Like its Double Team predecessor, Star Force 2 has two save files and asks you to select which version you want to play as once you select the new game option. Additionally it asks you to set up an “Auto-Brother” to facilitate a game mechanic later on. That just consists of picking an NPC type and giving them a name. The dialogue font looks a lot nicer now that it's no longer monospaced, but it does have a “what's a space bar?” issue whenever commas are involved. Oh well, win some you lose some.
The game starts but giving us the Cliff Notes summary of the premise and the first game's events before cutting to Geo Stelar in the small park in front of Echo Ridge's Big Wave battle card shop. It's now summer, roughly two months following the defeat of the FM-ian invasion, and Geo's excited because something he ordered has finally arrived. As he goes about opening the box he explains to his partner Omega-Xis that it's a new communication terminal, a Star Carrier. It seems that the Pegasus, Leo, and Dragon satellites have been retired along with Transers, so everyone's upgrading to these handheld devices, which I've always thought looked like old PDAs.
Until Geo actually gets the thing out of the box this segment is an excuse for the usual introductory exposition, reviewing the functions of Geo's Visualizer glasses, how normal people can't see or hear Omega, etc. Omega's personality happens to be a little stronger and more delinquent in this game, referring to Geo almost exclusively as “kid” and his competitiveness oftentimes given a more belligerent edge.
The Star Carrier setup continues. A handy new feature it has in addition to the usual pause menu stuff is that whenever you talk to an NPC their personal page showing their favorite battle cards (down from six to four), name, and trivia blurb is automatically displayed on the DS's top screen so you don't have to pulse in to the Wave World to see them anymore while a little pop-up display appears above the character's head on the overworld. They're normally outlined in blue, but if the person has a job request to fulfill (and there are just as many, if not more in this game than in the previous) they'll be red instead, which is quite convenient. As in the last game you can use SELECT to toggle between the top screen displaying Geo's own personal page, his Brotherband registry, or just the sky.
Speaking of the sky, Omega asks Geo what that thing that's currently floating above them happens to be. Geo explains that it's an advert ship (imagine an angular blimp), and it happens to currently be advertising a movie called Ghost Crisis. After poking fun at a fear of ghosts that's now been inserted into Geo's character Omega notes that something seems to be wrong with the ship and it suddenly starts sparking and drops out of the sky, crashing down next to Big Wave. Luckily it's only the size of a van apparently so no one's hurt and as a crowd forms Omega suggests they check it out since Geo likes tinkering with things. The ship's speakers suddenly start emitting a terrible noise, and putting on the Visualizer reveals Mettenna viruses attacking the ship. You know what that means...
The mechanics for Geo and Omega Wave Changing to pulse in to the Wave World are unchanged from the previous game, and there's a wavehole right next to his house that we can use to become Megaman. One nice change I like about this game is that waveholes don't immediately spit you out onto the area's wave roads anymore, instead Geo's free to walk around the overworld as Megaman as he pleases. You still won't be able to talk to anyone but it's a nice way to emphasize the all-encompassing nature of the Wave World. Wave roads are still around of course, but now ramps and warps at ground level are the way to reach them. After pulsing in we simply jog over to the viruses, and the Tutorial begins once more.
HOWEVER! Is everyone seated and ready for this? For the first time, we're given the option to skip it. We still have to fight the three battles, but after eight games and seven years we can finally decline the explanation and cut to the chase, though Omega will still send review emails to the Star Carrier afterward. I want to shake the hand of whoever at Capcom finally realized that they could do this. Just as well, because the basic battle system hasn't changed a bit from the previous game. The look of the battle grid itself has been changed to resemble the wave roads though, which is another nice touch.
After finishing up and pulsing out Geo encounters his friends Luna, Bud, and Zack back at the crash site. The ensuing conversation on how rare it apparently is to see Geo freely out and about serves to reestablish their character traits, and it seems that Geo's taken to calling Luna “Prez” too now. As they're talking a man and worker hurry over to the advert ship to inspect it, the man reduced to a sputtering wreck over how much money the crash will cost him. He's actually the producer of the Ghost Crisis film, and he's gets further bent out of shape upon learning that the ship's propeller broke off when it crashed. Omega has Geo do something to stop the man's whining, and he sees the propeller resting on the roof of the condominium complex where Luna lives. So we have to pulse in again and take the wave road ramp up to the roof to retrieve the device, but once the worker gets the ship back up in the air again the producer thanks us with some movie tickets for the movie, playing at Wilshire Hills in the nearby Capital City (no relation to The Simpsons...I think). Since Geo's apparently never heard of Wilshire Hills before, Luna declares that tomorrow they will all go there together.
With that massive tutorial front-load out of the way we're finally free to explore Echo Ridge to our heart's content before going to bed. The town's gotten some minor changes to its layout but nothing drastic. The entrance to Vista Point is no longer present, the area's cut off to omit the school gates as Echo Elementary is closed for the summer, and the road that originally went behind Big Wave has apparently been torn up, as the front door of Bud's house opens to grass now.
Another miscellaneous nice touch is that if you look at Luna's personal page when talking to her you'll see that she's made a Brotherband with her mother, Veil. Just a nice touch of continuity showing that her family really did make up with each other after the Queen Ophiuca scenario in the previous game.
Nothing to do around Echo Ridge at the moment, so it's time to return to the Stelar residence, where inside we find Geo's mother, Hope
◊, having trouble with the TV. Geo takes charge since he knows more about electronics than she does and determines that something must be wrong with the reception. Flipping on his Visualizer reveals a light band coming out of the TV and forming a platform in the display of the sky on the top screen. In this game the random accessible electronics don't have on board computers to pulse in to, but rather have “EM wave spaces”, or an ES for short, that Geo can hop on to as Megaman simply by examining them. Yet another thematic improvement in the interface. However, not all of them will be available right off the bat, some only become available after certain points in the game. Omega will always say he senses some radiation when you examine an object with an ES, so even if you can't activate it you'll know where it is for later. So for now we have to go outside, pulse in, and then come back inside the house to access the TV's ES. Here there're BMWs containing a Small Energy Sub Card and an Attack + 10 battle card. The issue with the TV turns out to be caused by a Hertz that's snoozing on the job, and sorting him out fixes the problem with the TV. Geo has to hide the fact that he fixed it from his mother, though.
The program that she was trying to watch turns out to be documentary on the space station Peace, providing another opportunity to exposit on the characters, this time on the fate of Geo's father, Kelvin. Not that his presence, or lack thereof, plays much of a part in the game this time. There's nothing else to do at the moment, so it's to Geo's room and to bed, thus bringing all of this tutorial exposition to an end...until tomorrow.
Elsewhere, in a faraway part of the world, a shadowed woman named Vega tells her subordinate Hyde, who's a bit of a sycophant as he hangs on to her every word, that the world is in need of a ruler. His task, she commands, is to transmit to the entire world that she is the one it deserves.
Virus Listing
- Mettenna
- The classic Mascot Mook returns as the most basic enemy virus. Mettennas move from side-to-side on their row and send a shockwave down a column with their pickaxes whenever they line up with Geo. They only attack one-at-a-time and stronger versions will protect themselves by hiding underneath their helmets when not attacking.
- Base Mortar
- The latest in the "immobile artillery" virus series. Despite the name, these viruses are actually Gatling guns, and they'll fire a barrage of bullets at Geo when he enters their sights.
Soundtrack
- Shooting Star (Star Force 2 ver.)
- This is my favorite version of the track.
- Network
- Plays during the Auto-Brother setup. I imagine otherwise it crops up when accessing the wi-fi features.
- Hometown (Star Force 2 ver.)
- Another sedate hometown piece.
- Incident Occurrence! (Star Force 2 ver.)
- Bad stuff going down, you know the drill.
- Warning Bell! (Star Force 2 ver.)
- Doesn't sound too far from the version in the last game.
- Ride On! (Star Force 2 ver.)
- The encounter rate is higher in this game, so it gets a lot more play than Star Force 1's version.
- Wave World (Star Force 2 ver.)
- We may not be going into space this time, but the ambient music style is still kicking.
- My Friends
- The new "Happy Company", though that track does stick around.
- Wave Square
- ESes happen to be way up in the upper atmosphere, high enough that you can see the stars, so this track's fitting.
- Sentimental
- This is like one of three "sadness" tracks in the game.
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