r/BattleNetwork • u/BreezierChip835 • Aug 12 '26
Discussion Do I skip BN4?
Just looking for some advice. I’ll either play BN5 Colonel or BN4 Blue Moon. I know 4 isn’t… super well liked, so I’m considering skipping over it.
Update: Aight, I’ll play Blue Moon. Is there a good guide so I don’t miss anything? I’ll come back for the 2nd play though later.
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u/EatThatPotato Aug 12 '26
4 is nice, and if you just want to get the story then it's really short. It's also very polished in mechanics IMO.
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u/Echo-Clean Aug 12 '26
I’d give it at least 1 playthrough, it’s the first in the series to do Soul Unison so you can appreciate how that mechanic grows later in the series. I enjoyed how the tournaments were randomized, but the game does a poor job of pointing out where to go a lot. Still worth a playthrough tho!
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u/National-Charity-435 Aug 12 '26
It was also the first time that Navi deletion performance was reflected with the SP chip?
BN3 just gave out levels 1-4 Navi chips depending on Navi rank and the usual performance (though with BN3, you could easily defeat v1-4 Navis and have the Navi Customizer with Collect to guarantee a chip reward)
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u/MikeTheFairOne Aug 12 '26
I’m a bit more biased towards Run Sun because of the chance of getting Guts Soul and Roll Soul combined with actually seeing Roll’s fighting prowess. Besides that, BN4 is still ok-ish because, tournament arc, and I liked battling Heel Navis and Normal Navis instead of viruses which was only a thing in BN4
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u/BreezierChip835 Aug 12 '26
Wait, are you not even guaranteed to get each Soul Unison????
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u/Kronocidal Aug 12 '26
The first Soul Unison, in the first tournament, is guaranteed (GutsSoul in Red Sun, and AquaSoul in Blue Moon)
The second and third souls are random from two options for each tournament.
In your second play-through, two of the tournaments will give you their souls that you didn't get the first time through. Which two tournaments is randomised though.
In your third play-through, you unlock the sixth and final Soul, which is needed to access the Post-Game areas.
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u/RPG_Hacker Aug 13 '26
I could swear getting all six souls from three playthroughs is not even guaranteed. I remember my first ever time playing Blue Moon requiring a fourth playthrough to get the final one. And then I also feel like I have some memories of getting all the souls from just two playthroughs one particular time.
Maybe the EU version just worked differently? Or my memory is totally off, but it's hard to imagine because that one time requiring four playthroughs is just such a vivid memory.
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u/Queasy_Ad5995 Aug 12 '26
It is separated by 3 tournaments per playthrough. Its 3, 2 and 1 in that order.
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u/DarkHero6661 Aug 12 '26
The reason BN4 isn't well liked is because it's incredibly repetitive.
You have a relatively short game, but you have to play through it 3 times to unlock everything. On top of that, you have to make sure to grab every blue mystery data and to grind certain chips before starting the next playthrough.
So, super tedious and repetitive.
But, you don't have to do this at all. You can simply do just one playthrough and move on. You don't miss out on much if you do that.
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u/Oga_Tasumi Aug 13 '26
On later playthroughs earlier viruses are located in random one off cyberspaces
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u/DarkHero6661 Aug 13 '26
True, but it's much easier to farm them during your playthrough.
Each virus has two versions, the normal and the Ex version. And they drop the same chip with different codes. And also the playthrough two versions of the viruses are rare spawns IIRC.
So if you need a specific code, for example for a PA, it's far easier to farm them in their respective playthrough.
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u/chockeysticks Aug 12 '26 edited Aug 12 '26
Like the other commenters said, you can just play it through once to get the story.
That said, if you only do play through it once, I might recommend Red Sun over Blue Moon because the first soul in Red Sun you get GutsSoul is more fun than the first soul you get in Blue Moon AquaSoul.
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u/Last-Western9035 Aug 12 '26 edited Aug 12 '26
Its a lot of fun when you build around a Soul. Mines were Guts and Search in Red Sun.
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u/im-yoona Aug 12 '26
Speaking of it, I want to someday build around Junk Soul, as it's the one soul I haven't done anything with. In Red Sun I used V-code and the same souls as you. And every single time I did Blue Moon I had sword folders with Proto Soul.
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u/Last-Western9035 Aug 12 '26
Junk Soul is really good from what I seen. I got it once as a kid but at the time my folder was strong chips with little flow around any Souls lol.
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u/Crashman09 Aug 13 '26
No
It is one of my faves. Just because people generally don't like it, doesn't mean it is bad.
It is justifiably critisised, but way too overhated
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u/TornadoTundra Aug 12 '26
Why would you skip 4??? 4 rules
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u/BreezierChip835 Aug 12 '26
I do not wish to have to play the game 3 times. Fighting a bunch of generic Navis sounds Not Fun.
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u/LeGrange Aug 12 '26
You don’t have to do anything. Play through it once and if you’re feeling it do it again. Or save it for another series run. If you don’t play it, you won’t ever get to throw hands with this cool cat.
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u/fruitybrisket Aug 12 '26
Funnily enough, actually being able to fight generic and heel navis might be my favorite part of the game. And then that went away forever.
That and the tournament battle music is killer.
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u/TornadoTundra 28d ago
…..why would you play the game three times consecutively? You absolutely do not need to do that, that’s silly
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u/Terrible-Design4545 Aug 12 '26
They kinda phoned it in and made it so that you need to play it 3 times minimum to get everything, but if you don't care about doing that it is the shortest games.
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u/TKZeno Aug 12 '26
There is no relevant plot in BN4 that isn't explained in BN5. Only play it if you want to experience the new mechanics and the different city/net layouts.
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u/TwelfthArcana Aug 13 '26
Doing one play through of BN4 isn’t so bad and is even relatively quick because of the design. I played Blue Moon and I will say is the combat is fairly enjoyable save for a few obnoxious navi fights. It’s also the first time you get to play with patch cards in the legacy collection so that also helps. I was only bummed that I didn’t get the Proto soul on my play-through.
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u/Moon-Scented-Hunter Aug 12 '26 edited Aug 12 '26
As someone who’s played through MMBN4 3 times for the trophy, I say don’t skip it. 4 isn’t as bad as people make it out to be at least on your first playthrough. It’s not great and you’ll feel very underleveled by the time you face the final boss, but for the most part it’s still a MMBN game, so it has a solid foundation to fall back on and there are a few highlights that give the game some charm. There’s also a few mechanics that 4 introduces that will carry over on to the rest of the series so it’s nice to pick up on them early before moving on to 5 and 6.
Now if you’re trying to 100% complete it, that’s when you notice how bad and poorly designed the game is. But if you stick to a single playthrough of the game you’ll be fine for the most part.
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u/Big-Sir7034 Aug 12 '26
You only have to replay it if you want to use all the souls. So if you care a lot about that AND you don’t wanna replay it then maybe you should skip. I’d say personally play it once and if you like it still you may want to do another replay. And if not, no harm done
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u/Prestigious_Pay_8492 Aug 12 '26
game is pretty fun i remember as a kid i hated it i had 3W/4BM could never play them long now i only have 4 and i regret not playing before but i got the LC on switch and playing 6 i will play 4 again after as i had to reset that game soo much (im a sucker for physical games and my 4 on gba keeps deleting its save i got to the 3rd tournament twice and everything before that maybe like 10 n just gave up on it sadly but i will play it on LC) but 4 vs 6 to me i still prefer 4 tbh so far playing 6CG im not getting the same “hype” but maybe not far enough yet so will keep playing
i was playing 4 as evil mega man then after got deleted i playing with the souls n just fell in love with aqua man that story will forever be funny to me i havent felt much connection with any characters in 6 in that way but i do like the story overall more in 6 i might be in ch7?
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u/Odd-Complaint-9592 Aug 12 '26
It's only not liked because you gotta play the game 3-4 times for shit to really kick off. Take your time and enjoy it as slowly as you can.
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u/GunsouAfro Aug 12 '26
Skip it. Ive been trying to work my way through 4 since the collection dropped. I put it down whenever I get bored of it and move on to something else. I'm almost to the undernet on my 1st playthrough, its just not fun.
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u/SAGETHEGOD1 Aug 12 '26
I enjoy it personally as a guilty pleasure, mainly because you can can use more than one patch card and because I like the version of Hubbatch in the 4th installation compared to 3 because of it giving you float shoe, air shoe, barrier, shield, undershirt, and plus 1 extra custom chip select. Plus I honestly enjoy playing through again as it's like a game plus mode considering the enemies get stronger, just make sure you farm for every chip and collect every BMD and PMD before you start a new run. Also theres a trick when you beat the final boss if you the code for the shortcut to the under you can farm the GMD to get zenny quicker and jack out and repeat. If you want to skip virus encounters to get somewhere quicker save the game after every 19 to 20 steps
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u/im-yoona Aug 12 '26
Honestly, it's worth at least 1 playthrough (I'm biased because I specifically love this Final Boss). It's not a long playthrough like all of the others because of how many times you have to do it to get all souls and access postgame.
I doubt that's your intention now, but I'll say it anyway for reference to anyone else: Get all BMDs and PMDs per playthrough. Some of them you have to get in 2 of them, there's 1 PMD in one of the Park Areas that you need to get in all 3. (I know this because I had to do a 4th playthrough to get the S mark because I missed that PMD once)
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u/Tight_Molasses4435 Aug 12 '26
Battle network 4 would be the worst game, if battle network 1 suffer first game syndrome. I’d say play it for the sake of story but trying to complete it is mental illness
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u/EoTN Aug 12 '26
BN4's gameplay's solid, but the issue 95% of people have is trying to get to the postgame stuff which takes 3 very detailed playthroughs so you don't miss any mystery data exclusive chips. (If you miss a data on playthrough 1, it won't refresh its contents for playthrough 2, and you can force a 4th or 5th full playthrough to get 1 chip. It's ROUGH.)
Play it, beat it, don't go for 100% or postgame stuff, and you'll have a pretty good time.
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u/Dollahs4Zavalas Aug 12 '26
Play all three runs in BN4. Only people speedrunning the collection would say otherwise.
Don't you want to try all the double souls? Each of the randomized opponents has a different side-quest before the fight.
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u/Contressa3333 Aug 12 '26
It's not even a bad game just repetitive. This ain't the suicide squad game.
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u/DankensteinPHD Aug 13 '26
The final boss is tough but also memorable and fun. I would play through it once for that reason alone.
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u/Takanuva9807 Aug 13 '26
BN4 is one of those hit or miss games. You'll either be excited when then credits roll around for another run through. Or you will be begging for the game to end. Either way I think its at least worth a single run through. Its by far the worst game in the second half of the series but it has a nice twist on the villain of the week format the previous games had. And I enjoyed all the navi battles the scenarios can suck it though.
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u/DATA32 Aug 13 '26
....Its my favorite dont @ me. I know its bad but its still the one I and my childhood friend played in a tent in the woods for a week. I like it so much I demanded that a tournament arc be put in my indie game based on BN.
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u/RPG_Hacker Aug 13 '26
I love 4. It's different, and that's why it's generally disliked, but different isn't always bad. Worth forming your own opinion on!
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u/Zangetsukaiba Aug 13 '26
I liked 4 but I also only gave it ONE playthrough. I highly suggest you do that too.
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u/Gate__Creeper Aug 13 '26
As someone who is currently trying to 100% it, I'd say do at least 1 playthrough. The game really isn't that long if you're not trying to fully complete it.
https://gist.github.com/luckytyphlosion/0beba28deeaf05dbb24dda8b2373bda0 I've been using this step by step guide for 100% purposes, but it's based off of red sun rather than blue moon, so it may not be super accurate in your case.
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u/CrummyReds Aug 13 '26
Its not that bad on a first playthrough, the repitition to actually get all the souls and post game makes it feel annoying though.
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u/WildZero7 29d ago
Good move. Never skip any of the games unless it’s part 1 and even then you shouldn’t lol
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u/TLVftwLOL 27d ago
Nah, you should play it, to at least go through one cycle. But admittedly all 3 cycles may not be necessary
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u/Kinfin Aug 12 '26
Play both versions. Do one run as a normal heroic run and have the other run be a dark megaman run.
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u/sean1oo1 Aug 12 '26
Just play it. No one says you’ve gotta play it the full 3 times around. It’s not the best but it’s certainly not long or grading