Director Masaru Yamamura says it’s about customizing mechs and “how it affects your play because that’s what makes the series so compelling.”

With so many big games releasing this year, and even this month, it’s easy to forget that FromSoftware’s Armored Core 6: Fires of Rubicon is out in August. It offers a clean slate with its story but still carries the series’ penchant for extensive customization. Though it’s not open-world like Elden Ring, there was some discussion among the team about making the mech combat title a “different game style.”

In a new interview with RuliWeb (translation via DeepL), director Masaru Yamamura said, “When we were developing the sequel, there was some discussion about making it a different game style. However, after much discussion, we decided that we didn’t want to make a title centered on movement and exploration like the Elder Scrolls or Souls series.

“At the end of the day, the Armored Core series is all about how you assemble your character’s movement and how it affects your play because that’s what makes the series so compelling. It’s designed to make you think about how fast you can move through jumps and boosters, and the combination of those parts will determine how high you can reach and how fast you can go.

“In this respect, we felt that the exploration aspect of Armored Core’s gameplay was not a good fit. This led us to conclude that Armored Core 6 would be more of a mission-based experience using Assembly.”

However, there’s still plenty to enjoy about the movement, especially since levels are fairly large. “You’ll still find the same style of dynamically moving around a three-dimensional map with several elevation changes. We hope you enjoy this aspect. I think you’ll find a different kind of enjoyment in moving around and exploring the nooks and crannies of a well-crafted map,” said Yamamura.

Armored Core 6: Fires of Rubicon is out on August 25th for Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5 and PC. FromSoftware doesn’t consider it a Soulsborne-style game, but you can still expect a “stiff challenge” with boss battles being “extremely dynamic.” The Arena also returns, allowing players to take on a variety of opponents, and there are even multiple endings to unlock. Stay tuned for more details and gameplay en route to release.