Armored Core 6 channels Dark Souls, but it could be much more

The long-awaited Armored Core 6 is on the horizon, and a decade of persistence for collection followers is about to culminate in what may very well be the quintessential mech recreation of our era. After appreciable time spent creating and arguably perfecting the soulslike style with Elden Ring, developer FromSoftware has jumped again into the cockpit with each fingers on the controls, however does it have what it takes to pilot us into a brand new age for robot games, or will Rubicon’s blessing be an excessive amount of for the crew to deal with?

As we strategy the Armored Core 6 release date, I made a decision to make a journey down reminiscence lane to find what made Armored Core such a stand-out collection in its time and why it’s value bringing again after a decade-long absence. On that journey, I got here throughout previous favorites like Armored Core 2, forgotten basic Final Raven, and complete curveballs like Chromehounds. So within the phrases of Leos Klein: “I’m a realist, not some idiot. All that I’ve needed to do was to revive the methods of the previous.”

The Armored Core collection has taken an prolonged hiatus over the previous decade and left the torch-bearing duties to different video games, like Mech Warrior On-line and Battletech, every with their very own accomplishments. That stated, none fairly stack as much as the legacy of Armored Core, that means that an already area of interest style has fallen additional into obscurity.

It’s not identified why FromSoftware put Armored Core on the again burner, however you’d have to imagine it has one thing to do with the runaway success of its soulslike video games and the decidedly poor reception to Armored Core 5, whose evaluations are worlds aside from that of GOTY-winning 10/10 Elden Ring. It’s my view, nevertheless, that FromSoftware made the proper choice to shelve Armored Core till a brand new era of players appeared, giving the collection a second likelihood to shine once more, now with the added heft of hailing from the crew behind among the greatest video games of the last decade.

Don’t be mistaken: Armored Core is just not Darkish Souls, and FromSoftware has gone to nice lengths to be sure you’re conscious of that. When chatting with IGN, Hidetaka Miyazaki stated the crew wasn’t “making a aware effort to attempt to direct [Armored Core 6] in the direction of extra soulsborne sort gameplay.” He adopted that up by saying “what which means is taking our know-how and experiences from recreation improvement in recent times, and making use of that data to the event of [Armored Core 6],” which is strictly what I need to hear.

As we have a look at the historical past of the Armored Core video games, we are able to see clear progress and enhancements to the core method, with the odd deviation, making it the premiere mech collection, however that solely tells half the story of Armored Core 6. We will’t discuss Armored Core with out acknowledging FromSofware’s soulslike video games and the way their design may gel with that of basic AC. Every part thus far suggests AC6 might be a superb hybrid and, consequently, has the potential to flourish as one of many definitive mech video games. For these new to the collection who might have been drawn in as a result of soulslike associations, nevertheless, you shouldn’t simply anticipate Darkish Souls, Elden Ring, or the like with mechs.

Whilst you’re ready for launch, make sure to try what we all know thus far in regards to the Armored Core 6 bosses that you simply’ll be dealing with off in opposition to.