{"id":74920,"date":"2023-09-11T05:14:48","date_gmt":"2023-09-11T04:14:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pley2win.com\/featured-news\/armored-core-6s-rusty-is-the-hero-we-need\/"},"modified":"2023-09-11T05:14:48","modified_gmt":"2023-09-11T04:14:48","slug":"armored-core-6s-rusty-is-the-hero-we-need","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pley2win.com\/?p=74920","title":{"rendered":"Armored Core 6\u2019s Rusty is the hero we need"},"content":{"rendered":"
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It\u2019s hours into the events of Armored Core 6: Fires of Rubicon<\/em> before you feel a sense of warmth. Until the mission \u201cOperation Wallclimber,\u201d you are nothing but a number, nothing but a hired gun on the other end of barked orders. <\/p>\n
In the cold steel garage that is your home on the desolate planet of Rubicon, you are referred to as \u201cdog,\u201d \u201chound,\u201d and \u201cmerc.\u201d Even more dehumanizing nicknames await you later. The closest identities that your character, C4-621, has prior to \u201cOperation Wallclimber\u201d are \u201cRaven,\u201d the identity you\u2019ve stolen, and \u201cGun 13,\u201d a designation foisted upon you after you killed the guy who would\u2019ve used that name.<\/p>\n
But everything changes when Rusty of the Vespers arrives and calls you \u201cbuddy.\u201d<\/p>\n
[Ed. note:<\/strong> This story contains spoilers for Armored Core 6.<\/em>]<\/p>\n
Rusty is Armored Core 6<\/em>\u2019s most crush-worthy AC pilot. He\u2019s effortlessly cool, and he\u2019s introduced with appropriate panache: At the Wall, Rusty swoops in riding his Steel Haze mech, and the camera pans up his spindly Nachtreiher AC legs to showcase his emblem, a muzzled wolf. Unlike the rest of the game\u2019s characters, Rusty treats you with respect and camaraderie in your first battle together \u2014 during which he also genuinely seems concerned about your well-being. Afterward, he shares private details about that mission as a warning about the corporations\u2019 intentions for you, making Rusty the first character on Rubicon who seems trustworthy.<\/p>\n\n <\/p>\n
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Image: FromSoftware\/Bandai Namco<\/cite><\/p>\n
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Whatever impressive feat you pull off in Armored Core 6<\/em>, no matter how many slo-mo exploding boss battles you walk away from, none of it will match the earned coolness of Rusty saying \u201cI won\u2019t miss\u201d before he skewers your shared opponent with a railgun during the battle against the Ice Worm.<\/p>\n
Is it any wonder, then, that players have fallen in love with Rusty, envisioning him as a dashing, rebellious pilot? We never actually see Rusty\u2019s face in Armored Core 6<\/em>, but every piece of fan art of the man inside Steel Haze looks, to me anyway, 100% accurate.<\/p>\n
FromSoftware\u2019s dialogue for Rusty is crafted to make you fall in love with him. He boosts you up (\u201cWalter knows how to pick \u2019em\u201d; \u201cGlad you\u2019re on my side\u201d; \u201cStay cool, buddy\u201d) and gives you something to aspire to.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s no graver threat than power without purpose,\u201d Rusty tells you during a mission in which he\u2019s tasked with disposing of 621 under the command of his corporate handlers at Arquebus. While Handler Walter can compel the player to perform missions for his clients, and Ayre can nudge them toward doing the right thing, it\u2019s Rusty who offers 621 a path toward redemption, toward that \u201cpurpose,\u201d toward something more than just another job. In the cold, callous world of Armored Core 6<\/em>, that\u2019s a uniquely humanizing thing.<\/p>\n\n <\/p>\n
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Image: FromSoftware\/Bandai Namco<\/cite><\/p>\n
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It\u2019s not until much later in the game, when the reality of two AC pilots working for competing interests comes to a head, that Rusty\u2019s true importance \u2014 and true intentions \u2014 emerge. Throughout Armored Core 6<\/em>\u2019s story, those intentions are telegraphed in dialogue and combat logs. Like other FromSoftware games, Rusty\u2019s role in this story isn\u2019t transparent at first, but it\u2019s ultimately revealed that he\u2019s a secret agent working for the Rubicon Liberation Front. <\/p>\n
Near the end of the game, when Rusty reappears in a new mech, reborn as Steel Haze Ortus, he bears a different emblem. The wolf is unmasked this time, and depending on certain mission choices and which playthrough players are on, they\u2019ll either fight him or fight alongside him once more, with the force of the Rubiconian resistance behind Rusty and 621. <\/p>\n
Rusty\u2019s fate at the end of the game is unclear, as it should be for a man of his cool factor. But regardless of whether Rusty survives the events of Armored Core 6<\/em>, he\u2019s the one who walks away clean. He\u2019s the hero of this story \u2014 not just for his convictions and actions, but for transforming the player into a hero, too.<\/p>\n
![\"Rusty](\"https:\/\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/thumbor\/ouGHc9ThdnL1aSmd2HALKz-KMgY=\/0x0:1920x1080\/320x0\/filters:focal(0x0:1920x1080):format(webp):no_upscale()\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/uploads\/chorus_asset\/file\/24906323\/rusty_v_juggernaut.jpg)
<\/p>\n![\"Rusty](\"https:\/\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/thumbor\/PWy2vIUvvXUZoWRtYHjYu4sUnSs=\/0x0:1920x1080\/320x0\/filters:focal(0x0:1920x1080):format(webp):no_upscale()\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/uploads\/chorus_asset\/file\/24906324\/rusty_ortus.jpg)
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