Front Mission 3 - Mission Failure

[StewShearerOld]

Front Mission 3 - Mission Failure

Front Mission 3 has tons of customization, content and, of course, giant freaking robots. So how does this PS1 classic still fall short?

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[RealRT]

Speaking of Halloween-themed reviews, Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain is a PS1 masterpiece that begs to be reviewed.

 

[Baresark]

Front Mission 3 was actually one of my favorite games from that era. Though Stew is not incorrect that it can be really slow at some points. The customization is ridiculous. So ridiculous that you don't know what to do at some point. Like, which set of legs are better for the upcoming missions? What weapons are appropriate? And sometimes, I never quite understood where it was pulling it's hit chances from on certain weapons. For instance: If I had rockets on more than one wanzer, one would have a great hit chance and the other would universally have a much smaller hit chance. Of course, I would switch the rockets off the guy with a crap chance, but it was still puzzling. Great game though! I didn't know it branched off into two stories though. Crazy.

 

[WhiteFangofWhoa]

I remember playing this one at a friend's house, and he was very impressed with the branching plot and customization, even if the jaggy Wanzers always looked to me like they were about to fall over. It seems like a game that hasn't aged well, making it all the more frustrating to me that we haven't seen a proper Front Mission game come to these shores in almost a decade. Because apparently Scars of War is just too good for us gaijin.

Front Mission 4 was the one I really got into, and believe me it wasn't as easy as you claim 3 is. Rebuilding a Wanzer when it got destroyed knocked quite a lot off your mission pay, making it harder to afford future upgrades. Furthermore, while initially the Simulator missions were just there to grind if you felt the need to, there were several towards the end that are closer to bonus missions far harder than anything in the story, making it paramount that you customize all your Wanzers to their maximum potential with battle computers and top-level parts (admittedly mission 12 is the bad kind of frustrating).

People say the plot is kind of bland and forgettable, being set much closer to the present day than the rest, but main character Elsa is everything that Kazuki is not. So I hope that's not the 'bad' mecha game you adored that you will be reviewing next time.

 

[Scars Unseen]

It'd be fun to see a Heavy Gear 2 review.

As for this game, I can't remember if I liked it or not. I played it, but it didn't really leave a deep impression on me.

 

[ColaWarVeteran]

Front Mission always seemed like the kind of games I could get into but never really did. I picked up Front Mission 3 and actually beat it one time through but I don't really remember much of it. From there I pretty much ignored the series save trying out Gun Hazard and the remake of the first one on the DS but I never really got into it as much as I did 3. I must not have taken the same route as Stew, though, since I don't recall fighting any manure powered wanzers. I do recall the special over powered laser gun you can get that pretty much obliterated whatever part it hit. Didn't fire very fast but I abused the hell out of it once I got it.

 

[Ghadente]

I thought fm3 was great' I love FFT and this game helped filled the tactical void when I finished FFT. I never played the original nor fm2, and the 4th didnt look as good as 3 was. Def was one of my top 20 ps1 games at least

 

[bazingabro]

Aw no way dude, that's one of my all-time favorites. I was really disappointed that FM4 and 5 didn't allow you to capture enemy Wanzers. That was my favorite mechanic of FM3.

The main character sure was a wanker, though.

 

[SilverHunter]

It's Vanguard Bandits, isn't it? I'm guessing Vanguard Bandits. That game was so bad... But sooooo good! It had perhaps the meanest way of accessing its seperate story paths, some of its mechanics were downright funky, but I still remember that game so fondly!


I can't really think of any other mecha games that might be terrible... Then again, I'm a sucker for all things Mecha, and you've already covered Shogo so yeah...

Aw no way dude, that's one of my all-time favorites. I was really disappointed that FM4 and 5 didn't allow you to capture enemy Wanzers. That was my favorite mechanic of FM3.

The main character sure was a wanker, though.

Eh, removing it was a blessing and curse to be honest. A curse because it was a non-financial way of getting Wanzers, and it was always fun to smack a wanzer with pilot punch and then unload with another. But a blessing because there were several Wanzers in FM3 that were obtainable ONLY in specific stories and only a mission or two at that most, that had to be captured. They were part of the really powerful ones that could lead to overpowered Wanzers for players.

And having played through both stories several times over on my original PS1 game... I had all of that in excess and can attest to just how blatantly powerful they were. The only thing that could match it was the Hoshun M112 and its beam weapon.

 

[Silvianoshei]

I played FM4 first, then got FM3 on the PS3 store. I have to say, FM4 is a lot easier (still a meaty challenge) and it's a lot more linear in terms of tiered Wanzer customization but at the same time I feel like I had easily recognizable and configurable choices in that game vs the mess that was FM3 customzation.

I like the characters in FM4 better too, for what it's worth. Elsa was incredibly sexy...especially with that French Accent. Protagonist in FM3 was a total douche.

The main character sure was a wanker, though.

This.

 

[The Almighty Aardvark]

So glad to see that Kazuki being an annoying brat is as common as it is. I tried to play this game, and there were certainly aspects i liked about it, but that protagonist just became too much for me. Oh man, I think that guy got pissed off at literally every minor nuisance that happened. His creepy possessiveness over his sister gets a little too over the top as well

He very well might be my least favorite video game character, off the top of my head I can't think of a single character that took more out of a game for me than he did.

Oh, you also have got to love that the seemingly strong female character you're introduced to early on really isn't. She just acts tough because she wants someone to protect her (I don't get it either)

 

[Saulkar]

It'd be fun to see a Heavy Gear 2 review.

As for this game, I can't remember if I liked it or not. I played it, but it didn't really leave a deep impression on me.

That game is a ***** and a half to get working on XP to Win7, I still have not properly got it to. I have an old WIN 98/XP dual boot to play anything from the pre 2003 era maxed out and just getting it to run on XP without all of the normals flipping is excruciating.

Spoiler: normals are the direction that the polygons are facing, they are invisible from the back so when they flip you can see right through the front of a 3D mesh with the back polygons being opague

It would be dope though if he was able to get it working/has an old desktop. That way he could also review HG1 as well as Mechwarrior 2-4! Heh, give Battlezone 1/2 a run for their money. Ahhhhh, sweet nostalgia.

 

[PedroSteckecilo]

but if that's all I wanted I'd go watch Gundam Wing again. Actually, I might go do that anyway.

Well there's your problem... *insert worst Gundam Series joke here*

Nah, I kid I kid, this was a pretty fair review of FM3, I love the game but I sort of unabashedly love the series... I even "sort of" enjoyed Front Mission Evolved.

 

[NuclearKangaroo]

your opinion is wrong!, i loved that game

 

[IllumInaTIma]

Hey, it's a review that doesn't seem to like my favorite game of all time! Yay! I should be angry, but it does bring some good points.
I think that my biggest problem with the game is not the battles, but freaking RPG elements. They are just so wonky. You have 2 experience bars, one for your pilot and one for your weapons proficiency. Pilot level dictates how much AP you have, while weapon level makes you better with that weapon. You increase you pilot level by killing stuff, which makes sense, HOWEVER, you increase you weapon level by DESTROYING enemy body parts! Now that's just stupid, because some weapons, like shotguns or machine guns, are actually good for destroying multiple enemy parts without killing the enemy, while all other weapons, are more likely to kill the enemy outright. It's just a weird and non intuitive system.

Also, the multiple campaigns feature should have been praised more. It's only during the second playthrough you realize how genius it is, when you have to face your former allies as some nameless enemies. Markus, I will always feel guilty for leaving your twin daughters without father.

ALSO, THE GAME HAD A FREAKING IN GAME INTERNET with a bunch of secrets and unlockables. Can you imagine how mind blowing that feature was back during PS1 era?!

 

[Xan Krieger]

your opinion is wrong!, i loved that game

^This, played it when I was young, still play it today. I didn't opt for the all rocket launcher thing like the reviewer did, I had each person specialize with whatever they joined my party with. Also for a single disc PS1 game there was a ton of content, the amount that in a modern RPG would probably require a few discs and maybe even some DLC.

 

[RavingSturm]

Front Mission 3 was pretty good for the time. Also most peeps who played it wouldve been highschool or college when this came out.

 

[ghalleon0915]

I loved that game, still have that as a matter of fact. I've finished both sides of that story multiple times. I think part of my enjoyment was that because I wanted, nay, I needed a rank of at least Gold there was that artificial difficulty in place so losing a wanzer did hurt me. Then again, I am like that with any strategy-rpg. It would have been interesting if they had a perma-death feature such as Fire Emblem, that would have been...interesting.

In most cases though, once you knew what wanzers to "harvest" ( which would depend on your weapons of choice) the game did become a little easy. Admittedly, having your abilities proc all at once is so satisfying when you blow off an enemy wanzer's arm ( absolutely hate those melee knucks, or those damn spider legs with their high evasion). Let's not even talk of the P-gun...That said, my first playthrough of the game was difficult, there were times when it was a war of attrition and I barely survived with one wanzer.

I agree with the author in the hate for Kazuki. I can't think of too many times I actively disliked my player, arrgg. I remember wanting to punch him when he was arguing with his dad. I did like Ryogo and a lot of the other character though, I loved the Purple Haze and Marcus, and of course Moneymaker.

I loved the customization of the game, having my squad in different coloured wanzers was awesome. Strange that I never finished FMIV, I have it as well and just couldn't get past the first hour.