Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon is reportedly set to release on August 25. Indeed, according to Insider Gaming, FromSoftware’s mech-crunching title remains within its 2023 release window, following a possible June reveal. The news comes in the wake of Armored Core 6 being given an age rating of 12+ in South Korea for its brutality – “expression of attacks and explosions with various weapons” (translated via Google). Of course, other regions will impose different ratings depending on their own opinion of what is considered appropriate, but updates like this add credibility to the reported Summer 2023 (Global North) release window.
FromSoftware revealed a theatrical trailer for Armored Core 6: Fires of Rubicon at The Game Awards 2022, before confirming in an IGN interview that the game would not lean into the studio’s traditional soul-like structure. Rumors from earlier this year suggested it was eyeing a September to October release window, though Insider Gaming’s sources point to a closer date. Armored Core is one of FromSoftware’s early franchises, with the upcoming entry pitting mecha robots against each other in a dystopian post-apocalyptic world, to claim control of a mysterious source of energy. Players assemble and control their mechs with ‘3D maneuverability’ to take part in fast-paced missions involving ranged and melee combat.
If you look at footage from past games, you’d quickly notice the erratic camera controls and clunky movements. So hopefully FromSoftware’s years of experience with titles like Dark Souls 3, Bloodborne, and the award-winning Elden Ring will help revive it for modern platforms. President Hidetaka Miyazaki confirmed in September 2016 that Armored Core 6 was in development, giving it more than six years to cook. Masaru Yamamura, game designer on 2019’s Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, is the director, while Miyazaki sits in the back of the project – or rather, focuses on the Elden Ring DLC. As for the mechanics of Sekiro being transferred to AC6, Yamamura alluded to a posture-breaking mechanic by dealing large amounts of damage. However, it is not aimed at counterattacking or parrying.
“Instead of calling it a counter mechanism, we want to emphasize that this is a reason to continue attacking and continuing the offensive,” he said in an interview. “You want to create opportunities for yourself in battles and turn the battle in favor of the player. So we think this is going to create a really nice back-and-forth in combat in Armored Core VI, creating this nice mix of offensive and defensive play… but we want the player to feel like they’re constantly capable to put pressure on the enemy and that is why we built in some of these systems.”
Earlier this year, FromSoftware also announced the major expansion for Elden Ring, Shadow of the Erdtree, which is currently in development for all platforms. At the time, the studio dropped a teaser image showing dimly lit landscapes and a mysterious figure, who is speculated to be Miquella, brother of the Empyrean goddess Malenia, cursed to remain a child forever. The game also got its long-promised ray-tracing support last month, though there are no upscaling options for Nvidia and AMD graphics cards.
Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon is out on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series S/X.
