Overall, probably the best way to revisit the first game if you ever have to/want to. Japanese exclusive, but an English patch got released for it a few years back that also adjusts things like chip names to match future entries. Don't know all of what it adjusted to match continuity since I last played 4 forever ago.

Anyway yes, Legacy offers download chips and Buster max to just let you breeze through every fight your way. And may or may not help lessen the money grind a bit. What does OSS offer instead of that? Well:

- Asterisk code chips
- The ability to escape battles by pressing L instead of using the Escape chip
- Minor bits of voice acting
- Adjustments to some of the worst bits in the game, primarily Elecman's stage

(via making batteries no longer needing recharging and the invisible paths lit up as dotted lines every few seconds. It still fucking sucks, but it's better)

- Chips are grayed out in the selection menu if you can't pair them with your current selection(s)
- A short crossover bit with Starforce Megaman that's honestly really bad except for that segment's boss
- The ability to play as Starforce Megaman! Will cover him soon enough

And maybe the most important feature you could add to Battle Network 1:

A FUCKING MAP ON THE BOTTOM SCREEN

level design in 1 is labyrinthine and awful with many dead ends that usually offer nothing. This paired with the high encounter rate makes just playing the game feel like Final Fantasy 2 levels of bullshit now and then

It's not a full view of the map, somewhat zoomed in to highlight the area around you, it's still a significant frustration minimizing tool that's hard to go without now that I've had it.

oh right, I think OSS also lowers the encounter rate a bit? You're still gonna get into a lot of fights, but jumping to this after a twenty year hiatus, I can't really confirm

So the main selling point of this game is it being a crossover with Starforce. This comes very close to being a bold faced lie because the actual crossover parts don't kick in until after Elecman's segment, super late into the game. And the bonus stage, as I'll call it,

is a blatantly padded experience that advances absolutely nothing in either storyline. You literally go to one part of the internet to get to a special area, make slight progress in one room, have to go to the real world to jack into a clock to steal its mechanism, then go back to the internet to this particular area to make an inch of progress

and then have to leave again

You have to do this three times before you reach the boss. It's incredibly bad and incredibly lazy

And the story that brings this together? Clockman, a navi from the Starforce timeline, kidnapped Geo's love interest and went back in time to kidnap Roll. He's going through time freezing women in time to keep a collection of cute ladies to himself forever

Far as I know, Battle Network tends to go over heavier subjects with a spoonful of sugar, like making terrorists cartoonishly evil and shit, but this? Fucking THIS? A drastically sharp shift in tone that's even more out of place than the inclusion of time travel itself

The boss fight against Clockman is actually pretty good, I feel? I'd call it a difficulty spike, except stomping every boss before this one through having as few codes in my folder as possible makes me think it was an actual challenge.

hurling destructible blades that move in a straight line, lasers, sneak attacks on your back row, summoning a dude to track your vertical movements and attack you, but moving to the square his portal is on counts as hurting you which can feel shitty at times, the big clock in the background flooding most squares with a laser after charging up...

I honestly liked it. Made me think navi fights in future games might get more involved, or at least Starforce fights can be like that.

Anyway, during that quest and for the rest of your save file, you can swap to playing as Starforce Megaman. After he returns to his own time, he kinda just installs a program of himself and Omega-Xis on your navi that's just there with Mega now

(You can talk to him as you do with Mega, but they have their own unique and typically goofy dialogues like differences in their time periods or Mega's PET being a fucking luxury home where Dr. Hikari has programs tending to Megaman's every need and Geo and Omega can enjoy them as well)

Starforce Megaman actually has unique gimmicks. He has a shield that keeps you stationary but safe for a few seconds. Can't cancel it, which might get you in bad spots sometimes, but something you can get used to. His buster charges on its own and holding the button shoots his buster as rapidly as your rapid stat allows

Also a mega attack that allows him to lock onto an enemy in his row and get in their face to use a chip. Fantastic for sword chips or anything you wanna get into melee with.

In exchange, his charge shot caps at 30 damage. They mercifully didn't nerf Mega.EXE's charge shot damage and it still does 80 damage, giving you incentive to swap between the two depending on preference

Though the Hub.bat lets Geo take advantage of its OP boosts, I haven't checked what his charge attack damage becomes

The rest of the game is just 1:1 Battle Network 1. This game is 96% a BN1 remake and 4% a bad crossover story with a good boss and a new playable character

There's also something selectable at the main menu called Star Colosseum that I haven't checked out, mostly because I think it's untranslated? I never clicked it, but it's an extra mode that gets you points you can spend on chips through a new NPC in Lan's computer

After I beat the game, I immediately loaded up my purchased Legacy Collection volume 1 to start up its version of 1 and oh. Oh god. The differences are felt immediately

I miss the map so much, it was unbelievably useful

Combat wasn't much of a problem for me except during particularly rough fights I either scraped by or died to, usually deep internet shenanigans

so the free Bass chip and Buster max actually aren't...helping as much as you would think. Because combat's one of BN1's stronger points

Especially since there's no more asterisk chips, no running without an escape chip, no playable Geo to shake things up, NO MAP....

Battle Network 1 is a prime example of First Game Syndrome. It's very clunky and many of its flaws - including the fact that internet areas all share the same backgrounds and path textures. ALL OF THEM - were gradually fixed with each new game, while also adding new features that gave exploration and combat more depth. And bigger postgames.

Having an easy out to battles is probably the weakest fix they could've made to the game since it's not the biggest issue. Yes, you can get ambushed by really tough fights if you explore tough areas or didn't grind or don't have a folder with few codes or matching types

(Matching codes and types are important because they let you send more chips to Megaman at once, letting him do a lot more damage in one turn. Your buster is very puny for most of the game and more of a last resort unless you're near the end of the game or taking advantage of styles/double souls that existed in all BN games after 1)

But since Battle Network is a card game at its core, strategy is your best survival tool. Also staying active. It's a sort of action card game deal, very unique and imitated by very few titles.

Having said that, Battle Network is a series that's gradually improved itself with every installment, hitting its peak in 6 as far as I'm aware. Some tote 3 as a contender for best game in the series, but yeah. 6 is a culmination of years of improvement

A game so loved for its combat that it had an active PVP scene over the years, which Capcom did the genius move of capitalizing on. The Legacy Collection's including of online battles, chip trading, chip library comparing and ranked matches helped mane Battle Network the most successful Megaman legacy collection to date.

helped make*

And it's hard to appreciate how far the series has come without understanding where it started. By that notion, I'd almost say picking the GBA version of one felt like an intentional decision to help portray the series' growth

I say almost because fucking no one who makes these collections have made any collections that include DS games

WHERE'S MY CASTLEVANIA DS COLLECTION, KONAMI

HOW THE FUCK ARE YOU GONNA HANDLE THE STARFORCE LEGACY COLLECTION, CAPCOM

...I just now remembered that the Zero/ZX collection includes two DS games in it, but let's be real: the actual threat of DS games in a collection is touch screen implementation and the second screen barely does anything in either ZX game

I also don't like ZX/ZXA very much aside from the music and the setting ideas. I'd say graphics as well, but that's just Inti-Creates being Inti

But my opinion on those is best saved for another plurk

long story short, Operate Shooting Star is the best way to play Battle Network 1

and once I get to 5, you best believe I'm setting the legacy collection aside to acquire Double Team DS, YEAH EXPLAIN WHY THAT GOT LEFT OUT, CAPCOM

How'd I do? - Rise of the Triad (ROTT)

Sorry, I've been in a Civvie 11 mood and his voice came to mind while writing this