3/5 ★ – MSG's review of Mega Man Battle Network 4 Blue Moon.

And here we are. The black sheep of the Battle Network series. It's... fine I guess. Not the worst thing I've ever played. I can't even say it's the worst Battle Network game because need I remind you that Network Transmission exists, and unlike that game, there IS some fun to be had here. If you're intent on simply just playing the main campaign and not trying to go for any of the post-game content, then yeah, I'd say there's no harm in checking it out. It's got the same good battle system, a solid enough boss lineup, the level design for the internet locations is probably on par with 3's. I think Navi Customization got a slight improvement from how it was handled in 3. While the tournament arcs can get a little repetitive, I also wouldn't say they're all that bad either. The music slaps, as to be expected. Finally, I actually really like Double Soul, and found it to be a pretty neat addition. So yeah it seems like this game's got all the ingredients to make a perfectly decent experience, one that may be on the shorter side, but still pretty solid. And then... you try to go for the post-game content. I actually neglected to bring this up when talking about the previous 3 games, and that's because I was writing those before trying tackling all of that. I didn't fully complete any of them, but I did at the very least try to explore the secret areas, and fight the secret bosses that lie within them. 1's is just kinda eh, as to to be expected, while 2 and 3 have really solid hidden areas with some challenging yet very fun bosses for you to take down. I was gonna try and attempt to do the same with this game, except in order to even get a shot at this game's secret area, you need to do the main campaign 3 TIMES, at minimum, in order to reach it, and that's assuming you've been collecting every single blue and purple mystery data in the internet locals, which if you haven't, then guess what? You get to increase that amount of repeat playthroughs, because any blue/purple mystery data you missed in your first playthrough gets carried over to the next, and so on and so forth. It's really hard for me to explain why its so frustrating, but trust me, you'll know what I mean once you actually start doing it for yourself. And, yeah, I don't even need to tell you that having to re-do content you already just went through multiple times just to get a shot at the post-game stuff, is really annoying, and makes the main campaign seem worse than it actually is. I honestly just got so tired of it, that I ultimately decided that I just wasn't gonna do it, at least for now anyway. And yeah this incredibly frustrating road you have to take to try and reach the post game is what really drags this game down in my eyes. Will I find Battle Network 5 to be any better? Keep an eye out for my review when I finish that game later.