Front Mission 1st: Remake (2022)

This was my sole Black Friday pickup for the Switch, and after being pretty underwhelmed by Mario Wonder, I'm pleasantly surprised with this one.

Somehow I had it in my head that Front Mission 1 and 2 were like NES level tactics RPGs with little to no plot and just a bunch of battles. Not the case at all! While I wouldn't call the story here anything earth-shattering, it's surprisingly mature and nuanced, and the option dialogue in towns really does a lot to pad out what people on the ground are going through as war breaks out.

And the gameplay... I was expecting "fuck you" hard like Tactics Ogre on the SNES, but it's actually very fair. Still wrapping my head around the damage and accuracy calcs, but I'm getting through it. One thing I really like is that the game doesn't have permadeath... If a character's mech gets totalled in combat, they're removed from the field, but you are charged a repair fee deducted from your spoils for the battle. It's a really smart balance between old-school permadeath and consequence-free deaths.

Not totally crazy about the traced-over Yoshitaku Amano art they used for character portraits though. I would have preferred the originals, I think. Overall though, I think the remake looks and runs great. My only experience with the series before this was the criminally underappreciated Front Mission: Gun Hazard, one of the best action games on the SNES. I think I might be becoming a series fan.

Front Mission 1st: Remake is a good time, if not quite a great one. For all its bumps in the road, and in a strange way, perhaps in part because of them, there is immense satisfaction in clearing each stage. Battles are intense and exciting, but when you're supposed to be relaxing, things are annoying and cumbersome, and you always feel left in the dark when it comes to the true intentions of your superiors.

It does a good job of setting up an interesting world. I’m glad the series is getting some love again, and I’m pretty pleased with Forever Entertainment’s crack at things overall. If their quality of work is maintained going forward, I suspect we’re in for some real treats with the second and third installments.