Star Force continues Battle Network's method of keeping track of your achievements through title screen icons. Defeating Andromeda adds the Megaman star (a green star with Megaman's head on it) to the bottom screen of the title screen.
So, time to get started on the postgame content. Now that we've beaten the game we can access the secret area, but first there are some new jobs and a newly-unlocked boss to tackle first.
Echo Ridge Job 21: Hope Stelar
All of Hope's jobs in the series involve cooking in some way or another and the first is no exception, as we're dealing with an issue involving the household kitchen's refrigerator. Pulsing in to it reveals that it's infected with a virus, and deleting it has Hope give Geo the Protective Charm item, which contains a Cipher Code for a Heavy Cannon.
Echo Ridge Job 22: Ken Suther
The owner of Big Wave wants a Wide Wave 3 battle card, and in return gives us an HP Memory 10.
Echo Ridge Job 23: Zack Temple
This next quest isn't quite a job as it doesn't involve looking in any Transers, but the game counts it as one anyway. If we talk to Zack, who's at Vista Point's park along with Luna and Bud, he notes that he hasn't been able to help Geo at all and it's got him really down. He does know a little something, that the piano in the Echo Elementary gym is making funny noises, but he doesn't think even that tidbit is worth anything.
Well we'll see about that! Pulsing in to the piano in question shows that a group of ten Jammers have assembled inside, aiming to take over Echo Ridge's wave roads. Well we'll see about that too!
But it's easier said than done. This entails undergoing a ten-round survival battle against G versions of level 3 viruses, and boy, they are incredibly tough. Their attacks are very, very powerful and being G viruses each specimen has a truckload of HP. This is really the ultimate test of your battling prowess the game throws at you. Your reflexes need to be fast, your HP high, and your card selection optimal. It's difficult, but I'm lucky in that I have Dragon Sky GX on my side. This Giga card has a large range and is powerful enough to wipe out most of the viruses in one go. It's especially useful for a battle involving those Magero viruses, stripping away the barriers it generates for itself and its allies.
Once we finally get through the battles Geo goes back to report to Zack, telling him that his information actually did end up coming in handy. After being told to have a little more faith in himself, Zack asks if they can be Brothers. This is the final in-game Brotherband (you could download Legendary Master Shin's Brotherband data from the Nintendo WFC, but it's no longer available) and aside from the usual HP bonus Zack's Link Ability is Mega Class + 1, raising the limit on Mega cards by one.
AMAKEN Job 13: Patrick Sprigs
Pat's still thinking about his past, namely what happened to the Sorter Bot that found him as an infant. Talking to a worker at the Dream Island dump reveals that it eventually was bought by a department store, and we can then find it working away at cleaning Nacys' roof. Reporting this to Pat eases his mind and he gives us an HP Memory 10.
Time Square Job 13: Bob Copper
The detective's picked up three wave anomalies in Time Square, which turn out to be more Jammers, hidden inside the devices that can be pulsed in to around the square. Eliminate them all and, although he has no idea how we managed to do it, Copper gives us an HP Memory 20.
Dream Island Job 6: Aaron Boreal
Boreal apparently wants to show us something, and it happens to be a photo album...that he forgot in his lab. Of course. At least it's in a logical spot, the lockers by the lab's back door. Returning to Dream Island, Boreal shows Geo some old pictures of his father and of himself when he was just a little boy and gives him another HP Memory 20 as thanks for finding the album for him.
Whew, that's it, all fifty-five jobs in the game completed. This prompts Master Shin to send us an email expressing how moved he is that we actually went through all of this effort to help people. As a reward he sends us a final Cipher Code that bestows upon us a new Mega Weapon: Magic Breath. Magic Breath is pretty weak, but it does have a chance of either freezing or trapping enemies inside bubbles.
So, now that all of the job requests are finished let's focus on other things, like that ghostly fellow that's appeared on Dream Island. If you visit the scrapyard after defeating Andromeda a ghost of a nobleman can be seen by the pile of scrapped PETs. Well, ghosts are often posited to be Energy Beings of a sort, so I guess it fits the setting. His name is Jean Couronne XIV
◊ of the Jour Jovonne family, and despite being dead for four-hundred years he can Wave Change with an FM-ian he encountered when he was still alive: Crown, who's likely based off of one of the two Corona constellations. After four-hundred years he's itching to fight for his family's honor and since we're here he challenges Geo. So hopping up on to the wave road takes us right to his wave form, Crown Thunder.
Crown Thunder
◊
HP: 2000
Element: Elec
Attacks:
- Bowgun Skull – A skull ghost fires a bolt down one column for 80 damage.
- Hammer Skull – A skull ghost smashes a 2 x 2 area with a hammer for 80 damage.
- Lance Skull – A skull ghost thrusts a drill down a two-panel range dealing two hits of 80 damage each.
- Ball Thunder – Crown Thunder briefly crouches and strikes three random panels with lightning that deals 50 Elec damage and inflicts paralysis.
Crown Thunder doesn't like getting up-close-and-personal, preferring to attack remotely with his skull ghosts. On their own they aren't too much to worry about, but they'll gradually start stacking their strikes to put you in a position where you have to block. Curiously, while Lance Skull breaks through guards like you'd expect, Hammer Skull doesn't. I took some unneeded hits from that since I'm used to hammer-wielding viruses from the later games who did have the break attribute and so didn't bother blocking.
This guy's a creature of habit as he follows a set pattern of attacking with Ball Thunder once his skulls have had their shots. This is the best time to strike him, and I recommend loading up on the Fokx-Fu series as Fokx-Fu 3 will inflict a nice four-hundred points of damage as since he has so much HP for a regular boss (Gemini Spark SP has "only" 2200) you need power to get a good busting rank. Since he can be freely rebattled and his SP form tops out at 3000 HP he makes a good guinea pig for coming up with new Best Combos.
Winning gives us the Crown Thunder card, which has him hit an X-shaped area at the back of the field with lightning.
Now that the prelude is out of the way it's on to the secret postgame area at last. What we want to do is head back to Vista Point and pulse in. On one of its wave road platforms is another teleporting wavehole. Stepping on it takes us to...space, where a voice welcomes us and tells us to pass the area's trials in order to receive a fragment of its power. Always up for a challenge, Omega's eager to press on.
So this area is called simply Deep Space. It's not exactly going to win any awards in the design department, being simply a collection of wave roads floating in the void and there aren't much in the way of obstacles other than the occasional one-way conveyor panel. Nice music though.
Unlike the following two games where the postgame trials take the form of fiendishly-strong bosses, the trial here are simple security doors that need to be opened to proceed. Each says something like “defeat the savage bull/sonorous harp/giant scales” and refer to the FM warrirors' SP forms. However they don't mean simply defeating them, they actually want them to be S-ranked. The first area has doors for Taurus Fire, Cygnus Wing, and Harp Note, and to reach the second area requires having at least one-hundred battle cards in the Standard library.
The second area has doors for the remaining three FM-ians and a Jammer. As he happens to be the only non-asshole one in the game he's selling some loot:
- HP Memory 20 – 10000z
- HP Memory 20 – 30000z
- Freeze Knuckle – 10000z
- Holy Panel – 12000z
- Break Sabre – 18000z
- Double Cross – 20000z
- Giga Mine – 20000z
- Poison Pharaoh – 40000z
Double Cross and Giga Mine are two more linked-play-use-only Anti cards. The former counters Mega cards while the latter counters Gigas. Poison Pharaoh is the third Giga card of the game, and its effect is identical to the old Program Advance – dropping a sarcophagus on the field to poison enemies. Actually, all three versions of this Giga card are call backs to Battle Network. In Pegasus it's Dark Sword, with the familiar Life Sword range along with the additional effect of creating poison panels. Leo has Life Aura, protecting Geo from attacks that do less than two-hundred damage. In fact, its card artwork even depicts Bass's silhouette.
Also, as the merchandise in this game at least is infinite as long as it isn't an HP Memory or Giga card, Freezes Knuckles + Break Sabres = Painful Best Combo.
After that, there's a security door here that opens to us as we have a “lonely heart.” I can open it thanks to that Lonely Heart item I got from the Hertz on Peace, but you can also get through if you've deleted all registered Brotherbands. It takes us to an isolated path in the third area where there's a BMW with an HP Memory 20 and, at the top of a ramp, what turns out to be Kelvin's Transer, just floating there. Inside is one of those “if you're reading this...” messages from Kelvin, but he tells Geo not to be sad, just look up at the night sky and think of his father if he ever gets lonely. He adds as a PS that if he ever meets Omega to give him the attached Mega Weapon he put together. This is the Kaiser Knuckle, the best Mega Weapon in the game. None of its stats are maxed out but its attack and speed are at 4, so it does a good job of chewing through enemy HP while you're waiting for the Custom Gauge to refill.
To reach Deep Space 3 proper we need to have all one-hundred-fifty Standard cards, and thus the S Complete star to open the proper security door. Upon opening the door we're sent an anonymous email with the fourth Giga card attached as a reward. Shades of Duo? Anyway, this card is Wood + 50, and does just what you'd expect. I guess you could put it on a Vulcan Seed 3 as the best way to use it, sticking it on Dragon Sky GX, only works if one of the two cards is a Brother's favorite. The other two versions get Aqua + 50 and Fire + 50.
Deep Space 3's got a lot of ramps and doors for S-ranking the three optional bosses. At the end the voice commends us for reaching this point and reveals itself. It's not Duo, but rather Dragon Sky. The final trial is a battle against him, at full power this time.
Dragon Sky
HP: 2400
Element: Wood
Attacks:
- Wood Tower – Dragon Sky sends a series of sharpened wooden spears towards Geo for 100 Wood damage.
- Dragon Road – Dragon Sky slithers through a swath of the field including two adjacent panels on Geo's row for 150 Wood damage.
- Flowering Burst – Dragon Sky expels a blast of cherry blossom petals that hits Geo's entire row for 150 Wood damage.
- Leaf Tornado – Three tornadoes are generated on the row in front of Dragon Sky and sent down the field for 150 Wood damage.
Well I still didn't find him that difficult. His attacks are certainly more powerful than they were in his Shadow form, but if they're any faster I couldn't tell. He's still hamstrung by his lack of mobility and aside from Wood Tower his attacks are all pretty simple to dodge. Rather disappointing going from Bass BX to this, I have to say.
After the battle the Satellite Admin bestows the promised fragment of power: his Mega card. It has him expel a T-shaped blast of cherry blossom petals. I'll take your Giga card over that, sorry. Dragon Sky tells us to “kindle the six stars to conquer the truly lonely evil giant” and then vanishes with the reassurance that he'll always be watching over us. Geo and Omega are confused as to what he meant by that, but shrug it off, decide to figure it out later, and go home.
Well there's still more stuff to do, as the six stars obviously refer to the ones on the title screen, and the Dragon Sky star is added for beating him. Doubling back a little, there's an invisible pathway that leads to a PMW that contains the final Giga card, Gorgon Eye. Just like the attack, Queen Ophiuca fires a piercing laser down one column. Pegasus has Ox Tackle, Taurus Fire charging down one column, while Leo has Gemini Thunder, with Gemini Spark firing a large off, piercing T-shaped blast of electricity. The G Complete star is added to the title screen.
Next, Dragon Sky EX is found not far away, at a dead-end that's in between two ramps. Getting his SP card from the form (which is unique in that he'll use his GX attack which happens to be unavoidable unless you use Invisible) adds the M Complete star for getting all Mega cards and the S star for S-ranking all bosses to the title screen. With all six stars, they form the vertices of the shape of Geo's pendant, which is a nice touch.
We can now challenge the lonely giant, which is the beefed-up Andromeda Infinity. Andromeda Infinity has 4000 HP and is actually a worthy opponent because it can actually deal damage, and a lot of it at that. Defeating it earns us the post-credits “thank you for playing” message, along with an image of Geo and the rest of the cast. And so we close the book on Geo Stelar and Omega-Xis's first adventure.
Huh, that didn't take me as long as I thought it would. Anyway, that's the first Megaman Star Force. It could've used some more polishing but was a decent starting effort, and the sequels do iron out some of its gameplay issues and stand out a bit more. I'll be tackling Star Force 2 next, so look forward to that when I get around to starting it. Thanks for reading.
Soundtrack
- Space!
- It's nice to finally have another upbeat, ambient secret area theme after so long.
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