izigame.me

The Mega Man Battle Network series takes place in an alternate continuity to the mainline Mega Man universe, following Lan Hikari and his Tamagotchi (called a Navi) Megaman.exe. In this universe society progressed down the pipeline of brainrot and invented the internet, basing all of society around it, rather than robots which will end up destroying the planet, and Navis are the programs that are used to NAVIgate the internet. The Navis are (mostly) classic Mega Man bosses reimagined as programs. The main gameplay is split between Lan in the real world and Megaman in the cyber world, battling viruses and other Navis. If any of this sounds appealing to you, then read on, if it sounds lame then you're lame go play Elden Ring or something what are you doing here?

Battle Network 1 is frankly rough around the edges. Every internet area (aside from the dungeons) looks exactly the same and can be a real headache to navigate. The battles are a lot slower paced than the rest of the games and there are a lot of clarity issues with the game. It is a extremely solid base for the series, but honestly hard to go back to. If you are trying out the games and find yourself not loving this one, honestly either skip it and go back, (all you really need to know is the setting for the games anyway and one detail that is revealed right at the end but you'll figure it out you're smart) or look up the maps for the game to make traversal a lot smoother.

Battle Network 2 picks up so much of the slack of the first game with a much better story, battle system, and map design. We even get form changes for Megaman a little bit into the game, and though they may be simple, it adds a lot to the customization element that these games have. This is the series starting to pick up, and if you like this entry, you will like the rest of the games (also yeah Freezeman's scenario at the end of the game is not great but come on it's not as bad as people say have some backbone).

Battle Network 3 is what most people would consider the best entry in the series (or 6 depending on what you like about the games) and for good reason. The gameplay has seen a major improvement with a lot more depth into the Style System and further ability to customize Megaman with the Navicust, the story is really good with a lot of really cool moments following the events of Battle Network 2, and there is just so much to do, the postgame content will have you coming back for awhile. The chip variety and boss design are so strong here, there is just really not enough good that I can say about this game, it honestly makes the collection worth buying on it's own.