A eulogy for Armored Core Verdict Day
Originally posted Mar 29, 2024
(Feel free to listen to the OST while reading this, it'll put you in the right headspace)
Fromsoft announced earlier this year that online support for Armored Core: Verdict Day would be ending March 31st. We're not far away from that, so I wanted to write a bit about the game that most assumed would be the last Armored Core.
Released in 2013 as the obligatory pseudo sequel to Armored Core V, Verdict Day was (and likely will be) the last in a long line of Fromsoft's tradition of developing standalone sequels to their numbered AC entries that would introduce new equipment, missions, stories, and sometimes entirely different settings.
Verdict Day takes place a century after the already bleak Armored Core V. Despite the planet's all but assured extinction, war between humanity's remnants continue unabated, fighting for the planet's dwindling resources. You play The Lone Mercenary, a free agent unbound by the territorial wars that have scarred the land; the key to breaking the stalemate once and for all. The V era of Armored Core was grim, even by AC standards. It's laid out that the world you're fighting for is a fundamentally doomed one, but in classic Fromsoft narrative fashion, humanity simply cannot change its fundamental nature. This cuts both ways.
Armored Core Verdict Day keyart
At the end of the game, the primary villain reveals to you that in a final act of defiance, he's activated autonomous factories built long ago by pre-disaster humanity. These factories will indefinitely produce an endless supply of unmanned ACs, ensuring humanity never finds peace or order ever again. There will be no hope for the future of the human race.
And in a move that is equally human, your sole remaining ally adamantly declares that as long as the human race draws breath, it will never stop fighting for a seemingly impossible future.
Anyway, why does this all matter, I've spent a lot of time describing a single player video game to you. Why does it matter that it's online component is going down?
The V era is controversial for multiple reasons. One primary reason is probably the mech designs, which are significantly less elegant than previous entries. For people who got on board with VI, imagine a game where EVERY faction was Balam or the Dozers with varying ratios of "tactical brick" and "I'm amazed this thing even turns on." As an unabashed V liker, I rather enjoyed them as a change of pace from the astronomically high spec machines of the IV era. But don't worry, I'm sure I could put together a separate 1000 word post about V's art direction so I'll leave it at that. For now.
The main reason is because of one of Fromsoft's most interesting swings.
Hey y'all ever heard of Chromehounds?
Armored Core's V era decided to lean heavily into a multiplayer component. Players would form teams, join factions, and fight each other in a persistent multiplayer campaign where your wins and losses would contribute to the overall score of your chosen faction. There were also cooperative missions against AI enemies and even rudimentary raid style encounters against special boss enemies.
Remember earlier, when I talked about the final boss in the story activating a factory who's sole purpose was to ensure a bleak forever war that would eventually crush what's left of the human race?
Can you imagine it? A Fromsoft game with a persistent multiplayer? Cooperative raids? It's kind of crazy in a way you can't look away from, even if it's not your normal interest. I cannot stress this enough, I have always loved Fromsoft's weird experiments with what multiplayer can be. The death of Covenants is like the #1 thing I mourn about the modern iteration of Fromsoft's soulsborne releases.
The bitter pill to swallow at the end of this is that quite frankly, none of this was implemented that well. Like all Armored Core PVP, builds became increasingly calcified as players figured out the meta. Locking content such as missions and bosses behind PVP was also not particularly popular as many players didn't want to engage with a mode that traditionally wasn't the focus of the series. Playing solo was largely unviable, team play was basically mandatory. Even I'm hard pressed to defend switching between Scan and Combat mode. All in all, it's not so surprising that Verdict Day was the last Armored Core release for 10 years.
Fromsoft has clearly found their golden ticket in the time since, I don't begrudge them the slightest for riding that train to the mountain peak. Compared to many other studios, they've stayed remarkably consistent despite their success. Hell, they released a new Armored Core last year. How about that.
And yet, what a fascinating experiment it was! Remember when I said how most people had to form teams to compete viably in PVP? Some people didn't! You could also choose to designate yourself as a Mercenary, a solo agent who could be hired by any of the main factions. The best players would become recognized by the community. They were the true Ravens among us, who became battlefield legends. This kind of emergent player experience could only happen in a game structured like Verdict Day, a game too broken and unpopular to sustain a multiplayer population outside of four figures. Paradoxically, it only worked because the player population was so small. In only such a specific environment could such a story be told.
A curious game built in an era when Fromsoft was hungrier, more desperate, and fundamentally less sophisticated. But no less interesting. No less interested in examining cosmic cycles, the forms power take, and the inevitability of human nature. I mourn Verdict Day, not necessarily for the game it was, but the ideas it represented. I don't know if Fromsoft could or even should ever make something like Verdict Day ever again, but doesn't it tickle your curiosity, even a little bit?
To cut a swathe through the battlefield of the forever war. Your form and name known by every other living pilot present. Some curse your name, others speak it in hushed tones. To be the ace amongst aces. The Lone Mercenary.
#armored_core #video_games #mecha