Let's Play Megaman Star Force

Administrative Privileges

After he formed his first Brotherband Geo's pendant began to glow, and he notices it doing the same after waking up from another odd dream one morning. This one was even odder than the last, as not only did Omega have it too, but it involved them being confronted by three strange, shadowed beings: a giant dragon, lion, and winged horse, who each had more cryptic messages about how Geo's actions will determine the fate of the world and that they will be watching over him. Convinced that the pendant isn't an ordinary one, they figure they should ask Hope about it, as it used to belong to Kelvin. She doesn't know anything special about it either, though, but she does suggest showing it to Boreal. Apparently she also spoke with Geo's would-be homeroom teacher at school who's worried about him. Geo ignores the hint.

Outside we can take to the wave roads to find Harp Note EX at Vista Point. In card format she's pretty useful. If she's not lined up with an enemy she'll use her Shock Note attack, firing off three paralyzing music notes down two columns. If she is aligned, she'll use Machine Gun Strings instead, which deals an extra two hits. Since her strings have the breaking attribute, she'll be able to pierce through guards that way and even one-shot Mono Swords. And since she's a multi-hitter either way, attack multipliers give her a very welcome boost. Too bad Star Force doesn't have a Full Synchro equivalent.

At the bus stop Geo once again encounters Luna and the boys. This time Luna takes a different approach, telling him that there will be a class play at school soon and that she took the liberty of already casting him in it, as after all everyone has to chip in to give the event meaning. What's more, his role is apparently very important, and he'll understand if he just comes to school and looks at the set. As you can imagine Geo's very put-out, calling Luna a “satellite” for always following him around but he eventually gives in on the condition that he's just going to look at the set. Naturally Luna takes this as a sign that she's finally won. At least Omega is pleased with this turn of events: he can finally see what the inside of a school looks like!

Finally we can enter the school gates. Echo Elementary uses the same kind of setup that ACDC Elementary did with a small entrance hall leading to the classroom floors. Geo doesn't recognize much since according to Bud the principal had most of the building renovated in the time since Geo stopped coming. It's after school at the moment, so the group is approached by their teacher, Mr. Mitch Shepar◊, wondering what they're doing. He lightens up upon seeing Geo, and immediately susses out that Luna essentially bullied him into showing up. He lectures her a bit on how you can't force people into things before they're ready, and then realizes that he has to get home. He has a large family apparently, seven kids of his own, plus all of his students! He leaves, and Luna says that even if Mr. Shepar feels that way, she still thinks that Geo should come back and take his part in class. Well, she does free us to go see the set in the gym. But before that we can pulse in real quickly through a wavehole in the foyer's small cafeteria area to get the Blind Eye Mega Weapon on the wave road (Charge Shot has a chance of blinding an enemy) and access a statue for an HP Memory 10.

The gym's accessed by heading right, and it's one of those auditorium/gymnasium combos like my own elementary school had. Looking at the cardboard props and crappy costumes lying around the stage it seems that the play Luna was talking about is actually a dramatization of the Taurus Fire incident, Megaman vs. The Cow Man.” Since Geo isn't supposed to know about Megaman the others eagerly describe him as a mysterious hero who shows up to beat up monsters and vanishes just as quickly. Things get even more awkward when Bud says that Megaman is his role model and Luna starts gushing over the blue hero.

Omega shouts a warning, and the awkwardness is broken up in a very unwelcome manner. A stage light suddenly falls from above, very narrowly missing Geo. He quickly puts on his Visualizer and sees a Jammer sneering up on the wave road over his head. They have to get him now, Omega says, because sneaky guys like that turn out to be real pains if you leave them be. So Geo mutters an excuse to others about having to go to the bathroom (I don't think he really thought that one through) so that he can Wave Change out of sight.

But I can still totally make him do so anyway as there's a wavehole right there in the gym.

Anyway, this particular Jammer is...strange. All of them are generally portrayed as nothing more than thugs or an FM-ian's goon, but this guy is oddly persistent and sticks around for a little bit. We corner him in the entrance hall but instead of talking trash and suicidally attacking like these sorts of guys tend to he instead becomes enormous, a G version of a Jammer. The fight doesn't go well for Geo and Omega – the thug's completely invincible, and the battle automatically ends after a few turns. On the overworld the super-sized Jammer grabs Geo and starts crushing him until he passes out.

Geo eventually finds himself returned to normal and lying on the floor of the hall. Thank goodness no one happened to come across him while he was out! The Jammer's completely vanished too.

The place turns out to not be completely deserted, as Geo ends up seeing a green-haired boy looking out the cafeteria windows, talking to himself about what a nice day it is. He walks over to Geo and introduces himself as one of his classmates, Patrick Sprigs. After insisting that Geo call him Pat he tells him that every day when he takes attendance Mr. Shepar still calls out Geo's name, which has caused him to wonder what sort of person he is. Pat says that he's glad that Geo seems to be nice and says that they should be friends and that school would probably be a lot more interesting if he came. After he excuses himself Geo says to himself that there do seem to be some nice people at school apart from Luna and her lot...and then realizes that they're probably wondering what happened to him. The excuse that he gives them is that he got lost looking for the bathroom, and since it's late now Luna lets him go, though she tells him that he should show up tomorrow for the sake of the play.

Echo Ridge Job 6: Joe Hawnt

This is the kid who owned the pitching machine, and right now he's convinced that some “blue puffy thing” is going to drag him off to the netherworld. It's just a Hertz behind the Big Wave vending machines, and after he agrees to leave the little boy gives us a Search Eye.

We're finally free to visit AMAKEN, where there's one last job to do in the museum.

AMAKEN Job 11: Edgar Knight

It appears that the guy at the Space Sim reception is also in love with the receptionist in the main foyer. Upon learning that he has a rival in the form of the gift shop clerk, he asks us for a Recovery 30 that he can use as a gift to win her over. His side of the trade is an Unlocker.

Upon hearing Geo's story about the pendant glowing, Boreal takes it apart and discovers that it's actually a transmitter, one that is only activated when it senses a Brotherband being registered. Geo realizes that he could possibly use it to send a transmission to his father, and though Boreal is doubtful that that'll work, he suggests trying it on the roof, where there's good reception. There he waits...and the pendant starts glowing again. Omega realizes that it's calling down a powerful EM wave, and with an earth-shaking rumble the three entities from their dream appear before them.

They introduce themselves as the three Satellite Admins: Pegasus Magic◊, Leo Kingdom◊, and Dragon Sky◊ (they're all shadowed, but what the hey, they're not hiding their identities so might as well show 'em). Omega wonders why EM beings like him would be interested in Earth, and the answer is that they have come to prepare the two for the upcoming crisis, and that they've been waiting for the sign of Geo's Brotherband to act. Through some more cryptic mumbo-jumbo regarding the power of bonds and fate the Admins let slip that they know of Kelvin, who used to use the pendant and Visualizer to commune with them.

Moving on, they intend to given Geo, Megaman, a power to help him fight back, the titular Star Force. Omega says that if all they need is a human who can Wave Change and has a Brother, why don't they just ask Sonia instead, but the answer isn't “you're the main characters, that's why”, it's that Lyra's frequency isn't compatible with the Star Force, while Omega's surprisingly is. This makes Omega realize who the Admins really are, survivors from the Planet AM. In response to Geo's confusion, it's explained that Planet AM and its people were Planet FM's neighbors, but when the new FM King ascended the throne the FM-ians wiped out the AM-ians with their ultimate weapon, Andromeda. I wonder if FM triumphing over AM was deliberately done since FM radio tends to have a stronger signal than AM radio?

Omega asks why the Admins would want to give an FM-ian, their enemy, this sort of power and amusingly the answer boils down to “if you don't want to reveal all of your secrets, than don't ask us to do the same.” Anyway, since they saw Megaman get flattened by that oversized Jammer we have to undergo something called the Star Trial to get the Star Force, which consists of finding golden Hertz's scattered around the AMAKEN grounds' wave roads and clearing virus battles that they pit us against. Well what do you know, an actually justified reason for testing us. Geo decides that if he'll be able to pass the trial, than he'll be one step closer to his father.

After we collect all five Starlight items from the gold Hertzes, we're challenged to battle by the Admin who corresponds to the version being played!

Dragon Shadow

HP: 1000

Element: Wood

Attacks:

Wood Tower – Dragon Sky sends a series of sharpened wooden spears towards Geo for 25 Wood damage.
Dragon Road – Dragon Sky slithers through a swath of the field including two adjacent panels on Geo's row for 40 Wood damage.

The Admins said that they can't leave their satellites, explaining why their shadow forms are so watered down. So, Dragon Sky. While the other Admins can freely move around, due to the way Dragon Sky is modeled his hitbox, his head, will always be three rows ahead. Thus hitting him is not a very difficult task. The two attacks he has are rather basic, though Wood Tower is a touch more dangerous than it was in Battle Network since there's less room to maneuver around in to dodge it. He's got a decent amount of HP and can only be paralyzed through counters, but the Blazing Edge and Tail Burner 1's in my folder do a good job of whittling him down.

Proving victorious convinces Dragon Sky that there's enough want within us, so he bestows his Star Force upon Geo. After a quick light show it's explained that the Star Force is currently sleeping inside him, so we're not able to use our new power up just yet. It can only be fully awakened when the desire to protect something is especially strong, a condition that Geo does not currently fulfill. The Admins say that they will continue to watch over him, and vanish. It's only then that Omega remembers that the three were considered to be sages back on their home planet. Geo and Omega talk a little about everything that's happened today and then decide to go home.

That night Geo has a terrible time sleeping, being able to think of nothing but the conversations he had, the people he met that day, and Sonia's promise to find a new self. Though it's still dark out he gets up and dressed and finally declares that he's going to move forward with his life. And that means that he'll finally start attending school again.

Virus Listing

Boom Bolt
- These viruses drift around the field and when they get close enough they hit all adjacent panels with electricity. When they hide inside their clouds they cannot be damaged.
Octo Ninja
- These octopus viruses drift up and down in place and spit ink that damages and changes panel type. Octo Ninjas can create grass panels while Octo Icers create ice and Octo Poisons generate poison panels.

Soundtrack