I like the idea of the destruction path. The corporations finally found a monster worse than themselves and one that couldn't be stopped, like a nightmare of a dying madman made flesh.
I remember hearing about the theory that Line Ark's White Glint was actually controlled by an AI that Fiona installed in memory of the pilot she grew to love, that something happened to him after the ending of Armored Core 4, which is why we get the ending in 4 with, "It is not my place to speak of what happened after".
I mean in ac its a very vailed theory. Ai is quite the topic in any generation. Plus it would open up a whole new idea like white glint really being like Cube only as an ai instead. But i admit i would like Fiona to have the raven she grow close with to be still there.
The endings of ACFA always make me so sad. You either get The League ending, where while you're "doing the right thing" in reality you're only upholding the status quo and letting people continue to live their simple lives in the cradles. Serene mentions this and says "mankind is safe to dream, floating above the clouds, is that your answer? So be it." Meanwhile for the ORCA ending, while you are "doing the right thing" you're only forcing humanity through a meat grinder (cranked by Omer Science) to make them move forward into space. It always makes me kinda sad when Wynne D says "To treasure a life, is that something to laugh at? Everything is twisted...you...this world...all of it." It feels like Wynne is speaking to the player directly, telling them this was the wrong path to take. The only solace to this is after the credits roll and it finishes the talk of dying babies, it sounds like humanity will finally be able to grow again. Lastly the Destruction Path is just that, pure destruction. Its the only real answer that doesn't involve playing into the hands of some corporation, and sadly that ends with Strayed becoming the worst monster the world has ever seen, by just killing indiscriminately. No one can stop him as he tears it all down to nothing.
Yeah, the AC4 and 4A Timeline really are depressing, AC5 and Verdict Day also are depressing, there is no good in this world. Everyone just wants to keep the sad status quo, trampling everything under foot. The saddest part is, the path of destruction in 4A really is for all intents and purpose my pick for Strayed's fate, if you look at the mess that the enviroment of AC5 is outside the cities and the wrecks of Cradles in Verdict Day, also corporate shanigans happening there as well. My guess is, in the end Strayed's story is just another life twisted by the influences of others. Man as a child I loved the games, simply because of big mechs, big guns, explosions and fast action, now I just realise how depressing their world just is.
@@ReaVen443 nah, orca ending is the best. If humanity is going to suffer anyways, might as well suffer for progress, to hell with the status quo and the edge lord destroy path.
@@armoredcorelore Fortunately there seems price inflation in terms of human lives where millions of others in that time may worth lower in other timelines XD
coming to this, the destruction ending fits for a man who simply snaps. and with hard mode having your op come in to do the job of killing you, only to possibly be brutally torn apart for your 'answer' in a world like ACFA's kinda fits.
I really don’t blame Strayed for joining Old King, the people on the Cradles were essentially already dead and he was SICK of being used as a pawn throughout literally the entire game. Strayed had TRIED to do good for Line Ark, and failed, he TRIED to join Orca and do good, but he was being used… What person wouldn’t snap after all that? Making themselves a target and hunted down for NOTHING
The ending I prefer. Not going by A or B; just like Old King he eventually found that his efforts were only in the wake of someone elses ideology. So he opted for option C. Probably my favourite character from Armored Core, with both White Glint's as close second.
Coolest thing about the destruction path is that it's the canon ending. With humanity essentially reset, they essentially lose the advancements of technology from the time of the Dismantlement War and Kojima entirely. AC5 starts with them unearthing old normal technology and creating new, smaller and primitive AC units. The only time we see a next is in AC5 Judgement Day, when they finally repurpose what is supposed to be the Next that Strayed used to destroy most of humanity. Man this series needs to come back.
If the one fan's timeline theory is correct, it's probably right. The Playstation AC games aren't the start of the series, they are in the middle. And AC2 on Mars may have been a spin off - what if storyline.
@@TKUltra971 Huh I've never thought of that. I know that FromSoft has officially stated that the AC universe resets for every game except for 2-3, but AC1 being in the middle would make a lot of sense lore-wise.
The Destruction Path is not the canon ending. Humanity didn't die from Kojima poisoning, which is what would've happened if Strayed followed the League or Destruction paths. In Armored Core 5, The Corporation has a space station. Since we know 5th Gen is connected to 4th Gen, this would mean the Assault Cells were destroyed, because otherwise the Assault Cells would still be shooting down anything trying to reach space. This only happens when you complete the Closed Plan in the ORCA ending. If Armored Core 6 is connected to the 4th and 5th Gen, that just reinforces even further that the ORCA path is the canon path.
@@corvus9359was it ever said if ORCA didn’t still go ahead with destroying the assault cells? Cause ether way the cradles are gone so might as well you know
Jesus, no matter the ending no matter the good you try to do. Strayed loses every time. In the end, in the destroyed ending, he loses even himself. This man's life was even sadder than Anatolia's mercenary.
The only effective difference between the ORCA path and the Destruction path is the "Closed Plan." The cradles come down either way, and you become wanted across the globe.
Sure, the orca path is strayed believing in Orca's cause and wanting to change the world that way while the destruction path is strayed basically throwing thier hands up in the air and going duck all this noise, I'm sick of this world and the people in it, your all dead.
Well while you do that don't forget to add in some lines like, In over your head, mister mercenary? Did you think I was the same as the others and Dog me will you. Berlioz approved lines.
There's a theory that each of the other Eras corresponds to a different ending. League ending leads to the events of the 3-Last Raven, Orca leads to 1-Another Age, and Destruction leads to the events of V and Verdict Day
Not really, regardless of what you do, it was all going to collapse anyway. League end is unsustainable, and orca never specified when humanity would make the leap to outer space. Regardless of what ending you get, verdict day was inevitable.
The destruction path is not the canonical ending. The destruction path doesn't result in the elimination of the Assault Cells. 5th Gen features a space station, meaning the Assault Cells are no longer destroying anything trying to reach space, meaning the Assault Cells were destroyed. Only the ORCA ending results in the destruction of the Assault Cells. If AC6 is also linked to Gen 4 and 5, that just reinforces the ORCA ending as the canonical ending.
@@serraramayfield9230 Yamamura said "there are no direct links." Examples of direct links would be things like appearances from characters from previous games, or directly showing events that happened in previous games. Even if we don't get those, that doesn't mean there won't be indirect links to Gen 4 and 5. We've already seen some of those indirect links in the trailer, with Primal Armor and Assault Armor, which were a Gen 4 technology that was also featured in Gen 5. It's still entirely possible for AC6 to exist in the same universe as Gen 4 and 5, and for all we know, there could be direct links that will only be noticed by people who played the Gen 4 and 5 games.
I am always impressed by your ability to distill a clear storyline from the often times convoluted and chaotic themes presented in these games. Excellent work as always and thank you for the entertainment. With all the fresh lore and a new title approaching i'm back into the AC series hard, it's been too long.
Thank you for your kind praise and I'm glad to hear your enjoyed as I'm never one hundred percent about how it all comes across. May i also say welcome back raven/lynx.
ACL I’m late as hell because I had to work but I’m gonna listen to this as I decompress but I gotta say you’re one of the best things to happen to the armored core fandom. Whenever AC6 or whatever it may be gets announced I hope your channel skyrockets
The destruction path, just feel like a edge lord throwing a tantrum. Whether your being used or not, the orca ending is honestly the best. Shore your still a monster, but atleast it gives humanity a chance, and it's the only ending that gives main character a reason to fight.
I've replayed for answer not that long ago after seeing one of your video. From memory I didn't thought armored core 4 and answer had that much backstory. Good to be able to learn all of that thanks to your work.
"Don't bring politic in my video game," and then realize the entire point of Armored Core series is just politic that solve by big robot. Again, as always, great video and I wish you the best in the future! (This comment is written as I'm watching the video... it's gonna be long) Corporation is always something when it comes to money, know how to create thing whether collaborated or not for money even for something that supposedly "save" humanity like you said. Yet when thing goes south... they turn their back, throw everything away and save their own neck. A wise green-haired fraudster cat once said, "I can do business anywhere in the world as long as there are customers." Anatolia's Mercenary, the White Glint, a fitting name for the last hope of a "revolution force," who try to shake the current leadership for the better or worse... they fight and maybe even steal just to survive. Do the corporate leader even know how it feels to be hungry? Arms Fort, the pinnacle of war machine, the ARMS race corporation... it is a force to be reckoned with, The Spirit of Motherwill and The Answerer never failed to give me goosebumps for each encounter, the surge of adrenaline that flow through my blood keeping me on the edge of my seat... it's all or nothing... and then there is the music... oohhhh~ I'm scary. The Arms Fort battle, for me, is the peak of FromSoftware Experience. 16:00 My girl just pull Capt. Price shenanigans, "That was an improvement, but it's not hard to improve on garbage." Trivia: During "Take Back Cradle 21" mission, if you boost high enough, you will see something shooting at you... of course it was an Assault Cell. Julius Emery's EN voice is kinda cute doe 😳 Before dive into the Ending path, the bridge between chapter, the narrator... it's really unnerving to hear "It is a declaration of war" accompanied by the intense background music. Imagine what would happen if that reach people in Cradle, or someone with power there leak the declaration? What can you do? Pray to who in this cruel world? Will someone save them? Or everyone will die? If they were saved, will they realize it... and if someone leaks it, what happen to them now? Or if thing goes south... imagine the panic and terror inside... knowing well they will die horribly. That's up to you to decide and interpret, as we, people down here, doesn't have the luxury of being safe up there... or the fear of dying and turbulence at any given time. And thus... a great power comes great responsibility. What happen NEXT is your choice. THE LEAGUE To me, The League Ending feels like that ending you would get for doing the bare minimum, it's not a Bad Ending, and it's not a Good Ending either... you leave with more question than answer, the corporation keep standing still for what's the dark future to behold. You either die as a hero, or live long enough as a corporate slave, with hero in this case being... a throwaway pawn, a disposable "One Man Army", or just a stepping stone for them to get bigger. But at least... I can live or die alongside my wife, Wynne D. Fanchon. Even if the world against us and as long we trust each other... that's what matter, and leave the future to the next generation... starting over from Zero (Spanish guitar plays). THE ORCA To me, The ORCA Ending is the plausible canon ending, but at the same time... you live long enough as a monster, killing million of million people for the sake of "giving humanity another chance." Even if you are hunted down to the end of the world, no one is to judge what is right from wrong, you did the best you can do on what you believe in. And it is up to them to take that chance or rot away in this broken world. Let me ask you something... does giving a chance for humanity to atone their sins at the cost of sacrificing a million of people worth it, or a war crime? THE DESTRUCTION Ahhh, the Destruction Path, the 1,000,000 C mission of pure terror and fear... for the receiving end. This is the mission that test your moral, will you kill millions of people for 1,000,000 C, maybe even something greater... to become monster itself... or hatred for humanity and corporation? No matter how people see it, what you did is an act of terrorism... genocide. All it take is just the taste of something bigger, same like drug, you hit it once, and you want more and more and more until you eventually addicted; or robbery, it only took one setup where you are paid by someone to pretend as a robber, and it will give you the adrenaline rush of taking something valuable so easily. And that applies here, it only takes one mission, 5 Cradles, and 100 million defenseless people for you to take more.
Amazing comment. I honestly prefer the Destruction ending due to how human it portrays Strayed, they just couldn't handle the corporate and idealistic bullshit anymore, so they snapped and we know where that lead. It also differentiates from the typical heroics and makes Strayed stand on their own feet as a different character with their own drive.
if i was actually given a choice even back in highschool when i played this for the 1st time, i would have joined line ark to the end, even if that ended in something similar to the orca path. Always hated getting 2 depressing choices and the orca one being the best imo
I think you would not be alone in your choice, which is why its a shame fromsoft did not give us a link ark ending as i have seen many lynx say they would join line arks side but i understand why.
as a new armored core player (working my way through 4 and 4A) your channel is incredible mad props to you, get ready for an insane amount of traffic when AC6 releases.
I'm not gonna lie, this is easily my favorite AC game, the story was so fun with the corporate intrigue and plus the actual AC's look amazing in every way!!!❤
I think that's brill, ac4 to FA are games i still hold dear to my heart thanks to the points you made the story, the corporations history and the ac's even if formula front will always be my favourite.
@@armoredcorelore we should be thanking you. I can see the passion you put into this. I’m going through every video slowly reliving years of armored cores I played. So thank you🍻the stories are even clearer now.
Old Kings death is NOT scripted and you can keep him alive on Occupation of Arteria Carpals. It doesnt have any additional dialog or change the ending in anyway though so this was probably not an intended outcome. For those looking to replicate this I vaguely recall him being able to handle a 1v1 fight pretty well but will struggle in a 2v1 and I dont know if any of the enemy ACs are particularly bad matchups for him as Ive only pulled this off once by accident on hard. I think he ended up fighting Lilium on my fight but Im not positive on this but I am sure he wasnt fighting Kasumi or Otsdarva.
Great contribution, you are one of the best things that has happened to the Armored Core community. Great video. Little to say about the video except congratulate you. Every time I finish the game again, I can't help but think that ''for answer'' is missing a final quarter, where Strayed teams up with the Anatolia's Mercenary & Fiona, and they overthrow the league and ORCA without those millions of fights happening. unnecessary deaths. Seeing that in Verdict Day, there are remains of technology belonging to White Glint, it would not be entirely unreasonable to think that For Answer had a fourth route, with a more benevolent ending for humanity. Even if it was temporary since as seen in Armored core V / Verdict Day, the damage caused by Kojima particles is terrifying, and the decline of society could not be avoided again.
Thank you for you kind praise and well honesty as much i like happy endings, i think even if Strayed and White Glint had teamed up both would have fallen to the leagues power as the corporations really had so much to thrown at the lynxs which they did not.
@@armoredcorelore What you say is a good point. I also think that if Strayed had a Next on par with White Glint, without getting the eventual cooperation of Kasumi Sumika (Mu-luv reference, i love this) actively piloting his next again, and taking into account how weak it was. that it was at that point in Collared history, that it did not have an abundance of talented next. In the end, apart from the military power of normals, possible autonomous Nexts like 02, and serial production Arm Forts, as far as talented Lynx are concerned, they would only have to take care of Otsdarva and Lilium Wolcott, at most a serial production of Cube. With an honest aim away from massacres of millions, Wynne D. Fanchon and Roadie would have surely joined the side of Strayed and White Glint. They are only assumptions, but the fact of seeing the dialogues of these characters throughout the story mode makes me think it possible that there were enough elements for a less bad ending than the 3 proposed by from software.
Well done end to the gen 4 lore and thank you for taking the time to make these videos I have been excited for every Saturday to see the new one, I am also excited and looking forward to you covering human plus and gen 1 lore.
I mean why not? Strayed is very much a blank state and I'm sure if i asked any player of ACFA what they would all have a different idea about who strayed is to them.
@@armoredcorelore I even adapted some of his lines to Armored Core verse: "So, have you found a reason to fight yet? 'Sumi. "Can you see any Cradles from here? What has Cradles given us?" "Too bad 'Sumi, this twisted game of corporations needs to be reset. Humanity's going to start over from Zero. We'll entrust the future to Line Ark"
As someone who usually gets lost when it comes to complicated political plots in a story, I must admit, the lore of Armored Core 4 is Very interesting, and I thank you for dedicating an entire channel to talk about the stories of this franchise. I only saw some videos from the franchise in the past, but recently, I saw the entire game movie of Armored Core 6 out of boredem, and I got intrigued.
The lore of ac4 is quite the popular one in the ac fandom and thank you for your kind praise. I'm glad to read you found the lore of ac4 interesting, it and armoured core for answer do have one of the more detailed stories. I hope you'll give the history of the other ac games a watch or a playthrough too.
MAN I enjoyed this video and "AC4A"! I am HAPPY to see more interest in AC! I hope Hidetaka Miyazaki the president of From Software is watching! You did a Good Job Armoredcorelore! 👏 👍 👌
15:15, hehe, but ONLY in Hard mode version of this mission in the game it exploded! in the normal difficulty it carried you further to the Arms fort! Jesus cannot believe is still remember all of this from like a decade ago... the nostalgia hits hard with this video
The only thing I remembered is how bitter sweet it was achieving such a feat. Yes you defeated five mechs only to have the player character roam freely to kill as he pleases.
It is possible the the destruction ending is cannon purely because the dark raven is mentioned to be the destroyer of the world or its savior... armored core verdict day...
It is after all there really is no solid evidence about what ending is cannon in ACFA, all we know is VD happens 100 years after ACV which is quite the gap but gives a lot of wiggle room in the lore department of what's and if's.
It's honestly a bummer that there isn't an ending where Strayed helps Line Ark succeed in overthrowing the corporations. Strayed betrayed the corporations to join Line Ark, just for them to immediately collapse after White Glint is shot down. He proved himself to be at least equal to White Glint in combat ability, but Line Ark had lost the will to fight. With nowhere else to go, Strayed joined the ORCA Brigade, which turned out to be a secretly controlled by OMER, making him an unknowing pawn of the corporationsl.
League's ending has the best concluding line. ("And so mankind is free to dream, floating above the clouds. Is that your Answer? So be it.") ORCA's ending is the best case scenario for humanity to survive despite the sheer amount of pain and suffering that would have to happen in the short-term. The Destruction path is just plain cruel but in a twisted sense might just be a mercy compared to the slow death by long-term Kojima contamination. And who doesn't like hearing Old King hum a jaunty little tune as he helps you do it? Or the massive 1v5 fight afterwards as every surviving LINX comes down on you like a vengeful sword of Damocles finally free of it's thread?
I do like old king tunes. Still yes i like this and i also like to think it reflects on the type of person strayed may have become. Did the lynx become a hero to the people, the villain they needed to change thier ways or the monster who simply tore a broken world apart because he wanted too.
You know what, looking back, I'm not surprised that Otsdarva, or rather.. Maximilian Thermidor did what he did, he is voiced by Kyle Hebert, most might better know him as Sosuke Aizen. 😎
Minor observation on AF Cabrican. Over a couple playthroughs it seems that the Gigabase that shows up to help you... doesn't really fire at Cabrican/the drones, unless they're close to your NEXT. Now it might jsut be my luck that happening. But I wonder if there were at one point, plans to make the Gigabase a threat to the player. Much like the later "Destroy the 8th fleet" mission where Stigro is aggressive to the player (even on normal mode, it's AI gets stuck targeting the player all the time)
Its a good one. I'll have to have a look myself at the mission as to be honest most times i have played the mission the shots have been nowhere near the player. However We know other giga bases are foes in the game so perhaps it a programming idea that the shots are close to the player so they hit the drones. Again its a guess at best as I've little knowledge on how programming works.
@@armoredcorelore Oh yeah, you might have your work cut out for you with the AC6 teaser dropping. Gonna be a lot of thirsty soulsborn fans looking for lore on the old games and anything on the new one.
Thank you for the part 2 man, i've been waiting for this and cuz of this vid i can understand the story much better than before, and HYPE FOE HUMAN PLUS LET'S GOOOOOOOOOOOO
Playing 4Answer alone, the League path might seem like the "good ending". But when you take into account the events of the previous game, you have to assume that the League path is actually more of a bad end. The MC from Armored Core 4 is a good person. Or at least, mostly good. Having to take them out seems awful. And obviously the Destruction path is bad because pointless killing is not good. The Orca path is the ideal path it seems. Punish the elites who treat the planet like a chess board.
Ah its nice to see the thoughts of other Lynx on the paths. It is after all about what you feel is the right answer and while orca maybe a puppet of the elite maybe the elite had the right idea.
With the games v and soon 6, i think the orca path is what happened. As without the cradles and now access to space. The corps were forced to clean up the radiation AND build towards to space for survival.
@@armoredcorelore also in ac 6. It appears they may use cradles on other worlds. As the architecture on one part of the missions appears very much like the cradles you destroy in ac4. Might just be art repurposing though.
In 2 of those endings you being down cradles, in 1 you bring them all down but arnt seen as monster in the other you bring a couple down and are the worst thing since pineapple pizza. Forgot to add brillent piece of content from a long, long time armoured core veteran.
@@armoredcorelore evidently so. Ha ha. I just found your channel since my copy of AC6 arrived and I've been getting back into the universe again. I look forward to watch watching more of your content.
I never knew that there was a different option for patch and friends... I've never once given him a moment of peace the second the sortie starts. I laid waste to him and his new friends. I love learning something new.
@@armoredcorelore hi and thank you, I only say this because the end of v days talks about some ultra-raven killing machine legend. The end of answer said somthing along the same line. But who knows, I'm just seeing random word patterns. Anything is possible.
For the fifth generation i need more time with the game before i settle on an answer about the connections, currently I'm working my way through the fifth gen books to get a firm grip on the what, why and when? But i will cover it. And oh yes i will be cover all the generations as that was my goal when i created the channel, i just wanted to cover as much as i could in a generation before moving on.
I know you've said you're stopping gen 4 for now, but I was always hoping to get an aldra video, whether it's on the hilbert or soldner, or the corporation as a whole, they're such an underrated company and ever since sherring I've loved that Jack of all trades heavy style of next they make. Don't worry if you don't plan on doing one, but if you ever fancy coming back to 4/4A then I'd love you forever :')
I know there's a good number of people saying the Orca path is the good ending and even a group saying Destruction path is the good ending, somehow, but my take is that there literally is no good ending. There is no way that the story of Armored Core For Answer can end well given the circumstances (except maybe White Glint defeating Strayed at Line Ark, but then we don't have a video game if that happens). The League path is obviously bad because it keeps the world in the state of status quo that was a problem in the first place. Half of humanity continues to suffer on the surface while the other half chosen by the social elites enjoy peace and tranquility on the cradles, albeit only for a limited time before KP pollution claims them as well. The Orca path sounds good at first until you remember that Orca is not a genuine freedom fighting agency, and they're actually controlled opposition with the strings being pulled by Omer Science. Heck, Orca's leader is Omer's top Lynx, pretty hard to consider them the good guys when you pull behind the curtain. Even when Orca accomplishes their goal, sure humanity is forced to glide back down to the surface to only suffer temporarily before the anti-satellite batteries eliminate the assault cells, but as soon as humanity advances to space it only gives the corporations more opportunity for economic exploitation and war, so humanity is more or less back to Pax Economica all over again. The Destruction path to some seems like a good outcome because it ends the tyranny of the corporations, but is it really worth it when it comes at the cost of the mass murder of countless millions? Sure the economic tyranny of the League is bad, but the mass murder of humanity is honestly far worse. Strayed becomes even more evil than the League if he chooses that route. It's like when people suggest that the Frenzied Flame ending in Elden Ring is somehow the best one, it just comes across as edgy and nihilistic. Basically my point is that Armored Core For Answer's story is the big sad no matter how it ends.
Ha ha big sad. Yes i would have to agree we never really do have a happy ending to an ac game expect formula front but still. I think this is what these paths are about really it leads to asking you the player what you think is the best ending? Is strayed a hero to the people of the cradles, is he the rebel who thinks he is changing the world for better or is he so fed up with it all and just wants to see the world burn. But my personal thought aside, I'd like to thank you for the comment.
@@armoredcorelore I would say Strayed is really the same kind of person that most Ravens are all the way back to AC1: mech pilots for hire just doing their jobs. Consequences mean little to most of them. They're just in the business to get paid, the politics of the conflicts they participate in are not usually of that much concern to them. If they do something heroic in the process of doing their jobs, so be it. I think it could be argued this is one way that even the destruction path could be interpreted, of course that just means Strayed still is horrifically evil in that path, but by indifference to human life rather than rage. Since we never hear him speak, and he's tied to a mediator party like Collared, much like most other Ravens in the series, his motivations can really only be speculated, if he even has one at all. It is interesting to contrast that to Anatolia's Mercenary and the protagonist of Project Phantasma though, who are more straightforwardly heroic.
@@mallow2902 Fair. I for one could see the Destruction Path as Strayed probably not even snapping but, more so realizing that if he becomes a rather dangerous monster, it forces the corporations and the people to focus on their efforts in stopping him. I also could see it being like he doesn't necessarily snap after killing millions of innocents via the cradle destruction, but probably after he has to kill his mentor. Like he essentially just goes all in to being evil after he loses the one and only actual person that was in his life prior to this in some way, and so with that he cuts all ties to his humanity-- and humanity as a whole-- to become this ruthless monster.
like @neatnoot214 said, you either choose the bad end with League, dying for nothing but an attempt to salvage peace, become a villain by killing millions so that the just can carve a path forward with ORCA, or just allow Old King to give you his crown as you realize the easiest and most terrifying choice is to decimate countless lives, murder your once allies and be seen as a blood-thirsty martyr as you try to find true justice by yourself. This is honestly the best AR in my opinion, next to AR 2. My God, the genius in every single WORD of the plot of this story makes me tremble. I didn't know how good these games really were.
By the way, where did you find that info about White Glint's pilot and Ostdarva getting extracted out of the water? I read somewhere in a forum about that a long time ago, but I thought it was only a theory.
Well i am sorry to say i have no proof that this happened, it was more a case of in my mind that is what i believed happened from the evidence we have. As from the book armored core a new order for nexts we can read in an interview between the journalist and Fiona where she say Line ark has a lynx ready, but refused to comment if it was the former pilot of White Glint. As for our omer lynx since he was such a key part of Omer's plan with his speeches and attacks, i think after he sunk into the sea i believe an underwater rescue would be the only way to recover him safely.
@@armoredcorelore Hope to find some Armored Core 3 and related game's lore videos. Also even if there weren't many some Armored Core 5 game's lore videos to. Please your our only hope.
Wonderful videos on AC lore, Armoredcorelore! for some reason I thought there were four endings to FA, but it's been a long time since I've played it so whatever. I haven't played any other generation of Armored Core games, but I've heard that V and VD are loosely sequels to 4 and FA, are you going to cover those games next?
Thank you and no i going to need some more time with the fifth gen as i would like to be sure of the information i present. But i promise i am working on research in the background as for now the focus will be on Gen one.
First, thank you for your videos, you're doing great work on your channel. I grew up playing Armored Core games (ACSL, ACLR, AC4, 4A, ACV/VD) and I spent a lot of my early teenage years in AC4/4A. I was too young to understand the sub-plots and careful detail in these games, so your channel has me revisiting my childhood with more clarity. It seems like the Old King Ending is the most logical and somewhat Canon ending since it combines all the knowledge we have acquired from the League and Orca path both; knowledge that all we fought for were just lies, manupilation and deceit. So f*ck 'em. Kill them all, make them have a true villain and maybe this time, humanity will finally come together for a common purpose: Killing Strayed. I also believe the name is unironically chosen by FromSoftware to fit this ending. Are you going to cover ACV/VD anytime this year? I know from a recent podcast you were in, that you do not subscribe to the link between 4th gen and 5th gen armored core much - or at least you do not like the idea of it (i'm paraphrasing-- do correct me if I'm wrong). But I really think they intended for it to be linked. Seeing as we encounter the Spirit of Motherwill and other similar technologies from the 4th gen era. And I also have this odd theory that the "Destruction Path Strayed" becomes the final boss of ACVD in his/her aftermath. I'm really curious what you think.
Thank you very much for you kind praise. I plan to try too however i still have the third generation to get through with their stories but keeping fingers crossed. And well as for the link between 4th and 5th gen its not a personal thing i promise as i just like to be sure on facts, the issue i face is we have lots of information from two sides and i want to be sure before i present that i have enough information behind me. Behind the scenes of all this i am currently going through the books of ACV and Verdict day putting bits together and even shared some on the AC reddit. I am forming an idea based of what i learning and i hope to present the story of ACV and Verdict day in a way that people will say yeah i get where you coming from. Really however i am not out to say this is the only way, i think the theories about subjects and the ideas about the timeline are what allow for great conversations about Armroed core. Plus i also like giant mechs and blowing stuff up so even i sometime turn off the lore brain and just enjoy some goods games.
I'm glad I can pause this, I'm sad it has to be because I'm clocking in now. Finishing this on my lunch. I'm going to be sad that the series is getting a send off Lore wise for now, however I'm excited about seeing coverage for the games I played FIRST that are the whole reason I love ACFA at all. Thank you for the legendary work you've done and will do. You're a gift and a blessing as well as being an absolute legend amongst pilots. A true NineBreaker. No offense to Hustler One here. Lol.
That's very kind. However as always i extend thanks back to you all who watch and comment. You make it all worth it and i will always smile when i read the thoughts, feelings and theories of Ravens and Lynxs.
@@armoredcorelore and that's awesome at least they're some (kinda)good ending in this shit show But I was wondering how does the intercorporation economy work I doubt a government can even exist for something like the current system where cash exists by backing to the global power of a country's government like the dollar being tied to the us government and if the government fails it looses all value so with that what's the armored core currency being backed by in the olden times it was gold but I don't think gold works when no one really cares about it
Well you ask a good question about economy there. As we know at the time of ac4 and acfa it was credits and most of these credits where used to trade between corporations and the public. While its not really talked about, i personally think how it works is very much like virtual currency. At the end of the day this was all just numbers being passed around that could be used and really since the league controlled collard, they really where just trading these numbers around and around. Like omer would pay a lynx 200,000 credit for a job, a lynx could then go and use that to pay for repairs which most of the time was done by the corporation themselves as even independent mercenaries would have to go to corporations to get parts fixed since their engineers had the knowledge. The same with parts if a lynx brought a omer part then that virtual money was simply sent back to omer. It never really talked about if there was ex engineers who made a living being an off grid mechanic. But the amount of space, kit and tools needed. Its heavily suggested corporations had this system in place where lynx had to go to them to get fixed or buy new parts.
@@armoredcorelore well that would kinda make sense since there shouldn't be much of a different system available where the money only has value if your dealing with other corporations but in the end the economy seems to be as shitty and unstable as the rest of the ac4 world soooo yeah funnily enough it's actually possible that it works like that
I've noticed some of your videos are really quiet for some reason. Audio mixing problem? Either way I have to turn ones like these way up and then risk blowing my ears out from a discord ping lol. Otherwise great content!
Yes I am afraid at first it was me getting to grips with audio programs. As for the most recent one i played around with the program to much then did an early morning recording resulting in the low sound. Still i do keep promising to remake them so have to put that down on holiday to do list. Oh but thank you for you kind words.
@@armoredcorelore Ah, I see. Content production can be really challenging, but it's nice to see someone trying their best to improve. I've always loved the AC games, and having someone like you around making quality content like these vids is simply awesome. Keep up the good work!
Even with the scale of the Cradles compared to 10-meter tall NEXTs, I find it hard to believe that each Cradle airship can hold 20 million. Maybe one could hold that many people if they packed in tight, but could it SUPPORT all those civilians? In my view, 20,000 is a more feasible number.
White Glint and fiona were truly the only ones who tried to stop it all
True.
It won't be a Fromsoftware game if people won't live in the miserable world.
To be fair, the world wasn’t super bad in AC2 and AA.
You're right, also in Armored core 3, Slient line, Formula Front and Ninebreaker feels like everyone will live in peace at some point.
@@chillzaa99
Then Nexus and onward said "welcome to capitalism at its finest" as the corporations fuck up the world with weapons they couldn't control
People doesn't in Tenchu...maybe
Yup, AC6 is literally confirmed to be post apocalyptic.
I like the idea of the destruction path.
The corporations finally found a monster worse than themselves and one that couldn't be stopped, like a nightmare of a dying madman made flesh.
It certainly is quite the nightmare ending then again it could be said nine-ball was very much the same.
They've created this nightmare. Now they have to live (or die) with it.
@@kroposman2302 What was the quote from Avengers: Age of Ultron? "We all create the things we fear the most."
@@kroposman2302 you make me feel better about the horrible endings
I remember hearing about the theory that Line Ark's White Glint was actually controlled by an AI that Fiona installed in memory of the pilot she grew to love, that something happened to him after the ending of Armored Core 4, which is why we get the ending in 4 with, "It is not my place to speak of what happened after".
I mean in ac its a very vailed theory. Ai is quite the topic in any generation. Plus it would open up a whole new idea like white glint really being like Cube only as an ai instead. But i admit i would like Fiona to have the raven she grow close with to be still there.
The endings of ACFA always make me so sad.
You either get The League ending, where while you're "doing the right thing" in reality you're only upholding the status quo and letting people continue to live their simple lives in the cradles. Serene mentions this and says "mankind is safe to dream, floating above the clouds, is that your answer? So be it."
Meanwhile for the ORCA ending, while you are "doing the right thing" you're only forcing humanity through a meat grinder (cranked by Omer Science) to make them move forward into space. It always makes me kinda sad when Wynne D says "To treasure a life, is that something to laugh at? Everything is twisted...you...this world...all of it." It feels like Wynne is speaking to the player directly, telling them this was the wrong path to take. The only solace to this is after the credits roll and it finishes the talk of dying babies, it sounds like humanity will finally be able to grow again.
Lastly the Destruction Path is just that, pure destruction. Its the only real answer that doesn't involve playing into the hands of some corporation, and sadly that ends with Strayed becoming the worst monster the world has ever seen, by just killing indiscriminately. No one can stop him as he tears it all down to nothing.
Well spoken!
Yeah, the AC4 and 4A Timeline really are depressing, AC5 and Verdict Day also are depressing, there is no good in this world.
Everyone just wants to keep the sad status quo, trampling everything under foot.
The saddest part is, the path of destruction in 4A really is for all intents and purpose my pick for Strayed's fate, if you look at the mess that the enviroment of AC5 is outside the cities and the wrecks of Cradles in Verdict Day, also corporate shanigans happening there as well.
My guess is, in the end Strayed's story is just another life twisted by the influences of others.
Man as a child I loved the games, simply because of big mechs, big guns, explosions and fast action, now I just realise how depressing their world just is.
@@ReaVen443 nah, orca ending is the best. If humanity is going to suffer anyways, might as well suffer for progress, to hell with the status quo and the edge lord destroy path.
@@venom0825 what is worse, to let a wound of the heart fester, or to cut it out?
@@superdarklink thats not a good analogy.
holy shit, destruction is truly the only way to get out of Omer puppetry.
It sadly is and the blood of millions of others is the price too.
@@armoredcorelore Fortunately there seems price inflation in terms of human lives where millions of others in that time may worth lower in other timelines XD
"Welcome to Earth"
I still get chills when I hear that line.
Me too. Its just performed so well.
coming to this, the destruction ending fits for a man who simply snaps. and with hard mode having your op come in to do the job of killing you, only to possibly be brutally torn apart for your 'answer' in a world like ACFA's kinda fits.
Like it. I like this.
I really don’t blame Strayed for joining Old King, the people on the Cradles were essentially already dead and he was SICK of being used as a pawn throughout literally the entire game.
Strayed had TRIED to do good for Line Ark, and failed, he TRIED to join Orca and do good, but he was being used…
What person wouldn’t snap after all that? Making themselves a target and hunted down for NOTHING
I agree with you on this
The ending I prefer. Not going by A or B; just like Old King he eventually found that his efforts were only in the wake of someone elses ideology.
So he opted for option C. Probably my favourite character from Armored Core, with both White Glint's as close second.
Unlike The League or ORCA Old King truly considered us a friend and a comrade
Whether you chose League or ORCA, Omer wins.
@@The_Longest_Handle_Of_All_Time true they control the league from the shadows
Coolest thing about the destruction path is that it's the canon ending. With humanity essentially reset, they essentially lose the advancements of technology from the time of the Dismantlement War and Kojima entirely. AC5 starts with them unearthing old normal technology and creating new, smaller and primitive AC units. The only time we see a next is in AC5 Judgement Day, when they finally repurpose what is supposed to be the Next that Strayed used to destroy most of humanity. Man this series needs to come back.
If the one fan's timeline theory is correct, it's probably right. The Playstation AC games aren't the start of the series, they are in the middle. And AC2 on Mars may have been a spin off - what if storyline.
@@TKUltra971 Huh I've never thought of that. I know that FromSoft has officially stated that the AC universe resets for every game except for 2-3, but AC1 being in the middle would make a lot of sense lore-wise.
The Destruction Path is not the canon ending. Humanity didn't die from Kojima poisoning, which is what would've happened if Strayed followed the League or Destruction paths. In Armored Core 5, The Corporation has a space station. Since we know 5th Gen is connected to 4th Gen, this would mean the Assault Cells were destroyed, because otherwise the Assault Cells would still be shooting down anything trying to reach space. This only happens when you complete the Closed Plan in the ORCA ending. If Armored Core 6 is connected to the 4th and 5th Gen, that just reinforces even further that the ORCA path is the canon path.
@@corvus9359was it ever said if ORCA didn’t still go ahead with destroying the assault cells? Cause ether way the cradles are gone so might as well you know
Isnt the verdict day next made from White Glint? The head is very similar, and the name includes the conspicuous letters "N- *WG*IX"
4th gen makes me look back at 3rd gens world and go "ya know maybe its not so bad there"
Ha ha the only world i would ever want to be apart of is formula front.
Jesus, no matter the ending no matter the good you try to do. Strayed loses every time. In the end, in the destroyed ending, he loses even himself. This man's life was even sadder than Anatolia's mercenary.
This is very true, it seems fate was cruel to him for his only path was one of blood shed and loss.
The only effective difference between the ORCA path and the Destruction path is the "Closed Plan." The cradles come down either way, and you become wanted across the globe.
Sure, the orca path is strayed believing in Orca's cause and wanting to change the world that way while the destruction path is strayed basically throwing thier hands up in the air and going duck all this noise, I'm sick of this world and the people in it, your all dead.
The king of niche mecha game lore
I love AC4 and AC4A. The choices given in AC4A has me consistently trying to do what Berlioz would have.
Well while you do that don't forget to add in some lines like, In over your head, mister mercenary? Did you think I was the same as the others and Dog me will you. Berlioz approved lines.
What's sad about 4 answers is the canonical ending seems to follow the destruction path.
There's a theory that each of the other Eras corresponds to a different ending. League ending leads to the events of the 3-Last Raven, Orca leads to 1-Another Age, and Destruction leads to the events of V and Verdict Day
Not really, regardless of what you do, it was all going to collapse anyway. League end is unsustainable, and orca never specified when humanity would make the leap to outer space. Regardless of what ending you get, verdict day was inevitable.
The destruction path is not the canonical ending. The destruction path doesn't result in the elimination of the Assault Cells. 5th Gen features a space station, meaning the Assault Cells are no longer destroying anything trying to reach space, meaning the Assault Cells were destroyed. Only the ORCA ending results in the destruction of the Assault Cells. If AC6 is also linked to Gen 4 and 5, that just reinforces the ORCA ending as the canonical ending.
@@corvus9359 6 apparently isn't linked to anything else
@@serraramayfield9230 Yamamura said "there are no direct links." Examples of direct links would be things like appearances from characters from previous games, or directly showing events that happened in previous games. Even if we don't get those, that doesn't mean there won't be indirect links to Gen 4 and 5. We've already seen some of those indirect links in the trailer, with Primal Armor and Assault Armor, which were a Gen 4 technology that was also featured in Gen 5. It's still entirely possible for AC6 to exist in the same universe as Gen 4 and 5, and for all we know, there could be direct links that will only be noticed by people who played the Gen 4 and 5 games.
It's great listening to this first thing in the morning with coffee
I am sitting outside work, and I've gotta admit, it's hot in my jeep but it's hotter in my heart for this.
Nothing like a bit of lore to start your day.
I am always impressed by your ability to distill a clear storyline from the often times convoluted and chaotic themes presented in these games. Excellent work as always and thank you for the entertainment. With all the fresh lore and a new title approaching i'm back into the AC series hard, it's been too long.
Thank you for your kind praise and I'm glad to hear your enjoyed as I'm never one hundred percent about how it all comes across. May i also say welcome back raven/lynx.
You tell the story so well. It’s shocking. The movie or tv series would be unthinkable.
Love the little inclusion of adding the human plus cutscene at the end to imply the next lore series to be gen 1hehe
Well i like to think it is what stood out most for Gen 1.
ACL I’m late as hell because I had to work but I’m gonna listen to this as I decompress but I gotta say you’re one of the best things to happen to the armored core fandom. Whenever AC6 or whatever it may be gets announced I hope your channel skyrockets
That is very kind of you to say and i hope so too.
Bro it got announced!!!
@@armoredcorelore AC6 is why im here now
The destruction path, just feel like a edge lord throwing a tantrum. Whether your being used or not, the orca ending is honestly the best. Shore your still a monster, but atleast it gives humanity a chance, and it's the only ending that gives main character a reason to fight.
A fair answer. Still i like the endings of ACFA because they do this, they create a topic of conversation and show the person behind the Next.
ACL: Commits war crimes, genocide and other atrocities.
ACL: "FOR THE LORE!"
Ha ha ah i like.
it still makes me chuckle that "Kojima" is a thing in the game.
With all the links the name has, you had to wonder if its creator was a fan.
I've replayed for answer not that long ago after seeing one of your video. From memory I didn't thought armored core 4 and answer had that much backstory. Good to be able to learn all of that thanks to your work.
Glad to hear and how was your replay?
"Don't bring politic in my video game," and then realize the entire point of Armored Core series is just politic that solve by big robot.
Again, as always, great video and I wish you the best in the future!
(This comment is written as I'm watching the video... it's gonna be long)
Corporation is always something when it comes to money, know how to create thing whether collaborated or not for money even for something that supposedly "save" humanity like you said. Yet when thing goes south... they turn their back, throw everything away and save their own neck. A wise green-haired fraudster cat once said, "I can do business anywhere in the world as long as there are customers."
Anatolia's Mercenary, the White Glint, a fitting name for the last hope of a "revolution force," who try to shake the current leadership for the better or worse... they fight and maybe even steal just to survive. Do the corporate leader even know how it feels to be hungry?
Arms Fort, the pinnacle of war machine, the ARMS race corporation... it is a force to be reckoned with, The Spirit of Motherwill and The Answerer never failed to give me goosebumps for each encounter, the surge of adrenaline that flow through my blood keeping me on the edge of my seat... it's all or nothing... and then there is the music... oohhhh~ I'm scary. The Arms Fort battle, for me, is the peak of FromSoftware Experience.
16:00 My girl just pull Capt. Price shenanigans, "That was an improvement, but it's not hard to improve on garbage."
Trivia: During "Take Back Cradle 21" mission, if you boost high enough, you will see something shooting at you... of course it was an Assault Cell.
Julius Emery's EN voice is kinda cute doe 😳
Before dive into the Ending path, the bridge between chapter, the narrator... it's really unnerving to hear "It is a declaration of war" accompanied by the intense background music. Imagine what would happen if that reach people in Cradle, or someone with power there leak the declaration? What can you do? Pray to who in this cruel world? Will someone save them? Or everyone will die? If they were saved, will they realize it... and if someone leaks it, what happen to them now? Or if thing goes south... imagine the panic and terror inside... knowing well they will die horribly. That's up to you to decide and interpret, as we, people down here, doesn't have the luxury of being safe up there... or the fear of dying and turbulence at any given time.
And thus... a great power comes great responsibility. What happen NEXT is your choice.
THE LEAGUE
To me, The League Ending feels like that ending you would get for doing the bare minimum, it's not a Bad Ending, and it's not a Good Ending either... you leave with more question than answer, the corporation keep standing still for what's the dark future to behold. You either die as a hero, or live long enough as a corporate slave, with hero in this case being... a throwaway pawn, a disposable "One Man Army", or just a stepping stone for them to get bigger. But at least... I can live or die alongside my wife, Wynne D. Fanchon. Even if the world against us and as long we trust each other... that's what matter, and leave the future to the next generation... starting over from Zero (Spanish guitar plays).
THE ORCA
To me, The ORCA Ending is the plausible canon ending, but at the same time... you live long enough as a monster, killing million of million people for the sake of "giving humanity another chance." Even if you are hunted down to the end of the world, no one is to judge what is right from wrong, you did the best you can do on what you believe in. And it is up to them to take that chance or rot away in this broken world. Let me ask you something... does giving a chance for humanity to atone their sins at the cost of sacrificing a million of people worth it, or a war crime?
THE DESTRUCTION
Ahhh, the Destruction Path, the 1,000,000 C mission of pure terror and fear... for the receiving end.
This is the mission that test your moral, will you kill millions of people for 1,000,000 C, maybe even something greater... to become monster itself... or hatred for humanity and corporation? No matter how people see it, what you did is an act of terrorism... genocide. All it take is just the taste of something bigger, same like drug, you hit it once, and you want more and more and more until you eventually addicted; or robbery, it only took one setup where you are paid by someone to pretend as a robber, and it will give you the adrenaline rush of taking something valuable so easily. And that applies here, it only takes one mission, 5 Cradles, and 100 million defenseless people for you to take more.
This is true
A delight to read as always. Mind you i did have to drink two cups of tea here so must have been a good one.
Amazing comment. I honestly prefer the Destruction ending due to how human it portrays Strayed, they just couldn't handle the corporate and idealistic bullshit anymore, so they snapped and we know where that lead. It also differentiates from the typical heroics and makes Strayed stand on their own feet as a different character with their own drive.
if i was actually given a choice even back in highschool when i played this for the 1st time, i would have joined line ark to the end, even if that ended in something similar to the orca path. Always hated getting 2 depressing choices and the orca one being the best imo
I think you would not be alone in your choice, which is why its a shame fromsoft did not give us a link ark ending as i have seen many lynx say they would join line arks side but i understand why.
Glad to see you or whoever is doing it still giving spanish subtitles to your videos, thanks. And for the video itself too ofc.
It's me which reminds me i got to do the rest.
@@armoredcorelore Nice!
as a new armored core player (working my way through 4 and 4A) your channel is incredible
mad props to you, get ready for an insane amount of traffic when AC6 releases.
Thank you for your kind praise. If there is all i hope is my videos are enjoyed and give people what they are looking for.
The destruction path is the only path I will except. Who wouldn't be fed up with all the lies?
That is your answer.
Watching these really wants me to play AC4/AC4A again, sadly my PS3 is dead and i have no idea where my copies of the game are, sad times.
Sad times indeed.
Man forgot how hard that destruction Path fight was for me... Kept running out of ammo
It is tough even when it is just four of them.
I'm not gonna lie, this is easily my favorite AC game, the story was so fun with the corporate intrigue and plus the actual AC's look amazing in every way!!!❤
I think that's brill, ac4 to FA are games i still hold dear to my heart thanks to the points you made the story, the corporations history and the ac's even if formula front will always be my favourite.
One of my favorite channels ever. Armored Core has been in my life since the Og. It’s a desert island ip. I can play them forever.
Thank you =)
@@armoredcorelore we should be thanking you. I can see the passion you put into this.
I’m going through every video slowly reliving years of armored cores I played. So thank you🍻the stories are even clearer now.
Glad i watched this I played this game years ago and got really deep into it but neve knew that they rescued AC4 pilot.
Old Kings death is NOT scripted and you can keep him alive on Occupation of Arteria Carpals. It doesnt have any additional dialog or change the ending in anyway though so this was probably not an intended outcome.
For those looking to replicate this I vaguely recall him being able to handle a 1v1 fight pretty well but will struggle in a 2v1 and I dont know if any of the enemy ACs are particularly bad matchups for him as Ive only pulled this off once by accident on hard. I think he ended up fighting Lilium on my fight but Im not positive on this but I am sure he wasnt fighting Kasumi or Otsdarva.
In game your right, you can keep old king alive as i and others have done, but in the lore the king meet his end here.
I was thinking about part 2 of this video and you uploaded today. Love the AC content 👍🏿👍🏿
Thank you and hope you enjoy.
I love how obviously Interior Union's logo resembles an already existing US defense contractor lmao
"Is this the subject of our next experiment?"
Ooohhh, a video on Human Plus? Awesome.
Yes indeed.
I'm really enjoying this story and background info. So cool. Thanks for making these videos. AC 2 fan
Thank you its nice to read this and neat AC2 is where I started with armored core.
Absolutely excellently done video man, summed up everything quite nicely. Great job!
Thank you!
Thanks for making these videos! This makes me appreciate armored core even more
Thank you for your kind words.
Great contribution, you are one of the best things that has happened to the Armored Core community.
Great video. Little to say about the video except congratulate you.
Every time I finish the game again, I can't help but think that ''for answer'' is missing a final quarter, where Strayed teams up with the Anatolia's Mercenary & Fiona, and they overthrow the league and ORCA without those millions of fights happening. unnecessary deaths.
Seeing that in Verdict Day, there are remains of technology belonging to White Glint, it would not be entirely unreasonable to think that For Answer had a fourth route, with a more benevolent ending for humanity. Even if it was temporary since as seen in Armored core V / Verdict Day, the damage caused by Kojima particles is terrifying, and the decline of society could not be avoided again.
Thank you for you kind praise and well honesty as much i like happy endings, i think even if Strayed and White Glint had teamed up both would have fallen to the leagues power as the corporations really had so much to thrown at the lynxs which they did not.
@@armoredcorelore What you say is a good point.
I also think that if Strayed had a Next on par with White Glint, without getting the eventual cooperation of Kasumi Sumika (Mu-luv reference, i love this) actively piloting his next again, and taking into account how weak it was. that it was at that point in Collared history, that it did not have an abundance of talented next.
In the end, apart from the military power of normals, possible autonomous Nexts like 02, and serial production Arm Forts, as far as talented Lynx are concerned, they would only have to take care of Otsdarva and Lilium Wolcott, at most a serial production of Cube. With an honest aim away from massacres of millions, Wynne D. Fanchon and Roadie would have surely joined the side of Strayed and White Glint. They are only assumptions, but the fact of seeing the dialogues of these characters throughout the story mode makes me think it possible that there were enough elements for a less bad ending than the 3 proposed by from software.
@@makubexban2629 Sure i could see this being a dream team and it would have been quite interesting to be a fly on the wall.
Well done end to the gen 4 lore and thank you for taking the time to make these videos I have been excited for every Saturday to see the new one, I am also excited and looking forward to you covering human plus and gen 1 lore.
Thank you for kind praise. It has been a pleasure to tackle gen 4 and i hope gen one will be just as fun.
Thank you so much for making this!
Thank you for your kind words.
Those giant residence ship feels like the present The Line projext from the sauds, lofty yet frail project.
Neat did not know about this. Have to go have a read up.
For some reason I always imagine Strayed in the Destruction Path as Pixy from Ace Combat Zero
I mean why not? Strayed is very much a blank state and I'm sure if i asked any player of ACFA what they would all have a different idea about who strayed is to them.
@@armoredcorelore I even adapted some of his lines to Armored Core verse: "So, have you found a reason to fight yet? 'Sumi.
"Can you see any Cradles from here? What has Cradles given us?"
"Too bad 'Sumi, this twisted game of corporations needs to be reset. Humanity's going to start over from Zero. We'll entrust the future to Line Ark"
As someone who usually gets lost when it comes to complicated political plots in a story, I must admit, the lore of Armored Core 4 is Very interesting, and I thank you for dedicating an entire channel to talk about the stories of this franchise. I only saw some videos from the franchise in the past, but recently, I saw the entire game movie of Armored Core 6 out of boredem, and I got intrigued.
The lore of ac4 is quite the popular one in the ac fandom and thank you for your kind praise. I'm glad to read you found the lore of ac4 interesting, it and armoured core for answer do have one of the more detailed stories. I hope you'll give the history of the other ac games a watch or a playthrough too.
I miss these games so much. I hope they become avail in playstations premium tier in the future.
Well it would be nice for people to get to play these games without being overcharged by sellers.
MAN I enjoyed this video and "AC4A"!
I am HAPPY to see more interest in AC! I hope Hidetaka Miyazaki the president of From Software is watching! You did a Good Job Armoredcorelore! 👏 👍 👌
Thank you and I'm glad you enjoyed.
15:15, hehe, but ONLY in Hard mode version of this mission in the game it exploded! in the normal difficulty it carried you further to the Arms fort!
Jesus cannot believe is still remember all of this from like a decade ago... the nostalgia hits hard with this video
You are correct and well that just shows there is still a lynx in there waiting to fly again.
I can't believe how difficult the genocide ending was, it's been so long ago that I forgot how I beat them all.
It is quite the battle, hard or normal the amount of time i have walked away from it and had to come back.
The only thing I remembered is how bitter sweet it was achieving such a feat. Yes you defeated five mechs only to have the player character roam freely to kill as he pleases.
It is possible the the destruction ending is cannon purely because the dark raven is mentioned to be the destroyer of the world or its savior... armored core verdict day...
It is after all there really is no solid evidence about what ending is cannon in ACFA, all we know is VD happens 100 years after ACV which is quite the gap but gives a lot of wiggle room in the lore department of what's and if's.
It's honestly a bummer that there isn't an ending where Strayed helps Line Ark succeed in overthrowing the corporations. Strayed betrayed the corporations to join Line Ark, just for them to immediately collapse after White Glint is shot down. He proved himself to be at least equal to White Glint in combat ability, but Line Ark had lost the will to fight. With nowhere else to go, Strayed joined the ORCA Brigade, which turned out to be a secretly controlled by OMER, making him an unknowing pawn of the corporationsl.
It is as well it certainly would have been quite the game path and talking about it as lore would have been fun too =)
League's ending has the best concluding line. ("And so mankind is free to dream, floating above the clouds. Is that your Answer? So be it.")
ORCA's ending is the best case scenario for humanity to survive despite the sheer amount of pain and suffering that would have to happen in the short-term.
The Destruction path is just plain cruel but in a twisted sense might just be a mercy compared to the slow death by long-term Kojima contamination. And who doesn't like hearing Old King hum a jaunty little tune as he helps you do it? Or the massive 1v5 fight afterwards as every surviving LINX comes down on you like a vengeful sword of Damocles finally free of it's thread?
I do like old king tunes. Still yes i like this and i also like to think it reflects on the type of person strayed may have become. Did the lynx become a hero to the people, the villain they needed to change thier ways or the monster who simply tore a broken world apart because he wanted too.
My favourite part of any mech game - history of corporate mergers and acquisitions.
Not even joking, I work as an in-house lawyer, this is good stuff
Glad you enjoyed it, it certainly was something different to research compared to what i usually do for ac lore.
Well put and concise!
Always look forward to your content.
Thank you for your kind praise.
I think Motherwill was the cannon one to be destroyed as you see it's wreckage in AC5
Sure i follow that logic and it would be ACVD it shows up in =)
You know what, looking back, I'm not surprised that Otsdarva, or rather.. Maximilian Thermidor did what he did, he is voiced by Kyle Hebert, most might better know him as Sosuke Aizen. 😎
He is such a good villain.
@@armoredcorelore Yes he is, I can't wait to see what they do with him in the anime since they're adding in new content. >:)
Ah Armored Core story Continues With FA as well good work
Thank you for your kind words.
@@armoredcorelore no problem man
Minor observation on AF Cabrican. Over a couple playthroughs it seems that the Gigabase that shows up to help you... doesn't really fire at Cabrican/the drones, unless they're close to your NEXT. Now it might jsut be my luck that happening. But I wonder if there were at one point, plans to make the Gigabase a threat to the player. Much like the later "Destroy the 8th fleet" mission where Stigro is aggressive to the player (even on normal mode, it's AI gets stuck targeting the player all the time)
Its a good one. I'll have to have a look myself at the mission as to be honest most times i have played the mission the shots have been nowhere near the player. However We know other giga bases are foes in the game so perhaps it a programming idea that the shots are close to the player so they hit the drones. Again its a guess at best as I've little knowledge on how programming works.
@@armoredcorelore Oh yeah, you might have your work cut out for you with the AC6 teaser dropping. Gonna be a lot of thirsty soulsborn fans looking for lore on the old games and anything on the new one.
Thank you for the part 2 man, i've been waiting for this and cuz of this vid i can understand the story much better than before, and HYPE FOE HUMAN PLUS LET'S GOOOOOOOOOOOO
I'm glad and well i better get back to work then.
@@armoredcorelore Thank you for all your work fellow Lynx/Raven, and don't forget to rest too :D
Playing 4Answer alone, the League path might seem like the "good ending". But when you take into account the events of the previous game, you have to assume that the League path is actually more of a bad end.
The MC from Armored Core 4 is a good person. Or at least, mostly good. Having to take them out seems awful.
And obviously the Destruction path is bad because pointless killing is not good.
The Orca path is the ideal path it seems. Punish the elites who treat the planet like a chess board.
Ah its nice to see the thoughts of other Lynx on the paths. It is after all about what you feel is the right answer and while orca maybe a puppet of the elite maybe the elite had the right idea.
"League Dogs! Welcome to Earth!" Is such a haunting quote.
and i still get chills hearing it.
This was Miyazaki second ac game one year before his magnum opus demon souls
We learn from what we create.
10:20 Ha Armsforts may have more firepower than a NEXT but that doesn't mean much if they blow up after 2 or 3 blade hits lol.
Well i can't argue since the game makes it this way.
17:10. Whoever that is, they are moving. For a heavy AC, that thing can move.
That would be my heavy next Big White.
With the games v and soon 6, i think the orca path is what happened. As without the cradles and now access to space. The corps were forced to clean up the radiation AND build towards to space for survival.
That's fair, i mean with the very open explanation we got in acv about the era before the events of acv its possible.
@@armoredcorelore also in ac 6. It appears they may use cradles on other worlds. As the architecture on one part of the missions appears very much like the cradles you destroy in ac4.
Might just be art repurposing though.
In 2 of those endings you being down cradles, in 1 you bring them all down but arnt seen as monster in the other you bring a couple down and are the worst thing since pineapple pizza.
Forgot to add brillent piece of content from a long, long time armoured core veteran.
Thank you for your kind praise and well i do like Pineapple pizza..wait I am the bad guy ha ha.
@@armoredcorelore evidently so. Ha ha. I just found your channel since my copy of AC6 arrived and I've been getting back into the universe again. I look forward to watch watching more of your content.
@@Stimm002 Ah well i hope your enjoying ac6 and i hope to see more comments from you.
I never knew that there was a different option for patch and friends... I've never once given him a moment of peace the second the sortie starts. I laid waste to him and his new friends.
I love learning something new.
Will you be doing lore on other generations of armored core? Would love to see more armored core coverage aside from gen 4
Yes in fact this is the end of covering the lore of gen 4 (For now) and next up will be generation one.
@@armoredcorelore awesome can't wait
* looks at AC v and AC V-day * .... oooooo Destruction Path was the cannon path, middle fingers to everybody!
I like the comment and there really is no clear cut answer for which is the cannon ending so you won't hear me complaining.
@@armoredcorelore hi and thank you, I only say this because the end of v days talks about some ultra-raven killing machine legend. The end of answer said somthing along the same line. But who knows, I'm just seeing random word patterns. Anything is possible.
Are you going to going over the connections between AC4 and AC5/VD? And/or also AC universe timeline or universes?
For the fifth generation i need more time with the game before i settle on an answer about the connections, currently I'm working my way through the fifth gen books to get a firm grip on the what, why and when? But i will cover it. And oh yes i will be cover all the generations as that was my goal when i created the channel, i just wanted to cover as much as i could in a generation before moving on.
I know you've said you're stopping gen 4 for now, but I was always hoping to get an aldra video, whether it's on the hilbert or soldner, or the corporation as a whole, they're such an underrated company and ever since sherring I've loved that Jack of all trades heavy style of next they make.
Don't worry if you don't plan on doing one, but if you ever fancy coming back to 4/4A then I'd love you forever :')
Well your in luck because i already did! th-cam.com/video/atuP6tzyOGo/w-d-xo.html
@@armoredcorelore well twist my nipples how did I miss that :')
I know there's a good number of people saying the Orca path is the good ending and even a group saying Destruction path is the good ending, somehow, but my take is that there literally is no good ending. There is no way that the story of Armored Core For Answer can end well given the circumstances (except maybe White Glint defeating Strayed at Line Ark, but then we don't have a video game if that happens). The League path is obviously bad because it keeps the world in the state of status quo that was a problem in the first place. Half of humanity continues to suffer on the surface while the other half chosen by the social elites enjoy peace and tranquility on the cradles, albeit only for a limited time before KP pollution claims them as well. The Orca path sounds good at first until you remember that Orca is not a genuine freedom fighting agency, and they're actually controlled opposition with the strings being pulled by Omer Science. Heck, Orca's leader is Omer's top Lynx, pretty hard to consider them the good guys when you pull behind the curtain. Even when Orca accomplishes their goal, sure humanity is forced to glide back down to the surface to only suffer temporarily before the anti-satellite batteries eliminate the assault cells, but as soon as humanity advances to space it only gives the corporations more opportunity for economic exploitation and war, so humanity is more or less back to Pax Economica all over again. The Destruction path to some seems like a good outcome because it ends the tyranny of the corporations, but is it really worth it when it comes at the cost of the mass murder of countless millions? Sure the economic tyranny of the League is bad, but the mass murder of humanity is honestly far worse. Strayed becomes even more evil than the League if he chooses that route. It's like when people suggest that the Frenzied Flame ending in Elden Ring is somehow the best one, it just comes across as edgy and nihilistic.
Basically my point is that Armored Core For Answer's story is the big sad no matter how it ends.
Ha ha big sad. Yes i would have to agree we never really do have a happy ending to an ac game expect formula front but still. I think this is what these paths are about really it leads to asking you the player what you think is the best ending? Is strayed a hero to the people of the cradles, is he the rebel who thinks he is changing the world for better or is he so fed up with it all and just wants to see the world burn. But my personal thought aside, I'd like to thank you for the comment.
@@armoredcorelore I would say Strayed is really the same kind of person that most Ravens are all the way back to AC1: mech pilots for hire just doing their jobs. Consequences mean little to most of them. They're just in the business to get paid, the politics of the conflicts they participate in are not usually of that much concern to them. If they do something heroic in the process of doing their jobs, so be it. I think it could be argued this is one way that even the destruction path could be interpreted, of course that just means Strayed still is horrifically evil in that path, but by indifference to human life rather than rage. Since we never hear him speak, and he's tied to a mediator party like Collared, much like most other Ravens in the series, his motivations can really only be speculated, if he even has one at all. It is interesting to contrast that to Anatolia's Mercenary and the protagonist of Project Phantasma though, who are more straightforwardly heroic.
@@mallow2902 Fair. I for one could see the Destruction Path as Strayed probably not even snapping but, more so realizing that if he becomes a rather dangerous monster, it forces the corporations and the people to focus on their efforts in stopping him. I also could see it being like he doesn't necessarily snap after killing millions of innocents via the cradle destruction, but probably after he has to kill his mentor. Like he essentially just goes all in to being evil after he loses the one and only actual person that was in his life prior to this in some way, and so with that he cuts all ties to his humanity-- and humanity as a whole-- to become this ruthless monster.
like @neatnoot214 said, you either choose the bad end with League, dying for nothing but an attempt to salvage peace, become a villain by killing millions so that the just can carve a path forward with ORCA, or just allow Old King to give you his crown as you realize the easiest and most terrifying choice is to decimate countless lives, murder your once allies and be seen as a blood-thirsty martyr as you try to find true justice by yourself.
This is honestly the best AR in my opinion, next to AR 2. My God, the genius in every single WORD of the plot of this story makes me tremble. I didn't know how good these games really were.
Sure.
ah yes, my favorite piece of AC lore just second to the Last Raven
Oh, now that will be a long video.
Thank for your dedication to the AC community!
Strayed was damned if they did, damned if they didn't.
Pretty much
Hari looks incredibly similar to the AC that was used in the armored core manga down to the weapons even and interior parts
Tower city blade?
By the way, where did you find that info about White Glint's pilot and Ostdarva getting extracted out of the water? I read somewhere in a forum about that a long time ago, but I thought it was only a theory.
Well i am sorry to say i have no proof that this happened, it was more a case of in my mind that is what i believed happened from the evidence we have. As from the book armored core a new order for nexts we can read in an interview between the journalist and Fiona where she say Line ark has a lynx ready, but refused to comment if it was the former pilot of White Glint.
As for our omer lynx since he was such a key part of Omer's plan with his speeches and attacks, i think after he sunk into the sea i believe an underwater rescue would be the only way to recover him safely.
We need more armored core lore videos.
I agree and i think we'll see more.
@@armoredcorelore Hope to find some Armored Core 3 and related game's lore videos. Also even if there weren't many some Armored Core 5 game's lore videos to. Please your our only hope.
@@GreyKingZero I don't plan on stopping until I've cover all the game so i promise they are coming.
@@armoredcorelore Thank you very much.
So in summary of all endings: BRUH
Pretty much which lesser evil do you pick.
actually the destruction path is the good one, because the leaders of the corporations where on those cradles
Well that's your answer.
Wonderful videos on AC lore, Armoredcorelore! for some reason I thought there were four endings to FA, but it's been a long time since I've played it so whatever. I haven't played any other generation of Armored Core games, but I've heard that V and VD are loosely sequels to 4 and FA, are you going to cover those games next?
Thank you and no i going to need some more time with the fifth gen as i would like to be sure of the information i present. But i promise i am working on research in the background as for now the focus will be on Gen one.
First, thank you for your videos, you're doing great work on your channel.
I grew up playing Armored Core games (ACSL, ACLR, AC4, 4A, ACV/VD) and I spent a lot of my early teenage years in AC4/4A. I was too young to understand the sub-plots and careful detail in these games, so your channel has me revisiting my childhood with more clarity.
It seems like the Old King Ending is the most logical and somewhat Canon ending since it combines all the knowledge we have acquired from the League and Orca path both; knowledge that all we fought for were just lies, manupilation and deceit.
So f*ck 'em. Kill them all, make them have a true villain and maybe this time, humanity will finally come together for a common purpose: Killing Strayed.
I also believe the name is unironically chosen by FromSoftware to fit this ending.
Are you going to cover ACV/VD anytime this year?
I know from a recent podcast you were in, that you do not subscribe to the link between 4th gen and 5th gen armored core much - or at least you do not like the idea of it (i'm paraphrasing-- do correct me if I'm wrong). But I really think they intended for it to be linked. Seeing as we encounter the Spirit of Motherwill and other similar technologies from the 4th gen era. And I also have this odd theory that the "Destruction Path Strayed" becomes the final boss of ACVD in his/her aftermath.
I'm really curious what you think.
Thank you very much for you kind praise. I plan to try too however i still have the third generation to get through with their stories but keeping fingers crossed. And well as for the link between 4th and 5th gen its not a personal thing i promise as i just like to be sure on facts, the issue i face is we have lots of information from two sides and i want to be sure before i present that i have enough information behind me.
Behind the scenes of all this i am currently going through the books of ACV and Verdict day putting bits together and even shared some on the AC reddit. I am forming an idea based of what i learning and i hope to present the story of ACV and Verdict day in a way that people will say yeah i get where you coming from. Really however i am not out to say this is the only way, i think the theories about subjects and the ideas about the timeline are what allow for great conversations about Armroed core. Plus i also like giant mechs and blowing stuff up so even i sometime turn off the lore brain and just enjoy some goods games.
@@armoredcorelore Well, I'm here to stay. XD
Looking forward to it!
@@Daemonpool65 =) Thank you very much, i hope to see you again.
Shit was dope had this game before I was into robot
Nice.
Congrats on the Influx of views king
Ha ha thanks, but I'm just really just happy to see armored core get some spotlight.
So glad to hear these stories after AC6 got announced. AC's story is bleak, and reflects current times.
But one must always remember even though times are bleak, you can always find hope even in the darkness of places.
Don't forget formula front!
How could i! But i will want to cover the main series first.
hoping there will be one for armored core 5 and verdict day too
There will be. You have my word.
Ok. What was that at the very end? This gots to be lead into 5 and VD.
My lips are sealed.
Your answer is in the oudio of the video. And my lips are sealed!
I'm glad I can pause this, I'm sad it has to be because I'm clocking in now. Finishing this on my lunch. I'm going to be sad that the series is getting a send off Lore wise for now, however I'm excited about seeing coverage for the games I played FIRST that are the whole reason I love ACFA at all. Thank you for the legendary work you've done and will do. You're a gift and a blessing as well as being an absolute legend amongst pilots. A true NineBreaker.
No offense to Hustler One here. Lol.
That's very kind. However as always i extend thanks back to you all who watch and comment. You make it all worth it and i will always smile when i read the thoughts, feelings and theories of Ravens and Lynxs.
@@armoredcorelore you're a gift unto humanity and all pilots in every Fandom. Truly.
Yey the lynx of anatolia survived (idk why im happy about it)
And he would go on to become a legend.
@@armoredcorelore and that's awesome at least they're some (kinda)good ending in this shit show
But I was wondering how does the intercorporation economy work I doubt a government can even exist for something like the current system where cash exists by backing to the global power of a country's government like the dollar being tied to the us government and if the government fails it looses all value so with that what's the armored core currency being backed by in the olden times it was gold but I don't think gold works when no one really cares about it
@@armoredcorelore oh I just remembered I was happy he lived after plot armor kicked his ass in the line ark Battle
Well you ask a good question about economy there. As we know at the time of ac4 and acfa it was credits and most of these credits where used to trade between corporations and the public. While its not really talked about, i personally think how it works is very much like virtual currency. At the end of the day this was all just numbers being passed around that could be used and really since the league controlled collard, they really where just trading these numbers around and around.
Like omer would pay a lynx 200,000 credit for a job, a lynx could then go and use that to pay for repairs which most of the time was done by the corporation themselves as even independent mercenaries would have to go to corporations to get parts fixed since their engineers had the knowledge. The same with parts if a lynx brought a omer part then that virtual money was simply sent back to omer.
It never really talked about if there was ex engineers who made a living being an off grid mechanic. But the amount of space, kit and tools needed. Its heavily suggested corporations had this system in place where lynx had to go to them to get fixed or buy new parts.
@@armoredcorelore well that would kinda make sense since there shouldn't be much of a different system available where the money only has value if your dealing with other corporations but in the end the economy seems to be as shitty and unstable as the rest of the ac4 world soooo yeah funnily enough it's actually possible that it works like that
Please do NineBall Lore!
On the to do list.
I've noticed some of your videos are really quiet for some reason. Audio mixing problem? Either way I have to turn ones like these way up and then risk blowing my ears out from a discord ping lol. Otherwise great content!
Yes I am afraid at first it was me getting to grips with audio programs.
As for the most recent one i played around with the program to much then did an early morning recording resulting in the low sound. Still i do keep promising to remake them so have to put that down on holiday to do list. Oh but thank you for you kind words.
@@armoredcorelore Ah, I see. Content production can be really challenging, but it's nice to see someone trying their best to improve.
I've always loved the AC games, and having someone like you around making quality content like these vids is simply awesome. Keep up the good work!
Can't wait for gen 1!!!
Looking forward to presenting my first video on it too!
Fromsoft need to just do remakes of every armored core game made! Id buy every single one!!!! ❤
It would be neat.
Even with the scale of the Cradles compared to 10-meter tall NEXTs, I find it hard to believe that each Cradle airship can hold 20 million.
Maybe one could hold that many people if they packed in tight, but could it SUPPORT all those civilians?
In my view, 20,000 is a more feasible number.
It a fair shout and i know the ac wiki does mention about sizes of households and other information concerning this matter.
LETS GOOOOOO
Whoop!
46:30 I think it's Lilium Wolcott speaking here, and not it IU rep.
Ah mistakes are made.