Arquebus and Balam - A Deconstruction of Villainy
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- Опубліковано 30 тра 2024
- Arquebus and Balam are defined in the story by the characters of Snail and Michigan.
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TIMESTAMPS
00:00 Intro
05:36 Balam Industries and Michigan
20:58 Arquebus Corporation and Snail
39:50 Conclusion - Ігри
Just want to point out that 14:57 that was G6 Red talking, although I think Michigan would say pretty much the same thing but in a bit coarser way. I feel that Red is trying his very hard to become like Michigan while his more tender brotherly personality showing.
What struck me was how Michigan seem to remember the merits and characteristics of every soldier he has in his disposal, even his non-AC pilots. Like how one of them is good at math.
Fairly sure that was just him ribbing the guy for how he actually answered the ‘how many Aubrey’s is G13 worth’ question that was meant to be rhetorical. It was a classic drill sergeant moment.
@@astratan2238well yeah i thought the same thing, but the point of knowing the names of his mt pilots names still stands.
He is the only one that addresses others by name. A couple missions later you can see V2 snail being an utter ass to his own men. Literally telling the HC pilot you fight in the xylem to not talk to him. Keep in mind thats a far better pilot with a significantly more expensive and well equipped craft than the random grunts in MT that Michigan was addressing by name.
G6 Red is G1 Michigan's Mini Me and I can't see him as anything else
what I love about this line read is how you hear how saddened he was as he says "will get you too", shit felt real genuine. I love the redguns.
@@Chuito12PR But aren't commanders kinda required to remember everyone's name though? Either way I can see where you're coming from.
As a combat vet, just want to say the trope exists for a reason and Michigan is only SLIGHTLY over the top at best. Someone like that is great to serve with or under - It sounds dumb to someone merely looking in, but when you're actually knee deep in the sh*t, that gruff confidence and humor from someone keeps your heart in the fight.
Being able to keep troop morale high and promoting a sense of unity is often better than mere training. As much folks joke about it, moral support and the power of teamwork both exist with surprising potency
Sargent Avery Johnson is testament to that
I love him so much. Like he clearly cares about his soldiers but he also refuses to pull his punches with them and actually wants to see them improve and get better. Hence why he took Iguazu and Volta under his wing even though he insults them near constantly
Fun fact, if you don’t fight Snail before fighting him in Arquebus Balteus, he’ll be _furious_ at you for ignoring him.
'Your crime is ignoring me! Ignoring *ARQUEBUS*!'
You will *thank* the fact that I ignored you by the time I'm finished!
even Freud ignores him, its funny, he just mutes him in favor of the fight with Raven
@@TheSSBBfan666 Considering I did the LoR ending before I did the FoR ending, so I heard Snail's death scream. When I got to that section and heard Freud mute Snail. I could practically hear Snail seething all the way in the real world.
The fact that we can smack that british slug TWICE is one of the reasons LoR is my favorite ending...
@TheSSBBfan666 Freud is a free man that just loves AC battles.
One more thing I wanna add: Walter even planned to let us stay with the Redguns after this whole shitshow is over, meaning he trust Michigan enough to give his hound a better family.
That's why he sounds so depressed when we chose the mission to kill the Redguns and stayed awfully quiet during the entire fight
Make sense since Walter was sent and grew up on Jupiter (if i remember reading right from the logs) and Michigan is the hero of the Jupiter war. Would also explains why Walter sounded so hurt if we chose to eliminate the Redguns
It's unfortunate that we never got to actually stick with Balam and push them into chapter 5. But that's probably the point.
I think the original Raven's "handler" understands us mercs better, that we have the capacity to spread out our wings and fly high. This has been the theme of the series since way back then.
@@Punishthefalse They had to leave the Balam ending out of the game because it would be the only unambiguously good ending, haha.
@@duskmare0000 I would never not pick the Redgun/Balam ending, even if I had to kill Rusty again to get it.
Something interesting about freud and snail is... Well, it's going to require some context. In the first two or three generations of armored core there was something called human plus. In gameplay terms it was an anti-frustration mechanic, if you went too far into debt the game restarted with a bonus given to you for the new playthrough (more efficient energy use, faster boosting, etc). It was contextualized in game as your character being essentially sold for cybernetic experimentation to pay off your debt. In armored core 6 something that was lost in translation is that the augmentation surgery that just about everyone has gone through is called human plus in japan. All this to say freud and snail represent two kinds of classic armored core player, snail is the kind who goes into debt immediately as many times as possible to get all human plus augmentations (represented by all the people he experiments augmentations on before being comfortable doing them on himself), while freud, having no augmentations and being legendary in the lore, represents the kind of player who never went into debt and got by on pure skill.
FRUED was pretty badass, even if he’s only there for a moment.
And both player types end up abandoned so the player can move on to fight big bombastic bosses and die a lot to get grim and confusing endings, representing the shift from ditching AC to make Souls.
...just taking the piss. :P
@@InternetHydraearlier AC games had pretty grim endings, 6 is downright cheery in comparison from what I’ve gathered
@@InternetHydra dude thinks souls invented vague endings
Fromsoftwere has been doing it since kings field before souls
@@SorowFame Not really, the only ending that is "good" is the Liberator ending but the other two endings are pretty bleak. Fires of Raven ending has you basically commit mass genocide on what can be assumed to be an entire solar system and to the point where even the other factions consider it to be a monstrous act and that the player is directly called a monster for it. Sure you probably destroyed the coral but you also left Rubicon and everything near it a barren quarantined wasteland. You killed the coral and you killed the planet's potential to recover. The Alea iacta est ending has you go through with the coral release and forcibly evolve humanity with the coral and have it spread throughout the entire galaxy. Presumably this makes humanity as we know it extinct. Humanity is directly connected to the coral hivemind and in my own opinion has merged not just with the coral but also merged with Armored Cores. If that's true that'd be wild ngl.
20:40 another thing anout Michigan is, if you die to him, he doesnt gloat, he doesnt mourn you. His first priority is to his troops. Love this guy!
He definitely cares more about his unit than glory. Even outright says it: those Balam medals, they go real far when you throw em! He even tells his MT squad to pull back until he arrives because he _knows_ 1 AC can completely whip dozens of MTs
@@jooot_6850 It's also pretty telling that his expansion is more for defending his MTs than for benefitting him directly.
I think it is also relevant how Snail's big boss fight is just him co-opting a boss we have previously bested. Further demonstrates just how blind he is the whats going on outside his little bubble
Further illustrates that Arqeubus is propping itself up on tech from the PCA
Of course, he’s the one who gets access to the biggest and baddest toy he could get his grubby hands on.
As far as that ‘I AM ARQUEBUS’ line goes, it becomes even funnier when you realise that G1 Michigan is the only commander on Rubicon who we see has a history as ‘Hero of Jupiter’, and one of very few ac pilots with confirmed tenure off world (the other big one being V.1 Freud).
Snail can entertain his delusions precisely because he is a no-name newbie in a very small pond as part of a scouting force on a random backwater planet chasing very dubious (but potentially profitable) intel. Meanwhile Michigan has potentially galactic pull with his contacts at Balam and Furlong, but treats his whole stay as, in his words, ‘a field trip’.
The only way snail can think he is the best is by literally ignoring anyone else. It’s ‘I am a surgeon’ except even more ludicrous. G1 and V1 are of course the chads in this scenario listening to snail scream.
Snail to me seems like a guy pulling triple duty as a scientist, corporate executive for the planets branch, and military officer. But he lets some success go to his head and winds up loosing all the advantages he and quite a few others built
Now I wanna see that "I AM ARQUEBUS" Good Doctor meme, sounds great lol
Not to diminish your theory, but to me it seems that he may have been to other planets too, except he hasn't deployed there ever.
Remember, he only deploys on high priority missions - the kind where subterfuge instead of fighting force is necessary. Those kinds of missions are hard to come by
I refuse to believe they would let him command the Vespers if he had so little experience. Especially when Freud is there. No, most probably he has seen other worlds and worked there, except not in an AC.
EDIT: Don't forget that Arquebus had been fighting Balam, which had made Michigan their head of combat operations. No wet behind the ears newbie would be made the commander against that man. Most certainly he was some administrative figure who has also become an AC pilot, so good in fact that he was made part of the Vespers.
@@anuragpradhan7500
ok i'll explain to you how it shakes down:
arquebus puts freud in charge.
freud doesn't like dealing with shit 99% of the time.
so freud finds the most insufferable asshole with the most inflated ego he could find, strokes this ego a little by giving him the esteemed title of "deputy commander" and now he has a personal servant who does all the busy work for him.
as far as michigan is concerned i am 100% certain as far as actually confronting him is concerned, freud is going to be doing it himself as michigan is legit the only guy on the planet (until 621 shows up) who could possibly give him an exiting fight.
as far as i'm concerned freud also routinely throws empty beer cans at snail to signal that he needs to get more.
@@anuragpradhan7500 To counter your point, Snail is the 2nd rank Vesper, behind Freud. He's literally not even rank one in command, but he has such a huge ego. In Japanese, his subordinates call him "his excellency", even though he's outranked and less skilled than Freud. He's definitely got an ego problem. Snail is running around getting the best augments money can buy, while Freud is just some normal guy who is still better pilot than Snail. My impression is that Snail only "runs" things because Freud doesn't care about any of the corporate politicking. He only cares about playing with his AC, and Snail is a useful tool to give him more time to play with his AC.
What's even funnier is that Snail is using 100% Arquebus parts, including the stun needle launcher, a high tech gun designed to take down the Ice Worm. Meanwhile, Freud is a better pilot with a mix of Balam and Arquebus parts. Even with the best tech money can buy, Snail is still not even in the top 5 arena pilots. The more you really look at Snail, the more pathetic he becomes.
Out of all the other AC Pilots you kill G1 Michigan is the only one who is publically mourned by his fellow soldiers.
that's not true V.5 Hawkins will mourn Pater if you kill him first in "Ambush the Vespers"
@@CM-hx5dpPater also mourn O'Keefe dead
@@CesarHernandez-fw4pptbb i dont trust a fuckin word out of pater's mouth anymore
Also towards the end of that fight he pulls his old "v3 dont sound to bad" so really, i think he still liked that promotion more
@@CesarHernandez-fw4pp For all of 5 seconds until he realizes that he just got promoted.
@@SnakeEater776honestly I think he was just trying to cope at least, with way it was delivered. It also says he's prone to those kinds of comments
a theory i really like about operation wallclmiber is that walter gets you the job, intentionally or otherwise, by pressing on Snail's seething jealousy for Freud. Snail's ready to blow walter off when, wouldn't you know it, a spot opens up when Walter calls Freud the "only good pilot" in the Vespers. Snail lets you in to die in the diversionary operation out of pure spite. unfortunately for him, he could never have foreseen Raven being so good as to singlehandedly take the wall themselves.
unless i read your comment wrong, thats not really a theory, thats actually in the game, thats literally how it happens
In the entire game, Snail is shown to be more of an opportunist than some tactical genius. He takes advantage of Balam's attack on The Wall in order to have an easier time conquering it (whether you do it for him or he sends Freud as he originally planned). He freely gives command of slaying the Ice Worm to Michigan, but somehow participates in the fight probably so he could take credit for destroying this threat, or maybe repurpose the machine for his own use. He also takes advantage of Balam's focus on the Ice Worm to seize PCA tech that Arquebus can barely use. He takes advantage of Balam's failure in Watchpoint Alpha to let you scout out the defenses and destroy it for him, maybe die in the process too so he can take credit for whatever you did. Finally, he only manages to capture you after you defeat the Ibis unit and seize the Coral because you're too weakened to actually fight back.
Snail's successes rely entirely on taking advantage of situations and then claiming that he planned and thought of it all.
Dude that is what a tactical genius is like - taking advantage of a dynamic situation.
I have seen this too often - people like dunking on Snail because of his shit personality and even shittier actions, but you can't deny that he was a good strategist.
That dude had us take care of CEL - 240 while he just ambushed us. If anything, he fails because of his god complex - so many people, from Walter to RaD, he underestimated so many people and that came to bite him back in the ass.
@@anuragpradhan7500 A tactical genius can see a weakness and exploit it, or create plans that turn a losing battle into an equal or winning battle. Snail does neither. Anyone can collect low hanging fruit, backstab, and third party a weakened enemy. Efficient, but not a tactical genius. If there weren't others there to do the work for him, he probably would have failed just as much if not more than balam.
@@davidburke4101 I personally believe that Arquebus is actually more incompetent than Balam and the only reason they succeeded as much as they did was a combination of Snail’s opportunism and Allmind’s clandestine influence behind the scenes.
@@leaf0nthewind625 ALLMIND knee that if Arquebus got the PCA tech they'd stay in the planet to search for coral, but if Balam got PCA tech they'd likely leave because a win's a win. They didn't get the coral but they got a massive leg-up they can study, reverse engineer and use later.
Hell, Snail probably didn't tell Arquebus command they got access to PCA equipment because them the corporation would want an examination of it, meaning that he wouldn't be able to exploit it
2 things worth noting about snail:
1. he intended to sacrifice both you and rusty, just before the end of act 4. Had rusty beaten you in that mission, snail was infact planning to do the same to him. Snail had so little respect even for his most consistent ace pilot up to this point that he was willing to use him as a disposable knife like us (since o'keefe has also been working for allmind, and freud doesnt always listen to orders)
2. this one may not be intentional, but his loadout for open faith is not only one of the most optimal for killing ACs, but is incredibly aggressive in what its armaments do (lance to close the distance, stungun and plasma missiles to pressure people into range, and the stun needle to punish), but snail plays, even in his NG++ boss fight, incredibly passive, and the fight becomes easy as a result. Him not understanding his mech's equipment optimally is telling how reliant he is on sacrificing others instead of fighting himself
Its pretty perfect how big the gap between his playstyle and his build is. He has all the shiniest, most optimal toys Arquebus could give him, but he doesn't actually have the practice or skill to use them to their full potential. All the fights against him are more annoying than difficult, save for Snailteus, but even in that one he's coasting by on raw tech advantage and nothing else.
@@dumbsterdives Versus Rusty, who repeatedly shows how well he pilots his AC, knowing its ins and outs perfectly. Hes fast af, so he never dies or gets pressured (except by us). Hes totally fine with being the target of enemy fire, and is literally never pressed by it. Because he understands how to out manuever and land killshots and punish. Based on what weve seen in game, Rusty would wash Snail, despite being almost half as durable.
@@mkadoza To be fair, with perfect netcode, the mid-to-close range lightweights are capable of being very oppressive to fight against.
Thankfully, the Majestic exists.
@@mkadozaRusty pilots an AC designed for speed above all else, and is able to make use of that speed to a terrifying degree when you have to face him.
His way of fighting isn't to brute force a win, it's to wear down opponents through Death By A Thousand Cuts style combat
Snail is coasting by on tech and countless additional augmentations, and he still can't pilot his AC in an effective way
Love the symbolism in the Vesper's Pilot emblems. Snail's is literally a face split down the middle, he is two faced, conniving. Rusty's wolf is muzzled while he is with Arquebus. When Swinburne surrenders he is sent for re-education, a procedure that is likely not all that different than a lobotomy which is what his emblem depicts. Maeterlinck has a mosquito, Snail/Arquebus parasitically use her for their own ends in Institute city.
I still wish we had an ending where we side with Balam.
G1 Michigan is one of my favourite characters
Right, I was expecting a corporate ending, and I'm genuinely surprised we didn't get one. Siding with G1 Michigan and Balam would have been nice. Perhaps DLC?
OR Michigan jumps ship and you can join his new group.
I want a dlc ending where you help out all these loveable characters, rusty, michigan maybe even maeterlinck who gets left behind by arquebus
I would definitely not mind an alternate scenario pack with different what if missions. Seems like a good way to add dlc to the game
Honestly? Yes! I mean, looking at the endings:
1) We are a good boy/girl and do what Walter woud have wanted.
2) We do what the manipulative voice in our head wants. It is easy to like Ayre, but lets not forget that she represents the interests of the coral, hacks and arranges stuff without our consent, and that she wants us to just murder Carla (who saved our life just 2 missions ago), without an attempt at a compromise or other solution.
3) We do what the scary AI lady says. Allmind may try to kill us in the end, but she still gets her way regardless.
A fair bit of the whole Raven=Independant theme gets lost if we can't make a silly choice of our own, without being the pawn in another ones game.
Personally i woudn't have minded an option to sign with the PCA and returning to the status quo. If Allmind gets shut down and the corps get kicked from the planet, then the coral can do its own thing, doesn't need to get burned from the overseers, and human greed loses for once. And even if that turns out to be naive, then it woud still feel more of a genuine choice of the player (a Raven) than all the endings we get.
Bit more on Snail’s name, it’s a reference to a quote from someone talking about Sigmund Freud.
“Freud’s cranium is a snail!”
Freud is the naturally talented brawn of the Vespers who only lived to fight and test himself, while Snail considered himself the brains.
That's Salvador Dali, though I think the Freud V1 references is Lucian Freud.
One of the things that surprised me the most about Michigan is that while all this conversation was going on in the mission about eliminating him, I thought that I would be facing some unknown ACs since he knew the names of them, I was not expecting of a general to know the names of even the most basic grunts in the army.
Really shows how much he cared about everyone around him.
I love how Michigan talks to everyone of his Troops by Title or Name. The MT's under his command aren't just no name cannon fodder, He knows each one has a person and acknowledges them as that.
>aren’t just no-name cannon fodder
Tell that to my Songbirds..
I remember noticing how Balam doesn't really have mission to hinder Arquebus. They were mostly focus on dealing with the Liberation Front and later the PCA. Meanwhile, the first mission you get from Arquebus is to attack a group of Balam MTs, and hindering Balam is a theme for many Arquebus missions.
Another few things I'd like to add about 'Snail is actually a fucking idiot' are two key points.
1) In the Fires ending mission where you fight Freud, Snail gives Freud the insane order to ignore you to 'take the Xylem'. Seeing as the Arq forces don't rush the engines, we can presume the plan is to literally seize the control center, which is literally on the opposite side of 621. Snail just thinks Freud can ignore an AC on his ass to cap a point, there is no world where Freud stands around to hack the Xylem with 621 shooting him, it is literally a suicide order.
2) His build is made up of various 'good' parts, but they have absolutely no fucking synergy. Dude is using the Laser lance and the Stun Needle, both weapons that deal big hits on staggered ACs but are piss easy to dodge if not, individually solid choices but ones that want to operate on opposite ends of the range spectrum. The stun gun & plasma missiles are just generally good DPS, but aren't particularly good at actually building stagger for his openers. He has no 'play' to execute, just flailing at you with fancy parts.
I think that’s why they give his AC this cartoonishly dopey stupid looking head unit that has a big smug grin on it. Meanwhile Michigan’s AC looks genuinely intimidating, competent, and built precisely for his fighting style.
@@jirehjirehjirehjirehDon’t forget Snail is also using the CHONKY legs
Fun facts: There are 2 lines Snail can say during his final fight in LOR ending on how 621 slight him based on what you did in "eliminate Carla" mission, in which, you can either blow up his AC (you tried to kill me) or fly right pass him (you ignored me)
Augmented human tend to lose their humanity after surgery with tendency to become psychotic, hence most of the Vespers are in many degrees of becoming. That made Freud even more terrifying as he is the ONLY pure human in the group and yet he is the most psychotic of them all.
Even Fun-er Fact: Augmentations after gen-4 stopped using coral, which was the cause of the "loss of humanity," so Snail and some other Vespers aren't psychotic because of augmentation, they were just already insane. In V.VIII Pater's description, it even says that he is "a product of Generation Ten-the latest, and currently practiced, form of augmentation surgery-Pater represents the culmination of efforts to preserve the patient's humanity through Coral replacement technology. At times, his noticeably unreserved remarks hints at an underlying lack of empathy-one might assume this to be a side effect of the surgery, but this trait has in fact been with him since long before his augmentation."
Freud didn't seem particularly psychotic to me. Just a soldier who looks for a good fight, because he's the best he's been able to find so far, and trying to test his limits. If that's psychotic then every competitive athlete in the world is psychotic.
@@MidlifeCrisisJoehe's absolutely psychotic. He doesn't just enjoy fighting, it's all he can think about. It's all he wants to do. You can hear it in his dialogue when dying to him ( he says something along the lines of "get up, I'm not done with you").
We don't even really defeat him, we just destroy his AC. Freud himself was probably still alive and living off a primal urge to kill. He's 100% the most psychotic of the vespers
@@russian_knightif Freud managed to eject then he probably would’ve died with Xylem shortly afterwards since it’d be a bit out of character for him to run from a fight. I’m pretty sure all the ways he could leave Xylem would double as ways to fight you again, like having a spare AC or some such.
I think Freud just wanted to fight you, he has immense joy fighting 621, his actual equal. He finally found the meaning of his existence, a pilot that will do anything to kill him. He met his end, saying one last sarcastic word as if he still can fight.
On the dynamic between Michigan and Volta I'm surprised you didn't mention the log from Volta's wrecked mech. At the time of his death he was having a conversation with Igauzu about how despite his persona Michigan does actually care about them and the Redguns have become a sort of family to them.
Which in turn might've sent Iguazu off the deep end to begin with.
@@Zomboy123456789
That to. Volta seemed to definitely be the more chill/level headed of the two. Notably from what I recall he actually starts showing you some respect if you do well during the assault on the dam.
I feel like it's not so much a conversation as much as it is one final voicemail - much like 621's post-mission inbox - in a desperate attempt to reach Iguazu and keep him from getting into more/deeper trouble, especially now that Volta won't be around to watch his back. "You picked a good day to go AWOL" seems to suggest that Iguazu just never showed up at all that day instead of bailing in the middle of anything.
There are further big implications to Volta's message, especially in how he blames "the freaks who sent us on this suicide mission" instead of Michigan. Surely, as commander of the Redguns, Michigan drew up the original battleplan for Balam's version of Operation Wallclimber. But Volta doesn't blame him, the failure and death aren't his fault. So, what changed? Well, if Iguazu never showed up...
The title of Wallclimber was not intended for 621. It was supposed to be shared between Iguazu and Volta, they were the ones who were supposed to climb the wall, Iguazu couldn't shut up about it back at the dam. Balam's Operation Wallclimber wasn't just about taking a strategic objective, it was also supposed to give Iguazu and Volta an achievement they could be proud of, as part of Michigan's efforts to turn them into a proper fighting force.
With Iguazu's no-show, half the whole point is moot, and the mission would be undermanned anyways, making the strategic objective unlikely. I suspect Michigan tried to call it off, but corporate overrode him and forced it to proceed, getting Volta killed.
...I don't think Michigan has much love for Balam outside of the Redguns. Their cobalt medals go real far when you throw them.
@@MeckellOld comment but Michigan’s final act, according to his arena info, is to essentially force Balam to pay a bunch of his old Furlong buddies a massive life insurance payout. I think that shows how much he cares for corporate.
@@spiraljumper74 Yeah! I've seen one or two videos where people think that Michigan ended the Jupiter war by defecting from Fulong to join Balam, and I have NO idea how the hell they came up with that*. Balam corporate has an explicit quantity-over-quality "material superiority" approach that just does not mesh with what Michigan values: the quality and lives of his troops (in the sense that he won't expend them meaninglessly the way Balam corporate would), and strategic/tactical acumen.
* I COULD envision this as a sacrifice play on Michigan's part, but everyone I saw seemed to be suggesting a straight defection instead.
In my skul-gun, Michigan winding up at Balam was a surprise condition that Balam sprung on Furlong at the end of the Jupiter war. Basically, "hey that fleet commander of yours who's been kicking our asses up until the end? hand him over, he'll work for us now." Because of course Balam, with a philosophy of quantity over quality and therefore having a poor idea of what quality means, would figure that it's entirely because of That One Guy rather than the totality of the fighting force he commanded. And while I think Michigan was doing his best, the Redguns (which are literally half penal legion) were clearly not fully up to his standards.
Also in my skul-gun, the turning point, where the Jupiter war went from "Balam doesn't have shit on Furlong/Michigan" to "oh shit, Furlong/Michigan is losing", is why Walter walks with a cane. Walter is one of AC6's secret aces (1v6ing a whole squad of Vesper copies simultaneously seems deeply abnormal) and clearly knows Michigan on a different level than anyone else (it feels significant that the only person the game shows us Michigan dropping the drill sergeant affectation with is Walter). Way I figure, Walter was Michigan's best pilot back at Furlong, and Balam, likely with incredible loss of life, just barely managed to shoot him down. He survived, obviously, but he's off the board, and suddenly every single one of Michigan's options that depended on Walter is gone.
It felt so good to defeat V.II Snail. V.I Freud also made an impression on me because he's just a man who loves a good fight. As for Michigan, I kinda felt pity. Wasn't expecting that.
Freud was a killer through and through. Basically another psychopath who only cares for the fight.
@@Dunkopf I never said he was a good guy. I said he loves a good fight.
Raven could also fit your description from a certain point of view. How many missions have us dispassionately killing RLF fighters while under the thumb of Balam/Arquebus? Consider the Fires of Raven ending as well. We chose to do that. Even if we thought it was right, others see it as betrayal, as destruction of potential, etc. Our actions are far more consequential compared to Freud.
One last plan...EGGUUUHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!
I found V.I Freud to be really fun to fight, I must have restart at the checkpoint after beating him atleast a dozen times. I found that if you fight him for long enough he will very wishfully say “What I wouldnt give to fight like this forever.”
If I’d known I wouldn’t get to kill snail on my first play through if I took the destroy coral route that might’ve made me contemplate changing my decision just for that lol
Another thing about Snails, they were also used as a mocking image to represent the medieval Lombards. The Lombards had a reputation for betrayal, treason, and generally being untrustworthy. Often they would be shown being defeated by more regal beasts and knights.
In 28:15, what makes this even more fucked up is when you realize how close by Snail was the entire time. In my first 2 playthroughs, I always thought the reason Snail didn't respond was because he was he was busy plotting how to take out the IBIS series. However upon playing NG++ you then realize the dude was so close by the entire time. He legit could've been there to help her in seconds but he didn't, presumably to get 621 to beat the IBIS series for him and he could swoop in and take the win. The worst part about it is that its just so unnecessary. Its entirely possible that Snail could've just backed up Maeterlinck and later beaten the IBIS series since by this point, Arquebus has so much manpower that I doubt they wouldn't be able to win. Instead, he'd rather needlessly sacrifice other's lives even when he's practically guaranteed victory. Dude's a dick.
Yeah that really sealed what a POS. Doesn't help V6 profile states she is rather loyal so it is double effed
His plan was for 621 to either die to Ibis, or for 621 to beat Ibis, Snail to claim victory, and then send 621 off for "re-education" like he did for Walter.
I find it really sweet how Michigan seems to know all of the people under his command personally, not just the Redguns but also the MT pilots.
One mistake though. Was not Michigan that tried to recruit 621 to the Redguns after the assault on the wall. Was G6. Granted this does open up some other interesting ways to look at it. G6 looks up to Michigan so much that he has modelled his entire persona after him.
Lol yeah as someone else said here in the comments G6 is basically michigan's mini-me. x'D
@@Martial_Autistmight be why G6 is the only other person who gives you missions from Balam. Almost feel like be was being made to he Michigan's successor
V.II Snails attack plan is literally a frontal assault against a very well fortified wall while V.IV rusty just goes behind it. 😂 (You should be honored to even hear about it btw)
It's implied, that you and the handfull MTs that do the frontal attack are just a distraction as sacrifical pawns to thin enemy lines/distract them from the actual Arquebus attackers.
He ndver intended you to gain the glory as wallclimber.
(Well neither did he really want rusty to get it cause he can't stand rusty for him not being an easily manipulateable pawn)
@@TheAzureGhostYeah once you were brought on board the plan was for you to die while softening up the place. Just it didn't work because 621 is far more skill then what his rank says due to or being stolen (mind you that the real raven also is not rank properly)
@@TheAzureGhost also keep in mind that snail sent in you and rusty after balem had a crack at it, meaning by the time you got there, a lot of the damage had already been done, considering not a single liberation front AC shows up when you get there, chances are the red guns took out or heavily damaged most of them.
It's not a terrible plan, but... you could do a lot better.
@windhelmguard5295 very true, as in the 2nd playthrough. You really realize how easy balam made the operation for arquebus. Little Ziyi, Thumb Dolmayan and that 3rd guy who we find dead in the jailbreak rescue aren't present at the time arquebus step in for their turn. Just a single tetrapod MT and the the Wall itself
Am curious though where middle flatwell, and ring Freddie are
With the whole re-education thing you have to wonder how many Arqebus pilots are acting of their own will.
If Walter's anything to go by in the Fires of Raven ending, most MT pilots seem to have signed on. Unless there's some sort of adjustment period after which a relative normalcy can be achieved.
@@ElodieFiorellaThere could also be degrees of reeducation, plus they also augmented Walter, which wouldn't help stability much.
Considering that some vesper pilots changes emotion or attitude in battle, re-education can be "weakened" by adrenaline, I guess.
@@ElodieFiorella Walter's re-education is shown to be different to typical re-education. After all, Arquebus stuffed him in a coral-powered AC. They likely did EVERYTHING on him, and he's still not completely loyal.
It's implied that some of the Vesper's were products of re-education messing with their brains
I was actually disappointed when we weren't given an option to actually join the Red Guns, thought it would have been fun... don't get me wrong, the corps and their armies are the bad guys... "but just because you are Bad Guy... doesn't mean you are bad.. GUY."
you could also be a bad gal
@@Flipdagoose true and based
Michigan is actually one of my favourite characters in the entire game. The drill sergeant trope is done in a way that's funny and kind of endearing rather than annoying and really sets the tone for how he leads the Redguns. He talks a lot of smack towards his subordinates but he knows how to motivate them, like how he dares Volta and Iguazu to try and land a punch on him or how he turns the fight for Raven into a hunt for the regular MT squad members. He allso acknowledges Raven's strength and if you choose the mission where you have to fight him he warns his squad that you're the one who killed the Ice Worm, the one who climbed the wall, and the only one that has held the G13 callsign this long without dying. He makes it very clear to them that they are outmatched and that they don't have the advantage until he sorties, showing that he doesn't want them to throw away their lives. All around stand up guy if you ask me.
I feel like Michigan really dislikes arrogance, and values respect. In the introductory mission when Iguazu and Volta are insulting you, he starts insulting them back. And then near the end of that mission when you run into the RLF AC, Volta talks about the enemy AC saying something to the affect of "It's barely more than an MT." and Michigan responds with "I wouldn't exactly call you high tech either." Michigan even goes out of his way to humble his own soldier, because that soldier disrespected the enemy.
One thing that also distinguishes the two corporations is the products you can acquire from them and they subsidiaries
Balam has the most middle of the line products that work well in almost every build and dafeng offers heavy kinetic and ballistic weaponry with the most brute force heavy AC builds
Meanwhile arquebus have heavily optimized ACs for every class and feature a wide arrange of laser technology and Schneider, it’s subsidiary offers state of the art high speed ACs for elite pilots and experimental laser technology
You can see how arquebus won the war on rubicon just alone by constantly innovating and improving their tech
Yeah, but balam has all for kinetic. Submachine guns, shotguns, to Linear rifles. Daefeng even has some engines with quick EN recharge. These quys have good use of Balance and Heavy with a disregard to Energy Weapons.
The irony is arqebeus was so caught up in innovating they forgot about implementing.
They stole the PCA fleet to get an upper hand without know how to wield it. Many of their MTs talk about issues with the tech.
And Snails own undoing comes from ironically trying to take the PCAs he’s tsingualr AC for himself instead of using it as intended.
Then comes the all mind ending where the whole armory gets jacked
If you look at older AC games, you will see similar technology focus of the corps.
Arquebus tech reminds me a lot of Zeo Matrix/Mirage for example.
Balam are the strength enthusiasts while Arquebus are the dex magic ones
you cannot be saying arquebas has a technological advantage when the Zimmerman exists
On the take the wall mission if you take the markers as an indication of what the plan is, it's even worse. If you follow the v2 snails plan to the letter, you will have a bad time with all cannons pointed at you.
Makes sense, he was trying to get 621 killed. Could have survived a little longer if he wasn't a snake.
@haihuynh8772 well the plan was for us to die to the juggernaut not before then. Still I can see that being valid too. I still prefer to look at it as snails plan being braindead lol
Yea the vespers were supposed to take all the credit, rusty even comments on our speed meaning we werent supposed to make it to the wall before him
G6 isn't Michigan, that is so funny you didn't notice! I love it. G6 is just little Michigan!
You know, after watching this video, Iguazu acting like such a brat the whole game makes more sense now. He's gone through Michigan's Daily Hell along with Volta, but of the two of them, only Volta has actually moved on and is being trained for a bigger role in the Redguns. All of a sudden, here we come as Raven, and Michigan is immediately appreciative of our skills and possible utility to the Redguns. He just wanted Michigan's approval and recognition, but in the end, he just couldn't cut it.
note:him saying that mt bois tell the hq that he died of a badfall was beacuse then instead of all of the bounty reward being given to raven it would be split between all of the people present in the scence witch means all remaining mt pilots
even in his death he cared about his men
Michigan’s death is truly a bittersweet moment. Imagine being a beaten down Balam soldier. Injured from battle, losing the war to Arquebus, and now G1 Michigan is dead. And in the midst of it all you get a surprise big fat paycheck marked as a gift from G1 Michigan. Brings a grown man to tears.
Minor correction> at 15:20, the person speaking to you is G6 Red, not michigan. They have simmilar ways of speaking which is how I got fooled at first too but during the true ending, you actually fight G6 in an optional encounter which is how I even figured out they were separate characters. Doesnt change the character analysis of Michigan though so your points stay valid.
Because G6 is Michigan's biggest fan, and is actively emulating him
yea I sort of figured it was something like that. when Red said "you handled all of my requests" I actually had to do a double take to check which of Balams missions were from michigan and which came from red instead @@brandonbackup873
Dude that optional encounter with Red....man that hit me in the feels. You kill a man who's suffering from a PTSD induced psychotic break. No matter what ending you go for in this game. There will eventually be a moment during it where you're like "I really feel like I'm the villain of this story."
@@Deadsnake989 I did the whole MIA mission the first time without fighting Red and thought "haha what a badass i am with allmind to support me" and then i did it again fighting Red and realized no, we're all losing
@@Deadsnake989 yea it's terrible. Hes so broken 💔. It tore my heart apart when he turned on me like that
Another thing worth mentioning is that Snail is such a loser that in the final fight with him he pilots a BALTEUS in order to get the upper hand on you but still fails
On top of that he can’t even pilot it right. I’d argue that the first Balteus fight is more challenging than the Snail rematch. Rather than using the unique aspects of Balteus like the missile rings or fire swords, Arquebus just slaps on all of their own laser technology and Snajl fumbles around in a far less graceful way that the original Balteus.
Balam isn't much less evil than Arquebus in the grand scheme of things but it did endear me to Michigan that he actually knew the names of his MT pilots.
If I can expose a bit of my power level for a minute, I’d just like to point out that the first generation of Armored Core was very heavily inspired by an anime series called Armor Trooper Votoms which first aired in the 80s. I think AC has diverged somewhat in its identity since, but a lot of common threads remain, especially in terms of the dark tone of the setting and the amorality of much of the cast. The most obvious shoutout to Votoms in AC6 is the aesthetic of the Redguns, with pretty much all their members’ ACs having green military camo accented with red. This is clearly meant to be reminiscent of the Red Shoulders, a notorious military unit from the Votoms universe characterised by their military green mecha with a bright red shoulder pauldron. The Redguns are the polar opposite of the Red Shoulders though, who, without big spoilers, were basically defined from their origins to their actions on the battlefield by their total disregard for human life while Michigan probably cares more about his men than some of them (Iguazu) deserve. It’s an interesting subversion, if anything the madmen responsible for the Red Shoulders would be more at home at Arquebus.
Pailsen!
around 15:36, I believe you took G6's miltary like personality for michigan since G6 Red is basically Michigan's biggest fan and I believe he decided to take on that drill instructor like speech to be similar to Michigan
I wish we could've sided with Balam one way or another in a sort of underdog story against Arquebus and even the PCA. Or that it was Snail who gets uploaded into ALLMIND so that it calls him a mistake. What I would do to see and hear that.
Also spectacular of ALLMIND to hijack the newly acquired PCA tech and use it to slaughter Arquebus after driving Balam off Rubicon 3. That's what happens when you don't have the time or knowledge for field testing and proper checkups in the event of backdoor access by an A.I!
Not like Arquebus nor anyone for that matter had any reason to suspect ALLMIND of anything. It was just an ordinary support AI responsible for helping manage the mercenary business on Rubicon, not some wannabe Skynet trying to pull an Evangelion on humanity.
Only 621-Raven, Sulla, and O'Keefe had any reason to be wary since it's those three specifically that ALLMIND hired to act as its agents. Unfortunately none really thought much of its requests or didn't really care until it was already too late.
man I feel like the game missed its mark with Allmind's storyline. They should have had that story have you fight Walter as the final boss, it made the most sense story wise. The ending scene in that storyline just comes completely out of left field, it felt like that storyline just threw a boss at you out of necessity for being a videogame story. And not because it actually made sense in universe. Like, you're her champion up until that exact moment, at no point does the story even HINT that you were anything but loyal to her cause. Then out of nowhere she's just like "you're too dangerous to keep alive." But why though? I've been perfectly willing to do anything you ask up till this point, and I'm *CLEARLY* in favor of Coral release with Ayre in my head telling me to do it.
Considering this is likely the game's canon ending, it just feels like it had the least care put into making it a coherent narrative. Because it just falls apart in the last 5 minutes for no reason.
@@Deadsnake989 no, iguazu was chosen by allmind is because he the only gen 4 augment that is available at the time, you see all mind needed old gen augmented humans from one to four because they have really good resonance with coral, and at the time of the ending, it was either you or iguazu, but you're too unpredictable for her liking and g5 has a grudge on you, which she exploits well, maybe a bit to well.
@@gamedominatorxennongdm7956 That doesn't actually address what I said. Just because a game's story tells you something, that doesn't mean that it's *showed* you that thing. Many stories, especially poorly written ones will tell you one thing, but the story itself shows you something different.
"it was either you or iguazu, but you're too unpredictable for her liking" How does the story actual show you this though? If anything Iguazu is far less trustworthy than 621. I know Allmind "says" it, but it's nonsense. At no point does the actual story show this as being the case, especially the last few missions. Allmind even acknowledges this mid fight when she says Iguazu was a mistake.
Allmind is very open with what her goals are with you when she gives you the missions. She's not some sneaky villain using you for goals she keeps hidden. She tells you openly what her plans are, and gives you missions to assist her in them. This basically start's with assassinating O'Keefe. During the Coral convergence quest, she tells you she's going to have Walter dealt with because he's a threat to her plans. So she *also* tells you about her plan to kill your friend. In that same mission, Iguazu jumps into your fight with Snail trying to kill both of you. This is the pivotal moment where I'd say shows that he's more of an uncontrollable wildcard than 621 is. Then next you have to assist Allmind with taking control of the Xylem from Walter and Carla, you're well aware that you're working against them, and Walter straight up tells Carla 621 knew what choice they were making. And I would say the story has shown this to be true up to this point. At this point, despite 621 being a silent protagonist. It's fairly obvious that 621 is doing this out of their own motivation to see it succeed. I'd personally argue it's because of their connection with Ayre.
So by my analysis, the only logical explanation is that the writers needed a final boss because video game. And they had killed off every other logical final boss option up to that point. Which is why I think Walter being the final boss of the Allmind playthrough would have made *FAR* more logical sense in that playthrough. He's alive right up until that final confrontation, and you are directly opposed to his goals. It would have been a fantastic storytelling arc about your will overcoming the will of the person who gave you a purpose. Remember, in the story trailer of the game Walter says "I'll give you a reason to live, 621."
The problem though is From wanted to tell a story about the human will being stronger than a machine. But they did it in such a hamfisted way. That they wrote you being a loyal champion of the AI until the literal last moment of the story where the AI just goes "I'm going to kill now, for reasons." And then the machine's plan won anyways, so you killing them was utterly pointless. The Allmind ending was *really* well done, right up until the boss fight, and then it's nonsense. And all they had to do in order to make it make sense, is just have you fight Walter instead. If they wanted to keep in line with the man vs machine ending, they could have just had you refuse to betray Walter and Carla and side against Allmind. But again I'd like to reiterate. From decided to have you be loyal to Allmind, right up until the point she decides she's going to kill you for the most paper thin of reasons. She goes from a very well written AI character, to a Saturday morning cartoon villain so fast it gave me whiplash.
@@Deadsnake989 I mean, you take jobs for anyone that can give you a payroll, you the PLAYER are free to make a choice, that's the point, the game doesn't have to show you that because the game already gives you that.
Literally in the very first chapter your handler gives you mission it's up to you which mission you do first, all mind feared that, it wanted to wrest control of the coral, but it still used you because your reliable, trustworthy? Nah, control freaks like all mind can't put trust in your judgements, because you have so much agency as the PLAYER, that it decided to simply assimilate you into its system than risk having such an unpredictable factor as a part of her overall plan, that's why it used Iguazu against you, it knew of his bitter jealousy against you can be a useful motivator to defeat you, she just couldn't take into account that Iguazu could take over her directive, because let's be real here, the bastard would take any chance to beat your ass, so it didn't think much highly of him because his motivations are simplistic, and therefore, predictable.
Michigan getting out-piloted and beaten by 621 is really just the facts of the story -- anyone who goes up against 621 loses, flat out. His positivity and larger than life demeanor led to a longer and more successful career than just about anyone else in the game, so I don't think there's meant to be any condemnation of his outlook
That said, so many glimmers of true hope in the story are tied to Michigan and his actions. We wouldn't have Walter without Michigan and 621 wouldn't have actually stood a chance against ALLMIND without the exact dynamics of Michigan and Iguazu leading to that specific outcome
Honestly one of my favourite moments in this game is when freud just uses snails own words against him and then mutes him, snail must fuckin HATE how freud is above him despite him being the vespers brains
Also i find the differences in snails and michigans boss fights really interesting. Snail takes you on by himself and although you have taken out everybody in your path, he thinks he can easily take you solo. While michigan has an army of MTs behind him and still acknowledges the fact that they may very possibly lose this fight.
Edit: another fancy thing i noticed is the difference between the pilots. The redguns seem goofy or not all that good with an AC while the vespers are either experienced or arseholes
Gun1: goofy but very experienced
Gun2: barely appears but seems pretty experienced and serious
Gun3: a criminal who couldnt give a shit about the redguns and also seems not right in the head
Gun4: acts really tough and the dies
Gun5: iguazu
Gun6: a michigan simp
Gun7: r.i.p
V1: legendarily good pilot who doesnt even need augments
V2: although a huge arsehole, a big opportunist and genuinely decent planner
V3: very nihilistic, all mind operative so clearly had something going on with him
V4: a clearly very skilled pilot with how dast he climbed the ranks
V5: a skilled, sort of mentor like pilot to v8
V6: a very serious and loyal soldier
V7: a coward but also psycho who seems to enjoy re-education
V8: a seemingly new but very formal pilot... also a psycho seemingly.
I honestly felt that G1 Michigan was also the Lynchpin of Balem, and that he really IS the only one holding them together. His AC fight isnt exactly a walk in the park, hes not a push over in the final battle either if you let him hit you with cannon he can instant kill you if your not careful.
Dude was probably the only competenant person in the upper echelon of Balams Rubicon branch.
I don't think Snail killed Maeterlink for no reason. According to her arena bio Maeterlink is a gen 8 pilot with a perfect track record. Snail saw her as a potential threat to his own station which is why he refused to send backup even when she was begging for help.
He also saw her as if she was mocking him, as if she had a perfect record without all of his additional augmentations. Her very EXISTENCE was an insult to him, and so he needed her out of the pictute.
It explains why he paired her up with a recent turncoat. If Wu Huahai betrayed arquebus like he did balam, he'd get Maeterlinck killed and not Snail
Damn, and I thought the cut dialogue from Maeterlink is brutal enough, this feed my need to kill Snail again more.
One more thing you could add is that Snail is fucking petty. If you don't fight him in the Eliminate Carla mission, he complains how you had the audacity to ignore him, which really shows how insecure he is: He had the latest tech and augments, but Raven passing him by made him feel like a chump, like he wasn't worth the effort to take out. Yet in a world human pilots are always superior to machines, even when he is piloting a powerful machine like Balteus with the latest augments still couldn't beat us.
I love how the voiceacting in this game is basically classic old game/playstation era voice acting and wonky/silly scripts, but now done by actual voice actors who can pull off character and emotions.
you can even continue your analysis by the type of weapon arquebus and balam sell. Arquebus sell energy and plasma weapon that take time to load for more damage, while Balam sell kinetic weapon and explosive weapon for direct and quick damage
Balam rushed the Watchpoint exactly because they spearheaded Ice Worm. While you fight him, Arquebus is busy fighting and capturing the warfleet. Balam bet that they can overwhelm the defences and get the thing at the bottom first, while Arquebus bet that they will be mauled by both Ice Worm and Watchpoint defences. Balam was wrong and Arquebus correct, but in-universe that was a reasonable bet to do.
I both laughed and got depressed within that final mission when we were tasked to finish Balam.
This story was too good.
Probably the best mech story I've ever played. 😂😅😭
15:00 That's from G6 Red, not Michigan himself though, but I guess Red is somewhat of a speakperson of G1 anyways.
One funny detail is if you decide not to do his optional boss fight on your way to fight Carla then instead of saying you tried to kill him, he says you dared to ignore him. He's unhappy no matter what you do during that mission.
Michigan also can recognise each member of Balam's private army by name. Whenever someone pipes up from the MT Squads, Michigan calls them by name, and tells them to shut up.
One important thing to note, that I think is mentioned a few times during the story. Regarding galactic market share, Arquebus is the MUCH BIGGER conglomerate. That, in addition to Allmind proviing assistance/intel, Balam doesn't really have to be super-incompetent to have no chance to win against a force that can throw more resources at a problem.
Where is this mentioned?
One of my favourite things about Balam is how a fair chunk of their missions are called in on behalf of their subsidiary Daofeng. That is just so incredibly corporate, companies being determined to have their technical names and their corporate structure, and puppeting around the corpses of companies that they have devoured and subsumed. It is beautiful.
Arquebus does it with Schneider too.
I wouldn't say all the vespers hate each other. O'Keefe seems to have a friendship with rusty while Pater seems to really respect O'Keefe. That might just be a testament to O'Keefe character but just thought I would mention it.
Yeah, everyone just hates Snail, the rest were cool with each other.
I wanted a Balam ending so bad, I loved Michigan. and there's allot of implication that he played a huge role in multiple character's backstory as well as the wider universe.
Michigan deserved to survive atleast.
It's minor, but you missed the part where Freud doesn't even respect Snail. He's basically using him to handle all of the work he probably should be doing himself but isn't interested in doing.
Also he maybe attempts to kill Rusty by sending him after Raven? Rusty himself says "the highrr ups" but that basically means Snail and, possibly, Allmind.
Superiority complex? Nah. To me? Snail almost has a god complex if he was given the chance
remmeber that arquebus is the one betray you and trick you to kill rusty. They said unauthorized ac try to hinder the coral research. then sold the same stories to rusty in the end the LOR ending was pretty satisfiying for me cause i got to beat snail and prove you aint worth for being a commander. Also can we just appreciate rusty for being such a good dude he and michingan were my fav chara in ac6
After reading Volta's description, all I can see are Michigan as Garp and Volta and Iguazu as Helmeppo and Koby from One Piece. The only difference is that Iguazu never learned his lesson.
He does kinda talk like him
referring to the part where you mention allmind somehow nebulously aiding arquebus, in one of the first missions, grid something cleanup, you can find a hidden ghost that's massacred a bunch of MTs
I think one of the reasons people like Michigan, and Balam by proxy, is that they go against the trope of "Corporations bad" thats ever so present, sure plot wise they are antagonist but if we lived in AC-esque world i bet many people would be willing to join them by conradery alone, hopefully the next games develop it more and make the antagonists more compelling.
Armoured Core VI briefings really remind me of Ace Combat 7 briefings, after you become a prisoner and you are treated as nothing more than disposable garbage, but in this game, war itself is the cause of the apocalypse and the fact that they are using a technology that they not understand, that after destroying the satellite network turn against both sides of the war.
Dude you're Snail impression was excellent and genuinely made me laugh. Great job!
I would love to actually see a DLC were you fight alongside Balam more often. It seems like Balam would be the type of organization that in it's own deluded corporate sense beleives it is doing good
One funny thing about the call sign "snail" -- that was actually my granddad's callsign when he was a navy pilot in Vietnam. And his personality is NOTHING like V.II's. (I am not really sure why that was his callsign, it very well could just be it was because he was just really slow or something haha)
Slow or prefer defensive tactics?
@@mercenarygundam1487 like I said I have no idea, but judging by his current demeanor I would just guess that he would be slow in pre-flight or pre-takeoff procedure compared to the rest of the squadron. that's always been my guess.
@@janderssenviz At least he doesn't have delusions of Grandeur like V.II
@@mercenarygundam1487 he definitely does not haha. I would not have a good relationship with him if his personality was anything like V.II
One detail I like about Michigan during the mission we fight him is that shortly before his arrival, he lets his soldiers chose if they want to stay and fight with him or if they wants they can leave. Despite that, they all chose to continue to fight. I felt pretty shitty during and after the mission.
Just a little correction that don't changes the analysis, at 14:59, it's G6 Red who is speaking. It just confirm the good relations Balam wants to develops with us.
Snail final shout never fail to bring a smile on my face, he was such a piece of shit.
Unless I am mistaken, the "math guy" actually ejects and leaves, but Michigan still speaks to him with the same level of banter as before
@@SpirultimaI wonder about that. MTs seem extremely replaceable, but a seasoned pilot is not. Why don’t we see more pilots eject? Surely that’s a technology they’d be able to easily implement into any MT or AC, no?
@@jooot_6850 I reason that as basically, while there is HP that we can see clearly, when an AC or MT is destroyed, it's a pretty sudden affair. They are completely functional until it is too late. Like how a bullet would hit someone before they realised what happened.
If I am correct about Math Guy ejecting early, it is by choice, rather than by damage (Since Michigan gives any of the pilots the go-ahead if they so choose. At least until his untimely bad fall).
@@Spirultima That’s a fair point. In the cover art we see an AC with some destroyed parts but still somewhat functional. I imagine that an arm or a leg may be damaged or destroyed but the AC can still perform some combat duties. Would’ve been neat to see that in-game (IE clunkier movement or decreased accuracy) but I can also see how it would really mess with any 1hp clutches.
Meanwhile the whole “violent explosion when HP=0” is definitely a gameplay mechanic. I suppose you can read it as the AC’s armor being battered enough to the point where it’s internal fuel and ammo stores cook off, but usually armor doesn’t work like that
Even worse is trying to S-rank the mission. It's probably the hardest one, requiring an endurance/AoE setup. Bring plasma missiles.
At around 14:52, isn't that Red, not Michigain? Red's the one that's very superstitious about the curse of the number 13
Loving the video though, these are easily the best ac6 lore vids on youtube, especially the writing analysis.
About Arquebus acquiring the warship fleet. Michigan admits in private conversation with Walter that he gave up the heavy warship fleet to Arquebus to secure their cooperation on the ice worm mission. Or, specifically, to put Balam in command of that mission.
It's also worth noting that Snail seems to get even more annoyed by your existence if you fight him after choosing not to kill him in the previous mission.
i think the note about the fleet moreso meant that, during the joint operations, Arquebus had command of Balam's ships. I don't think that even a glory hound like Michigan would be dumb enough to hand over a massive chunk of the PCA's armory on a silver platter if he had claimed it first, especially given how dangerous the fleet is shown to be against anyone who isnt 621 or Rusty.
@@dumbsterdives I mean, given that the phrase "heavy warship fleet" is used multiple times to refer to the PCA's fleet, I think it makes sense that he is referring to it.
As to whether or not Michigan or Balam's higher-ups are dumb enough to forfeit the fleet to rush after the worm and rush down into the watchpoint, I'm not entirely sure. They definitely did rush into the watchpoint without much of a plan as far as we know, and they had a similar rushed and failed attempt at climbing the wall, but, giving up the fleet does seem.. extraordinarily stupid.
I like Michigan so much I avoided fighting him in all 3 of my playthroughs, although I still had to go ahead and fight him anyways in order to complete all the missions in the game and his mission was the last one I beat for the achievement. I still felt horrible for beating him, even more so than that trainee who was supposed to be the original Gun 13.
That poor trainee. Doomed from the start.
V.II Snail didn’t come up with the plan to ambush Raven after IB fight, its the ALLMIND who instructs him to do so.
I wish if there's ever a DLC there will be a route where we can Side with Balam
If there's a DLC, there might be. But I don't think there will be a standard DLC. For Armored Core the tradition is a "side game" that works as either a standalone release or a DLC if you have the first part. So, something like Far Cry: Blood Dragon, which was a standalone DLC to Far Cry 3, where you could buy it and load it as a DLC from the executable, or you could just buy it and play it on its own.
If they went a more traditional DLC route, I could see them adding new missions and routes. But if they go the traditional Armored Core route, in all likelihood the story will follow up on one of the endings, which will be whatever they decide the canon ending is. Which is anyone's guess at this point. People assume the N++ ending is the canon ending, but that might be tough to make a sequel out of.
Thanks for pointing out something I've been internally screaming about when discussing AC6: whatever advantages Arquebus had throughout the war, Snail was nothing but downsides for the organization.
One headcanon I have about Snail is that he was planning a coup against the board and C-suite of Arquebus, using both PCA weapons and reeducated soldiers. This would give him a more understandable reason to sacrifice Rusty and Materlink (and also suggests that he never realizes Rusty's true intentions). It would also explain why he's only driven to full madness in the penultimate mission of LoR: the destruction you've inflicted on his forces both personally and by invigorating the RLF has destroyed any chance of him achieving his goal of "becoming Arquebus."
It should also be mentioned that Michigan only tells the MT pilots that take him up on the offer to run from Raven to “get more training” he knows this is a job, and that the pay can’t be spent if your dead
I didn't think of the 're-education' for Walter. I thought he was killed and then re-animated through coral experiments, and controlled by a computer. Probably Allmind. That's why I thought Allmind wanted to do the coral release; was to infect all sentient life and gain control of it.
A piece info i dont think many pay attention to is the conversation between walter and snail that got us into opperation wall climber
He says it must suck having only 1 good vesper, now obviously that isnt true, O'keefe and Rusty are just as capable as Snail and Freud but given how snail lets v vi die to me makes it seem more like Snail only really cares about not just himself but that he doesnt care that others could be useful, as long as they are to him, but if they get too good like rusty he sends them to die like Rusty said, seems we're both too dangerous to be left alive, and later when snail sneak attacks us at the end of the ibis fight he said so long as we are useful to arquebus he left us alive even though walter tried to get a fast one on arquebus
It's weird, Balam has missions against the RLF and PCA. Like if they wanted Arquebus to get an advantage. I don't know if this connects, but V.I. Freud has some Balam parts compared to all of the other Vespers.
Do you mean balan was so focused on the PCA and RLF that it gave Arqebus the edge?
I don't think they meant for that, but Balam is all about glory, which I'd say is most evidenced by Michigan taking on the worm mission which was the final nail in the coffin for them. Balam didn't put much forethought into their competition, while Arquebus was striking at them from the beginning. If i recall correctly, Aquebus has a lot more missions against Balam then vice versa, no?
@@TheDukeTMOfficial I think.
One thought I had was Balam was hoping to get the worm for themselves along with other assorted pieces of institute tech for their own to use against arqebus. If they managed to get that monstrocity and others like the sea spiders under their control they'd be decent counter weights to the Arquebus forces.
@@theliato3809 If he managed to get the Frost Worm up and running with that coral shield, I think 'decent counter weights' would be the understatement of the century
@@TheDukeTMOfficial By spearheading the Worm Mission, they got permission to explore the Watchpoint Alpha before Arquebus.
We know that was a bad decision. But at that time, it seemed like a good one. If they got access to the vascular plant before Arquebus, they could have fortified it like the Wall and nothing could stop them then.
Except we all know how hard the defence network of Watchpoint Alpha was
it seemed to me like the vespers, at least snail and some others, were high powered executives in arquebus. Meanwhile the redguns are the mercenary force of Balam, more interested in glory than corporate power
I do love how the callsign Raven is a call back to the way the last ravens handler from 4 chose to start a merc group built "entitely on free will," i like to think that all this time later, that the Ravens of Rubicon descend from that group in some, spiritually successive way.
I think ayre says exactly what you said after you fight the pilot who’s license you stole
If Snail starts getting beat by the Ice Worm he will actually start arguing with it like he argues with you, even saying something like "You will not kill me, I am arquebus"
I just thought it was funny & it really stood out to me how Snail wasn't just some snob, he was an incredibly insecure, insane narcissist who would 100% argue with a non sentient object that would defy him.
Please I beg you, do more videos like this, talking about Armored Core lore and details I really love it and it helping me having some ideas to make a script to my future videogame. It really helps me to try to make a good script and even mech designs.
I can't remember what mission triggers it but it's just before the ice worm fight, Michigan and Walter talk and Michigan says that they are giving up some warships to "be the ones to lead" the fight of the ice worm. First playthrough I didn't think much of it but later ones only made me realize that the hubris of if this mission is successful, it was because we did it. Which ends up cathing them in the end as well. Anyways love your vids
If you take into account O'Keeffe relation with ALLMIND, it kinda makes sense why they have that external help in the whole conflict... Well at least until the end part of the game, of course.
...I don't blame you for getting Red and Michigan mixed up, they both have similar army man personalities. I'd say the difference is that Red is entirely serious and isn't as demeaning or joking as Michigan, and he's more superstitious. The "curse" really pops up again hard in NG++ when he starts panicking and starts shooting wildly at you while screaming
Michigan was too honest and naive. He thought that snail would abide with an honorable agreement between men. But that’s why he’s the goat. I wish there was a Balem path 😭
BALAM DLC WHEN!
But didt they tho of course the corporations were going back to fighting each other once the PCA was dealt with I thought they would both know that
@@imrunningoutofnames2413 When Balem was focused on the fight against the ice worm, Arquebus was focussing on stealing every piece of PCA tech they could find. This gave them a huge advantage once the ceasefire was over.
@@gmoney9469 ahhh I see I should’ve saw that ima replay the campaign for a 5th time after I finish my 4th time after I finish getting platinum
An honorable agreement between men? They're corporations! Balam should have known better, but they're too used to having the materiel to bulldoze their enemies. Enemies, who are usually probably just rebels, as Balam is a security company. AKA, space cops.
Brett you are an absolute machine how do you make this kind of quality so friggin' fast man?! These videos keep getting better and better and keep coming faster and faster. How is this even possible? I was debating on donating to your patron thing but the fact this upload happened so fast after the last one, just sealed it for me. You deserve my money, because damn do I enjoy your content.
Keep up the amazing work, you are amazing!
I sort of wish we could've joined Balam or Arquebus. I didn't want to roflstomp G1, he was hilarious. Plus, we could've allied with G4. Who knows what that couldve done.
There's two other moments that display both Michigan and Snail's traits well. With Michigan, he's the only pilot in the game to use Pulse Protection, likely to shield his soldiers rather than himself. Snail, on the other hand, shows just how little he thinks of others in the mission where you fight Freud, where he states, "That's what we have V.I for.". Freud is the official commander of the Vespers, and Snails speaks of him more like he's sending an attack dog at you rather than a comrade, let alone a superior.
So glad you've been making content on AC6, I love your video style.
Walter does an excellent job at annoying V.II Snail. He refers to him specifically as the Deputy Commander, indirectly insults him by saying that V.I Freud is the "only good pilot" they can rely on and outright calls him on his bullshit when he refuses to give Raven any respect despite the fact he and Rusty are the reason Arquebus has won several major engagements.
It's no wonder he was very eager to "re-educate" him.
Nice to see someone highlighting just what a great character Michigan is. Feel like it’s all too easy to write him off as a joke in the first mission you encounter him in.
Easily my favorite character that isn’t Rusty…
Fun fact - my three-year old loves snails and when we went to the zoo last year, what impressed her the most all day was actually a snail that she found on the ground. After that, the entry fee really felt motivated…
Failed to mention G1 Michigan was the hero of a "Jupiter War"
So it’s implied pretty strongly that Michigan was formerly “The Hero of Jupiter” and was compelled to work under Balam. Adds more to his “actually a good dude”. One thing that struck me really hard though in the mission to take him out? All the “maggots” working under him? He knows them all BY NAME. Even the gruntiest of grunts in his service he has a personal connection with. He’s a warrior, and war is his trade, but his humanity is deeply intact, and he tries to bring that humanity to his team as much as he can. What a guy.
And his line about Balam Cobalt medals going real far when you throw them isn’t just some funny joke he made on the fly but a well-known act of defiance and protest to show that he doesn’t give a damn about Balm Industries corporate but cares about the soldiers under him in his own way.
Michigan is a antagonist, he's not evil, but a opposing force in our way, he does what he does becaus it's he's job, without taking pleasure in doing evil stuff. Snail, in the other hand, is a full blown villain, wich has no other reason to be evil but he's pleasure in inflicting pain and suffering and, of course, reafirming he's pretentious superiority and feeding he's ego.
Michigan is best boi
Edit: Also I think despite everything, between Snails and Michigan, Michigan is the better leader. As any good officer will tell you "the real test isn't how you handle victory but how you handle defeat." Michigan and Balam have had constant failures, defeats, setbacks, and tragedies befall them on Rubicon just from the time 621 enters the scene to the game's numerous ends. And yet each time as long as he lives Michigan doesn't lose his optimism, he puts on a cheeky grin, rallies his men and women, and gets up. Michigan inspired loyalty, gave loyalty, and oozed a charisma. If he hadn't been killed I've no doubts that he'd have somehow managed to scrape together even more Red Guns from POWs that they'd taken just from his sheer charisma.
Snail strikes me as the type who, if faced with a defeat, is going to go to his room, scream into his pillow, break shit, and then take out his "failure" on everyone but himself. If anyone had loyalty to him, it wouldn't be to him. It'd be to his station. How could you be loyal to someone like Snail? You'd only be loyal because he's "deputy commander." And that's about as far as he'd be able to safely climb. Because for all his antics the Arqebus forces obey both cause he's deptuy commander and because he's got someone who's actually likable whose skirts he can hide behind and use as a cudgel.
The craziest thing is that even as over the top as these guys are, everyone knows 2 people exactly like them
Never payed attention to Balam's incomitance but now with that contextual knowledge Michigan becomes such a funny parody character and seems self aware of it too.
G6 sounds similar to Michigan but he is not. Hes just the contact who deals with mercs. Although he strives to be like michigan out of sheer respect.