This is gonna be a hot take, but so far in my journey through armored core (playing them in order so havent touched past 4) this was the most meh game to me, the different routes are a cool idea, but with how frustrating the first route i did was, i cannot fathom wanting to see the others, and the part destruction system just seems to be a system that only punishes the player, and not because they messed up, but just because, armored core has always punished you for mistakes, like not enough ammo, too much weight and you arent fast enough to finish this mission, and youd restart and remake your mech, this one is different, youre punished for actually completing a mission, and not only when your parts are destroyed, but also when you come out with most of your health, because once youve used a part it loses value and if youre unhappy with it after beating a mission, and want to replace it, you lose money because youve already used it. These systems are just, not fun, they only serve to make a game harder, but with other fromsoft games those systems can be overcome, this one its just luck, my favorite moment in the first ac game was purchasing a part playing a mission, really not liking it, and realizing i get ALL of my money back no matter what, this game wanted me to experiment, it wanted me to find the right mech for me, while it never held my hand, it wanted to see me succeed and gave me the tools to do that, i never felt like this in last raven, i didnt feel like the game necessarily hated me, but it definitely didnt feel like it loved me, the game controls great, but these systems just go against everything the rest of the armored core series (and from soft games past and present) are about, and i cant reccomend it for that.