[quote=@Mr Allen J] I really liked some of the older games. Ironically, the PS1 era AC games had the best atmosphere imo. Like it got across the setting is tragically beautiful. The newer games (while I do like them) are more, kind of, off the wall mecha action. Which is okay and all. But, it's sad that the weakest entries in the whole series (ACV through Verdict Day) had the best atmosphere of the newer series. If I had to pick a few of the games I like the most, it'd have to be... Armored Core 3, Nexus, 4, and AC1. And I really do want to get around to making that AC roleplay. I had some cool ideas in mind for it, but I think with me obsessively job hunting irl, and this RP going nowhere anytime soon (and that other semi-active RP I do), I don't have time to run three RPs at once. [/quote] Project Phantasma is the only AC game I haven't actually finished yet (disregarding Nine Breaker), so I guess I'm not too qualified to say that I didn't think the general vibe of the series was as nice and refined as the PS2 games, but I do know that Shape Memory Alloys was hands-down my favorite song to go through the menus to. I do agree that things kind of lost focus once Miyazaki started directing the games. One of the things that I really liked about the way things were presented was how distant and isolated your relationship with other characters was, given that you never see their faces or learn much about their backstories no matter how close they were to you. Everyone had been reduced to a faceless commodity with questionable humanity, and it was tough to get attached to anyone when everyone had a very business relationship with you on a need-to-know basis. AC4 and onwards tried to introduce a lot of weird friendships and love interests and occasional comedy antics, and they never really stuck with me given that they never really broke free of that isolated style of the earlier games. VD had a pretty amazing final boss, though, and the continuity merge was a great idea. My favorite would probably be Last Raven. Call me cheesy, but seeing the sun set over my AC with the little text blurb after finally finishing that tough-as-nails final boss fight with Zinaida was one of my favorite gaming memories. I thought that and the game in general were a really nice send-off to the series up to that point, and I think the gameplay was at its most complex and fun in that game. It's a shame I was too young to go tournament-hunting when that was a thing. If I had to pick a favorite from each "era," it would probably be MoA, 2, 3, LR, 4A, and VD. Yeah, every idea I've had for an AC RP seemed like it would take too much out of me.