Armored Core 6: All Endings Explained (Story and Lore)

armored Core 6 has three endings and each one is more complicated than the last from Coral to corporate factions to unexpected AI ghosts there's a lot to keep track of if you care about the story Beyond just Gatling gun go so I'm going to go through each ending and explain the main points obviously I will discuss spoilers so if you want to get each ending before watching this video go beat the game three times with that feel free to subscribe if you want more content like this and I hope you enjoy before getting to the differences each ending shares roughly the same starting circumstances heading into the final chapter chapter 5 archibus has muscled out Balaam and taken control of the massive Coral siphon the vascular plant being the winners of the war archipus is trying to collect The Spoils of all the coral on Rubicon 3. and for a short explanation of what Coral is the opening cinematic calls it a powerful fuel source and data conduit which was poised to progress Human Society drastically before it was largely burned in the fires of Ibis but we also learned that Coral is an organic self-propagating substance and that it houses air and her brothers and sisters air tells us that our own Consciousness can be scattered into the coral flow too so it seems that Coral is some sort of mass or Collective organism where small pieces gravitate towards one another so that is a first look at Coral and the setting we find ourselves in at the start of each ending as I said there are three and the first one I want to look at right now is ostensibly the most straightforward it's what happens when we follow the main plan from our Handler Walter and bring about the fires of Raven the fires of Raven ending has already started to be referred to as the bad ending of the game I understand this since it's kind of planet genocide but it might be beneficial to also view it as the default ending it's what happens when you go along with the plan from Walter and Carla without changing anything we begin this ending after getting bodied by V2 snails Noob friendly stun Cannon so we start in the sewers with a message from Walter he tells us we need to finish the job that the fires of Ibis started that they were meant to burn away all the coral but they failed instead the coral survived and began growing exponentially now risking to spill out and contaminate space from the first log of Professor nagai the director of the Rubicon Research Institute we learned that Coral would be able to grow out of control in a vacuum like space and that mutations in this rapid growth could lead to a collapse Humanity wouldn't be able to control nagai initiated the fires of Ibis to avoid this during a coral growth 50 years ago back in the present Walter ends his message with the words used as the game's tagline [Music] I have one last job for you find your freedom he adds in a plea for us to make our own choices to find our freedom which we will see is an ongoing theme in all of the endings after escaping archibus forces Carla gives us some more information how she and Walter are part of overseer the association of observers who exist to monitor the coral and burn it before the collapse came Carla tells us the plan to Ram The Colony ship xylem into the vascular plant to set all the collected Coral Ablaze this ending has us go along with that plan and doing so gives us a gauntlet of AC fights First We Take Out V1 Freud with chatty's help only to learn that chatty was an AI made by Carla then we find Rusty attacking the ship while piloting the steel Haze or Taos both from the AC's description in the arena and from what he says we see that Rusty is an undercover rubiconian who wants to defend the planet from being exploited and burned because of this fight alone it makes sense why people call this the bad ending we must kill our one in and only buddy finally we come to fight error who is taking control of the planetary closure satellite to fire at the xylem air tells us that she must do her Duty as a rubiconian I.E to not let us super nuke the planet she comes at us in an Ibis series AC the ib-07 soul 644 throughout the fight air talks about how she thought we could have helped develop the shared potential between humans and coral she mentions a shared life some way of balancing Coral in humans that would allow both to thrive but she is our enemy and this Vision stands against the plan from Walter so we defeat her and RAM the xylem into the plan we fly away from the explosion but Carla had to manually pilot the ship into its Target Rubicon Burns and when the storm of fire finally faded only the ashes of civilization remained maybe the coral is gone for good this time or maybe it's Cinders will one day reignite for now Rubicon is left a dead planet and a new Calamity is to be forever remembered the fires of Raven here the title fires of Raven kind of replaces the old buyers of Ibis this obviously draws a parallel between the two Planet burning events and it kind of leads me to believe that this Burning doesn't really solve the problem of coral just like Ibis failed to fully burn out Coral why should we think that the fires of Raven did the job any better the previous fire was big enough to Scorch the Stars so I'm pretty worried that this might have just reset things the rubiconians have their Planet burned once again the coral is either destroyed or severely decimated but we may have just extended the problem putting Rubicon once more into the cycle it went through 50 years ago in this giant Holocaust of fire did we simply re-link the flame and delay the inevitable need for a different solution as you can maybe tell I am inclined to think so but it's hard to say for certain which is not a surprise to anybody used to from Salt gains either way there is one more parallel between the fires it seems we Raven survive since after the credits we get one final message from Walter [Music] and right the wrongs of the past story and I'm grateful six two one two one there's nothing left whatever choices you make now I just hope you find your true potential while Walter's words Harbor Beauty we may have just taken his place faded to one day return to Rubicon when the coral swells are we really Unbound Like Walter says I don't think so I think this ending points towards no that we are trapped in the same cycle and that we didn't actually make any positive change that will last but I have seen some people read this ending more sympathetically so let me know in the comments if you think differently than how I presented it as the foil to fires of Raven we have the Liberator of Rubicon ending with Liberator in the name it's not hard to see why this ending might be called the good one the basic setup here is the same we get bamboozled in chapter 4 saved by Carla and confronted with the plan to Nuke the vascular plant however in this ending we side with Air instead of going along with Walter and Carla's plan air being a coral pulse wave mutation whatever that means unsurprisingly doesn't want all the coral and rubiconian people glass to high heaven she explicitly calls the coral her family and brothers and sisters so opting for another path makes sense for her and since we are seemingly the only person who can hear her when she has made contact with she wants us to help her find this other path she says of Walter and Carla that The Observers and if they want to burn it to Extinction both are fair characterizations Walter and Carla say their plan is eradication because they fear exponential Coral growth especially into space and in Walter's story of The two scientists the one who delved into Coral research that Walter characterized as sins The Observer is definitely fear Coral because of the conflict it has driven in humans the war the fires of Ibis and the potential for its further growth but air sees quarrel differently as something that doesn't have to destroy or be burned she says I believe in the shared potential of humanity and the call how they can possibly coexist in a harmonious way air asks us to avoid ramming the coral mass with the xylem to instead allow for a future where coral and Humanity can live together in some unknown way she appeals to our individuality in making the choice to help her I'm not asking Walter's Hound but Raven the independent mercenary when we choose to side with air we have to kill Carla and chatty Carla has a post-death plan which locks the xylem into its trajectory but we can still stop it by attacking the ship itself and it's kind of odd that the situation basically ignores the setup in the last ending where air was able to stop the ship from going forward without a pilot like Carla by shooting it with the closure system in this fight air has called upon all rubiconians for help using our name Beyond scorched Skies Raven fights on so we get to fight against the xylem's defenses and the remaining corporate assets with the rubiconians and one special buddy air tells us that V4 Rusty was the first to offer help and he fights with us through the ship we get a bunch of great quotes from Rusty in this section with me I'm beat buddy well you're gonna finish this right I guess I'm not done yet then I very much love Rusty unfortunately the mission end his signal disappears but to be fair that isn't a confirmed death especially for the man who once already escaped from a deathly situation while this happens we get to kill the ever insufferable V2 snail and then we head to the final fight air remarks how we saved Rubicon when we take out the xylem's ramjets ensuring it will miss the coral but one more obstacle remains a coral fueled Ibis AC piloted by Handler Walter Walter is in Hal 826 the last of the Ibis series and it seems he has been put through some sort of archivist re-education which is talked about in some logs Ayer says that whatever they did you're in danger referring to something being done to Walter and Walter also Raves a bit incoherently and mentions the corporation's orders Plus in the previous Mission snail mentions how Walter was recalcitrant to the last all of this points to some attempt by archivists to influence Walter to attack us now we are trying to save the coral which ostensibly helps archibus if they have control of it but they may not know that's what we're trying to do and they likely see us as a threat regardless especially since we are on the xylem aiming to destroy all the coral and we have killed their whole Squadron and re-education or no Walter obviously wants to ensure the coral goes boom it's part of his plan so we fight we somewhat defeat him but he still looks like he's ready to fight in the ending cutscene however he lowers his weapon speaking to us to say a friend showing that he likely notices air despite his own Fallen friends and their wishes despite all the suffering he has seen poor will bring about Walter recognizes that we were able to find something meaningful in the coral and he can't bring himself to attack us anymore his AC shuts off as the xylem enters the atmosphere and we peace out planet glassine is averted and air remarks about how one day humanity and coral will Thrive together she says that we will find a path to avoid collapse together and that's it what the path is is not spelled out we are basically just hoping that one day some better option will show up and that Coral won't Doom Humanity in the meantime obviously the planet is not burned but this ending does have a similar kind of pushing the problem down the line as the fires of Raven ending being a liberator and keeping Rubicon unharmed is a big difference but we don't get much of a satisfying conclusion to the issues of coral growth and potential collapse we just hope that air saying we can find a different path is correct and maybe Walter's recognition in US finding a friend in Heir somewhat supports that and that it might be a positive Choice while we get a better taste in this ending plus we keep Rusty on our side and maybe alive which is a massive bonus we will need to look at the third and final ending to get a clearer picture the final ending to armored Core 6 is only available on your third playthrough or Beyond in new game plus plus it features the largest break from the mold with the introduction of a new character all mined and a different end sequence previously all mind was just the mercenary support system but this route sees it gain or reveal some level of sentience and act on its own it becomes a third major player offering an alternative to Walter and Carla's plan instead of destroying the coral all mine wants to initiate poor release letting the coral grow throughout the Universe the name of this ending is Aaliyah yakta s which is a Latin phrase meaning the dye is cast it is a saying attributed to Julius Caesar when he crossed the Rubicon the real River in Rome not this fictional Mecha planet in the real world Caesar's action of Crossing the Rubicon with his army was a sign of war with massive implications and consequences to the state of Rome nowadays both phrases Crossing the Rubicon and Alia yakta EST have come to mean something like passing the point of no return the die is cast and there is no going back the consequences whatever they are must be faced and not only are there the obvious connections between the phrase being linked to Caesar Crossing the Rubicon and the name of the game's Planet but the full name of the planet is Rubicon 3. in Japanese the kanji for river is this which looks both like a river and the number three in Roman numerals plus thumb domain tells us that The Liberation Front full him is all for none of us shall cast the die all these connections basically prove the historical illusion to me and we will see soon how this ending embodies the phrase of its title how it goes farther than the previous endings how it goes past the point of no return now on to the events of this ending the major difference is that all mind warns us of snail's plan to Ambush us at the end of chapter 4. so instead of fighting Cell 240 we hunt him down off to the left G5 Iguazu also shows up at the fight revealing that he was told we would be here likely by all mine this Mexican standoff ends of course with us defeating both the Arrogant snail and the mentally unwell Iguazu the next chapter begins similarly we wake up aboard the xylem interestingly all mind wakes us up from stasis just as Walter did at the beginning of the game com says the same words activating cerebral Coral control device cerebral Coral control device is a phrase to keep in mind given the themes present in all endings about choice and choosing for oneself we wake up and all mind has us stop the xylem before it passes the point of no return there's that phrase again we fight through the xylem and hear Carla and Walter discuss us on the radio before all mind deals with them we deal with chatty then we reach the final stage for some reason we and air make up the trigger for Coral release possibly because we are the only established contact between coral and something that isn't Coral between that and everything else Coral release is still a somewhat unclear concept at this point air sees it as the other way mentioned in the Liberator of Rubicon ending the path where humanity and coral can Thrive together Walter and The Observers likely see it as the collapse a dooming of humanity all mine tells us that we are the key in the trigger to this event but then it oddly decides that we need to be killed and then in an even bigger surprise to me when I was playing all mine boots up iguazu-4.exe to do the killing job I've been waiting freelancer the red gun's favorite mental ward resident makes it clear that he couldn't care less about all mind or its plan in this epic AC space fight he still calls us freelancer and says he only uploaded his mind into all mind which he calls a monster so he could have another chance at killing us proving that he is the most spite-driven character in existence all mine tells us that you are the trigger for Coral release we will make you one with us so maybe it doesn't trust that we will do the release right or at all even though we're going along with its plan and Iguazu is quick to immediately remind that the big plan is of negative value to him he just wants our augmented ass toast phase two sees air coming to the fight piloting the echo AC and all guazu busts out the heavy Mech plus two space Fighters which is quite an imposing level of Firepower for my little low AP light Mech with dual shoddies Iguazu notices that air is the ringing voice he has been hearing throughout the game and somehow wants to kill us even more now eventually after telling all mind off for the fifth time Iguazu resonates and to some degree blocks out all mind and air the fight becomes a pure one-on-one obviously we eventually beat Iguazu and in his dying beeps he reveals that he envied us freelancer believe it at all he couldn't handle that we were so dope with the Dual zimmermans and that led him to resent us so much that he joined up with all mind for a shot at killing us his Arena attack shows that he was the same generation as us gen 4. so seeing a similar old gen do so well in a world of newer gens likely got to him I'm sure in addition to Michigan's constant screaming at him after their defeat all mind worries about their plan for the choral release but we had already chosen to join them in his ending so we are going to go through with the release plan anyway kind of makes the whole fight pointless when we go forward with the release all the same after wasting all mine if I had to make a guess maybe all mine wants to in some way control the release but we don't have much evidence to claim that a chain made of human links is easily broken in any case it's just kind of thematically weird that we have this whole big final boss fight because all mine wants to absorb us to do coral release and then we beat them and do coral release anyway it's all just a bit bemusing well we go ahead and Trigger the choral release and basically spawn a black hole at the vascular plant after a coral sublimation we wake up in a shallow pool of water surrounded by other ACS the stars are specked with signs of red coral Ayer says Coral has been disseminated us across the Stars that it's everywhere she ends saying that we should meet this new age together and then delivers the most used phrase in the game one of the first words we hear on Rubicon and what was said by com at the beginning of every mission main system activating combat that long overall this ending highlights an obvious choice beyond the dichotomy of the first two endings but it also doesn't really show Raven actively choosing much for ourselves we basically just go along with what all mine says letting them kill Walter and Carla and then the only reason we fight all mind is because they try to kill us but we then still do what they want and we're planning to do all that plus the similarity I noted of all mine waking us up with the cerebral Coral control note really puts a damper on the choosing for yourself Vibes in this ending we don't have enough information to really make a clear judgment on if Coral release is good or not either it did seem like something had to be done considering Coral survived getting burned by Ibis and began growing again but many people were worried about what a coral release or collapse or widespread contact would do we don't know if everyone in the universe has been turned into Coral or Coral ACS or just received a choral contact Like Us in air or something else is everyone in the universe and AC now probably not but everyone around us locally seems to be so maybe they are and will Coral keep growing everywhere it currently is that's hard to say too maybe the release changed the properties of coral and now it doesn't need to grow so much or maybe now it will just have an easier time growing to absorb the known universe I do feel like the more dire possibilities would have been noted or worn by air since while she does want to save the coral she also displays Sympathy for the actions we take to bring this about like going against Walter as a sympathetic character she doesn't do anything to indicate she is big on tricking us she always asks us to make a choice and hopes it will line up with her own interests as Raven the symbol of resolve of the will to choose what one fights for it doesn't necessarily feel like we embody our name in this ending or really in either of the other endings we kind of go along with everyone's plans one way or another we do choose who to go with whether to fear Coral with Walter and Carla look for another path towards Coral symbiosis with air or go through with coral release with or kind of despite all mind we make some sort of choice one way or the other and if the first two endings just perpetuate a cycle or delay making a proper Choice then this last ending does cast the die in a way spreading the coral throughout the Universe means there's no going back like Caesar we must March forward with his choice as Raven we must meet this new age choose what to fight for and take to the skies in flight at least brumsoft gave us quite the canvas to fly through in this ending reflected in the pools of water the whole world is our sky there is much more lore in this game hidden within the logs and voice lines both about the characters of Rubicon 3 and also about the events referenced by these endings like the fires of Ibis and the story from Walter about The two scientists if you want to learn more about all that subscribe to the channel thank you very much to my patrons for supporting me and thanks to you for watching I hope you enjoyed with that see you in the next video peace

Channel: MadLuigi

Views: 142,218

Keywords: armored, core, armored core, armored core 6, from, software, fromsoftware, fromsoft, elden ring, bandai namco, ur mom, ac6, from software, ending, ending explained, ac6 ending, armored core 6 ending

Id: WZa6TZPbLW0

Length: 23min 48sec (1428 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 04 2023