Up the stairs is the Great Shrine, which according to the artbook is located at the very tippity-top of the continent's upper spiral. After navigating another gauntlet of Murian Warriors we reach the platform where Vega and Le Mu have been waiting. Geo immediately takes note of the giant statue and Vega says that Le Mu has existed since the formation of the planet and is the source of the Wave World. Geo and Omega don't buy it, hopefully knowing better than that, so Vega goes on a tangent describing Le Mu's power by basically summarizing what was in those tablets we collected. She says that they have no hope of defeating it, so instead she offers Geo the chance to join the Neo Mu Empire as he has proven his worth many times over. Geo retorts by saying that the idea of taking over the world is ridiculous, so Vega decides to spill her backstory in the hopes of bringing him around.
Vega says that she's from a small country called the Tanabata Kingdom (keep that in mind). Apparently it's ruled by the universal equivalent of Kim Jong-il, for despite it being small and poor it constantly tried to start shit with other countries and no one objected to their leader's corrupt and wasteful governance. So her plan to get away from that was to become a scientist. However, once she got out into the world she saw the same kind of excess everywhere she went, so she decided that the problem wasn't her homeland, but rather the foolishness of human nature. So, spurred on by the loss of a precious something (that something isn't revealed until after the final boss battle, though the player has a chance of figuring it out at this point), she embarked on her plan to use the power of Mu to create a society where the gifted rule over the foolish and she over all. Vega says that with the power of the EM wave god Le Mu under her control she herself is a god, and then goes on a tangent about how Link Power should be used as a tool to rule, the game perhaps unintentionally acknowledging what I mentioned at the start of this liveblog about Link Power coming off as another form of social stratification.
You know, in all honesty, given the Megaman franchise's track record with its villains, this isn't actually a bad backstory. But aside from badly needing a thesaurus, for a character who was introduced at the start of the game it really shouldn't have been all crammed into the ass-end of it. I suppose though that it's better than what Regal got, which was absolutely nothing.
Anyway, after listening to all of this Geo tells the woman to count him out, saying that she'll be ruling through fear, not Link Power (though that's apparently Vega's intent...?) and that Link Power's real purpose is to provide the strength to be brave. Here Le Mu “starts up”, gaining clawed hands and energy rings, and after Geo invokes The Power of Friendship the final battle starts.
Le Mu
◊
HP: 2000
Element: Normal
Attacks:
- EM Vortex – Voids appear and disappear on random panels throughout the battle for 60 damage per hit.
- Materialize Murian – A Murian Warrior is summoned who will either slash a panel with their sword or fire a laser down their column for 60 damage of the corresponding element.
- Materialize Drill – Le Mu launches a series of drills either forward or diagonal for 120 damage per hit.
- Materialize Big Vulcan – Le Mu's arms become Gatling guns and randomly fire shots onto Geo's panels for 60 damage per hit.
- Materialize Blade – Le Mu swings two giant swords, each smashing opposite two-column-wide areas for 200 damage per hit.
- Mu's Thunder – Le Mu lowers its head and fires a massive multi-hitting laser down the field for 60 damage per hit.
Le Mu is what you'd get if you had the development team sit down and go “so Comic thought Andromeda was weaksauce, did he? Let's see how he likes this!” It may look insignificant, but with the frequency those vortexes and Warriors come flying at you those sixty points of damage really start to add up, and the possibility of running out of room to dodge becomes not a high likelihood, but an inevitability.
This battle has two phases to it, but not a full transformation like Andromeda had. At first Le Mu will be stationary, but invincible thanks to that rune-marked chestplate. As you hammer away at it it'll gradually change colors until it breaks, upon which Le Mu will start to move to side to side in exactly the same manner Duo did and its weak point (the OOPArt at its core, which Vega I guess put there when everyone's backs were turned) will be exposed. But only when its stationary. When it's moving a shield protects it. Also in the same manner as Duo's exhaust port. In its second form it attacks start coming more frequently, so the battlefield can turn into a real clusterfuck if you can't time your dodges and shield usages right. Mu's Thunder can actually only be fully blocked with pixel-perfect shield timing, as it can pierce through Invisible – making you eat a full three-hundred points of damage. Ouch. I don't think I have any in my pack at this point, but for future go-rounds I prefer using Holy Panels to soften the blow of its attacks. A strong defense is definitely needed to survive.
After the battle Le Mu is heavily damaged but not out of it yet. Proving to be a sore loser, Vega commands it to crash Mu into the surface below, under the impression that that'll trigger a massive explosion. If she can't rule the world, she'll at least try to destroy some of its foolish inhabitants.
The scene quickly changes to the Un-Dimension, where Hollow and Rogue are locked in stiff, crappily-animated combat. Sensing that something's wrong, Hollow quickly warps away, just in time to appear at the shrine and knock Geo out on his butt when he attempts to destroy Le Mu for good. Omega complains that they don't have time for him, and Geo gets up and uh, I guess tries to body slam Hollow or something. Whatever he does, Hollow's mantle once again breaks, revealing his human face.
Or not, for Omega immediately realizes that Hollow's actually a Matter Wave! So Vega lets Geo in on a secret: Hollow's actually the first Matter Wave she ever created, and he was the precious something she lost. Or rather, the human Altair was the someone lost.
This is where the whole Tanabata thing has significance. Here's your Japanese culture lesson for the liveblog: Tanabata is a festival held in July where people write down their wishes on pieces of paper that are then hung on bamboo shoots which are later either burned or set afloat (if you've watched slice-of-life anime or I guess played the Persona games you've probably seen this practice at some point). The festival is supposed to honor two mythological star-crossed lovers named Orihime and Hikoboshi who are separated by the Amanogawa river. Moving into astronomical terms, Orihime and Hikoboshi are the Japanese names for the stars Vega and Altair, and Amanogawa is their name for the Milky Way. Vega and Altair are indeed separated by the arc of the Milky Way in the night sky, so there's your scientific basis for the myth. Naturally, the characters were named Orihime and Hikoboshi in the original Japanese game.
Back to Vega's exposition. Just like the myth Vega and Altair were lovers, but Altair died in one of the Tanabata Kingdom's wars, and in her grief Vega took to studying the concept of Matter Waves to bring him back. She succeeded in making a Matter Wave person that looked like Altair, but of course wasn't the same person. She'd failed, but ultimately kept Altair, now “Hollow” around as a confident in the hope that one day he could recover his memories of life. His origin's reminiscent of Megaman.EXE being created from Hub Hikari's DNA, and like that piece of backstory the anime omitted the Altair thing too (though it may have just been because of lack of time due to the anime's truncated ending, for there Vega did have a rather visceral reaction to seeing Hollow getting blown to pieces by Tribe King).
Again though, I have to stress that this backstory really shouldn't have been pushed to the very end of the game. This should be a payoff scene, and the writers really should have hinted that there was more to Vega than “everyone is stupid except me” earlier on in the game and hinted at this loss because that would've given her and Geo a thematic connection, and one that's more narratively tangible than the quantification of how popular you are!
Le Mu probably got tired of being ignored during all that, for it rallies itself and does one of those “hugely destructive and powerful attacks obscured by a flash of light” trick and when the scene fades back in we see that Geo got blown all the way back to the entrance of the shrine. Vega and Hollow got blown back here too, and Hollow's lying on the ground in really bad shape, having taken the brunt of Le Mu's attack to protect his mistress. On the brink of death, or deletion I suppose, Hollow apologizes for not being able make Vega's dream of remembering something Altair knew come true and reveals that it had been tormenting him too. He disintegrates and Vega falls to her knees in despair, admitting that though he wasn't Altair reborn as she had hoped she still treasured their time and work together.
Being crammed into the very end of the game aside, put into a vacuum again I don't think this whole sequence with Vega and Hollow/Altair has been that bad – especially taking the network games' track record into account. So, it's time to throw in something that's totally “wut” by having Altair's ghost join the party. Yes, at this point Altair's voice starts speaking from beyond the grave (Hollow's dying wish apparently having crossed dimensions – the game's words not mine) to redeem Vega by telling her to stop playing God with people's lives and to let go of her hatred and live a happy life instead. Geo has probably been feeling rather awkward throughout this whole sequence of events.
Le Mu starts acting up again, and Vega figures that it's still trying to crash Mu into the Earth. She and Geo part ways (she never appears again, so we have no choice but to assume that she actually did die) and we have to go back to Le Mu so that Geo can try destroying it again. But he's too weak to deal any significant damage and gets incapacitated by another deadly flash attack. While lying on the ground he hears a tinny voice calling “Megaman!” and it turns out to be coming from his Star Carrier. Apparently his friends' cheers alone aren't enough, for they've decided to gather all of Echo Ridge (except for Hope; Boreal's taking her place) to cheer for Megaman...and Zack arranged it so that the video on Luna's Star Carrier is being broadcast worldwide, so the entire world is witnessing his struggle. Well, I don't really have the energy to comment on this beyond that it's silly, but with literally all eyes on him Geo's able to tap into some more inner resolve and destroy Le Mu for good. However, once the big moment's past he collapses from exhaustion, and we see Mu crumbling away, its pieces falling into the ocean, accompanied by an unnatural speck of light...
The credits roll, with the backdrop being the OOPArt sinking into the ocean, passing Murian reliefs that depicts certain events from the game. Gee, the Tribes sure played a big role in the plot, huh? And speaking of, no wonder this game's story was so meandering: there were five scenario writers on board, when past games have only had two or three at most. Too many cooks after all...
Following the credits the screen goes black and Geo wonders if he's dead. He hears the voice of his father Kelvin saying that he still has a promise to keep, otherwise he'll make a lot of people sad. Geo wakes up to find himself lying in Echo Ridge's park, in the exact same spot he started the game in, incidentally. He gets up, wondering what happened, and then sees Solo standing a way to the side. Yep, it was Mr. Onesie Pajamas/Misanthrope/Cognitive Dissonance who saved him, using the excuse of Geo's body being in the way. Yeah, sure. He also claims to feel nothing for Mu's destruction, though his next line being a string of ellipses shows he's bullshitting. Geo says that they should get some help for his injuries but Solo naturally brushes him off and says that they never should have met. He adds that this is where Geo belongs, but being here makes him feel sick so he takes his leave without another glance back. Oh we haven't seen the last of him, nosiree.
Geo says “I belong here...” and then he gets swarmed by his exuberant friends. He says that they all gave him strength, and adds that it's good to be home at last.
Soundtrack
- Vs. Le Mu
- I dunno, like Battle Network 4's final boss theme this one sounds pretty boring to me.
- Engraved Memories
- Despite the song itself being only approximately two-and-a-half minutes long the credits run for about five minutes. The song's not bad so I don't mind sitting through them now, but it does make a certain aspect of the postgame very frustrating.
I'm still in the early stages of plugging my way through the postgame at the moment. There's a considerably greater amount of material in it than Star Force 1's, so it's looking to be two, maybe even three updates long depending on how I break it down. I'll probably end up using some of the Wave Commands and Blank Cards finally to expedite the process a bit.
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