When it became official that I had gone insane and was going to Play Every Armored Core, I knew Last Raven had to be the last one. On top of being thematically the end of an era, it is by reputation the hardest game in the series, or depending on who you ask, the hardest FromSoftware game ever. I made the right choice, because this was an incredible note on which to end my idiotic nerd ass journey.
First things first: I think the difficulty is somewhat overhyped. I could be wrong; they say Nine Breaker, piece of shit that it is, is supposed to legitimately teach you how to play Armored Core properly. Maybe it actually worked. Maybe I'm good at video games now. Either way, Last Raven is definitely hard, but for my money, if you know how to counterbuild there are only a few really extreme spikes. It's not a grueling game. For my money.
More importantly, it's just, fuck. FUCK, this game is good. It further refines Nexus's big mechanical changes and then gives you drastically better material to engage with them. The mission design here is just about peak; there are a limited number of maps and it pulls that Another Age trick of having multiple missions where you're on different sides of what is clearly the same incident, but the map design is great (mostly), the scenarios are rich and varied and keep you guessing, and the pacing is airtight.
Combat itself is also incredible. This is my favorite arena in the series; I beat most fights in one or two tries but they were brutal, exciting tries. The AI behaves differently in Last Raven than in most games, but I don't know if I should say it's smarter or slightly dumber. Enemy Ravens have preferred strategies, are aggressive yet reactive to what you're doing, and generally seem to behave more logically--which can make them more predictable, in a good way. They're not pushovers (infamously, every single one of them has Human Plus/OP-INTENSIFY effects even though the player can't get those in this game), but beating one really feels like you're outsmarting a rival.
In general, the level of polish and depth on display here is as much what makes it natural Grand Finale material as anything. There's such a sense of completeness to Last Raven; every game that came before it was study material, and this is the exam. It's oldgen Armored Core in its most evolved form. There's a sense that something has been perfected, not in the sense that it's totally without flaws but in that it's realized its full potential at being what it is. It gives you kind of an insight into why AC4 was such a huge shift in direction; where the hell else would you go from here?
The story is kind of gonzo (affectionate), if only because of the structure. This is the first game in the series with multiple endings, and the one with the largest number at six (or seven, depending on what you count). The way this works is: a single playthrough is only between ten and fifteen missions long, you're choosing between several mission options at almost every stage, and there's an absurdly intricate and totally invisible pathing system in which previous mission choices dictate future options, eventually locking you into an ending.
Use a guide. You can get your first ending blind if you want (I did), but if your goal is to find everything yourself I do not know how long it's gonna take you. This is all paired with the ridiculous (affectionate) premise that the game, representing about a dozen discrete fully organized combat missions carried out by a single person, takes place over the course of 24 hours--you know, like that TV show. What was it called again?
This wacky progression structure is a double-edged sword, though; I consider it both one of the many good things about the game and probably the worst thing. It's a type of ambitious jank I tend to love and respect, but it must be said that on top of playing through six times for the six endings, according to the guide I'm using it takes at least another four to complete all missions, which is the requirement for unlocking a sort of EX Boss that I very much intend to get to. It's a short game, but ten runs is pushing it, especially considering how many times you have to repeat certain missions to get to the new ones.
In a lot of ways I was surprised by how forgiving Last Raven is, considering the reputation. As in Nexus before it, it's honestly quite difficult to lose money on a mission; even if you barely survive, most payouts are going to be larger than expenses on the order of a full digit or even two. Nexus's tuning mechanic no longer costs you anything, either. The upshot is that if you're importing a save and getting a head start on collecting parts, you will have more money than you could possibly spend at pretty much all times.
This is important context for the parts damage mechanic you may have heard of, in which it's actually possible for parts of your AC to be permanently destroyed so that you have to buy replacements; with how rich you are, this is not a major concern. And frankly it's very rare anyway; you have to be VERY near death, and even then it's far from a guarantee that a particular body part will have taken enough hits. The mechanic is more of a funny curiosity; it's kind of hilarious to get out of a really clutch fight and see the default legs on your AC in the garage.
That said, when the game decides to get really hard it does get really hard. A lot of people wholeheartedly advise you to give yourself an approximation of Human Plus with cheat codes; if every enemy is using it, why not level the playing field, right? I definitely don't blame or judge anyone who decides to do that, but I was having a good enough time that I didn't want to. The final boss of the sixth route, the most notorious fight in the game, almost broke me. Part of what stopped me is that it seemed so impossible at first that I wasn't sure how much H+ would even help.
But it was, unironically, a skill issue; I wasted a lot of time overthinking what build would be best, but I ended up literally just doing it with double rifles. All you need for Zinaida is patient, defensive play, good movement fundamentals, and Execution. Can't relate to people who get tilted at her. I for one love to see a girlboss win.
Armored Core: Last Raven is absolutely one of the best games in the series. I can't recommend it enough, but it's definitely worth playing at least through the rest of gen 3 first. The whole experience is designed to be an Ending, so make it a satisfying one.
Good work, Ravens. Let's head back.
Shadow The Hedgehog if it was good
It's fun how what is for many the hardest game in the series can also be one of the easiest if you equip tank legs and the CR-WBW98LX. That thing is evil itself. Oh, you're a tank? No prob, 5 hits and you're dead. You're a lightweight? The moment you stop flying like a bee you get devastated. Two ACs? I don't care, get fucked. The arena? The only one in the series that doesn't require you to change build because it's completely doable with that cannon. Whoever put THAT THING in the game is an evil genius. The only times it doesn't work is when you need to complete objectives fast for the more complex routes AND against the "true" final boss (at least I couldn't make it work). Basically if tank legs are bad play hover or middleweight or whatever you want, if tank legs are ok for that mission equip the cannon and absolutely ANNIHILATE everything in your way.
Nexus was a mistake
Nexus was a mistake
Final Pulverizer: "Raven you fool, my blades are so powerful they can even cut diamonds"
My shitty tank legs raven trying to cheese the fight with the Laser Cannon and Parry Blade: "I'm not wearing any diamonds"
My shitty tank legs raven trying to cheese the fight with the Laser Cannon and Parry Blade: "I'm not wearing any diamonds"
It's incredibly hard for me to talk about this game because on one hand it tries to balance what Nexus did in terms of gameplay...but still it carries over what Nexus did, and what Nexus did is that essentially your AC sucks complete dick now and the power fantasy you may have now is history compared to previous generations. It's light work to think how Last Raven is the hardest game if your missions are Silent Line difficult and you play with Nexus ACs.
This might be an extremely personal take here, but I think your AC being way weaker in Last Raven actually conveys the feeling of dread and despair way better, every single mission it's you fighting for your life because now you don't just "defeat" your enemies, but straight up kill them with "DEAD" written aside. And that puts me on the other hand of why I loved Last Raven so much.
The way the game portrays the feeling of everything coming to an end in a very dark and eerie way is incredibly impactful, the "main characters" are way more fleshed out than any other in the franchise (until now) and every choice you make actively impacts how the story goes, who dies and who doesn't and every single time you take part on a mission the clock is ticking; Last Raven's story takes place in 24 hours, and every single one of them counts. And it's not because the game said so, YOU make them count and the main characters in the game are making them count with their own actions that also change on what choices you made.
Last Raven is a game where there's no compromise, there's no "next time I'm gonna get you!", because there's no tomorrow. Everyone, you included, is on a last stand. And the game conveys that in such a good way that I don't think I'll see another videogame telling this so well very soon. Corporations made tons of mistakes for the sake of power and money, they fucked up so bad but the ones being put on the line for this are soldiers, Ravens and innocents all over the world.
Kino
This might be an extremely personal take here, but I think your AC being way weaker in Last Raven actually conveys the feeling of dread and despair way better, every single mission it's you fighting for your life because now you don't just "defeat" your enemies, but straight up kill them with "DEAD" written aside. And that puts me on the other hand of why I loved Last Raven so much.
The way the game portrays the feeling of everything coming to an end in a very dark and eerie way is incredibly impactful, the "main characters" are way more fleshed out than any other in the franchise (until now) and every choice you make actively impacts how the story goes, who dies and who doesn't and every single time you take part on a mission the clock is ticking; Last Raven's story takes place in 24 hours, and every single one of them counts. And it's not because the game said so, YOU make them count and the main characters in the game are making them count with their own actions that also change on what choices you made.
Last Raven is a game where there's no compromise, there's no "next time I'm gonna get you!", because there's no tomorrow. Everyone, you included, is on a last stand. And the game conveys that in such a good way that I don't think I'll see another videogame telling this so well very soon. Corporations made tons of mistakes for the sake of power and money, they fucked up so bad but the ones being put on the line for this are soldiers, Ravens and innocents all over the world.
Kino
A masterpiece. One of the best PS2 games out there, just an incredible challenge all around. Would be 5 stars for me personally if it wasn't a bit too bloated (requires too many playthroughs to get all missions).
Final Zinaida is one of the best boss fights out there.
Final Zinaida is one of the best boss fights out there.
I'm gonna write a longer review later, but this is probably my new favorite game.
this is an interesting game in the series, it fixes a lot of issues that i had with nexus like the braindead difficulty, like some of these ac fights do not mess around god damn, and those pulverizers honestly kinda overhyped if u just spam some explosive weapon they go down pretty easily, that final level is horrid tho, fuck u mean my hp dont get restored after getting hit by a swarm of robots and i gotta fight a pulverizer at like 5 hp like cmon man
i'm honestly not that much of an action gamer for the most part so in my quest to play through the armored core games, due to being absolutely filtered by tank controls in any fast paced setting, i was only really able to stick with last raven out of the games i planned on playing and i'm glad i did. one of my absolute favorite experiences and i love it for pretty much the exact opposite reasons as why i loved armored core 6 funnily enough. i'll do a better review for this one eventually
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
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
Goty, el mejor AC antiguo.
This review contains spoilers
Taking place in the last ~22 hours before a full=on war. Last Raven is a panicked rush of a game, like the final minutes before the curtain rises on a stage production. Only instead of the curtain rising, it’s closing on the state of humanity. Rather than every stage hand fulfilling their duties as quickly as possible to achieve a common goal, every bit player is in a frantic blitz to meet their own agendas, annihilating themselves in the process. No matter which of the six story routes you chose, by zero hour– you will always be the last Raven standing.
As the culmination of the third generation of Armored Core, Last Raven signals the event horizon for the “man vs corporation” narrative conflict, with the groups last left floundering in Nexus consolidating into one singular “Alliance”, opposed by the remnants of the Raven’s Ark in the form of Vertex. It makes sense that the dynamic between corporations and their enlisted Ravens has stagnated to the point where most of their laborers fight against them, be it under the pretense of “breaking free from their tyranny” or simply to jump ship to the side closest to having a future (can’t get much more grim). In any case, neither group has the means to sustain themselves for a single day, let alone a war thereafter. Only the strongest survive, only the most “Dominant” will remain.
LR features my favorite narrative since Master of Arena, though much of that is attributed to its structure and multiple endings, giving more purpose to the choices you make to fulfill missions for either the Alliance, Vertex, the odd passerby warlord, or the frankly pathetic leftovers of Kisaragi and their false pretense of "conducting research". As mentioned before, there’s a frantic and distressed pace to the game's events. In less than a day of in-game time (and realistically, an hour in play time), Evangel defects from the Alliance, then is revealed to be a triple agent. What I truly love about this, however, is how reveals like this only become contextualized through certain story routes. Finishing Jack-O’s or Evangel’s routes paints both in dramatically different lights. Both Vertex and the Alliance seek to profit from the morally bankrupt mech economy, yet their leading Ravens are neither sympathetic nor irredeemable. A freelancer like Zinaida may come off a mystifying juggernaut in the ending of her route, or a pitiful victim in the climax of the second Pulverizer route. The characters are consistent, yet are framed so differently across each story path. Each encounter with them is unrelenting, but the path to becoming the sole survivor couldn’t be easy in even the most fruitful of imaginations.
Not as if you could adequately prepare for any of the bosses in this game, as AI is designed to counter whichever built you go for. There is no “taking advantage” of an enemy by building an AC that’s strong against them, and few have any discernible weaknesses. This sort of goes at odds with the common theme across all prior AC games, to not get married to a specific build and instead focus on experimentation from mission to mission, fight to fight. The best bet for Last Raven is to make a jack-of-all-trades build, the only thing the player truly needs to invest in to level the playing field being speed. Some may not like how this de-emphasizes Tank builds, but lightweight bipeds have always been my preferred playstyle, so Last Raven speaks heavily to me and how I enjoy playing these games. It somehow manages to compliment my preferences as it violently hands my ass back to me.
While it sometimes feels reductive to center conversations about this franchise, or rather all From Software games around their difficulty, few other games in their catalog better embody this motto of survival through their difficulty like Last Raven. I don’t blame anyone for dropping this game, or picking up cheats in order to get through some of the more sadistic and unfair missions (as I admittedly did, a handful of times), but it was this unrelenting, almost comical degree of punishment that immersed me in the world more than even AC3 or Silent Line. For all their mechanical refinement and relatively tight structure, getting mauled by Human PLUS AC after Pulverizer after Human PLUS AC just after I thought I was in the clear gave me more drive to push through than any game in the series prior.
Though previous Third Gen titles offered more polish in their Arena modes or better mission variety in their campaign, the way LR strikes its balance between challenge and brevity makes it uniquely replayable. Each story route will only take you an hour tops, assuming you don’t hit a wall with certain enemy encounters or struggle to maintain sufficient resources for the duration of a mission. Should that obstacle be too much to handle, however, the game gives an option to restart your route from the first mission, keeping all your equipment and credits in the process. The lone, pseudo-roguelike bone they throw the player’s way is exactly what this game needed in order to make sense of its often mean-spirited level of difficulty.
That’s not to say Last Raven is devoid of all forms of forgiveness, as they managed to walk back a multitude of the questionable, aggravating design choices introduced in Nexus. The menus have been fixed so they’re far easier to navigate, heat mechanics have been better balanced, the Arena isn’t a complete hot mess, and you can now tune your AC parts for free. Some of these fixes came with Nine Breaker, but their benefit is best felt in a more campaign driven game like LR.
It’s a good thing these changes were added, because for every aspect they tweaked from Nexus to ease player frustration, they added another mechanic to further drive frustration. Several parts can now be damaged or full-on break, forcing you to pay full price to repair them in the latter case. Enemy explosions can now cause slight damage, meaning you have to be more careful about melee blitzing every enemy you see. Neither of these were dealbreaker issues, I seldom ran into the former, beyond the one time I entertained using the feeble hover legs and they immediately shattered on me, but they still felt like little nuisances particular to this game. The only time I wasn’t fully enjoying myself in the game was attempting to fill out the last handful of miscellaneous, non-story route missions, stuff like “Destroy Power Generators” which involves you having to escape the tightly enclosed facility in an extremely limited set of time (while requiring night vision). These are general old-gen AC issues, though, and not particular to Last Raven. The frustration that comes with the newer gameplay additions feels far more intentional, though, better tying into the game’s ethos, far more than any technical choice made in Nexus– beyond the soundtrack.
Conversely, I’ve heard mixed things from fans about Last Raven’s soundtrack, some critical of its lack of melodies compared to prior titles. This lack of colorfulness or range to the music feels most applicable for the unnerving and cruel nature of the game, best exemplified with the progression of the garage/menu themes as you travel further down one route of the game, each track growing increasingly more demented and droning. The “song” used for the final level of each route is such an inscrutable mess that I got a headache listening to it, yet in-game kept me entirely locked into the act of strafing and bunnyhopping for my life. I don’t know the full extent to my own mental illness, but I imagine the nadir would feel similar to hearing “I’ll Talk You” on repeat, 25 hours per day, 366 days per year.
Last Raven is systematically designed to break you down and rebuild you through both its audiovisual and mechanical feel. I don’t know the full extent to which Miyazaki was involved in this game’s design, considering this was the first game he worked on midway through development, but as tacky as it is to say, I managed to get Souls flashbacks the first time I got completely jumped by a Pulverizer. The sheer level of mobility and aggression, how quickly it shed the AP of the build I thought would take me through even the first route of the game. I was burned, sliced, and maimed, but came out tougher for it, and with a greater appreciation for getting skill-checked to shit and back. Considering how short the runtime of this game is, it's been about 7 years since the last time I felt this much physical and mental exhaustion attempting to beat a game, and as such, it's only fair I put at least a fraction of that brain fog-inducing energy into writing about what I think makes it work so well.
I don’t need to become mentally stable again, I worked tirelessly to become what I am.
As the culmination of the third generation of Armored Core, Last Raven signals the event horizon for the “man vs corporation” narrative conflict, with the groups last left floundering in Nexus consolidating into one singular “Alliance”, opposed by the remnants of the Raven’s Ark in the form of Vertex. It makes sense that the dynamic between corporations and their enlisted Ravens has stagnated to the point where most of their laborers fight against them, be it under the pretense of “breaking free from their tyranny” or simply to jump ship to the side closest to having a future (can’t get much more grim). In any case, neither group has the means to sustain themselves for a single day, let alone a war thereafter. Only the strongest survive, only the most “Dominant” will remain.
LR features my favorite narrative since Master of Arena, though much of that is attributed to its structure and multiple endings, giving more purpose to the choices you make to fulfill missions for either the Alliance, Vertex, the odd passerby warlord, or the frankly pathetic leftovers of Kisaragi and their false pretense of "conducting research". As mentioned before, there’s a frantic and distressed pace to the game's events. In less than a day of in-game time (and realistically, an hour in play time), Evangel defects from the Alliance, then is revealed to be a triple agent. What I truly love about this, however, is how reveals like this only become contextualized through certain story routes. Finishing Jack-O’s or Evangel’s routes paints both in dramatically different lights. Both Vertex and the Alliance seek to profit from the morally bankrupt mech economy, yet their leading Ravens are neither sympathetic nor irredeemable. A freelancer like Zinaida may come off a mystifying juggernaut in the ending of her route, or a pitiful victim in the climax of the second Pulverizer route. The characters are consistent, yet are framed so differently across each story path. Each encounter with them is unrelenting, but the path to becoming the sole survivor couldn’t be easy in even the most fruitful of imaginations.
Not as if you could adequately prepare for any of the bosses in this game, as AI is designed to counter whichever built you go for. There is no “taking advantage” of an enemy by building an AC that’s strong against them, and few have any discernible weaknesses. This sort of goes at odds with the common theme across all prior AC games, to not get married to a specific build and instead focus on experimentation from mission to mission, fight to fight. The best bet for Last Raven is to make a jack-of-all-trades build, the only thing the player truly needs to invest in to level the playing field being speed. Some may not like how this de-emphasizes Tank builds, but lightweight bipeds have always been my preferred playstyle, so Last Raven speaks heavily to me and how I enjoy playing these games. It somehow manages to compliment my preferences as it violently hands my ass back to me.
While it sometimes feels reductive to center conversations about this franchise, or rather all From Software games around their difficulty, few other games in their catalog better embody this motto of survival through their difficulty like Last Raven. I don’t blame anyone for dropping this game, or picking up cheats in order to get through some of the more sadistic and unfair missions (as I admittedly did, a handful of times), but it was this unrelenting, almost comical degree of punishment that immersed me in the world more than even AC3 or Silent Line. For all their mechanical refinement and relatively tight structure, getting mauled by Human PLUS AC after Pulverizer after Human PLUS AC just after I thought I was in the clear gave me more drive to push through than any game in the series prior.
Though previous Third Gen titles offered more polish in their Arena modes or better mission variety in their campaign, the way LR strikes its balance between challenge and brevity makes it uniquely replayable. Each story route will only take you an hour tops, assuming you don’t hit a wall with certain enemy encounters or struggle to maintain sufficient resources for the duration of a mission. Should that obstacle be too much to handle, however, the game gives an option to restart your route from the first mission, keeping all your equipment and credits in the process. The lone, pseudo-roguelike bone they throw the player’s way is exactly what this game needed in order to make sense of its often mean-spirited level of difficulty.
That’s not to say Last Raven is devoid of all forms of forgiveness, as they managed to walk back a multitude of the questionable, aggravating design choices introduced in Nexus. The menus have been fixed so they’re far easier to navigate, heat mechanics have been better balanced, the Arena isn’t a complete hot mess, and you can now tune your AC parts for free. Some of these fixes came with Nine Breaker, but their benefit is best felt in a more campaign driven game like LR.
It’s a good thing these changes were added, because for every aspect they tweaked from Nexus to ease player frustration, they added another mechanic to further drive frustration. Several parts can now be damaged or full-on break, forcing you to pay full price to repair them in the latter case. Enemy explosions can now cause slight damage, meaning you have to be more careful about melee blitzing every enemy you see. Neither of these were dealbreaker issues, I seldom ran into the former, beyond the one time I entertained using the feeble hover legs and they immediately shattered on me, but they still felt like little nuisances particular to this game. The only time I wasn’t fully enjoying myself in the game was attempting to fill out the last handful of miscellaneous, non-story route missions, stuff like “Destroy Power Generators” which involves you having to escape the tightly enclosed facility in an extremely limited set of time (while requiring night vision). These are general old-gen AC issues, though, and not particular to Last Raven. The frustration that comes with the newer gameplay additions feels far more intentional, though, better tying into the game’s ethos, far more than any technical choice made in Nexus– beyond the soundtrack.
Conversely, I’ve heard mixed things from fans about Last Raven’s soundtrack, some critical of its lack of melodies compared to prior titles. This lack of colorfulness or range to the music feels most applicable for the unnerving and cruel nature of the game, best exemplified with the progression of the garage/menu themes as you travel further down one route of the game, each track growing increasingly more demented and droning. The “song” used for the final level of each route is such an inscrutable mess that I got a headache listening to it, yet in-game kept me entirely locked into the act of strafing and bunnyhopping for my life. I don’t know the full extent to my own mental illness, but I imagine the nadir would feel similar to hearing “I’ll Talk You” on repeat, 25 hours per day, 366 days per year.
Last Raven is systematically designed to break you down and rebuild you through both its audiovisual and mechanical feel. I don’t know the full extent to which Miyazaki was involved in this game’s design, considering this was the first game he worked on midway through development, but as tacky as it is to say, I managed to get Souls flashbacks the first time I got completely jumped by a Pulverizer. The sheer level of mobility and aggression, how quickly it shed the AP of the build I thought would take me through even the first route of the game. I was burned, sliced, and maimed, but came out tougher for it, and with a greater appreciation for getting skill-checked to shit and back. Considering how short the runtime of this game is, it's been about 7 years since the last time I felt this much physical and mental exhaustion attempting to beat a game, and as such, it's only fair I put at least a fraction of that brain fog-inducing energy into writing about what I think makes it work so well.
I don’t need to become mentally stable again, I worked tirelessly to become what I am.
Fun Game, loved map design.
I think your enjoyment of Last Raven hinges on if you like the parts of Armored Core where youre walking into a trap or where you have to figure out how to beat a rival AC under a handicap. The mission structure is interesting as a storytelling device but its cumbersome unless youre that first type of player looking for Armored Cores more oppressive qualities. (Expanded Final Thoughts Here)
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 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
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
You couldn't ask for much better as a finale for the PS2 Armored Core games, at least from a mechanical perspective anyway. Last Raven takes the heavy rebalancing done from Nexus and rebalances it all yet again, making the overheating system a little more lenient and once again adjusting old and adding new parts to try and retool things one last time. Is it the perfect iteration of AC balance? Honestly no idea, I'll leave that discussion up to the hardcore multiplayer guys.
Beyond the additions though this game features vastly improved enemy AI, easily the most aggressive and dangerous the series has seen so far. Mission design is eager to show this off too as the stages here are among the most challenging From has put together for the series, with numerous multi-AC fights, surprise ambushes and other tricks up their sleeve. If you managed to fumble your way through the previous games by the skin of your teeth then Last Raven will absolutely humble you. It's a game that demands you understand these mechanics on more than just a surface level if you want to survive (either that or look up the cheesiest builds online and pray you get lucky).
Coming from the very breezy Nexus this is a huge jump in what it asks and it took me some time to adjust, but ultimately I found the challenge to be refreshing. It encouraged me to try out a variety of different builds and strategies, to finally master bunny-hopping and boost jumping on more than just a surface level, and to all around just put everything I had learned from playing the series so far to the test. It was a great time. And if From Software knew this would be their final game in this style then it absolutely made sense to push the game mechanics to their limit.
Even when stages don't involve fighting enemy ACs they usually offer some degree of challenge. There's almost no filler here, something that the previous game Nexus, for as much as I liked it, was full of. The game's high level of challenge can also be taxing too, so maybe be smarter than me and don't do an entire playthrough in one sitting if you start to get frustrated.
While Last Raven has the usual assortment of missions which diverge based on which jobs you take (and in some cases even how well you complete them) the way they're presented marks a huge tonal shift. The game takes place in just a single day as Alliance (comprised of the major organizations from the previous few games) and Vertex, an organized terrorist force, prepare to go to war with one another. With each mission you complete the clock ticks down slowly toward the final battle. This constant reminder of the impending end really helps to sell the darker tone that Last Raven goes for.
There's no levity here, something the game makes clear from its intro. There is no retreat of friendly duels with other pilots as most missions see you eliminating your fellow Ravens in brutal fashion. Probably more than half of the total missions here are hit jobs against other pilots. And while the arena is back in form (after the less than stellar version in Nexus) it is now relegated to a VR sim, enforcing that there's now time for leisure or pleasantries as the clock counts down.
The branching path system that originated all the way back in Armored Core 1 finally sees innovation in this game. Last Raven sports several endings depending on which choices you make over the course of the game. These decisions will open or close various paths and do so in a (mostly) natural feeling way, although there are some well-hidden branches. As someone who had been hoping to see this feature expanded upon since the very first game it was great to finally see the series evolve.
The only real weakness of this approach is that not all of these endings are made equal. The first one I got was extremely disappointing from a climactic perspective, with the second making for a far more fitting finale. Like most AC titles this is a very short game so replaying to see different endings doesn't take too long.
While Last Raven is great at selling its tone I do think it comes at a cost. The soundtrack is far weaker than usual, which was really disappointing after the absolutely incredible variety and use of music in Nexus. And while there is mission variety it does ultimately come down to mostly fighting other ACs for most stages. As great as these fights are I think I ultimately prefer a larger variety of stages.
Still, Last Raven marks itself as one of the best entries in the series and an extremely fitting way to send off the "classic" style of Armored Core game before moving on to the next generation. It's a title that builds upon everything that came before it and asks much of you as a player, but rewards just as much in return.
Beyond the additions though this game features vastly improved enemy AI, easily the most aggressive and dangerous the series has seen so far. Mission design is eager to show this off too as the stages here are among the most challenging From has put together for the series, with numerous multi-AC fights, surprise ambushes and other tricks up their sleeve. If you managed to fumble your way through the previous games by the skin of your teeth then Last Raven will absolutely humble you. It's a game that demands you understand these mechanics on more than just a surface level if you want to survive (either that or look up the cheesiest builds online and pray you get lucky).
Coming from the very breezy Nexus this is a huge jump in what it asks and it took me some time to adjust, but ultimately I found the challenge to be refreshing. It encouraged me to try out a variety of different builds and strategies, to finally master bunny-hopping and boost jumping on more than just a surface level, and to all around just put everything I had learned from playing the series so far to the test. It was a great time. And if From Software knew this would be their final game in this style then it absolutely made sense to push the game mechanics to their limit.
Even when stages don't involve fighting enemy ACs they usually offer some degree of challenge. There's almost no filler here, something that the previous game Nexus, for as much as I liked it, was full of. The game's high level of challenge can also be taxing too, so maybe be smarter than me and don't do an entire playthrough in one sitting if you start to get frustrated.
While Last Raven has the usual assortment of missions which diverge based on which jobs you take (and in some cases even how well you complete them) the way they're presented marks a huge tonal shift. The game takes place in just a single day as Alliance (comprised of the major organizations from the previous few games) and Vertex, an organized terrorist force, prepare to go to war with one another. With each mission you complete the clock ticks down slowly toward the final battle. This constant reminder of the impending end really helps to sell the darker tone that Last Raven goes for.
There's no levity here, something the game makes clear from its intro. There is no retreat of friendly duels with other pilots as most missions see you eliminating your fellow Ravens in brutal fashion. Probably more than half of the total missions here are hit jobs against other pilots. And while the arena is back in form (after the less than stellar version in Nexus) it is now relegated to a VR sim, enforcing that there's now time for leisure or pleasantries as the clock counts down.
The branching path system that originated all the way back in Armored Core 1 finally sees innovation in this game. Last Raven sports several endings depending on which choices you make over the course of the game. These decisions will open or close various paths and do so in a (mostly) natural feeling way, although there are some well-hidden branches. As someone who had been hoping to see this feature expanded upon since the very first game it was great to finally see the series evolve.
The only real weakness of this approach is that not all of these endings are made equal. The first one I got was extremely disappointing from a climactic perspective, with the second making for a far more fitting finale. Like most AC titles this is a very short game so replaying to see different endings doesn't take too long.
While Last Raven is great at selling its tone I do think it comes at a cost. The soundtrack is far weaker than usual, which was really disappointing after the absolutely incredible variety and use of music in Nexus. And while there is mission variety it does ultimately come down to mostly fighting other ACs for most stages. As great as these fights are I think I ultimately prefer a larger variety of stages.
Still, Last Raven marks itself as one of the best entries in the series and an extremely fitting way to send off the "classic" style of Armored Core game before moving on to the next generation. It's a title that builds upon everything that came before it and asks much of you as a player, but rewards just as much in return.
This is too hard. Yes it's good and has crazy amount of parts but its genuinely insanely difficult. it's not that bad if you import your nexus save but they really wanted to break you with this one.
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)
This review contains spoilers
When a series takes a new direction, no matter how subtle or positive it is, it’ll upset fans. Despite Breath of the Wild being one of the most acclaimed games of the last decade or so, there’s still a lot of criticisms of it that are mostly rooted around it not doing stuff like older Zelda games. I’d probably be kinda bummed about the new direction of that series too, if Majora’s Mask didn’t exist, which is basically everything I could want out of that style of Zelda. Incidentally, Majora’s Mask was formerly my favorite game. That was before I played Armored Core: Last Raven, which basically fulfills what Majora’s Mask did for its series, creating an experience so great that I don’t mind the mixup that Armored Core 4 initiated. Pretty much everything is at its peak here. The customization carries over the positive changes from Nexus while balancing it so that ECM and Overheating are important but not overbearing. The missions are varied and have lots of twists and turns that make them super fun. Arena fights are tense and rewarding without compromising the economy. The story, while not incredible, is pretty much everything I’d want out of this kind of game: Unintrusive, but with more under the surface if you’re willing to look. All of it is tied together by the difficulty, which makes you really and truly experiment and optimize your war machine, forcing you to master and consider every part of it for the crushing challenge you’re undoubtedly facing, which expands your knowledge and appreciation of every part, all which make up what is probably the most balanced lineup in the series. Just like how you must reinvent your AC to face your challenges, Last Raven reinvents its story, with multiple paths, which allows for replayability, dynamic difficulty, and a brisk pace. I thought about doing a square-one review for this game, where I explain it as if the reader had no familiarity with the series, but that almost misses the point of the game, which is ultimately a sort of finale for those who already loved this style of the series. If you’ve played earlier games, you know about the customization, the story, the missions, the arena, the worldbuilding, all of it. The best thing I can say about Last Raven is that despite doing all of those things better than pretty much every previous entry, it never makes those games obsolete and feels special, which is everything a game like this should be. And to be honest, it’s not perfect, but I loved pretty much every second about it. Painting my AC. Fine Tuning every detail. Being sent Xbox Live hatemail. Equipping machineguns, Orbital Cores, and energy supplements so I could destroy an enemy in seconds, and then realizing that it doesn’t work on this one guy and going back to customizing. Dropping weapons to go faster. Raiding a town looking for a warlord, only to not find him and learn your employer made the story up to justify you killing competitors. Dodging those deadly, slow missiles before finding them for myself in the shop. Bunny hopping while shooting enemies to save that last bit of energy. Looking at the raven list and realizing I’m slowly fulfilling the game’s title. Taking out the final boss with my last bit of health and ammo. Even failing miserably at a mission. It all contributed to an experience that utterly hooked me, making me want to replay right after the first playthrough. It’s my new favorite game, and I’m not sure if it’ll be dethroned for a while. 10/10.
(To be clear though, Glover is still better, as it always will be.)
(To be clear though, Glover is still better, as it always will be.)
Tem umas das melhores lutas com ACs da franquia, masterpiece
I AM THE LAST RAVEN!!!
My very first armored core game, had so much memories with it and I got replay it again after AC6's reveal, it was a blast, from the combat to the customization, all of the endings were really good too
sleek and dark even by the standards of a series that operates on those terms. cranks the industrial hellscape vibes to infinity both sonically and aesthetically and i'm here for all of it
route system is badass - the constant feeling of impending doom absolutely menacing. enemy ACs are fun to fight and can be seriously trying (not to mention raven personalities are actually memorable now too)
weapon balancing is also at an all time high. seriously, i feel like just about anything is viable in this game if you've got the skill and know-how to make it work. i never changed up my builds - or saved multiple ones - nearly as much in any other game in the series. i did that constantly here
i have exactly two gripes:
1. there's one ending in particular that's pretty much the objectively most climactic and finalizing of them all. it's by far the most difficult and the most cinematic too. this was my second route... so the following ones felt much more whelming than they probably should have
2. mopping up stray missions for 100% is a bit of a chore. if you could just play any mission out of sequence after getting the main endings - that'd be perfect. i don't really think the superboss is significant or challenging enough to justify an additional five playthroughs (minimum) just to access it.
that's the extent of my negativity. this is a killer fucking game. old gen seriously ended with a bang
route system is badass - the constant feeling of impending doom absolutely menacing. enemy ACs are fun to fight and can be seriously trying (not to mention raven personalities are actually memorable now too)
weapon balancing is also at an all time high. seriously, i feel like just about anything is viable in this game if you've got the skill and know-how to make it work. i never changed up my builds - or saved multiple ones - nearly as much in any other game in the series. i did that constantly here
i have exactly two gripes:
1. there's one ending in particular that's pretty much the objectively most climactic and finalizing of them all. it's by far the most difficult and the most cinematic too. this was my second route... so the following ones felt much more whelming than they probably should have
2. mopping up stray missions for 100% is a bit of a chore. if you could just play any mission out of sequence after getting the main endings - that'd be perfect. i don't really think the superboss is significant or challenging enough to justify an additional five playthroughs (minimum) just to access it.
that's the extent of my negativity. this is a killer fucking game. old gen seriously ended with a bang
Armored Core has remarkable entries, but only some of them will generate really, really strong reactions once said. Last Raven is, by no means exaggerating, one of them, and for all the good and bad reasons.
As it goes for For Answer, this is one of the games in the series which features this "impeding doom" scenario, writing, and atmosphere. The latter being thick enough which will sell you on the game in its first beats - just as art direction, soundtrack and quality of life changes will do.
Those latter improvements are welcome, as they are needed in order to advance through the toughest parts of the title. From the original three we get five AC loadouts, the garage UI is completely revamped, the statistics sections too, the tuning is free of charge and not irreversible, and there's a whole new menu for any information regarding rival ACs, missions, world and story. Controls are carried over from Nexus and Nine-Breaker, but the old-school option still remains. So much is given...
...Only for the game to take it back, tenfold.
When people speak about this thing being hard, they are not lying or making it up. Parts can break down during a fight, worsening your AC performance in real time, and even make you unable to use an arm weapon. Those broken parts will have to be bought again in full at the shop, which makes experimenting harder, at least in your first play-through.
If Silent Line has the habit of dropping in ACs like MTs, Last Raven has the habit of dropping in bosses like ACs. If your performance was rewarded with a challenge before, now it's rewarded with a brick wall. Always expect the unexpected.
You won't bring OP-INTENSIFY here, everyone is a human plus, and most of the rival ACs are also over-tuned to the point of basically cheating against the player. All things which will generate frustration beyond everything you have experienced in the series, like "Destroy Floating Mines" or "B-1 Grand Chief".
That's because, even if the game is the biggest in terms of options - only some of them are viable. Those strong parts are, funny enough, the ones you won't be carrying over from Nexus, and instead finding in Last Raven. What you carry over from Nexus and Nine-Breaker is, instead, the EN balancing, lightweights being dead on arrival and weapons' spread making some of them borderline unusable. Adding in the game's habit to reward you with parts when you S-tier a mission, the pain points are now revealed. Yet how come this absolute disaster of a game is that praised?
Well, this thing is just - that - good. Arguably, some of the best the series can offer. And that can easily be explained by the game's high-level structure.
Time is of the essence. You, other ravens, corporations and independent warlords all fight for a piece of the remaining pie in this post-apocalyptic world soon to be engulfed in the apocalypse once again. You almost always have a choice, which will bring you towards one of the many endings this game offers.
Last Raven is more than a statement. Everyone has a bounty on his head. If you get them - the money's yours. Once you get them - they're gone for good, written out of that "blacklist" of sorts. You can still fight them in the VR Arena which, by the way, offers by far the toughest rival AC in the whole series.
The parts and missions offering is the biggest in the series, and the challenge arguably over-delivers in that regard too. With that said - do not be afraid, or at least, do be in a reasonable level. This is one of the some ACs where, even if you nail the garage right, the execution is on a whole other league. Be prepared to retry some encounters over and over.
Difficulty is, again, overall higher than all of the previous entries, but your experience will radically change depending on which path you do end up choosing. The easiest routes are tough, but doable. The toughest ones are on another level. If you want to go through the easiest, or toughest, or all of the routes - your call, but do keep at least your first play-through in the blind.
The most painful entry of the series is also one of the most joyful to play with. The sheer variety of options in all regards, the quality of life changes, and the technical improvements all deliver towards the best of the late 3rd generation and, arguably, some of the best action in the whole series.
Recommended.
As it goes for For Answer, this is one of the games in the series which features this "impeding doom" scenario, writing, and atmosphere. The latter being thick enough which will sell you on the game in its first beats - just as art direction, soundtrack and quality of life changes will do.
Those latter improvements are welcome, as they are needed in order to advance through the toughest parts of the title. From the original three we get five AC loadouts, the garage UI is completely revamped, the statistics sections too, the tuning is free of charge and not irreversible, and there's a whole new menu for any information regarding rival ACs, missions, world and story. Controls are carried over from Nexus and Nine-Breaker, but the old-school option still remains. So much is given...
...Only for the game to take it back, tenfold.
When people speak about this thing being hard, they are not lying or making it up. Parts can break down during a fight, worsening your AC performance in real time, and even make you unable to use an arm weapon. Those broken parts will have to be bought again in full at the shop, which makes experimenting harder, at least in your first play-through.
If Silent Line has the habit of dropping in ACs like MTs, Last Raven has the habit of dropping in bosses like ACs. If your performance was rewarded with a challenge before, now it's rewarded with a brick wall. Always expect the unexpected.
You won't bring OP-INTENSIFY here, everyone is a human plus, and most of the rival ACs are also over-tuned to the point of basically cheating against the player. All things which will generate frustration beyond everything you have experienced in the series, like "Destroy Floating Mines" or "B-1 Grand Chief".
That's because, even if the game is the biggest in terms of options - only some of them are viable. Those strong parts are, funny enough, the ones you won't be carrying over from Nexus, and instead finding in Last Raven. What you carry over from Nexus and Nine-Breaker is, instead, the EN balancing, lightweights being dead on arrival and weapons' spread making some of them borderline unusable. Adding in the game's habit to reward you with parts when you S-tier a mission, the pain points are now revealed. Yet how come this absolute disaster of a game is that praised?
Well, this thing is just - that - good. Arguably, some of the best the series can offer. And that can easily be explained by the game's high-level structure.
Time is of the essence. You, other ravens, corporations and independent warlords all fight for a piece of the remaining pie in this post-apocalyptic world soon to be engulfed in the apocalypse once again. You almost always have a choice, which will bring you towards one of the many endings this game offers.
Last Raven is more than a statement. Everyone has a bounty on his head. If you get them - the money's yours. Once you get them - they're gone for good, written out of that "blacklist" of sorts. You can still fight them in the VR Arena which, by the way, offers by far the toughest rival AC in the whole series.
The parts and missions offering is the biggest in the series, and the challenge arguably over-delivers in that regard too. With that said - do not be afraid, or at least, do be in a reasonable level. This is one of the some ACs where, even if you nail the garage right, the execution is on a whole other league. Be prepared to retry some encounters over and over.
Difficulty is, again, overall higher than all of the previous entries, but your experience will radically change depending on which path you do end up choosing. The easiest routes are tough, but doable. The toughest ones are on another level. If you want to go through the easiest, or toughest, or all of the routes - your call, but do keep at least your first play-through in the blind.
The most painful entry of the series is also one of the most joyful to play with. The sheer variety of options in all regards, the quality of life changes, and the technical improvements all deliver towards the best of the late 3rd generation and, arguably, some of the best action in the whole series.
Recommended.
Valley girls get misdiagnosed with BPD once and start acting like Zinaida.
First Armored Core with UI that isn't dogshit.
Finally irons out most of the basic polish and structural issues that had been plaguing the series (seamless transitions between shop and assembly, UI can show many more parts at a time, dual analog controls, missions can be retried instantly, more engaging economy with arena bets and weapon value degradation) and couples it with a much tighter campaign where a similar number of total missions is spread across multiple playthroughs for those interested. Missions are still bite-sized but tend to show their hand harder and faster. Enemy ACs "cheating" the way they do is sorta cool for the initial shock factor, but knowing it isn't possible to build or move like that is somewhat unsatisfying in the long run. "Damocles Sword" premise has no real bearing on the mechanics but gives the game a much more engaging presentation and tone.
Doesn't necessarily obsolete what preceded it but feels like the peak of that style and the easiest one to recommend.
Finally irons out most of the basic polish and structural issues that had been plaguing the series (seamless transitions between shop and assembly, UI can show many more parts at a time, dual analog controls, missions can be retried instantly, more engaging economy with arena bets and weapon value degradation) and couples it with a much tighter campaign where a similar number of total missions is spread across multiple playthroughs for those interested. Missions are still bite-sized but tend to show their hand harder and faster. Enemy ACs "cheating" the way they do is sorta cool for the initial shock factor, but knowing it isn't possible to build or move like that is somewhat unsatisfying in the long run. "Damocles Sword" premise has no real bearing on the mechanics but gives the game a much more engaging presentation and tone.
Doesn't necessarily obsolete what preceded it but feels like the peak of that style and the easiest one to recommend.
hard for me to pick between this one or Silent Line being best of the AC3 series games but both are equally fantastic, as with SL game is brutally hard and Will test your ability to play AC but the game is fire
Finally, some good fucking food Armored Core with a decent story.
I'll have to admit I was a little skeptical coming to this game, mostly because when people talk about it, it's not about how good it is, but how hard. But yes, there's actually a good game here if you're curious and don't care about circle-jerking its difficulty.
In difference to other ACs, this one has more of a grim quality, making it feel more realistic in ambiance. Fitting, considering the context of the story: Taking place after the catastrophic events of Nexus, corporations (Crest, Mirage, and Kisaragi) join forces to form Alliance in a last ditch effort for power, but a new organization called Vertex, formed by Ravens, call an ultimatum on them. This final attack will take place in 24 hours (you can actually see the timer update after each mission, giving a sense of desperation). All of this while a new threat of mysterious unmanned weapons called Pulverizers appear.
What separates Last Raven from other ACs, is the different paths you can take in its story. There's a total of 6 paths (with an additional secret ending), each one having their unique sets of missions and bosses, adding replayability that other ACs didn't have. If you enjoyed the occasional twists previous missions had, there's a lot of that here, and if you enjoyed the 1o1 AC fights or unique boss battles, I think Last Raven is the best one in that department too. Souls enthusiasts will probably appreciate this game, because the boss fights (specially the Zinaida path) are hard as hell, but well-designed too. In terms of gameplay, this is easily the best, most tightly designed AC. Basically rebalancing and polishing Nexus' gameplay, featuring the updated combat and controls while not suffering from its overheat and ECM mechanics (they're still here, but now being manageable). Thanks to that, you can be a lot more creative with your builds than in Nexus, which already had a lot of builds to try. I had a total of 7 builds that I was adjusting and cycling throughout. Worth mentioning that the arena made a comeback too (no, Nexus' arena doesn't count as one), and it's as fun as any other, probably featuring the hardest arena opponent.
As for negatives, I don't have that much to say apart from a few nitpicks, but while before I mentioned the realistic new look, this could actually be considered the worst looking AC, but not because of the graphics themselves. For some reason, Fromsoft decided to completely ruin the visuals with a permanent scanline and blur filter, and it looks completely AWFUL. Eye-damaging bad. Luckily, you can fix this in PCSX2. But, why add them? So random...
If you're going to play Last Raven, I'd suggest against going the Zinaida path first (known for its difficulty), and instead playing whatever other path you end up with, and leaving Zinaida for your second playthrough, because if not, you're probably going to have a terrible time if you don't own the parts or don't have the experience for it.
My favorite AC so far, with Master of Arena in second. If you don't have time to play the whole series, at least try this one, maybe in conjunction with Nexus to save transfer.
★★★½ – Great ✅
(Only AC I played before, btw. Owned it as a kid, but never could complete the second mission because it was too difficult, and I couldn't understand the language. Loved watching the intro cutscene, though. That's the average latino kid AC experience, I guess lol.)
I'll have to admit I was a little skeptical coming to this game, mostly because when people talk about it, it's not about how good it is, but how hard. But yes, there's actually a good game here if you're curious and don't care about circle-jerking its difficulty.
In difference to other ACs, this one has more of a grim quality, making it feel more realistic in ambiance. Fitting, considering the context of the story: Taking place after the catastrophic events of Nexus, corporations (Crest, Mirage, and Kisaragi) join forces to form Alliance in a last ditch effort for power, but a new organization called Vertex, formed by Ravens, call an ultimatum on them. This final attack will take place in 24 hours (you can actually see the timer update after each mission, giving a sense of desperation). All of this while a new threat of mysterious unmanned weapons called Pulverizers appear.
What separates Last Raven from other ACs, is the different paths you can take in its story. There's a total of 6 paths (with an additional secret ending), each one having their unique sets of missions and bosses, adding replayability that other ACs didn't have. If you enjoyed the occasional twists previous missions had, there's a lot of that here, and if you enjoyed the 1o1 AC fights or unique boss battles, I think Last Raven is the best one in that department too. Souls enthusiasts will probably appreciate this game, because the boss fights (specially the Zinaida path) are hard as hell, but well-designed too. In terms of gameplay, this is easily the best, most tightly designed AC. Basically rebalancing and polishing Nexus' gameplay, featuring the updated combat and controls while not suffering from its overheat and ECM mechanics (they're still here, but now being manageable). Thanks to that, you can be a lot more creative with your builds than in Nexus, which already had a lot of builds to try. I had a total of 7 builds that I was adjusting and cycling throughout. Worth mentioning that the arena made a comeback too (no, Nexus' arena doesn't count as one), and it's as fun as any other, probably featuring the hardest arena opponent.
As for negatives, I don't have that much to say apart from a few nitpicks, but while before I mentioned the realistic new look, this could actually be considered the worst looking AC, but not because of the graphics themselves. For some reason, Fromsoft decided to completely ruin the visuals with a permanent scanline and blur filter, and it looks completely AWFUL. Eye-damaging bad. Luckily, you can fix this in PCSX2. But, why add them? So random...
If you're going to play Last Raven, I'd suggest against going the Zinaida path first (known for its difficulty), and instead playing whatever other path you end up with, and leaving Zinaida for your second playthrough, because if not, you're probably going to have a terrible time if you don't own the parts or don't have the experience for it.
My favorite AC so far, with Master of Arena in second. If you don't have time to play the whole series, at least try this one, maybe in conjunction with Nexus to save transfer.
★★★½ – Great ✅
(Only AC I played before, btw. Owned it as a kid, but never could complete the second mission because it was too difficult, and I couldn't understand the language. Loved watching the intro cutscene, though. That's the average latino kid AC experience, I guess lol.)
i lost my sanity and wanted to break several walls during the runtime
probably the best AC game so far
probably the best AC game so far