As much as I love those legendary Mega Man platformers from the earlier years of gaming, I actually have some of my strongest connections to the Mega Man RPGs. The very first Mega Man game I owned was Mega Man X: Command Mission on the PS2, and it was actually a demo it contained of X8 that led me into that side of the series. I also loved the Battle Network games as a youngster, and even watched the anime alongside it. The only RPGs I hadn’t fully experienced in the world of the blue bomber were the Star Force games, so when I heard about Mega Man Star Force Legacy Collection I was understandably pretty darn excited.
Mega Man Star Force Legacy Collection contains seven titles that originally released on the Nintendo DS. That’s not to say there are seven completely different games to play through in this bundle though, because a few of them are separate versions of the same game with different bosses and special forms. It’s sort of similar to how the Pokémon games work, and that means that there’s actually more like three unique games in this collection. That’s not to say that’s a lack of content though, very far from it.
This series of RPGs follow the wonderfully named Geo Stellar, a shy kid who has only become more isolated thanks to the disappearance of his father. This happened on a mission in space, so Geo now spends all his time stargazing in a hopeful and tragic manner. While doing this though a digital alien drops from space, who happens to have met Geo’s dad. The unlikely pair end up teaming up, and across three games manage to save the world from power hungry madmen and a whole load of viruses.
The story and kid friendly sci-fi setting of the Mega Man Star Force Legacy Collection are very charming, but what really stands up above the rest is the combat. Even by modern standards the action RPG combat is an absolute blast, and unlike anything else. You control Mega Man (which is Geo and his alien buddy combined with some sort of data magic) and from a third person perspective have to use attacks to take down viruses that need deleting. With different columns to switch between it can get pretty twitchy if you want to avoid taking damage, and across three games never gets old.
Part of this is because of the weapon variety, which comes in the form of various chips you collect throughout the game. Everything from cannons, laser swords and summons are all available to use in chip form, and in different scenarios they’re all useful in your quest.
You can’t just select the chips you want though at any given time, there are rules for virus busting. In each round of combat you’re offered six random chips from your deck to choose from, and you can select a row or a column to take into battle until a timer grants you another choice. You can also take any identical chips if that suits the situation better, and white chips can be added as extra attacks regardless of other choices. It’s a really clever system, and with a deck of thirty chips to construct there’s plenty of nuance for those who want to tinker.
While you can use a lot of strategy to succeed in Mega Man Star Force, you can also get by on pure skill. This isn’t just because you can dodge all the attacks you need, it’s also because counter attacks grant random free chips. If you time an attack to perfect land as an enemy is about to strike you this will trigger, stunning them, giving you that bonus attack, and making you feel like an absolute badass.
As this is a collection of three different entries in an RPG series you get to see the evolution of the combat as you go. It functions largely the same throughout, but as you progress you’ll get to see things like chip fusion and different forms that provide powerful base attacks that don’t use chips. I really liked getting to try out all these extra fun abilities, especially because I had only played the first game until the Legacy Collection came along.
While the combat is the star of the show in Mega Man Star Force, there’s a lot to be said for the setting. Playing as a kid means you’ll be doing things like going to school and making friends, but all of this happens with a fun sci-fi twist. Thanks to your father’s visualizer you can see the digital world, with all sorts of magical data paths you can walk on and explore once you fuse into Mega Man. You can also dive into the insides of different electronics, and chat to the programs that make them run. It’s just so charming, if fairly familiar for fans of the Battle Network games.
If you haven’t played the Star Force games before then you’re in for a treat, but even if you have this collection has a lot to offer. For one thing you can try different versions if you didn’t back in the noughties, but there’s also online play (which is improved from the DS days with bonus brother slots) and a massive gallery full of concept art, songs, and other curiosities. I even love how the collection handles that these were once DS games, with the ability to set up two windows for each screen however you want. The screen you need to focus on is bigger by default too with sizes switching, and it’s a really elegant way to handle an awkward port.
I’m so glad I got to finish my Mega Man RPG education with this collection, and I don’t have a whole lot of complaints after dozens of hours. The games do all start a little slowly, and on top of that the tutorials feel more redundant the further into the series you play. The random battles can feel pretty oppressive too, as these are very much RPGs of the era.
The Mega Man Star Force Legacy Collection is a wonderful bundle of fantastic RPGs, with incredibly morish combat. The collection itself is great too with all the versions you could want, and lots of delightful extras to wrap this lovely package in a pretty little bow.
