My Life In Fandom: Josh Strife Hayes Revisits "Armored Core"

Josh Strife Hayes revisited Armored Core. He has opinions.

This hour-long video (better played at 2x Speed) is a comprehensive video essay and retro-review of a seminal From Software title, the first in a long-running (but currently dormant) franchise that more than a few folks either forgot about or never heard of.

To say that this scratches the itches of those who love Mechwarrior but want a more arcade-style of play and pace is an understatement. Just one view of the video will be sufficient to show you that this is a property long overdue for a revival.

The problem is that FromSoftware now has a franchise that is active, successful, and reliable in Dark Souls and corporations are notoriously risk-adverse. Even accounting for differences between Western and Japanese management, that remains the case. Complicating matters is that Armored Core has been out of public consciousness for long enough to slip away, making it a harder sell to C-Suit executives to spend money on that over another Soulslike- especially after Elden Ring exceeded expectations.

It's not impossible, but even if it's approved today we still won't see a new PS5 game for two years during which time the only thing that could be done to keep up interest is to remaster and re-release the existing games- and that makes an already hard sell harder. "Why take this risk when we can guarantee another with by following up Elden Ring?"

If you want more Armored Core, you're going to have to go well out of your way to convince the shotcallers that it's worth the risk instead of going with a sureshot return on investment in another Soulsborne game, and the useless whores in the press will do you no favors so don't even bother asking them to help. Rather the best way to get the shotcallers to go for it would be to make every similar property out there have gangbuster success such that they can't help but see money being left on the table.