Era isso que eu queria em battle network 2, Maturidade.

Battle network 3 usa da mesma fórmula do primeiro sem muitas mudanças, com a única importante sendo a nova forma de aprimorar o megaman, que antes era mais quebrado por ele ficar muito forte, agora você tem que organizar poderes em um cubo, quanto mais útil esse poder, mais espaço ele consome, então você tem que organizar eles de acordo com as regras impostas pelo cubo, no início é confuso, e até que gostei. Não teve muitas inovações, e ok, RPG serve pra entrenter com a história.

A ost aqui se manteve o genérico do 2, pelo menos os temas de batalha ficaram bons, e teve até algumas dungeons com músicas legais, como a do flash Man, ou a do plant Man, que são bangers. E como de costume, a dungeon final ficou com um tema muito comovente, foi o melhor até agora. A minha favorita foi o "wipe your tears", ela arrepia pra muito.

Com o 3° título, Finamente fizeram uma boa história para battle network, agora possui momentos mais épicos e interessantes de se discutir. Mostrou o pai de chaud, e o motivo dele agir meio edgy. E finalmente lan mostrou determinação e caráter, ao invés de só querer resolver um problema por conta própria. Vendo seu novo amigo indo fazer uma cirurgia de muita importância, tudo foi arruinado por conta do plant Man, prejudicando todo o hospital, Lan fica sério, desesperado pra evitar do pior acontecer, era isso que eu esperava de um protagonista de megaman! E aqui também fecha a trilogia com chave de ouro, com megaman se sacrificando para salvar lan, sendo... apagado para sempre... uma pena que isso foi descartado e a capcom precisava de mais dinheiro, adoro dinheiro! Hahaha, viva o dinheiro!

There are seldom sequels that can take everything great from previous entries and give you the transformative experience that MegaMan Battle Network 3 gives. Our lovable cast of characters return to ACDC Elementary as fifth year students. We get to meet new characters and Net Navis, we get to explore new dungeons, bust new viruses, and see new locales. All of this combined to give a well rounded and spectacular experience.

The story kicks off with an invitation to the N1 Grand Prix. From there Lan and our titular hero MegaMan encounter a new eclectic cast of WWW bad guys. That’s right, Dr. Wily is back and badder than ever. He has a new plan to destroy all of net society and it falls to us to stop him. The stories of previous entries have been interesting and entertaining but this is the first one that has really resonated with me. The writing team does a great job making you connect with Lan and his friends, including a brand new character named Momoru who has the same condition that Lan’s brother, Hub, had. With a short amount of time the writers were able to establish an emotional connection with this character, only to dangle their mortality in front of you when the hospital is in danger. It makes the game more compelling as you are now emotionally invested in the well being of this character.

Our explorable spaces have also improved and maintain the level of interest that we’ve come to expect from this series. We have four locales: ACDC Town, SciLab, Yoka, and Beach. Within these locales we can explore the school in ACDC Town, the hot springs and zoo in Yoka, The TV Broadcasting station, Hades Isle, and the Hospital accessed at Beach. Each of these areas has an accurately themed net space. The net spaces in this game are equally as interesting. The paths have lots of twists and turns while giving you a painted path that always leads you to the area’s netsquare. It’s a nice balance between linear pathing and still giving you that labyrinthian experience that the series has previously offered. The backdrops and the color scheme to the areas are also much more representative of the locales they represent. There’s no question about where you are. Giving the character’s home net spaces shortcuts to the various net squares helps with navigating as well and adds to the sense of connectivity.

With a new entry, we get to enjoy brand new game mechanics. The biggest change is the NaviCust which allows you to install programs that can modify and power MegaMan up. Using the various programs you’re able to increase MegaMan’s buster speed, attack power, charge speed, and other effects that impact combat. NaviCust actually plays an important role in the progression of the game too. There are several parts throughout the game that require you to use the Press program and later on, the EngyChng program. These programs are required to be installed to MegaMan in order to interact with certain obstacles presented to you. It’s a good way to challenge the player to change their customization in a way that allows you to clear the obstacle while keeping MegaMan powered up. The unique challenge makes for a fun and engaging experience.

Environmental hazards take a more prevalent place in this game. As you get further along you start to see tiles that are either missing, frozen, covered in sand, or filled in with lava. MegaMan is able to unlock various style changes that are very much like the styles that we were introduced to in Battle Network 2. These styles allow MegaMan to interact with these environmental hazards depending on the style you obtain. As interesting as these styles are, there were style elements that were clearly more beneficial than others. The aqua element proved to be the most useful element as you seldom encountered an electric element after obtaining your first style. Even during the off chance that you did encounter one it was usually a fairly manageable virus. The style types are what makes the real difference. I personally experienced AquaGuts style which gave MegaMan a rapid fire effect on his mega buster and a bubbler effect with his charge attack. Other styles do things like giving you more chips without having to use the returning add function. There are a couple unique styles that are exclusive to each version of the game and a couple of styles that get introduced to both games but I didn’t get to experience them when I played. The elements and styles are fun because they generally are obtained based on how you choose to play the game. You’re more likely to get guts style if you use your mega buster more in battles. You get different elements based on the type of chips you use. It’s a good way for the game to reinforce your play style without compromising on difficulty since each element has a weakness. What’s good about it is that you can either embrace the style change given to you or you can pursue a new style change. You can also choose to remain in normal style, completely ignoring the mechanic altogether. I personally found it to be most enjoyable using the style given to me and leveling it up to unlock more NaviCust programs.

Something different this game does is that the various scenarios that play out don’t always have a dungeon to accompany. This is true for previous titles but not to the same effect. By the end of previous titles you would have a segment that would take you through all of the net spaces. The first handful of scenarios in this game have dungeons but once you get about halfway through the game, scenarios start taking you throughout various parts of the net and to combinations of the locales available. The undernet has been previously reserved for endgame or post game content but this time we see it take a large presence as we approach the endgame. Something the game does well, are the parts of the story that are less straightforward. Historically towards the end of the game we’re given a puzzle that has been frustratingly difficult to approach. Not because it challenges your skill as a player, but because they give you little to no information to go off of. This game has two scenarios that require you to use your knowledge of the game to progress. One is a hunt for a mysterious chip that people have been talking about. The other is a sort of scavenger hunt that requires you to follow a series of hints to find characters and items. Neither of these challenges are as obfuscated as the previous game’s challenges were. Each puzzle has a clear answer that is obtainable if you use critical thinking, or the resources the game has shown you up until this point.

As we fought our way through the challenges presented to us we found it all culminating in a big standoff between Lan and his closest friends, and Dr. Wily and his goons. The conclusion that follows your battles against the final bosses is bittersweet. Although you defeat Dr. Wily and WWW again, your victory comes at the cost of MegaMan being deleted. Lan is crushed and so was I. I was left completely shocked that they actually killed him off. Lan has to learn how to function in this world without his best friend and brother. The impact this leaves is only slightly undermined when you find out that your Dad found a way to bring back MegaMan. The game ends with this reveal so you don’t get to understand how he managed to do this. It leaves you with plenty of questions that hopefully get answered in Battle Network 4.

The new Net Navis that we get to battle with are fun and interesting. Each character has their own attack patterns and behaviors. I believe this has been the most fun batch of characters to battle with. My favorites being DesertMan and FlamMan. The only navi that I found to be truly frustrating was BubbleMan. I struggled with this fight immensely but I also feel like it was due to a lack of skill when approaching this fight. The methods you must employ to defeat him are contrary to how I play and I’m fully willing to accept that I am the source of my own misery here. The final battles in this game are truly challenging. The most challenging thus far. This difficulty is compounded by the fact that you can’t save in between battles so if you lose to Alpha then you have to refight Bass all over again. Alpha took the most tries between the two. Bass is tough because of his constantly restoring aura that takes 100 damage to destroy. Alpha just unleashes a neverending onslaught of attacks that will melt you down before you can defeat him if you aren’t careful. He only has one weak point and it’s well protected by the steady assault that is thrown at you. Once you understand how Alpha’s attacks work, you can mitigate the damage directed towards you. From there it’s a matter of out damaging it before you are deleted. It’s an incredible feeling when you finally achieve victory. Your foe is as mighty as the threat it presents to the world.

MegaMan Battle Network 3 has two versions. There is a Blue version, and a White Version. The differences are subtle. The shops have a few different chips available. Blue Version has an extra Net Navi that you can fight named PunkMan. White Version does not offer a counterpart. The biggest difference though is a boss Navi that you face just before going into the endgame. In Blue Version you get to face off against BowlMan. He’s a bowling themed Net Navi with interesting battle mechanics. In White Version you get to face off against MistMan. He’s a Genie inspired Net Navi with his own mechanics that involve protecting his mystical lamp that is the only part of him that can take damage. Each version gets its own version exclusive chip. Blue Version gets a folder back chip that completely refills your chip folder with all of the used chips (including the folder back chip itself). White Version gets a navi recycle chip that lets you reuse a previously used navi chip. While the idea of version exclusive content is interesting, it feels shallow when the differences are so miniscule. This is likely symptomatic of the game originally being a single release which was then given an enhanced version for the international release. That being said, it would have been more appreciable if one version didn’t feel so distinctly greater than the other. Both games are fun and engaging but it would have soured my experience had I bought this game when it originally came out and learned that the version I bought was arguably inferior to its counterpart.

By the end of both versions of the game I was left feeling amazed and satisfied with MegaMan Battle Network 3. This is the game that really solidifies the Battle Network experience. When the inevitable time comes that I revisit this series, I will likely start with this one. Capcom has done a great job continuing to make these games progressively better. Each game is jam packed with new features and mechanics leaving you excited to see what they have in store for you in the next entry. This is also the first title in which every puzzle or problem comes with a logical solution which is huge when considering the main shortcomings of the previous titles. The fine example this game sets makes me even more excited to see what’s in store in the entries to come.