Part 38: Truly Evil Giant

Alright, we've opened up the S card gate and picked up a thoroughly broken giga card. Let's get into DeepSpace3 for real.

Aqua+50 with SkillRain baby. Make it raaaaaain



As you'd probably expect, there aren't any new encounters here. It's the same pool as down in the other half of the map accessible through LonelyHeart. (This does mean that the LonelyHeart gate is a purely optional one, since it doesn't hold anything special. But, the Kaiser Knuckle is definitely worth it.)



We can also see the final locked PMW of the game. I honestly don't remember if I included any images of it in the last update or not.




Since this is the last area of the game, it's more or less a straight line with a few detours if you want to grab any GMW that spawned. There are no BMW to find in here.

You can get some juicy Recov300s in here, too. Other than that, the greens here are a waste.



The last few gates were all of the main story bosses, so naturally the gates in here are all blocked off by the SP versions of the optional fights.



This little prong in the middle of DeepSpace3 is pretty important.



If you rub up against the left corner, where I was standing in the last picture, we can find one of the few hidden paths in the game. As expected, it leads to that PMW we saw earlier.




OxTackle is the last of the Giga cards in the game. It's a powerful single-lane target, though despite being TaurusFire's attack it is just Null element. I'm not sure if it has the Break property or not, but I think it does.

In Leo, you'd find GeminiThunder here. It's a 400 damage Elec-type attack, further cementing CancerBubble as the weakest boss in the game. The only 'downside' to it is that it's central column only, so you have to aim.

Finally, Dragon players would get GorgonEye (finishing off the trio of boss attacks) for 550 damage down a given column, which is just strictly better than OxTackle...

More importantly, that's the fifth and final Giga card. I'm gonna keep BreakTimeBomb in my folder because it's just so good.

Well, OxTackle does break. But "Blaze-It!" base damage is really weak, so the devs bumped it up to 550 by Starforce 3. Still not any one's first choice.




I said it's a straight line. Once you grab the Giga card, there's nothing really between you and the end of the area.

What is the subset of people who'd get all Standards but don't at least kill the SP bosses? Really low, I'm sure. These gates are meaningless, is what I'm saying.



So, what's waiting for us at the end of DeepSpace?


: It's that voice again!
: This will be the final test.



Who could have seen this coming?!


: This is your final test. Show me your true power and defeat me in battle. Let us begin.
: He's serious! Don't let your guard down! Let's face him head on, Geo!
: Gotcha! Wave Battle! Ride On!!







PegasusMagic is the final boss that we're going to fight! You didn't think they would go to the trouble to make an AI for the Shadow and then not have you fight the real Admin, did you?

Speaking of the Shadow, PegasusMagic is really just a beefed up version of that. Faster attacks that do more damage, and more HP. As a reminder:



Frost Missile will be generated in two columsn and launch down after a second. They can be blocked or destroyed, and deal 100 damage. PegasusMagic will do this three times, then use one of the next attacks.



Also familiar is the Star Road attack. PegasusMagic charges down the columns, a lot like Ophiuca. 150 damage if it connects, and it goes through shield. Counter (the window is HUGE, any time it's moving toward you) or dodge.



PegasusMagic isn't without some new tricks in the real fight, though. Blizzard is a new attack that hits all of Geo's row, so block it. If you don't, 250 damage AND Megaman is frozen, which will almost definitely lead to getting hit by a Frost Missile.



Finally, the second new attack is Ice Edge. A sword made of ice appears and slashes with a WideSword range. Dodge or block. PegasusMagic only seems to use this attack when low on HP.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bj63lT2EYR0

And as usual, a video for the fight against the alien.

Naturally, Leo and Dragon players will face off against their respective bosses. This is probably one of the few places where Pegasus players have it the easiest, because GeminiThunder exists as a card and that's basically just a free 600 damage.

The boss is soooo slooooow. They really took it easy on you in Star Force 1, geez.


: ...chosen one. To you I bestow a fragment of my power.



Goodie received. Thank you.




Yup! You get the Mega card. Here's what it is:



A nice attack that'll hit the first thing in each row. It also freezes on impact.


: ...use it to kindle the 6 stars and conquer the truly lonely evil giant.
: Six stars...? Truly evil giant...?
: Chosen one, even now... we will continue to watch over you.



*teleports behind u* nothing personnel, kid.

Pegasus: I was only faking my defeat. hahahahahaha nerdddd


: Heh, and he left us with some gibberish.
: Six stars... and a truly evil giant... What in the world is that all about?

I think this bit got reworked a few times in editing and they missed a few comments. "Truly lonely" became "truly evil".

They also called Andromeda a ball of loneliness waves.


: But, I'm sure we'll figure it out eventually.
: Yeah... Not much point in trying to figure it out right now, I guess.


: ...it looks like we passed all the tests, so let's go home and get some well deserved rest!
: I'm with you on that one!

I left that textbox in because I want to shame them for their kerning. A single word and a comma, are you kidding me?!

Yeah, this is something that happened in mmbn, too. Some things never change...



Now, before we pulse out, there's one more thing we have to take care of.



Good horse. Nothing too special here, just the usual EX upgrade to HP, speed, and damage.



I will also grudgingly admit that PegasusMagic likes to hang out on the CrownThunder cross a lot and so it's not an awful choice of a Mega card, especially since it does double damage.




Good enough for the S rank is good enough for me.



Then, we pulse out and pulse right back in, because guess what?



We have to fight the SP version next.

Normally, I'd just link the video after telling you it's a regular upgrade. But, PegasusMagicSP is special.



This guy gets a desperation move. When below... I believe a quarter of its HP? PegasusMagic will begin charging up an attack. It looks a lot like it's downloading something, right?



It's downloading a Giga card.



Pegasus Freeze is a 600 damage time freeze attack that cannot be dodged or blocked. As you can see, it hits the entire screen, more or less. You will get hit by this and be frozen, unless you cut in with a time freeze card of your own.

'Cutting in' is a mechanic I haven't really discussed before, because with this one sole exception it is a multiplayer-only mechanic. When the screen dims for PegasusMagic's PegasusFreeze, just use your own Mega or Giga card that dims the screen. It'll override the attack and you get yours. (This can be chained - if the other party has a second Mega or Giga card they can cut in ahead of your cut in, and you can counter it with another Mega or Giga card, etc etc.) As far as I'm aware, this only counts for Mega and Giga cards, so something like GrassStage wouldn't work.

That said, I'm not on the field right here because I pulled off something I didn't even know was possible. Check the video.

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

I somehow dodged the attack entirely. I guess there is a small window of time during a Mega attack where Geo is literally not on the battle field at ALL.

(Yes the last bit of the fight got very rough but hey, I wanted to use this take because of that dodge.)

Yeah, you're meant to either:

A) Nuke the last bit of HP with a big combo
B) cut in or otherwise pre-setup a defensive card like Invis or Barrier

Dragon players have it the roughest since DragonSkySP will use a windy, multi-hit attack. Gonna need an invis or Fox-fu card.

And oh, look. Every now and then, Yeti shows competence at video games. Good job._{you didn't intend that}

That was pure skill, what do you mean? _{i had no idea that was going to happen}



That is, in total, the final SP boss, and the final Mega Card.



Now that we've done all of that, when we save and reload the game, this is what greets us on the title screen. There are six stars in the game - one for beating Andromeda, one each for getting all Standard, Mega, and Giga Cards, one for beating PegasusMagic, and one for defeating all of the SP bosses.

Go 10 second the admin SP bosses, you scrub.



We're also level 100 now, so we get the maximum HP boost from the Brothers. Plus, their roulette gets upgraded again.



They all have the SP card of their FM form, as well as one of each of the Satellite Admin SP cards. Luna's is DragonSky, as you can see.

So it's time to go face off against the truly lonely evil giant, right?



...Sadly, it's not.



A few readers of the thread or the archived LP might have noticed that Zack has very few lines in the game. That's because, to prove a point, I've been deliberately cutting out all of his dialogue.

You're not missing much. Half of his lines are "Yeah, what Prez said!" or "Nyeheheh I'm the smart one of this trio".

Zack's in this game? I didn't know this.


: Why do I look sad?

Sadly, I have to deal with this dweeb for real now.


: I kinda have an idea of the enemies you had to go up against when Prez and Bud were in trouble. But all I managed to do was run away. They stood by to give you moral support while you were fighting, but me, I-I did nothing.

Here's the thing. Zack basically doesn't exist as a character in this game. Bud is in a very similar situation, but he at least has five minutes of character arc development thanks to the first scenario. Zack exists solely to give Luna someone to stand on her other side.

And also screw up Sonia's scenario. Can't forget that. You awful, awful gremlin.


: ...intelligence gathering, but even the information I give, like "there is a strange sound coming from the piano", is useless. Am I really that worthless...?

Yes. Yes you are, Zack.



So as everyone probably gathered, there's a bonus 'request' we can do with Zack once we've finished every other request for help. It involves this piano that we opened up the wavehole of, a while ago.



There's a bunch of Jammers having a party in here. What's going on, guys?


: So these guys are the ones who are making the strange noise Zack was talking about!
: We're gonna take over all of the Wave Roads in Echo Ridge, and you're not gonna stop us!
: Get them!!

The quest here is a ten-fight marathon against giant viruses, so I'm just gonna cover them quickly.

ooo, tough marathon fights. These I always love. Tests your endurance.



Once you deal with the Crowbus it's easy to avoid everything here since they'll only ever target the lane in front of them.



The only one that's really dangerous here is the Lumis, unless you decide to go into Pegasus mode for some reason. Everything else can be dodged.



Elec cards solve this instantly. Or, you could use water element to freeze them.



Honestly this one can be a bit rough, so prioritize either the HotBiker or the Cliffy. DoomPlosion can be blocked.



We've been over why wood element enemies are not very good here.



This fight is actually very hectic so be careful. Everything here can be blocked but damn if it's not a crazy fight. Just blast them hard, but be careful of the Holy panels. Use them to your advantage too.



The Magero can be rough but just wipe out the other two first.



This can actually be dangerous, but they line up pretty well for any of the spread shot cards.

They do, but holy hell this fight is a contender for worst of the set. I love it.



I hate Grabaklone. Especially now since I'm not running that many sword cards in my folder. Other than that, the others aren't very tough. I'd prioritize the Melaleon but honestly the BellBoxer can be removed first too. Hit the Grabaklone whenever you can with a sword card and you should clear the 9th battle easily.



The final fight is against three Jammer3Gs. At this point, you just gotta hit them as fast as possible. 3000 HP is a lot to chew through and these guys attack fast. But, not uncontrollable, and at this point you should be powerful enough to take them out.


: I couldn't have done it without Zack's data. I'll have to thank him later.

No, you didn't need Zack at all. The only thing he did was talk about weird noises. I did all the work.

You're only doing it because Zack told you where to find them. Yeti, pls.


: I helped save Echo Ridge?
: If it weren't for you, we'd all be in serious trouble.
: I did...?
: Yes, you did!
: ...Really? I did something useful?

Honestly this feels like Geo is talking to a small child and praising them.

I can't un-read this, now.



No, don't. You're useless, Zack.


: Thanks, I feel better now. ...Oh yeah. Um, up until now, I've never had the courage to ask because I didn't have the confidence, but will you be Brothers with me?

Ugh. Do I have to...



Whatever. Summarizing this awful idiot's benefits: 70 more HP to bring me up to an even 1400, and Mega Card +1. That's it.

Oh boy. that JUICY mega card+1.



I hate you, Zack.

At least his Brother card isn't useless. He has all three of the optional bosses in their SP form, so -



I hate you, Zack.

Take a poll. Who's worse? BubbleMan or Zack.



Once we leave Vista Point, an email arrives.


: I've been watching you. I'm really moved by how you go into people's Transers and help those in need! So I'm going to tell you this word!


: OK, let's get Legendary!

And for finishing every request, including Zack's, we get another Cipher code.





...God damn it Zack, even the reward we get for finishing your quest is useless!

...Well, it's strong crowd control.




Anyway. We beat an SP boss, so that means we'll get the last of the Cipher mails for its SP card.




But, that's not all.




Because all three games have the same Cipher codes, there's ones for the other two Admin cards as well.





They're all relatively useful. Personally I think PegasusMagic is the best one thanks to the freeze effect, but DragonSky does hit the entire back row.

Anyway! We are FINALLY done with everything in the game, bar one.



The truly lonely evil giant.



As is tradition for the Megaman Battle Network games, there's always a powered-up version of the final boss. In this case, Andromeda Infinity. 4000 HP, all of the attacks are a lot faster, and they do more damage.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGrp7vDBrJI

Yeti sucking hard this fight. We end this LP as it begins...sucking.

Oh shut up, I did fine until things got hectic at the end.



Reject laser, become as tanuki.



The final save clocks my playtime in as just under 30 hours, but that doesn't count all the reloads I had to do for SP grinding. I think overall, probably another 5 or 6 hours on top of that.



And we get an extra splash screen right after that. All cleared!

Star Force 1 was very rough around the edges. It's a game pretty much carried by its main story. Still, it was fun to see an old series canceled in its prime. Happy to be a part of this. Thanks, everyone!