It seems like FromSoftware have always had a knack for building great combat gameplay loops. 'Armored Core' is a pulpy, fun and very challenging romp that I can't really write all that much about. That's not to imply there's much wrong with it, just that it's so simple I'd feel silly saying all that much about the game. So, in spirit and celebration—mostly—of that simplicity, the story is absurd and great for it, mech customisation has an astounding amount to it that feels satisfying to wrap your head around, and combat is really cathartic, fast and tense which is quite notable given that PlayStation games of this time don't normally give much in that respect. There's plenty of old-school design sensibilities—naturally, you get thrown into the 'tutorial' fight without being told the controls at all, so go consult a manual—but I was pleasantly surprised by how approachable the game became after it's cold opening. There are certainly some pretty terrible levels throughout the playtime but on average the worst you'll come across are ones which are just uninspired. Sometimes there's real standouts, like a tense fight on water or a battle against another AC Unit—the best parts of the game easily—but a lot of the time the memories of fighting very similar, weaker enemy robots in similar grey corridors or walkways all kinda blur into one. I do still, of course, admire 'Armored Core' a lot, and by no means would I recommend skipping it if you're getting into the series as I am, it's a compelling enough first entry. However, after playing the generational follow up expansion 'Project Phantasma'—which boasts a much more lenient economy to encourage experimentation in AC building earlier on as well as a dedicated 'Arena' mode to get really fun, on demand one-on-one fights against other AC's for quick cash—I find myself in no desire to ever really revisit this game again. Still, it laid the mechanical groundwork which gave us 'Project Phantasma' and the future games, and the stumbling that comes with that process is honestly what makes this game worth playing. Case in point: final mission. Wowwwww. Now, my control set up makes looking around pretty alright for me, but the weirdly brutal platforming section was just wild and honestly a little funny. The final boss, Nine-Ball, is thankfully optional because he too is utterly absurd. You can give him the old Anna Navarre treatment and run past him to the objective you have to destroy which will also complete the mission. I could just sit here and whinge about it but I didn't really find myself actively annoyed with this level, it's more just fascinating trying to decipher what FromSoftware's thought process was with this section of the game. Honestly the only part about the game's combat that had me making noises of irritation is that the aiming field has a habit of targeting enemies who are behind walls while you're trying to shoot something right in front of you, other than that, no notes. Robot game. Cool. Can't wait to play more of them since I'm having a much better time with 'Project Phantasma' already.

Pretty great. I think Armored Core is at its best when it revels in the dark metal nigh non-human aesthetic, swimming in the cold metal and ethereal ghostly artificial nightmare that is the world; this game has a lot of that. Vibes back and forth with an incredibly memorable and pulsating soundtrack, corny dialogue lines delivered in the most drop dead non-human ways within a soulless and cold realm. Theres enough dark remnants within the emails and spliced out cutscenes to really hold its AC charm and personally I do find it to hold up pretty well. The customization is great and the combat feels good when you get used to it, quite literally nothing feels better than to whip your Mech into shape from a janky hard to control piece of shit to a slightly less janky dominant metal force. Unfortuntately, the game really really drops off in the last few levels. The last mission is downright cruel in almost every way. I could conjur up some trans-humanist excuse to how cruel it is but simply put its just FromSoftware being fucking dicks. Still, I'm glad to have experienced the original AC and I'm even more happy that it is so charming and enjoyable on its own as a memorable piece of mech fiction; one that would explode into numerous additions into the series.

I tend to think I have pretty balanced tastes. I love all kinds of games, all kinds of comics, all kinds of movies, etc... However, I've come to learn over the years that I really love mechs. This love was solidified after playing Armored Core: For Answer. I'll review that one some day, but for now, let's look at the origin of the series all the way back on the PS1!

First off, I set the controls so that moving is handled by the d-pad and aiming by the face buttons. This could've had an adverse affect on my experience if this was a conventional shooter, but Armored Core locks onto enemies for you, meaning you only have to aim close enough to the enemies to hit them in most cases. It ultimately wasn't hard to adapt to considering this.

As stated before, Armored Core is fairly unique, and most people probably wouldn't care for it that much. The main appeal is the customization of your ACs. You can make big ones, quick ones, add some tank treads or quadrupeds, give it machine gun arms, paint it like your favorite Gundam or Eva Unit or whatever else, all sorts of stuff. Even if later entries expand on this, the original still nailed this core part of the series, no pun intended. It strikes a good balance between challenging the player to experiment with their loadout and still giving the player tons of freedom. A significant part of the game, at least for me, is just spent properly preparing for missions, and this is why I say that this series isn't for everyone. But for me? Nah, my inner autist adores this.

However, there are some issues with gameplay for sure. While there is a lot of level variety, far too many take place in repetitive labs where you kill the same kinds of enemies. Later games realized that mechs being outside was more fun and logical, but the developers didn't get the memo here with many missions.

On the customization side, you can't actually see stats for weapons before buying them. The names are also pretty confusing. Instead of just calling the sword a sword, they have to make it a bunch of letters and numbers. It definitely puts a damper on customization and can waste some time. However, the game wisely lets you sell back parts for the same price you buy them.

If you worry that such is a bit forgiving, don't worry. The game is plenty punishing. You see, upkeeping your cool mech is quite expensive. Your ammo and repair costs can impact your finances significantly, especially if you fail the mission. Just like in Animal Crossing, you can go in debt if you're not dedicated to constant saving and resetting! If you're really down on your luck, you even end up being sent to a lab and experimented on, which ends up giving you cool new abilities. You do have to start from square one, but this difficulty system is really neat, and one of the few ways this series actually feels accessible.

The story of Armored Core is interesting. Most story is just told to you through mission briefings and emails, but I rather enjoy it regardless. You're ultimately a gun for hire called a Raven who takes the highest bidder to avoid debt and build your cool robot. Oftentimes that means killing strikers and causing general mayhem at the behest of warring corporations. Yeah, uh... if you hate doing mean things in videogames, this one's not for you. It's not like this game's story is brilliant or anything, but it's good enough. It has hints of commentary between the missions. Such things as the economy of war, the established system, etc... It's moreso setdressing than anything, but the effort is appreciated.

All in all, I did really love this one. But I think it's time I play another Fromsoft title I've long been rejecting. One with a more supernatural theme. That's right, next time I'm playing Echo Nights! See you then!

É mais um jogo de montar robô do que robô se batendo, e não dá pra negar que nesse ponto, o jogo realmente se sobressai. Inicialmente, o jogo parece bem alien, nada é realmente bem explicado para você, os controles parecem mais clunky do que realmente são, e os menus usam termos e abreviações sem falar nada do que significa - um verdadeiro filtro. Porém, com o tempo, as coisas vão fazendo mais sentido, é genuinamente divertido descobrir o jogo, entender como cada peça do robô se conecta e personalizá-lo para fazer mais seu estilo de jogo (e detalhe: a customização é REALMENTE densa), e entender melhor como controlar esse pedaço de metal gigante, que por sinal, é até que bem lento. O que falta pra esse jogo realmente funcionar melhor, é uma câmera decente (sério, mesmo depois de se acostumar com os controles, a câmera ainda atrapalha bastante, o campo de visão é bem pequeno, e é terrível de controlar isso, tanto verticalmente quanto horizontalmente) , e missões realmente boas. Me parece bem claro que o foco mesmo é em montar o robô, como falei, as missões servem mais pra construir o loop, que se resume em:
Vai na missão -> pega dinheiro -> compra peça -> testa o robô -> volta pras missões pra pegar mais dinheiro.
Mesmo assim, sinto que o loop funcionaria ainda melhor se as missões em si fossem melhores. De início, elas são curtas, simples, e variadas, o que funciona, mas também não chega a ser tão interessante. Com o tempo, elas vão exigindo cada vez mais, e isso é ao mesmo tempo bom e ruim. Porque? Bom, é interessante que as missões exijam mais do jogador, até porque, quanto mais dano você toma, mais dinheiro você perde, então o combate se torna algo importante para o loop de gameplay. Mas, resta um certo ponto: Parece que as missões finais exigem do jogador em pontos que o jogo NÃO faz bem, muito disso por causa da câmera ruim, e pela movimentação do robô. Pelo amor de deus, a última missão tem seção de plataforma, é PÉSSIMO, além disso, alguns inimigos nessa reta final são bem ágeis e exigem uma movimentação bem chata de se fazer com esses controles, a movimentação funciona bem em geral, mas não tanto quando se exige tanta agilidade.

Short and sweet. An all around fun game with little to complain about asides from a couple annoying missions (especially the final one).

The different parts are interesting to play around with and can really change up how your mech plays. The money system is interesting and encourages you to keep tweaking your mech to waste as little money on ammo and repairs as possible.

The missions have some decent variation. Maps themselves are mostly narrow, maze-like hallways but there's a bunch of different locations so the level design never got tiring for me.

The story is basically non existent but I found it to be a nice backdrop for missions. It's funny how forthright companies are about having you do heinous shit, they'll casually ask you to terrorize a city and directly explain it's so that the citizens will pay them protection money.

Could this be the Dark Soul of mech games?!!

To my surprise this was an ok game with enjoyable moments, it was still everything I feared this game would be and even then I still managed to have a good time with it. As a 1997 PS1 game it obviously has terrible tank controls, an odd button layout, and just an overall clunkiness that can get really frustrating.

I would say "This game plays like how you'd expect a mech game to play like Armored Core" but it's pretty much one of the first 3D mech games so uhh yeah!
The main gameplay loop turns around "Doing mission, earn money, upgrade mech" over and over and it's honestly a pretty satisfying loop when you know what you are upgrading, I just bought the best upgrade for each part because why bother with something that'll get mediocre in a bit.
The game is overall very simple, it's very clunky and confusing at first but then you realize it's pretty easy and early game you can just melee everyone to death with the saber.
Though this game has two main issues and I think everyone can agree with me on this one, first of all, the cost of reparation and bullet that's just annoying to have to and to lose half of the money you earn in that mission, or if you lose a mission you still have to pay for reparation and bullet cost which can get you in dept with a minus amount of money.
The second issue is the missions, some of them are fun but some are just giant mazes with copy-paste enemies that only exist to waste your ammo, these stages are so long and tedious and I'm glad this game is only 3 hours long as length wouldn't be it's biggest strength.

The main question about this franchise is whether you should start with the original, the answer for me would be yes as it's still a decent game and it's pretty good at what it's trying to be, you don't have to force yourself to play it but it's still a decent entry point.

No começo tive uma luta pra me acostumar um pouco com os controles mais arcaicos e principalmente movimentação da câmera, mas aos poucos fui pegando o jeito e até me divertindo com o jogo, até que chega na reta final e a dificuldade dá uma escalada legal. A última fase é muito longa e punitiva, tendo uma sessão de plataforma que é uma das coisas que menos gostei do jogo, e a luta final contra o nineball também é bem difícil. Mas eu até que gostei da experiência, meu primeiro AC tinha sido o VI, foi legal ver que o primeiro da franquia já tinha bastante coisa que foi usado no VI, a essência tá meio que ali, por isso foi até mais fácil pra mim, me acostumar com a customização e sistema de missões, sinto que o jogo não é tão amigável e não faz tanta questão de explicar esse tipo de coisas pro jogador, mas isso é um elemento da época, que muitas vezes o jogo vinha com um manual externo explicando esses detalhes. No fim, uma experiência interessante pra ver onde toda essa saga começou.

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 think this game holds up fantastically for the most part. This is my first armored core experience. The game is exceptionally well realized in all fronts. The mechanics building is intoxicating. I love how mechs can feel so different depending on your build. I ended up building up a behemoth that shrugs off hits and destroys enemies in seconds. But the challenge came in when I had to adapt to fast moving objects. My mech couldn't dodge very well as it didn't have boosters. But it made up for it with a ton of health and the best weaponry I could ask for. Succeeding in this game is about selecting the right missions that take advantage of your mechs strengths. And as you do, you uncover a nightmarish post apocalyptic dystopia. Mission logs, emails, and surprise happenings tell the entire story. It's immersive and very well told. I loved bits where you make rivals depending on the missions you do, or missions where you can take either side of the conflict. The mission variety is overall pretty good. The game also has a unique system where ammo and health is taken out of your cut. So I had to really think smart in my ammo consumption to get more money for my stuff. Because of my build I ended up getting into a lot of maze-like combat missions, which suit it well, but I wish despite the variety, there was a little more going on in some of the levels. I know that this game has a pretty beefy selection, and depending on the missions you play, you could experience a whole other side of the game I couldn't. Which is fantastic. My only complaint about this game, and it's a pretty big personal one, is the final mission. I'm not gonna spoil the happenings of it, it's really cool storytelling. But for my mech, it was an absolute nightmare. Like I said, my mech was a heavy death machine. It's not really great at platforming. But the final bit forces you to partake in one of the most obnoxious platforming segments I've ever played. Enemies knocking me down takes away minutes of arduous climbing where my mechs heavy odd weight and the camera were really getting in the way. After finally getting up, you are forced to do more climbing and fight an insanely difficult enemy that will just eat you alive. I ended up using save states after a while (I was playing on the PSX Core on MiSTer FPGA), which I usually don't do. But I'm glad I did, because if you fail, you get the wettest fart of an ending and have to do the level all over again. It was a real gauntlet. And I might recommend that if you have a build like mine, get another set of legs that will accommodate your weight, and boosters that will last. Otherwise you are gonna go through hell. I think despite all that, this game is still a massive success that's really ahead of its time, and most importantly, gave me a unique experience that was unlike anything I've ever played. Just expect a learning curve. Save after every mission, as the penalty for losing is steep and you can't replay missions that you fail. It's good to reset if you screw something up and think you can do better or focus on another mission. Keep this all in mind and your in for a great time.

The relative ease of survival and mission completion shifts the focus of each mission to balancing the books: the question each encounter asks is not how it can be cleared, but whether the expense in bullets is less than the repair cost of getting shot while running past it. It makes the war-as-business theme feel a little less like set dressing and I admire any game that lets you simply ignore the final boss.

The actual mech combat's simple and repetitive. and part selection doesn't have much bearing on actual gameplay, beyond gating the final, grueling platforming level if you're using a quadrupedal AC. The game drags on a few hours longer than it needs to, in spite of how short it is. Killer sound design, though.

Enjoyed this way more than I expected I was going to. While the actual mech combat is a little hit or miss for me, the depth of the customization is where this game really shines. It's got that "think of a build you wanna make, then watch as you slowly acquire the necessary parts to make that build a reality" hook to it that I really enjoy. Def a game for tuners. I didn't pay too much attention to the plot as I was too busy making a cool robot, but it did seem like the actual story and mission structure was rather open ended too. If this is the first game in the series I can't even imagine what kinda cool shit is in the sequels.