BOOST KICK 2023: Let's Play Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon

[Fyonn]

We don’t consider why a laser barrier might be somewhere in the first place, we have to do the mission normal because our generator is so awful, we find several parts, we moonlight with an unmanned AC, and we’ve got a lengthy date with Michigan in one of the game’s hardest missions, but I helpfully edited that down for you. Finally, we take Borrowed Wings out for one last flight.

Dance To Their Tune

 

[Torzelbaum]

Damn... They were lighting your ass up in that first mission.

 

[Fyonn]

Yeah, the laser sniper turrets are very, very accurate. Normally, I'd just drop down while out of range of the lasers then Assault Boost a couple times to get where I need to go, but the Generator on Borrowed Wings trades off almost all its Energy Capacity for its literally-best-in-the-game Energy recharge rate on the ground.

 

[Fyonn]

Now that the seal is cracked, our dealings with the corporations have ended. Coral’s right there. Just have to go… scoop it up? I guess? Ayre, of course, has some strong emotions about having finally gotten so close to her family. We clown on some ACs like it’s nothing, Skeleton Wheels have returned from Dark Souls and now they have flamethrowers, we explore the wrong lake on our way to the correct lake, I finally use Assault Armor effectively, we collect my favorite melee weapon, and we encounter a Bertigo on loan from Gundam X. Everything goes great without any complications, we learn the nature of our true mission on Rubicon, and it kind of feels like From Software wanted to prove they could make an action Front Mission better than Square Enix.

This Isn't An Order. It's A Legacy.

 

[Fyonn]

First! One last Arena showcase to do against the three highest ranking pilots in the Arena, and one last extremely well-deserved pat on the back from our good friend Allmind. Second! We’ve got one of the game’s hardest defense missions to handle, and this time around I’m not lying for effect. How hard is it? Thanks to my struggles to S rank the mission, I know the exact minute I need to deploy the temporary artillery units for. If anyone has ideas on how to stop that barrage of missiles near the end, I’d be fascinated to hear it because I’ve never managed it even once.

Overseer

So just a heads-up, it's probably going to be a few days before the next one of these thanks to some issues with scheduling and the need to re-record (non-critical) footage.

 

[spines]

i forgot the timing (i think it's when they're around 700-800m away) and reaching the right height can also be weird but assault armor them can take out almost all of them at once

 

[Fyonn]

The most success I ever had against the missiles was using the fully charged coral laser cannon that one of the endgame bosses uses on you, I know you know which one.

 

[Fyonn]

Been a minute, huh? Oops.

We make the only choice 621 ever could have made. We’ve always had a job to do, and we’re going to do it. The final boss was much harder than I expected from my previous experience, so I spent most of my time too focused on fighting to do much commentary. I wanted to leave the credits intact for full effect, but there’s also stuff that happens after them, so there’s a prompt on where to skip to once I’m done talking.

The Spark Of War

 

[Cadenza]

I was out of town for a while and it's taken me a bit to catch up, but good stuff all around!

 

[Fyonn]

Oh baby~
Just did almost all of Chapter 1 NG+.
... And wasn't recording.
So next time we're gonna be missing out on some slightly different interstitial dialogue, and there's gonna yet more delay because oof that hurts, and I do not feel like redoing the critical missions of Chapter 1 again tonight.

Well... I might have a way to grab the dialogue we missed, without scavenging it from the internet, but. We'll see.

EDIT: lol lmao
my secret plan (having a 100% save file sitting at the beginning of Chapter 1 NG+++) worked
please look forward to a minimally-compromised next episode

 

[Fyonn]

This time we salvage some audio footage by playing every Chapter 1 NG+ mission 2-3 times, we demonstrate an extreme degree of superiority over Iguazu, we take out the Juggernaut so fast that we don't have time to flirt with Rusty, and we start down the road to a different future.

Coral, Abide With Rubicon

 

[Cadenza]

It's interesting to see a FromSoft game where New Game+ has more substantial differences from a standard playthrough than "make the numbers bigger", after a decade or so where the latter has largely been the case.

 

[Paul le Fou]

Yeah, especially since the numbers don't get bigger. I do wish there was more stuff in NG+ instead of saving the vast majority of it for NG++ but it makes sense. I guess there are also the decision points to do the alternate versions of your first time back through.

 

[Fyonn]

It's interesting to see a FromSoft game where New Game+ has more substantial differences from a standard playthrough than "make the numbers bigger", after a decade or so where the latter has largely been the case.

Yeah, absolutely. AC4's sequel, Armored Core: For Answer was structured pretty similarly, actually, and was even more different between playthroughs - each additional playthrough unlocked one ending, and there was only one (pretty bad) ending in the first playthrough. That's a big part of why I picked the ending I did for our first run - I suspect that AC6 was originally going to be structured the same way, but they made it a choice so that players would know there was a reason to play through a second time.

This time out, we wonder what the heck was up with Sulla, anyway? We thoroughly trash Balteus, our good friend Allmind has a special offer just for us, we find some treasure chests we missed, and we get our buns kicked in fighting the Cleaner the dangerous and stupid way. I underestimated how long Chapter 2 would take us because, as it turns out, pretty much all of it qualifies for what I would call "important." As a result, it's gonna be two episodes instead of just one. This first episode doesn't feature anything strictly new, but we do pick up all? the stuff we missed the first time through Infiltrate Grid 086.

Treasure Hunting With You

 

[Torzelbaum]

I dig giant large robots with gimmick builds.

 

[Fyonn]

We equip the biggest brain possible for the one time it's ever relevant, we point out a mystery we never got an answer for, we say hello to Iguazu again, we casually dodge some orbital lasers, and we reflect on the Sea Spider with our new knowledge and overwhelming firepower.

Iguazu, the Jerid Messa of Armored Core VI

 

[Fyonn]

What's up everybody? I definitely didn't forget about Armored Core or anything! More seriously, the tail-end of October was a lot for me, the conclusion of more than a month straight of roughly two dentist appointments a week for over a month, and I've got ADHD, so my current hyper-fixation has taken over. I'm definitely gonna finish AC6 out, but given that and also the fact that it's gonna be more play time on my end per-episode than before, the pace will likely remain slower like this. I just don't have "play ten hours of AC6 in one day" in me anymore.

Were You Saying Something?