Video Game / Mega Man Battle Network 2

All spoilers for Mega Man Battle Network 1 are unmarked. You Have Been Warned!

Mega Man Battle Network 2 is a video game by Capcom released for the Game Boy Advance in 2002. It's the second installment in the Mega Man Battle Network series.

Three months after the previous game and the fall of WWW, a new NetMafia known as Gospel with a mysterious leader is on the rise. While their goals are initially unknown, it becomes clear that they're looking for several SuperPrograms to use for some nefarious purpose. Lan and MegaMan.EXE now must stop them.

While Battle Network 2 uses the same combat system at its predecessor, the game has received many balance changes. Additionally, there are two major additions: Style Change and SubChips. Style Changes are transformations that can alter MegaMan's elemental affinity and Charged Shot and provide passive effects in battle, and are unlocked over time based on your playstyle. SubChips are items that can only be used outside of battle, but provide useful functions such as healing, unlocking locked mystery data, or altering the encounter rate.

Other features implemented in this game include the alteration of the Custom Screen, improvement of the Add function, and introduction of the wildcard *-code to make combos easier to execute.

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This game provides examples of:

• Adorable Evil Minions: Gospel HQ contains evil Messrs. Prog that are just as cute as the average Mr. Prog.
• Adults Are Useless: Played Straight in most cases, but there are a number of important subversions.
  • Raoul in particular stands out as a noble and competent adult, and even when the Gospel spy at the conference gets the better of him he's able to point the way to her identity.
  • There are several competent adults on the airplane, including Dr. Iron Fist and the entomologist.
• Anti-Frustration Features:
  • Introduced in this game is the *-chip code, a wild card which can be used with any one letter code chips. This code also work with Program Advances to substitute one code you are missing. PAs that require different chips however (such as Life Sword and Gater) can use as many *-codes as they want.
  • During the chapter where you're camping at Okuden, you can't leave the campsite, and you're cut off from the Internet at large. Fortunately, Ribitta is nearby doing a news report, and her news van provides handy access to Den Area if you've already beaten ToadMan.
  • Cannonball chips are uniquely annoying to acquire due to the enemies that drop them being invulnerable for most of the battle, and have two Program Advances that require collecting the chip in every code. The final Undernet area's Green Mystery Data almost exclusively drop Cannonball chips, and in all five codes.
  • Changes in Program Advance and chip design in general make it much easier to get S-ranks on viruses, and very few viruses appear alone, making the acquisition of chips from endgame viruses much more consistent. The LocEnemy subchip also allows encountering an enemy several times in a row once it's found a single time, granting many chances to get the desired rewards.
  • Navis can only drop chips instead of Zenny as long as the busting level is at least 8, instead of having at most a 50% chance of dropping a chip.
  • DenArea1 features a hub of teleporters which can be opened using key items obtained from various sidequests, massively speeding up endgame travel on the net. It's especially useful in the FreezeMan scenario, which features a gargantuan volume of backtracking all across the net. The GospCode key item from a midgame sidequest also opens a number of shortcuts to make travel faster.
  • During Lan's visit to Netopia, all the chips not in his folder(s) and his passport are stolen. To help get it back, there's a Netopian kid who offers information in exchange for a Guard chip, which is rare in Netopia but ubiquitous in Electopia. Unless you had the foresight of saving a Guard chip in your folder, you may be forced to try and grind for one off the Mettaur2 encounters in the small amount of Netopian Net you can access... or you can talk to an NPC to learn that you can find one off an Electopian tourist, who will hand you thirty Guard chips.
  • After completing the Netopia scenario, Lan gets rewarded for saving the plane with a VIP pass, which allows him to skip all of the checkpoints and other annoyances that slowed down the first trip through the airport.
  • Legacy Collection blocks Sanctuary from being used in Chip Traders and adds a unique prompt warning the player that it cannot be found again if they try to trade it online.
• Arc Words: Starting with the Officials conference, various NPCs start talking about the SuperNavi.
• Artwork and Game Graphics Segregation: Hub Style was depicted as glowing greenish blue in the artwork just like when the Hub Batch was applied for the first time in the previous game, but the game simply puts a white filter over MegaMan while making his red insignias bright pink.
• Artistic License – Physics: The Very Definitely Final Dungeon is a residential area is being subjected to an ongoing Reality Warp causing the physical and cyber-world to overlap and fuse, but some of the odd effects—like a man walking forward but moving sideways—are attributed to the radiation being emitted by the epicenter.
• As You Know: During the final act, an older Official recaps that MegaMan is really Lan's brother Hub to Lan himself (for the benefit of any players who didn't play the first game).
• Ascended Glitch: The infamous TreeBomb + Prism combo from the Japanese version^note TreeBomb doesn't immediately disappear when it hits a Prism and instead triggers Prism every frame until the Wood Tower associated with TreeBomb actually rises from the panel, dealing enough damage to obliterate almost every enemy in the game is retained in the Battle Network Legacy Collection port of this game for the sake of nostalgia — but only in single-player.
• Back-Alley Doctor: The Doc is a mysterious NetNavi who can be summoned in the UnderSquare after a codeword is put on the local chat boards. He's noted for being able to make a digital cure to almost any situation, such as how to thaw yellow ice. After FreezeMan is defeated, he arrives to inform MegaMan that the ice was cleared after the former's defeat. He then returns to UnderSquare musing about how much he can charge the Officials for his services.
• Backtracking:
  • There is much zigzagging back and forth between whole regions of the internet during the FreezeMan scenario.
  • Okuden consists of multiple straight hallways with little to nothing going on except for the camp site and the dam at the tail end of the valley. Naturally you will have to go back to those places for both mandatory and optional fetch quests.
• Balance Buff:
  • Mine deals 100 more damage than its best variant, Mine3, in the first Battle Network.
  • Guard now produces a retaliatory shockwave when it's struck by an enemy's attack.
• Battle Rapping: A very out-of-place one occurs in the airplane scenario. See the "Radar" page for details.
• Bit Character:
  • One of the female NPC classmates in 5-A is a close friend of Mayl's and even accompanies the gang briefly during the credits.
  • Anna Mori the waitress NPC returns from the first game, now stationed at a café in Marine Harbor.
  • The King of Yumland has a Navi named CookMan.EXE, who exists only to be killed byShadowMan.
  • Jennifer and Johnson are foreign Officials who attend the conference in Netopia mostly to fill out the roster of attendees.
  • The MagnetMan scenario has several, including the unnamed Entomologist (who even gets a custom sprite) and the man in first class who challenges Lan to a Battle Rap.
• Boss Rush:
  • Lan and MegaMan have to face duplicates of Gospel navis in batches as they progress through the Very Definitely Final Dungeon.
  • The Navi Master Yuichiro Hikari must be fought as part of the SSS License test, and he confronts you with the V2 forms of every non-Gospel Navi in the game in a row.
• Bragging Rights Reward:
  • Hub Style blends this trope with Infinity +1 Sword. The unlock requirements involve S-ranking every boss except Bass, after which Hub Style becomes your next Style Change result. It has the effects of all four Styles rolled into one and then some, and is without doubt the strongest Style in the game. However, you have little left to use it on, barring rematches with Bass.
  • Beating Hard Mode bestows your original save file with the Sanctuary chip. By that time, you're probably good enough that you won't need the assistance of a defensive field chip.
  • The Darkness Program Advance deals 3000 damage (i.e. the most health any enemy in the game can possibly have outside of Hard Mode) to the entire enemy area, basically turning it into little more than "Press A to Win". However, without cheating or hacking the game, one of the components is only obtainable by S-ranking Bass Deluxe. If you can do this, you've pretty much done everything the game has to offer at that point, and are far beyond needing such an obscenely broken attack to begin with.
• Brutal Bonus Level: The main plot mandates you visit UnderNet 1 to 3, and you're not required to go to 4 and beyond. In those regions, the viruses get significantly tougher and you're put into hostile territory more often. UnderNet 4 and 5 even have a signpost and Navi respectively that encourage you to turn back.
• The Bus Came Back: Mr. Match (the Starter Villain of Battle Network 1) returns at the start of the FreezeMan scenario, no longer up to any mischief, and offers to net battle with Lan and MegaMan.
• Call-Back: While the paralysis status used for the rest of the series debuted in this game, there is one enemy that applies the first game's damage over time status effect: the electric Scuttle viruses in the WWW Area.
• Card-Carrying Villain: The Undernet is filled with HeelNavis who will teach MegaMan about how to be a Heel.
• Chain of Deals: This game's trade chain starts with an Invis * chip at the Okuden valley and ends with a third editable folder at the Mother Comp room.
• Characterization Marches On: Yai's tendency to being pushy and prone to flaunting her superiority starts in the second game. The Yai of the first game was earnest with a bratty streak, but she was capable of showing gratitude and generosity that would be largely out of place with this characterization.
• Chekhov's Gun:
  • Right outside Lan's HP is a purple mystery data on an isolated platform. You eventually gain access to it in the postgame, and it contains the ArmyData for the SS Licence. You have to pass through the WWW Area to get there, which begs some questions.
  • When Lan leaves for Netopia, Mayl will be at the airport waiting to see him off with gifts, including a lucky wireless adapter. The wireless adapter proves essential during the KnightMan scenario, when Lan is able to use it to bridge gaps between his PET and the jack-in ports in Netopia Castle.
• Chekhov's Gunman:
  • During the early part of the AirMan scenario, a DenGas representative with striking blonde hair and a blue suit is lingering outside of Lan's house looking for the Ayano residence. He's AirMan's operator, out to kidnap Yai to extort her parents for cash.
  • When Lan and company first arrive in Okuden valley, they soon encounter a man in a red hoodie and yellow cap who is quite enthusiastic about litter laws. That's Speedy Dave, the ecoterrorist who has come to blow up Okuden dam.
  • During the MagnetMan scenario, a man in a multicolored suit is riding in the economy class. At one point in the flight he notes that Lan is good with a Navi, and that he's pretty good with his own.
• Classic Cheat Code: The Bronze/Silver/Gold Fist series and Variable Sword normally only deal the stated damage at short range, but have different properties when the player quickly inputs specific codes while holding the A button, such as covering more range or hits multiple times.
• Competitive Balance: Each style's elemental charge shots have different properties, giving them an edge in some situations more than the others:
  • Heat Style shoots a flamethrower across three squares in front of MegaMan, but he is a sitting duck until the attack animation ends.
  • Aqua Style's bubble gun spreads to one square behind the target upon contact. It has the fastest charge speed and firing rate between the four styles.
  • Elec Style has a paralyzing Zap Ring to hold the target in place so they're easier to hit with chips, but it has a middling firing rate and low power.
  • Wood Style's Twister attack deals the most damage in total due to hitting multiple times, but it only hits a single panel two squares in front of MegaMan.
• Continuity Nod:
  • When Lan first reaches the Official Center, a woman can be found complaining to a desk agent that her oven spat fire, harkening back to the FireMan scenario in Mega Man Battle Network 1. It's even lampshaded when Lan tells her that's old news.
  • A lady at the entrance to the Okuden campgrounds is selling boxed lunches, just like Sal did in the first game.
• Contrived Coincidence: During the Airplane/MagnetMan scenario, it just so happens that the man who gets bitten by the "poisonous" red-eyed wooly spider is the Official Netbattler on the flight, forcing Lan to step in when Mr. Gauss conducts his theft of the High Power program later. Furthermore, the flight just so happens to include both an MD and an entomologist to help the poisoned man and catch the dangerous spider, respectively.
• Darker and Edgier: While Battle Network 2 features another global criminal organization committing a string of terrorist attacks, it trims out most of the cartoony excess from the first game. Gospel's operatives almost all have at least some flair, but nothing as colorful or exotic as Count Zap or Yahoot^note Indeed, the second major operative is dressed completely as a civilian, and they have significant personal motivations, which is something nobody in the World Three ever had. The most colorful member is Gospel's leader, a fearsome and alien figure surrounded with grim colors, who is such a Bad Boss that even his attempts to kill his own underlings double as terrorist attacks. There's also an uptick in profanity.
• Demoted to Extra: Five virus families that weren't carried over from the first Battle Network have their respective BattleChip series represented in this game. Four virus families have their chip series consolidated into a single chip (Trident, Tornado, Mine, and Bubble Wrap), while two of the three Dynamyte chips survive as Front Sensor and Double Sensor. All of them use the same chip image as in the first game, except with the virus grayed out. This would become a trend throughout the rest of the series.
• Deus ex Machina: During the final act. Lan is crippled by radiation overdose and can't even move, but MegaMan puts his "heart program" into synchronization so that Lan can operate him with his heart.
• Disc-One Nuke:
  • In the WiiU Virtual Console version, the game hands you several chips that could only be won through PVP battles or were distributed at special events in Japan just by accessing the Network menu, including the broken Gospel Breath Chips.
  • Downplayed in the Legacy Collection Version, as most of the secret chips have to be won through PVP once more, but the game still hands the player the Gospel Breath and GateSP chips by accessing the Megaman menu and selecting the Download Chip sub-menu.
  • After defeating AirMan, you can challenge Dex for your first match against GutsMan, earning the GutsMan Navi Chip. On its own, it's an area-wide attack that can help you snag multi-deletes for quick S-ranks on weak viruses, but it also forms an early Program Advance with the easily-acquired Guard and DashAtk chips. This Program Advance does enough damage to make mincemeat of the next few bosses.
  • If you know where to look, you can easily assemble the pieces to the LifeSword1 Program Advance before reaching Okuden camp. This Program Advance covers a wide area and deals a lot of damage, enough to one-shot Wake-Up Call Boss QuickMan when he's vulnerable.
• Disconnected Side Area: Den-1 Area has an inaccessible spot right in the middle of the four Gates leading to the four Net Squares, with Purple Mystery Data on it. It's accessed through WWW Area 1, while the Purple Mystery Data holds the ArmyData required for the SS License examination.
• Disney Death: Everyone seemingly killed by the Gospel spy's traps during the KnightMan scenario all survive the scenario, including the Gospel spy for that matter.
• The Dog Was the Mastermind: Sean, the real identity of the leader of Gospel can be seen and spoken to while riding the airplane with Lan during MagnetMan.EXE's hijack. It's unknown exactly how he would have escaped if the plane had crashed, though.
• Early-Installment Weirdness:
  • This is the first game with Style Change in it, and the mechanics had not yet been refined to the state they were in in Battle Network 3.
    • There are, of course, fewer styles than there would be in Battle Network 3. Because there's no NaviCust yet, abilities are locked to the style.
    • The Chng.bat program needed to gain style change is unique in this installment, and MegaMan has to obtain the program from Yumland. In Battle Network 3, style change would be a relatively ubiquitous phenomenon.
  • This game features irregular, nonstandard magnet panels that force character movement that will disappear for the next couple of games.
  • BugFrags in this game are limited-stock hidden collectibles, while subsequent games make them a farmable secondary currency.
  • Battle Network 2 is uncharacteristically coy about showing the audience the internal dynamic of Gospel, while most other games in the series are up front about the villains, their plans, and their personalities. Gospel is routinely depicted in darkness, with little in the way of mugshots, until the end of the game.
  • There are three variations of the LifeSword Program Advance in this game. LifeSword1 is the only one that survives into later games.
  • Undershirt is a BattleChip in this game. With the introduction of the Navi Customizer in Battle Network 3, Undershirt is converted into a NaviCust program.
• Easter Egg: Right after the KnightMan scenario, Roll can be found in the Yumland area of the internet, implying that Mayl got her A License while Lan and Mega were abroad.
• Easy Level Trick: One way to beat the Protectos (which must be killed all at once, and have high HP) is via the AquaBall/ElecBall/HeatBall chips, which spawns a balloon that absorbs damage from attacks, and blows up the side it's on for that much when it contacts an enemy. Since Protectos use a very powerful fullscreen explosion attack when their countdown ends, this gives the balloon a ton of damage which will proceed to hit the Protectos for that same amount, assuming Mega hasn't shot at the balloon to increase it even further.
• Epic Fail: Lan's report card, which somehow has terrible grades despite Lan cheating with copied test answers that he hides in his book shelf.
• Escape Battle Technique: This game is the first to implement using the L button to escape from battle. It still retains the Escape chips which offer guaranteed escape. Later games fully embrace the L button as the escape command and discard the Escape chip from their libraries.
• Explosive Overclocking: During the endgame, after Megaman defeats Gospel's Bass, Gospel's leader decides to overclock the server power to initiate bug fusion again and create an even more powerful Bass. It instead creates a Multibug Organism whose presence overclocks the servers even further, resulting in the radiation knocking both Lan and Gospel's leader out.
• Fake Longevity: The FreezeMan scenario. While RedCure is obtained reasonably early, YeloCure is only gotten after first going to the Undersquare, paying a HeelNavi 10.000 Zenny for a bit of info, returning to Netopia Square, finding an NPC at a nearby internet chip shop, giving him a rare chip in exchange for a password, and finally going back to the Undersquare AGAIN. Oh, and the warp gates in Den 1 Area are off limits until after YeloCure is obtained. And even after all this is done, you are only about halfway through the scenario.
• Famed In-Story:
  • Lan and MegaMan will receive recognition for their accomplishments from NPCs as each scenario is cleared. Locals will praise Lan for saving Yai, and Ribitta even interviews Lan for saving Okuden Dam.
  • On the flight home from Netopia, a Netopian girl who is studying artificial intelligence programs expresses her wish to see a particularly top-notch blue NetNavi named Mega-something.
• Fantasy Counterpart Culture:
  • Yumland is a country with a huge population known for spicy food like curry, suggesting India, though a folding screen referencing the country in Battle Network 3 suggests China, and subsequent Battle Network games would add lots of influence from Thailand. The Japanese name of the country, Ajina, is the Japanese rendering of Asia (Ajia) with an extra "n", so it could be referencing mainland Asia as a whole.
  • Netopia is Europe-America (in the Japanese version it's literally called Amerope), complete with a mishmash of ancient castles, bustling business districts, and an inner-city ghetto. There's even a South Netopia, as Jennifer explains.
  • Creamland is a country to the north of Netopia, suggesting something from Northern Europe, and its name suggests a Pun on Iceland (i.e., "ice cream"). MegaMan NT Warrior, on the other hand, describes it as an island nation covered in ice most of the year, which would suggest Greenland—perhaps Creamland is a composite of both.
• Foreign Fanservice:
  • One of the game's NPC designs is a pretty fair-skinned Netopian blonde wearing a spaghetti-strap top and short shorts.
  • Another NPC design is of a busty dark-skinned non-Electopian woman^note Jennifer, the only named example identifies herself as South Netopian who wears a tight shirt and jeans.
  • Ms. Millions' character art indicates she has an Impossible Hourglass Figure and her shoulders are bare. In the game, her dialog is saturated with the Interplay of Sex and Violence.
  • Princess Pride's character art indicates she wears a Form-Fitting Wardrobe and has an Impossible Hourglass Figure.
• Foreshadowing:
  • During the opening of the second game, Yai mentions her plans to travel abroad, and after the AirMan scenario, she's briefly unreachable because she is, in fact, travelling around the world. Lan will get to do the same come the middle of the game.
  • During the QuickMan scenario, there is, as always, a custom NPC with a navi-symbol on the front of his hat.
    • Some of Dave's handiwork can be seen before his plot goes off. Somebody reports a canteen being abandoned at the campsite when the kids arrive.
    • Dave tells Lan he and his friends need to evacuate during the bomb crisis... because something "awesome" is about to happen.
  • After the MagnetMan scenario is over and Lan and MegaMan have returned home, a Navi at the square claiming to be a fortune-teller predicts that another ice age will be coming. The FreezeMan scenario is up next.
  • If you look around the KotoSquare, you'll notice it's in the shape of a skull. Naturally, Gospel's hideout is in Kotobuki.
• Free-Range Children: While Haruka is surprised about Lan's various trips, be they camping or to a foreign country, she freely lets him go.
• From Bad to Worse: Lan's trip to Netopia.
  • Lan's trouble starts at the airport itself, where he is forced to surrender his PET, MegaMan in tow, to airport security. (Immediately after this, Yai sends you an e-mail asking for a souvenir).
  • Then, once Lan enters the terminal, a foreigner with a thick French accent bumps into him and steals all his money. It can be retrieved if you confront the man at the Netopian airport after arriving, but if you don't it becomes Permanently Missable Content.
  • After this, Lan finds Chaud in the terminal, who returns Lan's PET to him, but not without flaunting his Official authority and first taunting Lan for being a loser.
  • After arriving in Netopia, Lan's attempt to exit the airport is interrupted by another man, who all but kidnaps him into a "taxi", only to refuse to let Lan leave without first surrendering all of his battle-chips.
  • Once the boys reach their hotel, they blame each other for the catastrophic taxi ride and Lan ditches MegaMan on the floor of his hotel room. After a surprise encounter with Higsby, Lan returns and reconciles with MegaMan, only to learn his passport has been stolen.
  • The boys newly reconciled, they have to go on a quest to retrieve their stolen property. After getting everything back, they attend the ONBA conference in Netopia castle, when suddenly the castle's traps activate and everyone is dumped into the dungeon filled with even more traps.
  • Finally, their flight home involves catching a dangerous venomous spider and the plane nearly crashes because a Gospel member was trying to steal a special program from the plane's server.
• Gemini Destruction Law: The Protectos not only have a good amount of health, but all of them must be killed at the same time in order to destroy them. Failure to do so will cause them to take no damage.
• Generation Xerox: Yai has a statue of her ancestor in the hallway of her mansion. He's a midget with a huge forehead just like she is.
• Gosh Dang It to Heck!: Averted. Words like "damn", "hell", and "crap" are said, and this game still got an E rating.
• Green Aesop: Dave is tightly wound about litter in the valley, but he has a point about the valley having litter. Even local Mr. Progs agree.
• Guide Dang It!: Good luck knowing exactly how the Style Change system works without either trial and error experimentation or a guide. Each individual Style requires very specific conditions fulfilled in battles repeatedly to achieve them, there's a priority list in case the invisible point systems for two of them end in a tie, and the Hub Style is simpler to acquire but has a one-time chance to get it without trading with someone who already has it.
• Horrible Judge of Character: When Lan and MegaMan arrive in Netopia, right as they're about to leave the airport, a Netopian confronts them and insists that he be allowed to give them a ride into town. Mega, in search for something nice to say, suggests he's just being a nice person. After this man forces Lan into his car, he then threatens to kill him if he won't turn over his battle-chips.
• Improbable Aiming Skills: During the KnightMan Scenario, Lan is able to throw his wireless adapter with enough skill that it inserts itself perfectly into the jack without any damage.
• Inexplicable Language Fluency: MegaMan's translation system allows Lan to speak flawless Netopian after they arrive in Netopia.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Part of a series-wide Running Gag is that the game makes it pretty explicit that your console is acting like Lan's PET, such as the opening AirMan scenario where MegaMan activates a gas sensor program which allows Lan to use his PET to see the deadly gas and Dex has two real Game Boy Advance units in his house, which MegaMan remarks it's like he's in a PET.
• Language Barrier: The residents of Netopia are shown speaking with symbols in their dialect before Lan activates his translator.
• Law of Conservation of Detail:
  • As coy as the game is with Gospel agents and their actions, there are still tell-tale signs like custom character sprites.
  • Subverted during the flight home from Netopia. There are no less than five never-before-seen NPC designs, and even the generic NPCs are the most personality-rich in the series.
• Let's You and Him Fight: Chaud somehow comes to the conclusion that Lan is Gospel's mole during the crisis at the castle in Netopia and attacks him. This leads to a boss fight against ProtoMan.
• The Mole: During the private Netopia summit, the officials and Lan are trapped in a dungeon and deduce one of them is a spy. Chaud wrongfully and initially pins it on Lan, though soon the real culprit turns out to be Princess Pride, whose small country started to fall behind other big countries in prestige, which made her an easy target for Gospel to sway to their side.
• Natural Disaster Cascade: The Weather-Control Machine that's been suppressing unpleasant weather for years, when hacked, threatens to unleash earthquakes and storms upon the world.
• Nerf
  • MegaMan's regular Charged Shots took a big nerf compared to the other games, now doing five times the Attack rating. At best it would do 25 damage, as opposed to 40-80 (in the first game) or 50 (in all others). This low multiplier is to offset the Attack doubling from Hub Style, which would fire off 50-damage Charge Shots at best.
  • Players can only pack five copies of each chip instead of ten, forcing variety instead of just creating a folder loaded with as few as three unique chips.
  • Cannon and Shockwave chips have had their power drastically reduced, encouraging them to be replaced with more mechanically interesting and powerful chips, rather than starting and staying as the best option throughout the game as they were in 1 for being both among the most powerful chips and the easiest to use.
  • Tornado is based on the strongest chip yielded from Battle Network 1's Fanner family (Cyclone), but loses 10 damage.
  • Zigzagged with RockCube, which takes on the properties of the first game's IceCube: it only creates one cube instead of three, but it always appears in the panel in front of the player instead of being placed randomly.
  • Anubis no longer drains enemy HP as fast as in the first game. It has to be combined with other specific chips to form the Poison Pharaoh PA to achieve its true power.
• No One Could Survive That!: Exaggerated and straight into Artistic License – Physics territory. Lan should have been dead from radiation poisoning before Battle Network 3 if he was exposed to hundreds of thousands of rads, even with a top-notch radiation suit. Then again, this is some kind of wacky computer-born radiation that causes someone to walk sideways when he tries to go forwards, and starts merging the real and cyber worlds if left unchecked, so perhaps the usual rules don't apply...in-game, it is said to be magnetic radiation suggesting that it affects iron in the blood at a molecular level instead of an atomic level.
• Not Rare Over There: When Lan is forced to rely on support from the Netopian ghetto to get his stolen property back, Jim, the local kid serving as Lan's informant, demands to be paid in the "rare" Guard * battle-chip (which is ubiquitous in Electopia). Another resident of the ghetto drops a hint that any Electopian tourist should have them, and, wouldn't you know it, there just so happens to be another Electopian tourist by the castle. Talk to her and she'll give you thirty of them. Once Lan returns to Electopia, a hidden NPC in ACDC Town will give him another twenty of the same chip.
• Nothing Is Scarier: YumLand's internet area basically suffers from a genocidal attack from ShadowMan.EXE, leaving the area completely barren save for a single NetNavi. When you first arrive, the BGM completely cuts out to show how barren it's become. On repeat visits, sad music constantly plays as you explore its Square, and it stays desolate until the net denizens are revived through backup data, and later on Lan and MegaMan must steal the Chng.BAT - the national treasure - to obtain Style Change, triggering security on their butts.
• Numerical Hard:
  • As always, upgraded versions of bosses have more hit points and do more damage. Zigzagged in that a number of them develop more advanced tactics as well.
  • Getting 100% Completion in this game and inputting a certain code at the title screen unlocks Hard Mode, where the enemies simply have increased HP and do more damage. Because the Battle Chips and the drop rates don't scale accordingly, however, this simple change vastly steepens the difficulty curve.
• Obvious Rule Patch: In the Japanese GBA version, hitting a Prism with a TreeBomb causes Prism to activate repeatedly, obliterating the HP of anything in its range. In the international GBA version, hitting a Prism with a TreeBomb causes Prism to be activated once and the TreeBomb to vanish without completely resolving. In Legacy Collection, things play out like the Japanese GBA version except in multiplayer, where Prism is modified to flinch the opposing MegaMan and trigger Mercy Invincibility.
• Old Save Bonus: Retro Chip Traders let you get chips from the first game if connected via Link Cable. They are completely removed from Legacy Collection.
• One-Hit Kill: The Whirlpool and Blackhole chips allows Mega to toss a projectile that turns into a whirlpool on the floor. Any basic viruses (but not bosses) that walk into it will be instantly deleted. However, the chip is Awesome, but Impractical to use due to the whirlpool counting like an occupied space after a second of formation, preventing viruses from actively moving into it (though Wind or other Knock Back can still push them into one).
• One-Time Dungeon: Subverted with the detonators during the Okuden incident. After defeating QuickMan, all four detonators will be relocated to the dam for research purposes, in case there are things there you forgot.
• Palette Swap: The NPC who kidnaps Lan and robs him of his battle-chips has the same design as the dark-skinned Netopians, but has light skin. Lampshaded if the player confronts one of the standard-palette NPCs of the same design.
• Party in My Pocket: Used briefly during the Okuden camp scenario. Since this is the only time in the series it's used, it's very jarring; apparently players were just expected to know what it meant when all the other kids walked into Lan. (Standard Battle Network procedure when Lan's in a group is just to have everybody hang around somewhere, checking things out, until you trigger a cutscene that moves the party.)
• Permanently Missable Content: Some items are locked off to a specific timeframe in the story and would be unobtainable if the player advances too far into the story, mostly chips with specific codes. A non-chip example is Lan's stolen money — if you don't talk to the blonde NPC at the Netopian airport twice before you finish the Net Castle scenario, you're not getting the money back.
• Plot-Mandated Friendship Failure: After Lan gets his stuff stolen at Netopia, he and Mega Man blame each other for the catastrophic arrival with Lan tossing Mega Man on the floor of his hotel room. After a conversation with Higsby, Lan reconciles with Mega Man.
• Point of No Return:
  • Jacking into any of the detonators during the camp scenario prohibits you from jacking out until you've disabled the detonator. This includes the final detonator, where you must defeat QuickMan himself. Players not prepared for the challenge will find themselves unable to easily restore HP or access better chips.
  • After defeating the second Boss Rush wave of Gospel Navis (KnightMan, MagnetMan, FreezeMan) in Gospel Server 1, a Mr. Prog urges Megaman to save immediately or after jacking out, as the intense radiation in the next room will overwhelm Lan's PET and make it impossible to save there.
• Precocious Crush: When Lan goes to get his passport from the Official center, he can tell the lady at the front desk that she's pretty, but she'll just tell him he's too short to date. Later he is given the same dialogue option towards Ms. Millions, but she'll just lazily shut him off.
• Psychopathic Manchild: The leader of Gospel finds himself exasperated to discover that all the people in his committed terrorist organization are "lame". He's actually just a kid, so him thinking so childishly makes sense.
• Puzzle Boss: The Protectos of the Bonus Dungeon, who have substantial amounts of health but must all be killed in one fell swoop.
• Racial Face Blindness: A Netopian NPC remarks that all Electopians and Yumlanders (i.e. Japanese and Thais) look alike when talking to Lan.
• Recurring Riff: Battle Network 2 has a recurring Leitmotif that occurs in the title theme, the airport BGM, and the Very Definitely Final Dungeon.
• R-Rated Opening: The first arc is very much this. The game starts with a man flat out gassing a young girl with intent to hold her for ransom, showing no remorse for it, and then, he is implied to be killed in a You Have Failed Me moment.
• Save Scumming: Unlike later games, the contents of Green Mystery Data on the net are only determined when Megaman collects them instead of when he jacks in. This makes it possible to save beforehand and keep resetting until it gives the desired result. In particular, GMD in Undernet 5 has the potential to contain a whopping 50,000 Zenny, while WWW Area 1 GMD can contain the chips that form LifeSword3 in *-code.
• Sequel Hook: The scene after the end credits, in which Dr. Hikari suggests that someone was manipulating the leader of Gospel. That the Bonus Dungeon is named WWW Area doesn't help.
• Send in the Clones: During the final act, ProtoMan is briefly seen fighting many duplicates of Gospel navis. When the heroes go Storming the Castle, Gospel is able to send in clones of MegaMan's allies as well.
• Ship Tease:
  • When Lan returns from Netopia, Mayl, Dex, and Yai are waiting for him, and Mayl in particular rushes him and seizes him in a hug, so beside herself with emotion that she declares she'll never let him go again. In Lan's dreams, that is. Mega even teases him over mumbling Mayl's name in his sleep.
  • At the start of the FreezeMan scenario, Roll is separated from Mayl and left stranded in the internet. Once Mayl sends word of this, MegaMan starts champing at the bit to go rescue her.
• Shooting At Your Own Projectiles: The AquaBall, ElecBall, and HeatBall Battle Chips allow MegaMan to spawn a slow-moving balloon with a 10 damage counter over it. Every time the balloon is hit by an attack from either side, the counter goes up by the damage dealt. Should the balloon hit an enemy or obstacle, it explodes the side it's on for elemental damage equal to the counter. This makes it especially useful against the Protectos, as their very powerful whole-field attack will add to its damage.
• Socialization Bonus: There are 10 Secret Chips that can only be obtained as S-rank rewards for winning multiplayer battles against an opponent with at least 3 stars on their savefile^*Big Red Wave, Freeze Bomb, Sparker, Gaia Sword, Black Bomb, Fighter/Knight/Hero Swords, Meteors, and Poltergeist.
• So Proud of You: After the FreezeMan scenario, Haruka reveals she knows what Lan and MegaMan have been up to (wandering into danger to save the world)... and that she's proud of them.
• Status Quo Is God: Mayl essentially confessed her feelings for Lan (and he finally understood) during the epilogue of Battle Network 1, but this game behaves as if that never happened.
• The Stinger: The real Bass is seen in the WWW area eliminating a copy of himself and promising to deliver "judgement" on whoever tried to make them.
• Surprisingly Creepy Moment:
  • KotoSquare is a nice place filled with nice people who do things like pray for peace. And then you realize the square is shaped like a skull, the local shop is an efficient way to collect bug frags, and it's really a front for Gospel.
  • The Quiz King is an elderly man who is the last of a series of charming NPCs who quiz you about game trivia in exchange for rewards. It also turns out that he's taking over the body of an elderly man who hasn't been conscious since he was thirteen-years-old.
• Town with a Dark Secret: Kotobuki is a mostly unseen location that's heavily built up as a happy and jolly place...until you realise that the KotoSquare is shaped like a skull. When you finally visit Kotobuki for real in the endgame, not only is Gospel stationed there, their leader's experiments are causing the local reality to glitch out.
• Unintentionally Unwinnable: The Rush/Mole virus, which awards the PopUp battle chip, will flee the battle after taking 10 hits and will only take 1 point of damage from attacks under normal circumstances. Normally this is not a issue at all given that he has exactly 10 health, but in Hard Mode he has 15 health, meaning its impossible to defeat him and earn his chip normally. The only way to delete him and earn his chip is to Area Grab until he is locked to a single panel then throw a Whirlpool or Black Hole chip at him as soon as he submerges, which deletes him regardless of health. With that said, good luck if you don't have 4 Area Grabs in Hard Mode or are unlucky enough to not draw all 4.
• Unlockable Difficulty Levels: Achieving 100% Completion unlocks Hard Mode, which lets you start a new game against enemies with buffed stats.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: The fate of every Gospel operator for failing to move with their plans is to be gravely injured at best or killed through attacks that look like terrorist attacks in order to hide the bodies at worst by their leader.
• Warmup Boss:
  • AirMan is the only Gospel boss who does not have an annoying gimmick, which makes him a straightforward fight. Kind of ironic since his Robot Master counterpart is infamous for his difficulty.
  • You can spar with GutsMan shortly after AirMan's defeat. He has slow, telegraphed attacks or short-range punches, and isn't too difficult.
• Weather-Control Machine: Made important when the computer suppressing the planet's weather is hacked, threatening to unleash years' worth of earthquakes and storms on the planet.

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