The morning of the final battle sees Geo and Omega affirming their resolve to defeat the FM-ians once and for all, and also checking in with everyone before they head off into space. While she doesn't know of Geo's secret mission, Hope seems to be having a tough time seeing Geo leave the house since she had a dream of Kelvin the previous night, and since NAZA's officially announced that an alien invasion is about to commence, all the people of Echo Ridge are understandably on edge. At Vista Point Geo meets Luna, Bud, and Zack who've heard everything from Boreal, and they're apprehensive about him going off too. He makes the same promise he did with Boreal, that he'll come back alive, and our pre-battle business is done. Off to Dream Island.
Once inside the secret chamber we get some nice email from the Echo Ridge crew wishing us luck and find Boreal lying face-down on the floor. It's okay though, he just fell asleep after fixing Peace's transmitter. Once he fires it up a new wavehole and wave road set appear in the chamber, complete with a teleporter that'll send us straight to the station. Sonia shows up asking to come along too, but naturally Geo says that he'll be the only one going. He has a good reason though, as he explains that once he's gone off into space Sonia's the only one who'll be able to defend Earth from FM-ian attacks. So with everything cleared up and Boreal and Sonia wishing Geo luck, we automatically pulse in to the Wave World. Before we step into the teleporter there's one last merchant here for the road:
- Dyna Energy – 1000z
- Unlocker – 4000z
- Search Eye – 6000z
- Poison Knuckle – 7000z
- Poison Burst – 8000z
- Typhoon Dance – 11000z
- Arbor Edge – 12000z
- Spirit Fury – 20000z
Spirit Fury works the same as Battle Network 6's Element Trap, countering an elemental attack. It can only be used in linked play, unfortunately.
Setting into the teleporter, we come out on the wave road of Peace's service module. The interior of Peace looks rather spacious compared to say, the International Space Station, but hey, this is the future, where Starship Luxurious tends to reign. This small section of wave road terminates in an exit wavehole, and luckily for Geo the station's life support systems still seem to be working after all these years. There's gravity too (no doubt an application of the technology that made the Space Sim possible), and the clothes and papers scattered around the floor are the only signs of human habitation. There's absolutely no one on board.
This module's pretty small, and there's not much going on in the real world other than an HP Memory 20 that's squirreled away with some oxygen tanks. The access hatch leading to the next module won't open, so naturally we have to access its system to proceed. A second wavehole is hidden behind a small door that can be opened by using Keyman to input one of the wave frequencies that're being displayed on the room's monitors, allowing us to access a second set of wave roads. After pulsing in to a spacesuit and a console for the Mega Weapon Card Finder (guarantees a card drop at the end of battle like Collect did) and a Dyna Energy respectively we can reach the hatch and pulse in to it, taking us to the final dungeon – the Station Computer.
Following the classic Megaman tradition each area that we will be visiting has a boss to rematch, and you can tell which one's in each area thanks to the nature of the puzzle. The pathways of the cyberworld are built around a giant plate in the area's center which depicts a constellation, and many of the pathways terminate in what I call dash panels: arrows that send Geo flying across space – and the plate – to a corresponding path on the other side. This is so because when you approach the boss at the end, you have to do a “connect the dots” exercise with the stylus to draw the constellation and open a gate barring the way to it. Obviously the game designers expect you to memorize the constellation during Geo's many trips over the plate, but of course you can cheat and just look up a picture yourself. Either way it's not a very strenuous dungeon.
Usually the bosses are refought in the order they were encountered in during the story, but things are shaken up a bit here as the constellation in this first area depicts Cygnus the Swan, so he's the FM-ian waiting at the end instead of Taurus. Like Gemini, Cygnus transforms into Cygnus Wing on his own, and it's on.
Cygnus Wing EX
HP: 1000
Element: Normal
Attacks:
- Cygnus Feather – Cygnus Wing fires several razor-sharp feathers at Geo for 30 damage.
- Dancing Swan – Cygnus Wing twirls down one column and up another for 60 damage.
- Migratory Bird – Three Cygnets appear on a row and fly forward, dealing 60 damage on contact. White ones will fly away when hit by an attack.
Well, he's faster now and deals more damage but eh, nothing too special here. I was able to finish him off with Elemental Cyclone though, which I guess is cool.
Cygnus Wing explodes, saying that at least he'll be a star in the sky (heh heh), and Geo's free to unlock the hatch. The next module is the AC module and there we run into the same issue the service module had: the hatch leading onward is locked and the access point for the Wave World is blocked off, this time by a pile of junk. While he's examining it Geo notices that he's starting to have difficulty breathing, leading Omega to suggest that he fix the air circulation or else. The circulator is a green machine that's set into one of the walls, and here we have to use Thermoman's fan function to bring the oxygen levels to normal. Rejuvenated, Geo's able to clear away the trash and pulse in.
This time the boss we face is Taurus, who says he'll turn us into star dust.
Taurus Fire EX
HP: 800
Element: Fire
Attacks:
- Ox Tackle – Taurus Fire charges down one column for 70 damage.
- Fire Breath – Taurus Fire breathes flame on the panel in front of him and the following two rows for 50 Fire damage.
- Anger Punch – Taurus Fire appears in front of Geo and punches him for 50 damage.
I was able to beat his EX form almost immediately after beating his base form in the story without taking a single point of damage, so he's no problem at all now.
Two down, two to go. Our third module is the power module where the same puzzle presents itself. Here Geo finds a note someone named Steve stuck on the door blocking off the wavehole asking Kelvin to fix some busted power lines with an EVA robot (as in Extra Vehicular Activity, not an Evangelion). So once more I have to struggle with Propellerman's slippery controls as I send the EVA robot to the trouble spots on the module's hull and just sorta ram the device into the exposed wiring. Hey, at least the slippery controls make sense here due to zero gravity and all. The door opens with the restoration of power, so into the Wave World we go to enter Station Computer 3, solve Libra the Balance, and fight our next opponent.
Libra Scales EX
HP: 1100
Element: Fire and Aqua
Attacks:
- Fire Weight – A ball of fires shoots from Libra Scales's balance and creates a three-panel-wide spread of fire for 70 Fire damage.
- Aqua Weight – A ball of water shoots from Libra Scales's balance and creates a three-panel-wide spread of geysers for 70 Aqua damage.
- Heavy Weight – A giant weight is dropped on Geo's head for 70 damage.
- Libra Swing – Libra Scales appears in the center of the field and swings his balances through Geo's row for 70 damage.
My folder happens to have a number of Aqua cards, so yeah. The Sticky Rain series in particular are great for getting counters.
The final module is the living module. It's the biggest of the bunch, but there's no puzzle here to solve. The wavehole is unobstructed and located in what I suppose is a lounge area of sorts. A cutscene starts up when Geo enters the space and finds his dad's workplace, and we finally get the traditional endgame infodump in the form of Omega finally deciding to tell Geo what happened here and how he knows Kelvin.
So, three years ago the FM King had his warriors take over the station and imprison the crew. It was decided that they would be sentenced to death, and Omega happened to be assigned to jail-keeping duty as it were. This was how he met Kelvin, who despite the circumstances was very interested in the aliens. The day eventually came when Omega stole the Andromeda Key and was about to flee when Kelvin asked him to take the crew with him. So we're treated to a flashback of Omega calling Kelvin
◊ crazy but it turns out that the man had a plan: have Omega use his Z-waves to turn the crew into waves themselves so that, no longer bound by bodies of flesh, they could make their own escape. Omega objects on the grounds that if they'll just get lost, but Kelvin says that he can just send a signal from his Transer to Geo's back on Earth to act as a beacon. Even though his plan is incredibly risky it's better than certain death on the station, he says, and he even suggests that Omega give up his revenge and come to Earth.
Back in the present Omega explains to Geo that he did end up going along with his father's plan, but they were discovered by Taurus and in the ensuing confusion everyone was separated. So, Kelvin and the crew are still out there somewhere, he explains, just lost in space. He never gives a time-frame for these events, so we don't know if this wave conversion even took place like a week after the station's disappearance or a month. I wonder if Omega took the scenic route in getting to Earth. It's known that he followed the beacon from the scene with Geo's pendant at the start of the game, but if he went directly to Earth and took all that time that would mean that Peace would've had to be closer to Alpha Centauri than the Solar System somehow. Weird. At least the game acknowledges that space is big. Anyway, the knowledge that his father is likely still alive heartens Geo and once more hardens his determination to win so that he'll have a home to return to.
After we pulse in we can access a wall monitor for an HP Memory 10, as well as find an invisible path on the wave road that leads out to another module floating out in space all by its lonesome. Pulsing in to it we can find another HP Memory 10 and a Hertz that gives us the Lonely Heart item. This is used for getting the best Mega Weapon in the game, but it's not available until the postgame area.
Lastly, it's to Station Computer 4 where the last FM-ian, Ophiuca, awaits. I guess the FM King wrote the “steal Andromeda” plot out of her mind, since she's just as determined to stop Omega as all the others.
Queen Ophiuca EX
HP: 1600
Element: Wood
Attacks:
- Snake Legion – A nest of snakes swarm down random columns of the field for 80 Wood damage per hit.
- Quick Serpent – Queen Ophiuca swiftly slithers down two columns for 80 Wood damage.
- Gorgon Eye – Queen Ophiuca fires a piercing laser beam down one column that deals 80 Wood damage and paralyzes.
That's a lot of HP still, and I had a difficult time with this battle because I kept missing with my attacks. She's really agile and doesn't recoil when struck either so I had to burn through more cards than I would've liked to take her down.
Beyond the hatch in the real world is a wavehole that's visible to the naked eye. This is of course the point of no return, and Omega explains why. The Z-waves coming off of the FM King are so strong that they are warping the real world and Wave World together, so once Geo Wave Changes he won't be able to revert back until he defeats the king. And there's also the fact that it's in open space to begin with, so he'd die anyway if he tried to.
So then I shall take this as my usual stopping point, and we will have our final battle next time.
Virus Listing
- Magera
- While these little witch viruses can attack Geo with magical fire their main role is to provide support to other viruses in the form of auras, barriers, holy panels, etc. They tend to hide behind obstacles if any are on the field, making them a pain to take down if you can't do so quickly.
- McCleaver
- These small, hunched viruses dual-wield machetes and attack by relentlessly chopping at Geo. Much like their likely inspiration Jason Vorhees they don white hockey masks.
- Grabity
- The old Shadow viruses return in the form of one-eyed black holes. These viruses can only be damaged by blade-based attacks and have two attacks of their own: either they'll fire a planet down their column or they'll suck away some of Geo's HP. The HP suction is unavoidable, so you want to delete them quickly.
Soundtrack
- Space Station
- A more uplifting version of the Space Sim track.
- Final Battleground
- A lot calmer than the Battle Network final area themes, but it's in the serene, ambient style that Star Force's music is really good at.
