IIRC 3 adds important customization stuff. I also hear good things about 6 but it's probably a bit clusterfuckish in terms of story, characters and systems for people who haven't played every game before
Is there consensus or any waterproof arguments for one game being the best?
They all have pros and cons and I don't think there is one that does absolutely everything better than the others. But I think the best overall are 2 and 6. The only downside to 6 is that it's easier than the other games and is a bit creatively dry because so many concepts have been used already
3 has the best endgame and secrets but the actual story campaign is full of filler and backtracking.
1 is unpolished but its a fun little experimental game that can be finished in under 10 hours
2 hits a sweet spot between them.
Doesn't 3 add some customization elements that 2 didn't have and that are great and used in all following games?
It added the Navi Customizer but that is not a good thing. It means you have to constantly open the menu and adjust it to walk past certain spaces on the internet.
>It means you have to constantly open the menu and adjust it to walk past certain spaces on the internet.
What you mean walk past certain spaces?
And from what I've seen people like that system. What are the benefits of it?
Why are there even 10 different games in this series anyway? What is it with Capcom spamming Mega Man games?
There are some areas with small paths that require you to have the Press program installed. It's kind of annoying, but it's not THAT big of a deal. Otherwise, the customizing in 3 is quite good. Want more chips to choose from in the chip select screen? Put some Custom1 or Custom2 programs in. Want more damage on your buster? Put some ATK+1s in. Want more MegaChips in your folder? Put some MegaFldrs in. Have Heat style and want to start each round with Lava Stage? You got it. Want your charge shots to break guards? Sure. Want MegaMan to tell you shitty jokes? Go right ahead.
Thankfully, they realised that the NaviCustomiser shouldn't be used for story progression or map exploration from the 4th game onwards.
Regrettably, the Legacy Collection release didn't address this in their re-release of the third instalment.
I would've loved if they did something like, added in an additional side-quest that let you convert the Press program into a permanent upgrade as a key item.
There's two other programs used during the story, but are not needed after their respective sections are completed.
Yeah, there's also one very important story moment at the end of BN1.
It re-introduces that element in every entry though, but BN1 has the impactful reveal.
If you feel it necessary to play the games in chronological release order, my recommendation is that you rush through BN1 if it isn't clicking quite right. The main story can be beaten fairly quickly, it's the side content you can sink time into like exploring "the internet" which is effectively a super-dungeon, with 70% of it being optional.
I personally think 3 is the best because I like its post-game the most. There is so much to do after beating Alpha for the first time, and it's not even really a slog except for getting all of the standard chips. 2 is also great. I like 2's main game better than 3's, but I like 3's post game better, so those two for me are the best.
BN4 should've been a more fleshed out version of the navi spin off game with the player and their navi going through a tournament circut.
For me it's 5 and 6, but 1 and 3 are close. As long as we all agree that 4 is a piece of shit anything goes.
Can you just pick any and understand most things because it has its own story and arc of tension or will you be confused the whole time? Don't really want to start with 1 since it seems mechanically inferior and I don't think I could do 2 games so similar without burning out
Play the DS version of 1, problem solved
Just spread them out, you don't have to play them all at once
I just wish they'd release a proper English version of Star Force 3. The original Japanese release has exclusive stuff.
The amount of stuff they took out of SF3 is crazy, but honestly we probably ended up with a better balanced version as a result.
Colonel is the canon game.
>Now they all got rereleased:
I wish. The collection missing out 6 games not counting the arcade one
>Battle Chip Challenge
>4.5
>WS
>Network Transmission
>Operation Shooting Star
>Phantom of Network
>Battle Chip Challenge
We don't need that
You forgot Legend of Network, the other i-mode mobile game that came after Phantom of Network.
The final boss was Trojan Horse.
Of the games listed there, 4.5 is hard to recommend with the original play-style. Navis acted semi-autonomously and it relied very heavily on e-reader gimmicks.
A fan-mod to make it play like a traditional BN game where you assume control of the navi actually makes it quite fun, especially since it had real-time elements.
Operation Shooting Star should have been in the collection, but they also didn't include the DS version of BN5.
Network Transmission I have a soft-spot for, but it's a divisive entry that follows the numbers of BN1/2 a little too closely and compromises the platformer experience for it.
As in, your mega buster starts out literally useless, but after investment becomes extremely good.
4.5 would be so cool if a romhacker jus removed the weird proto mobile phone game time gate non sense and made unlocking chips and navis faster and more sensible. Such a slog as is sadly.
I like 4.5 for what it is. The game is supposed to be a proof of concept of how a BN game would be if you can Netbattle like in the anime, you aren't supposed to have direct control over your Navi and you are supposed to use Battlechip Gate to actually send chips in battle like an actual Netbattler. At least, the game didn't force you to buy toys just to play it otherwise there will be no way to emulate it.
I believe people only hate 4.5 because of how dumb the AI was. It makes HeelNavi much harder than Bass only because it keeps summoning viruses in the field and the AI can't handheld dodging multiple enemies for shit. I still hope that Capcom will bring this concept back in the future even if its a mobile game, the collection already proved successful and showed that people still love the series
The lack of controllable navis actually make this game pretty fun to emulate on a smartphone. The whole time schedule mechanic works well with it too.
The problem with 4.5 isn't even the combat, because even the real time combat hack doesn't turn it into a good game. Everything else is shit too, the game progression and layout is awful, 4 was already bad but 4.5 was an even lower low.
There is no need for operation shooting star. Although the QoL stuff is nice (being able to escape from battle using the L button instead of a chip and having maps for all areas of the net), the game itself doesn't change much: the game still refuses to give you chips even at high busting ranks, for the most part, bosses stand still or have very simple patterns of moving up and down, using chips feels sluggish in comparison with other games (something that capcom could have fixed but chose not to) and the Star Force extra scenario is bad, just a fetch quest, although having geo as a playable character is cool. Also, isn't the collection in japan called "advanced collection"? that would exclude all games not in the gba
How connected are they story wise? Can I just start with 3 and understand 90% and the drama and twists without playing 1 and 2 first?
>How connected are they story wise?
Kinda, yeah. 1-3 stories are connected and 4-6 stories also connect loosely depending on which version you played. BN6 story doesn't make much sense if you haven't played the Colonel version of BN5 first. It's really weird
5
I really like what the liberation missions bring to the table. Unfortunately the chip selection is lacking for me but the souls make up for it.
Found a good deal. Does 3 have a lot of backtracking and random encounters compared to the other ones though?
from best to worst:
3
6
2
5
1
4
not that complex.
depends on what you like. 2's story is batshit crazy with stuff constantly happening and it added a bunch of major improvements. 3 refined things even more and added more customization options and probably the most robust postgame. 6 (jap or a restored version) is the most balanced and has a pretty good selection of everything. I'd probably go 2 > 3 > 6 but it's really mostly preference
dunking on navis with busted combos never gets old in any of them
Agree with this. 3 has by far the most to do out of any of the games while 6 unfortunately has a really limited postgame even with the restored Graveyard which is its biggest weak point for such an otherwise incredible all-rounder title. But 2's story is so fucking great and it has a bunch of fun and completely broken chip combos to play around with. It lacking the NaviCust is an upside too honestly, compression codes and weird progression locks were shit. Which is unfortunate since the later games really fleshed it out well.
2 was wild, the villain in the airman scenario getting murdered along with trying to extort Yai's parents by nearly killing her, the main antagonist being revealed as some suicidal orphan, that plane hijacking sequence with the game's release not being too far removed from 91/11, and Lan and all his friends being exposed to copious amounts of radiation at the end of the game. Didn't really like the game as much as 1 for whatever reason though, way too much backtracking, more obnoxious enemies than the first one, and the maps were just bothersome to navigate. Though maybe I was just burned out as I'd finished the first game not long before it.
>best battle network game?
shanghai, no contest
BN3 VC and BN6 VC JP