The third game of the series is definitely it's peak. I'll be honest, almost everything is perfect! It isn't my favorite because some of the things introduced in this game make it hard to collect everything. These are just some minor complaints. Returning is Dr. Wily who wants to take over the world [OF COURSE!], nothing special there. I like the second game better because you could take the villains seriously, in this game the things the villains do is kind of downplayed. I'll admit some of the scenarios are a bit more frightening but they don't actually kill anyone. I'm not here to talk about the plot of a GBA game a lot of people have forgotten about! This is also the first game to come out in two versions, white and blue. There is really no difference between them aside from some palette swaps, some chips, and bosses. In that regard Blue is the better version, it has more bosses (1 more), and better version exclusive chips.
This game decides to completely revamp the formula of the previous games. Intact is the basic combat system, you select chips to attack, match up the same codes, make program advances, kill things! If it isn't broken, don't fix it. New to this game is chip classification, there's standard, mega, and giga. Mega chips were in the last game but were only navi chips that you got from bosses. This time mega chips are bosses and attacks/support chips that are better than average you can only have 5 of them in your folder (usually). Giga chips are the most powerful chips in the game and you can only have 1 in your folder, there are 5 of them in the entire game. Brand new to this game is the Navi Customizer. This allows you to well customize Megaman! This puts a brand new emphasis on the RPG element of the series which was downplayed up until this point. The way the customizer works is there is a grid and on the grid you place programs, there are some rules to it but there is a tutorial. The customizer can do a lot of things like give Megaman more HP, increase the stats of the megabuster, allow you to use more mega chips, and more! This is a welcomed addition to the series but in this game it can be a bit obnoxious (more on that later).
In the game there are several instances where you need to install a program into your customizer to advance in the game. Only problem is you likely don't want them there so every few minutes you're putting them in and taking them out. I don't mind one program like this, but three is a little overkill. Granted you need the second and third one for very short spurts but it's still annoying.
Returning to this game is the style change and it also got a massive revamp. In the second game this was present and it made some very minor changes and there wasn't much emphasis on it. In this game, there are many more styles to choose from! There is custom, team, shield, shadow, and bug. What is unique is how you get the styles. By meeting certain requirements in battle influences the style you get. I won't go into great detail but team style allows you to use more mega chips, custom style allows you to choose more chips in the battle menu, shield gives you various defense upgrades, shadow allows you to essentially be a ninja, and bug causes in-battle glitches (good and bad). The style change is awesome because it levels up depending on how many battles you fight. Each time it levels up you get a new program for your navi customizer. The style change is a double edged sword, I will explain. In the game if you want to get everything (and you do to access the post-game) you need custom style to get secret chips from viruses. Fair enough. BUT in order to get version 4 chips from bosses by killing them in 20 seconds or less, you need team style. No problem, you can keep two styles right? WRONG. This is the one fatal flaw of the whole system. If you want to collect everything, this shoots you in the foot. You might be thinking, how long does it take to get a style change? You get one once every 125 battles. That is a royal pain if you need to switch between them. This is perhaps the game's only real negative point.
Once again the highlight is the bosses. This time around there are too many bosses to list! This game has a ton of bosses! That makes it all the more awesome. The bosses do a fantastic job of matching the difficulty curve. Fair warning, this game does have a rather steep difficulty curve. All the bosses are relatively difficult and frustrating in their own right. Once again they are redesigns of the classic Megman bosses and they look pretty cool. Even Bubbleman is in this game and he is hilarious and incredibly difficult the first time you fight him...
My favorite part once again is the post-game. You know how I said the second game had a huge post-game? This one is exponentially larger! I'll just list a few things, the secret area, the job board, version 3 bosses, secret bosses, virus breeding, time trials, and BASS. HOLY CRAP THAT IS A LOT. So much that in my most recent playthrough I am hellbent on doing all of this and I am still busy! I won't spoil anything about the post-game but of all of the games in the series, this one has the best post-game by far. I highly recommend this game as a starting point because it has everything that is great about the series in one game. Purely on opinion, this is my second favorite in the series because the villains are really toned down. Also the chip classification system makes it near-impossible to form game-breaking combos. Overall this game is fantastic, give it a shot.
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