Which AC game should I play next?

[henryfleischer01]

I have a PS1, PS2, and an Xbox 360 in a box somewhere.

[Calvin W]

These three you should at lease play,
(List in the order of release date)
1. Silent Line: Armored Core
2. Armored Core: Nexus
3. Armored Core: Last Raven

[Dawido]

Armored Core Vll

[Scrub McDuff]

silent Line as well. really good game.

[Belmont]

I'm doing a playthrough of 3. Mostly because I'm interested in Gen 3's story and overall evolution

[Donoghu]

When it comes to which Armored Core you should play, I would say that Every Armored Core game on PS2, with the exception of Nine Breaker, is worth it, but you got to remember that those games aren't anywhere close to what you would see in modern games such as not having NG+ and not having any replay option for most story missions.
(The irony is that Nine Breaker allows mission replays, but there's no story and almost no progression, except for the part you unlock from S-ranking missions.)

When it comes to games on the Xbox 360, I would suggest only going through the game if you can play Armored Core 4 and then Armored Core: For(4) Answer because For Answer is much better than 4 mission-wise, but 4 contains quite a bit of the story bits related to what is happening in For Answer.

While I do like Armored Core V and AC: Verdict Day, the main issue with those (especially VD) is that a part of them is dependent on online coop (and/or PvP) to some extend. AC:V server were shut down years ago and AC:VD while still online is pretty much dead in the West 95% of the time while the remaining 5% is usually either with people planning together via discord. (Even when AC:VD was released, there was a progression wall which required you to team up with other people to overcome. Now, finding people to play with can be quite difficult, especially since the Xbox and PS consoles are separated.)

[Kain]

Originally posted by Belmont:

I'm doing a playthrough of 3. Mostly because I'm interested in Gen 3's story and overall evolution

It's a good retelling of the first one.

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OP I also recommend Master of the Arena, it's the best PS1 game and one of the best in terms of pacing of the whole series. Playing the previous ones isn't required.

And as Belmont mentioned, AC3 is a great starting point since it's a retelling of the first game.

AC 3 > Silent Line > Nexus > Last Raven

In that order is the preferable way to experience the best AC generation.

[Outsider]

Well you can play all of them, so play all of them.

[Blackmage]

Play all of them. But you can give AC5/VD and Nine-Breaker a pass.

[Blackmage]

I would actually recommend playing the original game next and go in order from there. AC6 is as bare bones as it gets because it's meant to be entry level. So the next logical step is to get yourself familiar with features as they got added in, not all at once.

[McJiggy]

Play them all and start with the PS1 games.