Some absolutely stinker missions and balance changes I really don't like, but it's still more first gen AC so it's fine.
Even better ost, even more part customization, even more arena mode. Story strikes a nice balance between the intrigue of AC1 and the focus of PP while integrating the arena in. Missions are varied enough too. It is the best of PS1 Armored Core.
Wow, I would say this expansion is a great ending to AC1 and the PS1 era of the franchise, while it has its campagin it adds a whole lot of emphasis on the arena mode which is great by itself as it becomes standard in future games.
soundtrack is incredible with some breackcore addition, the controls while still slighlty suffers from no analogs, felt satisfying.
Missions got a lot better with the story having more depth, the final boss I would say is the peak of the PS1 era even though it still is a tough fight.
Overall this is a fantastic climax to AC1 and is even a great introduction to the franchise.
8.5/10 waiter waiter more nine-balls please
soundtrack is incredible with some breackcore addition, the controls while still slighlty suffers from no analogs, felt satisfying.
Missions got a lot better with the story having more depth, the final boss I would say is the peak of the PS1 era even though it still is a tough fight.
Overall this is a fantastic climax to AC1 and is even a great introduction to the franchise.
8.5/10 waiter waiter more nine-balls please
Definitely succeeds at being the pinnacle of Gen1 and damn cool Armored Core in its own right. Arena balancing feels much less bonkers and the main story has a very nice variety and doesn't absolutely obliterate you. The final boss was surprisingly not as bad as some led me to believe.
Amazing, tremendous, this should be the introduction game to all mecha followers
Awesome game. Parts balance is way better but finger is still super broken if you just have even half an idea how to build.
An actual story and a bit of polish really goes a long way in making master of arena the best ps1 armored core . My AC1 savefile kinda made this game too easy but eh , had fun
They took 3 games and perfected the formula. Play it.
(Shameless copy of my Project Phantasma notes) More of the same post-AC1. If you really want to go back and play all of these games, I'm sure you'll like MoA just as much as AC1, but I don't see any reason to burn through all of them knowing that there are plenty of QoL changes down the road for the series!
Actual, unrestraint banger. One of the few times I've ever sat down to complete a game in its entirety within one sitting. This is really where AC starts to blossom in nearly every single facet. Sound design, soundtrack, design and presentation etc etc. This is an apex for the series and by far the crowning jewl of the first generation. Honestly just cleans the rest of the Generation off the map with how much content is in this and how well realized all of the missions and story is.
This has essentially everything you'd want from an AC game with the added bonus of having an obtuse second disk for almost 100 ish extra arena battles. This game has some of the most consistent level design implenetation, along with some of the more memorable AC battles. It's also, as a whole, quite fair. None of the AC battles (outside maybe some of the Extra Arena ones) are downright bullshit like Project Phantasma. The missons and battles are challenging whilst being consistent; I think that's very important for an AC game and this game does just that.
Really, really good.
Side Note: this is Kota Hoshino's first contribution to the AC soundtrack. Goddamn, is it good. Like seriously. Truly one of the best to do it.
This has essentially everything you'd want from an AC game with the added bonus of having an obtuse second disk for almost 100 ish extra arena battles. This game has some of the most consistent level design implenetation, along with some of the more memorable AC battles. It's also, as a whole, quite fair. None of the AC battles (outside maybe some of the Extra Arena ones) are downright bullshit like Project Phantasma. The missons and battles are challenging whilst being consistent; I think that's very important for an AC game and this game does just that.
Really, really good.
Side Note: this is Kota Hoshino's first contribution to the AC soundtrack. Goddamn, is it good. Like seriously. Truly one of the best to do it.
’Armored Core: Master Of Arena’ is sort of an odd title for me. This was the point where I wanted something a bit more than what was just an expansion to the first title, but at the same time, this is a good fucking expansion. It really builds on everything from the base game and ’Project Phantasma’. That being said, I was surprised by its difficulty. I struggled much more here than the previous two entries. The difficulty wasn’t out of annoyance such as some of the content in the first title, but more a complete fair challenge.
The biggest thing it has to differentiate itself is that the arena mode incorporates itself into the story. While progressing through the game's missions as normal, there will be some points you won’t be able to progress unless you do some arena fights. I was concerned about this at first, but it’s actually incorporated and paced very well. The main missions in the game don’t hold back on AC fights because of this though, ’Master Of Arena’ has the most AC fights in the main campaign. They’re all really good. Some of the final few AC fights and bosses are extraordinarily difficult, but well made. I do think the missions themselves don’t have as many interesting locations as ’Project Phantasma’, but the unique ones that are there really do stick out.
The music has a lot more unique tracks specifically to this game that I was able to recall. The music in the base game I mentioned previously was spectacular, but there’s one song in particular here that I really enjoyed that I wanted to talk about. This was the track that played in the mission ’Enemy Fortress’. It’s a tough mission that has you defeating multiple turrets, tanks, and closes with a fight against one of the more nimble ACs. The track that plays is a lot more of an emotional pretty song than something really fun that usually plays. The song specifically resonated with me specifically and kind of was the moment ’Armored Core’ and I clicked together. The song is titled ’Ambiguity’ and it’s composed by Koto Hoshino for those curious on the actual song. Yeah, the music in this game is amazing and it’s one of the huge driving points for me and my love for these games.
The story of ’Armored Core: Master Of Arena’ is like the previous games, being fun and silly. I haven't talked much about the core themes of these games because I’ve wanted to avoid spoiling stuff for other folks and I’ll be quite honest, I’m horrible with speaking of stories without spoiling them so I tend to be very short talking about them. ’Master Of Arena’ has a really decent, fun story though and I really enjoyed my time experiencing it all happen just like the previous two games.
I mentioned at the start how I wished for a bit more than just an expansion to the first title, but that may be a bit unfair to criticize as that isn’t what this is and it isn’t trying to be that. I played these games back to back for hours on end so if you plan on playing the games like I do then don’t play them for incredibly long back to back because you may end up tiring yourself. That’s more my fault than anything, but I thought it was worth bringing up.
’Master Of Arena’ is a simple title and doesn’t have a lot in terms of really new ideas, but is by far the most polished and well crafted of the PS1 games. Although I say this, I do have a preference towards ’Project Phantasma’. Not for any distinct reason that I know of, I just enjoyed the missions a little more there I think, but that doesn’t take away from this title. If you were a fan of the previous games, you’ll love ’Master Of Arena’. It’s insane how many franchises are under From Software’s belt that have been incredibly important to me. They have ultimately skyrocketed to be one of my favorite studios and I’m really happy to have given so many of their games a chance.
The biggest thing it has to differentiate itself is that the arena mode incorporates itself into the story. While progressing through the game's missions as normal, there will be some points you won’t be able to progress unless you do some arena fights. I was concerned about this at first, but it’s actually incorporated and paced very well. The main missions in the game don’t hold back on AC fights because of this though, ’Master Of Arena’ has the most AC fights in the main campaign. They’re all really good. Some of the final few AC fights and bosses are extraordinarily difficult, but well made. I do think the missions themselves don’t have as many interesting locations as ’Project Phantasma’, but the unique ones that are there really do stick out.
The music has a lot more unique tracks specifically to this game that I was able to recall. The music in the base game I mentioned previously was spectacular, but there’s one song in particular here that I really enjoyed that I wanted to talk about. This was the track that played in the mission ’Enemy Fortress’. It’s a tough mission that has you defeating multiple turrets, tanks, and closes with a fight against one of the more nimble ACs. The track that plays is a lot more of an emotional pretty song than something really fun that usually plays. The song specifically resonated with me specifically and kind of was the moment ’Armored Core’ and I clicked together. The song is titled ’Ambiguity’ and it’s composed by Koto Hoshino for those curious on the actual song. Yeah, the music in this game is amazing and it’s one of the huge driving points for me and my love for these games.
The story of ’Armored Core: Master Of Arena’ is like the previous games, being fun and silly. I haven't talked much about the core themes of these games because I’ve wanted to avoid spoiling stuff for other folks and I’ll be quite honest, I’m horrible with speaking of stories without spoiling them so I tend to be very short talking about them. ’Master Of Arena’ has a really decent, fun story though and I really enjoyed my time experiencing it all happen just like the previous two games.
I mentioned at the start how I wished for a bit more than just an expansion to the first title, but that may be a bit unfair to criticize as that isn’t what this is and it isn’t trying to be that. I played these games back to back for hours on end so if you plan on playing the games like I do then don’t play them for incredibly long back to back because you may end up tiring yourself. That’s more my fault than anything, but I thought it was worth bringing up.
’Master Of Arena’ is a simple title and doesn’t have a lot in terms of really new ideas, but is by far the most polished and well crafted of the PS1 games. Although I say this, I do have a preference towards ’Project Phantasma’. Not for any distinct reason that I know of, I just enjoyed the missions a little more there I think, but that doesn’t take away from this title. If you were a fan of the previous games, you’ll love ’Master Of Arena’. It’s insane how many franchises are under From Software’s belt that have been incredibly important to me. They have ultimately skyrocketed to be one of my favorite studios and I’m really happy to have given so many of their games a chance.
In terms of gameplay is for far the peak of the PSx trilogy, they learned from their mistakes at the previous game and improve every single aspects of it. Only lacks in history because is too generic and it doesn't have the magic of the first one, BUT WHO CARES, THE GIANT ROBOT MAKES PIUM PIUM AND IT FEELS GOOD
So, Armored Core and Project Phantasma were good. To be clear. Nonetheless:
This is where Armored Core gets good.
Much like Project Phantasma before it, Master of Arena is much shorter than the first game, at least going by the number of missions. Also much like PP, this is not really a bad thing. MoA does not particularly have time for tedious or repetitive missions. They're not exactly the standout best in the series, but they're solid.
But the more interesting thing about progression in MoA is that it doesn't all happen in missions. The title is a bit of a giveaway, but unlike in most Armored Core games, the 1v1 duels of the Arena mode are, here, a mandatory part of the story. Mission progress and arena progress gate each other by turns; there will often simply be no missions available until you've spent some time in the arena, and you need separate authorizations, earned after certain missions, to be allowed to challenge different ranks of arena opponents. This could feel restrictive, I suppose, but to me it was a fun way of pacing and structuring the game. You're never doing One Thing for too long, and the fact that you never really know when you're going to get more story can do a surprising amount of work to keep you on your toes.
Said story is probably the thing that makes the game stand out most, at least in relation to very early-series Armored Core. The reason the arena plays such a large role in the game is that you're playing as one of the few AC protagonists to start the game with a specific, stated goal all his own. To wit: a Raven killed your family, and you became one to hunt him down. Complication: the guy you're looking for is called Hustler One, pilot of the AC Nineball, who also happens to be world's top-ranked Raven and the reigning Arena champion. Unlike most Ravens, for the MoA protagonist, mercenary work is the side hustle, a means to an end; he's here to climb the Arena ladder until he gets Nineball in the ring, and murder him.
(Well. Hustler One is who he wants to murder, but it's generally fandom convention that it's fine to just call the character Nineball, for several reasons including the fact that the early games themselves tend to use pilot and AC names pretty interchangeably. But also crucially for the reason that Nineball is fun to say.)
You're still a silent protagonist, but right out of the gate this is a lot of agency and personal investment for an Armored Core protag. There's also an interesting bit of continuity into AC2, or at least a popular and pretty well-supported fan theory about that.The downside is you have to play AC2.
The Nineball stuff is all particularly intriguing if you've played AC1, which also features Nineball as the top ranker and as a major antagonist. I won't spoil what his Whole Deal is, but suffice to say it's both a huge cliche and a pretty fun twist in terms of execution. The "sports anime with a revenge plot" setup goes off the rails very excitingly, culminating in a final boss that is one of my favorite fights (and robot designs, play the game quick, they're reissuing the model kit and preorders are still open--) in the series.
I'll be honest, I did legitimately like the game overall better than the other PS1 entries, but that boss by itself accounts for quite a lot of why I rank it so high in the series as a whole. It feels like something out of a bigger-budget series; it's got more cinematic oomph than anything in even most of the later AC games.
The music also bears mentioning. Honestly it's borne mentioning in most of the games and I've been neglecting it in my reviews (I think both the gen 4 games sound even better), but it must be said that Master of Arena's soundtrack is a big standout for gen 1. Old-school AC music is always catchy, and has a distinctly eclectic style, but more than one song in MoA steps up into Banger territory.
Master of Arena is great, but it does not, exactly, stand on its own. The story is closely related to that of the first game, to the extent that this one's ending might not make sense without having played it; most of its content is bonus arena modes (the main arena is integrated into the story, but there's enough other shit to do that the game had a second disc); you'll even have a hard time grinding money to put together a good AC if you didn't transfer a save file. It's got "gaiden" written all over it, a side game between main entries. But goddammit, it's a really good gaiden. I'd go so far as to say that playing Master of Arena is a really good argument in favor of playing Armored Core 1.
And also, again, god the fucking robot is cool.
This is where Armored Core gets good.
Much like Project Phantasma before it, Master of Arena is much shorter than the first game, at least going by the number of missions. Also much like PP, this is not really a bad thing. MoA does not particularly have time for tedious or repetitive missions. They're not exactly the standout best in the series, but they're solid.
But the more interesting thing about progression in MoA is that it doesn't all happen in missions. The title is a bit of a giveaway, but unlike in most Armored Core games, the 1v1 duels of the Arena mode are, here, a mandatory part of the story. Mission progress and arena progress gate each other by turns; there will often simply be no missions available until you've spent some time in the arena, and you need separate authorizations, earned after certain missions, to be allowed to challenge different ranks of arena opponents. This could feel restrictive, I suppose, but to me it was a fun way of pacing and structuring the game. You're never doing One Thing for too long, and the fact that you never really know when you're going to get more story can do a surprising amount of work to keep you on your toes.
Said story is probably the thing that makes the game stand out most, at least in relation to very early-series Armored Core. The reason the arena plays such a large role in the game is that you're playing as one of the few AC protagonists to start the game with a specific, stated goal all his own. To wit: a Raven killed your family, and you became one to hunt him down. Complication: the guy you're looking for is called Hustler One, pilot of the AC Nineball, who also happens to be world's top-ranked Raven and the reigning Arena champion. Unlike most Ravens, for the MoA protagonist, mercenary work is the side hustle, a means to an end; he's here to climb the Arena ladder until he gets Nineball in the ring, and murder him.
(Well. Hustler One is who he wants to murder, but it's generally fandom convention that it's fine to just call the character Nineball, for several reasons including the fact that the early games themselves tend to use pilot and AC names pretty interchangeably. But also crucially for the reason that Nineball is fun to say.)
You're still a silent protagonist, but right out of the gate this is a lot of agency and personal investment for an Armored Core protag. There's also an interesting bit of continuity into AC2, or at least a popular and pretty well-supported fan theory about that.
The Nineball stuff is all particularly intriguing if you've played AC1, which also features Nineball as the top ranker and as a major antagonist. I won't spoil what his Whole Deal is, but suffice to say it's both a huge cliche and a pretty fun twist in terms of execution. The "sports anime with a revenge plot" setup goes off the rails very excitingly, culminating in a final boss that is one of my favorite fights (and robot designs, play the game quick, they're reissuing the model kit and preorders are still open--) in the series.
I'll be honest, I did legitimately like the game overall better than the other PS1 entries, but that boss by itself accounts for quite a lot of why I rank it so high in the series as a whole. It feels like something out of a bigger-budget series; it's got more cinematic oomph than anything in even most of the later AC games.
The music also bears mentioning. Honestly it's borne mentioning in most of the games and I've been neglecting it in my reviews (I think both the gen 4 games sound even better), but it must be said that Master of Arena's soundtrack is a big standout for gen 1. Old-school AC music is always catchy, and has a distinctly eclectic style, but more than one song in MoA steps up into Banger territory.
Master of Arena is great, but it does not, exactly, stand on its own. The story is closely related to that of the first game, to the extent that this one's ending might not make sense without having played it; most of its content is bonus arena modes (the main arena is integrated into the story, but there's enough other shit to do that the game had a second disc); you'll even have a hard time grinding money to put together a good AC if you didn't transfer a save file. It's got "gaiden" written all over it, a side game between main entries. But goddammit, it's a really good gaiden. I'd go so far as to say that playing Master of Arena is a really good argument in favor of playing Armored Core 1.
And also, again, god the fucking robot is cool.
The way this game incorporates both it's story missions and arena is honestly impressive, demarcation of the main arena until later in the game means that you can't just get insanely rich early game and blitz through the missions, and you actually have a real plot incentive to do so once you gain access. There's also a very notable increase in enemy AC encounters in this game, making learning more advanced movement tactics imperative. The game ends with a sick reveal and probably the coldest bossfight in the trilogy. I would very likely have put this over AC1 if it weren't so bloody short
The story is as short (maybe shorter?) as Project Phantasma, but it expands upon the ending of AC1 in a really satisfying way. I don’t think the mission design was as strong as AC:PP but I also wouldn’t say there were any low-points. Most of the missions are some variation of “destroy every enemy”. The final mission absolutely lived up to the hype, though. I don’t think this surpasses AC1, but it’s an excellent expansion and a great ending to a great trilogy.
absolutely the peak of ps1 armored core. not perfect, the arena is sorta tedious cause every enemy kinda fights the same way and it's not a very fun way and the final boss is. something. but otherwise i think this game rocked. ost is amazing (the start of kota hoshino's career with fromsoft i believe and it is a really really strong one), the gameplay is just as fun as the other two games, and i actually sorta enjoy the story. i didn't really care for project phantasma's, it was boring and uninteresting and all that, but i think this one worked really well. it feels like a great end to the original game's raven's nest and hustler one stuff and idk i'm just a fan
Fantastic from beginning to end, not just 1st gen at its best but one of the highlights of the series for sure.
This review contains spoilers
Master of Arena was a mixed bag for me. Starting with the story, we are a pilot who wants revenge on Nine Ball for killing our family. We work with Lana Nielson, a Raven's Nest rep to get us into missions and a sponsor for the arena. Progtech sponsors us, they have us do some emergency missions not authorized by Lana. She gets pissed and basically tells us off and that we're done. It's revealed that Lana and Hustler One are the same, so we fight them three times and then fight Nine Ball Seraph. After we win, Raven's Nest shuts down. I'm confused on when this game takes place, was it before or after the first game? We destroyed the AI in the first one so it's slightly confusing. I am also confused at what Nine Ball said, they said they created the Raven's Nest (which I get) but that they also made AC's and the corps? This doesn't make much sense unless they meant in a figurative sense. While I liked doing arena fights to progress the game it also meant we did less sorties, which really affected playtime. GP is the same as the last two games. The karasawa (my beloved) absolutely destroyed everything and made it relatively easy. Nothing was too hard apart from Nine Ball Seraph. I was worried this would be another AC PP fight but I made my AC absolutely tanked out and blasted with the karasawa (my beloved) and amazingly this worked. I also found it funny that Hustler One would show up randomly, with him just exploding the hacker in the first sorty. But the controls still hold this back immensely, similar to the 1st gen games.
Robo-CINEMA
Best of the first generation. Hard and fun.
El mejor de los ACs en PSX, no hay discusión.
Better presentation, better cutscenes, better variety of builds thanks to new parts, better pacing, better missions, better everything. This is the peak of the first gen of AC, and finally a final boss worthy of the name. This is where I experimented the most, where I discovered that the tank REALLY breaks up the game so much, you just have to stand still and do more damage than your opponents to win fights in the Arena.
more of ac1 with a couple more awful missions but some improvements in other regards. kind of a sidegrade really
Best 1st gen game hands down. Love how the arena is implemented and the missions are a step up from the previous two games.
100% Story Completition + won against every sub-Arena challenger + won against some Ex-Arena challengers
'Master of Arena' made me feel a little silly for most of what I said about 'Project Phantasma', as I realise now there was little actual innovation I needed to find the mechanics and systems of the first generation 'Armored Core' engaging again. Instead, 'Master of Arena' boasts better pacing, mission quality and another simple but still compelling narrative dressing to make this easily the best of FromSoftware's output on the original Playstation.
Of the titular notion, the Arena mode in this game has become more eloquently entwined with the selection of missions rather than feeling like an odd side gig. I never resented that feeling but I wouldn't have ever guessed how much I'd appreciate a more directed and paced inclusion as we see here, motivation to do it felt far less intrinsic as it did in 'Project Phantasma', who's generous economy made it more a training ground than a side hustle. 'Master of Arena', eager to maintain an approachable figure to those not loading a memory card, solves this with it's more visionary integration, making the game more enticing to play for long stretches as well as keeping the designers from having to do much more number crunching.
The aforementioned missions the Arena dances with in 'Armored Core: Master of Arena' are of course, just like the previous expansion, well learned of the lessons of the previous, and thus are a small array of Generation 1's finest. There was only one which I found frustrating or overlong, and that was in a good way, which shall be talked about soon, but first is credit to be given to the presentational qualities of these maps. These Playstation titles have never had poor soundtracks by any means, but I heard a noticeable increase in the quality of the techno I was hearing here than the other entries, and while levels don't look drastically better than anything in 'Phantasma', there's far less forgettable blurs of small yet sparse areas found in the first entry, and the environments of most levels has something worth noting about it, be it some quirk of design or just a very sound atmosphere.
Attention must be given to the final act of this game which, good god above, has maybe one of the hardest things this studio has put to disc. At least you could skip Nine-Ball in the debut game, but this time there was no running away from what is maybe one of the hardest boss fights I've done in a good while. The Nine-Balls[s] and Seraph are an utterly grueling prototype of the FromSoftware endurance fight and they were the singular frustrating and overlong part of this game, but to be perfectly honest, it is—to put it academically—metal as fuck. Packed in with a neat twist reveal to spice up what has been a simple tale of revenge to a backdrop of the same, unmoved hyper-capitalist dystopia all the entries have been in at this point, the dialogue and voice acting are genuinely really awesome building up to the wild fight itself.
So that's Generation 1 wrapped up for me, not bad. This is the only entry I feel much interest in maybe returning to one day and that's definitely worth something. That was a lot of fun, hopefully Nine-Ball stays down for now, that would be nice.
Of the titular notion, the Arena mode in this game has become more eloquently entwined with the selection of missions rather than feeling like an odd side gig. I never resented that feeling but I wouldn't have ever guessed how much I'd appreciate a more directed and paced inclusion as we see here, motivation to do it felt far less intrinsic as it did in 'Project Phantasma', who's generous economy made it more a training ground than a side hustle. 'Master of Arena', eager to maintain an approachable figure to those not loading a memory card, solves this with it's more visionary integration, making the game more enticing to play for long stretches as well as keeping the designers from having to do much more number crunching.
The aforementioned missions the Arena dances with in 'Armored Core: Master of Arena' are of course, just like the previous expansion, well learned of the lessons of the previous, and thus are a small array of Generation 1's finest. There was only one which I found frustrating or overlong, and that was in a good way, which shall be talked about soon, but first is credit to be given to the presentational qualities of these maps. These Playstation titles have never had poor soundtracks by any means, but I heard a noticeable increase in the quality of the techno I was hearing here than the other entries, and while levels don't look drastically better than anything in 'Phantasma', there's far less forgettable blurs of small yet sparse areas found in the first entry, and the environments of most levels has something worth noting about it, be it some quirk of design or just a very sound atmosphere.
Attention must be given to the final act of this game which, good god above, has maybe one of the hardest things this studio has put to disc. At least you could skip Nine-Ball in the debut game, but this time there was no running away from what is maybe one of the hardest boss fights I've done in a good while. The Nine-Balls[s] and Seraph are an utterly grueling prototype of the FromSoftware endurance fight and they were the singular frustrating and overlong part of this game, but to be perfectly honest, it is—to put it academically—metal as fuck. Packed in with a neat twist reveal to spice up what has been a simple tale of revenge to a backdrop of the same, unmoved hyper-capitalist dystopia all the entries have been in at this point, the dialogue and voice acting are genuinely really awesome building up to the wild fight itself.
So that's Generation 1 wrapped up for me, not bad. This is the only entry I feel much interest in maybe returning to one day and that's definitely worth something. That was a lot of fun, hopefully Nine-Ball stays down for now, that would be nice.
this one goes crazy i looove the integration of arena with the story. and while it's nothing to blow me away (especially with how awkward the translations still felt) it was a really cool buildup to the final boss and fight and it's stuck with me ever since. the best of the 1st games for sure.
Nineball
She Hustler on my One until I Nine Ball (Its Armored Core 1 some more.)
Probably on the same tier as Project Phantasma to me, with maybe a smidge less interesting missions and arena, although I will say this game's story is way better than Phantasma's, nothing as good as the original's.
Felt like I kinda glided through this game honestly, like I just disassociated for 3 hours and then finished.
Hustler One my goat.
Felt like I kinda glided through this game honestly, like I just disassociated for 3 hours and then finished.
Hustler One my goat.