Launch the attack Wanzers
Front Mission has seen quite a few remakes in the many years since it’s release on the SNES back in 95. Personally, I had not actually heard of the game until I played the second game on the original PlayStation at a friend’s house. From what I recalled it was an RPG where players battled in giant mechs known as Wanzers (Terrible name btw). Me being a new RPG fan at the time but a huge Mechwarrior fan was all about it and we spent the weekend completing the game. I enjoyed my time but never went back and played the original and honestly forgot about the franchise. Fast forward many years later and Forever Entertainment has remade the original game and called it Front Mission 1st Remake and honestly, I am not sure what I saw in this game as a youth.
MSRP: $34.99
Platforms: Xbox (reviewed), PlayStation, Switch, PC
Price I’d Pay: $29.99
Front Mission 1st Remake tells the story of the conflict between two coalitions of nations. The OCU, which represents nations in the South Asian, Southeast Asian, and Australian regions, and the USN, which represents the North and South American continents, are locked in an ongoing cold war. Each wants control of Huffman Island for various reasons and has sent their force of wanzers (hahaha) to the island as a show of force for the other. The main story will see players follow a OCU wanzer pilot by the name of Royd (terrible names are apparently a staple of this entire series) as he tries to track down the man who killed his fiancée during a mission. The remake also offers a story from the USN perspective which allows players to see the events of the unfolding cold war through the enemies’ eyes.
Front Mission is a tactical RPG which will have players maneuver their wanzers (lol it’s never not funny) around the battlefield before ending their turn and the enemies move their units. There will be various terrain throughout the 30 mission or so campaign and it each has advantages and disadvantages for combat, meaning players will have to be methodical not only in their attacks but also positioning for each battle. Luckily the wanzers are extraordinarily customizable, players can change legs, arms, CPU’s, weapons and more to fight their personality. Even melee combat is an option, but it will be up to players to find the right mix of short- and long-range weapons as the combat is difficult on the default level of Front Mission.
But difficulty isn’t the only bad thing about combat in Front Misson 1st, in early levels players will become frustrated at how inaccurate they are in combat. In a game where these pilots trained to wage war in these battle suits it is not uncommon to attack and miss most shots and have a few hit a leg for a minimal amount of damage. The saving grace is that the enemy AI also went to school to learn how to shoot like one of Darth Vader’s Stormtroopers, meaning they aren’t going to hit anything either. This becomes a problem because it makes battles drag on for what seems like hours as you and the enemy AI slap fight each other in giant robots. In order to destroy a wanzer the body must be destroyed, well there are health bars for both arms and legs and when these trained pilots go to fire their weapons, instead of aiming for the body they may just hit a leg and there is nothing players can do about it in the early game. If players can make it through these slogs of a battle, once they progress and gain levels for the pilots each will begin to learn skills which will make battles much more dynamic and interesting. One of these skills will allow players to target a specific part on the wanzers, as I said making battles feel much better.
Graphically Front Mission: 1st Remake looks phenomenal on the Series X, small touches like working windshield wipers on vehicles and things really help to immerse players in the game and its world. The remake presents the game in a different camera angle from the original but allows players to choose how they want to play. This is also true of the soundtrack in game as the original and a remastered and remixed version is available as well. While I enjoyed the story of Front Mission: 1st Remake, the combat made the game feel like a chore. In fact, it felt like for everyone good thing I found with the game, I would end up with two negatives. I had issues with the camera control in the heat of battle, the overall difficulty on default is a tad hard (but there is a difficulty selection if you want to play on easy), missing more attacks than I hit even in melee and all these things just led to a poor experience. I think Id love to play a new Front Mission game, one that isn’t a remake and is charting its own path forward; hopefully we can see that one day.
Review copy of game provided by publisher.
