Daemon Ex Machina was incredibly stylish, but not for me. I love me some mechs but I think that the demo did not do a great job of showing me why I might want to spend hours optimizing a build in order to tackle specific missions. On that note, mission-structured games lend themselves to trial and error a bit too often, and sometimes it can be a bit frustrating to feel that there's nothing else to do but simply take on the same set of challenges with little reprieve. So when the sequel was announced as a more open world structured experience with powersuits rather than mechs, my interest was piqued- not that I don't like mechs, of course, but this sequel looked to be attempting something different from various angles. My decision to purchase the game was further bolstered by a hefty demo that allowed for some free exploration and optional combat.
In retrospect, the way objectives are telegraphed in video games is quite important. I say this because despite the open world presentation of
Titanic Scion, it is still very much a mission-based mech combat game, which perhaps begs the question of why it needs three large open world environments. Now, looking at these maps, it might not seem like they are very “open,” or at least, freely explorable in terms of terrain interaction. While
Titanic Scion does have some surprisingly stringent altitude limits and the maps might look a bit narrow, there's actually huge swaths of open space, populated with all sorts of structures, enemy types, and collectables. Essentially, this is the
je ne sais quoi I felt was lacking from a purely mission-based game: the ability to just go off and screw around in a powersuit if I was feeling bored by the main narrative or challenged by a particular mission.
There are several systems built into the open world that make it a lucrative venture, one being the various kinds of loot obtained from unstructured enemy encounters. The enemy types that can be encountered in the field are Immortals, Sovereign Axiom Forces, and Colossi, which roughly translates to "eldritch beasts, guys equipped similarly to yourself, and really big things that you'll probably waste all of your ammo trying to kill." Immortals and Colossi can drop fusion materials that can be converted into valuable skills at base, with some allowing for specialized weapon techniques and others generally enhancing base abilities. This does come with the added effect of slowly transforming your player character into an inhuman abomination, which is fun! The Sovereign Axiom will drop development schema and various types of equipment, which can be swapped on the field or sent back to your hanger for future use. Then, there are the bits and bobs to be found elsewhere: mineral deposits to be used in conjunction with development plans, basic items and drops, graffiti that can be copied as decals, and a few types of currency that can be gathered to convert into specific buffs. What might surprise is that missions don't randomly trigger in the open world- the fights with colossi must be sought and engaged with, and there are some scripted skirmishes that you can resolve. Every mission is initially started at your base, at which point the player must find the NPCs on the world map and help them out. Hence, another reason for exploration: doing so offers a number of spawn points that can reduce your travel time.
Mind you, travel from one location to the next is not hugely difficult. Any enemy won't really be able to impede your movement from one point to the next- if you remain airborne or sprinting. Both of these cost Femto, one of the game's stamina systems. Yes, I said
one. There's also stamina that is used for guarding, dodging, and special skill inputs. Now, just traveling by foot is a bit slower, and
Titanic Scion does offer vehicular travel, whether atop an Immortal mount or using a nice car or wonky bike. I have to say, if Metroid Prime 4's Vi-O-La is the zenith of smooth and easy to control vehicle movement, the mounts in
Titanic Scion aren't quite the opposite, but are wildly rewarding as a result of their own inadequacies. They react to each minor bump, they vault off of hills at high speeds and flip over at any point. It's kind of awesome, in its own dumb way.
Overall, traveling the open world is fun, effortless, and can be made more interactive simply by going out of your way to explore, engage in enemies, or screw around with things. But what is there to do, really? Well, the game also features a number of Sovereign Axiom facilities and natural tunnels, which offer dungeon-like experiences for the player to explore. While the rewards within these areas are only occasionally worthwhile, they are capital-C content, and offer a variety of unique scenarios that can test particular types of builds. And boy, builds really are the name of this game's... game, you know? There's a variety of armor and weapon types that you could use to outfit your Arsenal: revolvers, laser rifles, shotguns, machine guns, sniper rifles, bazookas, miniguns, knives, tachi, beamswords, single and two-handed swords, knuckles, shields, bows, status-guns, railguns, missile launchers, drones... I might have missed a few, but yeah. That's quite a bit.
Too bad nearly everything folds to flinch-rate melee attacks.
It's a bit of a shame, there's really only two matches in the game's coliseum battles that gave my high-mobility laser damage build a run for its money, which... I don't know, is maybe not-great for a game priding itself on variety of approach. But to be fair, that doesn't mean other builds wouldn't be as effective, and the coliseum is hardly the only type of skirmish that exists. There are plenty of Colossi battles that require more heavy-duty, longevity-focused builds to overcome, and the boss battles add some much-needed environmental and special-skill gimmickry for the player to grapple with. The added bonus is, much in the vein of the first game's ethos, you can replay these boss battles (and Colossi battles that you don't want to find in the field again) over and over for gear farming. Why, you ask, would you want to do that? Well, there are specific areas and enemies in the game that require highly specific gear composition. Some content even requires team-play (which I will never experience because I have no friends and refuse to be the carried member of a random squad)! There's also sort of randomly-generated dungeons you can access forever and forever on your own or with friends (that I don't have) that could make this game last forever. Because that's what every game needs to be these days: a forever game.
...I haven't touched the DLC campaign yet.
So, even if this game is pretty much "smash your toy robot against everything else," what is the actual
story? That's a great question. It's also extremely hard to answer because you have factions within factions and traitors and schemes and dear god the main villain is named Void and I need to protect the Alpha from the Trinitas and the world is comprised of Humans and Outers and the Outers feel like puppets to the humans but the Trinitas have been ruling the world via the Sovereign Axiom and what the hell is happening? The thing is, the game starts with a genuinely compelling rebellion from within the ruling class and... this eventually is inconsequential because the plot is hijacked by a christlike figure who
isn't you, the playable character. Not that it needs to be, mind you, but your own journey of redemption is compelling enough on paper to serve as the grounds for a game. And I guess the writers felt that would be a bit blase, so instead we got intense screaming, proselytizing, and monologuing out the whazoo. The end result is the most anime version of
Children of Men you'll ever experience, but that's a lovely thing, isn't it? Children are the hope of the future, not some mirthless, awful future that involves suffering. And what is more inspiring for the next generation- I dare say what better way to show them the beauty of the world than sweet, sweet customizable armored powersuits?
...I don't know, I've returned to this place because I am reminded of a time when I would write, impassioned and free, about the merits of video games. As I age, I see how little people actually want to engage with this sort of discussion, and I gaze upon my own works and wonder whether my rants were because I believed in the artistic merits of a game, or if I just vehemently chose to defend my personal taste. In the case of
Titanic Scion, I find myself enjoying a game quite a bit- the ability to just explore, and engage in enemy combat if I want to. I've hit forty hours and while I don't imagine I'll be able to wring much more out of its environments and missions, I know there's much more for me to find. The bosses in the game were pretty easily dealt with through some cheesy builds I created with a bit of tinkering and gear farming, but there are much more daunting enemies out there that I don't think I'll be able to best for a while longer- or without friends. And I find that satisfying, the idea of having something to keep coming back to play. I have other games to play, but
Titanic Scion feels comfortable, despite its intense metallic rock soundtrack and desolate, grungy visuals. Heck, its comfortable enough that I find myself looking forward to the eventual model kits being produced by Bandai Namco that will probably be way too expensive in 2026 because what
isn't, right? And I think about what games I choose to make a part of my personality- the things to which I commit myself, and try to prove worthy to others. If I can justify the existence of these games, then perhaps I have justified a bit of my own existence- if only a bit. Games are a power trip, but it depends what sort of trip you want to take. I think role-playing games appeal to me a great deal because of their payoff through commitment. With
Titanic Scion, there is one unique fold introduced: that sometimes a build is well-suited for many different situations, and might even be appealing to me exclusively for a variety of reasons, but there are circumstances where my favorite thing might not work. The alternative is within grasp- the game will allow it, make it freely accessible, and when I learn to master that as well, I can save it as a preset and bring it out again in the future. It just takes even more time to get to that point. And that's kind of like life, yeah? So maybe I can exercise similar muscles, set similar goals, come up with new solutions to problems I'm facing, and turn them into a skill preset that I can whip out again. But it does start here, with intentional writing.
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