Mega Man Star Force 3: Black Ace (USA) DS ROM

Review by CheeseCake:

The Mega Man Star Force series is the spiritual successor of the Mega Man Battle Network series set hundreds of years later in the same timeline. It was developed and published by Capcom on the Nintendo DS.

Mega Man Star Force 3 is the third and final entry of the Star Force series since Capcom basically hates Mega Man now with their cancellations of Mega Man Legends 3 and Mega Man Universe.

The Story

In this era, EM(Electromagnetic) Wave technology has flourished for the past few decades. The era of Lan Hikari and cyber networks have been replaced by the new Wave World and the Wave Roads that connect the devices of the world in the future.

A giant red meteor is approaching Earth on a starry night and two mysterious characters discuss their plans. The protagonists are a boy named Geo Stellar and an alien being from planet FM called Omega-Xis. The Noise meteor, Meteor G, is gradually approaching Earth.

Geo Stellar wakes up and arrives in his classroom and joins the rest of the class in the new Hunter VG upgrade that replaces the old Star Carriers from Star Force 1 and 2. The two people from the intro named Jack and Tia join the class as a transfer student and a student teacher. A new organization, Dealer, is plotting something sinister and you know who comes to save the day, Fucking Mega Man, that’s who

The Wave World

Everything is basically the same as the Internet World except its Waves now instead of Programs running everything.

To enter the Wave World, you must find a Wave Hole using your Visualizer(Y button) and Wave Change into an EM Being, Mega Man, to travel it. It is more or less the same as the MMBN’s Cyber World except you don’t enter from the Real World. Instead, you approach Cyber Cores( This series’ version of Jack In ports) and enter them by walking into its entrance in the Wave World.
You can also use Wave Change in the Real World but you become completely invisible to humans since you’re a Wave now.

Wizards have been added into the game with the new Hunter VG system so we now have the equivalent of Cyber World’s generic Navis. EM Wave Change is still better though.

The Battle System

The old 9×9 grid based battle system from the MMBN series has been scrapped for a new vertical battle system where you only get 3 spaces for movement to make use of the Nintendo DS’s dual screens.

Chip Codes are also gone since chips technically don’t exist anymore. Instead you have a new but similar system using Battle Cards. In battle, you receive 6 cards in various positions. Some are above other cards. You have Yellow Cards and White Cards.
Yellow Cards has certain rules to its use. When you select a Yellow Card, you may select the Battle Cards in the same row or column as it. That’s 2 or 3 cards there.
White Cards can be selected regardless of position. They’re like MMBN’s Asterisk Code that let you choose it with any other chips.
There is one more rule. Cards, both yellow and white, cannot be paired if it is under/being covered by another card. You can use single darkened card if you want to but it is more wise to pair the other cards and free the darkened card so you can use it next turn.
This is covered in the tutorial by the way. Probably will be much easier to understand there.

Movement isn’t exactly restricted with the new 3 tile movement.
You get a Lock On tactic by pressing D-pad Down. This lets you move directly in front of an enemy for a short period to use a Battle Card. It is mostly used with front tile Cards like Swords, Wide Swords, and Knuckles.
You also get a EM Shield by pressing the Y button in battle. It is similar to the Block/Shield Navi Customizer program in MMBN. Basically lets you nullify attacks for 2 seconds but has a 1 sec cooldown.
A Mega Buster is automatically charged if you don’t use a Card for a certain amount of time. B to use the Mega Buster after the charge or Hold B for Rapid Fire.

The Noise System

I briefly mentioned Noise in name only in the Story section.
What exactly is Noise, you ask? It is a substance in the Wave World that causes machines to malfunction and Wizards become berserk. It is strongly believed to be a byproduct of current EM Wave Technology. While Noise is always scattered in the environment, sometimes Noise will clump together to form Noise Clusters.

Sometimes you might get some static when approaching certain objects. Pressing A at these static locations will open up a Noise Wave followed by a Warning Message. You can ignore it if you want to since Noise Waves just have different enemies inside them.
Noise Waves are these gateways into random parts of the Noise World. Later the story, you gain the key to travelling the interconnected Noise World.

Noise Change
Due to certain story events, Mega Man gains the power to control Noise and uses the power of Noise to change his very form. This is basically Mega Man Battle Network’s Style Change system recreated in the Star Force era. You receive one of 10 special transformations that you may change with the addition of more Noise from certain large viruses.

You receive large amounts of Noise when you defeat Giant EM Viruses. These viruses allow you to gain new Noise Forms. When you walk around the Wave World, you may receive WARNING!!! WARNING!!! signals. This is the sure sign that Giant EM Viruses are attacking you (or maybe ghost Bosses, who knows. They both still give a cluster of Noise)

In the Real World, there are these random Mettaurs just waiting there or damaging property. These are Giant EM Viruses. I recommend not slaying them yet until after receiving Noise Change so you can slay a bunch of them to change your Noise Form to one that you like.

The Noise Gauge
You have your new Noise Form but it is dormant unless you have Noise on you. A Noise Gauge appears at the top right of the screen the moment you equipped that certain program. To activate your Vibrant Noise Form, you must have a Noise Gauge of 50% or higher.

The best way to raise Noise is to use Non-Element, Non-Dimming Battle Cards. Basically those Null(Dot) cards that don’t freeze the screen.
When you defeat an enemy with these cards types, the damage difference is added onto the Noise Gauge.
For example, I lowered an enemies Hp to 10 and I use a Sword, which has Null and Sword on it. A Sword does 80 damage so I would gain a 70% increase in the Noise Gauge. In Boss Battles, the Gauge is raised by half the damage that is done with the card type.

Don’t be lax about Noise. If Noise is above 50%, it will continuously decrease to 50%.
Gaining a Noise of 100% of higher by the end of the battle will net you some Illegal Data Cards and a 50% head start on your noise gauge for the next battle. Illegal Cards allows your Hunter VG to download Card Data that is completely different from the viruses that you deleted. This is great since it gives you cards that you cannot gain through normal means at that point in the story.

Finalized Noise
The one thing you want: Become Black Ace/ Red Joker.
Gain a Noise Gauge of 200% of higher and access the almighty Meteor Server to gain a complete new Card Deck.
Every 100% added to the 200% before the transformation gives you access to a greater Card Deck with 900-999% having the absolute best cards. 200% still has really decent cards that would allow you to slaughter most bosses.

The new forms give you a Machine Rapid Buster and certain status effects depending on which version you are.

Version: Differences

Like the Mega Man Battle Network series, there are no major story differences.
The Differences are:

• The Finalized Noise Form obviously. The name is on the Title.
• Noise Forms you can use. Each version has 5 of the ten forms. Although there is a very, very rare chance of gaining the other version’s form changes.
• The Giga Battle Cards and Mega Battle Cards you gain from Story and Post Game are different.