…is a lot of time for things to change. And change they have!
Back then, the PlayStation 2/Gamecube/XBox era was still kicking around. Japanese gaming hadn’t completely gone mobile, but then again the whole world wasn’t into the mobile scene yet. And for those of us who grew up playing Japanese games (80s kid right here!), you probably are reminiscing about how good they used to be right now. But we digress.
6 years ago, we were a bunch of hardcore, passionate Front Mission fans who really wanted to see Front Mission 5 ~Scars of the War~ in English. We were also fans who really wanted to understand what defined the franchise, as we believed there was far more to Front Mission than what any of us outside of Japan knew.
6 years later, we honestly can say that Front Mission is truly one of Japan’s best-kept secrets. It’s almost criminal how roughly 80% of the franchise never saw the light of day outside of Japan. There’s so much to like and to learn from about Front Mission that we believe could profoundly change the lives of others like it has for us. It’d be great if we had all the time in the world to bringing the rest of the Front Mission brand out here, but we don’t have that kind of time these days. More resources would be nice as well, but then we’d be in big trouble if we made a Kickstarter project out of this!
Nevertheless, we’re happy that so many of you fans have supported us throughout these 6 years and for that, we thank you! From the emails we’ve received, it’s nice to know that our efforts to educate all of you on Front Mission have worked and are still working. Front Mission never was just a bunch of turn-based strategy (TBS) games, or just some generic mecha-based franchise. If it were, we probably wouldn’t go out of our way to “enlighten” about what the franchise really is! We just think all of you fans should be more vocal about your support for Front Mission online haha!
Six 6-year anniversary tidbits:
Visitors – 794,106
Game Downloads – 241,109 (overall) / 203,788 (Front Mission 5 ~Scars of the War~) / 37,321 (Front Mission 2)
3 Most Viewed Articles/Analysis Pieces – https://opticalgarbage.com/frontmission/upload/FrontMissionAnalysis.pdf / https://opticalgarbage.com/frontmission/wiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AnAnalysisOfTheOverseasHandlingOfFrontMission / https://opticalgarbage.com/frontmission/wiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheDevelopersOfFrontMission
Most Common Fan Response – “Wow, I didn’t know all of this about Front Mission. I thought it was just a series of TBS games and nothing else!”
Most Common Fan Request – “Can you translate EVERYTHING Front Mission? I’ll donate to you or support whatever Kickstarter you come up with!”
Most Common Fan Question – “Do the Front Mission developers or Square Enix know about your projects?
19 replies on “6 Years…”
Hello,
I have to say, it’s thanks to the team and the site that Front Mission has become a true treasure for me. I was introduced to the series with Front Mission 4, and felt so helpless regarding the ability to play the other, non-translated titles once I beat 4. Not to mention, finding 3 was not happening on my budget, and FM1st DS was something I wanted to play in its original format on SNES.
All of that changed once I found out about the translation project for FM5. I was giddy with excitement, admittedly only visiting for progress on that translation, thinking the series was a sequential one like most RPGs. I even played FM5 for a few missions months ago, thinking “oh I’ll wiki what’s missing, whatevs,” not knowing how much of an all-encompassing capstone the game is. Loved every minute, then life said I needed to take a break from the game. Other games came out, other tasks needed completing, and I left the series alone.
Earlier this week, I went back to the site to see if there had been any other translations of the series, and I find FM2 and Alternative were translated! I downloaded those two patches for when I will play the series from the start. I then noticed your sidebar on the right…and a gargantuan rabbit hole appeared before me.
I began with the FrontMissionpedia since it sounded like it had the most information, and I was absolutely blown away by the depth of the series, and the transmedia storytelling it utilized, that I had no clue about. Character interactions involving Darril in 4 were from previous stories, in fact the protagonists in U.S.N. side of 4 were recurring characters from First; Elsa had a two volume backstory; Thammond, Frederick, Maria, even Ivanovna…all of them were significant, recurring characters. And that was just the only FM game I played to completion.
After seeing how the series started as a 3 volume manga and had unheard of depth showcased through various media, I couldn’t look at it with the same “Oh that was a nice game” attitude I had before. I was compelled to experience every English accessible thing I could within the series. I will be starting FM1 as soon as possible to get things started.
My chomping at the bit and newfound fascination with Front Mission is all because of frontmission.info and its amazing translation team. My only wish is to see you all succeed, in your efforts, whatever they may be. Thank you all so much for all your hard work.
Really chomping at the bit 4 a Front Mission Online private server someday…Might be too late by then but eh, I try to bring it up in threads every so often… sadly there aren’t too many gameplay vids of it either…wish there were more. Thanks for everything so far. I was really liking the manga. Really awesome stuff.
-rroyd-chan
I am from Indonesia.
when front mission 6 will be released, I love this game.
Anyone know where I can find the Manga/Novels in english? I tried buying originals in japanese on ebay but found none….
@wahyu
There will be no more front mission series released after all the developer team had gone from Square-Enix.
You guys rock, i couldn’t have beaten FM2 and FM5 if it weren’t for your translation projects.
Greetings from Argentina!
I would like to 3D print few wanzers but can’t get into the .dat files of Front Mission 4 and most likely 5. How did you manage to open them?
@EnMod
Thanks very much for your kind words. We’re pleased and humbled to hear that we kick-started your journey to learn more about the whole mythology!
So clearly this site has been inactive for quite a while, but I thought I’d ask anyway: Is there still anything going on with The Declassified Documents? According to the status page on here it was pretty much done, and I was really looking forward to it…
Also, while I’m here: Thanks to the whole team behind this for everything you’ve done. So glad I was able to learn so much about this incredible series.
The translation project work is dormant… but with the unusual times we find ourselves in you never know if something might start up again 🙂
I’m not aware of any plans though, the translation team have moved on.
@Sorikai33
Six months later, but I second both of these comments. One of my personal little dreams is to actually read the Declassified Documents; there’s too much that I’m missing in Front Mission even as a long-time fan, and I’d love to know if this is still a “live” project.
But more importantly, I second the thanks for everything that you’ve done. Like a lot of people, I played FM4 and was “curious;” thanks to resources like you folks have provided, that curiosity is now a nice, full-blown interest and respect for the franchise. Thanks to all of you!
It’s not a live project sorry, in fact there are no live projects because the translation team have moved on.
Thank you so much for all the work done. If I could I would give a ton of money to you.
Thank you! You can still donate to the project via PayPal. This helps the site running costs.
The link to the transmedia analysis isn’t working, do you know where I could find a copy?
Hi! I know I’m most likely late to this entire thing haha, but I just wanted to say: thank you for everything you’ve done to expand even some of the series to english speaking people! This is one of my favorite series I’ve ever had the luxury of exploring, and I wish we could have more of the games in a playable manner (like an english version of 2089 Border of Madness or a fully english Front Mission 2/Front Mission Alternative) but that’s just me being wishy-washy about it. Either way, I can’t state how thankful I and many other people are for your work on the translation/implementation of said translations!
Thank you for your kind comments 🙂
Hey, I never knew the FM team left Square, for years i wait for a new game. Is there still some translation ongoing? thanks for the FM5 translation! I am reading at the moment the manga.
Hi Michael, no translation sadly. The original team has disbanded but we still keep in touch. It’s now time for another motivated group of fans to carry the torch of fan translation. We can support any projects with this website though.