Almost every arcade I've visited in Japan over the last decade had a floor dedicated almost exclusively to the latest iteration of the Gundam Versus series, a fighting game that seems to be carrying the entire Japanese arcade industry on its shoulders. It's essentially a 2v2, 3D arena fighter where you pick your Gundam, fly and dash through the air to dance around your opponents, and tap in button combos to do flashy moves. It's a frantic and overwhelming game to learn, which immediately came to mind when Italked to FromSoftware's developers about their plans for multiplayer in Armored Core 6, and they said the words "metal flying everywhere."
Armored Core 6, like most games in FromSoftware's long-running (but also long-dormant) mecha series, is primarily singleplayer. In the story, you're a mercenary pawn of uncaring corporations vying for power, and every mission reinforces how little they give a shit about you. An oppressive haze hangs over you despite victory after victory, and that's the story and tone FromSoftware wanted to craft. Dark Souls has the same seriousness, but its multiplayer puts that tone on pause to deliver absolutely slapstick moments.
