A little while ago, composer Akari Kaida tweeted about the music of the Battle Network series. Particularly its inner workings, the intricacies of working on the GBA, and her opinions on the soundtrack’s quality. Kaida worked on BN1, EXE4.5 BN5, and Star Force 3.
This is a rarely seen commentary straight from the composer herself, and English fans can read a translation for them in the jump!
Aniplex+ has announced an art compilation book of animator Shingo Adachi‘s work. This book will feature many of Adachi’s anime works including Rockman EXE and Ryūsei no Rockman. Art pieces will be nicely accompanied with commentaries, making-of’s, and interviews.
The book’s information page showcases the work-in-progress cover with Rockman characters taking center stage, alongside other characters of anime he’s worked on! The page includes samples of his work, including his key art for Ryūsei no Rockman Tribe.
While most renowned for his work on Sword Art Online, Shingo Adachi previously worked as an animator and animation supervisor on every Rockman EXE TV anime series, as well as its movie, and both Ryūsei no Rockman TV anime. He was also responsible for the anime character designs in Rockman EXE Beast+, succeeding Mitsuru Ishihara, then later taking full helm for the Ryūsei no Rockman series. The animator last released his Ryūsei no Rockman animation works in his dōjin artbook, Ryūsei no Hanashi (also known as Shooting Star Story or Story of Meteor), in 2008.
Shingo Adachi Artworks can be pre-ordered now from certain Japanese retailers, such as Amazon Japan. The book will cost ¥4,320 and is set to come out on July 5th, 2019.
Thanks to Vhyper1985 for the heads-up.
Today marks the 18th anniversary of the first Rockman EXE game! We’re proud to present an English translation of the 2014 MyCapcom interview with the Concept Artists of the EXE series. The complete interview can be found in the jump.
If you’re a longtime fan of the Battle Network series, you’ve probably heard of the BattleChip Gate. The Chip Gate was a peripheral supported by EXE4 through EXE6, that connected to your GBA via the link port and allowed you to slot in BattleChips and NaviChips in real life that would then be used in the game. These BattleChips could also be used in PET toys and arcade games. Aside from the BN4 PET toy and a limited set of BN4 BattleChips, however, none of these peripherals were ever released outside of Japan.
For a long time, the only way to play with these Chip Gates in the games was to buy a real Chip Gate and chips from Japan. Until now! In the past few days, two GBA emulators, mGBA and GBE+, have added support for all the different versions of the BattleChip Gate and their in-game uses, thanks to the efforts of their developers endrift and Shonumi. Currently, all in-game single-player features of the Chip Gates are functional, including chip slotting in, Operation Battle, Navi unlocking, Navi Change, and LinkNavis. (Which features are available varies per game. For more info, check out our Wiki!)
As a bonus, even though imported Beast Link Gates normally do not function in the English version of MMBN6, the new Chip Gate emulation for mGBA and GBE+ does have limited support for this. For the first time, aside from using cheat codes, you’ll be able to use the permanent Beast Out that comes with connecting a Beast Link Gate, and slot in BattleChips, in the English version of MMBN6! Sending LinkNavis is not supported, however, as the related menus were removed from the game.
To try out the new Chip Gate emulation, you can grab one of the nightly builds for mGBA. The feature is only supported in the Desktop version for the foreseeable future. Simply load up your game backup and go to Emulation → BattleChip Gate to attach the Chip Gate to the game. Then, you can select from the available BattleChips and check “Inserted” to slot in the chip. Chip Gate emulation has also been added to GBE+, but there are no nightly builds for this, so you will have to wait for a new version release or build the emulator yourself.
Update (January 31, 2019): Unfortunately, the Steam and iOS versions of the game have now been delayed indefinitely in light of a device incompatibility issue affecting the Android version. The iOS version will now be released once all major issues with the Android version have been resolved, with the Steam version following “a week or two” afterwards. The original news post can be read below.
It looks like January is shaping up to be a killer month for NetBattlers! Developer VeakXP yesterday released his MMBN-inspired indie game, Tri Wing, for Android devices. Tri Wing, which has been in beta for a while now, is an online 1-on-1 grid-based fighting game heavily influenced by Battle Network. Customize your character, build a deck of 40 different cards, and then duke it out on a 6-by-3 battlefield.
Alongside the Android version, a Steam release is currently planned for January 31st 2019, with an iOS version also in the works. All three versions will feature cross-play so you can battle opponents regardless of which platform they play on.
Tri Wing is now available for download in the Google Play Store at no cost. The mobile version is ad supported, with ad removal being a one time payment of $4.99. The Steam version, set to come out in a few days, will instead cost $9.99 upfront, with a 20% launch week discount.
If you’re looking for a single-player Mega Man Battle Network fix to go along with the EndCycle VS release from earlier this week, look no further than One Step From Eden. An MMBN-inspired indie game being developed by Thomas Moon Kang, One Step From Eden is a deckbuilding action roguelike with hectic real-time, grid-based combat. Battles take place on a larger 8×4 battlefield filled with enemies and fast, wide-range attacks. The game follows a group of characters as they try to reach Eden, humanity’s last hope after a war that ravaged the world.
To support the development of the game, One Step From Eden has launched a Kickstarter! The Kickstarter, which runs until February 3rd, 2019, has a goal of $15,000 with 10% already funded at the time of writing. Just $15 will net you a Steam copy of the game when it releases (expected to be in October 2019). Higher backing rewards include access to the closed beta, a digital artbook and soundtrack and even a plushie of the lead character Saffron. There are also a number of stretch goals planned, including a Nintendo Switch port.
One Step From Eden already has a free demo available, which you can find on the game’s itch.io page. Demo downloads and clears, as well as social media shares, will count towards a number of Kickstarter achievements including extra playable characters and worlds. For more info on that, make sure to check out the Kickstarter page.
One Step From Eden website
One Step From Eden Kickstarter campaign
If you’ve paid attention to MMBN-inspired fan projects in the past years, you might have already heard of EndCycle. Being developed by 12B3 Games, EndCycle is a story-driven, 2D action RPG with a battle system similar to Battle Network, that follows the adventures of young lad named Fin after his hometown is destroyed by a mysterious organization.
Last year, the team announced that the multiplayer portion of the game would be split off into its own separate game, EndCycle VS, to fund the continued development of the game’s story mode. As of today, EndCycle VS is available on Steam Early Access, and you can buy it for $9.99 / €10.00 / £8.00.
EndCycle VS is expected to remain in early access until late 2019. Planned updates include the addition of more playable characters, maps, attacks and upgrades, as well as new game modes such as 4-on-4 Capture The Flag.
The game’s previous demo is also still available on itch.io. Though the demo is somewhat outdated compared to the Steam version, it features the story’s introduction chapter and local multiplayer, so you can get a sense of the new battle system.
Resident speedrunning group TeamBN is starting the year off strong with a new, just-announced bi-annual Mega Man Battle Network/Star Force marathon!
This year’s TeamBN Winter Festival will kick off on January 26th of the new year and will run throughout the weekend. The marathon includes every numbered Mega Man Battle Network and Star Force game in the series, as well as most spin-offs, some played in surprising new ways!
In addition, a number of fangames and MMBN-inspired indie games will be showcased including Mega Man Battle Network Chrono X, Shanghai EXE: Genso Network, Tri Wing, EndCycle VS and One Step From Eden, as well as newcomer Aether After. If tabletop games are more your thing, don’t miss the one-shot showcase of NetBattlers, either.
The Winter Festival will be livestreamed on TeamBN’s Twitch channel, and you can view the full schedule, adjusted to your timezone, right here.
Sad news: it looks like production of Shanghai EXE: Genso Network, a notable Mega Man Battle Network + Touhou crossover fan game, has been cancelled. Koki, the game’s lead developer, posted a notice on his blog today stating that development can no longer continue for “unavoidable reasons”, and there are no plans to release the game in any form in the future.
For those not in the know, Shanghai EXE: Genso Network was a highly regarded Japanese indie game based on the Mega Man Battle Network gameplay and setting, but featuring an original story with mostly characters from the Touhou series. The game had been featured in a few TeamBN marathons and was expected to wrap up development sometime in 2019.
Koki has not shared the reason for the game’s cancellation at this point. It should be noted that Shanghai had a fundraiser running through Ci-en (a sort of Japanese Patreon), with supporters receiving early access to new demo versions, and there had been plans for a commercial release. As such, it’s always possible that disagreements over rights or funding led to the game’s untimely end. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem like we’ll be able to confirm the reasons for the time being.
Though this is the end of the road for Shanghai, Koki plans to continue to release original games on Steam; currently in the works is a Unity-based action game. In addition, Koki intends to release the remainder of the game’s planned story in some other form in the future.
At the time of writing, download links for the latest publicly released version of Shanghai EXE are still up, so if you want to see what the game is all about, make sure to grab the download before it’s too late!
Video game music fan-arrangement group, colis Records, has put out an unofficial Mega Man Star Force-focused album. Hoshizora Denpa (Starry Sky EM Wave) covers music from all 3 games, as well as the anime.
All of the tracks are free to listen on their Bandcamp page. If you enjoy the tunes, you can support the group by purchasing the album! The download comes with high quality FLACs and MP3s of each track. The digital album will be available on Bandcamp until December 22nd, 2018.
Colis Records has done a number of Mega Man fan-remix albums in the past, contributions made from multiple musicians and artists. Their past albums include the RockLove series, MegaXrossMix and the Battle Network-focused Richomatic. Usually, their albums are sold physically at fan events in Japan.