The tables have turned when Geo rendezvous with his friends the next day at the Wave Liner stop. Usually Bud is the last one to arrive, but this time it's actually Luna who's tardy. When she does arrive she shows off the reason: she finally got her very own Wizard, the rabbit Wizard Vogue. While the rabbit design is a clear reference to the whole Japanese legend of the rabbit making mochi on the Moon, some of Vogue's proto designs made the reference even more obvious by replacing the top hat she comes out of with a rocket or the wheels of a lunar rover. Bud laments that he's the only one of the ground now that doesn't have a Wizard of his own, and then we're off to WBG Studios on the train.
Upon reaching the studio entrance the group happens to encounter Jack, who oh-so-conveniently happens to be passing by. He's changed his tune about hanging out with the gang and Luna and Zack manage to rope him into coming along to the TV shoot and concert. Since Jack's inner monologue has him grumble about what his sister is making him do, I like to imagine he's got a constant facial tic going during this sequence. Too bad we can't get into the studio building because the group doesn't have passes and Sonia apparently didn't think to bother clearing their visit with anyone. Which means we're gonna have to take the wave road inside and see what's going on. But first, a quick-and-dirty job request:
WBG Studios Job 1: Lowe Sweet
This guy wants to trade an Attack Panel for a Wide Wave 1, and I just so happened to have just picked up that card.
On the wave road there's a mini-dungeon Cyber Core inside a parked stunt car with 1200z and the ability Area Eater S (allows you to change your equipped battle cards into Area Eaters) inside a PMW. We can't advance very far once inside as there's a Hertz turning away EM beings who aren't authorized but there's another mini-dungeon Cyber Core inside a prop cabinet that contains our first “new” Mega Weapon, or Wizard Equipment (WE Data) as they're now called, the Star Hoop.
But even with the bouncer-Hertz, there's nothing stopping us from using the Wave Station that's conveniently installed within Sonia's dressing room and pulsing out inside. Sonia's initial reaction is to jump in surprise at Geo appearing out of thin air and in her dressing room no less, but once he reminds her about the passes she quickly apologizes and gives us a pass to show to the Patrol Wizard outside. After snagging a Recovery 80 that's hidden among the cosmetics we have to go back the way we came, for if we try walking out through the dressing room door Omega will warn: “You'll be on the front page of the tabloids if you go out that way!”
Upon (re)entering the studio the correct way the group Sonia meets the group in-costume which is a sailor school uniform. Of course those would still be around. Uniquely, the skirt actually goes down to her knees and the top doesn't randomly expose her midriff! But, since this is an anime-style game anyway the guys of course compliment her on how cute she looks (except for Jack, who just goes “?” before noting to himself that he has to keep an eye on her too). After introducing Jack to Sonia she introduces someone new to them: another one of the studio's idols named Belle
◊ who's costarring on the show. Belle's very deferential towards Sonia being a junior in the industry, but her Wizard/manager Ice
◊ is far more outspoken, not to mention competitive. Ice declares, to her operator's embarrassment, that Belle will one day blow right by Sonia, causing Jack to think the not-at-all-ominous thought that at least there's one fun Wizard around here. After lamenting the fact that her Wizard's hot-blooded personality doesn't at all match her name Belle and Sonia leave to attend their rehearsal. We're told to look around before filming starts outside. Poking around the lobby a little bit reveals a Noise Wave near the reception desk with an HP Memory 10. We can also go out a rear exit to reach an empty lot that has a large Real Wave projector buried in the ground – the studio's so-called Real Wave Studio. Here we can double back to a part of the studio entrance we couldn't reach before where there's another Noise Wave at the end of a small dock that contains an Air Spread 2 and a Dyna Energy.
Back at the lot, or event stage, trying to approach the projector triggers a scene where the technician in charge of it explains to Geo that this projector is going to project the stage that's going to be used for Sonia's concert. As he goes to work tuning the device the introduces himself as Lee Stern
◊ and he already knows who Geo is thanks to everything that Sonia's said about him. Lee Stern continues to explain that all the employees at the studio have formed a Team called Sonia Backers in order to ensure that the concert is a success and he asks Geo to be the best friend he can be for Sonia. Geo promises to.
Now it's back to the front of the studio grounds to see about the filming. The filming hasn't even started yet because the Wizard who's in charge of the lightning hasn't shown up yet, and since everyone else is busy the pushy director, who's a Wizard himself, makes us go look for 'em. Our instructions are to speak with the Wizard who's in the dressing room, and she tells us to search inside the giant monitor in the editing room. So we pulse in and now we're allowed to access the rest of the building's Wave World where there's a Merchant Hertz near the back:
- HP Memory 20 – 2000z
- HP Memory 20 – 3000z
- HP Memory 20 – 5000z
- Small Energy – 100z
- Large Energy – 200z
- Cloaker – 500z
HP Memories seem pretty cheap in this game compared to all the others. Not that that's a bad thing of course, I'm certainly not going to miss shelling out three-fourths of my wallet for 60 HP.
There's another Dyna Energy and a Recovery 50 inside the regulator monitor's Cyber Core and at the back is the missing Wizard, who's excuse for being AWOL is because he was under the impression that the director wanted him here. Omega thinks someone played a prank on him, but Geo just suspects it was a benign miscommunication. Well with that cleared up it's back to a spare dressing room where the rest of the gang sans Jack is assembled. He decided to blow everyone off apparently but there's not much time to discuss it for a crew member calls for everyone to show up on set.
The scene being filmed has Sonia and Belle engaged in a conversation where Sonia's character is torn between her passion for singing and her acting career while the others mill about in the background and do extra-y things. Not a very creative premise, but at least it's not of a tormented love confession scene (seriously, in anime whenever the idol character acts in a movie or TV show the scene shown is almost always of their character trying to confess their love, often accompanied by cherry blossom leaves fluttering through the air). The camera pans to show that Jack has somehow gotten on top of the studio roof, and after commenting on how stupid this whole thing is his Wizard speaks up again, observing that Bud seems to have a lot of Noise about him...enough to have the ability to Wave Change...
Back down on the ground Bud suddenly jumps as Jack's thrown Noise Card finds its mark. He exclaims that he's suddenly feeling really hot and in a flash transforms into our old buddy Taurus Fire. So, in the first game he transformed because Taurus preyed on his hidden insecurities, in the second it was because he ate too much, and here it's because Taurus's ghost data got all riled up by Noise. Eh, acceptable. Taurus Fire starts trying to set everything ablaze, and as soon as we step forward Geo automatically transforms himself (I guess there goes the secret identity...). Here we go again...
Taurus Fire
◊
HP: 600
Element: Fire
Attacks:
- Ox Tackle – Taurus Fire charges down one column for 25 Fire damage.
- Fire Breath – Taurus Fire breathes flame down one column for 20 Fire damage.
- Anger Punch – Taurus Fire appears in front of Geo and punches him for 25 damage.
Well, he's exactly the same as he was in Star Force 2 minus the Flame Tower attack. Not really much else to say, the same strategy that worked in the other two games continues to work well here. Heck, the Divide Line card will completely shut him down.
Winning gives us the Taurus Fire card, which has him attack with Fire Breath in its original spread pattern.
I guess the Noise did something screwy with Taurus's memory data for after we defeat Taurus Fire and knock Bud out of the fusion Taurus is somehow whole again. And his personality is a complete one-eighty from what it originally was. He apologizes for everything he's done to cause Bud trouble and pledges to be his Wizard. Um, okay.
These events inspire the director to do a quick revision to include Megaman in the show (probably because he can skip out on paying). Ice is furious that her operator's been upstaged, but Belle's cool with it so the show goes on. After a scene of Megaman telling Sonia that things will be okay as long as she can sing for her friends shooting ends and Sonia and the other members of the crew go off to start preparing for the concert. Everyone takes the raging fire bull and Megaman's intervention in stride, I guess stuff like that's just another day in show business.
Virus Listing
- Chakram
- These viruses are scorpions who have replaced the stinger at the end of their tails with spiked disks which they hurl around the perimeter of the field like boomerangs.
- Wibbledee
- Creatures of slime that hop up and down a column and spit out three-panel-wide bursts of water. Stronger versions can hope all over the field.
- Boom
- Booms are like Battle Network's Champys, only more mobile and bigger. They'll jump right up to Geo and punch him in the face with a fiery uppercut.
Soundtrack
- WBG Studios
- The continued popularity of idols into the 23rd century tragically ensured that Kentaro Miura never got around to completing Berserk.
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