the best fucking game-play ever...i cannot get enough of the way things move in this game: the pace of combat, weight of every action, force of the weapons and cost of evasion...the game is consistently teaching the player first how to play and then how to be themselves...like, obviously there are certain obstacles that require different loadouts but only to a degree; i was surprised how many bosses i could beat with the same playstyle once i'd established that about mid-game, ignoring more effective weaponry for sheer force of will and confidence in my approach
while i experienced one sustained Gamer Rage moment at a certain elongated mission, i find in retrospect that this mission forced me to commit to my own style and i am eternally grateful for that, as the rest of the game would be far harder otherwise...and before that is The Best Boss Ever in BALTEUS, a fight that took me like 9 hours and a million approaches (and deaths) but that remained consistently enthralling throughout...when i won i laid on the floor in exhaustion but resumed more excited than ever to progress, and this was roughly 1/5 into the game!
stepping back for a second it's easy to see the FromSoft trademarks (at least as i understand them via reputation and playing half of one game) all over Armored Core VI...the mechas, vast spaces and spiraling structures, bits of lore we barely understand that imply vast histories and forces that possess incalculable power with no clear purpose or visible leadership
it's all in service of such an immediately pleasing series of missions that it took until near the very last minute for my own priorities to point in a clear direction, and even then i remain uncertain what drove my choices outside of intuition and momentum...it's all about choice and the will that drives our actions, refusing passivity to consciously fill your role, earning your name through force of identity
i find that synergy between my own experience and that of the character unparalleled in any other medium...a huge emotional and intellectual punch that came completely by surprise and honestly pushes this from one of my favorite games into like, my actual favorite to this point...which is especially pleasing given my uncertainty about the medium outside of Kojima/MGS, it feels like a second Power of Gaming Moment has hit the twin towers (my brain)
while i experienced one sustained Gamer Rage moment at a certain elongated mission, i find in retrospect that this mission forced me to commit to my own style and i am eternally grateful for that, as the rest of the game would be far harder otherwise...and before that is The Best Boss Ever in BALTEUS, a fight that took me like 9 hours and a million approaches (and deaths) but that remained consistently enthralling throughout...when i won i laid on the floor in exhaustion but resumed more excited than ever to progress, and this was roughly 1/5 into the game!
stepping back for a second it's easy to see the FromSoft trademarks (at least as i understand them via reputation and playing half of one game) all over Armored Core VI...the mechas, vast spaces and spiraling structures, bits of lore we barely understand that imply vast histories and forces that possess incalculable power with no clear purpose or visible leadership
it's all in service of such an immediately pleasing series of missions that it took until near the very last minute for my own priorities to point in a clear direction, and even then i remain uncertain what drove my choices outside of intuition and momentum...it's all about choice and the will that drives our actions, refusing passivity to consciously fill your role, earning your name through force of identity
i find that synergy between my own experience and that of the character unparalleled in any other medium...a huge emotional and intellectual punch that came completely by surprise and honestly pushes this from one of my favorite games into like, my actual favorite to this point...which is especially pleasing given my uncertainty about the medium outside of Kojima/MGS, it feels like a second Power of Gaming Moment has hit the twin towers (my brain)