Mega Man Battle Network 4

MegaMan Battle Network 4, known as Rockman EXE 4 in Japan, is the fourth game of the MegaMan Battle Network series, released for Game Boy Advance in 2003 with two different versions: Red Sun (Tournament Red Sun) and Blue Moon (Tournament Blue Moon).In this game, Lan and MegaMan partake in a series of NetBattle tournaments.

Release Date
Blue Moon/Red Sun

JP:12/12/03 US:6/29/04 EU:9/03/04

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. They 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 into the NetNavi that uses it.

Meanwhile, an asteroid was travelling 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 on destroying 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
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 Bugfrags used to trade for things; Now, you can only counter with non-dimming chips, and doing so will grand you Full Synchro, a powerful state where the next chip you use has 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 2 Custom slots. This has reduced the potential chip-choosing capacity, but has given way to a few things. First, the Soul Unison Button takes the place of the Add Button after MegaMan receives his first Soul. In certain souls, the missing 2 Custom Slots will be filled with other things, like the Shuffle button in Search Soul, and recycled chips in Junk Soul.

The game also introduces Dark Chips. When MegaMan enters Anxious, he cannot use Soul Unisons, but instead can use the Dark Chips, which appear 2 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.

Gone are Style Changes; replacing them are Soul Unisons and Dark Soul. Soul Unisons 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 uniquity with the transformations MegaMan undergoes.

Navi chip versions have been traded out from the 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 obtainable only by fighting Navis under the effects of Dark Soul, or through special mystery data that appears in Black Earth.

An odd change in this game, though, is the lack of storyline - instead, the player has to play through the story three times to fully collect all the items in the game, while facing increasingly stronger foes as he proceeds through the game. However, most of the data he gets in previous playthroughs gets carried over to the other playthroughs. This has been a major turn-off for most players, resulting in the bad reception the game experienced.