Alright, all missions finished, all endings complete, time to throw down some:

---FINAL THOUGHTS---
I think its fair to say Last Raven is a specialized Armored Core experience. Its exclusively the shorter variety of missions, focused on difficult "gotcha" objective missions and has a high density of the famous enemy AC interference events. I think how you feel about the game overall will depend on how much you like these kinds of missions in the other games (which is maybe why this title seems to be one of the more divisive ones).

For me personally, I think too many AC fights makes them blend together - and I also think its too generic a painpoint considering most of these fights derive most of their difficulty from the fact that you are fighting them with diminished resources. That could be interesting once or twice, three times, four times, but it starts to feel like a crutch that Last Raven is leaning on in this case.

Last Ravens big addition of course is the mission structure, and I think this is a mixed blessing. On one hand, its interesting to see events play out from different angles, and see the consequences of which events you choose to participate in (and which ones you dont). But I also really hate multiple endings depending on your choice of mission chain, cuz I think it only really guarantees that you will waste your time and repeat an ending at least once (and in necessity might require you to repeat things several times in order to access all unique content). I think this is a "less is more" situation - I think AC4A is a good example cuz while the missions didnt feel as meaningfully connected, how short the mission chains were really reduced the tedium of the structure.

I think its also worth criticizing how small the maps are. Considering the fact the game reuses every map for several missions, this should have been an excuse to make bigger maps they could then repeat to get more mileage out of - but instead we got a sort of double-whammy. We got some of the smallest maps Ive ever seen with possibly the least amount of variety or depth to them. Several maps feel straight up like PVP Arena maps - and in fact the selection of PVP maps seems larger and more interesting than the selection of story maps (probably imported over from Nexus, which I honestly barely remember). If I had to guess why this is, Id say maybe Last Raven had a shoestring budget (which would also connect with the reliance on enemy AC fights and also the replay mission structure. Theyre probably easier to make.)

I think everything else was good Armored Core tho. The sort of "central protagonist" was maybe very safe and reserved this time around with the Pulverizers and such, but the unique enemies are almost always the best part of Armored Core and Im glad Last Raven wasnt exclusively enemy AC fights. I think the story does end up feeling a bit more.... hmmmm, fleshed out? thanks to the mission structure letting you sort of digest the finer points. The game takes place over 24 hours, so it gives them the opportunity to make it a very eventful single day.

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I followed a (relatively inaccurate) mission chart for the 4th playthrough to end up on "Pulverizer #1" ending - which was good I think. Pulverizers are fun, and the "alien/ rogue AI tech" is always my favorite part in Armored Core games. Im unsure if its good or bad that I didnt actually see a Pulverizer until my 4th playthrough, maybe theres tension there but it also feels like delayed context.

Anyway, Im simply not interested in doing 3+ more playthroughs to experience the rest of the game, especially when those playthroughs are gonna be less and less different as I experience more of the mission branches. So since I didnt get the benefits of importing a Nexus save, I feel like its fair game if I borrow a Last Raven save from my very dear close personal friend "rykerK" where I can play the rest of the missions through Free Mission play.

Does this undercut the novelty of the branching mission structure? A little bit, but frankly the pros outweigh the cons and I feel like I already get the point with 4 sincere playthroughs. I dont think I get anything out of following mission charts so I can experience the 4th variation of the ex-Kisaragi research facility mission for example. Im keeping the same build, Im doing everything the same, and since this was a game designed for imported saves it doesnt really matter if Im missing out on rewards that wouldnt have been there anyway for most players.

Im breaking the rules in a significant way but Im fine with that, I dont think you necessarily should be beholden to tedium. Im preserving the authenticity of everything else (the stuff I care about)

So Im filling all the holes in my original mission chart and experiencing these last few endings and somehow they just get crazier and crazier. The ones with the suicide drones really dont hide the fact that "We Just Want To Make Sure Youre Fighting Sub-100% AP" tho. Looking back at my experience of Armored Core, it kinda feels like Last Raven is a supercut of the series most divisive qualities. My favorite missions were the ones with exploration and those seem to be the ones specifically not in Last Raven.

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Tbh I think Im running out of interest a lil bit. 3rd playthrough, I tried to do the missions I didnt do last time, but it ultimately took me to the Jack-O ending again.

What sounds very uninteresting to me, is having to follow very specific mission chains to arrive at the other final missions. This is information you cant really discern in game without tons of trial and error, and that means replaying alot of missions when you didnt necessarily need to.

Which can be especially tedious in a game thats meant to be as unforgiving as Armored Core. Maybe you just barely squeaked out a win on a mission the first time but now you gotta try and beat that mission again - only to find out you went down the wrong mission chain again and have to start over. Im fine with committing to difficult experiences but Im much less interested in wasting my time on difficult experiences I dont need in order to progress.

And likewise, more than half the missions are enemy AC fights of varying degrees of ambush. AC fights are not different enough from each other to be used as the main obstacle so often - so not only are the roadblocks too frequent but theyre too similar also. I dont feel excited to see whats around the corner, cuz its more than likely some mfer that can shoot cannons while flying that I have to fight with -20% health and -50% ammo.

Theres a strong chance I might have to just close the book on Last Raven soon as I take care of some other things before AC6 comes out this week.

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Ugh, looks like the machine gun + rifle combo dont solve all my problems cuz Im still getting rocked on this first mission where Bolt shows up.

As some small thoughts, I do like the idea that this is a progression gate in a way - you can probably never beat this mission as your first mission. I think a sort of non-linear mission structure with similarly non-linear difficulty progression is an interesting idea.

But of course this wouldnt be the case for imported saves so idk, interesting to put in the mind bank tho.

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Jesus, Im sorry for saying Jack-O was too easy, cuz what the hell was this Firing-2-Shoulder-Cannons-At-Once, Human Plus having, 2000 AP shredded in half a second -looking ass shit that Evangel was pulling over here? And then imagine my surprise when I defeat him at 0003/8046 AP and..... the mission doesnt end?? 6 panels in a laser deathhall that you cant target? Incredible. Im just lucky Evangels seemingly programmed to follow you in specific ways onto the tower in the middle and I just ganked him with the Moonlight blade again.

So thats a second playthrough down. I had stalled out at rank 22 in the VR Arena, I was hoping to stock up on better parts while doing missions but that didnt really happen. But I decided to buckle down and get the Arena cleared real quick and luckily I pushed passed rank 21 hurdle. I was cruising through everything else all the way up until rank 4 where I got blocked again by John Crimson. I had did some light googling on where the Karasawa might be and I saw this pilot mentioned so it made sense.

So heres the deal: obviously Last Raven is a difficult game in its own right - but its also an expansion/ companion game and in my experience this means its balanced around the idea that youre importing a save from the previous entry. So in playing Last Raven standalone, I have voluntarily elected to play a moderately less forgiving version of the game. And overall Im fine with that - its not my first time around this block. But it also means things present more roadblocks than normal - for example, everyones rocking a mfing Karasawa or this fuckin CR-WR93RL part (that is like Pepsi-brand Karasawa). If there are Human Plus Optional Parts in the game, I do not have them. And because the game expects most people to be importing, the way in which the game gives rewards to non-imported players is a lil random - cuz its more of a concession than a serious progression scheme.

So to some extent Ive had to be resourceful and rely on some tricks I picked up from previous games. Ive been rocking the classic 1000 ammo machine gun thats in most of the games - and while it doesnt seem to generate heat under the Nexus model, it seems the damage distribution for the gun still generally holds. Something I was able to take advantage of in AC4 and which Ive been taking advantage of in Last Raven, is the ability to dual wield guns - which is generally a net gain considering its difficult to use laser blades in the classic format. So my go-to so far has been the right hand machine gun and a left hand gatling gun, switching to laser blades in missions where I need the ammo conservation (and to the previous point, it is entirely by luck that I just stumbled onto the Moonlight blade).

If one machine gun is good, 2 machine guns sounded like it would be 2 better. And it has been for most of the game, but it wasnt working so well on Crimson. It was something of a soft DPS check that I was getting out-ranged on. It almost started to be another filtering moment. In AC4 tho, my pair of weapons was a machine gun and a rifle, since for whatever reason a second machine gun didnt come up very quickly - and so I tried out that setup in Last Raven. Crimson went down by a margin of like 3000 AP in the first try - which was great, but also signalled to me that I have been gimping myself for the majority of the previous difficult encounters. Better late than never I guess, Armored Core is famously trial and error.

I took a peak at the Mission Chart to see what was left and this mfer has 7 endings?? Jesus.

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I am getting filtered by this mfing Leviathan, mostly because I just dont have very reliable ways to even hit it. It feels like the circumstances of the mission are exceptionally oppressive compared to other "big MT" bosses in most other AC games.

Like, you cant fly higher than the (aerial) boss without accidently forfeiting the mission. You cant trail behind the boss in its flight pattern because of its generous missle barrage. I cant really fight it from the ground because the lockon is tricky with FCS ranges and the partial dome structures obstructing alot of your view (as well as alot of very deviously placed debris for you to get stuck on while your camera is craned up)

So the mission is heavily curated to suggest fighting this boss ambush-style with some partial flight necessary on your end - but the way enemies track their shots, its much harder for you to change directions while flying up to the correct altitude - cuz the only way you can reverse direction is by falling, and you dont have direct control over the speed of gravity. It also means abandoning the target range youre trying to get into (and therefore your damage opportunity) in order to perform the necessary evasion.

Its just a very demanding set of circumstances. It makes me feel like I must be doing something wrong cuz I dont think this is usually how Armored Core punishes you. I dont want to circle back around to this mission later but Im starting to feel gear checked here.

Later Edit: Thank god it goes down in like 3 Moonlight slashes.

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Encountered my first traditional boss in the Launch Preemptive Strike mission.

Armored Core bosses are always a bit of a difficulty wall but boy is my least favorite part of the game the part where Im scrambling to find weapons thatll help shore up my issues and instead mostly just switching to something thats about the same or less useful to me. Losing to numbers is the worst part of any game.

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A couple missions into Run #2, its worth noting how Last Raven is creating context by using its time progression scheme. The game takes place in-narrative over only 24ish hours, with each mission representing 1 to 2 hours of passed time.

Obviously this accomplishes some low-level replayability (I say "low-level" cuz its sort of necessary in order to get a full experience even if you could hang up your hat and say your done after the credits roll the first time) but I think its more interesting in that it gives missions more direct context in relation to each other. Youll have one mission where you had to secure cargo from a crashed landing, but maybe you took a different mission - the next hour, youll have a new mission thats based on that previously crash landing and the situation that has developed there over time. You could fight an AC pilot very late in your playthrough hiding at some airport, and then encounter that same AC hiding at that same airport much earlier in a later playthrough.

It gives the world a sort of tangible coherence. For Answer did the same sort of "short, repeatable" mission structure but to far far weaker effect imo, I feel like Last Raven is utilizing the structure to its advantage.

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First Playthrough completed. Seems like it was mostly Alliance, ending in a fight with Jack-O. I think Last Raven and For Answer have an issue in that "Regular AC Fight" as the final boss fight is a lil weak for my Armored Core tastes.

Its also a lil bit of a bummer that Jack-O is easier that most of the VR Arena pilots. :shrug: Ill give it one more unguided playthrough before I dig into a mission chart again to navigate the rest of the game.