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Dark Souls influence on the future of Armored Core


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So despite having been away for a while, for whatever reason lately I've been on a good ol' AC kick, reminiscing about the old games and anxiously awaiting any kind of news for AC6. And after playing a bunch of Dark Souls and Bloodborne, I got tot thinking what influence the success of those games may have on a future AC title. Do you think it'll be something as simple as DS making FROM such a huge name now, so when a trailer or something gets released people will actually pay attention? They'll see the words "FROM SOFTWARE" on screen and be glued to it, take a look at the cool giant robots blowing crap up, and see the title and go "Oh, Armored Core, I've heard of that but never played it. I didn't know it was from the Dark Souls guys.", at the very least bringing in a whole new mass of players. Or do you think they'll implement certain gameplay mechanics? There are already some similarities, like stamina works just like your generator, rings/runes are optional parts, and even the L-ar,/R-arm dynamic feels familiar to the old games. Conceivably they could introduce an invasion system where, similar to joining certain covenants, accepting a contract for a corporation or faction could cause you to invade or "intercept" other players taking missions against that particular client. Or perhaps reworking the boost/jump/quickboost system to reflect the Souls run/dodge setup?

What do you guys think might be in store for the series now that it's no longer FROMS flagship title?

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I suspect they take the same approach to AC that they always have for in-game design, mainly because FROM is stubborn about that sort of thing (for better or for worse). The design team MIGHT be smarter about it and can produce superior product now from getting reps on the souls stuff and bloodborne but I don't think they're directly borrow anything from those games.

 

Remember that AC5 came out after FROM returned to their roots with the Souls stuff. The game did what it did, and if you want to talk about influence from other games, it'd probably only be the increased focus on online multiplayer as a mechanic/game style.

 

I do think they're finally starting to respect outside voices though. Dark Souls 3 in particular demonstrated From's willingness to change from their decades old stance of "fuck the noise we do what we want". As long as it doesn't turn into full-blown pandering, it can only help.

 

I will say one thing, though. This is more wishful thinking than anything, but it'd be kind of cool if the lesson they took from this is that there are people out there (lots and lots) that FROM's old and original ideas resonate with, and if you just update/modernize/improve upon those without screwing up the core (no pun intended), people will show up for it. Demon's Souls is practically just King's Field recreated with a fresh pair of eyes and for a new generation, but it worked like a fucking charm. And it gave them the guts, and the chops, to go full tilt and make Dark Souls. So If you told me they wanted to take the core (again no pun intended) concepts of AC1 and try to build from there...shit man, you'd have my attention. Even if I never play it as religiously as the other games, I still would have to give them the benefit of the doubt on that.

 

Armored Core 1 was a fucking great game. The rest of them were okay to trash, and we only played them because we saw something special in the pvp that we could bring out and enjoy. AC1 though...man that was a legit game. That's a game FROM should be proud to have made.

Edited by YUNG MASTERLESS GLENCOUR
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So If you told me they wanted to take the core (again no pun intended) concepts of AC1 and try to build from there...shit man, you'd have my attention.

 

Ditto. AC1 with modern graphics, deep story and a line-up of parts that are all relevant. I just want an AC game that looks and feels good to play. I have just had this deep gut feeling that the more complex they have tried to make AC, the less enjoyable it is to play. There was still a bit of an art to creating a good functional AC in the earlier games without the added fluff. Just pick the parts on their merits and go about your business.

 

I would be down for open world too, though. You could totally play AC in a Souls open world. Single player campaign would be a continuous play through, acquiring gear as you go. Bring back the tuning like in previous games but make it unlimited - you acquire some sort of levelling currency as you do in Souls games and spend these on tuning your mech parts. If you reach peak tune for each parameter of each part, so be it! In terms of multiplayer that can be used to determine opponents like in Souls games too - what tuning level your AC is at impacts match making. If you want to go all out, enjoy the grind! Or even immerse yourself more and instead of tuning parts, you level up as a pilot, and these skills reflect on how well the AC performs (sniper rifles have parameter scaling with a dexterity trait, perhaps)?

 

Anyway, I would play the shit out of that game. Just playing individual sorties is a really good way to make the story too stop-start to enjoy. An immersive open world game, dialled back to a PS1/2 era base of mech combat and AC mechanics would be fucking amazing.

 

What do you guys think might be in store for the series now that it's no longer FROMS flagship title?

 

To answer your question, though, I'd probably expect no Souls influence whatsoever. I wouldn't be surprised if the next game was more old school feeling, however.

Edited by Gay Uncle
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