Starforce has always been a somewhat strange subseries to me. I played Starforce 1 and 2 tons as a kid, but have some mixed memories on both. I had wanted to buy Starforce 3 as a kid, but never did, and was shocked when the game was 40 dollars online, and that’s without the box.This game being a sort of hidden gem and never getting an EU release has increased the price over the years, but now’s a better time than ever to play this game.
For those unversed with the series, Starforce is an RPG where battles are done in real time, but you are dealt random attacks from your Folder as cards, with every time you’re given more cards from your Folder being considered a “turn”. You fight on a 3d battlefield where you can only move left and right or use a shield to avoid attacks. This might be hard to understand when explained like this, but it makes a lot more sense in motion.
This game has some much needed quality of life changes over its predecessors. The main one being is that unlike Starforce 1 or 2, where you have to find an orange swirl in the overworld to transform into Megaman to get on the Wave Road, now you can transform anytime, anywhere, just by hitting R. It doesn’t even pull a Twilight Princess where you can only transform when noone is around, you can just do it instantly and there’s no time-wasting cutscene you have to watch every time you transform.
Although there are tons of improvements to the gameplay, a lot of the other games’ problems have stuck around. A major one being a fair bit of the story-based gameplay are pretty boring and end with “find this many things” or “do this little task for me”. The random encounter rate are thankfully not as bad as I thought, but the annoyance of random encounters in the Starforce and Battle Network is still alive and well. The last thing is something I honestly cannot defend, and that’s the boss rematches as random encounters.See, if you die, you go back to your last save, simple enough. But how is it fair that I can lose 20 minutes of progress because the game drops a Club Strong EX on me that I could not dream of beating in the state I am?
The main gameplay addition to Starforce 3 is Noise, which is basically pollution in this universe. In normal virus encounters, if you overkill an enemy with a non-elemental card, Noise is added to a percentage in the upper right corner of the screen. In bosses, you don’t need to overkill, just connect with the attack. The higher the Noise meter goes, the more battle “glitches”. Stuff like invincibility frames turning off, for example. If you win a battle with over 100% noise, the rewards will change, either getting stronger cards than normal, or getting cards from a completely different area, or getting one of Starforce 3’s many “illegal” cards. These cards can be used just fine, its just that they aren’t in the Library, which means the game has at least 200 more cards than are actually listed. If you win a battle with 100%, you also start the next battle at 50%, making it easier to have more high-Noise battles in a row.This system helps make regular combat way more interesting, and adds a risk vs reward system where the battles get more dangerous with the more Noise and you don’t get any HP recovery items at the end of the battle when at over 100%.
After an… abrupt event in the story, you get a random Noise form. Yes, random. The main difference between the two versions, Black Ace and Red Joker, is that some forms are more likely in one version than the other. For example, Libra Noise is more likely to appear in Black Ace, while Red Joker has a higher chance of claiming Crown Noise. The Noise Forms themselves are VERY cool, all based on bosses from this game and previous games, all with their own special buffs. However, the downside is how you obtain them and how you change them. The only way to obtain a new form after the one gotten in the story is to randomly get into an encounter with a giant enemy, win, then there is a CHANCE to get a RANDOM Noise Form. Strangely, you can only hold one form at a time, with an NPC holding the most previous form you’ve had. This means you’re kinda scared of on trying too many forms because if you try more than 2 you’ll lose 1 until you find the oldest one again. Noise Forms are a good mechanic, its just ONLY good while in battle.
I may have sounded really negative in this review, but that’s because while I enjoyed my time with Starforce 3, there’s still problems with it that I felt like addressing. If you enjoy the previous games or card-based RPGs in general, you’ll have a good time with this. It kicks SF1 and 2 out of the goddamn park in gameplay. While I am sad to know that outside of Operate Shooting Star I’ve went through everything the Starforce series has to offer, I’m at least glad this sub series of a subseries had a great last game.
BITCHES WILL STUNLOCK THEY CHILD IN THEIR STARFORCE 3 LOCAL BATTLE AND BE LIKE CAN’T HELP BEING GEMINI NOISE
