Elden Ring has been a huge success. Perhaps there was a time when Souls were niche games, but that time is no longer ours. With the community eagerly awaiting DLC, before that From Software has other plans. For while the world is still trying to come to terms with what they did with their last title to date, they are thinking about returning to one of their most beloved franchises in Japan, and with a cult following in the West, long before Demon’s Souls was even an idea in Hidetaka Miyazaki’s mind. Because on August 20, Armored Core VI will arrive on our consoles and computers.
The big question is, will he look like Elden Ring? And the answer is a bit ambiguous. Because the truth is that although its developers have insisted that Armored Core is its own thing, far from the canons of what a Souls is, it is undeniable that Armored Core is a franchise with the DNA of From Software games.
With its first title released in 1997 for the first PlayStation and this being the fifteenth installment of the franchise, not counting spinoffs, Armored Core is a cult FromSoftware franchise that puts us in the shoes of a mecha pilot, giant manned robots, who acts as a mercenary and can choose to work for different corporations in a post-apocalyptic future. Although there is some cohesion between some of the installments, both in terms of gameplay and narrative, the franchise has had major changes over time, making it difficult to summarize what ultimately defines it.
Difficult, but not impossible. If anything defines Armored Core it is the importance of customizing our mecha, the great emphasis it places on its lore, the high difficulty of all its titles and the methodical nature of its combat. If all this reminds us of Souls, it’s normal. After all, they are made by the same developer. But the particularity is that different installments of Armored Core have had a special emphasis on different aspects of these sections. Some installments are simpler and more accessible, others emphasize the need to be constantly changing the pieces of our mecha, and the speed changes abruptly between the relatively slow Armored Core 3 and the absolutely inhuman Armored Core V, where it is impossible to follow the action without the assistance of the AI of our mecha.
In this sense, From Software has already indicated that their intention with Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon is not to make an Elden Ring with mechas. However, neither do they want to make a classic Armored Core as if it hadn’t been ten years since their previous release.
Its director, Masaru Yamamura, has stated in an interview for Famitsu that his intention is for the speed to be somewhere between that of Armored Core 3 and Armored Core V, but with a heavy emphasis on close-range combat and the ability to switch between ranged and melee combat. According to him, this can make it seem much faster than it is, and closer to the experience to what a Souls is. On the other hand, in an interview with Eurogamer, Yamamura himself has stated regarding this association of a certain style of gameplay with soulslike that “people think of our titles from the last few years when they think of those elements, but these are things that have really been present in our company’s philosophy and in our games for much longer than that. With Armored Core VI we’re trying to incorporate those elements in a way that doesn’t overshadow the qualities of what makes Armored Core what it is.” Something quite obvious when it is also confirmed that we will not be navigating a huge open world, but a mission system similar to previous installments.
Does that mean there are no elements of Elden Ring and all the soulslike lineage that led up to it? Not according to Yamamura. Because he also points out that “some of that is definitely present in the aggressiveness of the combat in Armored Core VI”. Something that if we add the giant final bosses that have let us see their latest trailer, they point out that, while this is not an Elden Ring in space, it is clear that it has the genetic code of Souls.
So it’s not bold to say that while Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon isn’t going to be the new Elden Ring, it’s going to be a game that feels similar in many ways. At the end of the day, it’s made by the same company. Many of the Souls elements were already in Armored Core long before it was popular. And being that it’s a game directed by Yamamura, who comes from designing Bloodborne and Sekiro -two games that From Software doesn’t consider to be soulslike-, it’s not bold to say that Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon has every chance of delighting all From Software fans.
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