Front Mission

November 5,2007 - Since SquareSoft merged with Enix, the quality of released games has been extremely inconsistent. Very few of the games released for any supported systems have been unique, and on the handheld front, almost everything has been a port or an updated rehash. That just happens to be the case with the recently released Front Mission for the Nintendo DS, perhaps the most underappreciated franchise in possession of this once dominating RPG publisher.

Front Mission is essentially an updated port of the original Super NES strategy game. The game never made it to the United States, but the game does come with a sort of cult fan base. It was actually one of the first few games of the genre around, but because of its immense depth it never catered too much of an audience.

The game has two main campaigns you can take part in, each with a well-written plot with good pieces of dialog. One of them is for newcomers to the game while the other is focused more on experienced players. The first campaign gives you the option of having a tutorial that gives you a bit of a background of the campaign's protagonist. You take control of a young wanzer, a robot (or in strategy terms: mech) brawler who was recently recruited to fight for the region's army. As talented as he is, your first real mission sees his wife get murdered in an ambush, and he becomes a mercenary who becomes an intense member of a fight club. He is later discovered by a colonel of the army, who then recruits him to fight once again.

While the plot is actually pretty good, don't let it fool you--this is NOT an RPG. This is 100% pure strategy, as players will soon discover in the game. The game plays pretty much like any other turn-based isometric strategy game. Your units have different abilities, strengths, and sets of movement that all depend on what kind of wanzers they are. But just because Front Mission plays like other strategy games doesn't make it like most of them at all. The game can be played with both the touch screen and the D-Pad. The touch screen would probably be the recommended option because the units and commands are so small, but it really isn't worth squinting to point at something.

If you're a noob just getting into the genre, the depth of options you have will definitely be overwhelming. It's essential to make upgrades to your wanzer army in the hangar before every battle, but that's where things can get complicated. You have Left Arm sets, Right Arm sets, Body sets, and Leg sets at your disposal--all at varying prices. All of these sets have their advantages and disadvantages, and that's where you have to think about what kind of unit you want to have. Want to focus more on defense? Grab the armored sets rather than the assault sets. Want to focus more on movement? Buy the smaller sets. This can undoubtedly be too much for players to handle, but hardcore strategy enthusiasts should instantly fall in love with the plethora of options they have at their disposal.

Aside from the two very long campaigns (each chapter should take half an hour to 45 minutes, and they'll start to both double and triple as you plow way your way through it), there's also a robust multiplayer mode. With a friend, you can test your team's might by playing each other--that is, if you don't get bored. If a battle can take three hours against the CPU, think of how long these would take against an actual person.

Front Mission's graphics are close to about where they were on the SNES, except they're a lot smaller due to the resolution. The character design is reminiscent of all of Square's box art, and the style is fairly unique so they look pretty good. The sound, on the other hand, recycles the same sound effects over and over. It's not particularly annoying, but that's only because it's a strategy game. There's no voice acting, but it's not like it was expected.

Despite all the great things Front Mission has to offer, it's hard to recommend this game to just anybody. Sure, the game is long, and there's a lot to do, but that doesn't mean it's actually an experience everybody can enjoy. Front Mission is a novelty compared to most other strategy games, and the stories in both campaigns are pretty deep. It's as simple as this, Front Mission is an incredible bargain for strategy enthusiasts with its 60+ hours of gameplay; if you're not crazy about strategy games or you're just a simpleton, don't bother.

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