FromSoft dropped a new game yesterday. Normally, that would mean I would be super-hyped and jumping out of my skin. I mean, I bought a whole new desktop 10 days before Elden Ring came out specifically so I could play it. Granted, I need a new desktop, anyway, but I didn’t push myself to get one until the prospect of not being able to play Elden Ring hit me. I was not happy that From didn’t drop the specs needed for the PC until 10 days before the game dropped.
I do understand that ti’s more difficult to assess what is needed for a PC than a console because the specs are much more diverse on the former and not limited by hardware the way it is on the console. But 10 days before the game realesed was cutting it close. I was fortunate enough that I could buy a new desktop just like that, but most people cannot.
This time, I didn’t even check the specs before I bought the game. If my computer could play Elden Ring, it should be able to play ACVI. Even with my beefy rig, Elden Ring had some microstutters on release. I had two hard crashes, too, but that was it. It wasn’t enough to dampen my enthusiasm for the game, but it was a thing. And I know that many people had it much worse, even people with beefier PCs.
I will be brutally honest. I am not a sci-fi person or a mech person. I don’t give a flying fig about robots, so I would not have even blinked about this game if it weren’t for the fact that it was made by FromSoft. I have never played an Armored Core, but I know that this was their bread-and-butter back before they became known for their brutally hard action-adventure RPGs such as Dark Souls.
Fun fact: Patches first appeared in an Armored Core. I don’t remember what his epithet was in that game, and I hesitate to look it up because I don’t want to spoil what it is in this game. I found it by looking for the first game he was in. The thing I thought was a spoiler wasn’t. He was a Lynx called Patch the Good Luck, and apparently, it’s a game Miyazaki directed. This was in Armored Core: For Answer (which is an interesting choice for a name).
He has been in every game since, either directly or implicitly. There was a character called Pate in the second Dark Souls game that was clearly Patches. And there was a merchant/thief in Sekiro who reminded me strongly of Patches. In Demon’s Souls, he was Patches the Hyena. In Dark Souls, he was Trusty Patches. In Dark Souls III, he was Unbreakable Patches. In Elden Ring, he turns up as Patches the Untethered, and his questline is filled with pathos in a way it’s not in the others. Although he does have an interesting qusetline in the second DLC of Dark Souls III. I cannot wait to see WHEN he shows up in ACVI.