Genre: Action
Publisher: Agetec
Developer: From Software
Release Date: June 13, 2006

This review for Armored Core: Last Raven is going to read a little like my review for Ninebreaker, in which I moan about how "Armored Core is Armored Core is Armored Core." I'm sorry to say it, but that sentiment still holds up, just as Street Fighter is Street Fighter and Dynasty Warriors is Dynasty Warriors. Fans get it, and hopeful outsiders like me and maybe you will never be able to fully catch up with the encyclopedic knowledge needed to manipulate these giant robots properly.

With or without the proper knowledge, there is fun to be had with these games, but it isn't in the thin training mode that From Software loves so much to pass off as a single-player campaign. Early Armored Core games had the campaign mode at the center of the product, until Master of Arena came along and both confounded and overjoyed fans of Project Phantasma. Because of this, it's easy to see why so many people buy these post-Arena games and expect anything more than a nigh-impenetrable – but not bad – one-on-one fighter. This series has become a methodical, complex Virtual On, and shouldn't have anything more or less expected from it. Yet From Software cannot seem to fully shake the reputation of their past, giving far too many players feelings like, say, a Virtual On fan who realized that Marz was all about single-player. How strange is it that these franchises, after overlapping for quite a few years, managed to switch roles? Next we'll see Steel Battalion with a standard controller, while MechAssault 3 won't boot up without a joystick/throttle setup.

One of the strange things about the Armored Core legacy is the continuity between games. By allowing parts culled from saves from previous games, the game admits that it hasn't moved too far forward technologically. It holds tightly to the trappings of previous games, including those that aren't especially favorable. Most core fans, who must make up a good 90% of the audience for this game, have their fair share of complaints, mostly directed at the updating from Armored Core: Nexus, which by all rights, should have revolutionized the series with its analog control scheme. Last Raven keeps that setup while allowing players to use the traditional setup as well. The option is appreciated, but who's using it?

The other continuity issue is, after Ninebreaker which had every part available from previous PS2 Armored Core games, are more parts really the answer? For me, a non-core Core player, I couldn't care less. Ninebreaker was an overdose as it was, and Last Raven doesn't bring me anything new. I no longer work with the Armored Core freak I wrote about in my Ninebreaker review, but I'm sure even he – who had reservations with the series for the first time after running through the Ninebreaker training/single-player in just a few hours, using "every part that mattered" in the process. Again, no difference in Last Raven.

This is the part in my review where I point out what the game does have that I haven't mentioned so far. I cannot do that with this game. I'd hoped for the best, because I really do love one-on-one face-offs in these games, but I couldn't justify going one step past Ninebreaker for this. That really should have been the end of the current line of Cores, with every weapon unlocked as they were. Any player could build any Core they wanted and have battles purely driven by design ingenuity and operational skill. The multiplayer matches felt like they couldn't get better – even though it was the sort of upgrade a well-placed cheat code should have been able to handle, which made the price tag a little hard to swallow. Last Raven lacks even that appeal.

The graphics are the same, too. The grainy things we've been putting up with for so many years, with only slight improvements since the near-launch Armored Core 2, are still here. Dynasty Warriors 5 has more improvements over DW4 than this game has over Another Age. How From has managed to get so far with so little is a baffling thing that could only be compared to a Capcom fighter with nothing but Morrigan-quality sprites.

And then there's the issue of the online mode, or lack thereof. These games continue to be snubbed in this regard in the U.S., while Japanese players get the real deal. I cannot understand why Agetec thinks this is a good idea, because AC players are very few and far in between. Perhaps I'm being unreasonable, but wouldn't this be the sort of thing that could triple sales? I personally know people who would play these if they could actually find someone good enough to play against, and I usually don't fit that bill.

We're nearing 10 years of near-stagnant development in this series, and the seams were showing five years ago. I play them hoping to recapture the bliss of my first time with the first game, but nothing touches that feeling. That was the first accessible mecha game I'd played, but now, it is complex enough from the small changes and barrage of parts that if it weren't for the brisk pace, I wouldn't see the difference between it and a simulator.

Last Raven, hopefully, marks the last current-generation Armored Core. The next one will be published by Sega, who will hopefully implement the online capability that we so desperately need. More importantly, let's hope the next-gen will bring about better graphics, which honestly shouldn't be in the state they are. Otherwise, stick with Ninebreaker, or better yet, run an Action Replay on an older AC game and unlock all the parts.

This will hopefully be the only series that forces me to recommend third-party cheat devices.

Score: 5.1/10