Elden Ring developer FromSoftware’s revival of the Armored Core franchise launches this summer. The latest trailer for Armored Core 6: Fires of Rubicon confirms an Aug. 25 launch date for the game, while also showing off first gameplay and cryptically teasing its story.
An official description of that story makes everything much clearer. Here’s the setup for Armored Core 6: Fires of Rubicon, from publisher Bandai Namco:
A mysterious new substance called “Coral” was discovered on the remote planet, Rubicon 3. As an energy source, this substance was expected to dramatically advance humanity’s technological and communications capabilities. Instead, it caused a catastrophe that engulfed the planet and the surrounding stars in flames and storms, forming a Burning Star System. Almost half a century later, Coral has resurfaced on Rubicon 3, a planet now contaminated and sealed off by the catastrophe. Extra-terrestrial corporations and resistance groups fight over control of the substance. The player infiltrates Rubicon as an independent mercenary and finds themselves in a struggle over the substance with the corporations and other factions.
Armored Core 6: Fires of Rubicon was officially unveiled in December. The developer promises that the new Armored Core won’t just be a Soulsborne game with mecha. FromSoftware president Hidetaka Miyazaki said last year that his company is taking “a good look at the core concept of Armored Core and what made that series special,” applying its recent game development experience and “reexamining it together with those core concepts of Armored Core.”
Bandai Namco says players will control “highly mobile and highly customisable mechas” in Armored Core 6. The game’s “fast-paced battles” can only be overcome, the publisher said, by “master[ing] rapidly changing combat distances, using the environment for protective cover, and omni-directional battles to overcome challenging enemies and situations.”
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice director Masaru Yamamura is helming the new Armored Core. He says Armored Core 6 “share[s] the same essence of battle such as aggressive, speed change and action-oriented fighting” with FromSoft’s samurai-action game.
Armored Core 6: Fires of Rubicon is coming to PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows PC (via Steam), Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.
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