There is lore. The mechs are piloted by men who are usually mercenaries hired by huge corporations. Earth experienced a great cataclysm and were forced to live underground in massive futuristic cities. The major corporations are fighting for dominance over land and colonization. As a player you usually take on the role of a mercenary (raven) trying to make a living as a pilot. There's also massive tournament arena's where the Ravens fight for top rankings etc. Everything is about money.
That's the plot of the other games, but I will point out that armored core 6 will be mostly disconnected from most of the other armored core games, thus why it doesn't even take place on earth. It takes place on "Rubicon 3", if I remember correctly
To my knowledge, most of these games have their own self contained stories, and they sometimes dont continue them after two games. The most common factor is that you play as a Mercenary pilot, usually referred to as Ravens, that works as lap dogs for companies doing various objectives to further their goals. You will also fight with and against other Ravens from time to time, which sometimes pushes the plot forward.
You are correct. Armored Core 1 to Armored Core 2 AA are one timeline. Armored Core 3 to Armored Core Last Raven was another timeline, and Armored Core 4 to Armored Core 5 and Verdict Day was the last timeline. The new one is supposed to be in its own Universe as well
@@dagonofthedepths it appears that Ravens in the AC4 universe are just exceptionally skilled normal pilots and not the exact same ones from the older gens.
@@jccaniba23 It does but the Lynx that are called Ravens are really just the more season pilots and that term isn't used for any of the new pilots in For Answer. If it was just a title given to skilled normal pilots graduating to Lynx then Wonderful Body would have been a huge candidate for that. But on the other hand, the season pilots where all the most deadly and the term could have gone out of favor or From Software just forgot or it's just an easter egg, who knows? Like I said it's thin.
@@jccaniba23 the only one called a Raven in AC4 is the player character if I remember right in ACFA no one is called a Raven except for maybe the pilot of White Glint (because he is the player character from 4) in 5 and VD there is only mention of a "Dark Raven" (presumably the player from 4A in the bad ending... or maybe not) I don't remember the player being refered to as one
First thing. The armored core aren’t robots. They’re mechs/mecha. You can think of them as humanoid tanks and they need pilots. The story has been rebooted multiple times but it’s usually some variation of your player character is a mercenary fighting in a war to take back the surface of the Earth after a war/apocalyptic event devastated it and humanity hid underground for a time.
"Giant death robots are probably not enviroment friendly" Funny you said that on trailer for AC4: For Answer. Where whole plot revolves around that power generators used in those robots (aside from other giant death things) are definetly NOT enviromentally friendly and are polluting the planet, slowly making it uninhabitable.
In every Armored Core game, the AC units are piloted by Humans. In the first game, there was a handicap system where if you repeatedly failed missions and ran into debt you would force a restart and get a cut scene where you'd get a 'Human Plus' cybernetic augmentation which allowed you special abilities (like the ability to fire the heaviest weapons while moving, while regular human pilots had to stand still to fire). The later games incorporated this into the lore and from then on running into augmented humans similar to the Human Plus program were present in every game. The only exception to this rule I know of is in the first game, when a single recurring AC pilot in the story is discovered to be a hyper-advanced AI that can control multiple exact duplicates of the same AC. He has perfect performance in his duties because whenever he is 'killed' on a mission he miraculously returns to finish the job.
Your comment needs to be first. The fact that the Armored Cores are VEHICLES (mechs) and not robots is a pretty big detail to be unaware of. It skews their whole understanding of the series.
Armored core is one main reasons i love mecha...anything, the concept of piloting a giant robot moving at blinding speeds with the ability to destroy an entire fleet is just so perfect
Longtime fan of this series. The button layouts to control it will give you carpal tunnel and arthritis, totally worth it. In general, the series is about corporate exploitation and endless war. It's funny you mention robots doing a better job than us during the trailer for 3 where that's what the game is about. Although it was more of an animal farm situation where the AI is really not any better or worse than a despotic human.
“The Armored Core Series: A Newcomer's Journey” I highly recommend you watch this Armored Core Newcomer's commentary! His videos are very detailed and will definitely make it easier for you to understand the worldview and lore of the Armored Core Series!
So the Armoured Core titles are generally based on various conflicts around the world. The main plot that links the games is that the sheer number of wars has essentially turned the surface to ash and and cinders. To the point that in For Answer, humanity spends most of their time in floating cities to avoid the awful atmosphere below. It's the usual commentary on the destructive power of a corporate led world, but with some From Software flair.
Funny I was just watching some of your older reactions and I see this upload. Armored Core is a damn fun series and in typical FromSoftware fashion they are challenging but not impossible. Personally super excited for the 6th game to come out.
The 5 Armored Core games I played on the PS2 were all between Armored Core 2 and 4. There are a lot of titles in between the numbered releases. I think Armored Core 6 will actually be the 15th game in the series. I'd have to check the wiki to be sure I didn't forget one.
Oh man the nostalgia. This was like a 15 game series starting back in 97 I think. It has multiple timelines but short version of most of them are about a dystopian future where people live underground ruled by corporations and there is usually an AI overlord pulling the strings behind the scenes. Your player is an Armored Core pilot (the robots) usually working for a mercenary organization and you take missions posted by one of serval corporations wanting your services for, uh, hostile takeovers or aggressive union busting. As the game goes on you're trusted to take on more sensitive and dangerous missions, you'll fight with and against your fellow mercenaries and eventually polish off whatever grand conspiracy the game is based around. Like 4:08 that's the intro to Armored Core Silent Line which was about people going to the surface for the first time in centuries and they discover this mysterious resource rich area they call the Silent Line. It's called that because anyone that goes there is targeted from orbit by very powerful satellite weapons so the main plot is all the corps are rushing to be the first to break into the Silent Line and that creates a lot of work for a merc like you. But as far as the story it's like Dark Souls. It's a touch more in your face about it but it can get a bit deep if you're looking. armoredcorelore's channel has a lot of armored core, uh lore. probably has the best breakdown on youtube of the setting but it'll take a few hours to go through some of the timelines.
15:40 welcome to the universe of armored core. It may lack the blood and gore of the FromSofts other games but it definitely has the most dark lore. The Destruction ending of ACFA is completely screwed up particularly
the raven callsign is a throwback to the earlier games when thats what i believe the pilots were called, hence him going by the callsign raven and the ending when guy asks why hes using that call sign and the lady saying lets see how far he can fly i borrowed wings which again i think is a reference to the raven callsign and its probably nothing anyone here uses but its a big deal name
i love the AC series, all the options for arms/legs/core/head/weapons like normal legs, reverse joint legs, hover, tank, quad-leg so many options reminds me of the old Mech Warrior games, and an old Sega 32x game called "Metal Head" which i played a lot in my younger days
AC lore is pretty deep, if there are lore videos out there they'd be an interesting watch. Also don't go into it looking for dumb fun, the designing of your mech can get tedious on the harder missions. A load out that completely bulldozers one mission can be completely useless on the next.
My favorite bits of lore in 4 Answer are that corporations became so powerful they did away with all nations. Also you can straight up become a mega war criminal if you want, which is saying a lot for this setting.
The story never really made it into the marketing material for the Armored Core games. Most of the earlier games that I played involved playing as a mercenary called a Raven piloting "the Armored Core". A lot of the missions were just about being hired to fight for various corporations, but there would be an overall story underpinning at least some of those missions. In Armored Core 2 for example, the game was entirely on Mars. You ultimately had to stop the leader of a special forces unit from controlling an abandoned alien control center hidden in Mars' moon Phobos. The control center would allow him to command an army of alien robots to conquer Mars with.
The best part about 2's final antagonist is He's your player character from Master of Arena, who, after freeing humanity from a controlling AI, saw humanity rule for 90 years and decided the AI was actually right.
idk much about armored core, but if you want mechs with stories there is either Gundam or Battletech. gundam is (mainly) an anime about the horrors of war, both side bad and good at the same time, child soldiers, what it means to be human, etc... battletech is in short, game of thrones but with mechs. it is mainly a video game, tabletop wargame, and a nice big number of actual books.
Each of the Armored Core games have separate stories. Although some are connected in pairs. Like 3 and Silent Line, Nexus and Last Raven, and the rest being obvious in the names. All of them being you play as a mercenary jumping into whatever conflict between factions for money. Most of the time the conflict is on Earth but in cases of 2 and 6 it's not. Funny you guessed AIs taking over and the fighting not being good for the planet cuz that kind of happens a lot lol. My favorite mech games hands down! 😁
I hope you make a part 2 of this, some games got missed: AC: Project Phantasma - ua-cam.com/video/aF1C5ZYWZdc/v-deo.html AC: Master of Arena - ua-cam.com/video/ugtj-3SbjnQ/v-deo.html AC2: Another Age - ua-cam.com/video/itdud7nSa3o/v-deo.html AC3: Silent Line - ua-cam.com/video/Y48mIL-07_o/v-deo.html AC Nexus - ua-cam.com/video/swSJvzXhecA/v-deo.html AC Ninebreaker - ua-cam.com/video/6DC05ckqBGg/v-deo.html AC Last Raven - ua-cam.com/video/pFf4dSLyZto/v-deo.html AC Verdict Day - ua-cam.com/video/9Fzh5NQb_aw/v-deo.html EDIT: included links to make it easier for you to find it.
Augmented means enhanced - so, an augmented human would be a cyborg, would be my best guess. (Could be biologically enhanced in some way... but it's humans piloting giant mech suits, so mechanical enhancement is way more likely.)
Here is the basics of all the Armored Core games. Half of it is fast pace Mech combat with corporations being scumb bags. The other half is barbie dress up with big 3 story tall mechs. Everything from weapons, body parts, internals, paint, camos, player made emblems, decals. Haha In the multiplayer matches it would not only be a show of skillz, but a fashion show. You spent half your time building your Armored Core hahah Hella fun games. I hope you guys give Armored Core 6 a chance qhen it comes out
The guy at 8:05 reminded me of the Pursuer from Ds2, so I looked it up. Apparently Pursuer was partly based on Armored Core*, but on a different character. A red guy called Nine-Ball. I always really like things that have a cohesive and recognizable style, like how with Star Wars, you can tell what it is just from the ships. *His entrance is apparently the same, they drop in from Helicopter (in his case, a bird) and then hover And Credo from DMC4 And the chosen undead from DS1 And Nemesis from Resident Evil 3
YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS! A series that hasn't had a new entry in 10 years until recently with AC6. Wars on a devastated worlds between corporations for new resources, using mercs in custom mechs! I feel like a kid again. Vaati Vidya, Above Average Gaming, and Armored Core Lore has plenty of content to chew on.
Augmented, as in the dictionary definition of: Improved / Modified (most of the time used in a cybernetics context). There are Human pilots in there, upgraded with technology. U know like "cyborgs" kinda.
Essentially you fight as a mercenary for corporate interests. There is usually something wonky happening behind the scenes, and AI is usually involved.
When you're a teenager, playing on your Playstation and enjoying all the cutting-edge games of the late 90's, you don't need no stinkin' story to keep you enthralled. Giant Robots with missiles and cannons is more than enough to make for a compelling game. I remember playing the originals. I quite enjoyed them and the customization you could do with your mech. They were good times indeed. I believe though, they are not AI machines. I am pretty sure it's meant to be a human pilot at the helm with computer assistance. Was very excited to hear about a new one coming out. I have apparently missed quite a few, but it really says something that they didn't just keep making games until the franchise was buried in a heap of obscure indistinguishable titles. It also gives the benefit of knowing you're not getting something that was hurried out the door to capitalize on a trend thus making the quality questionable.
Why yes. I am lore person. And yes I played this series. Each game is mostly self to story and some different planets. Each game from 3 and onward played more role in directions of gameplay changes of experience. In 4 they coined the concept of "god is force" in these warring big dog companies directing their ideals through the battlefield against their rivals, each with their own unique philosophies and directions of research and design, but with For Answer we see a rare unique continuation of this story expressing what had previously been learned and brought to ruin with a new resolve. The star pilots of forces were tremendous assets, but could decide a different fate on a whim against the others wishes, and so they solved this colossal mobile units called "Arms Forts" manned by crews of thousands and therefore a force they could trust that rivaled these top mercenary forces. The mercenary mechs, Armored Cores, in gen 4 of the player's comparison were an advanced grade of them called NEXTs, with superior defenses and pilot integration more fluently. All round these games are pretty fast paced and pretty fun making a mech that looks and works how you want.
The AC series has a lot of story content, but similar to the Souls series it’s pretty understated. You need to thoroughly read mission briefings and flavor text and put things together to get an idea of the bigger picture. Which is fitting because you always play a mercenary who explicitly doesn’t have the full story on all the Inter-corporate warfare and skullduggery going on. The games are more about depressing, desolate vibes and atmosphere. The world has been ruined by corporate resource wars and humanity has taken to the stars to do the same to other planets. The major themes of the series are loss of humanity in war and under capitalism. In the first game if you lose enough missions in a row and go into debt (everything costs money, ammo, deployment costs, etc.) then you get a game over and are sold to a cybernetics corporation who performs experiments on you and gives you cybernetic enhancements. Then you start the game over with better abilities. It’s super dark though, even with PS1 graphics the cutscene is chilling.
*The armored core 4 mech you saw was a guy named Beriloz if I remember his name correctly. You fight him in a 3 v 4 battle later on in the game. Hectic stuff. The white mech in For Answer is White Glint, someone from 4, either a ally or boss depending on the story you play, White Glint is your main character from 4 btw.*
Not only do Armored Core games have stories, they are often incredibly thoughtful and examine the human condition in ways you might not expect. These are not dumb turn-your brain off games in the slightest.
15:41 "What are you fighting for? The world's been destroyed three times over" the moment I heard this, I automatically thought the Fallout catchphrase: War, war never changes.
You didn't see stories here because that's not what these cinematics were for. But these games absolutely have stories. And the stories get very deep and complex and are 100% worth figuring out as you play.
Great reaction vid, as a general rule each main numbered title has its own new setting and story, but the central idea for all of them is that you're a mercenary piloting a giant robot. The main thing you guys got correct, is that giant war machines do tend to be very bad for the environment.
There is an overall lore. Essentially, all of these games are simulations run by an A.I. in order to figure out how to avert the extinction of humanity. They are notoriously difficult (In a different way than the Souls series). You could treat EVERY person who plays the game as a separate simulation run by the A.I., looking for the deciding factor, the likelihood that just one skilled Pilot could make a difference in these potential crises. What makes these pilots different from one another? How can they be fostered to guarantee they exist when they are needed most? The simulations have various premises, all of which involved Corporate Control resulting in galactic devastation to an extent, so the A.I. treats THAT problem as an inevitable certainty. Other scenarios involve fighting over limited resources while surviving underground, the early pioneering period of a new world(Mars for example), EVEN what happens if an A.I. were to malfunction and undergo Rampancy (a state where an A.I. essentially goes insane due to being in service for too long and simply knows too much and rapidly approaches the point where they cannot relate to their human creators anymore in any sort of fashion), so the A.I. even simulates a calamity where THEY need to be destroyed for the sake of humanity. Its there if you really dig for it but overall, the point is, just have fun as a player. But yeah, apart from the 6 you just saw there are MANY more of these games, typically in each generation 1,2, and 3, each have 2 MORE games that followed them, not story wise but they used the same game engine. 4 and 5 only had a single follow-up game each, 4Answer and Verdict Day(V as 5). You could treat them as Expansions or DLC but not as we know it now. 6 is the first new game we've gotten in over 12 years and us AC fans have been FROTHING in joy. And now we have a whole legion of Soulsborne fans to introduce the series to so its going to be a great year for gaming!
Yeah, AC's story basiclly boils down to Corps run everything and you are generally a merc in a weapon of mass destruction casually commiting war crime to get your quarterly bonus.
Yes, the Armored Cores are piloted by exeptional individuals (is very taxing on them) and there are augmented humans ( human plus mode gamemode)... more cyborg like. The "robots" are UNACs (UNnmanned Armored Core) The story... cataclysm, rogue AI, Ravens (mercenary group), fkin Corporations... some alien tech... Is rly cool !! Just recently played first time, Verdict Day... My opinion is that is souls-like, in the sence that is unforgiving... you have to prepare well for the unexpected. 👍🏻
The thing you have to remember with japanese giant robot anything in a realistic militaristic setting is that 99% of the time the robots are going to be piloted and have real people inside of them. Mech animes like gundam got popular because they focused on war and child soldiers, with a kid or two forced to pilot a giant death machine and kill people.
the folks at From softs need to team up with bamco and go all out with producing kits for AC fully parts swappable like 30minmissions. Heck bandai also released 30imsis which is basically mecha armored anime girl kits. AC kits needs to be more accesible maybe they can go for the entry grade scale and approach to make it more beginner friendly~
In Armored Core, it is always humans who devastate the world, and AI was created to reclaim the devastated world and save humanity. But in its way, AI manages wars to prevent apocalypse from occurring and allows a few humans to die. In the game, many people are fighting for money. The player is one of the mercenaries hired for money. Therefore, there is not much fighting between good guys and bad guys. The AI manipulates the economy and mercenaries to stalemate the war. However, the stalemate is broken by the extraordinary power of the player, and the war rages on. And so you will witness a changing world in this game.
Never thought you guys would be interested in Armoured Core. By far one of the most beloved FromSoftware franchise of true diehard fans. There’s so much freedoms to create your very own unique robot with literally hundreds of parts to mix and match. The first game alone boasts over 50,000 different ways to customise your own mech, the later games only introduce more and more parts. There’s something you should know though. Armoured Core is nothing like Dark Souls in terms of it following their combat gameplay. In fact, Dark Souls borrows any aspects from Armoured Core into their own themes such as limited supplies whilst out in the field, meeting up with equally powerful custom characters and the themes of dystopian fantasy broiled into a player focused experience. So if you see people say “It’s Dark Souls but with mechs”, you now know better. You can tell them “Dark Souls is Armoured Core set in medieval times” 👍🏾👍🏾👍🏾
These are single-celled organisms and are interested in money, not games. AC6 is big in the news coming up to release so they're cashing in on the interest.
In case you're interested in more Armored Core there's actually way more than 1-6 there's a bunch of them that have special titles or are even alternate versions of the previous title. For example there's Armored Core 2, then there's Armored Core 2: Another Age, or Armored Core 4 and Armored core 4 Answer. Then there's games that didn't even get numbers like Armored Core Formula Front and Armored Core Nexus
24:53 On the very first game, if you went into a huge debt, you're Raven (Pilot) will undergo Human Plus (or OP-Intensify) surgery, technically making your Raven an "augmented human". You can do it for 6 times and each time you undego the operation, your mech gets more and more buffs to it. One example is not needing to kneel when using backmounted grenade launchers.
I would suggest Josh Strife Hayes "Is It Good?" video on Armored Core 1. He goes into a lot of detail of the story (you're a mercenary working for anyone who will hire you in the middle of a corporate war), themes (humanity vs. being a cog in a larger machine), and overall motifs that FromSoft has kinda been incorporating since before Demon's Souls (Heck, one mission has you destroy the gang "Dark Soul", and this was back in 1997.) Ultimately though, the main focus of Armored Core is the mech customization. It's about building your own dream machine, and seeing how well it can weather the various missions placed in front of you.
I don't know how the video you watched, could leave out the opening movies from Armored Core 2, AC2 Another Age, Master of Arena, Nexus, Ninebreaker, and Last Raven. Those openings would have gave you more context to the AC games. Yes, there are people inside these personalized giant robots, piloting them like the are jets, or extensions of their own bodies. And Augmented Human, as in Cyborg implants to make you more at one with the machine. The old games even had this thing called Human Plus, that gave you more abilities then the average pilot. Exept for Ninebreaker, which is more like the Olympics for these pilots. The common story of Armored Core games, is that corporations have become so powerful, that they are like governments, with their own militaries. And instead of just pure, Free Market Capitalism. The corporations go to war with each other, over resources & territory. Constantly attacking, disrupting, and spying on each other. You play as a mercenary for hire, with you're own private war machine. You can accept jobs from any of the corporations or other entities. These jobs range from destroying things, to protecting things, to assassinations, investigations, and messed up situations, like taking out protestors, revolting for better work conditions, and they were possibly manipulated by a rival corporation anyway, to start drama for the corp they work for. What ever the job you're able to do, you have to do it, because you have to grow, just to survive these crazy worlds, and you have bills to pay. The line "God is Force", means right & wrong dosen't matter. Good & bad, what's fair, what's efficient, dosen't matter. What matters, is who has more power, and can be the most devastating. Including you. You almost always start out as a disposable nobody, that no one really cares about. But as you tinker & practice, your build & skills will become so great, that you become god-like. The same corporations & groups that treated you like garbage, start to appreciate you, then respect you, then beg you for help, or fear you, see you as a threat, and try to eliminate you, even if you don't show loyalty to anyone, which you shouldn't do anyway, because nearly all entities are greedy or messed up. It is very common in AC games for you to be betrayed, ambushed, or purposely sent on suicide-missions in atempts to get rid of you, but after surviving all of that, everyone starts treating you like a force of nature, with the power to greatly influence how the war ends, even create great change to the world. Including sometimes ending these evil corporations, bringing peace & freedom to the world. And there are also Arenas with rankings, which are essentially like televised MMA matches with these robots and their pilots, which for some reason are codenamed Ravens. There are many parts to chose a build right for you. Leg type determine a lot, like how your AC can move, and how much weight it can carry. You can light & agile, a heavily armored tank, or anything in between. You can try to build for specific missions. But I think it's best to develop your own fighting style, what makes you happy. Play to your strengths, and be aware of your weaknesses. Even more then the story, every part choice has a downside. Mix & match, and tune what's right for you, optimize, and practice. Become a god, save the world, or destroy it.
The games have their own self-contained stories, but generally the premise of the series is that instead of nuclear weapons, highly efficient weapons of war were created: Armored Cores. These would be mass produced, & conflict would quickly ravage the world. Mercenaries dubbed "Ravens" would be the primary pilots of these Armored Cores. Armored Core 4 was how I got into the series, & that was the one with "God is Force." And I'm just gonna tell you; you'll find that sentence is very literal after playing the game for a little. Try looking up some Armored Core 4 gameplay. High level tournament gameplay in particular paints a VERY clear picture of that statement.
It's funny she said "maybe the robots can do a better job than us." because the plot in many of the older games is that humanity basically destroyed the world and the ones who are left live in cities controlled by AI.
I love AC and would play AC4 for hours at a time after school! While it has a plot, it's not the reason you play. And I would argue the action and combat featured in the trailors is actually secondary to the best part of AC, the deep, deep rabbit hole of customisation. Missions in AC4 could be as brief as a couple of minutes sometimes less, but hours are spent building and tweaking your armoured core. As everything is customisable, not just limbs and weapons, but also power supplies, thrusters, radars, processor chips, targeting arrays, and stabilisors. All of these would interact and impact things like armour, weight, speed, energy output and consumption, manoeuvrability, balance, accuracy, processing speeds, and more. No 2 mechs feel or perform the exact same. So there was a game in itself to balancing all of these variables to design the perfect mech for your playstyle or even for a particular mission. All of your parts need to be bought and sold and completing missions would fund new parts, but you'd also have to pay for ammo and repairs, so failing a mission can be devastating if your trying to save money for particular upgrades. If you ask me, this is the actual narrative to the AC games, not about the characters or plot, but trying to overcome the challenges that come with trying to build and maintain the ultimate mercenary fighting machine. Thats my take at least, super keen on the new release though, as its been a long while and looks like they're trying to bring some nice ease of use improvements while still keeping to that core experience.
Th pilots are humans depending on what title they are mostly augmented in some way. The pilots are mercenaries that usually fight for corpo overlords. And yes the world is usually in ruins making the surface almost a living hell.
You two are awesome. Never change. I'd love to see you both pick teams of characters from a new game and play it together only using those characters. It would be a fun video
Man. Whoever made the video you guys watched, did NOT put enough of the openings to the games in there. There's a better one which actually has all the openings all the way up to Armored Core V, which was the last one before Fires of Rubicon that actually had a cinematic.
From playing about 5 of the PS2 era Armored Cores, I can say that the plot doesn't carry over between numbered entries in the series. At most, the games in-between numbered entries, like AC2: Another Age or Silent Line: Armored Core, might be tangentially related to their previous numbered game. Armored Core 2 and 3 respectively. It's hard to explain, but that goes for From Software in general. Especially back then.
Armored Core 1-2 and their accompanying titles are part of one universe. AC3, and 4-5 are separate to my knowledge. Each game has a select set of parts you can buy from the in game store, and parts you can get in different mission maps and are prizes in the arena. Each game ahs millions of combinations for your personalized AC. Each game gets more in depth with the mechanics. Radiators and Core boosters become a thing in AC2. AC3 has core weapons, AC4 has continuous flight. AC5 has a sorta Rock, Paper, Scissors mechanic between energy, Kinetic and chemical weapons. and armor that has varying strength vs them.
You won't find the lore in the trailers, but I'll sum it up for you. This takes place in the distant future. There was some sort of great destruction at some point in which most of historical knowledge is lost. A world government is established which I believe also governs Mars. (Which is developed well beyond the colonization stages.) But despite the government most of the power is wielded by major corporate conglomerates that all have their own private armies. As the player, you are a raven. Raven is a designation for mercenaries who pilot Armor Cores (ACs for short). ACs as you deduced are fully customizable battle machines. You choose every component from the weapons, legs, heads and boosters to the generators, radiators and targeting components. You have to purchase every component. The corporations are the one's who manufacture the AC parts. And every raven is free to choose who they work for. They can align themselves with a corporation or they can work for the highest bider. They have complete autonomy.
The plots in Armored Core usually contain the following: 1. Anti capitalist message. (You're a merc working for corporations in order to take over territory or a resource, some of the games have missions in which you have to kill striking workers. The first mission in the very first game is exactly that. There's also the games putting you in a feeling of just being a number in a proxy war, just there to make profit for corporate overlords) 2. Ambientalist message. (Pollution and industrialization are usually big parts of the plots) 3. Set in post apocalyptic Cyberpunk dystopias.
its true, nobody cares about the lore. it's all about the robots. In this game, its normal to spend 5 hours in the garage just to do a 5 minute mission.
"God is force" is referring to and old saying where, the bigger guns you have, the more fire power you carry, the bigger army you have, the less people want to fight and the more people start seeing your side of things, seeing those with the most power and strength as a god. Better then you, better then his enemies, better then everyone. You have the biggest guns, no one can challenge a God who is stronger then everyone
As one has stated; nearly each game is it's own self-contained story; however some do have connections, and there are speculated theories as to the potential over-arching story/time line. But to break down each game: AC1: You are a conscripted pilot of an AC, owing debts to the two major Companies: Chrome and Murakumo. The end goal: payoff debts, and be the best "Mercenary". AC2 (Canonically linked to AC1 and it's expansions): Mankind managed a way to Mars during the events of the First Game. In playimg catch-up, the player becomes a Raven under similar circumstances to AC1, but over-reach of Earth Government, and such start to attempt to happen, and one support turning rogue to all later almost creates a solar system changing catastrophe. AC3 (First "soft reset" of series): Mankind is forced underground into Cities referred to as "Layered"s. Of which; all are governed by an entity called, "the Controller": an AI entity that is meant to ensure Mankind's longevity. However, it doesn't take long for the AI to hold to it's namesake. AC4 (Separate Timeline): the Player is an Augmented Human, that pilots Neuro-Psychonetically Link mechs that utilize a new Resource for shielding: Kojima Particles; that is killing the planet. You work for one of two Independent colonies that aren't under a Companies' thumb, that does anything, and everything; to remain independent. ACV (Potential follow-up of AC4): the world is in ruin, a league of Companies controll all that goes on in the world, and the player and their squad become part of a Rebel force against the Alliance. AC, like the Souls-Borne games; doesn't drop the lore into the laps of casual, or one time players: AC4 through now, have slowly started putting the story in a more direct way to the players.
Just saying, you're actually missing a lot of the trailers for these games. You're basically getting the cliff notes versions of the games trailers. Seriously recommend checking out the openings for the ones you missed, such as Armored Core 2's actual opening. Last Raven's opening in particular is a personal favorite of mine.
Each game has its own story and they don't really connect. Most of the games aren't even on the same planets. But the lore is absolutely there and it is really good and very deep. Just because they don't spell it out in the cinematics doesn't mean it isn't there or that it's simplistic. But what they all have in common storywise is that you are an independent mercenary, taking jobs from various factions, mostly corporations, governments, rebels, freedom fighters, and even terrorists and criminals. You are a human who is piloting the giant robots. There aren't really good guys and bad guys. It's more complicated than that. While you are playing the games it is left to you to decide which side you think are the good guys and bad guys. And you'll end up fighting for both sides, a third and fourth side, or for your own interests. The main draw of the games is customization. You can build your particular mech however you want it. You can swap out all of the parts and weapons. You can build an ultra light and fast mech that can dodge enemy fire, or a huge heavyweight with tons of armor and give firepower. Or anything in between.
All of the plot lines vary, but the basis is that it's a dystopian, post apocalyptic world where corporations rule and you are a lowly mercenary just trying to get by. There isn't any saving these worlds and in some of them, doing the right thing means basically doodling everyone. Same sort of vibes as dark souls and elden ring but still its own thing
So, basically everyone else already explained this... So what's one more on the pile? Every game in the Armored Core Franchise has it's own standalone plot... Each NUMBERED game is a different timeframe, setting, timeline...whatever, and most every numbered game has "expansion games" that are still thier own story, but might have carry over from the numbered title, but most importantly you can carry your save data into the expansion games and keep your built ACs and inventory of parts. (Each numbered game usually redoes the parts lists, even if a lot of them are just updated versions, like there's always an Antenna shaped head, or humanoid legs with side panels, etc etc etc.) For Example: Armored Core 1 and Armored Core, Master of Arena. Same world. Same systems and sets of parts. New missions, new plot, a few new additional AC parts, new player character (you almost never actually see the humans), but maybe the player character from Armored Core 1 is infamous, or has a part in your backstory, or, like Pokemon Gold and Silver, he's the guy you want to beat to prove you're the best. And then Armored Core 2 has Armored Core, Another Age. Etc etc etc. The story and lore are there, but usually given to you through emails at your mech-building garage/home base, told through mission descriptions, or through radio chatter during said missions. Though it usually boils down to "corporations are at literal war for control of everything, often resources on a dying/war ravaged world, there's probably some deeper conspiracy/secret extremist enemy trying to stop it all in ways that probably involve killing everyone so there's nothing left to fight over, etc etc etc. Otherwise, there's usually franchise common elements, like a laser blade called "Moonlight" or a gun called "Karasawa" in the same way Final Fantasy always has Chocobos, Moogles, airships and magic and stuff.
Man, what version of the Armored Core For Answer trailer was that. They not only dubbed over it but also changed the OST that was backing it? That's so weird. Maybe I'm just used to the version of it that's in game...
Each AC has its own self contained story, and that story is "power corrupts". 'Powered' literally has a special place in Namco software. "Power" teams at the company are literal lifers. As a very salient example, the youngest non-contract core member of the tekken team has been with the company seven years, and every Team Lead has been with Tekken specifically, not just Namco, for fifteen. At least. As for AC, it takes place in a cyclic universe where Proxy Wars have become the default method of waging war. It was thought that this would make war "cleaner" and more "surgical", and that was true until corporations started farming out jobs to terrorists, whom had no compunctions about using a 60 ton robot on civilians. Things escalated rather quickly after that, especially when AI decided humanity simply could not be trusted to master itself.
Ma brother said today by watching this with me.. "These things are made for boys!" 😅. I kicked him in is butt and don't give me that S*it of "These are for girls and thats for boys stuff" Robots or Mechs are freaking cool and i want one for myself.
In AC game that have branching story, usually you have a some mission that morally questionable I mean... in Armored Core: For Answer you could killing 100.000.000 Civillian for a 1.000.000 credit 🙃
@Definitely Not Definitive - Games The robots aren't just robots, they are called mechs or armored cores (basically weaponry vehicles like tanks and helicopters) which are more advanced and adaptable to multiple arsenals like giant caliber rifles, machine guns, rockets and missiles, etc. These things are created by mega technological companies (let just say NASA or SpaceX as examples) and government started to give them all the power to these companies because of their military tech support. And now all the the tech companies are fighting against each other to gain political and technological power. For you as a player, you are a pilot of this customizable robot with your own choice of weaponry, working as a mercenary to gain reputation and climb the ranks amongst other pilots for while doing the jobs requested from these big companies (which you have no option to choose which side). You do what they ask you to do and you get the money. You use the money to customize your mech. That's the plot. But yeah, its awesome to see armored core popping up again. :D
There is lore. The mechs are piloted by men who are usually mercenaries hired by huge corporations. Earth experienced a great cataclysm and were forced to live underground in massive futuristic cities. The major corporations are fighting for dominance over land and colonization. As a player you usually take on the role of a mercenary (raven) trying to make a living as a pilot. There's also massive tournament arena's where the Ravens fight for top rankings etc. Everything is about money.
nice, less complex than i tought hahaha
That's the plot of the other games, but I will point out that armored core 6 will be mostly disconnected from most of the other armored core games, thus why it doesn't even take place on earth. It takes place on "Rubicon 3", if I remember correctly
Almost every (numbered, the non numbered are sequels) game has a different story and setting, with the few that are connected being many years apart
If i recall correctly, the plot of the first AC was that you, as the player, were a mercenary that used giant mechs called Armor Cores.
Majestic
More or less lol
Big if true
@Static 212 the only thing this franchise shares with Souls is that you'll always lose more money than you have
I am literally the SO TRUE!! soyjak reading this comment right now😂😂😂
To my knowledge, most of these games have their own self contained stories, and they sometimes dont continue them after two games. The most common factor is that you play as a Mercenary pilot, usually referred to as Ravens, that works as lap dogs for companies doing various objectives to further their goals. You will also fight with and against other Ravens from time to time, which sometimes pushes the plot forward.
You are correct. Armored Core 1 to Armored Core 2 AA are one timeline. Armored Core 3 to Armored Core Last Raven was another timeline, and Armored Core 4 to Armored Core 5 and Verdict Day was the last timeline. The new one is supposed to be in its own Universe as well
@@AustinFoss00 You can make a case that 3 and 4 are connected as some LYNX pilots are ex-Ravens but that's pretty weak evidence.
@@dagonofthedepths it appears that Ravens in the AC4 universe are just exceptionally skilled normal pilots and not the exact same ones from the older gens.
@@jccaniba23 It does but the Lynx that are called Ravens are really just the more season pilots and that term isn't used for any of the new pilots in For Answer. If it was just a title given to skilled normal pilots graduating to Lynx then Wonderful Body would have been a huge candidate for that.
But on the other hand, the season pilots where all the most deadly and the term could have gone out of favor or From Software just forgot or it's just an easter egg, who knows? Like I said it's thin.
@@jccaniba23 the only one called a Raven in AC4 is the player character if I remember right
in ACFA no one is called a Raven except for maybe the pilot of White Glint (because he is the player character from 4)
in 5 and VD there is only mention of a "Dark Raven" (presumably the player from 4A in the bad ending... or maybe not) I don't remember the player being refered to as one
First thing. The armored core aren’t robots. They’re mechs/mecha. You can think of them as humanoid tanks and they need pilots. The story has been rebooted multiple times but it’s usually some variation of your player character is a mercenary fighting in a war to take back the surface of the Earth after a war/apocalyptic event devastated it and humanity hid underground for a time.
"Giant death robots are probably not enviroment friendly"
Funny you said that on trailer for AC4: For Answer. Where whole plot revolves around that power generators used in those robots (aside from other giant death things) are definetly NOT enviromentally friendly and are polluting the planet, slowly making it uninhabitable.
In the words of a True Raven, Fatman, *"You have got to live and die by your own rules, not for anybody else. That has always been our way."*
"What are you fighting for" is the best question nobody in the AC universe has asked lmao
Fiona Jarnefeldt ?
Hustler One literally asks you that in the climax of the _first game_
@@passingrando6457 lmao so thats atleast 2 instances
@@naxergss2625 Leos Klein from AC2, as well. Can we get a fourth?
In every Armored Core game, the AC units are piloted by Humans. In the first game, there was a handicap system where if you repeatedly failed missions and ran into debt you would force a restart and get a cut scene where you'd get a 'Human Plus' cybernetic augmentation which allowed you special abilities (like the ability to fire the heaviest weapons while moving, while regular human pilots had to stand still to fire). The later games incorporated this into the lore and from then on running into augmented humans similar to the Human Plus program were present in every game.
The only exception to this rule I know of is in the first game, when a single recurring AC pilot in the story is discovered to be a hyper-advanced AI that can control multiple exact duplicates of the same AC. He has perfect performance in his duties because whenever he is 'killed' on a mission he miraculously returns to finish the job.
In Master of Arena you had to have the (Experimental Part) equipped[ed in the core before getting attempting to fail.
Your comment needs to be first. The fact that the Armored Cores are VEHICLES (mechs) and not robots is a pretty big detail to be unaware of. It skews their whole understanding of the series.
Armored core is one main reasons i love mecha...anything, the concept of piloting a giant robot moving at blinding speeds with the ability to destroy an entire fleet is just so perfect
Longtime fan of this series. The button layouts to control it will give you carpal tunnel and arthritis, totally worth it. In general, the series is about corporate exploitation and
endless war. It's funny you mention robots doing a better job than us during the trailer for 3 where that's what the game is about. Although it was more of an animal farm situation where the AI is really not any better or worse than a despotic human.
“The Armored Core Series: A Newcomer's Journey”
I highly recommend you watch this Armored Core Newcomer's commentary! His videos are very detailed and will definitely make it easier for you to understand the worldview and lore of the Armored Core Series!
ua-cam.com/video/sAOcPx5EwkY/v-deo.html
So the Armoured Core titles are generally based on various conflicts around the world. The main plot that links the games is that the sheer number of wars has essentially turned the surface to ash and and cinders. To the point that in For Answer, humanity spends most of their time in floating cities to avoid the awful atmosphere below.
It's the usual commentary on the destructive power of a corporate led world, but with some From Software flair.
Funny I was just watching some of your older reactions and I see this upload.
Armored Core is a damn fun series and in typical FromSoftware fashion they are challenging but not impossible. Personally super excited for the 6th game to come out.
6th Game? Bro you mean 6th Generation lmao
The 5 Armored Core games I played on the PS2 were all between Armored Core 2 and 4. There are a lot of titles in between the numbered releases. I think Armored Core 6 will actually be the 15th game in the series. I'd have to check the wiki to be sure I didn't forget one.
Oh man the nostalgia. This was like a 15 game series starting back in 97 I think. It has multiple timelines but short version of most of them are about a dystopian future where people live underground ruled by corporations and there is usually an AI overlord pulling the strings behind the scenes. Your player is an Armored Core pilot (the robots) usually working for a mercenary organization and you take missions posted by one of serval corporations wanting your services for, uh, hostile takeovers or aggressive union busting. As the game goes on you're trusted to take on more sensitive and dangerous missions, you'll fight with and against your fellow mercenaries and eventually polish off whatever grand conspiracy the game is based around.
Like 4:08 that's the intro to Armored Core Silent Line which was about people going to the surface for the first time in centuries and they discover this mysterious resource rich area they call the Silent Line. It's called that because anyone that goes there is targeted from orbit by very powerful satellite weapons so the main plot is all the corps are rushing to be the first to break into the Silent Line and that creates a lot of work for a merc like you.
But as far as the story it's like Dark Souls. It's a touch more in your face about it but it can get a bit deep if you're looking. armoredcorelore's channel has a lot of armored core, uh lore. probably has the best breakdown on youtube of the setting but it'll take a few hours to go through some of the timelines.
15:40 welcome to the universe of armored core. It may lack the blood and gore of the FromSofts other games but it definitely has the most dark lore. The Destruction ending of ACFA is completely screwed up particularly
the raven callsign is a throwback to the earlier games when thats what i believe the pilots were called, hence him going by the callsign raven and the ending when guy asks why hes using that call sign and the lady saying lets see how far he can fly i borrowed wings which again i think is a reference to the raven callsign and its probably nothing anyone here uses but its a big deal name
i love the AC series, all the options for arms/legs/core/head/weapons
like normal legs, reverse joint legs, hover, tank, quad-leg
so many options
reminds me of the old Mech Warrior games, and an old Sega 32x game called "Metal Head" which i played a lot in my younger days
AC lore is pretty deep, if there are lore videos out there they'd be an interesting watch.
Also don't go into it looking for dumb fun, the designing of your mech can get tedious on the harder missions. A load out that completely bulldozers one mission can be completely useless on the next.
15:40
"To live as I please, and die a senseless death!"
My favorite bits of lore in 4 Answer are that corporations became so powerful they did away with all nations. Also you can straight up become a mega war criminal if you want, which is saying a lot for this setting.
The story never really made it into the marketing material for the Armored Core games. Most of the earlier games that I played involved playing as a mercenary called a Raven piloting "the Armored Core". A lot of the missions were just about being hired to fight for various corporations, but there would be an overall story underpinning at least some of those missions. In Armored Core 2 for example, the game was entirely on Mars. You ultimately had to stop the leader of a special forces unit from controlling an abandoned alien control center hidden in Mars' moon Phobos. The control center would allow him to command an army of alien robots to conquer Mars with.
The best part about 2's final antagonist is
He's your player character from Master of Arena, who, after freeing humanity from a controlling AI, saw humanity rule for 90 years and decided the AI was actually right.
idk much about armored core, but if you want mechs with stories there is either Gundam or Battletech.
gundam is (mainly) an anime about the horrors of war, both side bad and good at the same time, child soldiers, what it means to be human, etc...
battletech is in short, game of thrones but with mechs. it is mainly a video game, tabletop wargame, and a nice big number of actual books.
Armored Cores aren't robots like Transformers, they're pilot-controlled mechs.
Each of the Armored Core games have separate stories. Although some are connected in pairs. Like 3 and Silent Line, Nexus and Last Raven, and the rest being obvious in the names. All of them being you play as a mercenary jumping into whatever conflict between factions for money. Most of the time the conflict is on Earth but in cases of 2 and 6 it's not. Funny you guessed AIs taking over and the fighting not being good for the planet cuz that kind of happens a lot lol. My favorite mech games hands down! 😁
I strongly recommend watching Was It Good Armored Core by Josh Strife Hayes
This would be the best video for them to see what the series is all about
They need to check out Metal Wolf Chaos.
RICHAAARRRRRRD!!!!
I hope you make a part 2 of this, some games got missed:
AC: Project Phantasma - ua-cam.com/video/aF1C5ZYWZdc/v-deo.html
AC: Master of Arena - ua-cam.com/video/ugtj-3SbjnQ/v-deo.html
AC2: Another Age - ua-cam.com/video/itdud7nSa3o/v-deo.html
AC3: Silent Line - ua-cam.com/video/Y48mIL-07_o/v-deo.html
AC Nexus - ua-cam.com/video/swSJvzXhecA/v-deo.html
AC Ninebreaker - ua-cam.com/video/6DC05ckqBGg/v-deo.html
AC Last Raven - ua-cam.com/video/pFf4dSLyZto/v-deo.html
AC Verdict Day - ua-cam.com/video/9Fzh5NQb_aw/v-deo.html
EDIT: included links to make it easier for you to find it.
Also missed the AC2 and AC3 opening movies.
theres a human in all of those they are piloted mechs
Augmented means enhanced - so, an augmented human would be a cyborg, would be my best guess. (Could be biologically enhanced in some way... but it's humans piloting giant mech suits, so mechanical enhancement is way more likely.)
I... I want to scream. I, i silently hoping for this since long ago.
I don't know who suggest this to you, but bless their soul and you too
in ac 6 you fight for a new energy source on a a cold planet
Check out the Breath of the Wild story recap by Zeltik.
Especially since the sequel Tears of the Kingdom is so popular now
So cool to see you reacting to Armored Core.
Here is the basics of all the Armored Core games. Half of it is fast pace Mech combat with corporations being scumb bags.
The other half is barbie dress up with big 3 story tall mechs. Everything from weapons, body parts, internals, paint, camos, player made emblems, decals. Haha
In the multiplayer matches it would not only be a show of skillz, but a fashion show. You spent half your time building your Armored Core hahah Hella fun games. I hope you guys give Armored Core 6 a chance qhen it comes out
The guy at 8:05 reminded me of the Pursuer from Ds2, so I looked it up. Apparently Pursuer was partly based on Armored Core*, but on a different character. A red guy called Nine-Ball. I always really like things that have a cohesive and recognizable style, like how with Star Wars, you can tell what it is just from the ships.
*His entrance is apparently the same, they drop in from Helicopter (in his case, a bird) and then hover
And Credo from DMC4
And the chosen undead from DS1
And Nemesis from Resident Evil 3
There is a version of Patches in one of the games. "Patch the Good Luck" in ACFA, iirc
YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!
A series that hasn't had a new entry in 10 years until recently with AC6. Wars on a devastated worlds between corporations for new resources, using mercs in custom mechs! I feel like a kid again. Vaati Vidya, Above Average Gaming, and Armored Core Lore has plenty of content to chew on.
Augmented, as in the dictionary definition of: Improved / Modified (most of the time used in a cybernetics context).
There are Human pilots in there, upgraded with technology. U know like "cyborgs" kinda.
Essentially you fight as a mercenary for corporate interests. There is usually something wonky happening behind the scenes, and AI is usually involved.
The Augmented Human basically means like a human that is not always but sometimes genetically engineered to be able to interface with the AC better
This was missing the opening cinematic from Armoured Core 2, which is my personal favourite and shows that there are indeed pilots in the mechs =D
You guys should do a reaction to ace combat trailers and the battlefield 3 mission of thunder run
When you're a teenager, playing on your Playstation and enjoying all the cutting-edge games of the late 90's, you don't need no stinkin' story to keep you enthralled. Giant Robots with missiles and cannons is more than enough to make for a compelling game. I remember playing the originals. I quite enjoyed them and the customization you could do with your mech. They were good times indeed. I believe though, they are not AI machines. I am pretty sure it's meant to be a human pilot at the helm with computer assistance. Was very excited to hear about a new one coming out. I have apparently missed quite a few, but it really says something that they didn't just keep making games until the franchise was buried in a heap of obscure indistinguishable titles. It also gives the benefit of knowing you're not getting something that was hurried out the door to capitalize on a trend thus making the quality questionable.
as a sound guy the only thing i can think is Imagine how Loud that stuff would be
The lore is that our cores are armored
"Is that a good or bad robot?" *puts gun in mouth*
Why yes. I am lore person. And yes I played this series. Each game is mostly self to story and some different planets. Each game from 3 and onward played more role in directions of gameplay changes of experience. In 4 they coined the concept of "god is force" in these warring big dog companies directing their ideals through the battlefield against their rivals, each with their own unique philosophies and directions of research and design, but with For Answer we see a rare unique continuation of this story expressing what had previously been learned and brought to ruin with a new resolve. The star pilots of forces were tremendous assets, but could decide a different fate on a whim against the others wishes, and so they solved this colossal mobile units called "Arms Forts" manned by crews of thousands and therefore a force they could trust that rivaled these top mercenary forces. The mercenary mechs, Armored Cores, in gen 4 of the player's comparison were an advanced grade of them called NEXTs, with superior defenses and pilot integration more fluently. All round these games are pretty fast paced and pretty fun making a mech that looks and works how you want.
The AC series has a lot of story content, but similar to the Souls series it’s pretty understated. You need to thoroughly read mission briefings and flavor text and put things together to get an idea of the bigger picture. Which is fitting because you always play a mercenary who explicitly doesn’t have the full story on all the Inter-corporate warfare and skullduggery going on.
The games are more about depressing, desolate vibes and atmosphere. The world has been ruined by corporate resource wars and humanity has taken to the stars to do the same to other planets. The major themes of the series are loss of humanity in war and under capitalism.
In the first game if you lose enough missions in a row and go into debt (everything costs money, ammo, deployment costs, etc.) then you get a game over and are sold to a cybernetics corporation who performs experiments on you and gives you cybernetic enhancements. Then you start the game over with better abilities. It’s super dark though, even with PS1 graphics the cutscene is chilling.
*The armored core 4 mech you saw was a guy named Beriloz if I remember his name correctly. You fight him in a 3 v 4 battle later on in the game. Hectic stuff. The white mech in For Answer is White Glint, someone from 4, either a ally or boss depending on the story you play, White Glint is your main character from 4 btw.*
Not only do Armored Core games have stories, they are often incredibly thoughtful and examine the human condition in ways you might not expect. These are not dumb turn-your brain off games in the slightest.
Good to know 🙂😀
Thank you both🙏keep up the good work you two👌
15:41 "What are you fighting for? The world's been destroyed three times over" the moment I heard this, I automatically thought the Fallout catchphrase: War, war never changes.
You didn't see stories here because that's not what these cinematics were for. But these games absolutely have stories. And the stories get very deep and complex and are 100% worth figuring out as you play.
Great reaction vid, as a general rule each main numbered title has its own new setting and story, but the central idea for all of them is that you're a mercenary piloting a giant robot.
The main thing you guys got correct, is that giant war machines do tend to be very bad for the environment.
There is an overall lore. Essentially, all of these games are simulations run by an A.I. in order to figure out how to avert the extinction of humanity. They are notoriously difficult (In a different way than the Souls series). You could treat EVERY person who plays the game as a separate simulation run by the A.I., looking for the deciding factor, the likelihood that just one skilled Pilot could make a difference in these potential crises. What makes these pilots different from one another? How can they be fostered to guarantee they exist when they are needed most?
The simulations have various premises, all of which involved Corporate Control resulting in galactic devastation to an extent, so the A.I. treats THAT problem as an inevitable certainty. Other scenarios involve fighting over limited resources while surviving underground, the early pioneering period of a new world(Mars for example), EVEN what happens if an A.I. were to malfunction and undergo Rampancy (a state where an A.I. essentially goes insane due to being in service for too long and simply knows too much and rapidly approaches the point where they cannot relate to their human creators anymore in any sort of fashion), so the A.I. even simulates a calamity where THEY need to be destroyed for the sake of humanity. Its there if you really dig for it but overall, the point is, just have fun as a player.
But yeah, apart from the 6 you just saw there are MANY more of these games, typically in each generation 1,2, and 3, each have 2 MORE games that followed them, not story wise but they used the same game engine. 4 and 5 only had a single follow-up game each, 4Answer and Verdict Day(V as 5). You could treat them as Expansions or DLC but not as we know it now. 6 is the first new game we've gotten in over 12 years and us AC fans have been FROTHING in joy. And now we have a whole legion of Soulsborne fans to introduce the series to so its going to be a great year for gaming!
Yeah, AC's story basiclly boils down to Corps run everything and you are generally a merc in a weapon of mass destruction casually commiting war crime to get your quarterly bonus.
Yes, the Armored Cores are piloted by exeptional individuals (is very taxing on them) and there are augmented humans ( human plus mode gamemode)... more cyborg like.
The "robots" are UNACs (UNnmanned Armored Core)
The story... cataclysm, rogue AI, Ravens (mercenary group), fkin Corporations... some alien tech...
Is rly cool !! Just recently played first time, Verdict Day... My opinion is that is souls-like, in the sence that is unforgiving... you have to prepare well for the unexpected.
👍🏻
The thing you have to remember with japanese giant robot anything in a realistic militaristic setting is that 99% of the time the robots are going to be piloted and have real people inside of them. Mech animes like gundam got popular because they focused on war and child soldiers, with a kid or two forced to pilot a giant death machine and kill people.
The story is rubicon holds a powerful material caked coral nowhere else has it besides rubicon so everyone in the galaxy is fighting over it
the folks at From softs need to team up with bamco and go all out with producing kits for AC fully parts swappable like 30minmissions. Heck bandai also released 30imsis which is basically mecha armored anime girl kits. AC kits needs to be more accesible maybe they can go for the entry grade scale and approach to make it more beginner friendly~
No they don't. Bandai has treated its Gundam and Gunpla fans horribly.
In Armored Core, it is always humans who devastate the world, and AI was created to reclaim the devastated world and save humanity.
But in its way, AI manages wars to prevent apocalypse from occurring and allows a few humans to die.
In the game, many people are fighting for money.
The player is one of the mercenaries hired for money.
Therefore, there is not much fighting between good guys and bad guys.
The AI manipulates the economy and mercenaries to stalemate the war.
However, the stalemate is broken by the extraordinary power of the player, and the war rages on.
And so you will witness a changing world in this game.
Never thought you guys would be interested in Armoured Core. By far one of the most beloved FromSoftware franchise of true diehard fans.
There’s so much freedoms to create your very own unique robot with literally hundreds of parts to mix and match. The first game alone boasts over 50,000 different ways to customise your own mech, the later games only introduce more and more parts.
There’s something you should know though. Armoured Core is nothing like Dark Souls in terms of it following their combat gameplay. In fact, Dark Souls borrows any aspects from Armoured Core into their own themes such as limited supplies whilst out in the field, meeting up with equally powerful custom characters and the themes of dystopian fantasy broiled into a player focused experience.
So if you see people say “It’s Dark Souls but with mechs”, you now know better. You can tell them “Dark Souls is Armoured Core set in medieval times” 👍🏾👍🏾👍🏾
Fromsoftware has the kind of fame these days that theyll reel the masses in
I'm glad they're keeping the Dark Souls out of Armored Core too.
These are single-celled organisms and are interested in money, not games.
AC6 is big in the news coming up to release so they're cashing in on the interest.
In case you're interested in more Armored Core there's actually way more than 1-6 there's a bunch of them that have special titles or are even alternate versions of the previous title. For example there's Armored Core 2, then there's Armored Core 2: Another Age, or Armored Core 4 and Armored core 4 Answer. Then there's games that didn't even get numbers like Armored Core Formula Front and Armored Core Nexus
24:53 On the very first game, if you went into a huge debt, you're Raven (Pilot) will undergo Human Plus (or OP-Intensify) surgery, technically making your Raven an "augmented human". You can do it for 6 times and each time you undego the operation, your mech gets more and more buffs to it. One example is not needing to kneel when using backmounted grenade launchers.
I would suggest Josh Strife Hayes "Is It Good?" video on Armored Core 1. He goes into a lot of detail of the story (you're a mercenary working for anyone who will hire you in the middle of a corporate war), themes (humanity vs. being a cog in a larger machine), and overall motifs that FromSoft has kinda been incorporating since before Demon's Souls (Heck, one mission has you destroy the gang "Dark Soul", and this was back in 1997.)
Ultimately though, the main focus of Armored Core is the mech customization. It's about building your own dream machine, and seeing how well it can weather the various missions placed in front of you.
I don't know how the video you watched, could leave out the opening movies from Armored Core 2, AC2 Another Age, Master of Arena, Nexus, Ninebreaker, and Last Raven. Those openings would have gave you more context to the AC games.
Yes, there are people inside these personalized giant robots, piloting them like the are jets, or extensions of their own bodies. And Augmented Human, as in Cyborg implants to make you more at one with the machine. The old games even had this thing called Human Plus, that gave you more abilities then the average pilot.
Exept for Ninebreaker, which is more like the Olympics for these pilots. The common story of Armored Core games, is that corporations have become so powerful, that they are like governments, with their own militaries. And instead of just pure, Free Market Capitalism. The corporations go to war with each other, over resources & territory. Constantly attacking, disrupting, and spying on each other.
You play as a mercenary for hire, with you're own private war machine. You can accept jobs from any of the corporations or other entities. These jobs range from destroying things, to protecting things, to assassinations, investigations, and messed up situations, like taking out protestors, revolting for better work conditions, and they were possibly manipulated by a rival corporation anyway, to start drama for the corp they work for.
What ever the job you're able to do, you have to do it, because you have to grow, just to survive these crazy worlds, and you have bills to pay. The line "God is Force", means right & wrong dosen't matter. Good & bad, what's fair, what's efficient, dosen't matter. What matters, is who has more power, and can be the most devastating.
Including you.
You almost always start out as a disposable nobody, that no one really cares about. But as you tinker & practice, your build & skills will become so great, that you become god-like. The same corporations & groups that treated you like garbage, start to appreciate you, then respect you, then beg you for help, or fear you, see you as a threat, and try to eliminate you, even if you don't show loyalty to anyone, which you shouldn't do anyway, because nearly all entities are greedy or messed up.
It is very common in AC games for you to be betrayed, ambushed, or purposely sent on suicide-missions in atempts to get rid of you, but after surviving all of that, everyone starts treating you like a force of nature, with the power to greatly influence how the war ends, even create great change to the world.
Including sometimes ending these evil corporations, bringing peace & freedom to the world.
And there are also Arenas with rankings, which are essentially like televised MMA matches with these robots and their pilots, which for some reason are codenamed Ravens.
There are many parts to chose a build right for you. Leg type determine a lot, like how your AC can move, and how much weight it can carry. You can light & agile, a heavily armored tank, or anything in between. You can try to build for specific missions. But I think it's best to develop your own fighting style, what makes you happy. Play to your strengths, and be aware of your weaknesses. Even more then the story, every part choice has a downside. Mix & match, and tune what's right for you, optimize, and practice. Become a god, save the world, or destroy it.
The games have their own self-contained stories, but generally the premise of the series is that instead of nuclear weapons, highly efficient weapons of war were created: Armored Cores. These would be mass produced, & conflict would quickly ravage the world. Mercenaries dubbed "Ravens" would be the primary pilots of these Armored Cores.
Armored Core 4 was how I got into the series, & that was the one with "God is Force." And I'm just gonna tell you; you'll find that sentence is very literal after playing the game for a little. Try looking up some Armored Core 4 gameplay. High level tournament gameplay in particular paints a VERY clear picture of that statement.
It's funny she said "maybe the robots can do a better job than us." because the plot in many of the older games is that humanity basically destroyed the world and the ones who are left live in cities controlled by AI.
I love AC and would play AC4 for hours at a time after school! While it has a plot, it's not the reason you play. And I would argue the action and combat featured in the trailors is actually secondary to the best part of AC, the deep, deep rabbit hole of customisation. Missions in AC4 could be as brief as a couple of minutes sometimes less, but hours are spent building and tweaking your armoured core. As everything is customisable, not just limbs and weapons, but also power supplies, thrusters, radars, processor chips, targeting arrays, and stabilisors. All of these would interact and impact things like armour, weight, speed, energy output and consumption, manoeuvrability, balance, accuracy, processing speeds, and more. No 2 mechs feel or perform the exact same. So there was a game in itself to balancing all of these variables to design the perfect mech for your playstyle or even for a particular mission. All of your parts need to be bought and sold and completing missions would fund new parts, but you'd also have to pay for ammo and repairs, so failing a mission can be devastating if your trying to save money for particular upgrades. If you ask me, this is the actual narrative to the AC games, not about the characters or plot, but trying to overcome the challenges that come with trying to build and maintain the ultimate mercenary fighting machine. Thats my take at least, super keen on the new release though, as its been a long while and looks like they're trying to bring some nice ease of use improvements while still keeping to that core experience.
Th pilots are humans depending on what title they are mostly augmented in some way. The pilots are mercenaries that usually fight for corpo overlords. And yes the world is usually in ruins making the surface almost a living hell.
They released a story trailer and a gameplay preview for Armored Core 6 that are pretty good. The Story Trailer will be a bit quiet though.
You two are awesome. Never change. I'd love to see you both pick teams of characters from a new game and play it together only using those characters. It would be a fun video
AI and Transformers seem to be a hot topic, but Armored Core is a boarding type humanoid weapon
Man. Whoever made the video you guys watched, did NOT put enough of the openings to the games in there.
There's a better one which actually has all the openings all the way up to Armored Core V, which was the last one before Fires of Rubicon that actually had a cinematic.
I think Vaatividiya has a few videos about ArmoredCore
From playing about 5 of the PS2 era Armored Cores, I can say that the plot doesn't carry over between numbered entries in the series. At most, the games in-between numbered entries, like AC2: Another Age or Silent Line: Armored Core, might be tangentially related to their previous numbered game. Armored Core 2 and 3 respectively. It's hard to explain, but that goes for From Software in general. Especially back then.
I think at base level armor core is; Look cool robots go pew pew, it does have a story but like in fom software games is in the game
Armored Core 1-2 and their accompanying titles are part of one universe. AC3, and 4-5 are separate to my knowledge. Each game has a select set of parts you can buy from the in game store, and parts you can get in different mission maps and are prizes in the arena. Each game ahs millions of combinations for your personalized AC. Each game gets more in depth with the mechanics. Radiators and Core boosters become a thing in AC2. AC3 has core weapons, AC4 has continuous flight. AC5 has a sorta Rock, Paper, Scissors mechanic between energy, Kinetic and chemical weapons. and armor that has varying strength vs them.
I can only dream of reaching your levels of ABSOLUTELY FUGGIN ROCKING! ❤
Now that You seen Armored Core, It time to put on your big-boy pants and check out Mobile Suit Gundam. 1979-present.
You won't find the lore in the trailers, but I'll sum it up for you. This takes place in the distant future. There was some sort of great destruction at some point in which most of historical knowledge is lost. A world government is established which I believe also governs Mars. (Which is developed well beyond the colonization stages.) But despite the government most of the power is wielded by major corporate conglomerates that all have their own private armies. As the player, you are a raven. Raven is a designation for mercenaries who pilot Armor Cores (ACs for short). ACs as you deduced are fully customizable battle machines. You choose every component from the weapons, legs, heads and boosters to the generators, radiators and targeting components. You have to purchase every component. The corporations are the one's who manufacture the AC parts. And every raven is free to choose who they work for. They can align themselves with a corporation or they can work for the highest bider. They have complete autonomy.
The plots in Armored Core usually contain the following:
1. Anti capitalist message. (You're a merc working for corporations in order to take over territory or a resource, some of the games have missions in which you have to kill striking workers. The first mission in the very first game is exactly that. There's also the games putting you in a feeling of just being a number in a proxy war, just there to make profit for corporate overlords)
2. Ambientalist message. (Pollution and industrialization are usually big parts of the plots)
3. Set in post apocalyptic Cyberpunk dystopias.
its true, nobody cares about the lore. it's all about the robots. In this game, its normal to spend 5 hours in the garage just to do a 5 minute mission.
"God is force" is referring to and old saying where, the bigger guns you have, the more fire power you carry, the bigger army you have, the less people want to fight and the more people start seeing your side of things, seeing those with the most power and strength as a god. Better then you, better then his enemies, better then everyone. You have the biggest guns, no one can challenge a God who is stronger then everyone
As one has stated; nearly each game is it's own self-contained story; however some do have connections, and there are speculated theories as to the potential over-arching story/time line.
But to break down each game:
AC1: You are a conscripted pilot of an AC, owing debts to the two major Companies: Chrome and Murakumo. The end goal: payoff debts, and be the best "Mercenary".
AC2 (Canonically linked to AC1 and it's expansions): Mankind managed a way to Mars during the events of the First Game. In playimg catch-up, the player becomes a Raven under similar circumstances to AC1, but over-reach of Earth Government, and such start to attempt to happen, and one support turning rogue to all later almost creates a solar system changing catastrophe.
AC3 (First "soft reset" of series): Mankind is forced underground into Cities referred to as "Layered"s. Of which; all are governed by an entity called, "the Controller": an AI entity that is meant to ensure Mankind's longevity. However, it doesn't take long for the AI to hold to it's namesake.
AC4 (Separate Timeline): the Player is an Augmented Human, that pilots Neuro-Psychonetically Link mechs that utilize a new Resource for shielding: Kojima Particles; that is killing the planet. You work for one of two Independent colonies that aren't under a Companies' thumb, that does anything, and everything; to remain independent.
ACV (Potential follow-up of AC4): the world is in ruin, a league of Companies controll all that goes on in the world, and the player and their squad become part of a Rebel force against the Alliance.
AC, like the Souls-Borne games; doesn't drop the lore into the laps of casual, or one time players: AC4 through now, have slowly started putting the story in a more direct way to the players.
Armored core lore in a nutshell:
Greedy Corporate
11:38 I don't think that's a tank. That is one VERY big boi. Look closely and you'll see those are skyscrapers the "tank" is stepping on.🤣
Just saying, you're actually missing a lot of the trailers for these games. You're basically getting the cliff notes versions of the games trailers. Seriously recommend checking out the openings for the ones you missed, such as Armored Core 2's actual opening. Last Raven's opening in particular is a personal favorite of mine.
Whoa! Cool trailer.
Each game has its own story and they don't really connect. Most of the games aren't even on the same planets. But the lore is absolutely there and it is really good and very deep. Just because they don't spell it out in the cinematics doesn't mean it isn't there or that it's simplistic.
But what they all have in common storywise is that you are an independent mercenary, taking jobs from various factions, mostly corporations, governments, rebels, freedom fighters, and even terrorists and criminals. You are a human who is piloting the giant robots.
There aren't really good guys and bad guys. It's more complicated than that. While you are playing the games it is left to you to decide which side you think are the good guys and bad guys. And you'll end up fighting for both sides, a third and fourth side, or for your own interests.
The main draw of the games is customization. You can build your particular mech however you want it. You can swap out all of the parts and weapons. You can build an ultra light and fast mech that can dodge enemy fire, or a huge heavyweight with tons of armor and give firepower. Or anything in between.
All of the plot lines vary, but the basis is that it's a dystopian, post apocalyptic world where corporations rule and you are a lowly mercenary just trying to get by. There isn't any saving these worlds and in some of them, doing the right thing means basically doodling everyone. Same sort of vibes as dark souls and elden ring but still its own thing
Basically dooming everyone*
So, basically everyone else already explained this...
So what's one more on the pile?
Every game in the Armored Core Franchise has it's own standalone plot...
Each NUMBERED game is a different timeframe, setting, timeline...whatever, and most every numbered game has "expansion games" that are still thier own story, but might have carry over from the numbered title, but most importantly you can carry your save data into the expansion games and keep your built ACs and inventory of parts. (Each numbered game usually redoes the parts lists, even if a lot of them are just updated versions, like there's always an Antenna shaped head, or humanoid legs with side panels, etc etc etc.)
For Example: Armored Core 1 and Armored Core, Master of Arena.
Same world.
Same systems and sets of parts.
New missions, new plot, a few new additional AC parts, new player character (you almost never actually see the humans), but maybe the player character from Armored Core 1 is infamous, or has a part in your backstory, or, like Pokemon Gold and Silver, he's the guy you want to beat to prove you're the best.
And then Armored Core 2 has Armored Core, Another Age.
Etc etc etc.
The story and lore are there, but usually given to you through emails at your mech-building garage/home base, told through mission descriptions, or through radio chatter during said missions.
Though it usually boils down to "corporations are at literal war for control of everything, often resources on a dying/war ravaged world, there's probably some deeper conspiracy/secret extremist enemy trying to stop it all in ways that probably involve killing everyone so there's nothing left to fight over, etc etc etc.
Otherwise, there's usually franchise common elements, like a laser blade called "Moonlight" or a gun called "Karasawa" in the same way Final Fantasy always has Chocobos, Moogles, airships and magic and stuff.
Man, what version of the Armored Core For Answer trailer was that. They not only dubbed over it but also changed the OST that was backing it? That's so weird. Maybe I'm just used to the version of it that's in game...
AC for Answer went hard when i wss a kid
Each AC has its own self contained story, and that story is "power corrupts".
'Powered' literally has a special place in Namco software. "Power" teams at the company are literal lifers. As a very salient example, the youngest non-contract core member of the tekken team has been with the company seven years, and every Team Lead has been with Tekken specifically, not just Namco, for fifteen. At least.
As for AC, it takes place in a cyclic universe where Proxy Wars have become the default method of waging war. It was thought that this would make war "cleaner" and more "surgical", and that was true until corporations started farming out jobs to terrorists, whom had no compunctions about using a 60 ton robot on civilians. Things escalated rather quickly after that, especially when AI decided humanity simply could not be trusted to master itself.
Ma brother said today by watching this with me.. "These things are made for boys!" 😅. I kicked him in is butt and don't give me that S*it of "These are for girls and thats for boys stuff" Robots or Mechs are freaking cool and i want one for myself.
Those chicken legs will serve me well on an agile sniper build ✊
In AC game that have branching story, usually you have a some mission that morally questionable
I mean... in Armored Core: For Answer you could killing 100.000.000 Civillian for a 1.000.000 credit 🙃
Man you guy a like Skip like 50% of good trailer
@Definitely Not Definitive - Games The robots aren't just robots, they are called mechs or armored cores (basically weaponry vehicles like tanks and helicopters) which are more advanced and adaptable to multiple arsenals like giant caliber rifles, machine guns, rockets and missiles, etc. These things are created by mega technological companies (let just say NASA or SpaceX as examples) and government started to give them all the power to these companies because of their military tech support. And now all the the tech companies are fighting against each other to gain political and technological power. For you as a player, you are a pilot of this customizable robot with your own choice of weaponry, working as a mercenary to gain reputation and climb the ranks amongst other pilots for while doing the jobs requested from these big companies (which you have no option to choose which side). You do what they ask you to do and you get the money. You use the money to customize your mech. That's the plot. But yeah, its awesome to see armored core popping up again. :D
at this point the returnal reaction is coming in 2092