Media previews for Mega Man Star Force Legacy Collection have just gone live, finally giving us a very in-depth look at every game contained in this collection. We also have confirmation that just about every feature ever is returning — you name it, Star Force Legacy Collection has it.
If you want a full overview in video form, check out the video from our friend ShadowRockZX above! It’s almost an hour long and shows off almost every new returning feature, QoL change and addition in the collection. Otherwise, keep reading for a list overview, which covers both ShadowRockZX’s video and other sources.
Note that this is still a prerelease build, so any issues might still get fixed before release day.
General improvements
- In addition to Mega Man, Geo and Omega-Xis (the later as pre-order DLC), both Luna and Sonia can be set as your 3D navigator in the main screen of Star Force Legacy Collection.
- Currently it is not yet known whether this will be DLC or part of the base game.
- As previously shown, all Battle Cards have expanded names and descriptions, no longer limited by Nintendo DS screen crunch.
- Boss versions (EX, SP) still use vertically stacked letters as before.
- Many new voice clips have been added in battle.
- Mega Man now yells out his transformations and Big Bangs across all three games.
- Using Battle Cards, taking damage, start and finishing a battle will also play a voice clip from Geo or Omega-Xis.
- Both English and Japanese dubs are available. You can choose the voice language separately from the text language.
- In order to change voice language, you need to quit out of the game first.
- Unlike Battle Network Legacy Collection, there is no Chinese dub.
- All English voices have been redubbed, with the original voice actors from the anime reprising their roles.
- Star Force 3‘s Ace is voiced by Lucien Dodge; Acid is voiced by Roger Rose.
- The new voice clips added in Legacy Collection can be turned off. Doing so will only play voice clips in the same places that they did in the original Nintendo DS games.
- Voice clips can also be turned off completely by setting Voice Volume to 0.
- The high-resolution smoothing filter for general game visuals (pixel art), high-resolution character portraits and high-resolution Battle Card artwork can all be enabled/disabled individually.
- If you enable the high-resolution filter for game visuals but disable the high-resolution character portraits, the filter is not applied to the portraits.
- The full list of Assist options have been revealed:
- Speed Boost: if ON, increases Geo/Mega Man’s speed on the field screen.
- Encounter Rate: adjusts the encounter rate. Can be set to Off, Low, Standard, High, Maximum. Standard is the same as the game’s original encounter rate; Maximum is an instant encounter every step.
- The full list of Difficulty options have been revealed:
- Mega Buster Power: multiplies the damage of the Mega Buster. Can be set to 100%, 200%, 300%, 400%, 500%.
- Damage Reduction: reduces damage taken by Mega Man. You will still flinch, be affected by status effects, etc. Can be set to 0%, 20%, 40%, 60%, 80%, 100%. (No option to increase damage taken.)
- Reward Zenny: multiplies amount of Zenny received from battles. Can be set to 100%, 200%, 300%, 400%, 500%.
- HP Recovery: if turned ON, Mega Man will be fully healed after every battle.
- Guaranteed Escape: if turned ON, escaping from battle will always succeed.
- EX/V2 Boss Locator: if turned ON, EX/V2 bosses will appear on the Wave Road as visible characters, just like in the original Star Force 2. Otherwise, they will be invisible, like in every other game.
- In Star Force 1, the game uses the sprite of the FM-ian (so Taurus rather than Taurus Fire).
- In Star Force 2, EX/V2 bosses were visible in the original game, but turning this option OFF will now hide them.
- Battle Network: the final unrevealed option, if turned ON, the game basically acts like you have a Battle Network cartridge inserted. This lets you do the Battle Network crossover sidequests and get the BN Blaster.
- The BGM Selection option lets you customize which music plays in-game:
- Original: uses the original music from the Nintendo DS versions.
- Arranged: uses newly arranged music. All music tracks in the games have newly arranged versions.
- Favorites: replaces the battle music with a random music track from your favorites list. Music tracks can be marked as favorites in the Gallery.
- Controls can be customized with some limitations.
- Button Icons: lets you select which style of button icons is used. Can select from Xbox 360, Xbox One/Series, DualShock 4, DualSense, Nintendo Switch.
- Some buttons cannot be remapped when using a controller: movement, confirm, cancel, use Battle Card, use Mega Buster.
- Trophies (achievements) are back, now named Awards. There are 40 of them.
- There are no longer any version-exclusive achievements; all achievements can be obtained by playing just one version of each game.
- Auto-save uses a dedicated save slot. Each game has the same number of manual save slots as in the original.
- Border customization is confirmed. Aside from the border background, you can also choose the color of each screen’s border.
- Black background is an option.
- All character portraits are now fully redrawn, rather than AI upscaled as seen in previous demos.
- This also applies to the character portraits you can choose for your Brother profile.
- On your Brother profile, your Handle will always use your system account name (e.g. Steam username). This cannot be changed in-game.
- During PvP Wave Battles, there is now a Cancel Match button which will presumably cause you to give up the battle.
- Mouse input is not supported (and this likely extends to touch support as well). Star Force Legacy Collection is fully controller/keyboard only.
Star Force 1
- Lunar Knights Battle Cards are obtainable as Bonus Cards. (Can be downloaded into the Card Box.)
- The V3 cards are now obtainable; in the original game, they were exclusive to the Lunar Knights Brother Force Roulettes.
- Lunar Knights Brother Bands are available.
- The Lunar Knights sidequest is now available and translated in English.
- The Legendary Master Shin Brother Band, which was originally event exclusive, can be obtained.
- The Andromeda Battle Card, which was originally event exclusive, can be obtained as a Bonus Card. (Can be downloaded into the Card Box.)
- Each Cipher Mail can now be sent directly from a menu list, rather than having to type them in manually.
- However, you still have the option to type them in too.
- You can no longer send e-mail to Brothers.
- The On Air feature is still removed.
- [Unconfirmed] Consequently, this may mean that getting Attack Stars is no longer possible in Star Force 1.
- The Wave Scanner Power Up feature is available. (Renamed to Wave Transer.)
- Can be access from Mega screen. Can be set to LV1, LV10, LV20, LV30, LV40, LV50, LV60, LV70, LV80, LV90, LV99.
- Unlike in the Nintendo DS version, you cannot select which Satellite the scanner data belongs to. This means you will always start in the Star Force form that matches your game version.
- The Battle Cards scanning feature does not appear to be available.
- Geo Stelar’s name can no longer be changed.
- The Transer screen (top screen) always shows Geo Stelar. Your Brother profile page shows your player name instead.
- During the opening scene, the name entry screen is simply skipped and the game continues to the next cutscene.
- The Truck Comp (Taurus Fire’s dungeon) minigame has been updated from previous demos. The bull movement is now smooth rather than moving tile by tile, matching the Nintendo DS original.
- However, unlike the Nintendo DS original, the bull tracks no longer change to blue after fixing the terminals.
- The Space Sim Comp (Cygnus Wing’s dungeon) minigame now lets you fire the rockets by pressing the Y Button (changed from sliding the rocket up on the Touch Screen).
- The screens automatically change to a vertically stacked orientation when starting this minigame.
- The Harp Note minigame is now more difficult, the delay between each wave of notes has been removed.
- The RC Chopper (PropellerMan’s Navi Card) is now controlled via directional buttons/stick directly. The touch control buttons are no longer shown.
Star Force 2
- All Wave Command Cards are available. Now for the first time to European players! This includes…
- Blank Cards: changes a Blank Card into a special Battle Card.
- DX Cards: upgrades SP bosses to DX bosses.
- G Cards: upgrades normal viruses to G viruses.
- Item Cards: grants Zennys or Battle Cards.
- Legend Cards: grants a Legend Card that executes a premade combo.
- Tribe Attack Cards: grants a Battle Card that executes a Tribe Force Big Bang.
- Tribe Cards: makes Mega Man start battle in a certain form.
- There are no touch input codes, all cards are selectable from a list.
- The Star Carrier Power Up data feature is available. This feature grants Mega Man various stat boosts and abilities and allows him to start in a form.
- Can select from 4 types of data: Mega Man, Zerker, Ninja, Saurian.
- Can select from the following levels: LV1, LV5, LV10, LV15, LV20.
- The Legendary Master Shin and 1st Mega Man Brother Bands, which were originally event exclusive, can be obtained.
- If deleted, they can be re-obtained using the Wave Stations at the Wilshile Hills movie theater.
- The King Grandeur and Le Mu Battle Cards, which were originally event exclusive, can be obtained as Bonus Cards. (Can be downloaded into the Card Box.)
- The Sky-Hi Coliseum feature is removed.
- Legendary Master Shin instead talks about Casual and Ranked Matches now.
- However, the music for Sky-Hi Coliseum is still in the Gallery, and even has an arranged version!
- The extended profile feature, which was only in the Japanese version, is now available in English.
- This feature lets you add extra fields to your profile (Fav Food, Fav TV Show, etc.). Some of which could be added by inspecting objects in the game world.
- There is a swear filter on the profile fields, any bad words are replaced with asterisks.
- Each Cipher Mail can now be sent directly from a menu list, rather than having to type them in manually.
- However, you still have the option to type them in too.
- You can no longer send e-mail to Brothers.
Star Force 3
- All Noise Mod Gear features (known as Noise Kaizō Gear in Japan) are available. This includes…
- Noise Cards: grants special abilities for Mega Man, with additional abilities if you form a poker hand.
- White Cards: adds a set of White Cards to the Folder.
- Purpose Cards: grants special abilities to Mega Man’s Finalization, and can be shared across Team members.
- Currently the Team function has not yet been confirmed.
- Secret Satellite Server: occupies a Brother slot, and adds a special card that replaces the cards in the Custom Screen.
- The Secret Satellite Server can be leveled up just like in the original game (by using a specific card from the Satellite, the next access level is unlocked).
- The menu features a flowchart showing every access level and the card sets available in that access level. The Secret Satellite Server and Meteor Server access levels are divided into two tabs.
- There is an option to instantly unlock all access levels at once.
- Transformation Archive: changes Mega Man’s Noise Form while active, but you are restricted to a pre-built Folder.
- Additional Folders are unlocked as you increase Mega Man’s maximum HP (not counting HP boosting abilities), just like in the original.
- The menu features an overview of each Noise’s abilities and the contents of each Folder.
- The Acid Arrest and Crimson Dragon Battle Cards, which were originally event exclusive, can be obtained as Bonus Cards. (Can be downloaded into the Card Box.)
- The Pegasus Magic GX, Leo Kingdom GX and Dragon Sky GX Battle Cards, which were originally only usable via the Secret Satellite Server, can now be obtained as standalone cards as Bonus Cards. (Can be downloaded into the Card Box.)
- Each Cipher Code can now be sent directly from a menu list, rather than having to type them in manually.
- However, you still have the option to type them in too.
- Acid Ace BB and Dread Joker RR can be battled. In fact, there is even an achievement for defeating them both!
- Originally these bosses could only be fought through online battles. Since the media previews did not feature online access, it is currently not confirmed whether this is also possible in Star Force Legacy Collection.
- Overlapped cards (Support Cards) in the Custom Screen can now be selected using the directional buttons/stick. In the Nintendo DS original, these could only be selected by touching them.
- While the Bottom Screen is in focus, you can move a cursor with the directional buttons/stick to select icons and widgets which were previously touch-only.
- This cursor snaps to each option, it’s not freely movable.
- The lyrics for Sonia’s song (Shooting Star) have been tweaked to better match the rhythm of the BGM.
- The Gallery features two arranged versions of this song: Sonia Live Version and Misora Live Version. However, in the media preview build, neither version is voiced, and they both sound exactly the same.
- [Unconfirmed] It is possible voiced versions of this song may be added in a release day patch. Wendee Lee, the English VA for Sonia, previously teased Star Force Legacy Collection would feature a new musical element.
Minor changes
- The English localization has received a few minor updates.
- In Star Force 1 and Star Force 2, Mega Man’s name is now spelled with a space. Various other names are now also spelled with a space (e.g. Propeller Man).
- In Star Force 1, the name of Lyra (the FM-ian) is changed to Harp. However, this is not changed in Star Force 2 for some reason.
- Due to the removal of Sky-Hi Coliseum, Legendary Master Shin in Star Force 2 now talks about Casual and Ranked Battles instead.
- In-game tutorials have been updated to match the Legacy Collection feature set.
- Some card names are tweaked, some are not:
- Elec Sword → Electric Sword
- Elec Grenade → Electric Grenade
- Extinction Meteor → Extinct Meteor
- Ox Tackle is unchanged
- MT Magic is unchanged
- For some reason, Brk Time Bomb is not extended to Break Time Bomb.
- In Star Force 2 and Star Force 3, when entering a battle, the field music now stops after the battle transition rather than before it.
- Various graphical glitches that were seen in previous trailers and showcases have been fixed. For instance, Taurus Fire’s fire effects in Star Force 1 are now fixed.
- Semi-transparency effects (such as Barrier) are displayed different from the Nintendo DS originals. These now use an animating dithering effect instead of solid semi-transparency.
- In Star Force 3, the voice clip for “Luna Frag Search” is changed to “Searching”. (The text still reads “Luna Frag Search”.)
A big thank you to ShadowRockZX for helping clarify various points!