Can Armored Core make mecha the new Soulsborne?
The robots are coming, folks. Bandai Namco shared a gameplay trailer for Armored Core 6: Fires of Rubicon last week, and it'd probably be fair to say that the franchise, previously lacking in mainstream appeal, has finally hit the big time.
And yet, it's probably not down to the prior games, or the franchise's roots in gaming as far back as the original PlayStation. Instead, it's all down to FromSoft, possibly the hottest developer in the world right now, coming off of its magnum opus with Elden Ring and switching the Erdtree for similarly massive mechs.
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Malenia to Mecha
Click to enlargeSoulsbornes have been around for over a decade now, in some way, shape, or form, and none do it better than the progenitors of the genre, FromSoft. That's perhaps why, despite so many (myself included) bouncing off of Demons & Dark Souls, Sekiro, and Bloodborne, so many more were interested in Elden Ring.
"Breath of the Wild but with more f**ked up monsters? Sign me up" I said, but it was the first time I felt I truly understood the developers' talents in many ways. I'd played Demons Souls (original and remake) and Bloodborne, but here I found myself digging into character builds, farming runes, and persevering against tougher opponents than I was used to.
Elden Ring sold gangbusters, too, but the Soulsborne influence has been felt in plenty of places before our trip to The Lands Between. There are, naturally, plenty of Souls-like titles that cropped up from indie and triple-A devs alike, with the likes of Hollow Knight, Steelrising, and Lords of the Fallen helping keep players dying, dying, and dying again between FromSoft titles.
Click to enlargeEven last week's Jedi Survivor, carrying one of the biggest entertainment IPs, owes much to the Soulslikes that came before: Even aside from the patchwork of interconnected maps and bonfires (sorry) meditation points, just compare its lightsaber twirling to that of the Force Unleashed which launched prior to Demons Souls.
Pray to Mecha
Click to enlargeSo, what does this mean going forward? Well, if nothing else, it shows that there are plenty of eyes on Armored Core 6 - from players and the wider industry.
It's not unreasonable to expect there to be some element of Armored Core that becomes a trend or blueprint for the next decade in the same way the Souls titles helped usher in crushing bosses and PvP invasions.
We'll have to wait a little longer to find out what that may be, but if nothing else it could bring mech media to a whole new audience - and even push it into new territories.
Click to enlargeMech games have long fallen into fairly predictable genres, with arena battlers, PvP shooters, and strategy games among the more common ones. Armored Core has been similarly easy to pigeonhole in prior offerings, and if Fires of Rubicon is just a really, really good Armored Core game then that's likely to be enough for many.
Still, the series has always thrived thanks to its commitment to creating any kind of mechanical death machine you want, and it'll be fascinating to see if the next must-have Armored Core configuration ends up being analogous to the Elden Ring character sheets that are still appearing on Reddit today.
That power fantasy of putting you in the cockpit of a nuke on legs is certainly the antithesis of starting a Souls game as a barely clad vagrant, and how FromSoft juggles these diametrically opposed conceits is sure to be fascinating.
The Robot Uprising
Click to enlargeAnd yet, for all of this excitement, it'd be unfair to say that the mech genre isn't standing on its own robotic feet while we await Armored Core 6's arrival.
Bandai Namco is already, understandably, leaning on the iconic Gundam franchise with Gundam Evolution, while there's also SD Gundam Battle and plenty more.
After years on the shelf, the Front Mission series of tactical RPGs are making a comeback, too, with one remake out already and two more to come - including the seminal Front Mission 3.
Battletech has also gobbled up plenty of my time, and while developer Harebrained Schemes has moved focus to The Lamplighters League, there's always a chance of a sequel.
Then there's Titanfall, which seems to have been abandoned in favour of Apex Legends entirely. Could an Armored Core comeback mobilise Respawn's best series (that's right, I said it)?
It's hard to say, but with how influential Soulsbornes have been on the wider gaming landscape, here's hoping we can expect plenty more opportunities to get in big robots and smash stuff.