Rockman Strategy

Rockman Strategy also known as Rockman War (洛克人大戰) is a strategy game from the original Mega Man series that was officially licensed by Capcom and developed by Dream Come True (美梦成真资讯). It was published in Taiwan by ACERTWP (第三波) for PC in 2001 and re-released in 2002.

Story


Just when everyone thought peace had finally settled on the world, a strange series of biological events started to occur after an unidentified object crashed on Earth. The world was shocked by a series of earthquakes and, concurrently, plants throughout the world began to grow and wither at high speed. As news reports began to flood televisions across the globe about these catastrophes and scientists try to discover what is causing it, the infamous Dr. Wily made an appearance on TV, shocking the world. He announced that he was somehow behind these events and that unless the populace cooperate and give in to his demands, the world would soon be doomed.



However, little did everyone know that Dr. Wily was cooperating with a group of invaders from outer-space. These powerful Robot Masters, all named after the twelve signs of the Zodiac, except for their leaders, Luna and Apollo, were fooled by Wily to help the evil scientist conquer the world.



In Dr. Light's Laboratory, Dr. Light, renowned robotics engineer and pacifist, once again called on Mega Man (Rockman) to go after these powerful alien robots and the evil Dr. Wily. However, Duo returned to Earth to assist with the take-down of these robots.





Mega Man, Rush, Auto, Eddie, the newly-rescued Proto Man, Fan, and several others are forced to bring the alien robots off of their high-horses. Once Mega Man meets their leaders, Luna and Apollo, the droids inform Dr. Light that they had come to Earth seeking technology that had the capability to restore floral life to their planet, and they did not wish to cause trouble. However, the first person they met was Dr. Wily, and Wily used them for his plans. During the conversation, he uses some sort of device that managed to take control of them, and they are forced to fight against Mega Man. However, they are defeated, and afterwards Wily is stopped. After the incident, Mega Man and Duo take Apollo and Luna to Dr. Light's laboratory for repairs and the damage caused began to be restored. Dr. Light teaches them how to grow plants by using seeds, so the alien robots can restore their home planet.



Stage Select
Rockman Strategy has more than the traditional six-to-eight Robot Masters. There are twelve original bosses who are led by their leaders, Apollo and Luna. There are twelve because each is based on one of the twelve Zodiac signs. Once the player completes the Opening Stage, shown as Fire Man on the stage select screen, they are presented with the ability to replay Fire Man's stage or attempt to defeat Aries, Taurus, Gemini, or Cancer. Additionally, they can visit Dr. Light's Laboratory to buy items, purchase upgrades, or recycle parts into usable soldiers. Once the first four bosses are defeated, an event occurs which creates the need for Mega Man and his team to head to Taiwan to rescue Duo from the clutches of Ice Man, Guts Man, and Cloud Man. Once this is finished, four more bosses are accessible on the stage select. The game progresses in this fashion until all bosses have been defeated.

Dr. Light's Lab appears as a selectable pink dot on the map, each undefeated boss appears as a selectable green dot (when the cursor hovers over a dot, the mugshot of the boss is highlighted), and each defeated boss appears as a selectable red dot (the player can replay stages to earn more Screws if they wish).

Dr. Light's Laboratory
Dr. Light's Lab, located in Japan, is an important part of the game. At the lab, the player can purchase items (defensive, healing, and destructive), equipments (helmets, body armors, gloves, and boots), chips, upgrade statistics, save the game progress, and even create partners to help on the battle field. All of this requires the use of Screws received from the destruction of enemy robots.

It is important that, unlike in previous outings, Mega Man cannot use weapons acquired from defeated Robot Masters unless he goes to the lab and equips them. Moreover, certain weapons will require that Mega Man be upgraded to a certain level and have enough Skill Points to use them. The same goes for special attacks that other members of the team use, such as Beat, Eddie, Auto, Rush, Duo, and Fan.

The Field of Battle




Each boss has taken up residence in a certain part of Africa, Asia, or Europe. Mega Man and the rest of the team must make their way to these locations in order to deal with these robots, and the Robot Masters that Dr. Wily has sent to accompany and support them.

When a character's turn comes up, they can do one of several things:


 * "Move": They can move a certain number of squares, but only over certain terrain. Flying characters are more mobile than terrain-bound characters, of course.
 * "Action": They can attack, use a special move, or use an item. This only works if an enemy or ally is nearby. If they choose to attack an enemy, they enter combat for a period of 30 seconds, and either they die, the enemy dies, or time runs out. During combat, they can attack regularly, use special attacks, use an item, defend, or run away (if allowed). The "special move" feature depends on the character. For Mega Man, this allows him to change his element (this will be discussed later on).
 * "Data Management": From here one can save the game, load a save file, or return to the title screen.
 * "Options": From here one can access the Options Menu, and change features such as text-speed and sound mode. This menu can also be used to view the stats of the team and review the stage objective, which is either to defeat the boss or all enemies.
 * "End Turn": This option is very important. It allows the character to heal (while also changing the direction they are facing). It is a good way to end a turn.
 * "Return": This option only appears in stages that have been completed. It allows one to return to the stage select screen.



The game is played in "active time" and, as such, each character has an "active time" bar (a green bar) that fills up slowly after each turn. Once this bar is fully filled it is their turn again. The same is true for each enemy character and Robot Master: they get a turn and also have a green bar which is filling up along with the player's characters.

A Note About Elements: As mentioned earlier, Mega Man has the ability to change his element. If he has special chips equipped from the Robot Masters that were previously defeated, they will fall under a certain elemental category - Blue for Water, Green for Earth, Red for Fire, and Yellowfor Electricity. Neutral powers can be used by the normal-colored Mega Man. However, the elements work in a circular nature. While electrical-based weapons may be effective against water-based enemies, water-based weapons will also do more damage to Mega Man while he is in his Yellow form.

Bosses


Below is a list of the bosses as they appear on the right-hand stage select screenshot from left-to-right, top-to-bottom. On a related note, some of the bosses will be accompanied by past Robot Masters:


 * Opening Stage (Japan) - Fire Man and Cut Man

Phase 1
 * Aries (North of Asia) - Accompanied by Bomb Man and Flame Man.
 * Taurus (West of Asia) - Accompanied by Ice Man and Frost Man.
 * Gemini (South of Asia) - Accompanied by Guts Man and Metal Man.
 * Cancer (Pacific Ocean) - Accompanied by Elec Man and Spark Man.


 * Event: Rescue Duo from Cloud Man, Ice Man, and Guts Man.

Phase 2
 * Leo - Accompanied by Heat Man and Napalm Man.
 * Virgo - Accompanied by Bubble Man and Freeze Man.
 * Libra - Accompanied by Cut Man and Hard Man.
 * Scorpio - Accompanied by Cloud Man and Yamato Man.


 * Event: Rescue Proto Man from Freeze Man and Hard Man.

Optional Missions
 * Fight Napalm Man, Tomahawk Man and Pharaoh Man.
 * Fight Burst Man, Stone Man and Bubble Man.

Phase 3
 * Sagittarius - Accompanied by Fire Man and Burst Man.
 * Capricorn - Accompanied by Dive Man and Aqua Man.
 * Aquarius - Accompanied by Stone Man and Astro Man.
 * Pisces - Accompanied by Elec Man and Tomahawk Man.


 * Event: Fight Bass and Treble accompanied by Pharaoh Man and Knight Man.

Phase 4
 * Apollo - Accompanied by Heat Man and Knight Man.
 * Luna - Accompanied by Sword Man and Skull Man
 * Wily Machine - Accompanied by Flame Man, Frost Man, Spark Man and Metal Man
 * Wily Capsule - Accompanied by Skull Man, Bomb Man, Aqua Man and Sword Man

NOTE: Fire Man, Wily Machine, and Wily Capsule are also on the stage select screen. Also, there are additional stages that do not have a picture, where the player can go to earn bolts or complete side-missions, such as rescuing Duo (in Thailand) and answering Proto Man's distress signal (from Indonesia).

Trivia

 * This game's main bosses are named after constellations, which will later be used in the Mega Man Star Force series.


 * This game features 12 major Robot Masters on the stage select (14 if you include Apollo and Luna), the Dr. Wily machine and Dr. Wily, as well as stages that take place between the Robot Master stages (the player is presented with four Robot Masters at a time and usually an event takes place before four more open up). The new bosses are nicknamed "Constellation Droids" by fans.


 * In this game, Blues' name is misspelled as "Bluse", and Duo's name is misspelled as "Dio".

Rockman Strategy Opening
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