Daemon X Machina is like if you took Armored Core, took most of the clunky and obtuse things out of the combat and put it all right back into the writing and narrative planning.
(More below)
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I think everything worth talking about with Daemon X Machina (DXM for short) can be summed up into several broad categories:
– The ways in which DXM borrows and innovates on Armored Cores format.
– DXMs sharp and striking presentation and art direction
– DXMs sort of uninspired vision for the "body" of its content
– The writing and what I can only describe as "anime bullshit"
With those things in mind I like to ask 4 questions about the game...
o
What is Fun about Daemon X Machina?
DXM is what you could call an “Armored Core-like”, it borrows general gameplay concepts like Armored Cores mission structure and design as well as its mech customization in large part (You can equip several sets of weapons for both hands, heavy shoulder mounted weapons, lots of similar armor stats and functions, etc)
DXM makes quite a few contributions on top of this that enhance QoL a fair bit - things like flying not requiring energy, several kinds of mech-agnostic powerups and abilities that recharge easily, as well as ammo and weapons and even healing and explosive objects scattered around missions to make players more autonomous. Armored Core missions were sometimes battles of attrition so this is a positive change.
The issue DXM has is that it has worse mission design overall. Not as much variety in the shape of levels or the types of missions, and as many as half or two-thirds of the encounters are fakeouts and might waste your time and resources if taken seriously. One or two missions are genuinely exciting but 80% of DXM is on par with Armored Cores most pedestrian (boring) missions.
Bosses are a mixed bag - on one hand they are not the giant death walls that might burn you down in 30 seconds like in Armored Core, but on the other hand they still feature some awkward sensabilities of their own. Things like emphasis on physically ramming into you, a penchant for leaving the playable space frequently for not-insignificant amounts of time, and just some general clunky and spammy behaviors. Armored Core was also unique in having really dangerous, foreboding bosses and some of that is lost in having more traditional boss fights.
o
What is Daemon X Machinas Vibe?
One word I would use to describe DXM is “sleek”. Theres alot of crisp sharp modern UI, almost all the robot components feature smooth race car appeal, and the color red features prominently in alot of the design. Theres some nice space sci-fi atmosphere going on, with imagery of part of the moon crashing to the surface of the planet and looming gutted in the sky. The “moonfall” as its called has introduced environment-altering energy to the surface, creating red stalagmites, blue forests, and even inverted-white deserts. DXM is a very striking red-neon mecha wasteland of orange vistas and red oceans.
“Sleek” does not apply to anyone who lives in this world tho. The major corporations that vie for control of the wild frontier all talk to you as if they are trying to sell you weight loss supplements, all your fellow mercs in this high-tech modern world sometimes form companies with each other over their mutual interests of pretending to be 19th century english royals, and almost everyone has only one singular personality trait (such as “guy who likes playing cards alot”).
And unfortunately, this quality also deeply impacts the interactions characters have with each other and also the greater motivations of the plot at large. For such a dangerous, grizzled line of work everyone talks to each other like they have the worldview of a 15 year old. Anime has this problem in general but in DXM the way its written and presented really infantilizes the world and makes these characters seem like they are an aliens 2nd-hand interpretation of what humans might be like. Whats more, is that it means nothing actually important ever really happens. The stakes have never been lower, the game tells you things are serious but shows you an 8th grade playground. Its Shakespeare written by an AI, as performed by clowns.
But the robot designs tend to deliver, and for the 10-15 minutes where they steal the spotlight, they really bring the sleekness back in focus.
o
What is Impressive about Daemon X Machina
As a game taking considerable influence and aping another (notably niche) franchise, the ways in which DXM innovates are minor and localized. Considering that tho, I think DXMs changes are very thoughtful, and it really conveys that the devs had strong ideas about what they thought needed to change to Armored Cores original formula. Good design is always admirable and its often difficult to make the right changes, even when theyre small.
This understanding definitely does not translate into the extremely hacky writing tho, and it makes me really wonder why the devs didnt observe Armored Cores story elements in quite the same way as they did its gameplay elements. More than just departing from Armored Core tho, the writing commits some serious literary and ludonarrative faux pauxs.
Like, more often than not the battle banter is so long winded that you will likely cut it off by progressing “too fast”, and so many encounters with other Arsenal (mech) pilots are scripted to be unwinnable because exposition in cutscenes and text-comms is more important than letting a more kinetic battle drama play out. Dialogue is often more than half the duration of a mission because the game has a small army of narrative twists it desperately wants to employ, despite not having set anything up to earn it.
This becomes so bad that the game actually experiences an anti-climax, the last 25-33% of the game is easily the most middling and incohesive part of the game from all angles. Narrative, design, pacing, gameplay, all of it - and thats just not what you want for your game. It should be the best part, thats why its called the climax.
o
What is Interesting about Daemon X Machina
“Interesting” is a bit of a wild card concept, cuz whats interesting about your game might not always be intentional. I think as an Armored Core fan, it is relatively interesting to see a new take on its format, especially without fundamentally changing its genre. Its not very often you see more incremental experimentation with a concept, too many changes and it might be hard to really compare the end result.
As sabotaging as I think the writing is to otherwise promising premise, to some extent thats also mildly interesting: how can a set of creators get some things so right and other things so wrong? Its not the kind of “interesting” you might recommend to someone else but its important to ponder, what was the blindspot here? Clearly their design process could result in good changes, and alot of the decisions about presentation and UX are high quality. Its evident that there are talented people who worked on this game - so what the hell happened to the characters? Was there no workshopping there? Theres a morbid curiosity to the breakdown of it.
And unfortunately at the end of the day, thats all thats memorable about DXM. Its either its contributions to Armored Core or the state of its writing - maybe the most frustrating part about it is even if you took the core concepts and just wrote them better somehow, the game would still not be saying anything interesting. Its shooting for a Participation Trophy in all the subjects it broaches and it just doesnt evoke a strong overall image in your mind. It honestly ends up feeling like the ultimate goal for the devs was just to achieve Anime as an Aesthetic, the Anime Je Ne Sais Quoi. The Anime Bullshit.
o
Closing Thoughts
– I think I can only really recommend DXM to people who are already big fans of Armored Core as this is not an especially interesting mech game.
– Itll be interesting to see if Fromsofts own Armored Core output makes any innovations along the lines of DXM as they seem positive.
– Honorable mention: DXM does feature a competitive PVP system and a basic set of co-op missions but these feel complementary and arent very interesting unless youre in love with the rest of the game.
– Another honorable mention: the bosses in DXM feature a minor mechanic where defeating them earns progress towards unique rewards in a pseudo-Monster Hunter feeling kind of way. I think leaning into that more and centering more game progression around it could have been a more interesting way to fill out the mission list vs the more generic missions they went with (could have been a bigger co-op opportunity as well)
(More below)
v
v
v
v
I think everything worth talking about with Daemon X Machina (DXM for short) can be summed up into several broad categories:
– The ways in which DXM borrows and innovates on Armored Cores format.
– DXMs sharp and striking presentation and art direction
– DXMs sort of uninspired vision for the "body" of its content
– The writing and what I can only describe as "anime bullshit"
With those things in mind I like to ask 4 questions about the game...
o
What is Fun about Daemon X Machina?
DXM is what you could call an “Armored Core-like”, it borrows general gameplay concepts like Armored Cores mission structure and design as well as its mech customization in large part (You can equip several sets of weapons for both hands, heavy shoulder mounted weapons, lots of similar armor stats and functions, etc)
DXM makes quite a few contributions on top of this that enhance QoL a fair bit - things like flying not requiring energy, several kinds of mech-agnostic powerups and abilities that recharge easily, as well as ammo and weapons and even healing and explosive objects scattered around missions to make players more autonomous. Armored Core missions were sometimes battles of attrition so this is a positive change.
The issue DXM has is that it has worse mission design overall. Not as much variety in the shape of levels or the types of missions, and as many as half or two-thirds of the encounters are fakeouts and might waste your time and resources if taken seriously. One or two missions are genuinely exciting but 80% of DXM is on par with Armored Cores most pedestrian (boring) missions.
Bosses are a mixed bag - on one hand they are not the giant death walls that might burn you down in 30 seconds like in Armored Core, but on the other hand they still feature some awkward sensabilities of their own. Things like emphasis on physically ramming into you, a penchant for leaving the playable space frequently for not-insignificant amounts of time, and just some general clunky and spammy behaviors. Armored Core was also unique in having really dangerous, foreboding bosses and some of that is lost in having more traditional boss fights.
o
What is Daemon X Machinas Vibe?
One word I would use to describe DXM is “sleek”. Theres alot of crisp sharp modern UI, almost all the robot components feature smooth race car appeal, and the color red features prominently in alot of the design. Theres some nice space sci-fi atmosphere going on, with imagery of part of the moon crashing to the surface of the planet and looming gutted in the sky. The “moonfall” as its called has introduced environment-altering energy to the surface, creating red stalagmites, blue forests, and even inverted-white deserts. DXM is a very striking red-neon mecha wasteland of orange vistas and red oceans.
“Sleek” does not apply to anyone who lives in this world tho. The major corporations that vie for control of the wild frontier all talk to you as if they are trying to sell you weight loss supplements, all your fellow mercs in this high-tech modern world sometimes form companies with each other over their mutual interests of pretending to be 19th century english royals, and almost everyone has only one singular personality trait (such as “guy who likes playing cards alot”).
And unfortunately, this quality also deeply impacts the interactions characters have with each other and also the greater motivations of the plot at large. For such a dangerous, grizzled line of work everyone talks to each other like they have the worldview of a 15 year old. Anime has this problem in general but in DXM the way its written and presented really infantilizes the world and makes these characters seem like they are an aliens 2nd-hand interpretation of what humans might be like. Whats more, is that it means nothing actually important ever really happens. The stakes have never been lower, the game tells you things are serious but shows you an 8th grade playground. Its Shakespeare written by an AI, as performed by clowns.
But the robot designs tend to deliver, and for the 10-15 minutes where they steal the spotlight, they really bring the sleekness back in focus.
o
What is Impressive about Daemon X Machina
As a game taking considerable influence and aping another (notably niche) franchise, the ways in which DXM innovates are minor and localized. Considering that tho, I think DXMs changes are very thoughtful, and it really conveys that the devs had strong ideas about what they thought needed to change to Armored Cores original formula. Good design is always admirable and its often difficult to make the right changes, even when theyre small.
This understanding definitely does not translate into the extremely hacky writing tho, and it makes me really wonder why the devs didnt observe Armored Cores story elements in quite the same way as they did its gameplay elements. More than just departing from Armored Core tho, the writing commits some serious literary and ludonarrative faux pauxs.
Like, more often than not the battle banter is so long winded that you will likely cut it off by progressing “too fast”, and so many encounters with other Arsenal (mech) pilots are scripted to be unwinnable because exposition in cutscenes and text-comms is more important than letting a more kinetic battle drama play out. Dialogue is often more than half the duration of a mission because the game has a small army of narrative twists it desperately wants to employ, despite not having set anything up to earn it.
This becomes so bad that the game actually experiences an anti-climax, the last 25-33% of the game is easily the most middling and incohesive part of the game from all angles. Narrative, design, pacing, gameplay, all of it - and thats just not what you want for your game. It should be the best part, thats why its called the climax.
o
What is Interesting about Daemon X Machina
“Interesting” is a bit of a wild card concept, cuz whats interesting about your game might not always be intentional. I think as an Armored Core fan, it is relatively interesting to see a new take on its format, especially without fundamentally changing its genre. Its not very often you see more incremental experimentation with a concept, too many changes and it might be hard to really compare the end result.
As sabotaging as I think the writing is to otherwise promising premise, to some extent thats also mildly interesting: how can a set of creators get some things so right and other things so wrong? Its not the kind of “interesting” you might recommend to someone else but its important to ponder, what was the blindspot here? Clearly their design process could result in good changes, and alot of the decisions about presentation and UX are high quality. Its evident that there are talented people who worked on this game - so what the hell happened to the characters? Was there no workshopping there? Theres a morbid curiosity to the breakdown of it.
And unfortunately at the end of the day, thats all thats memorable about DXM. Its either its contributions to Armored Core or the state of its writing - maybe the most frustrating part about it is even if you took the core concepts and just wrote them better somehow, the game would still not be saying anything interesting. Its shooting for a Participation Trophy in all the subjects it broaches and it just doesnt evoke a strong overall image in your mind. It honestly ends up feeling like the ultimate goal for the devs was just to achieve Anime as an Aesthetic, the Anime Je Ne Sais Quoi. The Anime Bullshit.
o
Closing Thoughts
– I think I can only really recommend DXM to people who are already big fans of Armored Core as this is not an especially interesting mech game.
– Itll be interesting to see if Fromsofts own Armored Core output makes any innovations along the lines of DXM as they seem positive.
– Honorable mention: DXM does feature a competitive PVP system and a basic set of co-op missions but these feel complementary and arent very interesting unless youre in love with the rest of the game.
– Another honorable mention: the bosses in DXM feature a minor mechanic where defeating them earns progress towards unique rewards in a pseudo-Monster Hunter feeling kind of way. I think leaning into that more and centering more game progression around it could have been a more interesting way to fill out the mission list vs the more generic missions they went with (could have been a bigger co-op opportunity as well)