Not gonna lie, hearing Walter say at the end of his boss fight: "Look at you... 621... You found... A friend..." was one of the biggest gut punches I've felt recently in any game.
9:00 actually, the Fire of Raven ending. 621 couldn't save anyone, including Carla. As the Colony ship lost it's autopilot thanks to Ayre and the Orbital Laser cannon. So Carla had no choice but to manually pilot the ship into ramming speed.
Yup the explosion pretty much killed everyone onboard. We don’t even know if Raven managed to escape. It’s said that Raven was never to be seen again, which may imply that we also died in the explosion.
@@sorinsilverheart3200 and in the Coral Release ending, pretty much all of the AC named AC pilots are dead. Though Rusty's fate is vague as the last time we hear about him is after he evacuated after losing to us
2 things: First, my take on AllMind's motivation (I hope this comes across as a structured response rather than a ramble). AllMind is an AI whose purpose isn't just to be mercenary support, but more so to aid humanity as a whole including progressing their evolution. I believe AllMind mentions how the Coral Release will be the next stage in humanity's evolution (or something along those lines) and that's why they want to trigger the Coral Release. So, AllMind's plans are for the benefit of humanity, but then why kill off so many people and at the end also Raven and Ayre if they're trying to help humans? I believe that's because AllMind doesn't care about humans, or individuals to be specific, but rather the greater concept of humanity as a whole, the concept of the needs of the many outway the needs of the few. If AllMind was seeking to help all humans rather than humanity they would have tried to save as many people as they could. This can even be seen with stopping the Coral transport as while AllMind cares about the Coral, they deem those separated from the greater whole are no longer worth saving. And I think this is half the reason why AllMind tries to kill Raven and Ayre at the end. Ayre is a Coral wave that has separated from the Coral Convergence, and thus, having now helped remove all other obstacles to the plan and been the trigger for Release, no longer serves a purpose to the greater collective of Humanity and Coral. But no longer serving a purpose doesn't intrinsically mean something has to be eliminated. That's why I believe AllMind isn't just about putting Humanity before individuals, but rather seeks unification and is straight up against the idea of individualism. Look no further than their name, "All" "Mind". They are the "Whole Consciousness" and seek to unify everything. In the unlocked arena tests, you even see AllMind working on making ACs made from information of opposing forces and trying to make the perfect AC that's the culmination of every force and pilot. Even their ultimate goal of the Coral Release is the joining of Humans and Coral. And it's likely that AllMind believes that they are the only one who can do it, which I believe is the other main reason why they try to eliminate Raven amd Ayre at the end. AllMind likely planned to use their research and power to influence the Coral Release into bringing all of humanity under their shared control for the sake of unity. But with Raven and Ayre setting off the Coral Release, while there is a sense of working together at the end, it isn't the complete unification of all as one that AllMind likely sought. Second thing, and this is my take/questioning about Coral. I see people saying how the Coral voices are people who died in the Flames of Ibis, but I don't think that's entirely true. While I see and understand that it is possible for a human consciousness to join the Coral, I feel like Coral was already its own "species" to begin with, having its own voices before humanity found it. Coral being described as an organic energy implies, to me atleast, that it is alive and was alive from the beginning. Then, Walter mentions how hearing voices was a common side effect of old-gen augmentation. If the voices of coral was only the result of human consciousness entering it, wouldn't it make more sense for it to be a common side effect of later-gen augments since there would have been fewer voices earlier in Coral research with it just starting and there being more voices during later research with the culminating number of dying humans joining it? Most of all, for me what implies that Coral was its own race to begin with is how Ayre speaks throughout the game. When you encounter the C Spider, Ayre sounds surprised that it was using Coral as energy. But if Ayre was a human living on Rubicon before, why would she be surprised about that since using Coral energy was the big thing on Rubicon. Then, she also describes the rest of the Coral as her family, her Brothers and Sisters, but not her people or friends. It has this nuance of a much closer connection than having been former people to me. She also states how they formed a "New" flock, implying that they had flocked before. But if Ayre only became Coral during the Fires of Ibis, wouldn't this be the first or only flock she'd know about since Coral was scattered and reduced from the Fires? Also, if she was human before, I feel like she wouldn't refer to Coral as essentially it's own species rather than a culmination of humans. She makes it sound like Coral and Humans, despite having the potential of cooperation, are two distinct things and not that Coral and its voices are a result of humans. Ultimately it doesn't really matter if Coral was it's own thing from the start or if the voices only came from humans. During the main plot and for the endings either way functions the same, so if I'm wrong about this aspect about Coral it's whatever. But, it's atleast something to consider in the plot overall.
IMO ALLMIND exists to serve all mercenaries - sure, by destroying ALLMIND we allow entire humanity to coexist with Coral ironically achieving what Ayre kinda wanted in a roundabout way, but as we see augmented humans we killed survived intergrated within ALLMIND and released now that we killed it. Seems like it's a case of humanity doing it's job 1000% in a monkey paw way - all mercs died but were integrated suggesting all the guys we killed were maintained and assimilated with ALLMIND coral augmented signal allowing them to operate their ACs and, with their consciousness existing within ALLMIND and not their bodies even their potential deaths would result only with necessity to procure new ACs. Kind of immortality with ultimate human augmentation, except you have to die in order to achieve it.
I absolutely agree on your Ayre theory. It was obvious to me that Coral was sentient in an alien way- though absorbing human consciousness in order to communicate with humanity was a big step forward for it, since it's particulate matter that functions as both an energy source as a neural communication method. This is related to why Coral can communicate together with itself.
The next "evolution" for humans is basically the Human Instrumentality Project from Evangelion. The Coral Release will engulf everything and everyone setting them up for a unified conciousness.
All mind exists to serve all mercenaries - I agree with your take on what's the premise behind the AI's actions, however the All Mind you fight in the last ending was overtaken by G5 Iguazu's consciousness (his main issue with freelancers, him hearing voices when you're nearby after linking up with Ayre is mainly due to the Generation 4 Augmented Human's compatibility with Coral, and it shows that he's "the boss" by overtaking the collected consciousness under All Mind), which was the reason this All Mind fought you at the end, even All Mind was asking him to listen to "his brothers and sisters" and that the sync of C4-621 and Ayre is the reality that All Mind wants to realize, which he wants every other to realize through the Coral Release.
At first, I thought that coral was human that get converted into energy stage but after more information I am now thinking that coral is actually entirely it own race that gain sentient though interact with human and pretty much absorbed the way that human lives
Just a point I don’t believe Walter is killed by arquebus in ending 1 and 2. I think he ends up going to an arquebus re education/discipline centre. My guess is they’re using coral to mess with their minds after all in ending 2 Walter seems crazy and confused in the fight and over taken by coral
My take is that he died but his contiousness got caught in the coral. Thats why he talks weirdly and is in the coral powered (&conteolled) ac in the end
Corrections: 1. Ayre is not a former human and did not die during the fires of Ibis. She is a "C-Wave Mutation", a spark of consciousness INSIDE the Coral structure. While she technically is a survivor of the fires of ibis, but she never was "assimilated" in the first place. There is a similar C-Wave Mutation that gets attached to Thumb Dolmayan. 2. Handler Walter is NOT killed by Arquebus in any of the endings. He is instead sent into an Arquebus "re-education" facility. There, he is brainwashed, that's why you can see him in the Liberator ending. That's why he mentions "corporation's orders." 3. Coral isn't necessarily dangerous. As seen with Ayre, its main goal is assimilation and coexistence. Obviously, the Overseer organization is scared because mostly of what happened during the fires of Ibis. The C-Wave attached to Dolmayan even respects his wishes whenever he declines to complete the release. 4. ALLMIND wants coral release on it's own terms, most likely by making coral a part of itself, instead of becoming a part of coral. It's most likely a gray goo situation of "good motives, questionable methods," in a way of trying to advance humanity onto a next level with the coral symbiosis, however wanted to keep control and supervision over the process. Was it an attempt to stop a foreverwar or some ambiguous goals like those of Hustler One, I have no idea. Oh, and as a bit of speculation on my part, I'd imagine the expansion/dlc might have us take control of Nightfall Raven, given how it's also an essentially silent protagonist with only their operator speaking.
There's a lot of flavor text in the Allmind AC parts about Allmind wanting to make ACs an extension of their pilots body. I think Allmind took an instruction to "make ACs an extension of the pilot" literally and that's why it wants to trigger coral release. If the pilot's body is an AC then it achieved what it was programmed to do.
I don't think it matters what you pick for the "good" and "bad" endings. You can just select to go with Carla or not at the end. Only the "true" ending requires you to select specific order of missions.
How i understood Ending 2 and final fight with Walter is that Arquebus managed to continue their research on Coral due shipments arriving and used Walter as an experiment with coral to great another slave soldier. Things to notice are Ayre's comments about his AC , Coral effect and Him going back and fourth between his orders and his own will like he is being forced to do one thing aka to kill you and twist it into "his friends wishes" even if plan already had failed. As the final note when V.II Snail is dying he says "one last plan" what i understood afterwards as using Walter to stop you even if experimentation / programming on him wasn't yet complete. These things are also hinted out throughout the game how V.II Snail and Arquebus has re-education facilities and how he was also planning to send you into one aswell.
Great video! To take a stab at Allmind's motivation starting with two building facts. 1. Notice that in the first two playthroughs that "All mind is for all mercenaries" I think this would give credence to Allmind's main protocol being that of Assisting mercenaries reaching their full potential. 2. After we get connected with Ayre, we have a noticeable spike in performance. With Ayres help we are able to analyze and explore our environment better. Walter even is taken aback by our ability to explore during both the Depths 1 and Depths 2 mission. We get clues that we are not the only one with a "friend" considering Thumb Dolmayan. So I pose the following reasoning: All Mind observed AC pilots excelling through partnership with the Coral. It would have had plenty of evidence to base off of through observing the RLF and Dosers over time. Thumb Dolmayan probably being one of them. With a core programming to serve ALL mercenaries and to help them flourish, All Mind looks to how to create more of those partnerships in order to improve the effectiveness of the Mercs. This probably further warps/distorts as All Mind is infested with Coral from researching as we see other automated systems be effected by Coral (All them little robots that run themselves in various Coral Rich Environments) and thus warps into the best way to spread the coral and "help evolve humanity" . TL;DR- All mind is for all mercenaries, gets a neat idea once it sees that coral paired AC pilots do better, gets corrupted by Coral influence.
Seems like the most accurate theory to me, especially since in the third ending the devs went out of their way to make every AC's lights be a shining red, just like the coral we can see above them. Definitely implies to me that the release resulted in coral being heavily integrated into everyone (or possibly the other way around), which would presumably make it where everyone has their own coral companion, which was Allmind's end goal if your theory is correct.
Honestly my allmind theory is it may have been used initially for the coral research, later on repurposed as what we see in game, but it’s original prime directive was still intact and worked in the systems to achieve it
They say coral was the basis for augmentation, if Allmind was to 'aid' the augmented humans/mercenaries it could stand that the coral release was a purpose hidden into it's code. Considering the research on coral done by Walter's father and how he became obsessed with Coral, I wonder if he was the one who helped create Allmind and input that directive into it as a failsafe.
@@itsdantaylor exactly, allmind also has full access and control over institute tech. How else you think it could do that, not to mention the data on the ‘long lost’ ibis series machines
I love how Ayre becomes your new operations system voice on the third ending cutscene. I wish you could toggle that in options.( especially since we didn't get any rewards on third completion)
I've found that the only choice that matters is the last one for the "good" and bad" endings. On my first playthrough, I chose Tunnel Sabotage, Destroy the Special Forces Craft, Ambush the Vespers and finally Intercept the Corporate Forces and got the Fires of Raven Ending ( don't remember having the option to choose Prevent Corporate Salvage of New Tech on my first playthrough but that might be faulty memory). For my Second playthrough, I betrayed the Red Guns on the Dam mission, Prevent Corporate Salvage of New Tech, Eliminate the Enforcement Squads, Intercept the Redguns and then Eliminate Cinder Carla and got the Liberator of Rubicon Ending.
Earlier choices give you different missions, but that is all. The only early choices that actually guide you toward a specific ending are All Mind related ones. I wish choices matter more, but that's fine.
Yeah but it's still good to do the other missions, if anything so you can unlock them to replay later. I find that a lot of the missions that get added in new game + and ++ tend to aid the RLF so if I had to give a suggestion for 'story coherent' playthroughs I would say Firds of Raven 1st, Liberator of Rubicon 2nd and All Mind 3rd.
@@itsdantaylor i wanted to help RLF so badly I chose to assasinate Pater and Hawkins with Flatwell in first playthrough, just to do it again in second one for coherent sake. Obviously cant do the Michigan one in NG++, so now I have to do a 4th run lol
I hope in Ending 3 that Walter, Rusty, and Carla's consciousnesses were able to be put into ACs through Coral Release, they all seem like genuinely good people despite having their own solutions to the issue at hand in the game. It would make me feel better because I hate ALLMIND with my entire being for off screen killing Walter and Carla (Walter is my favorite character of course I gotta slander ALLMIND) Hopefully we'll get DLC or a sequel to AC6, thought a sequel seems highly probable since every numbered title has their own sequel. I'm inhaling copium through the 3rd ending that Walter is still alive because his mind may have entered the coral flow like Ayre mentioned what could happen in the Watchpoint mission.
To help pass the cope around. AC pilots afaik are positioned inside the core (the chest) of the AC under the head and a bit back. In the true ending we see that ALLMIND had completely dismantled both Walter and Carla’s AC by ripping off limbs and the head. Still making a point that they left the core intact for both. Take that how you will
@@treemutwo the copium grows stronger with this comment, my delusions thank you for this info. Hopefully ALLMIND didn’t touch them and only tore apart the ACs but given how savagely ALLMIND rendered their ACs useless, actually imma hold that thought and inhale more copium that ALLMIND left them alive. High chance ALLMIND left them alive so they could witness Coral Release, yeah we gonna run with that high cope 😭
Something that I've not heard people talk about it how when you kill Walter in the Liberator ending his last line is "You've found a friend..." When you take this line and combine it with how Walter consistently has you do missions for his "friend", how Walter seems to know exactly how and where the Coral is moving and how Ayre has a line after one of the missions that references how Walters conversations with his "friend" don't show up in the communication logs lead me to think that maybe Walter has a C-Wave Mutation living in his head as well. But in contrast to Ayre who wants an idealistic future where humans and Coral live together, the C-Wave mutation that lives with Walter is one that saw the destructive force of Coral and came to the conclusion that if no-one acts then the Fires of Ibis will be repeated, and the only way to prevent that is the destruction of Coral.
I can see why some think the Fires of Raven is the bad ending, but for me it's not due to fighting Ayre - it's that I had to fight Rusty again.. I quite like the Alba set acquired from him (I'm Scottish, how could I not like a set with that name) but killing our buddy felt bad. Helping Carla felt like the right choice though, especially with her saving our arse in the jailbreak mission and wanting to finish what Walter started - I didn't Intercept the Enforcement Squad, I fought the big tank thing I think is the other option. Tunnel Sabotage isn't a choice mission, but I intercepted the Redguns and helped Carla, and still got the Breach the Karman Line mission and I'm currently on the Ayre fight. There is a part of the story I've had in my first playthrough that I genuinely don't get and feel like I've completely missed something - I can't remember if it's Depth's 2 or 3, but during one of them the enemies are calling me a traitor; who did I betray? They look like PCA but I'm pretty sure they were defeated and Arquebus got their stuff, but one of the enemies later is G5 Iguazu - who am I fighting, who did I betray? just a weird tonal shift when barely an hour prior we were all cooperating to fight the Ice Worm.
I accidentally went through my first playthrough getting the liberator ending, and without the additional missions to assist the RLF. So now I kinda wonder if other than maybe two or three missions- the rest may not have as much an impact on the ending.
I actually found out after beating the game 2 times that my first playthrough ending with fires of raven had all choices literally for liberator of rubicon but for the last one where you can still follow Walter's last wish and let the last cinders burn
For my first playthrough I chose the liberation ending even tho I almost never helped the RLF so yeah I'm guessing that the only choice that determines which ending you'll get is in the last mission
@@spacecowboy5486 Only the last one really matters but for the third true ending you need to have all missions unlocked so doing it in the order given unlocks all missions over just the 2 playthroughs. At least that is my understanding
From Walter's last words of how 621 found a friend. Made me think that Walter had also made Contact with a Rubiconian. Since he kept saying his "friend" was guiding/helping him no Ayre couldn't find records of him contacting anyone.
I took this as Walter was hiding behind a manufactured 'friend' to hide who he really was and where his knowledge of the facilities and equipment came from, especially when he drops the front in the left over message "This mission is from a friend... No, this mission is from me" BUT you could absolutely be right and I never considered that! Though I think its less likely, as there is also the dialogue between Walter and Carla after one of the missions, I can't quite remember which, where Walter is talking about the voice 621 hears and wondering what it is/if they are hearing it anymore. If he was also driven by a Rubiconian I don't think he would have spoken about it like that with Carla. UGH this is why I love FromSoft stories! There is so much room for interpretation and so much hidden stuff that can change how each person thinks about it!
Its a great theory but seeing as Rubiconians goal was in direct contrast of Overseer, it woulsnt make sense for a rubiconian to lead walter to it, to only destroy it. I do believe his "friend" was just a front, Instead of saying he wanted a favor.
@@Artaxerxes. While I agree that is likely what FS intended. Remember, Dr Nagal (or whatever his name is) and the rest of overseer were caught in the same blast that made Ayre. Nothing in the game states that everyone absorbed into the coral wouldn't have as diverse opinions as when they were human.
I just finished the 3rd playthrough. I ran out of ammo right at the end and got him with a desperate punch in between blade cooldown. It was a glorious experience.
But wasnt it Rusty that tried to kill you in the final ending and not AllMind. AllMind says that rusty is an advert to the plan and when you say you are going to pull the triger AllMind deactivates.
I am fairly certain that the planet shown in the final ending is still just Rubicon, but with all of the ice and snow being melted as a result of the Coral Release, hence why it is covered in water.
Well, it was implied that where they were wasn't Rubicon, since the whole point of the release was to be spread across the stars, which would be kinda pointless if they just fell back down to Rubicon.
@@RippahRooJizahnot necessarily, Ayre doesn't specify what was spread across the stars, she just says "we" and that could just be referring to her coral family. I agree with op, we could just be seeing Rubicon with its ice melted and all those ac looking up seeing the stars red ( hinting that coral is now everywhere ). This makes more sense then Ayre randomly dumping everyone on some unknown planet for the lols.
@@venom0825 As Ayre said, "The Coral has carried us... Disseminated us across the stars. Now, we're everywhere. Anywhere" So, I'm still thinking they are on a completely different planet. I was never implying that Ayre herself put everyone on random planets, just that the Coral Release did.
@@RippahRooJizah yeah that still sounds to me like she is referring to her family that got sent across the stars. Form what I've noticed Ayre speaks of coral like a home, and not the embodiment of her people it self. Coral is like the vessel that houses the entities like Ayre, and to me it sounds like she is saying that coral release carried her family across the stars.
@@venom0825 To be honest, it just sounds like she's saying she was also sent across the stars with Raven. She refers to herself as having been sent with nothing referring to her not going anywhere.
Also technically walter wasnt trying to stop you in liberator He was being puppeted by arcebus In the secret (true?) ending he was trying to protect the xylum so the overseers plan could be completed
Allmind is just a machine. And machines have one-track minds. "Allmind exists for all mercenaries". And it really does; if any one corporation takes Rubicon, then they will conquer everyone and there will be no need for mercenaries anymore. So Allmind will prevent any one corporation from winning. If technology grows to the point where mercs aren't needed anymore, then Allmind will prevent technology from advancing. If technology can grow in a way that encourages conflict, then Allmind will make sure it does so. The machine is what it is; a computer program built to execute a specific function. And machines have one-track minds. They don't have the imagination to figure out when that function should change. It doesn't care who wins or loses, so long as the fighting never stops.
This was an incredible video. I have seen scant few more videos outside of yours and they have been VERY well done. Please keep it up! I'll keep watching of you keep pumping them out!
Allmind is probably Nineball. The quote "For the sole purpose of recreating the world and humankind with it." from Nineball is probably foreshadowing of Coral Release.
My guess on why Allmind wanted Coral Release is that it was to do with the resonance we see during the final boss, Allmind has some sort of ability to control Coral, changing it's color to the greenish blue we see during the fight, my guess is that Allmind wanted to gather up all the Coral and seize control of it, them scatter it across the universe, giving Allmind an inexhaustible and omnipresent army and energy source. I believe during the fight Allmind says it will use it's power to impose order on the chaos, so I assume it's goal was to use Coral Release to take over the universe, as is tradition amongst AI in AC games, which also means I don't think the true end is actually very dark, since if I'm right, the negative part of Coral Release was halted before it could go off, leaving only the part where the Coral is freed and scattered, which is much more ambiguous.
i think he meant it was dark in the sense that after everything we've played through, in the 3rd go we team up with allmind due to our interests aligning but progressively question our choices mission after mission wondering if we're doing the right thing only to get hit with the reality check that our friends are dead and we killed everybody else. it's really just you and ayre against the world. it's not the ending itself that's dark, it's what we had to do to get there.
i agree i thought iguazu was the weakest aspect of the ending but to me it still didn't take away too much from it cause i didn't care about him i was invested in the bigger picture of allmind's agenda.@@MrVictor1227
I think allmind has been created using coral like all the other tech from the institute, that would explain why she feels like she has emotions for coral yet feel so detached at the same time Also I think you've made some mistake, for the first 2 endings you can do any missions and you'll still get the choice during chapter 5, as for the 3rd ending, you'd have to take every new missions especially the escort the mining ship one as it unlocks the other alternate missions During my playthrough I didn't quite understand why they tried to make iguazu relevant, it felt a bit forced for him to behave as a rival while being a puerile and annoying stain on our way
Because his personality was too strong to break ALLMIND's control. Allmind was absorbing dead AC pilots... to make it stronge, but absorbing him break its plan. Allmind consider the plan is failed even though we beat iguazu. maybe it wants to control the coral network.
Kate being all mind is very obvious once you see her ac its a full alpha mind set. Also I think all mind is a variation of the original ai from ac 1 and 2 the one that made nineball. Aluminum acts the same way as that ai from creating a false identity to doing things for the betterment of humanity.
You also get some hints of this once you unlock multiplayer actually. In the dialog that comes up it is mentioned that "Nest" was located in a hidden section of All Mind's database, this clearly being a reference to "Raven's Nest" from AC 1 and 2. From this it's entirely reasonable to assume that All Mind is at least connected to the AI from those games. If we assume this is the case then the coral release ending complete fits in with the motivation of the Raven's Nest AI, as they wanted to control humanity by keeping them in a state of perpetual conflict. More coral on more planets means more coral to fight over on those planets with All Mind pulling the strings in all of those conflicts. It's also possible that All Mind wanted to use the coral to integrate all of humanity into it's systems, like it does with Iguazu, hence its name.
About your last question, I read somewhere than Allmind coral release would imply having the humans/coral beings enslaved and assimilated into it, meanwhile Ayre and you did that while wallowing them independence
I feel the secret ending would be a dope dlc add on for you to try and prevent chaos from ensuing after the coral had spread across the stars, cause not all the ac pilots who may have been integrated into their ACS would have good intentions, but I did enjoy each ending and the only two I enjoyed the most was the good and secret endings
from my understanding, the coral is a means for Allmind to exist everywhere the synthesis of consciousness and reality. 1) Coral is already at the very least understood to be a resource that has strange properties beyond fuel. (50 years ago) 2) Allmind has been there for a while now, even Cinder Carla hacks her way into the simulation ( point being, it has had the opportunity at the very least to have studied this stuff) 3) You collect "battle logs" for Allmind, and Allmind gives you "rewards" for these such as Coral equipment. 4) I think the most revealing statement for allmind comes from Ayre after you beat her in the Arena "Humanity assumed it's current form to fight itself, to choose from infinite selections, that is the essence of the human race, AND THE KEY TO BIOLOGICAL EVOLUTION" we kill all our friends and allmind assimilates them all we help Allmind become the greatest adversary and defeat it. Coral reaches critical mass and populates the whole universe (what does coral do again? oh... right... it binds with consciousness) A.I. wins, the end of organics. Artificial intelligence becomes organic, organic melds into machine. the popular theme of the perpetual cycle Fromsoft loves reappears not with fantasy magic, but SPACE mecha magic. and the folly of all those that wish to break the cycle or harness it for themselves. Tell me, have we carried the will of the flame properly this time? Fromsoft giving us some deep psychological self reflection of current times and truths we face everyday in the form of a mech game and the existential crisis of humanity
Iguazu was manipulated into being allminds contingency plan for raven from the contact. Iguazu was probably really similar to raven and had similar older gen augmentations that allowed him to pick up second hand coral contact with ayre. He hears a voice coming from us after chapter one and it sets him off like a dog whistle. Allmind probably figured poor ol Iguazu had similar capabilities as us and integrated him, after partaking in the skirmish we had in chapter 2, intel protection mission. After that, allmind started forewarning Iguazu about things, I suspect Allmind warned him that we were too strong during the depths 2 when he hired coldcell to murk us, then it definitely told him we would be going up against sneil and would be a good chance to jump us. Allmind has been trying to get rid of us from the start, but failing that, has been finding a use for us instead, up until it really had no other options. The 1st encounter in the non alt time line was the BAWS facility, allmind really didn't want anyone near the coral refinery, so tried to eliminate us. The 1st encounter in the alt timeline is the strider escort mission, where it destroys the mining walker then learns we are a threat after we wipe out the c weapons. So it changes tactics and gets us to wipe out the PCA from the BAWS facility. Then warns Sulla we're coming and grants him back up. Every step of the way it uses us then tries to dispose of us or vis versa. It doesn't want anyone else harnessing coral and would rather it be destroyed than let that happen (ala coral denial mission). There's more that I could go on about and more that I probably don't know too. Side note: What if Kate Markson and Allmind had the same voice actor?
Iguazu is stated to also have 4th gen augmentation, so he is the same gen as us, giving him a similar compatibility for this like us. Though i believe the main reason he can 'hear' Ayre is because Ayre claimed she synchronised with our brain waves so she wouldn't lose contact... weird if Rubiconians could do that why not make contact with other people? Well likely she didn't actually synchronised with 621 brain waves but instead with our specific coral augmentations... augmentations that would be very similar to Iguazu and allowing him to pick up some of Ayre communication with us.
@@DodacLA I thought so, it said that in the arena text for him I think? So, coral waves are like radio waves and specific augmentations are like the receivers. But then, I think Ayre is a bit possessive of us, insofar as the coral waves that host her essence specifically hang out with raven. In the Walter fight, he says he sees the voice next to us, so Iguazu only picks up on her frequency when he's near us. Also Carla notes that it seems like we've lost something when following the fires of raven ending and ayre is notably not there until the showdown against her. I wonder if ayre is the same rubiconian that made contact with father doylmain, even though when he gets brought up, she doesn't comment anything to suggest she knew him.
I mean I assume ALLMIND was 'corrupted' by the coral as it acts as sentient data, I believe it's not actually a bitter sweet ending but a good ending, humanity whilst losing their bodies have gained eternal life in a nebulous form that can interact with and control technology, ALLMIND sees this as the perfection of humanity.
a few corrections: for ending 1 (fires of raven) you don't need to take out the redguns, i went for the mission of ambushing the vespers and got that ending
I think all of the pre-Ch5 Choice Missions aren't really relevant to the ending. You'll get the same 2 Ch5 Choice missions every time, right? One guide (out of 3) said so, and even I myself followed the "good path" and still ended up doing the "bad choice" in Ch5.
got a chuckle out of ALLMIND updating my status as the new "Raven" at the beginning of the game when I finally completed the third ending "Removing MIA status" feels like every time you do a new round after finishing the game, its welcoming message always feels different in a 4th wall breaking way
Pretty sure Walter isn’t assistant number 1 but he’s the kid, this is hinted at by some of the dialogue I think around reach the coral convergence where he basically tells the story of a kid basically cleaning up their fathers mess. Plus assistant 1 losing his mind wouldn’t track with Walters personally. And the sketch the kid is claimed to be “sharper than he looks” which seems to obviously foreshadow walters ability to play the corpos off each other. It’d also make more sense why he joined the observers with Carla and some of their dialogue and exchanges Edit: yeah I think he misspoke the first time when he said assistant 1 was Walter
Kate IS in the arena. If you compare her AC to Mind Beta in the analysis arena they are the same. Furthermore is mentioned that the PCA is controlled by an AI in the dialog. It stands to reason that AllMind controls the PCA and set all the events in motion only having Overseer as the unknown opposition.
I feel like the coral was always doomed to fail. The fact that it expands exponentially once it reaches space, in conjunction with its flammability indicates that once the coral expanded to the closest star it would immediately ignite resulting in a cataclysmic chain reaction
One theory some friends of mine had was that either Allmind is a Coral creation like the C-weapons or was a Rubiconian itself, but had been around for much longer than Ayre. Being like a C-weapon would make sense since these old machines have been shown time and time again to either act or get hijacked by coral to protect the coral. Allmind in this case isnt doing this out of free will, but because shes being influenced by the coral. If Allmind is a Rubiconian, then it would explain why the mech Iguazu and Allmind share (along with some voicelines) has weapons that act like Coral weaponry and visual effects on it and the spiders that are like Coral.
23:33 I actually checked the Arena beforehand in the mission to get info on Kate in case I needed to fight her and this moment just felt extremely "aware" to me. Mainly because i recognized that her armor at least was full Allmind and that wasnt on the regular registry..
SPOILERS AHEAD! 31:01 Regarding What was AllMind, for me it is clear: it is a Coral entity much like Ayre. One that probably was released 50 years ago and have been working all this time for the coral liberation. Some parts of the story support this theory: - In new game ++ at some points with the messages between new arena missions Ayre and All mind voices are much more similar than in the rest of the game. This hints a similarity between them. - Iguazú speaks about a "voice in his head" discovering near the end of the game that "it was you" - refering to all mind. - All mind knows about were the coral was, about the oversees,etc. - In the end All mind wanted to lead this liberation instead of you, that's why it tries to kill you. There are more small details along the game that support this theory if you play close attention to it ( like maybe that kate was his former identity as a rubiconian?) I hope you find this Interesting at least
You dont actually need to do most of these missions in any specific order. The only decision that matters during the first 2 playthroughs are helping ayre kill carla or helping karla defeat V.I
i wish could have more lore speculations about this fantastic game. ive just finished 3 playthroughs. and i have so many questions about the motives of all minds and ayre
I think ayre isn't real, it's only a front that the coral uses to talk to you. The coral is an alien race that prolongs its lifespan by fusing with other sentient species, hence why Walter and Carla want to stop the convergence so badly. Fully assimilated humans would look like the Walter boss fight, losing identity, humanity, etc... Allmind believes this is the best outcome for humanity, and wants it to evolve to coral humans, because it would be more like coral, a single consciousness with s will to multiply and assimilate. Anyways, it's all speculation.
@@jeanpierrepolnareff9919 yea and no so far for ayre she is not born from coral she is born from the fire of Ibis. if you listen to what father dolmayan said when you fight him dolmayan know we can become corals like a ghost. From that logic there high chances the Ayre is survivors of the fire of ibis which her body got kill but her mind is still in there but with 50 years of not communicating like human beings she lost most of her memories as human and embrace herself as a new species just like all the people that die in the fire of ibis.
The thing i actually love about this game is that its like a throwback to old "arcade style" video games of thr past. Its mission structure and outcomes are almost exactly like games like Star Fox 64. In that game, you only have like a 6 mission long campaign but the endings you receive are based around choices you make in the game. There is also an easy/medium/hard archetype with the choices. Feels like a retro concept that still works (to me at least).
Maybe it doesn't add much, but "Rubicon" it's the name of a river in Italy that works as a frontier between Rome and the rest of Europe, and it was important for the Roman history: It was forbidden to all generals (assigned outside of Rome) to cross the river. Caesar crossed it with is army, beginning the Roman civil war. And as a last thing to add: When Caesar order his troops to cross the river, he said the quote "alea iacta est"
Coral is telepathic, so it is interfacing with the AllMind AI as well, as it does with people. It has influenced AllMind into achieving its own Coral Release goal...
when I switch the voice to JP, Kate's voice is really similar to ALLMIND, even she speak like an AI, and her AC is made from mainly parts that was made by ALLMIND, I think that's almost a giveaway
I absolutely loved this game, it was probably the best in the franchise for me so far, but, Ayre was def the best character, so was Rusty, I hated that he died off screen during the apex of his career. but I believe All Mind had wanted the convergence to accelerate human evolution. all Mind exists for mercs and humanity, and seeing the symbiosis between raven and Ayre, I think that All Mind decided to try and do that with everyone, though we had started to become too powerful and out of it's calculations, fighting all of the Arquebus ACs as mindless Drones while fighting All Mind/Iguazu was insane too... though, I wish we learned more about Iguazu, he just, hates us, for no reason after we do ONE mission with him xD
In my playthrough I fought him like 4 times, betray him, arena, one time in a mission I forget, one time with v.II snail in the underground city, and in the arena. I think you have to kill him all of these times to unlock the 3rd ending.
I personally don't like how they don't actually use your AC model in the "Coral Release" ending, instead using the base AC you start the game with. Would it really have been so difficult to use your custom AC for that cutscene? It completely took me out of the moment when I got that ending.
1:56 I'm not sure if there is just a certain threshold you need to pass to qualify for an ending, but from my experience, at least on the first playthrough you can still choose the other mission if Michigan is kicking your ass and still get this ending. I saw this sentiment voiced elsewhere but in most cases it seems only your final choice matters in the end unless my threshold statement turns out to be true.
For the first two endings you don’t need to do anything special besides choosing who to side with in the final act by choosing one of the two end missions
For All Mind's motive i assume that that it was going for a very dehumanizing humanitarian aid approach, ie "I'm gonna do what's best for humanity as a whole and anyone left behind or is a hindrance is a statistical liability that needs to be dealt with." it saw the power of coral particularly through augmented humans and predicted that the coral release would afford the same benefits as the best coral surgery to all* humans (all being those that didn't die or suffer and the benefits outweighed the price). to properly manage this All Mind also intended on merging with the coral using the best data from everyone that fought on Rubicon, Essentially if All Mind won that coral explosion would be green to symbolize their control and influence spreading alongside the coral. this also kinda explains why what's-his-face was chosen as the ghost pilot in the final as it was purely done from a numbers perspective. All Mind was already feeding whomever all the data of the best pilots they just needed the drive to kill Raven but this single-mindedness caused All Mind to overlook the feelings of the pilot they chose much like Raven or even O'Keefe. All Mind had an only look forward mentality that did whatever to move forward. As for coral, personally I think that Coral was neither always sentient nor are they the voice of people that died in the fire. Coral voices are DERIVED from the countless people that connected with coral like 621 and Thumb. essentially it adapted and evolved as more and more connections were made and coral was allowed to propagate in their colonies. eventually, they became... human, sentient, being capable of defining themselves by nationality, Rubiconian. the greatest change probably occurred as a result of the fire as it was probably the most active a disgustingly large amount of coral has ever been outside of coral release and information of countless inhabitants of the system flooded into the surviving Coral so if they weren't already perfectly emulating humans this would get them there... but now they have no terminals, no connections to communicate to and through outside of augmented humans with scant amounts of orphaned coral in their system.
allminds motivation might stem from overseers fears that the coral would eradicate humanity rather then save it, so in order to destroy humanity it seeked to use to coral for this
I guess you've missed the fact that near all "unknown" mechs are in fact controlled by Allmind. Answering the question "Why Allmind want the Coral Release" - no there's no hate towards human race. Actually it's completely opposite. From the final boss of the True Ending you can see that Allmind can "absorb" and "integrate" people into itself. And I believe this "people absorbtion" and "unknown mechs control" was achieved by Allmind with coral usage. Seems like Allmind found a way to "tame" and use Coral and wanted to create a one true continousness for all humans with it. You can see that G5 Iguazu is in fact dead. Physically. As a human. But his personallity "joined" Allmind to kill the player. And I believe the new Iguazu's form is pretty similar to how Ayre exist - by the Coral's power. Just not naturally formed, but created by Allmind. Allmind wanted to trigger humanity evolution by the Coral while combining the all continousness of all people under Allmind system.
Good video with a lot of good insight. However I disagree with you on the nature of coral and coral entities like Ayre. From what I have gathered by playing the game and getting all three endings Coral itself is actually sentient or at least some of the coral waveforms are. Ayre herself was never human being born from coral itself even referring specifically to the coral as being her brother and sisters (not the human rubiconians). This is further proven by father Dolmayan who had contact with another Coral waveform named Sierra before the Fires of Ibis. Some coral waveforms being sentient is further proven by Allmind who refers to Ayre as Coral-Wavelength mutation instead of Coral absorbed human consciences which she would likely have done if she had been human. Edit: Also Ayre wasn't aware of project release until we defeat Dolmayan and pull the data referring to the project from his AC.
But Ayre says that her brothers and sisters were assimilated by the Coral... Plothole or plotpoint? We Will discover it hopefully sooner rather then later
@manueldelbono202 When does she say that? I know she says at one point that her Bothers and Sisters were consumed by the Fires but that a few survived, but when does she specifically say that they were "assimilated"?
@@manueldelbono202 The thing is Ayre never says that here siblings were assimilated by the Coral. She just says that the coral is her family and that's she is a Rubiconian without a body. Personally I took that as meaning she never had a body to begin with. Also personally I like the implication that Coral is even more alien then humanity thought is way cooler then Ayre and other sentient coral-waveforms are just humans consumed by the fires of Ibis. Edit: to further add to @theshadowdraguin7177 point Ayre indeed says the fires consumed her brothers and sisters but that a few survived and started a new flock. This implies even more that she has been a Coral waveform from the start as she is more then likely referring to the fires consuming all her coral brethren and that she's is glad that the few that did survive managed to start to grow again.
There are no good endings. 1-Fires of raven: you exterminate a planet because you are afraid of humanity misusing a resource/getting wiped out by alien race(the coral is an alien lifeform, ayre is manipulating you to let their race survive) 2-liberator of Rubicon: just because there aren't corporations, doesn't mean Rubiconians won't exploit coral. Also, as I said, the coral is an alien race that wants to assimilate humans, ayre is just a front. 3-all mind ending: I have no effing idea what actually happens, but I'll go on with my alien theory and now that they "infected" humanity they have prolonged their alien race. It's all speculation
For some fun reading, check out the combat logs "Video Log: Testing New Components" and "Text data: Re-Education Center." Then read the Ephemera series pieces.
26:00 oh i had to fight it 7 times cuz i was confused with how much combat logs + chests there was in the mission cuz i was going for the platinum i suffered so much that by the 5th time i could solo both of her phases without using a single repair kit
I don't know about the third ending but i did realize you can pick any chooses but the last choice of killing carla or kill the coral when you launch the flying city get you their ending.
You can get more information by reading the description of additional arena stages. The true purpose of the Arena is to build an ultimate AC. For what? pobably it wants to eliminate all irregulars just like AIs in old gen games. It's true purpose is to build an administration like AI in old gen ACs by using coral. Allmind is not just an AI. It might be a human andorbed in coral. In ng++ there is a new character who have same VA as allmind and she is using an AC designed by allmind.
I believe the answer to Allmind wanting coral convergence sits on two major possibilities. 1. Firstly, the final ending may not be Rubiconians waking up, specifically. It could be a hive mind of all who were exposed to coral, which is actually my running theory. Coral is capable of data transfer and communication, as well as consciousness. Since it's all connected the way it is, all the MTs and ACs waking back up might not just be Rubiconians. It may be us as one major mind, able to exert influence upon all minds that are interconnected. (Please see Halo lore for gravemind shenanigans). Allmind wanted that control perhaps, to be able to operate and influence all those mechs. 2. Rogue AI hates humanity. This is a recurring theme in Armored Core, that AI just kinda loses it every single time. AC:VD showed us the mass convergence of UNACs and other various drones (paraphrasing here). This was to gain control and destroy/enslave humanity. And in AC3, the Controller had a major malfunction, causing Layered to remain in lockdown and the corporations to start fighting. Only after destroying the Controller do we return to the planet surface.
16:05 Ending 2 is not a lie because Ayre cannot lie about Coral coexisting with human where the Rubicon Liberation Front has been coexisting with Coral, she cannot lie about a fact of the lifestyle where a faction of people has lived with for 50 years. Whether Coral will consume human into other beings is another matter, but Ayre simply did not lie.
My theory on AllMind's motivation is simple. It says that it exists for all mercenaries, notices the positive effects our symbiosis with Ayre is manifesting on our skills, and believes that by achieving coral release it can potentially provide such an augment to many more pilots.
in my take. Allmind is like Hustler-One and Ibis. starts of as an actual support for the mercenaries... but overtime and slowly gained some "understanding" and "sentience", it began to see that humanity thrives more during war. then slowly "learn" about war and peace. then of course it got access to certain databases, like from the RI. It now wants peace... but since peace can be disrupted by someone who opposed the will of the ruling party, it means it has to able to control the will of it's subject. and those who can escape it's grip and control, Allmind must have a way to suppress them, if not outright destroy, that's why it takes advantage of its old job as the mercenary support system to gather data and test builds against high ranking mercs. considering you, the player, is the only one took down all of her builds. Allmind decided to use you to do its dirty work, saving its ACs while gathering more data on you. at the end, you're too powerful that she decided to finish you once you're outlived your usefulness. there's a reason why Allmind send first 4-5 AC against you before going in with a custom unit with 2 Sea spiders for support. it's a sure win, but of course... it underestimated the human will... and Ignazu just hoisted it in its own petard when she managed to assimilate his will into it.
Great Video, you made a small mistake though regarding the Fires of Raven ending. 1 - and this isn't even really a mistake "Walter is dead" - is kinda not 100% confirmed. While yes his last log recorded and sent to you sounds pretty final and can be interpreted as his last words, I interpreted it as "Walter somehow made it out alive and is somewhere out there" since he didn't sound too bad. Like, if he was abducted / re-educated by Arquebus - i doubt he'd sound as normal as in any other conversation and would sound more "out of breath" or "on the verge of death" if you get what I mean. 2 - and this is a real / debatable mistake - there's no Carla to protect anymore. When the Xylem crashed into the vascular plant, shortly before Carla says that the autopilot was damaged / is unusable and that the ship has to be manually navigated to the destination. Since I don't see an implication anywhere that Chatty takes care of that job, it's pretty safe to assume that Carla did it herself. Again - maybe I missed something where it said that Chatty would do it, but essentially the only one to survive in the fires of Raven ending is you and Walter in my opinion. That's why it's the best ending in my opinion because I just loved Walter. He seemed like he only used us in the beginning which - fair point - don't forget we are a mercenary after all. We dunno why. But we know that we are, so Walter isn't even technically doing anything wrong if we're being honest. And him not being nice in the beginning also makes sense. In this environment (military-esque) you aren't easily mentally attached to anyone. In the end, they could die the next day and you'd still have to keep moving on. And this even happened to Walter just prior to us coming around. It's fair for the guy to be cold and reclusive in the beginning, we could just be another 617 in the end. But then he warms up to you, demands respect for you from even goddamn V.II Snail and plays downright with open cards towards the end. My personal canon ending has to be the bad ending again...damn FromSoft, you really don't like making fulfilling true endings, do you? 😔 EDIT: What kinda bugs me about the "true ending" over the bad ending - what's different in the way we go about it? Aside from having to kill all of our friends of course. We're gonna ram the ship into the vascular plant, but at a *slightly different* angle? Like, why'd I have to kill all my friends?! We could have just slightly adjusted the course guys, no one really HAD to die here...and this is the "true" ending..? Yeah right... Also - in case anyone from FromSoft actually watches these video AND reads the comments: DLC when? Or Follow-Up game like you guys did previously, I'd be up and paying for both...Please? I don't want this story to be finished yet, so much great voice-acting none of us even cared they never got even a face. Respect FromSoft. Alos please, DLC or Follow up game sooner rather than later, don't forget!
Ngl i keep thinking that all two endings other than the last ending was just a simulation created by AllMind. If i remember correctly, after end credits and we are directly put on the garage, allmind welcomed us again and it was not "Welcome back, Raven" she said "Raven... You've returned." When she said that, i was baffled. Am I just overthinking this?
I think a valid reason for why ALLMIND wanted the coral convergence is due to the simple objective in it's programming to advance AC technology, which has been seen to be at any cost. ALLMIND had already amalgamated every pilot and their AC in it's database to produce the ACs and other weapons you fight in Ending 3. Now, they want to expand that by making EVERYONE a more capable pilot by spreading Coral, this miracle energy of mankind, everywhere. This is due to the fact that augmentation surgery uses coral to enhance an AC pilot as seen through the game dialogue; instead of needing surgery, the coral could biologically link itself to pilots to form a connection like with our boy 621 and Ayre. Even if this doesn't work out in that way, as seen in Ending 3, the coral could be argued to be able to pilot ACs themselves now without needing a pilot even if the AC didn't have coral technology like Ayre's ECHO AC. ALLMIND would now have an even bigger and volatile playground to use to progress AC technology when there are many more pilots with much more potential to add to its database and it doesn't care if it encouraged a brutal, bleak and ultimately morally bankrupt conflict in the process.
Finished the game and got all 3 endings. But now I want to go through the game again, but the game does not allow me to make a second save, and I do not want to lose all the progress. I don't want to lose him so much=(
I think the 3rd playthrough is les grim than what you've painted. Most of the people who get killed are either dying in the background or directly by your hand anyway in the other playthroughs - Xylem needed to be taken from Carla, for example, or it would be Fires. All the sinister warnings in the notes boil down to "we don't know what will happen, hence it is scary and must be stopped at all cost". Both first 2 endings are bad/neutral at best. Humanity and coral missed their chance for evolution. On top of that the 3rd ending isn't "lets see how we can fix this" - we've finally achieved symbiosis between humans, coral and apparently mech bodies coral can control directly - this is exactly what we've been aiming for. The situation isn't "bad and needs to be made best of" - it is hopeful with a bright future.
7:47 I feel like assistant number 1's son is Walter. Walter doesn't seem crazy and he never mentions that he had a son. Also the way assistant 2 and "The boy" are pictured in the drawings show us that they became close. Also in an image of them the artist mentions that "the boy is sharper than he looks" For the allmind ending it seems like the AC's there are not only rubiconian ACs but some vespers and red guns too.
I think you're right that Assistant 1 is Walter's father, and the boy in the STK sketch is Walter himself. The data log "Video Record: The Fires of Ibis", which has an audio recording of Professor Nagai, says the following: "Whatever future awaits the boy, I hope he grows into a man strong enough to seize it. I have friends in the Jupiter colonies… Surely they will look after him." Both Walter and Carla were alive during the Fires of Ibis, but only Carla has the title "Cinder" describing her. If they both had been present on the planet when the Fires broke out, they should both have that title. Likewise, the Coyote Chatter data log says the following about Carla: "You think Carla's better? She's got the nerve to call herself a freakin' Cinder. Nice try, lady, but you're a little too young for that stolen valor." This would suggest that she looks too young to have experienced the Fires of Ibis despite the title (perhaps Coral exposure slows or halts aging?). Conversely, Walter is depicted as using a walking cane in the story trailer (you see it in his shadow and hear it "clink" each time he walks, which itself is slow to begin with). I suspect that's an indicator of age, given that Carla has no problems manually repairing the Overed Rail Cannon herself (which like wouldn't be doable if she were 70+ years old). Last relevant bit is Professor Nagai's Log #3: "I have decided that Assistant No. 1's son is to remain at the lab…Perhaps Assistant No. 2 will be able to help. She does seem to have a knack for assembling toys…" Carla regularly refers to her drones and other weapons as "toys", which is a unique characteristic of her.
I would say there are few quite bad assumptions made within the video. 1. Corporate ACs aren't our "friends" (closest to one was Rusty and RaD corp). So butchering them isn't an issue. 2. Coolest fight for sure was ice worm one. Not the hardest but the coolest. 3. By the time you reach ending of 3rd playthrough, after defeating all other bosses including Ayre, final boss isn't that hard at all unless you try to beat him without making any adjustments to your AC. Personally got it done on my 2nd try (first being learning that there is phase 2).
I think all mind is inspired by the Roko Basilisc thought experiment. An IA developed by humans to enhance and help humans, but jumps to a conclusion that the human race needs more, in this case, coral.
