Note to self: Cloakers are useless in this game.
Okay, so last time we were called out by this mysterious Rey fellow who used waves to pull off a localized and somewhat-less insane version of Dr. Regal's Soul Net plan to prove a point about Brotherbands and now we're going to learn about Pat's backstory. This is a pretty important update, so let's dive right in.
Dream Island turns out to be an artificial island that serves as the unnamed-Star Force-city's dump. The music and the dingy-looking shop selling salvaged junk outside the dump's gate gives the place a rather bleak feel, though according to the map at the entrance there's a park that looks out at the ocean. Let's just hope the planners had the sense to not build it downwind. There's an HP Memory 10 to find by examining a parked garbage truck, and a small wavehole is found by switching on a refrigerator on display at the shop.
The park is actually where our tour of the place begins. It's verdant and peaceful with a playground and picnic tables to relax and play at. It's good to see that the playground attractions are made out of wood, since when I was a kid you didn't have fun unless you came away with raw skin and a splinter or two. Past the attractions is a very large flower garden, and on a bluff overlooking the sea is where Geo talks about his father's disappearance and his withdrawal from others in more detail. Pat thanks him for being open with him, and offers to take him somewhere else on the island to explain why he has no parents. Off we go, and there's another HP Memory 10 to find by checking out one of the picnic tables.
We're taken through the gates and into the dump itself. There's not a whole lot to say about it. It's a dump. There's garbage everywhere. A lot of it is taken to a waste plant to be burnt. There are robots called Sorter Bots milling around collecting junk. They look exactly like Rosie from The Jetsons. The smell's probably pretty bad. Pat leads Geo to a small dead end and says that this is where he was thrown away. He explains to his taken-aback companion that he was abandoned in the dump when he was just a baby, and he got his name from what was written on the towel he was wrapped in. So he never knew who his family was and he grew up in an orphanage. When Geo asks he says that he doesn't hate his parents since even if they threw him away he's still alive, so that's what he thinks about instead. He thanks Geo for being with him again and says that while there's a lot more that he wants to talk about it is getting late so they'd better leave.
But the world has other plans it seems, for as Geo's leaving the dump Rey gives him another call telling him not to get “trashed.” A swarm of Sorter Bots rush over to “dispose” of him, thinking he's garbage. He's trapped, but luckily there's a wavehole right nearby that we can use to escape into the Wave World and track down the robots' controller. And even buy some stuff from a nearby merchant:
- HP Memory 20 – 6000z
- HP Memory 20 – 10000z
- HP Memory 20 – 20000z
- Recovery 150 – 7000z
- Ice Burst – 7000z
- Tidal Edge – 12000z
- Poison Apple – 15000z
Poison Apple is basically Anti-Recovery.
Well we're not allowed to leave this section of the wave road, so the only place the perpetrator can be is within the computer of the waste plant. Sure enough there are some Jammers within, and one other person: Gemini
◊, the FM King's right-hand man according to Omega. After defeating the Jammers Omega thinks that they should be able to take Gemini since he currently has no host. Gemini laughs and admits that he is vulnerable without one, but he does have one all the same – the Rey figure that's been sending us phone calls. He says that Rey doesn't like showing himself to others and promptly disappears, after which Geo uses the control panel in here to shut the robots down. There's a new Mega Weapon in here, the Hyper Glove which has high attack but really low speed.
After pulsing out we find Pat again, who managed to avoid getting trashed and the two head to the bus stop. There Geo speaks up and says that he's been thinking about Pat's story and then, for the first time in the game, takes the initiative and asks Pat if he wants to form a Brotherband. Pat says that he's touched, but just like how Geo was reluctant earlier on he admits that he's not sure he can. He has another secret, he explains, one that's very personal and he's afraid that if Geo knew what it was he'd hate him. He asks for a day to think it over. That's the oh-so-subtle cue to go home to bed but there's still a little bit of exploration to be done as there's a wavehole by the park's picnic table that we haven't used yet. On the park's wave roads we can reach and pulse in to, bizarrely enough, a half-sunken pirate ship (like an actual galleon from the Age of Sail) that's out there in the ocean. It's got an HP Memory 10, though. Less weirdly, inside that fridge we turned on before is a Junk Cube 1.
Dream Island Job 1: Selah Agane
The old woman running the shop outside the dump is having issues getting the fridge to work, thinking it's the work of a virus. We pulse in but the problem is not a virus infection but really a powered-down Hertz that wants us to hand over a Recovery 80 battle card to juice him up. That does the trick and we're paid with yet another HP Memory 10.
Dream Island Job 2: Roy Query
Why, it's the Quiz King!
- Q1: The doghouse in Echo Ridge is actually a... (security system)
- Q2: “Luna” means which of the following? (moon)
- Q3: Name the coffee in the AMAKEN vending machine. (Big Bang Coffee)
- Q4: Which of these cards is the second-most powerful? (Fire Bazooka 2)
- Q5: How many basketball courts are there in the school gym? (2)
- Q6: Mettena and Hot Roader's HP totaled equals... (100)
- Q7: Now add a Cannon Base's HP into the total. (150)
- Q8: I am the Quiz... (King)
- Q9: Name the statue of a dog in Time Square. (Rover)
- Q10: Which of these isn't at Echo Elementary? (a chem lab)
- Q11: Uwaaa! Tell me what I just said. (Uwaaa!)
- Q12: Gwhoa! Psych! Tell me what # question this is. (12)
- Q13: Name the department store at Time Square. (Nacys)
- Q14: Which of these is on the roof of Nacys? (a giraffe)
- Q15: What kind of person works at the second-hand shop on Dream Island? (an old lady)
An HP Memory 20, whoot.
Dream Island Job 3: Meala DeVour
This little girl considers herself a world-class gourmand and is flabbergasted that there's something she hasn't eaten yet. It's Shooting Star Cake, sold at AMAKEN, and instead of going there herself to get it we have to trek out there and buy it for her. After eagerly devouring the treat (apparently it tastes like a falling star) we're rewarded with 5000z.
AMAKEN Job 12: Chrys Golds
This is Sonia's former manager. After she retired he's been looking for some new talent to recruit/exploit. Neither I nor Omega know why we're helping this asshole, but whatever. Our scouting consists of going to Time Square and talking with a young woman who has aspirations of being a star. Okay sure, just don't blame us in a few years when the idol machine is chewing you up, you're dealing with insane stalker fans, and sleeping with TV executives. We're paid 7000z.
I think that's enough padding for now. After we send Geo to bed the scene goes back to Pat, who's wandered back in to the dump. He's pondering aloud to himself over whether or not he should accept Geo's offer and then drops the line “Can you handle being Brothers with two of me...?” His thoughts are interrupted by a dump worker coming up to yell at him for trespassing, and apparently he's having a bad day for he goes on a small tirade about the disrespectful youth of today until the boy before him suddenly adopts a sneering expression and beats him up for insulting him.
Pat suddenly backs away in horror at what he, or rather “Rey” did. Pat was only telling a half-truth when said to Geo that he didn't hate his parents for abandoning him. The only reason he doesn't is because his hatred manifests itself as another “self”, Rey
◊, who argues that bonds mean nothing to someone like them who've been thrown away and made “incomplete.” That's actually a relatively realistic portrayal of how dissociative identity disorder (multiple personalities in layman's speak) can come about via physical and/or emotional trauma. The two personalities conversing with each other like Gollum perhaps not so much unless Pat's schizophrenic on top of that, but credit where credit is due. Anyway, Rey's adamantly opposed to forming a Brotherband, even with Pat insisting that Geo's the first person he's ever liked, but then he suddenly does an about-face and says that he's changed his mind.
And of course this all means that Pat's Gemini's host too...what a basket case this is turning out to be.
So the next day Pat calls Geo and says that he's decided to form the Brotherband after all. He's waiting at Time Square by the dog statue and after greeting each other Geo asks if he's really comfortable with revealing his secret when Rey decides to be a dick and come out. Sensing both the boy's change and an FM-ian's waves Omega shouts for Geo to get away, which leads to Rey deciding that he might as well have Gemini reveal himself. So not only is Pat/Rey Gemini's host, but unlike the others he's actually cooperating with his alien. Gemini explains Pat's disorder to Geo and Rey declares that he only got close to him so that he could steal the Andromeda Key. He starts clutching his head as Pat tries to surface to refute his other half but being the embodiment of his subconscious Rey points out that they've always wanted revenge on their parents for abandoning them and putting them through hell, and with the planet-destroying power of Andromeda exacting it would be easy. Pat finally apologizes to Geo, and Wave Changes with Gemini to form Gemini Spark.
◊
Gemini Spark's rather unique among the wave beings. Unlike the Robot Master Geminiman, the second twin isn't formed by a Hard Light projection. Instead Gemini Spark is split into two separate beings, whom I will refer to as Spark White and Spark Black. Pat embodies Spark White, and is thus the more sedate of the two, while Rey is the sneering Spark Black. Of course this backstory was cut out entirely in the anime, following the precedent of Battle Network's, so there Spark Black was instead embodied by Gemini himself, leading to a strange scene where Spark White deleted his other half to revive Andromeda and was somehow able to maintain the fusion.
Gemini Spark starts emitting the plus and minus waves from earlier, sending the entire plaza into a frenzy. Spark Black says that this time the waves won't go away unless they're defeated, and tells Geo to come fight them at the dump's scrapyard if he wants to fight. Crushed by his friend's betrayal, Geo nonetheless resolves to go after them.
The scrapyard is one of the Dream Island dump's areas that we weren't allowed in before as it's being blocking by a parked backhoe. The solution is to find another Navi card that the worker Rey beat up dropped, and obtaining it is just a matter of examining a crane that's right there. Shovelman (who looks like a Tonka truck Transformer) moves aside the vehicle via a throttle-based minigame, and in we go.
Aside from an HP Memory 20 hidden among a stack of tires and a Card Trader SP what sticks out about the first area of the scrapyard is that you can seen a huge pile of Link PETs in with the junk. It makes me wonder. The human Battle Network characters are obviously long dead, but what happened to the old Navis like Megaman, Protoman, Gutsman, Roll, and so forth? Were they all “retired” when the Net was upgraded to the Wave World or for just being obsolete, or what? What happened to a Navi if it's operator died and there was no family around to pass it on to? It's really something of an Inferred Holocaust when I think about it.
Anyways, an avalanche of tires blocks the way to the second area, so it's time to take to the Wave World to progress. The exit path is scrambled thanks to some distortion, so we have to pulse in to what appears to be a junked satellite immediately below to clear it up. Dungeon time.
Like Battle Network 6's Mr. Weather Computer, the Scrap Computer eschews the winding pathways for wide open areas. Unlike that level though, these aren't empty, they're filled in with trash of every description, and we have to find Hertzes that are buried in it to open the way to the area's control panel. To that end we're given a sonar that is shown as a triangle icon in the top right of the bottom screen and it will resonate whenever the bottom screen is tapped with the stylus. If it remains gray, nothing doing. Blue means there's something buried nearby, yellow indicates we're near, and red means that we're right on top of it so that one hit of the A button will unearth our prize. There's both Mystery Waves and Hertzes to find, and luckily the game's nice enough to tell you when there's nothing left in the area to find.
But even so I don't really like this level because the areas are really big, it takes time sweeping the place, and while you are given hints as to where the Hertzes are buried (one hiding near a minifridge is described as complaining about the cold, for example) some of them are very vague and even misleading. And also bulldozers will occasionally drive through the place, damaging Geo if he gets run over.Though the Scrap Computer has nothing on a dungeon in the second game that uses the same basic puzzle only even worse.
In order to get to the next area of the scrapyard we have to pulse in to both the satellite and also what appears to be a space shuttle, of all things. In the second area we have to leave the Wave World and Geo confronts Gemini Spark, who're both standing at the top of some stairs. He tries to tell Pat that he's making a huge mistake, but Spark White insists that this is something he's decided on. Spark Black tells Geo to hand over the Andromeda Key if he doesn't want to fight, and the two pulse in to an old, broken-down radio tower in order to broadcast their plus and minus waves all over. Dr. Regal would be proud.
There's another wavehole to pulse in with, and while we're supposed to head straight for the tower there's a buoy floating out at sea that we can access for a Flicker Kick 2. Scrap Computer 3 is massive but thankfully it's the only area here. Confronting Gemini Spark, Geo tries to talk his friend out of this one last time to no avail. Spark Black wants his revenge and Spark White is going along with his other half, so with one final apology the battle begins.
Gemini Spark
HP: 1500
Element: Elec
Attacks:
- Rocket Knuckle – Gemini Spark fires one of their oversized arms down one column for 60 Elec damage.
- Elec Sword – One of the Sparks slashes the panel in front of them with a sword that deals 60 Elec damage and paralyzes Geo.
- Gemini Thunder – Both Sparks leap onto the field's center panel and fire a massive blast of electricity into Geo's row that deals 90 Elec damage and paralyzes him.
Now this is an interesting battle. We're squaring off against two opponents but only one of them has an HP counter. Spark Black is the only one who can be damaged while Spark White is immune to everything. So a large part of this battle comes down to timing, making sure you're hitting the right twin and not wasting your attacks. From that standpoint I find it to be pretty fun, even if Gemini Spark doesn't have much going on in the attack department. Since I'm playing Dragon it's pretty easy to counter them when they jump together for Gemini Thunder for Elemental Cyclone which is a free six-hundred points of damage thanks to their weakness.
Winning gives us 6000z.
Like all the others, defeating Gemini Spark leaves Pat lying on the floor of the network. Back in the real world he regains consciousness and tells Geo that it's him, Pat this time. Rey apparently used up too much of his “power”, whatever that means in this context, and is currently dormant. He says that it's too painful to be around Geo anymore and starts to leave. Geo stops him by saying that when he told Pat he trusted him he really meant it, and asks if he truly meant the same. Pat replies that he did want Geo to understand him, but since he doesn't know anything about relationships it's too easy for him to betray others, himself included. He leaves Geo in silence.
With that we are very close to the endgame, so the screen turns black as the FM King muses that all of his greatest warriors have been defeated. He himself is the only person he can trust, and so he moves forward with his plan to unleash Andromeda upon Earth, just like he did to Planet AM.
Virus Listing
- Tropiconga
- Battle Network 5 had apple viruses, now we have watermelon viruses. Tropicongas are immobile and spit a barrage of seeds down their column. The seeds deal heavy cumulative damage, but since the viruses themselves don't move they're easily dispatched.
- Junk-O
- These cobbled-together robots place either Rock Cubes or scrap metal on the field that fly at Geo when he aligns with them.
- Great Ax
- These massive, armored statues attack by swinging a giant battleaxe through the 3 x 2 area before them.
- Fokx
- Despite their name these viruses are actually tanukis. As tanukis are often depicted to do they will occasionally vanish in a puff of smoke, appear before Geo disguised as him, and attack him with a sword slash.
Soundtrack
- Loneliness
- Now this track sticks around for the rest of the series.
- Dream Island
- Every future story needs some Trash of the Titans going on, it seems.
- Dust Crash
- Good music, annoying stage.
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