The original Daemon X Machina was a fun mech battle game, but it unfortunately passed by most audiences without much notice. Developer First Studio took stock of the situation and did everything in their power to ensure that their sequel attempt would do better to stand out. Daemon X Machina: Titanic Scion offers so much, that even if one could point to a few half-baked elements, there's so much more that makes up for it.

The fun starts with the sheer amount of customization available. While character creation lacks a few notable options I'd otherwise have taken for granted, the options available for tailoring your character's design suck you in. And that's just your character: the nuts and bolts tinkering allowed to you through your Arsenal (your powered armor) could allow hours of tailoring to make sure your colors are just right. While the strategic benefits of, say, working with lightweight armor or heavy armor will be enough to keep you searching for the next bit of suitable equipment, we all know that the real fun is picking and choosing the right deco for the right helmet. And that's before you get into the extensive decal system, which even allows you to make your own decals.

The variety of weapons available to you also makes experimentation a blast. After double-digit hours of playing Titanic Scion, I'm still not sure I ever found a load-out that I felt was what I wanted to stick with. Between the various kinds of weapons, the bonuses you earn through improving your statistic proficiency with them, or even the accessories that modify their behavior, there's plenty to chew through. Do you focus on heavy weaponry and obliterate everything in your path? Or are you more of a finesse player who prefers to call their shots and ensure maximum rewards for defeating enemies? Or maybe you like living on the edge and burning through your Femto supply in exchange for the flashy laser weaponry. Further affecting all these are the neat Factors: mutations you can generate through genes earned from defeated enemies. Through these, you can learn fun combat maneuvers or buffs.

It's here that your customization gets hampered: Factor abilities come with physical mutations that affect your character, and while you can pay money to undo them, it'll be fairly out of your price range for a while. There's a good bit of appreciable metatextual storytelling at play when your character is heavily mutated through the use of Factors earned from major story bosses, but also: that's my guy, I don't want to see him with freaky finger-wings growing out of his shoulders when he's at home base.

All of this customization would be wasted if there wasn't anything to do. And thankfully, there is plenty. There's a massive world for exploring, with countless bases to reclaim from the Axiom forces, or roving bands to wipe out, or Immortals to fight, or even giant enemies to track down and defeat. Getting around is half the fun, too: just running around or even flying around in your Arsenal feels great. Pop in a podcast, pick a direction, and start running; sooner or later, you'll find a few roving Strays, some monsters, or even a pack of Axiom wanderers to defeat. There is always something to keep you afloat while you wander, from a base to restore your energy or supplies to Femto crystals to regenerate your supply. The world can almost feel too big; while flying around is definitely fun, you'll learn to love finding trucks you can drive around.

The fights against the bosses are also fun. There are a wealth of ways to defeat enemies, lots of them, including using their own abilities against them. It's also possible to take to the skies in fights, along with air-dodges. And the variety of weapons only gives you more options; you can swap between four weapons at a moment's notice, completely changing your offensive options. Weapons feel different, too, from the slow-but-visceral approaches of the knuckles to the finesse of the bow and arrow. But unfortunately, fighting in a group can be a nightmare--especially if you're taking advantage of being able to fight in mid-air. Airborne enemies can be a headache. Even locking onto enemies seldom helps keep track of their movement.

The upside is that if fights aren't your speed, you have way more to do. There are races (especially airborne ones); there is an in-universe card game with a surprising amount of depth; there is the coliseum, where you can compete against increasingly powerful Arsenals. And there are lots and lots of missions that you can undertake, all of which grant rewards that can be used to further improve your abilities or available facilities at home base.

While there are online options on Daemon X Machina: Titanic Scion that allow you to pair up with other players, we weren't able to test them during our time reviewing the game. In our time playing Daemon X Machina: Titanic Scion, we encountered graphical glitches out in the world where square tiles of the ground would be discolored. There is supposed to be a Day 1 patch for Titanic Scion, but as of this writing, it is unknown if the graphical glitches are a factor. With that in mind, I still give Titanic Scion a strong recommendation--with some reservations. Titanic Scion offers a massive world and lots of customization, and it pairs it with plenty of missions and plenty of fights. There are more than a few problems that keep Titanic Scion from being a must-have, from finicky targeting systems to map exploration feeling like a chore at the worst of times. But the sheer variety on display is catnip for people who love tinkering with robots, and you'll have plenty to chew through once you have your perfect mechanical soldier.