Part 24: Master of Arena - Chapter FINAL: The Other Missions

Here it is, the long awaited update that shows off the remaining campaign missions that were skipped over during the main game. A little preface here is that due to an incident a few months back requiring a clean reinstall of Windows 7 I somehow lost the data from the current memory card I was using for this LP...but surprisingly I had a backup from a previous version of ePSXe from last year. Thankfully I did not have to play through the entire game again just to show this off to you all.

Except that all the remaining content on Disc 1 was finished back then so showing where stuff like hidden parts are won't really be possible in a natural way. You'll just have to take my word for it.


Your objective is to escort a marine transportation battalion. You will board an R&G Industries' Transport Submarine and accompany it to its destination.

R&G Industries has become a target of recent terrorist activities, we believe that another attack on the company is imminent.

We have no way to predict what problems might occur en route. Therefore, be prepared to handle any circumstances that may arise.


One of the lesser missions in this game and you're about to see why







That last bit of info provided by Lana is one of the major reasons why this missions can not be as fun. Remember that mission in AC1 where you're guarding an air ship from enemy attacks and falling off it below a certain threshold ended the missions? This is like that, but so much as touching the water barely is instant failure. ACs really don't like water.


The mission starts out simple enough with helicopters coming in from the submarine's rear. Their guns don't really do much harm so it's just matter of shooting them down accurately


Eventually, the battle cruiser mentioned at the start will be with the mission's area of operations and proceed to fire upon the sub. It will also aim for you as well, and the impact from the blast will knock you off the sub if you just stand there.



So, with a not too heavy AC and good set of boosters, just gotta jump off of the sub and attack the cruiser directly. At the front is one of the ship's two grenade launchers. A couple KARASAWA shots and a laser blade hit will do it in.


And with a good FCS and weapons, you can still pick off the helicopters all the way from the cruiser.



Head for the back of the ship, destroy the vertical missile launcher and second grenade launcher, and the enemy ship's attack power will be rendered null.


Around this time we're told to head back to the submarine and hold off the remaining forces until the mission ends.



Now, while I'm not too fond of the penalty for failing the mission and how strict it is, this mission does stand out still for taking place out at sea and have you hopping between water craft. But then it leaves me a bit disappointed because not more was done with it. That instant where you hop to the battle cruiser and back is the extent of how far you can move around in this level, and jumping from enemy ship to enemy ship, destroying each one in succession would've been interesting. But when it's just one, it's not really special in comparison to that big ass mobile fortress we fought in the desert.



Also despite being titled "Defend Submarine" I don't think the sub can actually get destroyed. At least I've not seen anything in walkthroughs or the AC wiki that indicates anything as such. Just survive and don't touch the fucking water.


Rumor has it, that a group of enemies have infiltrated the Cavern in the SE sector of the city.

According to our information, the Cavern is being used by a company to store important minerals. We think the enemy forces that entered the Cavern are after these minerals.

The target is a Raven AC hired as an escort. Ignore all other enemies. Seek out and destroy the AC, then escape.


Now, there was that moment in the campaign where we had a choice of three assignments, and whichever one we took completing it got us into the main arena bracket. This is one of those missions, and as such there's no pay. Like we need it anyway.




Starting the mission, around the corner is a Heavy Bold MT, and is the primary MT enemy we'll find in these caverns. As such, getting too close is dangerous due to their shield bash.


Now, there are two paths to take in this level: the tunnel in front of us, and a hole in the ceiling of this large room. We're taking the latter as it's a short cut to the mission's target and we can't waste too much of our ammo.



Two more Heavy Bolds await in this tunnel, but aren't too much to deal with. Eventually the tunnel drops into a very large chamber where we'll find an AC.





Yeah. Long fight, my ass. During that whole briefing I had whittled down most of his AP and finished him off a few seconds later.


And now to go back the way we came.



There is also another reason to use this upper path. When approaching it from the start of the level, the tunnel splits into two paths, the left of which leads into a room that holds (or held, in this case) a hidden part, the WX-ED2 back weapon. Just watch out for the six gun batteries high up on the ceiling.





And that is it. Again, that other tunnel near the start isn't worth showing off because the MTs are just distractions and not important to the success of the mission. Especially when the hidden part is no where in that tunnel so there is literally nothing worth exploring.


A rather strange mission request has just been received. It entails the investigation of a recently discovered Derelict Spaceship.

It isn't known when the Spaceship was built, but it was probably sometime before The Great Destruction.

Many technologies were lost in The Great Destruction, so any materials or information found dating prior to this event are extremely valuable.

PROGTECH sent a Research Team to investigate the Spaceship, but three days have gone by without any contact. There must be trouble aboard.

Your goal is to locate the Research Team. Remember, nothing is known about the Spaceship,
so excercise extreme caution.


This mission is long, and confusing, and no amount of pictures will be enough to convey the amount of time spent trying to find my way through this fucking thing again. Just watch, you'll see.





Lana confirms for us what that map of the ship was portraying in the briefing.


It's a vertical level, which as we know can be problematic compared to just ground based gameplay. Between the fact that ACs can't look up or down completely vertically and airborne movement is much more sensitive than on the ground, this mission can take a while if you're not entirely used to it (hell, I'm still not it feels like). It's not as dangerous as the second half of "Destroy Floating Mines" in AC1, but it still wastes your time.



One thing that can make navigating this ship confusing, aside from it resting vertically, is just finding out which doors will actually open. Some do so automatically, and others will stay shut. No point in hitting circle to check.


And this is where having a head part with full area mapping is extremely useful as it will give you a better grasp of where you need to go. While the blue doors don't give any other indication of if they're locked or not, there are ones that are permanently stuck open and that's where you want to go.





Go up, down, up again, meet some more float suits, these corridors of the ship all look the god damn same. So easy to get lost.


Eventually you want to be around this area of the ship near "top" as it were, since this is where we'll find the missing research team.


And sure enough, a little "friend" indicator shows up to tell us we've found them.




And with that, this 7 minute ordeal is done with. Just as far as navigating the space, I think I'm less fond of it than the "Defend Submarine" mission.



And interesting fact about this mission. Apparently William from the main Arena ladder is actually in this mission and you'll fight him if he's found, though he's not a required obstacle. I have never run across him in all the times I've played this mission, and considering how rough vertical combat can be in this generation of AC I wasn't willing to search all over the ship just to find him. Besides. We already kicked his ass in the Arena, why show it again?


I've sent out a mission request to all Ravens on the NEST network.

The request I sent out, was for the removal of MTs attacking the Construction Site East of
the city. The real objective is for you to crush any ACs that take the bait.

Goldy, from the Sub-Arena, has already accepted the mission. MTs are easy targets for Ravens, so she probably won't be ready for you. Take her when she least expects it.


And here is the third mission we could have taken to get into the Arena, and given the set up, it's kind of dirty. But as you will see, things don't proceed exactly as the briefing implies.






That's right everyone, it's another 2 on 1 AC battle. Kind of a similar surprise to the first AC Battle mission in AC 1, where we were promised a 1 on 1 fight but instead took on two. Though in the case of that mission, it was set up explicitly to catch us off guard. Apparently Lana didn't anticipate this.




Compared to other ACs we've fought during missions, these two are nothing short of aggressive. Goldy primarily uses cannon arms and a triple missile launcher, while Super Bow has the same energy cannon that we use. And with them both being quads, they're quite fast on the ground.



But as I just demonstrated, it's possible to power through all their shots while hitting them with the KARASAWA.



Really, it's as simple as that. Of the three Arena qualifiers though, this one would have to be the hardest, with Evil Kiss in "Cavern Invasion" being a close second. Attacking Chrome's guard dog was by far the easiest in comparison.

Alright, one more mission to go.


You've been requested to execute an attack on a specific group of units. They are transporting materials which must be destroyed.

We aren't sure which units are the ones carrying the material. In order to guarantee its destruction, all
units must be eliminated.

According to our information at this point, the group consists of three trucks, and four MTs. Though they may have reinforcements we are not aware of.

If even one unit escapes, the mission will be a failure. You must eliminate them all.


Another simple mission, with no ACs getting in the way of this one.




See those three trucks. That bridge they're on is completely straight and there is only one tunnel they have to enter. Compared to past missions where destroying key targets had them strewn all over the level, this is super straightforward.


Good old Barracuda, dropping us straight into a hot zone taking enemy fire like always.



We start off facing four Stinkbugs who pose little threat. Take 'em out with 4 KARASAWA shots then get into position on the bridge.


As reinforcements arrive, so do the trucks so just blast the ever loving hell out of them.


And done.



Well, almost done anyway. Gotta take out these four jets zooming around.



Okay, now it's done.

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There you go, all missions complete, and while you didn't see it all the remaining Arena fights in Disc 1 are complete as well. The Main Arena fits in another AC because we kicked Nine-Ball off the top slot, but he's not new. Prime was an AC we offed in an earlier mission which provided us an opportunity to qualify for the main Arena in the first place. As for the Sub Arena, well there is like 25 more of those fuckers and they aren't any harder than what I already fought in that category. Some of them you already saw during the campaign.

Stay tuned for one last EX Part with the promised bonus video. Until then, thanks again for following this series of LPs through the first generation of Armored Core. Still great to play after all these years.