ARMORED CORE VI Review!　A massive robot action game in which you assemble your original aircraft and run through the battlefield!

In this article, we will review the PS5 version of this title after playing it for the first time.

In the second part of the review, we will discuss the missions that include a variety of situations, the "stagger" combat system, and other aspects of the game.

Missions include a variety of situations such as exploration, combat, and information gathering.

In this title, the story is told by clearing missions. The player freely chooses from among the requests that come in from corporations and other forces, goes to the site, completes the objectives, and then returns to the base to repeat the process.

The game is based on the premise that players are supposed to move around in an AC, so everything is huge and on a grand scale, and I sometimes lost my sense of distance.

In addition, just looking for hidden paths or moving around using the scanner, which allows you to see through enemy aircraft and objects, is time consuming; parts for the AC and archives for unraveling the story are scattered about, and the volume of each mission is quite large.

Although the focus is on exploration, there is more to it than that. Depending on the mission, you may have to retrieve information left behind by the enemy or engage in single combat with enemy ACs. There are also many variations, such as fighting with allies, defending a base, or destroying a weapon of such size that it is hard to look up. During missions, the player's strength and performance are evaluated over the radio, which motivates the player as well.

As the story progresses, a final mission appears at the end of each chapter. In each of these missions, a strong enemy, a major boss, awaits the player, and the game is so difficult that it can be called a "deadly game" in which the player has to learn by dying. In the case of the last boss in Chapter 1, I was beaten 20 to 30 times, and in the case of Chapter 2, about 15 times.

However, it is not simply difficult. There are certain moves that can be called signs just before a fatal attack, and the game is balanced in such a way that even if you are toothless at first, you can always defeat them as long as you learn their characteristics. It is also nice to know that even if you get hit, you can retry as many times as you want, starting right before the boss fight. When you retry, you can review your assembly, so you are not forced to play with the same aircraft configuration over and over again.

In terms of missions, except for the ones in which a large boss appears, the difficulty of each mission is not so high that you will die dozens of times, and all of them are moderately difficult. Therefore, the tempo of completing the mission itself is good. The appearance of an overwhelmingly strong enemy as the last wall of the chapter rather functions as a crispness in playing "AC6," and personally, it was a good element that kept me motivated and motivated.

The "OST chip" obtained by defeating enemies in the arena can be used to enhance the performance of the aircraft itself. It is also possible to increase the performance of weapons with specific attributes or to reduce the amount of damage the aircraft receives.

Dying many times will give you the opportunity to reevaluate the composition of your aircraft. If you push too hard, you may end up using a single combination until the end, and you may neglect assembling your aircraft, which is one of the charms of the "Armored Core" series. In my case, there was a case in which I couldn't beat the game, so I tried changing the aircraft configuration and weapon types and was able to complete the game as if my previous struggles were a lie. As well as expanding my knowledge, I was also able to learn about the possibilities of assembly. In this sense, too, I was grateful to have strong enemies who could overwhelm the players.

The selling and buying prices for the various baht are the same. In other words, there is no financial loss at all. This was another factor that made it easy to experiment with different assemblies.

The controls are complex, but there is an extensive tutorial to help you get used to them.

This game is also an action + shooting game using a robot called AC, and it is played with guns and blades in a battle that does not depend on distance. Depending on the configuration of the weaponry, the player may choose to shoot from medium or long range, or equip a maneuverable machine with a blade and challenge it to a combat battle. The use of various boosts, such as the Quick Boost, which allows the fighter to move back and forth, left and right, and the Assault Boost, which allows the fighter to close the distance to the opponent at once, increases the sense of speed and makes for a highly exhilarating experience.

However, in order to take advantage of these boosts, it is necessary to operate the various buttons in parallel. In the case of the DualSense controller I used, the L stick for movement, the R stick for camera view, L1, L2, R1, and R2 for weapons, the O button for turning boosters on and off, the □ button for quick boosts, and the X button for jumping are often used in combat (all in their default positions). ).

The author used the default settings provided at the beginning as is. As a result, the left hand is used for the L stick with the thumb, the cross key and L1 with the index finger, and L2 with the middle finger. As for the right hand, the thumb is used for the R stick, the index finger for the □, X, and △ buttons, the middle finger for R1, and the ring finger for R2. In other words, very busy.

Although "AC6" has a highly addictive assembly that allows you to try different configurations, and missions with a wide range of volume and variation, it is somewhat difficult to limit the difficulty of this control method. Since almost all fingers are used to operate the buttons, except for the pinky to support the controller, the most important part of playing this title is how well you get used to this.

Fortunately, the button layout in this game can be changed with the exception of the L and R sticks. If you feel any discomfort while operating the game, try customizing the placement until you are satisfied with it. In addition to the initial layout, there are also several control patterns available, so you can try them out first.

To familiarize yourself with the operation methods, you may also want to use the "Mercenary Education Program" included in this title. In this program, you can learn all the essential elements of operating an AC, such as its movement, weapon attacks, and the characteristics of each leg.

In the "AC TEST," you can test your customized aircraft to see how it feels to operate and how well its weapons perform, and you can also call up MTs and ACs for training, and use the pause screen to recover AP and replenish ammunition. Furthermore, thanks to the ability to set up assemblies at any time during testing, it was easy to test the compatibility of generators and boosters, and to verify details of the aircraft, such as changes in maneuverability depending on the weapon load.

The stagger system allows for active combat.

The use of a variety of weapons, such as gunfire, slashes, and missiles, in combat is an interesting aspect of "AC6," and this is spurred on by the "stagger" system. Stagger is a condition that occurs when the "ACS load," which accumulates when the aircraft is attacked, reaches a certain value.

Stagger is present in almost all enemies, so the key to victory or defeat lies in how much ACS load you can give your opponent to put them in a stagger state. Ideally, an enemy that has not been attacked for a certain period of time should be attacked aggressively, as its ACS load will gradually decrease. Regardless of the amount of damage, the ACS load can be maintained as long as the attacker is hit.

Regardless of the work or genre, battles in video games often favor the later action of watching the opponent's moves before dealing with them, which makes it easy for the situation to become deadlocked depending on which side attacks first. In the case of "AC6," the advantage of aiming for the stagger state after inflicting the ACS load on the opponent is a big advantage, so battles with enemies naturally become more active. In this game, the player is encouraged to go headlong into battle without fear, not only against small foes, but also against large bosses full of powerful enemies.

Since staggered enemies cannot move for a certain period of time, melee attacks can easily penetrate during this time. Weapons such as blades and pile bunkers require the attacker to get close to the enemy, making them difficult to hit, but not if the enemy is in a staggered state. In "AC6," the enemy may track the target just before launching a melee attack, making it very easy to hit the target if the conditions are right.

Although we were not able to touch on the online functionality in this review due to the fact that it was an advance playthrough, we believe that the stagger system will make for a lively match in which players will be actively moving against each other. Since it is a human-on-human battle, it is different from the main game where the CPU is the opponent. It will be fun to read each other's thoughts on the amount of ACS load they have accumulated and the compatibility of their weapons with the enemy's defensive performance.

Although this is the first new title in the series in about 10 years, the traditions of past titles, such as the huge number of assemblies available for the aircraft and the play style of taking on missions as a mercenary, are still alive and well. In addition, the game incorporates the challenging difficulty settings and offensive battle systems cultivated in previous action RPGs such as "Dark Souls," "SEKIRO," and "Eldenring.

In a sense, this title is the culmination of FromSoftware's expertise in the "ARMORED CORE" series, the core of the company, and recent masterpiece titles. Although it is difficult, the game is well designed for beginners with detailed tutorials and retry elements, and after 10 years, even fans of past titles may feel like beginners, so I hope that newcomers will take this opportunity to play ARMORED CORE VI.

ARMORED CORE VI FIRES OF RUBICON

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• Title Information
• ■"ARMORED CORE VI FIRES OF RUBICON
• Compatibility: PS5/PS4/Xbox Series X|S/Xbox One/Steam
• Genre: Action
• Players: 1 player (up to 9 players online)
• Release date: August 25, 2023
• CERO: C
• Publisher: Bandai Namco Entertainment
• Developer: From Software

NATSUMUJI UCHIYOSHI

Freelance writer with about 10 years of experience. After graduating from a technical college, he experienced writing articles for major game magazines and creating strategy books for an editorial production company. After working for a weekly magazine for a long time and rewriting press releases, he recently started writing for Akiba Research Institute and other web-based magazines. He is basically an omnivore, playing everything from RPGs to action games, simulations, and FPS.

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