It's December 14th in Japan right now and that means Ryuusei no Rockman: Pegasus, Leo, Dragon debuted on this day TEN years ago. It's been a whole decade since we were introduced to the seventh Rockman series; ten years since Capcom introduced us to Subaru/Geo and Omega-Xis/War Rock. Time truly flies, no?
The clip above was our very first look at the original game, then tentatively known as "Shinsei Rockman" (more commonly known as "Shinsei Rockman ZN"; no one really knows where the 'ZN' came from). I fondly remember the excitement and skepticism surrounding the game's announcement back in the day. As a follow-up to the highly successfully Rockman EXE series, no one really knew what to expect. Personally speaking I found the first game enjoyable, but Star Force 3 has been, and always will be my favorite.
Happy 10th!
I love Star Force 3 the best too~!
ReplyDeleteAlbeit 2 introduced Solo who is my favorite character from the series, alongside Misora/Sonia. Gotta love these two.
This series means a lot to me. Happy 10th Anniversary!!!
starforce is hands down my favorite megaman series of 'em all - something about the characters, designs, and overall plot really stuck with me. i know its unlikely, but i'm gonna keep hoping for a new game, or at least, some merchandise - its a true gem, regardless of the skepticism.
ReplyDeleteHeh, I thought it was December 14th that marked the occasion, Still I really do love this series and feel it came at the wrong time, The cast of characters and storytelling was actually top notch considering, Mega Man there was a layer of realism to each character giving them actual depth, and they got a ton of development, This was basically the polar opposite of Battle Network where this kind of thing barely occurred, There is more character development and depth to the cast in Mega Man Star Force 1 than there is in the entire Battle Network 6 main game + several spin-offs series.
ReplyDeleteThe gameplay itself was a nice change of pace too, and as always was my favorite part of the experience, I feel like it gets a lot more enjoyable when you come to terms with the fact that Star Force is it's own, It's streamlined from Battle Network, but as a result it gained it's own flow and it's own feel, Battles became much faster affairs, and aggressive play was largely rewarded, just about every mechanic within the series complements this style of play, and MMSF3's Noise was probably the ultimate way of showcasing this.
The Battle Card system as well as brotherband made way for a lot of freedom in the way you wanted Mega Man to play and fight, and also allowed for greater accessibility overall,I had a much easier time getting friends into MMSF than I did MMBN as a result, though it also probably helped that space controlling didn't play into Star Force half as much so new players weren't totally screwed if they neglected to carry many of them.
I would just love to see more of this series one day, It tried new things, had really fun character designs especially in retrospect, exceptional world building and storytelling, and really addictive gameplay, It didn't entirely re-invent the wheel but it felt like a fresh spin on what came before it and IMO that's all I expect from a successor, be different enough to have an identity of your own, but similar enough to be familiar and recognizable.
It didn't have the best sales figures, but I know it didn't have the worst either, it made about half of what it's predecessor did with literally half the amount of installments, only difference is that it was on a decline which is why it stopped. I think it's sales largely had to do with the over-saturation of Mega Man at the time rather than it's individual quality.
Star Force 3 is easily one of the greatest Mega Man games to date IMO, the first two were great but the last game is where the series really found it's groove, If only they got to expand upon it, we could've(and still can) got some really phenomenal stuff if handled properly.
It is, today is literally the 14th in Japan ;)
DeleteDefinitely Starforce 3 was the gem of the franchise and as you said it could get more sequels which would be welcomed.
DeleteThe character developement for the series was an wonderful more so with Burai eg the forte of this series. Everyone had enough screen time to make them fleshed out.
the story told was another one of the great one in the megaman franchise right up there with megaman zero
Wow, it's been 10 years already?!
ReplyDeleteI really miss this game as much as i miss the EXE series...
ReplyDeleteI hope that capcom will launch new games from this series in the next year
Man this just makes me feel old yet again thanks megaman <3
ReplyDeleteOh my i remember vividly preordering starforce 1 at gamestop they had some promotion with game that you got a landyard with it
anyways this is one of the best series on the ds hell i liked this type of megaman game over most of the newer ones at the time a turn based esqued rpg for the series was much needed and yet again we need another one hopopefuly with new revivials we get another
One of my favorite serie of game in nintendo ds. and i have played a LOT of DS games.
ReplyDeleteI had to play the US version of Star force 3 because the game never made it to Europe. So i only played it a bit less than 4 years ago (because before that my english sucked and i did'nt wanted to play it without understanding the story)
Everything about SF was a thumbs up to me..... Except the gameplay.
ReplyDeleteSome of my favorite and most detailed music I've ever heard.
Great Designs, like Black Ace and just Mega Man's transformations in general especially that beastly buster from 3, Dread Joker (finalized), bosses like Cygnus, Libra both Queen's, Germini, OX/Taurus, Apollo Flame I also like some F/EMians like Cepheus, I like the enemy designs a lot oh man too much to name.
Story had surprisingly deep concepts too and the execution wasn't too bad and such.
But the gameplay......................................................................
I guess I was spoiled by MMBN by the end of it.
I really enjoyed the original Star Force and all the ways it morphed the Battle Network formula. I believe Pegasus version is the only EXE/SF game I ever 100%'d. I remember beating the bosses fast enough to get their best Level 3 cards was such a nightmare... but I did it!
ReplyDeleteHappy B-day, to one of my absolute favorite series ever! I could go on and on over how much this series means to me or how I love tearing through the games, but I'll spare writing the essay. I will say thought that going through my twitter feed this morning and looking at all the Starforce fanart on my timeline. The sheer number alone of people who remembered and went out of their way to make something for it put a smile on my face this entire morning, I can't exaggerate that enough. Even if CAPCOM chooses to ignore this day, there's a lot of people who won't, and that made getting up today all the worthwhile. <3
ReplyDeleteAre you me? anyways you should totally post something Star Force related to Capcom_Unity and MegaMan on twitter just to mark the occasion and show Capcom that you're still passionate about the series. None of us that have been doing so expect any responses or acknowledgement, but we feel doing so still speaks louder than doing nothing at all.
DeleteHahah, I hope not! ;D But I think I remember seeing you on twitter too, under that same username! And don't worry, I already made fanart and tagged CAPCOM_Unity all day with every SF tweet I could get my hands on. They might wanna ignore megaman, but they can't shut me up. (ง'̀-'́)ง
Delete10 years already? Oh man. time flies.
ReplyDeleteI remember I went to that event at gamestop in NY and got to meet inafune and got that 25th anniversary T shirt.
I also met Terra Stardroid, the maker of the Stardroids webcomic in person. that was a fun day.
man, back then there still seemed to be hope for the franchise