Ah, the Megaman Battle Network series. The Megaman games that Megaman fans love to hate. But really, is it THAT bad? Well, not really.
The reason Megaman fans don’t like this series, is because they can’t accept all the changes made from the megaman series and can’t understand why they put Megaman’s name on something so weird and different. But the truth is that Megaman Battle Network and the follow-up series Megaman StarForce are quite good games.

Battle Network had 6 games, 3 of which were really good, 1 of them that sucked (4 was a step backwards for sure) and one of them that was just weird (5 with it’s strange strategy game thing). Overall, it was a fun series. StarForce was a follow-up series. Took the basic gameplay from Battle Network but made some heavy changes to make it its own game while keeping the spirit of Battle Network(kinda like how Megaman X is a successor to the original Megaman, Zero a spiritual successor to X and ZX is the spiritual successor to Zero…. Capcom does that a lot).

Now I quite liked the first StarForce, but skipped on the second one… Kinda, just never played further than the first chapter.

So, is the third game in the series worth playing?

Read on!

Developer: Capcom
Publisher: Capcom
Date of Release: June 30 2009
Platform: Nintendo DS

Genre: Action-RPG
Players: 1, with some multiplayer elements

Looks and sounds
Graphic-wise, they reuse all of the sprites from the previous games in the series, with no changes. So if you liked how the previous games looked, you’ll be just fine here. The graphics in battle are quite good, though no different from before. Still quite high-quality for the DS.

The sound is normal, nothing special about it. The music is forgettable. The sound effects represent what they should. Oh, and voice-acting was removed from the english version.

Story
Here, the age of Wave Technology is at its highest. People have Wizards (which are similar to Navis in the Battle Network series), which are stored in all-purpose devices called Hunter-VG. People can now see EM beings because of something that probably happened in StarForce 2 (I don’t know) which is what made them create Wizards. EM waves are basically used for everything in the game. Transportation, any electronics, Real Waves (waves that become actual objects) and a bunch of other stuff.  With that comes the inconvenience of viruses who screw around with waves, which everyone (not just EM beings or people who can wave change)  can bust now thanks to Wizards.

The basic world is actually quite interesting. Sadly they don’t do much with it, and make it just a “save the world from destruction plot”.

Here you play, once again, as Geo Stellar. Omega-xis, the FM-ian who can fuse with Geo to become Megaman, has converted himself into a Wizard in Geo’s Hunter-VG. What do you have to save the world from this time? Well, there’s a meteor named “Meteor G” coming towards Earth, and an evil organization is taking control of it to control the world (makes no sensee, but whatever). The meteor is made of something called noise. Noise is basically something that screws up with EM waves, Wizards and EM beings. Using super-high concentrations of noise they take control over the meteor and it’s up to Megaman, with a bit of help from the police, to stop the organization.

The characters are okay, though nothing special, and the dialog is pretty good(considering it’s a Battle Network game ).

The one problem is that since the beginning of the Battle network series, the story has always been the same, and it’s no different here. It’s still about a 12-13 year old saving the world from maniacs trying to take over it. Though I find the story here to be one of the better ones in the series. And it even has really serious moments, though mostly always ruined in stupid ways, like proving that friendship can revive the dead(YES, REALLY, I AM NOT KIDDING).

Overall it’s not bad, but it would’ve been nice to see Capcom break the mold here.

Gameplay
Well, if you’ve played any previous StarForce game, you know exactly what you’re getting here gameplay-wise. So I’ll go by things that are the same and things that were added.

Navigation
There’s 2 ways to move around: In Megaman form, or NOT in Megaman(human) form. In human form, Geo can talk to people. If he puts his wave-seeing glasses, he can see hertz and other invisible wave things, and speak to anything he can see while he has his glasses BUT he can’t speak to humans. Turning into Megaman(you can do that anywhere, despite Geo wanting to keep his secret identity, you know, secret) gives you the same basic effect as putting on the glasses. The big difference here is that you can fight viruses lying around in the normal maps. Also, you don’t have random battles when you’re not on the Wave Roads. To go on the Wave Roads, you have to go to Wave Stations, and when you get in front of them you move to the Wave Road. On the Wave Road, you get random encounters with enemies, find merchant hertz and you have different routes to get to different areas. You can also enter Cyber Cores. Some electronic devices that use waves can be entered, which brings you to their Cyber Cores. Some cyber cores are simple, just one room with mystery data and not much else. Some are basically dungeons until you reach the boss battle, and some have puzzles.

The Touch screen is actually an important part of navigation… kinda. When talking to people, you can use the touch screen to get information on them, and finding side-quests. The only important part here is getting side-quests. Side-quests give link power, chips, and various other things. Also, the touch screen is used to either choose where you want to go using the wave liner (same thing as the boss in other games of the series) or when in front of an elevator. Oh, and you use the touch screen to enter cyber cores.

That’s pretty much all there is to say about this. The touch-screen use is fun, the rest is all basic.

Battle
Fighting is the most interesting part in the game. Like in the Battle Network series, and the previous Starforce games, battles take place on a grid, in Real-Time. Unlike the Battle Network series, the fights take place in a “behind the character” third-person perspective, instead of on the side. Also, you can only move on the back end of the battlefield(a 1×3 area), while the enemies move in a  nice 4×3 area. There are 3 things you can do in battle (other than moving). You can use battle chips, use your buster (letting it go charges your charge attack, holding the button makes it shoot fast (as fast as your rapid-fire stat let’s it go)), and use your shield (requires the right timing, it blocks anything you want).

Before each turn, you pick the chips you want from the  6 that randomly appear from your deck. There’s a few rules to it, which are explained when you first fight. In this game though, the chips are randomly placed  in a 2×3 grid, but they can be placed a bit over each other. If there’s a chip over another, the one under can’t be used normally. You can touch it with the touch screen. This will check the element of the chip, and a different chip will appear instead of the actual chip. During battle, the custom meter fills up gradually, and when it’s full you get a new turn, so you can choose a new set of chips.

Another element you get is Noise. You eventually get a program that makes you use noise in battle. Killing viruses with normal chips will take the overkill damage and add that number to the noise thingy. Getting over 50% activates your Noise Form. Over 100% various totally random effects can start happening. Over 200%, you can go to the custom menu and transform into your finalized form. The Black Ace version gives you Black Ace for, and you can guess what the Red Joker version gives you. This form boosts your buster but removes your charge attack. It also has various other effects, and it gives you a special battle card deck. That form lasts for 3 turns.
Also, getting Noise above 100% modifies what you get after battle.  You can get chips you wouldn’t get normally, you can get noise frags from normal battles (usually you get noise frags from Warning Battles), and you can eventually get multiple rewards if you boost your noise high enough.

Noise Forms are something you get some way through the game. They’re similar to styles and crosses in the Battle Network games. They have various effects, mostly elemental. They give some protection to certain attacks, give some boosts to certain chip types, give a chance of having a special chip when you do a counter attack (hitting the enemies at the right timing when they’re attacking).  Those are gotten during the story, and during Warning battles (battles with stronger enemies) you have a percentage of chance of getting a new Noise Form, and it’s totally random which you get.

Leveling
There’s not that many different ways to power up. You can buy HP boosts, find some in various areas of the map. You can boost your battle card deck. The big boosting method is abilities. Those can give you different effects in battle(including everything related to Noise) and boost your HP. Those require Link Power. Link Power is gotten from Bother Bands. You get those during the story, mostly, but some people also form a brother band with you when you finish certain sidequests. There’s also the element when you can get up to 6 real life people to for ma brother band with you, boosting your Link Power depending on how strong they are. You can do that locally or by Wi-Fi. Also, when you form a Real Life brother band, you also get an extra battle chip. This will either combine your current Noise Form with your brother’s, or make you use one of their “White Cards”(cards you get from Wave Station when you interact with them as Geo). The powering up is simple but effective.

Overall, the gameplay is really fun. Not much more to say about it. It’s simple, it’s solid, and it’s fun. Sure, it’s different from normal Megaman games, but that doesn’t mean it’s bad. Fun battle, okay navigation/simple puzzle solving and leveling up is fun.

Overall
There’s lots of recycling here, that’s for sure, but the game itself is really good. The basic gameplay engine works great, just like before. The addition of Noise Forms definitely adds to the game(though it shouldn’t be completely random which form you get), the noise meter is also a good addition. The gameplay is solid, even though it’s not any different from before.

There’s lots of recycling going on, mainly the graphics. And the story. And the gameplay. But the presentation is quite good and the evolution of the series and the game world are quite nice.

I’d say that this is a must for Battle Network/StarForce fans. A solid addition to the series, despite not breaking any grounds. For people who haven’t played previous games in the series, it’s never too late to check it out, and you don’t NEED previous knowledge of the series to play (though it’s not a bad idea).

Pros/Cons
Pros
- Good graphics for the DS
- Best story in the series
- Solid gameplay
- Fun additions

Cons
- Friendship revives the dead!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
- Story is still about a 12-13 year old saving the world while the adults are totally powerless
- Lots of recycling
- Not much change since the beginning of the series, or of the Battle Network series for that matter
- 2 versions (they could’ve just let us choose if we wanted to be red joker or black ace when we start a new game, sorta like they did in StarForce 2(which still had 2 versions because each had an exclusive transformation))

The Save Factor
With a starting price of $30 , the Save Factor for Megaman StarForce 3 is:

$25 (close enough to the starting price)

jobocan ds, Games, Handheld, Review