- WIDE AS AN OCEAN, DEEP AS A PUDDLE -

Armored Core VI is bursting with potential but continually shoots itself in the foot with perplexing design choices, superficial combat, and egregious balancing issues.

First, let's clarify that, despite its marketing, Armored Core VI is not an action game; it's more of a combat puzzle game. The real challenge lies in finding the ideal build to overcome its puzzles. Sadly, the game falls short, even when viewed through this lens.

Customization: A Double-Edged Sword
The customization options are intricate, offering myriad choices in weapons, mech parts, paint jobs, and custom decals. This level of customization provides engaging freedom until you encounter the bosses.

Standard missions are often so easy that any build will work - while some that don't have bosses can offer a bit of difficulty, most are easy enough to allow the player to play around with the different weapons and gear offered to them. However, when you face a boss, the difficulty spikes dramatically. The game fails to teach players the necessary skills to tackle these encounters, in these moments you can spend 1 - 3 hours smashing your head off the wall trying to "learn" the boss or rethink your mech configurations.

Limitations in Loadouts
You might argue that Armored Core is all about customizing your mech, so being forced to adapt to these boss fights is good. However, every challenging encounter is solvable by using one of a few optimal weapon loadouts. You will figure out what works, and these loadouts will carry you through every boss if needed, if there were gonna be specific builds that are good for bosses, it should have been balanced so the player can't just make 2 builds that will always dominate each boss. As a result, if you wish to progress without feeling like you're wasting your time, you're pigeonholed into these specific builds.

Core Gameplay Flaws: The ACS System
I do believe the issues of build balance stem from some core gameplay flaws, not least of which is the new addition to the AC formula - the ACS system (essentially a stagger system from any other game). Due to this one addition, the game favors highly aggressive playstyles and weapons that do massive ACS damage in order to prevent the enemy from attacking, playing on the defense will often result in your death, which of course harshly limits viable builds for difficult encounters - not only that, but recovering your own ACS gauge is a matter of disengaging from combat and allowing the bar to refill. However, this is simply not possible due to hyper-aggressive bosses and enemy Armoured Cores that will not allow you a second to breathe, it's especially frustrating considering many of the harder enemies have ACS gauges that will recover within a matter of seconds if you stop firing to reload or get your bearings. What this means is difficult encounters become DPS races constantly interrupted by your stagger gauge being filled while taking damage that, by design, cannot be avoided.

Lack of Player Expression
While you can choose from a plethora of weapons, they often either function extremely similarly to other weapons or fall short in effectiveness. The game severely lacks avenues for player expression in combat, a feature that a very similar game in terms of combat and action "Vanquish" executes much more successfully.

Narrative Nuances
The story is generally satisfactory, but it stumbles in its handling of multiple endings. On the first playthrough, you're given the option to choose an ending, which feels meaningful until you experience New Game Plus (NG+). With the extra missions and choices available in NG+, the narrative for the ending I had initially selected takes on greater depth. This led me to the frustrating realization that the ending I initially chose felt richer in this subsequent playthrough. So, why offer me this choice in the first go-around if the second run improves this ending far more? It would make more sense to reserve these richer storylines for players who invest extra time in NG+.

Additionally, the game attempts to present a moral dilemma, suggesting shades of gray in its characters' actions. However, the ethical landscape is far more black-and-white than the developers seem to believe. It's quite evident who's in the right and who's in the wrong, undermining the complexity the game aims to convey.

Visuals and Scale
The game impresses with the scale of its missions and often stunning art direction, especially when contrasted against the barren landscapes of some areas of Rubicon. The story is passable but flawed in its handling of multiple endings and moral dilemmas.

Conclusion
Armored Core VI offers a wealth of options for mech customization and loadouts but fails to translate these into meaningful gameplay choices. The game provides many tools but offers little room for creativity in how you use them. Ultimately, it's all about the build— for better or for worse.

Beautiful game with excellent gameplay. Side quests start off a little boring but towards the end the writing and narrative of each side quest chain isgenuinely interesting, even if mechanically they don’t provide too much.

The boss battles are insane, it’s like if Asura’s Wrath had an engaging combat system.

It's also one of the best stories in the Final Fantasy series - it stands shoulder-to-shoulder with the XIV expansions and Tactics.