Gaming: Rambling About Front Mission 3

I've found myself playing the old PS1 game Front Mission 3. I had a long train journey, and I was bored with SRWJ, so I set it up on a portable. In the absence of a major project, I've revisited a few old habits, but I digress. As a game its pretty good, holding up well, but I have thoughts I’m going to try to express.

 

I wrote a review way back when I last played it, and while I largely stand by that, I've had more experience since, and my writing style has shifted. I've played a lot, a hell of a lot, of Super Robot Wars since then, which puts the game in a different light. First off a correction. I spent some time acknowledging the graphical limitations of FM3, but compared to the roughly contemporary Super Robot Wars Alpha, which I’ve also messed with, its a revelation. That game was still pixel art, but not well animated or creative pixel art. Graphics aren't everything, especially in a turn based game, but FM3 pushes harder in that aspect. Front Mission 3 doesn't look good these days, but it doesn't look cheap and certainly didn't back then. It plays with camera angles and visual effects, trying to be cinematic. Hell, it arguably looks better than the initial Armored Core games. I just have the suspicion that the engine can't handle more than four robots on screen at once, resorting to sprites on the map screen. That's the number of units you can field, and there seems to be a soft limit on the number of enemies of maybe ten? This feels confining after SRW, but fits the vibe. The combat is very gritty and personal, while the location based damage invites comparisons to BattleTech. I did find myself thinking in terms like "missileboat" and "brawler" with this play through. However two elements are grafted to the gameplay loop, and honestly don't sit well. Element 1 is the acquisition and use of battle skills is randomised and obtuse. I swear, there are entire skill families I’ve never seen because you'd need a FAQ to know what the prerequisites are, and it may not trigger anyway. These really needed to be controllable, but the execution instead feels like something borrowed from Final Fantasy 7, flashy but not functional. That's not a bad comparison to make, TBH, things are a bit more roleplay than tactical at times. You can't really build a strategy around them as you cannot trigger on the skills on demand, and occassionally your mecha just overperform, throwing me off my rhythm. The Internet functionality meanwhile feels ignorable a lot of the time, a way to handle worldbuilding without overloading the already lengthy cutscenes. There's stuff you can dig out here, like the best mecha in the game, but otherwise its a slow-slow-slow password hunt. Overall, there’s meat to the game, but perhaps not as much as I once felt.


As a little side note, it turns out that FM3 discourages power-levelling. I discovered that if you have a guide, you can get training maps way before you should. You'll probably die, but you can get a lot of experience that way. But if you do, you'll get marked down at the end of a mission. For a long time. Until you are where the game thinks you should be. Yay.


Coming back to graphics, that remake that just came out, or is about to come out as I write this. Let me embed some video here.

First, a longplay of the original.

Here’s the remake

There's been several remakes in this franchise recently, and while I've not tried them, something has always felt off. The remake of the first game annoyed me as it was 3D not pixel art, changing the entire vibe. That felt more like a budgetary limitation than an artistic choice, as its probably cheaper to remake the whole thing in Unity or sommat than redraw the pixels. FM3 was already 3D, so why am I reticent about this one? Well, it looks too shiny and quick. The PS1 version had very deliberate movements and a dirty look to the visuals. This was almost certainly the result of technical limitations, the console chugging away, but it was part of the game's character. That isn’t really present in this remake, everything looks too new. The remake is probably closer to the original intent, and objectively better looking, but I would have preferred the Ludicrous Edition treatment. Then there's the other changes, which seem to be AI generated for fucksake. I'm not in a hurry to play that remake.


Where am I going with this? Nowhere, really. Its a good, if old game. And it's easier to play now, at least. And I may have played it too much….

The Mecha Hack: 4 Ideas for Realer Real Robots

So, here's the thing, say you want "realism" in your Mecha Hack. That's realism as a design motif, not an actual function of the rules mechanics. It's a simple game, and giant robots are not realistic in any serious sense. But you mean realistic as in "not a Super Robot, a Real Robot". The next question is how realistic? Oh you mean militaristic? Gotcha. Well, the first thing you do is look at the Gundam franchise and throw most of it out. While the original series was a trope maker, one thing it did not do was apply the idea of a “squadron” well. In a real world military, vehicles of different types are not deployed together as a unit. Its a matter of logistics and practicality, the vehicles have to be able to keep pace with each-other, do the same tactical role, and as simple as possible to supply. You can see hints of this with antagonists, but the famous White Base has a mixed unit of a melee specialist with a bazooka, mid-range artillery, long-range artillery, and whatever you count the core block vehicles as. To be fair to Amuro & company, they were just refugees playing the hand they were dealt, and we're dealing with matters of drama, but this arrangement was fairly influential. This sort of thing however isn't Gundam's invention or fault. We are talking some seriously foundational storytelling dynamics. Think Journey to the West. Think Fellowship of the Ring. Think Five-Man Band. As a result, most mecha animes are often only Mildly Military in tone and execution, I.E. something outside the usual framework and without the attitude of a professional soldier, and obviously merchandise driven, like most anime is. If you want something that at least looks broadly sensible you have to go a bit more obscure, like Votoms, Gasaraki, Front Mission, and the outlier that is is Gundam: The 08th MS Team. This article presents some ideas on how to do that in The Mecha Hack, presented in a clickbait format.

 

Idea 1: Use Maps and the Optional Rules

While not specific to the Real Robot genre, there is a serious-mindedness that is common amongst its proponents. Just using a map will add a more considered and and technical feel, but would require more preparation from you as GM. The Mission Manual meanwhile presents a megaton of optional rules which could be layered onto a campaign, specifically Environment Templates and Hard Mode. Ammunition is an obvious one, as are Fire Team tests. On-foot skills may also be a good fit for smaller scale mecha settings. Try to aim for thematic, rather than tiresome, however.

Idea 2: Modifying Chassis

A basic tenant of the Real Robot style is for everything to be a mass produced item, often with a comparatively small number of main designs. The quickest way to introduce that feeling of uniformity is to simply have one chassis, letting pilot types and modules do the heavy lifting. You just need to ensure your chosen chassis does not present an obvious balance issue in bulk. Having a squad of strikers for example would hamstring the reactor mechanic without a modification. So, that's what I did for a game, I took that ability out and replaced it with stuff from other classes. modules and weapon qualities to create the feel of unified team, but each having a speciality.

Idea 3: Modify Level-ups

Following on from the above, you could change how a mecha levels up. It's far from unheard of for a generalist mecha to be customised for a specific person, so even if the basics are common, people can specialise in more subtle ways than new Chassis Abilities. There's a whole trope about it, the Ace Custom. So, while things like Hit Die could remain fixed, the other stats may level up differently. So, you might use the brawler as a base, but allow players to be "Scout Specialists" and level like a scout.

Idea 4: Command and Supply Vehicles

A concept that pops up occasionally is the idea of a non-humanoid support vehicle. Say a truck loaded with sensors to guide the Mecha, or supplies to assist. This might be an NPC, but then again you do get people whom enjoy playing support/healer/Auxillary, so here's some rules for that. This inspiration here is mainly the example in 08TH MS Team, although the modules lean on Front Mission.

 

Support Truck Chassis

Hit Die D6 Damage Die D4 Reactor Die D6

Levelling

Roll your hit die to gain new hit points. Roll to see if attributes increase, rolling twice for System and Presence. At levels 3, 6, & 9, gain a new module.

Starting HP

1d6 + 3

Proficiencies

Light Ranged Weapons, Light Amour.

Starting Equipment

Comlink, Defensive Turret (Light Ranged Weapon), Light Armour.

Sensor Boom

You gain Advantage on System tests to detect Distant and beyond-distant foes. You also gain Advantage on Initiative tests, provided at no foes are Close or Near.

Target Designator

See the Auxillary's Reinforce ability.

Support Truck Modules

Weapon Rack: You have stowage for weapons and shields, equivalent to 6 hands. You or a friendly Close Mecha may retrieve and henceforth operate a single piece of equipment with a Use action.

Emergency Repair Beam: As a Use action, immediately repair 1HP to all Close friendly mecha. Mecha with no AP remaining also gain a 1AP as well. Roll your reactor die.

If you do end up using these rules, please let me know how it turns out.

Retro Review: Front Mission (Super Famicom)

OK then, I finished Front Mission 3. What game did I play next? Something even more obscure and gaming-hipster-weeb, the first game in the series, Front Mission. Another strategic game with big robots. A game made during the golden age of Japanese Role Playing Games, but one not to get an English version until it got remade for a later platform. Here we see two superpowers, the OCU and USN (1) slug it out over a scrap of nothing called Huffman Island, but is it any good? Well, I'll get to that, but first, I wanna talk about how I played it. While Front Mission received a remastered version on the Nintendo DS, here I used an original cartridge on the Retrofreak emulation console. This provokes a certain degree of "Vinyl versus Spotify" style argument amongst purists, as this is mechanically different from the original hardware, even with the original cart. 16 bit emulation is however a mature technology at this point, and devices such as this allow HDMI output, which is more convenient. I also used the Retrofreaks ability to apply fan-made translation patches, without which the game is somewhat unplayable.

Moving on.....

On first impression, the original game is much more consistent visually than FM3, if inevitably more primitive. FM doesn't have the burden of awkward 3D, and by the standards of the time, certainly holds its own. Its a later generation Famicom release, so the developers knew what they were doing, but also because the game is going against so many JRPG conventions. At the risk of making a sweeping generalisation, games of this ilk, especially those by Squaresoft, tended towards bright colours, and frequently cutesy character designs. Of course, cutscenes and close-up character portraits may have been completely different, but that was the default. Even the seemingly immortal Super Robot Wars series did and does favour a super deformed look for its mecha. This probably owes as much to technical limitations as artistic choice TBH, and this is by no means a failing, but genre convention was there. Here's a screen grab of the highly regarded Final Fantasy VI(2).

 

Notice how the baddie is a nice big-if-static sprite, where as the heroes are in totally different style, and the menu takes up much of the screen space. Now here's what today's review subject looks like.

 

See what I mean? FF6 is a classic for a reason, but, Front Mission is by comparison a darker, grittier, and more visually detailed game. At least in areas which it prioritises. Mecha designs are basically gorgeous, with pleasing animations, and lengthy customisation potential. It's not a big thing these days, but back then? Having equipment visibly change on a sprite was a rare, even if Front Mission seems to like its robots carrying a pair of guns as big as they are(3). Mind you, FM also boils down interactions outside of combat into a series of menus, and you'll see the same town a lot. A lot, a lot. There's no overworld to explore, no random encounters, no side quests, and the closest thing to a diversion is the colosseum, which offers simplified battles where you can bet on yourself. So, if you're not sold on the battles, there's only so much else here. The general interface does also feel outdated, with the day-to-day matters of Wanzer management being more fiddly than they should. In battle, its possible to loose Wanzers behind buildings, or forget what units are damaged, as the game isn't too hot at conveying info on the map screen. This is what I mean when I say this game was more primitive than its PS1 sequel; its clearly an earlier version for less capable hardware, but pixels are more nostalgic than polygons...

Combat is elegant, favouring large groups. if having some quirks. It uses a grid map, but displayed from a fixed isomeric angle. Its functional, dropping into more viseral combat animation, but Its somewhat more in your face and exaggerated than I expected. Most guns have a range of 1 square, the main exception being Missiles, which have limited ammo. Wanzers can act to defend themselves in the enemy turn, if not by counter attacking then by blocking with arms to protect the main body. Going melee is quite practical, due to the prevailing presence of single shot attacks and easy item stowage. Choosing the right tool for the job though is important, Wanzers having separate health bars for body parts, and guns firing either a burst of shots or one big bullet. Then there's wrinkles like Shields sharing the same shoulder mounts as Missiles and hybrid weapons that have variable range. The whole Lego mecha appeal is definitely here, if slanted towards Wanzers some de-facto character classes. The game presents foes with names like Missiler and Attacker, and while these aren't fixed, they do represent the obvious designs. All this often boils down to a rock/paper/scissors affair, but you'll be controlling more than 10 units at a time, so there's plenty to get your teeth into. Here's a summary of what you'll be working with, named after the class of weapons they use.

Fight Wanzers
Fairly self-explanatory, these guys rock up and punch things. Often literally, as while tonfas are a thing, some arms hit really hard bare-handed. These Wanzers have to be both fast and tough, as they not only have to walk a fair bit, enemies can fire their guns defensively before you can swing. Special skills however turn off that weakness, as well as allowing you to do combos and stun people. Fight Wanzers are the hard-counter to missile equipped Wanzers, but they aren't precise.

Short Wanzers
The tactically flexible and the most powerful type of Wanzer, with a wide array of weapons, but most frequently dual machine guns. This is due to the aggressive selection of special skills, which allow for both more dakka and the ability to target specific body parts. This can mince a majority of targets, although weight and effective range can be an issue.

Long Wanzers
*Sniggering* These are characterised by having two big missile launchers, and maybe a bazooka as a back-up. Acting to soften up a target before you finish them off, these only get one special skill, and it's a goody. They can target specific body parts at a distance, and can therefore disarm people before they become a threat. Ammo is however a problem, as is absorbing damage, so they tend to stick close to....

Peewee the supply truck driver

A source of passive buffs where everyone else is a fighter class, Peewee provides emergency repairs, and spare weapons should you need a different gun. He and his ilk add a lot the game, and I feel Front Mission 3 suffers for their absence. Then again, this is another area with an awkward interface.

Two things however bother me about the whole business though. Firstly, the game doesn't actually encourage you to experiment with Wanzer designs that much. Most parts are linear upgrades, which undermines the whole appeal of customising your robots, and upgrades are so frequent as to make it feel like busy work. Its the old RPG staple of new town, buy new sword. Second, while there is a hint of a logistics/management side to the game, I didn't feel I had to make difficult decisions as such. You do get money based on mission performance, and charged for repairs, but I was swimming in cash for the most part, even as my squad sizes hit double figures. If I'd done less well, or if replacement parts had been a bit more spread out, maybe I'd have enjoyed things more, but your mileage may vary. That said, variety and meaningful choice does increase as you go on, with weapons being more immediately complex than Wanzer bits as they often represent side grades to each other. Also on the plus side, the game does not require or encourage level grinding, in my experience.

And finally, there is the matter of narrative, which is OK, if slow to bloom and linear. Putting aside sheer genre saturation, the SNES/Famicom format having buttloads of RPGs, it wouldn't be a surprise if FMs story was part of the reason why it wasn't localised into English at first. Nintendo USA at around this time was clearly opposed to "adult" stuff, and while this game isn't gory its definitely dark and political. I mean, in the first level alone the lead character Lloyd Clive(4) undertakes a blackops mission that goes so badly a war starts, sees his fiancé brutally killed in combat by the final boss, only to then be made a scapegoat for the entire mess. He then joins a mercenary unit, thus becoming a man both grieving and in decidedly grey moral standing. Its not the hero's journey, and it doesn't really become a revenge story until much later. What it is at first is episodic, and quite anime cliché, but gets increasingly bleak and almost unrecognisable in later missions. That said, while the themes and ideas are interesting, the actual execution isn't great. How much of this is the fan translation, or just it being an old game, is up for debate, but I found it to be workmanlike rather than compelling.

Conclusion
A good first try, but not a masterpiece. Front Mission is a game with a very specific appeal, offering some nice strategic gameplay, robo-go-boomy, an interesting story, but very much a product of its time. Is it better than Front Mission 3, the game that brought me to the franchise? Honestly, no. The overall experience isn't as refined, the mechanics of the game not quite coming together, and the story being functional rather than having a strong hook. Is this the same as saying its a bad game? Definitely not. I had a good time with it, so check it out. Maybe go for the DS remake though, if the option is available.

Foot notes

1. That's Japan + others versus The USA + others.
2. Or Final Fantasy 6, if you want to use proper numbers, and aren't currently in 90's America.
3. Not a complaint, an observation.
4. At least, this is what the translation patch calls him. The instruction manual romanised his name as “Roid Clive”, while other sources give it as “Royd Clive”. I'm not in a position to judge which is more correct, so I'll use the one that is less immediately stupid.

Retro Review in Progress: Front Mission (Super Famicom)

Hi there!

The shambling resurrection of the blog continues, with various articles on the go. The one that is closest to completion is a review of the painfully obscure Front Mission on the SuperFamicon/SNES. Yes, the original that Front Mission 3 descends from. I'm halfway through it, and I remain undecided as to whether or not I should pull the trigger on it before the final level. Got a twitter thread going on it, if anyone is interested. Also got an article on Space Marines on standby, should I be in a bad mood.

In the meantime, enjoy some screengrabs.

Ten Tips for Playing Front Mission 3

Does it count as a clickbait title when the subject is so obscure? Ehh. Following on from my review of the game proper, here's some advice for playing Front Mission 3. And so you know that I'm not completely useless, here's my end game rankings. Yes, there is some vanity in displaying it.

 

Go on that Intarwebz
While the Internet is the least exciting part of the game, it occasionally can assist missions, and does provide various battle simulators for level grinding. Also, its possible to acquire the most powerful Wanzer by keeping an eye on shady websites. You don't have to check every mission, but don't ignore it.

Never sell your starting Wanzers, just pass em around
Front Mission 3 is rather obtuse about Battle Skills, but most characters have machines that match them rather well. The Zenislev(1) and Kyojun Mrk107 are also notable for having skills that remain unexciting-but-useful throughout the game.

It's best to have lots of little skills
While things get more nuanced later on, it's usually best to stack multiple 1 slot Battle Skills, ideally identical. This is because these trigger and combo more often. In an extreme example, when using a Rifle, it's more or less mandatory to take Zoom 4 times, as it overcomes the problems of being single shot.

Missiles are easy spammed, but Shields are better
Due to their range and damage, Missiles are powerful even in the hands of a novice character. However, this does not last, as your foes improve. Shields however are always useful, and increasingly mandatory. You will almost always be outnumbered, after all.

Be a fiddler crab
You are not obliged to have symmetrical or even attractive Wanzers, so mix and match parts. My goto design was a skinny but precise arm with 2 guns on it, a beefy arm for the shield, and a generator backpack to compensate.

Steal every Wanzer you see
Tactics are ultimately king, but don't let yourself fall behind in the arms race. Boss types can't be pinched, but there's an entire family of high quality Wanzers you can't buy, but you need(2). This can be be greatly eased by....

Buy a Tiadong ASAP
Pilfering Wanzers is hard to do at first, as you have to force units to surrender. You need the luck for them loose morale, and a gentler weapon to force the issue without killing them. The Tiadong arm however has the useful skill Eject Punch, which saves a bit of time, if somewhat unsporting.

Have understudys, but not clones
Front Mission 3 ultimately gifts you with 8 characters, and it wants you to use them. Try to maintain a pair of missile people, and two punchy dudes. Note that Wanzers can fulfil more than one role, and try not to overspecialise.

If in doubt, set your armour to Piercing
Cutscenes will often telegraph what the enemy has, but weapons that cause Piercing damage are the most common. The only force that doesn't favour machine guns or rifles are the regular army of Da Han Zong, where upon you choose Impact.

And finally, go with Ryogo
When he asks. You know, early on.


Foot notes
1) Actually a mistranslation, it should be Zenith Rev.
2) And when you meet their owners, trust me, you'll want to take them out of spite.

Retro Review: Front Mission 3 (PS1)

A depressingly small number of people seem to care about the Front Mission series of video games. I mean, obviously, its established in Japan. Its just when you google it, you get tumble-weeds and Russian-language video clips. There is an entry on Steam, but its so badly received, I've not bothered to play it. I did however pick up Front Mission 3 (FM3) while at a retro-games fair, having happy memories of it. FM3 is what I like to call a "Lego mecha game", where a majority of your time is spent swapping parts, refining a team of giant robots and sending them into battle. It falls into the Strategic RPG genre, in that its turned-based and set on a grid, while have role playing mechanics. Such things aren't hugely common these days, and certainly weren't back then, either. This example is however noteworthy for not being a licensed game, naming its robots “Wanzers”, and for being made by Squaresoft at the height of their Play Station power. Yes, the Final Fantasy people. This franchise should be absolutely HUGE, but it isn't, due to a lack of localised entries. First impressions after 20 odd years, running on my PS3?

Its not exactly a looker.

Making the obvious allowances for age, FM3 is somewhat uneven when it comes to production values. There's no denying the detail and sense of weight that Wanzers have, with some good CG cutscenes at key points, but its not exactly a performance game engine. The image above makes it look better than it does in motion. Its all about brief exchanges of violence, and uses depressively low res sprites for the map screen. The game was criticised for this at the time, IIRC. I've found myself wishing for a HD remake along the lines of Valkyria Chronicles , because while it isn't actually ugly, it does feel like a awkward transitional step like so many of the early polygonal/CD games of its time. And then you remember Armored Core was out 2 years before this, and Final Fantasy 8 was out in the same year..... Of course FM3 probably wasn't meant to be played on a flatscreen. And there's the cleaned up network version that you can play on a Vita, as well as "aftermarket" options. Strategy games aren't really about the graphics, of course, and the game is spectacular on its own terms, but uneven is uneven. Another area where the game has aged poorly is its Internet section, which provides some distractions from the meat of the experience, as well as world building. Sadly, it runs at the speed of dail-up, and doesn't really offer much incentive to keep coming back.

Anyway, despite subjective complaints about presentation, the actual combat system is a pleasing solid one, the kind where simple but elegant concepts get layered atop each other. You can simply just power through the violence like you would with a Final Fantasy, by grinding and simply buying shinier kit, but that's not really clever long term. You need to pay some attention, and experimentation is encouraged. Here's some of the things you need to consider.

1) Wanzers move and attack based on Action Points, which are also used in the enemy turn for defence and counterattack. You therefore have to strike a balance between offence, defence, and positioning.

2) Weapons have differing ranges and AP costs, as well as one of three damage types which a Wanzer could get bonuses against. So, you need the right weapon in the right place.

3) Furthermore, Wanzers have 5 distinct health bars, only one of which being fatal, while weapons alternate between a single big hit or a spray. Again, you need the right weapon in the right place, to wear down, cripple, and finally finish off your target.

4) While having healing items like a common JRPG, these have to be assigned to s specific Wanzer in a dedicated backpack. Certain weapons also have limited ammo, which also have reload items. This will result in design compromises.

5) Punching people is entirely possible due to the high accuracy and low AP cost. Such attacks do however allow the enemy to shoot a Wanzer before it strikes.

6) Finally, Battle Skills break these concepts in various ways, but triggering randomly so you can't rely on them. You can however chain them together for max damage.

I had some immense fun with all that. There's a some some real chunky goodness to all this if you care to look into it. The battles are often scripted, rather than having noteworthy AI, but the game does reward intelligent and adaptive play. I called this a "Lego mecha game" earlier, and that is very much the case. You can and should rebuild your Wanzers as you go, trying to optimise your designs and unlock new skills. However, if you want a character to keep their original Wanzer, you can do that too. Components can be upgradef multiple times, characters often having some handy skill in their starting mecha. The worst I can say is that a FAQ might be useful, because the game obscures that sort of information. Here's a video of what you are in for.

I've talked mainly about combat and how its presented so far, but there is in fact a story. Two of them. FM3 benefits from 2 lengthy narrative campaigns, each being the thick end of 40 hours. Which one you get is based on an innocuous choice, which sees characters switching roles, quite dramatically in some cases, but the broad-strokes remain the same. What starts as an espionage thriller, sees the cast flee Japan, becoming catspaws for a rival superpower, getting involved with a civil war in future-China, before returning to Japan to take on the Real antagonists. There's a lot of realpolitik going on, and there's enough meat to keep you interested, although I regret that its not really possible to go into the full merits here. The unfortunate thing is that this is relayed entirely through cutscences, not gameplay. Its a wall of text, something which I suspect console gamers of the time didn't welcome. Indeed, it's easy to go on autopilot with these sections, and maybe miss a few of the meaningful choices you can make. I did, completely missing one character for 20 odd years. Characters can also blur together after a while, going out of focus as the narrative forgets about them for a bit. There's no actual mechanical difference between them, as skills are based entirely on Wanzer parts, which can be a strength, but if you're gonna have this much freedom, you may as well allow full character creation. Either that, or give characters something unique to hang a hat on. That having been said, the narrative is never less than engaging, and while I like the gameplay more, seeing where the plot would go had its pull.

Conclusion

Front Mission 3 is very good at what it chooses to focus on, but it hasn't aged gracefully. A lot of the complaint s I make boil down to genre convention; you don't buy a game such as this for graphics, you buy it for the turned based combat. That's got a very specific appeal, and while the game makes efforts to present things well, those efforts were not treated well by time. Its not a game that' you'd use to convert someone to a genre, is you get my meaning? Fortunately, the actual gameplay has held up extremely well, and the story holds your attention. If you can get past its dated graphics and you're onboard with giant robots, give it a try. And then wonder where that month went.