Front Mission 2: Remake Review – Mech Commander

Front Mission 2 Remake will have the benefit of being a much more essential recommendation for many groups simply by virtue of existing. You see, while the Front Mission series has a spotty track record vis-a-vis global releases, the first game in the series at least received an enhanced DS remake which saw a release outside of Japan. This meant that the remake from last year, with all the caveats that its faithful nature to an almost 30 year old game necessitated, wasn’t exactly a glowing recommendation.

Front Mission 2, however (or, as it’s known for this release, Front Mission 2: Remake), has never been released outside of Japan at all. This means that right off the bat, it becomes an easier recommendation to a lot of people – if you have any interest in the Front Mission series, and how it evolved through its various instillments, for example, or if you are SRPG fan, then this release would merit consideration from them simply for existing, because outside of the import scene, this marks the first time they’ve had the opportunity to play this game at all.

Which isn’t to say that Front Mission 2: Remake doesn’t make some improvements over its predecessor in several areas, though. For example, the lack of zoom in attack animations for your wanzers is a welcome improvement that speeds things up relative to the first game, at least a little. The graphics, which already looked pretty great in the original, look even better this time around, making it look like a charming modern game channeling PS1 era visuals might. It’s a look that works for it really well, since it lets it mask its lower budget with a great, stylized aesthetic. Vestiges of said lower budget still remain in several areas – the simplistic geometry of assets in several urban areas, for example, or some lower resolution ground textures – but it’s a good looking game with a stylized retro look that it absolutely makes work well. Choices such as not having those previously mentioned dramatic zoom ins during attacks in combat only further help the game feel better looking overall – those were the parts where the first game’s budgetary limitations most came to the fore (since they were obviously meant to be cinematic and dramatic, and the subpar animations, textures, camera panning, effects, and more all made their lower budget stand out). Thankfully, this game plays more to its strengths, while also improving the overall visual experience across the board.

"The graphics, which already looked pretty great in the original, look even better this time around, making it look like a charming modern game channeling PS1 era visuals might. It’s a look that works for it really well, since it lets it mask its lower budget with a great, stylized aesthetic."

Unfortunately it’s hard for me to be that positive in some other areas. For example, I’m not sure how I feel about the game’s story, which simultaneously seems to want to be taken at least somewhat seriously – but has a naivette to it (not the good kind) that does not seem to merit that kind of consideration. The game’s characters feel much weaker than in the first game, falling into more easily identifiable tropes and archetypes, and this seems to bleed over into the story as well, which goes a lot more predictably than the first game’s did.

Now to be fair, the original game’s story wasn’t high literature either, and a lot of its strength came from its background world building and implied themes. Those last two points hold true for this game too, with an astonishing amount of background depth put into the story, setting, and general world building. But the sequel, in terms of its story and storytelling, does end up feeling like a step back from the original. The characters feel more tropey, the plot feels more predictable, and while there’s still some good world building here, it does lack the impact of the novelty that buoyed the first game’s plot a fair bit. And there is still no voice acting, while the localization feels a bit sloppier this time around than it did with last year’s game, with more typos and errors than I remember Front Mission 1st Remake having.

Then there’s the combat, which is a mixed bag – a pretty big improvement with some interesting new ideas and mechanics, but also retaining the biggest frustrations from the original game.

Let’s get the bad news out of the way first. One of the most contentious mechanics from the first game remains unchanged in this one – which is to say, while combat still emphasizes you targeting individual parts and limbs on enemy wanzers (the name for the mechs in this game), you still get no ability to directly target those, instead having to rely on RNG and hoping things go your way. In the first game I actually didn’t mind this as much, because the game felt a bit more balanced around that randomness, meaning it never really felt unfair. You’d still get what you wanted, it just took a bit longer than you would have ideally wanted (and the battle got interesting in some unpredictable ways meanwhile). In the second game, combat feels a bit… harder. The enemies seem to be smarter, and they hit much harder, which leaves room for a lot less margin of error. It’s still not game breaking, but it does cause more frustration than it did the first time around.

"These passives you get from the AP, as well as from accruing Honor, are not only interesting enough mechanics in and of themselves, but also help greatly mitigate a lot of the frustration that the aforementioned RNG could otherwise cause."

On the flip side, I really like the addition of the Honor Points system. Destroying enemies nets you Honor Points, which then unlock more passive abilities for your characters, and also enables coordinated moves across your various units – such as the ability to pull off dual wanzer attacks to devastating effect. I also like the AP system, which is fairly straightforward – the more AP you have, the more things you can do per turn, different things cost different amounts of AP, and AP recharges each turn – but does some interesting things that keeps combat fun. For example, surrounding an enemy unit reduces their AP a lot (and they can do the same to you); the AP you have on hand has passive effects too, such as increasing your critical rate, your evasion and counter rates, and accuracy. These passives you get from the AP, as well as from accruing Honor, are not only interesting enough mechanics in and of themselves, but also help greatly mitigate a lot of the frustration that the aforementioned RNG could otherwise cause. To me, while the randomness being around was a lot more frustrating this time around, the new mechanics and systems were also interesting and compelling enough that I had fun playing it.

Is Front Mission 2: Remake a great game? Not really, at least not by the modern standards of the SRPG genre. But it is, and I would argue unlike the remake of the first game, a genuinely good one. There are some pretty glaring problems here – I think the story isn’t as good as the first game’s to begin with, and it suffers in the storytelling aspects as well, from the lack of voice acting to the poor localization. The game’s combat also feels more frustrating this time around, with a higher difficulty level while also retaining a lot of the randomness from Front Mission 1st Remake. At the same time, however, it adds so many interesting mechanics, that not only help mitigate a lot of that frustration, but also make this game a legitimately interesting and compelling one. And it looks great too, doubling down on the stylization aspects of the aesthetic, and culling back on a lot of visual flourishes that would draw unfavourable comparisons to modern titles. At the very least, if you are a fan of the series, and/or the genre, and want to see how it grew and evolved through the years, this release is very much worth looking into – and it does the on its own merits, not just on the back of this being the first official release for this game outside of Japan.

This game was reviewed on Nintendo Switch.