It’s easy to forget that FromSoftware president Hidetaka Miyazaki got his start working not on Dark Souls or Demon’s Souls, but Armored Core – the dense and gritty multiplayer mech series that defined the studio’s identity for almost a decade. Having decided to pursue a career as a game designer after playing Ico, Miyazaki’s first project was Armored Core: Last Raven, which was released in the heyday of the PS2 in 2004.

Looking back on Armored Core 4, which marked his directorial debut, Miyazaki muses in an exclusive new interview with IGN, “[It] was a time when I had to learn a lot in regard to both the technical aspect and the design aspect of game development. So you could really call it my starting point for game development.”

Since then, FromSoftware has established itself as the Soulsborne studio, reeling off hits like Bloodborne and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. It reached its apex with Elden Ring, which was released to rave reviews and went on to sell 17.5 million units. So how do you follow what is generally regarded as the best game of 2022…and possibly one of the best games of all time? For Miyazaki, it’s by rewinding the clock.

Announced during last week’s Game Awards, Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon is another fresh start for the series, this time setting its action on a remote planet called Rubicon 3 – a world where companies and organizations battle over a “mysterious new substance” that causes a planet-wide catastrophe. Miyazaki himself is largely taking a step back from this project (he jokes that he’s excited to play as a fan), instead providing the concept to Dark Souls veteran Masaru Yamamura, who previously served as Sekiro’s lead designer.

Like its predecessors, it will be a third-person action game with a heavy focus on customizing your mecha – from different weapons and leg types to generators that allow for greater boosts. It’s more focused on single-player than its predecessor, which was a bold attempt at large-scale multiplayer, but don’t expect a true open world like the one found in Elden Ring. Instead, Armored Core VI will retain the mission-based approach of its predecessors.

“The essential direction of [Armored Core VI] was to go back and take a good look at the core concept of Armored Core and what made that series special,” Miyazaki explains. “So we wanted to take the assembly aspect, assembling and customizing your own mech — your AC — and then being able to exact a high level of control over the assembled mech. So we wanted to take those two core concepts and reexamine those in our modern environment.”

For FromSoftware, a “modern environment” means not just incorporating a decade’s worth of experience in building hits – it means much greater development resources as well. Miyazaki himself admits that he’s “jealous” of the development firepower FromSoftware can bring to bear compared to when he developed Armored Core 4 on PS3. It also gives FromSoftware the chance to incorporate some of its signature elements, like its incredible boss battles.

“Boss battles are the highlight of the game in this title,” Yamamura said in a separate statement. “The essence of the battles, in which the player reads the enemy’s moves and then plays games with them, is of course provided, as is typical of FromSoftware. In this title, both the enemy and your own machine are aggressive and violent in their attacks. We are developing the game so that players can enjoy the dynamic and intense boss battles that only mechas can offer, along with the unique aspects of AC, such as how to assemble the right parts to take on the strongest enemies.”

Speaking with IGN over the course of a lengthy interview, the pair delved deep into what to expect from Armored Core VI, including how it will handle multiplayer, whether it will once again feature an arena (it will), and what FromSoftware’s now-familiar action staples will look like in a mecha context. But even more important is how Armored Core VI fits into FromSoftware’s present – so different now compared to where the studio was even 10 years ago – what it might mean for the future.

IGN: Miyazaki-san, I understand that you’re more of a concept creator for this game. Can you talk about how this project came to be and the direction that you want to take it in?

Hidetaka Miyazaki: I think a more accurate way to put it would be that I was part of the initial game direction on the project, not necessarily a concept creator.

What that means is as initial game director or a part of that initial game direction team, I worked with several other people on those early stages of the project, including engineers, designers, and other people at the director level…production level, so that we could define the early concept of the game, the early designs.

More specifically, it involved myself and our line producer here, [Kenneth Chan]…he was working with me on the early stages of the project, as well as one other member from the team. And then eventually we passed over to Masaru Yamamura, who’s joined us today as well, and he became the new director on the project.

IGN: Is it fair to say that Armored Core VI will be closer to the Soulsborne games than the series has been in the past?

Hidetaka Miyazaki: No, we’ve not been making a conscious effort to try to direct it towards more Soulsborne type gameplay. First of all, let me just make that clear.

The essential direction of [Armored Core VI] was to go back and take a good look at the core concept of Armored Core and what made that series special. So we wanted to take the assembly aspect, assembling and customizing your own mech — your AC — and then being able to exact a high level of control over the assembled mech. So we wanted to take those two core concepts and reexamine those in our modern environment.

And, of course, what that means is taking our know-how and experiences from game development in recent years, and applying that knowledge to the development of [Armored Core VI], and reexamining it together with those core concepts of Armored Core.

So the real impetus for this project, I think, or at least one of the real appeals for me comes from that aspect of assembly, and being able to really freely assemble and customize the mech, I think is what we really highly focus on in Armored Core. And having mechs or mecha as a theme, it’s really about that high level of freedom that adjusting each individual part gives, and how that affects the gameplay and the properties of your mech actually in combat. We think it’s a little bit more liberating than, say, just swapping out armor or equipment. There’s actually a much higher degree of freedom here, and being able to see these effects both in game, and as part of the world building, and as part of your player choices, we feel like this is a very big part of what makes Armored Core special.

IGN: Yamamura san, you were the lead designer on Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. Can you talk a little bit about the lessons you learned from that project and how you’re applying them to Armored Core?

Masaru Yamamura: There are no elements directly referring to Sekiro, but I feel both titles share the same essence of battle such as aggressive, speed change and action-oriented fighting. For this title, by continuing to attack even the strongest enemy, the force of impact can break the enemy’s posture and inflict a large amount of damage – a critical hit. This is the starting point for the slow and fast speed change of the battle, and when combined with long-range firefighting and close-range melee combat, the enemy and his machine engage each other violently, creating a more aggressive and dynamic battle that only mechas can engage in.

IGN: So it sounds like you’re incorporating some kind of counter mechanic to Armored Core VI, maybe similar to what was in Sekiro.

Masaru Yamamura: Rather than calling it a counter mechanic, what we want to stress is this reason to continue attacking and to continue on the offensive. You want to create chances for yourself in combat and turn the battle to the player’s advantage. So what we feel is this is going to create a really nice back and forth flow in battles in Armored Core VI, and create this nice mix of offensive and defensive play… but we want the player to feel like they’re constantly able to pressure the enemy and that’s why we incorporated some of these systems.

IGN: What does that look like in the context of Armored Core being more about guns and missiles than, for example, Sekiro, which was more about swords? Of course, Armored Core has melee weapons, but often they’ve only been one option versus the many different range options that you have with mechs in Armored Core.

Masaru Yamamura: Yes, you’re correct in saying that Armored Core is generally about the guns, and ordnance, and missiles, and so we want to cater to this aspect this time as well, of course. We have various weapons for various ranges and various encounters, both in the two hands and on the back as well for missiles and cannons and things like that. But we wanted to put an emphasis on melee as well, so if players are this way inclined, we do have some nice melee options if they want to dive in there and get into close-quarters combat as well.

IGN: Miyazaki san, Elden Ring’s increased accessibility – for example, friendlier checkpoints and friendly summons, was credited in part with improving its sales. What was your takeaway?

Hidetaka Miyazaki: Yes, one of our objectives when creating Elden Ring and creating this new open field style was offering more freedom in approaching accounts and more player freedom in general. This was a major concept that we had in mind when approaching that game, and we hoped that this would open it up to more people and more players. We didn’t want to lower the level of challenge or dumb it down, so instead we wanted to increase the level of freedom. We wanted to introduce more people to that style of game and wanted more people to enjoy that. So I don’t know personally if it was successful or if it had a hand in that, but that’s what we set out to do.

IGN: And how did you apply those lessons to Armored Core VI?

Hidetaka Miyazaki: So we didn’t necessarily take the same approach with game design and with that core concept when developing Armored Core VI. When we set out to reboot the Armored Core series, we focused on those two concepts that we touched on earlier, that being the assemble aspect and the piloting aspect. So I feel like it was a very different approach right from the offset, but I think perhaps Yamamura can answer that a little bit more clearly.

IGN: You’ve both been at FromSoftware for more than 10 years. How has its approach to game development changed? Because I would say that FromSoftware when it was making Armored Core V… this was between Dark Souls and Dark Souls II. Armored Core V was a very experimental multiplayer game. And then when I look at Elden Ring, for example, it is a large-scale AAA open world game. So it seems to me that FromSoftware’s approach to game development has changed a little bit. Basically, I’m just curious how the studio has evolved.

Hidetaka Miyazaki: So actually during development of ACV, I think both myself and Yamamura were working on Dark Souls I. So it’s a little bit of a different situation there. But in terms of how we’ve changed as a company, in terms of approach to game development, I think it’s safe to say that the team members and the resources we can put towards a game are very different now. Our level of know-how and skill has obviously increased over the years of developing these different games. So these are the main aspects that have changed in terms of the company and our approach.

Our actual approach to the direction into the game development itself has not changed a great deal during that time. Like we said earlier, we wanted to take those original concepts of Armored Core, and we wanted to apply our modern day company and our modern day team members and know-how and expertise to those core concepts. And I feel we’re able to capitalize more on that now, and able to really make the game that we wanted to make.

Actually, I was the director on Armored Core 4 and For Answer. And of course in those days, the level of resources and the cost and the time that we could dedicate to game development was just a completely different ballpark. So I’m extremely jealous of the team today who gets to make this new Armored Core. I wish we had that sort of leverage back in the day.

Of course, it does take time for studios to cultivate staff and to learn and to grow, and I feel like we’ve used that time well, and I feel like this is the game that we’re able to create now with that accumulated knowledge and with this team that has grown. But it also takes that praise and that support from the players themselves. If we didn’t have people playing and enjoying our games, then we wouldn’t have come this far. I’m always extremely appreciative of that.

IGN: With so many more resources available to FromSoftware, what can you do with them for Armored Core VI that you couldn’t do before?

Masaru Yamamura: I’d say, to give some specific examples, obviously the visuals – the level of expression we’re able to achieve with our current studio and our current resources really lets us convey the visuals we want. Obviously, the mecha theme of Armored Core VI means we are portraying these enormous hunks of steel, and we’re supposed to imagine how these things would move and how they’d be put together, the various joints, how these all sort of move in conjunction with one another and how we make this look cool, in a gameplay sense as well. So this is something that we’re able to apply resources to. Obviously, the metallic texturing of these things and the sound design as well. We’re able to use foley to get some realistic sounds to apply to these mechs. There are a lot of areas that we’re able to apply these resources and modern thinking as well.

IGN: Armored Core may not be trying to be a Soulsborne game, but does it have more of a Soulsborne essence than previous Armored Core games, and what does that mean for the series? When I think about a Soulsborne essence, for example, I think of heavy combat, an air of mystery, exploration, difficulty, of course, a sense of darkness to the game.

Naturally, Armored Core has always had an apocalyptic world, much like the Soulsborne games. But as FromSoftware has embraced games like Bloodborne and Sekiro and Elden Ring and has moved in that particular direction, it seems natural, for example, for Armored Core to move away from the mission-based structure of the original Armored Core games and more toward the open-ended exploration that we’ve come to expect from a Soulsborne game.

Hidetaka Miyazaki: I think first of all, speaking to those aspects, you mentioned the heavy combat, the air of mystery, the exploration and sense of darkness. I think rather than being typically Soulsborne, these are just things that are typical of FromSoftware in general. These are things we’ve always sort of enjoyed and always prided ourselves on. We don’t want to give away too much with the storytelling. We always want to apply a certain level of challenge to keep it rewarding for the players. These are sort of my general habits when it comes to game development, and these are just generally things that I think we take from FromSoftware history, going back as far as even King’s Field. As for how younger developers and directors like Yamamura are taking these elements and rearranging them in [Armored Core VI], I think this is something that they can also answer separately as well.

Personally, what I’m looking forward to is seeing how these… I think it directly applies to the element of heavy combat I think you put it as, so how the player is able to apply themselves in combat and how the feel of the player movement in combat feels. I think this is going to be something very different when it comes to the mech themes, and controlling these enormous machines. So I think this is something that I’m looking forward to and something I hope players look forward to as well.

IGN: Why is FromSoftware so drawn to apocalyptic settings?

Hidetaka Miyazaki: I would say there are two main reasons why we tend towards these apocalyptic settings. One is purely direct to taste, and the preferences of the game director and game developers. I think this is something that, again, has applied in FromSoftware history as well with our previous CEO, [Naotoshi Zin]. He directed the old King’s Field and old-school Armored Core games as well. So I think that’s where that may be stemmed from. My tastes happen to be similar, so I think that’s why you see a lot of that in modern Soulsborne titles as well. So it does depend on the director’s tastes and personal idiosyncrasies.

I think the second reason would be, this is kind of a technical reason, but I’d say that a lively bright setting is a little bit beyond FromSoftware’s capability or experiences as a developer. So it’s easier for us to direct and apply our own resources on what we’re good at, and what we’re used to. And so it is easier for us to express ourselves within these kind of darker and drier and quieter apocalyptic settings than livelier and busy ones.

IGN: How much can you tell me about Armored Core VI’s multiplayer?

Masaru Yamamura: Yes, we do plan to have a versus mode, similar to previous Armored Core titles where you’ll be able to customize your mech and take that fully customized mech into battle with others. But we will reveal more details about this at a later date. The main focus in AC6 – on the story mode at least – is having that story develop and play out. We’ve concentrated on single-player for the story mode. Please stay tuned for more multiplayer details at a later date.

IGN: The moment in the trailer where there’s a mech looking out over in the horizons and it was wearing what looks like a backpack, does that confirm that this game will be an open-world exploration with mecha?

Masaru Yamamura: To be clear, AC6 will feature a mission-based structure to the single-player. It’s not fully open – it’s going to stick with that mission-based structure. In regards to that shot in the trailer in particular, there was this great disaster which was depicted in the trailer which brought with it enormous changes to the environment – similar to what you’d see with an ice age. This shot is just a straightforward representation of the world of AC6 and the mecha pilots who have to survive through such dramatic changes. So that’s what we’re trying to show with that shot.

IGN: Will it once again reset the story, or will it continue on from Armored Core V?

Masaru Yamamura: Yes. We’d like to think of this as a completely fresh new story. There are no direct links with the previous games in terms of continuing story. This is a brand-new setting and a brand-new story for players to enjoy.

IGN: Miyazaki-san, you have a long history with Armored Core going back to Last Raven and Armored Core 4 as you already said. How has this series impacted you as a designer and a game developer over the years?

Hidetaka Miyazaki: It’s a difficult question. I haven’t actually given it a lot of thought, but I was of course much more inexperienced back then when making Armored Core 4 and For Answer, I think on PS3. It was a time when I had to learn a lot in regard to both the technical aspect and the design aspect of game development. So you could really call it my starting point for game development. One thing that hasn’t changed is that core competence of Armored Core. Those aspects we touched on earlier, the assembly and piloting that mech you’ve assembled, this is a core component that has carried through and that we’re still very conscious of with these games, taking the significance of the themes of a particular title. So if it’s Armored Core, it’s going to be the mechs, and discovering what the key themes of each subsequent title was, whether that’s Dark Souls or Bloodborne or Sekiro. This is something that we’ve been conscious of as we create these games. I think you’ll see these themes and these key development concepts have influenced my games as a designer of the years.

IGN: What is Armored Core VI’s approach to difficulty?

Masaru Yamamura: Of course, with Armored Core VI, what we wanted to focus on was this really intense and tough mecha battles. We have generally tried to keep it on the challenging side, but it’s not to say that it’s a flat difficulty line throughout. We wanted to have some nice tempo changes and some nice balance to the difficulty and the level of challenge. It can vary depending on the mission type. It depends on the enemies you’re coming up against in those missions. It depends on how you want to assemble your mech. But this is one approach we wanted to have, is to have the player decide how they wanted to assemble and how they wanted to approach each mission, and then to have this nice balance of level of challenge throughout the missions and throughout the campaign.

IGN: What were some of the lessons that you learned from your work as a designer on Sekiro and how are you applying them to the difficulty in Armored Core VI?

Masaru Yamamura: I would say that while these severe and intense battles is still very much a focus of Armored Core VI and something that carries between our games, the approach to how we handle this and how we design difficulty is actually quite different. You mentioned Sekiro and the approach there was this very stoic, one-track approach to battle with just the one weapon and just your resolve as a player. I feel like with Armored Core VI, the approach is quite different mainly because of that “assemble” aspect that you have. So your battle really starts in the AC garage where you are deciding which weapon and you’re deciding which layout, what performance you want your AC to have in battle and taking this forward to each encounter in each boss battle. So that’s really part of the strategy this time and I think that affects the difficulty greatly.

IGN: Armored Core has had generators and radiators and many, many parts. Will Armored Core VI have even more parts or the same number of parts, and also, will it have RPG progression?

Masaru Yamamura: Yes. In terms of the types of parts, you can switch around when assembling your mech. This is going to be what you’re familiar with from past AC games. There’ll be a wide variety of different parts that you can exchange on different parts of your mech. So that aspect is going to be fully intact in Armored Core VI.

Hidetaka Miyazaki: This is the general game cycle, so you could consider that a type of leveling up possibly.

Masaru Yamamura: The general game cycle is to clear missions and you earn money and use money to buy more expensive weapons and parts for your mech. And also within that, you are tuning these parts and you’re tuning the weapons and tuning your mech to suit your play style, changing parameters, changing the performance of various parts to suit the way you want to approach each mission in each battle. I think you could call this the equivalent in Armored Core VI.

IGN: In terms of how the mechs actually move and fly, will it be similar to past Armored Core games or are you seeking to change that for Armored Core VI?

Masaru Yamamura: Yes. I think you can imagine something similar to what we had with previous Armored Core games in terms of how you customize your mech parts in terms of mobility and how you’re using that in the game as well. You can tune the generators or boosters to improve boosts or flight time or boost height or the explosiveness of the boost. These are all things that will apply in Armored Core VI as well.

IGN: When I listen to you talk about Armored Core, in so many ways, it feels like a traditional Armored Core game. It has mission-based gameplay. It’s very focused on customization. I’m curious, how does Armored Core fit into the current library of FromSoftware games, the modern FromSoftware games, I should say, such as Sekiro and Elden Ring and Dark Souls in your mind? How does it fit into the future of FromSoftware in your viewpoint?

Hidetaka Miyazaki: Yes. I think I see the nuance of the question. I think it’s mostly concerned with how this mission-based structure fits into modern games and particularly modern FromSoftware games. To answer this, I think player mobility and player ability obviously plays a huge part in how we approach the design to these games, whether it’s Elden Ring or Dark Souls or Armored Core. Obviously, the assembly aspect comes into that and it doesn’t quite apply to that fully open world exploration approach. We had to choose from the outset of designing Armored Core VI which approach we wanted to go with and where we wanted to put the focus. This time, while there is an aspect of exploration in Armored Core VI, we wanted to put the focus on the breadth of variety and in assembly and customizing your own mech and really feeling as if you’re piloting that mech that you’ve carefully put time into.

We felt that the mission-based structure was a benefit for this because it allows you to choose and customize before each sortie. The very least, the tempo, the pace at which the player is able to move across the world and traverse the map…this is a very big aspect in how you approach this design. I think one of the big appeal points of the previous AC games is having this freedom to choose how you’re going to move across the map and how your choices are going to affect your mobility and your ability once you’re actually in the level. This is the format we wanted to choose this time, and this is where we wanted to put our focus.

This interview has been edited for clarity.