Battle routine, set! Execute!!
Mega Man Battle Network Legacy Collection is now available for pre-order! Launching April 14^th, this collection brings all ten mainline games to modern platforms with online versus, Battle Chip trading, and even Download Chips previously only available in Japan!

Just ahead of the 35^th anniversary of the Mega Man franchise, the famous Director for the Battle Network series, Masakazu Eguchi, is here to share some new information about the upcoming collection. Check out the video below for more details, and read on for additional info about all the extra features that are being added alongside online play!

Did you get all that? There’s a lot to cover, but for those of you who have fond memories of participating in NetBattles, trading Battle Chips, swapping Styles, and exchanging Navi Customizer Programs, you’ll be happy to know that you can do all of these things online as well!

Both Public and Private rooms are available, allowing you to NetBattle and trade with others the world over, or just with a few friends. You can even NetBattle in ranked matches to show off your skills!

Hold on… my PET is telling me I have a new eMail. It’s a good thing I don’t have to go to my PC to read it! Let’s see… oh, it’s a message from Ucchi from Rockman Unity! He has a few things he wanted to tell you about this collection. I’ll let him take it away from here!

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About the Retail Version of Mega Man Battle Network Legacy Collection

To start with, the retail package version contains two games, Volume 1 and Volume 2, on a single game card or disc. If all ten titles were combined into one package for the retail release, they’d be recognized as different games from the individual volumes. This would affect online functions, so it was necessary to keep the retail releases as Vol. 1 and Vol. 2.

In addition to a collection with all ten games included in one package, we wanted to make a more affordable offering by splitting the games across two volumes while still having a version available for those who enjoy maintaining a collection.

Technical Fixes and Adjustments from the Original Releases

The games included in this collection are based on the Japanese versions of each game, and the code had to be re-written as a result. So, for this collection, the English versions will have content equivalent to the Japanese versions of each game. Of course, the development team also made some adjustments that have been implemented! Director Eguchi shared some notes about the music that plays after you reach the ending of Mega Man Battle Network 6:

“After finishing the game, when you select the ‘Continue’ option, the tense music from the game’s ending kept playing. We’ve corrected this so that when you continue immediately after finishing the game, the normal music is played instead.”

Apparently, Mr. Eguchi forgot to include instructions for the corresponding song to start playing when you started the game again.

Your Own Personal PET

Staff members from the Mega Man Star Force series and Mega Man 11 helped create the 3D MegaMan.EXE model! Plus, he’ll be able to don the special “Hub Style” skin in Vol. 1, and the “Dark MegaMan” skin in Vol. 2 if you pre-order retail or digital versions of the game. You can switch them on and off via the main menu screen.

Although these skins can be switched on and off, they just change the way he looks, and the voice lines that you’ll hear are mostly the same as his normal voice. These special skins don’t have any effect on MegaMan’s appearance during gameplay, so feel free to turn them on and off whenever you want!

Download Chips

Download Chips – unique Battle Network chips for certain games that were previously only available at special events in Japan – will also be included! All Download Chips available for the original versions will be available in this collection, as well. While you can add Download Chips to your folder and use them as many times as you like, just like any other Battle Chip, you’ll only be able to download them once per save file. Don’t go losing them! Speaking of exclusive chips…

The Z Saber

This chip had a very unique way of being obtained in the original Mega Man Battle Network 4. Because of that, the chip could also be obtained via a lotto number at Higgsby’s shop. This number was never made public, but was recently discovered. The Z Saber chip will still be available in the Legacy Collection version of Mega Man Battle Network 4 as well.

Online Custom Screen Time-out

During online battles, the Custom Screen is set to close after 20 seconds. This is to avoid both players from staying on this screen for too long as they select their Battle Chips for the next round. Note that the exact time is still being adjusted, so this might change!

The TreeBomb Prism

The infamous TreeBomb Prism combo from Mega Man Battle Network 2 is still intact in single-player. As powerful as it is, it’s been left as-is to respect the memories of those of you who played these games in their original form. However, when it comes to online game modes, the prism has been adjusted to work more like it does in Mega Man Battle Network 3 for overall game balance purposes.

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Thanks for all that extra info, Ucchy! As you can see, the team working on Mega Man Battle Network Legacy Collection is giving their all to create a game that will live up to the series’ history. That’s not all, though; they’ve even included the previously Japan-only Download Chips so that Operators around the world can enjoy these unique additions to gameplay.

In addition to all of the above, pre-orders of Mega Man Battle Network Legacy Collection will get some additional bonuses (at participating retailers). As Ucchi mentioned, additional skins for the 3D MegaMan.EXE in the launcher are included as pre-order bonuses, and two extra music tracks for the in-game Music Player are available for each volume of the collection.

We hope you enjoyed this new look at what’s on the way for Mega Man Battle Network Legacy Collection! We’ll have lots more to share about the game leading up to its launch on April 14^th, 2023, so be sure to follow the Mega Man Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram accounts for all the latest news.