I've been watching retro Armored Core footage recently and it struck me that despite the lack of the big boost options of later games the combat pace is incredibly fast.
This is footage from the second game in the series. Despite taking place in a cramped indoors facility the pace of combat and speed is anything but slow. Compare to footage of the much more speed heavy For Answer, the widely held fastest game in the series
The mecha are clearly flying around at insane speeds and changing direction far more often, but the pace of combat as a result feels about the same as the first game. While they're unloading ammo much more often, it seems like they are more or less just frantically second-stage boosting around, changing directions constantly hoping that will evade shots. Having played all games in the series heavily, I know that movement in FA is a base minimum to survive, and the more you boost the less amount of engagement you actually have with the target since you end up only getting a lock every so often. The original game doesn't give you the direction changing immediate speed that the latter does, but the base boost speed is very high, making for battles that involve the mecha flying around at much the same speeds as later games without the use of tertiary verniers. And since you aren't changing directions so easily, you see just how fast you're actually moving, especially as you track your target flying around. Later Armored Core titles are all about putting in effort to reach fast speeds, including 4 and For Answer, but in the first series the challenge is controlling the insane speed you already have, particularly vertical speed since in later games the emphasis is on horizontal mobility.
This is footage from the second game in the series. Despite taking place in a cramped indoors facility the pace of combat and speed is anything but slow. Compare to footage of the much more speed heavy For Answer, the widely held fastest game in the series
The mecha are clearly flying around at insane speeds and changing direction far more often, but the pace of combat as a result feels about the same as the first game. While they're unloading ammo much more often, it seems like they are more or less just frantically second-stage boosting around, changing directions constantly hoping that will evade shots. Having played all games in the series heavily, I know that movement in FA is a base minimum to survive, and the more you boost the less amount of engagement you actually have with the target since you end up only getting a lock every so often. The original game doesn't give you the direction changing immediate speed that the latter does, but the base boost speed is very high, making for battles that involve the mecha flying around at much the same speeds as later games without the use of tertiary verniers. And since you aren't changing directions so easily, you see just how fast you're actually moving, especially as you track your target flying around. Later Armored Core titles are all about putting in effort to reach fast speeds, including 4 and For Answer, but in the first series the challenge is controlling the insane speed you already have, particularly vertical speed since in later games the emphasis is on horizontal mobility.
