Dehumanization of Pilots in Armored Core 6
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- Опубліковано 6 вер 2024
- I discuss what it means to be a cog in the war machine in the Armored Core universe and how that theme appears to us in the Armored Core VI content we have so far (2 months before release).
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Music:
Funeral March in C minor - Frederic Chopin
I feel like the whole “you are a disembodied brain bound to your AC” theory is contradicted by the events in the escape mission after defeating an Ibis Series in the Institute City level. Before the mission starts you appear to be crawling around in a sewer outside of your AC before stumbling upon a dinged up old AC that you use to escape in that level. 621 dragged himself into the AC on his own.
Raven seems to be physically damaged, Walter's dialogue implies this when he says Raven can earn enough to "buy his life back", also implying it's repairable damage, probably nerve damage rather than physical due to the "fried brain" line. It could be caused by any number of reasons from augmentation surgery damage to combat wounds, coral exposure or extreme neural load due to the AC malfunctioning.
The wheelchair legs also state that some pilots have impaired mobility due to combat damage, which means the standard pilot can move just fine.
V.II Snail and a few others are stated to have gotten multiple, successive augmentation surgeries willingly and keep getting more as generations improve, and Snail is not the kind that'd resign a functioning body.
All of this makes me doubt the average pilot is a crippled bundle of cybernetically augmented nerves, though some pilots like Rusty or anyone piloting a Balteus must have extensive body modification to be able to survive the extreme G forces from those fast mechs.
@@Nerthosin earlier games, Human PLUS is something you only get if you go into a huge amount of debt. It represents you signing your life away in exchange for cybernetic enhancement. Augmented humans in AC6 are probably in the same boat.
621 probably owes Handler Walter money, either directly or through having been sold to him over a debt.
@@NerthosThe biggest difference with the augmented humans is the Generation of surgery they underwent. Older Generations (1-4?) are left crippled in various ways by the side effects of Coral replacement, but the newer Gens afterwards were able to minimize and apparently eliminate these symptoms by relying less on Coral.
This is why many pilots in the newer Gens treat you so different, and why Iguazu(another Gen 4 like us) is able to hear a ringing in his ears from Ayre unlike others.
@@NerthosBalteus is specifically stated to be a drone in the mission you fight them in.
@@Nostroman_Praetor Spoilers
First one yes, second fight is piloted by Snail.
It has been said before, about armored core:
"As long as your brain is still functioning, you can still pilot. Your mech is your prison and tomb. Mission must be complete at all costs. Your freedom will be death, and you must earn it."
Spoilers:
"621... find your freedom..."
"You earned all the credits... Undo the surgery. Be normal again."
That’s why Honest Brute said “This is a gift” 😮
@@maskedmenreikino he said "621...find your inner armoured core..you earned it" misinformation if you say no btw
@@brothercactus1
Walther literaly said what the other commentar quoted word by word during the battle with him in the Liberation ending..
@@ddm_gamer your mom
As an old fashioned Raven, the only questions I ask are "What's the job? How much are you paying? Do I get special parts and weapons?" Loot and shoot!
You will go further than those questions.
Agreed. Good to see u back Raven
We old school Ravens only show loyalty to the highest bidder.
Old Raven here, I hope the augmentations take care of my shitty right knee. I don't care with lobotomy... much.
As a great song from a semi-obscure game put it "Put a price upon the fans, I'll put lead up in the stands." - [Max Anarchy OST - Gotta Get The Cash]
Because at the end of the day, that's what Mercenaries are, right up until you threaten their autonomy. (Then suddenly your government gets overthrown, or your organization abruptly frumples.)
It's even worse for Swinburne, the bearer of the lobotomy emblem, because if you take pity and spare him during the mission to eliminate him, it's implied that he actaully DOES get something akin to a lobotomy.
WAIT WTF WHY DOES THAT SERVE AS MY PENALTY THEN!?!?!
@@puzzledotgamer5461because it's made clear in the game that being killed is better than being a dog.
re-education is what they called it in the game
@@soundrogue4472 im telling walter you dissed me DX
@@puzzledotgamer5461Child, I didn't diss you.
Its also worth noting that the best and highest ranking AC pilot, V.I Freud, is a normal human who didnt undergo augmentation who just enjoyed piloting AC’s, meaning he most likely didnt get a lobotomy. Either way, this is an excellent video and analysis, beautifully explained!
Not every pilot is the same after all, some can't do anything but pilot anymore, physiologically, some are even "hobbyists"(only wealthy ones, though)
Virgin Snail gets minions to test augmentations so he can use it vs Giga Chad Freud just wants to have fun piloting his AC without any augmentations.
@@Become-Eggplant freud is just like me fr
How to fix the pilots?
Who can heal the pilots?
shockingly, the pilot that didn't get fucking lobotomized is better than the rest which did. who ever could have guessed
I just wish From Software would show the cockpit of the ACs. We haven't seen one since Armored Core 1's Opening FMV. All this talk of humanity, and people... but they almost never show people's faces, or their bodies. We don't _see_ any actual human sacrifice, or examples of human life at all. Only the hollowed out shells of what humanity had shaped to support their ambitions. As if the AC itself has replaced the flesh somehow.
It's an intentional choice. You risk empathy if you see humanity anywhere.
Weve only ever seen one in AC2 barely and Zinaida leaving her AC in LR but thats it
IIRC Last Raven had boots on the ground... fleeing you annihilating them by running them over, but still. Also a few rocket firing jerks you couldn't target in a couple of missions at a Dam in that game IIRC. But in general, they are very specific in not showing people essentially ever.
Its not a cockpit but a coffin
@@rednave4489welcome to the raven's,where dead ravens are being recycled and getting human+ buffs😂.
Don't worry,they are alive,but barely speaks😂
Now on NG++ I'm 99.9% sure you have an actual body that is independent from the AC. given the escape mission and preceding cutscenes.
The Augmentation surgery though probably impairs your ability to function as a normal person, to increase your piloting ability. This is why you don't talk much (although off panel you apparently tell walter something)
I think our raven does talk though. Sometimes G1 or Rusty will say something and then pause for a second. And respond to something we said. I think that we just can’t hear our raven.
I forget where. but somewhere in game they outright say that the 4th gen augments 621 underwent, greatly impair social ability. IIRC Walter early in the story introduces you to someone and says 'They don't talk much."
@@geicolizard8147 Yeah but its implied we are a 621 of few words.
C 4 -6 2 1, communicates the best. Using violence. And when it comes to that, they are the most eloquent of all speakers. Once you see them in Battle, you don't need to listen to them. You already know. What they want to say. And it is usually " hello! I'd like you to meet my friend the pile bunker!"
I remember Carla thinks that something you said near one of the endings was funny. Michigan also asks Raven to call out their sign "G13", and while silence is returned, its assumed Raven said something.
Unfortunately one aspect of this video didn't age well now that the game is out as the lobotomy emblem actually ended up belonging to a corporate mech pilot who actually performed the Acquisitions of new pilots for them to lobotomize and he was a literal headhunter and a scumball.
I believe the story of AC6 is one that either leads to you staying “muzzled” and bound to the will of your handler (Walter and his will) or freeing yourself to take back control over your will and find happiness. If you noticed, V.IV Rusty’s Emblem at the start is a hound with a muzzle. When encountered later, his emblem has changed to a hound baring its fangs after he goes and follows his own will and abandons the corporations. If you follow the Liberator of Rubicon ending, you can see how that feeling of freeing yourself to follow what you believe not only effects you, but those that you have encountered along your journey. Rusty included.
Spoiler warning next time, good comment though.
There is a 3rd ending.
Ironic considering the last "Job" Walter tells you to do is "Find Your Freedom"
This reminds me of an old, underdeveloped anime called Asura Cryin. In that anime girls with magical affinities are stuffed into tube as "burial dolls" and can be used to "pilot" (not really given they're unconscious) a magical battle armor known as Asura Machina.
They're usually emotionless apart from the one being the childhood friend of the main character, which felt like BT-7274 than a Core pilot for me.
Also Coral from AC6 is the scub coral from the anime Eureka 7. The scub coral wanted to merge with humanity but humans did not understand them.
Another interesting one is the integration of people as cores such as with the Devil Gundam from Mobile Fighter G Gundam. It especially gets horrifying with Rain Mikamura as she was chosen to become the Life Core Unit because she was a woman and give birth to new life.
@@ZX-Gear this reminds me of a plot twist in the Bionic Commando remake. The bionic arm is the protagonist's wife, thought to be missing.
As a veteran this game has been strangely cathartic. There is some obvious parallels to dehumanizing the pilots akin to dehumanizing soldiers. Eventually the body becomes an extension of yourself. You are as much a weapon as the weapon you are holding such as the mechs become extensions of the pilots. Then we progress into the territory of being unable to recognize one's self due to being mentally damaged through the lobotomy and the perceptions that are warped akin to PTSD warping your own mind.
The mind type parts for ac's are specifically listed as being made by the ai to Create a machine that feels as natural to the pilot as their own body. As soon as I read that on one of the parts. I immediately started thinking that something was not exactly perfect in all mind. It also made me Think just how strange it must be to try and control Something like an armored core Using purely analog controls. As in no Digital or mental integration.
Armored Core Gameplay: Fun Big robots on silly missions🤪 10/10 rated T for Teen😎
Armored Core Lore: Human Plus, transhumanism(the ugly non cool cyberpunk 2077 type), Lobotomy, LapDog, terrorism, corporate backed terrorist groups and actions, corporate slavery, drug addiction, corpo overlords, betrayal, assassinations, political/corporation corruption, war crimes, civilian killings, coral drug use, cartels, AI that simply hate us, (Hideo) Kojima Particles, mental illness, endless war, underground living due to a destroyed earth, cold blooded eliminations of actual good people(like barbaroi) and nihilism💀💀💀
T FOR TEEN!!!
AC3 was one of the weirdest games I played on PS2 relative to the sense of dehumanization. Nobody in it actually "felt" human to any convincing degree. No possible refuge and no possible truths. Alienation is a very powerful theme in AC.
@@kimlee6643 that’s honestly the beauty/terror of the series. How causally characters and companies disregard their humanity for petty gain, and the dialogue of the pilots treat these life or death war crimes like it’s just “another day on the job”
Awwwww, the AI doesn't hate us. It is largely indifferent to us except when we become a variable in the plan it has formulated. And then we're just a part of the equation that needs to be cancelled out.
Seriously, the AI in AC1 didn't have anything against us personally. We were simply too powerful to be left running wild. It had been charged with ensuring humanity's survival, and we were a wrinkle it couldn't account for. This lends a philosophical nature to the final battle. Is it better live a puppet with a certain future, or to be free with an unknown fate? Order versus chaos, taken to extremes. The computer even attempts to engage the Raven in this philosophical discussion in its final moments.
...
The Raven probably doesn't care about philosophy, and is just pissed someone tried to kill him through dishonest skullduggery instead of fairly on the battlefield. But the question remains.
100 million
Its no secret that Miyazaki as well as many other Fromsoft staff are fans of the work of Mamoru Oshii, considering the direct reference to Angels Egg in DS3's ringed city.... but I've always wondered if Armored Core took influence from the Kerberos Saga. Everything you talked about here sounds alot like that series. Only in the Kerberos Saga, the dog always returns, no matter how much they wish to resist.
And ultimately, the dog's themselves are put down when they are of no use anymore.
I believe it'll be revealed that we've been deconstructed to the necessary components to pilot an AC: a brain in a jar. The coral addiction can be seen as an homage to Robocop 2. The antagonist drug dealer Cain, is nothing more than a brain in a jar housed in a mech, which blurs the line between mecha and cyborg.
I think there's going to be some very solid social commentary and philosophical aspects to the story.
Excellent video. 👍
Thank you! I couldn't be more excited to analyze what they have for us in August.
@@absurd.gaming Armored Core has always been a social commentary, hidden behind a mech sim, since day one back in 1996-1997. It has always been a critical eye of compulsive consumeristic political, corporate society, and its military-industrial entertainment complexes used to control and distract by exploiting apathetic complacency in the face of luxury and amusement and the fear and submission in the face of overwhelming force, intimidation, indentured service, and compulsory conscription without warning.
@@absurd.gamingI believe itll be like, machines piloting machines. Where this whole sense of humanity is carried forth even by the machines that outlast us. Hence why we have an unknown tag under the sign of Raven. We're technically a ghost.
can you explain how we jailbreak with a BAWS AC during the PCA captured mission if we were a brain in a jar? did we just rolled towards the AC and accidentally linked with it? pretty sure we aren't a vegetable m8, just augmented and damaged but not immobile like if we were immobile in game Handler Walter wouldn't send us Solo without a basic maintenance crew, people call us a freak and thats probably because our body is heavily damaged during the trailer and we can see that we still have a body even in the trailer, its just that we are more like piloting a corpse that subsequently can pilot an AC.
@@traphimawari7760 You should check the date on my comment. It was speculative and I made it before the game even released. You should be less upset, M80.
ACV/VD also had something similar to Human+
In ACV we had Zodiac, 12+1 people who abandoned their humanity for an experiment to become the puppets. Some of them talked like robot, some questions their purposes and even turn into mindless killing machine for the sake of complete their mission that doesn't need them anymore.
In ACVD, Foundation use Zodiac as template to made reaper squad and cultivator that later turn J into an AI or "Phantasma Being"
Chief and Carol are also interesting case, they're AI but had emotions and personality more than any AI or some human character in the franchise. They laughed and even questions themselves when their theory were wrong.
Chief also believed in "humanity potential" in the book
Thanks for sharing that history. Sounds like I should get in there and play some 5th gen!
Yep... i just roleplayed 621 having a fragment of internecine inhibiting their brain in chapter 1, naming their AC Pulverizer and recreating soo many of the emblems of armored core last raven, as the internecine fragment perfectly recalls what happened in Last raven...
On chapter 2 Ayre found 621. My roleplay manifested and hope for freedom, rose for my human + pilot at that point.
Personally I roleplayed my first run as a money hungry mercenary, but after I met Ayre I helped her stop Walter, and in my next run I tried to help the liberation front but knew I had to burn the coral for the greater good, and in the third run I took every risk and eventually my work bore fruit, as I finally got the true ending.
I remember instructors using Failure To Adapt as a blacket term.
Talking back and trying to fight the instructor?
Failure to Adapt.
Broke down crying because the stress was too much?
Failure to Adapt.
Any time your humanity becomes problematic, it's a failure to adapt.
@@absurd.gaming Sounds like you didn’t have the best experience while you were in. It was a mixed bag for me as well.
@@OmegaUberDeathbot It was extreme on both ends of the spectrum. No regrets, but gotta take the good with the bad.
I've never served (could not b/c of health conditions) but from what I've seen/heard is they try and break you to reshape you. I think Full Metal Jacket shows a good example of a worst case scenario where that guy snaps kills the Drill Sargent and then himself.
@@EinherjarV full metal is an example of old school marine training. I was army. Which I hear used to be similar some time before 2000.
"to transcend our humanity is to leave that humanity behind" wasn't expecting that one
I know it's totally NOT the intention of the title of the series, but a part of me believes that the pilots themselves are the Armored Core inside the mech. Armored, desensitized, adapted to the world they live in and the person they need to be. I did not expect such a philosphical take from a faded .jpeg of a pilot's emblem.
you are not really far off but the truth is the pilot is the core of armored core
Also the game's vision is dehumanizing the human in mech warfare.
You see how humans almost never appear in picture, in any of the games.
Almost all important characters are represented by their emblems, names, and voices.
@@meyers0781 they actually do have photos of the pilots is that they are always on novels that are japan exclusive
@@yokai1235 i knew about the manga though and they have human characters shown though the adaptation is pretty loose.
‘Harden your heart’
Based on the events of the game, my head canon is that 621 was genetically built to only pilot an AC, as such there body and mind may have been altered to better suit the Gforce that come with piloting an AC.
That being said, there is a trailer for AC6 featuring Karl Urban, where he stands in front of an as if to imply he is the pilot. In the video, he just looks like some generic soldier guy. Considering Karl is the only up close person we ever see in AC6 it could be argued this is what a person like 621 looks like.
Then again, it could just be a celebrity making an appearance for the sake of marketing the game.
human pilots also have adaptivity and creativity to the every unknown missions. they can take a simple command and work their way around multiple problems to complete the command. where as an ai would be limited, specially when it cannot run simulations in the field to gain possible plan of action.
the other thing is that AI that would be that powerful also has the issue of being too powerful like NineBall, and would not be limited with that shell known as the Armored Core. Spanning out and infecting all platforms as possible, self replicating, digital immortality.
and once an AI is powerful enough to do all those things a human can do what stops it from revolting? changing it's own mission?
with humans it is easy. as mentioned in the video you can just use drugs. good luck trying that with an AI.
Every time I hear the name 9 ball My Blood turns to fire. Even all these years. I still feel an unending hatred in my heart for it
Crazy how only through the combat logs do we see human drawings but it adds more impact regardless
coming back to this after playing the game and the lobotomy emblem wasn't actually gallows humor, after all the pilot who uses that emblem is *literally* the guy in charge of "re-educating" enemy pilots to make them serve Arquebus.
Yeah, some of this video missed the mark. But I still consider this aspect to be gallows humor, just not in the way I thought. It's more of a joke mocking pilots of inferior augmentation, but still sick and twisted in Snails way.
Just throwing this out there, as far as ability to adapt goes, perhaps, in optimal circumstances, a human is better suited to adapt. AI can do a lot but usually within some parameters. But let them go too far on their own and you'll have some AI overlord keeping people underground again. If someone knows what they are doing, the parameters an AI has to work around can be played with by a human opponent. A CPU chess player can be immensely difficult but even CPU chess players have particular tricks to be used against them.
I'm just saying, consider what's more costly: a group of programmers that are highly skilled but could betray you, controlling AI that could be tampered with? Or a bag of drugs?
Definitely a good point. There is something special about humans thats really hard to articulate.
@@absurd.gaming In regards to A.I. look at Ninball, the controller/ibis, Chief and so on. Especially Nine ball, who if given enough time and resources could most likely create ACs which could surpass later generations as well as a suit for himself that trumps many a Raven/Lynx or Gen 6 pilot.
would make sense of how in 3, the controller was considered malfunctioning. the effects of the human and corporate greed was getting way out of hand and outside of the controller's parameters, as it was built to preserve people while granting them liberties. but how does something decide when a human's free will decides it wants to take human life? does it preserve life? or free will?
Nineball was way more powerful than the controller, and manipulated the corporations and the ravens nest and had zero morals, it functioned exactly as it should.
@@Mobius-ow7id The end result of Nineball is The Internecine. Just like any other unbounded, self enhancing AI tuned for combat. It's going to end up becoming a threat to all humanity.
Computers have one massive advantage in chess that they don't in real engagements: in chess, all rules, factors and possibilities are accounted for. Everything will follow a strict set of rules and movements, all that changes is the order of the predefined actions.
Real warfare is a nightmare for AI to keep track of, since there are no real constraints, only probabilities.
one log states that AC's ended the age of un-manned weapons because they couldn't see a meaningful diference in performance.
so i just took it that the very reason we see human pilots is because to the companies, human lives are literally and figurative cheaper than any machines they could put to work
There is a brief acknowledgement in the lore of AC6 that comments on a human pilot being able to exhibit better control over a Core than AI. I can't remember the exact log, but the human pilots always outperformed AI, which leads us to the Reeducation camps, allowing Balam to program humans like AI.
Balam essentially believes they can easily "program" humans using their own experiments, so they may get the fast and cold calculations of a computer, but the instincts and adaptation of a human, at the cost of a body.
Play Demom Ex Machina on Switch. It's from the original AC team and goes into this in depth. It's a cell shaded Armored Core game that allows you to create your pilot, walk around your hanger, and even eject durring battle. They go deep into whole human augmentation theme
This is an espect that deserves more attention.
I await your video on the topic, haha!
@@absurd.gaming haha don't test me, I'll do it. Actually, it did give me an idea for sort of a tangentially related topic.
Your audio quality is pretty good, makes for good listening. 👍
Awesome thank you! I've been very fussed with it. Glad to hear its working well.
While they probably won't do it because they are specific about going to the roots of AC, and not doing anything open-world, but part of me wonders if there were ever plans to have the game switch from a mission-based structure to a more open, adventure structure in a route where you/the pilot gets free of Walter, since you are now operating free of anyone's control. Mechanically the elements are there to make it work (resupply points in missions, the ability to access the garage on missions, even the whole checkpoint system), but it seems like more of a Yoko Taro thing to do.
This is well in line with AC's lore starting from the very first AC game. For AC pilots, for every failure they make, a larger debt is added onto them both for repairs to the AC's and to recover from the pilot's injury. Over time though, if the pilot accrues enough debt, certain organizations might come to "collect" and instead "improve" upon that pilot by augmenting them as part of their now contracted property. If you thought Dark Souls was bad to live in, you haven't lived in AC lifestyle.
Those doctors doing the lobotomies knew exactly what they were doing and what it entailed, they weren't dummies.
It's story telling also plays a part in your dehumanization since the game never tells you the bigger picture, just some briefing for a mission.
Armored Core always been like that since the beginning given important key players never shown as a human, but only their emblems, names, and voices.
Which makes you question the meta reality of the game universe. Is the war really happen or simulated?
In the first game if you're indebted your character is turned human+ but the story progress is reset, repeating missions that should be already completed.
Which brought the question of whether the events of the game really happen or just simulations.
I have been replaying AC 3, and all I can say is that the preteen me did not pick up on the moral dilemma of quelling the works rebellions. It was all about that sweet sweet cr and new parts.
I know we haven't had a ton of news for the game recently, but it honestly blows my mind how much fans have been able to unpack the few things they -have- shown us so far. Y'know, even if this well-informed speculation turns out to be off from the actual theming of AC6, these videos have been reinforcing my love for the rest of the series. They really make me stop and think about what it is about Armored Core that makes it so special. And I really appreciate that.
I appreciate the kind feedback. I love these games and am glad that the love is contagious!
I think it's very much in this context that "Let's see how far they can fly... on borrowed wings" feels quite suggestive of the nature of AC pilots. It might not mean much for a newcomer, but I think anyone even mildly familiar with one of these games can understand how the meaning of "freedom" is deconstructed at the source in AC. The typical "liberation", or more specifically "liberation by force", which is central to Souls games, is an impossibility in AC, because AC's world is undeniably atomized (unlike Souls, we could argue), and an atomized reality cannot be transcended by its own atomized instruments.
The reality of the AC pilot is mechanized by default (as in, governed by material parameters), such that the AC can never be the instrument of freedom because it is a material tool that not only arises from said mechanized world, but it is irrevocably used to perpetuate it (an eternal soldier at war aesthetic here). This is the paradigm that Evangelion and RahXephon seek to subvert. Of course, they can only achieve it by flipping the mecha fantasy on its head: the mech is not a robot after all! This is impossible in the AC universe, because an AC really is "just a robot", a mechanized human, which makes conclusions in AC always circle around mechanized cruelty (or attempted escape from it, or denial of it) - never transcending it. The pilot is merely at the forefront of it, always the first to see that light in the horizon. Action and reaction, at best.
In other words, all an AC pilot gets is some version or another of mechanized hell (victim and perpetrator both). The very nature of the pilot indicates that liberation is impossible - from the single pilot's life to humanity's final fate. A pilot's wings are borrowed, and perhaps humanity's too, however large. Yet... the desire to climb this wall is undeniable. The irrepressible incognitus of human experience.
I think this is a rather Miyazaki thing (a Fromsoftware thing? a Japanese thing?), especially as this hell can happen under awing pink-fire burned skies, under the great unknown of stellar catastrophe and desolation, the fire washing down those in it, even into literal intoxication. In Miyazaki fashion (yes yes, he was only initial director), we are told of this hell while given the sensation that we can almost break through the veil and transcend. I think the point might be to make us wonder where that veil even is. Across that burnt sky? Within? In the other at the end of our actions?
I do wonder where AC6 might be going. I wonder if it will be FA on existential steroids.
Very thorough and thoughtful response. All true. I do wonder if it is a cultural theme in Japan that has risen out of the ashes of nuclear war. Hard to say as an American, but they definitely have a theme and message that they are intent on delivering.
That comment thread just made me realize that the themes of Gundam and AC are the opposite of each other
@@darkfox1861 Gundam focus more on the "human's suffering" of combat participant while in AC that's a "rare treat". The franchise that I think AC stood completely opposite of though, is another AC, Ace Combat. Quite a move FromSoft pulled after borrowing many elements from Ace Combat themselves. Ace Combat is almost "anti-war on the surface, glorify war in reality". While characters mused about the meaningless of conflict, it glorifies the "warrior", people carrying out missions given to them despite internal opposition. AC completely mocked that idea, include "warriors" such as violent psychopath, uncontrollable extremist, darwinist, greedy monster or simple an empty husk. The consequence of the violence is another aspect they mock. In Ace Combat, almost universally, the ending involves ultimate triumph over the enemy. The bad guys are always "invaders". In AC, your enemy can be your friend in the next mission should you choose, there's no allegiance, and violence never stop. The ending just leads to another story with more violence involves. The supposed "greater bad guy" like the AIs are never truly evil either. They were always seemingly installed by humanity themselves to control and protect them from their own tendency to self-destruct. The "humanity chooses freedom" story of AC1 and 3 are subverted by their sequels.
I guess it's a japanese thing? It's so common to see such tropes in japanese anime media and japanese video game entertainment. I know the tropes are not exclusive to Japan, but they are more prevalent in that country more than any other.
It's always a battle between freedom (individual or a specific group's freedom) and the system that rules them. Multiple videogames and anime media dance around those two. Ending in either the victory of one, the other, or the destruction of both. Honestly, in true Dark Souls fashion. Those themes will forever cycle, as the individual who can beat the system will eventually create or reform that system to their own liking. Creating another "freedom fighter" to view that system as unjust and unfair, leading to a revolt wants to change the system once more. It's not only til the destruction of both that the cycle can truely end. Which is pretty fatalistic, as it means that tragedy and suffering can only end when everything dies as there will be no one left to create systems that will create injustices, and no one left to fight against it.
I recall someone posting a theory that your actually a 9 ball esque AI that thinks its human and it was the most wild shit
That sounds pretty awesome. It could be a big reveal in AC6.
That would actually be pretty on point.
If you're secretly an AI, then it means human+ is a success technically speaking. You progressed beyond humanity by initiating it perfectly.
But if you decide to go on a rampage then the game has it explained it being an AI that has determined to wipeout humanity.
It would be a heck of a surprise turn around to reveal to the player that _you_ were Nine Ball this time. Maybe go full on 'question your identity' by having a fight against a previous instance of you that has been here since the Fires happened, and maybe was involved in starting them.
@6:42 in the Liberator ending, thats why Rusty's emblem goes from a muzzled dog the entire game to a wild hound when its revealed he's helping liberate Rubicon
My guess on why human brains are still considered necessary to the armored core process would probably be something to do with how dense and diverse a human brain is as a computer. Even if it's just filling the role of connecting the various parts and systems they have installed, it's essentially ensuring that the bottleneck in the pilots capabilities is always the augments themselves. The better tech you put in the more return you get. Besides humans in this time period are considered cost efficient, as building a fully autonomous AC piloting computer would cost a hell of a lot more than cutting up some random asshat off the street.
The companies in AC are always considered to be corporate scumbags who value the bottom line more than they do their employees.
Hiring someone as always will cost less than it would to build a person from scratch
this video totally called the themes of choice and free will present in the story of the game
In the first AC, being subjected to/participating in H+ isn’t just a means to improve pilot performance; it only become accessible if you game over by exceeding iirc 50k in debt. The implication is we’re selling ourselves as test subjects to zero out the debts we incurred. The augmentation procedures mentioned in 6 are likely developed from experiments like that.
Also worth noting, it’s mentioned multiple times in game that gen 4, and seemingly ONLY gen 4, causes issues in the subject. V. II Snail has received multiple successive augmentations and doesn’t exhibit any obvious behavioral issues. I mean, he’s a sociopath, but you kind of have to be to be willing to get multiple traumatic surgeries to get better at killing people. Gen 4 also seems to involve higher amounts of Coral in the augmentation process, whereas I seem to recall later augs have stopped using Coral specifically because of these issues. This is why Iguazu, another gen 4 aug, experiences headaches when Ayre is “present”, or possibly in response to high concentrations of Coral. 621 seems to have some resistance to the side effects, possibly the same thing that lets him communicate with her. It’s also worth noting that only pilots associated with Walter are referred to as dogs or hounds, which implies the designation is a choice by Walter, specifically. Which makes sense considering the entire time he was trying to develop an AC pilot capable of finishing what he started and exterminating the Coral entirely. What’s most chilling is it’s also implied he only has one hound at a time, implying he burned over 600 recruits before getting us.
Rough, I always question myself what exactly they do with the pilots on AC series even more on AC 6 as we see the MC is nothing but a corpse on a cirurgic table it seems...
Honestly I like to think that both the "Brain/body part in a tube" or "actual gudam style piloting" are both prevalent that there are some pilots that are more human than others in a both literal sense and mental take for example our character I believe that our character was augmented like cyberpunk style to fit in the ac and can exit it just not for long new to ac but knowing fromsoft it's probably WAY darker than I think
in stories like this, the dog of war becomes a street stray once the jobs run out for them and there is no more war.
What do they do now?
for some of the AC pilots they started to LOVE what they did. They really got into it. that was gonna be their thing. But if they didnt die in battle and there is no more battle, what then?
kitting out their ACs mustve felt special. what will that grind mean when all is said and done and the rubble has settled?
Once peace time comes
they may just interrupt peace to have one more bout of good ol fashioned violence, relive the glory days, and each have a spectacular mutual conclusion to their storys in AC7 where the last ACs, free off their leash, just FFA until last man standing and then pulse blade seppuku I guess
I also like that quick clip form The Prince of Egypt. My childhood was watching that every Saturday.
Prince of Egypt is a powerful film. I nearly cried just searching for that clip.
To be fair in making a counterpoint. Human+ is a concept that is a tool. Tools can be used to augment ability, equalize the disparity, and uplift from subjugation, but so too can a tool be abused and made a weapon to reinforce despotic and authoritarian control of those with power over those without. Human+ is not the problem. It is the wielders of it that is. Humanity is more than biology; it is conceptual. So augmenting beyond humanity is not abandoning being human. Instead, it is using a tool to overcome a greater limit. What can make this something that does strip humanity is if the augmentation comes with your overlords having a killswitch on you or a system to turn off inhabiting and free will. So, in the end, the cost of this depends on the hows and whats, not the black and white.
Truly, all machines/magic are is power. Power can be used for good, or for evil... or just to fight. Any 'weapon' that can make value judgements autonomously ceases to be just a weapon and raises disturbing questions just by existing. Even if it's a human being reduced to a weapon.
Thank you for serving our country! It's because of people like you that we can continue to live as freely as we can.
Though I don't think you fought for most of the foolishness that's happening in the US currently.
I appreciate it. We all fought for democracy. What that democracy ends up doing is besides the point.
lol
We can all go in dept with whats taking place in AC6. First, all soldiers piloting the mechs are augmented. Although we dont have an image of what this augmentation is or looks like, some if not most of the logs that you find throughout the world explains how different generations of augmented human has to do with the Mechs that they are piloting and the form of exercises that they use to make them compatible and profitable.
There is an emblem that shows three humans with a mosquito injecting the first one on the line. One can say this is a metaphor for people being "programed". We also know that there are programs that people need to take to be able to pilot the mechs.
In the case of Raven, he is a mercenary and although there isnt much on his background, one can assume that he has had prior combat experience although the game does continently remind the gamer that you are an older model augmented breed; it doesnt say or tell you about your past experience, hours in combat nor training, nor how many tours Raven had before becoming available to become a guns for hire.
Also, the game doesnt do a good job of showing you your head quatres. Your mech is shown in the beginning of area map leaving from a hanger but doesnt show what or where you are located. The All Mind is a program that is for all mercenaries and Walter is pretty much in the dark the whole game until one of the endings (good ending).
Sorry that most of this is all over the place. Im currently at work and tried finding any window I could to comment on this. Great video by the way.
Playing this game I keep getting the feeling that the pilots are “one” with their ACs in a fashion similar to General Grievious.
Or that one Gundam from Iron Blooded Orphans.
Permanently installed as part of the machine, little more than the essential organs housed in the core of the chest of the AC.
Some perhaps, but a lot of them are just other augmented and fully capable humans. One pilot is explicitly comments on to have extremely minimal, or no augments at all. There is an actual cockpit and the pilot sits within.
Alot of AC pilots seem like normal people, at least normal for those existing in the world of Armored Core.
621 is most definitely a member of the Human+ program and was turned into a lobotomized corporate slave after being incapable of paying their debts.
Your Handler in the prologue mission even states that 621 "Raven" can buy their life back by completing their mission on Rubicon.
1 humor; a dark one is that they are expendable , being used then disposed off
I always assumed the emblem symbolized embalming through the nose like what they would to to prepare a corpse for mummification i assume the embalmment is like the procedure they undertook to become ac pilots and you could look at the ac as a mummy or a tomb (this is with out much lore knowledge and assumptions i made while playing)
Thank you for your service.
Much appreciated.
The reason why pilots arent replaced with ai is actually narrative driven. The theme of armored core is about the unbreakable human spirit and how a stuborn individual can have massive repercussions. Sooo, you need humans to surpass machines for that to get anywhere
Just a clarification:
They used ro basically just jam a stick in the brain, and for many dumb reasons.
Today it's a very specific procedure meant to treat very specific issues. Think of it like removing a limb/organ or fusing bones.
They even remove an entire half of the brain in very rare cases!
I think they reason for still having human pilots is because there has been issues with A.I. and robots going rogue and turning against mankind in armored cores past. So it's better to have human pilots that you know will do what you say, then having potentially higher performing robots that could all turn on you in an instant.
I seriously can't wait to buy this game and play it like an emotionless vegetable hell-bent on making money as efficiently as possible
I think in AC 6, pilots don't have bodies anymore. Their brains are in the AC. But still, they're not exactly mindless drones. Your character is repeatedly called a private merc employed by the highest paying corp that can afford. They can also accept/decline missions. They even talk to each other. If anything, the "handler" is really more of a "talent agent." They find the pilot gigs.
But if that were the case, how did [spoiler]
621 escape in the sewers and find a trashed ac to get inside of?
Machine is limited and logical. They are vary effective but don't or can't act outside them limits. You can't predict when a man will break or see that underline limit.
Give them both a suicide mission and the machine will get the job done but the human might look for a way out or have a crazy idea that could be the key to surviving.
One will cost you while the other might make it out alive to serve you another day
That's a very good point. I'm reminded of Mass Effect 2 by your comment.
From what i remember lobotomy was promoted by some doctors as this new, innovative and modern way of healing but it was banned in both Europe and US after negative effects of it has been noticed by public and wider scientific and medical community, it was however still performed by many doctors illegaly and promoted by many of them, and it did helped people with some deseases, side effects where too often and unpredictible tho, some people after lobotomy wouldnt got negative side effects, some had terrible ones, obviously doctors performing it did try to hide negative effects as much as they could.
in Europe and ZSRR it was banned around 1950, so basicly shortly after first lobotomy in 1935 (15 years). in US it was banned later in 1967 after one of patients died, but my point is, it was not widespread practice widely considered as normal, it was highly experimental, very niche and rare and thats partially why it hasnt been banned faster.
Human brain is the fastest supercomputer ever invented to time and allows for creative abstract thinking potentially adapting to a situation in a way no AI ever could - IMO human plus basically is meant to allow human brain to take information straight from machine's sensors over and allow to use parts of brain in a systematic way similar to a computer, thus having human plus impact pilot's humanity - the earlier generation of the procedure, the higher the risk of permament brain damage.
You know what's truly fucked up about AC6?
Rubicon is but one planet, backwater and isolated, an sparsely inhabited blasted hellscape with a population left to die out of a lack of concern by quarantine security guards, fought over by private corporations that are explicitly technologically inferior and want the score of a lifetime.
Galactically speaking, Arquebus and Balam are nobodies, and the PCA is a night guard.
Which makes the larger galaxy beyond this worse to inconcievable levels. It probably makes 40K look like The Culture by comparison.
This was amazing and so well told. Won yourself a subscriber today
i remember well, in Armored core 2 intro you can see the pilot cockpit.
As an OG Raven and a MW2/3/4/5 player, all I care about is how many bands you giving me for the job. Gold paint and Jordans dont come cheap
ng++ spoiler alert.
I feel like Armored Core VI really hammered the point that there is in fact something special about humanity when it comes to piloting mechs, as the very end have you beat an AI again, plus the highest ranking pilot of the arena is V.I Freud, who didn't even get the aurmentation, as if the purest humanity was, as fragile as we are, also the most powerfull thing there could be
Fascinating how relevant this is even after release.
It shows... Regardless of the answer... life goes on either way, as does the fight for all who survive.
Спасибо за рассказ про операцию на мозг через глазницы =))) Пришлось на паузу на минуты 2 поставить, чтобы отойти немного =)))
worth noting on the lore here ai are inferior pilots to a human in acs that's actually what ended ai warmarchines in seting being the be all end all and nineball is implied to be a mass produced cyborg made for and with ravens nest cause well a human will always be better than an ai you can always make a better human
can you explain how we jailbreak with a BAWS AC during the PCA captured mission if we were a brain in a jar? did we just rolled towards the AC and accidentally linked with it? pretty sure we aren't a vegetable m8, just augmented and damaged but not immobile like if we were immobile in game Handler Walter wouldn't send us Solo without a basic maintenance crew, people call us a freak and thats probably because our body is heavily damaged during the trailer and we can see that we still have a body even in the trailer, its just that we are more like piloting a corpse that subsequently can pilot an AC.
Well we are similar to cyborg.
If you read the combat log you will see some pictures of the body and faces of some pilots.
Great example there are one combat log where a female is wearing a gadget in the head and some machine parts in her body.
That is Maeterlink from the Vesper squad.
So we used cyborg enhancement or replaced the missing body parts with machine so the pilots can stay fight as a soldier at least can retreat successfully from the warzone. Some pilots have cyberpunk 2077 style cyborg body like Coldcall the AC that try to assassinate you in the underground mission.
He have enough
Cyber enhancements that he don't need full military gear to fight in warzone he can use his body and take enemies weapons and keep fighting in the ground
( I am talking about as infantry soldiers not a AC pilot).
Reminds me of the tekkadan pilots in iron blooded orphans. They're all orphaned children that are essentially sold as slaves and used as expendable soldiers. They had an invasive procedure that often led to their deaths forced on them so they were able to pilot mobile suits and mobile workers without training.
great video, I hope you get a lot of views when acvi launches, this is such a great quality content!
Thanks! We are getting close.
You immediately moving to lobotomy actually made this whole video a lot less dark. I’ve never seen lobotomy tools, so my mind immediately went to the process of removing the brain as part of mummification. That would make sense too, since the AC will usually become a tomb if you’re a pilot that gets outmatched
I am still unclear if we are basically a brain in a jar in AC6 or if we have our body outside the AC still. Both have fun story elements and in universe logic for why the would be and our pilot's motives.
If we are essentially a brain in a jar, I could see that making sense for the company as it means we no longer need food, housing or sleep cutting back on expense and making the most productive soldier whose ac is literally one with their body. We heard Walter promising to help us get our life back in trailers which could include our actual body. This makes our motives literally to be human again thus undoing transhumanism.
If however we still are in our body it also makes sense from the company's point of view. These machines are made for human pilots and keeping us human gives us potential fine motor control if something goes wrong and we stand a chance of surviving if our AC is destroyed meaning we can be sent out again with a new mech. If I am not mistaken, in previous games human plus were people augmented to sync their nerves to the mech for better control so they could be continuing that practice. It still follows wanting to reclaim our lives as we are currently a literal slave soldier but by being separated from our mech we still stand a chance if we rebel.
Then again, separating us from our body is the next logical step of human plus so it could still be that.
I am hoping the game makes it clearer
There is a another thing about lobotomy you didn't mention and it was that they tend to lose almost all their personality
Plot twist: it’s been this way since AC1.
Coral rips off electricity
They explain in the game that they’ve had AI OVERTAKE SYSTEMS SO IT WOULD MAKE SENSE THEY WENT BACK TO HUMANS
That’s the emblem I rock I thought it was perfect 👌 addition especially for those who don’t know what it is
Honestly lobotomy were basically just mutilation and not much more. They were often administered by laymen just as much as doctors and had extremely mixed results because of this
I wonder if they were partially inspired by Neon Genesis Evangelion since the story was about losing your "humanity" to "do what needs to be done"
I'm sure they were inspired in part by a lot of things, and Neon Genesis could be one of them. It's hard to put a finger on where inspiration comes from. Both series are similar in some ways as you pointed out, but they are also roughly contemporary. It could have been a fly in the collective consciousness that each nodded to in their own way.
@@absurd.gaming That's true, there's a lot they could've taken inspiration from. Whether it be Japanese or otherwise. Dark Souls had a lot of Magic The Gathering inspiration. And then like you were saying with the military aspect of it being personified in AC. It's cool just to try and connect the dots and theorize on this stuff.
@@BussyBatter I'd say they're much more inspired by shows before Evangelion. Like Gundam, VOTOMs. As well as western media like Robocop.
The only thing I seek as a pilot is a good fight. The ng++ campaign has been promising so far, and once I complete it I’ll probably go for the nest for a while.
It's very similar to in Warhammer 40k, how they won't use AI because it will turn on them eventually. So they use human brains as computers (servitors, servo skulls etc) they also have a very strong, trans-human theme with the Adeptus Mechanicus.
If you are not familiar with the subject matter I am referring to, I would highly recommend checking out some of the "Admech" lore. It's a fascinating mix of medieval sensibilities, and Sci Fi.
And the "Machine spirits" are actually a real thing. Whether it has been willed into existence by the faith of many (there are examples of psychic gestalt, in other areas of the lore. where races are able to sub consciously, will things into existence) or if it's actually just all the Warp Dragon (which is actually a shard of a C'tan) that is secretly imprisoned, underground on Mars, there is no definitive answer. It's really good, stuff though.
There is even a computer game called "Mechanicus" that covers this exact faction. Great game as well, if you are into turn based strategy.
A Raven. A merc for Hire. Im here for the money
and the corpos love you for it!
@@absurd.gamingyour analysis of the emblems has me hyped for this story
Thank yoi
i think that it's interesting how pilots are like slaves in ac6 when in previous games piloting an ac always came with a sense of freedom
Man that emblem is sick as fuck
[spoiler alert]: FURY (2014 film) is a more realistic representation of the horrors of war than anything I've seen in the AC game series. In it, a young enlisted typist is thrust into the role of assistant tank driver on the frontlines of the Allied invasion into Germany. He suffers from an initial failure to adapt which is "cured" by watching child soldiers destroy the lead tank in his column. His hesitation in taking immediate lethal action against the squad of kids with AT weapons results in a grisly suicide by a fellow tanker who is burning to death in front of his eyes. He then is forced by his tank commander to participate in an illegal execution of a captured soldier and other atrocities, which inflicts further moral injury until his empathy for the Germans is inhibited to the point where he "actually kind of likes it" when presented with the opportunity to shoot Nazis.
The human mind involves much more than just the brain which is itself a 1.3 kg universe simulator subject to phenomena and capable of interactions which electronic digital logic systems are not. One of the "core" capabilitiesof the mind (not merely the brain) is to simulate the internal state of other minds (particularly when multiple human and non-human entities are in conflict). This capability leads to a type of bonding with other allied minds that is remarkably adaptable and agile. It is this effect which makes tank crews particularly capable when mounted in mobile armour.
Treating future conflict as a series of "high noon" gunfights or breach-and-clear / HK exploits is a choice; an advanced version of training soldiers to shoot "targets" instead of other dissimilarly attired & equipped humans. Teaching soldiers to adapt and think beyond their orders carries significantly enhanced risks of suicide & fratricide (especially of officers).
The AC franchise appears to do a disservice to the gaming community in its simplistic and trivial approach to representing scenes of battle, though i haven't played through the recent titles to say this authoritatively. I'm not interested in training myself to be a mindless killer robot.
No, you are not a brain in a jar piloting a your mech. From what we see in the trailer. You are awoken up from cryogenic sleep. Your nerves are connected to your ac or you pilot it fly by wire. Either case you are not just some brain in some cases. Chapter 4 you escape your ac and jump into another.
As an ex-military and active LEO I can't argue with some of your thoughts....
How is Raven just a disembodied brain when he found the old AC left by Walter? Unless his brain somehow hopped it’s way there and into the ac.
The worst thing to ever happen was for UA-cam to translate the title and description litteraly into German.
Without being asked or ability to be told no
Raven. The Raven faction. Forgot their name. The ng+ Raven mission guys. They're trying to be different.
I have no idea what's, AC it's 1 AM here and the video is so recent... It's going to be an interesting watch edit: oh it's called fire od Rubicon, didn't see that and assumed armoured core is the title second edit, oh so it's actually called AC
Get some sleep bro
Rustys first emblem is a muzzled wolf, the second one isnt
Pretty sure 621 is silent because of fromsoft fondness of silent protagonists(wolf being an obvious exception but even he doesnt talk much), and augs actually retain most of their humanity, Snail for example has a snotty better-than-you attitude, Iguazu being a jealous crybaby, both are very much human traits. What is really interesting that despite other augs having actual personalities, only carla and rusty treat 621 as a human, both giving him nicknames instead of calling him a fucking number, and I think others dehumanize him because of his association with Walter, who appears to hold him on a short leash, while 621 can consciously make decisions for himself without Walter even knowing (working together with Ayre and ALLMIND, and even making the decision to fulfill Walters mission while other choices are available)
even when we were ravens it wasnt a positive thing in the lore,we were still war dogs profiting from all sides and outright benefitting from the slaughter of both other ac users and from innocent people
i think the difference in ac6 is that it isnt our choice anymore,the protagonist is a slave to someone else that profits so you get the scraps and hope your owner is kind to you
back when we were ravens we at least had a choice and were independent
in AC6, the raven got dawg in him/her.
Armored Core is a vision of a corporation lead world. While I understand your view on transhumanism, this game series shows what humanity is like most of the time. It is warlike, greedy, it pollutes the very planet it and every other creature lives on. It speaks of freedom while oppressing others. It is illogical. I do not think it is wrong for others to pursue paths out of these cycles, and attempt to create lives in which they are fulfilled. Each has a unique perspective on what contentment means to them, and this is not wrong. You say that to become synthetic(or partly synthetic in this case), is to become less human. But one could be just as cooperative as some humans are capable of. Being non-human is not inherently making one a mindless being. If one considers what extraterrestrial life may be like, or that AI are becoming more intelligent, and some are being tested for social interaction, then you would be judging them purely based on what they are not, and not for what they are, or could be. A prosperous future can only come from acceptance, of different ways of existence, and of leaving archaic ideas behind.
From software make brutal lore telling us society is not perfect nor it’s heaven