J'ai tardé à écrire au sujet des Ys I & II car je ne sais jamais trop quoi en dire...si ce n'est que les années passent et le que charme qu'exerce ces deux jeux ne cessent d'opérer. Le plaisir est intact. Ils figurent toujours parmi mes jeux préférés. J'en apprécie jusqu'aux moindres menus défauts. La série a connu de nombreux épisodes par la suite, dont certains qui ont fait date. Cette collection est parfaite pour remonter à la source. Et quelle source ! Je pourrais écrire sur ces deux jeux une belle tartine qui serait vite rédhibitoire : gameplay addictif, musiques exceptionnelles, très bonne histoire, superbe design, excellente rejouabilité, du challenge, etc. Mais quand on a soif, parler d'eau ne désaltère pas. Alors inutile de disserter en regardant l'eau s'écouler quand il suffit de se pencher...

Going for plat in this game is extremely stressful but the time management is very fun and satisfying when you make everything work. The side characters and their events are pretty good, Not the best in the series but they're nice. Music is great, esp in overtime FLASH FROST THANK YOUU

The cost system really grew on me once I started making my end-game gear it became really fun to work out cost on your gear to get all the traits you want. The super bosses in overtime are also very hard which makes the investment vs reward of making good gear perfect.

I had a lot of fun in the base game & I love Rorona so all her events were great, however once I got to overtime is when I started to really love this game. One year to just make the best gear possible and fight the super bosses, this was some of the most fun I've had in Atelier

I only found out this game existed a couple of years ago as my interest in the Sakura Wars franchise grew thanks to work by fans on patches bringing them over to the West in English for the first time. Sakura Wars: Go Forth Young Cadet! as translated is kind of an interesting game. It seems to be set during the latter half of the first Sakura Wars game (1996) and to be honest I feel that playing that first is a necessary perquisite to play this. Knowing the characters makes a huge difference.

You play the role of a young unnamed candidate with high spirit power scouted by Vice Commander Ayame Fujieda of the Imperial Assault Troupe. If successfully chosen you are invited to a month long trial with the troupe to see how you perform. The premise is kind of...odd to be honest. This is never mentioned in any form to my knowledge anywhere else (so probably isn't regarded as cannon?) and recruiting someone off the street for only 30 days to teach them everything about a top secret military unit hidden in the heart of Tokyo with no intention of keeping them permanently? It seems a little tactically unsound.

Regardless the premise sets up for a clean slate to meet the girls from the unit and spend time with them either training or just socially. The cadet has several attributes to manage over the 30 days. Stamina, Intellect, Spirit Power, Guts, Agility and Accuracy. You can spend time training up to twice a day to improve these at the cost of stamina or skip a training session to recover your stamina by having a nap (as apparently sleeping over night doesn't do that?). At the end of the 30 days you are given a rank based on your performance. I got rated as an Usher though the description made that sound like a positive thing at least.

The morning training sessions are mapped out for you over the course of a week training with Sakura, Sumire, Kanna, Iris, Kohran, or Maria. Each character builds up a different stat and you can choose who to train with in the afternoons if you want to specialise further. At the end of each week you have a mock battle in one of the Koubu mechs. It's a turn based affair with which Koubu you choose being directed by the stats you've built or relationships you want to increase further.

This is where the game comes across as a little odd again because it takes the almost dating sim / visual novel elements of the main game with talking with the girls in-between training. You select dialogue options on how to respond resulting in neutral, positive or negative retorts. At times it's a bit flirty but will never go anywhere due to set ups from the original game. The girls are spread all over the theatre you all work from in the morning, noon and evening though there is no way to tell who they are until you begin the conversation. If you build up a good enough relationship with a character you will get extra scenes and endings with them. I focused on Sakura to see most of hers. Some conversations will give you minigames to play like shooting targets or hitting wood blocks with swords as the most interactive part of the whole game. Some conversations will also lead to instant game overs which was irritating. In my case on my recent run I ended up with some permanent damage from a situation I couldn't get rid of and there is no way in most cases of knowing a possible outcome. In that conversation it was instant game over or permanent stat damage as my two options having rewound on emulation to see.

I really dislike the trial and error nature of the visual novel having such frustrating effects with no way of knowing and it's not that frequent that it's possible to play through without even knowing they are there. So when it does happen it's like a bolt out of nowhere. Whilst it is designed to have multiple play throughs to see all events (Someone trying the worst possible run without game overs amuses me) in it's short play length. Having the character icons on the map hidden at a cost of 5000 points per girl when a single playthrough only earns you 2000 is one hell of a grind. (Though this game also had an extra peripheral of a modified Tamagotchi called pocket Sakura that worked as a pedometer to gain points for the shop when connected to your gameboy) You can also buy music, voice clips and bromide pictures of the girls from the shop for these points too.

This brings me to my last point and the most impressive is the production values. Maybe because it's more visual novel than game but Sakura Wars on the Gameboy colour looks and sounds phenomenal for the system. The character sprites, art design and backgrounds are so far of anything else I've seen on the system. They really did manage to bring the game to a portable without losing the aesthetic that makes this series what it is. the music transitions amazingly well too. The theme title is instantly recognisable albeit without the singing. Other Tracks from the original game transition just as well.

So an odd game in some ways but I must admit despite that I kind of like it? It's technically extremely impressive and getting to spend more time with the Sakura Wars cast on a platform I didn't think was capable of capturing the essence was a pleasant surprise. I hope Sakura Taisen GB2 gets translated at some point in the future as I understand that is more of a dungeon crawler so would be interested to know how it fares.

+ Amazing visuals and music considering the platform limitations.
+ Getting to spend more time with the Sakura Wars cast is great for fans.
+ Lots of replayability and things to unlock.

- Some instant game overs just aren't fun.
- The unlockable extras to navigate the game easier are way too expensive.
- Game's story premise seems slightly out of place in the grand scheme of things.

Ever since the Black Parade released to marvelous acclaim hitting Moddb’s mod of the year for 2023. I couldn’t help but ask myself “Is Thief good?” In an effort to see if the game holds up, I decided to start with the first installment before I inevitably reach the mod down the road. And I must say after 28 hours on expert difficulty. Thief Gold(Thief 1/T1) by Looking Glass Studio. Is a dark, thrilling, and fulfilling experience in reigniting all the checkmarks I like and love in the stealth realm. And I am glad to be back in the genre once again. From my days in Metal Gear, Syphon Filter & Old Assassin’s Creed.

Originally called Thief: The Dark Project. The gold edition adds three new missions to deepen the plot and five new enemies. Edited original missions with a slew of bug fixes. So this feels like a definitive edition. Although I did have to use several mods I’ll detail later on to bring the game up to modern standards.

The premise is simple and you control a single character Garret who is a master thief. With no special powers whatsoever. His days from being a homeless orphan were discarded long ago since he joined a secret order. Years later he leaves and decides to make it on his own. Delving into the path of thievery without remorse to fulfill his greed for money. He is ambitious, selfish, cynical, and an untraditional protagonist. All qualities I don’t like at all for a main character and yet by the time the end credits are rolling, I am very tempted to head right into the sequel to see what’s next in store for him.

Worldbuilding is subtle, dark, and strangely yet fittingly humorous at times. A mix of middle ages, dark fantasy, and on the cusp of an industrial revolution. With lore dropping from scrolls and conversations between guards during their breaks. Offering vital gossip on the citizenry, complaints of co-workers, and my personal favorite lore stories and convenient tips/hints that may connect to the main cast. A method to reach a previously unassailable location. Secrets will be revealed unintentionally and a good eavesdropper should without hesitation use it to their advantage to maximum effect. G-man will also monologue amongst himself and will at times drop interesting commentary during work. Usually comments like being dumbfounded or witty responses to abrupt changes in objectives. A nice change of pace from the otherwise silence permeating while you lurk in the shadows. Parchment readings and books offer insightful lessons and teachings from the factions of Hammerites and the Pagans. Both believe in their gods in a way bordering unhealthy zealotry and are at odds with one another. The supernatural elements took me by surprise many times. Spells, incantations, and rituals are fitting. Inducing a mystical wonder beyond the medieval. Zombies, ghosts, and malformed supernatural creatures are here to stay. Oh, and bugs like mutated spiders I didn’t think were a threat had me running away once I caught sight of them. Seriously, how can they jump so high and shoot acid!? Machinery such as factories, smelting tools, and items with a steady supply of lava provide their citizenry with new forms of artificial light instead of the traditional natural fire to illuminate surroundings. Creating an interesting level design throughout, a blend of medieval housing full of conventional bricks, wooden planks, and pavement with the power of adopting steel into the surroundings.

Quite ingenious for a stealth-based gameplay approach back in the old days. Erase approaches such as shooting from afar with guns or tasing anyone to oblivion. The game operates on a mission structure. Before a mission starts you are given a briefing of the events prior, a chance to buy equipment using gold earned from a prior mission, and a handy, but vague map. Embarking on a new place in the City at various times. Always looking forward to a new place to see the sights and steal whatever I can of course. Sometimes your goals will change during an operation. Good o’l no plan survives contact with the enemy is important to keep in mind. Therefore, caution is advised when conducting skullduggery. But hey Garrett has immensely useful tools to help. No stamina gauge when swinging weapons. Innate ability knocking a bow and arrows. The blackjack is easily the #1 most useful weapon. Capable of one-shotting nearly every enemy into blissful unconsciousness. They never get back up despite hours passing by too! You can move them into shadowed areas preventing patrols from encountering them and thus initiating an alarm at a whole base. Arrows dipped in fire, water, gas, and rope are likewise vital in completing a task. Blasting creatures with fire is like launching a missile capable of damaging multiple enemies. Water aids in dousing torches causing the light in room/s to darken and therefore allowing one mistah G to conduct his activities in better stealth mode than dressing up like an orange ninja from a shinobi world. Gas is powerful. No not fart ones, these kinds if launched correctly can take out groups of enemies into dreamland. Vital when being chased by a horde of angry guards…

Additionally, the rope arrow single-handedly changed my whole experience. Making me think outside the box. Reminds me of using the GLOO gun from Prey and applying the weapon to reach places I wouldn’t otherwise be allowed to exploit regular means. The cable, by comparison, allows one to hit any wooden surface dropping a decent length of string. Becoming instantly available for climbing. As a result, you can traverse higher elevations. Furthermore, one can retrieve their shaft if applicable to re-use once again making the tool highly versatile in nearly any sticky situation he’s subjected to. Trust me you’ll need it when you're at a rock and hard place with nearby zombies closing in on your position with nowhere to run except upon checking your surroundings a wooden beam is above. Maybe a handy tool would surely be useful now.

Level design in every assignment is intricate, maze-like, and deep. Displaying an awesome sleight of hand in the dev’s works to craft initially simple environments then suddenly catching me off-guard by transforming into a large several corridors and passageways leading a lost one into a room full of secrets. It is deep and chock full of hidden areas that can be unlocked from levers, switches, and cleverly tucked away corners. Intrinsically linked in the environment. Delivering a cool verticality and thorough ‘puzzle-like’ solving when applicable. The start of any new venture won’t be the same to some extent in the end portion upon completing all your objectives. You will see sprawling organized streets and then hit unfamiliar ruined suburbs and towns. Dive underwater and emerge in desolate gray caves emerging into a facility of machinery mixed with stone masonry. Similar, but different to how dungeons are made from a certain Zelda series. Full of traps, few floors, and twisting passages that can be confusing to any newcomer unused to the design. One of my favorites is encountering an awesome Pixar-like ‘room’ essentially allowing me to venture inside and somehow escape replicating a [T$%] Story-like design. Someone at Looking Glass has good taste being inspired by the 1995 film huh. And to think this was an optional target I could’ve missed. I. Am. Amazed. Sure the rest of the content isn’t filled to the brim with cool sets like those, but to a degree, they offer a unique hodgepodge of interesting locales to wonder and gawk at least. As a newcomer coming into the series I did not expect at all to admire the sheer size of these levels. Some are more subtle in ways before a certain fire nation attacked delving into the mysticism of earth, wind, and water extending the dev’s creativity to their utmost limit. The elements become more profound and are used intricately as I delve deeper into the endgame. Changing the propensity of manmade structures into natural habitats. Surfaces of the earth and elevating platforms in one section demonstrate the move from traditional simple human paths to complex passageways. Can be confusing at times, but hey remember! You have a handy compass and a map too! So all is not lost. A master thief enjoys establishing their path forward through balanced platforming and embracing the wonders of being lost in the thrill of discovery.

Hell the power to jump provides excellent mobility in areas and the level design pays off in spades demonstrating to great effect. For example, Imagine facing a fort with no possible entryway. Ok well, let me go around to see for any wooden roofs or beams. Voila, there is! Shooting a rope arrow then. I climb and then acrobat onto the rampart. But wait, the door is locked inside! Hmm. The new plan is to head to another rooftop and get inside from there. I climb to the nearest rampart point then give myself a boost and ledge grab my way onto my destination. Successfully entering with no one aware. The ledge grab is super satisfying to enact every time. Although I quickly save before I launch myself just in case I fail. Yet holding the jump button is easy to maneuver and painless to execute.

Almost delving into the point of frustration at times, yet never truly becoming mad to the nth degree I wanted to throw my controller. Perhaps due to the save at anytime system in place making retries quick and painless. It is a relief to operate an easy system to retry failed attempts since most levels are so large. Not an open world at all. Garrett conducts most of his missions at different new locations within the metropolis, which we can explore without a time limit. And there’s always something new to look forward to. I ventured into a manor to steal a scepter. Dived into the pits below to enter hidden caverns and reach a prison facility. Sought treasure in abandoned ruins, boldly stole a precious item between two thieves' guilds, and enacted revenge on a rich dude who tried to assassinate me. Seriously the gall of that guy.

Sound design is brilliant, harsh, intense, and fair. And this is weird. Usually, I praise the heck out of the soundtrack, and while it is good. In Thief I found it more enjoyable to analyze how the gameplay and level design work in tandem with the soundscape. Each step you take and every breath you make is calculated. Go on the steel floor versus carpet and rugs and you can see the clear difference upon nearby patrols. Rugs and carpets muffle your steps while treading on steel produces loud noises capable of making any close enemy's senses go on alert. Any action like swinging your sword, launching an arrow, or even bringing out blackjack to play whack a guard heightens an enemy's awareness. G-dude will exhale after an action and it's gotten to a point where I hold my breath whenever I have a close encounter. Exhaling once the coast is clear. Sights and sounds are interconnected. If you’re in a very dark area, chances are you become neigh invisible compared to a brightly lit room. Staying in the shadows like a sneaky fella pays off. And thankfully, you can stay in a crouched position than a normal pose to conduct your sneaky endeavors. Harsh, but I kid you not I repeatedly felt it was balanced throughout at no point during my time did I feel it was brutally unfair at all times. Rather the usage of noise in this instance facilitates between easy to hard and complex as you dive deeper into the latter stages. As if the devs are saying “Hey, we are increasing the difficulty gradually, no steep cliffs or curveballs.” And I like it. Keeps things fresh and exciting to uncover new hurdles. Supernatural entities like zombies and spirits have this ghastly voice. I found myself with chills crawling up my back. And goodness the regular harmless citizen will shout for help to call attention to your current position. Tension is alive. Stress remains an ever-constant companion when pursued, and patience is needed every day for every hour.

Lastly, I also want to praise the main objectives of missions and AI. The latter for being smart and dumb. Patrols once memorize their route and what their limit is. Abusing their ai becomes rinse and repeat and oh so satisfying. Never waking up after becoming unconscious. Some enemies of different classifications will vary in their sight and danger capability. I.E. Seeing farther and more acutely aware of their surroundings than the usual shmuck of a guard with base intelligence. Think of them as elite guards who have an intruder radar built in updated to version 2.0 than the base version. Hearing better on how loud footsteps are near along with acute 20/20 vision if close in line in sight. This is fascinating and as I progressed deeper into the game, proved once again the devs are challenging me to be better. Goals likewise increase in complexity. You have standard, hard, and expert. Differs from traditional modifiers of upping the enemy's health I usually see in other games. Their parameters increase meaning more tasks to do. A 'normal' setting would indicate one or two retrieve an item and escape. 'Hard' adds a couple more like finding another item in conjunction with the main goal. Expert unleashes a full page of tasks to do. From not killing anyone, finding multiple items, checking with a friend of yours, and attaining a set amount of money all while completing the main quest and escaping to boot. Here are several examples of differences in difficulty. Insane. Furthermore, as I continued with 'expert' on all missions, they largely increased my time in a level due to how large they can be. I usually spent an hour or two depending on the size. Only occurred on max settings. If you try the standard option you can breeze through levels much faster. The addition of higher parameters causes an interesting shift to occur for the player. Thus I had to explore as much as possible, find hidden secrets, embrace the longer plans, being meticulous to survive and not incur any of the killings. The game is much easier killing anyone you come across. But a master thief should never kill. Only retrieve what was ordered and then get out without a fuss.

Time for my mixed feelings. Not a positive or a negative. Just some points from the game I think could be improved, tweaked for the better, and concerns I had. Didn’t affect my overall experience in a major manner.

First, same old, same old textures - Once I saw gray walls, gray bricks, stone pavement, same dirt in more than half of the missions, and frequent density in the latter stages it all became blurred together. Brought up with the maze-like corridors. I felt myself seeing the familiar paths without end. You don’t have a minimap either except a paper map that will vaguely pinpoint where you are. Therefore I had major deja vu. “Haven’t I been here before?” Thankfully, this isn’t egregious and the level variety for what it’s worth elevates everything else. Making it not so noticeable to see constantly. Makes me wonder if the sequel shakes things up a bit with colorful terrain when appropriate. I’m not asking for a rainbow from the color spectrum, merely suggesting slightly distinct patterns.

Second, Some objectives can be a bit vague to find. Like Mission 3. To retrieve the soul of the mystic required me to check everywhere and refer to my papyrus notes for hints and clues. Further, targets or items are not given exact instructions sometimes. Up to you to piece things together. Granted I personally like the non-approach to hand-holding, but some of these goals can be a real head scratcher. If you don’t come across hints and clues, eavesdropping a guard or finding a key to unlock another passageway or door is often the right path forward. Gentle reminder to explore thoroughly. Or use a guide when needed.

Third, May need a tool like a fire, water, or rope arrow to progress. While not required for every assignment. The wire is invaluable and shouldn't be utilized every so often at every opportunity. Elementals to a lesser degree, but still keep them in stock. Most of your inventory is consumables. And while you can find new ammo during a heist, it is best to at least save a decent amount. For situations when you require them. Sucks to use up all of your stock for minor loot grabbed when they may be needed for a critical venture.

Fourth, Wish some missions had health potions available close by. They’re pretty scarce in a job. Some later missions they in my opinion feel needed to help progress rather than me forcing a quicksave and quickload. Saving my health. Enemies can swarm you if you’re not careful and having more health is better than being one-shot. G-guy isn’t some deadliest warrior. So don’t think you can expertly assassinate any bloke. Keep in mind, I played on expert which usually required no bloodshed. Lowering settings offers no restrictions to eliminating anyone.

Fifth, Controls can take some getting used to. I tried keyboard and mouse and found the initial impression cumbersome so I switched to a controller setup and found it far better. Only had to input a couple more keybinds manually and I was fit as a fiddle to steal! Borrow items. I suggest changing them if you feel weird handling your main character.

Sixth, due to the title being more than two decades old I highly recommend some of these mods I installed to grant an enhanced vanilla experience. Most you can find via a respective PC gaming wiki article. I did use a faithful texture pack. Not the popular one. Feel they change the original textures too much. I’ll leave the choice of what pack to choose up to you. I prefer Enhancement Pack 2.0 alpha.

Mods:

Unofficial patch for Thief 1/Gold - “improves compatibility with new pcs significantly, fixes graphic issues, adds support for widescreen resolutions and much more.”

Texture pack - “Replace all the old, low-quality objects and textures from Thief 1 and 2 with versions that have higher polygon counts and texture resolutions, while keeping as close to the originals as possible.” - This is the hardest mod to install. For some reason, the directions given resulted in half of the textures being improperly replaced. Displaying half high quality and half low quality. Inside you need to edit an ini file to put in the correct mod_path. Here is what I had that finally got everything to work. Hope it works for everyone else. If not, your mileage might vary.

mod_path usermods+mods\packfix+mods\candles+mods\EP\Thief1+NecroAge\Thief1+NecroAge+EP2\Thief1+EP2+mods+mods\t2skies+mods\EP+FMdml

Take a screenshot before the mod is installed and after to see if everything worked out. The rest of the mods I didn't have any trouble inputting.

Subtitles - Self-explanatory. In-game there is no option for subs. With this mod, you can read the spoken dialogue instead of straining your ears.

Sound Enhancement Pack - Makes all sound enhanced and not muddled. Providing clearer audio in both speech and sfx.

60 FPS Video Pack - Original videos are in a low resolution. With the video pack, all the videos are replaced with higher framerate and resolution.

Aside from minor tinkering to get the game up to speed and my barely noticeable mixed feelings. Thief shines when unconventional level design meets strong simple foundations in the gameplay to accentuate and enhance both categories. At its worst players(maybe newbies) may have difficulty in grasping the maze-like paths to reaching their objectives along with vague to almost obscure hints to their solutions(not always, uncommon I think). More so on increasing levels of difficulty than normal I feel. The central narrative I expected to be boring. And in turn I was mentally preparing myself for underwhelming. So to my delight, I was extremely glad to be wrong and found myself beset with a decent narrative and ultimately a likable protagonist.

Finally reaching the end of my trail I found Thief Gold impressed me to a degree I can’t stop thinking constantly about the missions inside. I adore it so much I had to hold off on playing the rest of the series so I won’t get burned out if I continue to run-non-stop at every entry. Filled with lengthy missions depending on difficulty and fair gameplay mechanics to tackle in whatever and however manner you so choose. A freedom in gameplay philosophy I love! And honestly its given me more thought to level design in general and the approach of AI to objectives. I encourage anyone to give it a shot. Especially those who love Stealth or dipping their toes into the genre. For those curious about this old title, it still holds up quite well. Especially if you installed mods to bring it up to modern standards. And hey here’s one tidbit I found fascinating. Turns out Ken Levine worked on Thief along with Warren Spector. These guys would ultimately father some well-known titles down the road. Pretty insightful stuff. I bet we're in for Shocking Examples down the road.

8.5/10

References & Additional Material:
Thief Black Parade Mod
Different Examples of Difficulty
Thief 1 Credits
Mods - Thief PC gaming wiki - Thief 1/Gold Unofficial patch - Sound Enhancement Pack - 60 FPS Video Pack - Texture pack
Subtitles

Edited: 4-3-24 - Small correction on Blackjack use. From human to nearly every enemy. Thanks to @blackcat for the correction! After the small edit. 99% of review still intact.

A game clearly made by a bunch of artists and writers who utterly lack the game design skill to actually pull off what they wanted to do. As a lover of adventure games I’m not a stranger to encountering adventure games like this, ones that add mechanics that just drag the experience down because the devs just did not have a good grasp of them at all or were too afraid that their work is not “gamey” enough so they felt the need to shoehorn them in. Little Goody Two Shoes is a life-sim/yuri VN frankensteined together poorly with an RPGmaker horror game and those elements are at complete odds with each other. The aesthetics and atmosphere are phenomenal, merging 90’s shoujo and Grimms’ fairy tales wonderfully. The writing is solid enough too as the main cast of ladies are likable and the mystery is engaging enough. The life sim elements are mostly fine, most of the job mini-games are alright though I’m not a fan of the rat one. The game does a bit of a bad job of pushing the player to overly fear raising suspicion though as it’s usually not hard to avoid or at least drop it down; I can easily see someone screwing themselves if they invested too much stamina and money in bringing Rozenmarine to work with them at all because it’s just not worth it, the villagers can be easily assuaged with the right responses. The night time horror segments is where the game completely goes to shit though.

This game really shows how it’s essentially a bad 2000’s RPGmaker horror game just with an actual budget as the nighttime segments are jank as hell with puzzles mostly relying on trial and error. One night has you run away from a boss who will instantly kill you and the game can’t really handle the chase sequence that well; spike blocks will fall too fast to dodge within a fair window unless you know they’re coming and the second segment seems like sometimes you’ll just get randomly killed even when you’re running full speed. The puzzles gets worse as the game goes on as Thursday has you play floor is lava with phantoms that are attracted to sound, but the camera tends to be too zoomed in to see them effectively at times so you’re probably going to walk your ass into a few of them because the game gives you very little visual or audio cues that they’re coming. Apparently some of the segments were even more obtuse and bullshit before they patched them and that’s just galling to me. The breaking point for me was on Friday where you had to go in complete darkness because turning on your lantern gets you instantly killed by statues. It’s absolutely abysmal puzzle design to the point where I’m baffled the devs thought it was a good idea. It’s not clever or challenging like good adventure game puzzles should, it genuinely feels like a troll. Thankfully somebody on Steam told me the solution so I went back and beat it but man did it still suck. The endings are also unsatisfying because they seem kind of at odds with each other and don’t really give a true conclusion if you take them into account. Just a wet fart of an ending to top off a game that was unraveling as it went along.

This game just utterly frustrates me because this game could have been great but its dogshit design decisions prevent it from being such. The game isn’t completely unsalvageable, a couple patches and overhauling the Friday puzzle to not be so awful and it’d be at a decent enough quality. Gonna be blunt and say they really need to hire a person who actually knows good adventure game design if they want to make keeping games like this. This is definitely the kind of game that you should probably watch an LP of. I’m usually the kind of guy who will readily defend games that have merely serviceable gameplay but great everything else, but Little Goody Two Shoe’s gameplay is too annoying for me to heartily endorse experiencing yourself.

I’m so torn on this game.

On the one hand, the art design is gorgeous, furthering the horror story at its center. It makes fantastic use of the fairy tales that it draws inspiration from, as well as the aesthetic of 80s and 90s shoujo anime. There’s even bits of analog horror in this game, with a CRT scanline filter over the gameplay. This feels like the game version of picking up an anime VHS with a cute cover from your local Blockbuster, loading it into your player, and then realizing you’d accidentally rented a horror OVA instead. I love everything artistically that Little Goody Two Shoes is trying to do, and I’d like to play it again to get more endings and compare notes on how much more sapphic or horrifying the other routes are.

On the other hand, replaying the game would mean that I would have to once again go through what I can only call RPG Maker Horror Game Jank. Despite not being made in that engine, it has all the hallmarks of that style of development with under-explained game mechanics that will kill the player instantly for not understanding them. There’s the puzzle where you get an instant Game Over for not running, despite the game never indicating that you need to run. Or the puzzle where the key to progress is actually in the previous room, despite all other solutions being in the same room up until this point. Or the puzzle where you are killed by birds for not standing under the right tree, except the hitboxes for the death birds are so wide that they’ll kill you for being right as well.

The worst of the bunch is a puzzle towards the end of the game, where you have to walk through a maze in complete darkness because if your lamp is on, you will be killed by statues. However, there are no cues, sound or otherwise, to indicate where you are in the maze, or even if you’re going the right way. According to the official guide from the devs, you’re supposed to quickly light your lamp to get your bearings, but that does not work in practice. No matter where you are, if you light your lamp, the statues find you and you’re dead. There’s a balance that has to be struck between explaining game mechanics and giving the player enough room to figure it out for themselves, but this game does not have that. You either know the solution beforehand or you’re out of luck.

To be fair, the PC version has a patch that addresses a lot of these complaints, but since my version is on the Switch with no update in sight (as of the time of this writing), any replay would mean going through Bird Tree Hell and Total Darkness Death Maze once more. This also makes it hard to recommend.

I love the story - it strikes the perfect tone with this claustrophobic small town, where people will judge you in the same breath that they ask you to do their menial chores. I feel for Elise and her desire to break free from her minigame-ridden life. She can barely scrounge together enough money for a piece of bread at the end of the day and has to rely on the charity of her maybe-girlfriend the nun. She’s alone in the house she used to share with her grandmother, far enough away from the town to not really be a true part of it, but close enough that she has no choice but to put up with them to survive. All of this while a castle is always in the background, her greed always staring her in the face, but her dream far enough away it might as well be on the moon. Of course she takes a Faustian bargain, because all she wants is to get away and be rich, but Elise hasn’t thought through what she needs to give up to achieve that. And then there’s the role of the player. Will we let her go through with this? Will we accept Elise’s choice even as it becomes increasingly clear that she’s reaching a point of no return? Or will we have her turn away at the last moment, perhaps towards something better?

I just wish that this game had a bit more time in the oven before release, so to speak. If the Switch version gets the same updates as the PC version and the darkness maze gets a patch to work as intended, then maybe I’ll feel better recommending it to people. Right now I’m happy that I played this if only for the story. But I sure am sick of walking into instant death traps.

Cool gameplay and graphics but this game is too self aware and embarrassed about what it is. It becomes insufferable with how many times they subvert your expectations out of fear of playing into tropes or cliches. It happens so often that it is just subverting for the sake of subverting, and leads to the game feeling narratively weightless. None of the characters are very good and the character design feels like it was solely made to inspire fan-art and head-canon to give them characterization.

Ironically, the more they subvert and self-reference tropes, the more generic and cliche they are. Except, those cliches only display a lack of confidence in your own abilities.

Last year I had the pleasure of unofficially starting into the Front Mission(FM) universe via a mediocre spin-off. Fast-forward to the present and now I started and finished a proper mainline with the first installment. And to my absolute surprise and delight. Front Mission 1st remake(FM1RE) holds up very well today despite some notable concerns.

Why should I play the remake(2022) when I could start the DS or fan-translated SNES game of the same name? Well, here’s a brief overview of what you’re getting on either version. The first Western installment officially came ashore with the Nintendo 2007 DS port. Originally released in Japan on the SNES in 1995. The game featured only one campaign, the OCU. Oceania Cooperative Union. Detailing one side of a major conflict in 2090. Later remade for the PlayStation in 2003. Featuring a new campaign added. The USN. Unified Continental States. Where the 2nd details the other perspective, months before the major war. Again only released in Japan. The 2007 port includes all the above in English with new secret scenarios for both sides of the story. A handful more or less provide extra context during your ventures. The 2022 title includes everything the last upgrade had with the original music and the option for a remastered soundtrack. Basic quality of life features like instant/faster movement, instant battle, and quicker battle speed. And a save-anytime option. With multiple difficulty configurations, I could change to my leisure. With new content coming later on in 2024 in the form of multiplayer and single-player scenarios. So I figured I’d start with the current one. Previously I owned and played the DS port several times but bounced off hard, considering the second and third missions being too brutal for me. So it's a blessing, that Square outsourced the JRPG/SRPG IP to Forever Entertainment with a respectable game for newcomers and veterans piloting their own mech in the battles to come.

It is imperative to note, that starting with the OCU point of view is recommended for beginners. Veterans for USN and disclosed prominently with warnings when starting the game. I’ll touch on the harder operation later. For now, if the player starts the first operation. The premise starts with you controlling a human in a wanzer(mech) by the name of Royd Clive, a young talented lieutenant who’s been sent to numerous hot zones. Coming back alive again and again. A walking coffin man. He is approached by Glen, a sergeant who after testing him proceeds to grant him the rank of captain. Complete with a recon squad to lead under him. For soon enough he’ll have to conduct a reconnaissance operation on a certain U.C.S. facility in Larcus. Traveling there with his fiance Karen. Yeah, I kid you, not that’s her name. They proceed to investigate the facility. All goes well. Until like so many JRPGs in the past go. Things spiral outside of their control and Bam! Newspaper headlines:

June 3rd, 2090:
The Larcus Incident

The Unified Continental States(UCS) publicly accused the Oceania Cooperative Union(OCU) of sending Wanzers. On a mission to destroy U.C.S. military factories in the Larcus District of Huffman Island.

Officially, the text is given following their first mission. The rest of the headline will go off shooting fingers at one another. Rising tensions between the superpowers. Making dreams of a peaceful resolution erode entirely. What happens after tensions build like this? Well, it all comes to a boiling point and soon enough the two superpowers declare war. Huh sounds familiar in real life eh?

Thus began the Second Huffman Conflict

Don’t worry about the first battle. Those are covered in a different game. What is important to cover for you budding newbies piloting wanzers. Is how awesome it is to command a whole team of mechs against other foes trying to destroy you to kingdom come! Here’s a cool rundown of what to expect out the gate. Large squad to use in a majority of battles. At the most, I was able to deploy 11 pilots on the field. Such a staggeringly large amount to utilize speaks well to the freedom granted. Sure there are a handful of missions with smaller deployments. However, allowing us to manage a sizable troop speaks of confidence by the developers G-Craft & Square. Battling twice our number, easily replicating large-scale warfare. Nothing beats the slow hum of our engines roaring to life and clashing amidst the heated missiles and bullets galore. No copy-paste in environments. You’ll find a varied selection of biomes to traverse and fight in. Cityscapes, day, rain, night maps, jungles, sandy areas like dunes, beaches, ruined towns, rivers, snow and heck forts, and mountainous tiles are not spared either. Meaning there’s always something to look forward to when picking a mission on the point-and-click world map.

Excellent quality of life features. I mentioned them previously, but to expand on why? The difficulty options, instant battle/movement, faster battle speed, and save anytime are a godsend and should be used whenever you fancy a brisk pace or an easier time. Due to the fact battles can take a while on normal. And there's not any dialogue spoken between hostiles during their animation phase or new animation when a critical strike occurs. The remake includes two options; classic mode and modern. I chose the modern mode. Displaying freedom of the camera in every aspect. Meaning I'm not constrained to a set camera perspective while overviewing the field of battle. Resulting in better situational awareness of any hidden details I may have missed if I had chosen the other mode. It is a small pet peeve of mine in tactical games when I'm not offered the full freedom to move the camera at my own pace. A tactical map is exhibited. Picture a bird's eye view of the entire battleground much like a real-time war map. These also contain fixes and improvements to the DS port.

Earlier I classified the game as a JRPG, but to be honest, calling FM1RE an SRPG fits too. You fight on grid battles and tactfully determine what terrain you should place your units on to gain cover bonuses. Level up your pilot during skirmishes with the enemy. Earn enough experience to be granted abilities changing the tide of battle. Shoot any part of Wanzer? Well hello! VATS-like system in place. Except this game came before the Fallout series. I can shoot and if the shot hits the limb is destroyed. Right, and left arms, legs, and body are the only possible choices. Choose wisely, since each provides an additional layer to help in your fight on Huffman Island. Eliminate legs to reduce their overall movement power to traverse the land. Land body blows and if successful you can explode the whole unit to smithereens. Thereby lessening remaining oppositions within your vision. Destroy both arms and the enemy becomes a sitting duck without any capability to repair themselves. Unless there is a supply truck nearby. Supply trucks can restore ammo to long-range weapons and have the cool ability to slam bullets on unfriendlies with a weak attack. Heal when nearby for free for a small amount and exchange equipment and items when needed. Speaking of items. Man, they can help if you’re in a pinch. I love using repair packs. Think of these as the potion to high potion and various other tiers similar to Pokemon or Final Fantasy. Restoring decent to large amounts of health.

A big feature of any mech game is customization and I am glad to report you have a lot to tinker and dabble your mech. Once you finish all the tutorial missions you will be inside a town/city. Enter the shop and outfit their squad with any manner of weaponry they see fit. Some key things to note. Arm accuracy is king. Make sure to equip your party with high-accuracy arms to not miss your shots. Missing early game is a snowball to a death sentence once the enemy has more strikes than you. Then the result is you have a less likely chance of surviving. Although if you’re a cheesy dude, one could quicksave before a battle and RNG in your favor to give a slight advantage. Heh. Legs are akin to an additional decoy target. If any dum dum manages to shoot your legs and make them go boom. Well, the only penalty is a reduction in movement capability. A 6-tile with a full hp leg becomes a 3-tile shift if destroyed. So you’re not entirely a helpless fighter who can’t move. HP is self-explanatory and represents your life. But the body is your life. If an enemy destroys your main body. Well, reload the save file, and voila you’re back in action. The world is primarily set in a fictionalized Cold War world similar to real life except with mechs. You can’t revive with a phoenix down or use a handy revive. Get your fantasy out of here. Thankfully, there is no permadeath like a certain JRPG series coughs looking at an emblem on fire Nintendo likes to do. Anytime any of your pilots die in the field of battle. They simply will return in tip-top form once the next mission arrives. Sure they don’t get any experience and you do have to pay their repair costs(which is miniscule). But hey! That’s why we have the quick save and quick loading here! So abuse the system and take out the pesky RNG nature if you get a solid rocket to your metal face. Players are allowed to exploit the RNG during their ventures gambling in the arena. Think 1v1 versus a variety of foes of various expertise. Picking one with higher odds and betting an ‘x’ amount like 1000 can net you a lot of money if done correctly. One trick is to use garbage equipment to increase the payout odds in your favor. So if you bet 1000 x 8.57. One time I saw the odds were x 32! But oof I couldn’t win that payout sadly. An awesome if not vital feature to grind for money and pilot skills.

Skills like Guide and Duel allow the VATS-like targeting mechanic to activate pretty much 99% of the time during any engagement with foes. Sadly the first installment doesn’t have a lot you can procure. Your initial party including Royd will only have vacant spots. You need to level up and reach certain ‘####’ tiers in proficiencies of melee, short, long, and dodge. Here's a brief overview of what each skill does in their respective categories.

Melee:
First - attack first during engagements.
Stun - Self-explanatory. Preventing them from any action for an ‘x’ amount of turns.
Double - Can attack again. Sometimes thrice!

Short:
Duel - Arms equipped with rifles and machine guns can manually target any enemy component.
Speed - Allows more bullets to strike the enemy.
Switch - activates other armament on the other arm. Granting one more shot at the enemy.

Long:
Guide - Shoulder weapons like missiles can manually aim at any enemy limb.

Skills are tremendously useful when gained. And can drastically shift the fate of a battle. I advise checking out when they activate for each character you recruit. Some can gain them swiftly than others while a select amount can only equip three abilities compared to five. So choose wisely! I’ll drop a link below. Nevertheless, I found their inclusion during fights essential to gaining an overwhelming advantage. Duel, guide, speed, switch, and first were instrumental in turning the tide countless times. However, keep in mind they’re not universal and dependent on the category used. So a missile cannot use duel, speed, or switch and vice versa with their respective categories. Furthermore, some wanzers do not have the power to activate some of the above if one uses a mobile weapon.

Mobile weapons are a secret reward that can be found once reaching certain tiles on a handful of maps. Think of these as special mechs that can’t be upgraded the usual ways as Wanzers but boast a miniboss-like design when faced as an enemy. Imagine crab tanks, hulking wanzers without arms but big ol cannons equipped sometimes on their chest or using dual machine guns. Here’s my screenshot as an example. Honestly, I didn’t use any of these since my two-legged crew was more than enough to blast these supposedly superior mechanized machines to nothingness. Additionally one can unlock concealed missions by talking to a sequence of people or new unknown characters after or before completing a new mission. These secret operations convey extra context on either side of the story and may provide clues to the overarching narrative or breadcrumbs to one character’s past in particular. I recommend them wholeheartedly. Considering you can win a mobile wep. as a reward. I advise seeking out a walkthrough for proper instructions.

Before I forget I must talk about the music. I listened to the original OST initially. With remastered in NG+ to clean up any last-minute assignments. As a whole Yoko Shimomura & Noriko Matsueda's composition on the entire soundtrack is hauntingly jolly. A mix of techno and jazz, I initially thought their music styles would not work at all. Yet blowing past all my expectations once again! I was astounded. How their styles work in tandem. Shimomura’s techno expertise lends itself well to the futuristic tone the series starts with. Beats of Coaxial Town are sending me to nodding heaven as is her wonderful ability to switch to a different tone effortlessly. Like Field Hospital. Producing a serious yet catchy tone. Canyon Crow to my eyes encapsulates a prelude of events to come with heavy percussion on display foreshadowing the gritty war to come. Yet I cannot help but praise Matsueda’s style of jazz to complement the techno. Filled with her soul I embraced the ambient tracks in absolute pleasure. Tracks like Rise to Action blew me away. Hearing upbeat tunes on repeat and a cool rhythm loop never fails to impress me. Optical City by comparison is a nice change of pace delving into a cityscape almost a cyberpunk feel where the low passive background of woodwind instruments coalesce together with percussion offering a mesmerizing yet beautiful atmosphere permeating to my eardrums. Within Living Memory is breathtaking where minimal instruments are used and no vocals are echoed. Yet manifests a strong determination in both the foreground and background, thrusting my soul into contemplative tranquility. The passionate duos reach a powerful teamwork when endgame tracks like Fear. Culminate the true reality behind the uplifting tracks I've heard thus far. The remastered is good too, even if I’m more inclined to listen to the original OST first, yet the remastered isn’t of a diminished quality. Either option is fine to listen to. Nice to have as an option to change at any time and for what it's worth I think it is faithful when compared to the original work.

Any SRPG worth their salt WD-40 must manifest a fun combat loop. A fun combat loop to me in FM1RE is utilizing everything from how your unit composition clashes against the enemy, grid modifiers to help shield from enemy fire using cover, any underlying main/side objectives, and level design(easy/hard to traverse, any gimmicks, obstacles?) I could add more, but I simplified some basics. Combine everything topside with the player’s experience then. Outputting at the final stretch of any mission their current feelings based on whatever they experienced. To this end. The mission structure the OCU campaign launches us into is a ‘simple and safe’ fun combat loop after the initial hurdle in the beginning. I marched on countless varied terrains without being bombarded by enormous levels to tread nor filled to the brim with armies of mecha to stand against my party. No, not 300 vs. Persian size. Think of skirmishes. Eleven vs. double that number is more or less enough. Struggling against our opposing adversaries. Making use of the elevation at times to wipe foolish stuck mobs in a choke point never fails to inject a rush of immense satisfaction. Targeting with pinpoint accuracy to disable each hostile offensive capability leaving them defenseless and free from any sign of counter-attack is a fistbump moment every time I landed a deadly blow. Undertaking a protect/escort mission by slowly baiting my enemy to irrational decisions by striking my tanky ally embraces my inner keikaku greatly. Retreating is whenever my plan doesn’t work out upon first contact. Regroup and activate any items to halt or impede enemy advance and thus give your comrades a better fighting chance. Can’t say no to repair packs ya know?! Salvaging any secluded equipment during a 1v1 with a pesky opponent. Hell, I found a sweet rifle allowing me to shoot a big one nearly destroying a limb. Or heck, salvage a mobile wep! Taking my sweet time on each battlefield to read any dialogue between my members and the enemy. Delving into the horrifying effects of war on the psyche and how each soldier will try to trick my cabal into lowering their morale at times. Especially when reinforcements arrive midway or drop a plot beat. Demonstrating not only physical clashes but hurtful words against those under my command. Would be weird if my constant scuffles were silent no?

Concerning the OCU campaign. I was caught off guard by how geo-political, mortal drama and the war affect the innocents/soldiers' PTSD the plot underwent. A fantastic departure from the usual tropes I see with fantasy where we usually to some degree at the end of the day face off a [censored] b%^&@. The plot, endgame, and major antagonist were a refreshing change from those classic tropes I battled in the end. Presenting a fictionalized realistic take on border wars, ulterior motives, and backdoor shady deals you won’t see coming. Meanwhile, Royd’s journey without going into any spoilers enthralled me to the point I wanted to know the immediate aftermath causing the 2nd Huffman war, his allies whom he recruits later on and would soon as other JRPGs/SRPGs undergo after any lore bomb or revelation hits the climax reach the final map and fight to the bitter end to whatever hell awaits me before the curtain falls.

Concerning the USN campaign. I was again caught off guard by how different operations underwent, detailing the ‘enemy’ POV months before the 2nd Huffman struggle and the hidden events occurring behind the scenes. As well as controlling a new protagonist called Kevin Greenfield. Who controls a much smaller crew than Royd with his limit being up to seven. Nevertheless, they greatly differ from OCU by undertaking a more militarized focus. Back in Clive’s point of view, I conversed with relatable people in the city's bar and had a lot of downtime between activities to test the arena. Embracing the lethargic pace of sinking in the war took its toll on my army. Here take out the glacial threads. Remove the conversations in bars in favor of talking to your underlings. Bonding with them early on and seeking personal aspirations as vaguely as I can say without spoiling Greenfield's motivations for participating in the war provides an interesting parallel compared to Royd. Assignments are varied offering more tactical objectives than ever before and raising the difficulty a decent amount. You will meet new enemy types like fast-moving armored personnel carriers(APC), bigger cannons and smaller cannons, disabling prototypes, night vision, mini-bosses, protection, escort, and defeating all enemies within an ‘x’ amount of turns. All of these types emerge in greater volume. As a consequence of the small squad you have on hand. I can’t win by sheer numbers alone. Thereby, I have to make careful use of micromanaging my supplies and capability versus forces greater than my own.

Now time for my mixed feelings. Not a positive or a negative. Only notable concerns I had during my playthroughs that I think are worth noting.

First, on the technical side. I had ten crashes on my PS4 Pro. Five on a new game playthrough(NG) OCU and five on NG USN. Oddly enough. Crashing wasn’t a major pain because I reverted my past save back with barely any loss of progress. I usually have a high tolerance for game crashes. With Cyberpunk 2077 on my same console accumulating over 40+. Yet it didn’t affect my whole experience in a sizable manner. The save system was very well implemented. In a similar vein, FM1RE also didn’t impact my overall enjoyment. Only a minor portion. I did experience an uncommon amount of black screens sadly. Anytime after you finish a mission the background where you select areas to visit like the: shop, arena, hanger, command room, etc. will only have a black background. I’m not exactly sure about the cause of this. Since I have clear memories of no odd bugs like that for a long period. Pretty jarring since I like to admire the setting and having a black screen can be immersion-breaking. Still not a major issue, but one to look out for. Keep in mind you only have five save slots. Four of which you can manually overwrite whenever with the fifth being designated as an autosave. You don’t receive new slots if you decide to start the USN offensive. So if you accidentally overwrite your OCU save well… F$%! Pray you still have an earlier save just in case. Use the cloud or back up your saves via USB to help.

Second, loadouts and constant customization. I love reshaping all components in any mech game. So I'm puzzled that I reached a different outcome than the usual reworking craze. To the point I can't say I love the customization here. Early on I didn’t have trouble whatsoever changing and buying new equipment for my teammates. The tediousness comes from buying the same upgraded item ‘x’ many times repeatedly on each of my eleven units constantly. Imagine scrolling through various menus to pick a high-tier left arm. Only to repeat the process eleven times for my friends. Oh, but I'm not done. Need to upgrade the other ones like my right arm, legs, and body. Multiply those by eleven times. I’m still not done. I have to replace all my crew’s offensive capabilities. So left and right along with the shoulder to boot. Yeah, you guessed it, I'm still not done. CPU, backpacks, and items I still need to manually input. All the busy work would have been smoothly eliminated if I had load-outs. I probably spent fifteen minutes give or take some change after several missions passed to overhaul my allies. Each time. Tedious to do every time if I use the same stuff to slot each limb. Is it too much to ask for load-outs or at least a purchase button to replicate what I bought and install them for my whole squad? I don't know. I'm not a game designer. I can only offer alternatives and suggestions.

Third, wish there was more variation in mission objectives. Most of them boil down to killing everyone with rare odd ones out there being limited turns to complete and some optional side-goals of keeping allies alive, new units alive, to be rewarded the max amount of cash. Thankfully, the United side and hidden missions solve this dilemma, but for the regular OCU viewpoint. I felt it was formulaic and didn’t push the encounter design as much. Which was more experimental and pushed my mental limits further. Not a bad thing mind you. I appreciate the simple nature of directives in Clive’s story. But I think more variation in parameters could’ve elevated it further. Different enemy types, and new boss types instead of recycling mini-bosses and new encounters. A relatively decent oddball in the grand scheme of things.

Fourth, Possible information overload on what each user interface term does. Ask anyone off the bat what these terms mean. AT, DF, Hit, Weight, Power and if I hadn’t explained the short, long, melee earlier along with any other word terminology I surmise a decent amount may be confused and thus will be disinclined to persevere. Such an issue was one of the major factors I had when I played the 2007 version years ago. Look at this image(insert DS image of battle before attacking) and see if you can translate all the information displayed before determining your first command. Doesn’t help there’s no innate help button to identify and define the jargon given. Wish there was an explain button available. Still, the tutorial and in-game control guide + shopkeeper can give useful tips.

Fifth, difficult and a rough beginning. I initiated on a normal setting. And still found it somewhat challenging. Oddly mirroring the same experience I had with the previous rendition. Be that as it may. I did use some helpful links from: before I play, LegaiaRules walkthrough. Which are crucial and instrumental to grant me a better start. Tremendously received a better understanding and comprehension in regards to the mechanics and tricks. Thereby, giving me a solid push to persevere beyond meager gains through the main story content for each protagonist. I suggest grinding in the arena when necessary to help offset any hardship you may encounter or simply change the difficulty setting, for an easier time.

That’s it for my mixed feelings. Despite the minor bugs and crashes. And a gentle reminder to save constantly. The difficulty, customization, and information are the big key things to note coming in. However, I believe there is still a solid Mecha JRPG here. Enough to set an excellent foundation for newcomers to try before delving into the latter entries to reach the last mainline in the series. Where knowledge of each core game in the series is utilized to its fullest effect from the praise I’ve been seeing across the horizon. Nevertheless, I did enjoy a great deal of both campaigns. Worth experiencing in my honest opinion to get a better picture of the major war occurring. While dealing with palpable emotions. Human drama is essential in any narrative to connect with the cast be it main or side. Perhaps even villains themselves. In a 1995 Sakaguchi X Tsuchida interview with Famicom Tsuushin magazine. Translated by shmuplations. When the developers were asked about the colorful cast who pilot the wanzers they responded.

Toshiro Tsuchida(producer/writer): “That’s right. This was something that emerged from conversations with Sakaguchi, the idea that a game about robots would be ripe for a story about human drama. That was his idea, that in this game themed around war, we should try and include human drama as well.”

Hironobu Sakaguchi(supervisor): “I said, let’s not abandon or compromise on the tasteful, refined aesthetic that the G-Craft team has created, but let’s see if we can also include some human drama that would evoke the realism of war. In that sense, I think Front Mission ended up becoming a very mature, adult game.”

The realism of mecha warfare and vivid drama are intrinsically linked in FM. A gruff, gritty yet humorous at times evokes a dusty atmosphere to lighten the mature themes presented. Thus a fascinating foundational world-building sets the stage for the events to come in the later entries to follow. Royd’s walking coffin status plays a key role in shaping his development based on the tumultuous skirmishes he endures. Kevin Greenfield’s no man left behind personality provides a stark, but refreshing perspective in a militaristic point of view on the events in secret operations conducted opposite enemy lines. Both are assigned a colorful cast to bridge the narrative to each member. Their reasons for fighting, any grayish feelings buried deep within their psyche perhaps bubbling forth when any adversary taunts them, and perhaps through the fires of battles and camaraderie something deeper emerges. Bonds forged in hellfire. It is brutal, but not so much in the realm of senseless violence. But when used carefully in dozens of assignments they undergo. The threads start to align and knots converge, developing into a moderately satisfying geo-political strife against each superpower's story. Forever Entertainments' remake of FM 1st only deserves praise, despite some rough gears attached. Therefore, I hesitantly recommend the mature and realistic military plot mecha JRPG/SRPG to any folks willing to dive into an old but still fresh war spectacle. Akin to what Tsuchida likes to call “...For Front Mission, I wanted to combine the entertainment quality of a blockbuster sci-fi movie with the realism of a Vietnam war film.”

Tsuchida if I ever meet you personally, I firmly believe you succeeded on both accounts! Looking forward to trying out more in the IP!

7.8/10

References & Additional Material:
Sakaguchi x Tsuchida – 1995 Developer Interview
Examples of mobile weapon and black screens
FM1 DS guide and walkthrough by LegaiaRules - incredibly in-depth and remarkably holds up to the remake.
FM1 skills explanation
FM1 Before I play - Additional tips to know beforehand

Game w a lot of nothing. Face of things, aesthetically, it looks pretty nice with the world design and pixel style for the game. Gameplay is nice but the game difficulty is incredibly easy, didn't struggle at all through out. The plot isn't really there, would be harsh to say it’s not finished, but could be a fleshed out maybe? more to it? Feels generic to me. Only one character that was really of note for the game, a couple others solely cuz they looked or were cool, neither being the main characters, which is a huge problem in itself, but overall, characters lacked a lot, from main characters to antagonists. Also really don’t like the true ending cuz it devalues one of, maybe the only, the significant plot points and moment in the game