I'm convinced game devs in the 2010s had an entire repository of main character models that they passed around with eachother. I've seen characters that look exactly like dylan in dozens of other games lol
the sad thing is that the "tough girl boss smugface" archetype we see today in games has surpassed and outlasted the "bald military grunt" design they have back then and has actually become more overused. There was a time that every game had a slide button and later every game had a bow, its like game developers meet up at developers conference and say "ok we did this in a game and people like it, metrics say if anyone does it we will make more money as a industry so everyone do it" What about making something new? Nope, same thing everywhere in the industry at the same time. Why buy new games then since every game is gonna be exactly the same?
The big reason for this is that during this time there was an idea of having to "Westernize" games for a Western audience due to the success of the Western videogame market. Two glaring issues with this is 1.) we were seeing a game made for Western audiences through the eyes of a Japanese perspective which often came out in hilarious and disastrous ways. And 2.) People played Japanese games for it's unique Japanese flavor, style and design. There's a rule about writing that goes "write what you know" something Japanese devs had to learn a hard way.
The 2010s was the period of noticing stagnation was occurring in games and outside, but then we massively overcorrected when social politics too, over. All you saw back then was some brunette dude with or without a beard, bland colors and the staples. Granted a lot of innovation took place, but the artistry was lost in West and East because they were trying to tackle the technology foremost.
For me it's Japanese games. It feels like every Japanese game and anime(3d animated movies in particular) studio uses the same 3D animation templates since the PS1 era. There's always one or two animations that made me say: "That looks familiar..." For example I swore the animation where characters looked up in surprise at something overhead is used by all Japanese gaming cutscene or 3D animated movie. The latest example would the Gundam Requiem for Vengeance on Netflix. In the first episode the Zaku team were having dinner after a battle. I immediately felt I have seen that scene before not once but numerous times before in other Japanese games and movies. Funnily enough this Japanese proclivity to repetition immediately killed my interest with Japanese games the moment they arrived on the PC.
As a Gundam fan, I see the main character of this game like an Americanized Amuro Ray. Young tech genius who is thrust into piloting a mecha during war. The difference is Amuro was a smelly shut-in teen, who was legit traumatized by the events of the series. He could also be moody, refused to fight at times and went AWOL at one point. Gundam also can have goofy, weird and psychotic antagonists who often contrast with the serious war themes. It just seems like some of the Square writers were fans of Gundam, but also wanted to make a game accessible to the American sci-fi action blockbuster fans.
As someone with 300+ hours on this game, I can confidently say that, if FME has no fans, I'm dead. So yeah, I'd agree, it's a solid 6/10 through-and-through, but it's one of those "you had to be there" when it launched. Yes, AC4+AC4A were options, but as someone like me who didn't own a PS3/Xbox 360 at the time, the closest PC players had at the time was HAWKEN. So yeah, the story mode is full of so much cheese, and I say so endearingly. To this day I still quote it like a bad b-movie, something like "deliver us from the ghosts of our past" says so much and yet nothing at all it's hilarious. That aside, where this game shined (and I mean so in the most charitable way possible) was the multiplayer. Playing 4v4 in these awesomely modeled Wanzers brought to life with Michael Bay Transformers-esque foley effects, seeing their hulking movement ramp up as they skated across a total of 5 multiplayer maps, fighting people all over the world with Call of Duty like progression systems (prestige and all), it's fully divorced from the story mode. You won't find the medieval-looking boss Wanzers or EDGE here, it's just straight up a real-time version of what the games used to be. You saw people coming to grips with the game, experimenting with different loadouts, colors, weapons, equipment, etc., and there was even specific builds and playstyles you can predict your opponent would be playing based on where in the world they were playing. While they felt like they were straight out of D&D, the weapon "perks" like poison bullets or incendiary rockets added some variety to weapons to spice things up, and the melee weapons were more like boffer fighting than it was the beam sabers of AC -- throwing people into hilarious "boxing" matches of stunlocking each other until one of you got close enough to a healthpack only to keep on swinging. And while limb damage was kind of busted, I'd take that over AC6's stagger system because it at least made some type of sense. Then it kind of "devolved" overtime. PvP became the same faces, filled with hackers, people leaving lobbies leading to really unfair 4v1 fights, the "meta" being equipping the Kehei + agility backpack + small missile pods which were impossible to counter unless you memorized the map layout and knew how to guide their missiles into level geometry and pressuring them to rage quit because they can't kill you, annoying glitches like having the one machinegunfire.wav loop through the entire 15 minute round, no backfilling, and the 5 maps to play on with the same BGM losing their luster. I know, in today's standards, it sounds incredibly awful. But we made the best of it. When the enemy team rage quit, higher level players would sit on the sidelines and go AFK to keep it fair for the greener players to duke it out and get the EXP so they can unlock better parts. There was honor among higher level players to not "play the meta" and equip a missile pod, but instead skill or build check them. It never got old finding some Russian player who clearly hacked their account show up in a Kehei + agility + 4 missile pod only for me to roll up with my Grapple + healing + sniper rifle and just snap-aim on their legs and blow them off in one shot, then immediately see "____ left the game." Or staying up for hours until the sunrise fighting your rival in Japan who also wielded the same sniper and perks, only for him to message you later before logging off and jumping into Call of Duty Black Ops. I was the guy who bought multiple copies and gifted them to IRL friends so we could still populate the multiplayer to keep it alive while we could (the game is P2P with no servers, so in the off-chance that there's at least 4 people in one lobby, you technically could start a match a decade and a half later which you can't say about some modern games). And after watching your video, damn, it took me back. Again, it was like a fever dream, everything about how Western the game is, the cheesy story mode, to the bare-bones UI, animations, and VFX, but to your point, if this was a Battletech game or something, I don't think I would have given it the chance. There's just something about how beautiful those Wanzer designs hold up, even being more iconic, in my opinion, than the best ACs. LEFT ALIVE may have been the last time we've seen Wanzers in 3D, but in my opinion, FME at least had more Wanzers and did the work in interpreting their iconic designs into that console generation. Compared to the alternative, HAWKEN, a Wanzer is an easy clap for mecha designs. And, while not a negative towards AC, while AC expects you to use your imagination with the pilots, FME actually has the pilots rendered. Albeit their 3D models are kinda busted, I'd recommend at least looking at the concept art to see what they were trying to go for. They might not be on-brand with Front Mission, being way too "anime" to pass the sniff test, but at least they tried. But yeah, RIP FME 2010-2010, it really was a product of its time.
I was hoping someone with the online experience would post, and I'm glad you did. That part of the game is dead now, sadly - even though they are still selling the DLC for it. I really wish it was still active, and I could have experienced that part of the game myself. It sounds like that was where the fun was, but it died too soon. I really wish I could do the co-op stuff!
HAWKEN MENTIONED - Man, do I miss that game in its original form. Genuinely ahead of its time, and while they weren't my favorite by any means, I did appreciate the quirky, crusty mech designs. I never even thought to try FME's multiplayer, sounds fun. I loved the mech designs from FME and thought the combat was about as fun a mech experience as was available on PC at the time; just the Saturday morning story presentation made me wince repeatedly. Multiplayer would have skipped that part, might have enjoyed it a lot more.
The difference between an anime that uses that set up well and something that uses it badly is the follow-through. In anime like the OG Gundam and Evangelion, those kids jumping into the cockpit for the first time isn't presented as a heroic moment. It is shown as horrifying and traumatizing. Those anime protags aren't wise-cracking Marvel characters who don't take anything seriously. The battles they fight mess them up.
@@fattiger6957 At the same time they do have anime that present the comedy and lighter side of the same situation. Not all anime are created equal as many are in fact, bad or just follow a formula. Japan's issue is they are heavily stagnant and resistant to change even to that level and why stand outs get the attention they do. It's the same problem Western comics had in the past before politics crippled it further.
There actually is a (semi)reason for why the on-foot sections are so utterly underdeveloped. They were never supposed to be their own mission type in the first place. From what I remember,they were developed as a supplementary mode for the Wanzer. Basicly giving you the ability to disembark during normal gameplay,doing small objectives or possibly hijacking enemy Wanzer´s(think Front Mission 3,Gundam Battle Operations,Metal Assault or Hardcore Mecha;though to be fair,the hijacking part is merely own conjuncture). They couldnt get it to work/ran out of time so instead of scraping the concept,they threw the assets into their own(absolutely horrendous)sections.
I tried my best to forget this game ever existed to maintain my love for Front Mission, but I could never forget the fact that this game had zombie wanzers...
My experience of this game when it was new, having never actually played a FM game, but hearing about them: • Overall - "it's almost-fine, pretty disappointing considering its potential" • Mechs - "actually rad, I want one - feel pretty undercooked in practice tho" • Tone / story / characters - "so blandly aimed at preteen boys it hurts, I want my time back" • That one bugged on-foot mission of the PC port - "FFFFUUUUUU" [ ALT+F4, abandon game ] Square has a talent for shoe-horning, don't they? Mechanically, this game reminds me of Shogo: Mobile Armored Division, which is a literally ancient and broken game made by Monolith in the late 90's. This game looks a lot better, but I wouldn't say it plays better.
It was really weird during the time Japanese Publishers were all on the "Let's gets Western Studios to Revive/Reboot our franchises!", Lost Planet 3, Yaiba Ninja Gaiden Z, and this one killed the franchises they were supposed to save.
It's obviously not the best game but Evolved has set the basis for a really good 3rd person action Front Mission game. All this game needed was to change the health and ammo drop to resupply stations that doubled as checkpoints, get rid of the on-rails sections, generally refine the gameplay a bit and obviously get a better writer for the story. Basically turn it into a spiritual successor to Votoms PS2 and the cancelled Project Hon game. I know that Front Mission is defined as a TRPG but these days its feels rare we get mecha games that we actually directly control, even more rare to control mechs that are on the smaller size with the ability to roller dash and aren't too overpowered that tanks and helicopters can be a good match against them. At least Evolved is more Front Mission than Left Alive will ever be because the Wanzers that Front Mission is mostly about is front and center.
It certainly had the basis for a good action game, but it didn't happen. This might have also been due to Double Helix developing it, and they weren't familiar with something like this yet. And I agree, Evolved at least had more mechs.
"Wait, Double Helix isn't that great of a dev? I remember loving one of their games..." One wiki search later... "Oh... that's because only one of their games was worth loving..." (Strider)
Waiting for Front Mission to take inspirations from franchise's own Dog Life manga, seems to have everything series seems to strive for. Though probs be too "risky" for modern Squinx shareholders
I've honestly not played enough newer Square games to know what the heck is going on with them. The last big on I played was Final Fantasy 16, before that it was 15 - but it was super incomplete, and I wasn't happy the update to add things came out after I beat certain areas.
I remember renting this, played it through. As i recall by the end when things start one shotting they expect you to heavily lean into the edge system. Like you i never used it up till that point but i swear it had unlimited use in that late section.
I remember playing the demo for this game. While I'm not the biggest Front Mission fan, this game always felt very off to me. Seeing more of the characters and story was quite eye opening, but not in a good way. During the Xbox 360 generation, I remember a lot of Japanese publisher were quite aggressive about appealing to the West to the point where, for me at least, it felt like they were ashamed of their previous work. I do hope that Square revisits the Front Mission series someday, as I would love to see more of it (either third person mech sim, or strategy RPG).
I would love it if they did either of those two. I don't mind the 3rd person approach, and I think they had a cool idea with Left Alive - but they fumbled it so hard.
i really need to finish this game sometime. it does have more wanzer combat than left alive, and like you said at least evolved doesn't force you into stealth gameplay. kinda strange why i haven't gone back and finished the game. i didnt get very far. there seems to be something im just not jelling well with. im thinking its just the characters and story really do not hook me at all. villains i cant take seriously and allies i dont find charming enough. the story is kinda a typical "villians want to start war because they want war and love war", its pretty common in games and anime. when this is the motivation then its only made interesting based solely on the villains. when its easier for me to laugh at the villain then to get goose bumps, then there is no real investment in trying to defeat him. i remember i busted out laughing when the villain shouted "now show me your EDGE!!!" "stop the warmongers" also easily leads into the trope of "old enemies become allies", in this case your new allies have to be personalities you can get invested in, but all allies in this game are just meh. Story, villians, allies, all failed so badly that i just dont want to play a mech game that seems to be made for me.
You're right, there is just no meat to this game. Playing the Mech sections is fun, but its all so short lived. The story was such a big focus and its nothing.
The issue with the story is that they should have made them more less realistic and more anime styled, then it wont be so jarring. The story is mostly structured like your typical mech anime anyway.
As someone who has watched, and owns, about 2 bazillion mech animes - I can say that if it was, it would be the most sterilized and uninspired of mech animes its like.
its funny that you say that western devs write games to avoid online backlash because right now we are at a point that they have avoided online backlash for so long that everyone is tired of that kind of safe writing and it has become so cringe and predictable and people are now the online backlash against this writing and if anything want to return to x350/ps3 writing. I thought the story in this game was terrible, it felt it was written by people who grew up watching american voices without understanding the language and they made a game that they copied that, without understanding anything. They just say words, they dont make any sense. The thing i hated the most in the story is how the bad guys were few and never died, they were always in your face and acting all cool and edgy and the developers were so certain they did such a great job with these characters that they couldnt just kill them off, they had to shove them in your face constantly because they such good characters apparently that players would want more of them. "EDGE SAVES LIVES" As an edgelord i agree, edgy stuff is funny because its so over the top and surreal no one can take it seriously, its funny, i dont think the goofy reddit hipster humor that passes for "humor" today is funny. People dont still make memes about metal gear rising revegeance because they hate its writing.
It really was just an imitation all round, I agree. The EDGE SAVES LIVES thing made no sense to me, as it's a military tech no matter how you slice it.
I don't mind spoilers, since im not interested in playing this one, but i would suggest adding a timestamp so that you can discuss the story with those who are not interested or have already played it
The game is like 4-5 hours long and mostly everything I show or say took place in the first 2 hours. It's just short, there isn't much to the story. A lot of the cutscenes here are in the first few acts.
I just marathoned Front Mission 1-5. My favorite game franchise of all time. I'm so dissapointed that Square Enix doesn't find value in this IP. Can you imagine a Front Mission 6 with the FF7 Remake budget? Of course Toshiro Tsuchida-san is no longer with Square Enix, but but I think they can definitely cook if they wanted to. Also, not touching this game with a 10 foot pole. Thank you for the review.
That would be amazing. I'd love to see some epic scope re-tellings with an action focus too, but not like they have been. Evolved is not really great, and it doesn't feel like Front Mission - the only thing that might take up your time though is the crashes on the walking levels. Otherwise, it's a really short game because they wanted people to play online more than they actually did. I'm going to be playing through all the games this year, too. So, I hope the originals are better then what I've seen so far (and Gun Hazard).
@@conflicthorizon I think the issue with that game was that its extremely high budget went to how it looked and sounded, not how it felt or played. What a travesty.
as long as Toriyama isnt the main writer I will give FM another chance... ohhhh god... Toriyama....... still not touching this game because of his involvement after 3rd Bday
Da Han Zong, O.C.U., U.C.S, thats pretty much the only things that indicate that it is a game in the front mission universe. well maybe except some Wanzer designs.
@@KeiNova speaking of FM5. are you gonna review the rest of the series? and obviously roast the horrible remaks of FM1 and 2 ? (possibly even the outragously bad remake of FM3 judging by the trailer) ? would be a fun watch.
Well there was japanese-only real-time online wanzer action game Front Mission Online. I think it's not playable anymore, since it didn't have any offline component. Another argument against games as a service.
There was someone trying to get it going again, but yeah I've heard of that and it didn't work. I didn't mention anything about the online here though because it isn't active anymore.
I would asume we will be getting a steel battalion retrospective huh? its an interesting case that the most panned entry of the games happens to be developed by the developers of.... Dark Souls
I'm hoping as soon as I can get the channel moving enough that I can afford the controller. I'm not surprised about the Dark Souls devs, they made a lot of stuff, and it ranges from absolutely archaic and unapproachable - to innovative and legendary.
I remembered how bummed I was when I finish this game. As a big FM fan this was disappointing. Doesn't help that this game was a ripoff of Front Mission Gun Hazard.
To add on, I can 100% say the state of FM is not in good hands, with the shit remakes and Sqaure not knowing what to do with the IP, it's not looking good.
I wish it was, because this game is just bland. There isn't anything to grasp onto or have you wanted to play again aside from pointless collectables and achievements.
Played it thought it was fine got to the first on foot section game kept crashing couldn't be bothered fixing it left it at that. Didn't gain anything or lose anything out of it so it was a wash.
So like... is there a reason for calling the mechs "Wandsers" in subtitles? Just wondering, thought it was a typo in the Left Alive video. Don't get me wrong, it's better than pronouncing them as "Vanssers" but I feel like I'm missing a meme here.
It's like Armored Core meets Mechassault. Build your own robot, and then have arcade-y but not super in-depth fun with it... but worse in both aspects. Also, like Mechassault, the story is pretty lackluster, and there's a lot of vibrant colors in this supposedly dour war story. Also, hearing you rattle off the character tropes at the beginning of the video made me think of Gears of War and just how tropey most of that series is. I still love Gears of War, but its story is not its strong suit outside of some of its character writing.
Yeah, GoW was a pretty tropey game with all its generic tough guys and same-y stuff going on. I've never thought about it before, despite playing the first three games through countless times.
So why cant the main character a rockstar with an outlandish personality or a manipulative sociopath who is good at inspiring others to commit violence? Why cant the story be about a religious war between colonial invaders from the edge of the galaxy and the locals who have lived on earth for all of history? I thought mecha anime was supposed to be about ridiculous things happening The mainline games all attempt to do something new to set itself apart. Front Mission 1 has that battletech feel, two a rebellion plot, three has nukes and citytech, five is a soldering simulator. Judging from your review I dont see anything unique and memorable about this title
Because they wanted to make a generic western-style sci-fi shooter, just with robots. This came straight out of the era of Japanese publishers desperately trying to "westernize" their games which mostly led to disastrous results.
I bought Front Mission: Evolved new, and it bored me to tears. It was thoroughly mediocre in everything it did. It stands out as one of the biggest video game disappointments of my life.
@ I was going to watch that video next because I don’t remember it at all. And I was a regular reader of Game Informer and other outlets back in the day. EDIT: so I’m curious of how bad and what kind of disaster it is, because I see you talking about it in this vid.
Sadly, I'd played these last two games hoping for a hidden gem. I don't try to play bad games, I just commit to my plans for a week. Though, what I'm playing for this coming week is pretty good atm
you listed it was helmed by the people who handled ff x-2 and the 13 and sequels series which are some if not the worst games writing and story and design wise in the franchise w x-2 having at least a great combat/job system and thats it thats the problem right there it got handled by people who made objectively the worst games square enix at the time had made and it explains why 7 remake is honestly a gigantic let down as well as falsely advertised scam
Development was helmed by Double Helix who were significantly worse, if anything. Those two wrote it and well, at least the stories in those weren't generic was what I was getting at.
It would be insane to think all fan service has substance. Many anime that had panty shots or boobs jiggling as if gravity departed had no real plot beyond something basic. Not every will be important or serve a greater purpose and that has been the case in Front Mission in the past. FM2 was criticized for being a weak entry, if I recall. There are the muscle guys that are tropes to a T in many games, so I think it is just a thing that perhaps dudes getting older or married get grumpy about if they aren't into social justice. Remember they wanted this to be Western, action movie and that always translates to something cheesy in Japan unless real thought is put into it. Silent Hill is not the standard when most other attempts are exaggerations and that goes for Metal Gear Solid more than any other IP.
It would be insane, and I don't care if it does or doesn't. I was just saying, I personally don't mind it being there - as long as the character has a reason to be there. No social justice here, everyone has different tastes and opinions that they are perfectly fine to express whichever way they like.
![[Mr Caption] No Todds, No Masters critique Fallout 4 (reupload)](/img/1.gif)
I'm convinced game devs in the 2010s had an entire repository of main character models that they passed around with eachother. I've seen characters that look exactly like dylan in dozens of other games lol
I swear I have too. Its the most generic thing on planet earth.
the sad thing is that the "tough girl boss smugface" archetype we see today in games has surpassed and outlasted the "bald military grunt" design they have back then and has actually become more overused. There was a time that every game had a slide button and later every game had a bow, its like game developers meet up at developers conference and say "ok we did this in a game and people like it, metrics say if anyone does it we will make more money as a industry so everyone do it"
What about making something new? Nope, same thing everywhere in the industry at the same time. Why buy new games then since every game is gonna be exactly the same?
The big reason for this is that during this time there was an idea of having to "Westernize" games for a Western audience due to the success of the Western videogame market. Two glaring issues with this is 1.) we were seeing a game made for Western audiences through the eyes of a Japanese perspective which often came out in hilarious and disastrous ways. And 2.) People played Japanese games for it's unique Japanese flavor, style and design. There's a rule about writing that goes "write what you know" something Japanese devs had to learn a hard way.
The 2010s was the period of noticing stagnation was occurring in games and outside, but then we massively overcorrected when social politics too, over. All you saw back then was some brunette dude with or without a beard, bland colors and the staples. Granted a lot of innovation took place, but the artistry was lost in West and East because they were trying to tackle the technology foremost.
For me it's Japanese games. It feels like every Japanese game and anime(3d animated movies in particular) studio uses the same 3D animation templates since the PS1 era. There's always one or two animations that made me say: "That looks familiar..." For example I swore the animation where characters looked up in surprise at something overhead is used by all Japanese gaming cutscene or 3D animated movie.
The latest example would the Gundam Requiem for Vengeance on Netflix. In the first episode the Zaku team were having dinner after a battle. I immediately felt I have seen that scene before not once but numerous times before in other Japanese games and movies.
Funnily enough this Japanese proclivity to repetition immediately killed my interest with Japanese games the moment they arrived on the PC.
As a Gundam fan, I see the main character of this game like an Americanized Amuro Ray. Young tech genius who is thrust into piloting a mecha during war. The difference is Amuro was a smelly shut-in teen, who was legit traumatized by the events of the series. He could also be moody, refused to fight at times and went AWOL at one point.
Gundam also can have goofy, weird and psychotic antagonists who often contrast with the serious war themes.
It just seems like some of the Square writers were fans of Gundam, but also wanted to make a game accessible to the American sci-fi action blockbuster fans.
So, they basically ended up making G-Savior fan-fiction?
Wow, that is an eerily accurate description of this game.
As someone with 300+ hours on this game, I can confidently say that, if FME has no fans, I'm dead. So yeah, I'd agree, it's a solid 6/10 through-and-through, but it's one of those "you had to be there" when it launched. Yes, AC4+AC4A were options, but as someone like me who didn't own a PS3/Xbox 360 at the time, the closest PC players had at the time was HAWKEN. So yeah, the story mode is full of so much cheese, and I say so endearingly. To this day I still quote it like a bad b-movie, something like "deliver us from the ghosts of our past" says so much and yet nothing at all it's hilarious.
That aside, where this game shined (and I mean so in the most charitable way possible) was the multiplayer. Playing 4v4 in these awesomely modeled Wanzers brought to life with Michael Bay Transformers-esque foley effects, seeing their hulking movement ramp up as they skated across a total of 5 multiplayer maps, fighting people all over the world with Call of Duty like progression systems (prestige and all), it's fully divorced from the story mode. You won't find the medieval-looking boss Wanzers or EDGE here, it's just straight up a real-time version of what the games used to be. You saw people coming to grips with the game, experimenting with different loadouts, colors, weapons, equipment, etc., and there was even specific builds and playstyles you can predict your opponent would be playing based on where in the world they were playing. While they felt like they were straight out of D&D, the weapon "perks" like poison bullets or incendiary rockets added some variety to weapons to spice things up, and the melee weapons were more like boffer fighting than it was the beam sabers of AC -- throwing people into hilarious "boxing" matches of stunlocking each other until one of you got close enough to a healthpack only to keep on swinging. And while limb damage was kind of busted, I'd take that over AC6's stagger system because it at least made some type of sense.
Then it kind of "devolved" overtime. PvP became the same faces, filled with hackers, people leaving lobbies leading to really unfair 4v1 fights, the "meta" being equipping the Kehei + agility backpack + small missile pods which were impossible to counter unless you memorized the map layout and knew how to guide their missiles into level geometry and pressuring them to rage quit because they can't kill you, annoying glitches like having the one machinegunfire.wav loop through the entire 15 minute round, no backfilling, and the 5 maps to play on with the same BGM losing their luster.
I know, in today's standards, it sounds incredibly awful. But we made the best of it. When the enemy team rage quit, higher level players would sit on the sidelines and go AFK to keep it fair for the greener players to duke it out and get the EXP so they can unlock better parts. There was honor among higher level players to not "play the meta" and equip a missile pod, but instead skill or build check them. It never got old finding some Russian player who clearly hacked their account show up in a Kehei + agility + 4 missile pod only for me to roll up with my Grapple + healing + sniper rifle and just snap-aim on their legs and blow them off in one shot, then immediately see "____ left the game." Or staying up for hours until the sunrise fighting your rival in Japan who also wielded the same sniper and perks, only for him to message you later before logging off and jumping into Call of Duty Black Ops. I was the guy who bought multiple copies and gifted them to IRL friends so we could still populate the multiplayer to keep it alive while we could (the game is P2P with no servers, so in the off-chance that there's at least 4 people in one lobby, you technically could start a match a decade and a half later which you can't say about some modern games).
And after watching your video, damn, it took me back. Again, it was like a fever dream, everything about how Western the game is, the cheesy story mode, to the bare-bones UI, animations, and VFX, but to your point, if this was a Battletech game or something, I don't think I would have given it the chance. There's just something about how beautiful those Wanzer designs hold up, even being more iconic, in my opinion, than the best ACs. LEFT ALIVE may have been the last time we've seen Wanzers in 3D, but in my opinion, FME at least had more Wanzers and did the work in interpreting their iconic designs into that console generation. Compared to the alternative, HAWKEN, a Wanzer is an easy clap for mecha designs. And, while not a negative towards AC, while AC expects you to use your imagination with the pilots, FME actually has the pilots rendered. Albeit their 3D models are kinda busted, I'd recommend at least looking at the concept art to see what they were trying to go for. They might not be on-brand with Front Mission, being way too "anime" to pass the sniff test, but at least they tried.
But yeah, RIP FME 2010-2010, it really was a product of its time.
I was hoping someone with the online experience would post, and I'm glad you did. That part of the game is dead now, sadly - even though they are still selling the DLC for it. I really wish it was still active, and I could have experienced that part of the game myself. It sounds like that was where the fun was, but it died too soon. I really wish I could do the co-op stuff!
HAWKEN MENTIONED - Man, do I miss that game in its original form. Genuinely ahead of its time, and while they weren't my favorite by any means, I did appreciate the quirky, crusty mech designs.
I never even thought to try FME's multiplayer, sounds fun. I loved the mech designs from FME and thought the combat was about as fun a mech experience as was available on PC at the time; just the Saturday morning story presentation made me wince repeatedly. Multiplayer would have skipped that part, might have enjoyed it a lot more.
5:13 this sounds exactly, EXACTLY like every anime lmao. Except in Front Mission Evolved, the protagonist is actually an adult and not 14.
Pretty much. I didn't really get his complaints when there is no way he hasn't seen anime with setups near identical.
The difference between an anime that uses that set up well and something that uses it badly is the follow-through. In anime like the OG Gundam and Evangelion, those kids jumping into the cockpit for the first time isn't presented as a heroic moment. It is shown as horrifying and traumatizing.
Those anime protags aren't wise-cracking Marvel characters who don't take anything seriously. The battles they fight mess them up.
@@fattiger6957 At the same time they do have anime that present the comedy and lighter side of the same situation. Not all anime are created equal as many are in fact, bad or just follow a formula. Japan's issue is they are heavily stagnant and resistant to change even to that level and why stand outs get the attention they do. It's the same problem Western comics had in the past before politics crippled it further.
Sounds like the really bad and boring ones, yes!
I have, but that wasn't the point.
There actually is a (semi)reason for why the on-foot sections are so utterly underdeveloped.
They were never supposed to be their own mission type in the first place.
From what I remember,they were developed as a supplementary mode for the Wanzer.
Basicly giving you the ability to disembark during normal gameplay,doing small objectives or possibly hijacking enemy Wanzer´s(think Front Mission 3,Gundam Battle Operations,Metal Assault or Hardcore Mecha;though to be fair,the hijacking part is merely own conjuncture).
They couldnt get it to work/ran out of time so instead of scraping the concept,they threw the assets into their own(absolutely horrendous)sections.
That makes so much sense, especially as to why Dylan always has a rocket launcher strapped to his back.
NGL, the Zombie Wanzer fight had me on the floor back in the day.
Yeah, I mean - its just magic lol
Honestly, Evolution always felt more like an attempt at imitating the first two Lost Planet games than imitating Armored Core.
I can see that too, Lost Planet is still leagues better.
I rate FM:E a Beige out of Unflavoured Oatmeal.
Mmmmm, accurate!
7:54 best character desing ever
Probably the best one in the game you see for about 30 seconds total.
after playing left alive, this game is a masterpiece. At least it has mechs.😆
I agree when it comes to the gameplay!
Nice work will you do Mecha Knights: Nightmare be next?
I still have to buy it. Hopefully soon as I can get it plus the DLC.
This game absolutely felt like it was supposed to be a mech assault game
Also "the sexy tuna in the tuna can" sent me 🤣🤣🤣
I held that line deep in my heart XD!! I wasn't going to cut it!
And yeah, it really does feel like it.
At least Mech Assault felt smooth in all its arcade-y glory
I tried my best to forget this game ever existed to maintain my love for Front Mission, but I could never forget the fact that this game had zombie wanzers...
Yeahhhhh.... I mean, does it really count if you don't want it to though? lol
Steel Battalion with on-foot pilot exploration should of been what we got.❤
@@StiffAftermath that would have been legendary
My experience of this game when it was new, having never actually played a FM game, but hearing about them:
• Overall - "it's almost-fine, pretty disappointing considering its potential"
• Mechs - "actually rad, I want one - feel pretty undercooked in practice tho"
• Tone / story / characters - "so blandly aimed at preteen boys it hurts, I want my time back"
• That one bugged on-foot mission of the PC port - "FFFFUUUUUU" [ ALT+F4, abandon game ]
Square has a talent for shoe-horning, don't they? Mechanically, this game reminds me of Shogo: Mobile Armored Division, which is a literally ancient and broken game made by Monolith in the late 90's. This game looks a lot better, but I wouldn't say it plays better.
That bug is a pain in the ass! I hate it so much! Good little 'review' thank you!
It was really weird during the time Japanese Publishers were all on the "Let's gets Western Studios to Revive/Reboot our franchises!", Lost Planet 3, Yaiba Ninja Gaiden Z, and this one killed the franchises they were supposed to save.
Oh, all of those hurt me so bad. I liked LP3 though, but the rest... ouch Yaiba is a sore spot.
It's obviously not the best game but Evolved has set the basis for a really good 3rd person action Front Mission game. All this game needed was to change the health and ammo drop to resupply stations that doubled as checkpoints, get rid of the on-rails sections, generally refine the gameplay a bit and obviously get a better writer for the story. Basically turn it into a spiritual successor to Votoms PS2 and the cancelled Project Hon game. I know that Front Mission is defined as a TRPG but these days its feels rare we get mecha games that we actually directly control, even more rare to control mechs that are on the smaller size with the ability to roller dash and aren't too overpowered that tanks and helicopters can be a good match against them. At least Evolved is more Front Mission than Left Alive will ever be because the Wanzers that Front Mission is mostly about is front and center.
It certainly had the basis for a good action game, but it didn't happen. This might have also been due to Double Helix developing it, and they weren't familiar with something like this yet. And I agree, Evolved at least had more mechs.
"Wait, Double Helix isn't that great of a dev? I remember loving one of their games..."
One wiki search later...
"Oh... that's because only one of their games was worth loving..." (Strider)
@@Naedlus yeah strider was good, but at the time it was only Homecoming and Gi Joe under their belt
Waiting for Front Mission to take inspirations from franchise's own Dog Life manga, seems to have everything series seems to strive for. Though probs be too "risky" for modern Squinx shareholders
I've honestly not played enough newer Square games to know what the heck is going on with them. The last big on I played was Final Fantasy 16, before that it was 15 - but it was super incomplete, and I wasn't happy the update to add things came out after I beat certain areas.
Absolutely great video per usual woohoo🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉
First comment from one of my favorite people :P
I remember renting this, played it through. As i recall by the end when things start one shotting they expect you to heavily lean into the edge system. Like you i never used it up till that point but i swear it had unlimited use in that late section.
Weirdly, I'd run into the opposite problem where the gauge just wouldn't go up.
If I remember correctly I got to the final boss of this game and stopped. I wasn't able to beat it and I wasn't motivated to go back.
I had to beat it twice, and I don't blame you on that one.
Front Mission: Assault Horizon
Like Ace Combat?
@KeiNova yeah I like Ace Combat
your vides are so cool looking
Thank you so much :D
I remember playing the demo for this game. While I'm not the biggest Front Mission fan, this game always felt very off to me. Seeing more of the characters and story was quite eye opening, but not in a good way. During the Xbox 360 generation, I remember a lot of Japanese publisher were quite aggressive about appealing to the West to the point where, for me at least, it felt like they were ashamed of their previous work. I do hope that Square revisits the Front Mission series someday, as I would love to see more of it (either third person mech sim, or strategy RPG).
I would love it if they did either of those two. I don't mind the 3rd person approach, and I think they had a cool idea with Left Alive - but they fumbled it so hard.
Armored core at home..
Wait, isn't Armored Core already at home?
i really need to finish this game sometime.
it does have more wanzer combat than left alive, and like you said at least evolved doesn't force you into stealth gameplay.
kinda strange why i haven't gone back and finished the game. i didnt get very far. there seems to be something im just not jelling well with. im thinking its just the characters and story really do not hook me at all. villains i cant take seriously and allies i dont find charming enough.
the story is kinda a typical "villians want to start war because they want war and love war", its pretty common in games and anime. when this is the motivation then its only made interesting based solely on the villains. when its easier for me to laugh at the villain then to get goose bumps, then there is no real investment in trying to defeat him.
i remember i busted out laughing when the villain shouted "now show me your EDGE!!!"
"stop the warmongers" also easily leads into the trope of "old enemies become allies", in this case your new allies have to be personalities you can get invested in, but all allies in this game are just meh.
Story, villians, allies, all failed so badly that i just dont want to play a mech game that seems to be made for me.
You're right, there is just no meat to this game. Playing the Mech sections is fun, but its all so short lived. The story was such a big focus and its nothing.
Forever winter vid confirmed :D
Indeed, I've been playing it behind the scenes quite a bit. Its HARD.
The issue with the story is that they should have made them more less realistic and more anime styled, then it wont be so jarring. The story is mostly structured like your typical mech anime anyway.
As someone who has watched, and owns, about 2 bazillion mech animes - I can say that if it was, it would be the most sterilized and uninspired of mech animes its like.
GI Joe Rise of Cobra was lowkey fun :
Oh yeah, VERY lowkey lol
its funny that you say that western devs write games to avoid online backlash because right now we are at a point that they have avoided online backlash for so long that everyone is tired of that kind of safe writing and it has become so cringe and predictable and people are now the online backlash against this writing and if anything want to return to x350/ps3 writing.
I thought the story in this game was terrible, it felt it was written by people who grew up watching american voices without understanding the language and they made a game that they copied that, without understanding anything. They just say words, they dont make any sense. The thing i hated the most in the story is how the bad guys were few and never died, they were always in your face and acting all cool and edgy and the developers were so certain they did such a great job with these characters that they couldnt just kill them off, they had to shove them in your face constantly because they such good characters apparently that players would want more of them.
"EDGE SAVES LIVES"
As an edgelord i agree, edgy stuff is funny because its so over the top and surreal no one can take it seriously, its funny, i dont think the goofy reddit hipster humor that passes for "humor" today is funny. People dont still make memes about metal gear rising revegeance because they hate its writing.
It really was just an imitation all round, I agree. The EDGE SAVES LIVES thing made no sense to me, as it's a military tech no matter how you slice it.
I don't mind spoilers, since im not interested in playing this one, but i would suggest adding a timestamp so that you can discuss the story with those who are not interested or have already played it
The game is like 4-5 hours long and mostly everything I show or say took place in the first 2 hours. It's just short, there isn't much to the story. A lot of the cutscenes here are in the first few acts.
I just marathoned Front Mission 1-5. My favorite game franchise of all time. I'm so dissapointed that Square Enix doesn't find value in this IP. Can you imagine a Front Mission 6 with the FF7 Remake budget? Of course Toshiro Tsuchida-san is no longer with Square Enix, but but I think they can definitely cook if they wanted to.
Also, not touching this game with a 10 foot pole. Thank you for the review.
That would be amazing. I'd love to see some epic scope re-tellings with an action focus too, but not like they have been. Evolved is not really great, and it doesn't feel like Front Mission - the only thing that might take up your time though is the crashes on the walking levels. Otherwise, it's a really short game because they wanted people to play online more than they actually did.
I'm going to be playing through all the games this year, too. So, I hope the originals are better then what I've seen so far (and Gun Hazard).
Yeah, they won't give anything a budget, and we end up with left alive.
@@conflicthorizon I think the issue with that game was that its extremely high budget went to how it looked and sounded, not how it felt or played. What a travesty.
"Can you imagine a Front Mission 6 with the FF7 Remake budget?"
no because the series was always niche.
as long as Toriyama isnt the main writer I will give FM another chance... ohhhh god... Toriyama....... still not touching this game because of his involvement after 3rd Bday
Da Han Zong, O.C.U., U.C.S, thats pretty much the only things that indicate that it is a game in the front mission universe. well maybe except some Wanzer designs.
Yeah, I was struggling to find the connections outside of Wanzers forever. I think this is also why they 'technically' set it 44 years after 5.
@@KeiNova speaking of FM5. are you gonna review the rest of the series? and obviously roast the horrible remaks of FM1 and 2 ? (possibly even the outragously bad remake of FM3 judging by the trailer) ? would be a fun watch.
Yeah I'm going to be going through it all as the year goes on. Even Gun Hazard.
@@KeiNova Awesome! btw. thanks for doing this, the idea of a constantly growing all mecha-channel makes me happy. cheers!
You're welcome - I've sort of fallen in love with the concept over time!
Front Mission: Evolved seems like a trashier version of Front Mission: Gun Hazard. But.... Gun Hazard was good.
Oh man, I don't even want to compare the two. Gun Hazard was way way way better.
Well there was japanese-only real-time online wanzer action game Front Mission Online. I think it's not playable anymore, since it didn't have any offline component. Another argument against games as a service.
There was someone trying to get it going again, but yeah I've heard of that and it didn't work. I didn't mention anything about the online here though because it isn't active anymore.
Left alive is the best game in this franchise by far
Hey, if that's how you feel about it.
I would asume we will be getting a steel battalion retrospective huh? its an interesting case that the most panned entry of the games happens to be developed by the developers of.... Dark Souls
I'm hoping as soon as I can get the channel moving enough that I can afford the controller. I'm not surprised about the Dark Souls devs, they made a lot of stuff, and it ranges from absolutely archaic and unapproachable - to innovative and legendary.
I remembered how bummed I was when I finish this game. As a big FM fan this was disappointing. Doesn't help that this game was a ripoff of Front Mission Gun Hazard.
To add on, I can 100% say the state of FM is not in good hands, with the shit remakes and Sqaure not knowing what to do with the IP, it's not looking good.
I wish it was, because this game is just bland. There isn't anything to grasp onto or have you wanted to play again aside from pointless collectables and achievements.
Well, from what I'm seeing, after Left Alive - the license has just been bought out to other developers, Square seems to not care anymore sadly.
@@KeiNova Yep, pretty much. Not even playing on hard mode will help.
Played it thought it was fine got to the first on foot section game kept crashing couldn't be bothered fixing it left it at that. Didn't gain anything or lose anything out of it so it was a wash.
Yeah, I had to get through the first walking section like 5 times before it would stop crashing.
So like... is there a reason for calling the mechs "Wandsers" in subtitles? Just wondering, thought it was a typo in the Left Alive video.
Don't get me wrong, it's better than pronouncing them as "Vanssers" but I feel like I'm missing a meme here.
@@greenhowie the auto subs did that and I have to fix it.
@KeiNova ah no worries, honestly thought it was a niche meme lol
Nah, I'm too old to even get those lol I fixed them though
It's like Armored Core meets Mechassault. Build your own robot, and then have arcade-y but not super in-depth fun with it... but worse in both aspects. Also, like Mechassault, the story is pretty lackluster, and there's a lot of vibrant colors in this supposedly dour war story.
Also, hearing you rattle off the character tropes at the beginning of the video made me think of Gears of War and just how tropey most of that series is. I still love Gears of War, but its story is not its strong suit outside of some of its character writing.
Yeah, GoW was a pretty tropey game with all its generic tough guys and same-y stuff going on. I've never thought about it before, despite playing the first three games through countless times.
So why cant the main character a rockstar with an outlandish personality or a manipulative sociopath who is good at inspiring others to commit violence? Why cant the story be about a religious war between colonial invaders from the edge of the galaxy and the locals who have lived on earth for all of history? I thought mecha anime was supposed to be about ridiculous things happening
The mainline games all attempt to do something new to set itself apart. Front Mission 1 has that battletech feel, two a rebellion plot, three has nukes and citytech, five is a soldering simulator. Judging from your review I dont see anything unique and memorable about this title
Because they wanted to make a generic western-style sci-fi shooter, just with robots. This came straight out of the era of Japanese publishers desperately trying to "westernize" their games which mostly led to disastrous results.
It's because there isn't anything unique or interesting. They wanted to make a western style game to appeal to western players and get some money.
Absolutely disastrous!
I bought Front Mission: Evolved new, and it bored me to tears. It was thoroughly mediocre in everything it did. It stands out as one of the biggest video game disappointments of my life.
Thankfully you didn't play Left Alive then?
@ I was going to watch that video next because I don’t remember it at all. And I was a regular reader of Game Informer and other outlets back in the day. EDIT: so I’m curious of how bad and what kind of disaster it is, because I see you talking about it in this vid.
seems pretty japanese to me
It was a Japanese publisher hiring an American developer to make their IP more American.
Hope you play a good game soon. Bad games just aren’t that interesting for 20 minutes.
Sadly, I'd played these last two games hoping for a hidden gem. I don't try to play bad games, I just commit to my plans for a week. Though, what I'm playing for this coming week is pretty good atm
More like Front Mission: Cringe
I want to say 'Sick Burn's but I feel like it'll come off more sarcastic then I want it to lol
you listed it was helmed by the people who handled ff x-2 and the 13 and sequels series
which are some if not the worst games writing and story and design wise in the franchise w x-2 having at least a great combat/job system and thats it
thats the problem right there
it got handled by people who made objectively the worst games square enix at the time had made and it explains why 7 remake is honestly a gigantic let down as well as falsely advertised scam
Development was helmed by Double Helix who were significantly worse, if anything. Those two wrote it and well, at least the stories in those weren't generic was what I was getting at.
@ i beg to differ and stand pn my point those games biggest problem was story
Yeah but it wasn't generic
I like that game hell i fucking love it and you're gonna through me in the Looney bin for that ?
Nah, you're allowed to like what you like.
It would be insane to think all fan service has substance. Many anime that had panty shots or boobs jiggling as if gravity departed had no real plot beyond something basic. Not every will be important or serve a greater purpose and that has been the case in Front Mission in the past. FM2 was criticized for being a weak entry, if I recall. There are the muscle guys that are tropes to a T in many games, so I think it is just a thing that perhaps dudes getting older or married get grumpy about if they aren't into social justice. Remember they wanted this to be Western, action movie and that always translates to something cheesy in Japan unless real thought is put into it. Silent Hill is not the standard when most other attempts are exaggerations and that goes for Metal Gear Solid more than any other IP.
It would be insane, and I don't care if it does or doesn't. I was just saying, I personally don't mind it being there - as long as the character has a reason to be there. No social justice here, everyone has different tastes and opinions that they are perfectly fine to express whichever way they like.