Armored Core 3: Silent Line Is A VERY Mixed Bag... 

Yea I agree Silent Line's campaign was surprisingly memorable, the IBIS fight is burned into my skull. Also I hope you're enjoying AC6! It's kind of consumed all my free time.

The last Armored Core game without Dual Analog Controls.

My favorite Armored Core missions are always the long ones. The ones where you have a maze of tunnels to explore, and don't quite know where your objective is. Silent Line has some of the best ones of those in the whole series. And because of that, when I first played it, it taught me the true value of heavy AC builds. It also has some of the best endgame replayability out of the old games. Almost every single mission has at least one secret part, while many of them have multiple parts to earn. So you have good reason to go back and try most of them many times after you beat the campaign. Its just too bad that once you're done, all that hard work can't transfer into Nexus. Also, the final boss is not I.B.I.S., its Ibis, like the bird. In the original Japanese AC3, the Controller was actually called DOVE. You can even still see DOVE at the bottom of its emblem when it sends you emails. Its a bit strange that Agetech changed one name, but not the other in the English versions. It also ruins the symbolism From clearly intended with the two cities. Doves are usually seen as symbols of peace, and freedom. While the Ibis is representative of death, and the afterlife. DOVE helped the people of Layered to come together, and escape their confinement. While IBIS killed everyone in its city and took over. And it clearly had a plan even after its death. The IBIS boss fight is such a cool idea, but its not super well executed. Half way through, it actually reads your AC build and how you acted in the first half, and adapts its tactics. But because it has so little health, if you're even somewhat competent, you will kill it before you even notice the change. For me, both AC3 and Silent Line are the peak of the whole series. With AC3 being my favorite, simply due to personal preference. The next three games are still good, but they also do some strange things that I don't like as much.

I just made a connection to Armored Core 6: Fires of Rubicon after watching this. Spoiler warning: *CEL 240 is also an IBIS so there is a connection to Silent Line that went over my head.*

I really liked Silent Line and I'm glad you enjoyed it. I can't wait to see your reviews for Nexus and Last Raven, they might be my fav gen 3s.

Silent Line's mission diversity is amazing. And the concept of the IBIS fight is super cool. I get being disappointed by the Arena not getting the same upgrade, but I honestly don't see it as too much of a negative. Silent Line's campaign being this gauntlet, putting everything ya learned in AC3 to the test. That just be gold.

Silent Line is such a fun game to mess around in, and is probably the most fun game to play through with an imported save, mostly because fully upgraded OP-intensify lets you take advantage of the tons of new parts this game adds. The mission variety is also just great. Before AC6, it was my second favorite game in the series behind Last Raven. Hopefully you still come back to review the rest of the old games even with AC6 already being out.

I’m finishing up a Armored Core 3 Portable, trying to get with the 100% and up next will be Silent Line Portable, I’m really looking forward to this game. Great video!

Something I am guessing you left on the cutting room floor for this video that has remained in my memory for Silent Line is the 'Big White' MT's that are near AC level in power, and are tied to the four iterations of the main theme of Silent Line. (Silent Line 1-3 and Artificial Line) The first mission you encounter one does a great job in presenting it as the massive threats that Big White's are, while also being a hint at the main antagonist being IBIS, as such are the signature defense units the AI uses.

Still a huge fan of the lineage from Nineball-> Nineball Seraph -> IBIS -> CEL- 240 Ibis. It's just a really cool way to kinda have Nineball without just bringing him back again as a piece of ancient tech, while also referencing Silent line. CEL 240 even having the drones and everything.

I always preferred the missions over the arena so yeah I understand why you feel this way, and for me this is why SL is truly special and one of my favorite games ever made. Great video man

Ever since i saw the first video of yours release ive been waiting for 4 and For Answer. Those are the only ones i played in the series (other than 6) and me and my brother absolutely adored them as kids. Really can't wait!

It's been a long time since I played through AC3 and Silent Line, but I think the lock-on issue could be addressed by switching up your FCS to something with shorter range for maps like that (I could be wrong though). One thing is that OP-Intensify has some features that give you more flexibility with your builds, like increasing the targeting box for all FCS. Definitely a part worth playing around with even though it's not at all necessary to beat the game. What did you think of the AI AC in the arena? I remember spending a ton of time playing the AI in the arena. I don't remember exactly how it worked but basically, it would start off being really bad but it would learn based on your gameplay. I had this save where I had spent an excessive amount of time fighting battles over and over against the AI. Each time I beat it without getting hit I would save and if I got hit I'd reset (so that it only learned from perfect gameplay). I had it equipped with real light equipment, OP-Intensify, a machine gun, and possibly side boosters (don't remember), so it had crazy mobility (super hard to even keep it on the screen when fighting it). Most intense matches I've ever had in any AC game. Unfortunately I lost the save when my junkie roommate stole and pawned my PS2 and other stuff.

Very glad youre continuing this series despite ac6 already being out! I really like your Ac reviews, hope you keep doing them, its pretty cool to see you improving and getting more skilled at the game. Hope you enjoy ac6 as well tho!

I just discovered your channel and i'm viewing all your AC videos, I'm loving it and subscribed right away!

I feel like I'm the only one that absolutely loved training my own AI in this game. You didn't even mention it!

I wish Bandai Namco could get the rights to these older Armored Core games and bring them to modern platforms, whether they be remakes, remasters, or just ports

Im guessing like the last games you didn't do the actual hardest arena fight.

Silent Line is my personally favourite in the series. The second to last mission where everyone is storming the base at same time as you while hearing it over the comms and them slowly all going down has to be the one of the best Armored Core missions ever. Also the atmosphere of the game... going up against the unknown, foreboding fear of the unknown. It's shown so well in the mission structure in the game and despite not being a long game it leaves such a mark. It has such an amazing setting and the gameplay tweaks from AC3 like adding more second hand weapons was great. Was also glad it had an Arena since Another Age didn't. I like that it feels fresh because as much as I love AC3, AC3 feels too much like "AC1 but again".

you ask for hard lock on but you would still be hard locking into the enemies on the wall instead of your desired target it would be way harder to switch target

Secure Fortress NK-432, the mission I think of when people say Last Raven is the only sadistically designed game in the series.....

To me Silent Line is only fun if you port over from AC3, otherwise you are just shooting yourself in the foot and enjoyed it overall.

I like that 7 months later the YT algo thinks this is AC6.... fires of.... liberation?

Why noone mentions that Silent Line brought new mechanic of weapon destruction. Sometimes you can destroy one of the enemy AC's handheld weapons. And first time it confused me so much because my main weapon just disappeared with an explosion mid arena fight...

as you have already seen you can see IBIS wasn't actually a evil AI lol

Curiously, in Japan, Silent Line's Arena is rated quite highly. Overall, the AI perfection is rated as excellent. In particular, rank 3 fog shadow (shade) has an outstandingly perfect AI, and even though it does not use OP-INTENSIFY and is under the same conditions as the player, it is a very popular ranker in Japan because it uses lightweight aircraft to create maneuvers that put the player at the mercy of the player.

Loving the series chole, I’m happy it’s growing in popularity

Funny how your opinion is almost the opposite of mine For context i played AC3 and Silent Line back to back very recently I didn't enjoyed AC3, at all. I despised like 70% of the missions, the only i actually enjoyed are the ones at the beginning which is almost the tutorial. Silent Line felt so much better to me, while there was a lot of defense missions it didn't felt impossible, the target to defend could actually survive a bunch of damage while in AC3 it felt like they died in one or two hit. Also the arena giving a good amount of money directly from the first fight was really welcomed, i thought it was really low in AC3. And unlike a lot of people, i didn't liked the stealth section. I had another issue but it's in the "i'm stupid for not remapping the controls so every AC fight is a nightmare" category XD Aside from that, both games have a great gameplay, i just had an issue with the missions in 3. Sorry for the rant

This was my second Armored Core and didn’t get another till Armored Core V

Did you do the 2v2 Arena?... Seems a tad odd to leave out.

Is IBIS connected to fires of ibis?

A question, where can I get AC3 SL for PS3 because until now I can only find "AC3" and no emulator has it 🤔

I'm pretty sure (please correct me if I'm wrong) that you can get OP-INTENSIFY at the end of AC:SL.

Wait so is armored core 6 a reboot of armored core or a soft reboot

I had Silent Line, but that was way back around 2005. Trying to find a physical copy now is hard. I remember it being...Okay. It was mostly just more missions, and more parts to acquire. That wasnt bad. Thats largely why I keep getting new games. I didnt like the destructible weapons feature, or the new off-hand guns. Destructible weapons were mostly a downside as you wouldnt be doing that to any enemies in the story missions, it would only happen to you., The off-hand guns would fire with a delay and add a 3rd button you had to hold down during combats. They never replaced the Laser Blades for me. Looking up the new parts a and theyre quite a bit iffy. Many of them being Clone Weapons that are reskins of existing weapons with different stats. The only one I like off the top of my head is the back Laser Cannon with 80 shots. Its less than double the weight of the 35 shot Laser Cannon so 1x80shot cannon is lighter than 2x35=70 shot Laser Cannons, freeing up a back slot. 'll be honest I hate the Arenas in nearly every Armored Core game. It's supposed to be a big feature and some people love it. Personally I would rather just ignore it, but FromSoftware often has hidden parts or achievements tied to the modes so people to have to play them to do 100% completion. Its always been poorly balanced because the AI is a Cheater with various hidden bonuses, and those become more noticeable as you fight more difficult enemies until eventually every arena enemy is just HACKED. In earlier games you as a player could acquire those bonuses through the Human+ hidden tricks in Armored Core 1 and Armored Core 2, and partly using the OP-Intensify part in Armored Core 3. Armored Core Nexus, Nine Breaker, and Armored Core Last Raven hit a pretty nasty point by focusing so much on PVP/Arena battles with the player handicapped with no way to gain those bonuses that they made me hate the series for a while, and I sold my collection. Its been difficult to reacquire some of them, and later PS2 trio still are very low priority for me.

i've been waiting for thissss.....Lets Goooo!!!

nexus and last raven is left and ur done with 3rd gen armored core

I personally like silent line best out the franchise before 4 but did you know that AC2 and 3 have first person mode?

What are the emulator settings boss ?

It was a great game and I loved those cutscenes. Unfortunately the next game made some… unwelcomed changes.

I understand your reluctance to cheese the arena, but Mobius really isn't that hard a fight. The grenade launcher is his only real threat and it can be curbed somewhat by having a decent radiator. I really hope you're just running theme builds for video capture... aside from Sir Fire and Grey Ooze (AC3's title machine) they're not really that good.

Nexus and Last Raven next

To me AC 3 and silent line are the best games of the franchise.

I hate Silent Line as much as I love it. Importing a save played a bad joke on me, as I got in debt for the first time, spending on ammo and repairs. I kinda enjoyed the moment that if you do good on a mission, game drops more challenge on you (like on the first mission at the Silent Line, if you did it fast enough, 2 AC will appear to fight you). But the atmosphere of "man, things are tough" is just everywhere, and that almost every mission things won't go as planned, boi, isn't it great. Frustrated a ton, but love it.

Have you play "armored core 4 for answer yet"

This is why i play psp version of this

Armored Core 3 Silent Line is the best

Ibis? cute.

Yurp, I'm going through your videos review by review

For the love of God, please stop saying I-B-I-S.

Silent Line is GOATed. I've played pretty much every AC game until the expansion of 5, and Silent Line was by far my favorite game. Too many hours spent on a PS2 playing that damn game.

Silent line was my favorite. Im watching these vids long after you have played them. Im onto the silent line. Thats my favorite game. Things changed so much once nexus hit. Silent line was the culmination of everything from ps1 all the way to this game. You get all the best parts.

Armored core 2 and another age is still the best of the series, but this looks promising, hopefully the missions are great.

nexus and last raven are the best games other than 6!!! (imo)

Armored core 3 and silent line was just video game Gurren Lagan.

Had to click on this vid just to downvote. This is one of the GOAT AC games