Is Armored Core 6 a soulslike? What to expect

Armored Core 6: Fires of Rubicon has entered the battlefield. Long-time fans know what to expect, but what about curious newcomers? Is it a soulslike similar to FromSoftware’s other recent titles? Here’s everything you need to know.

Until AC6, FromSoftware hadn’t released a new Armored Core game in a decade. Over that time they’ve cultivated a dedicated fanbase with action RPGs such as the Dark Souls series, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, and Bloodborne.

These games and their unique gameplay stylings have been lovingly dubbed with the catchy amalgam “soulslike” or “soulsborne”. More recently, interest in the soulslike brand of dark fantasy, meticulous storytelling, and precise but punishing gameplay exploded with 2022’s Game of the Year Elden Ring.

Armored Core 6 is Armored Core indeed, but there’s far more to it than just that. To help you out, our explainer will run through the basics.

How Armored Core is Armored Core 6?

Armored Core 6 has all the hallmarks of the series’ predecessors, making it very much an Armored Core game.

Players who have seen the 12-minute gameplay showcase and are familiar with the Armored Core franchise should have no doubt. The footage showed a player engaging with the trademarked linear missions of Armored Core. They’re seen darting around the mission area, blasting enemies with ranged machine guns and missiles in frantic combat.

In an early interview with IGN following the initial announcement of Armored Core 6, FromSoftware President Hidetaka Miyazaki made it clear that their focus was on maintaining the series’ identity. “We’ve not been making a conscious effort to try to direct it towards more Soulsborne-type gameplay,” Miyazaki said.

He explained that Armored Core 6 was about highlighting what makes the franchise special in his eyes, the customization of your mech, and the precise control that it allows. “So we wanted to take those two core concepts and reexamine those in our modern environment,” he said.

What makes Armored Core 6 an Armored Core game?

Title aside, Armored Core 6 maintains many of the series’ key identifiers. It’s set in the usual far-flung, dystopian future ruled by ruthless corporations with no regard for human life.

Players will still pilot mechs (known as Armored Cores) as a mercenary for these corporations and be paid for their services. You still use the payment from these missions to augment your Armored Core with a vast selection of different parts, all of which have a dizzying array of stats and gameplay effects.

The tone and format of Armored Core 6’s storytelling that’s been conveyed through the footage shown feel true to the series. It features core pillars from previous titles including repeatable missions, ranked outcomes to those missions, new missions in new game+, and multiple endings that stem from them.

It’s important to remember that Hidetaka Miyazaki began his career at FromSoftware with the Armored Core series and these games have had a major impact on the soulslike titles. It has still been ten years since an Armored Core release though and in that time, he and his team have learned a thing or two from the soulslike games they crafted.

Are there similarities between soulslike games and Armored Core 6?

Just as easily as you can see the legacy of previous Armored Core titles in Armored Core 6, certain aspects of the soulslike games have crept in. Game Director Masaru Yamamura has openly stated this in the previously quoted IGN interview.

“Boss battles are the highlight of the game in this title,” Yamamura said. “The essence of the battles, in which the player reads the enemy’s moves and then plays games with them, is of course provided, as is typical of FromSoftware.”

Soulsborne players will understand just what he means when he refers to the nature of the game’s boss battles. A new hard lock-on system for these encounters and a notably greater focus on melee weapons is new to the Armored Core franchise but a standard in FromSoftware’s RPGs.

Other recognizable features previously foreign to Armored Core include a timed block system, in-mission checkpoints, and healing kits. FromSoftware-focused content creator VaatiVidya opined that despite the similar mechanics “It still feels a lot like an Armored Core game, even with all those things”.

Will soulslike players be able to enjoy Armored Core 6?

Yes, we’d say that they can. While the game is thematically fargone from ‘traditional’ Souls games and their usual dark, mythical, and fantastical premises, AC6 shares many similar traits and characteristics.

Quoting VaatiVidya again, when the question was posed whether soulslike players would enjoy Armored Core 6, he had this to say: “Yes, I think they will because while this is a very different genre of game, it’s also the first Armored Core game to have a lot in common with the Souls games.”

“It absolutely makes the game more accessible for Souls fans and any modern gamer in general,” he concluded.

We hope our guide has cleared these details up for you. For more on AC6, we have many other guides down below:

Armored Core 6 PC requirements | Is Armored Core 6 open world? | Does Armored Core 6 have multiplayer? | Is Armored Core 6 coming to Nintendo Switch? | Armored Core 6 pre-order bonus & edition differences | Is Armored Core 6 coming to Xbox Game Pass? | Does Armored Core 6 have crossplay?