Detailed account of OSS from TGS

Tokyo Game Show 2009 has come and gone, and to close up our coverage we have a report from MMN reader Fireman, who was fortunate enough to get to attend the event and try his hand with some of the Rockman EXE Operate Shooting Star demos on hand. So we shall tie up our TGS coverage with his first hand account of visiting the events and playing the demos. I have to admit, the details on the Rockman Star Colosseum make it sound like a lot of fun!

Three playable demos were available.  A four person battle in the Rockman Star Colosseum or the “Rock Colo”, the main game up to until Netto’s (Lan) oven goes wild, and the battle type game where Netto and Rockman meet Meijin (Mr. Famous) for the very first time, and Meijin summons viruses, Fireman and even Shooting Star Rockman to battle with Netto and Rockman to see if they have what it takes to protect the world.  I had time to play the Rock Colo and the battle with Meijin, as well as while waiting in line, had a chance to watch the main game being played.

Unfortunately the demo for the main game only contains material that was, as far as I can recall, the same as that in EXE 1, aside from, of course, the map and the slight changes in the system.  For the most part the system aspects of the game are closest to EXE 2’s rather than EXE 1’s.  Aside from the opening video, Shooting Star Rockman does not seem to appear in this demo.

The battle with Meijin is where Netto meets Meijin for the very first time (as these events are before EXE 2), and Meijin gives the option to hear the basics of Net Battling or not.  I was in a hurry and already knew the basics, so I skipped that part.  Meijin then summons simple viruses, after beating them he summons Fireman, who has 300 HP.  Lastly, Meijin summons Shooting Star Rockman, who actually appears on the overhead map as well, and although he has nothing to say, his mugshot appears as well, with his eyes not visible through the visor (different from any we have seen before).  Netto and Rockman are surprised to hear that Meijin calls him Rockman as well, and then take it as SS Rockman being a fake version of Rockman.  Meijin says they are wrong and that SS Rockman is a hero from 200 years in the future and such.  But to test if Netto is worthy of protecting the Earth from an impending crisis, Meijin wants Netto to face SS Rockman.  Netto believes even if it is the hero from 200 years in the future, they will not lose.  The fight itself is still fairly easy, but SS Rockman will use his shield and War Rock Attack and Beast Swing often, as well as Rock Buster rapidly and Charge Shot and deal more damage than most enemies in single attacks.  I tested the strength of his shield by summoning Gutsman right in front of his shield when he was using it, but of course it did not break it or do any damage.  Although SS Rockman does not have Air Shoes or Float Shoes is one thing I can say for sure.  Anyway, you defeat SS Rockman and he falls to one knee (during the battle scene) and then Meijin congratulates you on being so powerful, and with a flash, he and SS Rockman vanish before your eyes leaving Netto to wonder about the mysterious Meijin and the mysterious SS Rockman and the impending doom.

You cannot play as SSR in either of those demos.  You can, however, play as SSR in the final demo, the 3 minute action battle mini-game Rock Colo, which had its creation headed by one of the younger members of the staff of this game.  You can play with four people, and although on stage they announced it allowed up to 6 people, they only had four DSs to use.  Also on the stage, they had shown a team battle, in which the EXE team (all players as Rockman EXE faced off against the Ryuusei team (all players SS Rockman), but in the non-team mode which they had at the booth, it was a single battle.  Also, to make note, you only need one game to play this mini-game with friends.  Even if your friends do not own the game, if they have DSs you can play with the wireless download feature.  Anyway, the game starts and you choose your character (Rockman, SS Rockman, or Blues) and your element (rock, paper, or scissors).  In the final version there will be many stages in which to choose from, but for the demo it was a randomized stage.

The stage itself is much like those in the Ryuusei 2 Sky High Colosseum, except that sometimes pathways will vanish, making it unable for someone chasing you to follow.  Not sure if they can vanish while you are on them or not.  The object of the game itself is to collect more stars than other players.  To do this you need to either pick up stars   or attack other players, which I will explain later.  There are at least two types of stars fallen on the map: the big stars count for one point, or the little ones with a number inside which count for the number inside the star.  Sometimes the stars are inside ice blocks and other obstacles you can destroy by attacking.  There are also warp holes that appear randomly around the map.  If you enter a warp hole, you will appear somewhere randomly on the stage with your element changed.

Rockman and SS Rockman play pretty much the same by shooting a shot out of their Rock Buster with the A button.  Blues swings his sword for closer range attacks.  It seemed to be that you need your element to be strong against the other in order to inflict damage on, or rather steal stars from the other players.  If you get hit too much and have no stars left, you get knocked out and warp to somewhere else on the map.  During the course of the game you can pick up rock, paper or scissors items and use them with the B button to change your element.  If you use two of the same element in a row, you will get an aura around you and be powered up.  But you still cannot go up against someone who has an element strong against yours.  Basically you want to always have a back up plan, be able to switch elements as soon as you find your opponents.  Aside from element switching items, there are also trap items such as pit holes, bombs and summons.  There is a black hole trap where you can set on the map, and if someone walks over it, you can attack that person continuously until the effect wears off.  The bomb you can place on the map where you like and will explode causing serious star loss to anyone around it.  It seemed some people also had bombs attached to them, which when exploded caused a loss of all stars to the attached person, and half the stars of those around that person.  The summons (or at least one summon) that I used cause Club Strong to appear and smash the ground.  When Strong appears the players who did not summon him need to go hide in the warp holes before the effect takes place, or else they will lose stars.  When the time runs out, the person with the most stars wins.  I was successful in defeating two kids and the father of one of those kids, and only felt a little bad about it.  Although, the opportunity for a come back in that mini-game is huge, so anyone could have won.

Aside from the previously mentioned, and what other people have mentioned already, Horiken announced on the stage that he wants to have events and downloadable chips for this game.  Likely, the same as with Ryuusei 3 though, even if you cannot go to the events, you can still probably get download chips through Wii channels or at DS stations.

Thank you for your report, Fireman!

The TGS 2009 experience details post

Perhaps this needs a better name. At any rate, Tokyo Game Show is going on as you know, and now it’s open to the public. The purpose of this post is to collect details from peoples’ reports back about what went down. This post will be updated and bumped as needed with new information. And of course, if any of you sweet readers is fortunate enough to be going, please send over your eyewitness accounts on the action!

From CAP Kobun:
-The Capcom Special Selection package for Rockman DASH 2 apparently contains an image of the original Rockman Trigger. It has been question for years if such a design was ever made, and until now has not been seen. (This may not really be the case, unfortunately).

From Wizard:
-The opening animation sequence to OSS is similar to BN5DS, combining still images.
-Recovery causes the screen to darken, pausing the battle (as it did originally)
-Long Sword does 100 damage (it only did 80 in the original BN)
-When playing as Star Force MegaMan, you press X to lock on, and hold B for rapid fire. The buster likely will auto-charge. Press Y for the shield.
-Star Force MegaMan’s shield cannot be used repeatedly
-Aside from the title music, none of the game’s music is arranged so far (but there’s no reason to suspect it won’t be)
-When operating Star Force MegaMan, the music changes to his theme song
-For attacks that pause the game (such as Navi chips), damage is calculated as the attacks progress, as opposed to being calculated after the screen undarkens
-The degree of difficulty for minigames during scenarios has been adjusted
-Details on the MegaMan Star Colosseum: Players are divided into two teams and compete for stars. You select your player and desired rock-paper-scissors attribute. For opponents whose rock-paper-scissors icon is weak to yours, you can attack them with A to steal their stars. You can also touch your allies to give them stars. There are items on the field to change your rock-paper-scissors attribute, as well as other items such as bombs, pitfalls, and speed-up ability. These are activated with B. You can lose items by being attacked. The map also has gimmicks such as vanishing platforms. At the end of the game, it announces which team is victorious by catching the most stars, and then shows individual stats. Club Strong from MegaMan Star Force 3 is also said to appear in the minigame, and attack by pounding away with his club.
-When battling Shooting Star MegaMan in an event battle, he attacks with his buster, shield, Sword (with and without lock on) and Omehga-Xis using Beast Slap.
-More rum0rs of there being special downloadable chips.

From 2channel:
-HP does not replenish after battles
-You can have two chip folders
-You can have no more than five of the same chip in your folder (in the original BN, it was ten)
-Mr. Famous seems to appear in some form or another
-Subchips are available now (likely because HP no longer replenishes!)

Keep checking back for more details!

Takeshi Horinouchi looking to do more EXE

If the revival of the Battle Network series via Operate Shooting Star has got you excited, well, you may have reason to continue being excited. This coming from Inside Game’s report of Operate Shooting Star’s special stage event yesterday. The other details match the Dengeki account (though there are some new photos you might want to take a look at), but this one detail at the end is pretty striking.

Horinouchi states: “Rockman EXE Operate Shooting Star will go on sale November 12th. Though the series wrapped up three years ago, thanks to the players Rockman EXE is able to sell once again. Furthermore, as we approach Rockman’s 25th anniversary, I’m thinking of what I want to do with Rockman EXE.”

Should Horinouchi follow through with his thinking, then Operate Shooting Star is only the beginning. Well, the re-beginning.

Rockman EXE OSS – TGS stage report

Dengeki Online has a report in from the first of Takeshi Horniounchi’s stage events for Rockman EXE Operate Shooting Star, giving a little insight to some details about the game.

First is the confirmation of something we generally figured. As the game progresses, MegaMan will seemingly face Star Force MegaMan as a boss (likely connected to the ClockMan event). After beating Star Force MegaMan, he becomes an ally and a playable character during circumstances when Lan and MegaMan get into a pinch (however, it is not expressed if this can occur any time to the player’s choosing, or if it’s only story specific events). The report also mentions being able to use the cards connected to the Star Force series, and being able to summon Star Force MegaMan for the Program Advance “Double MegaMan.” It is still unclear how Star Force’s battle cards come into play and if they’ll differ from Battle Chips.

Additionally, details are given about the minigame MegaMan Star Colosseum, which was thought up using Star Force 2’s Colosseum game as a base. The game, which can be played wirelessly with friends, has players assuming a character such as MegaMan EXE, Star Force MegaMan or ProtoMan, and scrambling about trying to collect stars on the map. However, players can also attack other players to steal their stars, seemingly via a rock-paper-scissors item system. Grab items to change which attribute you have, and then attack the player whose attribute is weak to yours.

Portions of this game appear to take place on a wave road-like structure above the clouds. This could possibly imply the existance of such areas in the main gameplay as well (this is my own conjecture).

Check out Dengeki Online for more photos from the event.

Update: Subtitled Rockman EXE Operate Shooting Star official trailer

Courtesy of Famitsu, here is Capcom’s TGS 2009 trailer for Rockman EXE Operate Shooting Star, which we have graciously subtitled for you. Here are some interesting notes to point out about the video:

-Contains arranged version of the MMBN main theme, but the rest of the music is original GBA and DS tunes (probably just filler for this video).
-Game will feature voice acting for at least Lan and MegaMan. Voices appear to be the same talent who worked on the Japanese anime.
-ProtoMan, ShadowMan and even Bass make their appearances among the footage.
-What appears to be a Program Advance similar to Double Hero, with both MegaMans, in the battle with ClockMan. (Curiously, this scene is cut so you can’t tell which MegaMan is actually doing the fighting.)
-ClockMan’s battlefield panels are identical to the ones in NumberMan’s stage, implying the event takes place there.
-Even Navi chips such as GutsMan’s will be available with a * code.
-The new Rockman Star Colosseum appears to be a frantic battle to collect stars while your friends try to stop you/get the stars themselves. Has a map apparently to show the location of players and items. (I don’t know how close this is to Star Force 2’s Colosseum minigame, I never had a chance to play it.)

Original video source: Famitsutube, via Protodude’s Rockman Corner

Operate Shooting Star to be playable at Tokyo Game Show

If you happen to be going to the Tokyo Game Show coming up September 24th (and I envy you if you are), be sure to drop by the Kids Corner and give the trial version of Rockman EXE: Operate Shooting Star a test drive, ’cause it’s gonna be there. The game will be playable specifically on the 26th and 27th, and those who try it will get a special sticker. Also, there will be a special stage presentation at the Capcom Booth where new info will be announced.

Knowing this, I suspect that the upcoming issue of CoroCoro will put some focus on the game’s battle system, since obviously it’s going to be seen at TGS anyhow.

Over at Capcom’s TGS Theater there are a couple movies for Operate Shooting Star. One is just a teaser and shows no gameplay footage. The other is a message from producer Takeshi Horinouchi. If you listen carefully, you can hear what’s likely OSS’s arranged title theme. A gameplay promo video is expected to come along soon.

If you drop by, by all means send along your impressions of the game; there are many who’d love to hear about it. And check out Ghost Trick and Okamiden too, those look pretty cool.

Rockman DASH 2 artwork/soundtrack set announced

MegaMan Legends fans will be drooling over this one. Capcom of Japan will be offering “Capcom Special Selection” packs for three games on sales at the upcoming Tokyo Game Show later this month. One of those games is Rockman DASH 2. So what is a “Capcom Special Selection”? It’s a pack set containing a 32 page booklet of both official and conceptual artwork, and a mini CD soundtrack. Unfortunately the soundtrack only has 17 tracks (the game itself has over 80 songs). Regardless, I am still super stoked to get one of these. I’ll have to work my connections.

Beyond TGS, the set will go on sale on e-Capcom October 1st. It will run for ¥2,000 (roughly $21.65 US). Check out the artwork samples and track list below.

Track list:

1. Title
2. The Flutter
3. Yosyanka Town
4. Calinca Island
5. Yosyanka Mine
6. Giwan
7. Jagd Krabbe Rev.
8. Bola
9. Galgalfummee
10. Glyde Drache Ace
11. Bancoscas
12. Blitzkrieg
13. Worgie Gairon
14. Hover Gustaf
15. Jiji
16. Mother Area
17. Sera Battle Body #2

News Credit: CAP Kobun