Now this is a tough one cuz I consider this one a near perfect game. If I were to look for anything to complain about it would probably be... The Difficulty? It's considerably easier than a lot of the other entries in the X series. Makes the Sigma stages feel specially short, too.

But I don't really consider it a bad thing! It makes it very accessible and is probably why I replayed this one so much as a kid.

Ehhh... It really could've used some good boss fights.

(Not even the expansions help in this regard, sadly lmao)

Those goddamn pots and their random effects once you break them. It's not so bad in the beginning when you have a chance to spawn a small enemy like a scorpion or spider, but once they start exploding into huge projectiles is when it gets really dodgy.

Kinda breaks the whole purpose of them since they're necessary for ammo/health, but you can waste either of them if you're not careful.

Flawless game but I have to admit: Installing it, getting all the mods/fixes, adjusting the controls to my liking and the way the flashlight toggle is set to steam's screenshot button will forever annoy me and ruin a lot of my enthusiasm to go back to it.

This DESPERATELY needs a remaster. Hoping Night Dive gets to it someday... 👀

Pausing the game does not pause the in-game clock, which could potentially fuck up any speedrun attempt unless you're constantly playing (or stopping at a save room).

That's honestly just atrocious. lol

The combat in later portions of the game become pretty easy once you're leveled enough. It's a bit of a shame since it can ruin the pacing for certain boss fights.

In a way it's ALMOST the best in the Armored Core series. But it's held back by having the most redundant mission progression if you wanna play this game to completion. The amount of playthroughs you need to experience all endings + a couple more of them to trigger any mission you might have missed + S-rank-ing EVERYTHING just to unlock the secret boss fight... Jesus christ.

I honestly gave up by the time I got all endings, it was just getting way too time consuming for me.