DAEMON X MACHINA Is Free On Epic

Monday, Techland is doing the right thing, Picard is coming back with old friends, and a very anime-looking game with zombies is coming to Steam. Tuesday, there is a new farm-sim/RPG coming soon, and Dedsec is closing down its London office. Wednesday, Halo: Infinite is doing another free-to-play thing, and The Rock is threatening the worst thing, again. Thursday, Valve confirmed the Steam Deck’s release, Workshop Simulator is coming to consoles, and there is a new Godzilla-based show coming to Apple TV+, the least interesting of streaming platforms.

Moving on before Apple fans try to crucify me so I can hum the only good thing to come from Monty Python, the Epic Games Store will continue offering free games throughout 2022. Coming in the end-of-year wrap-up, the company confirmed that it would continue the practice that helped garner 34-million more users over the total from 2020, increasing to 194-million users. The total number of games available through the platform expanded to 917, almost doubling from last year’s 471 releases available.

Pivoting to what is available this week as one of the many free games on offer throughout 2022, DAEMON X MACHINA. The answer to the question of what it would be like if I were allowed to design an Earth Defense Force-like game, with what can only be described as Mech-on-Mech action. Last I understood, you had to pay a premium for that with your credit card and produce proof of ID. Emanating from typical JRPG publishers/developers Marvelous Inc. and XSEED Games, there is a bit of “quirk” in the otherwise stark and contrasting colors, giving it the hint of anime. The character creation and the ice cream parlor portions are where it is most evident.

Maybe not the most remarkable game of all time, it’s fairly similar to other mech and big-monster fighting games, but they are always fun. It was designed by Shōji Kawamori, the man behind the idea of transforming mecha (i.e the basis for the Transformers series) and the designer behind FromSoft’s Armored Core series; alongside Yūsuke Kozaki, who worked on several Fire Emblem games, Pokémon Go, and No More Heros games including Travis Strikes Again. The game includes Cel-shaded boss fights that rival the size of Betelgeuse and combat that feels good for a first attempt in several years. It is only brought down by a sluggish story and questionable performance if you lack proper specs. It’s still fun, though.

All this week, you can pick up DAEMON X MACHINA on the Epic Games Store until the morning of February 3rd. From there on, we’re returning to an old enemy of mine, nostalgia. We’ve covered Yooka-Laylee in its many forms either here in the Epic Games Store articles or the Prime Gaming articles, but next week we’ll be covering Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair, again. In case you are unaware, The Impossible Lair is the sidescrolling sequel to the original 3D platformer nostalgia of Yooka-Laylee, which released in 2017