We start retro games with an ending. Those of you who are aware there are 6 Megaman BN numbered games might be scratching your head at that. But that’s because while there are 3 more, BN3 is the end of the games planned story arc.
Much like when I reviewed the 2nd game I have difficulty reviewing this one as there’s the mix of new and old. What’s kept the same and what’s been changed, either for better or worse.
First up the story. As said this is the 3rd and final part of the original story plan and those who played the first 2 will feel that. It’s set not that long after the second game but has the end of many plot threads that were built up in the games main and post stories, notably Bass.exe as this game is the one that goes into his origin, hence the game that the anime completely skipped. What starts with the return of WWW and leads to a hidden truth about the dawn of this world’s internet ruled time and avoid the release of a nightmare monster that the anime completely skipped over… There’s one plot thread the anime used which is in game the dullest moment. This makes the whole game rather a unique experience for those that did check out the anime.
Its story does follow through the same pattern of the last 2 games, sections broken up into narrative chapters that then feature some villain doing bad things with computer systems so you send Megaman in through that region’s dungeon for lack of a better term and ends in a boss fight with the the navi of that person, also various bonus fights against other navis sprinkled in and out. Same old.
Now onto gameplay. Overall grid based combat is back. Buster shots, chips 2 sets of six squares yada yada. Also back is the style change. There are a few more styles added to this game and one form each exclusive to the game’s version… oh right… This was the Megaman game that started the two slightly different versions of the same game thing Pokémon does… while later ones add more to the differences this game its minimal complications thankfully give both so just look up which you prefer from their exclusive features.
Now onto the changes, and sadly not too happy with them.
While before doing actions in game or finding power ups throughout the game would increase Megaman’s abilities, this game featured instead the navi customizer… and all its clunkiness and annoyance whenever you have to use it. Rather than just playing the game to get stronger, you just have to use this, slot the power ups in, avoid having 2 of the same colour touching or touching the line unless its got the right pattern, and do this every time you need to change his abilities either for a particular fight or ability for exploring.
The style change is also made arguably worse now, but only if you’re going for completionism, which means if you want any of the post game content. Because Navi and Custom styles are required to get new battle chips. this means if you don’t get one of those 2 styles, you then need to do the painfully slow and boring method to get a different style (and better make sure your doing it right or you wasted a ton of time) and then do it yet another time later to get all the chips you need.
So yeah, it took a system and added needless additional layers of complexity that only serve to make the game feel less rewarding, and sadly I’m fairly sure the navi customers stuck around… but at least this was the last game with the style change.
Mainly I say play this for the full stories of things that the anime decided to skip over and replace with much worse things, Bass.exe’s plot, made worse, Serenade.exe? completely removed That’s the main gist of what to play as the added complexity results in a less fun game. More doesn’t mean better.
Rating: 🎮🎮
