Part 15: The GeoXLuna Fans Are On Suicide Watch

Update #14: The GeoXLuna Fans Are On Suicide Watch

Obviously the best ship is GeoXSonia, fite me



We cut to StarForce MegaMan running in to check in on MegaMan. You just missed how stupid MegaMan was acting, Geo.





Yeah, well, this all started because Geo apparently saved Mayl from the World 3 goons, so he already messed up in that regard.

: What do you mean "What now"? Now there's no helping it! Let's stop sneaking around and go buck wild like usual!

: N-No! And aren't YOU always the one to go buck wild!? I don't really want to cause too much of a scene... Anyway! We have to explain everything to Mr.Hikari, the hero who fought alongside the MegaMan from 200 years ago!

I'm so glad that Mega continues to give zero fucks. "Hey, isn't that the super important historical figure? Hah, he fell for a trap, what a nerd."



: This is dumb and I hate this aaaaaa

"Mr. Hikari".





Well, that answers Yeti's question. No, he wasn't stupid enough to think Roll is Harp Note; he just saw ClockMan going for her and tried to intervene, I guess.

Then why did they fight in the first place. Geo, you had literally one job and you fucked it up.





I am going to punch you over and over in the mouth and stomp on your neck.

God fucking damn it I hate you all





God dammit!

I hate everything. Yeti, kill her.

With pleasure, but then we'd mess up the timeline and there'd be an annoying time loop that would require extra stupid dialogue to resolve.



No. Shut up, Geo.

This cutscene is roughly 70 textboxes, so I think some transcribing is in order. Ugh.

: Uh, so you're... Mr.Hikari?

: Hm? Yeah, I'm Lan.

: (Whew, talking to a historical hereo sure is stressful...) So, your Navi, MegaMan... had his time stopped by ClockMan, a Navi that controls time! To save MegaMan, as well as that girl Navi he kidnapped, I really need your help...

: ClockMan? MegaMan's time was stopped? What? This is too sudden! You're not making any sense! Who are you, anyway?

Geo that is the question you should have answered first.



Geo walks down and faces them.



: I'm the MegaMan from 200 years from now..

: 200 years from now...!?

: MegaMan!?

Metal Gear?!

: Yeah, I didn't expect you to believe me right away, but...




Note: They aren't actually Navis, but I believe Geo is merely contextualizing things for Lan to keep things simple.

If we're talking about the Mr. Hertz, they're closer to the Mr. Progs. I think what he's talking about is the Wizards, which function pretty much the same. Though, according to the MegaMan wiki, NetNavis still exist but have fallen out of use. So who knows.

: The study of Navis is quickly advancing, and, as a result, ClockMan, a Navi with control over time, was developed... But ClockMan went out of control, kidnapped someone dear to me, and time-traveled back to the world of 200 years ago!

How...? A Navi with Dr.Strange's Infinity Stone? Do I need some kind of explanation as to how- fuck it; it'd just be Capcom Science.

GREEN MYSTERY DATA, I'VE COME TO BARGAIN.

: So, to save that person, and stop ClockMan from recklessly changing time, I chased him here from the future...



: No, I'm a human. But, when I fuse with Omega-Xis, I become MegaMan, and I can enter the Net and Comps. Right, Mega?



: Eeeeek!!

: His arm just talked! That's creepy!!




: N-No, Mega! I told you, that would alter history!! ...Um, the one who spoke just now is Omega-Xis. He's kind of like my Navi. He's rough and wild, but he's my partner who always fights by my side! ...H-How about that? Do you believe me now...?

Lan initially remarks that this is all quite crazy, but...



JustAPancakeVideo.mp4

Jump in the line, rock your body in time.



: Hey, could you stop calling me that? I don't like things being so formal... Just call me Lan! It'd be confusing if I called you MegaMan, so I'll just call you Geo. That's what that uh...arm Navi call you earlier, right?

"Mr. Hikari is my father!"





I have never wanted to see Lan fight Omega-Xis so much.

Not even MegaMan versus MegaMan, just Lan punching a radio alien.




: ...So, you said you needed my help. What do you need?

: Right! First, we need to save your MegaMan! That trap he's in freezes time for whoever is standing on top of the stopped clock. To undo it, we need to find ClockData. That should start the clock again...

So, ClockMan can stop time if you stand over a clock, but it can be undone by any old antique clock? Uhhh... okay.

This is what you get for linking your clock to the cloud. What was wrong with good old gears, anyway? Grumble grumble.





: Alright, let's try going to this Dex person's house! ...Oh, right. I'll stand out too much in this time period, so I'll be in your PET.

Wait, so Dex owns a clock that is connected to the internet (so it has ClockData) but was made before NetNavis were huge? Man, this timeline really IS messed up.



How convenient!

How convenient.




Checking out said bottom screen actually yields funny Humor dialogue! Guess we'll need to make a separate update about that later. Get with it, Yeti.

Look, we both know that it's just going to be me swearing after you make a shitty pun.



We get into a cutscene at Dex's house, though.

: You dirty blue bois be barging in my fuckin' house. This is some bullshit. I'd be shot if I did this shit, man.




: This is what I'm fucking talking about.

Man, Lan's such an asshole in this game. I guess they really did get his character right, so... good job intern writers?





Dex is such a third wheel it's great.

This is what you get for not beating him in a NetBattle first.







They just give zero shits.





Wireless! Not invented until MegaMan Battle Network 2! Future!

The future is now!




These so-called Clock Comps aren't anything special, sadly.

It's a shame that this is all just one glorified cutscene. They could have done so much with Geo.





: What the fuck is this bullshit. Why am I being ignored? MAAAAAAAN





: Bitch, are you insultin' me in my own god damn house? Fucking rich ass white kids and they real-world fancy Navis.

Wow, Lan, rude.





We get to play as MegaMan StarForce, guys! For real!

Yeah! This is totally believable that they'd put in so much effort!




: Cut it out, Mega... You could tell earlier, right? The MegaMan from this time period was as strong as he was because of Lan's operating.




Could...could this be foreshadowing for this Let's Play? I wonder.

I doubt it.




How can we send him BattleChips...? The tech certainly has to be way older than what he can properly use, no? What the hell?

Backwards compatibility. Obviously.





Amazing how the history books never captured Lan's famous catch phrase....weird.

I don't know, I think it's a good thing we don't know George Washington's famous saying that he shouted before getting into combat with the British, "I'm gonna chop you down to size!"





: This dumb past and their stupid catch phrases






Tutorial time, courtesy of Omega-Xis. MegaMan Starforce operates quite differently than MegaMan.exe so I'll let him explain and chime in with extra details.

...I'm genuinely surprised they put this much effort into things.

: That said, moving around the battlefield and choosing chips will be no different from how you're used to. When you're operating us, there are three main differences. Difference #1! The MegaBuster controls!! Holding down the B Button fires the MegaBuster rapidly. Not pressing the B Button will charge the MegaBuster! This means you don't have to keep pressing the button and make your finger hurt!

Yes, Omega-Xis actually says that. Leaving in the screenshot for that sentence for posterity. Good line, interns. That said, the MegaBuster really doesn't fire all that rapidly, so you're better off just charging. Then again, my Rapid is currently at 2, so I'll try it later when my Rapid is 5. As for the charging, your buster charge will always deal 30 damage regardless of your Attack Level, but it charges faster than MegaMan.exe's.




: Difference #2! You can guard with the Y Button!! You can press the Y Button to put up a shield and block enemy attacks. You can use it as many times as you like, but you're wide open after using it, so be careful!

Yeah, Really wide-open. As in, you're stuck to the panel for a half-second before moving away.



: It'd be easier for you to try this one for yourself... First, try choosing the WideSword.



Note: they're playing MegaMan StarForce 1's Virus theme here. This is consistent every time you use MegaMan Star Force.

It's a nice touch, and one that I really like.





It's what he used against us in the fight. To all you StarForce veterans, there isn't anything like DiagLock, or SideLock unfortunately.



: I'll use my speed to rush up to the enemy and attack!! You better not show me any half-baked operating. I still haven't accepted you yet. ...Just sayin'!



Oh, this is gonna be my jam. However, don't get hit during Lock-On. MegaMan will freeze in place on the enemy side for an extremely long time -- long enough to get by another attack!

I like the job they did adapting the StarForce mechanics to Battle Network. It's only a few small changes, so I can't imagine it took too much time, but still, it's effort.




ReactionToGiverVirusBusting.jpg

Lan: Actually pretty good at what he does. Remember, this elementary-school kid can routinely beat professional hackers. 'Professional'.






Geo looks so visibly annoyed. Poor guy.

His arm and someone famous are arguing. I'd be annoyed too.




Key Item text for it if you're curious.

I appreciate that even Dex's clock gives him shit for eating too much.





No, I want to explore first.



You'll get a mail recapping Omega-Xis' tutorial, but there's no need for that.



The encounters are actually a copy of paste of the ones inside Dex's Game Comp. In fact, there are no Mystery Datas in here. This obviously means that this little area is temporary.

There's also a new set of voice acting for MegaMan StarForce when you leave the Custom Screen and when you get ranks in battle. ...Joy.

I've heard the voice lines maybe... three or four times, and that's about five times too many. Please, bring back Colonel's voice...




You can't actually NetBattle GutsMan in this scenario.

Dang!



Yes, the voice acting changes when you use MegaMan SF "Shooting Star RockMan" is what's said.




The clock under MegaMan is actually moving again and it's safe to pass over it.

Let snack time commence!





Ah, Christ. Not again.





: Are you kidding me? Why do I look like such an idiot? Fuck you, interns.

Interns just got no respect.



Fade in, fade out.





Although being fired upon certainly didn't help things. You'd think Geo would have just warped away, but he actively has to protect the warp hole so that no other Navis come in and get captured.

At least we were spared a second summation of the story.





How would this fuck up the BN timeline? Well, we'll just look at the future games, like OSS2... Oh. oh.

...Whoops.





...OK, you know what? They got the dialogue exchanges between these characters very right. And I'm happy they did.

The writers were good (within Battle Network limitations, of course).






SIGH. And now I have to remove some points because we actually don't know why Roll is special to MegaMan. Seriously, why? Give me a reason that's not "well she's the Navi of the human love interest, therefore she's special to Mega". Please. Sonia has a very good reason to be special to Geo and all you have to do is play StarForce 1 to get it.

Sonia is basically a mirror of Geo, to put it as simply as possible. Like him, she was all alone; it was for different reasons, but they were both lonely. He saw himself in her, so they bonded (after the necessary boss fight). She was, for all intents and purposes, the turning point in the story where Geo goes from 'I don't want friends' to 'Okay maybe friends are cool', even if it takes a little bit longer to get there officially.

Meanwhile here, Roll is... uh... MegaMan.EXE's... she exists?





This is still shounen, so we have to learn the importance of protecting one's ~friends~, despite how dumb they are. Hell, because they're dumb we have to protect them more and make up more of the collective good. Fuck off, Japan. Let the idiots drown.

Both of these games are extremely shounen. Though I like SF's message more.





YESSS! I'm keeping MegaMan StarForce on, as it's a new gameplay style.



Interns!

Look at MegaMan's shadow. It's not there! Booo! Stop adding bugs!

That's a graphical error, not a bug. It's one on the fuckup tally, yes, but I wouldn't say it's a bug.

The shadow comes back when you re-enter the map via the menu or something.



Instead of armors from Battle Network 1, we have this neat option. That unfortunately means that in order to reach Level 100, library completion is required. Not that it's an issue for this LP.

That's also the only reason they got rid of the armors, by the way. (Also nice HP)



In the folder!






Yep, so the scenario's puzzle is pretty much just finding clocks in the real world and bringing them back here. Backtracking!

I... Well, I guess it could be worse? At least they give you a hint where to find the clocks.




At least this one they tell you. They had mercy.

And in this case they just tell you exactly where to go.






A lot of the NPCs you'll run into have new dialogue, but they all mention the blackout from previous scenario. Nothing too interesting.



Boo! Railroaded! Let me go there.

No. No grinding. Only clocks.




Now, this is new dialogue for Miyu. It only appears here before you talk to MegaMan StarForce. Very small window, for some reason.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMukhKBMCG8

But hey, SkullMan V3! And our first video footage of using MegaMan StarForce. The buster charges so much faster and he doesn't have the mid-level yellow charge like .exe does.



Well, that's done. But I won't use SkullMan V3 in this weak folder at least, despite earning it.





Ask Miyu for a ladder.

We couldn't possibly find a way to get to the clock on their own. Better rely on this human NetNavi! Pay no attention to the shopkeeper watching all of this unfold.






Well, we needed at least one of these.

That's... what...? BN technology at its finest.






To be fair, EM waves in physics is a High School course, whereas in the ~future~ it's probably in elementary.

It's the idea behind black box theory. It works, who cares how, just use it.





The viruses in here are just copied and pasted from Miyu's vase. Nothing special.





I hate you.

Why would you not tell us that first.




Yay!



Boo!

Though it's weird that these 'traps' are activated already. The first one was an actual trap, and succeeded in its purpose of capturing MegaMan.



So, two traps are active. As in, Roll and Harp Note wandered their way in here and stepped on a trap?

That could be the answer, though I think maybe it's just artificial gating to make the bonus scenario play out longer.






This is obviously referring to the one at school. I feel that this is a far more clever hiding spot, since the player is forced to see it when they go to school, albeit briefly.

The hint is pretty clever as well, since there's a very small subset of areas that both Lan and Geo go - though for those in the audience that haven't played StarForce, this might be a little trickier.



Rare screenshot of MegaMan.exe and SF MegaMan in the same PET.




Megaman with the sick burns.




Come to think of it, I'm really surprised they didn't make the Antique one last since it requires the most backtracking.





The encounters in here are copied and pasted from the Car Comp.

At least they weren't cruel enough to give you missable viruses.




In this comp, it seems as if Omega-Xis suddenly takes over the help text. Weird.

Well, Geo has a talking arm. Why wouldn't he talk to it?





We're at the boss, guys! Get ready.

Faster than I expected. Even the Oven was two screens.






...Then why are you stepping on it? GET OFF

Geo is not a bright boy.






...I don't know what's with this guy and spamming his u key. uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu are crazy man.

Uuuuuuuu suuuuuuuuck.



Meet ClockMan. Submitted by a contest entry applicant. Whoever won, I hope you're happy you got into this game! It only sold like 15,000 copies, but it's great all the same.




They're playing the StarForce 3 pre-boss theme at this point.

Ah, another good track. Whoever was in charge of picking the SF tracks was obviously not the same one in charge of the base game's soundtrack.




Oh, he's kinda like Phantom Hyde. "This wasn't in my script1111!!"

One of these days there will be a clock-themed villain based around something other than "My incredibly precise timing".




Add this box to Phantom Hyde's dialogue and it changes nothing. Prove me wrong.

Yes but Phantom Hyde is a generic fill in the blanks villain. You could toss half of the villains' dialogue in this game into his speech and it wouldn't change.

Though now I want to see Phantom Hyde ranting about his stage and then suddenly going 'Gok gok gok'.




So, goons, I've just come to a conclusion. If ClockMan uses his powers like he should, there is no way in hell both MegaMans would be able to win. Hell, even deleting him is pointless, as via the power of time paradoxes, he'd just come back. We are fighting a guy who somehow control time.

Nah he's overclocking his CPU. It just looks like he's controlling time.




MegaMan asks him what his plans are, and it's as Capcom as you might think.

Oh boy, time for





The dude kidnaps girl Navis so he can bring them back to his lair and what? Stare at them? First ColorMan and now this. This dude's practically a date rapist, christ. I think Capcom saw the movie "The Collector" and wanted to emulate that.

... What the fuck.





So, we threw off his plans by 2 minutes, because he thinks it'll take that long to delete us and get on with his plan. To be fair, if I had godly power like that, my arrogance would probably be much worse than it is now. I'm man enough to admit it.

Though this brings up the thought of "You control time you fucking moron how are you failing ever, why is your plan even taking 32 hours to succeed when you control time."






Wile E. ClockMan. Suuuuuuper geeeeeeenius!

Instead of Acme-brand equipment, it's all https://www.





Mega: "Get bent loser"






This dude is fucking psycho. Who made you, jackass?

Humans are the real villains after all.






The StarForce 2 Boss theme starts playing and will actually smoothly lead into the fight!





Alright, guys. ClockMan was coded like a later Battle Network boss, so that comes with some creative ideas. See that clock in the background? Get to know it.



ClockMan moves in 2 square bursts. So it's Move-Move-Wait or Move-Move-Attack. If he attacks, he'll use Clock Slicer, which can deal 60 damage and travel slow and straight. Their hitbox seems quite lenient, as I was able to basically clip through it as it was travelling past a panel. Their HP is also 60 and can be destroyed. You'll see this move all the time.




The clock is turning as the fight goes on...when you see it strike 3 PM, you'll see another move.

A Clock Portal appears on the spot where ClockMan was originally if and only if you fired a projectile of some sorts. It shoots out a laser down your row, dealing 100 damage. If you fire in 2 different rows, it will spawn 2 clock portals, so don't get antsy and fire your buster all the time. This is obviously called Clock Laser.



When the clock strikes at 6 PM, you have another move, and...



ClockMan summons Crimson-fucking-Dragon from StarForce 3 to chomp your entire back column. Yes. Yes, he did this. And yet, MegaMan is expected to win here? Bullshit. It deals 150, so that's a chunk of health, but if you get hit by this, then you need to pay attention because that shouldn't happen. This move is called Calling Crimson.

Just... don't be in the back row. Please.



Now it strikes at 9AM and he's got another treat for us.



He summons Rogue from StarForce 2 to try and cut us. This will follow you 2 additional times, while Rogue appears on a panel and cuts another. This move deals a whopping 200 damage and it's probably his deadliest move due to the range potential and how it combos well with Clock Slicer. There is no official name for this move, so let's just say it's called Calling Rogue based on convention.



So if it strikes at midnight, he'll pull out his signature attack.



Mega Clock Laser moves to whatever is considered your first 2 columns and fires a whopping 250 damage attack on them. Note I said "what is considered your first 2 columns". In this screenshot, I used Areagrab, making the clock go even further away from me. If you get hit by this, just chuck the cartridge into the garbage. If this move could track you? It'd be a threat.

Just... be in the back row. Please.

While ClockMan is using this move he's very vulnerable and can't be flinched on it, so combo away. Normally, when he's hit by a move dealing 80+ damage, he'll flinch.



It's possible for ClockMan to appear in a Crimson Dragon portal or a Clock Laser portal. This is mainly an attempt to dodge one of your moves.

It looks like an interesting fight. The Navi fights always were the best part of these games for me, at least.

There are some bugs, unfortunately. In Battle Network 1, boss and player collisions still treat the player being a physical object on the field instead of transparent invisible. For some reason, ClockMan's collision is programmed as if he would be in Battle Network 2 and beyond. As such, attacks like Ratton go right through him after damaging him and IceCube would take longer to explode after damaging him.

Hell, you can try to destroy all his panels and he'll even stand on a broken panel. Capcom pls.

Give them a break, the interns did their best.





There is some measure of a through-line with ClockMan's big clock. So small points for that little detail.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOpEuPBHa1Y



No, the translators didn't do this. The interns made ClockMan's chip drop on the first encounter. That's nice, but it's an odd moment of inconsistency with the rest of the game.

At least you don't have to throw the V3 fight to get it.



We sure cleaned his clock, Yeti.

I hate you.



Dude, you controlled time. How could you lose?




They walk up at the exact same time.

Well you can tell by the way I use my walk he's a woman's man, no time to talk.







See? Now that's a sweet line. The wonders of setting up characters _{even if it wasn't in this game.}

I like Sonia. She's probably my favorite character from the StarForce series, if only because she's actually good at what she does.





You GeoXLuna fans in the thread need to pack it in. Accept it. Your ship ain't canon. Leave.

Firing some broadsides, I see. Everyone knows the canon answer to who's item do you save in SF3 is Bud.





MegaMan is nervous for some reason. It's like they wrote Anime MegaMan for this and not Game MegaMan. There are idiosyncrasies between those two iterations, for those uninformed.

Anime MegaMan is a lot different from his game counterpart. Also, PAs exist in the show but you have to train to use their power properly or something? It's weird.



Shut up Lan.

Shut up Lan, you're ruining the moment.



After a fade, we cut to this.








Get fucked.

Kill someone we actually like, Joker.




Man, just how many times are we going to dunk on those shippers? 3-for-3!

God damn! But... what would Lan learn? To deny anything and everything? He's already doing that




Shitting on Lan for things he can't understand is par for the course for these types of things. Shit, I bet even Omega-Xis knows what to do.

You say that like he hasn't been sniping at Lan constantly.






That's a far-reaching assumption. ClockMan could have went to any point in time to find Navi girls to nab.

Well, it's probably connected to their portal thanks to the fact that he only had Roll and Sonia kidnapped.





Who's that?

Another cool character, I hope!





And of course it's connected to the one time where they need to go. Of course.

...It's probably Zack. Fuck Zack.






"Will you become my Facebook friend? We don't want our society to end up like Mu."





Lan laying it down how it is. That shit's corny.

Very corny, but character development! Look how far Geo's come from the sad shut-in who refused to make friends.





This just lets us use MegaMan StarForce like we've already been doing. As well as access Humor jokes.

Fuck, the Humor jokes!



Oh, hell yes! We're gonna see that bad boy...in the next update.






Capcom managed to spare the effort and give them both a waving animation. It's nice.

They put the effort in the weirdest places.










I'm sad now. Noooooo.

I'm gonna miss ArmNavi.




: Well, he came all the way from the future to save that girl. He didn't even know if he would get back home... That must have been really tough. I won't be outdone by him... Hey, MegaMan?

: What is it, Lan?

: I've been thinking about this for a while. Those WWW guys... Can't we do something about them?

: Huh!?

...Haven't we been doing this all game!?

I think he means permanently.

Lan is going to shank a bitch.





I guess since Lan seemed relatively uneasy or, unethusiastic about fighting World 3...this right here is now supposed to make him storm the World 3 base later, and probably make want to be more proactive in stopping crime in the future. Because if you'll notice, Lan in the later games jumps right into things at the drop of a hat.

Once you've saved the world once, it just becomes your day job, huh? Though I think a lot of the BN2 and 3 stuff gets kicked off by the villains putting his friends in danger.




Vote 5 for Jerk Chaud.

5555555555



It's lines like this that make me think MegaMan and ProtoMan just meet up at the cyber bar every night to drink and whine about their operators.




And that's it for the new content. What did you guys think? It started off kinda lame, but I think it picked up towards the middle. It's...decidedly average and very short as a scenario. I don't necessarily take issue with ideas, just execution. Lot of big concepts at play here that needed the foundation to properly sell them and they weren't there. But it wasn't a bad scenario because at least you got good character interactions (mostly).

Taking it for what it is, it's fine albeit with a few issues that need working out. The problem that I have with it is that this right here was supposed to justify buying and playing through Battle Network 1 all over again. And that's vanilla BN1 with maybe a few changes to make things feel closer to the rest of the BN games (like asterisk code and all that). As it stands, I don't think the scenario is good enough to earn the full price they asked for - though that's the point of an LP, so you readers don't have to buy it yourself.

Take a look at EPM's version of this scenario and see how accurate you think it is. See you next week.

...Nah he pretty much nailed it.