are as well.
- There is some NPC commentary during the License test about a Navi witnessing a murder committed by a Navi. Check to see if this is related to AirMan or the Heel Navi.
Commentary
- There is absolutely no sign that a bomb went off at the Marine Harbor Metroline. I guess the leader of Gospel is Sam Raimi's Green Goblin and he loaded his briefcase with one of those pumpkin bombs that turns people into skeletons. I think Arashi's supposed to be dead since he never shows up again, but the email saying no one was hurt, the lack of damage, and his presence in BCC (a game of dubious canon) make it hard to determine if that's the case!
- The Aqua/Elec/Heat Ball viruses can have their projectile reversed by punching it with a fist Chip.
- The Navis of the friends are very quiet during this section. I don't recall any of them saying anything.
- The bombs on the dam are one thing, but why are there additional bombs around the campsite? What would they accomplish that the main bombs wouldn't?
- Why doesn't Dave just pull out the jack from MegaMan's PET when he starts losing the fight?
- QuickMan doesn't seem to be vulnerable to breaking chips exclusively, but some chips like Zeus Hammer and the Ultra Bomb PA seem to be able to hit him while he's standing still. Is it perhaps just AOE attacks?
- Why would removing the detonation program set off the bomb? Why does ProtoMan deleting him harder stop the bomb from exploding? Why didn't MegaMan just keep attacking QuickMan if defeating him would've prevented the explosion?
- On that note, how did Chaud walk up, jack into Dave's PET, and have ProtoMan appear for a dynamic rescue without either Lan or Dave noticing?
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CutMan
Personal Notes
- Missable: Recov50 *: from the Official at the counter in "Lic. Office" - Marine Harbor
- Give the AirMan/AquaBall combo a try. Summon AquaBall, hit twice with AirMan, then let it crash into enemy.
Commentary
- Initially, I was under the impression the balloon pen pals shtick was just a fantasy plot, but it is (was?) a real life practice!
- Available chips have begun to feel lackluster around this point. QuickMan served to highlight this issue in his fight, and I can't imagine it's any better in Hard Mode where enemies have more health. I'm hoping things will pick up around the Mother Computer/Netopia, when the game stops predominantly supplying chips that fire straight forward. Style Changes might also help.
- From what I've been told, GutsMan V2 in BN2 will counter your melee attacks with a flying punch, but if you hit him with a GutsPunch, he does like 3 Flying Punches in retaliation.
- Mr. Famous has had 69 straight wins, as a reference to Rockman Day. 69 is "roku juu kyuu", with the first syllable likely being the reason it was chosen.
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ShadowMan
Personal Notes
- Missable: FireBlde R: from the old man Official in front of the Host Computer in "Lobby" - Marine Harbor
Commentary
- The translation quality seems to dip during this scenario at numerous points. It's very jarring.
- What was the point of attacking Yumland first? It seems like ShadowMan could've used the element of surprise to destroy the Mother Computer and then taken down Yumland afterwards. And it's not even like Gospel bothers with them for the rest of the plot.
- If Yumland's national treasure has such amazing capabilities, why is no one using it? You'd think there would at least be one or multiple guardians of Yum Square enhanced by the program, though I suppose there's no evidence that such NPCs didn't exist only to be deleted by ShadowMan anyway.
- This marks the first instance of being unable to jack out from a computer outside of the point of no return, though it occurs much earlier than one might expect. Perhaps another such section would've helped better condition players to be prepared for the WWW Area?
- Is Official Beam a password for the network, a beam used by an Official, an attack officially recognized as a beam, or a beam made of Officials?
- It's hard to rank the Style Changes, since they're based around playstyle and each is excellent in their own right. Guts has SuperArmor and helps buster-centric players stop getting score penalties that would prevent them from building proper folders. Custom, my personal favorite, allows a greater selection of chips on the Custom Menu. Team, the arguable "worst", lets you put five V3 Navis chips in a folder, which can be devastating depending what's chosen. And finally, Shield rewards players who are good at button inputs, allowing them to avoid damage without moving or wasting chips.
- Normal Style can effectively be replaced once you have two Style Changes, having no particular benefits at all beyond being non-elemental.
- When the three Officials come to fight the ShadowMan henchman, there are three Navis that show up: a green Normal Navi, an orange Official Navi, and a third Navi. While their mugshot is a pink female Navi, their sprite is a Heel Navi!
- TreeBomb actually increases in damage when it's hit by water.
- While the Spice chips appear in this scenario, Grass Line and Grass Stage will not appear for at least another two/three!
- The "quick brown fox" riddle is what's known as a pangram.
- For the password System Ahead, the numbers "21 18 21 15 26 25 12 16 14 23 11" are not correlated to the alphabet, or else they would make "uruozylpnwk" which is gibberish. The numbers are paired together with the number in the tens place being the row to look at, and the number in the ones place being which letter to look at on that row. The rows are in the hint "DARETHEY SLAYME".
- For the final puzzle, the goal is to remove the words "swan" (water bird), "crow" (black bird), and "penguin" (cold bird) from the list of letters. The remaining letters spell "virus".
- I wonder what happens to the Ultimate Blaster after this scene. It would've been neat if it was able to be used as a late-game PA.
- If you reach the end of the Mother Computer without completing a battle, the Style Change will trigger after defeating ShadowMan.
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KnightMan
Personal Notes
- Missable: SilvFist I: read note of PC in Dad's lab.
- Missable: If you go to the airport with no Zenny, Haruka will send you an email giving you 3000 zenny.
- Missable: The Zenny stolen from a blonde-haired man in Net Airport.
- Missable: Quake2 W, TreeBom1 *, and Sonicwav I: from Higsby in Netopia Town.
- Missable: 30x Guard *: from Electopian girl outside Netopia Castle.
- While it likely does not, test whether QuickMan works on Shadows.
Commentary
- There is an NPC in front of the Mother Computer chamber that says he can't let you through. Despite that, you can just walk past him into the room anyway.
- Being locked out of the Job BBS for two scenarios is a nasty oversight on the part of Capcom, even if a knowledgeable player may very well do all of the jobs in advance or just get them later. It would've been nice if there was a back up BBS at Netopia Castle or something, though.
- It's rather disturbing that Chaud can use his authority to get someone else's property. Sure, he gives MegaMan back, but it's still unsettling to think some Official could just take your belongings without you being aware.
- Why was the thief faking his French accent?
- Ditching MegaMan causes Lan no trouble in understanding other people despite his having thrown away his translator. Maybe he really can speak Netopian.
- Even if you have no Zenny when bumping into the Frenchman, he will still act as though he robbed you and you can challenge him to get your nonexistent money back.
- In hindsight, MegaMan was in the wrong for telling Lan to get into the car with a stranger, but Lan has to apologize to him for being reasonably frustrated while MegaMan never does!
- Furthermore, why didn't the robber just steal Lan's entire PET instead of just the passport? He missed out on the opportunity to get his hands on a Yumland national treasure!
- ThunderMan is a very frustrating boss to fight with most of your chips stolen. I believe it would have made more sense to retrieve Lan's chips first by beating SnakeMan, a comparatively simpler boss, and then ask for Raoul's assistance in getting your passport back.
- RockCubes can be punched through ThunderMan's clouds.
- Talking to Higsby before speaking to the Electopian tourist in front of Netopia Castle will yield some additional dialogue since he is also an Electopian tourist.
- Jealousy apparently works on Spooky1-3, Moshy, Swordy1-3, Popper3, PuffBall family, Dominerd2-3, GutsMan, Gospel, and NapalmMan. It also has a breaking effect that deals double damage if the enemy is frozen.
- You'd think the Resistance would be mindful of not setting their meeting in a room full of trap doors that can be reactivated via hacking.
- This dungeon gimmick feels like it'd fit ShadeMan more than KnightMan. It is also possible to sneak around the ghosts by passing them while hugging the top of corners.
- Shadow viruses interact with Leaf Shield in an odd way. They deal no damage, but you also don't heal from the contact. That might only be for the knife attack, though.
- Combining Shadow and Bubble Wrap will protect the bubble from breaking.
- The series has issues balancing how quickly MegaMan goes through the Cyberworld in relation to the events happening in the real world. Lan is surrounded by fire and should be in danger, but the game treats it as though no time is passing in the real world while MegaMan is handling this.
- Even if she could control the traps, how did Pride manage to get ahead of where Lan was, almost kill Raoul, and then escape to the top of the dungeon? The dungeon layout doesn't even seem to make sense, though I suppose we don't see the whole thing.
- Johnson inexplicably survives being crushed to death. Princess Pride is really bad at murder. I guess that's why she is able to be redeemed later in Battle Network 5.
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MagnetMan
Personal Notes
- Missable: Broach, RoboX, and GoldRing: from a black guy with sunnies in Netopia Town.
- While testing the GMDs for zenny in Undernet 5, I learned that Untrap does not interfere with re-rolling on the loot in a GMD. There is a very heavy lean towards 100 zenny, but it's still possible to reset and get 50,000 zenny.
- Lava panels cause mines to detonate in BN3. Is that also true in BN2?
- Missable: Repair L: from Netopian blonde man in "Economy" aboard the plane.
- Looking closely, the magnetic paths have motion lines in the direction they carry you. I never noticed that detail before.
- Missable: 20x Guard *: from a boy behind of a house who is running in ACDC Town; 10000 z, GutPunch D and Recov150 P: from Yai, Dex and Mayl respectively when exchanging Broach, RoboX, and GoldRing respectively from them.
Commentary
- The Undernet is accessible early before going to sleep at Lan's house. It is easier to visit it while still in Netopia and using Ms. Millions' handbag.
- The Heel Navi in Undernet 2 is giving the correct directions, but the way his dialogue is translated makes it look as though he's incorrect or lying.
- Roll and the Okuden Mr. Prog are also already in position in Yumland. It seems that Mayl got her A License while Lan was overseas.
- It's pretty weird that you can keep your PET when you're going home this time. Battle Network seems to have a bad problem with being internally consistent.
- How do Lan and Chaud keep taking different planes despite going to the same location at the same time? Do the Officials have a private plane or something? If that's the case, then why does Chaud come to the airport instead of heading to a private airfield?
- For a scenario where you're stuck on only four screens for 90% of the time, this section of the plot is rather enjoyable. It's probably helped by having so many memorable NPCs like Whiskey Guy and Spider-Man. Even some of the background NPCs have charming dialogue.
- To progress, you only need to talk to Sean, Gauss, Dr. Iron Fist, and the Spider-Man. Gauss might not even be necessary.
- I'm not sure if I should be more concerned by the fact Spider-Man expected Lan to procure whiskey somehow while remaining mum about the spider or the fact that Lan pulls it off.
- Japanese Whiskey Rap.
- Given his whole "We live in a society" speech, Gauss was probably the orchestrator of the ShadowMan plan.
- I wish there were more moments like this, where being a good friend to Lan's pals would reward you with items. I think it would've gone a longer way to having people remember them fondly.
- On the topic of Lan's friends, it occurs to me now that the game hasn't really let them do much to assist Lan outside of the AirMan scenario. In fact, the game has largely been crafting scenarios that pushes Lan away from wherever his friends are.
- Before going to sleep, you can take the S-License examination if you are sufficient leveled.
- The NPC that issues the S-License is stacked on top of another Normal Navi sprite. This is only noticeable if you speak to him from behind. This sprite oddity remains that way until you complete the SSS License.
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FreezeMan
- Controlling the weather is a thing that MegaMan games seem to play with a lot. Likely due to the series' environmentalist message.
- If Navis have to hand-deliver mail, how did Mayl send one email to Lan with Roll trapped in Yumland?
- Battle Network 2's low point is the stretch from KnightMan to FreezeMan. During this time, you have three opportunities to have free reign before the FreezeMan scenario kicks in and makes traversal difficult: before leaving for Netopia, after defeating KnightMan, and before going to sleep after defeating MagnetMan.
- In the anime, FireMan turns into HeatMan and then back again. In the manga, FireMan turns into FlameMan. The games aren't really clear about whether or not it's the same Navi or not, but the icons for all of his Navis are the same just in different colors. And Mr. Match does mention he's good at customization in the next game, so you could possibly infer it's the same Navi just retooled. Then again, those continuities don't have characters with multiple Navis, so that could've just been done for the sake of convenience and they're all just separate characters in the game universe.
- Why is the fight with the three Null & Voids easier in Hard Mode?
- I have no idea what Lan and MegaMan's plan is for the BlueCure at this point with the earthquake so close to happening. Do they intend to just break all of the ice on the Net? Realistically, it seems like the most sensible plan is hedging bets on beating FreezeMan.
- FreezeMan boasts about it being too late to stop him, only for his evil plan to wind up failing five seconds after his death. QuickMan did the same thing. I have no idea why Gospel is like this.
- All of the dialogue updates after FreezeMan is defeated, but Yai's stays the same because her house's earthquake protection leaves her unaware that the incident is resolved. That's cute.
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Endgame
- The first boss rush against AirMan and Co. doesn't have boss music in Japanese for some reason.
- If Roll can fly over gaps in space, how did she get trapped by the ice? Why didn't she just fly around it?
- I like how ProtoMan is fully healthy, but doesn't help fight the Super Navi because... reasons.
- Sean's typing animation is so unintentionally hilarious.
- Lan says everyone will die without suits, but they said they had suits earlier. Mistranslation?
- How is Lan supposed to do anything with his heart right now when he's being electrocuted to the point that his body isn't functioning well? Is MegaMan just a wizard?
- RockCube can prevent the spawn of the debris that forms around Gospel's head.
- Where did the clone that the real Bass destroys come from? I was under the impression the only clones made by Sean were the two MegaMan deletes, but apparently there were more? And they got onto the Net? When did that happen?
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WWW Area
- Guardian's Japanese name comes from Ojizō-sama, a Japanese divinity whose statues are a common sight in Japan, especially by roadsides and in graveyards. Despite "Punisher's" lightning strike, its element is usually considered Null, though Battle Network 2 has it as Elec.
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Final Thoughts
- Gospel is hilariously incompetent as an organization. Arashi and Dave offered nothing to the organization, while Pride and Gauss succeed somewhat but still blunder in an impressively ridiculous way. Even then, they only succeed at furthering the main plan of the organization that ultimately wasn't going to work anyway. The only one who gets remotely close to being competent is the hired mercenary and their reputation coasts entirely off of his accomplishment.
- I don't like how Lan's friends feel a bit sidelined here. Outside of the very beginning and the very end, they don't feel terribly involved in this plot. I wonder why the decision was made to use them this way.