Finally, some good fucking food Armored Core with a decent story.
I'll have to admit I was a little skeptical coming to this game, mostly because when people talk about it, it's not about how good it is, but how hard. But yes, there's actually a good game here if you're curious and don't care about circle-jerking its difficulty.
In difference to other ACs, this one has more of a grim quality, making it feel more realistic in ambiance. Fitting, considering the context of the story: Taking place after the catastrophic events of Nexus, corporations (Crest, Mirage, and Kisaragi) join forces to form Alliance in a last ditch effort for power, but a new organization called Vertex, formed by Ravens, call an ultimatum on them. This final attack will take place in 24 hours (you can actually see the timer update after each mission, giving a sense of desperation). All of this while a new threat of mysterious unmanned weapons called Pulverizers appear.
What separates Last Raven from other ACs, is the different paths you can take in its story. There's a total of 6 paths (with an additional secret ending), each one having their unique sets of missions and bosses, adding replayability that other ACs didn't have. If you enjoyed the occasional twists previous missions had, there's a lot of that here, and if you enjoyed the 1o1 AC fights or unique boss battles, I think Last Raven is the best one in that department too. Souls enthusiasts will probably appreciate this game, because the boss fights (specially the Zinaida path) are hard as hell, but well-designed too. In terms of gameplay, this is easily the best, most tightly designed AC. Basically rebalancing and polishing Nexus' gameplay, featuring the updated combat and controls while not suffering from its overheat and ECM mechanics (they're still here, but now being manageable). Thanks to that, you can be a lot more creative with your builds than in Nexus, which already had a lot of builds to try. I had a total of 7 builds that I was adjusting and cycling throughout. Worth mentioning that the arena made a comeback too (no, Nexus' arena doesn't count as one), and it's as fun as any other, probably featuring the hardest arena opponent.
As for negatives, I don't have that much to say apart from a few nitpicks, but while before I mentioned the realistic new look, this could actually be considered the worst looking AC, but not because of the graphics themselves. For some reason, Fromsoft decided to completely ruin the visuals with a permanent scanline and blur filter, and it looks completely AWFUL. Eye-damaging bad. Luckily, you can fix this in PCSX2. But, why add them? So random...
If you're going to play Last Raven, I'd suggest against going the Zinaida path first (known for its difficulty), and instead playing whatever other path you end up with, and leaving Zinaida for your second playthrough, because if not, you're probably going to have a terrible time if you don't own the parts or don't have the experience for it.
My favorite AC so far, with Master of Arena in second. If you don't have time to play the whole series, at least try this one, maybe in conjunction with Nexus to save transfer.
★★★½ – Great ✅
(Only AC I played before, btw. Owned it as a kid, but never could complete the second mission because it was too difficult, and I couldn't understand the language. Loved watching the intro cutscene, though. That's the average latino kid AC experience, I guess lol.)
I'll have to admit I was a little skeptical coming to this game, mostly because when people talk about it, it's not about how good it is, but how hard. But yes, there's actually a good game here if you're curious and don't care about circle-jerking its difficulty.
In difference to other ACs, this one has more of a grim quality, making it feel more realistic in ambiance. Fitting, considering the context of the story: Taking place after the catastrophic events of Nexus, corporations (Crest, Mirage, and Kisaragi) join forces to form Alliance in a last ditch effort for power, but a new organization called Vertex, formed by Ravens, call an ultimatum on them. This final attack will take place in 24 hours (you can actually see the timer update after each mission, giving a sense of desperation). All of this while a new threat of mysterious unmanned weapons called Pulverizers appear.
What separates Last Raven from other ACs, is the different paths you can take in its story. There's a total of 6 paths (with an additional secret ending), each one having their unique sets of missions and bosses, adding replayability that other ACs didn't have. If you enjoyed the occasional twists previous missions had, there's a lot of that here, and if you enjoyed the 1o1 AC fights or unique boss battles, I think Last Raven is the best one in that department too. Souls enthusiasts will probably appreciate this game, because the boss fights (specially the Zinaida path) are hard as hell, but well-designed too. In terms of gameplay, this is easily the best, most tightly designed AC. Basically rebalancing and polishing Nexus' gameplay, featuring the updated combat and controls while not suffering from its overheat and ECM mechanics (they're still here, but now being manageable). Thanks to that, you can be a lot more creative with your builds than in Nexus, which already had a lot of builds to try. I had a total of 7 builds that I was adjusting and cycling throughout. Worth mentioning that the arena made a comeback too (no, Nexus' arena doesn't count as one), and it's as fun as any other, probably featuring the hardest arena opponent.
As for negatives, I don't have that much to say apart from a few nitpicks, but while before I mentioned the realistic new look, this could actually be considered the worst looking AC, but not because of the graphics themselves. For some reason, Fromsoft decided to completely ruin the visuals with a permanent scanline and blur filter, and it looks completely AWFUL. Eye-damaging bad. Luckily, you can fix this in PCSX2. But, why add them? So random...
If you're going to play Last Raven, I'd suggest against going the Zinaida path first (known for its difficulty), and instead playing whatever other path you end up with, and leaving Zinaida for your second playthrough, because if not, you're probably going to have a terrible time if you don't own the parts or don't have the experience for it.
My favorite AC so far, with Master of Arena in second. If you don't have time to play the whole series, at least try this one, maybe in conjunction with Nexus to save transfer.
★★★½ – Great ✅
(Only AC I played before, btw. Owned it as a kid, but never could complete the second mission because it was too difficult, and I couldn't understand the language. Loved watching the intro cutscene, though. That's the average latino kid AC experience, I guess lol.)
2 Comments
@Blowing_Wind A menos queee... mirando a AC:For Answer 👀
Blowing_Wind
8 months ago