Through the Noise Wave exit is a wave road that stretches through outer space, the Outer Astro Wave. Geo comments on how many stars there are and Omega says that he thinks they're near the center of the galaxy. Uh...I guess Noise Waves really do warp space and time. Omega also says that this area feels familiar to him, and the camera pans to show what look like three stone pillars floating in the void that're capped with small antennas. Seeing them makes him remember that this is where Kelvin and the crew of the Peace built the communications array they used to attempt contacting Planet FM three years ago.
Wait, wait, wait, wait, what???!! For those who are unaware, the distance between Earth and the galactic center is somewhere in the neighborhood of twenty-five thousand light years. The Peace was a space station. A somewhat futuristic-looking space station, but a space station nonetheless. It's pretty obvious that the Star Force world does not have the technology for faster-than-light travel, though no doubt they're trying to work on it. How, in all of the cosmos, is this supposed to make any sense at all?! Did the station somehow fall through a Negative Space Wedgie twice over without anyone realizing it? Then there's the matter of the FM-ians themselves. A radio wave is transmitted at light speed, but it sure as hell did not take the FM-ians twenty-five thousand years to reach Earth! They couldn't have used the Noise Wave to reach Earth because Noise is naturally lethal to almost all EM beings, FM-ians included, unless they're protected somehow which the FM-ians clearly aren't since Lyra and Taurus were affected by it, and we just saw an Astro Hertz essentially die from being inside one. They must have built-in ansibles or something for that to make sense. So I guess you can handwave that, but not the activities of Kelvin's crew.
However, I will give Capcom props for one astronomical bit, though I doubt it was intentional: I remember reading in the past a theory that just as each solar system has a habitable zone where life can evolve, so does the galaxy. If a star system is too far out, there's not enough material for stars that are good planet-bearing material, while if it's too far in, say, the center of the galaxy, life cannot evolve due to the incredibly high levels of stellar radiation that would be created by all the stars being clustered so tightly together. No organic life at least, but in such an environment it's not a stretch to assume, going by science-fiction logic at least, that energy-based lifeforms like the FM-ians and AM-ians could emerge.
Okay, sorry for the rant. After Geo deduces that that must mean that Planet FM is the one in danger, a voice welcomes them and three old faces appear: the three Satellite Admins, Pegasus Magic
◊, Leo Kingdom
◊, and Dragon Sky
◊. The Satellite Admins are, unfortunately, not all that helpful this time around. They explain that Planet FM is under attack by an entity known as Sirius, and he has the power to somehow control a black hole. Here's another thing I'll give Capcom credit for: if we really are at the center of the Milky Way, than this black hole they're talking about is most likely meant to be Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole that sits at the center of the galaxy and has a circumference about the size of the orbit of Mercury. The Satellite Admins says that they're pretty much unable to do anything to help thanks to a barrier that Sirius has placed around Planet FM, but before leaving they do warn us that a very powerful EM being that's not an R has been seen in the area. After they depart (without giving us anything, hmph) Geo vows to come to his Brother King Cepheus's aid.
Outer Astro Wave 1's path is very short and straightforward, but the unique thing about it is that some of the wave road's borders are jagged. This allows us to actually walk off of the wave road and onto space/an invisible floor, so the actual area that can be explored is fairly large. It's kinda easy to get disoriented on them due to the fact that there's obviously no landmarks if you go out far enough, but thankfully there are invisible walls that prevent you from walking out into the void forever. In order to proceed to the next area we have to unlock a security door that's run by Diamond Ice R and Dark Phantom R, so we have to find both of their transmission devices out there in space before pulsing out.
Diamond Ice R is in an Alohaha Cyber Core, an odd place for an ice EM being, the beach dragon statue to be exact. Before getting down to the fisticuffs she explains the the R stands for “Rebuilt”, as each of the R bosses was recreated from data gathered by Sirius. Lets just tear her down then.
Diamond Ice R
HP: 2500
Element: Aqua
Attacks:
- Cold Ballet – The two ice crystals are shot down one column each for 180 Aqua damage.
- Ballet on Ice – One of the two ice crystals are shot down Geo's row for 180 Aqua damage.
- Diamond Dust – A gust of cold wind strikes a large diagonal swath of the field, freezing Geo and the affected panels for 200 Aqua damage.
- Break Ice Hammer – Diamond Ice tries to smash Geo with an oversized hammer that cracks the panel and deals 200 Aqua damage.
Not too difficult as long as you stay out of the crystals' way or try destroying one of them. The Most Valuable Card award for this battle went to Bushido 3. With Rogue Noise and a bunch of other Bushido cards in hand each one can dole out 300 damage apiece.
We have to go to the Dealer hideout for Dark Phantom R, but first if we stop by Noise Wave 1 we can now find a Noism who's selling a whole bunch of stuff for Noise Frags:
- Black Ink – 5 Frags
- Double Eater – 7 Frags
- Panel Format – 10 Frags
- Spirit Fury – 15 Frags
- Mu Barrier – 30 Frags
- HP + 500 – 17 Frags
- Air Shoes (450 LP) – 12 Frags
- Air Shoes (400 LP) – 15 Frags
- Giga Class + 1 (750 LP) – 20 Frags
- Giga Class + 1 (700 LP) – 25 Frags
- + Paralyze Panel (250 LP) – 13 Frags
- + Paralyze Panel (230 LP) – 20 Frags
- + G-Null Panel (200 LP) – 13 Frags
- + G-Null Panel (190 LP) – 20 Frags
- + Poison Panel (270 LP) – 15 Frags
- + Poison Panel (250 LP) – 23 Frags
- Anti-Damage – 7 Frags
Mu Barrier is the final Giga card and it protects you with the Mu Rejection barrier, so it's redundant with Rogue Noise. In Red Joker the card is Mirror's Edge, which sets a mirror on the field that drains enemies' HP when they step onto the same column. With all the Giga cards we earn the G Complete star. Easiest G Complete star yet.
Dark Phantom R's inside the air duct Cyber Core of Dealer's base. Unlike the one that we're familiar with, this guy is composed and gracious, claiming that the narcissistic actions of his original would only impede his fighting ability. We'll be facing the “real” Dark Phantom, he claims.
Dark Phantom R
HP: 2100
Element: Normal
Attacks:
- Stick Sword – Dark Phantom swipes the panel in front of him with his staff for 220 damage.
- Phantom Claw – Dark Phantom shoots a clawed arm down one column for 220 damage.
- Phantom Slash – Dark Phantom twirls around, striking Geo's row with his cape for a total of 250 damage.
- Dark Hand – A clawed hand emerges from a panel and snatches at the one in front of it for 220 damage.
He's almost exactly on-par with Dark Phantom IF power-wise, but real or not he can't change the fact that his pattern is still very familiar and basic. The exact same strategy of sidestepping and countering that worked to easily defeat him back in the beginning of Star Force 2 still works just as well.
Now that we can continue on, the second area of the Outer Astro Wave is pretty much exactly like the first, short with lots of invisible space. Where the communications array is set up there's a Merchant Hertz:
- HP Memory 20 – 5000z
- HP Memory 20 – 7500z
- HP Memory 20 – 10000z
- Flame Axe – 23000z
- Mega Crusher – 15000z
- Double Cross – 13000z
- Giga Mine – 25000z
Mega Crusher's a rather redundant card with Double Cross still around. It prevents an opponent from using a Mega card in linked play, but doesn't punish them with damage for it like the latter card does.
Anyway, at the back of the area is another Noise tear, and we've gotta beat Cygnus Wing R and Wolf Woods R to open the security door in the way.
The first of the two is within the the Cyber Core of the dentist's office at Spica Mall. Geo asks him who exactly Sirius is, and he obliges by explaining that his is the administrator of the Black Hole Server, the largest in the universe according to him, which is made up of all the EM waves and data the black hole swallows. Geo remarks on the similarity to Meteor G, causing Cygnus Wing R to claim that compared to the Black Hole Server, Meteor G is little more than a file folder before attacking us.
Cygnus Wing R
HP: 2300
Element: Normal
Attacks:
- Cygnus Feather – Cygnus Wing fires several razor-sharp feathers at Geo for 100 damage per hit.
- Dancing Swan – Cygnus Wing twirls down one column and up another or in a figure-eight for 300 damage.
- Migratory Bird – Three Cygnets appear on the field and fly forward, dealing 250 damage on contact. White ones will fly away when hit by an attack. Sometimes they will fly out randomly.
Still fast, but the only real curveball thrown at us is Dancing Swan's new variant.
Wolf Woods R, meanwhile, is over at WBG Studios, within the Real Wave prop in the entrance area. He doesn't have anything interesting to say; like his original he just wants to fight us.
Wolf Woods R
HP: 2600
Element: Wood
Attacks:
- Wide Claw – Wolf Woods slashes the row in front of him for 250 Wood damage.
- Air Wide Claw – Wolf Woods unleashes a three-panel-wide air slash that deals 250 Wood damage.
- Upper Claw – Wolf Woods attacks the panel in front of him with an uppercut slash for 250 Wood damage.
- Howling Wolves – Wolves are summoned to bound down a two-column range for 180 Wood damage per hit.
He actually deleted me during my first attempt because I was stupid and kept walking right into his attacks, basically. Since he's so fast the best course of action is to shrink the field and pile on with Beast Slaps and other cards with similar range so that he can't avoid them. Wood attacks' lack of Mercy Invincibility gets very, very deadly when they can inflict that much damage.
With the door in Outer Astro Wave 2 now open we can continue on to Noise Wave 6. This one's the easiest of the Noise Waves to navigate since it's layout is a large, wide open area instead of chaotic checkerboard pathways. Another V3 boss is lurking here unseen: Rogue V3. Towards the back there's a security gate that opens if we have at least a hundred-fifty cards in the library. Not Standard cards, but a hundred-fifty all told. Past that are two security doors that open when all of the overworld viruses have been deleted, allowing us to step into warps to snag a Float Shoes, + Paralyze Panel, Giga Class + 1, and Chivalry. Chivalry's a WE that has decent stats, if a touch weaker attack than the Kaiser Knuckle, and the bonus ability of allegedly increasing your chances of encountering a V3 boss or G viruses. Just past those doors are the exits, where the next boss is waiting, Apollo Flame.
Apollo Flame?
Geo and Omega have the same confused reaction, exclaiming that they beat him already in the Alternate Future, marking the first time the events of one game's postgame has been acknowledged in another. Apollo Flame explains that he too was restored by Sirius, which I guess makes sense when you consider the mind-bending stuff that black holes can do to space-time even outside of science fiction. He's got this “laws of nature” philosophy going on now, and plans to one day turn on his savior and take his place as ruler. But for now he's content to delete Megaman to stop him from getting to Planet FM, declaring that he'll teach us how the galaxy works.
Apollo Flame
◊
HP: 2500
Element: Fire
Attacks:
- Prominence Flare – A tongue of flame leaps between two adjacent panels for 150 Fire damage.
- Magma Twister – Apollo Flame creates a flamedevil on each column and sends them down the field several times for 150 Fire damage per hit.
- Meteor Swarm – Apollo Flame drops a number of meteors on random panels for 100 Fire damage per hit.
- Solar Flare – Apollo Flame throws a miniature sun at Geo that explodes a 3 x 2 area for 300 Fire damage.
- Sun Barrier – Apollo Flame is protected by a regenerating ring of fire. An Aqua attack will instantly snuff it out.
Sticky Rains are not an option this time, but thankfully Apollo Flame's base form isn't quite as strong as it was at the end of Star Force 2. His movements and rate of his Sun Barrier's regeneration seem slower, and one of the Magma Twisters moves at a different speed than the others in order to give you an opening to dodge through. If you're careless or have low HP he'll still eat your lunch with Prominence Flare, but since there are so many more reliable and faster ways to deal heavy damage in this game he's pretty much a stepping-stone.
Winning gives us the Apollo Flame card, which has him nuke the rear 3 x 3 area with Solar Flare.
Apollo Flame takes his second defeat as a sign that the universe wishes for Sirius to rule instead of he. So he says that he'll let us through and that his master will have an audience with us in the depths of his black hole. After he explodes Sirius's voice addresses our heroes, saying that Meteor G's profile on them was right on the mark. He says that there are more trials ahead, and that he'd be most impressed if we passed them, not to mention he'd love to add us to his collection.
At the end of the area are two Noise tears. One of them leads back to Noise Wave 4 so we can skip the other Noise Waves and the Outer Astro Wave in the future, while the other leads onward. After pulsing out and then back in to fight Apollo Flame V2 (he's to the left of where we just fought him) it's back out into space we go.
