I agree 10000%. This is Souls with robots, not Armored Core.
What’s even more upsetting is that the reviews I read claim exactly the opposite, but you jump into mission 1 and there’s a giant gunship that will 2-shot you, and you have no ability to customize your mech, so you’re right from the outset being told that build means nothing about outcome.
I’m not surprised the Souls fans love this game since they don’t know any better, but I am very disappointed in FROM.