Introduction

Welcome to Let's Play Armored Core - The PS2 Years! This LP will be doing the entire Armored Core series that was released on the PlayStation 2. That is to say, these games will be the main focus:

The goal is to play through each game, in release order, playing through all missions, collecting all parts, and doing all the side content. I won't be doing anything crazy like going for S Ranks all the way through, because I'll be focusing on diversity of build and playstyle.

Armored Core is a giant robot third person action series by FromSoftware, with mechanical design by Shoji Kawamori, of Macross fame. The series started out in the PSX era, with the most recent entry being Armored Core: Verdict Day, an expansion of sorts to Armored Core V. The game takes place in a dystopian future where a handful of gigantic corporations have taken over just about all facets of daily life, from basic consumer goods to high tech weapons of war. You play as a mercenary, generally known as a Raven, and take missions from these corporations for profit, ranging from innocuous tasks like disabling a haywire security system to gunning down squatters and workers who have gone on strike. Even working with terrorists! If they have the cash, you're for hire, no questions asked.

This LP will be starting with Armored Core 2, and will be an effective sequel to ArclightBorealis' Armored Core, Project Phantasma, and Master of Arena LPs. And though this LP is mainly focusing on the PS2 games, that's not to say there won't be bonus content down the line.

This LP will be subdivided into a number of parts, due to the complex system mechanics and endless numbers of things to talk about with customization options.

Missions updates will be me and a co-commentator or two playing through a number of missions, back to back, with little to no side content to be seen. I'll be taking a number of different builds and parts along for the ride, so as to show off a wide variety of different weapons and strategies.

Arena updates will be showing off one-on-one Arena combat with enemy ACs for the sake of fun and profit. I'll be joined by various co-commentators and we'll power through a handful of fights in one sitting, with various builds.

ACE's Garage is a building and mechanics-focused update, generally with just me and occasionally Nine-Gear Crow, to talk about building strategies, check out parts in the shop, do test runs, and explain the ins and outs of Armored Core's mechanics. For these episodes, I'll be taking suggestions from the thread as to what parts or builds people want to see, and if I like them, I'll include them in the Missions and Arena updates rotation of ACs.

So feel free to chime in on design elements or parts you want to see! I'll try anything!

Mail will be all the e-mails we receive in each mission, typed out for your reading pleasure so you don't have to pause a video every time something comes up on screen.

Music sections will have all the music we've heard in an update, so you can enjoy your techno trance OST free of talking or giant robot noises.

So with that said, let's get into it starting with Armored Core 2!

Oh, and as a general rule, try to avoid spoiling things in advance, plot or otherwise.

The Let's Play Archive

Armored Core 2

by ACES CURE PLANES

Introduction