HELL YEAH I JUST KILLED IBIS!!!! But. Walter is probably dead. Or reeducated. I am going to fucking tear Snail apart when I find him. His AC will be turned into goddamn dust.
Dog
Augmented Human C4-621
You
621
Intruder
Illegal
Enemy AC
Merc
Corp AC
Registration number Rb23
Raven
Callsign: Raven
Mercenary
Corporate Merc
Corporate Dog
Interloper
Military Force
Hostile AC
Shameless Coral scavenger
Independent Mercenary
Hunter
Sharp
A local
An Independent
A merc who only kills for credits
A real merc
G13
G13 Raven
Kiddo
Freelancer
Maggot
Fake Redgun
Tagalong
Sewing club member
Not a total amateur
Not a pro
Corporate Vulture
Mere pawn
Scavenger
Hound of Walter
Competition
Good for nothing
Good for something
Wretched vulture
Unidentified AC
Damn Hyena
Rotten Money-grubber
Corporate scum
Enemy backup
One of the infamous Walter's hounds
Wallclimber
War buddies
Comrade
Buddy
Intruder
Doser
Shameless Corporate Dog
Greedy Mercenary
Greedy hound
Daring
A symbol of resolve
Only Other Person That Can Keep Up With Me
You Again
Old Augmentation
Recalcitrant
Mutt
Vermin
Pest
The Pest of Rubicon
Code 15
Raven the Wallclimber
Code 31C
Solo Independent Mercenary
Pitiful Dog
Gen 4
Fine hound
Another dead dog
Older type of Augmented Human
Tourist
No ordinary tourist
Smart Cookie
No slouch
A cut above the rest
Not afraid of anything
Belongs in a museum
Freak
My favorite little Tourist
A certain someone
New friend
The Freelancer from the dam raid
Target
Walter's Hound
Solo AC
Independent Merc
Trespasser to Rubicon
Walking Advertisement
Mascot
AC of Unknown Affiliation
Suspected Corporate Hire
Single AC
Code 5, Unknown AC
Independent Mercenary Assembly
That AC
Hostile AC
Priority Subject for Termination
One helluva merc
Hired Operative
Intruding AC
Grunt
Famous Mercenary
Fine Soldier
One Loose End
Corpse
Quick on the uptake
Not like those savages
Cur
Scoundrel
Oathbreaker
Just an AC
Patchwork AC
Better than the other ACs
Like a bird in flight
Killer
Menace to Rubicon
Target for Termination
Unknown Intruder
Intrusion Attempt
Menace
Volunteer
The Objective
Just a Gen 4
Strong
Worthy of your name
False Alarm
Impostor
Impressive Pilot
Wormkiller
Threat to Planetary Closure
20 Iguazus
A Real Redgun
Not so Special
Too Dangerous to Keep Around
Not Afraid to Die
The Only G13 Who's Managed To Live This Long
Strong
A Threat
Dangerous
Another Threat to Rubicon
Veteran
The Mercenary Who Took Your Name
Rat
Fool
The Big One
Corporate pawn
Rather Extraordinary
Gen 4 Augmentation
High Level Threat
Strong Candidate
One of Allmind's
The One Rusty was talking about
Head in the Clouds
Old-Gen
Alive
Handler's Hound
Old Colleague
Subject
Beast of burden
Guest of Honor
The Key
Smartass Freelancer
Wonderful People
Demon
Miserable Relic
Trigger for the Change to come
Dog without a shred of intelligence
Not worthy of humanity
Stray Dog
Obstacle
Faithful Hound
Biggest Threat
Legacy Augmentation
The Greatest Obstacle
The Liberator of Rubicon
The only one
The Spark of War
The Fires that Haunt Rubicon
The Monster who Burned the Stars
One With Allmind
Aberrations to The Plan
Trigger for Coral Release
Irregular
The Old-Gen Who Could Do It All
I don't know if I would quite call it an OC just yet but I've been brainstorming how I would write 621 as a character and the impression I get from them as protagonist in Armored Core 6. And the vibe I get is that they're jaded, tired, and just...empty.
Walter mentions they're so deep in debt that only striking a Coral motherlode will make enough to buy their life back, and the Gen4 augments have fried so much of their brain that there's hardly even a person left. They were frozen in stasis and comatose right up until they're crashing through Rubicon's atmosphere and being told to get to work. Ostensibly the goal would be to do enough jobs and earn enough to buy their life back but it feels like there's nothing to go back to. They have no name, no past, they're just a serial number.
They gain their freedom, pay off their debt, and what then? They can't undo the augments. You can't go back to a home or a life that you don't even remember.
They're a hound. The only thing they have is the job. They're crippled by how many years in stasis waiting for someone to buy them, the surgeries have destroyed their ability to feel and function. The closest they can come to feeling alive is in the cockpit of the AC. A proxy body of steel and lightning that feels more real than their own flesh and bone thanks to their augments. The only way they can move without pain, act without assistance, choose and control their body, is through the war machine. It's all there is left.
Until, for the first time since coming to Rubicon, the comms fail and the hiss of the AC's cockpit speakers goes silent. No handler, no chatter from other pilots, just them alone in the quiet of their titanic prosthesis.
Until they hear a new voice. A soft, gentle voice that doesn't come from outside their AC, transmitted through the cockpit speakers or the two-way radio implanted in their ear. It echoes through them from deep within, feel it reverberate from their organic heart through every servo and piston of their AC. The voice lacks the synthetic hiss of electronic speakers and addresses them not as a hound or a serial number, but by name. As if they were a person again.
Allow me to rant about Rusty and his theme for a moment okay.
spoilers for Armored Core 6 below.
Okay so first off Rusty's theme is so fucking good I love it so much.
It just has this sense of determination and righteous justice to it. It's so powerful and it fits his character incredibly well. If you've finished chapter 5 you know what I mean. Hearing this song kick in when you and Rusty team up to take down the Xylem makes everything feel worth it. "FUCK YEAH." Admittedly, I havent gotten the other ending (yet), so I dont know for sure how the song works there, but I can reasonably assume there's a final showdown with Rusty and it plays then.
Next I want to bring up Rusty's emblem. For the majority of the game, when he's part of the Vespers, it's a muzzled wolf.
But after 621 defeats him towards the end of chapter 4, he leaves the Vespers, and (at least in the liberator of Rubicon ending,) he joins them in taking down the Xylem and saving Rubicon. This change is accompanied by not only a new AC, "Steel Haze Ortus," but also a new emblem, depicting a wolf with it's fangs bared, free of any restraints.
This is a really subtle change but I like it a lot.
Finally I just want to mention that, in the wild, Ravens are known to adopt wolf cubs and play with them as they grow. Even following the wolf of it chooses to leave it's pack. Just like 621 and Rusty both abandon their missions in order to save Rubicon. I love that. Bravo fromsoft.
Just as Odin has his two famous ravens, there are two Ravens in Armored Core VI: you, and the faceless Raven whose identity you stole. Odin's ravens are Huginn (thought) and Muninn (memory), so which is which?
You could say that the Raven whose identity you steal could be "thought" because of the free will the Ravens are meant to embody, the willingness to choose and follow through, making your character "memory" because you carry that legacy, that memory, along with you both before and after your fatal duel.
But you can also reverse this. Your opponent could just as easily be interpreted as "memory" (Muninn) as they are the lineal descendant of a meaningful title, whereas you then become "thought" (Huginn) because of how that title and its baggage change how you operate as an independent merc, perhaps spurring you to better choices.
Either interpretation works, as I doubt the developers were that focused on this aspect of it. It's just a thought I had.
Just discovered that you can't go punk VII Snail in his little hideyhole in the unaltered version of coral convergence. My disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined.
The most important analysis I can make about armored core 6 (being that I’m about midway through the first NG+ run and this is subject to change) is that even when you make your own choices they are the choices made by others. 621 or “raven” never decides their own fate. Even the one who encourages you to think for yourself, Ayre, calls you by a name she picked for you.
I know that this is obviously a video game and you have fixed choices but I do think it’s very intentional being a fromsoft game that your choices aren’t choices at all. They are powers greater than you deciding for you what role you will play in the great dance of war and death.
I FINALLY FINISHED ARMORED CORE I'M GONNA COLLAPSE. IM FUCKING ASCENDIGNGNRJGJURGJRJUGJURJUGJUR
I got all the battle logs too. It took me 7 runs of Honest Brute's mission to get all of the ones in his mission. Fuck him. He's my blorbo now. Iguazu/ALLMIND's fight was so fucking cool. He was pissed enough to take control of an entire AI. There were 2 Sea Spiders! Ayre fucking helped me! I wish I hadn't gotten this spoiled before I even touched the goddamn game! At least I only got the plot twist where he takes control of ALLMIND spoiled and not the contents of the fight itself. Now, everyone has a lady in their head that calls them studmuffin. Also, I think the people I killed somehow revived? I swear that some of the ACs in the final cutscene were people I killed. Holy fuck.
Hey armored core 6 nation have you ever thought about that fact that in every route Coral's crimson hue is Walter's funeral pyre and Xylem is his Viking funeral boat