Forgotten Reviews: Mega Man Battle Network 5: Team Colonel/Team Protoman/DTDS

[The Forgotten Alex]

OKAY, YOU SERIOUSLY KNOW THIS ALREADY, YADDA YADDA SPOILERS AND DUMB SHIT

MEGA MAN BATTLE NETWORK 5, THIS IS SERIOUSLY MY FAVORITE IN THE ENTIRE GODDAMN SERIES!!!

I CANT EXXAGERATE HOW MANY SPOILERS I WILL HAVE IN THIS COMPARED TO EVERY OTHER GAME I REVIEW, SO LETS JUMP IN, SHALL WE!?

~THE STORY~

It was about a month after BN4, Lan and Megaman took down Nebula and stopped Duo from destroying the planet with an asteroid. It was a normal day when they woke up, when all of a sudden Dr. Hikari calls to tell them to come to SciLab for something to share.

Lan goes and gathers up Mayl, Dex, and Yai, and heads to Dr. Hikari's lab to see what he was about to present, but all of a sudden, a group of evil navis manage to take over the net! Even the lab's own computers are hacked, and all systems shut down!

In the middle of this, a tiny bomb rolls into Dr. Hikari's lab, releasing sleeping gas to Lan, his dad, and his friends. The elevator comes down to show none other than Dr. Regal, who was presumed to have committed suicide in the last game!

""...Well, well, Dr. Hikari...."
"Master Regal, what about his friends?"
"Confiscate their PETs. Without them, they'll be helpless anyway."

Lan wakes up the next day at home 3 days later, having recovered from the attack, he checks out the Net to see that it's now distorted and dark, with Nebula taking over the net.

Lan suddenly gets a call from SciLab, stating that somebody has hacked into the main system and is trying to take over SciLab! Lan and Megaman rush over to SciLab and navigate through the Main System's Computer to find the cause of the trouble.

"Nice work, Megaman. You too, Lan..."
"Who's that, show yourself!"

...And this is where the game seperates.

~THE GAMEPLAY~

The gameplay is your usual standard Battle Network gameplay, collect battlechips, delete viruses, stop netterror, everything's the same, right?

NOPE, THAT'S WHERE YOU'RE TOTALLY WRONG!

Welcome to Liberation Missions, which is pretty much the main gimmick of this game. The main point of these liberation missions is to remove Dark Panels (shown in the screenshot above), and reach the Darkloid (That's the fancy name for the Nebula Navis in this game). There are a few aspects that seperate this from the main gameplay.

• You can not organize your folders during these (Unless...i'll get to that later)
• You are only allowed 3 turns to complete a liberation of a Dark Panel, once your custom gauge fills, it automatically brings you to the custom screen.
• Liberation Missions have phases in them, which pass everytime you, field enemies, and the Darkloid have made a turn. While it is not nessecary to beat the Liberation Missions under the limit, doing it can earn you some amazing prizes.

Wait a second, are you playing as Protoman!?

Even newer to this game, during the Liberation Missions, you will be controlling a TEAM of DIFFERENT NAVIS, both different in TC and TP, they come with their own styles of battling and vary a lot differently from Megaman. Utilizing these Navis will be a serious advantage when in a Liberation Mission, so be sure to remember all of their special qualities!

Soul Unison is back, now with different souls for each version, just like Red Sun and Blue Moon, but without the tediousness!


BORN IN THE DARKNESS, TO LIVE IN THE DARKNESS, THAT'S THE NINJA'S CREEEED~

Also, amazingly enough, Dark Chips are back, but instead of appearing to Megaman in his worried state, they're now collectable chips you can place in your folder to use freely, but you can only place in 3 at a time, and this brings up one of the most interesting gamebreakers in Battle Network history.


"CHAOS UNISON, SHADOWCHAOS!"

Chaos Unison (Okay wow, that purple is starting to get redundant) is a Soul Unison with a darkchip corresponding to that Navi's element. You get this late in the game, but it is a major power breaker, the reason why?

IT GIVES YOU THE POWER TO FREELY USE A DARK CHIP WITHOUT ANY CONSEQUENCE!

I mean, holy shit dude, a DarkSword does like, 400 HP worth of damage, try killing the FINAL BOSS with that soul alone. It's easy!

There are a few downsides to Chaos Unison, though. One of them is that the chip replaces your Chargeshot with whatever DarkChip you used to activate the Chaos Unison, this causes a bit of a problem. There are 3 levels of a Chaos Unison's charge.

• Small Charge: Letting go of it now only shoots your normal buster shot
• Safe Charge: Now is the time you let go to activate your DarkChip's ability, no seriously, do it NOW!
• Unstable Charge: It gets green and static-y now, you do NOT want to let this go, you might as well get hit. Letting go of it now RELEASES A DARK MEGAMAN ONTO THE ENEMIES FIELD, WHO WILL CONSTANTLY USE YOUR CHIPS AND YOUR BUSTER SHOTS TO DELETE YOU, HE GOES AWAY AFTER 10 SECONDS, BUT BEFORE THAT, HE IS ENTIRELY INVINCIBLE

BY THE WAY, THIS IS SEXYMAN- I MEAN COLONEL.EXE!

~THE SOUNDTRACK~

Haha...HAHAHA...WOW, THIS SOUNDTRACK SURE IS AMAZING! FROM THE BATTLE THEME TO THE FINAL DUNGEON THEME, IT'S ALL FREAKIN AMAZING! THIS IS ONE OF THE REASONS WHY I LOVE THIS GAME!

DONT BELIEVE ME!? GO LOOK UP "BATTLE NETWORK 5 NETWORK SPACE" AND YOU'LL SEE WHAT I MEAN!

~Differences between TC and TP~

Sure, the scenarios play out the same, but when it comes to terms of gameplay, Colonel and Protoman differ greatly. Like I think I stated before, Team Colonel and Team Protoman have different navis on their teams, it really adds a lot of variety to both the games. Each version also adds a new never-before-seen Navi (not counting Colonel) sometime in the game. This also means that certain Soul Unisons and Chaos Unisons are available on only one version.

Now, what makes this game so special aside from multiple navis, amazing gameplay, and a great story?

IT HAS IT'S OWN DS REMAKE!

Meet Mega Man Battle Network 5: Double Team DS, it's one of your best friends, yakno?

Double Team DS adds plenty of new features that the GBA games didnt have.

• A really fancy new opening
• Rearranged music for the DS quality
• Voice Acting for Lan, Megaman, Colonel, and Protoman
• Both games are now on one cartridge, I think I heard a story about both GBA versions being removed from stores in favor of DTDS
• Arranged Battle music from Battle Networks 1-4 if the respective cartridge is inserted in the DS slot
• Folder editing is now possible in Liberation Missions, feel free to use this as an amazing Game Breaker
• Party Battle System, it gives you 2 navis of choice to fight alongside you as you roam the Internet
• Two secret "Cross" forms for Megaman, by inserting one of the original BN5 cartridges or a Boktai 2 cartridge in the DS slot
• New chips, including the special Transport Chip, which allows you to trade a Navi from the opposite version to replace its counterpart (Using a Transport Chip on Colonel lets you bring in Protoman, and vice versa)

~FINAL SCORE~

Oh man oh man oh man, I already stated I love this the most out of all of the BN games, so obviously, I have to give this a...

~10/10~

I mean, jeez! Who knew it was so easy to win me over with a variety of playable characters and some amazing game changes!? (Oh wait...me.)

NEXT TIME, ON FORGOTTEN REVIEWS...

MEGA MAN BATTLE NETWORK 6: CYBEAST GREGAR

MEGA MAN BATTLE NETWORK 6: CYBEAST FALZAR

Author Notes:

Okay, wow. I didnt expect to make this many reviews, much less have people actually look at them. It makes me a bit teary eyed.

As for Battle Network 6, it's the last game of the series. After that, I will probably move on to Mega Man Starforce, which is basically set in the same universe as Battle Network, but YEARS ahead.