Every one of these bosses is garbage and quite possibly the game

[Spicy Grasshopper]

This is what happens when you get a team that makes sekiro souls games to do this- they make massive set pieces that don't belong, and mechanically don't work.

First off you have the helicopter- LITERALLY trending because people are stuck (Hint jump at it and use the sword, while firing), which is way too strong to welcome people into the game.
Where did they get this idea from; Dark souls, except its fine there because dying to a mega strong boss is part of the mechanics (rebirth).

Then you have the strider- A giant walker that is somewhat easy to kill, and was clearly a set piece level, however there is nothing else to it. It is LITERALLY run to machine, jump on machine, destroy 4 generators, camp and shoot eye, jump off....
Now while this is easy this is closer to AC bosses than the first or what comes after.

Next is Balteus- the disk guy on the roof. Again way too powerful with way too many attacks that cant be blocked and some barely dodged (Use laser pistols and rush him).
Ridiculous design choices, especially with the 2 different missile attacks, and then the exploding shield. There is literally no time to do anything about most of it.

Then you have Cleaner- again this one while big, is more akin to AC bosses, multiple areas to hit it, not too hard, not too easy, player can stay mobile or tank it.

Sea spider- is another bullshitty boss because it leaps but doesn't leap and can move quite far forward to strike the player, again several undodgeable attacks.

Cataphract/raven/ice worm are somewhat mechanically sound and balanced.

Enforcer is a bit iffy cant really remember this fight.

VV Hawkings/ VVIII Pater- a bullshitty boss largely because most people will see ally and go for it, the issue with armoured core and the devs is they made the allies largely useless. And he will die very quickly and very early, this is still easier than the other mission, but is dreadfully balanced, especially as both of them heal...

Rusty- is OK, can be rushed with energy weapons, not great, not poor.

Ibis- I'm currently at this boss and its the worst boss in the game and poorly designed for this game. If you all think the helicopter and Sea Spider are bullshitty wait till you get this one. It zips around, fires 20+ homing missiles, launches multiple energy blades at you (2 criss crossed, 2 angled), has a mega beam that destroys your HP, and if IF you manage to kill it- it gets back up for a phase two...
Oh yea and if you are trying to heal it might not work, because the developers literally cant program "C"- what do I mean; if you have other Keyboard inputs down whilst fighting this boss it will ignore you pressing C...

Also the allies in this game are broken and outside of the wall incredibly weak when helping you but incredibly OP when killing you- and yes you will fight them.

Then we have the stagger that doesn't stagger enemies, yes I can do more damage, but I would rather stagger them and get a breather.

Also weapons run hot too quickly and run out of ammo too quickly, its tension but not good tension, it reeks of bad development and design choices not affording more ammo or not placing more pick up points.

And finally old AC players like me remember when we used to get contracts we could build reputation with factions similar to battle tech, that's gone. Instead you will do all of the missions (Except decision ones where you pick or the other and this isn't explained to the player).

The whole idea of Armoured core is that you are going to get hit, but you dodge and dive, deploy counter measures, and try to get the enemy first. This game ignores the second and third, ups the damage to 4-5 hits and you dead (with bosses), and counter measures aren't an item anymore, its a perk, and its very hard to bring down enemies (bosses) with this stagger mechanic, especially Ibis...

This isn't an Armoured Core game, its a skinsuit version of it and not even well done.

EDIT 25/04/24: This topic is still popping off, so let me give you the facts. https://steamdb.info/app/1888160/ 914 people current in game down from a release of 156,171.
It is a poor mans AC and the numbers don't lie, this is what happens when you get your souls team to make a mech game.

[scoobythedoo]

great summary, completely agree

[Bwoink ⭕⃤]

They get more annoying after ibis especially If you do bad ending

[SpookyFairy]

My first Souls game was Elden Ring, so I was scared to play it. But I remember the first thing I did, although nobody limited me to do so, was spend close to an hour fighting a single enemy. It's amazing that since then, the entire game was doable.

I think that once people get into it with the first boss encounter, they should get a good understanding of the mechanics. It's even better when you are kind of forced to do it, as things will probably just get more challenging from that point on. However, your mindset and understanding of the game will lead you in the right direction for moving forward and dealing with the challenges. I personally like that a lot, but at the same time, I haven't played previous AC games, so I don't know how fans feel about that.

After Elden Ring, I went to play other Souls games and I was more than ready for them.

So for those who find it difficult, give it a bit more time. Like it happened to me, you'll learn to enjoy it a lot and who knows, maybe open yourself to more FromSoftware games.

[Striker]

Cry more then I might give you some steam points

[Neverr]

Originally posted by Bwoink:

They get more annoying after ibis especially If you do bad ending

I did the bad ending, I thought Ibis was the hardest boss so far! At least for me. Also I loved all these fights so I don't personally agree with OP

[Ialda]

After months of daily trolling yeah, we've understood that there are people out there who hate AC and wished From was stuck churning out Souls games instead, but this is getting ridiculous.

[Thawn]

Originally posted by SpookyFairy:

My first Souls game was Elden Ring, so I was scared to play it. But I remember the first thing I did, although nobody limited me to do so, was spend close to an hour fighting a single enemy. It's amazing that since then, the entire game was doable.

I think that once people get into it with the first boss encounter, they should get a good understanding of the mechanics. It's even better when you are kind of forced to do it, as things will probably just get more challenging from that point on. However, your mindset and understanding of the game will lead you in the right direction for moving forward and dealing with the challenges. I personally like that a lot, but at the same time, I haven't played previous AC games, so I don't know how fans feel about that.

After Elden Ring, I went to play other Souls games and I was more than ready for them.

So for those who find it difficult, give it a bit more time. Like it happened to me, you'll learn to enjoy it a lot and who knows, maybe open yourself to more FromSoftware games.

Except I'll just point out that this wasn't what AC was about. Sometimes AC had some large targets to deal with such as Spirit of Motherwill in 4A and V, but those weren't souls-esque boss fights that dealt with pattern memorisation.

I fully understand someone who was excited to come back to AC only to get frustrated if they don't like the Souls series, because they aren't getting past certain bosses in this game without hitting the frustration threshold.

[Wykydtron]

skill issue, all there is to it. I hate Baltus tho because of his railgun bazooka.

[Spicy Grasshopper]

Well it cant be a skill issue- I got to Ibis and Rank 1 in arena in 11 hours...
Im now spending aabout 3 hours killing Ibis.

The bosses up till this point were just garbage, both in gameplay and in design and application.

[Tentacule Un Seigneur]

Originally posted by Thawn:

Originally posted by SpookyFairy:

My first Souls game was Elden Ring, so I was scared to play it. But I remember the first thing I did, although nobody limited me to do so, was spend close to an hour fighting a single enemy. It's amazing that since then, the entire game was doable.

I think that once people get into it with the first boss encounter, they should get a good understanding of the mechanics. It's even better when you are kind of forced to do it, as things will probably just get more challenging from that point on. However, your mindset and understanding of the game will lead you in the right direction for moving forward and dealing with the challenges. I personally like that a lot, but at the same time, I haven't played previous AC games, so I don't know how fans feel about that.

After Elden Ring, I went to play other Souls games and I was more than ready for them.

So for those who find it difficult, give it a bit more time. Like it happened to me, you'll learn to enjoy it a lot and who knows, maybe open yourself to more FromSoftware games.

Except I'll just point out that this wasn't what AC was about. Sometimes AC had some large targets to deal with such as Spirit of Motherwill in 4A and V, but those weren't souls-esque boss fights that dealt with pattern memorisation.

I fully understand someone who was excited to come back to AC only to get frustrated if they don't like the Souls series, because they aren't getting past certain bosses in this game without hitting the frustration threshold.

As someone who played every one of the prior AC games, let me say that one I am greatly enjoying this one so far, it is different, but every main entry in the AC series is different, AC4 and AC5 WILDLY differed. This is just one more Chapter in Armored Core, and I am here for it.

And also, some of the older AC games did have some very rough missions and bosses (Nineball Seraphim says Hello). They have always had a thing for big boss level mechs, just in previous ones, due to limitations in tech and funds, they couldn't make them too elaborate and they often were just races to see if you could deal more damage to the boss before it killed you.

[Unyielding_Outcast]

Originally posted by HenloPeeps:

This is what happens when you get a team that makes sekiro souls games to do this- they make massive set pieces that dont belong, and mechanically dont work.

First off you have the helicopter- LITERALLY trending because people are stuck (Hint jump at it and use the sword, while firing), which is way too strong to welcome people into the game.
Where did they get this idea from; Dark souls, except its fine there because dying to a mega strong boss is part of the mechanics (rebirth).

Then you have the strider- A giant walker that is somewhat easy to kill, and was clearly a set piece level, however there is nothing else to it. It is LITERALLY run to machine, jump on machine, destroy 4 generators, camp and shoot eye, jump off....
Now while this is easy this is closer to AC bosses than the first or what comes after.

Next is Balteus- the disk guy on the roof. Again way too powerful with way too many attacks that cant be blocked and some barely dodged (Use laser pistols and rush him).
Ridiculous design choices, especially with the 2 different missile attacks, and then the exploding shield. There is literally no time to do anything about most of it.

Then you have Cleaner- again this one while big, is more akin to AC bosses, multiple areas to hit it, not too hard, not too easy, player can stay mobile or tank it.

Sea spider- is another bullshitty boss because it leaps but doesnt leap and can move quite far forward to strike the player, again several undodgeable attacks.

Cataphract/raven/ice worm are somewhat mechanically sound and balanced.

Enforcer is a bit iffy cant really remember this fight.

VV Hawkings/ VVIII Pater- a bullshitty boss largely because most people will see ally and go for it, the issue with armoured core and the devs is they made the allies largely useless. And he will die very quickly and very early, this is still easier than the other mission, but is dreadfully balanced, especially as both of them heal...

Rusty- is ok, can be rushed with energy weapons, not great, not poor.

Ibis- im currently at this boss and its the worst boss in the game and poorly designed for this game. If you all think the helicopter and Sea Spider are bullshitty wait till you get this one. It zips around, fires 20+ homing missiles, launches multiple energy blades at you (2 criss crossed, 2 angled), has a mega beam that destroys your HP, and if IF you manage to kill it- it gets back up for a phase two...
Oh yea and if you are trying to heal it might not work, because the developers literally cant program "C"- what do I mean; if you have other Keyboard inputs down whilst fighting this boss it will ignore you pressing C...

Also the allies in this game are broken and outside of the wall incredibly weak when helping you but incredibly OP when killing you- and yes you will fight them.

Then we have the stagger that doesnt stagger enemies, yes I can do more damage, but I would rather stagger them and get a breather.

Also weapons run hot too quickly and run out of ammo too quickly, its tension but not good tension, it reeks of bad development and design choices not affording more ammo or not placing more pick up points.

And finally old AC players like me remember when we used to get contracts we could build reputation with factions similar to battle tech, thats gone. Instead you will do all of the missions (Except decision ones where you pick or the other and this isnt explained to the player).

The whole idea of Armored core is that you are going to get hit, but you dodge and dive, deploy counter measures, and try to get teh enemy first. This game ignores the second and third, ups the damage to 4-5 hits and you dead (with bosses), and counter measures arent an item anymore, its a perk, and its very hard to bring down enemies (bossies) with this stagger mechanic, especially Ibis...

This isnt an armored core game, its a skinsuit version of it and not even well done.

... From the looks of this, maybe it's a good thing EAC made this game unplayable, necessitating a Refund, cuz it sounds like complete newb IDIOTS built this game...
..... Even the HARDEST-HITTING Bosses in PROPER AC games hit for no more than 5-8K Frame-Hp a hit, 4-5 hits to be destroyed is outright gdm R3T4RDED ... then the spammy atk.s, the Player Poise/Player Poise Dmg that doesn't actually do JACK SHET (just like in Elden Ring) .... sounds like a pile of Turds burning in a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ Dumpster ... ty Shetbourne for ruining a decent Franchise & ruining games in ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ general ....

[Bloodstorm]

To my understanding, Armored Core has always been a hard game. It's From Software. They don't believe in easy.

But, I am feeling much better about myself now. I thought I sucked, but knowing people are so bad that they cannot beat the helicopter... I ain't so bad.

Balteus is a ♥♥♥♥♥, though. I'll get it eventually... hopefully.

[Thawn]

Originally posted by Tentacule Un Seigneur:

Originally posted by Thawn:

Except I'll just point out that this wasn't what AC was about. Sometimes AC had some large targets to deal with such as Spirit of Motherwill in 4A and V, but those weren't souls-esque boss fights that dealt with pattern memorisation.

I fully understand someone who was excited to come back to AC only to get frustrated if they don't like the Souls series, because they aren't getting past certain bosses in this game without hitting the frustration threshold.

As someone who played every one of the prior AC games, let me say that one I am greatly enjoying this one so far, it is different, but every main entry in the AC series is different, AC4 and AC5 WILDLY differed. This is just one more Chapter in Armored Core, and I am here for it.

And also, some of the older AC games did have some very rough missions and bosses (Nineball Seraphim says Hello). They have always had a thing for big boss level mechs, just in previous ones, due to limitations in tech and funds, they couldn't make them too elaborate and they often were just races to see if you could deal more damage to the boss before it killed you.

I just don't recall bosses ever being difficult unless they were other piloted mechs, and even then the game generally was a level playing field and not them having a substantially higher health bar than you do with the same gear.

I'm sitting here debating if I want to bother going forward because quite frankly if this is what they want out of the series going forward I don't think it's for me.

[Nobody]

Where do you think Dark Souls got its ideas you dingus?

Welcome to FromSoft games.

[Bill Gates]

Originally posted by Enig:

Where do you think Dark Souls got its ideas you dingus?

Welcome to FromSoft games.

I am enjoying the game but I do understand players who are diehard AC fans complaining about this game. They are use to the arcade experience not souls like. You have to understand many people who bought this game have no idea who from software really is but they saw the AC title and purchased. That nostalgia ya know.