Mediocre mech game, saddled with a HORRENDOUS story. Very much a 2/5, maybe a 3/5 depending on your tolerance for bad anime tropes and love of mechs.

The game play is fun like many said before me it's AC lite. Which doesn't mean its bad by any means just not quite on the scale as say AC. Only gripe I have is the story is lame....really lame.

If you enjoy mecha games, then this one is definitely a good choice - though if you are looking for something particularly gritty, you would be better off going with Armored Core, as while Daemon x Machina doesn't stray far from the usual existential anime feel, the art style and story could have certainly used more time to cook if they were really trying to go for something foreboding.

As other reviews have mentioned, there's a lot of (sometimes quite unnecessary) dialogue - and unlike games like Armored Core or Ace Combat that have similar mission formats, this dialogue is not short nor sweet enough to be properly condensed into each mission's runtime, leading to cutscenes, random breaks in the combat, or periods where you outright can't damage the enemy because the dialogue hasn't caught up to a specific scripted point. This can be irritating, but in general it doesn't actually do a whole lot to risk your score or completion time, so there isn't any real harm done besides forcing you to listen to a bunch of generic anime chatter. I wouldn't consider this a reason NOT to get the game, since the gameplay itself more than makes up for it.

When it comes to gameplay, the difficulty is determined by your build, first and foremost. I beat every mission on my first try, but that's because I was running a build that focused on evasion, healing, and whittling down the enemy from outside of their range. Overall, DxM has a high amount of variety, though it pales in comparison to Armored Core because most of this title's equipment options are simply upgrades of previous pieces of gear, and there are few unique weapons that actually have special attributes applied to them. Additionally, in Armored Core the shop system is significantly more useful, but in DxM you're effectively forced to spend time and credits developing any gear you want, unless you're lucky enough to loot it off of the battlefield. This makes obtaining specific components quite difficult for someone who wants to have a variety of specialized builds. DxM brings infantry action to a couple of the missions - and a whole tech tree for upgrading your own character as a cyborg. However, these are so few and far between that it's generally pointless to focus on these mechanics with your already limited resources.

Soundtrack is a banger. 10/10 with no complaints in this regard - aside from the fact that it's better off being listened to outside of the game itself because there's no way to drown out all the sound effects and dialogue otherwise being layered on top of it.

In conclusion; get the game when it's on sale if you can. It's great by Nintendo Switch standards - but it just didn't have enough time in the oven to compare to the true titans of Mecha.