I don't have much coherent to say about Front Mission 4, so I'll break my thoughts down into pros and cons.
+ Overall solid turn-based strategy game but with noticeable flaws
+ Eases you in before challenging you on your knowledge of game mechanics and builds
+ Good amount of unit customization
+ Surprisingly long game, with over 20 optional side missions
+ New Game Plus
- Rather dry writing and story. The two halves of the story don't really intersect in an interesting way, and the cast of one half has more chemistry with each other than the other half.
- You'll likely hit the same bottleneck over and over while building wanzers.
- You can't look at pilot stats while building wanzers, and you can't look at the pilot's wanzer while going over their personal skills. If you want to go between them, you'll have to sit through two loading screens, or take notes instead.
- The game tells you how far a unit can move but doesn't specify anything about their ability to move to different elevations. One of my units got stuck on a roof because their leg parts wouldn't let them climb down.
- Some side missions need to be unlocked in order and have prerequisites, but they aren't explained anywhere in the game.
- Bonus unlockables also have specific requirements, but you don't know what they are and then they just become missable for the rest of your playthrough.
- New Game Plus is just the same game again but with your stats carried over. I think it could really have benefited from a stage select and the ability to swap between protagonists whenever you like.
+ Overall solid turn-based strategy game but with noticeable flaws
+ Eases you in before challenging you on your knowledge of game mechanics and builds
+ Good amount of unit customization
+ Surprisingly long game, with over 20 optional side missions
+ New Game Plus
- Rather dry writing and story. The two halves of the story don't really intersect in an interesting way, and the cast of one half has more chemistry with each other than the other half.
- You'll likely hit the same bottleneck over and over while building wanzers.
- You can't look at pilot stats while building wanzers, and you can't look at the pilot's wanzer while going over their personal skills. If you want to go between them, you'll have to sit through two loading screens, or take notes instead.
- The game tells you how far a unit can move but doesn't specify anything about their ability to move to different elevations. One of my units got stuck on a roof because their leg parts wouldn't let them climb down.
- Some side missions need to be unlocked in order and have prerequisites, but they aren't explained anywhere in the game.
- Bonus unlockables also have specific requirements, but you don't know what they are and then they just become missable for the rest of your playthrough.
- New Game Plus is just the same game again but with your stats carried over. I think it could really have benefited from a stage select and the ability to swap between protagonists whenever you like.
Turn based mech combat. It's got all sorts of customization and min-maxing.
I could listen to these voice actors say WAN-zers all day long.
This is just a really excellent TRPG
Gameplay is really funny, lets you play in a variety of playstyles: from hyper-aggression to slow turtling, and the "link" mechanic just makes you feel like such a genius (or absolute moron) at times, it's really great.
The story as well is really fun, it feels very grounded initially but gets kinda anime by the end with how the characters are portrayed, still. I like the character diversity!
Visuals are incredibly gray and muted, which I personally really enjoy considering the game's setting, it has a really industrial and brutalist feel to it.
Sound effects are honestly one of the game's real highlights, the sound of a rifleman's shot landing into the body of a wanzer makes my brain create the happy chemicals.
Really liked this one! Looking forward to playing its sequel!
Gameplay is really funny, lets you play in a variety of playstyles: from hyper-aggression to slow turtling, and the "link" mechanic just makes you feel like such a genius (or absolute moron) at times, it's really great.
The story as well is really fun, it feels very grounded initially but gets kinda anime by the end with how the characters are portrayed, still. I like the character diversity!
Visuals are incredibly gray and muted, which I personally really enjoy considering the game's setting, it has a really industrial and brutalist feel to it.
Sound effects are honestly one of the game's real highlights, the sound of a rifleman's shot landing into the body of a wanzer makes my brain create the happy chemicals.
Really liked this one! Looking forward to playing its sequel!
Front Mission 4 represents a return to traditional FM combat, without the cheesing of the eject/capture mechanic that was a hallmark of FM3. I recommend the game as a solid tactics experience, but if you've played FM3, I also recommend resetting expectations regarding combat. Combat focuses on the link system which makes tactical choices more meaningful, and improves the flow of combat to make it feel like a true squad-based game rather than isolated engagements or tediously dog piling an enemy one at a time. While the combat is enjoyable, writing and characterization is lacking compared to FM3 despite a more unique cast. Story progression isn't terrible, but feels disjointed and perhaps should have had split campaigns instead of the Game of Thrones approach. Overall an enjoyable experience and would consider NG+ which lets you to play the game with fully skilled up characters to allow for fun squad setups, e.g. all snipers.