For a while now, FromSoftware has been trying to distance Armored Core 6: Fires of Rubicon from the rest of its work, stressing to its fans that haven't played an Armored Core game yet that it's very different to titles like Dark Souls or Elden Ring. This hasn't stopped fans of the Soulsborne series from making comparisons wherever they can find them though, and a group of Sekiro players are now poking fun at the title for introducing what sounds like a posture system, dubbing the game "Mechiro" as a result.
In an article on the PlayStation Blog, shared by well known Dark Souls YouTuber Zullie the Witch (thanks GamesRadar), Armored Core 6 game director Masaru Yamamura goes into the various combat features that will be included in the game. The one raising the eyebrows of Sekiro fans is a newly introduced "Stagger" mechanic, which encourages players to pressure enemies with attacks to make their Armored Core overload and leave them vulnerable.
If you consider yourself a Sekiro fan, then this should immediately be setting off alarm bells in your head. For those who've never played the game before, it features a similar mechanic called the "Posture" system, which encourages players to constantly attack and parry to overwhelm an opponent and open up them up for a fatal strike. You can't help but notice the similarities between Armored Core 6's stagger mechanic and Sekiro's posture mechanic, and it seems like the Sekiro fanbase couldn't either.
In the replies to Zullie's tweet, you'll find plenty of Sekrio fans already dubbing Armored Core 6 as "Mechiro", though it's mostly in a light-hearted manner. We also get one person going against the grain and calling the game "Sekirobo", an excellent pun that makes the Armored Core series sound a lot cuter than it actually is. Zullie themself also brings up the fact that director Masaru Yamamura was the lead game designer for Sekiro as well, really driving home those comparisons even further.
Obviously, if you go into Armored Core 6 expecting a Sekiro clone, then you're going to end up perishing in a ball of flaming metal. If you want a better idea of how the game plays before launch, FromSoftware recently released the title's first gameplay trailer, in which it also revealed that it will launch on August 25 later this year.