01-28-2014, 01:01 PM
(This post was last modified: 01-28-2014, 01:04 PM by White_Rain.)
I've done a little studying of the Armored Core Universe in terms of story. It seems that often, people say Armored Core 3 has nothing to do with Armored Core 2, that it's a complete reboot. I can understand why, to a degree - I mean, if official "sources" (*cough* Wikipedia *cough*) say so...
Well, sorry to say, but Wikipedia often gets things wrong, and this is most likely no exception.
On Christmas, I got Armored Core 3 for the PS2, and just days before that, I got Armored Core Nexus, but Nexus isn't involved on this right now. Right now, I just wanna talk about 3. I have a copy, complete with the case, manual, AND game. It's definitely legit as far as I've played, and since it was sold at GameStop, which is pretty well-known, I'm sure it wasn't a bootleg.
![[Image: Picture40_zps9c5829fe.jpg]](http://i1370.photobucket.com/albums/ag243/White_Rain_RR/Picture40_zps9c5829fe.jpg)
But there's something that caught my attention, made me think - the back of the case.
![[Image: Picture41_zps4bad0b36.jpg]](http://i1370.photobucket.com/albums/ag243/White_Rain_RR/Picture41_zps4bad0b36.jpg)
"CONTROL OF THE EARTH IS STILL UNDECIDED"
That, for the most part, not only because it's the largest text on the back and the main focus of the photo, but... just read what comes next.
"It's been 20 years since the Earth Government and the Corporations battled for supremacy."
...
The only reason they'd say "STILL UNDECIDED" and a reference to a past event with such detail and such wording is if they were to reference something that happened before, that players would know happened before. The Earth Government and Corporations battled for supremacy all throughout the original Armored Core back in 1997, the year I was born, on the PlayStation, ALL THE WAY to 2001's Armored Core 2: Another Age for the PlayStation 2. Nothing else came before Armored Core 3 except those 5 games spanning those 5 years, so I'm led to believe that, quite assuredly, FROM Software intended Armored Core 3 to be connected to Armored Core 2.
Armored Core 2 was connected to Armored Core 1 just as obviously if not even more so. Aside from the mentioning in the beginning of the game and in the manual, there's an arena in the 1-Player Arena Mode called "Old Murakumo Dome".
Murakumo.
Murakumo.
As in,
MURAKUMO MILLENIUM, one of the two major factions in the ORIGINAL GAME.
Not to mention, Murakumo Millenium is mentioned in a message sent to you by Nell Aulter, your operator in AC2, by their full name - Murakumo Millenium -, and one of the unavoidable missions has you investigate the dome from the arena. The mission title even states it - "Investigate Murakumo Dome".
So my theory, despite evidence supporting only one bridge to one gap, is this:
Despite what sources say, ALL of the Armored Core games are aligned.
<<SPOILER ALERTS AHEAD>>
Armored Core 1 tells the tale of a mercenary deciding the fate of the world being controlled by one corporation, but in their efforts the one he supports falls eventually. They are then attacked and receive requests from the Raven's Nest in a murder plot targeted at them. Nine-Ball, the request sender, is destroyed along with a supercomputer. "Order" is destroyed. Whether or not the merc survives the explosion is a mystery.
Project Phantasma tells the tale of a different mercenary, helping end an organization that plans to rule the world with "devastating new technology" that you can take out with minimal effort using the WA-FINGER from defeating Necron and becoming the top Arena AC. Weak plot is weak.
Master of Arena, heralded as one of the best, tells the story of Leos Klein, a mercenary who lost his family to Nine-Ball, who somehow survived his double-demise in AC1. Leos searches out a means to get to Nine-Ball and defeat him, participating in the Arena with a sponsor that manages to figure out that Nine-Ball is an AI and the Raven's Nest was a fake. He is defeated, humanity seems to rise and the Raven's Nest falls.
Armored Core 2 skips 67 years. Klein is somehow alive after all this time - probably cybernetic enhancements. A new mercenary does their work, once again being outstanding in every way. The LCC gets the corporations in line with the help of Balena Corporation, starting with Emeraude. Leos Klein, once on Mars, betrays the LCC and begins his plans for seeking his discoveries from the First Terraforming Project. The merc discovers what he was seeking, but not WHY, as they fight Klein, escape, and let Klein presumably die as Phobos, apparently not a moon but an alien superweapon, is destroyed with him in it.
Another Age comes in 5 years later, and either the old merc or a new merc is caught in the crossfire of the corporations on Earth battling the Earth Government, along with a new resistance force of rebels wanting new government. AC2 expansion pack is AC2 expansion pack plus a semi-revisit to the PS1 era.
3 takes place 20 years after, and new corporations rise, along with the Controller, a super-powerful A.I. computer dictating all aspects of everyone's life. I haven't played through it all and I don't plan on spoiling it for myself, but all I know is the Controller gets destroyed and life returns to the first Layered, though many people do die and that makes the menu music sound MUCH more sad than previously.
Silent Line takes place some time after 3, and I don't know if it's even specified but I don't want that spoiled on me. A place exists that the corporations try to explore so humanity can spread out and repopulate, but all the units they send that way disappear forever, unusually at the border of all places, and go silent, hence the name "Silent Line". You get sent to investigate, destroy what was there, and become the first to survive what lied beyond the Silent Line.
Nexus picks up from there. Years have passed since the incident, unspecified of course, and the events of Nexus takes place. A new resource is discovered, and a new corporation forms around it. The other corporations want to have a fair share, so they get Ravens, but the other corporation, Navis, is also getting some Ravens, so another conflict is about to begin. I saw the ending to this game, and the player invades a base to find a strange unit with red and black colors, pulse guns, laser blades, missiles, and a grenade launcher (in the Japanese version, this is explicitly named "Nine Ball", which fits considering the weapons), destroys it, and escapes to the rooftop. They are then barraged by an endless swarm of unmanned suicide units, and the screen fades to black as you try to fend them off. Almost unanimously considered K.I.A.
We then get to Nine Breaker. Peace exists for a time, to a degree, as the Corporations rarely attack one another. One organization does not want the Ravens who will man the front lines in a future emergency to grow complacent, and the top AC pilots are thrust into a rigorous training program to further hone their skills and ensure their readiness in the case of any eventual conflict. Nine Ball seems to return somewhat as Baby's Breath, and this is greatly amusing since the name of this game is Nine Breaker after all, a direct reference to the PS1 games where Nine Ball originated and the PS2 games after that. Nine Breaker is also, intentionally, the 9th Armored Core game made. See what FROM is doing there? Oddly, this is considered the worst game in the series, though not by much as it's still good fun.
Formula Front is a new type of spectator match where you build AI ACs and pit them against others, attempting to beat all the other architect teams and become the number 1 arena team. Not sure if this is connected or not, as this game is so unpopular even for an AC game that the details are kinda sparse in my mind.
Even though you can skip Nine Breaker and Formula Front appears to not even be a big part of the story, Last Raven proves those events from NB wise in the 24-hour conflict where the pilot must choose to ally with the Corporations, Alliance, or ally with the resistance force, Vertex. The ending generally considered canon is the one with the Pulverizers unleashed, and in the end, you are the last surviving Raven after you manage to defeat the Final Pulverizer.
Any connection between AC:LR and AC4/FA is sparsely touched upon, if at all. In Japan, the pilots are still Ravens, but in America, they're called LYNX. The latter might work more considering the whole "last Raven" part of Last Raven (the title isn't just for the hell of it, obviously enough). The only other amount of evidence I can give is the Nine Ball emblem when you S-Rank "Occupation Arteria Carpals" Hard Mode, which would hold more significance than just fanservice if I know From Software well enough, and the Earth being desolate stemming from the destruction caused by the Pulverizers of LR. For Answer is obviously connected to 4, if Anatolia's Mercenary being an NPC in this game is any indication.
V isn't immediately noticeable as connected to 4 aside from the even-more-desolate Earth where mankind is only in one part of the world - The City. Controlled by Father, The City is under despotic rule, and The Corporation seems to aid in Father's rule. You, a member of the small Resistance team after having once worked for the Corporation, help overthrow Father, though The Corporation goes berzerk. You figure out they're AIs, the Corporation, and you destroy them. Same as ever. After a bit of time playing Verdict Day, I realized that easy final boss is easy.
Verdict Day bridges the gap V left behind. V's story is supposedly legend, though VD takes place 100 years after V (confirmed). The Foundation aids the 3 factions Sirius Corporation, EverGreen Family, and Venide, during the Verdict War, but the Foundation goes berzerk like the Corporation did years ago, and the three factions sorta unite to stop it. The direct link to 4/FA is N/WGIX, the final boss of Verdict Day, a crude mock-up of White Glint (New/WhiteGlint9). The 9 might be a significant reference to the PS1 era, which, story-wise, must be ancient history like the ancient Mayan, Aztec, Egyptian, and original Viking and Native-American civilizations are to us now, if the connection DOES exist. (Yes, Vikings existed, but not like what they're depicted as in TV shows and movies.)
Good lord almighty, this took me nearly one hour to type, I am not kidding. This might possibly be the longest post ever typed on this website, I do apologize for all this. If you managed to read ALL of this up to this point, congratulations, you deserve a medal for not being totally bored out of your skull.
Anyway, feel free to add your own comments and speculation in the replies below! I'd like to see what the other RR members think, and maybe see if we can get this theory expanded.
Well, sorry to say, but Wikipedia often gets things wrong, and this is most likely no exception.
On Christmas, I got Armored Core 3 for the PS2, and just days before that, I got Armored Core Nexus, but Nexus isn't involved on this right now. Right now, I just wanna talk about 3. I have a copy, complete with the case, manual, AND game. It's definitely legit as far as I've played, and since it was sold at GameStop, which is pretty well-known, I'm sure it wasn't a bootleg.
![[Image: Picture40_zps9c5829fe.jpg]](http://s1370.photobucket.com/user/White_Rain_RR/media/Picture40_zps9c5829fe.jpg.html)
But there's something that caught my attention, made me think - the back of the case.
![[Image: Picture41_zps4bad0b36.jpg]](http://s1370.photobucket.com/user/White_Rain_RR/media/Picture41_zps4bad0b36.jpg.html)
"CONTROL OF THE EARTH IS STILL UNDECIDED"
That, for the most part, not only because it's the largest text on the back and the main focus of the photo, but... just read what comes next.
"It's been 20 years since the Earth Government and the Corporations battled for supremacy."
...
The only reason they'd say "STILL UNDECIDED" and a reference to a past event with such detail and such wording is if they were to reference something that happened before, that players would know happened before. The Earth Government and Corporations battled for supremacy all throughout the original Armored Core back in 1997, the year I was born, on the PlayStation, ALL THE WAY to 2001's Armored Core 2: Another Age for the PlayStation 2. Nothing else came before Armored Core 3 except those 5 games spanning those 5 years, so I'm led to believe that, quite assuredly, FROM Software intended Armored Core 3 to be connected to Armored Core 2.
Armored Core 2 was connected to Armored Core 1 just as obviously if not even more so. Aside from the mentioning in the beginning of the game and in the manual, there's an arena in the 1-Player Arena Mode called "Old Murakumo Dome".
Murakumo.
Murakumo.
As in,
MURAKUMO MILLENIUM, one of the two major factions in the ORIGINAL GAME.
Not to mention, Murakumo Millenium is mentioned in a message sent to you by Nell Aulter, your operator in AC2, by their full name - Murakumo Millenium -, and one of the unavoidable missions has you investigate the dome from the arena. The mission title even states it - "Investigate Murakumo Dome".
So my theory, despite evidence supporting only one bridge to one gap, is this:
Despite what sources say, ALL of the Armored Core games are aligned.
<<SPOILER ALERTS AHEAD>>
Armored Core 1 tells the tale of a mercenary deciding the fate of the world being controlled by one corporation, but in their efforts the one he supports falls eventually. They are then attacked and receive requests from the Raven's Nest in a murder plot targeted at them. Nine-Ball, the request sender, is destroyed along with a supercomputer. "Order" is destroyed. Whether or not the merc survives the explosion is a mystery.
Project Phantasma tells the tale of a different mercenary, helping end an organization that plans to rule the world with "devastating new technology" that you can take out with minimal effort using the WA-FINGER from defeating Necron and becoming the top Arena AC. Weak plot is weak.
Master of Arena, heralded as one of the best, tells the story of Leos Klein, a mercenary who lost his family to Nine-Ball, who somehow survived his double-demise in AC1. Leos searches out a means to get to Nine-Ball and defeat him, participating in the Arena with a sponsor that manages to figure out that Nine-Ball is an AI and the Raven's Nest was a fake. He is defeated, humanity seems to rise and the Raven's Nest falls.
Armored Core 2 skips 67 years. Klein is somehow alive after all this time - probably cybernetic enhancements. A new mercenary does their work, once again being outstanding in every way. The LCC gets the corporations in line with the help of Balena Corporation, starting with Emeraude. Leos Klein, once on Mars, betrays the LCC and begins his plans for seeking his discoveries from the First Terraforming Project. The merc discovers what he was seeking, but not WHY, as they fight Klein, escape, and let Klein presumably die as Phobos, apparently not a moon but an alien superweapon, is destroyed with him in it.
Another Age comes in 5 years later, and either the old merc or a new merc is caught in the crossfire of the corporations on Earth battling the Earth Government, along with a new resistance force of rebels wanting new government. AC2 expansion pack is AC2 expansion pack plus a semi-revisit to the PS1 era.
3 takes place 20 years after, and new corporations rise, along with the Controller, a super-powerful A.I. computer dictating all aspects of everyone's life. I haven't played through it all and I don't plan on spoiling it for myself, but all I know is the Controller gets destroyed and life returns to the first Layered, though many people do die and that makes the menu music sound MUCH more sad than previously.
Silent Line takes place some time after 3, and I don't know if it's even specified but I don't want that spoiled on me. A place exists that the corporations try to explore so humanity can spread out and repopulate, but all the units they send that way disappear forever, unusually at the border of all places, and go silent, hence the name "Silent Line". You get sent to investigate, destroy what was there, and become the first to survive what lied beyond the Silent Line.
Nexus picks up from there. Years have passed since the incident, unspecified of course, and the events of Nexus takes place. A new resource is discovered, and a new corporation forms around it. The other corporations want to have a fair share, so they get Ravens, but the other corporation, Navis, is also getting some Ravens, so another conflict is about to begin. I saw the ending to this game, and the player invades a base to find a strange unit with red and black colors, pulse guns, laser blades, missiles, and a grenade launcher (in the Japanese version, this is explicitly named "Nine Ball", which fits considering the weapons), destroys it, and escapes to the rooftop. They are then barraged by an endless swarm of unmanned suicide units, and the screen fades to black as you try to fend them off. Almost unanimously considered K.I.A.
We then get to Nine Breaker. Peace exists for a time, to a degree, as the Corporations rarely attack one another. One organization does not want the Ravens who will man the front lines in a future emergency to grow complacent, and the top AC pilots are thrust into a rigorous training program to further hone their skills and ensure their readiness in the case of any eventual conflict. Nine Ball seems to return somewhat as Baby's Breath, and this is greatly amusing since the name of this game is Nine Breaker after all, a direct reference to the PS1 games where Nine Ball originated and the PS2 games after that. Nine Breaker is also, intentionally, the 9th Armored Core game made. See what FROM is doing there? Oddly, this is considered the worst game in the series, though not by much as it's still good fun.
Formula Front is a new type of spectator match where you build AI ACs and pit them against others, attempting to beat all the other architect teams and become the number 1 arena team. Not sure if this is connected or not, as this game is so unpopular even for an AC game that the details are kinda sparse in my mind.
Even though you can skip Nine Breaker and Formula Front appears to not even be a big part of the story, Last Raven proves those events from NB wise in the 24-hour conflict where the pilot must choose to ally with the Corporations, Alliance, or ally with the resistance force, Vertex. The ending generally considered canon is the one with the Pulverizers unleashed, and in the end, you are the last surviving Raven after you manage to defeat the Final Pulverizer.
Any connection between AC:LR and AC4/FA is sparsely touched upon, if at all. In Japan, the pilots are still Ravens, but in America, they're called LYNX. The latter might work more considering the whole "last Raven" part of Last Raven (the title isn't just for the hell of it, obviously enough). The only other amount of evidence I can give is the Nine Ball emblem when you S-Rank "Occupation Arteria Carpals" Hard Mode, which would hold more significance than just fanservice if I know From Software well enough, and the Earth being desolate stemming from the destruction caused by the Pulverizers of LR. For Answer is obviously connected to 4, if Anatolia's Mercenary being an NPC in this game is any indication.
V isn't immediately noticeable as connected to 4 aside from the even-more-desolate Earth where mankind is only in one part of the world - The City. Controlled by Father, The City is under despotic rule, and The Corporation seems to aid in Father's rule. You, a member of the small Resistance team after having once worked for the Corporation, help overthrow Father, though The Corporation goes berzerk. You figure out they're AIs, the Corporation, and you destroy them. Same as ever. After a bit of time playing Verdict Day, I realized that easy final boss is easy.
Verdict Day bridges the gap V left behind. V's story is supposedly legend, though VD takes place 100 years after V (confirmed). The Foundation aids the 3 factions Sirius Corporation, EverGreen Family, and Venide, during the Verdict War, but the Foundation goes berzerk like the Corporation did years ago, and the three factions sorta unite to stop it. The direct link to 4/FA is N/WGIX, the final boss of Verdict Day, a crude mock-up of White Glint (New/WhiteGlint9). The 9 might be a significant reference to the PS1 era, which, story-wise, must be ancient history like the ancient Mayan, Aztec, Egyptian, and original Viking and Native-American civilizations are to us now, if the connection DOES exist. (Yes, Vikings existed, but not like what they're depicted as in TV shows and movies.)
Good lord almighty, this took me nearly one hour to type, I am not kidding. This might possibly be the longest post ever typed on this website, I do apologize for all this. If you managed to read ALL of this up to this point, congratulations, you deserve a medal for not being totally bored out of your skull.
Anyway, feel free to add your own comments and speculation in the replies below! I'd like to see what the other RR members think, and maybe see if we can get this theory expanded.
