Armored Core and it's influence on From Software

[Ataxtia]

View: https://youtu.be/SlSfr6Wa5sc



With the gameplay trailer for Armored core 6 coming out, I wanted to see what kind of experience any of you have had with the series. I absolutely loved the series, even though it took me like 3 years to actually understand most of the game's quirks.

For those of you who don't really know about the series, it used to be From's flagship series, with new titles and sequels releasing almost yearly from the PS1 to the beginning of the PS3's lifecycle. It was a mission-based third-person mech combat game, with a heavy focus on customization. Half the game was really just fine-tuning your AC (the term for the giant robot you pilot), while the other half was tackling the missions or the PvP style arena. After the divisive (and in my opinion disastrous) Armored Core five, the series went silent. That and also From was dealing with its newfound success with Dark Souls, a series that really needs no introduction, it makes sense that they would jump ship to a new series.

For me I always loved big robot games, luv me front mission, luv me Robotech, simple as. So when I picked up Armored Core I loved the gameplay and could overlook its god-awful control scheme, and really enjoy the combat. It's no secret that Dark Souls has hugely inspired the current AAA and and especially Indie gaming scene, for better or for worse. But I think that Armored Core is a bit of an unsung hero in this inspiration, as it is where From honed its third-person action formula. Sure Kingsfield was the de-facto hard medieval RPG of their works, but it lacked that fast-pacing. Without Armored Core, I don't think we would have any of the Souls games.

 

[Sketch Relics]

Played most of em, Last Raven remains my favorite, followed closely by 4A
Secret starter hint for anyone interested in the series, the ps1-ps2 games have full controller remapping, so you can set camera to right face buttons, strafing to left stick, and the action buttons to the shoulders to have a much more modern control scheme.

This guy used to take ACLR designs submitted by his users for videos, these are all the ones I submitted

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajv2EB-K1wY


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kaVK8pA_ap8


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEu2qXIMNF4


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEalhRjG9xo


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6D3dmWiGfjs


He has a few hundred of these videos for Last Raven

 

[Andy Kaufman]

I only got into Fromsoft games via Dark Souls and have been sleeping on AC. I watched some gameplay footage here and there but it never really caught my eye.
Even in this trailer, I think mechs just standing there as you fly/drive with the limbs stiff, propelled by tracks or jets looks kinda goofy. Why get a humanoid shape for your fighting vehicle when it's just gonna hold a stiff pose throughout, aesthetically speaking?
It's kinda missing the dynamics of body animation like Transformers or Gundam (although the latter does this sometimes as well).
I'm gonna wait and see how the game actually plays and if I can configure my own mech I'll just make sure to give it a shape apporpiate to its movement.

 

[Ataxtia]

Played most of em, Last Raven remains my favorite, followed closely by 4A
Secret starter hint for anyone interested in the series, the ps1-ps2 games have full controller remapping, so you can set camera to right face buttons, strafing to left stick, and the action buttons to the shoulders to have a much more modern control scheme.

This guy used to take ACLR designs submitted by his users for videos, these are all the ones I submitted

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajv2EB-K1wY


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kaVK8pA_ap8


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEu2qXIMNF4


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEalhRjG9xo


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6D3dmWiGfjs


He has a few hundred of these videos for Last Raven

You submitted those? I didn't know man, those are super cool looking! I never actually finished last raven, It's been on my list but I just got so mad at the fact that the AI got Human Plus and kicked your ass, while you had to use a gimped AC or cheese some fights with missiles.

I also liked 4A, something about the ultra fast-paced, almost Gundam-like aspect of it was really appealing. Terrible for online multiplayer, but being a tweaked out mech going 1000 km per hour alwasy felt so satisfying.

 

[Ataxtia]

I only got into Fromsoft games via Dark Souls and have been sleeping on AC. I watched some gameplay footage here and there but it never really caught my eye.
Even in this trailer, I think mechs just standing there as you fly/drive with the limbs stiff, propelled by tracks or jets looks kinda goofy. Why get a humanoid shape for your fighting vehicle when it's just gonna hold a stiff pose throughout, aesthetically speaking?
It's kinda missing the dynamics of body animation like Transformers or Gundam (although the latter does this sometimes as well).
I'm gonna wait and see how the game actually plays and if I can configure my own mech I'll just make sure to give it a shape apporpiate to its movement.

I never thought about them looking stiff, but on a second glance you're totally right about that. However in my experience that stiffness melts away when you immerse yourself in the combat, as it's either focused on speed or precise movement and shooting control. I never really played long-range heavy AC's, so maybe me statement is less true if you enjoy a more methodical approach to the combat.

I recommend AC as a souls fan, but it has always been a niche game even in Japan. I am curious to see how well it performs in the US with the clout of Elden Ring, Dark Souls, and Sekiro backing it.

 

[Sketch Relics]

You submitted those? I didn't know man, those are super cool looking! I never actually finished last raven, It's been on my list but I just got so mad at the fact that the AI got Human Plus and kicked your ass, while you had to use a gimped AC or cheese some fights with missiles.

I also liked 4A, something about the ultra fast-paced, almost Gundam-like aspect of it was really appealing. Terrible for online multiplayer, but being a tweaked out mech going 1000 km per hour alwasy felt so satisfying.

It actually plays into why it's my favorite game, due to the bizarre mixture of how simultaneously accurate and inaccurate weapons are, once you learn how to move and interact with the auto-lock the game becomes something of a dance where you can gracefully dodge just about everything while having to time shots inna specific way in order to hit through the same thing being done by your opponent. At that point, the human plus advantages enjoyed by your opponents kinda fades away. In addition, most of them are not fully human plused, they often only have a few select H+ active which can give different AI opponents different weaknesses.

If you wanna play LR with human plus yourself, you can play the PSP version and use a gameshark code to enable it.

 

[Andy Kaufman]

I never thought about them looking stiff, but on a second glance you're totally right about that. However in my experience that stiffness melts away when you immerse yourself in the combat, as it's either focused on speed or precise movement and shooting control. I never really played long-range heavy AC's, so maybe me statement is less true if you enjoy a more methodical approach to the combat.

I recommend AC as a souls fan, but it has always been a niche game even in Japan. I am curious to see how well it performs in the US with the clout of Elden Ring, Dark Souls, and Sekiro backing it.

Yes, I hope it feels different when you actually controll the thing.
Nevertheless, I will be waiting for release and then see what people I can usually trust with vidya opinions have to say about it.

 

[Sketch Relics]

I only got into Fromsoft games via Dark Souls and have been sleeping on AC. I watched some gameplay footage here and there but it never really caught my eye.
Even in this trailer, I think mechs just standing there as you fly/drive with the limbs stiff, propelled by tracks or jets looks kinda goofy. Why get a humanoid shape for your fighting vehicle when it's just gonna hold a stiff pose throughout, aesthetically speaking?
It's kinda missing the dynamics of body animation like Transformers or Gundam (although the latter does this sometimes as well).
I'm gonna wait and see how the game actually plays and if I can configure my own mech I'll just make sure to give it a shape apporpiate to its movement.

Ironically, it's actually the "realistic" way of handling the concept. Due to how fragile and easy to disable an actually mecha's legs would be, having jets propel them around everywhere would give them a much better fighting chance. Heck, Gundam had to invent two reasons to make them viable war machines, the first being the presence of a substance that kills computer targeting, making manual visual aiming a must which arms due a good job of in 3D space. The other being that the human body shape allows the mecha to orient itself in space without using fuel.

I never thought about them looking stiff, but on a second glance you're totally right about that. However in my experience that stiffness melts away when you immerse yourself in the combat, as it's either focused on speed or precise movement and shooting control. I never really played long-range heavy AC's, so maybe me statement is less true if you enjoy a more methodical approach to the combat.

I recommend AC as a souls fan, but it has always been a niche game even in Japan. I am curious to see how well it performs in the US with the clout of Elden Ring, Dark Souls, and Sekiro backing it.

Probably far better now that Fromsoft is a household name for anyone that plays vidya, it will most definitely outsell all previous entries in the series and I am sure it will have From's trademark jank as fuck PVP balancing like every other From title has on release. To be fixed at a later date.

As an aside, Deus X Machina 2 is being worked on atm, I wonder if they will receive a boost from this as well and whether or not they will have enough differentiation to avoid being called a knockoff on release. I mean obviously not from journos since they don't play video games.