Introduction

You have no idea how happy I was when I heard that Front Mission 3 was coming to North America. Finally a chance to play a game in the much touted Front Mission series and play it in English! I had seen previews and screen shots of the Front Mission series for a very long time, drooling and poring over every little tidbit I came across. The very thought of a fully customizable army of badass mecha at my command, ready to terrorize a lovely isometric landscape with a large payload of "make things go boom" ordnance made my mouth water. Yeah, I was looking forward to this game.

Unfortunately, I'm finding myself left with the foul taste of unmet expectations, and a horrible hankering for what could and should have been. Front Mission 3 is by no means a terrible game, but there is such an incredible amount of potential here that is going to waste that it definitely sours the experience.

Graphics

The game takes place in two major graphical components: The menu interface and the combat engine.

The menu interface is where you set up your Wanzers (mechs are called Wanzers in the world of Front Mission), access the network (a sort of virtual, in-game world wide web; see Gameplay below), save/load your game, talk to NPCs, and eventually move the storyline into the next battle. This is all done very nicely. It's all stylized in typical Squaresoft fashion, and features plenty of hi-res artwork to draw your attention. Each location you visit is displayed via a single large, detailed backdrop, with the menus overlaid on the top. While this technique doesn't allow for a lot of exploration or animation (read:lifeless), it does show an incredible amount of detail, and leaves a little up to the imagination.

And get this. Each character has their own extra sized, super detailed portrait (even the plain vanilla flavored no name characters), and a wide selection of facial expressions that they use to express their various Square-esque emotions. It really brings each of the characters in the game to life, and there is never any doubt as to when someone is truly pissed right off or genuinely concerned. A very nice touch, to say the least.

Then there is the combat engine, which, although not entirely ugly, like say someone who was just hit by a couple of Mack trucks, is definitely a letdown after the clean and kept rapture of the menu interface. Let me paint a picture for you. Combat begins with you making some last minute modifications to your Wanzers, and then placing them onto the battlefield. The environments are all isometric polygonal, while your Wanzers and your enemies are all sprite based. The backgrounds are fairly well done, with plenty of generic "stuff" lying around (crates, barrels, etc.), which all help to create the feeling that you are fighting in a real life industrial area. The sprite based representations are also decent, although not exactly ground breaking. They're small, and not horribly detailed, but you can tell the Wanzers from the tanks, and their small size allows you to view a lot of the battlefield at once.

The real ugly comes when you attack or are attacked by an enemy. Once you execute your attack command (or vice versa), the game switches over to a full 3D combat view of the two engaged vehicles. Ugh. The Wanzers appear jagged and awkward looking, and move with all the grace of the aforementioned truck victim. Your enemies look equally not so nice, and thus you are left with a very aesthetically unpleasing combat situation. And did I mention that these combat clips feature a noticeable load time, and move sluggishly, NO LEGS sluggishly? I guess this is understandable, as this game is running on the Playstation and is a couple of years old, but I think I would have preferred to see some nicer sprite based mecha models, leaving the combat on the main map.

There is also some incredible FMV in this game which is easily on par with anything else Square has done on the Playstation.

Control

A quick note on the interface and control. Fantastic. Everything you could ever need to do is always only one or two button presses away. It's done very intuitively, and you will rarely find yourself searching for the right button for the job. Good job Square.

Sound/Music

I think my favorite part of Front Mission 3 is its incredible sound effects. This is EXACTLY how I'd imagined a large scale mech fight would sound. Guns go boom, missiles scream, and every mechanized footstep really sounds like it's shaking apart the ground underneath. Play this game on a good stereo system and be prepared to shake the house.

The music is also well done, although it doesn't hit quite the same mark as the sound. It mostly serves as a nice orchestral war song backdrop for you to blow stuff up to, and I guess you really can't ask for a heck of a lot more in a game like this. There are also some mysterious, almost Bond-esque tunes that play along with the major plot developments, and help to boost up what is an otherwise fairly dry storyline.

Story

I'm not really sure at what point in the game I became tired of the storyline, but I don't think it was too far along. Now I admit, the premise here is amazingly good. There are two different plot lines in the game, which is obviously a plus for the replay crowd, and a good near-future tale of international warfare is intriguing to say the least. But unfortunately, it all seems to fail miserably in execution.

Note: I should point out that I only played through one of the two available plot lines (the Emma one), so I suppose the other one could be a bastion of redemption, but I have my doubts.

Everything starts out well. Your character, Kazuki, heads off with his best friend Ryogo to do a routine job at a local base, when suddenly all hell breaks loose. There is an explosion at the base, and Kazuki's sister, who happens to be working at the base, goes missing. The plot expands from here, eventually leading Kazuki and company on a mission of international espionage and treachery that would make Solid Snake blush with jealousy. It is really quite original, and for the first few hours of the game I was really into it.

But it didn't take long for me to lose interest. First of all, there is a severe lack of focus to your character's actions. You just play along, fight to fight, with no real direction or purpose. It's like feeling around in the dark. Additionally, your characters are constantly spoon fed solutions to their problems, which really destroys any level of suspense the game attempts to create. You are never really concerned about those big plot twists because you know that a solution will be coming down the pipe at any moment. Granted, this is the case in a lot of console RPGs, but I've never played a title that truly exemplifies the uselessness of your characters the way Front Mission 3 does. At least in Final Fantasy and the like you are given the impression that your character reached the solution on their own, often through some kind of moral consequence.

The character development on the other hand, is actually quite good. Other than Kazuki, who spends the majority of the story in a rabid, single-minded pursuit of his sister with a complete disregard of anything else, the characters all seem to act and react like intelligent human beings. They also all have their own unique personalities. Emma is battling with the moral consequences of her and her companion's actions. Ryogo is a charismatic ladies man, with a deeper side that surfaces once in a blue moon. Jose is the token "troubled past" character, but behaves in such a manner that you truly feel his pain. It is unfortunate that such a strong cast is wasted on a relatively weak storyline.

GamePlay

When it comes to a Strategy RPG, gameplay is really what everything boils down to. You could take everything I've said above and shove it up a camel and you could still save the game with some solid gameplay fundamentals. Sadly, this is the area that Front Mission 3 let me down in the most.

The gameplay in Front Mission 3 is typical of almost every Strategy RPG out there. You take a small squad of characters (in this case your Wanzers), lead them around a grid based combat field, and systematically destroy all of your enemies in a traditional turn based fashion. What makes a Strategy RPG unique is the type of tools the player is given to accomplish this systematic annihilation. Front Mission 3 is no different.

Each Wanzer is limited in its actions each turn by its allotted action points (AP). Every possible action that you can execute in a turn will eat up a little AP, be it attacking, moving, defending, using an item, and so on. It's up to you to manage each of your Wanzer's AP, and make sure that your squad operates as efficiently as possible every turn. Pretty standard stuff.

Combat is also fairly straightforward. Move your troops into the appropriate range for their equipped weaponry, and break loose the hell. The only thing you really have to keep in mind is that every time an attack is launched, the victimized unit is given an opportunity to retaliate. The trick is the retaliating unit must have the required AP to return fire, so you need to anticipate future attacks and make sure you keep the appropriate AP in reserve. Unfortunately, this balancing act of AP management is foiled by the fact that your Wanzers have more than enough AP to move their maximum allotted range, fire a weapon, and retaliate every round.

Front Mission 3 also features oozing buckets of customization options. Each of your Wanzers can be outfitted with a wide variety of weaponry and parts, leaving the doors wide open for any would be mecha engineers to outfit their dream team of robotic destructors. Want to create a slow moving missile-boat of long range hellfire? You can. A shotgun-toting melee range grunt? Yes. Precision Sniper? You bet. There is a staggering amount of customization in this game, and it is really wide open to any sort style of play that you want to use. Your characters also learn a variety of skills throughout the game that they can equip to help them dole out a little extra hurt, such as accuracy boosters and the ever-popular double strike.

Unfortunately, the wide variety of customization options is just not necessary when actually playing the game. At the start of the game I set up my stock Wanzers in a balanced fashion; some close, some medium, and some long range. But that was it. Throughout the remainder of the game, I simply laid down some money for the periodic upgrades that became available, and proceeded to smash through battle after battle. It just got really redundant. And when I did make the occasional foray into the wonderful world of customization, I usually ended up with a set-up that wouldn't really alter my combat experience whatsoever. I mean, sure, I can trade in my shotgun and buckler for a flamethrower and an Uzi, but I'm still going to have to walk within 2 or 3 squares of my opponent and open fire, and there is usually an almost negligible difference in the damage done. The result is playing the same fight over, and over, and over.

As far as the aforementioned skills that your characters develop, they seem to appear at random times and are, for the most part, fairly useless. Although there are a few good ones in there, the simple fact that you have no control over when you use them means that they play out more as a "once in a while" bonus, and less as a solid gameplay mechanic.

There is also another altogether separate element of Front Mission 3 called the Network, which is a kind of virtual world wide web inside the game. Accessed from the menu interface in between missions, it allows you to send and receive email from different characters you meet in the game, surf and hack through various websites, train your characters, and unlock all kinds of goodies. You can even change your wallpaper. This portion of the game is really fun and original, and is a nice distraction from the otherwise repetitive combat experience.

Overall

Front Mission 3 is by no means a bad game. In fact, if you have even a remote interest in either Mecha or Strategy RPGs, there is a fairly good chance that you'll eat it up. But there is so much here that could be better. With some improved combat graphics, smoother flow in the plotline, and better-developed gameplay mechanics, Front Mission 3 could have been a masterpiece. As it stands, it is an average Strategy RPG experience, and will forever linger in my mind as the game that could've been.