Front Mission
Tactical mech combat gets touchy on the DS
Tags: Front Mission Categories: DS Reviews, Reviews
Posted by Jake McNeill on Nov 15th, 2007
| Title | Players | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Front Mission (title page) | 1 | ||
| Developer | Publisher | Genre | Online |
| Strategy | No | ||
Square Enix seems to really be into the whole “strategy” thing on the DS lately, with Heroes of Mana just recently released, as well as the upcoming Final Fantasy Tactics and Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings, all of which employ some tactical element to the gameplay. One wonders why this hasn’t happened sooner – the DS’s touchscreen seems like an ideal interface for selecting units quickly, and the second screen makes for an excellent place for stats.
Amongst all of these strategy releases, Square Enix has decided to revisit their most long-standing SRPG series as well. However, Front Mission, like Final Fantasy III before it, is not a new title but a re-release of an old one that has previously never made it to the US – the very first game in the series, now re-designed and re-imagined for the DS.
Of course, I don’t mean to be misleading here – Front Mission’s overhaul isn’t anything close to the full-blown 3D remake treatment that Final Fantasy III received. Quite the contrary – Front Mission’s bland, earth tone-heavy graphics feature tiny, cartoony mechs that border on making a mockery of the idea that these are supposed to be five story-tall war machines. They’re not a total loss, though – the game is also decked out with the beautiful art of Yoshitaka Amano, who designed the characters for the pre-Playstation Final Fantasy titles.
No, the changes made here are strictly towards a more streamlined interface and presentation, with the aforementioned use of the touchscreen interface (which is optional, for those who prefer standard D-Pad and button controls) and the second screen’s ideal potential as a stats screen. Those who’ve played any of the Front Mission games knows that there are a healthy amount of stats involved, and this release of the game does a fine job of making them available to the player.
However, while a good job has been done in reworking the game for the DS, it’s not without its problems – many of which I suspect were present in the original game as well. Like the other Front Mission games, Front Mission on the DS suffers from rigid and repetitive gameplay, which often boils down to you and the enemy flailing away at each others’ HP to the point of tedium. What’s more, when players first begin the game, they can’t even target specific body parts (one of the big strategic elements of the series), making combat even more simple, boring and random – until you can aim, you’ll never know if your attack will deal the final blow to the enemy mech’s body, or end up hitting the arm they’re not using anyways.
The result is a game that’s not only more rote and boring than most SRPGs, but also one whose strategy is at times more unreliable. And while this is a good remake of a game previously never brought to the US, in a way it seems to indicate why it may not have made it here in the first place. And even if the DS is slim on strategy games, stuff like Advance Wars, Age of Empires, and Square Enix’s own upcoming titles seem like a far more worthy use of your hard-earned cash.
| What Works | Score |
|---|---|
|
+ Finally, those of us in the US can get our hands on the first Front Mission game + Yoshitaka Amano’s artwork always brings a sense of style to a game + The DS’s touchscreen and second screen fit this type of game like a glove |
6.5 |
| What Doesn't | |
|
- Repetitive, tedious gameplay - The element of strategy doesn’t seem as pronounced as other SRPGs - Dull brown look with tiny, cartoony mechs |
|
| Under the Shrink-wrap | |
| Front Mission makes for a somewhat mediocre SRPG when put up against other titles on the market. The battles don’t require too much thought, and as a result the game gets repetitious very quickly. Plus, the excessively brown color palette and tiny cartoony mechs aren’t doing the game any favors. I’d say to pass on this title unless you’re a big fan of the series. | |
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Tags: Front Mission
Posted by Jake McNeill on Nov 15th, 2007 and is filed under DS Reviews, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can post a comment, or trackback from your own site.
