Front Mission 3

No one wants to fight.
But, sometimes, someone has to.

After an hour of play, I was planning on writing a scathing review of this game, but I kept on playing, and by the start of hour three, I was completely taken and immersed with this game.

Front Mission 3 is the third in a trilogy of games (not including the side-story games), and the first to make it to the US.

You are a high school student in Okinawa Ocean City who helps deliver wanzers for Kirishima Industries. Wanzers? What's a wanzer? First, it's pronounced vanzer. Second, mecha have been called all sorts of things, so what's so weird about wanzers? Nothing. In the first game, they mecha were called panzers. See, it's a natural evolution. You get used to it.

In the opening moments, friend Ryogo asks if you'll help deliver some new suits to the Japan Defense Force (JDF) base near-by. Whether or not you decide to help Ryogo will forever change the game. If you go with him, you are thrown into a military conspiracy and fight with a small band of ragtag soldiers against the Oceanic Community Union (OCU) and JDF along the side of the United States of the New Continent (USN). If you don't help Ryogo, you are thrown into the conspiracy on the side of the JDF and OCU. It's an amazing game. It's two parallel games. Because of a single choice, you a thrust to one of two very different sides.

I don't want to reveal two much of the plot, but it deals with the MIDAS, an auroric atomic bomb lacking any long-time radiation... the ultimate weapon.

I bought FM3 expecting a strategic wargame. Instead, I got an RPG. The actual gameplay is very similar to that of XENOGEARS's second disc, Fei sitting down and telling the player the story. FM3 takes some getting used to, but it's really something. Outside of battle, you go through long scenes as the elaborate and rich plot is woven. You have very little control during this time, sacrificing the ability to roam free in favor of an ever-deepening plotline. Give the game three hours. It will win you over.

The charas in FM3 are very full and real. You feel for them. They are richly drawn in the style seen in Konami's Metal Gear Solid. They look more like paintings than drawings. You really feel for them. I cared a lot more for Ryogo than I did for FFVIII's Zell. That's one of the big things in this game. It's better than FFVIII. FFVIII had its moments and its charas, Laguna, Irvine, and Selphie, but FM3 surpasses the game as a whole. Kazuki's relationship with Emma, similar to XENOGEARS's Fei's relationship with Elly, has a lot more meaning that FFVIII's Squall and Rinoa. Again, I don't want to go too much into it, but it's wonderful. There is a girl, Yun, who goes by the name Moneymaker. She's a spender, a hacker for hire. She's cute. She really cute. There is no place in war for little girls. I let her fight but once. I wasn't about to let a 17-year-old kid into a firefight. I cared for her that much. Still, sacrifices must be made.

The game's intricate plot is furthered by the internet. You can spend countless hours in the game's internet, sending e-mails and visiting sites. The internet is arranged in a complex three-dimensional web that takes some getting used to. You don't have to once access your laptop, but doing so draws you further into the story, reading online news about your attacks and downloading wallpapers for your desktop. I played around with the net, but it's just so big. I know I missed a lot.

It does add an entire new dimension to the story. After the botched Huan Lia attack on Shanghai, if you check your mail, your mouth will drop and you will sit there, unable to move. Kwang...

Setting up your wanzers is a detailed process. You're not going to get it on your first attempt. It'll take a little time before you stop swapping arms and legs and manage to equip a new weapon. Once you get it, it's easy. It just takes time. The interface is similar to XENOGEARS's mecha bay. A lot of this game is similar to XENOGEARS. Even some sound effects have been taken from XENOGEARS. The map travel sound in FM3 is XENOGEARS's elevator noise.

Further, there's a great injoke later in the game. You can vote for in your school's beauty contest early on. If you go back to their site later, you'll see the winner. There are four pictures. One of them is her in last year's infamous costume ball "dressed as a character from some old video game". Who's she dressed as? Elly! There are six different girls in the running. Perhaps each girl is dressed as a different SQUARE chara. It's just kinda a coincidence that the one who won is dressed up like Van Houten. Coincidence... Yeah...

In the forum where you set up your wanzers, you can alter their names and colors. I experimented. The JDF was forest green. The OCU was flame red. The USN was a light olive. Purple Haze was purple. I looked for a color for my troops. I tried urban camo (the closest thing to snow camo), grey, black, and white. Nothing looked right. Then, I realized it. My soldiers are not from a single background, but rather, have come from all walks and organizations. That is what gives us power, all that we draw together. I restored the original colors to all my wanzers.

Now, it's on to the fighting. The battles are long and hard. It allows you to play the game your own way. You go straight for a full frontal assault, skirt around the enemy and attack from behind, attack with artillery until shaken then break them with a quick strike, position snipers and target from beyond the range of retaliation, or brutally slug it out with melee weapons. The only problem is that the game ranks your performance by the speed of the battle, so if you are silently picking off your opponent, one by one, you may get a lower score than if you rush your enemy and take them out all at once.

It's an amazing game. You'll come out with stories like this...

I just through the worst battle I've ever faced in FM3. I was up against tanks, shotgun-toting mecha, and two wanzers equipped with grenades capable knocking off a good 200-300 HP of every part.

I played through it five or six times. I tried going after different targets and blocking different attacks. The grenade units are farther away, and pressing towards them means that the shotgunners can tear you apart. I didn't really go after the tanks because of their low HP and the negligible about of damage they inflict. Still, one bee sting can't kill you, but a hundred can. Finally, I had two of my mecha strong against impact wounds and two strong against fire. I went for the tanks, taking them out first. Then I split between the shotguns and grenades. Still, it was a hell of a fight. I lost three of my charas. Dennis was the only one left standing to finish off FOUR enemy mecha. I was right about to shut the thing off. Dennis only had 137 HP in his body and 11 left in his arm carrying his rifle. Still, I managed to break the arms of the shotgunners and I positioned the grenade mecha in a corner. Simply put, if they attacked, they'd be hitting themselves. The good thing about the grenade units is that when they attack, it deals damage to anything in the surrounding area of the target, including enemy units. It's upsetting when they kill one of their own units, though, as you don't get any points. Sigh.

Early in the game, you get an e-mail from Dr. Koike, telling you that he's sorry for what's happened. He tells you not to reply, afraid. I didn't. I went through the whole game, not sending him a response, afraid that JDF forces would track him down. I finally met up with him, wondering what would have happened if I replied. I cared for him and didn't want anything bad to happen.

Also, you get the chance to get a hold of an energy weapon. I pondered the ramifications of using it. Sure, it's strong, but is it morally right? It so outclasses your opponents. It's a slaughter. I equipped the gun for a training fight. It takes off 500 HP to a single enemy part. The problem, it takes a hell of a lot of AP and the energy requirements are astronomical. You can get off one shot. Then, it's crippled. It's not worth it. I like being a gentleman.

One of the most important things to keep in mind is that if you keep the mecha you start with, they will be fully maxed out halfway through the game. I kept all my original wanzers, so I was going up against machines twice as strong. Still, no matter how strong a wanzer you have, you cannot escape the great leveler. Traditionally, RPGs give you access to high power summons or spells. FM3 has nothing similar. There are no special attack options. When it comes down to it, you've got a gun and a club... Nothing more. It's a beautiful game. It puts tactics and thinking over the size of an arsenal. When you come down to the final battle, you will not believe it possible. But, when the final foe falls, you will have proved yourself through sweat and tears.

"God doesn't favor those with the biggest arsenal, only those who shoot the best."
-Voltaire
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Peter Tatara
7.10.2000

Dairy Farmers For Quebec's Independence