Front Mission 3

Finish time: 55 hours, 31 minutes

Front Mission 3, the third installment in the sister-series to Back Mission. Robo drama, translation errors, dialogue consisting of characters saying each other's names with different inflections. In other words, my kind of game. First played this mechanized gem shortly after it released stateside in 1999. Finally finished it. I remembered it being much more difficult than it turned out to be. I attribute this to previously not knowing you could have multiple upgrades on the various 'Wanzer' parts simultaneously. I was under the misimpression that they were mutually exclusive. For example: on a Wanzer's arm part you could have an HP boost, or an accuracy boost.. not both. Turns out you can have your cake and eat it too.

The story of Front Mission 3 is a fairly convoluted tale of global politics, weapons of mass destruction, uprisings and the like. The cast is forgettable but amusing. Characters are introduced that seem of great importance, then ultimately fade into irrelevance. Many subplots spring up, and never get resolved completely. There is an entire 'internet' aspect of the game that serves no crucial purpose to the progression of things, but provides an interesting side distraction nonetheless.

Despite these areas in need of improvement, FM3 holds a great deal of nostalgia and fun for me. Where the game truly shines in my eye is the environments. Even with the technical limitations of the Playstation, the design team did an excellent job of creating visually engaging backdrops. The game spans multiple continents, terrain types, times of day, and so forth. It's surprisingly beautiful in a gloriously pixelated way. You can also customize the colors of your Wanzers, I chose light blue of course.

The gameplay is a satisfying turn-based combat engine on tile maps. When the units attack each other, the game zooms in for a 'dramatic' depiction of the unfolding battle. There's lots of quirks that made me lol, such as destructible environmental elements: structures, cars, trees, etc. The pilots of the Wanzers can also be ejected occasionally, and are represented by tiny adorable sprites.. Which I'm a huge fan of.. They explode when they die just like the Wanzers themselves, because why not XD

I would recommend Front Mission 3 to anyone who enjoys SRPGs, anime, giant robots, or melodramatic narratives. On to the next.