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Front Mission: Reviews

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Game Score: 8/10

I remember when I first stumbled across the Front Mission series. I was at a friends place who had gotten a few games imported. It was still in japanese, but being a fan of Mecha games in general, I got the hang of it.

About a year later my general fandom with Squaresoft began. I had found the Final Fantasy series *7 and 8 at the time* and when at the local video store, found FM3. It was a no brainer.

What is the Front Mission saga? Well firstly it is a series of Turn Based Strategy games, much like the 'tactics' series of games. A big difference between this and the generic 'tactics' game *Apart from the setting of course* is difficulty. Both in terms of general difficulty and technical difficulty, Front Mission is ahead of most similar games. This can be a bit frustrating for those who are not used to the genre, but for those who like a challenge in their game, this is definetly one to look at.

Front Mission (Front Mission 1st in Japan) Is the prelude to the series of games made popular on the PS1. After the dismal failure of the localization of Front Mission 4 *Sales weren't too good, as the game had some radical design differences* It's the story of two factions - The OCU and the UCS. Both sides have been neck and neck for some time, but a covert mission is about to make tensions boil over.

In this game you are given the choice of side, either the OCU or the UCS, there is also a tutorial available. The game suggests OCU for the first timers, in fact, the UCS side does not make a lot of sense storyline wise if you haven't first played OCU.

As I said before, the game is fairly complex. Whilst the action itself is relatively basic in terms of Turn Based Strategy, there are a number of things that increase the difficulty extremely. Customizeability, Individual part damage, ammunition, terrain, skills...all of these things need to be dealt with in each and every mission. Sometimes, customizing your 'Wanzer' *Walking Panzer - Tank for those non-germans* can take longer than the actual playing of the mission. At the end of the day, only those with a lot of time on their hands will be able to do more than a couple of missions a day.

Controls
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Front Mission uses the touch screen for pretty much everything, yet the use of such is 100% optional. Stylus usage is actually pretty seamless, and is oftentimes faster than using d-pad and button control. If you are a fan of the d-pad, you may get frustrated selecting a specific square at times, but this can be dealt with with a bit of patience.

Story
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Ever played a Square Enix game? Storyline is the basic premise of the studio, and this game doesn't disappoint. Sure, individual characters could use a little more depth to them, but at the end of the day showing both sides of a conflict is great. Something Front Mission is lacking over it's later counterparts is the 'open-ended' storyline. In Front Mission 3 in particular, there were a number of paths, with different endings to each.

Graphics and Sound.
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This game was designed to be a remake of an older game, so like many of such remakes, the graphics are updated, but if you've never played the first, it might seem a little flat. I enjoyed them however. Sound is your typical DS setup, with sounds that are uniquely antiquated, something I'm personally a fan of.

At the end of the day, front mission is, as all the other games in the series are, extremely lengthy. There is a good 30+ hours of gameplay there, and that's just getting through the main stories. Expect to add another 20 if you want a perfect finish to the game.

Ultimately, if you are a fan of the Front Mission series, or have been looking for more depth than other Turn Based Strategy games have offered, I'd suggest giving this game a solid look at. It can get tedious at times, but the rewarding story is worth it.