Capcom releasing a collection of one of the worst-performing Mega Man sub-series, both critically and commercially, was not on my bingo card.
That said, I'm happy to report that the Mega Man Star Force Legacy Collection does the series justice, delivering a complete package that's worthy of your time if you're willing to sit through what the games are rather than continuously compare them to what they came before, although it's almost impossible to at least acknowledge, on occasion, that the Battle Network series left the bar too high for its spiritual successor.
Even as a Mega Man fan who grew up loving it, to this day, there remains a fair share of black sheep within the franchise (I still yearn for a properly executed Command Mission follow-up), but the Star Force spin-offs never really interested me that much. I adored the Battle Network series, being, until this day, my favorite reinterpretation of the original Mega Man mythos. Tossing all those characters away, along with their deep, nuanced combat and customization, in favor of a soft reboot in hopes of revitalizing the diminishing returns of Battle Network was a bold gamble, one that didn't pay off for Capcom. Pair that with the complete system overhaul, basically starting from scratch, and little 13-year-old me quickly lost interest after the first game, and so did the majority of the fanbase.
It feels bizarre to realize that almost 20 years have passed since the release of the first Star Force, a series that was practically destined to remain in relative obscurity. To say that this collection is a labor of love is an understatement. Fans were not clamoring for a compilation in the same way they were pleading for Battle Network, X, or Zero to make a return. It is then, rather ironic, that this is the collection that takes everything the developer learned from previous ones and makes it the most enjoyable experience of the bunch.
As I've discussed in my preview, the Mega Man Star Force Legacy Collection really wants you to enjoy the experience whichever way you want, with a high degree of customization even before you boot up any of the three (technically seven) games available.
You can tinker with virtually any aspect you can imagine: immediately, fans that enjoyed the Battle Network collection will spot a much-needed Encounter Rate toggle that will let you completely turn on or off enemy battles (or set them to very low or high), you can also mess around with the screen layout, with Capcom finding very functional settings to accommodate a secondary screen, taking into consideration the Star Force games were available on the Nintendo DS only, until now.
A few other options include the ability to make the collection as trivial as you want, powering up your Mega Buster to do 500% extra damage, enabling damage mitigation, and upping the Zenny rewards considerably. There is no way to make it harder, so this feels like a rare missed opportunity.
Then there are all the overall graphic settings. Like previous collections, the Star Force Legacy Collection features a "high-resolution" option that I turn off immediately. It just makes the visuals look smudgy, and I'd much rather keep the classic pixelated style any day of the week. That said, the updated portraits look neat, and thankfully the game lets you toggle the options for character icons and general game visuals individually.
My favorite addition is undeniably the music. Via the Gallery section, you can access the full soundtrack for all three Star Force games, with the ability to listen to either the original or remixed versions of each theme rather seamlessly. You can even create a unique playlist with your favorite tunes and use it during battles. Activating this option will default the rest of the music to the original versions while playing, so keep that in mind.
The Gallery also includes a jam-packed Artwork section. I always love browsing through these, letting you glimpse parts of a series' development, with early concept art and design documents for nearly every main character, villain, and even regular NPCs.
The wrapping is stellar, but is the actual treat enjoyable? Well, yes. The vast majority is. Star Force really tried to distance itself from Battle Network by switching to an over-the-shoulder third-person perspective, ditching the grid-based combat of its predecessor for the most part. Here, you can only move left to right, and while later games in the franchise learned to work around this limited mobility, the first Star Force (likely the one you'll be starting with unless you're some kind of unhinged freak) is rough around the edges.
It's frustratingly limited in what you can do as a player, both in combat and customization, especially if you come with expectations set by the Battle Network series, with its incredible slew of gameplay options that were refined to a brilliant level by the time Capcom decided to end it. The general premise for this sub-series was to make it more approachable, and boy, did they completely gut what you could do.
Combat is bogged down to pretty much the basics. You have a folder of Battle Cards that you can use to quickly dispose of enemies, but functions like Advanced Programs (where you selected a specific combination of chips to create a more powerful effect), unique transformations, or Navi Customization, an incredibly creative system that saw you basically play Tetris while trying to cook up a unique build for Mega Man, are all gone. In return, you get the ability to shield incoming attacks and a lock-on functionality. That's it.
These growing pains get ironed out in the sequels, don't get me wrong. It's incredible to be able to essentially turn Mega Man into a Power Rangers Megazord in Star Force 2 via the Tribe On system, where transformations made their grand return, allowing you to become a cyberninja, a Norse-inspired warrior, or a mecha-dinosaur, eventually culminating in Mega Man becoming a Tribe King, combining the elemental powers of each transformation into one OP variant that quite literally has zero weaknesses.
Then, to fully talk about the Noise Change system is in 3, which lets you mix and match different transformations in what's essentially a souped-up version of the BN3 Style Change mechanic, I'd have to dedicate it a review of its own. In an attempt to condense what it offers, let me briefly explain: each of the Star Force 3 versions offers five unique transformations on top of three major ones, all with distinct advantages and disadvantages. The neat thing regarding these is how you go about earning these powers, as the game rewards you for being offensive and dealing surplus damage, which then gets converted into a Noise percentage. If you hit 50%, 100%, and 200%, you'll gain access to stronger and stronger abilities. The cherry on top is that all transformations can actually be acquired in a single version of the game; it's just slightly harder to access some depending on which one you're playing.
Seeing that first impressions are key, however, the fact that Star Force 1 is sadly the weakest of the trio is a bummer, as I would've loved to start my journey in a much more mechanically compelling game.
Luckily, the narrative is surprisingly deep, making up for the bare-bones offering, mechanics-wise, of the initial title. Geo Stelar, a kid who is dealing with the loss of his father, and Omega-Xis, an alien from Planet AM who landed on Planet FM, join forces following a chance encounter. They give birth to a unique version of Mega Man when Geo and Omega fuse to explore the Wave World, an interconnected web of electromagnetic waves spread across the world.
Surprisingly, Geo isn't a generic go-getter; he's a well-thought-out character who's learning to deal with loss and grief. One of the game's main mechanics, the BrotherBand, unique bonds formed between two really close friends, hammers home how isolated Geo feels, as he's linked to no one, much to the surprise of the supporting cast you'll meet along the way.
The delivery of the story is not top-notch, with occasionally embarrassing dialogue and the occasional typo or incorrect spelling of words still present in this collection. An odd choice not to fix those, but Capcom wanted to preserve the full experience as originally presented, so kudos for fully committing to it, I suppose.
Also, don't feel overwhelmed by the number of versions you have at your disposal, as the story changes are negligible, with most coming in the form of specific cards available to you, and in later games, transformations you can acquire.
Verdict:
Capcom nailed it with the Mega Man Star Force Legacy Collection in every aspect. Presentation-wise, it is the best compilation featuring the Blue Bomber they've ever released, adding plenty of quality-of-life changes that I'd love to see them retroactively implement in previous titles. In terms of gameplay, while Battle Network still outshines the Star Force spin-offs in many ways, each game continuously builds upon the previous one to much success (for the most part), making the highly underrated journey of Geo Stelar from a secluded, directionless kid dealing with grief and loneliness into a fully-fledged anime protagonist that would die for his friends a blast to rediscover.
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A code was provided by the publisher for this review.