I completed the expansion with a 99% build of the game and an absurd optional taken from it. That's all it offered me and what this disappointing expansion has to say: just an optional. The levels are ridiculous, there are cutscenes and a rival that does nothing but get beaten from the beginning to the end of the game. It set out to be more cinematic, but in the end it just comes off as awkward.
Everything it has that is enjoyable comes from AC1, and what it adds, excluding the arena, is to be discarded. It is forgettable, silly, a task without infamy or praise from a technical point of view. However, since I wanted to immerse myself in this experience because of the supposed references, I deserve to suffer this disappointment.

Just beating out Verdict Day in the vote for Armored Core With Most Awkward to Abbreviate Subtitle, Project Phantasma is the second game in the series and it is... middle of the road. It's not the AC game that most could have been an email, but it probably could have been an email. In fact it would absolutely be DLC today, with only a handful of new parts added and a story clocking in at maybe three hours (not that most other games in the series get far past the 8-12 range, counting just the main story).

Said story is considered sort of... an oddity. It has more... it's more of an... it has A Character. Like a persistent supporting one who's relevant to the plot. That's more than the other very early games, or at least the others never really show up on screen. Sumika is another Raven, though, and you occasionally co-op with her. That said, the main impression the story gave me was of something more... Saturday Morning than the usual Armored Core fare. It's a very straightforward, self-contained conflict against a single antagonist, who is also probably the most Generic Cartoon Supervillain character in the series. He even has kind of a catchphrase, which is pretty annoying. (Ha ha, get it? It's like the thing!) But hey, the voice actor is having fun with it. It's just not exactly the darkly camp political commentary or high-melodrama real robot anime tropes the rest of the series might get you used to: a bad man wants to build a scary robot to take over the world, so you shoot at him until he dies, and also, a lady is there. (I'm not marking this as spoilers.)

It must be said that by far Project Phantasma's biggest contribution to the series, if not exactly a unique draw, was the Arena. Basically just a series of standalone, optional AC duels in which you climb a rankings ladder one opponent at a time, it's an instant-staple game mode that didn't exist in AC1; the concept of Ravens being officially ranked was just there for narrative flavor, despite the rankings getting an entire main menu option. It honestly feels a little wrong that the Arena started here. Not, like, morally wrong, it just sounds Incorrect. I mean, the very next game is the one that's actually about the Arena. PP doesn't mention it in the story at all, as far as I can remember; it's kind of such a random Thing Off to the Side you could be forgiven for assuming it's nondiegetic, up until you play Master of Arena.

I will also point out that the reward for beating the final arena opponent is one of the funniest weapons in the series--the FINGER, a hand-shaped five-barreled machine gun with absolutely obscene DPS that also burns through ammo faster than any weapon in the game. That might almost balance itself out if not for the ammo capacity being 3000. Yeah, Fromsoft wasn't really big on constant balance tweaks yet at this point, but this thing got nerfed into fucking oblivion for the next game.

Mission design is... fairly solid, for the early series. I'd call it more even than AC1, if not necessarily better; it's possibly debatable which game has higher peaks, although I'm leaning 1, but 1 for sure has lower valleys. PP is a very Safe kind of game compared to the two it's sandwiched between. I don't recommend skipping it, but neither do I really recommend not skipping it; it's just, Some More. Take it or leave it.

Anyway, the next game pops the fuck off.

The story is the polar opposite of AC1: simple (it’s good vs. evil as opposed to evil corporation vs. evil corporation) and told in a straightforward way. It’s also super short. Even though the story feels like an abrupt 180 from what made the original so great, I still enjoyed developing a rivalry with the proto-Iguazu Stinger and having a Raven sidekick in Sumika. The biggest improvement Project Phantasma brings to the series formula is the arena. I love that you get to pick which map you duke it out on. I assumed it’d be like AC6 where each fight has a predetermined map. I always picked the space station level. The mission design felt like a big improvement, too. There’s a lot less missions so it makes sense that there’d be less stinkers, but the story campaign didn’t have any low-points at all for me, which I definitely can’t say for AC1. Overall, it’s a good expansion on the original but doesn’t match or surpass its greatness.

This is essentially the Opposing Force for Half Life as this is to AC1. Missions are much better, though in shorter quantity. Story is a lot more concise and actually pretty entertaining, too. All the new parts introduced are kind of awesome, especially the final part acquired from the Arena which is just a complete melter to anything it touches.

Speaking of Arena, Arena! This is the first time it appeared in true form and its quite good! Very basic, but the fights are fun, the maps are varied, and some fights are completely fucking bullshit! (Pale Rider is quite literally just insane)

Good entry!

’Armored Core: Project Phantasma’ is one of the best expansions to a game I’ve seen. It takes almost all the issues of the base game and improves on them making it overall a smoother and more enjoyable experience. If you are expecting something a bit more innovative and unique you may be let down, but if you play it with the expectations of something more akin to a story dlc then I think there’s a lot to get out of it.

The first thing I really wanted to talk about was how much better the missions are in this title. In the base game, it struggled a lot due to the inconsistency of quality between the levels, but ’Project Phantasma’ has no mission I disliked which I was quite surprised by. The levels here are a lot more challenging, but feel a lot more fair and well crafted. There’s more of an emphasis on boss fights which makes things really interesting at times since then you have to manage how much ammo you use as well as how much damage you take before the major fight. The areas these missions take place in as well are much better than the base game with a lot of them being much more memorable and again consistent with its quality.

Now the game does have one unique aspect to it which is probably the biggest reason I would recommend the game. The introduction to arena mode which I ended up loving a lot in this title. Arena mode is basically a huge leaderboard of ACs which you start at the bottom of. You work your way up by just beating the AC one spot above you and this is an incredibly fun time killer honestly. AC to AC fights are some of the highlights for the campaign of both the base game and ’Project Phantasma’ so a mode dedicated to it is great. It is also super cool because you can choose whichever map you want for any of the fights which you can use against the other AC you’re fighting. For example, if you are fighting an AC who likes to fly around a lot, you can choose a map that has a really low roof so they don't really get anywhere. This was really fun to mess with and that made learning some of the battles really memorable. They do get really difficult though. I think I made it to 27 on the leaderboard after stopping because they are very challenging. The other thing about arena mode that’s helpful is you can use it to get a whole lot of credits and new parts for your mech. You’d think this would come with a catch if you lose a fight, but there’s no punishment. Now this does remove some of the challenge of not going into debt that was apparent in the base game, but it then encourages you to use more parts and weapons which I ended up really enjoying. The new arena mode is a fantastic addition and was a wonderful start to the game mode.

The story of ’Project Phantasma’, like the base game, is super silly and fun. This time around though, there is a much stronger focus on characters and although they aren’t the most unique, they are still really enjoyable. Stinger especially, I loved him a lot as a villain. He was insanely over the top in the best way possible. The voice acting (at least the english dialogue) wasn’t terrible either. I mean it’s not good or anything, but for a PS1 title, the voice acting is decent. I enjoyed the story quite a bit.

If you’re looking for a new game entirely, then you won’t really find that here, but if you’re like me and thought ’Armored Core’ had more potential it didn’t fully capture and you were curious to see it reach that point than this is really close to that. I am intrigued to see where ’Master Of Arena’ goes from this and hope I get the same amount of enjoyment from it that I did here.

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

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

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

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