I didn’t intend to have this game reviewed so fast after writing the original one. I do prefer to space things out that are two of the same series, but I feel there might be a special case for this game.
When I wrote about BN 1, I made clear my issues with the game. But I also mentioned that I chatted with other people to see if the issues with the game improved in later renditions. Often the next in a series can show if they fix those issues or end up making things even worse. So will this be a King of the Monsters improving on the monster actions and having better human characters ? Or a Batman V Superman claiming they are fixing issues but failing to understand the deeper problems going on and leading to a long eventual death.
Set the summer after the events of the previous game, so no repeatedly going back to class this time, Lan and friends get caught up in the actions of a new net terrorist group Gospel (instantly giving away what the final boss will be for anyone who has knowledge of Megaman classic in Japan) who are apparently the net mafia. In fact these guys are so much more of a threat, the guy controlling the first boss is killed for failing. Definitely giving a more ruthless vibe to them. The story has a slightly more diverse globe trotting tale to them, as we even end up in another country and on a plane at some points. But it’s kind of the same main deal but different locations. You control Lan when on Earth and switch to Megaman while in cyberspace.
You can easily see this game was made using the main code of the last one, which is normal for Megaman, especially the classic era. So lets look into what’s the same and what’s new.
Control wise, it’s all the same as how battles are done. Nothing has changed from the way chips are acquired or used, or how the battles take place. So if you have played BN1 you know how to play BN2.
What’s new. Well a new feature you unlock part way through the game is the style change. This will give Megaman a new form that as well as having an element, will be affected by how you have been playing. For example, if your playstyle contains using lots of Navi Cards, you may get the form that lets you use even more in your deck. Your element though is more at random and changes how your main buster charge attack works as well as giving you resistance and weakness depending on the element you got. You can upgrade this form through continued use or get new forms as you play.
Thankfully navigating the net is A LOT easier, especially the main repeat visit areas. Far larger paths and less confusing maze like builds in the main areas so you wont get lost just trying to go to the second location.
This meant I decided to actually do post game stuff… where I hit a whole lot of issues.
There’s a whole lot of enemies that basically need specific chips to even do damage to. And some of these aren’t just localized to the post main game locations. Spectres that can only be harmed by sword weapons, or the big shield guys who you need to find ways of attacking indirectly… and you’re expected to some how kill them fast enough, or with killing multiple other enemies so you can get their chips. And then there’s the enemies that just will never spawn because their spawn rate is so low its basically 0. Which if you want to fight the ultimate final boss you need every chip.
Now there is something about making you think differently about fighting enemies… but it’s random enemies and then you need to use this specific way of fighting them.
That said if you do manage to get to the very end, minus the ultimate boss you can unlock the super ultimate form for Megaman that is broken, in the good way, in that it combines all the advantages you get for all the other forms, at the cost of having your heath cut in half.
So yes this was a improvement, but it still had some things I felt held it back. While definitely the main issue is gone, and the structure is vastly improved, it’s now when it comes to the post game that it’s really the main issues with the games structure, then again those areas are meant to be hard… still there’s a difference in hard challenge, and hard you need to do it this specific way or such and such never spawned.
Rating: 🎮🎮🎮