Here are some media excerpts from an alternate universe in which, instead of starting work on Elden Ring in 2017, Yamamura and Miyazaki started working on Armored Core VI, and spent six years developing a monster version of the game that included the presence of Drich. Enjoy!
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EuroGamer
Armored Core VI: Embers of Rubicon Review: FromSoftware's Magnum Opus
Since the release of the Dark Souls III Ringed City DLC in 2017, Hidetaka Miyazaki and Masaru Yamamura have worked on the grand return to FromSoftware's long running Armored Core series. The projects Sekiro and Elden Order served as continuations of the Souls formula in 2019 and 2021 to keep the revenue coming in, with Elden Order in particular being their greatest success to date. However, it would not be until 2023, more than ten years after the previous entry, that Armored Core would be complete – six years after development began.
And it is clear to us all that, as per usual with Miyazaki, not a single moment of development time was wasted.
In a word, the experience of Armored Core VI is almost too big to describe, and yet jam packed with explosive gameplay, interesting characters, amazing bosses, belligerent factions, and intriguing mysteries…
… yet, the most shocking aspect, as a newcomer to the series, was the incredible story. With a forty hour long campaign consisting of seven chapters, there are no less than five wildly distinct possible endings which depend on the missions selected and, sometimes, the choices made in the middle of a mission. Two of the endings are only possible to achieve in NG – that is, on the third playthrough. And, without spoiling anything, every ending is an epic conclusion. Yamamura has said that no one ending in particular is the "true" ending – any of the alternative endings may be regarded as true in some way…
… thought of as somewhat niche in the West prior to this point, I think FromSoftware's greatest work has shattered that perception and produced an instant Game of the Year.
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SpaceBattles
Alien Mom Adopts Lobotomite (Armored Core VI Ideas Thread)
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portlandtrashpanda
Replied on September 18th 2023:
I swear to fuck that Rubicon is like a goddamn kaleidoscope - you look deeper and there's just more shit.
That first mission choice at the end of Chapter 1, though? I knew it had to be insane. I chose Investigate Grid 097 for my first playthrough and got Ezra the head husbando, and for the rest of the game I was wondering what the fuck the other choice would have gotten me? I couldn't imagine that there was a whole separate Ezra-less experience. And then on my second playthrough I did Attack the Watchpoint and found out about Ayre.
And don't get me started on the Chapter 1 final bosses, either of them. Balteus and the Smart Cleaner are perfect skill-check bosses. (I also think it's hilarious that later we find out that apparently Drich stole the Smart Cleaner from Carla lol?)
Molly
Replied on September 18th 2023:
@portlandtrashpanda Welcome to Armored Core VI, the dating sim in which you're getting headmarried to an alien by the end of chapter one no matter what. Congratulations, 621!
Honestly, my favorite NG mid-mission choice was Attack the Fortified Residential Zone. Listening to Walter have heart palpitations over the comms when Drich-mommy revealed herself to 621? Watered my crops and cleared my skin.
portlandtrashpanda
Replied on September 18th 2023:
Breaking Walter's brain was the actual best.
Borrowed Wings
Replied on September 18th 2023:
I thought it was super interesting how the actual biggest conflict on the planet is almost invisible to the player until the third playthrough, but they leave you clues as early as chapter one of NG? Like, at the most in-your-face level, you have the Corpos, the PCA, and the Liberation Front, but you find hints of the Overseers, and Allmind's chicanery, and the Gestalt.
At least Father Dolmayan knew the actual score and was desperately trying to keep humans on Rubicon relevant and… existing. I was glad to find out that he wasn't just a drugged loon in NG and that his decisions, even some of the weirder ones, actually made sense with the new context.
Velociraptor Keeper
Replied on September 18th 2023:
He was still a druggie for at least 25 years apparently. It explains why Drich has a very cool attitude whenever he comes up. I imagine mommy wasn't happy with any of the Dosers snorting her literal children, really.
Circling back to what you were saying @Borrowed Wings, I never thought for one second during my first playthrough that I'd feel bad for the greedy Corpos, but they just never stood a chance, did they? Those factions were the most clueless out of all of them - even the PCA had at least a tiny inkling that the Coral on Rubicon was haunted (because of Nagai). As soon as Arquebus and Balam showed up with all their taggers-on, they were beyond screwed.
orangeyogurt
Replied on September 18th 2023:
Drich and Allmind weren't going to allow them to survive Rubicon with their sanity, ego, or profits intact, yeah.
nogokep
Replied on September 18th 2023:
Why is it that the alien space blob is the most sane out of all the factions? All she seems to want is for everyone to calm down because excited humans like to burn things, apparently. Her big beef with Allmind is the AI's belief that she's in the right and that the right thing to do is to send Drich to space so she can take over the universe - meanwhile, Drich is like "Would you stop assuming that you know what I want or need better than I do? Please?"
Velociraptor Keeper
Replied on September 18th 2023:
@nogokep Have you met humans?
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Forbes
10 Million Copies of Armored Core VI: Embers of Rubicon Sold in First Two Weeks
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YouTube
Let's Play Armored Core VI (Part 50)
Boss Music Starts
Player: "What the- what is this game!?"
Watcher: "Bro, is that a Dark Souls boss? What the fuck is that thing?"
Player: "Agsyftfyfjf-"
COM (in-game): "AP at f- AP at thirt- "
DESTROYED
Main System Down
Drich (in-game): "Don't like dying, Raven? Well, you should have thought of that before you killed my children."
Watcher: "... Broooo."