Earth Defense Force 6 (2023)

Earth Defense Force 6 (地球防衛軍６ Chikyū Bōeigun 6) is the sixth main entry in the Earth Defense Force series and the eleventh overall counting the spinoff games. Set for release in 2022,

EDF 6 is a direct sequel to Earth Defense Force 5, picking up three years after that game left off, in 2025. EDF 6 is set on a devastated Earth still recovering from the last invasion, but threats new (presumed to be a separate alien species, due to their vastly different technology and designs) invade the earth, with the intention of terraforming the earth rather than conquering it outright. However, due to the intervention of a new Storm 1, one of their portals was destroyed and caused a temporal accident, causing the new Storm 1 to displace the original Storm 1 in the original EDF 5 timeline at EDF 5's mission 13 (Turning Point), which is EDF6's mission 14. The first few missions afterwards are exact carbon copies of EDF 5's missions, but things start to go haywire afterwards. Storm 1 deduces their objective, The aliens are trying to go back in time to save the Nameless. They plan to do this by pre-emptively assassinating Storm Battalion (old Storm 1, The Sergeant, The Grim Reapers and The Spriggans), the ones who defeated the Nameless, by teleporting extra units, from both future and present, to any critical battle which any of the members were present at.

After mission 38, with the timeline unchanged due to the interference of the new Storm 1, the aliens realize that someone from the future must have traveled with the aliens to warn the EDF, so the aliens travel back to the future to launch a pre-emptive strike on the EDF, on the day that the new Storm 1 was inducted.

The game will be released on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5.

Soldier Classes

All four classes from EDF 5 (Ranger, Wing Diver, Air Raider and Fencer) return in this game, with some alterations.

The Ranger and Wing Diver now have a dedicated "backpack" equipment slot for certain throwable items: both classes get their hand grenades shifted to this slot. The Ranger also now equips Impulse mines and C Bombs to the backpack slot along with his new stolen-from-the-Air Raider ZE-GUNs, while some of the Wing Diver's orb weapons also end up here. All thrown devices have had their controls altered, being thrown with a fixed amount of force like the vehicle summons in the previous game instead of having a variable aim line, though the throw distance can still be controlled to a degree by aiming the camera vertically.

The Ranger has also gained the ability to mantle over low obstacles that cannot be destroyed by his roll, and has had "super armour" frames added to his dodge roll. For the Wing Diver the news is not quite as rosy, as her air-dash moves have been made less powerful: there is a longer delay between boosts, as well as a roughly 50% increase in the energy cost of boosting. Both classes now have some weapons with a new mechanic related to mid-magazine reloads, decreasing the reload time for the Ranger and the energy consumption for the Wing Diver based on how much ammunition is still in the weapon.

The Air Raider also gains a "backpack" slot, but his hosts a more substantial collection of devices including his support posts, forcefields, decoys and exploding Roombas. A new set of strikes using a series of small drones that follow the Air Raider around have been added: contrary to many pre-release rumours, these strikes are an addition to conventional ones rather than a replacement for them. In addition, unlike the regular strikes, all drone-based strikes can be used in underground maps: related to this, the equip screen will now highlight any selected weapons the Air Raider cannot use in the current mission in red, in the same manner as weapons that exceeded online level limits in previous games. The previously extremely limited Suppress Guns have had their magazine size increase from 1 or 2 shots to 6 or 12 and all types have received a range buff, making them distinctly more serviceable as actual weapons. His sentry guns have been shifted over to the Ranger class.

The Fencer now defaults to having two boosts with any type of booster equipment instead of one, providing him mobility even with no support equipment. However, his jump boosts have been weakened somewhat since the previous game. Like the Ranger, he can now mantle over obstacles he cannot destroy, though this requires a boost in his case and the animation is slower. His weapons with spin-up times have been altered: rather than having to wait for the whole spin-up time before the weapon fires at all, these weapons now start firing immediately but their rate of fire gradually increases up to their proper rate during the spin-up time.

Enemies

Returning enemies from previous games include:

• Aggressive Alien Species α
  • Red Ants
  • Green Ants
  • Golden Ants
  • Mother Monster
• Aggressive Alien Species β
• Aggressive Alien Species γ
• Flying-types
• Teleportation Anchors
• Teleportation Ships
• Colonists
• Cosmonauts
• Erginus
• Archelus

New enemies from this game include:

• Giant Androids (Robotic versions of the Kruuls, Hector-like, attacks with grappler like tow cables)
  • Android Cyclopes (Has four pulse cannons in its body)
  • Android Grenadiers (Trashcan-like body, carries two yellow explosive spheres)
    • Android Cannonballs (Upgraded version of the Grenadier, carries two massive purple explosives)
• Drones (Flying mechanical enemies, act as support for the Androids)
  • Ground Excavators (UFO-like, found underground, wield flamethrowers)
  • Type 3 Drones (Five-armed, fire lasers from their tips)
    • Type 4 Drones (look like clam shells, open up to reveal a gun when attacking)
• Dark Demons (Flying octopus-like kaiju)
• Fishmen (Dragon/Dunkleosteus-like kaiju)
• Kruuls (octopus-like aliens)
  • Elder Kruuls (Wield two weapons and two shields, one in each arm)
  • Kruul Capsules (Dropships, can carry up to three Kruuls)
• Plus Monsters (Enhanced variants of the Primers' insect hordes)
  • Aggressive Alien Species α Plus (Species α ants with stronger and bulkier bodies and green acid)
    • Mother Monster Plus (Enhanced Species α queens)
  • Aggressive Alien Species β Plus (Species β Spiders with electrified webs)
    • King Plus (Massive King with electrified webs)
• Ring (A strange ring-like structure with an octahedron floating at its center, in truth a massive time machine/portal.)
• Tail Anchors (Anchor-like, has two tentacles with energy weapons. Has a round shield on its top)
  • Massive teleportation anchor, spawns royal monsters
• Unknown large spaceships (Jellyfish-like, eight tentacles, drops tail anchors)
• Death Blossoms (Large terraforming structure)
• Unknown Winged Erginus

Missions

Weblinks

• Official Japanese website