Mega Man Battle Network Legacy Collection | review
The great work of restoring all one’s successful mental qualities to be done by one Capcom in the big swing, it doesn’t stop at the brand resident Evilseemingly.
In fact, we’ve spent the last few weeks in the company of Mega Man Battle Network Legacy CollectionCollection of all strategy/RPG offshoots of the series MegaManoriginally released on the Game Boy Advance.
As always, we’ve followed this compilation with interest because the premises were positive: now it’s time to see if they’ve been translated into a worthy box, both for nostalgics and newcomers alike.
Six for one and some confusion
In an attempt to offer the public the widest range of purchasing options, Capcom may have created a bit of confusion regarding the sales model, which we’ll dispel here: three versions of the Mega Man Battle Network Legacy Collectiontwo of which are available for just under forty euros and one for sixty euros.
The first two each renamed part 1 And volume 2each contain three games in chronological order: the part 1 contains the first episode, the second, and the double version of the third (Blue and White) when the franchise begins Pokemonstarted seeing each new chapter released in two versions, with minimal differences between the two.
The volume 2 instead contains the episodes from fourth to sixth, all of which were released in two versions (Red Sun and Blue Moon for the fourth, Team Protoman and Team Colonel for the fifth, and Cybeast Gregar and Cybeast Galgar for the sixth) – and therefore apparently , at the same price, the second collection could appear more attractive.
In reality, we can assure our readers that the amount of content is roughly the same for both packs, with only the first episode of the franchise being slightly shorter than the others that otherwise settle about twenty to thirty hours each.
A quick calculation is enough to see how much the relationship between the amount of content offered and the asking price is enormously unbalanced in favor of the user, who, with less than sixty euros to start with, gets between 70 and 90 hours of play depending on the desire, the optional ones Try out content and endgames of the different episodes.
Despite the sales model not being immediately clear, we welcome Capcom’s decision to offer the possibility to buy only half of the collection at a reduced price, so that the undecided can take their first steps into the world of Mega Man Battle Network without shelling out the full amount of the full package, which still remains by far the most convenient option for those who already know the titles and can’t wait to try their hand at a second run.
Dispelled doubts and insecurities, a brief breath on the track Tell stories of the six titles included in this collection: set in the near future (in the game of 200X, so a date that we are hypothetically long past today), The games are all about the internetat the time of initial publication compared to today in an almost embryonic phase.
Lan Hikari and his avatar MegaMan.EXE stand as advocates for justice in a virtual world where there are no rules, almost like in the Wild West a few centuries ago: the cartoonish tones of Saturday morning give way at some point, e.g Some mice typical of Japanese growth manga (It’s no coincidence that an anime and a manga also sprang from this series).
The everyday life of a young teenager, school, friendships, nothing that hasn’t already existed in everyone JRPG grows up – but especially for a young audience Single stories work pretty wellalthough they are all a bit similar, as are the gameplay dynamics of the titles themselves.
Played with disillusioned eyes, after more than twenty years of narrative in the video game medium reaching then unthinkable heights, The plots of the various games are almost tendernessbut overall, both the effort in terms of world-building and narrative coherence from episode to episode are remarkable.
A little less noticeable, also because it could cut a slice of publicity, it is instead the lack of subtitles in our languagewith English as the only option for those who don’t speak Japanese.
change of scenery
Shuffle game phases Three-quarter view reconnaissance and tactical battlesa peculiar recipe for the time and even more so if we think about the gameplay of the titles of the main series, of which however there are a handful of references here and there: each of the dungeons explored, for example, has a theme just like the internship of MegaMan Classics, even if the possibility of tackling them in the preferred order is missing here, since the progression is much more controlled and tied to the main questline.
THE Battles are unfortunately random and especially in the first few titles, their frequency could be annoying for younger players who are not used to this mechanic.
Once you’ve attacked a group of enemies, you’ll be transported to a six by three grid divided into two sides, the left, blue, for our character and the right, red, for the opponents on duty.
In order to act, it is necessary to select one or more of the five drawn chips (per turn) from a specially prepared stack totaling thirty chips, even if the player can then (and must!) move around the grid in real-time to dodge enemy attacks and aim his properly.
As often happens The system is much more complicated to explain than to play and after a few practice battles, you will immediately master a game structure that is rather simple on paper, but which does not lack finesse, especially from the third chapter of the series – the first two-part follow-up game dedicated to Pokémon and , still a fan favorite today.
As the reviews of the time already made clear and also apply in part to the Game Freaks series, which Capcom was clearly inspired by, The resemblance between the six titles released in the short span of five years is very striking – and thanks to the moderate duration of each episode, the advice is to play them with other games so as not to suffer prematurely from some kind of Burn out.
More quantity than quality, but not in a pejorative sense
We didn’t have a chance to test the game except in version Switch (you find it on Amazon), but given the way the titles are played in television mode, we assume that the small screen of the Nintendo hybrid device, despite the added filters to soften the edges and the original pixels, is ideal to play these originally born titles, finally for a portable hardware .
The revival of the original engineering subjects, fitting elevated In order not to look too bad on modern screens, it only partially lives up to the work of Capcom’s graphics at the time, which worked wonders on a very limited console like the Game Boy Advance, with the result that today none of those games shine particularly, although the last three released remain the most refined and mature in terms of presentation.
If, of course, the original Toylink features of the Game Boy Advance are not supported, the online play is the real thing, which we could not test before the official launch of the game, but which promises to become one of the most interesting features of this re-release, with such a great system for sharing chips with friends and other users on the internet to form the perfect deck.
Considering the size of today’s downloads, considering that Capcom managed to include a dozen games (six plus their variants as explained at the beginning of the piece, but that’s it) and lots of fun in just a little over 2GB Altogether to make The Elders smile and return (not without tears) to the days of the glorious Nintendo portable console, also brought back to the crest of the waves by the next remakes of the first two installments of the franchise pre-wars.
You are not missing Additions to the collection aspect: a large collection of preparatory sketches and mostly unpublished images, the Booster MAX option, which is nothing more than a significantly less challenging game for any less able (or younger) player, and finally, a music gallery and all four hundred maps exclusive to Japan, which can be scanned in a special menu.
In short, we are not among the parts of the best collection proposed on Switch (those packaged by M2 still remain at another level), but the amount of content and extras for fans can only be satisfied.
Verified Version: Nintendo Switch
