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.)