Front Mission 3:
The MIDAS Project

STORY

Now Front Mission 3 gives us two separate storyline. Both storyline's main plot are the same but the overrall story and quest is different than one another. Each separate scenarios will give you and introduce you to different characters that will join your party as well. Sort of like with Star Ocean. Now within each storyline are turning points that will give you different spin on the story including whether or not a character will join your party as well. Example: Depending on what path you may take during a story quest, an enemy may or may not become a party member. This give excellent variety to the whole storyline. Excellent replay value for gamers out there that want to try every story path to see what's different and new.
Now the two main scenarios are broken up to two storyline called Emma's and Alisa's stories. You'll will have to decide on what scenarios you want to take very early on in the game. While Emma and Alisa are the main focal characters in this story. The main characters are really Kazuki and Ryogo. Kazuki is the main hero and Ryogo is his best friend. The story begins with Kazuki and Ryogo (both test pilots of Wanzers). Ryogo ask Kazuki if he wants to accompany him to do a delivery at a JDF (Japanese Defense Force) base. If you say yes then you have choosen the Emma scenario. If you say no then Alisa's scenario is your choice of story quest. Either one will lead you to an explosion at the JDF base. It turns out that Alisa (Kazuki sister) was inside that base. Hot headed Kazuki and his friend Ryogo decided to forego any warning by the japanese MPs and entered the base. There they discovered that the cause of the explosion was by a bomb called MIDAS created by the JDF. Since discovering the secret of JDF base, they are then pursued by the military trying to stop them from telling anyone of the MIDAS bomb. From here your long journey begins. This is a heavy story driven game so expect alot of story telling followed by battle map fights. The story itself is very good but the character of Kazuki will hurt the enjoyment of the game and story. (more on that down below) Overrall Front Mission 3 story is excellently told with two totally different scenarios. But I give it a few point down because of the main character or weakness of the main character Kazuki.

Score: 6/10

CHARACTERS

Front Mission 3 gives us many different unique characters. And they should since it's a strategy game. Most of the characters are develope very nicely with a few exception. The only problem is that you have to have a group of characters that gamers can fall in love with. This is where the game fails here. Most of the supporting cast are people who you can like. It's the main two characters that will turn people off. Kazuki gives a new definition of the word hot temper while Ryogo is a total idiot. At least Ryogo is an idiot in a fun mannered way. Kazuki, the main character, is a moron and a real annoyance in this game. 90% of his text dialogue ends in exclamation point. That's like having someone using All Caps in every single e-mail letter. Throughout the game during certain story scene where everyone is calm and cool discussing in a mature way on what to do next, Kazuki is shouting at the top of his lungs making an ass of himself. It's such a turn off reading Kazuki dialogue everytime. The game also shows us that Kazuki hates his father for choosing a career in the JDF over his family. Kazuki hates him for this with a passion. When we are finally introduce to Isao, Kazuki father, we can clearly see that Isao is a nice person. But Kazuki jackass attitude toward his father really turn things off for gamers. The game doesn't really show us a really good reason as to why Isao is a bad person or why Kazuki should hate his father so much. In the end, we end up hating Kazuki for being such a jackass toward his father. But then again, Kazuki is a jackass period. I'll give it a 3 and that's only becaues of the supporting cast.

Score: 3/10

GRAPHICS

The game uses polygons in a 3-D background environment. Actually the graphics are very similar to Metal Gear Solid. The graphics themselves aren't very detailed. The colors are dark and shady. The human characters are slow moving and faceless. The only thing that are good about the graphics are the Wanzers and battle vehicles. The FMV are nice but too few to do any good. If you love Metal Gear graphics then you'll love Front Mission 3 graphics.

Score: 7/10

MUSIC/VOICE OVERS

All the voice overs are done nicely. From japanese to russian. There's not that many voice overs though.
Music wise, the game have very few tunes available. This is highly unusual from a Squaresoft game. Plus all the tunes that are available are pretty much average.

Score: 5/10

GAMEPLAY

Since this is a story driven strategy rpg game, most of the gameplay comes from the battlefield maps. Like with any strategy rpg, a fight will take place after a story scene. Battles are like with most strategy turn base rpgs, positon your fighters (Wanzers) then take turn moving them into positon to attack. A few notes though. Each wanzers has body parts HP stats. They are body, left and right arms, legs, and pilot. Pilot is the human character. Now what parts get damage is random. Destroy a leg and you hampered the enemy movement. Destroy an arm and you can stop the enemy ability to attack. Finally, destroy the body or pilot to kill the enemy. Wanzers can also learn special attack during battle. The kind of special attack learned depends on the weapon being use and the body parts being use. The weapons you use also depends on what you buy and equip. They range from machine guns to missile launchers.
Now outside of battles there are a few things to do. One is the use of simulation. Simulation is a place to train and level up your Wanzers if you're having a hard time with a partcular battle. I personally never spent anytime in simulation cause the game isn't that hard. The second is the use of Network. Network is a place to explore websites of different government companies feature in the game. You can learn a little bit more on the background of the story too. You can also acquire extra money and parts for you Wanzers by accessing these websites. Inorder to gain theses extra stuff, you have to have the password to enter a particular website. Another feature in Network is the use of e-mails. Basically members of your party will receive different e-mails from different kind of people. Most of the e-mails are just some reading materials for gamers while some contain passwords for websites. I didn't spend alot of time in the Networks. I find it kinda boring. Overrall the gameplay comes solely on the battlefields.

Score: 7/10

EXTRA/REPLAY

The extra stuff I suppose can be found in the Network area where if you spend some time, you can get some cool stuff like New Wanzers and weapons. As for replay, well you have two totally different scenarios base on the same plotline giving each scenario up to 38 hours of gameplay. A total of 80 hours for both scenario. It's like a two for one game. It's well worth the time to play both scenario.

Score: 7/10

My final thoughts is this. If you love a good strategy game or playing with Robo-tech fighting robots then Front Mission 3 is for you. If you're looking for an rpg with exploration that allows you to move around and such then look else where cause Front Mission 3 is straightforward as straightforward can get. I'm giving it a 7. It would be higher but I hate Kazuki with a passion.

Final Score: 7/10

Favorite character: Yun (Moneymaker)

Worst character: Kazuki

King of Jackass: Kazuki

Worst video game character: Kazuki

Best special attack: Random shot

Best weapon: Missile launcher

Time to complete: a little over 38 hours

Looking forward to Front Mission 4: Maybe

~Chi