Armored Core

Play it on: PS1 (or as a digital PSone Classic on later systems if you managed to buy it before Sony made that difficult)
Current goal: Wrap this thing up
Buy it from: GameStop

With Armored Core suddenly in the air thanks to the imminent sequel I finally made time to sit down with FromSoft’s 1997 original. (I’d previously only played 2013’s AC: Verdict Day.) A missables FAQ kept me from feeling too anxious about making Mistakes so I was able to just cruise on through a bunch of missions each night, building up my robot (imaginatively named A1, pilot name “Alxandra”) into a more efficient marauder as I played two megacorps against each other in a futuristic sci-fi hellscape.

It was fun for a good while, struggling to afford new mech parts and feasting on the barest scraps of cyberpunk narrative between missions, despite the actual mech-piloting action being merely clunky and acceptable.

Playing Armored Core has helped crystallize for me why I enjoy some of these early FromSoft games. I remember I used to play King’s Field (KF2 JP) and half make fun of it to friends. Like ha-ha, look how basic and primitive this game is, can you believe it? Meanwhile I’d already played like halfway through the thing. Maybe the joke was on me; maybe my criteria for what constituted a “good game” needed reassessing.

When Armored Core’s mech shooting and technical aspects come up short, the sparse but potent worldbuilding and sincere dedication to maintaining a grim, oppressive atmosphere help keep me submerged in the fictional world. The mechs are awkward, the vistas sparse, and the framerates modest, but the game’s omnipresent narrative framing encourages me to view that humble action in the context of acting as my fictional mercenary, almost like I’m controlling an RPG character.

This means the merely adequate action’s just a portion of the full package; scraping together cash for parts I can’t really afford yet, gleaning lore from emails and item descriptions, and tinkering with my mech are every bit as important to the full experience on offer here.

Granted, my enjoyment is waning a bit in Armored Core’s second half—lore drops have slowed, there aren’t enough meaningful/useful mech parts, and some missions are feeling repetitive. But I like the final mix enough to know that I’m definitely going to see this adventure through, and anticipate checking out the sequels. It might be a while before I get to the new one. — Alexandra Hall