I have a really hard time writing this review. I don't think it's a good review either. But I wrote this review specifically for those who are on the fence about getting this game, who are not sure what to expect, and I am trying to give an idea of what it is like. Moreover, it doesn't seem to be without its controversies, it does seem to have a few haters, so I will try my best to show what the appeal of this game is.

Mecha is my favorite genre in anime. I think the original Gundam and of course Evangelion are the peak of the medium and good enough to be considered great not just for anime, but for cinema as a whole. So I think I know a thing or two about mecha. What makes mecha great? It's quite similar to what makes shounen great - mecha is vehicle for very expressive Sci-Fi. Rather than having factions, characters and people fight each other in general weapons like tanks or ships, they have their mechs, and these mechs give the conflict a very personal note. The mechs are a symbol of the characters and in a sense their own self-expression on the battlefield. In shounen manga, characters likewise have abilities that fit their personalities and allows them to express themselves on the battlefield. This is important, because battles in mecha and shounen aren't just about who is stronger, but whose personality ultimately can prevail. Their battle prowess are just an expression of who they are as people.

That is why, when mecha is at its best, it is a character drama. It's about people who have to struggle, grow and adapt to war, who are forced onto the battlefield often by difficult circumstances, and there, on the battlefield, they express their struggles with their mechs.

AC6 is a love letter to mecha, and all that it stands for, and it understand this perfectly. The ample customization and all the options available to you allow you, the player, all the room in the world to express yourself and who you want to be on the battlefield. You can change colors, add decals, pick a fighting style, a weight all you want - making AC6 (and other ACs) the games where you can personalize your player character the most out of pretty much any game out there. But on top of that, AC6 understands how to allow other characters to express themselves through their mechs. One look at Rusty's mecha and you can instantly tell that this guy is a heroic figure. You look at the Arquebus group's weapons and armor and compare them to Balam's or the RaD's and you know what kind of companies they are and what philosophies they believe in.

Mecha is a genre all about character drama, and AC6 is a mecha game, and thankfully, it chose to weave a story all about character drama.

Every character is brimming with personality, while you may not see any of their faces, you do hear their voices. You never would expect it, but the writing - the writing of the lines in this case - is excellent. They tried their hardest to fill each line with as much personality as possible, sometimes the lines are genuinely funny, sometimes they are some of the coolest and hardest stuff you've ever heard and sometimes there's scenes that are full of emotion and empathy. The voice acting in this game knocks it out of the park, it is genuinely some of the if not the best voice acting I have ever heard in a video game, and I am so glad that Bandai Namco recognized how critically important the voice acting is in a game like this, and that they chose to localize it with such care that goes above and beyond from what you'd expect a game like this to get.

The story itself is, likewise , surprisingly great, especially for a FromSoftware game. Keeping up with the theme of character drama, in essence they managed to create a story that's full of allusions, references to mecha classics, a setting that is wonderfully sci-fi, and structure it in a way that gets the most out of its characters, a story that allows you to make a meaningful choice that's not about right or wrong, good or evil - but about what kind of person you are, and maybe, with which character you felt more of a connection with. It allows for player expression just like mech building, which couldn't have been more fitting for a game like this.

Most impressively, the game has excellent pacing. It starts slow, almost boring, unimpressive and old-school, but the more you play, the more the stakes ramp up, the more interesting the locations become, the more complex and dramatic do the missions become, the more the mysteries of the plot unravel. All the most impressive set-pieces are at the end. There's memorable hype moments that will stick with you long after the credits have rolled. Most importantly, it keeps getting better and better all the way to the end, with the ending as the apex of the game itself. This alone raises the quality of the game to new heights. Once you understand that the game keeps getting better, it raises the excitement for the next missions while you play. The structure and pacing of the game is wonderfully satisfying, in this sense at minimum, it's an absolute masterpiece. FromSoftware games' biggest issue has always been the pacing, but somehow this game comes out and completely reverses this - it might be the game with the absolute best pacing on the market. This is Masaru Yamamura's directorial debut and I cannot be any more impressed with him. What a fantastic start!

AC6 is a game that is incredibly exciting. Because it shows that FromSoftware has a lot more talent than just Miyazaki. That FromSoftware can write fantastic stories if they put their mind to it. That FromSoftware knows how to get the pacing right. That FromSoftware is full of passionate mecha fans who understand the genre and know how to make it fun. This is a company that is on its track to conquer the world.

The only reason my review isn't 5 stars is that the balance of the game is famously weak, there are weapons that are straight up useless compared to others which are almost broken. There's people who have made powerful builds that completely trivialized the game, and understandably it's hard to get invested in a game that way. But those issues can be easily fixed in a patch or two.

The only other flaw would be the environmental design looking kind of toy-like and not very convincingly real. But that issue exists only at the beginning, towards the end the environmental design improves massively.

Hopefully AC6 can be the Demon's Souls of the new modern Armored Core - an innovative, excellent foundation, whose flaws will be fixed in the next entry, which will hopefully get the critical and financial success it deserves.

it's beautiful they finally made a game with customization where you can't just choose a build within the first 2 hours of the game and keep at it until the end. finally a game that actually forces you to understand all kinds of builds, how they work, and wrap your mind around different playstyles in order to succeed. the game is hard, demanding, and wants you to learn, but unlike souls games, this isn't just about learning patterns (but that too), but, above all, understanding and adapting to the playstyle of your enemy.

what is the point of all those different options and all those builds if you are never gonna use them because you can get by with your favorite one? this is a question i have always been asking myself, and finally, i have a game just for me, that does it the other way around.

it feels rewarding to understand different builds, it feels fantastic to get that aha moment when you figure out what works together, test it in the battle, and immediately see positive results. in this game you are just as much of an enginner as you are a pilot, and this is exactly how mech games should be.

not a perfect game, i am tired of all the stagger mechanics in games lately, and the world design looks kind of... toy-like? but the story is intriguing (so far) and the gameplay exhilirating. great game and proof that from software is a great studio even without miyazaki around.