Mega Man Star Force 2: Zerker x Saurian

"Mega Man Star Force 2: Puts Mega Man Battle Network 3 to shame, or still needs a little oomph?"

Finally, after waiting almost a year for this game, thanks to Capcom of America's laziness, I finally have this awesome game, and let me say this: I'd buy both versions if they were separate. =) Anyway, let's get on with the review. I'll go from least important to most important.


- Graphics: 8/10
If you've played Star Force 1, you should know that almost everything looks the same, except for a few differences. The viruses look better and less blocky, and Mega Man's left arm, which has Omega-Xis's head on it, is still the left arm no matter which way you face. If you never played Battle Network, then I'll just say it in a few words: Walking around? Yep, same 2D graphics, although a bit more soft on the eyes. In a battle, it's completely different, it's 3D, and you're looking from behind Mega Man, so BN's rows are SF's columns and vice versa. Not too shabby.


- Sounds: 9/10 for the Japanese version of this game, 8/10 for the other versions of this game.
Echo Ridge, the starting town, still has the same music, but a bit different, to feel more "peaceful". The battle music is also different and better. Now, the boss music, that's really boss-ish. It's way better than SF1's boss battle music. Oh, and while playing as Mega Man, the BGM is also different and not as "loud" as SF1's. As for the different ratings, here's why: In battle, if you took a new form or used a Link Power Big Bang, Subaru (Geo's English name) will yell out the form/attack's name, but only in Japanese. In the American version (and I'm 99% sure it's going to be the same for the European and Australian versions) the voices were wiped out, sadly. They could've used Geo's voice from the anime, but I don't see why they didn't. He wasn't that bad.


- Story: 10/10
If you had a heart, you would at least cry at some points. The story starts a few months, about 2 months actually, after the defeat of the FM King's pet, Andromeda. Geo gets a new gadget: a Star Carrier. If you watched the anime, you know what it's like. It's a portable, upgraded version of the transer, which has a cool ability: materialization! You can materialize objects, called Matter Waves, to help you in the game. Most of them, sadly, only work a few times to help you get past some points in the story. Only 2 of them remain useful. Anyway, after receiving the Star Carrier and showing his profile to someone for the first time, the advertisement plane thing that's above him crashes to the ground. Guess what, it's viruses! This time, you're allowed to skip the tutorial. After that, incidents happen day after day. There's something connecting them all...


- Gameplay: 10/10
Oh god, I'm gonna type up so much here you might as well skip it and buy the game, but if you're still gonna read it, be my guest. Basically, this game is very similar to MMBN with the chapter-style, secret area after beating the game, ghost data of bosses lying around in a few areas, walking around normally in the real world and pulsing in to become Mega Man and help those in trouble! The battle system's slightly different from BN, and there are a few changes/additions to SF1's system.

When you start the battle, 6 things from your folder appear at the bottom. They could be regular (S, M or G) cards, star cards (explained later) or brother icons/indie fragment, depending on what you have in your bro slots. (also explained later) Instead of card codes, there's a new way to pick cards: you can only pick 2 different cards if they're in the same column. You can, however, pick 3 cards in the same row if you have a certain transformation. * cards are represented by white cards, which are your favorite cards. Just like * cards, they can be picked without being ruled out.

Star cards are new cards introduced in this game. Sometimes, if you're lucky (or unlucky?) or if you're passing a secret spot, G viruses (giant, double HP, double attack, faster) appear. If you beat them, you could get their star card. Star cards have special extra slots for them in your folder, and you can only have 3, of different cards of course. They're more powerful than the normal cards themselves AND they boost the same cards if they're also in the folder. For example: If you have three GroundWave1 cards, which have 50 attack power, in your folder and, I'm not exactly sure about the power, a GroundWave1 *3 Star Card and its attack power is 50+20, in the same folder, the other 3 normal cards will also have the same attack power. Pretty neat with multi-hitters. Sadly, it's only for Standard cards.

There's one thing that makes you want to ask people if they have the game: adding them as Brothers. Brothers are people that are always "connected to your heart". You can have 10 brothers (4 in-game and 6 real brothers) in this game. In the previous game, you could only have 6 of either real or in-game. As I was saying, in the previous game, they increased your Max HP and gave you a certain power up, such as Attack+1, Gauge+1 or Mega+1. In this game, they give you Link Power. I can't explain much on Link Power, everything will be explained in the game. Let's say it helps you equip abilities which use Link Power, much like Badges and Badge Points in Paper Mario games. Another thing about Brothers is that they let you use their favorites randomly in a roulette. You can have 4 favorites, and they become white cards, so make sure you favorite your best cards for you and your brothers! And the other important thing is borrowing their tribe powers. That somehow spoils things and it will be explained in due time, so please pay attention when you get to that part. You can add brothers either via wireless or via Wifi using friend codes.


- Replayability: 9/10
Trust me on this thing: THIS GAME HAS 2 SAVE FILES AND, on top of that, a huge list of post-story things to do, so you'll spend a lot of time on this game. Getting all the Standard, Mega and Giga cards is no child's play. By the time you even get to the secret area, you should have LESS than half of the cards. Good luck continuing from there. Also, there are side quests you can do for people, and there are HP Memories to collect, not to mention doing the specified requirements to unlock certain items, as well as making use of the GBA Slot to unlock a secret weapon (again)! I've had this game for almost a week and I'm still not done with the first file. The game will laugh at you if you don't start getting serious after beating the main story, so stay sharp.


And that's all for my review. I'm sorry if it's too long, but you get the general idea of the game, I hope. BUY the game and keep it in your collection, it's one treasure you won't regret digging up.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 07/02/08

Game Release: Mega Man Star Force 2: Zerker x Saurian (US, 06/24/08)