User Reviews (1 - 11 of 37)

Show these reviews first:

Highest Rated
Lowest Rated Newest
Oldest Most Helpful
Least Helpful

An excellent strategy game - but not without its problems

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 14 / 15
Date: June 12, 2000
Author: Amazon User

I bought Front Mission 3 for a few reasons - because I am a diehard Squaresoft fan (Final Fantasy VII was my first game and is still my all-time favorite) because I loved the idea of robots in RPGs (Xenogears is my second favorite) and because RPGs are my favorite game genre. I had logged 29 hours of play time on FM3 when my memory card mysteriously deleted itself (not the game's fault - crappy card) so I didn't get to see all the game had to offer. However, I did get an understanding of the game. The battle system is probably the game's best feature. The isometric, 3D battle fields are reminiscent of the ones in Final Fantasy Tactics, and you fight your enemies in large robots called wanzers. Characters can use machine guns, shotguns, melee weapons (fist, baton, spike), missiles, grenade launchers, and other weapons to decimate your opponents. Each TYPE of weapon gains experience as you use them, so you can have one character who is good with shotguns or another who can effectively wield machine guns. One particular feature of this game is both a pro and a con. This would be the Network, which is like the World Wide Web. You pick a country, a type of site, and the site itself. From there, you can "download" programs, access restricted areas by receiving passwords (more on that later) or just see what's happening around the "world" of FM3. While this makes the game fantastically deep, I think it is way too complex. There are at least 100 web sites, and to see them all would require a LOT of time and patience. With the "Network" also comes a version of E-Mail. The characters in your party will occasionally receive mail from various people they know, and you sometimes have the option of answering it with pre-written replies. In addition to this, people will sometimes give you passwords to enter restricted areas of some Network sites. There is even a secret E-Mail address that lets you see a little congratulatory message for finding the address. One part of FM3 that can be seen as either a pro or a con is that it takes place on Earth, albeit in 2112. This way, you know where everything is, but it takes an element of discovery away from the game. In my opinion, the biggest fault of FM3 is its EXTREME linearity. You do not walk from town to town in this game; rather, you click where you want to go (because of the linearity there is never much choice), taking you there immediately. You can't even walk up to a person to talk to them; you have to choose their name from a list of people that you are near to. I think that this is absurd. I have always liked being able to walk around and talk to people in RPGs, but in this game, that simply DOES NOT HAPPEN. If it were not for that, this game would have probably received the full five stars from me. In all, Front Mission 3 is a great game for people who like fighting with huge machines, using strategy, and surfing the web, but do not mind that you have a set course to follow that is impossible to deviate from. I would recommend this game to them, and hope that they enjoy it immensely.

front mission 3

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 10 / 10
Date: April 01, 2000
Author: Amazon User

This game is awesome. It takes place in the not so distant future, where battle mechs called wanzers dominate the battle field. You are Kazuki Takemura(but you can change your name)and you work for a wanzer making/testing company. You become trapped in a world wide conspiracy and you must get to the bottom of it by fighting tons of battles in your and your allies wanzers. The combat system is turn based and your wanzers can learn battle skills such as tackle,zoom, or stun punch. Move your mech, choose your attack, and then sit back and watch the battle cinematics. Wonderful graphics and gameplay. A must have for gamers who love battle mechs, turn based games, or any type of gamer. Squaresoft did a lovely job with this game.

The Future Looks Hard Core!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 9 / 9
Date: January 18, 2001
Author: Amazon User

After playing the greatest turn based strategy of all time (Final Fantasy Tactics), I was convinced that Squaresoft was the ultimate gaming company. Keeping the faith, I got this game, not knowing what to expect, and the rest is history (and so are the hundreds of enemies they pitched at me).

In this game, you lead a character and his freinds through the 22nd century as you search for a mighty device called MIDAS, an energy creator that can be used for good, but is just too easy to turn into a bomb of mass destruction. As you go along, you fight evil from around the world, like the Japanese Defence Force (JDF), the United States Navy (USN), and even super-humans called "Imaginary Numbers" of the Chinese "Da Han Zhong" (DHZ). Combating them you are eventually pitted in almost 200 different battles, each with a different map and group of enemies.

The battle system is the core, where you select methods of defending yourself from the enemies, and which people to choose with their specialities to blow the enemy away. A few times I got pitted against enemies I just couldn't beat, but for the most part, it was very clean and rather simple (not like Final Fantasy Tactics, which was unbelievably hard).

With the battles and the talking sequences, you have some decent graphics and music. While I'll wait a while before I buy the soundtrack for this game, I will say that the music ranges from kinda weak techno to some awesome stuff. The graphics also could use a polishing, but all the required things are here (except a big explosion when a wanzer dies). When attacking your enemies, you go into a really awesome sequence of camera movement or angles. This adds almost a western style of shooting others, but you can still see that you are in a modern city with futuristic machines.

All in all, while many will argue that Final Fantasy Tactics was the better game (I think I might too, actually), there is no denial that this is quite possibly the only game in the world of the genre at the same level as FFTactics. This game is awesome, a change of scene from the midevil madness with Kartia, Vandal Hearts and FFTactics, and is good training for the harder ones, esspecially FFTactics.

Slight flaws, but well worth the money.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 8
Date: September 26, 2000
Author: Amazon User

Quite a while ago, I had a chance to play an SNES game called 'Front Mission: Gun Hazard' and was hooked by its simple but deep battle system. I was very excited to learn that Square made the wise decision to stop underestimating the US gamers and imported FM3. At first glance, the graphics looks a bit blocky. But watch closer - the scorched earth remain black throughout the battle. Miss your target, and stray bullet destroys the surrounding objects. The transition between the strategy map and the battle is continuous. Riddle the opponent with machine gun bullets, and his wanzer (pronounced 'vantser') wobbles as it's servos struggle to keep balance. It is these kind of details that makes the battle exciting - the sound is fantastic as well! Unfortunately, the music is mediocre at best. So is the plot, but the tour of futuristic Asia the story gives keeps things interesting. The 'forum' feature gives a little more depth to the character, while you cannot help but wonder how these civilian teenagers with no combat training feel little guilt as they blow people away (perhaps in the future people have evolved to have no conscience, lol). I felt that the network feature was a bit sluggish, and I was tired of it by the middle of the first game. But the battle is the heart of this game, and it is superb compared to other PSX strategies out there. While the graphics and sound has improved dramatically as it should with newer console. It has sacrificed some crucial strategic elements to the battle system. For one, each battle is restricted to four wanzers on the player side. The original can place around ten on the map. This is understandable, because the battle map itself is smaller due to increased complexity. The battle no longer supports the supply truck system, where the unit adjacent to the truck can repair and resupply - which makes holding stock parts more meaningful. Oversimplification is also present by being able to access merchants anywhere using the network, which also oviates planning. Furthermore, the upgrading of parts makes machine modification unnecessary! Weapons simply get better and better, so you just need to keep purchasing more expensive weapons. You never run out of money because you can keep selling wanzers that you capture for a very good price. Line of sight is only partially supported - other mechs simply disappear when attacking long range, so you can literally shoot through other unit, which is ridiculous (this was also true for the original). If trees can obstruct your shot, why not a giant robot? Anyway, despite these flaws, the game was highly enjoyable. My friends were hooked as soon as I lent the games to them. I give it 5 stars because Square's effort to bring more sophisticated (?) games (as opposed to final fantasy series) is commendable. This game can get so much better if the game balance was more fine tuned (it's too easy). I also wish there was a versus mode using the teams saved on memory card (the AI is too simple)! I hope that people buy and support this game. And if you ever do come across the old SNES version (not the action game version), please give it a shot!

Not just "more of the same" mech combat.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 9 / 10
Date: May 17, 2000
Author: Amazon User

FM3 is great for fans of mech combat and turn based strategy (Like Final Fantasy Tactics) Once you learn the system you can play rapidly completing missions. There is a lot of in game movies/cutscenes, but you get to see the mechs. Although with an amazing 3D engine that zooms in to show the combat you'll really only want to see the robots in combat. With a wide range of mechs with custom parts, lots of weapons and branching storylines, FM3 provides strategy/RPG mech-fun for all. A definate buy for fans of robot combat and strategy. Die-hard Real Time Strategy(RTS) gamers may become bored with the turnbased grid system, people who are trying to improve their strategy skills will love the combat system. Although even my RTS master friend liked the eyecandy of the combat sequences A little story and movie heavy for a strategy game, but still a total blast.

So until Armored Core2 or the Gundam game comes over here, Front Mission3 is the best offering in mech combat on the market now.

Tactical RPG with giant robots. Sweet.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: May 20, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Front Mission 3 is one of the best games I've every played. I think it will remain on my list of favorites for quite awhile. It was a great deal of fun, and I was personally slightly more compelled to enjoy it by how much I've liked other turn based strategy RPG's, namely the Shining Force series (which to this day are still making a huge case for best game ever, in my mind, at least). It is also refreshing to see another excellent product come out of Square, as I have never really been a fan of the Final Fantasy series, so I look favorably upon almost any departure from it.

First of all, I think the other reviewers have exceedingly over estimated this games length. With both scenarios, there are only about 80 battles total (I guess there are also a couple training missions, but it is nowhere near the 150 to 200 numbers other reviewers are throwing out), and from my experience, beating them both only took me about 80 hours, but I could see less experienced gamers taking 20 or 30 more.

The major focus of Front Mission 3 is the combat. There is some story, but it is completely overshadowed by the fighting. Like I said, Front Mission is a turn-based strategy game. The combat takes place on grid systems, and the fighting is done in giant robots known as Wanzers. These Wanzers can be equipped with a large variety of different weapons, such as machine guns, rifles, shotguns, missile launchers, and grenades launchers, as well as short ranged but deadly melee weapons. Each Wanzer has 5 different hit locations (head, body, each arm, and legs), and destroying different parts has different effects. Each weapon is actually different in not only pure damage, the special moves that can be used with them, and range, but also in which spots they hit (melee weapons, missiles, rifles hit one spot, grenades can hit multiple Wanzers, and machine guns and shotguns hit multiple locations). Anyway, Front Mission has a solid, in depth combat system that shouldn't take too long to learn, and though there are some easy missions, many of the battles are very difficult. I don't think the complexity is one scale with Final Fantasy Tactics, which I have never played, but it will still take some time to master.

The storyline is okay. Actually, for this sort of tactical combat game, it is actually pretty in depth. The game did actually tell you why you were fighting everybody, which some games neglect to do. The plot is almost completely linear, besides the two different scenarios, and some minor decisions you are allowed to make. Instead of getting to run around and talk to everybody, Front Mission just gives you a list of people to talk to and places to go, and these interactions were linear themselves. Some people will miss that, but I let it go easily enough, because it sped up the pace of the game, and it really is all about the fighting anyway.

The graphics are good. They aren't terrible, but they aren't wonderful, either, but that comes mostly from it being for the Playstation. There are some nice 3D models of the Wanzers, but the texturing is very blocky during close ups. I also noticed that the people walk using the same animation as the Wanzers, which is sort of silly, but forgivable.

Everything considered, Front Mission 3 is one of my favorite games, and I really want to see a sequel for a better system. If you are looking for pure eye candy, look elsewhere, and if you are a pure old school RPG fan this might not delight you. FM3 is great fun, and I suggest it to almost everybody else, even those who have never really enjoyed the RPG genre before, as the combat system will probably be much preferable to straight RPG hack an' slash. Check it out.

Front Mission 3, Game or Myth

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 6
Date: April 18, 2000
Author: Amazon User

A game like this does not come around like this game very often. It is fun the way you get to custimize your wanzer[your mobile suit]. This type of game is fun and you will want a sequal. Luckily there are two seperate story lines that take you along both sides of a war. I fell that Squaresoft has out done there very own game. Meaning that Final Fantasy Tactics was considered the best Action/Strategy game out on the market, until this game hit shelfs. It is a must own. If you liked FFtactics then try this game [and vice versa]. This game takes about 130-140 hours to complete with both storielines. The 2 story line revolve around two females Emma and Alissa. Alissas is more diffiucult to complete so i subgest doin' that 1 first. That way it forces you to learn the controls and what to do.I rated this game a perfect 5 It deserves it in my mind. If i were you i would go out and buy right away......^_^

A Game that keeps you busy...

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: October 03, 2006
Author: Amazon User

And I mean that in a GOOD way.

This game delivers all the action you could want, and gets you caught up in the drama of a continuous storyline to boot!
One of the best parts of this game is all the "secret things" that open up even more of the game (hint..get the STRATEGY GUIDE)!

There 2 distinct paths in the game, depending upon which road you choose. It's got a fantastic soundtrack to accompany the action, excellent "training levels", intriguing characters, and some cool mecha that beg to be taken out and "test-driven" through a neighborhood (near you)in Taipei...lol!
Heck, just shopping for parts and upgrades is fun all by itself!

As an old PSX game...this one is top shelf all the way!

Also..the action figures (if you can find them) are beautifully rendered and give you a feel for these machinations and the power they wield.

Battletech fans Rejoice!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: April 07, 2000
Author: Amazon User

I used to play the game Battletech back in Junior High. Now, I can live out my fantasies of smashing and blasting enemy mechs to bits! The ability to custom build your mech using parts of other robots is especially nice. You can color and name your mechs, too, making the personalization of the game complete. It is also not too easy as some games are, and actually challenges you to train your characters and build their skills. And I am only about 24 hours into this 150+ hours of gameplay game!

Playstation's Best Strategy Game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: April 23, 2000
Author: Amazon User

FM3 is easily better than Command and Conquer, Dune, and all those other strategy games brought to the Playstation from the PC. It's like Mech Warrior meets Final Fantasy Tactics, and fans of either of those games will be pleased. FM3 has turn-based strategy battles, but a story that seems like an RPG. Between battles you move around to gather info, talk to people, and use an internet system (as well as see some cool movie sequences). Basically, FM3 is a game that I think everyone should at least try out. Chances are you'll like it. Another great game from Squaresoft.

Review Page: 1 2 3 4 Next 

Actions