Games have changed a lot in the decade since the last Armored Core game was released, and so has the company behind the series: FromSoftware. Over the last ten years, the once-eclectic studio has narrowed its focus, choosing instead to concentrate its efforts on the Souls series and other action role-playing games heavily inspired by the Dark Souls blueprint. With Armored Core 6, FromSoftware is finally returning to its original flagship series - but it’s not leaving Dark Souls behind completely.
At a preview event earlier this month, I asked director Masaru Yamamura and producer Yasunori Ogura about whether or not the studio's work on Soulslikes had an impact on the design of Armored Core 6. Yamamura says that they’ve tried to incorporate the lessons they’ve learned and the experience gained from the past in the new Armored Core, and that there’s definitely some elements of Dark Souls to be found in the latest entry.
“Our approach to battle design has changed significantly,” Yamamura says, speaking via a translator. “We place a lot of importance on being able to observe the enemy and read the action on the screen.” Learning enemy attack patterns and watching how they behave in order to form a strategy to beat them is a core part of Dark Souls’ combat, and now it’s a part of Armored Core’s combat too. “That’s something you couldn’t really do in previous AC games and we feel like with our cumulative experience that’s something we’ve been able to hone in on with AC6,” he says.
From my short experience with AC6, it’s easy to see the influence Dark Souls has had on combat, especially in boss battles. One fight, involving a fast-moving tank that’s completely armored on the front, requires you to learn a variety of attack patterns so that you can avoid taking damage, and seize opportunities to strike. While small enemies can be dispatched quickly, many of the bosses and rival mechs require more than just quick reflexes and aim. You need to understand how they move and attack in order to counter them. It doesn’t play much like a Dark Souls game, but it shares that core design principle.
Another aspect the Armored Core 6 team incorporated from Dark Souls is its approach to level design. AC6’s sorties take place in a variety of locations. Some are big open cities with multiple objectives you can approach in any order, while others are more linear missions that guide you through them. Ogura says that the studio’s work on Soulslike games helped them think about the structure of a mission and refined the way they approach level design. There’s nuance in deciding how to guide players through a space and when to let them off the leash to explore. “These are definitely elements that we’ve explored with games like Souls and Elden Ring,” he says. “That’s where we’ve tried to incorporate that know-how in ways that make sense and don’t feel out of place in Armored Core.”
The area where Dark Souls and Armored Core intersect the most is in their level of difficulty. Both series are known for being challenging, punishing experiences that can be both frustrating and satisfying to overcome. But while Dark Souls games take a trial-by-fire approach, Armored Core 6 actually makes a couple of concessions for players who aren’t familiar with the series or might struggle with the mechanics. One way it does that is by refining the controls. Armored Core games are notoriously difficult due to the sheer amount of inputs you’re required to perform in battle, but AC6’s controls are much easier to grasp - literally and figuratively. “We realize this is a demanding game,” Yamamura says. “So we’ve tried to make that default control scheme as intuitive as possible.”
AC6 also features a new lock-on assist feature to help make aiming easier, which makes the controls a lot more manageable. It can be turned off if you want a more traditional Armored Core experience, but Yamamura says the feature was designed to make AC6 more approachable. “We hope it caters to both the players that need a bit of that accessibility, and also these hardcore players as well.”
Armored Core 6 launches August 25 on PS5, PS4, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X, and PC. Check out our full preview here for a deep dive into the first three hours of the game.