Short story: a friend of mine, who introduced me to this series, borrowed me a copy of both ACV and VD for the PS3, which led me to absolutely dropping both of them due to their insanely bad performance on the Sony platform. However, another friend of mine sent me two offers for both ACV and VD for the 360, so I bought both of them in an instant. Emulation was not an option, this time, for the game running like complete dogshit on both RPCS3 and Xenia.
By playing the "good version" of ACV, I actually thought "okay, not only this is the single worst AC I've ever played, but one of the worst games I've ever played". But mostly, I developed one fear: maybe I was worn out, maybe I played too much AC and now I'm afraid I won't be able to power through VD and maybe I would be burnt out to get to Rubicon.
However, my experience with VD was unexpectedly great: they made 5th gen movement really fun! Level design pretty much improved by giving you less complex setpiece but way more open spaces, also I found the mission quality to be way better, with the last main missions being top notch (the final boss is legit kino).
The game doesn't hold back, though, by having some missions to be very challenging even with UNAC units helping you (7-4 I'm looking at you) but it made trying new builds and strategies way more viable and fun than before: I made a light RJ build which was crazy fast and good, who would've thought that light ACs could be viable in such a game? However, heavy RJ was my go-to, and eventually I got a tank with autocannons for DPS check fights (autocannons for bosses are genuinely insane).
The Soundtrack might be my favourite in the whole franchise, I have Mechanized Memories, Day After Day and a few others in loop in my playlist.
My gripes are about the story and the characters that just did not have enough time to develop, and that sucks because the final part could've been very impactful! Also the ACs AI is kinda lackluster or genuinely not that fun to fight against, I just destroyed most 1v1 fights with ease and the 2v2 I just had the tank UNAC who wiped everyone without risks of being sandwiched.
It's not "peak Armored Core" by far, but I think it's surprisingly great for my taste. I'm happy to finally be here and getting that last step done in my Armored Core journey, I think it became one of my favourite franchises and made me discover a love for mechs I never knew I had until last year, and now I'll finally be able to get my hands into Rubicon!
By playing the "good version" of ACV, I actually thought "okay, not only this is the single worst AC I've ever played, but one of the worst games I've ever played". But mostly, I developed one fear: maybe I was worn out, maybe I played too much AC and now I'm afraid I won't be able to power through VD and maybe I would be burnt out to get to Rubicon.
However, my experience with VD was unexpectedly great: they made 5th gen movement really fun! Level design pretty much improved by giving you less complex setpiece but way more open spaces, also I found the mission quality to be way better, with the last main missions being top notch (the final boss is legit kino).
The game doesn't hold back, though, by having some missions to be very challenging even with UNAC units helping you (7-4 I'm looking at you) but it made trying new builds and strategies way more viable and fun than before: I made a light RJ build which was crazy fast and good, who would've thought that light ACs could be viable in such a game? However, heavy RJ was my go-to, and eventually I got a tank with autocannons for DPS check fights (autocannons for bosses are genuinely insane).
The Soundtrack might be my favourite in the whole franchise, I have Mechanized Memories, Day After Day and a few others in loop in my playlist.
My gripes are about the story and the characters that just did not have enough time to develop, and that sucks because the final part could've been very impactful! Also the ACs AI is kinda lackluster or genuinely not that fun to fight against, I just destroyed most 1v1 fights with ease and the 2v2 I just had the tank UNAC who wiped everyone without risks of being sandwiched.
It's not "peak Armored Core" by far, but I think it's surprisingly great for my taste. I'm happy to finally be here and getting that last step done in my Armored Core journey, I think it became one of my favourite franchises and made me discover a love for mechs I never knew I had until last year, and now I'll finally be able to get my hands into Rubicon!
A really fun game if you play online, and a really whatever game if you play offline. Really makes me wish they'd bring back the coop functions in some sort of AC6 expansion! Hunting down the world bosses was extremely fun thanks to the discord community of AC players, appreciate you guys! RIP ACVD, your servers will be missed! Let there be peace in the world.