| Mega Man Star Force 3 | |
|---|---|
American Box Arts | |
| Developer(s) | Capcom |
| Genre(s) | Action Role Playing |
| Release Dates | June 30, 2009 (NA) |
| Platform(s) | NDS |
| Current WR Time | Any% No Cards: 2:37:20 by plum
Any% Cards: 2:17:23 by plum |
Overview
Star Force 3 introduces several new mechanics that make this game very different from the other Star Force games. The most notable being the ability to reg cards (Default), having side select from the start, being able to form Galaxy Advances (the equivalent of Program Advances), and the Noise System.
Noise Gauge
Once Mega Man receives and equips the Ace/Joker Program, a Noise Gauge is displayed at the top-right hand corner of the top screen in battle. It raises under different conditions, but always gradually drops towards 50% once it exceeds that amount.
In virus battles, whenever Mega Man deletes a virus using a non-dimming elementless card, the Gauge increases by 1% for each excess point of damage inflicted. For example, deleting a Metenna with a Sword card raises the Gauge by 40%. In boss battles, it instead increases according to half the damage done by a non-dimming elementless card.
Once the Noise Gauge turns red, various things can happen. In single player, the Gauge turns red at 100%. In this state, attacks that are made pierce invisible status, allowing the player to unleash relentless attacks without pause. However, cards with pushing or pulling effects will do the opposite, such as Whistle pushing enemies to the back row. The player also gets an option to Finalize whenever he accesses the Custom Screen at 200% noise or higher. Finishing battles while the Gauge is above 100% (regardless of rank) will overwrite the original winnings with Illegal data - secret Battle Cards that cannot be obtained through other means but do not count towards Library completion, up to and including Galaxy Advances. Finishing with 200-299% and an S rank will give the player 2 Illegal data rewards and 300+% with an S rank will give the player 3 Illegal data rewards.
Noise Change
The transformation mechanics is very different from every previous iteration in the BN/SF series. Your form not uses the noise gauge as a vital component of it. Between 0-50% noise you're null element and the only ability you gain is the passive card type boost. Once you exceed 50% noise you'll enter vibrant form where you gain access to the full suite of abilities your noise has to offer.
Noise changes are mostly irrelevant because of the current route being used. The strongest being Ophiuca because of the passive wood element boost that allows Acorn Bomb 3 to instantly end several random encounters that would otherwise have enemies survive with a low amount of HP. Corvus and Ox are also strong due to Atom Blazer and charge buster hitting for double damage on the grass panels Acorn Bomb 3 generates.
Noise Modification Gear
This is a Japanese only feature that works very similarly to Wave Command codes from Star Force 2. With these codes you can gain extremely strong passive abilities at the start of the game. However, unlike in Star Force 2 these codes are separated into multiple categories. There are Noised Cards which give you passive abilities, White Cards which give you an addition set of four unchangeable cards in your folder recolored to white, Reason Cards which affect abilities from your finalized form, and Transformation Archives which let you immediately enter a noise form and get a folder specific to it.
For speedrunning the only two that matter are Noised and White Cards. The folders you're forced to use with the Transformation Archives are very bad. Fortunately the Noised Cards are extremely good, being most similar to a lot of the Wave Command codes used in Any% Cards in Star Force 2. A big change with these however is that you can only select five of them, and that each card is assigned a suit and values, like a playing card. Using these you can form poker hands to avoid gaining bugs or gain additional abilities on top of the base abilities from the cards you picked.
A full list of Noise Modification Gear codes can be found here.
White Cards
To replace favorite cards which were featured in the first two games, white card sets were added. White cards are a set of four cards outside of the 30 card limit in your folder that are all recolored to white, so they're selectable with any other card just like normal white cards such as Gravity Plus. These sets can normally be downloaded through the in-game wave stations Mega Man can pulse into an ER from. However in both regions of the game you're able to enter a Noise Modification code to receive extremely powerful sets of them that can contain illegal, mega, and even giga cards cards.
A full list of White Cards can be found here.
Please note that only White Cards can be used on US versions of the games. If you wish to use other types of Noise Modification codes you should run on the JP version.
Version Differences
Forms
Noise Forms in Star Force 3 aren't version exclusive, but instead have preferences. This means all 10 and 1 secret forms can be obtained on 1 file. You can hold 2 Noise Forms, and to revert to the other form all you need to do is talk to the Noism in Natl Astro Wave1.
The rates for finding a noise are 75% for your version's forms and 15% for the other version's forms. The remaining 10% is the chance of finding Rogue Noise. So to give an example, a Black Ace has a 15% chance to get Gemini Noise but only a 3% chance to get Wolf Noise.
Regions
The Japanese version features Noise Modification Gear codes that allow you to gain a bunch of very strong passive abilities. These are very similar to the Wave Command codes that Star Force 2 Any% Cards uses. Runs on the Japanese version using these codes are separated to the category Any% Cards.
Routes
Detailed Any% No Cards Route - Useful for learning the game.