When Earth Defense Force 6 launched on PlayStation in Japan back in 2022, we thought for sure that an English release would follow in 2023. Summer 2023 came and went with no announcement, however, which certainly distressed fans of the series. Thankfully, we no longer have to worry because D3PUBLISHER has just announced that Earth Defense Force 6 will come to PlayStation and Steam in North America and Europe early next year!
Official synopsis:
In the year 2025, humanity won the war against the unknown invaders known as “Primers”, and peace returned to the planet. As a result of the conflict, 90 percent of Earth’s population was destroyed, and civilization was on the brink of collapse. Earth Defense Force 6 picks up three years after the events of Earth Defense Force 5 in the year 2027. The survivors continue their efforts to rebuild but threats to the world’s safety remain persistent. The Primers left behind many alien colonists and the two species have become increasingly hostile toward one another. The number of invasive organisms nesting in the depths of the earth and its ruins continues to increase. The Earth Defense Force (EDF) is once again called upon to protect the planet from the aggressive extraterrestrial invaders and determine the true purpose of the giant ring-shaped object that has recently appeared in the sky. Will the EDF be able to pull humanity from the edge of defeat, or will this be the species’ last stand?
PlayStation 5 screenshot
Key features:
- The Next Chapter of EDF: Serving as a direct sequel to the events of Earth Defense Force 5, embark on a perilous adventure, unveiling an exciting new story within the EDF series.
- Choose A Class: The return of the Ranger, Air Raider, Wing Diver, and Fencer classes armed with new abilities and equipment, empowering players to defend Earth effectively against emerging threats.
- Fight for the Planet: Defend Earth and engage in intense battles against a wide range of deadly alien creatures and use cunning strategies to emerge victorious and protect the planet.
- Missions Galore: Features an enormous amount of new content, including hundreds of new missions, weapons, and more for players to discover.
- Battle with Friends: Players can also enjoy two-player co-op with split-screen or online co-op with up to four players, ensuring an exciting gameplay experience.
Having played the Japanese version when it came out last year, I'm certainly ecstatic about the game receiving a full English release. EDF6 is longer than past games, looks a lot nicer (especially the destruction of buildings), and features plenty of new enemies to fight. The Japanese PlayStation 5 version suffers from screen tearing, but that's a common issue for the series. Playing through like 150 online levels with friends, and actually being able to understand the story, is going to be a blast!
Why the lengthy delay between the Japanese PlayStation release and the western versions? First, EDF6 is an absolutely massive game featuring a high amount of voiced dialogue. All that speech takes time to translate and record, of course. On top of that, the English-language PlayStation and Steam versions are arriving at the same time this time. With EDF4 and EDF5, the Steam ports came out 6-12 months after the English PlayStation releases. It seems that for EDF6, D3PUBLISHER opted to just wait for the Steam game to be ready before putting out the English PlayStation version, for better or worse.
Earth Defense Force 6 will arrive on PlayStation and Steam in Spring 2024. Shortly after the Steam release, the PC version will also come to the Epic Games Store. Japanese PlayStation versions have been available for quite a while now, but they don't offer English voices or text (hence our English menu translation guide).