The Let's Play Archive

Armored Core 2: Another Age

by ACES CURE PLANES

Part 12: Sortie 12 - "Famous Last Words"



Sortie 12 - "Famous Last Words"

And contrary to popular belief, we're still running this train! Somehow! Joining us again is thread favorite (?), friend to all children (??), and LP Superstar (???), nine-gear crow. Join us as I try to remember what deadlines and schedules are we take another magical adventure through Another Age, and get a quick glimpse of how this game really feels about its players.


And of course, though he didn't bold it, post the series name, or even really say the robot's name if we're being honest, today's point goes to dis astranagant, for identifying our last reference robot as the RX-78-2, the White Devil! And a runner up point for Stormgear since he did technically at least name said robot.





Pilot: Supernova
AC: Curse




Strengths:
-Incredibly powerful energy weapons, even for high energy defense ACs.
-Smart usage of terrain.
-Moonlight
-Ludicrously PLOW.

Weaknesses:
-Kind of a one trick pony
-Tracking issues.
-Doesn't bother with evasion.

Strategy:
There's about three ways this fight can go. You manage to keep him up on the starting ledge, and he flails around, fruitlessly trying to hit you as you feint your way past his slow, powerful weapons. He falls down to the trench and you circle around him from the lip, mostly staying in the air and dealing with whatever hits he doesn't throw into the wall. Or you go down into the trench with him and you probably get shot full of holes. Don't do the latter.

Seriously though, his arsenal is quite impressive, and if he gets you in to a position where he can make full use of it, he is going to make your day a bad one. But if you keep him in the open area, his strategy of slowly moving in one direction and shooting his big guns at you breaks down and he can't handle it. Or just go down into the ditch and bring a bigger gun than he has.

Pilot: Unfettered
AC: Haze




Strengths:
-EVERYTHING

Weaknesses:
-NOTHING

Strategy:
RUN MORTAL.

Okay so he isn't quite that bad in all seriousness. He's certainly no Hell AC Duo from early on. But don't let that faint glint of hope give you the wrong impression, Unfettered is an absolute monster, and he will do anything and everything in his power to hang you up on this mission and make you regret every second of fighting him.

The first concern in this fight is his backup. They aren't particularly powerful MTs, but they deal enough damage to merit dealing with at least one as fast as possible, preferably with a powerful rocket or cluster-fire missiles that can deal with them quickly so you can spend your time focusing on Unfettered. It's best to overboost forward at the start of the mission and dealing with the one on the right, as it's in a good position to be taken out first, and Unfettered spends a little bit of time fucking around at the start to give you an opening. With it down, you can engage Unfettered free of worry on that side of the arena.

What Unfettered will do next is basically a crapshoot. No matter what, he will spend pretty much all his time flying around and being a pain, but depending on your loadout, all of his weapons are a threat, and can do terrible things to you if you aren't prepared. If you can spare the weight, anti-missile systems are the way to go, because he loves his missiles and will not hesitate to introduce you to them, so mitigating that threat is a priority.

The Spread Bazooka is unreasonably dangerous, but if you're in a more mobile or speedier unit than I generally use, you can keep out of his spread bazooka's optimum range easily, and thanks to the tight grouping on the weapon expecting all the shots it fires to connect, getting grazed with one round won't be the end of the world so long as you can keep him at a distance. Of course, that leaves the gatling gun, which exists solely to punish lightweights. If he breaks it out, either get beneath/behind him or get behind cover, because even though he was dumb with it in the video, he can dish out a lot of damage very quickly with it. And, of course, he comes equipped with yet another Moonlight, so hanging around at point blank range will end poorly.

Of course, what loadout you decide to take in to the fight is entirely up to your playstyle, but speedy projectiles that are hard for him to dodge are suggested. Alternatively, if you're a dead shot, you can bring in a heavier, slower weapon to drain his relatively low AP pool before he can wear you down. Just be cautious with your shots, as he is dodge-happy. A shield to pulse on and off as you see shots coming is a good choice as well, as chances are you won't be getting into blade duels with Unfettered. At least not ones you'll come away from unscathed.

Like Crow said. In another game, Unfettered would be a final boss or super lategame enemy. But in Another Age, he is just our first glimpse under the surface of what the game has ready for us.