The latest entry into the successful Armored Core series has been announced, which confirms the hint that Famitsu dropped quite recently about a new mecha action game on the way. Entitled Armored Core 5, it seems that series veteran Toshifumi Nabeshima has also been helming its development. The game, as per its debut trailer (seen below), also appears to be a return to the slower paced and more ground pounder focused games from the PlayStation and PlayStation 2 era. No word on what platforms AC5 will be released on though but we’re assuming it to be PS3 and 360, like the last two games. Release date is also still unconfirmed but the release window has been promised for early 2010, which makes sense in terms of the marketing/PR run-up. In any case, we’re currently punching the air with glee that a new Armored Core game is on the way!
For those unfamiliar with the Armored Core games, we’ve compiled a feature covering the older games as well as reviewed both Armored Core 4 and For Answer.
Update: It turns out that over a set time period, the number “5″ on the official site becomes clickable and triggers individual Google queries. In total there are six words the site searches for.
They are: 暴力的, 兵器, スケール, 炎, 雨, 戦場
Which translate roughly to: Violent, Weapons, Scale, Fire, Rain, Battlefield
Thanks to lordnikon for pointing this out.
Excellent news! I’m also very excited about the idea of it being slower paced like the older games. I like the newer games, but they weren’t the same experience as in the PlayStation games (which were a big part of my formative gaming years). Can’t wait for more news and videos, and hopefully a NA release date!
The word 暴力(Violence) is highlighted in red. It could be their new tagline.
V=5
There is a lot more to this teaser site than first glance guys. At set time intervals, the number 5 will become clickable to a google query on one of 6 different words in japanese.
I decompiled the flash file, and pulled out the following google strings:
http://www.google.co.jp/search?hl=ja&q=%E6%9A%B4%E5%8A%9B%E7%9A%84
http://www.google.co.jp/search?hl=ja&q=%E5%85%B5%E5%99%A8
http://www.google.co.jp/search?hl=ja&q=%E3%82%B9%E3%82%B1%E3%83%BC%E3%83%AB
http://www.google.co.jp/search?hl=ja&q=%E7%82%8E
http://www.google.co.jp/search?hl=ja&q=%E9%9B%A8
http://www.google.co.jp/search?hl=ja&q=%E6%88%A6%E5%A0%B4
From top to bottom they search for the following japanese:
暴力的
兵器
スケール
炎
雨
戦場
Which translates roughly to:
Violent
Weapons
Scale
Fire
Rain
Battlefield
Good find! Thanks for that.
I’m wondering if the 5 in the title means that this game is unrelated in story to 4 and For Answer. While the different paths of the campaign in For Answer would mean they would have to make one of the three paths the canonical path, I was really looking forward to what happens in the world of 4/FA.
It’s hard to tell from the video, but the mecha seem more complicated now, even if they are also slower, ground-bound vehicles. In a way, it reminds me a bit of the original #00 (Aretha) Next prototype of 4/FA, which was nothing less than ornate in its construction.
It’s good to see the Armored Core series not lock itself into one single style, at any rate. That very problem kills off a lot of series in a gaming industry that wants all games to be a part of (at least) an epic trilogy.
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This post was mentioned on Twitter by mechadamashii: Update!: News: Armored Core 5 Announced http://bit.ly/8Lfw96...
While I’m glad to see us returning to the roots of the series so to speak, I’m not certain this will exactly be a true return, if anything I’d like to see them make this a merging of the two styles of game play, meeting somewhere in the middle and being better for it.
I’m unabashedly excited, the giant powerful AC in the teaser looks amazing.
The bit of transformation with the head piece is also interesting, hopefully hinting at more transforming parts – a la White Glint’s chassis folding into a different silhouette when OverBoosting.