Although FromSoftware's latest release, pinnacle of the Soulslike genre so far, I'd like the studio's next release to be a follow-up to Armored Core 6: Fires of Rubicon, not another Soulslike. Starting with the release of Demon's Souls in 2009, FromSoftware has become best known for kickstarting the entire Soulslike genre, with plenty of other developers now trying to emulate the design and success of games like Dark Souls. Despite that success, though, I'd prefer for FromSoft to take a break from its signature genre.

Of course, while the Souls games, Bloodborne, Elden Ring, and their various DLCs are what FromSoft is best known for, the studio's modern catalog of games isn't entirely made up of Soulslikes. Perhaps the studio's most notable non-Soulslike release, Sekiro: Shadow Die Twice, came out in 2019, in between the end of the Dark Souls series and the later release of Elden Ring, and a year before that, the studio also released a relatively obscure VR title, Déraciné. What I really want to see FromSoftware expand on, though, is 2023's Armored Core 6: Fires of Rubicon.

FromSoft's Next Release Should Be A Follow-Up To Armored Core 6

FromSoftware Should Take A Break From Soulslikes

While I'm not a longtime fan of Armored Core - Fires of Rubicon being the only game in the series that I've actually played - I think it would be a missed opportunity for FromSoft to not give the game an expansion or sequel of some kind before moving on to another Soulslike, whether it's a prospective Elden Ring 2 or something else entirely. The first Armored Core game to be released since 2013's Armored Core: Verdict Day, Fires of Rubicon benefited greatly from FromSoft's stellar reputation, easily becoming the best-selling and most well-known game in the series.

Unlike its predecessors, though, Armored Core 6 is currently a standalone product, with no expansions, DLCs, or sequels having been released or even teased since the game's initial launch. With FromSoftware seemingly focusing on Shadow of the Erdtree for 2024, and no current hints towards the studio's next major project, it's entirely possible that AC6's post-launch won't go beyond the few free updates that the game has already received - which would be a shame for the game that introduced Armored Core, and in some ways the mecha genre as a whole, to a wider audience.

While I don't think Armored Core 6 is unfinished in its current state, I do know that there is some sentiment from older fans of the series that the game could do with more mech parts, a wider variety of weapons, and more levels, similar in scope to what a DLC for a Souls game might add. In keeping with series tradition, the game could even get a direct sequel - Verdict Day, released in 2013, for example, was a sequel to Armored Core 5, a pattern that holds true for every game in the series before it as well.

How Should An Armored Core 6 Expansion Work?

Following Series Tradition Might Not Be The Best Idea For AC6

Personally, though, I'm not sure if a standalone sequel, like what the series has traditionally released, would fare quite as well now, especially since other games that previously followed a similar model, like Monster Hunter and Pokémon, have near-universally moved on to releasing DLC expansions instead. In keeping with that change, and with FromSoft's own established post-launch release patterns for other games, I think an expansion for Armored Core 6 would probably be the best move.

To be fair, though, while the previous Armored Core model of releasing direct sequels to each numbered game resembles the former release models of franchises like Monster Hunter, it wasn't exactly the same. While Armored Core sequel games would retain similar but expanded mechanics from their predecessors, they would also be true sequels in the sense of expanding on the previous game's story - so the story of Armored Core: For Answer, for example, would be different from the game that it was following up on, Armored Core 4.

Truthfully, I'm definitely more of a Souls fan than an Armored Core fan - but after the massive experience that was Shadow of the Erdtree, (presumably) serving as the conclusion to Elden Ring, I think it would be good to get another release outside the Soulslike genre from FromSoftware. And given the success and quality of Armored Core 6: Fires of Rubicon, I think it would be a shame for it not to see some sort of followup as the studio's next release.