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Mega Man Battle Network 4, known as Rockman EXE4 [4] (ロックマンエグゼ4 Rokkuman Eguze Fō) or Rockman EXE 4 [2][3][5] in Japan, is the fourth game of the Mega Man Battle Network series, released for Game Boy Advance in 2003 with two different versions: Red Sun and Blue Moon, known as Tournament Red Sun [5] (トーナメント レッドサン Tōnamento Reddo San) and Tournament Blue Moon [5] (トーナメント ブルームーン Tōnamento Burū Mūn) in Japan. In this game, Lan Hikari and MegaMan partake in a series of NetBattle tournaments. A sequel, Mega Man Battle Network 5, was released in the following year.

Story elements from Battle Network 4 were loosely adapted for MegaMan NT Warrior Axess and Rockman EXE Stream anime seasons. Zoanoroid versions of SparkMan, JunkMan and KendoMan would also appear as Zoano SparkMan, Zoano JunkMan and Zoano KendoMan in Rockman EXE Beast.

Story[]

Depending on the version of the game, different opponents and scenarios will occur, as well as Double Souls obtained. In between tournaments, a criminal organization called Nebula will attack and spread corruption with the use of Dark Chips. These are Battle Chips infused with the power of darkness. They grant immense firepower compared to a regular chip, but spawns a dark soul and does a small amount of permanent HP damage to the NetNavi that uses it.

Meanwhile, an asteroid was traveling through space, heading for Earth. The scientists at NAXA (ANSA in Japan) attempt to divert it. When their laser strategy failed, they decided to send a NetNavi into the asteroid's cyberworld and change its course. The Navi was chosen through an international tournament, which Lan and MegaMan ended up winning.

Nebula attacked again, but MegaMan was able to delete the head Navi and reached the main program operating the asteroid. The program was called Duo and was planning to destroy Earth because of the high levels of dark energy. Lan and MegaMan proved through battle that all people had the ability to conquer their inner darkness, and successfully averted destruction.

Changes from previous games[]

Battle Changes[]

One great difference here is the introduction of the Emotion Window. Previously, finishing off enemies with a Counter hit with anything, inclusive of the Buster, will yield Bug Frags used to trade for items. Now, the player can only counter with non-dimming chips, and doing so will grant them Full Synchro, a powerful state where the next chip used inflicts double damage. In addition to Full Synchro, there are also Anxious, Angry, and Dark Soul states.

Another thing to note is the removal of the Add Button, and the loss of two Custom slots. This has reduced the potential chip-choosing capacity, but has given way to a few things. First, the Double Soul Button takes the place of the Add Button after MegaMan receives his first Soul. In certain souls, the missing two Custom Slots will be filled with other things, like the Shuffle button in Search Soul, and recycled chips in Junk Soul.

The player can now find Mystery Data in battles. Even a single hit from a Buster shot will destroy the data, but if the player keeps it intact up to the end of battle, they will gain bonus data, which can range from rare chips to Bug Frags.

Battle Chips[]

The game also introduces Dark Chips. When MegaMan enters the "Anxious" state, he cannot use Double Souls, but instead can use the Dark Chips, which appear two at a time in the formerly missing chip slots. These introduce several harmful effects, but at the same time grant MegaMan immense power and access to special chips that are only usable in Dark Soul.

Navi Chip versions have been traded out from V1/V2/V3 to V1/SP/DS. SP chips are only obtainable by S-ranking Navis without using Dark Chips, and can be powered up depending on how fast you delete the Navi, with the attack maxing out when the Navi is deleted in under 10 seconds. DS chips are obtained only by fighting Navis under the effects of Dark Soul, or through special Mystery Data that appears in Black Earth.

Double Souls[]

Style Changes are gone; replacing them are Double Souls and Dark Soul. Double Souls are unique, version-exclusive transformations that last a limited time, require a chip sacrifice, but give MegaMan special abilities, like charging certain chips for double damage - an ability that was absent with Styles. This added more uniqueness with the transformations MegaMan undergoes.

The Navi Customizer also has a mild change. Instead of different Styles being able to equip certain colored parts, MegaMan can equip any colored part, as long as he does not equip more than four colors in the NaviCust.

Other[]

An odd change in this game is the lack of storyline - instead, the player must play through the game at least three times to fully collect all of the items, while facing stronger versions of the viruses and bosses. Blue and purple mystery data also change what items they give if they were collected on a previous playthroughs. Most of the data collected in previous playthroughs are carried over to other playthroughs. The repetitive gameplay has been a major turn-off for most players, resulting in the bad reception the game received.

One may also notice that this game has a different art style compared to the previous ones, along with a different town layout for ACDC. These changes would later carry over into the final two games of the series.

Bosses[]

Due to the unusual story progression regarding tournaments, the game has 4 chapters[6] marked by big events. There are also bosses that appear outside of tournaments.

  1. The Den Battle/City Battle Tournament
  2. The Eagle/Hawk Tournament
    • GutsMan DS (Red Sun only)/AquaMan DS (Blue Moon only)
  3. Red Sun/Blue Moon Tournament
  4. Final Scenario

Secret Boss:

Each game's version will have exclusive Navis that will only appear in that version’s tournament and will only give the Double Soul in their respective version. The versions can also link up and trade Navis using the WaitingRoom feature to have the exclusive competitors appear in the opposite version.

Version Neutral

Red Sun-exclusive

RedSunChipArt

Red Sun Battle Chip

Blue Moon-exclusive

BlueMoonChipArt

Blue Moon Battle Chip

Release Notes[]

  • In Japan, the game has a few special edition releases:
    • There games were released as Rockman EXE4 Tournament Red Sun: Axess Set SP (ロックマン エグゼ 4 トーナメント レッドサン アクセスセットSP) and Rockman EXE4 Tournament Blue Moon: Axess Set SP (ロックマン エグゼ4 トーナメントブルームーン アクセスセットSP), they were bundled with a Rockman-themed Game Boy Advance SP and some stickers.[7].
    • The two versions were also bundled together in a Rockman EXE4 Double Pack (ロックマン エグゼ4 ダブルパック Rokkuman Eguze Fō Daburu Pakku) that came with a Grand Prix Power e-Reader Card.
  • In Japan, the first production issue of the cartridges are colored. Red Sun with red game pak, and Blue Moon with blue game pak[8]. It also includes a "Meteor Red Sun" or "Blue Moon Ray" Battle Chip in the respective version. Later issues have the standard GBA gray cartridge and no chip.
  • In Japan, there is a v1.0 and a revised v1.1 of the game. Early carts use SRAM (battery) saves, but later uses FRAM (non-battery) saves[9]. The cart color and save type will not determine whether it contains v1.0 or v1.1 of the game[10].

Development Notes[]

  • After the completion of Battle Network 3, the development team went with another approach to the series.[11] Starting with Battle Network 4, the development team was given direction to evolve the battle system further in order to make multiplayer battles more exciting[12].
  • The game marks a graphical change with the game's field screen pixel art being redrawn from scratch. This was done to save space to implement more characters and other gameplay aspects, as the game's ROM size remains the same as previous games to keep prices down[13][14][12].
  • By this point, the visual style of the concept arts became streamline, to minimize inconsistencies in people’s visual perception of the game’s visuals with other media. Character designer Yuji Ishihara started basing his illustrations on concept art from the TV anime series. A solid borderlines were added to the field characters and backgrounds (AKA the overworld), to create a stronger, firmer impression than the “translucent” style of the previous games[15].
  • Around this time, the team was told told to make more bulky armored characters than thinner ones that looks like they're wearing full-body leotard. Yuji Ishihara suspects it might be due to Keiji Inafune's son praising SparkMan.EXE's design[13][16].
  • When the Battle Network development staff was polled, while the entire staff was satisfied with the game, they considered Battle Network 4 as the toughest one among the games to work on. Apparently it had a tight production schedule. It being the first to implement e-Reader Mod Cards and the Battle Chip Gate didn't make it any easier[13].

Officially Acknowledged Issues[]

  • If WoodMan’s Mega Man Battle Network 4: Blue Moon scenario minigame is played on the original Nintendo DS, after exiting a battle, the game will go into extremely low frames per second rate. This glitch was acknowledged by Nintendo[17]. The frame rate will fix itself after MegaMan travels a bit to later sections of the map, until he goes into battle again. This bug also occurs in Red Sun if WoodMan is traded over via the Waiting Room feature. This bug does not occur if played on the Nintendo DS Lite and Virtual Console version.
  • In initial release of the Japanese game, the equipped Folder is reset to Folder1 when a New Game+ is started regardless of Folder limits. Due to this, it’s possible to equip a Folder with Mega/Giga Chips beyond the limit. This glitch also forces the Regular Chip slot in Folder2 to be passed over into Folder1, allowing any chip beyond 51MB to be a Regular Chip (even Giga Chips). This glitch’s existence was acknowledged by Capcom when the real life official tournament rules banned using Mega/Giga Chips and Regular Chips beyond the allowed limit[18]. This bug was fixed in later releases of the Japanese game and all international releases.

Gallery[]

Box Art[]

Logos[]

Promotional Art[]

Screenshots[]

Merchandise[]

Videos[]

Trivia[]

  • While the series' English localization is riddled with grammar and spelling errors, Battle Network 4’s is most notorious and most made fun of. It ranges from "viruses busting", "Leg’s go, Lan", and "What a polite young man she was!".[19]
  • The names of the cars used by Blues and Rockman in the Navi Car Race from the Rockman EXE Stream episode Navi Car Race! are RedSun and BlueMoon, respectively.
  • This game is referenced by the operators during the Drama Audio Track "Diary Alouette's Good Day" as 'Rojo Sol' and 'Azul Luna' as they were trying to pick good names for the Baby Elves.
  • Mega Man Battle Network 4 is the best-selling Mega Man game besides the classic Mega Man games with an estimated 1.32 million in sales.
  • The game mysteriously contains elements of "Use of Tobacco (and Alcohol)/Drug Reference" that were allowed under its ESRB rating, which may actually be inappropriate for American children under 13 years of age. Lilly gets visibly drunk off rice wine and characters acknowledge that she's drunk. In MetalMan's scenario, a Navi, Tamako's master, is implied to be drunk with constant hiccuping and also tells MegaMan to go fetch a cyber drink (that's said to taste better the more you drink) and snack from his drinking buddies. For the initial Game Boy Advance release, the game was rated "E" by the ESRB and was not even marked with "Alcohol/Tobacco Reference".

See also[]

External links[]

References[]


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