Playstation 2 - Front Mission 4

Format
Playstation 2
Publisher
Square Enix
Developer
Square Enix
Country of origin
Japan
Release date
2004
Genre
Turn-based strategy

Front Mission 4

By David Rasmussen
23rd Jan 05

Studio - Square Enix
Age - T for Teen
Genre - Strategy

What does Front Mission 4 have in common with, of all things, Yu-Gi-Oh! Capsule Monster Coliseum and Final Fantasy Tactics Advance?
In essence they all utilize the same combat system, more or less.
Deploy your units, move, attack or defend or something, etc.
Now if you just base your first opinion on the excellent opening sequences of the game alone you might not think it's that kind of game, especially with all the fast moving action in these cut scenes, but it is.
And that might be a good thing if you think about it.

It all starts off with the "Wanzers"... which sounds as if it should be spelled "Banzers" from the way they say the word... which would be nice since the word "Banzers" sounds better than "Wanzers"... sorry, what was I talking about again? Oh, right, the Wanzers. Anyway "Wanzers", these huge mecha machines, are the "weapons" of choice of the major nations of the world... I don‘t know, but staring at the Wanzers kind of remind me of the mechs of Battletech for some reason... but that's not important, right now the events of the opening credits is important.

After Germany is attacked by mysterious "Wanzers" (five of it's bases attacked and destroyed) you swing into action. Playing as a new female recruit of this organization called the E.C.‘s Armored Tactics Research Corps. (aka the Drandal) you are thrust into this situation as your team must investigate the goings on, and find yourself at odds with your "allies" in Germany who don't seem too thrilled to have you around.
Things only seem to get worse when it looks like your "allies" in the German military might be, in fact, in cahoots with the nemesis of the game. Huh? Well, after an attack in Poland on a vital resources base you follow the nemesis back to Germany only to have said nemesis' retreat protected by the German military's Wanzers who fight you as you try to pursue the enemy.

That, and the fact that some evidence you found earlier in the game (turned over to the Germans) is "ignored" in order to frame a different organization than the one the evidence points to? Things are not looking good in Germany's defense.

Meanwhile, in a seemingly unconnected story, you join a trio of rather lazy soliders in the sunny rebellious country of Venezuela in another episode of "This Old Political Unrest".
In this storyline the discovery of a downed cargo plane with stolen gold sets you (whose voice actor sounds vaguely familiar though I can't place the name) and your two friends on a strange journey ala the George Clooney movie Three Kings. Now how this ties into the events in Europe remains to be seen, and I haven't gone far enough in the game to figure it out... but I guess if you play it out yourself you'll see how it links.

Combat is quite simple, yet it also has some depth to it.
You control up to four Wanzers at a time, moving them across the field of combat to engage the enemy.
First thing is move your Wanzer, depending on your weapons' range you either move close or pull back (if you're using ranged weapons for the attack).
Next you choose to attack or use an item or something (repair your allies or self if you can, etc).
Simple, eh? You should have no problem learning the basics of the combat system, and there's an easy first combat "scenario" and plenty of training sims to get you into the action ASAP.

Each Wanzer's stats is separated into four meters to track.
Two for each arm, one for the center mass of the body, and one for the legs.
If the arms is reduced to zero they explode. If the legs are reduced to zero they become damage and your movement is greatly limited. Only by destroying the center body can you achieve a quick "kill".
Of course that isn't as easy as it sounds, but then again a little challenge is good for you.

Combat is simple, but leveling up your character is another matter. It's got some detail to it.
There are a ton of stats, ton of upgrades, and a ton to learn as you play... and, heck, that's gotta be a good thing. Combat is easy, yet there's depth to it so you don't become totally bored by it too fast.
You upgrade yourself (and your Wanzers) with points and money you gain from each battle.
After each battle you are scored a set amount of points which you can use to "purchase" upgrades for both yourself... (minus repair cost of course). I'm still figuring out how to upgrade my Wanzers though.
I've only been tinkering with it a little, and haven't done any major upgrades... maybe I need to find a cheat code that gives lots of money so I can have more time with the upgrade feature.

Is it fun? Yes. It's got some nice quirks to it and the gameplay is downright simple (yet also challenging at the same time so it won't be too boring which would be a turnoff).
Hmm -- any flaws? Hmm... I guess the only real flaw is the whole "mechanics" of the Wanzers.
Soon after you start playing you have the option to buy new parts for the Wanzer. The problem is that you have to balance whatever new parts by weight. If the parts you want are too heavy you can't have them, simple as that. Of course that's just no good if you'd like new weapons or something.
I'd like to buy stuff, but I can't get everything I want because of the weight thing... and since I'm still new to this I haven't learned the whole weight mechanics thing and how to make that work. Oh, bother.

Another thing I'm having difficulties getting a grasp on is the linking attacks, or the ability to have two Wanzers back each other up during battle. I need more time to work on that since it's quite useful (the battle at the German border is a good example of the linking system as your enemies use it with devastating results as you'll see when you reach this battle) but I think I‘m slowly getting the hang of it, and how truly devastating it can be once you really get it rollin‘! Using the simulations to work out the kinks of forming links is a good idea.

The voice acting is not horrible, but let's just say you shouldn't be mixing up your French and your Germans from the tad bit overdone accents. It's not horrible, but it's abit obvious.
Anyway it's not so bad that it earned a Chet R. Chase Award by any means.
Eh? What's that?

One problem I have with The Sims : Bustin' Out (GBA) is that some of the characters are bad character stereotypes.... Okay, EVERY non-player character is some bad stereotype of one kind or another.
And, of all the bad ones, none is worse than Dockside Diner's Chet R. Chase (Cheddar Cheese). He dresses like a stereotypical Italian pizza parlor owner, his one movement is to walk about, turn his head, and raise his fingers up to his lips and snap his arm forward as if doing a high stereotypical Italian chef motion thing... Oh, and he speaks of himself in the third person when you speak to him.
Chet R. Chase. What was EAGames thinking anyway. Sheesh. Bad character. Bad, bad character!

Okay. It's breakdown time.

Front Mission Breakdown the 4th
What's Hot? - It's got it's good points. I like the gameplay, and there's quite abit to do so it's an attention grabber. Playability is nice and with the different variations on Wanzers you can put together you can play this over and over and come up with new "Wanzer" teams to fight with each time for different strategies.
The animation is great, especially when it comes to the cut scenes.

What's Not? - The story doesn't seem very strong, but that isn't very bad.
The voice acting is even fair (not too bad) so I don't have much grievances with this.

Moments to Remember? - It's all about the combat. The fighting system is the most memorable, which is not to say the game has lacking personality in the characters (which is not it's problem). It's just that the gameplay is a step higher than the story.

What to Ignore? - Yeah. The box toots it's own horn about the voice acting, HOWEVER that is only half the time. Most of the time though, regardless of whether the voice acting is on or not, a lot of the game is talking heads. Talking heads with voices, and talking heads with just text, talking talking talking heads.
So I guess I should ignore the horn blowing about the voice acting. It's fair and all, but it's NOT 100% voice acted so ignore their pride in that aspect of the game.

Overal1? - It's a nice little strategy game. It's not excellence, but it's not plague material.
It has, in my opinion, enough good merits to at least warrant a rental, if not a purchase (at a nice bargain price if you can get it).

The combat is fine, and the animation is nice too. I liked it and while I can't say I'm a die hard fan I have to say I have some likes for this game and recommend at least renting it to give it a whirl.
Who knows, you might find it has a place in your permanent collection!

Now if I only knew what the heck was Front Mission 1 to 3 all about.

-- David Rasmussen 23rd Jan 05

Playstation 2 Front Mission 4 Images