What is Front Mission to You?

i was looking for a srpg when i read about front mission so i went and found the snes rom playe it and loved it.i bought front mission 4 as soon as i found a copy and 3 the day it came out on the psn.i would say two of the best things about it are the hard sci fi and the grounded overarching political story. this is one of my favorite video game Series out there and its a crime how littile love this gets in the west so i just want to say thank god for people like you.

I found out about Front Mission browsing through the internet for anything cool. I read up about Front Mission on the frontmission.org website, which was the only place I knew of which covered the series…back in the day of course. Soon enough, I got a copy of FM3 from one of my relatives as a gift. At that time, I had never really played a tactical RPG before or even a mecha game! I gave it a shot on one day, but wasn’t too impressed. Then a few months later, I decided to finally play it and I was hooked on. Next up was the fan translation of FM1, which I played I think a year or two after beating FM3. FM4 soon followed after going through those two games and while I liked it, the game was a bit lame. It was nice to see some linkages between that and FM1 though.

Anyways, when I first heard about FM5 I was amazed. It looked awesome and not itching to wait for an English version, I imported the game. I didn’t start playing FM5 until a few months later, but when I did, it was some of the best gaming moments I’ve ever had. So you can imagine my surprise when the game wasn’t announced for an English release! When I started to lose hope, FM1st for the DS came out in English. The game was a nice addition to my collection and I loved the new USN scenario plus all the extras that came with the port. Following that one, I decided to import FM2 and was amazed; load times aside, it was almost as good as FM5! But when I imported FM2089 for the DS, I just gave up all hope on FM5. So it made me happy upon hearing that a bunch of folks were going to make an FM5 fan translation!

And what a surprise the FM5 fan translation was! It was really nice to see it in English, but even sweeter to see all of the links back to the other FMs that I had played. My FM quest wasn’t finished as I finally began to play through the FM spin-offs of Alternative, Gun Hazard, and finally Evolved. Alternative was slow but graphically awesome, Gun Hazard was great, and Evolved was pretty bad. Around the same time, I started to look into FM merchandising and got a few FM manga and light novels. I couldn’t understand the Japanese too much, but I got the feeling that it was truly mature stuff. I did understand the English bits in the books, which surprisingly flowed in English and not Engrish as far as the writing went.

And my impressions of Front Mission? I don’t know where to start. Well, at first I did think it was just a tactical RPG with mecha. Loved the gameplay and playing around with mechs is cool. The more I got into it, the more I began to appreciate the plot and how plausible it was. Once I started noticing how well connected the stories were, I almost didn’t care about the fact it had mecha – FM had something that most mecha games don’t and I loved it. By the time I finished playing 9 of the 11 games, I just admitted that FM was a truly one-of-a-kind thing with mecha. But after reading the FM books that I’ve bought, no words can describe what I really think of Front Mission now. It is definitely THE best series Square has in their lineup and certainly their best as far as story goes.

It’s a damn shame that it’s remained so unknown outside of Japan…so many thanks to you and your team for picking up the slack!

1. How did you find out about Front Mission?

My friend introduced me to emulation when we were kids, and suggested me Front Mission.

2. Where did you start off in Front Mission? (i.e. the first Front Mission product you bought)

Front Mission 1 SNES

3. What were your original impressions of Front Mission?

Great gameplay (Huge SRPG fan), Amazing GFX for SNES, one of the best mech games

4. Have your impressions of Front Mission changed over time?

After aging many years I have realized Front Mission sheds light onto many things going in our world today, in the past and in the future that are not opening talked about. False flag attacks , Corrupt persons in positions of great authority in a state, media propaganda, ‘Forbidden’ research, weapons manufacturers dont make money if no one is buying weapons, etc

Its graphics are still great, gameplay is good, and I still think Front Mission is a highly underrated game.

5. Why do you like Front Mission?

Well beyond the usual ratings of video games, and that I love SRPGs. I like the series because the Front Mission universe is very rich, and ‘dark’. I think it has some of the best story telling.

Oh ya, and because it has big robots.

1. How did you find out about Front Mission?

Basically through the Hardcore Gaming 101 website and also from fellow members of a forum I am a member of constantly praise the series. I found it wasn’t a particularly well known series, I had never heard of it before and doubt I would if I wasn’t a member of so many (good) websites.

2. Where did you start off in Front Mission? (i.e. the first Front Mission product you bought)

Front Mission 3 off the PlayStation Network. What a bargain that was! £3 for my first exposure to the SRPG genre. I have a lot to be thankful for with that game since SRPGs are now, ultimately, my favourite genre.

3. What were your original impressions of Front Mission?

I really liked the refreshing art direction from a Square game. Seemed more maturn, more like the adult market was being catered to more by the looks of the screenshots of the games in the series and the sound of the storyline. It seemed unique; a mech strategy role playing game made by Square and it was a long running series. Never heard a single bad thing about the series from those who played them, either. So yes, very good first impressions indeed.

4. Have your impressions of Front Mission changed over time?

Yes and no. Yes because I have played through various games in the series now; Front Mission DS, Front Mission 3, Front Mission: Gun Hazard and Front Mission: Evolved. Love them all (well, Evolved could have been better, but it was still better than expected). Seen how the series can change genre effectively with Gun Hazard and seen a Western studio try their hand on it too with Evolved, with mixed results. Seen footage of Alternative which changed the gameplay quite a lot, by the look of things. So the series is prone to changes, but one thing is ever constant to me; the storytelling, the characters, the fantastic art direction as well as character design and the fascinating world it all takes place in. No other series out there like it. Not many with this much scope.

5. Why do you like Front Mission?

Many things. The battle system for one; the games are made for an older audience from the norm, it gets the difficulty just right, the amount of customisation on your Wanzers, the tight tactical gameplay that is completely on its own and stands out when it gets compared to other SRPGs from Japan, the game is actually fun to play from start to finish, the characters aren’t just there for no reason; everybody has their own purpose and serves it well, the mix of industrial and ambient music, the atmosphere, the lack of the usual annoying anime tropes that has been creeping more and more into games made in Japan nowadays (the lack of cheese, I should say), the writing being masterfully done and the entire story which stays with you long after the credits roll.

Just an incredibly well done series overall. I could go on all day and night about why the series is just right for me.

I’d like to reiterate what the rest of the guys on here are saying about the FM series translations. For Front Mission 5; thank you. And thank you once again for putting in all of this effort into both FM2 and FM: Alternative, I REALLY look forward to playing them. You guys keep on rockin’.

1. Maybe it’s destined?
2. I start from Front Mission 3
3.The world, the very well-done plots (the main FM plots I mean), the battles
4.Nah. Even with Evolved’s somewhat lame presentation.
5.The story, somehow reminds me of Ace Combat. I even consider this game as ‘Ace Combat with mechas’. Perhaps it’s one of a mecha franchise with the best storyline/world.

also, *most* wanzer designs. Perhaps one of many most realistic modeled/designed mecha ever built.

Oh, and the BGMs, especially Front Mission 5.

1) I think it was an Unoffical SNES magazine back around 1995. They were heavily into the japanese gaming scene and devoted about half an issue to Front Mission on the SNES, with the assumption that such a westernised game would, without question, be coming to our shores. I took one look and was hooked on the whole concept of Roid’s quest to learn the fate of his lady.

2) After waiting fruitlessly for a translation i eventually broke and bought the japanese game. Menus all being in english i had little trouble playing through the missions but i was so frustrated not knowing the story. The first English FM i got was #3 for my Playstation, i found the story far less captivating but still very interesting, with its hints of a much larger story.

3) My first impressions were, oh boy this is the game i have wanted for ages. I love mecha, i love story-driven TBS (i’m a thinker and a planner, RTS are too fast for me). My first bite of the apple convinced me i was right in liking it.

4) No, i can honestly state that i still enjoy the series as much as i ever did and dearly await a 6th official installment. Though that desire is mixed with trepidation at the likelihood of an official english translation being very low and having to wait years and getting a modded Xbox or something to be able to play any fan translations that emerge.

5)I think my answers above pretty much cover #5. It just packs in so many things i like in games and in entertainment in general

1. My first experience with Front Mission was through a demo-disc packaged with Vagrant Story. At the time, I was eagerly awaiting the release of Chrono Cross, and Legend of Mana. After watching the preview videos for those two games, I played the demos for Threads of Fate, and Front Mission 3. I actually think I may have played the FM3 demo several times through. For whatever reason, I didn’t buy the game when it came out.

2. A bit later, I heard about the translation of the first Front Mission. I decided to try the game out, and was a bit disappointed at the differences between it, and FM3. I did like the much larger squad, and the easier access to Wanzer customization though. It’s good that the game had that so early, because I only made it to the Hell’s Wall mission. I was so discouraged by my defeat in that mission, that I put the game down. Then, one day, I was in the local Babbages (or maybe it had become a gamestop by then.) I saw Front Mission 3 in the used games bin. I bought it, along with some other things. I got outside, and noticed I had only been charged a few dollars for Front Mission 3 (it was incorrectly scanned.) I went back into the store, and paid the sticker price.

3. When I was first introduced to Front Mission, I was not very familiar with Japanese mecha. I was more familiar with the Battletech universe. I identified with the style of Wanzers very quickly because of that. The conspiracy elements reminded me of Deus Ex. The combat was everything that I liked about games like Final Fantasy Tactics, Vandal Hearts, and Vanguard Bandits, but with the mech customization that I enjoyed about mechwarrior. I loved both FM3, and when I finally learned how to effectively play it, I loved the first Front Mission as well. I eagerly waited for the translation of anything Front Mission related. It was, and still is a long wait.

4. An appropriate number for the question. My impressions of Front Mission changed greatly with Front Mission 4. When FM4 was first released, I didn’t like it. I didn’t like it at all. The battles were too long. The two storylines did not seem related. I wished I could just dispense with the Durandal storyline, and play with the much more charismatic USN team. The game seemed too complex, and I remember being upset at not being able to eject enemy pilots. It took a long time for my perceptions to change.

At some point, I lost my FM3 disc. I had played Gunhazard, and had finished another playthrough of the FM1. I wanted more. I looked begrudgingly at FM4. I didn’t want to play it, but I wanted to play something Front Mission that I hadn’t before. I decided to go ahead and start it up. I took some time to read some FAQs, and forum posts, and learn a bit better how to play the game. When I finally beat it, I realized how much more depth the game had than FM1 or FM3. For the first time, I tried to play Front Mission 2, but I couldn’t bear to play without knowing what was going on. So, I waited for a long time. I ended up getting FM1st for the DS, and buying a new copy of FM3. When I heard about the Front Mission Translation Project, I imported FM5, FM2, and FMA. I tried to wait until the translation of Front Mission 2 was done before playing FM5, but that need to play Front Mission cropped up too soon. I started playing FM5 just the other day, and I’m in love again. Well, mostly. I hate the Arena, but the amount that I love the Survival Simulator more than makes up for it.

5. So, why do I like Front Mission? I don’t know. It has a feel that I haven’t seen replicated anywhere else. Unlike a lot of SRPGs, it actually requires tactics, and some good setup. You can’t win just by level grinding. The stories are well written, and avoid the campy high-school drama that a lot of Japanese media slips into. Also, I get to customize, and fight with, giant robots. What’s not cool about that? I like seeing the little cameos that pop up in the series, like Frederick in FM4, or learning who Maria is in FM1st, or fighting along side Hell’s Wall in the second scenario of FM1st, or hearing about Hell’s Wall falling in FM5. (Actually, anything Hell’s Wall pretty much makes me weak in the knees, considering the trouble they gave me the first time I played through FM1) Front Mission feels more like a world than any other game series I’ve played.

So, thank you to everyone involved in translating Front Mission 5, and thank you to those still working with the projects for FM2 and FMA. I’ll hope and pray that one day, you’ll take up translating Border of Madness, or that you’ll have scanlations of the manga. I’ll dream that someone will be able to make an FMO private server. I’ll imagine that one day, another game will come out that has the same feeling that Front Mission did.

1. I found out about Front Mission 3 from Squaresoft’s website before its release in 2000 when I was 14. I put a pre-order on the game and eagerly anticipated its release, picking it up first thing on the day it came out. While waiting for the game to come out I played a bit of Front Mission 1 on an SNES emulator, though I didn’t actually give that game a good playthrough until more recently.

2. The first game I bought was Front Mission 3, which I played over and over again after it was released. It was instantly one of my favourite games.

3. My original impression was that this game is badass, while playing FM3. I liked the sheer volume of missions and the fact that I could spend upwards of an hour getting through one battle.

4. My impressions of the series as a whole have changed over time. FM5 has become my favourite, followed by 3, then 1, then 4. I’ve played a bit of 2 on an emulator, though after I found this site I’ve decided to save the experience until the translation is complete. From what I’ve played of 2, I think it will probably rank second for me in the series when I actually play it.

5. The battle system as well as the rich detail of the story. The battle system is such an improvement over other games in the tactical turn-based genre, with different parts of the wanzers having their own health bar and the different classes of wanzer that go into strategic planning. There aren’t too many job classes, and there aren’t too few. I also really enjoyed ejecting pilots from their machines in FM3, or blowing the strikers legs off and evading their slow movements. Or knocking the arms off missilers and gunners. The battle systems are well balanced and for the most part adequately challenging.

1 & 2. I found out about Front Mission when my dad bought Front Mission 3 for my 11th birthday in May 2000.

3. At first I wasn’t too excited about getting it because I had never heard anyone talking about it, and my dad wasn’t the best at picking out games. However, after playing the first few missions, I was completely enthralled with the story and the gameplay. To this day, I think I’ve played over 400 hours worth of front mission 3.

4. Front mission was and still is my favorite strategy game series. It has disappoints me and I can’t get enough of the games. I’ve played FM3, FM4, a translation of FM: Gun Hazard, and I plan to play FM5 now that the translation is finished. Can’t get enough and I hope they bring future FM games outside of japan.

5. I like Front Mission, because not only do the games have great stories and music, but they have lots of customization choices and the battle system is excellent. Easily my favorite games out of the mech or turn based strategy types of games.