Armored Core V....11 Years Later

[@love_ark]

This video needs to get pushed for those new to 5th gen or didn't understand it when they played it back in the day.

[@newtypepunk9967]

Yeah I made it with that thought in mind, if I had something like this before when I played it years ago I would have given it a better chance, I'm sure many others would be the same, with new players finding out about the AC series hopefully they don't fall into that same old trap.

[@love_ark]

@@newtypepunk9967 Well I look forward in seeing more 5th gen content from you in the future, fellow Raven. ^-^

[@ethanspaziani1070]

5 tried to change and I still want them to go back to the 3 style but you know whatever

[@newtypepunk9967]

3rd gen is probably my fav gen too, who knows what they have planned, I think they will take ideas from all gens with new ideas as well, which hopefully leads to a good game.

[@guyblack172]

One thing I noticed playing AC V is that stability is EVERYTHING. If you haven’t, equip the skinny Easter island looking head with the oblong arms with the shoulders that jut out dramatically (they look like legos and have the highest stability) The combination of high firing stability parts increases the fire rate of your weapons like crazy. I was able to easily stun lock opponents with a dual shotgun combo, but it makes everything more effective.

[@newtypepunk9967]

Well you're right there, lego would be the right word to use as discovering new builds is all part of AC gameplay, it's why you end up in the garage more sometimes than the actual missions. I always think of engery first when it comes to builds and in V that usually means ho-vital + shinatsu combo, building on top of that always works for me.

[@mattmaddogwheaton4724]

Armored Core V is just such an underrated gem in the series and I very much love this gen like a redheaded stepson who'd eventually one day become the main character of his own badass JRPG series by Nihon Falcom (Y's references ftw).

[@newtypepunk9967]

LOL you cracked me up there with the redheaded stepson talk. Yes ACV is the black sheep of the series, if it was called something else it might not have got all the hate it gets, as a mech game it's great and that's exactly what I want.

[@mattmaddogwheaton4724]

@@newtypepunk9967 Too right mang, if was called something different, I would've been a damn good new mecha IP. If only, if only.

[@newtypepunk9967]

​@@mattmaddogwheaton4724 Yeah it's funny how many mecha games Fromsoftware started but only one ever took off, I guess the ACE series counts too, but everything else they did only had one entry, maybe they should just throw all their mecha games under the AC banner lol.

[@pokeng]

Man i've played them all and love them all equally. Each series has their gimmick and thats the cool thing about each of them. I just find it ironic that people threw away 5th gen after just scratching the surface of the game.

[@UziCooper]

We in here ravens

[@lesslighter]

I personally liked ACV's pace better compared to VD but VD added some QoL stuff that I didnt liked in base V :/ one of them was RNG tuning as in you dont have complete control on how your weapons "grow" making them kinda like NFTs that you can sell to the market yeah.... cause thats "one of a kind" weapon in short for me ACV was the "over crrection" from did from AC4 especially for people who never experienced the older gens as ACV brings back the pace of gens 1-3 but here's the underlying concepts that ACV never presents to you its infact Chromehounds but in an AC skin this is very evident in verdict day

[@newtypepunk9967]

Yes I've heard it compared to chromehounds a few times, sadly a game that I never got to play, that game really was online only which is a shame, I'm glad that ACV and VD are still playable at least, even though its hard to get them both these days. Again the tuning thing is a strange one, because of all the trouble they went through with Nexus and then finally nailing it with Last Raven, why turn your back on something that you had perfected at the end of gen3, along with the menu system. It seems directors just want to put their own spin on everything without bringing over what already worked so well, hopefully they do not make the same mistakes again.

[@lesslighter]

@@newtypepunk9967 tuning in 5th gen is only tied to weapons only at least in VD its a "fixed" non grindable parameter not sure what they were aiming for but perhaps something something about collecting weapons which is why you are given additional workshop space, as for the general QoL stuff in the franchise let's just wait what AC6 has to offer

[@newtypepunk9967]

@@lesslighter I suspect ac6 will be far more newbie friendly than 5th gen and maybe any other gen, I wouldn't be surprised if tuning was gone altogether, they probably have a bunch of new ideas they want to add, but yeah we shall see.

[@lesslighter]

@@newtypepunk9967 5th gen is already newbie friendly with the controls well for the most part since thats what most people "complain" when talking about Armored Core in general

[@bombomos]

My main two complaints with Gen 5 is the rock paper scissors of the armor def and weapon damage limiting what is useful because of player meta. And most importantly the movement. Not being able to freely gain altitude, but having to rely on the environment like some platformer... Those two things made me stop playing and go back to Gen 4. Though Gen 5 did add things I really enjoy. The garage customization was very welcome, the soundtrack is one of my favorites. The improved tracks from gen 4 hit the sweet spot.

[@newtypepunk9967]

Gen 5 is not for everyone, it's just the game does a poor job at teaching things that some players give up for that reason alone. I'll be sad if wall jumping is gone, I think you could still keep it with 3/4th gen gameplay if things were tweaked. Yeah 5thgen probably has the best garage and yeah VD soundtrack is a banger.

[@FromCheng]

Hey there! Appreciate you doing a review for ACV. It’s rare for people to give it a second shot, and moreso while actually analyzing the bits of pieces of the game and design as most people just chose to straight bash it. It is definitely a shame that the servers went down so quick, as from a balance and gameplay perspective ACV was superior to VD in that respect and had a better vision of what 5th Gen should have been. Verdict Day is a better experience overall but gameplay was watered down and almost felt like it was taken in a completely different direction than V was. A lot of issues that the game has (beside the usual basic complaints about 5th Gen) is that FromSoftware has not fixed a lot of basic issues with the series. Menus are still hard to navigate. The game does a terrible job of showing and explaining the depth and complexity of gameplay, and crafting SP in a way that challenges the player to fully understand what they can do in the game. AIs are incredibly basic with only a few varied attack patterns, and can be defeated half the time with terrain (literally standing behind a building). These issues have been compounded with time: it’s one thing to have them in 1997 or 2005, but it’s another when the game is on its 14th iteration (in 2012-2013) and they still have not fixed these issues especially when the general bar far gaming has been raised significantly over time. Few notes: 00:26 - I'd say most people would agree Ninebreaker is more of a tutorial game rather than multiplayer based. It has 0 story and the main structure of the game is meant to "teach" you how to play it. On top of this, although you could online with the later 3rd Gen, it wasn't something the community ever used much, and honestly it wasn't really promoted as the main selling point for ACNB. 03:19 - I know what you’re trying to say here, but I feel like that’s not an ACV issue so much as just a general Armored Core issue. 10:01 - This is one of the few areas that V straight out beats Verdict Day - better map design. Too many of VD’s maps are small, or wide open areas with very little cover. V’s on the other hand tend to be larger scale, give you a good complement of large and small buildings and landscape variety which encourage better diversity in builds and attack formations. And this is despite V only having 8 maps. Abandoned Facility alone is better than 80% of VD’s 56 maps. 10:11 - This is one of the more subtle adjustments to how boosters works, and although most people don’t’ mention it, being able to turn off boosters gave you a lot of flexibility in your movement, particularly transitioning from one movement to another and also just being able to throw off your opponent’s lock. 11:08 - This is probably one of the BIGGEST issues with ACV and VD. Armored Core controls have never been amazing, but ACV is probably the first game where the controls are unnecessarily complex. If From had put walljumping and Hi boost on the shoulder or trigger, that probably would have solved the initial issues playing ACV that most people had. I played on PS3 and changed my default control setup after the ACV Beta test and it helped me so much. 11:47 - This is a perception issue more anything else. I say this a lot, but anyone who calls 5th Gen slow either only played for the first five minutes or are just parroting what other people say. As you noted, 5th Gen is built upon the framework of 4th Gen. The main difference here is that the barrier to achieving reasonable speeds is a higher skill ceiling because you MUST master all the movement options. In fairness most people who weren’t around during V’s online days won’t see that, but this games is as fast if not faster than 3rd Gen PVP (and I make this distinction of PVP because SP can be played at a fairly slow pace). I can’t tell you over the years how ridiculous people have been saying the game is as slow as (or slower) than Mechwarrior or Chromehounds. 12:54 - This is a big issue with 4th Gen that often gets overlooked. Because the game lives and breathes speeds, they had to make a lot of sacrifices when it came to mission variety and level design. This is why 90% of missions are in wide open spaces and the remaining 10% are in very weird small spaces. This unfortunately means you lose a lot of the subtlety and nuisances in design that older gens had. This is also a general issue with boss battles although there’s a few additional reasons. 13:00 -14:34 - I know you mentioned in this segment you couldn’t cut it out (don’t blame you), but a little bit better timing wouldn’t hurt so it doesn’t feel as awkward in the context of the rest of the video :P 16:50 - Agree about Chief. He was an amazing character and was criminally underused. Really wish he had been expanded upon. 20:18 - Last Ravens menu system and design was the pinnacle for AC. They should never have touched it after that. 20:47 - Note for the Ultimate weapons, only the Grind Blade results in you dropping a weapon (literally you lose the entire arm AND weapon). The only other exception is if you have cannon weapons equipped, in which case all cannon weapons are purged when using an Ultimate Weapon 25:51 - This is not quite correct. ACV was 99% multiplayer, whereas Verdict Day is a better experience overall. Conquest mode is simplified (easier to get in and out), and menus are generally better and organized better. Singleplayer is quite beefy with 100 misisons and subquests along with the Hardcore Modes and UNACs are offered as well, where players can create, upgrade, and train AI ACs to fight alongside them in story or fight against them (and they are not required for online). 27:26 - Do not apologize for it. Online PVP is a whole nother beast. I know people who played for 5+ years and still weren’t great at it. That being said, host of the people who have stuck around are fairly good at the game, and will cave in your skull within 10 seconds of the match starting. 28:05 - Also key thing to note about the Japanese PVP…them guys are vicious. There are more people, but on average there are much better players over there, and the very much play to win. 28:40 - This is half of what killed 5th Gen in general. So many people badmouthing and not willing to give the game a try. Or worse, echoing what other people said about the games even though they never played it themselves.

[@newtypepunk9967]

Holy shit dude that has to be the biggest feedback post I've gotten on youtube, I really appreciate you taking the time to type all that out, you also clearly watched the entire video, sometimes I get people saying stuff I already mentioned in the video. I don't even know where to start but yes bad mouthing totally killed this game, because even as an AC fan all I heard was bad stuff about this game, I never had a ps3 for ages, plus I heard the game was heavily focused on online which also doesn't interest me much. When I eventually got a ps3 V was already dead and so I just played VD while I thought it was ok I really didn't get into it, and quickly retreated to my safe spot of oldgen, the joke was I heard V was even worse than VD and had a non story, well what a lie that turned out to be. Yes 5th gen design for helping new and even old players was not good at all, people drop games quick, I'm sure at the time FS had to make videos to explain things because most people just didn't get it, if I have to go look up a video or faq about your game then you have failed in the game design, and I don't mean me looking up how to find the moonlight or something, just simply how to play the game right. They put a tutorial in there but only half baked it, maybe they had no time, but it really hurt the game. Then theirs the basic stuff, the menu system is the biggest red flag for me, ac4 might just have the worst menu in the series and we are this far into the series at this point, coming off Last Raven only made this worse for me, they had perfected it but decided to scrap it. This is something else that will turn players away. Ninebreaker is just an odd game to me, it feels like it should have been a disc2 game, Nexus and NB are really the down turn for the series, everyone knows about Nexus and its Heat problems and then NB was a tutorial/vr mission type game with no real story, I take it as a MP game because in Japan they still play NB pvp, for them pvp was a big deal, same with Another Age, which is still played online by Japanese players too, their pvp scene has always been bigger and lasted longer, in truth NB was probably not best suited for the western market. Last Raven corrected NB and Nexus mistakes as best it could and was thankfully a more fitting end to 3rd gen. Yeap the maps were definitely better in V and as for 4th gen maps, yes I get what you mean, the gameplay dictates that the maps need to be massive open areas, but that just makes it ace combat, you will never be on the ground so it makes the layout almost irrelevant, but this also leads to them being boring maps. Old gen especially early 3rd gen had the right idea to map design, again of course the gameplay style of 3rd gen plays into that. Ha yes I realize that ac2 clip probably made people forget I was talking about City maps. ACV was MP but I feel like even if it was still online, that I could recommend it as a SP experience over VD. VD had a story that felt like an after thought, they clearly wanted you to use UNACS and go online more than anything else, in the end it was a bad call to take ACV offline, as we both agree it had some things that were even better in that regard. Ah so the UW don't all do that then, theirs still a few I didn't get to try on VD since they added some, it's a cool idea though. Yeah I knew jumping into PVP at this point in the games life meant that I would only find hardcore players that knew the game inside out, so was expecting to get beat, but I think it's still a fun aspects for those that want to get into that side of the game. Ha yeah Japan pvp is on another level, I wouldn't even try because it would be lose lose all day. I did fail to mention hardcore mode on VD, I do actually like that mode and it should be in more games going forward. Yeap there's an echo chamber alright when it comes to 5th gen, which is why I really wanted to make this video, because I see such false information being spread about the games and with new fans popping up recently it's not good that they would fall into the trap I did years ago, so I did my best to explain things, so hopefully if people are curious about trying V and VD they have a better starting place than me. Well thanks for watching and your feedback helps, thanks.

[@TeryJones]

16:35 - Son of a bitch is that Wally Wingert reprising his role as The Riddler? XDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXD

[@newtypepunk9967]

Chief is so good, he does sound like the riddler now that you mention it.

[@jaromswenson7541]

Thanks for this review. I just wish there was a way I can play it on my pc (as far as I know the emulator is very laggy). When I was younger I bought this for fhe xbox of the time. Had to order the copy because it was not commonly sold at stores. Put it in my console and I encountered a game breaking bug in the 1st mission, so I never got a real chance to play this game. Its unfortunate too, because of its slower pace and more environmental interaction is why I wanted to play it soo much. I played 4 answer and the fast paced action didnt do it for me. Acv just seemed way more interesting then playing a constantly flying godmech of foranswer.

[@newtypepunk9967]

Ah yes unfortunately neither emulator can run this game without issues and only VD is available to buy off PSN and xbox live, which of course still means you need a 360 or PS3. Still emulation has come along way, ac 4 and fa pretty much work great and with online to boot, so I think eventually V and VD will get there, how long that takes who knows. I've not heard of that bug but it must have been patched out along time ago now, I still had to DL a few things after all these years. Ha lol I know what you mean about for answers, to me its basically super robots, nothing will touch you in that game and you have over powered weapons and can shoot back weapons, it's a pure power trip. V on the other hand is the hard grafter workmen like mech where you really have to push yourself to get anything out of it, yeah its like I said in the video, its more like real war mecha fights, which is really interesting to me as well.

[@pancholopez8829]

Ah yes, ACV. I uh, 😅, mooded my PS3 to play the game. Same for all the games minus VD. Turns out it was really fun game to play for me and i enjoyed it a lot. Made a lot of progress in it more so than VD on my 360, my first AC game. I do like the designs that 5 gen did to help differentiate from its previous gens. Gameplay wasnt a huge bug for me. Even scan mode, while overwhelming with the data, can be ignore with a simple "scan = faster energy regen". The only thing to me, after playing the older games, I feel it was a let down to the ACV more so than VD is the lore. I had to watch Armoredcorelore video on ACV to know what is going on. The fact we didnt get emails or notifications, like in VD. Makes me wish it was in the game since it would have been helpful to know what is going. Like Story 00, you helped the police, Father, and the corporation to kill the resistance leader. And later on, you have Fran as your operator... who happens to be the daughter of the resistance leader. And Rosemary, who has a sister trying to kill her in, I think Order mission 50. This is due of an inheritance feud for their mom's organization and legacy. Or the Zodiacs, Men of Honor, or other ACs to fight like its in Arena. Would have been helpful if an email or notification tab was a thing, Fromsoft. And the other thing that still bizarre for me to understand is the retcon. Yea, you heard me. Retconing 5th gen to be a sequel to 4th gen. Since, as you know, the last boss of VD is a NEXT, and one of the online raid bosses is Spirit of Motherwill. Granted, both are nerf to accommodate the 5th gen gameplay. Which then lead the debate on which ending of FA is "canon". Which is a can of worms in it of itself. Sorry for the rambling. Either way, I enjoyed the video.

[@newtypepunk9967]

Thanks for watching. Yes I miss the old emails from the old games they were a great way of learning about certain characters and the overall stories. The stories in AC are very vaguely connected, FS almost put them in as teases or a wink to fans, even ac6 has call backs to older games, I believe the Japanese artbook for VD is what really links it back to 4th gen as theirs even more info in there, the gap in time makes me see them as their own thing anyway, kind of like you have Gundam shows set centuries after the other one. For AC I just treat each gen as its own timeline story. The 360 version of 5th gen runs slightly better, its just the online is not free, so VD players stick to ps3 version especially Japanese players. Glad you had fun with the games though and again thanks for watching.

[@pancholopez8829]

@newtypepunk9967 yea, I understand as how each game are viewed. I want go into details in that. Hope you like AC6 if you got it though. As for multiplayer in VD, surprisingly there are people playing it on 360. Which is surprising since its on the console where you gotta pay for online multiplayer. Might be able to get some of those online achievements then.

[@newtypepunk9967]

Wow that is surprising people still playing online for the 360 VD, it must have the tiniest of communities, because VD western community is already small in general, but that's cool to know, oh getting trophies that have online requirements is even hard on PS3 and for any game not just AC, it would be cool if FS just ported all the old games in an AC collection, but I dont think they have that interest sadly. Yeah I played AC6 its fun, not perfect, but i had a great time playing it. @@pancholopez8829

[@zorain2354]

5th gen was a sequel to 4th gen at the start. A lot of parts in V were ripped straight out of 4th gen and if you look closely Chief's AC parts were based of Argyros from ACFA. From already hints us that V is a sequel

[@newtypepunk9967]

The more you look, the more you will see I guess. At the time the gameplay was so different, it's easy to see why people would not connect both games, its like a downgrade in tech, which is an interesting idea, 5thgen was full of neat ideas tbh. @@zorain2354

[@randalthevandal4170]

Great video

[@newtypepunk9967]

Thanks.

[@nathanaelpaskal7293]

Man, i remember when i first get into ac with 3rd gen. I like the gameplay, but the movement mechanics that mostly abuses bunny hoping is so boring for me i decided to look at 5th gen. And luckily 5th gen really fun for me to play, even though i was missing the most of the multiplayer part because im in emulator, luckily emulator development finally allows me to do some random multiplayer duels with my friend and we had a short match but it was a big blast.

[@newtypepunk9967]

Emulators have come a long way indeed, I still think a re-release of all the old games on PC would be a good idea because a lot of players can't be bothered with setting up emulators.

[@nathanaelpaskal7293]

@@newtypepunk9967 but we dont know for sure how would the game popularity be after pc release, because the 5th gen got a lot of hate. Even the developer really doesnt like V( i heard a story they got curbstomped by the jp players very often in their livestream, and nost of jp players really utilizes walljumps to the point the dev called it ninja movement, hence thats why they made vd xD)

[@newtypepunk9967]

@@nathanaelpaskal7293 5th gen only got hate in the west, The Japanese love the game, it sold more than 4th gen and they still play it today and even demand that FS port it to ps4/5 home service. I'm not surprised the Japanese players are highly skilled and would indeed give devs problems. Ha yeah ninja ravens thats what I'd call it.

[@nathanaelpaskal7293]

@@newtypepunk9967 i also found that people who hates 5th gen mostly focuses on the single player side, which is not what 5th gen really focused into. Probably because most of them dont experience the multiplayer part mostly(like me, only experienced multiplayer parts on emulators xD) or very bad at learning movement mechanics.

[@newtypepunk9967]

@@nathanaelpaskal7293 Yeah you still need a ps3 to experience the MP correctly for this game, but obviously ps3 is old and many people just have ps4/5 now, so emulation is the best way but you dont get full access to what the game offers.

[@JULR0W]

Played it today, the one thing I was scared about armored core was always the parts/shop menus. Oh god, I just wanna switch these out, why is the UI like that? 😮

[@newtypepunk9967]

Yeah the menu for shop and parts are quite clunky, it was actually better in the last few PS2 games, but for some reason they went back to this way for 4th and 5th gen, in the end you kind of just get used to it, even though it could be better.

[@armoredcorenews]

I honestly thought I would die before I seen another armor core god is good😅😊❤