Mega Man Star Force Legacy Collection Review

The Mega Man Battle Network series was, for better or worse, one of those core formational experiences for me as a kid. Without Battle Network and its themes of friendship and connection, I genuinely don't think I'm the same person that I am today, which makes it all the more strange that I didn't have a chance to play Mega Man Star Force when I was younger. It arrived at a weird point in my life — 2007 was when I was in my "world/server first in World of Warcraft" phase (and on a much less important note, also preparing for college) — so I didn't own a Nintendo DS.

Now, years after the fact, I can finally experience how the series evolved (or in some cases, didn't) with the Mega Man Star Force Legacy Collection (Star Force LC from here on out). A number of really great additions to the series help push this collection towards a must-buy for any fans of Mega Man, including newcomers to the sub-series.

Before we get into things though, I want to be upfront about things I did not test — optional post-game content by and large was ignored, such as Andromeda Infinity/Deep Space or anything that required grinding and filling out the Battle Card library due to time constraints. It's also worth noting that the Star Force Collection includes three versions of Star Force 1, two versions of Star Force 2, and two versions of Star Force 3, for a total of seven games. I did not play each version of every game, as to be frank, playing through three versions of Star Force 1 just didn't appeal to me (I played the 'Leo' version for my Star Force 1 playthrough, as an example.)

Also, I could not test multiplayer functionality, mostly due to the lack of crossplay, which is something I'll touch on more later in the review. Finally, I won't really comment on the story or plot for these twenty year old games, aside from the fact that it is mid-aughts Mega Man, so it's a lot of "power of friendship" stuff, which is good, to be clear. 

If you're coming from the Battle Network series, Star Force is more of the same in terms of gameplay mechanics, except the camera view is shifted to a third-person perspective behind Mega Man. For those that haven't played Battle Network, you control Mega Man on a grid that is three spaces wide, and manuever through these spaces to avoid attacks while counterattacking with your own. For Star Force specifically, you also have a shield and a lock-on shortcut. In my personal opinion, this does make combat a little more exciting, but does remove some of your battlefield options, as you now only have three spaces to worry about instead of a full nine. While I did not get to try out the Star Force multiplayer, competitive Battle Network multiplayer via Tango is one of my favorite things to watch on YouTube, so it will be interesting to see what competitive Star Force players think of the collection.

The Star Force LC seems to take great pains to preserve the games as they were, despite needing to recreate some features in the RE Engine, and this is both good and bad. For example, since you don't have a stylus and the game, as far as I can tell, doesn't make use of a mouse, many of the puzzles were re-created in RE Engine to allow players to use the controller or keyboard instead. The star puzzles in the final dungeon of Star Force 1 have you recreating constellations by connecting stars to each other, and I assume the original DS versions had you linking the stars with your stylus, but in the Star Force LC, you simply choose which two stars to connect via manual input.

On the flip side, however, the script of the original games was fully preserved, including an unfortunate use of a racial slur in Star Force 1. A warning about this does flash when you load the collection up, but with all the other alterations made to the game, I think a simple replacement of said racial slur could have been done without much fuss.

Aside from that, there are a number of feature additions that are welcome. I had to tag in some friends who played the original Nintendo DS versions to help compare notes, so thanks to them for helping out. First up, some minor additions such as voice acting for transformations ("EM Wave Change! Geo Steler, on the air!" is voiced every time you shift into Mega Man) as well as battle quips (Omega-Xis or Geo will say something after every battle) add quite a bit of flavor to the game. There's also a splash screen where you can chat with Geo, Zack, and other characters as well, much like the Battle Network Legacy Collection, and these interactions are all voice-acted.

The transformation sequence as well as portrait art/profile page art for Transers are in crisp high definition, so everything looks nice and neat when compared to the DS version. There's also the blanket High-Definition filter, but to be honest, it's pretty ugly when compared to the extremely detailed pixel art the game has. Thankfully, it's a toggle, so you can turn it on or off at your leisure. You can also change the battle music in the game by visiting the Gallery on the splash screen, and it includes some of the Battle Network music as well as the full Star Force OST (you better believe I had Surge of Power from Battle Network 6 playing.)

There are a number of unlockables in the Star Force series, and the collection has an accessible way to obtain them, but it is pretty tedious. These games had multimedia marketing pushes surrounding them back in the day, with everything from merchandise to anime adapations coming down the pipeline alongside the games themselves. It wasn't surprising in the slightest when I learned that there were special codes that you could input to get powerful Battle Cards, but apparently there were also some Japan-only physical punch-cards that came with a special pattern, and you had to align it with the DS screen and solve a miniature puzzle to unlock.

Unique for the time, for sure, but thankfully the Star Force LC just gives you a list to choose from. You have to individually select one option, then exit out to receive the item in the game, then go back into the cipher screen to get the next one, so it can be extremely tedious, but all the former Japan-exclusive content is in the Legacy Collection, as far as I can tell. As an example, you can access Tribe Form in Star Force 2 from the beginning of the game, if you want.

There's also a number of adjustable features in the game that will make completionists excited. The ability to crank up Zenny Drops to 500%, and the ability to turn on physical representations of optional bosses (the Navi Locator) make filling out the library much easier then the original. In the case of the Navi Locator, the boss re-fights are found on a very specific tile of the game world, and in the original, you simply had to know where they were or stumble across them. The Star Force LC toggle makes it to where the refight locations are represented by the boss avatar appearing in the game world for you to walk into. 

You can also turn on the optional Battle Network content (the side quest where you connect with Megaman.exe from the Battle Network series), set your avatar to Lan Hikari in Star Force 2, and so on. You can alter the enemy encounter rate from zero encounters all the way up to "high", and this is manually toggleable by holding down the right trigger, so if you want to avoid enemies entirely, you simply need to hold the trigger down. When you're ready to fight again, let go of the trigger and the encounter rate reverts to normal. There are also other features, such as auto-heal after battle, Mega Buster damage up to 500%, and so on.

A feature noted, but not tested, is the ability to queue for both ranked and casual multiplayer matches for all three games at once, instead of solo-queuing for each individal game like the Battle Network Legacy Collection did. While this would theoretically help with queue times, the lack of crossplay between platforms will still make it difficult to find a match, I assume. You cannot form Brother Bonds or queue with players not using your platform of choice, which is a very, very odd decision.

As much as I love Mega Man, these games are pretty niche as far as multiplayer competitive play goes, so choosing to split your playerbase doesn't seem wise. The N1GP (the largest and possibly only competitive Mega Man Battle Network community, shout-outs to them) utilizes emulators like Tango so that players looking for competitive matches can link up and play, swap builds easily, and so on — resulting in one large, shared pool of players. Only time will tell to see what the competitive community gravitates towards, but the lack of crossplay here feels like an oversight.

Before I wrap up, you really owe it to yourself to check out the Battle Network Legacy Collection. Megaman Battle Network 5: Double Team is the best Battle Network, Team Colonel is the best team, and NapalmMan is the best DoubleSoul, don't @ me.

While there are a few small missteps with the Mega Man Star Force Legacy Collection, they ultimately pale when compared to the broad, useful features added. The fact that not only can fans and first-timers enjoy the Star Force series, but can also tailor their experiences to their liking without the need for emulators is wonderful, and Capcom's efforts to release much older games in bundles on modern platforms really should be commended. If you're a newcomer interested in quirky action RPGs or a long-time fan looking to re-experience the magic, the Star Force Legacy Collection is an easy recommend from me.