Marvelous’ stylish mecha game Daemon X Machina features character designs by Fire Emblem artist Yusuke Kozaki and mech designs by Macross’ Shoji Kawamori, and we got a look at plenty of both during the Nintendo Treehouse @ E3 2018 today with producer Kenichiro Tsukuda, a veteran in the mecha games business.
The footage starts out with a brief look at the character creator that offers various customization options for your character’s face, hair, eyes, eyebrows, makeup, scar/tattoo. The customization options from the E3 build isn’t final as it is still in development and we can expect to see more in the finished product.
The next part showed off the base where you’ll gather. Here you can see the mech that you pilot and use to fight in the game. Shoji Kawamori who is mostly known for his work on Macross, also worked on concept designs for the Armored Core series.
The space in the above screencaps will be decorated by the weapons you collect, so the more you collect the more decorations you’ll have.
We got to see some empty platforms where the mech was parked, and these will be platforms for your friends who join you on multiplayer.
This shiny console is where you’ll go to accept missions, but it’s also an A.I. that’ll be there to help you out.
Before heading out to battle you can customize your mech with equipment, loadouts, and more.
When you head out for the first time, there’s a tutorial that acts as a “test” to see if you can properly fly with the mech.
We get to see a few tanks as enemies to start off, including some hiding under a building. Daemon X Machina has a focus on destructible environments, so you can destroy the building and have the debris fall on the enemies to take them out. Additionally, enemies blow up too so you can hit one and pop another enemy right next to it.
All enemies you fight in the world of Daemon X Machina are A.I. based. They originally started out as regular artificial intelligence but began attacking humans and became known as Arms of Immortal. They live by hacking other machines like them. When defeating enemies they’ll drop weapons and parts that you can pick up in real-time. For example, if your body parts break you can pick up enemy parts and replace them. You’ll find some drawings or graffiti on walls, which you can pick up to acquire new colors to customize your mech.
There are many things you can pick up and find around the stage, and upon clearing a mission you’ll be given some time to go around collecting stuff you may have missed. Once you finish, you’ll get to see everything acquired.
There are five slots to equip weapons, including one special slot for something else, but this will be shared on a later date.
A lot of focus was put into the art style of the game, and there are all sorts of things that were incorporated from anime and comic, things that users have experienced but maybe not in the mecha genre. The next stage is dark red, and it is made to convey the state of the world, and there are some that don’t have any colors at all.
Tsukuda-san, who has worked on various mecha titles throughout his career, was asked to share his goals or something that excites him about Daemon X Machina. He responded by saying the idea of getting something he sees in real-time and stealing parts from enemies and taking them on the fly is exciting.
Another big part of gameplay is not only being able to change your equipment on the fly, but also being able to choose whether you want to be on the ground or in the air. There are some things you can find while flying and not while on the ground, so there are many reasons to explore the areas in both ways.
The staff is working hard on the art style, and this includes little details like how you see trees shake as you approach them. The staff was also enthusiastic about coordinating colors to elicit feelings from the players.
The title Daemon X Machina was also something that had a lot of thought poured into. It comes from the Latin term of “deus ex machina” meaning “god from the machine.” In the game the enemy A.I. are seen as demons, but they’ll also see players as demons or gods.
The footage concludes with a boss fight. One interesting point is that players will get to shoot down every single missile from the boss. Players will get to choose at what range they fight the boss, so if they prefer shooting from a distance or up and close, either way works out.
It was also noted that the E3 2018 build only has Japanese voices, but the full game will come with English dubs.
You can catch the entire gameplay session from the Treehouse live stream below:
Daemon X Machina releases for Nintendo Switch in 2019.
