Mech pilots have emotions, too. Armored Core VI is a sport about blowing up the whole lot in sight with a smorgasbord of overpowered weapons. But it surely’s additionally a sport about useless, self-righteous males who suppose it’s their God-given proper to take over a planet. Whilst you solely know them as codenames, characters like Snail and Handler Walter vie for energy all through the sport’s story.
However in a stroke of brilliance, absolutely the closing boss of Armored Core VI isn’t any of these huge personalities, however somewhat the pettiest weasel you can 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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![Image for article titled 2023's Best Video Game Villain Isn't Who You Think](https://i.kinja-img.com/image/upload/c_fit,q_60,w_645/375bc87ed49d386af578edca9a8a0271.jpg)
You first meet G5 Iguazu just some missions into AC6, when the participant, often called “621,” helps the Redguns assault a dam advanced. He makes a robust impression, bemoaning the truth that he now has to babysit a “freelancer.” Your first time by the sport, Iguazu merely looks like a bottom-of-the-barrel grunt, the whiny character who’s inevitably one of many first to chew the bullet.
Whereas that’s true in your first playthrough, issues with Iguazu get actually fascinating in your second and third occasions by the sport. That is the place you begin to be taught extra about him—and the way a lot he despises your very existence.
![Iguazu addresses the player, making his resentment apparent.](https://i.kinja-img.com/image/upload/c_fit,q_60,w_645/26fc31263e7e1d6cdeaa206f7bbcac00.jpg)
Greater than a rival
Information logs reveal that Iguazu was once a back-alley gambler who misplaced huge, and have become an augmented human to repay his money owed. This then led to him being recruited by the Redguns, and coming head to head with 621. At first he’s merely irritated by you, however as he grows extra conscious of your piloting expertise, the hate begins creeping in.
As you betray and dismantle the Redguns, Iguazu voices his open resentment of your expertise and your freedom. You, the participant, are the whole lot Iguazu can by no means be. You’re a grasp of your individual future, whereas Iguazu finds himself caught in a struggle he cares little about, unable to free himself from its shackles. Each single interplay you’ve gotten with Iguazu, you may 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. Mockingly, he’s utterly unaware of the AI named All-Thoughts, which has been pulling the strings all alongside. His revenge plot foiled, in absolute desperation he takes a “cope with the satan,” letting All-Thoughts increase him into the proper killing machine. He believes his freedom with the singular objective of spiteing you the participant, your demise the one factor on his thoughts.
![The intimidating final boss of Armored Core 6.](https://i.kinja-img.com/image/upload/c_fit,q_60,w_645/9ffa47814fd350fc15a6b2cf659742bd.jpg)
Inhuman nature
All this culminates within the defining second that cements Iguazu as a villain for the ages. The top of your third playthrough of AC6 reveals all of the machinations of All-Thoughts, and as you method the ultimate battle you see Iguazu has been warped past recognition, now piloting an experimental go well with constructed from all the simulation battles you accomplished. Because of this Iguazu’s new type is sort of actually constructed from all of the folks you killed and backstabbed to get thus far. He’s fairly actually the avatar of the whole lot and everybody that’s been thrown in opposition to you on Rubicon.
That collective will would possibly seem to be the ultimate boss, however in one other staggering twist, midway by the battle Iguazu realizes that your companion, Ayre, has been affecting his thoughts this whole time. By means of sheer drive of will, he shuts All-Thoughts out and banishes Ayre from the combat. Iguauzu realizes he’s misplaced his freedom, however in a closing act he ranges the enjoying subject, lastly paving the best way for the one-on-one duel he’s craved all alongside.
Again and again, the participant overcomes seemingly insurmountable odds, eschewing the plans of companies and highly effective folks within the title of true freedom. Iguazu is the opposite facet of that coin. He’s a person with out free will who discovered function by a singular obsession of destroying you. You took completely different paths however arrived on the similar place, the identical reply. For a sport that tells its story in such a minimalist method, it’s unexpectedly introspective and philosophical.
It’s not usually you see a villain really symbolize the worst elements of us—not simply want for energy however pettiness, spite, jealousy, and hate. Iguazu is the proper 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 closing battle, a solidarity for the undesirable life that has been pressured on the each of you.
In case you lose to Iguazu within the closing battle, his final line sums issues up completely: “Go away a spot for me in Hell.”
Armored Core VI is out now for PlayStation, Xbox, and PC.