Humanity sleeps in the machine. It gurgles for breath, suffocating beneath smoke and gunfire within the netherworld. I grip the joystick with hands like claws; the sweat feels wrong, like oil on water. Heads-up display signals flare all around my vision as I wrench the exoskeletal warrior through warehouses, space stations, and forlorn caverns. When the foes aren't robots, they're pilots just as feckless and desperate as I. The job is king—morals are optional. Captains of industry march us inexorably towards doom, and I'm just trying to keep my head down, chin up against the rising tide. The harder I fight, the deeper I explore, the more I sense the great chain of being start to fray.
Armored Core…that pit of vitality lying within the most veteran of mercenaries, and an apt title for the series to follow King's Field. From Software staff would tell us they bungled their way into developing this game to begin with, but it's appropriate they'd shift from one dark fantasy to another. Both series deal in obscure, arcane worlds, just with divergent approaches to non-linearity and game complexity. They started life as 3D tech demos before unfolding into realms of mystery and danger hitherto unseen on consoles—the kind of innovative experience Sony hoped would set their PlayStation apart from the competition. And for all the nitpicks and missed potential I can (and will) bring up, it's impressive how effectively this studio captured the one-man-army appeal of mecha media versus other developers' outings at the time. From a simple animation test to one of the studio's core franchises, it's a hell of a leap. [1]
| From this point on, you are…a Raven… |
Mecha action games on the PlayStation weren't in short supply before Armored Core (AC) arrived, though I'd forgive you for believing that. The earliest examples—Metal Jacket, Robo Pit, and Extreme Power—all featured some amount of mech customization and variety in scenarios, but always with caveats. None of them had the storytelling emphasis that From Soft's game introduced. At most, Extreme Power let players choose which missions to attempt first, acquiring points to buy new parts if successful. But that still lacked elements like e-mail chains and running a deficit after overusing ammo and/or failing missions. Robo Pit introduced the extensive parts system within a 3D versus fighter context, and Metal Jacket focused on simpler open-field battles a la MechWarrior. (Though the latter remains maybe the biggest influence on so many mecha games to come, it didn't receive a PS1 port until the same year as Armored Core.)
If anything, I see a lot of commonality between the first AC and Front Mission: Gun Hazard, the latter releasing in 1996 with some notability. Combining the series' heavy geopolitical tone and intrigue with a game loop and structure akin to Assault Suit Valken, Squaresoft's game reviewed well and prefigured the genre hybrids they'd produce for Sony's machine. Critically, they also reworked the parts-as-equipment framework from Front Mission, balancing it with arcade-style pacing and more wiggle room for players wanting to test drive multiple builds. The trouble with mecha xRPGs, then and now, is motivating constant character creation (aka editing your mecha) in order to complete stages, ideally while avoiding damage and long-term costs that could ruin a playthrough. I have no way of knowing if the original AC devs were familiar with Gun Hazard and how it elegantly solves these issues via its mix of complex story, set-pieces, and missions designed to reward creativity.
It's hard enough to make a sci-future this dreadful so enchanting and replayable. Armored Core's semi-linear plot and trickle feed of environmental worldbuilding go far in reifying the player's ascension to ace pilot, a new hero of chaos. People are right to point out the jarring, confrontational "initiation" battle, a middle finger to trends of tutorialization beginning in the mid-'90s. Surviving this teaches one to never fully trust the world they're thrust into, be it the obtuse mecha controls or the machinations of agents, corporations, and other Ravens contracting and challenging you. The fun comes from accepting these additive layers of masochism, a reflection of the decaying worldview which From Soft presents without irony or pomp and circumstance. It's on the player to investigate and understand their predicament. Future series entries add fleeting moments of cooperation and optimism to mitigate the grim bits, but the tone here's consistently muted and adverse. Absent are the triumphant flourishes of Gundam or even VOTOMS, replaced by an engaging but ever-present indifference to the erasure of people and elevation of proxy warfare.
| You have the right…the duty to find out. |
Opening missions in this game settle into a formula of scout, destroy, rinse and repeat, followed by a shopping spree. It's never quite as comfortable as you'd hope; browsing for a new radar attachment after gunning down protesters feels ever so morbid. Nor are you interacting with fellow Ravens during the majority of a playthrough, instead fighting or helping a select few through happenstance. Armored Core keeps players at arm's length from the consequences they wreak upon the world, often chiding them through AI monologues and tetchy e-mail chains. This odd pacing and story presentation lets From Soft transition between unusual missions and plot beats without breaking a sweat. The further you work for Chrome or Murakumo to the other's downfall, the murkier the mystery gets, with ulterior motives of anonymous agents pressuring you into service.
Thankfully there's a decently balanced in-game economy to support the amount of experiments and risk-taking the campaign requires, though not without problems. Buying and selling are 1-to-1 on cash return; you'll never enter the red just through shopping. Instead, the way most players wreck their run is by abusing ammo-based weapons and continuing after failing missions with mech damage. Save scumming isn't a thing Armored Core looks down on, but it will go out of its way to promote ammo-less tactics with energy swords and simply dodging past optional foes. Around halfway through the game, it arguably becomes more important to scour levels for hidden parts instead of relying on the diminishing returns from Raven's Nest inventory. I wish this first entry had done better at keeping the market relevant, but it wasn't to be.
My go-to build throughout the story was an agile, energy-focused quadrupedal range specialist dressed to the nines with secret parts. (If the game let me use the Karasawa with these legs, oh boy would I have been unstoppable!) Sure, there's a lot of fun one can have with beefy machine guns and missile options, but getting the most cash out of missions requires plasma rifles and mastery of lightsaber stabbing to play efficiently. While Project Phantasma struggled to balance the economy back towards non-energy offense, it wouldn't be until Master of Arena that the series largely evened out the trade-offs between common mecha archetypes. For instance, tank-tread mecha in this first game are actually damn powerful due to a lack of movement tricks for the bipeds, but it all falls apart when it's time for platforming or quickly escaping. Bipeds often get the class-favorite treatment in this genre, yet struggle to wield a variety of parts and weapons to handle most challenges this game throws at you later on. That leaves quad-legs builds as the most flexible and resilient option at higher levels of play, a flawed but interesting subversion of what's usually seen in mecha anime and manga. (Ed: Yes, I'm aware reverse joint legs exist. No, I don't use them in a game that punishes jumping all the time. Later AC games handle it better.)
With all these incentives combined, the pressure to learn the classic Armored Core control scheme and physics becomes bearable, if still overbearing. I've come from other tank-y mecha games like Gungriffon, so the adjustment period wasn't too bad for me, but I get why many newcomers stick with analog-patched versions of the earlier entries. Memorizing the timings for boosting before landing to minimize lag, or how to effectively pitch the lock-on reticule and snap back to center, matters more than anything in the first couple of hours. Then add on tricks for circle strafing back away from enemies, often while firing guns or launching missiles, and the combat evolves from awkward plodding into a dance of destruction. And there's no arena mode here to let you practice these techniques in a consistent, scaling environment. A veteran Raven or horse of robots can descend upon you in any of the mid-game/late-game missions, requiring quick reactions and establishing a zone of control (or retreat). It's sink or swim in the truest sense. Past the teething phase, it's easy to return to this control scheme and feel one with the AC, even after years have passed. I won't doubt that full dual-stick analog controls will work even better and enable a longer skill progression, but I adapted to the famous claw-grip style quicker than expected.
| "Pledge allegiance to no one!" |
Any problems significant enough to keep Armored Core below a 4-out-of-5 rating or higher must be deep-rooted in the game's loop and structure; that's sadly true for the level and encounter design here. I'm far from opposed to dungeon crawling in my semi-linear mecha action-RPGs, at least when there's room enough to blast around duels (plus verticality to reduce the claustrophobia). Still, a few too many stages in this debut feel like holdover concepts from King's Field II instead of properly scaled settings to wrangle a mech through. The difference between enjoying "Kill 'Struggle' Leader" and dreading "Destroy Base Computer" boils down to whether or not the story framing is compelling enough to justify zooming through non-descript (though nicely textured) hallways for most of their runtime. Occasionally the designers get clever with metal-corroding gas, inconveniently placed explosives, and other traps to keep the spelunking varied; I had a hoot tearing through the insectoid lairs like I was playing an antique musou game! But later series installments improved these confined missions with more arena-like rooms and affordances to players who make it far in and then can't win due to a sub-optimal build.
If I had to speculate, wide open-ended maps are less common here simply due to hardware constraints, be it rendering ACs and other actors in any abundance (regardless of level-of-detail scaling) or the enemy AI struggling with pathfinding in combat on a broader scale. It's a shame regardless since bombarding installations across water ("Reclaim Oil Facility"), going en guarde with a berserker atop a skyscraper ("Destroy Plus Escapee"), and rampaging down public avenues ("Attack Urban Center") offer some of the best thrills in Armored Core. Objective variety and complexity never reaches especially high regardless of mission category, so just getting to rip up groups of MTs, droids, and ACs goes a long way. Defending a cargo train in the desert starts off humble, then escalates to defeating a full-bore Human Plus combatant interceding on the situation. A series of undersea tunnels and chambers, well-defended and secretly primed to implode, threaten to bury you while avenues of escape close off. A select few dungeon crawls also open up in unexpected ways, particularly those set on space stations where vertical engagements come into play. I didn't think mecha and sewer levels could work, but here I am grinning as I pursue Struggle operatives down waterways or methodically undo their bombs within a rat's maze of air treatment tunnels.
Armored Core rarely has bad missions so much as disappointing or overachieving ones, which makes the finale so uniquely odd. By this point, the entropic cycle ensnaring Chrome, Murakumo, Struggle, and adjacent organizations has caused untold devastation across the earth. Now even the Raven's Nest falls, revealed as the illusory sham of governance it always was. Even bit players in the narrative pitch in, waxing over e-mail about the futility of these conflicts and what's really driving it all behind the scenes. So, with all this build-up and conspiracy baiting, I had high hopes for the last hour, wishing for an epic battle and world-shattering revelations to boot. Sure, I got the latter (if in a minimal, trope-adherent form), but instead of satisfying gladiatorial action, I had to ascend the fucking cubes. Everyone's got a horror story about "Destroy Floating Mines", it seems, and I'm just glad to have survived this much awkward, drawn-out platforming using my quad-leg AC. Squaring off against Nine-Ball afterward isn't quite enough to compensate either, not unless you can have an even pitched fight against this iconic rival and win the first couple of attempts. (The penultimate chambers also reflect poorly on the camera's ability to track fast-moving combatants, even if it makes for an exciting sequence.) I can still appreciate how From Soft didn't explicate too much at the end, instead trying to confound players with interesting questions and non sequiturs in the level design itself. It's all a big joke and we get to grimace through it.
| Shape Memory Alloys |
In conclusion, it's a good thing From Soft nailed all their game loop, distinctive mechanics, and interweaving systems here. The original Armored Core is unfortunately limited with how it challenges players, both in level design and mission pacing. Not having an arena to lean on makes completing the missions with maximum efficiency more of a priority, which can lead to excess retries and scrimping on investments in hopes of affording something better later vs. smoother upgrades in the short term. (I do appreciate how only fighting other ranked ACs within missions makes the Ravens' dynamic more hostile and contradictory, but the game does so little to expand on that angle.) These problems sting less knowing that, as a prototype of adventures to come, this game still accomplishes so much with so little.
Not many series strive to reach a profile this high while teasing players with details out of reach and mysteries about its development unanswered. Anyone invested in the wider world Armored Core hints at, from the shadowy groups running these underground beehive cities to the horrors hiding behind Human Plus, has to read through "data books" (artbooks) and track down magazine previews for scraps. We're only now getting English translations of the artbooks and related articles, all of which are coloring the fringes of the AC universe while only letting trace amounts of humanity through the barrier [2]. And as far as these games are concerned, pilots' backstories and white papers on neural augmentation procedures amount to nothing. Heroes and villains drop in and out of history like mayflies—only shocks to the system register on the scale From Soft's using. We're just along for the ride.
It feels like there's still so much else to analyze here: how the studio crowbar-ed their King's Field engine into handling these pyrotechnics, the peculiarities of Human Plus endings as difficulty modifiers, let alone the timely yet appropriate electronica soundtrack. A lot of PS1 releases from this period struggle to make the best use of their developers' skills, assets, and remaining CD space. I wouldn't say Armored Core succeeds at the latter, using only a few FMV sequences at key points in the story, but it's a remarkably lean and appealing game relative to its own premise. Replays come naturally thanks to multiple Human Plus tiers and the freedom to play all missions upon completing the story (plus making new saves to transfer into Project Phantasma). The controls here, though lacking in finesse, carry forward into a good chunk of the later games, with concepts like boost canceling staying relevant even after the switch to analog. Contrast this maturity with all the pratfalls From Soft made during their King's Field days. They'd learned how to not just lead in with a better start, but retain their creative momentum on budgets larger and smaller with each sequel.
Armored Core represents a coming-of-age for the PlayStation as it entered the midpoint of its lifespan, setting a bar other mid-sized studios could aspire to. Its rough edges hardly mar what I'd call one of my favorite experiences in the system's library so far. Maybe I'm going easier on this one due to my enthusiasm for the genre and the myriad themes this game explores, from cyberpunk dystopia to the malleability of history in the post-modern. It could just be that the core game's so, uh, solid after all this time. I chose not to rely on Human Plus for my first playthrough and that might have helped. No matter how you approach the series today, it's awesome to see it debut this confidently, and plenty of players must have thought so too. The Armored Core series became From Soft's backbone for a decade before the Souls-likes came to replace it, and what AC achieved for mecha games (and ARPGs in general) can't be overstated.
| Bibliography |
[1] Alex “blackoak,” trans. “Armored Core – 1997 Developer Interview - Shmuplations.Com.” PlayStation Magazine. 1997. Shmuplations. https://shmuplations.com/armoredcore/.
[2] Reddit. “Translations of Pages 103 to 105 from the Book Armored Core Official Data Book.” Accessed January 14, 2024. https://www.reddit.com/r/armoredcore/comments/x940dj/translations_of_pages_103_to_105_from_the_book/.
Armored Core…that pit of vitality lying within the most veteran of mercenaries, and an apt title for the series to follow King's Field. From Software staff would tell us they bungled their way into developing this game to begin with, but it's appropriate they'd shift from one dark fantasy to another. Both series deal in obscure, arcane worlds, just with divergent approaches to non-linearity and game complexity. They started life as 3D tech demos before unfolding into realms of mystery and danger hitherto unseen on consoles—the kind of innovative experience Sony hoped would set their PlayStation apart from the competition. And for all the nitpicks and missed potential I can (and will) bring up, it's impressive how effectively this studio captured the one-man-army appeal of mecha media versus other developers' outings at the time. From a simple animation test to one of the studio's core franchises, it's a hell of a leap. [1]
| From this point on, you are…a Raven… |
Mecha action games on the PlayStation weren't in short supply before Armored Core (AC) arrived, though I'd forgive you for believing that. The earliest examples—Metal Jacket, Robo Pit, and Extreme Power—all featured some amount of mech customization and variety in scenarios, but always with caveats. None of them had the storytelling emphasis that From Soft's game introduced. At most, Extreme Power let players choose which missions to attempt first, acquiring points to buy new parts if successful. But that still lacked elements like e-mail chains and running a deficit after overusing ammo and/or failing missions. Robo Pit introduced the extensive parts system within a 3D versus fighter context, and Metal Jacket focused on simpler open-field battles a la MechWarrior. (Though the latter remains maybe the biggest influence on so many mecha games to come, it didn't receive a PS1 port until the same year as Armored Core.)
If anything, I see a lot of commonality between the first AC and Front Mission: Gun Hazard, the latter releasing in 1996 with some notability. Combining the series' heavy geopolitical tone and intrigue with a game loop and structure akin to Assault Suit Valken, Squaresoft's game reviewed well and prefigured the genre hybrids they'd produce for Sony's machine. Critically, they also reworked the parts-as-equipment framework from Front Mission, balancing it with arcade-style pacing and more wiggle room for players wanting to test drive multiple builds. The trouble with mecha xRPGs, then and now, is motivating constant character creation (aka editing your mecha) in order to complete stages, ideally while avoiding damage and long-term costs that could ruin a playthrough. I have no way of knowing if the original AC devs were familiar with Gun Hazard and how it elegantly solves these issues via its mix of complex story, set-pieces, and missions designed to reward creativity.
It's hard enough to make a sci-future this dreadful so enchanting and replayable. Armored Core's semi-linear plot and trickle feed of environmental worldbuilding go far in reifying the player's ascension to ace pilot, a new hero of chaos. People are right to point out the jarring, confrontational "initiation" battle, a middle finger to trends of tutorialization beginning in the mid-'90s. Surviving this teaches one to never fully trust the world they're thrust into, be it the obtuse mecha controls or the machinations of agents, corporations, and other Ravens contracting and challenging you. The fun comes from accepting these additive layers of masochism, a reflection of the decaying worldview which From Soft presents without irony or pomp and circumstance. It's on the player to investigate and understand their predicament. Future series entries add fleeting moments of cooperation and optimism to mitigate the grim bits, but the tone here's consistently muted and adverse. Absent are the triumphant flourishes of Gundam or even VOTOMS, replaced by an engaging but ever-present indifference to the erasure of people and elevation of proxy warfare.
| You have the right…the duty to find out. |
Opening missions in this game settle into a formula of scout, destroy, rinse and repeat, followed by a shopping spree. It's never quite as comfortable as you'd hope; browsing for a new radar attachment after gunning down protesters feels ever so morbid. Nor are you interacting with fellow Ravens during the majority of a playthrough, instead fighting or helping a select few through happenstance. Armored Core keeps players at arm's length from the consequences they wreak upon the world, often chiding them through AI monologues and tetchy e-mail chains. This odd pacing and story presentation lets From Soft transition between unusual missions and plot beats without breaking a sweat. The further you work for Chrome or Murakumo to the other's downfall, the murkier the mystery gets, with ulterior motives of anonymous agents pressuring you into service.
Thankfully there's a decently balanced in-game economy to support the amount of experiments and risk-taking the campaign requires, though not without problems. Buying and selling are 1-to-1 on cash return; you'll never enter the red just through shopping. Instead, the way most players wreck their run is by abusing ammo-based weapons and continuing after failing missions with mech damage. Save scumming isn't a thing Armored Core looks down on, but it will go out of its way to promote ammo-less tactics with energy swords and simply dodging past optional foes. Around halfway through the game, it arguably becomes more important to scour levels for hidden parts instead of relying on the diminishing returns from Raven's Nest inventory. I wish this first entry had done better at keeping the market relevant, but it wasn't to be.
My go-to build throughout the story was an agile, energy-focused quadrupedal range specialist dressed to the nines with secret parts. (If the game let me use the Karasawa with these legs, oh boy would I have been unstoppable!) Sure, there's a lot of fun one can have with beefy machine guns and missile options, but getting the most cash out of missions requires plasma rifles and mastery of lightsaber stabbing to play efficiently. While Project Phantasma struggled to balance the economy back towards non-energy offense, it wouldn't be until Master of Arena that the series largely evened out the trade-offs between common mecha archetypes. For instance, tank-tread mecha in this first game are actually damn powerful due to a lack of movement tricks for the bipeds, but it all falls apart when it's time for platforming or quickly escaping. Bipeds often get the class-favorite treatment in this genre, yet struggle to wield a variety of parts and weapons to handle most challenges this game throws at you later on. That leaves quad-legs builds as the most flexible and resilient option at higher levels of play, a flawed but interesting subversion of what's usually seen in mecha anime and manga. (Ed: Yes, I'm aware reverse joint legs exist. No, I don't use them in a game that punishes jumping all the time. Later AC games handle it better.)
With all these incentives combined, the pressure to learn the classic Armored Core control scheme and physics becomes bearable, if still overbearing. I've come from other tank-y mecha games like Gungriffon, so the adjustment period wasn't too bad for me, but I get why many newcomers stick with analog-patched versions of the earlier entries. Memorizing the timings for boosting before landing to minimize lag, or how to effectively pitch the lock-on reticule and snap back to center, matters more than anything in the first couple of hours. Then add on tricks for circle strafing back away from enemies, often while firing guns or launching missiles, and the combat evolves from awkward plodding into a dance of destruction. And there's no arena mode here to let you practice these techniques in a consistent, scaling environment. A veteran Raven or horse of robots can descend upon you in any of the mid-game/late-game missions, requiring quick reactions and establishing a zone of control (or retreat). It's sink or swim in the truest sense. Past the teething phase, it's easy to return to this control scheme and feel one with the AC, even after years have passed. I won't doubt that full dual-stick analog controls will work even better and enable a longer skill progression, but I adapted to the famous claw-grip style quicker than expected.
| "Pledge allegiance to no one!" |
Any problems significant enough to keep Armored Core below a 4-out-of-5 rating or higher must be deep-rooted in the game's loop and structure; that's sadly true for the level and encounter design here. I'm far from opposed to dungeon crawling in my semi-linear mecha action-RPGs, at least when there's room enough to blast around duels (plus verticality to reduce the claustrophobia). Still, a few too many stages in this debut feel like holdover concepts from King's Field II instead of properly scaled settings to wrangle a mech through. The difference between enjoying "Kill 'Struggle' Leader" and dreading "Destroy Base Computer" boils down to whether or not the story framing is compelling enough to justify zooming through non-descript (though nicely textured) hallways for most of their runtime. Occasionally the designers get clever with metal-corroding gas, inconveniently placed explosives, and other traps to keep the spelunking varied; I had a hoot tearing through the insectoid lairs like I was playing an antique musou game! But later series installments improved these confined missions with more arena-like rooms and affordances to players who make it far in and then can't win due to a sub-optimal build.
If I had to speculate, wide open-ended maps are less common here simply due to hardware constraints, be it rendering ACs and other actors in any abundance (regardless of level-of-detail scaling) or the enemy AI struggling with pathfinding in combat on a broader scale. It's a shame regardless since bombarding installations across water ("Reclaim Oil Facility"), going en guarde with a berserker atop a skyscraper ("Destroy Plus Escapee"), and rampaging down public avenues ("Attack Urban Center") offer some of the best thrills in Armored Core. Objective variety and complexity never reaches especially high regardless of mission category, so just getting to rip up groups of MTs, droids, and ACs goes a long way. Defending a cargo train in the desert starts off humble, then escalates to defeating a full-bore Human Plus combatant interceding on the situation. A series of undersea tunnels and chambers, well-defended and secretly primed to implode, threaten to bury you while avenues of escape close off. A select few dungeon crawls also open up in unexpected ways, particularly those set on space stations where vertical engagements come into play. I didn't think mecha and sewer levels could work, but here I am grinning as I pursue Struggle operatives down waterways or methodically undo their bombs within a rat's maze of air treatment tunnels.
Armored Core rarely has bad missions so much as disappointing or overachieving ones, which makes the finale so uniquely odd. By this point, the entropic cycle ensnaring Chrome, Murakumo, Struggle, and adjacent organizations has caused untold devastation across the earth. Now even the Raven's Nest falls, revealed as the illusory sham of governance it always was. Even bit players in the narrative pitch in, waxing over e-mail about the futility of these conflicts and what's really driving it all behind the scenes. So, with all this build-up and conspiracy baiting, I had high hopes for the last hour, wishing for an epic battle and world-shattering revelations to boot. Sure, I got the latter (if in a minimal, trope-adherent form), but instead of satisfying gladiatorial action, I had to ascend the fucking cubes. Everyone's got a horror story about "Destroy Floating Mines", it seems, and I'm just glad to have survived this much awkward, drawn-out platforming using my quad-leg AC. Squaring off against Nine-Ball afterward isn't quite enough to compensate either, not unless you can have an even pitched fight against this iconic rival and win the first couple of attempts. (The penultimate chambers also reflect poorly on the camera's ability to track fast-moving combatants, even if it makes for an exciting sequence.) I can still appreciate how From Soft didn't explicate too much at the end, instead trying to confound players with interesting questions and non sequiturs in the level design itself. It's all a big joke and we get to grimace through it.
| Shape Memory Alloys |
In conclusion, it's a good thing From Soft nailed all their game loop, distinctive mechanics, and interweaving systems here. The original Armored Core is unfortunately limited with how it challenges players, both in level design and mission pacing. Not having an arena to lean on makes completing the missions with maximum efficiency more of a priority, which can lead to excess retries and scrimping on investments in hopes of affording something better later vs. smoother upgrades in the short term. (I do appreciate how only fighting other ranked ACs within missions makes the Ravens' dynamic more hostile and contradictory, but the game does so little to expand on that angle.) These problems sting less knowing that, as a prototype of adventures to come, this game still accomplishes so much with so little.
Not many series strive to reach a profile this high while teasing players with details out of reach and mysteries about its development unanswered. Anyone invested in the wider world Armored Core hints at, from the shadowy groups running these underground beehive cities to the horrors hiding behind Human Plus, has to read through "data books" (artbooks) and track down magazine previews for scraps. We're only now getting English translations of the artbooks and related articles, all of which are coloring the fringes of the AC universe while only letting trace amounts of humanity through the barrier [2]. And as far as these games are concerned, pilots' backstories and white papers on neural augmentation procedures amount to nothing. Heroes and villains drop in and out of history like mayflies—only shocks to the system register on the scale From Soft's using. We're just along for the ride.
It feels like there's still so much else to analyze here: how the studio crowbar-ed their King's Field engine into handling these pyrotechnics, the peculiarities of Human Plus endings as difficulty modifiers, let alone the timely yet appropriate electronica soundtrack. A lot of PS1 releases from this period struggle to make the best use of their developers' skills, assets, and remaining CD space. I wouldn't say Armored Core succeeds at the latter, using only a few FMV sequences at key points in the story, but it's a remarkably lean and appealing game relative to its own premise. Replays come naturally thanks to multiple Human Plus tiers and the freedom to play all missions upon completing the story (plus making new saves to transfer into Project Phantasma). The controls here, though lacking in finesse, carry forward into a good chunk of the later games, with concepts like boost canceling staying relevant even after the switch to analog. Contrast this maturity with all the pratfalls From Soft made during their King's Field days. They'd learned how to not just lead in with a better start, but retain their creative momentum on budgets larger and smaller with each sequel.
Armored Core represents a coming-of-age for the PlayStation as it entered the midpoint of its lifespan, setting a bar other mid-sized studios could aspire to. Its rough edges hardly mar what I'd call one of my favorite experiences in the system's library so far. Maybe I'm going easier on this one due to my enthusiasm for the genre and the myriad themes this game explores, from cyberpunk dystopia to the malleability of history in the post-modern. It could just be that the core game's so, uh, solid after all this time. I chose not to rely on Human Plus for my first playthrough and that might have helped. No matter how you approach the series today, it's awesome to see it debut this confidently, and plenty of players must have thought so too. The Armored Core series became From Soft's backbone for a decade before the Souls-likes came to replace it, and what AC achieved for mecha games (and ARPGs in general) can't be overstated.
| Bibliography |
[1] Alex “blackoak,” trans. “Armored Core – 1997 Developer Interview - Shmuplations.Com.” PlayStation Magazine. 1997. Shmuplations. https://shmuplations.com/armoredcore/.
[2] Reddit. “Translations of Pages 103 to 105 from the Book Armored Core Official Data Book.” Accessed January 14, 2024. https://www.reddit.com/r/armoredcore/comments/x940dj/translations_of_pages_103_to_105_from_the_book/.
whenever i think about "keep politics out of video games" dudes i think of the fact that the most undisputed ftw mecha game series of all time starts with a choice of two missions, which are:
"kill some squatters"
"kill some strikers"
this is not intended to be a nice place (even if it does have reverse joint mecha)
whine about the controls if you like, i won't stop you, but it's my esteemed opinion that they got the feel of piloting a big magic metal dude so right in just this one game that they kept the core controls basically the same for the many many games between this and armored core nexus
absolutely abysmal balancing -- that one secret collectible weapon could beat the whole game if you welded it to a pickup truck -- but that only adds to the charm. you have to think carefully about your build, and often have no idea what the next mission could require. you'll have setbacks, you'll have absolute disaster missions. the difficulty spikes are a feature!
"kill some squatters"
"kill some strikers"
this is not intended to be a nice place (even if it does have reverse joint mecha)
whine about the controls if you like, i won't stop you, but it's my esteemed opinion that they got the feel of piloting a big magic metal dude so right in just this one game that they kept the core controls basically the same for the many many games between this and armored core nexus
absolutely abysmal balancing -- that one secret collectible weapon could beat the whole game if you welded it to a pickup truck -- but that only adds to the charm. you have to think carefully about your build, and often have no idea what the next mission could require. you'll have setbacks, you'll have absolute disaster missions. the difficulty spikes are a feature!
heartbreaking: worst studio you know makes a pretty good video game
The start of my AC shenanigans, and I honestly couldn't get into this as hard as i tried. I felt constantly burdened by the stringent expectations, the obscene cost of parts leveled against the mission payout requirements and obtuse presentation of what they do, it all just stifled any desire to customize or express myself. cough I Am Aware That's The Point Of The Capitalist Mercenary Hellscape But My Autism Brain Dislikes Having To Leverage That With Low-Budget PS1 Jank And Wants Out
I fully-intend to play more AC though, I DO like piloting these mechs, I DO like the sense of weight, the ludonarrative interdependence of mechanics and world restrictions, the whole nine yards. But Busy Adult Me doesn't have time to dip my toes here first. Most searches I made to get a better grip on this just told me to play the easier AC2 and work backwards, and I'm gonna do just that.
I'm sure people have well-intentioned responses about how I could enjoy this more, but I really really do not have the energy for it right now. I love my chunky PS1 tank control jank, but as soon as I have to tango that with the ugly step-siblings of escort missions, I flee like a rabbit.
I fully-intend to play more AC though, I DO like piloting these mechs, I DO like the sense of weight, the ludonarrative interdependence of mechanics and world restrictions, the whole nine yards. But Busy Adult Me doesn't have time to dip my toes here first. Most searches I made to get a better grip on this just told me to play the easier AC2 and work backwards, and I'm gonna do just that.
I'm sure people have well-intentioned responses about how I could enjoy this more, but I really really do not have the energy for it right now. I love my chunky PS1 tank control jank, but as soon as I have to tango that with the ugly step-siblings of escort missions, I flee like a rabbit.
I don't want to be a hired cop for evil megacorps sorry.
This games a trip man odd controls and a shitty final level aside this game wasn't too bad music is pretty great and i also really loved messing around wit my ac unit this game really lets you mess around with the customization since you can sell all ac parts you bought from the shop at the exact same price you bought them for also really loved the fights with the other ac pilots those were pretty cool cept for nine ball obviously story was kinda meh all of ac1 story is done through email you can read after completing each mission so there's not really much going on tho games a solid 5 can't wait to see what the other armored core games are like
Cool game. Building and customizing your own mech is pretty fun. Control scheme is a bit rough, but you'll get somewhat used to it surprisingly quickly, except L2/R2 to look up and down; even at the end of the game I was still fucking it up. Speaking of end of the game, the final mission is as diabolical as people say. Fucked up platforming and TWO Nineballs, that was a trial. The biggest surprise was the OST though. My biggest motivation for getting into this series is piloting mechs with Kota Hoshino bangers in the background, but he doesn't start composing until Nexus and onwards, so I'm glad this game has some real memorable tunes at least.
This game is jank kino.
Get the fuck out of here with your "analog stick" nonsense. Dpad up and down to move forward and back. Make sense so far? Well alright. Dpad left and right to aim left and right. Wait you want to MOVE left and right? That's what L1 and R1 are for. Oh, and L2 and R2 to aim up and down. Now it's really like you're in the pilot seat of a cannon fodder death trap mech!
For real though, the controls really are something to get used to. The whole reverse grip joke exists for a reason. Most people swear by the original control scheme and use it even well into the later games even after analog support gets introduced (around 7 games in lol), but personally I just took advantage of the wonders of emulation and jury rigged a control scheme that most resembled the twin-stick type configuration they introduced with Nexus. The results are... well, it actually worked pretty well! Now onto the actual game.
Customizing your AC feels fucking phenomenal and I literally spent a whole afternoon just dicking around with the emblem and color scheme editor to get it just right. There are a myriad of parts and weapon types and everything for every single possible playstyle. It's by far my favorite part of the game. I hear the options only get better and better the further into the series you go, which sounds exciting as hell.
Where the game really starts showing its jank is with its level design, though. Some missions are fine, but then you get some of the indoor ones which are just a dreary labyrinth of completely identical hallways and rooms. It is incredibly easy to get lost especially if you don't use a head part that has a mapping option (something I only realized way too late into the game). Some missions, namely the final one also require you to do precise platforming which honestly just does not work at all and can feel extremely frustrating at times. There isn't much in the way of one on one AC combat since this game doesn't have an arena yet, and the duels you do get tied to missions felt fairly few and far between. The ones you DO get though are quite nice, really.
The story is classic FromSoftware cryptic, but I actually like how it kind of comes together. You get to pick "sides" by picking and choosing which missions to accept, gaining the favor of one of the megacorps who in turn want you to fuck up the other. Everyone here is complete scum and you're just trying to make the best of it by playing both sides. You'll spend one mission trying to release a bunch of creatures developed as biological weapons from a secret facility for one client, the immediately spend the next one cleaning up your own mess, this time hired by the research group you JUST got paid to fuck over. It's great.
All in all, it's a pretty solid start to the series, but the kinks and creases really do make themselves known quite a bit. Thankfully, FromSoft really went hard pumping these games the fuck out, improving on the formula each step of the way. This is only the beginning.
Get the fuck out of here with your "analog stick" nonsense. Dpad up and down to move forward and back. Make sense so far? Well alright. Dpad left and right to aim left and right. Wait you want to MOVE left and right? That's what L1 and R1 are for. Oh, and L2 and R2 to aim up and down. Now it's really like you're in the pilot seat of a cannon fodder death trap mech!
For real though, the controls really are something to get used to. The whole reverse grip joke exists for a reason. Most people swear by the original control scheme and use it even well into the later games even after analog support gets introduced (around 7 games in lol), but personally I just took advantage of the wonders of emulation and jury rigged a control scheme that most resembled the twin-stick type configuration they introduced with Nexus. The results are... well, it actually worked pretty well! Now onto the actual game.
Customizing your AC feels fucking phenomenal and I literally spent a whole afternoon just dicking around with the emblem and color scheme editor to get it just right. There are a myriad of parts and weapon types and everything for every single possible playstyle. It's by far my favorite part of the game. I hear the options only get better and better the further into the series you go, which sounds exciting as hell.
Where the game really starts showing its jank is with its level design, though. Some missions are fine, but then you get some of the indoor ones which are just a dreary labyrinth of completely identical hallways and rooms. It is incredibly easy to get lost especially if you don't use a head part that has a mapping option (something I only realized way too late into the game). Some missions, namely the final one also require you to do precise platforming which honestly just does not work at all and can feel extremely frustrating at times. There isn't much in the way of one on one AC combat since this game doesn't have an arena yet, and the duels you do get tied to missions felt fairly few and far between. The ones you DO get though are quite nice, really.
The story is classic FromSoftware cryptic, but I actually like how it kind of comes together. You get to pick "sides" by picking and choosing which missions to accept, gaining the favor of one of the megacorps who in turn want you to fuck up the other. Everyone here is complete scum and you're just trying to make the best of it by playing both sides. You'll spend one mission trying to release a bunch of creatures developed as biological weapons from a secret facility for one client, the immediately spend the next one cleaning up your own mess, this time hired by the research group you JUST got paid to fuck over. It's great.
All in all, it's a pretty solid start to the series, but the kinks and creases really do make themselves known quite a bit. Thankfully, FromSoft really went hard pumping these games the fuck out, improving on the formula each step of the way. This is only the beginning.
One of the worst platformers I've ever played in my life. Fortunately, you only ever have to platform like, twice.
While I'm no fan of From Software's more popular works, I couldn't help but be suckered in to this thanks to the presence of mecha. I love me some giant robots, and this delivers without restraint. As a budget game on the PS1 that they were able to churn out yearly spinoffs and sequels to, it looks pretty good, with a lot of well made and recognisable models, and a ridiculous amount of ways to physically customise your mech.
As far as story is concerned, there's a fair few layers to it, but it's all mostly in the subtext of the mission briefings and mail you receive. Simply put, it's a post-apocalyptic setting where corporations control the world with their own private armies - stop me if you've heard it before. You're part of the Raven's Nest, a group of mechs-for-hire, mercenaries with no allegiance - not even to each other.
As you pick missions, you might notice some of them conflict with each other - you can choose to help multiple corporations, but depending on which ones you help more, you may stop recieving missions from others. This does lock you out of a lot of missions, but it's all good; once you clear the story, you can play and replay every mission in the game. It's pretty nicely made altogether, and the lack of direct story isn't really a big deal. You play as a mercenary who's doing dirty work for money and mech parts, why would they care about the finer details?
Concerning the gameplay - it definitely attempts to emulate the complicated process of handling a bigass robot. Of most contention, and the main thing that filters players from the offset, are the controls: D-pad moves you forwards and backwards, and turns you left and right (FromSoft wouldn't discover what an analog stick was for quite some time), while L1 and R1 strafe you left and right - very important for combat. The one that I think perplexes the most people are L2 and R2 for looking up and down. It really takes some getting used to, but mastering the controls halfway makes the game a breeze - the other half of that comes from optimising your build.
There's a lot of build options, holy crap. Heads can have different kinds of sensors and radar, even an automap (VERY helpful). There are all sorts of different arms - some are slender and weak, others are bulkier but inhibit the usage of certain weapons, some even have weapons built into them at the cost of equipping your own. Central cores can vary in attatchment spots for optional parts, and there are different targeting computers and generators for your AC's internals that determine how many lock-ons and the amount of power your weapons and booster can hold. Oh yeah, boosters - those things that make your AC fly all around the place because hell yeah, giant robots.
Most important of all, in my opinion, are the legs. There are 4 types: Bipedal, Reverse joint, 4-legged and Treaded. Bipedals are the most mobile but carry the least weight, and Treaded are the total opposite. The weight is the most important, as the legs can only support so much weight. For big guns, you'll need to sacrifice mobility and vice versa. It's ridiculously in-depth, and best of all - all parts you buy can be resold for full price, meaning there's no real risk in selling a part to try out a new one.
So where is the game lacking? Well, the missions themselves are a mixed bag. Some are short and simple and have lots of stuff to blow up, others are longer and a bit of a gauntlet to survive through, and a few are just...really long, slow and virtually empty, especially towards the end of the game. The final mission, in particular - I won't get into too much details for spoilers sake, but holy shit FromSoft, don't ever do that shit again.
Altogether, I enjoyed my time with this game and I think it's a pretty good, if not fantastic PS1 game....just as long as you're willing to learn a very irregular control scheme.
While I'm no fan of From Software's more popular works, I couldn't help but be suckered in to this thanks to the presence of mecha. I love me some giant robots, and this delivers without restraint. As a budget game on the PS1 that they were able to churn out yearly spinoffs and sequels to, it looks pretty good, with a lot of well made and recognisable models, and a ridiculous amount of ways to physically customise your mech.
As far as story is concerned, there's a fair few layers to it, but it's all mostly in the subtext of the mission briefings and mail you receive. Simply put, it's a post-apocalyptic setting where corporations control the world with their own private armies - stop me if you've heard it before. You're part of the Raven's Nest, a group of mechs-for-hire, mercenaries with no allegiance - not even to each other.
As you pick missions, you might notice some of them conflict with each other - you can choose to help multiple corporations, but depending on which ones you help more, you may stop recieving missions from others. This does lock you out of a lot of missions, but it's all good; once you clear the story, you can play and replay every mission in the game. It's pretty nicely made altogether, and the lack of direct story isn't really a big deal. You play as a mercenary who's doing dirty work for money and mech parts, why would they care about the finer details?
Concerning the gameplay - it definitely attempts to emulate the complicated process of handling a bigass robot. Of most contention, and the main thing that filters players from the offset, are the controls: D-pad moves you forwards and backwards, and turns you left and right (FromSoft wouldn't discover what an analog stick was for quite some time), while L1 and R1 strafe you left and right - very important for combat. The one that I think perplexes the most people are L2 and R2 for looking up and down. It really takes some getting used to, but mastering the controls halfway makes the game a breeze - the other half of that comes from optimising your build.
There's a lot of build options, holy crap. Heads can have different kinds of sensors and radar, even an automap (VERY helpful). There are all sorts of different arms - some are slender and weak, others are bulkier but inhibit the usage of certain weapons, some even have weapons built into them at the cost of equipping your own. Central cores can vary in attatchment spots for optional parts, and there are different targeting computers and generators for your AC's internals that determine how many lock-ons and the amount of power your weapons and booster can hold. Oh yeah, boosters - those things that make your AC fly all around the place because hell yeah, giant robots.
Most important of all, in my opinion, are the legs. There are 4 types: Bipedal, Reverse joint, 4-legged and Treaded. Bipedals are the most mobile but carry the least weight, and Treaded are the total opposite. The weight is the most important, as the legs can only support so much weight. For big guns, you'll need to sacrifice mobility and vice versa. It's ridiculously in-depth, and best of all - all parts you buy can be resold for full price, meaning there's no real risk in selling a part to try out a new one.
So where is the game lacking? Well, the missions themselves are a mixed bag. Some are short and simple and have lots of stuff to blow up, others are longer and a bit of a gauntlet to survive through, and a few are just...really long, slow and virtually empty, especially towards the end of the game. The final mission, in particular - I won't get into too much details for spoilers sake, but holy shit FromSoft, don't ever do that shit again.
Altogether, I enjoyed my time with this game and I think it's a pretty good, if not fantastic PS1 game....just as long as you're willing to learn a very irregular control scheme.
worst last level ever made
clunky as expected and the platforming section at the end makes me :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :)
that being said, the insane amount of customization options and the short length of most missions is what kept me gravitated towards this game. The best part for me was fighting enemy AC units.
that being said, the insane amount of customization options and the short length of most missions is what kept me gravitated towards this game. The best part for me was fighting enemy AC units.
You’re part of Raven’s Nest, a ruthless mercenary group that will do anyone’s bidding so long as they’re willing to pay up, which tends to mostly be doing the dirty work for ever-sprawling soulless corporations that happen to rule over everyone else, the workers are unionizing due to shitty conditions? Send a Raven to squash their heads. A rival corporation is working on brand new technology? Send a Raven to infiltrate their base using any means necessary and destroy it or retrieve information regarding it. Citizens are protesting your area redevelopments by squatting? Send a Raven to kill them all. This is how the cold world of Armored Core operates, there is no right or wrong, there’s only people with money or people to stomp over in your never-ending quest for capital. And all of this lore serves the game perfectly. Thanks to the player being part of a mercenary group, the game ends up having a great deal of mission variety, you’ll hardly ever find yourself getting tired on that front, from missions where you ride flying airships to protect them, or race against corrosive gas that chips away at your AC’a health, to many more missions I won’t spoil. They were all a joy to go through and helped emphasize using different builds for different missions, especially since your sell rate is at 100% so you lose nothing by buying and selling the same parts. And the customizability itself is quite good too as there are multiple builds for multiple play-styles so you’re not boxed into anything specific. The gameplay Itself revolves a bit around management, you have to manage your energy bar, ammo for both weapons, damage received (because fixing your AC takes from your pay) but don’t worry because it’s ultimately not very difficult or tasking to deal with. It’s also worth to note that the game possesses decent enemy variety, from mecha bugs to weak worker MT’s to the other stronger enemies, they do their job well. And last but not least the game is so aesthetically pleasing thanks to the incredible art direction, I was engrossed In all the levels and appreciated how well some of It’s levels captured the sheer lack of soul found In corporate architecture.
didnt find moonlight greatsword, but i got the ending where i fought a big-ass robot so i cant complain much. armored core, at its core (punned), is about private companies using gun-for-hire mecha pilots to fuel their desires for power. but its also about playing dress up with your robot, customizing the parts and weapons to your hearts content. it's janky, it's primitive at times, but it's above all captivating with its premise and palm-sweating combat. genuinely excited to get into the expansions and, eventually, the sequels.
i would put more words into this but ive already been working on a script for a video review for months so yea lol.
i would put more words into this but ive already been working on a script for a video review for months so yea lol.
This review contains spoilers
I think we should destroy the machine that enforces the status quo against human will, I think it would be funny.
It controls very well and is really intuitive for a full control psx game, the music fuckin bangs hard, the customization is more than serviceable, and the level variety is excellent, in fact some of the best on a psx game for the most part, but whoever designed this games last level should be imprisoned in a human centrifuge for 5 minutes.
It controls very well and is really intuitive for a full control psx game, the music fuckin bangs hard, the customization is more than serviceable, and the level variety is excellent, in fact some of the best on a psx game for the most part, but whoever designed this games last level should be imprisoned in a human centrifuge for 5 minutes.
While this isn’t my 1st AC game and never felt that confusion like noob me did for AC2, I quite enjoyed this title.
I found myself spending more time customizing to playing the missions. It’s uncomfortable going back and forth to mid max your build and rather can discourage to experiment by how tedious it can get. Luckily this issue gets resolve down the line and we’re blessed for that.
The narrative is meh, it’s there. Really no enjoyment to come out of it except seeing the blunt irony of working for both sides like missions “go attack XY base” while the next mission to do is “someone attacked XY base, regain control of the situation.” This I found to be brilliant and wish you felt your actions more in the only title I finished, AC3.
The missions are outstanding and liked how divested the missions were, another you’re on a blimp, one in underground lab, and so on. They very much make up the missing arena. I loved the 2nd half of this title as it felt the game and world itself we’re starting to recognize your abilities and must put an end to you before you get out of hand. This being seen with getting 1v2, trapped in rooms, and given long length missions. I never felt a difficulty spike, it felt just right.
I found myself spending more time customizing to playing the missions. It’s uncomfortable going back and forth to mid max your build and rather can discourage to experiment by how tedious it can get. Luckily this issue gets resolve down the line and we’re blessed for that.
The narrative is meh, it’s there. Really no enjoyment to come out of it except seeing the blunt irony of working for both sides like missions “go attack XY base” while the next mission to do is “someone attacked XY base, regain control of the situation.” This I found to be brilliant and wish you felt your actions more in the only title I finished, AC3.
The missions are outstanding and liked how divested the missions were, another you’re on a blimp, one in underground lab, and so on. They very much make up the missing arena. I loved the 2nd half of this title as it felt the game and world itself we’re starting to recognize your abilities and must put an end to you before you get out of hand. This being seen with getting 1v2, trapped in rooms, and given long length missions. I never felt a difficulty spike, it felt just right.
Reminds me of Monster Hunter 1: lots of messiness and annoyances, but nails a shocking amount of fundamentals from the get-go.
The heart and soul of this game, and probably its strongest aspect, are the controls. This might be the best game I've ever played in capturing the electric dynamic of graceful movement flowing through rigid restrictions. Boosting fast, but turning slow: that's fucking tank controls right there. Dodging another AC's missiles while struggling to keep them within your lock-on field? Boosting yourself through the air and letting momentum carry you while your energy recharges? Dancing in and out of melee range without losing control? Good shit.
This is also a game that actually justifies having stats and builds, because everything has some impact on how your AC handles. There's walk speed, turn speed, flight speed, durability, energy capacity and recharge speed, lock-on distance and shape, mobility with heavy weaponry, and probably more. Also an area map, please buy a part with an area map and don't make the same mistake I did. The balance isn't exactly pristine, especially if you find the secret weapons, but it didn't get in the way too much for me.
This being a corporate dystopia hellhole and you being a mercenary, the main thing you'll be worrying about for a while, especially as a new player, is money. Buying new parts takes cash (though you can sell them back for the same price!), but so do ammo and repairs, and if you lose the mission then enjoy the pure minus on your balance sheet. And by the way, don't break stuff the client wants to keep unexploded: you'll be footing the bill there too. If you decide not to save-scum and roll with the punches, there's a great survival-horror-ish dynamic to trying to stay above water while the stakes keep getting raised.
The main pitfall is the mission design. I actually think the dungeon-crawler style they went with could have worked; "Kill Struggle Leader" is laced with traps and gave me that pleasant singed old-school taste. But sadly, most of the mazes just amount to a long series of hallways with a few weak enemies placed like breadcrumbs, which makes even zipping your tin can around feel tiring before long. Basic AI adds to the monotony since almost all these fights will be 1v1 or close to it.
A few solid missions in the mix though too, especially when the game has you fight other ACs or painfully shares its love of unexpected halfway twists. And the ending has some excellent "game design as humor" that gave me a smile.
Solid first attempt with obvious room for improvement. Man, it would be cool if this studio still made games...
Murakumo or Chrome? Who cares? I'm a Raven, fuck you, pay me.
The heart and soul of this game, and probably its strongest aspect, are the controls. This might be the best game I've ever played in capturing the electric dynamic of graceful movement flowing through rigid restrictions. Boosting fast, but turning slow: that's fucking tank controls right there. Dodging another AC's missiles while struggling to keep them within your lock-on field? Boosting yourself through the air and letting momentum carry you while your energy recharges? Dancing in and out of melee range without losing control? Good shit.
This is also a game that actually justifies having stats and builds, because everything has some impact on how your AC handles. There's walk speed, turn speed, flight speed, durability, energy capacity and recharge speed, lock-on distance and shape, mobility with heavy weaponry, and probably more. Also an area map, please buy a part with an area map and don't make the same mistake I did. The balance isn't exactly pristine, especially if you find the secret weapons, but it didn't get in the way too much for me.
This being a corporate dystopia hellhole and you being a mercenary, the main thing you'll be worrying about for a while, especially as a new player, is money. Buying new parts takes cash (though you can sell them back for the same price!), but so do ammo and repairs, and if you lose the mission then enjoy the pure minus on your balance sheet. And by the way, don't break stuff the client wants to keep unexploded: you'll be footing the bill there too. If you decide not to save-scum and roll with the punches, there's a great survival-horror-ish dynamic to trying to stay above water while the stakes keep getting raised.
The main pitfall is the mission design. I actually think the dungeon-crawler style they went with could have worked; "Kill Struggle Leader" is laced with traps and gave me that pleasant singed old-school taste. But sadly, most of the mazes just amount to a long series of hallways with a few weak enemies placed like breadcrumbs, which makes even zipping your tin can around feel tiring before long. Basic AI adds to the monotony since almost all these fights will be 1v1 or close to it.
A few solid missions in the mix though too, especially when the game has you fight other ACs or painfully shares its love of unexpected halfway twists. And the ending has some excellent "game design as humor" that gave me a smile.
Solid first attempt with obvious room for improvement. Man, it would be cool if this studio still made games...
Murakumo or Chrome? Who cares? I'm a Raven, fuck you, pay me.
This review contains spoilers
hmmm today i will Destroy Floating Mines
(clueless)
(clueless)
"Unlike other Mecha series, this one is about the machines"
It's Jank kino, a game while not being the best technical, once you look past that you get a very good and rewarding experience. If you know about the armored core series you may have heard of the inverted controller meme, making fun of the controls of the AC series and while YES, these controllers are kinda fucking weird and wonky, the moment you get used to them you are able to enjoy it (or change the controllers on an emulator but c'mom...)
Another great thing about AC is the customization of the mech, as someone who likes gunpla a lot, it makes me so joyful that I can build my own mechs and use them in battle, seeing how well they perform and such. Half of the fun from this game comes from replaying levels you failed and buying different mech parts to see if it will work this time or not and seeing what works and what doesn't.
One thing I don't see mentioned all that much is the story and while yes, the main focus of the game isn't the story, what there is of it is pretty great. Honestly, it reminded me of games like Farcry 2 and the STALKER series, where you are just merch who takes odd jobs from different warring factions and said odd jobs are mostly dirty work. This is reflected in how the first two missions you are able to do are either killing strike workers or squatters. No hero complex or villain complex, you are just mech wanting to be paid kinda vibe which I enjoy a lot.
One thing I disliked about this game is the unholy amount of the time you are in the menu changing up your mech for a mission, my god. I wouldn't have minded it so much if you didn't need to fucking open 5 fucking menus to buy a weapon and 6 fucking menus to equip it.
Also, some of the missions suck, but you can't win them all I guess.
Oh! And before I forget, I never got debut so I never had the chance to use the human plus thing but the concept of the game becoming easier the more you suck at it is actually kinda cool, I like it.
Overall, you should watch ZETA Gundam.
It's Jank kino, a game while not being the best technical, once you look past that you get a very good and rewarding experience. If you know about the armored core series you may have heard of the inverted controller meme, making fun of the controls of the AC series and while YES, these controllers are kinda fucking weird and wonky, the moment you get used to them you are able to enjoy it (or change the controllers on an emulator but c'mom...)
Another great thing about AC is the customization of the mech, as someone who likes gunpla a lot, it makes me so joyful that I can build my own mechs and use them in battle, seeing how well they perform and such. Half of the fun from this game comes from replaying levels you failed and buying different mech parts to see if it will work this time or not and seeing what works and what doesn't.
One thing I don't see mentioned all that much is the story and while yes, the main focus of the game isn't the story, what there is of it is pretty great. Honestly, it reminded me of games like Farcry 2 and the STALKER series, where you are just merch who takes odd jobs from different warring factions and said odd jobs are mostly dirty work. This is reflected in how the first two missions you are able to do are either killing strike workers or squatters. No hero complex or villain complex, you are just mech wanting to be paid kinda vibe which I enjoy a lot.
One thing I disliked about this game is the unholy amount of the time you are in the menu changing up your mech for a mission, my god. I wouldn't have minded it so much if you didn't need to fucking open 5 fucking menus to buy a weapon and 6 fucking menus to equip it.
Also, some of the missions suck, but you can't win them all I guess.
Oh! And before I forget, I never got debut so I never had the chance to use the human plus thing but the concept of the game becoming easier the more you suck at it is actually kinda cool, I like it.
Overall, you should watch ZETA Gundam.
a wild experiment for the--then nascent--FromSoftware. ARMORED CORE proves to be a rock solid foundation for its genre and a game that still stands on its own as a worthwile experience.
one of the rare examples of a game that actually benefits from the artifacts of its age. the slow methodical controls and the delibarate combat mechanics kinda providing a simulacrum of "real" mech piloting.
this, combined with the game's carefully designed missions, create an addictive and rewarding gameplay loop. said loop rewards player progression and mastery of the movement mechanics with increasing levels of freedom.
ARMORED CORE has a pretty perfect amount of mechanical complexity. the customization is at a level of being rich enough to entice you with upgrades and build possibilities, while being agile enough to keep the game generally... arcadey.
the aforementioned missions do a fantastic job of touring you through the game's depths. they're often more creative and atmospheric than you would think for a "game about giant robots". it uses whatever little dropplets of storytelling it can leverage to build one hell of a strong tone.
some of the later missions create genuinely intense "plot twists" and set pieces that you will remember for a long time. this hand-crafted designed coupled with a very considerate difficulty curve make loving ARMORED CORE completely effortless.
one of the rare examples of a game that actually benefits from the artifacts of its age. the slow methodical controls and the delibarate combat mechanics kinda providing a simulacrum of "real" mech piloting.
this, combined with the game's carefully designed missions, create an addictive and rewarding gameplay loop. said loop rewards player progression and mastery of the movement mechanics with increasing levels of freedom.
ARMORED CORE has a pretty perfect amount of mechanical complexity. the customization is at a level of being rich enough to entice you with upgrades and build possibilities, while being agile enough to keep the game generally... arcadey.
the aforementioned missions do a fantastic job of touring you through the game's depths. they're often more creative and atmospheric than you would think for a "game about giant robots". it uses whatever little dropplets of storytelling it can leverage to build one hell of a strong tone.
some of the later missions create genuinely intense "plot twists" and set pieces that you will remember for a long time. this hand-crafted designed coupled with a very considerate difficulty curve make loving ARMORED CORE completely effortless.
unapproachable, but pretty fun and rewarding once you've got the controls/customization down. a promising start for sure
upon further thought i'm changing this from a 7 to an 8 because i still remember so much about this game and its missions. definitely the highlight of gen 1 with lots of variety and lots of ambition. the finale is legendary too
upon further thought i'm changing this from a 7 to an 8 because i still remember so much about this game and its missions. definitely the highlight of gen 1 with lots of variety and lots of ambition. the finale is legendary too
When I was a kid I was for a short time addicted to this terrible Small Soldiers game (based on the hit movie). You created your own soldier (or whatever the animal/indigenous metaphor faction was called) and could accrue ingame money to buy custom parts.
The game ran at like 10 fps on my old 90s PC but it was an addicting loop. I would buy random parts and just watch my frankenstein's duke it out with the AI because it was easier than controlling it myself.
Armored Core would have absolutely OBSESSED my 8 y/o self. It would have leveled my conception of what games could be.
The robots are cool, they control stiffly at first but compared to most psx/n64 gen games Armored Core is very responsive. The missions are generally tight, and on a blind run you would have little idea what might happen since the mission briefings are very vague. Poor draw distance in the open air maps, and claustrophobic tunnels indoors keep you guessing even when the mission is unfolding. It also unfortunately incentivizes playing it safe with chunkier, slower AC's that can carry more ammo for missions that sometimes go longer than you might expect. Project Phantasm & Arena add those more focused PVAI pilot battles that make lightweight, nimble AC useful, but in AC1 they are a very risky bet.
8 y/o me would have just read everything on gamefaqs beforehand because that's just what I did back then, but that was also how I made game narratives explicable. AC never overestimates its storytelling capacity; it does not push the PSX to be a movie machine with wild, poorly rendered cutscenes. It's beautifully within its limits.
The game ran at like 10 fps on my old 90s PC but it was an addicting loop. I would buy random parts and just watch my frankenstein's duke it out with the AI because it was easier than controlling it myself.
Armored Core would have absolutely OBSESSED my 8 y/o self. It would have leveled my conception of what games could be.
The robots are cool, they control stiffly at first but compared to most psx/n64 gen games Armored Core is very responsive. The missions are generally tight, and on a blind run you would have little idea what might happen since the mission briefings are very vague. Poor draw distance in the open air maps, and claustrophobic tunnels indoors keep you guessing even when the mission is unfolding. It also unfortunately incentivizes playing it safe with chunkier, slower AC's that can carry more ammo for missions that sometimes go longer than you might expect. Project Phantasm & Arena add those more focused PVAI pilot battles that make lightweight, nimble AC useful, but in AC1 they are a very risky bet.
8 y/o me would have just read everything on gamefaqs beforehand because that's just what I did back then, but that was also how I made game narratives explicable. AC never overestimates its storytelling capacity; it does not push the PSX to be a movie machine with wild, poorly rendered cutscenes. It's beautifully within its limits.
holds up exceptionally well still if you're willing to adjust to the controls, and I genuinely quite like the simple but interesting story as it unravels, on a replay some of the missions take on a completely different light
fascinating seeing early AC retain some of the dungeon crawler elements of KF with some of the more labyrinthian levels, I genuinely like the more exploration centric levels and the art direction is minimalistic but still kinda nice
music kicks ass, some of the later levels are sadistic but funny as fuck, and the game is Unbelievably easy to snap in half once you find the right build and hidden parts
fascinating seeing early AC retain some of the dungeon crawler elements of KF with some of the more labyrinthian levels, I genuinely like the more exploration centric levels and the art direction is minimalistic but still kinda nice
music kicks ass, some of the later levels are sadistic but funny as fuck, and the game is Unbelievably easy to snap in half once you find the right build and hidden parts
The Verdite Trilogy is in the bag, King's Field IV here we come... except Shadow Tower is basically a King's Field game so I should play that first... except their actual next game is the first Armored Core, and I really should play a few of those before the new one comes out, and oh my god there's so many interesting looking games! Yeah... What started as an attempt to build up to playing King's Field IV has lead into a soft-commitment to playing every single game Fromsoftware has made in order of release. Where once I saw the bad reviews, poor performance, and jankiness of the pre-Souls From games as off-putting, King's Field I-III has primed me instead to see them as totally fascinating.
Armored Core is in some ways a massive departure from the King's Field games, and in other ways stylistically synchronous. Genre-wise we're taking a huge jump from first-person dungeon crawling to mech-based third-person action, complete with a massive improvement in performance to compliment the relatively fast-paced gameplay. However, much like King's Field, Armored Core incorporates poor game-feel into the way the player engages with it; while clunky combat serves to create a deliberate pace for King's Field and make the world feel dangerous, Armored Core's clunkiness is variable, tied directly to the construction of the player's mech. Turning speed and movement are initially atrocious, but with the right set-up can be made to feel very nice indeed. However, the player is usually sacrificing something else to achieve this. Even a mech with the best parts cannot be a master of all due to weight and energy limitations; some elements of gameplay must feel poor for others to feel good.
While the way the player engages with the world is very different, with a stark contrast between the direct engagement with the environments and characters of King's Field and the UI and emails of Armored Core, the world-building has a consistency across both. Details are not all spelt out explicitly, leaving the player to fill in the gaps, a style consistent with the Souls games' renowned storytelling. The player's role in the narrative is also similar, being positioned as a tool of greater beings. The course of history in King's Field is essentially framed around the conflict between deities, with humans being manipulated into serving their interests. The story is the same here in Armored Core, except this time magical deities are traded out for corporations. In this sense Armored Core is much more dystopian, without the humanity or hope present in King's Field. It is an anarcho-capitalist future, one in which there is ought to do but sell your services to powerful corporations battling for resources and profit. Looking ahead to Armored Core VI, I'm understanding the tone in that reveal trailer a lot more now. The utter coldness and lack of humanity... I'm very excited to see this universe given the resources of a modern Fromsoftware game.
Outside of these interesting points of comparison and contrast, the game is really quite good! The missions are variable and odd, and while not exactly individually thrilling they serve to compliment the broader picture. Allowing the player to sell parts back for the exact price they bought them for is brilliant, encouraging experimentation and covering for the lack of information regarding what each part actually does. I do have to knock half a star off for that botched final mission though. Platforming in this game is a bad idea on its own, but platforming upwards? Where one wrong move means starting from scratch? Absolutely bonkers. I had to use save states for that part, I just wasn't willing to go through it. It didn't play to the strengths of the game whatsoever, coming up with the worst possible answer to the question "How do we make the final level the hardest?"
I enjoyed this game a lot. Both the act of playing it and thinking about it a broader context were a lot of fun. I look forward to moving onto Project Phantasma and beyond, to more Armored Core games and more interesting Fromsoftware games in general.
Armored Core is in some ways a massive departure from the King's Field games, and in other ways stylistically synchronous. Genre-wise we're taking a huge jump from first-person dungeon crawling to mech-based third-person action, complete with a massive improvement in performance to compliment the relatively fast-paced gameplay. However, much like King's Field, Armored Core incorporates poor game-feel into the way the player engages with it; while clunky combat serves to create a deliberate pace for King's Field and make the world feel dangerous, Armored Core's clunkiness is variable, tied directly to the construction of the player's mech. Turning speed and movement are initially atrocious, but with the right set-up can be made to feel very nice indeed. However, the player is usually sacrificing something else to achieve this. Even a mech with the best parts cannot be a master of all due to weight and energy limitations; some elements of gameplay must feel poor for others to feel good.
While the way the player engages with the world is very different, with a stark contrast between the direct engagement with the environments and characters of King's Field and the UI and emails of Armored Core, the world-building has a consistency across both. Details are not all spelt out explicitly, leaving the player to fill in the gaps, a style consistent with the Souls games' renowned storytelling. The player's role in the narrative is also similar, being positioned as a tool of greater beings. The course of history in King's Field is essentially framed around the conflict between deities, with humans being manipulated into serving their interests. The story is the same here in Armored Core, except this time magical deities are traded out for corporations. In this sense Armored Core is much more dystopian, without the humanity or hope present in King's Field. It is an anarcho-capitalist future, one in which there is ought to do but sell your services to powerful corporations battling for resources and profit. Looking ahead to Armored Core VI, I'm understanding the tone in that reveal trailer a lot more now. The utter coldness and lack of humanity... I'm very excited to see this universe given the resources of a modern Fromsoftware game.
Outside of these interesting points of comparison and contrast, the game is really quite good! The missions are variable and odd, and while not exactly individually thrilling they serve to compliment the broader picture. Allowing the player to sell parts back for the exact price they bought them for is brilliant, encouraging experimentation and covering for the lack of information regarding what each part actually does. I do have to knock half a star off for that botched final mission though. Platforming in this game is a bad idea on its own, but platforming upwards? Where one wrong move means starting from scratch? Absolutely bonkers. I had to use save states for that part, I just wasn't willing to go through it. It didn't play to the strengths of the game whatsoever, coming up with the worst possible answer to the question "How do we make the final level the hardest?"
I enjoyed this game a lot. Both the act of playing it and thinking about it a broader context were a lot of fun. I look forward to moving onto Project Phantasma and beyond, to more Armored Core games and more interesting Fromsoftware games in general.
Trying to speedrun the main series for AC6, since I'm pretty ignorant about it.
Not bad at all for what it is. Hard to say much since it's so simple, but it's decently fun and fairly challenging. Don't be afraid to try it because of its infamous difficulty, it's kind of overrated in that sense.
I think most people will probably complain about the controls (Aim Up= R2, Down = L2, and R1 and L1 for strafing), but you can get used to them very quickly. It also kinda works as making you feel like you're controlling a huge heavy robot. You can practice them in the AC Test in the Garage menu, instead of failing missions and causing you to lose money. Also, since there's no tutorial for the controls, it's important to note that if you press R2+L2 it centers your lock box to the middle of the screen. If you are still having trouble, there's a hidden weapon in the earlier levels that brings the difficulty down quite a bit. I really recommend not using it if you can, though. With maybe the exception to the final mission because fuckyouholyasdoashdKHFJTOYPU.
As to why this doesn't get a higher score, well it's a PS game, so you can imagine. Cheesy voice acting/dialogue, minimal nonsensical story, boring level design, etc. Still, fun robot shooty mcshooty.
★★½ – Average ✅
Not bad at all for what it is. Hard to say much since it's so simple, but it's decently fun and fairly challenging. Don't be afraid to try it because of its infamous difficulty, it's kind of overrated in that sense.
I think most people will probably complain about the controls (Aim Up= R2, Down = L2, and R1 and L1 for strafing), but you can get used to them very quickly. It also kinda works as making you feel like you're controlling a huge heavy robot. You can practice them in the AC Test in the Garage menu, instead of failing missions and causing you to lose money. Also, since there's no tutorial for the controls, it's important to note that if you press R2+L2 it centers your lock box to the middle of the screen. If you are still having trouble, there's a hidden weapon in the earlier levels that brings the difficulty down quite a bit. I really recommend not using it if you can, though. With maybe the exception to the final mission because fuckyouholyasdoashdKHFJTOYPU.
As to why this doesn't get a higher score, well it's a PS game, so you can imagine. Cheesy voice acting/dialogue, minimal nonsensical story, boring level design, etc. Still, fun robot shooty mcshooty.
★★½ – Average ✅
I am a simple human being, I see a new FromSoft sequel announced, I go back to replay the series even though there will most likely be very little continuation to be found.
I greatly enjoyed the first title though. Fantastic vibes. Running through open spaces, on water, grass or sand, or crawling through these corridors of abandoned military facilities, never knowing when something will jump out, or something BIGGER will jump out. Sounds of long-damaged technology, warning messages cutting in and out, clicking of organisms or heavy footsteps of robots filling the silence or the darkness ahead.
I actually really enjoyed the story and the individual moments were just awesome. Two dueling coporations, a destroyed world, underground cities, human experimentation, independent mercenary group, jumping between contracts for groups with different interests, uncovering the mysteries of your own organization, betrayal, the truth about humanity's future. There's a lot of clever missions with little tidbits of information in each, making for great worldbuilding. FromSoft always had it. They even have the Moonlight Greatsword and a group called "Dark Soul" here. Crazy how deep the rabbit hole goes.
Since you spend so much time in the menus crafting your robot, which seemed complicated until I just smashed all the best parts together, I would like for that part of the game to be better. It's just an UI after all. I'd love to not have to buy and resell items every time I realize something doesn't fit. You sell for the same price so what's the point, if I have enough money just let me pick it from the menu and use up my money when I head out for a mission. Second, invest in more music, or at the very least a longer loop. It's not terrible, has its charm and all, but it's just impossible for it to not get annoying after so much time.
And this is a yet another very good game with an awful final level. It's very interesting thematically and if you paid attention you'll be hit with one surprise after another, as well as some existential crisis-type beat, but the actual structure is awful. The amount of precise platforming you have to do in that level is nuts, and the main enemy is so fast that putting it in a room with a lot of obstacles in the way makes it impossible to follow with a camera. Running away is an even less valid option, its damage output is insane. So, cheesing it is, bait it into a hole you come out of or leave out of and spam your strongest weapon for close quarters. Unfortunate, because it's a great finale and would feel super tense if it wasn't so annoying. And they were doing such an excellent job of avoiding all these problems too in each and every level. Blegh.
Hopefully this is merely a blueprint of what's to come, and it turns out that Armored Core, as a series, was truly overlooked and underappreciated at the time. Mecha games are never easy to get into, but the satisfaction from a good mission in this chonky, hard to control beast is sublime.
I greatly enjoyed the first title though. Fantastic vibes. Running through open spaces, on water, grass or sand, or crawling through these corridors of abandoned military facilities, never knowing when something will jump out, or something BIGGER will jump out. Sounds of long-damaged technology, warning messages cutting in and out, clicking of organisms or heavy footsteps of robots filling the silence or the darkness ahead.
I actually really enjoyed the story and the individual moments were just awesome. Two dueling coporations, a destroyed world, underground cities, human experimentation, independent mercenary group, jumping between contracts for groups with different interests, uncovering the mysteries of your own organization, betrayal, the truth about humanity's future. There's a lot of clever missions with little tidbits of information in each, making for great worldbuilding. FromSoft always had it. They even have the Moonlight Greatsword and a group called "Dark Soul" here. Crazy how deep the rabbit hole goes.
Since you spend so much time in the menus crafting your robot, which seemed complicated until I just smashed all the best parts together, I would like for that part of the game to be better. It's just an UI after all. I'd love to not have to buy and resell items every time I realize something doesn't fit. You sell for the same price so what's the point, if I have enough money just let me pick it from the menu and use up my money when I head out for a mission. Second, invest in more music, or at the very least a longer loop. It's not terrible, has its charm and all, but it's just impossible for it to not get annoying after so much time.
And this is a yet another very good game with an awful final level. It's very interesting thematically and if you paid attention you'll be hit with one surprise after another, as well as some existential crisis-type beat, but the actual structure is awful. The amount of precise platforming you have to do in that level is nuts, and the main enemy is so fast that putting it in a room with a lot of obstacles in the way makes it impossible to follow with a camera. Running away is an even less valid option, its damage output is insane. So, cheesing it is, bait it into a hole you come out of or leave out of and spam your strongest weapon for close quarters. Unfortunate, because it's a great finale and would feel super tense if it wasn't so annoying. And they were doing such an excellent job of avoiding all these problems too in each and every level. Blegh.
Hopefully this is merely a blueprint of what's to come, and it turns out that Armored Core, as a series, was truly overlooked and underappreciated at the time. Mecha games are never easy to get into, but the satisfaction from a good mission in this chonky, hard to control beast is sublime.
GRATA SURPRESA, claro que tem espaço pra melhoras, claro que a gameplay e os controles são meio lerdos mas tudo isso se paga quando se tem uma customização maravilhosa e uma atmosfera única até
Perfeito? Longe disso mas um ótimo primeiro passo
Perfeito? Longe disso mas um ótimo primeiro passo
At what point does a human dissolve into becoming just a mere resource? In the world of Armored Core, humans essentially have become nothing but a resource to the rich and powerful. The average human has been knocked down on the social standing as the capitalist fiends behind the scenes begin prioritizing robots and cybernetics. Armored Core is a game about humanity being replaced and how just a few powerful people can cause the demise of billions.
It's no surprise that Armored Core is a mecha game, compared to most other popular mecha series, Armored Core seems to take advantage of its genre more than any other mecha series. Gone are named characters of most series, as in the world of Armored Core, they have become completely irrelevant. Most structures have to accommodate the size of the armored core units, which creates this barren and dystopian atmosphere. The lack of music during levels creates more of a focus on the mechs themselves since most of the noises you'll be hearing come from combat. It creates a contrast between what you hear in battle, vs the groovy music heard in the menus.
When outside of battles, the player will have to pay close attention to their stats. Creating a mech in Armored Core is one of the biggest selling points with plenty of options making it seem like the combinations are endless. The game provides the player with stats that are essentially designed to overwhelm and complicate the player playing further into the idea that the human is insignificant. Having to deal with conflicting stats such as whether having a heavy part is worth it, and having to consider the cost of ammo for a specific weapon. However, considering this is From Softwares first dip into the mecha genre, it's not perfect. There seems to be a large array of items that just don't seem necessary. While the game seems to encourage having a custom and unique mech, it almost seems like by the halfway point of the game, I had myself a perfect mech that nobody would possibly be able to match. While there were some things that I could imagine changing, the only thing that cemented the idea that I did in fact have a perfect mech, was when I went online and saw most people were using an almost identical build to me. Mech building in Armored Core certainly isn't bad, but there is plenty of room for improvement.
One of the most obnoxious complaints I see about Armored Core is people complaining about the controls which has always baffled me because I always considered AC to have one of the greatest control schemes ever put in a game. The game will always make sure to remind you that you are controlling a mech and that the mech is more important than the human inside. You will feel the weight, and you will make every slight movement count. The actual controls themselves feel complicated similar to what is being felt inside the mech. No mech real mech would give the pilot a controller with two analog sticks and easy to learn controls. Armored Core doesn't care about the pilot. If the pilot dies, they will be replaced, meanwhile, if an AC Unit gets destroyed, It's gonna cost a lot.
Armored Core truly is a capitalist nightmare. A story about a few guys who got so rich that they feel like they're at the top of the world, and even then the ending cutscenes for each corporation show how their lack of respect for the human race caused them to get betrayed by the same robots they valued over humans. When technology goes too far, who will be there to stop it? When humans become irrelevant, we will become the machine and the machine will power over humanity until it is met with the next largest obstacle. Capitalism and greed creates an existential nightmare and will fuel the demise of humanity.
Side note: fuck the platforming segment in the final level.
It's no surprise that Armored Core is a mecha game, compared to most other popular mecha series, Armored Core seems to take advantage of its genre more than any other mecha series. Gone are named characters of most series, as in the world of Armored Core, they have become completely irrelevant. Most structures have to accommodate the size of the armored core units, which creates this barren and dystopian atmosphere. The lack of music during levels creates more of a focus on the mechs themselves since most of the noises you'll be hearing come from combat. It creates a contrast between what you hear in battle, vs the groovy music heard in the menus.
When outside of battles, the player will have to pay close attention to their stats. Creating a mech in Armored Core is one of the biggest selling points with plenty of options making it seem like the combinations are endless. The game provides the player with stats that are essentially designed to overwhelm and complicate the player playing further into the idea that the human is insignificant. Having to deal with conflicting stats such as whether having a heavy part is worth it, and having to consider the cost of ammo for a specific weapon. However, considering this is From Softwares first dip into the mecha genre, it's not perfect. There seems to be a large array of items that just don't seem necessary. While the game seems to encourage having a custom and unique mech, it almost seems like by the halfway point of the game, I had myself a perfect mech that nobody would possibly be able to match. While there were some things that I could imagine changing, the only thing that cemented the idea that I did in fact have a perfect mech, was when I went online and saw most people were using an almost identical build to me. Mech building in Armored Core certainly isn't bad, but there is plenty of room for improvement.
One of the most obnoxious complaints I see about Armored Core is people complaining about the controls which has always baffled me because I always considered AC to have one of the greatest control schemes ever put in a game. The game will always make sure to remind you that you are controlling a mech and that the mech is more important than the human inside. You will feel the weight, and you will make every slight movement count. The actual controls themselves feel complicated similar to what is being felt inside the mech. No mech real mech would give the pilot a controller with two analog sticks and easy to learn controls. Armored Core doesn't care about the pilot. If the pilot dies, they will be replaced, meanwhile, if an AC Unit gets destroyed, It's gonna cost a lot.
Armored Core truly is a capitalist nightmare. A story about a few guys who got so rich that they feel like they're at the top of the world, and even then the ending cutscenes for each corporation show how their lack of respect for the human race caused them to get betrayed by the same robots they valued over humans. When technology goes too far, who will be there to stop it? When humans become irrelevant, we will become the machine and the machine will power over humanity until it is met with the next largest obstacle. Capitalism and greed creates an existential nightmare and will fuel the demise of humanity.
Side note: fuck the platforming segment in the final level.
where I stopped this game: on the Kill Struggle Leader mission (~25 missions in I think), there's a part a little over halfway through where you will almost certainly fall down a very large pit and are forced to climb up by doing precision platforming, on platforms you cannot see without pausing and looking at a very finicky map based on line of sight. I don't believe this mission is optional so I just gave up; this mission was probably the most cruel I played in the game by far. perhaps the platforms are visible when not played on a small-ish CRT running popstarter on a ps2 but it still was completely ridiculous
+rather deep mech design tools with many configurations possible. shockingly enough each part you buy can be resold for the same price, a very user-friendly move that makes experimentation very feasible
+failing a mission will deduct money from your account but in many cases will not significantly impede you (except on that Kill Struggle Leader mission... I now wonder if I had died rather than aborting the mission whether it would allow me to pass). you can even go into debt a certain amount without any penalty, and if you get to -$50k you'll restart the game but with stat perks, which can be stacked if multiple failures occur
+yea it's tank controls but thanks to the strafe options it actually feels pretty good. bunny hopping around or even just strafing with the four-legged mech variation will almost always do the trick for you
+the outside scenes are actually rendered rather convincingly for a '97 game, with some cool locales and only infrequent environment reuse
+mission objectives range wildly, and often unexpected twists can occur, forcing you to prepare your loadout for any outcome
+I first experienced this in spiritual successor daemon x machina: the emails you get both from your handler and the corporatiosn you work for. I find these so novel lol
-the interior missions suck most of the time, with long missions, copy-pasted layouts, and usually only a single enemy type throughout an entire level. these make up about half of the missions (out of what I played) and are never fun
-combat really struggles to get more interesting than "strafe and shoot", with maybe some hand-to-hand combat if you can get close without taking missiles to the face
-the menus for the shops and such are extremely beginner-unfriendly, and I had to use a guide for much of it until I learned the ropes. so many options, and it's so overwhelming when you first look at it
-even though I'm glad that the game doesn't punish you too harshly for failing a mission and moving on, I still wish there as a "mission retry" option. the alternative is just reloading a save, which takes a significant amount of time and is rather annoying
-the camera controls really would've benefitted from a second joystick, rather than using the triggers to move it up and down
-the lock-on feature seems to not really work in many cases? at least while strafing. if I lock-on to an enemy with heat-seeking missiles I would expect the missiles to hit the target and not veer off wildly
I admire this game in some respects for its depth of play and interesting difficulty mechanics, but it's way too ambitious for a game on the psx. I may try later entries down the road to see if they feel better and have more interesting level design. this game certainly has cult appeal and I do think they actually accomplished much of what they set out to do, but overall I didn't feel like most of it was very fun at all beyond the feeling of progressing in a difficult game.
+rather deep mech design tools with many configurations possible. shockingly enough each part you buy can be resold for the same price, a very user-friendly move that makes experimentation very feasible
+failing a mission will deduct money from your account but in many cases will not significantly impede you (except on that Kill Struggle Leader mission... I now wonder if I had died rather than aborting the mission whether it would allow me to pass). you can even go into debt a certain amount without any penalty, and if you get to -$50k you'll restart the game but with stat perks, which can be stacked if multiple failures occur
+yea it's tank controls but thanks to the strafe options it actually feels pretty good. bunny hopping around or even just strafing with the four-legged mech variation will almost always do the trick for you
+the outside scenes are actually rendered rather convincingly for a '97 game, with some cool locales and only infrequent environment reuse
+mission objectives range wildly, and often unexpected twists can occur, forcing you to prepare your loadout for any outcome
+I first experienced this in spiritual successor daemon x machina: the emails you get both from your handler and the corporatiosn you work for. I find these so novel lol
-the interior missions suck most of the time, with long missions, copy-pasted layouts, and usually only a single enemy type throughout an entire level. these make up about half of the missions (out of what I played) and are never fun
-combat really struggles to get more interesting than "strafe and shoot", with maybe some hand-to-hand combat if you can get close without taking missiles to the face
-the menus for the shops and such are extremely beginner-unfriendly, and I had to use a guide for much of it until I learned the ropes. so many options, and it's so overwhelming when you first look at it
-even though I'm glad that the game doesn't punish you too harshly for failing a mission and moving on, I still wish there as a "mission retry" option. the alternative is just reloading a save, which takes a significant amount of time and is rather annoying
-the camera controls really would've benefitted from a second joystick, rather than using the triggers to move it up and down
-the lock-on feature seems to not really work in many cases? at least while strafing. if I lock-on to an enemy with heat-seeking missiles I would expect the missiles to hit the target and not veer off wildly
I admire this game in some respects for its depth of play and interesting difficulty mechanics, but it's way too ambitious for a game on the psx. I may try later entries down the road to see if they feel better and have more interesting level design. this game certainly has cult appeal and I do think they actually accomplished much of what they set out to do, but overall I didn't feel like most of it was very fun at all beyond the feeling of progressing in a difficult game.
[Shelved]
I always heard armored core beforehand, but with seeing the armored core 6 announcement, it's best time to dive in I thought. So I started and my first impressions were positive.
Variety is pretty suprising for a ps1 game. Also a controller configuration option? Hell yeaaah! The first thing I did was changing the controller more like a psp scheme(assigning camera to face buttons and action buttons to trigger buttons).
It was all good until I realized this game is bothering kind of jank for me.
Why the heck my lock on box moves faster than my camera????? Who thought this was a good idea? This takes away all the gameplay flow away. You start turning, then wait camera and aim reticle to match again, then you start turning again and wait for the camer....
I heard, the legs changes your turning speed so that's why. But forcing you to suffer for early game until you can get a better legs... That's so unlogical
No thanks.
My another problem is, when you go up the air and then to the ground, you have to watch your character to do a small stand up animation everytime and only way to get out of that is pressing the jetpack button again I guess. You can think this is a small problem but every mini boss does a massive damage against you and that small time wasting is the deciding factor for the life or death sometimes and punishment of is BIG. Die lots of times and bum. Half reset to your game. Nice.
If you are gonna force a big punishment upon me, then I would expect there is no possible way to get cheap deaths. But with these systems... it's just there to make my experience more miserable.
I have a massive respect that loves this game, but with this camera... I can't. Sorry. If it worked then I would be glad to finish this game and replay it 5 times but this camera is I can't, I just can't category for me
I always heard armored core beforehand, but with seeing the armored core 6 announcement, it's best time to dive in I thought. So I started and my first impressions were positive.
Variety is pretty suprising for a ps1 game. Also a controller configuration option? Hell yeaaah! The first thing I did was changing the controller more like a psp scheme(assigning camera to face buttons and action buttons to trigger buttons).
It was all good until I realized this game is bothering kind of jank for me.
Why the heck my lock on box moves faster than my camera????? Who thought this was a good idea? This takes away all the gameplay flow away. You start turning, then wait camera and aim reticle to match again, then you start turning again and wait for the camer....
I heard, the legs changes your turning speed so that's why. But forcing you to suffer for early game until you can get a better legs... That's so unlogical
No thanks.
My another problem is, when you go up the air and then to the ground, you have to watch your character to do a small stand up animation everytime and only way to get out of that is pressing the jetpack button again I guess. You can think this is a small problem but every mini boss does a massive damage against you and that small time wasting is the deciding factor for the life or death sometimes and punishment of is BIG. Die lots of times and bum. Half reset to your game. Nice.
If you are gonna force a big punishment upon me, then I would expect there is no possible way to get cheap deaths. But with these systems... it's just there to make my experience more miserable.
I have a massive respect that loves this game, but with this camera... I can't. Sorry. If it worked then I would be glad to finish this game and replay it 5 times but this camera is I can't, I just can't category for me
v impactful ending for its minimalism. love how quietly it goes out. had a lovely time with AC1