The Raven RepublicThe Japanese Armored Core community just concluded an intense and very entertaining tournament for Armored Core: Verdict Day. Check out their recording, and congratulations to the winner.
As the title implies, this post is quite the change of pace from all the mecha stuff we’ve posted these past few months. You see, Doom Trigger over at the forums just announced that he and AEA1 will be hosting a Super Street Fighter 4 tournament with actual money at stake! That’s an RR first.
More details below.
From what we gather, From Software’s Armored Core corporate mascot the self dubbed “Black Torrent” Aaliyah Kawate, will be making an online appearance this coming August 20 Japan time on player matches in Armored Core: For Answer. The Black Torrent will be making an online appearance for all AC fans to basically beat him up, and you can tell everyone that you’ve played an online match with an Armored Core celebrity. Essentially a guy in an Aaliyah helmet and a suit, he’s From’s company representative in recent officially sponsored tournaments, as well as various player meetings over the past few months.
Select matches will probably be broadcast live on Ustream on that day as well. Check out Aaliyah Kawate’s awesome looking AC emblem after the jump:
The results of a Japanese nationwide Armored Core: Last Raven Portable tournament held last May 29 are finally in, gathering 8 ravens from all over Japan to one tournament to find out who is indeed the Last Raven.
A Dengeki Online coverage of the tournament noted some observations from PS2 PvP games of ACLR, most significant is the greater difficulty of aerial battles due to the limitations of the PSP’s button configuration, making the look-up and look-down functions a bit more awkward compared to the PS2 version.
In addition, there is greater emphasis on range control, or darting in and out of one’s effective weapons range to dish out damage instead of short range slug-fests. Much of the player victories are attributed to AP lead instead of destroying an opponent’s AC.
In line with the celebrations, a web poll was conducted asking fans who they think will win the grand championship. Fan speculations turned out accurate, with the winner of the fan poll also being the winner of the tournament as well. Hit the jump to find out who the champion is and watch the fight videos:
The officially sanctioned Armored Core 3 Portable tournament by From Software has finally ended and just in time prior to the release of Silent Line Portable. The results are up as well as tournament videos from various tournament locations all over Japan.
Not much has changed when it comes to part selection among participants compared to the initial release of AC3 for the PS2. The RF/220 is still the easiest weapon to use in the game, and is widely present in the tournament. Another prevalent weapon appearing on the top rankers is the OC/15 orbit cannons and the Multi-missiles. Overall the designs are well varied despite the usual domination of bipedal ACs.
Long time AC fan Naitoh, who has been an excellent source of information on the Japanese Armored Core scene, has recently uploaded videos of “Matsuri 2”, a Japanese Armored Core 3 tournament held back in January of 2003, on his YouTube account. Sadly, we have no further information regarding the tournament such as its rules and part restrictions. Beyond that, the only information we can confirm for sure is the slight lag with the 2nd player because of the i.Link connection, as mentioned by Naitoh himself, a given problem in the AC3 and SL editions of AC.
From software, the creators of Armored Core, is sponsoring a tournament for the recently released Armored Core 3 Portable for the PSP. It seems that From plans to go on a tour of various game stores all across Japan for the preliminary matches in this tournament. It’ll be interesting to see how tactics and gameplay have evolved from the original release on the PS2, as well as taking a look at the new parts in action. With the finals date set for October 3, 2009, it is only a matter of time before we get to see results.
Given my lack of Japanese reading skills, I could only decipher that the prizes include the awesome Armored Core model kits made by Kotubukiya plus various extras that I could not read. Please visit From’s officia tournament website for more details (Warning: Heavy on Japanese text): http://armoredcore.net/acct/season1/
The first matches are scheduled to start on August 29, so stay tuned to From’s official site for updates.
Raven Republic’s triple attraction event finally pushed through, and boy was it awesome!
When Maitreya and I arrived at Leperman’s house at around noon, most of the members were already there, with some playing Blazblue and others already playing LR. In the shadows, a few enterprising individuals had already begun harvesting prawns!
Outside, stacks and stacks of burgers, buns, and condiments were spread all over just waiting to be consumed. Super Chef Hempire brought some awesome sauces and toppings and he even managed the grill for us for pretty much the whole day. What’ll we do without you, Hemp? :(