Daemon X Machina: live gameplay footage from the Switch's surprise new mech game
Nintendo has showcased Daemon X Machina today in their Treehouse livestream, showing off some details about how the game plays.
Daemon X Machina opened up Nintendo's E3 Direct this week, showing off the mech action in the new game from Armored Core lead developer Kenichiro Tsukuda. It looked cool as hell, but that was a trailer - now we have some live gameplay footage and further details to go on.
The footage from the Nintendo Treehouse, embedded below (and captured by NintendoEverything), alternates between gameplay footage and various descriptions of the game's mechanics. It opens with the player running around a base where they can customise their avatar's appearance (and choose their gender). The character designer from Fire Emblem Awakening worked on the game, and it shows in the face options.
In the base you can view your mechs, and outfit the walls with weapons you've collected. It looks cool.
The footage also contains a few battles from near the beginning of the game, including what is essentially a tutorial stage where, in-game, your pilot is assessed on whether or not they're capable of handling their mech. All the enemies in the games - including other mechs - are being piloted by A.I., apparently, so unless that changes (or there are boss battles against other characters), you're not killing 'people' when you blow up your enemies.
You can pick up objects in the environment and hurl them at enemies, or take them down by destroying buildings they're standing on or under. Some mech customisation is shown off too - later in the video one of the mechs gets outfitted with a very cool sword.
It looks like fun, but also like there's a bit of polish left to do. No release date has been set, but we'd expect to be waiting until late 2019.