Mega Man Battle Network 3 is the third game from the Mega Man Battle Network series, released for Game Boy Advance. It follows Lan Hikari and his NetNavi MegaMan.EXE as they battle the second incarnation of the WWW. A sequel, Mega Man Battle Network 4, was released the following year. Battle Network 3 is the first game in the series to come in two versions. The original Japanese release started as a standalone game, however a second version titled Rockman EXE 3 BLACK was released a few months later. Like later alternate versions, it replaced and introduced exclusive Battle Chips, chip codes, a boss, a form change, and a number of cosmetic changes. Unlike later games however, the in-game shop stock greatly differs, there are exclusive NaviCustomizer parts, and contains one new boss that doesn’t replace a Navi from the original. Despite releasing later, the same bugs from the original can be found in Black.
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This review contains spoilers
I was pleasantly surprised with the depth of the story at times; it felt like there were a lot of moments or story beats I wouldn't necessarily expect out of a game on the GBA. For instance, Lan's episode of depression after realizing he helped the villains, or the reveal that Mamoru is the Undernet admin. So kudos to Capcom for the story in this one, I enjoyed it.
What I didn't enjoy is the amount of traveling and fetch quests and pointless backtracking in this game. One area where it's most evident is the final stretch leading up to Alpha, when you have to go through the Comps at Wily Castle to defeat all the previous bosses. Having a Boss Rush to build up to Bass and Alpha is a really cool idea, but the execution is so annoying - not because of the Bosses themselves, but because of the levels in between. I didn't want to play them, and the fact that you're maneuvering around devices that basically just send you back and make you re-do the area, walk more in the Cyberworld, etc., is obnoxious because walking around is the worst part of the game. It's not fun. Why is it so emphasized? Sure, you need to get from point A to point B in almost any game, but the amount of running around they make you do in this game is a noticeable detriment to the playthrough in my opinion.
There are also random difficulty spikes where the game just says, "You got here, now fuck you, you lose." One time I noticed this was when I was proceeding up the ranks of the Undernet. Some of those battles against random Navis felt harder to me than the Bass battle at the end of the game. It felt like there were some assortments of viruses that were just near impossible to dodge the attacks of, and if you didn't get lucky with your RNG for the chips you get at the start, you were screwed. I didn't enjoy that aspect of the game, either. It didn't feel like it consistently ramped up, which is what I'd want from an RPG. Pokemon always does it well, considering it uses Levels and stats to ensure numerically that the Elite Four is harder than a mid-tier gym leader battle, for example.
Overall, I'm happy I played this game, but I'm not thrilled with the game itself, if that makes sense.