Bandai Namco and developer FromSoftware have released a 12-minute gameplay preview video for the upcoming action game Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon. The narrated video shows several cutscenes, voice lines, combat sections, stages, gameplay elements, and more. Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon will launch on August 25 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC via Steam.
“As the video showcases, success in Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon will come from tinkering with highly customizable mech builds, a signature feature of the series, and learning the right strategies and techniques such as staggering enemies with the right weapons, combining ranged and melee attacks, and taking every advantage in battle.”
Engage in High-Speed Mech Combat
Those whose primary experience with FromSoftware comes from games like Bloodborne or Elden Ring might be curious about what to expect from Armored Core VI.
You play an augmented mercenary piloting a huge, customizable mech. Yet while the pace and structure of mech-piloting action fundamentally differ from other games in the studio’s catalog, players can rest assured that the smooth, responsive controls they’ve come to expect in FromSoftware games is still here–just in a different context. Think giant, heavily equipped robots with the ability to zip around across ground and air, reacting at lightning-fast speeds to attacks and threats while trying to one-up dangerous foes with even more firepower at their disposal.
Rubicon, the Ruined Planet
Armored Core VI is a new story that takes place on the planet Rubicon, where a powerful energy source called “Coral” has been discovered. But this isn’t stuff that looks pretty in aquariums–Coral is extremely volatile, and it’s already caused a massive disaster that nearly turned all of Rubicon to ash many years prior. But those futuristic megacorps just can’t resist the siren song of Coral and continue to war for it to this day.
The various areas of Rubicon are filled with contrasts, as the hollowed-out industrial ruins from the aforementioned disaster smolder beneath a shiny shell of state-of-the-art mining constructs encasing the planet.
“It’s an intricate and multi-layered world, brimming with mega-structures and enormous underground facilities built by its former inhabitants. These structures cover a planetary surface wracked with extreme cold and contamination in the aftermath of the great disaster, and the player will be exploring these various environments as they proceed,” says game director Masaru Yamamura.
The expansive environments will deliver an incredible sense of scale, maintaining the quality we’ve come to expect from FromSoftware’s world-design maestros. And with your Armored Core’s (AC for short) advanced movement skills, you’ll be able to explore these large, open spaces to your heart’s content. You’ll be encountering lots of different scenery and objectives as you advance through the game’s mission-based progression structure (like previous entries).
“There will be missions where you’re fighting across sweeping battlefields–very combat-oriented,” Yamamura explains. “But you’ll sometimes be recovering data logs from wreckage and doing other side objectives too.”
