Join Rhymes on his merry and foolhardy adventure through the entirety of FromSoftware's super-hard mecha game catalog.
Let's Play Every Armored Core Game In Release Order [Now Playing: Project Phantasma (1997)]
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Let's Play Every Armored Core Game In Release Order [Now Playing: Armored Core (1997)]
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Introduction
Armored Core is a series of third-person action games revolving around the construction and use of semi-humanoid building-sized war machines (mecha). The games use a mission-based structure where completing assignments earns cash that the player can use to purchase parts for their very own mecha. Gameplay revolves around swapping parts to customize your mecha to complete the next assignment as efficiently as possible, so you can get more cash and buy new parts and do more missions. The games are known for their depth of customization, since every part of the mech is replaceable, and the use of different parts can radically alter performance and combat style.
Despite the games looking to be very much my jam, I had, to my eternal nerd shame, not played an Armored Core game until earlier this year, when the hype for Armored Core VI started to get rolling ahead of its August release. Having climbed aboard the FromSoftware train with the Souls games, I got the PS1 games running on an emulator and tried it out in May of this year. To my (lack of) surprise, I liked it.
I've also been following, as I'm sure lots of you have, Omicron's stellar Let's Play thread of the entire Final Fantasy series (If you haven't checked it out, you should go do that right now. Seriously, it's super good.) These two things were left to stew in my brain for a while, and one day a few weeks back (on a flight, of all places) the idea to do something similar for the Armored Core franchise popped into my head. Is that a terrible idea that might crash and burn half-way through? Probably! But fuck it, sounds fun.
So,
Let's Play Every Armored Core Game In Release Order
Before we begin, some ground rules:
This is a Blind* playthrough.
Like I said, I've played the PS1 games and am currently playing Armored Core VI for my own enjoyment, but the point of this let's play is to give a neophyte's impression of the experience. As such, I am going to be doing my best to ignore my previous experience with any of the games and treat it as if I were encountering it for the first time.
Absolutely No Spoilers.
As a corollary to the above, spoilers are absolutely verboten. Discussing things in a general way is fine, but specifics will make me very unhappy. If you must go into specifics, put it in a spoiler block and flag it. Telling me if I missed something that's already passed is also fine and, in fact, appreciated, even if it ends up making me grumble about redoing things (i.e. permanently missable content). NOTE: this does not include mutually exclusive missions, alternative mission outcomes, or branching pathways, since those are different progression paths that will be encountered either in the postgame or on a followup playthrough.
Basically, if I've hit the point where I should have seen something, it's okay to talk about. If I haven't, either be vague about it or put it in spoilers.
UPDATE FOR CLARIFICATION: This rule should not be read to give license for posting spoilers at me whether they're in spoilers or not. The point of this is to provide a method for people to discuss things in the thread even if the LP hasn't gotten to the point where it's happened yet.
No Nine Breaker or Formula Front
Why? Because Formula Front is a spinoff and Nine Breaker is bad and irrelevant.
Emulation Yes, Alteration No.
Since none of the games barring VI are easily playable on PS4/5 where I could take a bunch of screenshots of them, I'm going to be playing the games emulated on PC with a controller. Emulation is cool and good and gives access to a bunch of features that are not normally available like save states, control rebinds, et cetera. I will not be using these features unless otherwise noted. The objective here is a bone-stock experience as one might have had when the games came out (or as close as possible.)
I reserve the right to amend these rules as time goes on depending on what I think will make a more enjoyable experience for me the writer, you the audience, or both.
With that out of the way, let's get started:
Despite the games looking to be very much my jam, I had, to my eternal nerd shame, not played an Armored Core game until earlier this year, when the hype for Armored Core VI started to get rolling ahead of its August release. Having climbed aboard the FromSoftware train with the Souls games, I got the PS1 games running on an emulator and tried it out in May of this year. To my (lack of) surprise, I liked it.
I've also been following, as I'm sure lots of you have, Omicron's stellar Let's Play thread of the entire Final Fantasy series (If you haven't checked it out, you should go do that right now. Seriously, it's super good.) These two things were left to stew in my brain for a while, and one day a few weeks back (on a flight, of all places) the idea to do something similar for the Armored Core franchise popped into my head. Is that a terrible idea that might crash and burn half-way through? Probably! But fuck it, sounds fun.
So,
Let's Play Every Armored Core Game In Release Order
Before we begin, some ground rules:
This is a Blind* playthrough.
Like I said, I've played the PS1 games and am currently playing Armored Core VI for my own enjoyment, but the point of this let's play is to give a neophyte's impression of the experience. As such, I am going to be doing my best to ignore my previous experience with any of the games and treat it as if I were encountering it for the first time.
Absolutely No Spoilers.
As a corollary to the above, spoilers are absolutely verboten. Discussing things in a general way is fine, but specifics will make me very unhappy. If you must go into specifics, put it in a spoiler block and flag it. Telling me if I missed something that's already passed is also fine and, in fact, appreciated, even if it ends up making me grumble about redoing things (i.e. permanently missable content). NOTE: this does not include mutually exclusive missions, alternative mission outcomes, or branching pathways, since those are different progression paths that will be encountered either in the postgame or on a followup playthrough.
Basically, if I've hit the point where I should have seen something, it's okay to talk about. If I haven't, either be vague about it or put it in spoilers.
UPDATE FOR CLARIFICATION: This rule should not be read to give license for posting spoilers at me whether they're in spoilers or not. The point of this is to provide a method for people to discuss things in the thread even if the LP hasn't gotten to the point where it's happened yet.
No Nine Breaker or Formula Front
Why? Because Formula Front is a spinoff and Nine Breaker is bad and irrelevant.
Emulation Yes, Alteration No.
Since none of the games barring VI are easily playable on PS4/5 where I could take a bunch of screenshots of them, I'm going to be playing the games emulated on PC with a controller. Emulation is cool and good and gives access to a bunch of features that are not normally available like save states, control rebinds, et cetera. I will not be using these features unless otherwise noted. The objective here is a bone-stock experience as one might have had when the games came out (or as close as possible.)
I reserve the right to amend these rules as time goes on depending on what I think will make a more enjoyable experience for me the writer, you the audience, or both.
With that out of the way, let's get started:
with
ARMORED CORE (1997)
ARMORED CORE (1997)
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Armored Core (1997) Part 1: Getting Started
We begin with the first game in the series.
Armored Core is a 1997 title for the Sony Playstation by a then-modestly-known developer called FromSoftware. Pretty much everyone and their mother has heard of FromSoft now, but at the time, they had only the King's Field trilogy of dungeon crawling RPGs to their name. This franchise is generally considered to be the one that put them on the map, and it all begins here.
At startup, following the PS1 jingle, we get a pre-rendered CG intro movie.
God, I love those stilted 90s animations. This movie is basically the game in a nutshell. We see a mecha (an Armored Core) being assembled from a selection of various parts, and then taken into battle against other mechs in. . . what looks like a subway tunnel? I guess? Doesn't have any identifying features, so my takeaway is it's meant as a showcase of the concept. Not the most striking opening movie, even for the time, but I respect the focus.
After this, we get the main menu.
You know, it's kind of funny that FromSoft main menu screens haven't changed much. This "title on black screen with a handful of options" is practically a trademark now.
I pick new game, name my pilot, and settle in for the tutori--
Excuse me?
Oh no.
Oh god what's happening
no no no
FUCK.
So Armored Core doesn't have a tutorial. This game was released in an era where instruction manuals were a thing, and, unlike games from later years, this one clearly expects the player to read it.
Alright, O manual mine, please tell me what the hell is going on.
Okay, so post-apocalypse cyberpunk future with giant robots, evil corporations, and mercs in the middle. The manual goes into some of the key elements of the setting a little more:
That's our place in the world cleared up for the moment. Now how the fuck do I drive this thing?
Oh. Right.
Although the Dual Analog controller (the inferior and much less popular predecessor to the DualShock) was released in April of 1997, four months before this game came out, that wouldn't have been enough time to incorporate analog controls, even with the faster dev cycle of the era. The DualShock itself wouldn't even be a thing until November. Armored Core has to be a third-person 3D action game without analog sticks. God help me.
The solution FromSoft went with was this: D-pad controls forward and backward movement plus turning (read: tank controls), strafing is on L1 and R1 (not ideal but I can kind of see it?), and looking up and down is on L2 and R2 (oh god WHY). The face buttons have various combat controls: X is jump/boost (logical), square is right hand weapon (fine), triangle is left hand weapon and interactions, and circle is weapon swap. Start and select are pause and map, respectively.
Some of these decisions are fine, or are at least facially reasonable in an era where there's no clear standard for how to implement 3D movement and aiming and there's no analog input to fall back on. Having actions mapped to the face buttons is standard even today, but the assignments are a little weird--modern sensibilities would probably switch triangle and circle, for ex. Putting strafe on shoulder buttons make sense if you're going with tank controls (not that you should, they're bad, but also depressingly common in this era of game design.) The choice to put vertical look on the triggers, however, is bugfuck insane, and there's no way to change them that I can see. Lovely.
Having properly familiarized myself with the controls, I back out, retype my pilot name (because of course) and start fresh.
Right off the bat I notice a few things. The hud's got a lot on it, but a quick reference to the manual (or even just playing the game) clears most of it up quickly. AP is my health (Armor Points). The energy bar on the left seems to fuel my boosters and regenerates when I'm not using them, more when I'm not moving, kind of like a stamina bar in a Souls game. The red portion of it drains much more slowly, but I get an alarm when I hit it. I'm guessing that bottoming out the EN meter puts me in a recharge state that's slower than just managing it properly.
On the right, I have a radar, with icons that seem to change color when enemies are at different elevations from me, plus my ammo counter and weapon indicator (not visible in this screenshot but you'll see it in a sec). On that note: weapons. I've got a rifle of some kind in the right hand, a missile launcher mounted on the left shoulder, and a laser sword on the left arm.
The big box in the center is the lock-box. The one break the game gives me is that it doesn't ask for precision aim without analog sticks. Instead, all I have to do is get the enemy within range and inside the big green box, and the mech does the rest--the camera even tracks a little bit. Honestly, this makes sense. I'm driving a sophisticated war machine, it should do some of the work!
My enemies are a couple of chicken walkers, kind of like the AT-STs from Return of the Jedi. They've got some kind of burst cannon that knocks me back and seems to shave off a decent amount of AP. The arena is a big round room with an upper ledge that runs around the wall, so there's no cover.
Fortunately, it's not too hard to separate them, even stumbling over the controls and taking a beating,. I pull off a few missile hits, but they don't seem to track or turn very well, and lock-on is slow. The rifle is more consistent, but the enemies soak up a lot of rifle hits. The sword is a lot easier to use, and once I get one of them in close, I carve it up in short order.
One down. Now for the other.
A few hits from range soften him up, and a couple good sword strikes finish the job.
Flawless victory. Pay no attention to my AP.
Victory earns me membership in the Ravens. I feel like it should be harder to become a merc with a (I assume?) renowned PMC, but I'm not complaining.
. . .
Let me get the negatives out of the way first: This is, objectively, a terrible way to introduce the player to the game. There's almost no explanation of what's going on or why you're there, and the absence of any sort of tutorial for a game like this is really just unconscionable. And the controls. Ugh. Like I said above, I get why they mapped the controls how they did, but those camera controls are just not acceptable.
All that aside, though, this opening sequence is one hell of a statement of intent for this game. You're driving a complicated war machine, and it's going to play like it.
Managing movement and camera positioning and targeting and weapons and energy is a lot to deal with all at once. What's more, because of how cumbersome this starting machine is, twitch-reflex gaming isn't enough; you've got to plan out what you want to do at least a couple steps ahead. Coming at this from the Souls games, it's obvious that what commonly gets referenced as "Souls-like" gameplay—commitment-heavy third person combat while managing a fast-regenerating stamina resource—is a design choice that From was favoring long before Demon's Souls was even a concept. It's fascinating to see an earlier iteration of that design show up here and have some things that still fall neatly into place 25 years on.
I think I'm gonna leave things here for the moment. Next time: we get our first look at the Ravens' Nest and start on the core gameplay loop. Also, the true endgame of any Fromsoft title: fashion—or, as it's known for this franchise: Armor Décor.
Armored Core is a 1997 title for the Sony Playstation by a then-modestly-known developer called FromSoftware. Pretty much everyone and their mother has heard of FromSoft now, but at the time, they had only the King's Field trilogy of dungeon crawling RPGs to their name. This franchise is generally considered to be the one that put them on the map, and it all begins here.
At startup, following the PS1 jingle, we get a pre-rendered CG intro movie.
God, I love those stilted 90s animations. This movie is basically the game in a nutshell. We see a mecha (an Armored Core) being assembled from a selection of various parts, and then taken into battle against other mechs in. . . what looks like a subway tunnel? I guess? Doesn't have any identifying features, so my takeaway is it's meant as a showcase of the concept. Not the most striking opening movie, even for the time, but I respect the focus.
After this, we get the main menu.
You know, it's kind of funny that FromSoft main menu screens haven't changed much. This "title on black screen with a handful of options" is practically a trademark now.
I pick new game, name my pilot, and settle in for the tutori--
Excuse me?
Oh no.
Oh god what's happening
no no no
FUCK.
So Armored Core doesn't have a tutorial. This game was released in an era where instruction manuals were a thing, and, unlike games from later years, this one clearly expects the player to read it.
Alright, O manual mine, please tell me what the hell is going on.
Article: The last war waged among nations, known as the Great Destruction ended with mankind vanishing from the surface of the Earth. The echo of humanity that survived left the howling winds and radioactive dust to make their home underground.
Half a century later, the concept of the nation is no more. Instead, Corporations lead and rule the populace. Though the world is making a rapid recovery through ruthless corporate competition, social disorder resurfaces as disparities in wealth, terrorist outbreaks, and racism refuse to go away. The ruling Corporations, seeking ever-greater power and wealth, refuse to let the strife end.
It is a New World Order, where lives are bought and sold in a twisted free market economy.
But there are always exceptions to every rule. . .
The Ravens' mercenaries, who take on any mission for a price, pledge allegiance to nothing and no one and exist beyond the control of the Corporations. Hired to take out the competition, the Ravens take no sides and fight without regard for good or evil.
Okay, so post-apocalypse cyberpunk future with giant robots, evil corporations, and mercs in the middle. The manual goes into some of the key elements of the setting a little more:
Article: Ravens' Nest
For a price, this mercenary organization will take on any mission, be it legal or otherwise. The Ravens' Nest has no discretion with regard to the content of the mission or the requesters, and no details at all are known with respect to who runs it or how it came to be.
Ravens
These are the mercenaries affiliated with the Ravens' Nest. Once one registers as a Raven with the Ravens' Nest, their private computer network is used to dispatch missions, buy or sell AC parts and the like. However, this affiliation to the Nest places no restrictions on the Ravens.
That's our place in the world cleared up for the moment. Now how the fuck do I drive this thing?
Oh. Right.
Although the Dual Analog controller (the inferior and much less popular predecessor to the DualShock) was released in April of 1997, four months before this game came out, that wouldn't have been enough time to incorporate analog controls, even with the faster dev cycle of the era. The DualShock itself wouldn't even be a thing until November. Armored Core has to be a third-person 3D action game without analog sticks. God help me.
The solution FromSoft went with was this: D-pad controls forward and backward movement plus turning (read: tank controls), strafing is on L1 and R1 (not ideal but I can kind of see it?), and looking up and down is on L2 and R2 (oh god WHY). The face buttons have various combat controls: X is jump/boost (logical), square is right hand weapon (fine), triangle is left hand weapon and interactions, and circle is weapon swap. Start and select are pause and map, respectively.
Some of these decisions are fine, or are at least facially reasonable in an era where there's no clear standard for how to implement 3D movement and aiming and there's no analog input to fall back on. Having actions mapped to the face buttons is standard even today, but the assignments are a little weird--modern sensibilities would probably switch triangle and circle, for ex. Putting strafe on shoulder buttons make sense if you're going with tank controls (not that you should, they're bad, but also depressingly common in this era of game design.) The choice to put vertical look on the triggers, however, is bugfuck insane, and there's no way to change them that I can see. Lovely.
Having properly familiarized myself with the controls, I back out, retype my pilot name (because of course) and start fresh.
Right off the bat I notice a few things. The hud's got a lot on it, but a quick reference to the manual (or even just playing the game) clears most of it up quickly. AP is my health (Armor Points). The energy bar on the left seems to fuel my boosters and regenerates when I'm not using them, more when I'm not moving, kind of like a stamina bar in a Souls game. The red portion of it drains much more slowly, but I get an alarm when I hit it. I'm guessing that bottoming out the EN meter puts me in a recharge state that's slower than just managing it properly.
On the right, I have a radar, with icons that seem to change color when enemies are at different elevations from me, plus my ammo counter and weapon indicator (not visible in this screenshot but you'll see it in a sec). On that note: weapons. I've got a rifle of some kind in the right hand, a missile launcher mounted on the left shoulder, and a laser sword on the left arm.
The big box in the center is the lock-box. The one break the game gives me is that it doesn't ask for precision aim without analog sticks. Instead, all I have to do is get the enemy within range and inside the big green box, and the mech does the rest--the camera even tracks a little bit. Honestly, this makes sense. I'm driving a sophisticated war machine, it should do some of the work!
My enemies are a couple of chicken walkers, kind of like the AT-STs from Return of the Jedi. They've got some kind of burst cannon that knocks me back and seems to shave off a decent amount of AP. The arena is a big round room with an upper ledge that runs around the wall, so there's no cover.
Fortunately, it's not too hard to separate them, even stumbling over the controls and taking a beating,. I pull off a few missile hits, but they don't seem to track or turn very well, and lock-on is slow. The rifle is more consistent, but the enemies soak up a lot of rifle hits. The sword is a lot easier to use, and once I get one of them in close, I carve it up in short order.
One down. Now for the other.
A few hits from range soften him up, and a couple good sword strikes finish the job.
Flawless victory. Pay no attention to my AP.
Victory earns me membership in the Ravens. I feel like it should be harder to become a merc with a (I assume?) renowned PMC, but I'm not complaining.
. . .
Let me get the negatives out of the way first: This is, objectively, a terrible way to introduce the player to the game. There's almost no explanation of what's going on or why you're there, and the absence of any sort of tutorial for a game like this is really just unconscionable. And the controls. Ugh. Like I said above, I get why they mapped the controls how they did, but those camera controls are just not acceptable.
All that aside, though, this opening sequence is one hell of a statement of intent for this game. You're driving a complicated war machine, and it's going to play like it.
Managing movement and camera positioning and targeting and weapons and energy is a lot to deal with all at once. What's more, because of how cumbersome this starting machine is, twitch-reflex gaming isn't enough; you've got to plan out what you want to do at least a couple steps ahead. Coming at this from the Souls games, it's obvious that what commonly gets referenced as "Souls-like" gameplay—commitment-heavy third person combat while managing a fast-regenerating stamina resource—is a design choice that From was favoring long before Demon's Souls was even a concept. It's fascinating to see an earlier iteration of that design show up here and have some things that still fall neatly into place 25 years on.
I think I'm gonna leave things here for the moment. Next time: we get our first look at the Ravens' Nest and start on the core gameplay loop. Also, the true endgame of any Fromsoft title: fashion—or, as it's known for this franchise: Armor Décor.
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- Location
- Back in the 90s (In a very famous TV show)
- Pronouns
- She/Her/Ve/Ver
Best of luck! I keep batting around the idea of doing one for the Pokemon series or something, but then I would have to replay X again, and that sounds kind of torturous.
Excited to learn more about this franchise!
Excited to learn more about this franchise!
always_confused
Perpetually unwanted
- Location
- SEA
Without the twitch skills necessary for them I'm forever barred from playing FromSoft games, so its always nice to have video and sceenshot LPs to vicariously experience these games.
silverpower
Communism is yuri and nothing else!
- Location
- Portland
- Pronouns
- She/Her
It's actually a little more complicated than that.
From the work done to reverse-engineer King's Field 2 and 3 (King's Field 1 and 2 in NA/EU regions), it's pretty clear that FromSoft based Armored Core on the King's Field 2/3 codebase. KF3 in particular was released in 1996, so we can pretty safely assume that the SDK version and such for Armored Core would've been from this era since it's generally unwise to change SDKs mid-stream. So originally, I suspected that there was no support in the used SDK for the SCPH-1150 Dual Analog, and it's likely true that there wouldn't be. (I haven't exactly stuck this into Ghidra to find out the exact PSY-Q version used to build Armored Core, but I'd be surprised if it used the 32-bit SDK and not the original DOS SDK or some other abomination.)
However, there were a bunch of games released in 1996 and early 1997 that supported analog controllers (whether SCPH-1150 Dual Analog or SCPH-1200/110U DualShock) that shouldn't have had support. That's because both controllers are compatible with the SCPH-1110 - the PlayStation Analog Joystick. So even if you didn't have one of those, you would've been able to play games made for it in 1997, despite the missing SDK support for the specific 1150 or DualShock 1200. (There are games that assume a 1150 or 1200 that don't quite work on a 1110 - the main difference between 1110 and 1150/1200 is the lack of L3/R3 and the 1200's rumble.)
So when they were making Armored Core - and this is mainly me speculating here - the developers likely felt in 1996 when they were first working on the game that requiring the 1110 would be a mistake. It wasn't popular, it was bulky, and it's difficult to make both control schemes feel good. It probably didn't help that other mech shooters - like Armored Trooper Votoms, and the arcade Virtual-On - used dual-stick controls of some sort, and were a little less... down to earth. So the decision was made to ignore the 1110 and focus on making it control well on the standard 1010/1080, because requiring a 1110 would kill sales.
Then Sony released the 1150 and 1200 controllers, and made it moot. Oops!
There's probably a universe where FromSoft decided to support the 1110 and give the game analog support from the get-go, even without L3/R3. We don't live in that one.
Armored Core (1997) Part 2a: Raven's Nest
Previously on Rhymes's Terrible Idea, we got our first introduction to Armored Core and earned our stripes as a mercenary of the Raven's Nest.
Today, we're going to be finding out exactly what that means.
We get a flash of a pretty cool logo and a quick loading animation before
[Insert "You've got Mail" sound here.]
I'll come back to that in a minute, but let's take a look at the menu itself first. FromSoft went with this ring setup where you cycle through, left or right, and bring the one you want front and center. Lots of games do this, and it can sometimes get cumbersome, but here, where there's only six options and this is a menu we're going to see a lot, it's. . . pleasant. At least for now. Maybe after a zillion missions I'll be tired of looking at it.
So, what do we got?
We start with the garage, which is where customization of our AC happens.
Ranking, which seems to measure standing within the Ravens' Nest;
Mail, which seems self-explanatory (and I love the old-school laptop icon for it)
System, which, going by the Memory Card icon, is clearly where the saves live, and probably other options.
Mission, which seems self-explanatory;
And the shop, the other place we'll be spending a lot of time. For the moment, though, let's go back to System and check out what's there.
Yup. Save file management, emblem saves (which we'll learn more about soon) and options. Let's check out the options first, see if we can't fix these damn controls.
Please don't suck please don't suck please don't suck
Oh thank god.
AC lets you rebind all of the controls (in mission only, menu controls don't change, which is fine, the layout is sensible enough). We still can't use analog controls--hat tip to @silverpower for delving into the history and coming up with a better explanation for why that might be the case--but I'm just going to have to live without them. After thinking about it for a second, this is what I come up with:
Reading it this way is a little confusing, so I'll summarize: Since I haven't got analog sticks, the D-pad and face buttons will take their place for movement and turning, respectively. Hardly ideal, but should make looking around a little easier. Left and right hand weapons are on the left and right triggers, and swap is on the right shoulder (to swap to the shoulder weapon, geddit?). After backing out and saving, so I don't forget (no autosave, remember!) I go to explore the other menu options.
First, ranking:
Yup, leaderboard. Selecting any of these listings gives a quick rundown of the pilot's name, their AC name, a picture of their AC and emblem, and a little blurb about them. I'll post excerpts from these if and when they become relevant, but, in the interest of time, I'll move on.
Next: the Garage. The beating heart of this operation.
There's a lot to take in here. I start with AC Test since I want to try out the new controls with a known build. After satisfying myself that it's as good as it's going to get, I check out the emblem customization first, since messing with the robot is a little intimidating right now.
Wow, okay. This is surprisingly powerful for a PS1 game. The way this works is you have a pixel editor, several brushes, and the ability to set each color on the palette using the RGB sliders (which go from 0 to 31.) There are also sample emblems and forms that you can use to get started. It's not as flexible as what you might get from more modern tools, and the interface itself is incredibly limiting, but someone more artistically-inclined than me could get a lot out of this.
I, however, am lazy, and will opt for the sample that I think looks the best. Unfortunately, it's this one:
Yeah, the basic-bitch FromSoft logo is the best looking sample of the bunch (most of the others that don't look like ass belong to the other AC pilots, so I will not be using them.)
I'm thinking now about taking a look at the build, but before I start replacing things, I should see about procuring replacement parts. Unfortunately. . . .
I am broke. Welp, I'm sure we'll fix that in due course. Let's head over to the garage then and see what's already mounted to the AC.
Alright, so, before we start tweaking individual parts, let's get a look at overall performance.
This at least gives us a baseline of what the starting specs look like, and they seem pretty self-explanatory? Not sure how helpful it is for mobility to just be a straight sum of the movement, turn, and boost speed metrics, but it doesn't look like there's a ton of stats here. We also get a parts list:
In order, these are: head, core, arms, legs, right and left arm weapons, right and left shoulder weapons, boosters, generator, and fire control system. Good luck remembering the names of everything, since it's pretty much all alphabet soup for a while.
Okay, time to stop screwing around and get into assembly.
Break for image count.
Today, we're going to be finding out exactly what that means.
We get a flash of a pretty cool logo and a quick loading animation before
[Insert "You've got Mail" sound here.]
I'll come back to that in a minute, but let's take a look at the menu itself first. FromSoft went with this ring setup where you cycle through, left or right, and bring the one you want front and center. Lots of games do this, and it can sometimes get cumbersome, but here, where there's only six options and this is a menu we're going to see a lot, it's. . . pleasant. At least for now. Maybe after a zillion missions I'll be tired of looking at it.
So, what do we got?
Please don't suck please don't suck please don't suck
Oh thank god.
AC lets you rebind all of the controls (in mission only, menu controls don't change, which is fine, the layout is sensible enough). We still can't use analog controls--hat tip to @silverpower for delving into the history and coming up with a better explanation for why that might be the case--but I'm just going to have to live without them. After thinking about it for a second, this is what I come up with:
First, ranking:
Yup, leaderboard. Selecting any of these listings gives a quick rundown of the pilot's name, their AC name, a picture of their AC and emblem, and a little blurb about them. I'll post excerpts from these if and when they become relevant, but, in the interest of time, I'll move on.
Next: the Garage. The beating heart of this operation.
I, however, am lazy, and will opt for the sample that I think looks the best. Unfortunately, it's this one:
I'm thinking now about taking a look at the build, but before I start replacing things, I should see about procuring replacement parts. Unfortunately. . . .
Alright, so, before we start tweaking individual parts, let's get a look at overall performance.
This at least gives us a baseline of what the starting specs look like, and they seem pretty self-explanatory? Not sure how helpful it is for mobility to just be a straight sum of the movement, turn, and boost speed metrics, but it doesn't look like there's a ton of stats here. We also get a parts list:
In order, these are: head, core, arms, legs, right and left arm weapons, right and left shoulder weapons, boosters, generator, and fire control system. Good luck remembering the names of everything, since it's pretty much all alphabet soup for a while.
Okay, time to stop screwing around and get into assembly.
Break for image count.
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Armored Core (1997) Part 2b: The Garage
So this, right here, is half of the game. Every part that I just listed up above can be swapped out for any other part that fits in that slot, and anything other than the main body, generator, and FCS can be left behind altogether. This means that I have a lot of control over my AC's configuration and playstyle--in theory. Right now, though, I can't actually do much here because I have no spare parts and no cash—I could remove some nonessentials and sell them in the shop, but I'm not going to do that just yet. Let's just take a look at what we have.
Now we're into the fun stuff. On the left shoulder we have a small, single shot missile launcher. Again, the stats are self-explanatory, but I want to call attention to a couple things: attack power, which, as we'll see soon, is a lot higher than the rifle, and ammo price. That, uh, that wouldn't be there unless we had to worry about the cost of ammo. Hm.
Left arm is where the laser sword is mounted. As you can see, it's slightly less powerful than a missile, but it's also free aside from draining the EN meter a little bit.
Right, that's the parts list. Time to get rid of this Zaku-ass paint job.
I can slap one of several patterns on the AC, or I can just apply a matte paint job. For this build, I'm feeling flat colors.
After a little fiddling, I settle on a paint job that more or less mirrors the color scheme I use for my Destiny main, and give the AC a name. I would have preferred to name it MIDNIGHT EXIGENT, since that's a phrase that pops up in Destiny lore, sounds cool as hell, and matches the dark color scheme, but it won't fit the character limit. Since just calling it MIDNIGHT is a little too on the nose, I instead go with CARRHAE, short for CARRHAE WHITE, another phrase from the same lore bits.
Now, about that email . . .
Obligatory canned welcome email get!
I'll type the rest out here to save image count:
Article: In addition to relaying missions, we mainly provide AC repair services, supply ammo, sell new AC parts, etc . . . We also occasionally use e-mail to relay information regarding the missions that you have accepted. The Nest never interferes with the mission requesters or with the individual Ravens. Even if you have trouble with the mission requesters, the Nest cannot get involved. Be aware of this.
Oh, by the way, call me "R." I will be your contact at the Nest. Whether our association will be long or short depends entirely on your skill.
I'll be in touch.
That. . . I . . .what?
So this "organization" gives out missions, sells us parts (presumably with the same money we earn doing missions for it), but doesn't get involved in any sort of contract dispute? What a worthless thing to be a member of! In this cyberpunk hellscape even the mercenary organization is a scam!
Thanks I hate it.
Well, we're stuck with this stupid system, so I might as well earn some money to customize my giant robot. Whaddya got for me, R?
Oh you gotta be fucking kidding me.
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Armored Core (1997) Part 2c: Corporate Thuggery (Missions 1+2)
Well then. That's unsettling. Do I have to pick one of these? (Yes, the answer is yes.)
Bracing myself, I select the top one and try not to feel unclean.
Holy shit. The first mission of Armored Core is getting paid by the cops to murder a bunch of "squatters," who are obviously protesters. Safe bet they're part of the underclass that live and/or work in the area that's getting "redeveloped," and "conveniently" got excluded from the planning process. "Not really citizens" my ass. These people are literally using construction equipment, and we're being sent in with military-grade hardware to wipe them out. Truly deranged. Bravo, FromSoft.
Gritting my teeth, I launch the mission and start my career as a ruthless, amoral mercenary. Yippee.
The mission drops you into a big empty room. The PS1's onboard graphics don't really allow for a ton of detail in the environment, but there's enough here to make out that it's a big metal structure that probably used to house a ton of machinery. The limited draw distance makes it hard to find the targets, so I wander around for a second until my radar picks them up.
The first couple threats I encounter are these chicken walkers with lasers mounted on them. They're not terribly threatening, but I keep my distance and put some rifle rounds into them. It takes a while—too long, honestly; I'm not really impressed with the rifle's performance.
I also run into this big guy who doesn't seem to want to fight back. Sorry buddy, nothing personal. . . for me, anyway.
As if I needed more proof who the bad guy is here, this thing is literally a fucking crane or an excavator or something with a laser strapped to the end. I'm not sure if it's meant to be a piece of industrial equipment or something somebody jerry-rigged, but it's effective, I'll say that much. The laser actually takes off a good chunk of AP before I down it. The last couple of threats are two of these big mechs that look like the power loader from Aliens, sequestered in different corners of the map. I close to sword range to try to save ammo, but that turns out to be a mistake. Between the punches, the grenades it throws, and my fumbling with the controls, I end up taking a real beating.
You can even see the guy in the cockpit of this thing. It has like no armor! Gah, this is already bleak and I'm like 20 minutes in.
By the time I mop up the last one, I'm down to like 25% of my AP and all of my moral fiber, but I've cleared the area. Now to collect my reward.
So, yeah, both ammo consumption and damage eat into your credit reward at the end of each mission. It's actually possible, if you do really badly (or fail a mission outright) to get a negative balance and start going into debt. What happens if you go too far into debt? Who knows, maybe we'll find out.
It's also hilarious to me that the Nest doesn't even supply ammo or repairs for free. Covering those costs me half the reward, so I reload and try again, being more careful this time.
Much better.
Back at the Nest, I decide that I'm not happy with how poorly the rifle has performed, but I don't have enough cash to buy anything else. So, after running the numbers, I sell the WG-RF25 rifle in favor of the WG-MGA1 machine gun. I figure if that turns out to be a bad idea, I can always swap back—parts in this game buy and sell for the same price, so there's not much friction to swapping things with the store.
Less damage, but way deeper reserves and a higher rate of fire should help. After throwing this on, I head back to the mission board.
We have a couple more options here, but I'm going to opt for the one that was there the last time. What the hell, I'm already doing terrible things, what's a little strike-breaking between friends.
So, this time we're breaking a strike for the cartoonishly evil Chrome corporation, whoever they are. Great. Maybe I should have named my mech Pinkerton.
So the first thing I do when I load in: jump up, fly straight backwards, and drop just at the edge of the battlespace . . .
For this. See, Armored Core has a bunch of hidden parts scattered throughout various missions that can be picked up if you know where to look. This one is hidden behind the player's starting position and the Chrome armored division (those boxes at the top of the screen—those are rocket trucks). If I didn't know it was there, I'd have missed it. Cheeky bastards.
I grab this hidden part (the WR-L24 Large Rocket Launcher) and get back to work.
Being, y'know, a bridge, there's not a lot of cover (or room) here for a building-sized mech, so I mostly have to strafe back and forth while slowly pushing forward and poking down every MT (Muscle Tracer, read: mook) with missiles and the MG. The new gun is a lot less powerful on a per-shot basis than the rifle, but it has much higher DPS because of its blistering rate of fire.
Partway through I get to this elevated barricade which has another power loader and a crane gun behind it. Clearing it without getting lit up is a little tricky, but jumping way up and sending missiles at them seems to do the trick. I take out the last MT further on, and clear the area.
About half the reward, after repairs and ammo. Not great, but, on the other hand I got a really expensive (and powerful) back weapon out of the deal, so I'll take it.
Having now sullied my conscience for cash and guns, I think this is where I'm going to stop for now. Next time, we'll talk picking out some more parts for a build, and doing some more corpo dirty work.
Bracing myself, I select the top one and try not to feel unclean.
Article: You are to eliminate a group of illegal squatters at an abandoned factory on the east side of the City. They profess to be radicals opposed to area redevelopment. However, the planners have already reached an agreement with the citizens in question, so these are merely outlaws who want an excuse to run amuck. But they are still citizens, so from the standpoint of the Guard, we cannot use force. If they are left as is, there is a risk of affecting the progress of the plan. There is no need for restraint. We want you to firmly teach them the rules of society.
Holy shit. The first mission of Armored Core is getting paid by the cops to murder a bunch of "squatters," who are obviously protesters. Safe bet they're part of the underclass that live and/or work in the area that's getting "redeveloped," and "conveniently" got excluded from the planning process. "Not really citizens" my ass. These people are literally using construction equipment, and we're being sent in with military-grade hardware to wipe them out. Truly deranged. Bravo, FromSoft.
Gritting my teeth, I launch the mission and start my career as a ruthless, amoral mercenary. Yippee.
The mission drops you into a big empty room. The PS1's onboard graphics don't really allow for a ton of detail in the environment, but there's enough here to make out that it's a big metal structure that probably used to house a ton of machinery. The limited draw distance makes it hard to find the targets, so I wander around for a second until my radar picks them up.
The first couple threats I encounter are these chicken walkers with lasers mounted on them. They're not terribly threatening, but I keep my distance and put some rifle rounds into them. It takes a while—too long, honestly; I'm not really impressed with the rifle's performance.
I also run into this big guy who doesn't seem to want to fight back. Sorry buddy, nothing personal. . . for me, anyway.
As if I needed more proof who the bad guy is here, this thing is literally a fucking crane or an excavator or something with a laser strapped to the end. I'm not sure if it's meant to be a piece of industrial equipment or something somebody jerry-rigged, but it's effective, I'll say that much. The laser actually takes off a good chunk of AP before I down it. The last couple of threats are two of these big mechs that look like the power loader from Aliens, sequestered in different corners of the map. I close to sword range to try to save ammo, but that turns out to be a mistake. Between the punches, the grenades it throws, and my fumbling with the controls, I end up taking a real beating.
You can even see the guy in the cockpit of this thing. It has like no armor! Gah, this is already bleak and I'm like 20 minutes in.
By the time I mop up the last one, I'm down to like 25% of my AP and all of my moral fiber, but I've cleared the area. Now to collect my reward.
So, yeah, both ammo consumption and damage eat into your credit reward at the end of each mission. It's actually possible, if you do really badly (or fail a mission outright) to get a negative balance and start going into debt. What happens if you go too far into debt? Who knows, maybe we'll find out.
It's also hilarious to me that the Nest doesn't even supply ammo or repairs for free. Covering those costs me half the reward, so I reload and try again, being more careful this time.
Much better.
Back at the Nest, I decide that I'm not happy with how poorly the rifle has performed, but I don't have enough cash to buy anything else. So, after running the numbers, I sell the WG-RF25 rifle in favor of the WG-MGA1 machine gun. I figure if that turns out to be a bad idea, I can always swap back—parts in this game buy and sell for the same price, so there's not much friction to swapping things with the store.
Less damage, but way deeper reserves and a higher rate of fire should help. After throwing this on, I head back to the mission board.
We have a couple more options here, but I'm going to opt for the one that was there the last time. What the hell, I'm already doing terrible things, what's a little strike-breaking between friends.
Article: Workers in the Avalon Valley development area, demonstrating for better working conditions, have taken over the "Doan Bridge". They have erected a barricade on the bridge and completely halted traffic. There is no sign of their giving in to the Guards. They persist in demanding to see the HQ. We told them that we have no time to deal with such trifling matters, but they don't seem to understand. Anyway, we can't leave this as is. In a drawn-out battle, collateral damage would become a problem, so forcibly eliminate them now. Several Worker MTs are on the bridge, but this should be no problem at all for you Ravens. Our armored division is also deployed. Should be an easy job, so go to it.
So, this time we're breaking a strike for the cartoonishly evil Chrome corporation, whoever they are. Great. Maybe I should have named my mech Pinkerton.
So the first thing I do when I load in: jump up, fly straight backwards, and drop just at the edge of the battlespace . . .
For this. See, Armored Core has a bunch of hidden parts scattered throughout various missions that can be picked up if you know where to look. This one is hidden behind the player's starting position and the Chrome armored division (those boxes at the top of the screen—those are rocket trucks). If I didn't know it was there, I'd have missed it. Cheeky bastards.
I grab this hidden part (the WR-L24 Large Rocket Launcher) and get back to work.
Being, y'know, a bridge, there's not a lot of cover (or room) here for a building-sized mech, so I mostly have to strafe back and forth while slowly pushing forward and poking down every MT (Muscle Tracer, read: mook) with missiles and the MG. The new gun is a lot less powerful on a per-shot basis than the rifle, but it has much higher DPS because of its blistering rate of fire.
Partway through I get to this elevated barricade which has another power loader and a crane gun behind it. Clearing it without getting lit up is a little tricky, but jumping way up and sending missiles at them seems to do the trick. I take out the last MT further on, and clear the area.
About half the reward, after repairs and ammo. Not great, but, on the other hand I got a really expensive (and powerful) back weapon out of the deal, so I'll take it.
Having now sullied my conscience for cash and guns, I think this is where I'm going to stop for now. Next time, we'll talk picking out some more parts for a build, and doing some more corpo dirty work.
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- Location
- Back in the 90s (In a very famous TV show)
- Pronouns
- She/Her/Ve/Ver
I normally love crunchy PS1 graphics, but it's hard to make out much of anything with the art in this game.
It probably looked better on a CRT than it does on a modern LED monitor. Some of it is also me trying to grab good shots while also playing the game, which is. . . interesting.
- Location
- Brittany, France
- Pronouns
- He/Him
...yeah, I've played some AC1 myself and seen a couple of retrospective in the lead-up to the AC6 release so I already knew about it, but "here are your first two missions: go murder a bunch of strikers who want better condition and go murder a bunch of strikers who are being pushed out of their homes because we want the plausible deniability of not having to do it with our own cops" is genuinely an incredibly bleak start.
Also, good luck with this project, I'll be keeping an eye on it! Just the thought of going through an entire PS1 game with pre-analog tank controls is giving me an allergic reaction, I feel like I definitely got the better end with FF7's static camera graphics here.
Also, good luck with this project, I'll be keeping an eye on it! Just the thought of going through an entire PS1 game with pre-analog tank controls is giving me an allergic reaction, I feel like I definitely got the better end with FF7's static camera graphics here.
To be fair, they do let you rebind it to not be tank controls, so you can put together something that is closer to best practices within the technical limitations they had. Which, obviously, I did, because while I'm limiting myself to the tools in the game so as to provide an unvarnished look at the original experience, I am going to use those tools.
Also, to part the skirts a little bit here (mild spoilers for AC1);
the first time I played through AC1 (also on an emulator) I used the emulator to bind movement and turning to the left and right thumbsticks on my controller. Doing that felt a lot better than even the face button and d-pad setup I've got going on now, but it also made the game a lot easier. FromSoft, shockingly enough, balanced the game around the controls they had, and switching to more ergonomic controls that the game was not designed around snaps the balance of most engagements in half.
Most engagements. ( 9 )
- Location
- Alberta
Armored Core: Where it is literally impossible to not be the baddies!
As an aside, I can't help but feel like I'm the only person in the world who actually likes the classic Armored Controls. They genuinely feel like something you'd use to control a giant robot, and I've found them a lot more usable than they look (which really isn't as much of a surprise when you realize Fromsoft originally made enterprise software—this sort of clunky-looking yet effective when mastered stuff is very much what I'd expect from that particular field).
Also worth noting is that the control scheme we consider standard these days wasn't invented until Alien Resurrection in 2000, and was mocked as unplayably bad when that game came out. So turns out it's not as much of a no-brainer as we sometimes think.
As an aside, I can't help but feel like I'm the only person in the world who actually likes the classic Armored Controls. They genuinely feel like something you'd use to control a giant robot, and I've found them a lot more usable than they look (which really isn't as much of a surprise when you realize Fromsoft originally made enterprise software—this sort of clunky-looking yet effective when mastered stuff is very much what I'd expect from that particular field).
Also worth noting is that the control scheme we consider standard these days wasn't invented until Alien Resurrection in 2000, and was mocked as unplayably bad when that game came out. So turns out it's not as much of a no-brainer as we sometimes think.
My dislike of tank controls is more of a personal choice than anything else, but having vertical look on triggers is absolutely inexcusable in a game that immediately demands 3D combat awareness. There is no logical association there.
Like, strafe on shoulder buttons? Makes sense. Tank controls? Make sense, even if I don't like them. Vertical look on triggers? No way.
And I'm not saying twin stick controls is a no-brainer. I'm saying that it's an ergonomically superior solution. I don't begrudge Fromsoft not having the foresight to know, years ahead of time, the best way to do things with tech they didn't even have. I do begrudge them for having default controls that are not the best way to use the tools already available.
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- Location
- Alberta
Really my opinion on that would probably be different if they expected you to look up and down more often. As it stands my opinion is that using L2 and R2 like that is acceptable because they know they're not gonna throw enough situations where rapidly changing your vertical view is needed or even a good idea at you for it to be worth putting on a more easily accessible button.
It's also worth noting that I don't have much of an FPS background (outside of Metroid Prime, which does its controls very differently from what people expect these days) so I've always considered using L2 and R2 as attack buttons to be an abnormal choice in and of itself. Which probably contributes to me treating them as buttons what don't get pressed all that often.
Edit: Re: ergonomic superiority of Alien Resurrection controls: I disagree on that because, again, I don't see L2 and R2 as trigger buttons so much as function buttons, which is probably just me but it does make it feel somewhat awkward to be pressing them all the time to attack. And I'll outright say they don't work even remotely as well for melee attacks because it just doesn't feel right.
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The training arena alone has mechs that love to boost up and over your head. There's a mission that I'll be covering soon (either in the next installment or the one after) that pits you against flying enemies. Seems like they expect the player to look up and down a lot.
Entropy Judge
Recurring Bouts of Misanthropy
I always liked vertical look on the triggers, myself; in my experience, a lot of 'immediate demands' for vertical changes could be alleviated by ground maneuvering and controlling the AC's altitude, and it kept my thumbs free for doing things like actually piloting the AC. I actually have a hard time playing games that demand constantly looking around using the thumbstick, especially if there are commonly-used controls that are also mapped to the face buttons.
(That said, I also never played AC1, only second and third generation games.)
- Location
- Alberta
Look, it's not my fault they made the AC1 tutorial worse than the damn [spoiler redacted, sorry]!
As for flying enemies my read is that the intended solutions are a) installing a vertical lock FCS, and b) flying up there yourself and dueling them at their level (with the latter also having the benefit of you missing a lot less when you're not firing upward). But more than that the intent with vertical looking appears to be that you set your vertical angle to what you need, leave it there, and only change it when you need it to be different. You're not meant or expected to be constantly changing your view like in an FPS.
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I'm not sure I agree with that assessment because stuff moves too rapidly for "just leave it there" to really work. Being able to boost up is a solution but it feels very much like a bandaid fix. Fair point about the vertical FCS though, forgot about those.
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Armored Core (1997) Part 3: Missions 3-6
Welcome back, everyone, to Mecha Pinkerton: The Game. In today's entry, we're going to be pushing beyond naked oppression and into more traditional corporate mercenary work. We're also going to be talking about some of the different build options, now that I've got cash and parts coming in.
Speaking of which:
Say hello to the WR-L24 Large Rocket Launcher, the most powerful weapon in the game. This is a back weapon that fires unbelievably powerful dumbfire rockets. Weapons like these have so much recoil that they require a stabilized firing platform in order to use. For my AC, that means taking a knee and not being able to move while lining up a shot—and since it's dumbfire, that means there's no lock on at all. Manual aiming only. Unfortunately, it's also useless at the moment. With a weight north of 800, my AC doesn't have the leg capacity to mount this thing, and I don't have the funds to replace the legs with something that could. Fortunately, it's also worth over 29k credits if I sell it, which is what I do.
With about 40k creds on hand, now seems like a good time to talk build options. I'm not going to go into every aspect of a build, but I am going to talk about the key decisions: leg parts and weapon choices.
We'll start with legs. Believe it or not, the legs, not the core, are the most important component in an AC build, because the choice of legs ends up dictating pretty much everything else. There are four types of legs: Humanoid (AKA Biped) Reverse Joint , Quadruped, and Caterpillar (AKA Tank)
Ask a dozen Armored Core fans which leg type is the best and you'll get at least two dozen opinions. I'm generally going to try to tailor my build choices for a particular mission, since that seems like the most interesting way to do things. We'll see if I end up settling in for a particular configuration.
On that note, we should also talk about the weapons. There are a lot of different weapon types in Armored Core, but they largely fall into two categories: kinetic (bullets) and energy (lasers, plasma, etc.) Kinetic weapons tend to have higher capacity, but cost credits to resupply the ammo. Energy weapons generally have fewer shots per mission and drain the EN gauge when fired, but cost nothing to resupply after a mission is complete.
Obviously, the amount to keep track of has already blown way the hell up, and rather than try to pick something that sounds neat in a vacuum, I'm going to do the logical thing: look at the missions and pick my gear based on the scenario.
So, looking at the mission board, the three options seem a lot less scummy than what they led with. Fine by me. I'll just have a look at the first mission here, "Destroy Unknown MTs"
Alright, it seems like the cops, being incompetent shitheads, ran into somebody up to sneaky shit and got their asses handed to them, so now they're running home crying—sorry, I meant "driving them to me." While I'm all for these cops getting their shit pushed in, shenaniganery in the sewers seems not good? Yeah, I think this is a good one to do next.
After having a look at the area map, I grab the WG-HG512 "handgun" (again, read: shotgun—it literally has a pump grip). I also grab the B-P350 boosters, which are a straight upgrade over the stock part, as a quality of life upgrade.
It goes pretty well. The shotgun isn't quite as powerful as I'd like for a close-quarters gun, but it does fine. This area is just one long tunnel with a couple of doors and the occasional crate. The crates explode if they take too much damage, which hurts, so I need to be careful while using them as cover. Since there's just 8 of these AT-ST knockoffs, I clear the mission real fast.
Nice.
We have a new mission here that wasn't available before, but I'm going to attend to that one later. Instead, I decide to take on the second mission this time, since it seems easier (going by the promised reward.)
Hm. Corporate sabotage, or some other player deciding to make a mess? Either way, killbots running around downtown, while a perennial cyberpunk staple, is probably a thing somebody should do something about.
Whaddya know, I'm somebody, and they're gonna pay me to do it. I swap back to the machine gun and hop in.
The mission area is a big open business district, so there's very long sightlines for these MTs, which have missiles, to take advantage of. Fortunately, they're neither smart nor tough, so focused fire brings them down. My biggest problem is them attacking beyond the render distance, or when I'm trying to get good shots of this area.
I'm kind of struck by how normal this whole area looks. There's grass! Trees, even! Never mind that this whole place is underground and there's no obvious replacement for sunlight. You'd think that in this corporate dark future it'd look more cyberpunk—more neon, with a zillion ads all the time--but I guess all the effort that would have gone into that went to the robots.
After cleaning up the last killbot, I grab my pay and go home.
Building up a nice little stockpile here. Next!
Yeah I totally buy that you guys were going to retrofit this oil rig. Definitely weren't just gonna let it sit there and are mad that somebody else is using it. Sure.
Since the mission brief says we've got flying enemies, I decide to rework the build. I sell off the old boosters, the shotgun, and the old machine gun to pick up the WG-MG500, which is the upgraded model. This also seems like a good time to try out reverse joints, but I don't have quite enough cash to grab a set that has enough carrying capacity. The solution? I sell off the legs I have and then buy the LB-4401 legs. This is exploiting the way the shop mechanics work a little bit: the game won't let you exchange parts, and it won't let you launch without essential parts like legs, but you can sell all of them off—you're going to have to buy something to put on the AC anyway, and prices are the same buying and selling.
Satisfied, I launch the mission.
Since we're out on the water, there's no cover besides the rig. The drones come in two flavors: the red ones fire missiles which clearly don't turn all that well, and the blue ones have flamethrowers, which are strictly a knife-fight weapon. I get close enough to use the rig as cover and lock on with my MG, and just start running in a circle while hosing down everything that gets in my lockbox. This strategy works well. Really well.
Really, really well. Dayum.
After I make it back to the Nest, I get a couple new emails.
Uh huh. Assholes.
The plot begins to thicken. The corporations using proxies to fuck with each other instead of engaging in open conflict with their own security forces (or mercenaries) is a classic cyberpunk play. I wonder if we'll learn any more about this group and what they want. Also, what the hell is that logo? Don't put words in there, how do you expect people to spray-paint it onto things?
Whatever. I take a look at the mission board, and I see I've got two new missions, plus the one to rescue the transport truck that I left alone earlier. One of the new missions is apparently to take out another group of squatters which, no, God damn it, not again. I've left that truck sitting for a while—what, did they just leave it there for days or something—so if it's stayed on the board they must be pretty insistent about it. Let's have a look.
I'm sorry, you lost a truck full of chemical weapons? And its last known position was in a transit tunnel, full of civilians? That is still open? You people are fucking insane and I can't believe I'm trusting you to pay me. I wouldn't trust you to run a fucking lemonade stand!
Now I feel like a stupid asshole for letting this one sit, holy shit. I swap out my stock generator for the GRD-RX5, which has much deeper reserves and a smaller red zone, because I was redlining a lot the last couple of missions, and then I go.
Right, don't shoot the truck full of chemical weapons, how hard could that be.
As the briefing warned, there are still civilian vehicles passing through this tunnel, but they go slow and aren't that numerous, so it's easy enough to just get on the median and stay out of their way. I figure it'd suck a lot to get stepped on by a mech while driving to work or whatever. I spot the first bad guy in the other tunnel and start laying into them—the enemy mechs are smaller but more nimble. After crushing the scout, I look down the tunnel and start firing at the rest as I advance down the tunnel until, well . . .
If you look closely, you may be able to realize why that was a bad idea. I don't know how many of my shots hit the truck, but fortunately, I haven't gassed this whole tunnel yet. I have to be a lot more careful with the rest of these guys, and there are two more coming down the tunnel.
I'm able to keep between them and the truck so I don't end up using them as a backstop again, but I end up boosting backwards at the wrong time and land ass-first into the truck, which explodes. Whoops.
So yeah, for failing that mission, I get no reward, am still out the expenses, and the mission's gone, I don't get to try again. Truck go boom. I should note at this point that if I blew enough missions, I could actually go into debt--I could still sortie, but I wouldn't be able to buy any new parts until I had a positive balance again, and if my debt got deep enough. . .
we'll get to that.
Now, I could move on and live with the consequences of this failure, but losing that mission would nag at me (never mind all the people who probably just got hit with Sarin or something equally awful), so I reload the save and try again, this time being a lot more careful.
Much better. Now Chrome is free to put those chemical weapons to proper use. Yay.
Since I've written almost 3k words for four missions and am at the image cap, I'm going to call it here for today. Tune in next time when we start actively facilitating corporate fuckery in earnest.
Speaking of which:
Say hello to the WR-L24 Large Rocket Launcher, the most powerful weapon in the game. This is a back weapon that fires unbelievably powerful dumbfire rockets. Weapons like these have so much recoil that they require a stabilized firing platform in order to use. For my AC, that means taking a knee and not being able to move while lining up a shot—and since it's dumbfire, that means there's no lock on at all. Manual aiming only. Unfortunately, it's also useless at the moment. With a weight north of 800, my AC doesn't have the leg capacity to mount this thing, and I don't have the funds to replace the legs with something that could. Fortunately, it's also worth over 29k credits if I sell it, which is what I do.
With about 40k creds on hand, now seems like a good time to talk build options. I'm not going to go into every aspect of a build, but I am going to talk about the key decisions: leg parts and weapon choices.
We'll start with legs. Believe it or not, the legs, not the core, are the most important component in an AC build, because the choice of legs ends up dictating pretty much everything else. There are four types of legs: Humanoid (AKA Biped) Reverse Joint , Quadruped, and Caterpillar (AKA Tank)
Humanoid legs are the legs we started with, and they're considered middle of the pack, offering a nice balance of maneuverability, armor, carrying capacity, and energy management. Their main weakness is that they require taking a firing stance before using any heavy back weapons.
Reverse joint legs are also bipedal, but have the knee joints facing backwards, like a bird. They're generally lighter than other designs sharing the same weight class, so they can handle pretty well. They also can jump much higher without boosters, and are generally more energy efficient. The tradeoff is that they have low capacity, thin armor, and also need to take a firing stance when using heavy weapons.
Quadrupeds are the option for all your spider-mech needs. Although they're not the lightest option, they can change direction very quickly, and, more importantly, they can fire heavy weapons on the move. They're not terribly energy efficient, however, and equipping them replaces any melee swipe with a stab instead that is much harder to use.
Tank legs are the heavy option. Tons of armor, tons of carrying capacity, and they can mount absolutely anything and fire it on the move. The catch? They're slow, they don't turn fast, and, most critically, they're not compatible with external boosters. Tank legs have their own integrated booster jets which are significantly worse than dedicated parts. They can fly if you really need them to, but they spend most of their time on the ground. Also, like quad legs, trying to use a laser blade gives you a stab attack instead of the much easier-to-use swipe.
Reverse joint legs are also bipedal, but have the knee joints facing backwards, like a bird. They're generally lighter than other designs sharing the same weight class, so they can handle pretty well. They also can jump much higher without boosters, and are generally more energy efficient. The tradeoff is that they have low capacity, thin armor, and also need to take a firing stance when using heavy weapons.
Quadrupeds are the option for all your spider-mech needs. Although they're not the lightest option, they can change direction very quickly, and, more importantly, they can fire heavy weapons on the move. They're not terribly energy efficient, however, and equipping them replaces any melee swipe with a stab instead that is much harder to use.
Tank legs are the heavy option. Tons of armor, tons of carrying capacity, and they can mount absolutely anything and fire it on the move. The catch? They're slow, they don't turn fast, and, most critically, they're not compatible with external boosters. Tank legs have their own integrated booster jets which are significantly worse than dedicated parts. They can fly if you really need them to, but they spend most of their time on the ground. Also, like quad legs, trying to use a laser blade gives you a stab attack instead of the much easier-to-use swipe.
Ask a dozen Armored Core fans which leg type is the best and you'll get at least two dozen opinions. I'm generally going to try to tailor my build choices for a particular mission, since that seems like the most interesting way to do things. We'll see if I end up settling in for a particular configuration.
On that note, we should also talk about the weapons. There are a lot of different weapon types in Armored Core, but they largely fall into two categories: kinetic (bullets) and energy (lasers, plasma, etc.) Kinetic weapons tend to have higher capacity, but cost credits to resupply the ammo. Energy weapons generally have fewer shots per mission and drain the EN gauge when fired, but cost nothing to resupply after a mission is complete.
On the right arm, we have several of each category. For kinetics, we have the option of an automatic rifle (which I sold as soon as I could), machine guns (rapid fire, poor accuracy, lots of ammo), "handguns" (read: shotguns), sniper rifles, a flamethrower, and a couple bazookas. If we want an energy weapon, there are pulse rifles (cheap, fast-firing), a laser rifle (slower, more powerful) and a plasma rifle (heavy, explosive impact).
On the left arm, the only choice is between which tier of laser sword to equip. There's no option to equip a second gun in the left hand in this game, but an AC doesn't necessarily need hands. An alternative option is to equip weapon arms, which drop hand weapons (and a lot of armor) in exchange for integrated dual heavy weapons which don't require a firing stance. These come in machine gun, gatling, and heavy cannon flavors, as well as both laser and plasma cannons, and missile launchers, which are normally back weapons.
These loadout choices can be supplemented with back weapons. The back weapon slots get heavy weapons which require either a kneeling stance or quad or tank legs to fire, as well as some unique categories only available in these slots. The heavy weapons are mostly scaled-up versions of the arm weapons: a (burstfire) linear gun for the rifle, a chaingun for the MGs, a slug gun for the shotguns, cannon versions of the pulse, laser, and plasma guns, and both the grenade launcher and the large rocket as big and bigger bazookas. Back weapons also get bomb dispensers (read: mines), dumbfire rockets like what you might expect from an MLRS truck, and, as you've already seen, homing missiles, which come in lots of flavors. We can also fill a back slot with a radar unit if one isn't included in the head part (one of these is currently on the right shoulder).
On the left arm, the only choice is between which tier of laser sword to equip. There's no option to equip a second gun in the left hand in this game, but an AC doesn't necessarily need hands. An alternative option is to equip weapon arms, which drop hand weapons (and a lot of armor) in exchange for integrated dual heavy weapons which don't require a firing stance. These come in machine gun, gatling, and heavy cannon flavors, as well as both laser and plasma cannons, and missile launchers, which are normally back weapons.
These loadout choices can be supplemented with back weapons. The back weapon slots get heavy weapons which require either a kneeling stance or quad or tank legs to fire, as well as some unique categories only available in these slots. The heavy weapons are mostly scaled-up versions of the arm weapons: a (burstfire) linear gun for the rifle, a chaingun for the MGs, a slug gun for the shotguns, cannon versions of the pulse, laser, and plasma guns, and both the grenade launcher and the large rocket as big and bigger bazookas. Back weapons also get bomb dispensers (read: mines), dumbfire rockets like what you might expect from an MLRS truck, and, as you've already seen, homing missiles, which come in lots of flavors. We can also fill a back slot with a radar unit if one isn't included in the head part (one of these is currently on the right shoulder).
Obviously, the amount to keep track of has already blown way the hell up, and rather than try to pick something that sounds neat in a vacuum, I'm going to do the logical thing: look at the missions and pick my gear based on the scenario.
So, looking at the mission board, the three options seem a lot less scummy than what they led with. Fine by me. I'll just have a look at the first mission here, "Destroy Unknown MTs"
Article: Requester: Isaac City Guard
Advance: 0
Upon success: 12,000c
We just now discovered several unidentified MTs in the sewers. The MTs overwhelmed the Guards going to investigate and fled. I don't think they are ordinary citizens. Our reputation will be ruined if we let them go. We'll begin our search of the sewers at once, and drive them to you like cattle. You wait there and pound them.
Alright, it seems like the cops, being incompetent shitheads, ran into somebody up to sneaky shit and got their asses handed to them, so now they're running home crying—sorry, I meant "driving them to me." While I'm all for these cops getting their shit pushed in, shenaniganery in the sewers seems not good? Yeah, I think this is a good one to do next.
After having a look at the area map, I grab the WG-HG512 "handgun" (again, read: shotgun—it literally has a pump grip). I also grab the B-P350 boosters, which are a straight upgrade over the stock part, as a quality of life upgrade.
It goes pretty well. The shotgun isn't quite as powerful as I'd like for a close-quarters gun, but it does fine. This area is just one long tunnel with a couple of doors and the occasional crate. The crates explode if they take too much damage, which hurts, so I need to be careful while using them as cover. Since there's just 8 of these AT-ST knockoffs, I clear the mission real fast.
Nice.
We have a new mission here that wasn't available before, but I'm going to attend to that one later. Instead, I decide to take on the second mission this time, since it seems easier (going by the promised reward.)
Article: Requester: Fortgarden Guard
Advance: 0
Upon success: 17,000c
The city security system that we monitor has been destroyed and security MTs from various areas are running amuck. The true perpetrator is as yet unknown. All of the Guards are trying to control the situation, but the scope of damage is too wide, so we cannot completely handle it. We are asking the Ravens for help. Destroy all of the security MTs in the business district of the city. We have already evacuated the citizens. No need for restraint.
Hm. Corporate sabotage, or some other player deciding to make a mess? Either way, killbots running around downtown, while a perennial cyberpunk staple, is probably a thing somebody should do something about.
Whaddya know, I'm somebody, and they're gonna pay me to do it. I swap back to the machine gun and hop in.
The mission area is a big open business district, so there's very long sightlines for these MTs, which have missiles, to take advantage of. Fortunately, they're neither smart nor tough, so focused fire brings them down. My biggest problem is them attacking beyond the render distance, or when I'm trying to get good shots of this area.
I'm kind of struck by how normal this whole area looks. There's grass! Trees, even! Never mind that this whole place is underground and there's no obvious replacement for sunlight. You'd think that in this corporate dark future it'd look more cyberpunk—more neon, with a zillion ads all the time--but I guess all the effort that would have gone into that went to the robots.
After cleaning up the last killbot, I grab my pay and go home.
Building up a nice little stockpile here. Next!
Article: Requester: Chrome
Advance: 0
Upon success: 18,000c
We want you to attack the terrorist group "Struggle" that is occupying the oil extraction facility "Tide". Although this facility is now completely abandoned, we were at the point of initiating a retrofit plan. Their purpose can be none other than to sabotage our company. We cannot let this delay construction, that would only play into their hands.
The Tide facility may have some old tanks that still contain oil. They might explode if hit, so be very careful in your operations.
Yeah I totally buy that you guys were going to retrofit this oil rig. Definitely weren't just gonna let it sit there and are mad that somebody else is using it. Sure.
Since the mission brief says we've got flying enemies, I decide to rework the build. I sell off the old boosters, the shotgun, and the old machine gun to pick up the WG-MG500, which is the upgraded model. This also seems like a good time to try out reverse joints, but I don't have quite enough cash to grab a set that has enough carrying capacity. The solution? I sell off the legs I have and then buy the LB-4401 legs. This is exploiting the way the shop mechanics work a little bit: the game won't let you exchange parts, and it won't let you launch without essential parts like legs, but you can sell all of them off—you're going to have to buy something to put on the AC anyway, and prices are the same buying and selling.
Satisfied, I launch the mission.
Since we're out on the water, there's no cover besides the rig. The drones come in two flavors: the red ones fire missiles which clearly don't turn all that well, and the blue ones have flamethrowers, which are strictly a knife-fight weapon. I get close enough to use the rig as cover and lock on with my MG, and just start running in a circle while hosing down everything that gets in my lockbox. This strategy works well. Really well.
Really, really well. Dayum.
After I make it back to the Nest, I get a couple new emails.
Article: You're pretty handy with an AC, but that alone is not enough for you to survive. Not skill alone.
Remember this well.
Uh huh. Assholes.
Article: Despite the small scale of its activities, the armed group "Struggle" (sworn to fight against Chrome) is famous among the militaristic factions for being well-armed, exceeding even "Imminent Storm".
In other words, they must have some powerful backing behind them. The only corporation that has the power to resist Chrome is none other than Murakumo Millennium. Murakumo must be giving some sort of organizational support to Struggle in order to whittle away at the power of Chrome; a very likely situation as you must see.
I'll be in touch.
The plot begins to thicken. The corporations using proxies to fuck with each other instead of engaging in open conflict with their own security forces (or mercenaries) is a classic cyberpunk play. I wonder if we'll learn any more about this group and what they want. Also, what the hell is that logo? Don't put words in there, how do you expect people to spray-paint it onto things?
Whatever. I take a look at the mission board, and I see I've got two new missions, plus the one to rescue the transport truck that I left alone earlier. One of the new missions is apparently to take out another group of squatters which, no, God damn it, not again. I've left that truck sitting for a while—what, did they just leave it there for days or something—so if it's stayed on the board they must be pretty insistent about it. Let's have a look.
Article: Requester: Chrome
Advance: 0
Upon success: 20,000c
We lost communications with one of our transport trucks heading for Avalon Valley, somewhere near the Nassau Tunnel. We strongly believe that this was an act of a terrorist group targeting the advanced chemical weapons loaded on the truck. If this is true, we cannot leave this up to the Guards.
Go to the site ASAP and search for the truck. Eliminate anyone who interferes. The safety of the vehicle is of utmost priority. Do not forget this.
One more thing. Innocent civilian vehicles may be traveling by the site. If you destroy any vehicles, compensation for the damages will be deducted from your pay. Good luck.
I'm sorry, you lost a truck full of chemical weapons? And its last known position was in a transit tunnel, full of civilians? That is still open? You people are fucking insane and I can't believe I'm trusting you to pay me. I wouldn't trust you to run a fucking lemonade stand!
Now I feel like a stupid asshole for letting this one sit, holy shit. I swap out my stock generator for the GRD-RX5, which has much deeper reserves and a smaller red zone, because I was redlining a lot the last couple of missions, and then I go.
Right, don't shoot the truck full of chemical weapons, how hard could that be.
As the briefing warned, there are still civilian vehicles passing through this tunnel, but they go slow and aren't that numerous, so it's easy enough to just get on the median and stay out of their way. I figure it'd suck a lot to get stepped on by a mech while driving to work or whatever. I spot the first bad guy in the other tunnel and start laying into them—the enemy mechs are smaller but more nimble. After crushing the scout, I look down the tunnel and start firing at the rest as I advance down the tunnel until, well . . .
If you look closely, you may be able to realize why that was a bad idea. I don't know how many of my shots hit the truck, but fortunately, I haven't gassed this whole tunnel yet. I have to be a lot more careful with the rest of these guys, and there are two more coming down the tunnel.
I'm able to keep between them and the truck so I don't end up using them as a backstop again, but I end up boosting backwards at the wrong time and land ass-first into the truck, which explodes. Whoops.
So yeah, for failing that mission, I get no reward, am still out the expenses, and the mission's gone, I don't get to try again. Truck go boom. I should note at this point that if I blew enough missions, I could actually go into debt--I could still sortie, but I wouldn't be able to buy any new parts until I had a positive balance again, and if my debt got deep enough. . .
we'll get to that.
Now, I could move on and live with the consequences of this failure, but losing that mission would nag at me (never mind all the people who probably just got hit with Sarin or something equally awful), so I reload the save and try again, this time being a lot more careful.
Much better. Now Chrome is free to put those chemical weapons to proper use. Yay.
Since I've written almost 3k words for four missions and am at the image cap, I'm going to call it here for today. Tune in next time when we start actively facilitating corporate fuckery in earnest.
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- Location
- the Republic
- Pronouns
- He/They
There's no war like a corporate proxy war, because a corporate proxy war is conducted without regard for collateral damage or human life!
I do love how bleak this series is. Never change, FromSoft.
I do love how bleak this series is. Never change, FromSoft.
One thing I recall doing in this game is using energy weapons as much as possible to keep ammo costs down.
As for legs I do agree with building for the mission; both for effectiveness and for the fun factor. Being able to customize your mech so much is a perk it's a shame not to take advantage of, and it adds variety to the gameplay keeping it fresher.
As for legs I do agree with building for the mission; both for effectiveness and for the fun factor. Being able to customize your mech so much is a perk it's a shame not to take advantage of, and it adds variety to the gameplay keeping it fresher.
- Location
- Alberta
I'm pretty sure rockets don't force you to crouch to fire them—and I believe that's meant to be part of their selling point, giving you a relatively cheap, light, and easy to use source of big damage if you can work around the whole manual aiming thing—but I only know that for sure with respect to the first generation with small rockets. Not that it changes the general assessment of them being something you mostly want to use at point blank range or against really big and/or slow-moving targets unless you're really good with them.
Another thing worth noting is that a lot of series veterans don't put much stock in back radars since you can just use a head radar instead. I personally disagree with this because head radars are generally worse than back radars, but there's plenty of value in both approaches.
Another thing worth noting is that a lot of series veterans don't put much stock in back radars since you can just use a head radar instead. I personally disagree with this because head radars are generally worse than back radars, but there's plenty of value in both approaches.
The big rocket does require you to kneel, I think. Either way it's sold now.
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