’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.