Front Mission 1st [import] review

For anyone getting disheartened with the slew of impenetrable Japanese language RPGs and action adventures, whose insurmountable and squiggly language barriers have you weeping katakana tears of frustration, fear not. While you’ll be scrolling through some screens of kanji dialogue between the stern-faced early-’90s action-style heroes of Front Mission 1st, every single drop-down menu command is written in English. Finally - an import game that’s actually importer-friendly.

This isn’t a new game, though. It’s essentially a remake that’s built on the original 1995 SNES Front Mission, a turn-based strategy game that involves giant robots fighting against the backdrop of politically conflicting nations - Oceana Community Union (OCU) and United States of the New Continent (USN).

Quite aside from the simple joy of being able to understand what you’re doing immediately, this is also a very satisfying strategy game. You know the score - you need to build up experience and levels in your piloted mech by getting good all round battle experience, whether that’s at close range (physical punching), or longer distance (missile launching). With careful thought required as regards to positioning, weaponry and attack technique, it feels far less like a statistics battler, and more like a real robot-destruction simulation. Well, apart from its ye olde gamey isometric look, that is. Having seen amazing 3D robo-pounding on DS, in something like Custom Robo Arena for example, we do feel a tiny bit disappointed.