Armored Core VI Fires of Rubicon producer Yasutaka Ogura shared how the team has changed since the last release ten years ago. Ogura recently attended the Taipei Game Show and spoke during an hour-long Armored Core segment about how the FromSoftware team was affected after working on souls-like games and then moving on to the next installment of the mech franchise.
From Yasutaka Ogura (via PCGamesN)
“As ten years have passed between [Armored Core] titles, we at FromSoftware had developed so many other titles in the interim from Dark Souls 2 to Bloodborne, Dark Souls 3, and of course, others like Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice and most recently of all Elden Ring. All of which changed us.”
“The experience and know-how that our game designers and developers built up through these titles were able to be made use of in [Armored Core 6],” Ogura continues.
Bandai Namco reinforces this sentiment with the following for the forthcoming game on its store page.
“Based on the knowledge gained during joint development of their recent titles, Bandai Namco Entertainment and FromSoftware seek to deliver a new action game.
By combining FromSoftware’s longstanding expertise in mech games and their signature robust gameplay, ARMORED CORE VI FIRES OF RUBICON will be a new action experience.”
The full interview with Yasutaka Ogura, including subtitles, has been made available online.
Bandai Namco formally announced Armored Core VI Fires of Rubicon in December 2022 and is planned to launch in 2023 for PC and consoles. Screenshots from a consumer survey had been leaked in January 2022 that showed some new mech designs and environments but we have some official 4K screenshots from a press kit.
Story Overview
“A mysterious new substance was discovered on the remote planet, Rubicon 3.
As an energy source, this substance was expected to dramatically advance humanity’s technological and communications capabilities. Instead, this substance caused a catastrophe that engulfed the planet and the surrounding stars in flames and storms, forming a Burning Star System.
Almost a half-century later . . .
The same substance resurfaced on Rubicon 3, a planet now contaminated and sealed off by the catastrophe. Extra-terrestrial corporations and resistance groups fight over the control of the substance.
A struggle over the substance
The player infiltrates Rubicon as an independent mercenary and finds themself in a struggle over the substance with the corporations and other factions.“
Discussion (10 replies)
Join Discussion →I just hope they don't bring the frustrating nature of those games into it. I don't want to be rekt by a game, I want to enjoy it.
Yea I might avoid it if that's the case. I bought into Elden ring and put maybe 10 hours in before I said I was done with this crapfest.
Yeah, other than all the hype for the sales records my desire to try Elden Ring continues to lessen, and it wasn't that great to begin with.
I have a suspicion that souls like games are like being in a gourmet restaurant pretending to like the food because everybody else seems to like it, but it turns out everyone is just pretending for the same reason.
Never cared for a single Souls-like game, so FromSoftware was always an Armored Core company to me, even though they haven't busted out one in a long time. Glad they finally are. However I will probably give Elden Ring a try, cuz two friends I have who absolutely do not care for games like this ended up going through the whole game and enjoying it. Very strange indeed, so I suppose I shall have to at least check it out for myself. Besides, I never outright dismiss games until I've gotten hands-on with them.
You have to though, I mean you can't play every game, some has to be dismissed outright.
I'll be very curious to hear your take on it.
That is the best explanation of Dark Soul’s odd popularity that I have seen to date. I think, sir, that you have squarely nailed it.
My son absolutely loves the Souls games as well as Sekiro and yet he had a horrible time getting through Elden Ring. He forced himself to finish the game finally but it took months for him to do it because it bored him and he quit playing it multiple times.
I can understand the draw of a game like that but it's not something I enjoy and I avoid it at all costs. I think of them as the equivalent of the Battletoads NES sewer race segment and you keep doing it over and over until you have it memorized and beat that part. Then the next part is the same thing except the path is different so you need to memorize a new one. And that's basically what the whole game is. Constant frustration is not my idea of fun.
I have played one game which is sort of "souls-like" but it wasn't designed to be frustrating, has more story and was designed with multiple difficulty levels. I played on story difficulty because I wanted to play the game, not play frustration even if the game is nowhere near as difficult as the actual souls games. It was overall an enjoyable game even if the story wasn't as in-depth as I would have liked. I probably could have played through on normal difficulty but didn't see the point.
"Souls-style" games can be fun but it needs a difficulty slider to have a chance for it being fun for a larger audience.
And I have no doubt that the dev team has a completely different mindset considering they've done little more than souls games for a decade. I wouldn't expect much from a game from them that isn't a souls game at this point. I could be wrong but certain habits become ingrained.
Amen brotha.
I have a lot of trouble trying to figure out why people find Souls-like games so fun. I do NOT like how much influence they have over the game industry these days. Developers seem to love them too, and elements of such games end up in too many other games.
Oh gawd, the traumatic memories! That underground area on those hoverbikes was one of the worst - if not THE worst - video game levels of all time!!! And later BattleToads games (like the 2nd game on SNES, Battlemaniacs) had similar levels. Fun fact: using both emulator save states and Game Genie codes, I STILL could not beat BattleToads 1! The closest I got was the second-to-last level, where you are hanging on to those single-wheel-with-handlebars vehicles. And by the time I got to this level, I am pretty sure I knocked years off my total lifespan, and the number of white hairs on my head went up in number exponentially.
You make a very good point there. I will certainly be very cautious in my approach to Armored Core 6.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA yeah I guess you have a point too. I suppose what I meant is, I can't say I don't (or do) like a game until I get hands-on with it.