The Front Mission series, while extremely popular in Japan, has only seen erratic release in America. It all started in 1995 on the Super Famicom, with the original Front Mission. At the time, tactical RPGs were all but unheard of in America, and so it was not localized. Front Mission 2 released a few years later for the PlayStation; it, too, was passed over for the American market. By the time Front Mission 3 came out in 1999, though, the genre has become relatively popular in the US, following the release of Final Fantasy Tactics. This led Square to bring Front Mission 3 stateside in early 2000. Front Mission 4 was released here in 2004, but Front Mission 5, which released a year later, was never brought to America. Now, Square Enix has brought the original Front Mission to the Nintendo DS, so that American fans of the series can finally see how it all began.

The game begins on Huffman Island, a fictional new continent, in the late 21^st century. Half the island is controlled by the Unified Continental States (UCS), which consists of both North and South America. The other half of Huffman Island is controlled by the Oceania Cooperative Union (OCU), an organization that consists of Japan, Oceania, and southeast Asia. There’s an uneasy truce between the two sides, until the events of the opening chapter of the game. Players see the conflict (known as the Larcus Incident) firsthand, and before long, a war begins. In the game world, the standard combat unit is the wanzer, giant walking robots that come heavily armed. Players choose a side of the conflict to follow, and take control of either the OCU’s “Canyon Crows” mercenary wanzer squad, or the UCS’s “Black Hounds” Special Forces squad.

 
The game’s storyline is complex, concerning several factions with shifting allegiances.

Once you’re in control of your squad, the game begins. Battles occur in much the same way as other tactical RPGs: the player gives their units orders to move, attack, or use items, before the enemy gets a turn to do the same. The core gameplay is similar to titles like Final Fantasy Tactics or Ogre Battle, and anyone who’s played either or any other similar tactical RPG will feel right at home. Where Front Mission really comes into its own, though, is in the complexities. For instance, instead of one overall health statistic, each wanzer has separate health for its body, legs, and each arm. Each can be damaged (and later, targeted) separately, and each has a different effect if destroyed (destroy a wanzer’s arm, and it’ll be unable to use any weapons equipped there, and so on). But the game’s complexities in battle are just a hint at the complexities waiting for the player in between battles.

See, Front Mission allows the player to fully customize any wanzer currently in their unit. You can make simple modifications, like changing the wanzer’s call sign or paint job, but you can also buy and replace virtually every part of the machine. Each wanzer is constructed out of several parts: body (determines core stats, like defense, HP, and power output), arms (determines basic attack power and accuracy), legs (determines movement ratings and speed), backpack (determines how many items they can carry), CPU (grants bonuses to melee and ranged attacks, as well as dodging), and the various handheld (guns) and shoulder-mounted (missiles/rockets) weapons you can equip. Additionally, each part has a weight that is added to the wanzer’s total weight; if it weighs more than its power output can support, it becomes unusable. Since there are hundreds of each type of part, there are a ridiculous number of combinations available, allowing you to completely customize your fighting team. In this way, customization becomes as big a part of the game as the actual battles, and while your pilot does level up from experience, if you don’t maximize each wanzer’s setup before each battle, don’t expect to make it too far.

 
The status screen can be overwhelming until you figure out how each stat affects performance.

Front Mission is a port of a Japanese Super Nintendo title, and as such, some might call the visuals dated. I disagree; this is Square, one of the true masters of the medium, at the height of their 2D game. Battlefield sprites are small, but do allow you to differentiate between wanzers visually; the combat cut scenes are detailed and show your fully outfitted wanzers in all their glory. The game’s character art, done by acclaimed Final Fantasy illustrator Yoshitaka Amano, is gorgeous during story sequences. The game’s sound, too, shows that this game originated on 16-bit hardware, and hasn’t held up as well as the graphics, but the effects and music are still high quality, immersing the player despite their dated sound. Square Enix has given the player the option of controlling the action with the stylus, which is a much-appreciated addition, since the button controls force you to manipulate a mouse-style cursor onscreen with the d-pad, and that never fares well.

Front Mission is, without a doubt, the deepest, most customizable strategy-RPG available for the DS. As such, some will be intimidated by the game’s depth and complexity. Those willing to invest a serious commitment to the game, though, will find an epic, involving tactical game that will provide all the turn-based action they could hope for.

Gameplay: 8.4
This is turn-based tactical combat at its finest. There’s enough depth and complexity here to keep even the most ravenous strategy-RPG fans busy for quite a while.

Graphics: 7.8
Sure, it’s obvious this game began life as a Super Nintendo title. Still, a high level of detail (especially in the combat cut scenes) means this game looks great, even after all these years. Some of the text in the menus can be a little small and hard to read, but this is more a result of having to fit so much information onto the DS’s small screens.

Sound: 7.2
Sound effects and music are the areas where this game truly shows its age. The actual songs are great, with a dramatic military feel. Their quality isn’t so red-hot, as they were brought directly over from the SNES’s sound chip.

Difficulty: Hard
This game throws a whole lot of information at the player pretty much immediately, and your success is directly based on your ability to maximize a ton of different stats (not to mention the battles themselves are pretty tough, even with a maxed-out team). This is not a game to take lightly.

Concept: 8.7
Turn-based, tactical battles and intricate, complex mechs are like chocolate and peanut butter: two great tastes that taste great together. The sheer number of different configurations available are tailor-suited for the genre.

Multiplayer: 6.2
Sure, you can battle your friend’s wanzers in head-to-head battles, but they’re really too simplistic to be worth much of your time. Simply put, this game was meant to be a deep, single-player experience, and isn’t really designed for multiplayer.

Overall: 8.6
While it’s certainly not for everyone, Front Mission provides awesome tactical combat and enough customization options to keep even the most hardcore gamers busy. Easily recommended for those who have destroyed Advance Wars and want something with a little more meat on its bones.