The Verdite Trilogy is in the bag, King's Field IV here we come... except Shadow Tower is basically a King's Field game so I should play that first... except their actual next game is the first Armored Core, and I really should play a few of those before the new one comes out, and oh my god there's so many interesting looking games! Yeah... What started as an attempt to build up to playing King's Field IV has lead into a soft-commitment to playing every single game Fromsoftware has made in order of release. Where once I saw the bad reviews, poor performance, and jankiness of the pre-Souls From games as off-putting, King's Field I-III has primed me instead to see them as totally fascinating.
Armored Core is in some ways a massive departure from the King's Field games, and in other ways stylistically synchronous. Genre-wise we're taking a huge jump from first-person dungeon crawling to mech-based third-person action, complete with a massive improvement in performance to compliment the relatively fast-paced gameplay. However, much like King's Field, Armored Core incorporates poor game-feel into the way the player engages with it; while clunky combat serves to create a deliberate pace for King's Field and make the world feel dangerous, Armored Core's clunkiness is variable, tied directly to the construction of the player's mech. Turning speed and movement are initially atrocious, but with the right set-up can be made to feel very nice indeed. However, the player is usually sacrificing something else to achieve this. Even a mech with the best parts cannot be a master of all due to weight and energy limitations; some elements of gameplay must feel poor for others to feel good.
While the way the player engages with the world is very different, with a stark contrast between the direct engagement with the environments and characters of King's Field and the UI and emails of Armored Core, the world-building has a consistency across both. Details are not all spelt out explicitly, leaving the player to fill in the gaps, a style consistent with the Souls games' renowned storytelling. The player's role in the narrative is also similar, being positioned as a tool of greater beings. The course of history in King's Field is essentially framed around the conflict between deities, with humans being manipulated into serving their interests. The story is the same here in Armored Core, except this time magical deities are traded out for corporations. In this sense Armored Core is much more dystopian, without the humanity or hope present in King's Field. It is an anarcho-capitalist future, one in which there is ought to do but sell your services to powerful corporations battling for resources and profit. Looking ahead to Armored Core VI, I'm understanding the tone in that reveal trailer a lot more now. The utter coldness and lack of humanity... I'm very excited to see this universe given the resources of a modern Fromsoftware game.
Outside of these interesting points of comparison and contrast, the game is really quite good! The missions are variable and odd, and while not exactly individually thrilling they serve to compliment the broader picture. Allowing the player to sell parts back for the exact price they bought them for is brilliant, encouraging experimentation and covering for the lack of information regarding what each part actually does. I do have to knock half a star off for that botched final mission though. Platforming in this game is a bad idea on its own, but platforming upwards? Where one wrong move means starting from scratch? Absolutely bonkers. I had to use save states for that part, I just wasn't willing to go through it. It didn't play to the strengths of the game whatsoever, coming up with the worst possible answer to the question "How do we make the final level the hardest?"
I enjoyed this game a lot. Both the act of playing it and thinking about it a broader context were a lot of fun. I look forward to moving onto Project Phantasma and beyond, to more Armored Core games and more interesting Fromsoftware games in general.
Armored Core is in some ways a massive departure from the King's Field games, and in other ways stylistically synchronous. Genre-wise we're taking a huge jump from first-person dungeon crawling to mech-based third-person action, complete with a massive improvement in performance to compliment the relatively fast-paced gameplay. However, much like King's Field, Armored Core incorporates poor game-feel into the way the player engages with it; while clunky combat serves to create a deliberate pace for King's Field and make the world feel dangerous, Armored Core's clunkiness is variable, tied directly to the construction of the player's mech. Turning speed and movement are initially atrocious, but with the right set-up can be made to feel very nice indeed. However, the player is usually sacrificing something else to achieve this. Even a mech with the best parts cannot be a master of all due to weight and energy limitations; some elements of gameplay must feel poor for others to feel good.
While the way the player engages with the world is very different, with a stark contrast between the direct engagement with the environments and characters of King's Field and the UI and emails of Armored Core, the world-building has a consistency across both. Details are not all spelt out explicitly, leaving the player to fill in the gaps, a style consistent with the Souls games' renowned storytelling. The player's role in the narrative is also similar, being positioned as a tool of greater beings. The course of history in King's Field is essentially framed around the conflict between deities, with humans being manipulated into serving their interests. The story is the same here in Armored Core, except this time magical deities are traded out for corporations. In this sense Armored Core is much more dystopian, without the humanity or hope present in King's Field. It is an anarcho-capitalist future, one in which there is ought to do but sell your services to powerful corporations battling for resources and profit. Looking ahead to Armored Core VI, I'm understanding the tone in that reveal trailer a lot more now. The utter coldness and lack of humanity... I'm very excited to see this universe given the resources of a modern Fromsoftware game.
Outside of these interesting points of comparison and contrast, the game is really quite good! The missions are variable and odd, and while not exactly individually thrilling they serve to compliment the broader picture. Allowing the player to sell parts back for the exact price they bought them for is brilliant, encouraging experimentation and covering for the lack of information regarding what each part actually does. I do have to knock half a star off for that botched final mission though. Platforming in this game is a bad idea on its own, but platforming upwards? Where one wrong move means starting from scratch? Absolutely bonkers. I had to use save states for that part, I just wasn't willing to go through it. It didn't play to the strengths of the game whatsoever, coming up with the worst possible answer to the question "How do we make the final level the hardest?"
I enjoyed this game a lot. Both the act of playing it and thinking about it a broader context were a lot of fun. I look forward to moving onto Project Phantasma and beyond, to more Armored Core games and more interesting Fromsoftware games in general.