The Rise of Mega Man Battle Network (Part 1) 

Jack in, Mega Man! Execute!

Megaman battle network needs a collection so more people can play the games.

these games seriously need a legacy collection treatment especially along with star force edit: THEY'VE ANNOUNCED BN LEGACY COLLECTION, WE WON

Yooo this is the video we DESPERATELY needed since no one ever talks about this game, thank you

One thing you missed, Battle Network 3s post game still isn't over at those time attacks. If you complete "all" the post game activities, you'll get 5 stars on your save file, but by entering a secret code those five stars move and make room for 2 more stars unlocking the Omega Navis, the absolute hardest variations of every boss. Even after beating all the Omega navis and getting all 7 stars, you STILL have an extra secret boss against Alpha Omega. Battle Network 3 doesn't fuck around with its additional content, the post game is as long as the story!

No joke Battle Network has the best GBA music. The songs in the whole series, even in its weaker titles were LEGENDARY.

Any MMBN love is welcomed.

"Battle is my Forté" I see what you did there, Fishman.exe

The divide between playing as Lan and Megaman was a genius way to encourage exploration. I mean, forget finding a Pikachu inside of a teapot, you've found yourself a whole patch of tall grass, or possibly even a whole dungeon!

Battle Network is nothing but a gem. Just give me a MMBN collection already, Capcom.

Since it isn't mentioned in the video, funfact: Gospel is the Battle Network version of Treble from the classic series, as Gospel is his japanese name. Going from Bass's robot dog partner to final boss, talk about an upgrade

One of my favorite moments in the entire series is when Lan yells "Nowwww Megaman Attack!!" and chucks his PET at the dude. Makes me chuckle every time

"there's a sense of discovery every time there's a new thing for lan to jack-in to" these are the words that describe why I love Battle Network so much

Just on a side note, Lan's father doesn't recreated MegaMan.EXE What happened was that the Letter from Lan's Grandfather that he gives to his Father, talked about an accessible part on Alpha, and there Lan's Father managed to find and rescue MegaMan.EXE

It would be phenomenal if they put a battle network collection on the switch

Network Transmission is one of those weird games that gets progressively easier the farther you get

I remember using headphones while playing these games and by unplugging them half way it takes away a layer of sound from the music. Probably one of my first instances of appreciating the different pieces that make up a song

Oh uh, just so anyone who doesn't know knows, Hikari Means Light, they translated it for the c and classic series but not the battle network ones So Lan Hikari if they translated it would've been Lan Light, his dad was Mr Light and the grandpa was Doctor Light

I almost never hear anyone say anything positive about Battle Network 2, because most seem to believe that the series really picked up at BN3. But I'm glad someone else sees Sean's story for what it was. Even in a society where _everything_ from your toaster oven to your traffic lights are online, kids are still being preyed upon over the internet by evil people. Sean might have been a computer genius smart enough to set up an online terrorist syndicate, but he was still broken enough to listen to strangers online who gave him solace when he was vulnerable from losing his parents and abuse from his relatives.

Oh wow. I was literally in the biggest Megaman Battle Network mood and then this video shows up. I've always felt this series consisted of some the strongest GBA games on the market, especially since the gameplay is still pretty insane to mess around with.

I have small speculation about the inspiration of alpha. I feel like it's based on the Morris Worm which was an internet virus that self replicated as well as exploiting several vulnerabilities in its coding. There was even a point in which it basically froze the internet for a while due to people having to fix their networks. Really shows the detail on some inspiration for the bosses.

I thought I knew everything but I never made the connection between Mamoru and Serenade’s Navi emblem! I didn’t see it on his wheelchair! That’s awesome dude

Bass.exe: Battling is my forte! Ayyyy! He said the thing!

The art is just amazing. Usually this stuff has to look good on a tiny 3" wide screen only, but blown up on a computer screen, this shit still looks so good.

That cutscene when Hub and Lan are stuck in alpha always makes me emotional because whenever I first played through the game in 2nd grade, one of my best friends brother (who I always hung out with) suddenly died from meningitis in a matter of less than 48 hours. The scene always reminds me of that, making them emotionally entwined with eachother in my mind. Shit is deep. Great game, great video.

Yes! Finally someone remember megaman battle network series and hope for bn collection

I actually love grinding in this game, its probably more rewarding than any other game. The better you do the better rewards you get. Figuring out how to exploit certain enemies and end battles asap to earn their chip is so satisfying.

BASED, can't wait for you to do starfoce

Ive already watched ur battlenetwork series, but im going to rewatch it again as i play along with the new collection

Dear god. You're going to try and 100% 4? Good luck, the postgame is literally just 3 new game pluses.

I fucking miss it...

This entire timeline is my favorite part of the Mega Man series the memories of both Battle Network and Star Force are some of the happiest of my childhood.

This series was something I always wanted to get into, but other priorities got in the way. I remember being in Jr. High and there was an old friend who would play on his GBA during lunch break and seminars. The battle system takes a lot of strategy which I can appreciate, and a world full of IoT devices, this series was ahead of its' time.

Lets be real here. Wood Shadow Style snaps the difficulty in 2. I am not even joking. Just for starters. combining the invisible aspects of the style with wood stage alone guarantees free heals and grace periods for breathing room.

This channel is just so charming, I have to come back!

My lord, so many people remember Battlenetwork. My heart can't take it.

i’m so glad someone made a vid like this! i’ve been raving about this series like a mad man for almost 20 years!

When you start playing MMBN5, I recommend the Double Team DS version. It adds a lot of good stuff to the game and it even remixes the music from the GBA version! Also if you put the MMBN 1-4.5 GBA carts into DS it will play the remixed battle version of that GBA game.

The game series many seem to have forgotten.

Congratulations, this video singlehandedly got me interested in the Battle Network series.

Wow I'm a bit surprised to see people still talking about battle network in this day and age. Honestly makes me want to play it myself

I’m more of a platformer megaman fan but because of this vid I want to try this game out

Glad this underrated series is getting some recognition

I'll love Battle Network forever for the excellent plot twist of "Lan, your brother is dead, so I made him into an iPhone app."

It's very fascinating how at least 2 of the incidents in the first game had already happened in real life, it makes this reality much more akin to our own.

Is this where I put One Step From Eden propaganda?

........thank you. I feel like barely anyone gives this series a chance. Both this and Star Force needs more love they are amazing games in their own right. Also Capcom where's that Legacy Collection at? Currently the only way to play these games (officially) is to hunt down and buying the original cartridges( which are expensive AF) or purchasing them on the Wii U eShop a dead console with a very tiny user base. Out of all the different Mega Man spin offs this Star Force needs a collection the most.

Saying hi on behalf of TeamBN, the series speedrunning community.

Awesome, The Mega Man Battle Network series will alwaya have a special place in my brother and I's hearts.

I remember this series… I read the manga when I was younger

I'm so happy you're shining a spotlight on this series. Here's to a Battle Network collection for Switch sometime this year maybe

That Final Transmission music track hits me in the feels every time.

These games are literally my brother and I childhood. The amount of times we have replayed 3 or the excessive hours put into it were insane. Awesome to see some appreciation of the series since capcom seems to forget about it

I'm here watching after the announcement of the collection on the Nintendo switch

The way you described your playthroughs in detail, along with explaining the plot alongside; this was actually the perfect video that I was looking for. Thank you so much!

This video gave me great memories and I can't wait for the next one. Loved the way you commentated the games, especially when you developed Mamoru's storyline. Really wish we could meet him again in future titles but sadly that was not the case. Incredible video! We better get a Collection this year!

I need them to put these games onto the switch asap, instead of leaving the ports on WiiU alone! These games are my absolute favorites, 5 is my top, but 3 White was probably the most challenging for me at the time of playing. So much good stuff inside! Great work on your analysis, you're doing this series right! I do have to note, 4 is going to take you a little bit, full of content.

Megaman Battle Network deserves a legacy collection same for Starforce! Bring back the series Capcom, fans like us enjoy this game and the anime too! Such a underrated series

Appreciate you taking the time to touch on my favorite series! Much love bro! 🔥

Yo I love this series!! I remember way back in the day when we downloaded the first game off some rom site. At first I wasn't too into it, seemed kinda lame. It was like a card game and I was too dumb to understand it. But overtime my bro would help me out and show me how to properly build up my folder. It wasn't until BN2 that I really got into it. Seeing all the variations in those style changes was just so fun to experiment with! It got even better in 3 once you got that Navi Customizer and you could bug out Megaman. I think 3 also had like an extended endgame with collecting all those extra chips. Again I was kinda dumb and just liked shooting things, so I was never too into collecting those chips. When 4 dropped I lost my fu***n mind!! Instead of style changes, you had this cool Soul Unison system. It basically let you play as the boss navis you fight, you get their special abilities but your still megaman. Essentially it was like getting a new armor. The game was a grind though and you had to beat the story like 3 times over to get all the armors - not to mention there were a total of 12 armors split between the 2 versions. Fire Soul, Guts Soul and Search Soul were my absolute favourites. And don't even get me started on the Chaos mechanic. IIRC it was like a berserk mode for megaman if you pushed him too far or if you activated it. By the time 5 came out, they just doubled down on those Souls! You'd still get 6 per game, but now you could use the "Dark" and "Light" versions of them. I think there was a trick to it, like the dark version would be a lot stronger, but if you messed up the timing on your charge shot, he would break out of it. It was so cool to see all the different armors you could collect. Knight soul, Shadow Soul and Colonel Soul were my favourites. The armor designs were sick and they were actually pretty useful in battle too. The series came to an end when 6 dropped but damn did they go all out. The soul system got a little upgrade to it but the biggest change were the BEAST forms!! Like I said during this whole rant, I was always too dumb to figure out proper deck building with the chips. So imagine my delight when I learned that there was a version for players like me! Pure brute force, no deck building just raw power!! This was probably my favourite game in the series. going into Beast mode and just using that sick chain gun, absorbing all those hits and not even flinching, was exactly what I loved about this game. You really felt like a monster in this game. And when you combine it with the Soul system, you get these cool elemental beast armors to play with. My bro went the other route though, he was all about the PA system and deck building. He would clear the screen within a few seconds because he knew exactly how to utilize the chip system. I'm more of a man of action, got no time to plan! I think this is why I like this series so much. The story was a cool spin off from the OG series, the world was so "futuristic", exploring areas to find new spots to jack into, the armors to play around with and even the in depth chip system was fun to mess around with. The story was kinda weird, but the game more than made up for it with the aforementioned stuff I just said. And the MUSIC!! Yo the music was probably the best thing about this game. Learning that the GBA had a weak sound chip makes this so much better. They just said F**k it, we'll make it all chiptune. I have some pretty damn good memories of this game (as you can tell) and your video really helped me remember them. The pacing was really well done, the edits and little onscreen animations made for great material to get an idea of what you were talking about. I don't know who you are, and I just had this randomly recommended to me, but keep up the good work! 💎

this tied with legends is my favorite series 😁

Just like that you have a new sub. Battle Network is so under appreciated.

OH MY GOSH, YOUR COVERING ONE OF MY FAVORITE MEGA MAN SERIES EVER THANK YOU!!!! Honestly Mega Man Battle Network 3 Blue is what got me into Mega Man as a whole, this series is so fucking amazing, even at its lowest points like Battle Network 4 the games are great amazing gems!!

THANK YOU for talking about this game seems like no one I ever know irl remembers these games

I started to like this series more that i now know how BN music style works which is what made me capable of making BN style music. It's OST is also what got me into the game. I don't know what to else say. I never expected anyone to talk about this game at this time. I'm just so glad!

Been playing this again lately, so imagine by surprise when I hop on RU-vid after work and see a video from one of my favorite content creators talking about it. Such an underrated series that I will always be a fan of. And "Proof of a Hero" remains to be a hell of a banger to listen to. Might use this video to help get my friends into it. Keep it up mate!

first the missing Singapore-English dub is found, then I see this? It seems like battle network is having a resurgence of popularity recently and i'm all for it!

Now *this* series is what got me into Megaman. I love the Net Navi timeline of Megaman. The internet focused world is really cool and I’d love to have had a Net Navi. Not only that, but the way the battles are is also really good. I’d love to play these games again in a collection.

I've been watching a series of analyses on this series on another series and it makes me happy that people are still talking about this game.

Im more of a Megaman star force guy, but i love battle network too

These games were way ahead of their times in some aspects. Not only were the systems, plot and music engaging and well designed, it's cool that we are kind of living in that technological time now, with smart houses becoming a thing! These games shaped the better part of my teenage years and I look back at them fondly. No game ever touched me the way MMBN did. I'm so happy to see someone do it justice with a one hour video. I thoroughly enjoyed watching this, man. Thank you for the trip down memory lane :)

13:00 Defeating Bass is the only way to obtain the LifeAura, but yes, you are correct that Bass Chip is only Obtainable through a special event in the Japanese Version.

It's great seeing all the love my favorite game franchise is getting as of late, hopefully they'll announce the collection soon

49:18 This was basically confirmed by scenario writer Masakazu Eguchi (who Mr. Famous (Meijin Eguchi) is basically a self-insert of) though he didn't outright say it: The Rockman exe Zone: "We received a lot of questions from readers regarding Serenade. In the end, who was Serenade’s operator?" Eguchi: "I’ll leave that to everyone’s imagination… Let that be my answer please. However, *_I think that the person everyone is thinking of is probably correct."_* (on a side note, it's also interesting that aside from Punk, all of Mr. Famous' navis are fanmade contest winners, similar to most of the robot masters in Mega Man 2 through Mega Man 8, Kung Foo Kid and Moon Destroyer in Star Force 2 and 3 and Arcade Man as a boss and Tabletman, Zehr, and Daruman as battle memories in ×over)

BN was seriously ahead of its time. 2004 and they basically predicated the ubiquity of smartphones and networked devices... having a computer in your car, one in your house, and several in your workplace. Obviously our version is a bit less fun and kid-friendly.

You don't know how thankful I am for this video man, I love this this series with a passion, is one of my favorite game series. I can also gush about the ost until the cows come home tbh, like BN3 alone is awesome with some of my favorites of the top of my head being "wiping tears," "tree of life" which is really up there for me, and the battle theme of the N1 grand prix and most hype track in the game "great battlers." and all 6 games have also have fantastic osts as well.

great video dude! i enjoyed it thoroughly. such an underappreciated gem of a series. 2000's nostalgia at its finest

This game is so anime and I love it I heard comments are good for the RU-vid algorithm, so here’s another one

FINALLY an in depth analysis of this criminally underrated series. Megaman Battle Network since childhood has been one of my all time favorite video game series. Thank you for this!

I legit was so happy to find the battle network series I had all the games up to starforce or whatever and I had the PET with a shit ton of chips

I've always preferred StarForce but a great series, glad to see it discussed.

Yooo, a vid on MMBN? Nice! My friend is a big fan of Battle Network 3, I'll have to let them know you did a video talking about it (and the others in this one too, haha) Edit: I have a feeling they'll be happy to hear you describe Mamoru's scenario as the best in the series so far! For reasons I'm not gonna go into here to protect their privacy (let's just say they find him relatable), Mamoru is a favorite character of theirs, so it's nice to see him and his story getting the recognition he deserves! Also, fun fact, Serenade was pretty much confirmed by the scenario writer Masakazu Eguchi to be operated by Mamoru (His exact words when asked about Serenade's operator being "I’ll leave that to everyone’s imagination… Let that be my answer please. However, I think that the person everyone is thinking of is probably correct.", as translated by therockmanexezone). Another fun fact, Serenade is described as being genderless by Capcom, though they're described as female in Japan and use he/him pronouns in English releases. With aforementioned friend being nb, that's pretty rad :0

Thanks a lot for the recap. I forgot where I left off when I played them years ago. Turned out that I've already played 1-3.. now I am going to start on BN 4.. It's a really great series.

Been a fan of this series since 12 years old. I still think this series is amazing!

Megaman: *Is being held above water by capcom* Megaman Battle Network: *is drowning as capcom pays it no mind* Megaman Star Force: *rests at the bottom of the sea completely ignored by everyone*

Star Force 🤝🏻 Battle Network 3 being the best game

Im back on an obsession with battle network 3. It was my brother and I's game we played on and off for our entire time together. He passed and now I find myself back here. I never completed the time trials without cheating. New goal. This is for you Dyl

Finally someone’s covering the Battle Network series! Great stuff! Honestly, I wouldn’t mind hearing you talk about MegaMan Battle Network music. The OST for each game is phenomenal (except maybe 4...). The first 3 games feel so great to play back to back. The leap in quality between 1 and 2 was one of the most impactful positive changes to a sequel. And 3 just refines 2’s formula to make it even better. This series is great. Glad my friends got me into it 4 years ago. Can’t wait to see your thoughts on the last 3 of the series!

55:41 Yeeeaaa that was a dumb localization change (see also the anime-exclusive names: WindBlastMan (WindMan) and JunkDataMan (JunkMan)), that's actually YamatoMan.

was there an anime of this i vaguely remember something like it on 4kids

Glad that you're covering this series. It deserves a lot more recognition. Great timing too, with it's anniversary coming up.

Real glad about u covering this, been looking forward to u uploading this since u said u will on twitter. U did a real good job covering the games.

At some point i forgot this was a Mega Man spin-off and just accepted it as it's own thing

Dude, I'm a Battle Network fan, and even I never knew about that Wonderswan game. Gotta say though, the look it went for is kinda like Mega Man Zero, and now I want a spinoff BN game like that.

The bit of "Mega man attack!" at 43:34 was just the funniest thing to me! I fondly remember that as one of those times where I was laughing so hard, I had trouble breathing!

Outstanding video! Grew up with the anime adaptation, so watching this brought back so many wonderfull memories. Thank you so much 😄 Can't wait for part 2!

I loved this franchise when I was just a kid... and now I feel old. But I wish they would make it a collection and port it over to the Switch.

You miss out on a lot of story with Colnel if you do team protoman. I'd reccomend using Colnel as your baseline for 5, or doing the dual version (If possible, also grab the Django hidden sidequest now that it's been translated)

This game was literally the bulk of my childhood. Even dabbled in fanfictions for this for a good five years, immersed myself in unofficial patches and midi files that had become my alarm, ring tone and message tones for much of my high school to early college days. Ahh the nostalgia. To this day, I still have the EXE prefix in my usernames as an homage to how much this series stroked the inner nerd in me :)

I love this game series soo much!! I'm so happy you actually did these videos :D