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I've only played 4/4A/VD, so I don't know much about the early installments (other than what I've seen from this thread and a previous LP of Gen1). Oh yeah,and Formula Front's PSP port, but eh. I do remember vividly that in 4A various equipment had vastly different performance based on your patch number, with one of the starter builds being an energy hog beyond belief in one of the original release, to the point that if you slipped off the edge in the first mission you basically couldn't get back to the mission area, while the final patch allowed me to use basically that mech with few changes all the way through the arena, mostly because its boosters didn't drain your energy in 10 seconds of use, and the starting machine guns got a 3.5X multiplier on their power from the previous patches. Given that I only got through the arena the first time by using the vert fire mini nukes that homed just short of forever and could pull hairpin turns that was pretty amazing. Something that also made me love 4A more than the other entries I've played is the pre-mission briefings, which, strangely enough, is a feeling I get more from the original AC than any other game I've seen in the series. Even just knowing who you're working for, and what they think of the enemies they've set you on fleshes the world out a lot more than it rightfully should.In 4A you could easily get a feel for most of the major players; Omer and their cronies were dicks who payed way too well, the Interior Union were fairly cold and distant, while GA was, while still probably as bad as the others, still full of middle management and pilots who you could go out and get drinks with if you aren't forced to murder them all. AC original did the closest I've seen out of all the ACs I've seen, you at least get a decent sense of who you're working for and against, with how they talk to you and how they react to the unfolding war. Meanwhile, 4? Outside a few special plot missions the entirety of the game is basically 'You've been hired to kill all the things here, here's some special rules. We won't tell you who's hiring you or who you're after'. having started with 4A this felt like way too much of a step back for me, took too much of the personality out of it. It may fit the atmosphere of being a merc who kills for the highest bidder, but it leaves the world feeling lifeless. VD on the other hand doesn't even bother with that much, while the setting is pretty interesting. A three way war between a Fascist group, a Corporate Supergroup and some newcomers with smaller numbers but interesting tech and ideas, as well as a group who has better understanding of the amazing ancient tech everyone is fighting tooth and nail for should be interesting. Instead its Red Team Blue Team Green Team and that's it, no further information, no real world building beyond that. Outside the personal story of a few voices without connected faces you get nothing more than a few sentences telling you what sort of equipment generic AC enemy #23 has, or that there's a lot of mooks out there to kill. It really just shows how multiplayer focused the game was.
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Mar 11, 2015 06:28
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So here's the thing, Nineball Seraph is terrifying, as we've seen. You know what's even more terrifying? That wasn't even it's full power. Let's see what it was holding back: Orbitals An active Camouflage system A chest mounted death ray (4:25) More Orbitals (6:10) A finisher out of an anime (6:21) Possibly the full extent of his missiles Ashsaber fucked around with this message at 01:40 on Sep 10, 2015 |
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Sep 10, 2015 01:26
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IthilionTheBrave posted:Well, now I know why Nineball is held in such high regard/utter terror by AC fans. That thing is certainly a monster. Now I'm curious to look up to see how the other "legendary" AC (albeit from much later in the series), the White Glint, holds up in comparison. Now, as mentioned, White Glint isn't nearly as much of a big deal as Nineball. The first iteration was just a decent speedy-NEXT. 4A made it cool by giving it a very distinctive look, enough that you might have trouble identifying any of the 'final boss' NEXTs but be able to ID WG years after playing. It helped that it was hyped by the story and equipped two multi-missiles. It was solid performance wise, and while it changed with the patches it remained a good all-rounder. Mostly though, it was just pretty. VDay, as mentioned, made it terrifying. It was a full on NEXT, even if it seemed a bit cludged together based on its actual performance. In VDay our AC is a tiny crap-bot, less advanced and generally less well armed than anything ArclightBorealis used after the first few missions of AC1, and the N-WGIX was a NEXT, with all the fun things that implies. Your mech would maybe reach its crotch, it had Primal Armor and a number of weapons, but it didn't really take advantage of any of its capabilities, so I found it kinda crappy as a boss myself. Then there's the bonus boss version, where it has a VOB and does bombing runs. The only way to really beat it is with a team of tank mechs with specialized weapons meant of DPS, as once it looses enough health it will land and being out the Laser Blades,which are just as effective for it as they were in 4A, generally one-shotting anyone on your team. Really White Glint is a legend because it is a memorable mech, generally visually distinct from anything else in the AC series. I think there's only like two memorable mechs from 4A other than WG that I can think of, one because of voice and emblem and one because of really distinctive back weapons.
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Sep 10, 2015 03:12
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