During yesterday’s Nintendo Direct, a demo for the upcoming mech combat game, Daemon X Machina, was released. This game shares a lot of DNA from the Armored Core series, and for good reason. Veteran, Kenichiro Tsukuda, who worked on that series has also been involved with the development of Daemon X Machina. It definitely shows, at least to me anyway. Also can’t get Shōji Kawamori’s part in all this, who is responsible for the style of the mechs you see in the game. He’s had a lot of practice in this line of work as well (Macross, Mobile Suit Gundam, Patlabor, Transformers), you get the point.
This demo gives you a nice slice of the game, as 4 missions are currently available. All of which get you familiar with your mech, all the way up to a challenging boss fight as the final offering. You’re also able to salvage parts throughout your gameplay, of which you’ll be able to use while upgrading your own suit of destruction.
My initial thoughts of the demo? Well, first and foremost, HOLY SHIT. I simply wasn’t prepared for what I played. I’m a huge mecha fan; Gundam, Armored Core, and pretty most giant robot anime and games are my jam. So when I finally get a chance to try the game, I was hooked from the first second. The game looks amazing on the Switch, from the designs of the mecha, the enemies you encounter (holy shit again to that final boss), everything just looks good. The controls definitely could be better and I felt would benefit with gyro aiming. As it stands now, it’s harder than it should be to shoot down smaller enemies.
While we didn’t get access to everything, I really enjoyed the customization aspect as well. From being able to create your own character and features. To swapping out parts on your mech, including every part of the body and weapons. Being able to boost, dodge and flying during combat were hella cool. You also were able to pull off some really nice maneuvers. I just didn’t know to do that consistently.
The performance also could use a boost, as it felt like the game was running in undocked mode. I definitely could see some framerate drop occur, maybe to the low 15-20’s.
**Edit** I forgot about this earlier, but I also had issues on the last mission. Mainly when you went out of bounds and you were forcibly returned to the playing area. Without any control over where you were directed. Ironically enough this happened multiple times as the boss was throwing up its shield – ping-ponging me back and forth. This needs to be fixed.
If Marvelous can get the performance and aim tweaked, this is going be one game that’s going to have me glued to my Switch. It’s safe to say I’ll be picking up Daemon X Machina when it gets released. Whenever that is, as there’s still no exact release date, just a Summer 2019 window. I really hope it doesn’t get pushed back as I really want need this in my life.
