I don't know if it's because I've gotten used to 1st Gen Armored Core's weight and feel, or if it's because Project Phantasma really is just more solidly put together, but goddamn did this go down a hell of a lot smoother than the first game did. The missions, as few as they are compared to the first one, have more variety, are designed more intuitively, have more interesting locales, and are just straight up better than the first one's by a country mile. No more godawful platforming or choking to death in a laboratory where every single hallway and room looks the same while a pink fart cloud ticks your health down. I've gotten used to the controls by now so blasting through this honestly felt really satisfying, as short as the story was. The best part of this game though has to be the debut of the ARENA, which is just super fucking fun to blast through and climb the ranks. Your reward is probably the most broken fucking weapon I've ever used in any game - a 5-barreled machine gun that has like basically infinite ammo, releases 5 shots per frame, and deals 10000000000000000 damage. I guess it'd just be easier for me to say that it finally "clicked" for me here, with this game, and I'm now looking forward to play the rest of the series.