Fires of Raven

 So, the second playthrough of Armored Core VI went a lot faster. I think a large part of this was that I had done a fair amount of farming in the first run in order to purchase lots of weapons and other AC parts, whereas this time I had more or less gotten most of what I really wanted, and so ploughed through the actual missions.

Spoilers ahead.

While there's a lot of discussion on "how to get" certain endings for the game, it really boils down to one decision between missions in the last chapter. Do you defend the RaD folks against Arquebus, or do you attack "Cinder" Carla and "Chatty" Stick? Essentially, this is the decision where you lay out whether you're going to go through with Walter and Carla's plan or if you're going to go along with Ayre and stop their plan. That plan, of course, is to ignite the Vascular Plant and burn all the Coral on Rubicon, essentially committing alien genocide and killing untold Rubiconians and possibly even life beyond that solar system, all in the name of protecting humanity from being forcibly merged with the alien life form.

Tonally, of course, there's never any point in which you feel, you know, great about what you've done. But I think that the Fires of Raven ending, where you help Carla, results in generally easier missions. (There's actually a super fun mission in which you get infinite energy to assault boost and quick boost and you take down an entire fleet of warships, but then you have to fight Rusty to the death at the end, and even in that fight he proves himself to be just the coolest AC pilot).

Ultimately, Ayre's the one person who seems to have always treated you well, and while sure, she's really just a kind of resonance life form within the field of the coral, she shows more compassion than anyone else in the game. The Coral, it seems pretty obvious to me, is not hostile and likely not even harmful. So Liberator of Rubicon, which still does force you to betray Carla, Stick, and Walter, feels like the better ending to get. (Also, in the Fires of Raven, you never kill V. II. Snail once and for all, and boy does it feel satisfying to do that.)

Now, I'm very curious to see the story path of the third ending, which is considered the "true" ending and I believe can only be achieved on a third playthrough. I already know who the final boss of that is, but I'm very curious to see what actually happens during it.

Oh, and as a note: much like the Orphan of Kos, after struggling a ton against Ibis on my first playthrough, I one-shot it this time. I want to say I used those really heavy laser rifles and then Stun Needles and the light, speedy tank legs to keep mobile.