One Of The Things I Liked About Armored Core VI Is How It Really Shined A Light On How Corporations Exploit

One of the things I liked about Armored Core VI is how it really shined a light on how corporations exploit their workers, particularly by the “we aren’t a company, we’re a family” mentality.

You can really see this with both Arquebus and Balam, particularly in the Vespers and Redguns.

On the Vesper side, you clearly have a lot of dynamics going on. O’keefe cares about the people under him, as evidenced by the way Pater speaks about him in the true ending. Plus Hawkins and Pater’s relationship. There’s also Maeterlinck, who respects Snail as her superior and looks up to him. And Snail, as the firm company man who see himself as the embodiment of Arquebus, exploits ALL of this. He knowingly sends Maeterlinck to die by your hand, exploiting her loyalty. He constantly throws those under his command out on useless missions just because he can (as evidenced by the dialogue between Hawkins and Pater). He doesn’t care about anyone or anything but himself and sees himself as the true future for Arquebus.

On Balam’s side you have the Redguns. A fucked up military family lead by Michigan. Michigan knows the names of those under his command, even the grunts in MTs. He cares about everyone under his command and Balam exploits the shit out of that. The Redguns are sent on suicide missions constantly. They clearly seem to be underfunded compared to the Vespers and Balam tried to rush out ahead of Arquebus to their downfall to make up for their financial shortcomings.

The corpos don’t care though. They see the family dynamic in their Ace AC squads as another tool in their belt. ACVI is good.

More Posts from Thegigabrain and Others

1 year ago
The Surface Of The Sun Is Approximately 6000 Degrees Celsius

The surface of the sun is approximately 6000 degrees Celsius

An AC in Armored Core Nexus/Last Raven built to have as inefficient cooling as possible can reach these temperatures simply by boosting

1 year ago

saw a rly complex lore breakdown of v.ii snail that brought up how v.i freud doesnt have any augments and i forgot how fucking funny that is. imagine you're playing hockey and all of a sudden they bring some random guy in a t-shirt and cargo shorts onto the rink. no helmet no pads no nothing. he starts full sprinting down the ice and kicks the puck into the net with his feet. he's the best player in the team

3 days ago

I hate targeted ads but I also hate the untargeted gambling & ozempic ads (I dont like gambling and if I lost 10 pounds I'd die of malnutrition) maybe the truth lies somewhere inbetween... all ads are bad

1 year ago

I never get tired of the thing where fantasy books name something by just calling it a word but capitalising it. Like oh shit, that person is a Wielder. The supernatural ability to see beyond matter called the Sight. Forces of Light and Darkness. The prohibited art of Knowing. A place simply known as The Blight. Awesome and horrible forces. The Force. You know something's getting bat shit wild when Fantasy Capitalisation comes into the picture. As in capitalising the letters, not the unholy act of seizing fantasy itself in order to churn profit off of it.

That is the work of evil creatures, like The Mouse.

1 year ago

There have been many good video game bosses. Most of them in Soulsborne games if we're being honest... But nothing will ever make me forget the first time fighting Spirit of Motherwill in Armored Core: For Answer (incidentally, also a game by From Software... go figure)

The fact that the battle begins as soon as you load into the level, how you have to dodge its long range artillery before you even get in sight of this mechanical monstrosity while you're doing mach fuck across a desert. Then once you're actually in close enough to start shooting, it's so big. IT'S SO BIG. it's only ("only") the first boss, but by now you're used to your mech needing an entire 10 lane highway to stand, towering over buildings and literally crushing huge tanks underfoot. But Motherwill... It actually takes a long time to fly around her. But of course, you won't really have time to check because there is a CONSTANT barrage of AA guns, missile salvos, tiny mechs (in comparison to you but still bigger than a Gundam) flying out of her two hangers. You need to be constantly moving in two directions and using your limited (!!!!) supply of flares to survive the onslaught, all while chipping away at her superstructure. She doesn't even have the decency to display a health bar, none of the AC:FA bosses do. But if she did, you'd realize right away (instead of 15 minutes into the fight, like me) that you literally don't have enough ammo for this. You HAVE to bring a sword because your guns, missile launchers, grenade cannons, railguns, and more will simply run out of bang bangs before Motherwill stops trying to kill you. When the victory cutscene plays, and your mech poses next to a piece of wreckage with "Motherwi" written on it, the rush comes to an end and you finally realize you were holding your breath for way too long. The mission complete screen loads up and you get paid, despairing at the repair and ammo costs, and then. Instead of returning to the hanger like usual, the chapter end cutscene plays, and you get another tidbit of lore.

And THEN, two hours later, you fight the SECOND BOSS OF THE GAME and get absolutely rinsed because oh yeah. The folks that made this game went on to create Dark Souls.

Spirit of Motherwill was the best video game boss I've ever faced, and she was only the warmup for Armored Core: For Answer. Over a decade later, I've yet to play anything that comes close to giving me such an experience.

1 year ago

it's very interesting that people talk about the dehumanization of pilots in armored core 6 but no one really talks about the dehumanization of AI and Coral which i think are also extremely dense and extremely thematically critical

5 months ago

Niko and pancakes...

thegigabrain - TheGigaBrain

Tags
1 month ago

Of the many things I use AutoHotkey for, this is one of them.

someone on twitter is trying to claim that use of an em-dash is an indication of AI-generated writing because it’s “relatively rare” for actual humans to use it. skill issue

Someone On Twitter Is Trying To Claim That Use Of An Em-dash Is An Indication Of AI-generated Writing
1 year ago
They Are Dating

They are dating

1 year ago
Character Development Award For The Depression Machine

Character Development Award for the Depression Machine

  • aether96
    aether96 reblogged this · 2 months ago
  • aether96
    aether96 liked this · 2 months ago
  • afoolinthestars
    afoolinthestars liked this · 2 months ago
  • theultimatefloorskittle
    theultimatefloorskittle reblogged this · 4 months ago
  • theultimatefloorskittle
    theultimatefloorskittle liked this · 4 months ago
  • cursedberrycompote
    cursedberrycompote reblogged this · 4 months ago
  • cursedberrycompote
    cursedberrycompote liked this · 4 months ago
  • rea-be
    rea-be liked this · 4 months ago
  • eindridge
    eindridge liked this · 4 months ago
  • oldmill90
    oldmill90 liked this · 6 months ago
  • awesometisim
    awesometisim liked this · 7 months ago
  • k9tron
    k9tron reblogged this · 9 months ago
  • k9tron
    k9tron liked this · 9 months ago
  • theinsanemindblog
    theinsanemindblog liked this · 10 months ago
  • zearth800
    zearth800 liked this · 10 months ago
  • aeiou-agent-dreid
    aeiou-agent-dreid reblogged this · 10 months ago
  • orionumbreon
    orionumbreon liked this · 10 months ago
  • gibberushy
    gibberushy liked this · 11 months ago
  • mrcakee
    mrcakee liked this · 1 year ago
  • haseo-039
    haseo-039 liked this · 1 year ago
  • blue-forget-machine
    blue-forget-machine liked this · 1 year ago
  • m40160
    m40160 liked this · 1 year ago
  • spiritwalker9
    spiritwalker9 reblogged this · 1 year ago
  • spiritwalker9
    spiritwalker9 liked this · 1 year ago
  • tara-galot
    tara-galot liked this · 1 year ago
  • erikaii
    erikaii liked this · 1 year ago
  • baanaus
    baanaus liked this · 1 year ago
  • creature-of-whimsy
    creature-of-whimsy reblogged this · 1 year ago
  • ashenchorus
    ashenchorus liked this · 1 year ago
  • skull--bomb
    skull--bomb liked this · 1 year ago
  • brokshi
    brokshi liked this · 1 year ago
  • dragongirlfangs
    dragongirlfangs reblogged this · 1 year ago
  • dragongirlfangs
    dragongirlfangs liked this · 1 year ago
  • cyanide-oreos
    cyanide-oreos liked this · 1 year ago
  • nemesis-the-menace
    nemesis-the-menace liked this · 1 year ago
  • ciris17
    ciris17 liked this · 1 year ago
  • autumnsharkie
    autumnsharkie liked this · 1 year ago
  • asphodelflowers
    asphodelflowers liked this · 1 year ago
  • maranull
    maranull liked this · 1 year ago
  • terebiscorner
    terebiscorner liked this · 1 year ago
  • scythetafterdark
    scythetafterdark reblogged this · 1 year ago
  • occulteggplant
    occulteggplant liked this · 1 year ago
  • tamariasykes
    tamariasykes reblogged this · 1 year ago
  • namrask-fan-official
    namrask-fan-official liked this · 1 year ago
  • eliseappears
    eliseappears liked this · 1 year ago
  • 3rd-scar
    3rd-scar liked this · 1 year ago
thegigabrain - TheGigaBrain
TheGigaBrain

metafiction and fourth-wall breaks are my platonic fetish

139 posts

Explore Tumblr Blog
Search Through Tumblr Tags