Tuesday, October 03, 2006


October is a quiet month in Japan. It's just the quiet before the storm, though. With the Wii, Gears of War, Blue Dragon, Gyakuten Saiban 2 DS, the Playstation 3, and a host of other titles looking to find their way onto my shelf, I can appreciate a month where my wallet isn't screaming uncle. I decided to pick up Front Mission 5, a title I had held off on picking up for some time, and I'm really glad I finally picked it up. Here are the initial impressions on the game I posted on GAF this morning:

So I picked up Front Mission 5 yesterday, despite the fact that it's been out for ages. Front Mission 3 was one of my favorite games on the PSone, and I really enjoyed the Front mission 1st remake for Psone as well. FM4, on the other hand, was an unmitigated disaster to me.

I am happy to report that so far, FM5 is positively badass. FM5 seems like a sort of epic conclusion to the series, for a number of reasons:

1) The game takes place over several years, intersecting with several of the FM games at points.

2) For the first time, you play completely from the perspective of the USN (where in all previous games, you played from the perspective of the OCU, the war rivals of the USN, or only partially from the USN perspective).

3) The title "Scars of War" really explains the somber mood of the game. The game details the life of Walter Feng and how through the years, even as a child, war continues to change and alter his life.

They've changed a couple things in the game that I was actually pretty surprised about. For one, there is now friendly fire, so if you have a unit between you and an enemy, you will hit the unit if your weapon is a shotgun or a machine gun. Also, spray from shotguns and machine guns sometimes miss enemies and hit allied units residing behind the target. Missiles seem to be smart enough to go over allied units, though.

Also, one of the coolest parts of the game is the way attack turns use a FAR more cinematic camera than past games, making it look like a CNN news report than a movie (a slightly shaky cam to illustrate a hand held camera). Some camera shots circle overhead, much like a news helicopter feed would.

Customization for the mech seems to be much improved, too. As you tune and modify parts, your mechs will slowly change in appearance as well. There is also the ability to rename and recolor the mechs, which was present in FM3 (though I'm not sure about FM4, as I played very little of it).

I have a long day of work ahead of me today, but I really look forward to coming home and playing a few hours of the game tonight. I'm really loving it so far.

I'm going to plunge head first into the game over the coming week, and post some more detailed impressions on the game. I really hope this hits US, but the chances are looking rather dismal.
More detailed impressions to come in the near future.

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