Front Mission

[Wolf Kanno]

So with Front Mission Evolved coming out soon, I was curious to see who here actually played any of the games in the series? What's your thoughts on the new game's radical departure from SRPG to third person shooter? How about FM5 and FMO never making it out of Japan despite SE talking about bringing them out here?

Mostly, I'm curious to know if I'm all alone in the Front Mission universe...

[Slothy]

I wish I was there with you in the Front Mission universe. I always wanted to play 3 back when it came out. Which reminds me that that may be the only PSX game that's really missing from my collection (that would be affordable anyway).

[theundeadhero]

Front Mission 4 was an incredible joy.

[Fynn]

I own Front Mission on the DS... But I never beat it. It was hard! I will beat it some day, though.

[black orb]

>>> I played FM 3, I loved it..

[Iceglow]

I've only had the pleasure of playing FM3, my god what a game, what a story! I loved every second of it and I replayed it to hell to get all the different variations on story possible. I also used to do my own challenges. I loved creating Wanzers and getting the most weight - power ratio possible whilst keeping the remaining product attractive on the aesthetic style scale. I also used to spend hours on them combining different weapons and training in the simulator to get different abilities and skills. I used to have a close assault unit for shearing arms/killing pilots (usually a shotgun/melee weapon carrying type where I would utilize mostly kassel m2 parts to keep its hp huge so it could take the brutality of getting close. Sometimes especially against later battles, I would swap the melee for the shield to keep the unit alive longer) Then I'd have a medium range assault type using a machine gun with a melee weapon or a shield for it's second, normally a shield since if the enemy managed to take my close assault out this would literally be the last line of defence for my long range units, should it fall I'd end up with one hell of a problem in the battle. My remaining two would consist of a sniper type which would often forgo secondary hand weapons/shields in order to whack a shoulder rack missile launcher on the opposing shoulder so that it could pretty much rape anything (once available the sniper rifle would be replaced with the beam rifle) and then the second support type would literally be like the black mage of my party utilizing twin rocket launchers on it's shoulders a shield and perhaps a melee fist for if it got ugly though it often stayed safe especially with the backpack packing extra ammo for those rockets so it could just keep pounding anything that moves with salvo or something similar. I don't remember being allowed to use more than 4 units but if I did get to use more than 4 I would generally put an extra assault type in there since getting up close and personal would not only tie up their nearby units it would also provide me with steady supply of wanzers for parts/scrap selling because with a shotgun and melee attacks you could destroy both arms and leave the wanzer all but disabled, surround that after the field is won and eventually the pilot would surrender.

Also dude Hacking and the internet in the game is smurfing amazing!

[JKTrix]

Trix digs giant robots. I kind of skipped all the PlayStation ones and got into it when they released the remake of the first one on the DS, and then I started playing #5 shortly after the full translation came out.

Since I haven't been into the series for years and years, I don't feel so 'betrayed' by the action turn of the new game. I'm a little more concerned that they're going with the western developer that doesn't have a super high pedigree (in fact it's a rather bad pedigree)--though I still think there's a better chance of them pulling it off than if Squenix did it themselves. Squenix doesn't have the best track record of good Action games, either.

If they were going for an Armored Core style game, maybe they could have just hired part of From Software.

[Iceglow]

Trix hit the nail on the head there with the thoughts I have about the new FM game being an action game, It's not going to feel like Front Mission it's going to feel like an Armoured Core game or Mechwarrior. One of the best things about FM3 was that if you had the need or desire you could just hop in to a tank/helicopter and utilize that for the battle (though you didn't get to keep them for parts/scrap/use) In fact I remember one of the missions actually required you to start with your pilots on foot and steal veichles which included helicopters, tanks and wanzers.

I want the DS remake of the first game pretty badly. However I feel Square should definitely continue producing SRPG titles under the Front Mission label because lets face it Front Mission is a frankly awesome series what deserves to be shown some love. That said this thread has made me want to go play FM3 all over again!

[Iceglow]

Double post because I'm awesome and this is relevant.

This thread made me boot up my emulator to play the game (That is Front Mission 3) again. Currently doing a playthrough on Emma's storyline.

I remember when I played this game back on my ps1 I used to use gameshark codes to boost my hp to 9999/9999 per part so that I basically couldnt lose (I admit I sucked at it back then) however this time on my emulator I can't cheat so this will be my first ever legitimate skill based victory.

To this end even though I only just left OCU Japan the first time I'm practicising with the the simulators on test difficulty to build up skills for my characters. I managed to get a couple of Kassel M2 (Japanese melee based Wanzer) models during my escape from Japan, I also acquired a Koyekei Mk108 (Japanese Police Wanzer), An Enyo Mk109 (Japanese support Wanzer), some Jinkyo Mk109s (Japanese standard allround Wanzer) and a Tiadong 3 (DHZ Melee type Wanzer) I wanted to get the Laiying that features in the same mission against Liu where you can gain a Tiadong 3 for the first time (escape japan mission) However Emma nuked it with 3 missiles fired under the pilot damage 1 skill activation. I ofcourse have all of the original Wanzers though Dennis' starting Wanzer a Rekson M4F doesn't make much sense. The machine is a small delicate looking machine but most of it's skills are actually Melee attacks. Consider Dennis' role as a sniper marksman that doesn't quite fit with him, so far I have him in Emma's Drake trying to trigger the abilities so he isn't quite naked in battle. Ryogo is learning the abilities of the Zennislev, Kazuki is in the Tiadong 3 and Emma is in the Enyo Mk109. I'm considering using a Gamefaq for the addresses and passwords of the other simulation program modifications so I can train faster but I'm doing ok atm.