Armored Core 6 Won’t Be Open-World, Will Use A Classic Mission-Based Design

The first new entry in the series in over a decade, Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon is headed to PC, PlayStation, and Xbox sometime in 2023. While you can expect From Software’s next title to have giant robot fights that you’ll have to prepare your mech for, Armored Core VI won’t be an open-world experience in the same vein as Elden Ring and will instead be sticking to the mission-based design that its predecessors used.

Speaking to IGN, From Software president Hidetaka Miyazaki explained that the decision to use a mission-based structure came down to the studio wanting to emphasize the high level of customization that players will have available to them before they start exploring the devastated world of Rubicon, instead of making a sci-fi Souls-like.

“We felt that the mission-based structure was a benefit for this because it allows you to choose and customize before each sortie,” Miyazaki said. “At the very least, the tempo–the pace at which the player is able to move across the world and traverse the map–this is a very big aspect in how you approach this design. I think one of the big appeal points of the previous Armored Core games is having this freedom to choose how you’re going to move across the map and how your choices are going to affect your mobility and your ability once you’re actually in the level. This is the format we wanted to choose this time, and this is where we wanted to put our focus.”

The benefit to From Software returning to Armored Core after spending several years on games such as Dark Souls and Elden Ring is that the studio will be able to leverage new technologies to make each mecha look like a highly detailed mass of steel and firepower. “Obviously, the mecha theme of Armored Core VI means we are portraying these enormous hunks of steel, and we’re supposed to imagine how these things would move and how they’d be put together, the various joints, how these all sort of move in conjunction with one another and how we make this look cool–in a gameplay sense as well,” game director Masaru Yamamura said.

While it doesn’t have a concrete release date yet, Armored Core VI will arrive during a very busy year on the gaming calendar that includes other heavyweight titles such as Tekken 8, Street Fighter 6, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, and Final Fantasy XVI.