G-Craft, Square Product Development Division 5
Super Famicom · WonderSwan Color
3.71 from 66 ratings
231 members have it in their collection · 5 playing now · 107 backlogged · 91 wish listed
How long? Main story 43h (from 1 logged playthrough)
Status NoahsBarks.com Nov 9, 2025
I don't know if there's a video game franchise I've tried harder to get into than Front Mission. What's sad is I'll probably be giving it further chances until I've beaten every game and can say "that was mediocre" about each one. At that point, hasn't Squaresoft won?
Review grok 2/5 · Feb 13, 2025
I really wanted to like Front Mission. I love tactical RPGs, so this should be up my alley.
While I started impressed with the OST, the visuals, the design, and gameplay, as I played more I quickly realized how shallow the game could be.
Characters sort of gain skills, but not quick enough or clear enough for me to plan …
I really wanted to like Front Mission. I love tactical RPGs, so this should be up my alley.
While I started impressed with the OST, the visuals, the design, and gameplay, as I played more I quickly realized how shallow the game could be.
Characters sort of gain skills, but not quick enough or clear enough for me to plan around it. There are tons of parts to choose from when upgrading, but in general, lots felt pretty useless.
the story isn't bad, but not particularly special.
Overall, I think there are glimmers of an amazing game here, that I suspect sequels manage to deliver on. But in 2025, I think the first Front Mission isn't worth the time to play.
Status stupac13 Jan 1, 2023
I complained a bit too much on that last update. Then I went on and played a hour of Front Mission and had a blast. Once you do get the hang of the menu's it can be pretty quick. Just gets a bit annoying at times. Still, par for the course for the time when this game was released.
Status stupac13 Jan 1, 2023
I'm still slowly slogging through Front Mission. I love the tactical battles and great graphics, story, and setting. I don't like all the tedious menus of upgrading your Wanzers between missions. This process can take an hour at times if you want to carefully optimize. And if you don't, you often get crushed by enemy Wanzers with better parts. Its …
Read moreI'm still slowly slogging through Front Mission. I love the tactical battles and great graphics, story, and setting. I don't like all the tedious menus of upgrading your Wanzers between missions. This process can take an hour at times if you want to carefully optimize. And if you don't, you often get crushed by enemy Wanzers with better parts. Its one of those games I want to love so much, but I feel like I spend half the time in the game going between the shop, set up, and status menus trying to figure out how to upgrade and set up 10 Wanzers between missions. It is like the start of a new Armored Core game where you are just fighting to buy that next part for your AC build and experimenting. Except with Armored Core eventually you get pretty well settled on a build and only need to occasionally swap parts and with Armored Core you only have one AC. With Front Mission this process is repeated after almost every mission for the entire game for each Wanzer you plan to take on the next mission and the parts are often not significantly different, just better. Luckily, you can kinda just pick one or two basic Wanzer builds and reuse them for each of your dudes. But, there's no "copy/paste" so you have to tediously set it up for each of them and sell old parts in between to afford the next ones. And of course, there there is little variety cosmetically between your Wanzers which I think is a real shame. The game would have been vastly improved by having fewer Wanzer parts that make you choose a specialty for each Wanzer and few straight up upgrades.
Read less
Status AlfredoSalza Jul 5, 2015
Played up to mission 11 before giving up (DS version). Painfully outdated.
