From it's intro cutscene alone, Last Raven is a game that stands out from the rest of the series up to that point, with its gritty tone and for the first time ever, appearance of human beings outside of the mechs. I went into the game with high expectations, as I heard that Last Raven is as good as it is hard, and this cutscene immediately hooked me up.

Last Raven, in more than one way, feel like both the culmination and a goodbye to the "old gen" AC games. The game adds a part breaking mechanic (each AC part can now be damaged which reduces their efficiency, or straight up destroyed which forces you to buy them again), rebalances stuff from Nexus/Nine Breaker, and the arena’s back, but on the surface, it's just like every single game (minus Formula Front and I guess Nine Breaker) since Armored Core 1 released: the same as the previous game with a few additions. But saying Last Raven is just like the previous games is a huge understatement, because while there's a lot that's different outside of the "base gameplay" that it makes the game stand out above every other ones.

Firstly, the story. After the ending of Nexus, corporations have all merged into Alliance, and the Ravens have split between serving Alliance, trying to be standalone warlords, or joining Vertex, which is basically the remnant of the Raven's Nest that didn't join Alliance. War ensued, and Vertex put an ultimatum: in 24 hours, they'll launch a massive attack.
The game's entire structure revolves around those 24 hours. Each time you clear a mission, time marches forward. No matter who you choose to help, doom seems inevitable, and the game really plays off that atmosphere really well. The garage music evolves as time is running out, you can check the status of the other Ravens and slowly but surely see that everyone is dying, the doomsday scenario of this game is great. Not only that, but who you choose to help matters! The game has multiple routes, depending on who you decide to side with. I only played one of the routes so far but from what i've heard, depending on the route you take, motivations for some characters will be revealed whereas they're a mystery in the other routes, which is really good both for worldbuilding but also replayability.

The progression of the game thanks to the doomsday scenario is also greatly improved. For once, you’re not just playing as a mercenary, you’re playing as a mercenary in a world that’s running out of time. Meaning not only the number of missions on each route is way lower than usual (for most of the game the clock advances by 2 hours for each mission), but they also all feel more interesting than in previous games. Sure, you still have some missions that just require you to kill a dozen MTs and you’re done, but this time the context of the story makes it feel more involved.
But the one big thing that makes the missions stand out is the difficulty. There are easy missions, of course, but every mission that requires you to fight an AC is on a whole different level. Simply put, ACs in this game are straight up cheating. They all have human plus/OP-INTENSIFY, which you can’t have, and their AI is NOT playing games, they’re fighting for their life as much as you are! I think i even read somewhere that their pattern will adapt to what kind of build you have, tho it may just be internet rumors. No matter if it’s real or not tho, the difficulty of those boss fights is real, and you will have to adapt. While it’s still possible to find a build that suits your playstyle for most of the game, Last Raven is by far the one game that will require you to modify your build the most, because some archetypes are a nightmare to use against some bosses. It feels like the game tends to emphasize being fast and flying around, which sucked for me since i tend to be a quad legs user, but you can still just use a good old tank…. In most situations, at least.

I only finished one route for now, but even then, Last Raven is by far the best the series has to offer, at least so far (i still have to play gen 4-6). It’s not easy to recommend to someone who never played one of the old gen AC game due to how brutal it can and will be, but if someone’s already into the series, it’s a must play. While it may sometimes be frustrating and unfair, finally managing to beat whatever boss is giving you trouble has never felt that good, which is just like another series From Software is known to have worked on


UPDATE: after clearing all the routes i'm upping this game from 4.5 to 5 stars. It's GOOD on a single route, it gets even more awesome once you start getting into the hardest routes. I'm still shaking from the Zinaida fight it's so peak

Earlier (as of writing this review), I stepped out to get lunch. The weather was good, I was hungry, and I thought there was no better time. While out on my walk and on my way, I just stopped, paused for a few seconds, and all I thought to myself was “fuck, Last Raven is a good ass game”.

What stood out to me about Last Raven was a thought of “wow, this is it”. When I played Armored Core 1, the game left a deep impression on me. Not because it was some sort of paragon of polish and game design that had me shitting myself at how good it was, but because of the potential it offered with its incredibly rock-steady design ethos. Games prior to LR were solid successors for sure, but their improvements were rather incremental in my opinion, and never in the way I had envisioned a perfect Armored Core game to be. What makes Last Raven so great is that it is THAT game, the platonic ideal of an Armored Core game that gazed up into the heavens and perfected the Armored Core formula.

Everything characteristic of Armored Core is damn near perfect here. The controls are tight and responsive, the sheer variety of customizations makes my head spin, the level design (while repetitive) is fantastic and never overstay their welcome, AC on AC combat is exhilarating, the mission pathing system has its weaknesses but is also BY FAR the most varied and dynamic in the series with how much variety and surprises it holds, and the story is perhaps the best in Armored Core’s oldgen, perhaps in all of Armored Core.

As for Last Raven’s challenge and its reputation as being the hardest Fromsoftware game: I think that, everything considered, Last Raven should be an unfair game. The enemy ACs are equipped with H+, out DPS-ing you and flying away with their high energy reserves, not to mention the several occasions where they come either subsequently or just straight up ganking your ass. I think the reason Last Raven can get away with tomfoolery of this level and something like say, Dark Souls, can’t, is the inherent design philosophy that characterizes the ethos of the Armored Core franchise. Since LR is the perfect Armored Core game, it means all the aspects of challenge we’d typically associate with Armored Core are tuned to the nth degree. Skill is demanded of you, yes, but as are AC building knowledge, resourcefulness, endurance, and situational awareness. I can’t really think of any challenge that I overcame with pure “git gud” grit alone. Each and every difficult mission demanded at least one of these major tenets of ACs design from me, and that’s what made overcoming them an insurmountable joy.

I think where Last Raven most fulfills the unwashed concepts of its predecessors is its mission pathing and the inclusion of multiple endings. This was something that VI left a lot to be desired when I had first played it, and while it was good to know that previous AC games had more complex and dynamic mission structures compared to 6th gen’s more streamlined approach, they never really went beyond with those systems on a narrative, or even mechanical level. For Answer was a net improvement, offering three distinct endings and a dynamic mission structure that requires a total of five playthroughs to get them all, but seeing what Last Raven had done with its structure, 4A is nothing in comparison.

Last Raven not only has six endings, which is only rivaled by Elden Ring in my Fromsoftware experience, but the game took me a whopping 5 or so semi-playthroughs to get everything, and that isn’t even accounting for how easy it is to screw up certain objectives and causing whole ass playthrough resets (which happened to me like twice). Luckily, playthroughs are about 12 missions on average and if you’re really efficient, take about an hour or two of your time to blast through a single one. Still, the variety in mission pathing and endings stand out to me as the most impressive change Last Raven makes to the AC formula, not to mention how surprisingly digestible it is, compared to say, AC3’s mission unlocks which can feel kinda random and unimpactful regardless if which corporations you choose to work for. I wish it was a little less tedious and I wish certain missions didn’t have to be constantly repeated just to unlock ONE mission over the course of one playthrough, though the game is short and the mission replays do encourage you to try different builds and approaches to see how fast you can clear them, which is certainly a good thing, I think.

Last Raven’s most impressive use of this dynamic mission pathing system is not in its gameplay (which honestly does get a bit tedious after a while), but its narrative. Prior to LR, narrative has never been a major focus for Armored Core. Select games like 2, 3, and Nexus definitely had more narrative than others, but their narratives felt more like backdrops if anything, Nexus’ ending was great and Klein was a solid antagonist, but it’s no MGS and that’s not what you should expect from this series. Last Raven, like many of its predecessors, is definitely a “gameplay-first, story-second” kind of game, but I was genuinely taken aback at just how much this narrative wound up resonating with me by the end. Excluding relativity to other AC games, I genuinely do believe Last Raven’s narrative stands on its own two feet as a damn great story that uses the medium to full effect.

Like with VI, which I had said in my review of that game here, even if I don’t love the endings on an individual level, I think each of them excelled at elevating the others by association. The 1st ending isn’t amazing on its own, but context from the 2nd ending enriches it, likewise with 3rd. Last Raven is much the same. Yeah the Vertex endings aren’t great, but knowing what Jack was up to in those endings greatly elevates the first Alliance ending (which is narratively the second best ending in my opinion).

STORY SPOILERS FROM THIS POINT ON. READ AT YOUR OWN DISCRETION.

Where the different routes shine most is definitely in how they elevate this game’s three central characters: Jack-O, Evangel, and most importantly: Zinaida. Two (or all, depending on who you ask) of them are returning characters from Nexus, and the continuity this game has from Nexus is always appreciated. In general I do love the continuity present in generation 3. Not all the games are made equal in terms of story or content, but each game, at least in some way, shape, or form, feels like an evolution of the previous one be it narratively or mechanically. The series had never been a character-focused one, and while a handful of characters in previous games like Klein, Stinger, Sumika, and Huster-One are certainly memorable, I wouldn’t call them masterfully written by any approximation. They exist as self-contained personalities/plot devices within their games, but are never more than that. I wouldn’t necessarily apply the "masterfully written" designation to the Last Raven trinity either (don't expect a Tolstoy or Dostoevsky or anything lmao), but I do think they are great characters in their own right that benefit a ton of Last Raven’s structure.


Jack-O probably benefits most from this multi-ending approach since he is the only one of these characters to appear in all of these routes in one way or another. I do regret doing his route first, because as powerful and climactic and his big moment was, I wish I had just an ilk more context on his motivations and what led him here in the first place, something that is explained in most of the other routes. Evangel’s two routes also substantiate him quite a bit. I think he’s easily the weakest character of the three, but getting to see different sides of him and how his motivations change drastically depending on which route you follow was really cool, not to mention he served as the eventual template for V.II and G5 in Fires of Rubicon, two of the series' best characters.

Zinaida’s a bit weird because, if you played the routes in the order I did, she doesn’t really have much presence until the indie routes, typically sending an ominous message about how you suck. Even between the two indie routes, you only really get to fight her in her ending, watching as she gets killed off by a Pulverizer (if only she kept the Micro Missiles, RIP). I think Director Dai Takemura’s additional context on her relation to Genobee is a cool bit of trivia that I think enhances her quite a bit, though where we see Zinaida truly shine is the final fight with her in “Destroy the Internecine”.

I could probably write a whole ass review on this fight alone and how fucking peak it is, but I’ll keep it short. That whole final stretch, from the moment you encounter Zinaida in the Internecine to the final shot of the Last Raven staring out into the sunset is one of my favorite moments in all of gaming. I legit got out of my chair and just thought to myself “this is real gaming”. Is the final fight with her the most complex, intricate, and varied bossfight in terms of moveset? No. Is the visual presentation and music a spectacle to behold? No (the music sucks lmao). Is the fight a completely fair fight? Everything considered, probably not, but that’s a hotly contested debate among many AC fans. Is this fight representative of everything I love, not only about Armored Core as a franchise, but about video games, be it as a medium of storytelling, a form of interactive entertainment, and an expression of art? Abso-fucking-lutely YES. When I think of the kind of unique experiences that games can offer as an artform, this fight is now one of the first things that will always pop up in my mind. One of the greatest fights ever crafted, peak gaming.

“I felt I finally reached what I'd been chasing... Raven... That title truly suits you..."

Last Raven is a monumental work of art and a crowning achievement of the medium. Like a lot of Fromsoftware’s catalog, it’s a bit of a shame that this game is buried under its own difficult reputation, as well as being a sequel to a divisive game in a niche series stuck on the PS2 and PSP. It is a more-than-fitting swansong (ravensong?) to the old generation of Armored Core and a fitting way to end my journey with these games. It’s also the most “not for everyone” game, I cannot emphasize that enough. If you are not as dick deep in these games as I am, or are not an absolute fucking idiot, I would never recommend this game (or series in its entirety) to anyone. It’s brutal, kinda silly, kinda wacky, a bit tedious, but as far as I’m concerned, it fucking slaps.

Na ja, "durchgespielt". Ich habe zwei der vielen Enden abgeschlossen und calle es hier fürs erste quits.
Aber meine Güte, was für ein Spiel.

Ich habe das Gefühl, Last Raven, ist und bleibt das "legendärste" Spiel der Reihe und wird innerhalb der nächsten Jahre viel mehr diskutiert werden als es jeder andere Teil zwischen Project Phantasma und Silent Line sein wird.
Hier stimmt so vieles sofort von Anfang an.

Das Intro? Oh yeah, erneut werden coole Mechs gezeigt. Doch diesmal liegt der Fokus nicht darauf wie toll sie sind, sondern auf der Zerstörung die sie hinterlassen. Eine Railgun wird gezeigt, ein Schuss fällt, und der Fokus liegt auf dem Schützen wie dieser erstmal durchatmet.
Doch dann, ein anderer AC, ein Kampf, heftige Verluste auf beiden Seiten, beide ringen ums Überleben... und am Ende ist nichts und niemand mehr übrig.
Dieses Intro ist so fucking fantastisch directed, und es gibt den ganzen Tone für das restliche Spiel an.

Die drei Corporations der Vorgänger haben sich zusammengeschlossen, während eine Rebellengruppe sie aufhalten möchte. Der Angriff beginnt in 24 Stunden, es sind noch 22 Ravens übrig, und was nun passiert liegt allein bei dir.

Es geht nicht mehr darum irgendeinen Bauarbeiter zu jagen, kleinere Aufstände zu unterbinden oder Wohngebäude zu schützen. Du bist kein einzelner Mercenary mehr, du bist einer der letzten Raven.
Alles ist so gut, das Setting, die Storyfetzen, die Einblendung wie viel Zeit noch verbleibt, wie die Musik mit fortlaufender Zeit immer finsterer wird...
Die Dinge die ich bei Teil 1 mal beschrieben hab? Wie man sich entscheiden muss zwischen Moral, Geld oder Herausforderung? Zum ersten mal seit Teil 1 fühlt sich das wichtig an. Wir haben branching Storypaths, verschiedene Enden die wohl erst später ein Gesamtbild ergeben, und eine Liste anderer Ravens die immer und immer kürzer wird. Es ist der Climax, und das spürt man.

Allerdings spiegelt sich diese Stimmung auch deeeeutlich im Schwierigkeitsgrad nieder. Last Raven ist das, mit Abstand, schwierigste Spiel bisher und das teilt es dir ohne Samthandschuhe sehr schnell mit. Direkt das erste Level was ich spielte, warf mich in einen Kampf mit einem AC den ich nicht mal verletzen konnte, bevor ich tot war.
Teilweise hockte ich über eine Stunde an manchen Kämpfen, versuchte sie wieder und wieder, schaute mir Taktiken und Tipps aus Guides an, probierte was neues, nur um sie dann nach zahlreichen Versuchen mit so 50 übrigen Armor Points abzuschließen.
Es ist gemein, so verdammt gemein. Vor jedem Kampf muss man seinen AC neu-konfigurieren, kein feindlicher Pilot ist wie der andere, und wenn ich zwei Missionen hintereinander mal problemlos durchkomme, ist das schon ein Wunder.
Last Raven hat keine steile Lernkurve, Last Raven ist ein Spiel für Leute die Armored Core perfektioniert haben.
Sogar die Arena startet verhältnismäßig schwierig und kostet dir zum ersten mal sogar Geld, falls du es nicht überleben solltest.
Zum Glück entfällt hier das Debt-System der Vorgänger, es würde dieses Spiel von unfassbar schwierig ins unspielbar-Territorium tragen - stattdessen kannst du jede Mission direkt ohne Strafe neustarten, oder gleich das ganze Spiel.
Sie wussten was für ein Spiel sie erschaffen haben.

Hier die obligatorische Erwähnung, dass dies das erste Spiel ist an dem Hidetaka Miyazaki als Planer involviert war. Und während er die Reihe mit den Nachfolgern noch in eine ganz andere Richtung bewegen sollte, schreiben sich die Dark Souls Witze im Falle von Last Raven ja schon von selbst.

Ich würde sagen, dass sie mir aber dennoch einen guten Tick übertreiben, da der Härtegrad zwar ideal zum Setting passt, es aber auch schwierig macht sich wirklich noch auf die Story zu konzentrieren.
Nachdem ich einen Boss nach dem 20ten mal nämlich endlich besiegt hab, hab ich längst vergessen was er am Anfang des Kampfes überhaupt gesagt hat. Und das reißt den interessantesten Aspekt des Spiels leider schon ein Stück runter.


Aber... ich glaub ich kann nicht anders. Ich war so oft so sauer auf dieses Spiel. Mein Gott, hab ich gebrüllt als ich einen Kampf mit 400AP gewann, nur um herauszufinden dass es dann noch weiterging. Als ich die Oberhand hatte, aber beim nach-oben-fliegen scheinbar das Level verlassen hab. Oder mich die Raketenbatterie vom Leviathan, trotz Deckung, volle Breitseite erwischte. Manchmal hasse ich dieses Spiel. Es IST mir einfach zu viel, ich glaub ich werde es nie komplett durchspielen können, ich bin an einem Punkt bei dem ich nicht mal mehr weiß ob ich jemals halbwegs kompetent in diesen Spielen war. Ich glaub ich sollte sie nochmal von Grund auf lernen um dieses Spiel irgendwann auch nur halbwegs meistern zu können

Aber Last Raven... ist amazing.



Edit: Wahnsinn. Einfach wahnsinn. Nachdem ich das hier geschrieben hatte, hatte ich für mich eigentlich abgeschlossen. Seitdem habe ich aber ein paar Videos gesehen die Builds vorschlagen, ich hab selbst noch rumexperimentiert, ich hab mich etwas an der Arena versucht, und immer wenn ich dachte "Jetzt reichts aber", hab ich es nochmal probiert. Mittlerweile hab ich vier Enden geholt und 75% des Spiels abgeschlossen?
Mach ich nun noch weiter-weiter? Keine Ahnung, aber meeeensch ist das gut.

Der bisherige Höhepunkt der Reihe, aber mit Abstand. Und nun nur noch warten bis Teil 4 hier ankommt.


EDIT: Wertung von 8 auf 9 angehoben weil dieses Spiel so amazing ist

I really like the premise in this one. 24 hours before some big thing, while the last few ravens are all killing eachother.

I pick missions in these games by watching all the briefings and going with the least morally reprehensible one (im sure thats not the intended way). I got an ending where i didnt even participate in the last battle, and just fought 3 big airplanes. Like, as far as i know im not even the last raven?
So what seemed to be a cool way to end the series fell really flat for me. Last game i played was Silent Line, so thats two duds in a row lol.

Im sort of interested in going back and seeing some others, but i dunno. I think this game is just a lot more annoying to play. Machine guns feel like trash now, and i could not figure out a build that wasnt always out of energy. Meanwhile all these other ACs are flying circles around me and i cant hit shit.
Also the music didnt realy stand out to me like in other games and theyve added a bunch of grating sound effects during gameplay for some reason.

Uh, yeah. Still thought this game was rad though. Big robot

I was preparing to defend myself from sounding insane cause I really liked this one even though it was definitely a bit harder than the rest and thought maybe I might be the weirdo but I'm glad to see others liked this one a lot as well lmfao. The branching paths and choices really feel the best in this one and there's so many different endings that it takes a lot of effort but it always feels fresh and fun for me. It's also just one of my favorite AC stories of them all, extremely cool and fun and a good farewell before they changed up movement from 4 on. (Which I do like as well, but it's just a different flavor y'know)

Fixes any issue I had with Nexus and doubles down on everything I love about 3rd gen AC. Deep build crafting and with multiple different routes to beat the game, there's a wealth of content here. Def make sure to play through multiple times as more of the story and its characters are revealed to you with each route. Lives up to its reputation as being particularly difficult, but there are still plenty of broken weapons and parts if you want to blow through most of the hardest fights in the game. Dig the atmosphere in this one a lot as well, the list of remaining Ravens getting smaller as the story progresses is a nice touch. For now, it's my current favourite Armored Core game.

Al principio odiaba este juego y probablemente sea el más difícil de la saga pero cuando fallas una misión en vez de cabreate y dropearlo te sientas con tu robot a ver el hermoso cielo de una noche estrellada y hablas con él sobre el significado de vuestra existencia (que no sólo la tuya, no seas egoísta; sus pensamientos y experiencias de vida tienen tanto peso como las tuyas y deberías aprender de ellas también) obtienes una nueva perspectiva muy curiosa que te hace ver las cosas de otra manera y no se hace tan duro. Recomendadísimo

This is gonna be a hot take, but so far in my journey through armored core (playing them in order so havent touched past 4) this was the most meh game to me, the different routes are a cool idea, but with how frustrating the first route i did was, i cannot fathom wanting to see the others, and the part destruction system just seems to be a system that only punishes the player, and not because they messed up, but just because, armored core has always punished you for mistakes, like not enough ammo, too much weight and you arent fast enough to finish this mission, and youd restart and remake your mech, this one is different, youre punished for actually completing a mission, and not only when your parts are destroyed, but also when you come out with most of your health, because once youve used a part it loses value and if youre unhappy with it after beating a mission, and want to replace it, you lose money because youve already used it. These systems are just, not fun, they only serve to make a game harder, but with other fromsoft games those systems can be overcome, this one its just luck, my favorite moment in the first ac game was purchasing a part playing a mission, really not liking it, and realizing i get ALL of my money back no matter what, this game wanted me to experiment, it wanted me to find the right mech for me, while it never held my hand, it wanted to see me succeed and gave me the tools to do that, i never felt like this in last raven, i didnt feel like the game necessarily hated me, but it definitely didnt feel like it loved me, the game controls great, but these systems just go against everything the rest of the armored core series (and from soft games past and present) are about, and i cant reccomend it for that.