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Front Mission 4 Preview Soundoff

May 24, 2004 By Glenn Turner

Rutilcaper, Mee Ronn and myself soundoff concerning the preview discs that Square-Enix was kind enough to send us after we submitted our address via the mysteries of the Internet. Now reap the fruits of our labor!


peccaui: So - how far did everyone get?
Rutilcaper: Did all of them. In true robo-style.
Mee Ronn: Well, I got through the entire thing (well, my buddy played one stage) and I'm currently looking at the evil armada of the secret stage.
Rutilcaper: With WAGNER!
Rutilcaper: Curse your love of classic music.
peccaui: I couldn't get the damn thing to go past Guinerama Base. I think the quicksave fucked things up.
Mee Ronn: When you pass a stage of importance you get a save prompt.
peccaui: So, Guinerama Base was the only one of importance?
Mee Ronn: I think importance mean "starts with a map that has arrows".
Rutilcaper: Gunerama Base is when they take the business to those Guetamalones?
peccaui: Because each time I completed a stage I got booted out to the main menu. I thought they were just being cooly unconventional.
Mee Ronn: Well, I know you get a save after the last stage.
peccaui: Gunerama Base is when they make Diaz cry
Rutilcaper: Haha. Damn Diaz.
Rutilcaper: I'll take his gold!
peccaui: I got a real save after Gunerama Base but apparently it wouldn't save over my quicksave. Either way, Gunerama Base is not highlighted even though I beat it, and saved after beating it. I can't advance to the Polish Command Center.
Mee Ronn: Gunerama is the stage I played by proxy.
peccaui: Diaz was a bit more subdued from when I saw him in Vice City I thought.
Mee Ronn: Ah, but just as stereotypical.
Rutilcaper: Haha - awful, just awful.
peccaui: So how were the missions that are apparently too hot for my eyes?
Rutilcaper: There was a SUPER SECRET™ mission?
Rutilcaper: It was excellent! You kill Wagner!
Mee Ronn: I believe one big difference after the Gunerama Base is that the rest all allow you to outfit you WANZERS!
peccaui: That sounds pretty important.
Rutilcaper: Yeah. It gives you a sense of what's to come.
Rutilcaper: The shields!
Mee Ronn: and you get 999999999 credits (+/- some 9's).
Rutilcaper: Any FM3 veteran knows that shields are quote-unquote, "the business".
peccaui: I am a Front Mission virgin.
peccaui: Well, I was until this week.
Mee Ronn: Ditto.
Rutilcaper: Pfeh. You guys need to learn how to work it out.
peccaui: I could if it'd let me get to the next stage!!


peccaui: Was there anything in particular that grabbed your eyes or brain while you were playing?
Mee Ronn: I think the Polish Command Center (i.e. the stage peccaui cant get to) has the best cinema on the disc.
Rutilcaper: No way.
peccaui: Half of the stages are stages peccaui can't get to. I feel so alone.
Rutilcaper: The intro movie (the second one).
Rutilcaper: The robots move in formation, like actual people. Tactics are employed!
Rutilcaper: EMPLOYED!
Mee Ronn: I was a little worried after the gold discovery, but the Wanzers flying in on big ass rockets was cool.
Rutilcaper: I'd forgotten about that. Rocket Wanzers are pretty cool. Esepcially since the rockets then blew up a bunch of crap.
Rutilcaper: But I won't defer. It's still all about the second intro.

peccaui: The Eastern Venezuela cut-scene felt ..very very familiar, I'll just say that.
Rutilcaper: Richard Gere familiar?
peccaui: Frank Lloyd WRONG familiar!
Rutilcaper: Burn!
peccaui: I wasn't expecting anything close to an actual story in FM, and I'm kinda saddened by the story they actually added in. Why can't robots fight robots just for the heck of it?
Mee Ronn: As long as they fight... I can skip past the cinemas.
Rutilcaper: I'm not one that's generally concerned with story (where Parasite Eve isn't concerned) but FM3 does try its hardest.
Mee Ronn: Did the other FM's have the anime marionette head for the dialog lip sync?
Rutilcaper: FM4 was the first with actual voice.
Mee Ronn: (Well, I guess I should be fair, there were TWO heads: normal head and angry/scared/excited head.)
peccaui: Haha the marionette heads were awful! It was like watching talking heads chewing bubblegum!
Mee Ronn: Maybe they are going to market Front Mission Pez.
Rutilcaper: I'd buy it. Better than damn Tweety Bird.
peccaui: I'd think Front Mission Bazooka Joe would be a better tie-in.
Rutilcaper: Probably have better comics.
Rutilcaper: Then again. I am of the opinion that giant robots can fix about anything...
Rutilcaper: ...provided the inclusion of giant robot shotguns.
peccaui: That's assuming some of the giant robots won't fumble their shotguns. I swear, Chaeffer could barely keep a grip on his.
Mee Ronn: I heard that if you blown up that your pilot can eject, is that true?
Mee Ronn: I wanted to see the little humans running around, but it never happened.
peccaui: Isn't that Steel Battalion?
Rutilcaper: In FM3 you could force a pilot to eject and steal is mech.
Mee Ronn: Grand Theft Wanzer.
Rutilcaper: I remember stealing FOUR Spec Ops Wanzers in three. Staying up until 7am doing so.
Rutilcaper: Then I was so excited I accidentally kicked the reset button on my PS2.
Rutilcaper: Something not unsimilar happened to me with Final Fantasy Tactics. I have bad luck with strategy games and exhuberance.
peccaui: You might want to look into medication for that.
Mee Ronn: (Okay, I just re-watched the second introduction and I'm changing my vote - that is one bad ass cinema.)
peccaui: Seriously though, wanzer is the best word EVER (that I've heard in the last week.)
Rutilcaper: WANDRUG PANZER!
Rutilcaper: The Japanese seem to have an strange, monomaniacal obession with the use of German words.
Rutilcaper: Reuniting for a coup to retake the world! Not UNlikely!
peccaui: Your dreams are spilling into reality again, aren't they?
Rutilcaper: If I have dreams like that, that's just not right.
Rutilcaper: Usually my dreams just involve roommates/future roomates not paying rent/paying despoits.
Rutilcaper: My dreams are freaking SAD.
peccaui: Could be worse. You could just have a dream where you sit down and your only option is to "STEAL TRUCK".
Rutilcaper: Fair enough.
Rutilcaper: Though, were I given the option to steal a truck... I might. But only if said truck contained a pulchritude of Wanzers.
Rutilcaper: Which it did!
peccaui: I've never seen a truck that big. What kind of highway would accomodate it?
Mee Ronn: Too bad it's not a choice. It's a "press X to continue" disguised as a choice.
peccaui: Like much of the demo.
Mee Ronn: Dude, where they're going, they don't need roads.
peccaui: They're so morally ambiguous they probably don't need compasses either!
Mee Ronn: And besides, they've got the robot thing going, I don't think the cops first ticket is "Where's the wide load sign?"
Rutilcaper: You didn't play FM3! The cops have giant robots too.

Rutilcaper: But they suck. And the cops are all anime stereotype chicks.
peccaui: Aw, so they're not like Leon?
Rutilcaper: Well, sort of. They both look like chicks.


peccaui: Thoughts on the AI?
Rutilcaper: The same as FM3. Kind of lacking.
Rutilcaper: The AI doesn't move to back up its friends, as always! It's so easy to goad one out at a time. And it obviously doesn't understand/care about the link system.
Rutilcaper: (The link system is probably the most attractive new feature of FM4.)
Rutilcaper: Dude. They don't back off even when weaponless. I've had armless/legless Wanzers push up against me like there's no tomorrow.
peccaui: They also live to gang up, no matter what. And won't back off unless they're weaponless it seems.
peccaui: Are there guys in those Wanzers? If so, are they brain dead?
Mee Ronn: Ya, I beat the last stage because the final two enemies continually focused on a guy that they couldn't kill (I just healed him each turn).
Rutilcaper: I like to leave them sit for awhile. But then I get all scared like their buddy with the repair pack (which they never have) is gonna fix them and then proceed to give me "the business".
Rutilcaper: So I end up wasting them.


peccaui: So, what are your overall impressions?
Mee Ronn: Well, for what I consider a hybrid of Armored Core and a tactics game (two games I don't play) I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought.
Rutilcaper: Like I was saying: I'm a sucker for anything Giant Robot related and FM4 delivers.
peccaui: This definitely isn't what I'd quantify as my type of game, but I did enjoy it for a short period of time. Shortly after that though, I started yelling at the disc in bewilderment as to why I was getting thrashed, easily exploitable maps, excessive click-throughs, bitterness at effective counters and of course, my inability to actually access half of the demo.
Rutilcaper: I'm generally very shy about my strategy games, like a young, molested child. Only the most choicest will I let into my inner circle.
peccaui: Yeah, but you're a whore for giant robots.
Rutilcaper: Yes. Yes I am.
Mee Ronn: I love giant robots too, maybe that's why I enjoyed it.
Rutilcaper: FM4 treads the line of being complicated pretty well. It's not too simple, but it's not the ridiculous complexity of stuff like Disgaea. Some games make you learn/do/try too much. FM4 has a good amount of work it asks you to put in...
Rutilcaper: ...without going crazy on it.
peccaui: I'd agree with that. Most strategy games have me in tears of some kind within five minutes. FM4 did not. It took about fifteen minutes.
Rutilcaper: Then, empirically, it must be 3x as good!
Mee Ronn: Due to lack of patience, the one Wanzer I set up sucked 3 times as bad as its default settings. I just can't get into the details of the game.
peccaui: I have to echo Chaeffer's comment: "Aww no, we're going to fight again, aren't we?"
peccaui: But robots that look like they're skiing are very comedic, as is the ever popular WANZER term. WANZER!!
Mee Ronn: Dis is ya only varning!
Mee Ronn: I think if the robots transformed into a giant Gestalt, I'd be sold.
Mee Ronn: As it is, I think it's a 'leech from friend' sorta game.
peccaui: Yeah, as it stands I think the demo is enough - with or without gestalt or zeitgeist or monkeys.
Mee Ronn: Where are the gestalts, by the way!? I guess I'm going to have to make that game!
peccaui: Yeah, that's all you.
Mee Ronn: Well then, I guess I'm off to pound keys.
Rutilcaper: You nay sayers are totally killing my buzz, you know.
peccaui: Nothing a few more Guinesses can't cure!
Mee Ronn: Or more giant robots.
Rutilcaper: I don't know if even Guiness could cure my robo-blues!
peccaui: There's always the Transformers demo!

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