Last year, I watched Neon Genesis Evangelion—the series and all the films. I was deeply moved by Hideaka Anno’s mecha anime that I even got a tattoo of EVA Unit-01 going berserk. It was painful, but it’s now my favorite piece. However, I never thought Evangelion would work as a video game. Watching Shinji’s journey as a spectator was enough for me. But then I played Armored Core 6, and it turned out to be the best Evangelion game a mecha fan could ask for.
Similarities between the two stories are striking. Both protagonists, Shinji Ikari and Raven (C4-621), are skilled pilots caught up in a larger game they can’t fully comprehend. Shinji is manipulated by his father, Gendo, while Raven is controlled by his handler, Walter. Both men sacrifice those under their care to further their hidden agendas.
Although Walter is more of a boss than a father figure, and Raven remains silent unlike Shinji, I felt a connection between the two as I played. Silent protagonists allow players to project themselves onto them, and perhaps that’s what I was doing here. Despite Raven’s brutality, it never seemed like they wanted to be on Rubicon or in the AC. Walter constantly reminds them that it’s just a job, urging them to suppress any moral concerns they may have. Similarly, Gendo dismisses all of Shinji’s worries about piloting the EVAs, often forcing his own child into traumatic battles against gigantic and deadly angels.
Both Armored Core 6 and Evangelion share a tension between the awe-inspiring coolness of the mechs and the despairing nature of the situation. Anno intentionally designed the EVAs to be monstrous and grotesque, making it harder to sell action figures—a critique of the state of mecha anime. The ACs in Armored Core have a similar eerie quality.
One major similarity is the mystery surrounding how the pilots operate their mechs. They undergo life-altering surgeries to better control the steel giants, but with numerous generations of augmentation, there could be countless methods of piloting. We don’t even know how human the pilots remain after all the modifications. Do they use physical controls, or do their ACs respond directly to their thoughts? Do they experience pain if their AC sustains damage, like EVA pilots do? These questions remain unanswered.
In Evangelion, the connection between the pilot and the EVA is known—and horrifying. Each robot contains the soul of the pilot’s mother, allowing for synchronization of brainwaves and triggering the EVA’s autonomous berserk mode. Mothers will do anything to protect their children. While the ACs may not be as monstrous, their pilots also lose a part of their humanity.
Despite this, witnessing massive mechs and monsters battling it out is thrilling, especially considering what we know about the sacrifices required to pilot these machines. In Evangelion, humanity fights against an angel invasion. These angels are not saviors but beings determined to destroy humanity. The only force capable of stopping them is the EVAs, which are themselves angels repurposed to fight their own kind. In Armored Core, the only thing capable of taking down an AC is another AC.
What makes the fights in Armored Core reminiscent of those in Evangelion is not just the scale but also the tragedy. Many of Evangelion’s battles are accompanied by the tortured screams of Shinji and his teenage comrades as they fight for their lives. In Armored Core, the haunting orchestral score and constant chatter over the radio emphasize the human stakes. FromSoftware could have chosen a thumping techno soundtrack to amplify the awesomeness of the duels, but they opted for a more restrained approach, giving the game heart.
Raven, like Shinji, is not destined by birth to take up arms but earns their place by the end of their journey. And, like Shinji, they ultimately decide the fate of the world. The Coral on Rubicon possesses mystical properties, seemingly containing the spirits of fallen Rubiconians. The similarities to Evangelion’s Human Instrumentality Project, Gendo’s ultimate goal of uniting everyone, are hard to ignore. Coral also shares a reddish hue with LCL. Raven, just like Shinji, has the final say in what becomes of this substance and how it will reshape life as we know it.
I didn’t expect to be so moved by Armored Core 6, and I doubt I would have been if it weren’t for my recent love for Neon Genesis Evangelion. Even though I couldn’t see the pilots in their ACs, imagining Shinji, Rei, and Asuka and what they went through in their EVAs made me connect with all the disembodied voices enclosed in their steel tombs. Armored Core 6 may not technically be an Evangelion game, but a rose by any other name smells just as sweet.
Source: DOTESPORTS
