Front Mission 3

"A Great Strategy / RPG from Square"

I'm going to say right up front, no pun intended, this game is not for everyone. There is a lot of set up strategy that is involved in this game, and it's not something easily mastered in 20 minutes. But if total, and I mean TOTAL, customization of your war-machine sounds like your thing, you will REALLY like this much overlooked jem from Square.

Without getting into the plot itself, your are in a struggle against world organizations and mercenaries. Warfare has greatly changed, and the weapon of choice is the wanser, (pronounced vaunser). These are giant mechanized war machines with a human pilot inside. Wansers fight each other with different types of wansers and weapons

One really cool thing that Square added to the fighting system is battle skills. Battle skills are tied in with your type of weapon. There are three basic types of weapons, short range, long range and medium range. A medium type weapon would be a shot-gun or machine gun. A typical battle skill for these would be the ability to unload a round and a half against your enemy. Battle skills are learned randomly. Battle skills are also activated randomly. This is very different from your typical RPG, but trust me it works. Without this element, fighting would quickly become very boring. The random element translates into greatness, as no two battles are the same, even if you play the game through twice.

There are also status effects that are random, of course, that can happen to enemies as well as allies. You can even be knocked out of your wanser temporarily and have to re board on your turn. Battles are turn based, but there is not battle gauge. Everyone in your party has a turn, then your enemy gets their turn, and so on. Battles take place on a large grid. The grid can go up or down, and there are objects on the grid that can either block your path or hinder your ability to hit your target. If your enemy is in the right spot, but in front of a tower or whatever, you won't be able to hit him. In some cases, because of the angle, you will hit, but your percentage rate of your shot will decrease. On the other hand, if you are above your opponent, your hit percentage will increase, so spacing is strategic. So is the type of weapon you are using. If you equip a shot range weapon, called Mele in the game, then you have to be right next to your enemy to hit. On the other hand, if your enemy is two blocks away, but is equipped with a flame thrower, he can sit there and nail you, but you cannot hit back because the other wanser is too far away.

Your wanser is composed of four individual parts. Each part has its own set of hit points and ability status. Hit points can be upgraded at shops. Arms have accuracy percentage with them. As you can probably guess, the higher the accuracy, the lower the hit points. Arms, legs and bodies are interchangeable. Ability skills differ from each wanser to the next. Your ability to learn certain skills are sometimes dependent on certain conditions; like not having a shoulder weapon attached to your wanser. Sounds complicated. It is. But again, if you like that type of thing, it's a lot of fun totally customizing your team to go out into battle and putting a hurting on the enemy.

Graphics are good, not great. That's OK, because game play is front and center here, as it should be. The storyline twists and turns and turns out pretty good. Added, there are two different storylines, depending on how you play the game. The division is very early into the game, and it's not too hard to figure out where the split is. I really like the music in this game.

I gave this game an 8 rating. The only reason I did not give it a 9 is because the lack of appeal to mass audiences. You might have to look a little to find this game, but your search will be well worth it.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 08/24/04