Talking about FromSoftware is making people immediately remember names like Hidetaka Miyazaki or the Dark Souls series. However, this is a developer founded in 1986 and as such, many franchises were born in the company, some well known, others not so much and among those with more admirers we have Armored Core.
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Born on the first PlayStation in 1997, the series put us in the shoes of a mercenary who acted as the pilot of a mech, a huge robot that served as a weapon and that could be described as a bipedal battle tank. The player would need to carry out missions for different clients, with the money received being able to be used to customize his combat machine.
With its history taking place in the distant future, in it a large part of the world’s population was decimated after an event that became known as “The Great Destruction”. That made the survivors need to live underground for several years and it was in this scenario that two large corporations emerged, Chrome and Murakumo Millennium. With one doing their best to destroy the other, many opportunities have arisen for the Ravens, a group of mercenaries who will accept the highest offer and of which we are a part.
With solid third-person gameplay , Armored Core was praised for offering a high level of mech customization and the title managed to find its audience. Since then, the main series has received 13 chapters, as well as several spin-offs and three remasters. However, the last time we saw the release of a new game was in 2013, when the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 received the only average Armored Core: Verdict Day.
According with producer Masanori Takeuchi, one of the reasons for the franchise having gone through such a hiatus is in the difficulty that companies face in conquering the western audience with mech games. Even admitting that it is necessary to end the concept of creating games for the western or eastern audience, he speculated that the problem would be in the way such robots are seen from this or that side of the world, with the Japanese seeing them as characters, on the contrary. of simple tools.
Anyway, there has been a lot of talk about FromSoftware being dedicated to the development of a new Armored Core and if the a user’s post on ResetEra is correct, we finally have some information about the alleged game. According to him, recently the studio sent him a survey about the title in question and together there were some screenshots and two short videos where it was possible to see a fight against a boss and a tour of the game world.
The person known as Red Liquorice stated that such images had watermarks with their identification, so they chose not to share them. However, she tried to register an image that brought details in text about the new Armored Core and it is possible to have an idea of what was being done.
With the game world having been created by Hidetaka Miyazaki himself (who in case you didn’t know, joined FromSoftware to work on Armored Core: Last Raven), the title will maintain third-person gameplay and promise a “high level of freedom in customizing” mechs. Also according to the research, the idea is to offer a game in which we can participate in combats both at long and short distances, with the player being able to move freely across a vast map.
Armored Core V (Credit: Disclosure/FromSoftware)
Already about what you saw in the videos present at supposed poll by FromSoftware, Red Liquorice described them as follows:
“The boss fight feels very Souls-style — with the long-range firefight reminiscent of Virtua On, which is my reference. I’m not a big fan of mechs and I’ve never played an Armored Core.
Player character in the same white mech approached a larger robot boss and fought with an energy or laser sword, which felt like Souls style. In field gameplay, the player in his white mech appeared to be following some other players from a distance (co-op?) and they were walking (perhaps flying close to the ground) through a snowy area towards a large wall or gate. This also felt like Souls, the vastness of the architecture, but it wasn’t a castle, it was more like a metal/stone wall or gate. It was too short.”
As promising as such a report may be, some care must be taken, as none of this information has been confirmed by FromSoftware. In addition, we are not talking about a leak made by some of the people connected to the industry who usually bring this type of news. In fact, we don’t even know for sure who it is.
Still, I confess that I was excited by what was said and how FromSoftware has changed levels since the last release Armored Core, I’m very curious to see what they are preparing for the next game. I just hope that the title is not exclusive to a console and that this time the PC is also on the list of supported platforms. The world needs to know this great franchise and as it was stuck there in the seventh generation of consoles, with its games not even being backwards compatible, it would be great to see it return.
Source: Eurogamer