To be clear, I think Armored Core 4 was an aggressively mid game. A mid game with interesting foundations, but a mid game nonetheless. Everything from its mechanics to its story were major nothingburgers that stand out among not just this franchise, but the catalog of one of our medium's most storied directors. While iffy on a lot of For Answer at first, to say this game grew on me would be an understatement. I've nearly completed it 5 times at this point, finished every mission on both difficulties and S-ranked every mission on normal and hard. I think that says it all.

But beyond that, I think the gameplay is great and consistently thrilling, if not a bit lacking in the precision and strategy that I so loved from previous AC games. For what it lacks in its "AC-ness" it makes up for in fulfilling 4's goal of making fights feel as spectacular and as "anime" as possible. Seeing your NEXTs zip and zoom around these vast and empty landscapes, taking down colossal Arms Forts in a Herculean manner, dueling other NEXTs in high-octane combat, of which are among the series' most fun encounters despite lacking the mechanical finesse that oldgen duels had. Customization and garage-tinkering are as fun as ever, and it's a thrill coming up with some monster of a build to throw into this game's wide open sandbox levels and see it wreak havoc on some poor normals and MTs. It's all just a blast, though I think you really need those multiple playthroughs to really click with it; I don't think one playthrough does this game justice. I would know since I didn't quite love my first go-around. Still, you know it's fun when the rewards are damn near nonexistent and I still continue playing. I'm not the busiest person in the world, but I still need to manage my time which is why I rarely replay games unless I think they're worth replaying, and boy is this game worth replaying and then some.

Monumental a highlight as the gameplay is, I really want to zero in on the story here because I think it's probably what struck me the hardest about this game. I think the thing that 4A consistently does better than even the great works that Miyazaki would go on to direct would be the feeling of dread present. Miyazaki's games are known for their dread, but all with a tinge of hope as to not feel completely devoid; I think someting like Bloodborne stands as an example of this, and a game more hopeful than most give it credit for. While 4A does retain this lingering sense of hope, he hadn't quite found his footing as far as organically weaving it into the narrative.

For Answer is, however, the master of the simultaneous desolation and sentimentality that characterizes Miyazaki's style. His Ueda influences are as clear as ever, with the giant, spectacular Arms Fort fights, the meditative nature of the setting, and Kota Hoshino's complementary OST feeding into the quietude and desolation that Miyazaki so loves to imitate and integrate.

One thing I didn't quite love about the game's story on my first go-around was the mission structure. In past experience, it most resembles its direct predecessor, as well as ACVI. I've gone out of my way on social media to critique how VI's mission and chapter structure is pretty weak and overly linear compared to oldgen, and how I'd love a return to form with a sequel or something. Good to know that 4 and 4A were the progenitors of those ideas, with set chapters and a more concrete narrative structure.

Where For Answer just about outdoes VI in this regard are the sanctions in places within its structure. VI has a handful of choice missions that force you to choose between 2, sometimes 3 missions, often of little consequence until NG++. 4A, at face value, seems pretty similar, though the limited number of missions per chapter (an element that I didn't love at first but eventually grew on me) and the more involved nature of the corporations in its mission pathing (compare this to VI, where the corps only ever exist in the story and have no bearing on branching paths and new mission unlocks throughout your three playthroughs) put 4A handily over its indirect successor for me.

I also commend and appreciation 4A's use of perspective within its different routes. A lot of multiple ending based games do this, though more so than a lot of them, For Answer's potent ideology-focused narrative benefits from perspective the most. While oldgen AC's approach to siding with rivalling corps bordered on almost comical at times, 4A's approach is a lot more serious. NG+ has you playing from a whole different perspective compared to the first playthrough, from siding with Line Ark, to attacking Arteria Carpals instead of defending it, to killing Wynne D as opposed to fighting alongside her. This approach really lends some dimensionality to the world that would otherwise be lost with a single playthrough, and takes oldgen's "haha I'm siding with two rivalling corporations at the same time" and really gives it the gravitas it needs to be a powerful narrative tool; one that befits Miyazaki's narrative style and inspires 4A's dichotomic hope and dread alike.

Nowhere is the dread more present in For Answer as it is in the game's endings. I think the endings prove better than anything the sheer uncompromising and unforgiving nature of For Answer's world. Miyazaki took a page out of Judith Jarvis Thomson's book here and really pulled out all the stops to make the game's ethical dilemma feels as hopeless as possible. You can imagine just how much pressure weighs on the shoulders of Thermidor, Wynne D, Old King, Malzel, White Glint & Fiona, and hell, basically everyone in this godforsaken world, though the former two take precedence, especially in the game's final missions.

It's much harder to be a good, or event a decent person than to be a bad one, and nowhere is it more evident with not only with Wynne and Thermidor, but yourself as well. You can imagine just how much pressure even living in a world as hopeless as this is putting on Strayed. It's a wonder they didn't break sooner than they did prior to siding with Old King, like an actual genuine marvel of human willpower, and it's also even more disheartening to know that "Destroy Cradle 03" is probably the easiest mission in the whole game. Strayed breaks under pressure and decides "fuck it lmao" and takes the easy way out: to fight for absolutely nothing whatsoever, and the weird this is that as fucked up as it is, I don't blame them; the world is fucked either way, why go through all this trouble to fight for it?

I can respect idealists like Wynne D and Thermidor (and hell, even Old King to a certain extent) because they at least tried to fight for what they believed was right, even if the only options were to kill or let die (or whatever the hell the Closed Plan was). I finished the third ending instilled with a sense of dread (and frustration at Arteria Carpals, fuck that shit lmfao), knowing that no matter what, this world is doomed, and that Strayed fought for naught in the end. An ironic twist on the platonic ideal of the Raven that the series has been pushing since 1997, even more so if you have the WG core equipped in that final cutscene: Strayed flies off into the sunset on a pair of false raven wings to bring death to billions for no good reason, for a purpose that wasn't even their own, for the goal of a man who was tenfold as maniacal but tenfold as purposeful, that same man now presumably lying dead as that goal is carried out by a broken, young, purposeless Lynx. It's unimaginably tragic, perhaps the most tragic thing Miyazaki's written, and given his track record of those kinds of stories, I think that says it all.

Still, what struck me most wasn't that ending, but what came after: the end credtis, in which you hear the title screen theme: 'Someone is Always Moving on the Surface'. An apt description of what I took away from this game. Dim as it may be, the faint hope that is so characteristic of Miyazaki's style prevails. Despite the plague, famine, and desolation that has befallen Earth, someone is always moving on the surface.

"Is that your answer? So be it..."