Armored Core makes a comeback after 10 years

FromSoftware, the developer behind the popular Dark Souls series and Elden Ring, is bringing back a classic franchise that hasn’t had a release in over ten years

Armored Core VI is the first game in the Armored Core Series in over ten years. Picture: FromSoftware

The Game Awards brought many surprises, but perhaps none were as surprising as FromSoftware announcing that it would be bringing back the series that made it famous.

A new trailer debuted at The Game Awards showing off a brand new title in the Armored Core series, called Armored Core VI Fires of Rubicon. It’s the next game in the series that skyrocketed FromSoftware, the developer behind games like Dark Souls and Elden Ring, to fame and recognition.

The Armored Core series started in 1997, with the first game releasing on the original PlayStation. It’s a series of third-person shooter action games focused around giant mechanical robots known as “Armored Cores”.

The just-announced Armored Core VI seems to look a lot like those old games, but FromSoftware says that things will be a little different this time, with the new game taking inspiration from recent games like Elden Ring. Here’s what the company has to say:

“Signature to FromSoftware’s carefully crafted game design, the game will feature challenging and memorable battles along with a fulfilling progression system and deep gameplay, all of it now powered by assembling mechs and going into combat with massive bosses. Players will recognize the sense of satisfaction and achievement when they overcome a difficult situation and relish momentary victory, and perhaps a boost to their standing, before encountering the next challenge.”

FromSoftware says that this will be a “unique entry” in the mech action game genre, but that’s not really saying much — it’s a genre that tends to be pretty light on releases. Still, if the studio’s recent releases are anything to go by, fans are in for a real treat.

Armored Core is the series that made Elden Ring developer FromSoftware famous. Picture: FromSoftware

The news came shortly before FromSoftware’s latest game, Elden Ring, was crowned as Game of the Year at The Game Awards. It wasn’t without drama, though, as a gatecrasher was arrested after taking to the stage and accepting an award, adding on a bizarre tirade about former US president Bill Clinton.

It wasn’t the only unusual thing to happen at the awards show. Death Stranding 2 was announced at The Game Awards, and it debuted with an extraordinarily strange trailer that prompts more questions than it answers, in typical Hideo Kojima fashion.

Written by Oliver Brandt on behalf of GLHF.