Titanic Scion is “Fast, Waste and Full of Battle”

It feels like it's been something of a resuscitation in the MECH genre in recent years. After the acclaimed release of Titanfall 2, the stage went quiet for a while. But lately, the launches of Armored Core 6 and Mecha Break have aroused renewed interest in all giant robots.

Daemon X Machina was also part of this new wave of MECH games. It was first released in 2019 as an exclusive in Nintendo Switch and got a mixed reaction from both fans and critics, but according to Marvelous the game “very good” performed on the platform.

It did so well, in fact, its sequel, Daemon X Machina: Titanic Scion, Switch Exclusivity abandoned and will be released over several platforms in just a few short days. I have to go to Gamescom this year and talk to producer Kenichiro Tsukuda during the process, and there was much to like with the Mecha Action title.

Daemon X Machina: Titanic Scion is fast, spotted and full of battle

Daemon X Machina Mech standing next to a gigantic monster.

After driving around the Titanic Scions Hub World for a few minutes, where you design and customize your mechs before I started the assignments, I was sent out to one of the game's open environments. While I got a core goal – finding and destroying the area's manager – I found a lot to do during my trip.

Instead of making a line for the manager, I took the time to explore. I found hidden caves to plunder, and a handful of side companies to occupy my time, but the primary focus on Titanic Scion is clearly battle and mech adaptation.

The world was full of a variety of enemy types; Some were ground -based living organisms, while others were mechs that were not afraid to take to heaven and keep the battle varied.

This is the kind of game that get used to fighting can take some time. Mech I used was extremely fast, sometimes difficult to control, and the amount of tools it had, along with the flying abilities, meant that there was much to juggle.

I had all possible instruments in my Arsenal you want from a MECH game. I could lock on with my rocket shooter, had a gigantic laser sword for battle nearby and could fly around to get the jump on my opponents or escape with a flash. When I got into the flow of things, however, it was an blast.

There will be about 300 different equipment parts to create the perfect mech.

When I defeated enemies, I was able to reap their resources and examine them. These are the core components for upgrade and customize your mechs.

While I was not allowed to try this element in the game, I was sure of writers and producer Kenichiro Tsukuda that there will be about 300 different equipment to create the perfect mech.

It was at this time that I realized how passionate Tsukuda was about Mechs and created fantastic games in the genre. “It's easy to design all this when you love the genre, but it can be difficult to balance the performance with the look,” he says. “Often I would send my designs to the art director, who would say to me: 'Yes, it's not good to be honest.'

Tsukuda told me that Mechs to him is more than just gigantic robots, but conveying this point can be difficult. “I think it's really cool when you see towers on top of thoughts and they rotate, but people who like robotnime don't feel the same thing. I'm trying to help them see it.”

Same-same, but different

Daemon X Machina Mech customization screen.

One of the most important complaint players had with the original Daemon X Machina was the story. At Thegamer we said the story was “lost in a bad script with very mediocre characters.” It happens, Tsukuda says, that the original title's main author became ill during the development, which means that the team had to crawl to end the story, which will not be the case this time.

“We first created the story to ensure that no one got sick,” he laughs. “We wanted to make it easy to understand, but full of RPG elements.”

We would also like to introduce PVP to this one.

Together with major history changes, the Titanic Scion Lost PVP, which was one of the original games' most popular.

“We would like to introduce PVP to this one too, but we will release it first and see how the reaction goes,” says Tsukuda. “Instead, we run co-op mode for this one, because you can play together and help each other. If we were to introduce PVP mode, I would like to lower the bar as low as possible so that anyone can try.”

It seems that while the basics of the Titanic Scion will be the same as its predecessor, make wonderful small changes as it feels better.

“If you did not play the previous one, you will still enjoy this one,” Tsukada ends. “The adjustments we have made the game feel much better, and the story is something you can still enjoy, even if you don't know the previous one.”