This is a custom English translated game that was originally released in Japan. Now you can play this game on a US SNES system with this custom repro. It is the year 2090. You play the role of Lloyd Clive, soldier of the OCU (Oceanea Community Union) army. The game's prologue shows you how Lloyd - along with fellow soldier Ryuji Sakata - are ambushed during a covert op by the antagonistic USN (United States of the New Continent) army unit lead by the ruthless Driscoll, an attack which leaves Lloyd's fiancée Karen dead. It transpires that the whole incident was orchestrated by Driscoll to trigger armed conflict between the OCU and the USN on Huffman Island, turning the whole place into a vicious battlefield. Lloyd is blamed for the conflict and leaves the army disgraced, but the OCU's Colonel Olson speaks sweet promises of revenge in his ear, encouraging him to join the Carrion Crows mercenary group and take up arms once more.
Front Mission is a game of two distinct halves. You move on a linear route around Huffman Island, skipping between military bases, cities and various battlefields. You'll visit parts and weapon shops run by a family of hippie clones (can't be the same guy, right?) gather intel at local bars, fight it out on the arena for prize money, meet and recruit a varied bunch of pilots to add to your merry mercenary bunch and most importantly of all customize your wanzers.
As is to be expected from a mech game, you're able to mix and match torsos, legs, arms, melee weapons, handheld weapons and rear-mounted weapons to create the perfect wanzer. How you micromanage your wanzer team is entirely up to your preferred playstyle - you can have a balanced posse with long and close range firepower units, or you can make everyone mean, lean, melee-smashing machines. All parts have advantages and disadvantages, so trying out different wanzer builds will keep you hooked for a long while - as a rule, getting the most expensive parts is always a good strategy. Pilots also evolve depending on what sort of attacks you have them perform, so it is possible to train your characters to specific roles – we love to turn Keith and J.J. into melee monsters – with specific skills unlocking as these pilots level up.
After all preparations are done, it's time to deploy onto the battlefield. The game switches to an isometric view and players take turns moving and firing against the CPU-controlled USN units.
