I was waiting until I had beaten at least one game of each entry before giving my full thoughts, and the game specific critiques. The collection itself I think is very well done. The games themselves are just the gameboy games with the bonus content now accessible or returned such as the Boktai crossovers and Patch/item cards which give you a bunch of things like navi programs, items and chips. This also includes their faults just as their encounter rates, glitches and translation errors. Outside of the games got the jukebox, an art gallery full of nice art (I'm bias cuz I adore the BN artsytle) and a 3D Megaman talking to you on the screen. I liked when he congratulted me for beating games. Oh theres multiplayer too I guess but I never intended to touch that. Buster max mode is the "qol" addition this game has. No save states or god mode, just makes the buster do 100x more damage and yes it does stack with the buster upgrades to at buster level 5 you're doing 500 damage a shot. While it doesn remove most challenge it is not a be all end all. Any enemy thats resistant or immune to it will still not take damage so don't neglect your chips. Buster Max will make chip grinding a lot easier as well since you'll end battles in 1 to 2 seconds but you're gonna have a hard time getting S ranks since those tend to require mutli deletions. Don't be adverse to using it and make sure ot save often, there is no autosave and you can get jumped by a boss' ghost if you're not careful. I'm battle networked out right now so I don't intend to return for Tema Protoman or Falzar anytime soon, but they aren't out of the question. 4 can fuck off, that game sucks and I hate its existence. I think Battle Network might be my favorite iteration of the Megaman series now.
Battle network 1:
Very basic but it is the start of the series and layed a fine foundation for whats to come. The general chip selection was pretty basic as was its story, auto healing after each battle was wild and didn't return in the sequel and not being able to run without a chip was tedious.
Battle Network 2:
An improvement from 1 in every single way. Better chips, better story, better internet layout. It also introduced the style system which is fantastic. Megaman will gain a new style depending on how you play which gives him new abilites like hyper armor, a shield, more selectable chips etc and unlike in the sequel BN3 he can hold 2 styles at a time. The element you get is random though an that would carry over to BN3. That Freezeman section fucking sucks though and really hurts the game. So much running around between several points, sometimes right next to each other in the overworld causing constant jack ins and outs to avoif the high encounter rate, and needing to get a 10 or S rank in a specific random encounter for the reward to progress. Those internet run around sections are often considered the worst parts of each game.
Battle Network 3:
Versions played, Blue and White: The only one of the series I had played for a significant time prior to this collection, though as a kid my carts battery died in the final dungeon so I never beat it until many years later. Another improvement over the predessecor and introduced Navicust which are programs you can install into megaman in a tetris looking box to give him abilites like more hp, more buster damage etc. This pairs well with the style change system, which as I said above now you can only hold 1 style at a time. Now as you level up the style you gain navicust programs which you can then install and use when you're in your normal or different style (provided the color is compatable). The internet was also more refined, the areas look a lot more different from each other and the "main paths" to the squares are made a lot more notciable. the introduction of the in internet metro also speed up traversal. This game also has a couple of "get me some chips to progress" moments but unlike in 2 you only need a mid grade which is most likely the one you get without even trying. Plus for a specific chip later you can get a navicust program to force that virus type to spawn a lot more frequently. Even its Freezeman like sequence of running around the whole internet is nowhere near as bad as in 2 due to the inclusion of the aforementioned internet metro. Honestly if the series ended here, it would have been a great ending. Virus breeding was also introduced though there was no breeding whatsoever, just feed them to make the summon chip stronger and get the "boss virus" in the postgame and it didn't seem to come back unfortunatly.
Battle Network 4:
Version played, Red Sun: You go from 3 to this? How is that even possible? You have to make deliberite choices to get these results. The story is non existant, worse sprites as a whole and megaman got squished with an inflated head in the overworld, the game is now 3 tournaments of random opponents with random shit you have to do before running back and fighting your enemy navi where half the time they are either a generic good navi or a heel navi. There were 3 actual dungeons in the game you'll experience in a single playthrough, the rest of the time you're doing "the ever so loved /s" run around the internet missions in place of it for majority of the game. The internet design is also worse, really leaned into the isometric angle and hid critical plot items under them that you'd not know if you so much as walked on the correct side. Hidden items in the earlier games were extra things like HP memories. The soul system is a mix of navi chips (summon other characters for a single action) and style (changes megaman's look, elemental properites and charged buster attack) and is the worst of both with limited turns, non permenant gameplay changes to megaman, it required specific chips to enter into and not was as strong as a standard navi chip. You also need to play the game 3 times to get all the souls to reach the post game area, and due to that since it also increases the difficulty, your chips from your first time through are horribly weak due to the general virus level since you're not gonna be running into the V2 and V3 viruses until new game plsu. This game also introduced dark chips which are really strong chips that show up as a comeback mechanic but come with a cost, a permenant reduciton of your max hp by 1. Yes permeneant, you cannot get it back and the game makes sure this is known. All this did was make me not interact with it at all. Do you know how expensive hp memories are? And that they're limited unless I wanna use the patch cards? I think its too steep of a punishment. At the very least the ost was good, especially the internet theme. This set my expectations low for the following games
Battle Network 5:
Version played, Team Colonel: A complete improvement on and utter trouncing of that trash that was battle network 4. Its night and goddamn day. This game had more plot in the first 30 minutes than 4 did in its entirety. Artstyle is the same but the chips were still a bit wack. The internet is SO MUCH BETTER than in 4 as well. No longer is it that MC Esher stuff 4 attempted, its closer to the older games (2 and 3) where they are distinct but simple. Still backtracking a good bit, a lot more in the overworld than in the net it seemed. There were also plenty of actual dungeons this time around although most didn't end in a boss navi fight, seems the liberation missions took that spot. The liberation missions were interesting at first, thank god theres only like 6 of them though cuz once traps were added it was no longer fun. Really felt like every single space was rigged to either blow you up or paralyze you (the worst option). I still don't like the soul system over styles but at least there was also a way to fuse with the dark chips so you could actually use them without worrying about your alignment or hp. In that Chaos unison mode its now a skill check, release the charged buster at the right time and get the full dark chip attack but release it wrong and not only do you get taken out of the transformation but your dark soul appears on the other side and tries to fuck you up until you either beat the battle or outlast his timer. The series has returned to from with this entry and I have high expectations for 6 since I hear its the second best behind 3.
Battle Network 6:
Version played, Cybeat Gregar: I see why this one is generally considered the second best behind 3. In general I thought it as a very solid entry. The overworld maps were a good size, the internet areas were easily distinguishable with some shortcut points added outside of the usual warps. The fact they decided on this final entry to make such a big change to setting was smart in my opinion, not that I had grown tired of ACDC town these past few weeks or anything. The Cross system is also much better than the double soul one from the past games as well. No more chip sacrifice, instead you do a task controlling a different navi, then fight them and unlock that form. Its permeneant except getting hit by the weakness. Dark chips also were gone and repalced with the beast soul which is where the turn limit comes back in, by default Mega has 3 turns in it and its VERY powerful. Still not as good as styles but its a close second. Something I didn't like however was how some paths were locked behind those other navis I talked to eariler so in order to open them you gotta go to their specific computer and then run all the way through the internet from that access point to the shortcut you wanna open. Felt kinda needlessly lengthy sometimes, megaman should have been able to do it himself once he unlocked the form imo. And the several times where I had to do those navi treks through the internet just felt like padding. I don't know how different Falzar is but I can't imagine going into this one if you didn't play Team Colonel.
TLDR
The collection is solid, I think you get a good value here. The game's rankings are 3>6>5>2>1>4 and I'm not up for debate. If you want a good collection of mostly solid, shorter, card battler jrpgs then I don't think you can go wrong with this collection.
Battle network 1:
Very basic but it is the start of the series and layed a fine foundation for whats to come. The general chip selection was pretty basic as was its story, auto healing after each battle was wild and didn't return in the sequel and not being able to run without a chip was tedious.
Battle Network 2:
An improvement from 1 in every single way. Better chips, better story, better internet layout. It also introduced the style system which is fantastic. Megaman will gain a new style depending on how you play which gives him new abilites like hyper armor, a shield, more selectable chips etc and unlike in the sequel BN3 he can hold 2 styles at a time. The element you get is random though an that would carry over to BN3. That Freezeman section fucking sucks though and really hurts the game. So much running around between several points, sometimes right next to each other in the overworld causing constant jack ins and outs to avoif the high encounter rate, and needing to get a 10 or S rank in a specific random encounter for the reward to progress. Those internet run around sections are often considered the worst parts of each game.
Battle Network 3:
Versions played, Blue and White: The only one of the series I had played for a significant time prior to this collection, though as a kid my carts battery died in the final dungeon so I never beat it until many years later. Another improvement over the predessecor and introduced Navicust which are programs you can install into megaman in a tetris looking box to give him abilites like more hp, more buster damage etc. This pairs well with the style change system, which as I said above now you can only hold 1 style at a time. Now as you level up the style you gain navicust programs which you can then install and use when you're in your normal or different style (provided the color is compatable). The internet was also more refined, the areas look a lot more different from each other and the "main paths" to the squares are made a lot more notciable. the introduction of the in internet metro also speed up traversal. This game also has a couple of "get me some chips to progress" moments but unlike in 2 you only need a mid grade which is most likely the one you get without even trying. Plus for a specific chip later you can get a navicust program to force that virus type to spawn a lot more frequently. Even its Freezeman like sequence of running around the whole internet is nowhere near as bad as in 2 due to the inclusion of the aforementioned internet metro. Honestly if the series ended here, it would have been a great ending. Virus breeding was also introduced though there was no breeding whatsoever, just feed them to make the summon chip stronger and get the "boss virus" in the postgame and it didn't seem to come back unfortunatly.
Battle Network 4:
Version played, Red Sun: You go from 3 to this? How is that even possible? You have to make deliberite choices to get these results. The story is non existant, worse sprites as a whole and megaman got squished with an inflated head in the overworld, the game is now 3 tournaments of random opponents with random shit you have to do before running back and fighting your enemy navi where half the time they are either a generic good navi or a heel navi. There were 3 actual dungeons in the game you'll experience in a single playthrough, the rest of the time you're doing "the ever so loved /s" run around the internet missions in place of it for majority of the game. The internet design is also worse, really leaned into the isometric angle and hid critical plot items under them that you'd not know if you so much as walked on the correct side. Hidden items in the earlier games were extra things like HP memories. The soul system is a mix of navi chips (summon other characters for a single action) and style (changes megaman's look, elemental properites and charged buster attack) and is the worst of both with limited turns, non permenant gameplay changes to megaman, it required specific chips to enter into and not was as strong as a standard navi chip. You also need to play the game 3 times to get all the souls to reach the post game area, and due to that since it also increases the difficulty, your chips from your first time through are horribly weak due to the general virus level since you're not gonna be running into the V2 and V3 viruses until new game plsu. This game also introduced dark chips which are really strong chips that show up as a comeback mechanic but come with a cost, a permenant reduciton of your max hp by 1. Yes permeneant, you cannot get it back and the game makes sure this is known. All this did was make me not interact with it at all. Do you know how expensive hp memories are? And that they're limited unless I wanna use the patch cards? I think its too steep of a punishment. At the very least the ost was good, especially the internet theme. This set my expectations low for the following games
Battle Network 5:
Version played, Team Colonel: A complete improvement on and utter trouncing of that trash that was battle network 4. Its night and goddamn day. This game had more plot in the first 30 minutes than 4 did in its entirety. Artstyle is the same but the chips were still a bit wack. The internet is SO MUCH BETTER than in 4 as well. No longer is it that MC Esher stuff 4 attempted, its closer to the older games (2 and 3) where they are distinct but simple. Still backtracking a good bit, a lot more in the overworld than in the net it seemed. There were also plenty of actual dungeons this time around although most didn't end in a boss navi fight, seems the liberation missions took that spot. The liberation missions were interesting at first, thank god theres only like 6 of them though cuz once traps were added it was no longer fun. Really felt like every single space was rigged to either blow you up or paralyze you (the worst option). I still don't like the soul system over styles but at least there was also a way to fuse with the dark chips so you could actually use them without worrying about your alignment or hp. In that Chaos unison mode its now a skill check, release the charged buster at the right time and get the full dark chip attack but release it wrong and not only do you get taken out of the transformation but your dark soul appears on the other side and tries to fuck you up until you either beat the battle or outlast his timer. The series has returned to from with this entry and I have high expectations for 6 since I hear its the second best behind 3.
Battle Network 6:
Version played, Cybeat Gregar: I see why this one is generally considered the second best behind 3. In general I thought it as a very solid entry. The overworld maps were a good size, the internet areas were easily distinguishable with some shortcut points added outside of the usual warps. The fact they decided on this final entry to make such a big change to setting was smart in my opinion, not that I had grown tired of ACDC town these past few weeks or anything. The Cross system is also much better than the double soul one from the past games as well. No more chip sacrifice, instead you do a task controlling a different navi, then fight them and unlock that form. Its permeneant except getting hit by the weakness. Dark chips also were gone and repalced with the beast soul which is where the turn limit comes back in, by default Mega has 3 turns in it and its VERY powerful. Still not as good as styles but its a close second. Something I didn't like however was how some paths were locked behind those other navis I talked to eariler so in order to open them you gotta go to their specific computer and then run all the way through the internet from that access point to the shortcut you wanna open. Felt kinda needlessly lengthy sometimes, megaman should have been able to do it himself once he unlocked the form imo. And the several times where I had to do those navi treks through the internet just felt like padding. I don't know how different Falzar is but I can't imagine going into this one if you didn't play Team Colonel.
TLDR
The collection is solid, I think you get a good value here. The game's rankings are 3>6>5>2>1>4 and I'm not up for debate. If you want a good collection of mostly solid, shorter, card battler jrpgs then I don't think you can go wrong with this collection.