This review is gonna be less about verdict day and more about armored core as an entire series, because this was my final game in my marathon of all 15 before 6, but to get it out of the way, verdict day is better then 5 slightly, but worse then every other game. Anyways, this series is fucking phenomonal, i find it baffling this series is so niche, because it really is special, the custmoization is fantastic, most of the bosses are challenging but usually very very good and fair(like youd expect from fromsoft), the stories are dark and intriguing, even the worst ones i couldnt help but get sucked into the plot and (sometimes) characters, and not to mention the gameplay, depending on your preference you are basically playing an entirely different game with different mechs, its fantastic. I've had some very high highs and some very low lows with these games, and after all of it, i only have fond memories, this series is amazing, give it a chance, anyways, See you on the battlefield Ravens.

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.

I made a promise to myself to beat every single armored core game in prep for AC6, and every single game has been good to great so far(besides formula front but that ones like fine I guess), this game, has made my blood boil, more then any other fromsoft game, and i beat pre patch radahn and melania solo. I know what people are thinking who've played this game "its not THAT hard" and youd be correct, its not, its probably not even the second hardest AC game, but it is so tedious, and boring, and overall just unfair compared to the other ones(so far). This game is about becoming a ninebreaker, except its actually not, you cant beat the game by playing the arena, in fact, you can literally not touch the arena once and beat it, this game is actually about tedious training missions that require so much time outside of the actual mission, just recustomizing your mech for a mission because you literally cant do it at all with this mech, you end up switching your entire mech kit every 10 to 15 minutes, and with the amount of parts in this game, usually i spend longer customizing then actually playing with that mech. Anyways, this game sucks, idk how you make an AC game boring and tedious, but they did it, fromsoft can make a bad game seemingly.