Gonna play Daemon X Machina (Finished it)

[Gerbera]

I'll just post my review of it here.

6.5/10 Buy Armored Core 6 First, Then This

I'm mixed on this as Daemon X Machina's strongest aspects is the Arsenal/Mech combat on the player's end, concepts for combat encounters, its visual artstyle and its music. I enjoy all of that.

However everything else ranges from mediocre to boring and awful. This will most likely sour the taste for most a bit.

I'll start with the Negatives as they truly bring down the overall experience

Lackluster, Monotone Story

Its the negative you see every other review talking about. Daemon X Machina and Armored Core 6 have extremely similar plots, but the former executes it in the most boring, unimaginative way possible. The story in this game suffers from a lack of subtlety with regards to telling the player exactly what is going on as it does so with mind numbing paragraphs of exposition by extremely uninteresting characters (will get to those later). In addition, the story itself suffers from major inconsistencies with regards to tone as some scenes and characters feel extremely out of place in certain scenarios.

Final issue the story has is its predictability (and this will tie into gameplay but we will get there). This game tries its best to throw a plot twist or a surprise at the player around every corner and they all land flat because most of the time you are expecting it already. So overall it feels monotone, flat and sort of lacking in focus.

Horrible Dialogue and Mixed Characters

Characters in this game falls into two categories.

• Either A, they are very one note in who they are and not much else in terms of character. They are just kinda there and don't really grow per say.
  
  
• Or B, they are a generic anime stereotype that has nothing interesting going in with them other than other than their cliche personalities/behavior. Armored Core 6 has these as well to a degree, but that game also adds some unsuspecting traits to them to make them interesting. In addition, AC6's lore with the factions, other characters and the story overall makes you connect with most of them.

In my opinion, DXM voice actors and actresses are extremely talented. But the problem is that the material they are given along with the directing is so poor and awkward that they cannot save it.

Dialogue especially have a tendency to keep going for too long and especially into philosophical territory.

Mission Design is Infuriating

This game is plagued with escort and defense missions that are so irritating to play that you will want to take a break after you finish them. Couple with this is the fact that the game, just like the story, likes to throw curve balls in these missions nonstop. Perfect example I can think of at the top of my head is one where there are two objectives to defend and two enemy mechs present. Your first instinct up until that point is to fight these two but guess what, even though they appear on your radar and screen as enemies, you can't damage them but they can damage you. What you are suppose to do is the busy work by killing extremely small groups of fodder enemies coming towards the objectives while you hear your allies fight and argue with those 2 pests of mech pilots.

There will be a ton of moments (like every two missions) like this where you the player feel like if you have little to no control over the game you are playing and everything is heavily scripted. It is infuriating because you will be playing the game how you think you are suppose to play it but nope, let a cutscene play and the whole mission changes and you probably wasted your ammo on that one guy for no reason.

Enemy Variety is Lackluster

This game is filled with too much filler enemies that cant really do much to you unless you stay still and spread your cheeks. And they literally throw nothing new at you.

Enemy Arsenal AI is Inconsistent

Arsenals are the mechs you along with non player characters pilot in this game. The enemy Arsenel AI however ranges from good to "No thought, head empty". I have no idea why they sometimes just stop moving or doing anything for the matter and let you hose them down with the wrath of our lord and savior.

Bosses are Boring

Bosses in this game are spectacle for sure and are auditory feasts. But that is all they really are. Other than being giant bullet sponges, they really don't do much to attack the player per say so they come off as boring.

The Good

Combat

DXM's combat is essentially Armored Core i.e., 3 dimensional movement via the use of boosters but your body will always be oriented mostly parallel to the X axis and you have 4 weapons at your disposal. DXM's twist to it is that it has implemented a heavier emphasis on moving throughout the air so you see why some other reviews say this feels like a mix between AC and Zone of the Enders (that has a lot of air combat).

In addition, its combat has additional features not present in AC games such as the femto modifier system which essentially allows the player to augment a feature of themselves mid combat to perform better in that aspect which can be seen with the clone you can spawn of the movement modifier.

All of this is great tbh and it will make anyone want to keep going through the negatives to finish the game.

Artstyle and Music

You've already seen the artstyle and its great. Though it kinda bites the gameplay in the a s s as it can be a bit difficult to see what is going on sometimes. But nonetheless, its great. Music is fantastic as well as well.

Final Thoughts

Daemon X Machina is a good-ish game carried by its strong fundamentals with its arsenal combat, visuals and music. However, it is held back badly by those negatives. I have mixed opinions on it and I do recommend you get it. However, if you gonna buy this, get it at a discount. I hope they improve a lot of the gameplay/negatives elements in the future as I know the story writing and character quality isn't going to.

I like the game but it needs some work.




EDIT:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3213442098
I just realized I spelt his name wrong this entire time lmfao

[Zany Fish]

My biggest issue with DxM's gameplay: The grind and the drop rates if you are trying to collect certain parts.

I got to A rank missions around Mar 11th. Haven't touched the game since. Taking a break from grinding.

You have to look a loot table to find some of the parts you need to start research chains.

Shop parts are hella expensive and feel kinda pointless when you can find better units in missions.

You have two online missions that you can solo that drop hella good parts, but the lack of variety in the offerings starts to get stale and the acid rooms, drowning pools rooms, heat rooms, and heat rooms with drowning pools all feel like sucky elements. You have to somehow figure out how to access fallen enemies in these rooms and still be viable enough to take on the remaining rooms up to the end where either 1 to 3 enemies are -beating them begins the mission end timer so you can't just leisurely back-track to pick the rooms clean.

Oh, and they don't explain the golden gear dynamics nor did they do a good job on explaining how you can remove the mods from parts you pick up -at a cost, and re-apply them to other parts. The process is not that intuitive.

I hope they fix those weak points in the sequel coming up.

[mtw3660]

Publicado originalmente por D. Flame:

DxM story isn't bad if you like late =-80s, early-90s anime. Things like Bubblegum Crisis or EYES of Mars.

Daemon X Machina has the mecha of late 80s and early 90s anime, but unfortunately it has all the writing of modern day slop like Aldnoah Zero or God help you Darling in the Franxx.

[mtw3660]

Publicado originalmente por Chibbity:

Publicado originalmente por D. Flame:

DxM story isn't bad if you like late =-80s, early-90s anime. Things like Bubblegum Crisis or EYES of Mars.

Basically this^

If you grew up watching early anime, you'll be used to the eye rolling, groan inducing characters; and at times you can even enjoy it somewhat lol.

Oh come on, 80s and 90s anime wasn't that bad, hell it wasn't even bad at all with works like Zeta Gundam, Armored Trooper VOTOMS, Blue Comet SPT Layzner, Macross Plus, Ghost in the Shell, etc.

If we're talkin' bad anime however, lemme tell ya why modern animu is the pits! Sure you get some King Diamonds in the rough like say Yamato 2199/2202, Gundam Thunderbolt, and the like, but that's really all they are 'cuz most anime these days are ho hum regurgitated schlock like Attack on Titan or groan inducing cutesy ♥♥♥♥ like insert harem isekai garbage of the month.

[Chibbity]

Publicado originalmente por mtw3660:

Oh come on, 80s and 90s anime wasn't that bad

Some of it wasn't that bad lol.

Heck even some of the great classics, have filler episodes full of soap opera levels of melodrama; but it's something you learn to love in a nostalgic way haha.

Publicado originalmente por mtw3660:

'cuz most anime these days are ho hum regurgitated schlock like Attack on Titan

Seriously, why does anyone watch that show lol?

[Kain]

Every age had great and terrible anime, I don't believe this bs that things were better back then... although I did love the style of the 90's anime, doesn't mean the story was better. Cutesy, fanservice crap always existed and really bad anime were successful back then too.

tl;dr It's hard to find good stuff at any era.

[Gerbera]

Publicado originalmente por Kain:

Every age had great and terrible anime, I don't believe this bs that things were better back then... although I did love the style of the 90's anime, doesn't mean the story was better. Cutesy, fanservice crap always existed and really bad anime were successful back then too.

tl;dr It's hard to find good stuff at any era.

Precisely. Like all media, anime isn't exempted from being saturated with poorly written schlock especially in all of anime's history. It's an industry at the end of the day and sometimes the most low effort thing can be created to for mass appeal and when it succeeds, it creates a norm where "X" thing or trope within it is now seen as ok.




Tbh people can like whatever (unless its weirdo s h i t) but its ok to point out the flaws in something you like. Even a genre in of itself. I've played more into Daemon X Machina as I've reach what I can assume is chapter 3 (C rank). The story premise is generic overall but has some neat concepts. This is ok in of itself but DXM never does anything to spice it up or deliver it in such a way to make the premise interesting. It doesn't help as well that the game delivers paragraphs of exposition nonstop to try and explain what is going on.

What is holding it back as well is the over reliance of trope characters for making characters "unique/interesting" but without adding anything unique (as in the lore and/or the character themselves) to that trope. They all feel extremely flat and unmemorable.

But I think what is worst is the dialogue itself. Now here's the thing, the cast for DMX is extremely talented from what I've observed. The problem is that the dialogue itself feels like if someone who has never been in contact with another human being wrote the lines and did the directing.

Some lines and moments that are particularly simple yet neat to watch are spoiled due to just horrendous writing. For example, when the balled michigan general man said to himself something about how when you get older, simple things like that new ice cream flavor along with a little whisky or something goes a long way. I was like, "Hey this is a neat little moment he has to himself". Then the dialogue kept going and keep getting more philosophical and at that point I just skipped the rest.



Anywho, I'm tired af atm and burnted tf out. I'll see if I can finish it by the end of the weekend because I want to see what mecha knights gameplay is like. I don't like to hop from one new game to the next without finishing the current one.

[D. Flame]

Publicado originalmente por mtw3660:

Publicado originalmente por Chibbity:

Basically this^

If you grew up watching early anime, you'll be used to the eye rolling, groan inducing characters; and at times you can even enjoy it somewhat lol.

Oh come on, 80s and 90s anime wasn't that bad, hell it wasn't even bad at all with works like Zeta Gundam, Armored Trooper VOTOMS, Blue Comet SPT Layzner, Macross Plus, Ghost in the Shell, etc.

If we're talkin' bad anime however, lemme tell ya why modern animu is the pits! Sure you get some King Diamonds in the rough like say Yamato 2199/2202, Gundam Thunderbolt, and the like, but that's really all they are 'cuz most anime these days are ho hum regurgitated schlock like Attack on Titan or groan inducing cutesy ♥♥♥♥ like insert harem isekai garbage of the month.

https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=1781

[mtw3660]

Publicado originalmente por Kain:

Every age had great and terrible anime, I don't believe this bs that things were better back then... although I did love the style of the 90's anime, doesn't mean the story was better. Cutesy, fanservice crap always existed and really bad anime were successful back then too.

tl;dr It's hard to find good stuff at any era.

You may very well be right in there are good and bad in all eras. That's just me as an old fart reminiscing about the good old days of the anime fandom when it was more this niche underground cartoon medium filled with sex and violence, back when anime like Akira and Ninja Scroll blew my 13 year old mind.

[JustACorpse]

There are some hilarious things with DxM's writing. There are two characters that have rather well known Japanese VAs, specifically the VAs for Amuro and Char. So, what do they do with them? Make them a giant reference to 0079 Gundam, complete with a Newtype sequence. It makes no sense in context, it is just a reference.

Don't get me wrong, AC6 has a ton of references, but almost every reference at least is done in a way that if you don't know what it is referencing, you aren't wondering what is going on. I think the one exception to that rule is Allmind's Coral particles being blue/teal for some reason, and I'm almost certain that is a Gundam 00 reference when combined with the Coral always being red. There is no real explanation for that, so it is just confusing.

In terms of gameplay, it is in a lot of ways the opposite of AC6. AC6 has a problem in that when you know what you are doing, things will die way too fast. Even without that, the combat system is designed around bursts of damage that can take out large chunks of health. Late in DxM there are enemies that are just bullet sponges. There are also some questionable missions outside of that, but when it actually clicks, it is pretty fun.

[UTMaster]

Publicado originalmente por Gerbera:

So far the story itself is extremely uninteresting along with the characters.

You dare disrespect my girl, Guns Empress, shame on you!

[REhorror]

Sad to see many disrapaging mecha anime.

For me, it's peak fiction. You can find almost all humanity themes there from love, war, human emotion and intelligence and morality.

I'm watching Gundam SEED Freedom this weekend and can't wait for Hathaway 2.

[Gerbera]

Finished it and may play it again. I really want to see how they improve upon it in the future.

[Chibbity]

Publicado originalmente por Gerbera:

Finished it and may play it again. I really want to see how they improve upon it in the future.

Uhh...you mean play the sequel?

DxM is 4 years old, and the last time it got any news or updates was 2022.

It's not likely to ever be improved, it's finished.

[k-ricks]

i guess you didn't play online mission omega bosses in there are more than just bullet sponges

[mtw3660]

Publicado originalmente por REhorror:

Sad to see many disrapaging mecha anime.

For me, it's peak fiction. You can find almost all humanity themes there from love, war, human emotion and intelligence and morality.

I'm watching Gundam SEED Freedom this weekend and can't wait for Hathaway 2.

Couldn't agree more with that statement. Mecha anime is indeed peak fiction, especially Armored Trooper VOTOMS and my personal favorite thing Xenogears.