Plot
''Mega Man Battle Network'' is set in an ambiguous year in the 21st century ("20XX AD") in an alternate reality to the Mega Man (original series), original ''Mega Man'' series. Within the world of ''Battle Network'', the internet, Net has become humanity's primary means of communication, commerce, and even Computer crime, crime. Users are able to "jack in" to the Net and other computerized devices, and explore their various aspects using Computer program, program avatars called "NetNavis (Network Navigators)" as if they were physical locations. The Net and the inner workings of computers are displayed as a virtual world with which computer programs of all varieties, as personified in a humanoid form, can interact. Users often do so by accessing their NetNavis via a "PET (PErsonal information Terminal)" device. The plot of ''Mega Man Battle Network'' follows one such pair, List of Mega Man Battle Network characters#Lan Hikari, Lan Hikari and his NetNavi List of Mega Man Battle Network characters#MegaMan.EXE, MegaMan.EXE. Lan is a fifth Elementary school, grader in the town of ACDC. His father, List of Mega Man Battle Network characters#Recurring, Dr. Yuichiro Hikari, is one of the world's top scientists and NetNavi researchers. Not long into the story, Lan and MegaMan.EXE take it upon themselves to solve various criminal cases around ACDC involving other Navis and their operators. Some of the confrontations with the various criminals involve desperate, life-threatening situations including a bus rigged to explode, oxygen being cut off at a large party, the entire city's clean water freezing, and school students being re-educated as mindless slaves. The duo continuously crosses paths with List of Mega Man Battle Network characters#Eugene Chaud, Eugene Chaud, an official "NetBattler" commissioned by the government to investigate crimes on the Net. Chaud and his NetNavi ProtoMan.EXE act as rivals to Lan and MegaMan.EXE. The protagonists eventually learn that the criminals are all connected to an organization called the "List of Mega Man Battle Network characters#WWW (World Three), WWW (World Three)". The WWW intentionally infects computer networks with computer viruses so as to hinder their normal operations and Hacker (computer security), hack vital information. The group is led by Doctor Wily, Dr. Wily, a former colleague of Lan's grandfather. While working together, Wily had specialized in robotics while Lan's grandfather specialized in Computer network, networks, which eventually led to NetNavis. The government cut Wily's funding, opting instead to pursue Hikari's NetNavi project. Wily's goal throughout the game is to collect four super programs with which the "LifeVirus" may be constructed. The LifeVirus is a nearly indestructible virus capable of wiping out the Net and all associated devices. The protagonists infiltrate the WWW, but MegaMan.EXE becomes disabled. Chaud arrives and gives Lan a batch file from Dr. Hikari to restore his Navi. After receiving the file "Hub.bat", Lan questions his father about the name. It is revealed the MegaMan.EXE is actually a unique Navi made by Lan's father. When Lan's twin brother, Hub, died at a young age, Dr. Hikari transferred Hub's consciousness into the NetNavi MegaMan.EXE. This created a special physical and virtual bond between the two brothers. In the end, Lan and MegaMan.EXE manage to defeat Wily, destroy the LifeVirus, and restore peace to ACDC.Gameplay
Unlike the previous action game, action-platform game, platformer entries of the ''Mega Man'' franchise, ''Mega Man Battle Network'' is a Real-time tactics, real-time tactical role-playing game, tactical RPG. To progress through the game the player must alternately navigate the outside world as Lan Hikari and the Net as MegaMan.EXE, each containing certain tasks that must be completed to allow advancement in the other. Controlling Lan, the player may travel around the world map, interact with non-player characters, check email, purchase items, initiate Net missions, or speak with MegaMan.EXE through his PET. In contrast with traditional ''Mega Man'' entries in which battle and movement through the levels happen in the same setting, ''Battle Network''s combat occurs only through by battling computer viruses within the Net. This cyber world is represented by a series of branching pathways and nodes, where MegaMan.EXE can travel to both new and previously visited locations, find and purchase items, and fight viruses. Battles do not generally appear on the field screen of the Net but are usually set as random encounters. The battlefield itself is made up of 18 tiles divided into two groups of nine, one group being space in which MegaMan.EXE may freely move and the other group being space inhabited by enemies. Akin to other ''Mega Man'' games, MegaMan.EXE possesses an arm cannon called the "Mega Buster". The player can transition among the nine provided tiles and fire the Mega Buster at enemies from across the screen. The objective of each battle is to File deletion, delete all the viruses by reducing their Health (gaming), hit points (HP) to zero. If MegaMan.EXE's own health depletes, a game over occurs. Certain power-up programs can be found that upgrade MegaMan.EXE's HP, defense, or Mega Buster power. The Mega Buster is quite weak on its own, so in order to delete viruses more efficiently, the player must access special abilities called "Battle Chips". These are minor programs that contain data that the Navi can utilize to perform more powerful attacks, summon other Navis for help, or execute supportive actions such as restoring HP or destroying tiles on the enemies' side of the battlefield. Battle Chips are uploaded to MegaMan.EXE by Lan's PET in a process called "Customization." Each turn in battle presents the player with five random chips from which to choose, though the player is limited to chips of the same variety or chips with the same alphabetic code. Once the "Battle Gauge" (or "Custom Gauge") at the top of the screen fills during battle, another random set of chips can be chosen from a general pool called the "folder". At any given time, the player may only have exactly 30 chips in the folder from which the Customization process may draw. The player is only allowed to carry up to ten of the same kind of chip and up to five Navi-summon chips in the folder. However, a player may possess any number of other chips in inactive reserve, called the "sack", which may be moved to the active folder outside of battle. Every chip and enemy is aligned to one of five elements: Neutral, Fire, Water, Electric, and Wood. If MegaMan.EXE hits an enemy with an attack aligned to an element they are weak against, the attack will do double damage. ''Battle Network'' features a very limited multiplayer video game, multiplayer option. Up to two players may connect with each other using a Game Link Cable and then give or trade Battle Chips. Players may also engage in battles with one another. The "test battle" mode has no stakes whereas the "real battle" mode allows the winning player to take a battle chip from the loser.Development and release
Initially conceptualized with the intention of being a horror game, ''Mega Man Battle Network'' was developed by Capcom, Capcom Production Studio 2 amidst the success of Nintendo's portable RPG franchise ''Pokémon (video game series), Pokémon''. Rather than extend upon the traditional action-platform formula for the ''Mega Man'' series as they had done with the 3D computer graphics, 3D ''Mega Man Legends (video game), Mega Man Legends'', Capcom followed Nintendo's example on the latter's then-newest Handheld game console, handheld console, the Game Boy Advance, GBA. While creating ''Battle Network'', director Masahiro Yasuma found difficulty in blending action attributes with "the kind of fun you get from a ''Pokémon'' game" in order to make it enjoyable, new, and fresh. Yasuma recalled that production was further challenged because no effective precursor of its type had been made before. Producer Keiji Inafune stated that the development team wanted to add a "real world" feel to the ''Mega Man'' series by placing the protagonist of ''Battle Network'' in a location where the internet is prevalent. With the release of the portable GBA, the team felt that they should target modern gamers, specifically children, as an audience for the new series. The developers thought such a theme would be both successful and relevant because these younger gamers grew up with and utilized such technology on a daily basis. To ensure the game's popularity, Capcom marketed ''Battle Network'' alongside an afternoon MegaMan NT Warrior, anime adaptation, emphasized head-to-head matches between players, and provided fans with exclusive content via special events. Inafune credited himself for redesigning the protagonist Mega Man (character), Mega Man as MegaMan.EXE for the ''Battle Network'' series, though he recounted the character designers were reluctant to hand over the responsibility to him and even altered his illustrations afterwards. The character's initial concept art went through a large number of changes before it was finalized to a much simpler design, so that even very young fans could easily draw it. Yuji Ishihara acted as a primary character artist for the game. Each of the game's boss characters was designed so that their bodies would exude a certain motif; for example, StoneMan.EXE was meant to look like a huge castle made from stone masonry. Some bosses resembled their original ''Mega Man'' series counterparts while others were a large departure from these more humanoid appearances. Ishihara explained that the artists chose size and shape variety among the characters to "provide a little bit of surprise and excitement" to fans familiar with their classic forms. The musical score for ''Battle Network'' was composed by Akari Kaida, who would later work on the Mega Man Battle Network 5, fifth installment of the series. All 22 musical tracks for ''Mega Man Battle Network'' were included on the ''Rockman EXE 1 ~ 3 Game Music Collection'', released in Japan by Suleputer on December 18, 2002. The Japanese version of ''Battle Network'' was first announced in August 2000 as one of four games set to be released for the recently unveiled GBA. A demo of the game was promoted at Nintendo Space World that month, where it was displayed on only two out of the 140 playable consoles. The game was displayed on five kiosks at the Tokyo Game Show the following month. According to series planners Masakazu Eguchi and Masahiro Yasuma, this Software release life cycle#Beta, beta build of the game involved the player fighting a malevolent WoodMan.EXE within the school's electronic blackboard. ''Battle Network'' was officially released in Japan as a GBA launch game, launch title on March 21, 2001. A television advertisement of the game featured the song "Neo Venus" by Japanese rock band Janne Da Arc. The English localization of ''Battle Network'' was announced on May 17, 2001, just prior to the Electronic Entertainment Expo. The game was released in North America and Europe on October 31 and November 30 respectively. Ubisoft published ''Mega Man Battle Network'' in PAL regions as part of a seven-GBA game licensing agreement with Capcom. Its first sequel, ''Mega Man Battle Network 2'', was announced before the Japan World Hobby Fair in June 2001. Attendees to the fair were able to download chip data for the character List of Mega Man Battle Network characters#Bass.EXE, Bass.EXE into their original ''Battle Network'' cartridges.Reception and legacy
''Mega Man Battle Network'' has been generally well-received, holding aggregates score of 80% on GameRankings and 79 out of 100 on Metacritic. The graphics of ''Battle Network'' were overall favored by reviewers. IGN's Craig Harris, GameSpy contributor James Fudge, and Kristian Brogger of ''Game Informer'' were all impressed by the game's crisp, colorful style and futuristic locales. As far as the sound was concerned, Justin Speer of GameSpot opined that the music appropriately matched the rich visuals. Brogger otherwise accepted the sound as "enough''Rockman.EXE: Operate Shooting Star''
A Nintendo DS Porting, port of the game entitled ''Rockman.EXE: Operate Shooting Star'' was revealed at the 2009 World Hobby Fair in Japan, and released there on November 12, 2009. Christian Svensson, Capcom's then Vice President of Strategic Planning & Business Development, stated that the company had no plans to localize the game for Western territories, but a Fan translation of video games, fan translation of the game into English was released in 2018, as well as an optional voice acting removal patch.In addition to various gameplay enhancements, it also features a Crossover (fiction), crossover with the ''Mega Man Star Force'' series, and the ability to control either Mega Man. ''Star Force'' Mega Man brings his ability to lock-on to far-away targets, as well as a brief shield to block minor attacks. Both Mega Men utilize Battle Chips instead of Battle Cards, and new Chips (including a Navi Chip representing Omega-Xis) appear. The PET interface was revamped to allow for touchscreen capabilities, including a map while traversing the cyber world, similar to its implementation in ''Mega Man Battle Network 5: Double Team DS, Double Team DS''. In January 2009, monthly Japanese magazine ''CoroCoro Comic'' held their annual ''Mega Man'' boss design contest. However, unlike previous contests, it was unknown what upcoming ''Mega Man'' title the winning boss would appear in, nor was it revealed even after the winner was announced as Clock Genius in the April 2009 issue. At the 2009 World Hobby Fair convention in Japan, the new ''Mega Man'' title was finally unveiled as a crossover between the ''Battle Network'' and ''Star Force'' series. The ''Battle Network'' series officially ended in 2005 with the release of ''Mega Man Battle Network 6'' for the Game Boy Advance. Around the 20th anniversary of the ''Mega Man'' franchise, Capcom was receiving a strong sentiment from fans wanting a new ''Battle Network'' title. Series producer Takeshi Horinouchi stated that they wanted one more try at the series. He explained, "This game’s inspiration is actually a celebratory image drawn by the designer for ''Mega Man''’s 20th anniversary. From that time, I’d secretly been thinking 'In time we should try something neat with ''EXE'' and ''Star Force''.’ Thus, our next project ''Rockman EXE Operate Shooting Star'' has come to be started. Essentially, this is a ''Mega Man Battle Network 1'' remake for the DS, porting it and adding something extra. You the fans may be wondering, what sort of theme comes with combining ''EXE'' and ''Shooting Star''? This is something that ''Battle Network'' fans of course, and ''Star Force'' fans as well, will enjoy." According to the Japanese publication ''Famitsu'', ''Rockman.EXE: Operate Shooting Star'' was the ninth best-selling game in Japan during its release week at approximately 23,000 copies sold. A total of 44,110 units were sold in Japan by the end of 2009.Notes
References
External links