Video Game / Armored Core 2

Time to see what you learned on Earth.

Earth Year 223
In the wake of the final war known as the Great Destruction, mankind was forced underground. But with the discovery of the pre-war Mars Immigration Project, the human race would again prosper and flourish.
The age of conflict in the subterranean world was finally over and the newly established government made restoration of the devastated environment its priority.
Emigration to Mars was encouraged, but this influx of settlers posed a threat to law and order on the Red Planet.
Corporations that were all-powerful during the subterranean era lost their foothold when the government was created. But with a new planet, ripe for exploration, they discovered opportunities to regain their strength...
— Opening crawl

The fourth installment in FromSoftware's Armored Core series, released in 2000 for the Playstation 2.

Sixty-seven years after the fall of the Raven's Nest, Mars has been terraformed to have an environment suitable for human habitation. The new Earth Government encourages immigration to Mars, though its appointed watchdog, the LCC, struggles to maintain order on the planet. The corporations Zio Matrix and Emeraude vye for supremacy of the red planet, while the smaller Balena makes moves under the surface.

You are a Raven who emigrated to Mars in order to register with the Nerves Concord, the successor to the Raven's Nest. Between the corporation's war and intermittent rampages by the Disorder Units, hostile bio-mechanical entities left behind by an ancient civilization, you'll have plenty of employment opportunies.

The first Armored Core game for the sixth generation of consoles, Armored Core 2 makes multiple additions and refinements to the formula. Armored Cores now have the ability to overboost, a faster but less-controllable boost. New part categories have been added, these being radiators, inside parts for mine and missile decoys, and extension parts that can be used for a variety of support functions. The menu system has been overhauled to allow for clearer comparison of part stats and players can now store up to three distinct Armored Core designs.

The game is followed by Armored Core 2: Another Age.

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The game provides examples of:

• The Ace: Leos Klein's arrival is treated by your operator as a sign that the LCC is serious about clamping down on the corporations. He's described as the first ever Ninebreaker, and the Raven who held the title longer than anyone else.
• Actually a Doombot: Leos Klein installs a robotic duplicate of himself to take over the space elevator servicing Mars. You get a hint it's not the real Klein when it glitches out and starts repeating the same sentence over and over.
• Battleship Raid: The penultimate mission has you and some other surviving Ravens drop on a gigantic airplane designed by Balena for the LCC. The first part of the mission has you take out its anti-aircraft turrets before you venture inside.
• Cloudcuckoolander: The arena's 11th ranker is one Count One, who loves the number 1 above everything else – so much so that he'd rather stay #11, because it gives him twice as many 1s.
• Colony Drop: Klein shifts Phobos' orbit, seemingly in an attempt to drop it on Mars.
• Complaining About Rescues They Don't Like: One researcher in "Rescue Research Team" isn't too impressed by your timeliness.
  Hmm. Your skills still leave something to be desired."
• Continuity Nod:
  • One of the Arenas is named "Murakumo Dome", after Murakumo Millenium from the original trilogy. It is established in supplementary material that Zio Matrix acquired the Mars Terraforming technology from the Murakumo assets they had inherited.
  • The 2nd lowest ranked contestant in the Arena is one Hustler Two, who pilots a crappy AC patterned after Nine-Ball and claims to be the son of Hustler One, even though AIs can't have kids.
  • In the original game, the line "Raven, what is your wish" is uttered by The Raven's Nest AI as the player fights it. In Armored Core 2, Leos Klein repeats it as you escape the disintegrating Phobos.
• Fragile Speedster: The new Hover Legs. They are fast and safely float over bodies of water, but have horrible defenses.
• Gladiator Subquest: The Arena returns, working as it did in Armored Core: Project Phantasma. Unlike Project Phantasma's, Ravens in the Arena can be encountered during missions, and any Raven you kill during the course of the storyline will be removed from the rankings until the post game.
• Meaningful Name: Strung's AC is named Judas, and he betrays you.
• Mercy Mode: Human Plus returns from the original game and works as it did before: by incurring a high-enough debt, your character will sell their body to science and you restart the playthrough with your debt cleared and a new power. The process can be repeated multiple times for increasingly useful updates.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: The LCC names its squad of elite Ravens the Frighteners.
• Opening Scroll: The game begins with a white-on-black text crawl explaining what humanity has been up to since the events of the original trilogy.
• Overdrive:
  • The game introduces the ability to overboost, a much faster boost that is initiated from large thrusters installed on the back of cores rather than your boosters. The trade-off is that it is harder to control and has a high heat and energy cost.
  • Exclusive to the 2nd generation is the Limiter Release: by inputing a key combination, you can overclock your generator and get unlimited energy for about 30 seconds. The trade-off is that your generator won't refill for several minutes afterward.
• Pop-Star Composer: Dutch musician Mijk van Dijk guests for the game's opening and closing themes.
• Rogue Protagonist: Leos Klein is strongly implied to be the protagonist of Armored Core: Master of Arena, having apparently regretted his part in the fall of the Raven's Nest order and become convinced that humans cannot be trusted to govern themselves.
• Repetitive Audio Glitch: After you defeat Leos Klein at the space elevator, he starts looping his pre-fight quote in an increasingly glitch manner before blowing up, giving away that he's not the genuine article.
• Sibling Rivalry: Among the arena's roster is a pair of brothers, Castor and Pollux. Both of their description ends by mentioning they hate their sibling.
• That's No Moon: Phobos turns out to be a super weapon left behind by the race that created the Disorder Units. Klein takes it over and tries to drop it onto Mars.
• What the Hell Is That Accent?: In the English dub, the Emeraude mission broker speaks in a heavy, undefinable accent. It's presumably meant to be French judging from the company's name, but it sounds so unlike anything else many players thought it was supposed to convey a fictional "Martian accent".
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness:
  • Zio Matrix thinks this of the player character and tries to assassinate you through a bogus mission request.
    You know too much. We don't need you no more.
  • Leos Klein disposes of his right-hand woman Remille once he's fused with the special Disorder Unit inside Phobos.
• You Remind Me of X: In the penultimate mission, Leos Klein tells the player that you remind him of a rebel pilot he used to know. It's implied he's referring to himself.