front mission parts factory

Sakata Industries was a pharmaceutical, design, and wanzer manufacturing corporation. They play a prominent role in Front Mission as a major antagonist, working with Driscoll and colluded with the Republic of Zaftra on the B-Device project. In Front Mission 2089 they are minor antagonists along with the background specifics and lengths of their B-Device research being explored. They supplied wanzers to both the O.C.U and the U.S.N during the 2nd Huffman Conflict; Later being bought out by Iguchi Corporation following the B-Device research being revealed to the public and becoming a scandal.

After the establishment of Sakata Industries, it licensed other companies to largely handle WAP manufacture while designing the WAP parts and rapidly grew as a military-related company. The performance of their computers was highly evaluated. It outsourced the license to manufacture and sell some of it"s Wanzer designs to Iguchi Corp. (maintaining ownership via OEM contracts) as a way to expand and promote its products, lastly it was the only company in OCU to sell weapons to USN. They later formally subcontracted Iguchi to manufacture weapons and new WAP just before the Second Huffman Conflict.

Most Sakata Industries equipment is clarified in later titles surrounding Huffman Island where as in Front Mission First they appear to only be a Wanzer manufacturer.

Aside from WAP parts, they also manufacture pharmaceuticals and military vehicles in the present as per their growing size and scope across the entire series

Type 81 85mm Electromagnetic Railgun (Front Mission Alternative) - according to FM Historica, its supposed to be manufactured by Jade Metal, but in-game, it"s manufactured jointly by Yagisawa Industries and Iguchi

Watch the scene that plays after the mission ends and Molly becomes a part ofthe Crows. Head back to Freedom City and do the usual. Go to the Military

After reuniting with Johnny, Matthew, and Howard, you will be at Soleit. Givethose three some new parts and weapons to play with. When ready, exit Soleit

I’m happy to see the Front Missionseries finally getting some love over here in North America. It hasn’t been completely absent, but our coverage has been spotty. We missed a slew of them and only received three out of the five “numbered” titles. The fact that we’re getting not one but three remakes (one of them having never been localized) gives me hope that we’ll see more of the series over here. It worked for Yakuza, right?

This is actually my first chance to really delve into the series. My previous experience with it was watching my roommate fall in love with Front Mission 4. I don’t remember why I didn’t try it for myself because I recall it looking cool. Mechs are cool. Tactical strategy games are cool. It’s enough that I bookmarked the game in my brain and planned to one day circle around back to it. Today’s the day, and I can start at the beginning.

Front Mission 1st: Remakeis a remake of the first Front Mission, Front Mission 1st.Technically, Front Mission 1st isn’t the first Front Mission; it’s a 2003 PS1 port of the 1995 Super Famicom game, Front Mission. So Front Mission 1st is technically a remake of a remake, but both said remakes are really remasters. Front Mission 1st: Remakeis a remaster of a remaster, but unlike the first remaster, this remaster remakes the remaster’s graphics.

Front Missiontells the story of the OCU and the UCS, who have aggravatingly similar names. They’re fighting over a croissant-shaped island in the pacific called Huffman, and it’s clear off the hop that things aren’t quite right. On the OCU side, Royd Clive loses his Fiancee while investigating a weapons factory. He’s disavowed but finds himself fighting alongside his old employer through the mercenary group, the Canyon Crows.

Aside from the routine story, Front Mission 1st manages to combine some of the best parts of the tactical and mech sub-genres. You have grid-based maps, and you have a toybox of parts to build robots from. In this case, they’re called “Wanzers” which comes from the German “Wanderpanzers” or “walking tanks.” That still sounds kind of dumb to the anglophone ear, but it’s supposed to be pronounced “Vanzers.” It still sounds kind of dumb, but it doesn’t matter; mechs are awesome.

You put them together from a variety of parts, then slap on some weapons or shields. You can also fall back on good ‘ol fisticuffs, which always looks funny to me. In battle, the legs, individual arms, or body can be damaged. While you can still move without legs, you can’t hold weapons without arms or live without a body. This means you’re constantly balancing armor, HP, and other stats.

This means two things: first, putting together robots is always fun. However, the second thing is that it creates a lot of prepwork. You put together a rather sizeable team, and some missions have you field as many as 11 wanzers, all of which need to be configured manually. New parts can get dropped every couple of missions, so if you want to keep everything at the tip-top, you’ll be making shopping trips each time. It can be a bit much, and I wish there was some sort of auto-optimization option.

It’s also not a terribly balanced game. You have the option of fighting in the arena for cash and experience, and I quickly found out how to exploit this to the moon and back. I was never short on funds, and I had a few pilots that were exceedingly effective in combat. It made the OCU campaign a cake-walk. The UCS is a bit less flexible and there are difficulty options (most of which are locked off the hop), but going god-mode through more than 30 missions sucked some of the fun out of it.

Not all of it, though. Dashing across the battlefield and shooting robots in the dick is always an enjoyable spectacle, and there’s a decent variety to the missions. Even while I was walking through the game with little resistance, I stayed engaged.

The graphical upgrade to Front Mission 1st is pretty good, too. I especially loved the city maps when you can rotate the camera around buildings. Rain has a nice effect to it, as well, even though I kind of wished the game ran at a higher resolution so I could enjoy it more. I did come across some bugs and performance oddities, but the team has a day one patch coming out that should address much of it. Nothing I ran into was overly intrusive, even in its pre-release state.

I do wish more was done to address some UI issues. Some important information seems rather out of reach, and while you can buy parts and immediately equip them, if you want to reconfigure from there, it’s in an entirely different menu. They’re annoyances that seem to stem from the game’s origins, but they aren’t deal-breakers.

While Front Mission 1st didn’t set my world on fire, and I found it lacking in a lot of areas, I did enjoy it. It’s not the best tactical strategy game to come out this year, but it’s welcome nonetheless. It’s also a great and loving remaster of the Super Famicom title, and while there are places I wish it was tightened up, I’m overall happy about it. It leaves me excited to play the next two remasters as they work their way to release.

While centralizing your attack on the cadenza you leave yourself vulnerable to the other enemy Wanzers. You should have your missile launching Wanzer attack it with every turn. This also increases the chances of stunning it thus giving you more time to tear it down. There are two stages of the Cadenza"s destruction. It will shed its front shell and continue to try to escape with the back part still intact, destroy both parts.

Adam Smith Hates Your Guts: The original SFC/WS version of 1st lets player sell items for 75% of their actual values, whereas the remake has you selling them for... only 25%. This leads you to a miserly scenario in which you simply cannot afford new equipment for every single unit you have, as the parts salvaged in missions are generally inferior to what you may already be using, and the only other ways to earn money are completing missions or competing in arena battles.

Disc-One Nuke: You can begin farming for free EXP in a mission that has an enemy force with at least one supply truck and a character that has either the Duel or Guide skill. The trick is to use the Duel and Guide skills to target and break the legs and arms of an enemy wanzer and then allow them to move next to a supply truck which will restore their broken parts. This is because every time you break a part on an enemy wanzer, you get a significant EXP bonus. And by using the Duel and Guide skills to avoid hitting the body, which would result in the enemy wanzer being destroyed and ending the trick prematurely, you can collect an infinite amount of EXP in the early part of a story and effectively set yourself up for absolute success later on.

Early-Installment Weirdness: In the original SNES version, EXP from the normal missions is plentiful but hard limited; battling in the Arena provided an infinite source of EXP but only at a very slow trickle. Because of this, you had to make some hard choices on who would go during the missions or else they would become underlevled near the end of the game, leaving you with an unbalanced roster. The DS remake resolves this issue with "New Game +" which allows all acquired experience and equipment to be carried through on a new playthrough.This is still the first and only game where you could deploy the most characters in battle (18 characters). Later games after Front Mission 2 (which allowed 12 characters in battle) reduced the player"s party size to make it feel less awkward on the logistics of both the story and gameplay.

Half-Truth: The Pilot Status screen is rather confusing and hard to understand due to a discrepancy between the one you see during battle, the one you can only access during the intermissions, and the one you see in the arena battles.

The Scapegoat: The lead protagonists of both stories are forced to suffer the ignominy of being discredited for an incident in which they neither had control nor responsibility for the outcome.Lloyd is disavowed for a covert reconnaissance mission that went horribly awry and resulted in the start of the Second Huffman War. As it turns out, Lloyd was completely set up from the get-go.

During the mission to destroy the Star of Freedom Headquarters in the Andes Mountains, Captain Maria Paredes gets hung up for some reason during her infiltration of the base interior. This delay proves to be very costly as it allows the resistance leadership to avoid the orbital strike which then spurs the Star of Freedom to continue their efforts against the UCS. Although Maria is clearly at fault for the embarrassing failure, Kevin Greenfield takes the blame instead as Maria is too important to be removed from the Black Hounds.

Shout-Out: In the DS remake of 1st, one of the OCU missions has you detonating a trio of charges under a number of bridges to destroy a supply train. The codenames for each are those of the female protagonists of

Sorting Algorithm of Evil: Glaringly obvious in 1st, when you realize that the USN has had some of the best parts in the game just sitting in stores in their capital city, while you"re stuck with your oh-so-impressive Zenith.

The Front Mission series was first deployed in 1995 with the release of Front Mission for Super Famicon in Japan. It was eventually remade for the PlayStation and released as Front Mission 1st, but neither of those versions made it stateside. While Western gamers had their first taste of the series with Front Mission 3 in 2000, eventually they got a chance to play the initial title when a remake of Front Mission 1st for the Nintendo DS was released in 2007. Fifteen years later, Square Enix has licensed series remakes to developer and publisher Forever Entertainment, who have faithfully remade the Front Mission 1st experience for the Nintendo Switch. While the first entry in this long-running series is showing its age, Front Mission 1st: Remake is a gritty, unflinching story of war and the scars it leaves both on and off the battlefield.

The story in Front Mission occurs on Huffman Island, a fictional territory located in the Pacific which is in perpetual dispute between the United States of the New Continent (USN) and the Oceania Cooperative Union (OSU), both vying for control of the land for its geopolitical resources. Before the events of the game, simmering tensions led to the 1st Huffman Conflict, with the island ultimately bifurcated as a result of the war. As the dysfunction between the two factions ebb and wane over the years, an event known as the Larcus incident occurs on June 3, 2090, sparking the 2nd Huffman Conflict. The game begins during the opening hours of the Larcus incident.

The story sees players assume control of OCU Captain Royd Clive during a mission in the Larcus District. Upon arrival, Royd’s squad is ambushed by an enemy group. The theatrical leader of the enemy squad, Driscoll, destroys the Wanzer (“Walking Panzer”, otherwise known as the large mechanical robots each character pilots) operated by Royd’s fiance, Karen, presumably killing her. The enemy group destroys the factory located in Larcus, with the USN using its own attack as a pretext for initiating the 2nd Huffman Conflict. The OSU discharges Royd and his cohort from the military as a result of their involvement.

Royd and his colleagues may be the humans at the center of this conflict, but it is these Wanzers that are the true stars. Front Mission eschews formal jobs in favor of comprehensive customization of the Wanzers and the pilots who operate them. Players can to customize their Wanzers in nearly every aspect: not only are weapons interchangeable, but so are the parts, computer drives, paint, and more. Pilots can expect to spend hours customizing their Wanzer, careful to keep the mecha’s weight balanced, or else they will be too heavy to move.

In battle, players move individual units around a grid-based map, with different types of terrain providing various levels of cover or camouflage. Once an enemy unit and corresponding weapon has been selected, the game launches into a battle sequence between two Wanzers. Each unit has a corresponding health bar for the machine’s body, bilateral arms, and legs. While there are benefits to disabling the other body parts – namely impeding movement or rendering certain weapons inoperable – in order to fully disable or destroy a unit, the hit points of the body must be depleted. At the onset, players are not given the ability to specify which body type to target, leaving the initial series of battles feeling somewhat random and making it difficult to plan any more than a step or two out. While units eventually can choose a skill that allows targeting of specific body parts, it still feels somewhat imprecise. While this imprecision can lead to some nail-biting situations, it more commonly leads to players needing a few extra turns to destroy each enemy unit. During maps with nearly a dozen enemies, this becomes a chore.

There are no formal character classes, but each pilot levels up separate ranks for melee, short and long range weapons, as well as a dodge statistic. The game openly encourages players to capitalize on individual unit’s strengths as they level, showing preference for particular weapon types. Following this recommendation allows some units in particular to become high-powered and effective during story missions and in the Arena, where units can fight in one-on-one encounters for cash and other objectives.

There is no denying this is graphically the most sophisticated version of Front Mission 1st, as prior iterations were all built from the original 1995 release. While this version is essentially a 1:1 remake, the graphics have been upgraded, even if they do look a bit plastic. While the nostalgic, 16-bit charm is gone, there are some nice flourishes present as water flows through rivers in the jungle, and lights from parked cars twinkle in the skyline in stages set in the city. The Wanzers themselves are impressive looking during outfitting. During battle itself, however, the Wanzers look a little too small, giving off a less-than-menacing impression from the battlefield. Battle sequences are well executed, with missiles and sparks flying between units. Character art from Yoshitaka Amano is well-drawn and evocative of his other work from the Super Nintendo era.

Front Mission 1st: Remake provides players the option to play with a classic or modern presentation. In classic, the camera is fixed in the same perspective as the original Super Famicon maps, while the modern option allows for players to move the camera at will. Playing in classic can be a bit awkward, especially during times when units are obfuscated by debris or buildings and the camera cannot be moved. The soundtrack modes can be toggled at will, and it is a joy to be able to switch back and forth to truly appreciate both arrangements. Likewise, the ability to alternate between classic and modern presentation is appreciated. There are at least seven difficulty options, ensuring players of all skill type are able to tweak the difficulty to their liking.

For as many times as Front Mission has been remade, it’s a shame more thought has not been put into how to modernize this remake for modern audiences, especially at a time when strategy RPGs are flourishing. Wanzer movement and battle sequences can be toggled on or off, but there are no options to increase the speed. Likewise, navigating through the menus for inventory or equipment management is antiquated. Including an auto-equip option for the units, players will recruit would also modernize the experience for those seeking to spend less time micro-managing in a sea of menus. While some purists may decry modifications to these systems, ultimately failing to refine them to reflect modern tastes — if not to acknowledge the developments in the genre over the last nearly thirty years — feels like a sorely missed opportunity to reinvent the series as it stands to gain traction with a global audience.

Front Mission is a venerable SRPG series that appears to be turning a corner in the West. Front Mission 1st: Remake is a solid effort at remaking the first game in the series without modifying too much of what makes this game a classic. With announced remakes of Front Mission 2 and3 forthcoming, it is an exciting time to be aFront Mission fan. While more effort could have been taken in actually modernizing and upgrading the game’s mechanics for modern sensibilities, Front Mission 1st: Remake preserves the integrity and depth of the original’s complex systems, even if these metal joints are starting to feel a bit rusty.

Front Mission is a Squaresoft strategy/RPG for the SNES, it came out in Japan in 1995. In September of 2001, this game was fan translated to English by the rom hackers/translators known as F.H. and Akujin. Front Mission is like a combination of Shining Force and Final Fantasy Tactics. The battlefield is a 3/4 view field of decorated tiles, and the battles take place in a separate animated sequence. Each character pilots a war machine called a Wanzer. Strategy and excitement await you with Front Mission!

There were two Front Mission games on the SNES. The first Front Mission was popular enough that Square made a spin-off game: Front Mission Gun Hazard. It was released in Japan in February 1996. They changed the genre from strategy RPG to action RPG. For the most part, it"s a platformer that plays similar to Metal Warriors. In August of 2004, Aeon Genesis translations released the fan-based translation of Gun Hazard, allowing us to finally be able to play it in English. You can learn more about this game in my Front Mission Gun Hazard shrine.

In December of 2001, Front Mission was released for the (Japan-only) Wonderswan Color system (WSC for short). They didn"t add anything new for it, it"s just a port. Like with SNES ports to Gameboy Advance, the top and bottom of Front Mission"s screen have been cropped for the Wonderswan Color. Click here for a few screenies.

In December of 2003, Front Mission was released for the Sony Playstation in Japan with the title, Front Mission 1st. Many things have been added and improved for it. There are new missions, new characters, new battle backgrounds, new parts/weapons, new songs, improved soundtrack, improved Wanzer graphics during shopping mode, and more! Click here for a few screenies.

In October of 2007, Front Mission was released in North America on the Nintendo DS. It has a bunch of new features. It includes several characters from "Front Mission 5: Scars of the War". Battle sequences are being tuned to use the DS"s dual-screen setup for an easy view of the action.

• The ability to access and utilize large mobile weapons previously seen as boss-type units in the SNES Front Mission and PS1 Front Mission 1st. Upon meeting specific requirements, the player can control mobile weapons such as the Seaking, Clinton Type, or a prototype version of the Bogomol I seen at the end of Front Mission 4.

• The ability to control Front Mission characters from other installments such as Darril Traubel and Glen Duval. This feature is only limited to a select number of missions, however.

• New additions to parts and weapons, some from other Front Mission installments like the Numsekar from Front Mission 5. The infamous Dragon Hand part, which could only be obtained by cheat devices, can now be obtained normally in the game.

• New secret missions and areas that expand both sides further. Numerous bonuses await upon the completion of these secret missions, such as new mobile weapons or wanzers for usage.

On February 9, 2022, Nintendo announced in their Nintendo Direct that a 3D Remake of Front Mission will be released in Summer 2022 for Nintendo Switch. On November 30, 2022, the remake was released worldwide only for the Nintendo Switch. Check out these screenshots. They speak for themselves - this is a true remake. It carries all of the features that were added in the PlayStation and Nintendo DS releases.

The story of Front Mission is one of loss, betrayal, and intrigue. Lloyd becomes the fall guy in a complex struggle for tiny Huffman Island, located in the neutral zone between the near-future superpowers, the Oceana Community Union (OCU), and the United States of the New Continent (USN). Sent on an illegal mission to scout a USN factory, Lloyd watches helplessly as his fiance, Karen, is captured in an ambush set up by Driscoll, the sinister USN commander. Driscoll destroys the factory and disappears with Karen, leaving Lloyd to take the blame. A year later, the disgraced Lloyd is recruited by Olson, the shadowy leader of OCU"s "Carrion Crows" mercenary unit. Along with a ragtag band of Wanzer pilots, Lloyd takes on mission after mission and slowly unravels the secret of Karen"s disappearance and Driscoll"s true plans.

Front Mission carries characteristics from Final Fantasy Tactics and Shining Force. The battles take place on an imitation 3D battlefield, and battle encounters take place in a separate animated sequence. The Wanzer bodies consist of two hand weapons, two shoulder components (missile launchers, shields), and 7 body components (2 legs, 2 arms, body, computer, and backpack). I talk more about them in Tips & Strategy.

After you win a battle, you"ll almost always enter a new town afterward. Browsing towns is entirely menu-based. In them, you can go to the coliseum to wage battle for money, shop for new weapons/parts/items, manage your wanzers, save, and enter the local pub to talk with the townspeople.

Front Mission is so so good! If you"re a fan of strategy/RPG"s, then it is a requirement for you to play this game. The graphics are beautifully detailed and crisp. The storyline is as serious as it is exciting. The soundtrack has a few great tracks that I still listen to today.

It"s a mecha strategy game with a big difference: The ability to customize your mecha ("Wanzers") in between each mission, with better parts and more powerful weapons and accessories. Battles are carried out on 2.5D isometric grid maps that have terrain features standing out (rather than just being a singular flat map like in Banpresto"s Super Robot Wars). You can see the amount of effort put into the game whenever somebody attacks: the mechs and weaponry are smoothly animated, and each piece of weaponry/defense has its own unique appearance and animation, both in battle and in the mech construction interface.

First of all, Front Mission, as a game from Squaresoft, should exceed all expectations. No Company delivered more amazing and challenging RPGs to us, so we are eager to know.

you with dragoons and sorcerers, ogres, or mana. Instead, you as the mean character are thrown into a desperate war that segregates an island, the Huff Islands. Each character owns his Wanzer, a Mecha Robot, and from map to map you can equip more advanced and more powerful items, weapons, or armor. Unfortunately, you cannot buy new Mechas models. This is somehow constricting. But every character can advance as he gains experience for destroying enemy Wanzers, not only in his skills, they also gain special abilities. The Storyline keeps you somehow tangled, characters join and interact with the scenarios as they come. Disappointing is the fact that there are no secret missions all over, so the replay value is much less as it could be. 7.5/10.

• Gameplay: Gameplay is the most important attribute a strategy RPG must-have. But, there are some flaws. The most annoying one is how you have to equip your Wanzers, each one by one. This can get boring because the graphics aren"t this detailed that one gun might look very different from another. So you can"t get much out of the Equipment part. Also, the main locations have always the same places to visit: shop, military office, bar, coliseum and set up. Only the maps differ a lot, which is most important to me. This is the part, where FM does catch up. If you like the mecha fighting to be the most important part of strategy RPGs, you should play this game. The maps, the fighting areas, are well balanced and vary, other boss Wanzers are to be detected, some missions have a time limit and a special assignment. At least, another little con, the AI. It could be better, a lot better, so FM isn"t this hard and challenging as you might wish. Allover 7/10.

RPGamer interviewed Koichiro Sakamoto, the producer of Front Mission DS. Check out this interesting blurb from it. This is the first time I"ve heard such a big-name person in the industry acknowledge and praise a fan translation.

“When asked what made Square Enix decide to take a chance on bringing Front Mission to the US again (the fifth game in the series was notably skipped), the response was that there was one member of the team that was very passionate about the game, and wanted to give players in the United States the chance to experience. He felt that Front Mission 3 and 4 proved that there is a userbase, and since the DS is currently very popular, the thinking went, "Why not give it a try?" On a similar note, we told Mr. Sakamoto that a fan translation had been done some years ago for Front Mission 1, and asked how he felt about such efforts. The producer replied that he found them very encouraging -- it"s something the developers should be doing, but because they"re not, the fans are doing it instead. He stated that he"d like to be able to give something back to the fans, and would like to thank personally each of the fans that worked on the translation.”

Front Mission is Square’s first true turn-based strategy role-playing game (RPG) series, and is currently handled by Square Enix Product Development Division 6 (PDD6). Created in 1993 by series visionary, Toshiro Tsuchida (the current head of PDD6), the series made its debut on the Super Famicom in 1995 with Front Mission. Ever since then, the series has enjoyed the release of many other titles as well as a large stock of merchandise in Japan. While not as popular as Square’s other flagships like Final Fantasy, the series has earned a very loyal audience that supports it unquestionably. This success however has not transferred overseas and it is partially due to Square USA’s poor handling of the series. Only four installments have seen release in the West: Front Mission 1st, 3, 4 and Evolved. As a result, many outside of Japan will never be able to truly appreciate the series in its entirety.

Inspired by Intelligent Designs’ Fire Emblem series, Front Mission plays out in turn-based strategy, though several spin-offs have been created throughout its 15 year history. What makes it different, however, is its usage of mecha (called “wanderpanzer” or “wanzer,” German for “walking tank”) and how it affects game mechanics. Wanzers are modeled after the “real robot” mecha archetype, being a versatile war machine that is used alongside other military weapons. One of the biggest draws is the customization aspect. The player is able to customize a wanzer from its parts, auxiliary backpacks, weapons, and even paint schemes. The incredible amount of customization can be addictive, but also daunting to those who are not into micromanaging their games. It’s very comparable to From Software’s Armored Core series in this sense so those who have played those games will feel right at home with Front Mission.

In battle, the uniqueness of the wanzer is also displayed; a wanzer’s performance is dictated by its four parts: a body, two arms, and the legs. Destroyed parts reduce a wanzer’s ability to fight; blow off its legs and it can’t move or evade attacks. A lost arm means that it can’t use any weapons it has equipped. Take out the body and the wanzer is destroyed. Combat is similar to other genre offerings in that it takes place on isometric 2D (in Front Mission) or 3D grid maps. When a battle initiates, the action zooms into a close-up of the map that shows the wanzers fighting. While battles were modeled initially after Fire Emblem, it has evolved dramatically since the first game. Action Points (AP) were introduced and dictate how many actions a unit can do on their turn. Melee, ranged, and artillery weapons that acted in a rock-paper-scissors manner became true melee, ranged, and artillery weapons with their own unique qualities. Eventually, squad-based combat and friendly fire made its way into the series, giving it a tremendous amount of strategic depth and variety.

Game mechanics aside, Front Mission‘s true strength comes from its design and story elements. The biggest design influence is the series’ grounded realism; the setting is based off of near-future trends of how our world will evolve. For example, the technology of the series has real-life applications. Front Mission‘s cast of characters come from all over the world, from Venezuela to Korea to even Iceland. In terms of game design, each game differs in how it’s meant to be played and these result from the atmosphere and story direction. For example, the player is thrown into all-out wars in Front Mission 2 as it takes place during a coup d’etat. Its art and music direction are gritty and depressing, fitting for the game’s storyline. A notable trend in terms of art and music is that artists and composers differ amongst the games. Artists and composers of the series include Yoshitaka Amano, Yusuke Naora, Yoko Shimomura, and Hidenori Iwasaki. Despite the lack of a true representative in art and music (Naora and Iwasaki could be considered such for art and music, respectively), all elements in each game come together to form a greater cohesive whole.

In terms of story, Front Mission is modeled after serial dramas, much like the TV serials 24 and Lost. While each game has a self-contained story, they also interconnect with the other entries. Newcomers can jump into any game due to the self-contained story, but will miss out on the bigger picture. The interconnected stories also exist to provide a cause-and-effect relationship for major events; what happened in one Front Mission affects events from another. Accompanying these events is a large recurring cast of characters, adding considerable depth to the stories. While the video games’ storytelling focus is more world-driven, the expanded universe supplements’ (detailed further in the article) character-driven focus balances this out. So like any serial drama, only those who stick with Front Missionfrom the start will get the most out of its storyline.

Developed by G-Craft (Arc the Lad), the company Tsuchida and his colleagues founded after leaving NCS/Masaya (Assault Suits Valken, aka Cybernator in Konami’s English release), the original Front Mission was published by Square for the Nintendo Super Famicom in 1995.

The art direction, done by Yoshitaka Amano of Final Fantasy fame, is an odd choice for Front Mission. While the character art does seem out of place in the near-future settings of the game, it provides a good contrast with Kow Yokoyama’s (Maschinen Krieger) art direction for the wanzers. In fact, players of the earlier Final Fantasies might get certain vibes from the character design. The rest of the graphics is good and portray the settings well, even if they could use a tune-up. The battles are more detailed than the rest, especially the combat sequences. The music composed by Yoko Shimomura (Kingdom Hearts) and Noriko Matsueda (The Bouncer) provides an intriguing contrast of styles, from Shimomura’s catchy tunes such as “Manifold Irons” and Matsueda’s atmospheric tracks, like “Ominous”. The sound effects are nothing special, but the “bopping” sound of the wanzers moving is worth noting.

Being inspired by Fire Emblem, the original Front Mission plays very similar. The player gets a large cast of characters to use in battles, which are played out with a rock-paper-scissors system similar to the game it’s influenced by. Melee weapons excel at destroying wanzers, but are beat out by ranged firearms, which have attack priority and hit first. Long-range artillery like missiles has the range advantage, but possesses finite ammo and cannot be used up close. Each character gains proficiency based on the type of weapon they’re using, which is used to unlock skills such as the ability to manually target enemy parts. Apart from this, there are items that help wanzers in fighting their enemies. (Chaff reduces missile accuracy) The player can also use a supply truck, which provides support to ally units. Briefings, which show data about upcoming missions (albeit in a rather bland screen), also exist to aid players.

The original Front Mission is an excellent game, but it has a number of flaws that hamper the overall experience. Game balance is lacking in a lot of ways, especially in weapon balance. Despite the rock-paper-scissors setup, ranged firearms and artillery dominate the game. Ranged firearms, with skills, can decimate any enemy in one attack. Long-range artillery is essentially free damage and can be relied upon thanks to the supply truck. As a result, melee weapons and specialists are not really worth using. Front Mission has an uneven difficulty curve; there is no tutorial system and the first few missions can frustrate those not used to the genre. In addition, the game doesn’t offer much in the way of playability; aside from the Arena (where players can make money), it’s all missions. Skills also can’t be removed, which limits a character’s roles. The interface also takes some time to get used to as well.

The Super Famicom version is Japan-only, even though Square had planned on bringing it to the West, alongside other titles like Bahamut Lagoon. However, a team of series fans developed an unofficial English localization on 2001, thus making it playable in English. This unofficial localization was also brought up at E3 2007 during the presentation of Front Mission 1st on the DS (detailed further in this article) to producer Koichiro Sakamoto. Sakamoto acknowledged the work and commented that he would like to give something back to the fans as a result. On a final note, Front Mission was also ported to Bandai’s Wonderswan in 2002. This is a complete port with no additions or changes made to the game. It actually looks pretty good, even though the viewable screen area is much smaller, and the background turns entirely black when you try to move. The music has been obviously downgraded a bit too, but still sounds pretty decent.

In 2003, a port of the original Front Mission was made for the Sony PlayStation, titled Front Mission 1st, as part of the new Front Mission Project line. The defining feature of this remake is the inclusion of a second scenario for the USN side. This new scenario explored unresolved plot elements from the OCU scenario and thereby explaining what really happened during the 2nd Huffman Conflict. The new scenario was also used to bridge the gap between Front Missionand Front Mission 4, the latter of which is a continuation of on-going stories from the former.

Despite the addition of a new scenario, Front Mission 1st is largely the same as the original game. Yoshitaka Amano returns to supply new artwork for the USN scenario, but Yusuke Naora (Unlimited SaGa) makes his debut with the USN scenario. In contrast to Amano’s fantasy-based style, Naora’s realistic artwork is a stronger fit for the scenario and the game as a whole. The backgrounds are also redrawn and look more visually detailed than the original. Hidenori Iwasaki also makes his debut as the composer for Front Mission 1st. Iwasaki’s work here involved arrangements of the original tracks, as well as new compositions for the USN scenario. The arrangements are a welcome change; most of the original tracks sound a lot better than before.

Art and music aside, the USN scenario takes its inspiration from the games that came after the original Front Mission. The end result is a better, balanced and engaging campaign. Story and character development are major improvements from the OCU scenario; it’s well written, the pacing is good, and most importantly, it has character development. Whereas only Roid and a few others had character development in the OCU scenario, everyone on the USN side gets a fair share of treatment. Game balance is also better, with less abrupt difficulty spikes than the OCU scenario. There are new parts and weapons, such as repair backpacks, but these are minor additions. This PlayStation version of Front Mission has neither received an official nor an unofficial English localization.

Using leftover funding from the Front Mission Project, Front Mission 1st was ported to the Nintendo DS in 2007. Aside from touch screen functionality, the game is largely the same as its PlayStation counterpart. This version does, however, have a number of additions that make it the definitive version of the original Front Mission. The most notable of these additions are new missions on both scenarios, and retroactively-added recurring characters from other episodes to better tie-in the series’ on-going stories. Other additions include new parts, weapons, and difficulty settings. The touch screen controls are passable, but the small menu options make it hard to use at times. This version was released in both Japan and North America, making it the only version of Front Mission 1st to receive an official English localization.

Peewie is one of the most bizarre-looking characters to appear in a video game, especially one as series as Front Mission. He’s meant to be the comic relief (obviously), apparently always has one eye closed and barely has a neck, but he also serves an invaluable purpose – he drives the supply truck that appears in many missions, which is vital to restocking and repairing your wanzers. And since his truck is almost defenseless save for some weak machine guns, you’ll need to do your best to protect him. Sure, he’s pretty atypical of your usual RPG pretty boy, but fat sweaty truck drivers need your respect too!

Over the span of its 4 previous releases, Square’s Front Mission series has established itself as one of the top strategy RPG franchises ever to hit home console gaming. However, up until now, the stellar series had been completely confined to Japan, as the US branch of Square elected not to take a chance on any of the previous Front Mission games. Front Mission 3, the inaugural installment to hit American shores, isn’t the series’ finest game, but it does provide solid strategy RPG gaming to fans of the genre.

Taking place in 2112, 10 years after the events surrounding Front Mission 2nd transpired, Front Mission 3 revolves around a civilian college student named Kazuki Takemura. Kazuki, a straight-laced individual, works as a Wanzer test pilot for a private sector manufacturer called Kirishima Heavy Industries (in the Front Mission world, mechs are called “Wanzers”). As the game begins, Kazuki and his free-spirited buddy Ryogo Kusama are assigned to deliver a pair of Kirishima’s newest Wanzers to a base in Yokosuka. As they are dropping the war machines off, however, a huge explosion rocks the base.

Front Mission 3 actually has 2 separate but related possible storylines for Kazuki and Ryogo to experience, and a decision near the beginning of the game determines which one the player will get to see. The storyline chosen determines your allies, your enemies, and many of the individual events that occur in the game. The diverging plots help give Front Mission 3 much more replay value than the average game.

However, Front Mission 3’s storyline has many problems, the least of which is an uptight, petulant protagonist who this reviewer found excessively difficult to relate to. Character development is present to a small extent, but it’s really weak for nearly all of the characters in the game. The plot fails to impress from an event-based standpoint, too, seeming less like a cohesive storyline progression and more like a series of preposterous military events that could have been prevented if anyone in the Front Mission world had the common sense to do a reasonable job of planning.

Front Mission 3 also doesn’t help itself with its translation quality. Although the dialogue does a pretty good job of avoiding spelling errors and blatant grammatical problems, the majority of it is worded in the most confusing way possible. Not surprisingly, the dialogue flow is terrible, and many of the characters’ responses don’t match up at all with the statement or question that they are responding to.

Like Front Mission 2nd, Front Mission 3 is a turn-based strategy game, with AP determining the extent of actions that your Wanzer can perform in a round. Different weapons have varying ranges of attack and cost different amounts of AP to use. The battles occur in distinct player/enemy phases, and, like in Front Mission 2nd, skills can be used to augment your characters’ combat abilities. Experience is gained through combat and is specific to the weapon used.

Also noteworthy is the fact that there is some freedom of action (through menu-based commands) between battles. Between scenarios, players can replenish supplies, customize their Wanzers’ parts and weapons, talk to NPCs, and even go on the Front Mission world’s internet. On the internet, players can receive background story info on the Front Mission world, exchange emails with NPCs, and learn about the products of the numerous manufacturers that exist. Although this network option has little impact on the outcome of the game, it proves to be an enjoyable diversion.

The most noticeable improvement about Front Mission 3 is that it corrects its prequel’s biggest flaw. The gameplay executes much more quickly than that of Front Mission 2nd. The long load times required to enter battle in FM2 are pretty much completely absent in FM3. When you choose to fight in FM3, the camera just zooms in, and the battle begins. In addition, the lengthy posturing between the mechs during the battle scenes in FM2 is gone. The mechs just go straight at it once combat is initiated, saving a lot of time in battles.

All of these improvements in gameplay speed during the individual battle scenarios cause Front Mission 3’s loading time between scenarios to be very frequent and very lengthy. Although this isn’t exactly desirable, it’s preferable to having to wait 8-10 seconds every time you attack an enemy or vice versa.

In spite of its many new features and refinements, Front Mission 3 actually doesn’t play quite as well as FM2 did. This is due to the fact a lot of Front Mission 3’s features greatly reduce the amount of strategy that it holds. First of all, you can only send 4 units into combat at a time in FM3, whereas you could send all 12 of your playable units into combat in FM2. As a result, you don’t have to face as many enemies per battle. Second, the scenario maps are significantly smaller in FM3. Finally, changes were made to the AP system that take away a lot of its strategy.

In Front Mission 3, your characters receive more AP than they did in FM2. In addition, the effect of surrounding or being surrounded by your enemies has been greatly weakened. In FM2, surrounding your enemies was the key focus of gameplay, because you could render an enemy virtually helpless by surrounding him. In FM3, however, you can pretty much run around doing whatever you want, because being surrounded by enemies isn’t something you truly fear, and because the overall difficulty of the game is low.

Front Mission 3’s numerous flaws prevent it from being considered among the elite strategy RPGs, but it certainly is a solid effort and a worthy continuation of the series. Strangely enough, I did find myself a bit more addicted to the game than I expected to be, so all strategy RPG fans out there are encouraged to at least give this one a try.

Front Missiontactical role-playing game developed by G-Craft and published by Square, and was released in Japan on February 24, 1995 for the Super Famicom. Front Mission is the first main entry and the first entry overall in the Front Mission is part of a serialized storyline that follows the stories of various characters and their struggles involving mecha known as wanzers.WonderSwan Color in Japan on July 12, 2002.

A port of the game developed by Square Enix Co., Ltd. was released for the PlayStation in Japan on October 23, 2003, titled Front Mission 1st.Nintendo DS with more additional content and was released in Japan on March 22, 2007. Only the Nintendo DS port, renamed as Front Mission, was released in North America on October 23, 2007. This release marked the third time that a Front Mission title was localized and published outside Japan.

Game progression in Front Mission proceeds in a linear manner: watch cut-scene events, complete missions, set up wanzers during intermissions, and sortie for the next mission. The player travels to locations on a point-and-click world map. As the player progresses through the plot, new locations are revealed on the world map. Towns and cities act as intermission points where the player can organize and set up their units for the upcoming mission. Battle zones are where the missions take place, though they become inaccessible upon the completion of a mission.

In Front Mission, players use playable units called wanzers, a term for mecha derived from the German word Wanderpanzer, or "walking tank".modular parts: body, left arm, right arm, and legs. Each part has a specific function and its own health bar.

In the customization aspect of Front Mission, wanzers can be customized with a variety of parts, computers, auxiliary backpacks, and weapons. The player has full control over customizing their wanzers and can do so as long as its total weight value does not exceed its given power output. To field a wanzer in battle, it must have a complete frame of parts: body, left arm, right arm, and legs. Parts with built-in weapons in the body or arm sections can also be equipped on a wanzer. Computers improve the accuracy of the weapons equipped on the wanzer. Auxiliary backpacks and weapons are not mandatory equipment to use wanzers, but are crucial in order to progress through the games. Auxiliary backpacks serve to give a wanzer special features during combat; they allow a wanzer to carry support items such as ammunition reloads and increase the power output of the unit, allowing it to carry heavier gear.

There are four classes of weapons: melee weapons, short-range weapons, long-range weapons, and support fire weapons. Melee weapons are weapons used at melee range and have a tendency to strike the body part of its target. Tonfas and rods are examples of melee weapons. Short-range weapons are weapons used at close range and deal damage to all parts of a target. Machine guns and shotguns are examples of short-range weapons. Long-range weapons are weapons that have long firing ranges and are ideal for avoiding counterattacks. Bazookas are examples of long-range weapons. Support fire weapons are indirect fire weapons; they can never be counterattacked, but have limited ammunition supply and minimum firing ranges. Missile launchers are examples of support fire weapons. Lastly, shields can be equipped on wanzers to absorb some of the damage taken from incoming attacks.

Front Mission has other notable features incorporated into the game. The Arena is a unique feature in which the player can fight AI-controlled enemy combatants to earn monetary rewards. Likewise, Front Mission sports a briefing feature that details basic information about the composition of enemy forces for the upcoming mission. Missions in Front Mission are traditional tactical RPG fare, ranging from destroying all enemy targets or protecting a particular allied target.

Set in 2090, the story of Front Mission takes place on Huffman Island, a fictional Pacific Ocean island roughly the size of Oahu, created by volcanic activity south of Mexico"s west coast in 1995.United Nations control. However, in 2020, the United States of the New Continent (USN), a unification of North American and South American countries, made a bid for control of the island after withdrawing from the United Nations.South Asia, South East Asia and Australia that was created in 2025, dispute this claim when the two superpowers colonized the island in 2065.Huffman Crisis in 2086, when a series of skirmishes across the island causes chaos. Tensions flare up and end in war when the OCU is blamed for inciting the Larcus Incident on June 3, 2090.

The plot of Front Mission revolves around OCU captain Royd Clive. An OCU reconnaissance platoon led by Royd is assigned to investigate a USN munitions plant in the Larcus District, located on eastern Huffman Island. Upon reaching the premises, the platoon is ambushed by USN wanzers led by an officer named Driscoll. He quickly ambushes Karen Meure, Royd"s fiancée, and destroys her wanzer. As the two forces engage in battle, Driscoll detonates explosives inside the plant and escapes. The USN accuses the OCU of the attack, later known as the Larcus Incident, but the OCU insists that the incident was a set-up. Both sides soon declare war, setting off the 2nd Huffman Conflict. The OCU pins the blame of the incident on Royd"s platoon, discharging them from the military indefinitely. One year later, OCU colonel Guri B. Olson seeks him out at a wanzer fighting arena in the town of Barinden. Dangling the prospect of killing the person responsible for Karen"s death, he manages to recruit Clive to the Canyon Crows mercenary outfit. With the Canyon Crows, Royd is assigned to help the OCU military reverse its fortunes and win the war.

In the PlayStation and Nintendo DS version Front Mission 1st, the player can also play a second scenario revolving around USN officer Kevin Greenfield. Months before the Larcus Incident, Kevin and his teammates in the Black Hounds special forces unit are participating in an operation against a terrorist organization known as "The Star of Freedom". Upon finding out the location of their headquarters in the Andes Mountains, the Black Hounds execute an operation to eliminate the group. A grave mistake on Kevin"s part gets him fired from the unit and arrested by USN MPs. In a last-ditch effort to remain in service, Greenfield accepts a post to the USN special weapons research division known as the "Nirvana Institute". He is then deployed to the Nirvana branch on Huffman Island, which is led by Driscoll. After a few operations with the division, the 2nd Huffman Conflict breaks out and Kevin is recalled to active duty. As the new leader of the Silver Lynx strike force, he aids the USN offensive to defeat the OCU and help end the war quickly.

Understanding Front Mission in its entirety requires playing through both the OCU and USN campaigns. They each have their own unique events and mysteries, the latter of which is fully explained only by playing the other scenario. The two scenarios also have a plot connection when a link between the Larcus Incident and the Nirvana Institute is established.

Development of the first Front Mission started with discussions between software developers Square and G-Craft.Toshiro Tsuchida presented a proposal for a game called “100 Mission” to Square through his own development company, Solid, on G-Crafts behalf.

Square and G-Craft worked together making the title, including aspects like the games graphics and sound.Yoshitaka Amano painted an illustration for the game, and it was intended to be used as the front cover of the cartridges packaging, but it was too “imposing” and only a portion was used.

A direct port of the game was released for the WonderSwan Color in Japan on July 12, 2002. Front Mission was ported to the PlayStation on November 23, 2003 with the title Front Mission 1st. This port included new content and offered a new USN scenario to play through.Front Mission 1st also included new characters that would later be seen in Nintendo DS port, which was released in Japan on March 22, 2007, and in North America (as Front Mission) on October 23, 2007. The PlayStation version was re-released as a PSOne Classic on the PlayStation Network in Japan on November 12, 2008.

The Nintendo DS version features battle sequences that make use of the console"s dual screen setup for an easy view of the action.Front Mission titles were added to the game"s storyline, such as Griff Burnam and Glen Duval. New parts and weapons from other Front Mission entries were added. This version also boasted nine secret missions that further expanded the storyline.

Front Mission"s soundtrack was composed by the joint team of Noriko Matsueda and Yoko Shimomura. Shimomura"s work on the soundtrack was requested by Hironobu Sakaguchi, the vice-president of Square, due to the need for a more experienced composer to work on the project along with Matsueda. While Shimomura intended to turn down this request due to her preoccupation with the Hidenori Iwasaki for the PlayStation and DS remakes.Front Mission 1st Special BGM Selection, arranged by Isawaki, was released in 2003.Front Mission, Take the Offensive and Manifold Irons, were orchestrated for the

Dengeki PlayStation Editorial, LogicGate, ed. (March 2007). Front Mission World Historica - Report of Conflicts 1970-2121 (in Japanese). Mediaworks. ISBN 978-4-8402-3663-8. 2020, The United States and Canada took the advantage of Latin America"s bid for unification, and have proclaimed the birth of "The United States of the New Continent" (USN). The new nation works toward eliminating the wealth gap between its people, while guaranteeing basic human rights for its citizens. In the same year, the USN withdrew from the United Nations and submitted a motion to the UN, OCU and the "European Community" (EC) proposing that Huffman Island be treated as USN territory.

Dengeki PlayStation Editorial, LogicGate, ed. (March 2007). Front Mission World Historica - Report of Conflicts 1970-2121 (in Japanese). Mediaworks. ISBN 978-4-8402-3663-8. In 2019, Australia joins the Bangkok Economic Alliance. Later at a summit, leaders of the alliance voted to change the name to "Oceania Cooperative Union" (OCU). The new name reflecting the intention of the nations to work towards establishing a union framework for the coalition, originally formed in 2005.

Iino, Fumihiko; Iwasaki, Hideo (1995-07-22). Front Mission - Front Line Report (in Japanese). LOGOUT Paperback Adventures, Aspect Novels. ISBN 978-4-89366-375-7.

Front Mission series revolves around warfare in a near to distant future. The setting is a fictionalized Earth, typically divided into several supranational unions that wage war on each other. Political conflicts intertwined with the characters" personal ambitions constitute the main plot-related content in these games.

All main (numbered) Front Mission titles are tactical role-playing games. They share many common elements, such as the usage of AP (action points) during player"s and enemy turns, "links" (units aiding each other in battle), arena competitions, battle simulators, etc. The non-numbered games in the series usually belong to other genres: for example, Front Mission: Gun Hazard (1996) is an action RPG with platforming elements. Despite having self-contained stories, the games share many stylistic and even gameplay-related elements, despite the genre differences.

Armed conflicts depicted in the series are fought with a new type of weapon, the so-called Wanzers. Originally developed by German arms manufacturers in the mid 21st century, Wanzers are widely used as walking tanks in the Front Mission universe. The name is derived from the German name "Wanderung-Panzer", or short Wanzer. Most of the games in the series allow the player to build up a squad of Wanzer pilots and their vehicles, and customize the Wanzers using a variety of parts and weapons.