FromSoftware: a successful factory
For years, video games coming out of the studio Japanese FromSoftware are particularly recognizable. These are very (even too?) demanding titles, often set in dark-fantasy where humanity has less chance of survival. The titles produced by “FromSoft” are also often a guarantee of quality: their awards in recent years bear witness to this. Dark Souls 3 was nominated for Best Game of the Year in 2015 (lost to The Witcher 3), while Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice and Elden Ring got the Grail in 2019 and 2022 respectively.
Rebelote in 2023? The future will tell us but the year is particularly dense in terms of big releases. Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon, the latest addition to studio Japanese, must confront titles like tears of the Kingdom, Starfield, Baldur’s Gate 3, Diablo IV or even Hogwarts Legacy. And all that without counting the games to come. On paper, it is difficult to make a place among these market behemoths. However, this does not mean that AC 6 is a bad game, far from it. It shares with other FromSoftware creations an excellent score on metacritic (86 and 88 on PS5 and PC).
And I hear the train whistle
However, we haven’t mentioned another “trademark” of FromSoftware games. Available for the majority of them on PC (ha, Bloodborne…), FS games are subject to the most creative mods: a tool that allows you to make your own changes to the title. What to add technical functionalities (the possibility of redoing the boss in Elden Ring for example) but also aesthetic. The latter often amuses the web and with Armored Core VI, a running gag has been perpetrated: that of transforming boss or mechanical parts in Thomas the Train. It is in this case who had fun replacing the EL-TL-11 FORTALEZA legs with this cartoon character.
The more observant will have noticed the pilot in the cabin: it is CJ, directly from GTA: San Andreas. A character thaton often found in the creations of modders (this could have been the case for Stray for example). Insofar as it is possible for players to customize their mech in a pushy way, they undoubtedly take a nasty delight in combining the craziest aesthetic mods. So it’s only a matter of time before we see Shrek on board.
Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon is available since August 25 on PC, Playstation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series and Xbox One.
