With the studio looking to expand on the size and scope of the franchise’s first outing, things are heating up for the Outers in this new adventure, requiring that they bring their best piloting skills to the field as they attempt to navigate a new world with complex and nuanced political relationships requiring their tact and skill.

To that end, let’s take a look at what’s new in Titanic Scion and perhaps help you decide if this one is worth your time, attention, and of course, your hard-earned cash.

1. The Story Continues

Marvelous has stated that Titanic Scion is a sequel to the first game. Your character is an Outer, a human being who has been granted the power to control and pilot mechs called Arsenals thanks to the power of Femto, an element formed during a past catastrophe called the Moonfall Calamity.

You are thrust into a struggle for control of a planet that’s the stage for an armed conflict between the Outer Government and its military branch, called the Axioms, and the Reclaimers who form a resistance group dedicated to retaining their home planet’s freedom. Expect nuanced interactions with their members and perhaps even a few key decisions to make over the course of the story.

2. A True Open World

While the original Deamon X Machina featured large explorable areas in which you carried out missions, Titanic Scion features an open world that you must explore, navigating it between missions and encountering enemies, field bosses, and side content along the way.

It’s a welcome change that builds on the size and scope of the first game while allowing players a modicum of freedom in how they approach its content.

3. New Traversal Mechanics

Getting around the open world that Marvelous is bringing in this time around might sound daunting for an Outer who needs to get a rather large mech moving and covering ground quickly. But the studio has been clever to introduce mechanics that make those journeys easier, and dare we say quite fun!

That’s because Early previews show the player character being able to mount a horse along the way to their next objective, while others choose to use the newly introduced Femto-boost mechanic to take their mech to the skies, covering ground rapidly in the process. All of this is facilitated by mech designs that are streamlined and lightweight, making them perfect for mobility during exploration and even combat.

That’s an intelligent change if we ever saw one.

4. Reclaim Fast Travel Points

Like many other open worlds, Titanic Scion’s map features fast-travel points that you can use if you feel like zipping around in your mech isn’t your cup of tea. While that’s certainly convenient, you will need to visit each one and complete objectives to ensure it is available for use later down the line.

While the objectives themselves seem fairly straightforward, we believe that it’s an interesting wrinkle that balances convenience with engagement, making you actually put in the work to earn the right to skip tedious journeys from point A to B. It’s way more immersive than simply having to visit the area to unlock the added functionality of each point, for sure.

5. New Combat Mechanics

The sleeker mech models find another place to shine, with Titanic Scion’s combat benefiting greatly from their improved mobility. The option to lock-on to an enemy during battles is now present, as is a plethora of ways to deal with the threat that the enemy poses. 

The action has been stepped up a notch with the new particle weapons system that lets you essentially switch between attacking, guarding, and dodging, along with the heavy Armor mechanic that lets you call down a massive mech to obliterate your enemies in a pinch as long as you have enough power to do so.

Expect a more refined, seamless combat loop in Titanic Scion, and try to enjoy it as much as we’re going to.

6. Cool Bosses

If you’re the type to seek out the biggest and baddest enemies in a new area the minute you enter it, we’ve got good news for you. Titanic Scion’s early previews suggest that there are both field bosses to discover alongside a roster of enemies that you will have to defeat over the course of the main campaign.

The boss designs we’ve seen are quite impressive, ranging from giant monstrosities to agile characters who are probably going to bring a relentless stream of attacks for you to manage out in the field. There is a possibility that each of these fearsome foes drops useful gear or weapons, incentivizing you to take them on and emerge victorious with some skillful piloting of your mech.

8. A Layer of Strategy to Looting

Speaking of loot drops, Marvelous seems to be averse to players hoarding items in their inventory, allowing players to select only one item from downed enemies from a range of options. These could include items that might serve you well in your current encounter or upgrades to your mech that let you play the long game and create a build that withstands increasingly difficult assaults.

It’s a great way of ensuring that your choices matter in the game, making you think carefully about your progression in a title that places a lot of emphasis on loadouts and their effective use in the field.

9. The Fusion System

Strategic looting is one part of the equation in creating a lethal build for your mech, with the new Fusion System being another. The parts and materials you nab from enemies let you choose upgrades across four categories, opening up a lot of options for your build.

There are weapon skills, stylish new moves, upgrades to specific mech components, and so much more on offer in a customization system that runs pretty deep. You could find yourself sinking a lot of hours into this game if you like crunching numbers to min/max your build, and that’s a good thing in a title like Titanic Scion.

10. Navigate Complex Rivalries

We touched upon the Axioms and Reclaimers in an earlier section of this list but it’s worth mentioning that their natural affinity towards a less-than-friendly relationship could be a source of interesting conflict for your character to navigate.

The game could potentially include story threads or side content in which you would have to pick one side over the other to get to a specific reward or upgrade, saving the other option for your next playthrough. It could mean a fair bit of replay value for Titanic Scion while allowing its players the chance to see familiar story beats from a different perspective if Marvelous has indeed made use of the narrative potential here.

11. Multiplayer Options

Aside from teaming up with your buddies in online co-op play, the lone wolves among you might be interested to know that asynchronous multiplayer is making its way to Titanic Scion. Early previews have revealed that the actions of other players do affect your version of the mysterious planet your character is in, bringing the feeling of a world in which other mercenaries are after similar goals as your own.

It’s a nice touch and is one that could be quite immersive once the game gets some traction going post-release.

12. An Excellent Soundtrack

Marvelous has been clever to bring a soundtrack that fits well with the action and theme of the game, mixing rock and roll into the game’s soundtrack to create some memorable tracks you might just find yourself playing even when you’re not actively fending off enemies in your mech.

The soundtrack might very well become our favorite part of the game if the tracks we’ve already heard are any indication.

13. Minigames Galore

Exploring the open world could get all the more entertaining with the presence of minigames, such as one in which you mine for useful resources, using well-timed button presses to improve your chances of obtaining more of them. There may even be a collectible card game to track down in some obscure corner of the world if some previews are to be believed.

That might be music to the ears of Gwent fans who have been longing for an alternative to scratch that itch.

14. How Long to Beat

While Marvelous has been rather cagey about the playtime Titanic Scion brings to the table, expect the main story to take anywhere between 15-20 hours to complete while completionist runs could take that number up by a significant amount.

Additionally, its multiplayer elements could have you constantly returning to the game’s world to take on missions with your friends or perhaps indulge in a few versus battles to blow off some steam. Titanic Scion could keep you occupied for a long time to come if its gameplay loop resonates well with your love for mech-action titles.

15. System Requirements

If you’re looking to play the game on your PC, the minimum specs your setup will need include an Intel Core i5-10400 CPU, 16GB of RAM, an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050, Windows 10 64-bit and 50 GB of SSD storage, and DirectX Version 12. The recommended specs take things up to an Intel Core i7-12700 CPU, 32GB of RAM, an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070, Windows 10 64-bit and 50 GB of SSD storage, and DirectX Version 12.

While I couldn’t play the original title thanks to it being exclusive to the Nintendo Switch on release and not having access to a PC when it was eventually ported to Windows, I’m glad that Marvelous decided to take on a multi-platform approach to its upcoming title, making it accessible to a wider audience this time around. That approach seems justified by what is shaping up to be a solid effort based on previews and trailers.

Titanic Scion appears to blend a solid gameplay loop with an engaging story, stylish combat, great visuals, and a soundtrack that I might just add to my work playlist if it turns out as good as it seems. But all of these are standard fare in modern games that have the potential to truly stand out from the crowd.

So what makes Titanic Scion a title that has me so eager to dive into? Well, the answer’s quite simple. It seems like it’s going to be fun to play. Although its open world could be considered generic by modern standards, I’d say it’s what’s in that world that truly counts. Allow me to elaborate.

Me(ch) Against The World

Your player character is left to their own devices on an alien planet after the game’s introduction, and what a planet it is. It may seem that it’s just a desolate wasteland, but from what I’ve seen so far, there’s a lot to do as you explore it. There are secrets to ease out and NPCs to assist as you earn a name for yourself, not just because you’re a skilled Arsenal operator (as the mechs are called in this universe) but because you earn every bit of goodwill that comes your way.

If that’s not engaging enough, there’s also the fact that you need to be careful about what you loot from the ruined mechs of your enemies. You could choose between useful items that could be of immediate use in combat situations, or pick up stuff that you can take back to your base to develop your mech and give it much-needed advantages against harder challenges later down the line.

That’s a choice that could be hard to make in the heat of battle, as your enemies are not going to wait around while you make up your mind. And as somebody who abhors hoarding items that I loot in the field, I’m quite interested to see if this approach can lead to an inventory with less clutter and more utility over time.

Factor in mutations, or Fusions as the game calls them, that you can tack on to your character, and the early beginnings of a wide variety of builds begin to take shape, leading me to hope that respeccing is as quick and seamless as it is in some recent releases, Wuchang: Fallen Feathers being an example.

And while many of you may swear by bringing your buddies along to the fight in co-op multiplayer sessions, I prefer to operate as a lone wolf, taking on my foes with just my brains and brawn to help.

However, I’d say that there’s something to like about asynchronous multiplayer, as it makes the game’s desolate world feel lived in every time I come across evidence that there are other mercenaries out there facing down the same challenges, perhaps with methods that are vastly different from my own.

From what I’ve seen of the original title, Titanic Scion looks like it’s building on its gameplay loop in ways that could make it a great addition to my library of current-gen games.

An Outer Looking In

While I wouldn’t recommend seeing the opening sequence from any previews or even trying to find out more about it if you’re interested in playing the game, know that it’s a great setup for what comes after. I watched it so you didn’t have to.

Your character, Nova, is an Outer, a human who was born with the ability to control Arsenals, or mechs, thanks to events that happened in the past. You are thrust right into the conflict between the Axioms, who serve as the Outer Government’s military arm, and the Reclaimers, a resistance group determined to end the Axioms’ tyranny.

While the Reclaimers are hesitant to trust you right off the bat, proving yourself to them and earning that trust is likely to be a crucial part of Nova’s adventures. The Axioms seem like a cool bunch despite the fact that they seem antagonistic in nature.

What’s special about this narrative is that each member of these groups brings something cool to the table aside from distinct personalities. There’s a guy wielding a lightsaber, for instance, and I can’t wait to take him on and perhaps channel my inner Obi-Wan as I hopefully take the high ground and bring him down if he chooses to take me on.

I’m hoping that the story lets me make choices between the two factions, and that those choices influence how things play out later down the line. Maybe I could try to bring them together and take on the real enemy: a tyrannical government that looks down on those it governs.

The potential for thematic influences like resisting oppression and perhaps a struggle to retain Nova’s humanity, the more they use their Arsenal, could very well be a feather in Marvelous’ cap if it plays its cards right in Titanic Scion.

Raging Against the Machines

Of course, a great combat system is what would really pull the experience in Titanic Scion together into a cohesive whole. And from what I’ve been able to see, the game brings sleek, stylish, and seamless moves to the field. Nova has a lot of options while in the field, the Heavy Armor mechanic being chief among them.

While your Arsenal is lighter and potentially more mobile, the Heavy Armor is a giant mech you can call down once you fill up a bar, allowing for a sort of ultimate attack that can devastate your enemies as long as you’re strategic about its use.

There’s also the Particle Weapon system that I see as a sort of stance mechanic, allowing you to switch between Assault Mode, Guard Mode, and Wing Mode. If I’m guessing correctly, that would mean switching between them on the fly based on whether you want to attack, block/parry, or dodge out of the way of an attack.

I’m fairly certain that Nova can use weapons picked up from bosses, too, although there might be a tough choice between picking up the weapon or a useful upgrade that seems too good to pass on.

If that’s the case, it could also mean that New Game Plus could be on the table, as it would be a sensible addition, allowing you to collect items you missed out on in your first run. The original game was sorely lacking post-game content, and Marvelous might be looking to fix that mistake with this one.

The bosses are another part of why I can’t wait to dive into the fray, with designs that are outlandish yet deadly. They look like quite the challenge, although I suspect they aren’t going to measure up to the ones I’ve taken down in Armored Core. However, with everything else on offer, I’m still going to be right there trying to take them down when the game hits the shelves.

The Right Beats For A Deadly Dance

That brings me to the final part of why I’m quite enthusiastic about Deamon X Machina: Titanic Scion, which is its soundtrack. My love for electric guitars and heavy metal extends to my video games.

The metal-themed soundtrack on offer in Titanic Scion seems to be right up there with many action games, a genre that had me firmly in its grip thanks to their combat and soundtrack. It’s the perfect fit considering the game’s premise, and I’d like to think that it’s playing inside my Arsenal’s helmet, letting me indulge a Tony Stark fantasy that continues to make me grin whenever I think about it.

Measured Optimism

While it’s certainly tempting to throw caution to the wind and state outright that Deamon X Machina: Titanic Scion is going to knock it out of the park, I’ve been bitten by awesome-looking video games before. I won’t stop talking about how much I wanted to enjoy MindsEye after my positive initial impressions.

But despite myself, the allure of a game involving mechs has me counting the days to Titanic Scion’s release. Although The FIres of Rubicon has set a very high standard for me, I do believe that Marvelous’s attempt to build on a successful pilot outing (pun intended) could come close to the highs of that particular experience.

I’m hoping that the vast planet we get to explore has enough in it to make this one of my favorite titles this year. It does have enough to stand out with its open world and cool stories. And at the end of it all, that’s what matters the most.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

The demo for Daemon X Machina: Titanic Scion features the first nine chapters of the main story, while also giving players access to the open world so that they can take on some enemies and experience the high-speed combat for themselves. The demo also includes support for asynchronous multiplayer, where players can experience the game at their own pace while still being connected online and benefiting from other players spending time with the title.

For those that might be worried about having to replay these opening segments of Daemon X Machina: Titanic Scion when the full game comes out on September 5, Marvelous has also confirmed that save data can be carried over from the demo into the full release as long as you play on the same platform.

For more details about Daemon X Machina: Titanic Scion, check out the behind-the-scenes documentary that was released back in July.

Marvelous took many of us by surprise when it announced that its third person action title Daemon X Machina would be coming to PC. Visual and performance improvements are expected, especially given the platform’s added power over the Switch. Game Spark recently interviewed Marvelous USA/XSEED Games about the same and discovered some interesting new details.

A wide selection of framerate options is available, including 30 FPS, 60 FPS, 120 FPS, 144 FPS, and even 200 FPS. Resolutions up to 4K are supported along with ultra widescreen support (though options aside from 16:9 will feature black bands on the screen edges). In terms of settings, players can adjust the anti-aliasing, texture quality (with a high resolution texture option available), depth of field, shadow quality and more.

Mouse and keyboard support is also included. However, it seems that collaboration DLC, namely The Witcher 3, Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion and Eureka Seven High Evolution are not included. Other DLC available is available though and players can expect the same content available in the current Switch version.

Daemon X Machina releases on February 13th for PC. Check out our review of the Switch version here.

In an effort to expand the latter, Marvelous Online will be adding the Atlus Online team to their operations. Marvelous acquired Atlus Online earlier this year.

XSEED Games president and CEO Shinichi Suzuki, who is now president and CEO of Marvelous USA, stated that, “Marvelous USA unifies our US operations under the global Marvelous brand while giving our customers topnotch products and support for both traditional and online social and mobile games.

“Our XSEED Games console and PC brand will continue to offer the quality games and service for which it is known, and Marvelous Online gives us expanded reach into mobile and online social gaming markets.”

While executive vice president of XSEED Games Ken Berry will remain, Marvelous Online will be headed up by senior director Tatsuya Nishioka.