Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon

[BrotherFrank]

The contrast between people jerking themselves over how hard the game it is and the massive casualisation of what used to be the traditional source of difficulty in ac games amuses me. Switching mechs mid mission? With free reloads? Lmao.

Meanwhile i struggled with slow ass tank thread mechs armed with the biggest aoe weapons because i liked explosions, but whose ammo was so limited i really had to make the best use of my megumin firepower.
I remember the final levels of most ac games being designed apparently to troll me specifically because they tended to be vertical platforming fiestas full of small enemies chipping away at you and making you fall down to restart the climb from scratch like it was one of those Getting over It clones. And then after surviving through that gauntlet, had to fight 8ball or whatever elite raven that ac game would have, sometimes twice. Switching to agile jumpy mech then going back to armageddon tank mech would have made it all a cake walk.

Anyways i’m torn. On one side omg new ac game and visuals look gorgeous, on the other the whole focus on difficult bosses alienates me. If i wanted that sort of gameplay i’d just play cuphead ffs. Guess will wait untill a sale and if i get stuck for 2 hours on the tutorial boss like some people say they are then i’ll know it’s not for me.

 

[Lyric Suite]

I beat the tutorial boss in less than a minute, so i think in part people are getting filtered because they haven't figured out how the mechanic works yet. Of course i have no doubt the real bosses will take a while to master one way or another. We are told this was the case before release if you followed any of the interviews. But as far as the helicopter goes, that's 100% a skill issue. Boss is easy once you know what to do.

I don't like this idea of frequent checkpoints in missions as missions are short for a reason (you are meant to do them in one swoop), so i'll definitely try to S rank them all.

 

[Jinn]

I agree normal missions shouldn't have checkpoints, but the option is there not to use them, and I'd recommend everyone do just that.

With the difficulty of the bosses, I do understand why they're there for them though.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

i was through 4 days of download (barely halfway) and my most used alternative source "we were wrong, this doesn't work with 7". fuck this.

 

[Frank Capicoli]

"Beat" the game, got my first ending. Found the bosses after the worm got progressively more annoying. A little weak on the customization side, shotguns and light build frequently felt like the most effective tactic. Didn't really feel like there were many missions that justified a heavy mech.

 

[Lyric Suite]

Wait, does the game save progress at checkpoints or only at the end of the mission?

 

[Latro]

How good is the customization in this game, exactly? I've heard conflicting reports on this. Some say it's good, but some others say they're dissapointed and were expecting to be able to modify their mech more radically.

Very good, but honestly there’s more variety than people are aware of and/or actually using.

- guntanks
- tetra pod missile platforms
- hoppers can sort of just play however they like, just with low AP
- bipeds have the most options in the game, as far as I can tell I’m the only one playing a medium gundam sword mech using assault boosts to get in and out fights. There’s a stat that speeds up weapon tracking that makes it work; you can hit someone with the laser dagger, QB to cancel recovery, then do shoulder swap to something like lance for a followup.

Lightweights can do the same thing but have better move speed for more aggressive close range options (QBing enemy stun needles makes me hot). Basically, lights have lower AP but higher movespeed for stuff like shotguns or other close range combat while mediums are slower and need to chain melee attacks so the tracking automatically sticks them to the enemy.

There’s also some tactical options like the jammer (makes everyone hit lose lock on) and the napalm launcher. There’s a good mix of melee in general, I made a Gouf using the whip

 

[Latro]

Oh, I didn’t get the chainsaw yet. So my next task is to find a way to get a pvp viable heavy biped chainsaw build going.

 

[Lyric Suite]

I agree normal missions shouldn't have checkpoints, but the option is there not to use them, and I'd recommend everyone do just that.

With the difficulty of the bosses, I do understand why they're there for them though.

Well can always make an exception for the bosses.

BTW, just saw people complaing that their progress isn't being saved:

https://www.reddit.com/r/armoredcore/comments/160vi2i/armored_core_6_not_saving_progress/

WTF is with FromSoft and their inhability to make sure progress is saved correctly (Elden Ring too had issues as well). I think i'm gonna shut off steam cloud and do a manual back up after every mission just to be on the safe side. I don't want a repeat of what happened to me with Elden Ring lmao.

 

[Latro]

Impressions on melee for people interested in building:

Beginner laser sword - very good weapon that remains relevant in both pvp and campaign. AOE charge attack is great vs AI and in PVP you can assault boost in while charging this. Won’t always hit against live players, but still good if you sniff out they don’t have the EN to avoid it.

Whip - Secretly pretty good. Unlike most of the melees in this game, this has no tracking, but makes up for it in length. Even has a second chainable hit you can use to whack them or some rescue buddy in TDM. Unfortunately the charge is too damn slow, although the whip swing is sexy. Mandatory for Gouf impersonations.

Plasma sword- has more stagger damage than laser sword and even more aggressive tracking hit. Great weapon, though the AOE is nerfed to a little sweep. This is my favored secondary with the laser dagger.

Laser dagger - mandatory weapon if you want a “melee” mech. This has almost no cooldown and you can cancel each and every of it’s 3 hits into a QB to cancel recovery into whatever the hell you want. Full three hits on staggered pvp usually kills.

Pilebunker - campaign rape basher, mediocre pvp weapon. Nuff said

Laser lance - ridiculous tracking on this and incredibly commital. Honestly pretty ridiculous anywhere, probably mandatory on a heavyweight wanting a melee

Moonlight - annoying laser sword spam

Chainsaw: haven’t unlocked

Stun baton: uhhh maybe good with stun launcher?

Laser slicer: seems good but probably requires heavy weight + investment into that stat that speeds up melee (you can see this in the booster stat page). More heavyweight options I guess.

Parts: basho arms has max melee damage, so it’s a must on medium + heavy weight builds.

There’s some light arms under VP or VD something that has both firearm and melee stats rather high that is perfect for lightweights, who probably want to abuse their move speed to keep up pressure with guns rather than chaining tracking melee attacks (easier to disengage safely in pvp for one, or if you want to bait out an assault armor burst or you want to wait out terminal armor)

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

Never ever play a modern game at launch. Always wait for patches. Sadly.

 

[Nekot-The-Brave]

Never ever play a modern game at launch. Always wait for patches. Sadly.

I'm curious, what's wrong with the game?

 

[Lyric Suite]

So far the game is working good on my end. Aside for the confusion about how the game actually saves and my paranoia after the issue i had with Elden Ring, turns out everything is actually working fine.

 

[Lyric Suite]

Mmmh, not sure i like that you can just earn infinite credits by redoing missions. If you try to get an S rank after every mission you'll probably be so loaded as to make currency in the game completely irrelevant. I think it might be a good idea to just finish the game and then come back trying to get ranks on the missions afterwards.

Also, i don't like how time is factored in the ranking lmao. Not a fan of speed running, but i guess it makes sense from the point of view the game.

This is my first modern AC so it's kinda funny how easy it is to pilot the mech. I only finished AC1 and tried AC2 for a bit on the PS2 and the shit controls made it feel more like a mech simulator.

 

[Nekot-The-Brave]

Mmmh, not sure i like that you can just earn infinite credits by redoing missions. If you try to get an S rank after every mission you'll probably be so loaded as to make currency in the game completely irrelevant. I think it might be a good idea to just finish the game and then come back trying to get ranks on the missions afterwards.

Playing the game makes the currency irrelevant. Even on the first playthrough.

 

[Lyric Suite]

I guess they figured with bosses being so hard making you lose currency through dying etc would just be too much, but it makes the game feel a bit less grounded. Not that past AC games were complex simulations or anything they were still mostly action games but still.

 

[Jinn]

Eh, probably partway or a little more through Act 3 and I definitely can't buy every part available on the market, nor have that many alternate build templates set up at once. I usually just replay missions on the first playthrough to find and OST chips I may have missed my first time through it. The economy hasn't felt all that much more loose that the PS2 installments to me.

 

[Lyric Suite]

I think i'll still gonna post-pone S ranking until after i finish the game. I'll likely replay some missions to explore stuff or replay some story bits but i'll post-pone getting a perfect score in them until after i'm done with the game, both not to spoil the currency and also to have something to look forward to besides NG+.

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

Never ever play a modern game at launch. Always wait for patches. Sadly.

It was a general statement.

 

[Melmoth]

The contrast between people jerking themselves over how hard the game it is and the massive casualisation of what used to be the traditional source of difficulty in ac games amuses me. Switching mechs mid mission? With free reloads? Lmao.

difficulty feels like gen4 maybe a bit harder. this is like a gen4 sequel more than anything else. but less light and less varied. the plot elements and mechanics are leaned into aggressively and consequently its less offbeat.

overall i was hoping for something more ambitious. its competent but if anything its too by the book.

 

[HeatEXTEND]

This is my first modern AC so it's kinda funny how easy it is to pilot the mech. I only finished AC1 and tried AC2 for a bit on the PS2 and the shit controls made it feel more like a mech simulator.

Same; doesn't feel very "mechwarrior" but it nails the "anime" mecha feel. Smooth

 

[Psquit]

All the challenge comes from the bosses. There's no attrition, since there's a very generous checkpoint system that recovers health and ammo on death (you can even assemble a new mech on a checkpoint).

I just have a rule of restarting the entire mission if it's non-boss sorties. It's what you need to do in order to S rank missions. If you S rank a mission, I feel that was the "intended" way to complete it, with no checkpoints being part and parcel to that. Eventually if you want to S rank boss missions, you'd have to do the same.

You must had a blast with ibis cel 240.

 

[Lyric Suite]

Well, never mind, i tried again on a whim and managed to S rank the tutorial mission. Probably one of the worst ones since the helicopter boss keeps flying out of the perimeter but this time i got lucky since he stayed inside the arena and made short order of it.

 

[Lyric Suite]

BTW, i just noticed you can have multiple saves?

Lmao, why?

I know it's not an RPG, but what happens if you finish NG++, down several years down the line you decide to start a new game. You just throw your old progress in the bin?

[EDIT] I forgot why are trading card prices so high? They go for like 20 cents or higher each, i already recouped over an euro lmao.

 

[Lyric Suite]

The only thing I'm disappointed with is the soundtrack. I replayed 2 and 3 in the leadup to release to get myself pumped, and those two games have absolutely killer soundtracks. I can't even remember a single track in this one, except one of the hangar tracks that was alright. It ain't the same without the tunes man.

Main theme vaguely reminds me of Terminator 1 lmao. The "synthwave" vibe makes for a decent atmosphere but i skimmed through some of the boss tracks and a few seem a bit too soft. Sometimes it goes metal:



But even so i have a feeling i probably won't be paying much attention to it while actually playing the game. I rarely do in FromSoft games as i'm too busy not trying to pay attention to the music i often have to go listen to it on youtube later to make sense of the music: