We pick up with Geo in his room, doing nothing, ten days after the incident at IFL Tower. His nothingness is interrupted by a call from Luna, who says that it's no good if they all do nothing but sit around all summer. So, she's decided that they're all going to go on a trip together, and then launches into a bit about how she can't read everything on Geo's personal page because their Star Carriers have different OS versions or something like that. So before we go to Luna's house to make plans we have to take care of that...
But before we can leave the room Geo gets an email from a Hertz thanking him for the help at IFL Tower. Setting aside the question of how the Hertz learned that Geo is Megaman, it wants to reward us by giving us an Ability Wave. Ability Waves are pretty much direct analogues to the old Navi Customizer programs, and equipping them can produce all sorts of effects. The one we're given is HP + 50. Just like with the Customizer, there's a limit on how many abilities we can equip, and it's tied to our current Link Power. Each abilities uses up a certain amount of it, HP + 50 eats up fifty (though the amount isn't set in stone; not long after I got an identical ability that took up seventy instead), so naturally you can't equip any more if your total is close to or at zero. Ability Waves can be found in Mystery Waves (and maybe even bought; I forget at the moment if they're sold anywhere) or handed out by Hertzes that will start appearing in battle if they survive to the end (it's the same principal as the in-battle GMDs from the later half of the Battle Network series).
So, upgrading the Star Carrier. That'll have to wait for a sec, as our first few job requests of the game have popped up.
Echo Ridge Job 1: Don McCard
This kid wants a Fire Ring 1 so that he can regain his title of #1 collector and gives us an Unlocker in return.
Echo Ridge Job 2: Bonnie Amora
A lot of the job clients are carried over between games, and this young woman has moved on from pining over the RC guy to a new fellow in Wilshire Hills. She wants us to learn what his interests are, so peeking into his Star Carrier shows that...he likes Brussel sprouts. I like Brussel sprouts too but I think that's not much to go on... The young woman's downed by the news but gives us an Attack Panel card for helping. This card turns the three panels on Geo's row into special attack panels that will add ten additional attack points to the next card used while he's standing on one.
Wilshire Hills Job 1: Kate Chizer
This young woman happens to be the Quiz Girl. Our first quiz of the game!
- Q1: Which of these do you carry around? (a Star Carrier)
- Q2: Who's the most popular singer in the world? (Sonia Strumm is!)
- Q3: Where can I find the movie theater? (The shopping plaza?)
The prize is an HP Memory 10.
Wilshire Hills Job 2: Iver Gatte
This poor guy's memory has deteriorated even more since we saw him last. He basically wants us to define some stuff he's having trouble remembering to him. Not hard.
- Q1: Which one comes out of a Star Carrier? (Matter Waves)
- Q2: Who is this Sonia Strumm that's so popular? (a singer)
- Q3: What's the group that protects the world? (Satella Police)
We're given another HP Memory 10.
Wilshire Hills Job 3: Ere Mitic
One of the shopping plaza workers has a strange problem: people have been avoiding him ever since he found a certain something. Even Geo has a difficult time striking up conversation! The worker says he hid the item, and it turns out to be hidden among the Matter Wave displays on the second floor. It's drawing viruses too, so we have to pulse in to delete them and retrieve the Indie Frag 1. There are six of these things that we'll be collecting throughout the game. In exchange for taking it off of his hands the worker gives us...nothing. The Indie Frag itself is the prize.
Next there's an ES we can no access via one of the theater seats (an especially big one for couples to make out in, apparently) for a Search Eye.
Upgrading the Star Carrier is simply a matter of speaking to Boreal on the second floor, who throws in a Blank Card for free 'cause he's a nice guy. The Blank Card system (there are ten to find in the game) is tied to something called Wave Commands, and together these two features shatter the game.
If you select a Blank Card that's in the pack it brings up an input field on the bottom screen. The field looks like the starry depths of space, but it's split up into an invisible grid that has each cell correspond to a letter of the alphabet. By tapping out a code something will be written on to an available Blank Card. Simple right? Well for starters there are codes for every battle card in the game, and a host of secret ones besides. In addition to the SP versions of bosses that I haven't encountered yet and won't for a while, you can choose stuff like, oh, the Satellite Admins' GX Giga cards. So yeah, broken. I have some integrity, so I won't be abusing them yet (maybe when I have to S-rank all the SP bosses though). You can always choose to overwrite a Blank Card with new data whenever you wish.
But wait, there's more! By hitting SELECT on Omega's stat screen you can input Wave Commands to boost Megaman's base stats. How does, say, an additional 900 base HP, buffed Mega Buster stats (discounting the equipped Mega Weapon), a speedier Custom Gauge, and an increased Giga card capacity of up to four sound? Oh, and there's also money, but that's pleb stuff in comparison. Like with Blank Cards you're given the option to turn off the power ups.
Wave Commands are so incredibly unbalanced, so how on earth were they supposed to be regulated? Well the idea was that you could only get access to the codes by buying a book (as in, a real-world book with real-world money) that contained a bunch of cards that could be laid over the input field with cutouts showing which cells to press. Of course once that got on the Internet that plan was shot. So, Star Force 2 technically has one of the most broken gameplay systems I've ever seen, but since it's all in favor of the player I guess that's a good thing.
Really, I don't plan on (ab)using it much, if any.
...well, maybe for some of the money...
Speaking of Boreal, I just noticed that he looks exactly like the young Tadashi Hikari seen in Battle Network 5. I wonder if that was deliberate or if that's just how the designer draws all good-natured, tubby men.
Getting back to Luna's house it seems that she's already decided where the group will be going. Since it's summer she's chosen a very un-summerlike place called Grizzly Peak. Zack explains that it's a ski resort that keeps the mountain cold and snow-covered year-round thanks to my old nemesis, artificial weather control. Geo comments that he's never seen snow before, which either indicates that they live in southern Japan/Electopia, or global warming's done quite a number to the world's weather patterns by the 23rd century. His attention is further grabbed by Zack claiming that there have been UMA (Unidentified Mysterious Animal) sightings on the mountain there of an abominable snowman, and he thinks that they could have some connection with the ghosts at IFL Tower. Bud, meanwhile, is looking forward to an outdoor culinary expo there called Foodtopia. So with that settled we have to go and get the okay from Hope. Then we get an email from Legendary Master Shin telling us about Cipher Mail (they're sent to him now instead of the satellites) and a multiplayer feature called the Sky-Hi Coliseum. Then it's to bed, and the next day everyone meets at the bus stop again to head out.
The bus drops the group off in front of the Peak Hotel, a gilded building that's built into the mountainside. It's got a rather incongruous sense of style, given that there're fountains and even palm trees out front in with the snow. Inside the hotel lobby, which looks just as nice, Zack passes the buck to Geo to take care of check-in duty, but it looks like there's something going down here, as lots of people are at the check-in desk complaining about unsafe conditions. The concierge is too busy to see us at the moment, so we're left to our own devices for a bit. There're two elevators on opposite sides of the lobby, one which takes us to a gift shop and the other to a corridor of rooms. There's a pair of skis propped up against the wall here that are hiding an HP Memory 10 and a door leading to the outdoor area behind the hotel.
Out here there's a ski slope that leads down to where the bus stop at the hotel entrance is. Geo can't walk up or down these slopes, but if he pulses in they prove no problem for his Megaman form. While pulsed in we can access the ES of a security camera hidden within a snowman for a Large Energy and an Unlocker. Heading down the slope to the hotel entrance lets us access the ES of one of the fountains for a Dyna Energy. We can also reach a Merchant Hertz with the local batch of Sub Cards:
- Dyna Energy – 800z
- Cloaker – 500z
- Fire Search – 500z
Fire Search is basically a version of Cloaker that's geared towards finding Fire enemies. There are similar cards for the other three elements, and they can stack with the regular Cloaker.
Back at the rear of the area we find another familiar face investigating some strange footprints in the snow: the Satella Police detective Bob Copper
◊. He still wants to find out who Megaman's secret identity is, but right now he's been tasked with investigating the reports of the abominable snowman. His personal page notes that he dislikes baseballs, heh. After talking to him we're allowed to explore the area further behind the hotel, Foodtopia. It's lined with stalls that normally sell food from around the world, but right now they're all closed due to a snowslide incident on the mountain, and this includes the ski lifts as well. No skiing for now it seems.
After this we get some email from the front desk saying that they're ready for us now, and the check-in goes off without a hitch. Better than that even, for by way of apology for making Geo and his friends wait, the hotel owner, a pleasant-looking man with bright blue eyes named Mr. Gelande, decides to upgrade their room to the suite for free. When the group is taken aback at this he explains that it's okay because the hotel hasn't seen as many customers lately thanks to the snowslides so it's unlikely anyone else is going to need to reserve the suite. It's then that the “Suspicious Mood” track begins to play and a savage-looking guy in a pink suit arrives at the desk flanked by black-clad attendants. He's quickly established to be Rich Dotcom
◊, a ruthless business owner who's looking to buy-out the hotel on the cheap since it's in dire financial straits. Mr. Gelande rebuffs the man, who just laughs and says he'll stay the night for now. Obviously he asks for the suite, gets indignant when he learns that the kids have it, but then lets the matter drop and saunters off. After witnessing this scene Luna says that they'll investigate the source of the snowslides to help the Peak Hotel get back into proper shape. Methinks the source is very close...
With that established we can finally access this suite at the far end of the upper hall...or not since the door happens to be mysteriously locked despite the fact that we have a key. The game's not very subtle as to who's responsible, as it pans over to show one of Rich's attendants snickering. The solution to this puzzle isn't hard to figure out. We just have to go out, pulse in, come back in, and take the wave roads into the spacious suite, exit through a wavehole, and then open the door from the inside.
There are more ES's to access in the hotel first – there's an information panel at the gift shop with 740z, and another one down in the lobby that contains 600 more zenny. And on the suite's wave roads is a BMW containing our first new Mega Weapon, the returning Star Hoop.
Once Geo opens the door to let the others in a Matter Wave concierge named Mr. Moustache comes to life to describe the particulars of the hotel and suite to them. A lot of the furniture in the room, including the beds, are made from Matter Waves, which just seems like a really bad idea to me. What if there's a power outage or something during the night and the guests suddenly find themselves rudely deposited on the floor? One of them does have an HP Memory 10 to find at least. Once everyone's settled in Luna declares that their investigation is on and tasks Geo with checking out Foodtopia. What will we uncover?
Virus Listing
- Hare Jet
- This game's "charge in a straight line" virus happens to be a rabbit on skis. Nothing more, nothing less.
- Private Mop
- These little guys stay immobile until Geo steps into their column, upon which they'll advance and attempt to stab him with a spear thrust. Stronger versions are able to poison Geo with their spears.
- Eyez
- As you might figure from the name, these viruses look like floating eyeballs. They drift around the field and attack by locking on to Geo's row and zapping it. Stronger versions are armored, so they can only be damaged when they're fully facing Geo's way.
Soundtrack
- Grizzly Peak
- One of the catchiest tracks in the game.
I'm going to close out this update by talking a little about the two Complete Works artbooks I mentioned before. They're both very robust, containing official art (some of which I'd never seen before) and concept art for the characters, including the generic NPCs and ones that only appeared in those two cellphone games, viruses, weapons, posters, and even some locations. It's very interesting how meticulous some of the entries are and dealt with aspects that you'd never see in the game (ever wanted to know what the treads on Quickman's boots looked like?). The Battle Network book even has the document that was used to pitch the series for approval. Star Force's book primarily focuses on stuff from Star Force 3 (unsurprisingly it seems the team put the most effort into that one) so I won't talk about it much but it does have a really neat step-by-step "making-of" section on the advertisement posters for that game. The amount of material for Star Force 1 and 2 feel like a bit of an afterthought by comparison but there's still a good deal of neat stuff to be had there as well.
Anyway, here're some points of trivia from the books that I found neat:
- Yai's design was lifted almost wholesale from an NPC from the Legends series; on a similar note, Princess Pride was originally named "Princess Tron."
- The hair that sticks out of Megaman's helmet appears to be derived from an early design where he had an antenna back there to receive data.
- Dark didn't actually have a full-body design until the anime staff asked for one.
- There's full-body art of Duo, and he's easily over fifty feet tall.
- Aquaman and Flameman used to look a lot closer to their Robot Master counterparts.
- The designer came up with some designs for a Battle Network Kalinka to go along with Cossak in Battle Network 3.
- Speaking of, one of Iris's designs was evocative of Kalinka.
- Rei Saiko apparently is/was a hypnotist on a variety show, and his Shaolin monk outfit is his costume.
- To my surprise, some characters that appeared only in the anime like Slur or variations on others like flashback versions of Lan, Mayl, Chaud, and Regal or Anetta's anime outfit were actually designed by the game staff and not the anime. This goes for the Cross Fusion designs too (both versions of R-Megaman, especially the one from Stream-forward, seem to draw from Megaman's old concept sketches) as well as the Zoanoroids' Beast Out forms and the Super Cybeast.
- Curiously no mention is made of the fact that Tadashi's design is the same as Dr. Light's.
- Omega-Xis started out looking kind of like a Spiritomb, than a gorilla once they decided to go with the bestial angle.
- Early in development there was the idea that normal people could enter the Wave World through use of special suits, probably where the idea for Wave Changing came from.
- Cepheus looks the way he does to evoke an image of childlike naivety; there's an alternate, beefier design too.
- Ken Suther is a caricature of the producer, Takeshi Horinouchi.
- Gemini Spark Black had a mask design that make him look sort of like Harry Ord.
- Hyde and Rich Dotcom sport the series's first examples of Space Clothes as their shoes are actually built straight into their pants. Those clasps around Hyde's coat are actually belts.
I'll bring up other Star Force stuff as it comes up. If anyone's curious about anything I'll gladly answer questions if it's in the books.
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