El Armored Core de Hacendado, pero te lo fumas.
Daemon X Machina is an action game released by Marvelous for Nintendo Switch and PC in 2019. The only difference between the NS and PC release is that on PC the game runs more smoothly, of course. As the game isn't graphically demanding, you will have no problems running this game above 90 fps at all.
You're playing as an avatar (Outer) who is using a highly customisable mech (Arsenal) to accomplish your mission. Since you're practically a mercenary, you will engage in various missions ordered by different consortium nations operating within the Oval Link (a barrier to contain Femto particles (particles that fell to the planet when the moon broke apart during the Moonfall)).
Missions mostly consist of defeating Immortals, but the further you go through the game, the more you'll engage with other mercenaries as different consortium nations have different objectives. Overall the missions are divided into 5 ranks, each rank increasing the difficulty. I felt that at least half of the missions weren't intriguing enough, practically I went several times on the Fandom site to check how many missions I have yet to finish to get access to the higher rank.
The story also isn't really interesting at the beginning and there is barely some story until the last rank. Between some missions, you get several story-related cutscenes which raise the feeling that something is coming, but none of it is presented before you get access to the last rank's missions. Half of the game I wasn't even sure if whatever other mercenaries were talking before and after the mission, was important. One more reason it was hard to understand the story, especially at the beginning, is because of how many mercenaries you meet, not realising that almost none of them has a major impact on the story.
The best part of this game is the combat (gameplay) and the mech customisation options. On the battlefield, you can bring up to 4 different weapons (I recommend equipping all slots since in boss fights you'll probably end up without ammo near the end), a shoulder weapon and an auxiliary. There are also decals which further increase the customisation options but keeping in mind that you'll watch the back of your Arsenal, I see no use of them.
The shop is used to buy and sell equipment, mostly to sell them since the buy option isn't used as much as in other games. The only thing you can buy is processors, the only thing you can't loot from defeated AIs and other mercenaries's Arsenals (mechs). You can also craft better weapons, which require the base weapon and a material used to augment it.
Most of the earned currency in the game (you're a mercenary, so, you're paid after every mission) you're gonna use it to buy skills from the Lab section found in the main hub, which according to the description are either for you Outer or Arsenal.
I forgot to mention that you also can leave your Arsenal (that's why there are two different skill sections) when it's heavily damaged. You are not as powerful as if you were in your Arsenal, but some missions will demand you not to use your Arsenal, but to engage on foot.
All in all a game that concentrates more on the gameplay than on the story itself. To sum up, the game is decent, but the quality isn't still there yet to call this game great.
You're playing as an avatar (Outer) who is using a highly customisable mech (Arsenal) to accomplish your mission. Since you're practically a mercenary, you will engage in various missions ordered by different consortium nations operating within the Oval Link (a barrier to contain Femto particles (particles that fell to the planet when the moon broke apart during the Moonfall)).
Missions mostly consist of defeating Immortals, but the further you go through the game, the more you'll engage with other mercenaries as different consortium nations have different objectives. Overall the missions are divided into 5 ranks, each rank increasing the difficulty. I felt that at least half of the missions weren't intriguing enough, practically I went several times on the Fandom site to check how many missions I have yet to finish to get access to the higher rank.
The story also isn't really interesting at the beginning and there is barely some story until the last rank. Between some missions, you get several story-related cutscenes which raise the feeling that something is coming, but none of it is presented before you get access to the last rank's missions. Half of the game I wasn't even sure if whatever other mercenaries were talking before and after the mission, was important. One more reason it was hard to understand the story, especially at the beginning, is because of how many mercenaries you meet, not realising that almost none of them has a major impact on the story.
The best part of this game is the combat (gameplay) and the mech customisation options. On the battlefield, you can bring up to 4 different weapons (I recommend equipping all slots since in boss fights you'll probably end up without ammo near the end), a shoulder weapon and an auxiliary. There are also decals which further increase the customisation options but keeping in mind that you'll watch the back of your Arsenal, I see no use of them.
The shop is used to buy and sell equipment, mostly to sell them since the buy option isn't used as much as in other games. The only thing you can buy is processors, the only thing you can't loot from defeated AIs and other mercenaries's Arsenals (mechs). You can also craft better weapons, which require the base weapon and a material used to augment it.
Most of the earned currency in the game (you're a mercenary, so, you're paid after every mission) you're gonna use it to buy skills from the Lab section found in the main hub, which according to the description are either for you Outer or Arsenal.
I forgot to mention that you also can leave your Arsenal (that's why there are two different skill sections) when it's heavily damaged. You are not as powerful as if you were in your Arsenal, but some missions will demand you not to use your Arsenal, but to engage on foot.
All in all a game that concentrates more on the gameplay than on the story itself. To sum up, the game is decent, but the quality isn't still there yet to call this game great.
If I was ever going to play a mech game, I'm not playing the one by the Souls team, I'm playing the one by the Harvest Moon team!
Mechs in general don't really do much for me, so I was wary that the game might be unapproachable and overcomplicated, but I think this game strikes a pretty good balance for a “casual+” like me. There's also decent mission and landscape variety, and the early missions are fairly short and forgiving. I think using the trigger buttons was a smart way to design the combat of this game, however playing this in handheld mode or with joycons does not feel great. This game feels like it was designed to be sat in front of a screen with a pro controller or with the game’s custom handheld peripheral… not really designed for the vanilla Switch experience.
While this game is generally adequate all around, it struggles to maintain my interest too much or pull me back in after I set it down. The story doesn't have much intrigue. It introduces a ton of characters, so that you can later unlock them as teammates, but as a result you don't really feel connected to any of them. it’s hard to tell what the actual stakes are, and the enemies are undefined AIs without a clear motivation. There are some named enemies but the game has you destroy them at the end of each mission, so it does not feel personal. The progression is also slow and incremental, I don’t feel much different after an hour or two of playing. Overall it’s somewhat disappointing as a RPGish experience, but I’m ok with it being the type of game I can passively absorb over a long period of time, without needing to focus on. This isn’t a game I feel a need to finish or see everything, I can just chip away at if I ever want to jump back into a mech suit.
Mechs in general don't really do much for me, so I was wary that the game might be unapproachable and overcomplicated, but I think this game strikes a pretty good balance for a “casual+” like me. There's also decent mission and landscape variety, and the early missions are fairly short and forgiving. I think using the trigger buttons was a smart way to design the combat of this game, however playing this in handheld mode or with joycons does not feel great. This game feels like it was designed to be sat in front of a screen with a pro controller or with the game’s custom handheld peripheral… not really designed for the vanilla Switch experience.
While this game is generally adequate all around, it struggles to maintain my interest too much or pull me back in after I set it down. The story doesn't have much intrigue. It introduces a ton of characters, so that you can later unlock them as teammates, but as a result you don't really feel connected to any of them. it’s hard to tell what the actual stakes are, and the enemies are undefined AIs without a clear motivation. There are some named enemies but the game has you destroy them at the end of each mission, so it does not feel personal. The progression is also slow and incremental, I don’t feel much different after an hour or two of playing. Overall it’s somewhat disappointing as a RPGish experience, but I’m ok with it being the type of game I can passively absorb over a long period of time, without needing to focus on. This isn’t a game I feel a need to finish or see everything, I can just chip away at if I ever want to jump back into a mech suit.