When Devolver Digital announced Metal Wolf Chaos XD more than a year ago at their E3 2018 presentation, it was met with a lot of collective hype and excitement from fans of the original Xbox game, as now Western players will be able to get their hands on it after years of being this mysteriously rare title available only in Japan.
Of course, there’s also a lot of collective ‘huh???’ noises from others who are not aware of this gem of a title (check out the trailer for the PlayStation 4 version) which is understandable, since the original Metal Wolf Chaos itself has one of the weirdest histories surrounding it. Publisher Devolver Digital must’ve been made aware of this fact, as now they released a retrospective video which showcases the game’s history and how it came to have such an avid cult following. Check it out below.
The first thing to take note is that the game’s developer is none other than FromSoftware, whose achievements within the action RPG genre (notably Souls games and Bloodborne) have largely overshadowed their past titles. There was a time, believe it our not, that the developer was best known for creating mech games, especially the Armored Core series.
FromSoftware then wanted to establish a greater foothold in the Western market by proving that there’s a place there for mech games, and the resulting title was none other than Metal Wolf Chaos, an extremely overexaggerated portrayal of American culture which, unfortunately, only ever saw release for the Japanese Xbox. Since then, it became the stuff of legends, with collectors trying to acquire extremely rare copies on eBay (along with the Japanese Xbox unit needed to run it) in order to play this absolute gem of a title.
Metal Wolf Chaos has mostly become a meme these days, as evidenced by the extremely quotable protagonist, 47th POTUS Michael Wilson (“Suck on my missile punch!”) and its over-the-top and stereotypical portrayal of American culture. It’s also quite the cutting reminder that before FromSoftware’s venture into dark fantasy with Hidetaka Miyazaki’s Souls, the developer was amazing at developing mech titles, if not one of the best there ever was. I miss Armored Core.
Metal Wolf Chaos XD will be released for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC this August 6.
