Game Reviews

Giant robot battles have always been a popular idea in video games. There have been plenty of games revolving around piloting a giant robot and fighting other giant robots. From the popular Gundam series to Chromehounds, many have tried to make a popular mecha action game but many of them are sitting ducks on the store shelves. The Armored Core series has always been around for a while since its first game released on Playstation in 1997.

There have been plenty of Armored Core games since then including the last Armored Core game released on Playstation 2 known as Armored Core: Last Raven. Fast forward to 2010 and From Software, the development studio behind the Armored Core series releases a portable rendition of Last Raven known as Armored Core: Last Raven Portable for PSP. It adds 16:9 widescreen support and improved menus but is that enough to make you want to play it on your PSP or would you be better off finding the console version in a bargain bin?

The story of the game is fairly easy to follow. It takes place sometime in the future where the world’s largest weapon manufacturers join forces to create The Alliance. A man known as Jack-O creates a group called Vertex which is a group sworn to defeat The Alliance. Vertex declares war on The Alliance in 24 hours. Those 24 hours lessen as you play through the game. You play as a Raven (pilot) who owns a mecha and is confronted by both sides. Based on the missions you choose to take, you help one of the groups and it alters the story based on your decision. There are multiple endings to the game which makes it worthy of multiple playthroughs.

The presentation value of the game is really nice. The game’s visuals are very nice for a portable game. There is usually not much to expect from graphics in a PSP game but I really had no problems with the visuals. The soundtrack fits well with the situations in the game but the dialogue can sometimes feel a bit cheesy. The game has a lot of voice acting in it. The voice acting is decent for the most part. I really had no problems with it and the voice actors put the right amount of effort into the game. Mission reports at the end of each mission are all text but I was not annoyed by reading at all since in a section like mission reports and mail, I felt reading was a better way of experiencing those parts of the game. Last Raven also contains plenty of animated cutscenes which adds a nice feel to the story.