Our first stop is Magnes's rocket, where the Wizard's still amazed that he and his ride ended up being Chekhov's Guns that'll help save the world. Despite the rocket's resistance to Noise the ride's still a little bumpy and we do have to fight off some G viruses before we can move on. We're not going directly from the rocket to Meteor G, instead we have to traverse a third Noise Wave area to reach the place. It's not very difficult to navigate thankfully, and there's a Hertz at the start that informs us that the Noise Wave's been linked directly to the Dynamic Station so in the future accessing it will allow us to skip the rocket.
When we arrive at the Meteor Server there's a dramatic camera pan over the place even though it looks identical to all the other dungeons in the game aside from the environment being darker. Geo and Omega briefly see an image of Kelvin
◊ over by the exit to the second area that quickly disappears which Omega takes as a sign that he's guiding them to him. The general layout of the Meteor Server involves one large, main path leading from entrance to exit with numerous branching paths. While on the main path Crimson comes flying at Geo from every direction, so just like during the attack on WAZA Omega will be in front of us so that we can slash it away with the B button. If one of the orbs manages to hit Geo we're thrown into a virus battle.
At the end of the area the two find that the space beyond the boss-denoting skull tile is blocked by a wall of Noise and Omega says that it's time that Kelvin lends hand. He explains that the puzzle for the dungeon will involve collecting splinters of Kelvin's memory, scattered by the Noise, and upon getting all of them in each area they'll turn into “memory energy” (Omega's words, not mine) and break down the barrier. By touching the Kelvin Key pop-up we'll briefly be shown the locations of the splinters, and they're generally hidden on platform areas or the ends of pathways. The Meteor Server areas are fairly large though, and the environments still blend together so we still have to do a considerable amount of searching to uncover each splinter. While searching Crimson will occasionally come flying at us, so there's that too.
There are three memory splinters to find in the first area. When we return to the Noise barrier the memory contained in the splinters plays out and the barrier falls. The memory shows Kelvin adrift in space shortly after his escape from Peace. He says that he'll do his best to make it back to Earth and says aloud that Geo's a strong kid who should be able to take care of Hope until he returns. Past the door is another Noise Card laying on the floor, and from it spawns a copy of Diamond Ice.
Diamond Ice V2
HP: 1100
Element: Aqua
Attacks:
- Cold Ballet – The two ice crystals are shot down one column each for 40 Aqua damage.
- Ballet on Ice – One of the two ice crystals are shot down Geo's row for 40 Aqua damage.
- Diamond Dust – A gust of cold wind strikes a large diagonal swath of the field, freezing Geo and the affected panels for 60 Aqua damage.
- Break Ice Hammer – Diamond Ice tries to smash Geo with an oversized hammer that cracks the panel and deals 80 Aqua damage.
Her ice crystals are still a pain, so my strategy is to destroy one of them with Buki 1, the card dropped by Raid viruses. If you destroy both she'll regenerate them but doesn't if only one of them is gone. With one of them gone she leaves herself open to a lot of attacks and goes down relatively quickly.
In the second, larger area there are four memory splinters to find as well as a PMW with a Holy Panel inside. This area's memory is of Kelvin saying goodbye to Hope and a young Geo
◊ when he left the home three years ago, assuring them that he'll be safe and that he'll tell Geo all about space when he gets back. As he's about to head out the door he stops to imagine coming home to his family and thinking that he's the luckiest guy around to have them. Past the Noise barrier is another Noise Card, this one creating a copy of Club Strong.
Club Strong V2
HP: 1400
Element: Wood
Attacks:
- Club Smash – Club Strong tries to smash Geo with his club for 100 Wood damage.
- Wood Tower – Club Strong sends a series of sharpened wood spears down one column for 50 Wood damage.
- Swing Storm – Club Strong generates several whirlwinds and sends them down the field for 60 damage. If a whirlwind is generated on a grass panel it will deal 90 Wood element.
- Strong Seeds – Several seeds roll down random columns. If they hit Geo they will drain 80 HP and heal Club Strong by the same amount.
- Strong Swing – Club Strong repeatedly smashes each panel of Geo's row for 100 Wood damage per hit.
Big guy didn't last too long. With those grass panels he spawns an opening shot from the Taurus Fire V3 card took him all the way down to 740 HP (hmm, that's only triple damage instead of quad...) and my string of two Bushido 2's and a Buzz Saw 2 the next turn took care of the rest.
Club Strong goes out with a Big "NO!" and it's on to the third area. This one's got five memory splinters to find as well as the Kaiser Knuckle WE. There're a lot of ramps in this section, meaning lots of tight spaces that the Crimson storms can catch you on. This area's memory is still distorted by the heavy Noise so it's garbled and fragmented, but it appears to be of a younger Kelvin and Hope
◊ deciding what to name Geo.
The boss waiting for us past this barrier is Jack Corvus, and both human and FM-ian are absolutely raring to go, just as Geo and Omega are. Geo's certainly a lot more aggressive with his pre-battle smack talk than usual, declaring that Jack and Tia's wish will remain “only a pathetic pipe dream” and that Meteor G is next after he's finished with him.
Jack Corvus V2
HP: 1800
Element: Fire
Attacks:
- Grave Claw – Flaming claws fly down each column for 80 Fire damage.
- Corvus Wing – Jack Corvus appears in front of Geo and repeatedly slashes him with his wings, dealing 100 Fire damage and inflicting an HP drain bug.
- Crow's Flight – Jack Corvus swoops down a diagonal section of field for 150 Fire damage.
- Wicked Flame – Jack Corvus throws a barrage of purple fireballs at Geo that deal 100 Fire damage per hit and crack panels.
- Tag-Out - Queen Virgo appears and creates a destructible water dragon that moves down the field in an oscillating pattern, dealing a total of 120 Aqua damage and trapping Geo inside of a bubble.
Congrats. Out of all of the storyline bosses in Battle Network and Star Force excluding the final bosses that's the highest HP count we're put up against. Jack Corvus certainly puts up more of a fight than the copies of the berserk Wizards we just fought. His Grave Claws are a little less of a problem now that I have the Kaiser Knuckle equipped but it's still very easy to accidentally walk right into them and Wicked Flame's speed ensures that he'll probably land at least one hit or so before you manage to knock him out of it. His new trick in summoning his sister isn't really dangerous. It would be if he remained on the field and continued attacking while she sent out Hydro Dragon, but since he doesn't you're free to focus on destroying the dragon.
Jack loses his fusion and falls to the ground (I was going to call foul on this but then I remembered that this sort of thing happened all the time in the first game thanks to the FM-ians' Z-wave shenanigans so I guess it's consistent.). Omega says to keep moving and a little ways up ahead we run into Queen Virgo. She's figured out that Geo's father is the one inside the server's core thanks to Virgo claiming that they have the same frequency and says that soon Kelvin will be no more thanks to the energy he's putting out to halt the meteor. Geo says that he's doing this not just for his father, but for Ace as well, and the penultimate battle of the story begins.
Queen Virgo V2
HP: 1600
Element: Aqua
Attacks:
- Rain Shower – Queen Virgo raises her staff and calls a deluge down on random panels for 100 Aqua damage per hit.
- Hydro Dragon – Queen Virgo creates a destructible water dragon that moves down the field in an oscillating pattern, dealing a total of 120 Aqua damage and trapping Geo inside a bubble.
- Holy Light – Queen Virgo appears in front of Geo and hits his row with revolving beams of light for a total of 160 damage.
- Aqua Shield – A wall of water surrounds Queen Virgo to protect her when aligned with Geo. When struck it unleashes a shockwave down one column for 100 Aqua damage.
- Tag-Out – Jack Corvus appears and throws a barrage of purple fireballs at Geo that deal 100 Fire damage per hit and crack panels.
Her pattern's the same as before so the strategy of knocking her out of attacks still works. However, her version of Tag-Out is more deadly since Wicked Flame is a more dangerous attack and you can't knock Jack Corvus out of it like you can when fighting him since he doesn't have an HP counter.
Tia loses her fusion too and admits in the Genre Blind way defeated bad guys tend to that she never thought Geo could defeat her. However, she insists that she can't give up now, not after all the things she and her brother did and lost and all the times they ignored Ace's attempts to save them from Dealer. Geo says that it's not true that they lost everything. She still has her bonds with Jack and with Ace. He asks her how their plan to crash Meteor G into Earth is any better than what happened to their own country. Wouldn't it just create more broken and lost children like them? A voice speaks up in agreement and Jack walks over to the two. Getting beaten twice has finally made him have a change of heart and he explains Geo's point to his sister, saying that what they're doing won't create a new world – it'll just destroy it for good. He says that the pain caused by technology should end with them.
Unfortunately, Corvus and Virgo do not take kindly to this idea at all, being as they've always been hanging around just to cause havoc. They come out and turn on their partners, saying that they'll take control of Meteor G themselves. They attack...and promptly get deleted by Rogue. Whose presence here is only handwaved by him saying that breaking into a place like this is nothing for him and I guess he really, really wanted to take out the last bits of Dealer. Urgh, he's nowhere near as aggravating in this game as he was in Star Force 2, but he makes up for that by his scenes coming with the world's biggest shoehorn. Despite the fact that King's still out there he says that there's nothing more for him to do here and Geo manages to convince him to take Jack and Tia back to Earth. Before they leave the siblings promise to make up for what they've done and Jack admits that he'd like to friends with Geo for real after this is all over.
Well, this is the point-of-no-return. Here's a minor feature I didn't mention before: whenever you save the game you get a little good luck message from one of Geo's Brothers. The one from my final save here was of Ace saying “Never give up, Geo!” Very appropriate.
Virus Listing
- Voltragon
- Voltragons are dragon viruses that attack by striking a 3 x 3 area of the field with a lightning bolt that breaks the center panel of that range. It's head sits on a segmented neck of energy rings and you must knock the rings away with attacks before being able to hit the head for damage.
- Grabity
- The old Shadow viruses return in the form of one-eyed black holes. These viruses can only be damaged by blade-based attacks and have two attacks of their own: either they'll fire a planet down their column or they'll suck away some of Geo's HP. The HP suction is unavoidable, so you want to delete them quickly.
- Mu Defender
- An odd virus for this location, that's to be sure. Mu Defenders are floating cubes that attack by firing a ray down one column that damages and inflicts heavy-gee. The virus rotates as it moves, and only the sides marked with a rune can be damaged.
Soundtrack
- Meteor Server
- This is a fantastic track, easily right up there alongside Final Transmission and Ace of Braves.
