Front Mission

[sun0wl]

Saw an earlier thread about FM3 but thought the series deserved a general thread...I've been playing the FM3 remake and while yes, the use of AI to upscale some art is dumb and they left out the fast forward feature from the FM1/2 remake, it's a really fun game you can pick up and play in little bites here and there. I'm having a blast and have been going back down the FM rabbit hole lately as a result.

Any other big fans? Fave games? Best wanzer design? Anyone remember Evolved? Thoughts about the recent remakes?

FM4 on PS2 was my gateway game and still my fave. Neat story and great localization, non-annoying characters (looking at you Ryogo lol), good maps, and awesome PS2 era aesthetics with the UI design and music and everything. Fun gameplay in general for those who like the whole mecha building system and SRPGs.

I brought FM5 back home from studying in Japan...Then never played it lmao. I should get around to it one day.

When it comes to the spin-offs and gaidens: Gun Hazard was one of the first games I emulated and pretty fun IIRC. But shoutout to Front Mission Evolved for being an awful game everyone hated but that I unironically loved lol

I think my fave thing about FM is how it feels like a really cohesive and consistent series in terms of design, aesthetic, the whole package. It feels timeless. That and the whole wanzer parts system.

Also love how it plays everything pretty straight instead of going off into very "anime" territory like a lot of mecha media. Yeah, you have silly antics from characters like Ryogo and weird one-off plots like the methane mechas that moo in FM3, but overall it keeps a serious, muted, mature tone that matches its overall aesthetic.

The worldbuilding is pretty cool, too...I mean, several of the plotlines and situations come off as pretty unrealistic or contrived (especially if you've been anywhere near the military or government service lol) and are certainly not as well thought out or researched as things in the MGS universe, but it's like Ace Combat in that it gets an E for effort.

I also think that because it doesn't use real platforms like Ace Combat does (Lockheed F-16, etc.), the attention to detail it gives to the whole military industrial complex is second to none, particularly with the industries surrounding the wanzers and all the different part manufacturers and names. (My longtime username, sunowl, is based off the wanzer series of the same name. Forgot if it's from FM4 or 2.) Not sure why but I love this shit but that's why I love Front Mission. Thank you for coming to my TED thread.

 

[Bonkers225]

I've often said Front Mission 3 was one of the top 3 best games Square has ever done. Worst thing about the remake is that they got rid of the extremely satisfying sound effects of the original.

 

[Stare best girl]

I only played Front Mission and Gun Hazard which Front Mission 1 was very good while Gun Hazard is easily one of the best SNES games, I want to play Front Mission 2 but sadly the translation has many issues like the fact that is incomplete or that has more bugs and glitches than the untranslated game and the remake has a very awful translation...

 

[ShadowsofCreationAga]

I only played Front Mission and Gun Hazard which Front Mission 1 was very good while Gun Hazard is easily one of the best SNES games, I want to play Front Mission 2 but sadly the translation has many issues like the fact that is incomplete or that has more bugs and glitches than the untranslated game and the remake has a very awful translation...

Supposedly the 3nd games remake had it's translation completely overhauled in a patch around the time the PC release came out.

Post automatically merged: Jul 5, 2025

That is supposed to say 2nd, not '3nd' whatever the heck that means! lol

 

[csanjuro]

RoF UP!

 

[sun0wl]

RoF UP!

God yes lol the FM3 skill learning system is so satisfying for some reason. It's like the FFIX system with equipping things to learn skills except instead of accumulating AP to permanently learn them, your attacks are like a slot machine arm pull lmao. The dopamine I get from this intermittent/variable ratio reinforcement ("Skinner box") game mechanic is unreal, well done game designers.

 

[freebie#47]

Whoa...almost thought that was a real game preview of nice looking wanzer....We definitely need a new Front Mission game that is NOT a freaking metal gear solid ripoff

 

[Razorgirl1984]

Just started playing Front Mission a while back. Still stuck on Front Mission 1st but that's more due to procrastination. Very eager to get into rest of the series.

Post automatically merged: Jul 5, 2025

I only played Front Mission and Gun Hazard which Front Mission 1 was very good while Gun Hazard is easily one of the best SNES games, I want to play Front Mission 2 but sadly the translation has many issues like the fact that is incomplete or that has more bugs and glitches than the untranslated game and the remake has a very awful translation...

This is what really irks me so much about FM2. Like my options are the fan translation that is 75 percent complete of the original PS1 or that awful translation by Storm Trident's remake to the point that people thought it was machine translated (just good old fashioned human error). Which is why I've taken to learning Japanese for that particular entry.

Glad FM 1, 3, and 4 were localized. Saves me a headache.

 

[Stingy Perry Stingy Perry]

FM3 is my favorite though I really love the series in general.

 

[KenaiPhoenix]

I played the shit out of Front Mission 3, even tho I never finished it.

I tried to get Front Mission 5, but between the issues of burning the translated version on a DVD that rarely worked for me, I barely play it.

I do have the (last) remake of Front Mission 1. I plan to get the second and third once they got their physical releases.

 

[Strategist's icon Strategist Strategist]

I've been a fan ever since I bought FM3 back in the day. I own Front Mission on the DS and have played all of the mainline games except 2. Still hoping for a complete fan localization of FM2 to finish the saga.

I hear the Square Enix remakes of the front mission games are sloppy and budget, so I haven't bothered with them. Kind of dissapointing to hear but I'm used to Square Enix being cheap.

Front Mission 5: Scars of War is by far my favorite Front Mission game. Feels like they finally perfected the FM formula and added enough depth to the strategy to make it compelling. Too bad that was the send-off to the whole series and they wouldn't make another game.

 

[Cantarella]

played 1/2/5 and gun hazard. so ya I like these games.

y'know I'm a big fan of any games where you can just kind of, visually survey the destruction. whether that's terrain being burnt away in bahamut lagoon, traitors disappearing from your party lineup in lost dimension, or wanzer arms being blown off. IDK, something about that activates the pleasure centers of my brain.

Royd/Roid/Lloyd/Loid/Moid was always a character I enjoyed. pretty... brutal story. FM, I always appreciated that it doesn't really descend into torture porn or anything dumb like that for the sake of being 'gritty,' but it doesn't pull its punches either. Stuff just logically plays out, with respect to the characters at least. I'm sure a lot of the logistics gets wacky. But, so it is with Royd. He just progressively gets more and more consumed with rage and mentally unwell and that is taken to its logical conclusion.

FAVORITE... WANZER... idk I really like hell's wall. they're tough. So I like the Frost. Always liked how the wanzers are just built like fridges and it is the fridgiest.


I remembered while writing this. A long, long, LONG time ago autumn sacura drew for me what may be the only piece of front mission/vanguard bandits fanart in existence

also I think sunowl isn't a wanzer line, is it? I thought it was just the missile launchers. I remember equipping sunowls in fm1

 

[sun0wl]

played 1/2/5 and gun hazard. so ya I like these games.

y'know I'm a big fan of any games where you can just kind of, visually survey the destruction. whether that's terrain being burnt away in bahamut lagoon, traitors disappearing from your party lineup in lost dimension, or wanzer arms being blown off. IDK, something about that activates the pleasure centers of my brain.

Royd/Roid/Lloyd/Loid/Moid was always a character I enjoyed. pretty... brutal story. FM, I always appreciated that it doesn't really descend into torture porn or anything dumb like that for the sake of being 'gritty,' but it doesn't pull its punches either. Stuff just logically plays out, with respect to the characters at least. I'm sure a lot of the logistics gets wacky. But, so it is with Royd. He just progressively gets more and more consumed with rage and mentally unwell and that is taken to its logical conclusion.

FAVORITE... WANZER... idk I really like hell's wall. they're tough. So I like the Frost. Always liked how the wanzers are just built like fridges and it is the fridgiest.


I remembered while writing this. A long, long, LONG time ago autumn sacura drew for me what may be the only piece of front mission/vanguard bandits fanart in existence

View attachment 87115


also I think sunowl isn't a wanzer line, is it? I thought it was just the missile launchers. I remember equipping sunowls in fm1

1) Y e s The visual destruction and not pulling punches go hand in hand and really contribute to that feeling of cohesiveness IMO
2) Lmao that's amazing art. Don't make me make a Vanguard Bandits thread too

3) holy shit you're right lol, how did I forget what game sunowl was from AND that it was a missile launcher...I can't even keep my own personal lore straight these days. Thanks for reminding me.

Post automatically merged: Jul 6, 2025

Front Mission 5: Scars of War is by far my favorite Front Mission game. Feels like they finally perfected the FM formula and added enough depth to the strategy to make it compelling. Too bad that was the send-off to the whole series and they wouldn't make another game.

This is really interesting to me as I haven't heard much about FM5. To be honest, the relatively ugly UI compared to the rest of the series (heavy leaning on the in-game character models for portraits, badly proportioned UI elements and fonts, etc.) turned me off because I'm terribly shallow lol. But if you think it's really the best I'll have to check it out. How's the story?

 

[Cantarella]

FM5's story is... conceptually cool. The fan translation is serviceable enough to let you know what's going on, but god damn it does not read like people who speak English are talking.

It injects some spirituality into Front Mission, which I hadn't really seen in 1 and 2. Also has some extremely good cutscenes. so I like it. I do also remember one part where a couple of straw-feminist characters are taken down a peg that was so stupid that it read like it was ripped out of an rpgmaker game.

ALSO has a lot of fanservice. Not the boob kind, but, the other kind. So many references to events in the other FM games. I remember catching sight of Royd and Hell's Wall at one point. Very much a game for the fans of the series, because a looot of what other characters are talking about references stuff in 1 and 2.

Kind of impressive how planned it all feels, even if that's not the case. I played Front Mission 2 on the psx after 5, and was kind of thunderstruck when I came upon a mission that had you facing off characters in 5 over a decade before you would get to play as them. Cool to see this kind of multi-episodic game thing pan out instead of being an ogre battle episode 3 or xenogears episode V situation.

 

[sun0wl]

FM5's story is... conceptually cool. The fan translation is serviceable enough to let you know what's going on, but god damn it does not read like people who speak English are talking.

It injects some spirituality into Front Mission, which I hadn't really seen in 1 and 2. Also has some extremely good cutscenes. so I like it. I do also remember one part where a couple of straw-feminist characters are taken down a peg that was so stupid that it read like it was ripped out of an rpgmaker game.

ALSO has a lot of fanservice. Not the boob kind, but, the other kind. So many references to events in the other FM games. I remember catching sight of Royd and Hell's Wall at one point. Very much a game for the fans of the series, because a looot of what other characters are talking about references stuff in 1 and 2.

Kind of impressive how planned it all feels, even if that's not the case. I played Front Mission 2 on the psx after 5, and was kind of thunderstruck when I came upon a mission that had you facing off characters in 5 over a decade before you would get to play as them. Cool to see this kind of multi-episodic game thing pan out instead of being an ogre battle episode 3 or xenogears episode V situation.

Oof yeah now I remember the other reason why I hadn't played FM5...I couldn't deal with the translation. The constant misuse of punctuation was jarring and did read like the writer didn't have a strong grasp of written English. Oh to retranslate these games. The straw-feminist bit you mentioned reminds me of Ryogo calling Cindy butch for no apparent reason other than to take her down a peg lol it is indeed kind of an annoying theme throughout the series but luckily, much like the weird methane wanzer bit, it doesn't come up much.

The callbacks are definitely another point for FM in the cohesion category. I actually don't know much about the production history (might do some digging after this, maybe I just haven't seen the 3 hour YouTube video essay/documentary on it lol), but it would be interesting to know if the games had the same staff, etc.

 

[Strategist's icon Strategist Strategist]

What Cantarella said. It feels like the story tries to bring together all of the different events in the series and has many references to characters and locations in Front Mission. I wouldn't say the story is particularly amazing, but it does pay off a lot of the ideas from previous games.

The gameplay is improved because it finally feels like they've made the roles/classes work in this game. You have five different roles with different equipment layouts with specific class skills. As opposed to other Front Mission games where classes are more of a suggestion and everyone just runs missiles and demolishes everything. I also like the link cooperative attacks. It makes it so careful positioning of units and judicious use of AP is paid off.

 

[sun0wl]

What Cantarella said. It feels like the story tries to bring together all of the different events in the series and has many references to characters and locations in Front Mission. I wouldn't say the story is particularly amazing, but it does pay off a lot of the ideas from previous games.

The gameplay is improved because it finally feels like they've made the roles/classes work in this game. You have five different roles with different equipment layouts with specific class skills. As opposed to other Front Mission games where classes are more of a suggestion and everyone just runs missiles and demolishes everything.

That's really cool on both counts. Especially the roles/classes bit...Not sure about everyone else, but especially with the "suggested"/starting weapons and equipment, in other games like FM3 I sort of made characters all specialize in pseudo-classes like "the melee/shotgun/close-range guy" (Kazuki) and "the long-range missile girl" (Emma). So it would be interesting to see a system where this is taken to the logical conclusion of specialization in the form of specific classes/roles. I will have to check FM5 out for this. Thanks for your perspective!

 

[Razorgirl1984]

FM5's story is... conceptually cool. The fan translation is serviceable enough to let you know what's going on, but god damn it does not read like people who speak English are talking.

It injects some spirituality into Front Mission, which I hadn't really seen in 1 and 2. Also has some extremely good cutscenes. so I like it. I do also remember one part where a couple of straw-feminist characters are taken down a peg that was so stupid that it read like it was ripped out of an rpgmaker game.

ALSO has a lot of fanservice. Not the boob kind, but, the other kind. So many references to events in the other FM games. I remember catching sight of Royd and Hell's Wall at one point. Very much a game for the fans of the series, because a looot of what other characters are talking about references stuff in 1 and 2.

Kind of impressive how planned it all feels, even if that's not the case. I played Front Mission 2 on the psx after 5, and was kind of thunderstruck when I came upon a mission that had you facing off characters in 5 over a decade before you would get to play as them. Cool to see this kind of multi-episodic game thing pan out instead of being an ogre battle episode 3 or xenogears episode V situation.

That's pretty much the reason I really want to play the other entries. Because I want to play FM5 but then I heard that it does a ton of callbacks and I don't wanna be left outta the loop on things so that's pretty much why I'm playing the titles before it. Plus, I love me a good cohesive story told in an almost serialized format.

 

[Strategist's icon Strategist Strategist]

That's really cool on both counts. Especially the roles/classes bit...Not sure about everyone else, but especially with the "suggested"/starting weapons and equipment, I sort of made characters all specialize in pseudo-classes like "the melee/shotgun guy" (Kazuki) and "the long-range girl" (Emma). So it would be interesting to see a system where this is taken to the logical conclusion of specialization in the form of specific classes/roles. I will have to check FM5 out for this. Thanks for your perspective!

Yeah, in this one you have six classes: The assaulter (assault rifle/shotgun mid range weapon specialty), gunner (long range weapon specialty such as sniper rifles and bazookas), the striker (melee specialist), the mechanic (specializes in tanking hits and repairs), the launcher (specializes in the shoulder missiles/grenade lauchers), and the jammer (focuses on inflicting EMP induced status effects on wanzers such as stun).

The other cool mechanic is the link attacks. I believe these were introduced in FM4 but were refined in FM5. Basically any unit with a link skill can provide assist attacks if they are within range of an enemy unit that is being attacked by an ally. That makes positioning and moving your units in the right order more important. Also managing your AP efficiently so that you can keep assisting your allies.

 

[Varyag]

Oh man, Front Mission! I love this series, but apart from FM4 I never played them too much... I mean, heck, I never even finished that game. I started it at least three different times between the PS2 and emulation, and modula customizable mecha tactics, with reasonably realistic mechanics and locational damage? Oh hell yes.

I got the first of the three new remakes on the Switch, and while it is decent, it's a low budget remake of a very archaic game. The story is really good, but the actual mechanics are very simplistic. Which at least means there's not much you can fuck up in the remake. Did not get yet to FM2, but since it is the only ever official translation it got, I'll get to it eventually. I am extremely dissatisfied with how the FM3 remake was handled, however, and will most likely just emulate the PS1 original instead.

Man, I used to keep rewatching the FM4 intro cutscene with Korn on the background. Anybody from Brazil remember PlayTV? That was the coolest shit ever to 14 year old me.