We just had a massive event that wrapped up the year for the video game industry. The Game Awards was just held this past week, and a slew of announcements came with it. Just like previous events, The Game Awards 2022 was full of new game premiere announcements along with new teasers for already unveiled games. One of those announcements that came as a surprise was Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon. The folks over at FromSoftware are bringing out a new thrilling installment to the franchise years after the last title launched. But don’t expect this game to follow the Soulsborne trend.
There were not too many gamers out there, likely expecting Armored Core to get another video game installment. The last installment we received from the franchise was Armored Core: Verdict Day which launched back on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in 2013. That game installment received some mixed reviews, and since then, FromSoftware has moved on with several notable title releases. In fact, this year, they took home the Game of the Year award with Elden Ring. But if you thought FromSoftware would turn Armored Core into a similar gameplay style as Dark Souls and Elden Ring, you’re wrong. Hidetaka Miyazaki spoke to IGN, confirming that they are not actively working on the Armored Core franchise to feel like a Soulsborne type of Game.
No, we’ve not been making a conscious effort to try to direct it towards more Soulsborne type gameplay. First of all, let me just make that clear.
The essential direction of [Armored Core VI] was to go back and take a good look at the core concept of Armored Core and what made that series special. So we wanted to take the assembly aspect, assembling and customizing your own mech — your AC — and then being able to exact a high level of control over the assembled mech. So we wanted to take those two core concepts and reexamine those in our modern environment.
Hidetaka Miyazaki stated that the development team went back to the Armored Core franchise and took note of what made that series special. To Miyazaki, one of the appeals is the ability to assemble mechs freely. Players can then charge into battle as they attempt to fight off the enemy targets. We know that the upcoming Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon will be directed by Masaru Yamamura, who previously directed Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, but there won’t be any elements directly referring to Sekiro, according to Miyazaki.
So it looks like this will be an Armored Core game that fans of the franchise will be used to playing. While the essence of the gameplay will likely remain intact, there is one notable change. During the IGN interview, Miyazaki said that when he directed Armored Core 4, there was a completely different level of resources and cost for the game development. Now with this installment, there is apparently a significantly larger budget and resources available, which Hidetaka Miyazaki admits to being jealous of for the Game who gets to make this new game installment.