Armored Core: ACVI: Fires of Rubicon (and legacy titles too)

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Anyone else excited for the return of one of the original fighty mech franchises?

Announcement trailer:

Gameplay trailer:

For years I've been jokingly saying that I wished that From would give up on their little SoulsBorne fad and give us a new AC title, but now they're actually doing it!

I played most of the games in the series from the original on the PlayStation to the last of the AC3 spinoffs (Last Raven), but I couldn't get into AC4, and I skipped AC5 entirely. Now that they're returning to the series, my longshot hope is that AC6 can generate enough interest in the series that From will go crazy and give us remasters of the older games, particularly the AC1/AC2 era games that don't have the option for twin stick controls.

Speaking of the older games, the drop from orbit in gameplay trailer for 6 really reminded me of the into for AC2:

 

[Haze Arquebus]

I never did get to try any of the prior games, but I remember reading those articles in Tips & Tricks back in the day where people would submit their mech creations to the person running it, and they'd create it, take it for a test run, and review it with the listed parts. That was always really neat to me, but since I was a Nintendo kid, out of my reach to try anything like it until Gamecube Custom Robo came around.

I plan on giving this a solid try, though with how hard i've bounced off Dark Souls and Bloodborne, I'm pretty nervous about how it'll wind up being in terms of difficulty.

 

[tec]

I own 11 of the 15 only missing 4 Answers and V Victory but out of those only beaten
Project, Arena, 2, 3 Silent Line, Last Raven and Another Age

 

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Gameplay demo!

(I don't know if the timecode will work for mobile users, but if it starts at the beginning there's 14 minutes of 'dead air' at the start that you can skip)

 

[tec]

No one in town had a copy it was ether sold out or not stocked so ordered mine will be here on the 7th

 

[MEDdMI]

I plan on giving this a solid try, though with how hard i've bounced off Dark Souls and Bloodborne, I'm pretty nervous about how it'll wind up being in terms of difficulty.

I've been watching TMM play it here and there. There is no difficulty slider. The settings I've seen are all dark and grimy. Lots of depression grays and browns. TMM dies a lot.
But, I've also seen some fun and silly mechas people are making. The amount of customization is crazy. Of course, you have to unlock the parts first... But hey, paint is free!

 

[Haze Arquebus]

I've been watching TMM play it here and there. There is no difficulty slider. The settings I've seen are all dark and grimy. Lots of depression grays and browns. TMM dies a lot.
But, I've also seen some fun and silly mechas people are making. The amount of customization is crazy. Of course, you have to unlock the parts first... But hey, paint is free!

Yeah, I expect all of that. I did get it, and managed to fumble my way through the introductory boss after a frankly embarrassing amount of time/attempts, but I at least actually had fun doing it. Then I made my robit purple and promptly went back to SRW 'cause I'm in a plot groove there, I'll come back to this later.

 

[The Mighty Mollusk]

Well, I just got the Bad Ending of 6.

Spoiler

Killed Rusty and Ayre, the two friendliest characters; wiped out an entire sentient species that only wanted to help and cooperate; and set fire to the entire Rubicon star system, rendering the planet forever uninhabitable. And then disappeared into the flames, to be immortalized as the monster who triggered the Fires of Raven.

Time for New Game Plus. Once I can feel my hands again.

 

[The Mighty Mollusk]

Two endings down. This time....

Spoiler

...By siding with the Rubiconians, I prevented the system from being annihilated, inspiring the people of Rubicon 3 to rise up against the corporations, with Ayre using the Raven callsign as a rallying cry. The downside is that Carla and Chatty can't be talked down and have to be killed in a pretty rough dual boss fight, followed by a rematch with a rebuilt Balteus, and a final boss fight with Handler Walter, atop the burning city-ship Xylem as it plummets through the atmosphere. And he's clearly been broken during his imprisonment, sorry, "re-education", since he can barely string a coherent sentence together and he keeps confusing his motivations and who he's fighting....which does not in any way hinder the fact that he's piloting a high-powered AC souped up with Coral-powered weapons that can wipe the floor with you pretty easily.

Still, a far less bleak ending than the first one. The war with the corporations isn't over, but the Rubiconians have hope (and also aren't on fire).

There are some differences between playthroughs. In one early mission, for example, the first time through, you're accompanied by two of the Redguns to destroy a generator; on New Game Plus, you get a message partway into the mission offering a different commission to betray and kill both of them. There's also some parts and some Arena opponents that don't unlock until NG+.

Now onto NG++ for the true final ending.

 

[The Mighty Mollusk]

Ending 3 down. Woof, that was brutal.

Spoiler

By rejecting both the corporations and the Rubiconians, the third path sides with ALLMIND, the mercenary support AI network.....which intends to use the Coral to assimilate humanity into its collective consciousness. That's bad.

Oh, and the Simulated Arena battles? That was ALLMIND using you to learn new tactics. Way to go, Raven!

So everything goes to hell, ALLMIND hijacks all of the non-piloted drones and slaughters everyone, then decides that since the player won't be assimilated, they need to die. While ALLMIND also calls up the mind of recurring boss Iguazu for an extra edge.

Final boss starts with ALLMIND Iguazu's super AC, alongside four more ACs, in a wide-open battlefield with no noteworthy cover. Get past that, and they ditch that AC for and even bigger and stronger one, while also calling up two of the Sea Spider boss (in its second form, because of course) for backup (Ayre shows up in an AC to back you up, but honestly, she isn't a lot of help). Get past that, and Iguazu hijacks ALLMIND and goes apeshit (and disables Ayre's AC) for a climactic showdown. Overall, a long, grueling ordeal, that I eventually passed after multiple attempts with one single AP and very little ammo left.

And then the final ending, Alea Iacta Est. Latin for "The die is cast". With ALLMIND shutting down, Ayre releases the Coral to merge with humanity, without taking away their free will like ALLMIND intended, pushing both species forward into the unknowable future. It took me a minute to realize......

......It's the Synthesis ending from Mass Effect 3. All life is forced to evolve, without knowledge or consent. It's framed as the golden solution, as if it were inevitable once humanity found the Coral, but....I dunno. Feels weird.

Overall I think I liked the second ending better. For one thing, Rusty lived.