Armored Core 6's talented fan artists keep reimagining its faceless characters as hot dating sim options, distracting me from mecha ultraviolence

This was inevitable. FromSoftware's fanbase is flooded with talented people—something about the studio's habit of making textured, detailed worlds and iconic characters has set fire to artist's imaginations time and time again. Even the lore videos have professionally-rendered animatics now.

So you'd think that a game with a relatively focused aesthetic—killer robots and post-apocalyptic cityscapes—would draw those artists away from rendering NPCs and towards depicting its environments and shiny mechs. Turns out, giving your handler a husky voice and hiding his face completely has made people go feral with a tablet pen.

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I really didn't need this. Handler Walter needs to be able to give me a mission briefing without me picturing these smokeshows—but I am cursed, like these fan artists, with good taste. Aside from the cursed decals you'd expect, Armored Core 6's community has been utterly saturated with awesome fanart of the game's NPCs, as well as interpretations of the player pilot 621/Raven.

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Not even ALLMIND (who as far as I know is just the in-universe equivalent of Siri for virtual wargames) is safe from an unquenchable thirst to turn these faceless characters into people you could conceivably date.

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Still, I'm not too surprised by the activated imaginations on display here. While FromSoftware's usual brand of storytelling lumps its core cast behind a veil of mystery and cryptic speech, the handlers and pilots you chat with Armored Core 6 are refreshingly direct and casual—brimming with personality and constantly bickering with both you and each other.

It's only natural that artists would want to create their own spins on them. After all, you only speak to them over the intercom—so you're free to cook up whatever headcanons you like. For example, freelance illustrator Kuba's gorgeous interpretation of boyfriend material V.IV Rusty will haunt me every time I hear the word "Buddy" on my routine rampages through Operation Wallclimber.

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