what an absolute gem of a game this is. i played this around launch and honestly a lot of it didn't stick with me. i think part of it was me wanting this game to be battle network 7, but obviously that was misguided. i replayed this worried that it'd be living in battle network's shadow, but i was pleasantly surprised to see that this game takes a lot of BN's elements and puts a fresh and unique spin on them to capture its own identity.
the most obvious and marked improvement from BN is that the story here is something i can call very good without any reservations. as much as i love BN, the main plots to the BN games are disjointed at best and lack a lot of serious plotting or character development. i would only consider 3 and 5 being games that have stories that are actually good. people who've played the BN games take for granted how bad the plots to most of these games are. i can enjoy how dumb and cheesy they are, sure, but they are simultaneously massive failures in what we expect from basic stories.
meanwhile, star force 1 blows both those games out of the water. SF1 has characters (plural!) with actual arcs that develop organically over the course of the game! the villains of the story have fleshed-out backgrounds and motivations beyond "i am dick dastardly who wants to do evil thing"! there are themes and motifs that pay off in the narrative! i know this all sounds very basic on paper, but this stuff elevates the game for me. geo is a genuinely compelling protagonist who has a very set personality and inner conflict. i could not hope to say the same thing about lan. and as much as i love the lan/megaman.exe dynamic, the geo/omega-xis dynamic is so much more interesting to watch unfold due to how diametrically opposite they are. geo is the superego stuck in the depths of isolation and cynicism, omega is the id that acts on emotion and constantly tries to engage with the world, and they bring out the best (and, at times, worst) in each other. it's great stuff, i adore this game's plot and characters.
gameplay-wise this game succeeds in what it aims to do as well. the biggest issue that BN's gameplay had was that the game gave you a wide variety of chips to use, but a lot of them would be either too situational to be useful or would have chip codes that were prohibitive to good folder flow. by removing codes entirely, SF1 gives you a lot more freedom and fluidity in your folder. it trades the complexity that BN offers for a more aggressive and twitchy combat engine. enemies will often have undodgeable attacks you have to guard, counterattacking is given a much larger emphasis and subsequent reward, etc. it's different and if you go into it wanting what BN gave, you'll be disappointed. it's still good though in a way that BN was never quite able to live up to and battles feel a lot more involved and intense as a result.
ultimately my only real complaints with the game come from the main scenarios themselves. most of the dungeons will have some touchscreen gimmick the brings the experience to a grinding halt and feels completely unnecessary. the absolute worst one by far is the scrapyard dungeon where it makes you use a legitimately dysfunctional radar while pelting you with random encounters and screen hazards. i could not imagine how much longer that dungeon would've taken me had i not found an online map for each section, good christ. and while i appreciate how the game changed its approach to sidequests, i strongly dislike that you can only accept a sidequest while pulsed in due to how much more tedium it induces. these are growing pains, so i am cautiously optimistic that later entries in the series will alleviate them.
i feel very bad knowing that this game has a pretty bad reputation. this game scored pretty poorly with reviewers. . . hell, the entire SERIES scored poorly, none of the games have a score above 60 on metacritic. i have to wonder why that is. part of me thinks it's mismanaged expectations on capcom's part, but i wonder if anything could've replaced the hole that was left by BN. i think a game like this has aged extremely well because not only was it attempting to do something different, the concept was executed with intelligence and precision.
the only good way i can end a review like this is by saying that MMSF1 recently got a fan mod called Mega Man Star Force DX, which combines all the version exclusive content, adds some cut content, and does a lot of quality of life fixes. i would link it, but i'm fuzzy on what the rules are for linking to emulators + ROMs are on this site, so i'll refrain. that said, anyone curious can search "MMSF1 DX" and it's one of the first results. i highly recommend anyone who either missed out on this game or wants to replay it give that a try. if nothing else, i feel we owe this game a second chance, this time with tempered and fair expectations.
the most obvious and marked improvement from BN is that the story here is something i can call very good without any reservations. as much as i love BN, the main plots to the BN games are disjointed at best and lack a lot of serious plotting or character development. i would only consider 3 and 5 being games that have stories that are actually good. people who've played the BN games take for granted how bad the plots to most of these games are. i can enjoy how dumb and cheesy they are, sure, but they are simultaneously massive failures in what we expect from basic stories.
meanwhile, star force 1 blows both those games out of the water. SF1 has characters (plural!) with actual arcs that develop organically over the course of the game! the villains of the story have fleshed-out backgrounds and motivations beyond "i am dick dastardly who wants to do evil thing"! there are themes and motifs that pay off in the narrative! i know this all sounds very basic on paper, but this stuff elevates the game for me. geo is a genuinely compelling protagonist who has a very set personality and inner conflict. i could not hope to say the same thing about lan. and as much as i love the lan/megaman.exe dynamic, the geo/omega-xis dynamic is so much more interesting to watch unfold due to how diametrically opposite they are. geo is the superego stuck in the depths of isolation and cynicism, omega is the id that acts on emotion and constantly tries to engage with the world, and they bring out the best (and, at times, worst) in each other. it's great stuff, i adore this game's plot and characters.
gameplay-wise this game succeeds in what it aims to do as well. the biggest issue that BN's gameplay had was that the game gave you a wide variety of chips to use, but a lot of them would be either too situational to be useful or would have chip codes that were prohibitive to good folder flow. by removing codes entirely, SF1 gives you a lot more freedom and fluidity in your folder. it trades the complexity that BN offers for a more aggressive and twitchy combat engine. enemies will often have undodgeable attacks you have to guard, counterattacking is given a much larger emphasis and subsequent reward, etc. it's different and if you go into it wanting what BN gave, you'll be disappointed. it's still good though in a way that BN was never quite able to live up to and battles feel a lot more involved and intense as a result.
ultimately my only real complaints with the game come from the main scenarios themselves. most of the dungeons will have some touchscreen gimmick the brings the experience to a grinding halt and feels completely unnecessary. the absolute worst one by far is the scrapyard dungeon where it makes you use a legitimately dysfunctional radar while pelting you with random encounters and screen hazards. i could not imagine how much longer that dungeon would've taken me had i not found an online map for each section, good christ. and while i appreciate how the game changed its approach to sidequests, i strongly dislike that you can only accept a sidequest while pulsed in due to how much more tedium it induces. these are growing pains, so i am cautiously optimistic that later entries in the series will alleviate them.
i feel very bad knowing that this game has a pretty bad reputation. this game scored pretty poorly with reviewers. . . hell, the entire SERIES scored poorly, none of the games have a score above 60 on metacritic. i have to wonder why that is. part of me thinks it's mismanaged expectations on capcom's part, but i wonder if anything could've replaced the hole that was left by BN. i think a game like this has aged extremely well because not only was it attempting to do something different, the concept was executed with intelligence and precision.
the only good way i can end a review like this is by saying that MMSF1 recently got a fan mod called Mega Man Star Force DX, which combines all the version exclusive content, adds some cut content, and does a lot of quality of life fixes. i would link it, but i'm fuzzy on what the rules are for linking to emulators + ROMs are on this site, so i'll refrain. that said, anyone curious can search "MMSF1 DX" and it's one of the first results. i highly recommend anyone who either missed out on this game or wants to replay it give that a try. if nothing else, i feel we owe this game a second chance, this time with tempered and fair expectations.