I haven’t played Armored Core since Last Raven back in 2005, I could never finish cause it was just too hard for me. As a mechs fan I just kept playing the same few stages I could complete just because because I wanted to pilot the robots. Now its 2023 and we have the new installment on the franchise called Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon. I was originally not going to pick up the game but then I remembered I was able to finish Elden Ring multiple times and the game is from the same studio, lets give it another shot. So here we are playing the game and doing “okay”.
Chapter 1 of the game is a great introduction to the world of Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon. The opening cutscene sets the tone for the game with excellent graphics that keep you immersed in the world of Rubicon. The game’s first mission “Illegal Entry” starts of easy, its basically a tutorial. You defeat all the enemies using the skills the tutorial teaches you how to use and it all looks good. Until… that damn helicopter shows up to make you regret buying the game. It took me almost two hours on stream to finally get the hang of it and finish off the first boss in the game. Strangely, even though the fight took me forever to finish I was left wanting more.
The rest of chapter 1 was pretty straight forward, I was actually able to beat most stage with little to no effort. Additionally, I was feeling super hyped now that I customized my AC to my style. But it can’t be all rainbows and butterflies, it was time to start “Operation Wallclimber”. The heavily armored juggernaut blocking my climb was proving a match for my dual matching build. This was the first time I had to start playing around with the possible builds and start experimenting with finding something that could take on the beast. I finally landed on a high mobility AC with dual bazookas. Using my high speed and long side steps to get behind to the weak spot and blast away.
Lastly, we reached “Attack the Watchpoint”, the last mission on chapter 1. Expecting the unexpected we launch to the battlefield. We run into the boss fight with Sulla, a very speedy AC rocking a bazooka. a pulse gun, plasma missiles and explosive missiles. Took a few retries but we won, it was time for some cinematic content and move to the next chapter. Wrong, Sulla was just a mini boss, we had one more fight to complete and it was against the GUNDAM of all ACs AAP07: Balteus. This fight was the hardest I had encountered, Balteus was launching an overwhelming amount to missiles and had a shield that made it extremely hard to do any damage at all with my build. Luckily, with some helpful tips from the chat and a good amount of retries we did it, we completed chapter 1(Watch).
Overall, Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon has been a fantastic game that is well worth playing. Chapter 1 had the perfect mix of difficult but engaging fights and I have to give it a 08/10. I can’t wait to see where the story goes from here. I will be sure to come back to talk about chapter 2.
-SoZetta