Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon

[Lyric Suite]

Fucking hell, this one was frikking amazing. I did it with regular Melander C3 mech, with Zimmerman, sword and Songbird on one shoulder and those 10 lock on rockets on the other and it felt amazing. Barely managed to kill Michigan and finished the mission with like 10 HP left lmao but i pulled through. One of the most fun missions i played so far. I even ended up liking the Redguns banter. On the Wallclimb mission i felt they were cringy and stupid in a bad way, reminded me of the Starship Troopers sequels, but here they definitely stepped into so bad its good territory. I mean Michigan himself was still kinda cringy but i actually chuckled at the stupid MTs. "Sir..., i'm a useless maggor, sir!". It's even funnier as i think the devs were actually trying to be serious and not funny lmao.

Anyway, recorded the ubiquitous S rank exploit, but predictably i had to default to the double Needles set up to pull it off:



ACs are just too spazzy and Michigan was spazzier than usual. Had to lure him inside a tunnel to make him stop flying around like a coked up insect making me waste precious seconds. I had that OS chip that makes you do AOE damage which also helped. The idea was to actually use it when the little MTs with the shield all bunched together to save ammo (i did this on the A rank attempt) but Michigan just wouldn't stop still for even a millisecond so i blew it on him to try to get rid of him as fast as i could, which worked out in the end.

Definitely one of the best missions in the game for me, and one i'll probably replay with different set ups later on.

 

[TedNugent]

I finished NG++ yesterday and I just wanted to say - one thing I really appreciate about this game is that there are a large number of new missions or modifications to existing missions in NG+ and NG++ warranting the additional playthroughs. And the additional endings/branching paths aren't just cutscenes, they are sequences of full missions at the branching point at the end.

NG+ and NG++ were a blast.

I'm glad it wasn't a case where they just expected you to replay the game with more enemy stats or to go find hidden objects, it actually legitimately felt like you're not done with the game until you beat it three times, and here's a different enough experience to make it enjoyable.

Minor quibble though, I was kinda annoyed when I found that the last three NG++ arena matches were still locked at the start when I went into my fourth playthrough. I was using these arena matches to test builds. Although, it's still the case that none of the arena matches were challenging at all.

 

[Lyric Suite]

So i guess even this game has to have its Malenia lmao:



Fucking hell i hate spazzy shit and this was the spazziest of them all. I only practiced the second phase a few times so i didn't even bother trying to dodge his shit, i just took every opportunity to wreck him and Rocky Balboaed my way to victory. I spent like 30+ minutes on this mission looking under every nook and cranny to find logs and parts so i just wanted to get it over with this thing, and what does the game do? Instead of allowing me to quit and save, it forces me to do another mission. Like, fuck you. I just alt-tabbed the damn thing and i'll do the follow up later. I mean the hell is this shit.

BTW, i have a feeling this is going to be complete hell to S rank. I will of course default to the Stun Needles again, because fuck it.

 

[TedNugent]

Fucking hell i hate spazzy shit and this was the spazziest of them all

Nope, wait til you do the "bad" ending.

Ongbal has the formula again. With only 2 weapons. 3 hits for each phase, good night. Note the melee spec arms.

 

[Lyric Suite]

I'm not watching his videos yet. I want to figure it out on my own first.

Of course, like i said, once you go all out on OP gear this game is trivial to break. I mean, check it out, wasn't actually that hard to S rank this mission using the Needles as usual:

 

[Multidirectional]

So IBIS made me finally try out them tank legs, didn't even do the training mission for them until this. I put on tankier ones first and still managed to die because I'm very good, so next try I put on faster ones and do him without trouble. I'm still sticking to mostly tetras for this playthough because I like hovering over stuff like a boss. Probably going to go bipeds or reverse joints for NG+.

 

[Lyric Suite]

Almost there:



Two more missions and i'm done. I'll take a break before doing NG+, stretching the singleplayer a bit to milk as much out of my money as i can, especially since it doesn't seem like this is a game one is going to replay much after finishing NG++ (can't even start a new save, which boggles my fucking mind lmao).

Rusty was a bitch to kill BTW i think i'll have to change my set up a bit he is the only AC so far i wasn't able to trivilize with the Stun Needles. The part with the ships is super easy but it's so long it's going to get frustrating getting an S rank on this one. We'll see later today if i got time or tomorrow.

 

[gabel]

Play Sekiro, man!

 

[Lyric Suite]

Play Sekiro, man!

Gotta see how the mood goes first. I was actually waiting for my work load to lighten up a bit. We are fixing an house which i plan to move in to and between that and work i got zero time to play, which is why it is taking me a trillion years to finish those games. I hope i can get a bit more free time soon as we are almost done. It took me so long to finish this damn game i forgot what the early part of the story line was now that i'm at the end of it lmao. That's another reason i wanna wait until i can get more time so when i do NG+ and NG++ i can follow the story more naturally.

Anyway, one mission left!

 

[Lyric Suite]

Lmao, stupid bitch had no idea who she was messing with:



And thus it is done. Having obliterated everything and everybody, 621 is gonna chill on a tropical island somewhere for a while. Nothing like morally justified genocide.

 

[Lyric Suite]

As predicted, took me less than minute to S rank the final mission, and i'm now all set for NG+:



I tried my best to S rank every mission with the gear available only up to that mission but some just seemed impossible without Stun Needles (specifically Attack the Refueling Base and Eliminate "Honest" Brute"), not because they were particularly hard but because even if you play well and take little damage, ACs can take a long time to kill purely due to how spazzy they are and timing is really crucial for ass ranking so i had to relent for those two, not the least because Stun Needles felt overpowered even on missions AFTER the Ice Worm so whatever.

Right now i'd rank this game an 8/10 by FromSoft standards and a 9/10 by regular industry standards (no game deserves 10/10 though modern AAA standards are so abysmal i'd be tempted to give it to this game lmao). There are some flaws to be sure. Some lack of options compared to the previous games, a lack of a debt system and thus a lack of "tension" when doing missions the first time (in AC1 and AC2, most missions felt like Intercept the Reduguns just because you couldn't afford to waste resources which made even the weak enemies feel like a problem. Also, missions were short in previous AC games precisely because of the debt system all though to be fair i found the lenght of Armored Core 6 to be in the main pretty good, and i haven't even unlocked the alternative missions yet), and the game could have afforted to be a little harder. Presentation was good despite running on an old engine (FromSoft is all about art direction rather than graphics anyway), but i found the music to lack presence. It's not bad in itself, quite tecnical actually with all those wierd harmonies etc but it felt something that would have been more appropriate for an atmospheric sci-fi RPG or something. In a game where everything is blowing up all the time it just got buried under the avalanche of sound effects and from what i've seen there were some real bangers in the old AC games:



Best thing for me i think it's just the gameplay. It was just so damn polished that the game felt addicting and even now i actually want to jump on NG+ even though i know i'd better that i take a break.

As for the story, it was ok i guess. Typical ghost in the machine crap mixed with typical grim dark Armored Core tropes (corporations bad, greed good etc). Compared to Souls there's not that much in it that was cryptic or hard to grasp. I think in the main the story was nondescript but also neither stupid nor cringy so i guess that's a plus. Voice acting was mostly good, and eventually i even came around coming to terms with Balem. Yes the way they talk its ridicolous but at least they were different from the other factions. I can see this game could have run into a problem where you wouldn't have been able to tell which one was which with all those endless briefings that all look the same so Balem being so outlandish made them stand out at least.

I think a DLC could potentionally fix a lot of the problems with this game, by adding more missions that are super hard and intense, add some more unique arsenal, and possibly add an hard mode as well. We'll see if FromSoft can play their cards right or if they are just going to abandon this like they did Sekiro for whatever reason lmao.

All in all it was a good game and i'm glad they released it. At least it wasn't Souls or a variation it. I think even FromSoft themselves probably realized they can't just pump out Souls games for the rest of eternity.

 

[Modron]

Who moved this out of jrpg?

 

[Lyric Suite]

Who moved this out of jrpg?

It was never there dog.

 

[Mojobeard]

i actually want to jump on NG+ even though i know i'd better that i take a break.

As for the story, it was ok i guess.

Play those NG+s first, then talk about the story.

 

[Lyric Suite]

So i already ass ranked this with the same set up i did it the first time, but decided to redo it with a slightly different set up:



Pissed me off on my other video because i was trying to kick her then get a kill shot but the controller decided not to fire the kick, so i stood there like an idiot for a couple of seconds. This time i made the kick the kill shot lmao. Hell yeah, bitch.

 

[Lyric Suite]

Alright. I recorded this while i was experimenting to see if it was possible to use melee on IBIS. It sort of isn't aside for a few choice instances where it's possible to get some swipes in . I wasn't gonna upload this as i already have two videos on this thing but i figured it was kinda interesting:



Should have probably used pulse armor at the start of the second phase but too late now. I really wish i could have thought this thing before the nerf though. Makes me sad.

 

[lightbane]

Finally tried this. My aging computer struggles a bit, but it's more or less fluid. The first boss, the fucking helicopter, as expected exposes the camera having trouble tracking enemies. I know I can sword it to death, but sometimes hits don't seem to connect when they should, and I believe you should be able to destroy the missile launchers but it doesn't seem to be possible, or perhaps it is, I'll experiment further. Still, it indeed feels very Dark Souls-y compared to previous AC games.

 

[jaekl]

Finally tried this. My aging computer struggles a bit, but it's more or less fluid. The first boss, the fucking helicopter, as expected exposes the camera having trouble tracking enemies. I know I can sword it to death, but sometimes hits don't seem to connect when they should, and I believe you should be able to destroy the missile launchers but it doesn't seem to be possible, or perhaps it is, I'll experiment further. Still, it indeed feels very Dark Souls-y compared to previous AC games.

Don't worry about that part, it has nothing to do with this game, just bear with the retardation and then Armored Core 6 will start afterwards. I believe it's there to kill youtube and twitch sensations so they make a dumb face and yell at the camera, which is part of the marketing strategy for video games in these troubled times. Either that or they put a different game in the prologue accidentally and are too embarrassed to admit it.

 

[Lyric Suite]

Finally tried this. My aging computer struggles a bit, but it's more or less fluid. The first boss, the fucking helicopter, as expected exposes the camera having trouble tracking enemies. I know I can sword it to death, but sometimes hits don't seem to connect when they should, and I believe you should be able to destroy the missile launchers but it doesn't seem to be possible, or perhaps it is, I'll experiment further. Still, it indeed feels very Dark Souls-y compared to previous AC games.

Souls stuff is overestated. There's like half a dozen boss fights or something like that with telegraphed attacks compared to a gazillion of AC encounters, and some of those bosses feel like glorified ACs to begin with (Ibis, Ayre etc).

Helicopter is also the jankiest one of all, because they shoved it in a tiny arena and it has a tendency to go out of bounds. There's a mission later on where you meet the thing again in a wide open space and i wouldn't be shocked if it wasn't originally designed for this mission first. In the mission in question you have ACs shooting long distance lasers at you while the helicopter just makes long dinstance sweeps and it feels its movements make more sense in a much wider area.

I heard some people say some of the other bosses can go out of bounds but i never saw it. Only tutorial boss did that to me.

 

[Mojobeard]

The helicopter is there to make you realize to use your entire arsenal, and to learn how to watch your energy usage when boosting and hovering, and stagger meter, and when to heal, why your shots aren't doing damage from far away, etc. EVERYTHING.
It probably also makes you think of things like "I'd like to be tankier, I'd like just one more of X type of weapon, I'd like to be faster, I'd like to hover for a longer time".
Like Gascoigne, like Gundyr, etc, they're an introduction to the speed and mechanics of the game. It's a formula that works.

Is it jankier than I'd like? Sure, but it's genius to have that boss there.

 

[jaekl]

Uhhh if it's so genius how come I still won without taking any of those lessons??

 

[jaekl]

Oh shoot one quick follow up q: why did they add the tutorial missions right after the genius helicopter to re-teach us what we already learned because it was so genius?

 

[Mojobeard]

Oh shoot one quick follow up q: why did they add the tutorial missions right after the genius helicopter to re-teach us what we already learned because it was so genius?

They were made just for you specifically

 

[jaekl]

Oh shoot one quick follow up q: why did they add the tutorial missions right after the genius helicopter to re-teach us what we already learned because it was so genius?

They were made just for you specifically

Well they were useless to me, just like the helicopter, I went through those with one hand while texting on my phone with the other. It's an insult to even try and teach something so basic to a seasoned gamer such as myself, you'd think these "geniuses" would know that by now.

 

[Mojobeard]

Was that an attempt at humor?