The mecha anime influences behind the Armored Core series have always been quite specific, and Armored Core VI certainly continues that trend.
Now I am not talking about just the mecha design here. We already know that both Shoji Kawamori and Kazutaka Miyatake worked on the mecha design for Armored Core VI. Not to mention both Takayuki Yanase and Ikuto Yamashita, which is why some of the Armored Cores looks a bit like something out of Gundam and Evangelion.
However, there are broader and functional influences on Armored Core VI that come from some very specific mecha anime from the early to mid-80s.
Namely from three mecha anime in particular; Fang of the Sun Dougram, Armored Trooper VOTOMS and Blue Comet SPT Layzner, with the latter being particularly relevant, but I will get to that in a bit.
All three of these mecha anime were written and directed by Ryosuke Takahashi and featured mecha design by Kunio Okawara. This pairing is notable, as Takahashi took a very functional approach to describing how the mecha would work in each anime and then Okawara would figure out how to message that in terms of the mecha designs themselves.
For the earlier Armored Core games, the main two influences were Dougram and VOTOMS. The various weapon hardpoints and customization stemmed from those two anime, as well as how the mecha would move. For instance, the roller dash in VOTOMS was very clearly the setup for how the Armored Cores would boost along the ground among many other things.
This is not some kind of abstract observation either, but something that the development team at FromSoftware acknowledged on multiple occasions. Most notably was with an interview between Takahashi and former Armored Core series producer Toshifumi Nabeshima (shown below).
As for Layzner, that had a more specific influence later on in the series with Armored Core 4 and Armored Core For Answer. Things like the quick boosting and spherical energy shields, not to mention the overt potency of the mecha themselves all made obvious references to Layzner.
This brings me back to Armored Core VI, which has retained much of the movement setup from those games, again with the general movement of quick boosting and spherical energy fields in full effect. Not to mention the story elements of augmented humans and rogue AI being tied back to those mecha anime as well.
The interesting thing here is that Armored Core is not the only mecha gaming series to have felt the effects of Takahashi’s mecha anime work. Many Western mecha games have similarly specific functional influences and links to mecha anime such as Dougram and VOTOMS, with BattleTech, MechWarrior and Heavy Gear being notable (especially as they pretty much copied the mecha designs from those mecha anime).
The important thing to take away here is that Armored Core VI and the Armored Core series as a whole does not sit within a cultural vacuum, but has a clear and often stated mecha anime lineage.
Armored Core VI is now available on PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One and PC. Feel free to also check out my review.
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