Armored Core series overview (Last Raven)

well guys we finally made it to last Raven the final game in the PS2 lineup my thoughts on this game used to be similar to Nexus but the last few times I played it I've come to find not only does it do something better than any other armored Core game but it might just do this one thing better than any other game also for any new people watching I'd highly recommend you start watching this series at least from armored Core 3 if not for my earlier videos on the PS1 games the reason for this is I'm not going to be repeating myself on topics that I've already talked about and without any prior knowledge you might get lost on what I'm covering and before anything else the intro thank you foreign [Music] foreign so the first thing to talk about is the visuals the game doesn't actually look this good due to a permanent scan line filter and a heavy fog effect this game should look like Nexus but through the power cheating I was able to get rid of both the effects and thank you to whoever the genius was that figured this out there's some weird screens here at the top of the screen but it's by far a better viewing experience and does anyone else find it funny that the horrible Graphics is due to just two effects that the developers decided to slap on there's also a cheat for human plus but as tempting as it is I decided not to for the sake of this video last Raven reverts pretty much all the horrible changes that Nexus introduced overheating has been balanced so it doesn't have to be your primary concern of every Mech that you build but if you do overheat it's still just as dangerous it also seems like you get a lot more energy from generators with these two changes I was pretty much able to just slap on a better pair of boosters using almost an identical Mech that I used from Nexus the game feels faster Pace but it also feels floaty but in a good way kinda like how Jigglypuff controls in Smash Bros gravity feels a lot lighter but the controls are incredibly responsive missiles are also slower making them easier to dodge but if you get hit by them you're going to take a lot of damage the garage has been changed around making it more efficient to buy sell tune and equip different parts and tuning Parts is now free instead of having to pay for it and you can retune Parts if you change your mind on something the menus are the most streamlined out of any other armored Core games so I'm giving credit where it's due also the menu where you select missions has also been reverted back so the game doesn't feel like a PC game that was never released on PC moving along there's a lot of new and old parts coming back into last Raven 9 breaker came out after Nexus and I haven't covered that game so some of the parts came from that game but if I had to guess this game adds even more you're able to almost fully recreate 9 ball from the PS1 era and the AC from armored cores 2 cinematic that all being said last Raven has the most Parts out of any armored Core games excluding formula front that was only released in Japan on the PS2 and came over here on the western side of the world on the PSP seeing how it's the fifth game in the third generation it makes a lot of sense that this game would have the most parts and just like every armored Core game Parts have been rebalanced unlike Nexus this time it's for the better the one horrible inclusion in the game is the fact that Parts can get damaged or flat outbreak in combat damaged Parts seen in yellow will have a performance downgrade and when the part gets destroyed it turns red not only does your parts functionality degrade even further but at the end of the mission you'll have to straight up buy another one if you want to keep using it I'm not going to make it sound like this is the biggest deal in the world since you have to almost die to get a part destroyed my only advice is don't use hoverlegs it's horrible just don't use them they bring break 10 seconds into combat so yeah just just don't enemies now explode on death and if you get close you take quite a bit of damage this really is just another big annoyance they really wanted to make this more like a robot Simulator game and it only lessens My overall enjoyment of the game another thing to mention is I think they balance the missions out just right when it comes to head functions and hoverlegs there's a few missions that make use of the night vision a few missions that get some use out of your ECM resistance and a few where you could get some use out of the hover legs If Only They didn't suck one negative thing I failed to mention about silent line was the fact there were no Water Missions so hoverlux didn't really get a lot of time to shine the Arenas made a return and it's pretty good just like Nexus you can't select the stages but they got rid of the boring stages from Nexus and replace them with fun stages from the previous games and unlike Nexus you don't have to beat the game to get into the arena it's there right from the start I should probably mention there's now a buy-in cost just to participate in the arena matches there's only 30 opponents which is a pretty low number but at least it doesn't overstay its welcome whenever you beat your first playthrough you also unlock a special Arena where you can refight opponents from the story The Arena was totally separated from the story and it makes total sense for this game and that'll become clear why later on everything I've mentioned so far is mostly last Raven rolling back poor decisions made in Nexus and other than the fact that this game has a huge amount of parts I really don't hold it in that high of regard that is until you factor in the story and missions this is where the game really goes above and beyond not just every armored Core game but possibly any game I've ever played and that's kind of funny since up until this game I found the stories to be too similar and I just really haven't been interested in them but that's mainly because I'm not too much of a story person in games this was the first armored Core game to pop that huge corporate War bubble and come out on top unlike project fantasma to quickly sum things up the game has six alternate endings and a secret ending for completing every Mission there's over 70 missions to complete and not all of them determine what ending you're gonna get I had to play through the game 12 times following an optimized guide to unlock the final mission and it took a lot a lot of time so if you could hit that like button so anyways before I even start giving you the dense amount of story this game has I have to point out how well the game does presenting itself dialogue and briefings are back and what Nexus strive to achieve with all the cut scenes is fully delivered here in a much more sensible way not only that your operator is sure to say something to you at the end of remission sometimes it's just a simple good job and other times it's like [Music] because this game is hard really really hard I said silent line was the hardest but I think I'm safe saying I was wrong but I'm getting off subject on top of of dialogue cut scenes and more dialogue you get an insane amount of information maybe a pilot wants to give you thanks or talk you that can all be found in the mailbox maybe you want some backstory on one of the many Ravens that want you dead you can find that too in fact you can find information on any person place thing or event that takes place in this game you can even get information on the guy that gets information for you his name's Ed he used to gather and analyze data for the big corpos but now he works for Ravens like myself it's actually pretty mind-blowing just how much information is at your fingertips and you're gonna need it I'd like to think this game inspired all the weirdly complex lore that Dark Souls offers I mean it obviously didn't but it just has that same hidden depth that you have to really dig in to find the only difference being you don't need value video to figure all this out for you the game will tell you if you put in a bit of effort to find it the game really has that questionable mysterious Intrigue that Miyazaki he is known for delivering the first three or four playthroughs of the game it's gonna seem like there's more questions than answers but as you're in the complete Trust of people and factions going down separate storylines it all starts to make sense it's impressive how they fit all these missions into the game you might fight a raven towards the end of the game just to find out you could have eliminated him earlier and gotten an entirely different mission in return the game reuses quite a bit of its content and about half of the areas come from the previous game now taking areas from the previous game is obviously just lazy and I can't really defend that but the ReUse of this game's content I can definitely defend the thing is some missions have their own different scenario depending on previous actions in your playthrough let's take this bridge stage for example one playthrough you might have to eliminate a train passing through the area this might have instead been a mission to protect that same train from attackers or possibly protect a crucial piece of the Bridge's infrastructure and vice versa another mission might have have you eliminating these many sand shark drones in the desert while another mission will have you doing the same thing with a partner just for him to betray you and try to kill you same thing goes for this power plant stage where there's multiple missions separated between different playthroughs to save or destroy it I'm personally happy with this reuse of content as it helps the world tie in with itself producing different outcomes later down the line as I said there's six different endings but I had to play through 12 times to get all the different missions so unless you're 100 in the game the ReUse of content isn't really something you'll take that much notice of and it kind of increases the replayability I can't really go any further without getting into story territory so let me fill you in on the prologue after the corporations took heavy losses at the end of Nexus the companies decided to consolidate their power into a single entity named Alliance and with no more need for hired mercenary AC Pilots Raven's Arc was disbanded at some time the previous leader of Raven's who was thought to be dead has returned and has rallied half of the former Raven's Ark to his side to fight against the oppressive hand of Alliance this man being Jacko not all Ravens agree with Jack though and the other half is sided with the Lions being led by a pilot named Evangel this group will come to be known as Alliance tactical if you decide to look deeper into Evangel he was expelled from the Raven's Arc for taking under the table earnings and with that all being said the pieces are set the last 22 Ravens in existence are ready for war and Jax declared a decisive attack in 24 hours the game takes place in this 24-hour time period leading up to the final hour and every Mission completed loses valuable time this adds a level of anxiety to the game as the timer counts down there's more questions than answers unidentified killing machines start popping up on the battlefield which are a consequence of the actions of ancient technology in the previous game unlike anyone else Jax seems to already have some sort of knowledge pertaining to these machines nicknamed pulverizers maybe his long absence during the dismantling of Raven's Nest has something to do with it a raven named zanata has rapidly Rose and rank Little's known about her due to her being a relatively new pilot and eight hours after Jack's announcement Evangel has betrayed Alliance in switch sides these are the only things guaranteed per play through and I think the best way to go about the rest of the story is by going through each playthrough in the order I played him in it's important to note that unless you play the missions in the exact same order as me there's most definitely going to be some changes but I really don't see any better way of doing it when you first start the game you have 300 000 credits to play with it's not enough to fully build a Mech but it will save you the headache of using the crap starter boosters and Generator we can select between three different starting missions so let's accept the mission with the highest payout it's just a reconnaissance mission with a few MTS so we should be fine what took you so long so you're not really supposed to win this fight your first time around it's possible with the right setup or if you carry over your save from Nexus but for the average player or even the more veteran of players this is how it usually turns out so let's just go destroy this military base instead hiding behind some boxes there's a part you can pick up so it's nice to know those are still around last Raven also has quite a few secret part rewards similar to silent line but getting them is based on getting an S rank instead of completing a certain hidden objective I prefer the older system but honestly I'm just glad there's lots of parts I decided to clear out the arena to get some money and fully create my Mech this time around I wanted to try out quad legs as I usually just stick with bipedal legs due to the quad legs just straight up being inferior comments in the last video pointed out quad legs being useful due to their ability to fire back weapons on the ground so it felt right trying them out through the course of the whole game but sorry to say I still find quad legs less useful than I want them to be for anyone that doesn't know you have to stay grounded to fire your back mounted weapons but the real issue is the fact that every time you lift off the ground you need to regain your lock even if your target never left your lock box yes you can quick boost on the ground but the problem is when you deactivate your boosters you come to a complete stop and can't move around for a short period of time making you an easy target in stressful situations I found it safer just to drop my back weapon for increased movement speed and the ability to jump boost making it much easier to evade incoming fire I did enjoy using them though and I'm not saying they're useless when I got the back weapon I wanted I was able to shred a lot of Health off my opponent before the fight even really started but as I said when things get really tough they just slow you down I've kind of gotten off topic though so let's go back to covering my six different playthroughs playthrough one I mainly took missions from vertex which is the group that Jack founded that's at war with Alliance I accepted missions taking out Alliance fortresses and ACS and then the time comes where were requested to assassinate a raven that portrayed vertex by selling classified information to the enemy but he's under the impression that we're the traitor the next mission is taking out another traitor for Jack foreign I want you to eliminate it's still hard to believe that someone I had so much respect for could betray me at this most critical time there's no doubting his guilt though he must be punished I'm sure he believes his actions are Justified but he also knows the consequences he says he'd face kill the trainer foreign we then get a mission to launch a preemptive strike on a base Alliance has been gathering at in preparation for the war that's now only a few hours away and in the process they unveil their secret weapon this wasn't the easiest fight for me because it's always just out of attack range my back mounted weapon actually came in pretty clutch for this Mission at the end of the mission we get a message from Jack he's discovered the location where these ancient technological killing machines have been getting manufactured all the quote unquote traders that we've been eliminating have been nothing more than Jack narrowing down his selection to find the Raven he claims as the one Evangel asks us if we're familiar with the term dominance these are the Ravens that have the power to single-handedly turn the tides of Wars easily surpassing the average pilot and Jax under the impression that we're the one fitting this description and that makes Evangel pretty upset if we look up Evangel it says he's a skilled pilot but his ego is even larger than that and that seems to be the case Evangel takes it upon himself to accept our mission Jack sees this as an act of betrayal and just like all the other Ravens that quote unquote betrayed him we gotta go put him six feet under and also stop whatever's been creating these annihilators we haven't really seen any annihilators this play through but trust me when I say they've been wiping out almost everyone this is no place for an ordinary Raven I'm a dominant this is my job you don't get it do you I guess there's only one way to help you understand then oh [Music] yes I turned out I'll take care of things I don't know this must be what Evangel is trying to reach those devices on the wall there's no time to waste destroy them all what what the yes yes that did it shutdown confirmed we have to believe it's over I hope the world is finally safe playthrough too I didn't really pick a side the missions I chose were pretty uneventful eliminate some MTS protect some cargo and participate in a half-assed search for Evangel this led into investigating a recent attack on the same Alliance Gathering point we wiped out in the previous playthrough and this wound up being a fight with the pulverizer pulverizer unidentified targets and at the end of the mission Alliance gets information on the device that's been creating these pulverizers from now on I'm just going to refer to it as the internacine as that's what it eventually becomes known as and try saying that 10 times fast while Alliance looks for a way in we need to take out one of vertex's best Pilots the area is littered with those suicide drones that killed the player character in the previous game and this leads into US accepting a mission for Alliance to stop the internet scene we have to survive for a certain amount of time dodging these suicide drones that come in through the roof up until Jack opens a door for us foreign foreign so it turns out Evangel was somehow able to Pilot this Annihilator probably the same way Klein was able to upload his mind into a death star Jack's previous comment implies that Evangel lost control of this machine looking back at her previous playthrough I wonder if that's why Jack was trying to thin the herd down to one person maybe his plan all along was to upload someone's mind to this infernal machine dominant [Music] playthrough 3 I decided to finally overcome that AC that was waiting an ambush for us in the first mission the next mission is to gather some materials for Jack but he set us up for another Ambush after this we had a bunch of not so important missions from Alliance and a couple from some independent Warlords clear out a path for some helicopters escort a transport rescue some trapped allies and Etc and Etc this leads to us accepting a mission from Alliance where we have to cause a distraction to get vertex's attention and it works the same skilled pilot from vertex that we killed in the last playthrough has come to take us out it seems like we've buttered up Alliance enough for them to fill us in on a little secret Evangel isn't a traitor towards Alliance but in fact an undercover spy after reading up on evangel's History it really doesn't surprise me the thing is even though he's supposed to be a spy he clearly makes his own decisions throughout the game I mean last play through him and Jack were buddy buddy trying to insert their brain into a pulverizer this route pretty much ends with Alliance totally annihilating vertex the only opposition Left Alive is Jack who's ran off to the internet scene so that's where we go the lady Jack refers to his probably zanata who most likely stopped the internet scene everything's gone Jack's the type of person that never wavers he might deceive people to their own demise but his hate for Alliance is worth him dying for Raven foreign did it really have to come down to this playthrough 4 started out with quite a few unimportant filler missions this led to Alliance sending me on a mission only to betray me and try to kill me well you were tricked oddly enough this AC uses the rank 1 Pilot's Mech from the previous game it even has the same emblem the voice and name are different so it's definitely not ginobi looking at his information he was an unskilled pilot that couldn't even qualify for evangel's Tactical Unit zenada has some serious animosity towards him and that leads into a theory someone commented on in the last video the theory is Sonata is agria from the previous game hopefully I pronounced that right she was a pilot that liked ginobi worked exclusively for Crest and zanata is a new highly skilled pilot so it totally makes sense maybe she doesn't like this guy using her old partner's AC anyways this next mission Jack wants us to eliminate Evangel but after engaging it seems Evangel is also working for Jack foreign with what we know this is Jack obviously just trying to thin out the herd the final ending that this playthrough is probably the most peaceful of them all vertex needs us to stop alliance's final offense and it consists of all air units there's even some of those Advanced flying units that gave us such a hard problem in the first playthrough but they have less health and they're just not really a big threat usually the endings take place in the internacine so I'm sure something's going on over there we just don't know what it is [Music] I wonder if peace will finally be restored who knows maybe this happy ending is just a lie and behind the scenes pulverizers are still destroying everything playthrough 5 is where I took out the hardest of hard missions we accept a mission to take out an AC that's in the process of destroying a base but when we get there it's clear there was no attack and it's just an AC trying to kill us after defeating him Rimfire comes out to finish the job it's a tough fight next up is another multi-ac mission we have to go through a river leading up to a dam that we have to destroy and once that's done two ACS show up one of them uses hoverlegs which is pretty good for us since his legs get destroyed in like 10 seconds and then he slows but since there's multiple targets and multiple ACS it's pretty easy to run out of ammo failing this Mission and the next mission is once again another mission that has us fighting two ACS all while making sure to destroy the transports in between fights these missions where you have to take out multiple ACS aren't too bad since they come out one by one but with this game's weapons being properly balanced this time around it's a really tough challenge in silent line you'd be fighting two ACS at a time but you had access to some really powerful weapons continuing on there's a few uneventful missions after this but we eventually work our way up to shutting down a Vertex power plant if there's any Mission you'd run out of ammo on it would most definitely be this one all the briefing says you have to do is go into a power plan and shut down four different generators sounds simple but on your way out you get ambushed by an AC it's pretty close quarters and he has a laser blade so it's easy to take a lot of damage and waste a lot of ammo it's a really claustrophobic fighting spot and hopefully you save some health and ammo because there's one more thing once you make it back outside you have to fight a pulverizer there's different types of pulverizers and this is the inferior slow tanky one but with all you've been through it's a really tough fight next is a mission where you have to go take out Evangel but he's not there there's quite a few missions where you have to go track down Evangel only to not find him this is most likely Alliance trying to get some heat off of evangel's back while still looking like they're going after him following this Mission we have to go take out some MTS in a desert but then we get attacked by another pulverizer that's just wandering around this pulverizer is slightly more dangerous than the previous one we fought at the power plant next mission is requested by vertex to take out an AC but after defeating him yeah you guessed it another pulverizer and this one's even more powerful than the last one after we finished the mission we're filled in about these pulverizers one is something we already know they're made in the internacine and the second piece of info is every time a pulverizer is destroyed the next one is made even stronger to make up for it this leads up to the final mission where Jack hires anata and us to try and take out this new powerful threat zanata's job is to destroy the internacine while we Face Off against a pulverizer but after we defeat it there's a little more to be done foreign this pulverizer is the hardest yet but thankfully zanata wore it down for us foreign s were lost though the sixth and final playthrough revolves around zanata one of the first missions we do has us taken out a few MTS that we come to find out zanada was supposed to protect but thankfully she doesn't really figure out it was us till much later on there's then a mission where she challenges you to a death match but before you can get into it some unhappy clients come to take out Sonata this for some reason turns into you helping her while she runs away eventually we pick up a mission to Eliminator Jack doesn't like the idea of an undecided Loose Cannon Raven such as herself participating in this war but not long into the fight we get interrupted again but this time by a pulverizer the final mission is Jack sending us out to shut down the internacine this time we gotta go through event that's letting all those suicide drones out there's even some laser traps you gotta try to avoid or just damage through once we reach the internacine we just have to dodge some lasers and blow up the six different power sources on the wall and hey it's anata hazenata guess what the internet scene is destroyed and the world is finally saved I've always wondered what it is that sets certain Ravens apart from others I feel like after all we've been through we've really gotten to know each other maybe now that this is finally over we can go get a beer or something you know settle down and finally relax a bit after being up 24 hours straight being stuck in a constant battle maybe I'll find out once I've gotten rid of you this fight is straight up cancer not only does she use human plus but her weapons don't add any weight to her AC she's so fast it's really hard to keep a lock on her and after going through the minefields and Laser traps you really aren't left with that much health to fight her I swear this is the most unhinged character in the game she's always sending messages telling us how disappointed she is because we picked sides she'd rather do things the honorable way not picking a side like a true Raven yet she's willing to kill someone after saving the day I thought we really had something here anyways that covers all the endings in last Raven if you complete all the missions you unlock a final mission that's even more cancer than the last mission you gotta take out that final form pulverizer that Sonata wore down last time and honestly I don't think this fight was meant to be beaten it takes one hundred percent skill and then an additional one hundred percent luck you can't really keep up with how fast it moves and it's got like five different attacks sometimes it'll come up in laser blade you sometimes it'll start shooting invisible lasers that you can't even Dodge and you just have to eat them and try to out damage him and there's an attack where he puts up a shield where he's invisible I'm invisible like well I'm not really invisible when you got a Dodge five high damaging laser beams it's really just a hard fight and I think it was just a final you from fromsoft I do wish this Mission had a bit more story content I did an extra six playthroughs to get this ending and not having any eventful story behind it just really sucks it's a bummer and that's the end of last Raven the final armored Core game to get put on the PS2 I gotta say I was really happy with it I'm still salty that op intensify isn't unlockable especially since like half the ace sees in this game use it I wasn't a big fan of the changes they put in to try and make the game more like a simulator either but this is hands down a huge leap above Nexus and I think it's a good farewell to the PS2 armored Core games if you've been watching my series and haven't played any armored Core games I think you should definitely try this one out there's up-to-date controls and if you're a from soft fan chances are you like difficult games the story is really what made this game for me we haven't really seen a branching storyline since the original armored Core and even though for answer we'll have a branching story it doesn't even come close to this game it honestly just doesn't feel like I did a good job on the missions and story segment of this video but with the constantly changing missions it took me a while just to come up with something coherent yes Mission locations were stolen from Nexus and were reused throughout this game but at least this game has some sustenance compared to Nexus that just really didn't have anything going for it either way I like armored Core 3 in silent line more just for their gameplay so I'm not going to start trying to defend last Raven try this game out and if you use micro missiles you have a micro peen and I think I should mention I did not cover the previous game that came in between Nexus and last Raven it was called Nine breaker but in terms of Canon I don't think the game even really exists it takes place in a time of Peace where armored Core last Raven follows up Nexus like instantly and that game you pretty much just like had to take out Arena opponents and do like these weird time challenges and stuff I'll be covering it for sure but I need to get through the more important games and to give an update it might be a little bit of time before I come out with an armored Core for Answer video I got a three week vacation coming up pretty soon and on top of that Monster Hunter 3 try is getting its servers back online so I'm going to be putting a lot of time into that game I'll probably make some videos on it but yeah thanks for watching if you enjoyed leave a like and a comment to help spread this video and I'll see you guys in the next one

Channel: above average gaming

Views: 72,062

Keywords: Review, Critique, Retrospective, Commentary, Gameplay, Longplay, PS2, Retro, From Software, Fromsoft, Armored Core, overview, armored core series, what was armored core, what is armored core, armored core, nexus, mech, robot, mecha, armored core last raven, ac lastraven, armored core last raven overview, armored core last raven review, last raven, armored core last raven gameplay, From, from software, fromsoft

Id: iMAXzV17Swo

Length: 38min 41sec (2321 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 18 2022

Reddit Comments

[u/Cyuu_]

We must support our fellow raven creators

[u/ProbablySuspicious]

This guy's doing the lord's work with these videos.

[u/TwiceDead_]

Good stuff.

[u/Staryed]

Let's goooo, so close to ACFA! Can't wait for that