The Mega Man Battle Network series was a brilliant idea from Capcom to offer a refreshing and unique departure from the classic action platformer, while still delivering a colourful and engaging gameplay experience. Though it wasn't the first time the Mega Man series flirted with becoming an RPG, it was by far the most memorable. Mega Man Battle Network 3 stands as the perfect distillation of the core gameplay principles that made this sub-series so great, and it still holds up surprisingly well today.
Everything in Mega Man Battle Network 3 is happening in a parallel timeline to the original series; the difference is that network technology flourished rather than robotics. A virus busting fifth-grader named Lan and his NetNavi - an A.I. program that lives inside this world's equivalent of smartphones - MegaMan.exe, take centre stage as the two main characters. In a tale with light elements of a spy film, the storyline follows Lan and his friends as they partake in the N1 Grand Prix, a competition devoted to finding the number one Netbattler. As the competition goes on, a more sinister plot is discovered to be going on behind the scenes and it's up to Lan and MegaMan.exe to stop it. The storytelling can be a bit cliché at times, but it's all presented in a charming and light-hearted manner.
You alternate playing as Lan and MegaMan.exe in the real world and cyber world, respectively. Many things in the environment, including mundane objects such as kitchen appliances, are either connected to the internet or have an internal computer of some sort. When Lan encounters an object such as this, he can "jack-in" to it and upload MegaMan.exe. The perspective then shifts to MegaMan.exe as he explores the digital world inside. Transitioning from one character to the next is smooth and seamless, though more of the gameplay happens on MegaMan.exe's end than on Lan's.
The cyber world is positively infested with viruses and this is where the combat elements come into play. While MegaMan.exe is running around, he'll randomly and a little too frequently get jumped by viruses. The random encounters can get mildly irritating when you're trying to accomplish an objective and have to partake in a distracting netbattle every twenty seconds, but the combat is so engaging that it's mostly not an issue.
Battles take place on a separate screen on a 6 x 3 grid - each side gets nine tiles to manoeuvre, and the flow of combat is something akin to a hybrid of turn based and real time. To fight off the viruses, MegaMan.exe has one-off battle chips and his trusty Mega Buster at his disposal. Five battle chips at a time are randomly selected from a folder of thirty that you put together outside of battles, and each one has an alphabetical chip code that determines what kind of chips can be used together in a turn. Once the chips are chosen, the turn starts and it becomes an active fight as MegaMan.exe and the viruses dance around their respective sides of the grid, dealing and dodging attacks. This system works well and helps keep combat moving at a brisk pace, with new virus types found in different computers keeping things from getting too stale as attack patterns are memorized.
Customization has a surprising amount of depth, especially compared to past entries in the series. A new system called the Navi Customizer allows Lan to install programs that he and MegaMan.exe find throughout the world that bestow various combat benefits, such as a powered up Mega Buster, a shield that generates at the beginning of each fight, or raised health. Figuring out how to best manage the limited space on the grid requires the player to think outside the box and it adds an additional strategic element to combat. Another fun addition is Style Changes, which are basically just different forms MegaMan.exe can take that give him different elemental advantages in combat and change his Mega Buster. For example, a water-based style gives him a bubble shot and prevents him from slipping on ice panels, but makes him more susceptible to electric attacks. There's a wide variety of styles available and finding one that complements a player's gameplay habits can add an additional layer to combat.
Outside of combat, the world is presented in a friendly and vibrant manner. The story takes Lan over a variety of environments, such as his suburban neighbourhood, a laboratory or a beach, and all the locales are populated by an oddly charming cast of NPCs. However, it's the digital worlds that MegaMan.exe explores that really steal the show. Lan's world is colourful, but MegaMan.exe's world is colourful and stylish. Navigating circuit board-like streets and talking to various other programs along the way makes for a charming visual to portray the abstract concept of digital activity. Often the environment will have a particular theme, such as how a digital representation of Lan's Principal's school computer is populated with desks and floating No. 2 pencils. The soundtrack is mostly composed of chipper, electronic tunes that help keep the atmosphere from getting too stale, but it's rather forgettable.
The Mega Man Battle Network series is known for its high level of replayability and Mega Man Battle Network 3 is no exception. Long after beating the game, players will be kept busy collecting all 316 battle chips, finding and taming particular viruses, and chasing down the ghost data and Omega versions of defeated Navis on the undernet.
Mega Man Battle Network 3 was notable for being the first time the series went with dual releases, but the differences are marginal; the only things changed being some chips, a couple of Navi battles, and style changes. Much like with the Pokemon series, one version isn't really recommended over the other as the core experience is the same either way.
Conclusion
Mega Man Battle Network 3 is very much the point where the series hit a peak. The gameplay systems and presentation are on point and it meshes together to form a very satisfying and unified whole. There are occasional issues with random encounters and corny dialogue, but it doesn't detract from the overall experience in a major way. When it comes to RPG-lite, virus busting Mega Man action, it doesn't get any better than this.
Comments 25
These are still released separately on the VC, right? I'm in the UK so haven't been able to check on the eShop, but everywhere I've seen has them on the same listing.
Where is Megaman & Bass?
@rohanssj Battle Network 3
I remember enjoying BN3 and 5 the best. Never finished 6.
@lividd3ad Yup, each version is about £6.
I never played MMBN 3-4 so i'd like to know which version do you recommend to buy Blue or White? Blue Moon Red Sun? thanks in advance.
Not getting any of these Battle Network games. All I need to complete my Megaman Folder is Megaman & Bass.
@alex167 For Battle Network 3, Blue is the title of choice for its additional boss fight and overly-broken Giga Chip
The reason for this is that originally in Japan, only one version launched: White.
They later released a Black version with extra content, which we saw in the form of a Blue version.
@antipop621 My favorite will always be 5. The SRPG missions added a lot to it.
I keep hearing from fans that many think BN3 is the best of the series, and that 4 is the worst, but they can never really explain the reasoning behind these statements. That said, I'm just waiting for BN4, since my card doesn't work right anymore.
@Kaze_Memaryu There's a few reasons why it's considered the worst of the main BN games, but I think it's mostly because you have to beat the game three times if you want to see all the content. BN4 is an odd one for me. It's not one of my favorites, but I've played it more than most of the other BN games.
Man I wish they'd make more of these games. Not those weird 3D ones though, exactly like this.
@Storytime7 The multiple run part is understandable, especially since the navi encounters for the story are random, so it comes off as annoying to finish the game twice and still miss a NavSoul. And it's actually lazy game design to practically recycle an entire game multiple times to stretch the playtime (I'm sure I spent at least 400 hours to 100% Red Sun, but the timer stops at 99:59).
But at the same time, I think it's actually a good way of pacing things, since the difficulty is already high in the BN games, and NG++ (Hard Mode) introduces you to Navi fights on (almost) SP/DS level difficulty, while also increasing the abilities of regular viruses significantly - not to speak of the higher combat speed in general.
@Kaze_Memaryu I think it also had to do with the perceived downgrade in graphics and the kinda recycled story. Wasn't BN4 centered around another netbattling competition?
So I know Tim did the Battle Network 2 review, but even so, BN3 having a higher score than BN2 on this site is just... Filthy wrong.
Those perusing the comments really needing an opinion on these games if you haven't played them: trust me. Battle Network 2 is infinitely better than 3. I dropped hundreds of hours on this franchise in my youth. 4 and on will be kinda meh if they make it to Wii U.
@MitchVogel Largely. The "plot" does kick it all off, but gets thrown aside for a 9 chapter lasting tournament craze before finally having any sort of significance. So yeah, that's possible. Can't say much about recycled stuff, though, since I only briefly played BN2 and 3 without noticing the plot, and BN5/6 really annoyed me with their mission modes.
@KillScottKill It's just a matter of different people having different opinions; some people prefer one, while others prefer the other. There's nothing "filthy wrong" about that.
@Kaze_Memaryu BN4 is probably my favorite in the series, but that's probably because that's the one I sunk the most time into. BN6 and BN2 tie for a close second. BN3 is the first one I've ever played, so this is a good opportunity for me to relive it
@Storytime7 You do have to play the game multiple times, but the bosses change every time to keep it from getting too stale.
Other than that though, yeah I guess you could call it lazy game design.
I've never played a Mega Man Battle Network game before, but I'm interested. Is this the best one to try first?
@SchamMan89 I would say so. You don't need to know a ton of the story from the previous games to folow this one and the gameplay was some of the best. Really, you can start with any of them, they're all very newcomer-friendly.
Love Battle Network, the battle system and chip collecting is just so fun.
6 is my favourite.
Personally, my favorite is the GameCube entry in the series: "Network Transmission." It keeps most of the sub-franchise elements but turns the Net sections into a mostly real-time 2D action platformer like the classic games (although at a much less brutal difficulty level), which also changes the effects of some chips like "Wide Sword" and "Long Sword," while it does away with the annoying, limiting alphabetical chip codes. The story is pretty good and also canon, specifically stated to take place between BN1 and BN2 (Battle Network 1.5?).
@icedude545 We're still at the point where dark and gritty = good, but corny and cheesy = bad. Unfortunately, the trend has yet to go away.
The first three BN games are great. Never played the later ones but always heard conflicting opinions about them.
I keep looking at buying the Wii U versions of Battle Network 3-6, but I keep thinking that the games are kind of broken since you can no longer complete your chip library without the link features of the game? I know the core story is still fine, but I like the idea of being able to get 100%. It would be like having Pokemon Ruby on Wii U, and not being able to complete your Pokedex.
I assume they didn't update the games to somehow get around this?
Tap here to load 25 comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...