"Not as fun and long as FM3, but its good... seriously"

Giant mechwarriors called "Wanzers" and sometimes almost 4 to 1 odds against you. The Front Mission series was fun and worth playing. I played FM3 3 years ago, and played it twice, both on the Emma Storyline. It was fun beating up Lukav's Uber-Wanzer with Kazuki's Body Smash on the first turn. Now FM4 came out, soon FM5 is too, and FM4 is really fun. Its fun but not as fun as FM3 in some ways.

Graphics 8/10
Graphics are great for a game like this but not insane. A few jaggies here and there if you really pay attention, and some delays between battle scenes but its ok. Fine for a game like this but more of the PS2's power can be taken advantage of. The Wanzers are more detailed, except on the Giza's body where the actual head can be more detailed than just a texture on the body. Overall, it works for this game but more effort could have been shown.

Sound 9/10
Music is good but not the best like in Final Fantasy. They could have used the Black Mages for some of the soundtrack. The music has a military feel, with drums, some horns, and the marching like beat. The voice acting is alright too. Darril's story has some funny lines here and there, Elsa's story has okay accents, except Zead and Hermes don't sound very British. The Sound Effects are where the sound excels. Almost every bullet that is shot, that is hit can be heard. Metal on metal, robotic movements, and explosion with the sparks here and there are heard. The sound effects are sometimes so overwhelming that during a link attack (team up) you'll here on guy shoot, and the other is like blanked out. Thats my only issue, otherwise its great.

Story 9/10
It's sounds very realistic, something that can happen in the future. much like in FM3 with the military enhanced test tube babies like coordinators in Gundam Seed. Although FM4 doesn't introduce any test tube babies or things like that, the ways Countries unite like the UCS (Canada USA and pretty much all of North and South America) OCU (Asia, not mentioned in FM4 but is present in FM3) and EC (All of Europe) all sound possible in the near future. The ideas sound like a terrorist conspiracy, which terrorism we are all familiar with around the world. It seems more that terrorism, but a plot to bring one part of EC, Zaftra (like a future Russia) back to glory by framing other countries of crime against each other and causing War between them. All very possible in the future.

Gameplay 7/10
The addition of some user friendly mechanics are great to those new to FM, but FM3 had the Upgrade feature, one that I loved because it kept parts from becoming obsolete, and the Equip after Sale, which is trade in old parts for new instead of selling them first. FM4 still has the same style of battle gameplay, nothing new except for more stunning battle skills and scenes, but I miss some of the old skills like body smash, the best skill in the whole wide world (they still have the double shot and assault) Skill are now acquired by learning them with Enhancement Points earned in battle, which saves some time, but cost money by buying skills at a skill shop. FM4 still also has the Back and Forward Feel by having to go back and forward on the menus to do your job, Go to the shop, go to setup, go back to the shop, very time consuming. There is no Internet feature either which is not very important but was useful for learning things and getting secrets.

Replay Value 9/10
The Game doesn't have the semi-linear type of story and length of FM3 (two storylines and over 60+ even 80+ hours of play for FM3) but still has the new game+ feature which also adds skills and adds your excess money from your old file to the new one. Also, you can learn how to use new found battle tactics and challenge yourself to finish stages quicker than before. Plus new game+ lets you slaughter your enemies with even better wanzer parts you could get before because you were short on money, and didn't finish all the simulators.

Overall 9/10
It should have been 8.4 or 8 but Square Enix did a great job trying to add another addition to the FM series. Still they made some mistakes, but we all do. All I would have wanted is a bit better graphics, and more memorable soundtrack, and and longer more suspenseful story. 40 hours is not how long a great RPG/Tactics Game should last. At least there's a new game+.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 07/16/06