"I felt that with the previous game, Armored Core: For Answer, we had gone as far as we could with the 'speed' concept," Nabeshima said. "Being able to present a new kind of mech hero in For Answer was a rewarding experience, but if we kept on pursuing speed, then the gameplay would start to falter in spots -- most players simply wouldn't be able to keep up with mach-5 combat. So this time we want to retain the core aspects of what makes the series interesting -- and that includes speed -- and also present some new concepts that diverge from the past."

To be more exact, the central "theme" of Armored Core 5's battles is "violent mech action," shifting focus from speed and mobility to the brute strength of the machinery involved. "We're going for the sort of violent action that only mechs can deliver," Nabeshima said. "I want to see the sort of hero that could be born from these powerful, violent machines."

"Up to now, the battles were centered around how well you could dodge your opponent's attacks while firing away and gradually whittling down his AP," Nabeshima noted. "That's fun, of course, but once one side has an AP advantage over the other, it became difficult to come back from that. This system dramatically changes that battle balance."