reactions from fans. It felt like an unnecessary addition to the franchise and a lot of gamers were really put off by how pretentious the series came off releasing three versions of the same game right off the bat. Star Force has so little to do with Mega Man and it isn't so different in play style from Battle Network to greatly distinguish itself gameplay wise. However, beneath it's exterior, Star Force has a pretty well written narrative, likable characters and even if its play isn't new, it is very well polished.Star Force 2 continued with good characters, had some interesting elements to its plot, but overall was a disappointment compared to the first game. The villains were pretty boring, some of the scenarios were pretty stupid and the game was a bit out of balance. Star Force 3 wasn't too much of an anticipated game because of this.
I think the dev team really likes the characters of this game, and ideally they would want the series to continue on, but Capcom wants this game to be the hit that Battle Network was and it just hasn't happened for this series. Star Force 3 feels a lot like Capcom giving the series one last chance and a little more effort was put into hyping the game up and refining the game quite well. It also closes off a lot of loose ends just in case the series does end up stopping here, it won't end up in the same boat as Legends 2 and end on a stupid cliffhanger. People who didn't like the first two games however have been a lot more receptive to this game.
New Features
- Noise Forms and a Noise Meter. This is a bit of a combo meter and style change system.
- The Battle Cards have some significant changes as well.
- Geo can now EM-Wave Change anywhere.
- Program Advances are back in the form of Galaxy Advances
Story
The game opens up with two evil looking children talking about their dreams coming true while staring at a meteor off in the distance that's heading towards Earth... wait... didn't we do this in Battle Network 4 already? Anyway Geo is at school and upgrading his Star Carrier to a Hunter-VG which supports capability for Wizards, artificial EM-Beings that are functionally the same thing as Net Navi's from Battle Network. The other characters all pick up some Wizards, and Omega-Xis serves as Geo's own Wizard.Wizards however have been going out of control lately and Geo as MegaMan keeps showing up to stop them finding a playing card left at the out of control Wizards. One day an agent of the Satella Police, named Ace, shows up at Geo's school and reveals that he knows Geo's secret identity. He wants to deputize MegaMan into the Satella Police to investigate these Wizards going out of control.
MegaMan and his friends form a task force and the villains of the game, an organization called dealer, investigate and follow Geo around manipulating events that will all tie in to that Meteor towards the end of the game.
Now I'm going to be a bit different in this story synopsis since this game is the most recent Mega
Man game out and I feel it has some really good moments not worth spoiling for the time being. Star Force 3 deals with a bit more mature themes than previous games and the scene at the beach is one of the most "HOLY FUCK!" moments in Mega Man history! The villains are a lot more complicated and interesting this time around... except the main villain who is a bit arch-typical for this type of game. Still the ending has a most brilliant subversion of a typical video game final boss trope and is fucking fantastic. The ending wraps up all the major loose ends while opening up new possible conflicts for the series to take without necessarily depending on the possibility for a new sequel.Of course there are problems here and there, with some cheesy and lengthy dialog sequences, there's one section where a really minor character suddenly takes great importance to the plot in a really contrived way and even the final revelation seems a bit odd, but it works well enough. Star Force 3 has a great story over all, Geo really has grown as a character, and even the post game content has some great throw backs to both previous games. Definitely worth a look.
Aesthetics
Geo has a new character portrait this time around... actually he has quite a few which convey a wide range of emotions for him which I think is a huge improvement. Unfortunately the game designers didn't feel it necessary
to extend this courtesy to the other characters which hurts the overall presentation especially in the character of Jack Corvus who has some real conflicts of emotions that are just not conveyed by the game art at all. Star Force missed an opportunity here I think, only going half way with a good idea.The game also has gone back to entering computer interfaces more than the real world with its dungeons. I preferred Star Force 2's style of dungeons much more, but these are ok. The locales look nice but there isn't anything special.
The transformations look decent and there are a number of them, but I especially like there being a second tier of transformations which are more powerful. The animations are decent, although there aren't many new ones. The game overall looks more polished, but the series was never a visual masterpiece.
Sound
As I said before, I love the music in this series, but there are a lot of reused tracks. The sound is
better than the last two games and there was even some voice clips used. A lot of people didn't like Geo's voice but I guess it didn't bother me after seeing the Star Force anime dub as the two voices sound similar. Even if Geo's voice doesn't meet your personal standards, the voice isn't so annoying it kills the game a bit like Mega Man 8.Design
Star Force 3 has the best stage design since Battle Network 6. Star Force 2 had some decent stage design here and there, but 3 blows it away. There's a number of interesting puzzles, reflexive skill challenges and thinking sections. They aren't very challenging but very enjoyable.
The Battle Card usage has changed. You can now use cards that are in the same row or same column however, the cards now come in three different sizes. Small for standard cards, medium for Mega Cards, and Large for Giga cards. The cards can cover each other when they are drawn and you can't draw a card that's covered up with other cards, however, you can draw the card for single use or as a support function that varies based on the cards elemental type. For instance, non-elemental cards can be drawn as Area Eater cards which move the enemies closer to you. Use correctly, this can open up a lot of doors for more flexible strategies, although sometimes your rhythm can be affected when certain cards are covered up.
Another nice new feature is the Noise Meter. The way this works is that as the player counters enemies, and unleashes certain powerful attacks the meter will go up. After it reaches 100%, Geo will transform into his first form which comes with an elemental ability of some sort. At 200% and up Geo will finalize in the Red Joker or Black Ace form and unleash more powerful attacks and draw more powerful Battle Cards not found in your standard folder. The meter can go up to 999% and the power of the cards just go up and up to ridiculous levels of fucking awesome. If you take a lot of damage or get countered yourself however, the meter will go down, and it lowers after each fight. If you finish a fight over 200% Noise you can obtain cards from previous games and generally more powerful ones. These don't count towards your official Battle Card count, but it's possible to get some devastating cards very early on this way.Lastly Program Advances are back. Select any three cards that go together in a certain order
and they'll combine to form a more powerful attack. I personally found Galaxy Advances (as they're called in this game) not quite as useful to build a folder around like they were in Battle Network and didn't bother with most of them myself, focusing instead on deriving strategies in paralyzing the enemies and hitting combos which I think the system is more designed for. Adding the advances back is still a nice touch and the early game is better for it with the Impact Cannon and Giant Axe Galaxy Advances which are readily available from the start.Playability
Easy to learn but hard to master. The main game isn't very tough, and I even defeated the final boss on my first try, but the post game content is hard as shit. There's one particular encounter where you must fight Red Joker and then Acid Ace one after another and it is extremely tough. I practically memorized Red Joker's every movement I fought him so many times. The game is a lot of fun tough.
Extras
- Between versions I found Red Joker easier to work with and in particular the Virgo Noise form worked quite well for me in conjunction with the Ice Stage card and several break cards for extra damage. I also found the Giga cards more useful in this version as well, but if you own Black Ace, you can get many of the transformations from Red Joker through Brother Bands.
- Do all the side quests as soon as you can. Geo will form Brother Bands with many random NPCs which will increase your link power to get new abilities.
- Examine every object just like every other Battle Network and Star Force game. Noise distortion areas will open up from time to time with a couple of Blue Mystery Datas for you. Noise distortions will cause the lower screen to get staticy when you walk nearby and often times you won't be able to access them until later in the game. When this happens, make a mental note to come back.
- When the going gets real tough in battle, pause the game repeatedly to slow the battle down to plan your movements. It's not a full proof strategy, but it helps against the later bosses.
- Go all out on the first form of the final boss and don't hold back and play conservative for your health, trust me, the second form is brilliant.
Star Force 3 is a fantastic game and even if you were turned off by the first two this game is worth a look. While this game did ok in sales though, it still wasn't the hit Capcom wanted and its future could be in jeopardy. Its a shame that this series doesn't get the recognition it deserves, but at least if this is the final entry in the series, it ends on a satisfying note.
Playthroughs
N/A
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