| Mega Man Star Force | |
|---|---|
American Box Arts | |
| Developer(s) | Capcom |
| Genre(s) | Action Role Playing |
| Release Dates | August 7th, 2007 (NA) December 14th, 2006 (JP) |
| Platform(s) | NDS |
| Current WR Time | 2:59:17 by nopan |
Overview[]
Star Force is a spiritual successor to the Battle Network series. Despite the similar appearance at a glance, mechanics between the two series are very different. Star Force could generally be described as a more action-oriented run while Battle Network is more strategic. Some mechanics from the Battle Network games such as being able to set a default card have been removed in this game, so encounters can be very inconsistent depending on your folder. Sneakruns have also been done away with and the cloakers in their place work entirely different, with their effectiveness greatly reduced. Another fantastic addition coming from being the first title in a DS only series is a bunch of shoehorned touchscreen minigames.
Combat System[]
The combat system in Star Force is radically different from how the Battle Network games work, even outside of the obvious perspective change. With the perspective change comes the ability to form a shield to block attacks, and the ability to lock onto enemies to warp in front of them before using a card. The lock-on system targets enemies directly in front of you or at a 45° angle from you. The custom screen also had a massive overhaul. All codes were removed from cards, and now your cust screen displays three columns of two cards. You can select the column of cards regardless of their name or type, you can also select cards with the same name regardless of where they are. White cards are effectively the star codes and can be taken with any other combination of cards. White cards are either white by default, as support cards, or they've been turned white by setting them as your favorite. You can select six cards as your favorite, including mega and giga cards. This makes folder building in a speedrun extremely lenient, as you can just add a lot more generally good cards without worrying about getting clogged up on having random codes.
Version differences[]
Versions of the game are mostly irrelevant for speedrunning. Since Star Breaks come from a unique card in your folder they won't play a part in most battles. That being said Leo is the best of the forms due to the charge shot and SFB being great with grass stage and green inks. However with the sheer inconsistency of that, Dragon is presumed to be the fastest version to speedrun on average. The current fastest route utilizes many powerful fire based cards and grass stage which make Shadow Dragon significantly faster than the other shadow admins on average.
Cipher Codes[]
Using the in game email function, you can send emails. But if you type a certain name into the receiver, you can send special emails to get special items back. You send these emails to "Cipher" or "あんごう" depending on the region.