Mega Man Star Force 2

Having a hard drive fail on you while on some kind of writing project like this can really fuck up your rhythm. None the less, I'm back to review another Mega Man game and this is one that gets a lot of flack from the general Mega Man fandom. Star Force as a whole gets a lot of flack for a variety of reasons as well, a good chunk well deserved but some of it is unfair. Star Force 2 to me had a few cool ideas such as dungeon design and a few interesting points to its plot, but it's also held back by it's lack of innovative features and while I said the plot had some ideas, it also has quite a number of just flat out bad sections. Star Force 2 is enjoyable, but pretty much only if you enjoyed all the Battle Network games and the last Star Force.

New Features

• New online battles
• Link Power System
• New Transformations to replace the old one, both games contain 2 transformations.
• A multiplayer minigame mode called the Colosseum (I've never played it though, sorry).
  

Story
Well Geo certainly looks a lot happier, that's good. The story is very long and for brevity's sake I'm going to gloss over it mostly. It's been a few months since Star Force 1 and Geo is enjoying his new life with his friends when a new group of villains start wreaking havoc throughout the world with Geo conveniently ending up in the wrong place at the wrong time. In stopping the villains, Geo inadvertently starts attracting media attention for MegaMan which makes him a bit nervous but Omega-Xis seems to love being called a hero.

Geo starts to warm up to the idea just as the villains specifically target his friends banishing them across the world through portals with Geo only initially being able to save Luna. Geo waivers a bit in his resolve having failed his friends, but vows to go look for them. Meanwhile the villains are planning on using ancient technology from the lost Mu continent to rule the world... oh yay... one of these stories.

Anyway Geo gets himself a powerful artifact of his own which over loads him on power but causes him to go berserk at times. Thanks to the Power of Friendship TM he is able to control it however. Geo uses this power to save his missing friends and goes to stop Le Mu, the ancient Mu God who can create EM-Wave beings at will. Geo nearly falls in combat, but his friends get the attention of the news media to broadcast him saving the world. Geo isn't camera shy I guess and uses the worlds power to stop Le Mu. He collapses as Mu crumbles to the ground but is luckily rescued by Solo, one of the villains/anti-heroes. Solo rescues Geo because he was "in his way." Solo is a morally complex character I suppose.

I glossed over quite a bit, but this game seems to have two central themes. The Power of Friendship TM and Geo dealing with the responsibilities and sacrifices that being the hero MegaMan requires. This is aspect has a nice comic book super hero feel that I think compliments this series quite well. That said, the villains are really boring, everyone talks way to god damned much and for a game about space aliens and summoning cars with a PDA the ending is just silly.

The low point in this series, or in fact maybe all of Mega Man story telling, is in the middle of the game when Geo visits a Mexican like village named Whazzap in which every villager greets Geo by saying Whazzap. As if having a Mexican themed Budweiser commercial as a scenario wasn't bad enough, the boss of this scenario kidnaps Geo's friends with the threat of, I shit you not, tickling them. Fantastic Star Force, shit on all the praise I gave the last game for its writing. My only hope that something was lost in translation.

Capcom of Japan seems to have this weird fixation on giving characters a strange saying or phrase to repeat over and over again, and I guess it has something to do with dialects. This just doesn't translate all that well into English, but for some reason Capcom of America finds it necessary anyway. You may remember Higsby in the Battle Network games constantly said "Huh" like he had a brain tumor or something. In the Japanese version he says something along the lines of De-samaru or something (I can't remember off the top of my head, but I know it's just some kind of meaningless phrase). This might be considered a humorous or cute characteristic in Japan, but in the US it's just nonsensical. In fact, in the English dub of MegaMan NT Warrior, Higsby doesn't speak with the "Huh" catchphrase at all. That's the best I can do to explain why the whole concept of Whazzap may have been invented in the first place, but the localizers chose an incredibly stupid word to try to work this joke in there. As far as the tickling thing... I can only hope the localizers thought it would be better to make it kid friendly this way and the original version the boss just threatens to kill them but I have no sources on that one.

After you beat the game, Geo accidentally opens up a portal to another dimension where Echo Ridge and the world is taken over by some evil EM-Wave Beings, and by opening up the portal, has put our dimension in danger. Way to go Geo! Anyway, collect all the battle cards and all that jazz to unlock the fight with Apollo Flame. After that, there is a host of side quests to complete, (the one for Luna is just adorable) and completing all of those will cause Solo to challenge Geo to a fight over ideals between friendship and uh... being a jerk I guess. There's stuff to like about the story of this game, but there's a lot of cliched and just plain bad shit as well.

Aesthetics
My favorite thing about this game is how all the dungeon stages are wave areas floating over the real world. Instead of jumping into various electronic devices for a dungeon that way, you go and fight in a section of the real world. This adds to the comic book super hero quality I was talking about earlier. Battles to me have a greater splendor on top of a building or mountain than inside a computer screen and this is my favorite touch on this game.

The majority of the game looks exactly the same. Geo has a new portrait to compliment his much happier outlook though, but Solo looks like he was stolen from Dragon Ball Z and you would think a game called "Star Force" would have a bit more space and aliens and things in it. To be fair, that's the localizer's fault for naming the series after a power-up in the first game that has already be discarded by the sequel. I will say the Japanese title Shooting Star Rockman does however have a few animations to fit this moniker.

Aside from these interesting touches, these graphics haven't seen much improvement since... god Battle Network 1... come on Capcom, put some damn effort into it!

Sound
I love the music in this series but they're still reusing game boy advance sound effect assets and the Nintendo DS is just capable of so much more. Hell, Mega Man ZX Advent had some damn voice acting (bad as it was) and it's so disappointing that Capcom just half asses these games.

Design
Thankfully the stylus minigame fest of the first game is toned down a hell of a lot (its not quite dead yet) and the dungeons are as a whole pretty good. One dungeon has a skiing mini game which is a pretty refreshing take on how a lot of these dungeons go.

Like the last game, this game features some transformations for Geo to take about halfway through the game that give you an elemental ability. Hooking up with other players online and forming brother bands gives you access to the other forms as well as a special form for having all 3. This form, called the Tribe King form is regarded by most players as a bloated and over powered form which makes the games difficulty very trivial. Quite true indeed, the game seems to be balanced as if the player could not form any online brother bands and you'll find a better challenge if you approach the game this way. Admittedly self handicapping for an appropriate challenge isn't great game design, but I guess Capcom didn't want to risk players missing out on not having a wireless connection.

Speaking of Brother Bands, this time forming up a Brother Band with either an NPC or another player will add to the player's link power. Link power is used to equip abilities which all have a link power cost. This is Star Force's answer to the Navi Customizer of Battle Network, and the right combination of abilities can be quite deadly in online play. You also won't have to waste Brother Band slots for NPCs as online friends now occupy a different set of slots. There is a side quest the player can take which forgoes all online brother bands for increased power as well. You will need to complete both this quest and obtain 1000 link power (having maxed out link power from your online brother bands) in order to get every item in the game, but luckily this isn't necessary to see all the story in the game, post content included. Other than these changes the game is practically a copy of Star Force 1 design wise.

Playability
Star Force caters to gamers looking for a more flexible version of Battle Network. You can pick up and play cards immediately and in general the strength of your folder won't be a game killer. If you do get the Tribe King Transformation however, you might find this game is a bit too easy.

Extras

• The strongest form is probably the Zerker form. There are quite a number of enemies weak to this form, and the paralyzing effect of the charge shot is a killer. Luckily this form is in both games, and even if you pick one of the other forms, your auto brother will give you access to this one.
• If you have no wireless internet option, there are codes out there to let you try the Tribe King form, just check GameFaqs.
• Electric Swords are awesome, especially with the Zerker form. Paralyzing and high damage.
• I forgot to mention this last time, but every side quest involving Zack in the series is a gauntlet of sorts, and they are a pain in the ass. A good strategy is to take out all the viruses on the field except for an easy to dodge or otherwise useless enemy while you fill up your health with some handy dandy recovery cards.
• Which version should you buy? Eh, really? If you have a wireless connection it doesn't even matter. If you don't have one, well, it's a matter if you like dinosaurs or ninjas.

Star Force 2 had some decent ideas and I personally enjoyed it. Many people however find the Star Force series itself entirely unnecessary to the Mega Man franchise and that argument certainly has merit. The real key to enjoying this game is to let go of the traditional Mega Man style, enjoy the characters for what they are, and look at the game as itself rather than a series. Geo is a pretty endearing character and many times he is carrying the series by himself. I think sometimes the Mega Man tie in to this series is perhaps it's greatest weakness as well of one of its best strengths in this regard.

Playthroughs
N/A