It’s fine. A short two chapters and the combat felt better than what I remember of Remake’s. I owe a lot of that to Yuffie’s kit being well designed. I never got tired of whipping my boomerang and slinging whatever ninjutsu the enemy is weak to and then using her wind attack to stagger them. I only played this because I was worried I’d be missing important context for Rebirth and I’m not sure that was necessary. If I get to the end of Rebirth and that’s not the case I’ll amend this but for now I think it’s safe to skip if you just want to jump into Rebirth.

When I got a PlayStation 2 I did not have a memory card. What I did have, was Armored Core 2 (and Onimusha). Since I could not save, I got very very good at the early parts of both games. Pushing as far as I could in the hours between school and sleep.

I’ve played and enjoyed most AC games in the years since but none have really struck a chord with me like VI has.

I never feel bad building the most busted robot I can put together and I have no issue with grinding past missions for money to have a fully stocked garage. Some fights are hard, then you put together something stupid and you roll them into scrap inside of a minute. That’s not cheese, that’s the game. And it’s beautiful

I love RGG games and I originally started this one back when it came out but I need up not getting very far but I couldn’t remember why. Seeing it on my shelf, the only RGG game I haven’t completed I decided to give it a spin before Infinite Wealth comes out.

The beginning was so drawn out, I was playing for five hours before I felt like I had any agency to play how I wanted, chapter six of a ten chapter game before it resembled anything like the other RGG games. It really didn’t feel good having Kenshiro sitting in jail thinking about past battles and then just dropped into a basic brawl with bandits several times in a row while waiting for a gladiator match to begin. The game even offers to let you do these battles over and over again if you so choose for experience because you haven’t had any freedom up to this point.

I'm sorry to say that the pacing issues remain throughout the campaign including irritating fetch and padding quests all the way through the final chapter. At one point I was told to go find info about a POI and I had to go to six different locations before being told to wait at home until it's dark, visit a seventh, wait until morning, drive to an eighth, find out my vehicle can't pass an obstacle, drive back to Eden, be given the equipment I need, but it's damaged. Drive back to the place I just was to pick up rusty screws, drive back to Eden, repair the part, drive back to the place and pass it only to be told that my quarry is back in Eden. This happens repeatedly during the games runtime and by the end I was sick of being told to wait until another time of day and check out a place only to have a fun fight and repeat the whole thing again.

If this was my first impression of RGG studios I would be very hesitant to try another.