This has taken my spot for being the most impressive PS2 launch title. Framerate tanks aside, it still looks and sounds amazing. It expands upon Gen1 in very important ways that make me excited to explore the rest of the PS2 titles. It does still kinda suffer from some utterly tyrannical fights at times though, both arena and story. The final stretch is hellish if you're not built in a really specific way.

Oh also very strong contender for the best OST in the franchise.

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.

The main story is hilariously thin and the arena's top half is CBT-tier even with a really busted build. You basically have to pick garage for some of them if you didn't Human Plus in AC1, or else they will glide around at mach 5 and be the hydrogen bomb to your coughing baby.