So, for the first time in 10 years, FromSoftware is making a game thatwon’tfollow the Soulslike template that the Japanese studio has become synonymous with (and justly commended for). In the past decade, you could say the words ‘FromSoft game’ and fellow gamers would instantly understand what you’re talking about: bonfires, gruelling bosses, consequential deaths, enigmatic yet profound storytelling–y’know,Soulsborne stuff.
And while I’ve no doubt that there’s a contingent of people who were delighted to hear thatFromSoftware is reviving its mech-fighting series Armored Coreafter a 10-year hiatus, to me as a Soulsborne/Soulslike/Soulswhatever fan, its announcement feels like the moment I knew would one day come, but I desperately hoped wouldn’t.
There have been murmurs of a newArmored Coregame for years. It feels like its threat has been looming over us like the blood moon ofBloodbornesince, well, Bloodborne, and now it’s finally becoming a reality. For a while at least, FromSoftware is saying goodbye to the vertiginous cathedrals, the dark fantasy landscapes, the parasitic world-trees, the bonfires (or equivalent), the torment-by-design, and saying ‘hello (or welcome back)’ to, let’s see… grey cityscapes, brown canyons, and transformers sliding around ruinous highways. Yes, I’ve watched a fair bit of Armored Core footage now, and am yet to feel anything remotely resembling excitement.
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I guess it takes place in a totally annihilated world, so at least there’sonecommonality it has with FromSoft’s majestic roster of recent years, but the more footage I see of Armored Core 4 or 5 (or even 3 which one of my colleagues tells me is ‘the best one’) in the hope of findingsomethingto remind me of a FromSoft game, the less I actually see. I, and many like me, have to accept that FromSoftware is more than just the prodigious developer who birthed an entire genre, and that it actually has other longstanding IPs and fanbases to go back to.
Even the premise of Armored Core feels alienating to me, casting you as a mercenary–a mech pilot, fighting in a giant robot armature against other men in robot armatures for corporations and other self-interested factions. The game structure is mission-based, while the combat is far more action-oriented than even the most fast-paced of Souls games (which would probably be Sekiro, if we’re counting that).
According to the Armored Core 6 Steam page, “Players will assemble and pilot their own mech with 3D maneuverability to move freely through three-dimensional, fast-paced missions.” First of all, the editor in me can’t handle all the ‘threes’ and ‘frees’ in that sentence, secondly, ‘3D fast-paced missions?’ Is that really a selling point? That just makes me think of 90s action game MDK. It just all sounds so… basic.
Seeking some kind of counterpoint to my skepticism from my fellow DualShockers, I’ve been told by our own Elijah Beahm that it becomes far more reminiscent of a peak PlatinumGames action game rather than anything resembling FromSoftware’s more recent work. That’s a proposition I could work with, remembering the good times I had in their silly slider-shooter Vanquish despite its similarly dour aesthetic. It’s the first thing about Armored Core that actually perked my ears up, though to get to that point in the first place I had to solemnly accept that I–like many Souls fans–need to somehow untangle FromSoft from the games that they’ve pioneered and evolved over the past 12 years.
I know I’m not alone out there. Reddit at the moment is popping off with people not knowing what to expect of Armored Core, hopefully asking whether its combat is more likeSekiroorDark Souls, or whether it’s going to be open-world likeElden Ring, but with mechs. Some have even pointed out that it’s beingdirected by Sekiro Lead Designer Masaru Yamamura, and indeed will borrow some of that game’s aggressive posture-breaking combat philosophy. So yes, Armored Core 6 will be tough, and bear some similarities to Sekiro (the most tangential and divergent game from FromSoft’s ‘Soulsborne’ roster), but clinging on for these things seems a bit tenuous. For the most part, it seems like the best thing Souls fans can do is stop looking for the similarities and accept that Armored Core 6 is basically its own thing.
And that’s fine. Before Demons’ Souls, which set FromSoft on its Soulsian trajectory, the Japanese developer made dozens of different kinds of games, from distant Souls ancestor King’s Field, to long-forgotten PS2 horror games Kuon and Echo Night. Many of these didn’t see much success, and really Armored Core was the bread-and-butter at FromSoftware before Dark Souls came along. There’s a case to be made that the Soulsborne series is indebted to Armored Core and its fans for keeping FromSoftware going during those less lucrative years, so how’s about us confused Souls fans let them have their long-awaited time in the sun?
Besides, we still have Hidetaka Miyazaki, who recently announced thatFromSoft “has many more things it wants to do” with the game, and which will probably be appearing in 2023 along with Armored Core 6. There’s enough FromSoft to go around, and who knows? Maybe some of us will even be willing to swap out theBanished Knight armorfor a mech suit and realise we’ve been missing out all this time…
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