Mega Man Star Force 2: Zerker x Saurian Part #2 - Tutorials. Tutorials Never Change

Part 2: Tutorials. Tutorials Never Change

This update is supposed to go up tomorrow, but the SF1 LP updated so I might as well follow suit. One of these days we should all coordinate a synchronized update.

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Before I advance to the next day, I'm going to get all of the available BMWs.

This is kind of

annoying since the encounter

rate is pretty high. Not nearly as bad as it'll get later in the game, but still noticable. I actually despise SF2's virus battle music because I rarely get to hear beyond the first few seconds.

My spoils were another Small Energy, a Paralyze Plus, and a HP Memory. These things will increase MegaMan's base HP by either 10 or 20, and collecting them all will get me to 1000 base HP.

(Recall how my Wave Command shot me past that a second into the game.)

Immediately afterwards, I encountered my first Giant Virus. They're just as harmless as their normal-sized brethren,

but instead of dropping normal battle cards they'll give up Star Cards.

As long as these are in your folder, they'll buff the attack power of the standard version of the card. The more stars the card has (maxes at three, determined by the busting rank of the giant virus fight), the bigger the boost. And before you ask, no you can't put more than one of a star card to stack boosts.

Star cards are always nice to have, but they're not essential, kind of annoying to get, and eclipsed by a much simpler way to boost damage.

Remember this guy, from the opening cutscene? MegaMan will be able to transform into him midway through the game.

But I'm impatient. Inputting IMFCGO in the Wave Command screen will let me access Fire Saurian mode immediately.

Until I reset the game, I'll start off every single battle transformed.

As Saurian, I can hold A to charge attack cards to do +20 damage. This is only useful for multiple hit chips, especially since the charge is really slow.

Much more useful is something I can't show; Saurian's passive abilities are a free Super Armor (which I already have) and a flat +30 damage to all Fire elemental cards (none are in my folder).

Saurian's charge shot is the Dino Cannon, which explodes behind the target in a T-shaped radius.

Finally, if I get a counter hit,

I can use Saurian's Link Force Big Bang: Genocide Blazer.

Now back to the real world. A lot of objects in the game have flavor text,

and a decent amount will have Mega chime in at the end. That means that this computer has an ES.

But I won't be able to access it until later. When's that? Who knows. There's no indication of when any given ES will be open, so I'll just have to keep running back until it is.

You seem to take extra special care of your telescope. Why is that?

Umm... My dad bought it for me a long time ago. That's why...

...Oh.

Sometimes Geo and Mega will comment on whatever they're looking at.

Smells like we're having mac and cheese tonight.

That's something I wanna try one of these days. Can't you do something?

Y-Yeah...

It's usually not very interesting.

By the way, if you examine an object with an accessible ES you'll get a description of its EM waves. They'll range from reasonable to very silly.

Okay, nap time.

Generally whenever Geo sleeps a cutscene will play.

Earth is in dire need of something. Do you know what that is, Hyde?

No, my lady.

And the only person worthy of ruling is me!

Hyde agrees, and snickers that the "uncouth masses" would never think of trying to rule the world. "Vega" muses that they shall soon know.

I think this scene would have been a better place to start the game. Half of the events of the first day were utterly pointless, and the other half could have been done anywhere.

Geo should have just began with the Star Carrier, get reminded by Mega he has to meet with his friends,

then get stopped by Hope on his way to the bus stop to help fix the TV. This would have covered Personal View (since you'll see it when you talk to Hope), pulsing in, EM wave spaces, and battles too since you could just blame a virus for the problem.

Geo would probably be late to the meeting, and the ensuing chat would have hit all of the character notes the day 1 chat did.

Literally the entire first day is a waste of time. That's a terrible first impression, though I admit it's a fitting one.

Luna guesses that Bud was playing Burger Quest, and the big guy's astonished she knew.

Speaking of guessing, guess what time it is.

If you guessed tutorial time, you were right!

When Geo upgraded from his Transer to his Star Carrier, he lost all of his ~~Facebook friends~~ Brother Bands.

Hooray.

It's simple enough. These four empty slots each correspond to one of Geo's friends, and as the game goes on he'll reforge BBs with them all.

For the purposes of the tutorial, Luna has Zack brother with Geo. Despite the fact they're friends, Zack is oddly reluctant to do this and only makes a temporary one. (Zack is an asshole.)

At this point Luna asks if you want to skip the BB lecture. Kind of late, but still nice to have.

So what are Brother Bands? In-universe, they're an EM Wave connection between two people. It's a symbol of trust and friendship, since to become Brothers you have to share a Secret. That can be any embarassing fact about yourself, and the idea is that true friends hide nothing from each other.

New to SF2 is Link Power.

Link Power is mysterious power born out of the bonds of the BrotherBand. Star Carriers allow you to know just how much Link Power you have. By becoming Brothers with others and cultivating ties, your Link Power increases.

It's pretty much the strength of a BB.

Moving on, Zack's temporary BB bumped up my LP from 0 to 50. Each of the four in-game BBs max out at +100 LP, so my theoretical maximum is 400.

But I've been specifying in-game for a reason. I can make up to six BBs with real people, and each one can give me up to +150 LP depending on how far in the game they are. If I max out everything, I can get 1300 LP.

Finally, My Pages. Here I can see a Brother's name, a short Message, their Secret, and their favorite Battle Cards.

There are also these, and like Luna says they're not important right now.

After I create an avatar, input a Message, and type in a Secret,

the tutorial finally ends.

But the exposition hasn't. Luna discusses how since you can only increase LP by being a good person, LP works as an objective measurement of your character.

Zack adds that people with high LP are treated like superstars. They can go to other countries without passports, skip straight into prestigious universities,

and get discount bus prices.

Incidentally, the bus came right as Luna was about to reform her BB with Geo. Why she (and Zack and Bud) don't do that immediately/on the bus ride?

Because they're assholes.

Music: Wilshire Hills

An hour later, the bus arrives at Wilshire Hills.

The place is packed, to say the least. Geo laughs that he's reminded of the Milky Way, and Bud thinks that's some kind of food. _{Which it is.}

Not to be outdone by Bud's reminder that he likes to eat, Zack brings out his gimmick: he'll constantly be referencing the "Zackpedia" to state the obvious.

I'm supposed to go through the elevator, but I'm going to take a break so I can break the game again.

First, I need to make a better avatar.

I'm no pixel artist, but Greiga Master's Avatar Generator Tool make things easy.

...Okay, I guess I shouldn't use this avatar.

There we go. I'm not actually the biggest fan of Bass, but Ragnar Homsar paid

for it and I'll be damned if he doesn't get his money's worth.

Now that the game has explained Brother Bands, I've gained access to multiplayer functions in the main menu.

This means I can do this. For the purposes of this LP, I'm letting people in the thread submit their own information to become Brothers with me. Let's check out who I have right now.

Hey there!
I liked SF1 more than SF3.

First off, it's me! This is from my own copy of SF2 ZxN, and it's going to be the only BB I'm keeping no matter what. So because I'm a cheating bastard I've loaded it up with my favorite overpowered cards.

I'm in a LP!
I play Guild Wars 2 with a keyboard.

Second is SSNeoman, and he's probably going to be the first replaced. Not because his Favorites selection is bad or anything (quite the opposite in fact), it's just that Lynkericious also wanted to be a ninja and I'm hogging one of the Ninja spots.

(Note that there's no actual limit on how many BBs from a specific version you can have. I just want a 1:1:1 ratio. v

All of the points in Scrabble.
I'm only worth 13 points.

Third is Senerio. He didn't post what he wanted to be, so I ~~flipped a coin~~ made him a Saurian because who plays Scrabble anymore? He also wasn't very specific about what he wanted his Favorites to be, so I threw in some legacy cards from Battle Network.

Thanks everybody, for your support!
...I really like Luna and Sonia!

Fourth is somebody entirely different. See, for most of these Brothers I grabbed complete saves off of GameFAQs and retooled them to fit whoever wanted to be a Brother. Unfortunately, the only two complete Saurian saves were actually the same game; somebody took the old one, played with it for a bit, then uploaded it as their own. Obviously enough the game won't let you BB with a single file twice, and since I gave away my personal copy of SF2 ZxS a while ago I couldn't use that either. I could either play through the entire game again... or just use the downloadable Legendary Master Shin BB!

Back when this game was still new there were four Wi-Fi events. Two of them gave BB data (each one +150 LP and from the version your game doesn't have), and two of them

gave some overpowered battle cards. I'll go over these after I finish with the rest of the Brothers.

Healbot5000 ready
i'm not actually a robot

Fifth is Sillyman. He's on my actual cart's Zerker file, and since I never managed to force myself to get through postgame on that he only gives +110 LP.

I'm a berserker.
I'm replacable.

Finally, a generic placeholder.

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If you already know how folders work, once again feel free to skip to the next line of dashes.

MegaMan's folder is essentially his skill list. All of the Battle Cards I obtain have to be moved into here before I can use them in battle.

There's a lot of layers to the system, but at its core it's simple: I have 30 available slots, and I can fill them with Standard, Mega, and Giga cards.

Standard cards are yellow, and I can put up to three of a kind in my folder.

Mega cards (basically summons) are blue. I can only have 5 Mega cards total, and only 1 of a kind.

Finally, Giga cards are red and generally overpowered as hell. So overpowered I'm only allowed 1 per folder.

You following me so far? Because now I'm going to break those rules.

Over here is my Wave Command. See the "MegaClass +2" and "GigaClass +3" in the top right? They mean exactly what they say; I can use up to 7 Mega cards and 4 Giga cards now.

Furthermore, Abilities! I'm not supposed to have any yet, but Cipher mail doesn't care about that. Gameplay-wise, the main purpose of LP is to be spent equipping abilities, with each having their own LP cost.

Aside from boosting my maximum HP by 150, this ability set-up increases my Mega and Giga capacity even further, to 8 and 5 respectively.

And while I'm talking about limits, take a look at the top of the screen. Notice how the card counter says 37/40, even though I said 30 cards is the max? That's because I can add in 10 special cards. More specifically, 3 Star cards, 6 Brother cards, and 1 Legend card.

I've already explained Star cards, but it's worth noting that they work independently of the normal three card limit. With this Ground Wave 1 *3, I technically have 4 Ground Wave 1 cards in my folder.

Brother cards are hilariously game breaking.

In-battle, they'll be randomly drawn from my folder like any other card. But when I select them...

The game will randomly select one of that Brother's Favorite cards. Here's the kicker: no matter what, the card will be white.

And that's not restricted to my Brothers' Favorites either: all of my Favorite cards are also converted into white cards. There are some limitations on this (only 2 Mega/Giga favorites, only 1 Giga favorite), but they're not nearly enough to balance the mechanic.

Brother cards also play a role in MegaMan's transformations, but sadly I can't mess around with that until I legitimately unlock Fire Saurian.

Finally, Legend cards. I can only have one per folder, and you'll see why once I hit the boss.

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Right then, let's check out those DLC cards.

Le Mu summons the game's final boss.

It proceeds to transform,

slams the field with its blades (this part counts as Breaking damage, meaning it destroys all shields),

then ends with a fuckoff head laser. This does 600 damage total, more than enough to kill any virus battle in the game (barring a few specific encounters). It's only drawback is that the animation takes forever.

Compare Pegasus Magic GX, a Giga card I have a chance of using every time SSNeoman or Zerker's Brother cards come up. It'll also nuke just about every virus battle, and it doesn't waste any time doing that.

King's Grandeur is another screen nuke that takes too long.

It summons MegaMan's ultimate form,

who makes lava erupt under every single enemy panel,

then summons some shuriken to hit everything again.

Then he does a dashing slash, hitting the entire field once more.

King's Grandeur's main advantage is that each phase of the attack is a different element (Fire - Wood - Elec), so against a good chunk of enemies one of the hits will do double damage. But you know what? An extra 120 damage is not worth watching all of that.

Especially since Cipher mail has given me no less than four other screen nukes, all of which much faster.

Let's get back on track. Aside from the Cloaker (item that reduces encounter rate for a while) in this ES, there's a Mad Vulcan 1 card in a nearby BMW.

And if I walk on this row of vehicles (ignoring how all of the moving ones pass right through me),

I'll find a teleporter that leads me here. The BMW held a Recover 30,

and the purple guy sells some items. Nothing here is helpful.

All of Geo's friends have unique wallpapers to their personal pages.

Luna is also Brothers with her mother, though it looks like she only gets +30 LP from her. Wonder what happened to her dad?

And here's boring old Bud. Notice how all of these guys have their own Favorite cards; I can use that later.

Going up.

Welcome, one and all, to Wilshire Hills!

Some Air Displays immediately attack the crew upon arrival. Luna shoos them away, then Zack points at the next object of interest.

The Zackpedia says that's a SkyBoard. They're pretty popular.

This is our second glance (the first was the Air Display) at Matter Wave technology. EM Waves, the magic that they are, can be given physical form, leading to all sorts of crazy things.

yes i get it you like food

Luna notes they still have some time before the movie starts, so they might as well explore. Zack and Geo agree, while Bud fumes about not getting popcorn.

When you're tired, give yourself a boost with Soniavita D! I'll always be here cheering for you!

Who's Sonia? What, didn't you play SF1?

Seriously though, if you want to find out you need to examine this identical board to the east.

It's Sonia...

Excuse me... I couldn't help but notice you staring... Are you a fan of the beautiful Ms. Sonia Strumm?

Eh?

I'm a huge fan of hers! Not that long ago she was in retirement. But she recently made a comeback!

Is that so... Sonia... She's started singing again.

*Huff* You say that like you know her or something. Shouldn't you show her a little more respect!?

Uh, sorry.

And the only non-asshole one at that. _{She still tried to kill him.}

Wha...? Noooo waaaaay! You're friends with her? I can't believe it! I-I'm so jealous...

...... (I-I knew Sonia was famous, but I didn't know she was THAT famous.)

Checking the board again reveals an ES.

Inside is a Small Energy, a Recover 30, and another Sonia fan.

Also nearby is the first Link Power door. If your LP surpasses the given amount, you can go through.

I'm slightly overqualified.

Prizes range from alright to amazing. This ability (changes the damage radius of the charge shot to a V) is the former.

There's another Wave Hole on the roof, but it's a trap. If I go in, I'll have to walk all the way back to the elevator to get back to the main area.

Further ahead was a BMW with a Fire Ring 1,

and back on the main floor is another ES with 450 Z inside.

And this guy. He's a special kind of Merchant Hertz who'll only sell one thing, in this case a Hertz wallpaper for my Personal View for 3000 Z. I only have 950 Z so I pass.

Beating every virus battle in under a second actually backfires when it comes to money, since that usually drops with low busting ranks. I can get something to force Zenny drops after every battle, but not for a while.

That's it for stuff I can do in the Wave world, so back to the real world so I can talk to everyone.

Talking to the guy here will trigger a cutscene where he tries to get a date.

The game uses the time to explain Matter Waves.

Afterwards, Luna proposes they all check out the IFL Tower, the tallest building in the country. Bud cracks a joke about how Zack could use some tips to grow taller, and Geo has to step in to stop an argument.

The tower's to the north.

It is indeed huge.

Do you know why?

Huh?

Say hello to Hyde, the arguably worst character in the game. He starts snickering that the IFL Tower is also a gigantic EM wave transmitter, and while he rambles on, Mega tells Geo to put on the Visualizer.