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0 Like any smart person who aims to try a new franchise, I jumped into the second entry rather than the first. So here we go with my thoughts on Daemon X Machina: Titan Scion, a new entry developed by Marvelous Inc, and brings it more fast-paced, mech piloting action. Take to the battlefield in your own fully customizable Arsenal mech, alone or with up to four friends. I’m playing the PS5 version, and if you aim to pick it up, then the base game costs £54.99 with two other editions available. Most importantly, there is a demo out so you play before you pay. Not everyone can just buy a game for full price.
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Time to prep your Arsenal!
Daemon X Machina: Titan Scion begins with a cutscene giving a brief history of the game’s world. Once done, we get to create our own pilot, who is forcibly removed from a pod by a guy called Nerve. He helps us escape the large facility we’re held in called the Garden. After fighting through the many halls and corridors and learning some of the basic tutorials. Our escape plan fails, which leads to our friend dying and our character crashing down from orbit onto a nearby planet. Thus triggering the future events you will experience.
Gameplay
It took sometime for me to get use to the combat in Daemon X Machina: Titan Scion due to the fact, I haven’t played many mecha games of this style. But the game does deliver on the fast-paced part, with my character flying around chasing other pilots, all while trying to slash at them with my energy blades and missiles. Most of the time, you will spend fighting enemies to collect stuff to create new items. Be that new parts for your arsenal or even weapons. Pilots are not the only threats, as the game has creatures called Immortals.
Now, this kinda confused me a little, when killing – I’ll say humanoid – enemies you get weapons or “actual” mech parts, but when beating an Immortal they offer blueprints which are used only once. The blueprints themselves at times offer a part I think is only craftable through it, but most of the time I got blueprints for parts I could just kill or buy for.
Speaking of parts, Daemon X Machina: Titan Scion offers a decent variety, so that you can find what works for you. I’ve opted for a heavy suit and with dual-wielding swords, one energy, the other physical. As to try and cover all my bases. Some armour compliments certain weapons by giving little buffs, such as better precision. It did become a little overwhelming tweaking my Arsenal thanks to the amount of choice I had with shoulder armament sand auxiliary packs.
What does the game has to offer besides story?
There are side quests for you to take on in Daemon X Machina: Titan Scion, which so far from what I’ve seen don’t overly add much to the worlds’ lore/history. Instead, they are generic missions, like go here kill this guy, or can you pick me up this. However completing some of these side missions do unlock more features and areas in the game. Such as a colosseum for you to battle through, and other facilities that offer services to the player.
While out in the world there isn’t overly a lot for the player to do, there are some mines/Axiom outposts for the player to fight through. But much of the actual world is empty, it seems like grinding for mech parts is the biggest aspect of the game. Although I’m not sure if this was the case with the previous entry.
Buff with Fusion and ice cream.
There are two additional ways to strengthen your character. One is with ice cream, which the player can eat for a temporary buff. And the second is Fusion, which is from getting components after defeating an Immortal and using them to unlock skills. These skills can appear in three forms, and the player can aim to create something to better suit them. A skill I love is Mirage, this creates a duplicate of your character that helps out in combat. It really comes in handy in Daemon X Machina: Titan Scion, especially when fighting alone.
Graphics & Audio
With Daemon X Machina: Titanic Scion’s visuals, when it’s good it’s really good, and when it’s bad, it’s bad. The Arsenal suits look great and intricate in design. Some of the Immortal designs are interesting too, especially some bosses. Unfortunately though, excluding bosses, you will find yourself fighting the same enemies in many of the areas, leading to fatigue after looking at the same design over again.
While the lighting and shadows are brilliant and the textures are half decent, the design of the areas is just okay. Nothing bad, but also nothing I haven’t already seen in these genres of games umpteen times before. I think the worst aspect of the visuals is probably the character models themselves. They look jarringly outdated, especially when some are wearing partial Arsenal gear. You have incredible detail and textures in direct, stark contrast to the rest of the character. The best example of this is the character Bullet. Her gear looks amazing, but her red dress looks too bright, undetailed and almost unfinished.
Not only is it the texture issues, but the facial animations during cutscenes are awful. Setting aside translation (where the motion capture’s in the native language, so the English voices don’t synch to their mouth movements), the faces are emotionless and flapping. In one particular cutscene, you had Angel’s voice actress screaming her heart out, while her character stares practically deadpan ahead with no emotion, her mouth just flapping. It really ruined what was supposed to be an emotional scene, and it just made it awkward and cringe to watch.
The only other error I had (but it’s easily rectified) is that one of the tutorial pages is still in Japanese.
Longevity
Besides the large amount of time it takes for me to get gear, I wouldn’t say the game is that long. More so, excess fluff. When I looked at the trophies for the game, most of them were for obtaining most of the armour sets in Daemon X Machina: Titanic Scion. The colosseum didn’t take too much of my time and seemed quite easy even with the lower gear I had on my Arsenal. I think I’ve reached the climax of the game by 20 hours, but in all fairness that was mainly down to rushing the story. Since side-quests didn’t seem to offer anything substantial in the ways of rewards, and there isn’t actually a level for the player to increase. Yeah, there is a mercenary rank, but this just doesn’t improve stats.
Final Thoughts
Story wise, without playing the previous game to help with context (if there is any), Daemon X Machina: Titanic Scion feels terribly rushed. Not providing enough time for the player to actually learn about these characters or to like them. Take Zanki for example, he comes off as the typical quiet wise old swordsman, but he sort of just appears in what feels like a randomly added cutscene. Unlike Ash, and Angel who are given a proper introduction. Also when it comes to Ash’s voice It was too much, it needs to be toned down with the amount of needless shouting. That in the end made me dread when ever he would speak.
Thoughts on the combat
The open-world side is really barren and empty regardless of the amount of enemies scattered around. Like, I am grateful, since the focus on collecting mech parts requires large groups of enemies. But there isn’t anything in the actual world to break up the constant fighting. Maybe I haven’t played enough games in the mech genre to truly give my opinion, but Daemon X Machina: Titanic Scion ends up feeling hollow.
Combat does well to look flashy but comes across as oddly empty. I spent most of my time just firing missiles or chasing enemies who would strafe without actually attempting to fight. Bosses on the other hand stick to two sections, stupidly easy, or needlessly hard. Without trying to spoil the game. The best examples I could give are Void and Legion. Void just kinda floated there without doing anything, with occasionally popping off some weak projectiles. While Legion would spam the skill Mirage all while beaming you with lasers, that’s damage output is ridiculous.
Sadly Daemon X Machina: Titanic Scion gets the Thumb Culture’s Silver Award from me, although fans of the other game might enjoy it more.
Disclaimer: A code was received in order to write this review.
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