@@araynortassadore3056 while interesting, it would be actualy terrifying, since if you fight a raven bet that is probably a good time to pray because the guy is going to be faster and more agile than you, better equiped than you and better armoured than you
"Favorite game in the whole series". Finally someone who knows whats up. I adored this game. You're absolutely right it was the best game in the entire franchise.
same bro!!!!!! this was the best! and I've been playing since the first armored core of all time!!. Armored Core Silent Line is the APEX of the old guard.
The fact that Silent Line was such an amazing game DESPITE how awful the controls were blows my mind. I remember raging after losing some of the story boss fights because of how might I was struggling against the controls, but pushing ahead and getting better at the game because the rest of the game was just that good. A bunch of other kids in my neighborhood also got into the game, and we'd have tournaments on the weekends at someone's house. It was great to see the different ACs everyone would make and how the ended up being reflections of their different personalities, and none of us were min-maxing to the degree that the builds all ended up being the same. We had people bringing tank leg gun platforms into fights with supermobile missile boats, and it would still be anyone's game.
Iirc he moreso meant the hardest so far because Silent Line is definitely nothing to any of the later gen 3 games. But even "hardest so far" is debatable imo because Another Age is def a tough one
I honestly do thing silent line is harder than nexus or last raven. Last raven it's really just some of the final fights that's really hard. I do believe silent line is consistently harder than any other... but hey that's just my opinion
@@aboveaveragegaming6120Fair opinion, I will say while SL doesn't get close to the peak difficulty of late gen 3, it does have the benefit of being really well balanced in its difficulty. Almost every level feels moderately hard at least, with the toughest levels still being manageable as tough as they are. As opposed to Last Raven, which has a combination of piss easy missions and the most bullshitly hard missions Fromsoft have ever conceived. The build limitations in late Gen 3 definitely doesn't help either
@@aboveaveragegaming6120 I didn't have too much problems with Silent Line on a replay but that might be because LR made me appreciate lighter builds (seriously, tank builds in LR are unoptimal) the control was the bit hardest to adapt (after using the better control scheme from LR, I was pretty shook when I went back to 3 and Silent Line)
the IBIS fight is actually more interesting in both mechanics and the lore involved. lore wise IBIS is supposedly the personal unit of the 2nd controller AI codenamed "JUSTICE" the sister unit of "DOVE"(aka The controlled ) that handled the civillian aspects of life underground and had ot adapt to the loss of the Controller. Mechanically IBIS is fun because during the actual fight its actively adapting to your AC's Loadout, the message progression where its "scanning" you the AI is basically reading your AC 's loadout and adapting its combat strategy counter it..issue is , it doesnt have enough health to do this vs a prepared player AC.
This was the first Armored Core game I ever played, and this game was brutal. I could never get past the unknown enemy in the powerplant as a kid. After watching your earlier reviews I've been playing Armored Core 3 for the first time and plan on taking a crack at Silent Line again at some point. I'm glad to know this game is considered the hardest because it really felt that way. Fantastic video love all your AC game reviews so far.
@@MechReaperofKhaos for answer was easy. 4 was hard, really hard on hard missions. Nexus just wastes my time and ammo, last ravens final missions are much harder than silent lines but silent line half way through the game is consistently hard. This is the experience I've gotten playing through multiple times.
Good to see this well-made review up. My favorite thing about Silent Line is how you can make your own arena with 10 entries each. Unfortunately you only use the military base, there is a way to get the A.I. ac to use other arenas and it is in VS mode with A.I. friendly arenas. I also like how you made fun of how no other character or company questioned where the Artificial Intelligence Office came from and how there was no one else working there.
Me and a friend trained one AI to the point that it could defeat us, even when we teamed up and it was alone. We used the Ace AC which was the A1 Arena Pilot of AC3 but made a few changes to it, that I do not remember anymore. I think it is one of the coolest features in the game. But they missed out on the opportunity to use this AI in missions.
@@sir_no_name1478 In Armored Core Last Raven, a series of AI weapons called Pulverisers start attacking everyone. As each is destroyed, the AI behind them makes a better model. Eventually, it would produce a Pulveriser that would simply be unstoppable. Canonically, it nearly does but is stopped. 100% the game and you get a what if positing the AI got one final model out before being broken. You get to fight it. It is absolutely bonkers OP. (Beating it demands a good build, great skills, AND luck.)
Silent Line was not only my first AC, it’s actually the only AC I’ve ever played. Had no idea I played through and beat (barely) the hardest game in the franchise when I was 14😂. To this day it’s one of the most challenging and rewarding games I’ve ever playedz
I played Last Raven as my first AC game so it was a huge shock to me to see the control layout of the older games. Since AC3 (currently playing through SL), I remapped strafing to dpad, turning and camera up/down to the face buttons meanwhile I had left and right firing, boost, and weapon swap controls lifted from LR.
If anyone wants a good remapping scheme similar to modern dual stick shooter games you can map the right stick to the button pad (triangle, X, square, circle) using something like Ds4windows and then remap some of the buttons in the game itself. Basically you map the button pad in-game for looking up (triangle) and down (x) and looking left (square) and right(circle). Then have the left stick/directional pad as move forward and backwards and strafe left and right. Then put your left and right shoulder buttons however you want them. For me I do firing weapons(R2), firing left-hand weapon(L2), switching weapons(L1), and boost(R1). It works REALLY good if you are interested in trying the games but the regular controls seem hard to master. Gives you much more control over your mech and feels fairly natural after years of dual stick fps games!
i like your monotone delivery, and even though that hasn't changed, this video shows significantly higher quality than the last. it is to your previous ac video what the last line was to master of arena, if you will
I had an AC build specific to cheesing levels. Ultra light frame, longest range radar, shoulder mounted hover jets, balanced to gain energy while hover jets on, dual snipers. Basically I would fly straight up until my energy almost bottomed out and then turn on hover jets. Slowly gain energy back while hover jets are on then fly up again. Rinse repeat until you are high enough enemies cant target you. Lock in hover jets and fly around the top on the map sniping everything. It’s not cheating, it’s strategy.
I fixed the controls on emulator by changing my right stick inputs to represent the turning directions at the level of the emulator, rather than in the actual game. For example, Right Stick Y Axis + on my Xbox controller just represents L2. Put turning on the right stick too, and strafing on the left stick. Don't touch the in game button binds. Then, you can move the face buttons to the back so that you can hold the controller normally.
After playing them all over the past two or so weeks i can also agree, this is my favorite. Controls do suck though, luckily I found a rebind set up that works for me. Essentially, turn your face buttons (triangle, square, circle, X) into your right analog stick by maping the look left, right, up and down to their respective positions. Re-bind strafing to the left and right stick (well, the D-pad but it effects the left stick too). Then re-bind the bumpers and triggers as you'd like. For me, L2 Booster, L1 weapon swap, R1 Right hand, R2 left hand is what felt the best but you do whatever is best for you. It takes a few arena fights to get used too, but honestly, after awhile, it controls almost as smoothly as actually having the right analog stick to use. It's surprisingly smooth. So, for anyone wanting to play the older games (1 through silent line.) I highly suggest giving this control set-up a try.
It took me this video to realize Silent Line was a reimagined Master of Arena and I am angry it took me this long. This was my favorite AC of the PS2 era dude.
Just finished revisiting the old AC games. Played AC1, 2, 3, Silent Line, and Last Raven. Silent Line was definitely my favorite. I ended up making a giant spreadsheet to help me compare parts (I linked it on the gamefaqs forums). I'm a big fan of the offhand flamethrower and MG-1000/800 machineguns. Very sad when I tried to play Last Raven only to learn that they nerfed my beloved mech melter.
There were some tricks for training your AI. It matches how often you allow the enemy to lock on, how much time you spend on-target, average range, etc. Playing normally, my AIs just wiggle in the middle of the enemy's gunsight, which is terrible if against human players that know how to force hits... but there's a tank arena enemy equipped with nothing but howitzers and flamethrowers. Fighting that for training will let you establish insane parameters for evading lockboxes and specify exactly the distance you want to attack at. I was showing off my Bazooka / Spread Howitzer reverse joint to some folks at a meet in the day and everyone's mind was blown by how hard it was to get a handle on.
I remember doing that. Did that fight really freaking often to re-enforce "NO LOCK ONS!" and eventually I had an AC that was capable of solo'ing pretty much anyone in the arena... It actually started beating me more often than I beat it when I was doing test matches against it.
Love the videos, I’m really looking forward to seeing ARMOURED core 4 answers and verdict day videos. I really enjoy AC and am surprised it does not have that much content, and your reviews gave me lots of new information. Like human+ I was just playing them as a human xD
Been thoroughly enjoying the reviews!! Always a big fan of how you do a good job synopsizing the story while actually showing footage of it as well. Hearing you talk about it AND seeing you play it just really works well for this series, I think. Hoping we get a current gen Armored Core game soon.
Man I loved the AI feature. I wish it would make a return. I remember making my own AI arena gauntlet. My friends and I would make super hard arenas and then we would try and battle each other's AI. Those were the good old days
thanks for giving us an inside look on the armored core series. ive been really gettng into the from software games from bloodborne and the more recent games and im hyping up fires of rubicon. cant wait to play it and these videos are only adding to the hype. keep up the good work my man cheers from Brazil
I remember making an energy neutral heavy biped build that basically devoured the arena. Chose the shield with the best balance of coverage and defense and the energy shield extensions, which I'd pulse as damage came in. Four large missiles couldn't even drop my AP below 2/3. And thanks to having burst missiles and the high ammo heat machine gun (plus a mag extender), I had enough ammo to kill even the heaviest AC...and I did it all while standing still. It was dumb and hilarious.
One thing I enjoyed about this video a lot was how you really let the game show off its best moments by itself. No commentary, just a quiet stretch of a great moment in the game. Its a bold move because that's not the sort of thing that's usually very successful on youtube, but I appreciated it.
This is why control mapping in Emulators is SO good. I can make it so that I have full thumbsticks for turning and movement and everything setup in a way that its perfect. In the actual game sure, it sucks, but control mapping through emulators will always be welcomed for these titles.
Been going through the series again very recently. I've been playing the games pretty much in sync with these videos coming out, funny enough. Just started Silent Line two days ago and I'm glad to hear I'm not the only one who finds using the offhand weapons in conjunction with your main ones to be a bit of a headache.
This is the first psp game I've ever played, didn't finished when I was a kid and finished AC3 first, didn't know about OP intensify at that time, but I just import my AC3 save to silent line and decided to finish it, I even copy the mech in the opening "fracture".
The biggest thing to get right in the early AC games was the controls. You had to map your legs to the face buttons and map your camera to the d-pad. Boost went to R1 or L1 depending on your preference. With that it acts like a dual stick controller just without a stick.
Me and a buddy were deep into this game over a summer back in the day and we sunk a ton of time into our AI characters and would fight each others. I ended up being shocked at how effective mine became. He was non stop airborne and would stay on top of you hammering you with a machine gun. I remember he achieved some impressive feats. I think I had him fight two Shades while I stayed clear with those lock on jammer extensions and he won. I probably still have him saved somewhere. Maybe From can hire me to make AI for them.
The highest tier tank treads in this game are actually surprisingly fast. If you combo them with a RAY body you can load up two back chain guns, a KARASAWA and a left hand rifle and just strafe spam everything in the game. Cleared out most the arena and all the B and A rank dudes like this.
The issue of the stick not being able to be rebound is understandably a bit suck, but most people are probably going to be experiencing the game through an emulator where hopefully that will be less of a problem.
I came from Ninebreaker as my re-introduction to the series. Silent Line were some of the few last games from the series that I managed to find a copy of and the control scheme really threw me for a loop. But my workaround was to map all the camera control to the PS2 face buttons, Circle is for looking right, Square is for looking left and so on. This allowed me to play the game nearly the same as if I were playing in Last Raven.
im watching this whole series and so far it is really great, but i have to take the time to thank you for putting the full intro of each game. this is something ive never seen another retrospective series do but I think it really helps a lot to set the tone for someone who never played these games back in the day
DAMN!!! Another Silent Line fan. This game was the true epitome of Armored Core games. Out of all the Armored Core games Silent Line was the truly best one.
Rebinding the controls to the following helped a lot: Left stick to moving fore/aft/left/right, right face buttons for looking up/dn/left/right, L1 for boost, R1 for change weapon, L2 for Larm fire and R2 for Rarm fire. Pretty close to what you'd expect from a modern game, but it has some downsides like not being able to ditch as easily.
Loving this series of Armored Core retrospectives. I remember playing 3 and 4/For Answer back in the day, it’s been great binging your videos and learning about the games I’ve missed out on. I’m looking forward to future AC content from you. Keep up the good work!
I always loved this particular installment of AC(have played all main stream consoles and Daemon X Machina but no hand held games). seemed to have some of the best parts and weapons. The Arena was easy cheese if you knew a few things about the AI.
I have been binge playing AC games on emulator since january this year. So far, I've been able to 100% complete AC2, AC3, ACSL, and now I am working trough Nexus. My experience so far, playing with the benefits of GameFAQ guides and savestates, Silent Line has been the hardest to complete, and it mostly boilds down to the requirement to S rank every single mission to get that final part and achieve 100% completion. Nexus in comparison doesn't have mission ranks, so evading damage is much less of a concern, which in turn makes the games less punishing to play. Also, the game is very generous with its mission rewards, so it is very hard to go bankrupt, even using solid amo weapns only. So far, I've completed Disk 1 of Nexus and i found it much easier than Silent Line. The controls are really backwards, however, playing on emulator allowed me to work around the dual weilding issue by binding both square and circle to a single button on my controller. Overall, I really enjoyed playing SL the most so far. It's very hard to play, but very fullfilling to complete.
One of the main reasons I enjoy it on the psvita. I am able to assign my control scheme as follows: RS to control the directional pad, and assign look controls to the directional pad while movement is with LS, boost is the left bumper, and main fire is right bumper, X being offhand/interact and triangle as switch weapons. o as overbooked ability and Square as the core ability. If I need any other functions like camera reset or anything like that, I have touch pad and touchscreen functions. I found it to be a very enjoyable scheme for AC3, Silent Line, and Last Raven on a platform that I can take with me to enjoy on my lunch breaks at work.
Dual wielding the 3shot was what I remember being a TON of fun in this game. OP-Intensify with the Karasawa was just a blast, though. I never used the claw grip and crushed this game. Best in the series. Edit: The military base mission! That was my jam. I played the crap out of that mission!
I'm gonna go ahead n say it- remapping left and right strafe to l1 and r1, best move. Make left stick into your camera and move your left n right firing buttons together, like square and triangle. X for jump still, circle to switch weapons. If you can make yourself use 2 fingers on the bumper, there's no need to claw grip. Plus X and the top bumper can be pressed simultaneously much easier than a stick input plus a button input, as there's no "neutral to full tilt" zone, enabling left and right jump dodging to be ON POINT, like you're wavedashing in melee it's sooooo smooth.
I was kinda on the fence about getting Silent Line, since I'd been burned by some of the branching sequels of the series so far, but after seeing this, I'm really hoping I can finally get a copy so I can play it myself. Thanks for the in-depth coverage.
I got super excited when I got the notification about this video, I'm sad about how long it took for me to find time to actually watch it but it's been well worth the wait. This is an excellent summary of the best game of the 3rd AC generation. I myself would rate Silent Line in my top 3 favorite games of the franchise. As I've already stated in the comments of a previous video, For Answer is my favorite game in the series, It goes in at number 1. Master of Arena was my introduction to the franchise, it is the most nostalgic game for me and also hits into my top 3 for that reason. sneaking in right between those 2 lofty titles at number 2 for me would have to be Silent Line. The customizability had reached an all-time high, the story was reasonably engaging as a platform for giant mecha action, and the arena was one of the best in the series. Regarding upcoming Nexus review, I do remember the game fondly but I can't say I spent a lot of time with it so I'm looking forward to the refresher. As before, I'm really looking forward to when you reach the 4th generation for these reviews, but you can bet I'll be here for all the ones in between and thinking about it.. I'm really quite curious as to what you're gonna say about Formula Front. Lots to look forward to!
I'm going to do formula front after the series (nexus, last raven, for answer vday) I never played it and sadly I think ps2 is only in Japanese which means I need to play it on PSP. I've never played it before but I find it interesting
Oh, and about trying Thief. I absolutely recommend the first one. I've been playing through the first one, and it's quite good. I do recommend watching Mandalore Gaming's video on it, if only because it has easy links to the TFix mod, which does a good job of fiing up the game. Definitly play the GOG version if you can, as the Steam Version hasn't been updated for newer operating systems and hardware, and runs weird.
"Lapse of Time" is by far probably the best soundtrack for me in the franchise.. the atmospheric, somewhat foreboding sense of finality it gives is so good
Glad I caught this video again! Silent Line was a fantastic entry imo, but boy getting all those parts was a chore. I am an Op-I Guilty user but this game just let you run wild if you really wanted while STILL giving a strong challenge to and I truly appreciate. I too developted my own claw as well and that carried over to PSP using lol
Ddidn't expect the game to feel so much better than 3, you can boost a lot more now. The missions, secondary objectives and new parts are pretty fun so far.
Silent line was my introduction to the series and the controls combined with the difficulty made for a very frustrating experience which was compensated for 10 times over by the AC building which is unmatched to this day. the two new arena maps are my favorite arenas of the ps2 games and the hard spike in arena combatants skill made for a nice ramping up of skill and AC setup, even if some of them cheated their aiming to the point it looks like they're playing with a mouse and keyboard when you watch the replay. Also holy shit I had no idea there were that may bonus parts in the game, time to go back and find some. Fantastic video.
Love SL it's also my favorite in the whole series (close 2nd being part 3)...I'm surprised you said this game was the hardest in the series...It's a tough game especially with some of the requirements to get certain weapons but Last Raven was the hardest in the series...SL was the peak of the AC game series...Nexus wasn't that good and Last Raven was just a harder Nexus...AC3 and A3SL are the best AC games to date...side note """"YES TO DRAGONS DOGMA""" it's my fav game literally of all time.
I've yet to play v day but I'm excited to when the time comes. I played 5 the first month of release but quit after seeing the same few builds over and over. I'm sure vday will be better but I sadly have no idea how the multiplayer would compare to 5
@@aboveaveragegaming6120 V Day was the best in the series imo (I've played all of the entries AC2 and up, except for the PS1 entries). V Day's online play was really awesome. They had a Chromehounds like world map where different clans would battle for key positions, mostly through large arena type battles against other players or (if no players respond to the attack) P v E. You could customize your area defenses for the P v E situations to make it harder on invaders. The immersion was amazing because of that. My adrenaline would pump whenever I received the alert of an incursion of an enemy player. The gameplay was similar to 5, being a cross between 4/4A and the older entries. Sniping in V Day was so satisfying (you manually aim with a scope and everything). AI programming came back in that entry, except in V Day you could manually program your AI to behave the way you wanted them too (with various degrees of complexity based on unlocks). I'm not sure if the experience will be the same without the online play aspect, like you said. Because without online play V Day is just a better version of AC5. My memory may be fuzzy on the details, so forgive me if I'm mashing different entries together. I'm eager to hear you opinion once you get around to playing it!
So im playing these on the steam deck right now and there are community controller mappings, even for these older games when emulating. There was one called "armored core for sane people" haha But I've been using this control setup and it's been almost game breaking L2 boost, r2 fire main weapon, r1 left hand weapon, top face button swirch weapon. Right face button is intereact and also left weapon. Left and right stick normal modern stick controls. Its been a blast and so amazing not using the ye ancient stock controls
Honestly after getting back into AC3 to hype myself for AC6, playing with an emulator really bumps the games fun factor up, being able to assign the face buttons(X, O, etc) to looking around and assigning the left stick in emulator to'em makes it control easier, id highly reccomend it for anyone who wants to get into armored core.
This is the most memorable for me, because I think I put the most time into it. I remember it being very difficult, especially with the fact that you can just straight up get fired if you're an ass pilot. And don't get me started on the soundtrack...
I've been messing around with a key binding setup I prefer a lot over the default setup. Forward and Back to walk forward and back, Left and Right to strafe left strafe right. Triangle, Circle, Cross, Square I used for Look Up, Right, Down, and Left for kind of a faux dual analogue aim setup. R1 and L1 and Main and Off Weapon respectively with R2 for weapon switch and L2 for Boost. Gives me a more modern intuitive aiming setup and the triggers give me instant access to every single important button, not hard to boost, move, aim, and be actively firing main and off hand. No weird grip or movement required. Kinda funny as well since it puts your attacks on triggers like a Souls game does. And if you're playing emulator, you can use emulator settings to map your right stick to your face buttons and actually be able to use your Right Stick cause why couldn't you FromSoft this was a PS2 game every controller had a right stick. Hopefully this can unpretzel some fellow Raven fingers before AC 6 drops
Nice to see you back and another great well edited video about Armored Core. I usually tend to be on the fence on whether I like this or 3 more, the edge is definitely more in Silent Line's favor for me. It feels the most balanced in terms of difficulty, having a good mix of fairly easy missions and ball bustingly hard ones with a great soundtrack. Scrambling Film, Artificial Line, Silent Line, and a few others are some of my favorite songs in the series. Nexus is also one of my least favorite in the series. Its a good game that definitely has its perks like the ability to use the right stick for camera control and its soundtrack also has some nice tunes, but when compared to the others it has way too many issues that I don't vibe with like the reload mechanic which nerfs some weapons like the shotguns. As for what to do a video on next. All of the options seem fine to me, especially Dragons Dogma, but if I had to choose I'd say Lost Planet 2. Keep on keeping on! Your videos are so good that I'd watch you talk about whatever.
I kinda liked the AI mech, but it never quite acted like I wanted. I had a full vertical missile build right down to the missile arm and missile extensions. It could sustain flight for the duration of most arena fights and won almost every arena battle. The problem is the AI wouldn't imitate my air time and hovering just within lock on range. It would periodically launch into space and fall back down, but at least it was trigger happy with those missiles. Mobius and nameless were tough, but me and my missile buddy won it after a couple attempts.
For everyone I loved about Silent Line, I feel like it was actually one of the easiest games. Not that 3 was particularly hard with the exception of a few arena encounters and missions, but you're just so much more powerful in SL with all the new parts. Duel wielding a machine and a shotgun just melted everything, the energy guage releasing extension meant you never had to stop boosting, and the secret fcs part by kisiragi gave you a massive lockbox with great range and lock speed. Op-I is the least necessary it's ever been. There are a couple standout missions that are actually tough like 2nd to last one where you have to clear the factory and you get stuck in those rooms with the little shotgun wielding spider bots. Other than that though, most missions are very easy imo. The arena is an absolute push over compared to AC3 too. Silver Fox might be the only opponent I actually struggled with. Compare this to something like Master of Arena, Another Age, or Last Raven and they're not even in the same category of difficulty. That said, the part variety and excellent level design easily push it into my top 3 of all AC games. It just does so much right that I can't fault it for being easy. It's a blast to play from start to finish and you perfectly highlighted a lot of the reasons why.
![[Armored Core VI] When the modded weapon is so bullsh!t it breaks the game](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/vHTuTItbfzo/mqdefault.jpg)
Anyone who skips the armoured core intro drives an MT.
I actually would love to play the game in an MT...how cool would that new game start be?
And you fight an NEXT for the tutorial
@@araynortassadore3056 while interesting, it would be actualy terrifying, since if you fight a raven bet that is probably a good time to pray because the guy is going to be faster and more agile than you, better equiped than you and better armoured than you
@@thesoulofcinder2921 imagine, armored core, but multiplater, and you and your friends are mts fighting one raven
@@lyraleen1504 oh that would be interesting
"Favorite game in the whole series". Finally someone who knows whats up. I adored this game. You're absolutely right it was the best game in the entire franchise.
same bro!!!!!! this was the best! and I've been playing since the first armored core of all time!!. Armored Core Silent Line is the APEX of the old guard.
Definitely the best game. So good. I am replaying it now. I intend to replay it again.
Having just beaten them all in celebration, this is true! Definitely tied with FA
@@lazysylph3312 4A was amazing too
@@nightfox6738 you got some taste man! can‘t decide between Silent Line and 4A haha
The fact that Silent Line was such an amazing game DESPITE how awful the controls were blows my mind. I remember raging after losing some of the story boss fights because of how might I was struggling against the controls, but pushing ahead and getting better at the game because the rest of the game was just that good. A bunch of other kids in my neighborhood also got into the game, and we'd have tournaments on the weekends at someone's house. It was great to see the different ACs everyone would make and how the ended up being reflections of their different personalities, and none of us were min-maxing to the degree that the builds all ended up being the same. We had people bringing tank leg gun platforms into fights with supermobile missile boats, and it would still be anyone's game.
That's Soo good to hear
I really hope those kids would be at Joy learning that armored core 6 will be coming
At least emulating it you don't have to worry about the controls anymore made them work with the analogue sticks like nexas and it played super well
I personally felt that the Last Raven was more difficult compared to Silent Line. But its just my own oppinion
Iirc he moreso meant the hardest so far because Silent Line is definitely nothing to any of the later gen 3 games. But even "hardest so far" is debatable imo because Another Age is def a tough one
I honestly do thing silent line is harder than nexus or last raven. Last raven it's really just some of the final fights that's really hard. I do believe silent line is consistently harder than any other... but hey that's just my opinion
@@aboveaveragegaming6120Fair opinion, I will say while SL doesn't get close to the peak difficulty of late gen 3, it does have the benefit of being really well balanced in its difficulty. Almost every level feels moderately hard at least, with the toughest levels still being manageable as tough as they are. As opposed to Last Raven, which has a combination of piss easy missions and the most bullshitly hard missions Fromsoft have ever conceived. The build limitations in late Gen 3 definitely doesn't help either
@@aboveaveragegaming6120 I didn't have too much problems with Silent Line on a replay but that might be because LR made me appreciate lighter builds (seriously, tank builds in LR are unoptimal) the control was the bit hardest to adapt (after using the better control scheme from LR, I was pretty shook when I went back to 3 and Silent Line)
Last Raven Is Just stupid difficult idk why but its the only game of the series where i couldn't get past a mission without cheats
the IBIS fight is actually more interesting in both mechanics and the lore involved.
lore wise IBIS is supposedly the personal unit of the 2nd controller AI codenamed "JUSTICE" the sister unit of "DOVE"(aka The controlled ) that handled the civillian aspects of life underground and had ot adapt to the loss of the Controller.
Mechanically IBIS is fun because during the actual fight its actively adapting to your AC's Loadout, the message progression where its "scanning" you the AI is basically reading your AC 's loadout and adapting its combat strategy counter it..issue is , it doesnt have enough health to do this vs a prepared player AC.
Also the damage outpit is pathetic, i useally finish it before it even adalts eoth most of my hp remaining
Yeah for me he just walked directly into several KARASAWA shots and went down like a punk
I never knew that story element that's really interesting
"It doesn't have enough health to do this vs a prepared player AC"
Go fuck yourself
IBIS: "adapting...."
Raven with a KARASAWA: "Adapt to this you filthy casual!"
The secret parts were incredible, probably the first tutorials for AC ever on TH-cam this and nexus
This was the first Armored Core game I ever played, and this game was brutal. I could never get past the unknown enemy in the powerplant as a kid. After watching your earlier reviews I've been playing Armored Core 3 for the first time and plan on taking a crack at Silent Line again at some point. I'm glad to know this game is considered the hardest because it really felt that way. Fantastic video love all your AC game reviews so far.
This game is nowhere near the hardest in the series, Nexus, 4A and Last Raven are far more deserving of that title.
Hey, just passing by to wish you good luck in your next crack at Silent Line!
@@MechReaperofKhaos for answer was easy. 4 was hard, really hard on hard missions. Nexus just wastes my time and ammo, last ravens final missions are much harder than silent lines but silent line half way through the game is consistently hard. This is the experience I've gotten playing through multiple times.
@@aboveaveragegaming6120 I remember FA wayyy more than 4, so that might be why, I also remember 3 and SL being the easiest games in the series to me.
@@aboveaveragegaming6120 could also depend on build preferences tho.
Good to see this well-made review up. My favorite thing about Silent Line is how you can make your own arena with 10 entries each. Unfortunately you only use the military base, there is a way to get the A.I. ac to use other arenas and it is in VS mode with A.I. friendly arenas.
I also like how you made fun of how no other character or company questioned where the Artificial Intelligence Office came from and how there was no one else working there.
17:20 I had a cold sweat back then. "This is not a AC" when i first saw it.
Hey... thank you very much!
Me and a friend trained one AI to the point that it could defeat us, even when we teamed up and it was alone.
We used the Ace AC which was the A1 Arena Pilot of AC3 but made a few changes to it, that I do not remember anymore. I think it is one of the coolest features in the game. But they missed out on the opportunity to use this AI in missions.
You trained your very own version of the CHAOS MTs huh, Interesting
Congratulations, you completed the Pulverizer Project. Expect mass production and deployment within three months.
Tbh. I do not get the reference ^^.
I have played the game with like 13 and did not spoke english very well then ^^
@@sir_no_name1478 In Armored Core Last Raven, a series of AI weapons called Pulverisers start attacking everyone. As each is destroyed, the AI behind them makes a better model. Eventually, it would produce a Pulveriser that would simply be unstoppable. Canonically, it nearly does but is stopped.
100% the game and you get a what if positing the AI got one final model out before being broken. You get to fight it. It is absolutely bonkers OP. (Beating it demands a good build, great skills, AND luck.)
@@Sorain1 thanks for clarifying ^^.
I am pretty sure one could replicate my result. If anyone does, pls. share your results.
Its so nice to finally see these games covered with some unbiased competency. Can't wait to see where it goes from here!
Silent Line was not only my first AC, it’s actually the only AC I’ve ever played. Had no idea I played through and beat (barely) the hardest game in the franchise when I was 14😂. To this day it’s one of the most challenging and rewarding games I’ve ever playedz
I came for the armored core reviews, I stayed for the random use of Halo announcer "Betrayal"
This is one of the best AC channels on TH-cam. I'm sure more people are going to catch on. Thank you for your amazing work.
I played Last Raven as my first AC game so it was a huge shock to me to see the control layout of the older games.
Since AC3 (currently playing through SL), I remapped strafing to dpad, turning and camera up/down to the face buttons meanwhile I had left and right firing, boost, and weapon swap controls lifted from LR.
Silent Line has one of the best arena mode of all AC games even whwn compared to 4&5. I just love going back to it.
If anyone wants a good remapping scheme similar to modern dual stick shooter games you can map the right stick to the button pad (triangle, X, square, circle) using something like Ds4windows and then remap some of the buttons in the game itself.
Basically you map the button pad in-game for looking up (triangle) and down (x) and looking left (square) and right(circle).
Then have the left stick/directional pad as move forward and backwards and strafe left and right.
Then put your left and right shoulder buttons however you want them. For me I do firing weapons(R2), firing left-hand weapon(L2), switching weapons(L1), and boost(R1).
It works REALLY good if you are interested in trying the games but the regular controls seem hard to master. Gives you much more control over your mech and feels fairly natural after years of dual stick fps games!
i like your monotone delivery, and even though that hasn't changed, this video shows significantly higher quality than the last. it is to your previous ac video what the last line was to master of arena, if you will
I had an AC build specific to cheesing levels.
Ultra light frame, longest range radar, shoulder mounted hover jets, balanced to gain energy while hover jets on, dual snipers.
Basically I would fly straight up until my energy almost bottomed out and then turn on hover jets. Slowly gain energy back while hover jets are on then fly up again. Rinse repeat until you are high enough enemies cant target you. Lock in hover jets and fly around the top on the map sniping everything.
It’s not cheating, it’s strategy.
I fixed the controls on emulator by changing my right stick inputs to represent the turning directions at the level of the emulator, rather than in the actual game. For example, Right Stick Y Axis + on my Xbox controller just represents L2. Put turning on the right stick too, and strafing on the left stick. Don't touch the in game button binds. Then, you can move the face buttons to the back so that you can hold the controller normally.
Good news. You have another Armored Core to review in 2023!
After playing them all over the past two or so weeks i can also agree, this is my favorite. Controls do suck though, luckily I found a rebind set up that works for me. Essentially, turn your face buttons (triangle, square, circle, X) into your right analog stick by maping the look left, right, up and down to their respective positions. Re-bind strafing to the left and right stick (well, the D-pad but it effects the left stick too).
Then re-bind the bumpers and triggers as you'd like. For me, L2 Booster, L1 weapon swap, R1 Right hand, R2 left hand is what felt the best but you do whatever is best for you. It takes a few arena fights to get used too, but honestly, after awhile, it controls almost as smoothly as actually having the right analog stick to use. It's surprisingly smooth. So, for anyone wanting to play the older games (1 through silent line.) I highly suggest giving this control set-up a try.
It took me this video to realize Silent Line was a reimagined Master of Arena and I am angry it took me this long. This was my favorite AC of the PS2 era dude.
Just finished revisiting the old AC games. Played AC1, 2, 3, Silent Line, and Last Raven. Silent Line was definitely my favorite. I ended up making a giant spreadsheet to help me compare parts (I linked it on the gamefaqs forums). I'm a big fan of the offhand flamethrower and MG-1000/800 machineguns. Very sad when I tried to play Last Raven only to learn that they nerfed my beloved mech melter.
I've played from AC2 all the way to ACFA. This is my favorite from the PS2 era. ACFA was amazing for the next consoles
remapped the right buttons to camera control and bumpers as boost and attack + weapon swap. Works pretty well after getting used to
Very late to this one i am. But as always good work on this overview.
Simple control rebind solution: Just bind turning and looking around to the face buttons and use the shoulders for your weapons, AC4-style.
Emulating with custom stick controls mapped to the face buttons are vital.
This is the Armored Core game I replayed the most. Hits me right in the nostalgia.
S-ranking every mission was a challenge I enjoyed thoroughly.
There were some tricks for training your AI. It matches how often you allow the enemy to lock on, how much time you spend on-target, average range, etc.
Playing normally, my AIs just wiggle in the middle of the enemy's gunsight, which is terrible if against human players that know how to force hits... but there's a tank arena enemy equipped with nothing but howitzers and flamethrowers. Fighting that for training will let you establish insane parameters for evading lockboxes and specify exactly the distance you want to attack at. I was showing off my Bazooka / Spread Howitzer reverse joint to some folks at a meet in the day and everyone's mind was blown by how hard it was to get a handle on.
Lol I'd love to try and make an armored core TAS bot.
I remember doing that. Did that fight really freaking often to re-enforce "NO LOCK ONS!" and eventually I had an AC that was capable of solo'ing pretty much anyone in the arena... It actually started beating me more often than I beat it when I was doing test matches against it.
Love the videos, I’m really looking forward to seeing ARMOURED core 4 answers and verdict day videos. I really enjoy AC and am surprised it does not have that much content, and your reviews gave me lots of new information. Like human+ I was just playing them as a human xD
There's nothing like the sounds of a heavy AC walking and energy weapons 🥰such nostalgia.
Been thoroughly enjoying the reviews!! Always a big fan of how you do a good job synopsizing the story while actually showing footage of it as well. Hearing you talk about it AND seeing you play it just really works well for this series, I think. Hoping we get a current gen Armored Core game soon.
Man I loved the AI feature. I wish it would make a return.
I remember making my own AI arena gauntlet. My friends and I would make super hard arenas and then we would try and battle each other's AI.
Those were the good old days
thanks for giving us an inside look on the armored core series. ive been really gettng into the from software games from bloodborne and the more recent games and im hyping up fires of rubicon. cant wait to play it and these videos are only adding to the hype. keep up the good work my man cheers from Brazil
I remember making an energy neutral heavy biped build that basically devoured the arena. Chose the shield with the best balance of coverage and defense and the energy shield extensions, which I'd pulse as damage came in. Four large missiles couldn't even drop my AP below 2/3. And thanks to having burst missiles and the high ammo heat machine gun (plus a mag extender), I had enough ammo to kill even the heaviest AC...and I did it all while standing still. It was dumb and hilarious.
I'm aware stacking defence is crazy in this game... like enemies can run out of ammo hitting you lol
No other mecha game comes anywhere close to the AC games, let alone AC:SL. Great vid.
One thing I enjoyed about this video a lot was how you really let the game show off its best moments by itself. No commentary, just a quiet stretch of a great moment in the game. Its a bold move because that's not the sort of thing that's usually very successful on youtube, but I appreciated it.
This is why control mapping in Emulators is SO good. I can make it so that I have full thumbsticks for turning and movement and everything setup in a way that its perfect.
In the actual game sure, it sucks, but control mapping through emulators will always be welcomed for these titles.
Ahhh Silent Line, probably my favorite AC game out the series.
Good content as always and welcome back!
Been going through the series again very recently. I've been playing the games pretty much in sync with these videos coming out, funny enough. Just started Silent Line two days ago and I'm glad to hear I'm not the only one who finds using the offhand weapons in conjunction with your main ones to be a bit of a headache.
This is the first psp game I've ever played, didn't finished when I was a kid and finished AC3 first, didn't know about OP intensify at that time, but I just import my AC3 save to silent line and decided to finish it, I even copy the mech in the opening "fracture".
The biggest thing to get right in the early AC games was the controls. You had to map your legs to the face buttons and map your camera to the d-pad. Boost went to R1 or L1 depending on your preference. With that it acts like a dual stick controller just without a stick.
Me and a buddy were deep into this game over a summer back in the day and we sunk a ton of time into our AI characters and would fight each others. I ended up being shocked at how effective mine became. He was non stop airborne and would stay on top of you hammering you with a machine gun. I remember he achieved some impressive feats. I think I had him fight two Shades while I stayed clear with those lock on jammer extensions and he won. I probably still have him saved somewhere.
Maybe From can hire me to make AI for them.
The highest tier tank treads in this game are actually surprisingly fast. If you combo them with a RAY body you can load up two back chain guns, a KARASAWA and a left hand rifle and just strafe spam everything in the game. Cleared out most the arena and all the B and A rank dudes like this.
The issue of the stick not being able to be rebound is understandably a bit suck, but most people are probably going to be experiencing the game through an emulator where hopefully that will be less of a problem.
I came from Ninebreaker as my re-introduction to the series. Silent Line were some of the few last games from the series that I managed to find a copy of and the control scheme really threw me for a loop. But my workaround was to map all the camera control to the PS2 face buttons, Circle is for looking right, Square is for looking left and so on. This allowed me to play the game nearly the same as if I were playing in Last Raven.
That music is so good in the intro
[homer pointing at bart] hardest game in the series SO FAR
im watching this whole series and so far it is really great, but i have to take the time to thank you for putting the full intro of each game. this is something ive never seen another retrospective series do but I think it really helps a lot to set the tone for someone who never played these games back in the day
DAMN!!! Another Silent Line fan. This game was the true epitome of Armored Core games. Out of all the Armored Core games Silent Line was the truly best one.
Silent Line was the last AC I played for until For Answer, and after looking at was was in between those I don't feel like I missed much.
Excellent review! Silent Line is one of my favorite entries in the series. The soundtrack was damn near perfect.
well since you asked i want to say i want more amored core, could also be cool to see you talking about lost planet and dragons dogma :)
Rebinding the controls to the following helped a lot:
Left stick to moving fore/aft/left/right, right face buttons for looking up/dn/left/right, L1 for boost, R1 for change weapon, L2 for Larm fire and R2 for Rarm fire.
Pretty close to what you'd expect from a modern game, but it has some downsides like not being able to ditch as easily.
Loving this series of Armored Core retrospectives. I remember playing 3 and 4/For Answer back in the day, it’s been great binging your videos and learning about the games I’ve missed out on. I’m looking forward to future AC content from you. Keep up the good work!
I always loved this particular installment of AC(have played all main stream consoles and Daemon X Machina but no hand held games). seemed to have some of the best parts and weapons. The Arena was easy cheese if you knew a few things about the AI.
Just finished it today and i love silent line, i can see how many of the fans of the series love this entry along with 3
Very high quality youtube channel. We will be watching your career with great interest, raven.
Silent line was the first ac game I remember where I can sometimes recruit ai into missions which I wished it was used more often
I have been binge playing AC games on emulator since january this year. So far, I've been able to 100% complete AC2, AC3, ACSL, and now I am working trough Nexus. My experience so far, playing with the benefits of GameFAQ guides and savestates, Silent Line has been the hardest to complete, and it mostly boilds down to the requirement to S rank every single mission to get that final part and achieve 100% completion.
Nexus in comparison doesn't have mission ranks, so evading damage is much less of a concern, which in turn makes the games less punishing to play. Also, the game is very generous with its mission rewards, so it is very hard to go bankrupt, even using solid amo weapns only.
So far, I've completed Disk 1 of Nexus and i found it much easier than Silent Line.
The controls are really backwards, however, playing on emulator allowed me to work around the dual weilding issue by binding both square and circle to a single button on my controller.
Overall, I really enjoyed playing SL the most so far. It's very hard to play, but very fullfilling to complete.
One of the main reasons I enjoy it on the psvita. I am able to assign my control scheme as follows: RS to control the directional pad, and assign look controls to the directional pad while movement is with LS, boost is the left bumper, and main fire is right bumper, X being offhand/interact and triangle as switch weapons. o as overbooked ability and Square as the core ability. If I need any other functions like camera reset or anything like that, I have touch pad and touchscreen functions. I found it to be a very enjoyable scheme for AC3, Silent Line, and Last Raven on a platform that I can take with me to enjoy on my lunch breaks at work.
Dual wielding the 3shot was what I remember being a TON of fun in this game. OP-Intensify with the Karasawa was just a blast, though. I never used the claw grip and crushed this game. Best in the series.
Edit: The military base mission! That was my jam. I played the crap out of that mission!
I'm gonna go ahead n say it- remapping left and right strafe to l1 and r1, best move. Make left stick into your camera and move your left n right firing buttons together, like square and triangle. X for jump still, circle to switch weapons.
If you can make yourself use 2 fingers on the bumper, there's no need to claw grip. Plus X and the top bumper can be pressed simultaneously much easier than a stick input plus a button input, as there's no "neutral to full tilt" zone, enabling left and right jump dodging to be ON POINT, like you're wavedashing in melee it's sooooo smooth.
What's next? Old thief, lost planet 2, or dragons dogma?
Lost Planet 2 sounds good
Lost planet!
Lost Planet 2 would be cool.
I love me some Thief nostalgia, but DD is also fantastic
Thief has enough videos - Lost Planet deserves some attention.
I was kinda on the fence about getting Silent Line, since I'd been burned by some of the branching sequels of the series so far, but after seeing this, I'm really hoping I can finally get a copy so I can play it myself. Thanks for the in-depth coverage.
I got super excited when I got the notification about this video, I'm sad about how long it took for me to find time to actually watch it but it's been well worth the wait. This is an excellent summary of the best game of the 3rd AC generation. I myself would rate Silent Line in my top 3 favorite games of the franchise. As I've already stated in the comments of a previous video, For Answer is my favorite game in the series, It goes in at number 1. Master of Arena was my introduction to the franchise, it is the most nostalgic game for me and also hits into my top 3 for that reason. sneaking in right between those 2 lofty titles at number 2 for me would have to be Silent Line. The customizability had reached an all-time high, the story was reasonably engaging as a platform for giant mecha action, and the arena was one of the best in the series. Regarding upcoming Nexus review, I do remember the game fondly but I can't say I spent a lot of time with it so I'm looking forward to the refresher. As before, I'm really looking forward to when you reach the 4th generation for these reviews, but you can bet I'll be here for all the ones in between and thinking about it.. I'm really quite curious as to what you're gonna say about Formula Front. Lots to look forward to!
I'm going to do formula front after the series (nexus, last raven, for answer vday) I never played it and sadly I think ps2 is only in Japanese which means I need to play it on PSP. I've never played it before but I find it interesting
Oh, and about trying Thief. I absolutely recommend the first one. I've been playing through the first one, and it's quite good. I do recommend watching Mandalore Gaming's video on it, if only because it has easy links to the TFix mod, which does a good job of fiing up the game. Definitly play the GOG version if you can, as the Steam Version hasn't been updated for newer operating systems and hardware, and runs weird.
Just beat Silent Line trying to beat every AC game before 6 comes out. Great review gonna watch all of them
Absolutely my favorite AC as well! Thank you for this trip down memory lane and FROMSOFT JUST MAKE ANOTHER AC ALREADY NOW IS THE TIME
I get the gripe with controls. However, I used to get easy wins over friends in vs. mode. lmao.
Lost Planet 2 is such an amazing game, I still play it to this date, I also cant wait to see your take on the last 4 main AC games.
"Lapse of Time" is by far probably the best soundtrack for me in the franchise.. the atmospheric, somewhat foreboding sense of finality it gives is so good
Glad I caught this video again!
Silent Line was a fantastic entry imo, but boy getting all those parts was a chore. I am an Op-I Guilty user but this game just let you run wild if you really wanted while STILL giving a strong challenge to and I truly appreciate. I too developted my own claw as well and that carried over to PSP using lol
i remapped my controls . this made the game much easier
I'm a Tax Consultant but i'm a gamer through and through. I've just been binge watching these Armored Core Vids!
Ddidn't expect the game to feel so much better than 3, you can boost a lot more now. The missions, secondary objectives and new parts are pretty fun so far.
Silent line was my introduction to the series and the controls combined with the difficulty made for a very frustrating experience which was compensated for 10 times over by the AC building which is unmatched to this day. the two new arena maps are my favorite arenas of the ps2 games and the hard spike in arena combatants skill made for a nice ramping up of skill and AC setup, even if some of them cheated their aiming to the point it looks like they're playing with a mouse and keyboard when you watch the replay.
Also holy shit I had no idea there were that may bonus parts in the game, time to go back and find some. Fantastic video.
Love SL it's also my favorite in the whole series (close 2nd being part 3)...I'm surprised you said this game was the hardest in the series...It's a tough game especially with some of the requirements to get certain weapons but Last Raven was the hardest in the series...SL was the peak of the AC game series...Nexus wasn't that good and Last Raven was just a harder Nexus...AC3 and A3SL are the best AC games to date...side note """"YES TO DRAGONS DOGMA""" it's my fav game literally of all time.
great vid, great game, great birthday surprise. Silent line is also my favorite i never found it difficult, but I'm a machine gun main lol
Happy birthday! Glad I could make a video on our favorite game in the series
Love this series! You do an amazing job covering all the different entries. I’m excited to see your video on Verdict Day….one day
I've yet to play v day but I'm excited to when the time comes. I played 5 the first month of release but quit after seeing the same few builds over and over. I'm sure vday will be better but I sadly have no idea how the multiplayer would compare to 5
@@aboveaveragegaming6120 V Day was the best in the series imo (I've played all of the entries AC2 and up, except for the PS1 entries).
V Day's online play was really awesome. They had a Chromehounds like world map where different clans would battle for key positions, mostly through large arena type battles against other players or (if no players respond to the attack) P v E. You could customize your area defenses for the P v E situations to make it harder on invaders. The immersion was amazing because of that. My adrenaline would pump whenever I received the alert of an incursion of an enemy player.
The gameplay was similar to 5, being a cross between 4/4A and the older entries. Sniping in V Day was so satisfying (you manually aim with a scope and everything). AI programming came back in that entry, except in V Day you could manually program your AI to behave the way you wanted them too (with various degrees of complexity based on unlocks).
I'm not sure if the experience will be the same without the online play aspect, like you said. Because without online play V Day is just a better version of AC5.
My memory may be fuzzy on the details, so forgive me if I'm mashing different entries together.
I'm eager to hear you opinion once you get around to playing it!
So im playing these on the steam deck right now and there are community controller mappings, even for these older games when emulating. There was one called "armored core for sane people" haha
But I've been using this control setup and it's been almost game breaking
L2 boost, r2 fire main weapon, r1 left hand weapon, top face button swirch weapon. Right face button is intereact and also left weapon. Left and right stick normal modern stick controls. Its been a blast and so amazing not using the ye ancient stock controls
I always love AC intros, master of arena was my first AC. Silent line always felt too short for me, almost like a modern day DLC
Maybe I imagined it being too short, I might have to dig it up from my collection and play it again
"Much time has passed since the destruction of the controller" Of course that line is in a Fromsoft game.
Honestly after getting back into AC3 to hype myself for AC6, playing with an emulator really bumps the games fun factor up, being able to assign the face buttons(X, O, etc) to looking around and assigning the left stick in emulator to'em makes it control easier, id highly reccomend it for anyone who wants to get into armored core.
Yay more AC content! I am at the edge of my seat for your take on ac4a. Also I'd love to see thief content in your style!
There were kids at tournaments that absolutely played with an upside down controller
This is the most memorable for me, because I think I put the most time into it.
I remember it being very difficult, especially with the fact that you can just straight up get fired if you're an ass pilot.
And don't get me started on the soundtrack...
Couldn't wait for this episode on my 2nd favorite ac game (last raven is 1st)
Great video. Love this game, although I beat the normal arena I never complete the campaign, it's really hard.
I've been messing around with a key binding setup I prefer a lot over the default setup. Forward and Back to walk forward and back, Left and Right to strafe left strafe right. Triangle, Circle, Cross, Square I used for Look Up, Right, Down, and Left for kind of a faux dual analogue aim setup. R1 and L1 and Main and Off Weapon respectively with R2 for weapon switch and L2 for Boost.
Gives me a more modern intuitive aiming setup and the triggers give me instant access to every single important button, not hard to boost, move, aim, and be actively firing main and off hand. No weird grip or movement required. Kinda funny as well since it puts your attacks on triggers like a Souls game does. And if you're playing emulator, you can use emulator settings to map your right stick to your face buttons and actually be able to use your Right Stick cause why couldn't you FromSoft this was a PS2 game every controller had a right stick.
Hopefully this can unpretzel some fellow Raven fingers before AC 6 drops
Nice to see you back and another great well edited video about Armored Core. I usually tend to be on the fence on whether I like this or 3 more, the edge is definitely more in Silent Line's favor for me. It feels the most balanced in terms of difficulty, having a good mix of fairly easy missions and ball bustingly hard ones with a great soundtrack. Scrambling Film, Artificial Line, Silent Line, and a few others are some of my favorite songs in the series. Nexus is also one of my least favorite in the series. Its a good game that definitely has its perks like the ability to use the right stick for camera control and its soundtrack also has some nice tunes, but when compared to the others it has way too many issues that I don't vibe with like the reload mechanic which nerfs some weapons like the shotguns.
As for what to do a video on next. All of the options seem fine to me, especially Dragons Dogma, but if I had to choose I'd say Lost Planet 2. Keep on keeping on! Your videos are so good that I'd watch you talk about whatever.
Agree 100% on nexus. Thanks for the uplifting comment. Lost planet 2 is what I'm working on and im hoping it can be out by the end of the weekend.
Been enjoying armored core, but the controls make me glad I can play on an emulator so I can actually map the right stick
I've never got a copy of this game, and I'm regretting it dearly. I need another kick in the nards like I got from Last Raven.
I kinda liked the AI mech, but it never quite acted like I wanted. I had a full vertical missile build right down to the missile arm and missile extensions. It could sustain flight for the duration of most arena fights and won almost every arena battle. The problem is the AI wouldn't imitate my air time and hovering just within lock on range. It would periodically launch into space and fall back down, but at least it was trigger happy with those missiles. Mobius and nameless were tough, but me and my missile buddy won it after a couple attempts.
21:51 I love your deadpan delivery! Keep it up!
I'm surprised there was no B E T R A Y A L
Btw among three raven in controllers mission,there is cypress from previous ac 3 in the arena
For everyone I loved about Silent Line, I feel like it was actually one of the easiest games. Not that 3 was particularly hard with the exception of a few arena encounters and missions, but you're just so much more powerful in SL with all the new parts.
Duel wielding a machine and a shotgun just melted everything, the energy guage releasing extension meant you never had to stop boosting, and the secret fcs part by kisiragi gave you a massive lockbox with great range and lock speed. Op-I is the least necessary it's ever been.
There are a couple standout missions that are actually tough like 2nd to last one where you have to clear the factory and you get stuck in those rooms with the little shotgun wielding spider bots. Other than that though, most missions are very easy imo. The arena is an absolute push over compared to AC3 too. Silver Fox might be the only opponent I actually struggled with.
Compare this to something like Master of Arena, Another Age, or Last Raven and they're not even in the same category of difficulty.
That said, the part variety and excellent level design easily push it into my top 3 of all AC games. It just does so much right that I can't fault it for being easy. It's a blast to play from start to finish and you perfectly highlighted a lot of the reasons why.