MegaMan Starforce Part #30 - Real Sad Boy Hours

Part 30: Real Sad Boy Hours

Buckle in, this is gonna be an Angsty Update, folks.

Aw, crap. Not one of these.

: Ophiuca, Gemini... You were sent as my greatest warriors, and you have failed me miserably. Worse, Lyra even went so far as to betray me... I truly am the only one I can trust. Just you wait and see, Omega-Xis... and you as well, you little Earthling.

: ...into a planet of doom and despair. Just like I did with Planet AM!! Andromeda, lend me your power once again...

Honestly, this is the first villain cut-in the entire game and it's kind of impressive they waited this long.

: Hey, Geo, you haven't gone to school lately... Are you still upset about Pat?

: .........

: (Not good. At this rate, he won't be able to fight at all. If we were to get attacked right now...)

: .........

So, you know how I criticized the last scenario for making Pat abruptly very important to Geo? What if he was so important he makes Geo backslide into depression.

Welp, Geo is a character who likely never learned failure. His mom coddled him for years, evidenced by his letting him stay in bed all day and not go to school. Never had to learn how to suck it up, so to speak. So, yeah, this makes sense to a degree.

: Be a man and put it behind you already!

Omega-Xis being the surrogate father figure here. While insensitive to a degree, he's still overall correct.

: You don't know what it feels like to have your friend stab you in the back...

: I can't trust anyone anymore. I knew that getting into relationships with people would have its ups and downs, so why did I try to make friends anyway?

: Hmph! You've been acting like some sort of tragic hero this whole time. Put on your Visualizer.

Because Pat 'betrayed' him (by... doing what exactly?) Geo's immediately convinced that friends are evil and he shouldn't have any. I don't feel like Pat should have been this important, but even putting that aside, why does one person being a jerk mean that 'Oh nooooo friends are awful!'.

I mean, Pat did say he wanted to be friends with Geo for the Andromeda Key. That is a thing. So, Geo now knows what it's like to feel used.

: I've fought with you until now, and I think you've become a pretty good person since we met, but I guess I thought wrong! Even an FM-ian wouldn't want a pathetic host like you. Sorry, but I'm gonna have to bail. Have fun in your oh-so-tragic world!

: You don't really mean you're leaving...

: Heh, what do YOU think!? Before I go, I'm gonna say one thing. Something bad's gonna happen to this planet soon and when that happens, I suggest you find a very good place to hide.

: Why... Why does this... only happen to me...?

Mega, after calling Geo out on his mopey bullshit, leaves. Thus cementing his status as the best character in the game. Geo, in turn, continues to not realize any of his actions are leading to people being fed up with him.

: Your friends are here, and they're really worried about you.

: Sorry, but I don't want to see them...

Is this BN3 post-FlameMan scenario?

Luna doesn't give a shit what Geo wants.

: What's with not coming to school for a week!? You trying to make the Prez go gray!?

: ...Sorry, but can you please just go home?

: What!? You not coming to school's got the Prez all...

: Stop it, Bud.

: ...if there's something we can do, we can help you.

: Then you can help me by going home and leaving me alone...

: But we came here to see you! You can at least tell us what's wrong.

: There's nothing to talk about.

Yeah get used to THIS Geo, for the next 400 dialogue boxes or so. Waah, waah, it's all about me, nobody can understand, waaah.

: We're Brothers, aren't we? Aren't we supposed to help each other at times like this?

See, this is really why I can't hate Luna after the Ophiuca scenario. She's a bit overbearing, but she means well and really is trying to do a good job as a Brother. Character growth!

Zack speaks!

: Geo and the Prez are Brothers?

: When did that happen?? And why with a guy like him?

There's no background music during this entire cutscene, by the way. Pure text bleeps.

: There's someone coming...

Hey, it's Sonia! The person who has been nothing but supportive and helpful to Geo. Surely she'll be able to get him to snap out of his funk.

First friend perks, man. If this doesn't do anything, then this is hamfisted as fuck.

: Oh, Sonia. It's been a while. I guess you're here for the same reason...

: Yeah... I'm here because Geo is my Brother.

: What the...?? I must be dreaming... Sonia Strumm in Geo's room, and she and the Prez are talking like old buds...

I do appreciate that Sonia's appearance here isn't treated like a natural thing. Luna's not freaking out but that's because she knew Sonia and Geo were friends.

(yes that's the whole textbox, I'm not cutting it out)

...Why? Surely the player's name can't take up that much space.

: (...I saw Mega flying off just now. Did something happen?)

: ......... He took off on his own and we're through.

: But what if he runs into them by himself? We should hurry up and go look for him.

Of course this conversation is something that Bud and Zack don't even react to.

...What? How did I miss this stupidity originally?

: And from now on, leave me alone! Now go! Please!

facepalm

: Yeah...

: Bud, Zack, let's go.

: Y-Yeah...

At least they respect his request for some alone time.

Great! What now?

These devs literally got the idea for Rogue in SF2 from this one dialogue box didn't they?

Yup. Back to the real sad boy hours. Just like the start of the game, while Geo's in a depressive fugue, go to Vista Point.

: I figured you'd be here!

: What in the world happened, Geo? Is it something you can't tell even to us? (Plus, we really should go look for Mega...)

: Isn't it times like these when you can't talk to anyone, you can talk with your Brothers?

I really feel bad for Sonia and Luna here. They're doing their literal best to just get Geo to talk, but he's so upset that Pat was mean to him that he's refusing to interact with them.

This is painful to read, and not in a good way.

That said, what Luna's doing here might be prodding at a sore spot.

: He believes in the strength of the BrotherBand more than anyone else in the world. I'm sure if your father saw you like this, he'd be really disappointed in you.

: I don't want to hear it anymore. The deeper you let someone into your heart, the more it hurts when they betray you or go away. I don't want to be hurt by anyone anymore!! So I... I won't be close with anyone ever again.

: Geo... Do you still remember when you made your BrotherBand with me? You said you would find a new you, right? And I became stronger because of you.

: If the BrotherBand never existed... then I wouldn't have to suffer any pain! I don't need the BrotherBand anymore!!

: You... You want to cut our BrotherBand... ...You coward!!

Luna runs off. Good job, Geo.

Unfriended. Friends-1

: ...cut your relationships with people that easily! Please, give it some thought. I'm going to go look for Mega...

Seriously this girl has to be a saint for still being nice to Geo after what he just said. Remember that cutting BrotherBands was a huge plot point at the beginning of the story, with Bud and Luna.

If we keep losing friends, we won't get to our goal of 1 million followers.

I dunno, maybe not throw away your entire character development because one person who you've known for about a month fused with an FM-ian.

: Aaron!!

: What's wrong, Tom?

: Follow me!!

Maybe someone shared his blueprints online again. I bet it was Zack, that fucker.

Remember: only a shithead leaks secret information on 4chan.

: Th-This signal! It's...!!

Well enough of that. Fade to black... (This segment here, right before the final crisis? Not great writing. In fact, it's downright disappointing for reasons I'll cover near the end of this update.)

: Mega!!

Nooooo! Not Mega!

: ... A dream... Mega... No, I don't have anything to do with him now...

: Geo! I'm going to Time Square with some friends. You take care, OK? I'll be back later!

: .........Guess I should get out of bed. Well, what should I do today...?

I really wasn't joking about Pat being the trigger to another depression episode. I can understand the fragility of the balance, but Pat should never have been that important to shake him that much. Honestly, I'd understand it more if Mr. Shepar had been the trigger.

(My story complaints aside, don't take this as saying that this isn't how depression works. Brains are weird and complicated and I'm no psychiatrist.)

People slide back into depression all the time, I don't disagree with that. And some never get over it. Battle Network and Starforce just have odd ways of approaching topics like these that takes it out of the realm of relatibility (Battle Network more so).

At least the game gives us some guidance. And... Take a look at the top screen.

Sonia and Luna have been dropped as Brothers. Goodbye, 110 HP, FirstBarrier, and FloatShoes.

Oh look, storytelling through gameplay. How nice.

: I have something I would like to tell you. Can you come to my lab right away?

Nothing better to do, so we might as well go see what Boreal wants.

: I thought about whether I should tell you or not, but I think this is something I must tell you.

: What is it?

: Yesterday, one of our radars here at AMAKEN caught a radio signal from outer space.

Blinky's just nailing it, I see.

: Actually, the signal was from NAZA's space station, Peace... What I'm saying is it's from the space station your father was on. And we know that it's on a course for Earth.

: We don't want to get close enough to find out.

Don't you just hate it when you get in a huge fight with the alien that lives in your cellphone and then find out a space station is going to crash into the planet?

Aw, maaaaaaan. If only we waited one day before unfriending people

: I know you want to know about your father after hearing his space station is heading this way, but... right now, that station is... It's basically a giant ball of Z waves.

: Then, my dad...

: We don't know. But it's probably best if you don't get your hopes up.

: B-But...

It really would suck for Geo to hear this. He's been waiting so long to hear anything, and then... 'Oh the space station is gonna crash but your dad's probably super dead'.

Well, at least there's something that will have to force Geo to act.

: We caught a new signal.

Convenient.

: We'll just run it through the analyzer here...

: Maybe... Maybe it's a message from my dad...

: OK, analysis complete. Now let's give it a listen...

: ......*gulp*

In a nice touch, despite the lack of music, the game does have the static play.

: I am the king of Planet FM. I am coming to personally destroy Earth. You can consider your planet as good as gone. *hiss*...*hiss*

...Is that good?

I think it's very good. If the world is gone now, we won't have to play Starforce 2.

: It's like a declaration, isn't it!?

: You know, Planet FM was the planet Kelvin was trying to form a BrotherBand with. I never would have thought that the FM-ians would...

: No...

Is that good?

VERY GOOD. LET'S KEEP IT GOING.

: Be careful. The Z wave level is rising fast!

...I get the feeling that this isn't good.

: The Wave Roads!? I can see them without using my Visualizer!

: I don't believe it... The Z wave levels are off the chart! This room is covered in Z waves!! Careful! Something terrible is coming!!

Being able to see the Wave Roads must be super weird. Like, you just look up and there's a Mr. Hertz staring down at you.

Staring at you...MENACINGLY. It's BEADY EYES.

: What's happening around here!?

: Oof... It's all being caused by that ball of Z waves! It's too dangerous for us to continue to be showered in Z waves!!

For the first time we're actually going to get an example of why Z waves are dangerous.

Are we really nearing the end of the story and just now getting a sample of Z waves?

: This is bad!! Being radiated by the Z waves is changing the frequency at which the particles in our bodies vibrate!! If we stay here, our bodies will turn into Z waves!!

Hell yeah, give me the GOOD Battle Network science. Tell me more about servers multiplying because of radiation!

: Argh, my body isn't listening to me!

: We're beginning to lose body mass! I guess I have to use that now. There's only enough charge for one shot. Must focus... Can't miss...

: Z Wave Neutralizer, charging!! Anti-Z wave energy level rising!!

: 90 percent! 98, 99, 100! Z Wave Neutralizer is a go!!

A flash of white, and...

I guess that worked pretty well. With such a large target, I'm glad he didn't miss.

Eyyyy, look. Bob Copper did something. Nice.

: Looks like it worked.

: We're saved...

I'm glad that despite Geo talking about the Wave Roads and wave form, nobody will bring that up at all.

Uh... In fairness, everyone in the room knows about Geo's Visualizer and the exact things it lets you see. The kid knowing stuff about waves isn't out of the question.

: Looks like what just happened to us is happening in other areas as well!!

: Nrgh! I've got to get to those places at once! But that charged shot just now rendered my Transer useless. I've got to go back to the precinct first. Time is of the essence, so I'm off!

Later, cop. We'll go solve the problem without you.

: Let's see, in our country... it's happening in Time Square!!

: Time Square!?

Why does that sound familiar???

In most stories, "New York" gets attacked in some way, shape or form. People love to attack New York. Well, fuck you, too.

: Mr. Boreal, we have a problem. Please come to the main office at once.

: And so it begins... Geo, why don't you rest here for a while. Right now, it's too dangerous outside. Later.

Later, Boreal.

: I have to go there!

Riiiiiight, of course. It's nice that unlike Lan in the later Battle Network games, Geo really is only going to save the day because someone he knows personally is in danger.

Yeah, but with no Omega-Xis, he's kinda screwed. Oh, look, we have the hero's second Call to Action that proves he's a hero after all.

Hopefully Geo's mom is fine, though.

This is Hope's yoga group. Must be doing some new Yoga suspension exercises.

Hm, that doesn't look great.

: It's no good! At this rate, mom's gonna turn into a bunch of waves!!

Remember, the only reason Geo can transform is because he's merging with Mega. A random human (or, even Geo without Mega) won't be able to turn back.

It might not look like it, but this is still in the cutscene. I appreciate them cutting out the middle man, at least.

: At a time like this...! No, I don't need him.

You definitely need him, Geo.

We need him for banter more than fighting.

See? This is why you need Mega to do any heroics. Random Jammers will appear to beat you up.

: Looks like we missed one. You should've just stayed in hiding, boy...

Oh boy this is going to be fun... General rule of thumb for reading this dialogue is, every new Jammer icon is a different Jammer speaking.

: ...into waves either way and become Andromeda's snack soon enough.

Except this one, I guess. Man, the game should have made them hop in place to tell you who's talking. The BN games did that all the time.

: And thanks to this EM ball the King provided, we got a real body too, just like the humans.

: But they can't hurt us, right?

Remember that Jammers, except for these guys, are what Mega called "humans possessed by EM waves". So, I guess these are the EM waves given human bodies?

: Humans have no idea of the good points to the Wave World, yet they think they are so great. Pompous bums.

: So human, nothing personal, but I'm gonna beat you into the ground!!

: Aah...

: Take this!!

: Aaaaah!!

: Owww!!

: Here's another!

: Yeow!!

: And have one from me!!

: Nngh...

There are actually sound effects that go along with the Jammers beating up Geo. Surprisingly, I really don't feel that bad about it.

Child brutality, Yeti. And you say I'm the asshole.

: A-Argh... If only I could become MegaMan, I could fight back...

: He's still got some fight in him. Wanna finish him off?

: Yeah... It's not like anyone will know Andromeda was gypped of 1 scrawny kid!

: N-No more...

: Are ya ready!?

See, one of my problems with this series is that Geo, in the span of about an hour (give or take) goes from "Screw Mega I don't need him" to "I wish he was here, wait no I don't" to "Actually yeah I wish he was here". There's no resolve in this kid.

I can see that. But, at the same time, this is a 11-year old kid getting beat by essentially 3 stronger-than-adult-males. That will make anyone wish they had the help they're used to having. I saw it as more as an instinctual reaction to having your life threatened. Plus, his mom is in danger.

So instead let's just get rescued by...

: Nooooooooo!!

: Aaaaaaah!!

: Jaaaaaaaaaaaaamin!!

Green, blue, red. It should be pretty obvious.

The Power Rangers???

Whoever they are, they blew up the EM wave ball.

: Do not fret. She is merely unconscious.

: Who's there!?

Like, I'm doing a bit here but Geo you should recognize that voice by now, it's the fourth or fifth time you've heard it.

: The Satellite admins!

: Geo Stelar. Search for Omega-Xis.

: The great calamity draws ever closer.

: The only ones who can stand against it are you and Omega-Xis.

This segment right here? This part where Geo talks with the Satellite admins? This is what I meant when I said the game dropped the ball super heavily on the writing.

: ...stop the calamity! I can't!! Besides, Mega left me and we aren't connected anymore. Even if I found him, he wouldn't fight by my side again!

: Do you honestly believe that?

: Huh?

: Do you believe that he won't show himself if he is not tied to the last battle?

: He doesn't think about me... There's no way he would.

: His heart... changed...?

: Yes. A feeling he didn't have before, he has now. Could it be that he has learned to sympathize with another?

: He's learned to sympathize? But why would he learn something like that?

Instead of, oh, I don't know, showing us any of this character development, the game's writers decided they just wanted to let us know "Yeah Mega feels bad for others now."

: You have changed Omega-Xis.

: I-I changed him!?

: While Omega-Xis was living with you, he learned how to be sympathetic. And as you became friends with each other, you taught each other important lessons.

: I taught Mega how to sympathize...

Sure would be nice if we got to see any of that.

Hm... Interesting. We still see Omega-Xis being his snarky self up until this point. He has learned to chill out and listen to the kid more often, so there is that aspect. But I suppose it's hard to say if that's not pragmatism, or him learning to be nicer.

: And you also learned something valuable.

: From him?

: Yes. Close your eyes and you can hear it... You can hear the "courage" Omega-Xis gave to you!

Oh, you thought we were being told about Mega's character development? Not just him! Geo gets to be told about Geo's character development as well! Good thing they told him, or we wouldn't have known.

: Yes. Omega-Xis fought for what was important to you, and bestowed upon you courage. You are not the same as you once were. Summon the courage he gave to you. The you that was once afraid of loss is no more.

It's... explicitly not! That's the whole reason Geo broke his BrotherBands! Sigh. This is what I meant by the writing being disappointing.

Less egregious, though, Yeti. Yeah, I agree with the cutting Brotherband bit being cowardly. This kid is still learning how to be a better friend, so that's explainable. That said, he still did come here, even if it didn't do anything.

: Now you must show him the courage he gave. The Earth is in the middle of a crisis. The only one who can protect those dearest to you is yourself. Leave those humans to the Satella Police. Focus on taking care of the Earth.

: Take this...

Hey, nice! All is forgiven because I've been given a new toy.

: A card which has my powers sealed within. I'm sure it will be of some help.

: Mega... I'm gonna find you, so hang on!

Yeah, we'll get to that in a second.

This is more important. Our second Giga card. This one's really good if you can set it up in a combo; 450 aqua-element damage that also freezes the enemies that survive it. It's the same as the SFBB you get when countering in Pegasus form.

Leo players get LeoKingdomGX, a multi-hit blast that hits the same 3x3 area for 40 damage a hit. It'll break guards, too. The total damage is 480 unboosted.

The really busted card is DragonSkyGX. It's got 50 base damage and hits 10 times. This is the same deal as LeoKingdomGX (in other words, use any and every damage-boosting card in the game if you can) but doesn't stun the enemy. Which means you can just blast someone for 1000 damage and then keep hitting them.

Yes, that does mean Pegasus has the weakest of the Admin Giga cards, but the freeze lasts a long time and there are plenty of break-type cards to get bonus damage.

This, now, is where the Giga cards restriction comes in. If you check Mega's ability sheet, this is where you can see the total number of Giga cards that can be in your folder at once. In this case, it's just the one (since I don't have any Brothers).

Anyway, that aside... We only have the Help signal to track down Mega. So, where could he be?

Maybe back where we first met the Admins?

No, but this dork is here.

: I can feel your Legendary soul! But, you'll need 3,000 Zennys to sign up... Why don't you change your Personal B. Combo into a Legend Force?

This seems like a pyramid scheme. Anyway, this guy can explain how it works, but I'll summarize:

The Legend Force cards take whatever your Best Combo is and create a Battle Card out of it. It's essentially what replaces Program Advances in this game. When you use it in battle, time freezes and you use every card from the B. Combo at once.

Downsides include, needing to pay 3k Zenny every time you want to make a new card, only being allowed to use 1 Legend Force per battle, and Legend Force cards are one-use items that break after you use them.

So you can use them to whip out a lot of damage at once, but they're expensive. Treat them like a "Screw this boss in particular, sub-10 for me" button. To be fair, you have to make the B. Combo first before you can use them, but I dunno.

People who know me know I'm not a fan of this. And before you go "hurr durr, giver wants people to suffer and do things the hard way." Yes and no. Things like this aren't healthy from a game design aspect. It's just like Battle Network 2's Gater. You don't need to worry about creating interesting kits or abilities when you have something that one-shots. The problem with cheeses like this is the sheer efficiency removes the game from the, well, game.

Who cares about all these other options when you can just do one thing and erase the problem? Granted, B. Combo's are a little better than stuff like Gater, since you need to craft it and you need to at least understand enough of the game to do that. I still think that it removes the challenge out of fights that require gameplay mastery.

Plus, there is benefit in understanding the tools at your disposal. Just look at Battle Network 3. How much cool shit went unchecked because "lol FlashMan, lol PlantMan, lol Sensor 3"? Game design is very hard and it's something we're all still figuring out. But if you make a tool like this in your game and it's not the ultimate reward or whatever, you're taking a shortcut. You don't have to worry about fight difficulty if you just make something like this, right? Wrong.

So, Mega's not here either...

It's still in pretty good working order.

He is, in fact, in the Junkyard. For some reason. How do you know this?

: I've got to do something about that guard. But I can't just fight him head on... There's got to be something I can do...

You know this because a Jammer is here to block your path.