Why did I think there were more Front Missions games?

I think this is the FIRST true Mandela effect about a game seriesof me; i.e. have false or distorted memories about a game series. I coudl have sworn there was a full fledge Front Mission turned based RPG games put out in the last 10 years taht was excellent. Moreover, I though there were more 'games' the where full games and not offshoots in the series. I suppose Front Mission Evolved is not considered a horrible games, but that was more than ten years ago and seems to have very middling reviews here.

I think when Front Mission 4 came out I had assumed what followed were games that were pretty good, but I guess not. Its so weird I have this distrct impression of maore games comng out and them being okay.

With hat said, what shoudl I try to play FM4 or Front Mission Evolved? It always seemed like an neat unverse and game to play, so what shodul I be trying to play?

I really really liked front mission 3 on the PSX. It was one of those games I felt like I was the only one that liked. I played 4 but did not finish it, or even get that far, and then never touched another one. I don’t know why 3 was so specifically the one I enjoyed and couldn’t gel with the others. I remember liking the universe it was in, so much so that I almost, ALMOST subjected myself to plying Left Alive, even after the quick look with the “Enemy Combatant” moment.

As for the suggestion, I’ve no idea about Evolved, so between those two, I’d pick 4. But if you can try 3, that’s my off-the-list pick.

Front Mission is one of those series that has one absolutely amazing game and the rest goes between middling and trash..

Just play Front Mission 3. It's not going to be the same experience as back in 99, but it's still a great game. And it doesn't even look that bad, the art style has a good retro feel to it.

I have played Front Mission Evolved, and it is a not very good fps game... Part of the game is using the Wanzers and part is playing on foot, both are fps. Now, the Wanzer part is not good, part due to a very strange design decision, that is hard to explain, but I will try: Thing is you likely will jump from mission to mission without ever seeing the screen to customize your Wanzer, because while you can do this, unless you die in the mission or do some UI and menus search (which I can't remember) or are in a mission which force you to change a piece, you mostly like to miss the screen.

The plot, without spoiling much, is strange, like it came, if memory did not fail me, right at the time square was deeply confused on how to appeal to western market, also outside of other Front Mission game, I am not familiar with it themes. That said, Evolved feel strange, like they try to do to something, maybe more realistic or with appeal, but missed the mark so hard that the plot and theme feel like stripped from Gundam but without the key part while also not feeling much like a Front Mission game. You have even a sort Char wannabe, Wanzers which become golden (yeah, there is a whole plot of you getting sort of superpowers, which is an excuse to give you that slow time power that lots of fps of the time had) and use swords. Character are often introduced but not developed at all, in fact, some were reduced to traits, like dude which is Sun Tzu fanboy or dude which think he is a knight.

Would I recommend playing? I don't know.

Just play the newest, hottest game in the Front Mission universe, Left Alive. I swear the whole game isn't just a burning tirefire, nosireebob

Its so weird because I never thought teh pubication pace was up there with Persona or Paper Mario, but I I guess the word "Front Mission" would pop up every five years and I was not not watching close enough.

I might take some advice and see if I can snag a copy fo FM3. Thanks for sharing everyone, it was good to get a broad perspective form people.

Don't play Front Mission Evolved. I hated it.

Instead, try Phantom Brigade for an experience that's closer to the proper Front Mission formula than Evolved. I too lament the lack of a proper Front Mission game.

@monkeyking1969: If you can locate it, I personally thought FM5 was pretty good but maybe based on some of the comments it wasn't great? I think they expanded well on the link system and it made combat more dynamic and placement more thoughtful. Of course you have to be fine with Emulation for the full translation.

5 is good but relies heavily on paying of the entire series so i wouldn't reccomend it as a starter. id say either start with one and just go in order if you like it or just play 3 which is the one that works best standalone.

So I just bought FM 3 after shopping around. I decied I just wanted a loosey non-boxed, non-manula copy; so I bought one cheap. Since ist already on ist way I don't mind saying what people WANTED for the game on eBay and other places was highway robbery for a NTSC-NA copy. I guess Square sold a bizzillion of them in Japan, they re-isseud it half a dozen times, so those go for cheap. LOL. But, the North American ones never got that treament because they market wan't there.

I'm glad a snagged a cheap copy of FM 3, the copies of the series on PS2 and PS3 are much cheaper. I have been playing rips of my PSone discs on my computer lately - a much nicer way to play PSone games for sure - that why I needed the disc only.

Obviously this speaks to me not being overly familiar with these games but I always combine Front Mission and MechWarrior in my brain.

Since I only got the disc, I had to download a manula. I'm not sure if I'll need it, but it can't hurt to have a b/w copy just in case. I applausde eStarLand.com for sending me a pristeen dics; there is not a scratch or blemish on it.

I slapped together some art for the CD case I will made for it too. Not perfect, it not meant to fool anyone, it just will allow me to see what is in my storage bin.

Whoops wrong back cover...but don't care. LOL

FM3 is a hell of a game; I'll be interested to hear what you think of it when all is said and done. Played it again last year and was really impressed with the variety of mech builds, and the music especially. The story is kind of rough (translation-wise), but I still enjoy it; some brilliant character portraits in that game. Brilliant and also "brilliant".

Would love it if FM2 got a proper full english translation though; that game has an extremely rough first few levels, and I just couldn't be bothered to beat my head against that wall without really knowing what was happening in the story.