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No, Armored Core 6 will not be like Dark Souls or Elden Ring. Nevertheless, fans of single-player games and big boss fights will get their money”s worth.

It”s official: The next game from FromSoftware will be Armored Core 6, but real gameplay for the mech shooter is still a long time coming. This might make some fans of the studio behind titles like Elden Ring or Dark Souls wonder: What kind of game is Armored Core 6 supposed to be?

FromSoftware”s head of studio Hidetaka Miyazaki now sheds some light on this in an interview with (IGN). The most important thing first: With Armored Core 6, the developers do not want to imitate their own games such as Elden Ring or Dark Souls. Nevertheless, there are supposed to be certain strengths that will excite especially fans of the so-called Soulsbornes 

What kind of game will Armored Core 6 be anyway?

Armored Core 6 is not exactly reminiscent of FromSoftware”s most prominent titles – such as Elden Ring, Sekiro, Bloodborne or Dark Souls. Instead, the game takes you to the post-apocalyptic future, where gigantic and heavily armed war machines beat the crap out of each other and fire at each other. Armored Core 6: Fires of Rubicon will be a more or less classic mech shooter.

As the title might suggest, Fires of Rubicon is not the first part of the Armored Core series. The first game was released in 1997, the most recent part in 2012. Fires of Rubicon is not a direct sequel to part 5, however; FromSoftware tells its own story.

Previously, the focus was mostly on the multiplayer mode and the personal customisation of one”s own mech. Game director Masaru Yamamura emphasises, however, that Armored Core 6 will focus on single-player content despite the multiplayer modes. By the way, you can watch the official trailer as follows:

What makes Armored Core 6 similar

The similarities: This makes Armored Core 6”s first similarity to games like Elden Ring or Dark Souls obvious. According to Yamamura, the focus is on the story in the new mech shooter, which relies primarily on single-player content. Multiplayer and Versus modes are also planned, however.

According to Yamamura, the boss fights of Armored Core 6 will be the highlight of Armored Core 6. This is another parallel to the developer studio”s Souls games, which are notorious for their boss fights.

“Naturally, there”s that same essence of these fights again, where the games reads the moves and learns to play with them – as is typical for FromSoftware. In [Armored Core 6], both our own machine and the enemy”s machine are aggressive and brutal in their attacks. We are developing this game so that players can experience the dynamics and intensity of boss battles that is only possible with mechas. Likewise, there are the unique aspects of Armored Core, such as setting up the appropriate components to defeat even the strongest enemies with “

Masaru Yamamura interviewed by IGN

Yamamura”s descriptions are reminiscent of the aggressive gameplay of Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. According to the game director, however, there is a difference in the form of the player using relentless ranged and melee attacks to break the opponent”s stance and cause massive damage.

What Armored Core 6 does differently

What”s different: Unlike Elden Ring, Armored Core 6 will not rely on an open world. Likewise, the developer”s descriptions do not sound like a game world that can be explored linearly – as is the case in Dark Souls or Sekiro, for example. Instead, Armored Core 6 relies on a mission-based story mode, in the course of which we tackle one objective after the other.

By the way, there is supposed to be all the more freedom in the personal customisation of one”s own mech. As already mentioned and more than usual for the game series, the customisation of certain components has a massive effect on the gameplay and the battles. Those who like to tinker with a gigantic fighting robot and change numbers in all possible directions will probably get their money”s worth.

What else you should know about Armored Core 6

Armored Core 6: Fires of Rubicon is scheduled for release sometime in 2023 for PC, Playstation 5 and Xbox Series X/S – there is currently no concrete release date. But you can already take a look at the (official Steam page), even if the details there remain manageable so far.

What do you think of the announcement of Armored Core 6? Are you interested in the new game from Elden Ring and Dark Souls developers FromSoftware? Or does the mech shooter leave you rather cold? Let us know in the comments!