The Black Hole Server looks...exactly like the Meteor Server, just with a black palette and subdued music. Particles that fall into black holes emit a lot of radio waves before falling into the event horizon, so luckily for Geo and Omega accessing it isn't a one-way ticket to spaghettification and we can still pulse out. The first area has two symmetrical halves, including two achievement gates (Link Power at at least 900 and all Giga cards in library) that guard a HP + 500 and a Giga Class + 1 ability. Apollo Flame V3 happens to be lurking around in the two areas of the server.
Navigating through a series of warps takes us to the final R bosses, Acid Ace R and Dread Joker R. Unlike the originals, these guys are buddy-buddy with each other, with Acid Ace R even referring to his compatriot with the nickname of “Jokey.” Acid Ace R's personality isn't all that different from Ace's, but it's pretty funny seeing a guy with the appearance of Joker espousing the virtues of teamwork. Time for a survival boss battle!
Dread Joker R
HP: 2800
Element: Normal
Attacks:
- Gigaton Building – Dread Joker punches the ground, causing three metal blocks to appear randomly on the field for 200 damage. Two of the blocks will remain on the field temporarily.
- Gigant Swing – Dread Joker swipes Geo's row twice for 150 damage per hit as well as inflicting confusion.
- Destroy Missile – Dread Joker fires a massive volley of missiles down the field for 10 damage per hit.
- Break Time Bomb – A massive three-second time bomb is placed on the field before exploding for 400 damage.
- Million Kick – Dread Joker throws a barrage of kicks at Geo for a total of 320 damage.
- Dread Laser – Dread Joker charges up and fires a massive three-panel-wide, multi-hitting laser down the field that cracks all panels, deals a total of 490 damage, and inflicts an HP bug.
This guy is tough. Gigaton Building is as hard for me to dodge as ever, and Destroy Missile... Man, if you can't find some way to knock him out of the attack (not an easy thing to do when he doesn't recoil) or have something like an Invisible to throw up you are going to lose a lot of HP. Like, I-didn't-know-I-had-that-much-HP a lot. And you'd ideally want to keep it high, because immediately afterward...
Acid Ace R
HP: 2400
Element: Normal
Attacks:
- Lock-On Sword – Acid Ace locks on to Geo and slashes his panel twice with a sword, dealing 200 damage per hit and breaking it.
- Ground Wave – Acid Ace unleashes a homing shockwave down the field towards Geo for 250 damage.
- Buzz Saw – Acid Ace shoots a bladed disk down one column for 250 damage. It'll take a right-angle turn to hit Geo.
- Dance Fire – Acid Ace shoots a flamethrower down one column for 250 Fire damage.
- Wide Wave – Acid Ace shoots a three-panel-wide blast of water down the field for 250 Aqua damage.
- Stealth Laser – Acid Ace shoots a volley of shots down one column for a total of 240 Elec damage.
- Squall – Acid Ace generates a tornado on one of Geo's panels for a total of 320 Wood damage.
- Wing Blade – Acid Ace dashes down one column with the energy from his jets hitting the adjacent columns for 400 damage.
- Crimson Laser – Acid Ace fires a twin-barreled, multi-hitting red laser down the entire field for a total of roughly 750 damage.
Finalize quickly and take him out, because his attacks will cut your HP to ribbons, and he's considerably less predictable than his cohort. His new attack, Crimson Laser... Yeah, that's just my ballpark estimate of how much damage it does in total since it alone deleted me when I had 680 HP with Rogue Noise's barrier still active and Undershirt equipped. It pierces invisibility too, so if you can't throw up the shield in time it'll completely hose you.
After surviving those battles Sirius's voice commends us on defeating all the R's and says that he'll wait for us at the back of the server where he'll add us to his collection, right next to Planet FM. Well, no choice but to move onward. Even though Acid Ace R and Dread Joker R don't have transmission devices once we pulse out and return they'll each be standing on opposite sides of the area, ready to be rebattled like all the other R bosses.
On to the second and final area of the Black Hole Server, home to many achievement security doors. There are a few that I can't open yet as some more boss bashing is required for them, but most of the others are currently fair game. First is the one for completing all the job requests that hides the + Spread Shot ability. The second one opens if all of the R bosses have been deleted in under twelve seconds (and they mean it – as I found in my other file if you get exactly twelve seconds it doesn't count) and behind it is the Cosmic Rave. This hoppin' WE is the best one in the game. It's stats are mostly the same as the Kaiser Knuckle, only with an extra point in attack to max that out.
To progress further in the area we need to open the S Complete security door (not a hard task since this area's home to the virus that drops the final Standard card I need) and in the second half is a BMW with the final HP Memory 10 in the game, boosting my HP to the standard maximum of 1000. The last door that can be opened at this point requires a tall order of six Omega Pieces, so you would have to track down and defeat six different Omega bosses. The best way to do this, I've read, is to pulse in on the school roof, as from there you can travel throw the vast majority of areas in the game without having to pulse out or access a Cyber Core, which resets an Omega boss's spawn chance. It'll still take quite a while though if you're not lucky. The door contains the Quick Gauge ability which unlike Star Force 2 does not require a prohibitively large amount of Link Power to equip. However, you can get that ability in battle card form through illegal data, plus there are Noise forms that already have that as a passive, and Star Force's battle system already lends itself well to dealing lots of damage in a short amount of time so it's not as vital as the Fast Gauge was in Battle Network.
With all of that done it's time to head to the center of the area, where the shining, almost angelic form of Sirius is waiting for us. He says that it's been about a century since someone last made it to him and tells Geo to just stand still so that he can have his will removed and be added to his collection. He expresses his anticipation of having him fight against all sorts of other beings and letting him lose on Planet FM, like a children's toy. Geo and Omega are disgusted at how Sirius sees other people and planets as playthings, causing Sirius to say that stopping us without damaging his toy will be a nuisance. Even so, he brags that having complete control of the server means that he can't be defeated, and that we have a lesson to learn.
Sirius
◊
HP: 3000
Element: Normal
Attacks:
- Format Laser – Sirius fires a laser down one column that deals 200 damage and removes all barriers, auras, and special panels.
- Wing Assault – The bits of Sirius's wings detach and randomly fly down the field, homing in on Geo's row and dealing 200 damage per hit.
- Wing Formation – The bits of Sirius's wings detach and repeatedly fire laser beams down the field in various directions for 200 damage per hit of whichever element corresponds to their color.
- Satellite Blazer – Sirius fires a massive, multi-colored laser that sweeps the entire field, breaking every normal panel and hitting the center column twice for 200 damage per hit.
- Glass Barrier – A row of barriers are set up on the field's center row. They shatter with a single hit.
Throughout the course of these liveblogs I've dealt with such luminaries as Serenade, Bass GS, Protoman FZ, Bass BX, Le Mu Xa, and Rogue SX, and I feel that it's safe to say that when you look and everything that he's got going for him, Sirius is the most difficult one of the lot.
Before we look at his attacks, let's look at his abilities. First off, he doesn't move from panel to panel, instead he has a rather erratic glide that he can use to slide in any of the eight directions. Next, he has the so-called “Omni Shoes” ability combo (Air Shoes + Float Shoes) so you can't restrict his movement by damaging the field. Then, he's immune to all status effects. No HP drain, no paralysis (unless you can counter), no bubbling, no confusion, no heavy-gee. Finally, he's got the Super Armor passive, so you can't even knock him out of his attacks.
And those attacks of his! Format Laser is the least worrisome one on the surface because all you have to do to dodge it is sidestep, but it's very fast and makes any sort of defense useless with its barrier-stripping power and the ability to remove holy panels. Wing Assault is your standard “throw lots of shit at the player to make it nearly impossible to dodge” attack, but Wing Formation is the real killer. It covers the majority of the field, changes positions very rapidly, can knock you out of the majority of Noise Changes, and the bits can even double up, so the beams can even be dual element and deal double damage! Finally, Satellite Blazer is impossible to dodge unless you have Air Shoes and if you still don't have it it leaves you with a broken field so that you can't dodge his followup attacks. You may think, “okay, I'll set up a holy panel or two so I'll take half damage and have some extra room left over afterwards!”, but that's what Format Laser is for! And did I mention that none of his attacks can be blocked?
So in summary you've got a guy who can zoom around the field, can't be pinned down, can truck through whatever you throw at him, and absolutely ruins most defensive strategies. The only real way to beat Sirius is to simply go all out, turning the battle into a straightforward damage race. Three-thousand HP is a lot, but it's not a bottomless well, and he at least stays still during several of his attacks long enough to pull off a few combos, and once the Noise level reaches 100% all of your attacks will pierce Mercy Invincibility, making it the time to go to town.
The final dick move? He doesn't drop anything, forcing us to fight his stronger forms (yes, he has V2 and V3 forms) at least three times in order to get all of his cards.
As he blows up Sirius declares that he's transmitting his power to the Meteor Server so that when “the five stars shine together” Earth will see it's final day. Oh, and he also transfers the block of Murian metal from his body into Geo's own, with a farewell of “Enjoy fighting with that rival of yours for all of eternity!” Seriously, what a douchebag.
And speaking of jerks, after Sirius is gone Rogue appears, saying that he didn't expect things to turn out like this. Now that the metal's still intact he says that he has another reason to fight us now. Well, so much for that scene on the Astro Wave where he seemed to finally accept the concept of letting go. He then pulses out, saying that for now he'll let us celebrate our victory over the Black Hole Server's admin. After he's gone a more welcome visitor appears to congratulate us, Cepheus. He reports that the black hole's pull on Planet FM has ceased and thanks Geo and Omega for their inspiring help. He renews his pledge to reform his planet's society and to one day officially open relations with Earth before returning to his people. Once he's gone Geo marvels at the extent of Sirius's power, being able to control a black hole and Omega says that since space is so vast there's bound to be other EM beings out there that are even stronger than him. But if they ever do encounter someone like that they'll be right there for each other.
With that the SS star is added to the title screen and we can open another security door in this area to get the Impact Roar WE which has high attack, max charge, but really slow speed and the ability to crack panels with the Charge Shot. Pulsing out and returning to this area allows us to fight Sirius V2 right where he was before before his V3 form is added to the Black Hole Server's random encounter pool. His card has him use Satellite Blazer and it works exactly like it does in battle with him. Sirius X, if you get really lucky with illegal drops, can deal a maximum of 500 damage to a single enemy if they're positioned right. Getting all the Mega cards earns us the M Complete star, and the right to open another achievement door for a Mega Class + 1. Behind that's yet another door for all battle cards period which hides the Super Armor ability.
With all five stars in hand we can now see what Sirius meant by transferring his power to the Meteor Server. The final boss has been souped up to its usual super form, the 4500 HP Crimson Dragon SP. Defeating it earns us the right to open another achievement door within the Black Hole Server for a Giga Class + 1 and the 100% Completion screen, which this time is simply a sketch of Megaman's Black Ace form. Upon booting the game back up we get a wallpaper of that image that we can stick on our Hunter-VG.
Still here? Good, because 100% Completion isn't the end of this game! It's more like it has 160% Completion because there are three secret, silver stars that can now be obtained. In the Japanese version you had to unlock them through some sort of download (this game actually had a number of Wave Command Code-esque features that are inaccessible in the English version without hacking) but for us we have to tap the five icons in a certain order that you can find on GameFAQs. The first one unlocks three new bosses to find and fight: Moon Destroyer Sigma, Apollo Flame Sigma, and Sirius Sigma. These are basically these bosses' Omega-level forms (Sirius Sigma has 4500 HP and all of his attacks deal 400 damage per hit. Not fun, but I actually found him easier than Apollo Flame Sigma since he can kill you much faster thanks to Prominence Flare) and they're found as random encounters (no WARNING sign) in Noise Wave 3, Black Hole Server 2, and the orbital base wave road respectively. Beating all three of them earns us the Sigma star, and also unlocks the 6000 HP Crimson Dragon Sigma to fight on the Outer Astro Wave if you really want to.
The second secret combination unlocks the fight against Rogue that was hinted at after beating Sirius. If we head to the back of the Meteor G Control Cyber Core where we fought Spade Magnes V2 during the story we'll find him waiting there for us. He doesn't say much, but Geo and Omega exclaim that he's used Noise to power himself up. So, time for the final-final-I-''really''-mean-it-no-take-backs battle, the revenge.
Rogue ZZ
HP: 4000
Element: Normal
Attacks:
- Rogue Arts – Rogue attacks Geo with a series of punches and ends with a flipkick that deals 80 damage per hit.
- Rogue Burst – Rogue fires off shockwaves down all three columns for 350 damage.
- Rogue Knuckle – Rogue randomly fires a volley of energy fists down the field that inflict confusion and deal 130 damage per hit.
- Laplace Slash – Rogue slashes a 3 x 2 area with his sword, unleashing a multi-hitting sword slash for a total of 420 damage.
- Rogue Break – Rogue jumps into the air and comes down with a sword strike that hits and breaks the two panels in front of him for 450 damage.
- Blade Wrath – Rogue's sword spins twice through a diagonal swath of field for 150 damage per hit before he comes down with a sword strike that hits and cracks a 3 x 2 area for 450 damage.
- Mu Rejection – An automatic barrier will block one hit and then regenerate.
Hm, I wonder if that Z before stood for “Zeta” and ZZ is supposed to be “Double Zeta.” At least, that was how it went in Gundam. I found him to be a easier than Rogue SX. Not significantly so, but enough that this was a difficult yet fair battle and not a “throw-the-3DS-out-the-window” clusterfuck. Since he's literally “Rogue Z but more” and my folder is essentially the same as it was then but more, he eventually falls to the same tactics.
Winning gives out one of the Rogue cards depending on busting rank.
The Rogue star is added to the title screen and we can freely rebattle him at our leisure. Like Protoman FZ Chaud in Battle Network 6 Solo's apparently made out of quantum particles for he'll be both here and at his usual spot in Alohaha for the remainder of the game.
There are two final secret opponents left to fight, but since they're tied to linked play they're impossible to access outside of hacking now that Nintendo's shut down the DS's wi-fi servers. I won't be able to get it, but basically, after fighting I think twenty other players in a row and winning you would have the option of fighting the ultimate versions of Acid Ace and Dread Joker: Acid Ace BB and Dread Joker RR. Beating them gives you the final silver star, the AJ star, and the satisfaction that literally everything in the game has been beaten.
Well, after nine games and a hundred-ninety-eight updates we've finally reached the end of this series of Megaman games. I enjoyed replaying these games with a more critical eye and higher gaming abilities and I hope everyone who followed along, whether fully or in part, enjoyed reading these. As I said before, Battle Network will always have a special place in my gaming library for bringing me in to the Megaman franchise and I feel that, despite some identity issues, Star Force was a decent sequel to it. It would be nice if Capcom revisited this little sub-universe at some point now that gaming has social elements that would fit the games like a glove, but that's something to tackle only after they figure out what to do with the franchise as a whole. But that's neither here nor there at the moment.
There's another game series that I intend to liveblog after this, but since I've been doing these pretty much non-stop for over a year now I'm going to give myself a little rest, and then I'll be back in the game. So, until then, thank you everyone and I shall see you around.
Soundtrack
- Black Hole Server
- An appropriate track to send off our long journey with.
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