#what a fucking game

[rex101111]

Elden Ring, Armored Core 6, and the terror of Agency.

(spoilers for AC6)

Armored Core 6 being the first game FromSoft released after Elden Ring is actually really freaking interesting, specifically because both games tackle the topic of "Agency" from two completely different perspectives.

In Elden Ring, Agency is (mostly) mechanical, the player can, from the word go, provided they don't die, choose any direction at all and do whatever they want for as long as they want. The game has the largest amount of ending of any Souls game if we take into account all the Lord ending variants, because the player can effect the world so deeply in so many ways. You can reach the end in any number of ways and the ending you get tends to be entirely up to you, and every ending is unique to itself.

In AC6, the agency is more felt in the story. That is to say, you don't have any agency at all. 621, Raven, your player character, doesn't have any sort of autonomy whatsoever. They don't get to choose which side they want to exclusively support on Rubicon, they can't choose to express any opinion about what's going on or what people say about them, they don't even have any bodily autonomy. You're a husk of a human being that can barely manage to breath in and out without external help, your mech is a glorified wheelchair iron lung combo with guns attached, and the most agency you have is with your AC. What weapons to bring, what build to make...but even that is fleeting.

Some people have complained that some bosses are damn near impossible without a certain and specific build. While I disagree, certain builds make those bosses significantly easier, but mechanical skill tends to make up for most shortcomings if you wanna stick to something specific...but there's some truth to it.

Sometimes the game will just hold your head down in the mud and say "do this or die". And unless you want to put in a lot of practice...that's what you'll do. You'll give up what little agency you have because it suddenly became the less important factor. Now you're focused on killing the bastard holding you back and moving on. The mission is what's important.

There are several times in your first playthrough where you get to "choose" which mission you wanna do, the other option vanishing until you do a new game+. One mission really deep into the playthrough, a few missions before the end, gives you the option of choosing which of the game long factions you wanna support. In any other game, this would be story shifting. It would be world altering. Deciding which faction gets the upper hand in a war...and it's an illusion.

In the briefing for eliminating the Redguns, Snail tells you plainly that if you won't do it, they'll just send Rusty in to take care of things. And if you do choose to fight the Vespers, that's exactly what happens. No matter what you did, the Redguns were doomed. The only agency you had was whether the bullet that killed them came out of your gun or someone elses.

Then, at the end of chapter 4, you get captured, and what little agency you had is utterly stripped away from you. You are in a hopeless situation, without access to the mech you put so much time and money into, or the guiding voice of your handler. You get given a hunk of junk barely held together with duct-tape and hope, and told you either use this thing to run...or die.

And then, a few missions later, the game does the cruelest thing it could have possibly done, it gives you a choice. An actual choice, a choice that will matter, a choice that you know will determine how this will all end.

Finally, finally a choice, finally some agency, all the agency in the world.

And when I got to this point? I fucking froze, I just stood there, controller in my clammy hands, and just could not for the life of me decide who to side with, who to betray, who's dreams to make true and who's to shatter. I did make my choice, eventually, because I couldn't just stop here...but I made peace with it. People died, and I expected them to, because the consequences of choice were clear to me right away.

And then...NG+. I do the opposite, I try the alternate missions. I do the other ending...and then the game plays it's most cruel trick. That big choice up there? It didn't matter either.

No matter what ending you picked first, the same people die (minus Ayre because she's special and good and we're all glad she's here), Carla, Chatty, Walter, Rusty. They all die in every ending, some by your hand, some by an enemy's, but still, still they die.

Every time you think you have agency, the game snatches it away. And the final ending just hammers it home as hard as it can. In this route, you become the slave of ALLMIND, you follow its every whim as loyally as you would have with Walter, except maybe you're doing because you saw both previous endings and you hope this time it'll be different. Maybe this time Carla and Chatty and Rusty and Walter won't die, maybe this time the ending won't leave a rotten taste in your mouth.

And then it happens again, they die anyway, again because of and in spite of your choices. And at the end...ALLMIND shows up, and demands you surrender the tiniest bit of agency you have left, your own self.

And, finally, you fight back. Finally, when there is no voice in your ear to tell you otherwise, not Walter or Ayre or Carla or ALLMIND, you make the one decision you still have the power to make.

You fight for your fucking life.

Finally, finally, some agency the game can't and won't take away. Even if all else fails, even if ideals burn and dreams die, you will always have the choice to claw your way out and FIGHT.

After a whole game three times over of not having a real choice in what happens, the taste of Agency is all the sweeter.

[phdmama]

WE CALL THAT A WIN BABY!!!!

[magicalgirlmindcrank]

still thinkin' about Slimes

[lucifer-rose]

A change of speed, a change of style

A change of scene, with no regrets

A chance to watch, admire the distance

Still occupied, though you forget

Oh, I've walked on water, run through fire

Can't seem to feel it anymore

It was me, waiting for me

Hoping for something more

Me, seeing me this time

Hoping for something else

New Dawn Fades - Joy Division

[gaiaxyswitch]

disco elysium is a narrative masterpiece send post

[midnakoopa]

Just got to the ending of Outer Wilds and uh. How do I put this?

HOLY

FUCKING

SHIT

[joshsandersons]

alright well. i’m enraged. i have many thoughts but no words at the moment. see you all when we have to do this AGAIN tomorrow

[blndspotting]

cincinnati bengals defense thank you for everything. edit: WE FINALLY WON SOMETHING

[kyleesi]

HOLY SHIT THE USA DID IT!!!! 🥉

[skullssy]

We have now gotten the last ending of Armored Core 6

[rex101111]

that tutorial fight really puts servants into perspective, huh? Here you are, standard Sword Man fighting Generic Ninjas, and as expected of most Mouso-esque games you wipe the floor with them with little to no effort. The game even goes, "hey? you wanna bust their shit even more? Here, have a second sword." And you proceed to rip shit up most excellently.

And then, a Servant shows up. Iori is a skilled swordsman, even exhausted and injured he still manages to beat a bunch of enemies all by himself. Rider? Rider looks at you like an ant and goes, "yea, I'm here to beat you into the dirt." And they do. They wipe the floor with you. You can't go on the offensive at all, you gotta skittishly dodge their attacks and go in for teeny tiny openings where your own attacks, that as previously mentioned have been shown to clean the clock of any regular human pretty handily, barely fucking tickles the health bar.

Like yeah people talk all the time about how the gap between "pretty good human fighter" and "Servant" is a gaping canyon only barely crossable if you know exactly what you're doing, but getting my teeth kicked in was a very practical demonstration.

[womanwithahotdogstand]

THAT’S Kraken hockey, baybee!!!!!!!!!!!!

[mintaii]

take responsibility

[tawnysoup]

Found my fav Slay the Princess route recently. Dragon my beloved. Your horrifying beak mouth was an impossible-to-refuse lip syncing challenge 💖

Shoutouts to @blacktabbygames for making such a cool game!

[underwater-i-will-go]

LOOK AT MY POOKIES THO !!!

[sybeez]

evergreen