I think virtual communities and other virtual crap should be in BN, since the NetNavis are basically act human (though trees and stuff would still be pretty cosmetic). I think at some points the designers didn't care but there's some definite logical correlation with how things are supposed to work. Above all, though, the draw was collecting BattleChips, not pretty places to run around in.

That's not true.

BN1: Stoneman and Bombman had no operators

BN2: Cutman had no operator

BN3: Bubbleman had no operator.

Those come to mind even without having played the game for a while.

It could be that the ones without operators were:

A. Lying about not having an operator.

B. Their operators NEVER appeared, but they still had them.

C. Multiple navis had ONE operator. (MMBN5, all four bosses being Regal's)

I'm thinking they were fairly specific on the point that StoneMan and BombMan have no operators. I know they go out of their way to get it across in the anime, anyways. Not that I hold it in particularly high regard, mind you. XD

Bubbleman also, I believe, is mentioned to have no operator. I never saw one for CutMan, but I'm not sure if that necessarily means he didn't have one.

But yeah, there was a greater abundance of operatorless navis back then, I'd say.

1,2, and 3 were okay.

Once they dragged in that "good vs. evil" junk, well, that was the negative turn... and Django really did NOT have to join the BN crew, obscure as he was.

And we all know about the difficulty plunge of a couple of recent last bosses... (think Pokémon-like)

After Duo...pssh, no wai man.

I wholeheartedly agree that the series has been going downhill, even moreso then just the net since the first 3 games. MMBN4 was the biggest letdown for me. The series felt it had taken a complete overhaul since then. I mean, take ACDC Town itself. The net is liable to change with time as much as it sees fit, but after continuing to remain the same for the first three games like a normal city would, why all the sudden move everything around? I mean, what kind of city does that? Besides that they decide after making it so that everything ties together with fairly nice detail, to up and suddenly drop Style Changes altogether and somehow introduce Double Souls. I mean, at least they explained how he got the Style Changes using a change.bat but then they don't even bother explaining how Double Souls work? And they introduced the awesome Navi Customizer in BN3 as a pretty useful device that was actually needed in some instances. Other games it's just another small add-on to have to make things a little more interesting, though that's probably more my opinion. I liked the progression of the net between the first three, how it went from being the same look in every area to adding a few more decorative features to make it feel like a part of the real world (like in BN3 where ACDC area had similar objects to it's park and likewise with the Scilabs area with it's counters and doorpanels). But I agree with Dr. Cossack that they've taken it a bit far with cyber this and that and having curses and ghosts (not like navi ghosts but the ones you have to deal with in the Undernet in BN5) and such on the net. I loved the whole idea of teamwork in the first 3 and the good/evil thing wouldn't have been so bad if it had more of an effect on the story itself rather then the gameplay or didn't just feel repetative during the 4th and especially the 5th games. BN6 I felt was a pretty decent game compared to the previous two before it, with the unfortunate fact that it ended the series for Lan and the others. It's a real kicker when you get attached to the characters just to have the series jump ahead 200 years. At least that can work with the Original and X series since they mostly consist of age-defying reploids, but it's because of the whole teamwork concept of the story that's going to make me miss all the human characters I've grown used to seeing. But yeah, I'm done ranting. :hehe:

Would it really have been better for the games to go past 6, Chaos Trigger? I don't see why they wouldn't have ended the series there. Dr. Wily seemed to be kind of through with the evil thing, and Dr. Regal was no longer a threat. No Gospel either... Instead of just pulling out a random new bad guy and going for a seventh game, cutting the series off was pretty justified. I mean, six games is a lot.

ACDC town did sort of degrade as the games went on, but I think that it makes sense that the net evolved to contain things like trees and so forth. I like to stress that net navis weren't just for efficiency; they were made to be as entertaining as possible as well. It's only sensible that the net would be changed to be a more user-friendly interface by the addition of scenery.

It did make for a good ending, but more or less it's not so much the fact that it ended that we won't get to see Lan and the others still alive for the next series. I'm not so much upset that the original series has ended as I am that I won't get to see all the human characters again. Not unless they find some miracle formula for allowing people to live past 200 or otherwise he pulls a Tadashi and leaves himself as data on the net or something.

And I agree with you that the net would change to be more user friendly. I'm fine with that. I think seeing trees and other such various real world items in the net gives it more feeling then it originally had. I just don't like it when suddenly normal ghosts start to appear on the net that drain your strength, or that another person from another world would be stalking a navi vampire onto the net. Things like that one guy saying a spell in the real world and it having an effect on the navi as a curse? How does that happen? It's those extra things that just feel completely unnecessary and unlogical (as far as the previous games go) that annoy me.

Does undershirt work that way? I thought it was once per battle.

That doesn't really make sense though. I mean, I can see undershirt, having some sort of extra layer that stops a fatal blow... but undershot? It'd be the only NC block that affects the enemy Navi's ability to hit something.

Actually it's based off a chip in BN2(I think) that allowed you to stop a fatal blow and retain 1 HP once per use. The icon of the chip was a sort of chainmail-ish shirt if I recall.

Mega Man as a whole doesn't deal with stark realism, so SciLab doesn't have to, either.

Well, to be honest, the whole city kinda moves around, Higsby's for example... >_>