tbh this game is mad boring. The story for this entry is mainly a multitude of extremely mundane side quests that eventually evolve into something bigger accept that "something bigger" is also a small fragment to something MUCH bigger that won't get explained until you play the other games. Honestly you're not missing anything by not playing this game, deadass just watch a 20 minute summary and you'll come out with the same level of info as anyone who played the game.

Also don't let people fool you with the World Building shit. Don't get me wrong some of the sidequests genuinely provide a "humbling" experience for lack of a better word, but the other %75 of them you're just fetching the milk from some big ass rat you have to fight

the gameplay is p fun though, highly recommend playing on hard so you don't die of boredom if you do decide to give this game a shot

soulless dialogues
lazy designs
poorly written characters
empty game "not many items are there" and money is pure useless
cliche ambition villain edelgard "I have to do it because... why? umm I don't know but I have to do it even if I turn into a monster"
boring repetitive unchallengeable matches
...
holyy shit this game is so bad I can't believe how much praise this game got...

Fantastic video game, my favorite of the PSX Armored Core games now!

Campaign is great, as good as the first game. Music is great. Customization is as great as always.

What turns this game from a 9 into a 10 is the Ex. Arena mode which takes up disc 2. I had SO much fucking fun doing all the challenge ladders, especially the one where you fight against mechs made by, and represented by, From Software employees who worked on the game.

It was hard for me to choose this over Armored Core at first, but that Ex. Arena mode was wild as hell and definitely a memory I will keep with myself (and whoever saw it on my twitch stream) for a long time.

7/10 if it ran like a game should.

Overall this felt like an expansion of BOTW, and while I liked some of the new areas above and below Hyrule, I already explored this Hyrule in its entirety. Dungeons weren't that good either, even if they were better than the Divine Beasts.

Story was the 1 thing I truly liked a lot, wish more Zelda games had an actual good story like this.

Excellent game.

Very nice to see the beginning of the series before it was bloated and they just handed you supercars left and right. Progressing slowly through the car ranks was very fun!

Docked a point because the world wasn't that exciting. Colorado is probably my least favorite locale they've used.

Wild ride. A long ass fucking game, in terms of Armored Core games go.

Almost 100 missions in this motherfucker, at first it was daunting but by the end it was so satisfying fighting what they threw at me.

Great way to end the 2nd generation of Armored Core games.