YES!!!!!! I TOLD you, Silent Line is PEAK, it's by far the old gen game where the player had THE MOST control over their AC, you could turn and change direction on a dime, stacked arena, good story, memorable missions, AND you could get the intensify to play like the computer - The games after are good, don't get me wrong, but the cooling, accuracy nerfs, and Blade-tracking just really don't hit the same as they did in SL and below. Loved the video, and great analysis as always bro!!! Also, LOLOLOL At comparing Ares to Freud! Yeah Ares has always stuck in my head as THE most dangerous Rank1 pilot of any arena. Will literally DELETE you in 5 seconds if you don't know what you are doing -
Silent Line quickly became one of my favorites for sure. It's just so damn good across the board. Ares is a monster 😄. He didn't even sneak in kara shots between the blades like he usually does either. Still deleted me.
My veteran ass when I saw they added estus flasks to AC6: “I can heal for the first time in the series? Yes. This is the easiest game in the series.” Source: I have the platinum trophy
It’s my first AC game but been a big fan of the series for a long time and I could tell it won’t be hard, it’s too much fun but allmind fucked me a lot 😂
Boomers: Ugh, they're giving us repairs and resupplies to appeal to casuals and make the game easy😮💨 When they actually play the game: Oh shit, they're giving us a resupply here... 😬
I think the challenge, design wise, for AC 6 arena was FROM wanted to make the arena ACs play by the player rule set, but didn’t know how the meta would actually develop. They didn’t test a lot what a good AC would actually look like. That and the decision process for good play in AC6 is too much for the basic AI to handle. You could tool each enemy AC to have tactics to match their setup but that’s a huge development cost. Other points I largely agree, just my thoughts.
Addendum, I think they actually have the mission AC AI tweaked, but the arena AI is standard. Nightfall arena feels pretty easy, but nightfall campaign feels like he keeps the pressure on well.
I think you're right. I found some of the bosses in AC6 provided a satisfying level of challenge, but I mopped the arena without even having to try. I hope the next installment / addon for the game brings some brutal challenge to the arena! Speaking of challenge, I'd love to see the addition of some special challenges in the game, like an official version of pre-nerf Balty, maybe even some arms forts from 4A like Verdict Day had.
@@kavum-07 Yep! He won't finish his slicer combo punish in the arena. I actually included that in the video but the on screen text pointed it out disappeared right before I rendered 😂
Hey @Thryfe, I got a story for you. When I first started playing AC6 I didn't read any of the tutorials, I just blasted through and started playing. I remember having a lot of trouble with all The Usual Suspects, But I punched through an eventually beat all three campaigns. From there I went to s-rank every single mission. I wanted more AC6 so I went into ranked and it was rough. I learned a lot about what was viable and what wasn't, understood the meta and started climbing. When I got to A rank, I was consistently getting losses, I couldn't keep up with most of my opponents it was very hard for me to keep track of them because they moved so fast. I looked up videos on how to aim and, couldn't find any video that explains it properly. One day I was just watching some random gameplay on TH-cam, and the guy had that little controller on the bottom right that shows you all his inputs. I think he was doing like a no damage boss and I noticed that his right analog wasn't moving. That's when I realized that hard lock was a thing after that I climbed through A rank with no problem. Then I got stuck on S rank qualifiers. I was watching your videos around that time, and I remember asking you how to deal with the fat elevator kites. You gave me some really good advice and I became S rank. I stopped playing ranked after that because I was sick and tired of chasing down Kites and rats. I will say, hard lock is definitely a big part of the reason why this game is easier than the it's predecessors. Also you rock!
Duuuude I remember that. That was a long while ago 😁. With hardlock I forgot it existed until after I finished the IBIS I think. Either that or after I started pvp. I remember being confused how people kicked so well and realized it was hardlock lol. Thanks bro!
As a new Armored Core player but long-time Ace Combat and Destiny player (former now, but that experience is gonna come back in a second), the single hardest things for me were input management and build theory. Once I got those two things down, difficulty dropped dramatically. Ace Combat taught me to make an absolute joke out of 90% of missile attacks (don't turn away, get them side-on then turn _in)_ and deciding what you actually _need_ to dodge, and my general philosophy from Destiny of "the enemy can't shoot me if they're dead and I'm moving at Mach Jesus" translated over almost perfectly, especially once I got the hang of keeping track of weapon bays.
I think its funny. On the AC sub there'll be a post about how hard the game and then the next day it'll be someone asking if the game was supposed to be so easy 😂. I think its as simple as people pick on things faster and slower than others. Some are more excited to spend a lot of time on the garage and others are more inclined to just slam their head agaisnt the wall until it works. The arena is a joke. Like i must have died 2 or 3 times overall? Like Im 99% positive I could fight them all in a row without dying once. And tbh I think its in part because of the stagger system. The whole game revolves around fishing for a stagger and then punish. Anyway nice change of pace for you. Good vid!
Yeah I've been seeing the same thing on the sub and around the internet for a few months and figured I'd share my thoughts on it. I'm glad I'm not the only one who feels that way about the arena. Kind of a let down for me. Thanks! I want to do more stuff like this.
I enjoy the garage, but I also enjoy banging my head against the wall. I justify banging my head against the wall by saying I already spent my time in the garage, and I know this build can do it.
I think going through new game on a new save with all those shitty beginner parts is a much different experience than going through with your experience and a fully built AC. No matter what the arena is a joke. The only AC fights within the mission I struggled with was the Branch gank, but other than that I agree it was smooth sailing.
What pissed me off is when i fought Allmind on NG++. The fight didn't piss me off, what pissed me off was Arye. She has the jacked up super AC to fight you, but when she helps you with Allmind she comes in a regular AC. I felt so betrayed by my waifu lol.
i think thats because allmind is using the same mech, there is only one to go around. but with that said, the irony is that ayre is disgusted with the fact coral is being used as energy yet decides to power the same suit with coral instead of green energy like allmind was doing 😂
@@petercottantail7850 the difference been, all those C weapons use any kind of coral for power, including the sentient part. But Ayre uses the part of coral that herself generates which doesn't have sentient. Coral by itself just replicate infinitely. But it's when it's data carry property got mixed with human consciousness it starts to be a problem using it as a resource.
havent finished yet but i gotta say i do enjoy this sort of discussion based deep dive content alongside your usual stuff, very fun and insightful stuff amazing work man
Nice vid! Even if it's not AC6 PVP (I love those), it's great to hear someone compare oldgen AC to AC6 which is pretty rare. You talking about Silent Line moments definitely made me remember my playthough and I can relate to them LOL. Of the difficult oldgen moments, my most memorable ones are Zinaida's fight in Last Raven and Nineball Seraph in Another Age. Took me so many tries, so many hours... But they don't compare to March Au Supplice in AC4. It took me from midnight to early morning to beat the mission on hard mode haha!
Well said on the topic! Here comes my essay of a comment lmao While ACVI is my first AC game and I had trouble with some bosses, ACVI does seem more forgiving with other aspects when compared to the past games. Doesn't stop me from loving it still 😄 Past games had no checkpoints, you couldn't change your build mid-mission if you died, no repair kits, no exploiting staggered enemies, etc. Hell, even Last Raven had you losing parts of your AC mid-combat I loved your bit talking about the arena because I also wished the fights were harder. Legit only struggled with Coldcall and Rokumonsen. I wish ACVI had a dedicated Hard mode (like AC4 and FA) that was not just the few New Game + and ++ alternate missions. Like I imagine a couple LCs fighting alongside Balteus, or a surprise AC arrival in more missions like what happens in Defend the Dam Complex to spice things up
Thanks! Yeah I love this game but certain aread could definitely use some more bite to them, arena first and foremost. Cold call actually does some solid damage. I think hard mode would be the best thing to bring back honestly, implemented similar to how you said. That way both types of players benefit.
You hit the nail on the head with a lot of stuff. The arena is definitely a push over, and repair kits, constant resupply and checkpoints trivialize the missions. The only boss I got hard stuck on was IBIS who is not kind to fat mechs. SL is one of my favorites in the series and I’ve played since the original on PS1. You should try Ninebreaker for the arena and finial training mission if you haven’t already. I would also while heartedly recommend Last Raven.
My first time with AC was in Master of Arena. The arena in that one had a chiken walker dual plasma gun arm monstrosity that blocked me for the longest time. Then I discovered tanks and quads and their ability to fire grenade launchers on the move. This configuration basically lasted until the final mission when I ran into Nineball and his special grenade launcher while flying on a biped kung-fu. I don't recall why I didn't fight him in the arena first, I was but a wee teenager back then. Eventually, the only strategy that worked was the one that my friend adopted: put the 4 barrelled back mounted laser cannons on the tankiest parts and facetank him with the shitty analog stick aiming the cannons.
Ac6 was my first armored core game, and it was a pleasure getting to learn how to fly and fight! However, yeah the difficulty was pretty limited. Once you get your movement and generator management down, there’s not much difficulty to speak of. That said, the hardest bosses on my playthroughs (and I got all 3 endings btw) were the Juggernaut, Balteus, Helicopter 2, Arquebus Balteus, Ayre, and Allmind/Iguazu. I gotta get my hands on AC2 and Silent Line! You’ve got me sold on them for sure!
Once you get used to the whiplash of going from modern cobtrols to classic, they are soooo much fun. They still hold up today. AC2 or 3 are your best bet if you are going the physical copy route, those are still decently priced. Everything else is 80+ smacks.
Great video. It's worth discussing the pros and cons of different games. As someone who also started with AC2 as a kid I felt the same about the arena and AC vs AC fights against the computers in AC6. I distinctly remember the feeling of dread my first time through when I couldn't instakill the faster, more airborne opponents in the arena with my grenade arms tank AC and realizing I had to re-think how I was playing the game. The one caveat to this is if you discover the missile arms in AC2 every arena fight is a joke and over in under 10 seconds, those things were insanely busted. What I miss particularly from ACSL is all challenges to acquire all the parts and getting high ranks in the missions. Getting S rank in AC6's missions + all the combat logs is super easy while even early missions in ACSL have high requirements to unlock all the parts and get an S. The lack of multiple save files (okay, you can back-up your save) also hurts the replayability of 6. Speaking of confined spaces, I also miss the dungeon crawling through narrow corridors throughout all of oldgen. Most of AC6 is pretty open other than the Depths. I can't wait to see the ACLR playthrough. There are also some similarities between that and AC6. I don't want to say too much but you probably already heard that that was the first game to introduce multiple paths and different endings depending on which missions you chose to complete. Fun fact: Last Raven is the first game that Miyazaki Hidetaka worked on at From as a planner. Tanimura Yui (DS2 director and Elden Ring co-director) had a similar role in making AC2.
I actually never tried the AC2 missile arms, they're probably insane with interlock extensions. I'd like to see S rank silent line style missions again. Like you said, helps with replayability. Last Raven is gonna be sweet!
For me, the number one difficult thing was the "Defeat the Redguns" mission when you kill Michigan. Many many hours I spent, over multiple days. I was starting to think that I would not be able to complete all three endings. When I did finally complete this mission I was elated for days!
Very Similar experience. Played AC1 through Nexus as a kid, 100% or close to it for each game. First boss that gave me any trouble with 6 was Snail-teus. I didn't even realize hard lock was a thing until phase 2 Allmind-Iguazu. It's odd that I don't remember the difficulty of the original games, so your playthoughs have really made me want to go back and replay the old games. Especially AC3 SL, easily the most memorable game for me.
Same here, couldn't remember if they were hard or not. Once I revisited 2, AA, and 3 I started to remember lol. Silent Line was a different beast altogether.
Man you just reminded me of my replay of AC2 a couple years ago to get ready for AC6. I played through the whole series in order and the transition from MoA to 2 really messed me up. I constantly ran out of ammo in missions, left missions with debt, and just straight up didnt have enough money to respec my ac for certain levels. I got my ass handed for over half the game lol. Never had that issue in AC6 lol.
Silent Line has always been my favorite! I think AC6 is a little more accessible, as I've said previously. It definitely is a roller coaster! I appreciate this breakdown, as I've been with Armored Core for 20 years.
I actually still remember my playthrough of AC3 Silent Line. I played and beat that game and I totally agree about some of the missions in that game of how hard they can be. Although I didn't worry about ammo that much because I always kept a blade equipped, especailly the Moonlit which was not easy to get and the auto lasers that came equipped to some of the cores. I admit, I had to cheese some of the arena matches in that game because the AC's was that hard. The mission with the satellite lasers firing at you was one of the hardest fights in that game but I got through it. AC6 can be both hard and easy with its balance of bosses and AC fights. But as long as you figure out the mechanics of both games, they can be beaten.
Excellent video ngl, i would love more of those. That being said regarding the topic, yes ac6 is an easy armored core if you compare it with past entries. BUT its not easy if you take into account what is the landscape of gaming industry and what is the average involvement of players now days. All companies want to give that "feel good" experience to the players which ac6 nails, but also not bust your brains out with endless numbers etc (5th gen even had movement graphs in game). So yeah imo, easier compared with the past, but not easy in general give the industry right now.
Thanks! I definitely want to do more like this. I feel like you have a pretty solid take here. Outside of fanbases like souls games and a couple others, most don't swarm to really hard games.
I started playing armored core 6 for the first time in a month ago, it’s hard when you first play this game, but after playing again and again and again, it gets easy in my experience, but overall I enjoyed armored core 6, I never got to play the older armored core games though, great video anyway.
I started with Armored Core 2, and I remember loving everything about the game. Now I will say the I thoroughly enjoyed everything about AC6. I was so hyped to play an updated armored core so I was blind to the negatives. Hell I still play the campaign cause there are just a million different combination of parts and the movement is so awesome!
I'd say that Ac6 is easier than other games but only because it's more story driven compared to them. There are more cinematic cut scenes and hearing conversations that outline a clear story, which other games, although they had stories you really had pay attention to the details to understand what was going on. If they do a dlc, having an additional difficulty mode would be a good idea like enemies deal more damage, more ap, and random generic ac encounters as its hinted in the allmind data files that the factions do have standard ac they use. The more I play the campaign, the more I think fromsoft were just dipping their toe to see if ac was viable but with more missions to flesh out the world and additional side characters like nosaac or imagine if you were attacked mid mission by some guy claiming you took everything from him and then discovered he was the rookie trainee from the destroy the tester ac mission. The games got potential to grow
That's a fair point on the story aspect. I'm all in for a difficulty mode and I definitely agree about the game having room to grow. Can't wait to see what comes next.
I play mouse and keyboard so I barely use hardlock, first tried Helicopter, balteus and the c spider but then struggled a bit against Ibis and was just hardstuck at for 2 days straight trying to beat Ayre. Right now doing ng+ and really struggled with the michigan/redgun mission (had to punch my way through the last enemies because I was just straight up out of ammo every attempt). Nice Video. Didn’t know the old games pulled this much BS on you.
Thanks! Yeah the old stuff can be wicked unforgiving. Ayre was a huge wall for a lot of people. I ran into her on my second playthrough so I ended up being well equipped for it luckily.
"Do NOT fight Water Hazard in a confined space, you're gonna have a bad time" . I knew this was gonna get brought up again XD Really told ya to keep moving in the little space you have LOL I had to recently playthrough AC6 all over again since I got it again on PC so I've also been thinking about the difficulty. AC6 may have bosses with difficulty spikes, but yea everywhere else rarely will scare ya. Like the shock I had when I was messing around and the damage/stagger some of the random enemies can dish out. Then there was one time with the Ekdromoi bros where they just did a sick wombo combo on me right off the bat where one of them kicked me, then while mini stunned I got impaled, then the one that kicked me shoots his charged plasma shot and I was just dead. Kinda wish some of the MTs were a bit more threatening. Also a lot of the enemy ACs in 6 are not optimized well I could definitely think of some horror stories from playing the older games. Since ya brought him up, I'll bring up Ares.....when I was first playing that game Ares was just impossible for me, especially since I was a kid and didn't fully understand everything with builds and I resorted to beating him by having him accidentally going out of bounds on one of the maps....took some trial and error tho LOL. Shade was definitely my favorite pilot in Silent Line, inspired me to try using the overboost for evasion in combat. Only used it before for getting from one place to another fast. His fighting style was sick
😂 the water hazard thing is one of my favorite parts of Silent Line. Ares felt absurd as a kid. Once one of us got him down we were super hyped lol! The best Rank 1 pilot to me for those memories. Shade is my favorite too. That's my battle buddy who suffered with me 😄. Cool personality too.
I haven’t played Silent line so coming from an only AC6 player. You could’ve discussed about build variety on both games. AC6 does a good job at showing not every build is gonna work with everything and there are also easy cheese builds like double zimmies , stun needles etc. Overall I enjoyed the video ❤
I'm glad you enjoyed the video 😁. I didn't mention build variety since the old gen games do the same thing. AC6 did good by keeping that intact. If 6 had the old debt mechanic there would be way less cheese since ammo costs helped keep that stuff in check lol.
My dream ac game would be, something of mix between 3rd gen, 4th gen and 5th gen. 3rd gen gameplay (More walking and ground boost cost EN) + 5th gen modern camera/lock system and leg variety (RJ have good jump and quad good for stability) as well as Overed Weapon and 5th gen speed + 4th gen hectic battle pace and Armsforth as well as quick turn. Also bonus, 6th gen mission design and unqiue weapon, as well as EN Weapon charged mechanic. No stagger, actually having turn speed and no hard lock.
Okay so, I've been saying this since 6 launched. the only thing that makes ac6 difficult is not interacting with the garage enough, and thinking that ac6 is dark souls. Like, yes it has some soul-ish feeling things(i.e. repair kits, hard lock, lack of a set turn speed depending on your legs, and things of that nature) but this joint ain't souls bro. Movement and and adapting your setup are king in this series but for some god forsaken reason, people don't wanna be bothered with any of that. the stagger system is another bag of worms but I don't feel like saying my peace on that.
Too many people forget that a lot of "Souls" elements were in AC first EN=Stamina Weight limits Customizing your head, core, arms, and legs The moonlight Hell, AC1, MOA, and AC2 gave you repairs for free during some missions, and ACV was the first game with repairs AND checkpoints
Silent about halfway through had me stuck for a few hours. That mission you have to destroy the helicopters from landing then fight the two ACs afterward was the bane of my existence in that game. AC6 was definitely easier but it was nice to see some references from Silent Line in 6.
yeah NIGHTFALL's a nice fight, i think it actually used assault boost shuffling before it really became a thing in PvP. there's actually a handful of them that use assault boost shuffling, i can't remember them all off the top of my head but SHINOBI and LOCKSMITH are a few of them and i think they all share the same AI type. there's also DUAL NATURE and ASTGHIK, who both use melee cancel tech. as for old horror stories, for me it was Menno Ruh in AC4. in the arena her missile barrage just melts you insanely fast, so to beat her i remember just waiting behind some cover for her to run out of ammo.
I've been a player since AC2, one of my first games ever on the PS2, and been a huge fan ever since. Played through em all to completion (even S rank BS) and I think AC6 is definitely one of the easier games for sure. It excels at the mecha power fantasy, coming closer than any other to the vibe of those intro cutscenes from the preivous games (AC4's in particular,) but by doing so, it suffers from being a real cakewalk at times. I enjoy the hell out of it, but I'd personally love to see the next iteration lean heavier into the difficulty that previous gens brought to bear. I think Fromsoft probably wanted to ease the player base back in for the overall experience, while still keeping some of the memorable and tough fights they've since become famous for. I agree wholeheartedly with your assessment. As far as nightmares from past games, Last Ravens Zinaida fight still makes me shudder. She has INFINITE ENERGY, Human Plus/OPI BS, she's in a tiny little arena with no cover, and every attempt you do has you running through a maze with suicide drones & Lazers. Such a frustrating fight. Love your content! Keep it up! 🤘
That's a really good point about getting us close to the intro cutscenes in terms of action. I agree with that 100%, I adore this game but I definitely want to see us get the old difficulty back too. I've heard Zinaida is a monster. Reading this gets me even more hype to get my ass kicked once I finally tackle that game 😂. Thanks! I appreciate you watching.
It’s definitely made with the expectation of new people coming from Souls playing an Armored Core game the first time. Given that when the last one released when Dark Souls hype was set in motion with a second one on the way (Vertict Day: Sep 24, 2013 vs Dark Souls 1: Sep 22, 2011), and would be (to my knowledge) the last game From Software would before exclusivity focusing on Souls for the next almost 10 years I think. I mean, I got my introduction to From Soft through Dark Souls 3 in 2017 or 18. I was about in the 5th or 6th grade at that time, and from there I would go to play Dark Souls 1, Bloodborn (still haven’t finished that one), Dark Souls 2 (through the Scholar of the First Sin version) and of course Elden Ring. Now I would have gone on the play a AC game with the ps vita re-release of Armored Core 1 near the beginning of my Junior year of High School (so basically last School year) and the PsP Armored Core Portable titles (AC3, Silent Line, Last Raven).
I think you pretty much nailed it. One of the very few complaints I had with AC6 was the general lack of difficulty and also lack of punishment (debt, not being able to redo certain missions, etc.). I think checkpoints and the ability to switch up your entire build mid-mission went a little too far into the "casual" approach they took with this one. I don't mind having a couple repair kits for a super long mission, but checkpoints too? Don't get me wrong, AC6 is still one of my favorite games of all time, but I wish they had found a slightly better balance between it and the old games when it comes to movement mechanics and how the campaign works. My horror story from Silent Line is just... ya know... Silent Line lmao. Not super relevant but, oddly I found the final final AC6 boss to not be that bad. I realized quickly that you can just straight up ignore the extra ACs in the first phase, and just focus on Iguazu without much trouble. Same thing with the 2 Sea Spiders. I completely ignored them without any problems at all, and they get nuked when Iguazu goes phase 3 anyway. Now, phase 3 IS pretty tough, but he's already at half HP, and it's just a matter of learning how to dodge his crazy attacks, similar to learning IBIS. Outside of IBIS, final boss Ayre (with ending 1), and to an extent Balteus (pre-nerf), I found AC6 to almost completely lack in difficulty. And the small difficulty that was there in the rest of the game was made totally irrelevant because of the checkpoints. The only non-boss missions that were tough at all (for me) was the You vs. Michigan and all his homies fight, and the NG++ fight to "save" the Mining Walker thing where you get jumped by a bunch of those Bonewheel mofos. Anyway yeah. I hope the next AC is significantly harder and more punishing, but I'm sure I'll love it regardless. Good video mang
I figured out the ignoring the ACs in the allmind phase 1 pretty early but the AI spiders kept slapping me up anytime I went after salty mcgee, so I focused on them and it took me longer to realize I could ignore them too. LOL at silent line as a whole being your horror story. That strider alternate mission was rough for sure. I definitely want to see the game's difficulty spread out more for the next one, oh and Thank you 😁
5:15 my favorit Moment x'D lovely, now i want to play silent line xDDD this Video is Gold. i wish the art from the old Armored Core were today still here :')
AC6 is my First AC game and I got it after the bosses Nerfs. I am a action games veteran so it's not like this is the first fast pace game I'm playing. AC6 is right on the spot for me. It's not hard apart from specific moments, Salt Lord boss fight I'm looking at you. But it is easy enough for new comers to both AC and Action games to try it out and that is super important nowadays. A game need new players in order to have success. One thing that I wish they did was to make the whole 3 part of the Investigate Watchpoint Alfa mission into a single huge mission. Getting down the Napenthes, going through the facility and fight the enforcer and getting to the Ephemera fight with the clocking timer. That shit would've been absolutelly nuts!
So, for starters, great video! I do think that playing this game without experience of AC is harder it took me longer to beat stuff then it took you (that might just be a skill issue though) and one more point I want to bring up, I dont know if youre playing on Controller but if you are Hard Lock is a freaking aimbot. You were doing 360s in that footage, on PC though it falls of immediatly at the slightest move of your mouse and when the enemy leaves your Screen just wanted to bring that up.
Thanks! Yeah I alternated between soft and hard lock in this. I've heard hard lock is tricky to maintain on PC, so you've definitely got a point there.
I knew I'm not dreaming. Using hard lock or soft lock on PC doesn't really make a difference for me to the point I sometimes forgot which lock type I just activated
@lw9194 If you still want to use hard lock but not use a controller rotate your mouse wrist 90 degrees clockwise. That will prevent the lock from breaking, kinda feels like a flightstick.
I've been playing through ac3 recently, and even that feels way harder than ac6 at first. I started out with a laser rifle and blade to try and save money, and regularly got my ass kicked because I couldn't figure out the controls and my ac didn't do jack damage, then I tried out the back mounted chain gun, figured "oh hey this is really strong, I'll remember that" proceeded to REMOVE the strong weapon from my ac, went into debt because I was legit FAILING easy missions, had to fight a dude in the arena with machine gun weapon arms and back chain guns with my dinky little laser rifle cuz I was in debt, and after all of that, decided to FINALLY get my shit together and made a tetrapod with a back chain gun, flamethrower and machine gun. Then it was pretty much smooth sailing through both the arena and missions until I hit B-rank, and got my ass kicked AGAIN by Valkyrie before finally melting her with my beloved flamethrower, and I believe that's where I'm currently at. I think it kind of boils down to the build and how stubborn the player is for older games, where in ac6 it's (hear me out) more of a Dark Souls/Elden Ring approach to difficulty, with the bosses generally being the main focus of difficulty, but since you have checkpoints it results in everything that isn't a boss being super easy. Like, the Strider is a cool ass mission, but I feel like a super important military asset would be a little more challenging to take down. Maybe Flatwell could have been down on the ground to face you before getting to the Strider, but was forced to leave mid-fight and give up the Strider for whatever reason.
Yeah honestly I feel the same with the comparison to Elden Ring. I thought the same about the Strider too lol. I love reading about your experience with AC3. Valkyrie no joke 😂. I'm impressed you rocked the flamethrower, definitely takes some practice to make those work in the old games.
I would say in the old games trying to get the secret parts on timed missions or hard missions was a nightmare. Like in ac2 getting the karasawa while trying to take out the armored tank before it leaves the mission area 😑
Last Raven and Master of Arena were the hardest for me. Although the OG was hardest due to the young age and the fact that I played without any help. I felt alone in the game of robots, now as it became easy, more people joined. It is a double edged sword. PvP was the most affected part of the repair kit because in PvP a tank no longer has 3 times your LW AC. Also I don’t remember being stuck with no movement mid air just waiting for gravity to notice, or my earshots (i got 2 ) Also also there was time I could lock on while shotguns could not even see me in the map, double zims would run away in fear of my charged LRB if there was no beep to tell him it is coming… or he could not lock in to me due to fcs lock range.
My experience with difficulty in AC6 came from the lack of parts, lack of knowledge, and muscle memory of starting out. As you play the game, you get better parts, learn how to build better ACs, and figure out optimal combos. I've seen some people who had a hard time getting into those, and was hardstuck against the Ekdromois and the HC fights, so yeah it definitely differs from person to person. But I gotta say, I miss being absolutely clapped by Balteus, nowadays I feel like I can take him on with most builds...
Muscle memory and build knowledge is absolutely huge. I remember struggling hard against the Smart Cleaner of all things, while absolutely annihilating pretty much every other boss up until the Enforcer. And that was with me almost completely crippling myself by trying to run the Aorta generator with the Firmeza core because it was the only combo light enough to cram onto the Kasuar legs with my loadout at the time. A year and a half later, and I've killed what feels like half the bosses without taking so much as a scratch. Balteus? Glorified beach ball, both versions. Ayre? More like Error. HC? Hard-countered. Even Branch has become so easy that if I take more than a thousand damage it's either because Chartreuse got a lucky hit or I'm running an AC that's too fat to dodge things completely.
All valid points. With the HCs it feels like they play by different rules since they can shield bonk laser sword combo and then immediately laser sword combo again. It surprised me.
Yep, once you get the hang of things the game gets insanely easy. Which is how most games work to an extent, but it's REALLY noticeable here. Hopefully the next game you can unlock a higher difficulty post game or something like Devil May Cry.
@@Thryfe GGs! Sadly even with dual stunguns I didn't reach S rank this time, but I'll try again. Look forward to the Red Star video, keep up the good work.
I don't think I'd call it *easy* but it's a lot more so than many of the previous AC games most of the time, or most of the Souls games for that matter. There's a steep learning curve when you first start, but once you know the mechanics and learn the bosses' move telegraphing, the (PVE) skill ceiling is very manageable - fair, even. I think your video is a great analysis of the game's difficulty as it compares to some earlier entries. For a game designed to on-ramp new people into the series, I think it strikes a great balance. Imagine if Silent Line was your first AC game! At the time it was specifically designed for people who had been playing them for years, through three whole generations of titles featuring From's funky old control scheme. Addendum; I think the boss difficulty comes down to play-style, too, like you mentioned during the old Ibis fight. I think the boss I got stuck on the longest was Enforcer of all things - at least until I learned some stuff that made the fight a lot easier. As for old horror stories, well. You said it: WEREHOUND! That, and the 3rd route mission in 4A where you have to fight a bunch of ACs at once at the dam / fort by the sea. Way harder than the mission of the same vague description in 6! Same for the last mission in the 3rd route in 4A - though for that one my struggle came from play-style. I was getting mopped until my gf who'd been watching me play suggested I try the opposite extreme of range I'd been trying, and dang if I didn't beat it first try from there.
I always smile whenever anyone mentions werehound haha! I've heard a lot about that route of for answer, it sounds nuts. Yeah 6 is a great entry point, I'm looking forward to seeing what they do difficulty wise for the next one. Oh and thank you! I'm glad you liked the analysis.
I dunno dude, I've always thought most Armored Core games are quite easy to me (except Verdict Day, and even then I could find some ways to cheese it). Either I'm just that skilled an AC pilot, or From Soft just knows how to give us a mecha power fantasy.
Ay you could very well be that nasty lol. I feel like for me, AC2, 3, and Nexus are pretty easy. Another Age and Silent Line were rough. I remember very little about AC5's campaign.
Ooooo sweet summer child Last Raven gonna have fun with you..... First Ac Game i've played where the Cheese strait to certain fights looked extra juicy
4:58 I ate Volta! XD Though I did took a lot of hits that I am embarrassed to not have been able to dodge. Though I was running a Poster Boi setup (Rail Rifle, Song Bird, Missile and Pulse Blade) which is weirdly effective for most of the game (though I am still not finish with my first playthrough).
I beat the game when it came out and it was my first AC game, once you figure out what build you want and you play towards it a lot of the bosses are a walk in the park, but learning that without watching guides and theory crafting I found hard, my first play through had its tough times at the bosses you said. I then started a new complete save from scratch and the game is absolutely easy once you know a build and how to play it. PvP is where it’s at but god it’s crap to vs tanky opponents as a light weight mele
That's what I figured the game was probably like the new players. Cool to read this. Seems like they succeeded in trying to ease people into the franchise which is good! Life as a lightweight is definitely hard lol, hard lock hurts them most.
@ yeah the game is easy mode if you run double chain guns hahahaha mele is the best way to play I find lots of fun. I hope they get a DLC or a new one comes with some challenges to it the PVE is so easy now :(
I did know at least one person that got stopped by the cleaner and I actually think Enforcer is a pretty hard mechanical check if you have been being carried by weapons alone. strangely you are the only one I've heard say the true final boss is hard. I will also say I swear they buffed the trio fight if you haven't done it in a while try it again. One of the better stress tests for a build out there. Most new builds I make haven't been able to clear it in a while. That being said: you compared this game to silent line but the sequels in AC are always a difficulty jump since you can bring in the save data from the previous game. 6 ultimately is a skill floor check that gets easier after you learn the ropes, but if 6th gen isn't done with us it might have some NASTY tricks up its sleeves in sequel.
Good point on the enforcer. You need to play more vertical against that guy or he'll tear you up. I'd be genuinely shocked if the next game isn't harder like tradition follows with the follow up games.
Still early in the video but I wanna say that the other night Freud did like an insta kill combo on me in arena where he was like full on anime teleporting behind you from a different angle off every attack. He like bounced me up with his charged laser blade which he cancelled into a kick form the reverse direction then shot me with the Morley from behind after the kick followed by finishing me off with the laser drones and rifle. idk what the heck happened but for that brief moment I felt like I fought lore accurate Freud. It was wild. If he could pull that off more, I think people would see him as the real rank 1. As it stands Raven is definitely more impressive AI wise since he knowns legit bunker tech if you fight him enough to see.
@@thorinhannahs4614 Yeah he killed me from full hp about that fast. I think I was in a slightly slow 18k stability mid-weight too. Was kinda cool though.
I call this the trial and error game as I can tell, this game can be hard (it’s a FromSoft game, of course it’s hard at some points), like Balteus, I only won against him after my seventeenth try because I listened to Arya making a comment about Pulse weapons being effective and thought: “Maybe I should equip that” or just come back with new weapons and build, but I am happy that AC6 isn’t like Silent Line, which is fun and cathartic when you beat a hard mission, but I don’t want my shit pushed in constantly while trying to have fun. But really, Silent Line might as well be called: Armored Core: Jumping Simulator, because why the hell am I getting Jumped in every mission somehow!?
I haven't played any old Armored Core games (or maybe I did, it was old I think on PS2 and I quit because I don't understand anything) so idk how to gauge the difficulties of the old game myslef. One thing that I want to put is at what point that it's not purely the game but the control schematic that adds the difficulty? From what I heard the control schematic is very hard on the old gens that's why they have the term "Armored Core grip" where you hold the controller backwards. I mostly played with M&K though since all of my controllers are drifting so can't say much about this.
As an old fan I can definitely say, yes the controls add a layer of difficulty, but ONLY on your first game. Once you get the hang of it, it's never a problem ever again in any of the games in my opinion. Except for maybe the first time you can equip guns on your off hand, then it gets weird again 🤣
I had the most fun with AC6 PVE when I stopped using rapair kits, supply drones or using check points Play a light weight AC and the game reminds me of the good old days Can only recommend
AC6 is not the hardest AC game. The stagger system can be abused a lot, change of weapons without restarting the mission and replenish points. Is a great entry point game and even though its one of the easiest games its among my favorites. With a player having decent experience playing the battle is pretty much won in the garage so some missions in AC6 can be tough if you simply don't have the right build. For example the only boss that actually destroyed my AC was getting the moonlight and killing all of the wheels, IBIS and some of the final bosses. Maybe my weapons being all energy based was a disadvantage but I enjoyed it.
It's definitely my second favorite AC game even though I felt it could have been a bit more challenging. That wheel area for the moonlight kicked my ass too the first time 😂
I believe AC6 is made as it is to market FromSoft's mecha genre to as many people as possible. It is by far the easiest Armored Core game but it implements enough features to ensure that both new guys and veterans will enjoy the game. Giving everyone this fairly easy but a tad difficult experience can prepare new players for a new installation or at least DLC where the missing features can be sporadically reintroduced. Hopefully Cores start featuring built-in weapons and missile countermeasures and for Extensions to come back too for additional customization. Of course enemy ACs should have these new equipment too to step up the difficulty. The only ones I really struggled against in AC6 arena are Volta and Carla because tank and heavyweight missile. It'd be more interesting if the top mercenaries effectively used jamming rounds to disable the lock on and make the fight harder for the player but there's barely any variety in their AC builds to make the fights interesting. AC3 and Silent Line introduces tons of variety not only in builds but in how the other Ravens fight so you'll have a few memorable fights that you can get stuck on and have no double Zimm solution to steamroll them. For horror story? Big Whites in SL especially after getting your AC damaged by the far that you end up with half health for a boss fight. Master of Arena's multiple Nine Ball mission is also a nightmare since you'll need to make sure you have enough ammo to fight three Nine Ball ACs that are still hard fights despite their lower health thanks to their high fire rate. Don't forget Last Raven fights where you eventually defeat Zuben El Genubi then see Rim Fire come out to rain bullets on you, Bolt serving as a trap for new players in Mission 1, Pulverizers appearing after fighting multiple other enemies, Ultimate Zinaida just constantly flying on the ceiling, and the fact that not a single one of them had health bars!
It really does feel like it's meant to prep us for the next game or DLC. It would be so cool to see the other parts come back. I miss extensions. The big whites are so cool. That last mission having two was pretty mean lol. I love that you encounter them in less than ideal situations lol.
I've been playing through the old-gen games since December. While I have only gotten through the first-gen games and started second-gen, I think Armored Core 6 has some ups and down in terms of difficulty: The Old-Gen games are consistently harder in terms of their missions and level-by-level playthroughs. Generic enemies can take and dish out more damage on average, and many MTs are faster than they look. There were no repair kits, and you only saw checkpoints very rarely (typically the final levels, such as in AC1 or MOA). Money was also a big deal too, with AC1 *forcing* you to get good and beat whatever missions come available before you can make major changes to your AC. Money is less of an issue in the expansion games typically, but you likely won't be rolling in money on first playthroughs. However; these games are still old, and the bossfights aren't too crazy. Most are spongy things that come with 1-2 attacks, and serve to test your build more than your skill. Even MOA's Nineball Seraph is only a danger if you are lacking firepower (I beat it first try with the Legendary finger). These games are certainly a challenge, but much of it comes from learning how to assess each mission and pick the right build before dropping in. AC6 is-- on the surface-- way easier. Enemies are fodder, you got healthpacks and resupplies that forgive clumsy players, and losing opportunities due to money or missions no longer being available is not that prevalent. Where AC6 *does* shine in difficulty is with its roster of bosses. Even after their post-launch nerfs, bosses like Balteus, the Ibis Series mechs, and Smart Cleaner have loads of tricks up their sleeves to catch new players off guard. Even generic AC fights seemed to last longer and drain my resources faster, especially ones that are also equipped with repair kits and core expansions. Fromsoft have simply gained tech and experience to make more dynamic fights that rely not on some cheap gimmick, but patterns that require learning and adapting your gameplay to match.
We're on the same page with a lot here. Overall missions being harder in old gen, but bosses being more involved and harder in AC6. I think if they can up the overall mission difficulty in the next game we'll be golden. Money adjustment could go a long way in doing that.
@@Thryfe A thing I would definitely do is make NG+ not such a big focus in future games. Put the brunt of content upfront to be findable on NG, then only allow replaying missions after your first playthrough is complete. NG+ can exist, but it could focus more on upping the difficulty to make going back and making all the choices you didn't take on your first or second go around more engaging. One idea that came to mind is also just changing how MTs function too. An idea me and some others have shared in the past is having MTs be frequently equipped with AC weaponry, which would tie the lore and affiliation of corporations and their assets together with the gameplay while allowing for more variety and challenge. Given the average MT in this game is roughly the same size and shape as an AC, I see no reason RLF's recruits couldn't actually be given Ransetsu ARs like that weapon's description states. I'd love for MTs in 6th gen to feel like the actual predecessors to full ACs, which have the barebones functions of ACs without the engine capacity and expensive armor to do all the things real ravens can do.
My first AC game was AC4, i was like 8 or 9 years old. I think i got hardstuck on every mission that wasn't versus MTs... Then after like 2 months after i beat it AC4A came out, never finished it until 2 years ago when i saw AC6 and remembered about this franchise lol
That's pretty interesting because I never really heard about AC4 being hard but a few people have mentioned that after this video. That gets me a bit more excited to play 4.
@@R3ddyyg Oh I didn't mean it in a bad way. I was just pleasantly surprised since it gives me more to look forward to when I get to that game. I like difficulty.
So funny story before armored core 6 I only played armored core 2 and I was so young when I played it I don't even think I hit double digits but I was so irritated by going into debt I never played past the first mission I did however beat the arena and destroyed Ares so from that perspective I feel like a lot could be more difficult in ac6 but I'm glad certain things got easier
That's fair. The cool thing about the arena though is that you would never lose money on a loss so you could grind yourself out of debt in the arena which was nice. If they bring debt back hopefully we can do the same.
@Thryfe I was a really bad perfectionist and the idea of losing any money on missions was more than my tiny kid brain could handle it would be different if I went back now
Out of all of the AC games I've played (only ones I missed were Formula Front and Verdict Day), AC6 is fairly middle ground in difficulty. Another Age, Silent Line, Ninebreaker, and Last Raven are not only much more difficult IMO, but are way more consistent in how they maintain difficulty from my experiences. Nothing wrong with that, as it gives me hope that AC6.5 will be much more difficult and more consistent as an expansion (whatever form it may take). Horror stories for me come from my least liked AC games. Ninebreaker actually lives up to its name by being a fairly difficult game in how it challenges the player and how to S-Rank each situation. And the last boss is actually a LAST BOSS and the leader of the Arena will put you down if you're too lax. I think the main reason Ninebreaker really got to me was the fact that it makes the player have to change their AC's to be tailored to the mission/challenge and not just build an all-arounder. AC5 was more the social aspects and how terrible the game was when it came to horror-crap show that it was. The climb to the top of an area for the right to own a section of the map for your group is fun, but once all the top players own everything it became more like Monopoly with players trading land to each other. Not to mention the drama and crap that came from it. It's what made me skip Verdict Day as I went back to ACFA with what little of the players were still around during that time.
I always go the generalist route with my builds so I'm curious to see how I'll like Ninebreaker when I get to it. I liked AC5 but the rock paper scissors of the damage types drove me crazy lol. I feel you on the territory a bit though too.
I think everybody was just like 'omg, it's dark souls with mechs.' But yeah, I do agree that the older armored cores were more difficult. I don't think that is a bad thing though that ac6 is easier, because I think ac6 is being intended as a soft relaunch of the IP. I guess we won't know until there is AC7 or at least dlc for this game. I think AC6 is a lot more streamlined than the earlier ac's though, which I think sort of takes the road of being 'too' in depth.
I'm only :34 secs in and just recently wiped my entire campaign and started over again in AC6. While its substantially harder when lacking all your unlocks, its not nearly as difficult as I remember when I first picked up the game. When I first booted the game, man...I got stuck at the first boss for so long I almost quit!
Thats what missing! Just now watched and the level of importance, and consequence when taking damage and paying for cause after the fact of failing a mission or sell it just boils down to how they go with presenting the story. If from soft in the future when giving updates or our future continuation of armored Core 6 to give the option of difficulty and or ramp up the cause and effect value of currency
Not gonna lie I LOVE Silent Line but I didnt struggle with it that much outside of certain opponents in the Arena. Last Raven on the other hand kicked my teeth in 😭😭😭 Then again, a lot of Last Raven's difficulty came from basically nerfing the player. It still annoys me to no end that they took away OP-I and yet damn near every enemy AC you fight has it. It also felt like a lot of them had boosted stats as well, which isnt a bad thing in itself because it gives a challenge. I'd say that Armored Core 6 is mainly considered as easy as it is due to how much utility it has. Movement is tight and very responsive along with quick boosting and it always felt like you were on even footing with other AC's. Not to mention checkpoints and repair kits. I'd say the only AC fight that really gave me a challenge was Handler Walter and if I'm not mistaken his stats were boosted too.
maybe it was because of me being new to mech games at the time, but pre-nerf Balteus and IBIS gave me more trouble than a lot of Elden Ring bosses. I'm talking like 4 hours of learning the attacks, learning how and when to dodge, adjusting my frame, trying different weapon combos, etc. Elden Ring bosses are really hard, but those two fights made me pick apart and analyze all the game's systems just to *barely* squeak out a win.
That's pretty cool to know. I always figured being new to mech games was the biggest hurdle for new fans. As a new souls player I found Elden Ring harder overall than AC6.
I think AC6 has a nice balance between having hard moments and easy missions too so it doesn't ever feel like it leans to much to either side. It's definitely a step up from both gen 4 and gen 5 in term of difficulty IMO. It kinda reminds me of gen 1 where you can have hard moments but they can be cheesed with right weapons. That being said Silent Line and Last Raven are definitely a very high bar in an almost sadistic way LOL
Yeah I agree on the balance. I'd like to see the difficulty more spread out like the old games for the next one though. Feeling unstoppable is cool sometimes but I do miss having to be careful around MT swarms.
I dunno... I never had issues with Balteus or Snailteus. I got stuck on Carla's vacuum cleaner instead. And between the end bosses, my kryptonite was the waifu and I don't mean Allmind. But one thing's for sure. The difficulty spikes really high when you refuse to garage the challenge.
Comparatively yeah when you put AC6 side-by-side with older entries its noticeable in general and I believe its primarily for 2 reasons: 1) Newest title released after 1 whole ass decade. That's 10 years people haven't had a new AC game. What this may have meant for the devs was that in order to succeed in making a point/leaving a mark in the space and setting up the stage for further AC games in this new decade, they had to be more lenient on high-stakes player stress in lieu of welcoming new players into the series. Less "oh this is bullshit come on" moments perhaps. Vets definitely not an issue, but there is rightfully a sizeable amount of new receptions because in today's world FROM is well-known in the space and has a rep. Could they have ramped up difficulty in many ways, for sure. That is my hope for the next title moving forward now that those who got a taste of AC as newcomers are familiarized with the core concepts. 2) Differing mechanics in the Combat System, namely impact/stagger & ability to hard-lock (Not present in prev gens). They set the groundwork and everything that functions in combat works within this in totality. So, you could theoretically soft-lock a Pilebunker for sure...Is that practical? lol no, hence the option of hard-lock being a matter of accessibility.
I agree with you here. Stagger system in particular is probably most responsible for the arena being as soft as it is. I loved the game overall and I can't wait to see what they do next now that people have been eased in.
VI wasn't my first game, ninebreaker was. I struggled with ninebreaker because I barely could figure out the controls on the ps2. I had a great time learning how to play ac6, having started in reg 1.05. The stagger mechanic on bosses was tough at the start but once I understood it I was alright. Ayre I think was my hardest boss fight taking over 2 hours and about 10 different builds, before I settled for a dual hu-ben/stun needle tetrapod. The S rank attempt went better for me.
Yeah old school controls are always rough for the first forray into the series. I think Ayre would have been harder for me if I fought her on my first playthrough. She was my NG+ boss so it went smoothly.
@Thryfe ayre was my ng playthrough boss. I hated having to fight rusty first. He is and always will be THE GOAT of rubicon for me. I also hated having to fight walter aa he was the man who passed the torch to us by the end of ng letting us choose jobs instead of "directing" us as the lore would have it. I gotta finish uploading my playthrough. This year it'll happen. Also, I passed my first year of ac6 gameplay, 450ish hours playing casually. Not too shabby
I AM GLAD YOU MADE A VIDEO ABOUT THIS, BECAUSE THIS IS WHY AC6 NEEDS ITS SILENTLINE/FOR ANSWER/VERDICT DAY KINDA DLC THING OR WHATEVER YOU CALL IT! ac6's difficulty (ESPECIALLY THE ARENA) is so mediocre 90% of the times because i think fromsoft was too scared to reawaken the old evil that made their older game HELLISH compared to this one as they have to take in new fans, especially souls players, so they arent overwhelmed by the crazy different in types of difficulty and you ALSO have to remember they end up nerfing balteus and ibis because it was TOO HARD for most people (just like how they nerf radahn miquella bossfight in Ertree dlc because eldenring reeled in so many new players that are again, new to this type of difficulty) so i hope that since now fromsoft has given base AC6 its training wheelchair for the newer player, the DLC/expansion ver they will start of making mission at least as hard as NG++ and stop pulling their punches on the later difficulty by giving us little to no resupply (maybe also PCA route plsplsplspls) and for the arena AI, id imagine its because AC6 runs on a VERY different game mechanic (lockon, AB, etc"), they dont have any knowledge on the tech, strategies and all the little nuances that actual player use (just as you mention with bunny hopping being a thing from the older game, now put in its AI in SL arena) and this resulted in the AI being VERY BASIC AND SO WEAK esp with the Freud and Ares comparison where freud REFUSES to use his blade while ares just BZZ BZZ BZZ and ur dead, so im HOPING with 2 years of info on all these PVP info, having them put their AI in the oven to let it bake to the point where when you next fight walter, he is gonna pull out Demonblade and melee cancel chasedown or melee to kick feint to noodle snipe and all that CRAZY shit man, or imagine Snail realising his fat fucking hover leg can actually KICK WELL he starts USING THAT THING, or even to the point where having NIGHTFALL input read so they can make sure to give you a FIRM RUBICONIAN HANDSHAKE OFF NEUTRAL Stagger is also another problem, not just PVP but PVE as well as it makes bosses have this "window to punish" that you can just unload EVERYTHING and delete some bosses in seconds, which imo even trivialises some bosses more than hardlock did, however since its unfortunately a core mechanic that makes AC6 what it is, its only way is to adjust to balance things out and make the game less dmg bloated and you cant just finish bosses and enemy ACs in seconds
Yeah the arena is the only part of this game that let me down. Everything else I loved! It makes sense overall difficulty would be lower for new players, and that's fine. Rusty never finishing his laser slicer combo just boggles my mind though. I can't wait to see what they do for the next game with the AI. So many cool possibilities.
@@Thryfe rusty not finishing his laser slicer combo but always committs to the charged version despite being able to dodge away mid combo is also very odd LOL i actually cant wait for whats to come! pretty hype for it!
Even tho AC6 is easier compared to the OG games it still amazing game and it has it moments when it comes to difficulty and i think fromsoftware didn't go that crazy because they were playing it a bit safe and I'm sure the next game will be hella different
Love Silent Line, but it had bad part balance. I always drift to certain weapon loadouts, because of said difficulty. AC6 trades a lot to be accessible and for a much more involving story. As an older fan with less time I appreciate it, but do miss it.
I can relate to that on the time thing for sure. I thought the part balance was decent in Silent Line. Could have been better though, it often felt like it wanted to push you towards energy weapons. At least in my experience.
Im pretty sure they made Armored Core 6 easy because they wanted to make it accessible to new players. The way i have interpreted Miyazaki's interview is that a hood game mean nothing if it isnt popular. They need a casual market first
I just got the game again month ago on steam and i think they tweak the difficulty down a little too much. Playing with no ost buffs and no sherpa, i still got through all endings pretty easily. Only protect the strider made me change up my build. But still a great game and im glad it opened up to a wider audience. I do hope when a new ac game comes out they make a kinetic orbit that stays out as long as the orbt. Or really just slow the salvos of the huxley so it shoots the same as the orbt. it can keep the cool down and over heat timing. But i want it to stay out more that like 5 seconds haha
I'm SUPER happy with how popular the game was when it came out. Yeah those nerfs feel overkill now. Idk how they would do it, but having the orbit cores come back would be sick.
@@Thryfe by the way, made me proud hearing you hype up ac silent line! Dont want to feel like a broken record in these comments but that game will alway be up top for me.
One of my horror story came from Last Raven. I SUCK at LR and actually cheated because of an early mission. I had to fight 2 ACs and was at that time a very noob AC pilot (ain't even gonna call myself Raven that time since I suck that much. XD). I thought it was a good idea to cheat, didn't know how wrong I was. The freaking bill after the mission was staggering. Like I exceeded the reward by 2 folds, and that reward was actually very big sum since it was a bait mission to lure you in to get you killed. Like freaking hell, I didn't expect AC to have a freaking Anti-Cheat system built in. XD So yeah, it was not horror in a way that one would consider a horror story to be but holy hell did that experience forced me to actually learn how to be good. XD
AC6 is a game that makes you to learn its rules. Once you know how the game works you'll have an easy time dealing with it. My conclusion is that it is not an "easy game", but it's definetly the most accessible of all the franchise.
YES!!!!!! I TOLD you, Silent Line is PEAK, it's by far the old gen game where the player had THE MOST control over their AC, you could turn and change direction on a dime, stacked arena, good story, memorable missions, AND you could get the intensify to play like the computer - The games after are good, don't get me wrong, but the cooling, accuracy nerfs, and Blade-tracking just really don't hit the same as they did in SL and below. Loved the video, and great analysis as always bro!!!
Also, LOLOLOL At comparing Ares to Freud! Yeah Ares has always stuck in my head as THE most dangerous Rank1 pilot of any arena. Will literally DELETE you in 5 seconds if you don't know what you are doing -
Silent Line quickly became one of my favorites for sure. It's just so damn good across the board.
Ares is a monster 😄. He didn't even sneak in kara shots between the blades like he usually does either. Still deleted me.
My veteran ass when I saw they added estus flasks to AC6: “I can heal for the first time in the series? Yes. This is the easiest game in the series.”
Source: I have the platinum trophy
😂😂 I was shocked to see repair kits myself.
It’s my first AC game but been a big fan of the series for a long time and I could tell it won’t be hard, it’s too much fun but allmind fucked me a lot 😂
I also have platinum trophy 😎
Boomers: Ugh, they're giving us repairs and resupplies to appeal to casuals and make the game easy😮💨
When they actually play the game: Oh shit, they're giving us a resupply here... 😬
I think the challenge, design wise, for AC 6 arena was FROM wanted to make the arena ACs play by the player rule set, but didn’t know how the meta would actually develop. They didn’t test a lot what a good AC would actually look like.
That and the decision process for good play in AC6 is too much for the basic AI to handle. You could tool each enemy AC to have tactics to match their setup but that’s a huge development cost.
Other points I largely agree, just my thoughts.
Addendum, I think they actually have the mission AC AI tweaked, but the arena AI is standard. Nightfall arena feels pretty easy, but nightfall campaign feels like he keeps the pressure on well.
I noticed that too while grabbing Freud's mission footage.
@@One_BeeyondArena rusty is also a lot less aggressive than when you fight him in the cave
I think you're right. I found some of the bosses in AC6 provided a satisfying level of challenge, but I mopped the arena without even having to try. I hope the next installment / addon for the game brings some brutal challenge to the arena! Speaking of challenge, I'd love to see the addition of some special challenges in the game, like an official version of pre-nerf Balty, maybe even some arms forts from 4A like Verdict Day had.
@@kavum-07 Yep! He won't finish his slicer combo punish in the arena. I actually included that in the video but the on screen text pointed it out disappeared right before I rendered 😂
Hey @Thryfe, I got a story for you. When I first started playing AC6 I didn't read any of the tutorials, I just blasted through and started playing. I remember having a lot of trouble with all The Usual Suspects, But I punched through an eventually beat all three campaigns. From there I went to s-rank every single mission. I wanted more AC6 so I went into ranked and it was rough. I learned a lot about what was viable and what wasn't, understood the meta and started climbing. When I got to A rank, I was consistently getting losses, I couldn't keep up with most of my opponents it was very hard for me to keep track of them because they moved so fast. I looked up videos on how to aim and, couldn't find any video that explains it properly. One day I was just watching some random gameplay on TH-cam, and the guy had that little controller on the bottom right that shows you all his inputs. I think he was doing like a no damage boss and I noticed that his right analog wasn't moving. That's when I realized that hard lock was a thing after that I climbed through A rank with no problem. Then I got stuck on S rank qualifiers. I was watching your videos around that time, and I remember asking you how to deal with the fat elevator kites. You gave me some really good advice and I became S rank. I stopped playing ranked after that because I was sick and tired of chasing down Kites and rats. I will say, hard lock is definitely a big part of the reason why this game is easier than the it's predecessors. Also you rock!
Duuuude I remember that. That was a long while ago 😁.
With hardlock I forgot it existed until after I finished the IBIS I think. Either that or after I started pvp. I remember being confused how people kicked so well and realized it was hardlock lol.
Thanks bro!
Go back and do the tutorial missions for some funny dialogue from Allmind acknowledging that you did literally everything else first
As a new Armored Core player but long-time Ace Combat and Destiny player (former now, but that experience is gonna come back in a second), the single hardest things for me were input management and build theory. Once I got those two things down, difficulty dropped dramatically. Ace Combat taught me to make an absolute joke out of 90% of missile attacks (don't turn away, get them side-on then turn _in)_ and deciding what you actually _need_ to dodge, and my general philosophy from Destiny of "the enemy can't shoot me if they're dead and I'm moving at Mach Jesus" translated over almost perfectly, especially once I got the hang of keeping track of weapon bays.
That's pretty sick with the Ace combat knowledge. Feels good when certain skills transfer over between games.
I didn't expect a video essay from you, but this was really cool. Thanks for posting! 👍
I'd like to start doing more of them. I appreciate you watching this 😁
Iguazu's that salty he called for 2 bosses to back himself up. XD
I think its funny. On the AC sub there'll be a post about how hard the game and then the next day it'll be someone asking if the game was supposed to be so easy 😂.
I think its as simple as people pick on things faster and slower than others. Some are more excited to spend a lot of time on the garage and others are more inclined to just slam their head agaisnt the wall until it works.
The arena is a joke. Like i must have died 2 or 3 times overall? Like Im 99% positive I could fight them all in a row without dying once. And tbh I think its in part because of the stagger system. The whole game revolves around fishing for a stagger and then punish.
Anyway nice change of pace for you. Good vid!
Yeah I've been seeing the same thing on the sub and around the internet for a few months and figured I'd share my thoughts on it.
I'm glad I'm not the only one who feels that way about the arena. Kind of a let down for me. Thanks! I want to do more stuff like this.
I enjoy the garage, but I also enjoy banging my head against the wall. I justify banging my head against the wall by saying I already spent my time in the garage, and I know this build can do it.
I think going through new game on a new save with all those shitty beginner parts is a much different experience than going through with your experience and a fully built AC.
No matter what the arena is a joke. The only AC fights within the mission I struggled with was the Branch gank, but other than that I agree it was smooth sailing.
What pissed me off is when i fought Allmind on NG++. The fight didn't piss me off, what pissed me off was Arye. She has the jacked up super AC to fight you, but when she helps you with Allmind she comes in a regular AC. I felt so betrayed by my waifu lol.
i think thats because allmind is using the same mech, there is only one to go around.
but with that said, the irony is that ayre is disgusted with the fact coral is being used as energy yet decides to power the same suit with coral instead of green energy like allmind was doing 😂
Lmao truuue. I saw her setup and immediately said "ay! Where's your real AC?" 😄
@@petercottantail7850 the difference been, all those C weapons use any kind of coral for power, including the sentient part. But Ayre uses the part of coral that herself generates which doesn't have sentient. Coral by itself just replicate infinitely. But it's when it's data carry property got mixed with human consciousness it starts to be a problem using it as a resource.
havent finished yet but i gotta say i do enjoy this sort of discussion based deep dive content alongside your usual stuff, very fun and insightful stuff amazing work man
That makes me happy, I put a lot of time into this one 😁. Thank you.
Nice vid! Even if it's not AC6 PVP (I love those), it's great to hear someone compare oldgen AC to AC6 which is pretty rare. You talking about Silent Line moments definitely made me remember my playthough and I can relate to them LOL. Of the difficult oldgen moments, my most memorable ones are Zinaida's fight in Last Raven and Nineball Seraph in Another Age. Took me so many tries, so many hours... But they don't compare to March Au Supplice in AC4. It took me from midnight to early morning to beat the mission on hard mode haha!
Thanks! The seraph fight in another age took me so long to beat lol. Nightfall was my midnight struggle 😄
Well said on the topic!
Here comes my essay of a comment lmao
While ACVI is my first AC game and I had trouble with some bosses, ACVI does seem more forgiving with other aspects when compared to the past games. Doesn't stop me from loving it still 😄
Past games had no checkpoints, you couldn't change your build mid-mission if you died, no repair kits, no exploiting staggered enemies, etc. Hell, even Last Raven had you losing parts of your AC mid-combat
I loved your bit talking about the arena because I also wished the fights were harder. Legit only struggled with Coldcall and Rokumonsen.
I wish ACVI had a dedicated Hard mode (like AC4 and FA) that was not just the few New Game + and ++ alternate missions. Like I imagine a couple LCs fighting alongside Balteus, or a surprise AC arrival in more missions like what happens in Defend the Dam Complex to spice things up
Thanks! Yeah I love this game but certain aread could definitely use some more bite to them, arena first and foremost. Cold call actually does some solid damage.
I think hard mode would be the best thing to bring back honestly, implemented similar to how you said. That way both types of players benefit.
You didn't have to worry about any of that stuff until AC 3 because you could just use Karasawa 😂
Another great video man!!!
Lmao at that game journalists shade 😂
Thanks. Lmao I HAD to do it.
You hit the nail on the head with a lot of stuff. The arena is definitely a push over, and repair kits, constant resupply and checkpoints trivialize the missions.
The only boss I got hard stuck on was IBIS who is not kind to fat mechs.
SL is one of my favorites in the series and I’ve played since the original on PS1. You should try Ninebreaker for the arena and finial training mission if you haven’t already. I would also while heartedly recommend Last Raven.
Yeah Ibis seems rough for heavies. Last Raven I'm playing next for sure. I definitely want to try ninebreaker at some point.
My first time with AC was in Master of Arena. The arena in that one had a chiken walker dual plasma gun arm monstrosity that blocked me for the longest time. Then I discovered tanks and quads and their ability to fire grenade launchers on the move. This configuration basically lasted until the final mission when I ran into Nineball and his special grenade launcher while flying on a biped kung-fu. I don't recall why I didn't fight him in the arena first, I was but a wee teenager back then. Eventually, the only strategy that worked was the one that my friend adopted: put the 4 barrelled back mounted laser cannons on the tankiest parts and facetank him with the shitty analog stick aiming the cannons.
The Nineball grenade launcher kungfu part of your comment got a good LOL out of me 😂
Ac6 was my first armored core game, and it was a pleasure getting to learn how to fly and fight! However, yeah the difficulty was pretty limited. Once you get your movement and generator management down, there’s not much difficulty to speak of. That said, the hardest bosses on my playthroughs (and I got all 3 endings btw) were the Juggernaut, Balteus, Helicopter 2, Arquebus Balteus, Ayre, and Allmind/Iguazu.
I gotta get my hands on AC2 and Silent Line! You’ve got me sold on them for sure!
Once you get used to the whiplash of going from modern cobtrols to classic, they are soooo much fun. They still hold up today.
AC2 or 3 are your best bet if you are going the physical copy route, those are still decently priced. Everything else is 80+ smacks.
Great video.
It's worth discussing the pros and cons of different games.
As someone who also started with AC2 as a kid I felt the same about the arena and AC vs AC fights against the computers in AC6. I distinctly remember the feeling of dread my first time through when I couldn't instakill the faster, more airborne opponents in the arena with my grenade arms tank AC and realizing I had to re-think how I was playing the game. The one caveat to this is if you discover the missile arms in AC2 every arena fight is a joke and over in under 10 seconds, those things were insanely busted.
What I miss particularly from ACSL is all challenges to acquire all the parts and getting high ranks in the missions. Getting S rank in AC6's missions + all the combat logs is super easy while even early missions in ACSL have high requirements to unlock all the parts and get an S. The lack of multiple save files (okay, you can back-up your save) also hurts the replayability of 6.
Speaking of confined spaces, I also miss the dungeon crawling through narrow corridors throughout all of oldgen. Most of AC6 is pretty open other than the Depths.
I can't wait to see the ACLR playthrough. There are also some similarities between that and AC6. I don't want to say too much but you probably already heard that that was the first game to introduce multiple paths and different endings depending on which missions you chose to complete. Fun fact: Last Raven is the first game that Miyazaki Hidetaka worked on at From as a planner. Tanimura Yui (DS2 director and Elden Ring co-director) had a similar role in making AC2.
I actually never tried the AC2 missile arms, they're probably insane with interlock extensions. I'd like to see S rank silent line style missions again. Like you said, helps with replayability. Last Raven is gonna be sweet!
For me, the number one difficult thing was the "Defeat the Redguns" mission when you kill Michigan. Many many hours I spent, over multiple days. I was starting to think that I would not be able to complete all three endings. When I did finally complete this mission I was elated for days!
I've heard a bunch of people struggled on that one. I only played it on NG+ so it wasn't too bad for me as a result.
Very Similar experience. Played AC1 through Nexus as a kid, 100% or close to it for each game. First boss that gave me any trouble with 6 was Snail-teus. I didn't even realize hard lock was a thing until phase 2 Allmind-Iguazu.
It's odd that I don't remember the difficulty of the original games, so your playthoughs have really made me want to go back and replay the old games. Especially AC3 SL, easily the most memorable game for me.
Same here, couldn't remember if they were hard or not. Once I revisited 2, AA, and 3 I started to remember lol. Silent Line was a different beast altogether.
RIP weapon arms
For real.
Man you just reminded me of my replay of AC2 a couple years ago to get ready for AC6. I played through the whole series in order and the transition from MoA to 2 really messed me up. I constantly ran out of ammo in missions, left missions with debt, and just straight up didnt have enough money to respec my ac for certain levels. I got my ass handed for over half the game lol. Never had that issue in AC6 lol.
It's a whole different world from 6 😄
@Thryfe literally! They do things different on Mars, dood!
@@petervilla5221 Hell yeah! Martian Ravens for life.
Silent Line has always been my favorite!
I think AC6 is a little more accessible, as I've said previously. It definitely is a roller coaster! I appreciate this breakdown, as I've been with Armored Core for 20 years.
It's definitely one of my favorites now. So good. I was hoping you liked this 😁
I actually still remember my playthrough of AC3 Silent Line. I played and beat that game and I totally agree about some of the missions in that game of how hard they can be. Although I didn't worry about ammo that much because I always kept a blade equipped, especailly the Moonlit which was not easy to get and the auto lasers that came equipped to some of the cores. I admit, I had to cheese some of the arena matches in that game because the AC's was that hard. The mission with the satellite lasers firing at you was one of the hardest fights in that game but I got through it. AC6 can be both hard and easy with its balance of bosses and AC fights. But as long as you figure out the mechanics of both games, they can be beaten.
Your energy is incredible!
😁 thank you. I get excited talking about these games.
Excellent video ngl, i would love more of those. That being said regarding the topic, yes ac6 is an easy armored core if you compare it with past entries. BUT its not easy if you take into account what is the landscape of gaming industry and what is the average involvement of players now days. All companies want to give that "feel good" experience to the players which ac6 nails, but also not bust your brains out with endless numbers etc (5th gen even had movement graphs in game).
So yeah imo, easier compared with the past, but not easy in general give the industry right now.
Thanks! I definitely want to do more like this. I feel like you have a pretty solid take here. Outside of fanbases like souls games and a couple others, most don't swarm to really hard games.
I started playing armored core 6 for the first time in a month ago, it’s hard when you first play this game, but after playing again and again and again, it gets easy in my experience, but overall I enjoyed armored core 6, I never got to play the older armored core games though, great video anyway.
Thanks! Yeah once you get through your first playthrough it gets WAY easier. I love AC6
@@Thryfe agreed man
I started with Armored Core 2, and I remember loving everything about the game. Now I will say the I thoroughly enjoyed everything about AC6. I was so hyped to play an updated armored core so I was blind to the negatives. Hell I still play the campaign cause there are just a million different combination of parts and the movement is so awesome!
Same here. AC2 is my favorite and AC6 is second place for me. I think if they only upped the difficulty in one area, I'd like it to be the arena.
I'd say that Ac6 is easier than other games but only because it's more story driven compared to them.
There are more cinematic cut scenes and hearing conversations that outline a clear story, which other games, although they had stories you really had pay attention to the details to understand what was going on.
If they do a dlc, having an additional difficulty mode would be a good idea like enemies deal more damage, more ap, and random generic ac encounters as its hinted in the allmind data files that the factions do have standard ac they use.
The more I play the campaign, the more I think fromsoft were just dipping their toe to see if ac was viable but with more missions to flesh out the world and additional side characters like nosaac or imagine if you were attacked mid mission by some guy claiming you took everything from him and then discovered he was the rookie trainee from the destroy the tester ac mission. The games got potential to grow
That's a fair point on the story aspect. I'm all in for a difficulty mode and I definitely agree about the game having room to grow. Can't wait to see what comes next.
I play mouse and keyboard so I barely use hardlock, first tried Helicopter, balteus and the c spider but then struggled a bit against Ibis and was just hardstuck at for 2 days straight trying to beat Ayre. Right now doing ng+ and really struggled with the michigan/redgun mission (had to punch my way through the last enemies because I was just straight up out of ammo every attempt).
Nice Video.
Didn’t know the old games pulled this much BS on you.
Thanks! Yeah the old stuff can be wicked unforgiving.
Ayre was a huge wall for a lot of people. I ran into her on my second playthrough so I ended up being well equipped for it luckily.
"Do NOT fight Water Hazard in a confined space, you're gonna have a bad time" . I knew this was gonna get brought up again XD
Really told ya to keep moving in the little space you have LOL
I had to recently playthrough AC6 all over again since I got it again on PC so I've also been thinking about the difficulty. AC6 may have bosses with difficulty spikes, but yea everywhere else rarely will scare ya. Like the shock I had when I was messing around and the damage/stagger some of the random enemies can dish out. Then there was one time with the Ekdromoi bros where they just did a sick wombo combo on me right off the bat where one of them kicked me, then while mini stunned I got impaled, then the one that kicked me shoots his charged plasma shot and I was just dead. Kinda wish some of the MTs were a bit more threatening. Also a lot of the enemy ACs in 6 are not optimized well
I could definitely think of some horror stories from playing the older games. Since ya brought him up, I'll bring up Ares.....when I was first playing that game Ares was just impossible for me, especially since I was a kid and didn't fully understand everything with builds and I resorted to beating him by having him accidentally going out of bounds on one of the maps....took some trial and error tho LOL.
Shade was definitely my favorite pilot in Silent Line, inspired me to try using the overboost for evasion in combat. Only used it before for getting from one place to another fast. His fighting style was sick
😂 the water hazard thing is one of my favorite parts of Silent Line.
Ares felt absurd as a kid. Once one of us got him down we were super hyped lol! The best Rank 1 pilot to me for those memories.
Shade is my favorite too. That's my battle buddy who suffered with me 😄. Cool personality too.
Man, I grew up playing the original Armored Core games, and seeing some of those older ACs STILL gave me anxiety!
😂 love to hear it.
I haven’t played Silent line so coming from an only AC6 player. You could’ve discussed about build variety on both games.
AC6 does a good job at showing not every build is gonna work with everything and there are also easy cheese builds like double zimmies , stun needles etc.
Overall I enjoyed the video ❤
I'm glad you enjoyed the video 😁. I didn't mention build variety since the old gen games do the same thing. AC6 did good by keeping that intact.
If 6 had the old debt mechanic there would be way less cheese since ammo costs helped keep that stuff in check lol.
My dream ac game would be, something of mix between 3rd gen, 4th gen and 5th gen.
3rd gen gameplay (More walking and ground boost cost EN) + 5th gen modern camera/lock system and leg variety (RJ have good jump and quad good for stability) as well as Overed Weapon and 5th gen speed + 4th gen hectic battle pace and Armsforth as well as quick turn.
Also bonus, 6th gen mission design and unqiue weapon, as well as EN Weapon charged mechanic.
No stagger, actually having turn speed and no hard lock.
Okay so, I've been saying this since 6 launched. the only thing that makes ac6 difficult is not interacting with the garage enough, and thinking that ac6 is dark souls. Like, yes it has some soul-ish feeling things(i.e. repair kits, hard lock, lack of a set turn speed depending on your legs, and things of that nature) but this joint ain't souls bro. Movement and and adapting your setup are king in this series but for some god forsaken reason, people don't wanna be bothered with any of that. the stagger system is another bag of worms but I don't feel like saying my peace on that.
@@jds0798 I think you're right on that honestly. That's part of the reason I mentioned how you can't just go in guns blazing in the beginning.
Too many people forget that a lot of "Souls" elements were in AC first
EN=Stamina
Weight limits
Customizing your head, core, arms, and legs
The moonlight
Hell, AC1, MOA, and AC2 gave you repairs for free during some missions, and ACV was the first game with repairs AND checkpoints
Silent about halfway through had me stuck for a few hours. That mission you have to destroy the helicopters from landing then fight the two ACs afterward was the bane of my existence in that game. AC6 was definitely easier but it was nice to see some references from Silent Line in 6.
That mission is SO cruel lmao.
When I play campaign in AC 6 I feel like I'm playing Dynasty Warriors. Everyone else in the story just exist to become notches in my belt
That's a pretty good comparison lol
yeah NIGHTFALL's a nice fight, i think it actually used assault boost shuffling before it really became a thing in PvP. there's actually a handful of them that use assault boost shuffling, i can't remember them all off the top of my head but SHINOBI and LOCKSMITH are a few of them and i think they all share the same AI type. there's also DUAL NATURE and ASTGHIK, who both use melee cancel tech.
as for old horror stories, for me it was Menno Ruh in AC4. in the arena her missile barrage just melts you insanely fast, so to beat her i remember just waiting behind some cover for her to run out of ammo.
I actually noticed that while fighting him again for footage lol. Pretty cool.
I'll definitely be on the lookout for that when I get to 4 lol.
I've been a player since AC2, one of my first games ever on the PS2, and been a huge fan ever since. Played through em all to completion (even S rank BS) and I think AC6 is definitely one of the easier games for sure. It excels at the mecha power fantasy, coming closer than any other to the vibe of those intro cutscenes from the preivous games (AC4's in particular,) but by doing so, it suffers from being a real cakewalk at times. I enjoy the hell out of it, but I'd personally love to see the next iteration lean heavier into the difficulty that previous gens brought to bear. I think Fromsoft probably wanted to ease the player base back in for the overall experience, while still keeping some of the memorable and tough fights they've since become famous for. I agree wholeheartedly with your assessment.
As far as nightmares from past games, Last Ravens Zinaida fight still makes me shudder. She has INFINITE ENERGY, Human Plus/OPI BS, she's in a tiny little arena with no cover, and every attempt you do has you running through a maze with suicide drones & Lazers. Such a frustrating fight.
Love your content! Keep it up! 🤘
That's a really good point about getting us close to the intro cutscenes in terms of action. I agree with that 100%, I adore this game but I definitely want to see us get the old difficulty back too.
I've heard Zinaida is a monster. Reading this gets me even more hype to get my ass kicked once I finally tackle that game 😂.
Thanks! I appreciate you watching.
All FACTS. I love AC6 but silent line has a special place in my heart from my childhood.
It's such a great game.
As a new player, I definitely had difficulty but I got better after each mission with a few hours spent in the major bosses
It’s definitely made with the expectation of new people coming from Souls playing an Armored Core game the first time. Given that when the last one released when Dark Souls hype was set in motion with a second one on the way (Vertict Day: Sep 24, 2013 vs Dark Souls 1: Sep 22, 2011), and would be (to my knowledge) the last game From Software would before exclusivity focusing on Souls for the next almost 10 years I think.
I mean, I got my introduction to From Soft through Dark Souls 3 in 2017 or 18. I was about in the 5th or 6th grade at that time, and from there I would go to play Dark Souls 1, Bloodborn (still haven’t finished that one), Dark Souls 2 (through the Scholar of the First Sin version) and of course Elden Ring.
Now I would have gone on the play a AC game with the ps vita re-release of Armored Core 1 near the beginning of my Junior year of High School (so basically last School year) and the PsP Armored Core Portable titles (AC3, Silent Line, Last Raven).
I really am glad how well they did with attracting new fans to Armored Core. I was more excited for the hype the game was getting than anything.
I think you pretty much nailed it. One of the very few complaints I had with AC6 was the general lack of difficulty and also lack of punishment (debt, not being able to redo certain missions, etc.). I think checkpoints and the ability to switch up your entire build mid-mission went a little too far into the "casual" approach they took with this one. I don't mind having a couple repair kits for a super long mission, but checkpoints too? Don't get me wrong, AC6 is still one of my favorite games of all time, but I wish they had found a slightly better balance between it and the old games when it comes to movement mechanics and how the campaign works.
My horror story from Silent Line is just... ya know... Silent Line lmao.
Not super relevant but, oddly I found the final final AC6 boss to not be that bad. I realized quickly that you can just straight up ignore the extra ACs in the first phase, and just focus on Iguazu without much trouble. Same thing with the 2 Sea Spiders. I completely ignored them without any problems at all, and they get nuked when Iguazu goes phase 3 anyway. Now, phase 3 IS pretty tough, but he's already at half HP, and it's just a matter of learning how to dodge his crazy attacks, similar to learning IBIS.
Outside of IBIS, final boss Ayre (with ending 1), and to an extent Balteus (pre-nerf), I found AC6 to almost completely lack in difficulty. And the small difficulty that was there in the rest of the game was made totally irrelevant because of the checkpoints. The only non-boss missions that were tough at all (for me) was the You vs. Michigan and all his homies fight, and the NG++ fight to "save" the Mining Walker thing where you get jumped by a bunch of those Bonewheel mofos.
Anyway yeah. I hope the next AC is significantly harder and more punishing, but I'm sure I'll love it regardless. Good video mang
I figured out the ignoring the ACs in the allmind phase 1 pretty early but the AI spiders kept slapping me up anytime I went after salty mcgee, so I focused on them and it took me longer to realize I could ignore them too.
LOL at silent line as a whole being your horror story. That strider alternate mission was rough for sure. I definitely want to see the game's difficulty spread out more for the next one, oh and Thank you 😁
5:15 my favorit Moment x'D lovely,
now i want to play silent line xDDD
this Video is Gold.
i wish the art from the old Armored Core were today still here :')
😂😂 I thought someone might enjoy my Iron Low hate.
@@Thryfe i Love it wen you hate on thinks in the game, it shows how much you care for them 😂 fromsoftware be likes: "come outside we wont jump you"
AC6 is my First AC game and I got it after the bosses Nerfs. I am a action games veteran so it's not like this is the first fast pace game I'm playing.
AC6 is right on the spot for me. It's not hard apart from specific moments, Salt Lord boss fight I'm looking at you. But it is easy enough for new comers to both AC and Action games to try it out and that is super important nowadays. A game need new players in order to have success.
One thing that I wish they did was to make the whole 3 part of the Investigate Watchpoint Alfa mission into a single huge mission. Getting down the Napenthes, going through the facility and fight the enforcer and getting to the Ephemera fight with the clocking timer. That shit would've been absolutelly nuts!
That would have been wicked cool merging those 3 together. Also yeah it seems like this game nailed the difficulty for newcomers.
So, for starters, great video! I do think that playing this game without experience of AC is harder it took me longer to beat stuff then it took you (that might just be a skill issue though) and one more point I want to bring up, I dont know if youre playing on Controller but if you are Hard Lock is a freaking aimbot. You were doing 360s in that footage, on PC though it falls of immediatly at the slightest move of your mouse and when the enemy leaves your Screen just wanted to bring that up.
Thanks! Yeah I alternated between soft and hard lock in this. I've heard hard lock is tricky to maintain on PC, so you've definitely got a point there.
I knew I'm not dreaming. Using hard lock or soft lock on PC doesn't really make a difference for me to the point I sometimes forgot which lock type I just activated
@lw9194 If you still want to use hard lock but not use a controller rotate your mouse wrist 90 degrees clockwise. That will prevent the lock from breaking, kinda feels like a flightstick.
I've been playing through ac3 recently, and even that feels way harder than ac6 at first. I started out with a laser rifle and blade to try and save money, and regularly got my ass kicked because I couldn't figure out the controls and my ac didn't do jack damage, then I tried out the back mounted chain gun, figured "oh hey this is really strong, I'll remember that" proceeded to REMOVE the strong weapon from my ac, went into debt because I was legit FAILING easy missions, had to fight a dude in the arena with machine gun weapon arms and back chain guns with my dinky little laser rifle cuz I was in debt, and after all of that, decided to FINALLY get my shit together and made a tetrapod with a back chain gun, flamethrower and machine gun. Then it was pretty much smooth sailing through both the arena and missions until I hit B-rank, and got my ass kicked AGAIN by Valkyrie before finally melting her with my beloved flamethrower, and I believe that's where I'm currently at.
I think it kind of boils down to the build and how stubborn the player is for older games, where in ac6 it's (hear me out) more of a Dark Souls/Elden Ring approach to difficulty, with the bosses generally being the main focus of difficulty, but since you have checkpoints it results in everything that isn't a boss being super easy. Like, the Strider is a cool ass mission, but I feel like a super important military asset would be a little more challenging to take down. Maybe Flatwell could have been down on the ground to face you before getting to the Strider, but was forced to leave mid-fight and give up the Strider for whatever reason.
Yeah honestly I feel the same with the comparison to Elden Ring. I thought the same about the Strider too lol.
I love reading about your experience with AC3. Valkyrie no joke 😂. I'm impressed you rocked the flamethrower, definitely takes some practice to make those work in the old games.
Funny that you compared Balteus to the Big White, as Balteus' design is a call back to the Big White.
I hadn't even thought of that! I see it now.
I would say in the old games trying to get the secret parts on timed missions or hard missions was a nightmare. Like in ac2 getting the karasawa while trying to take out the armored tank before it leaves the mission area 😑
😂 they put it right at the out of bounds area too, so if you take a few missile to the back you could get pushed out lmao.
My "oh shit" moments in this games were when those damn Pulverizer paid me a visit in Last Raven, dam
I can't wait lmao.
Last Raven and Master of Arena were the hardest for me.
Although the OG was hardest due to the young age and the fact that I played without any help.
I felt alone in the game of robots, now as it became easy, more people joined.
It is a double edged sword.
PvP was the most affected part of the repair kit because in PvP a tank no longer has 3 times your LW AC.
Also I don’t remember being stuck with no movement mid air just waiting for gravity to notice, or my earshots (i got 2 )
Also also there was time I could lock on while shotguns could not even see me in the map, double zims would run away in fear of my charged LRB if there was no beep to tell him it is coming… or he could not lock in to me due to fcs lock range.
My experience with difficulty in AC6 came from the lack of parts, lack of knowledge, and muscle memory of starting out. As you play the game, you get better parts, learn how to build better ACs, and figure out optimal combos. I've seen some people who had a hard time getting into those, and was hardstuck against the Ekdromois and the HC fights, so yeah it definitely differs from person to person. But I gotta say, I miss being absolutely clapped by Balteus, nowadays I feel like I can take him on with most builds...
Muscle memory and build knowledge is absolutely huge. I remember struggling hard against the Smart Cleaner of all things, while absolutely annihilating pretty much every other boss up until the Enforcer. And that was with me almost completely crippling myself by trying to run the Aorta generator with the Firmeza core because it was the only combo light enough to cram onto the Kasuar legs with my loadout at the time.
A year and a half later, and I've killed what feels like half the bosses without taking so much as a scratch. Balteus? Glorified beach ball, both versions. Ayre? More like Error. HC? Hard-countered. Even Branch has become so easy that if I take more than a thousand damage it's either because Chartreuse got a lucky hit or I'm running an AC that's too fat to dodge things completely.
All valid points. With the HCs it feels like they play by different rules since they can shield bonk laser sword combo and then immediately laser sword combo again. It surprised me.
Yep, once you get the hang of things the game gets insanely easy. Which is how most games work to an extent, but it's REALLY noticeable here. Hopefully the next game you can unlock a higher difficulty post game or something like Devil May Cry.
Omg "this close from tree speaking Vietnamese" killed me 😂. Man, why can't I ever think of funny crap like that 😭
😂 it's the first thing I thought of the moment I saw the laser drones shooting from the trees.
maaaaan you're makin me wanna replay oldgen again
They still hold up imo.
I can't wait to see the struggle when you get to Last Raven.
I'm so looking forward to it 😄
Yooo we just fought! I was Iron Thunder/ paladin. What a fight! And during my promotion phase too. Gotta win some more though...
Ayyy GGs man. I figured you were in promos. I'm tinkering around with the Red Star AC so I learned a lot from the matches. Thanks for the fun!
@@Thryfe GGs! Sadly even with dual stunguns I didn't reach S rank this time, but I'll try again. Look forward to the Red Star video, keep up the good work.
I don't think I'd call it *easy* but it's a lot more so than many of the previous AC games most of the time, or most of the Souls games for that matter. There's a steep learning curve when you first start, but once you know the mechanics and learn the bosses' move telegraphing, the (PVE) skill ceiling is very manageable - fair, even. I think your video is a great analysis of the game's difficulty as it compares to some earlier entries.
For a game designed to on-ramp new people into the series, I think it strikes a great balance. Imagine if Silent Line was your first AC game! At the time it was specifically designed for people who had been playing them for years, through three whole generations of titles featuring From's funky old control scheme.
Addendum; I think the boss difficulty comes down to play-style, too, like you mentioned during the old Ibis fight. I think the boss I got stuck on the longest was Enforcer of all things - at least until I learned some stuff that made the fight a lot easier.
As for old horror stories, well. You said it: WEREHOUND! That, and the 3rd route mission in 4A where you have to fight a bunch of ACs at once at the dam / fort by the sea. Way harder than the mission of the same vague description in 6! Same for the last mission in the 3rd route in 4A - though for that one my struggle came from play-style. I was getting mopped until my gf who'd been watching me play suggested I try the opposite extreme of range I'd been trying, and dang if I didn't beat it first try from there.
I always smile whenever anyone mentions werehound haha! I've heard a lot about that route of for answer, it sounds nuts.
Yeah 6 is a great entry point, I'm looking forward to seeing what they do difficulty wise for the next one. Oh and thank you! I'm glad you liked the analysis.
I dunno dude, I've always thought most Armored Core games are quite easy to me (except Verdict Day, and even then I could find some ways to cheese it). Either I'm just that skilled an AC pilot, or From Soft just knows how to give us a mecha power fantasy.
Ay you could very well be that nasty lol. I feel like for me, AC2, 3, and Nexus are pretty easy. Another Age and Silent Line were rough. I remember very little about AC5's campaign.
Ooooo sweet summer child Last Raven gonna have fun with you..... First Ac Game i've played where the Cheese strait to certain fights looked extra juicy
@@Jayfam09 lmaoooo
4:58 I ate Volta! XD Though I did took a lot of hits that I am embarrassed to not have been able to dodge. Though I was running a Poster Boi setup (Rail Rifle, Song Bird, Missile and Pulse Blade) which is weirdly effective for most of the game (though I am still not finish with my first playthrough).
I beat the game when it came out and it was my first AC game, once you figure out what build you want and you play towards it a lot of the bosses are a walk in the park, but learning that without watching guides and theory crafting I found hard, my first play through had its tough times at the bosses you said. I then started a new complete save from scratch and the game is absolutely easy once you know a build and how to play it. PvP is where it’s at but god it’s crap to vs tanky opponents as a light weight mele
That's what I figured the game was probably like the new players. Cool to read this.
Seems like they succeeded in trying to ease people into the franchise which is good! Life as a lightweight is definitely hard lol, hard lock hurts them most.
@ yeah the game is easy mode if you run double chain guns hahahaha mele is the best way to play I find lots of fun. I hope they get a DLC or a new one comes with some challenges to it the PVE is so easy now :(
I hope AC6.5 gives us silent line difficulty and vibes.
I miss these kinds of missions.
Me too!
I did know at least one person that got stopped by the cleaner and I actually think Enforcer is a pretty hard mechanical check if you have been being carried by weapons alone. strangely you are the only one I've heard say the true final boss is hard.
I will also say I swear they buffed the trio fight if you haven't done it in a while try it again. One of the better stress tests for a build out there. Most new builds I make haven't been able to clear it in a while.
That being said: you compared this game to silent line but the sequels in AC are always a difficulty jump since you can bring in the save data from the previous game. 6 ultimately is a skill floor check that gets easier after you learn the ropes, but if 6th gen isn't done with us it might have some NASTY tricks up its sleeves in sequel.
Good point on the enforcer. You need to play more vertical against that guy or he'll tear you up.
I'd be genuinely shocked if the next game isn't harder like tradition follows with the follow up games.
Still early in the video but I wanna say that the other night Freud did like an insta kill combo on me in arena where he was like full on anime teleporting behind you from a different angle off every attack. He like bounced me up with his charged laser blade which he cancelled into a kick form the reverse direction then shot me with the Morley from behind after the kick followed by finishing me off with the laser drones and rifle.
idk what the heck happened but for that brief moment I felt like I fought lore accurate Freud. It was wild.
If he could pull that off more, I think people would see him as the real rank 1. As it stands Raven is definitely more impressive AI wise since he knowns legit bunker tech if you fight him enough to see.
So you got to be Chatty, that is kind of cool.
@@thorinhannahs4614 Yeah he killed me from full hp about that fast. I think I was in a slightly slow 18k stability mid-weight too.
Was kinda cool though.
That's super cool. I agree that if his AI was consistent like that it would be a world of difference. His setup is actually pretty decent.
I call this the trial and error game as I can tell, this game can be hard (it’s a FromSoft game, of course it’s hard at some points), like Balteus, I only won against him after my seventeenth try because I listened to Arya making a comment about Pulse weapons being effective and thought: “Maybe I should equip that” or just come back with new weapons and build, but I am happy that AC6 isn’t like Silent Line, which is fun and cathartic when you beat a hard mission, but I don’t want my shit pushed in constantly while trying to have fun.
But really, Silent Line might as well be called: Armored Core: Jumping Simulator, because why the hell am I getting Jumped in every mission somehow!?
Lmao Silent Line really just does not let up at a certain point, and hell yeah, the jumpings never stop 😄
Once you figure out things it becomes very easy.
I haven't played any old Armored Core games (or maybe I did, it was old I think on PS2 and I quit because I don't understand anything) so idk how to gauge the difficulties of the old game myslef. One thing that I want to put is at what point that it's not purely the game but the control schematic that adds the difficulty? From what I heard the control schematic is very hard on the old gens that's why they have the term "Armored Core grip" where you hold the controller backwards. I mostly played with M&K though since all of my controllers are drifting so can't say much about this.
As an old fan I can definitely say, yes the controls add a layer of difficulty, but ONLY on your first game. Once you get the hang of it, it's never a problem ever again in any of the games in my opinion. Except for maybe the first time you can equip guns on your off hand, then it gets weird again 🤣
I had the most fun with AC6 PVE when I stopped using rapair kits, supply drones or using check points
Play a light weight AC and the game reminds me of the good old days
Can only recommend
I've actually been planning to playthrough it again doing that. I feel like it will be a really good time.
@@Thryfe I had even more fun when I stopped using melee and gave myself a shield. Trust me later the game becomes insanely hard.
AC6 is not the hardest AC game. The stagger system can be abused a lot, change of weapons without restarting the mission and replenish points. Is a great entry point game and even though its one of the easiest games its among my favorites.
With a player having decent experience playing the battle is pretty much won in the garage so some missions in AC6 can be tough if you simply don't have the right build.
For example the only boss that actually destroyed my AC was getting the moonlight and killing all of the wheels, IBIS and some of the final bosses. Maybe my weapons being all energy based was a disadvantage but I enjoyed it.
It's definitely my second favorite AC game even though I felt it could have been a bit more challenging. That wheel area for the moonlight kicked my ass too the first time 😂
I believe AC6 is made as it is to market FromSoft's mecha genre to as many people as possible. It is by far the easiest Armored Core game but it implements enough features to ensure that both new guys and veterans will enjoy the game. Giving everyone this fairly easy but a tad difficult experience can prepare new players for a new installation or at least DLC where the missing features can be sporadically reintroduced. Hopefully Cores start featuring built-in weapons and missile countermeasures and for Extensions to come back too for additional customization. Of course enemy ACs should have these new equipment too to step up the difficulty.
The only ones I really struggled against in AC6 arena are Volta and Carla because tank and heavyweight missile. It'd be more interesting if the top mercenaries effectively used jamming rounds to disable the lock on and make the fight harder for the player but there's barely any variety in their AC builds to make the fights interesting. AC3 and Silent Line introduces tons of variety not only in builds but in how the other Ravens fight so you'll have a few memorable fights that you can get stuck on and have no double Zimm solution to steamroll them.
For horror story? Big Whites in SL especially after getting your AC damaged by the far that you end up with half health for a boss fight. Master of Arena's multiple Nine Ball mission is also a nightmare since you'll need to make sure you have enough ammo to fight three Nine Ball ACs that are still hard fights despite their lower health thanks to their high fire rate. Don't forget Last Raven fights where you eventually defeat Zuben El Genubi then see Rim Fire come out to rain bullets on you, Bolt serving as a trap for new players in Mission 1, Pulverizers appearing after fighting multiple other enemies, Ultimate Zinaida just constantly flying on the ceiling, and the fact that not a single one of them had health bars!
It really does feel like it's meant to prep us for the next game or DLC.
It would be so cool to see the other parts come back. I miss extensions.
The big whites are so cool. That last mission having two was pretty mean lol. I love that you encounter them in less than ideal situations lol.
oh my christ i hated those fucking wheels, everything else i could handle, the optional wheels really had me reconsidering that 10 year wait
Definitely the hardest thing about the game outside of a few bosses 😂😂. The strider alt mission was disgusting.
I've been playing through the old-gen games since December. While I have only gotten through the first-gen games and started second-gen, I think Armored Core 6 has some ups and down in terms of difficulty:
The Old-Gen games are consistently harder in terms of their missions and level-by-level playthroughs. Generic enemies can take and dish out more damage on average, and many MTs are faster than they look. There were no repair kits, and you only saw checkpoints very rarely (typically the final levels, such as in AC1 or MOA). Money was also a big deal too, with AC1 *forcing* you to get good and beat whatever missions come available before you can make major changes to your AC. Money is less of an issue in the expansion games typically, but you likely won't be rolling in money on first playthroughs. However; these games are still old, and the bossfights aren't too crazy. Most are spongy things that come with 1-2 attacks, and serve to test your build more than your skill. Even MOA's Nineball Seraph is only a danger if you are lacking firepower (I beat it first try with the Legendary finger). These games are certainly a challenge, but much of it comes from learning how to assess each mission and pick the right build before dropping in.
AC6 is-- on the surface-- way easier. Enemies are fodder, you got healthpacks and resupplies that forgive clumsy players, and losing opportunities due to money or missions no longer being available is not that prevalent. Where AC6 *does* shine in difficulty is with its roster of bosses. Even after their post-launch nerfs, bosses like Balteus, the Ibis Series mechs, and Smart Cleaner have loads of tricks up their sleeves to catch new players off guard. Even generic AC fights seemed to last longer and drain my resources faster, especially ones that are also equipped with repair kits and core expansions. Fromsoft have simply gained tech and experience to make more dynamic fights that rely not on some cheap gimmick, but patterns that require learning and adapting your gameplay to match.
We're on the same page with a lot here. Overall missions being harder in old gen, but bosses being more involved and harder in AC6.
I think if they can up the overall mission difficulty in the next game we'll be golden. Money adjustment could go a long way in doing that.
@@Thryfe A thing I would definitely do is make NG+ not such a big focus in future games. Put the brunt of content upfront to be findable on NG, then only allow replaying missions after your first playthrough is complete. NG+ can exist, but it could focus more on upping the difficulty to make going back and making all the choices you didn't take on your first or second go around more engaging.
One idea that came to mind is also just changing how MTs function too. An idea me and some others have shared in the past is having MTs be frequently equipped with AC weaponry, which would tie the lore and affiliation of corporations and their assets together with the gameplay while allowing for more variety and challenge. Given the average MT in this game is roughly the same size and shape as an AC, I see no reason RLF's recruits couldn't actually be given Ransetsu ARs like that weapon's description states. I'd love for MTs in 6th gen to feel like the actual predecessors to full ACs, which have the barebones functions of ACs without the engine capacity and expensive armor to do all the things real ravens can do.
My first AC game was AC4, i was like 8 or 9 years old. I think i got hardstuck on every mission that wasn't versus MTs... Then after like 2 months after i beat it AC4A came out, never finished it until 2 years ago when i saw AC6 and remembered about this franchise lol
That's pretty interesting because I never really heard about AC4 being hard but a few people have mentioned that after this video. That gets me a bit more excited to play 4.
@@Thryfe I was a little kid man, cut lil me some slack i didn't even know what was going on on screen half of the time
@@R3ddyyg Oh I didn't mean it in a bad way. I was just pleasantly surprised since it gives me more to look forward to when I get to that game. I like difficulty.
So funny story before armored core 6 I only played armored core 2 and I was so young when I played it I don't even think I hit double digits but I was so irritated by going into debt I never played past the first mission I did however beat the arena and destroyed Ares so from that perspective I feel like a lot could be more difficult in ac6 but I'm glad certain things got easier
That's fair. The cool thing about the arena though is that you would never lose money on a loss so you could grind yourself out of debt in the arena which was nice. If they bring debt back hopefully we can do the same.
@Thryfe I was a really bad perfectionist and the idea of losing any money on missions was more than my tiny kid brain could handle it would be different if I went back now
i remember breaking my controller when fighting nineball seraph i was like 8 or 9 back then it was a miracle i even made it that far lol
😂 that fight was absurd. Even today I'm not sure how I beat it as a kid.
Out of all of the AC games I've played (only ones I missed were Formula Front and Verdict Day), AC6 is fairly middle ground in difficulty. Another Age, Silent Line, Ninebreaker, and Last Raven are not only much more difficult IMO, but are way more consistent in how they maintain difficulty from my experiences. Nothing wrong with that, as it gives me hope that AC6.5 will be much more difficult and more consistent as an expansion (whatever form it may take).
Horror stories for me come from my least liked AC games. Ninebreaker actually lives up to its name by being a fairly difficult game in how it challenges the player and how to S-Rank each situation. And the last boss is actually a LAST BOSS and the leader of the Arena will put you down if you're too lax. I think the main reason Ninebreaker really got to me was the fact that it makes the player have to change their AC's to be tailored to the mission/challenge and not just build an all-arounder.
AC5 was more the social aspects and how terrible the game was when it came to horror-crap show that it was. The climb to the top of an area for the right to own a section of the map for your group is fun, but once all the top players own everything it became more like Monopoly with players trading land to each other. Not to mention the drama and crap that came from it. It's what made me skip Verdict Day as I went back to ACFA with what little of the players were still around during that time.
I always go the generalist route with my builds so I'm curious to see how I'll like Ninebreaker when I get to it.
I liked AC5 but the rock paper scissors of the damage types drove me crazy lol. I feel you on the territory a bit though too.
OG AC hardened the first ravens, I'm thankful.
Same here 😁
Modern ACs dont handle like a brick wall anymore
I think everybody was just like 'omg, it's dark souls with mechs.' But yeah, I do agree that the older armored cores were more difficult. I don't think that is a bad thing though that ac6 is easier, because I think ac6 is being intended as a soft relaunch of the IP. I guess we won't know until there is AC7 or at least dlc for this game. I think AC6 is a lot more streamlined than the earlier ac's though, which I think sort of takes the road of being 'too' in depth.
I agree, it feels like an introduction. I fully expect the next game to be wayyyy harder.
I'm only :34 secs in and just recently wiped my entire campaign and started over again in AC6. While its substantially harder when lacking all your unlocks, its not nearly as difficult as I remember when I first picked up the game. When I first booted the game, man...I got stuck at the first boss for so long I almost quit!
The nerfs probably play a big role in that I imagine.
Thats what missing! Just now watched and the level of importance, and consequence when taking damage and paying for cause after the fact of failing a mission or sell it just boils down to how they go with presenting the story. If from soft in the future when giving updates or our future continuation of armored Core 6 to give the option of difficulty and or ramp up the cause and effect value of currency
Yes! I feel like a difficulty option would be fantastic and the debt system coming back would improve the game a lot.
Not gonna lie I LOVE Silent Line but I didnt struggle with it that much outside of certain opponents in the Arena. Last Raven on the other hand kicked my teeth in 😭😭😭
Then again, a lot of Last Raven's difficulty came from basically nerfing the player. It still annoys me to no end that they took away OP-I and yet damn near every enemy AC you fight has it. It also felt like a lot of them had boosted stats as well, which isnt a bad thing in itself because it gives a challenge.
I'd say that Armored Core 6 is mainly considered as easy as it is due to how much utility it has. Movement is tight and very responsive along with quick boosting and it always felt like you were on even footing with other AC's. Not to mention checkpoints and repair kits. I'd say the only AC fight that really gave me a challenge was Handler Walter and if I'm not mistaken his stats were boosted too.
Last Raven is going to be such a crazy experience 😄. I wouldn't be surprised if walters stats are boosted. His rifle beam huurrrts.
maybe it was because of me being new to mech games at the time, but pre-nerf Balteus and IBIS gave me more trouble than a lot of Elden Ring bosses. I'm talking like 4 hours of learning the attacks, learning how and when to dodge, adjusting my frame, trying different weapon combos, etc. Elden Ring bosses are really hard, but those two fights made me pick apart and analyze all the game's systems just to *barely* squeak out a win.
That's pretty cool to know. I always figured being new to mech games was the biggest hurdle for new fans. As a new souls player I found Elden Ring harder overall than AC6.
At first it’s very difficult but once the learning curve is figured out it’s cake tbh
That's how I figured it was for most new fans. Some of us old guys too.
I think AC6 has a nice balance between having hard moments and easy missions too so it doesn't ever feel like it leans to much to either side. It's definitely a step up from both gen 4 and gen 5 in term of difficulty IMO. It kinda reminds me of gen 1 where you can have hard moments but they can be cheesed with right weapons. That being said Silent Line and Last Raven are definitely a very high bar in an almost sadistic way LOL
Yeah I agree on the balance. I'd like to see the difficulty more spread out like the old games for the next one though. Feeling unstoppable is cool sometimes but I do miss having to be careful around MT swarms.
I dunno... I never had issues with Balteus or Snailteus. I got stuck on Carla's vacuum cleaner instead. And between the end bosses, my kryptonite was the waifu and I don't mean Allmind.
But one thing's for sure. The difficulty spikes really high when you refuse to garage the challenge.
That's pretty interesting, cleaner over Balteus is pretty cool. Yep red waifu beat up a lot of people 😄
Comparatively yeah when you put AC6 side-by-side with older entries its noticeable in general and I believe its primarily for 2 reasons:
1) Newest title released after 1 whole ass decade. That's 10 years people haven't had a new AC game. What this may have meant for the devs was that in order to succeed in making a point/leaving a mark in the space and setting up the stage for further AC games in this new decade, they had to be more lenient on high-stakes player stress in lieu of welcoming new players into the series.
Less "oh this is bullshit come on" moments perhaps.
Vets definitely not an issue, but there is rightfully a sizeable amount of new receptions because in today's world FROM is well-known in the space and has a rep. Could they have ramped up difficulty in many ways, for sure. That is my hope for the next title moving forward now that those who got a taste of AC as newcomers are familiarized with the core concepts.
2) Differing mechanics in the Combat System, namely impact/stagger & ability to hard-lock (Not present in prev gens).
They set the groundwork and everything that functions in combat works within this in totality.
So, you could theoretically soft-lock a Pilebunker for sure...Is that practical? lol no, hence the option of hard-lock being a matter of accessibility.
I agree with you here. Stagger system in particular is probably most responsible for the arena being as soft as it is. I loved the game overall and I can't wait to see what they do next now that people have been eased in.
VI wasn't my first game, ninebreaker was. I struggled with ninebreaker because I barely could figure out the controls on the ps2. I had a great time learning how to play ac6, having started in reg 1.05. The stagger mechanic on bosses was tough at the start but once I understood it I was alright. Ayre I think was my hardest boss fight taking over 2 hours and about 10 different builds, before I settled for a dual hu-ben/stun needle tetrapod. The S rank attempt went better for me.
Yeah old school controls are always rough for the first forray into the series. I think Ayre would have been harder for me if I fought her on my first playthrough. She was my NG+ boss so it went smoothly.
@Thryfe ayre was my ng playthrough boss. I hated having to fight rusty first. He is and always will be THE GOAT of rubicon for me. I also hated having to fight walter aa he was the man who passed the torch to us by the end of ng letting us choose jobs instead of "directing" us as the lore would have it. I gotta finish uploading my playthrough. This year it'll happen. Also, I passed my first year of ac6 gameplay, 450ish hours playing casually. Not too shabby
@roninsghost108 The walter fight crushed me right when he said to undo the surgery and be normal again.
I AM GLAD YOU MADE A VIDEO ABOUT THIS, BECAUSE THIS IS WHY AC6 NEEDS ITS SILENTLINE/FOR ANSWER/VERDICT DAY KINDA DLC THING OR WHATEVER YOU CALL IT!
ac6's difficulty (ESPECIALLY THE ARENA) is so mediocre 90% of the times because i think fromsoft was too scared to reawaken the old evil that made their older
game HELLISH compared to this one as they have to take in new fans, especially souls players, so they arent overwhelmed by the crazy different in types of difficulty
and you ALSO have to remember they end up nerfing balteus and ibis because it was TOO HARD for most people (just like how they nerf radahn miquella bossfight in Ertree dlc because eldenring reeled in so many new players that are again, new to this type of difficulty) so i hope that since now fromsoft has given base AC6 its training wheelchair for the newer player, the DLC/expansion ver they will start of making mission at least as hard as NG++ and stop pulling their punches on the later difficulty by giving us little to no resupply (maybe also PCA route plsplsplspls)
and for the arena AI, id imagine its because AC6 runs on a VERY different game mechanic (lockon, AB, etc"), they dont have any knowledge on the tech, strategies and all the little nuances that actual player use (just as you mention with bunny hopping being a thing from the older game, now put in its AI in SL arena) and this resulted in the AI being VERY BASIC AND SO WEAK esp with the Freud and Ares comparison where freud REFUSES to use his blade while ares just BZZ BZZ BZZ and ur dead, so im HOPING with 2 years of info on all these PVP info, having them put their AI in the oven to let it bake to the point where when you next fight walter, he is gonna pull out Demonblade and melee cancel chasedown or melee to kick feint to noodle snipe and all that CRAZY shit man, or imagine Snail realising his fat fucking hover leg can actually KICK WELL he starts USING THAT THING, or even to the point where having NIGHTFALL input read so they can make sure to give you a FIRM RUBICONIAN HANDSHAKE OFF NEUTRAL
Stagger is also another problem, not just PVP but PVE as well as it makes bosses have this "window to punish" that you can just unload EVERYTHING and delete some bosses in seconds, which imo even trivialises some bosses more than hardlock did, however since its unfortunately a core mechanic that makes AC6 what it is, its only way is to adjust to balance things out and make the game less dmg bloated and you cant just finish bosses and enemy ACs in seconds
Yeah the arena is the only part of this game that let me down. Everything else I loved! It makes sense overall difficulty would be lower for new players, and that's fine. Rusty never finishing his laser slicer combo just boggles my mind though.
I can't wait to see what they do for the next game with the AI. So many cool possibilities.
@@Thryfe rusty not finishing his laser slicer combo but always committs to the charged version despite being able to dodge away mid combo is also very odd LOL
i actually cant wait for whats to come! pretty hype for it!
33:49 I ignore those 2 just to fight eguazu. those spiders didn't do jack shit to me.
As a person with the platinum trophy, it's not that difficult, but it's a nice entry for new ravens (like me)
I agree with you on it being a nice entry point. I think that's what they were going for too.
Even tho AC6 is easier compared to the OG games it still amazing game and it has it moments when it comes to difficulty and i think fromsoftware didn't go that crazy because they were playing it a bit safe and I'm sure the next game will be hella different
I agree completely. AC6 is my second favorite Armored Core. I'd be shocked if the next game isn't harder.
Love Silent Line, but it had bad part balance. I always drift to certain weapon loadouts, because of said difficulty.
AC6 trades a lot to be accessible and for a much more involving story. As an older fan with less time I appreciate it, but do miss it.
I can relate to that on the time thing for sure. I thought the part balance was decent in Silent Line. Could have been better though, it often felt like it wanted to push you towards energy weapons. At least in my experience.
@Thryfe I always found machine guns and howitzer strong, but they had crazy ammo costs
Im pretty sure they made Armored Core 6 easy because they wanted to make it accessible to new players.
The way i have interpreted Miyazaki's interview is that a hood game mean nothing if it isnt popular. They need a casual market first
I just got the game again month ago on steam and i think they tweak the difficulty down a little too much. Playing with no ost buffs and no sherpa, i still got through all endings pretty easily. Only protect the strider made me change up my build. But still a great game and im glad it opened up to a wider audience. I do hope when a new ac game comes out they make a kinetic orbit that stays out as long as the orbt. Or really just slow the salvos of the huxley so it shoots the same as the orbt. it can keep the cool down and over heat timing. But i want it to stay out more that like 5 seconds haha
I'm SUPER happy with how popular the game was when it came out. Yeah those nerfs feel overkill now. Idk how they would do it, but having the orbit cores come back would be sick.
@@Thryfe by the way, made me proud hearing you hype up ac silent line! Dont want to feel like a broken record in these comments but that game will alway be up top for me.
Armored Core 6 is extremely hard... until you beat it. If you know, you know.
Awww no lol.
Was the Ng+ arena opponents a bigger challenge to you than Freud.?
I think so yeah. I remember being completely shocked by how easy Freud was.
Im sure of only one thing
I wanted hard mode like gen 4
I miss it from the older games too.
Did you try Last Raven yet?
for me AC6 more friendly than older AC game
Not yet. Soon though!
Honestly the only arena fight I struggled with in 6 was coldcall
Idk why he was just difficult for me
He can actually do some solid damage. Imagine if he equipped the right generator too? 😄
One of my horror story came from Last Raven. I SUCK at LR and actually cheated because of an early mission. I had to fight 2 ACs and was at that time a very noob AC pilot (ain't even gonna call myself Raven that time since I suck that much. XD). I thought it was a good idea to cheat, didn't know how wrong I was.
The freaking bill after the mission was staggering. Like I exceeded the reward by 2 folds, and that reward was actually very big sum since it was a bait mission to lure you in to get you killed.
Like freaking hell, I didn't expect AC to have a freaking Anti-Cheat system built in. XD
So yeah, it was not horror in a way that one would consider a horror story to be but holy hell did that experience forced me to actually learn how to be good. XD
Lmao that's pretty funny actually. The massive deductions had us all reconsidering how we played the game 😂
AC6 is a game that makes you to learn its rules. Once you know how the game works you'll have an easy time dealing with it. My conclusion is that it is not an "easy game", but it's definetly the most accessible of all the franchise.
I agree wholeheartedly. I think it's a decent middle ground with difficulty and it's a great place to start the series.