YMMV / Armored Core: For Answer

• Alternate Aesop Interpretation: On top of the work being a critique of unchecked corporate power, absolute authoritarianism and extremism, some players also read the story as a jab at seemingly lackluster reaction to worldwide concerns in real-life such as climate change or nuclear power (it's telling the Kojima Partcle is named as such) during 2000s; that organizations (both government and private) opt for an "easy way out" or only moved to solve problems for publicity or other selfish agenda.
• Anti-Climax Boss:
  • For the top-ranked Collared pilot, Otsdarva/Stasis is nothing special: He's a low damage output Fragile Speedster who, while modestly quick, is nowhere near evasive enough to justify his miserable, paper-thin defense. It's not unreasonable to beat him effortlessly with equipment available from the very start of the game. When facing White Glint in the story missions, he's usually the first to fall even with backup in the form of either you or CUBE, leaving the other to finish the job.
  • The second ranked Collared pilot, Lilium/Ambient, is even worse, running a complete disaster of a build and being a surprisingly poor pilot on top of it.
  • Thermidor in the League Path is not an especially gifted pilot and is actually at a massive disadvantage since his weapon loadout is poorly-suited for the level. He's less of a threat than his lackey, who can actually put some pressure on a player less adept at melee combat. Also, Thermidor and Otsdarva are the same person, so it looks like he hasn't learned his lesson from his first loss against White Glint.
• Awesome Music: The soundtrack is awesome, as per series tradition.
• Captain Obvious Reveal: The reveal that Thermidor is actually just Otsdarva would be a lot more impactful if they didn't share the same voice actor and NEXT loadouts, in addition to the blatant foreshadowing like Thermidor being introduced immediately after Otsdarva's "death."
• Ensemble Dark Horse: May Greenfield is an enormously minor character, but her friendly personality, adorable emblem, and enormously helpful NEXT Build (Combined that outside of arena matches, you never have to fight and presumably kill her) has made her a fan favorite.
• Even Better Sequel: The game is generally held to be better than its predecessor thanks to more parts, more missions, the inclusion of the massive Arms Forts, etc. The removal of the Real Is Brown graphics filter was also appreciated. It's to the point that For Answer is not only considered the better of the fourth generation games, but is also frequently considered one of the best games in the series.
• Game-Breaker: White Glint's SALINE missiles on the default Regulation. Spamming dual SALINEs can take down anything short of the Puzzle Boss Arms Forts.
• Moral Event Horizon: Strayed crosses the line in the Destruction route. In it, he destroys Cradle 03, killing one hundred million humans in a single mission. The ending of the route says the player character would destroy the other cradles and would be considered to be the greatest monster mankind has ever seen.
• Player Punch: Realizing that White Glint is Anatolia's Mercenary taking up Joshua O' Brien's legacy. That is to say, you're now killing your player character from the previous game.
• Retroactive Recognition: Yes, this is where we first met Patches!
• Scrappy Mechanic: You get stats to modify your NEXT for each mission you S Rank, to the point that to get all of the game's stats, you have to clear every route on Normal and Hard at the best possible rank, including a couple of the hardest missions in the series. This is pretty obnoxious, but the real kicker is that it carries over to multiplayer; any player that aced the game for 100% Completion has an inherent advantage against any player that simply shrugged through a Normal mode League playthrough, and not just in skill level.
• Too Cool to Live: White Glint went from being the previous game's protagonist to practically a Messianic Archetype, leading the last best hope for humanity to escape corporate rule and piloting a top-tier Ace Custom Game-Breaker of a NEXT. Naturally, he goes down at the end of Act 2 to make room for more morally ambiguous forces to replace him.
• Visual Effects of Awesome: While the game isn't exactly a graphics powerhouse, all the NEXTs and Arms Forts are intricately detailed. The Spirit of Motherwill and Answerer are sights to behold.