Am I wrong or is this game a bit shallow?

[Wolf66]

Let me start with this, I’ve beaten this game on the switch and started a second playthrough. I have an idea what I’m talking about.

Let me just get this nit pick out of the way at the start: the music. The music isn’t bad, but it is uninspired. Let me propose a scale of intensity to you, where 0 is gregorian chant and 100 is speed metal. On this scale the menu music is about 50, and it only goes up from there. Some of the combat tracks are at 90 from mission start to end, with no variance in tempo. You acclimate to the constant intensity making that 90 feel like a 40 and the menu music doesn’t even register. If they could redo the music so you have rest time and build up the parts they want at 90 would feel like an actual 90.

So, I’ve experimented with every weapon, and I just didn’t find a whole lot of depth outside of the 6 or so bosses. All non boss, non mecha enemies just die like chaff and drop ammo, so there’s not even a real incentive to save ammo while you mindlessly hose them down with bullets. The mecha enemies are more interesting because they carry multiple weapons and fly, but at the end of the day they’re just zippy bullet sponges.

The weapons themselves are kinda generic, and not even your accuracy is really under your control. The Auto target feature negates your ability to lead targets and is a big part of what makes it so mindless. The Bazooka weapons are made useless because the rockets have travel time the auto target doesn’t account for on moving targets. Maybe laser weapons are a bit more interesting as you need to know where energy zones are to reload, but I’ve never seen one before the first boss and they’re rare even at the end. Sniper rifles are a bit interesting, but you have to stop on a bussy battlefield and stick a thumb up your butt to use the scope for five shots while getting shot full of holes. My loadout was AR arm, AR, and a sword in case the game stopped giving me cannon fodder to reload with. The sword is interesting because the further you charge with your swing the more damage you do, meaning there’s a sweet spot between being out of range and doing max damage. However, anything but the AR feels sub optimal, and it bothers me that I could be killing things faster if I use any other weapon. To put it another way, why should I bother with all these other weapons when the AR has a shorter time to kill anyway at a rather long range?

The flattest part though, is tied to the terrain. Giving the player unlimited flight sounds like fun, but it just fills in a lot of the depth that might have been there otherwise. You ignore anything other than a skyscraper when it isn’t forcing you into canyons. There’s no negotiating terrain, charging around obstacles, or stumbling into a well placed ambush. Anything in your way you just fly around it without even losing speed. There was a game called Hawken which played a lot like Deamon X Machina, but it was able to actually use its verticality. All mechs in Hawken have jump jets and are capable of limited flight, but it’s tied to a fuel tank that they burn through. Burning your fuel would also reveal your position on the map so it was an actual decision whether to go fast or fly. The most vertical maps were over passes and interchanges that you could jump between and sneak around in. I see these elements on some of the maps in Daemon and I can’t help but feel like the developers missed out on a big opportunity.

Imagine a sniper duel in this game where you have to try to keep hidden while jumping from over passes and sprint between sky scrapers.

My ultimate complaint here is that if I want to feel engaged I have to play sub optimally by self imposing a challenge to not fly or use AR weapons. Am I wrong to want more from a mecha action game? We get so few mech games these days and I just want the ones we do get to be good, to give me a reason to come back and replay them over and over. I’ve been thinking about this since I finished my first playthrough and have over the course of a couple drafts created a design document for my ideal version of this game (get back to me in a couple years if that sounds interesting to you). Am I right and this game kinda dropped the ball on what it could have been, or am I just blaming it for not being the game that I want to make?

[Ryotaro Dojima: Ace Detective]

No, it's not.

[Nossida]

Originally posted by Wolf66:

Am I right and this game kinda dropped the ball on what it could have been, or am I just blaming it for not being the game that I want to make?

Yes and no. While there are some mechanics that I wished were fleshed out a bit more, I think you are blaming the devs for not thinking about every good mechanic in every mech/mecha game you liked and tossing them into DxM.

Also Hawken was a PvP game so its design elements made sense for game balance.

[Ryotaro Dojima: Ace Detective]

Originally posted by Darkbolt Jonin Nossida:

Yes and no. While their are some mechanics that I wished were fleshed out a bit more, I think you are blaming the devs for not thinking about every good mechanic an every mech/mecha game you liked and tossing them into DxM.

Also Hawken was a PvP game so its design elements made sense for game balance.

Development has to compromise to keep a proper schedule, so it makes sense not everything got super fleshed out. OP sounds like an idea guy who'd get chewed up by the industry if he tried. You need good capital to dictate your own terms, or a ton of skill to go completely indie.

[♡Pure♡]

So you own it on switch. Complain about it. Then buy it again?

[kyoott]

are all the auto target feature boxes insanely huge in this game?

[Ryotaro Dojima: Ace Detective]

Originally posted by kyoott:

are all the auto target feature boxes insanely huge in this game?

I think? But I don't think it really works for the guns now, since it seems like you need to actually click on the enemy to get a hit. The auto target seems there for homing stuff and missiles.

[Mr Moopsy]

Originally posted by Puré:

So you own it on switch. Complain about it. Then buy it again?

person doesnt own the game. Lack of mouse symbol by name indicates they dont have a steam game.

[mhenryblack]

Oh my god you are right...

OP isn't even playing it here.

[kamomen3]

You are right, in all.
But AC like game is no other.
So we will reluctantly buy this game.

[Cy4ris]

im only 11 hours in but i agree, i just wish they'd atleast add difficulty modes, where the hardest settings would make enemies deal more damage and maybe make ammo drop by chance, and hopefully better AI

[DespotAspid]

Refund, only refund is option. This game is weird as possible! Armored Core anime parody for poor kids. No taste!

[Ferrick]

Originally posted by DespotAspid:

Refund, only refund is option. This game is weird as possible! Armored Core anime parody for poor kids. No taste!

what is there to refund when neither of you have the game? Also is it really an anime parody when it is made by the same guys who made AC4/FA?

[DespotAspid]

Originally posted by Red Mage Ferrick:

Originally posted by DespotAspid:

Refund, only refund is option. This game is weird as possible! Armored Core anime parody for poor kids. No taste!

what is there to refund when neither of you have the game? Also is it really an anime parody when it is made by the same guys who made AC4/FA?

REFUNDED.
The fact that the same people did the game does not negate the fact that this game is just a miserable parody. Apparently they were not all the people that did AC and not the best people, crooked-handed. The game is bad taste complete.

[Ryotaro Dojima: Ace Detective]

Originally posted by DespotAspid:

REFUNDED.
The fact that the same people did the game does not negate the fact that this game is just a miserable parody. Apparently they were not all the people that did AC and not the best people, crooked-handed. The game is bad taste complete.

If I recall, the mouse icon will take about a day to go away if you refund, since it's not an instant process. Which, if true, means you lied.

[DespotAspid]

It is very disappointing that rogues who have not played in the AC compare these games. I went through all the main parts on ps1, ps2, ps3. And this game is simply a wretched and crooked craft that clumsily imitates some elements of the AC.