The unac system was truly deep. When I ran a team that played on the international server. I would always play pile driver melee and set three UNACs as tanks with double sniper cannons, and they would be programmed to have pinpoint accuracy. So it would be like, a dog scary birds out for hunters lol, so many memories of doing stuff like that.
Verdict day was a great game, the unac system was revolutionary compared to any other game. You can actually make a cpu jus as skilled as a human which helped for players that didn’t have a team. This game isn’t like cod where u can sit down and get right into it, this game required so much skill and refinement that it deterred a lot of American players bc of the calculation you would need to b effective. I look forward to armored core 6 -nochuuch will return!!!-
Fun fact, the last line that the Foundation rep says to you "You have that right and responsibility" is a direct callback to the last lines R/Hustler-One gives you at the end of the very first AC game after you take him out. And I disagree, the NX-WGIX/v is a very fun and challenging fight PRECISELY because you're fighting a NEXT with a piece of scrap metal and 5th Gen, while rough compared to 4th Gen, is a lot of fun as a Gen once you get the grasp of all the systems. Also VD has a special Iron Man mode that unlocks after you clear the story, where you get a set number of ACs in your run through the campaign and if you lose them all you lose that run You CAN still find people to play with online for VD, but you need to reach out to the Armored Core community (which is alive and well) instead of just blindly hoping for people in-game
There's concept art for overed weapons as far back as the 4 era, specifically of a SOLUH using a back mounted giant weapon. Either a x6 missile pod, or a dual laser cannon. drive.google.com/file/d/19VCSm3dQDxlGv0bZh8kgblF2dhTVVg1p/view
@@aboveaveragegaming6120ACVI is said to have a bigger focus on how bosses are, and one of those leaked screenshots shows fighting that big thing that busted through the wall in the trailer, so hopefully we get boss weapon equivalents. That’s a souls thing I would like to carry over.
i even painted the teeth like they're glowing hot- orange into white on the tips. i've been staring at it for years- it's a foot to the right of my TV haha!
Ac 5 visual style was alot more realistic, they feel like they could actually take a hit. If you look into tank armor you can see that fromsoft took inspiration from that for their 5th gen designs
Part of why I love em. I wish they had more single player focus because I actually found the more tactical approach with more vulnerable, heavier/harder to control machines to be fun. On surface level, a middle line between AC and MechWarrior esque gameplay, but once you got good your speed could go far beyond gen 3AC, but not quite to 4s speed ofc.
So to add to J "fanlore" blackglint pilot there, he is a cultivator a clone of Joshua from AC4 turn into IA, that is why he says he's not a man of flesh, and most of his dialoge is paralel to Joshua but more edgy, i love him. Also that "You have that right and responsability" line from Fundation guy is the same line in AC1 Hustler one final cutscene.
I found ACV's postgame story (What I like to call Fran and Rosary's wild ride, featuring you!) to be more engaging than the primary plot thanks to the more traditional group of villain's in first the Men Of Honor and then ZODIAC in the later missions, in addition. The secret encounters with ZODIAC members in the main story is a neat bit of foreshadowing to what you'll face off against later.
Operator mode was awesome. You're constantly playing off of your team's recon drones, reading stats, and maneuvering your teammates to take advantages of good matches vs enemies.
I'm gonna be a contrarian and say I love the rusty shit boxes you pilot in these two games, kind of hope they're an option in 6 but I'm not holding my breath. I feel like they used how these ACs look to elevate the fight with J at the end masterfully too. what is effectively an even worse Normal fighting against a souped up NEXT, it's beautiful.
It really was the best way to use the 'you pilot cobbled together scrap' theme AC 5 established. We've been on the other end of the NEXT vs Normal equation and as a final boss for the series? I think it's brilliant. Still glad we will see AC 6 though.
I remembered first time randomly watching ACV intro back in 2018. After that I wanted to know more about this game and now I'm in love with this series.
My face crinkled up when you explained alternate weapon rarities and the online shop. They really tried to make Armored Core a combination MonHun/eSports game on 7th Gen consoles. Add that to all the other problems and AC5 was doomed. Darn thing had core design issues stretching deeper than Dark Souls 2.
DS2 expanded on mechanics of previous game and had best multiplayer in the series. What he is describing seems much closer to DS3 / ER. Core mechanics cut in baffling ways, no balance, lack of customisation
@@BazTheBlue weight, weapon upgrade paths, hexes and pyromancies(tho i think this one is downgrade), stamina regen speeds. Even adp is an expansion. What did ds3 expand on? It only rewoked casts in favour of stupid mana again, removed heavy playstyles and positioning in general. And axed poise.
@@BazTheBlue 100% agree. Don't forget soul memory... it ruined the multiplayer until they added a ring much time later that removed the ability to gain souls so your memory wouldn't go up. No untracked red eye orb. Game was cancer for us pvp vets
Doing the MP stuff with the sorties, extra bosses, team based pvp, capture territory was fun, and i was happy becuase it feel like an hiper-speed mechwarrior, even with the heavy builds, the boost charge is a universal physical attack that can one shot an oppent if you have good weight and speed,makes those builds viable. I like it. But the builds feels very limited, even in VD. And VD multiplayer is still alive for some reason.
Thank you so much for these vids. This series was a damn journey that I loved being taken on. VD was far from perfect, but that final White Glint revival fight genuinely is still in my top 3 missions for the franchise, alongside Occupation of Arteria Carpals and Data Retrieval in Silent Line. It's just so damn cool, and between the massive health pool and how his assault armor attacks can basically twoshot you, it's like a souls fight before souls really took off
The UNAC system was deep, but people would always ragemail online if you had the DLC ones. The DLC ones are not only very good, on the higher end of quality for the UNACs, and were generally powerful ac schematics and good against even better pilots, since they had aimbot essentially. People would always get pissy if you had Magnolia dlc.
I went with so much excitement into this game after ac4/fa only to be disappointed within the first hour of gameplay. They're not bad games but I guess I had the same experience as you. I was dropped from a high place....
AC5 was basically the last AC game I played, and what hurt my vision of the series going forward, so I am in the same boat. Me and my friends had our own clan, and we claimed the frost mountains. It became less about AC battles and more about negotiating for territory and babysitting bases when they were attacked, and unlike AC4 or FA, we were not having fun and slowly we dropped off one by one, with leadership passing hands, but I will admit it was kinda cool being recognized by other players on the game when doing random attacks on bases. One thing I did like was the emblem maker, as it was an upgrade to the previous generation's system. Made some really cool stuff with it, and I hope AC6 has a nice robust system for making emblems like it.
I still really liked playing these games, but I wish it wasn’t 90% multiplayer and 10% everything else. I like the aesthetic, the music, the overall art design like Exusia, the weapons, and even the wall boost/rebalanced quick boosts. They had so much room to make actual level design by ditching the infinite flight of 4 and they just never took advantage of that. The defense system also kills a lot of enjoyment. Defenses shouldn’t have been *as* impactful as they are. It doesn’t feel right to utterly melt an enemy tank leg AC that gave me a lot of trouble before. It makes fights with everything either unfair or instantly killing them. Quad leg sniper cannons go brrr.
Yo, I didn't expect to see this one so soon! I loved the intro to V and the rough, wartorn approach to its world and OST. It just hits different, especially the montage at the end. It's a shame though that V and VD were so multiplayer focused, cos not only did they alienate potential new AC fans who were coming off of Dark Souls, but that was the last piece of AC content for a decade until now with Fires Of Rubicon. Also, the game feels so poorly mixed audio wise. The guns overpower everything else, even the music and the voices. It's such a step down from AC4's more utilitarian approach to audio design, and it feels cluttered as hell
Any fans coming off Dark Souls will always be put off by Armored Core. It's a different series with different themes entirely. Even For Answer is different than lore-heavy Soulsborne.
@@TheRibbonRed true. If they weren't put off, For Answer would've suddenly be massively popular again (same level as any Souls game) & From would've put out a new Armored Core faster.
They tried a new approach for the multiplayer aspect of the series. And in that regard I understand why they did it. Hell, they keep making Armored Core with multiplayer in mind since Masters of Arena. Still, it could be better all thing considered! Let's see how Armored Core 6 would do. Hope for the best, be ready for dead metal! xD
I really want to at least try the 5th gen series even if it is without the multiplayer. It really bummed me that the balance wasn't more even between multi- and single- play so the game would actually be preservable.
V is definitely shallow on the Single Player content, but VD has quite a good chunk to sink your teeth in, and if you get good enough at creating UNACs even the Multiplayer only raid battles can be tackled on Single Player
J is one of my favorite characters of the AC franchise. I mean, he's got pretty deep lore, being a brainwashed clone of Joshua O'Brien. ...He also has a hot voice.
Verdict Day was the only 5th gen game I played. And while I won't say I hated it, I was severely disappointed with this gen over AC2 and 4th gen. The final boss was my favorite in the entire series though. Fighting a salvaged White Glint while piloting a normal made out of an M1 Abrams chassis and a bolted on Volvo was pretty sick. Also the UNAC's were hilariously cool. When I first messed around with them I *tried* to delve into their complexity, but got a little lost and just though "F it I'll come back to this later, I just wanna smash some MT's." So I saved it with the random setting's I'd bumbled around with. The MT was a mix of medium and light parts with a shotgun and rifle, with pile drivers for the weapon swap. That thing proceeded to absolutely tear ass for 5 missions straight. It was at that moment I understood the Adeptus Mechanicus. I had created a monster I barely understood, let alone knew how I even built it. All I knew was that it did the job I intended it to, and it did it well. It was one of the coolest Armored Core experiences I had. I really want the UNAC system in AC6 more than any other system tbh.
"I'm sure everyone can agree with me up to this point" *Has already insulted Dark Souls 2 less than 4 minutes into the video* I mean, I personally agree with you, but I hear a rumbling of DS2 fans approaching lmao
Again a fair shake given to the two games in the series with less than stellar gameplay from your point of view. It is still nice to get your opinion thank you again for putting out quality content.
Weird you didn't mention the main antagonist in ACV, The Chief, when you're talking about the story. He's quite prominent and has interesting personality. Not sure if you'd put his The Joker-wannabe attitude as cool or cringe, but I'd guess the latter. And before anyone mention it, Keiji Fujiwara (RIP) who voiced The Chief in JP version also voiced The Joker in JP dub version in The Dark Knight.
Love your content man. Before your overview AC:V was my only experience with the AC series. You single-handedly changed my perception of the series and got me hyped for AC6. Can’t wait to see where your channel goes dude.
5th gen is my most favorite for one simple reason; I jump from Last Raven to V. The first thing that got me is the center-fixed lock box. For someone that grew up with AC1 I fucking hate the swaying lock box!. The no flying is not much of a problem because I mostly play tank and quad to begin with. The gritty ost and the "systemmu sento modo" really got me lol The starting sequence is pretty good in my eyes, too. The simulation outline when boosting the AC captured the feelings of piloting the AC and the warning sound every time the AC got hit and the shaky-noisy display really nailed it. And contrary to what most people belief, 5th gen is very fast! U only slowdown when trying to get in position behind the building but after that u go fast. Very very fast! (Still not on the level of fA) I can only hope that AC6 will not let me down.
I never got a chance to really play AC5 online despite picking it up on day one but I was all in with Verdict Day and the memories I had with that game will stick with me forever. I'm really happy that VD isn't the end of the series, it would be an alright sendoff but if From is gonna do that I would like to see elements from everything that came before in a Dark Souls 3 kind of way even if I don't like it in that game. Here's hoping you cover the Another Century's Episode games and maybe Daemon x Machina given some of the plot details from that game look pretty similar to what's gonna be in AC6
Besides trying to follow up Chromehounds, honestly I feel like there was a very earnest attempt to "modernize" the series and do things at the time that would've fit the gaming industry. But they didn't draw anyone new in, and pissed off all the veteran fans, _especially_ 4th gen, and Verdict Day was too little, too late an apology to anyone but the diehards already invested in 5th gen. It's a good example and testament to how trying to bring a new focus to an already-niche series can have some very bad results.
The way that they made ACV+VD are quite rushed. It was to the point that it later split the devs apart and they went on to go making their own, Daemon x Machina (which is an ok premise to creating a modern AC game but was ultimately a failure). So ACV/D was an attempt on EXPLICITLY making a sequel for AC as most "sequels" are simply a DLC for their respective numbered series. Miyazaki's 4 series did imply about it being tied to the previous one but was never explicit about it. Most likely paying homage to the series he worked on before he became game director. ACV/D tried tying AC1 to it by using the Miyazaki ending (because Destruction part is the canon one when it comes to hindsight on how Miyazaki does his games). The devs really tried to entice old AC enjoyers or Ravens back as Miyazaki's Lynx weren't quite a big hit in the Eastern part of the world. It was too anime rather than realistic. This is why we got the design decision on making the ACs Normals again but still having that option of feeling like you're piloting NEXTs with their wall climb. I did like the look of the mechs (not the chunky wide part but the rustic DIY look). It goes to show that parts are hard to come by and there aren't many corpos and engineers with accessible factories to create refined mechs. As for the Overed Weapons, those are NEXT weapons strapped into a Normal. This is why it destroys your AC and is a one -time use. The whole UNAC is also tied to lore. Because during this time, the world is still recovering and there is quite a lack of people. AIs (true or programmed) are along side humans. You program your co-pilot while Reaper leader is a true AI.
I remember being excited when I heard about these games, the thoughts of playing with a squad of people excited me. It was a chance to make friends who were into the same stuff as me. But when it came time to get them, my life had taken a hard left turn, and I couldn't afford them. And by the time i could afford these games, they had been out for a while and I didn't see the point in picking up a multiplayer focused game that no one played anymore. Great video, it makes me want to play that last battle at least, lol, sounds emotional.
22:10 This is basically Ace Combat 7 in a nutshell. The entire mission listening to people bitching at each other, and floating between angry ranting and stroking your ego.
Ehh, Not really. All of the Ace Combat games stroke the Players Ego in one way or another. If anything I would say Ace Combat 4 and Zero give you the most Ego Stroking. Since they literally call you shit like Demon Lord or Grim Reaper.
Genuinely, thank you for covering the AC games in these longer review videos. Learning of the AC games I've missed out on has me excited for when I come around to beating them all. So far I have all of Gen 1 completed with AC 2 under way.
When you think of 5th gen as a Chromehounds sequel you can appreciate it a little more, but in usual From fashion they didn't do a lot to support multiplayer anyway. The english community actually had to hassle Namco-Bandai to release regulation patches for Verdict Day at some point in the west. V/VD does have some of the best soundtracks in the whole series though in my opinion.
The thing i like about this game is the soundtrack, is full of emotion, i really like it a lot, but sadly for all of the other stuff as gameplay and story is just mediocre, but still i'm hyped for 6
ACVD and DS2 were actually my favorites because I am insane. Overboost being the general flight method and Scan Mode in 5 added a lot of technical depth. I think they basically nerfed movement in general to make tanks viable but it would've been better to remove them entirely. UNACs were the best teammates ever if you want one that can bounce around at inhuman speed and land manual rocket strikes with perfect precision. I suspect 5 and VD would be more popular today if it didn't require a Threadripper to emulate it.
As far as the Gen V stuff goes... I generally disagree. I actually prefer V over AC4 (and I never got to play with the servers up), and ACV had consistently my favorite stages of the entire franchise. And Gen 5 in general I prefer over Gen 4, not simply due to a matter of "too fast", but because Gen 4 was too simple for my tastes, whereas Gen V did feel like a good attempt at pushing forward the concept of AC. FA was fun, though, but AC4 I was always kinda so-so on. I don't dislike it but it's the one I've played the least over the years. And, yes, I'm counting Formula Front into this. As for the UI... I'm perfectly fine with it. I'm also fine with the lack of back weapons. As for the weapon type system, as you said, you can have up to 4-5 weapons. In most cases, someone *will* have one of each type covered unless you're running a super light build or you just don't actually consider weapon types.
IMHO the problem with 5/VD was the AC mobility: even a fast build feels slower than the first generation ACs, and what could be a cool duel between 2 ravens with "fancy maneuvers" seems like two tanks drifting and shooting at each others, the only exception being 2/3 walls around
-- Pointlessly long rant warning -- The way Fromsoft devs implemented the "rock-paper-scissors" damage type mechanic in both of the 5th gen games still baffles me to this day. I would love to look inside the mind of the person that had the genius idea of making most of the enemy ACs and the regular enemies in the single player campaign to be practically immune to kinetic damage (specifically to the low-damage miniguns and rifles weapon types), thus making third of your arsenal of those games pretty much useless from the get go. This one design idea is the antithesis to the Armored Cores formula of having a customizable experience to YOUR preferred playstyle for these games (yes, with obvious variations to the optimal setups for every different type of encounter and certain gimmick type missions). Instead you have to basically scout out every single mission to try and scan out what kind of weakness every single enemy type will have, then to restart the mission to pick the exact weapon damage type the game expect you to use, exact mech setup to counter the type of damage you are going to receive, and then you can actually do a "proper" attempt at the mission. You probably wouldn't have to do that if they actually specified what kind of enemies you were going to fight in mission briefings, but for some god forsaken reason they seems to not even bother doing that for half of of the campaign. Just the fact that they put the "INEFFECTIVE" indicator in the UI just to tell you "sorry bro, you didn't guess the right gun to use here, might as well just quit and start the mission over since you are basically beating your head against a brick wall and not gonna get anywhere at this rate" shows that they understood that this exact problem exists in their game, but they still didn't even try to balance the mechanic to some reasonable extent so that most of the guns are not as useless again their respective defenses as they were implemented. Instead of the customization freedom and certain challenges of weight, energy, heat/kojumbo armor management, etc, of the previous games you just have to "solve" a very intricate task of getting a "damage type - good, damage number - big" weapon, basically like doing a more advanced version of a freaking shape sorter puzzle meant for toddlers. You can attribute this to game being primarily "multiplayer-focused" and thus balanced primarily around PvP, but I can only imagine how "fun" it was to be shoehorned into being the "rock", the "paper" or the "scissors" of your team. I'm sure the people loved that, but I'm sure that I'll be content to never figuring that out. It's been like 8 or 9 years since I played Verdict Day, but I still get mad just remembering this single thing like I just finished suffering through this the game yesterday. I might be entirely misremembering how actually impactful the entire thing was to the gameplay, but the raw anger I still carry in my soul to this day after being so disappointed by this title (especially coming from my love of 3rd and 4th gen games) would probably the last thing I'm gonna forget in my life. If you got this far - I'm sorry for you wasting a minute of your life having to read this. :)
It’s mostly on point. It’s like they came up with the idea, and then immediately implemented it. No polishing or anything other than “you do/take more/less damage” and it makes a lot of encounters head scratching. They should’ve adjusted the advantages to be waaaay less than they were. Like those annoying fucking suicide enemies in Mission 03 of ACV instantly die to thermal but take practically nothing from everything else.
Honestly, coming at an enemy with the wrong damage type varied due to their being three of them, so it was either normal, a bit slow, or "capra demon with a straight sword and no shield". Technically doable, but you're putting in way more effort than you need to be. Coming off Bayonetta at the time I was ok scraping by, but looking back, it was probably just to give the multiplayer the illusion of being more dynamic than it actually was, because brining a UNAC with different weapons than yours was not the solution to this problem, at least not that i found. Long = hard, especially if i go flaccid halfway through. oh, and to add, i absolutely started using the wiki halfway through for encounters, and it absolutely did spoil some shit.
Somehow I missed your AC4 video, and was miraculously recommended this days after it came out so I was able to check it out. AC4A is possibly my favorite game even with 80k+ hours of gaming since I was 5. Love how you covered it, look forward to what you say about AC6 once we get our hands on it :D
That was fast I was expecting this vid later, but I'm glad that is out now, I'm excited to see what new game you gonna analyze, keep doing these great vids
Having a multi-Player Armored Core was like a dream I'd prayed for since I'm a co-op fan. It's sad I've missed out on this game for the online feature and teaming with fellow A.C pilots, it would have been fun teaming up with others taking on missions and such.
I'm happy that I found your channel while playing thru these games from start to finish too. Here's hoping that you review Frame Grinde, a proto-Amored Core 2 for the Dreamcast which gotten a translation patch.
hopefully everything they learned from 5, V day, and as well as elden ring and such they can manage to finally bring armored core back from the dead with 6 and actually make it no longer be an underground niche game series that almost everyone hasnt even heard of. battletech has been getting its renaissance era. bout time armored core gets one too.
Been great to watch this series. I’ve been playing thru the series again after at least 10 years and man I’d be lying if I didn’t tear up remembering all the good times I had. From getting the Kurosawa in 2 to fine tuning my AC in 4 to better dunk on my friends. Great video, can’t wait for the one you do on 6
While I definitely agree that the weapon rarity system was a mistake, I feel like that in terms of barring a player from competitive PvP, it is as bad as, if not better than, 4's tuning memory. Don't get me wrong, randomized loot grinding is the most boring part of any multiplayer game, but the online shop at least gave the player a way to circumvent some of it. 4 asked you commit dozens of hours to playing the single player perfectly to be able to properly optimize your core for PvP, which is also a massive barrier for entry. Regardless, this has been an amazing series, and I'm looking forward to the videos to come about the oddballs.
I think instead of corporations agreeing mot to use Kojima technology, they just lost it. If the Destruction path is the canon ending, then that means most likely Strayed's NEXT would be the last Kojima powered piece of technology left, everything else being burned to cinders. Or, if ACVI is to be takimg place in space, maybe the ORCA path made ot so it's very restrictive, and that's where we get the Corporation in V and the Towers in VD. I mean, Chief's machine at the end of V looks to be a prototype using some Kojima tech, and don't even get me started on J in VD
I've never played ACV and ACVD, partly because the game was really hard to find in my country for whatever reason... But I've never really interested in the first place because it looked so different compared to the previous games, not to mention during this time I've moved on to Souls games and the 5th gen AC games just kinda fades away from my radar. Recently I've gotten into AC games again after ACVI trailer so I'm super grateful for your videos on the series, really helped me recap the entire series. Can't wait for ACVI release and I'll surely be watching whatever video you'll be cooking next :)
Thanks for the video and bringing back memories from throughout the whole series. I remembered being so hyped for this game especially with that cool intro. The lack of mission variety plus the ACs sized down and looking something from steel battalion turned me from it. I did like the toggle boost, having a melee with boost dash, and the rotary guns sounding like they should.
AC5 was the only game in the series that I skipped, and I've been playing since the old PS1 demo-disk; as soon as I heard the words "Team oriented" and saw what AC's looked like it was just a complete loss of interest. That said I'm glad you made this video as it confirmed all of my worst fears and soothes the feelings of "maybe I missed out" or was mistaken. I'm glad as well that most of the resurgence in interest around AC is focused on 4th gen and older. Also: If I had been playing through the game in those shitty AC's only to then have to fight a Next, I would have been pissed. My favorite thing about the classic games was that you could *mostly* have anything the "enemy" had and that would have just felt like a slap in the face.
I founded and ran the NERV team on this game basically since it came out and mostly was dead. It was different from the Armored core I was used to. But I had a lot of great moments for me. Probably the most into a multi-player game I've ever been. I'll miss teaming up with my friends to take on missions and teams.
As someone who has played through a lot of armored core games, Starting with 4th going all the way to verdict day before going all the way back to armored core 2 for a classic experience, i can only hope we can see something closer to the classic games going forward, for my two cents i thought V was an interesting new story to start but verdict day was better i never really lingered on it because it didn't really fit my speed coming from 4 and for answer. Your overview sums up a lot of my complaints... mainly this at 3:47 (I would like to be able to hear the music!) When i went back and played 2 i found this treasure trove of what armored core could be, highly skilled pilots, with very expensive top of the line custom mechs and parts. Much like 4 where you were in a top of the line mech but you were called a lynx just someone who was compatible with the mech technology at the time. in comparison to V and verdict day which i like to call "junk mechs." (Because they really feel that way and play that way.) I mostly now play around in the 1st 2nd and 3rd generation of armored core game where positioning and skill is required. (Currently playing through 1 on an emulator so i can say i have played most of the mainline games) I will admit there are some nice things in armored core V that i could see being added in future Armored core games. but here is my biggest concern. That this might have been a lot of peoples first armored core game because of the main multiplayer features and clan system, for at the time the game was out there was still a big focus on online gaming clans and multiplayer especially on console. My only hope is that they do not push for another 5th gen experience armored core has a lot more to offer than what 5th gen gave. I see a lot of people pointing out armored core likes and them mostly being related to 5th generation of armored core. I do however hope from what i have seen in the trailer and recent stuff with my conspiracy brain fully active is that we might see some older AC parts come back MLL-MX/EDGE at around the 2:05 time of the armored core 6 trailer and that the recent Taipei game show music selection didn't feature any armored core 5 music. which i found odd and interesting due to the fact the music went from 1 to for answer then going all the way back to armored core 3 silent line. I have incredibly high hopes for armored core going forward. now i gotta stop the comment here before it becomes a god damn essay!
IIRC VD also tried to fix the issues with the three types of damage of the game. in V every class of weapons could only deal a specific type of damage and every weight class of parts had good defence only against a specific type. In VD they made it possible to swap types for the weapons and parts so that every type of build, if properly crafted, could be effective against all types of damage and damage reduction.
Lmao, I had the exact same thing with Dark Souls 2 as well, albeit I didn't totally hate the game on launch but the PVE content def pissed me off with how little variety it had.
NGWIX gave me chills qhen i first fought it. Fromsoft batting 2 for 2 with the throwback boss themes. Got me once w this one, and a second time with Soul of Cinder.
Using Stickerbrush Symphony as the music at the beginning was a terrible choice... But only because it's so good that I paused to go listen to it on repeat for like an hour before coming back to finish this video.
I used to hate 5th gen mainly because of the controls and the ammo types, but I stuck with it because dammit the art style is amazing! Safe to say I really really like the 5th gen now. It took some adjustment, especially if you’re used to 4th gen, but I found the gameplay to be pretty deep once you get the hang of it
A secret about arm parts i abused was that certain parts would multiply the weapons mounted in them. An example are the light arms that had twin boxes on each shoulder. For that build i equipped spread rockets which turned the shoulder weapons into heavy shotguns that would cover an area in rockets.
I also replayed the 5th recently, and it's depressingly frustrating just how much of it relied on multiplayer to the point of sacrificing every other aspect. Just trying to do the order side missions really highlights the abundance of copy/paste going on to pad the single player; same handful of enemies spammed everywhere, there's only a handful of different maps, and all the enemy ACs fall into a few different archetypes. The game design shift to make the 5th generation to be hyper-realistic compared to the previous games is like a crashtest dummy smacking into a brickwall at neckbreaking velocity.
Hey AAG, just wanted to say I watched your Thief 2 stream but not live and I loved it and enjoyed hearing some of your stances on non-game stuff. Unfortunately the immersive sim curse is real, lower viewership sadly just comes with the territory, but I do hope you don't totally give up on non-mech content.
never tho seeing history of Armored Core gonna be this gud, hope you make ze Series Overview too when 6 come out. Armored Core is one of my Fav Mecha game
I neet to try for answer. Silent line was definitely my favorite of the franchise. I am hoping 6 plays how it looks. A solid merger of the best parts of each generation updated to work together.
After watching this, I regret not getting Verdict Day, but 5 really did sort of kill all my enthusiasm for the series. 6 really looks like it's going to be a wonderful return to form. Here's hoping we're all going to have a reason to have a new favorite entry into the series.
to be fair ac5 was FS attempt to try and blend chromehounds (there other mech game) and Ac together because at the time the major push was for multiplayer gaming AC5 would have probably never been made if it was not for that.
@@aikidodude05 I disagree with the idea that AC5 wouldn't have been made at all. it just would have more closely resembled prior games in the franchise had they not tried to focus on multiplayer. Also the franchise as a whole may never had such a large break between entries if not for the generally poor reception of 5. There are many who attribute no AC games to dark souls, but that's just simply not the case. AC and Souls games were popular together for a brief time before AC5 tanked this series popularity.
@@paulwright774 uh ac5 actually enjoy some decent sucess when it came at most of the time people will put AC5 above AC4 because the actual 5v5 was stupidly fun. the issues no one can experience that anymore all you can play is the corpse of a great game. you have to understand why armor core went on the shelf and it really is because of demon souls 2009 which was far more popular than any AC game(i am saying this as a person who grew up playing AC and nearly spazzed out when I heard 6 was coming) the popularly of souls pretty much sucked them into making what would be the souls series at with a studio their size there was no way they could really devote staff to make a niche game like AC at that time. now this is just a theory but it fits the time line of well gaming as around this times games like cod, halo were showing that not only could a muiltplayer game sell they could sell extremely well. so AC5 was softs attempt at trying to make a mulitplayer game again when namco asked them if they could make on to try and get a toe into the multiplayer market. if I remember correctly a lot of the people that worked on AC5 were the same people that worked on chromehounds the original fromsoft squad based mech game.
@@aikidodude05 So you're really going to blame demon's souls and dark souls for no ac games past 5 and verdict day despite the fact that 5 released a year after dark souls and multiple years after demon's souls? Clearly From Software was still willing to devote a team to the franchise that put it in the map in the first place. That was until 5 tanked the popularity of the franchise. And even after that happened they still tried to keep the franchise going with verdict day, but when it was ultimately ignored by the majority of us after 5. I can't blame them for dropping the series for awhile in favor of souls games after that, but it wasn't the popularity of the souls games that brought this AC drought, it was a pair of lackluster games that tanked the popularity of armored core.
@@paulwright774 no im not blaming the souls games i pointing out that FS had 15+1 ( im including chromehounds) mech games that while they were successfully they were not major releases that really only enjoyed popular niche group. they the come out with demon souls which despite there misgivings about it was very successful. what's a small company going to do? they are going to keep producing the games that make them more money till they a situation were they can try to branch out once again. armor core never "died" it was always on the shelf waiting.
I had always thought the destruction ending was the true ending to 4A, something something instead of rebuilding earth we go to mars where AC2 takes place
I hope you at least do one video covering the various AC-like games with a general overview of how close they are to AC titles and whether you recommend them for AC fans and newbies. Doesn't necessarily need to go in depth, but a general assessment would be great for those trying to find an easily accessible title to prep for AC6 in terms of general skills and mech action.
omg thank you for explaining scan mode energy sufficiency i kinda never read and wouldnt have figured that out i always see player activating it often and i was asking myself why the hell you would do that... ^^' (and for the drift too)
14:31 this reminds me of how, in daemon x machina (a mech game heavily inspired by armored core), weapons that you find in missions can have random extra attributes. you could spend hours grinding the same mission over and over trying to get a good version of a weapon you want. it’s ultimately what made me drop the game, which is sad because the online multiplayer was amazing.
At the end the postgame of DXM becomes "Run the scavenge MP missions until you get the best (Tier V) attachments", which have abysmal drop rates. To this day I don't think I have more than 2 Attack Boost Mk V which is what everyone else runs when you hop online. I do join a casual fight night every other Friday tho where you get to enjoy a bit more variety
Should clarify: mainly, I think AC5 and AC5V have good ideas on-paper that perhaps faltered in execution. For example, I like the idea of having an "Operator" or commander slot as a playable slot in a multiplayer team battle sense.
UNACs were a very good idea in case of lack of teammates in online battles, not any game has that and I wouldn love if devs think on bringing them back again.
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The unac system was truly deep. When I ran a team that played on the international server. I would always play pile driver melee and set three UNACs as tanks with double sniper cannons, and they would be programmed to have pinpoint accuracy. So it would be like, a dog scary birds out for hunters lol, so many memories of doing stuff like that.
Verdict day was a great game, the unac system was revolutionary compared to any other game. You can actually make a cpu jus as skilled as a human which helped for players that didn’t have a team. This game isn’t like cod where u can sit down and get right into it, this game required so much skill and refinement that it deterred a lot of American players bc of the calculation you would need to b effective. I look forward to armored core 6 -nochuuch will return!!!-
I liked having two heavy snipers and a speedy boy with rockets to keep the pressure on so they don't get overwhelmed
Fun fact, the last line that the Foundation rep says to you "You have that right and responsibility" is a direct callback to the last lines R/Hustler-One gives you at the end of the very first AC game after you take him out.
And I disagree, the NX-WGIX/v is a very fun and challenging fight PRECISELY because you're fighting a NEXT with a piece of scrap metal and 5th Gen, while rough compared to 4th Gen, is a lot of fun as a Gen once you get the grasp of all the systems.
Also VD has a special Iron Man mode that unlocks after you clear the story, where you get a set number of ACs in your run through the campaign and if you lose them all you lose that run
You CAN still find people to play with online for VD, but you need to reach out to the Armored Core community (which is alive and well) instead of just blindly hoping for people in-game
The iron man mode is something i wasn't expect to see, it have many rules and variants, i tried a bit until i get destroyed, there is some unlockable?
5th gen provided me with a high end mech figure with a 6-bladed chainsaw, that is basically the same size as the mech. love it.
i hope over red weapons return... This time with the ability to drop them and not lose your arm.
There's concept art for overed weapons as far back as the 4 era, specifically of a SOLUH using a back mounted giant weapon. Either a x6 missile pod, or a dual laser cannon.
drive.google.com/file/d/19VCSm3dQDxlGv0bZh8kgblF2dhTVVg1p/view
@@aboveaveragegaming6120ACVI is said to have a bigger focus on how bosses are, and one of those leaked screenshots shows fighting that big thing that busted through the wall in the trailer, so hopefully we get boss weapon equivalents. That’s a souls thing I would like to carry over.
I honestly hope the Grind Blade returns somehow in AC6
i even painted the teeth like they're glowing hot- orange into white on the tips. i've been staring at it for years- it's a foot to the right of my TV haha!
Ac 5 visual style was alot more realistic, they feel like they could actually take a hit. If you look into tank armor you can see that fromsoft took inspiration from that for their 5th gen designs
indeed
Part of why I love em. I wish they had more single player focus because I actually found the more tactical approach with more vulnerable, heavier/harder to control machines to be fun. On surface level, a middle line between AC and MechWarrior esque gameplay, but once you got good your speed could go far beyond gen 3AC, but not quite to 4s speed ofc.
@@draysmusicalshtposts6340 so true
So to add to J "fanlore" blackglint pilot there, he is a cultivator a clone of Joshua from AC4 turn into IA, that is why he says he's not a man of flesh, and most of his dialoge is paralel to Joshua but more edgy, i love him. Also that "You have that right and responsability" line from Fundation guy is the same line in AC1 Hustler one final cutscene.
You mean an AI?
He's not an AI. He's a Designed, which is basically Human PLUS. And it's Cultivater, not Cultivator.
Also, The Foundation Man's actual name is Isaac.
The Verdict Day's build your own AC helper is the best feature. Its like the Rook system from Dragon's Dogma, hopefully AC6 keeps it as is.
*Pawns 🤓
21:30 Rosary actually survives here. She went on to form Sirius in Verdict Day
*I knew I liked Sirius for a reason*
@fencel4143
Yep yep
It's why no one mentions father during those missions, the city police are basically scraps, and Leon, RD, and Chief aren't around
I found ACV's postgame story (What I like to call Fran and Rosary's wild ride, featuring you!) to be more engaging than the primary plot thanks to the more traditional group of villain's in first the Men Of Honor and then ZODIAC in the later missions, in addition. The secret encounters with ZODIAC members in the main story is a neat bit of foreshadowing to what you'll face off against later.
Operator mode was awesome. You're constantly playing off of your team's recon drones, reading stats, and maneuvering your teammates to take advantages of good matches vs enemies.
I'm gonna be a contrarian and say I love the rusty shit boxes you pilot in these two games, kind of hope they're an option in 6 but I'm not holding my breath. I feel like they used how these ACs look to elevate the fight with J at the end masterfully too. what is effectively an even worse Normal fighting against a souped up NEXT, it's beautiful.
Hey, people gotta like what they like, man. Thumbs up for being honest.
It really was the best way to use the 'you pilot cobbled together scrap' theme AC 5 established. We've been on the other end of the NEXT vs Normal equation and as a final boss for the series? I think it's brilliant. Still glad we will see AC 6 though.
In other words J was such a shitty pilot that a Normal even managed to beat a Next piloted by him.
@@haihuynh8772to be fair he kinda wanted to die
I remembered first time randomly watching ACV intro back in 2018. After that I wanted to know more about this game and now I'm in love with this series.
My face crinkled up when you explained alternate weapon rarities and the online shop. They really tried to make Armored Core a combination MonHun/eSports game on 7th Gen consoles. Add that to all the other problems and AC5 was doomed. Darn thing had core design issues stretching deeper than Dark Souls 2.
DS2 expanded on mechanics of previous game and had best multiplayer in the series. What he is describing seems much closer to DS3 / ER. Core mechanics cut in baffling ways, no balance, lack of customisation
@@vazazell5967What did DS2 expand upon besides the dual wielding mechanics
@@BazTheBlue weight, weapon upgrade paths, hexes and pyromancies(tho i think this one is downgrade), stamina regen speeds. Even adp is an expansion. What did ds3 expand on? It only rewoked casts in favour of stupid mana again, removed heavy playstyles and positioning in general. And axed poise.
None of those things were meaningful expansions on mechanics and ADP is widely considered to be one of 2's biggest blunders
@@BazTheBlue 100% agree. Don't forget soul memory... it ruined the multiplayer until they added a ring much time later that removed the ability to gain souls so your memory wouldn't go up. No untracked red eye orb. Game was cancer for us pvp vets
Doing the MP stuff with the sorties, extra bosses, team based pvp, capture territory was fun, and i was happy becuase it feel like an hiper-speed mechwarrior, even with the heavy builds, the boost charge is a universal physical attack that can one shot an oppent if you have good weight and speed,makes those builds viable.
I like it. But the builds feels very limited, even in VD.
And VD multiplayer is still alive for some reason.
It's the last AC game for 9 years, MP focused to boot. Of course it's still alive, else the franchise's truly dead.
@@CharlesKTown and in 5, the servers are close, but for the large scale battles... not for the duels, and that also apply to for answer
Yea, I noticed that with ACVD on the 360. IDK about the PS3 version though.
Thank you so much for these vids. This series was a damn journey that I loved being taken on.
VD was far from perfect, but that final White Glint revival fight genuinely is still in my top 3 missions for the franchise, alongside Occupation of Arteria Carpals and Data Retrieval in Silent Line. It's just so damn cool, and between the massive health pool and how his assault armor attacks can basically twoshot you, it's like a souls fight before souls really took off
The UNAC system was deep, but people would always ragemail online if you had the DLC ones. The DLC ones are not only very good, on the higher end of quality for the UNACs, and were generally powerful ac schematics and good against even better pilots, since they had aimbot essentially. People would always get pissy if you had Magnolia dlc.
I went with so much excitement into this game after ac4/fa only to be disappointed within the first hour of gameplay. They're not bad games but I guess I had the same experience as you. I was dropped from a high place....
AC5 was basically the last AC game I played, and what hurt my vision of the series going forward, so I am in the same boat. Me and my friends had our own clan, and we claimed the frost mountains. It became less about AC battles and more about negotiating for territory and babysitting bases when they were attacked, and unlike AC4 or FA, we were not having fun and slowly we dropped off one by one, with leadership passing hands, but I will admit it was kinda cool being recognized by other players on the game when doing random attacks on bases.
One thing I did like was the emblem maker, as it was an upgrade to the previous generation's system. Made some really cool stuff with it, and I hope AC6 has a nice robust system for making emblems like it.
I still really liked playing these games, but I wish it wasn’t 90% multiplayer and 10% everything else. I like the aesthetic, the music, the overall art design like Exusia, the weapons, and even the wall boost/rebalanced quick boosts. They had so much room to make actual level design by ditching the infinite flight of 4 and they just never took advantage of that. The defense system also kills a lot of enjoyment. Defenses shouldn’t have been *as* impactful as they are. It doesn’t feel right to utterly melt an enemy tank leg AC that gave me a lot of trouble before. It makes fights with everything either unfair or instantly killing them. Quad leg sniper cannons go brrr.
Yo, I didn't expect to see this one so soon! I loved the intro to V and the rough, wartorn approach to its world and OST. It just hits different, especially the montage at the end.
It's a shame though that V and VD were so multiplayer focused, cos not only did they alienate potential new AC fans who were coming off of Dark Souls, but that was the last piece of AC content for a decade until now with Fires Of Rubicon.
Also, the game feels so poorly mixed audio wise. The guns overpower everything else, even the music and the voices. It's such a step down from AC4's more utilitarian approach to audio design, and it feels cluttered as hell
Any fans coming off Dark Souls will always be put off by Armored Core. It's a different series with different themes entirely. Even For Answer is different than lore-heavy Soulsborne.
@@TheRibbonRed Yeah, fair point.
@@TheRibbonRed true. If they weren't put off, For Answer would've suddenly be massively popular again (same level as any Souls game) & From would've put out a new Armored Core faster.
They tried a new approach for the multiplayer aspect of the series. And in that regard I understand why they did it.
Hell, they keep making Armored Core with multiplayer in mind since Masters of Arena. Still, it could be better all thing considered!
Let's see how Armored Core 6 would do. Hope for the best, be ready for dead metal! xD
I really want to at least try the 5th gen series even if it is without the multiplayer. It really bummed me that the balance wasn't more even between multi- and single- play so the game would actually be preservable.
V is definitely shallow on the Single Player content, but VD has quite a good chunk to sink your teeth in, and if you get good enough at creating UNACs even the Multiplayer only raid battles can be tackled on Single Player
@@RayShadow278 too bad they aren't accessible in offline mode.
@@RayShadow278 VD has even less single players missions
J is one of my favorite characters of the AC franchise.
I mean, he's got pretty deep lore, being a brainwashed clone of Joshua O'Brien.
...He also has a hot voice.
David Sobolov’s got that effect (Depth Charge from Beast Wars and Shockwave from Transformers: Prime)
Verdict Day was the only 5th gen game I played. And while I won't say I hated it, I was severely disappointed with this gen over AC2 and 4th gen. The final boss was my favorite in the entire series though. Fighting a salvaged White Glint while piloting a normal made out of an M1 Abrams chassis and a bolted on Volvo was pretty sick.
Also the UNAC's were hilariously cool. When I first messed around with them I *tried* to delve into their complexity, but got a little lost and just though "F it I'll come back to this later, I just wanna smash some MT's." So I saved it with the random setting's I'd bumbled around with. The MT was a mix of medium and light parts with a shotgun and rifle, with pile drivers for the weapon swap. That thing proceeded to absolutely tear ass for 5 missions straight. It was at that moment I understood the Adeptus Mechanicus. I had created a monster I barely understood, let alone knew how I even built it. All I knew was that it did the job I intended it to, and it did it well. It was one of the coolest Armored Core experiences I had. I really want the UNAC system in AC6 more than any other system tbh.
"I'm sure everyone can agree with me up to this point"
*Has already insulted Dark Souls 2 less than 4 minutes into the video*
I mean, I personally agree with you, but I hear a rumbling of DS2 fans approaching lmao
Again a fair shake given to the two games in the series with less than stellar gameplay from your point of view. It is still nice to get your opinion thank you again for putting out quality content.
Weird you didn't mention the main antagonist in ACV, The Chief, when you're talking about the story. He's quite prominent and has interesting personality. Not sure if you'd put his The Joker-wannabe attitude as cool or cringe, but I'd guess the latter.
And before anyone mention it, Keiji Fujiwara (RIP) who voiced The Chief in JP version also voiced The Joker in JP dub version in The Dark Knight.
Love your content man. Before your overview AC:V was my only experience with the AC series. You single-handedly changed my perception of the series and got me hyped for AC6. Can’t wait to see where your channel goes dude.
5th gen is my most favorite for one simple reason; I jump from Last Raven to V. The first thing that got me is the center-fixed lock box. For someone that grew up with AC1 I fucking hate the swaying lock box!. The no flying is not much of a problem because I mostly play tank and quad to begin with. The gritty ost and the "systemmu sento modo" really got me lol
The starting sequence is pretty good in my eyes, too. The simulation outline when boosting the AC captured the feelings of piloting the AC and the warning sound every time the AC got hit and the shaky-noisy display really nailed it.
And contrary to what most people belief, 5th gen is very fast! U only slowdown when trying to get in position behind the building but after that u go fast. Very very fast! (Still not on the level of fA)
I can only hope that AC6 will not let me down.
now we wait for 6 thank you for your all efforts put on this video
I never got a chance to really play AC5 online despite picking it up on day one but I was all in with Verdict Day and the memories I had with that game will stick with me forever. I'm really happy that VD isn't the end of the series, it would be an alright sendoff but if From is gonna do that I would like to see elements from everything that came before in a Dark Souls 3 kind of way even if I don't like it in that game.
Here's hoping you cover the Another Century's Episode games and maybe Daemon x Machina given some of the plot details from that game look pretty similar to what's gonna be in AC6
Besides trying to follow up Chromehounds, honestly I feel like there was a very earnest attempt to "modernize" the series and do things at the time that would've fit the gaming industry. But they didn't draw anyone new in, and pissed off all the veteran fans, _especially_ 4th gen, and Verdict Day was too little, too late an apology to anyone but the diehards already invested in 5th gen. It's a good example and testament to how trying to bring a new focus to an already-niche series can have some very bad results.
The way that they made ACV+VD are quite rushed. It was to the point that it later split the devs apart and they went on to go making their own, Daemon x Machina (which is an ok premise to creating a modern AC game but was ultimately a failure).
So ACV/D was an attempt on EXPLICITLY making a sequel for AC as most "sequels" are simply a DLC for their respective numbered series. Miyazaki's 4 series did imply about it being tied to the previous one but was never explicit about it. Most likely paying homage to the series he worked on before he became game director.
ACV/D tried tying AC1 to it by using the Miyazaki ending (because Destruction part is the canon one when it comes to hindsight on how Miyazaki does his games).
The devs really tried to entice old AC enjoyers or Ravens back as Miyazaki's Lynx weren't quite a big hit in the Eastern part of the world. It was too anime rather than realistic.
This is why we got the design decision on making the ACs Normals again but still having that option of feeling like you're piloting NEXTs with their wall climb.
I did like the look of the mechs (not the chunky wide part but the rustic DIY look). It goes to show that parts are hard to come by and there aren't many corpos and engineers with accessible factories to create refined mechs.
As for the Overed Weapons, those are NEXT weapons strapped into a Normal. This is why it destroys your AC and is a one -time use.
The whole UNAC is also tied to lore. Because during this time, the world is still recovering and there is quite a lack of people. AIs (true or programmed) are along side humans. You program your co-pilot while Reaper leader is a true AI.
Deamon x machina wasn't a failure! It did well enough that now where getting a sequel.
Hi, i just found your channel and I love the work you put into your Armored Core videos, as a longtime Armored Core Fan I want to say thanks.
Thank you! I appreciate the support very much.
I remember being excited when I heard about these games, the thoughts of playing with a squad of people excited me. It was a chance to make friends who were into the same stuff as me. But when it came time to get them, my life had taken a hard left turn, and I couldn't afford them. And by the time i could afford these games, they had been out for a while and I didn't see the point in picking up a multiplayer focused game that no one played anymore. Great video, it makes me want to play that last battle at least, lol, sounds emotional.
He finished his reviews @fromsoft! You should release the game now!
Reaper squad leader is definitely a next and it looks like an evil white glint which I appreciate. Still not touching this game tho lol
Great work as always =)
Wasn't expecting Noita music, but it absolutely fits what you're talking about.
22:10 This is basically Ace Combat 7 in a nutshell. The entire mission listening to people bitching at each other, and floating between angry ranting and stroking your ego.
Ehh, Not really. All of the Ace Combat games stroke the Players Ego in one way or another. If anything I would say Ace Combat 4 and Zero give you the most Ego Stroking. Since they literally call you shit like Demon Lord or Grim Reaper.
Hold left, double tap L1= quick turn. FYI for anyone who doesn't know.
I literally just finished watching your other videos, what perfect timing
These are the one I missed heccc
Genuinely, thank you for covering the AC games in these longer review videos. Learning of the AC games I've missed out on has me excited for when I come around to beating them all. So far I have all of Gen 1 completed with AC 2 under way.
When you think of 5th gen as a Chromehounds sequel you can appreciate it a little more, but in usual From fashion they didn't do a lot to support multiplayer anyway. The english community actually had to hassle Namco-Bandai to release regulation patches for Verdict Day at some point in the west. V/VD does have some of the best soundtracks in the whole series though in my opinion.
The thing i like about this game is the soundtrack, is full of emotion, i really like it a lot, but sadly for all of the other stuff as gameplay and story is just mediocre, but still i'm hyped for 6
I did not expect a video that soon.
"Dark Souls 2 is the Armored Core 5 of the Souls series" - this is exactly how I felt about it too
ACVD and DS2 were actually my favorites because I am insane. Overboost being the general flight method and Scan Mode in 5 added a lot of technical depth.
I think they basically nerfed movement in general to make tanks viable but it would've been better to remove them entirely.
UNACs were the best teammates ever if you want one that can bounce around at inhuman speed and land manual rocket strikes with perfect precision.
I suspect 5 and VD would be more popular today if it didn't require a Threadripper to emulate it.
As far as the Gen V stuff goes... I generally disagree. I actually prefer V over AC4 (and I never got to play with the servers up), and ACV had consistently my favorite stages of the entire franchise. And Gen 5 in general I prefer over Gen 4, not simply due to a matter of "too fast", but because Gen 4 was too simple for my tastes, whereas Gen V did feel like a good attempt at pushing forward the concept of AC.
FA was fun, though, but AC4 I was always kinda so-so on. I don't dislike it but it's the one I've played the least over the years. And, yes, I'm counting Formula Front into this.
As for the UI... I'm perfectly fine with it. I'm also fine with the lack of back weapons. As for the weapon type system, as you said, you can have up to 4-5 weapons. In most cases, someone *will* have one of each type covered unless you're running a super light build or you just don't actually consider weapon types.
16:06
The train has a melee attack so if you touch the front of it you die
I found out the same way you did
I also realized pulse shotguns do splash damage to yourself lol
IMHO the problem with 5/VD was the AC mobility: even a fast build feels slower than the first generation ACs, and what could be a cool duel between 2 ravens with "fancy maneuvers" seems like two tanks drifting and shooting at each others, the only exception being 2/3 walls around
-- Pointlessly long rant warning --
The way Fromsoft devs implemented the "rock-paper-scissors" damage type mechanic in both of the 5th gen games still baffles me to this day. I would love to look inside the mind of the person that had the genius idea of making most of the enemy ACs and the regular enemies in the single player campaign to be practically immune to kinetic damage (specifically to the low-damage miniguns and rifles weapon types), thus making third of your arsenal of those games pretty much useless from the get go.
This one design idea is the antithesis to the Armored Cores formula of having a customizable experience to YOUR preferred playstyle for these games (yes, with obvious variations to the optimal setups for every different type of encounter and certain gimmick type missions). Instead you have to basically scout out every single mission to try and scan out what kind of weakness every single enemy type will have, then to restart the mission to pick the exact weapon damage type the game expect you to use, exact mech setup to counter the type of damage you are going to receive, and then you can actually do a "proper" attempt at the mission. You probably wouldn't have to do that if they actually specified what kind of enemies you were going to fight in mission briefings, but for some god forsaken reason they seems to not even bother doing that for half of of the campaign.
Just the fact that they put the "INEFFECTIVE" indicator in the UI just to tell you "sorry bro, you didn't guess the right gun to use here, might as well just quit and start the mission over since you are basically beating your head against a brick wall and not gonna get anywhere at this rate" shows that they understood that this exact problem exists in their game, but they still didn't even try to balance the mechanic to some reasonable extent so that most of the guns are not as useless again their respective defenses as they were implemented. Instead of the customization freedom and certain challenges of weight, energy, heat/kojumbo armor management, etc, of the previous games you just have to "solve" a very intricate task of getting a "damage type - good, damage number - big" weapon, basically like doing a more advanced version of a freaking shape sorter puzzle meant for toddlers.
You can attribute this to game being primarily "multiplayer-focused" and thus balanced primarily around PvP, but I can only imagine how "fun" it was to be shoehorned into being the "rock", the "paper" or the "scissors" of your team. I'm sure the people loved that, but I'm sure that I'll be content to never figuring that out.
It's been like 8 or 9 years since I played Verdict Day, but I still get mad just remembering this single thing like I just finished suffering through this the game yesterday. I might be entirely misremembering how actually impactful the entire thing was to the gameplay, but the raw anger I still carry in my soul to this day after being so disappointed by this title (especially coming from my love of 3rd and 4th gen games) would probably the last thing I'm gonna forget in my life. If you got this far - I'm sorry for you wasting a minute of your life having to read this. :)
It’s mostly on point. It’s like they came up with the idea, and then immediately implemented it. No polishing or anything other than “you do/take more/less damage” and it makes a lot of encounters head scratching. They should’ve adjusted the advantages to be waaaay less than they were. Like those annoying fucking suicide enemies in Mission 03 of ACV instantly die to thermal but take practically nothing from everything else.
Honestly, coming at an enemy with the wrong damage type varied due to their being three of them, so it was either normal, a bit slow, or "capra demon with a straight sword and no shield". Technically doable, but you're putting in way more effort than you need to be. Coming off Bayonetta at the time I was ok scraping by, but looking back, it was probably just to give the multiplayer the illusion of being more dynamic than it actually was, because brining a UNAC with different weapons than yours was not the solution to this problem, at least not that i found.
Long = hard, especially if i go flaccid halfway through.
oh, and to add, i absolutely started using the wiki halfway through for encounters, and it absolutely did spoil some shit.
This is the classic From problem of trying to use the same rule/equipment sets for PvE and PvP which they finally got rid of in Elden Ring
Somehow I missed your AC4 video, and was miraculously recommended this days after it came out so I was able to check it out. AC4A is possibly my favorite game even with 80k+ hours of gaming since I was 5. Love how you covered it, look forward to what you say about AC6 once we get our hands on it :D
Great series of videos. Couldn't have agreed more on most of the points made about V/VD in this one. Here's to hoping for 6 to blow us all away.
That was fast I was expecting this vid later, but I'm glad that is out now, I'm excited to see what new game you gonna analyze, keep doing these great vids
Having a multi-Player Armored Core was like a dream I'd prayed for since I'm a co-op fan.
It's sad I've missed out on this game for the online feature and teaming with fellow A.C pilots, it would have been fun teaming up with others taking on missions and such.
I'm happy that I found your channel while playing thru these games from start to finish too.
Here's hoping that you review Frame Grinde, a proto-Amored Core 2 for the Dreamcast which gotten a translation patch.
He knows. He was planning to do them after ac series. 💀
hopefully everything they learned from 5, V day, and as well as elden ring and such they can manage to finally bring armored core back from the dead with 6 and actually make it no longer be an underground niche game series that almost everyone hasnt even heard of. battletech has been getting its renaissance era. bout time armored core gets one too.
Been great to watch this series. I’ve been playing thru the series again after at least 10 years and man I’d be lying if I didn’t tear up remembering all the good times I had. From getting the Kurosawa in 2 to fine tuning my AC in 4 to better dunk on my friends. Great video, can’t wait for the one you do on 6
While I definitely agree that the weapon rarity system was a mistake, I feel like that in terms of barring a player from competitive PvP, it is as bad as, if not better than, 4's tuning memory. Don't get me wrong, randomized loot grinding is the most boring part of any multiplayer game, but the online shop at least gave the player a way to circumvent some of it. 4 asked you commit dozens of hours to playing the single player perfectly to be able to properly optimize your core for PvP, which is also a massive barrier for entry.
Regardless, this has been an amazing series, and I'm looking forward to the videos to come about the oddballs.
Great video man, I just couldn't bring myself to play AC:V with the gameplay changes and hard to palate UI. You've captured the experience!
I think instead of corporations agreeing mot to use Kojima technology, they just lost it. If the Destruction path is the canon ending, then that means most likely Strayed's NEXT would be the last Kojima powered piece of technology left, everything else being burned to cinders. Or, if ACVI is to be takimg place in space, maybe the ORCA path made ot so it's very restrictive, and that's where we get the Corporation in V and the Towers in VD. I mean, Chief's machine at the end of V looks to be a prototype using some Kojima tech, and don't even get me started on J in VD
I've never played ACV and ACVD, partly because the game was really hard to find in my country for whatever reason... But I've never really interested in the first place because it looked so different compared to the previous games, not to mention during this time I've moved on to Souls games and the 5th gen AC games just kinda fades away from my radar. Recently I've gotten into AC games again after ACVI trailer so I'm super grateful for your videos on the series, really helped me recap the entire series.
Can't wait for ACVI release and I'll surely be watching whatever video you'll be cooking next :)
Thanks for the video and bringing back memories from throughout the whole series. I remembered being so hyped for this game especially with that cool intro. The lack of mission variety plus the ACs sized down and looking something from steel battalion turned me from it. I did like the toggle boost, having a melee with boost dash, and the rotary guns sounding like they should.
AC5 was the only game in the series that I skipped, and I've been playing since the old PS1 demo-disk; as soon as I heard the words "Team oriented" and saw what AC's looked like it was just a complete loss of interest. That said I'm glad you made this video as it confirmed all of my worst fears and soothes the feelings of "maybe I missed out" or was mistaken. I'm glad as well that most of the resurgence in interest around AC is focused on 4th gen and older.
Also: If I had been playing through the game in those shitty AC's only to then have to fight a Next, I would have been pissed. My favorite thing about the classic games was that you could *mostly* have anything the "enemy" had and that would have just felt like a slap in the face.
A wonderful retrospective through and through. I'm excited to see what you have in store for next time
YEAAAAAAAAAH NEW AC VID
I founded and ran the NERV team on this game basically since it came out and mostly was dead. It was different from the Armored core I was used to. But I had a lot of great moments for me. Probably the most into a multi-player game I've ever been. I'll miss teaming up with my friends to take on missions and teams.
As someone who has played through a lot of armored core games, Starting with 4th going all the way to verdict day before going all the way back to armored core 2 for a classic experience, i can only hope we can see something closer to the classic games going forward, for my two cents i thought V was an interesting new story to start but verdict day was better i never really lingered on it because it didn't really fit my speed coming from 4 and for answer. Your overview sums up a lot of my complaints... mainly this at 3:47 (I would like to be able to hear the music!)
When i went back and played 2 i found this treasure trove of what armored core could be, highly skilled pilots, with very expensive top of the line custom mechs and parts. Much like 4 where you were in a top of the line mech but you were called a lynx just someone who was compatible with the mech technology at the time. in comparison to V and verdict day which i like to call "junk mechs." (Because they really feel that way and play that way.) I mostly now play around in the 1st 2nd and 3rd generation of armored core game where positioning and skill is required. (Currently playing through 1 on an emulator so i can say i have played most of the mainline games)
I will admit there are some nice things in armored core V that i could see being added in future Armored core games. but here is my biggest concern. That this might have been a lot of peoples first armored core game because of the main multiplayer features and clan system, for at the time the game was out there was still a big focus on online gaming clans and multiplayer especially on console. My only hope is that they do not push for another 5th gen experience armored core has a lot more to offer than what 5th gen gave. I see a lot of people pointing out armored core likes and them mostly being related to 5th generation of armored core.
I do however hope from what i have seen in the trailer and recent stuff with my conspiracy brain fully active is that we might see some older AC parts come back MLL-MX/EDGE at around the 2:05 time of the armored core 6 trailer and that the recent Taipei game show music selection didn't feature any armored core 5 music. which i found odd and interesting due to the fact the music went from 1 to for answer then going all the way back to armored core 3 silent line. I have incredibly high hopes for armored core going forward. now i gotta stop the comment here before it becomes a god damn essay!
IIRC VD also tried to fix the issues with the three types of damage of the game. in V every class of weapons could only deal a specific type of damage and every weight class of parts had good defence only against a specific type. In VD they made it possible to swap types for the weapons and parts so that every type of build, if properly crafted, could be effective against all types of damage and damage reduction.
Lmao, I had the exact same thing with Dark Souls 2 as well, albeit I didn't totally hate the game on launch but the PVE content def pissed me off with how little variety it had.
Freaking yes! Watching this at work, woot.
NGWIX gave me chills qhen i first fought it. Fromsoft batting 2 for 2 with the throwback boss themes. Got me once w this one, and a second time with Soul of Cinder.
"Over red" lol
Using Stickerbrush Symphony as the music at the beginning was a terrible choice... But only because it's so good that I paused to go listen to it on repeat for like an hour before coming back to finish this video.
See you all in the ashes of Rubicon!!!
Dude the Operator system in the 5v5's were so much fun, I really hope they add a gamemode for that in AC6.
I used to hate 5th gen mainly because of the controls and the ammo types, but I stuck with it because dammit the art style is amazing! Safe to say I really really like the 5th gen now. It took some adjustment, especially if you’re used to 4th gen, but I found the gameplay to be pretty deep once you get the hang of it
A secret about arm parts i abused was that certain parts would multiply the weapons mounted in them. An example are the light arms that had twin boxes on each shoulder. For that build i equipped spread rockets which turned the shoulder weapons into heavy shotguns that would cover an area in rockets.
I also replayed the 5th recently, and it's depressingly frustrating just how much of it relied on multiplayer to the point of sacrificing every other aspect. Just trying to do the order side missions really highlights the abundance of copy/paste going on to pad the single player; same handful of enemies spammed everywhere, there's only a handful of different maps, and all the enemy ACs fall into a few different archetypes. The game design shift to make the 5th generation to be hyper-realistic compared to the previous games is like a crashtest dummy smacking into a brickwall at neckbreaking velocity.
The playstation 3 side of Verdict day has some large, active teams.
Unknown Units and AC6 Waiting room come to mind.
See you on the battlefield, Raven
Hey AAG, just wanted to say I watched your Thief 2 stream but not live and I loved it and enjoyed hearing some of your stances on non-game stuff. Unfortunately the immersive sim curse is real, lower viewership sadly just comes with the territory, but I do hope you don't totally give up on non-mech content.
I wont. Armored core is just half of my channel. Even though right now its the main focus.
Oh God i've been waiting for this one!
never tho seeing history of Armored Core gonna be this gud, hope you make ze Series Overview too when 6 come out. Armored Core is one of my Fav Mecha game
2:53 Moral of the story: don't ditch school for a damn video game.
I watch your vids at 1.5x speed. It is so much more watchable.
Thanks for watching either way.
@@aboveaveragegaming6120 Sorry. I didn't mean that to seem so negative. I love your content! I watch your videos all the time.
I feel like fires of Rubicon is what happens after the Orca story line is ACFA
That or armored core 2
I neet to try for answer. Silent line was definitely my favorite of the franchise. I am hoping 6 plays how it looks. A solid merger of the best parts of each generation updated to work together.
@31:13 going to be childish me mentioning this but hearing that voice all I could think about is "snake... its me... dear brother... "
After watching this, I regret not getting Verdict Day, but 5 really did sort of kill all my enthusiasm for the series. 6 really looks like it's going to be a wonderful return to form. Here's hoping we're all going to have a reason to have a new favorite entry into the series.
to be fair ac5 was FS attempt to try and blend chromehounds (there other mech game) and Ac together because at the time the major push was for multiplayer gaming AC5 would have probably never been made if it was not for that.
@@aikidodude05 I disagree with the idea that AC5 wouldn't have been made at all. it just would have more closely resembled prior games in the franchise had they not tried to focus on multiplayer. Also the franchise as a whole may never had such a large break between entries if not for the generally poor reception of 5. There are many who attribute no AC games to dark souls, but that's just simply not the case. AC and Souls games were popular together for a brief time before AC5 tanked this series popularity.
@@paulwright774 uh ac5 actually enjoy some decent sucess when it came at most of the time people will put AC5 above AC4 because the actual 5v5 was stupidly fun. the issues no one can experience that anymore all you can play is the corpse of a great game.
you have to understand why armor core went on the shelf and it really is because of demon souls 2009 which was far more popular than any AC game(i am saying this as a person who grew up playing AC and nearly spazzed out when I heard 6 was coming)
the popularly of souls pretty much sucked them into making what would be the souls series at with a studio their size there was no way they could really devote staff to make a niche game like AC at that time.
now this is just a theory but it fits the time line of well gaming as around this times games like cod, halo were showing that not only could a muiltplayer game sell they could sell extremely well. so AC5 was softs attempt at trying to make a mulitplayer game again when namco asked them if they could make on to try and get a toe into the multiplayer market.
if I remember correctly a lot of the people that worked on AC5 were the same people that worked on chromehounds the original fromsoft squad based mech game.
@@aikidodude05 So you're really going to blame demon's souls and dark souls for no ac games past 5 and verdict day despite the fact that 5 released a year after dark souls and multiple years after demon's souls? Clearly From Software was still willing to devote a team to the franchise that put it in the map in the first place. That was until 5 tanked the popularity of the franchise. And even after that happened they still tried to keep the franchise going with verdict day, but when it was ultimately ignored by the majority of us after 5. I can't blame them for dropping the series for awhile in favor of souls games after that, but it wasn't the popularity of the souls games that brought this AC drought, it was a pair of lackluster games that tanked the popularity of armored core.
@@paulwright774 no im not blaming the souls games i pointing out that FS had 15+1 ( im including chromehounds) mech games that while they were successfully they were not major releases that really only enjoyed popular niche group. they the come out with demon souls which despite there misgivings about it was very successful. what's a small company going to do? they are going to keep producing the games that make them more money till they a situation were they can try to branch out once again. armor core never "died" it was always on the shelf waiting.
I had always thought the destruction ending was the true ending to 4A, something something instead of rebuilding earth we go to mars where AC2 takes place
I loved the robot voice and the sound design in the game
Can't wait for your AC VI overview :D
I hope you at least do one video covering the various AC-like games with a general overview of how close they are to AC titles and whether you recommend them for AC fans and newbies. Doesn't necessarily need to go in depth, but a general assessment would be great for those trying to find an easily accessible title to prep for AC6 in terms of general skills and mech action.
omg thank you for explaining scan mode energy sufficiency i kinda never read and wouldnt have figured that out
i always see player activating it often and i was asking myself why the hell you would do that... ^^'
(and for the drift too)
14:31 this reminds me of how, in daemon x machina (a mech game heavily inspired by armored core), weapons that you find in missions can have random extra attributes. you could spend hours grinding the same mission over and over trying to get a good version of a weapon you want. it’s ultimately what made me drop the game, which is sad because the online multiplayer was amazing.
At the end the postgame of DXM becomes "Run the scavenge MP missions until you get the best (Tier V) attachments", which have abysmal drop rates.
To this day I don't think I have more than 2 Attack Boost Mk V which is what everyone else runs when you hop online.
I do join a casual fight night every other Friday tho where you get to enjoy a bit more variety
I think it's wild Liquid Snake finally gets a weapon to surpass Metal Gear
I haven't played it, but all the things you're describing in this game sound great.... but I am a crazy person that loved Chromehounds.
Should clarify: mainly, I think AC5 and AC5V have good ideas on-paper that perhaps faltered in execution. For example, I like the idea of having an "Operator" or commander slot as a playable slot in a multiplayer team battle sense.
UNACs were a very good idea in case of lack of teammates in online battles, not any game has that and I wouldn love if devs think on bringing them back again.