Mega Man Battle Network 2

Mega Man Battle Network 2
Japanese cover art.
Game Information
Developer(s):	Capcom Production Studio 2
Publisher(s):	Capcom Ubisoft
Director(s):	Masahiro Yasuma
Producer(s):	Keiji Inafune
Designer(s):	Masahiro Yasuma
Artist(s):	Shinsuke Komaki Ryuji Higurashi
Writer(s):	Shin Kurosawa Masakazu Eguchi
Composers(s):	Yoshino Aoki
Series:	Mega Man Battle Network
Platform(s):	Game Boy Advance, Nintendo GameCube (Game Boy Player), Nintendo DS (backward compatibility), Wii U (Virtual Console)
Release date(s):	Game Boy Advance: December 14, 2001 June 17, 2002 October 18, 2002
Re-release(s):	Wii U Virtual Console: November 12, 2014 January 8, 2015 May 14, 2015
List price:	Game Boy Advance: ¥4,800 (tax included: ¥5,040) Wii U Virtual Console: ¥715 (tax included)
Genre(s):	Data Action RPG
Rating(s):	CERO: A (All Ages) ESRB: E (Everyone) OFLC: G (General) PEGI: 3 (GBA) / 7 (Wii U)
Mode(s):	1-2 players 1 player (Wii U)
Media:	Game Boy Advance Game Pak, digital download
Wi-Fi Compatible:	No

Mega Man Battle Network 2, known as Battle Network Rockman EXE2 (​バトルネットワーク ロックマンエグゼ２, Batoru Nettowāku Rokkuman Eguze Tsū) or Rockman EXE 2 in Japan, is the second game in the Mega Man Battle Network series. The story takes place after the events of Mega Man Network Transmission and follows Lan Hikari and MegaMan.EXE fighting to stop the NetMafia Gospel. A proper sequel, Mega Man Battle Network 3, was released the following year.

Story elements of Battle Network 2 were used in the Second Area of the first season of the MegaMan NT Warrior anime series.

Story

The following summer after WWW's defeat, a new terrorist group called Gospel emerged. Their tactics differed considerably compared to WWW, as they appeared to have no set goal. Gospel's plan had seemingly consisted of only causing random destruction with their NetNavis. Lan and MegaMan battled every member and prevented the worst possible situations. However, Gospel's hidden plan was to re-create the ultimate NetNavi, Bass.EXE (Forte.EXE in Japan). Using bug fragments, they planned to make a large army of Bass Navis to take over the world. Unknown to Gospel, their method of creating Bass was imperfect, and his abilities were vastly below predictions. In an attempt to increase Bass's power, the leader of Gospel overloaded energy into Bass, and changed him into a giant multi-bug organism, who was named Gospel, same as the organization. Although the bug beast was stronger than before, Lan and MegaMan managed to eliminate it.

Gameplay Changes

Folder Building

The previous game allowed for the player to use up to 10 copies of any chip (barring Navi chips, where the limit is 5 total) in their folder. This has been reduced to 5 to force the player to use a wider variety of chips. The * code has also been added to make certain chips usable with other chips of any letter code.

The Custom Screen has also shrunk to a maximum of 10 chip slots from its former 15. The ADD Button also serves a different purpose - rather than temporarily expand the Screen capacity by 5 slots, it allows the player to discard their currently selected chips in order to permanently expand their capacity by the number of chips discarded.

Style Change

This game introduces Style Change, which replaces the armor feature which was used in the first game. There are 5 types of styles, and each type gives MegaMan a certain ability. The styles also come with an element (Fire, Aqua, Elec, Wood).

Net Redesign

Carried out towards all the sequels from this point, the Net received a massive redesign in concept, giving each area its own unique background and ground design. No longer a confusing maze of thin, cable-shaped paths, but roads of varying width using a more block-shaped construction and other shapes. The net also gained the addition of features such as warp pads and one-way arrow paths. To avoid the mixing of layers, each one has a different color scheme or shade. While the soundtrack in the net remained the same in each area, the Undernet and Gospel areas gained their own soundtrack.

Net Square

Mega Man Battle Network 2 also introduced Net Squares. A Net Square is a place where Navis can hang out without fearing of being attacked by viruses. Net Squares have shops which sell Battle Chips and Sub Chips. Net Squares would be used in Mega Man Battle Network 3, but have been removed in Mega Man Battle Network 4.

Bosses

The game has 8 chapters with bosses at the end. There are also side bosses in certain chapters.

1. AirMan
2. QuickMan
3. CutMan
4. ShadowMan
5. KnightMan
   • ThunderMan
   • SnakeMan
   • ProtoMan
6. MagnetMan
7. FreezeMan
8. Bass (clone)
   • Final boss: Gospel

Optional bosses:

• GutsMan
• ToadMan
• GateMan
• HeatMan

Post-game bosses:

• PharaohMan
• NapalmMan
• PlanetMan
• Real Bass

Release Notes

• In Japan, the game has a special release called Rockman EXE2: Rockman Custom Set (ロックマン　エグゼ２　ロックマンカスタムセット, Rockman EXE2: Rockman Custom Set), where the game is bundled with a Rockman-themed Game Boy Advance with "Hikari Laboratory" on the back.
• In Japan, there is a v1.0 and a revised v1.1 of the game.
• In a North America, early carts use SRAM (battery) saves, but later uses FRAM (non-battery) saves.

Development Notes

• The development for Battle Network 2 immediately started after finishing up the first game. Many of the improvement stemmed from design regrets in the first game that they "wanted to do differently" but was limited due to time constraints. One of them being the Escape system.
• When the Battle Network development staff was polled, most did not even consider Battle Network 2 the toughest among the games they worked on, even suggesting that it might've had the smoothest development.

Officially Acknowledged Issues

• The initial version of the Japanese game has a glitch involving the LocEnemy SubChip. If you use LocEnemy right after defeating a Cyberworld V2 Navi or a Protecto virus, then turn off the system, when you start the save again, re-encountering that battle will cause the game to freeze at a white screen. This glitch only applies to a hard-reset of the game and not a soft-reset. Capcom has acknowledged this glitch and warns players of potential save data loss. This bug was fixed in later versions of the game.
• In the Japanese version, throwing a TreeBomb into a Prism obstacle will leave the TreeBomb inside the obstacle and continuously hit it until the Wood Tower rises. Due to this, the spread from the Prism will basically instantly delete any enemy in the game who aren't guarded. This trick is famous among Japanese fans as "Prism Combo" and was banned in Capcom official tournaments. This was also acknowledged by the developers in a 15th Anniversary interview much to their dismay, but does not straight out call it a glitch.
  • The combo was fixed in the international releases, where TreeBomb will instantly vanish if it lands on a Prism, hitting it only once. This combo was changed once again in Mega Man Battle Network Legacy Collection, where the combo works again but now Prism has been modified to give the opponent invisibility frames in multiplayer.

Gallery

Boxart

US cover.

Japanese cover.

"Rockman Custom Set" GBA bundle cover.

European cover.

Preliminary Japanese cover.

Rockman EXE 2 Wii U Virtual Console icon.

Logos

English logo.

Japanese logo.

Chinese logo.

Promotional Art

Japanese cover art.

Promo art.

Promo art.

Guidebook cover art.

Japanese cover with borders.

Background art of the cover.

Japanese advertisement.

English advertisement.

Screenshots

Title screen.
(USA)

Title screen.
(Japan)

Videos

Rockman EXE 2 Commercial

Battle Network Rockman EXE2 commercial.

Trivia

• At one point in the game, an old lady will complain that her oven was on fire, and wonder what Lan meant by "that's an old story". Said event happened in the first game.
• In the MotherComp, a GameCube symbol can be seen.
• This is the only game in the Battle Network series to feature the Bass Navi Chips having the same denomination as the other Navi Chips (V1, V2 and V3, in this case); as the Bass chips are all version-exclusive Giga Chips in the next games, and a special single-version event Battle Chip in the previous.
• The game mysteriously contains elements of subject matter that were allowed under its ESRB rating, which may actually be inappropriate for American children under 13 years of age. These include curse words such as damn, crap, and hell (Lan: "Damn it! What should we do!?" Mr. Gauss: "Damn it to Hell!" a child NPC: "Who the hell are you?" and Sean Obihiro: "Crap!"). Yai Ayanokoji shamelessly remarked about being seen naked by Lan after he rescued her from AirMan near the start of the game. Ms. Millions dialogue, while never explicit, has blatant sexual undertones. Additionally, the use of alcohol on the airplane as Lan would obtain whiskey. For the initial Game Boy Advance release, the game was rated "E" by the ESRB and was not even given a Mild Language qualifier.
  • In the Mega Man Battle Network Legacy Collection, the above are used as examples to the ESRB and bumped the rating up to "E10+" (a new rating established in 2005, years after BN2's GBA release).

Text Errors

• Almost all text that utilizes quotation marks in conjunction with question marks or exclamation marks in the ending punctuation of sentences are used incorrectly and are kept inside the quotation marks rather than going outside. Later games fixed this mistake.
• When MegaMan encounters the NormalNavi in YumLand, he will state that he "Received a balloon from Electopia...." Electopia should really be YumLand.

See also

• List of Mega Man Battle Network 2 Battle Chips
• List of Mega Man Battle Network 2 enemies
• Mega Man Battle Network 2 Walkthrough

External links

• Rockman EXE 2 official site (archive)
• Rockman EXE 2 instruction manual at Nintendo
• Mega Man Battle Network 2 European manual at Nintendo