Mech pilots have emotions, too. Armored Core VI is a sport about blowing up every little thing in sight with a smorgasbord of overpowered weapons. But it surely’s additionally a sport about useless, self-righteous males who assume it’s their God-given proper to take over a planet. Whilst you solely know them as codenames, characters like Snail and Handler Walter vie for energy all through the sport’s story.
However in a stroke of brilliance, absolutely the remaining boss of Armored Core VI isn’t any of these huge personalities, however slightly the pettiest weasel you may think about, somebody whose very existence facilities round spite for the participant. It’s a subversive twist that cleverly reimagines a longstanding trope of the mecha style, and creates probably the most unforgettable video-game villain of 2023.
Purchase Armored Core VI Fires of Rubicon: Amazon | Greatest Purchase | GameStop
You first meet G5 Iguazu just some missions into AC6, when the participant, referred to as “621,” helps the Redguns assault a dam complicated. He makes a powerful impression, bemoaning the truth that he now has to babysit a “freelancer.” Your first time by way of the sport, Iguazu merely looks like a bottom-of-the-barrel grunt, the whiny character who’s inevitably one of many first to chunk the bullet.
Whereas that’s true in your first playthrough, issues with Iguazu get actually fascinating in your second and third instances by way of the sport. That is the place you begin to be taught extra about him—and the way a lot he despises your very existence.
Greater than a rival
Knowledge logs reveal that Iguazu was a back-alley gambler who misplaced huge, and have become an augmented human to repay his money owed. This then led to him being recruited by the Redguns, and coming head to head with 621. At first he’s merely irritated by you, however as he grows extra conscious of your piloting expertise, the hate begins creeping in.
As you betray and dismantle the Redguns, Iguazu voices his open resentment of your expertise and your freedom. You, the participant, are every little thing Iguazu can by no means be. You’re a grasp of your personal future, whereas Iguazu finds himself caught in a conflict he cares little about, unable to free himself from its shackles. Each single interplay you have got with Iguazu, you’ll be able to see his resentment rising, little by little.
After the Redguns are formally dismantled, he takes a contract contract and launches a shock ambush on you. Mockingly, he’s utterly unaware of the AI named All-Thoughts, which has been pulling the strings all alongside. His revenge plot foiled, in absolute desperation he takes a “take care of the satan,” letting All-Thoughts increase him into the right killing machine. He believes his freedom with the singular purpose of spiteing you the participant, your demise the one factor on his thoughts.
Inhuman nature
All this culminates within the defining second that cements Iguazu as a villain for the ages. The tip of your third playthrough of AC6 reveals all of the machinations of All-Thoughts, and as you method the ultimate battle you see Iguazu has been warped past recognition, now piloting an experimental swimsuit constructed from all the simulation battles you accomplished. Which means Iguazu’s new kind is sort of actually constructed from all of the folks you killed and backstabbed to get up to now. He’s fairly actually the avatar of every little thing and everybody that’s been thrown in opposition to you on Rubicon.
That collective will would possibly seem to be the ultimate boss, however in one other staggering twist, midway by way of the battle Iguazu realizes that your accomplice, Ayre, has been affecting his thoughts this complete time. By way of sheer drive of will, he shuts All-Thoughts out and banishes Ayre from the battle. Iguauzu realizes he’s misplaced his freedom, however in a remaining act he ranges the taking part in subject, lastly paving the way in which for the one-on-one duel he’s craved all alongside.
Repeatedly, the participant overcomes seemingly insurmountable odds, eschewing the plans of companies and highly effective folks within the title of true freedom. Iguazu is the opposite aspect of that coin. He’s a person with out free will who discovered goal by way of a singular obsession of destroying you. You took totally different paths however arrived on the identical place, the identical reply. For a sport that tells its story in such a minimalist method, it’s unexpectedly introspective and philosophical.
It’s not typically you see a villain actually characterize the worst components of us—not simply want for energy however pettiness, spite, jealousy, and hate. Iguazu is the right reflection of the participant themselves, and somebody that suffers for all of our actions. Even regardless of all that, he finds a second of respect within the remaining battle, a solidarity for the undesirable life that has been compelled on the each of you.
Should you lose to Iguazu within the remaining battle, his final line sums issues up completely: “Go away a spot for me in Hell.”
Armored Core VI is out now for PlayStation, Xbox, and PC.
