Though it differs so little from the original, Project Phantasma manages to showcase every weakness of the PS1 Armored Core titles while showcasing only few of the strengths.

All the new equipment is very overpowered, and you start with a budget here so every story mission becomes trivial incredibly fast. Not to mention all the weapons and money you get from the arena, they just shred everything to pieces, and the final one has a ridiculous 3000 bullets at that.

The arena, which from what I can tell became a staple and a very popular mode in these games, is very poor here in my opinion. All the competitor emblems and names (the Dill and Pickle combination for example) are fun and all, but having so many different named robots to fight removes the point of the first game, where each encounter with one was special and memorable, and entire levels were built around such encounters.

It also really showcases the shortcomings of this combat system. When the go-to tactic becomes choosing an arena with a very low roof so that the enemy doesn't fly into the stratosphere, you know it's not great. There's more ways to cheese stuff in a similarly unsatisfying way, but it's so effective and the opponents get so annoyingly fast and hard to track that it becomes tough to even consider anything else. They even give them a ridiculous sword that deals, like, half of my mech's 9000 armor damage. Also, certain explosions either stop or send sky high even the heaviest of mechs.

The story isn't that of a mercenary anymore, but a hero chasing an evil dude, whose only thing is that he calls you a nuisance every time he meets you. He gets progressively crazier to the point of merging with a superweapon. Who cares, I absolutely demolished him with a bajillion health to go each time I saw him. You also get a female robot companion you have to save and then protect, and you know it's a female robot because it's pink and slender. Aside from the voice of course. There's too few missions to really develop the story, none of them are particularly good or memorable anyway, some have a gimmick to them but I can't even come up with any standout one like I could with many of those from the original.

The music freaking slaps this time around, there's much more of it and the arena themes are great but because you have to do 50 fights, and even repeat some of them multiple times, they ultimately become tiring.

Big downgrade in my opinion, feels less like working with the core of what they have and instead slapping on new stuff which only shows the cracks in the foundation. It is shorter than the original, but I'd much rather replay that over Project Phantasma.

Project Phantasma takes some ambitious strides, but unfortunately I feel they were misdirected. Two main alterations stand out: a) a more traditional narrative with recurring characters and dialogue takes centre-stage, contrasted against the original's total lack of narrative structure, and b) while there are fewer missions, they are generally a more considered, structured affair, often to compliment the narrative.

Regarding the first, a strong central narrative is a strange fit with the structure of the previous game, which re-emerges here. The anarcho-capitalist dystopia that was so effectively sold there, with the player dispassionately and without loyalty accepting jobs from competing, faceless mega-corporations, all while trying to stay out of debt, is greatly diminished with such a consistent employer in Sumika. While technically faceless inside her AC, the game attempts to endear the player to her. While this is all well and good in most games, it doesn't really track with the Armored Core structure; why am I paying out of pocket for ammo and repairs like some mercenary? What's the team dynamic here? It's an awkward attempt to graft a more traditional narrative onto a structure that wasn't built for it, and Armored Core's particular brand of dystopia is lost in the process.

As for the second change, the levels themselves are more consistent and considered. I enjoyed the randomness of the first game's levels, which would vary wildly in length and complexity at the drop of a hat, but with the new narrative style I think this change was probably the right call.

I still enjoyed my time with the game, as I find the mechanics compelling enough on their own and the mech customisation remains engaging. Project Phantasma is a good game, just one with some misplaced priorities.

I'm gonna be real with you guys. I didn't plan on playing this one. Master of Arena looked better and I wanted to respect my time a bit more. But then I learned you can't transfer your AC straight from Armored Core to Master of Arena. You have to do it like this: Armored Core -> Project Phantasma -> Master of Arena. I decided that if I was going to download a rom of the game buy it to transfer my AC anyway, I might as well throw the idea of respecting my time on this Earth out the window and play it.

Ultimately, Project Phantasma is moreso an expansion of the original; It's akin to a standalone DLC campaign, like Bioshock 2: Minerva's Den or something. It does add the arena, which lets you climb the Raven Ranking for cash and rewards, but this is ultimately a shorter experience with a few more AC parts and customization options. And that's just fine, and it doesn't stop from there being a few improvements. Already the oversaturation of cramped indoor levels from the first game has been solved here though, so it's clear the developers were trying to improve to some extent.

Then there's the story, which is far more conventional the original's. The story of the original game is very impersonal and loose, but I rather enjoyed it. This one is kinda dumb though. You're helping this good Raven who wants to stop the creation of a superweapon... for some reason. You're a blank slate and just go along with whatever she says. Also, she somehow hired you to help her escape from a prison and do other tasks? How did she do that? And then there's the main villain, Stinger, who just shows up and is like, "Heh, I guess I have to take you out so you don't get in my way" right before being utterly defeated. You fight him like five times. In a longer game that probably would've been neat, but it's just annoying here and makes the world feel smaller.

The more focused story also creates another problem where you're given far less freedom for which missions you can do. In the first game, you usually had at least three missions to choose from, but here, you may have a choice between two missions. Otherwise, you're just doing the next one in the story. I wish there were optional side missions one could do in between the story missions or something (The arena kind of fits this description, but short 1v1s are far cries from actual missions, especially with the sub-par AIs of the enemies).

However, even if the story structure didn't work, I appreciate that they tried something different, especially since pretty much every other AC game has a story more similar to that of the first's from what I can tell. However, it didn't work ultimately and I'd far sooner replay the original Armored Core. I'll give this one a 7/10, but I could lower it to a 6.

I don't know if I needed more Armored Core 1, but this is just that! Everything good I said about that game still applies here, except for the story.

This game's story is a lot more direct. You follow a linear mission structure with little room for variance and the plot plays out in a much more standard manner. You have a companion for a majority of the runtime, there's an antagonistic rival who shows up to taunt you throughout and all in all, it was all a tad trite. There was a peculiar morality to Armored Core 1; you were a mercenary for hire, which meant being given some unsavoury jobs. I personally chose to ignore those in favour of other missions, which actually ended up skipping them entirely. It was simple but effective and I enjoyed being in that role a lot. In this, you're an action hero. There's no ambiguity, you are the good guy and while that's fine, I wasn't at all hooked.

The game's balance also feels a little off. Levels are generally longer and will whittle down your resources constantly. I'd fail a mission realising what I really needed to do was just ignore all the enemies. I just didn't like the objectives as much this time round, nothing stood out as particularly obnoxious, but in that same regard nothing was as special to me as some of the levels in the original. The final boss was a pain though, I tried for a while with the build that had decimated the rest of the game(s) only to unload all of my ammunition into that boss only for it not to end. I switched to a rocket weapon from the shop and annihilated him in 30 seconds, which came off rather limp. I know these kinds of fights are probably a staple of the series, but the core gameplay on the PS1 just doesn't really facilitate the faster pace as much as I'd like.

I enjoyed it enough. It's Armored Core at its core, but Project Phantasma doesn't bring enough new to the table to warrant its own existence. I didn't even mention the arena mode because I fought one enemy and knew I wouldn't get much out of it. Again, in a title that controls better, these 1-on-1 encounters might shine bright, but they're far too dull here.

I don't know if it's because I've gotten used to 1st Gen Armored Core's weight and feel, or if it's because Project Phantasma really is just more solidly put together, but goddamn did this go down a hell of a lot smoother than the first game did. The missions, as few as they are compared to the first one, have more variety, are designed more intuitively, have more interesting locales, and are just straight up better than the first one's by a country mile. No more godawful platforming or choking to death in a laboratory where every single hallway and room looks the same while a pink fart cloud ticks your health down. I've gotten used to the controls by now so blasting through this honestly felt really satisfying, as short as the story was. The best part of this game though has to be the debut of the ARENA, which is just super fucking fun to blast through and climb the ranks. Your reward is probably the most broken fucking weapon I've ever used in any game - a 5-barreled machine gun that has like basically infinite ammo, releases 5 shots per frame, and deals 10000000000000000 damage. I guess it'd just be easier for me to say that it finally "clicked" for me here, with this game, and I'm now looking forward to play the rest of the series.

Tl;dr, great game, won’t recommend if going in blind to the series.

Hoo boy! What a great budget cutscene at the beginning and prompted to find the Amber Crown and stop a secret project! While I do know this is a prequel game, it’s sure is an upgrade in gameplay, maps, and more pleasant enjoyment game to AC1 on casual play.

I really like a reoccurring AC like Sumika to be there on multiple missions, adds to some drama and grows to care. Even while the sorry goes on, Sumika shows some direct care and worry for the players is (sadly) a rare thing to see in the AC series. Whoever did the voice acting for Sumika in English gets a round of applause.

The opposition is done with the main antagonist, Stinger, a complete clown and honestly made me have no interest in the Amber Crown because it's run by this dude who keeps reappearing, kills him in 5 seconds, says something cheesy, then leaves. The weight of the story lost it all with this guy and honestly it would've worked if they decided to something like Stinger is Amber Crown's contractor, but used to be an elite raven beforehand. It's disappointing to see how well they handled the opposing Ravens in the last game; to have this Team Rocket villain.

The final boss was great, even though it ended short like many others, it was impressive to see and one of a kind. Way better boss to the 1st game and even AC 3
Now the arena is a legendary staple and main reason for the series' appeal. This one that started is flat in personality. Nearly all the AC’s description is something like “lowerweight AC that has a rival with X ''. Also in this game, you don’t interact with any of the Ranked ACs in the missions nor get any messages from fellow ACs pilots; This is the ONLY thing we have to describe them. With that, I never gave a care about climbing more than just the gameplay aspect and how fun it is besides no narrative care for. Also who knows, the Japanese version may be way better, one day I’ll come back and play it in Japanese when it comes down the line.

Gameplay? It’s great.

Overall: Recommended if already an AC fan, it has so much personality to the other titles and one you can remember things fondly. Definitely a must play title if you come back to ps1 era of AC, but you can die peacefully without touching it. Unrecommended because it does a way different take on their fundamentals, long missions, flat arena, and cheesy af story.





(Minor spoilers)
P.S. Here’s active notes I took while playing the game. Thought they’re too good to not be put in : )

-Helicopters are annoying and look like dragonflies
-The map variety is better, but are more complex and longer missions.
-I played this game under the the condition to play with thank or quad legs only to make myself have more of a challenge and be innovative.
-The WA-Finger is one of the best awards after the arenas, it's so fun and love to shoot it anytime I see the opportunity to
-I dislike how much an explosive range rocket weapons have, it's a little absurd that the game felt like "Who gets hit 1st wins” the match on occasion. You can bunny hop away and still get a fraction hit off you from the explosion.

it's more armored core. same controls, same ac customization, same premise for blowing shit up. it's just as thrilling as its predecessor with the greatest addition being arena mode. a fun side mode to gain loads of cash and glory. while it does remove the constant fear of financial obliteration that the original game holds, it's still such a fun side mode to feel like the youre top dog. another benefit this game has over the original is ACTUAL storytelling. fromsoft is known for their esoteric storytelling via the environment, npc interactions, and item descriptions. the first armored core really only does its storytelling through mission debriefings and was lacking in getting the player to feel that they have a bigger role in the plot until the very end. not necessarily bad writing, just kinda missing the mark that they subsequently perfected with later games (but had somehow already done better with the first king's field??). this game lets you know the stakes and your significance in the plot from the beginning. but that's all it does better. its characters, mysteries, and overall writing arent as captivating or compelling as the first game. there's some cool ass yet janky in-game cutscenes, though. a neat expansion. moving on to master of arena now.

Better paced than Armored Core, and the difficulty introduced by the latter half of the arena fights encourages experimentation and reveals the systems' depth and variety in a way that game never really managed. It sacrifices a lot of style by shifting to a conventional narrative, but there is something funny about your client being a pitch-perfect hardboiled fiction girl-in-need while exclusively appearing in her mech. Highlight of the game was all fifty arena participants having unique logos and single-sentence bios.

Project Phantasma funciona quase como uma versão 2.0 do jogo original, adicionando um novo modo de jogo e uma nova campanha bem curtinha.

No novo modo - arena - você tem que enfrentar outros ACs, em batalhas 1x1, com o objetivo de alcançar o rank 1(você começa no rank 50, então é uma longa jornada). É definitivamente a coisa mais divertida do jogo, pois as batalhas são bem desafiadoras e requerem constante mudança do seu AC pra se adequar ao do oponente. Meu único problema é com os ranks mais altos, pois a maior parte deles possuem a ls-99-moonlight equipada - uma arma de curto alcance com um dano absurdo - que faz com que muitas lutas se tornem bem frustrantes.

A nova campanha foi muito divertida no quesito técnico, muitas novas mecânicas foram adicionadas que abrem um bom caminho para missões mais bem elaboradas em jogos futuros. Tirando essa parte de novas mecânicas, foi uma campanha bem ok, nada que se destaca muito.

Apesar dessas novas adições, achei que poderiam ter inovado bem mais. A sensação final foi de um jogo liminar, sendo só um ponto de passagem para um jogo bem melhor, e isso me incomodou bastante. Em resumo, não considero um must play como o primeiro jogo, porém é bem divertido e vale a pena se gostou de como as coisas funcionam no AC original.

Project Phantasma feels more like an expansion to the original Armored Core as opposed to a full-on sequel, with the major changes being new missions, more parts in the shop, and a new Arena mode. That might sound like a negative, but it's actually really cool, as one of my favorite things about this game is the fact that you can import your AC from the previous game, allowing you to customize and optimize it even further. The game has about half of the total missions that AC1 had, but these missions are noticeably more diverse in objectives and overall have better level design.

As I mentioned earlier, the big addition to the game is the Arena, which allows you to climb the ranks by beating 49 other Ravens. These one-on-one fights are a lot of fun, and they really put your AC building and piloting abilities to the test. The fights get brutal as you climb higher, pitting you against Human Plus enemy ACs; dodging their 3k+ damage sword waves really gets the blood pumping.

An excellent expansion, with it's only major flaw being a lack of innovation. Perhaps that is a little harsh, but, while I did enjoy my time with this, by the end I've now tired a little of the standard combat in the PlayStation 'Armored Core' games. 'Project Phantasma' is easily more enjoyable than it's jumping off point though, and if you wanted more it will deliver greatly with a much more consistent array of levels, each more structurally interesting and layered than most of which consisted the original 'Armored Core'.

The narrative as well is far more put together, with better established, endearingly one dimensional characters like Sumika and Stinger, the latter of whom makes for some excellent boss encounters. It's still the same campy fun, though this time more coherent and dressed with more interesting missions. There is some very funny dialogue which gave me a nice giggle but I feel like it'll be a while before the plot and characters of these games really become appealing to me beyond this very 'video gamey' acknowledgment. Still, nothing wrong with that at all, but the almost eerie desolation of FromSoftware's environment work here does a sound enough job of putting me on level with the series' 'corporate death-valley' world concept that I find oddly intriguing in ways that make me feel as if it's a idea worthy of more than this.

The greatest success of 'Project Phantasma' is most definitely the inclusion of 'Arena' mode. Fighting other ACs was by far the most fun of the first entry and having a dedicated mode where you can contend with a hefty, diverse playlist of enemy AC fights in maps of your choosing which wont punish you for failure is not only great fun in a vacuum, but is bolstered by a satisfying leaderboard vertical progression climb and economic incentive, which makes it easier to have a stable means to getting new parts for your mech, encouraging experimentation. I didn't look up any recommendations for parts this time and while I stuck stubbornly with my tetrapods crawlies because I am bloody terrible at these games, I changed up my weapons and arms significantly more because the Arena not only demanded I do so, but lovingly handed me the wares I wished for.

On a final note, by no means is this review to suggest that 'Project Phantasma' is lazy. Not at all, even if it is mostly more of the same, additions like the Arena on the macro scale gives a change in pace and structure that does the game many favours even if it all still plays the same. On the micro scale, little things like how there's a small commitment to even the Arena maps having little gimmicks like being able to blow up warehouses that act as cover show that 'Project Phantasma' is made from great passions and learned experience from 'Armored Core', however it isn't an essential development. I have great confidence in recommending this to those who enjoyed the other 1997 game, but otherwise this doesn't do all that much. Good fun! Excited for Generation 2 :)

An interesting followup/expansion to the first Armored Core, with a lot of frustrating whiffs.

Instead of an implied climb through the world leaderboards through the story missions, you get to actually fight rival AC's head on in battle. These battles are either mindlessly easy or ridiculously difficult to the point where you will run to look up cheese strats (as people did in 1997 and continue to do today).

The mission design is mostly uninspired compared to AC1 with a less mysterious story (help Sumika, who is a girl AC pilot which you know because its pink, stop the use of the evil technology thingy) and the only threatening enemy is the jobber AC "Stinger" who shows up in a few missions.

I think this game is both an improvement and somewhat disappointing. This games levels are much better than the first game. They are all varied and have fun things going on in them. I love the soundtrack for this game, the new tracks are really awesome. I think the arena mode is really cool. I got to rank 5 before writing this review, and I really liked how it encouraged me to use different builds depending on the opponent. Getting Arena exclusive rewards was also really nice. This game with the arena mode in mind is overall more polished and fun than the original, its a fun package.

All of this being said, I think the original game and what it was doing with its narrative was a lot more interesting. You had a lot more missions, and your run through the game can be really different depending on what corperation you lean more toward. I think the game has an overall better execution of you being a hired gun to these souless corperations. The mission and mail system make a lot more sense in the original game, and its more fleshed out. The mail system especially is a downgrade, you dont get much of it here, whereas in the original it was always fleshing out the world in interesting ways. The story here is a lot more linear, you are hired to destroy Project Phantasma before another rival mech, Striker, gets to it. This one has more voice acting and cutscenes, and while there are some optional missions, the goal is linear. I would be fine with a linear narrative if it was as interesting as the original, but it really isnt. I like the rivalry you have with Striker, but it isnt really all that interesting either, and it makes the thing you are fighting against more black and white in terms of good and bad.

Id say this game is worth playing if you really liked the first one, but it did disappoint me compared to it. This games core is still really great, I love customizing my mech, I love the momentum based movement and how everything feels heavy. Armored Core is fun no matter how you slice it. Besides the Arena mode, it doesnt really build all that much on the first one, so just keep that in mind.

Vou ser muito breve em falar sobre a continuação da história e das 17 missões novas que essa expansão adiciona porque todo o conteúdo novo é bem desinteressante e realmente não apresenta nada novo em relação ao design das missões ou qualquer coisa do tipo, além de ter cgis bem mal feitos e o antagonista ser um dos personagens mais descartáveis que eu já vi.

Bom.. agora que já tiramos essa pedra do caminho, chegou a hora de falar da adição de um dos desafios mais satisfatórios e divertidos da história dos videogames, o FODENDO MODO ARENA! aqui basicamente você carrega seu save do Armored Core base juntamente com a máquina de destruição perfeita que você passou horas e horas construindo lá no game original, entra em uma arena com 50 ravens diferentes, cada um equipado com uma build diferente e simplesmente oblitera um por um em ordem decrescente até chegar no topo e se tornar o Rank 1 da arena.

Falando mais especificamente sobre os oponentes, eu não tive muita dificuldade nos 79 primeiros, até morri uma vez ou outra mas no geral nenhum me deu muito problema. Agora, do 20# em diante.. recomendo fortemente apostar em uma configuração de AC mais leve a partir do oponente "Bruiser" esse arrombado usa um poderosíssimo Laser Cannon, que provavelmente te mandará para a morte muito rapidamente, e vários outros oponentes que vierem depois dele também usam e com ainda mais precisão, é importante que você seja ágil para conseguir desviar. Para os inimigos "#9 Tiger" e "#4 Tiamat" recomendo fortemente usar armas como Rifle Laser, que causam dano massivo, pois eles são os dois ravens com mais defesa nesse modo arena. Os oponentes "3# Dark Rider" e "#1 Necron" são poderosíssimos e realmente são lutas que exigem 100% de você, uma dica extremamente valiosa é usar um ac leve e focar em desvia-los enquanto causa dano com algum rifle rápido.

Concluindo, ignore completamente as missões e vá se deliciar com as batalhas da arena.

Armored Core 1 but bad? What a deal!

This game is literally the same as Armored Core 1 with little to no difference, I'm guessing they tried to do something like an expansion to the first game and it wasn't possible in 1997 so they just rereleased the whole thing with new missions, and guess what, they suck.

I had to drop the game because the missions were so frustrating and weird, it's also way tougher than the original Armored Core for no reason at all it's just not fun!
Maybe someday I'll come back to it to finish it just for the sake of completion but what a disappointment, games are supposed to get better over time not worse.