Armored Core 6: Fires of Rubicon won't be a Soulslike game, but that could have been very different. In a new interview, FromSofrware director Masaru Yamamura reveals that there were discussions on how Dark Souls, Bloodborne, and Elden Ring could influence the next Armored Core game before it was decided to let the mech series retain its own identity.
Due to this, FromSoft chose not to add a focus on exploration, feeling that this would make it too similar to the likes of Elden Ring. Instead, Yamamura says the team honed in on the unique movement that's possible with mecha-based traversal, something that he says wouldn't work with an Elden Ring-esque open world, or even any game with a human protagonist.
"In the process of developing the sequel, there was an opinion to make it in a different game style," says Yamamura, speaking in an interview with Ruliweb (machine translated from Korean). "However, as a result of discussions, it was concluded that it should not be made into a title centred on movement and exploration, such as the Elden Ring or Soul[s] series."
Despite this, Yamamura is quick to mention that this doesn't mean that the game will be completely linear. He describes the maps in Armored Core 6 as "three-dimensional and high-level", better suiting the unique movement of a mech.
"[The] mecha's three-dimensional and dynamic action was part of the concept from the beginning of development," says Yamamura. "It contains actions that are not possible with human characters. I wanted to make a game that is impossible for humans, such as moving back and forth in the air and charging while shooting."
With this in mind, don't expect to be looking for hidden paths and dodge rolling your way around enemies. Instead, we'll have a very different map, one that appears to focus on verticality.
Thankfully, this lack of influence from the Souls games means we can wave goodbye to another series staple: the poisonous swamps. Finally, we are free. Although admittedly, I'm not sure how a mech would really be affected by them. Oh well, just seeing them in the game would probably be enough to trigger some Elden Ring-related trauma.
We're not too far away from Armored Core's release now, so we can probably expect to see another trailer or gameplay demo soon. There are definitely enough showcases coming up for that to happen. It's set to launch on August 25 of this year, and will be available on Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and PC.