Mega Man Star Force

You know, Star Force has a bit of a slow start. The first thing it wants to do right off the bat is introduce the new characters, the premise, and show off some of the new features the DS can do that the Game Boy Advance just can't. Then you get into the combat tutorial area and it talks about all the changes from Battle Network and it's ok but not radically different and innovative from the original series that you'll be really excited by it. I think I've said this before, but Battle Network's combat is ok, but too much of it wears really thin and the same thing can be said about Star Force, so early on there isn't a hell of a lot that'll just blow you away.

About an hour or so into the game I found myself wondering, "ok, so this is a slightly enhanced Battle Network... what's the point?" The only real difference between this game and Battle Network is that Battle Network is about Lan and MegaMan.exe and this game is about Geo Stelar and Omega-Xis. As I said, Lan is pretty charismatic, happy go lucky and well meaning. Geo isn't. He's a loner, depressed and maybe a bit selfish and early on you aren't completely sure where the story is going with this. Still, I couldn't quite put this one down. The characters were pushing Geo into real uncomfortable situations and trying to get him to open up some, even if it was for their own selfish reasons, and in my mind I had an innate curiosity to see where all this was headed. Finally about midway through the game, I was starting to see Geo taking a new responsibility with his power and developing into a stronger person and I started to find myself really interested in the characters and story, and that is what this game really has against Battle Network. This game has a story and a good one at that. That could be a tough sell to a very action oriented franchise like Mega Man, and really few games pay as much attention to their stories like this game, especially games made by Capcom. It is extremely rare for me to ever buy a game because I like the story and then fall back on the game play, but the game play in this game is good enough to keep you from leaving before an important plot point. Mega Man Star Force is a very well designed world with very well designed characters and most of it works off of novelty instead of nostalgia like Battle Network.

Geo and Omega-Xis are both living and breathing creatures. They aren't robots or computer programs, they aren't artificial at all. The supporting cast fills some of the roles of Battle Network, but each character takes a bigger part in it. The bosses, save maybe a couple, aren't throwbacks to other series and in the end this game resembles the storyline of a comic book super hero more than a Mega Man game. Geo as MegaMan himself looks very different, having a red visor, open helmet and an alien for a buster. This is really a Mega Man game in title only and some part of me almost wishes it was it's own franchise entirely, although I know I probably would have never found it if they had attached any other name to it. It is unfortunate that this series will probably never get the recognition it deserves piggy backing off a franchise so milked for cash it has almost become a laughing stock, and being a continuation to a spin-off from the original at that. Reviewers and players don't see a lot of innovation in this series and that affects it hard as a game, but if you're looking for a decent story with an alright combat system, Star Force does the job and does it well.

Story
200 years after the events of Battle Network the world has gone wireless! Yeah... that's kinda the gimmick here I guess. Anyway the whole network works through electromagnetic waves in the sky that everyone has access to through their Transers, the Star Force equivalent to PETs. Kelvin Stelar is a scientist is working on establishing first contact with an alien race using this technology and hopes to form what is known as a Brother Band with them, a bit of a metaphorical and physical bond between friends and grants some very literal power. You thought the power of friendship was corny before, wait till you hear about the actual physical properties of friendship. Anyway while conducting his research in a space station the station has an explosion and loses contact with Earth. Kelvin has been missing for three years and we take on the role of his son Geo who hasn't been the same since.

Geo hasn't been in good shape since his father disappeared. He's quit going to school, become extremely reclusive, and worse yet, he hasn't formed a Brother Band with anyone! Geo is wracked with a serious case of depression and every night he goes to a secluded place to watch the stars, perhaps hoping he'll see some clue of his father. One day a family friend, Araon Boreal, shows up to give Geo a remnant of his father that was recovered, Kelvin's visualizer, a device that allows one to see Electromagnetic Waves. Geo takes the visualizer and heads to his star viewing place Vista Point. Along the way he is accosted by Luna Platz and her two goons Bud Bison and Zack Temple. Luna is class president at Geo's school Echo Ridge Elementary for Geo's class. Luna wants Geo to start going back to school to increase her approval rating as class president and increase her chances at winning the student body presidential elections. She gives Geo a big tutorial about Brother Bands and all that and Geo eventually tells her to buzz off. He then resumes heading to vista point.

There, he gazes into the night sky while mulling over his missing father when suddenly his Transer begins beeping and Geo says it's detecting his father's signal! Suddenly a beam of light comes shooting down from the sky and blasts Geo. Geo gets up blue alien monster in front of him. The alien introduces himself as Omega-Xis, an Electro-Magnetic Being from the planet FM. EM Beings are made out of EM Waves and the only reason Geo can see him is because of his Visualizer. He lets slip that he knows something about Geo's father and immediately grabs Geo's attention. Unfortunately some EM Viruses that are chasing after Omega-Xis take control of a nearby train...statue...thing, and are threatening the town! Omega-Xis says they can save the town and fight the Viruses if Geo will perform an EM-Wave Change with him, basically fusing the two together allowing Omega-Xis to have access to his powers. Geo agrees and the Wave Change fuses them together giving Geo a blue armor and red visor while attaching Omega-Xis as a buster to his arm. Omega-Xis gets Geo ready to fight but Geo is hesitant. Omega-Xis promises to tell Geo about his dad if he does fight so Geo reluctantly agrees. After the combat tutorial Omega-Xis is impressed and decides he wants to stick around with Geo for awhile and hang out in his transer.

From here on out Geo gets wrapped up with Omega-Xis in a quest to protect Earth from the invading FMians who wish to use a weapon called Andromeda that Omega-Xis has stolen the key to. The FMians are only able to utilize their full power while possessing a human and throughout the story Geo finds himself in situation after situation in which the FMians possess someone he knows and starts wreaking havoc and Geo's only option to save them is to Wave Change with Omega-Xis and take on the persona of MegaMan.

I'd give a point by point analysis of the story like the rest of the games I've done, but to be honest so many of the details in Star Force are extremely important to Geo's character development that listing them all would make this a much longer post than it needs to be already and as much as I hate to do it, for brevity sake, I need to gloss over much of it.

Geo at first doesn't want to fight and is scared of standing up for himself, but when someone other life is on the line he fights through his fear to protect them and Geo doesn't come into his full power until he realizes that he wants to protect the people in his life. Omega-Xis is the counter to Geo's timidness and pushes him to act, while Geo softens up the rough around the edges alien. Geo's quest is full of many interesting turns to develop his character including a bit of a love triangle Geo accidentally finds himself in between Luna and another character Sonia Strumm, both of whom adore MegaMan. His personal life definitely begins to upturn as he begins to make friends and returns to school. It all comes to ahead when Geo has to answer the call to protect the Earth from the FMian king's weapon Andromeda and discover what happened to his father. The characters are extremely well developed throughout the story and that is what makes this game a pleasure to play more than anything.

The story isn't without its problems though, as it does get a bit wordy here and there and some of the dialog is pretty cheesy, such as the scene where Taurus Fire is attempting to run Geo down with a truck and the characters literally go on and on about it for quite a while with Geo running full speed trying to get away. The Narrative as a whole works well though and each entry into this series builds a little bit more on the last. As far as the rest of the game goes, well that's going to come down to a lot of personal preference.

Aesthetics
Aside from a few new effects here and there and the really low poly 3D models in battle mode, not a hell of a lot has changed since Battle Network, and one gets the feeling that the NDS was seriously under utilized. There's interesting ideas worked in to be sure, as traveling the wave road above the towns which does look pretty cool and I personally like the new design on Mega Man himself even if it isn't a traditional look, but it's not so different to be unrecognizable. The character designs aren't bad either though you might have to go outside the game to actually see a better picture of them.

There's a reeeeeeally small touch in this game that you might not notice at first that is pretty cool. In this game Geo's character portrait is sad and depressing looking the majority of the game, but about midway through when Geo is starting to feel better, his portrait is just slightly changed to give him a bit of a smirk. I really wish the designers did more to make all the characters more expressive in their portraits as they could probably cut down on some of the dialog that way, but this is still kind of a nice touch to see Geo's character development taking shape. As a whole though this game won't do much in the way to impress you visually.

Sound
Are these the same sound effects from Battle Network? They do realize that the NDS has some more powerful sound hardware right? I suppose they do because the music in this game kicks ass, but I have to echo reviewer sentiments that the sound effects in this game suck and Capcom should have went out of their way to get some higher quality ones. On the music though, it's fantastic, not as good as ZX, but some of my favorite Mega Man soundtracks come from this game.

The main theme is really good, along the lines of the first Battle Network theme where it can really pump you up in the right situations. The song is apparently called "Shooting Star." I guess Capcom liked it too because in Star Force 3 they actually wrote lyrics to it, though I'm not sure if it's been sung anywhere but this is probably a good thing lest Star Force become a musical. A few more great tracks are "Happy Company", the track that accompanies Luna and friends and "Wave World" which plays... well in the wave world. Overall the track is very mellow which is a bit different from the typical hard rock of most Mega Man games, but this track is definitely one of my favorites of the franchise.

Design
The bulk of the game from Battle Network still exists with some major changes. Like Battle Network a custom gauge fills up giving you some battle chips every round, although this time they are called Battle Cards and you get 6 instead of 5. The cards don't have letter codes either and you can select them if they are in the same column, same name or have a white background. This is a big welcomed change in my mind as you won't have your hands tied trying to unicode a folder and for once picking up a brand new card and adding it to your folder without having several of them won't hinder you at all.

Next, like Battle Network you control MegaMan on a grid where you can dodge and fire your buster. This time the perspective is from behind MegaMan and you can only dodge left or right. Timing here is more essential than position and in addition to moving left or right you also get a shield that you can use to block attacks with. This time you charge your buster automatically and rapid fire by holding down the fire button. To use certain battle cards like swords and the like, you can press down on the D-Pad to lock on to a target and Geo will quickly jump over to them for the attack. I wouldn't say this new style is better or worse myself though some absolutely detest it. There's an adjustment to be made for sure, but I don't find it to be a huge hindrance and enjoy it for what it is. I do like the auto lock on and card system though which is what pushes this series into my preference over Battle Network.

Other than that the game isn't much different. You get an encounter with a boss, run through a dungeon with a different gimmick, then fight the boss. The dungeon stages in this game are pretty awful though, as Capcom decided to shoe-horn in as many horrible little stylus gimmicks as they could for each dungeon. They tone this down in the sequels, but easily the worst part of this game are the dungeons in this first one. There's also an assload of side quests you can do by jumping into people's Transers and finding out what they want. That said, the dungeons aren't as bad as some of the Battle Network ones and they are a lot less Maze like.

About half way through the game Geo will gain the Star Force from the satellite admins. This allows you to take a transformation in the guise of your chosen game (Dragon, Leo, Pegasus) and take an elemental bonus and weakness with it. It also changes your busters charged shot and allows you to take cards from the same row as well as column when in the star force form. You also gain access to the other forms through the DS' wireless link up capabilities by forming Brother Bands with your online friends who have the other versions of the game, meaning you have virtually no reason to buy more than one copy of this game.

Brother Bands have other functions as well. They'll provide you with an HP-Bonus as well as access to your Brother's favorite cards chosen roulette style. Don't worry if you can't get an online brother though as the game has at least 4 NPC characters you can form up with, most of whom have some abilities you can make use of that are better than having an online brother anyway. I haven't made use of the online functionality of this game myself but I think you can only trade cards in this game if I remember correctly. Online battles would come in the next game, but don't quote me on that.

Playability
Overall easier than Battle Network, but more demanding of your reflexes. It's harder to make a folder that completely screws you in this game than it is in Battle Network, but you will need to think your strategies differently to be sure. There aren't any program advances in this game either so build a folder as strong as you can.

Extras

• The version you buy is the form you'll receive, the Admin you'll fight, and the Giga cards you'll get. The game isn't hard to find right now in any of the versions so you really have the choice of any of the three. If you have access to a wireless connection you'll have access to the other forms as well so really it's up to you to decide if you care about what bosses or Giga cards you get. If you don't have a wireless connection, I'd say Pegasus is probably the easiest form to have because the Freeze effect of the buster is a great way to stun enemies, but it really doesn't make a huge difference one way or the other.
• If you are looking for Brothers, GameFaqs forums has tons of people still looking to form them up.
• A weird thing about this game is that you can rename Geo Stelar to whatever the hell you want, but in sequel games you can't, you just assign him a nick name for online purposes. I guess I just find it weird for the characters to call him anything other than Geo... or Subaru but that's a different story altogether.
• Break Sabers are a god send, especially against Andromeda. They'll attack through any shield and are a best friend in this game.
• I select defensive cards as my favorites, such as heals and barriers. This way if I'm in trouble I'll never have to give up doing damage for getting a quick heal off.
• Don't forget about the Invisible Cards. You get them early but there's almost never a reason to throw them away as you'll avoid so much damage with them.

Battle Network is a simple story with a complex strategy system. Star Force is the opposite and I personally think it works better. It's problem comes from riding the heels of Battle Networks success and many people just don't what it takes to play another one of those games. Others will argue between which series is better overall, but it's a matter of tastes. Some like their porridge hot, some like it cold, but many don't care for it seven games old, and I think that more than anything is contributing to Star Force's lack of success. If you like a good story in a game, give this one a shot though.

Playthroughs
N/A