At its core Daemon X Machina is a solid mech action game that controls well and gives the player a generous helping of customisation options. Its mission structure can get repetitive, and its plot is so difficult to grasp it may as well be soaked in grease, but as long as you’re willing to put up with these and get through its initially bewildering array of gauges and icons you should have a good time with it.
Destructoid also awarded [7] and reported:
The sum total of my experience with Daemon X Machina is positive. The combat is amazing, the game is bright and colorful, the framerate mostly holds up in either docked or handheld mode, and the hangar is great to tinker around in, checking out all the different configurations of my mech. That's what I'm going to remember out of all of this, which is safe for me to say because most everything else in this game is pretty forgettable.
Have Nintendo made a mistake by launching two new IPs (this and Astral Chain) that are more Japanese style games at roughly the same time? I know they're different genres to some extent but the styles do look very similar.
Reviews seem to be averaging around the 7/10 which is what I thought, honestly not that bothered about the reviews as I'm really enjoying the demo. But with other better and bigger titles like Boarderlands, Zelda and Dragon Quest all coming this month, it does seem a hard sell.
It's got a pre-order reduction on the eShop of 10%, bringing it down to £45 instead of £50. Dunno if that's still the case, as I'd bought it yesterday, but I'm ready to get into the action. I'm not touching the demo so I go into it fresh, even if progress does transfer across.
The review of GameXplain says the story takes around 15 hours to complete, and most are saying the game throws too much in the way of characters at you. Who's playing for the story, though? It's all about blasting bots and making the coolest-looking [and most powerful] mech you can.
I'm just wary of the oft-mentioned repetition, combined with corny dialogue (the characters started to grate even in the initial demo) and - especially from what I read over on Kotaku - a poorly delivered plot too convoluted for it's own good.
First Impressions: The story is as terrible as previously said, but the bot-bashing is incredibly fun. Played for around two hours, skipping through all the dialogue after getting annoyed with how bad it is. I'd usually care for character interaction a lot more, and maybe it's just the beginning conversations, but it barely felt as though there was any interaction at all during the text... messaging... whatever. The actual cutscenes are alright, though. I'll give the text... whatever a chance next time I play.
As for the gamplay, it is fun. Jumping and boosting around, firing off a range of weapons, destroying anything within your sights. And while, yes, you are just battling again low-health minions most of the time, they form patterns and clusters that change things up slightly between missions. Fighting against other mech-suited foes provides a challenge, especially if there's more than one.