Last year I had the pleasure of unofficially starting into the Front Mission(FM) universe via a mediocre spin-off. Fast-forward to the present and now I started and finished a proper mainline with the first installment. And to my absolute surprise and delight. Front Mission 1st remake(FM1RE) holds up very well today despite some notable concerns.

Why should I play the remake(2022) when I could start the DS or fan-translated SNES game of the same name? Well, here’s a brief overview of what you’re getting on either version. The first Western installment officially came ashore with the Nintendo 2007 DS port. Originally released in Japan on the SNES in 1995. The game featured only one campaign, the OCU. Oceania Cooperative Union. Detailing one side of a major conflict in 2090. Later remade for the PlayStation in 2003. Featuring a new campaign added. The USN. Unified Continental States. Where the 2nd details the other perspective, months before the major war. Again only released in Japan. The 2007 port includes all the above in English with new secret scenarios for both sides of the story. A handful more or less provide extra context during your ventures. The 2022 title includes everything the last upgrade had with the original music and the option for a remastered soundtrack. Basic quality of life features like instant/faster movement, instant battle, and quicker battle speed. And a save-anytime option. With multiple difficulty configurations, I could change to my leisure. With new content coming later on in 2024 in the form of multiplayer and single-player scenarios. So I figured I’d start with the current one. Previously I owned and played the DS port several times but bounced off hard, considering the second and third missions being too brutal for me. So it's a blessing, that Square outsourced the JRPG/SRPG IP to Forever Entertainment with a respectable game for newcomers and veterans piloting their own mech in the battles to come.

It is imperative to note, that starting with the OCU point of view is recommended for beginners. Veterans for USN and disclosed prominently with warnings when starting the game. I’ll touch on the harder operation later. For now, if the player starts the first operation. The premise starts with you controlling a human in a wanzer(mech) by the name of Royd Clive, a young talented lieutenant who’s been sent to numerous hot zones. Coming back alive again and again. A walking coffin man. He is approached by Glen, a sergeant who after testing him proceeds to grant him the rank of captain. Complete with a recon squad to lead under him. For soon enough he’ll have to conduct a reconnaissance operation on a certain U.C.S. facility in Larcus. Traveling there with his fiance Karen. Yeah, I kid you, not that’s her name. They proceed to investigate the facility. All goes well. Until like so many JRPGs in the past go. Things spiral outside of their control and Bam! Newspaper headlines:

June 3rd, 2090:
The Larcus Incident

The Unified Continental States(UCS) publicly accused the Oceania Cooperative Union(OCU) of sending Wanzers. On a mission to destroy U.C.S. military factories in the Larcus District of Huffman Island.

Officially, the text is given following their first mission. The rest of the headline will go off shooting fingers at one another. Rising tensions between the superpowers. Making dreams of a peaceful resolution erode entirely. What happens after tensions build like this? Well, it all comes to a boiling point and soon enough the two superpowers declare war. Huh sounds familiar in real life eh?

Thus began the Second Huffman Conflict

Don’t worry about the first battle. Those are covered in a different game. What is important to cover for you budding newbies piloting wanzers. Is how awesome it is to command a whole team of mechs against other foes trying to destroy you to kingdom come! Here’s a cool rundown of what to expect out the gate. Large squad to use in a majority of battles. At the most, I was able to deploy 11 pilots on the field. Such a staggeringly large amount to utilize speaks well to the freedom granted. Sure there are a handful of missions with smaller deployments. However, allowing us to manage a sizable troop speaks of confidence by the developers G-Craft & Square. Battling twice our number, easily replicating large-scale warfare. Nothing beats the slow hum of our engines roaring to life and clashing amidst the heated missiles and bullets galore. No copy-paste in environments. You’ll find a varied selection of biomes to traverse and fight in. Cityscapes, day, rain, night maps, jungles, sandy areas like dunes, beaches, ruined towns, rivers, snow and heck forts, and mountainous tiles are not spared either. Meaning there’s always something to look forward to when picking a mission on the point-and-click world map.

Excellent quality of life features. I mentioned them previously, but to expand on why? The difficulty options, instant battle/movement, faster battle speed, and save anytime are a godsend and should be used whenever you fancy a brisk pace or an easier time. Due to the fact battles can take a while on normal. And there's not any dialogue spoken between hostiles during their animation phase or new animation when a critical strike occurs. The remake includes two options; classic mode and modern. I chose the modern mode. Displaying freedom of the camera in every aspect. Meaning I'm not constrained to a set camera perspective while overviewing the field of battle. Resulting in better situational awareness of any hidden details I may have missed if I had chosen the other mode. It is a small pet peeve of mine in tactical games when I'm not offered the full freedom to move the camera at my own pace. A tactical map is exhibited. Picture a bird's eye view of the entire battleground much like a real-time war map. These also contain fixes and improvements to the DS port.

Earlier I classified the game as a JRPG, but to be honest, calling FM1RE an SRPG fits too. You fight on grid battles and tactfully determine what terrain you should place your units on to gain cover bonuses. Level up your pilot during skirmishes with the enemy. Earn enough experience to be granted abilities changing the tide of battle. Shoot any part of Wanzer? Well hello! VATS-like system in place. Except this game came before the Fallout series. I can shoot and if the shot hits the limb is destroyed. Right, and left arms, legs, and body are the only possible choices. Choose wisely, since each provides an additional layer to help in your fight on Huffman Island. Eliminate legs to reduce their overall movement power to traverse the land. Land body blows and if successful you can explode the whole unit to smithereens. Thereby lessening remaining oppositions within your vision. Destroy both arms and the enemy becomes a sitting duck without any capability to repair themselves. Unless there is a supply truck nearby. Supply trucks can restore ammo to long-range weapons and have the cool ability to slam bullets on unfriendlies with a weak attack. Heal when nearby for free for a small amount and exchange equipment and items when needed. Speaking of items. Man, they can help if you’re in a pinch. I love using repair packs. Think of these as the potion to high potion and various other tiers similar to Pokemon or Final Fantasy. Restoring decent to large amounts of health.

A big feature of any mech game is customization and I am glad to report you have a lot to tinker and dabble your mech. Once you finish all the tutorial missions you will be inside a town/city. Enter the shop and outfit their squad with any manner of weaponry they see fit. Some key things to note. Arm accuracy is king. Make sure to equip your party with high-accuracy arms to not miss your shots. Missing early game is a snowball to a death sentence once the enemy has more strikes than you. Then the result is you have a less likely chance of surviving. Although if you’re a cheesy dude, one could quicksave before a battle and RNG in your favor to give a slight advantage. Heh. Legs are akin to an additional decoy target. If any dum dum manages to shoot your legs and make them go boom. Well, the only penalty is a reduction in movement capability. A 6-tile with a full hp leg becomes a 3-tile shift if destroyed. So you’re not entirely a helpless fighter who can’t move. HP is self-explanatory and represents your life. But the body is your life. If an enemy destroys your main body. Well, reload the save file, and voila you’re back in action. The world is primarily set in a fictionalized Cold War world similar to real life except with mechs. You can’t revive with a phoenix down or use a handy revive. Get your fantasy out of here. Thankfully, there is no permadeath like a certain JRPG series coughs looking at an emblem on fire Nintendo likes to do. Anytime any of your pilots die in the field of battle. They simply will return in tip-top form once the next mission arrives. Sure they don’t get any experience and you do have to pay their repair costs(which is miniscule). But hey! That’s why we have the quick save and quick loading here! So abuse the system and take out the pesky RNG nature if you get a solid rocket to your metal face. Players are allowed to exploit the RNG during their ventures gambling in the arena. Think 1v1 versus a variety of foes of various expertise. Picking one with higher odds and betting an ‘x’ amount like 1000 can net you a lot of money if done correctly. One trick is to use garbage equipment to increase the payout odds in your favor. So if you bet 1000 x 8.57. One time I saw the odds were x 32! But oof I couldn’t win that payout sadly. An awesome if not vital feature to grind for money and pilot skills.

Skills like Guide and Duel allow the VATS-like targeting mechanic to activate pretty much 99% of the time during any engagement with foes. Sadly the first installment doesn’t have a lot you can procure. Your initial party including Royd will only have vacant spots. You need to level up and reach certain ‘####’ tiers in proficiencies of melee, short, long, and dodge. Here's a brief overview of what each skill does in their respective categories.

Melee:
First - attack first during engagements.
Stun - Self-explanatory. Preventing them from any action for an ‘x’ amount of turns.
Double - Can attack again. Sometimes thrice!

Short:
Duel - Arms equipped with rifles and machine guns can manually target any enemy component.
Speed - Allows more bullets to strike the enemy.
Switch - activates other armament on the other arm. Granting one more shot at the enemy.

Long:
Guide - Shoulder weapons like missiles can manually aim at any enemy limb.

Skills are tremendously useful when gained. And can drastically shift the fate of a battle. I advise checking out when they activate for each character you recruit. Some can gain them swiftly than others while a select amount can only equip three abilities compared to five. So choose wisely! I’ll drop a link below. Nevertheless, I found their inclusion during fights essential to gaining an overwhelming advantage. Duel, guide, speed, switch, and first were instrumental in turning the tide countless times. However, keep in mind they’re not universal and dependent on the category used. So a missile cannot use duel, speed, or switch and vice versa with their respective categories. Furthermore, some wanzers do not have the power to activate some of the above if one uses a mobile weapon.

Mobile weapons are a secret reward that can be found once reaching certain tiles on a handful of maps. Think of these as special mechs that can’t be upgraded the usual ways as Wanzers but boast a miniboss-like design when faced as an enemy. Imagine crab tanks, hulking wanzers without arms but big ol cannons equipped sometimes on their chest or using dual machine guns. Here’s my screenshot as an example. Honestly, I didn’t use any of these since my two-legged crew was more than enough to blast these supposedly superior mechanized machines to nothingness. Additionally one can unlock concealed missions by talking to a sequence of people or new unknown characters after or before completing a new mission. These secret operations convey extra context on either side of the story and may provide clues to the overarching narrative or breadcrumbs to one character’s past in particular. I recommend them wholeheartedly. Considering you can win a mobile wep. as a reward. I advise seeking out a walkthrough for proper instructions.

Before I forget I must talk about the music. I listened to the original OST initially. With remastered in NG+ to clean up any last-minute assignments. As a whole Yoko Shimomura & Noriko Matsueda's composition on the entire soundtrack is hauntingly jolly. A mix of techno and jazz, I initially thought their music styles would not work at all. Yet blowing past all my expectations once again! I was astounded. How their styles work in tandem. Shimomura’s techno expertise lends itself well to the futuristic tone the series starts with. Beats of Coaxial Town are sending me to nodding heaven as is her wonderful ability to switch to a different tone effortlessly. Like Field Hospital. Producing a serious yet catchy tone. Canyon Crow to my eyes encapsulates a prelude of events to come with heavy percussion on display foreshadowing the gritty war to come. Yet I cannot help but praise Matsueda’s style of jazz to complement the techno. Filled with her soul I embraced the ambient tracks in absolute pleasure. Tracks like Rise to Action blew me away. Hearing upbeat tunes on repeat and a cool rhythm loop never fails to impress me. Optical City by comparison is a nice change of pace delving into a cityscape almost a cyberpunk feel where the low passive background of woodwind instruments coalesce together with percussion offering a mesmerizing yet beautiful atmosphere permeating to my eardrums. Within Living Memory is breathtaking where minimal instruments are used and no vocals are echoed. Yet manifests a strong determination in both the foreground and background, thrusting my soul into contemplative tranquility. The passionate duos reach a powerful teamwork when endgame tracks like Fear. Culminate the true reality behind the uplifting tracks I've heard thus far. The remastered is good too, even if I’m more inclined to listen to the original OST first, yet the remastered isn’t of a diminished quality. Either option is fine to listen to. Nice to have as an option to change at any time and for what it's worth I think it is faithful when compared to the original work.

Any SRPG worth their salt WD-40 must manifest a fun combat loop. A fun combat loop to me in FM1RE is utilizing everything from how your unit composition clashes against the enemy, grid modifiers to help shield from enemy fire using cover, any underlying main/side objectives, and level design(easy/hard to traverse, any gimmicks, obstacles?) I could add more, but I simplified some basics. Combine everything topside with the player’s experience then. Outputting at the final stretch of any mission their current feelings based on whatever they experienced. To this end. The mission structure the OCU campaign launches us into is a ‘simple and safe’ fun combat loop after the initial hurdle in the beginning. I marched on countless varied terrains without being bombarded by enormous levels to tread nor filled to the brim with armies of mecha to stand against my party. No, not 300 vs. Persian size. Think of skirmishes. Eleven vs. double that number is more or less enough. Struggling against our opposing adversaries. Making use of the elevation at times to wipe foolish stuck mobs in a choke point never fails to inject a rush of immense satisfaction. Targeting with pinpoint accuracy to disable each hostile offensive capability leaving them defenseless and free from any sign of counter-attack is a fistbump moment every time I landed a deadly blow. Undertaking a protect/escort mission by slowly baiting my enemy to irrational decisions by striking my tanky ally embraces my inner keikaku greatly. Retreating is whenever my plan doesn’t work out upon first contact. Regroup and activate any items to halt or impede enemy advance and thus give your comrades a better fighting chance. Can’t say no to repair packs ya know?! Salvaging any secluded equipment during a 1v1 with a pesky opponent. Hell, I found a sweet rifle allowing me to shoot a big one nearly destroying a limb. Or heck, salvage a mobile wep! Taking my sweet time on each battlefield to read any dialogue between my members and the enemy. Delving into the horrifying effects of war on the psyche and how each soldier will try to trick my cabal into lowering their morale at times. Especially when reinforcements arrive midway or drop a plot beat. Demonstrating not only physical clashes but hurtful words against those under my command. Would be weird if my constant scuffles were silent no?

Concerning the OCU campaign. I was caught off guard by how geo-political, mortal drama and the war affect the innocents/soldiers' PTSD the plot underwent. A fantastic departure from the usual tropes I see with fantasy where we usually to some degree at the end of the day face off a [censored] b%^&@. The plot, endgame, and major antagonist were a refreshing change from those classic tropes I battled in the end. Presenting a fictionalized realistic take on border wars, ulterior motives, and backdoor shady deals you won’t see coming. Meanwhile, Royd’s journey without going into any spoilers enthralled me to the point I wanted to know the immediate aftermath causing the 2nd Huffman war, his allies whom he recruits later on and would soon as other JRPGs/SRPGs undergo after any lore bomb or revelation hits the climax reach the final map and fight to the bitter end to whatever hell awaits me before the curtain falls.

Concerning the USN campaign. I was again caught off guard by how different operations underwent, detailing the ‘enemy’ POV months before the 2nd Huffman struggle and the hidden events occurring behind the scenes. As well as controlling a new protagonist called Kevin Greenfield. Who controls a much smaller crew than Royd with his limit being up to seven. Nevertheless, they greatly differ from OCU by undertaking a more militarized focus. Back in Clive’s point of view, I conversed with relatable people in the city's bar and had a lot of downtime between activities to test the arena. Embracing the lethargic pace of sinking in the war took its toll on my army. Here take out the glacial threads. Remove the conversations in bars in favor of talking to your underlings. Bonding with them early on and seeking personal aspirations as vaguely as I can say without spoiling Greenfield's motivations for participating in the war provides an interesting parallel compared to Royd. Assignments are varied offering more tactical objectives than ever before and raising the difficulty a decent amount. You will meet new enemy types like fast-moving armored personnel carriers(APC), bigger cannons and smaller cannons, disabling prototypes, night vision, mini-bosses, protection, escort, and defeating all enemies within an ‘x’ amount of turns. All of these types emerge in greater volume. As a consequence of the small squad you have on hand. I can’t win by sheer numbers alone. Thereby, I have to make careful use of micromanaging my supplies and capability versus forces greater than my own.

Now time for my mixed feelings. Not a positive or a negative. Only notable concerns I had during my playthroughs that I think are worth noting.

First, on the technical side. I had ten crashes on my PS4 Pro. Five on a new game playthrough(NG) OCU and five on NG USN. Oddly enough. Crashing wasn’t a major pain because I reverted my past save back with barely any loss of progress. I usually have a high tolerance for game crashes. With Cyberpunk 2077 on my same console accumulating over 40+. Yet it didn’t affect my whole experience in a sizable manner. The save system was very well implemented. In a similar vein, FM1RE also didn’t impact my overall enjoyment. Only a minor portion. I did experience an uncommon amount of black screens sadly. Anytime after you finish a mission the background where you select areas to visit like the: shop, arena, hanger, command room, etc. will only have a black background. I’m not exactly sure about the cause of this. Since I have clear memories of no odd bugs like that for a long period. Pretty jarring since I like to admire the setting and having a black screen can be immersion-breaking. Still not a major issue, but one to look out for. Keep in mind you only have five save slots. Four of which you can manually overwrite whenever with the fifth being designated as an autosave. You don’t receive new slots if you decide to start the USN offensive. So if you accidentally overwrite your OCU save well… F$%! Pray you still have an earlier save just in case. Use the cloud or back up your saves via USB to help.

Second, loadouts and constant customization. I love reshaping all components in any mech game. So I'm puzzled that I reached a different outcome than the usual reworking craze. To the point I can't say I love the customization here. Early on I didn’t have trouble whatsoever changing and buying new equipment for my teammates. The tediousness comes from buying the same upgraded item ‘x’ many times repeatedly on each of my eleven units constantly. Imagine scrolling through various menus to pick a high-tier left arm. Only to repeat the process eleven times for my friends. Oh, but I'm not done. Need to upgrade the other ones like my right arm, legs, and body. Multiply those by eleven times. I’m still not done. I have to replace all my crew’s offensive capabilities. So left and right along with the shoulder to boot. Yeah, you guessed it, I'm still not done. CPU, backpacks, and items I still need to manually input. All the busy work would have been smoothly eliminated if I had load-outs. I probably spent fifteen minutes give or take some change after several missions passed to overhaul my allies. Each time. Tedious to do every time if I use the same stuff to slot each limb. Is it too much to ask for load-outs or at least a purchase button to replicate what I bought and install them for my whole squad? I don't know. I'm not a game designer. I can only offer alternatives and suggestions.

Third, wish there was more variation in mission objectives. Most of them boil down to killing everyone with rare odd ones out there being limited turns to complete and some optional side-goals of keeping allies alive, new units alive, to be rewarded the max amount of cash. Thankfully, the United side and hidden missions solve this dilemma, but for the regular OCU viewpoint. I felt it was formulaic and didn’t push the encounter design as much. Which was more experimental and pushed my mental limits further. Not a bad thing mind you. I appreciate the simple nature of directives in Clive’s story. But I think more variation in parameters could’ve elevated it further. Different enemy types, and new boss types instead of recycling mini-bosses and new encounters. A relatively decent oddball in the grand scheme of things.

Fourth, Possible information overload on what each user interface term does. Ask anyone off the bat what these terms mean. AT, DF, Hit, Weight, Power and if I hadn’t explained the short, long, melee earlier along with any other word terminology I surmise a decent amount may be confused and thus will be disinclined to persevere. Such an issue was one of the major factors I had when I played the 2007 version years ago. Look at this image(insert DS image of battle before attacking) and see if you can translate all the information displayed before determining your first command. Doesn’t help there’s no innate help button to identify and define the jargon given. Wish there was an explain button available. Still, the tutorial and in-game control guide + shopkeeper can give useful tips.

Fifth, difficult and a rough beginning. I initiated on a normal setting. And still found it somewhat challenging. Oddly mirroring the same experience I had with the previous rendition. Be that as it may. I did use some helpful links from: before I play, LegaiaRules walkthrough. Which are crucial and instrumental to grant me a better start. Tremendously received a better understanding and comprehension in regards to the mechanics and tricks. Thereby, giving me a solid push to persevere beyond meager gains through the main story content for each protagonist. I suggest grinding in the arena when necessary to help offset any hardship you may encounter or simply change the difficulty setting, for an easier time.

That’s it for my mixed feelings. Despite the minor bugs and crashes. And a gentle reminder to save constantly. The difficulty, customization, and information are the big key things to note coming in. However, I believe there is still a solid Mecha JRPG here. Enough to set an excellent foundation for newcomers to try before delving into the latter entries to reach the last mainline in the series. Where knowledge of each core game in the series is utilized to its fullest effect from the praise I’ve been seeing across the horizon. Nevertheless, I did enjoy a great deal of both campaigns. Worth experiencing in my honest opinion to get a better picture of the major war occurring. While dealing with palpable emotions. Human drama is essential in any narrative to connect with the cast be it main or side. Perhaps even villains themselves. In a 1995 Sakaguchi X Tsuchida interview with Famicom Tsuushin magazine. Translated by shmuplations. When the developers were asked about the colorful cast who pilot the wanzers they responded.

Toshiro Tsuchida(producer/writer): “That’s right. This was something that emerged from conversations with Sakaguchi, the idea that a game about robots would be ripe for a story about human drama. That was his idea, that in this game themed around war, we should try and include human drama as well.”

Hironobu Sakaguchi(supervisor): “I said, let’s not abandon or compromise on the tasteful, refined aesthetic that the G-Craft team has created, but let’s see if we can also include some human drama that would evoke the realism of war. In that sense, I think Front Mission ended up becoming a very mature, adult game.”

The realism of mecha warfare and vivid drama are intrinsically linked in FM. A gruff, gritty yet humorous at times evokes a dusty atmosphere to lighten the mature themes presented. Thus a fascinating foundational world-building sets the stage for the events to come in the later entries to follow. Royd’s walking coffin status plays a key role in shaping his development based on the tumultuous skirmishes he endures. Kevin Greenfield’s no man left behind personality provides a stark, but refreshing perspective in a militaristic point of view on the events in secret operations conducted opposite enemy lines. Both are assigned a colorful cast to bridge the narrative to each member. Their reasons for fighting, any grayish feelings buried deep within their psyche perhaps bubbling forth when any adversary taunts them, and perhaps through the fires of battles and camaraderie something deeper emerges. Bonds forged in hellfire. It is brutal, but not so much in the realm of senseless violence. But when used carefully in dozens of assignments they undergo. The threads start to align and knots converge, developing into a moderately satisfying geo-political strife against each superpower's story. Forever Entertainments' remake of FM 1st only deserves praise, despite some rough gears attached. Therefore, I hesitantly recommend the mature and realistic military plot mecha JRPG/SRPG to any folks willing to dive into an old but still fresh war spectacle. Akin to what Tsuchida likes to call “...For Front Mission, I wanted to combine the entertainment quality of a blockbuster sci-fi movie with the realism of a Vietnam war film.”

Tsuchida if I ever meet you personally, I firmly believe you succeeded on both accounts! Looking forward to trying out more in the IP!

7.8/10

References & Additional Material:
Sakaguchi x Tsuchida – 1995 Developer Interview
Examples of mobile weapon and black screens
FM1 DS guide and walkthrough by LegaiaRules - incredibly in-depth and remarkably holds up to the remake.
FM1 skills explanation
FM1 Before I play - Additional tips to know beforehand

Front Mission 1st comes to modern platforms with a simple but good visual upgrade and the features of the two former remakes intact while maintaining the original odd mechanics that made the later games better.

This is the third remake of the original Front Mission that keeps the former remakes added gameplay elements while adding new game plus and more difficulty options while making changes to the visuals, camera control, and UI. The 2003 Playstation remake of the original SNES game added the second campaign that plays like one of the later Front Mission titles with each character that joins you having more characterization and more conversations between missions, more chances to talk with your squad members, more air and vehicle enemies to fight, gives more characterization to people you meet or fight in the main campaign, involves some characters from the then upcoming Front Mission 4, and is the stronger campaign in general despite being a bit shorter. The DS remake added some Front Mission 2 and Front Mission 5 cameos, equipable parts from later games in the series, and nine secret missions across both campaigns. The only thing I noticed missing here was that in the final after credit scene of the main scenario only the main story pilots show up at the end, with none of the side characters and one slightly main not appearing with a line or two like they do in the other versions of the game, odd thing to remove but not a big loss since they had almost no personality or scenes and never showed up in the next four games.

The gameplay is a fairly simple turn based mech game where each character pilots a Wanzer which has a has a body, left and right arm, and leg part with the arms able to equip both a handheld or built in weapon and a shoulder mounted missile launcher or shield that you can use to add to your defense when you are unable to attack or if you decide to defend instead of counterattacking. Pilots rank up their skills in short, long, melee, and dodge from 1-9,999 with them becoming more accurate (or better at avoiding) and doing more damage (never found anything that knew what exact calculations are) every time they are attacked or use a weapon type with them getting more experience when they destroy a body part. Destroying the body destroys the Wanzer, arms disable weapons equipped to it, and legs can reduce movement speed (and maybe reduce dodge, people didn't seem sure or how much). Every pilot has a certain weapon experience level where once they reach a certain point, that is different per character, they can learn a skill once they raise their main level (levels only add very small amounts of XP to every skill and unlock a skill if you reached the requisite).

Short ranged weapons give you duel where you are forced to use the skill every time and can choose a body part for all your shots or your one shot to aim at with a severe to no accuracy penalty depending on the skill level, switch allows you a chance to attack with your off hand weapon if they are both short ranged after your first attack and can chain multiple times while also allowing you to switch your duel target, and speed adds to the number of bullets you can fire. Melee gives you first that allows you to attack before an enemy when otherwise melee attackers go last, stun that can stun an enemy both stopping their attack if it goes off before they attack and stunning them on the map screen if other units attack them but with a chance they can wake up, and double which works like switch but with two melee weapons. Long range experience can unlock guide which works like the short range duel skill. These skills mean that short is significantly better than everything else just by the massive amounts of damage you can do, and means that typically the SMG style weapons are a much better choice than rifles or shotguns once you unlock speed (even more so since the weapons don't actually behave differently in Front Mission 1 even all having the same 1 tile range). Long is more of a weapon type just to have to weaken enemies and missile launchers run out of ammo. Close is good in the early game but massively falls of due to skills leading to a damage drop when compared to short weapons and the game just seemed to forget to add new melee weapons to the game for some time while all other weapons are getting multiple upgrades. You have no way of knowing but some pilots just can't unlock certain skills making some much worse choices than others. Once you get a skill raising its level from 1 to 3 is random and has a chance of happening when the skill is used. So when you first unlock duel and have a 50% accuracy drop you want that to level up quickly and that might rank up in one use or it might rank up after 100 uses. There is also some UI issues with the game where you just aren't always given information that you really want to know, like the damage status of units being attacked and enemy status when they are attacking you and what weapon is where on the before you switch to the combat screen after choosing your weapon or defense, this was still also a problem in Front Mission 2.

It's a system that all works well enough but gives more options in future games with a few of them somewhat showing up in the second campaign that has things like a few rifles that can be used at a distance.

Outside of combat you can make use of an arena to gain money or experience, talk to a few characters at a bar in each town, buy new parts for your units (with new parts coming at an annoyingly fast rate in the main campaign, even worse when you are upgrading more total units and constantly running out of money unless you use the arena). There is a variety of different looking styles and even legs parts that handle movement differently but so many of them are just statistically worse options and the leg parts don't make a huge difference with certain movements types not being seen much or not being given as many upgrades to make them that viable. The second campaign adds the ability to speak to your squad members while in towns or at bases and that give them all a bit more personality that would be found in the later games in the series. The stories set up elements of later events and some of the themes and atmosphere of later games but there is not a huge amount of plot yet, especially not in the primary campaign where moments that should have a bigger impact or often quickly gotten through.

The remake also adds a great looking tactical map view you can switch to that could be used as the main UI for an entire type of game, while also serving absolutely no real purpose in this game and not allowing you to move units on it even though everything about it seems to have been made for it.

Front Mission is decent game with a good soundtrack and unique art style that adds a lot of personality and that all lead to more interesting and better titles that expanded on what this game started in the future (even the SNES spin-off Front Mission Gun Hazard is one of the best games on the platform) and if you are going to get into the series you might as well start here.

Screenshots: https://twitter.com/Legolas_Katarn/status/1724717342188572844

I haven't played any other version of this, but a lot of the popular criticism of this seems to be that it's still pretty clear that this is an old game, mostly being a graphical update. To an extent, it does definitely feel like that though, shop system is relatively slow for instance. I don't really find that a bad thing, the original version hasn't had an official English release, so I think staying close to that is good. Besides, I don't think "feels like a SNES game" is ever really a problem.

Applying to both the OCU and UCS scenarios, you and enemies both miss a lot. Adds to tension but also makes things feel pretty luck based. There's also a lot of weapons and parts, but not actually that much build variety, generally just coming down to melee/short range/long range and maybe what legs are best for this exact mission. Also it would be nice if all that variety let us choose aesthetic equipment slots but that's a pretty minor complaint.

The UCS scenario was added in the PS1 version. Comparing that to the OCU definitely makes the OCU scenario feel aged though. The UCS feels much better. Levels are smaller but more interesting, there's less characters to use but that means less grinding and less characters who just feel like they're there. The story also feels more in depth, the OCU felt rather basic. I think this is a nice sort of aging, you can really see the series evolving that way.

If you're fine with a game that really feels like it was made in an older era with most of the updates being visual, you'll enjoy it.