Armored Core: Nine Breaker Has No Reason To Exist...

[@serikaonoe6493]

Ninebreaker is a training game for Last Raven honestly

[@serikaonoe6493]

Speaking of, Good luck with Last Raven! (6 Endings. You might need a guide.)

[@bongosmcdongos4190]

I skipped it and I was fine tbh.

[@Sorain1]

@@serikaonoe6493 Yeah, definitely worth finding a guide to go through things in an order where you don't repeat a ton of missions and the information comes in a logical order.

[@gldni17]

Yes, that seems to literally be what it is.

[@WatcherMovie008]

Not true. Ninebreaker was essentially a redesign of Nexus' flawed game mechanics and improving heavily on the PVP side of AC. Ninebreaker is still used these days in LAN AC tournaments because it the most balanced of the second half of 3rd gen. Last Raven's change to mobility made things too floaty and therefore allowed weapon and missile kiting to be much easier.

[@cnhnx]

The garage music is enough reason for the game to exist

[@BusterMachineX]

Nothing wrong with the Gran Turismo of Armored Core

[@notcole]

"Gran Turismo of Armored Core"... love it.

[@HunterForHire422]

Boy im so glad this is the only one i had as a kid and never got to play the rest of the series until a few weeks ago. Not bitter at all

[@notcole]

I'm so sorry.

[@HunterForHire422]

​@notcole I still have the game too. It's the only one I own physically 😂

[@MrAngryMobster]

Nine Breaker was my most favorite Armored Core as a 12 year old. No long drawn out story I couldn't understand, no debt, everything unlocked. As a head empty kid who only cared about making the coolest mech and fighting AI, it was the dream game. Of course I completed all the other 3rd gen games with the utmost difficulty but Nine Breaker holds a special place in my heart, all the nights just chilling with the PS2 making cool builds and fighting team AIs.

[@Giovanni-r2d]

66 likes and no comment?

[@Giovanni-r2d]

Let me fix that

[@reubendias18]

Agreed. This game built upon the essence of the franchise - customization and testing.

[@maximedaunis8292]

I miss bots fighting options

[@judicatorhurayth1927]

Tbh, felt same with Formula Front

[@Sorain1]

The only thing that even approaches justifying Ninebreaker's existence is the sheer, mind shattering immediate difficulty of Last Raven... and the fact you can carry over your save from Ninebreaker into it. (But if I recall, you can import from Nexus.) So IIRC the plan with Ninebreaker is 'get it, make save file on it, immediately move on to Last Raven so you start with a gigantic pile of parts to work with.' Because holy lord Last Raven is NOT intended for a fresh save file. That's made brutally clear if you take the first mission and go "I think I'll take the recon mission to ease into this."

[@doomspud6302]

Its not really that hard to fresh start Last Raven. I did that a couple weeks ago while waiting for AC6 to arrive. Just don't take that recon mission with surprise Thunderstrike on your first go around. The other two missions are the usual easy starter fare, with nothing more than a handful of MTs for you to bully. Either that, or just fail the mission and move on. Its not game over if you do. Remember: Last Raven is designed to be played through multiple times. You need to do it at least seven times for all the endings. The recon mission is clearly intended to be done after you've gone through at least once. Because by then, you'll have plenty of money and extra parts to take on Bolt.

[@axsprime]

Nine Breaker only exist to make Last Raven not be suffering but Nine Breaker is suffering in itself. Even when I went through it awhile back splitting my time between the arena and missions it was a bit too long. I don't hate it though since if you are new to classic Armored Core or stuck to one playstyle throughout the series up to this point (this was me on my first run years ago) it will teach you the importance of changing stuff up. Also the game was Nineballs last hurrah until it showed up in A.C.E. R so I can't hate it for that.

[@Watermelon_Warlord]

I agree with this, Nine Breaker was to prepare your booty for Last Raven... lol

[@tunguska1576]

This was my very first exposure to the AC series and to this day I say this: Nineball's design and the Ninebreaker emblem are the best things to come out of it. (I'm currently recreating the emblem on AC6 so if you see it on the emblem sharing site it might be mine)

[@ronodenthal100]

I know I'm late, but, since you brought it up, Tuning is a mainstay feature of the game until AC6. It's going to stick around so always be sure to look for it. It has an absolutely enormous effect in AC4 when combined with the new stabilizer add on system. Edit: I do want to say that your footage shows a SIGNIFICANT improvement here in skill. You've really grown a lot as a Raven. It's great to see how far you've progressed. Your ability to adjust your aim vertically, precision targeting and fine movements, shot timing, etc, have all really grown. It's good to see you practicing with the LX laser cannon which I think really promotes good marksmanship due to its limited ammunition but high reward for landed shots. Congratulations on coming as far as you have and putting so much into this.

[@Direwolf13PS3]

The big tank core with laser orbits is from AC3, but the design aesthetic does go back to a heavyweight core from gen 2.

[@notcole]

damn I really thought it was that same one from 2 😅

[@karotconcarne3325]

Wasn't it a fancy remake of the heavyweight core from AC1?

[@val1703]

The arena bios are there...... you just press Triangle.............

[@notcole]

damn it man, why'd they have to hide them from me like that 😅

[@andrewsisson6536]

I would have liked to see extra themed arena ladders like in Master of Arena. Overall, it was really just a speed bump on the road to Last Raven.

[@EmeraldFatalis]

Several of the Arena enemies are major ACs or from the opening CGs from previous games. I personally found that to be very cool.

[@notcole]

I actually never noticed that, really neat touch 🙂

[@lesslighter]

Its aim was 1 thing and 1 thing only make a tournament friendly game but those who deeply understand the core mechanics of Armored Core, with most parts unlocked everyone is free to make their own AC to attend the sanctioned tourneys which made Last Raven hell.... Also the reason why there are no bios in NInebreaker is due to the sole fact they are RNG generated IIRC every boot of the game you have different arena pilots essentially

[@KewneRain]

the pilot bios are in NB, hit triangle in the menu. Check the key guide if you're unsure They REALLY fixed the heat mechanics in NB, you accidentally torch yourself a lot less

[@reubendias18]

Armored Core Nine Breaker was the game that got me into the franchise. I didn't care about not having any storyline even after knowing and trying out the other games, but the fact that I could keep improving upon my ACs and keeping them ready for any arena and opponent helped me fly through all the other Armored Core games that I have tried. Absolutely no regret calling Nine Breaker as my favorite!

[@doomspud6302]

Nine Breaker was one of the only Armored Core games that actually disappointed me when I first got it. Its pretty much just the arena mode that Nexus never had. But since they had to release it as a standalone game, they padded it out with the training missions instead. And compared to the awesome campaign and revolution missions of Nexus, that's a huge step back. Its also one of the only AC games I have never beaten. I have climbed the arena ranks, and beaten Etzam Nar a couple times. But those training missions were just way too boring and/or annoying for me to ever do more than a few of them. The arena is super fun, though. Having those random low rank ACs to try all kinds of different builds on is really nice. And the sheer number of different arenas to fight in is great. Even if everyone but the top few rankers are barely ever a challenge. I just wish you could go back and challenge any of the rankers whenever you want once you beat them all. If only Nine-Ball had actually been part of the arena...

[@notcole]

I can't believe I never thought of writing that in, but having Nine-Ball in the game and not having him as the final Arena fight is crazy.

[@slicksilver2961]

I’ve been taking a break from AC content to avoid AC6 spoilers but I love the fact your still doing this🙏🏾

[@JunkyardCanis]

this game's existence is a little more justifiable when you think of it as being an entry that only exists for pvp which in this day and age only exists thru somewhat convoluted emu setups now; afaik the jp community prefers to do pvp in this and nexus over last raven

[@SilverGuiff]

I'm sad I got here a little late to comment this, but Nine Breaker is AMAZING at 2 niches: Multiplayer and onboarding. I never managed to get my friends to play AC, too complicated, too much effort to learn how the customization works, unbalanced missions that blocked progress, needing to grind a lot to buy parts for your PVP mech. Nine Breaker sidesteps all of it. I would bring the game or my full console to friend's houses, parties, school when we were allowed. I made so many people play AC for the first time and start loving AC with Nine Breaker. Yes, training was way too long, the Arena was too short, but that meant that most of my friends managed to beat the Arena and feel that they understand AC enough to play the next games. And while the PVE Arena lasts around 3 hours... I legit must have had more than an 1000 hours on PVP with my friends. From Software doesn't need to do this with how sucessful AC6 was, but by God I'm sure that if we had an honest Free to Play AC game released before/after AC6 following how Nine Breaker works without micro transactions, I'm sure AC would skyrocket even further on popularity.

[@reubendias18]

So true. The fact that I could understand the game very easily while constantly improving myself did pay dividends down the road in the franchise as well as in other games.

[@pragmat1k]

I started playing it after Nexus, played it for about 45 minutes, put it down, never picked it up again. Once I realized I could get all of the parts in Last Raven I just skipped ahead to that.

[@ethanowen159]

Learning how to play these old games on HOTAS, i was so thankful 9 breaker exists and tbh is my fav

[@jonesy7425]

Thank you for explaining that. I love the arena, but that seems really frustrating. Also, Armored Core 2 Another Age is actually 92 missions. Though, ironically it took me 100 sorties to 100% it. I just want my arena game with Karasawa M-2 again.

[@MrHolmesjustin66]

Congratulations your play the 2 hardest series out of all armored cores…lol honestly I use human plus with “codebreaker” to use my cannon while bipedal

[@SCComega]

As others have said, the biggest thing 9breaker did was offer you atarting parts for last raven, and being something fun to come back to for the arena, and training you to git good for last raven. So really, it's place is just to supplement last raven.

[@Nexuish]

The only reason I’ve kept my original copy of Ninebreaker is for collection purposes. It’s the most painfully skippable entry in the PS2 entries

[@Helldiver450]

Bro, as a seasoned armored core vet, I'm sorry you even had to waste so much of your time on ninebreaker.

[@OmnicoranGaming]

Ninebreaker was a true to form training ground game to give you extra added experience to building and playing/controlling your AC. It's not the greatest, but it's definitely a game to enjoy at a casual pace

[@acaptainwithoutaship5192]

This game is basically a balance patch for Nexus, The PVP scene in AC was having fun time but their were some issues that I don't remember that needed to be addressed. Sadly the heat system didn't get fixed until LR.

[@ryancull515]

Please for the love of god do this with other series of games when you have finished. Never played an armoured core before but I have loved this series of video reviews, such a journey.

[@notcole]

I've been planning on it! I'm currently brainstorming as many ideas as possible before sending out a giant list of games for everyone to vote on 🙂

[@Teixas666]

nine Breaker could just have been disc 3 for Nexus, but Nexus already being a 2 disc game probably was too much at the time.

[@miltrift]

Well, cheese of chosing maps is kind of still there as they're randomized.. You simply skip suggested ones until you got some appropriate one. I remember how long ago I managed to beat Etzam Nar with sniper weapons in desert map only thanks to this feature lol.

[@watching.learning]

This is my favorite. It's about the player. A discipline to self improvement. Congratulations to all who finished it without cheating.

[@sunnyturtle0862]

The fact that this was my very first Armored Core game growing up

[@sunnyturtle0862]

About the bio of the ranked AC there is one, you just have to press triangle in order to read the Data or square (I don’t remember)

[@setiem13]

If you play versus there are 10 ACs that you can select for the AI and all had bios.

[@tintinjoestar2894]

Trust me, you'll need that training for last raven lmao

[@bongosmcdongos4190]

I am so glad i skipped this one. The arena is typically my least favorite part of these game due to the fact that i sweep up until rank 10 (barring that one tank AC with dual weapon arm howitzers from needs to pit in every game!) Im sure id have enjoyed the training missions even less. The least theu fould have done was go crazy with nineball in that last mission. Throw 3 of them at the player at once or something, make it worth our time.

[@bismarkeugen6881]

Ninth game to become the Ninebreaker and fight Nine-Ball. So many nines...

[@tonyblitz1]

I honestly really hated this title. It's the only one I didn't finish. I've always improvised, adapted and overcome challenges in AC games my own way. Every trial in this game feels like a chore that railroads you into looking up the "recipe" to beat it. Pretty sure I quit entirely after the swordplay trial where you need to hit floating enemies that drift around randomly. Then the game froze and I lost all my progress for that sitting. People will always say that this entry is training for Last Raven, and maybe that thought might've motivated me through Ninebreaker if I hadn't already beat and S-ranked all of Last Raven my own way.. Without ever needing the busy work of trying to laser sword floating drones for an hour. Last Raven may have been harder, but I was also invested because it felt like it was worth my time.

[@val1703]

"Aerial battles are non-existent in this game even with me knowing how to maximize cooling" Meanwhile the footage playing during this statement is Gull booster on G91 generator. There is aerial combat in NX/NB, the fault lies entirely with you making bad builds.

[@apukami3643]

My first AC game. I truly had no idea what to do

[@scott2100]

This is honestly the most positive Ninebreak review I've ever seen

[@notcole]

that says a lot 😅

[@kinglydagon6035]

So if you go back to the arena on this game and click triangle, there are descriptions of each of the 30 Ac pilots 😊

[@skarmenh9]

As someone who jumped into Last Raven back in the day after only playing 2, another age, and three, I believe Last Raven to be the most brutal game in the series, story-wise and eventually gameplay-wise - like a wall: Don't be afraid to experiment with cores with orbits and holder units. Get used to duel-wielding, even if needing to change control scheme. Micro-missiles are great. The PIXIE3 machine gun is a great general use gun (gatling guns got nerfed in Last Raven). DO NOT MAKE A CHEESE-Y TANK BUILD W/GRENADE LAUNCHERS that strat WILL NOT work for this game. AC fights either have reinforcement mobs or ECM or both. Learn how to dodge and swerve out of missiles or projectiles. Don't rely on the Pile Drivers, you have to manually aim. And make sure your lock-box is big enough for whatever build you go with. Its a lot, but Last Raven isn't notorious for no reason.

[@hammertiemz]

FromSoft needs to release a modern version of 9 Breaker ala-Gundam Battle Operations 2 so people who just wants to PVP dont have to grind story missions for parts.

[@ROBALHC]

I love this series and I'm always waiting for the next video, THX

[@0B1Genobi]

Heat and cooling was probably the worst mechanics they introduced to the series, im glad they’re gone

[@Ferrari_champ]

A youtube channel where we mecha nerds can mingle happily.

[@dhoffnun]

This particular era of AC games looked pretty rough on original hardware IMO - emulation is pretty kind here, removing the weird resolution artifacts.

[@gjdalupang4219]

Nine Breaker is the Pilot Bootcamp while Formula Front was the Game for Engineering and AI training.

[@hiyazaki09]

Nexus is A training game so you won't Suck in Last Raven i know you will be playing Last raven for the ps2 and you won't play the psp version because that is the definitive version

[@GERAT023]

it has a singular reason tho, BreakPoint is one of the best OSTs in the series

[@SCF721]

I'm very much biased to this game because it was my first AC game but yeeeeeeah...it's definitely not the best 🤣

[@charlesbellow1758]

Nine-Breaker exists as an everlasting Goodbye to their generation 3 players. Formula front exists as a post-mortem love letter to their 3rd Gen players.

[@alexanderminas28]

You should at least care for Etzam Nar: - She is the 1st female rank 1 pilot. - The 1st ranked OP-Intesify character to not use a cannon.

[@zeroattentiongaming820]

The whole video I was wondering why you titled it the way you did, the game just kept sounding pretty good as a different take on the usual formula. Until you explained the missions, ya that adds up

[@johnc2631]

When this game was released and I read about it, I quit AC altogether and didn't buy it. I was playing since AC1

[@ArsunGalm1]

"This game isn't canon" "In this game world is in peace" Now i understand why

[@God_gundam36]

You know its bleak when the only time in armored core when there isn't a war it's considered non canon

[@dragonknightleader]

Never played this one, and I am glad I didn't, given I despise completion of a game being tied behind gimmicks.

[@The_Raven_]

Loser... I love ACNB

[@CombatTeddy8]

It's Armored Core Olympics

[@0xPRIMEgs]

Tell me you never heard of Master of Arena without... (etc)

[@HeRa06Ram]

The fact that fromsoft explicitly de-cannonized a game that has absolutely 0 repercussion on the lore it's so baffling to me

[@Ag-Stone]

Ninebreaker is such a weird one. Definitely where they jumped the shark. Just releasing something to fill the gap between games. I didn't even like the arena aspect because you climbed ranks in such a weird way. All the challenges to beat are more tedious than fun. Anyway, enjoy Last Raven! That's a favourite among many fans of the series. Make sure to play every route at least. The first three times you do it you don't have to repeat any missions.

[@sf3testvids]

I finished armored core ninebreaker and all I got was a lousy email...

[@klortikterra4423]

i now know why people hate this game... the arena mode, the main focus is a THIRD of the playtime of the "training" mode that is the true mandatory thing... they basicly said "hey, heres an arena centric AC game, except the Arena is 100% optional and you need to do training to beat it." by god this is a horrible way to make a game.

[@Shoutatclouds]

Ok now compete this with melee only

[@karotconcarne3325]

As a dude who's with the series since the very first demo disc of Armored Core on the PSX... This is the only Armored Core game I played that I hated. Bravo, From, now please never do that again.

[@trashkitty8736]

I tried a bit of ninebreaker a while ago, but stopped fairly soon, after watching this, i can certainly say that all of those training exercises are usefull if you wanna play classic ac, yes, even the ones you described as filler, a last raven is a brutal game, and i think that this one is preparing you better for that. (As some other commenters already said) Great video again, glad youre enjoying the franchise! (Also, your last raven video better be at least an hour long lmfaoo /j)

[@theancientsam]

wow nice ending ...

[@justincholos.balisang6884]

You'll be surprised once you learned about Formula Front

[@PeregrineHopeLegaspi]

sooo wheres last raven on your vids?

[@dhani08]

I think the best AC is AC3 because for me Connor is cooler than Ezio

[@ColtonGamingTV]

As someone who also tried beating all the armored core games before, Nine Breaker does not sound appealing me to me and from what I can tell since I didn't like Nexus, Last Raven is off the table too. I did play 4th gen and I am warning you it is extremely fast and not really that good imo. For Answer is a little better but still not as great as 2 or 3. As for 5th gen I couldn't get it to work properly but I now upgraded my pc so I might go back and try to play it. From what little I played it is really slow. Armored Core 6 at least got a good balance between 4th and 5th gen gameplay though.

[@Zenith-ph7eb]

Least fav AC ngl.

[@AeroWraith901]

AC: Nine Breaker aka AC: Training Arc Honestly I could picture some kind of story being made of sorts out of this whole time of peace training arc stuff if they had cared enough to do it. Like first off giving the pilots in the rankings actual character and then have some exercises competing against them. Then maybe have a couple of surprises along the way and not just the end. It wasn't really all that riveting to play through but can say I felt better as a pilot at least lol.

[@Watermelon_Warlord]

Looks like the hardest Armored Core game is up next? I look forward to what you think of Last Raven

[@TheJorus]

Last time I checked, NB is even the most expensive PS2 Armored Core. Back when I bought the entire series most of them were 10 to 20 euros, while this cost 55. It's kind of ass as a game but I appreciate it for teaching me a few things that I didn't learn in the series up to that point, really made Last Raven work out better than it would have otherwise. Screw the proper distance exercises though, absolutely hate those, almost made me throw my controller through my CRT.

[@j0k3r84]

Nine Breaker is the Training Program for the Main Character of Last Raven actually

[@FusionArmorX]

Oh no, it does have a reason to exist. You should fear the next game.

[@gungriffon220]

Ninebreaker doesn't have story for the pilots because all the pilot data is recorded and trained from actual players in real-world tournaments, atleast with the main 30. There's no real story to add to these because of that fact.

[@hustlerfour]

you don't have any reason to exist either yet you don't see people telling you this unprompted until you start talking lmfao

[@CastIronNest]

Nine Breaker does have one reason to exist. It's the only game in the series with a release-order accurate number in it's title.

[@ChubbsMcgoo]

You never even knew about Armored core before 6 so stop it. Forumla Front was pretty much the same thing.

[@Romapolitan]

What's your problem?

[@thewaifudefiler4337]

let's goo last raven next one of my favorites.