If any of you are looking for another series like this one, here's a couple that we've started since finishing up the Armored Core games: A First Timer's Journey Into Ace Combat: ua-cam.com/play/PL48pV5KFb3gbg9FnKHa7gYIApV5FemXSg.html A First Timer's Journey Into Metal Gear: ua-cam.com/play/PL48pV5KFb3gZhObUW0G_j7sBQYBPZpr6X.html
I want to play the older games, but my laptop would probably shoot into the sun if i tried to emulate them lol. I don't have a strong pc, Im a lame console player
One thing you didn't touch on, which is weird because you always brought it up before, is the issue of reusing maps. AC6 also reuses maps quite often, but unlike previous games in the series, this isn't a bad thing. Because of modern technology that is leaps and bounds past previous games, the maps in AC 6 are so huge and varied that you almost never notice. And if you do, you're actually glad you get to revisit a location to explore more of it. It's not just lessons in melee combat that Fromsoft took from the Souls series and put into AC6. They also learned a lot from designing open world games like Elden Ring and applied it effectively here.
I honestly didn't notice it here 😅 Most likely because, like you said, they do a much better job here about making those return trips feel fresh and meaningful as opposed to just using the map a second time to save on resources 🙂
Something that I think really helps here is that almost every re-use of a map in AC6 is "modified" in some way. One of my favorite things they they did multiple times was having you go "back the way you came", and you get to essentially revisit all the destruction you wrought as a borderline force of nature. I also appreciated how the arena matches used some maps that were part of "standard" missions, where you might have originally just blown through while demolishing a dozen MTs. But now you're fighting another AC, and are able to appreciate the terrain in a completely different manner.
It is because when it is reused, you come from a different angle of the map, usually from the end. This is noticeable right away at the very first mission; Grid 135 Clearing, and Destroy Artillery Installation. Both are the same map as the intro map but split into two. Also, if you go back to where you came from in Grid 135 you'll see something surprising.
It's so fucking cool. Revisiting them at different times of day, or starting from different directions/areas of the same map. I just wish we could've had more of that desert area and use of the sandstorms while fighting certain enemies/bosses being obscured. Or at least one more HUGE enemy to scale on to defeat. But the game is still a masterpiece in my eyes 🔥 So thankful Fromsoft brought this series back, and got me motivated to check out a couple of the previous games.
also adding to this the coral sabotage mission you explore is infact part of the refueling base complex that you will later destroy which goes in line why the coral denial mission also tales place in that area
AC6 is the game that made me love series again. I hated Balteus, I fought Balteus, I got gut and killed Balteus on basic LOADER4 without OST chips, I got most of achievements and I simply want more of this game. I love it. If anything, devs definitely know how to make player feel things. and this game is all about feeling and my god, what a feeling it is! Watched the entire seires and I am glad I watched it from episode one.
@dredgewalker sounds like dark souls people making the game harder on themselves by being dumb and using the starter set. Meanwhile, this isn't a soulsborne game, because the armor you use actually means something
@dredgewalker what's hard to figure out? They literally give you the gun right before you fight balteus in the tutorial. Plus, he's the same color as the rounds, and if you're an old fan, you might like old pulse rifles
@@MemeLordCthulhu Everyone isn't the same and some people are just slow to catch up. At the end of the day it's not us having a hard time and newbies don't need to be looked down upon for not picking up the clues. Also if they give up just from fighting the chopper or balteus then they'll realize it's not a game for them to enjoy. Though they might if they're masochists.
This game is so deep, thank you all you new players for loving this game. I admit, back in the day this game was harder to like than most releases at the time. But it was special to me, kind of like reviving the whole Saturday morning cartoon feel when you watch a brand new episode of Gundam and not know what to expect. New mobile suits, factions and giant battles, the appeal was always there for me. As time went on people started having different interests, and while this is to be expected, mecha seemed to be a distant memory. Glad it's back!!
Something minor that was missed is that also during the 2nd and 3rd playthrough, you get all new missions at specific points. Like on the 3rd playthrough, Defending the Rubicon Giant walker thing and on the 2nd playthrough, fighting the OG Raven along with the 2 other ACs.
Gen 3 vet, loved this review series. It was pretty refreshing seeing a dude experience these games for the first time, it's usually hardcore fans that do these kind of retrospectives. Glad you (mostly) enjoyed the series!
One of the interesting things about lock-on (in both hard and soft lock mode) is that you can see if your ACs fcs is fully locked on by the red reticle being directly on the target. When ever you're fully locked on, your ac's shots will ALWAYS be perfectly accurate, and will intersect the target, unless the target changes directions after you fire, or your weapon's recoil throws off your shot. Your FCS takes a small amount of time to fully lock on when aquiring new target, or after your target performs a sudden movement (mainly quickboosting or jumping). This can be seen by red reticle being off the target. If you fire in this period your shot will not be on an intersect course, and will miss. The difference between soft and hard lock on is only the time/speed which the red reticle moves back ontop of the target to re-establish full lockon. Soft lock's reticle can much back onto target much faster (thus reaquiring full lockon). However the speed of soft lock's reticle is on time is based on how close your target is to the center of the screen. If you track keep your target perfectly centered, your time to reaquire full lockon will be half as long as while hard locked. However if your target is close to the edge of the screen, the lock on speed is exactly the same as hard lock. Also, the speed at which your reticle moves back onto target is based on your arm's firearm specialization stat multiplied by your FCS's range specialization at the range your currently in. Even if you're at a range where your fcs has poor performance, as long as you're fully locked on your shots will still be perfectly accurate. The only difference is that your fcs will take substantially longer to reaquire full lockon.
TBH prediction-based targeting system always been a feature on Armored Core series from beginning. And that's what make the series so much difficult compare to other mecha game. The enemy is always unfairly accurate meanwhile you don't know how the FCS even works The other game that use prediction targeting system (AFAIK) is Gundam Unicorn (because surprise, it also made by Fromsoft). But the lock on sensitivity turned much more down so you don't get shredded into piece if you wanna doing some Gundam shenanigans nor forced you to not doing Gundam shenanigans because range weapon are the only thing viable
Multi-lock existed in 4/FA and I think 5/VD, just the games didn’t tell you it exists because From. Anyway, glad to see your journey wrapped up and also seeing so many others, including myself, doing the same journey out of interest and enjoyment of AC6. Unfortunate From can’t really profit from republishing the older games due to it’s wacky array of publishing issues. EDIT: did I really typo “older” as “loser”? F f s
This was a cool series. AC6 is my favorite game and it's nice to see someone go through the whole series since publishing prevents most of the older games from being reasonably playable, outside of emulation or forking over way too much cash. I'll keep an eye on your channel. It's a cool one!
While I agree that AC6's story isn't the strongest in the series, I think that it has one of the best "balances" of story-telling styles. I remember you mentioned in your video on AC5 that the lore and world-building felt almost non-existent, but the character-driven storytelling was very strong. I feel like AC6 managed to bring you into a slightly more immersive world while also maintaining a cast of unique, memorable characters that kept you invested in the story. If the expansion takes this strong base and fleshes out the more barebones aspects of the story and wordbuilding, then I think we could truly end up with not only the best Armored Core of all time, but even something that could subjectively be considered one of the greatest games in recent history.
The story is actually really solid once you get all 3 endings. No previous AC game ever made me emotional or actually fret over making story based decisions.
@@bombomos AC5's story is generally considered to be one of the weakest in the series, though, so that's not really saying much (I actually never played Verdict Day myself, so I don't have a personal opinion for the expansion's story). I personally consider 6's storytelling to be generally inferior to Gen 3, but better than Gen 4. I'm not entirely sure where I would put Gen 1 and 2 on the list, as it's honestly been so long since I played them that I'm not confident in assessing them from memory alone.
@@FSVR54I wouldn't say "best", but it definitely punches you right in the feels. Killing G1 was the hardest mission in the game for me, and even Walter seems upset that you chose it.
I loved this series. Congratulations on its completion. Armored Core 6 will not win game of the year, but as an old fan its my game of the decade for the reason you state at 23:24. "completely distinct yet so familiar for long time fans." I knew the second the game let me at the controls that it was that big of a hit for me. I was overwhelmed with a child-like glee that only few games have come close to achieving over the past decade. I want more. Thats my biggest gripe with the game. There is not enough. I hope so much that FS can quickly continue the series. I say quickly in fear of it dieing out. My wishful thinking is that we get an announcement alongside the Elden Ring expansion. Play that hype. Feed into that audience. In the past AC expansions have released within 6 months of the base game.
I love ac6. AC2 is still my go to jam. I would absolutely love to see fromsoft go back and remake the AC games as a whole with the new functions. I would absolutely love to see ac1/pp/moa be remade at most to AC2 graphics. I own almost all of them but have played all of them. AC2 and ac6 are my top favorite but if it wasn't for demo disk ac1 I wouldn't be here with a stockpile of time in what is the best game series ever made
mate... I feel like introducing repair kits to the arena would definitely make it more fun. You're right, I have to blitz the enemy harder than in any mission or I die pretty fast. it feels like the arena and mission experience are too different for the arena to "hone your skills".
I'd say scrap the system & give us whole health (12k - 18k base AP + our core AP) The problem is our repair rank during mission is based on how many damage we took, not how many heal being used, you can have minimal damage in mission & use all the heal, the rank will be similar And if we follow this number, enemy AC can't be 1 shot with pile bunker or burst combo, and bosses don't destroy you in 1 or 2 mistake at full HP In arena, its also mean longer match Changing ACS to just stopping you and erase direct hit damage, but all weapon is increase by 300% so this game doesn't center around ACS build, but melee build will have to center with ACS build since they need to be physical & close
also you missed the fact stagger mechanic is the 5th gen flavor but heres the catch its now applied to everyone and not just "ACs" 5th gen being 5th gen where everything and almost anything is labeled an AC but arent, but "sekiro-ized" in that its now deobfuscated kinda like primal armor in 4th gen which you kinda see but also dont see
3:56 This type of multi missile lock was present in gen 4. I don't blame you for not knowing since it took me until after I had cleared all of 4A's endings to discover it by accident. While there is multi-lock in the older games too (while locking on with a compatible launcher/FCS, switch targets while keeping your previous target(s) in your lockbox), it's so hard to use as to only be useful in very specific circumstances.
I like to look at AC6 as an AC 2.0 due to some factors, mainly being how it takes the best qualities of the previous games, combines them, and improves them. The simplistic building of AC1 with only 11 parts, the different levels of builds ranging from slow and tanky like AC1 to LR and fast at twitchy like 4 and 4A, the grounded level of combat similar to 5 and VD with the airborn potential of 4 and 4A, the insane map variety from 2 to LR even if re-used... It just feels like it's what Fromsoft wanted AC to be from the beginning. It just took until now to finally achieve it.
20:00 'to prevent its use as weapons' was definitely not the goal of walter walter is trying to destroy the entire solar system so the coral (which replicates very quickly in the vacuum of space) cant spread to the rest of the galaxy, either of which will be accomplished by setting it on fire (depending on saturation)
Yes and no. Based on the Fires of Raven route, it’s strongly implied that Walter wants to destroy all Coral because of the extremely high potentiality for it to be abused by humanity for worse and worse Coral inventions. That Coral can spread quickly further feeds into Walter’s fear of it reaching the wrong hands (which, technically, it already has, hence why he wants to destroy it all since he has seen the atrocities that Coral technology is capable of).
I have my issues with AC6, but I do still like a lot about it. I especially appreciate how Rusty is basically what Joshua/White Glint would be with a full game's runtime to really develop.
This is the first game ever, or in a long time where I felt like the praise from the other characters was warranted. RIP Rusty. AC6 was definitely a game made to be safe. Sure it's hard, and there's likely a lot of people that quit due to the difficulty, but the economy change was likely necessary to make it safe enough. the repair and ammo costs are really just there for the S rank, which is fine with the way they setup the progression. I would like the next game to be.... More. I'm not sure what that means. Maybe it just means that it was so good that I'm eager for another game.
The culmination of your journey has truly made you an armored core fan looking forward to the next release. Loved the long awaited review and really so hope fromsoft addresses the issues you pointed out on the next game. I do hope they return the debt system now that newcomers like me are familiar with the game. Arena definitely needs a difficulty bump, repair kits could be one solution but I also think the AI could potentially take advantage of their loadouts because some of the AI's like Rokumonsen and G4 Volta definitely do know their playstyle which made them more difficult to face. And as for the combat UI, I definitely want that colored filter and static-like effects for immersion with customizeable UI. FROMSOFT, GIMME THAT PEN MOUSE TOOL FOR DECAL EDITOR! That thing used to exist in older Gens through a pixel pen!
Forgot to mention I want more levels or make it a limited feature that uses unlimited energy for both enemies and myself! It's addictive to spam quick boost sideways in both directions or assault bust constantly!
Boy, am i glad to have seen you go on this journey, your ac review series were some of the best videos ive watched recently, always at my lunch break at work, just made my day that much enjoyable. Glad to see you becoming a fan of the series and enjoying most of the games, and also having context to grade ac6 accordingly. this year has been pretty nice for armored core fans, and i sure hope we get some DLC and a sequel for you to cover next!
The only problem I have with the Stagger system is that while it does add more depth into AC on AC fights I don't think NPC fights transitioned completely well does stacker system does make most AC fights fairy trivial especially in the arena since they're locked into not using health kits unlike the actual story which eventually they do start using their own health kits But in general I don't know what they would need to do but I do think they need to do some kind of balance changing with the entire Stager system versus AC fights to make NPC ACS feel more challenging otherwise if you go in there with a hyper-aggressive bill that takes full advantage of the Stagger system then there's not really much of a challenge in AC fights But other than that I think the Stagger system works pretty well
Scrap healing mechanic for "shoulder unit activation" Change "increase repair effectiveness" to "Increase armor integrity" on OS tuning, increasing our AP from base 12k + our core, to 18k + our core (since i don't OS tune healing item until there is nothing better to use it on) ACS now only stop you from moving, with only melee weapon has direct hit adjustment All weapon also have increase damage 300% from current number, so this will emphasize gaming to poking & destroying enemy with big number, while surviving the ordeal instead of chasing ACS build to get big numbers While melee build still have to chase ACS to get their direct hit adjustment & stopping their target movement Also, add melee weapon to the right arm & another melee weapon back unit class, like back weapon BIGGER Pilebunker
AC6 is probably my favorite of the ones I have played. Had a lot of fun playing through for each of the endings and now been trying to beat the game as Mad Stomp (which is possible as someone did it with Liberator of Rubicon) but I am trying to do the Fires of Raven ending.
There are a few missions exclusive to NG+ and NG++ that aren't specifically tie to the path of your other endings, they do provide a bit more story to some characters and insight on a few, and there are datalogs that you can find on some battlefields that foreshadow certain facts about Rusty and other pilots at times
It was awesome to watch you go through the entire series. You replayed my entire childhood and I enjoyed every moment of this series. Thanks for bringing me back to those nostalgic moments that made me fall in love with the Armored Core franchise back in 1997.
Thank you so much for all these videos, I've been following them from the beginning ❤ I think that it would be great if you do a final tier/favourite list after you 100% all of them!
I was planning to get armored core 6 since its reveal, but then had to save up money when it came out. During this wait, i came across this series. This video dropped right as i finished the game. Thanks for making this series its really well made, and my introduction to armored core couldn't have been better without it!
I played AC6 on launch a loved this game, and then I binge watched all of your AC videos minus the Gen 4-5 games which I just got an emulator to run for. Can’t wait to dive into the rest of this fantastic series.
Rusty: Hey buddy. Me: Heart melts Im a Dark Souls convert so AC6 was the first one i played in yhe series so i loved everything about it. I had no expectations story wise and was jusy looking for a fun challenge reminiscent of soulsborne titles, and this game was everything i wanted and then some. Gameplay was chaotic, yet methodical and always kept me on my toes. The story was very engaging. I was far more emotionally invested in the story than i ever thought i would be. The characters were fantastic. Best girl, Rusty, is endlessly likable as you said. And Handler Walter was truly a master class of character writing and perfectly acted by the VA. I'll definitely pay close attention to the series going forward
Do you think youll ever cover Daemon X Machina? As far as I remember it had some designers from older AC games working on it and i'd love to hear what you think about it after having now covered every AC game.
I've considered doing a series like this for it sometime down the line, but I recently started a couple others for Ace Combat and Metal Gear, so for the time being I kind of have my work cut out for me 😅
AC4FA was my favorite game in the series, and I was worried they might not capture how good things felt in that one. While it didn't match the movement or the combat ranges as closely as it could have, I felt like it completely delivered. And the plot/mission/ng+ structure felt like they took the best of what AC4FA had, while cutting the worst parts from it (specifcally, it had the vastly different endings, but without the tedious part of having to repeat any of those endings due to them having multiple mission choices within their paths).
Thanks for taking us through your entire journey. I really like AC6, and I love that it isn't ashamed to take elements from its predecessors. You can see bits and pieces of every previous Armored Core throughout, thanks to the entire team themselves being fans of the series. They didn't have to make Armored Core 6. It didn't make sense from the perspective of success or finances, nor from the fans they've accumulated over the last decade. They made it because *they* love Armored Core. I hope we get a standalone expansion like with previous entries, because those have almost always been better than the numbered entry. So I can't wait to see what they do with this already phenomenal game.
AC6 has been my introduction to the series and let's just say there aren't many games that can captivate me for hundreds of hours, but this one has found it's place among them. I have built so many ACs, even making my own lore for them and the game has actually pushed me into gunpla.
as someone who doesnt have 15 games (or any) worth of AC experience i found the AC and LC fights to be interesting a challenging. while there is one or two build specifically good at dumpstering standard Armored Core units, they are much less good at full clearing level, so my first playthrough was largely with that build (which was probably least effective against those units specifically) only changing when those fights put up enough of a block to my progress. one level a standard LC (about 4000 AP) appeared pretty early, snuck up on me and took out all my repair kits less than halfway through the level as i just couldnt seem to effectively recover. it took until my 3rd playthrough to get my infinite melee spam build with additional ranged effectiveness which can (with minimal changes) S rank just about every mission.
I hadn't played Armored Core since I bought a PSVita and relived the original on it. When I finally got my hands on ACVI, I got sucked right back in and I've been doing exactly what you did with this series. I'm on ACV, and I honestly would not have given it a chance had your video on V and Verdict Day it not been for your videos. It is crazy how much I've found that I LOVE ACV's movement. Thank you so much for this series.
Wait. I played through the entire game, every mission , every ending and I don't remember anyone mentioning that your characters brain got "fried out" during augmentation and that you're "mindlessly following orders"
During the opening mission Walter refers to you as "a merc with a fried brain" 🙂 AC6's story has so many little details like this that are mentioned in passing but are actually pretty significant when you factor them into the rest of the story, and I love it for it 😍
At the beginning of the game, Walter mentions something about your character's brain being fried by your coral-based augmentations, and you're working for him to make enough money for the surgery to restore some level of bodily freedom. This is also confirmed in the pre-release story trailer, where the person who "sold" us to Walter says something along the lines of "This one is... functional, but don't expect much more." The in-game lore also confirms that "early" generations of Coral augmentations had high casualty rates, and even those that did survive typically suffer from significant side-effects. It wasn't until Gen-VIII that the process started to become "perfected". This implies that while you're not necessarily a mindless drone, you ARE an emotionless husk of a mercenary that is reliant on Walter to stay alive. The story trailer also shows your body being maintained by some kind of life-support system, so it's implied that unless you're inside an AC or hooked up to some kind of specialized equipment, the side-effects from your Gen-IV augmentations would kill you, making you reliant on Walter. So, in summary, at the beginning of the game, you kinda ARE "mindlessly following orders", since you don't really have a strong sense of "self" or personal agency, and are entirely reliant on Walter to stay alive. Really, it's not until you meet Ayre, build a rep with the corporations and RLF, and have enough money to be independent, that you are able to start making your own choices
As everyone stated it's mentioned in game at certain points but the big area where it is shown/revealed is the trailers funnily enough, the weird equipment surrounding a pretty much shrink-wrapped body is pulse weaponry which fires essentially balls of EM radiation akin to a microwave's EM radiation just in a larger amount. It's also hinted in the data logs that 4th gen augmentation fries parts of the brain making a lot of pilots from that gen emotionless and almost like a machine.
@@notcoleI have heard left and right on this debate that 621 had his brain fried either before or after augmentation. We don't know 621's past but we do know that other pilots of similar and older generations of augmentation exist, yet they retain their own agency and capacity to speak (Iguazu, Sulla, etc.). Dosers are mentioned as having fried brains from coral usage, and no one said if 621 was involved in an accident, MT battle, or even got the Robocop treatment. All of these are likely origins for 621.
I know i know most people have been saying that the plot is very basic but honestly, I think we needed a simple plot to fall back to, especially when all we had were having is a lot of go read this miscellaneous thing for a souls game JUST to understand the plot. Hell at least this game, unlike most of the other games, gave me people I can actually LIKE, people I can feel a connection to and people I can say straight up I don't like you. Two certain characters come to mind heavly especially and not to mention, this was the one time we had everyone in the mecha genre come together like your gundam fans, your super robot fans and your armored Core fans and it was magical. While yes the arena is on the weak side and yes the multiplayer is a total joke, at least the game when it did came out, it made people interested in a mecha game again since they were dying, it revived the mecha game genre and all of the builds we had were unique and fun. Hell I am hoping that thanks to AC6, we get more mecha games in the future and we are succeeding in finally getting word of Armored Core model kits made by Bandai which is a HUGE plus. Great job looking into all of these games!
As a newcomer to the Armored Core series, I feel like I have more mileage from the Arena because I never upgrade the Damage Buff/Defense Buff in the OS Tuning area. It definitely makes the Arena fights way more challenging and fun to solve. Also because there's no Repair Kit in the Arena, I use it as a quick experiment as to "How much damage does my build sustain before defeating an enemy without healing?" Since I'm still not as good in dodging, the time I finish the Arena fight and the amount of damage I sustain are two metrics I use to tweak AC builds.
Its been a good run. 6 got me to play the old games before it released jist like you and now im always thinking about the series even when not playing it. It's been a wonderful journey. 6 in particular is basically a perfect game in my eyes. It takes everything i thought might work in 5 (the only gen i haven't finished) and did it right. I'd love to see you do a final recap video ranking the games by how much you enjoy them. But I'm excited to see what you do next regardless.
I remember hearing about the stagger system and seeing the boss fights and going "oh no, they turned Armored Core into a Souls game" I have never been so happy to be so wrong about something. The Souls like elements blended perfectly with this one, especially the boss fights. Each fight felt incredible, challenging, and interesting to go against It is unfortunate it took this long to get a new AC game, but I'm glad to see the 10 year hiatus and what was learned in that time has not gone to waste. Here's hoping we'll get another age of Armored Core
I should also mention this game had people who previously worked on mecha anime hence why you some parts look like they are straight out of Macross, Gundam etc. The laser drones remind me of Witch From Mercury, as the main character has mech that uses very similar looking laser drones.
Honestly I actually really appreciate that arena fights are considerably easier than facing the same AC within the campaign. I like this both for a storytelling reason and a gameplay reason. On the storytelling side of things Allmind is replicating the pilots fighting styles using combat data it has, but the story goes to great lengths to tell us that Allmind is ultimately incapable of truly reaching the performance demonstrated by real human pilots, so it makes a lot of sense that these arena fights would pale in comparison to fighting the real pilot. On the gameplay side of things, having the arena fight be a sort of red herring for your expectations of the campaign is great. I remember fighting Chatty and Carla's AC's in the arena and thinking "okay that wasn't so bad" and going into the mission where you have to fight both of them being pretty confident and then getting my ass soundly handed to me. Nothing about the arena fights prepared me from fighting those two, because it's not really clear how much they complement each other until you actually fight them side by side. Same goes for fighting Freud, I found his arena fight to be challenging but not really difficult, and when I got to fighting him in the campaign, I was pleasantly surprised by how much more complex the fight could get with the same AC.
And then there's the Volta/Iguazu duo which is easily the hardest AC fight in the entire game. Volta already is the hardest Arena AC and adding Iguazu's AC complements it perfectly to create an extremely hard to deal with duo.
@@buragi5441 for sure. Like if Iguazu hadn't bailed at the Wall, Volta probably would have survived, that's how well they compliment each other tactically.
Reason why the customization feels so good is because each part has a place and a roll and you're not flooded with garbage that you'll never use I never played any of the previous games just has a disclaimer but I have played Space games and Space Games tend to do the whole flood you with a dozen different weapons thing or a dozen different engines or a dozen different whatever modular thing which are all completely useless say for one choice I respect the armored Core 6 Developers for making their game fitting window a glorified scavenger hunt
Congratulations on completing this journey, and thanks for sharing your experiences with us. I really enjoyed your overview of the games and I believe that overall, you struck a good balance on the depth of the reviews. Not too shallow that we learn nothing about the games, yet not too deep where it requires a significant time investment to watch each video. Yet when necessary, you concisely discussed the substantial changes made in each entry in the franchise. As such, I could not have asked for a better way to review the Armored Core series, so thanks again for taking the time to do this work. Edit: And I forgot to mention that you've earned yourself a subscriber :)
Im leaving a comment here ill come back after binge watching ALL YOUR ARMORED CORE videos ,i just wanna know how is the game and if i should buy it , big thank you to you chole for making all those very qualitative videos
AC6 is currently my go to game during my days off work. And while I have S ranking on most missions (after painfully replaying them over and over), there are still a handful of missions I can’t get an S on, and two missions I just refuse to replay due to how difficult they are. Despite this, I’m still addicted to getting an all S rank regardless. The only downside to this game is the extreme difficulty on the boss fights- they are hard as fuck (annoyingly). But after getting used to them, replaying over and over again, you get use to them, and thus start to improve over time. Overall, the game is hell, but in a good way.
While I agree AC6 has the easiest to farm economy I think you missed the reason why. AC games have never allowed you to change builds mid mission before with the checkpoints since the missions were so short, you could always just sell off your parts and change to different ones and retry the mission. But the limiting factor in AC6 is that you own the parts already if you want to change your builds without redoing the whole thing up to the boss fight, it made me grind some COAM to have those options ready to go when I needed them.
As someone who has played most of the Armored Core games myself, Armored Core 6 is a great game, but honestly falls short vs the 4 previous entries. Some of the issues I have with it. - No Co-op like the previous games. - No real PVP. Just a 1v1 or 3v3. No Free for all, no Attackers vs Defenders. Small maps. - All maps are restrictive vs what was shown during the first gameplay previews. - With the new EN Load, lots of builds are restricted. - Less overall customizable options like lack of shoulder weapons/boosters. - No arm weapons. - No snipers. Linear guns dont count. I want real Sniper Cannons and such from AC:4 and up to VD! - Overboost Kick is less superior than AC:V's Quick Boost Kick (far superior layout and less Hints given away to the enemy when you're about to kick them) - Anything heavy attacking is just an alert for the enemy to hit the dodge button. No surprise element basically. That said. Game is pretty damn fun, but not a game I could continue to play for a long time after finishing the campaigns.
Like probably many others, this series introduced me to you and I’ve voted and will be sticking around for whatever comes next! Well done buddy, you did it.
Regarding glide boost, it becomes alot easier to control it properly, especially when we talking about stopping and then moving again. Instead of turning it back on with circle (on ps5 at least) you can just quick boost with the square button (on ps5) in any direction and this also automatically turns on the 'glide' boost. This I think makes movement alot smoother and less confusing when you stop to target or snipe and then need to start moving quickly again to get away from incoming heavy melee or short range (shotguns anyone?!?!) Bulldozers that are slow but tanky. Or god forbid, Rusty or other quick as fuuuuu- melee ninjas the size of 2 houses stacked on top of each other. On side note, I think the way those ninja Mechs move so so very quickly when. Theyr assault boosting or quick boosting...the G forces would absolutely destroy the human body. It's the reason astraunats and jet pilots are so rare and require so much training. They need to learn to handle those neck snapping g forces and sudden whiplash causing speed boosts that make them go 0 to literary mach 5 (I don't know my machs el oh el). And because of this I really appreciate the emphasis they put on the human modifications like our gen 4 mid level cyborg implants what-not. We really need those mods or we will die simply from moving our robots around. Thanks fromsoft. Your attention to detail is top notch as alwaaaaays. Thumbs up.👍👍
The multi missile lock wasnt new, Ac4 had it. Cant remember if 5 did or not to be honest. Loved the video btw. Edit. Also in reference to the repair kits healing for 4000, you can imcrease this amount with the "tuning" system. I say "tuning" because its a very light tuning system for an AC game, at least compared to some. Its by no means bad, just not cery deep. More a multiple choice system using points earned in the arena. Some of the upgrades are permanent add ons to damage resistances or damage buffs for example and others are optional add ons you put in a specific slot that isnt used for anything else. The system works well enough but i would of liked to see a much deeper system in a modern AC rather than a very simplifed one. That said the rest of the game is so good it dosnt really matter. Its morw just something to hope for in the next maybe.
Just here to post some of the lore: 1. Ayre isn't "Rubiconian" in traditional sense, she is the native, the sentient being Coral, while we human known Rubiconian is those who live on it 2. Walter didn't destroy Coral because of the weapon it could made into, Coral has the ability to basically mutate, multiply and hack in every human known machine. By allowing 1 rogue Coral infected human society, human race could be wiped out by them, or at least, in the true ending, altered so much that human would no longer be human
Damn i just watched all 16 Armored Core videos i grew up play AC and loved every min of it. Can't wait to get some time away from the family to play AC6.
Everything you said is true even tho I haven't finished the game yet which I don't mind because I really wanted to watch this and I already got spoiled from the other armored core reviews. I got into armored core series in 2022 because I had a mecha/robot hyper fixation in 2021 even tho I already love mecha way before 2021. But still armored core 6 and the series really satisfied me a lot because of how Fromsoftware makes it and I'm proud of them for bringing it back. Last thing is seeing a lot of old and new players playing this really makes this game very memorable.
I think my only complaint is that I wish there had been more giant-type bosses, like the AFs from For Answer or the Strider. Hoping the DLC/sequel adds more of those.
Thank you chile, I followed your journey, I started playing ac2 on launch with my first ps2. It’s great to see someone give such an in depth public review that is both informative and nostalgic, I’ve learned things from you for games I’ve got thousands of hours in. This has been my most favorite game series throughout my life. Ravens everywhere thank you
There's another thing thats an issue with AC fights in the arena, and thats the damage that they do to you is significantly lesser most of the time due to their OS-tuning being oddly limited compared to yours. You can copy their kits and usually they're not that built in terms of their OS buffs for their main weapons, that or they're purposefully dealing less damage out of concern they could be doing too much damage but overall, the ACs in the Arena don't feel that difficult could be made up for by letting them heal up but with you still having none, or buffing their effectiveness and damage.
Although I don't comment, I've watched all of your AC videos and I have to say, I am really impressed by the quality of your videos, the video I first saw was the last raven, I Thought the video was pretty good and when I hit subscribe I was shocked because you had few subscribers with that level of quality, keep up the good work, I surely will be watching. (by the way, don't mind my English, it's not my main language kkk)
Removing the Repair Kits from the Arena is a good decision, since if they add them, it will teach players bad habits when it comes to PvP. The Arena serves as a warm-up for different builds before going into the Nest.
this playlist of 16 videos was just simply amazing and im so happy that someone like u did it and i really enjoyed every second of it , ty buddy . wish u all the bests
After seeing your journey into the series as another newbie who had just completed 6, it was cool seeing stuff I had seen in AC6 show up in older games and seeing you talk about it all coming back.
If you haven't been told yet. Then let me be the one. It's over due but you're without a thought, you're one of us. An AC Veteran. Your journey wasn't an easy one. Yet here you are. Welcome to the family. I'm sure the corporation will be happy to hire you in any future titles.
ive been watching this series while 100%ing AC6 and honestly im very excited for whatever DLC we get if we do get it. this game was an absolute gem and i still havent put it down even after fully completing it
What a journey! Been awesome to sit here and binge your videos over the past few days. I'm glad these were very listen friendly, as I've had them playing on my drives. Can't wait for VI's expansion!
If they bring back the stagger system in the future, I'd hope it's only for big boss fights. Either that or make it work like gen 5 where it exists but isn't centralising. Because the side effect of it being applied to everything makes PvP incredibly dull where every single build has the exact same stagger > punish mentality. I also personally dislike the hard lock and instant turning because some late-game bosses are built around it, and again it heavily biases certain PvP builds. Like part of the reason the Zimmerman shotgun was so powerful was that if you were within its range, there was a 99% chance you're getting hit because of hard lock and instant turning.
Hard lock is definitely a whole different can of worms for the PvP scene. Would be interesting to see if FromSoft took the Elden Ring approach and balanced the game separately for PvE and PvP 🤔
Parts are missed where the arms with the built in weapons. I always loved my grenade launcher and gattling gun arm builds in the old games when I needed high dps at a lower weight.
AC6 was my first AC game and for about two weeks, I couldn't put it down. Thank you for covering the entire series, I was curious about the significance of the Raven name and was a little surprised that it dates all the way back to the very first game.
If any of you are looking for another series like this one, here's a couple that we've started since finishing up the Armored Core games:
A First Timer's Journey Into Ace Combat: ua-cam.com/play/PL48pV5KFb3gbg9FnKHa7gYIApV5FemXSg.html
A First Timer's Journey Into Metal Gear: ua-cam.com/play/PL48pV5KFb3gZhObUW0G_j7sBQYBPZpr6X.html
You absolute legend, you will be remembered in the AC community. 16 games, you beat 16 games in its honor.
This is more than 90% of ravens.
I want to play the older games, but my laptop would probably shoot into the sun if i tried to emulate them lol. I don't have a strong pc, Im a lame console player
@@treyatkinson7564 don't emulate the ps2 version, emulate the PSP version with PPSSPP. It will run even on a crappy 10 year old laptop.
@@treyatkinson7564you could probably get away with emulating the psp versions
@@DaRoachDoggJrr hey. That's smart... damn, i HAVE a psp!!!!
@@treyatkinson7564 nice
One thing you didn't touch on, which is weird because you always brought it up before, is the issue of reusing maps. AC6 also reuses maps quite often, but unlike previous games in the series, this isn't a bad thing. Because of modern technology that is leaps and bounds past previous games, the maps in AC 6 are so huge and varied that you almost never notice. And if you do, you're actually glad you get to revisit a location to explore more of it. It's not just lessons in melee combat that Fromsoft took from the Souls series and put into AC6. They also learned a lot from designing open world games like Elden Ring and applied it effectively here.
I honestly didn't notice it here 😅
Most likely because, like you said, they do a much better job here about making those return trips feel fresh and meaningful as opposed to just using the map a second time to save on resources 🙂
Something that I think really helps here is that almost every re-use of a map in AC6 is "modified" in some way. One of my favorite things they they did multiple times was having you go "back the way you came", and you get to essentially revisit all the destruction you wrought as a borderline force of nature.
I also appreciated how the arena matches used some maps that were part of "standard" missions, where you might have originally just blown through while demolishing a dozen MTs. But now you're fighting another AC, and are able to appreciate the terrain in a completely different manner.
It is because when it is reused, you come from a different angle of the map, usually from the end. This is noticeable right away at the very first mission; Grid 135 Clearing, and Destroy Artillery Installation. Both are the same map as the intro map but split into two. Also, if you go back to where you came from in Grid 135 you'll see something surprising.
It's so fucking cool. Revisiting them at different times of day, or starting from different directions/areas of the same map. I just wish we could've had more of that desert area and use of the sandstorms while fighting certain enemies/bosses being obscured. Or at least one more HUGE enemy to scale on to defeat.
But the game is still a masterpiece in my eyes 🔥 So thankful Fromsoft brought this series back, and got me motivated to check out a couple of the previous games.
also adding to this the coral sabotage mission you explore is infact part of the refueling base complex that you will later destroy which goes in line why the coral denial mission also tales place in that area
The worst part about AC6 is that there isn't more of it, at least anytime soon.
AC6 is the game that made me love series again.
I hated Balteus, I fought Balteus, I got gut and killed Balteus on basic LOADER4 without OST chips, I got most of achievements and I simply want more of this game. I love it.
If anything, devs definitely know how to make player feel things. and this game is all about feeling and my god, what a feeling it is!
Watched the entire seires and I am glad I watched it from episode one.
How tf do you get stuck in bubble boy balteus? Just shoot more bubbles at him, and he gets scared.
@@MemeLordCthulhubecause not everyone figures out the enemy weakness in the beginning and some people take more time to do a different approach.
@dredgewalker sounds like dark souls people making the game harder on themselves by being dumb and using the starter set. Meanwhile, this isn't a soulsborne game, because the armor you use actually means something
@dredgewalker what's hard to figure out? They literally give you the gun right before you fight balteus in the tutorial. Plus, he's the same color as the rounds, and if you're an old fan, you might like old pulse rifles
@@MemeLordCthulhu Everyone isn't the same and some people are just slow to catch up. At the end of the day it's not us having a hard time and newbies don't need to be looked down upon for not picking up the clues. Also if they give up just from fighting the chopper or balteus then they'll realize it's not a game for them to enjoy. Though they might if they're masochists.
This game is so deep, thank you all you new players for loving this game. I admit, back in the day this game was harder to like than most releases at the time. But it was special to me, kind of like reviving the whole Saturday morning cartoon feel when you watch a brand new episode of Gundam and not know what to expect. New mobile suits, factions and giant battles, the appeal was always there for me. As time went on people started having different interests, and while this is to be expected, mecha seemed to be a distant memory. Glad it's back!!
Something minor that was missed is that also during the 2nd and 3rd playthrough, you get all new missions at specific points. Like on the 3rd playthrough, Defending the Rubicon Giant walker thing and on the 2nd playthrough, fighting the OG Raven along with the 2 other ACs.
Gen 3 vet, loved this review series. It was pretty refreshing seeing a dude experience these games for the first time, it's usually hardcore fans that do these kind of retrospectives. Glad you (mostly) enjoyed the series!
AC6's voice acting across the entire cast is the best I have seen in any game
One of the interesting things about lock-on (in both hard and soft lock mode) is that you can see if your ACs fcs is fully locked on by the red reticle being directly on the target. When ever you're fully locked on, your ac's shots will ALWAYS be perfectly accurate, and will intersect the target, unless the target changes directions after you fire, or your weapon's recoil throws off your shot.
Your FCS takes a small amount of time to fully lock on when aquiring new target, or after your target performs a sudden movement (mainly quickboosting or jumping). This can be seen by red reticle being off the target. If you fire in this period your shot will not be on an intersect course, and will miss.
The difference between soft and hard lock on is only the time/speed which the red reticle moves back ontop of the target to re-establish full lockon. Soft lock's reticle can much back onto target much faster (thus reaquiring full lockon). However the speed of soft lock's reticle is on time is based on how close your target is to the center of the screen. If you track keep your target perfectly centered, your time to reaquire full lockon will be half as long as while hard locked. However if your target is close to the edge of the screen, the lock on speed is exactly the same as hard lock.
Also, the speed at which your reticle moves back onto target is based on your arm's firearm specialization stat multiplied by your FCS's range specialization at the range your currently in.
Even if you're at a range where your fcs has poor performance, as long as you're fully locked on your shots will still be perfectly accurate. The only difference is that your fcs will take substantially longer to reaquire full lockon.
TBH prediction-based targeting system always been a feature on Armored Core series from beginning. And that's what make the series so much difficult compare to other mecha game. The enemy is always unfairly accurate meanwhile you don't know how the FCS even works
The other game that use prediction targeting system (AFAIK) is Gundam Unicorn (because surprise, it also made by Fromsoft). But the lock on sensitivity turned much more down so you don't get shredded into piece if you wanna doing some Gundam shenanigans nor forced you to not doing Gundam shenanigans because range weapon are the only thing viable
Another brilliant thing that older games lacked: Voice acting. Every single VA went HARD, and every character feels so real because of it
Multi-lock existed in 4/FA and I think 5/VD, just the games didn’t tell you it exists because From.
Anyway, glad to see your journey wrapped up and also seeing so many others, including myself, doing the same journey out of interest and enjoyment of AC6. Unfortunate From can’t really profit from republishing the older games due to it’s wacky array of publishing issues.
EDIT: did I really typo “older” as “loser”? F f s
i think its explained to you in ACfA but not 4 but dont quote me on that
@@lesslighter it isn't entirely explained in FA as its own thing, it was more of a "it just happens" kind of thing really
This was a cool series. AC6 is my favorite game and it's nice to see someone go through the whole series since publishing prevents most of the older games from being reasonably playable, outside of emulation or forking over way too much cash. I'll keep an eye on your channel. It's a cool one!
While I agree that AC6's story isn't the strongest in the series, I think that it has one of the best "balances" of story-telling styles. I remember you mentioned in your video on AC5 that the lore and world-building felt almost non-existent, but the character-driven storytelling was very strong. I feel like AC6 managed to bring you into a slightly more immersive world while also maintaining a cast of unique, memorable characters that kept you invested in the story.
If the expansion takes this strong base and fleshes out the more barebones aspects of the story and wordbuilding, then I think we could truly end up with not only the best Armored Core of all time, but even something that could subjectively be considered one of the greatest games in recent history.
The story is actually really solid once you get all 3 endings. No previous AC game ever made me emotional or actually fret over making story based decisions.
Its story is Definitely one of the better ones. Beat out Gen 5
@@bombomos AC5's story is generally considered to be one of the weakest in the series, though, so that's not really saying much (I actually never played Verdict Day myself, so I don't have a personal opinion for the expansion's story).
I personally consider 6's storytelling to be generally inferior to Gen 3, but better than Gen 4. I'm not entirely sure where I would put Gen 1 and 2 on the list, as it's honestly been so long since I played them that I'm not confident in assessing them from memory alone.
It's the best story FROM has ever done lol. Lay off the crack
@@FSVR54I wouldn't say "best", but it definitely punches you right in the feels.
Killing G1 was the hardest mission in the game for me, and even Walter seems upset that you chose it.
I loved this series. Congratulations on its completion. Armored Core 6 will not win game of the year, but as an old fan its my game of the decade for the reason you state at 23:24. "completely distinct yet so familiar for long time fans." I knew the second the game let me at the controls that it was that big of a hit for me. I was overwhelmed with a child-like glee that only few games have come close to achieving over the past decade. I want more. Thats my biggest gripe with the game. There is not enough. I hope so much that FS can quickly continue the series. I say quickly in fear of it dieing out. My wishful thinking is that we get an announcement alongside the Elden Ring expansion. Play that hype. Feed into that audience. In the past AC expansions have released within 6 months of the base game.
I love ac6.
AC2 is still my go to jam.
I would absolutely love to see fromsoft go back and remake the AC games as a whole with the new functions.
I would absolutely love to see ac1/pp/moa be remade at most to AC2 graphics.
I own almost all of them but have played all of them.
AC2 and ac6 are my top favorite but if it wasn't for demo disk ac1 I wouldn't be here with a stockpile of time in what is the best game series ever made
I would love it if Armored Core is at least nominated for a few awards or even wins “Best Action Game”.
mate... I feel like introducing repair kits to the arena would definitely make it more fun. You're right, I have to blitz the enemy harder than in any mission or I die pretty fast. it feels like the arena and mission experience are too different for the arena to "hone your skills".
I'd say scrap the system & give us whole health (12k - 18k base AP + our core AP)
The problem is our repair rank during mission is based on how many damage we took, not how many heal being used, you can have minimal damage in mission & use all the heal, the rank will be similar
And if we follow this number, enemy AC can't be 1 shot with pile bunker or burst combo, and bosses don't destroy you in 1 or 2 mistake at full HP
In arena, its also mean longer match
Changing ACS to just stopping you and erase direct hit damage, but all weapon is increase by 300% so this game doesn't center around ACS build, but melee build will have to center with ACS build since they need to be physical & close
also you missed the fact stagger mechanic is the 5th gen flavor but heres the catch its now applied to everyone and not just "ACs" 5th gen being 5th gen where everything and almost anything is labeled an AC but arent, but "sekiro-ized" in that its now deobfuscated kinda like primal armor in 4th gen which you kinda see but also dont see
3:56 This type of multi missile lock was present in gen 4. I don't blame you for not knowing since it took me until after I had cleared all of 4A's endings to discover it by accident.
While there is multi-lock in the older games too (while locking on with a compatible launcher/FCS, switch targets while keeping your previous target(s) in your lockbox), it's so hard to use as to only be useful in very specific circumstances.
I like to look at AC6 as an AC 2.0 due to some factors, mainly being how it takes the best qualities of the previous games, combines them, and improves them.
The simplistic building of AC1 with only 11 parts, the different levels of builds ranging from slow and tanky like AC1 to LR and fast at twitchy like 4 and 4A, the grounded level of combat similar to 5 and VD with the airborn potential of 4 and 4A, the insane map variety from 2 to LR even if re-used...
It just feels like it's what Fromsoft wanted AC to be from the beginning. It just took until now to finally achieve it.
20:00 'to prevent its use as weapons' was definitely not the goal of walter
walter is trying to destroy the entire solar system so the coral (which replicates very quickly in the vacuum of space) cant spread to the rest of the galaxy, either of which will be accomplished by setting it on fire (depending on saturation)
Yes and no. Based on the Fires of Raven route, it’s strongly implied that Walter wants to destroy all Coral because of the extremely high potentiality for it to be abused by humanity for worse and worse Coral inventions. That Coral can spread quickly further feeds into Walter’s fear of it reaching the wrong hands (which, technically, it already has, hence why he wants to destroy it all since he has seen the atrocities that Coral technology is capable of).
I have my issues with AC6, but I do still like a lot about it. I especially appreciate how Rusty is basically what Joshua/White Glint would be with a full game's runtime to really develop.
This is the first game ever, or in a long time where I felt like the praise from the other characters was warranted. RIP Rusty.
AC6 was definitely a game made to be safe. Sure it's hard, and there's likely a lot of people that quit due to the difficulty, but the economy change was likely necessary to make it safe enough. the repair and ammo costs are really just there for the S rank, which is fine with the way they setup the progression.
I would like the next game to be.... More. I'm not sure what that means. Maybe it just means that it was so good that I'm eager for another game.
The culmination of your journey has truly made you an armored core fan looking forward to the next release.
Loved the long awaited review and really so hope fromsoft addresses the issues you pointed out on the next game. I do hope they return the debt system now that newcomers like me are familiar with the game.
Arena definitely needs a difficulty bump, repair kits could be one solution but I also think the AI could potentially take advantage of their loadouts because some of the AI's like Rokumonsen and G4 Volta definitely do know their playstyle which made them more difficult to face.
And as for the combat UI, I definitely want that colored filter and static-like effects for immersion with customizeable UI.
FROMSOFT, GIMME THAT PEN MOUSE TOOL FOR DECAL EDITOR! That thing used to exist in older Gens through a pixel pen!
Forgot to mention
I want more levels or make it a limited feature that uses unlimited energy for both enemies and myself! It's addictive to spam quick boost sideways in both directions or assault bust constantly!
Boy, am i glad to have seen you go on this journey, your ac review series were some of the best videos ive watched recently, always at my lunch break at work, just made my day that much enjoyable. Glad to see you becoming a fan of the series and enjoying most of the games, and also having context to grade ac6 accordingly. this year has been pretty nice for armored core fans, and i sure hope we get some DLC and a sequel for you to cover next!
The only problem I have with the Stagger system is that while it does add more depth into AC on AC fights I don't think NPC fights transitioned completely well does stacker system does make most AC fights fairy trivial especially in the arena since they're locked into not using health kits unlike the actual story which eventually they do start using their own health kits
But in general I don't know what they would need to do but I do think they need to do some kind of balance changing with the entire Stager system versus AC fights to make NPC ACS feel more challenging otherwise if you go in there with a hyper-aggressive bill that takes full advantage of the Stagger system then there's not really much of a challenge in AC fights
But other than that I think the Stagger system works pretty well
Scrap healing mechanic for "shoulder unit activation"
Change "increase repair effectiveness" to "Increase armor integrity" on OS tuning, increasing our AP from base 12k + our core, to 18k + our core (since i don't OS tune healing item until there is nothing better to use it on)
ACS now only stop you from moving, with only melee weapon has direct hit adjustment
All weapon also have increase damage 300% from current number, so this will emphasize gaming to poking & destroying enemy with big number, while surviving the ordeal
instead of chasing ACS build to get big numbers
While melee build still have to chase ACS to get their direct hit adjustment & stopping their target movement
Also, add melee weapon to the right arm & another melee weapon back unit class, like back weapon BIGGER Pilebunker
AC6 is probably my favorite of the ones I have played. Had a lot of fun playing through for each of the endings and now been trying to beat the game as Mad Stomp (which is possible as someone did it with Liberator of Rubicon) but I am trying to do the Fires of Raven ending.
*me shedding tears because we've reached the climax and ending point of our long journey together through 20+ years of AC games*
There are a few missions exclusive to NG+ and NG++ that aren't specifically tie to the path of your other endings, they do provide a bit more story to some characters and insight on a few, and there are datalogs that you can find on some battlefields that foreshadow certain facts about Rusty and other pilots at times
It was awesome to watch you go through the entire series. You replayed my entire childhood and I enjoyed every moment of this series. Thanks for bringing me back to those nostalgic moments that made me fall in love with the Armored Core franchise back in 1997.
Been waiting 16 weeks for this one!
Thank you so much for all these videos, I've been following them from the beginning ❤
I think that it would be great if you do a final tier/favourite list after you 100% all of them!
I was planning to get armored core 6 since its reveal, but then had to save up money when it came out. During this wait, i came across this series. This video dropped right as i finished the game. Thanks for making this series its really well made, and my introduction to armored core couldn't have been better without it!
Now all we need is armored core 6: Embers in the Ash.
Im glad im not the only one that randomly struggled against canon head, he should be number 1 rank imo 😅
NICE video. Congrats on making the video series up to AC6 lol I really liked it!
Well it wasn’t just siding with air it was also siding with the rubiconians as the destruction of the coral would have wiped out the planet.
I played AC6 on launch a loved this game, and then I binge watched all of your AC videos minus the Gen 4-5 games which I just got an emulator to run for. Can’t wait to dive into the rest of this fantastic series.
Rusty: Hey buddy.
Me: Heart melts
Im a Dark Souls convert so AC6 was the first one i played in yhe series so i loved everything about it. I had no expectations story wise and was jusy looking for a fun challenge reminiscent of soulsborne titles, and this game was everything i wanted and then some. Gameplay was chaotic, yet methodical and always kept me on my toes. The story was very engaging. I was far more emotionally invested in the story than i ever thought i would be. The characters were fantastic. Best girl, Rusty, is endlessly likable as you said. And Handler Walter was truly a master class of character writing and perfectly acted by the VA. I'll definitely pay close attention to the series going forward
Do you think youll ever cover Daemon X Machina? As far as I remember it had some designers from older AC games working on it and i'd love to hear what you think about it after having now covered every AC game.
I've considered doing a series like this for it sometime down the line, but I recently started a couple others for Ace Combat and Metal Gear, so for the time being I kind of have my work cut out for me 😅
AC4FA was my favorite game in the series, and I was worried they might not capture how good things felt in that one. While it didn't match the movement or the combat ranges as closely as it could have, I felt like it completely delivered. And the plot/mission/ng+ structure felt like they took the best of what AC4FA had, while cutting the worst parts from it (specifcally, it had the vastly different endings, but without the tedious part of having to repeat any of those endings due to them having multiple mission choices within their paths).
Thanks for taking us through your entire journey. I really like AC6, and I love that it isn't ashamed to take elements from its predecessors. You can see bits and pieces of every previous Armored Core throughout, thanks to the entire team themselves being fans of the series. They didn't have to make Armored Core 6. It didn't make sense from the perspective of success or finances, nor from the fans they've accumulated over the last decade. They made it because *they* love Armored Core.
I hope we get a standalone expansion like with previous entries, because those have almost always been better than the numbered entry. So I can't wait to see what they do with this already phenomenal game.
5:07 keep in mind AC bosses also use the repair kits
AC6 has been my introduction to the series and let's just say there aren't many games that can captivate me for hundreds of hours, but this one has found it's place among them.
I have built so many ACs, even making my own lore for them and the game has actually pushed me into gunpla.
as someone who doesnt have 15 games (or any) worth of AC experience i found the AC and LC fights to be interesting a challenging. while there is one or two build specifically good at dumpstering standard Armored Core units, they are much less good at full clearing level, so my first playthrough was largely with that build (which was probably least effective against those units specifically) only changing when those fights put up enough of a block to my progress.
one level a standard LC (about 4000 AP) appeared pretty early, snuck up on me and took out all my repair kits less than halfway through the level as i just couldnt seem to effectively recover.
it took until my 3rd playthrough to get my infinite melee spam build with additional ranged effectiveness which can (with minimal changes) S rank just about every mission.
I hadn't played Armored Core since I bought a PSVita and relived the original on it. When I finally got my hands on ACVI, I got sucked right back in and I've been doing exactly what you did with this series. I'm on ACV, and I honestly would not have given it a chance had your video on V and Verdict Day it not been for your videos.
It is crazy how much I've found that I LOVE ACV's movement.
Thank you so much for this series.
Wait. I played through the entire game, every mission , every ending and I don't remember anyone mentioning that your characters brain got "fried out" during augmentation and that you're "mindlessly following orders"
V.II Snail Fight in Eliminate Cinder Carla
During the opening mission Walter refers to you as "a merc with a fried brain" 🙂
AC6's story has so many little details like this that are mentioned in passing but are actually pretty significant when you factor them into the rest of the story, and I love it for it 😍
At the beginning of the game, Walter mentions something about your character's brain being fried by your coral-based augmentations, and you're working for him to make enough money for the surgery to restore some level of bodily freedom. This is also confirmed in the pre-release story trailer, where the person who "sold" us to Walter says something along the lines of "This one is... functional, but don't expect much more." The in-game lore also confirms that "early" generations of Coral augmentations had high casualty rates, and even those that did survive typically suffer from significant side-effects. It wasn't until Gen-VIII that the process started to become "perfected".
This implies that while you're not necessarily a mindless drone, you ARE an emotionless husk of a mercenary that is reliant on Walter to stay alive. The story trailer also shows your body being maintained by some kind of life-support system, so it's implied that unless you're inside an AC or hooked up to some kind of specialized equipment, the side-effects from your Gen-IV augmentations would kill you, making you reliant on Walter. So, in summary, at the beginning of the game, you kinda ARE "mindlessly following orders", since you don't really have a strong sense of "self" or personal agency, and are entirely reliant on Walter to stay alive. Really, it's not until you meet Ayre, build a rep with the corporations and RLF, and have enough money to be independent, that you are able to start making your own choices
As everyone stated it's mentioned in game at certain points but the big area where it is shown/revealed is the trailers funnily enough, the weird equipment surrounding a pretty much shrink-wrapped body is pulse weaponry which fires essentially balls of EM radiation akin to a microwave's EM radiation just in a larger amount. It's also hinted in the data logs that 4th gen augmentation fries parts of the brain making a lot of pilots from that gen emotionless and almost like a machine.
@@notcoleI have heard left and right on this debate that 621 had his brain fried either before or after augmentation. We don't know 621's past but we do know that other pilots of similar and older generations of augmentation exist, yet they retain their own agency and capacity to speak (Iguazu, Sulla, etc.).
Dosers are mentioned as having fried brains from coral usage, and no one said if 621 was involved in an accident, MT battle, or even got the Robocop treatment. All of these are likely origins for 621.
I know i know most people have been saying that the plot is very basic but honestly, I think we needed a simple plot to fall back to, especially when all we had were having is a lot of go read this miscellaneous thing for a souls game JUST to understand the plot. Hell at least this game, unlike most of the other games, gave me people I can actually LIKE, people I can feel a connection to and people I can say straight up I don't like you. Two certain characters come to mind heavly especially and not to mention, this was the one time we had everyone in the mecha genre come together like your gundam fans, your super robot fans and your armored Core fans and it was magical. While yes the arena is on the weak side and yes the multiplayer is a total joke, at least the game when it did came out, it made people interested in a mecha game again since they were dying, it revived the mecha game genre and all of the builds we had were unique and fun. Hell I am hoping that thanks to AC6, we get more mecha games in the future and we are succeeding in finally getting word of Armored Core model kits made by Bandai which is a HUGE plus. Great job looking into all of these games!
I only have one complaint about ac6
It’s not FAST enough I need that shot of pure crack to reach that ever so elusive state of being that is speed
As a newcomer to the Armored Core series, I feel like I have more mileage from the Arena because I never upgrade the Damage Buff/Defense Buff in the OS Tuning area. It definitely makes the Arena fights way more challenging and fun to solve.
Also because there's no Repair Kit in the Arena, I use it as a quick experiment as to "How much damage does my build sustain before defeating an enemy without healing?" Since I'm still not as good in dodging, the time I finish the Arena fight and the amount of damage I sustain are two metrics I use to tweak AC builds.
Its been a good run. 6 got me to play the old games before it released jist like you and now im always thinking about the series even when not playing it. It's been a wonderful journey.
6 in particular is basically a perfect game in my eyes.
It takes everything i thought might work in 5 (the only gen i haven't finished) and did it right.
I'd love to see you do a final recap video ranking the games by how much you enjoy them. But I'm excited to see what you do next regardless.
I remember hearing about the stagger system and seeing the boss fights and going "oh no, they turned Armored Core into a Souls game"
I have never been so happy to be so wrong about something. The Souls like elements blended perfectly with this one, especially the boss fights. Each fight felt incredible, challenging, and interesting to go against
It is unfortunate it took this long to get a new AC game, but I'm glad to see the 10 year hiatus and what was learned in that time has not gone to waste. Here's hoping we'll get another age of Armored Core
"Look at you 621... You found.. A friend"
Anyone else damn near choke up their heart? 😢
I should also mention this game had people who previously worked on mecha anime hence why you some parts look like they are straight out of Macross, Gundam etc. The laser drones remind me of Witch From Mercury, as the main character has mech that uses very similar looking laser drones.
The story itself also is inspired by Eureka Seven.
"Slightly increased damage" from stagger
*laughs in TRUENO*
Honestly I actually really appreciate that arena fights are considerably easier than facing the same AC within the campaign. I like this both for a storytelling reason and a gameplay reason.
On the storytelling side of things Allmind is replicating the pilots fighting styles using combat data it has, but the story goes to great lengths to tell us that Allmind is ultimately incapable of truly reaching the performance demonstrated by real human pilots, so it makes a lot of sense that these arena fights would pale in comparison to fighting the real pilot.
On the gameplay side of things, having the arena fight be a sort of red herring for your expectations of the campaign is great. I remember fighting Chatty and Carla's AC's in the arena and thinking "okay that wasn't so bad" and going into the mission where you have to fight both of them being pretty confident and then getting my ass soundly handed to me. Nothing about the arena fights prepared me from fighting those two, because it's not really clear how much they complement each other until you actually fight them side by side. Same goes for fighting Freud, I found his arena fight to be challenging but not really difficult, and when I got to fighting him in the campaign, I was pleasantly surprised by how much more complex the fight could get with the same AC.
And then there's the Volta/Iguazu duo which is easily the hardest AC fight in the entire game. Volta already is the hardest Arena AC and adding Iguazu's AC complements it perfectly to create an extremely hard to deal with duo.
@@buragi5441 for sure. Like if Iguazu hadn't bailed at the Wall, Volta probably would have survived, that's how well they compliment each other tactically.
Reason why the customization feels so good is because each part has a place and a roll and you're not flooded with garbage that you'll never use I never played any of the previous games just has a disclaimer but I have played Space games and Space Games tend to do the whole flood you with a dozen different weapons thing or a dozen different engines or a dozen different whatever modular thing which are all completely useless say for one choice I respect the armored Core 6 Developers for making their game fitting window a glorified scavenger hunt
Congratulations on completing this journey, and thanks for sharing your experiences with us. I really enjoyed your overview of the games and I believe that overall, you struck a good balance on the depth of the reviews. Not too shallow that we learn nothing about the games, yet not too deep where it requires a significant time investment to watch each video. Yet when necessary, you concisely discussed the substantial changes made in each entry in the franchise. As such, I could not have asked for a better way to review the Armored Core series, so thanks again for taking the time to do this work.
Edit:
And I forgot to mention that you've earned yourself a subscriber :)
Im leaving a comment here ill come back after binge watching ALL YOUR ARMORED CORE videos ,i just wanna know how is the game and if i should buy it , big thank you to you chole for making all those very qualitative videos
Finally! And after the 30 Minutes Missions announcement for model kits!
Man 16 videos, absolutely nuts, i wann start playing the whole series
AC6 is currently my go to game during my days off work. And while I have S ranking on most missions (after painfully replaying them over and over), there are still a handful of missions I can’t get an S on, and two missions I just refuse to replay due to how difficult they are. Despite this, I’m still addicted to getting an all S rank regardless. The only downside to this game is the extreme difficulty on the boss fights- they are hard as fuck (annoyingly). But after getting used to them, replaying over and over again, you get use to them, and thus start to improve over time. Overall, the game is hell, but in a good way.
On the more difficult missions S ranks are more lenient. The most important is the speed at which you clear them.
While I agree AC6 has the easiest to farm economy I think you missed the reason why. AC games have never allowed you to change builds mid mission before with the checkpoints since the missions were so short, you could always just sell off your parts and change to different ones and retry the mission. But the limiting factor in AC6 is that you own the parts already if you want to change your builds without redoing the whole thing up to the boss fight, it made me grind some COAM to have those options ready to go when I needed them.
There was a stagger system in V though, it just was very subtle.
As opposed to obnoxious?
As someone who has played most of the Armored Core games myself, Armored Core 6 is a great game, but honestly falls short vs the 4 previous entries.
Some of the issues I have with it.
- No Co-op like the previous games.
- No real PVP. Just a 1v1 or 3v3. No Free for all, no Attackers vs Defenders. Small maps.
- All maps are restrictive vs what was shown during the first gameplay previews.
- With the new EN Load, lots of builds are restricted.
- Less overall customizable options like lack of shoulder weapons/boosters.
- No arm weapons.
- No snipers. Linear guns dont count. I want real Sniper Cannons and such from AC:4 and up to VD!
- Overboost Kick is less superior than AC:V's Quick Boost Kick (far superior layout and less Hints given away to the enemy when you're about to kick them)
- Anything heavy attacking is just an alert for the enemy to hit the dodge button. No surprise element basically.
That said.
Game is pretty damn fun, but not a game I could continue to play for a long time after finishing the campaigns.
Like probably many others, this series introduced me to you and I’ve voted and will be sticking around for whatever comes next! Well done buddy, you did it.
Regarding glide boost, it becomes alot easier to control it properly, especially when we talking about stopping and then moving again. Instead of turning it back on with circle (on ps5 at least) you can just quick boost with the square button (on ps5) in any direction and this also automatically turns on the 'glide' boost. This I think makes movement alot smoother and less confusing when you stop to target or snipe and then need to start moving quickly again to get away from incoming heavy melee or short range (shotguns anyone?!?!) Bulldozers that are slow but tanky. Or god forbid, Rusty or other quick as fuuuuu- melee ninjas the size of 2 houses stacked on top of each other.
On side note, I think the way those ninja Mechs move so so very quickly when. Theyr assault boosting or quick boosting...the G forces would absolutely destroy the human body. It's the reason astraunats and jet pilots are so rare and require so much training. They need to learn to handle those neck snapping g forces and sudden whiplash causing speed boosts that make them go 0 to literary mach 5 (I don't know my machs el oh el). And because of this I really appreciate the emphasis they put on the human modifications like our gen 4 mid level cyborg implants what-not. We really need those mods or we will die simply from moving our robots around. Thanks fromsoft. Your attention to detail is top notch as alwaaaaays. Thumbs up.👍👍
The multi missile lock wasnt new, Ac4 had it. Cant remember if 5 did or not to be honest. Loved the video btw.
Edit. Also in reference to the repair kits healing for 4000, you can imcrease this amount with the "tuning" system. I say "tuning" because its a very light tuning system for an AC game, at least compared to some. Its by no means bad, just not cery deep. More a multiple choice system using points earned in the arena. Some of the upgrades are permanent add ons to damage resistances or damage buffs for example and others are optional add ons you put in a specific slot that isnt used for anything else. The system works well enough but i would of liked to see a much deeper system in a modern AC rather than a very simplifed one. That said the rest of the game is so good it dosnt really matter. Its morw just something to hope for in the next maybe.
Unlocking arena opponents for use in training mode = gigachad move
Just here to post some of the lore:
1. Ayre isn't "Rubiconian" in traditional sense, she is the native, the sentient being Coral, while we human known Rubiconian is those who live on it
2. Walter didn't destroy Coral because of the weapon it could made into, Coral has the ability to basically mutate, multiply and hack in every human known machine. By allowing 1 rogue Coral infected human society, human race could be wiped out by them, or at least, in the true ending, altered so much that human would no longer be human
Damn i just watched all 16 Armored Core videos i grew up play AC and loved every min of it. Can't wait to get some time away from the family to play AC6.
My main issue is the engagement ranges, everything is too close.
I haven't played it my self, but there's an arena mod made by community that adds difficulty and variety to it, definitely check that out.
Everything you said is true even tho I haven't finished the game yet which I don't mind because I really wanted to watch this and I already got spoiled from the other armored core reviews. I got into armored core series in 2022 because I had a mecha/robot hyper fixation in 2021 even tho I already love mecha way before 2021. But still armored core 6 and the series really satisfied me a lot because of how Fromsoftware makes it and I'm proud of them for bringing it back. Last thing is seeing a lot of old and new players playing this really makes this game very memorable.
I think my only complaint is that I wish there had been more giant-type bosses, like the AFs from For Answer or the Strider. Hoping the DLC/sequel adds more of those.
Thank you chile, I followed your journey, I started playing ac2 on launch with my first ps2. It’s great to see someone give such an in depth public review that is both informative and nostalgic, I’ve learned things from you for games I’ve got thousands of hours in. This has been my most favorite game series throughout my life. Ravens everywhere thank you
Looking forward to whatever comes next! Can’t believe you’ve made it through every entry in the series, congratulations man it’s a monumental effort
I was eagerly waiting for this video. I think I joined in on it with AC2 Another Age?
There's another thing thats an issue with AC fights in the arena, and thats the damage that they do to you is significantly lesser most of the time due to their OS-tuning being oddly limited compared to yours. You can copy their kits and usually they're not that built in terms of their OS buffs for their main weapons, that or they're purposefully dealing less damage out of concern they could be doing too much damage but overall, the ACs in the Arena don't feel that difficult could be made up for by letting them heal up but with you still having none, or buffing their effectiveness and damage.
Although I don't comment, I've watched all of your AC videos and I have to say, I am really impressed by the quality of your videos, the video I first saw was the last raven, I Thought the video was pretty good and when I hit subscribe I was shocked because you had few subscribers with that level of quality, keep up the good work, I surely will be watching. (by the way, don't mind my English, it's not my main language kkk)
Removing the Repair Kits from the Arena is a good decision, since if they add them, it will teach players bad habits when it comes to PvP. The Arena serves as a warm-up for different builds before going into the Nest.
this playlist of 16 videos was just simply amazing and im so happy that someone like u did it and i really enjoyed every second of it , ty buddy . wish u all the bests
Can we talk about when you first fight Walter he stands like anubis from zone of the enders
Stagger was in the earlier games, all they did was make it extremely obvious for this one.
Although back then we called it "hit stun" and "knockback".
After seeing your journey into the series as another newbie who had just completed 6, it was cool seeing stuff I had seen in AC6 show up in older games and seeing you talk about it all coming back.
If you haven't been told yet. Then let me be the one. It's over due but you're without a thought, you're one of us. An AC Veteran.
Your journey wasn't an easy one. Yet here you are. Welcome to the family. I'm sure the corporation will be happy to hire you in any future titles.
Just binged your whole AC series. Great videos ty for making them.
ive been watching this series while 100%ing AC6 and honestly im very excited for whatever DLC we get if we do get it. this game was an absolute gem and i still havent put it down even after fully completing it
This game needs an expansion, now that shadow of the erdtree is coming out
What a journey! Been awesome to sit here and binge your videos over the past few days. I'm glad these were very listen friendly, as I've had them playing on my drives. Can't wait for VI's expansion!
You should cover the other endings and characters in involved.
I just S ranked every mission yesterday and I want more!
If they bring back the stagger system in the future, I'd hope it's only for big boss fights.
Either that or make it work like gen 5 where it exists but isn't centralising.
Because the side effect of it being applied to everything makes PvP incredibly dull where every single build has the exact same stagger > punish mentality.
I also personally dislike the hard lock and instant turning because some late-game bosses are built around it, and again it heavily biases certain PvP builds.
Like part of the reason the Zimmerman shotgun was so powerful was that if you were within its range, there was a 99% chance you're getting hit because of hard lock and instant turning.
Hard lock is definitely a whole different can of worms for the PvP scene. Would be interesting to see if FromSoft took the Elden Ring approach and balanced the game separately for PvE and PvP 🤔
That was true before balance patches, but now PvP has meta builds that aren't just stagger punish, but low stagger build up high DPS weapons.
This game is essentially a welcome back of a legendary franchise well-received.
there are actually two moonlight style blades. You know redshift, right?
Ac6 was my first armored core, and I'll definitely be picking up the others! What a great revival.
The arenas low difficulty is a story point.
Parts are missed where the arms with the built in weapons. I always loved my grenade launcher and gattling gun arm builds in the old games when I needed high dps at a lower weight.
I love you chole, that was one hell of a serie
"anime as f@#$" is perfect
AC6 was my first AC game and for about two weeks, I couldn't put it down.
Thank you for covering the entire series, I was curious about the significance of the Raven name and was a little surprised that it dates all the way back to the very first game.