ARMORED CORE VI: FIRES OF RUBICON has confused the H-E-double hockey sticks out of me . . .

[@viziontrex]

FromSoft games and telling a cryptic story through visual storytelling, ample object descriptions and vague dialogues name a more iconic duo

[@Deuzen_FIN]

And Armored Core doesn't even give you such item descriptions, so you're left to piece together the bigger picture based on what you see and hear in briefings, comms logs, and on missions.

[@ivorynargie]

Fun little thing, one of the two logs you can get in the sea spider mission gives what i could say is a big reveal

[@Extella_Nights]

Peanut butter and chocolate?😸

[@AndrewD8Red]

Visual storytelling is one thing... ...random exposition dumps is another. Level design is good in DarkSouls, but I would never call it "World Building" because it never felt like a world. Good video game stories make a world feel like it exists, whereas Dark Souls just feels like playing a video game. Bloodborne does world building and visual storytelling so much better, but Sekiro is the only FromSoft game I've played that does storytelling well, in my opinion.

[@napalmsanctuaryx4129]

​@Andrew-pr9xv Well it's better than playing through a 10/10 story in a 5/10 game. Even bad stories can be good in video games. As long as it helps to convince you to press play, that is it's only purpose in games, generally speaking. If someone absolutely NEEDS a story to play a game, or the gameplay isn't drawing them in, all by itself, they should probably find better games.

[@emeraldrhymes4314]

In this game you are an independent mercenary, your enemy is whoever pays the least (though you can chose missions that aid certain sides at times that will influence the story).

[@zardify_]

*most

[@Gandorhar]

@@zardify_ no read it again.

[@zardify_]

@@Gandorhar Oh. Uhm. Well it was late.... and my cat was in my face, and dog ate homework... youknowhowitgooooesss khm.

[@Gandorhar]

@@zardify_ gotcha, hate it when that happens.

[@CosmicKnightly]

Been so addicted to this game, playing it constantly day after day. You are a mercenary, so the good guy is the highest bidder

[@MultiYogibear]

Hannah, you poor sweet summer child. This is not a game of good vs. evil. This is a game of "someone will pay me ALOT of money to take stuff from you"

[@DatAsianGuy]

I mean there is a good vs evil storyline to some extend and the game gives you some choices to make and side with some of the factions in the game.

[@vivil2533]

And then the guys you took it from will pay you double to take it back.

[@revariox189]

That is literally good vs evil right there. How much of yourself are you willing to sell and at what price? Game offer choices in second and third playtrough. Taking money to do whatever to other people is how some end up in jail... Wouldn't that be evil? In the context of the game, you are who you are. Not good not evil, just human, (augmented human) and are surrounded by the likes. Very few people are actually evil either from their point of view. It is always gray

[@DatAsianGuy]

@@revariox189 nah, the corps are just straight up evil, dude. There is very little nuance around. Maybe around individuals working for the corps, but the corps themselves are nowhere close to good.

[@vkarvanzer4243]

12:32 Nah, we're not the bad guy. Nor the good guy. We're the paid guy. And whoever pay the most, is our good guy.

[@snoweverland4888]

there is good or bad ending can choose to be evil evil or not

[@OmegaEnvych]

@@snoweverland4888 but is burning coral necessary a good thing? Or a bad one? Is uniting via Coral a good thing or a horrible future? What is the "good" ending?

[@snoweverland4888]

its bad its killing the coral that has its own mind killing bilions of that one energy race which is coral @@OmegaEnvych

[@thejas123rapperdude]

Some stories dont have any good or bad guys, just two sides in a conflict for their own reasons, whether its survival or fighting over money. I really do think you're letting your author side cloud youe judgement, you want the trailer to outline the story for you, but when it comes to video game trailers they're there to give you a sample of how a game's art, storytelling, and gameplay is supposed to be, not paint the full picture.

[@Extella_Nights]

Sage advice Some of the best stories are the ones shrouded in mystery and painted in shades of gray

[@OrlanoFanis]

@@Extella_Nights a lot of the bad ones too. You don't need every informations, but you need a minimum. I had the same questions. That's why I didn't buy the game yet.

[@Extella_Nights]

@@OrlanoFanis Personally, I'm not getting it for the story. Mech on Mech action with bullets and explosions aplenty. A throwback to the old days of gaming when things were just mindless fun.

[@nahuel3433]

I feel like "fighting over money" is considerably worst than trying to live. So there you have your bad guy. I haven't finished AC so I don't know the whole picture but clearly your character does bad shit for the sake of the jobs. But 621 at least seems to have not much of a choice being an experiment linked with an AC and with Handler Walter pulling the strings, now he seems to have no such excuses. The corpos fighting over money and fucking over the locals and their resources are certainly not good at all. And I still don't understand the PCA (I think that's the name)'s whole deal so I couldn't say where they stand but they seem worse than all the others.

[@reallyjoyless8389]

@@nahuel3433 from what i understand PCA (planetary closure administration) is space cops, their jobs is to shutdown planets thats having an ongoing war and also protect space from ultimate destruction (ex: another fire of ibis which will obliterate star systems)

[@carbonfibercarpet4655]

I love the “Are we bad guys” moment 😂 From Software games are usually good at making the players role in the world somewhat morally grey, and ambiguous

[@JDMC13]

"There are people in these?" Morally: Yes Legally: No

[@DonGeritch]

I don't think we're the bad guy, it's more like we are an indifferent guy in a world of bad guys. Which is still not good. Just a mercenary helping whomever pays more. And questioning the purpose of it all and being morally conflicted about everything you do I think is an important part of the experience and artistic intent, but so far I'm not sure if the game allows you to make some moral choice or any meaningful change for good in this broken world. That's what I'm interested to find out when I beat the game.

[@awsomesaucekirby]

In the words of cage the elephant: "I got bills to pay, I got mouths to feed, and ain't nothing in this world for free."

[@Deuzen_FIN]

You pretty much nailed the core narrative experience of Armored Core as a series. Some games in the series do give you more narrative paths if you do multiple playthroughs, and I believe AC6 brings that back!

[@ivorynargie]

​@Deuzen_FIN can confirm, NG+ and NG++ have different paths that you unlock

[@itsaUSBline]

I just finished chapter 1 last night, and I do think there's a bit more going on. Like, it's unclear why Walter sent you to this planet in the first place, and it seems that he has some ulterior motive beyond just having you do odd jobs for the corps there.

[@Senriam]

If you play through the new game plus and plus plus you’ll find out that in the first playthrough you absolutely are the bad guy

[@stoatmuldoonfanclub7885]

In armoured core your enemy is who ever you get the most money to shoot.

[@JamesHulltheFabulousJ]

By way of (slight) explanation, in the Armored Core games you are typically a mercenary accepting various missions, while the overarching plot unfolds over time (often depending on the missions you choose). One side may be more moral than another in certain situations, but as a mercenary, your judgment is based on how easily your task will be compared to the compensation, not the moral implications of your actions. By way of speculation, perhaps the lack of a clear story or primary goal at the onset doesn't provide you enough impetus to drive your interest. There is also the idea that you rarely, if ever, see the face of the AC operators, so many find the lack of a human connection hard to overcome.

[@joeycruz1211]

This is my first Armored Core game, but from what I've learned from watching the previous games, the stories are not necessarily "connected", but each game is essentially, factions/military groups are fighting for control over some kind of power, but while doing so destroys Earth/Mars so this is why we exclusively only see these Mechs since there is no inhabitable life really. The first trailer highlights the person with the needles that's pretty much the player, you're an augmented human who is able to control the Armor Core (mech). Hope this clears up the confusion of what the "story" is and some of the context of what you're seeing.

[@joeavreg2254]

They are connected but each of the games is a progression of catastrophe where the past is mostly just rumour and guesswork so I think they just left the door open for *Maybe* like a lot of the Gundam shows. I'll have to see more of 6 to be sure. There are enduring things and I have my guesses about what is going to be the truth revealed to "Raven".

[@FrostySharkSpain]

Hi Hannah, while I think your questions about the story are very reasonable, I think that you would enjoy them more if you shift your approach to them a little. Many of these trailers may not lay out the full details of the story but rather the setting or just the vibe. This history trailer is very quick and there is a lot going on, so you might need to rewatch it a few times to see all the details, and I guess that makes sense because these trailers are meant to hype the public and get the fans speculating while waiting for the release, but what I can tell from this trailer: "Hounds entering the combat zone." - This adds up to the later details, but referring to the mechs as "Hounds" has the implication that the pilots (probably human) are treated like dogs. "So what happened to 617 and the others?" - Again, they're just numbers, it's dehumanizing them. The footage of the mech being destroyed implies, as you imagine, that 617 died in action. "Well, at least you're helping me clear my inventory." - Implying that these beings (Like the guy wrapped in plastic, probably a pilot of these robots) are many and expendable. But as you said, is that even a person? The map showing 619 crossed out implies that indeed those numbers are the robots and are falling one by one. (3:02) Then theres the huge explosion implying the last one self destructed to take the final objective with him (her? it?). We finally see the destroyed robot, everything has been destroyed, including every single attacker, and the report is "Mission complete". So basically they just throw these guys onto the objectives, and if they die they will be replaced, as long as the objective is done that is all that matters. "621, we'll give you a reason to exist. Let's get to work." - So a new one is woken up, 621 is the being in the plastic wrap, who is probably like 617 and the rest that died, and another robot is waiting for him. From that I would imagine that the player is 621, this being that has been put just to perform these kinds of tasks. That's what I see in the trailer, and you're right that it doesn't tell who you're fighting for, who are the good guys etc. The way the game is presented at first it doesn't matter much, you are pointed to a target and you take care of it, like a hound. If you're curious, the pilots are human, specifically, augmented humans who underwent some treatment to better interface with the robots they pilot. There are multiple mentions of terrible side effects of different generations of augmentations, and it's implied that most of these people did not undergo this procedure consensually. Once you play the game you also see that the dialogues don't feature portraits, but logos, which distances further all interactions. In the first missions you deal with corporations (again, logos) that hire you and other mercenaries, to help them exploit whatever is left of that planet, with some guys from a Rubicon Liberation Front being on the receiving end. Again, there is not much development in the factions, all corporations are literally the same, one day you fight for one, the next assignment you're against them, because that's what mercenaries are all about. Eventually there is more going on, but you get into this kind of game for the PEWPEWPEWPEW The whole amount of information on the screen becomes slightly less overwhelming when you play yourself, for example the bot aims automatically at the highlighted target (again, there are nuances to that too). It's definitely fun, but it also has very steep difficulty spikes with the bosses that can ruin the fun unless you're into this brand of masochism.

[@TheTrveMothlord]

Awesome comment

[@FrostySharkSpain]

@@TheTrveMothlord Thanks! Also, as someone who is not a big fan of soulsborne games, this one is less punishing from what I understand and I really REALLY liked it.

[@Dreznin]

"but it also has very steep difficulty spikes with the bosses that can run the fun unless you're into this brand of masochism" See Baltaeus, aka "he who summons the uninstaller" for many players.

[@RockR277]

As others have said, the player is an independent mercenary. They're a human augmented to better pilot an AC, though the process emotionally lobotomized them. You could take a job from one faction, then be hired to fight against them the next. There are several corporations with private militaries, Rubicon born rebels, junkies addicted to coral based drugs. The story itself is rarely explicitly explained. It's easy to miss details if you're not very investigative.

[@llraijinll5753]

Don't worry Hannah, I'm playing the game at the moment and I have no clue what's going on! But hey, BEEEG ROBOTS! 😊

[@Dreznin]

Exactly - nobody watched Pacific Rim for the plot, we just wanted to see giant robots fighting giant monsters. Armored Core 6 is basically the same thing, but with less monsters and more, crazier robots!

[@foxsotired3038]

The story wasn't a huge focus because the basics of an AC game is really simple. They can get more complicated and twist later on but pretty much all of them start as 'you are a mercenary, kill the people you are paid to kill'. Stuff can happen later but that will be a later twist.

[@ayanleman]

12:28 you're not the good guy or the bad guy, you're the Getting Paid guy. Which is probably still a bad guy depending on your pov

[@JO-hs1ue]

Constantly backstabbing the company you just did a job for 😂😂

[@Dreznin]

"They paid you to kick our ass? Fine, we'll pay you to go kick their ass!" This is really just an extra-violent capitalism simulator. There is a demand for overwhelming violence... and I have plenty of supply!

[@DrMustacho]

The story: big walkie robots are cool

[@All_Mighty672]

So you are an independent mercenary who will take jobs from ANYONE, including people you just fought against, all to further your handler’s (Walter) goal of locating Coral, the major resource found on Rubicon.

[@El_Rey_247]

The neat thing about writing mercenaries as the playable characters is that they don't need a personal motivation at the start. Someone paid them, so they have a job to do. It's pretty frequent for this kind of story to have some kind of turn where the mercenary learns the details of what they're doing, or that their employer has been lying to them, and then they choose to renounce their employer and fight back. I doubt that'll be the case here, but FromSoft does at least like to play around with the concept of fate, to accept it or not, whether fleeing from it is what causes it... that kind of thing. So... could be.

[@Quan10Mack]

The superficial discoveries were the friendships we made along the way.

[@ooloongjohnson4015]

As someone who played the game and I can also second what everybody else has been saying. You suddenly start to know what's going in halfway through the game. In the beginning, we're mostly sticking clues together.

[@mgutierrez6762]

In armored core you are the neutral guy. Some times you are putting down rebels, other times fighting cooperations. Some times you are killing gangs and other times destroying out of control science projects. All because you are the indentured servant of handler Walter

[@ArmoredGriffon]

"The music is making me *really* sad." Hoo boy, then you'll absolutely love that that's actually what the menu music changes to at a late point in the story, when two of your friends begin conflicting story paths and you have to choose which one to side with and which one to turn your back on.

[@caravaneerkhed]

Armored core 6 is the game I’ve been looking forward to the most this year! And it’s been a blast so far!

[@Stumergeist]

This type of game is probably the most classical of games made by a big studio. Everything about it is straight out of the old arcade games except they added big robots and you customize your equipment.

[@maskedmenreiki]

Makes sense. The series started in 1997 after all

[@KurNorock]

The quality doesn't actually drop. It just appears that way in KZbin videos due to compression. When you are actually playing the game it looks really good.

[@cullen3323]

I've played the Armored Core series since I was little so I'll try to answer some of your questions Hannah the "allies" referred to in the trailer we're not other players, they are computers that help you on missions. The other "AC pilots" the player fights against in the gameplay trailer are also computers, they're bosses, enemies that are far tougher then the normal rank and file. The game can be played with a controller or a keyboard and mouse You play an independent mercenary who works for whoever happens to be paying you that day, In most cases it's different corporations or military groups. Armored Core has often seen you in a morally grey area although you can pick sides in the conflict or war taking place there is not necessarily a "bad" or "good" side. How you play, what missions you choose, and which side you pick effects the final outcome of the game. The customization can be very overwhelming to someone new to the franchise so the best approach for new people is to experiment and find what works for you and your playstyle. A gameplay preview is supposed to show you how the game is played not explain the story. whereas story trailers usually give you some insight into what is happening, however in FromSoftware's case (the creators of the game) they prefer to keep a fair amount of story information hidden until you discover it for yourself playing the game. I urge you to give this game a try. FromSoft games are notoriously difficult and Armored Core is no exception. But they don't make it difficult to make you suffer, they do it so that when you finally finish that level or kill that boss... It feels rewarding. They are also world-class storytellers and often use the environment and character interactions to create an engaging story.

[@Wickerrman]

Cool that you watched my suggestion from the stream the other day, fully expected a reaction like this and not disappointed. I love how honest you are and you don't fake enthusiasm for things that you don't like. It's refreshing to see :)

[@DigitalProphet]

This is the 6th game in a series that is old enough that it started in a time when the story of a game wasn't as important as being able to play a big robot fighting other big robots- whoever they were, it didn't really matter. I haven't played 6 yet, but in the earlier iterations of armored core, what tiny amount of story content there was came to you in the form of fairly short emails and mission briefing text, and that was it. This is also from the studio that decided for another of their most popular games, that they would only tell the story through the text descriptions on items you may or may not pick up, so... What i'm saying is: the pedigree for this game is based on "holy crap I love fighting these robots in my robot, *click click click* make the story shut up so I can do the next mission." So I would temper your expectations a little if you're expecting some kind of big engaging plot.

[@nobodx]

The boss at the end of the gameplay-preview just took me countless tries but i managed to beat him after 4-5h (lost track) anyway of information presented - if i recall correctly you watched Razbutens gaming for a non-gamer video some time ago - thats basically the essence of his video - gaming is an own language you have to learn - and that takes time

[@ZackSparks]

This is from the makers of Dark Souls, and Elden Ring, games Based purely in environmental storytelling/piecing things together with the small amount the game gives you, theyre mainly about the gameplay

[@SamoanSamurai]

TLDR: you're a merc earning corpo bucks. Your enemies range from unions, miners, opposing corps, and other mercs. Choose your flavor of corporate stoogerie!

[@holyleech2159]

As of now, I have fought for and against almost every faction in the game, if there is a good guy, I have probably fought for them.

[@raymurray3401]

Armored core 6 is actually quite similar to Elden ring in that the difficulty is greatly affected by what kind of build you use. It’s also one of those games where the line between what’s good and evil becomes blurry. Best way to look at it is your character is a mercenary, so you’re payed to do whatever the contract entails regardless as to whether or not it’s right.

[@giannicolamatteo8155]

The Last amrored core games i played was nexus and 4 answer and if this is like those two then its gonna bè fun, edgy and really satifying, i loved how it basically made you feel like your manageing your finances ad a mercenary,balencing morality and financial profit and the story acting in acodence to the Jobs you choose, leading to different Jobs and endings based on Your choices, that and i loved in 4 answer for some missions you could pick the other mercenarys to fight with you at the cost of a cut of the mission reward

[@ravenward626]

Your about who what and why the characters in this game are doing what they do reminds me of an interesting twist. There is another game called "Spec Ops the Line" or something like that. It got some media press when it came out since the story withholds information from the player to get them to commit war crimes. Which can take some people through an emotional ride when confronted with the consequences of their actions. Imagine a game light on detail but high on action that then shows an epilogue to the actions of your hi priced mercenary work? You could put that "are we the badies" moment at the end after all that fun and effort to win, only to sour the victory by making your actions key to securing an exploitive power structure. Give people choices but limit their knowledge to keep them working towards a specific goal that benefits the story's villian, anti-villian, or some other set of powerful antagonists. .... I just realized that they do this sometimes with the "Far Cry" games. Never mind, I guess it might be a familiar trope, could still be interesting if done well.

[@wolokowoh0]

Playing Armored Core is a bit like watching a Gundam anime. You start thinking oh these are the bad guys. Then you question. Some of the good guys and bad guys start changing sides mid war. Ultimately the main characters themselves are confused. The guys who started off as the main villains aren't even the villains anymore. The main characters choose a side and live with it and sometimes that means going against what is popularly supported. In Armored Core, you are a mercenary working for a side because money and find your way to picking a side as things go. In this one, you you can get three endings but you only see the third if you beat the game twice which means you're doing three playthroughs. So you have no incentive not go evil, then lib then third true ending path. Just see everything because you can't get the true best ending until the third playthrough anyway. Like Gundam, you'll ultimately go to a place the world that needs going to. The title of the third ending is reference to this. Julius Caesar, when he crossed the Rubicon to march on Rome, reportedly declared, Alea iacta est - the die is cast, which is the phrase the ending is named after. You''ve probably heard the phrase "crossing the rubicon". Meaning the point of no return. Caesar started a civil war so you can probably tell where this ending is going just by the name of the ending and the name of the game and planet you are fighting on. Much like Lincoln who started the Civil War and ended the Civil War as its victor, Caesar was assassinated the same year he won his. Rome was forever changed. America was forever changed.

[@Kodaemon]

You're an initially morally grey character here, a mercenary for hire in a world that initially just seams dog-eat-dog in all directions. You can eventually choose sides basically based on the missions you choose to partake in. The story... it certainly goes places, and characters that you may have pegged for one particular trait may show to have another side to them. In general I believe it's something you *could* get into, though it's a bit obtuse at the beginning. Also, you do not have to engage in multiplayer - the allies you get in some missions are basically scripted AI characters, and the peer AC to AC battles are basically boss encounters. You can engage other players in a versus mode but it's entirely optional. You do get one-on-one versus fights with basically what's supposed to train you for multiplayer, with basically Armored Cores that you encounter through the story, which is a nice feature sice you get to basically do a trial against that type of "boss" enemy before you fight them in the campaign - once you fight them "for real," you get to be prepared. I see that you have noticed that customization is an important feature of the game - indeed it is. Based on their preferred play style, people either tend to stick with a particular loadout they enjoy for all missions and just hone particular player skills or mix it up based on the particular requirements of a mission and focus on creating a build optimized for the task at hand. So yeah, you could probably just go button mashy if you manage to create a build with maximum armor and damage output, let's say, rather than focus on dodging, which I'll be very honest, I do myself most of the time ;D

[@123Widowmaker]

Armored Core as a game series leans on common tropes of mech media which if you are unfamiliar with can be very obtuse and confusing as to the "Why's" and "How's" of the game and it's setting. A couple very common tropes that are instantly recognizable to mech fans is Corporatization and the Military Industiral Complex cranked up to 11, but if you aren't familiar with those tropes they can be understandably strange on first viewing. A very basic answer to your question of "Why" is there is no reason why. There is a resource the corporations want, and they are fighting over it, and you play as a mercenary wanting to make money. So you will kill and destroy and plunder for those corporations to make that money. You play as a "bad guy" to get the perspective of a nameless cog in an industrial machine that doesn't care about humanity (The deep voiced guy in the first cinematic trailer referring to a person on an operating table, which is the player character, as "it", plus his line "I will give you a reason to exist, lets get to work" implying that person has no reason to exist unless they work). It's an intentionally bleak and depressing future with themes of horrors of industrialism and hyper-capitalism, a genre that I hold very dear to my heart. Plus a lot of people, like me, just really love big cool robots with guns, haha. Love your content, it is perfectly fine if it isn't your game, looking forward to your next videos!

[@yeetkunedo]

There are no bad guys in Armored Core, because everyone is the bad guy, therefore no one is.

[@SkeletonModel91]

Armored Core 6 is story about a horse and a boy who lived him.

[@bunnywreck]

not the bad guy, not the good guy, it's the "i do stuff for you as long as you pay me more" guy wich thinking about it with the whole context of the AC series makes you techinically a bad guy, not as bad

[@theghostoftom]

Its fair to say the story in this game is obscure. If you need a serious reason for why you are doing what you are doing, its likely not the game for you. You get bits an pieces of what factions want, but most are corporations. So morality is moot, profit is king, it's just how they go about that. The rebel faction agian is a slow partial reveil. The player is after money, to fix their body, fix their brain and get out. Or so Handler Walter assumes (the guy who gets us jobs). We don't get a voice, only the choice of what jobs to undertake. Most people play this for the gameplay which is fast, brutal and unforgiving and the mech building. You can swap parts for everything on the AC (armoured core) to have anything from a fast, spindley, hovering spider to a solid treaded tank as well as have whatever four weapons you want/can afford in game. Different missions are suited to different mech types, but you don't have to go with the ideal build.

[@john80944]

If we get to colonize planets and make mechs, this is what our future will looks like. We already are living in a cyberpunk world, and if we go even further, we'll get Armored Core.

[@sheds]

I'm doing a book request for your books at the Library I work at. Thanks for the awesome videos! Armored Core is one of my favorite games. I have over 10,000 hours in Armored Core: Project Phantasma (second game) and traveled for tournaments in hotel conference rooms in the 90's. One of my favorites, and this one is amazing!

[@sanguinetales]

Usually you get a choice to be a bad guy or a worse guy.

[@dlpheonix]

Fromsoft games requires you to play the game 5 times to the end. Then you need to watch 100 essay research videos about the game. After you replay the game 5 more times after watching the videos you will maybe understand 50% of what happened.

[@DaGalaxyBoy]

You probably won't see this comment Hannah, but in case you do, here is some information about the game. Armored Core 6 is a singleplayer game, so you won't have to worry about playing with real people, and while there is a multiplayer mode, that's only Players vs Player, so you can ignore it. The story isn't told in a linear way because the game studio that makes this game, From Software, are not the type of people to make linear games, and you can see this in their other games such as Dark Souls, Bloodborne, and Elden Ring, where the stories of those games are told in obscure ways, which is slightly similar in this game, but not completely as the story can be more easily gathered compared to those games just by simply paying attention to the briefing cutscenes. From Software games, while having a story, more so focus on having fun gameplay like old games used to do, but that doesn't mean this game doesn't have a story. Basically a quick sum up that I can do for you after playing the whole game myself, you're an independent mercenary just doing what you can to get paid, and your essentially "owner", Handler Walter, has a personal mission involving doing some investigation on Rubicon for the substance called Coral (this is told to you in the trailer). What isn't told to you in the trailer are the people who are already on Rubicon. There is the Rubicon Liberation Front, which is basically people who want to free Rubicon from the grasps of companies trying to profit off of its resources. And then there's other corporations, the main two being Arquebus and Balam, with other side corporations also being on the planet trying to make a profit. You don't pick a side on this game (usually), your Handler is just given missions by these groups of people to go and do whatever they want you to do, and then you get paid. One mission you could be helping Arquebus go and raid a Balam base, the next mission could see you teaming up with Balam and go destroying something from the Rubicon Liberation Front, and another mission could have you helping the Liberation Front fend off both companies. There are a FEW missions where you're able to make choices, which are called Decision Missions, but they don't affect the story that much (until the last few missions), and they only alter your playthroughs. If you decide to finish the game and replay it again, you unlock new decisions that you can do and new scenarios and missions to take, but again, they don't affect the story that much. I honestly went into this game thinking I wouldn't care about the story, and while I wouldn't call it a fantastic or complex story, it was definitely an interesting one, especially if you ended your first playthrough with the same ending I got. In short, the real only way for you to know whether this game is for you is to try it yourself. Usually I would never recommend modern games to new gamers as these games usually expect you to already have decades of experience on your belt, but in the case of Armored Core 6, even experienced players would have a bit of difficulty with this game because there aren't a lot of modern games with this similar style (and the fact that it's a From Software game, the same company that makes games all about being incredibly difficult). So, I'd recommend the game for being fun and cool with a slightly interesting story.

[@Tuikkal]

FromSoft games are usually aimed at masochists and determined gamers :D Not for the faint of heart

[@DatAsianGuy]

You play as a mercenary who works for the highest bidder. There are 3 to 5 main players in the game, depending on repeat playthroughs. (You unlock new mission, variants of previous missions and even other endings if you go into new game plus.) The four main factions in the story. Are Balam (corpo), Arquebus (corpo), The Rubicon Liberation Front (narive rebel force basically) And Planetary Closure Administration (PCA, a sort of "government"/interstellar police force, but i havent figured that out myself yet.) There are more factions, but some of those are secret and only are brought to light with repear playthroughs via New Game Plus ( or NG+ for short. You restart the story, but keep your equipment. Weapons, mech parts and so on in the case of Armored Core 6) Also the story is singeplayer. There are no other real people playing with you. There is a player vs player multiplayer, but that's completely optional. (In-game its called the "Nest") For the story. You play as "Aufmented Human C4-621. You are basically a slave at the start of the game, who gets used as mercenary who works under Handler Walter. Buy doing missions and earning money, your character in theory can buy their freedom. The actual story is less about that and more about the fate of Rubicon 3 (the planet) and its (highly volatile) substance called Coral, that once before caused an massive explotion that engulfed the planet and surround space. That explosion was dubbed the "Fires of Ibis" in the game and in the announcement cinematic trailer you can see the planet being engulfed in the flames. After that explosions it was believed that Coral was burned up by that eruption, but Rubicon 3 still had huge reserves left. Its why thr corporations BALAM and ARQUEBUS are on the planet. And the player character, 621, is send in as an illegal merc to work there. Why exaclty Walter Hound sends you there is left a mistery for most of the game's story until the end, but in From Software fashion it is quite cryptic and not straight forward.

[@Arashmickey]

It's very easy to get tunnel vision in games and walk past important things or amazing art. In fact I appreciate that in this trailer the presenter knows to stop moving and smell the roses from time to time.

[@Italianchef26]

To answer your question: yes, there are pilots in those robots. The main character is one of these pilots. He gets mortally injured during a mission (probably the one shown in the first trailer) and the only way to save his life is to give him a bunch of cybernetics implants and fuse him with the robot itself. At this point his boss basically tells him "Here's the deal. I saved your life but we have work to do. Go to Rubicon 3, find this 'coral' thing which is super rare. Then we make a ton of money, you get your original body back and we become millionaires" I guess we're not exactly a good guy because in order to finance our mission we accept mercenary contracts from anyone who's willing to pay. Which means working for mega-corporations that are also searching for this rare and elusive "coral" thingy.

[@_inSight__]

When you play this game, the only thing you need to watch is the circle thing in the middle and your health in the bottom left

[@morgezorge6387]

This game is so difficult! I've been gaming for 30 years and i just spent 4 hours on one boss fight

[@christopherlyndsay8611]

Yeah it’s much harder than Elden Ring. I’d say it’s about the same level as Sekiro, but I did beat AC6 much faster

[@roguenoise2718]

basically, we are independent mercenary. whoever paid more money will help them cleaning the mess. it's very common for a military world

[@john80944]

FromSoft's specialty is level design. Their environmental storytelling is exceptional. However, it also has its problem: you can only experience it by playing, walking through it by yourself. Of course, you can always watch YT lore videos, but it's not YOUR head canon. They're the KZbinrs' head canons. And if you look really, really closely to their games' designs, you will find out there are "sub-texts" of the environmental storytelling and the fractured, flavorful lore texts, but they're so cryptic, you have to make your own stories to explain them.

[@john80944]

And FromSoft doesn't really make happy endings. Elden Ring has the most common tropes but it's still weird AF somehow. And they can be weirdly philosophical sometimes so they're almost always time sinks. Beware of that.

[@elk3407]

It's arthouse, in the same vein as Serial Experiments Lain, Angels Egg or Stray Dog ( Kerberos Panzer Cops) but as a video game

[@OrdemDoGraveto]

Its like warhammer, there are no good guys. Armored Core is about mega rival mega cooporations hiring mercenaries (the player) to fight for then and their profit margins.

[@mistermisfit5111]

The games story is that you are a independent merc who through some unfortunate circumstances are kinda forced into this role against your will to be a gun for hire to whoever WILL hire. You are kinda a part of the bad guys at the start but as the story progresses you will have a 3rd party voice that will guide you and better more emotional path. One that sees you free and without bonds to your former masters.

[@JustMaxim37]

if you choose to follow that path

[@usernamealreadytaken9330]

In AC6 our protagonist is a mercenary, neither good or bad we just sell our services to the highest bidder. a bit of spoiler for chapter 1 one mission we just killed a bunch of certain faction they called us a corporate's dog, and the next mission we working for them and kill other corporate's dog.

[@Mugwise]

So as for if were the bad guy, were just a mercenary so you're kind of a middle party. As for if its online or not, the campaign is a solo endeavor with some missions giving you ai allies to fight with you, but theres also a seperate pvp section for those who want it

[@puddel9079]

The Armored Core series isn't exactly about being the hero or the villain; you are playing a mercenary and FromSoft portrayed that accurately since AC1 from 1997. Additionally, the Garage is like 50-70% of the gameplay. Sometimes you'll make something so out of your perceived comfort zone that feels like a dream. Those are the best designs.

[@Dreznin]

You make some designs that you're pretty sure wouldn't be able to exist with real world physics, but you don't care because you're about to go "Full Murica!" and liberate the shit out of a battlefield.

[@awsomesaucekirby]

AC is a controller game, it's just that you have to hold the controller so the buttons face the TV.

[@guikoi3101]

Being the good guy doesn't put bread on the table. 621, also known as Raven, is a Mercenary. Good, bad, those are concepts for those who don't have a job to do. Raven is here to do their damn job and get paid. As Handler Walter put it... these jobs give 621 a reason to exist.

[@nagatodan]

There is three endings so yeah, make do with that. The "good", "bad and "true" ending

[@davidtrujillo1689]

Basically yes, you are the bad guy for most of the first and par of the second chapter (as far as I’ve gotten) you are a mercenary in rubicon looking for coral to make a lot of money and doing the dirty work of whoever is willing to pay you in the mean time.

[@ronodenthal100]

"Not sure why I'm here." The character you play as has no real agency of their own. You are property. You don't know why you've been brought to this planet, only that it's your job. Learning the motives behind your employer and the other factions and individuals fighting for control of Rubicon 3 is the core of the plot. You actually have to play through the game three different times and take alternative jobs to learn about each group and person, and the ultimate goals of certain parties. Learning these motivations and then deciding who you want to ultimately side with is supposed to be the core driving force of this game and what motivates you to keep playing. Something the series has dabbled with in the past but only once to this degree. The other AC's are all individual characters in the game and they all have their own unique reasons for fighting. They're not other players.

[@ravenward626]

The name of their motivation, the "coral" if I heard right, reminds me of that walking dead meme.

[@mysticalpotato86]

"Here for it" A term Handler Walter doesn't recognise. You're either 'Here' or you're not here.. Make a decision 621.

[@observingrogue7652]

In this AC game, more than any other. You really have to be vicious, not giving your opponent time to breathe. In the Nexus generation of AC games. It was a great idea to try to overheat your opponent into using up all their energy, Force-Cooling themselves back down. Back then, once depleted, energy took a very long time to recharge, making you extremely vulnerable, because you didn't have the energy to dodge with flying & dashing. And also no energy to Force-cool, so you could literally be cooked to death, getting hit by hot attacks. But in AC6. you have to overwhelm targets for a different reason. Overwhelm their balance system, to stun them, and do extra damage to them. While dancing around their attacks, you must be an absolute savage like a ferret, stoat, or honeybadger. Be like, you're in high school again, some degenerate been bullying you for weeks, getting worse & worse, school staff are useless at stopping it, bully is throwing things at the back of your head, everytime the teacher isn't looking.....Then finally, the teacher says, "Ok class. I have to use the bathroom. You all continue (whatever) on your own." Teacher gets up, leaves the room, And as soon as you hear the employees only door close. You calmly get up, walk to your tormentor, and just start beating them. Pounding them, punching them, kicking them. Slamming things into them, slamming them into things. Blocking their escape attempts. You don't miss, you don't waste energy. Not giving them a second to speak, second to breathe, second to think. Wrecking their sh!t, while it is still in their a55. Doing as much damage as possible, before anyone can come save them, or pull you off of them. That is what you must be like, playing Armored Core games, especially this one. Weapons are on a scale between high damage, or, lightweight/low-energy-drain/high-ammo. Pick your favorite weapons on that scale. Then decide where on the scale of lightweight-&-agile or heavily-armored you want to be. Then mix and match everything to get the best build to fulfill those 2 design goals. It's also best to practice in the VR, not only to get used to your movements, not only to get used to the behavior of all the weapons, but also to reduce the chances of you getting overwhelmed in a mission, wasting any currency on ammo & damages, or wasting time. You could be able to knockout every mission, first try, one after the other. Most Armored Core games, including 6, are about mega-corporations, so powerful, they have become like governments, and they are always at war, spying on, and sabotaging each other, over control of territory, or some resource. As you start out as an independent mercenary, nearly no one really cares about you...but as you improve in skill, and perfecting your build, for you. These same corporations start respecting you, then begging you to side with them, then you become so god-like in ability, they try taking you out, because they see you as a threat. And you just keep surviving all of these traps, suicide-missions, and assassination attempts, until you become a force of nature, that can save the world, or destroy it. That's Armored Core.

[@artistcomplex]

So I can confirm this is one of Fromsofwares best, but the entry level on controller skills and careful stat readouts is there. My recommendations might be games like Nier Automata or Metal Gear Solid that would give you a feel for interesting but different game mechanics. As for Mech games, Zone of the enders 2 had a remaster that is worth exploring. It's not Armoured core, but provides a good entry into the Mech genre with a mix of fighting game mechanics and a campaign/story that can be beaten in a good weekend.

[@torbjornkallstrom2316]

"I have no idea what's going on but I'm sad." Welcome to From Software games lol

[@dlpheonix]

Nothing you watched was multiplayer. It was only single player stuff.

[@aserosiris]

So you're a mercenary for hire and basically will flip flop sides depending on who's paying, there does seem to be some choices you can make regarding who you back up at some points in game but not sure how much these actions will affect the final outcome

[@ravenward626]

If you're just looking for button smashing fun, I've heard "Smash Brothers" is popular. Iirc it's a 2D fighting game where they include many popular characters. It is however typically a competition between players, but you can probably climb some sort of ladder against automated opponents. It might also be an exclusive for a different console, I don't really recall.

[@jeffreywelch9360]

I beat it with the liberation ending. you start out as just a nameless merc and end up choosing who you fight for by the end making friends and enemies along the way. Some good plot twists too but overall the story is sparse and dry and a lot is left to mystery, even for a Fromsoft game.

[@Alex.Holland]

The mech and mecha genres in particular tend to be deeply anti-war, and part of that is never showing black and white morality, rarely are there good guys and bad guys. The genre was parented by people who grew up in a post ww2 world, often in countries that took a beating like japan. The post-modernist rejection of this stuff is baked in pretty deep to the genre, and a consequence of that is for sure a lack of constructionist or modernist narratives. Also fromsoft has a particular style of story telling, where you are cast unknowingly in to a dark, beautiful world that's chock full or myths, architecture, lore, worldbuilding, and factions, a nd you know or understand absolutely none of it. You feelings while watching this arent an overreaction, you are dialed in to exactly what they want you to feel,.

[@daemonhunter100]

When it comes to Armored Core, there are no good guys.

[@rasss556]

Story is amazing finished ng+ gameplay is top notch..on my 3rd playthrough..games super addictive..

[@SamuraiMechkatanaGaming]

Hannah over invested good morning favorite

[@TIMMICFPV]

This game is next level sick!

[@hiddenmaster6062]

11:30 Well great news, you can mash, mash, panic, panic and still win. Not cuz it's easy. Cuz you really need to be fighting hard, fast and brutally. You might like tanks cuz you can devote most of your attention to just fighting and plowing and less to evasion. Or 4-legs for all the same stuff but get to pretend you're a UFO. :P

[@criseist9786]

You're a mercenary with a shady handler. The enemy is whoever pays the least, and everyone is the good guy from their own point of view

[@N7Prime]

This is not an action, it’s a budget simulator IYKYK

[@frankos2000]

I don't play AC6 for the Story, but for the gameplay. But i think this game is not for everyone. On some points you have to improve your own skills to proceed, and you must be ready to suffer. If you want casual gameplay, this is not the right game. But if you like Action-Games, Mech-Settings and Bullet-Hell it is gorgeous and one of the best gaming experiences this year.

[@Arashmickey]

Some games (or game trailers) raise the expectation of a story and then don't deliver. Other games don't really have stories, like puzzle games, or feature more or better stories than expected such as Portal or Spec Ops: the Line. So yeah, DOOM doesn't ask you to care about the story, but the Armored Core trailer lays it on thick with the suggestion and intrigue but is so thin in substance that all you get is mood and a thin of threads to pull at. My guess is it works better for existing AC fans and not so much people new to the game.

[@jocosesonata]

I feel like you should react to at least one of VaatiVidya's lore videos in preparation to the lore videos of Armored Core that he will definitely do in the future.

[@Tazkar]

You're a merc, you need money to operate so you fight for whoever pays. You can literally take one contracts for one corporation attacking another corporation, and then the next mission the other corporation is now paying you to do something to the first corp that had you attack them. Its very morally grey. You're not a hero, nor are you a villain you are just trying to survive. As for the other ACs in the game they are piloted by the Computer the game is primarily singleplayer so even your ingame allies are computer NPCs that help you out.

[@gideonroberts885]

ADHD powers activate! Absorbing way too much info and ignoring the useless stuff is what my kind are built for.

[@dwarfminerwillie]

The thing is with your protagonist in this game is that you don't have much real choice for the most of it, your an "independent" merc in as much as your OWNER is independent your little more than a piece of hardware for the armored core, your basically the CPU for a computer, as its implied walter literally bought and owns you so you don't really get to choose to be good or bad.

[@nification7883]

Yeah Armored Core, and From Software’s games in general, offer a very different kind of storytelling to traditional media; books, film, and cinema. Often you are a nobody that happens to stumble into the eye of the storm, ruining everyone’s schemes in pursuit of your next paycheque. The story is there, the plots, schemes, rivalries, heroes and villains are there, but to you they are at best bounties. If you are curious you can sniff out what is moving below the surface, or don’t, it’s up to you.

[@TheTrveMothlord]

There are now 16 (not including some re-releases or mobile exclusive) Armored Core games. For the most part you are just a merc taking jobs. In certain games you may end up in some kind of heroic position due to circumstance. You may be the bad guy depending on missions you take but sometimes there's nuance. Like even if you're murdering freedom fighters those same freedom fighters may have done some heinous shit down the line yknow? That said in some games there are some missions were you can decide to do some really evil shit, haha. Sometimes in these games as you choose certain missions others dissapear too and cause you to allign with certain factions more. TLDR: the world of Armored Core is grey as fuck and its all about conflicting self interests. EDIT: also yes you're a human pilot, and sometimes in these games, augmented to be more but also less than human, of Armored Core's.

[@Gfish17]

In Amored core they are mercenaries. Who ever pays us is who we fight for.

[@deanmcconnell9387]

Hannah, the part where it says fight alongside other ACs, you’re playing with the computer not real people just fyi 😊

[@BFG-Based]

You are a mercenary in this game, it's for the mmoneyyyyy - PS: the story has no online elments

[@3dCraddock]

For an Armored Core game, its surprisingly sad in story, at least somebody can call you buddy.

[@thompsonb905]

You start off morally grey then take a turn based on your choices

[@filthcauldron2441]

You're not really a good guy or a bad guy. you're a hired mercenary. You are a Raven.

[@maejinyokai]

You can absolutely side with the liberation front of you want to. They're not exactly good either. No one is

[@napalmsanctuaryx4129]

You're only gonna need the emotional support pillow if you try to play it. Apparently, the first boss is exposing serious trauma in people.