Calling all Armored Core lore masters

[Nicholas Angel 04]

I want to know the lore for the entirety of 2nd and 3rd gen Armored core (In other words whats the lore for all the games in these generations). Please spare no detail, I have plenty of time to read.

[Somnion]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armored_Core

[Nicholas Angel 04]

Originally posted by Somnion:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armored_Core

Thank you really, but I want to read about it from fans of the games.

[ImHelping]

My hazy ancient memories of most of them. AC is a zelda vague shrug "It is mostly references that break down as a direct timeline if you think about it for five seconds" setting.

AC1: Corpo dystopia future revealed to be manipulated by an AI for vague "Because I know better" reasons.
Your choice of first mission is between "Murder construction workers who want a union" and "Murder squatters bringing down our property values"
Antagonist commit suicide by trying to kill you and acting surprised you won.

Phantasma: The villain's genius idea. I'm gonna put my brain in a giant superweapon!
Cooler than Nineball, still explodes.

AC2: Welcome to mars. Hope you bought a bio sensor (or love rockets) to target the ANCIENT MARTIAN BIO ROBOTS people are fighting to gain control over.

AC2 Another age: I have entirely forgotten. I think another nineball was here? He died because he spent too much of the fight running away instead of trying to kill me. (Why did you add a cool jet mode if you are not going to use it right!?)

AC3: The first case of "Wait is this a reboot? Or-" Where the plot is practically a do over of AC1. You rediscover grass in the outside world in the ending, wondering "Maybe humanity won't ♥♥♥♥ it up this time. (I have a huge soft spot for vanilla 3)
Knowledge of AC3 leads to the explanation of "why is that AC6 boss called a sea spider?" because AC3 has a giant bioweapon laser crab spider in it.

Silent line, nexus, and last raven: increasingly worse "We dug up ancient human giga tech." results until every raven pilot is killing eachother, while self evolving skynet with a hard on for suicide drones is also trying to kill everything.
Zinaida is a moron that watches you solo everything including flying forcefield mega ultimate AI evolution killbot in one ending, and still go "Nuh uh I'm the best pilot-oh gosh I'm exploding"

AC4: What little plot they bother with can be summed up as "Kojima particles give everything cancer. Piloting a robot giving you cancer makes me sad. Corpo war makes me sad"

AC4 answer: Takes a throwaway detail of 4 and makes it the primary background plot.
Old self replicating death satellites from a past corpo war are keeping everyone trapped on earth.
Option 1: Status quo to keep the rich people sky arcs running as planet slowly dies.

NG+ Option 2: Get a cutscene of all the sky arc citizens literally choking to death on poor people air, as the in it to rule the world themselves rebels hijack the power systems to fire enough anti-orbital guns to take out the death satellites in one shot to fleet a radioactive earth into space.

NG++ option 3: Shoot down the sky arcs with guns while your mission partner livestreams your killcount. Corpos mad because you shot them down. Rebels mad because you made them look bad instead of using the "Tragic neccessity, honest" plan. You vs every living ace pilot at once,
Narrator declares you history's greatest monster as you don't bother pushing the "Save world now" button.

AC5: I owned it but I honestly can't even remember the plot even compared to 4's non-plot. Has AC4 references. AC5 can't be a "Direct timeline" unless one of the bad endings of AC4 happened.

AC5 Verdict day: The good version of 5 to play. Revenge of the "Reclaim old human super tech that ♥♥♥♥♥ out AI drones" plot. 99% of what people talk about is the final boss being a NEXT from 4.


AC6: You just played it. If it was a direct timeline then it would skip from 4's "Ending 2" straight to 6.

Beyond the plot elements, one stand out trait compared to the rest is rivals and antagonists understanding you are actually very, very dangerous sooner than five seconds before the end credits roll. (except that one guy in 2, overreacting to you clearing out a basic mission as "Too dangerous to live" )


If the internet has taught me anything. It has taught me this half assed summary of most of the games means you are practically guaranteed to get more detail than ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ out a wiki link. Because of the urged for my fellow nerds to shout "No that is wrong!" and add further detail and clarifications.

But one thing also stand out. Souls games learned "Look at this badass... anyways they are going to run away from you a lot now" from armored core, and not the other way around. My instinct to back giant ornstein into a corner by exploiting his spamming backwards escape jumps came from dealing with armored core.

[Triple-D Lloyd]

You could just watch a video essay like every other AC6 """"""Fan""""""" in existence, but in lieu of a beat-by-beat description (this is ABSURDLY BORING) I can outline the important bits.

AC1: AI is no match for the indomitable human spirit. Note that this isn't necessarily a good thing (The indomitable human will to do stupid ♥♥♥♥ to ourselves is more powerful than any AI's attempts to stop us from killing ourselves, which ties into the souls-esque WAOW ITSA CYCLE!!!! thing that AC has going because we keep hurting ourselves and AI's keep failing to stop it). You end the game by killing the AI that was trying to keep what was left of human civilization under control and opening the door to new opportunities (to kill yourself, mostly).
AC1 spinoffs: like basically the same thing
AC2 and spinoffs: See AC1
AC3 and spinoffs: See AC2

AC4: The inability of the govt to control the corporations results in the corporations becoming the govt and making life objectively worse for everyone by polluting the earth into being borderline uninhabitable. You take a bunch of jobs for the corporations because the only other option is starving to death and your actions inevitably make things worse. Your faction benefits from your work but you piss off another faction so bad they burn down your entire hometown out of spite. The moral of the story is neo-feudalism is bad, and just because electoral bureaucracy sucks doesnt mean the corporate alternative is better. This is also the game where you meet proto-rusty

AC4a: Earth is now genuinely uninhabitable and you now have the choice of multiple endings which reflect your personal philosophies. Join and continue the system as is, fighting the people who want to kill you and your comrades (the trolley problem where you escape direct moral culpability but still are technically responsible for killing all of mankind), destroy the system but potentially save billions (kill everyone responsible for upholding the doomed system, even the non-combatants who just want to survive), or simply murder everyone left on the planet because you think its funny. The moral of the story is whatever ending you chose to represent your values.

ACV: On the last functioning city left on earth, you get a side gig working for a fascist dictatorship, kill the leader of the local freedom fighters, feel bad about it and then switch sides and topple said dictatorship only to discover that that dictatorship existed for a pretty good reason honestly and the only other alternative was everyone starving to death. Also, you flex on a super-AI just for old times sake (See AC1). The moral of the story is that history probably shouldn't be decided by lone wolves going on killing sprees, even if it occasionally results in a positive outcome.

ACVD: Earth is somehow mostly-habitable again, and various factions discover giant piles of AC4 technology lying around in the wasteland, kickstarting a global war to gain control of them. Along the way you discover that the protag of ACV was remembered as basically the antichrist (They called him the Dark Raven) for destroying what everyone thought was the last functioning city left on earth, and now a gang of AI (or VERY VERY VERY HEAVILY AUGMENTED cyborg, same thing really) pilots is going around trying to assassinate anyone with the potential to become another iteration of the antichrist, in the hopes of preventing a repeat of the ACV incident (remember the souls-cycle thing i mentioned). In classic AC fashion you (See AC1).

AC6: See AC1

[Blackmage]

If you have plenty of time to read, then you probably have the time to read the wiki.
Or even better, play the games yourself.

Why does it have to come from fans of the series?

[hakabata]

I suggest YouTube if you are looking for fans stuffs. If someone made lengthy vids explaining all the trivia around each gen, he's more than qualified as a fan.

Setting-wise not much to talk about I think. Most info are slightly hinted during briefings and radio transmissions. We are supposed to be pilots on suicide missions; not some adventurers fancied by rich 'labeled' universe.

It has a distinct style tho. The whole series is a recurring image of dying, cold, depressing world where each struggle to fight for purpose, and explode like a burning jet. No sugarcoating. Quite driven. I like it that way.

[Sabaithal]

AC4 and 4As plot basically boils down to "maybe nineball was right after all, given how badly we screwed things up".

And given how apparently all the games are in the same continuity, somehow someone managed to ♥♥♥♥♥♥ the situation in 4A (not you though).

[hakabata]

Well, I am surprised no one yet has brought 'perhaps everything was a matrix'. We have been through all kind of assumptions and connecting efforts thanks to fanbois in glasses yet still wildly opened to everything. Or maybe From does not give a dime about fancy stuffs.

If you ask me, I will boil down AC4 into "You ready, Fragile?" Fragile:"aaaAAAAH" That's the Armored Core I remember.

[Nicholas Angel 04]

Originally posted by Sabaithal:

AC4 and 4As plot basically boils down to "maybe nineball was right after all, given how badly we screwed things up".

And given how apparently all the games are in the same continuity, somehow someone managed to ♥♥♥♥♥♥ the situation in 4A (not you though).

See my understanding is that Gen 1 and 2 are one continuity, gen 3 is its own continuity, gen 4 and 5 are their own continuity, and finally 6 is again its own continuity. But I feel like there is enough similarity in the stories and even some of the game mechanics that you could argue for a shared time line.

[hakabata]

Originally posted by Nicholas Angel 04:

See my understanding is that Gen 1 and 2 are one continuity, gen 3 is its own continuity, gen 4 and 5 are their own continuity, and finally 6 is again its own continuity. But I feel like there is enough similarity in the stories and even some of the game mechanics that you could argue for a shared time line.

4 and 5 rather have weak link. 5 is basically another reboot, but its small references often being treated like crucial evidence since we just love to see them as connected. Of course 4 haters often refused the connection. But who knows. Maybe they are all in one big spaghetti.

[azureskynumber5]

If you want an audio format, the check out the Armored Core Lore channel on YT.

https://www.youtube.com/@armoredcorelore

[Nicholas Angel 04]

Originally posted by azureskynumber5:

If you want an audio format, the check out the Armored Core Lore channel on YT.

https://www.youtube.com/@armoredcorelore

I have no idea how I missed this, Thank you good sir!

[GB EX]

Originally posted by Nicholas Angel 04:

Originally posted by azureskynumber5:

If you want an audio format, the check out the Armored Core Lore channel on YT.

https://www.youtube.com/@armoredcorelore

I have no idea how I missed this, Thank you good sir!

My only warning for this YT channel is that he occasionally injects his own opinions on otherwise documentary-style videos. This is most apparent in his AC6 videos.

[Zany Fish]

AC2

Takes place after the wars on Earth have lead the corporations to the idea that it would be beneficial to terraform and colonize on Mars so that they don't have to answer to the Earth Government.

Leos Klein is a key antagonist who sort-of sneaks into the migration to Mars. He has ideals that he wants to achieve, something about lost technologies found on Mars, yatta yatta -he tries to use the ancient technology to make Phobos crash into Mars. I forget who his intended target or targets were let alone the end goal he was hoping for. At the end Phobos no longer exists, we defeat him, and IIRC the Earth Government/LCC was trying to seize control over Mars from the corporations who fled there? I gotta replay.




AC2: Another Age

We return to Earth after the Martian matters to go back to clearing up the usual issues as a Raven. I think there was a coup attempt by a few Ravens to again overthrow the Earth Government/LCC, unsure if it was due to Corporation Loyalties or what.

There is no typical arena in AC2:AA. There is a map with nodes on it that you navigate between like levels in a Mario game. One of the nodes is an arena where you will face off a few times against certain ACs. After you beat the main story line, you unlock a node for a hidden/unexplored area where you face off against Stinger, Phantasma, and Nineball Seraph -individually, across three "missions", as fan-service throw-backs so that you can test your builds against them.




AC3

No idea where we are. Allegedly we are in a network of underground facilities known as "Layered" that was designed to keep humans safe until Earth above (or whatever planet it is) recovers from the devastation of decade after decade after decade of wars on the surface.

Issue is that there are two moons or planets visible in the "Artificial Sky" that you see when visiting the water dam location.

The entire plot is a rehash on Gen 1 themes with an AI overseer governing humanity but then going rogue and starting to be weird and killing off people, stifling human advancements, etc. You end up being pitted against the AI overseerer "The Controller" in order to break the lock-down it had over the Layered fascilities so that humanity would once again have access to the surface world. It's rather stupid because humanity was being kept down by the AI so that nature could revive over the decade of holding humanity down in the Layered world -and yet nobody seemed to maintain the information to each other and humanity decides to brute force against the AI overseer to gain access to the surface again so they can pillage the resources. It's bad writing.




Silent Line: Armored Core (Armored Core 3: Silent Line)

The plot is the follow up on what humanity gets up to after escaping Layered. Humanity expands on the surface, makes advancements in tech, and yet hits a snag because they can't get past a certain area due to unidentifiable enemies killing off anyone who gets near "The Silent Line".

You do a bunch of missions for the coporations as typical, until you end up dragged into the Silent Line matters and end up discovering that another Controller-like AI and Layered-like facility was responsible for guarding the Silent Line.



Nexus

This isn't explained well, but Nexus takes place after Silent Line events. A lot of advancements in tech is tied into the further expansion on the surface and discovery of new materials and lost technologies. You end up facing off against some weird enemies in the end that seem to be once again AI controlled from a central AI that you had no prior Idea even existed.



Formula Front

Released in JP and never localized elsewhere because it wasn't released until After Last Raven IIRC -this game supposedly hides details that bridges Silent Line into Nexus with details on events that happened between both. The PSPS gameplay is about training AI piloted ACs to fight against other AI teams for recreational sport.


Nine Breaker

After the events in Nexus, Ravens were being trained across a series of performance evaluating tests in the hopes of cultivating better pilots. There was a fear that this training was going to be needed for threats that were sensed during Nexus timeline events.



Last Raven

The corporations decided to merge into one conglomerate alliance. IIRC, Jack-O, a Raven Mercenary, decides to wage War against the allied Corporations because they are effectively seeking to eliminate their need for Ravens via AI automated weaponry that they discovered. The Pulverizers and Internetcine, IIRC, do not take kindly to the Corporations trying to control them, and in turn attack anyone and anything human piloted as they deem them threats to their free will. There are 6 endings, one is that Kamikaze drones that were first discovered in the last Mission of Nexus have returned once again, raining down upon the world, attacking everything man-made or piloted, etc. Your AC is given a chance to fight back but the hoard is so overwhelming in numbers that keep coming -the screen fades to black as you reach a certain degree of AP remaining, so you do not know if you survived, but you were the "Last Raven" alive at the time as either you or other sources had killed off the other Ravens prior to this event.



It's been a while. I assume you wanted word of mouth to see how much of these old plots were able to be accurately retained by the fanbase. What details people overlooked, forgot, didn't find significant, etc.

[Algester]

Originally posted by Zany Fish:

AC2

Takes place after the wars on Earth have lead the corporations to the idea that it would be beneficial to terraform and colonize on Mars so that they don't have to answer to the Earth Government.

Leos Klein is a key antagonist who sort-of sneaks into the migration to Mars. He has ideals that he wants to achieve, something about lost technologies found on Mars, yatta yatta -he tries to use the ancient technology to make Phobos crash into Mars. I forget who his intended target or targets were let alone the end goal he was hoping for. At the end Phobos no longer exists, we defeat him, and IIRC the Earth Government/LCC was trying to seize control over Mars from the corporations who fled there? I gotta replay.




AC2: Another Age

We return to Earth after the Martian matters to go back to clearing up the usual issues as a Raven. I think there was a coup attempt by a few Ravens to again overthrow the Earth Government/LCC, unsure if it was due to Corporation Loyalties or what.

There is no typical arena in AC2:AA. There is a map with nodes on it that you navigate between like levels in a Mario game. One of the nodes is an arena where you will face off a few times against certain ACs. After you beat the main story line, you unlock a node for a hidden/unexplored area where you face off against Stinger, Phantasma, and Nineball Seraph -individually, across three "missions", as fan-service throw-backs so that you can test your builds against them.




AC3

No idea where we are. Allegedly we are in a network of underground facilities known as "Layered" that was designed to keep humans safe until Earth above (or whatever planet it is) recovers from the devastation of decade after decade after decade of wars on the surface.

Issue is that there are two moons or planets visible in the "Artificial Sky" that you see when visiting the water dam location.

The entire plot is a rehash on Gen 1 themes with an AI overseer governing humanity but then going rogue and starting to be weird and killing off people, stifling human advancements, etc. You end up being pitted against the AI overseerer "The Controller" in order to break the lock-down it had over the Layered fascilities so that humanity would once again have access to the surface world. It's rather stupid because humanity was being kept down by the AI so that nature could revive over the decade of holding humanity down in the Layered world -and yet nobody seemed to maintain the information to each other and humanity decides to brute force against the AI overseer to gain access to the surface again so they can pillage the resources. It's bad writing.




Silent Line: Armored Core (Armored Core 3: Silent Line)

The plot is the follow up on what humanity gets up to after escaping Layered. Humanity expands on the surface, makes advancements in tech, and yet hits a snag because they can't get past a certain area due to unidentifiable enemies killing off anyone who gets near "The Silent Line".

You do a bunch of missions for the coporations as typical, until you end up dragged into the Silent Line matters and end up discovering that another Controller-like AI and Layered-like facility was responsible for guarding the Silent Line.



Nexus

This isn't explained well, but Nexus takes place after Silent Line events. A lot of advancements in tech is tied into the further expansion on the surface and discovery of new materials and lost technologies. You end up facing off against some weird enemies in the end that seem to be once again AI controlled from a central AI that you had no prior Idea even existed.



Formula Front

Released in JP and never localized elsewhere because it wasn't released until After Last Raven IIRC -this game supposedly hides details that bridges Silent Line into Nexus with details on events that happened between both. The PSPS gameplay is about training AI piloted ACs to fight against other AI teams for recreational sport.


Nine Breaker

After the events in Nexus, Ravens were being trained across a series of performance evaluating tests in the hopes of cultivating better pilots. There was a fear that this training was going to be needed for threats that were sensed during Nexus timeline events.



Last Raven

The corporations decided to merge into one conglomerate alliance. IIRC, Jack-O, a Raven Mercenary, decides to wage War against the allied Corporations because they are effectively seeking to eliminate their need for Ravens via AI automated weaponry that they discovered. The Pulverizers and Internetcine, IIRC, do not take kindly to the Corporations trying to control them, and in turn attack anyone and anything human piloted as they deem them threats to their free will. There are 6 endings, one is that Kamikaze drones that were first discovered in the last Mission of Nexus have returned once again, raining down upon the world, attacking everything man-made or piloted, etc. Your AC is given a chance to fight back but the hoard is so overwhelming in numbers that keep coming -the screen fades to black as you reach a certain degree of AP remaining, so you do not know if you survived, but you were the "Last Raven" alive at the time as either you or other sources had killed off the other Ravens prior to this event.



It's been a while. I assume you wanted word of mouth to see how much of these old plots were able to be accurately retained by the fanbase. What details people overlooked, forgot, didn't find significant, etc.

correction on Formula Front it comes in 2 flavors and FF was made before Last Raven infact Last Raven is the final Gen 3 game or at least the 3rd timeline

it was localized but on the PSP the PS2 port never had it but it contained all the fixes of the PSP localization so making it half EN/JP