I have a strong bias towards the Battle Network franchise, and I'd argue this is one of the best games ever made. It does just about everything I love in these RPG's, with extreme amounts of customization, a rich and colorful world that progresses with you and the plot, a ton of fights and unique bosses that will test every aspect of your deck building prowess, and just an abhorrent amount of content. Compared BN titles before and after this one, there is just so much to keep you distracted, from boss time trials to grinding out different forms and battle chips to side quests and NPC offerings littered in the overworld and net world.
There is a whole lot I want to say about this game, but genuinely I believe it would edge into rambling territory, so I'll cliffnote the important bits and disclaimers to try and make this as good as a sales pitch as I can.
They've vastly improved on every aspect of this game from its predecessors, from even more unique chip interactions, better navi customization that allows you to fine tune both parts of Megaman, for the most part net worlds and the overworld are made so concise that it never grows tiresome to explore either of them, while at the same time never stepping into repetition territory with endless amounts of needless backtracking, a pitfall nearly every other game in the franchise falls into. Style changes, which are basically different forms Megaman can change into, have a lot more power and influence in most combat encounters, are very easy to grind out of if you don't like a particular form, and if you're green to the series, always comes as a nice surprise to what you get and makes the early and mid game so much more enjoyable for it.
So I guess a few precautions for recommendation, as the issues I list aren't issues to me personally, but they can unfortunately work as deterrents. I've mentioned grinding a few times, and the game can be just that. You'll have to have 1 of every single standard chip to see 99% of the game's contents, and it takes 100 battles minimum to change forms. Again, not really an issue for me since that usually just surmounts a video on the second monitor, but it can be grueling if you're new and you're pushing for post-game content for the first time.
There's also the "Blue" in the title. This is the BN game that started the trend of multiple versions, and unfortunately Blue just has better things going for it. A ninja (shadow) style over White's ground style, which while the latter has some really cool applications, shadow style's ability to just avoid damage is just vastly better. Blue comes with a unique boss fight in the form of Punk who, while doesn't drop anything besides money, begs the question why he's only in Blue. And Blue having one of the best chips in the entire franchise with FoldrBak, a free chip you can put into any deck that you can use whenever to reshuffle your hand and deck and draw new hand. Anyone with a basic understanding of card games can understand how absurd this effect is, while White gets a chip that lets you... use the last navi chip you used. So in terms of version exclusives, you're either choosing a free mulligan + draw 7 at any point in a fight, or 50-100 extra damage maybe.
Lastly, if you want to see EVERYTHING this game has to offer, you have to either trade chips with other versions, chips that are exclusive to each game (you cannot trade FoldrBak btw) or modifyyour game file. While this is made easier with the Legacy Collection available on all modern platforms as of writing this review which comes with online connectivity, you're still forced to find another human being to trade with. You aren't missing out on much, just the T4 versions of bosses to fight, but it's still annoying to have this restriction nonetheless.
All that said, Battle Network 3 is still a gem people should absolutely experience. It's an amazing game that still holds up to this day, and it both wasn't and won't be my first and last times playing it. If you want to jump right in there's no harm starting out with this game, but just for plot sake I'd at least recommend playing through the first 2 Battle Network as there are some narrative beats that come out better with context from the first 2, including a fairly major spoiler between Megaman and Lan, the protagonists.
Please play Battle Network 3.
There is a whole lot I want to say about this game, but genuinely I believe it would edge into rambling territory, so I'll cliffnote the important bits and disclaimers to try and make this as good as a sales pitch as I can.
They've vastly improved on every aspect of this game from its predecessors, from even more unique chip interactions, better navi customization that allows you to fine tune both parts of Megaman, for the most part net worlds and the overworld are made so concise that it never grows tiresome to explore either of them, while at the same time never stepping into repetition territory with endless amounts of needless backtracking, a pitfall nearly every other game in the franchise falls into. Style changes, which are basically different forms Megaman can change into, have a lot more power and influence in most combat encounters, are very easy to grind out of if you don't like a particular form, and if you're green to the series, always comes as a nice surprise to what you get and makes the early and mid game so much more enjoyable for it.
So I guess a few precautions for recommendation, as the issues I list aren't issues to me personally, but they can unfortunately work as deterrents. I've mentioned grinding a few times, and the game can be just that. You'll have to have 1 of every single standard chip to see 99% of the game's contents, and it takes 100 battles minimum to change forms. Again, not really an issue for me since that usually just surmounts a video on the second monitor, but it can be grueling if you're new and you're pushing for post-game content for the first time.
There's also the "Blue" in the title. This is the BN game that started the trend of multiple versions, and unfortunately Blue just has better things going for it. A ninja (shadow) style over White's ground style, which while the latter has some really cool applications, shadow style's ability to just avoid damage is just vastly better. Blue comes with a unique boss fight in the form of Punk who, while doesn't drop anything besides money, begs the question why he's only in Blue. And Blue having one of the best chips in the entire franchise with FoldrBak, a free chip you can put into any deck that you can use whenever to reshuffle your hand and deck and draw new hand. Anyone with a basic understanding of card games can understand how absurd this effect is, while White gets a chip that lets you... use the last navi chip you used. So in terms of version exclusives, you're either choosing a free mulligan + draw 7 at any point in a fight, or 50-100 extra damage maybe.
Lastly, if you want to see EVERYTHING this game has to offer, you have to either trade chips with other versions, chips that are exclusive to each game (you cannot trade FoldrBak btw) or modifyyour game file. While this is made easier with the Legacy Collection available on all modern platforms as of writing this review which comes with online connectivity, you're still forced to find another human being to trade with. You aren't missing out on much, just the T4 versions of bosses to fight, but it's still annoying to have this restriction nonetheless.
All that said, Battle Network 3 is still a gem people should absolutely experience. It's an amazing game that still holds up to this day, and it both wasn't and won't be my first and last times playing it. If you want to jump right in there's no harm starting out with this game, but just for plot sake I'd at least recommend playing through the first 2 Battle Network as there are some narrative beats that come out better with context from the first 2, including a fairly major spoiler between Megaman and Lan, the protagonists.
Please play Battle Network 3.