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.

When looking forward to embarking on a retrospective playthough of the entire Battle Network series, the entry I was most anticipating was Battle Network 3. It was the only game in the series I had previously played, but the impression it left was so remarkable as a kid that it is perhaps one of the primary influences for me loving games still today. The GBA library is replete with brilliant games that hooked a new generation of children into the medium, overflowing with veritable classics that still rank amongst the best of their respective franchises. Pokemon and Metroid, Mario and Sonic, Fire Emblem and Castlevania. Any one of these games could and have been the consecrating cornerstone of someone’s journey into gaming—but not me. There were a few other games I owned at the same time as Battle Network 3, but none absorbed as much of my time or imagination as this. It was such that I never even considered wanting to play 1 or 2 thereafter, or that there may have been a 4 or a 5 or even a 6. I played Battle Network 3 endlessly, in part because it just has so much to offer.

I spent a lot of my review of the first Battle Network game discussing the inherent qualities of the series’ premise and mechanics, but I think for what amounts to the culmination of all the developers’ efforts thus far, many of the same sentiments bear repeating. Namely, I find it valuable to pontificate on how valuable a well-paced, reasonably dense RPG fares on a handheld system. RPGs are one of the most immersive types of video games, and for a child with generally short attention spans, the pick-up-and-play nature of handheld systems is inherently more inviting. While RPGs are generally structured to favor more intensive sessions to grind out lengthy sections of gameplay, the often turn-based, preparation-heavy design of their systems can be quite conducive to a more sporadic scheduling. The benefits of both approaches work together to encourage one another, fostering the growth of a more prolonged attention span for those who lack it, while also facilitating breaks and more dispersed sessions of play. Combined with the previously discussed appeals of the series (a unique combat system, a customizable approach to fighting, an immersive science-fiction world with endearing characters and a Saturday Morning Cartoon vibe), the Battle Network games strike a perfect balance engaging mechanics that both introduce and further encourage engagement with the inherently unique qualities of a video game for the relatively uninitiated.

Those appeals remained evident when revisiting the first two games of the series, though it was clear, based on my memories, that they were still building on a foundation overflowing with potential. The first game suffered immensely from incomplete mechanics and a half-designed world which became tedious and repetitive to navigate. The second game addressed almost all the issues of the first, and expanded with new ideas that complimented the established mechanics of the games, but dropped off towards the end with needlessly convoluted navigation and a narrative conclusion that fell flat. With the third entry, it truly feels like the culmination of everything that came before. All the strides and improvement of gameplay made from 1 to 2 have been retained here, with additional refinements and new inventions to go along with them. The most noteworthy new system is the Navi Customizer, which builds upon previous games’ abilities to upgrade Meagman’s capabilities in yet another personalized approach. Where previous games merely allowed for linear power increases through upgrades found across the net, the Navi Customizer creates a system that incentivizes variety and change. The grid-based, block-oriented system of placing power ups mirrors the intricate grid-based combat system of the game, making for a more interesting as well as differentiated approach to progression and challenge throughout the game after it’s introduced. There are several points throughout the game which require certain programs be used within the Navi Customizer, requiring you to be flexible and creative with your builds.

While narrative has never been the most compelling component of the series, Battle Network 3 manages to conjure up a story that feels emotionally engaging in terms of both stakes and characters. The pacing of the story feels especially attuned to this sense of progression, starting out with familiar, locally contained scenarios before branching out into a more wide-reaching and dramatic turn. Smartly, this ratcheting of the stakes comes with a nominal increase in the difficulty of the game too, amplifying the player’s sense that the threat is not only dire for Lan and Megaman, but for them playing as the two as well. The Hospital Scenario is perhaps the best example of how the game ties difficulty and emotional stakes before straying from the traditional contained dungeon formula for subsequent sections of the game. You spend the pre-dungeon portion of the scenario befriending a young boy who is suddenly in need of intensive surgery right as the scenario’s villain strikes the hospital to acquire its specific MacGuffin. It’s a simple emotional hook, but nonetheless an effective one the writers employ with consistent success throughout the game, asking you to invest in these characters so that the stakes might resonate beyond the boilerplate save-the-world scenario these games ultimately boil down to.

Because of this, the scenarios and boss fights of Battle Network 3 are the most distinct and memorable of the series so far. When you walk away from the game you don’t just remember the design of the evil navis, or the moves they employed in combat. The scenario itself becomes an impressionable aspect of their personality, often requiring some additional overworld interaction with their calamity in order to defeat them. That isn’t to undersell the actual designs of the navis or their fights either. Judged on their own objective merits, they still come out on the top of the heap. The embrace of less humanoid navis like Desertman and Flameman creates a space for more creativity to prosper, and a wider range of what defines the bounds of a navi to begin with. The fights are memorable too, of course, with the second encounter notably continuing the trend of the previous game ratcheting up the difficulty perhaps more than the player was expecting this early in the game. Unsurprisingly, the greatest hurdle of the game comes at the end, with the final showdown against a fully powered Bass and original incarnation of the internet, Alpha. For this first time in the series, we have a final fight which can only be accurately described as brutal. The combined barrier of Bass’ signature aura shield and Alpha’s regenerating core demand the best of your deck-building skills to create a folder capable of taking both on back to back while their actual attacks constantly keep you on your feet dodging and looking for an opening to sneak large chunks of their massive health bars away. It is far and away the most difficult fights of the series so far, and despite the insane spike in difficulty, it feels neither unwarranted nor insurmountable in its challenge.

Battle Network 3 has a couple of infamous roadblocks which can halt your progression entirely, but upon revisiting the game I was happy to discover the answers to all the problems were indeed there, if a bit obtuse to uncover. It’s not really like in 2 where there were puzzles built around invisible items you needed to uncover, or annoying fetch quests which sent you back and forth across the same stretches of the internet with irritating obstacles blocking your pathways. Any similar puzzles to those in Battle Network 3 are mitigated by a smoothening of their presentation: the only notable invisible item interaction is in a directly defined location, and the comparable scenario to the Freezeman backtracking quest in 2 clearly lays out your objective from the start and allows you to clear it in whole sections at a time, eliminating any actual “backtracking” that would make it annoying to begin with. The real stopgaps of 3 are the well-known “Iceball M” quest and the ambiguous “One of Many Birds” mystery. The former has its answer very clearly stated to you in several locations, despite having no means of encountering it prior to being assigned this task. Having struggled to find this exclusive chip as a kid, I never forgot the obtuse solution all these years on, but I was very glad to discover that had I simply thought to utilize the game’s in-world hint system more liberally, I could’ve found the solution easy enough. The latter is perhaps a bit more inscrutable. It’s totally possible to never notice the solution to this puzzle during your playthrough before being presented with the task to go and find it, and even though there are NPCs who will talk with you about this hint throughout the world, I didn’t personally encounter one who explicitly laid out the solution like the chat rooms did for the Iceball M chip. Still, it was something I figured out as a kid, and something I still noticed playing today, and it’s not so unachievable that some frantic interacting with every possible object wouldn’t net you the solution more or less soon enough.

There is no greater joy than the feeling of revisiting something from your childhood and discovering it was more than just nostalgia holding your fondness for something aloft in your mind. Pillars of quality and design bear the weight of a game like Battle Network 3; a game which, perhaps more than any other, is responsible for my ardent investment in the medium today. Even after watching the credits roll, there’s still so much left to do. The substantial postgame alone offers another small adventure to dive into, this time considerably more difficult than the challenges which have come before. Several new navis to find, and an expansion of the Undernet quest first began as part of the main game. I even managed to get decently far in it as a kid, before hitting a roadblock due to my lack of understanding of Program Advances. But I think now I could tackle it, as well as all the other tasks and personal challenges the game leaves you with. S-Ranking all the navi fights, similar to that of fighting the Robot Masters in the original Mega Man games; grinding Bug Frags and searching for all the friendly viruses hiding across the net; finishing all the job requests and hunting down every rare chip in the game. A lot of this extra content is ultimately kind of tedious, but it’s a testament to the overall quality of the game and the world it creates that I find myself actively wanting to pursue these rather menial missions. Battle Network 3 offers an eminently playable and replayable experience through all its unique characteristics that even the efforts of its previous entries can’t seem to compare. It is perhaps not as innovative in its accomplishments as the previous games, with 1 laying the groundwork and conceptual inspiration for the series, while 2 instituted a number of new and interesting mechanics which became essential elements of the gameplay going forward. But what 3 accomplishes, in addition to the wonderful new features it does add, is the ultimate refinement of what the first two entries aim to achieve in their outset. It builds on the promises of its progenitors and realizes their ambitions and more, providing that perfect balance of multi-faceted gameplay and immersive world-building which makes video games such an engaging medium to begin with.