The highest praise I can heap upon 'Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon' is that it feels too short. Not because it IS too short, it's a 60+ hour game easily, but because I want desperately to have more of it to play!!

This is a VERY different sort of From Software title. Those only familiar with them through Dark Souls and Elden Ring will be shocked to see them do an actual narrative with a story that the player is involved in rather than digging up archaeologist style. And you know what? It works! Really well! From Software tell good stories even when they're NOT making you piece them together through environmental clues and item descriptions!

Some words of advice if you play this game:

First - Don't assume the game is over when you roll credits. Even though it starts the story over again, you should play it through twice more. The story changes and gives you more context and insight into the events of the game, as well as more choices with which to change the ending. Go through New Game ++ and you'll have much more fun!

Second - This game expects you to 'cheat' a bit. If you fail a mission, you're given the option to edit your build before restarting at a checkpoint. Make use of this feature extensively! Because there's not really a classic level-up progression you can 100% tailor your approach to a level or a boss fight and bring whatever tools are right for the job. If you need to build a totally new Armored Core for every segment of the level, do so! Using this option is your "easy mode" for this game and it's offered on a silver platter!

My only real criticism of this game is that it uses some of the design fundamentals from From Software's other titles that maybe it shouldn't. My big one is that once you press a button to do an attack, you're committed to it no matter how long the animation takes. This is great in 'Dark Souls', but in a hyper-fast game like 'Armored Core' it often feels bad.

Likewise things like having lock-on not always work right ended up being the death of me more times than anything else. I get that it's part of the experience, but the UI could do a better job of telegraphing when I'm actually locked onto an enemy and which enemy it is.

But these are comparatively minor gripes that absolutely did NOT stop me from enjoying every minute with this game. And as I said, I WANT to keep playing it! I want to go back and build more unique ACs and make more custom decals for them! I want more missions just so that I can spend more time with the cast of tragic characters whom I've grown to love!

From what I've heard, in past Armored Core generations From Software has made it so that after the main numbered game there's a couple of secondary games that allow you to import your save file. I hope they do that here. I'll happily pay more to keep using my custom builds and enjoy another awesome story like this one.