Are the Front Mission games worth playing? I heard that all the best ones didn't get English releases

All but FM3 are. As long as you play 5 last you're good to go.

I was burned so badly by the tactical shallowness of disgaea that I have never tried any other srpg over the fear of just wasting my time.
Does the game actually require some measure of tactical thought?

It’s true that 2 and 5 were never officially released in the US but both have fan translations that are really good.

If you like tactical rpgs they're all worth playing. Except Evolved obviously. Gunhazard is fun too.

3 is great, fuck the haters. It has a small team size but the customization options are immense, way more than you'll ever have time to explore in a single play through. It also has two complete storylines which are unique enough to warrant both playing.

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I'd say they're just OK but they really match my preferences so I like them a lot.
3 is my least favorite since the battles are very simplistic in design (only deploy 4 characters and kill a few enemies), tactical depth is very shallow (e.g. your units plow through enemies with rofup1*6 and basically act on their own whereas other FM games rely more on cooperative effects), there's a lot of annoying rng (like random ejections), and the characters were really annoying (especially the MC).

Also check out Gun Hazard, it's not a SRPG but more like Assault Suits Valken

>but both have fan translations that are really good.
FM2 has less than half of the text inserted in the game so you need to read it from a .txt. FM5's translation is probably OK but the writing is kinda terrible.

>but the customization options are immense
??? There's little point in customizing in FM3, wanzer setups are as barebones and as straightforward as you can get.

Emma's storyline is straight up garbage and an insult to the series. It's premise doesn't make any sense.

>??? There's little point in customizing in FM3
There are roughly 100 pilot skills you can earn, and you earn skills by using various parts. So unless you're content with just using the same 3 skills the entire game then customization is a huge factor.

play front mission evolved its the best in the series

Yeah, you get to customize your wanzers however you want

Wait I played 3 and had fun and your telling me it isn't even the best one?

3 is probably the worst numbered entry

5 is the best. 3 isn't "bad" though. It's just that the others are better.

Most of the skills are either worthless gimmiks or pointless upgrades with some being worse than their "weaker" counterparts. Deciding between Double Punch 1 and Double Punch 2 isn't a choice.

3 is easily the worst in the series. It's not even good for the genre.

I really enjoyed 3 but the in game email/internet system was very time consuming. Not sure if it's required to go through all that stuff but it took as long as the combat missions if I recall.

Some of the best Japanese turn based combat I've seen, can destroy body parts on the robots.

>Some of the best Japanese turn based combat I've seen
If you had said this about 5 you'd have a point but 3 is basic and boring.

I don't believe customization does not equal depth, but I take it as a recommendation.

I've played 2-4 and honestly, 3 was my favorite.
Possibly due to it being my first FM, but to me it had magic the others didn't. Played the shit out of it back in the PS1 days, probably beat it 3 times.

Nostalgia is the only reason why anyone rates 3 highly.

Why is FM3 so divisive?

It's not.

In this thread it seems to be it a least. Or is it just a single contrarian shitposter preventing consensus?

It's just nostalgia fags.

First time I've heard of this, honestly. You may be on to something.
FM3 is still widely regarded as one of the great PS1 games.

By morons that don't know any better.

FM3 is widely recognized as a ps1 classic, which is more than what could be said about any other FM game. That doesn't make it good though

I don't recall Front Mission's governments being THIS corrupt. Man, Left Alive is draining my soul. It's so hard to stomach going through this trash

FM3 is the most popular Western release by a wide margin, and the most accessible by far. FM3 is more anime, combat and mech customization is more streamlined, and aside from maybe FM1, is the easiest.

Amongst people who get into the series, FM3 is often found to be the odd man out, because it offers very different things. For people just looking for an easy and cool TRPG to get into, FM3 has a lot more appeal.

So they streamlined, or in other words, casualized it. That clears things up pretty well.

Literally just one contrarian faggot

is this any good?

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God no.

Basically, the entire team that made Front Mission left Square, and years later they said "You know what, we have this dormant IP. Let's make a Front Mission game that is nothing like what fans of the series would want, and then let's not put any effort into actually making a good game, that way fans of the series hate it, and non-fans think it's shit.

Then years later...
>You know what we should do with the Front Mission IP?
>Make a new tactical RPG like people want?
>Fuck no, let's make something just like Front Mission Evolved, only even shittier.
>Brilliant.

>Make a new tactical RPG like people want?
I love how some retards keep trying to push this narrative. The demand for a new Front Mission is practically non-existent.

>the in game email/internet system was very time consuming. Not sure if it's required to go through all that stuff

The best Wanzer parts and simulator that lets you grind is in the internet

it's a good thing that grinding is not only optional but actively discouraged.

Demand for Front Mission, no. Of course not. It would be foolish to expect there to be demand for a series that has the majority of its titles unlocalized.
But demand for tactical RPGs is high enough to justifty it. X-Com, Valkryia Chrinicles, Disgaea, Into the Breach... it's not a dead genre, but Square seems to insist that it is. For some reason they're treating it backwards, they're using the Front Mission IP which has zero pull to make games from other genres.

I never said there was huge demand for a new Front Mission game, I'm just saying what few fans there were definitely didn't want a game like FM:E. They were far more likely to pick up new fans releasing a traditional FM game than that pile of shit.

No, the protagonist is infuriatingly annoying.

Front Mission is ripe for any story involving politics and a game that revolves around trying to survive the breakout of a war with wanzers Disaster Report style has huge potential. FM5's opening cutscene shows this perfectly.