Das Frontenmission

Sunday, May 23, 2004 » gaming thought

2000's Front Mission 3 was a big disappointment. I was looking forward to trying this legendary strategy series that was making its American debut, and what little promotional hype existed was still impressive. After spending some time with the demo, I couldn't figure out how the preview trailer (featuring giant robot battles and one memorable scene with a colossal aircraft carrier overturning) translated to a game filled mostly by endless talking heads and inexplicably boring combat. As I am fond of saying, one of the demo's latter battles literally put me to sleep.

So, I'm relieved to say that, after completing a couple of the Front Mission 4 demo's preview episodes, I'm looking forward to playing more. It's hard to say what sets FM4 apart from its predecessor, besides the obvious change in consoles, but I'd say Square's legendary production values are definitely more evident. The first chapter of the demo begins by showing a troop of wanzer mechs storming some compound in futuristic Germany. The sequence is amazing. The visuals are detailed and crisp, amazingly rendered using the real-time engine. The direction is pretty dynamic throughout as well and reminded me of some of Xenosaga's early action scenes, especially when the segment ended with a wanzer flooring an enemy unit with a flying punch. The sound effects remained sharp in and out of the cinematic sequences and contributed a good amount of punch to the wanzers' attacks. (No pun intended, lol.) Story sequences were saved from the monotony of Front Mission 3's endless dialogue by featuring some competent voice actors and, as a plus, it sounds like half of the cast will be sporting some sort of European accent.

The only drawback to the game I can see, based on the demo, is that the combat sequences don't offer a lot of variety. In games like Final Fantasy Tactics your party members usually each have their own job, which in turn has one or two sets of unique abilities. With FM4, at least with the battle I played, my three characters mostly just carried around two or three types of guns. I guess that's realistic, but hopefully later in the game each wanzer will become a little more specialized.

I'll try out the remaining two-thirds of the demo later this week.