Mech pilots have emotions, too. Armored Core VI is a recreation about blowing up all the pieces in sight with a smorgasbord of overpowered weapons. But it’s additionally a recreation about useless, self-righteous males who assume it’s their God-given proper to take over a planet. While you solely know them as codenames, characters like Snail and Handler Walter vie for energy all through the sport’s story.
But in a stroke of brilliance, absolutely the remaining boss of Armored Core VI isn’t any of these massive personalities, however moderately the pettiest weasel you might 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 essentially the most unforgettable video-game villain of 2023.
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You first meet G5 Iguazu just some missions into AC6, when the participant, referred to as “621,” helps the Redguns assault a dam advanced. He makes a powerful impression, bemoaning the truth that he now has to babysit a “freelancer.” Your first time by means of the sport, Iguazu merely looks as if a bottom-of-the-barrel grunt, the whiny character who’s inevitably one of many first to chew the bullet.
While that’s true in your first playthrough, issues with Iguazu get actually fascinating in your second and third instances by means of the sport. This is the place you begin to be taught extra about him—and the way a lot he despises your very existence.
(*6*)
More than a rival
Data logs reveal that Iguazu was once a back-alley gambler who misplaced massive, and have become an augmented human to repay his money owed. This then led to him being recruited by the Redguns, and coming nose to nose with 621. At first he’s merely irritated by you, however as he grows extra conscious of your piloting abilities, the hate begins creeping in.
As you betray and dismantle the Redguns, Iguazu voices his open resentment of your abilities and your freedom. You, the participant, are all the pieces Iguazu can by no means be. You’re a grasp of your individual future, whereas Iguazu finds himself caught in a conflict he cares little about, unable to free himself from its shackles. Every single interplay you could have with Iguazu, you possibly can 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. Ironically, he’s fully unaware of the AI named All-Mind, which has been pulling the strings all alongside. His revenge plot foiled, in absolute desperation he takes a “deal with the devil,” letting All-Mind 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 finish of your third playthrough of AC6 reveals all of the machinations of All-Mind, and as you strategy the ultimate battle you see Iguazu has been warped past recognition, now piloting an experimental swimsuit constructed from the entire simulation battles you accomplished. This signifies that Iguazu’s new kind is kind of actually constructed from all of the folks you killed and backstabbed to get so far. He’s fairly actually the avatar of all the pieces and everybody that’s been thrown towards you on Rubicon.
That collective will would possibly look like the ultimate boss, however in one other staggering twist, midway by means of the battle Iguazu realizes that your associate, Ayre, has been affecting his thoughts this whole time. Through sheer power of will, he shuts All-Mind out and banishes Ayre from the combat. Iguauzu realizes he’s misplaced his freedom, however in a remaining act he ranges the enjoying area, lastly paving the way in which for the one-on-one duel he’s craved all alongside.
Time and once more, the participant overcomes seemingly insurmountable odds, eschewing the plans of firms and highly effective folks within the title of true freedom. Iguazu is the opposite aspect of that coin. He is a person with out free will who discovered objective by means of a singular obsession of destroying you. You took completely different paths however arrived on the identical place, the identical reply. For a recreation 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 elements of us—not simply need 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 pressured on the each of you.
If you lose to Iguazu within the remaining battle, his final line sums issues up completely: “Leave a spot for me in Hell.”
Armored Core VI is out now for PlayStation, Xbox, and PC.
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