Jake Kulinski

I played Armored Core VI, but I have not beaten it due to time constraints, so this is my impression: You know how huge those Final Fantasy 16 fights were, but much of it was prescripted? Armored Core 6 says how about if you actually had to scale a titan robot yourself. This is Fromsoft mastering the art of the setpiece battle, a lesson that's evolved since Demon's Souls all the way to Elden Ring. This game is hard. There are boss battles that took me an entire day to beat. But I was so in sync with the controls and action, everything else about life fades away as I began to feel one with my robot. These battles require you to learn patterns but also require quick reflexes. These guys made Sekiro, and although this game is nothing like that, it offers similar skill checks. If you can't beat a certain boss, you better go back to the garage and reconfigure your robot enough to the point where it makes sense for you and for the enemy. Fair warning. Old school AC fans will be in heaven. This game was made for us. This is a classic Armored Core game with no compromise. I can't wait to get back to it after I'm done reviewing that other game. Witness the glory of the kinds of games FromSoft has always made: an experience so immersive in its control scheme, settings and fight beats (enemies with different "stages") that nothing else will matter when you're in locked in combat.